The Checkup Archive: Chronic Conditions
Wake up! It's sleep awareness week.
New data released by the CDC to coincide with National Sleep Awareness Week -- which begins today -- paint a less-than-ideal picture of Americans' relationship with sleep. More than 35 percent of nearly 74,571 people surveyed in 2009 reported getting less than 7 hours' sleep a night. (We're supposed to get 7 to 9 hours of sleep daily; children need 10 or 11 hours.) Almost 38 percent admitted to having unintentionally dozed off during the daytime during the 30 days before the survey. Worse yet: Nearly 5 percent of those surveyed had done so while driving.
By
Jennifer Huget
| March 7, 2011; 7:00 AM ET |
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Comments (4)
Categories:
Cardiovascular Health, Chronic Conditions, Family Health, General Health, Sleep, Stress
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Study finds exercise is actually good for your knees
If you've been using the fear of knee damage as an excuse to avoid exercise, it may be time to find a new excuse.
By
Jennifer LaRue Huget
| March 1, 2011; 12:54 PM ET |
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Comments (2)
Categories:
Arthritis, Chronic Conditions, Exercise, General Health
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Healthy adults getting unneeded heart screenings
But a report issued this morning by Consumer Reports shows that a whopping 44 percent of healthy adults (those who have no history of heart disease and who have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels) have had heart-health screening procedures that they didn't really need. The report also notes that few of us question the need for screening, whether by blood-pressure check, EKG, or C-reactive protein test. And still fewer of us seem to care about the potential risks of such screenings, which include unneeded followup screenings, tests and treatments.
By
Jennifer LaRue Huget
| February 3, 2011; 6:00 AM ET |
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Comments (6)
Categories:
Cardiovascular Health, Chronic Conditions, medical costs, screening
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Weight loss's link to better health questioned
We as a nation have put a lot of stock into the notion that being (or becoming) slender equates to better health and longer lives. But a body evidence calls into question whether that connection -- or, conversely, the connection between overweight and poor health -- is all that strong, and even whether it exists at all.
By
Jennifer LaRue Huget
| January 24, 2011; 7:00 AM ET |
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Comments (35)
Categories:
Cardiovascular Health, Chronic Conditions, Diabetes, Eating disorders, Nutrition and Fitness, Obesity, Psychology, Weight loss, Women's Health, life expectancy, osteoporosis
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Autism/vaccine link: Another nail in the coffin
The research that launched an enduring but apparently erroneous belief that autism is caused by a common childhood vaccination has been debunked, disclaimed -- and now debunked again.
By
Jennifer LaRue Huget
| January 6, 2011; 10:00 AM ET |
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Comments (82)
Categories:
Autism, Chronic Conditions, Family Health, Kids' health, Neurological disorders, Parenting, Vaccinations, Vaccines
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GERD and esophageal cancer
A study published last week in the American Journal of Gastroenterology estimates that, among white non-Hispanic Americans, women with GERD symptoms very rarely go on to develop cancer of the esophagus. Same goes for men under age 50, who are at far greater risk of getting colon cancer than esophageal cancer.
By
Jennifer LaRue Huget
| December 14, 2010; 7:00 AM ET |
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Comments (1)
Categories:
Cancer, Chronic Conditions, Obesity, Pregnancy, Women's Health
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