On the left, a laundry pod. On the right, gummy candies. (Photo courtesy of Wall Street OTC)
Catch up with Beacon Urgent Care and our Weekly Health News Digest. Here are seven selected stories from the world of health news that we shared on our social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, and Google+. Make sure to follow us on social media for the best health news on the web!
Laundry detergent pods ‘pose serious poisoning risk to young children’. From Medical News Today:
Since their introduction into supermarkets in the US in 2010, laundry detergent pods have grown in popularity. Convenience is the main appeal of these products; instead of having to measure out laundry powder, a user can simply pop a pre-measured detergent pod straight into the washing machine.
But although laundry detergent pods have their benefits, co-author Dr. Marcel J. Casavant, chief of toxicology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, points out that the products may be appealing to young children.
“Laundry detergent pods are small, colorful and may look like candy or juice to a young child,” he says. “It can take just a few seconds for children to grab them, break them open and swallow the toxic chemicals they contain or get the chemicals in their eyes.”
They’re easy to use and transport, but improper storage of laundry and other detergent pods (like dishwasher soap) can lead to catastrophic injuries for your little ones. According to the article, 79.7% of cases related to laundry pod injury and poisoning were due to ingestion, and exposure was most common among children aged 1 and 2 years. Eye injury and vomiting were among the worst symptoms of exposure.
Remember to treat your detergent pods like any other dangerous substance in the house and keep your kids safe by locking up the pods and using other childproof strategies.
Feeling Younger May Help Memory as We Age. From the Wall Street Journal:
After about 10 years [into the study] cognitive function was assessed with tests of memory and executive function, the capacity to plan and carry out complex tasks. The study found that, on average, the participants felt 19% younger than their chronological age. Of the subjects, 89% felt younger and 11% felt older than their actual age. Those who felt older than their age scored 25% lower on memory and cognitive tests than those who felt younger.
The association between a younger subjective age and better memory and executive functioning was independent of gender, educational achievement, marital status and chronic diseases, the adjusted results showed. People who feel older than their age might require closer monitoring, as this may be an early marker of impaired cognition leading to dementia, the researchers said.
The study observed men and women between the ages of 50 and 75 and took factors like exercise and overall wellness into account. A younger self-image was more common in physically active people with a lower body-mass index.
Physical and mental perceptions of our bodies paint most of the picture of health for us. It may be true that we’re only as old (or young) as we feel. Party on, dudes.
Suicide surpassed war as the military’s leading cause of death. From USA Today:
War was the leading cause of death in the military nearly every year between 2004 and 2011 until suicides became the top means of dying for troops in 2012 and 2013, according to a bar chart published this week in a monthly Pentagon medical statistical analysis journal.
For those last two years, suicide outranked war, cancer, heart disease, homicide, transportation accidents and other causes as the leading killer, accounting for about three in 10 military deaths each of those two years.
The swing toward suicide as the leading cause of death among American military personnel says a lot about mental health and veteran care in the U.S. It shows that the danger doesn’t end as a troop’s deployment ends. In fact, it shows that a troop’s homecoming is only the beginning of health concerns. According to Pentagon data, more than 6,800 troops have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11 and more than 3,000 additional service members have taken their lives in that same time.
And to think that those 3,000+ deaths could have been avoided with better health care and support.
PrivacyGrade Shows You Which Apps Collect Your Data (or Don’t).From LifeHacker:
You may be surprised to learn that your favorite mobile game collects your location and phone data to serve you advertisements. PrivacyGrade verifies which apps use your permissions for legitimate reasons and which only do to display ads.
Android apps require permissions for varying reasons. Although some of them make sense (e.g., location data for Foursquare), other apps still collect data even if it seems unrelated (e.g., why does Fruit Ninja collect your location data?).
PrivacyGrade assesses apps based on the data they actually collect and what users would expect them to. Apps with high grades collect data that meet user expectations (e.g., Path only collects the data it needs to), whereas apps with lower grades often collect data for advertising purposes (e.g., DrawSomething reads phone status and identity).
We took a quick spin around PrivacyGrade, specifically the website’s health and fitness section, and found that many of the apps graded on the site score high for privacy and data security, between A and A+. However, some popular health apps like Nike+ and Weight Watchers fall short, with grades of B and C respectively.
PrivacyGrade is a tool that’s been a long time coming and now that it’s here, the savvy consumer and mobile health user can use a discerning eye to judge his or her apps.
Could a smell-emitting fork make you think there’s butter on your baked potato? From Med City News:
Our sense of taste and experience of flavor doesn’t just involve our taste buds, which most people know. Our sense of smell adds a lot to the equation, and one company decided to make the experimental process of this concept pretty fun with the “Aroma R-evolution” kit.
It comes with four forks, which have a little spot for you to insert a paper tab with one of the aromas on it, and 21 vials full of scents like ranging from wasabi to smoke. The idea is that the smell you choose will affect your perception of whatever it is that you’re eating.
NPR’s team tested the fork and reported back lackluster results. Taste is a major component of how we enjoy our food, but the smell-fork can’t touch other factors like texture, mouth feel, and other qualities that make us choose our favorite foods. Also, is it wise to trick the brain to spur weight loss and better eating habits? It seems like nutrition education would be better use of time and resources.
Santa Clara County Bans Sale Of Flavored Tobacco Products Often Marketed Towards Young People. From CBS 5 (San Francisco, Calif.):
Santa Clara County has become the first jurisdiction in the western United States to adopt a law banning the sale of flavored tobacco products that are often marketed towards young people.
The county’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a law prohibiting general retailers from selling flavored tobacco in unincorporated county areas and businesses will be notified this week, county spokeswoman Gwen Mitchell said.
Retailers selling tobacco will have to comply with the ban within 90 days and thereafter the Department of Environmental Health will conduct annual inspections to make sure the flavored products are no longer being sold except in adults-only tobacco businesses, according to county officials.
The ban does not include businesses that sell tobacco products to adults only, which are defined as “those generating more than 60 percent of their gross revenues from tobacco and tobacco paraphernalia and that do not allow minors in without a parent or guardian and do not sell alcohol or food for consumption on the premises” in the article.
E-cigarettes and flavored tobacco products are a lightning rod of controversy because of the fun image they can project to young people. Tobacco legislation is heating up around the country as more and more people are speaking out against smoking and the dangers of tobacco use. While the Santa Clara County ban takes childhood and teen tobacco use into consideration, what about adults who enjoy sweet tobacco flavors? It seems like laws that specifically target flavored tobacco products do not consider that adults also consume bubble gum and chocolate mint tobacco.
Deaths among low-income children are making the U.S. a leader in infant mortality. From PRI.org:
The latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the United States is the worst among developed nations when it comes to infant mortality rates. There are 6.1 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in the United States; compare that to Finland, which had only 2.3 per 1,000 live births, or even Greece with 3.8.
“It’s the period after a month of life — a month to 12 months — where the US is really doing worse,” says Emily Oster, an economist who helped calculate these figures. “Much of the death rate in that period is not really about medical interventions, it’s about things that are happening in the home.”
Certain medical statistics make the U.S. look pretty bleak on the world healthcare stage. High infant mortality rates are one of those bleak trends. Even bleaker is the economic factor that tends to doom our little ones:
In low-income homes, says Oster, a visiting associate professor of economics at Brown University, there’s a lack of support and resources that may be leading to a high number of deaths among babies. While there are other factors, including questions about how the US calculates infant mortality, she says this is the biggest problem.
Once again we see the problem as a lack of access to care, not the care itself. Resources are available to help babies thrive; yet support, education, and other services for parents either don’t exist or are underused. The health of a nation depends quite a bit on the health of its youngest citizens, and if the U.S. can’t get it together, it could spread into a much bigger public health problem.
The post Weekly Health News Digest: November 14, 2014 appeared first on Beacon Urgent Care.
