health/fitness
Germ warfare in the dental chair
By DORSEY GRIFFITH
Sacramento Bee
Monday, June 04, 2007
You might be surprised to learn that the microscopic bugs around your teeth that cause gum disease may also contribute to tongue cancer, medical researchers recently reported.
Such a link would not, however, shock the legions of oral health professionals paid to clean teeth and gums, restore teeth and scare patients into flossing daily.
Mounting evidence linking gum disease and other physical ailments is bucking the long-held notion that the mouth and body should be treated as separate entities by different kinds of doctors.
A cup of Joe for your health
By LEE BOWMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
People joke about their coffee tasting like battery acid. But some newly published research suggests drinking coffee can help reduce unhealthy levels of uric acid in the bloodstream.
Uric acid is a natural waste product from the breakdown of foods containing purines, and normally is regularly flushed out through the kidneys.
Pill is designed to stop menstrual periods long-term
By MAURA LERNER and JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
They call it Code Red, The Curse, Aunt Flo and 1,000 other nicknames. And they love complaining about all that comes with it: the bloating, the cramps, the mood swings.
Personality test may lead to early diagnosis of dementia
By LEE BOWMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Researchers say a simple personality test may help doctors detect a type of dementia caused by protein tangles inside nerve cells, but which is often confused with Alzheimer's disease.
Called dementia with Lewy bodies, it is the second most common neurodegenerative disease cause of dementia.
Muscle mass linked to aging
By ANDRE PICARD
Toronto Globe and Mail
Monday, May 28, 2007
If you want a taste of the Fountain of Youth, try pumping iron. That's the message that emerges from a new study that shows that resistance training actually reverses aging -- at least in muscle tissue.
"With a little weight training we managed, to a certain extent, to turn back the hands of time," Mark Tarnopolsky, director of the neuromuscular and neurometabolic clinic at McMaster University in Hamilton and co-author of the study, said in an interview.
"Resistance training reversed the effects of aging in skeletal muscles," he said.
Participants in the research project, who lifted light weights for a mere two hours a week, were able to improve their muscle strength by 50 percent during the six-month study period.
Researchers, however, did not merely measure muscle strength in the traditional sense of the term.
Service dog for autistic child makes small miracles
By MARIA ELENA BACA
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
Monday, May 28, 2007
It was a Tuesday evening in late March at Glynner's Pub in Rochester, Minn. Brad and Joanie Trahan were settling their family into their usual table when their middle son, Reece, who has severe autism, began to whine and flail his arms.
Babies show early, even silent, discernment of language
By TU THANH HA
Toronto Globe and Mail
Monday, May 28, 2007
Even with the sound turned off, babies can tell whether a person speaking on video has switched between English and French, a new study suggests.
Health centers increasingly seek patient feedback to improve care
By JOE FAHY
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Officials are working to improve the health-care experience for patients, often by seeking advice from current or former patients or their family members.
Centers across the nation also are surveying former inpatients about a range of issues, including how often doctors and nurses treated them with courtesy and respect, how well their pain was controlled and whether they would recommend the hospitals that served them to friends or relatives.
Using information drawn from those surveys, consumers will be able to compare their local hospitals early next year.
Eyes also zone out when tired ... The passenger factor
By LEE BOWMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
If you're really tired as you're reading this, please don't blame the writer if the words seem to blur or make no sense.
Shoes and news to help your battered feet
By LISA RYCKMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Fast foot facts
_ 25 percent of U.S. adults admit their feet stink up the joint
_ 35 percent say they place more importance on comfort than style when buying shoes
_ 34 percent of women visit salons or spas for pedicures, and more than 25 percent developed some type of foot problem as a result of their pedicure
_ 77 percent of women ages 18 to 49 spend less than $200 a year on shoes
_ About 42 percent of women who earn less than $30,000 a year are on their feet six hours or more a day
_ 27 percent of U.S.
