Tag: health

Your Lifestyle Choices Matter

Researchers at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville have shown that your lifestyle choices definitely matter for your life expectancy.  They have linked longer life to a combination of five key healthy lifestyle factors.

Following the lifestyle choices of Chinese women, Dr. Wei Zheng and colleagues found five key components.  These include: normal weight, low belly fat, regular physical activity, limited secondhand cigarette exposure and a diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables.

In a statement, Dr. Zheng explained that,  “The results show that overall lifestyle modification, to include a combination of these health-related lifestyle factors, is important in disease prevention.”

Published in the journal PloS Medicine, the research tracked 71,243 non-smoking, non-drinking Chinese women aged 40-70 for nine years.

Warning: Coaching May Be Dangerous to Your Health

Many people don’t realize just how stressful being a sports coach truly is.  Michigan State Coach Mark Dantonio had a heart attack this week, following Saturday’s overtime victory against Notre Dame.  Winning can truly be hazardous to your health in the coaching field.

Certainly, heredity and physical health play roles in your heart’s health, but so do your lifestyle and pressures.  Football coaches earn their big bucks with incredibly long hours of coaching and worries about recruiting and future potentials for the team.


Certainly, other coaches should take heed of the lesson from Coach Mark Dantonio and focus as much on their health as they do on their game.

Warning: Swimming May Be Hazardous to Your Health

Three new studies that looked at the use of chemicals in pools have reported that regular swimmers may actually be in for some health risks.

Swimming is terrific exercise, but people who regularly swim in indoor pools may be exposing themselves to some health risks from the chemicals used to disinfect pools, according to new research.

The concern here is with disinfection byproducts.  These are substances that form in pool water from the reactions that occur between disinfectants and organic matter that naturally exists in the water. What the three studies have found is that long term exposure to these substances has been linked to an increased risk for bladder cancer.

No one should panic just yet.  As the researchers all point out, their studies and the potential risk don’t, at the moment, out weight the health benefits of swimming.  These are preliminary studies and more long-term research is needed to explore these issues further.

Computer Games for Your Health? Indeed.

Certainly, when most people think about computer games, they don’t equate them with health and fitness.  Some academic institutions like Champlain College are trying to change that.  Computer gaming designers are looking to develop games aimed at helping people to improve their health.

For instance, one company, Hoozinga Game Media, is working together with the Vermont Health Department to promote a new game that is intended to help smokers to quit. As Amanda Crispel, the program director of game design, game art and animation at Champlain and the CEO of Hoozinga Game Media, explained, “Khemia, which is Latin for “alchemy,” is designed to give smokers looking to kick the habit something to do with their minds and hands for the five to ten minutes a cigarette craving typically lasts.”

Similarly, at Columbia University’s Teachers College, a team of professors and students has developed a game to stop smokers.  The game, for mobile devices, has players breathing into the device’s microphone to mimic smoking.

One researcher, Debra Lieberman, from UCSB agrees that computer games can become valuable tools for dealing with health problems.  She cautions, however, the games need to have a strong backing in research both in the design and in the follow through to see if they are working.

Flu Shot Time Has Arrived

As fall has arrived, it’s time to look ahead to getting your flu shot for the winter season.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that every person six months and older get a flu vaccine.  This year’s flu vaccine for the 2010-2011 season will protect against three flu viruses – an H3N2 virus; an influenza B virus; and the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu.

The good news for this year is that a record number of vaccine shots are expected to be distributed throughout the country so that there won’t be the panic and pandemonium that there was last year.


In a recent news release, Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, “Influenza is serious, and anyone, including healthy people, can get the flu and spread it. Flu vaccines are the best way to protect yourself and those around you.”

Being a Mama’s Boy May Have Health Benefits

Time.com reports that boys who have close relationships with their mothers may have better mental health than do those with more distant relationships.  A recent study, presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, found that boys who maintained close emotional connections to their mothers were more emotionally available as they aged, and had better mental health ratings.

The study, conducted by Carlos Santos, a professor at Arizona State University School of Social and Family Dynamics, surveyed 426 boys through middle school.  He found, interestingly enough, that the father-son relationship does not have the same effect.


Santos described his findings as such, “If you look at the effect size of my findings, mother support and closeness was the most predictive of boys’ ability to resist [hyper-masculine] stereotypes, and therefore predictive of better mental health.”