For generations, families have gathered around their kitchen tables to enjoy evening meals together. In recent years, this long-held American tradition has all but fallen by the wayside.

"The problem is that everyone is so frantically busy now," said registered dietitian Elisa Zied, M.S., RD, author of "Feed Your Family Right!" "Parents and their kids are overscheduled with work, after-school activities and lessons."

These days, children and their parents are eating more meals separately, outside of the kitchen and away from the dining room table. Dinner is often a solitary, hurried affair, wolfed down in the car or at a fast food restaurant.

In the United States, roughly 40 percent of evening meals at home are consumed in front of the television. Research shows that the more meals kids eat while watching TV, the more likely they are to be overweight.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly a third of U.S. children are currently overweight. Being overweight in childhood dramatically increases the chances of being overweight -- and unhealthy -- in adulthood.

"The way we're eating isn't fostering good health habits," noted Zied, mother of two children and a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "It's setting us up for all kinds of health issues, including obesity."

A growing body of scientific evidence supports the notion that eating together as a family provides a number of important health benefits. The results of a 2000 Harvard study published in the Archives of Family Medicine demonstrated that family dinners were associated with good nutrition.

The study showed that families eating meals together every day or almost every day generally consumed greater amounts of important nutrients, including vitamins and minerals. They also consumed less dietary fat compared to families who seldom or never ate meals together.

Other studies have confirmed that when families dine together, children and their parents tend to eat less fast food and drink fewer sodas, while increasing their intake of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. The benefits of breaking bread together go far beyond good nutrition.

Family meals may actually enhance the emotional well-being of children and teens. Gathering around the table gives kids and parents a chance to talk and listen to each other, while they catch up on the events of the day and make plans for the future.

The results of a study published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine found that adolescents who frequently sat down to family meals had better grades, more satisfying relationships with their peers, and lower rates of depression. The youngsters were also less likely to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, or use marijuana than kids who ate with their families less often than twice a week.

While many parents appreciate the value of family meals, making time to sit down at the table can be challenging.

"Even if you can come together for meals only on the weekends, it's a good place to start," said Zied. "If you can't get together in the evenings, eating breakfast as a family a couple of times a week is an excellent alternative."

Meals don't have to be exotic, expensive, or time consuming to be beneficial. When made with wholesome, low-fat fixings, even sandwiches, can be nutritious and delicious.

If you're pressed for time, you can buy ready-to-eat fruits, vegetables, soups, and pasta dishes at supermarket salad bars. While frozen entrees may not be as tasty or as nutritious as your favorite home-cooked meals, most are far superior to burgers, fries, and other fast food selections.

Meal preparation is a little easier and a lot more fun when you make it a family affair. Whether it's setting the table, setting an oven timer, or measuring or mixing ingredients, even young children can pitch in and help out.

Kids who learn to fend for themselves in the kitchen tend to be less reliant on fast food and junk food as adults. As a result, they're likely to enjoy better nutrition, and ultimately, better health.

When kids get involved in meal preparation, they learn about more than just food. Working as a team with their siblings and parents, they create memories that they'll cherish for a lifetime.

"Eating meals together as a family isn't just about getting better nutrition; it's about spending more time together," said Zied. "It's an excellent way for parents and children to stay connected on an emotional and psychological level."

In recent weeks, Americans have been bombarded with the political flurry of presidential hopefuls. Among all the hype and media attention, one presidential candidate, John Edwards, and his family have had the unfortunate luck of facing not just political issues but personal ones as well. Elizabeth Edwards must now undergo a very public battle with recurrent breast cancer. Like millions of women in America, she is fighting a very serious illness.

In 2006, more than 200,000 women were diagnosed with breast cancer. The risk of getting breast cancer increases with age. Approximately 65 percent of all diagnoses occur in women over the age of 55. According to statistics from the National Cancer Institute, between 2002 and 2003 the median age of diagnosis for breast cancer was 61 years of age.

Dealing with recurrent breast cancer, like the type Edwards has, is a major challenge for patients and their families. Sadly, no one can ever consider herself totally cured, as the tumor can return as late as 20 or 30 years after the initial diagnosis. Breast cancer is an unpredictable illness. In most cases, if the cancer does come back, it does so in the first two or three years after the initial diagnosis. This is called "breast cancer recurrence" and can occur at the site of the initial tumor, in the lymph nodes that drain lymph from the breast (mainly in the underarm but sometimes in the chest), or it can spread through the bloodstream and appear in the lungs, liver, brain or in bone.

Many factors affect the chance of cure, including the size of the tumor at the time of diagnosis (the bigger the tumor the worse), the age at diagnosis (younger patients have a worse prognosis), whether the tumor is sensitive to hormones, or "estrogen-responsive" (ER positive) and how aggressive the tumor appears when examined microscopically.

These factors that affect the rate of cure also affect treatment options. If the recurrence is in the breast alone, aggressive surgery to remove the breast and muscles around it may be recommended -- this is called a modified radical mastectomy. Sometimes radiotherapy is the treatment of choice, and often a combination of hormone therapy and chemotherapy is given. Hormone therapy is given if the tumor is ER positive.

A large number of breast cancers contain a protein on the surface of the cell called HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor-2). The HER2-positive breast cancers tend to be more aggressive and do not respond as well to therapy with hormones. They can, however, be treated very effectively with a medication that targets HER2 and can reduce the size of the cancer by 50 percent to help prevent recurrence. This medication is called herceptin. In addition to being highly effective, it has few side effects. Often herceptin is given with other chemotherapy agents.

Each year, better and better choices are becoming available to treat breast cancer, and rates of cure appear to be increasing. Most importantly, even if recurrence has occurred, treatment can keep the disease "in check" for many years. Although not cured, many patients live in symbiosis with their disease, live productive and very full lives and are able to do anything and everything they wish.

I applaud Edwards for her fortitude and her willingness to carry on with a positive attitude and remain fully engaged in life. Dealing with the stress of a recurrence is difficult, and families require emotional support and counseling to help deal with the disease. Every woman should seek the best possible medical advice by true experts in the field. These days, side effects of treatment are often minimal or transient. Continuing to have a purpose, having a positive attitude and having high self-esteem are critically important for a woman dealing with recurrent breast cancer. Retiring from your job or from life is the worst way to deal with this disease.

Edwards is setting a wonderful example for the thousands of men and women who deal with recurrent cancer every day, and I congratulate her and her husband for continuing forward with their hopes and dreams.

Here's a little good news for daytime snoozers: Taking a brief siesta in the middle of the day may dramatically lower your risk of death due to heart disease. The results of a recent study published in The Archives of Internal Medicine revealed that midday napping reduced coronary mortality by at least a third among healthy adults.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Athens Medical School in Greece and the Harvard School of Public Health, involved nearly 24,000 healthy Greek men and women between the ages of 20 and 86. At the beginning of the study, the participants were asked if they took a midday siesta, and if so, how often and how long they usually slept.

Participants also gave information about their level of physical activity and their dietary habits. Of the 793 deaths that occurred during the six-year follow up, 133 were attributed to heart disease.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found that participants who took naps at least three times a week for an average of at least 30 minutes were 37 percent less likely to die from heart disease than those who never napped.

Employed males appeared to derive the greatest benefits. Working men who napped had a 64 percent lower risk of heart-related death than those who abstained from daytime dozing.

The researchers concluded that napping may boost cardiovascular health by relieving stress, which often contributes to heart problems. Previous research has demonstrated a strong correlation between napping and improved heart health.

In the Mediterranean region and in several Latin American countries where siestas are popular, the risk of dying from heart disease is typically lower than in the United States, where napping is less common. Among American men and women, heart disease is currently the leading cause of death.

There's no doubt that most Americans could use a little extra shut-eye. Over the past century, we've shortened our average sleep time by about two hours a night.

While the average adult requires seven to nine hours of sleep each night for optimum health, many of us are getting just six hours or less. All this missed slumber ultimately leads to sleep deprivation, which can cause some serious problems.

Several studies have shown that skimping on sleep can weaken the immune system. The result is an increased susceptibility to minor infections and major illnesses, ranging from colds and flu to cancer.

Sleep deprivation has been shown to contribute to the development of diabetes and obesity. Lack of sufficient shut-eye not only interferes with the body's ability to regulate blood sugar, it also lowers blood levels of leptin, a hormone that plays a key role in appetite control.

As you might suspect, the most immediate and noticeable effects of sleep deprivation are daytime drowsiness and fatigue. If you manage to stay awake, you're likely to suffer from impaired memory and concentration, not to mention irritability.

While many Americans rely on a midday dose of caffeine to boost sagging energy levels, this strategy often backfires. Drinking coffee and colas during the day can lead to insomnia and poor-quality sleep at night, worsening the problem of sleep deprivation.

Nodding off unexpectedly can cause problems, but a planned power nap is a great way to make up for lost sleep. Swedish researchers studying the effects of napping on daytime alertness measured the performance of volunteers in three situations: after a full night's sleep, after four hours of sleep and a short nap, and after four hours of sleep with no nap.

The subjects who slept four hours with no nap scored the lowest on tests of alertness, while those who slept four hours and then napped scored just as well as those who got a full night's sleep. Mood, memory, and reaction time also improved after a short daytime doze.

The best time for a siesta is early or mid-afternoon, when energy levels naturally wane. If you want to avoid feeling groggy and sluggish after awakening, you should limit your downtime to 30 minutes or less.

When you nap for less than a half hour, you don't have a chance to plunge into a deep sleep. As a result, you'll snooze lightly and wake up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.

The next time you feel your eyelids drooping, you might want to consider taking a short siesta. Spending just a few minutes of your day in slumber could add a few extra years to your life.

How best to lose weight and keep it off is a national obsession. Of the many weight-loss programs available, the Atkins diet is the most controversial. On the surface, this approach to dieting seems like nothing short of lunacy. Everything we have learned over the past 50 years is thrown out the window.

Dr. Robert Atkins believed that the best and healthiest way to lose weight is to become a true carnivore. Eat steak, bacon and as much fat as you want, but at all costs, avoid carbohydrates. No rolls, pasta, rice or potatoes. Even fruit is strictly limited. And the diet does work. Pounds melt off and surprisingly, despite the high fat, total and bad or LDL cholesterol falls, metabolism improves and risk of diabetes decreases -- truly incredible and to the skeptics (that includes me), too good to be true.

Those who oppose the Atkins diet raise serious questions about the long-term effects of a high-fat diet that may increase the risk of breast, colon and prostate cancers, heart attacks, strokes and even Alzheimer's disease. The proponents of the diet argue that limiting carbohydrates significantly reduces total calorie intake, improves the ability of insulin to function and lowers blood pressure; they suggest that the Atkins diet may, over time, prevent rather than cause heart disease.

The antithesis of the Atkins diet is one developed by Dr. Dean Ornish, whose vegetarian diet is rich in fruits, vegetables and complex carbohydrates. Fat intake is kept at a minimum. In combination with lifestyle changes, rigorous study indicates that this weight-loss program promotes a longer life and decreases risk of heart attacks in healthy people and in those with severe coronary artery disease.

Somewhere between Ornish and Atkins is the Zone diet, based on the principle that excess insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar, leads to increased appetite and preferential formation of fat at the expense of muscle. To assure that insulin levels are in the ideal "zone," every meal must be balanced and the proportion of total calories as carbohydrates, fat and protein are strictly controlled. Staying on the Zone diet and preparing your own meals is virtually impossible. Realistically, the only way to participate in the Zone is to purchase prepared meals -- a billion-dollar industry. Although less well studied, there is general consensus that this diet is as good as any other.

So which diet is best? To answer this question, the National Institutes of Health funded a study that, in an unbiased way, compared the effectiveness of the Atkins, Ornish and Zone approaches to weight loss in more than 300 overweight premenopausal women. They also compared these diets to one felt to be ideal by most clinical nutritionists. This weight-loss program is called LEARN (Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitudes, Relationships and Nutrition) and consists of a diet low in fat, high in carbohydrates and based on national guidelines for nutrient intake. A key component is intensive counseling to assure adequate exercise and stress reduction. It's a total makeover that emphasizes lifestyle changes as much as it does dieting.

The results of this study, just published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association, are unambiguous. Weight loss occurred most rapidly in the women on the Atkins diet. After one year those on the Atkins diet had lost the most weight, on the average five pounds more than the other diets. Blood pressure was lower, as was the cholesterol level.

So what can we conclude from this study? If you want to lose weight rapidly, the Atkins diet is for you and at one year you will likely be thinner than if you were on one of the other diets. However, the study tells us nothing about the long-term effects of a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. We do know that it is virtually impossible to stay on this diet indefinitely. Eventually you will be eating too much fat and too much carbohydrate -- a prescription for disaster.

Quick fixes over one month or one year are never the solution. The best diet is still the don't-diet diet. Only through total lifestyle changes will a healthier and happier life be guaranteed. Diets don't work; they never have and never will.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (UPI) -- Couples with a strong marriage are better equipped to handle a fussy or difficult baby, according to a study by Ohio State University.

The study, published in the journal Infant Behavior & Development, found that a couple's relationship with each other was key in determining how they reacted as parents when faced with a temperamental baby.

"When couples with a supportive marital relationship have a difficult baby, they tend to rise to the challenge," study co-author Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan said in a statement. "Couples who don't have a strong relationship with each other are more likely to undermine each other and get into conflicts when they have to deal with a particularly challenging baby."

There have been studies examining how mothers deal with difficult babies, but this study focused on how mothers and fathers work together as parents -- what researchers call the "coparenting relationship."

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

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Children screened for superbugs in ICU

BALTIMORE (UPI) -- Johns Hopkins Hospital physicians are screening every child admitted to its pediatric intensive care unit for the two most common hospital superbugs.

The more stringent admission screening methods for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus, or VRE, go well beyond standard hospital practices.

The new practice was introduced March 1 after a Johns Hopkins study showed that more frequent screening detected many more carriers of the germs before their presence led to infection or the germs spread to others.

The findings are being presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Health Care Epidemiology of America in Baltimore.

Patients found to be infected or to be a carrier are placed in isolation. Wound care is done only in designated, confined treatment spaces and hospital staff must take special precautions between treatments, such as cleaning equipment and furniture with strong disinfectants and wearing disposable gloves, masks and gowns.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

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Study: Aspirin linked to less cancer

LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- Women who regularly use aspirin developed fewer cancers than women who did not, according to a study by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Regular aspirin use was associated with lower cancer incidence and cancer mortality, but non-aspirin non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug use was not, according to findings presented at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Los Angeles.

Among 22,507 cancer-free postmenopausal women who participated in the Iowa Women's Health Study and provided information on aspirin and NSAID use, those who said they regularly used aspirin had a 16-percent reduced risk of developing cancer more than a decade later.

In addition, they had a 13-percent reduced risk of dying from cancer over this same time period, compared with women who did not use aspirin, according to lead author Dr. Aditya Bardia.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

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Public thinks homecare aides are trained

NEW YORK (UPI) -- There are no U.S. training requirements for professional homecare aids, but a survey found most people who hired aides believed they have some training.

The survey, conducted for The Caregiving Project for Older Americans by Harris Interactive, of adults who have used or paid for an in-home caregiver for someone age 65 or older found 78 percent stated that in their opinion their caregiver had formal training, 14 percent did not know if they had received training and 8 percent believed their caregiver received no training.

Out of 1,030 adults, 8 percent of respondents reported that they have used and/or paid for the services of a paid in-home caregiver for someone age 65 or older in the last 12 months. Among those who have used or paid for an in-home caregiver, 44 percent were paying out-of-pocket for at least some of the costs.

"With the increase of life expectancy -- 77.9 in the United States -- large numbers of older adults are living with increased chronic disease, frailty and dementia," Dr. Robert Butler, co-director of The Caregiving Project for Older Americans, said in a statement. "In-home caregivers need special training to care for the complex issues."

MARSHFIELD, Wis. (UPI) -- The caloric content of newspaper dessert recipes was significantly associated with obesity in large U.S. metropolitan cities, a study found.

Researchers at Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, in Marshfield, Wis., studied 64 entree and 38 dessert recipes published in major newspapers serving cities with populations of 400,000 or more.

The study, published in the Wisconsin Medical Journal, found no association between the entree recipes and obesity; however, the calorie-dense dessert recipes printed in major newspapers across the country may be contributing to obesity in large cities.

"While these data cannot be interpreted as causal, they are intriguing and suggest that newspapers may play a greater role in promoting or preventing obesity than previously recognized," Catherine McCarty, of the Center for Human Genetics, Marshfield Clinic, said in a statement.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

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'Nightowls' likely to have troubled sleep

PALO ALTO, Calif. (UPI) -- People who prefer to stay awake at night and sleep during the day have more troubled sleep than those with traditional sleeping habits, a U.S. study says.

The study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine says people with insomnia who prefer to be active at night reported more irregularities and distress in their sleeping patterns than sleepers who keep more regular hours.

Because the day-sleepers often spend more time sleeping than those who sleep at night, the study shows the time of sleep is often more critical than the amount of it.

"Our findings indicate further research should investigate the relationship between (daily) rhythms and insomnia, especially with the severity of the 'night owl' group," study author Jason Ong of Stanford University said in a statement.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

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Male sleep affected by drinking

MADISON, Wis. (UPI) -- A U.S. study finds men who drink alcohol on a regular basis are more likely to have a sleep-related breathing disorder than women with similar drinking habits.

The study in this month's issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine looked at the drinking and sleeping habits of 775 men and 645 women. It found for every alcoholic drink men have per day, they are 25 percent more likely to have a harder time breathing during sleep than women who drink moderately.

Although study author Paul Peppard of the University of Wisconsin suggested the study might not have recorded an accurate sample of women who routinely drink, he agreed with its key findings.

Women are more resistant than men to threats against a good night's sleep after drinking, Peppard said in a statement, and female hormones may play a role in their immunity to the disorder.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

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Juries more often sympathize with doctors

COLUMBIA, Mo. (UPI) -- It's a common belief that juries frequently side with patients in lawsuits involving medical malpractice, but a study finds that's not true.

Philip Peters, of University of Missouri-Columbia's School of Law, found contrary to popular belief, juries sympathize more often with doctors and less with their patients.

The findings, published in the May edition of the Michigan Law Review, was made following an extensive review of studies examining medical malpractice cases from 1989 to 2006.

The study found negligence matters and plaintiffs rarely win weak cases, but plaintiffs have more success in toss-up cases and have better outcomes in cases with strong evidence of medical negligence. Juries have the ability to recognize weak cases and agree with independent legal experts 80 percent to 90 percent of the time regarding such cases and doctors are victorious in 50 percent of the cases that independent legal experts expected plaintiffs to win.

"When the jury is in doubt after hearing the conflicting experts, the benefit of that doubt usually goes to the defendant -- (the doctor)," Peters said in a statement.

DUBLIN, Ireland (UPI) -- A workplace smoking ban in Ireland resulted in an 83 percent reduction in air pollution in bars, found a study of 42 Dublin pubs.

The Research Institute for a Tobacco Free Society in Dublin

also found an 80 percent decrease in airborne carcinogens for patrons and staff, and an improvement in the respiratory health of bar workers, according to the study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Participants were tested prior to the March 29, 2004, Irish national smoking ban, and compared to results one-year later.

Dr. Luke Clancy, director of the Research Institute for a Tobacco Free Society in Dublin, also found the post-ban tests demonstrated an 83 percent reduction in tiny particulate matter in bar air.

"These results confirm that the approach of a total ban on smoking in the workplace is successful in reducing the exposure of workers to particles," Clancy said in a statement. "We have previously shown that a reduction of particle levels in ambient air resulted in marked health benefits in terms of respiratory and cardiovascular mortality."

U.S. adults know little about Alzheimer's

NEW YORK (UPI) -- A poll finds that while more than half of U.S. adults know someone with Alzheimer's, 90 percent say they don't know much about the disease.

More than 5 million U.S. adults have Alzheimer's disease and someone new is added to those ranks every 72 seconds, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

"It's this lack of understanding that has fueled complacency," said actress Kate Burton, whose parents were stage and film actor Richard Burton and actress Sybil Williams Christopher.

"Shows like 'Grey's Anatomy' and the character I played -- Ellis Grey -- have slowly awakened our senses to what individuals with the disease and their families have to endure. The reality is, Alzheimer's can strike as young as age 30 and it's a slow, debilitating, fatal disease. This new exhibit and campaign will hopefully open people's eyes to the reality of this horrible disease."

Dozens of celebrities are lending a hand to educate the public on the facts of Alzheimer's disease and dispel the misperception that Alzheimer's disease is just about old people losing their memory; those suffering from Alzheimer's disease will lose the ability to form thoughts, remember simple words and ultimately communicate.

Exhaled breaths may be used to detect cancer

ALBANY, N.Y. (UPI) -- Exhaled breaths might indicate whether or not a patient is at risk for lung cancer, according to researchers at the New York state department of health.

"Early detection of lung cancer is vital, yet there is no current non-invasive means of identifying cancer in a clinical setting," said Dr. Simon Spivack, of the New York State Wadsworth Center in Albany. "We have found that exhaled breath contains DNA, we believe from the cells lining the lungs, which may then tell us whether that person is at risk for cancer."

Spivack and his colleagues told the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Los Angeles that the large molecule DNA could also be recovered, albeit in trace amounts, in exhaled breath condensate.

Such noninvasive tests could benefit particularly underserved populations, such as the poor, who often wait until symptoms appear before seeing a doctor, according to Spivack.

Cured meats may hurt lung function

NEW YORK (UPI) -- Cured meats eaten frequently can lead to decreased lung function and potential chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, says a U.S. study.

The study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, consisted of 7,352 individuals with an average age of 64.5 years with 48 percent male.

Dr. Rui Jiang, of Columbia University Medical Center in New York, and three associates showed that the "odds ratio" for developing COPD among individuals who consumed cured meat products 14 times or more per month was 1.93, as compared with those who did not consume cured meats. An odds ratio greater than 1 implies that the event is more likely to occur within that group, explains Jiang.

"Cured meats, such as bacon, sausage, luncheon meats and cured hams, are high in nitrites, which are added to meat products as a preservative, an anti-microbial agent, and a color fixative," Jiang said in a statement. "Nitrates generate reactive nitrogen species that may cause damage to the lungs, producing structural changes resembling emphysema."