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News on Health & Science

SHOULD YOUNG WOMEN GET MAMMOGRAMS?

Research from The Lancet questions the benefit of women starting annual mammograms at age 40. New data from a large United Kingdom study of more than 160,000 women finds that mammogram screening in younger women may provide little benefit in terms of reducing breast cancer risk, while at the same time exposing women to more radiation and the possibility of false alarms. Overall, women in the 40s who received mammograms saw a small drop in breast cancer deaths, around 17 percent, a figure that was not statistically different from chance. Also, 23 percent of the women had at least one false alarm   higher than the rate of 12 percent seen in women in their 50s. A related editorial says that it’s not clear that women in the 40s get a net benefit from mammogram screening because the potential harms may offset any benefit, and that women should decide individually whether they want the peace of mind from screening or the possibility of unnecessary radiation exposure from additional mammograms.

Source:   ABC News

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News on Health & Science

Vaccinated Kids Protect Whole Family

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Kids are known for spreading germs.
When it comes to the flu, kids are 10 to 100 times more infectious than adults, experts say.

What if your child could be vaccinated at school with a simple nasal spray that would protect not only your child but your whole family?

According to a new study published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, flu vaccines for elementary school children can help reduce flu for the whole family.

In this study, children from 24 public elementary schools in the United States were assigned to get either a nasal-spray flu vaccine or no vaccine.

Families of those children who got the the flu vaccine had fewer flulike symptoms, visited doctors less frequently, and used less medication than families whose kid did not receive the flu vaccine, researchers say.

“Our study showed that not only did we protect the child by the flu vaccine — by doing a school-based vaccination program    we protected their families and probably the community as well,” said Dr. James King, lead author of the study and chief of general pediatrics at University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Another study published in the same issue of the journal indicated that flu vaccines offered good protection even when the vaccine was not a direct match to whatever virus was circulating in the environment.

This offers more support to the idea of vaccinating children to better protect families and communities against the flu.

Flu Vaccine Safe for Kids
The risks of giving kids flu vaccines are small, experts say.

“There are essentially no downsides to immunizing school kids,” said Dr. Gregory Poland, director of Mayo Vaccine Research Group in Rochester, Minn. “These data are important because they provide confirmatory data useful in constructing public health policy.”

“The risks of vaccination with available influenza virus vaccines are so minimal, while the likelihood of illness, even hospitalization and rarely death from influenza, are major and real,” said Dr. Samuel Katz, professor and chairman emeritus of pediatrics at Duke University Medical School in Durham, N.C.

Flu  Mist   a live, weakened type of flu vaccine used in this study   is not a shot but a spray delivered into the nostrils. This may make both parents and kids happy.

“No child got a needle. We were able to do this without disrupting activities,” King said.

Kids are biologically more infectious than adults and are infectious for longer periods of time, according to experts.

Some believe that by vaccinating kids, we are able to better protect our most vulnerable population    the elderly.
If kids are never infected, they can’t spread the flu to other people.

“Children are tremendous amplifiers of the flu,” King said. “A child is able to infect the family and the whole community much more effectively than an adult. By vaccinating kids, we can protect the elderly.”

“The benefits [of vaccinating children] are enormous,” said Dr. Robert Jacobson, chairman of the department of pediatric and adolescent medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “The elderly do not respond as well to the vaccine as young people. We can break the cycle and spread by vaccinating the younger people.”

Breaking the cycle, so to speak, would be a great step for public health.

Roughly 36,000 people die annually from the flu, experts estimate, even though it is a preventable disease. This study could even help shape vaccination priority policies in case of a pandemic influenza.

“Kids might be vaccinated first,” Poland said.
Because vaccinating kids appears to help protect the whole family, a flu vaccine sounds like the thing to do. But how hard is it to have your child vaccinated by the pediatrician?

“It will be very hard for private practitioners to vaccinate all the children in the fall,” King said.
“School-based flu shots will become a public health tool that we can use to vaccinate large numbers of children. In reality, this will help parents not miss any workdays to get their kids vaccinated,” King said.

Given the many advantages of vaccinating kids, experts say that school-based flu vaccination deserves nationwide consideration.

In fact, a number of school districts in California, Florida, Philadelphia and Tennessee have already adopted school-based vaccination program for kids.

The momentum is “increasing annually for a universal influenza virus vaccine recommendation for everyone,” Katz said.

“Public health officials and physicians should consider continuing to broaden flu vaccine recommendations. We should consider whether we as a country should move to universal flu vaccination of all schoolchildren,” Jacobson said.

School-based vaccination “represents sound, cost-effective public health practice designed to reduce illness, reduce hospitalization, and save lives in the community,” said Dr. John Modlin, chair of the department of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, N.H

For additional information on the Influenza Vaccine check out: www.uptodate.com

Source:ABC News.

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Suppliments our body needs

Calcium

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Why do you need calcium?

Calcium is the most common mineral in the human body. Calcium is essential to the growth and maintenance of strong, healthy teeth and bones. It is also necessary for regulating the heartbeat and lowering cholesterol levels.

What are some good sources of calcium?

Dairy products and vegetables are the main sources of calcium; meat, fish, eggs, cereal products, beans, and fruits can also be good sources.

What can happen if we don’t get enough calcium?

Aching joints, dry, brittle nails, tooth decay, high blood pressure/high cholesterol levels in the blood, and muscle cramps have all been associated with calcium deficiencies. Perhaps the most significant potential complication from inadequate calcium intake is bone loss, often leading to osteoporosis and increasing the risk for one fractures.

Source:ChiroFind.com

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News on Health & Science

Alternative Therapies for Migraine Sufferers

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Some 30 million Americans suffer from recurring headaches or migraines, with women three times more likely than men to suffer migraines, according to a recent American Migraine Prevalence and Prevention Study by the National Headache Foundation.

Migraine is listed as the 19th most common cause of disability   ahead of Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis, according to the World Health Organization.

While many sufferers turn to over-the-counter painkillers or prescription drugs for a quick fix, more and more Americans are now looking for alternative therapies. Make sure to ask your doctor before trying any of these remedies, and don’t try them all at once. Lastly, be patient while waiting for results.

Alternative Therapies

Liz Weiss, contributing editor at Health magazine, suggested these alternative migraine remedies:

Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)
Riboflavin, which is vitamin B2, converts energy from carbohydrates. There’s a belief that people with migraines have low levels of energy in their brains, which causes hypersensitivity to things like light or noise. The riboflavin gives your brain more energy, which makes it less likely to be bothered by migraine triggers.

Magnesium
Studies show that people who take more magnesium than they need have fewer migraines. Magnesium also combats hypersensitivity in the brain, and it has been shown to decrease migraine pain. So, even if you do get a migraine, it’s not going to be as bad.

Butterbur
For years people have been taking butterbur, an herb you can buy in health food stores, to fight allergies. Now this anti-inflammatory is seen as one of the newer migraine treatments, because migraines are basically an inflammation of blood vessels in your brain. Studies show you have to take butterbur for a while before you discover a decrease in migraines. But you can take this preventative along with your prescription.

Coenzyme Q
This antioxidant found in meat and nuts has been shown to give the brain more energy. It also cuts the frequency of migraine attacks and reduces nausea. Coenzyme Q, found in health food stores, is expensive and probably not the first alternative remedy to try.

Botox
Doctors noticed that patients who were getting Botox injections for wrinkles not only had fewer wrinkles, but fewer migraines as well. Botox blocks the pain, basically by deadening the area. It is extremely expensive compared to other alternative remedies and is not covered by insurance. But if you have severe migraines, you might want to consider it.

Worth Noting

It’s worth noting that coenzyme Q has not been studied much in healthy people; it’s mainly been studied in connection with heart disease. Also, placebo-controlled trials find that vitamin B and magnesium are no better than placebo at improving migraine headaches. The placebo effect in migraine headache studies is pretty high: If you think you are doing something to help your headache, you often will see a large improvement — usually around 50 percent, experts say.

Alternative therapies may offer safer alternatives to drugs. But remember that although vitamins and herbs may be natural, they are not without health consequences. Even at moderate levels, some vitamins have been shown to slighly increase risk of death. You definitely don’t want people overdosing on them.

It’s alway a good idea to talk to your doctor about which vitamins and herbs to try as well as to ask him or her how many pills are safe to take.

Source:ABC News

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News on Health & Science

Moderate drinking may prolong life

Moderate drinking may lengthen your life, while too much may shorten it, researchers from Italy report. Their conclusion is based on pooled data from 34 large
studies involving more than one million people and 94,000 deaths……..click & see

According to the data, drinking a moderate amount of alcohol    up to four drinks per day in men and two drinks per day in women  reduces the risk of death from any cause by roughly 18%, the team reports in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

However, “things radically change” when consumption goes beyond these levels, study leader Augusto Di Castelnuovo, from Catholic University of Campobasso, said in a statement. Men who have more than four drinks per day and women who have more than two drinks per day not only lose the protection that alcohol affords, but they increase their risk of death, the data indicate.

The reason why men are protected at up to four drinks per day, while women lose the
protection after two glasses has to do with how men and women metabolize alcohol,
researchers say. It’s been shown that when men and women who drink the same amount of alcohol, women experience higher blood alcohol levels than men.

Therefore, women who consume more than two glasses of alcohol per day may be at increased risk for diseases of the liver and certain types of cancer.

“Our findings, while confirming the hazards of excess drinking, indicate potential windows
of alcohol intake that may confer a net beneficial effect of moderate drinking, at least in
terms of survival,” the Italian team concludes.

“Heavy drinkers should be urged to cut their consumption
, but people who already regularly consume low to moderate amounts of alcohol should be encouraged to continue,” they add. The manner in which alcohol is consumed also appears to be important.

“Little amounts, preferably during meals, this appears to be the right way,” said Giovanni
de Gaetano of Catholic University, another author on the study
.

Source:The Times Of India

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