Tag Archives: physical

Experts urge screening for obesity in kids

Experts urge screening for obesity in kids

Doctors should screen children and teens between 6 and 18 years for extra pounds, a federal task force recommends.

For children who are found to be obese based on their body mass index (BMI), a standard measure of the relationship between height and weight, the task force also calls for referrals to a comprehensive program that includes dietary advice, physical activity, and behavioral counseling to promote weight loss.

The new recommendations update earlier ones from 2005. Skyrocketing rates of obesity have reached between 12 and 18 percent in 2- to 19-year-olds, increasing up to 6-fold since the 1970s, members of the United States Preventive Services Task Force report in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics. Obesity is linked to the early development of diabetes and high blood pressure.

For their update, the task force reviewed 13 studies of behavioral intervention in 1258 obese children and adolescents.

Moderate- to high-intensity programs, involving more than 25 hours of contact with the child and/or the family over a six-month period, resulted in a decrease in BMI 12 months after the beginning of the intervention.

In addition to dietary and physical activity counseling, effective programs included behavioral-management techniques such as self-monitoring and eating management. However, the programs only worked in children who followed through on treatment.

Harms of screening — for example, adverse effects on growth, eating-disorder pathology, or mental health issues — were judged to be minimal.

It is unclear if the recommendations can be applied to children who are overweight but not obese. And there was no convincing support for interventions that lasted less than 25 hours per six months, or for screening children below age 6.

Yet some experts take issue with what they consider the narrow age bracket of the recommendation.

“The USPSTF falls short of the mark in not recognizing the developmental trajectory of obesity in childhood,” writes Dr. Sandra G. Hassink, from the Dupont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware, in a related commentary.

Hassink urges pediatricians to screen all children. “Working with families to screen for high-risk nutrition and activity behaviors that contribute to obesity in early childhood must be part of that task,” she writes.

childhood obesity,teenage obesity,obesity statistics,obesity health,obesity diet,obesity epidemic,obesity children,prevent obesity,obesity child,preventing obesity,obesity causes,obesity rates,obesity exercise,adolescent obesity,obesity diabetes,child obesity,obesity,obesity info,obesity adults,obesity information,obesity problem,overweight obesity,obesity clinic,sobesity helpobesity diseases,adult obesity,fast food obesity,morbid obesity,information on obesity,kids obesity,obesity facts,obesity clinic,teen obesity,obesity treatments,obese,obesity support,obesity article,obesity solutions,obesity program,obesity percent,obesity percentage,obesity solution,obesity graphs,define obesity,obesity childhood,nutrition obesity,obesity consequences,obesity definition,obesity factors,obesity risks,obesity risk,obesity trends,type 2 diabetes obesity,cdc obesity,obesity weight,obesity bmi

If you smoke, watch out for low back pain

If you smoke, watch out for low back pain

If you needed another reason to cut the cigarette habit: Smokers, especially younger smokers, are more likely to report low back pain than people who have never smoked, according to a new analysis.

After examining existing research, Finnish researchers concluded smoking is “modestly” associated with the risk of low back pain and the effects may be “at least partly reversible.” Their findings are published in the January issue of the American Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Rahman Shiri of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and colleagues wanted to know if smoking increases the risk of low back pain, a problem that affects an estimated 8 in 10 adults during some point in their lives.

Previous analysis of the existing research came to different conclusions, with one study suggesting an association between smoking and low back pain and the other reporting “unclear findings.”

The Finnish researchers identified and reviewed 81 studies from around the world involving smokers, former smokers, or never-smokers and low back pain conducted between 1966 and 2009. Of those, 40 studies involving more than 300,000 adults and adolescents met the standards for the analysis.

The Finnish team subjected the data of the individual studies to further statistical analysis to tease out the strength of relationships even as the studies reported various outcomes.

They determined that even though the data did not prove smoking leads to low back pain, the analysis of previous the literature suggested a “fairly modest” association between smoking and low back pain.

smoke, smoke Health, smoke  Health Latest, smoke Health Information, smoke Health Photo,smoke for Weight Health photo, smoke Health Latest, smoke Video, smoke  Health History, smoke  over Picture, history, smoke Asia, smoke asia, smoke  Gallery, smoke  for Weight gallery, smoke  Photo Gallery, smoke Picture, Malaysia Health, web Health, web Health picture, video photo, video surgery, gallery, laparoscopy, virus, flu, drug, video, Health Health, smokes, photo, Drinking,health video, symptoms, smoke, medical, beating, diet, physical, Training, organic, gym, blister, exercise, weightloss, surgery, spiritual, eating, tips, skin, operation

More women having a healthy breast removed

how-to-get-rid-of-breast-cysts

More women having a healthy breast removed

A small but growing number of women with breast cancer are choosing to have the unaffected breast removed in an effort to prevent a recurrence, researchers reported Monday.

Using data from New York State hospitals, the researchers found that between 1995 and 2005, the prevalence of preventive mastectomy among women with a history of cancer in one breast more than doubled.

The procedure was performed in about 2 percent of all women diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995 and 1996 — rising to just over 4 percent by 2005.

In contrast, there was only a small increase in preventive mastectomies among women who had no personal history of breast cancer but were considered at risk because of a strong family history of the disease.

The findings suggest that while the number of preventive mastectomies performed each year in New York was small, the procedure is becoming more common, the researchers report in the journal Cancer.

The more marked increase among women with a history of breast cancer raises some concerns, senior researcher Dr. Stephen B. Edge, of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, told Reuters Health.

The central issue, he explained, is that there is no evidence that removing the unaffected breast improves long-term survival.

While preventive mastectomy likely cuts the chances of cancer developing in the second breast, the ultimate impact on survival is a more complicated matter.

Edge noted that among women who are not at high genetic risk of breast cancer — about 95 percent of all breast cancer patients — the odds of developing cancer in the second breast are between 10 percent and 20 percent over 20 to 30 years.

So in deciding whether to have a preventive mastectomy, women need to consider the uncertain long-term benefits and the risk of complications — which include bleeding, infection and nerve damage.

“Women need to be carefully counseled on the issues of the risks of developing a second cancer, and the largely minimal or no impact this may have on their survival,” Edge said.

The study findings are based on data from hospital discharge records and the New York State cancer registry. Of the nearly 70,000 women who underwent mastectomies between 1995 and 2005, 9 percent — 6,275 women — had one for preventive reasons.

Of women having a preventive mastectomy, 81 percent had a history of breast cancer. The number of these procedures rose from 295 in 1995 to 683 in 2005.

healthy breast , healthy breast  Health, healthy breast  Health Latest, healthy breast  Health Information, healthy breast  Health information, healthy breast  Health Photo,healthy breast  for Weight Health photo, healthy breast  Health Latest, healthy breast  Health latest, healthy breast  for Weight  Health Story, healthy breast  Video, healthy breast  video, healthy breast  Health History, healthy breast  Health history, healthy breast  over Picture, history, healthy breast  Asia, healthy breast   asia, healthy breast  Gallery, healthy breast  for Weight  gallery, healthy breast  Photo Gallery, healthy breast  Picture, healthy breast  picture, healthy breast  Web, Malaysia Health, web Health, web Health picture, video photo, video surgery, gallery, laparoscopy, virus, flu, drug, video, Health Health, calories, photo, nutrition, health video, symptoms, cancer, medical, beating, diet, physical, Training, organic, gym, blister, exercise, weightloss, surgery, spiritual, eating, tips, skin, operation, bf1