City Bike-Share Riders Seldom Wear Helmets

HealthDay – 14 hrs ago SATURDAY, May 5 (HealthDay News) -- Four out of five Americans who participate in public bike-sharing programs don't wear helmets and are putting themselves at significant risk for head injuries, a new study shows.

In bike-sharing programs, riders rent bikes from kiosks located throughout a city. There are 15 bike-sharing programs in the United States and 30 more in development, according to the researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

The researchers collected data on helmet use among more than 3,000 adult cyclists participating in the Capital Bikeshare program in Washington, D.C., and the Hubway bike-share program in Boston.

The researchers said they were surprised to find that only 20 percent of the riders in the bike-share programs wore helmets.

"Head injury accounts for about a third of all bicycle injuries and about three-quarters of bicycle-related deaths, so these are some pretty shocking numbers," lead author and emergency medicine physician Dr. Christopher Fischer said in a medical center news release.

The study was published online April 30 in the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Fischer and his colleagues noted that previous studies have shown that "helmet use is associated with decreased rates of head injury and mortality in riders of all ages, with bicycle helmets decreasing the risk of head and brain injury by 65 percent to 88 percent."

The bike-sharing programs in Washington, D.C., and Boston encourage riders to wear helmets, but helmet use is not a requirement for bike rental.

Done safely, a rise in bike sharing offers benefits to the environment (less air pollution) and health (more exercise), the release noted.

"Bike-sharing programs have the potential to offer a lot of benefits to cyclists and cities, but it's important to encourage safe cycling," Fischer said. "We know that wearing a helmet reduces the risk of head injury dramatically and we believe that helmets should be more readily available at bike-rental sites."

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians offers bicycle-safety tips.

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Joggers Live Longer, Study Finds

DUBLIN -- For those who diligently lace up their running shoes and brave the elements to jog at least an hour a week, there is a very real reward -- an average of six more years of life, Danish researchers found.

Jogging was associated with a 44 percent reduction in the relative risk of death over 35 years compared with deaths among non-joggers, according to Dr. Peter Schnohr, chief cardiologist from the Copenhagen City Heart study.

And the benefit was observed for both men and women.

That reduction translated into an "age-adjusted survival benefit of 6.2 years in men and 5.6 years in women," Schnohr reported here at EuroPRevent 2012.

Read this story on www.medpagetoday.com.

And that longer life is often a happier life, he said, since joggers reported an overall sense of well-being.

"This is definitely good news, especially for those who have questioned whether simply jogging could be beneficial," said Dr. Ian Graham, of Dublin's Trinity College, who co-chaired the program committee for the meeting.

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Medical Tests You May Not Need

each revealed their lists of the top five overused tests or procedures in their fields. The resulting list of 45 tests has been made public as part of ABIM's Choosing Wisely campaign, an effort to boost communication between patients and physicians, and scale back on unneeded medicine in the process.

Could You Be Denied Coverage Because You're a Woman?

Here, we get to the bottom of the buzz to see what these new recommendations mean for you.

Early Detection Is Not Prevention

"Do we do too many tests? Absolutely," says Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, Prevention advisor and clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Yale School of Medicine.

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Doctors Urge Routine Skin Screenings

HealthDay – 1 hr 55 mins ago SUNDAY, May 6 (HealthDay News) -- Adults and children should be screened routinely for changes in the appearance of their skin, experts advise.

Mount Sinai Medical Center researchers point out that regular visits to the dermatologist are just as important as trips to the dentist because they can provide clues as to what's going on outside as well as inside the body.

One in five Americans will develop some form of skin cancer during their lifetime, the Mount Sinai doctors cautioned. Although skin cancer is one of the most common types of cancer, it's also one of the most preventable, they noted in a center news release.

In honor of Skin Cancer Awareness Month and Melanoma Day on Monday, May 7, the experts offered the following advice on skin cancer prevention:

Wear sunblock. Almost half of all UV exposure occurs between the ages of 19 and 40 years. Sunblock should be applied to the body, around the eyes, lips, ears and feet everyday year-round. Dermatologists can recommend sunscreen for infants and sensitive areas, such as the eyelids or face. Do not sunbathe. It may take between 10 and 20 years for the damage to show up, but the sun's rays dissolve the collagen and elastin in your skin. Perform monthly self-checks. Monitor your brown spots, such as moles and freckles. If you have many of these spots, consult your dermatologist about total body photography. This preventative measure can help closely track the appearance of your spots to determine if they've changed over time. Follow the ABCDEs. Consult a dermatologist if a mole has any of the following: Asymmetry (one side is different from the other); Border irregularity; Color variation (one area is a different shade or color than another); Diameter equal to or larger than a pencil eraser; Elevation (it is raised or has an uneven surface)

Sunscreens will have new U.S. Food and Drug Administration-mandated labels beginning June 18, the experts noted. So, when looking for sunscreen, be sure its label has the following:

Provides "broad-spectrum protection," or UVA as well as UVB coverage measured by the given sun-protection factor (SPF) value. "SPF 30" (or higher). Being protected by SPF 30 means it will take 30 minutes of sun exposure to get the same amount of UV light penetration as you would get in just one minute with unprotected skin. The Mount Sinai specialists noted anything lower than SPF 30 will have the following label warning: "Spending time in the sun increases your risk of skin cancer and early skin aging. This product has been shown only to prevent sunburn, not skin cancer or early skin aging." "Water-resistant." The new FDA rules prohibit any sunscreen from being labeled as "waterproof." Those marked "water-resistant" have been shown to pass a standard 40- or 80-minute test of water exposure followed by UV testing.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about skin cancer.

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Scientists "switch off" brain cell death in mice

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Living alone with Alzheimer's tough choice for all

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Salmonella in dog food sickens 14 people in US

Fourteen people in at least nine states have been sickened by salmonella after handling tainted dog food from a South Carolina plant that a few years ago produced food contaminated by toxic mold that killed dozens of dogs, federal officials said Friday.

At least five people were hospitalized because of the dog food, which was made by Diamond Pet Foods at its plant in Gaston, S.C., the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. No pets were sickened, according to the Meta, Mo.-based company.

"People who became ill, the thing that was common among them was that they had fed their pets Diamond Pet Foods," said CDC spokeswoman Lola Russell.

Three people each were infected in Missouri and North Carolina; two people in Ohio; and one person each in Alabama, Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the CDC said.

"Our folks are really wanting people to be aware of it. They want to be aware that this is causing people to get sick because they may have product in their homes. For every one that is reported, there may be 29 others," Russell said.

People can get salmonella by handling infected dog food, then not washing their hands before eating or handling their own food, health officials said.

The South Carolina plant temporarily was shut down April 8. Diamond Pet Foods has issued four rounds of recalls for food made at the plant, located outside of Columbia, S.C., between Dec. 9 and April 7. The latest recalls were announced Friday.

"We took corrective actions at the plant, and today the plant is up and running. Our mission is to produce safe pet foods for our customers and their pets in all Diamond facilities," the company said in a written statement Friday.

In 2005, a toxic mold called aflatoxin ended up in food made at the same Diamond Pet Foods plant in South Carolina and dozens of dogs died. The company offered a $3.1 million settlement. The Food and Drug Administration determined the deadly fungus likely got into the plant when it failed to test 12 shipments of corn.

FDA officials were not immediately available for comment Friday on the most recent problems with the plant.

Agriculture officials in Michigan found the strain of salmonella during routine testing of dog food on April 2 and health investigators noticed there was a possible link to the food made by Diamond Pet Foods. An ill person still had some of the food, and authorities were able to link the cases to the food, the CDC said.

The recall covers a number of pet food brands made at the Gaston plant, including Canidae, Natural Balance, Apex, Kirkland, Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul, Country Value, Diamond, Diamond Naturals, Premium Edge, Professional, 4Health and Taste of the Wild.

___

Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Mo.

Online:

http://diamondpetrecall.com/

www.naturalbalanceinc.com

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Study ties fertility treatment, birth defect risk

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Breast cancer is rare in men, but they fare worse

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East Asians short-sighted for snubbing outdoors: study

"Children play computer games in Singapore. Snubbing the outdoors for books, video games and TV is the reason up to nine in ten school-leavers in big East Asian cities are near-sighted, according to a study published on Friday. (AFP Photo/Roslan Rahman)" title

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Indian drug giant Cipla slashes cancer drug prices

"An Indian pharmacist speaks on the phone while standing near a display of Cipla products in Mumbai in 2005. Indian generic drug giant Cipla said Friday it had slashed by up to 76 percent prices of three anti-cancer medicines in what it called a "humanitarian" move and promised to cut the costs of more products" title

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Fertility treatment babies prone to 'serious defects'

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