Health Tip: Get Enough Vitamin C

(HealthDay News) - Vitamin C is an antioxidant that's found primarily in citrus fruits, leafy green vegetables, broccoli, potatoes and other fruits and veggies.

Significant enough vitamin C deficiency can lead to a condition called scurvy.

Here are warning signs that you're not getting enough vitamin C, courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine:

• Excessively dry hair with ends that split easily.
• Scaly, rough, dry skin.
• Bleeding or inflamed gums.
• Wounds that heal slowly, frequent infections, and bruising easily.
• Frequent nosebleeds.
• Pain and swelling in the joints.
• Anemia.
• Weakened tooth enamel.

Health Tip: Prevent Antibiotic Overuse

(HealthDay News) - Antibiotics are meant to treat bacterial infections, but they aren't effective against viruses such as those that cause the common cold.

To prevent overuse of antibiotics, it's important to only take them for bacterial infections.

Here are suggestions on how to use antibiotics properly, courtesy of the Nemours Foundation:

• Only take antibiotics as recommended by your doctor. Never take any antibiotic that was prescribed for someone else, or that was prescribed for you to treat a different illness.
• If your doctor says you have a virus, you shouldn't ask for an antibiotic.
• Take your antibiotic exactly as prescribed, and always finish your prescription. Never save some of your antibiotic to treat a future infection.

Don't Lose Sight of Vision Care, Group Urges

(HealthDay News) -- As part of its efforts to educate Americans about age-related macular degeneration (AMD), Prevent Blindness America has declared February Age-Related Macular Degeneration Awareness Month.

AMD -- a progressive disease that damages central vision -- costs the U.S. economy $570 million a year in direct costs for outpatient and inpatient care, and prescription drugs, the nonprofit group said.

Even though AMD affects 15 million people in the United States and is the leading cause of vision loss among people aged 55 and older, only 30 percent of Americans are familiar with the disease, according to research by AMD Alliance International.

"We are seeing some promising results from research studies around the world in regards to understanding AMD and the best methods to treat it," Daniel D. Garrett, senior vice president of Prevent Blindness America and AMD Alliance International board member, said in a prepared statement.

"But even with the latest drug therapies, we are still waiting for a cure. Until that happens, the best way to save vision is through regular vision care with your eye care professional," he said.
To help people learn more about the disease, Prevent Blindness America offers a free educational online resource called The AMD Learning Center. The group also reminds people that there's a link between healthy lifestyle habits and health eyes. You can reduce your risk of eye disease and vision loss if you:

• Eat healthy foods high in antioxidants, such as leafy green vegetables, and foods high in zinc and beta carotene.
• Avoid trans fats.
• Don't smoke.
• Control blood pressure and cholesterol.
• Exercise regularly.
• Visit your eye doctor regularly.

More information
The U.S. National Eye Institute has more about AMD.

Older Smokers More Likely to Deny Habit

(HealthDay News) -- Older smokers are more likely than younger ones to deny they smoke when asked about it by doctors and others.

That's the conclusion of a study that analyzed data on 15,182 self-reported "nonsmokers" in the United States who took part in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The researchers found that 8 percent of those self-reported nonsmokers actually were smokers and that smoking denial increased with age.

"Denying smoking overall increased with age from 6 percent of 18 to 34 year olds to 25 percent of the elderly over the age of 75," lead author Monica Fisher, an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University's School of Dental Medicine, said in a prepared statement.

When she and her colleagues analyzed race and gender data, they found that non-Hispanic white men and women followed the overall pattern and had increased denial with age. Smoking denial rates decreased with age among older Mexican-American women, and remained stable over age for Mexican-American men and non-Hispanic black men and women.

In some cases, social taboos may cause older people to deny that they smoke, Fisher said.

She and her colleagues said the findings challenge the validity of utilizing self-reported tobacco use in research projects, surveys of tobacco use in the general public, or in the care of people with chronic diseases related to smoking.

The study was published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about tobacco use and smoking.

Health Tip: Baby Teeth Need Attention

(HealthDay News) - Even though baby teeth eventually fall out and are replaced by permanent teeth, they still need proper care.

Here are suggestions to keep baby's teeth healthy, courtesy of the American Academy of Family Physicians:

• It's never too early to start brushing. As soon as the infant's first tooth erupts, start brushing twice a day with a damp washcloth.
• Once your baby is a year old, start brushing teeth with a toothbrush and toothpaste (without fluoride) that are designed for babies.
• Make sure your baby sees the dentist by the first birthday. Make sure the child has regular, twice yearly checkups every year.
• Avoid too much juice, which may contain lots of sugar that can lead to decay.
• Don't give your baby a bottle once the infant has reached 1 year of age.

Puberty At Age 8 for US Girls

(HealthDay News) -- It's called the "widow" or "widower" effect, and doctors have long been familiar with this curious but very real phenomenon: When a husband or wife dies, there's a greater likelihood that the surviving spouse will pass soon afterward.

Now, researchers are gaining a better understanding of the forces at work, realizing problems often start with the hospitalization of a spouse.

New findings suggest that having a husband or wife who needs to be admitted to a hospital with a serious illness poses health risks for the partner. The culprit: The stress and upheaval the partner experiences while enduring the hospitalization of an ailing husband or wife.

"It's not like your spouse's sickness somehow magically makes you worse," said Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School's Department of Health Care Policy. "We believe it works by imposing some kind of burden."

To unravel the connection, Christakis and co-researcher Paul D. Allison, a University of Pennsylvania statistician, examined records of more than a half million couples who were in enrolled in Medicare from 1993 through 2001. Their findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrate the ripple effect of a spouse's hospitalization -- across various illnesses -- on the partner's health.

"What this work shows is that illness in one person -- in a spouse -- can affect the health, the mortality, of another person," Christakis explained. "And this, in turn, means taking better care of someone who's sick not only benefits the sick person, but also benefits other people, such as their spouse."

In the United States, at least 44 million adults, including spouses, provide care for a loved one, the National Alliance for Caregiving estimates. Yet, few of these individuals are adequately prepared to cope with the rigors of caring for another person or the toll it can take on their health, according to the Family Caregiver Alliance.

Overall, Christakis' study found that a spouse's hospitalization boosted the risk of a man's death by 22 percent compared with the death of a spouse. A husband's hospitalization increased a woman's death risk by 16 percent.

Some diseases posed more of a burden than others. For example, a woman's hospitalization for stroke, congestive heart failure or hip fracture raised her husband's death risk by 6 percent, 12 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Similarly, a man's hospitalization for colon cancer did not significantly influence his wife's death risk, but other diseases did have a major impact.

A spouse's hospitalization for dementia proved most stressful, raising risk of death 22 percent for men and 28 percent for women, Christakis said. "In fact," he added, "we show that having a demented spouse is as bad for you as having a dead spouse."

Some diseases are deadly, but don't pose as much of a burden on the caregiver, be it physical, psychological, financial or some combination of these, he explained.

The study also identified certain time frames during which caregivers are particularly vulnerable, including immediately after a hospitalization and again three to six months into the illness.

Suzanne Mintz, president and co-founder of the National Family Caregivers Association, said the study offers additional proof that the stress of caring for a family member can have negative health consequences.

"The findings should frighten family caregivers," she said, "but more importantly, hopefully, help them give priority status to their own health needs."

Spousal family caregivers' risk of depression is six times greater than that of non-caregivers, Mintz noted. And, they are less likely to reach out for help, she said. To protect their health, Mintz urges family caregivers to spread the work load.

"Caregiving is much more than a one-person job, especially when both the family caregiver and the care recipient are elderly," she said. "Often, spousal caregivers do not want to ask for or take help from their grown children, but that really is the first place we should all turn."

More information
To learn more, visit the National Family Caregivers Association.

Marijuana Bad for the Gums

(HealthDay News) -- Pot smokers face many of the same health consequences that tobacco users do, such as an increased risk of heart disease, but until now, it wasn't known that marijuana use could also destroy gum tissue.

In the Feb. 6 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers reported that heavy marijuana users have as much as three times the risk of developing serious gum disease compared to those who haven't smoked pot.

"We found in our study that long-term heavy [marijuana] smokers had a greater risk of gum disease by the time they reach their early 30s," said study lead author W. Murray Thomson, a professor of dental epidemiology and public health at the Sir John Walsh Research Institute at the School of Dentistry in Dunedin, New Zealand.

"The gums in a person's oral cavity before the age of 35 seem to be a pretty sensitive marker for adverse lifestyles," said Philippe Hujoel, a professor in the department of Dental Public Health Sciences at the University of Washington School of Dentistry. Hujoel wrote an accompanying editorial in the same issue of the journal.

Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Smoked like tobacco, it has many similar ill health effects. Marijuana use has been associated with increases in the risk of heart disease, head and neck cancers, problems in the lungs and infection. Marijuana has also been associated with social behavior problems, according to NIDA.

For the study, Thomson and his colleagues used data from a group of 900 New Zealanders who have been followed from birth into their early 30s. The group members have been assessed 11 different times since they were 3 years old. The researchers began asking about marijuana use at age 18, and then again at 21, 26 and 32. Dental examinations were conducted at 26 and 32 years of age, according to the study.

Thomson acknowledged that it's sometimes difficult to get people to accurately report illicit drug use. But, he's confident in this case that the use of marijuana was honestly reported, because this group has been participating in this study for so long and knows that its answers will remain confidential.

The researchers identified three marijuana "exposure" groups: No exposure, 32.3 percent; some exposure, 47.4 percent; and high exposure, 20.2 percent.

After adjusting the data to account for tobacco use, gender and a lack of dental care, the researchers found that those in the high-use group had a 60 percent increased risk of early periodontal disease, a 3.1 times greater risk of more advanced gum disease, and a 2.2 times increased risk of losing a tooth due to gum disease, compared to those who didn't use marijuana.

"We think that it is the same as with tobacco smoke: That is, the effect is not directly on the gums as smoke is inhaled. Instead, it acts through toxins being absorbed into the bloodstream via the lungs and then affecting the body's ability to heal itself after bursts of destructive inflammation in the gums," Thomson said.

The bottom line, he said, is "don't smoke, whether it's cannabis or tobacco -- it's not a rational thing to do, and it has far-reaching effects on your health."

If you're concerned about the health of your gums, Hujoel suggested that you avoid risk factors, such as smoking, and ask your dentist or periodontist what additional steps you can take to protect them. If you have early periodontal disease, he said that regular periodontal maintenance care is generally recommended, but there may be other treatments, depending on your individual periodontal health.

More information
To learn more about marijuana and its effects on the body, visit the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

A Daytime Nap Can Boost Memory

(HealthDay News) -- A 45-minute midday nap can help boost your memory and remember facts, but only if you learned them well in the first place, a new study suggests.

This type of memory is called "declarative memory" and applies to standard textbook learning and knowledge, in contrast to "procedural memory," which applies to skills. Sleep appears to help "set" these declarative memories and make them easier to recall, the researchers said.

"Sleep appears to have an impact on what is learned well, but not so much when one is not motivated to learn," said lead researcher Matthew A. Tucker, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School's Center for Sleep and Cognition.

For the study, 33 people were trained with certain declarative memory tasks. After the training, 16 took a non-REM nap, while 17 stayed awake and watched a movie. Later the same day, all the participants were tested. The tests included memorizing words, memorizing a maze and memorizing a complex line drawing.

Tucker's team found that over three very different declarative memory tasks, taking a nap improved performance compared with staying awake. However, napping only worked for people who had really learned the task well in the first place.

"The nap group performed better overall than the awake group, but the difference wasn't significant," Tucker said. "However, when we looked at individual performance during training, we found those who did better during training benefited from napping," he said.

In addition, people appeared to perform well on one task only, but not all three, Tucker said.

"There is likely a basic level of learning that has to be attained before sleep can have an impact on performance," he said.

The findings were published in the Feb. 1 issue of the journal Sleep.

Tucker thinks that taking a nap may actually improve one's memory of facts if one is motivated to learn. "There is a lot of data starting to come in that there are benefits from naps on memory," he said.

Sara Mednick, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego's Laboratory of Sleep and Behavioral Neuroscience, said the new study is further proof of the role of sleep on memory and learning.

"This paper is further evidence of how sleep, specifically naps, can be a tool for memory consolidation," she said. "Interestingly, the data shows that not all subjects utilize sleep for consolidation to a similar extent."

More information
For more on the importance of sleep, visit the National Sleep Foundation.