Prevention Matters

A study finding that cutting salt intake is as beneficial as smoking cessation was named “Best Prevention Idea of the Week,” while the proliferation of counterfeit condoms from China was named “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week.”

The Best/Worst awards are announced weekly in “Prevention Matters,” the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Nominees are voted on by the Partnership for Prevention staff, based upon nominees from the staff as well as the general public. Partnership for Prevention is a nonpartisan organization of business, nonprofit and government leaders working to make evidence-based disease prevention and health promotion a national priority. More information is available online at www.prevent.org.


BEST


Study Finds Cutting Salt as Good as Quitting Smoking
http://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/news/20100122/cutting-salt-as-good-as-quitting-smoking

A new study finds that cutting U.S. salt intake by just half a teaspoon a day would prevent up to 92,000 deaths, 99,000 heart attacks and 66,000 strokes -- a benefit as big as smoking cessation. The prediction, based on computer models using real clinical data, to predict the effects of small reductions in salt intake, was published in the Jan. 20 online issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. "The [heart] benefits of reduced salt intake are on par with the benefits of population-wide reductions in tobacco use, obesity, and cholesterol levels," says Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, PhD. The average U.S. man currently gets about 10.4 grams a day and the average U.S. woman gets about 7.3 grams a day.


WORST

Counterfeit Condoms are China's Latest Knockoff Scandal
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-china-condoms21-2010jan21,0,3174579.story

Health officials warn that inferior contraceptives can spread the diseases they are supposed to protect against. Some of the brand-name knockoffs have reached the U.S. It's China's latest knockoff scandal -- inferior contraceptives that health officials say provide little protection and may in fact spread infectious diseases, tarnishing the axiom that condoms mean safe sex.