Tight Rope Tuesday

Childhood Obesity: A National Health Disaster in the Making?

Despite aggressive public efforts to curb the rise in obesity, Americans in most states are becoming more obese with each passing year, according to the most recent in a series of annual reports from the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). This discouraging trend emphasizes the failure of policies aimed at healthful nutrition and physical activity, and suggests the country is unlikely to achieve the health goals set forth by Healthy People 2010—an effort aimed at reducing the prevalence of overweight and obesity to less than 15 percent among adults and to less than 5 percent among children by the year 2010.

The report, F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2009, finds that obesity rates for adults in the U.S. rose in 23 states over the past year, and did not decrease in a single state. Sixteen states experienced an increase for the second year in a row, and 11 states experienced an increase for the third straight year. The number of obese adults now exceeds 25 percent in 31 states and exceeds 20 percent in 49 states. To put these numbers into perspective, in 1991, no state had an obesity rate above 20 percent, and in 1980, the national average of obese adults was 15 percent.

Source and More
http://www.healthnews.com/family-health/child-health/childhood-obesity-a-national-health-disaster-making-3421.html
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Death Penalty And Mental Illness: Families Of Victims Speak Out At National Convention; "Double Tragedies" Report Released

For the first time, families of murder victims have joined with families of persons with mental illness who have been executed to speak out against the death penalty.

Double Tragedies, a report being released today at a special session on the first day of the annual convention of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), calls the death penalty "inappropriate and unwarranted" for people with severe mental disorders and "a distraction from problems within the mental health system that contributed or even directly lead to tragic violence."

The report calls for treatment and prevention, not execution. It is available online at http://www.nami.org/doubletragedies.

The report, a joint project of NAMI and Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights (MVFHR), is based on extensive interviews with 21 family members from 10 states: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

"Family opposition to the death penalty is grounded in personal tragedy," said MVFHR executive director Renny Cushing. "In the public debate about the death penalty and how to respond in the aftermath of violent crime, these are the voices that need to be heard."

Source and More
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156548.php
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Dementia On the Rise

Current statistics paint a grim picture of aging beyond the norm as roughly 50 percent of people who reach 85 will become demented.

For many, the knowledge that the mind is not as sharp as it used to be is a source of frustration and embarrassment.

In response, the University of Michigan is sponsoring research designed to better diagnose and treat dementia before it escalates.

“This is an explosive disease,” says Sid Gilman, M.D., director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at University of Michigan Health System, who conducts community research.

“It’s a horrible disease that robs people of their humanity. They forget their families and friends.”

By age 100, the number of demented individuals spikes to 60 percent. Of those who develop dementia, roughly 60 percent will prove to have Alzheimer’s disease. It’s predicted that the current number of patients with Alzheimer’s disease in the United States is roughly 5 million.

By the year 2050, it will grow to about 30 million, presenting a significant financial burden to the healthcare system.

Source and More
http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/07/07/dementia-on-the-rise/6944.html
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Vegetable Protein Lowers Blood Pressure
Amino Acid in Vegetables May Lower High Blood Pressure

A new study shows that an amino acid known as glutamic acid, which is found in greater amounts in vegetable protein, is associated with lower blood pressure.

This builds on other research linking higher intake of vegetable protein to lower blood pressure.

Researchers say the finding may also help explain in more detail why the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet works at lowering high blood pressure. The DASH diet is low in sodium and high in vegetables, whole grains, and beans, which are also rich sources of vegetable protein.

Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and glutamic acid was the most common amino acid found in the study. It accounted for 23% of the protein in people who were mainly vegetable protein eaters, and 18% in who were mainly animal protein eaters.
How Vegetables Help Heart

In the study, researchers analyzed data from 4,680 middle-age people participating in an international population study on the effects of dietary nutrients on high blood pressure. Participants were from the U.S., U.K., China, and Japan.

The results, published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, showed that a nearly 5% higher intake of glutamic acid as a percent of total protein in the diet was linked to lower average blood pressure. Systolic blood pressure was lower by an average of 1.5 to 3.0 points and diastolic blood pressure was lower by 1.0 to 1.6 points.

Systolic blood pressure is the top number in a blood pressure reading and refers to the force when the heart contracts. Diastolic blood pressure is the lower number in a blood pressure reading and refers to the pressure when the heart is at rest.

Source and More
http://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/news/20090706/vegetable-protein-lowers-blood-pressure