Spring into Action

TORONTO, May 14 /CNW/ - For all those weekend warriors, die-hard campers, and unabashed lovers of nature, the May 2-4 weekend marks the unofficial beginning of the 2009 summer season. So before we spring into action, whether it's opening up the cottage or venturing out to your favourite campsite, the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) would like to give you a few pointers for a safe, fun-filled weekend.

At the Cottage and Campsite

Now that you are planning that great city-escape, take along a few simple tips - and enjoy the great outdoors. Make safety second nature.

Cottage

• check burners and exhaust systems of all appliances for blockages or obstructions such as insects, rodent nests, rust fragments or other debris that could lead to dangerous levels of CO;

• get your propane or gas-fired appliances such as stoves, refrigerators and heaters inspected and/or repaired by a certified technician;

• replace batteries in your CO and smoke alarms and test them to ensure they are working properly;

• clean your barbecue and check for any fuel leaks by applying a 50/50 solution of water and dish soap; and

• keep in mind that barbecues are approved for outdoor use only and should not be stored inside any structure.

Campsite

• arrive with enough daylight left for a general safety check, and look for broken glass, sharp objects and natural hazards;

• ensure open-fires are permitted by local and provincial authorities. Clean up the fire pit and cut back any branches or brush that may have grown too close; and

• use only paper or kindling when starting a fire at your campsite. Be sure the fire is in a safe, open area, well away from flammables and other natural combustibles. Never leave a fire unattended.

Portable Heaters

While you may be tempted to pull out that portable heater, never use fuel-burning space heaters in any enclosed space such as a camper, tent, car, home or cottage. Every year, unsuspecting campers and cottagers are seriously injured - and, in some tragic cases, die - due to carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning as a result of improper use.

If one of your last May 2-4 holiday stops happens to be a local LCBO store, look for TSSA's latest SummerSmart brochure for further safety tips on cottaging, barbequing, camping and RV use. You can also check it out on our website - www.safetyinfo.ca. Gain peace of mind, knowing you are protecting yourself and loved ones - and remember: safety is up to you.

About TSSA

TSSA is an innovative, self-funded, non-government organization focused on delivering public safety services. It provides not-for-profit regulatory safety services in industry sectors such as fuels, amusement devices, elevating devices, ski lifts, boilers and pressure vessels, operating engineers, and upholstered and stuffed articles. The organization's vision is to be the world leader in public safety services.

Daydreaming Helps Solve Problems: Study
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news
Wednesday, 13 May, 2009

VANCOUVER: Contrary to common opinion, daydreaming is not slacking off because when the brain wanders it is working even harder to solve problems, new research has shown.

Scientists scanned the brains of people lying inside magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, as they alternately pushed buttons or rested. The scans showed that the ‘default network’ deep inside a human brain becomes more active during daydreaming. But in a surprise finding the scans also revealed intense activity in the executive network, the outlying region of the brain associated with complex problem-solving, neuroscientist Kalina Christoff said.

‘People assume that when the mind wanders away it just gets turned off -- but we show the opposite, that when it wanders, it turns on,’ said Christoff, co-author of the study, and head of a neuroscience laboratory at the University of British Columbia, in western Canada.

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest daydreaming might be a better way to solve problems than intense focusing.

‘People who let themselves daydream might not think in the same focused way as when performing a goal-oriented task, but they bring in more mental and brain resources,’ said Christoff.

She argued that now people might change their attitudes towards daydreamers. ‘Within ourselves, we have absorbed that attitude that mind wandering is a bad thing. We’re harsh on ourselves, if we catch ourselves mind wandering,’ she said. ‘A more playful attitude might allow you to call in more resources.’

People typically spend one-third of their waking time daydreaming. ‘It’s a big part of our lives, but it’s been largely ignored by science,’ Christoff said.

The study is the first to use MRIs to study brain activity during ‘spontaneous thoughts and subjective experiences’, said Christoff.

‘Until now the only way was to use self-reports that were not always reliable.’—AFP

US Restaurant Chains Criticized For Unhealthy Salt Content
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-05-14-voa35.cfm
By Melinda Smith | Washington | 14 May 2009

Americans like to eat out. It's been estimated they go out for a meal or take out food from a restaurant at least five times a week. But there is growing concern about the quality of the food they consume. One health group is warning that some restaurants put dangerously high amounts of salt in the food they serve.

Doctors routinely warn patients to put the salt shaker down. It turns out there is way too much salt already in the food prepared in many restaurants. Michael Jacobson is with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a food safety and nutrition organization in Washington, D.C.

"Salt is probably the single deadliest ingredient in our food supply," he said. "Causing tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths a year. And restaurants are a big part of the problem."

Jacobson says adults with high blood pressure, or who are middle aged or older, should consume no more than 1500 milligrams of sodium [salt] a day. Children should consume no more than 1200 milligrams a day. Jacobson's organization looked at the contents of at least 100 meals from 17 American restaurant chains and found that as much as four days' worth of salt was in some dishes.

"This is the average amount of salt that Americans consume per year (holding up a jar). It's eight pounds [3.6 kilograms] and the experts say cut it down at least halfway, and ideally almost two thirds of the way down," Jacobson said.

A certain amount of salt in food is okay. According to the Mayo Clinic, salt maintains the right level of fluids in your body, helps transmit nerve impulses and contract and relax muscles. But too much salt leads to fluid retention, higher blood pressure, and cardiovascular and kidney diseases.

Dr. Lawrence Appel of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health says the elderly and those sensitive to sodium are vulnerable when the waiter brings the food.

"They consume a massive amount of salt without knowing it," he said. "They end up short of breath and come to the [hospital] emergency room with flagrant heart failure."

Dawn Sweeney represents the National Restaurant Association in the United States. She says her members are cutting back on salt content. "You look across the menu in those restaurants and there are many choices that are low in sodium," she states.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest and the American Medical Association have called for government limits on the amount of salt in commercially prepared food.

For now, those who make and serve that food are not required to reveal what goes into the recipe.

Onion a day keeps hay fever away
From: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-4533913,prtpage-1.cms
15 May 2009,
 
LONDON: Onion may hold the key to beating hay fever, says a new study.

Dutch researchers say onion skins contain quercetin, a potent natural anti-histamine and anti-inflammatory shown to help hay fever sufferers. According to the British Onion Producers' Association, onions contain three times as much quercetin as kale - the next-richest source - and 10 times as much as broccoli, reports The Daily Express.

Allergic rhinitis triggered by the pollens of specific seasonal plants is commonly known as "hay fever", because it is most prevalent during haying season.

Although hay fever can not spread from person to person the symptoms can pass from person to person and it is the biggest cause of sick leave in the US and the UK.

Too Much Cola Zaps Muscle Power
Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/8056028.stm

Excessive cola consumption can lead to anything from mild weakness to profound muscle paralysis, doctors are warning.

This is because the drink can cause blood potassium to drop dangerously low, they report in the International Journal of Clinical Practice.

They tell of the curious case of an Australian ostrich farmer who needed emergency care for lung paralysis after drinking 4-10 litres of cola a day.

He made a full recovery and was advised to curtail his cola drinking.

Another example included a pregnant woman who regularly consumed up to three litres a day for the last six years and complained of tiredness, appetite loss and persistent vomiting.A heart trace revealed she had an irregular heartbeat, most likely caused by her low blood potassium levels.Once she stopped drinking so much cola, she made a full and uneventful recovery.

The investigators believe these cases are not atypical and that many people risk problems due to their intake.

Manufacturers insist the products are safe when consumed in moderation.

In a commentary, Dr Clifford Packer from the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Centre in Ohio said: "We have every reason to think that it is not rare.

"With aggressive mass marketing, super-sizing of soft drinks, and the effects of caffeine tolerance and dependence, there is very little doubt that tens of millions of people in industrialised countries drink at least 2-3 l of cola per day.

"It follows that the serum potassium levels of these heavy cola drinkers are dropping, in some cases, to dangerous low levels."

Moderation

The author of the research paper, Dr Moses Elisaf from the University of Ioannina in Greece, said it appeared that hypokalaemia can be caused by excessive consumption of three of the most common ingredients in cola drinks - glucose, fructose and caffeine.

"The individual role of each of these ingredients in the pathophysiology of cola-induced hypokalaemia has not been determined and may vary in different patients. "However in most of the cases we looked at for our review, caffeine intoxication was thought to play the most important role.

"This has been borne out by case studies that focus on other products that contain high levels of caffeine but no glucose or fructose." Despite this, he warned that caffeine free cola products could also cause hypokalaemia because the fructose they contain can cause diarrhoea.

"We believe that further studies are needed to establish how much is too much when it comes to the daily consumption of cola drinks."

Excessive consumption has already been linked with obesity, diabetes and tooth and bone problems.

A spokeswoman from the British Soft Drinks Association said: "The examples used in this paper by the IJCP are all very extreme cases - moderate consumption of cola drinks is completely safe and people can continue to enjoy such drinks as part of a balanced diet and active lifestyle.

"The soft drinks industry is committed to encouraging responsible consumption of all its products. Nutrition labelling is included on pack so people can make an informed choice about the products they are drinking."

Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/8056028.stm
Published: 2009/05/19 09:50:29 GMT

Surgery post heart attack doesn't help
21 May 2009,
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Lifestyle/Surgery-post-heart-attack

Does rushing a patient to hospital after a mild heart attack improve his or her chances of survival? It doesn't help much, says a new Canadian study led by Indian-origin professor Shamir Mehta at McMaster University in Hamilton near Toronto.

The study found that rushing patients with a mild heart attack into bypass surgery or angioplasty did not improve their chances of survival, than waiting a few days. Led by Mehta, the researchers found similar rates of death or recurrence of heart attack in patients who underwent surgery quickly after a mild stroke and those who had to wait for a day and longer.

However, patients at high risk of having another stroke or heart attack needed quick surgery, the researchers said.

Calling their findings "good news for patients and physicians", Mehta said: "While we have known for a long time that patients with a full blown heart attack benefit from receiving angioplasty as early as possible, we did not know the optimal timing of angioplasty in patients with threatened or smaller heart attacks."

"These second group of patients represent a large burden to the health care system and outnumber patients with full blown heart attacks by about 2:1. They often respond well to initial therapy with aspirin and other anti-clotting medications."

As part of their multi-country study, the researchers picked up 3,031 patients - from 17 countries - who underwent angiography within 24 hours of being admitted to hospital or within 50 hours of admission. Six months after the surgery, 9.6 percent of patients who received early treatment suffered another heart attack or died as compared to 11.3 percent who received delayed surgical intervention.

The study said: "Early intervention did not differ greatly from delayed intervention in preventing the primary outcome, but it did reduce the rate of the composite secondary outcome of death, myocardial infarction, or refractory aeschemia and was superior to delayed intervention in high-risk patients."

Mehta said: "Patients coming to hospital with small or threatened heart attacks can be treated with aspirin and other anti-clotting medications and be transferred to a catheterisation laboratory a few days later, without undue harm.

"For patients with smaller or threatened heart attacks, only those who are at high risk need to have angioplasty early. The majority can be safely treated a few days later."

The study has been published in this week's edition of New England Journal of Medicine.