4 Ways You Can Cut Smog in Your Town

WEDNESDAY, May 4, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Those hazy days of summer may mean high smog levels for some northeastern U.S. states, but you can help reduce air pollution where you live, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says.

Smog is a combination of ground-level ozone and fine particle air pollution.

“Air pollution is a significant public health issue in New England,” said Curt Spalding, regional administrator of the EPA’s New England office.

“New Englanders need to pay close attention to air-quality alerts and limit strenuous outdoor activity on air-quality alert days. In addition, we can all take individual actions to reduce the air pollution that contributes to this public health risk,” he said in an agency news release.

As part of Air Quality Awareness Week May 2-6, the EPA outlined four steps you can take to reduce air pollution, including:

• Use public transit or walk whenever possible.
• Set air conditioning to a higher temperature.
• Turn off lights, computers and TVs when not in use.
• Don’t use gasoline-powered equipment, such as lawn mowers, trimmers, chain saws, power washers, air compressors and leaf blowers on unhealthy air days.

If you want to know the air quality in your area, you can sign up to receive free air-quality alerts from the EPA. Participants are notified by email or text message when high concentrations of ground-level ozone or fine particle air pollution is predicted in their area.

New England state air agencies issue daily air-quality forecasts, and current air-quality conditions and next-day forecasts are also available on the EPA website.

Due to a stricter ozone standard introduced last fall, the EPA expects a higher number of ozone-related air-quality alerts in New England this summer.

There has been a significant decrease in the number of unhealthy ozone days in New England since the early 1980s. Based on the new ozone standard, there were 118 unhealthy days in 1983, and 38 in 2015, the EPA said.

Ground-level ozone is generally created by chemical reactions between certain compounds from sources such as car exhaust, chemical solvents and industrial plant emissions, according to the EPA. Fine particle pollution is often made up of toxic chemicals, such as arsenic and mercury, which are too small to see with the naked eye.

More information

To sign up for EPA air quality alerts, click here.

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Bacteria Experiment May Point Way to Slow Zika’s Spread

WEDNESDAY, May 4, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Experiments in mosquitoes suggest that bacteria may help curb the spread of the Zika virus.

The researchers got the idea after a pilot program to reduce the transmission of dengue fever showed promise.

In the dengue program, Wolbachia bacteria were inserted into the eggs of Aedes mosquitoes. The bacteria were passed from female mosquitoes to their offspring, which significantly reduced dengue virus replication in the insects.

“The idea has been to release Aedes mosquitoes with Wolbachia in the field over a period of a few months, so they mate with Aedes mosquitoes without Wolbachia,” senior study author Luciano Moreira, of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil, explained in a journal news release.

“Zika and dengue belong in the same family of viruses, so with the outbreak in Brazil, the logical idea was to test the mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia by challenging them with Zika virus,” Moreira said.

So, mosquitoes with and without the Wolbachia virus were fed human blood infected with two strains of Zika circulating in Brazil, the study authors said.

After two weeks, the mosquitoes with Wolbachia had lower levels of Zika virus in their bodies and saliva, and the virus in their saliva was inactive. That meant they would not be able to transmit it when they bit someone, the researchers said.

“Wolbachia showed to be as effective on Zika as the most important dengue experiments we did,” Moreira said.

He added that the researchers are seeking funding to try to do the same pilot program with Zika.

However, even if Wolbachia proves effective in reducing Zika transmission by mosquitoes, it will not eliminate the virus completely, Moreira said.

“We know that there will not be only one solution for Zika — we have to do this alongside different approaches, like vaccines or insecticides, besides the public measures to control Aedes breeding sites,” he said.

The study was published May 4 in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

While the Zika virus poses little health risk to most people, it can cause a birth defect called microcephaly, which results in babies born with abnormally small heads and brains. In Brazil, more than 4,000 cases of microcephaly have been linked to a Zika outbreak in that country.

As of April 27, there were 1,025 confirmed cases of Zika in U.S. states and territories, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And one Zika-linked death has been reported in Puerto Rico. Nearly all of these infections were acquired by people who had traveled outside the United States.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the Zika virus.

To see the CDC list of sites where Zika virus is active and may pose a threat to pregnant women, click here.

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CPR Help as Near as Your Phone

WEDNESDAY, May 4, 2016 (HealthDay News) — A stranger or someone you love suddenly collapses with cardiac arrest, but you don’t know CPR.

New research shows that help — and CPR instruction — may be just a cellphone call away.

This is “a real-world approach that the majority of communities can adopt to help improve survival in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest,” said one expert, emergency room physician Dr. Robert Glatter.

The new study was led by Dr. Bentley Bobrow of the Arizona Department of Health Services in Phoenix. His team noted that fewer than half of Americans who suffer cardiac arrest in public places receive CPR — cardiopulmonary resuscitation — from bystanders, and survival rates are very low.

When cardiac arrest strikes, “time is cardiac muscle,” said Glatter, of Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “The sooner we can initiate effective chest compressions and defibrillation … the better chance we have of improving neurologically intact survival in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest,” he explained.

To address the problem, both the American Heart Association and the Institute of Medicine have emphasized the need for 911 operators and emergency response dispatchers to spot cases of cardiac arrest — and help instruct bystanders in providing CPR.

Instruction would involve over-the-phone advice on performing chest compressions, and the use of an automated external defibrillator if one is available, Glatter explained.

In this study, Bobrow’s team examined data from more than 2,300 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests that occurred in Phoenix before and after a telephone-directed CPR program was implemented.

After introduction of the program, telephone-directed CPR rates rose from 44 to 53 percent, the study found. In addition, the time in which a patient received a first chest compression from a bystander fell from 256 to 212 seconds.

Best of all, patient survival rose from 9 percent to 12 percent, while “favorable patient outcomes” rose from 5.6 percent to 8.3 percent, the researchers said.

“Survival to hospital discharge with favorable neurologic outcome after cardiac arrest has generally been dismal,” Glatter said. However, the new study finds that “when we work together as a community — using a telephone-based CPR system involving dispatchers — we can deliver life-saving chest compressions” to patients in need, he said.

Dr. Joseph Germano directs the Atrial Fibrillation Center at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y. He agreed that the new approach “gets more patients to the hospital in better condition,” which in turn should boost survival and better functional outcomes.

The study was published online May 4 in the journal JAMA Cardiology.

More information

For more on CPR, visit the American Heart Association.

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Why You Might Not Need Your Antibiotics

Photo: Getty Images

About 30% of antibiotics that are prescribed in doctor’s offices, clinics and emergency rooms are unnecessary, according to a new report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The researchers looked at medical care survey data from 2010-2011 to analyze rates of prescriptions for oral antibiotics. The study authors looked for cases where the medication prescribed was “inappropriate”, meaning it wasn’t necessary, or when the wrong antibiotic was chosen, the dosage wasn’t right or the drug was used for too long or too short a time.

More than 12% of the 180,000-plus visits in the study ended with an antibiotic prescription, often for cases that didn’t meet clinical standards for the condition. Sinus infections were the most common conditions to get antibiotics; ear infections and sore throat were also common. During the study period, the estimated yearly antibiotic prescription rate was 506 per 1,000 people, but only 353 of the prescriptions were deemed appropriate for the condition.

“For most common conditions, clinicians generally know if antibiotics are needed or not,” says study author Dr. Katherine Fleming-Dutra, a medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Often, clinicians are worried about patient satisfaction. They think that a patient wants antibiotics, and they want the patient to be satisfied with their care, sometimes leading them to prescribe when they shouldn’t.”

Two million Americans get infections that are resistant to antibiotics each year, which lead to about 23,000 deaths. Antibiotic resistance is a national priority, and the goal of the White House National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria is to reduce outpatient antibiotic use by 50% and inpatient use by 20% by the year 2020.

“The good news is that the majority of patients trust clinicians to recommend the right treatment,” says Fleming-Dutra. “Clinicians can address patient satisfaction by communicating effectively when antibiotics are needed, and when they aren’t.”

This article originally appeared on Time.com.

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Emergency Surgery Risky Business in Poor Countries

WEDNESDAY, May 4, 2016 (HealthDay News) — People who have emergency surgery in poor nations may be much likelier to die than patients in wealthy countries, a new study finds.

British researchers analyzed data on more than 10,000 people who had emergency abdominal surgery in 58 countries. They found death rates in the 30 days after surgery were three times higher in low-income countries than in high-income countries.

This disparity remained even after the investigators accounted for patient factors such as diabetes, smoking and physical condition before surgery.

“The association between increasing mortality and lower-income countries might be explained by differences in prognosis, in treatment or maybe both. What we can say is that our study highlights the significant disparity between countries, and an urgent need to address it,” researcher Dr. Aneel Bhangu, from the University of Birmingham, said in a university news release.

It’s believed that less than one-third of people worldwide have access to safe, timely and affordable surgery, according to the study. Only 6 percent of the 300 million surgeries performed worldwide each year occur in low- or middle-income nations, even though these countries account for one-third of the global population.

Data on surgery-related deaths is routinely collected in the United States and other wealthy nations, but there is little or no data collection in up to 70 percent of low- and middle-income countries, the study authors said.

“Improving surgical access and safety can only be achieved if we really understand what influences surgical outcomes on a global scale,” said researcher Ewen Harrison, from the University of Edinburgh.

The study was published May 3 in the British Journal of Surgery.

More information

The World Health Organization has more on safe surgery.

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Many Heart Bypass Patients Don’t Take Needed Meds

WEDNESDAY, May 4, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Many heart bypass patients are skipping medications meant to maintain smooth blood flow in their repaired veins, a new study finds.

“It is important for patients to understand that bypass surgery is a second chance, not a cure for their disease,” Dr. Michael Savage, a professor of cardiology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said in a university news release.

Research has shown that taking statins and aspirin helps keep vein grafts used in bypass surgery open over the long term, and the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recommend taking both medications unless they are unsafe for a patient.

But among the more than 400 patients in the study, only 52 percent were taking the recommended combination of statins and aspirin. Sixty-seven percent were taking just a statin and 75 percent were using aspirin only. Those who were not taking a statin had higher levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol, the researchers found.

“This [finding] suggests complacency, not only among patients, but also among health care providers regarding the need to continue appropriate prevention measures after successful heart surgery,” said Savage, who is director of the Angioplasty Center and Cardiac Catheterization Lab at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

Study first author Dr. Kevin Curl added, “Our findings highlight the need for coordinated efforts in educating health care providers and patients to improve long-term medication usage in this high-risk population.” Curl is with the division of cardiology at Thomas Jefferson.

The study was published recently in the American Journal of Cardiology.

More information

The American Heart Association has more about heart bypass surgery.

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5 Crazy-Effective Crunch Variations

Photo: Ryan Kelly / Daily Burn 365

These moves come to you from four of our top Daily Burn 365 trainers. For a new, 30-minute workout every day, head to DailyBurn.com/365.

When it comes to the ultimate ab exercises, crunches top the list. From runners to yogis to CrossFit buffs, athletes favor this simple, no-equipment move to strengthen the abdominals, obliques and hips. But the basic move can become, well, routine. So to help you kick up your core game, we rounded up these killer crunch variations, guaranteed to tighten and tone your midsection. As Daily Burn 365 trainer Justin Rubin says, “Crunches work your obliques, your sides, your lower abs, your upper abs. It’s a total-core workout.”

RELATED: 5 Standing Ab Exercises for People Who Hate Crunches

5 Crunch Variations to Sculpt Your Abs

1. Modified Bicycle Crunch
If you have trouble keeping your legs lifted during a bicycle crunch, this modified version helps ease discomfort on your lower back and keeps your neck supported—all while toning your obliques. Your upper body will also benefit from a fuller range of motion as you move from one side to the other.

How to: Lay flat on your back on an exercise mat and place your hands behind your ears on your head, keeping your arms in a straight line (a). Lift your head with your hands in a 45-degree angle to the floor and bend your knees in front of you with just your heels touching the mat (toes pointed up) (b). Lift your right knee to about a 90-degree angle to the floor as you bring your left elbow to meet it. Now switch opposite sides with the same motion, engaging your core muscles the whole time (c). Repeat for eight reps.

RELATED: Hate Crunches? 6 Better Core Exercises for Beginners

2. Standing Crunch
Standing crunches are great as part of a dynamic warm-up because they activate the muscles in your abs, arms and legs while getting your heart rate up. But they’re also ideal for an active recovery mid-HIIT workout when you transition from one set to the next, or when you want to slow down your heart rate as you switch from cardio to strength training.

How to: Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart (a). Bring your arms up with your hands reaching for the ceiling and your palms facing each other (b). Engage your core to lift your right knee to hip height. At the same time, lower your arms at your sides, bringing them by your waist (c). Return to starting position and repeat on the opposite side. (d). Do eight reps.

RELATED: 5 Stability Ball Exercises For a Crazy Strong Core

3. V-Sit Crunch
In addition to strengthening your core like crazy, this challenging move will help elongate your body. Did we mention it helps stretch your hamstrings, too? (We’re looking at you, runners!). If your hands can’t meet your legs, keep your feet flat on the floor and bend your knees as you lift your hands to your feet.

How to: Lie flat on the floor with your arms by your head and your hands reaching for the wall behind you. Keep your feet straight out in front of you (a). Engage your core as you lift your right leg straight up into the air, until it’s perpendicular to the floor (b). At the same time, pull your upper body toward your leg so your hands meet your ankle or shin (c). Return to the starting position and repeat on the opposite leg. (d). Repeat for eight reps.

RELATED: The Pilates Ab Workout to Sculpt Your Core

4. Reverse Crunch
This variation of reverse crunches borrows the pulsating movements of barre with the bridge pose. The trick is to keep your upper body still as your core and lower body do the work. In this reverse crunch variation, the spine is also lengthened and strengthened (win-win!).

How to: Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor hip-width apart. Your hands should be at your sides and your palms facing down (a). Press your feet against the floor and use your abdominal muscles to lift your hips up. Hold this pose for two seconds (b). Bring your hips back down to the floor and lift your legs as you pull your knees toward your chest. Avoid using momentum from your legs to pull them in and engage your core muscles instead (c). Hold the crunch for two seconds before bringing your feet back down to the floor (d). Do eight reps.

RELATED: Need a Cardio Fix? Try This 5-Minute Kickboxing Workout

5. Kickboxing Crunch
Add some pep and power to your standing crunch with this kickboxing-inspired move. For those looking to strengthen your balancing skills, this is the exercise for you. This kickboxing crunch offers the right combination of strength training and cardio, working out your core and arms while building endurance, too.

How to: Get into a kickboxing stance, standing tall with your hip-distance apart. Keep your left arm bent high at your side. (a). Jab with your right arm to the side from the bottom to the top. At the same time, engage your abs and do a squat. Then, pull your right knee towards your chest to do a crunch. (b). Next, kick with your right leg out in front of you with your hands at your sides (left arm bent high and right arm at waist-height). (c). Repeat this motion for eight reps before switching to the other side.

This article originally appeared on Daily Burn.

Want more quick and easy moves you can do right at home, head to DailyBurn.com/365 — it’s free for 30 days!

More from Daily Burn:

Daily Burn 365: New Workouts, 7 Days a Week
5 Exercise Machines That Aren’t Worth Your Time
5 Planks to Seriously Sculpt Your Core

Life by Daily Burn is dedicated to helping you live a healthier, happier and more active lifestyle. Whether your goal is to lose weight, gain strength or de-stress, a better you is well within reach. Get more health and fitness tips at Life by Daily Burn.

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Medical Errors: A Hidden Killer

TUESDAY, May 3, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Medical errors may be the third leading cause of death in the United States, a new study contends.

Johns Hopkins University researchers analyzed eight years of U.S. data and concluded that more than 250,000 people died each year due to medical errors.

If confirmed, that would make medical errors the third leading cause of death among Americans. Currently, respiratory disease, which kills about 150,000 people a year, is listed as the third leading cause of death by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, “incidence rates for deaths directly attributable to medical care gone awry haven’t been recognized in any standardized method for collecting national statistics,” said Dr. Martin Makary, a professor of surgery at Baltimore-based Hopkins.

The CDC’s data collection method does not classify medical errors separately on a death certificate, according to the study authors, who called for changes to that criteria.

“The medical coding system was designed to maximize billing for physician services, not to collect national health statistics, as it is currently being used,” Makary explained in a university news release.

The Hopkins researchers examined four separate studies that analyzed medical death rate data from 2000 to 2008, including two that used data from federal agencies.

Then, using hospital admission rates from 2013, the investigators extrapolated that information, and based on a total of over 35 million hospitalizations, more than 251,000 deaths stemmed from a medical error. That translates to 9.5 percent of all U.S. deaths each year, the study authors said.

But the CDC data paints a different picture.

The CDC statistics show that in 2013, over 611,000 people in the United States died of heart disease, nearly 585,000 died of cancer and about 150,000 died of chronic respiratory disease.

“Top-ranked causes of death as reported by the CDC inform our country’s research funding and public health priorities,” Makary said. “Right now, cancer and heart disease get a ton of attention, but since medical errors don’t appear on the list, the problem doesn’t get the funding and attention it deserves.”

The findings were published May 3 in the BMJ.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians explains how patients can help prevent medical errors.

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Fatty Foods, Drowsy Days

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, May 3, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Men who eat a lot of fatty foods may find themselves needing an afternoon nap, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among almost 800 men aged 35 to 80, those with diets high in fat reported more problems with daytime sleepiness. The connection was not explained by body weight, exercise levels or chronic health issues, such as diabetes or depression.

The study, published recently in the journal Nutrients, does not prove that dietary fat, itself, induces drowsiness.

It’s unclear why a fatty diet might affect drowsiness, according to lead researcher Yingting Cao, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

But, Cao said, lab studies suggest that certain “gut neuro-hormones” promote sleepiness, so it’s plausible that a high-fat diet could somehow affect daytime drowsiness.

According to Cao, more research is needed to understand how fatty foods might encourage drowsiness, and whether the timing of a high-fat meal matters: Does eating fat-laden food at night, for example, interfere with sleep?

The study findings are based on 784 Australian men who were surveyed about their diet and lifestyle. The men also underwent an at-home study, to detect symptoms of sleep apnea — a nighttime breathing disorder that can cause loud snoring and daytime drowsiness.

Overall, Cao’s team found, the one-quarter of men with the highest daily fat intake were more likely to complain of daytime drowsiness than the one-quarter who ate the least fat.

The investigators found that 46 percent of the men in the group with the highest level of fat intake were habitually sleepy during the day, compared to 37 percent of the men in the lowest-intake group.

The researchers weighed a number of other factors — including body weight, exercise levels, diabetes, depression, and smoking and drinking habits. And men with the highest fat intake were still 78 percent more likely to complain of drowsiness than those with the least fat in their diets.

Men who ate the most fat also had a higher risk of sleep apnea symptoms — though that seemed to be explained by heavier body weight, the findings suggested.

In contrast, there was no clear connection between the men’s carbohydrate or protein intake and problems with daytime drowsiness.

Even though the study authors tried to account for other factors that might cause drowsiness, it’s difficult to pin the blame on one nutrient, according to Jim White, a registered dietitian and spokesman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

“There are many factors that can cause daytime sleepiness,” said White, who was not involved in the study.

“This study does show a relationship with increased fat intake and sleep,” he said. “But we have to look at people’s overall lifestyle and eating behavior, rather than pointing the finger at one macronutrient.”

While it’s unclear whether a high-fat diet drains a man’s energy, Cao said there are already reasons to be careful about fat intake.

“Keeping a light and balanced diet is always right for anyone,” she said.

White agreed on the need for balance. “The best chance of having high energy levels during the day is to incorporate a diet that consists of whole grains, lean proteins, fruits and veggies, low-fat dairy and a high-quality fat intake,” he said.

“High-quality,” according to White, means unsaturated fats from sources including vegetable oils, avocados, nuts, seeds and peanut butter.

More information

The National Sleep Foundation has more on food and sleep.

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Got Unused Meds? Here’s What to Do

TUESDAY, May 3, 2016 (HealthDay News) — While doing your spring cleaning, don’t just toss out expired or unused prescription medications.

Unwanted drugs need to be properly disposed of to reduce the risk of abuse or accidental use, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says.

Follow disposal instructions on the drug label or patient information that came with the medicine. Don’t put medicines down the sink or flush them down the toilet unless this information specifically says to do so.

Call local law enforcement agencies to find out if your community has a medication take-back program or event. Or, ask your local trash or recycling services about medication disposal services and guidelines, the FDA suggests.

Another option is to deliver unused medicines to collectors registered with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). These authorized sites may be retail, clinic or hospital pharmacies, and law enforcement offices. Some have mail-back programs or drop boxes. To find an authorized site in your community, go to the DEA website or call 800-882-9539.

If the drug labeling has no disposal instructions and there is no take-back program in your area, you can throw the medicines in the garbage if you take certain precautions, the FDA said.

For starters, remove the medicines from their original containers and mix them with unpleasant materials — such as used coffee grounds, dirt or kitty litter — to make the drugs less appealing to children and pets and unrecognizable to people who may go through your trash looking for drugs.

Then put the mixture in a sealable bag, empty can or other container to prevent the medicine from leaking or spilling out of the garbage bag.

It’s also a good idea to scratch out all identifying information on the drug label to make it unreadable. This will help protect your identity and personal health information, explained the FDA’s Ilisa Bernstein.

If you have any questions about proper disposal, ask your pharmacist.

Bernstein added that the same steps can be taken for getting rid of over-the-counter drugs.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more about the disposal of medicines.

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