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Health CONSUMER REPORTS INSIGHTS With sunscreens, 30 is a good number


Sunscreens can help prevent sunburn, wrinkles and certain skin cancers.


Consumer Reports’ recent tests of 12 products found four that protect a shade better than the rest: Up & Up Sport Continuous SPF 30 (Target), a CR Best Buy; Walgreens Sport Continuous SPF 50; Banana Boat Sport Perform- ance Continuous SPF 30; and Aveeno Continuous Protection SPF 50. These products provided very


good ultraviolet A radiation pro- tection and excellent ultraviolet B protection, and they met their SPF claim even after treated skin was soaked in water for 80 min- utes. UVA and UVB can both cause sunburn, skin damage and cer- tain skin cancers. UVA can also cause wrinkles. There’s no protec- tion factor for UVA radiation on labels, although the Food and Drug Administration has pro- posed a system of one to four stars. SPF is a measure of UVB sun protection; put simply, if your skin normally turns red in 10 min- utes, then using a sunscreen with an SPF of 30 could lengthen that time to 300 minutes. The active ingredient in Burt’s Bees Chemical-Free Sunscreen with Hemp Seed Oil SPF 30, tita- nium dioxide, doesn’t absorb the entire UVA spectrum as effective- ly as alternatives such as avoben- zone. Avon Skin-So-Soft Bug Guard Plus IR3535 Expedition SPF 30 doesn’t claim to protect against UVA rays, but it doubles as an insect repellent. Tests performed by Consumer Reports’ trained sensory panelists


In partnership with DEET and sunscreen


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that consumers avoid products that mix sunscreen with DEET insect repellent. Unlike repellents, sunscreens are meant to be applied liberally and often, so using a combination product could result in unnecessarily high exposure to repellents.


Another reason not to use a combo: Many mosquitoes tend to bite long after the highest risk of sun damage has passed.


The combination product that Consumer Reports tested, Avon Skin-So-Soft Bug Guard Plus IR3535 Expedition SPF 30, has no DEET, though its directions say applications should not exceed three per day. It did not rate near the top for either purpose.


The Checkup 6voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup


Adapted from The Post’s daily health blog


Wikipedia cancer entries pass muster Can Wikipedia — written and edited by anonymous,


non-expert people from all over the world — be trusted on a subject such as cancer? Yaacov Lawrence and his team at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson (in Philadelphia) studied Wikipedia entries for 10 forms of cancer to similar entries in the peer-reviewed patient-information section of the National Cancer Institute’s online Physician Data Query (PDQ). The researchers assessed the entries for accuracy, comparing their information to that found in standard oncology textbooks, and readability. The Wikipedia entries held up well for accuracy; less than


2 percent of the material found in the Wiki entries (or the PDQ) differed substantially from that found in the textbooks.


But the Wikipedia entries were much harder to read. The team determined that the Wikis were written using language suited to a college student, while the PDQs were suitable for a ninth-grader. That could make a big difference in a cancer patient’s ability to learn about his or her disease. —Jennifer LaRue Huget


Bad news for short people ALAMY


also evaluated how the sun- screens smelled, felt and ab- sorbed into the skin.


Each of the top four sunscreens had a slight or moderately intense floral or citrus scent and left little residue on skin.


Bottom line: Buy sunscreen with an SPF of at least 30 (that’s plenty for most people) that claims to be water-resistant. Also:  For full-body protection, adults should apply two to three table- spoons of lotion 15 to 30 minutes


before going out. Reapply every two hours or after swimming or sweating. Applying sprays can be tricky if it’s windy.  Don’t spray or rub sunscreen on clothes. Most of the products stained fabrics when they were applied directly and left for a day.  Wear tightly woven clothing and a hat, limit your sun time, and seek shade during the hottest hours of the day.


Copyright 2010. Consumers Union of United States Inc.


Short people are at greater risk for heart disease than tall people, according to a new study. Tuula Paajanen of the University of Tampere in Finland analyzed 52 studies involving more than 3 million people and found that short adults were about 1.5 times as likely to develop heart disease and to die from it than as were tall people. This was true for both men and women, the researchers reported in the European Heart Journal. Anyone shorter than 5-foot-3 was considered short. Anyone taller than 5-foot-7 was considered tall. The researchers hope the findings will spur more research


on why short people may be at increased risk for heart disease. It could be because they have smaller arteries, which get clogged more easily. Or it could be that their shortness indicates they were malnourished or had some kind of infection early in life that retarded their growth and also put them at increased risk for heart problems. Whatever the explanation, the researchers say the


findings suggest that doctors should include shortness as another risk factor for heart disease, similar to obesity. —Rob Stein


For further guidance, go to ConsumerReportsHealth.org. More-detailed information — including CR’s ratings of prescription drugs, treatments, hospitals and healthy-living products — is available to subscribers to that site.


HEALTH SCAN FOOD LABELING LIVING WITH . . . Workouts, not drugs or surgery, helped achy legs During our Senior Weight


Training class one day some years ago, a man of about 75 de- clared to our trainer that his painful leg cramps had ended af- ter he joined the exercise classes. He was amazed and just de- lighted. Hearing this, I too realized


that leg cramps, which had often bothered me, no longer did! Nei- ther did something that had plagued me even more than cramps.


When I needed to be on my


feet, my legs used to become very tired and achy. I used support stockings, then Ace elastic ban- dages. Eventually I had to wear


them every day. They were a big help, but they did not make my legs better or stronger. But that is in the past. Today I can stand and watch a parade, stand in the kitchen, work out in the yard, even visit art galleries (gallery visitors know how much standing still one does) with no support stockings, no elastic ban- dages. How come? Again, weight training did it. I never had my unhealthy veins stripped or cauterized or took any medication for them. I started going to the gym in my early 60s. (Thanks to Fairfax County and fellow taxpayers for the facilities!) What may have


happened is that my muscles be- came stronger and a bit larger, thus providing more support to the superficial varicose veins. Whatever the explanation, my painful and tired legs are no lon- ger; they are healthier and “hap- pier” in my 70s than they were when I was in my 40s and 50s. It’s amazing and wonderful how the body can be helped with- out undergoing some medical procedure or taking expensive medication. For those with osteoporosis, remember that exercise helps our bones get stronger. For those who think they are too old to exercise, consider the 90-year-old woman


AnyBODY Research shows only mixed results in efforts to tame teen sex sex continued from E1


the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, agrees: “I think that many adults look at teen culture as a blur of bare midriffs and think that things are only getting worse [when it comes to sexual activity], but I don’t think the data from the past two or three decades supports that.” He points out that teen pregnancy is down roughly 39 percent since its peak in 1990, according to other CDC statistics. Great progress, for sure, but


it’s not the whole story. Albert admits that despite an overall decline in pregnancies over the last two decades, the stats also revealed a slight uptick in 2005, the most recent year for which there are data. “At the end of the day,” says Woodward, the news on teen sex “is really a mixed bag. Many sexually experienced teens are using contraception, for example, but the bad news is they’re not using it consistently enough, and the condom appears to be losing some ground, which is a concern in terms of rising teen birth rates.” On this note, she’s also alarmed about the significant jump in the number of teens using the spectacularly ineffective “rhythm method” as birth control — now 17 percent of girls, up from 11 percent in 2002. Woodward further points out that another recent CDC report found that one in four adolescent females has a sexually transmitted infection such as human papillomavirus or chlamydia. “Unfortunately, STI rates are also mirroring how we’re going to do with HIV rates,


professor of psychology at Ohio State University who researched how 222 teenagers talked to their parents about dating and sex for a recent study in the Journal of Adolescence. He found that girls tend to disclose more about crushes, relationships and other dating topics than boys, that both sexes prefer to share such information with their mothers rather than their fathers, and that they were equally reticent to discuss sex, per se, with either parent. Younger teens had a higher level of communication than older adolescents on all topics, and those who reported a greater level of trust with their parents also opened up more about sex —especially girls. “Really, it comes down to


JIM DANDY


which have been slowly creeping up, especially for young women,” she explains.


Some teens are more at risk than others when it comes to worrisome sexual activity — and it’s not always the young people you might expect. For example, last month, researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina reported that overweight girls are more likely than their thin peers to have sex before age 13, to have multiple partners as teens and to have unprotected sex. In our household, the sex talk


at the moment is limited to precocious toddler questions


such as “Mommy, why do you and daddy sleep in the same bed —what do you do in there?” I can gloss over the nitty-gritty issues for now, but I also know that I will be begging for candid communication soon enough, since experts stress that it is key to good teen decision-making. Recalling that I remained tight-lipped on all boy-related matters with my own mother, I can’t help but wonder what parents can do when it comes to helping kids open up about dating and mating. For one thing, accept that it’s


going to be a challenge, says Christopher Daddis, an assistant


creating this climate where children are going to be comfortable telling you about any issue in their life,” says Daddis, acknowledging that keeping some aspects of life private from Mom and Dad is, clearly, a normal part of growth and development. “It’s not parents’ nagging or asking about their children’s sex lives that is good for decreasing problem behavior; it’s having the kid voluntarily tell you what they’re up to. That’s where that information and knowledge needs to come from, in order to make a real difference.” I, for one, am going to start by


trying to control my head-shaking and gasp reflex the next time another appalling story about teen sex appears on the evening news, play it cool and take it from there. health-science@washpost.com


who has been coming to our gym for years. Yes, she uses a cane, and she walks slowly; but she does her exercises and socializes with other people. Try it! Do en- gage a trainer at the beginning or join a class, and do check with your doctor before you start. —Barbara Gambrills, Fairfax County


Are you living with a health problem? How do you cope, and what are the frustrations and successes? To share your story, send an e-mail to health-science@washpost.com, and put "living with" in the subject line. Submissions should be limited to 300 words or fewer.


Rejecting the European diet “THWARTING CONSUMER CHOICE,” (AEI PRESS, $24.95) Gary E. Marchant, Thomas P. Redick and Guy A. Cardineau


(two lawyers and a biotechnologist, respectively) stand against mandatory labeling requirements for genetically modified foods. In this slim volume, published by the American Enterprise In- stitute for Public Policy Research, the authors argue that while GM labeling is designed to give consumers more choice at the grocery store, the law will actually harm consumers by pushing such foods off the shelves. Europe, with its strict labeling laws, is held up as a worst-case scenario. “Thwarting Consumer


Choice” is one-sided, so readers should reach for other litera- ture to understand the full controversy, but it provides inter- esting food for thought.


EMERGENCY MEDICINE


Trouble without limits “LIVING IN EMERGENCY” (RED FLOOR PICTURES) This powerful documentary, playing at Landmark’s E Street Cinema, follows five doctors who volunteer for the humani- tarian organization Doctors Without Borders. The idealistic docs are beaten down by practicing medicine under extreme circumstances in Congo and Liberia: too many patients, never enough supplies, time or staff. Most volunteers never advance past their first nine-month mission. The troubling central message of the film is eloquently stated by anesthesiologist Christopher Brasher: “The demand is pretty much infinite. It’s just a question of choosing what you can do. They’re tough choices, but you have to make them.”


— Rachel Saslow QUICK STUDY DIABETES


Low dose of diabetes drugs may help avert the disease


THE QUESTION Might a combination of drugs used to treat Type 2 diabetes help prevent the disease in people considered on the verge of developing the disease? THIS STUDY involved 207 adults with pre-diabetes, meaning they had blood sugar levels near the threshold for a diabetes diagnosis. None had ever taken diabetes medications. They were randomly assigned to take a combination of metformin and rosiglitazone (Avandia), at half the maximum dose, or a placebo daily. Both groups also participated in classes and were given materials on lifestyle changes, mainly weight loss and exercise, that might improve their condition. After about four years, 14 percent of people taking the medication had developed diabetes, compared with 39 percent of those tak- ing the placebo. Also, the body’s ability to convert blood sug- ar to energy had returned to normal in about 80 percent of those in the medication group, vs. 53 percent of the others. Virtually no differences between the groups were found for side effects common with higher drug doses, including weight gain, heart problems and broken bones. Diarrhea oc- curred more often among those taking the drugs. WHO MAY BE AFFECTED? People with pre-diabetes, who have higher-than-normal blood sugar levels but often have no symptoms. Nearly 60 million people in the United States are believed to have pre-diabetes. CAVEATS The study may not have lasted long enough to as- sess risks for heart failure, heart attack and fractures that have been associated with larger medication dosages. The study was funded by GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Avan- dia, and three of the eight authors had received fees from the company.


FIND THIS STUDY June 3 online issue of the Lancet. LEARN MORE ABOUT diabetes at www.diabetes.niddk.nih. gov and www.diabetes.org.


—Linda Searing


The research described in Quick Study comes from credible, peer-reviewed journals. Nonetheless, conclusive evidence about a treatment’s effectiveness is rarely found in a single study. Anyone considering changing or beginning treatment of any kind should consult with a physician.


KLMNO


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TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 2010


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