Reviews of the News Making News!
FECAL BACTERIA ON YOUR CELL PHONE-YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS!
Okay my friend’s, here is one for the record books, a recent British Study (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London, October 14, 2011) found that one out of every six cell phones in the United Kingdom, is contaminated with fecal material. Yes, that means lots of people in the UK (and probably all over the world) are not washing their hands after they use the bathroom. In fact, additional testing of hands after people leave the bathroom found that 82% of them had bacteria on them. According to experts, bacteria on surfaces can survive for hours to days at a time. If the temperature is warmer, bacteria can survive for longer periods. Millions of people all over the world pick up germs from surfaces (and foods) daily-sometimes with deadly consequences. What do you do? Come on, this is a no brainer-WASH YOUR HANDS people! Wash them thoroughly with soap and warm water. Wash them before you leave a bathroom. Wash them after touching various surfaces like door handles, counter tops, phones, plane seats, bus handles, etc. WASH YOUR HANDS! So the next time you are using your friend’s cell phone, think about where you are putting your ear!!
MORE ATHLETES ARE DYING FROM SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH
Another research document from the journals (Kimberly Harman, MD, et al: Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association: April 19, 2011) has reported that we may be undercounting the amount of athletes that are dying from sudden cardiac death. Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is simply an unexpected death caused by a heart problem occurring in a short period of time. Dr. Harmon and her colleagues at the University of Washington now estimates that “one out of every 43, 770 student-athletes” will have a sudden cardiac death event. Male athletes are twice as likely to die of SCD than female athletes. African Americans are also at higher risk. And as per sport: basketball players were at the highest risk followed by swimmers, lacrosse players, football players and cross-country runners. What do we do? In my opinion, and like my predecessor GG wrote: A. let’s utilize the medical technology that we presently have to help us diagnose problems that are potentially life threatening and not picked up by a history and physical alone. With every sports pre participation physical that is performed-add an electrocardiogram (ECG) and a cardiac ultrasound (Echo); B. train the staff’s of all physical education departments in advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) and C. have the automatic external defibrillators (AED) immediately available.
BULLYING AND OBESITY: KIDS ARE TOUGH ON KIDS
A report soon to be published in the Journal of Genetic Psychology and written about in the online medical news letter HealthDay News suggests that kids (third through eighth graders) will tease, make fun of, not help and not accept those other children that have “undesirable traits” (e.g. are obese and or have behavioral issues like aggression), if they feel that those issues are the child’s “own fault.” Researchers found that boys in this age group who were obese and or aggressive were the most disliked and that girls were more forgiving of the maladaptive behaviors and weight issues than boys. However, if the child with the problems tried to change his or her issues (e.g. obesity), this had a positive response on the personal interactions. What do we take away from this? I guess as a society, we favor those individuals who try to positively change and reform their mal -adaptive behaviors and those that try to lose weight (e.g. The Biggest Loser TV show on NBC). Even peers of the kids are sensitive to the changing efforts. On the other hand, we harbor negative opinions and behaviors of those that for whatever reason, don’t, won’t or can’t try and change. Here is a thought question: is it up to our society as a whole to help all those individuals to try and change?
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