Bad Economy = Good Health??

Could the Recession Be Good for Your Health?


TUESDAY, Sept. 29 -- The economic downturn may not be all bad - in fact, researchers say recessions may actually be good for health.
University of Michigan researchers looked at death rates during the Great Depression, the worst economic slump in the 20th century. From the stock market crash of 1929 through the early 1930s, economic activity fell sharply, dropping 14 percent in 1932, while unemployment hit 22.9 percent that same year.
Black and white images from the era of bread lines and migrant farmers make it easy to assume the economic misery would have affected public health.
But when the researchers looked at mortality rates among men, women and children from 1920 to 1940, they found death rates declined during years of falling economic activity and rose when times were better.
The study is in the Sept. 28 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
During the two decades spanning the 1920s and 1930s, overall life expectancy increased by 8.8 years. But it wasn't a steady rise, instead shooting up and falling back in a pattern that correlated with the rise and fall of economic activity.
Between 1921 and 1926, the so-called "Roaring 20s" and a time of robust economic growth, life expectancy for non-white men fell by 8.1 years. Yet between 1929 and 1933, the years of steepest economic decline, their life expectancy grew a similar amount.
Likewise, non-white women lost 7.4 years of life expectancy during the Roaring 20s, but they gained 8.2 years of life expectancy during the Depression.
Whites showed a similar pattern, though the loss in life expectancy wasn't as extreme as for non-whites.
"The basic finding of the paper is that mortality rates tend to evolve in parallel to the economy," said lead study author Jose Tapia Granados, an assistant research scientist at University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. "When the economy goes up, mortality tends to go up. When the economy goes down, mortality rates tend to go down, too."
Researchers did find one exception. During the 1920s and 1930s, two-thirds of all deaths were caused by cardiovascular and renal diseases, cancer, influenza and pneumonia, tuberculosis, motor vehicle accidents and suicide.
All became less deadly during difficult economic times, with the exception of suicides. But suicides accounted for fewer than 2 percent of all deaths, not enough to alter the overall trend, the study authors added.
The country's climb out of the Great Depression began in 1933. The economy grew by more than 10 percent annually from 1933 to 1936. Mortality again peaked in 1936, four years after the worst year of the Depression, even for children under age 4.
The surge in deaths in 1936 isn't just attributable to lag time, the researchers noted. Deaths from motor vehicle accidents went up, in which lag time would not play a role.
So why would the return of good times be bad for health?
More economic activity means people have money to drive cars, meaning more die in auto wrecks, the researchers theorize. In the 1920s and 1930s, cars became objects of mass consumption.
As motor vehicle use increases, so does pollution. Recent studies have linked particulate matter from cars and trucks and carbon monoxide with heart attacks and strokes.
During periods of growth, people have more money to spend on alcohol and cigarettes. And more economic activity means more factory orders, meaning people are working harder and longer and sleeping less.
Still, this is not to say that losing a job is good for your health. The study looks at the bigger picture -- fewer cars, fewer people working overtime, less pollution -- and how it may benefit public health as a whole.
A similar pattern may be at work during the current downturn, the authors suggested.
"My expectation is that mortality rates in 2008 will be lower than in 2007, and probably in 2009 will be lower than 2008," Tapia said. "There is a general improvement, even though suicides are going up."
Joshua Klapow, associate professor at the University of Alabama Birmingham's School of Public Health, said he would be cautious about applying any of the findings to today's recession.
Society has changed significantly in the past 60 to 80 years, he said. Medical advances enable people to live with chronic diseases for much longer nowadays. Infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, kill fewer people today. Fewer people do manual labor, smoking has declined, and obesity has shot up.
"The only points of similarity are the economic factors," Klapow said. "You can't equate health status, health care, health costs or lifestyles with the 1920s or the 1930s. You have confounding factors right now that prevent us from drawing any reasonable conclusion about our current state."
And during this downturn, studies show that many Americans are making poor health choices, such as cutting back on medications and putting off medical care because of costs.
"We have a lot of indicators during this economic turmoil that the health status of our population is not getting better," Klapow said. "The study is fascinating, but we have to be very careful not to forecast a trajectory to our present day."
More information
The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum has more on the Great Depression.

Harry Puffer

Daniel Radcliffe smokes 20-cigarettes a day
Mar. 17, 2008 10:26 AM
Daniel Radcliffe's friends are pleading with him to quit his "disgusting" 20-a-day cigarette habit.

The 18-year-old actor - who is currently filming 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' - has become so addicted to nicotine he has been nicknamed 'Harry Puffer' by his co-stars.

A source said: "Daniel has been smoking up to 20 cigarettes a day. Every time they call 'cut', he lights up. It's disgusting. Friends, including co-stars Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, have been warning him about the dangers of smoking. But he doesn't take any notice."

Daniel reportedly got through a whole pack of cigarettes when he had to film a difficult stunt last week.

The insider added to Britain's The Sun newspaper: "He was really nervous about the scene and was sparking up constantly."

Movie bosses are said to be worried Daniel's habit could tarnish his schoolboy image and have reportedly told him not to smoke in public.

However, their warnings have fallen on deaf ears and Daniel is still said to be "smoking like a trooper" on nights out.

The source said: "He's been having late nights out with stars including Kevin Spacey and Stephen Fry and been puffing up a storm.

German Scent of Stupidity

Tony's Secret Cabinet
Scent of a Führer
Hitler wanted to control the world. But he couldn't even control his flatulence.

By Tony Perrottet

Guests at the Berghof, Hitler’s private chalet in the Bavarian Alps, must have endured some unpleasant odors in the otherwise healthful mountain air.

It may sound like a Woody Allen scenario, but medical historians are unanimous that Adolf was the victim of uncontrollable flatulence. Spasmodic stomach cramps, constipation and diarrhea, possibly the result of nervous tension, had been Hitler’s curse since childhood and only grew more severe as he aged. As a stressed-out dictator, the agonizing digestive attacks would occur after most meals: Albert Speer recalled that the Führer, ashen-faced, would leap up from the dinner table and disappear to his room.

This was an embarrassing problem for a ruthless leader of the Third Reich. With uncharacteristic concern for his fellow human beings, Hitler had first tried to cure himself when he was a rising politician in 1929 by poring over medical manuals, coming to the conclusion that a largely veg diet would calm his turbulent digestion as well as make his farts less offensive to the nose. A rabid hypochondriac, he would also examine his own feces on a regular basis and administer himself camomile enemas. Hitler decided to swear off meat completely in 1931, when his niece (and presumed romantic interest) Geli Raubel committed suicide: When presented with a plate of breakfast ham the next morning, he pushed it away muttering, “It’s like eating a corpse.” From that squeamish moment on, great piles of vegetables, raw or pulped into a baby mulch, were Hitler’s daily staple. (All cooked foods, he decided, were carcinogenic). He showed a particular fondness, culinary historians assure us, for oatmeal with linseed oil, cauliflower, cottage cheese, boiled apples, artichoke hearts and asparagus tips in white sauce. Strangely, Hitler was unfazed by the fact that this high-fiber diet was having the opposite effect on his digestion than what he had intended: His private physician, Dr. Theo Morell, recorded in his diary that after Hitler downed a typical vegetable platter, “constipation and colossal flatulence occurred on a scale I have seldom encountered before.”

Hitler’s stomach problems may even have played their part in his losing the war, thanks to this shadowy figure of Dr. Morell, an incompetent quack who took over Hitler’s medical care in 1937. The pair had met at a Christmas gathering in the Berghof, the bucolic mountain retreat decorated with Bavarian knick-knacks and edelweiss, the year before. Morrell was an unpleasant figure even by Nazi standards – grossly obese, with frog-like features, sulfurous B.O. and venomous halitosis. But when he cured a painful case of eczema on Hitler’s legs and provided temporary relief for his stomach cramps, the Führer was won over. To the irritation of other Nazi doctors, Hitler then proceeded to swallow any of Morell’s advice, no matter how hair-brained, for the next eight years.

For example, to combat recurrences of the volcanic stomach problems, Morell plied him with a remedy called “Dr. Köster’s Anti-gas pills,” which contained significant amounts of strychnine – and Hitler often took as many as 16 of the little black pills a day. The sallow skin, glaucous eyes and attention lapses noted by observers later in the war are consistent with strychnine poisoning; another ingredient in the pills, antropine, causes mood wings from euphoria to violent anger. Even more peculiar were the injections of amphetamines that Morell administered every morning before breakfast from 1941, which may have exacerbated the erratic behavior, inflexibility, paranoia and indecision that Hitler began to display increasingly as the war ground on. And there was a barrage of other supplements -- vitamins, testosterone, liver extracts, laxatives, sedatives, glucose and opiates, all intended to combat the dictator’s real or imagined ailments. After the war, U.S. intelligence officers discovered that Morell was pumping Hitler with 28 different drugs, including eye-drops that contained 10 percent cocaine (up to 10 treatment a day), a concoction made from human placenta and “potency pills” made from ground bull’s testicles. But despite the barrage of medicines, Morell’s diaries (which were recovered from Germany and are kept in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) make clear that the bouts of “agonizing flatulence” remained a regular occurrence.

A relatively healthy man when he met Morell, Hitler degenerated quickly towards the end of the war until he was a physical wreck. Hitler’s arms were so riddled with hypodermic marks that even the normally passive Eva Braun complained to her mother about Morell as “the injection quack.” When Hitler came down with jaundice in 1944, three Nazi doctors tried to have Morell fired. But the Führer remained fiercely loyal – or just as likely, addicted to his chemical cocktails – and dismissed the trio of troublemakers instead. Morell stayed with Hitler in the Bunker almost until the bitter end, as his patient began to fall apart completely (and a tremor in his left hand became uncontrollable, a probable symptom of advancing Parkinson’s disease). On April 20, 1945, days before the Russians took Berlin, Hitler suddenly refused Morell’s hypodermic, ordered him to strip off his uniform and leave. Desperately ill himself, Morell was soon captured by the U.S. Army and kept in prison for two years of interrogations, but was never charged with war crimes. He was hospitalized immediately after his release and died in 1948.

If he had not been so cravenly devoted to Hitler, a hero-worship he expressed over and again to U.S. interrogators, one might have thought Morell a spy. It was a suspicion that had occurred to other Nazis, especially during the 1944 jaundice attack. Heinrich Himmler interrogated Morell’s assistant Richard Weber in Berlin’s Gestapo Headquarters about whether the doctor was deliberately poisoning the Führer with his treatments. “Out of the question,” Weber replied. “Morell’s too big a coward for that.” • 24 October 2007

SOURCES/FURTHER READING: Gordon, Bertram, “Fascism, the Neo-Right and Gastronomy: A Case in the Theory of the Social Engineering of Taste,” Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery (1987); Heston, Leonard and Renate, The Medical Casebook of Adolf Hitler: His Illnesses, Doctors and Drugs, (New York, 2000); Irving, David, The Secret Diaries of Hitler’s Doctor, (London, 1983); Waite, Robert G.L., The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler, New York, 1993.

Hazardous Computer

No longer a luxury, computers have become an essential component of everyday life for most of us. But, just as we can hurt ourselves by abusing drugs and alcohol, we can injure our health by overusing or misusing our computers.

Increasingly, patients are coming to their doctors complaining of musculoskeletal symptoms of repetitive strain (or stress) injuries (RSIs). RSIs occur when certain muscles are kept tense for long periods due to repetitive motions or poor posture.

And just as has been documented in assembly-line workers, the varied symptoms of computer-associated RSIs result from overuse of certain muscles for long periods of time.

While computer users rarely suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome, they may develop other RSI symptoms, including these:

• Recurring pain or soreness in the wrists, hands, upper back, shoulders, and neck.
• Tingling, numbness, or loss of sensation in the fingers and hands. This pain or numbness may interfere with sleeping.
• "Trigger finger," in which a tendon in the hand becomes restricted so that a finger or thumb catches in a bent position.
• Poor grip strength, weakness, and fatigue of muscles in the arms.

You can prevent RSI in its early stages by following these suggestions:

• Stop using the computer whenever you start to notice pain or fatigue.
• Watch your posture. Don't hunch your head and neck forward. Keep your back straight, your feet flat on the floor, and your arms parallel to the floor.
• Take regular breaks. One option is to install software that reminds you to take breaks.
• Hold your wrists straight, neither resting on a pad, nor bent upwards, downwards, or sideways. Installing a keyboard platform that can be adjusted up or down, as well as tilted forward or back, will help you keep you wrists straight.
• Get plenty of sleep and regular aerobic exercises to keep in shape.
• Learn a technique such as progressive muscle relaxation to keep neck and shoulder muscles relaxed.

Another health hazard of computer overuse is computer vision syndrome (CVS). Studies show that this type of eyestrain that comes from long periods of staring is far more common than RSI. Here are some symptoms to watch for:

• Burning, aching, tired eyes
• Dry eyes
• Difficulty focusing
• Double vision
• Blurred vision
• Sensitivity to light
• Headaches
• Neck and shoulder pain

Try these tips to avoid or reduce CVS:

• Use proper lighting to reduce eyestrain and avoid glare. When using a computer for long periods, you should reduce room lighting to about half that used in most offices. Close blinds or curtains to lessen glare from external light.
• Place the monitor directly in front of you, not off to one side, about 20 to 26 inches away from you.
• Adjust brightness of the computer screen to obtain optimal contrast between background and characters on the screen.
• When transcribing printed or written pages, put the document on a lighted copy stand next to the monitor.
• Take 10 to 15 minute breaks every hour. In addition, every five to 10 minutes, look away from the computer screen and focus on a distant object for five to 10 seconds.
• If your eyes tend to dry out in the frequently bone-dry environment of the modern office building, use artificial tears or eye drops. Dry eyes may also be exacerbated by the decreased blinking that accompanies staring at a computer.

If eye symptoms persist or worsen despite these measures, consider making an appointment with your eye doctor. Some people may need special prescription glasses that are designed to be worn when working on a computer.

Headaches may be good for your brain

Headaches may be good for your brain
Migraine sufferers in study show less decline
By JOHN FAUBER
Posted: April 23, 2007

Is it possible that suffering through years of migraine headaches actually might have a beneficial effect on the brain?

A provocative new study has raised that improbable prospect after finding that longtime, middle-aged migraine sufferers showed less cognitive decline and memory loss over a period of 12 years than a group of migraine-free adults.

Researchers can't explain what could be a silver lining in the agonizing cloud that is migraine, but it's possible that the physiological changes that accompany the headaches might protect brain cells over the long haul.

Beyond offering a modicum of solace to the 30 million migraine sufferers in the United States, the strange finding, if verified, could offer researchers new leads into ways to preserve memory in aging brains.

"This is really a surprise," said Bhupendra Khatri, director of the Center for Neurological Disorders at Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center. "This is going to stimulate a lot of research."

If anything, migraine sufferers might be expected to have more cognitive decline, said Khatri, who was not a part of the study.

He noted that they tend to suffer from more depression, anxiety, seizures and stroke than people who do not have migraines.

However, there has been a lack of research looking at the long-term effect of migraine on memory and cognitive function, he said.

The research, published today in the journal Neurology, is the first prospective study looking at the lifetime effects of migraines on memory and cognitive function.

The study involved 1,448 people, including 204 who had migraines, who were given several cognitive tests and followed for an average of 12 years.
Word recall tests

Since most of the participants were in their late 40s and early 50s when the initial tests were given, a small decline in memory associated with normal aging over 12 years would have been expected in both groups.

On word recall tests, however, those who suffered from migraine declined slightly less than non-migraineurs. The benefit was significant for those who suffered from migraine with aura, or a warning that the migraine was coming on. On average, they remembered about one word to 1.5 words more on those tests than those who did not have migraines.

On a separate cognitive test, those who have migraines with aura who entered the study at 50 or older had a significantly lower rate of decline than those who don't have migraines. "It's a pretty profound effect," said Nick Stanek, a clinical assistant professor of neurology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Stanek, who was not a part of the study, noted that those with migraines began the study with slightly lower scores on the cognitive tests."They start lower, but at age 50 they don't get as worse as people without migraines," Stanek said. "I was surprised that they didn't deteriorate as fast after age 50. I would have predicted that they deteriorated at the same rate or even more quickly."

Stanek said his best guess is there is something going on at the molecular level in the brain cells of people with migraines that helps preserve memory.

The finding even surprised the study's authors.

"People were surprised, but at the same time, they said there may be something to this," said lead author Amanda Kalaydjian, a researcher with the National Institute of Mental Health.
Possible explanations

Kalaydjian said she and other researchers have tried to come up with explanations, and although they have several, they all are highly speculative.

It's possible that the increased use of non-aspirin, over-the-counter painkillers might be asserting some type of neuro protective effect in the brains of those with migraines. Another theory is that the lifestyle changes people initiate to reduce migraines, such as getting more sleep, eating well, using relaxation techniques and taking supplements, are helping preserve brain function.

Still another explanation is that the prescription medications they use might help preserve cognitive function.

"However, it seems more likely that there may be some underlying biologic mechanism such as changes in (blood vessels) or underlying differences in (brain cell activity), which results in decreased cognitive decline over time," the researchers wrote.

If the explanation is found, it could have implications for preserving memory in everyone, not just people with migraines, Kalaydjian said.