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Do Happiness and Hard Work Benefit Health?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 15, 2009 Comment (3)Any merit to the old saw that happiness and hard work are good for your health?
Happiness in many forms can be good for your health; for example, recent data from the Women’s Health Initiative Study showed that women who were most optimistic and who expected good things to happen were 14 percent less likely to die than pessimists over an eight-year follow-up, and 30 percent less likely to die from heart disease. This may be partly because the more optimistic individuals also had better health habits, like smoking less. A number of studies now suggest that people who have more positive moods and who are happier have, on average, better-functioning immune systems. Hard work (if it is not overwork) may also be beneficial; when people feel involved and productive and in control of their work, the good feelings that come from work seem to be good for health. But feeling out of control, overscheduled, or unable to control the important things at work can promote depression, anxiety, and poor health.
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Is Asthma in Children Preventable?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 15, 2009 Comment (8)With asthma rates on the rise, are there any steps parents can take to prevent it from developing in their children?
The worldwide increase in asthma is thought to be due to many factors, including air pollution, climate change, environmental allergens, respiratory infections, and stress. By keeping the home environment free of triggers such as dust, mites, animal dander, and cockroaches, parents can minimize the chance that children will have wheezing attacks. To protect children from infections that can trigger asthma, parents should ensure that children keep on up-to-date on their immunizations as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, including an annual flu shot. Children should all be taught good hand-washing techniques.One of the major causes of asthma and many other childhood afflictions is smoking. Parents who smoke are more likely to have premature babies whose lungs are more prone to develop asthma. Once the baby is born, parental smoking makes the asthma come on more frequently and worsens attacks. The Julius B. Richmond Center of Excellence at the American Academy of Pediatrics offers great tips for families to stop smoking so that their children will not suffer asthma as the result of a truly preventable cause.
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Can Supplements Compensate for an Unwholesome Diet?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 15, 2009 CommentI'm a young woman with a fast-paced life and a heavy traveling schedule. Sometimes that takes a toll on healthful eating habits. Can supplements help compensate?
Supplements can never substitute for a healthful diet based on whole foods. This is really important to remember. That said, it certainly makes sense to take a multivitamin (with iron if you are a menstruating woman) as a safety net for a less than ideal diet. I recommend taking a basic multivitamin with 100 percent of daily recommended doses, but not megadoses, of vitamins. This allows you to add higher doses of specific vitamins if there is a rationale to do so, and it avoids the risk of being on high doses from multiple sources—a situation I see very frequently.As a young woman, the additional supplements you may want to consider include calcium (500 milligrams twice a day) and magnesium (200 mg twice a day), both for bone health and for menstrual symptoms. Most gynecologists are unaware, as I was, of research showing that calcium and magnesium can significantly alleviate many symptoms of PMS and cramping. Also, vitamin B6 (50 mg a day) or a B complex can help with some of the mood swings. Do not take more than 100 mg a day, as this can in rare cases cause neurological symptoms.
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Is it Safe to Exercise with Chest Pains?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 2, 2009 Comment (4)
Anginal (chest) pain itself is not a contraindication for exercise. In fact, a certain amount of regular exercise may help develop new blood vessels to the area of the heart with blocked arteries. However, the level of exercise and heart rate achieved should be discussed with your physician. This is especially important if the degree of blockage is significant. The oxygen requirement of the heart muscle increases during exercise and can cause an imbalance between the demand and supply of oxygen in the diseased part of the heart. If you are truly having anginal-type pains, you need to make sure that you are on an optimal medical and lifestyle regimen and that you are in close touch with your primary-care physician and cardiologist. -
How Can People Weigh Aspirin's Risks and Benefits?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 2, 2009 Comment (1)A 77-year-old woman with mild coronary heart disease also suffers with diverticulitis. Her cardiologist wants her to take a blood thinner for her heart disease, but her gastroenterologist does not favor any medicine that might irritate her stomach or intestines. What to do?
Balancing the risk and benefits of any medication for an individual is often more art than science. The scenario presented in this question is one often confronted by physicians; while each situation is unique, some additional facts may be helpful. While any dose of aspirin will increase your risk of bleeding, the higher the dose, the higher the risk for bleeding. But only a small dose of aspirin is needed to obtain its cardiovascular benefits: 81 mg per day or possibly as little as 81 mg every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday may be all that is needed. Additional protection against aspirin-induced gastrointestinal bleeding can be afforded by taking a proton pump inhibitor medication like omeprazole or a protective medicine called misoprostol. Sometimes an H-2 blocker such as ranitidine may be recommended. -
Can Diet and Exercise Help People Get Off Statins?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 2, 2009 CommentA 60-year-old woman who has been taking a low-dose statin for 15 years wants to stop because of side effects. Her cholesterol is below 200, she eats a prudent diet, keeps her blood pressure under control with medication, and exercises for 30 minutes four days a week. Is it possible to go off statins under those circumstances?
Statins are not necessarily for life if changes and diet and activity are sufficient to keep cholesterol under control. However, many people who think they are on a "prudent" diet are often focusing on reduction of overall fat in the diet. This is not the best way to improve blood cholesterol levels because unsaturated fats actually reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol.It would be good to get a detailed consultation about diet, possibly with a dietitian, to be sure that the dietary strategy is really on target, both for control of blood cholesterol levels and for control of blood pressure. Also, total cholesterol level is not really a good guide to the need for medication. Risk of heart disease really depends on the amounts of LDL and HDL (good cholesterol) in the blood, and it is possible that this woman really has perfectly healthy cholesterol fractions. It would be good to ask her physician to check LDL and HDL and review these numbers. Even more important is to know whether this woman smokes (much more important than blood cholesterol numbers) and what her BMI is (based on weight and height), because this strongly predicts risk of diabetes, cancer, and many other outcomes in addition to cardiovascular disease.
