Medi watch
Counters a step in right direction
A pedometer can help lower blood pressure and lose weight, but only if the wearers log their steps, a new study has found. Increasing activity depends on setting a goal and keeping a diary of the number of steps walked each day, says co-author Dena Bravata of Stanford University in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Clipped to a belt, the gadget, also called a step counter, helped people walk an extra 1.6km per day, AP reports. Those who logged their steps lowered their blood pressure and lost weight but those who didn't showed no significant rise in walking. Pedometer users who didn't set a target also failed to increase their activity.
New mums sleep off excess weight
Good news for new mums aiming to shed excess weight - you can sleep it off. Mothers who get at least five hours of sleep in a typical 24-hour period tend to shed more of their baby weight than other mothers, say researchers at Kaiser Permanente Research Foundation in Oakland, California. That sleep time doesn't have to be in one hit either, cat-naps work if they add up. Data came from 940 women in Massachusetts who had healthy pregnancies, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Women who got less than five hours' sleep when their babies were six months old were three times as likely to have retained at least 5kg of their pregnancy weight gain as those who slept seven hours, WebMD reports.
Heart disease among women rises
More women under 45 are dying of heart disease due to clogged arteries in the US, bucking the trend of falling heart disease death rates. The corresponding death rate for men has levelled off, AP reports. The data may indicate the impact of escalating obesity and diabetes on US mortality. The study, by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and Britain's University of Liverpool, looked at US artery-related deaths in adults over age 35 from 1980 through 2002.
Children's tonsils best left alone
Removing the tonsils of children with mild or moderate throat infections is more expensive and has fewer benefits than watching and waiting, say Dutch researchers. In a study of 300 children, aged two to eight, advised to have their tonsils out, those who avoided surgery had fewer visits to doctors and lower medical costs due to fevers and throat infections, Reuters reports. 'Surgery resulted in a significant increase in costs without realising relevant clinical benefit,' says Erik Buskens, an epidemiologist at the University Medical Centre Utrecht.
