Run Alone? This Sports Bra is Designed for Self-Defense

Photo: Booby Trap Bras

Last spring Jennifer Cutrona was attacked by a man on a local running trail outside Austin, Texas. Luckily she managed to escape unharmed. But the 35-year-old mom of two was determined to find a way to defend herself if that ever happened again.

The next day she sewed a sheath into her sports bra so she could carry a knife for protection. And a year later she is selling a line of sports bras with self-defense features built in: “I want to get these on as many bodies as possible,” says Cutrona.

RELATED: 9 Black Workout Leggings Health Editors Swear By

Her Just in Case Knife Bra and Just in Case Pepper Spray Bra allow you to carry either a small knife or a pepper spray canister in a spot that you can access in an instant. The pocket in the knife bra uses a magnet to keep a 3-inch blade flat and secure, while the pepper spray bra can accommodate different sized bottles of spray. “It may take you two to three attempts to actually hit your attacker with pepper spray, so smaller one-use bottles may not be enough,” Cutrona points out.

“Women need to be prepared while out on the trails,” she explains. But that said, Cutrona urges customers to look up their local laws on carrying knives and defense sprays before purchasing one of her bras.

Just in Case Knife Bra and knife ($54.99 and $12.99; boobytrapbras.com)

Booby Trap Bras

Just in Case Pepper Spray Bra and pepper spray ($49.99 and $11.99; boobytrapbras.com)

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Could Germ From Cat Poop Trigger Rage Disorder in People?

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, March 23, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Your cat’s litter box could be a source of explosive anger — and not for the obvious reasons.

A new study suggests that people prone to explosive bouts of rage might be under the influence of toxoplasmosis, an illness caused by a parasite found in cat feces and undercooked meat.

Folks diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder (IED) are more than twice as likely to carry Toxoplasma gondii, the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis, said lead researcher Dr. Emil Coccaro.

“If you’ve got someone with aggression problems, you might check them for toxoplasmosis,” said Coccaro, chair of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago. “People who blow up have a real problem. It’s not just a character problem or bad behavior. There’s something underneath that’s driving it.”

Coccaro noted that because this study was not a clinical trial, the results don’t establish a direct cause-and-effect link. He also added that not everyone who tests positive for toxoplasmosis will have aggression issues.

Intermittent explosive disorder involves recurrent and impulsive outbursts of verbal or physical aggression that are disproportionate to the situations that caused the anger.

“They’ve got a short trigger, and when they’re threatened by something, they blow up,” Coccaro said.

IED is thought to affect as many as 16 million Americans, more than bipolar disorder and schizophrenia combined, the study authors said.

Coccaro and his colleagues suspected that toxoplasmosis might be linked to some cases of intermittent explosive disorder.

Toxoplasmosis is typically a relatively harmless parasitic infection. About a third of all humans have been infected, the researchers said. Newborns and people with compromised immune systems are most at risk for a severe toxoplasmosis infection, which can cause damage to the brain, eyes or other organs, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, toxoplasmosis might also affect the brains of otherwise healthy carriers. Previous research has tied the parasite to an increased risk of suicide and suicidal behavior, which involve the same sort of impulsive and aggressive traits as intermittent explosive disorder, Coccaro said.

Researchers recruited 358 adults for this new study. The participants were split into three groups — people with intermittent explosive disorder, people with a psychiatric disorder other than IED, and healthy controls with no mental illness.

Twenty-two percent of people with IED tested positive for toxoplasmosis exposure. That compared to just 9 percent of the healthy control group, the study said.

Around 16 percent of the group with other psychiatric disorders tested positive for toxoplasmosis. But they had similar aggression and impulsivity scores to the healthy control group. IED-diagnosed subjects scored much higher on both measures than the other two groups, the researchers reported.

Toxoplasmosis-positive individuals scored significantly higher on measures of anger and aggression, the findings showed.

Toxoplasmosis could affect people’s mood and aggression by infecting areas of the brain that control emotional regulation, Coccaro said, or by altering brain chemistry. “We’re not really certain yet, but those are the two leading candidates,” he said.

These potential explanations make sense to Dr. Alan Manevitz. He’s a clinical psychiatrist with Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

“We do know that things like Lyme disease have an impact on mood as well as on physical aspects of the body, so there’s no reason to think that other infectious agents would not have a similar impact,” Manevitz said.

These findings are provocative enough that they could spur new research into toxoplasmosis prevention, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior associate at the University of Pittsburgh’s UPMC Center for Health Security, in Baltimore.

“There has been prior work on both veterinary and human toxoplasmosis vaccines, and I expect the results of this study will renew interest in developing such a vaccine,” Adalja said. “Toxoplasma is a ubiquitous microorganism, and in some parts of the world over three-quarters of the population are infected.”

People can avoid toxoplasmosis by cleaning their vegetables and cooking their meat thoroughly to prevent foodborne infection, said Dr. Greg Nelson, veterinarian and director of surgery and diagnostic imaging at Central Veterinary Associates in Valley Stream, N.Y.

Pet owners can avoid infection by keeping their cats indoors, which prevents them from eating the raw flesh of wild animals that might carry the parasite, Nelson said. Care also should be taken to avoid contact with cat feces when cleaning a litter box.

“People can acquire the disease from cleaning litter boxes, particularly if infected fecal matter has remained in the box for several days,” he added. “So, clean the box daily. Do not let immune-compromised people or women who are pregnant or who may become pregnant clean the litter box.”

Toxoplasmosis infections can usually be treated with a combination of an antimalaria drug and antibiotics, the CDC notes.

The study appears March 23 in the latest Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

More information

For more on toxoplasmosis, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Paying for Kidneys Might Boost Donor Rate, Study Says

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, March 23, 2016 (HealthDay News) — If offered $50,000, nearly three out of five Americans would part with a kidney, a new study finds.

“It appears that American society is ready to accept the concept of paying kidney donors,” said lead researcher Dr. Thomas Peters, an emeritus professor of surgery at the University of Florida College of Medicine, in Jacksonville.

However, Peters isn’t suggesting that a paid market for kidneys start anytime soon, only that the idea be studied to see if it might increase the supply of kidneys.

Paying for organs is illegal under the U.S. National Organ Transplant Act. When the law was enacted, “the feeling was that altruism should prevail,” Peters said. “Organs should not become a commodity, and the giving was as important as receiving.

“Laws should be amended or changed, so at least pilot studies regarding this question could be carried out to see if kidney donation would increase,” he added.

More than 100,000 Americans need kidney transplants, and donors are in chronically short supply, the study noted. The survey results suggest it might be time to consider sweetening the deal for living donors, Peters said.

When surveyed, 91 percent of more than 1,000 respondents said they would be willing to donate one of their kidneys to a stranger or a loved one. And 59 percent said $50,000 would increase their willingness, the researchers found.

The study authors chose $50,000 because prior studies had shown that that was an ethically acceptable amount of money that wouldn’t coerce people into donating an organ. Also, it’s a little less than the cost of keeping a patient on kidney dialysis — the treatment for kidney failure — for one year, Peters said.

People are already paid for other medical donations, he said, mentioning surrogate mothers, egg and sperm donors and, in some cases, blood donors.

“Kidney donation isn’t increasing in the United States,” Peters said. And living kidney donation is decreasing, he added.

From 2004 to 2013, more than 63,000 Americans died or became too sick for transplantation while waiting for a kidney, the study authors said.

“There are now so many deaths and the number of people awaiting a kidney is so large that it’s a very strong ethical reason to at least study this concept,” he said.

The study findings were published March 23 online in the journal JAMA Surgery.

The researchers found that of the 1,011 registered voters surveyed, 68 percent would donate a kidney to anyone, 23 percent would donate only to certain persons, and 9 percent would not donate at all.

While 59 percent said that $50,000 would make them more likely to donate a kidney, 32 percent were unmoved by compensation. And 9 percent said they would be less likely to donate if they were paid.

Younger people supported payment more than older adults, the researchers said.

The concept of paying kidney donors merits some consideration, another transplant expert agreed.

“There aren’t enough kidneys available to transplant all the people on the waiting list,” said Dr. Marco Del Chiaro, an associate professor of surgery at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden.

“Living kidney donation is important and should be promoted,” he said. But selling kidneys raises ethical questions and “remains very debatable,” said Del Chiaro, co-author of an accompanying journal editorial.

However, Del Chiaro did say donating a kidney is safe, and that a kidney from a living donor is preferable.

But he believes more can be done to increase kidney donations within existing laws before starting to pay donors.

“There is a lot to do in using the laws we have now to improve kidney donation, which is more ethical in my point of view,” Del Chiaro said. “If that is not enough, then we need to think of a new solution.”

More information

For more about kidney transplants, visit the National Kidney Foundation.

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Women Who Survive Childhood Cancer Stand Good Chance of Having Kids: Study

WEDNESDAY, March 23, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Women who survive childhood cancer after receiving chemotherapy stand a good chance of having children, but the same doesn’t appear to be as true for men, a new study finds.

More than 80 percent of children with cancer survive into adulthood, so their ability to have children is a major concern, the researchers noted.

Their findings were published March 22 in The Lancet Oncology journal.

“We think these results will be encouraging for most women who were treated with chemotherapy in childhood. However, I think we, as pediatric oncologists, still need to do a better job discussing fertility and fertility preservation options with patients and families upfront before starting cancer treatment,” said Dr. Eric Chow, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in Seattle.

“In particular, all boys diagnosed post-puberty should be encouraged to bank their sperm to maximize their reproductive options in the future,” he said in a journal news release.

The new study included nearly 11,000 men and women in the United States and Canada who had been diagnosed with the most common types of childhood cancer and had survived at least five years. They were compared with more than 3,900 siblings who had not been diagnosed with cancer.

The childhood cancer survivors were treated with various doses of the 14 most widely used chemotherapy drugs, and they did not receive any radiation to the pelvis or brain.

By age 45, 70 percent of female cancer survivors had become pregnant, compared with more than 80 percent of female siblings. By that age, 50 percent of male cancer survivors had fathered a child, compared with 80 percent of male siblings, the study found.

Men were significantly less likely to have fathered children if they received high doses of commonly used alkylating drugs (which prevent proper DNA replication) and the chemotherapy drug cisplatin (Platinol), which treats many types of solid tumors.

Previous research has suggested that these drugs affect men’s fertility, the study authors noted.

Among female cancer survivors, only the leukemia drug busulfan (Busulfex) and high doses of lomustine (Ceenu), which treats Hodgkin’s and brain tumors, were directly linked with a reduced chance of pregnancy, according to Chow and his colleagues.

Richard Anderson, a professor from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Dr. Hamish Wallace, from the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh, wrote an editorial accompanying the study. In it, they said the findings should help doctors provide more accurate information to patients about their individual risks.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more on childhood cancers.

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Gaps in Care Can Harm Patients After Heart Attack

WEDNESDAY, March 23, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Heart attack patients who wait a long period to have a follow-up medical appointment after leaving the hospital are less likely to take their medications as prescribed, endangering their health.

That’s the finding of a new study of 21,000 Medicare patients over 65 who survived a heart attack.

One heart doctor said timely care is key to a good recovery for these patients.

“Many patients with heart attack are treated with coronary stents, and in those patients, missing their medications for more than a couple of days can be life-threatening,” said Dr. Lawrence Ong, a cardiologist at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, N.Y.

The new study was led by Dr. Tracy Wang, of Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, N.C. The researchers noted that of the estimated 1 million Americans hospitalized with heart attack each year, 470,000 are expected to have another heart attack or serious heart problem.

Patients are typically given medications to reduce this risk. But, many patients stop taking these drugs as prescribed, which puts them at increased risk for hospital readmission and death.

Quick follow-up care after hospital discharge should help patients get the medications they need. But just how timely is that care?

In the new study, Wang’s team found that the median time to the first follow-up visit after a hospital discharge was two weeks, but wide variation was seen between patients.

For example, 26 percent of patients had their first follow-up visit within a week of leaving the hospital, while another 25 percent had that first appointment within one to two weeks.

However, a full third of patients waited two to six weeks for their first appointment, and 16 percent waited even longer than six weeks, the study found.

The percentage of patients who took recommended medications — drugs such as the blood thinner aspirin or a cholesterol-lowering statin — ranged from 63 percent to 69 percent at 90 days and 54 percent to 64 percent at one year after hospital discharge, the study found.

All of those drugs are aimed at helping patients avoid a second heart attack, the experts noted.

The rate of “medication adherence” was similar for patients who had their first follow-up outpatient visit within one to six weeks of leaving the hospital, the study found. However, those who waited more than six weeks for a follow-up visit were less likely to be taking their drugs as required, the researchers reported.

Dr. Hal Chadow is director of cardiology at Brookdale University and Medical Center in New York City. He agreed that timely care after a heart attack can reduce illness and death in patients.

But he also said there are many reasons why a patient might not take their medications. For example, “recent studies have shown that 1 in 5 Americans are unable to afford their medications,” Chadow noted. Many patients may also be in “denial” about whether failing to look after their health as directed could have serious consequences, he said.

Many others have a “lack of education regarding their underlying condition and the important role that medications play in reducing recurrent events,” Chadow said.

The study was published online March 23 in the journal JAMA Cardiology.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more about life after a heart attack.

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Birth Control Pills Linked to Fewer Severe Knee Injuries in Teen Girls

WEDNESDAY, March 23, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Teen girls who take birth control pills may be less likely to seriously injure their knees than those who don’t take the pill, a new study suggests.

“Young athletes currently use birth control pills for various reasons, including more predictable cycles and lighter periods,” said study author Aaron Gray, an M.D./Ph.D. student at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

“Injury risk reduction could potentially be added to that list,” he said, if future studies confirm what the new study found.

The study did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between birth control pills and knee injuries. The researchers only found an association between these factors.

Female athletes are up to twice as likely to suffer an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury as male athletes, the study authors said. The ACL connects the top and bottom parts of the knee.

Researchers reviewed data from more than 23,000 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 in the United States.

The teens with ACL injuries who were on the birth control pill were less likely to need corrective surgery than girls not taking the pill who had ACL injuries.

The girls with the highest rates of ACL surgery were 22 percent less likely to be taking birth control pills than those who didn’t have an ACL injury.

Experts have theorized that the female hormone estrogen may make women more vulnerable to ACL injuries. Estrogen may weaken the ligament, the study authors said. They noted that a previous study found that women have a greater risk of ACL injuries during their menstrual cycle when estrogen levels are high.

“Birth control pills help maintain lower and more consistent levels of estrogen, which may prevent periodic ACL weakness,” Gray said in a university news release.

The study was published recently in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases has more about knee problems.

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Heavy Pot Use Tied to Social, Money Troubles in Mid-Life

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, March 23, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Middle-aged adults who’ve smoked a lot of pot for a long time may find themselves with lower paying, less skilled and less prestigious jobs, a new study finds.

These people may also suffer more money problems and have more difficulties with both work and personal relationships than their non-marijuana-smoking peers, the researchers added.

Some specific problems longtime heavy pot users experience include antisocial behaviors at work, such as stealing money or lying to get a job, and intimate partner violence, the study authors said.

“The economic and social problems experienced by regular, persistent cannabis users are not due to other, pre-existing characteristics of cannabis users,” said lead researcher Magdalena Cerda. She is an associate professor in the department of emergency medicine at the University of California, Davis.

But one marijuana proponent noted that the study doesn’t prove that heavy pot smoking causes economic and social woes, only that it may be associated with these problems.

Cerda said preventing regular marijuana use, and early treatment of people who are dependent on the drug, may reduce the burden that users pose to their families, communities and the social welfare system.

“We need to be aware that persistent heavy cannabis use may have consequences for how well people do in life, how they perform and function at work and in relationships with others,” she said.

“We also found that both cannabis and alcohol dependence similarly predicted declines in social class, antisocial behavior in the workplace and relationship conflict,” Cerda said.

In terms of financial troubles, marijuana was worse than alcohol, she said.

“Participants who were dependent on cannabis experienced more financial difficulties than those who were dependent on alcohol. So, the idea that cannabis is somehow safer than alcohol was not supported in our study,” Cerda said.

For now, alcohol is a more common problem than marijuana, she said. However, as marijuana becomes legal in more places, “the economic and social burden posed by regular cannabis use could increase,” she suggested.

To trace the effect of marijuana over years of use, Cerda and her colleagues collected data on more than 1,000 children born in 1972-1973 in Dunedin, New Zealand. The study participants were followed for 40 years.

The researchers collected data on more than 900 of the participants who had at least three of five adult marijuana assessments from ages 18 through 38.

Among these individuals, 18 percent were marijuana-dependent at at least one evaluation, and 15 percent were regular pot smokers at at least one assessment. The results in terms of social class, and work and relationship problems were the same for heavy users and those who were marijuana-dependent, the findings showed.

The study was published online March 23 in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.

Paul Armentano is deputy director of NORML, a group that advocates for the legalization of marijuana. He noted that the study only showed an association between pot smoking and the problems cited by the researchers.

“It is likely that those facing social and economic adversity are more likely than those who are not to turn to the use of legal and illegal intoxicants as a coping mechanism,” Armentano said.

These same people are likely to turn to readily accessible intoxicants, such as alcohol and cannabis, he said. “But, in these instances, the association is a result of subjects’ response to social and economic adversity — the adversity is not a result of the cannabis use,” he added.

Also, a distinction needs to be made between marijuana use and abuse, Armentano added.

A system that allows for the legal use of marijuana but restricts and discourages its use among young people is the best way to reduce the risks of abuse, and “provides an environment whereby consumers can learn the skills and knowledge to readily delineate use from abuse,” he said.

More information

Visit the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse for more on marijuana use.

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Study Finds No Heart Risk From SSRI Antidepressants

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, March 23, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Widely used antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) don’t appear to raise the risk for heart trouble among young and middle-age patients, a large analysis suggests.

Commonly prescribed SSRIs include Celexa, Lexapro, Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft.

The findings are reassuring, said study lead author Carol Coupland, a professor of medical statistics in primary care at the University of Nottingham in England.

Coupland’s team found no increased risk for stroke or heart rhythm disorder among thousands of patients aged 20 to 64 who were taking SSRIs for newly diagnosed depression. And some patients were found to have a reduced risk of heart attack, the researchers said.

Nevertheless, “with this type of observational study it isn’t possible to make firm conclusions about cause and effect,” Coupland cautioned.

Antidepressants are the third-most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States, the researchers said. And SSRIs are the most commonly used antidepressants, according to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.

Although considered safe, SSRIs can raise the risk for side effects such as nervousness, dizziness, fatigue, sleep trouble, and/or nausea, the study authors said.

It’s also known that depression raises the risk of heart troubles. But, scientists disagree on whether antidepressants — particularly SSRIs — raise or lower the risk, the authors said in background notes in the study.

To explore the issue, the investigators analyzed data collected by the U.K. QResearch database, which covers more than 12 million British patients treated at 600 general practice facilities.

Nearly 240,000 of those patients were between 20 and 64 years old and diagnosed with depression between 2000 and 2011. A little more than 70 percent were taking SSRIs. Their heart health was tracked until 2012.

During roughly five years of follow-up, nearly 800 patients experienced a heart attack and more than 1,100 had a stroke of some kind. About 1,450 were diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia), the investigators found.

When the study team looked at different types of antidepressants, as well as dosage and duration, it concluded there was “no significant association” between SSRIs and an increased risk for heart attack, stroke or an irregular heartbeat.

Overall, those taking SSRIs actually saw their heart attack risk go down, when compared with those who took no antidepressants of any kind, the study found.

Prozac (fluoxetine) seemed particularly protective, in terms of reducing risk for heart attack and irregular heartbeat, the researchers said.

And Celexa (citalopram) was not linked to any boost in heartbeat irregularity risk, even at relatively high doses, despite a related U.S. Food and Drug Administration safety warning issued in 2011.

Still, the study authors cautioned against taking Celexa at high doses, particularly by anyone with known heart risks.

The study findings were published in the March 22 online edition of the BMJ.

On another front, the investigators said they found that patients taking a non-SSRI antidepressant known in the United Kingdom as Lomont (lofepramine) faced a significantly higher risk for heart attack. Lomont is an older type of antidepressant, from the tricyclic class of drugs.

Tricyclic medications were also linked to a significantly higher risk for heartbeat irregularities over the first month of treatment, but that risk fell away over time, the researchers found.

The bottom-line: SSRIs were found to be a heart-safe treatment for depression among young and middle-aged patients.

Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that “most studies have shown that SSRI medications are safe and well-tolerated from a cardiovascular standpoint.”

He agreed that the new study is “reassuring” and should assist patients and physicians when trying to decide whether a particular antidepressant drug’s benefits outweigh the known risks.

More information

There’s more on SSRIs at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.

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Chocolate oat protein slice

 

Meet your protein quota by including this decadent choc oat protein slice in your workday meal plan.

 

What you'll need

Makes: 12 slices // Prep Time: 15 minutes

Slice Ingredients:

• ½ cup shredded coconut
• ½ cup oats
• ½ cup LSA (ground linseed, sunflower seed and almond mix)
• ½ cup almond meal
• 2 tbsp psyllium husk
• 2 tbsp maca powder
• 2 tbsp coconut sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup of nut or seed butter (peanut butter, almond butter, tahini, cashew butter, Brazil nut butter, hazelnut butter, etc)

Chocolate Topping Ingredients:

• ¾ cup cacao butter, melted
• 3 tbsp cacao powder
• 3 tbsp honey

What you'll do
Mix slice ingredients in a bowl until well combined. Place into the fridge to set. Mix chocolate topping ingredients until smooth. Pour over slice and return to the fridge to set. Once set, cut slice into bars or squares. Store slice in the fridge.

WH&F test kitchen tip: Use chocolate protein powder in lieu of cacao powder in the topping and maca powder in the slice. If using sweetened protein powder, reduce or omit coconut sugar.  

Recipe courtesy nutritionist Emily Holmes. For more healthy treats, the Concious Foodie website and browse our healthy recipes section.

 

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The Sounds You Make Eating May Be a Diet Aid

TUESDAY, March 22, 2016 (HealthDay News) — If you want to cut back on how much you eat, it might be a good idea to keep things quiet during meals, researchers suggest.

In a series of experiments, they found that people tend to eat less if they’re more conscious of the chewing, chomping and crunching sounds they make while eating — and that loud TV or music can mask those sounds.

For example, study participants wore headphones that played either loud or quiet noise while they ate pretzels. Those exposed to loud noise ate four pretzels, while those in the quiet noise group ate 2.75 pretzels.

“Sound is typically labeled as the forgotten food sense. But if people are more focused on the sound the food makes, it could reduce consumption,” said study co-author Ryan Elder. He is an assistant professor of marketing in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah.

“When you mask the sound of consumption, like when you watch TV while eating, you take away one of those senses and it may cause you to eat more than you would normally,” he said in a university news release. “The effects many not seem huge — one less pretzel — but over the course of a week, month or year, it could really add up.”

The study was published recently in the journal Food Quality and Preference.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about food portions.

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