The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health |
| Change your routine to help kids shed weight Posted: One way to crack down on childhood obesity? Switch up the family routine, cut down on television, and dine together, a new study suggests. TO help kids fight the battle of the bulge, a new study suggests changing up household routines with a few simple strategies. In a new study published online Sept 9 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, US and Canadian researchers implemented a home-based intervention to help young kids lose weight, by curbing TV time, increasing sleep time, and encouraging families to dine together. While childhood obesity is looming large around the globe, the US is especially struggling: some 17% of US children are obese, with the problem particularly acute among minority groups and low-income families, the report added. One solution: a holistic lifestyle change, Aaron Carroll, a paediatric obesity expert who penned an editorial to the study, suggested. "Rather than drill down to a specific eating or exercise change, creating a healthier household may be a better way not only to improve weight, but overall physical and mental health as well," he wrote in the editorial. In the study, researchers from Harvard Medical School and Ontario's University of Guelph enlisted 121 families with overweight kids in a six-month study, with 59 families assigned to a control group. Prior to the study, all of the children slept in a room with a television. In the intervention group, families received in-home counselling about healthy habits, and children increased their sleep by a half hour per day, cut down their television time by one hour per day, and in turn reduced their body mass index (BMI) by 20%. Children in the control group increased their BMI by 20%. In a separate 2012 study from Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana, researchers found that televisions in bedrooms can put kids at greater risk of obesity. A separate 2011 study in the journal Pediatric Obesity also found that electronic devices – TVs, computers, and mobile phones – in kids' bedrooms are linked with both poor sleep and obesity. – AFP Relaxnews |
| Yearly mammograms can save lives Posted: A new study finds evidence that regular mammograms can help save lives through early detection. FOR women 40 and over, a new study finds that regular mammography screening is still the best way to go. A new analysis published online in the journal Cancer finds that along with new therapeutics and protocols for treating breast cancer, regular mammography screening for women 40 and older can significantly reduce breast cancer deaths through early detection. The Harvard Medical School study, which involved 7,301 patients, found that 71% of confirmed breast cancer deaths occurred in the 20% of the study population that did not receive regular mammograms. The majority of those who died from breast cancer had never had a mammogram prior to diagnosis. Moreover, 50% of the breast cancer deaths occurred in women under the age of 50, while only 13% were in women ages 70 or older. "These findings should quiet those who argue that women age 40-49 do not need regular mammography screening. In fact, these women need annual screening – as do all women 40 and older. This is the message physicians should be promoting," said Dr Barbara S. Monsees, chair of the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Commission. "Breast cancer treatment has come a long way, but, as this study demonstrates, these advances have not negated the value of, or the need for early detection," she added. "This study should effectively end confusion over when, and particularly if, women need to begin screening," said Dr Murray Rebner, president of the Society of Breast Imaging. With more prevalent screening, especially in younger women, the researchers said that their study suggests that breast cancer mortality could decrease to less than 10% overall in the next 10 years, and perhaps to as low as 5% overall by 2030. – AFP Relaxnews |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Health To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan