Yeshiva World News

The two most common excuses people give for not exercising and taking care of their general health are lack of time, and finances. In previous articles, I have addressed the time issue, but I would like to add the following: If you don’t make the time to exercise, you won’t have much time to do anything. Eventually, as we age and don’t make the time to compensate for its effects, we end up with one or more debilitating condition. But what is just as shocking is how much it actually costs us to be out of shape and in an unhealthy state. Many people say they just can’t afford to go to an exercise specialist, or they can’t afford the health club and gym fees. But let’s look at the alternative.

Take a person with heart disease, for example. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death, and multiple medications are often needed to control symptoms and risk factors. In a recent study following 104 people with ischemic heart disease, average monthly medication costs were $104.77 for cardiac medications and $115.54 for non-cardiac medications, for a total of $220.31. In addition, the cost of heart disease and stroke in the United States was $368 billion in 2004, including health care expenditures and lost productivity from disability and death.

If you are an employer, you may want to insist that your employees exercise. In 1995, Nicolaas Pronk, director of HealthPartners’ Center for Health Promotion, surveyed nearly 6,000 HealthPartners members over age 40 about their lifestyle and health status, and then looked at 18 months’ worth of their medical claims. In a report based on that data, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), he compared people with poor habits to those with healthy ones and found that:

Those who engaged in some kind of physical activity at least once a week cost the company 4.7% less than those who are sedentary.
Smokers cost the company 18% more than nonsmokers.
Each unit increase in body mass index (a measure of body fat) raised costs by 1.9%.
Those who suffered from the chronic illnesses that are often the result of unhealthy lifestyles – particularly diabetes and heart disease – were the costliest of all. Diabetics cost 137% more than non-diabetics, and those with heart disease cost 150% more than those without, the study found. 

Obesity and sedentary lifestyle are escalating global epidemics that warrant increased attention by physicians and other health care professionals. These intricately linked conditions are responsible for an enormous burden of chronic disease, impaired physical function and quality of life, at least 300,000 premature deaths, and at least $90 billion in direct health care costs annually in the United States alone. Couple all this with the rising premiums for good comprehensive health insurance and it becomes obvious that it pays to work out and be healthy.

Yes – it CAN be costly to take on a trainer or join a health club, but it’s definitely money well spent. Investing in staying in shape and improving your overall lifestyle habits may, in the long run, be less costly to your health AND to your wallet. 

EXERCISE! It will “add hours to your day, days to your year and years to your life.”

Alan Freishtat is an A.C.E. CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER and a LIFESTYLE FITNESS COACH with over 14 years of professional experience. He is the co-director of the Jerusalem-based weight loss and stress reduction center Lose It! along with Linda Holtz M.Sc. and is available for private consultations, assessments and personalized workout programs. Alan also lectures and gives seminars and workshops. He can be reached at 02-651-8502 or 050-555-7175, or by email at alan@loseit.co.il 

Check out the Lose It! website at www.loseit.co.il. US Line: 516-568-5027

(Alan Freishtat – YWN)

After headaches, lower back pain is the second most common ailment in the Western World today.  At least 60-80% of the general population will experience at least one episode of lower back pain in their lives that may range from a dull ache to a bout of intense and prolonged pain.  Not only is it painful; it is costly as well.  Billions of dollars are paid in compensation and lost workdays, many of which are the result of on-the-job injuries.

LBP (low back pain) typically is located in the lumbar region of the spine, with L4 and L5 being the most common place.  Undoubtedly, you have probably heard of slipped, herniated, shattered, protruding and crushed disks.  These are some of the ramifications of LBP, but, what brings on these conditions in the first place and how can they be prevented and/or corrected?

The main causes of LBP are weak abdominal muscles, tight hamstring muscles, poor posture and stress.  Many times, a biomechanical dysfunction resulting from flat feet is the cause.  Also, a simple thing like a worn out pair of shoes can bring on back discomfort.  Prevention of LBP includes a well-balanced exercise program that includes flexibility training (stretching) and abdominal strengthening.  A pair of good, functional orthodics can correct a biomechanical problem.  And amongst its many benefits, aerobic exercise is known to be a great stress reducer.  Being overweight is also a risk factor, as is smoking.

Many years ago, the common thinking on how to treat LBP was to prescribe bed rest.  There is now strong evidence that this treatment is ineffective. It has been shown in studies that bed rest of more than 2-4 days can start to weaken muscles and actually delay recovery.  The current thinking is that a person with LBP should be physically active. Walking, even if somewhat painful, is considered to be essential.

Many people opt for surgery to try to alleviate lower back pain.  But before you go under the knife, consider the following. Surgery helps only 1 in 100, and certainly should not be an option in the first 3 months of pain, notwithstanding a firm diagnosis of a fracture or dislocation.  Spinal manipulation by a chiropractor or physical therapist may be helpful, but no evidence exists to indicate that either ultrasound or traction is helpful.  Although some people feel relief through acupuncture and massage, there is still no scientific evidence to support this as of yet.

A few tips to keep yourself pain-free:

Watch your posture while sitting.  Keep both feet on the floor in front of you and look straight ahead.  This is especially important at the computer.
When standing or walking, look ahead. This will prevent your head from hanging down. Don’t slouch your shoulders and lower back. 
Use a comfortable but firm straight-backed chair.
Make sure your mattresses are in good shape.  Old, worn out mattresses can contribute significantly to back problems

Keeping your lower back functional and free of pain is another way to “add hours to your day, days to your year and years to your life.”

Alan Freishtat is an A.C.E. CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER and a LIFESTYLE FITNESS COACH with over 14 years of professional experience. He is the co-director of the Jerusalem-based weight loss and stress reduction center Lose It! along with Linda Holtz M.Sc. and is available for private consultations, assessments and personalized workout programs. Alan also lectures and gives seminars and workshops. He can be reached at 02-651-8502 or 050-555-7175, or by email at alan@loseit.co.il  Check out the Lose It! web site – www.loseit.co.il.  US Line: 516-568-5027.

(Alan Freishtat – YWN)

Three major medical groups have pushed upwards the recommended age at which diabetics should start taking low-dose aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke.

According to a joint statement by the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association and the American College of Cardiology, only male diabetics over 50 and female diabetics over 60 who are at risk for a heart attack or stroke should be taking aspirin as a preventive.

“Previously, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommended aspirin to prevent heart attacks and stroke in most people with diabetes over the age of 40,” noted statement co-author Dr. M. Sue Kirkman, senior vice president for medical affairs and community information at the ADA. However, “more recent studies suggest that the benefits of aspirin are modest, and that aspirin likely would be best for people at very high risk of cardiovascular disease,” she said.

The experts defined an “increased risk of cardiovascular disease” in this case as a 10 percent risk of experiencing a heart attack and/or stroke over the next 10 years.

That means that, “those adults with diabetes at increased risk include most men over age 50, and women over age 60, who have one or more of the following additional major risk factors: smoking, hypertension, high cholesterol or a family history of premature cardiovascular diseases,” Kirkman explained.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people with diabetes are at three times the increased risk of cardiovascular events compared with people without diabetes. Among diabetics over 65, it’s estimated that 68 percent will die from heart disease and 16 percent from stroke.

On the other side of the equation, the major adverse effects of long-term aspirin use include intracranial bleeding, which can lead to hemorrhagic stroke, and gastrointestinal bleeding.

Still, daily low-dose aspirin — the study authors suggest 75 to 162 milligrams — can have real benefits in preventing cardiovascular events, another expert said.

“Taking low-dose aspirin to prevent heart disease is reasonable for adults with diabetes who are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease and not at increased risk for bleeding,” said the statement’s senior author, Dr. Michael Pignone, chief of the general medicine division and professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina.

“Aspirin should not be recommended for heart disease prevention in men and women at very low cardiovascular risk — under 5 percent over 10 years,” he added.

“People with diabetes should talk to their physicians about their cardiovascular risk and what they should be doing to try to reduce it to a manageable level,” Pignone said. “This includes the decision about aspirin, but also blood pressure control, [cholesterol-lowering] statins, and smoking cessation.”

The clarification of aspirin use among diabetics is being made because the evidence regarding the benefit of aspirin in preventing a first heart attack or stroke has been mixed, the experts said.

Most important, health care professionals should consider diabetic patients’ absolute level of risk before recommending aspirin, Kirkman said.

“For those at relatively low risk, the risks of aspirin probably outweigh the potential benefits. For those at high risk, aspirin should be encouraged. The strong recommendation to use aspirin in patients with a history of cardiovascular events still stands,” she said.

Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, professor of medicine and director of the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, agreed that aspirin has a place in diabetes care.

“Low-dose aspirin is reasonable for patients with diabetes at higher cardiovascular risk, optional for those at intermediate risk, and generally not recommended in those patients at low cardiovascular risk,” he said.

Fonarow noted that even with these more limited recommendations, “there are many patients with diabetes who are high risk for cardiovascular events who are not receiving aspirin and other cardiovascular protective medications, such as statins, who could benefit from doing so, and who should consult with their physician.”

Another expert, Dr. Joel Zonszein, from the Clinical Diabetes Center, Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, said there’s still a need for much stronger data on the issue.

For now, Zonszein recommends giving patients at risk 325 milligrams of aspirin, “even though we have no [good] data,” he said. “For patients who may have more of a bleeding problem, I give them the baby aspirin, but this is very biased, because we don’t have good data.”

The statement is being published in three journals, Circulation, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Diabetes Care.

More information

For more information on aspirin, heart attack and stroke, visit the American Heart Association.  

Older people might avoid falls if they take off their bifocal or multifocal eyeglasses while taking part in outdoor activities and rely on single-vision lenses instead, a new study suggests.

As people age, they often develop difficulty seeing things at close range, even if they already wear glasses to see at a distance. Instead of using multiple pairs of eyeglasses, they often turn to multifocal lenses — bifocals, trifocals and progressive lenses.

But multifocal eyeglasses can affect balance and increase the risk of falls, research suggests.

For their study, published online May 25 in the BMJ, Stephen Lord, senior principal research fellow at Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute in New South Wales, Australia, and colleagues recruited 606 people over the age of 65 who were at risk of falling and who used multifocal lenses when walking outdoors.

About half of the participants were prescribed a pair of single-lens distance glasses to use when outdoors and in unfamiliar places.

Over 13 months of follow-up, all falls among those who used the single-lens distance glasses fell by 8 percent compared to the control group. Among those who regularly spent time outdoors, falls decreased by about 40 percent. But outside falls increased among those who rarely went outdoors, suggesting that the single-lens glasses aren’t a good alternative for those people.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has details about preventing falls in the elderly.

Wealth and power are no longer conditions of having doctors in your back pocket. These days, all it takes is a smartphone.

There are now more than 2,000 mobile health applications available for download, allowing patients and doctors alike to monitor medications, manage disease, facilitate remote monitoring, and even track labour contractions, all using only a phone. But even as medical professionals praise certain apps for reducing pressure on the health-care system, concerns remain about the absence of regulation and potential for misuse.

“Anybody and their dog can make a medical app, so it’s really important to research the companies behind these things,” says Candice Volney, a nurse from Edmonton. “Some of the diagnoses that come up when people enter their symptoms can be scary, and very deceiving.”

Dr. Turi McNamee, an associate professor at the University of South Dakota’s Sanford School of Medicine, says she relies so heavily on medical apps that she’d feel naked practicing without them.

“I can look up doses of medications, costs, alternative medications for a variety of conditions, and can perform a number of medical calculations without leaving the patient’s bedside,” says McNamee.

“The downside . . . is that they’re full of disclaimers with regards to their accuracy. In theory, if I give a patient the wrong dosage of a medication based on information obtained from an app, the maker of the app would seem to bear no liability whatsoever.”

Scientific American reports that the Food and Drug Administration is weighting regulatory options, though a spokesperson for the U.S. agency would say only that their role in this regard is evolving.

Laypeople who use medical apps face less dramatic risks but nonetheless leave themselves open to anxiety and misdiagnosis – not unlike what occurs when people seek health information on the Internet, which 70 per cent of online Canadians, age 16 and older, have done.

In entering such symptoms as foot pain and cramping into a free WebMD app, for example, the phone-based program returns such possibilities as fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, peripheral neuropathy, Lyme disease and anemia.

The University of Regina’s Kristi Wright, citing data from the Canadian Psychological Association, notes that up to 30 per cent of the population experiences intermittent or mild health-related fears, shown to increase reassurance-seeking about symptoms from friends, family, physicians and, more recently, mobile medical apps.

“Access to health information at the touch of a finger represents a technological advance leading to efficient health-care service provision for some,” says Wright, an assistant professor of psychology. “(But) for others, it may serve as a catalyst for continued disability and dysfunction.”

One thing is certain: with eight in 10 doctors expected to have smartphones by the end of this year, the issue isn’t going away.

Dr. Antonia Arnaert, an expert on e-health technologies, says people simply need to be careful about the types of mobile tools they use. In her own research, for example, she recommends patients rely only on the apps that she and her team have vetted.

At present, Arnaert uses medical apps – with the mobile devices provided to patients before they leave the hospital – to help manage people’s diabetes, hypertension and other chronic conditions, as well as provide support for palliative and oncology patients and post-operative care. By having nurses monitor symptoms and conditions remotely, she says hospital beds are freed up and emergency rooms are less crowded.

“It gives patients a kind of control over their disease, and helps them take better care of themselves at home,” says Arnaert, an associate professor at McGill University’s School of Nursing. “It’s developing into a whole new way of health-care delivery.”

(Read More: Vancouver Sun / YWN-112)

When Connie Anderson’s son was diagnosed with autism a decade ago, she scoured the Internet looking for treatments.

“I tried all sorts of things I now consider bananas,” said Anderson, now community scientific liaison at Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Interactive Autism Network. “At the time it didn’t feel like nonsense. It was hope. People will try all sorts of things to help their child, sometimes even against their better judgment.”

Since Anderson’s son was diagnosed, the number of Web sites devoted to autism and autism treatments has multiplied. While a 1999 study counted about 100,000 autism Web sites, entering the term “autism” into the three major search engines today yields more than 17.4 million results, according to new research.

So how can parents know how to weed out fact from fiction when faced with so much information? It’s not easy, experts say, but there are some steps parents can take to determine if the information they are getting is from a reputable source.

In a study presented recently at the International Meeting for Autism Research, experts analyzed about 160 of the most visited autism sites to determine how often they met measures of quality and accountability, including whether or not the site was selling something; if citations about research supposedly showing the efficacy of a treatment included author identification and references; if the information was current; and if the site asked visitors for personal information (a red flag).

Most sites did not meet all of the criteria for quality, said lead study author Brian Reichow, a post-doctoral associate at Yale University Child Study Center. And about 17 percent of the sites offered or sold treatments that had little or no scientific support.

“The Internet can provide parents with a lot of useful and helpful information, but there is a lot of misinformation online as well,” Reichow said. “When using it to gain online health information, parents need to be cautious.”

The desire to help their children and the lack of mainstream medical treatments for autism drives parents to seek alternatives, according to Dr. Paul Law, director of Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Interactive Autism Network.

“You don’t see lots of ideas for how to treat ear infections, because the treatment for that is well established,” Law said. In contrast, “there are very few autism-based treatments that the field agrees on, so we don’t have complete answers for those who are suffering from autism,” he said. “That naturally triggers families to seek answers.”

For most of what’s being peddled online, there’s little scientific evidence it works, Law said. His organization has documented some 500 treatments for autism, ranging from diets and vitamins to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Anderson cautioned parents to be especially wary of testimonials, no matter how powerful they may seem. For every success story — or a person believing or claiming theirs is a success story — there could be many more failures. “There could be 10 people who have a good experience, and 1,000 who had a bad experience,” Anderson noted.

Experts offered these tips for assessing autism-related information on the Internet:

• Don’t use the Internet as your sole source of info. Seek support from doctors, physicians, teachers and other professionals.
• Pay attention to the domain names. In the study, “.com” sites were most likely to be selling unfounded “miracle cures.” Sites ending in “.edu” or “.gov” tend to have oversight committees or quality standards. Government-sponsored “gateway” domains, such as the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s MedlinePlus or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s healthfinder.gov, which each offer a collection of links to other sites, are good places to start because the links have been approved by experts, Reichow said.
• Look for quality seals such as HONcode (Health on the Net Foundation), a non-profit, non-governmental organization that has developed standards for health information on the Internet.
• Take testimonials for what they’re worth. The placebo effect can be powerful in autism treatments, and only randomized, controlled experiments are considered the gold standard of proof.
• Some autism sites will offer scientific data to back up their claims. That information is less reliable if it is generated by the company or the company’s researchers, who may have a conflict of interest or profit motive, Anderson said.

(Source: HealthFinder.gov)

According to one estimate, there are more people in the world today over the age of 65, than the total of all those who previously lived to this age!  And in the United States, the over-85 age group is the fastest growing segment of the population.  Experts in the field of gerontology say that the primary issue among older adults is that of quality of life. With the greater-than-ever life expectancies, just how well will this group function?  Will they spend these years dealing with an assortment of health problems, ailments and chronic diseases, or will they live productive and enjoyable lives?

The effects of time impact all of our basics systems.  The cardiovascular system sees changes a steady decline in the sympathetic nerve system activity to the heart, resulting in a lower maximal heart rate and reduced strength in each contraction.  There is a decrease in the elasticity of the major blood vessels, which can cause a rise in blood pressure. The cardiac muscle itself can become stiff, which leads to a reduction in the pumping efficiency of the heart. Our lungs don’t work as well either.  Because of the various physiological changes in the lungs, especially the integrity of the alveoli, there is an increase in the energy cost of breathing.

The musculoskelatal system also undergoes numerous changes with aging.  Muscle mass declines with age, and does strength.  This leads to loss of mobility, balance problems, walking problems and increased likelihood of falls.  Osteoporosis can result from aging, as our bone mineral content decreases.

A significant portion of what is described above results from non-use and a general lack of physical activity.  The question is: Can exercise slow up the aging process?  The answer is most definitely YES!  Research has shown that you can decrease your cardio- respiratory deterioration by as much as 50% with effective and consistent aerobic training.  This means that a 60-year-old person who is active can be as aerobically fit as a 40-year-old.  Also, seniors who remain active don’t get the typical rise in blood pressure with aging that sedentary people get.  And not only can you slow muscle deterioration; you can actually build muscle mass and increase your flexibility with a good stretching program.

Every minute of everyday, we get older.  There is no magic fountain of youth. However, staying active and setting aside time for formal exercise can make the golden years pleasurable and enjoyable ones. Keeping fit even as we age is another way to “add hours to your day, days to your year and years to your life.”

Alan Freishtat is an A.C.E. CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER and a LIFESTYLE FITNESS COACH with over 14 years of professional experience. He is the co-director of the Jerusalem-based weight loss and stress reduction center Lose It! along with Linda Holtz M.Sc. and is available for private consultations, assessments and personalized workout programs. Alan also lectures and gives seminars and workshops. He can be reached at 02-651-8502 or 050-555-7175, or by email at alan@loseit.co.il  Check out the Lose It! web site – www.loseit.co.il.  US Line: 516-568-5027.

(Alan Freishtat – YWN)

Making Exercise Part of Your Daily Routine

In the high tech, time-saving world of Internet, computers, cell phones, email and faxes – all of which are supposed to simplify our lives and give us MORE free time, we still can’t find the time to take care of ourselves – or so we think.  Perhaps we don’t value ourselves as much as we value our hardware or software.  Sometimes we may think that we don’t have the time to exercise. But in fact, we do.

Prioritize and organize. These are two key words to learn and put into practice.  Use your time efficiently, and you will be surprised at what you can accomplish before the end of the day.  Although some people like to do a complete 1-hour exercise session 4 or 5 times a week, shorter, more frequent sessions are also an option. The most important thing to remember is that something is much better than nothing.  Keeping these points in mind, let’s see how, given your busy schedule, you can still incorporate the proper amount of exercise into your day.

First, in the morning, wake up just 5 minutes earlier.  After you have a few glasses of water, do a 2-minute simple calisthenics routine.  Then, spend another 4-5 minutes doing some easy stretching.  Now, if you are going to work, walk two bus stops away and get off two bus stops before your destination.  If you drive, park far enough away so that you get an 8-10 minute walk to work.  Try not to use the elevator to get to your office.  Use the stairs. (This applies to everyone, all the time.) At your lunch break, take 15 minutes to eat and go outside with friends and walk for 15-20 minutes.  You’ll feel refreshed when you come back. And an added benefit… You’ll most likely find that it will improve your ability to work efficiently.  

Later in your working day, take a 5-minute break.  Drink a glass of water, and then do 15 pushups against the wall of your office.  Then, try squatting and standing up again 8-12 times.  While sitting at your desk, do seated çrunches as follows:

Sit up tall with one hand behind your head and the other one holding onto the edge of your chair’s seat. Pull your abdominal muscles inward. Slowly curl down and forward just a few inches. As you do so, pull your abs in even tighter. Hold a moment and then slowly uncurl to a very tall position. This move strengthens your abdominal muscles.  Try 10 or so.  

During the course of the day, you can try some of these basic desk stretches:

Stretch your shoulders and neck by gently rolling your shoulders clockwise and counter clockwise 10 times in each direction.

Stretch your lower back by draping forward over your lap.

To stretch the back of your leg, extend your leg, lean over in your chair and reach your arms towards your feet. You can increase the effectiveness of this stretch by lifting your toe up in the air. (Repeat on both sides.)

At the end of the workday, when you’re on the way home, make sure you get in another 5-10 minutes of brisk walking.  Between all those staircases and walking, you’ve probably accumulated about 30 minutes of aerobic exercise for the day. As you can see, every little bit helps. And beyond these tips, it helps to approach every day and every situation as a workout waiting to happen. If you have the time, or can try hard to make the time, there are certainly better and more beneficial ways to work out, but on the days that you just can’t manage more time, just fit it in wherever you can. With a little initiative, you can  “add hours to your day, days to your year, and years to your life.”

Alan Freishtat is an A.C.E. CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER and a LIFESTYLE FITNESS COACH with over 14 years of professional experience. He is the co-director of the Jerusalem-based weight loss and stress reduction center Lose It! along with Linda Holtz M.Sc. and is available for private consultations, assessments and personalized workout programs. Alan also lectures and gives seminars and workshops. He can be reached at 02-651-8502 or 050-555-7175, or by email at alan@loseit.co.il  Check out the Lose It! web site – www.loseit.co.il.  US Line: 516-568-5027.

 (Alan Freishtat – YWN)

As summer approaches and many Americans start to dust off their bikes, blades and assorted motorized vehicles, the nation’s emergency department doctors are trying to direct public attention toward the importance of wearing safety helmets to prevent serious brain injury.

“People are riding bicycles, motorcycles and ATVs [all-terrain vehicles] more often at this time of year,” Dr. Angela Gardner, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), said in a news release. She stressed that people need to get in the habit of wearing a certified safety helmet, because it only takes one tragic crash to end a life or cause serious life-altering brain injuries.

Citing National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) statistics, the ACEP experts note that every year more than 300,000 children are rushed to the emergency department as a result of injuries sustained while riding a bike. Wearing a helmet that meets Consumer Product Safety Commission standards could reduce this figure by more than two-thirds, the organization suggests.

But children aren’t the only ones who need to wear helmets. In fact, older riders account for 75 percent of bicycle injury deaths, the ACEP noted. Among bicyclists of all ages, 540,000 seek emergency care each year as a result of an accident, and 67,000 of these patients suffer head injuries. About 40 percent experience head trauma so serious that hospitalization is required.

A properly fitted helmet can prevent brain injury 90 percent of the time, according to the NHTSA, and if all bicyclists between the ages of 4 and 15 wore a helmet, between 39,000 and 45,000 head injuries could be prevented each year.

With May designated as motorcycle safety month, the ACEP is also highlighting the benefits of helmet use among motorcyclists.

“Helmet use is the single most important factor in people surviving motorcycle crashes,” Gardner stated in the news release. “They reduce the risk of head, brain and facial injury among motorcyclists of all ages and crash severities.”

The ACEP cites NHTSA numbers indicating that in 2008, helmets saved the lives of more than 1,800 motorcyclists — a figure that could have risen by another 800 lives saved if all motorcyclists wore helmets. Not wearing a helmet increases the risk of dying from a motorcycle-riding head injury by about 40 percent, experts say.

Gardner and colleagues encourage people of all ages to wear helmets every time they go for a ride on a bicycle or motorcycle, but also when roller skating, rollerblading, skateboarding and/or engaging in a high-contact sport.

(Source: HealthDay News)