Health Tip – Audio Version – “The rest of Health Tip – Audio Version Health Tip – Audio Version ”
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step – Tips to Help You Get Active (National Institutes of Health)

This really is the first day of the rest of your life. It’s when new year’s resolutions start to become new year’s fact. Are you ready?

Let’s say you’ve decided to live more healthfully. Let’s look at ways to maximize the chances of success.

You can be specific. People are more likely to get in a 30-minute daily walk if they set specific goals than if they just say they ought to walk more.

Writing it down helps. With an action plan, you can see how you’re measuring up.

Falling short happens, too. But there are ways to deal. Acting Surgeon General Steven Galson advises allowing some flexibility:

“If you miss a day’s exercise or add extra calories, adjust by doing a bit more or eating less. And the next time, when you succeed, congratulate yourself.’’

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: January, 02 2008

Health Tip – Audio Version – “Untested ”
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step – Screening Pap Test (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

A Pap test can spot signs of cervical cancer early enough to save a woman’s life. But a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says women from other nations especially are missing out.

Dr. Mona Saraiya looked at four years of data to estimate Pap testing rates. Her report is in the Journal of Women’s Health. Among immigrants, women from Asia, Southeast Asia and India were least likely to be tested, followed by women from South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe and Central America.

Dr. Saraiya says problems common to immigrants may be barriers to testing:

“They risk being isolated by language and culture, and many face financial barriers to routine preventive services, such as Pap tests.’’

Dr. Saraiya says help is available by contacting state health departments or calling 1-800-CDC INFO.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: January, 02 2008

Health Tip – Audio Version – “Tracking blood pressure online”
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step – High Blood Pressure (National Library of Medicine))

A study of people with high blood pressure finds dealing with the Internet can affect your blood pressure.

In this case, not raise it. Lower it.

Dr. Beverly Green of the Group Health Center for Health Studies in Seattle says patients doubled their chances of controlling their blood pressure when they worked with their pharmacist from home via the Internet. The patients used a home blood pressure monitoring system, with training and advice from their pharmacist through a secure Web site.

“In those that received the blood pressure monitors, web training, and the pharmacist assistance, 56 percent of them had their blood pressure controlled.”

Green encourages people with high blood pressure who have Internet access at home to use email when they work with their health care team.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: August, 21 2008

Health Tip – Audio Version – “Protective acids”
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step – Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Effects on Cardiovascular Risk Factors (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)

Eating healthy vegetable oils and fish regularly can help your heart. These foods have special fatty acids called omega-3. The body does not make omega-3 by itself, so it’s important we make them a part of our diet.

Omega-3s are in some vegetable oils, as well as in fish and walnuts.

Dr. Hannia Campos of the Harvard School of Public Health says even small amounts of omega-3s could help.

She led a study in Costa Rica, where people get much less omega-3s than we do in the United States.

“We found that high levels of omega-3 fatty acid were linked with a 59 percent reduction in the risk of getting a heart attack.”

The study in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: August, 20 2008

Health Tip – Audio Version – “Weighty weekends”
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step – Very-Low-Calorie-Diet (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)

Do good Monday through Friday on your diet, and what do you get?

The weekend, and that’s not good.

Susan Racette of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that. She says most dieters have trouble losing weight on the weekends, when people don’t pay as much attention to what they eat.

These findings help explain why diets don’t always work like we want them to.

Racette says dieters should weigh themselves daily so they know how they are doing.

“If you’re going to be out running errands, or if you’re going to be at your child’s sports events, and you’re going to be at the field all day, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy but grabbing a few things on your way out the door to have some healthy, lower-calorie choices can be very helpful.”

She also says dieters could plan ahead by packing their own food.

The study in the journal Obesity was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: August, 22 2008

Health Tip – Audio Version – “Get up and play an hour a day?”
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step – Physical Activity (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Kids need to be physically active at least an hour a day. But are they?

A researcher checked, by having about 1,000 kids wear a device that kept track of their activity.

Philip Nader of the University of California, San Diego says younger kids did well. At age 9, they averaged about three hours a day. But by age 15, they averaged 50 minutes a day during the week and barely more than a half hour a day on weekends.

“The basic take-home message is that kids, just like adults, are getting less and less active as they get older.’’

Kids need to be active to control weight and to set healthy habits for adulthood – even just walking.

The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: August, 25 2008

Health Tip – Audio Version – “Mom’s beer”
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step – Parents’ Escape Drinking Evokes Children’s Negative Response to Alcohol Smell (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse)

Smells can be a window into feeling. Julie Mennella of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia noticed that among 5- to 8-year-old children of mothers who drank.

Mennella asked the mothers why they drank; some said it was to relieve tension or worry. And she asked the children to smell beer and other odors, including one like rotten eggs.

Mennella says children of mothers who drank to reduce tension or worry preferred even the smell of rotten eggs to beer.

Mennella finds a lesson here for the mothers:

“Even if you hide the bottle of beer or glass of wine, children are smelling these odors in the home or emanating from your breath, and they are forming associations with your moods and the reasons to why you drink.’’

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: August, 26 2008

Health Tip – Audio Version – “Stroke and the healthy five”
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step – What You Need to Know About Stroke (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

“This same low-risk lifestyle may have prevented between 65 and 80 percent of coronary heart disease and 90 percent of diabetes within these same populations.’’

The healthy five: * Not smoking * Maintaining healthy weight * Exercising 30 minutes or more a day * Eating lots of fruits and vegetables, fiber, chicken and fish, and not a lot of processed meats. * And drinking alcohol in moderation

The study in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: August, 27 2008

Health Tip – Audio Version – “Heavy sleepers”
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step – Kids Who Sleep Poorly at Risk for Being Overweight (Office of Minority Health)

Being overweight may be something that a kid does lose sleep over. A study finds overweight kids sleep less than healthy-weight kids, and spend less time in REM sleep, the stage linked to hunger control and burning more calories.

Erika Forbes of Pittsburgh’s Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic measured sleep for three nights by kids ages 7 years to 17 years.

The study found overweight kids slept on average 22 minutes less a night, and had less REM sleep.

“Sleep is part of the picture – but, of course, so is being active and eating healthy food, and we recommend those. And you can’t control the amount of REM you get, but total sleep is important.’’

The study supported by the National Institutes of Health was in Archives of General Psychiatry.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: August, 28 2008

Health Tip – Audio Version – “A larger hole”
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step – Healthy Vision Health Tip – Audio Version Health Tip – Audio Version (National Eye Institute)

How big is a golf hole?

Yeah, it’s a trick question. The answer seems to depend on how good you are.

Jessica Witt of Purdue University studies how athletes perceive things. She wanted to see how golfers saw the size of the hole. So Witt showed golfers a poster board with various sized holes, and asked them to estimate which was the size of the hole on the green. She also got information about how well they played.

“Golfers who reported lower scores selected the larger circles as matching the size of the hole, thus suggesting that they perceived the hole as larger.’’

Witt says perception isn’t just about seeing the hole – but it still pays to keep your eye on the ball, and the hole.

The study in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: August, 29 2008