The Quick Guide to Healthy Living

August 4, 2010 | by
The Quick Guide to Healthy Living

Earlier this year, we reported on the National Health Observances Toolkit, a resource at healthfinder.gov to help promote certain health observances. Late last month, they released another really useful tool: the Quick Guide to Healthy Living.

Your job, friends, the kids — we’re all on tight schedules these days. You try to stay up-to-date with prevention and wellness tips, but often there isn’t time to search through all the complex health information on the Web. The Quick Guide to Healthy Living now makes it easier — and faster — to find actionable prevention and wellness tips.

The guide features one-page, printable tools so you can find information to help you and those you care about stay healthy. Topics range from “Nutrition and Fitness” to “For Parents” to “Cancer Screening and Prevention” and include articles such as:

  • Manage stress and protect yourself from serious health problems
  • Take a heart healthy shopping list with you to the grocery store
  • Prevent allergy and asthma attacks at home
  • Get tested for breast cancer
  • Prevent mosquito and tick bites

Most of the guides have three sections, displayed as tabs on the page: Overview, The Basics and Take Action. Each guide also provides suggestions — Start Today: Small Steps — to help you get started right away.

Eat Healthy

With over 80 health and wellness tips, there’s something for everyone. It’s easy, it’s fast and it’ll help you stay healthy: the Quick Guide to Healthy Living from healthfinder.gov.

HON Foundation Launches New Certificate, Study on Internet Use

July 8, 2010 | by

Health On the Net (HON) Foundation, the non-profit organization that oversees the HONcode, the oldest and most widely used ethical and trustworthy code for medical- and health-related information on the Internet, recently launched a new and improved certificate for medical and health web sites [1]. The new certificate is an initiative to further enhance the HONcode certification system and to encourage health and medical information seekers to be more critical when searching for information online. It is also intended to advance the ethical use and promotion of health and medical data among online information providers.

A Look Back at 50 Years of Birth Control

June 30, 2010 | by

Birth control pills are a very popular form of birth control and are currently used by almost 12 million women in the United States and more than 100 million women worldwide [1-2]. Typically referred to as “the pill”, oral contraception has an interesting history and has generated enormous social and cultural impact.

Subsequent to drug trials in the mid-1950’s, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved birth control pills for contraceptive use in the U.S. in 1960. The first published case report of a blood clot and pulmonary embolism in a woman using birth control pills did not appear until November 1961 [3]. Between 1961 and 1963 there were 347 cases of thrombophlebitis (meaning vein inflammation related to a blood clot) in women using birth control pills for contraception that were reported to the manufacturer [4]. After almost 10 years of epidemiological studies, it was established that there is an increased risk of venous thrombosis (meaning a blood clot that forms in a vein) in oral contraceptive users and an increased risk of stroke and heart attack in oral contraceptive users who smoke or have high blood pressure or other cardiovascular or cerebrovascular risk factors.

Womens Health Zone recently posted an infographic surveying the changes that have resulted from the use of birth control pills. The infographic provides insight into statistics collected from PlannedParenthood.org on birth control over the last 50 years and is republished here on Highlight HEALTH below.

A look back at 50 years of birth controlCreative Commons License photo credit: Expedient InfoMedia

References

  1. Mosher et al. Use of contraception and use of family planning services in the United States: 1982-2002. Adv Data. 2004 Dec 10;(350):1-36.
    View Abstract
  2. Trussell, James (2007). “Contraceptive Efficacy”. in Hatcher, Robert A., et al.. Contraceptive Technology (19th rev. ed.). New York: Ardent Media.
  3. Jordan WM and Anand JK. Pulmonary embolism. Lancet. 1961 Nov 18;278(7212): 1146-7.
  4. Tyler ET. Oral contraception and venous thrombosis. JAMA. 1963 Jul 13;185(2):131-2.
    View Abstract

An Inside Look at NIH Peer Review

June 17, 2010 | by

Scholarly peer review is the process by which a researcher’s work — grant applications and research articles — are subjected to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field. This process of evaluation requires a community of experts for a given field who are both qualified and able to perform impartial review. These experts recommend scholarly work for acceptance, revision or rejection. Although impartial review may be difficult to accomplish, it is generally considered essential to academic quality and is used in most important scientific publications. Peer review encourages researchers to meet the accepted standards of their discipline and prevents the dissemination of irrelevant findings, unjustified claims, unacceptable interpretations and personal views.

The 2010 NF Conference – Connecting the Public with the Research

June 4, 2010 | by

Neurofibromatosis (NF) encompasses a set of genetic disorders that cause benign and malignant tumors to grow along various types of nerves; it can also affect the development of bones and skin. There are three main types of NF tumors: neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) and schwannomatosis. NF1 is the most frequent of the three; one in every 3,000 children is born with the disease.

The Children’s Tumor Foundation (CTF) is the leading non-governmental funder of scientific research into neurofibromatosis and has funded NF studies for over 25 years. Their goal is to identify NF drug therapies and improve the lives of those living with the disorder. The Foundation also endeavors to increase public awareness of NF and provides resources for NF patients and their families.

2010 NF Conference