Kissing in France is Banned… September 13, 2009
Posted by healthandsurvival in Society, Wellness.Tags: family, health, humor, Life, news, swine flu, Wellness
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French companies and schools are bringing in kissing bans to try to stop the spread of swine flu.Skip related content
The peck on the cheek known as “la bise” – a traditional greeting in France – has been outlawed by large firms like insurance giant Axa, which has told employees to salute each other with a wave of the hand rather than a kiss or handshake.
Schools in the town of Guilvinec, in Brittany, western France, were the first to introduce a bise ban for teachers and students.
Mayor Helene Tanguy said: “I asked the children not to kiss anymore. I felt that the protections sought to wash hands regularly, not throw used handkerchiefs around, and not cough any old way had no meaning if we let the kids keep kissing.”…read more here
Children are at high risk for swine flu. August 29, 2009
Posted by healthandsurvival in Children's Health, Diseases, Wellness.Tags: children, health, news, swine flu, vaccine, Wellness
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Children appear to be at higher risk for swine flu than adults according to studies. There are several things one can do to help reduce risk of viral transmission according to Dr. Eric Madrid.
1. Wash hands frequently. Consider regular hand gel use.
2. Sneeze into your elbow, not into your hands. When one sneezes into their hands and then touches a door, a shopping cart or shakes hands- germs are easily spread.
3. Optimize intake of vitamin D and sunlight exposure. Influenza viruses are spread more during the Winter and Spring when blood vitamin D blood levels lower. Have their physician check your child’s vitamin D level. I recently checked my daughters and she surprisingly was vitamin D deficient- this was in the middle of summer. Learn more about vitamin D by reading Vitamin D Prescription
4. If you are traveling, consider a N95 ViramMask or child’s mask. Wein Products has manufactured the only line of self adhesive masks. This is a must for those planning on Winter travel.
5. The Swine Flu vaccine is not yet read as of this posting. However, clinical trials are underway. It is hoped that the new vaccine won’t be as dangerous as the 1976 swine flu vaccine. Talk to your physician if the swine flu is right for you or your children. According to a recent report, vaccination may be mandatory or forced, under penalty of a $1,000 fine or 6 months in prison.
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Article Below from Bloomberg.
By Tom Randall
Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) — Children were 14 times more likely to be sickened by swine flu than adults 60 and older, the age group that is typically the most at risk for influenza, according to a U.S. study of the disease.
Children ages 5 to 14 became ill with swine flu, also known as H1N1, at a rate of 147 per 100,000 people, according to the study of 1,557 confirmed illnesses, including seven deaths, in Chicago from April to July, months when the flu virus usually doesn’t spread. The findings were reported today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
U.S. health officials are planning a vaccination campaign that will focus on those who are disproportionately affected by H1N1, which include children, pregnant women and adults with underlying health conditions. A separate CDC study released today from New Zealand showed swine flu targeted younger people and dominated other virus strains after circulating for just one month during the winter, when influenza is more active.
“Like other Southern Hemisphere countries with temperate climates, New Zealand entered its winter season with co- circulation of both seasonal and 2009 pandemic influenza strains,” said the authors of today’s report, published in the CDC’sMorbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. “The number of viruses identified as 2009 pandemic influenza rapidly overtook the number identified as seasonal influenza.”
In New Zealand, the number of patients with flu symptoms who sought medical attention was 1,518 doctor visits for every 100,000 people from May 3 to Aug. 2, according to the report by the CDC…read more here…
Lipitor cuts risk of second stroke.. May 2, 2009
Posted by healthandsurvival in Drugs, Survival, Wellness.Tags: health, lipitor, news, statins, Wellness
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Studies have also shown that statin medications lower inflammation, as measured by high sensitivity C Reactive Protein. After the JUPITER trial was published, many healthcare professionals beleived that this is possibly the mechanism by which statin medications such as lipitor, zocor, pravachol and crestor decrease risk of death and exert their health benefits.
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By Rob Waters
April 29 (Bloomberg) — Patients who reduced their cholesterol and blood pressure by taking Pfizer Inc.’s Lipitor after suffering a stroke were less likely to have a second attack, researchers reported today.
People who lowered their blood pressure, cholesterol and blood fats called triglycerides to recommended levels with the drug cut their risk of a second stroke by 65 percent, according to the study funded by New York-based Pfizer. They also cut their risk of heart attack and other cardiovascular damage by 75 percent. Researchers presented results today at a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Seattle.
All cholesterol-lowering drugs knows as statins are likely to have a similar effect, said Samuel Hunter, a neurologist at the Advanced Neurosciences Institute in Franklin, Tennessee, in an interview yesterday in Seattle. Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the country and causes more serious long-term disabilities than any other disease, according to the National Institutes of Health.
“It is a message of hope for patients,” said Pierre Amarenco, a researcher at Denis Diderot University in Paris and the lead author of the study. “We can now tell them that if they are adherent to treatment, they may reduce the risk” of strokes and of major cardiovascular events...read more here…
Air Conditioners- Are Portable Air Conditioners Right For You? May 2, 2009
Posted by healthandsurvival in Health Products, Home Comfort, Wellness, economy, environment.Tags: air conditioner, air conditioners, air cooler, cooling, dehumidifier, ecommerce, energy, family, health, heat wave, Home, house, Life, mobile air conditioners, new, room conditioner, soleus, sunpentown
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The summer of 2009 is fast approaching and with that, the demand for air conditioners. Portable air conditioners (mobile air conditioners) have become increasingly popular over the last 10 years. While most people spend their time in only 1 or 2 rooms of a home, the costs associated with cooling the entire house can be prohibitive. Not all air conditioners are listed by consumer research . However, that does not mean that the other’s are not quality, simply that they are not discussed.
Portable air conditioners come in different energy capacities. A 7,500 BTU portable air conditioner can comfortably cool a room up to 200 sq ft. while a 13,000 BTU air conditioner will cool over 400 sq. ft. All portable air conditioners I reviewed include a window kit which simplifies the setup, allowing the air conditioner to be used almost immediately upon delivery.
It makes little sense to cool an entire home with central air when you can cool 1 or 2 rooms with a portable room air conditioner or room air cooler. Most portable air conditioners, like those manufactured by Soleus Air or Sunpentown, have wheels which allow them to be transported from one room to the other. Mobile air conditioners are great for home offices or for senior citizens who are on a tight budget.
In addition to cooling your room down to 61 degrees, portable air conditioners also dehumidify the air at the same time. Some units are capable or removing up to 65 pints (8 gallons) of water per day from the air. You may be able to use your portable air conditioner during the winter, if you purchase one that has a built in heater.
The Soleus Air- LX-140 is a 14,000 BTU remote controlled air conditioner which has a dehumidifier and built in heater -all in 1 unit. This unit retails for $799 but we found it priced at a discount for $589 at www.eHealthSupplies.com, with free shipping. Let expensive units , such as the Sunpentown WA-7500 (7500 BTU) can cool up to 200 sq. ft for less than $375. In all, eHealthSupplies.com has 31 different unit to choose from. If you have any questions, their live customer support person can help you choose which portable air conditioner is best for you. Good Luck!
Heart regenerates itself- April 5, 2009
Posted by healthandsurvival in Diseases, Wellness.Tags: cardiology, family, heart, medical, medicine, news, Wellness
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Heart Muscle Renewed Over Lifetime, Study Finds
In a finding that may open new approaches to treating heart disease, Swedish scientists have succeeded in measuring a highly controversial property of the human heart: the rate at which its muscle cells are renewed during a person’s lifetime.
The finding upturns what has long been conventional wisdom: that the heart cannot produce new muscle cells and so people die with the same heart they were born with.
About 1 percent of the heart muscle cells are replaced every year at age 25, and that rate gradually falls to less than half a percent per year by age 75, concluded a team of researchers led by Dr. Jonas Frisen of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The upshot is that about half of the heart’s muscle cells are exchanged in the course of a normal lifetime, the Swedish group calculates. Its results are to be published Friday in the journal Science.
“I think this will be one of the most important papers in cardiovascular medicine in years,” said Dr. Charles Murry, a heart researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle. “It helps settle a longstanding controversy about whether the human heart has any ability to regenerate itself.”
If the heart can generate new muscle cells, researchers can hope to develop drugs that might accelerate the process, since the heart fails to replace cells that are killed in a heart attack.
The dogma that the heart cannot generate new muscle cells has been challenged since 1987 by a somewhat lonely skeptic, Dr. Piero Anversa, now of the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Anversa maintains that heart muscle cells are renewed so fast that a person dying at age 80 has replaced the heart four times over. Many other researchers have doubted this assertion.
Cell turnover rates can easily be measured in animals by making their cells radioactive and seeing how fast they are replaced. Such an experiment, called pulse-labeling, could not ethically be done in people. But Dr. Frisen realized several years ago that nuclear weapons tested in the atmosphere until 1963 had in fact labeled the cells of the entire world’s population.
The nuclear blasts generated a radioactive form of carbon known as carbon-14. The amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere has gradually diminished since 1963, when above-ground tests were banned, as it has been incorporated into plants and animals or diffused into the oceans.
In the body, carbon-14 in the diet gets into the DNA of new cells and stays unchanged for the life of the cell. Because the level of carbon-14 in the atmosphere falls each year, the amount of carbon-14 in the DNA can serve to indicate the cell’s birth date, Dr. Frisen found.
Four years ago he used his new method to assess the turnover rate of various tissues in the body, concluding that the average age of the cells in an adult’s body might be as young as 7 to 10 years. But there is a wide range of ages — from the rapidly turning over cells of the blood and gut to the mostly permanent cells of the brain.
Dr. Frisen has successfully applied his method to the heart muscle cells, but had to navigate a series of technical obstacles created by the special behavior of the cells. Many have two nuclei, instead of the usual one, and within these double nuclei the DNA may be duplicated again. “I was really impressed at the level of rigor they put into this analysis,” Dr. Murry said, calling it a “scientific tour de force.”…read more…
