(HealthDay News) — A jammed finger can be a small fracture, dislocation or a sprain to one of the joints, says Mayo Clinic. The injury can be painful and the joint can swell. To treat a jammed finger, Mayo suggests: Ice the finger with a cold pack for up to 15 minutes. Elevate the hand to reduce swelling. Tape the injured finger to an adjacent finger. Seek prompt medical care if the finger appears deformed, if the injured person develops a fever or if the finger becomes numb.
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E-Scooters Plus Drinking: A Fast-Pass to the ER?
Drinking and driving an electric scooter doesn’t mix, according to a new study. Researchers reported serious injuries like brain bleeding or fractures that have happened while riding an electric scooter (e-scooter). Alcohol and drugs were a factor in many of these crashes. “E-scooters may look like fun and games, but it’s a vehicle. It’s a motor attached to wheels, and you need to have a healthy respect for it. Anyone drinking or using any mind-altering substance should not be operating an e-scooter,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Leslie Kobayashi. She’s an associate professor of clinical surgery at the University of California, San Diego. Several people have died while riding e-scooters, according to published reports. Though these devices aren’t new, their popularity soared when several companies introduced rentable, dockless e-scooters in 2017, according to the study authors. Less than a year after the introduction of this environmentally friendly mode of transportation, almost 4% of U.S. adults said they had ridden one. E-scooters are available in more than 65 cities, the study said. The laws regulating them vary depending on where you’re riding. In California, drivers over age 18 aren’t required to wear helmets, and they can use e-scooters on roads with speed limits up to 35 mph. Kobayashi’s study found that almost none of the injured riders was wearing a helmet. She said anytime you’re… read on >
Your Fall Game Plan to Avoid Weight Gain
When summer fruits and vegetables start to disappear from grocery stores, and the action shifts indoors to watching sports and munching on unhealthy snacks, it helps to have a diet plan in place to avoid weight gain. First, remember that farmers’ markets are still open across the country. You can buy local as long as you make the shift from summer crops to fall ones. That means tomatoes and cucumbers give way to offerings like root vegetables, including carrots, parsnips and turnips, and the wide variety of squashes such as acorn, butternut, Hubbard and kabocha. These are all great for hearty, cook-ahead soups and stews for dinners and brown bag lunches. Vegetables in the orange family, including sweet potatoes, are rich in vitamin A. But don’t overlook nutrient-dense dark, leafy greens like varieties of chard and bok choy. Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables may be abundant in your area, and they taste great roasted with a slight drizzle of olive oil and finished with a splash of balsamic vinegar — hearty enough for a vegetarian meal. Though local melons, stone fruits and many berries may be gone, explore sweet fall fruits like apples, pears and grapes, as well as the more exotic pomegranates, persimmons and quince, the season’s first cranberries and even fall raspberries. Have fruit salads ready to snack on instead… read on >
The Benefits of Strength Training During Pregnancy
For most healthy women, exercise during pregnancy is as important as it is at all times of life. It brings benefits such as better overall health, preventing back pain and keeping you regular, which can be a challenge for some women. While low-impact aerobic activities like walking are often emphasized, research has found a surprising benefit to working out in the weight room. It turns out that, beyond keeping muscles toned, strength training can ease the fatigue and low energy that affects so many women when they’re expecting. For a study published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, 26 women did six low- to moderate-intensity resistance exercises twice a week from week 23 to week 35 of their pregnancies. Each session started with a five-minute warmup of walking on a treadmill followed by seated resistance machines — dual leg extensions, leg presses and leg curls, arm lat pulldowns and back extensions. Each exercise was done for two sets of 15 reps each at a controlled pace with a minute of rest between sets and two minutes of rest between machines. The participants also did two sets of a standing ab exercise using only their body weight. The results were clear: Nearly all of the women felt more energized and less fatigued, both physically and mentally, starting after a single workout. Strength training is… read on >
For NFL Players, Career Length, Role Affect Future Health Risks: Study
Pro football players who had long careers at key positions are more likely to have concussion-related problems such as confusion, memory loss, depression and anxiety, a new study finds. In a survey of nearly 3,500 former NFL players (average age 53), 1 in 8 (12%) reported serious cognitive problems. That compares to about 2% of the general U.S. population. Age didn’t appear to be a factor. Former players younger than 52 had a rate (13%) of problems similar to that of other ex-players. Even those 45 and younger had an increased risk. In fact, 30% of those 45 and younger who suffered the most serious concussions had severe problems with thinking and mental health, the study found. Those who played 10 or more seasons were twice as likely to have severe problems than those who played just one season (12.6% versus 5.8%). The risk rose with each season played, and every five seasons of play was associated with a nearly 20% increase in risk. Kickers, punters and quarterbacks had the fewest concussion symptoms per season, followed by wide receivers, defensive backs, linemen and tight ends. Running backs, linebackers and special teams players had the most. The risk of serious problems was twice as high among former players with the most concussion symptoms (15%) than in those with the fewest (6%). Those with the most concussions… read on >
Even Age 80 Is Not Too Late to Begin Exercising: Study
Even seniors who never exercised regularly can benefit from a workout program, researchers say. A new study found that men in their 70s and 80s who had never followed an exercise regimen could build muscle mass as well as “master athletes” — those of the same age who had worked out throughout their lives and still competed at the top levels of their sports. The U.K. researchers took muscle biopsies from both groups in the 48 hours before and after a single weight-training session on an exercise machine. The men were also given an isotope tracer before the workout in order to track how proteins were developing in their muscles. It was expected that the master athletes would be better able to build muscle during exercise, but both groups had an equal capacity to do so, the University of Birmingham team found. The study was published Aug. 30 in the journal Frontiers in Physiology. “Our study clearly shows that it doesn’t matter if you haven’t been a regular exerciser throughout your life, you can still derive benefit from exercise whenever you start,” lead researcher Leigh Breen said in a university news release. He’s a senior lecturer in exercise physiology and metabolism. “Obviously a long-term commitment to good health and exercise is the best approach to achieve whole-body health, but even starting later on in life… read on >
An Easy Recipe for Healthier Back-to-School Lunches
Getting kids to eat right can be a challenge, but an easy place to start is with the lunch they bring to school. Make the contents of their lunchbox more fun, and they’ll be more likely to eat what you pack. These creative tips will make this meal more nutritious, too. Begin with a sandwich makeover. Use a soft whole-wheat bread, or a gluten-free whole-grain bread if needed, instead of white. Fill the sandwich with high-quality protein like slices of roast chicken or turkey. Instead of a traditional spread like mayonnaise, try a thin layer of finely mashed avocado to add more fiber to their diet along with nutrients like vitamin E and other antioxidants. Just mash half of a ripe avocado with a squeeze of lime and a pinch of salt and spread it on the bread. To make sandwiches more enticing, use a cookie cutter to turn them into fun shapes. Vegetables, crucial to your child’s growth and overall health, seem to be the toughest foods to get kids to eat. One easy way to pique their appetites is to turn the veggies into mini kabobs. Children can feel overwhelmed by large chunks of food, but will eat them if they’re in bite-sized pieces. Cut steamed broccoli and cauliflower into small florets and thread them onto skewers along with grape tomatoes. Fill a… read on >
Personality Reboots Are Possible, Studies Suggest
Do you ever think that being more at ease at social and business functions could make you happier or possibly help you get ahead at work? Your personality greatly influences your life because it influences so many aspects of your day-to-day world, from personal to business relationships, from your mental to your physical well-being. The Five Traits That Define Personality How outgoing or extroverted you are How open you are to new experiences How agreeable you are How conscientious or self-disciplined you are Your level of emotional stability The old thinking was that your personality was set early in adulthood or even younger. But a research review done at the University of Chicago and published in the journal Psychology Bulletin shed new light on the topic. Researchers looked at information gleaned from 200 studies on mental health treatments ranging from medications to psychotherapy. Though changes in personality weren’t the direct focus of the studies, these changes were revealed when treatment effects were analyzed. The researchers found out that personality traits can change — and change for the better. The reasons study participants had for starting therapy influenced how deep their personality changes were. For instance, people seeking help with emotional stability issues (like anxiety or personality disorders) and those wanting to become less introverted had the deepest changes. People needing help for eating disorders or… read on >
Exercise Is Good Medicine for Advanced Colon Cancer
Waging a successful battle against advanced colon cancer should include regular doses of exercise, a new study suggests. It found that physical activity was associated with slower cancer progression and reductions in severe treatment side effects in more than 1,200 patients undergoing chemotherapy. Exercise — even low-intensity activity such as walking — helped. “What we found was that people who engaged in some type of physical activity had a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival [20%]” said senior study author Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. The results also suggested that exercise might extend overall survival, but the data were not statistically significant and that possible connection requires further investigation. “Physically active patients in our study also appeared to tolerate chemotherapy better,” said study first author Dr. Brendan Guercio, who worked on the study while a hospitalist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “Total physical activity equivalent to 30 or more minutes of moderate daily activity was associated with a 27% reduction in severe treatment-related toxicities,” Guercio said in a Dana-Farber news release. The findings were published recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Previous studies have found that regular exercise can reduce the risk of recurrence and death from colon cancer that has not spread to other parts of the body, but this is the first study to examine… read on >
‘Fast and Feast’ Diet Works for Weight Loss
Tired of that spare tire? Low-calorie diets work, but can be difficult to follow. A much simpler approach to losing weight might be to just stop eating every other day. It’s called alternate-day fasting (ADF). As the name implies, you starve yourself by fasting one day and then you feast the next, and then repeat that pattern again and again. In just the month-long trial of the ADF diet, study volunteers lost more than seven pounds. That weight loss occurred even though people on the ADF diet ate about 30% more on the days they were allowed to eat than they normally would. Even with that extra food on feast days, the study volunteers still consumed fewer calories overall because of their fasting days, the researchers explained. “This is an easy regimen — no calculation of calories — and the compliance was very high,” said the study’s senior author, Frank Madeo, a professor of molecular biology at Karl-Franzens University of Graz, in Austria. Madeo said the researchers didn’t study how the ADF diet might compare to other types of intermittent-fasting diets or to a more typical lower-calorie diet. He said that the ADF study didn’t appear to have any impact on the immune system (at least in this short-term study), but that diets that simply rely on lower caloric intake may dampen immune system function.… read on >