New Zealand baby experts have a slightly different opinion than AAP doctors who recommended all babies use pacifiers (called dummies in the article) to prevent SIDS. They have concerns that the focus on pacifiers will distract from the more important guidelines: back sleeping and avoiding cigarette smoke. You can read more about it here.
The newest AAP recommendations for SIDS include placing the baby’s crib in the parents’ room and encouraging pacifier use. This is supposed to keep the baby from sleeping too deeply. I wonder if my child using *me* as a pacifier all night accomplishes the same thing. Of course, the AAP would never encourage me to sleep with my child in my bed. In fact, that’s a big no-no, but at least they’re now recommending sleeping in the same room. You can read more about the recommendation here.
New thinking when it comes to feeding baby may replace rice cereal with enchiladas. Apparently, the conventional wisdom that it’s best to feed our children rice cereal and avoid foods such as peanut butter may be more urban myth than actual science. Some new studies are shedding light on what first foods we should feed our children. You can read all about it here.
I’m not sure what to make of this study. It seems hard to argue with the conclusions. But I know last night my son was coughing during the night. He didn’t even wake up when I gave him the homeopathic cough tablets, but he stopped coughing for several hours. When he started again, I gave him more tablets, and he slept the rest of the night. He’s three, so I can’t see the placebo affect applying to him. You can read more about the study here.
A recent study showed that a large percentage of hospitalizations for stomach bleeds are a result of taking aspirin or anti-inflammatory medications. If a natural substance caused this many problems, there would be a call for the substance to be banned. You can read more here.
Cell phone towers are going up all over the place– churches, schools, even one near Old Faithful. But do you really want one in your neighborhood? There have been no studies that have provided concrete risks from cell phone towers, but we haven’t had the technology that long? Is this going to be a case like Teflon where 20 years from now we’re going to have cell phone towers all over the place, only to discover that, oops!, they probably can cause cancer? You can read an article here about a community that rejected the building of a cell phone tower in their area, only to be overruled by the courts.
I was flipping channels a couple of days ago, and I came across an infomercial for a book about natural cures– I think it was on one of the health channels. Since I’m interested in that sort of thing, I watched for a couple of minutes. I didn’t see anything on the talk that made me want to run out and buy the book, but I thought the idea that there are natural cures for almost anything was probably pretty sound. It lines up with my personal beliefs, anyway. So, it was interesting that today while I was searching for articles to blog about, I came across this article. Apparently, this book has become a best seller, which may be a problem for Kevin Trudeau, since the FTC has been carefully watching him after accusing him of fraud in the past. Supposedly, he is banned from doing infomercials, so I’m not sure why he was on the one I saw yesterday. Anyway, it made me think about the question of who can we trust when it comes to our healthcare. Do we trust the drug companies, give the recent discoveries about Merck’s Vioxx? Do we trust the FDA, given the number of drugs they later have to pull off the market? Authors with no medical background who claim to have the cures for all the world’s ills? Web sites? It is a quandry. Let me know what you think.
A recent study of American nurses suggests that there may be a correlation between regular consumption of french fries as a young child and breast cancer. The study reported a 27% increased risk of breast cancer for each weekly serving of french fries eaten between the ages of 3 and 5. I’ve heard of french fries being related to cancer before, so that wouldn’t be surprising. But the design of the study is also pretty weak in my opinion, as the researchers were asking the mothers of grown women to recall their diet as preschoolers. Read more here
The latest in a long line of warnings about over the counter drugs, this study about Tylenol is yet another reason to avoid pharmaceuticals, if at all possible. I knew ibuprofen could cause problems with blood pressure from personal experience, but the information about Tylenol was news to me. The study focused on women, so I’m not sure if that means there were no problems for men or whether they just weren’t the focus of this study. In the study, women aged 34-77 who took the equivalent of one extra strength Tylenol per day over a period of time had double the risk of developing high blood pressure within 3 years. The rates for users of ibuprofen were even higher. I don’t think this study affects those who take the occasional Tylenol or ibuprofen, but, obviously if you are experiencing chronic pain issues, you might want to look for a different solution. Read more…
I saw an article today on the best worst foods today- that is the best foods that will drive you to an early grave. It brought up a couple of questions in my mind. One was “why is an article on foods in Forbes magazine”.
The second question was “why does this list involve primarily things that only old and/or rich people would eat”. For example, duck confit. Duck confit? I honestly don’t know anyone who has ever eaten duck confit or who plans to eat it in the future. Foi gras? Sure, I’ve eaten that. When I worked art gallery openings in college. There were more pedestrian foods, such as french fries and hamburgers, that made the list. You can read the full article here.
Dupont is being sued in a class action lawsuit over allegations that management knew that Teflon was a danger to users. (read more)
For years, I have used non-stick cookware. I never even stopped to think that it could be a danger– I don’t know why not. So, now it’s back to my stainless steel frypan, I suppose and scraping my eggs out of the bottom. Maybe it’s not properly “seasoned.”
A recent Italian study found that the more aspartame rats were given, the more likely they were to develop leukemias or lymphomas. European “health” experts say that the amount required to affect humans would be well above the acceptable daily intake levels. (read more)
My favorite quote in the article? “If a risk to humans does exist, it will almost certainly be very small.” I’m sorry. Very small? Is there a reason to use aspartame if there is *any* risk that it will kill you? What is the up side to using it, other than profits for the companies that market it.