(HealthDay News) -- Music hath charms to improve a person's speech, a new study suggests.
Music training's effects on the nervous system's ability to process sight and sound may do more to help enhance a person's verbal skills than even phonics, explained researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois.
They found that music training enhances the same communication skills needed for reading and speaking.
The study included people with varying amounts of musical training or none at all. The researchers used scalp electrodes to measure the participants' multi-sensory brain responses to audio and video of a person speaking and then of a cellist playing music.
The number of years that a person had practiced music was strongly associated with enhanced "basic sound encoding mechanisms" that are also associated with speech, the study found.
"Audiovisual processing was much enhanced in musicians' brains compared to non-musician counterparts, and musicians also were more sensitive to subtle changes in both speech and music sounds," Nina Kraus, a professor of communication sciences and neurobiology and director of the university's Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, said in a prepared statement.
"Our study indicates that the high-level cognitive processing of music affects automatic processing that occurs early in the processing stream and fundamentally shapes sensory circuitry," Kraus said.
The study was published online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
More information
The U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders has more about voice, speech and language.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
Fried Food Compounds May Harm Heart
(HealthDay News) -- Foods high in compounds called advanced glycation end products (AGEs) -- such as hamburgers, french fries and other fatty foods cooked at high temperatures -- cause a short-lived but significant dysfunction in blood vessel dilation that can lead to heart disease, a new study suggests.
"Although the effect was temporary, it suggests that AGEs could, over time, pose a significant risk to the vascular integrity of both diabetic and healthy persons," lead researcher Dr Jaime Uribarri, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.
His team published its findings in the journal Diabetes Care.
High levels of AGEs are formed when foods rich in protein and fat are cooked at high and dry heat, including broiling, grilling, frying or roasting. Foods that are steam-cooked or stewed tend to have lower AGE concentrations, the researchers explained.
Previous research has found AGEs to be associated with a number of diabetes-associated chronic conditions, such as heart disease. This study found that consuming an AGE-rich beverage caused significant endothelial dysfunction in both people with diabetes and in people without diabetes.
Endothelial dysfunction is an early indicator of hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), which leads to heart disease, the study authors noted.
More information
The MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia has more about heart disease and diet.
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"Although the effect was temporary, it suggests that AGEs could, over time, pose a significant risk to the vascular integrity of both diabetic and healthy persons," lead researcher Dr Jaime Uribarri, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.
His team published its findings in the journal Diabetes Care.
High levels of AGEs are formed when foods rich in protein and fat are cooked at high and dry heat, including broiling, grilling, frying or roasting. Foods that are steam-cooked or stewed tend to have lower AGE concentrations, the researchers explained.
Previous research has found AGEs to be associated with a number of diabetes-associated chronic conditions, such as heart disease. This study found that consuming an AGE-rich beverage caused significant endothelial dysfunction in both people with diabetes and in people without diabetes.
Endothelial dysfunction is an early indicator of hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), which leads to heart disease, the study authors noted.
More information
The MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia has more about heart disease and diet.
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Monday, September 24, 2007
Cataract Surgery: A Bargain, Despite the Price
(HealthDay News) -- Everyone, if they live long enough, will suffer from a cataract that clouds the vision in one or both eyes.
Because of that, doctors expect spending on cataract surgery to surge in the coming decades as the population ages, part of an overall increase in vision costs among older Americans.
However, it's money well spent, experts say.
Cataract surgery is one of the most cost-effective surgical procedures to address vision problems in seniors, said David B. Rein, a researcher with RTI International in Research Triangle Park, N.C., who authored a recent study of the economic costs of vision disorders.
"It gives a great amount of benefit in terms of years of unimpaired vision, compared with dollars spent," Rein said.
In fact, it's one of the only therapies that actually cures the condition, rather than simply holding the line against future deterioration.
"You're removing a lens that is clouded, a dirty lens, and you're replacing it with a lens that's clear," Rein said.
A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye, which affects a person's ability to see clearly. Most cataracts are related to aging. By age 80, more than half of all Americans either have a cataract or have had cataract surgery, according to the U.S. National Eye Institute.
Major vision problems cost the U.S. economy about $35.4 billion a year, including $16.2 billion in direct medical costs. And because cataracts are frequent and inevitable, they make up the biggest chunk of those direct costs -- about $6.8 billion, according to Rein's research.
The primary way to treat cataracts is to remove the eye's lens and replace it with an artificial one.
These surgeries have been around for decades, and doctors have become remarkably adept at performing them, said Dr. Marco Zarbin, professor and chairman of the Institute of Ophthalmology and Visual Science in New Jersey.
"During the past quarter century, there have been remarkable advances," Zarbin said. "Ninety-five percent of patients report impressive improvement in their vision."
Most cataract surgery removes the lens through phacoemulsification, in which a probe inserted through a small incision in the side of the cornea breaks the lens into tiny pieces using ultrasonic waves. The surgeon then removes the pieces using suction.
This technique has gone through countless refinements, Zarbin said, and is far evolved from traditional cataract surgery. In that procedure, the lens was simply cut away.
"Back in the 1960s, people were kept in the hospital for two weeks following cataract surgery," he said. "Their heads were held in place with sandbags. Now, people have the surgery with topical anesthesia and go home the same day. It's just what you'd hope for in medicine. It's really true progress."
The replacement lenses are also improving.
In early days, patients were fitted with a lens that only provided one range of focus. Near could be in focus, or far, but not both.
But improvements in intraocular lenses are producing results that are coming closer and closer to mimicking the human eye, allowing people to change their focus from near to far.
"There's a real push to develop intraocular lenses that give people focus at distance and near," Zarbin said. "There's a real interest in improving those capabilities. I'm very sure that one day that's the lens that everyone will get, an accommodative lens."
These improvements mean that, even though more money is being spent on cataract surgery, the American people are getting a bigger bang for their buck, Rein said.
"Compare the cost for cataract extraction surgery to the treatments that address age-related macular degeneration or diabetic retinopathy," he said. "The costs are much lower, and the results are much better."
Patients can actually expect improved vision, rather than vision that simply won't get worse.
"When you're treating glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy, you're trying to prevent further visual impairment from occurring," Rein said. "With cataracts, you can restore their vision to what it was before."
Cataract surgery also helps keep older people entertained and more engaged, Zarbin said. "I think when you're older and have a less active lifestyle, things like reading and watching television gain a greater importance," he said.
"You also have to consider the cost of taking care of those patients if you didn't have the therapy to treat them. We are way ahead as a society by paying for those treatments, because they cost less than caring for all these debilitated and blind people," he added.
More information
To learn more about cataracts, visit the U.S. National Eye Institute.
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Because of that, doctors expect spending on cataract surgery to surge in the coming decades as the population ages, part of an overall increase in vision costs among older Americans.
However, it's money well spent, experts say.
Cataract surgery is one of the most cost-effective surgical procedures to address vision problems in seniors, said David B. Rein, a researcher with RTI International in Research Triangle Park, N.C., who authored a recent study of the economic costs of vision disorders.
"It gives a great amount of benefit in terms of years of unimpaired vision, compared with dollars spent," Rein said.
In fact, it's one of the only therapies that actually cures the condition, rather than simply holding the line against future deterioration.
"You're removing a lens that is clouded, a dirty lens, and you're replacing it with a lens that's clear," Rein said.
A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye, which affects a person's ability to see clearly. Most cataracts are related to aging. By age 80, more than half of all Americans either have a cataract or have had cataract surgery, according to the U.S. National Eye Institute.
Major vision problems cost the U.S. economy about $35.4 billion a year, including $16.2 billion in direct medical costs. And because cataracts are frequent and inevitable, they make up the biggest chunk of those direct costs -- about $6.8 billion, according to Rein's research.
The primary way to treat cataracts is to remove the eye's lens and replace it with an artificial one.
These surgeries have been around for decades, and doctors have become remarkably adept at performing them, said Dr. Marco Zarbin, professor and chairman of the Institute of Ophthalmology and Visual Science in New Jersey.
"During the past quarter century, there have been remarkable advances," Zarbin said. "Ninety-five percent of patients report impressive improvement in their vision."
Most cataract surgery removes the lens through phacoemulsification, in which a probe inserted through a small incision in the side of the cornea breaks the lens into tiny pieces using ultrasonic waves. The surgeon then removes the pieces using suction.
This technique has gone through countless refinements, Zarbin said, and is far evolved from traditional cataract surgery. In that procedure, the lens was simply cut away.
"Back in the 1960s, people were kept in the hospital for two weeks following cataract surgery," he said. "Their heads were held in place with sandbags. Now, people have the surgery with topical anesthesia and go home the same day. It's just what you'd hope for in medicine. It's really true progress."
The replacement lenses are also improving.
In early days, patients were fitted with a lens that only provided one range of focus. Near could be in focus, or far, but not both.
But improvements in intraocular lenses are producing results that are coming closer and closer to mimicking the human eye, allowing people to change their focus from near to far.
"There's a real push to develop intraocular lenses that give people focus at distance and near," Zarbin said. "There's a real interest in improving those capabilities. I'm very sure that one day that's the lens that everyone will get, an accommodative lens."
These improvements mean that, even though more money is being spent on cataract surgery, the American people are getting a bigger bang for their buck, Rein said.
"Compare the cost for cataract extraction surgery to the treatments that address age-related macular degeneration or diabetic retinopathy," he said. "The costs are much lower, and the results are much better."
Patients can actually expect improved vision, rather than vision that simply won't get worse.
"When you're treating glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy, you're trying to prevent further visual impairment from occurring," Rein said. "With cataracts, you can restore their vision to what it was before."
Cataract surgery also helps keep older people entertained and more engaged, Zarbin said. "I think when you're older and have a less active lifestyle, things like reading and watching television gain a greater importance," he said.
"You also have to consider the cost of taking care of those patients if you didn't have the therapy to treat them. We are way ahead as a society by paying for those treatments, because they cost less than caring for all these debilitated and blind people," he added.
More information
To learn more about cataracts, visit the U.S. National Eye Institute.
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Friday, September 21, 2007
Childhood Obesity Epidemic a Long-Term Challenge
(HealthDay News) -- In the 1980s and '90s, Americans tried to control their weight by watching their cholesterol by cutting dietary fat and substituting carbohydrates. They paid little mind to total calories and physical activity. And guess what happened to their waistlines -- and their children's?"It was just an end run around the issue of health maintenance," said Dr. Henry C. McGill Jr., senior scientist emeritus at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, Texas. "And, of course, it crept over into kids, especially kids subjected to all of the advertising and offerings of high-density caloric food -- opportunities to avoid physical activity, attractions to television viewing and net surfing."
Today, more than one in three children and adolescents in the United States -- some 25 million kids -- are overweight or obese, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which recently announced an unprecedented effort to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015.
The Princeton, N.J.-based philanthropy said it plans to spend at least $500 million over the next five years on public health efforts focusing on kids and families in underserved communities.
It's the foundation's largest commitment ever. While the foundation has spent roughly as much in the area of tobacco over the years, "we never made the scale of that commitment up-front and public like we have with this," said Dr. James S. Marks, senior vice president and director of the foundation's health group.
"If we don't deal with children," he added, "this could be the first generation that will live sicker and die younger than its parents."
Scientists, physicians and public health advocates know that efforts to prevent obesity must start in childhood, because the problem leads to increased risk of coronary heart disease and other health hazards in adulthood. In fact, there's substantial evidence that obesity and related diseases, including diabetes and hypertension, can begin to exact damage during the teenage years.
In one landmark study, a group of researchers from across the United States analyzed post-mortem blood samples and evaluated atherosclerosis in coronary artery and aorta specimens from roughly 3,000 15- to 34-year-old men and women who died from causes such as accidents, homicide or suicide. One of the surprising results of the study, according to McGill, was that an elevated blood sugar -- as measured by levels of "glycohemoglobin" -- was associated in the late 20s and early 30s with about an 8-fold increase in advanced lesions in the coronary arteries. "It was a whopper of an effect," he said.
In another study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers documented a significant upward shift over the past 16 years in blood pressure levels of children and teens aged 8 to 18. Lead author Paul Muntner, an epidemiologist at Tulane University School of Medicine, and colleagues said the increase in blood pressure levels is partially due to the increased prevalence of overweight in the United States.
And British researchers recently reported that children who are overweight at age 11 continue to have weight problems through their teenage years. Rates of overweight and obesity were highest among girls and children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The authors said the study highlights the need to target efforts to prevent obesity in the early years.
But even as more money and manpower are devoted to obesity prevention, McGill said it may take many years to erase the epidemic. And, he added, it will take action on many different fronts, from educating children and physicians to improving the health-care financing system to include more preventive medicine.
"It was 1964 when the first U.S. Surgeon General's report came out, and just now, there's talk about the tide turning on cigarette smoking," he observed. "Obesity's perhaps going to take that long to get the tide turned."
More information
For more on childhood obesity, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Gene May Influence Breast Cancer-Estrogen Link
(HealthDay News) -- U.S. researchers say they've found a gene that plays a crucial role in the ability of breast cancer cells to respond to estrogen.
The finding that transcription factor AP2C (TFAP2C) controls multiple pathways of estrogen signaling may lead to improved therapies for hormone-responsive breast cancer and may help explain differences in the effectiveness of current treatments, said a team from the University of Iowa.
The study was published in the Sept. 15 issue of the journal Cancer Research.
"Estrogen binds to estrogen receptors and triggers a cascade of events including gene regulation," study leader Dr. Ronald Weigel, professor and head of surgery at the university's college of medicine, said in a prepared statement.
"We found that elimination of TFAP2C from the cell causes all of those cascades that we associate with estrogen to go away," he said. "The treated cancer cells were not able to respond to estrogen by any normal pathway."
Silencing TFAP2C inhibited tumor growth in mice. It also halted expression of another estrogen receptor called GPR30, found at the cancer cell membrane.
"Targeting this gene may be a better way to develop drugs to treat hormone-responsive breast cancers, because it targets multiple different pathways," Weigel said.
More information
The American Cancer Society has more about breast cancer.
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The finding that transcription factor AP2C (TFAP2C) controls multiple pathways of estrogen signaling may lead to improved therapies for hormone-responsive breast cancer and may help explain differences in the effectiveness of current treatments, said a team from the University of Iowa.
The study was published in the Sept. 15 issue of the journal Cancer Research.
"Estrogen binds to estrogen receptors and triggers a cascade of events including gene regulation," study leader Dr. Ronald Weigel, professor and head of surgery at the university's college of medicine, said in a prepared statement.
"We found that elimination of TFAP2C from the cell causes all of those cascades that we associate with estrogen to go away," he said. "The treated cancer cells were not able to respond to estrogen by any normal pathway."
Silencing TFAP2C inhibited tumor growth in mice. It also halted expression of another estrogen receptor called GPR30, found at the cancer cell membrane.
"Targeting this gene may be a better way to develop drugs to treat hormone-responsive breast cancers, because it targets multiple different pathways," Weigel said.
More information
The American Cancer Society has more about breast cancer.
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Saturday, September 15, 2007
Tomato Diet Can't Guarantee Prostate Health: Study
(HealthDay News) -- Men who've been adding vitamin E or the tomato nutrient lycopene to their diets to cut their risk of prostate cancer may need to think again.
According to a new study, neither carotenoids (such as lycopene), retinol, nor tocopherols (forms of vitamin E) appear to reduce the odds of prostate malignancy -- findings that are in line with two other recent publications.
"Our overall findings are null," said lead researcher Timothy Key, deputy director of the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford, U.K.
"This large study does not support the hypothesis that consuming large amounts of these nutrients will reduce prostate cancer," he added. "That is disappointing, but that is the overall message."
The findings are published in the September issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
His team examined the effect of the blood levels of 10 micronutrients on the risk of developing prostate cancer for almost 2,000 males from eight European countries.
The research, which the authors call "the largest prospective study to date of plasma carotenoids, retinol, tocopherols, and prostate cancer risk," was part of the EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) study, which includes more than half a million men and women.
The authors did find evidence to suggest that, once a cancer forms, high levels of lycopene (or of carotenoids in general, including lycopene) may reduce by about 60 percent the risk of the tumor progressing to an advanced-stage prostate cancer. Carotenoids appeared to have no effect on the rate of localized, earlier-stage disease, however.
According to Dr. Peter Scardino, head of the Prostate Cancer Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the developed world. A Western male, he said, has about a 42 percent risk of developing cancerous cells in his prostate over his lifetime, a 16 percent risk of being diagnosed with the disease, and about a three percent risk of dying as a result. In other words, nearly one-quarter of Western males have a subclinical form of prostate cancer, which will never progress to more advanced disease.
Stopping progression is crucial. According to Scardino, for those whose disease does progress, the risk of death is much higher -- nearly 50 percent.
"I think it's an important study," Scardino said. That lycopene and bulk carotenoids reduced the risk of progressing to advanced disease without impacting the risk of developing prostate cancer overall, he said, "suggests maybe these micronutrients are not as important in [stopping] carcinogenesis as they are in [slowing] progression of a very small early tumor to one that becomes invasive and larger and develops the ability to metastasize."
"The study provides supportive evidence that lycopene and the carotenoids may have an effect on delaying the progression of prostate cancer, so, from that point of view, it is an interesting study," Scardino added.
But Alan Kristal, associate head of the Cancer Prevention Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, remained more skeptical. Though he called the study "well-executed," Kristal noted, for instance, that the authors were unable to control for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing among the men. These blood tests often detect clinically irrelevant tumors, he explained.
"You can never do an observational study of prostate cancer without rigorously controlling for whether or not the person got PSA screening," Kristal said. "The more times you take the test, the more likely you are to get the disease."
He also noted that the finding for lycopene contradicts a report published in May in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention. That study did account for PSA testing, and it found no effect of lycopene whatsoever on prostate cancer risk -- including the risk of advanced disease.
"To my mind, that study is definitive," said Kristal. "It's a big study, extremely well executed, properly analyzed, and not biased by PSA screening."
A review of lycopene's effect on cancer by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, published in July in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, likewise found "no credible evidence to support an association between lycopene intake and a reduced risk of prostate, lung, colorectal, gastric, breast, ovarian, endometrial, or pancreatic cancer and very limited evidence to support an association between tomato consumption and reduced risks of prostate, ovarian, gastric, and pancreatic cancers," according to that study's authors.
So, with tomatoes, ketchup and pizza sauce crossed off the list of prostate-protecting foods, Key and others continue the search. Kristal, for instance, is on the executive committee of a randomized trial examining the effects of selenium and/or vitamin E on prostate cancer risk in 35,000 men. Results are expected in 2012, he said.
Said Key, "I am optimistic we will find something. This paper is an important piece of work, but it doesn't look like this is the answer."
More information
For more on vitamins and cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.
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According to a new study, neither carotenoids (such as lycopene), retinol, nor tocopherols (forms of vitamin E) appear to reduce the odds of prostate malignancy -- findings that are in line with two other recent publications.
"Our overall findings are null," said lead researcher Timothy Key, deputy director of the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford, U.K.
"This large study does not support the hypothesis that consuming large amounts of these nutrients will reduce prostate cancer," he added. "That is disappointing, but that is the overall message."
The findings are published in the September issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
His team examined the effect of the blood levels of 10 micronutrients on the risk of developing prostate cancer for almost 2,000 males from eight European countries.
The research, which the authors call "the largest prospective study to date of plasma carotenoids, retinol, tocopherols, and prostate cancer risk," was part of the EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) study, which includes more than half a million men and women.
The authors did find evidence to suggest that, once a cancer forms, high levels of lycopene (or of carotenoids in general, including lycopene) may reduce by about 60 percent the risk of the tumor progressing to an advanced-stage prostate cancer. Carotenoids appeared to have no effect on the rate of localized, earlier-stage disease, however.
According to Dr. Peter Scardino, head of the Prostate Cancer Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the developed world. A Western male, he said, has about a 42 percent risk of developing cancerous cells in his prostate over his lifetime, a 16 percent risk of being diagnosed with the disease, and about a three percent risk of dying as a result. In other words, nearly one-quarter of Western males have a subclinical form of prostate cancer, which will never progress to more advanced disease.
Stopping progression is crucial. According to Scardino, for those whose disease does progress, the risk of death is much higher -- nearly 50 percent.
"I think it's an important study," Scardino said. That lycopene and bulk carotenoids reduced the risk of progressing to advanced disease without impacting the risk of developing prostate cancer overall, he said, "suggests maybe these micronutrients are not as important in [stopping] carcinogenesis as they are in [slowing] progression of a very small early tumor to one that becomes invasive and larger and develops the ability to metastasize."
"The study provides supportive evidence that lycopene and the carotenoids may have an effect on delaying the progression of prostate cancer, so, from that point of view, it is an interesting study," Scardino added.
But Alan Kristal, associate head of the Cancer Prevention Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, remained more skeptical. Though he called the study "well-executed," Kristal noted, for instance, that the authors were unable to control for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing among the men. These blood tests often detect clinically irrelevant tumors, he explained.
"You can never do an observational study of prostate cancer without rigorously controlling for whether or not the person got PSA screening," Kristal said. "The more times you take the test, the more likely you are to get the disease."
He also noted that the finding for lycopene contradicts a report published in May in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention. That study did account for PSA testing, and it found no effect of lycopene whatsoever on prostate cancer risk -- including the risk of advanced disease.
"To my mind, that study is definitive," said Kristal. "It's a big study, extremely well executed, properly analyzed, and not biased by PSA screening."
A review of lycopene's effect on cancer by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, published in July in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, likewise found "no credible evidence to support an association between lycopene intake and a reduced risk of prostate, lung, colorectal, gastric, breast, ovarian, endometrial, or pancreatic cancer and very limited evidence to support an association between tomato consumption and reduced risks of prostate, ovarian, gastric, and pancreatic cancers," according to that study's authors.
So, with tomatoes, ketchup and pizza sauce crossed off the list of prostate-protecting foods, Key and others continue the search. Kristal, for instance, is on the executive committee of a randomized trial examining the effects of selenium and/or vitamin E on prostate cancer risk in 35,000 men. Results are expected in 2012, he said.
Said Key, "I am optimistic we will find something. This paper is an important piece of work, but it doesn't look like this is the answer."
More information
For more on vitamins and cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.
more discussion: Forum
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Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Health Tip: Dealing With Dandruff
(HealthDay News) -- Dandruff, also known as seborrheic dermatitis, occurs when flakes of skin develop on the scalp or inside the ear.
The skin condition, which can run in families, may be triggered by stress, fatigue, oily skin, acne or using hair or skin products that contain alcohol, the U.S. National Library of Medicine says.
Infrequent showering or shampooing may also trigger dandruff.
To treat the condition, over-the-counter dandruff or medicated shampoos should be used daily.
Active ingredients in these shampoos include salicylic acid, coal tar, zinc, resorcin, ketoconazole or selenium.
The hair and other affected areas should be washed for about five minutes before rinsing thoroughly.
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The skin condition, which can run in families, may be triggered by stress, fatigue, oily skin, acne or using hair or skin products that contain alcohol, the U.S. National Library of Medicine says.
Infrequent showering or shampooing may also trigger dandruff.
To treat the condition, over-the-counter dandruff or medicated shampoos should be used daily.
Active ingredients in these shampoos include salicylic acid, coal tar, zinc, resorcin, ketoconazole or selenium.
The hair and other affected areas should be washed for about five minutes before rinsing thoroughly.
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Friday, September 07, 2007
Health Tip: Help Prevent Hemorrhoids
(HealthDay News) -- Hemorrhoids are swollen, inflamed veins in the anus or rectum. They may be caused by factors including straining during bowel movements, pregnancy and constipation.
The pain of hemorrhoids can be treated with hemorrhoidal creams, ointments or suppositories, says the National Digestive Diseases Informational Clearinghouse. Warm water baths also can help ease symptoms.
Constipation, the root cause of many cases of hemorrhoids, can be prevented with a diet rich in fiber from fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Drinking plenty of water and regular exercise also can help.
Active cases of constipation may be treated with stool softeners or fiber supplements, the agency says.
The pain of hemorrhoids can be treated with hemorrhoidal creams, ointments or suppositories, says the National Digestive Diseases Informational Clearinghouse. Warm water baths also can help ease symptoms.
Constipation, the root cause of many cases of hemorrhoids, can be prevented with a diet rich in fiber from fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Drinking plenty of water and regular exercise also can help.
Active cases of constipation may be treated with stool softeners or fiber supplements, the agency says.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Health Tip: Get Enough Vitamin D
(HealthDay News) -- Vitamin D is essential in helping the body absorb calcium. It also helps keep a healthy balance of phosphorous and calcium in the blood.
Here are foods that are good sources of vitamin D, courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine:
Dairy products, including cheese, butter, cream and fortified milk.
Fish.
Oysters.
Fortified cereals.
Margarine.
Here are foods that are good sources of vitamin D, courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine:
Dairy products, including cheese, butter, cream and fortified milk.
Fish.
Oysters.
Fortified cereals.
Margarine.
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Kamaraja
