Staying Healthy : News, products and health information for you and your loved ones.

Everyone has heard that a good program of walking can be a beneficial fitness plan for just about everyone. But here is an article that actually talks about a study done by researchers at Boulder’s University of Colorado that shows that it may be actually better to walk SLOWER than faster. This sort of flies in the face of many studies that recommend quicker walking, almost like short “walk-sprints”.

Although the researchers aren’t exactly sure why slower walking can help those who are obese more than non-obese persons, they have speculated that it may be because people who are obese utilize completely different body movements when walking. Slower walking was also shown to possibly lower arthritis risks and joint injuries (which makes sense since the pace is slower)

Source: Associated Press / CNN

The benefits of the flouridation of salt are talked about in book by PAHO (Pan Am. Health Org), which is where I found this article. They talk about how salt flouridation can help prevent Dental Caries. I was wondering what dental caries actually was so I looked it up online. Apparently it basically means tooth decay… rotting of teeth. This is the dental condition in which the surface of teeth becomes demineralized and decays because of bacteria. It is very common in children in many countries in Latin America.

Although water flouridation has been used to some extent, the new book explains how flouridation of salt has proven to be very effective costwise and provides a means for reaching many people, particularly in extremely remote locations.

Source: PAHO

I came across a short news article talking about the importance of making sure your pet gets adequate dental care. The news blurb references a veternarian at Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine who notes that it’s important to be proactive when dealing with pet dental problems and to have a good rapport with your own vet regarding your pet’s teeth.

Briefly, the article suggests a few preventive methods for making sure your pet’s teeth don’t become diseased. They recommend testing on a regular basis, prompt treatment for pet dental problems, cleaning to remove tartar buildup from pet teeth, and the use of “dental-friendly” treats in your own home. In particular, using treats that have been shown to help reduce tartar seem like a good bet because you’re probably going to be giving your pet treats anyhow. The article cautions against using toothpaste on pet teeth unless it is the type specially made for them. I’ve seen these pet toothpaste tubes at the pet store and they come in all sorts of flavors.

Source: Newswise

I read an interesting article about acupuncture and how it has been shown in studies to help with headaches. The study in question was done at Tech Univ in Munich, Germany at the Institute of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology and used 270 patients who suffered from tension headaches.

Tension headaches affect more than 30 percent of the population, so many headache sufferers are willing to give acupuncture a try. The study featured a group that received traditional acupuncture, a group that received “minimal” acupuncture (often referred to as “superficial needling” in which the needles are inserted at points that don’t necessarily correspond to traditional acupuncture methods) and a control group which had none.

Because both traditional acupuncture and the “superficial needling” type of acupuncture often show similar results, as in this study, many experts are reluctant to recommend acupuncture as a means of treatment. However, many agree that there is something to it, whether placebo effect or not, because the study groups that do have some sort of acupuncture always seem to do better than the control.

Source: Healthday / Forbes

I had previously heard that dark chocolate could actually be beneficial to your health, but I never really paid attention to it. After all, it sounds too good to be true and never mind the negative effects it might have with your dental bill and waistline!

But I saw an article yesterday that explained a little bit more about why dark chocolate might be good for you. A study done by the AHA (American Heart Association) reinforced research that has shown that the “flavonoids” that occur in chocolate might aid blood vessel transport. They found that it seemed to lower blood pressure for people with hypertension. Interestingly, the study was done with dark chocolate which had a lot of flavonoids versus white chocolate which had none.

Another benefit seemed to be that dark chocolate seemed to reduce LDL cholesterol and impove body usage of insulin.

Well, they definitely don’t recommend going hog wild on dark chocolate bars as of yet, but still it’s a promising (and quite delicious) study…

Source: CNN/Reuters

An interesting news blurb on how one of the compounds that occur in tumeric, which is a main ingredients in curries, has been shown in laboratory tests to actually interfere with skin cancer (melanoma) cells. The studies were done at the University of Texas’s Department of Experimental Therapeutics M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The compound in the tumeric is Curcumin and was found to suppress certain proteins that tumor cells rely on to keep themselves going.

Source: CNN/Reuters