Katie Austin’s 3-Step, 60-Second Step Cardio Workout

It’s time to step up your workout routine.

Katie Austin is keeping our summer of sweat going with another workout. In just 60 seconds, the fitness influencer shows us how you can complete three moves that will get your heart pumping. All you need is a step or some sort of elevated surface and you’re ready to go. For further descriptions of each move, see below for a breakdown of the exercises she relies on for a killer step routine.

Exercise 1: Quick Feet

With fast feet, alternate legs as you tap your foot on the step. Keep your body upright, pump your arms and lift your knees high as you move through this exercise.

RELATED VIDEO: Try This 15-Minute Resistance Band Routine to Work Your Entire Body and Re-Energize Your Day

Exercise 2: Mountain Climbers

Place your hands on the step and get into a plank position and bring your bent knee forward, alternating legs.

Exercise 3: Jump Overs

Start with one leg on the ground and another on the step. Move through this my alternating, and putting the opposite leg on the ground and the other on the top of the step.

Do these three moves for 20 seconds or more, depending on how long you want to workout. Regardless of the time you spend, you’ll be sure to break a sweat with this routine.

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Breast Cancer Vaccines Look Promising

THURSDAY, June 26 (HealthDay News) — Women with metastatic breast cancer who developed an immune response to an investigational vaccine lived twice as long as those who didn’t have an immune response, new research shows.

“If you were an immune responder, you had double the survival of a non-responder,” said study author Dr. Susan Domchek, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Her report is one of several focusing on breast cancer vaccines expected to be discussed this week at the Department of Defense Era of Hope breast cancer research meeting, in Baltimore.

“Metastatic breast cancer is treatable but not curable,” Domchek said. While the ultimate hope is to cure the cancer, breast cancer vaccines are one possible way to try to control the disease’s spread.

Although most people think of vaccines as shots given to healthy people to prevent infectious diseases such as measles and the flu, various cancer vaccines that have been studied for decades use cancer cells, parts of cells or substances called antigens to trigger an immune response against cancer cells already in the body.

In her study, Domchek used pieces of a protein called human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) peptide to vaccinate 19 women with breast cancer that had spread. The peptide is nearly universally overexpressed in human cancers and is recognized by certain T-cells in the body’s immune system.

At the start of the study, the women had no measurable T-cell response to hTERT. After up to eight vaccinations with the hTERT peptide, however, 13 of the 19 women made T-cells that reacted to the peptide.

“We biopsied the patients’ breast cancer and saw that we could see these T-cells in the tumors themselves,” she said. “And, in some cases, we could see evidence of tumor cells’ death.”

“Those who responded lived significantly longer,” she said. “People who responded lived 32 months versus a median of 17 [for those who did not respond]. Three of the women who were responders have lived more than three years.”

Among the questions that remain, however, said Domchek, is this: “Were those women going to do well no matter what we did? Is immune response just a marker for a healthier patient?”

Other research on breast cancer vaccines expected to be presented at the meeting include:

• A study that focused on breast cancer patients with HER-2-positive tumors (for whom relapse is common after treatment) treated with a combination of vaccine plus an anti-cancer drug. Dr. Lupe Salazar, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington, in Seattle, and her team sequenced the HER-2 protein and put pieces of it into a vaccine. They gave it to patients, along with the anti-cancer drug Herceptin. The combination helped to generate significant levels of T-cell immunity specific to the HER-2 cells, she said. As of now, “all eight [women] have done this,” she said. The study will eventually include 52 women.
• A study that uses immunostimulatory peptides as a vaccine looked at the best way to deliver them. Dr. Davorka Messmer, an assistant project scientist at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California San Diego, and her team tested a vaccine using nanoparticles loaded with the HER2 peptide that carry an immune system-stimulating peptide, called Hp91, on the outside or the inside. “We found it more potent if the immunostimulatory peptide was put on the surface of the nanoparticle,” he said. The study was conducted in animals.

While breast cancer vaccines have been studied for at least 30 years, they have yet to make a real difference in the lives of patients, said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. That’s not to say they won’t someday, he added.

“When you look at the theory, it makes sense,” he said. “The bottom line is, we are getting there, but [we’re] not there yet.”

Many questions remain, he said, such as “why some patients have immune responses, and others don’t.” It is likely, he said, that some of the vaccines will be specific to one cancer, and others may work on more than one type of cancer.

More information

To learn more about breast cancer vaccines, visit the breastcancer.org.

SOURCES: Len Lichtenfeld, M.D., deputy chief medical officer, American Cancer Society, Atlanta; Susan Domchek, M.D., associate professor, medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Lupe Salazar, M.D., assistant professor, medicine, University of Washington, Seattle; Davorka Messmer, Ph.D., assistant project scientist, Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego; June 25-28, 2008, presentations, Era of Hope meeting, Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program, Baltimore

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

Last Updated: June 26, 2008

Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC.

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Education, Income Affect Heart Attack Survival Rates

WEDNESDAY, June 25 (HealthDay News) — Being well-off and well-educated may improve your chances of surviving a heart attack, according to new report.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic, studying medical records of heart attack patients from its home base of Olmsted County, Minn., report that those with lower incomes and less education were more likely to die after the attack than their more affluent, educated counterparts.

The study, published in the June issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, looked 705 people—155 of whom died—between Nov. 1, 2002 and May 31, 2006. Their findings include that:

• People with the lowest income had the worse one-year survival estimates, with 75 percent survival among people earning $28,732 to $44,665; 83 percent survival for those earning $49,435 to $53,561; and 86 percent for people in the $56,992 to $74,034 income bracket.
• The level of an individual’s education also coincided with survival rates: 67 percent among those who had fewer than 12 years of education; 81 percent among people with 12 years of education; and 85 percent for those with more than 12 years of education.

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“Interestingly, despite the higher-than-average socioeconomic status of this population, the associations of individual education and neighborhood income with death after heart attack were stronger than those reported in many previous studies,” Mayo Clinic cardiovascular researcher Yariv Gerber, the study’s lead author, said in a prepared statement.

The education link could be tied to how greater education tends to positively affect job opportunities, income, housing, access to nutritious foods and health insurance, the researchers noted.

“Higher levels of education also could directly affect health through greater knowledge acquired during schooling and greater empowerment and self-efficacy,” Gerber said. “As recently reported, education is strongly associated with health literacy, which in turn affects one’s ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.”

The researchers also said linking low socioeconomic status to heart attack survival could be tied to poorer, less-educated individuals having difficultly attending cardiac rehabilitation programs and keeping up with medications and recommended changes in lifestyle.

More information

The American Heart Association has more about the warning signs of a heart attack.

 

 

SOURCE: Mayo Clinic, news release, June 17, 2008

Last Updated: June 25, 2008

Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

 

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More Than Temperature Puts Elderly at Risk in Heat

SUNDAY, Aug. 10 (HealthDay News)—Because aging affects the body’s ability to respond to summer heat, older adults are particularly at risk for heat-related illnesses such as heat stroke, heat fatigue, heat cramps and heat exhaustion, according to the U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA).

Factors that may increase the risk of heat-related illnesses include:

• Age-related changes to the skin such as poor blood circulation and inefficient sweat glands.
• Heart, lung and kidney diseases, as well as any illness that causes general weakness or fever.
• High blood pressure or other conditions that require dietary changes. For example, people on salt-restricted diets may be at increased risk for heat-related illnesses. However, salt pills shouldn’t be used without first consulting a doctor.
• The ability to sweat can be impaired by medications such as diuretics, sedatives, tranquilizers and by certain heart and blood pressure drugs.
• Taking several drugs for various conditions. However, it’s important to continue taking prescribed medications and discuss possible problems with a doctor.
• Being substantially overweight or underweight.
• Drinking alcoholic beverages.
• Being dehydrated.

The risk of heat-related illnesses can also be increased by lifestyle factors such as hot living quarters, lack of transportation, overdressing, visiting overcrowded places, and not understanding weather conditions.

Older adults, particularly those at special risk, should stay indoors on hot and humid days, especially when there is an air pollution alert in effect, the NIA recommends. Those without fans or air conditioners should go to air-conditioned places such as shopping malls, movie theaters, libraries or cooling centers operated by social service agencies and senior citizen centers. If possible, older adults should get family or friends to give them rides to air-conditioned locations.

• If you suspect someone is suffering from a heat-related illness, the NIA recommends the following:
• Get the person out of the sun and into an air-conditioned or other cool place. Have them lie down and rest.
• Offer fluids such as water, fruit and vegetable juice. Don’t offer alcohol or caffeinated beverages.
• Encourage the person to shower, bathe or sponge off with cool water.
• Apply a cold, wet cloth to the wrists and/or neck, places where arterial blood passes close to the surface and can be cooled by the cold cloths.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about heat illness and the elderly.

SOURCE: U.S. National Institute on Aging, news release, July 31, 2008

Last Updated: Aug. 10, 2008

Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Lack of Vitamin D Boosts Death Risk

MONDAY, Aug. 11 (HealthDay News)—Inadequate vitamin D could increase your risk of death by 26 percent, a new study concludes.

Yet many people are not getting enough vitamin D, which the skin makes naturally when exposed to sunlight. A nationwide survey found that 41 percent of men and 53 percent of women in the United States were not getting enough of this vital nutrient.

“The importance of vitamin D may be underappreciated,” said lead author Dr. Michal Melamed, a clinical fellow at Johns Hopkins University. “There are studies that link low vitamin D levels to the development of heart disease, peripheral arterial disease, diabetes, hypertension and different cancers,” she said.

The report was published in the Aug. 11 online edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

For the study, Melamed’s team collected data on more than 13,000 men and women who took part in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Levels of vitamin D were collected in 1988 and 1994, and the participants were followed through 2000.

During more than eight and a half years of follow-up, 1,806 people died. Among these, 777 died from cardiovascular disease. Four hundred of these people were found to be deficient in their vitamin D levels.

“Those who had the lowest levels of vitamin D had a 26 percent higher risk of death from all causes compared to those with the highest vitamin D levels,” Melamed noted.

The findings in this study confirm a trend seen in other studies linking vitamin D deficiency to increased risk for breast cancer and depression in the elderly, the researchers noted. Melamed’s group had previously shown that vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of peripheral artery disease (circulatory problems in the legs) by 80 percent.

Among other things, vitamin D is essential for maintaining levels of calcium and phosphorus in the body. “Vitamin D may be very important for overall health,” Melamed said.

According to the U.S. Institute of Medicine, people should get between 200 and 400 international units of vitamin D a day. The best way to get vitamin D, naturally, is by being out in the sun.

As little as 10 to 15 minutes of sun a day can give you all a vitamin D you need. Vitamin D is also available in small quantities in foods such as fish and milk.

Whether vitamin D supplements are effective isn’t yet known, Melamed said. “That’s the million-dollar question,” she said.

“I think people should optimize their diet and sun exposure to get an adequate level of vitamin D without taking supplements,” Melamed said. “It may be a good idea for people who are at risk for vitamin D deficiency, including African Americans and people who don’t spend a lot of time in the sun, to get their vitamin D levels checked by their doctor.”

Dr. Michael F. Holick, director of the Vitamin D, Skin and Bone Research Laboratory at Boston University Medical Center, advocates high levels of vitamin D supplements to maintain good health. Vitamin D deficiency is probably the most common medical problem worldwide, Holick said.

“We know that being vitamin D sufficient reduces the risk of having your first heart attack by more than 50 percent, reduces the risk of having peripheral vascular disease by as much is 80 percent and decreases the risk of prostate, colon, breast and a whole host of other cancers by as much is 50 to 70 percent,” Holick said.

In addition, not getting enough vitamin D also increases your risk for type 2 diabetes, Holick noted. By increasing your vitamin D intake to 800 international units a day reduces the risk of developing diabetes by as much as a third, he said.

Holick recommends taking high doses of vitamin D supplements, as well as sun exposure. In addition, Holick recommends taking as much as 1,400 international units of a vitamin D supplement every day.

More information

For more about vitamin D, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

SOURCES: Michal Melamed, M.D., M.H.S., clinical fellow, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; Michael F. Holick, M.D., Ph.D., director, Vitamin D, Skin and Bone Research Laboratory, Boston University; Aug. 11, 2008, online edition, Archives of Internal Medicine

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

Last Updated: Aug. 11, 2008

Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Electric Shocks in Woman’s Legs Turned Out To Be a Parasite in Spine

She recovered, but we’re terrified.

A 35-year-old French woman went to the emergency room after feeling “electric shocks” in her legs. For months, she had been experiencing worsening symptoms, which made it difficult to ride her horse and had caused repeated falls.

But at the hospital, she got an answer she probably wasn’t expecting. Doctors at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Dijon in Dijon, France discovered a parasite had made its way to her 9th vertebra.

According to the case report published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, lab tests revealed the unnamed woman had a high white blood cell count, which can be a sign of an infection. An MRI tipped doctors off to a lesion on her spine, which then had to be removed surgically. After testing the lesion, doctors confirmed it was a cyst formed by the larva of a kind of tapeworm called Echinococcus granulosus, a condition known as cystic echinococcosis.

Echinococcus granulosus is most commonly found in dogs, who often get it from other animals, particularly sheep and cattle, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For this parasite to infect a human, a person might touch an infected dog or its droppings, then touch their face, accidentally ingesting the tapeworm in the process. Or they might eat food or drink water contaminated by an infected dog’s poop. 

RELATED: A Moving Bump on This Woman’s Face Turned Out to Be a Live Worm

Once swallowed, Echinococcus granulosus can grow into cyst-like lesions, called cystic echinococcosis or CE, according to the CDC. “Infection can cause cystic lesions in the liver and lungs and also in the central nervous system and bones,” the case report authors wrote. The slow-growing cysts may not result in any symptoms, possibly for years.

The woman in the case report had contact with cattle and had a pet cat, both possible sources of her Echinococcus granulosus infection. In addition to her surgery to remove the cyst, she was also treated with an antiparasitic medication. And there’s a happy ending: “At follow-up 9 months after presentation, the patient had no residual symptoms or sign of recurrence,” the authors wrote.

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Of course, it’s better to never have a parasite to begin with. If you live in an area with sheep or cattle, always wash your hands thoroughly after touching dogs and before eating, the CDC recommends. It’s probably also a smart idea not to eat any greens or berries gathered from fields where dogs might be doing their business.

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Mom Paints Large Birthmark on Her Face to Match Son: ‘I Have Never Treated Him as Different’