Small steps can prevent Kentucky's No. 1 killer, heart disease

It is now February, which is American Heart Month and a perfect time to remind people that small steps can reduce their risk of heart disease, Kentucky's No. 1 killer.

You may be surprised to hear that almost 80 percent of heart disease is preventable and there are daily things that can be done to keep hearts healthy, according Dr. Martha Grogan, medical editor-in-chief of Mayo Clinic Healthy Heart for Life.

For example, try to move 10 extra minutes each day, Recent research shows a sedentary lifestyle may increase your risk of heart attack almost as much as smoking, said Grogan.

Each day, make an effort to get up from your desk to go talk to a colleague instead of sending an email, or walk around the house as you are talking on the phone, she recommends: “Moving even 10 minutes a day for someone who’s been sedentary may reduce the risk for heart disease by 50 percent.”

Hearts are also hurt when you deprive yourself of sleep, which is a necessity like food and water, said Virend Somers, a Mayo cardiologist and sleep expert. Chronic sleep deprivation can increase the risk of obesity, high blood pressure, heart attack, diabetes and depression.

Healthy habits can reduce a majority of risks for heart attack. "A 53-year-old male smoker with high blood pressure has a 20 percent chance of having a heart attack over the next 10 years. If he stops smoking, his risk drops to 10 percent; if he takes high blood pressure medicine, it falls to 5 percent," says preventive cardiologist Randal Thomas, M.D.

These healthy habits and changes like quitting smoking and taking blood pressure medicine can make a difference in life and death. For more from the Mayo Clinic, click here; for a American Heart Month information from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, go here.

Many Ky. parents don't realize children are overweight, or won't acknowledge it, but many report kids' poor health behavior

By Al Cross
Kentucky Health News

Many Kentucky parents don't realize that their children are obese or overweight, or at least aren't willing to acknowledge it. That is the obvious conclusion to draw from the latest results of the Kentucky Parent Survey, released Tuesday by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

The poll found that only 14 percent of Kentucky parents say their child weighs too much, but the National Survey of Children's Health found that 37 percent of Kentucky children are overweight or obese. Conversely, 76 percent of parents in the poll think their child's weight is about right, but the national survey found that only 58 percent of Kentucky kids have healthy weight.

The Kentucky Parent survey, taken by land-line and cell telephone from July 19 to Aug. 22 by the Center for Survey Research at the University of Virginia, interviewed 1,006 Kentucky parents, step-parents, grandparents, foster parents or other legal guardians of children in Kentucky selected at random. The statistical margin of error for that sample size is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The poll also found that 56 percent of Kentucky children are watching more than the maximum daily recommended amount of “screen time” – watching television, playing video games or using the Internet – and that 59 percent drink sugar-sweetened beverages every day. Both are major factors in childhood obesity, research has found, and experts recommend no more than two hours of screen time a day and no sugar-sweetened drinks at all.

“Parents can help reduce this risk by encouraging healthy behaviors for their children,” said Dr. Susan Zepeda, president and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.“Our children’s habits and behaviors impact their health today and shape their quality of life as they grow. When kids eat poorly and don’t get enough physical activity, it increases their risk for obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other chronic diseases. This poll data helps us understand what parents think about the behaviors that are so critical to health.”

The Kentucky Parent Survey also found that only 56 percent of Kentucky parents said their child got "enough" fruits and vegetables every day during the preceding week, and 66 percent of parents reported their child got "enough" physical activity every day during the preceding week. It also found that elementary and high-school students often get less than the recommended amount of sleep per day (chart).

The survey did not define "enough." The foundation noted that one strategy to reduce childhood obesity in Kentucky is "5-2-1-0," reflecting experts' recommendations that each day, children should eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables, have no more than two hours of screen time, engage in one hour of physical activity, and drink zero sugar-sweetened beverages. For the foundation's press release, click here.

Study: Grandparent caregivers aren't up on latest safety standards for babies and children

Grandparents might be more quick to say yes to grandkids but they might also be a little behind the times on the the new safety guidelines that could better protect them. A new study finds that many grandparent caregivers don't know about those new health suggestions and, in some cases, laws for babies -- such as appropriate sleep position, crib safety and car seat use. This is particularly critical in a country where 2.8 million grandparents are primary caregivers to their grandchildren, an increase of nearly 20 percent since 2000, according to the the 2011 American Community Survey.

In this study, reporter Robert Preidt of HealthDay writes that 56 percent of grandparents asked got the question about the safest sleep position of babies wrong. (The correct answer is on their backs, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.) "Another question addressed correct car seat positioning, and 24.5 percent of the participants said that a 9-month-old, 22-pound child should be facing forward. The AAP recommends, however, that children remain in rear-facing car seats until age 2 years." It doesn't get much better. Almost half of those grandparents questioned thought it was OK to have bumpers, stuffed animals and blankets in cribs. It's not.

We know it's difficult but maybe it time to have the talk. (Read more)

Number of sleep-disorder facilities growing as Kentuckians admit they're tired

The number of sleep-disorder facilities in Kentucky doubled from 25 to 52 in the past 10 years, part of a nationwide trend to help the 70 million Americans who have trouble getting some shuteye.

"Demand growth is a result of more physicians being better educated to recognize sleep deprivation symptoms as well as the public having more and better access to information and advertising that focuses on it," reports Anne Charles Doolin in an in-depth piece for The Lane Report. "Changes in insurance reimbursement also is playing a major part in the accredited facility surge."

Estimates show Americans suffer from more than 80 kinds of sleep disorders, though 85 percent of people are undiagnosed. "When we look at the most common sleep disorder, sleep apnea, we have evidence that demonstrates 25 percent of men are at risk and 9 percent of women are at risk," said Kathryn Hansen, executive director of the Kentucky Sleep Society.

In general, people don't think sleep problems can be fixed. "A typical patient is a male, in his 50s, slightly overweight," said Dr. Pam Combs, a cardiologist who has been studying sleep issues since the 1990s. "They don't think about sleep problems as the problem. They just think they're getting old and tired."

But not getting a good night's rest "is associated with a myriad of health conditions, and mental health conditions, and it undoubtedly affects productivity," said Dr. Ryan Wetzler, a clinical psychologist at Louisville's Sleep Medicine Specialists. "When you get a patient who has taken two hours to go to sleep for years or even decades, getting maybe four hours of sleep a night, and then with treatment they fall asleep quickly and get seven hours a night, it's a huge difference."

"Addressing the problem means less illness, less missed work and more productivity," said neurologist James M. Thompson. It's also less costly. Sleep disorders, sleep deprivation and sleepiness add up to about $15.9 billion to the national health care bill, the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research has found. "Other costs to society for related health problems, lost worker productivity and accidents can't be calculated, but educated guesses begin at 10 times NCSDR's health care cost tally," Doolin reports.

The assessment of sleep disorders has become more widely accepted as a field of study, with a recognized board exam, formal training programs and journals, said Dr. Barbara Phillips, director of the Sleep Center at the University of Kentucky Good Samaritan Hospital. But not all changes have been positive, with some fly-by-night "apnea mills" popping up "where the focus is on lucrative testing, and actual patient care and follow-up get shortchanged," Phillips said. (Read more)