Understandably, one of the biggest dangers is drowning, particularly in children under six years old but, it’s an astounding 73% of injuries that occur in people who are older than 16 years. Here are some other facts according to a study just published in the online issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine:

• 28% of injuries are lacerations (cuts)
• 27% of the time, the legs and feet are injured
• 26% of the time, the head is injured
• 2/3 of injuries among children under 6 years are near-drownings
• children between 6-12 years were more likely to be injured by jumping and diving in or around a hot tub
• most serious injuries among children include suction drains (such as entanglement, body entrapment and drowning)

Hot tubs can be a great source of relaxation and entertainment for the family. Relaxing outdoors, talking together, just spending time as a family can be a wonderful time and provide great memories. But it’s important to stay safe and not invite tragedy into your life.

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Image: PhotoXpress.com

Post from: Healthbolt

I live in Quebec where the legal age is 18, while our neighboring province Ontario’s legal age is 19. At the same time, an hour south of us, across the Canada/United States border, the age is 21. (One thing I can’t figure out is why you can allow an 18-year-old to own a gun, join the army, get married, vote, buy a house, etc, but he or she can’t have a drink?).

Anyway, since there are such differences in beliefs about teens and alcohol, there are on-going studies to see if there are ways to see what may be best overall.

Researchers in the United Kingdom surveyed 9833 teens in North Eastern England, aged 15 to 16 years, about their alcohol consumption. The researchers were looking for information consumption patterns (what they drank, where they drank it, how they got it) and the results of the drinking (violence, for example). The results of their study were published in the open access, on-line journal version of BMC Public Health.

Briefly, the results showed that when drunk:

• 28.8% experienced violence
• 12.5% regretted alcohol-related sexual encounters
• 45.3% reported forgetting things
• 35.8% drinking in public places

However, teens who said their parents supplied them with alcohol had fewer incidents such as those listed above.

If you read the study thoroughly, you’ll see the authors aren’t saying that parents should be offering their teens alcohol. What they are saying is that if teens are exposed to regulated amounts of alcohol once a week or so, the forbidden fruit is no longer that. While they may continue to drink outside the home, their risk of binge drinking and the risk of experiencing the harmful effects of binge drinking are lower than teens who are not allowed to have any alcohol at home.

If you’re a parent of teens, how do you handle alcohol? If your children are young, what do you think you will do? If you’re not a parent, what do you think parents should do?

I’m in the camp of moderate alcohol in the home – and my children are now 18, 20 and 22.

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Image: PhotoXpress.com

Post from: Healthbolt

Using subjects at Warren Warren Air Force Base (AFB) in Wyoming between 1948 and 1954, the Mayo Clinic study tested blood samples for the antibody that people with celiac disease produce in reaction to gluten. They then compared those results with two sets more recently collected samples from Olmsted County, Minnesota.

The results indicated that today’s young adults are 4.5 times more likely to be suffering from celiac disease than those in the 1950s.

People with celiac disease have a immune reaction to the gluten, a protein that is in wheat, barley and rye. Anytime they ingest gluten, they can develop acute symptoms such as diarrhea and abdominal discomfort plus chronic symptoms such as weight loss, anemia, unexplained infertility, loss of teeth and even premature or severe osteoporosis.

One of the problems with celiac disease is that the generality of it’s symptoms, many of which are also indicators of many other diseases including irritable bowel syndrome.

This video, featuring Joseph Murray, the Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist who led this study, explains more about celiac disease, it’s diagnosis, and treatment.

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(article source / image source)

Post from: Healthbolt

Seems a new study that compared the numerous mass transits modes available in NYC has found that subways, with noise levels ranging between 80 and 102 decibels, were the loudest means of transport around.

That’s not good.

The EPA and WHO both recommend that in order to protect your hearing your daily average level of noise exposure should be no more than 70 decibels. To give you an idea of the level that is, normal conversation is between 60 and 70 decibels.

The study’s results indicates that the estimated 33 million Americans who use the subways daily are consistently over exposing themselves to potentially deafening levels of noise.

(image source)

Post from: Healthbolt

But for some reason that doesn’t seem to deter the one billion or so people around the world who smoke.

Governments have tried to encourage smoker’s to stop with ‘quit smoking’ programs. Many countries and cities have banned smoking from inside public buildings. But unfortunately that has resulted in increased cigarette litter outside the same buildings that ban smoking.

So what to do? The World Health Organization has designated today World No Tobacco Day and are focusing on health warnings on tobacco product packaging as a way of encouraging smokers to quit.

But does it work? Or do dedicated smokers wear blinders that give them tunnel vision and stop them from seeing the graphic and often disturbing pictures that now are strategically placed on the front and sides of cigarette packs ?

Smokers, what do you think?

Are these graphic photos effective or a waste of money?

Post from: Healthbolt

Treadmills and other home gym equipment is great for keeping adults fit but are a definite danger to children.

In fact, the Australian Office of Fair Trading has become so concerned the increase in reports of treadmill injuries to children that they issued a public education campaign in 2008.

Called  Treadmills and Kids Don’t Mix, this campaign highlights the dangers of treadmills for children, especially how a treadmill’s moving belt can cause friction injuries and entrap fingers, hands, hair, and clothing.

The campaign made the following safety tips for treadmill owners and users… 

If you can, use your treadmill in the room away from young children.

If this is not possible:

–use safety barriers (like a playpen) to keep children away from the treadmill

–do not use your treadmill when young children are around

Always keep your treadmill unplugged when not in use.

Store your treadmill well away from children’s reach.Always supervise older children if they are using a treadmill.

When you buy a new treadmill choose one with protective covers and a safety stop switch.

Keeping children away from the treadmill altogether, however, might be the best line of defence.

(image source)

Post from: Healthbolt

HIV/AIDS remains one of those subjects that not talked about so much over the dinner table or when out for coffee with the girls. But prehaps it should be because the numbers tell us it’s a disease that does not seem to be going away. In fact, according this Snapshot of the U.S. Epidemic provided by the Kaiser Family Foundation, it seems to be growing…

• Number of new HIV infections, 2006: 56,300
• Number of people living with HIV/AIDS: 1.1 million, including more than 468,000 with AIDS
• Number of AIDS deaths since beginning of epidemic: 583,298, including 14,561 in 2007
• Percent of people infected with HIV who don’t know it: 21%

So what can you do? The CDC suggests the following.

• Get tested for HIV. To find a testing site center near you, text your zip code to Know IT (566948).
• Attend an event near you.
• Download or listen to National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day ( 2:56 mins)
• Learn more about the impact of HIV/AIDS among women in the United States.
• Stand up against stigma, racism, and other forms of discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS.
• Donate time and money to HIV/AIDS organizations.

Post from: Healthbolt

But even if you don’t have a problem with alcohol, it never hurts to learn more about what alcohol can do to your body and your life.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) have created a great interactive website called  ”Rethinking Drinking” that’s definitely worth checking out. Aimed at helping people, especially those between 18 and 30, determine what type of drinker they are and whether they might be at risk of developing a drinking problem.

Rethinking Drinking asks (and answers) the following questions…

• Do you know how much US adults drink – and where you fit in?
• Do you know what counts as a drink?
• Do you know how many drinks are in common containers?
• Do you know why being able to ‘hold your liquor’ is a concern?
• Do you know the signs that alcohol is causing harm?

The site offers some great tools and resources such as the interactive worksheets let you do things like weigh the pros and cons plus calculators that can help you estimate drink sizes, cocktail contents, alcohol calories, alcohol spending, and blood alcohol concentration levels.

Post from: Healthbolt

Scary numbers.

But most people will look at those numbers and say, ‘yeah, but that won’t happen to me. I’m safe. My behavior is not risky.”

Unfortunately, it could easily happen to you. All it really takes to get a sexually transmitted disease is one instance of unprotected sex.

Which is why I suggest that anyone who is sexually active or intending to become sexually active read Seductive Delusions: How Everyday People Catch STD’s by Jill Grimes MD.

It’s an easy to read book that focuses on real life stories of young adults as a way of educating and instructing everyone on how to recognize, treat, and prevent STD’s from infecting their lives. Dr. Grimes has chosen to write about the various STD’s in a narrative style that takes us into the examination room with the patient and doctor. As a result, you quickly start to realize that you cannot stereotype those who are suspectible and likely to get infected. It could just as easily be a family member or friend in that room with the doctor.

The ten chapters of Seductive Delusions cover the most prevalent STD’s, among them Herpes Simplex Virus, human papilloma virus, chlamydia, gonnorrhea, and HIV. Each chapter consists of two stories – one from a female point of view and one from a male – and also a factsheet that spells out all the facts about that particular STD.

Read the book from cover to cover and you will discover…

• Which STDs are asymptomatic or hard to diagnose in either women or men
• Why, if you are diagnosed with one STD, you should get tested for others
• Why it’s crucial to tell your past and current sexual partners about your diagnosis
• How to make decisions about the best course of treatment
• Why certain STDs are misdiagnosed and why it’s important to follow up when symptoms persist

STD’s are all around but talking about them is not something that people often do, especially within families. Hopefully, books like Seductive Delusions might just change that. After all, knowledge is power.

Find out how much you already know with this STD quiz.

Post from: Healthbolt

Birth Control Has Side Effects: I Should Know
by
Caitlin from the University of Alabama

As college students, we pretty much think of ourselves as invincible, I know I certainly have. Until recently that is. I’ve been in car accidents, including one where my car hydroplaned off a cliff. I’ve drank myself to the point where I should have gone to the hospital. I’ve had my life threatened. But those things never quite hit me to the point where I realized I could have died.

On January 2nd, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning with a searing pain in my left lung and back. It felt like two cinderblocks were pushing on either side of me and every breath felt like a knife going through my lung. I have a low pain tolerance, but this was the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my entire life. I managed to walk to my parents’ room to wake them up as I was gasping for air. My mom helped me back into my room while my dad furiously researched the new medication my dermatologist put me on, convinced it was a side effect. I eventually fell back asleep, but when I woke up again I was greeted by pain that was even worse than before. My mom came in to check on me, and I told her I needed to go to the hospital.

In the emergency room, one of the doctors listened to my symptoms and said “I think you may have a blood clot in your lung.” What? A blood clot? In an 18-year old? I was so confused and scared; I immediately started bawling. They quickly took blood out of my left arm while putting an IV in the other, and I woke up in the middle of a CT-scan. They did ultrasounds on my legs to make sure there were no clots because that’s where most clots originate. About an hour later, another doctor came in and told me they did find a clot in my lung.

I was terrified.

A nurse came in to give me a shot in my stomach that would start to seal the clot to the wall of my vein so it couldn’t break apart or move to my heart. I called my boyfriend and my best friend not really knowing what to say, partly because I was on a massive amount of painkillers and partly because I thought I was going to die.

The doctors believe that my birth control caused the clot, but they are still running tests. I was shocked. I knew blood clots were a side effect of the pill, but they are so rare, especially in women under 30. I received a shot to the stomach twice a day along with various painkillers from morphine to percocet. I was also told I had to be on a medication called Coumadin, a blood thinner, for 6 months. This medication comes with a lot of rules and requires weekly blood tests to determine if my blood is too thin or not thin enough. Depending on that level, I have to adjust the dosage of Coumadin I take. I’ve been on it for a week and the dosage has changed three times. I can’t eat foods high in vitamin K like salad or broccoli, I can’t drink more than 2oz of alcohol.

I left the hospital on January 6 and was allowed to go back to school on the 8th. I got tired and short of breath, accompanied with a much less severe but still noticeable pain in my lung which would not go away for about 6 to 8 weeks according to the doctors. But I’m alive. If I didn’t go to the hospital, I would be dead right now. The clot would have made its way to my heart or my brain, and I would have died. As much as the situation bothers me, and I keep asking why this happened to me, I am so grateful that I’m still here. Things like this don’t happen to people my age, and if it does, it’s usually too late. You hear about the funeral, not the recovery.

I’m glad I can sit at my computer and share this story with you all because I don’t want any of you to go through what I did. I want you to be aware of what can happen, to recognize the symptoms, and realize that birth control and other medicines do have side effects.

If you feel a pain like that, don’t assume it’s something minor because it’s probably not. Your body tells you things, so listen to it.

(reposted with permission of College Candy)

For more information on blood clots and birth control, check out the Wellsphere’s Blood Clots Birth Control page. It has comprehensive, up to date information on this subject.

Post from: Healthbolt