Historic Anti-Smoking Bill

New legislation was passed that will help reduce the hundreds of thousands of smoking-related deaths each year in the United States. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act will give the FDA more regulatory power over the tobacco industry. The FDA will have the ability to regulate marketing, sale, and tobacco product content. One of the major goals of the legislation is to reduce the number of young people who start smoking by eliminating flavored cigarettes and getting rid of product labels such as "mild" which might make users think they are smoking a less harmful cigarette.

--http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31305225/ns/politics-capitol_hill/

Double The Calories

A healthy diet is not just about what you eat but how much you eat. The food in our pantries and restaurants are actually a lot bigger in portion size than they were two decades ago. A bagel is twice the size and more than double the calories. A portion of spaghetti and meatballs now averages over 1,000 calories, more than double the 500 calories it used to be.

--http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/user-post-portion-explosion-456931/

This Is HOT -- Health Technology

Hothead Technologies in Atlanta created a football helmet that measures body temperature in athletes as they play and sends that information to coaches. The helmet uses a system called HOT (Heat Observation Technology) that incorporates a thermometer in the padding of the helmet and transmits temperatures to coaches so they can be aware of whether a player is close to getting ill.

--http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-05/burn-notice

Weekly Address: Health Care Reform

President Obama focuses on the rising cost of health care to make the point that health care reform is urgent.



According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the United States has the most expensive healthcare system with people paying approximately $316,600 in healthcare costs over their lifetime.

Car Smells

So how are car smells related to health? Cars are made of all sorts of material, some of which are toxic to humans. The hosts of the radio program, Car Talk, had a great interview with Jeff Hearhart who has studied car smells to identify what car chemicals are released into the air.

The folks at HealthCar.org have studied as many cars as they can to identify some of the best rated cars with the least toxic chemicals and those cars with the worst ratings. The Nissan Versa was rated the worst while the Chevy Cobalt was rated the best. You can check to see the rating of your car if it has been tested, here.

Our Nation's Power

NPR created a great graphic on our nation's power grid. It maps out our current power usage and shows our future capacity for solar and wind power.

Green House

Clayton Homes has introduced a home that is stylish, innovative, environmentally friendly, and affordable. The homes cost approximately $100 per square foot and the cost of living is low since the energy savings of having a home with solar panels, energy efficient windows, and a rain water catchment system is usually large. According to the manufacturer, it only costs a $1 a day in energy costs to run utilities. Surprisingly, it also looks comfortable with bamboo floors, a lot natural light from windows, and a modern kitchen. They call it an i-house.

Here are some of the features of the i-house.
And here is a virtual tour of their houses.

A Vision for High Speed Rail

This is a very exciting project--it'll improve our rail system, decrease our automobile dependency, provide a variety of people with access to travel they would not normally have, and increase economic and commercial development along the routes.

Health Gadgets: CardioTrainer

Cell phones are now being used to keep healthy. Android phones, like the G1, allow users to download applications made by developers. One application made by WorkSmart Labs, called CardioTrainer, allows users to track their workouts. It will record your jogging, biking, or hiking route and give you detailed information about how far you went, what your average speed was, and how the elevation changed throughout the route. It's a great program to help you keep track of your workout goals. You can even send your route to Google Maps and share them with your friends, like this Myakka hike-


View Myakka in a larger map

Ugly Statistics

Timothy Noah at Slate.com, wrote a very interesting article on the importance of health care reform.

It starts here: "Between 1999 and 2008, employer-sponsored health insurance premiums increased six times faster than wages."

Here is a graph from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services--


Based on the families I've talked to, this graph accurately represents our health care reality.

Timothy notes what this means for the average worker, "Whatever pay increases the average worker received were wiped out, and then some, by the rapidly growing amounts deducted from his paycheck to cover health insurance." Wages have not increased in proportion to health care costs. Instead, health care costs have increased tremendously over the past ten years, making it harder for Americans to afford adequate care.

NPHW Day 7: Wrap-Up

National Public Health Week comes to an end today. If there is anything we learned it is that public health is an important and diverse field. This week, we have focused on communities, climate change, workplace health, and health at schools.

In the beginning of the week, we tried to illustrate how broad the public health field is by showing you three random pictures and asking what they have to do with public health. We covered the first picture of suburbs here.

One other picture was a music player.


Public health departments across the world have started to experiment with using music to help communicate health messages. Music is such a strong part of any culture, so if health concepts can become attached to this facet of society, public health might become better integrated into communities. Health is often seen as a separate entity or industry, but so many things in our community affect our health. Using music to demonstrate the importance of this has been a new way for health to become more salient.

Additionally, music activism has become a popular way of communicating health messages. Popular performers can raise the attention of certain health issues by encouraging listeners to promote health. Take a look at the 2007 Unite Against AIDS Concert. Music artist, Bono, has been using his popularity to help increase awareness and efforts for a variety of global health issues, such as AIDS.



The last image was an airplane.


The inspiration for this image came from President Obama who strongly supports a global public health infrastructure since "these days, a pandemic can get on a plane" and be in America overnight. Airline travel has brought diseases halfway across the world to our doorstep. President Obama notes public health is our way of preventing and protecting the world from global health issues.

NPHW Day 6: The Sunshine State

Today we are going to focus on a local public health story that has made headlines around the world. Florida Power & Light is starting a project to create a solar-powered city, the first in the world.

"Called Babcock Ranch, the city will aim to build 19,500 houses and about 6 million square feet of retail, light industrial, and office space when it is completed, the developers said." --Reuters

The clean energy project has so many benefits, starting with creating 20,000 new jobs in Florida and then reducing energy costs for city residents and businesses while decreasing the amount of pollution in our atmosphere.

NPHW Day 5: Quote of the Day

I think this quote displays the meaning of public health quite nicely.

"Although it is an essential part of the picture, health is so much more than just access to care, which is most frequently discussed. It’s federal funding that provides for public health programs across the nation, it’s communities that are built in a way the supports physical activity, it’s workplaces that provide resources to help employees become tobacco-free, it’s schools that offer healthy food choices and it’s families that support each other in living and adopting healthy behaviors." --NPHW

NPHW Day 4: Health at Schools

The American Public Health Association is increasing awareness today about unhealthy food options in American schools. "Public health professional shave made great strides in raising awareness of the importance of getting unhealthy vending machines out of schools and replacing them with healthy options...But it's not enough. Too many schools continue to sell high calorie foods because they need the additional revenue to cover budget shortfalls."

A recent study showed startling statistics on what vending machine foods are available to students at school.

80% of the snacks were candy, chips, or sweet baked goods
.0026% of the snack options were fruits or vegetables
75% of the drinks had poor nutritional value
85% of snacks had poor nutritional value

Some school districts have successfully eliminated unhealthy food and drink options from public schools, like this district in California. More schools are considering a ban on unhealthy vending machine options as criticism mounts over the negative health consequences. Although money is an issue, one major report found that schools can raise just as much money without unhealthy food options than with.

NPHW Day 3: Health at Work

The American Public Health Association spent today focusing on health at work. They talked about how wellness committees can promote worksite health. "These committees advocate for healthier food options in the company cafeteria, set up discounted gym memberships for employees, offer workshops on stress reduction and much more. They work to ensure that the workplace helps workers become healthier, rather than serves as a barrier," APHA noted.

World Health Day 2009: Save Lives

Today is also World Health Day. Each year, World Health Day focuses on a major health issue. Last year focused on climate change. This year is focused on the safety and quality of health facilities, especially their ability to handle the health effects of major disasters.

"When an emergency or disaster occurs, most lives are lost or saved in the immediate aftermath of the event," Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, said in her statement. "The tragedy of a major emergency or disaster is compounded when health facilities fail...In large emergencies, such as those caused by earthquakes or floods, some countries have lost as much as 50% of their hospital capacity, right at the time when life-saving services were most acutely needed."

In 2008, there was an alarming increase in natural disaster deaths. According to the WHO, 235,816 people were killed last year by such disasters. This was four times higher than the average death toll over the previous seven years. This increase was the result of two major natural disasters--Cyclone Nagris in Myanmar and a major earthquake in China.

The World Health Organization offered six solutions to help with the problem of insecure healthcare facilities.

1. Situate, design and build new health facilities
2. Assess the safety of existing facilities
3. Retrofit existing facilities
4. Protect non-structural elements: essential services, equipment, medicines
5. Plan and train for emergencies
6, Build partnerships for safe health facilities

NPHW Day 2: Community

The second day of National Public Health Week presents this question: How do we make sure that people understand that simply providing health insurance to all Americans isn't enough to make us healthy?

So many things in our community affect our health and livelihood. Check out this post about how where you live is important to your health.

How does this image relate to public health?


In so many ways.

Suburban neighborhoods provide safe roads for kids to play and less exposure to violence. However, there are also higher rates of obesity in suburbia, which many attribute to how suburban communities are designed. Suburban communities have an interesting geographic layout. For instance, a home might be geographically close to retail locations, but take a long time to get to because sprawling neighborhoods block easy access to a variety of locations. Cities often grow vertically, meaning that there are so many places in a short distance from any given place. However, suburban neighborhoods grow horizontally, making pedestrian travel inconvenient. Take a look at this picture--


View Suburban Community in a larger map

How long do you think it would take to get to a nearby retail location from the house down the street?


View Suburban Geography in a larger map

The house is only 1156 feet away, but according to Google Maps, the 1156 feet turns into 1.7 miles of driving because of the way the neighborhood is built into the surrounding roads.


View Driving to Retail in a larger map

The map shows that residents would have to drive over .5 miles before they can exit their neighborhood. Then they would have to drive another mile to get to the intersection, and finally do a u-turn to get to the opposite side of the road where retail locations are located. There are a lot of instances in suburban areas where residents are geographically close to many locations, but must take a longer drive to reach those areas. Suburbia promotes a driving lifestyle, which not only decreases physical activity of its residents, but also leads to higher levels of traffic pollution.

NPHW Day 1: Healthiest Nation in One Generation

National Public Health Week starts off with a campaign to create the healthiest nation in one generation.

Public health is your health. Many communities go far to make sure their citizens are safe, healthy, and happy, but much more is needed to create one of the healthiest generations in the world. Our country certainly has the resources, but it takes a large campaign like this to help spread the importance of all sorts of health factors, from clean air to safe roads.

National Public Health Week '09

This is a very exciting week--tomorrow will be the first day of National Public Health Week. This blog will cover how people all across the country are observing public health week. We will also investigate the importance of public health in our lives. The American Public Health Association's current motto is "protect, prevent, live well." These are values that will be explored throughout the week.

Public health is a broad field and we are faced with public health related objects everywhere we go. Can you tell how the following pictures relate to public health?




Find out this week.

Walgreens Offering Free Health Services

Walgreens is offering free clinic visits and treatments for a variety of health issues for their clinic patients who lose their job and are uninsured.

"Drugstore operator Walgreens will offer free clinic visits to the unemployed and uninsured for the rest of the year, providing tests and routine treatment for minor ailments through its walk-in clinics — though patients will still pay for precriptions.

"Walgreens said patients who lose their job and health insurance after March 31 will be able to get free treatment at its in-store Take Care clinics for respiratory problems, allergies, infections and skin conditions, among other ailments. Typically those treatments cost $59 or more for patients with no insurance." -Associated Press

Walgreens offers health services through their Take Care clinics in select stores. Walgreen's is calling their program the "Take Care Recovery Plan", which can be found here.

These free services will be offered Monday-Friday, between 11am and 3pm. Immediate family members will be eligible for free services, but as a note, these services do not include check-ups and prescription medication will still cost money.

This is a generous service offered by Walgreens. Below are the nearest locations with Take Care Clinics in the Sarasota area, unfortunately, the closest one is in St. Petersburg.

900 49th St. N
St. Petersburg, FL 33710


View Larger Map

Other locations-

3851 4th St. North
St. Petersburg, FL 33703

6560 Ulmerton Rd
Largo, FL 33771

14004 Walsingham Rd.
Largo, FL 33774

128 E Brandon Blvd
Brandon, FL 33511

Fast Food Culture

You can now watch the famous fast food documentary, Super Size Me, on Hulu for free. I watched the film and read the comments other viewers left. There were many interesting remarks. Some people commented on the effectiveness of the film: "This film single-handedly did away with a lucrative marketing gimmick from one of the most powerful corporations on the planet." Other comments were neutral with many people noting that they realize fast food is bad but they cannot help themselves--"had it yesterday" one person said. Other comments rated the film negatively, stating that the film has a "look how smart I am, look how dumb you are" preachy vibe that "does nothing to curtail non-sensible dietary habits."

The comments made me wonder what is the most effective way of going from a fast food culture to a healthy food culture? It seems that advertising campaigns and entertaining scare-tactic documentaries will only go so far when fast-food lifestyles are tightly tied into our society. It seems what we need is a large-scale cultural shift for us to move away from our high calorie, low activity lifestyles. Does that happen incrementally--through lawsuits, new policies, and bigger and better health food companies? Or is it something that will sweep through our culture as a result of a major event or news story?

It is obvious that cultural changes are difficult considering the fast food industry is so widespread. Fast food is easy food. Everywhere we go, we are surrounded by places that provide quick, inexpensive food--from gas stations and convenient stores to food chains like Burger King. These fast food establishments are part of our culture, as Super Size Me notes. Many of these locations have toys and play areas to attract young kids and families. Children at a young age associate fast food with fun food. There is a purpose behind the naming of "Happy Meals."

Here is a glimpse of how widespread fast food establishments are in our neighborhood--

Within a 10 mile radius from downtown Sarasota there are

14 McDonald's
8 Wendy's
6 Burger Kings
6 KFCs
3 Taco Bells.

In a 10 mile radius, you can find 37 of the top fast food establishments, many of them with drive-thrus. In other words, you should be able to find nearly four fast food restaurants in a one mile radius.

So, one of the major problems is that fast food is convenient and affordable. Another problem is a lack of universal knowledge about food. Many people realize "fast food is bad" and "vegetables are good" but when you ask why, it is hard to get a thorough answer. In Super Size Me, people were randomly asked, "what is a calorie?" A lot of people laughed and said they did not know. I honestly think food science should be a mandatory course in public education. Even students I talk to in biology courses in college have a difficult time explaining how nutrients are absorbed by our body. Without this knowledge, it is difficult to know exactly what foods are healthy and what foods are not--and why that is the case. We need good information to make good decisions about our health and diet instead of relying on superficial knowledge of food. Our society needs to internalize food information before people can start rejecting fast food in favor of healthier food establishments. Until this happens, people will continue to eat at places where their friends and family eat, places that are affordable and easy to get to, and places that have tasty food that make them happy.

Advertising Health: Anti-Smoking Campaigns

There are a variety of ways anti-smoking campaigns use video advertisements to promote their message.

Song and Dance

This advertisement uses entertaining humor to grab your attention by using musical sarcasm to illustrate how ridiculous tobacco companies are with their attempts to cover-up the negative health consequences of smoking cigarettes.



Not Quitting is Harder

Some believe the most effective anti-smoking ads have real people, real stories, and negative emotions. These type of advertisements are supposed to make viewers relate to a smoking sufferer on a serious, emotional level. Many of these ads can be graphic like the one below.



Scientific Facts

Other anti-smoking ads make their point using a simple, direct, scientific message: smoking is very unhealthy.



Reverse Psychology

One of my favorite anti-smoking advertisements use a method of "reverse advertisement." Tobacco companies are notorious for their sexy advertisements that are intended to make smoking appear cool and attractive. This advertisement does a good job at targeting this approach.

Low Cost Health Food

Here's the list-

Frozen Vegetables
Canned Salmon
Brown Rice
Edamame
Sweet Potatoes

On a personal note--edamame is sooo good.

Discrimination and Health

I wanted to continue the discussion on the association between discrimination and health since I came across a good article that outlines five inequality variables that lead to negative health outcomes. This blog has talked about two major factors -- access to quality health care and social stress. This article mentions these two factors and notes additional factors that are important to consider.

These five variables are a result of a variety of inequalities found in lower socioeconomic brackets.

The first variable is economic and social deprivation. The author notes "residential and occupational segregation lead to greater economic deprivation...and increased likelihood of living in neighborhoods without good supermarkets, thereby reducing access to affordable nutritious diets; risk of hypertension is elevated by nutritional pathways involving high fat, high salt, and low vegetable diets."

Second, residential inequalities lead to higher exposure of toxic substances and hazardous conditions among those with a lower socioeconomic status. "Residential segregation increases risk of exposure to lead...contaminated soil..."

The third factor is socially inflicted trauma. This ranges from psychological stress caused by formal or informal discrimination to violence. These conditions "provoke fear" which can cause sustained levels of hypertension and high blood pressure, plus increasing the risk of injury as a result of violence.

The fourth factor is targeted marketing of legal and illegal substances, such as alcohol and junk food. Studies have found targeted alcohol beverage marketing in lower income communities. This type of marketing increases the "harmful use of alcohol" to cope with distress.

The fifth factor is one that this blog has talked a lot about--inadequate health care, including access to health care facilities. "Insufficient and inappropriate" medical can lead to undiagnosed or poorly treated conditions.

An abstract of the article, written by Nancy Krieger (Professor of Society, Human Development and Health at Harvard School of Public Health), can be found here.

Sarasota Emissions

Purdue University released an informative Google Maps overlay that will show you the amount of CO2 emissions for each county in the country, plus showing you the sources of the emissions. Sarasota emitted 723,239 metric tons of CO2, mostly coming from onroad emissions (from cars, trucks, and buses). Per capita, Sarasota's CO2 emissions are low compared to other counties. Charlotte, DeSoto, Hardee, and Manattee counties had higher CO2 emissions per capita than Sarasota County.

Check it out here.

Social Stress and Health

This blog has touched upon two important topics in health -- (1) the association between stress and poor health; and (2) the notable health disparities found across people in different social statuses.

Interestingly, recent research has started to find a lot of connections between these two topics. This blog has named some of the reasons why we believe there is distinct health disparities across socioeconomic levels, specifically talking about how citizens with less income have less access to quality medical services. As a result, the health of people in lower socioeconomic levels tend to be poorer, with lower life expectancy, higher rates of cardiovascular disease, higher rates of illnesses, and more negative self-reported health.

New research has focused on a different factor than access to medical services to explain health disparities--stress. People in disadvantaged social statuses experience significantly more stress, and as a result, experience more health problems since stress weakens the immune system and increases the risk of serious illness. Individuals with a lower socioeconomic status deal with more chronic stressors, such as job insecurity, violence, and poorer living conditions. Additionally, people in lower socioeconomic conditions are more likely to experience social stress from prejudice-related situations.

Additionally, humans naturally respond to stress through coping. Coping is a way for our body to mediate the affects of stress on our lives. However, coping behaviors often result in negative health behaviors, such as cigarette smoking, physical inactivity, poor diet, and substance abuse. Increased stress leads to increased rates of smoking, drinking, and other negative health factors.

Overall, people in lower socioeconomic statuses experience more stress in addition to having to deal with less access to quality medical services. This leads to significant health disparities in our society.

Are Vitamin Supplements Healthy?

There has been a growing amount of evidence that suggests antioxidant vitamins (Vitamins A, C, and E) do not protect us as well as we think they do when we take them in supplement form. And the evidence is strong.

A scientific study followed nearly 15,000 male physicians who took a specific dosage of vitamin C and vitamin E during a ten year period. At the end of the trial period, the study found that the rate of cancer was the same among the test group as it was for the placebo group. The study concluded that "neither vitamin E nor vitamin C supplements reduced the risk of prostate cancer, 'total cancer' or other cancers such as colorectal or lung." You can read about the study here. The large sample size and long length of study provides strong results. Most researchers do not have the resources to run a study with almost 15,000 participants through a ten year period.

A recent study published in The Archives of Internal Medicine found that multivitamin supplements do not reduce cancer risk in postmenopausal women. The study included data from 161,800 women who took multivitamins for at least eight years--another substantial research project.

The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study that had 35,000 research participants, all middle-aged men who took selenium supplements, Vitamin E, neither, or both during a five-year span. There was no decrease in the risk of prostate cancer. On the other hand, researchers found a 13 percent higher rate of prostate cancer in the group that received Vitamin E and a 5 percent higher rate in the group that received selenium supplements. This was the largest prostate cancer prevention trial study ever produced.

The JAMA study concerned some researchers, since its data suggested there were harmful effects to taking vitamin supplements. Other research has shown similar trends. A 2006 study found higher mortality rates among head and neck cancer patients who took antioxidant vitamin supplements. There was a slight increase in lung cancer rates among participants who took vitamin E supplements in this study. And a large study that analyzed the results of 47 trials with over 180,000 participants found that supplements slightly increase mortality rates.

Overall, antioxidant vitamin supplements appear to have no benefits at increasing life longevity or decreasing risk of certain cancers. Some studies show that these vitamin supplements might have a harmful effect on our health. The best source of vitamins is in our diet, not in pill form. A healthy diet filled with fruits and vegetables will provide us with the most amount of protection from diseases.

Un-lovely Health

If you don't celebrate Valentine's Day or believe it is just another holiday perpetuated by flower and candy corporations, then this is the blog post for you. In the previous post, I briefly mentioned the health benefits associated with love. Now, let's explore some of the health consequences.

One of the health consequences is obvious -- kissing is icky. Kissing is an easy way to transmit oral bacteria. Bacteria that builds up in someone's mouth can easily spread through saliva. One study suggested that a type of bacteria that causes cavities may transmit itself through saliva, "Streptoccus mutans is the bacterium blamed for causing cavities, and may be transmissible through saliva."

Speaking of cavities, the chocolate and candy people eat during Valentine's Day can increase your risk of getting cavities. Oral bacteria use sugar as a form of energy to grow and stick to your teeth. A root canal is not lovely. Plus, some dentists have claimed that oral plaque can increase your risk of heart disease.

Avoid bacteria,
Your Sarasota Health Blogger

Lovely Health

Today is Valentine's Day. The day of love. There are many reasons to celebrate love. Sure, it brings nice feelings, and sometimes, delicious candy. But, it also brings very positive health benefits.

"Engaging in joyful activities such as love may activate areas in the brain responsible for emotion, attention, motivation and memory..." one researcher notes. Love reduces stress, boosts your heart, improves your mental health, and strengthens your immune system. Wow!

Plus, love keeps people alive. A British study on marriage and death found that people who were married had a much lower risk of dying.

Have a healthy and happy Valentine's Day.

I love you,
Your Sarasota Health Blogger

Traffic Noise and Heart Attacks

In a previous post, I talked about the health consequences of traffic. I cited that traffic noise can cause stress and other psychological problems, like lack of concentration.

A new study by Swedish medical specialists have identified an association between traffic noise and heart attacks. They found that there was a 40 percent "higher risk of a heart attack in people exposed to traffic noise exceeding 50 decibels..." This is a pretty interesting study on the effects of noise on the heart.

Super Bowl Sunday

Let's take a minute to note all of the wonderful health benefits of playing football. Football provides decent exercise to help increase your fitness and improve your well-being. Many people, young and old, join football clubs to keep active and have fun. Football can help you lose weight, build muscle strength, reduce your risk of heart disease, and lower your stress levels.

However, you can also get a concussion, sprain your ankle, tear your ACL, or dislocate your shoulder. (That's why I only play two-hand touch!)

If you're like me, you'll be watching football instead of playing football tomorrow. While you're not risking serious injury sitting on an armchair compared to those getting chased down by Troy Polamalu on the field, your body will still want a little more physical activity. No kidding, thanks to health.com, here are 30-minute halftime workouts that will help you release your football excitement. And here are healthy Super Bowl Foods you can have for your Super Bowl party.

In the spirit of the Super Bowl, health professionals at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center wrote an article about maximizing your health and safety in a football style. The article starts off by comparing your health goals to a football game by giving you a game plan for improving your health. One strategy suggests that you should "limit the opposing team in the red zone - keep your sodium intake to 1,500 to 2,300 milligrams a day." Then the article goes over how "you can satisfy your appetite on Super Bowl Sunday without looking like a Steelers lineman post-game" by making sure you "kick off the Super Bowl with a breakfast bowl." The Pittsburgh medical specialists also talk about the dangers of being surrounded by screaming fans as well as the costs and benefits of having your emotions attached to a football team. Basically, if your team wins, your mood should be pretty good.

Have a fun Super Bowl Sunday,
Your Sarasota Health Blogger

Dieting Does Not Work?

Obesity is a major health problem in our nation and is associated with various diseases, such as heart disease. It is also a growing problem. In 1997, our obesity rate was 19.4%. In 2007, it was 26.6%, with 64% of adults being classified as overweight. The graphs below show state incident rates of obesity in 1990 and 2006.



The most common treatment for obesity is diet and exercise. However, there have been several arguments that dieting is ineffective, and sometimes harmful, depending on the type of diet.

I was watching the Discovery Channel late last night (around 4am) and they had a health episode about obesity. Some of the experts interviewed during the segment claimed that the vast majority of patients cannot successfully diet and quickly regain their lost weight and sometimes even more weight. Some people attribute failed diets to lack of willpower and self-control, but there is a biological basis for this phenomenon. In our evolutionary past, our bodies valued fat. It cushioned our vital organs, insulated our body from frigid temperatures, and provided our system with a reserve of molecules to promote healthy cell function. When our bodies experience a significant weight drop, it thinks we are experiencing a famine. Our biological mechanisms do not understand that our body is dieting in order to reach a healthy weight level, it just notices that there has been a large drop in its fat reserve. So what happens? The body tries to protect itself by building back up the fat. People who diet often experience drops in mood, headaches, and physical pain, which could be our body's way of saying, "this isn't working for me."

Whether the biological response to dieting is true or not, research has supported that dieting often does not work. UCLA researchers analyzed 31 long-term dieting studies to determine the effectiveness of dieting. Psychologist and lead researcher, Traci Mann, reported the following--

"You can initially lose 5 to 10 percent of your weight on any number of diets, but the weight comes back. We found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus more. Sustained weight loss was found only in a small minority of participants, while complete weight regain was found in the majority. Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people."

A recent study by The New England Journal of Medicine corroborated these results.

Keep in mind, that repeated weight loss attempts can lead to health issues, such as heart problems and stroke.

Unfortunately, there is often a negative stigma around people who fail at dieting. The growing rate of obesity is associated with the growing number of weight discrimination reports. Dieting is difficult and can often fail. However, it is very important to have a healthy diet and to keep active. The combination of both healthy eating and an active lifestyle is the best way to achieve a healthy weight level.

Obesity is a societal problem and according to scientists, the best way to combat obesity is to look at the societal issues that relate to our increased rates of obesity. Our genes have remained the same for thousands of years, so our higher rates of obesity is not something that is genetic, but environmental. Not only are we consuming less healthy foods in our diet, but our lifestyles have significantly changed. Our bodies were made to roam sub-Saharan Africa in search of food. Now, we live more sedentary lifestyles as our daily routines have become dependent on technology. Many of us (more than 95% of Floridians) drive to work instead of biking or walking and we have become addicted to television and computers (however, it is okay to be addicted to health blogs). Because of this, scientists argue that promoting healthier diets and active lifestyles is the only solution to our increasing obesity problem.

Our Report Card

Looking at the results from the American Lung Association, the state of Florida received three "F"s and a "B" for tobacco control. An "F" for tobacco prevention and control spending, an "F" for cigarette tax, and an "F" for cessation coverage. However, the state did receive a "B" for smokefree air since it restricts smoking in government workplaces, schools, restaurants, stores, and recreational facilities. A breakdown of our report card can be found here.

Daschle's Health Care Discussions

Last month, Sarasota held a community health care discussion to provide input to Presidential-elect Obama's transition team on health care issues we face.

There's now a video of the Health and Human Services Secretary-designate, Tom Daschle, participating in these discussions.

Based on the video, people across the country share some of the same concerns that Sarasota citizens expressed during their community health discussion:

Concern about the way insurance companies dictate the type of care patients receive, the growing costs of medical care, and difficult access to certain levels of health care.

Another thing expressed by Sarasota citizens and other discussion participants is the need for a stronger emphasis on preventive medicine. I'm glad that President-elect Obama also shares these views.

Sarasota Memorial vs. Manatee Memorial

The New York Times had an interesting article about the web sites that doctors use to research doctors and diseases.

The most fascinating web site was www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov from the Department of Health and Human Services that allows you to compare hospitals within your area.

I naturally decided to take a look at a comparison between Sarasota Memorial Hospital and Manatee Memorial Hospital.

Statistically, both hospitals performed well, typically performing above the US hospital average. The two hospitals performed nearly the same in many categories. However, there were some categories where one hospital outperformed the other. Overall, it seems like Sarasota Memorial performed slightly better than Manatee Memorial, but it really depends on the category.

The first category dealt with surgical care, including the percentage of patients who received the right kind of antibiotics at the right time to prevent infections. Sarasota Memorial was much better at giving antibiotics at the right time to prevent surgical infections and both hospitals had nearly the same performance with providing the right kind of antibiotic to prevent infection. Manatee Memorial performed better at stopping antibiotic dosages at the right time, but I'm not sure that makes up for having a weaker performance giving antibiotics at the right time.

I decided to create a few charts using Excel to help compare the hospitals. I also included the US hospital average for further comparison. Both Sarasota and Manatee Memorial performed better than the US hospital average in these categories. Click on the image to see a larger view.


If you have a heart attack, it seems like you're in great hands at both hospitals. The hospitals performed nearly the same in every reported statistic except for two categories. Manatee Memorial gave 57% of their heart attack patients Fibrinolytic medication within 30 minutes of arrival, while Sarasota Memorial gave 0% of their patients that medication. It's important to note that the data for this statistic was so low for both hospitals (only 1 case was used for Sarasota Memorial) that there is no way of really knowing if these percentages are true. The second category, in which Manatee Memorial also performed better, was the percent of heart attack patients given PCI within 90 minutes of arrival. Eighty-three percent of Manatee patients received PCI within 90 minutes while only fifty-two percent of Sarasota Memorial patients did.


One of the biggest differences between the two hospitals was not the type of medicine patients received, but the type of experience patients had while they were there. This blog has reported how important good doctor-patient communication is, as well as having patients feel like they are in a clean and organized environment. Well, Sarasota Memorial performed better on surveys given to patients about their inpatient care during their stay. Sarasota's performance wasn't spectacular since they only performed around the national average, but Sarasota Memorial did perform significantly better than Manatee in every patient experience category. A higher percentage of Sarasota Memorial patients rated their hospital experience very positively and a higher percentage of Sarasota Memorial patients also felt that their nurses and doctors always communicated well with them. The largest percentage difference was that 77% of Sarasota Memorial patients would definitely recommend the hospital while only 51% of Manatee Memorial patients said the same. Click on the image for a larger view.


Feel free to explore the comparisons at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov and be sure to check out the other medical links from the New York Times article.

The Urban Brain

"For the first time in history, the majority of people reside in cities," Jonah Lehrer writes. Human evolution started with us swinging from trees and roaming the African savannah and now we're living in dense urban environments with fast-paced lifestyles and constant visual stimulation.

More research is now being done on how the mind is affected by urban environments. With more concrete than green space, cities are quite different from the natural environments we evolved from. According to a University of Michigan psychological test, participants who travelled through the city had a worse mood and had significantly lower scores on attention and working memory tests. Other researchers have stated that city environments can overwhelm the brain, leading to emotional control issues. This blog has talked about some of the problems associated with noise stress, an issue that residents of urban areas constantly experience. Jonah Lehrer made an interesting comment, "a tired brain, run down by the stimuli of city life, is more likely to lose its temper."

Other studies have shown the benefits of green space. Even people confined to indoor spaces, like in hospitals, benefit significantly by just having a view of trees from their window -- their moods tend to be better and they tend to recover more quickly from surgery or treatment.

This article stresses the importance of parks in urban areas so people can have an easy escape from the city. Marc Berman, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, was quoted, "It's not an accident that Central Park is in the middle of Manhattan."

U.S. Life Expectancy

Dr. Robert Butler, CEO of the International Longevity Center in New York, argued that there are four major reasons why American life expectancy has slowed during the last five years.

Butler's four reasons were clearly described in The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch. The reasons are found below.

1. The shockingly high infant mortality rate in the U.S. Mostly because so many babies are born in urban slums and country hollows, where prenatal and infant care is often primitive, America has the second steepest newborn mortality rate among developed nations. In 2005, the latest year for which statistics are available, about seven out of every 1,000 babies in the U.S. died before their first birthdays. Though there has been steady improvement for many years, the U.S. is 29th in the world, behind even Cuba.

2. The multibillion dollar political power of the industries that contribute to the steep rate of obesity among U.S. children and adults, such as fast foods and sugared drinks. Butler urges that the U.S. government create public-private initiatives to promote healthier diets and physical fitness programs among the public at large.

3. The estimated 46 million Americans (15.8 percent of the population) who do not have health insurance and thus lack the kind of medical care that would expand and enhance longevity.

4. The slowdown in medical research in the U.S. Especially absent is the kind of what-makes-the-sky-blue basic research usually conducted by younger scientists and technicians, who tend to be the most innovative, daring, productive -- and successful when it comes to life-expanding discoveries.

Bike to Work for $$

"As of January 1, bicyclists got their first piece of the economic stimulus plan," David Beard of The Boston Globe's 'The Green Blog' commented. Cyclists who commute to work "can get reimbursed up to $20 per month, either as a cash reimbursement or a pre-tax deduction" if their employers participate in the national program.

The plan was passed by Congress, referred to as The Bicycle Commuter Act, written by Congreesman Blumenauer of Oregon. You can read the full legislation here.

Health News

"Hospitalizations for heart attacks fell sharply in Pueblo, Colo., after the implementation of a law that banned smoking in public places and work places" according to a Centers for Disease Control report.

If you made plans this year to quit smoking, the American Lung Association has a few tips.

New Jersey became the first state to require flu shots for preschool students. State epidemiologist, Dr. Tina Tan, said "stopping flu transmission among kids will stop flu transmission in the community at large."

Tracking the Flu

The Centers for Disease Control have a variety of surveillance measures to analyze medical data to detect or anticipate disease outbreaks. Well, Google has one, too.

Google Flu Trends is a Google service that tracks the occurrence of flu across the United States based on the number flu-related searches made in areas around the country. It actually has been very accurate at tracking flu cases, with their statistics matching closely to the CDCs resources, and often times, measuring outbreaks one to two weeks quicker.

This year, flu rates have been at low to moderate levels in each state, including Florida which has seen a moderate amount of flu cases since the end of September.