Self-care

October 19, 2018

Officials around the globe take steps to battle public health menace of suicide

They may seem small and may be symbolic, but Britain and Japan both are taking steps to deal with suicide, a public health menace by which 45,000 Americans age 10 or older took their lives by their own hand in 2016 alone.

In Britain, the New York Times reported that Prime Minister Theresa May appointed health minister Jackie Doyle-Price to lead “government efforts to cut the number of suicides and overcome the stigma that prevents people with mental health problems from seeking help. While suicide rates have dropped in recent years, about 4,500 people take their own lives each year in England. It remains the leading cause of death for men under age 45.”

Britain, like the United States, has struggled to provide adequate and appropriate mental health care to its people, even though it has a national health service. And Britons, like their friends across the ocean, are reluctant to seek mental health care for multiple reasons, including stigmatization.

May 25, 2018

Experts issue new cautions as hospitals and ERs treat a spike in teen suicides

by Patrick A. Malone

Moms, dads, grandparents, teachers, and coaches all may need to increase even more the attention and concern they devote to teen-agers, especially young women, as hospitals and emergency rooms report dramatic increases in their treatment of youthful suicides.

Multiple news organizations reported that, as the New York Times noted, “the proportion of emergency room and hospital encounters for … suicide-related diagnoses almost tripled, from 0.66 percent in 2008 to 1.82 percent in 2015. And the rate of increase was highest among adolescent girls.”

NPR reported: “Children ages 5 to 17 visited children’s hospitals for suicidal thoughts or attempts about twice as often in 2015 as in 2008.”

January 18, 2018

President O? Let’s first look hard at her role in hyping health humbug

by Patrick A. Malone

Oprah Winfrey’s recent rousing broadcast speech — both in accepting an entertainment industry group’s lifetime achievement award and denouncing sexism and sexual harassment in Hollywood — also opened the door to a reconsideration of how this talented, smart, accomplished, powerful, and wealthy celebrity icon long has helped to foster a barrage of health and medical humbug, spreading it far and wide in popular culture.

As Stat, a health and information site, recapped about Winfrey:

She connected a cancer patient to ‘junk science,’ a Washington Post analysis says. She promoted charlatans on her show, according to Slate. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee put out a statement … attacking Winfrey for ‘giving a platform to anti-vaccination campaigners and other dangerous health quackery.’

January 16, 2018

As flu season rages, please get vaccinated and take other precautions

by Patrick A. Malone

The flu season’s roaring across the country. It’s a bad one, with the H3N2 strain afflicting millions with a severe form of illness — which also has been deadly, notably for the old and young.

If you haven’t done so, consider getting a flu shot, asap. The flu shot this year may be less than optimal in the protections it may offer. Still, as Aaron Carroll — a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine who blogs on health research and policy at The Incidental Economist — argues in a New York Times “Upshot” column, the benefits of inoculation are still clear and pronounced.

As he writes:

January 12, 2018

Safety and injury prevention should be part of our new year exercise plans

by Patrick A. Malone

Millions of Americans may be hitting the gym as part of their new year resolve to get fitter. They also need to exercise caution and common sense to avoid injuries that could leave them in worse shape.

As the Washington Post reported, the 2018 health club crush will result in “hundreds of thousands of [exercisers] stumbling on treadmills, falling off exercise balls, getting snapped in the face by resistance bands, dropping weights on their toes and wrenching their backs by lifting too much weight.”

Further, the newspaper added:

December 12, 2017

It’s clear to see: Cataract surgery can extend and improve women’s lives (and men’s too)

by Patrick A. Malone

Cataract operations, performed on more than 3 million Americans each year, not only may be the most common surgeries in the nation—they also may be life prolonging, especially for older women.

A 20-year study—published in JAMA Ophthalmology— of more than 74,000 women who were 65 and older and who had the all too common clouding of and discoloration of the eye lens found a 60 percent lower risk of death among the 41,735 women who had their cataracts removed, the New York Times has reported.

Further, older women who had cataract surgeries not only lived longer but better, researchers said. As the New York Times has reported:

December 10, 2017

For holidays, consider helping others and yourself with gifts of life and health

by Patrick A. Malone

Looking for a gift with more meaning for a holiday season of higher purpose and lasting impact? Here are some ideas:

Protect yourself and your loved ones. Pronto. If you qualify for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, sign up, immediately. Go to healthcare.gov to learn more and to launch the process. The deadline is Friday (Dec. 15). Partisans shortened up the sign-up time, publicized the program poorly, and have sought to undercut Obamacare in myriad ways. But for millions of poorer and middle-class Americans, the ACA is a solid path still to all-important health coverage.
While you’re online, go to organdonor.gov (click here) to join a national registry of Americans who have volunteered life saving and life changing parts of themselves with a post-mortem gift. More than 100,000 Americans await hearts, livers, kidneys, lungs, and other invaluable tissues, and 8,000 of our family members, friends, and work colleagues will die because suitable organs can’t be found for them. You can, of course, sign up to be a donor when you earn or renew your driver’s license. The national registry is a way to ensure further that your wishes will be followed. Be sure, too, to tell your family and loved ones you’re a donor. You also may want to think about becoming a “live” donor.

September 29, 2017

Pediatricians may be the Rx for rising tide of tats, piercings, scars in youths

by Patrick A. Malone

Could pediatricians accomplish what many parents cannot? Can they talk to rebellious youths about the body adornments that are all the rage now, and get kids to consider the health risks and long-term issues surrounding trendy tattoos, piercings, and body scarring?

In case you’ve fallen like Rip Van Winkle into a long doze or you’re senior enough to even understand the Washington Irving reference, tats and body jewelry worn in created openings and roughing up the skin to make interesting patterns all have become so common among the young that those who go without such au trendy beauty measures may now even be the outliers among their peers.

There isn’t good data on body scarring but the public opinion experts at the Pew Research Center found in 2010 that 38 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds had at least one tattoo, and 23 percent had “piercings in locations other than an earlobe.”

September 27, 2017

Sound sleep for young could be an economic boon and helpful with ADHD

by Patrick A. Malone

Improve Your Sleep Quality to Maximize Your Goals

Although grown-ups may struggle with health woes caused by a lack of a good night’s sleep, a long and sound slumber, without early rising, may be even more crucial for middle- and high-schoolers. Their restful sleep may have economic benefits for us all, as well as surprising effects on attention disorders, which are one of the rising banes for the young.

New study by the nonpartisan and nonprofit RAND Corporation not only supports the health benefits from teens getting more sleep by starting school at around 8:30 in the morning— later than many schools now—researchers say such a move could be a, “cost-effective … strategy which could have a significant impact on public health and the U.S. economy.” As they reported:

August 7, 2017

Eye safety will be a must while viewing Aug. 21 total eclipse of the sun

by Patrick A. Malone

Weather permitting, Washingtonians soon will get a good view of a full eclipse of the sun — not the whole thing but a good chunk. Here’s hoping that all viewers of this much-anticipated astronomical event take due precautions so they don’t damage their eyesight.

Residents around the nation’s capital can expect to see an 81 percent blockage of the sun at the peak of the Aug. 21 eclipse, not the full solar cover or “totality” that millions of Americans are planning and traveling to view in peak spots that fall in a 70-mile wide swath across the country from Oregon to South Carolina.

Be warned: Don’t think just because the sun overhead is mostly blocked that it is safe even then to stare upwards with unprotected eyes. That might leave a careless viewer in the district with crescent-shaped burns on the back of the eyes, says a vision expert and longtime aficionado who says he has seen 19 eclipses.