Big Heart Benefits Found From Little Reduction in Salt Intake
A new study suggests that removing half a teaspoon of salt from the average American's daily diet could cut the prevalence of heart disease, stroke, and heart attack, HealthDay reports. Researchers predict that the adjustment in daily salt intake could lower the number of new heart disease cases each year by as many as 120,000, and stroke cases by as many as 66,000. The number of heart attacks would fall by at least 54,000 and overall deaths in the United States would drop by as many as 92,000, according to the study. Much of the sodium Americans take in is added to their foods before they're sold in restaurants or as packaged meals, HealthDay reports. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also reported that reducing American's salt intake could save up to $24 billion in healthcare costs each year.
[Read 10 Salt Shockers That Could Make Hypertension Worse and 10 Things the Food Industry Doesn't Want You to Know.] [Photo Gallery: High-Sodium Foods (and Better Choices)]
Did Heidi Montag's Plastic Surgery Go Too Far?
Was reality TV star Heidi Montag's decision to have 10 cosmetic procedures in one day a sign, as some tabloids claim, of her low self-esteem and addiction to plastic surgery? Or was it a brilliant PR move to land her on the cover of People and launch her singing career?
Montag has ignited a heated debate about whether, why, and how much women should elect to have themselves surgically altered for the sake of "beauty," U.S. News's Deborah Kotz writes. In an interview yesterday with ABC's Good Morning America, Montag's plastic surgeon, Frank Ryan, defended his decision to perform 10 hours of surgery on the 23-year-old. "I disagree that it's too much," he said. "Many of these were little tweaks."
The operations Ryan performed on Montag in November were a minilift of the brow, Botox in the forehead, nose job revision, fat injections in cheeks and lips, chin reduction, neck liposuction, ears pinned back, breast augmentation revision, liposuction on waist and thighs, and a buttocks augmentation. Notice the word revision after two of the procedures. Montag had a nose job and breast implants three years ago. Read more.
[Read The Dangers of Kardashian-Endorsed QuickTrim and How to Break Your Addiction to Tanning.]
5 Ways to Make Kids' Media Use Safe and Healthful
The children of America spend 7½ hours a day plugged in to their phones, iPods, and MP3 players or otherwise engaged with electronic media. That astonishing number, up more than an hour from the last time the Kaiser Family Foundation surveyed children's media use five years ago, raises big questions about how our children live and whether that plugged-in life is healthful or wise.
U.S. News contributor Nancy Shute reports key findings from the Kaiser survey, which polled 2,002 children ages 8 to 18. Mobile media are driving the trend, Shute writes. In five years, the proportion of children with cellphones has risen from 39 percent to 66 percent, and iPod/MP3 player use has risen from 18 percent to 66 percent. Kids now spend more time watching TV, listening to music, and playing games on their phones than they do talking on them. (Texting wasn't included in the survey numbers, oddly enough.) Read more.
[Read Is Your Kid a Video-Game Addict? and 6 Ways to Prep Your Kids for an Oversexed World.]
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