Heart hazard at the door
Shopping can be hazardous to your heart if you have a pacemaker or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, which shocks the heart back into a regular rhythm if it begins to beat erratically.
The doorways of stores that are monitored by electronic article surveillance systems can interfere with such cardiac devices, says a story in the December issue of the Harvard Health Letter.
Although people with such devices usually are warned in advance not to lean on or linger near the devices, they may not realize the devices are even there because some stores camouflage them by wrapping them in advertising.
Other stores may unwittingly encourage people to stand near the anti-theft devices by setting display racks nearby. In short, people with cardiac devices should keep their distance from store entrances and exits and not linger near them. And store employees should be aware that any customer who collapses near an exit should be moved away as quickly as possible.
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Back on diverticulitis menu
Popcorn and nut consumption are OK for those with diverticulitis after all, according to a study by the University of Washington that involved 47,000 men.
The men ate popcorn or nuts two or more times a week but had no increase in diverticular bleeding and a 20 percent to 28 percent decrease in risk of diverticulitis over men who ate such foods once a month or less.
In the past, doctors told such patients to avoid nuts and foods with small seeds, such as tomatoes and strawberries, because they were thought to lodge in the diverticula, the small, bulging pouches that form in the wall of the small intestine, and cause inflammation. The study shows, however, that they don’t increase diverticulitis risk.
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Pre-count restaurant calories
Don’t go into restaurants and be blindsided by foods overloaded with fat and calories. Check out the restaurant items first at calorie-count.com, which grades more than 70,000 food and drink items for nutritional value.
The free site, sponsored by About.com Health, lets you browse through the foods offered at numerous restaurants to help track your ingestion of calories, fats, sodium and protein. To save you cash and calories, there’s also a list of tasty recipes that offer healthy options you can make at home.
