Dr. John's Health Matters
Welcome to Dr. John's Health Matters blog.
The articles posted here are from various sources who are duly acknowledged. I would appreciate being immediately notified, if any copywritten material needs to be removed. This blog is not intended to replace the qualified advice of a licensed health practitioner. Readers should exercise their own judgment. Enjoy, subscribe, participate and tell others :)
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Posts tagged "habit"
Tuesday, Sep 1st, 2009 ↓Parents Play Key Role In Whether Teen Tobacco Use Becomes A Daily Habit →
Sept 1, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—Researchers have found new evidence showing that parents play a key role in whether or not their adolescent children who experiment with tobacco progress to become daily smokers before they graduate from high school.
A study published on-line and in the September issue of journal Pediatrics shows that parents can be a positive or negative influence on their children’s future smoking habit.
“If parents really don’t want their children to smoke they need to communicate that by establishing clear guidelines in their families about not smoking and discuss them with their school-age children.” said Min Jung Kim, a research scientist with the University of Washington’s Social Development Research Group and lead author of the study.
At the same time, parents can increase their children’s chances of smoking by their own use of tobacco.
“If parents smoke, teens have more access to cigarettes than teens who have non-smoking parents. A second preventive measure for smoking parents is to quit smoking themselves,” said Kim.
For full article, see link above.
Health Tip: Your Child Must Wear a Bike Helmet →
Aug 20, 2009(Therapytimes.com) — A well-made bike helmet is as important to your child’s safety as the bike’s brakes or well-inflated tires.
The American Academy of Pediatrics offers this advice about beginning the helmet habit at the earliest age possible:
- Make helmets a rule as soon as your child is on a bike, either as a passenger or the driver.
- Make sure you set a good example and wear a helmet, too.
- Explain to your child why it’s important to wear a helmet, including the protection it provides.
- Talk about how a bike must be used safely and properly.
- Offer praise or a little treat when your child wears a helmet.
- Don’t ever allow your child to go for a ride without a helmet.
- Encourage your child’s playmates also to wear helmets.
— Diana Kohnle
Parents Can Help Stop The Obesity Epidemic, Says Psychologist; Healthy Body Image Is First Step →
Aug 15, 2009(Sciencedaily.com)—Childhood obesity has quadrupled in the last 40 years, which may mean today’s children become the first generation to have a shorter lifespan than their parents, a leading obesity expert told the American Psychological Association.
However, parents can help stave off this impending crisis if they help their children to eat better and exercise, according to Edward Abramson, PhD. Abramson, professor emeritus at California State University-Chico, teaches psychology and is author of the books “Body Intelligence” and “Emotional Eating.”
In the last decade, “we’ve seen a [tenfold] increase in Type-2 diabetes and psychological and social consequences, such as prejudice, rejection, discrimination and low self-esteem in children,” Abramson said at APA’s 117th Annual Convention. “More than 60 percent of overweight children have one risk factor for cardiovascular disease and 20 percent have two or more risk factors.”
Bad eating habits can start with “emotional eating,” or eating when one is not hungry, or from following a strict diet, Abramson said. “This can lead to a weight problem or an eating disorder,” he added. “Parents’ attitudes and behaviors also have an influence on children’s eating, and mothers more than fathers affect children’s eating habits and body image.”
Many factors contribute to mothers’ concern about their children’s risk for obesity, Abramson said. “For example, there is evidence that minority parents (e.g., African-American, Hispanic) are less concerned about their children’s weight,” he said. “Often, when a mother is struggling with her own weight, she becomes more involved in regulating her daughter’s eating. In general, mothers are more concerned than fathers about their child’s weight, especially their daughter’s, and are more likely to restrict foods.”
For full article see link above.
Tags: children lifestyle exercise physical activity exercise food eating body image prevention diabetes type 2 diet eating cardiovascular disease habit attitude behaviour
Preventing Complications From Diabetes →
Aug 8, 2009 (Therapytimes.com)—If you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, eating a healthy diet and getting enough exercise could be just what the doctor ordered.
These lifestyle improvements may require some dramatic changes in your routine. But where do you start?
The American Diabetes Association warns against trying to change too much at once. It offers these suggestions:
- Take a number of small steps, over a sufficient amount of time. This should make accomplishing your goals much easier.
- Face your bad habits, and realize that you need to change them. Ask for help from family, friends and medical professionals, if you need it.
- Find a motivating goal — wanting to be around when your grandchildren grow up, for example.
- Prioritize your changes. Complete goals that you’re comfortable with initially, and save others for later.
- Look at how much impact these changes will make, and start with those that pack the biggest punch, such as getting more active.
- Setting goals should include what you’ll do, how quickly you can accomplish it, and how to incorporate the task in your daily life.
— Diana Kohnle
Tags: diabetes prevention nutrition diet exercise lifestyle habit motivation goal change active
A Silly Pat On The Head Helps Seniors Remember Daily Medication →
July 30, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—Doing something unusual, like knocking on wood or patting yourself on the head, while taking a daily dose of medicine may be an effective strategy to help seniors remember whether they’ve already taken their daily medications, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.
We’ve all heard warnings that some medications may be habit-forming, but research also shows that “getting into the habit” of taking a daily medicine in a routine and precise fashion can be a befuddling challenge for some older adults, many of whom tend to err on the side of over-medication, taking a dangerous second dose when in doubt about the first.
“In extended medication-taking situations, the habitual nature of the task may make it difficult for older adults to remember whether or not they took the medication on a particular day, especially if pill boxes are not used,” explains Mark McDaniel, Ph.D., lead author of the study and a professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University.
“To remedy this potential problem, older adults could be instructed to take their medication while placing one hand on their head or in some other unusual or silly way, like crossing their arms,” he suggests. “Our results indicate that older adults can use these sorts of more complex motor tasks to effectively reduce repetition errors in habitual prospective memory tasks, such as taking a daily medication.”
For full article see link above.
Parental Eating Habits Don't Rub Off on Kids →
June 5,2009 (HealthDay News) — Parents’ eating habits don’t seem to influence their children’s food choices as much as experts have thought, new research suggests.
“We found that the resemblance in dietary intake between parents and children is weak,” said study senior author Dr. Youfa Wang, an associate professor of international health and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. However, he added, “there is some effect.”
For full article see link above.
Smoking Linked to Risk for Pancreatitis →
March 30, 2009 (Medical News) — Smoking appears to be associated with an increased risk for acute and chronic pancreatitis, according to the results of an observational, population-based cohort study reported in the March 23 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
For full medical article, see link above.
Obesity Isn't Genetic, It's Taught: Kids Learn Food Habits From Parents →
Mar 09 09 (NaturalNews) Children as young as two years old notice what foods their parents are bringing into the house and tend to mimic those food choices, according to a study conducted by researchers from Dartmouth Medical School and published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
For full article, see link above.
Weight Problems Influenced by How We Eat →
Dec 13 08 (NaturalNews) Being overweight or obese can be influenced by how we eat as opposed to what we eat. These are the findings of recent research into eating habits.
Many of us eat with other things going on at the same time, for example, working or playing on the computer, or watching TV. This typically means we are concentrating on something else and we tend to eat fast. When we eat fast, we often don’t feel satisfied and tend to eat more.
When we eat fast, we don’t give our brain enough time to notify our body when we’ve had enough. Research in Japan (published in the British Medical Journal Online) found that fast eaters were three times more likely to be overweight especially when they ate until they were full.
For full article, see link above.
Eat Too Fast And You’ll Pack On Pounds →
Oct 26 08 (NaturalNews) A study just published in the British Medical Journal (www.bmj.com) concludes that eating too quickly and until you feel full triples the odds you’ll be fat. In fact, the research suggests food that is literally “fast” – grabbed often on the run and eaten until you feel totally stuffed – could be contributing to the world-wide obesity epidemic.
Professor Hiroyasu Iso of Japan’s Osaka University and colleagues recruited over three thousand Japanese men and women between the ages of 30 and 69 and followed their eating habits from 2003 to 2006. The research subjects kept a diary showing how much time they spent eating their meals and if they ate until they felt full. The researchers found that almost 51% of the men and just over half of the women said they ate until they felt stuffed. Slightly less than half of the men and a little over a third of the women reported eating quickly. When the scientists looked at the weight of those participates who ate both fast and until they felt filled up, they discovered those people were three times more likely to be overweight than the participants from the “not eating until full and not eating quickly” group. The scientists conclude that a combination of gobbling meals too fast and eating until you physically feel full has what they dub a “supra-additive effect” that increases the risk of being overweight.
For full article, see link above.
