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The so-called “Paleo” diet, which cuts out a number of food groups to bring about weight loss, has been around for several years now and at first blush may sound like just another fad. But some recent scientific studies since the diet became popular have found that the regimen that makes up the diet’s requirements could have merit. A Paleo diet requires people to eat foods similar to those available to humans during the Paleolithic period, which dates from 10,000 to 2.5 million years ago, according to the Mayo Clinic. The diet typically includes foods that could be obtained by hunting and gathering — lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds — and limits foods that became common with the advent of farming, such as dairy products, grains and legumes. This premise, however, is challenged by some experts who say that comparing modern conditions to those of our ancient ancestors is not realistic. Nevertheless, one possible benefit is that the Paleo diet can improve risk factors for metabolic syndrome, a condition that can lead to diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses. One research review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that the Paleo diet did a better job of reducing waist circumference, blood pressure, cholesterol and fasting blood sugar than diets based on general health guidelines. Another study published in the… read on >

Construction workers, farmers and others who work in the sun are at greater risk for skin cancer, according to researchers. And a new study reveals these job-related cancers cost nations millions in medical expenses. The researchers said lawmakers should address this trend and take steps to reduce job-related exposure to the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. “The findings suggest that policymakers might give greater priority to reducing sun exposure at work by allocating occupational cancer prevention resources accordingly,” said lead investigator Emile Tompa, a senior scientist at the Institute of Work and Health in Toronto. Tompa and his team analyzed government records and health surveys in Canada. They found that in 2011, nonmelanoma skin cancers cost $34.6 million in Canadian dollars. (At current conversion rates, that’s about $27 million U.S. dollars.) These costs included treatment, missed work, out-of-pocket expenses and reduced quality of life. The researchers then looked at the cost per patient for nonmelanoma skin cancers. They found basal cell skin cancers cost $5,760 per person, while squamous cell carcinoma can exceed $10,500 (in Canadian currency). The study was published April 26 in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. “The results can also raise awareness among policymakers, employers, unions and workers about the significant contribution of workplace sun exposure to skin cancers,” Tompa said in a journal news release. “These groups can now make… read on >

With summer comes the stings of bees and wasps, but one expert has advice on how to keep the pain to a minimum. “The first thing to do is to get the stinger out quickly,” said Dr. Carrie Kovarik. She’s an associate professor of dermatology, dermatopathology and infectious diseases at the University of Pennsylvania. “The longer the stinger stays in the skin, the more venom it releases, adding to the person’s pain and swelling,” Kovarik explained in an American Academy of Dermatology news release. If the stinger is still in your skin, remove it by scraping over it with your fingernail or a piece of gauze. Never use your fingers to remove a stinger because squeezing it can release more venom into your skin, Kovarik said. Then wash the area of the sting with soap and water, and apply a cold pack to reduce swelling, she suggested. Taking over-the-counter painkillers — such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) — can help relieve the pain. And over-the-counter antihistamines can ease itchiness. Seek emergency medical help if you have signs of an allergic reaction, such as: swelling in the face, neck or other parts of the body away from the sting site; difficulty breathing; nausea; hives; or dizziness, Kovarik said. People with a known allergy to insect stings should talk to their doctor about carrying an… read on >

Heading the ball — not player collisions — may lead to temporary thinking declines in soccer players, a new study finds. “Unintentional head impacts are generally considered the most common cause of diagnosed concussions in soccer, so it’s understandable that current prevention efforts aim at minimizing those collisions,” said study author Dr. Michael Lipton. He is a professor of radiology, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. “But intentional head impacts — that is, soccer ball heading — are not benign,” he added in a university news release. “We showed in a previous study that frequent heading is an underappreciated cause of concussion symptoms. And now we’ve found that heading appears to alter cognitive [thinking] function as well, at least temporarily,” Lipton noted. However, the study was not designed to prove that heading actually causes thinking problems. The study included more than 300 amateur soccer players, aged 18 to 55, in New York City. They were asked about how many head injuries they’d suffered and how often they’d headed the ball within the previous two weeks. During those two weeks, players headed the soccer ball an average of 45 times. About one-third of them suffered at least one accidental head impact, such as a kick to the head, or a head-to-head, head-to-ground or head-to-goal post collision. Players who… read on >

Your cellphone puts the world at your fingertips, but it can wreak havoc with your neck. There’s even a name for the pain you get when looking down at your screen — “text neck” — and it can cause problems along the entire length of your spine. Bending your head forward multiplies the amount of weight your neck muscles need to support. Normally your neck supports the 10 pounds that your head weighs, but when bending forward it may need to support the equivalent of 60 pounds. The following tips from the University of California’s Ergonomics Injury Prevention Program can help. Find the best angle. The best viewing angle is a bit below eye level, so remember to adjust the way you hold your phone. Give it a rest. Being constantly bent over looking at your screen or contorting yourself to view your smartphone from different angles can cause problems. Take frequent breaks and use that time to stretch your neck, shoulders and back. Make adjustments. Your smartphone comes with myriad ways to adjust how you use it. Learn how to change the settings for font size, contrast and brightness to make it easier to see the screen — that helps to avoid eye strain, which can lead to headaches. How you hold your phone also makes a difference. You should frequently change the way… read on >

Finding the right work-life balance isn’t easy. For many people, 9 to 5 has stretched to 9 to 7 — or longer. And responsibilities can start much earlier in the day, especially for those with kids to corral in the morning. Burnout is nothing new — it was described back in the 1970s as a work-related state of distress, with symptoms like exhaustion and reduced productivity. Even more alarming, without intervention, it becomes chronic — a way of life. Though burnout stems from work-related pressures, it can affect relationships and every aspect of your life. In extreme cases, you might stop functioning well on any level. To get back in balance, take your needs off the back burner and take steps to care for yourself. If you’ve been neglecting good health habits — like eating well, exercising, and engaging with family and friends — start to carve out more personal time. If you make a plan with a loved one, you’ll both be more likely to keep the date. Re-evaluate your work situation. Resist the impulse to compete with colleagues by taking on more or bigger projects. If your managers expect you to live for work and be there around the clock, try to re-establish boundaries. Determine what’s an acceptable number of work hours to you and advocate for yourself with your boss. If you… read on >

A single session of meditation can lower your anxiety levels, a small new study finds. “Our results show a clear reduction in anxiety in the first hour after the meditation session, and our preliminary results suggest that anxiety was significantly lower one week after the meditation session,” said study author John Durocher. He is an assistant professor of physiology at Michigan Technological University’s department of biological sciences. Anxiety can raise the risk for heart disease: Previous studies have shown that arterial stiffness may be worsened by traumatic life events, job strain, depression and either short-term or chronic anxiety, the researchers said. Heart changes linked with anxiety can lead to high blood pressure and organ damage. For the study, Durocher and his colleagues recruited 14 participants with normal blood pressure but high levels of anxiety. The investigators evaluated the volunteers’ heart rate, blood pressure, aortic blood pressure and arterial stiffness before and after a 60-minute guided beginner mindfulness meditation session. This type of meditation focuses on breathing and awareness of one’s thoughts. “This study is different because we examined the effect of a single mindfulness meditation session on anxiety and cardiovascular outcomes, while other studies have examined the effect of several days or weeks of mindfulness meditation,” Durocher explained. The study was to be presented Monday at the American Physiological Society annual meeting, in San Diego.… read on >

Fitness buffs who push themselves to the limit during workouts might slightly increase their risk of developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a new study suggests. The same may hold true for working stiffs whose jobs place extreme physical demands upon them, the European researchers said. But the study did not prove that extreme exercise actually causes ALS risk to rise. And it should be noted that ALS remains incredibly rare, afflicting only about 20,000 Americans at any given time, according to the ALS Association. Even with the relative increased risk seen in the study, people should continue getting regular workouts and not worry about working hard, experts said. “If you adopt a sedentary lifestyle, you’re going to die much faster of heart disease than you will of ALS if you go out and exercise vigorously,” said David Putrino, director of rehabilitation innovation at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. “Under no circumstances should anyone stop exercising because of this study.” The study authors said that at work or play, the observed increased risk for what is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease “can be translated into a 26 percent increase in risk, when comparing a person who is more active than average and a person who is less active than average.” There’s also a dose relationship — the harder a person works… read on >

Men under 50 who smoke cigarettes are increasing their risk for a stroke, researchers warn. And the more they smoke, the greater their stroke risk, reported the University of Maryland investigators. The bottom line: quit. But if you can’t, smoking fewer cigarettes may help reduce your risk, the researchers said. “We found that men who smoked were 88 percent more likely to have a stroke than men who never smoked,” said lead researcher Janina Markidan, a university medical student. At the lower end, men who currently smoked fewer than 11 cigarettes daily were 46 percent more likely to have a stroke than those who never smoked, she said. But heavier smokers — those with a two-pack-a-day or greater habit — were nearly five times more likely to have a stroke than those who never smoked, Markidan said. These findings are particularly important because ischemic strokes among younger adults are increasing. And tobacco use among young adults is also on the rise, she said. Markidan’s team’s prior research identified a strong link between smoking and stroke in young women, but less was known about the relationship in younger men, the researchers said in background notes. Ischemic strokes — the most common kind — occur when blood supply to the brain is blocked. Stroke is the leading preventable cause of disability, according to the American Stroke Association.… read on >

Women are more likely than men to suffer a knee injury called an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear. But — surprisingly — the injury occurs the same way in both genders, a new study reveals. Prior research suggested women are two to four times more likely to suffer ACL tears due to differences in how this type of injury occurs in the sexes, researchers at Duke University, in Durham, N.C., noted. But that theory is wrong, according to the results of a new study of 15 women and 15 men with torn ACLs. Those prior studies were based on slow-motion replays of injuries, while the new work relied on scans and other advanced techniques. “Based on watching videos of athlete injuries, previous researchers have suggested that females may have a different mechanism of injury than males. But it’s difficult to determine the precise position of the knee and the time of injury through footage,” said study leader and biomedical engineer Louis DeFrate. “We used MRI scans taken within a month of the ACL rupture and identified bruises on the surface of the two large bones that collide when the ACL tears — the femur and the tibia — then used 3-D modeling and computer algorithms to reconstruct the position of the knee when the injury occurred,” he explained in a Duke news release. “Our results… read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

The Paleo Diet: Fad or Not So Fad?

Outdoor Job? Skin Cancer Can Take a Hefty Toll

Take the Ouch Out of Bee Stings

For Soccer Players, Heading May Pose Bigger Risk Than Collisions

Avoid ‘Text Neck’ From Your Cellphone

Stop Burnout in Its Tracks

Meditation Can Soothe the Anxious Soul in Just One Session

Extreme Exercisers May Have Higher Odds for ALS

As Younger Men’s Smoking Rises, So Does Their Stroke Risk

His and Her Knee Injuries Occur the Same Way