Heart Health IrongeezelleCan’tSayItEnough™: More women die from heart disease than from breast cancer every year. Act now to understand and reduce your risk. Knowledge is power, we always feel here at Irongeezelle. We have tried to create the awareness that heart disease is the number one killer of women, not breast cancer.    Dental Care Linked to Heart Health in Older Women Study adds to evidence suggesting that regular oral care may help protect heart, at least in women By Randy Dotinga  Older women who get regular dental care are about one-third less likely to suffer from heart disease than those who don't, new findings suggest. The study doesn't prove that dental care directly improves the heart health of women by lowering the risk of conditions like heart attack and stroke, and dental care seemed to have no benefit for men at all in terms of heart disease, but even so, the study authors were still impressed by the findings. "We think the findings reflect differences in how men and women develop cardiovascular disease," study co-author Dr. Stephen Brown, a obstetrician/gynecologist resident at West Virginia University, said in a news release from the University of California at Berkeley. "Other studies suggest that estrogen has a protective effect against heart disease because it helps prevent the development of atherosclerosis. It's not until women hit menopause, around age 50 to 55, that they start catching up with men." Dr. Maria Emanuel Ryan, a professor of oral biology and pathology at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, N.Y., said she has seen signs of a link between dental care and heart disease in her own practice. The study, she said, "confirms the findings of some of the studies conducted in the insurance industry, which suggest that the medical costs for cardiac care and diabetes are reduced in patients who have regular dental visits." There does appear to be a connection between gum disease, in particular, and heart disease. Research suggests that chronic inflammation causes heart disease, Ryan noted, and gum disease "is the most common chronic inflammatory condition in the world. Unfortunately, periodontitis -- or gum disease -- is often a silent disease that goes undetected and untreated."  SOURCES: University of California at Berkeley, news release, Sept. 30, 2010; Maria Emanuel Ryan, D.D.S., professor, oral biology and pathology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, N.Y.

Gorging study shows with fat, location matters By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor (Editing by Cynthia Osterman)   Researchers who persuaded slender volunteers to gorge themselves on sweets to gain weight said they have overturned the common wisdom that adults cannot grow new fat cells.   As they gained weight, the volunteers added new fat cells on their thighs, while fat cells on their bellies expanded, Michael Jensen of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and colleagues found.   "It sort of inverts the old dogma that we don't make new fat cells when we are adults," Jensen said in a telephone interview.   Doctors have long believed that, in adults, fat cells just get bigger and bigger when people gain weight.   Understanding why this happens on one part of the body and not another may explain why gaining weight in the lower part of the body does not appear to carry as many health risks as gaining belly fat, Jensen said.   "Those people who make new leg fat cells, it may be protecting them," he said.   To boost weight gain,  volunteers were encouraged to slurp milkshakes, chocolate bars and energy drinks.   In the two months the volunteers gained about 2 kg (4.4 pounds) of upper body fat and about 1.5 kg (3 pounds) of fat on the hips and thighs.   "We found that a gain of only 1.6 kg of lower-body fat resulted in the creation of 2.6 billion new adipocytes (fat cells) within eight weeks," Jensen's team wrote.   There were some unexpected findings.   "We thought the women would be the ones who gained on the thighs but it turned out it was pretty even on the two sides, to our surprise," Jensen said.   The volunteers shed their extra pounds easily, Jensen said.   "When you take normal, healthy weight people and you overfeed them and make them gain weight, almost as soon as they stop overeating the weight just falls off," he said.   "These were all people who never had a history of weight problems. Most of us have trouble when we gain it. We don't lose it so easily," Jensen said.   Jensen is unsure what the findings may mean for most Americans. More than two-thirds of the U.S. public are overweight or obese and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says residents of most developed countries are catching up fast.   "Our next step is to try to understand better what are the genetic and environmental factors that cause the leg fat cells to be able to proliferate," Jensen said.   Scientists have learned that fat cells are not just passive storage facilities for extra calories, but produce hormones and other compounds with important biological effects. This may help explain why extra pounds raise the risk of diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.  Source: Reuters and Medlineplus.

Health Tip Resist The Siren Call of Antibiotics, Unless You Need them Don’t ask your doctor for antibiotics when you have a viral infection. This includes the common cold, many ear and throat infections, and some coughs. Here is why: About Antimicrobial Resistance: A Brief Overview Antibiotics and similar drugs, together called antimicrobial agents, have been used for the last 70 years to treat patients who have infectious diseases. Since the 1940s, these drugs have greatly reduced illness and death from infectious diseases. Antibiotic use has been beneficial and, when prescribed and taken correctly, their value in patient care is enormous. However, these drugs have been used so widely and for so long that the infectious organisms the antibiotics are designed to kill have adapted to them, making the drugs less effective. Many fungi, viruses, and parasites have done the same. Some microorganisms may develop resistance to a single antimicrobial agent (or related class of agent), while others develop resistance to several antimicrobial agents or classes. These organisms are often referred to as multidrug-resistant or MDR strains. In some cases, the microorganisms have become so resistant that no available antibiotics are effective against them.  Drug Resistance Is EverywhereAntimicrobial drug resistance occurs everywhere in the world and is not limited to industrialized nations. Hospitals and other healthcare settings are battling drug-resistant organisms that spread inside these institutions. Drug-resistant infections also spread in the community at large. Examples include drug-resistant pneumonias, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and skin and soft tissue infections.  The Effects of Antimicrobial Drug Resistance Are Far-ReachingPeople infected with drug-resistant organisms are more likely to have longer and more expensive hospital stays, and may be more likely to die as a result of the infection. When the drug of choice for treating their infection doesn’t work, they require treatment with second- or third-choice drugs that may be less effective, more toxic, and more expensive. This means that patients with an antimicrobial-resistant infection may suffer more and pay more for treatment.  The development of antimicrobial resistance to the drugs used to treat malaria infections has been a continuing problem in many parts of the world for decades. Antimicrobial resistance has developed to a variety of other parasites that cause infection. Source: CDC

Book Tip:  Should I Be Tested for Cancer?: Maybe Not and Here's Why by H. Gilbert Welch, M.D., M.P.H. Review from The New England Journal of Medicine, Jaye L. Viner, M.D., M.P.H In the absence of well-reasoned skepticism, medical practice can become enraptured with the potential of new technological advances. In this insightful how-to book on health care, Welch provides a comprehensive overview of current challenges in cancer screening. He draws from published literature, case histories, and his own medical practice in discussing the risks and benefits of screening, thereby exposing the true limits of current technology and of our knowledge as to how and when to intervene against early neoplasia.   This comprehensive book has two parts, "Problems You Should Know About" and "Becoming a Better-Educated Consumer." Part I lays out the premise for early detection and gauges the risks and benefits that most people might derive from screening, given their susceptibility to cancer and the competing causes of illness and death. Part II details the practice of early detection and instances in which nonmedical factors -- such as human vulnerability, social forces, and fear of litigation -- have sometimes led to overzealous adoption of unevenly effective techniques for cancer screening.   Welch's lucid presentation of complex and timely issues is an achievement in itself, but even more, this is an eminently readable book that is bound to inform and complement the ongoing debate about screening. The author maintains that cancer screening may have been oversold to the public and health care practitioners alike. By challenging commonly held assumptions, Welch stimulates a critical dialogue between patients and providers regarding the effect of screening on cancer-associated morbidity and mortality, the sequelae of false positive results, and the slippery slope of diagnosing and managing incidentally detected cancers, many of which may pose no immediate health threat.   To balance this cautious approach to cancer screening, the author acknowledges the successes of rigorously proven screening methods and weighs them against the high costs that invasive cancer imposes. Indeed, leading health economists recently estimated that as little as a 10 percent reduction in cancer would translate into a savings of $4.4 trillion to society. This book, which offers a sobering view of the status of cancer screening today, deserves to be widely used by patients and providers as they navigate an expanding and often bewildering array of screening options. Nevertheless, improvements in our understanding of carcinogenesis, enhanced performance characteristics of early-detection technology, and noninvasive approaches to diagnosing early neoplasia are likely to narrow the gap between the detection of disease and its appropriate medical management. These advances are likely to recalibrate the risk-benefit ratio of cancer screening. Indeed, transient uncertainties and potential harm should serve as an impetus for scientific advancement, rather than as evidence of conceptual failure. In an evolutionary sense, the dilemmas so well detailed in this book may be viewed as natural preconditions for continued progress. Copyright © 2005 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.   Eco Tip  Medications: An Environmental Hazard   IrongeezelleSays: While we all know that any medication, prescription or over the counter, can be deadly in the wrong person, in the wrong dose, for the wrong reason, proper disposal of them has not been a priority. Meds fill the landfill and taint the groundwater. Think before disposing your meds. Below another reason why handling meds should not be done in a cavalier manner. And reconsider hormone replacement – why are we treating a natural process, the cessation of a menstrual cycle, like an illness? When Hormone Creams Expose Others to Risks By Tara Parker-Pope, New York Times Veterinarians around the country are reporting a strange phenomenon: spayed dogs and cats, even some puppies and kittens, are suddenly becoming hormonal.   In female pets, the symptoms resemble heat: swollen genitals, bloody discharge and behavioral problems. Male animals are showing up with swollen breast tissue and hair loss. Standard treatments and even repeated operations have had no effect.   Now vets have identified the culprit. The pets were all owned by women who used hormone creams on their hands, arms and legs to counter symptoms of menopause. Animals who licked or cuddled their owners, or rubbed up against their legs, were being inadvertently exposed to doses of hormone drugs.   These anecdotal reports, about 20 of which were first collected by the Veterinary Information Network, a news service for veterinarians, suggest that many women are not taking proper precautions when using topical hormone products — putting not only pets but also family members at risk for hormone exposure.   “The dogs are licking and rubbing the treated area and absorbing the drug, which is putting them back into heat,” said Dr. Terry Clekis, a veterinarian in Bradenton, Fla. Dr. Clekis has seen about five cases of pet exposure to menopause creams, including a dog that appeared to go into heat about six months after being spayed.   Dr. Clekis feared he had left remnants of ovarian tissue behind after the spaying. So he repeated it, but found nothing. It was his wife, chatting with the pet owner, who discovered she was using a hormone cream. Once the owner took precautions against exposing her pet, the symptoms disappeared.   The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning in the summer after eight children exposed to the estrogen spray Evamist showed signs of premature puberty like nipple swelling and enlarged breasts. The agency also received two reports of dogs exposed to Evamist, and last year it issued another warning after eight children were exposed to topical testosterone.   Use of topical estrogen, in the form of creams, sprays and gels, has surged since a major government study linked oral menopause drugs with a higher risk of heart attacks and cancer.   Last year, doctors wrote 440,000 prescriptions for brand-name topical estrogen products alone, nearly triple the 2006 figure, according to IMS Health, a drug information service. And those numbers do not capture the estimated one million women using compounded hormone creams, which are custom-mixed by pharmacists and have been widely promoted as an alternative to commercial menopause drugs — even though the F.D.A. has said these so-called bio-identical hormones are no safer than hormones from drug companies. (The compounds’ popularity surged after the former sitcom star Suzanne Somers wrote two books claiming they delivered many health benefits.)   Dr. Cynthia A. Stuenkel, an endocrinologist at the University of California, San Diego, and a former president of the North American Menopause Society, said the society was surveying its members to collect case reports of inadvertent hormone exposure to pets or children. The problem, she added, is that the doctors who prescribe the drugs typically treat older women, but the doctors who see the problems are pediatricians and veterinarians.   “We need to connect the dots between these groups so pediatricians and vets think of it early before subjecting these children and animals to extensive testing,” she said. But some vets say women aren’t forthcoming about the use of hormone drugs because it simply doesn’t occur to them that it might be related to a pet’s problem.   Dr. Walter R. Threlfall, a veterinarian who specializes in reproductive health, had a case involving a small lap dog that was experiencing a regular bloody discharge. During three different visits he asked the owner if the dog could have been exposed to an estrogen product, and she answered no each time before finally acknowledging she had been using an estrogen cream on her arm.   “The dog licks it off every night,” she told Dr. Threlfall, who said in an interview, “She spent lots of money on that dog, and I could have solved it the first time by telling her to get the dog off the estrogen cream.”   Dr. Richard Fried, owner of the Lincoln Square Veterinary Hospital in Manhattan, said he recently saw two cats that seemed to go back into heat after spaying by a different vet. Tests in one cat showed high blood levels of estrogen, but before he could spay it again, the cats’ breeder suggested that the culprit might be the owner’s hormone treatment.   “We are always warning pet owners to be careful about their medications,” Dr. Fried said. “But this is a much more insidious kind of problem that most people don’t think about.”   Dr. Stuenkel says women should be counseled about safe use of the drugs.   After using a topical hormone cream, they should thoroughly wash their hands before handling food, children or pets. Products should dry completely before the user comes into contact with people or animals, and women may want to consider changing the area where they apply the cream or covering it with long sleeves or slacks.   “We’ve learned a lot from these puppy stories,” Dr. Stuenkel said. “People are letting dogs lick their hands after using the cream or holding them when the cream is fresh on them. We need to teach women to be sensible about how they use these products.”

Play Tip: Paddleboarding   Paddleboarding is a surface water sport in which the participant is propelled by a swimming motion usually on a long surfboard close to the shore. A derivative of paddleboarding is stand up paddle surfing.   Thomas Edward Blake is credited as the pioneer in paddleboard construction in the early 1930s. [1] In 1944, while restoring historic Hawaiian boards for the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Blake built a replica of the previously ignored olo surfboard ridden by ancient Hawaiian aliʻi (kings). He lightened his redwood replica (olo were traditionally made from wiliwili wood) by drilling it full of holes and then covering them, creating the first ever hollow board as well as introducing the first modern paddleboard. Two years later, using this same 16 ft (4.9 m), 120 lb (54 kg) board, Blake won the first ever Mainland surf contest, the Pacific Coast Surfriding Championships, an event integrating both surfing and paddling. Blake then returned to Hawaii to break virtually every established paddling record available, setting half-mile and 100-yard records that stood until 1955. In 1948, using his drastically modified chambered hollow-board (now weighing roughly 60 lbs), which over the next decade he would tirelessly promote as a lifeguarding rescue tool, Blake out-paddled top California watermen Pete Peterson and Wally Burton in the first ever Catalina crossing race (29 miles in 5 hours, 53 minutes). Over the next decade, Blake-influenced hollow boards (called “cigar boards” by reporters and later “kook boxes” by surfers) would be used in roughly equal proportion to solid plank boards for both paddling and surfing until the late ‘30s Hot Curl innovations led wave-riding in a new direction. For paddleboarding, however, the basic principles of Blake’s 1926 design remain relevant even today. Paddleboarding has been consistently gaining momentum and popularity. Paddleboarding can be done on various pieces of equipment, including surfboards. Paddleboards are made of fiberglass and epoxy and are generally quite large (often up to 12 feet to 19 feet long). Most modern paddleboards are made of polyurethane foam (with one or more wooden strips or "stringers"), fiberglass cloth, and polyester resin. An emerging paddleboard technology is an epoxy surfboard, which are stronger and lighter than traditional fiberglass. Cost of new boards range from $1,500 to $3,000 for custom boards. Used boards that have been well kept are in high demand and can be sold fairly easily on paddleboard listing web sites. Some of the sports notable events are Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard Race (32 Miles from Kaluakoi, Molokai to Hawaii Kai, Oahu), Catalina Classic (32 Miles from Catalina to Manhattan Beach), Hennessey's International Paddleboard Championship (12 Miles), Maui International Paddleboard Race (9 Miles) ,Hamilton Island Cup- Australia (8 Kilometres) and the “Full Moon” paddles from Cuba to the USA (105 miles)  Source: wikipedia.org