Sometimes when it comes to drugs, medical procedures, and other healthcare choices - the media doesn't always give the whole picture.
One major drug company is trying to get a new pain medicine (a Cox-2 inhibitor), approved through the Food and Drug Administration. The drug relieves pain while decreasing the risk of stomach ulcers and bleeding – a common problem with aspirin and other pain medicines.
This is the third blog in a series exploring the benefits of eating meals together as a family.
A report from the University of Florida says that one of the real benefits of family meals is the opportunity for conversation that it brings (see the last post in this series). The report goes on to reveal that eating together as a family is also associated with better nutritional quality of food eaten. Here is what they say:
Most people try to faithfully follow the owner's manual for maintaining their car: change the oil every 3000 miles, new oil filter every 50,000 miles, rotate the tires and check their pressure, check the transmission fluid, inspect the brake pads, fill the windshield wiper fluid. Faithful maintenance adds years to the car's life and prevents unwanted breakdowns at inconvenient times.
Sadly, many people don't do the same thing for the most valuable machine – their own body. Preventive maintenance of our bodies, along with regular checkups, can add years of life and prevent unwanted physical breakdowns, too.
Here's an owner’s manual of maintenance procedures and checkup schedules for the human body.
Preventive Maintenance:
Doctors used to prescribe rest as the best treatment for many health problems. However, evidence now shows that exercise is better, helping to build and maintain physical functions instead of rest.
Sports medicine arose from this conflict of advice. Serious athletes knew that if they rested for as long as the doctor prescribed, they would loose aerobic capacity and muscle mass. Then they were out of shape to compete for the rest of the season. Sports doctors began looking for ways to get serious competitors back in the game sooner, and back to training even before that.
Very soon it became evident that athletes who kept exercising had less pain, less muscle loss, and accelerated healing rates. The world of medical professionals took notice, and started prescribing treatments like walking for osteoarthritis in the hip or knee.
This is the second blog in a series that is exploring some benefits of eating meals together as a family.
A report from the University of Florida points out that one of the real benefits of family meals is that it gives the opportunity for conversation. There are real benefits to these mealtime conversations.
Dinner-time conversation expands the vocabulary and reading ability of children. This benefit does not depend on the family's socio-economic status -- children in all families do better when they engage in dinner conversations.
Millions of women take calcium supplements. The U.S Government recommends 1200 mg intake of calcium per day for men and women over the age of 50.
Recent research, just published in the British Medical Journal, show that calcium supplements actually have no beneficial effect on bone density and are actually harmful because they increase the risk of heart attacks.
Scientists at the University of Auckland in New Zealand analyzed 11 calcium supplement studies (without Vitamin D), with more than 12,000 participants. The risk of heart attacks among those taking supplements was 31% higher than those not taking them.
Eating meals together as a family is incredibly important. Here is a statement from a report from the University of Florida on this topic:
In many of today's households, family dinners have become a thing of the past. With busy schedules held by both parents and children, many families rarely have time to eat dinner together. In recent years, nutrition professionals have been promoting family dinners as research demonstrates the benefits that eating together can provide to family members.
You may be wondering, “Why are family dinners so important?”
This is the second in a series of blogs about parent-child connectedness.
Recent research from eight African countries surveyed adolescents to learn rates of different high-risk behaviors, including sex at an early age.
Researchers discovered that 27.3% had experienced sexual debut before age 15. Boys and girls with sexual debut at younger than age 15 were more likely to report alcohol, tobacco and drug use, truancy, poor parental- or guardian-connectedness, sedentary behavior, having been in a physical fight and receiving a serious injury.
Two simple measurements have been found accurately predict the development of coronary heart disease. One is measuring the distance around the waist at the level of the belly button and the second is measuring blood triglyceride levels.
This research was just published based on a study of 25,668 men and women in Norfolk, United Kingdom.
This is the first in a series of blogs about parental connectedness. "Parental connectedness" is a term researchers often use when talking about kids and the risks that they face. So what does it mean to you and me?
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