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Healthline

By wire services
Published June 14, 2005

IF YOU WANT TO become more educated and knowledgeable about the best medical treatments and medications out there, check out Consumer Reports' new online tool, www.ConsumerReportsMedicalGuide.org The subscription-based site provides information on common and chronic conditions and explains how each condition is diagnosed, the symptoms, available treatments and specific questions to ask your doctor. Treatments are ranked so you can see the best available options, a feature modeled after the magazine's product comparisons. Access to the site is $4.95 a month or $19 a year.

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CHANCES ARE, YOUR child will get dumped by a friend at some point. Some suggestions to help her through the crisis, from Parenting magazine:

- Be sympathetic. Don't minimize or dismiss what she's feeling. Let her know you're there to listen, and share a story from your past.

- Don't bad-mouth the other kid. It's tempting, but try to stay above the fray and let the kids work it out.

- Go over what happened. Sometimes kids don't realize that they may have played a role in the demise of a friendship. Ask if they had a fight or if the friend seemed angry recently.

- Talk up friendship. A true friend doesn't just abandon someone for the sake of being thought of as "cooler." Remind your child of this and encourage her to shift her focus to more loyal pals.

TO HELP A GIRL lose weight healthfully, experts offer these suggestions:

- Emphasize healthful eating and exercise, not physical appearance or weight goals.

- Be a role model. Don't talk about your own body issues in front of your daughter.

- Make healthful eating a goal for the family, not just one person.

- Build your daughter's self-esteem with positive comments about other aspects of her life. Avoid criticism. Guide your daughter, but don't try to control her eating and exercise habits.

- Discourage comparisons to unrealistic media images of thin women.

- Explore whether stress or emotional problems are contributing to your child's weight gain.

- If you suspect your child has an eating disorder, consult your doctor.

CLINICIANS AND RESEARCHERS have found that more than three-fourths of heart attack patients have been infected with Chlamydia pneumoniae, a bacteria found in arteries of heart attack patients. Researchers found that despite long-term treatment with gatifloxacin, an antibiotic often prescribed to successfully treat Chlamydia pneumoniae, patients did not experience a reduction in recurrent cardiac events. The study showed that although Chlamydia pneumoniae may have played a role in starting the process of arterosclerosis, once patients have documented heart disease, it appears to be too late to treat the infection. "We need to focus on reducing the cholesterol buildup and inflammation in the arteries, using high-dose statins and other treatments," said study principal investigator Dr. Christopher P. Cannon.

[Last modified June 13, 2005, 16:35:54]