Growing up’s a pain
You might remember growing pains from your childhood – they’re those
muscular aches and pains in the legs that usually come on in the afternoon
or during the night. Children often experience them between the ages of
three and five years and when they are eight to twelve year olds, although
it can continue into early adolescence. These pains are generally harmless
and simple treatment can help ease symptoms.
The cause isn’t known although parents often blame excessive physical
activity or emotional distress. Other theories that have been investigated
are children having a low pain threshold, flat feet, altered blood flow at
night, or that the pains are a result of highly flexible joints. A common
misconception is that growing pains are caused by rapidly growing bones,
but this isn’t so, as even during rapid growth spurts, the growth of bones
is a slow and painless process.
One of the interesting features of growing pains is that they run in
families. So there’s a good chance parents with children experiencing them
may have had them as well. It could be wise for parents to ask their own
parents what they did to help manage the pains.
Here are some things that may help:
Reassurance that the pain will go away and that their legs will feel
better by the morning
Massaging the painful area
Heat in the form of a warm bath or hot water bottle
Medicines that reduce pain such as paracetamol (check to ensure correct
dosage)
While modern medicine is still some way away from understanding the
cause and best treatment for growing pains, it’s wise to see your doctor to
make sure there’s no other cause of the pain. Until then, you’ll just have
to reassure the kids that they’ll grow out of them.
No tricks to weight gain
A popular diet myth at the moment is that eating more protein can
protect against weight gain. The argument is that protein increases muscle
and that the body uses more energy to convert the excess amino acids in
protein into fat. Proteins are also satiating in that they make us feel
full. However research suggests it doesn’t matter in what form we eat them,
extra calories end up as gained weight regardless.
A study took a group of healthy men and women and got them to eat 40%
more than usual every day for eight weeks. The diets were either low in
protein (5% of their energy intake), 15% (normal protein) or 25% (high
protein). The researchers measured people’s metabolism and body composition
twice a week to monitor changes. As expected, everyone put on weight.
People who ate the low protein diet gained half the weight (3.2kg) of the
groups eating normal or higher protein levels (around 6kg). However, all
groups gained the same amount of body fat: 3.5kg, which means that people
on the low protein diet lost muscle mass, while the other groups gained
it.
The significance of this is that when it comes to losing and maintaining
weight, muscle is your best friend. Muscle burns calories all day long
(even at rest) so it increases your metabolic rate (the number of calories
your body uses to function). The lower your metabolic rate, the less energy
you burn and the more likely you are to gain weight over time.
A great way to keep calories in check is to limit the amount of food you
purchase outside the home, and substitute high calorie for low calorie
ingredients wherever you can when cooking. Also try to increase the
vegetable content of meals wherever you can as vegetables are low in
calories and contain lots of fibre. In the pizza recipe below we’ve
substituted the pizza base for wholemeal pita bread, removed the meat and
only used a small amount of cheese with lots of vegetables for a healthy
and tasty meal.
The best way to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight is to be
consistent with exercise and a balanced diet with a variety of foods from
each of the five major food groups:
Fruit
Vegetables, legumes
Lean meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts
Bread, cereals, rice, pasta, noodles (preferably wholegrain)
Milk, yoghurt, cheese
Good health on the menu
HEALTHY PIZZA RECIPE
TAKE HOME WITH YOU
Ingredients (makes one pizza)
1 wholemeal pita base
Pizza base sauce
1 cup diced mushrooms
½ red onion, sliced
Handful olives, pitted
½ zucchini, peeled into strips
½ capsicum, sliced
1 cup marinated artichoke hearts (drained)
Handful low fat shredded cheese
Rocket to serve
Method
Pre heat oven to 180°
Place base on baking paper on an oven tray
Top with pizza base sauce
Decorate with toppings
Sprinkle with cheese
Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is golden brown
Top with fresh rocket to serve
Silent strokes
A stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked. Symptoms can
include dizziness, numbness and loss of vision. Silent strokes, as
suggested by their name, have no outward symptoms and generally go
unnoticed by the sufferer but can still cause damage to the brain, with
studies suggesting one in twelve older Australians may have brain damage
caused by silent strokes.
Researchers performed brain scans on 500 healthy elderly people. In the
first round of scans, they found almost 8% of people had what are called
lacunar infarcts or small cavities in the brain less than 2cm in diameter
caused by stroke, despite no history of any stroke-like symptoms. 4 years
later, when people were scanned a second time, they found a further 1.6%
had areas of damage.
These small lesions may explain some of the signs of old age like
forgetfulness, slowing down and becoming confused. They have a cumulative
effect, too. If they’re little and infrequent, the brain has enough neural
tissue functioning to adapt to them, but if they increase in size and
frequency, the brain’s mechanisms can be overwhelmed, causing symptoms like
slowed motor function and information processing, and reduced memory.
Many elderly people who’ve had silent strokes may not even realise
they’ve had one, so what to do about them? Older Australians should check
their blood pressure regularly and take steps to lower it. People should
also take more aggressive action to help prevent strokes happening in the
first place, through exercise, a healthy diet, quitting smoking and having
their blood fats regularly monitored.
Did You Know?
Many young women are unaware of emergency contraception or too shy to
ask for it
Up to one in five young women are unaware of emergency contraception and
how to access it. When researchers asked a group about how it was used,
almost half believed it only effective in the 24 hours after intercourse,
while one in five students knew it can be effective up to 72 hours after
intercourse. There were misunderstandings about how to obtain it too, with
40% of women surveyed not realising emergency contraception can be bought
over the counter at a pharmacy. More worrying is that 20% said they would
be too embarrassed to buy emergency contraception from a Chemist because
they feared being recognised by staff. If you’re concerned about a recent
encounter, best speak to your doctor for advice; the pharmacist is your
next best bet.
Myth & Fact
Myth
You can catch a Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) from a toilet
seat
Fact
STDs are contracted from direct sexual contact, blood transmission or
from a mother to her unborn child. The viruses and bacteria that cause STDs
generally don’t survive long enough outside the body to spread to other
humans. So the germs are likely to be long dead before you get there. While
the chances of catching an STD from your local public restroom are
extremely slim, it’s not impossible. STDs can be transferred through broken
skin, so if in theory you had cuts on your bottom and there were bacteria
of an STD residing on the toilet seat, you may contract an STD, however
it’s highly unlikely.
While it can’t be totally ruled out, catching an STD from the toilet
seat shouldn’t be high on your list of worries. It’s always good to
exercise good hygiene by avoiding visibly dirty toilets, washing your hands
with soap and drying your hands thoroughly after using the toilet.
Dr Norman Swan - A matter of health
A symptom you mustn’t ignore
If you ever see blood in your urine – even once – you must get to see
your doctor and have it checked up properly, even if, when the doctor
checks, there’s no sign of blood. Blood in your urine can indicate some
serious issues which you want to detect as early as possible. Up to one in
five adults with visible blood in their urine have cancer somewhere from
their kidneys down to their bladder (and prostate in men). Bladder cancer
is the commonest malignancy and it’s curable if caught early.
There are several non cancer causes of blood in the urine (the technical
term is haematuria) such as kidney stones, kidney disease and urinary
infections – but having an infection doesn’t mean there isn’t something
else going on as well. So once the infection is cleared your doctor will
probably recommend further tests. The risk of bladder cancer is a lot
higher in smokers and a little higher in people who work with dyes.
The tests depend on your circumstances but usually include ultrasound, X
rays and a cystoscopy
(a narrow flexible scope that looks inside the bladder).
What about blood in the urine that you can’t see and is detected by a
dipstick in the surgery or under the microscope by the pathologist? The
chances of cancer are much lower but still real and probably merit
investigation – but that’s something to talk over with your doctor.
Park your health woes
Want to improve your mental and physical health? Live near a park.
That’s the advice of researchers who found living in close proximity to
green spaces reduces depression, anxiety, and other health problems.
350,000 patient health records were compared with their postcode so the
researchers could determine the amount of green space near each patient’s
home. When they analysed the data they found a strong link between health
and the proximity of green spaces to the home.
The benefit was greatest for mental health problems. Those living in
areas with the most parks were less likely to suffer from anxiety or need
treatment for depression. Living in greener areas also provided a
protective effect against disease, especially respiratory diseases like
asthma and chest infections. The closer a person lived to a green space the
better, with the effect greatest when the person lived within a one
kilometre radius of the park.
In high-density inner city areas, however, access to green spaces seemed
to have no impact on health. The researchers suggested this might be
because green spaces in these areas are perceived as being unsafe. The
health benefit was also proportionally greater amongst children and low
income groups, probably because they tend to use the facilities more when
they are available. Why might green spaces be so healthy? Well, they lower
stress and provide opportunities for exercise and physical activity, two
key steps towards reducing illness.
The message is to live near a park if you can and if you do - use
it.
