Doctors Warn Teens: "Don’t Take 'The Cinnamon Challenge'”

04/23/2013

It seemed like a playful YouTube challenge that was all in good fun but the dangerous prank has led to a slew of kids being hospitalized or sent to poison control centers nationwide. 

Doctors are warning kids and teens alike not to take “The Cinnamon Challenge.” The fad dares kids to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon in 60 seconds without any water. But the challenge can cause choking, throat irritation, breathing problems, and a malfunctioning of the lungs, according to a report published in the journal Pediatrics.

Thirty teens nationwide needed medical attention after taking the challenge and trips to poison control centers have gone from 51 to 222 visits in the last year. People with asthma or other respiratory problems are at a greater risk of a reaction. 

The Washington Post reports:

Thousands of YouTube videos depict kids attempting the challenge, resulting in an “orange burst of dragon breath” spewing out of their mouths and sometimes hysterical laughter from friends watching the stunt, said report co-author Dr. Steven E. Lipshultz, a pediatrics professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

But the challenge is no joke considering that it can cause scarring in the lungs amongst other side effects. 

The New York Times reports that "Google recorded 2.4 million hits for the topic in 2012, up from 200,000 in 2009. A Web site devoted to the challenge claims that more than 40,000 videos have been posted on YouTube..."

Dejah Reed, 16 took the challenge four times and on the fourth time she started laughing and then began to choke. Her father came in and noticed the she had turned “a pale bluish color. It was very terrifying. I threw her over my shoulder” and drove to a nearby emergency room, reported on The Washington Post. 

It’s a YouTube phenomenon gone terribly wrong. Parents and teens should be aware that this is no joke, but rather, it's a dangerous proposition.

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Read More: Doctors Afraid to Tell Parents That Their Kids are Overweight

20 Foods that Lower Blood Pressure

04/21/2013

High blood pressure is one of leading risk factors for cardiovascular disease, heart failure, stroke, and kidney failure.

Blood pressure refers to the pushing of blood against artery walls, and if this remains high overtime it can cause serious damage to the body's organs.

About 1 in 3 American adults have high blood pressure. Here are the numbers: Normal blood pressure is up to 120/80, prehypertension (pre-high blood pressure) is 120-139/80-89, and high blood pressure is anything above 140/90. 

Ninety percent of indviduals above the age of 55 develop high blood pressure during their lifetime. 

You can reduce your blood pressure by cutting your salt intake by just 1 teaspoon per day (this includes sodium in processed foods), reducing caffeine consumption, exercising daily, losing weight, reducing stress, reducing alcohol intake, adding in potassium, and adding in vitamin D.

Since diet is your daily medicine, why not adopt a diet that helps to reduce your blood pressure? Here are 20 foods that lower blood pressure. 

Vegetables

1. Dark Leafy Greens

2. Potatoes 

3. Beets

4. Chili Peppers

5. Tomatoes (though technically a fruit, used in more savory vegetable dishes)

6. Garlic  

7. Onion

Fruits 

8. Raisins 

9. Bananas

10. Watermelon

11. Berries  

12. Grapes

13. Oranges

14. Kiwi

15. Grapefruit

Seeds/Legumes

16. Beans

17. Flax Seeds 

Other 

18. Dark Chocolate

19. Olive Oil 

20. Rolled Oats 

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Bubble Tea Tapioca Balls May Be Carcinogenic

04/20/2013

It’s a kitchy trend in the U.S. that started in Taiwan in the 1980’s.

Bubble tea, often called boba tea, milk tea, or pearl tea is a mix of tea, milk, sugar, and giant black tapioca balls (about the size of a small marble). It comes with an extra wide straw to slurp up the sweet, chewy balls. But new research out of Germany’s University of Aachen has found traces of PCBs in the famous tapioca balls, according to The Huffington Post. 

The samples, which came from an unnamed chain in Northwest Germany and were sourced from a Taiwanese producer, contained PCBs. PCBs are a group of chemicals that were banned in the U.S. in 1979 because, according to the EPA, “clear evidence showed that the PCBs cause cancer in animals.”

PCBs have also been linked to other health problems related to immune, endocrine, reproductive, and nervous system function.

"[What we found] includes in particular styrene, acetophenone, and brominated substances that shouldn't be in food at all," scientist Manfred Möller, of the Institute of Hygiene and Environmental Medicine at the University Hospital Aachen, told German newspaper The Local, notes the AFP.

A leading Taiwanese drink manufacturer, along with the equivalent of the Taiwanese FDA have disputed the study.

Researchers also identified choking hazards with the tapioca balls, which isn’t terribly unexpected. 

"Especially with children aged up to four years, there is a risk of foreign objects accidentally entering the lungs," said Dr. Andreas Hensel in a press release on the Institute's website, reported on The Huffington Post. "And that is precisely what can happen when the bubbles are sucked up through a straw."

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Exercise May Offset Alcohol’s Damage

04/19/2013

Regular exercise may offset some of the brain damage associated with binge drinking.

According to a new study reported on LiveScience, damage in the brain’s white matter was linked to heavy drinking and found to be much more common in those who rarely exercise.

White matter forms the cables that link various parts of the brain. When white matter is damaged, it’s more difficult for the brain to communicate information efficiently. 

Researchers looked at 60 people, scanning their brains and asking them questions about alcohol consumption and exercise regimens. Habits varied widely, from no drinks to 300 drinks in a two month period. And from no exercise at all, to 420 minutes per week over a three month period. 

This doesn’t mean that you can drink excessively and expect to repair the damage through exercise because alcohol also does damage to the body’s organs. More research is still needed to figure out why this happens.

Exercise and Brain Shrinkage

When you exercise the brain is better able to resist shrinkage. Exercise seems to slow the brain’s decay because just like other organs, it is made up of tissues that diminish with underuse and age. Exercise also seems to jumpstart the brain’s ability to make new cells. 

The Washington Post, analyzed data from 691 adults in their early seventies and found that exercise may be just as important for mental maintenance as social interaction and intellectually challenging activities. MRI scans showed less shrinkage in the brains of those that exercised regularly. Atrophy was the most noticeable in elderly men that did not exercise.

When it comes to keeping your brain healthy, exercise is as good for your brain as it is for your body. This isn't to say that every time you overdo it with cocktails, exercise can equalize the damage, but if once in a blue moon you overdo it, sweating it out may be your best bet. 

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Read More: Exercise Protects the Elderly Against Brain Shrinkage

Taste of Beer Triggers the Feeling of Euphoria

04/17/2013

A study conducted at the University of Indiana found that just the taste of beer alone triggers a release of dopamine in the brain, the chemical that’s linked to addiction. In a study, 49 men were given small samples of beer, enough to taste but not enough to become intoxicated. Immediately afterwards their brains were scanned and the results were compared with the same amount of gatorade and water, according to a story reported in LiveScience.

The Taste of a Brew

Researchers noticed a significantly higher release of dopamine in the brain when compared to gatorade or water. It was even greater among those with a family history of alcoholism. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers. It regulates movement and emotional responses. Dopamine not only helps the brain see rewards, it also motivates you to go out and get them. It's the chemical in the brain linked to addiction issues and it tends to cause people to relapse.

"We believe this is the first experiment in humans to show that the taste of an alcoholic drink alone, without any intoxicating effect from the alcohol, can elicit this dopamine activity in the brain's reward centers," the study's senior author, neuroscientist David Kareken of the Indiana University School of Medicine, said in a statement, reported on LiveScience.

Addiction in the Brain

The research points to how addiction works in the brain and while much more research needs to be done, it speaks to why some people can't have just one drink. 

"This paper demonstrates that taste alone impacts on the brain functions associated with desire," Peter Anderson, a professor of substance use, policy and practice at Newcastle University, U.K., said in a statement. But Anderson noted that “With regard to the family history effect, this is quite difficult to assess and know what it means so we can’t be too sure of an effect or how strong it might be."

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Read More: 3 Easy Steps to Stop a Beer Belly in Its Tracks

New Study Links a Western Diet to Unnatural Aging

04/16/2013

Western style diets, made up of fried foods, red meat, cheese, and sweets, have drawn criticism for years. They’ve been tied to heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers, but a new study, published in the American Journal of Medicine, took it a step further, looking at overall longevity and successful aging. 

"The impact of diet on specific age-related diseases has been studied extensively, but few investigations have adopted a more holistic approach to determine the association of diet with overall health at older ages," says lead investigator Tasnime Akbaraly, PhD, Inserm, Montpellier, France to Science Daily. "We examined whether diet, assessed in midlife, using dietary patterns and adherence to the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), is associated with aging phenotypes, identified after a mean 16-year follow-up."

AHEI indexes the quality of your diet for combatting specific diseases. The research team was looking for a diet that could reduce heart disease and promote healthy aging. They followed 3,775 men and 1,575 women with a mean age of 51 from 1985-2009. Researchers looked at their hospital data and results of screenings over 5-year intervals. Researchers placed people in the following categories, as reported on Science Daily.

1. Ideal aging, defined as free of chronic conditions and high performance in physical, mental, and cognitive functioning tests -- 4.0 percent

2. Nonfatal cardiovascular event -- 12.7 percent

3. Cardiovascular death -- 2.8 percent

4. Noncardiovascular death -- 7.3 percent

5. Normal aging -- 73.2 percent

Researchers found that those that followed a Western diet, were more likely to age in an unhealthy manner.

"We showed that following specific dietary recommendations such as the one provided by the AHEI may be useful in reducing the risk of unhealthy aging, while avoidance of the 'Western-type foods' might actually improve the possibility of achieving older ages free of chronic diseases and remaining highly functional," notes Dr. Akbaraly to Science Daily. "A better understanding of the distinction between specific health behaviors that offer protection against diseases and those that move individuals towards ideal aging may facilitate improvements in public health prevention packages."

The AHEI recommends an abundance of whole grains, fruits and vegetables (more vegetables than fruits), healthy fats, lean proteins such as fish, beans, and nuts, low fat and fat free dairy, and a daily multivitamin. It also advocates daily abundant activity. 

I’d take it a step further and say avoid meat in most circumstances. When you do eat meat or cheese, choose organic to avoid antibiotics and hormones. Additionally, keep your diet as unprocessed as possible, avoid added sugars, and get enough omega 3 fatty acids. 

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Read More: 10 Sure Signs of Longevity and How They Directly Connect to a Green Lifestyle

Are You Genetically Predisposed to Be Lazy?

04/10/2013

Today, 97 percent of Americans don’t get 30 minutes of exercise per day, the minimum federal exercise recommendation. It's hard to believe that many people don't exercise because they were born lazy. Even still, a new study is shining some light on our predisposition toward activity.

New research from the University of Missouri suggests that certain genetic traits make us more likely to be couch potatoes. Frank Booth, a professor at Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, along with researcher Michael Roberts, were able to breed lazy and active rats. 

Breeding Lazy Rats

"We have shown that it is possible to be genetically predisposed to being lazy," Booth said to Science Daily. "This could be an important step in identifying additional causes for obesity in humans, especially considering dramatic increases in childhood obesity in the United States. It would be very useful to know if a person is genetically predisposed to having a lack of motivation to exercise, because that could potentially make them more likely to grow obese."

The study, published in the American Journal of Physiology, found that you could predispose rats toward being active or lazy. Rats were put in cages with running wheels to measure how much each rat chose to run. The 26 most active rats were bred and the 26 most inactive rats were bred separately. Researchers did this for 10 generations of rats. In the end, the rats that were considered the most active ran on the treadmill 10 times more than the rats that were considered the least active. 

RNA Sequencing

Researchers looked at each rat's cell mitochondria and RNA sequencing. Cell mitochondria are where each cell's energy is generated. The expectation was that these would be different in active versus lazy rats. But researchers actually found the most difference in the RNA sequencing. 

"While we found minor differences in the body composition and levels of mitochondria in muscle cells of the rats, the most important thing we identified were the genetic differences between the two lines of rats," Roberts said to Science Daily. "Out of more than 17,000 different genes in one part of the brain, we identified 36 genes that may play a role in predisposition to physical activity motivation."

While predisposition is only one part of the exercise puzzle, it could help scientists unlock yet another cause of America's obesity epidemic. 

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Read More: How Exercise Can Make You Smarter

Baldness a Signal of Heart Disease?

04/08/2013

For men and women alike, baldness isn’t exactly a welcomed sign of maturity. And for some it comes long before old age has set in. But for the most part, we’ve long seen baldness as a cosmetic issue rather than an indicator of other health problems.

But a new study reported in The New York Times, has found that baldness may indicate an increased risk of coronary heart disease. The risk is only linked to male pattern baldness, the most common form which occurs in 70 percent of men at some point in their lives. It’s associated with the top of the head, rather than a receding hair line. 

The study, published in BMJ Open, found that increased baldness was associated with a 30-40 percent increase in the risk of heart disease when compared to men with a full head of hair. The risk was associated with men ages 55-60, as well as older men. The more severe the baldness, the larger the risk, according to the story. 

The study reports that “Vertex baldness [male pattern baldness], but not frontal baldness, is associated with an increased risk of CHD. The association with CHD depends on the severity of vertex baldness and also exists among younger men. Thus, vertex baldness may be more closely associated with atherosclerosis than frontal baldness, but the association between male pattern baldness and CHD deserves more investigation.”

Researchers think that risk factors like hypertension, high cholesterol, and smoking, may also impact baldness. 

“It may be premature to confirm this relationship on the basis of only six studies,” said a co-author, Dr. Kazuo Hara, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Tokyo to The New York Times. “But the ultimate aim is to be able to predict the risk for heart disease more precisely in clinical practice.”

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Read More: 4 Risk Factors That Increase Your Risk of Heart Attack by 50 Percent

Ouch! Allergy Shots Under Your Tongue?

04/07/2013

It’s common to desensitize people to intense allergy symptoms by using small injections of the allergen. The treatment involves a small amount of purified extracts derived from common allergens like pollen, mold spores, animal dander, dust mites, and insect venom to stimulate the immune system to fight allergies safely. The injections begin in small doses and increase on a weekly and biweekly basis. 

While such treatments can be effective, they’re time consuming and no one wants to receive injections if they don’t have to. But new studies have shown the effectiveness of putting the allergens under the tongue in a watered down solution. Although the treatment has not been approved by the FDA, it’s widely used in Europe, according to The New York Times.

In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, strong evidence found that the treatment improved allergy symptoms by 40 percent compared to a placebo. According to the study, “The overall evidence provides a moderate grade level of evidence to support the effectiveness of sublingual immunotherapy for the treatment of allergic rhinitis and asthma, but high-quality studies are still needed to answer questions regarding optimal dosing strategies.”

“Any type of immunotherapy can potentially prevent asthma and new allergies from developing,” said the lead author, Dr. Sandra Y. Lin, an associate professor of otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins to The New York Times. “Sublingual opens the therapy up to young patients who resist shots. That’s the most exciting thing — you can make an impact by treating the disease and preventing asthma.”

Allergies plague more people than ever before. If your allergies aren’t bad enough to warrant immunotherapy but you still don’t want to take harsh medications, here are some tips for removing both indoor and outdoor allergy triggers. 

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Read More: Eating Peanuts During Pregnancy Could Reduce the Deadly Allergy in Your Baby

More Unmarried Couples Live Together Than Ever Before

04/06/2013

More couples are choosing to live together before they get married, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Some of these couples may even have little to no intention of getting married.

Between 2006 and 2010, 48 percent of heterosexual couples ages 15 to 44 said they were not married to their spouse. That’s up from 43 percent in 2002 and 34 percent in 1995, reported in LiveScience.

Even more fascinating, just 23 percent said they were married when they first lived together, compared to 30 percent in 2002 and 39 percent in 1995. The percentages are changing in a big way within a short period of time. 

What’s behind the new numbers? One of the big reasons is social acceptance. More of those around us don’t see a problem with unmarried couples living together, or in some cases, living together and not intending to get married.

For those that do want to get married, it’s the icing on the cake--meaning they want a good job, good relationship, financial security, and to be done with their education before they get married. Whereas in decades past, these were issues you attacked together, as a married couple. Marriage is delayed, but for many it’s still a goal. 

Here are some key facts from the CDC report seen on LiveScience:

• The length of time people live together before marriage is increasing, from 13 months in 1995 to 22 months in the 2006 to 2010 survey.
• White women and those with a higher education were more likely to get married during the study period, compared with Hispanic and black women, and those with less education. For instance, 53 percent of women with a bachelor's degree or higher got married over a three year period, compared to 30 percent of those with less than a high school diploma.
• Nearly one in five women (19 percent) became pregnant within the first year of cohabitation.
• Fewer cohabiting women now get married soon after becoming pregnant — in the 2006 to 2010 survey, 19 percent of cohabiting women got married within 6 months of becoming pregnant, compared to 32 percent in 1995.

Additionally, births to couples that live together, but are not married, account for half of all live births. Researchers say that it’s not whether the couples are married that influences whether kids come from strong families, but whether kids feel that their parent's relationship is steady and secure. 

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Read More: 10 Ways To Tell if Your Marriage Will Last