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Health
Health line
By Times Staff
Published August 15, 2006
Our friends the sweat glands Active people cannot function without sweating. Sweat acts as your body's radiator by protecting you from overheating. According to the Russell Athletic clothing company, during even moderate exercise, body temperature could increase 1.8 degrees every six to seven minutes if we did not sweat. Evaporation of sweat slows that dangerous increase. There are between 2-million and 5-million eccrine glands, producers of the "good sweat" that cools the body. Eccrine sweat is odorless and colorless. It is the other sweat glands -apocrine glands - that secrete sweat into hair follicles, causing odor and clothing stains. Boo, apocrine glands! By the numbers 300 million, population total America will reach this year. 200 million, American population in 1967. 36.8 million, number of Americans at least 65 years old, this year. 19.1 million, number of Americans at least 65 years old in 1967. Source: U.S. Census Bureau Watch your back, kids Most of the school-backpack buying is done, but here is medical advice for the next purchase: "Ideally, the (loaded) backpack should be no more than 15 percent the weight of the child . . . so that there is less of a burden on the spine and joints," says Dr. Benjamin Roye, chief of pediatric orthopedics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He says the best backpacks have two straps - to distribute weight more evenly and place less stress on the shoulders - as well as a strap that goes around the waist, to balance the pack's weight between shoulders and hips. Wearing the backpack lower on the back seems to improve walking mechanics. Peroxide not a medication The Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to use for medicinal purposes high-strength hydrogen peroxide products, including a product marketed as "35 percent food grade hydrogen peroxide." Such peroxide has been advertised to treat AIDS, cancer, emphysema and other serious illnesses, but it has no approved medical uses, according to the FDA. Drinking high-strength hydrogen peroxide can cause gastrointestinal irritation or ulcers. Heartburn treatments confusing A new survey indicates the majority of America's estimated 60-million heartburn sufferers may be confused by treatment options. According to the survey, conducted for the National Heartburn Alliance, 64 percent of sufferers are unsure how over-the-counter medications differ, while 54 percent are "unfamiliar with treatment options," or "don't know how they apply." For more information on prevention and treatment, including free brochures, log on to www.heartburnalliance.org or call toll-free 1-877-642-2463. - Compiled from staff and wire reports
[Last modified August 15, 2006, 08:28:36]
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