Turning TV Or Radio Off During Meals May Help People Lose Weight, Study Suggests.

reports that turning off the television or radio “during meals helps you lose weight because the sound of your own chewing makes you eat less,” the findings of a study published in Food Quality and Preference suggest. Eating “meals in a quiet environment helps shed the pounds as it boosts consciousness of the food and keeps consumption in check, the study shows.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/12196042/How-to-lose-weight-switch-off-the-TV-at-meal-times.html

Aspirin May Lower GI Malignancy Risk:

http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/Hematology/56732?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2016-03-16&eun=g721819d0r

Clinton's Health Plan Gets Mostly Passing Grades From Policy Experts But chances of passage 'zero' without big change in Congress

This was in my daily medical news email, not politics. http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/ElectionCoverage/56734?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2016-03-16&eun=g721819d0r

WHO Report: One Quarter Of Deaths In 2012 Attributed To Unhealthy Environment.

reports in “To Your Health” that the number of deaths “underscores the devastating impact of the chemicals and waste we’ve been putting into the air, water and earth since the end of World War II.” Breaking down the numbers, “the WHO said deaths due to non-communicable diseases – which include heart disease and cancer and are related to exposure to pollution – now make up 8.2 million or nearly two-thirds of the total deaths.” Meanwhile, deaths attributed to “infectious diseases – such as malaria and diarrhea – due to unsafe water and lack of sanitation represent one-third and are on the decline.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/03/15/human-toll-of-pollution-who-estimates-12-6-million-die-from-unhealthy-environments-each-year/

CDC Issues Guidelines On Opioid Prescriptions.

reports that “the CDC directed the guidelines to primary care physicians, who prescribe nearly half of opiates.” The Washington Post (3/15, Demirjian, Bernstein) points out that “in addition to the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration is reassessing its policies on opioid medications, the Senate has passed legislation that would expand drug abuse treatment and prevention, and the Drug Enforcement Administration is pushing physicians for more responsible prescribing.” http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/15/cdc-issues-new-guidelines-opiate-prescribing-reduce-abuse-overdoses/81809704/

People With Diabetes May Be More Likely To Develop Potentially Deadly Staph Blood Infections Than People Without Diabetes.

reported that “people with diabetes may be significantly more likely to develop potentially deadly ‘staph’ blood infections than those without diabetes,” a study published March 10 in the European Journal of Endocrinology suggests. After examining “the medical records of 30,000 people in Denmark over 12 years,” researchers discovered that “people with any form of diabetes were almost three times more likely to acquire a staph blood infection outside of a hospital, compared to those without diabetes.” That risk increased “to more than seven times higher among people with type 1 diabetes, and almost three times higher for those with type 2 diabetes.” http://consumer.healthday.com/diabetes-information-10/misc-diabetes-news-181/diabetes-can-raise-risk-for-dangerous-staph-infection-708908.html

Birth Of Sibling A Few Years Into A Child’s Life Tied To Healthier BMI Trajectory For First Child.

website pointed out that “in the longitudinal study that tracked nearly 700 children across the US,” investigators “found that kids who did not have a sibling by the time they were in first grade were more often obese at that age compared to children who gained a sibling between ages three and four.” In other words, “the birth of a sibling a few years into a child’s life was associated with a healthier body mass index trajectory for that first child.” http://abcnews.go.com/Health/birth-sibling-healthier-body-weight-born/story?id=37586460 Researchers emphasized they are not claiming the birth of a sibling directly causes weight loss but that there is an association, and these findings need to be studied further. The surprisingly robust association led the study's authors to wonder what factors might be at play. “The possibility that seems most compelling,” said Dr. Julie Lumeng, a pediatrician at the C.S. Mott Hospital at the University of Michigan and an author on the study, “is that if you have a younger sibling, you’re more likely to run around.” Simply put, having a younger sibling is like having a built-in playmate: at any given time, the siblings are more likely to engage in some kind of active play. Another theory that is a little harder to prove is that once a second child arrives, parents tend to loosen up, which means less restrictive feeding practices for children. Somewhat counter-intuitively, previous research has shown that the more a parent restricts a child’s eating, the higher the risk of obesity. It may be that parental control prevents kids from learning to listen to their own hunger cues, thus promoting unhealthy eating habits.