It’s about that time again, flu season. Before you run to get yourself vaccinated, ask yourself the following questions:
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Archive for ‘Health’
12 items.
To attack the growing number of obese children, the state of New York decided to mandate public schools outside New York City to report a summary of the students’ weight and body mass index (BMI) to the New York State Health Department. Otherwise known as a fat report card.
“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 50,000 cases of the disease were reported in the United States in 2004 and 2005. That is the largest number since the 1950s.”
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is apparently on the rise. Pertussis is a highly contagious disease and is caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. To distinguish between a regular cough and whooping cough, whooping cough is characterized by severe hacking coughs or recurrent spasmodic bouts of coughing that continues until the breath is exhausted and followed by a ‘whoop’ sound during inhalation.
Before 2005, your last booster shot for pertussis should have been between the ages of 4-6 and it wears off between 5-10 years. Luckily for you, vaccinations are now available for ages 11-64.
If you have a weak immune system or already have insurance, you may as well get the vaccination. In fact, let’s just get rid of whooping cough and no one would have to really take any more vaccinations! Vaccination party, anyone!?
Source: Houston Chronicle
Approximately 300,000 children in the U.S. have some form of arthritis (mainly juvenile rheumatoid arthritis) and not so surprisingly (to me), we the public are totally unaware of this. For those who don’t know, arthritis is the inflammation of joints and it is usually linked to persons over 50. So, why are our children being diagnosed with arthritis?
Parents, leaving unused prescription drugs (from surgeries, injuries or dental work) unsecured and unmonitored, are unknowingly tempting their children or their children’s friends to try drugs they’ve heard from schools, commercials, movies and the Internet. To prevent teens from experimenting these leftover medications, experts urge parents to dispose these drugs as soon as they serve their purpose or lock them up, just like you would with alcohol.
“In total, nearly half the prescription drugs being abused by teens originate in the homes of passive pusher parents.”
- National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse, Columbia University
Warning, do not flush them down the toilet, these drugs will be sent directly to our public water supplies.
Source: LA Times
International Talk Like A Pirate Day is finally here!! Me mateys, don’t ye forget, ye must talk like us ‘irates! It’s probably one of the only days you can do it without sounding like a total idiot minus Halloween. On that note, them scurvvy’s arr still ’round us! (*kwak*: scurvy is still here *kwak*)
Even though scurvy, an immense deficiency in vitamin C, is not common anymore (think of the Mayflower days), but it still exists. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, approximately 14% men and 10% woman have vitamin C deficiency. Fortunately, only a few progress to scurvy. In fact, between 1979 to 2005, only 57 people died of vitaminc C deficiency.
A multinational research led by Dr. Heather C. Medford of the University of Washington, Dr. Andrew J. Sharp of the University of Geneva, Switzerland revealed a possibly answer to autism, mental and growth retardation, and other disabilities.
U.S. researchers reported that mad cow disease, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is identical to human disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). This new report may shed some light on the origin of the disease–supporting the idea that BSE originated from a previously undetected strain from contaminated cattle feed in the UK.
“The study [supports] the hypothesis that all three forms of TSEs in humans are also found in cattle: infectious, sporadic, and genetic. It provides additional support that the BSE epidemic may have originated from a genetic case of BSE in an individual cow. Of course, similar mutations can pop up in cattle herds throughout the world and might provide the raw genetic material for new epidemics to develop in the future, especially in countries where it is a common practice to feed slaughterhouse scraps to healthy animals that will enter the human food chain in the future.”
- GrrlScientist, ScienceBlogs.com
Source: ScienceBlogs.com
Apparently, the US is not the only country that has a problem with our children’s physical activity levels. In the UK, many parents overestimated their child’s activity levels by almost 6 times the actual results obtained from a recording device attached to their child’s belt.
What is their solution??? (*cough* Wii *cough*) That’s right!! Any active gaming that requires physical activity could be the answer (this does not include only clicking your mouse or pushing buttons)!
CHILDREN who play physically challenging video games use enough energy to stop them from becoming overweight, and boost their heart health, according to a new study.
Children burn roughly four times as many calories per minute playing physically active video games, such as those seen on Nintendo’s interactive Wii console, than playing a seated game.
Dr Russell R Pate of the University of South Carolina, said of the findings: “If we want to promote physical activity in the context of contemporary society, we will have to fight fire with fire. Physically active video gaming may be part of the antidote.”
As Fall television shows return (YAY!) and lame summer shows end (YAY!), I’m really looking forward to House M.D. For those who haven’t watched it and love sarcasm and critical thinking (sarcasm and critical thinking are usually hand-in-hand), you should; but not for the crazy mumbo jumbo medicine they throw at you or for the quirky remarks Dr. House entails on his group of minions, but to count the number of times the cast uses “Lupus.” In previous seasons, Lupus was always used in every episode–but it never is Lupus. Let’s count how many times Lupus is brought up; and at the end of the season, the winner gets a cookie unless they decide to use a new disease (dun dun DUN!!).
If you have no idea what Lupus is, here is a brief explanation. If you require in-depth explanation, please refer to thaimarathon.com, thearthritispainreliever.com or if you prefer, wikipedia.org.