wellness weekly

Mexico: Many local, state and federal governments are concerned about the obesity rates in their populations. In fact, a number of them, including my city, Sarasota; state, Florida; and my country, USA encourage mindful eating and exercise. We have a goal to reduce our rates of overweight and obesity by 2010, but almost across the board and certainly in the Southeast, the rates are up, not down. I often thought that people who moved to my country from Mexico for example, gained weight because of us, but I learned that it is not necessarily so. In Mexico, they have a problem of their own making. The new national campaign in Mexico is called Vamos Por Un Million Kilos – Let’s lose a million kilos. They have the same issues as the USA. That is, less activity and more processed and fat laden foods. About 50 percent of their population is overweight or obese whereas, about 66 percent of the US is. In reading about the start of this campaign, it was noted that the health experts in Mexico are fearful of their people becoming as fat as those in the US. This would be because of the health care costs associated with treating obesity related illnesses.

Spit Tobacco: Smokeless tobacco causes cancer and may be associated with heart disease. It is not a safe alternative to smoking as long as it contains nicotine and carcinogens. Nicotine is what addicts a person to tobacco (it is found naturally in the tobacco plant). Nicotine also increases heart rate, blood pressure and pulse. Spit tobacco has more milligrams of nicotine per “dip” than a cigarette – much more. This is concerning and it is concerning that people are not aware of the adverse effects of this product. It is true that there are no second hand spit diseases, but that is no reason to use it. There are changes in consumption and that is why I bring it up. Cigarette use is down about 3- 4% in the past year, while spit tobacco use is up 6 - 7%. This is likely to continue as Phillip Morris parent, Altria has just bought UST which owns the SKOAL brand. PM is the largest US cigarette maker and Skoal had a revenue of almost 2 billion last year. (according to a September WSJ article)

Supplements: I continue not to endorse them because few have the research to support efficacy and none have regulation to enforce purity. Here is another popular duo that may not be worth the money. Glucosamine and Chondroiton. Many people take the supplements to treat pain associated with osteoarthritis and to slow the loss of cartilage in knee joints. In fact, I considered using them before but I realized that the cost of them (if by a reputable company) would be over 30 dollars a month and the presumed benefit only comes after continuous monthly use. I realized that the only thing guaranteed by using them would be expensive pee. Research recently analyzed supports my hypothesis. The supplements did not increase cartilage or conserve it and it did not reduce pain. The information is in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism. Also note that OA is most often associated with age, gender, genetics, weight and previous injury. (in other words, not exercising is much more likely to lead to bad knees and joints then exercising!)

No Smoking Here: Another country, yes, there are whole countries with public smoking bans, has opted to ban smoking. In the US, we with have several local bans and two states have banned it. India, where approximately 19% of persons over age 15 smoke, enacted such a law yesterday, 10/3/08. Persons who do smoke in public will be fined. No business, restaurant, pub, school, hotel or hospital will allow smoking in or just outside their buildings. I learned this from a WSJ article which included some additional stats from the WHO 2005. What startled me the most, and this is my professional field, is that the country of Greece has a 52% over age 15 smoking rate. Russia is just a few points below this and the USA is between 19 and 24, depending on the source year. (later this week an article came out regarding the expecting explosion of lung cancer disease in China within the next 25 years, mostly due to smoking). But back to India. Because a good portion of the country is illiterate the government is using pictures on the cigarette pack to educate about the dangers. For example, they are using a picture of a skull and crossbones. Well, if they are POISON, why are they for sale? The only entity with the kind of moxie needed in regards to cigarette bans appears to be the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan which has indeed banned the SALE of cigarettes.

Pharmacy and Tobacco: I, more often that not, have ill will towards both industries. There is a place for at least one of them, I must admit. Medicine can save lives and / or increase the quality of life by ameliorating disease symptoms or slowing progression. My issue is our dependence on meds to solve non medical problems. Like the bad knees we sometimes get because we ate too much and did too little. That dependency on meds is in large part due to the direct to consumer marketing by the pharmaceutical companies. Add to that, the direct to clinician marketing and I’d say, lobbying (wining dining and greens fees). This week I have more direct angst towards Pfizer and Merck. Pfizer for saying that they were going to significantly reduce the amount of time and money they put towards medications for the treatment of heart disease in order to spend more of both on the “much more profitable” oncology or cancer market. (not notable or desperate, but profitable) And with Merck. My issue with Merck, besides trying to kill me with Vioxx, is the Gardasil vaccine. Again, the vaccine may stop some HPV cases that would lead to cervical cancer, but only in a certain at-risk population. NOT The entire male and female population of the United States, but much younger women. Also, it does not obviate pap smears or condoms. So the fact that the US has added the Gardasil vaccine to the REQUIRED immunizations for permanent LEGAL entry into the US (i.e. citizenship) just burns my butt. This is the real mind blower though, because I was talking about big Pharma AND big Tobacco…
One group, Pharmaceuticals, gets people to take medications that may or may not improve their health but costs the user and the insurer a LOT of money while exposing the drug taker to side effect risks – and for cervical cancer anyway, could only save 4000 lives a year….while the other, Tobacco is scientifically proven (US Surgeon General, CDC and the WHO) to kill 438,000 persons a year and is sold legally every where except perhaps the Bhutan kingdom!

Eat Smart Move More
Use condoms :)