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How To Eat Healthy And Still Have Fun For Halloween - HER Week In Health

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In this edition of EmpowHER's "HER Week In Health" for the week of October 28th 2011, Bailey Mosier discusses ways to keep the unhealthy eating to a minimum during the Halloween weekend, a study encourages young boys as well as girls to get the HPV vaccine, and finally covers a study that suggest that we could live in a world where breast cancer does not exist.

Hi, I’m Bailey Mosier. This is EmpowHER’s HER Week in Health.

Halloween weekend has arrived and the candy in your houses and in your kids’ bellies will be plentiful. In this week’s edition we’ll share some ways to help keep the unhealthy eating to a minimum. Also making waves in headlines this week: medical experts strongly urge children – both girls and boys – to get the HPV vaccine. And could we one day live in a world where breast cancer doesn’t exist? Have a look …

It’s ok to treat yourself and your kids to a small amount of candy on Halloween, but there are simple ways to prevent overindulgence.

KidsHealth.org suggests feeding your children before they go out trick-or-treating to discourage snacking while out. Let kids know ahead of time the limits on how much candy they can eat and the reasons for those limits. Be a role model, yourself, by eating candy in moderation. And after Halloween, “buy” your children’s excess candy from them – they’ll likely want the money instead of candy.
And if you’re handing out items to Trick-or-Treaters, KidsHealth.org suggests candy-free options such as stickers, toys, false teeth, little bottles of bubble and small games. Just a few ways Halloween can be fun and healthy!
The HPV vaccine Gardasil has been available since 2006 and until now, it had only been recommended that young girls receive the vaccine. Health officials now say boys need it, too.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved recommendations for routine vaccination of males 11 or 12 years old to shield against the virus that causes most cervical cancers, as well as anal cancer and some cancers of the throat and mouth.

More than 40 strains of HPV exist, and all are passed along by skin-to-skin contact, usually during sexual relations. Studies have shown that half of all adult males in the U.S. may be infected with the virus.

Experts say requiring only females be vaccinated wasn’t attacking the problem with full force, especially for a virus that affects both men and women.

The CDC now recommends males as young as age 9, and boys and young men 13 to 21 years of age who hadn't already received the vaccine to be vaccinated and for 11- and 12-year-old girls and for young women ages 13 through 26 who have not yet been vaccinated.

Many doctors and scientists are trying to find a cure for breast cancer, but researchers from Cleveland Clinic are on the brink of developing a breast cancer vaccine that would stop the cancer from ever developing in the first place.

The Cleveland researchers have had successful lab results in animal studies and while still considered “experimental,” eliminating breast cancer in adults may be the same way we prevent polio and measles in children.

The preventive vaccine was intended to be FDA-approved and ready for human clinical trials this year, but has been delayed due to funding.

The vaccine would be injected in one simple shot, and the strategy for now would likely be to vaccinate women over 40 — when breast cancer risk begins to increase and pregnancy becomes less likely.

That wraps up your EmpowHER HER Week in Health. Join me here at EmpowHER.com every Friday for the latest in women’s health.

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