Not all hearing loss is preventable. Someone could lose their hearing because of an injury, an illness, or as a side effect from a toxic medication. But a gradual decline in hearing isn’t the same thing.

Acoustic trauma is a common cause of hearing loss and it is the result of mechanical damage in the ear. It could be from a sudden instance, such as an explosion or gunshot, or it can be over a long term, such as working in an extremely loud environment. Today, it could even be caused by listening to music players with earphones, but with the sound turned too high.

Unfortunately, this type of hearing loss cannot be treated or cured. The only thing you can do is to protect your ears from further hearing loss. This means avoiding loud sounds and/or using ear plugs.

So, how loud is too loud? According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders:

The damage?

110 Decibels
Regular exposure of more than 1 minute risks permanent hearing loss.
100 Decibels
No more than 15 minutes of unprotected exposure recommended.
85 Decibels
Prolonged exposure to any noise at or above 85 decibels can cause gradual hearing loss.

Does any of this surprise you?

~~~

Images: PhotoXpress.com

Post from: Blisstree

What? What Did You Say? I Can’t Hear You!

The Mayo Clinic published 10 tips to reduce cancer risk in their most recent issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource.

Here are the tips and below there’s more explanation:

1. Stop smoking
2. Limit alcohol intake – some alcohol is okay, too much is not
3. Follow recommended intake of fruits and vegetable (daily!)
4. Decrease the amount of fat in your daily diet
5. Lose weight if you’re too heavy, try to gain weight if you’re too thin
6. Move! Get active
7. Watch your skin (from the sun and don’t use tanning beds)
8. Don’t take chances when having sex. Protect yourself.
9. See your doctor regularly and take part in recommenced screening tests
10. If you have had cancer or are at particularly high risk, speak with your doctor about chemoprevention, which is taking medications to reduce the risk of new cancers

How and why do these steps help?

First of all, none of these are a surprise. All these recommendations, save for the last one, are recommended to help reduce the risk of developing many health problems, such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and more. So by following these tips, you’re helping your body more than you may realize.

Smoking: Did you know that smoking not only increases your risk of developing lung cancer, but also mouth (tongue, cheek, palate, throat, gum) cancer? Your risk of bladder cancer also climbs quite a bit. Smoking affects your whole body, not just your lungs. Also, the social act of smoking is often accompanied by other not-so-healthy lifestyle factors, like drinking alcohol, limiting exercise, and so on. By quitting the cigarettes, your risk drops every day you’re no longer a smoker.

Alcohol: Many of us like to enjoy a good glass of wine, a cold bottle of beer, a good scotch – and many of us limit ourselves to a moderate number of glasses. However, if you drink too much, more than the recommended amount for your sex, you increase your risk of mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, liver, colon and rectum cancers.

Fruits and vegetables: It’s not that difficult to add the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables into your daily diet, but it does take planning. Unfortunately, with the hectic lifestyles many people lead these days, food planning often goes out the door. Five servings of fruits and vegetables daily are the minimal amount that you should be taking in. The thing is, servings are not huge, so this is not impossible. Two and a half cups of fruits or vegetables over the course of the day is maybe one apple, one tomato and a couple of stalks of celery. That’s not too much, is it?

Limiting fat: This one may be of the easiest things to do. Fat is an essential part of the human diet; we need it for our body to function properly. However, the type of fat and the amount you get is important.

This table, from the USDA, shows you how much fat you should have according to the number of calories you should have per day:

And this table, from the same source, gives you an idea of what foods have what fat:

Source: ARS Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 17.

Weight control: Being a healthy weight for your body build helps your body in many ways. It can even help reduce the pain of osteoarthritis for some people. Being too thin also has health issues, so keep that in mind if you are trying to lose weight.

Get active: Enough said!

Watch your skin: Tanning is not beautiful – any change in your skin color means there is damage going on. Don’t use tanning beds – they’re even worse than the sun. Plus, too much sun exposure doesn’t just contribute to skin cancer, it makes your skin old, dry and wrinkly well before its time.

Protect yourself from sexually transmitted infections: Sex with people without protection exposes you to hepatitis and HIV, both of which are very high risk for cancer, let alone the disease itself. Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes genital warts, some of which can cause cervical cancer, cancer of the cervix.

Screening tests: Screening tests for prostate cancer, cervical cancer, breast cancer, are all over the news, but don’t forget the other screenings that you can have done. You can have a colonoscopy to check for the beginnings of colon cancer and you can have your skin checked regularly to look for signs of skin cancer. If you are at high risk of a particular type of cancer, speak with your doctor about screening for that, as well. And, don’t forget your dentist. He or she is the one who can detect signs of oral cancer.

Chemoprevention: This is a relatively new area, most commonly known for women who take Tamoxifen to help reduce the risk of breast cancer coming back. You may want to speak with your doctor about this if you are at a high risk of cancer or you have already had it.

~~~

Images: MorgueFile.com

Post from: Blisstree

10 Tips for Reducing Cancer Risk

Insulin or medications, like metformin or glucophage are not a cures for diabetes, although that is a common belief. Insulin and medications merely manage the disease, allowing the person with diabetes to continue living as normally as possible. Unfortunately, the disease still can cause significant damage to the body, as the sugar levels fluctuate.

People with diabetes who manage to keep their blood glucose (sugar) under strict control have a better chance of avoiding complications. However, avoiding the development of diabetes, Type 2 diabetes, is even better. Type 1, what used to be called juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes, cannot be prevented. But how best to do this? Here are some tips from Dr. Melina Jampolis a board certified internist and the newest addition to the CNN Health team:

Healthy Eating

By eating three servings (48 grams) of whole grains a day, you could decrease your chances of developing diabetes by up to 30%. According to Dr. Melina: “Cereal fiber has been found to be more effective than other types of fiber due to the combination of antioxidants and soluble and insoluble fiber included.”

Replace your junk food. If you enjoy chips, you may enjoy the crunchiness of omega-3 rich nuts, instead. Fruits can be very sweet tasting and are much healthier than snacks made with processed sugar.

Fill up. If you don’t feel hungry, chances are you won’t search for a snack, which is most likely laden with sugar and fat. Vegetables and proteins will keep you fuller than junky meals or ones that have a lot of carbohydrates.

Get Moving

Exercise is an important part of any healthy lifestyle, but is even more important for people with diabetes. However, exercise doesn’t have to be going to the gym and working out – you can find activity that pushes you in many of your every day activites. Dr. Melina asks, “Did you know doing 30 minutes of vacuuming is the equivalent of 15 minutes walking on the treadmill?”

It’s not often we can actually prevent a chronic and life-affecting disease such as type 2 diabetes, but the reality is, it’s often a lifestyle disease. Of course, there are people who develop diabetes and they have none of the traditional risk factors, but this is the exception more than the rule.

It’s time we start taking better care of ourselves, isn’t it?

~~~

Image: MorgueFile.com

Post from: Blisstree

More on National Diabetes Month – Tips

A study in the Netherlands of 131 people with patellofemoral pain syndrome found that patients who had followed a specially designed exercise program had better outcomes after one year of treatment than those who followed the standard care.

Patellofemoral pain syndrome results in pain at the front of the knee, most often starting in adolescence, particularly among teens who are active in sports. It affects women more than men.

The patients who followed the exercise program had a higher rate of recovery at three months (42% exercise compared with 35% control group) and again at one year (62% exercise compared with 51% at 12 months. The exercise group said that they had less pain and better function than the other group. Much more study needs to be done as this small group (65 in each) is only large enough to give researchers an idea of what may be happening.

The study was published recently at bmj.com.

~~~

Image: PhotoXpress.com

Post from: Blisstree

Exercising Your Knee When it Hurts

Press Release

CINCINNATI, Nov. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) announced today it is voluntarily recalling three lots of its Vicks Sinex nasal spray in three countries: the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.

To view the Multimedia News Release, go to: http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/pg/41327/

The company said it is taking this precautionary step after finding the bacteria B. cepacia in a small amount of product made at its plant in Gross Gerau, Germany. There have been no reports of illness. However, the bacteria could cause serious infections for individuals with a compromised immune system, or those with chronic lung conditions, such as cystic fibrosis. B. cepacia poses little medical risk to healthy individuals.

P&G detected this problem during routine quality control at the plant and promptly took action. The company’s analysis to date shows this problem is limited to a single batch of raw material mixture involving three lots of product. These three lots were sold only in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The lot numbers of the products involved are:

This lot number is listed on both the outer carton and the bottle. Consumers should simply discard the affected product as they would any OTC medicine.

P&G is removing the product in question from store shelves and has informed regulatory authorities in the affected countries. P&G said it found the bacteria B. cepacia in a small amount of product from U.S. lot 9239028831 and is conducting testing on the U.K. and German lots that have been produced from the same batch of raw material mixture.

Anyone who has these specific lots of this product can call P&G for a replacement coupon or refund at the following numbers:

From the United States, please call: 1.877.876.7881 (Hours of operation: Monday – Friday, 9AM – 6PM US ET, Saturday – Sunday, 9AM – 4PM US ET)

From the United Kingdom, please call: 0800.5555.15 (Hours of operation: 19 November, 4PM – 9PM local time and will continue Monday – Friday, 8AM – 6PM local time, Saturday – Sunday, 9AM – 5PM local time)

From Germany, please call: 0800.111.6131 (Hours of operation: 19 November, 4PM – 9PM local time and will continue Monday – Friday, 8AM – 6PM local time, Saturday – Sunday, 9AM – 5PM local time)

For U.S. Consumers

Any adverse events with the use of this product and/or quality problems in the United States should be reported via the FDA’s MedWatch Program by fax at 1-800-FDA-0178, by mail at MedWatch, HF-2, FDA, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20852-9787, or on the MedWatch Web site at www.fda.gov/medwatch.

~~~

Image: Newscom.com

Post from: Blisstree

P&G Recall of Some of Vicks Products

Researchers in Toronto, Canada, investigated the differences between 58 children with H1N1 who were admitted to the Hospital for the Hospital for Sick Kids, in Toronto, and 200 who had been admitted to the same hospital with complications from the seasonal flu, between 2004 and 2008.

The researchers found that 22% of the children who were admitted because of H1N1 had asthma, while only 6% of those with seasonal influenza were asthmatic. In addition, about 50% of those children with H1N1 who had to be admitted to the intensive care unit had asthma (study).

Other differences included:

• Older children were admitted with H1N1 than with the seasonal flu
• 84% of the H1N1 admissions presented with cough and fever only
• 37% had other symptoms, like vomiting and/or diarrhea
• Both influenzas resulted in an average 4-day hospital stay

The good news is that none of the children who were admitted with H1N1 died, while there was one death over the five years among those children with the seasonal flu.

~~~

Image: iStock.com

Post from: Blisstree

Asthma May Lead to H1N1 Complications

According to the American Cancer Society,

Smoking causes about half of the deaths from bladder cancer among men (48%) and almost a third of bladder cancer deaths in women (28%). Some of the carcinogens (cancer-causing chemicals) in tobacco smoke are absorbed from the lungs and get into the blood. From the blood, they are filtered by the kidneys and concentrated in urine. These chemicals in urine damage the cells that line the inside of the bladder. This damage increases the chance of cancer developing.

Now, there’s evidence that the risk has risen even more since the mid 1990s and that the length of time of smoking has more of an effect on bladder cancer than more cigarettes over a shorter period of time. These findings were published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

This finding, say researchers, may have something to do with how the composition of cigarettes have changed over the years; there may be more bladder carcinogens in cigarettes now than there were years ago. As well, even if people switch to lower tar or lower nicotine cigarettes, they most often take deeper and more frequent puffs to meet their nicotine needs – therefore exposing them to just as much or more carcinogens as they would be exposed to with regular cigarettes.

~~~

Image: MorgueFile.com

Post from: Blisstree

Smoking & Bladder Cancer Connection

Often, the effects of mental illness contribute to physical illness and behaviors such as smoking, not eating well, or physical inactivity. Unfortunately, these are also prime risk factors for developing heart disease as well. Not long ago, we learned that people with mental illness die, on average, 25 years earlier than their peers who do not have mental health issues. Now, we’ve learned that many of these early deaths are due to heart disease.

Researchers studied 147,193 patients in the VA medical system. Some had no mental illness while others were diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, other psychotic disorders, major depressive disorder or other depression diagnosis. They looked at many factors, such as socioeconomic levels, demographics, and lifestyle.

The results showed that after taking many things into account, the patients with psychiatric disorders were more likely to die of heart disease than those who didn’t have mental illnesses.

These findings do show the importance of trying to control some of the behaviors that contribute to heart disease among those with mental illnesses.

~~~

Images: iStock.com, MorgueFile.com

Post from: Blisstree

Mental Illness & Heart Disease

It turns out that if you have recurrent rhinosinusitis (inflammation of the nasal and sinus linging) and you are using nasal saline irrigation every day, you could end up causing more acute infections in the long run, say researchers. In fact, you could be increasing your chance of infection by 60%.

Doctors aren’t saying that you should never use saline irrigations and they can be helpful over short periods of time, but they fear that consistent, long-term usage disturbs the balance in the nose and sinuses, causing other problems. While the mucus in the nose can be irritating, it’s also the body’s first line of defense against infection. If the mucus is constantly being removed, we are removing that defense.

Researchers studied 68 patients who had a history of recurring rhinosinusitis and who used nasal saline irrigation regularly. A second group of 24 patients also participated. The first group used nasal irrigations twice a day for one year and then stopped for another year. The second group used nasal irrigation once a day, also for a year.

After studying the number of times the patients experienced rhinosinusitis, the researchers found that there were 544 cases while the patients were using the irrigation, with an average of eight episodes per year. On the other hand, only 204 cases were noted in the year without irrigations – about three per year.

The group that didn’t discontinue treatment had a 50% higher rhinosinusitis rate than the group that did stop using the saline.

This study was presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI) 2009 Annual Scientific Meeting.

~~~

Post from: Blisstree

Don’t Use Nasal Saline Irrigation Every Day

There has been a suspicion that there is a connection between depression and osteoporosis, but studies have been small. To address this, researchers from Hebrew University researchers looked at data from all studies analyzed them to see what they could find. The results of their meta-analysis were gathered from 23 studies, which studied 2,327 people with depression and 21,141 without depression.

According to this news release, Connection between depression and osteoporosis detailed by Hebrew University researchers, the connection is clear.

[D]epressed individuals have a substantially lower bone density than non-depressed people and that depression is associated with a markedly elevated activity of cells that breakdown bone (osteoclasts).

[The researchers] found that the association between depression and bone loss was stronger in women than men, especially young women before the end of their monthly period. This connection was especially strong in women with clinical depression diagnosed by a psychiatrist, but not in community studies, in which women subjectively identified themselves as being depressed using self-rating questionnaires.

Osteoporosis is a devastating disease. It affects 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men over 50, throughout the world.

The authors of the study say that women and men who are diagnosed as clinically depressed should be monitored for osteoporosis. What would be interesting would be to know if these people take antidepressants and if this may affect the development of osteoporosis.

~~~

Image: iStock.com

Post from: Blisstree

Depression and Osteoporosis Connection