Sports N Health

A new study has found that cancer patients who are given full access to their medical records feel a greater sense of satisfaction about their treatment.

Offering comprehensive and accurate medical information built trust between patient and doctor, according to researchers from France.

From news.yahoo.com:

The patients received either “on request information” or an organized medical record (OMR) — a briefcase full of detailed information about their condition and treatment. That information included reports on everything from surgery to radiology and pathology results, along with nurse narratives and treatment observations. Along with the OMR, they were given guides on medical terms and how to understand the material, as well as help from medical staff to decipher the various documents.

Ninety-eight percent of the patients who were offered an OMR chose to take it.

Patients who received on-request information were only provided with information and medical records if they asked for them or their doctor offered them.

Similar anxiety levels and quality-of-life scores were reported in the two groups.

But, patients with OMRs were 1.68 times more likely to be satisfied with their medical information and were 1.86 times more likely to feel fully informed, the study authors noted.

The study was published online May 23 in the journal Cancer.

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Researchers from the Ohio State University and Temple University have remarked that toddlers who aren’t securely attached may have a greater risk of being obese before they even start kindergarten.

The involved researchers crunched data from 6,650 U.S. children born in 2001 who were evaluated at age 2 and again at 4 ½ years.

From news.yahoo.com:

The children who scored the lowest at 24 months were deemed “insecurely attached;” when researchers calculated their body-mass index, they found the insecurely attached children were 30% more likely to be obese by age 4 ½, according to the study, which was published recently in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Researchers controlled for a host of other factors, including eating habits and maternal health, but nothing else could account for the significant link between emotional security and weight.

In fact, when considering only each child’s attachment security score and future weight, the study found that the emotionally insecure toddlers had a 48% greater chance of being obese at 4 ½. Of the toddlers judged to be insecurely attached, 23% were obese at 4 ½ compared to 16.6% of securely attached children.

Sarah Anderson, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Ohio State University and the study’s lead author, said, “The same areas of the brain regulate stress response and appetite control, so if a child is stressed because he’s not being attended to, it’s more likely he will be obese later on and will also use food as a way to respond to stress.”

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A research has suggested that the odds of developing a deadly prostate tumor can be cut to half by drinking six cups of coffee a day.

The 20-year old study found that whose consumed at least six cups a day were 20 per cent less likely to get prostate cancer than those who never touched the stuff.

From Dailymail.co.uk:

Those who like to restrict their caffeine intake will be glad to know the study found decaffeinated coffee to be just as effective.

The research is significant because prostate cancer, the most common cancer among British men, affects 37,000 a year and kills more than 10,000.

However, the Harvard University researchers say that non-coffee drinkers shouldn’t change their habits based on this study alone.

The American team compared the coffee intake of men quizzed about their diets every four years between 1986 and 2006 with their medical records.

Two-thirds of those taking part drank at least one cup of coffee a day and 5 per cent got through at least six, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reports.

Kathryn Wilson, the study’s lead author, said: ‘If our findings are validated, coffee could represent one modifiable factor that may lower the risk of developing the most harmful form of prostate cancer.’

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If you think creating and maintaining high standards of health will not affect you in any way, it is time for you to indulge into some serious thinking. These inspirational quotes on health will help you stay abreast to a comprehensive health awareness regimen.

Sickness is poor-spirited, and cannot serve anyone; it must husband its resources to live.  But health or fullness answers its own ends, and has to spare, runs over, and inundates the neighborhoods and creeks of other men’s necessities. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The only exercise some people get is jumping to conclusions, running down their friends, side-stepping responsibility, and pushing their luck! – Unknown

Our body is a machine for living. It is organized for that, it is its nature. Let life go on in it unhindered and let it defend itself, it will do more than if you paralyze it by encumbering it with remedies. – Leo Tolstoy

Health is a large word. It embraces not the body only, but the mind and spirit as well;… and not today’s pain or pleasure alone, but the whole being and outlook of a man. – James H. West

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d druther not. – Mark Twain

There is a necessity for a regulating discipline of exercise that, whilst evoking the human energies, will not suffer them to be wasted. – Thomas de Quincey

Whenever I feel like exercise, I lie down until the feeling passes. - Robert M. Hutchins

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it. – Plato

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A Spanish research team has reported that a heart attack in the morning is more severe than having one at any other time of day.

Lead researcher Dr. Borja Ibanez, from the National Center for Cardiovascular Research in Madrid, said, “It is well-known for several decades that the incidence of heart attack is variable across the time of the day, with higher incidence in the early morning hours.”

From in.news.yahoo.com:

It has been speculated, though not proven, that the body’s circadian clock triggers the release of substances into the bloodstream that make the heart more prone to a heart attack at certain times of the day, he added.

“What was completely unexplored was the effect of the time of the day of onset of the heart attack on the extent of heart muscle death,” Ibanez said. “This is the very first examination showing that the human heart has a variable tolerance to ischemia according to the time of the day.”

The report was published in the April 27 online edition of Heart.

For the study, Ibanez’s group collected data on 811 patients who had heart attacks between 2003 and 2009. Specifically, they looked at the amount of heart muscle damage in relation to the time the heart attack occurred.

The researchers found the most damage happened when the heart attack occurred between 6 a.m. and noon, compared with those whose attack occurred between 6 p.m. and midnight.

The researchers added that heart attacks happening between 6 a.m. and noon are likely to damage about 20 percent more heart muscle than a heart attack occurring in the afternoon or evening.

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A study has concluded that being a carer for a sick or disabled relative can sometimes promote the health of the helpers.

This finding was revealed by a team of researchers led by psychologist Dr Michael Poulin, of the University of Buffalo, who analyzed helping behavior and well-being among 73 spousal carers.

From Dailymail.co.uk:

Dr Poulin found that carers experience more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions when they engage in ‘active care’ like feeding, bathing, toileting and general physical caring for the spouse.

But the study found that passive care  -  which requires the spouse to simply be nearby in case anything should go wrong  -  provokes negative emotions in the carer and leads to fewer positive emotions.

Dr Poulin said: ‘Our data doesn’t tell us exactly what psychological processes are responsible, but we hypothesise that people may be hardwired so that actively attending to the concrete needs and feelings of others reduces our personal anxiety.’

The study involved 73 subjects, aged from 35 to 89 with an average of 71.5, providing full-time home care to an ailing spouse. Participants carried Palm Pilots that beeped randomly to signal them to report how much time they had spent actively helping or being on call since the last beep, the activities they engaged in and their emotional state.

Overall, we wouldn’t say that caring for an ailing loved one is going to be good for you or healthy for you, but certain activities may be beneficial, especially in high-quality relationships’, Dr Poulin added.

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Regular use of painkillers like aspirin or ibuprofen can reduce the risk of an individual of developing colon or rectal cancers – sometimes by as much as 50 percent – according to a new study.

“The (risk) reductions that we saw here are not inconsequential,” said Dr. Elizabeth Ruder of the National Cancer Institute, the study’s lead author.

From Reuters.com:

The current study expanded on earlier research by including larger numbers of people and assessing where in the colon cancers occurred.

Using questionnaire data from more than 300,000 adults, Ruder’s group analyzed how often people took any of 19 non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) pain medications, which include aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil), naproxen sodium (Aleve), sulindil (Clinoril), and others.

The observed drop in cancer risk varied depending on how often people took the painkillers and the type of cancer in question.

Overall, taking any of the NSAID drugs was associated with a 20 percent drop in the risk of colorectal cancer over 10 years.

And the more frequently people took a drug, the less likely they were to be diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer.

“But we’re not at the point that one could make a public health recommendation” based on the findings, Ruder added.

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According to a recently concluded research, lung cancer rates among older women have doubled in the past thirty years.

Experts are of the view that lung cancer is occurring amongst those who started to smoke in the 1970s and 1980s, many of whom never kicked the habit. Latest figures reveal that rates for British women aged 60 and over rose from 88 per 100,000 in 1975 to 190 per 100,000 in 2008. Those over the age of 80 had the highest rates of all with 273 cases per 100,000 in 2008 that was three times as many as 1975 when there were only 84 per 100,000. It is believed that most of those affected started smoking in their twenties, thirties, and forties when smoking was far more socially acceptable.

It was also disclosed that almost half of all adults were smokers in 1975 but this has dropped to just over a fifth today.

Lung cancer is the second most common form of cancer in women after breast cancer, with almost 41,000 new cases diagnosed every year. Almost 90 percent of lung cancer patients get the disease due to smoking and the remaining 10 percent due to passive smoking, asbestos, or air pollution. In the United Kingdom, lung cancer is responsible for more than 35,000 deaths in a year, one every 15 minutes.

Jean King, Cancer Research UK’s director of tobacco control, said: ‘These figures highlight how important tobacco control measures are in helping people to stop smoking.’ Under new laws, cigarettes could be sold in plain packaging as trendy logos and brand names attract youngsters to take up the habit, making Britain the first country in Europe to ban branded boxes.

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A new study has suggested that long-term committed relationships are good for physical as well as mental health and the benefits can increase over time.

Married people live longer on an average, according to David and John Gallacher from Cardiff University.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

They say that women in committed relationships have better mental health, while men in committed relationships have better physical health, and they conclude that, “on balance it probably is worth making the effort.”

Men’s physical health probably improves because of their partner’s positive influence on their lifestyle and “the mental bonus for women may be due to a greater emphasis on the importance of the relationship”, they write.

But the journey of true love does not always run smoothly, maintain the authors, pointing to evidence that relationships in adolescence are associated with increased adolescent depressive symptoms.

And not all relationships are good for you, they add, referring to evidence that single people have better mental health than those in strained relationships.

They also confirm that breaking up is hard to do, saying “exiting a relationship is distressing” and divorce can have a devastating impact on individuals. Having numerous partners is also linked with a risk of earlier death.

The study has been published in the Student BMJ.

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According to Marks and Spencer, a supermarket, a range of ready made meal can help people lose as much as 10 lb in just four weeks, without any exercises.

Researchers, who tested the Simply Fuller Longer regime from the supermarket, have found that it actually deliver those results, reports the Daily Mail.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

The diet, which was tested on 45 overweight volunteers who were restricted to 1,000 calories a day, reduced the average waist measurement by 1.6 inches and also improved body fat, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Devised using principles developed by experts at the Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen, the range is high in protein, which was found to make the volunteers in the trial feel full, eliminating the need to top up on snacks.

According to M and S, the food is particularly successful with men because it includes substantial main meals, rather than salads and soups.

For example, there is a 400g portion of roasted beef meatballs and spaghetti with spiced tomato and pepper sauce and a 420g beef and red wine casserole.

M and S nutritionist Claire Hughes said, “We knew from studies that diets higher in protein are better for weight loss. It’s really encouraging to see that this has all been proven by our research.”

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If you are looking for tips on how you should take care of your hair, the advice of Dermatologist Zoe D. Draelos, MD, FAAD, consulting professor at Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, N.C., is just meant for you.

The dermatologist remarked, “One of the most common misconceptions about hair is that it is alive, when in fact hair is nonliving and does not heal itself once it is injured.”

From in.news.yahoo.com:

To keep healthy hair looking its best, Dr. Draelos provided the following tips:

1. The less you do to your hair, the better. Avoid over-styling or processing hair.

2. Be sure to wash the scalp, which is where the oil is, and then let shampoo run through the hair. Shampoo is meant to clean the scalp primarily and can damage the hair if overused.

3. Let how oily your scalp is, determine how often you wash your hair. If your scalp is oily, wash hair more frequently than if the scalp was drier.

4. Conditioner should be used on the ends of the hair, not on the scalp, for best results.

5. Pick a shampoo and conditioner based on your hair shape, such as curly or straight, and your hair condition, such as damaged, fine, or frizzy. These products don’t need to be expensive to work well for your hair.

6. Wear a hat to protect hair from ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

Dr. Draelos says, “Women need to understand that the very things that they do to hair to make it appear beautiful, such as using hair dyes, perms and products that straighten the hair, will eventually end up damaging the hair’s structure and ultimately affect its appearance.”

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The total fertility rate (TFR) in India has declined to 2.6 in 2008 from 2.9 in 2005, according to the Indian government.

Minister of Health and family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad told the Lok Sabha, “While 14 states or Union Territories out of 35 states have achieved the replacement level of TFR of 2.1, four states, viz Daman and Diu, Orissa, Jammu and Kashmir and Tripura have TFR of 2.2-2.5 and seven states have TFR between 2.6-3.0.”

From in.news.yahoo.com:

“Ten states (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Dadra and Nagar Haveli) have TFR between 3.0 and 3.9,” Azad told the House in a written reply to a question.

The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime.

He said that a meeting of National Commission on Population was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on October 21.

“The discussions focused on assessment of the population situation and the strategic required to increase the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate, reduce the unmet need and making Family Planning Services available in a reliable manner to eligible couples,” the Minister said.

“Government is contemplating introduction of Health Insurance Scheme for the Central Government employees and pensioners on pan India basis after obtaining requisite approvals, if found feasible, it may be offered to accredited journalists also,” Azad added.

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According to a research presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in Atlanta, long duration space flights could have a negative impact on bone health in the long term.

The research revealed that exposure to microgravity (also known as weightlessness) during space flight results in rapid bone loss.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

Researchers recently set out to determine the impact of long-duration space missions on long-term bone health by assessing bone mineral density, which is a measurement of mineral bone content and an indirect estimator of bone strength.

The researchers studied 28 U.S. crewmembers (24 men and four women with a pre-flight age range of 36 to 53 years) whose missions in space ranged from 95 to 215 days.

All 28 crewmembers had their BMD measured both before and immediately after (within 33 days) their space flight, while 24 had their BMD measured again between six and 18 months following their return from space.

Post-flight BMD changes were compared with what would be predicted if crewmembers had not experienced long-duration space flight.

Shreyasee Amin, MD, MPH; associate professor at the Mayo Clinic and lead investigator in the study, said, “Our results complement the work of others and show that even after one year following return from space, the BMD at some sites-particularly the hip-will not have completely recovered for some crew members.”

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Happiness and success may be perceived by you as exclusive to a few, but things are not always the way we expect them to be. You can surely stay ahead of the rat race and stay close to success and happiness by being high on inspiration with these inspiring quotations.

Dreams surely are difficult, confusing, and not everything in them is brought to pass for mankind. For fleeting dreams have two gates: one is fashioned of horn and one of ivory. Those which pass through the one of sawn ivory are deceptive, bringing tidings which come to nought, but those which issue from the one of polished horn bring true results when a mortal sees them. – Homer

Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture…Do not build up obstacles in your imagination. – Norman Vincent Peale

You don’t need fancy highbrow traditions or money to really learn. You just need people with the desire to better themselves. – Adam Cooper and Bill Collage

The number of books will grow continually, and one can predict that a time will come when it will be almost as difficult to learn anything from books as from the direct study of the whole universe. It will be almost as convenient to search for some bit of truth concealed in nature as it will be to find it hidden away in an immense multitude of bound volumes. – Denis Diderot

Complaining is good for you as long as you’re not complaining to the person you’re complaining about. – Lynn Johnston

Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives. – William James

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