An expanding collection of interesting articles, from reliable well-known sources, on the effects of unhealthy habits, and tested ways to improve your health. Below, in alphabetical order by subject -- an expanding fact-filled collection of the links to articles from reliable sources -- on the effects of various unhealthy habits on human health; and tested ways to significantly improve your health. And, perhaps, save your own life. Today's Article, Monday, February 27, 2012: Colonoscopies Cut the Risk of Cancer Death in Half "Katie Curic was right: colonoscopies are uncomfortable, but they lower the risk of cancer and save lives. By Alice Park, time.com, 2/23/2012. ----- Alzheimer's Disease: "Target Risk Factors Could Cut Number of Cases." "A 10-to-25 percent reduction in seven risk factors for dementia, including diabetes, midlife hypertension, midlife obesity, smoking, depression, lack of mental stimulation, and physical inactivity, could have theoretically prevented up to 492,000 cases of Alzheimer's disease over the next 40 years ..." By John Gever, MedPage Today Senior Editor, abcnews.go.com, 7/19/2011. Cheerios is 70 years old: Really healthy for you? You decide. usatoday.com, 6/26/2011. Coffee: Drinking too much coffee? Want to cut down to one or two cups a day? You may not want to quit completely. "Coffee may protect against Alzheimer's disease." By Linda Shrieves, Orlando Sentinel, 6/22/2001. College drinking: "A recent study estimates that more than 1,400 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries and 500,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 sustain unintentional alcohol-related injuries each year (Hingson et al., 2002)." College Drinking; Changing the Culture; Surveying the Damage: CollegeDrinkingPrevention.gov. Colonoscopies Cut the Risk of Cancer Death in Half "Katie Curic was right: colonoscopies are uncomfortable, but they lower the risk of cancer and save lives. By Alice Park, time.com, 2/23/2012. Deaths in the world: "Nearly two-thirds of deaths in the world are caused by non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and heart and lung disease ..." These deaths are " ... fueled by rising risk factors including tobacco use, unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, obesity, and harmful alcohol use ..." usatoday.com, 6/2011 Depression caused by disease or injury: Bad/unhealthy habits can lead to disease or injury. Smoking often leads to lung cancer. Obesity often leads to diabetes. Drinking often leads to liver problems, automobile and motorcycle accidents. Etc. Those diseases and injuries can lead to serious depression. thechart.blogs.cnn, 7/5/2011. Drug overdose has now overtaken automobile crashes as the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., according to an analysis of government data. This is the first time that drugs have killed more people than car wrecks since the government began tracking drug-related fatalities in 1979. By Maia Szalavitz, 9/19/2011, time.com. Gambling - Slot Machines - "60 Minutes" video: "Last year, Nevada casinos made nearly $6.7 billion dollars on slot machines alone." "60 Minutes," 1/9/2011. Gaming: "Survey: Women Enjoy Gaming More Than Sex, Play as Much as Men." "Of the women who said they played online games, 84% said they "enjoy" gaming, compared with 70% who said they enjoy sex ..." By Matt Peckham, techland.time.com, 7/15/2011. Hospitals: "Going into hospital far riskier than flying." "If you were admitted to hospital tomorrow in any country... your chances of being subjected to an error in your care would be something like 1 in 10. Your chances of dying due to an error in health care would be 1 in 300," Liam Donaldson, the World Health Organization (WHO). By Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters, 7/21/2011. HSN: Home Shopping Network. See QVC below. Impulsive buying: "One of them learns to avoid impulsive buys and save up in order to achieve longer- term goals. As for the other: "Me really want cookie!" Can Elmo and Cookie Monster teach your children the value of building a savings account?" By Brad Tuttle, moneyland.time.com, 6/7/2001. Lifestyle changes: Why are we so reluctant to change our lifestyles in order to save our lives? "A lot of people don't change because they don't know how to change." By Valerie Ulene, special to the Los Angels Times, 5/21/2011. Living to 100: "Defy your age: what truly helps you stay younger inside and out." By Sarah Jio, cnn.com, 7/19/2011. Obesity: The dollar cost of obesity: "Overall, medical care for obese patients is about 43 percent more expensive than for normal weight patients -- about $4,870 a year compared with $3,400." By Emily Walker, abcnews.go.com, 7/27/09. Obesity cannot be cured by pills: "The possibility that the drug (pill) will only do the good things like lose weight, and not have myriad (side-) effects on the body -- is zero." "The causes of weight gain can be emotional, biological, social, psychological, environmental -- and these multiple factors don't fit into a neat capsule." "The point is, there is no magic." By Madison Park, cnn.com, 4/15/2011. Obesity: "F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future:" According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the medical costs associated with obesity are staggering– totaling about $147 billion in 2008. thechart.blogs.cnn.com, 7/7/2011. Obesity and potato chips: "Potato chips worst culprit for weight gains." "People generally don't take one or two chips. They have the whole bag." usatoday.com 6/2011. Obesity: Why diet sodas are no benefit to dieters: "Diet sodas may actually contribute to weight gain." By Meredith Melnick, healthland.time.com, 6/29/2011. Obesity and sleep: "In 1960, Americans averaged 8.5 hours of sleep a night, and our obesity rate was around 12 percent. Today we're averaging 6.5 to seven hours, and our obesity rate has climbed to around 30 percent. Coincidence?" By Anne Stein, Special to Tribune Newspapers, 6/29/2011. Pain: "Facing chronic pain without drugs." " ... 116 million Americans have chronic pain ... " By Elizabeth Cohen, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent. 7/14/2011. Prescription drug abuse in America: "The White House last month said the abuse of prescription drugs had become America's fastest growing drug problem." "... across the US, where almost 30,000 people died last year from abusing pharmaceutical pills." By Ed Pilkington in Palm Beach, www.guardian.co.uk, 6/9/2011. QVC (Shopping Network): If you are an addicted shopper on HSN or QVC, try timer-locking your television's power corder inside a CapturedDiscipline(r) safe. However, if your are addicted to QVC (or HSN) in the way this woman was and still is ... it's a healthy addiction. "On the surface, I have almost nothing in common with kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard. And yet, something she said in her interview with Diane Sawyer this summer sparked a moment of self-recognition ..." By Liz Krieger, huffingtonpost.com, 10/13/2011. Sitting: "Sitting too much will probably shorten your life." "Researchers studied 123,216 people's health outcomes during a 14-year study." "Sitting is not bad for you in moderation, but in excess it is addictive and harmful. Of concern is that for most people in the developed world, chair-living is the norm. By William Hudson, cnn.com, 6/24/2001. Also: link to study abstract. Sleep is a good use of time: "Today, more that 100 million Americans are sleep disordered and, at the very least, 45 million are chronically sleep-deprived." By Dr. Qanta Ahmed, usatoday.com, 6/2011. Sleep - How to fake a good night's sleep. If you didn't get a good night's sleep, some things you can do to feel normal (or very close to normal). By Nicole Yorio Jurick, Health.com, 2/23/2012 Smoking: Cheap drug helps smokers quit: In Poland, where the study was done, cytisine costs $15 for a course of treatment, the researchers noted. In China, an 8-week course of nicotine-replacement therapy costs $230; an 8-week course of Zyban (bupropion) costs $123 and a 12-week course of Chantix (vareniclene) costs $327, while a pack of cigarettes typically costs 73 cents and sometimes much less, they said. By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, usatoday.com, 9/30/2011. Smoking: Another reason to quit smoking, for your kids. By Meredith Melnick, heartland.time.com, 7/19/2011. Smoking: Celebrities who smoke and should quit. "Nearly six million deaths each year (worldwide) are related to tobacco use. Robert Pattinson and Brad Pitt should quit smoking, and be advocates for others trying to stop the harmful habit." By Amanda Lynne, celebs.gather.com, 7/16/2011. Smoking: "Secondhand Smoke Linked to Learning Disabilities, ADHD in Kids." " ... among kids who lived with a smoker, more than twice as many — 20.4%, or one in five — had been diagnosed." By Laura Blue, heartland.time.com, 7/11/2001. Smoking: Lung cancer victim's deathbed image sends potent message: "She died May 18, 2003, of lung cancer at the age of 42." By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, 6/2011. Smoking, Father's Day, 2011: "My doctor told me I was ... what was the word he used? Oh yeah. Stupid." By Rafael Olmeda, sunsentinel.com, 6/19/2011. Smoking and COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). The four causes of COPD are: smoking, secondhand smoke, environmental pollutants, and genetic factors ... in that order. cnn.com, 6/2011. Smoking: The FDA reveals new bigger, graphic warning pictures for cigarette packages: "Smoking and other tobacco use is the #1 cause of preventable death ... killing more that 440,000 American's each year." cnn.com, 6/21/2011. Writing has the power to heal: "Freelance writer and breast cancer survivor Amanda Enayati contributes regularly to CNNHealth.com, 6/29/2001. |
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