Do you really work out ?

Experts recommend an hour of physical activity a day. For most Americans, that is a dream. We spent $4.9 billions on fitness equipment and $17.4 billion on fitness clubs in 2006, but according to the American Time Use Survey, 83% of us don't exercise at all on a given day. Workout is another one of those things we know we should do, but just don't do it (or do enough of it), reflecting the gap between hard-weired (body) apparatus and the logical reasoning.

Source: Time (Nov. 26, 2007)

Bad marriage raise heart disease risk

Results of many research/survey often reconfirm common senses (believes), they also provide you a quantitative sense and more details. Here is another example.

A lot of us feel/believe marital troubles and other ill personal relationships can cause our health. When a group of researchers looking at this issue, they test if study participants with bad relationships have any biological evidence of stress (inflammation, stress hormones) that could contribute to heart disease. In a study of 9,011 British civil servants, most of them married, "those with the worst close relationships were 34% more likely to have heart attacks or other heart trouble during 12 years of follow-up than those with good relationships. That included partners, close relatives and friends".

Under sleep is deadly

According to a multi-year analysis of 10,000 government workers in UK, people who cut their sleeping from 7 hours a night to 5 or less faced a 170% fold increased risk in mortality from all causes, and more than 200% fold increased risk of cardiovascular death.

This really makes me wondering ... I sleep less because of writing blogs; and you may sleep less because of reading blogs. Should we continue ?

That's gross - many men not washing hands

Many cases of colds, flu, and foodborne illness are spread by unclean hands, and these diseases are responsible for billions of dollars each year in health care expenditures and productivity losses. Hand hygiene is simple routine of modern day life.

However, accoding to a recent survey, 1/3 of U.S. men doesn't wash his hands after using public bathrooms. 92% of Americans who claimed in a phone survey that they always do it, but only 77% people actually did it an observational stud. In terms of gender gap, 88% of women did it, but only 66% of men - a drop from the 75% of men who did it in a similar study two years ago.

That's gross!

Long TV viewing cause shorter attention span

We as parents know sitting too close to the TV is bad for childrens eyes, a new study show too much television may be linked to a bad attention span. According to this large long-term study, watching television more than 2 hours a day early in life can lead to attention problems later in adolescence, an 40% increase in attention problems among heavy TV viewers (>3 hours a day). Symptoms of attention problems included short attention span, poor concentration, and being easily distracted.

The reason? Children who watch a lot of television may become less tolerant of slower-paced and more mundane tasks, such as school or House work. To make things worse, young children who watched a lot of television were more likely to continue the habit as they got older, but even if they did not, the damage was done, the study said.

Another side effect of TV watching - unlike other activities that promote participation, such as reading, games, sports and play, TV watching is inherently lack of participation which might also condition children when it comes to other activities.

Cell phone usage and car crashing

Many earlier studies has concluded that cell phones can produce as high as 400% increase in relative crash risk - comparable to that produced by illicit levels of alcohol. A 2003 Gallup Poll found that 70% of Americans said cell-phone drivers cause accidents.

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However, two economics students of UC Berkeley recently found in research published last week that while Americans are clearly calling-while-driving more, they are not more accident prone.

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The average amount of time a cell phone subscriber spends on calls rose from 140 minutes to 740 minutes per month since 1993. Now about 40% of Americans use their phones while driving. However, according to the researchers equiped with better data and statistical methods, the number of fatal accidents has fallen or stayed flat in all states from 1987 to 2005, and during that period, the number of non-fatal crashes in seven states was also steady or down.

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The researchers wonder if the public at large might be taking care to compensate for their talking say, for instance, by moving into the slow lane. Or, they theorized, the phone calls might be keeping otherwise tired drivers alert and awake.

I banned myself use cell phone in the car, unless my family called first; but that is just me. Some people like it, few even put a Portable Rotary Phone ( it's a GSM cell phone built inside an old rotary phone) up. See the picture below.

Impact of whiter teeth on key first impressions

According to a recent report, whiter teeth can create good first impressions, which then can leads to greater success in work and love. In one study of randomly selected individuals who participated in two simulated job interviews, after participants teeth had been whitened, 58% were more likely to be hired (no change for the rest of 42%), 53% received higher salary offers; 65% were viewed to be more professional, and 61% were viewed to be more confident.

In a similar study about people involved in romantic first dates, whitening teeth led to 54% of participants (no change for the rest of 46%) became more desirable for further relationship, and 59% were viewed to be more outgoing.

Who knows? People have been told to not judge other people by the color of their skin; now teeth get in the way.

Height, longevity, and American inferiority

The U.S. is losing ground to other countries in height and longevity.

1) in 20 years, we've fallen from 11th to 42nd in longevity. We trail most European countries, Japan, Guam, and Jordan.

2) we used to be the world's tallest people but now rank 9th and 15th in male and female height, respectively. On average, we're two inches shorter than the Dutch.

There are several reasons for American's decline. Our infant mortality rate and child poverty are too high. Our adult health care is too spotty. We've gotten way too "fat and lazy."

Higher risk suicide linked breast implants

Over a 19-year period, women who got cosmetic breast implants were 3 times as likely to commit suicide as women who didn't, according to a recent Swedish study. They were also 3 tmes as likely to die from alcohol or drug addiction. In this study, "There was no higher risk in the first 10 years afterward … but the risk was 4.5 times higher after 10 to 19 years and six times higher after 20 years."

To me, it looks like implants made some women happier for a while, but then the underlying disorder took over, driving suicide rate higher.

Want to live longer ? Go south

Many people move to southern states after their retirements. According a recent research paper, this is a smart move for reasons beyond what people already know. In essence, this paper found that cold kills people more than does heat. "increases in mortality caused by cold temperature are long lasting. We find evidence of a large and statistically significant permanent effect on mortality of cold waves. By contrast, the increases in mortality associated with heat waves are short lived."

In summary, "every year, 5,400 deaths are delayed by the changing exposure to cold temperature. Such effect on longevity accounts for 8%-15% of the overall increase in longevity experienced by the US population over the last 30 years."

Bad numbers of soda drinking

In my typical day, a cup of green tea in the morning, a cup of coffee in the afternoon. I don't give soda to my kids because side effects of drinking soda - sweetened drinks make people fat, damage teeth and bone due to the acidity, and interfere with the body's ability to process sugar, causing diabetes.

It is sad knowing (from the report ) that average American "drinks 18 ounces, or two full glasses, of soft drinks a day. In fact, according to a study last year, soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks have become the largest source of calories in the American diet, replacing white bread. The proliferation of soda tells the story: 450 different varieties are sold in the United States. While soft drinks are still king, with sales reaching $68.1 billion in 2005, sports drinks sales have increased 19.3% over the past year to $1.5 billion".

Obesity is contagious

Whether realizing it or not, our ideas about eating, exercise and body image are shaped in part by those closest to us. After tracking more than 12,000 people over 32 years, a recent study shows when one person became obese, his siblings’ risk of also becoming obese jumped by 40%, while his spouse’s risk jumped by 37%. More strikingly, if that person had been named as a “friend” by another participant, the second participant’s risk of becoming obese shot up by 57%. If the friends were of the same gender, the risk was even higher, at 71%. (The study found a man’s weight gain would have no significant effect on his female friend’s weight, and vice versa, but the study did not have many male-female friendships to examine.) If the friends were particularly close - judged in the study by the fact that they both named each other on their lists of loved ones - the risk that one’s weight would follow the others’ increased by a whopping 171%.

Few kids walk or bike to school

According to a recent study, "in 1969, about 90% of kids in US who lived within a mile of school walked or rode bikes to get there. In 2004, just 48% did that at least one day a week. ....the numbers have dropped as the population has grown while the number of schools has declined and the distance to get to them has grown for many families". But still.

Above could be one of the factor for the high rates of childhood obesity in recent years.

My son, a 6th grader, always take school bus to school, although we live within a mile of school. My husband and me have 2 cars, both work, we believe it’s safer and more expedient (especially in the morning) that way, and we have been trying hard to encourage him doing other physical activities after school. But I rather to have him walk to the school.

Super-sized Americans

There is a interesting article on RD (August 2007) discussing issues with over-weight, super-sized Americans. Of all US women 18 and older, 50% say they buy plus-size clothing. In hospitals, the old scales topped off at 350 pounds, now the new digital scales can measure up to 1,000 pounds. In churches, 18 inches (width) chair used to be able to hold every worshiper, now most church insists 21 inches wide chair. Some people needs 60-inch arc umbrella, and ordering casket 28 inches wider than the standard model.

Aspirin, the wonder drug

Many studies have confirmed multiple functionality of aspirin in recent years. Here is the latest one - according to a study on 22,507 postmenopausal women, those who used aspirin had a 16% reduced risk of getting cancer, and a 13% reduced risk of cancer death, compared with women who never used it. Aspirin use was also associated with a 25% reduced risk of dying from coronary artery disease and an 18% reduction in all-cause mortality compared with those who never took aspirin.

The wonderful thing about aspirin is that other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (which aspirin is classfied as), such as ibuprofen (Advil and other brands) and naproxen (Aleve and others) had no such multiple beneficial effect.

Russians drink non-beverage alcohols to death

Russian men are notorious for their heavy drinking habit. Economic hardship in recent years (following the dissolution of the Soviet Union) has contributed to problem drinking in Russia. According to 2005 figures, alcohol is linked to 72% of murders and 42% of suicides in Russia.

To make things worse, a recent study published on Lancet found that many Russian men who fall on hard times start drinking non-beverage alcohols (cologne, cleaning agents, etc.) because they are cheaper and have a high alcohol content. High-alcohol concentration make those non-beverage alcohols very dangerous since they can strip the airways that deliver oxygen to the lungs.

This study revealed a shocking 43% of deaths in Russian men, aged 25-54, result from drinking non-beverage alcohols. The findings help explain why Russian men have the lowest life expectancy among industrialized nations, at just 59 years.

The link between divorce and children's ADHD

Evidence suggests that children living in single-parent or step-parent households are 200% more likely than children in households with 2 biological parents to be prescribed methylphenidate (psychostimulant drug most commonly prescribed for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, in children). Although more research are needed to confirm the causal links in this association, many (me included) believe divorce causes children's behavior problems, which leads to prescriptions.

Happiness prevent Diabetes

The link between the human mind's health and the body's is widely known. Before I wrote about people have a strong sense of being treated unfairly had a 55% higher chance of suffering serious heart disease.

In a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers found that older adults with strong symptoms of depression were about 60% more likely to develop diabetes than happier peers. The association held up when risk factors for diabetes-smoking, excess weight, and lack of exercise-were taken into account. One theory: Depression leads to an elevation in the stress hormone cortisol, which increases blood glucose levels. The finding, along with evidence from about a dozen other studies, suggests that depression is an independent risk factor for diabetes.

Facing today's sky-high medical care cost, controlling self-emotion, being happy are indeed the cheapest medicine for some diseases.

A slow run drugstore is a good thing

Researcher at the University of Arizona have discovered that the busier a pharmacist gets, the more likely a customer is to walk away with medications that could interact in a harmful way. Pharmacists studied - from 672 locations in 18 cities - filled about 14 prescriptions in a hour. With each additional one beyond that number, the risk of dispensing a potentially harmful drug went up by 3%. At some pharmacies, almost 10% of prescriptions filled were potentially problematic. Although most pharmacies computer systems flash an alert if a customer orders a drug that could result in an interaction. But the prompt may be overlooked when line are long.

So, next time when you see a long line at a drugstore, but pharmacists are not hurry, be happy about it.

Injustice, heart disease, and bacterial transfer rate

1) a recent research confirmed the more unfair treatment people received, the greater their risk of suffering a heart attack or angina. Those with a strong sense of being treated unfairly had a 55% higher chance of suffering serious heart disease;

2)when you drop food on the floor, you have only 5 seconds to pick it up before it's contaminated. Yes, a research show that is how fast the bacterial can transfer from surface to food.