W.Va. program pushes pedometer use
Wed, 12 Dec 2007 03:51:09 GMTBy TOM BREEN, Associated Press Writer
LOGAN, W.Va. - Howard Wooten and Leonard Hovis are old pals who share a history of heart problems. Now they share a daily walk, logging some 1,400 miles a year.
Along with six other friends — all with similar health problems — Wooten and Hovis started walking on doctors' orders, and along the way became the poster boys for a push to get people exercising in the least healthy part of the state.
In August, the West Virginia chapter of America On The Move distributed 902 pedometers and step-counting charts to residents of five southern counties who signed up for the program. Participants were asked to use the pedometers for six weeks, keep track of their steps and send in the results. The goal was to see if pedometers encourage people to walk more.
Of all five counties involved, Logan took to the pedometers with the most enthusiasm — more than a third of the participants were from there, including about 200 volunteers from Logan Regional Medical Center.
"Many of them thought they did a lot of walking, and they didn't," said Carol Cole, the hospital's marketing director. "It was very eye-opening."
According to the state Department of Health and Human Resources, Logan is the most obese county in West Virginia.
"If people here are going to improve their health, we're going to need to do a lot more in terms of prevention," said Shannon Meade, who helped coordinate the program on behalf of the Logan County Family Resource Network.
Meade approached businesses, churches, even Girl Scout troops to drum up interest.
As the groups involved plan a second phase of the program, they're focusing on Logan as an example of how to get rural residents with severe health problems up and moving.
West Virginia On The Move Executive Director Sophia Werning argues that many people aren't aware that something as simple as walking can bring real benefits. Werning leads the state chapter of America On The Move, a Boston-based nonprofit that encourages people to take simple steps to improve their diet and exercise.
"A lot of people have the idea that you need to get a personal trainer or you need to devote hours and hours a day to fitness, and they think, 'That's not for me,'" she said.
Researchers looking at about 20 studies concluded that pedometers help people walk an additional mile each day, but only if they log their steps, according to the November issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"For a lot of people I've worked with, especially the sedentary and lower activity people, just having it on their hip is encouragement to do more," said Karen Croteau, a professor of exercise, health, and sport sciences at the University of Southern Maine, Gorham, whose research was included in the new report.
Two years ago, when Wooten started walking with friends at Chief Logan State Park, his cholesterol level was over 280. Today, it's down to 120 and the 72-year-old insurance agent has lost 20 pounds.
"My doctor says walking every day has been like a miracle pill for me," said Hovis, 67, a former Logan County clerk.
The friends got pedometers through the program, and learned their daily walk added up to roughly four miles a day.
But good health is just one of the benefits, the men say. What they really enjoy is the camaraderie, walking through the state park in bad weather as well as good, talking and joking about everything from presidential politics to college football.
And there are other motivations to make the daily 8:15 a.m. trip to the park.
"He comes because he knows we'll talk about him if he's not there," Hovis laughs, pointing at Wooten.
"That's true," Wooten says. "But we talk about each other anyway."
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On the Net: http://www.americaonthemove.org
FDA weighs overcounter cholesterol drug
Wed, 12 Dec 2007 03:50:55 GMTBy LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer
WASHINGTON - The government is questioning if too many of the wrong people will take cholesterol-lowering Mevacor if it's sold without a prescription, days before Merck & Co. makes its third try to move the drug over the counter.
Merck says selling a low dose of this long-used medication on drugstore shelves, next to the aspirin, could get millions of people at moderate risk of heart disease important treatment that they otherwise may miss.
A preliminary Food and Drug Administration review released Tuesday agreed that nonprescription Mevacor would be "a reasonably safe and effective" option — if consumers used it as directed.
But when Merck tested if consumers could judge who was a proper Mevacor candidate, only 20 percent answered all the questions completely correctly — 50 percent if researchers counted people who said they'd check some things with their doctor before purchasing, concluded FDA's lead medical reviewer.
Moreover, about 30 percent of people who already were diagnosed with heart disease, diabetes or had had a stroke wanted to purchase over-the-counter Mevacor, people who need a doctor's care, the FDA documents say.
The studies "have not convinced this reviewer that there is adequate consumer comprehension of the proposed product label to ensure safe and effective use of this product," the preliminary assessment concluded.
Merck argues that most people made the right decision on whether they should buy OTC Mevacor even if they missed some answers.
On Thursday, Merck will present its case to the FDA's independent scientific advisers, hoping they will recommend that Mevacor become the first in the family of cholesterol-lowering "statin" drugs to be sold in this country without a prescription. Twice before, FDA has said no.
Study Monthly fasting may help heart
Tue, 11 Dec 2007 23:29:56 GMTBy MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer
Mormons have less heart disease — something doctors have long chalked up to their religion's ban on smoking. New research suggests that another of their "clean living" habits also may be helping their hearts: fasting for one day each month.
A study in Utah, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is based, found that people who skipped meals once a month were about 40 percent less likely to be diagnosed with clogged arteries than those who did not regularly fast.
People did not have to "get religion" to benefit: non-Mormons who regularly took breaks from food also were less likely to have clogged arteries, scientists found.
They concede that their study is far from proof that periodic fasting is good for anyone, but said the benefit they observed poses a theory that deserves further testing.
"It might suggest these are people who just control eating habits better," and that this discipline extends to other areas of their lives that improves their health, said Benjamin Horne, a heart disease researcher from Intermountain Medical Center and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
He led the study and reported results at a recent American Heart Association conference. The research was partly funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Roughly 70 percent of Utah residents are Mormons, whose religion advises abstaining from food on the first Sunday of each month, Horne said.
Researchers got the idea to study fasting after analyzing medical records of patients who had X-ray exams to check for blocked heart arteries between 1994 and 2002 in the Intermountain Health Collaborative Study, a health registry. Of these patients, 4,629 could be diagnosed as clearly having or lacking heart disease — an artery at least 70 percent clogged.
Researchers saw a typical pattern: only 61 percent of Mormons had heart disease compared to 66 percent of non-Mormons. They thought tobacco use probably accounted for the difference. But after taking smoking into account, they still saw a lower rate of heart disease among Mormons and designed a survey to explore why.
It asked about Mormons' religious practices: monthly fasting; avoiding tea, coffee and alcohol; taking a weekly day of rest; going to church, and donating time or money to charity.
Among the 515 people surveyed, only fasting made a significant difference in heart risks: 59 percent of periodic meal skippers were diagnosed with heart disease versus 67 percent of the others.
The difference persisted even when researchers took weight, age and conditions like diabetes or high cholesterol or blood pressure into account. About 8 percent of those surveyed were not Mormons, and those who regularly fasted had lower rates of heart disease, too.
Horne speculated that when people take a break from food, it forces the body to dip into fat reserves to burn calories. It also keeps the body from being constantly exposed to sugar and having to make insulin to metabolize it. When people develop diabetes, insulin-producing cells become less sensitive to cues from eating, so fasting may provide brief rests that resensitize these cells and make them work better, he said.
But he and other doctors cautioned that skipping meals is not advised for diabetics — it could cause dangerous swings in blood sugar.
Also for dieters, "the news is not as good as you might think" on fasting, said Dr. Raymond Gibbons of the Mayo Clinic, a former heart association president.
"Fasting resets the metabolic rate," slowing it down to adjust to less food and forcing the body to store calories as soon as people resume eating, Gibbons said.
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On the Net:
Heart association: http://www.heart.org
Heart meeting: http://www.scientificsessions.org
