Habits

No one doubts that quitting smoking is one of the best ways to improve your health. But a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests that, in the short term, tossing the cigarettes might actually increase the risk of developing diabetes. People who quit smoking tend to gain weight, and those extra pounds can put a person at increased diabetes risk. In fact, the diabetes risk was higher for people who gave up cigarettes than for those who continued to smoke - but only within the first couple of years of quitting, according to the research appearing in today's Annals of Internal Medicine.

Given the well-known health hazards associated with smoking, it should come as no surprise that most people who take up the habit do so at an early age. About 90 percent of smokers start before 18, and a significant number of those begin lighting up for the first time at 13 or under. That's obviously too young to make informed decisions about a potentially lethal, lifelong habit. That's why the Food and Drug Administration's first act as a regulator of tobacco was a good one: banning sweet, fruit- and candy-flavored cigarettes.

People who smoke, have high blood pressure, or have diabetes in their 40s and 50s increase their chances of developing dementia, BBC News reports. U.S. researchers, who studied more than 11,000 people between the ages of 46 and 70, found that people who smoked were 70 percent more likely than nonsmokers to develop dementia over the next 12 to 14 years. People with hypertension, meantime, were 60 percent more likely to develop dementia than those with normal blood pressure. The study, published in the journal Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, also showed that people with diabetes doubled their chance of developing dementia.

The fever for health care reform is running high in Washington, D.C., and politicians are lining up on different sides to offer treatment plans. However, no one is addressing the true driver of health care costs, or any other factors that contribute to the health care crisis. Based on my 20 years of experience in health insurance administration, here are four ways to fix the health care crisis: 1. Restore competition in the market We need to break up the BUCA monopoly (Blue Cross/Blue Shield, United Healthcare, CIGNA, and Aetna)

A distinct bustle filled the kitchen of the Falcon's Nest cafe as 11 a.m. approached. "Excuse me - hot," said Katina Guyton, pulling a tray of ciabatta rolls from the oven and walking to the counter out front. There, with gloves and black hairnets snapped on, her colleagues - also her classmates - were lining up behind a display of deli meats, cheeses, soups and other food. It was almost time for the lunch-hour rush of students and staff at the Forbush School at Glyndon. At the Falcon's Nest, students run the show - from food preparation to the cleanup.

I need some help to break the disposable bag habit. I know those ubiquitous plastic grocery bags are a major source of litter on land and sea and that such debris can poison fish and choke wildlife. I've cringed at bags stuck in trees along the highway and twisted in tall grasses that line tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. Yet, a reusable cloth bag languishes in the back seat of my car, forgotten until it mocks me when I return from shopping carrying more of the wretched plastic things.

After decades of warnings about salt, the white, grainy mineral seems poised to become the grocery's next boogeyman, following trans fats, carbs and calories. Health and consumer advocates who see a rising epidemic of high blood pressure and related disease are making the latest push, and that has food makers inching toward change. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently quantified the problem with a report saying most Americans consume more than double the daily recommended level of sodium, a major component of salt.

For most Americans, recessions have been relatively brief interludes in an era of generally increasing affluence. But the current sweeping downturn has affected everyone - wealthy, middle class or poor - either directly, with unemployment or reduced income, or indirectly, through fear of a future without adequate safety nets to protect health and income. Those fears have changed many of our habits, possibly permanently, because the bedrock of our economic confidence has been taken away.

It took a moment to make the connection, but Jake Sawyers says the recession has been good for him, or at least for his health. "I smoke when I drink, and I drink when I go out and I've been doing less of that," said the 36-year-old Canton resident who was buying a pack of cigarettes at a neighborhood convenience store. "I am also exercising more. Maybe I have more energy because I'm not drinking and smoking as much." Sawyers isn't alone. Data show that many people are taming their vices rather than drowning their sorrows these days - behavior that national researchers say is consistent with past recessions.

The lesson plan went something like this: Soccer practice with players from Baltimore's Crystal Palace pro soccer team, agility training and exercises with the Baltimore Ravens' youth coach and some healthy cooking alongside celebrity chef George Stella. Not your average day in the classroom. But for more than 200 kids from Baltimore-area schools the day of hands-on learning about health and fitness just may be a little more memorable. The kids and others who happened upon Port Discovery children's museum on Saturday were taking part in the Junior League of Baltimore's Kids in the Kitchen initiative.