People’s Pharmacy: Don’t let drugs cause disability. 2D
HealthToday
T H U R S D A Y , M A Y 31, 2007
SECTION D
WWW.TUSCALOOSANEWS.COM
STUDIES
Alcohol can help cholesterol
Researchers have long known that people who drink moderate amounts of alcohol appear to be less likely to develop heart disease. Much of the benefit has been attributed to the higher levels of HDL cholesterol — often referred to as the “good” cholesterol — found in moderate drinkers. The lipoproteins in this kind of cholesterol are believed to help the body fight off heart disease. But a new study suggests that
FITNESS alcohol may play another role in cholesterol and health. Moderate drinking may encourage the formation of larger lipoprotein particles in both HDL and LDL, the “bad” cholesterol associated with cardiovascular problems. Larger particles in HDL, the researchers wrote in the online edition of The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, have recently been found to appear better at fighting off heart disease. And larger particles in LDL appear to be less effective at causing it.
In that case, the higher the number of large LDL particles, and the lower the number of small ones, the better the chance of avoiding heart disease. The researchers, led by Dr. Kenneth J. Mukamal of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, a Harvard affiliate, matched the alcohol intake of more than 1,800 people with their cholesterol levels and the size of cholesterol particles. Those who had one or more drinks a week had the greatest number of large LDL particles. Those who had seven to 13 drinks a week had the lowest number of small ones. — New York Times News Service
PREVENTION
Tap dancing boosts fitness There’s no tap dancing around getting in shape. You have to sweat. Body weight exercises, such as toe taps, performed at a quick pace can dramatically improve your overall strength and your cardiovascular endurance. You can do them just about anywhere. All you need is a bench. Place your right foot on a bench so that your knee is at a 90-degree angle. Push up from your right leg while simultaneously raising your left foot
to tap the bench. Do not lock your knee at the top of the exercise as you want to keep the tension on your right leg throughout the movement. Immediately bring your left foot down and your right leg back to being parallel with the ground. Try 15 to 20 rapid repetitions and then switch legs. Key points: Keep your abs tight, shoulders back and your weight on your working leg throughout the exercise. If you have been sedentary, begin at a slow pace and use a bench that is lower to the ground. As your cardio and muscular strength improves, you can pick up the pace and the increase the elevation. — McClatchy Newspapers
NUTRITION
DISEASE
Choosing the right sunscreen
How well do you know labels?
Regular sunscreens can work on the face as well as the body. But there also are several facespecific products that anyone with sensitive or acne-prone skin might want to consider to avoid undesirable side effects that might detract from the primary goal — keeping skin healthy. Some tips on choosing the right facial sunscreen: ■ Those with sensitive skin should look for products labeled both fragrance-free and hypoallergenic, says Dr. Amy Wechsler, a Manhattan-based dermatologist. These folks also should never slather themselves something new An SPF in without first doing 50 can be a three-day test on small patch of an SPF 6 askin, she says. by the end ■ Anyone who is to acne of the day. prone should wear an oilfree product, says Wechsler, a member of The American Academy of Dermatology and The Skin Cancer Foundation. Conversely, people with dry skin can use most formulas as their primary moisturizer. “Sunscreens are pretty moisturizing. It’s great because it’s fast and one-stop shopping. It’s a little liberating. It comes off at night when you take off your makeup,” she says. ■ Regular facial moisturizers or makeup with added sunscreen probably aren’t enough to offer full protection — at least during the summer months, Wechsler says. And the SPF power of any sunscreen diminishes throughout the day so she recommends beginning with a high number. An SPF 50 can be an SPF 6 by the end of the day. ■ Mineral makeup with SPF can be effective; the key is putting enough on. ■ Wechsler encourages using a separate stick product for lips, not because they work better but because people are more likely to use it. “A stick is more cosmetically elegant and it’s what we’re used to,” Wechsler, also a psychiatrist, says. ■ Color cosmetics can be applied over any sunscreen, bronzer or moisturizer with SPF without diminshing the UV protection, according to Wechsler. But it goes both ways: UV rays can go through makeup if there’s no sunscreen underneath. — The Associated Press
It’s so difficult to figure out what labels mean. You buy something that promises it is made with “pure” ingredients or that it is “calorie free.” But is it? Here’s a quiz to find out how much you know about the labels on the foods you buy. True or false? “Made from” means the food started out with the ingredient, but it doesn’t mean the food contains a significant amount of the item. “Natural” means the food is high in nutrition. “Pure” means the food is regulated and contains no additives. “Calorie free” means the food has zero calories per serving. “Light” indicates that the food has one-third fewer calories and onehalf the fat of the regular version. “Reduced calorie” means the food has 25 percent fewer calories than the regular version. “Cholesterol free” means the food has no cholesterol per serving. “Lean” means the food has fewer than 10 grams of fat per serving. “Fresh” indicates the food is unprocessed, uncooked and unfrozen.
TIP
Tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world. About half the people who smoke regularly today — an estimated 650 million people — will die from tobacco use. Those are the statistics the World Health Organization is using to promote World No Tobacco Day, which is observed today. WHO is using the day to firmly support this year’s 100 percent smoke-free environments as the only effective way to protect the public from exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke.
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STAFF PHOTO | MICHAEL E. PALMER
Marvin Hinton, seen at his Northport home on May 23, received a bone-marrow transplant after being diagnosed with leukemia. The transplant saved his life.
2006 racial makeup of donors Caucasian 3 million (48%)
Unknown 1.5 million (24%) Latino 580,000 (9%)
Other 233,000 (4%)
Asian Black 415,000 480,000 (7%) (8%) approximately 6.3 million donors
Hip bone
Bone marrow donors sought Minorities encouraged to participate in registry drive By Meredith Cummings Community News Editor
Where to find it
The hip bone is one of the usual places to extract marrow or stem cells. Others include: ■ Lower leg ■ Ribs ■ Breast plate ■ Vertebra ■ Umbilical cord
How it’s done Marrow is extracted through a hollow aspiration needle
Marrow:
■ Red blood cells ■ White blood cells Lymphocyte Monocyte Eosinophil Bosophil Neurophil ■ Platelets
Skin Bone
Marrow
STAFF GRAPHIC | ANTHONY BRATINA
M
ar vin Hinton was always tired after a long shift at the BFGoodrich plant. But then there came a time it was different. He was more tired than he should be after a regular day at work. “I was so tired, I couldn’t walk to my car,” said Hinton, 44, recalling the stunning fatigue he felt in January 2005. The next day — when he literally couldn’t get out of bed — his wife, Pricilla, took him to the hospital. Strep throat was a possibility because of the pain in his neck, but the diagnosis turned out to be something far scarier and sent the Hintons into shock. “I thought I just had the flu or something,” Marvin Hinton said. But it was leukemia. “I was thinking, ‘I don’t have long to be here,’ ” Hinton said, adding that his only encounter with leukemia was from watching the movie “Brian’s Song,” in which the main character dies from leukemia. “I wanted to cry,” Hinton said. “It brought tears to my eyes, but I didn’t want the doctors to see me, a grown man, cry.” But he’s not sad anymore after a bone marrow transplant saved his life.
INTERESTED? A bone marrow registry drive will be 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday at the Hay Center on the Stillman College campus and 7:30 a.m.2 p.m. June 7 in the Willard Auditorium at DCH Regional Medical Center. For more information, visit the DCH Web site at www.dchsystem.com or call 205-759-7209. For general information about marrow donation, visit the NMDP Web site at www.marrow.org or call 1-800-MARROW2.
Would you ever donate bone marrow? Visit www.tuscaloosa news.com to vote in our Web poll. Now Hinton is crusading for awareness of bone marrow donation, especially among minorities, who historically have not been a large percentage of donors. Because some traits are unique to people of specific ancestry, the most likely donor match is from the patient’s racial or ethnic group. For example, The National Marrow Donor Program Registry contains more than 6 million volunteer donors, but fewer than 600,000 are Hispanic, and fewer than SEE MARROW | 3D
Source: “The Family Nutrition Book” by William Sears and Martha Sears (Little, Brown and Company, $18.95, 432 pages)
Answers: 1) True; 2) False; 3) False; 4) False. It means it has less than 5 calories per serving. 5) True; 6) True; 7) False. It means the food has no more than 2 milligrams of cholesterol per serving. 8) True. 9) True — McClatchy Newspapers
CHILDREN
Group says no TV before age 2
For many families, apparently, it is never too early to watch television. Researchers reported that 40 percent of infants are regular viewers of television or videos by 3 months, and 90 percent are watching regularly by age 2. The researchers interviewed more than 1,000 parents in February 2006, and found that the average amount of viewing time for all children up to 2 years was a little more than 40 minutes a day. Among 2-year-olds, an average day included more than one and a half hours of TV. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under 2 watch no TV at all, but the study found that the average age at which children begin watching is 9 months. Almost a third of parents said the programs their children watched taught them something or were “good for his or her brain,” and about a fifth said they let their children watch because they needed some time to get things done on their own. Almost no one claimed that watching TV constituted “family time” or “quality time.” Only one-third watched TV with their children. That is noteworthy, the researchers write, “in the context of the claim by producers of content for young children that their goal is to promote parent-child interaction.” — New York Times News Service