HEALTHOUGHTS
FASTEN YOUR (COUGH, HACK, WHEEZE) SEAT BELTS
FASTEN YOUR (COUGH, HACK, WHEEZE) SEAT BELTS
Listening to a person cough or sneeze probably does not trigger much worry for most folks.
But hearing those coughs and sneezes after the doors are sealed for an airplane flight may leave many people wishing they had stayed home for fear of contracting who-knows-what.
According to USC physician Paul Holtom, M.D., an infectious disease specialist, re-circulated airplane air may put you at greater risk for contracting airborne pathogens from fellow passengers than if you were in similar circumstances with a fresh air source.
"There have been some documented cases where people have contracted tuberculosis on a plane, and if it's true with TB, it's probably true with other respiratory diseases as well," Holtom says.
He adds that although there is no way to eliminate the risk since "you can't just hold your breath the entire flight," there is a way of reducing the risk and keeping your body's defenses up: Drink plenty of water.
Airplane air generally has little moisture and can easily dry out the mucous lining of the nose, throat and lungs that serves as a barrier to airborne microbes. Keeping hydrated improves the body's ability to trap and neutralize those microbes before they can gain a foothold.
Still, Holtom emphasizes that while catching another passenger's germs during a flight is always a risk, it is not a risk to lose sleep over.
"The question is, how big a problem is this? There aren't many studies on the subject, but probably it's pretty small," he says.
In an effort to keep their hearts healthy, many people have given up butter in favor of margarine, but James H. Dwyer, Ph.D., USC professor of preventive medicine, warns that this simple switch may not bring the benefit they seek.
"A major problem with margarines is that they have significant levels of transfatty acids," Dwyer says. "These acids are what allows the product to stay solid at room temperature, but there is mounting evidence that these fatty acids are as much a risk factor for coronary disease as saturated fats-and the whole point of switching to margarine is to avoid saturated fats."
Some studies show that margarines such as Benecol and Take Control that were designed specifically to lower cholesterol using natural compounds called sterol and stanol esthers do appear to work as advertised.
Still, Dwyer notes that studies have yet to be done that show that this necessarily translates into a health benefit. He says that while they do lower cholesterol levels in the blood, which is believed to reduce the risk of heart attacks, they may have other, less benign health effects in the long-term.
"The problem with evaluating research in this area is that it's difficult, if not impossible, to do a randomized study where you assign people to eat one kind of food for 10 years and see how they do. Instead we end up with short-term studies of a few months and then have to extrapolate the impact of these changes over a lifetime-and that's a big extrapolation," he says.
Dwyer recommends replacing butter and margarines in the diet with vegetable fats such as canola oil and olive oil that are liquid at room temperature, noting that studies suggest these fats are less harmful and may possibly even be healthful.
And to keep your heart healthy, the age-old advice remains: Do not smoke, exercise regularly and reduce the intake of all fats to 30 percent or less of your diet.
Saw palmetto extract-derived from the berries of the saw palmetto tree indigenous to the southeastern U.S.-has been used as far back as the 18th century to treat prostate gland enlargement.
The extract is enjoying a renaissance of popularity in easing mild symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a common and sometimes embarrassing urological condition that affects half of men over age 50.
According to Jeffry Huffman, M.D., urologist at the Keck School of Medicine, BPH has a variety of symptoms, including slowed urination, an inability to empty the bladder, or a more frequent need to urinate. Huffman points out the need to get checked by a doctor for these symptoms, because they may be signs of illness or infection.
But if BPH is the cause, saw palmetto works in the same way as the prescription medications, known as alpha blockers. All reduce the nerve impulses sent to muscles in the urinary tract, thereby relaxing the muscles in the bladder neck and making it easier to urinate.
One note of caution, says USC urologist Eila Skinner, M.D.: "Do not be misled by the word 'natural' on the bottle. I am not aware of any reliable testing done on herbal products. And, the amount of active ingredients in the pills can vary between manufacturers." Yet, Skinner adds, she has not heard of any adverse effects from people taking saw palmetto. She would tell her patients with mild symptoms who are wary of taking a prescription drug to go ahead and give saw palmetto a try.
If you are about to jump onto the soy bandwagon, you might want to look before you leap. Credited with everything from obliterating hot flashes to relieving pain, soy is one of the current health-media darlings. But when it comes to reducing the risk of cancer, at least, soy has yet to live up to its reputation.
"There's not a lot of data from humans to make specific recommendations, at least in terms of various cancers," says USC/Norris professor Anna Wu, Ph.D. "There are some epidemiological studies suggesting that high intake of soy foods is associated with reduced risk of breast and prostate cancer, but we can't tell you how much soy to eat, or what types."
Wu explains that there are two groups of soy foods: fermented foods like miso and tempeh and non-fermented foods like tofu, soy milk and soybeans. It is not known whether fermented and non-fermented soy foods have comparable effects on health.
It remains to be established that it is the soy in foods like tofu that make them protective, either. "Maybe the protective effect is that people who eat tofu and soybeans also consume more vegetables and have other healthy lifestyle habits," Wu notes. "Soy food may be a surrogate for the way we eat or other aspects of an "Asian" lifestyle that are associated with lower risks of a number of cancers. Until studies are designed to address other dietary variables and lifestyles that go along with eating soy foods, I am not confident in saying that any protection is necessarily from the soy foods themselves."
That does not mean you need to pour all your soy milk down the drain or toss out your tofu. "Eating non-fermented soy foods in the amounts that Asians in Asia eat soy foods would certainly be fine," Wu says. What makes her wary is the spate of soy-based supplements and powders being pushed in health food stores. "If someone told me they are taking soy pills or are adding soy powder to everything they're eating, the only thing I could say is, 'I wouldn't do it myself.'"
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