Saturday, October 15, 2011
Tanning is Addictive
Recent evidence has found that tanning lights up the same areas of the brain that are active when we have other kinds of addiction, such as substance abuse.
This is a good reason to avoid getting in a tanning bed to begin with!
Sadly as the article describes people may have adverse consequences such as having a cancerous lesion removed and go back to tanning beds.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/how-tanning-changes-the-brain/
This is a good reason to avoid getting in a tanning bed to begin with!
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/how-tanning-changes-the-brain/
Golf as a Solution to Obesity? Really?
Is it just me or does anyone else find this claim ridiculous? All we need is a little more golf and childhood obesity and adult obesity problems will be solved. I have nothing against golf. I like sports, I especially love cycling and, due to my husband's love for sports, my list of things I love has grown. I'm even trying to take up tennis. But, I have in fact not taken up golf and low and behold I'm not overweight or out of shape. Is this a little bit elitist to think sponsoring a golf tournament will inspire people to be healthier? I think it is. Golf is an expensive sport, there are public places to play, but there are also a lot of country clubs and expensive clubs like the ones mentioned n the piece. Also, one probably needs lessons to get started as well as golf clubs. This isn't just something easy anyone can pick up. How about promoting something easy that doesn't require a lot of equipment like playing Frisbee in the park, (cost, Frisbee, $15 at Target), or walking (cost, $0). Perhaps part of the problem is that we often see complex and expensive recommendations for improving the nations fitness and nutrition and we need promotion of more simple and easily attainable strategies. Additionally, we need more parks in urban areas, and more healthy grocery stores available to people in urban spaces. We need to look at how environment shapes the way people eat and live. It is not as easy as sponsoring a golf tournament. Is it responsible to promote health, exercise, and nutrition in complex ways that make it seem unattainable, particularly during an economic recession?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/sports/golf/president-clinton-sees-golf-as-a-path-to-fitness-for-all.html
Friday, October 7, 2011
Take Part in the Small Fixes Challenge from NY Times
Do you have ideas for measuring blood pressure in developing nations? Post your ideas here and take part in the challenge:
The Power of Social Media for Health
Gamers were able to decipher the molecular structure of a key protein involved in HIV/AIDS reproduction within three weeks, and biochemists have been working on it for decades. This is called crowdsourcing. More information at link below.
Great Guest Speaker Event on Campus!
Distance Running & Hydration
Do you know how to properly hydrate for long runs? I thought I did but actually I was wrong in believing the phrase often repeated in running/biking circles, "drink before you feel thirsty." It turns out that may actually lead you to drink too much according to research from Sports Health and the British Journal of Sports Medicine.Read more here: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/how-much-to-drink-during-a-marathon/
New Recommendations for P.S.A. Blood Tests for Prostate Cancer
The biggest health news story of the day is the new recomendations being released by the United States Preventive Services Task Force for P.S.A. testing. The new recommendation: healthy men should no longer receive the P.S.A. test. The recommendation does not apply to unhealthy men.
Wading through this information it does seem that the panel has some ground to stand on. They are basing their conclusions on five controlled clinical trials. This recommendation raises an interesting ethical and moral dilemma about whether men (and their families, and wives) are really better off not knowing that they may develop prostate cancer if the prostate cancer is not going to impact them until let's say age 85.
The New York Times has a great article discussing the recommendations online as well as some excerpts from patient's narratives about their experiences with prostate cancer. Listening to the first two patient's you get a very different picture of the impact of early testing and early intervention for prostate cancer.
Wading through this information it does seem that the panel has some ground to stand on. They are basing their conclusions on five controlled clinical trials. This recommendation raises an interesting ethical and moral dilemma about whether men (and their families, and wives) are really better off not knowing that they may develop prostate cancer if the prostate cancer is not going to impact them until let's say age 85.
The New York Times has a great article discussing the recommendations online as well as some excerpts from patient's narratives about their experiences with prostate cancer. Listening to the first two patient's you get a very different picture of the impact of early testing and early intervention for prostate cancer.
Does a public service announcement lead you to act?
What makes a PSA persusasive? A recent study shed some light on this question by looking specifically at child abuse PSAs. Paek, Hove, Kim, & Jeong (2011) found that the more disgusted, surprised, angry, fearful, sad, or unhappy you reported feeling after watching a series of PSA's on child abuse, the more likely you felt the message was persusasive, and the more you intended to help abused children.
The article is available in Health Communication journal by clicking on this link:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2011.558334
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)