Healthy Me - At Home and Away: African American

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Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Cashing In on Health Consciousness

English: Fried gluten balls. Photo by ChildofMidnight. Attribution required. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Photograph of 4 gluten sources. Top: High-gluten wheat flour. Right: European spelt. Bottom: Barley. Left: Rolled rye flakes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

DEBORAH STRANGE

Businesses are finding new ways to cash in as Americans open their wallets to get healthy. Foods that are naturally gluten-free – like popcorn and nuts – now advertise that on their packaging. Although only about 6 percent of the population has gluten sensitivity, some 30 percent of the public hopes to decrease the gluten in their diets, the market research company NPD Group said.

In the United States, sales of gluten- free products were about $10.5 billion last year, and they could reach more than $15 billion in annual sales in 2016, The Times reported.

“There are truly people out there who need gluten-free foods for health reasons, but they are not the majority of consumers who are driving this market,” Virginia Morris, vice president for consumer strategy and insights at Daymon Worldwide, told the Times.

“The reason I do believe this has legs is that it ties into this whole naked and ‘free from’ trend,” Ms. Morris added.” I think we as a country and as a globe will continue to be concerned about what’s going into our food supply.”

For those who can afford classes like a $900-a-month stomach-toning workout with a broomstick, the website Well+Good updates its audience on how to live the healthy life in New York.

Its coverage includes articles like the recent one on a brand of chia seeds that costs four times more than apparently lower-end chia seeds. Gym classes featured on the site are quickly filled.

One fitness regimen gaining popularity is Piloxing: part Pilates, part boxing and a bit of dance. Created by a former jazz dancer, Piloxing is praised for its dynamic approach. But its interpretation of Joseph Pilate’s namesake routine is criticized by purists.

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RESERVE for a healthier you!
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“There’s no mind-body connection whatsoever,” Jennifer De Luca, owner of the Body Tonic Pilates studio in New York, told The Times.

“I’m sure what she’s doing creates really tight butts, and a lot of people want tight butts, but to call it Pilates is a stretch.”

Yet Piloxing is taught by 7,000 instructors in 36 countries.Melisse Gelula, a founder of Well+Good, said fitness and wellness movements are becoming more accessible instead of available only at destination spas.

“Now all of this stuff – energy treatments, juice bar, spin – is part of your daily life, instead of something you go away to do,” Ms. Gelula told The Times.

Monitoring your activity can be routine as well, if you have $100 or so to spare. Activity trackers keep a record of calories burned and hours slept, and more expensive models can monitor heart rate and skin temperature.

“Makers of the devices have begun intensive campaigns aimed at convincing the large population of ‘worried well’ consumers to get wired and start recording their every move,” Albert Sun wrote in The Times after testing several of these activity trackers.

Activity trackers generated $290 million in 2013 sales, The Times reported, and sales could double in 2014.

The trackers might not be entirely accurate – Mr. Sun’s wrist-worn trackers did not recognize his leg tapping to music or his time on an exercise bicycle – but they offer other benefits.

Dr. Rajani Larocca, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, conducted a study last year examining lifestyle changes that encouraged healthful eating and exercise. Each participant wore a Fitbit Zip monitor, which provided extra motivation.

“Every single person increased their activity,” Dr. Larocca said.

“People felt more knowledgeable.”

Taken from TODAY Saturday Edition, March 29, 2014

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

City Living Can be Bad for Your Health

Broadway show billboards at the corner of 7th ...

Image via WikipediaI thought that life is good in the city? So it really isn't being in the top of the heap, is it?
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High number of poor urban residents poses special challenges for health professionals

Adam Phillips | New York City
March 04, 2011

The vast majority of Americans live in cities and urban life carries special health risks. Overcrowding leads to greater stress, which can lead to violence, according to Dr. Jo Boufford, president of the New York Academy of Medicine. And the complexity of cities makes them harder to navigate, which can lead to, or complicate, mental illness. City air is often polluted, and that can cause respiratory problems.

"All of those things play out in an urban environment in ways they don’t play out outside of cities, and they have an effect on people’s health, on people’s well being and on daily life," says Boufford. "But the real thing that runs through higher incidence of disease is largely poverty. That’s the bottom line."

The fact that a high proportion of urban residents are poor, poses special challenges for health professionals, who gathered recently at a National Urban Health Conference in New York. Health workers, academics and community activists met to share strategies for delivering quality health care to the urban poor.

Many people from the business world also attended the urban health conference. Employers who buy health insurance for their workers must pay higher premiums when more employees become sick. That cuts into profits. That’s why many employers offer preventative care.

"They provide health education opportunities for their own employees. Many of them provide opportunities ‘in-house’ for people to stop smoking," Boufford says. "They provide programs for people who feel they may be depressed or they have a substance abuse problem to get help, weight-loss programs, exercise programs, giving people a break in lunch hour to get out into the community and walk. So the return on investment is pretty clear at this point."

Obesity - a condition which can lead to diabetes, cancers and cardiac and respiratory problems - is epidemic in America’s cities. The Centers for Disease Control reports that more than half of New York African-Americans are obese. Javier Lopez, director of New York’s Strategic Alliance for Health, says the problem is especially severe among children in minority neighborhoods.

He believes fatty, highly-processed foods are partly to blame, but so is lack of exercise. He says that some of New York City’s educational policies for example, such as mandatory standardized testing, don’t help. When there is an open hour in a school day schedule, teachers often choose to fill it with academic drilling rather than physical education.

"So then you have to look at opportunities outside of the school day for physical activity. You have more bike lanes, for instance, in some urban settings now. So now you have to think about what programs are going to bring young people use those bike lanes," says Lopez. "You have to think about what bike-sharing programs are available in urban settings and thinking outside the box, using the landscape to be more effective for physical activity."

Lopez says that his obesity prevention work focuses on adults as well as children.

"For adults, the opportunity lies in educating on the availability of free and inexpensive programs. A lot of community centers offer free exercise classes that are readily available for folks. It’s just that a lot of the advertising and marketing for some of those programs need to be bulked up so more people can take advantage of them."

Better health education is key, says Dr. Aubrey Clark, a Harlem Hospital Center cardiologist. He led a panel at the conference on atherosclerosis. That’s a clogging of the arteries linked to stress, poor diet and other factors which can lead to diabetes, heart attack, stroke and other health issues.

"In terms of an institution, the education would involve outreach, screening in the communities, symposia and other outreach-type conferences to reach different organizations within the community, and inviting community members to functions such as this," says Clark. "On the clinical level, we want to make sure we have a multidisciplinary team approach to our patients, not only when they are acutely ill and hospitalized but to prepare them upon discharge to make sure they know what they are responsible for in terms of making sure that their health is as best as they can have it."

Boufford adds that health education is actually a two-way street between health providers and the communities they serve. This can be difficult in urban communities where many illegal immigrants live. They fear that visibility may lead to deportation. But in the case of outreach to the elderly by the New York Academy of Medicine and its partners, the efforts are bearing fruit.

"What do they say makes it easier or harder to live in the city?" says Boufford. "The kinds of things they raise are crossing the street, 'The streetlights are too fast. I can’t get across the street.’ ‘The sidewalks have pits or holes in them.’ ‘I can’t come out at night.’ ‘I can’t sit down when I go to a local business.’ These are simple things to solve and part of our initiative is to help do that."

Many participants at the National Urban Health Conference said they gained both knowledge and encouragement from the gathering. But most agreed that the challenges facing health care providers in America’s cities will continue to grow in the decades to come.

Taken from VOANews.com; source article is below:
City Living Can be Bad for Your Health

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Thanks for not smoking…

The No Smoking sign, designed by one of the me...

Image via Wikipedia

BENEFITS OF BANS
Heart attacks reduced considerably in countries where lighting up is banned

LONDON - The ban on smoking in public places could reduce heart attacks by more than a third in some parts of the world, say researchers.

Two independent health reviews have found that heart attack rates dropped steeply in areas where bans have been introduced, with one reporting 36 per cent fewer cases three years after smoke-free legislation came in.

Smoking in pubs, restaurants and other public spaces was banned in England and Wales in July 2007, a year after similar laws were introduced in Scotland.

The Scottish ban led to a 14 per cent fall in the number of people being admitted to hospital with a heart attack the following year.

A Department of Health study of heart attack rates in England and Wales is not due to report until next year, but experts believe the number of cases in the regions has already fallen by around 10 per cent as a result of the smoking ban.

The latest reviews, which draw on published studies from the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Ireland and Scotland, suggest heart attacks in Britain will fall even further over the next two years.

"While we obviously won't bring heart attack rates to zero, these findings give us evidence that in the short to medium term, smoking bans will prevent a lot of heart attacks," said Dr James Lightwood, a health economist at the University of California in San Francisco, and co-author of one of the reviews, published in the US Journal Circulation.

Dr Lightwood analysed 13 published reports on heart attacks in countries or states where smoking bans have been introduced.

A year after the bans were introduced, heart attacks had fallen by an average of 17 per cent. After three years, the number of heart attacks had dropped by 36 per cent.

"This study adds to the already strong evidence that second-hand smoke causes heart attacks, and that passing 100 per cent smoke-free laws in all work places and public places is something we can do to protect the public," Dr Lightwood said.

Heart attacks may fall more modestly in Britain than other European countries because many workplaces imposed smoking bans before nationwide laws were passed.

A second review, by Mr David Meyers at the University of Kansas, drew on 10 studies from the same regions.

His report, which is published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found heart attacks had fallen by 17 per cent on average a year after smoking bans were imposed.

Most of the benefit was seen among young people and non-smokers.

While smoking doubles the risk of heart attack, passive smokers, who regularly inhale tobacco fumes from others, have around a 30 per cent higher risk of getting a heart attack. The Guardian

From TODAY, News – Wednesday, 23-Sep-2009

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The average American is now 11kg overweight

Image by Vlastula via Flickr

Obesity is linked to financial status, but it is said that those who are poor are those who tend to be obese. Interesting? Read on…
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WASHINGTON - Childhood obesity is now the United States' worst health crisis, experts said, urging parents to ban television in kids' rooms and lawmakers to slap a tax on sugar-laden sodas.

Two-thirds of United States adults and around 20 per cent of American children are now overweight or obese, and the rising rate of obesity in the US has had a debilitating effect on citizens' health and US healthcare spending.

The average American is now 11kg overweight. In addition to costing the country billions every year, the obesity epidemic means a generation of Americans could have shorter lives than their parents.

Childhood obesity is "putting the younger generation at risk of being the first in the history of our country to have a shorter lifespan than their parents", former President Bill Clinton told the Weight of the Nation conference.

Eleven years ago, the medical costs associated with obesity were around US$78 billion ($112.1 billion) a year. In 2006, it was US$147 billion annually. By 2030, obesity could account for US$1 in US$6 spent on healthcare.

Healthcare expenditure for people with normal weight is around 41 per cent lower than those of obese individuals.

The people most likely to be obese are America's poor, "the non-rich who can just barely pay their bills", said Mr Clinton.

Many live in unsafe urban areas where children can't play outside. They have limited access to fresh, healthy food and even less time to prepare it because they work so hard to make ends meet.

So they instead buy "high-bulk, low nutrition food" and keep their children indoors, unwittingly perpetuating America's cycle of obesity. AFP

From TODAY, World – Thursday, 30-Jul-2009

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Singapore confirms 17 new cases of H1N1 flu, bringing total to 66

Posted: 17 June 2009 2207 hrs

Communicable Disease Centre at Tan Tock Seng hospital in Singapore

SINGAPORE: Singapore's Health Ministry (MOH) has confirmed another 17 H1N1 cases, bringing the total so far in the republic to 66.

All the latest cases were imported, with six from Melbourne, six from the Philippines and the rest also from countries with known community spread of H1N1.

According to the ministry, some of these patients had proceeded with their travel plans, meetings or social activities despite having developed symptoms.

Among the latest cases are two five-year-old children - one American boy in transit at Changi Airport while en route from California to Chennai via Hong Kong, and one Singaporean girl returning from the United States.

Contact tracing is being carried out for the 17 cases.

The ministry reminds travellers, especially those who have been to countries with sustained community transmission or are in transition towards community transition, not to engage in extensive community activities such as working, shopping and participating in mass activities until they are well.

This will help mitigate the risk of community spread in Singapore and make containment efforts more effective.

The ministry adds that with many Singaporeans returning from their June holidays or coming home for their summer vacation from countries such as the US, UK and Australia, Singapore can expect an increase in the number of imported cases of H1N1 flu.

Of the 66 confirmed cases so far, 31 are from Australia, 19 from the United States, 11 from the Philippines, with the rest from Thailand, Canada, UK and Chile. One case was a close local contact of an infected traveller.

MOH says so far, 25 patients have been discharged. 41 are still in hospital and their conditions are stable.

- CNA/yt

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Global H1N1 flu spreads as deaths top 100

Posted: 28 May 2009 1221 hrs

School children wearing protective masks as a precaution against the H1N1 flu at a train station in Tokyo, Japan

CHICAGO: The global H1N1 flu death toll marched past 100 on Wednesday with one new fatality reported in the United States and four more in Mexico, the two countries where the first outbreaks were reported.

Prior to the latest North American deaths, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had reported the global toll at 95, with 13,398 people in 48 countries infected with the A(H1N1) virus since it was first uncovered last month.

In Chicago, a second H1N1 flu death was reported by officials, bringing the US toll to 15.

Mexico's four fatalities raised the country's toll to 89 with 100 new infections reported, bringing the total to 4,821, the health ministry said.

Activists from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), clad in mock hazmat suit, display placards across the US Embassy in Manila, Philippines during a brief protest

Around the world, efforts to control the disease continued as new cases were discovered.

Two more countries - the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean and South America's Uruguay - each reported their first two confirmed cases of H1N1 flu, raising the number of countries with cases to 50.

Chile confirmed 119 cases late Tuesday, making it by far the South American country most affected by the outbreak. Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador have also reported cases.

In Canada, the number of people infected with H1N1 flu soared past the 1,000 mark with 197 new cases confirmed Wednesday, according to health officials.

Canada now has 1,118 total A(H1N1) cases, including two deaths. The country has the largest number of infections after Mexico and the United States.

Commuters wearing masks as a precaution against the swine flu walk through a station in the morning rush hour in Kobe, western Japan

Elsewhere, services continued to slowly return to something approaching normalcy.

In Mexico, cruise ships began calling at Cozumel after a one-month hiatus.

Australia, meanwhile, slapped tough measures on cruise ships docking in Sydney in a bid to stop the spread of the disease.

Under the new rules, all cruise liners docking in Sydney will be treated as potential H1N1 flu sites and passengers will be held on board until the ship is cleared.

Australia's restrictions came with the A(H1N1) virus spreading further throughout Asia.

But the WHO has so far resisted declaring the disease a full-fledged pandemic.

Thermal imaging equipment which will be used to scan passengers for the influenza A(H1N1) virus at Sydney's Kingsford Smith International Airport

The outbreak has spread further in Asia, with Singapore confirming its first case and Hong Kong, where Asia's first infection sparked a week-long quarantine of around 300 guests and staff at a city hotel, announced a fresh total of 10.

Japan has seen a rapid rise in confirmed cases, saying Wednesday it had over 350.

In Europe, Romania announced its first confirmed infection in a woman who returned from New York on May 23 with her two young children.

Greece reported its third H1N1 flu case as health officials called a fresh emergency meeting, while stressing the situation was under "complete control."

Besides the human toll, Mexico's economy has taken a deep hit from the virus.

Mexican restaurant owners said that some 6,500 eateries remained definitively closed due to losses made during the H1N1 flu epidemic, shedding more than 55,000 jobs.

Almost half of those forced to close were in the sprawling capital, where the government ordered all restaurants to shut temporarily at the height of the epidemic, the national chamber of the restaurant industry said.

- AFP/yb

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.