Tag: "heart disease"

Can a Fighting Spirit Help You Overcome Disease?

There’s no evidence to back up the idea that an upbeat attitude can prevent any illness or help someone recover from one more readily. On the contrary, a recently completed study of nearly 60,000 people in Finland and Sweden who were followed for almost 30 years found no significant association between personality traits and the likelihood of developing or surviving cancer. Cancer doesn’t care if we’re good or bad, virtuous or vicious, compassionate or inconsiderate. Neither does heart disease or AIDS or any other illness or injury.

Read the entire article on a fighting spirit and illness.

Feb 01, 2011 | 6 comments | by John Goodman

Study: Fast Food Labeling Doesn’t Work

As part of health care reform, the federal government has plans for a nationwide launch of mandatory nutrition information at the point of purchase for fast-food chains with 20 or more outlets. But will it make any difference? Not if the experience of King County, Washington, which includes Seattle, is any indication:

Researchers found, in the 13 months after the legislation went into effect, food-purchasing behavior at the Taco Time locations in King County was identical to that in Taco Time locations where menu boards remained unchanged. The total number of sales and average calories per transaction were unaffected by the menu labeling.

Full article on mandatory menu labeling. HT to Tyler Cowen.

Jan 27, 2011 | 11 comments | by John Goodman

Study: Patients Can Handle Information about Their Genes

Concern that patients would be overwhelmed and traumatized by the information prompted New York to ban the direct sale of genetic tests to consumers. Not to worry:

“We saw no evidence of anxiety or distress induced by the tests,” says Dr. Eric Topol, the senior author of a report published last week in The New England Journal of Medicine.

In fact, the researchers were surprised to see how little effect it had. While about a quarter of the people discussed the results with their personal physicians, they generally did not change their diets or their exercise habits even when they’d been told these steps might lower some of their risks.

Jan 27, 2011 | 7 comments | by John Goodman

Nanny State Closes In

That cigarette you bummed from a friend at last year’s Christmas party? It could kill you. The vicarious pleasure that is prompted by even a whiff of someone else’s smoke while walking down a sidewalk? It could be damaging your DNA. So says the Surgeon General.

At least 39 countries require awful pictures on cigarette packs. Brazil has the worst. Our own FDA has selected 36 candidates for Americans.

What else is there to say? Smoking is: Bad. Bad. Bad.

Unless it’s marijuana.

Dec 10, 2010 | 6 comments | by John Goodman

Uncle Sam Promoting Fatty Foods

Domino’s Pizza was hurting early last year. Domestic sales had fallen, and a survey of big pizza chain customers left the company tied for the worst tasting pies.

Then help arrived from an organization called Dairy Management. It teamed up with Domino’s to develop a new line of pizzas with 40 percent more cheese, and proceeded to devise and pay for a $12 million marketing campaign. Consumers devoured the cheesier pizza, and sales soared by double digits…

But as healthy as this pizza has been for Domino’s, one slice contains as much as two-thirds of a day’s maximum recommended amount of saturated fat… [So who is] Dairy Management? … It is a marketing creation of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Full article about the government-created industry group created to boost sales of cheese.

Nov 08, 2010 | 8 comments | by John Goodman

The Case Against the Case Against Fat

Current guidelines recommend that Americans consume less than 10 percent of their daily calories from saturated fat…

[But] a 2006 study…based on data collected from 82,802 women, found that the subjects who consumed the highest percentage of their daily calories from fat (including saturated fat) did not experience an increased risk of developing heart disease later in life. In fact, women who ate the highest amounts of vegetable fat—from foods like olive oil and nuts—had lower risks of heart disease than women on low-fat diets.

A meta-analysis…compared the reported food intakes of nearly 350,000 men and women with their cardiovascular health years later and also found no connection between saturated fat intake and heart or vascular disease.

Apr 14, 2010 | 4 comments | by John Goodman

Hit and Miss on Heart Disease

Nearly 17 million Americans have been diagnosed with coronary artery disease… millions more are at high risk. Each year, about 900,000 people suffer a heart attack, and an additional 800,000 have a stroke.

Yet, according to the heart association, only about one-third of patients being treated for high LDL cholesterol — the bad form of blood fat — achieve their goal; and only about 45% of people with high blood pressure have it controlled to levels below 140/90, as recommended. In addition, just 50% of Americans regularly get at least 30 minutes of exercise five days a week and more than one in five adults smoke. Meanwhile, two big culprits on the path toward heart attacks and strokes — diabetes and obesity — are on the rise.

Full Wall Street Journal piece by Ron Winslow here.

Nov 18, 2009 | 3 comments | by John Goodman