Urbanization and Cardiovascular Disease: Raising Heart-Healthy Children in Today’s Cities

WORLD HEART FEDERATION CALLS FOR URGENT ACTION TO PROTECT CHILDREN’S HEART HEALTH IN WORLD’S MOST POPULOUS CITIES

New S.P.A.C.E strategy to address threat to the cardiovascular health of the world’s urban children

Geneva, 29 September 2011 – On World Heart Day, the World Heart Federation calls for a new approach to make cities heart healthier for the children who live in them. The call to action follows research commissioned by them which shows that increasing urbanization threatens the current and future heart health of children.


The research results are presented in a new report entitled, Urbanization and Cardiovascular Disease: Raising Heart-Healthy Children in Today’s Cities. The report summary – made available today – shows how urban life in low- and middle-income countries – often imposes limitations on the ways in which children live, and restricts opportunities for heart-healthy behaviours. In large cities across the globe, urban living actually facilitates unhealthy behaviour in children, including: physical inactivity, eating unhealthy foods, and even tobacco use by children as young as two. Crowded city living environments can also spread diseases such as rheumatic fever, which if left untreated, can cause rheumatic heart disease.

The report notes that children are particularly at risk of the negative health effects of city life, since they are most dependent on and affected by their living environment. Since urbanization is continuing to occur rapidly worldwide, urgent action is needed to prevent an “epidemic” of cardiovascular disease (CVD) including heart attacks and stroke.

Breast Cancer iPhone App Enlists Hunky Men to Remind Women About Self-Examination

A breast cancer app for iPhone, as well as Android, in which hunky men remind women to self-examine will be available in October, which is National Breast Cancer Awareness month.

The Canadian charity Rethink Breast Cancer (RBC) has come up with an app called "Your Man Reminder."
Women can choose from six stereotypical male hunks, including the Boy Next Door, the Sports Jock, and the Business Man. A woman's hunk will pop up on her smartphone on a regular basis and remind her to do a self-exam. He will also offer her words of encouragement, such as "Give your breasts some TLC." TLC is breast awareness code for the words touch, look and check. Women can even choose the pose they want their man to make. The app will also offer scheduling options for doctors' appointments and a "signs and symptoms" tab, among other conveniences.

Daltonism/ Color Blindness Tests

       
          Color blindness or color vision deficiency is the inability or decreased ability to see color, or perceive color differences, under lighting conditions when color vision is not normally impaired. "Color blind" is a term of art; there is no actual blindness but there is a fault in the development of either or both sets of retinal cones that perceive color in light and transmit that information to the optic nerve. The gene that causes color blindness is carried on the X chromosome, making the handicap far more common among men (who have just one X chromosome) than among women (who have two, so must inherit the gene from both parents).
The symptoms of color blindness also can be produced by physical or chemical damage to the eye, optic nerve, or the brain generally. These are not true color blindness, however, but they represent conditions of limited actual blindness. Similarly, a person with achromatopsia, although unable to see colors, is not "color blind" per se but they suffer from a completely different disorder, of which atypical color deficiency is only one manifestation.

Click HERE  to take the Test 

23% of Global Population Never Uses the Internet for Health Info

@Mashable‘s Social Good Summit is in full swing. David Armano, Edelman Digital’s EVP of Global Innovation and Integration spoke Monday about how digital innovation is impacting global health.
Edelman surveyed more than 15,165 people to create a global confidence index: how healthy different countries believe they are. While most values seem high, the survey shows how cultural views of health can skew responses. In India, Armano said, percentage is high because good health is measured just by access to clean water. Japan’s percentage might be low, despite its record of long life-expectancy, due to the recent earthquake, tsunami and ensuing crises.
But Edelman took the survey one step further, comparing these values to how people keep up their health and how they use the Internet. The results help illustrate the growing connection between global health and digital tools. The goal is to help improve the behavioral shifts, to leverage technology and to improve health.
Have a look at Edelman’s graphic below and compare it to the Digital Engagement just below it.

                                                                  Click for larger view

List of Awareness Ribbons

        Awareness ribbons, due to their ubiquitous nature, have come to symbolize various concerns depending on the colors or the patterns used.
        Yellow ribbons, in the United States, are used to show that a close family member is abroad in military service. In Russia, Belarus and other countries of the former USSR gold and black striped ribbons are used to celebrate the Allies' victory in World War II (9 May).
Of the uses of ribbons to draw awareness to health issues, perhaps the most well-known is the red ribbon for support of those with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Other health and social concerns which have adopted coloured ribbons include Alzheimer's disease (purple), Breast Cancer (pink), bipolar disorder (green), and brain disorder or disability (silver).
Political use of ribbons include red ribbons worn to commemorate the October Revolution (7 November) in the former Soviet Union, and orange ribbons in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine.
 Other ornaments, including flowers (of specific kinds), bracelets and badges may serve essentially the same purpose of drawing attention to a cause. These include poppies, rosettes and wristbands.

        This is a list of awareness ribbons. The meaning behind the awareness ribbon depends on its color or colors. Many groups have adopted ribbons as symbols of support or awareness, and as a result, many causes often share each color. Some causes may also be represented by more than one color.

Colors and meanings

Ribbon	Color	Meanings
	Pearl, white, or clear ribbon	Lung Cancer awareness. Originally clear, referencing air and being too-often unnoticed, but evolved to primarily pearl or white for practical reasons. Some sources suggest clear or white as a subset of pearl for long-term-non-smoker/never-smoker lung cancer, but there's no evidence of lung cancer organization support for this distinction. Some lung cancer organizations use different colors or symbols.
	White ribbon	Multiple Hereditary Exostoses Gay-Teen Suicide Awareness White Ribbon Campaign (what makes a man a man): Working to end violence against women (see also Woman's Christian Temperance Union) The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood: to ensure that pregnancy and childbirth are safe for all women and newborns in every country around the world (see also Woman's Christian Temperance Union) The White Ribbon is used to raise awareness for Severe Combined Immune Deficiency Disease (SCID) and SCID Newborn Screening Invisible Illness

September 2011 Health Observances

Awareness Event	Coverage	Related Organization
Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month	Canada	National Ovarian Cancer Association
Arthritis Awareness Month	Canada	Arthritis Society
Muscular Dystrophy Month	Canada	Muscular Dystrophy Canada
Sickle Cell Awareness Month	United Kingdom	Sickle Cell Society
National Sickle Cell Month	United States	Sickle Cell Disease Association of America
Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month	United States	National Ovarian Cancer Coalition
National Cholesterol Education Month	United States	NHLBI
Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month	United States	Women's Cancer Network
Reye's Syndrome Awareness Week	United States	National Reye's Syndrome Foundation
Children's Eye Health and Safety Month	United States	Prevent Blindness America
National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month	United States	Recovery Month
Leukemia and Lymphoma Awareness Month	Worldwide	The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

September 2011 Health Current Events - Weeks

Event	Date	Nation	Organisation
National Asthma Week	1st Sep - 7th Sep	Australia	The Asthma Foundation of Victoria
Suicide Prevention Week	2nd Sep - 8th Sep	United States	American Association of Suicidology
Migraine Awareness Week	6th Sep - 12th Sep	United Kingdom	Migraine Action Association
National Stroke Week	15th Sep - 21st Sep	Australia	Stroke Foundation
National Eczema Week	17th Sep - 21st Sep	United Kingdom	The National Eczema Society

September 2011 Health Events - Days

Event	Date	Nation	Organization
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) Awareness Day	9th Sep	Worldwide	FAS Day
Suicide Prevention Day	10th Sep	Worldwide	World Health Organization
Worldwide Lymphoma Awareness Day	15th Sep	Worldwide	Lymphoma Coalition
World Alzheimer's Day	21st Sep	Worldwide	Alzheimer's Disease International
Ataxia Awareness Day	25th Sep	Worldwide	Ataxia Awareness
World Heart Day	28th Sep	Worldwide	World Heart Federation

Harmful Interactions: Mixing Alcohol with Medicines

You’ve probably seen this warning on medicines you’ve taken. The danger is real. Mixing alcohol with certain medications can cause nausea and vomiting, headaches, drowsiness, fainting, or loss of coordination.

It also can put you at risk for internal bleeding, heart problems, and difficulties in breathing. In addition to these dangers, alcohol can make a medication less effective or even useless, or it may make the medication harmful or toxic to your body.

Some medicines that you might never have suspected can react with alcohol, including many medications which can be purchased “over-the-counter”—that is, without a prescription. Even some herbal remedies can have harmful effects when combined with alcohol.

This pamphlet lists medications that can cause harm when taken with alcohol and describes the effects that can result. The list gives the brand name by which each medicine is commonly known (for example, Benadryl®) and its generic name or active ingredient (in Benadryl®, this is diphenhydramine). The list presented here does not include all the medicines that may interact harmfully with alcohol. Most important, the list does not include all the ingredients in every medication.

Medications are safe and effective when used appropriately. Your pharmacist or other health care provider can help you determine which medications interact harmfully with alcohol.

Vandals Attack Canadian Salon Over Battered-Woman Ad

       The owners of a hair salon in Canada have received death threats following an ad campaign featuring battered women, with a promise of making them look good again.
      The Daily Mail reports that Fluid Hair in Edmonton has been vandalized, as people are outraged that it would dare to use domestic violence to advertise its services.
Graffiti was found Thursday morning (Aug 25th  )on the back entrance of the Fluid hair salon. Lavender paint was splashed across the door. A message stenciled on paper and pasted to two back windows read, "This is art that is wrongly named violence, that was violence that was wrongly named art." The two sections were connected by a hot-pink arrow.
       The salon came under fire this week over an ad from February depicting a woman, elegantly dressed, sitting on a couch with a black eye. A man stands behind her holding a necklace. The ad's slogan reads, "Look good in all you do."