Shouldn't We Practice Health Care At Home?

Brushing our teeth is good for our heart. Of approximately 12,000 adults in a study published in the British Medical Journal, 62% saw their dentist every 6 months and 71% brushed twice daily. More importantly, the study found that those who didn't brush twice daily had 70% greater risk of heart disease - and this finding held after data was adjusted for other heart attack risk factors. Insufficient brushing causes gum disease, which causes inflammation. Inflammation contributes to clogged arteries, which can cause heart disease. This is information we need to brush up - and down - on.

New information has linked belly fat to dementia. In a study published in the journal Annals of Neurology, 733 participants - average age 60 - had an MRI to measure brain size and a CT scan to measure abdominal fat levels. The study correlated higher levels of abdominal fat with less brain volume. Previous studies have shown that people with less brain volume have a greater risk of dementia. Then there are the studies that have shown belly fat increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. Considering the evidence, there's nothing funny about belly laughs.

There's also evidence that tanning beds are more dangerous than previously thought. A study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention found that melanoma risk was higher for people who tanned indoors. From questionnaires and telephone interviews of more than 2,200 people, researchers determined that people who used tanning beds for more than 10 years, had spent more than 50 hours in tanning beds or had more than 100 tanning sessions increased their risk of melanoma 74%. Melanoma kills about 6,800 people every year. Because the World Health Organization has classified tanning beds as carcinogenic, stricter "s-tan-dards" are needed.

Beds for sleeping, however, are safe. In fact, sleep can make us smarter and faster. A federal survey of 8,000 families followed children from 9 months old to the start of kindergarten. During that time the parents were repeatedly questioned about their children's bedtime. Children of parents who had rules about bedtime scored about 6% higher in vocabulary and 7% higher in math. In a study done at Stanford University, football players who slept 10 hours a night for 6 weeks dropped one-tenth second off their 40-yard dash time and experienced dramatically less daytime fatigue. Studies like these help us wake up to the importance of sleep.

Article Source: http://www.myadspost.com

Knight Pierce Hirst takes a second look at what makes life interesting and it takes only second at knightwatch.typepad.com

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