Nearly Half of America’s Youth Have Untreated Mental Illness

It’s usually easy for parents to identify their child’s physical needs, such as warm clothes when it’s cold, nutritious food, and bedtime at a reasonable hour. However, a child’s mental and emotional needs aren’t always as obvious. In fact, mental disorders severe enough to hinder kids from learning or developing properly are quite common, affecting about one in five of America’s youth. These disorders may show up as irritability, nightmares, disobedience, verbal and physical aggression, temper tantrums, hyperactivity and fidgeting, ongoing worry and anxiety, refusal to go to school or poor school performance. Untreated, mental disorders can have a serious impact on a child’s overall health and can lead to more severe mental illness. But tragically, almost half of adolescents who have a mental health disorder go untreated, according to a new survey by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Share and Enjoy:

Consuming Coffee or Tea Could Cut Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

For those of us who need our morning kick-start from coffee, or a little afternoon pick-me-up from tea, it may be pleasantly pleasing to hear that consuming coffee and tea may decrease your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. According to a group of Australian researchers, these liquid refreshments can have a positive impact on blood sugar regulation, whether or not they include caffeine. According to Rachel Huxley, lead author of the new study, and an associate professor and director of the renal and metabolic division at The George Institute for International Health at the University of Sydney in Australia, “There is good evidence that consumption of coffee, including decaffeinated coffee, and tea is independently associated with a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes.” In fact, results of the analysis found that the more coffee you drink, the more you cut the risk of diabetes. Each cup of coffee consumed was linked to a 7 percent reduction in the diabetes risk. The full results of the analysis were recently published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Share and Enjoy:

Simple Urine Test Effective in Detecting Kids Sleep Disorder

Sleep apnea is a breathing disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep. These short stops in breathing usually lasts for 10 to 30 seconds and can happen up to 400 times every night. Men, people who are overweight or over the age of 40 are more likely to have sleep apnea, but it can affect anyone at any age, even children. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a common type of apnea in children, is caused by an obstruction of the airway, such as enlarged tonsils and adenoids. Share and Enjoy:
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Tanning Beds Pose Serious Health Risks

Published on December 3rd, 2009no comments
As the weather turns colder and the sunlight hours dwindle, more and more Americans flock to indoor tanning salons to get that much desired straight-from-the-beach bronze glow. In fact, nearly 30 million people in the United States tan in salons every year, most of them women between the ages of 16 and 49. But before you start baking under the lights, you might want to consider the numerous health risks associated with tanning bed use. Let’s begin with infections. If the surface of the tanning bed isn’t cleaned properly or if the towels you use aren’t washed in hot water, you can get infections like pubic lice (crabs) and warts caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV. Tanning beds and exposure to UV rays can have a detrimental effect on your immune system as well because it reduces the activity level of natural killer cells and T cells. Share and Enjoy:
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Long-Term Exercise Can Slow the Effects of Aging

Published on December 3rd, 2009no comments
It’s no secret that being a couch potato can lead to ill effects on your health. Scientists have long known that regular exercise can go a long way in the prevention of heart disease and cancer. However, a group of German researchers have discovered that the secret to maintaining youth may also be connected to physical activity, and that the key to slowing the aging process may be revealed by looking at the body’s cells. The report was recently published in the journal of the American Heart Association, Circulation. Dr. Ulrich Laufs, a professor of clinical and experimental medicine in the department of internal medicine at Saarland University in Homburg, Germany, and colleagues, found that the white blood cells of endurance athletes had longer telomeres than those of healthy, nonsmoking adults who did not follow a regular exercise program. Telomeres are DNA located at the ends of chromosomes that protect the tips of the chromosomes from damage. Share and Enjoy:
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A shocking new discovery to treat erectile dysfunction

Published on November 30th, 2009no comments
A new treatment has been discovered to help treat erectile dysfunction, however, the men might wince at the thought of this idea. Researchers from Israel have reported promising preliminary results from using low-intensity shock wave therapy to help treat vasculogenic erectile dysfunction (ED). In fact, 15 out of the 20 patients who suffered from mild or moderate ED who have been treated so far had a significant improvement with their erectile function, and in most cases were able to discontinue treatment with phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE-5) inhibitors. Yoram Vardi, M.D., chief of the neuro-urology unit at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, presented the recent findings at the annual meeting of the European Society for Sexual Medicine. He explained that the low-energy shock wave therapy is being increasingly used to help induce regeneration of small coronary vessels in patients that have angina and who are not suitable for angioplasty or coronary surgery. Share and Enjoy:
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High levels of cholesterol contribute to heart failure

Published on November 30th, 2009no comments
Stop for a moment, especially if you’re about to take a big bite of chocolate cake, and think about what happens to your kitchen drain pipes when you pour meat grease or chicken fat down the sink. Over time, this sludge builds up in the pipes, causing them to drain slower or blocking them completely. The same thing can happen to our blood vessels when they are exposed to high levels of cholesterol. LDL slowly builds up in artery walls, causing a thick plaque that can narrow arteries, restrict blood flow, and lead to blood clots. A blocked blood vessel in the brain can trigger a stroke. If the coronary arteries of the heart become blocked, a heart attack occurs. Heart attack is a major risk factor for heart failure, a condition in which damaged or weakened heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs for blood and oxygen. But a new study shows that high levels of cholesterol may significantly raise the risk of heart failure, even for people who never have a heart attack. Share and Enjoy:
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Vigorous exercise cuts stroke risk for men, not women

Published on November 24th, 2009no comments
Moderate-to-high intensity exercise such as jogging, swimming or tennis may help reduce stroke risk in older men but not in women, researchers report. The study included almost 3,300 men and women, average age 69, in Manhattan who were followed for about nine years. During that time, there were 238 strokes among the participants. At the start of the study, 20 percent of the participants said they did regular moderate-to-high intensity exercise, while 41 percent said they did no physical activity. Men who did moderate-to-high intensity exercise were 63 percent less likely to have a stroke than people who didn’t exercise. Over five years, the baseline risk of ischemic stroke (the leading type of stroke) for all study participants was 4.3 percent; 2.7 percent for those who did moderate-to-high intensity exercise and 4.6 percent for those who didn’t exercise. Share and Enjoy:
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Stifled anger at work doubles men’s risk for heart attack

Published on November 24th, 2009no comments
Men who bottle up their anger over unfair treatment at work could be hurting their hearts, a new Swedish study indicates. Men who consistently failed to express their resentment over conflicts with a fellow worker or supervisor were more than twice as likely to have a heart attack or die of heart disease as those who vented their anger, claims a report in the Nov. 24 online edition of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. In fact, ignoring an ongoing work-related conflict was associated with a tripled risk of heart attack or coronary death, the study of almost 2,800 Swedish working men found. Share and Enjoy:
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Parents worry about their kids’ safety on the internet

Published on November 24th, 2009no comments
More than four in five parents say their children use the Internet without adult supervision, but at the same time almost two-thirds are worried about online predators, a new survey has found. The findings, released online Nov. 19 by the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, show that parents have a variety of concerns about their children’s safety on the Internet. The researchers found that 81 percent of parents surveyed said their children aged 9 to 17 use the Internet without being supervised by an adult. Almost half have profiles on social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook; the number grows to two-thirds among kids aged 13 to 17. Share and Enjoy:
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