wellness weekly

Busy week for me, but some interesting news bits, so let my highlight that which caught my attention:

Cereals: Research indicates that the cereals most highly marketed to children are in fact the ones that are not good for them. A shocker. The scientists categorized the cereals as childrens if they had a cartoon character on the box and or a prize inside. Also, some companies have websites that state which cereals are for kids and which for adults. The kids cereals tend to be too high in sugar, salt and calories. Interestingly, the article I read quoted the study's lead researcher as advising that there be no more than 4 g of sugar per serving. I had trouble last week finding any under 8! Remember this as well, the label may have all sorts of good news; low fat, low sugar, whole grain etc, but too many calories is too many calories. To compare, you can divide the calories per serving by the weight in grams. Choose the cereal with the smaller number.

Generics: The Wall St Journal had a feature in their health section this week regarding the use of generic medication and why that sometimes doesn't go so well for people. One thing to know is that for a medicine to be sold as a generic it must contain the same active ingredient as the brand name. The difference is that it can have inactive ingredients that the other does not have. People may have individual reactions to the inactive ingredients and this may affect the way the pills are metabolized and or absorbed. The need for generics is great. This is because we are taking a lot of medications and we can't afford the price.
The more that we rely on drugs, the greater the demand, the greater the chance problems can occur. There have been concerns about side effects or lack of intended effect, and one explanation offered in the press is that the proliferation of medication dependence has led to a globalization of manufacturing. I appreciate that the drug companies are looking to make the pills in a cost effective way and that they have found that cost effectiveness off shore, but not only does regulation of the process become an issue, but also why it is okay to make them over there, but not buy them from over there. If it is not safe it is not safe. Period.

NJ does it again: NJ has one of the lowest state smoking rates in the country. They are also home to the University of Medicine and Dentistry where I received my tobacco training. This past week a law was passed, a law that was battled out for a year, to prohibit smoking in casinos, nearly completely. The casinos have an option to build a separate unstaffed smoking lounge which would contain no gaming. The law was passed to protect the health of others as it is now clear that second hand smoke, at any level, can cause disease and death. NJ joins about 24 states which also have full or partial smoking bans in their casinos. Seems to me the message is, "you can gamble with your money, but not my health"

Omega 3: We have touched on the benefit of omega 3 fatty acids in the past and that food manufacturers are adding omega 3 to things like cereal, yogurt, eggs, etc. This is not the ideal way to get Omega 3 and research hasn't supported an health benefit from foods that are fortified with Omega 3 fatty acids. Additionally, much of the time the food in question is said to have x mg of omega 3 and the amount we need, or benefit from is over a gram a day. That being said, I tried to find something wrong with a new Country Crock product that is said to have 5oo mg of Omega 3 per serving. I guess if you need a spread with roughly 100 calories, that is as good as any. I myself use fat free cream cheese with 5 to 15 calories and get my omega 3s in fish (actual fish) and flax seed oil.

Viagra: Interestingly, a recent adverstisement for this erectile dysfunction treatment failed to list the side effects associated with its use. WHAT? There are side effects? The ad which was animated and set to music was supposed to have a PRINT message noting that men who take nitrates to treat high blood pressure should not take the pills. The FDA caught the ad and sent a written warning to Pfizer which pulled the ad. The mistake was on the part of CNN which had some techinical glitch. Either way, it is often a blood flow problem that leads to impotence and that is often associated with lifestyle choices, such as eating high fat diets and not exercising.

Life Expectancy: IN the US after several years of gains, some states are not only stagnating but losing ground. It would appear that the folks at Harvard did a fantastically thorough job of reviewing our stats, county by county. Where they found LE decline and I mean, five years lost, they also found>>>>>>>>>> drum roll please... diseases that are related to obesity and smoking. Diseases that lead to early death.

World wide: And the same can be said of the world. Different researchers looked at metabolism and blood pressure across the globe. From that research comes this statement, reported by Maggie Fox at Reuters, that factors affecting blood pressure were not based on genes, but >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>another drum roll.... what people eat.

And do YOU smoke? Better be honest or it could cost you your job. Several persons employed by Whirlpool who had stated on their employee risk assessment that they did not use tobacco were caught doing so. Persons who use tobacco must pay higher insurance. These people were suspended. I agree that smokers should have different coverage than nonsmokers. In fact, my job required that I sign a nonsmoking agreement.

Lastly: On the way to work today I listened to NPR discuss the just passed legislation that will protect persons from "discrimination" based on having a genetic predisposition to a disease. The genetic scientists had been concerned that they could not find willing research subjects needed to advance the field of genetics because of the fear of recrimination. In the story, a researcher discussed how important it could be for a person to know that they might be more at risk for a certain disease so that they might do what they could to prevent the expression of that gene either by life style or medication. I find his thinking rather optimistic after the information I have blogged about today. Obesity and Smoking cause disease. Not smoking and maintaining a healthy weight prevent disease. Do I need to say that some other way?

Wishing you wellness and action