fitness centers in st louis
TheState.com: Health and Fitness
News, sports and entertainment from TheState.com
- Raleigh boy may have died during choking game'
RALEIGH -- It's called a game, but Kris Marceno's apparent attempt to get high by choking himself ended up deadly.The Enloe High School sophomore, 15, died at his home on Nov. 2 from accidental asphyxiation, his family said.His death has schools, churches and communities talking about the choking game.In the choking game, some children and young teens choke themselves or each other to experience the euphoric high that precedes blacking out, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The CDC has identified at least 82 choking game fatalities nationwide between 1995 and 2007. Three N.C. youths are believed to have died from the practice 2000 through 2007, according to state medical examiner records. - Don't let the holidays ruin your diet
Thanksgiving is coming up, and we’re anticipating pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes and lots of gravy. Also Christmas cookies and fudge and fancy cocktails and big gift tins of popcorn in three flavors.And New Year’s champagne toasts and midnight suppers.But we’re not looking forward to what the scales say on Jan. 1.Here’s a quick refresher course on limiting the damage that you know the holidays can wreak on your healthy diet.Many of the suggestions are from Linda Nye, a registered dietitian at Via Christi Hope, a health-care outreach program. - Diet right: What to say to a dieter
Trying to lose weight? Here’s some advice on what your spouse shouldn’t say, from the book “How to Lose 9,000 lbs. (or Less)” (Hundreds of Heads Books, www.hundredsofheads.com, $13.95), straight from the people who’ve done it.• “They should never say that you are going to die if you don’t lose some weight. I don’t think negative comments should ever be used as motivation. And death is the ultimate negative.” Tom Rhodes, Campbell, Ohio, lost five pounds• “Wording is critical. I asked my wife how she thought my diet was going, and she said, ‘You’re not as fat as you were.’ I’m sure she meant to say that I looked like I had lost some weight.” E.P., Cranberry Township, Pa., lost 14 pounds• “Even suggestions can sound like criticism to someone on a diet. It’s presumptuous for my husband to tell me not to eat some potato chips if I am having a craving. I tell him it’s better that I have a few chips now than to eat the whole bag and kill the whole diet.” T.M., Pittsburgh, lost 12 poundsHUNDREDS OF HEADS BOOKS INC. - Monday is World Aids Day
EVENTSPalmetto AIDS Life Support ServicesHIV Testing• South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control offers free testing at various sites around the state. Call DHEC’s S.C. AIDS/STD hot line at (800) 322-2437 or visit www.scdhec.gov/stdhiv.• South Carolina HIV/AIDS Council offers free, confidential HIV testing, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday at 1115 Calhoun St. between Main and Assembly streets. - Fabulous flippers: Dolphins have quite the kick
Dolphins have a kick that would make Michael Phelps jealous - 212 pounds worth.How dolphins are able to swim so fast first preoccupied researchers back in 1936, when zoologist James Gray calculated the drag dolphins must overcome to swim faster than 20 miles an hour. Gray said dolphins lacked the muscles to swim so fast, and yet they did. This became known as Gray's Paradox.Gray theorized that their speed possibly had something to do with their skin. Over the decades, scientists found flaws in Gray's work, and most biologists have rejected his theory.Now a team of scientists has used sophisticated underwater video to measure the power of a dolphin's tail. They calculate 212 pounds of thrust - more than triple what a top Olympian like Phelps can produce and enough to swim with the zip that confounded Gray seven decades ago."There is no paradox. The dolphins always had the muscles to do this," said Frank Fish, professor of biology at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. "Gray was wrong." - New tobacco product alarms some health officials
They're discreet, flavorful and come in cute tin boxes with names like "frost" and "spice." And the folks who created Joe Camel are hoping Camel Snus will become a hit with tobacco lovers tired of being forced outside for a smoke.But convincing health officials and smokers like Ethan Flint that they're worth a try may take some work.Snus - Swedish for tobacco, rhymes with "noose" - is a tiny, tea bag-like pouch of steam-pasteurized, smokeless tobacco to tuck between the cheek and gum. Aromatic to the user and undetectable to anyone else, it promises a hit of nicotine without the messy spitting associated with chewing tobacco. Just swallow the juice."I think I'd rather throw up in my mouth," says Flint, an 18-year-old West Virginia University student, emerging from a convenience store with a pack of Winstons and a coupon for free Camel Snus. "I'd rather not swallow anything like that."Reynolds America Inc., the nation's No. 2 tobacco company, can also expect resistance from the public health community. Experts wonder whether snus will help wean people off cigarettes and snuff, or just foster a second addiction. While snus has been around, it hasn't been prominent in this country. - Dark chocolate not enough to lower blood pressure
While research has shown that dark chocolate can help lower blood pressure, those studies required eating a large amount of chocolate to achieve the benefits.So the calories will really add up if you use this sweet as a health aid.How does dark chocolate work its magic? The cocoa in dark chocolate contains plant chemicals known as polyphenols, which seem to relax blood vessels.A German study published last year looked at the impact of dark chocolate consumption on blood pressure over 4½ months in a group of 44 adults with hypertension and pre-hypertension.Participants in this study received either 6.3 grams of dark chocolate every evening after dinner (about 30 calories) or a similar amount of white chocolate without polyphenols. - Childrens food allergies on the rise
What’s worse — food allergies or allergies to stuff in the air? Hmmm ... That’s a tough one.Whatever the case, food allergies in American children seem to be on the rise, now affecting about 3 million kids. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 in 26 of the poor runts had food allergies last year, up from 1 in 30 kids in 1997. Experts believe it might be because parents are more aware and quicker to have their kids checked out by a doctor.— Cindy Gregorian, St. Louis Post-Dispatch - S.C. ranks last in anti-smoking funds
WASHINGTON— South Carolina is spending less money than any other state on anti-smoking programs despite having one of the nation’s highest smoking rates, a prominent health group said Tuesday.Smoking kills 5,900 South Carolinians a year and extracts $568 per household in smoking-related heath-care costs, but the state allocated just $1 million in the current fiscal year to get people to quit smoking and to prevent nonsmokers from starting the habit.“South Carolina has been lagging behind the rest of the country in funding tobacco prevention for too long,” said Peter Fisher, vice president of state issues with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington-based health organization.The S.C. General Assembly set aside no money for anti-smoking initiatives in its 2008-09 budget. A federal grant funds the $1 million state effort.More than one-fifth — 21.9 percent — of adult South Carolinians smoke, compared with a nationwide rate of 19.8, according to the Centers for Disease Control. - Diet Right: Healthy choices for the Thanksgiving feast
Traditional holiday meals give us a variety of healthy options. Just don’t overdo it: Enjoy all the bounty of the holidays, in small enough doses to keep your nutritional balance.Roast turkey, for example, is a great choice, high in protein and with little fat, provided you forego eating the skin. It is a good source of zinc, selenium, B3 (niacin), vitamin B6 and B12 — all essential for energy production. A 3.5-ounce serving of skinless roasted turkey breast has only 115 calories.Cr