Provided periodically ... check back for new information
May 1, 2008
1.
Although each year more men than women become infected with
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), this gap is closing.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, if new HIV infections continue at their current
rate worldwide, women with HIV may soon outnumber men with
HIV.
2. Water on the knee is a general
term used to describe excess fluid that accumulates in or
around your knee joint. Your doctor may refer to water on
the knee as a knee "effusion." Water on the knee may be the
result of trauma, overuse injuries, or an underlying
disease or condition. The type of fluid that builds up in
your knee depends on the underlying disease, condition or
type of traumatic injury that caused excess fluid.
3. Short-term studies indicate that
caffeine impairs insulin action but not necessarily blood
sugar (glucose) levels in young, healthy adults. However,
in individuals with type 2 diabetes, the impact of caffeine
on insulin action may be associated with a small but
detectable rise in blood sugar levels, particularly after
meals. The amount of caffeine noted to have caused this
effect was about 500 milligrams (or the equivalent of five
cups of plain, brewed coffee) a day. For individuals
with type 2 diabetes who are struggling to control their
blood sugar levels, limiting your caffeine intake may
provide a benefit.
4. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
not only increases the risk of first-time breast cancer, it
also makes recurrence of the malignancy more likely,
according to a report in the Journal of the National Cancer
Institute,
5. Reducing the levels of a certain
protein secreted by the body may be as powerful a tool in
slowing heart disease and preventing heart attacks and
cardiac-related death as lowering cholesterol, two teams of
researchers reported. Some heart disease experts said the
new studies offered persuasive evidence that
doctors should focus on keeping CRP(a type of protein)
levels low in patients with severe heart disease.
6. Nearly two-thirds of the United
States population is overweight or obese. Anyone more than
100 pounds overweight is considered morbidly obese (highly
susceptible to diseases).
7. Numerous studies in animals, and five
others in humans, have convinced experts that hands-only
CPR from an untrained bystander is usually as effective as
CPR with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation performed by a person
trained in the technique.
8. It only takes a modest weight
gain for a woman to experience weight discrimination, but
men can gain far more weight before experiencing similar
bias, a new study shows. The notion that society is less
tolerant of weight gain in women than men is just one of
the findings suggested by a new report.
9. The nation's tuberculosis rate dropped
last year to its lowest level since national reporting of
the rate began in 1953. But the decline is slowing
according to recent health statistics.
10. Fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan
meant that polio eradication did not go well in those
countries in 2007, a World Health Organization report said.
They are two of the last four nations that have not
eliminated the disease (others are India and Nigeria).
*These tips, although from reliable sources, are not meant
as a substitute for professional medical advice.