Consumer Reports

Alright, confession time: I watch a lot of bad reality TV. Please don’t judge me. For many reasons, one of my favorite shows is the Biggest Loser. I’m a health nut; I love watching the transformations; and I get a kick out of the trainers screaming their heads off. But the fact that such a show even exists and that the people on it are getting bigger and bigger each season is kind of a sad commentary on the state of overall health in this country. A lot of the bad health habits we have now as adults were learned as kids and teenagers. We eat the same foods our moms cooked and we learn about an active or sedentary lifestyle from our parents’ examples. So it seems the way to fix our obesity problem is to start with educating kids and parents, which is exactly what the Let’s Move campaign is trying to do. Backed by Michelle Obama, Let’s Move teaches kids the importance of getting some kind of activity every day. It uses the approach that something, even if it’s just a little, is always better than nothing. Take a walk, ride a bike, play tag. It’s all better than guzzling a soda and playing video games. Parents can learn simple things they can do to encourage their kids to be healthy. Sit down on a weekend and map out dinners for the week together. Involve your kids in the process of choosing healthy foods and, if age appropriate, let them help make dinner. Instead of a candy dish, parents could swap it for a fruit dish. Put easy to grab fruits in your kids’ reach and they might not miss the candy. Being healthy doesn’t have to mean some extreme diet and exercise plan, it can be little things you do each day to help set a good example for your family. Check out Letsmove.gov and share one healthy thing you do each day.

I love summer, always have. But I am not loving this heat wave that’s sweeping through huge parts of the Northeast. Temperatures are supposed to exceed 100 degrees this week with lots of humidity. Not only does that make for some extreme discomfort every time I walk outside, but it could also be really dangerous . The super hot temperatures could lead to heat cramps, heat exhaustion or even worse, heat stroke . My plan for staying safe in the summer heat involves staying out of the sun when possible, drinking lots and lots of water and getting my runs in early in the morning before it gets too hot. Medline Plus offers some other great tips for staying safe in the heat: If you have to be out in the sun, schedule breaks in the shade or in a cool building. Wear a hat to keep the sun off your face and choose light-weight clothing that breathes. When you’re exercising, watch for signs of heat-related illness like a pounding head or shortness of breath. How do you stay cool when it’s hot outside?

It drives me nuts when I’m sitting on the train and I can hear the music blaring from another person’s iPod. It’s just plain rude to be playing your music so loudly that it disrupts the rest of the train. But even if those people aren’t considerate of others, shouldn’t they at least care about the damage they are doing to their own hearing? Studies show that listening to music through headphones at such a loud volume could lead to hearing loss down the road. Here are some tips on protecting yourself from long term hearing loss. Turn down the music. Aren’t sure of the ideal volume, check how many decibels the music should be. Limit your time listening. Cutting back on how long you’re rocking out could help save your ears. Use ear plugs. If you’re going to be somewhere loud, like a concert or working with power tools, buy a pair of ear plugs to help mute the sound. If you think you might be experiencing hearing loss, you can take a brief quiz that highlights some of the classic symptoms. Depending on how you answer you may want to visit your doctor for more formal testing.

Last year, my New Year’s Resolution was to drink more water . Shockingly enough- I actually did it! Now, a diet soda is a rarity instead of the norm. I pretty much drink strictly H2O , or unsweetened iced tea- sometimes with lemon if I really want to get crazy. Now that I am actually drinking water - the question is: How much do I need to be drinking? With summer here, and temps soaring, it is especially important to keep your body hydrated. Dehydration causes you to become overheated and leads to exhaustion and light-headedness, muscle cramps and an increased chance of heatstroke. While the common perception is that adults should be drinking eight eight-ounce glasses per day, it is now suggested that we should actually be drinking more. It’s recommended that men have closer to 13 glasses per day and that women have 9. When exercising, especially outside, you should have half a cup of water every 15 minutes. When working out over an hour, a sports drink would also be helpful. But let’s call a spade a spade here, people- water can be pretty dang boring. To jazz it up, try adding lemon, lime, cucumber, or mint to your drink. How do you sneak more water into your day? Have you ever experienced dehydration?

A lot of people in the nation’s capital have baseball on the brain this week. Primarily because the Washington Nationals have the first pick in Major League Baseball’s First-Year Player Draft this afternoon but also because tomorrow is the major league debut of last year’s first overall pick, Stephen Strasburg. I have baseball on my mind because of last week’s perfect game controversy. Last Wednesday, Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers pitched what seemed to be the third perfect game of the young season. Unfortunately, umpire Jim Joyce called a hit on what should have been the final out. Joyce admitted the mistake after watching a replay, but Major League Baseball is not expected to overturn the call to make Galarraga’s effort a perfect game. Admirably, both Galarraga and Joyce handled themselves professionally and politely during the next game’s lineup card exchange . Videos of situations like that one that I linked to there can create opportunities for parents to talk to their children about good sportsmanship, and how to respect other players, coaches, and umpires.

Several factors can affect men’s health more than women’s health — for example, men tend to smoke and drink more than women and do not seek medical help as often. June is Men’s Health Month, to heighten the awareness of preventable health problems and encourage early detection and treatment of disease among men and boys. Visit the FAQ at USA.gov to learn more.

Last week I wrote a post about beach vacation season , and in the post I mentioned the importance of using sunscreen to protect against skin cancer . A reader mentioned that now sunscreens are now being linked to causing skin cancer. Since this was news to me, I did some checking up on it . These days you can’t open your eyes without reading that something or other causes cancer – sometimes these things are true and sometimes they’re not. I wasn’t able to find a lot of solid evidence one way or the other on the matter, but the controversy seems to be based on a couple of factors: some people suspect certain sunscreen ingredients (such as such as oxybenzone, benzophenone, octocrylene, or octyl methoxycinnamate) are carcinogenic. Another theory is that some sunscreens provide incomplete protection against the full ultraviolet spectrum. I’m not a doctor, or even a chemistry major, and I wasn’t able to find evidence about the chemicals one way or the other. There is, however, a lot of information about the dangers of UVA and UVB rays . Sometimes reading the labels and comparing sunscreen products can be confusing, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) , the agency that regulates sunscreen labeling, is proposing some changes to make it easier for us to understand. But even more effective than the best sunscreen is to be aware of the UV Index in your area and avoid the sun during peak hours (between 10am and 4pm). Stay in the shade, and wear a hat and sunglasses with UV protection. So far I have read no reports about hats and sunglasses causing cancer. Whew! If you have concerns about using sunscreen, I think it would be best to bring this up with your doctor who can help you weigh your risks and make an informed decision.

Much thanks to Stephanie for stepping in last week while I was recovering from having my wisdom teeth yanked. Our third set of molars, nicknamed “wisdom teeth” since they generally surface between ages 17-25, were useful to our Stone Age ancestors who had wider jaws, coarser diets and rougher lives . These teeth helped them chew easier and helped ease the loss of other teeth during the course of their lives. Flash forward to now and -surprise- these teeth can cause problems for some people. If your wisdom teeth are impacted , they can rub up against other teeth and cause bad breath, your bite to be misaligned, an abscess of the tooth or gums and even gum disease. I never had any problems with my wisdom teeth, but when I was at the dentist last month, she noticed an abscess forming in the gums of one of the impacted teeth. She was concerned that the abscess could be malignant and I was sold on getting all four of my wisdom teeth removed. Luckily, the lab results said the abscess was benign, but I did suffer one post-extraction problem — dry sockets . While that has not been fun at all, I’ll recover and I’m happy that I got my wisdom teeth removed so there are no future complications. Have you had your wisdom teeth removed?

Much thanks to Stephanie for stepping in last week while I was recovering from having my wisdom teeth yanked. Our third set of molars, nicknamed “wisdom teeth” since they generally surface between ages 17-25, were useful to our Stone Age ancestors who had wider jaws, coarser diets and rougher lives . These teeth helped them chew easier and helped ease the loss of other teeth during the course of their lives. Flash forward to now and -surprise- these teeth can cause problems for some people. If your wisdom teeth are impacted , they can rub up against other teeth and cause bad breath, your bite to be misaligned, an abscess of the tooth or gums and even gum disease. I never had any problems with my wisdom teeth, but when I was at the dentist last month, she noticed an abscess forming in the gums of one of the impacted teeth. She was concerned that the abscess could be malignant and I was sold on getting all four of my wisdom teeth removed. Luckily, the lab results said the abscess was benign, but I did suffer one post-extraction problem — dry sockets . While that has not been fun at all, I’ll recover and I’m happy that I got my wisdom teeth removed so there are no future complications. Have you had your wisdom teeth removed?

Recently, a friend of mine got back from a trip to Mexico. Tan and giddy, he proceeded to tell one of my gal pals and me about all the fun in the sun he had while we were sitting behind our work computers all week. So later in the afternoon, when he started to complain of an upset stomach, he got very little sympathy from the two pale chicks who may or may not be experiencing the early signs of carpel tunnel . Details spared, things got ugly. The “upset stomach” ended up being E. coli . Trying to figure out what it was that made him sick, my friend mentioned eating a salad at the airport during the layover from Mexico. Had he been a loyal Gov Gab reader, he would have never done such a thing- seeing as I had given him fair warning back in January . That aside, it seems that he’s not the only one getting sick from salad. At least 19 people in three states have been sickened by E. coli, traced back to romaine lettuce . The FDA has announced a food recall from Vaughan Foods for romaine lettuce with “use by” dates of May 9th and 10th. Consumers are urged not to eat “grab and go” salads from in-store salad bars and delis at Kroger, Giant Eagle, Ingles Markets, and Marsh stores. While most healthy adults recover from E. coli in about a week, it can be potentially fatal for the elderly, children, and those with weakened immune systems. See a doctor if you are experiencing intense stomach pain.