The Buffalo News: Health

Health

Battle against nerves: By Euna Lhee - BALTIMORE SUN
Updated: 08/26/08 6:56 AM; As a teenager, Jeannine Lancaster started to see spots like mosquito bites on her arms and back. She didn’t think much of them then. A decade later, the bumps started to multiply on her face.

It makes sense to stay in balance: By Brittney Johnson - WASHINGTON POST
Updated: 08/26/08 6:56 AM; There are times in your life when feeling a little off-balance may actually be a good thing. Take it from the experts.

Be safe while texting: Updated: 08/26/08 6:56 AM; It wasn’t the bumps and bruises that surprised emergency room physicians when they started looking into the dangers of texting. It was the fatalities. “It’s like walking blind,” says Linda Lawrence, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, who has heard of people stepping into moving traffic, BlackBerry in hand.

Health Notes: Updated: 08/26/08 6:56 AM; Amherst Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS) will hold a support group meeting at 7:30 p. m. next Tuesday in the Center for Inquiry, 1310 Sweet Home Road, Amherst. The organization’s friends and family support group will meet at 6:30 p. m. Wednesday at the same location. No fee for the meetings. For information, call 636-4869, Ext. 409.

Bravo for bystander: Updated: 08/26/08 6:56 AM; When a cardiac arrest strikes, survival depends on shocking the heart back to a normal rhythm. It doesn’t take a professional to do this. Results from an 11-city study showed that when an untrained bystander uses an automated external defibrillator (AED) to shock the heart back to action, survival rates more than double.

Green tea benefit: Updated: 08/26/08 6:56 AM; Score another win for green tea: New research suggests that green tea leaves can rapidly improve the functioning of the endothelial cells lining blood vessels, aiding blood flow and relaxing the arteries, Matthew Shulman reports. That may lower the risk of clots and heart disease, according to the study published in the current issue of the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation. Green tea’s benefits stem from its naturally high levels of flavonoids — antioxidant substances that slow down natural damage to cells.

Beat workout boredom: Updated: 08/26/08 6:56 AM; Tired of the same old exercise videos? Borrow your kids’ Nintendo Wii and try the new Wii Fit, a motion-sensing board that challenges your balance, strength, coordination — and abs, too, for a flatter belly.

Living large: Some heavy people are waging a controversial fight for acceptance: By Andrew Z. Galarneau NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 08/24/08 10:34 AM; ‘‘You’re fat,” the doctor told Bridget Kelly, and it stung. It wasn’t that she hadn’t heard it before, at 5 foot 7 and about 195 pounds. But now Kelly, a 27-year-old roller derby skater, was in a doctor’s office. She’d spent hours working out with the Queen City Roller Girls, and complained of knee pain.

Stem cells make red blood cells in laboratory, researchers report: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated: 08/20/08 7:05 AM; NEW YORK — Scientists say they have found an efficient way to make red blood cells from human embryonic stem cells, a possible step toward making transfusion supplies in the laboratory.

Major study boosts use of wrist angioplasties: Associated Press
Updated: 08/20/08 1:53 PM; WASHINGTON — The best path to a clogged heart may be through the wrist.

Healing is divine thought, poll finds: By Lindsey Tanner - ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated: 08/19/08 6:40 AM; CHICAGO — When it comes to saving lives, God trumps doctors for many Americans.

Creative coping: In tough times stress can be painful -- or an opportunity: By Howard Cohen - McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
Updated: 08/19/08 7:58 AM; After Silvia Clarke lost a sales executive job she had held for 18 years, the Miami Shores, Fla., wife and mother of two worried about how she would support her family of four as the household’s primary wage earner.

Products have a whiff of toxicity, study says: By Sandi Doughton - McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
Updated: 08/19/08 6:41 AM; The fumes that waft from top-selling air fresheners and laundry products contain dozens of chemicals, including several classified as toxic or hazardous, says a University of Washington study published recently.

Health Notes: Updated: 08/19/08 6:41 AM; Hospice Buffalo will have a free open house at 6 p. m. today in the Hospice Education Center, 225 Como Park Blvd., Cheektowaga. Learn about Hospice Buffalo and its affiliates and how they can help patients and their families. For information, call 868-8070.