Worrying About Health News Since 2009
Over the past few months, I’ve found myself writing more “health” posts that relate to the influence of the realtime/social web on our lives. I decided that topic is worthy of a blog all its own. For me, it’s a return to my roots. I was a tech blogger back during the first internet boom. I was (and probably am) as addicted to the web as anyone.
And now I offer.
The Fonz used to tell people to sit on it. Well, his directive may have done more harm than he knew.
Early research suggests that sitting too much can be a danger to your health. And that might hold true even for those who exercise regularly.
Motion is lotion.
Another study has confirmed that several cups of coffee a day can significantly curb the risk of diabetes. Interestingly, the same trend holds for people who drink tea or even decaf.
Here’s a study I’d like to see done. What happens when someone just drinks a few cups of really hot water a day? Any chance that’s an element connected to all the health benefits associated with coffee consumption?
According to a recent report, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people who are considered nearsighted.
Researchers tapped into a wide-ranging health survey to rate vision in the population in the early 1970s and roughly 30 years later. They compared eyesight information for more than 4,400 people tested in 1971 and 1972 with data from another set of 8,300 people tested from 1999 to 2004.
This broad survey showed that 25 percent of those examined in the early 1970s were deemed to be nearsighted, compared with 42 percent examined three decades later, the researchers report in the December Archives of Ophthalmology. That’s an increase of 66 percent.
This may not seem too important to a generation that rarely looks beyond the iPhone in their hand.
Buying green and local products is one of those things that makes you a better person, right? Right?
Um, maybe not.
There’s also the risk that these lifestyle choices will make us complacent, sapping the drive to call senators and chain ourselves to coal plants. Tweaking your shopping list, the argument goes, is at best woefully insufficient and maybe even counterproductive.
But new research by Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong at the University of Toronto levels an even graver charge: that virtuous shopping can actually lead to immoral behavior. In their study (described in a paper now in press at Psychological Science), subjects who made simulated eco-friendly purchases ended up less likely to exhibit altruism in a laboratory game and more likely to cheat and steal.
According to an analysis by the New York Times, millions of Americans are drinking water that (at least at times) is contaminated.
More than 20 percent of the nation’s water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data…
Studies indicate that drinking water contaminants are linked to millions of instances of illness within the United States each year.
In some instances, drinking water violations were one-time events, and probably posed little risk. But for hundreds of other systems, illegal contamination persisted for years, records show.
How many illnesses have been caused by this dirty water? No one knows for sure.
But scientific research indicates that as many as 19 million Americans may become ill each year due to just the parasites, viruses and bacteria in drinking water. Certain types of cancer — such as breast and prostate cancer — have risen over the past 30 years, and research indicates they are likely tied to pollutants like those found in drinking water.
Incredibly disturbing story. Looks like newspapers are still good for something, eh?
Over at Davenetics, we feature a compelling list of the 10 Things You Didn’t Know Were in the Health Bill (and aren’t). Enjoy.
Don’t be surprised if it becomes more and more difficult to find generic versions of prescription drugs. Drug manufacturers have a new trick up their sleeves known as Pay to Delay. The generic drug maker gets paid off to delay offering their version of the medicine.
Over the last few years, drug-makers have embraced a startlingly simple tactic for fending off competition from generic brands: paying them off. In a nutshell, the company that holds the patent on a profitable drug strikes a deal with the maker of the cheaper generic brand: you hold off on marketing your generic for several years, and in return, we'll give you a share of our profits on the drug.
When it comes to affordable health care, remember who is friend and who is foe.
If you want sound advice when it comes to dieting, I think you know who to turn to: Celebrities. They are skinnier that you, they are more famous than you and (with the help of the little photoshopping) they have a much healthier glow. So what are the latest celebrity diet fads? Take you pick among the following, or pick from one of my alternative strategies.
The Baby Food Diet: Yes, people actually buy those little jars of baby food and eat them as an adult meal.
The Alternative: Try the Baby Behavior Diet. Prepare a large, well balanced meal. Spit some of it out. Throw the rest on the floor. Have a fit. Do whatever it takes to convince someone to turn on the goddamn TV.
The Cookie Diet: Just eat “four to seven protein-based cookies a day, which amounts to about 500 to 600 calories, with a meal of lean protein and vegetables adding another 300 calories.”
The Alternative: Try the Cookie Monster Diet. Eat whatever you want including salt and pepper shakers, napkins, cookies, cakes, typewriters, etc. Never gain weight. Never age.
The Apple Cider Vinegar Diet: Though there is plenty of scientific data to the contrary, some people believe that vinegar cuts through fat and suppresses your appetite. So take a shot before each meal.
The Alternative: Try the Bobbing for Apples Diet. It’s a great aerobic workout and most people collapse in exhaustion after about half an apple.
The Lunchbox Diet: You eat your normal breakfast and dinner, but instead of lunch, you graze all afternoon from a “standard-size lunch box filled with 60 percent vegetables, 30 percent protein, and 10 percent fat (low-fat dressing, cheese, or peanut butter).”
The Alernative: Just eat the friggin lunchbox. It’s the quickest way to abs of steel (or at least aluminum).
The Raw Food Diet: Lots of nuts, fruits and veggies, none of which can be heated above 116 degrees.
The Alternative: The more extreme “raw food in death valley where it’s 120 degrees in the shade diet.” (Also known as the Yom Kippur diet.)
The Air Diet: Yes, scientists have found that if manufacturers simply pumped more air into their foods, we’d all lose weight.
The Alternative: The Hot Air Diet. Just enthusiastically expound on the benefits of any of the above. You’ll burn calories and no one will ever take you out to lunch again.
A second study has shown that a medicated spray can delay premature ejaculation.
PSD502 — which combines the drugs lidocaine and prilocaine — is sprayed on the head of the penis before intercourse.
The study of men in Canada, Poland and the United States found that those treated with the spray five minutes before intercourse were able to delay ejaculation up to five times longer than those who used a placebo. In addition, men who used the spray and their partners reported improved sexual satisfaction.
Two studies seem like more than enough to me, but I guess this is one product they don’t want to release too early.
(I know that was sad, but it’s my blog and I can’t be stopped.)
Signed,
Dave Pell, The Skeptical Hypochondriac
