Policy Changes For A Healthier America

 

From the 30 January 2013 article at Medical News Today

Some key policy changes that need to be made in the United States in order to prevent illness and improve the health of millions of Americans have just been outlined in the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) latest Healthier Americareport.*** 

The report includes a range of suggestions that focus on the prevention of chronic diseases, which currently affect more than half of the U.S. population. This would also help address the health problems facing today’s youth who are set to be the first generation that are less healthy than their parents. …

…

The recommendations involve some new and innovative approaches:

• Implementing a series of foundational capabilities to improve the country’s health system as well as restructuring public health programs with sustained funding.
• Establishing partnerships with nonprofit hospitals to develop new community benefit programs and expand support for prevention.
• Encourage that insurance providers compensate for all types of prevention strategies
• Ensuring that the Prevention and Public Health Fund continues and improve awareness of the Community Transformation Grant program.
• Maintain workplace wellness programs with employers as well as local and state governments.

 

…

The report also includes information about recommendations that are already in action:

• The Accountable Care Community (ACC) brought more than 70 different partners to help patients with type 2 diabetes in and out of the doctor’s office. The ACC managed to reduce the cost of care by more than 10 percent per month for patients with type 2 diabetes – meaning savings of around $3,185 per person yearly.
• The Boston Children’s Hospital implemented The Community Asthma Initiative (CAI) with the purpose of supporting children with asthma in the Boston area. The initiative helped reduce hospital admissions due to asthma-related causes by around 80 percent as well as reducing emergency visits due to asthma by 60 percent.

The report concludes that there are 10 main public health issues that need addressing:

• obesity
• tobacco use
• healthy aging
• improving the health of minorities
• healthy babies
• environment health threats
• injury prevention
• controlling infectious diseases
• food safety
• bioterrorism

Read the entire article here

 

***The report summary and link to the full text of the report may be found here

 

 

Related articles

• Prevention urged to avoid a national health catastrophe (bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com)
• New Report from HSC and Trust for America’s Health Calls for Federal Action to Close Achievement Gap by Addressing School Health (healthyschoolscampaign.typepad.com)
• Comment: Take prevention seriously, make it a priority (timescolonist.com)
• Insight: Think preventive medicine will save money? Think again. (greatriversofhope.wordpress.com)
• The Seven States Least Prepared for Disaster (247wallst.com)
• Hawaii Rises to Second Healthiest State in Nation (damontucker.com)
• “Walk Across Texas” promotes healthier living (victoriaadvocate.com)
• National Shopping Program Aims To Support A Healthier Hispanic Community (paramuspost.com)
• Wendell Potter: Getting Young People to Work Against Their Own Best Interests: Here’s How It’s Done (huffingtonpost.com)

 

Vegetarianism Can Reduce Risk of Heart Disease by Up to a Third

On a related note, I’ve started collecting vegetarian recipes and posting them online here and also here.

This Lent the goal is to eat vegetarian, with the savings going to CFCA (Christian Foundation for Children and Aging).

(If anyone has any recipes from CFCA countries, please share! You can use the comment section or email me at jmflahiff@yahoo.com
CFCA countries–Mexico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatamala, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuala, Liberia Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania, Uganda, India, and Philippines )

I sponsor Betsy, who lives in Monrovia, Liberia. She is now in 12th grade at age 20. It has been a long haul for her, and I am so very, very proud of her!

From the 30 January 2013 article at Science Daily

The risk of hospitalisation or death from heart disease is 32% lower in vegetarians than people who eat meat and fish, according to a new study from the University of Oxford.

Heart disease is the single largest cause of death in developed countries, and is responsible for 65,000 deaths each year in the UK alone. The new findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggest that a vegetarian diet could significantly reduce people’s risk of heart disease.

‘Most of the difference in risk is probably caused by effects on cholesterol and blood pressure, and shows the important role of diet in the prevention of heart disease,’ explains Dr Francesca Crowe, lead author of the study at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford.

Read the entire article here

Related articles

• Report: Vegetarians are a third less likely to suffer heart disease (itv.com)
• Vegetarianism May Cut Heart Disease Risk By Third: Study (news.health.com)
• Vegetarian Diet Reduces Risk Of Heart Disease By A Third (medicalnewstoday.com)

Gut Microbes at Root of Severe Malnutrition in Kids

Malnourished child (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

From the 30 January 2013 Science Daily article

 

A study of young twins in Malawi, in sub-Saharan Africa, finds that bacteria living in the intestine are an underlying cause of a form of severe acute childhood malnutrition.

The research, led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and reported Feb. 1 in the journal Science, shows how dysfunctional communities of gut microbes conspire with a poor diet to trigger malnutrition.

…

Childhood malnutrition is a common problem in Malawi, and while a poor diet clearly plays a critical role, it is not the only factor. Scientists have long puzzled over why some children are afflicted by the condition but not others, even those in the same household who eat the same foods. This has led to the realization that a lack of food alone cannot explain its causes.

The standard treatment is a peanut-based, nutrient-rich therapeutic food, which has helped to reduce deaths from the condition. But the new study shows that the therapeutic food only has a transient effect on the gut microbes. Once the therapeutic food is discontinued, the community of microbes in the intestine and their genes revert to an immature state, in the children and in the mice.

This may explain why many malnourished children gain weight when they are treated with therapeutic food but remain at high risk for stunted growth, neurological problems and even malnutrition and death after treatment is stopped, the researchers say…

..

While the food seemed to kick start maturation of the gut microbiomes of the severely malnourished children, its benefits were only temporary. Four weeks after the therapeutic food was discontinued, the gut microbiomes of the malnourished children either failed to progress or even regressed, while those of the healthy co-twins continued to mature on a normal trajectory…

..

“There is much more work to do,” Gordon says. “It may be that earlier or longer treatment with existing or next-generation therapeutic foods will enhance our ability to repair or prevent the problems associated with malnutrition.

“We are also exploring whether it is possible to supplement the therapeutic food with beneficial gut bacteria from healthy children, as a treatment to repair the gut microbiome,” he explains. “We hope that these studies will provide a new way of understanding how the gut microbiome and food interact to affect the health and recovery of malnourished children.”

 

 

 

Related articles

• Gut microbes at root of severe malnutrition in kids (eurekalert.org)
• Gut Microbes May Play Deadly Role In Malnutrition (wnyc.org)
• Abnormal Gut Bacteria Linked to Severe Malnutrition in African Children (medicaldaily.com)
• Antibiotics Cuts Deaths Among Severely Malnourished Kids – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• Over 500,000 pupils suffering from severe malnutrition – DepEd (newsinfo.inquirer.net)

 

Who Multi-Tasks and Why? Multi-Tasking Ability, Perceived Multi-Tasking Ability, Impulsivity, and Sensation Seeking

Tantek Multitasking (Photo credit: Thomas Hawk)

 

From the 29 January 2013 summary at Full Text Reports

 

The present study examined the relationship between personality and individual differences in multi-tasking ability. Participants enrolled at the University of Utah completed measures of multi-tasking activity, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. In addition, they performed the Operation Span in order to assess their executive control and actual multi-tasking ability.

The findings indicate that the persons who are most capable of multi-tasking effectively are not the persons who are most likely to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. To the contrary, multi-tasking activity as measured by the Media Multitasking Inventory and self-reported cell phone usage while driving were negatively correlated with actual multi-tasking ability.

Multi-tasking was positively correlated with participants’ perceived ability to multi-task ability which was found to be significantly inflated. Participants with a strong approach orientation and a weak avoidance orientation – high levels of impulsivity and sensation seeking – reported greater multi-tasking behavior.

Finally, the findings suggest that people often engage in multi-tasking because they are less able to block out distractions and focus on a singular task. Participants with less executive control – low scorers on the Operation Span task and persons high in impulsivity – tended to report higher levels of multi-tasking activity.

 

 

 

Related articles

• If You Think You’re Good at Multitasking – You Probably Aren’t (richandco.wordpress.com)
• Study: If You Multitask Often, You’re Impulsive and Bad at Multitasking (theatlantic.com)
• Motorists Overrate Ability To Talk On Cell Phones When Driving (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Think you can multitask? Congratulations, you’re probably living a lie. (io9.com)

 

7 reasons to boycott the Super Bowl from a medical standpoint

As an aside, I stopped participating in alumni band during football homecoming.
Just don’t want to be part of this sport which in increasingly unhealthy in the short and long run.

From the 30 January 2013 KevinMD post

You’ve probably watched the Super Bowl as I have many times, faithfully, elevating the occasion to some kind of macabre family tradition. It is a spectacle of athletic agility, drama, and struggle; the pinnacle of American sporting contests. Despite the heavy onslaught of commercialism, faux halftime culture, and evident violence on the field, we suspend our awareness that this event may not be a magical moment worth our time and validation, even as its winners call out to some magical Disney kingdom.

Here are 7 points to consider:

7. Obesity and cardiovascular disease. Up to 45% of youth participating in football are overweight or obese. The nature of the sport favors, and increasingly demands, a large body size. The physique acquired in adolescence often persists into adulthood.
According to a 2007 study of 653 boys ages 8-14 playing football in Michigan, 20% were overweight and another 25% were obese, as defined by body mass index.Studies have shown that linemen have high early mortality rates, and for all professional players who have played 5 years or more, life expectancy is less than 60.

6) MRSA infections and abscesses. Quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning have suffered from it.

Read the entire post here

Related articles

• CTE Continued (Buckeye Surgeon)
  CTE is an abbreviation for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (Head Trauma)
  Search the blog with CTE for other related postings by this Ohio physician
• Super Bowl XLVII and sex trafficking (multiplyjustice.net)