Short Takes
Usable news + tips   

How to handle a candle

Burns and sirens aren’t exactly festive. Follow these pointers from the Canada Safety Council to enjoy the cozy ambience of candles in the coming holiday season.

• Trim wicks back to a quarter of an inch (six millimetres).

• Extinguish candles thoroughly with a snuffer.

• Never leave a child or pet alone in a room with a burning candle.

• Never leave a lit candle unattended.

• Keep an especially close eye on candles with multiple wicks (they burn high and hot) and candles decorated with bark, leaves and other flammable accents.

• Keep burning candles well away from flammable materials such as drapes and upholstery.

Before You Conceive

If you’re planning a pregnancy, you need to give more than your contraceptive the heave-ho. Extra weight should go, too. “It’s important for you and crucial for your baby that your weight is at a healthy level,” says Dr. Terry O’Grady, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Memorial University in St. John’s, Nfld. Researchers at the University of Texas at Houston reported that obese moms were twice as likely to have babies with spina bifida. Their infants also had an increased risk of birth defects in the heart, limbs or diaphragm. A study of 24,000 U.K. women found that obese moms-to-be were more likely to have pre-eclampsia (hypertension, protein in urine), premature delivery, post-delivery bleeding or emergency C-sections.

Photo by Lev Dolgatshjov/iStockphoto

What’s in a Word?

Complete blood count (CBC) is a test that counts the number of different kinds of cells in a sample of your blood, including red and white blood cells and platelets. Your doctor may order a CBC to help evaluate your symptoms, uncover infections or diagnose conditions such as anemia.

Kicking Butt

An innovative quit-smoking program developed by the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) is helping smokers kick the habit for good. It boasts a success rate that’s among the best in the world — with up to 48% of participants still smoke-free at the one-year mark. It uses a personalized combination of counselling, medication and regular follow-up with a nurse specially trained to deal with nicotine addicts. “We make sure the patients’ physical withdrawal needs are met with medications, so they can work on behavioural changes,” says Bonnie Quinlan, RN, a tobacco addiction counsellor at UOHI. “We respect how difficult it is to quit.” More than 35 Canadian hospitals have adopted and/or adapted the UOHI model. Ask your local hospital if it has a quit-smoking program.

Sweet Dreams

Women have sexual dreams just as often as men do — 8% of the time — according to a new study from the University of Montreal. The study looked at 3,500 dreams recorded by 109 women and 64 men over several weeks. Previous studies, conducted about 40 years ago, pointed to more hot stuff for men. Why the change? “It may be that women feel more comfortable reporting erotic dreams now. Or they may, in fact, be having more sexual dreams due to changing social norms and attitudes toward sexuality,” notes study author Dr. Antonio Zadra.

Photo by Galina Dreyzina/iStockphoto

Teenage Eaters

Researchers at Ontario’s University of Guelph report that teens and tweens really do have poor eating habits. Their study of 681 Grade 9 students found that well over a third were above normal weight, less than half ate breakfast every day and less than a quarter were getting adequate daily servings of fruits and veggies. “After the first year of life, the teen years are the fastest growth period, so it’s extra-important to have good nutrition,” says Huguette Cloutier, a registered dietitian at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. Try her tips for the following problem eaters.

Breakfast skippers

Leave teens healthy portable snacks to eat at mid-morning. Good choices include a yogourt cup, a homemade whole grain muffin, reduced-fat cheese and crackers or a granola bar (watch sugar content). 

Meat avoiders

To ensure teens get adequate iron and vitamin B₁₂, encourage them to sprinkle nuts on their salads, eat hummus or black-bean dip with tortilla chips or whirl soft tofu into their favourite smoothies.

Junk eaters

Make healthy alternatives readily accessible at home: peanut butter and whole wheat crackers, light microwaveable popcorn (watch the salt and portions), cut-up veggies and slices of apple topped with cheese.

fast fact

Pomegranate Power

Heard that trendy — not to mention healthy — pomegranate juice may interfere with some drugs the way grapefruit juice does? Not so, says a small study published in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. It was the first to test the juice’s effects on drug metabolism in human volunteers, unlike previous studies that relied on animal and in vitro lab testing.

Your Best Shot

The annual flu shot is being given now. Test your vaccine smarts.

Answer true or false

1. You shouldn’t work out right before getting your flu shot.

2. The flu shot only protects you from influenza.

3. Some people need more than one flu shot a year.

Answers

1. False In fact, exercise may actually improve your immune response to the vaccination, according to studies from the University of Birmingham in the U.K. Volunteers who lifted light weights or rode a stationary bike for 45 minutes before their flu shot subsequently had higher antibody levels than those who did not.

2. False While the vaccine helps you avoid the flu and infecting vulnerable people such as babies and the elderly, it may also help your ticker. A study published in the European Heart Journal found that people who had the flu also had an increased chance of dying from heart disease. Influenza results in an acute inflammation in the body, which may cause obstructive plaque in coronary arteries to break off and trigger a heart attack.

3. True Kids under age nine who’ve never had a flu shot need two doses of the vaccine. The shots should be given at least four weeks apart.

Under pressure

Hypertension (high blood pressure) in children and adolescents is often missed, according to a study from Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland that looked at 14,187 children, ages three to 18, over a period of seven years. What’s the problem? Diagnosing hypertension in kids can be challenging because the normal and abnormal values vary with age, sex and height and are therefore difficult to remember, the study authors write. “Parents should specifically ask the doctor if their child’s blood pressure reading is acceptable,” suggests Dr. David Kaelber, study co-author.

Move of the month

Watch your back!

“Backs are happiest when they have variety throughout the day: standing, walking, sitting, lying down, reaching, bending and stretching,” says Audrey Long, a physiotherapist in Calgary. Try these moves to help prevent lower-back pain.

Photo by Photodisc/SuperStock

If you tend to have lower-back pain that is eased by standing or walking and gets worse when you are sitting or bending, Lie on your bed on your stomach. Rest for a minute. Then place your hands flat on the bed, under your chest, with your elbows at your sides. Use your hands and arms to gently lift up your head and shoulders, as in the photo below. Do this 10 times, each time increasing the distance you lift your chest. By the 10th repetition you should be able to extend your arms to their full length.

If your lower-back pain tends to be eased by sitting down and gets worse when you are standing and walking, Sit on the edge of a chair with your knees wide apart. Gently curl forward so that your head and shoulders are between your knees. Do this 10 times, each time increasing the distance you curl forward. Do not do this stretch if your back pain is worse when you stand up after sitting.

You ask, we answer

Never on Monday

I find the first day of the workweek unbearably stressful. Any coping tips?

“On Mondays, clear the decks of any non-essential interruptions,” advises Bill Dueease, president of the Coach Connection, a network of life coaches in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. “You have enough to do getting caught up on the work you left on Friday without extra intrusions.” Never book non-urgent medical or dental appointments for Monday — check the weekday of the date the receptionist suggests before you accept. Try to avoid committing to office or school meetings for that day as well. Forward your telephone calls to voice mail and turn off your email alert. Set aside time toward the end of the morning to answer messages once you’ve made some progress. And forget waiting for the big Friday lunch; sneak away to a restaurant alone on Monday for a quick recuperative bite, say, around 2 p.m., when the lunch crowd has cleared out. If you can’t do that, take a few minutes to be by yourself — sit quietly in a local church or park, or just lean against the wall in a quiet corridor and take a few deep breaths. “You’re obviously a work-oriented person, so make your Mondays work for you,” says Dueease.

Curl up and dye!

I sleep most nights with big rollers in my hair. I also colour my hair deep black. I’ve heard that rollers can cause hair to fall out and that black dyes may cause cancer.

There is a condition called traction alopecia, also seen with very tight braiding, ponytails and buns, where constant pulling will lead to hair loss, says Dr. Beatrice Wang, an assistant professor of dermatology at McGill University in Montreal. “With persistent traction, hair loss can be permanent. Before important events, sleeping with rollers in your hair is fine, but it is an unwise practice on a nightly basis.”

Photo by Mathew Wiley/Masterfile

As for hair dyes, these do not cause cancer in humans. “The most common reaction is allergic contact dermatitis. caused by the chemicals,” says Wang. Products that just cover grey often contain metals such as lead, silver and copper. The metals are deposited on the hair shaft and with repeated applications cover the grey. They are toxic only if ingested. Coal-tar derivatives, found in semi-permanent and temporary dyes, have been reported to cause cancer in laboratory animals. All dyes containing this chemical must list it in the ingredients section on the package.

Prostrating prostate cancer

My father has prostate cancer. What can I do to reduce my risk? I am 40 years old.
Four areas hold promise for preventing this malignancy, says Dr. Moamen Amin, a cancer researcher at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal.

1. Balancing the calories you take in with the calories you expend in physical activity.

2. Controlling inflammation of the prostate since inflammation can be a preliminary stage in cancer.

3. Consuming protective nutrients and chemicals in foods or supplements. These include lycopene (tomatoes, watermelon), compounds in brassica vegetables (broccoli, cabbage) and marine omega-3 fatty acids (salmon, herring, sardines). Estrogen-like compounds in soy products may also be protective, as well as selenium and vitamins D and E.

4. Stopping smoking, exercising more and eating more fruits, vegetables, fish and soy — while cutting down on meat and saturated fat — may be beneficial, too. A McGill University study found that diets rich in green vegetables that also included two servings of fish a week were linked to a lower risk of prostate cancer.

Established risk factors include age (50 and over), two first-degree relatives with this cancer and African ancestry. At age 50, a man at low risk should consult his doctor about having a digital rectal examination and the benefits and risks of getting a blood test for prostate-specific antigen (PSA). “Since only one close relative of yours has had prostate cancer, you are still in the low-risk category. If another first-degree relative develops the disease, I would advise you to consider earlier testing,” says Amin. 

— Diana Swift