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96 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE STROKE TRIPLED AMONG WOMEN Strokes have tripled in recent years among middle-aged women, an alarming trend that doctors blame on the obesity epidemic, according to a report in HealthDay News. In a study conducted by the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, nearly 2 per- cent of women ages 35 to 54 reported suffering a stroke in a recent federal health survey, compared to about half a percent of those surveyed the decade before. The trend has occurred even though more women are on medication to control their cholesterol and blood pressure, which should lower the risk of stroke. Doctors note the increase may be due to the fact that women’s waistlines are nearly two inches bigger than they were a decade earlier, and their average body mass index has risen along with their blood sugar levels. No other traditional risk factors such as smoking, heart disease or diabetes changed between the two surveys. The study, presented at the International Stroke Conference in New Orleans, noted that the stroke rate stayed about the same – approximately 1 percent – in middle-aged men. THE SLEEPY WORKFORCE Roughly one-third of American workers said they had fallen asleep or become very sleepy at work in the past month. The survey of 1,000 peo- ple by the National Sleep Foundation, reported by HealthDay News, found that participants average six hours and 40 minutes of sleep a night on week- nights, even though they estimated they’d need roughly another 40 minutes of sleep to be at their best. While sleepy workers know they’re not performing as well as they could during the day, work is what’s keeping them up nights. The survey found workdays are getting longer and time spent working from home averages close to four-and-a-half hours each week. It seems people are also trying to squeeze in more time for themselves and their families, even if it means less sleep. The average wake-up is at 5:35 a.m. and it’s fol- lowed by about two hours and 15 minutes at home before heading out to work, according to the survey. Average bedtime is 10:53. SUPERBUG CONFOUNDS EXPERTS Public health officials, hospitals and legislators are arguing over the best way to curb Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the drug-resistant bug that could be killing up to 19,000 people a year nationwide. Experts can’t agree on whether hospitals are doing enough to address the growing number of MRSA infec- tions – or whether government should make them take action. MRSA is a bacterium that can live harmlessly in the skin or nasal cavities but attacks wounds and causes life-threatening infections, including pneumonia and blood poisoning. Over the years, it has evolved into a superbug that resists the most common antibiotics, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified at least 12 subtypes of MRSA. In the Journal of the American Medical Association, a CDC report showed Baltimore with the highest infection rate of nine regions studied. Of those infected, about 18 percent died. Some states have begun requiring hospitals to test patients for MRSA when they’re admitted. MEDICARE NIXES NON-INVASIVE HEART TEST Recently, the federal agency that oversees Medicare pro- posed tight restrictions on insurance reimbursement for the noninvasive Computed Tomography angiogra- phy test, which provides a detailed, colorful three-dimensional view of a patient’s heart through the use of mul- tiple X-rays, and typically costs $1,000 to $1,200. Many specialists say the CT procedure is more accurate and precise than other heart tests to reveal coronary artery disease. Critics argue that it has not been adequately studied, and that many patients get the test unnecessar- ily, receiving a radiation dose equivalent to hundreds of standard X-rays that could potentially increase the risk of some cancers. IGNORANCE ABOUT HEART WARNING SIGNS Only about one in four Americans know the warn- ing signs of a heart attack and what to do, a decline in knowledge since the last survey in 2001, which showed nearly one in three to be well informed. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention note that heart attack warning signs include the fol- lowing five symptoms: shortness of breath; pain or discomfort in the chest; discomfort in the arms or shoulder; a feeling of weakness or lightheadedness; and discomfort in the jaw, neck or back. Chest pain is the most common symptom, but women are more likely to experience shortness of breath and back or jaw pain. The best- informed groups tended to be white, highly educated, and women. Each year more than 900,000 Americans suffer a heart attack, and about 157,000 of them are fatal. About half of deaths caused by heart attack occur within an hour of onset of symptoms. The most important step to take when someone is believed to be suffering from a heart attack is to call an ambulance without delay. To • Your • Health