Work Harder Woman! Latest Health News

It’s not just sodas making us fat

And other fun items…..

Women Have To Work Harder

Remember that old line about Ginger Rogers having to be a better dancer than Fred Astaire because she did everything he did, only backwards and in high heels? Well, now new research says she’s not alone, most women say they have to work harder than men.

The study, by women (naturally) researchers at the University of Virginia and Washington State University, found that women in Britain and the US felt they had to work  harder than men did. This matches previous research that found that women frequently have to do a better job than a man to get the same evaluation.

And this is not just because women frequently have to do a full time job and then go home and do the brunt of the housework. The researchers found that even in the work place women felt they had to work harder then men. And the biggest insult is that they frequently get paid less for doing so.

Fewer Resources Mean Greater Cancer Risk

Women who live in the inner city where there are fewer opportunities to buy fresh, healthy food are at greater risk for cancer. That’s the conclusion of a study from Johns Hopkins University.

The study looked at African American living in public housing. They found the majority of the women met just one, or none, of the five dietary goals that are considered essential to  reduce the risk of cancer. Most frequently the women were unlikely to eat a healthy diet, one with a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The reasons are obvious. There are few supermarkets in the inner cities that supply these products. Most families have to travel long distances to buy them, something that is not possible if you rely on public transport.

Secondhand Smoke Causes Firsthand Injury

Want more proof that secondhand smoke can cause real damage to those who breathe it in. All you have to do is take a look at some images taken by researchers at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. They show in glorious technicolor just how damaging secondhand smoke is.

The researchers used a new kind of MRI to look deep into the lungs of non-smokers who were exposed to secondhand smoke for a long time. They found injuries to the lungs that could have long-term health consequences for them, everything from lung cancer to emphysema.
All the subjects studied were adults but the findings have serious implications for the 35% of children who grow up in homes where regular smoking occurs.

Good Cholesterol Offers Insurance

Having a lot of good cholesterol won’t just help protect you against a heart attack, it could also help you recover faster from a stroke if you have one.

A study in the journal Neurology found that people who have low levels of HDL or “good” cholesterol, and high levels of homocysteine (an amino acid acquired mostly from eating red meat) are at increased risk of memory problems and long-term disability problems after suffering a stroke.

The researchers say having high levels of HDL could help reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke. And if you do suffer a brain attack, having a lot of good cholesterol could help you make a more complete recovery.

Eating a little less red meat probably couldn’t hurt either.

It’s Not Just Sodas Making Us Fat!

Sweet, sugary sodas are often cited as one of the big culprits in the growing problem of obesity in the US. But now a new study says sodas are only part of the problem.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina say over the past 37 years the number of calories that adults get from beverages of all kinds has nearly doubled. That doesn’t just mean sodas, it also means fruit drinks, alcohol, even those fun-keep-you-up-all-night energy drinks.

What does that mean in simple language. Basically that the average adult is taking in an extra 222 calories from drinks than they used to. Over the course of a week, that’s more than 1500 mostly empty calories.

Those calories may taste sweet going down, but they’re hell to get off.

Pedometers Help Keep You on Track

You’ve probably seen those people walking around, the ones who keep checking their hip to see how far they’ve gone. Well, don’t laugh. Turns out those little pedometers could be a big help in keeping them healthy.

Researchers at Stanford Medical School found that people using pedometers, who also set goals for how much activity they wanted to do, walked about one mile more per day than people who did not have a pedometer or a set goal.

The researchers say being able to monitor how close they were to reaching their set goal served to help motivate people to do more.

And here’s some even better news. As they took an extra 2,000 steps a day, the people with pedometers also lost a little weight along the way and their blood pressure improved. Now the researchers say they don’t know if those two benefits are connected to the extra activity, but really, come on, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out.

New moms needs zzzz to lose lbs

New mothers who want to lose the weight they put on while pregnant have to do more than watch, they also need to get more sleep.

A study by researchers at Kaiser Permanente and Harvard Medical School found that mothers who reported sleeping less than five hours a day, by the time their baby was six months old, were three times more likely to be struggling to return to their pre-pregnancy weight, compared to mothers who slept seven or more hours a day.

Other studies have shown that too little sleep can cause hormonal changes that increase a person’s risk of being overweight. This shows that if you are overweight, too little sleep means you are more likely to stay that way.

The hard part of course comes in trying to persuade the new baby to let you get that extra sleep.

Smoking ban saves non-smokers lives

Just because you don’t smoke does not mean you are not at risk for some of the deadly side-effects of cigarette smoke.

A new study out of Indiana University found that after a local smoking ban was introduced the number of hospital admissions for heart attacks dropped 70 percent among non-smokers. Smokers, however, saw no similar benefits.

The researchers say that the decline is because exposure to second-hand smoke, even for as little as 30 minutes, can quickly increase a person’s risk for heart attacks. That’s because it constricts the blood vessels and reduces the amount of oxygen that can be carried around the body by the blood. This is true even if you have no other risk factors for heart disease.

It’s yet one more power piece of evidence on the public benefits of banning smoking.

A Step Towards a Healthier You
You’ve heard it before. Taking the stairs is good for you. A study in the American Journal of Health Promotion found that using the stairs seven minutes a day could reduce a person’s risk of developing heart disease by around 60 percent. No small achievement.

But how do you get people to use the stairs? Well, researchers in England put up colorful signs urging people to take the stairs, on the steps of a staircase in a shopping mall. Then they counted how many people took the 15 steps before and after the signs went up. Over six weeks the number taking the stairs doubled. Even though it was right next to an escalator.

It’s an indication that with regular reminders we can change our behavior, for the better.