FIVE THINGS TO WATCH IN THE HEALTH WORLD

                               [1] EARLY NICOTINE ADDICTION

 

  The first puff of cigarette could be enough to hook a young teenager into addiction. The extraordinary findings upend the prevailing view about nicotine addiction being a slowly acquired process that occurs only after several years of heavy smoking.

     In a study of 1,200 teenagers over approximately six years, researchers found that physical addiction is a much stronger force than peer pressure, even among those who smoked only rarely, the paper said.

     According to the study, nicotine dependence symptoms appear in many young tobacco users between the first exposure to nicotine and the onset of daily smoking. The researchers say that antismoking campaigns should be adapted not only to help youths resist the pressure to smoke but also to help those who have smoked to overcome nicotine dependence.

                                    [2] RAGE IS BAD FOR YOU

       According to Valentina D’ Urso, a psychology teacher at Padua University in Italy, rage is an ever-increasing phenomenon in our society, but it produces negative effects on the organism.

      Muscles tense, heartbeat and breathing speed up, and the body enters into a state of stress. Anger can also impair a person’s ability to reason and can lessen his control over his actions.

    Let’s get used to foreseeing risk situations . . . let’s calmly say straight away I do not agree” and we will live much better.

                                      [3] DOCTORS UNDER STRESS

      The Canadian Medical Association recently surveyed 2,251 doctors across the country and found that 45.7 percent were in an advanced phase of burnout, characterized by emotional exhaustion, cynicism and feelings of ineffectiveness in their work.

     According to Dr. Paul Farnan, coordinator of the British Columbia Physician Support Program, factors that contribute to stress for many doctors include the difficulty they have in finding replacements to fill in when they want to take a vacation, an overly demanding oncall schedule, and overwhelming paperwork. Dr. Farnan encourages doctors who are stressed to find balance in their lives by spending time with their families and to involve themselves with activities that provide emotional and spiritual fulfillment.  

    

                        [4] IS SQUEAKY CLEAN TOO CLEAN?

      Taking a long, hot shower or bath at the end of the day is a ritual many people enjoy. However, meticulous cleansing could be causing many skin problems.

      People are showering too often for too long and using the wrong types of products on their skin.

      We all like to feel squeaky clean but in fact, feeling squeaky clean means the skin has been damaged . . . People are feeling good but doing harm. Why? Because overly zealous washing habits will leave your skin stripped of natural oils, it protective barrier of micro-organisms in disarray and the body’s largest organ prone to tiny cracks and scarring. Dry winter weather is a time of particular concern. Andrews recommends taking no more than one brief shower a day.

                         [5]     HAY FEVER SPREADS

     YOUR eyes are itching and watering, you sneeze all day, your nose keeps dripping, and you have difficulty breathing. What is happening? You might have a cold. But if these symptoms afflict you when you are around pollen, you may well be suffering from hay fever. If so, you have plenty of company. The number of people whose condition is diagnosed as hay fever keeps rising every year.

        HAY fever is nothing more than an exaggerated reaction of our body toward a substance it considers harmful, reports the magazine Mujer de Hoy. The immune system of people with allergies rejects all agents it considers foreign –including pollen –even though these are not really dangerous. And when the immune system overreacts in this way, it causes the annoying symptoms described at the outset.