Health Tips ... from UPI

EXCESSIVE SWEATING MORE PREVALENT

Those who suffer from excessive underarm sweating, sweaty palms and feet, are not alone -- 7.8 million share the problem in the United States. Hyperhidrosis, or excessive sweating -- often accompanied by anxiety and stress -- affects a much larger proportion of the U.S. population than previously reported -- 2.8 percent of the population, reports the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. "I was a little surprised at the high percentage of those affected," says Dr. Dee Anna Glaser, professor of dermatology at Saint Louis University, who conducted a survey of 150,000 U.S. households to determine the prevalence of hyperhidrosis. "Sweating often impedes normal daily activities and can result in occupational, emotional, psychological, social and physical impairment in a substantial proportion of individuals," she says.

DEPRESSION/INCOME LINK POST CHILDBIRTH

A University of Wyoming study verifies that income changes directly affect depressive symptoms in women during the first three years after childbirth. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, finds that after giving birth, women whose income dropped below the poverty line were one and a half times more likely to experience a clinical level of depressive symptoms. Alternatively, if a women's income increased to above the poverty line, they were one and half times more likely to go from being clinically depressed to not being depressed. "Depression in the first three years of life can have considerable negative influences on children's cognitive and social-emotional development," says co-author Eric Dearing.

MORE MIGRAINES CLOSER TO MENSTRUATION

The City of London Migraine Clinic finds women experience more migraines closer to their menstrual cycle. The study, published in of Neurology, finds that the chance of migraine was more than twofold on the first day of menstruation and within five days afterward. "Our study supports new International Headache Society diagnostic criteria regarding pure menstrual migraine and menstrually related migraine," says study author Anne MacGregor, of the City of London Migraine Clinic and St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. Women were almost five times more likely to have a migraine associated with vomiting on or during days one to three of menstruation, the study finds.

OUTSMARTING JETLAG

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas sleep researchers suggest an easy way to outsmart jetlag. "Travelers should follow three easy steps to help reset their bodies' clocks after a dramatic time change," says Dr. John Herman, of the UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and director of the Sleep Disorder Clinic at Children's Medical Center Dallas. Herman suggests taking 6 milligrams of melatonin when it is 11:30 p.m. in the time zone of the travel destination and when arriving at the travel destination get as much sunlight as soon as possible. One hour before bedtime on the night of arrival, Herman says to take another 3 milligrams of melatonin.

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(EDITORS: For more information on SWEATING, contact Matt Shaw at (314) 977-8018 or shawmr@slu.edu. For MIGRAINES, Marilee Reu at 651-695-2789 or mreu@aan.com. For JETLAG, Donna Hansard at (214) 648-3404)