Its official! Drug Advertising Sells More Drugs.

Sometimes you have to wonder what people are thinking.

In my local paper today, they had a big article about the fact that an experiment was done to see if doctors prescribe a drug a patient asks for because the patient saw the drug on TV even though the patient's condition didn't warrant a prescription.

And surprise, surprise! The experiment showed the doctors are five times more like to prescribe a drug that a patient specifically asks for because the patient saw an ad on television.

Drug companies have known this for years. That is why they spend billions on TV advertising. They know many doctors will go along with a patient if the doctor sees no real harm coming from something a patient wants to do. So if a patient comes and asks for a specific drug for say depression, the doctor is inclined to okay it rather than stand firm and tell the patient that the drug is not needed.

And we all wonder why health care costs just keep going up and up in this country.

Steroids - Not just a man's problem anymore!

Steroid abuse, once primarily confined to male athletes and bodybuilders, has grown alarmingly in recent years among the female population

Girls as young as 9 are getting hooked on steroids - not for the athletic boost that they give, but rather to help develop a toned and sculpeted look like their favorite models and movie stars.

Part of the rise in recent years is due to the growth of of women's athletics but a large portion of it is associated with women trying to develop a certain look. Estimates are that between 5 and 7 percent of middle school and high school girls have tried steroids. And as many as two-thirds of the users are takign steroids for weight control rather than athletic ability.

Side effects experienced by teen girls taking steroids include severe acne, a deeper voice, smaller breasts, irregular periods, excess hair on the face and body, paranoia, depression and fits of anger. Long term effects can include cancer, heart attack and stroke.

Walk 10K Steps a Day for Health

According to the Surgeon General, we should get 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day beyond normal acticities. Also, it doesn't need to be done all at the same time. So you could take a 10 minute walk, do 15 minutes of gardening and maybe 10 minutes of housecleaning throughout the day, this counts towards those figures. However, the goal really is to do an additional 30 minutes of exercise a day over and above your typical daily routine.

Personally, I like to set aside a dedicated exercise period where I do exercisel; walking, riding a bike, etc. And then I figure anything else I do - like walking the dog, working in the yard, etc. is bonus exercise.

For folks who are not able to set aside a dedicated large block of exercise time, it gets a bit harder to remember if you took enough time to do your exercise today.

Here is a way to find out.

A typical person will take about 5-6000 steps in an average day. This is all part of your typical daily routine of living. The goal is to add an additional 4-5000 steps per day - about the amount you would do in a comfortably paced daily 30 minute walk.

10,000 steps sounds like a huge number but you would be amazed at how many steps you are already taking a day. I think the number is huge because we wonder how we are ever going to count all the steps in the day. After all, on a scale of things to think about, this one rates pretty low.

Well, once again technology comes to the rescue. There is a small device called a pedometer that will track all your steps for you automatically. You just clip it on your belt or tie it around your waist and it will record every step that you take that day.

You can find a large variety of pedometers by Oregon Scientific in the $30 to $40 range. All are high quality and have a variety of features associated with them. Some are fairly basic - measuring just how far you walk. Others have advanced features like taking your pulse and letting you know how many calories you have burned.

In addition to being a very inexpensive and practical exercise aid, pedometers are fun because they let you see how much walking you really accumulate during a typical day. It is a great way to visually see your progession towards greater health every day.

Startling news! A little extra weight may be good for you.

Here we go again...

It seems that the latest study by the CDC show that being moderately overweight is actually more healthy for you than being what is considered a normal weight. They do of course point out that being obese is definitely very bad for your health. So don't go run out and start eating everything you want. But maybe it is OK to not worry so much about that last 5 or ten pounds.

The CDC is being very careful in their statement however. They do not want people suddenly thinking it is OK to be overweight and they still plan to continue their aggressive education campaign to help get America slimmer.

If anything comes out of this study, it will be a reevaluation of the BMI (Body Mass Index) numbers which are used to determine if someone is overweight or obese. Currently a BMI of 25 or higher is considered overweight and a BMI of 30 or over is considered obese.

BMI is a simple weight to height ratio type of measurement and a possible end result of this study will be to show that this is an incomplete measure of obesity. And perhaps a new standard will be developed.

Too Much Water Can Kill

Long distance runners and other endurance athletes have long been educated to believe that drinking lots of fluids during a long distance or endurance event was critical. And if you didn't drink enough water, you ran the risk of dehydration.

Researchers - studying 488 runners in the 2002 Bost Marathon found that the bigger danger is in drinking too much fluid (water or sports drinks) rather than not enough. They found that 62 of the 488 runners, more than one in eight, had a serious fluid and salt imbalance after the event. And three of them were in the danger zone.

Hyponatremia - a condition where drinking too much water or other fluids to the point where the salt level in the body drops too much - can develop during marathon races where the runners drink constantly to stave off dehydration.

Runners who actually gained weight (anywhere from 4-11 pounds) during the event and very thin runners are most at risk. Runners who drink sports drinks with very little salt in them are least at risk. The goal of drinking during a race is to replace water that is lost, not to take in more than you are losing.

A good way to learn how much is right for you is to weight yourself before a heavy training session. Then drink and record how much liquid you consume during the trainging. Then weight yourself again. If you find that you weight more after the training than before, you should cut down on your liquid intake. By performing this exercise, you will learn how much liquid you really need to injest during an event and be able to pace yourself accordingly.

Hyponatremia can begin with confusion and lethargy and can progress rapidly to more severe symptoms. They can include twitching, siezures, stupor, coma and even death.

In recent years, hyponatremia has killed several amateur marathon runners as well as competitors in the Marine Corps Marathon.

To learn more about hyponatremia and proper hydration during events, visit http://usatf.org/groups/coaches/library/hydration/.

Looking for exercise equipment at a fair price? Check out our Exercise and Fitness store.

FDA Approves Conditional Silicone Breast Implants

On Wednesday 4/143/05, the FDA health advisors recommended removing the 13 year old ban on silione-gel breast implants. This move came about as Mentor Corp. persuaded the FDA that its newer silicone implants are much more safe and durable than older versions. The company may use these implants only under the following safety conditions set forth by the FDA.

• Prospective patients must sign a consent form acknowledging that they understand the risks of a silicone breast implant including the fact that they may break and require replacement or removal.
  
  
• Mentor may only sell silicone breast implants to board-certified plastic surgeons who complete a special hands-on training program to learn how to insert the implants in a way that minimizes the odds of it breaking.
  
  
• Mentor must create and maintain a registry to track the long term results patients have with the implants.
  
  
• Patients must be educated about the fact that if an implant breaks, the effect of the breakage generally does not cause immediate symptoms. Further they are advised to have an MRI scan after five years and every two years thereafter to check for breakage.
  
  
• Mentor must conduct a 10 year study to determine the percentage of breast implants that will break in that time.
  
  
• The study must be reviewed by an independent data monitor.
  
  
• The results of Mentor's breast implants will be reviewed by the FDA in five years to verify that the implants are performing as expected.
  

Silicone-gel breast implants began selling in 1962 and were banned in 1992 amid health fears. Research since then has shown that they do not cause serious diseases like cancer or lupus but that they can cause infection and scar tissue if they leak and are untreated.

Approximately 264,000 breast enlargements and 63,000 breast reconstructions were performed in the United States in 2003 - the vast majority using salt water filled implants that are sold without restriction. It is estimated that if the silicone breast implants return to the market, 200,000 women may have them installed within the first year.

Hardee's did it again!

A while back Hardee's shocked the fast food world with the Monster Burger - a whopping 1,420 calorie wasit buster.

Now they made another change from low calorie to high calorie - a handmade milkshake that has 715 calories (only slightly more than the old milkshake) but the fat content jumped from 7 grams to 33 grams.

Why the huge increase in fat?

They switched from the ultra processed machine made shake which was makde with 3.5% butterfat ice milk to real 12% butterfat ice cream. And that caused the fat calories to jump but interestingly has an impact on the bottom line of only 15 calories gain over the old milkshake.

I don't know which is better - getting a real hand-made ice cream shake that tastes really good or getting one of these ultra processed, ultra sugarized production line shake. I think I lean towards the real milk shake made with real ice cream and a lot less sugar than the typical fast food shake.