To Your Health
By AJAY SINGH
UCLA TODAY STAFF
“To Your Health” debuts today. Appearing periodically,
the column will cover a wide range of topics that are important
for the fitness and well-being of employees and their families.
We hope you find this UCLA Today column useful and enjoyable.
TAKE A HIKE …
You’ve heard it ad nauseum ... the nation is in the grips
of an obesity epidemic. But now there’s good reason for Los
Angeles County residents to pay closer attention: Nearly half of
them get little or no exercise, according to a study by the Department
of Health Services in the UCLA School of Public Health.
Based on a phone survey of 8,353 L.A. County adults done several
years ago, researchers found that 46% of Latinos, 41% of Asian Americans/Pacific
Islanders, 40% of African Americans and 37% of whites were totally
sedentary.
“Los Angeles is not structured to make it easy for people
to get a lot of activity,” said Associate Professor Antronette
K. Yancey, the study’s lead author. Take walking, for example.
“There are not a lot of trees, sidewalks are often not in
place, and there are safety problems and dangers from violence.
But even in the most affluent areas, 30% of the people get less
than 10 minutes of activity a week.”
The Centers for Disease Control and the American College of Sports
recommend 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least five
days weekly.
LADIES, TAKE THIS TO HEART …
Women with heart disease from all over the country came to UCLA
last month for their first national conference to discuss what it’s
like to live with cardiac problems. There couldn’t have been
a better venue: “UCLA is unique because it probably has more
female cardiologists than any comparable institution,” said
Karol Watson, director of the UCLA Center for Cholesterol and Hypertension
and the conference’s medical director.
The July 15-18 meeting was sponsored by the National Coalition
for Women with Heart Disease, representing 8 million American women.
The medical world is just beginning to understand that women and
men have different cardiac problems, Watson explained. For example,
studies show that hormone replacement therapy can be harmful to
women’s hearts. Pre-menopausal women typically don’t
get heart attacks, she said. But about a decade after menopause,
their rate of heart attacks equals that of men. And by their 70th
year, women’s rate for heart attacks exceeds that of men.
UROLOGY ALERT …
Urinary tract infections are the most common urological disorders
for both men and women, according a recent study by UCLA and the
National Institutes of Health. Among the study’s findings:
More than five in 10 adult women will experience a urinary tract
infection during their lifetime. The study, led by Mark S. Litwin,
professor of urology and health services at the David Geffen School
of Medicine, also reported that cases of sexually transmitted diseases
are stabilizing while incidents of kidney stones are on the rise.
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