http://http://www.kentucky.com/147/index.xml News, sports, and entertainment from Kentucky.com en-us Copyright 2009 Kentucky.com Health & Family 60 Sun, 04 Jan 2009 04:11:32 EST http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's Workbench webmaster@kentucky.com http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/643776.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/643776.html Thu, 01 Jan 2009 07:46 EST
All you have to do is eat less and exercise more, right? Well, not exactly.

Here are a few hard realities to consider before you start.

Exercise: You think you can really lose all that weight by taking the stairs rather than the elevator or escalator? Not really. Yes, you can improve your health, but if you are seriously overweight, you'll need to do a lot more than walk up a flight of stairs to lose a significant amount of weight and be fit. That doesn't mean you have to run for two hours each day. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/634502.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/634502.html Mon, 22 Dec 2008 06:05 EST
Those normal pre-holiday shopping indicators, however, belie subtle changes Kentuckians say they're making in their spending attitudes and habits amid the recession.

"They're saying they consider purchases very carefully and they're watching their finances more closely. That's the tone," said Claudia Heath, professor of family studies at the University of Kentucky. "Of course, people are affected by all levels. Some people say they're going to buy fewer luxuries, and some people are saying they're going to buy less food."

Last week, Heath and doctoral student Jennifer Hunter completed a statewide survey in which nearly 70 percent of 321 Kentuckians polled reported changing their lifestyles recently because of the economy. The survey was done through the university's new Family Sciences Survey Research Center. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/600301.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/600301.html Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:26 EST
The billions that began flowing from cigarette makers to the states a decade ago also helped outfit the golf course for New York's Niagara County with new carts and sprinklers.

And the money has gone toward college scholarships in Michigan; tax breaks in Illinois and Ohio; a dogcatcher in Lincoln, Neb.; and jails and schools elsewhere.

Despite the promises of politicians and policy-makers, states and counties have spent the lion's share of the settlement money on things that have nothing to do with public health or smoking. Teen smoking rates have stopped dropping. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/573605.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/573605.html Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:58 EDT
John Seffrin, the president of the American Cancer Society, calls this "a national health-care crisis of undertreated pain."

"Nearly all cancer pain can be relieved, but fewer than half of our patients report adequate pain relief," Rebecca Kirch, the society's associate director of policy, said at a pain seminar in Washington last week.

Hospitals do a little better than that in managing pain for patients with all kinds of illnesses, according to a survey to be published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/568974.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/568974.html Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:04 EDT
It was what killed Stanley's grandfather when Stanley's dad was 3. It would kill Uncle Oscar, but not until 1965. Of Oscar's 10 kids, eight would develop cancers of the colon, uterus, stomach or pancreas.

Stanley's sister Margaret died when she was 55 of colon and uterine cancer. His sister Marcella died after numerous cancer operations at 67, after her own son had died of colon cancer at 32.

And, sure enough, Stanley developed colon cancer in 1983 when he was 46. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/568327.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/568327.html Sat, 25 Oct 2008 18:06 EDT
The candidate forum sponsored by the Domestic Violence Prevention Board will be 3 to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Center, 200 East Main Street.

Candidates for Congress, state Senate and House, and District Court judge have been invited to appear. The questioning will focus on interpersonal and family violence issues, including child abuse, intimate partner violence, abuse of older people and people with disabilities, sexual assault and human trafficking.

For more information, call (859) 258-3803. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/566517.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/566517.html Fri, 24 Oct 2008 07:00 EDT
And many of these doctors are not honest with their patients about what they are doing, the survey found.

That contradicts advice from the American Medical Association, which recommends doctors use treatments with the full knowledge of their patients.

"It's a disturbing finding," said Franklin G. Miller, director of the research ethics program at the U.S. National Institutes Health and one of the study authors. "There is an element of deception here which is contrary to the principle of informed consent." ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/565086.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/565086.html Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:51 EDT
"I have to pretty much be very ill to go to the doctor," said Julie Shelley, a 49-year-old office manager and mother of three from West Milton, Ohio. "I'm probably at the age where I should have a checkup or physical. I'm not going to do it. I am last on the list."

In Lombard, Ill., Donald Hendricks lost his job over the summer at an event-planning company. When two of his six children came down with a fever and sore throat several weeks ago, he could not afford the gas money to drive them to the doctor. He gave them soup and soda instead, and they got better.

"I never felt the crunch like this before," Hendricks said. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/558699.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/558699.html Fri, 17 Oct 2008 07:26 EDT
And in a small but intriguing study from the University of Illinois medical school, doctors and students maintained close to the ideal number of chest compressions doing CPR while listening to the catchy tune from the 1977 movie Saturday Night Fever.

The American Heart Association recommends 100 chest compressions per minute, study author Dr. David Matlock of the school's Peoria, Ill., campus said Thursday.

Some people hesitate to do CPR because they're not sure about keeping the proper rhythm, Matlock said. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/557396.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/557396.html Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:52 EDT
Dried fruits

Problem: Exaggerate symptoms of candida and other yeast-feeding infections.

What happens: According to Jackie Keller, founder of NutriFit and author of Body After Baby: A Simple, Healthy Plan to Lose Your Baby Weight Fast (Avery/ Penguin, $24.95), "Dried fruits are a concentrated source of naturally occurring fruit sugars that can exaggerate symptoms of candida and other yeast-feeding infections." Candida albicans is a yeastlike fungus that inhabits the intestines, genital tract, mouth, esophagus and throat. Under normal conditions, this fungus lives in healthy balance with the other bacteria and yeasts in the body. However, certain conditions can cause the bacteria to multiply out of control, and it can lead to a weakened immune system and an infection known as candidiasis. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/551122.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/551122.html Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:44 EDT
The figures represent the government's first substantial study of vaccination rates for the Gardasil vaccine Merck Co.'s heavily advertised, three-shot series that targets the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, or HPV.

The vaccine protects against strains of the virus that cause about 70 percent of cervical cancers.

Health officials recommend that girls get the shots when they are 11 or 12, if possible, before they become sexually active. Also, age 11 is when children are generally due for another round of vaccinations. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/551108.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/551108.html Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:19 EDT
Yet much of the burden personal and financial can be prevented with simple lifestyle choices. A major contributing factor is physical inactivity. Americans just aren't moving enough, and it's killing them.

To combat this burgeoning health threat, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has just released a practical road map to a healthier lifestyle, called the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Developed with the help of the nation's leading physical-activity scientists, these guidelines provide specific recommendations on what we need to do and how long we need to do it.

More than 50 percent of American adults do not get enough physical activity, and one-quarter of adults are not active at all in their leisure time. As a consequence, conditions such as obesity, coronary heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, colon and breast cancer, and depression affect more than 100 million adults. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/549518.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/549518.html Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:01 EDT
That message has been slow to catch on, despite a spate of illnesses last year from improperly microwaved frozen foods. On Sunday, the government issued a new warning urging consumers to thoroughly cook frozen chicken dinners after 32 people in 12 states were sickened with salmonella poisoning.

"Given how people use microwaves, it's great for reheating but maybe not so good for cooking," said Doug Powell, scientific director of the International Food Safety Network based at Kansas State University.

The problem is that microwaves heat unevenly, and they can leave cold spots in the food that harbor dangerous bacteria, such as E. coli , salmonella or listeria. So microwaving anything that includes raw meat, whether it's frozen or thawed, can cause problems. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/540597.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/540597.html Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:48 EDT
We are both journalists, but his job in Mississippi seems more secure than mine here in Lexington.

Still, he was more worried and completely stressed out about it.

At 48, he isn't married but he has a daughter in college. He has traveled the world covering sports but hasn't managed to save much money. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/532854.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/532854.html Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:00 EDT
There are fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, Winston Churchill lounging with George Bernard Shaw and the TV squirrel Rocky and his less adroit moose pal Bullwinkle.

Says Kratzer of his cartoon of a cartoon: "You appreciate the cleverness more as an adult."

There's Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. There is Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill, and the Cornell Law School, of which Kratzer is an alumnus. There is Kratzer's dad. There is the harlequin pattern alluded to in culinary culture today by the Panera bread bag and a fake fireplace facing a real one. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/533615.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/533615.html Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:48 EDT
They came here looking for good veterans health care, for good neighbors and for a sense of community.

They had visited four years before moving here and left with a sense that Lexington is where they wanted to be and where God was leading them.

"Given where we were living, Lexington was as close to paradise as we were going to get," Rita Badger said. "We had looked at the Carolinas and other pretty places, but everybody from where we were was going there, and they were taking their ugly with them. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/525425.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/525425.html Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:46 EDT
Some of the blame can be placed on inactivity and dietary choices.

But a four-part PBS documentary, Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick , which first aired in March, shows mounting evidence that sometimes economic status, race and environment can be better predictors of health than our own poor choices.

The documentary demonstrated how at each economic level rich to middle class to poor health declines at the same rate as our money. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/525427.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/525427.html Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:35 EDT
And I am not a believer in making a shopping list because I never know what is going to be marked down or on clearance. But I always carry my handy coupon holder when I go shopping. I find that sometimes looking on the shelves I might find products with peelies (stuck-on coupons) that maybe I don't want to use right away, but I take a couple and save them for when the product goes on sale.

Gas stations are great for coupons. Remember you can double the coupons up to 50 cents at Kroger and Meijer.

If you want to learn some of these simple but huge savings tips, come to the Fru-Gal Fair from 11a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Herald-Leader, 100 Midland Avenue. Bring your coupons to share, and we'll have some to share with you. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/517046.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/517046.html Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:28 EDT
In a statement released by Gov. Sarah Palin, the vice presidential nominee for the Republican Party, and her husband, Todd, announcing their daughter's pregnancy, they said, "Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family."

Johnston's mother, Sherry Johnston, told the Associated Press that Levi and Bristol had talked of marriage before they knew about the pregnancy. "This is just a bonus," she said.

I respect that and don't doubt it. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/510380.html http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/510380.html Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:49 EDT
Apparently filled to overflowing with pride in a day not many people expected to see in America, a day when a black man would have a legitimate chance to be president of the United States of America, those people knew they had witnessed history unfolding.

We've had so little to celebrate since arriving in America, when compared with other ethnic groups.

All black people, despite our political leanings or affiliations, should take a bit of pride in Obama's success. ]]>