Health notes: Food labels, crowdfunding, teen sleep, missing health insurance – Duluth News Tribune

What if the food label on that candy bar showed you how long you’d have to walk to burn off those calories?

It might give you more pause than simply seeing the number of calories listed. At least that’s what researchers concluded in a study published online last week in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

The study, led by professor Amanda Daley of Loughborough University in England, pooled data from 14 previous studies in which physical activity calorie equivalent (PACE) labeling was compared with traditional labeling. Seeing the PACE labels, people consumed 65 fewer calories per meal, on average, than otherwise.

What does that look like? Well, if you looked at the label on a small bar of milk chocolate with 229 calories, it would show that you would need to walk about 42 minutes or run about 22 to burn it off.

Widespread use of PACE labels could result in healthier choices and curb obesity, the researchers suggest.

You want to help your co-worker’s spouse or second cousin with pressing and expensive medical needs. Should you give to their GoFundMe campaign?

Not in all cases, the authors of a report last week in the online Hastings Center Report argue.

Jeremy Snyder of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and I. Glenn Cohen of Harvard said they found more than $650 million were raised annually for medical needs on the site, with more than a thousand of the campaigns being for “unproven and potentially dangerous interventions.”

Such campaigns can “mislead donors, spread misinformation and may even harm those receiving the money,” Snyder and Cohen contend.

They urged GoFundMe and similar platforms to keep unproven treatments out of their sites.

Teens who don’t get enough sleep also tend to have poor eating habits and low physical activity and are more likely to become obese, says a study published in the journal Childhood Obesity.

“If adolescent sleep insufficiency negatively affects diet and physical activity, this could increase kids’ risk for chronic disease,” said study leader Rachel Widome, an associate professor in the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, according to the university’s news bureau.

Using data from about 2,000 Twin Cities area ninth-graders, Widome’s team found that the “short sleepers” also reported less healthful weight-related behaviors such as drinking more sugar-sweetened beverages, they were less likely to eat breakfast on school mornings and they were more likely to be obese.

But only 15% of the youth in the survey reported getting optimal sleep for people of their age, meaning 8.5-10 hours per night. Nearly 30% reported what the authors called “very curtailed sleep” — less than 7 hours of sleep per night.

Among the nation’s 16.7 million people without health insurance, 4.7 million could get a no-premium “bronze plan” through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

That’s according to an analysis released last week by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Although the plan wouldn’t require a premium, the deductibles would be high, the analysis cautions.

By far the largest group of the uninsured who qualify is in Texas, where the number is a bit north of 1.51 million, according to the analysis. By far the highest percentage is in Iowa, where it’s 59 percent. In Wisconsin, it’s 30 percent. Kaiser doesn’t have data for Minnesota or New York.

What we do know is that the open enrollment period ends on Dec. 23 in Minnesota. In Wisconsin, as in most states, it ended on Sunday.

• Essentia Health-Northern Pines in Aurora recently was recertified as a Level 4 trauma hospital, according to an Essentia news release. The designation by the Minnesota Department of Health means the facility can provide advanced life support before the patient is transferred to another hospital with a higher level of trauma care, such as Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center (Level 1) or St. Luke’s (Level 2).

• Two six-week “living-well” workshops will be offered beginning in January in Cloquet through the statewide Juniper network. “Living well with chronic conditions” will be from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesdays beginning Jan. 7 at New Perspectives, 705 Horizon Circle. “Living well with chronic pain” will be from 9:30 a.m. to noon Mondays beginning at Evergreen Knoll, 1309 14th St. They’re free, but donations are accepted. Register or learn more: Brenda Graden, 218-499-6702 or bgraden@cloquethospital.com.