Author: Staff (Page 46 of 157)

Obesity In The U.S. Is Worse Than We Thought

April 3, 2012 / Staff

Health officials now believe that we have underestimated the rates in obesity in the U.S.

The BMI (Body Mass Index), commonly used to measure obesity, gives an incomplete picture of a person’s physical condition.

BMI, the researchers say, is an overly simplistic measure that often misrepresents physical fitness and overall health, especially among older women. Nearly 4 in 10 adults whose BMI places them in the overweight category would be considered obese if their body fat percentage were taken into account, according to the study.
“Some people call it the ‘baloney mass index,'” says lead author Eric Braverman, M.D., president of the Path Foundation, a nonprofit organization in New York City dedicated to brain research.
Bodybuilders can be classified as obese based on their BMI, he says, while “a 55-year-old woman who looks great in a dress could have very little muscle and mostly body fat, and a whole lot of health risks because of that — but still have a normal BMI.”

Quality Control, Research, Wellness

BMI body mass index healthy body weight muscle mass obesity obesity epidemic

Breast Cancer Over-Diagnosis From Too Many Mammograms

April 3, 2012 / Staff

The potential for over-diagnosis and over-treatment from too many mammograms too early has become the subject of a recent study.

The Norwegian Study included nearly 40,000 women with invasive breast cancer.

The study allowed the researchers to compare the rate of breast cancers diagnosed through mammograms and those found because a tumor was palpable or produced symptoms.

Norway has data on virtually all women who get a diagnosis of breast cancer.

The researchers concluded that 15 percent to 25 percent of breast cancers were overdiagnosed — meaning 6 to 10 women were overdiagnosed for every 2,500 offered screening mammograms.
– Dr. Joanne Elmore of the University of Washington and Dr. Suzanne Fletcher of Harvard, in an editorial
Under current practice, those women get biopsies and treatment for breast cancers that would never have been detected otherwise. Either the cancers would have grown very slowly or not at all and never caused symptoms, or women would have died from something else before their breast cancer was diagnosed.

Health Care Policy, Quality Control, Research, Wellness

breast cancer cancer mammogram mammography Norwegian Breast cancer study women's health

Overall, American’s Get The Vitamins They Need

April 2, 2012 / Staff

Americans seem to be getting an adequate amount of vitamins and nutrients in their diets.

This is not to say that there are not deficiencies, especially in certain pockets of the population which include certain racial groups, age groups and women.

Lead researcher Christine Pfeiffer said in the release: “Research shows that good nutrition can help lower people’s risk for many chronic diseases. For most nutrients, the low deficiency rates, less than 1 to 10 percent, are encouraging, but higher deficiency rates in certain age and race/ethnic groups are a concern and need additional attention.”
Pfeiffer and her colleagues found that since the fortification of cereal-grain products with folic acid began in 1998, there has been a sustained increase in folate levels.
Folate deficiency has dropped to less than 1 percent, and blood folate levels in all racial/ethnic groups have increased 50 percent

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Read on for more information and see if you need to fortify your diet to achieve your best health potential.

Health Care Policy, Nutrition, Research, Resources

American Diet American health CDC Center for Disease Control diet diet for nutrition healthy diet Minerals nutrients vitamins

Your DNA Blueprint May Have Very Little Valuable Information To Offer

April 2, 2012 / Staff

DNA profiles may not have much to offer most people.

It seems that other than informing you of the potential to develop certain diseases, your lifestyle choices are the greatest predictor of your health.

“Genomic tests will not be substitutes for current disease prevention strategies,” said Dr. Bert Vogelstein, one of the authors and a pioneer in the search for genes that increase cancer risk.
So a blood test of the future will not free you from the need to eat healthy, exercise, keep extra weight off, not smoke and get useful cancer detection tests such as pap smears and colonoscopies. Nor will it relieve the ongoing possibility of nasty surprises about diseases you may have never feared.
But isn’t our genetic blueprint our destiny? Many scientists thoroughly believed that not long ago. As they have learned more about genes, however, that prediction appears ever more simplistic.
Most diseases arise from a complex mixture of the genes we inherit from our parents at birth— not only what is measured in the whole gene test, but also our lifestyle and environment, and random events such as gene mutations occurring in individual cells in our body later in life.

This is great news.

We are able to have a great deal of influence on our future based on all of the choices we make everyday.

Research, Resources, Wellness

DNA DNA Blueprint DNA Testing

More Intensity And Less Time To Improve Your Workout

April 1, 2012 / Staff

Short amounts of vigorous exercise trump longer amounts of moderate exercise for health benefits.

Researchers found that the people who engaged in the most vigorous exercise reduced their risk of developing metabolic syndrome by two-thirds, compared with those who did no vigorous exercise, even when the total amount of calories per pound of body weight the participants burned while exercising was the same. Vigorous exercise includes activities such as running and jumping rope; moderate exercise might consist of walking or going for a leisurely bike ride.

The good news is that you can exercise less time and still reap the benefits of your work out as long as you kick up the intensity.

This is useful information for those who have busy schedules and little time to devote to physical activity.