Personal Health: News and Notes
Survey: Most diabetics skip 3 recommended yearly tests
Most diabetics are not getting the three annual tests that are recommended to check for signs of complications, a new government survey shows.The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that just 33 percent of adults with diagnosed diabetes in 2007 were getting a blood test to check average blood sugar level; a dilated eye exam; and a foot exam. About 58 percent of patients received two of the routine tests, while 4 percent received none, and the rest couldn't remember.
When the survey was last done in 2003, 42 percent of diabetics reported having all three exams.
The eye and foot exams are designed to identify signs of blood-vessel damage, a major complication in uncontrolled diabetes that can ultimately lead to blindness and limb amputation.
Insured individuals were twice as likely to say they had had all three tests compared with those who were uninsured and on public insurance.
- Marie McCullough
Stroke, cardiovascular disease now linked to high salt intake
Physicians have said for years that we're overdoing it with salt, but their primary warning has been that it drives up blood pressure.Now, a review of 13 studies finds a link between high salt intake and both stroke and cardiovascular disease.
Overall, a five-gram increase - about one teaspoon - in average daily salt consumption was associated with a 23 percent increase in stroke and a 17 percent increase in cardiovascular disease. A typical Western diet includes 10 grams of salt a day; the World Health Organization recommends five grams.
The authors estimate that an average five-gram reduction per person worldwide would prevent more than one million deaths from stroke each year, and nearly three million deaths from cardiovascular disease. The findings are published this month on bmj.com, the online edition of the British Medical Journal.
- Tom Avril
Stand up for yourself at work, warns a heart-attack study
If you feel you are being unfairly treated at work, it could be a major benefit to stand up for yourself, says a study in the BMJ Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.Researchers from Stockholm, Sweden, tracked the heart health of 2,755 men with no history of heart attack for about 10 years starting in 1992. Using questionnaires, the researchers asked the men how they coped with "unfair treatment" by bosses and coworkers.
Those far more likely to suffer a heart attack or die from cardiac disease were in these four groups: They often or always "let things pass without saying anything," walked away from work situations, later developed headaches or other physical symptoms, and got "into a bad temper at home."
Moreover, those study participants who often let things pass or walked away from work situations had five times the risk of heart attack or cardiac death.
The researchers said further research was needed to determine if efforts to reduce the amount of covert coping would also lower the risk of heart attacks and deaths. - Josh Goldstein
Health officials: No serious reactions to swine flu vaccine
U.S. health officials say there's no evidence that the swine flu vaccine is causing any serious side effects.They say the vast majority of reports have been for minor things like soreness, redness, or swelling where the shot was given. From early October through mid-November, about 22 million people were vaccinated.
Officials have been watching whether the new vaccine would cause a rare paralyzing condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome. That condition was seen in higher numbers than usual during a swine flu vaccination campaign in 1976. But there have been only 10 such reports so far in those who got the new swine flu vaccine.
- Associated Press
