Health Year In Review
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In
Time Magazine’s Health Year In Review is always interesting. From A to Z, TIME covered the health stories of 2008 that made a difference in our lives at the time and may make a difference moving into 2009.
Reading the list from the perspective of kids and families, here’s my “best of” from TIME’s “best of”…sort of a best of the best of the best!
Abortion
For the first time in a while, the abortion rate is down for ages 15-44. This may have a positive or negative impact on child health depending on the teenage pregnancy rate. We’ll know as 2009 marches on.
Appendectomy with No Scars
A new surgical technique that will benefit all ages and takes advantage of our natural pathways to get to the area of interest.
Autism Debate
TIME cited the case of Hannah Poling, the 9 year old girl with a mitochondrial disorder who developed complications after receiving 5 shots. Studies to date have proven vaccine safety and experts feel Hannah’s complications resulted from the impact of the shots in an immune system weakened due to mitochondrial disease. Of note, kids with mitochondrial disease do often have autism so this is not an easy case to sort out.
BPA in Bottles (Bisphenol-A)
Another hotly debated issue this year with the FDA flip-flopping their position. The science is a bit confusing but there is evidence of potential concern. While the risk is likely low, if parents have a choice, opt for BPA free bottles. Why take the risk.
Cigarettes: quitting helps your friends
People tend to smoke in groups. It turns out if a person in a social group quits smoking, other in that group are likely to quit, too. So, parents, if you want your kids to not smoke, don’t do it yourself or quit.
CPR and Stayin’ Alive
Having trouble recalling those CPR guidelines? Turns out all you have to do is hum the tune “stayin’ alive” and you’ll pump that person’s chest the right amount of bests. Talk about cool!
CT Scans and safety
The key with CT scans is to remember that we have to watch for life-time risk of radiation exposure or people could develop cancers from these scans. While there is some controversy about this, why take the risk? Be sure your kids need a scan before you let one happen “just in case”. If there isn’t a medical reason for a scan on your child, the scan doesn’t need to be done.
Day Care: To send or not?
Give day care is the conduit of germ spreading from kid to kid and kid to adult, it’s not a shock this topic made the list. Add to this concern a new study that concluded that kids who attended daycare seemed to gain more weight over kids who were at home,and it’s now wonder parents are perplexed. M take: daycare is a good and healthy option for kids but parents have to do their homework and be sure food is not used as a pacifier.
Gardasil Debate
While there have been reports of serious side effects after some girls have received Gardasil, the HPV vaccine, experts and pediatricians still agree that the vaccine is safe. I let my daughter get it this year and unless there is new evidence we plan to give it to our younger daughter when she’s old enough. The risk of a rare complication is worth it to have them protected from a moment of poor judgement that could lead to cervical cancer.
Global Warming and Allergies
Allergies are on the rise and so, too, is our environmental temperature. And, with an increase in allergies comes more asthma attacks.
Gymnastics is really dangerous!
Of all the sports studies this year, the gymnastics study was the most eye opening! This is one sport where good training and coaching is essential, as well as parents and coaches paying attention to pacing and proper healing of injuries.
Math: Gender Gap is Gone!
With boys and girls now performing just as well in the math and science worlds, our daugthers can now really reach for the sky without that gender card being held over their heads as often as it was for all of us.
Obesity Plateau and Genetics Can Be Fooled
A plateau is good news but we still have a great deal of work to help people stay fit and healthy. The long term consequences of obesity in all ages is too great to relax too much as a result of this plateau.
While it turns out that we may be born with a genetic predisposition towards obesity, the Amish have found a way to over come that: exercise, and more than those without the obesity gene. Makes sense. Now we just have to find a way for people to do that.
Reading Helps Teens Shed Pounds
Kids relate well to characters in books and a Duke university doc found she could use this as a weight loss tool. She had overweight and obese girls read a book about an overweight girl which had real life lessons to teach and those girls actually shed pounds. Just goes to show, the best way to get kids to help themselves is to use what they like to do as a tool to promote your cause.
Statins
I discussed this yesterday so won’t repeat myself.
TV and Teen Pregnancy
TIME hits the nail on the head with their discription of the issues. We always seem to worry about TV and kids. The issue with pregnancy is the way teens on TV are portrayed. There’s simply no responsibility so teens in the real world become even more cavalier and fail to think about birthcontrol. What we need is more responsible programming to hammer the real issues in more. This could be a powerful teachable moment if done correctly and save kids from unwanted pregnancies and all the emotional and physical pain that comes with it.
ZZZ’s = Sleep
In a nut shell, we’re not getting enough of it! If we want to be the best parents we can be, we need to be rested. Let’s make this one of our resolutions and figure out how to structure our lives in a way we feel calmer and more rested. I’m sure our kids will reap benefits we can only dream of and, perhaps, not even predict.
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