Health

(CNS): The Lions Club of Tropical Gardens (LCTG) said its annual Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign will open in Heroes Square in George Town on Ceremony Monday 4 October, before the club begins its district awareness meetings and special clinics. The club said this year’s theme is "Together we make a Difference" but the goal remains the same to increase the chances of survival through early detection. This year marks the 13th year that the Lions join the rest of the world in the fight against Breast Cancer. Organizers say that vouchers for free mammograms will be handed out at the district meetings which begin this year in Bodden Town at the primary school on Thursday, 7 October.

(Salon): Breasts, as a source of food, are life-sustaining, and now they are potentially even more so in emergency situations. Ladies and gentlemen, the Emergency Bra, an invention that won Dr. Elena Bodnar the 2009 Ig Nobel Public Health Prize, has officially hit the market. The brassiere, which quickly converts into two gas masks, is available online for 29.95. Also: There are t-shirts reading, "Emergency bra under here." (Personally, I was hoping for one reading, "Break bra in case of emergency.") It may sound like a joke invention, but it's not: Bodnar studied the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and found that, as Fox News reports, "if people had had cheap, readily available gas masks in the first hours after the disaster ... they may have avoided breathing in Iodine-131, which causes radiation."

(CNS): Responding to a voluntary recall of some Similac Brand infant formular that may be contaminated with beetles and beetle lava, Foster's Food Fair IGA has proactively pulled all the affected from their shelves to ensure the safety and well being of customers. The affected products sold by Foster’s Food Fair IGA are Similac Advance Powder with iron 12.9oz, Similac Isomil Advance with Iron 12.9oz, and Similac Organic Powder 12.9oz. (Please refer to the chart below for more details of affected products sold at Fosters.) Abbott, the company that produces the products, has announced that it is initiating a proactive, voluntary recall of certain Similac-brand, powder infant formulas in the US, Puerto Rico, Guam and some countries in the Caribbean.

(New York Times): In an experiment published last month, researchers recruited schoolchildren, ages 9 and 10, who lived near the Champaign-Urbana campus of the University of Illinois and asked them to run on a treadmill. The researchers were hoping to learn more about how fitness affects the immature human brain. Animal studies had already established that, when given access to running wheels, baby rodents bulked up their brains, enlarging certain areas and subsequently outperforming sedentary pups on rodent intelligence tests. But studies of the effect of exercise on the actual shape and function of children’s brains had not yet been tried.

(CNS): The minister for health has warned that Cayman’s seemingly low rates of HIV infection offer a unique challenge because too many people think HIV/AIDS is not a priority issue for the island. Mark Scotland warned that current sexual behaviours had to change otherwise the disease will become an increasingly serious problem. In his opening remarks at the EC/OCT steering committee meeting on HIV/AIDS in Caribbean Overseas Territories, he said parents and the community had to start speaking about the taboos associated with teenage sexual behaviour including contraception.

(The Telegraph): The obesity epidemic has nothing to do with modern sedentary lifestyles and is entirely down to eating too much, a leading academic has claimed. Despite appearances, overall physical activity levels have remained constant for the last quarter of a century during which time weight levels have rocketed, Professor John Speakman said. He claimed that the average man burned 1380 calories per day in the 1980s and continues to do so today. The average woman has burned 950 calories a day during the same period. What has changed is that calorie intake has increased by at least a third to on average 3,500 calories a day, he said. Prof Speakman said that his research showed that small changes in lifestyle were not enough to fight the obesity crisis.

(CNS): All pre-school teachers and public health nurses are invited to learn more about autism spectrum disorders at a training session this month provided free through a partnership between the Ministry of Education, Training and Employment and The Wellness Centre. The developmental disabilities and autism awareness training start 23 September, in the George Town Library Conference Room from 9:00am to 12 noon. Thereafter they are scheduled for the first and third Thursday of each month, between October 2010 and March 2011. Training will focus on improving overall autism awareness and will give participants the necessary knowledge to recognise early warning signs.

(CNS): The government has backed a private member’s motion to begin the process of passing legislation that would allow the removal, storage and use of human organs and tissues in the Cayman Islands. The motion was brought by Ellio Solomon, backbench MLA for George Town, who said that at present the law does not easily facilitate donation either by living or dead donors and the subsequent transplant to patients, even though Cayman has many people in need. Despite warnings from the North Side member that Cayman does not yet have the necessary facilities or expertise to carry out transplants, the Minister for Health said government planned to move towards establishing a law for organ donation.

(CNS): On Caribbean Wellness Day the health minister has said that despite medical advantages in our region, it faces the highest rates of chronic disease in the Americas. Mark Scotland said that while we have more knowledge and better testing, chronic illness figures are increasing, especially in childhood obesity and diabetes. He noted, however that these conditions are preventable if people make conscious decisions to live better. He called on parents to make better choices about health and lead by example with how they spent leisure time and the decisions they made in the grocery store.

(CNS): Various community agencies are coming together to hold a number of workshops and activities this month to help families who are dealing with a loved one engaged in recovery and managing the stress associated with it. Part of Recovery Month which is focusing on stress management, the Department of Counselling Services Director Judith Seymour noted that stress can undermine the path to recovery for addicts as evidence shows it can lead to relapse. “It is critical to raise awareness of how stress can impact the quality of life and emotional health. We know that high stress levels can lead to or increase drug and alcohol use—which can in turn result in addictive behaviour.  And there is also evidence that stress can be a cause for relapse during recovery,” Seymour said.

(CNS): In a message to mark Recovery Month Minister of Community Services Mike Adam said people should avoid judging those who are trying to recover from addiction as they were the people who in so many instances are most needful of love and support. Adam said that government continues to work towards establishing strong institutions and programmes to strengthen the family unit. The Family Resource Unit, he said, is now increasing the focus on families by offering training workshops on abuse and programme sthat foster harmony in families. This year’s theme for Recovery Month is: “Join the Voices for Recovery: Now More Than Ever”. Adam stated that it is in everyone’s interest to promote healthy lifestyles in families and neighbourhoods.

(CNS): According to officials from Department of Environmental Health (DEH) there are no contaminated eggs in the Cayman Islands. The recalled fresh eggs, which were distributed by Wright County Egg in the United Sates, that are potentially contaminated with salmonella have not been found here. The recall for eggs was issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) due to an outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) that has sickened hundreds of people in the US.  An FDA investigation revealed Wright County Egg in Iowa as the common shelled egg supplier in these food poisoning cases. The recall was later expanded to include eggs produced from Hillandale Farms in Iowa.

(Healthy Living): Sex is an important part of life and healthy relationships. But diabetes can affect your sex life, a new study claims. The number of people with diabetes is increasing due to population growth, aging, and increasing prevalence of obesity and physical inactivity. According to American Diabetic Association 12.2 million or 23.1% of Americans above 60 have diabetes. Older adults with diabetes were found to be sexually active, but the disease does cause some problems with intimacy. Scientists at the University of Chicago Medical Centre conducted a study of 1,993 people, aged 57 to 85. The research was a part of the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project. The study involves in-home interviews, self-administered questionnaires, blood tests to evaluate diabetes status, and medication audits.

(CNS): Students attending government schools will no longer be allowed to eat fast food on campus. Kids will also be faced with healthier choices on the schools’ own lunch menus as part of government’s goal to improve the health of the country’s young people. The Ministry of Education said it is advancing the fight against childhood obesity and has implemented the Cayman Islands Public Schools: Standards for Food Provision (CISFP) as part of the requirement for canteen contracts, which are publicly tendered. The CISFP document stipulates the healthier meal options that must be offered during lunch and snack breaks in government school canteens and bans junk food deliveries and consumption while children are on campus.

(CNS):  Following the news yesterday that research has found even a short bout of unhealthy binging can have a lasting detrimental impact ten local people are going into battle over the next four months with fat and flab. War on Weight launched last Thursday when the ten contestants from the forty applicants, selected by committee to ensure their commitment, discussed this year’s weight competition, planned exercise regimes and met fellow exercise partners. Now in its third year, the WOW contest is an initiative of the Cayman Heart Fund where participants battle the bulge over 16-weeks. Each contestant will have access to more than $2,000 worth of health and fitness industry advice and expertise.