Preventive

If you're an older adult wondering what you should be doing to stay healthy, the most important answer is staying active. "Physical activity is more powerful than any medication a senior can take," says Dr. Cheryl Phillips, a San Francisco physician and president of the American Geriatrics Society. Much of the frailty that accompanies advanced age can be mitigated through exercise. Even moderate activity makes a difference. Frailty often leads to impairment and the loss of independence -- developments that can be preventable.

The only thing less pleasant than a stay in the hospital is having to go right back there to deal with complications. And experts say it happens all too often. One in 8 elderly patients is readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of being discharged after surgery, according to a recent study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. But efforts are underway to bring down the number of readmissions. The federal government, for instance, can fine hospitals with too many patients readmitted within 30 days after being treated for heart attacks, heart failure or pneumonia.

Preventive healthcare has been touted by politicians as a sure-fire method to slash healthcare costs by saving on future treatment expenses. And it's easy to believe them -- surely, we reason, it's better to treat high cholesterol before it turns into a heart attack or catch cancer early on. Better it may be, but economists present a different picture as far as costs go: Although preventive medicine is certainly desirable, it will not necessarily ease...

By opting for surgery to remove her breasts while they were still healthy, Angelina Jolie joined a growing number of women who have used genetic testing to take control of their health. Here are answers to some common questions about how DNA influences breast cancer risk and what women can do about it. What genes are involved in breast cancer? The two primary ones are known as BRCA1 and BRCA2. Hundreds of variants of these genes have been found that make a woman - or a man - more likely to develop breast cancer.

Re "Out of control," July 27 The article doesn't focus enough on the huge excess of fire fuels in the wildland-urban interfaces all over the West. In many of these areas, the fuel loads are three or four times greater than they would be under natural conditions. It is large-scale firefighting to protect property and residents in these interface areas that causes fires to be labeled as "catastrophic," and that generates such incredible expense. In true wilderness, the cost of firefighting tends to be less of a budget-buster because, in many cases, large areas can be allowed to burn as a natural process.

The Obama administration has suggested that savings from preventive health services will pay for much of the $1-trillion cost of health reform. Is that true? Not according to a comprehensive 2009 review article in the journal Health Affairs, which summed up its findings in its subtitle: "An Overwhelming Percentage of Preventive Interventions Add More to Medical Costs Than They Save." The key word is "interventions." Think about it: Having more people getting more health screenings, mammograms, pap smears and colonoscopies has to cost more money.

Early administration of morphine to military personnel wounded on the front lines during Operation Iraqi Freedom appears to have done more than relieve excruciating pain. Scientists believe it also prevented hundreds of cases of post-traumatic stress disorder, the debilitating condition that plagues 15% of those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. That conclusion is based on findings published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. They suggest that a simple treatment can stop a single horrifying event from escalating into a chronic, incapacitating illness.

HMOS have gone from preventive medicine to preventing medicine. GERALDINE FORER SPAGNOLI Calabasas

Until the gay community also focuses on a preventive education program, which might call for sexual abstention, public support will be limited. My advice for those who want to fight AIDS is not to forget the cause-and-effect element. Both need to be addressed. JUSTIN GREENE Chicago

"Ancestral Diet Gone Toxic" (Jan. 13) reports that Greenland's Inuit tribes contain levels of toxic chemicals in their bodies so high that some human tissues could be classified as hazardous waste. This should serve as a wake-up call to the public and policymakers in California, where billions of pounds of industrial chemicals and pesticides are released each year. Recently, the University of California and state health agencies tested blood and fat tissue samples of women living in California for toxic flame retardants, called polybrominated diphenyl ethers, and found them to be among the highest in the world.

Thom McDaniels is no stranger to surgery. As a longtime athlete and high school football coach, he's spent years putting his knees through the wringer. After injuring his right knee again during football practice, he was told by an orthopedic surgeon that it was time for reconstructive surgery. Reluctant to undergo a seventh knee surgery, he tried a lightweight knee brace that wraps around his leg from the thigh area to just below the knee. It changed the Ohio coach's life. "It's like somebody turned a light on," he said.

WASHINGTON - The latest chapter in the political battle over the killing of four Americans in Libya is unfolding this week, with Republicans pointing to the testimony of a State Department official as evidence that the U.S. military could have done more to disrupt the attack. Democrats, in turn, cite an independent review's findings that there were no forces available to carry out a rescue mission. House Republicans have released a partial transcript of remarks by Gregory Hicks, who was No. 2 at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli during the attack in September.

The proliferation of cellphones and their potential use for cheating has prompted heightened security measures on this year's administration of standardized tests in California schools. The chief concern is that students will take pictures of test items and post them on social media sites, which occurred last year. In response, many schools have begun collecting cellphones from students during testing periods. At the state level, there are checks of social media sites "every 15 minutes" by a team from the state education department and the national Education Testing Service, officials said.

My sisters and I spent the majority of our adolescence as foster kids in Los Angeles County. We entered the system after my parents divorced. My mom, who was both poor and mentally ill, wasn't equipped to be a single parent to six young children. No one told us about the bad odds we faced. Teenage girls living in foster care are 21/2 times more likely than other girls to become pregnant by age 19. Information about sexual development, reproductive health and pregnancy prevention is not readily available, in part because none of the many individuals who interact with youths in foster care has specific responsibility for providing such education.

JERUSALEM - With three airstrikes against Syria since January, Israel has inserted itself forcefully into the "Arab Spring's" most intractable conflict, heightening fears that Syria's civil war could spiral into a regional conflagration. The bombings of targets near the Syrian capital - including two strikes in a 48-hour period beginning Friday - represent a risk-laden strategy based on the calculation that retaliatory attacks against Israel by Syria or its allies are unlikely. Still the bombings inevitably raised the specter of a broader regional war in the heart of the volatile Middle East.

Kobe Bryant is locked in a court battle with his mother because she is trying to auction off his old Lakers and high school memorabilia. Pamela Bryant was given $450,000 up front by Goldin Auctions, a New Jersey auction house, so it could sell mementos from Kobe's days at Lower Merion High in Ardmore, Pa., and in his early seasons with the Lakers. She planned to use the advance to help purchase a home in Nevada. Goldin Auctions announced plans Tuesday for an auction in June of what its website calls "the bryant collection.

Freedman wrote an excellent column (May 15) on the needs of children. He eloquently builds a case for "preventive investment" and "preventive legislation." Nowhere is the immediate devastation of failed policy and ignorance greater than with the growing number of our children living in poverty and without hope. He recommends starting with our state Constitution. " . . . We can amend the California Constitution to guarantee that every mother and child has the right to health care.

Re "For many employees, fitness has its prize," March 12 Taking preventive measures to improve our health is undoubtedly a fine idea, but all the workplace treadmills and corporate incentive programs will be of little help to those who have inherited a propensity for a serious disease or condition. The most effective preventive measure -- early diagnosis -- is not available to the uninsured. Even among the insured, high deductibles will keep many from seeking treatment. Let's not be bought off by promises of free TVs. Economists tell us that the best way to cut costs is to implement a single-payer health insurance system: Every taxpayer pays a little, no one pays a lot, and everyone is covered.

Citing recent evidence that HIV infections are best managed when treated early, an influential panel of medical experts has finalized its recommendation that all people ages 15 to 65 be screened for the virus that causes AIDS. The recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force seeks to address one of the key challenges in the fight against HIV/AIDS: The window during which patients respond best to treatment is also the time when symptoms of the disease are least noticeable.

SEATTLE - Pitching in games wasn't so much the problem for reliever Sean Burnett, who had a 1.04 earned-run average in 11 appearances before being put on the 15-day disabled list because of forearm irritation Sunday. It was the discomfort Burnett felt between appearances, preventing him from pitching on consecutive days, that sent the veteran left-hander to the sidelines for at least two weeks. "Pitching-wise, I feel better than I have all year," said Burnett, who had surgery to remove two bone spurs from his elbow in October.