FOX28: Hot Health Headlines
Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff Tackles 3 Health Studies
OhioHealth Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff appeared of Fox28's Good Day Columbus to give viewers a clearer picture of three headlines in the medical world.
Topic 1: From the Journal of Diabetes Research & Clinical Practices: Can depression and anxiety make it harder to control blood sugar?
Answer 1: What is wonderful about this study is that it confirms there is a mind/body connection. We have to pay close attention to how we feel as to our medical conditions. In this study, what they did is look patients with diabetes. The patients who had long standing anxiety or depression had less well-controlled diabetes. That means when we go to see our doctor, we do have to tell our doctors about how we feel emotionally. When we neglect, we ignore an important medical condition
Topic 2: From JAMA Pediatrics: Are children exposed to surgical anesthesia before the age of 4 risking lower school grades or IQ than if they had the exposure in their teen years.
Answer 2: This is a good news study, despite the title. What the study did was help parents look at an issue that has been unclear for a long time. People have been understandingly worried about exposing a young brain to anesthesia. What this study did is look at a large number of young people and then at maturity when the brains are fully developed to see what IQ and school performance was. What they found is minimal difference in grades and no difference in IQ.
Topic 3: This from the Journal of Age & Aging: Working long hours and skimping on sleep, especially in mid-life leads to poorer health in old age.
Answer 3: What this tells us is we can't burn the candles at both ends and not pay the price. Doctors are probably some of the worst offenders. The study looked at people who in the middle ages either got enough or didn't get enough sleep. What they found is if you don't get sleep at middle ages, you are not going to be as healthy. Our moms were right. We need to get to bed on time.
Click here to see the segment that aired on Good Day Columbus.
