OU Medical Center-Health Matters

We all know exercise is good for our hearts. It helps keep us fit and trim. But it turns out it could also protect us from cancer. This is especially true for women when it comes to the most common female reproductive cancer in the country.

For kids summer is a vacation from school. For working parents, though, what to do with the kids all day can prove a challenge. A recent U.S. Census report revealed millions of American children between the ages of five and 14 are left home alone regularly. But when is a child really old enough to be left home alone? Experts at the OU Physicians Child Study Center say there is no simple answer.

Finding a cure for cancer is the quest of researchers across the nation and around the world. Now, scientists at the University of Oklahoma Cancer Institute are closer to learning how a major component in fish oil works to kill cancer cells. It's research that could lead to new cancer treatments.

It is a cancer that will strike 37,000 Americans this year and 32,000 will die from it. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths, largely because it is difficult to diagnose early. But researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center aim to change that. A Tulsa area woman is fighting this cancer--and new research offers hope for better treatments and ways to detect this deadly cancer early.

Summer and especially summer holidays often mean more time for family and friends to gather at the pool or lake. Cook outs and camp outs are common place. Unfortunately, emergency room physicians at the OU Medical Center see what happens when summer fun goes awry. Here are the two types of injuries ER physicians dread seeing, mostly because they are completely preventable.

Does it ever seem to you that almost the minute your kids or grandkids are finished with one activity, they're struggling to figure out what to do next? "I'm bored" is an all to familiar refrain with many children. And with summer break here, child physchologists at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center say you need to plan now to beat boredom.

As summer begins to take shape, thoughts turn to summer vacation plans. And for a growing number of families that will include a trip with a parent or grandparent. Multi-generational travel can bring a wealth of wonderful memories for the entire family, but senior health experts with OU Physicians urge familes to do some extra planning for travel that involves older adults.

We have all had cuts and scrapes. The body heals those wounds, but for some the healing process doesn't work as well as it should. In fact, wounds that won't heal cost this country tens of millions of dollars a year in treatment costs and hundreds of millions in lost wages and productivity. Now, researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center hope their work will point to a way to aid or even speed healing in wounds.

The phrase "sawing logs" is one most associated with adults. But sleeping children can also rattle the old decibel meter and experts with the OU Children's Physicians say the noise should not be ignored. It can point to problems with breathing, sleep and even behavioral and learning difficulties.

When cancer turns deadly it is often because it has spread far beyond the initial tumor. But what if there were a way to throw a medical roadblock in cancer's way to keep it from spreading? Researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center may be closing in on a new treatment that might do just that.

A new house is under construction in Moore, Oklahoma. You're probably thinking, "So what?" Yes, houses are being built everyday, but this house will mean a world of difference to hundreds of chronically ill children all accross the state.

Teenagers are falling deeper and deeper into debt...sleep debt that is. And as they fall further and further beind on their sleep, it often has a negative impact on their health, performance and their safety. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports drivers under the age of 25 are involved in more than half of all fall-asleep crashes.

Egg safety may not be foremost on the minds of children this week. But with 300 million more eggs sold each year at this time, it is for food safety experts. And dieticians at the University of Oklahoma College of Allied Health stress a few simple steps by parents can keep excited boys and girls from getting sick.

Millions of women suffer in silence with a common and somewhat embarrassing condition. It's Stress Urinary Incontinence, a condition often caused by physical changes resulting from pregnancy, childbirth or menopause. Now though, specialists with OU Physicians have a new device that offers relief in a simple, minimally invasive procedure that takes only minutes.

A child, hit by a car and nearly killed, is alive today thanks to the efforts of a team of specialists at the Children's Hospital at OU Medical Center. Since the accident, he could breath only with the help of a breathing tube. Now, the skills of yet another pediatric specialist brings hin a chance to breathe on his own once more.