As the national debate rages about how best to change healthcare funding to serve the greatest number of people with the greatest benefit, the public health journal Health Affairs has published a study that examines the costs of healthcare related to obesity. For those that familiar with the health effects of obesity, the results are no surprise. What follows is a little wonky but interesting.

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A new study following the dietary habits of over 200,000 people suggests that diets high in a specific type of polyunsaturated fat called linoleic acid may have much higher incidence of a painful disease called ulcerative colitis. While red meat contains some linoleic acid, you will also find it in many margarines and cooking oils including safflower, hemp, sunflower, corn, wheat germ, cottonseed, soybean, walnut, and sesame oil. EMaxHealth points out “Given that many foods, especially fast foods, are fried in such oils, it can be easy for individuals to consume high levels of linoleic acid.”

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This week’s Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported a huge study from Denmark. Following over 900,000 women for 8 years, they found that post-menopausal women who had hormone therapy were 38% more likely to get ovarian cancer than peers who had not, and the higher risk persisted for 2 years after halting therapy. Moreover, “Regardless of the duration of use, the formulation, estrogen dose, regimen, progestin type, and route of administration, hormone therapy was associated with an increased risk of ovarian cancer.”

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It turns out that our instinct to say something profane when we experience pain may be good medicine. A small study covered in the journal NeuroReport found that:

Swearing increased pain tolerance, increased heart rate and decreased perceived pain compared with not swearing. However, swearing did not increase pain tolerance in males with a tendency to catastrophise [think that a situation is worse than it really is]. The observed pain-lessening (hypoalgesic) effect may occur because swearing induces a fight-or-flight response and nullifies the link between fear of pain and pain perception.

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Over the weekend, NPR provided a Stanford mathematician to argue the invalidity of BMI as a rough measure of fatness. His basis of argument hinges on the idea that BMI measures are not a true indicator of fatness. Mathmatically minded people don’t like BMI because it is, admittedly, inexact. While this may be true to a point, the rough measure is important and here’s why. Read the rest of this entry »