Health briefs: Losing the baby weight

Shedding pounds after pregnancy is a struggle for many women. If you're just cutting calories, you're not doing enough, according to a new review by The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.

The studies, which involved 245 women, found women who combined both exercise and dieting lost more weight.

Slimming down after baby arrives is important because women who regain their pre-pregnancy weight within six months have a lower risk of being overweight 10 years later.

Tackling triglycerides:

Here's another reason to exercise: Some of the positive effects can last weeks after you stop.

Scientists at Duke University Medical Center studied 240 middle-aged, sedentary people who began exercise programs. Some worked out at high intensities, others did more moderate forms of exercise for shorter periods.

Not surprisingly, levels of HDL (the good cholesterol) improved with longer, harder exercise. But even modest workouts, such as walking 30 minutes a day, dramatically lowered levels of triglycerides, which lowers the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Triglycerides stayed low two weeks after the workouts ended. Scientists would have measured the benefits beyond two weeks, but the trial's review panel wouldn't allow it. The panel said it would be unethical to force people to stop such a healthful activity for any longer than that.

Snuff worse than smoking:

People who get their nicotine fix from a wad of tobacco tucked between their cheek and gums actually ingest more cancer-causing chemicals than people who smoke cigarettes, according to a study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

In a study comparing 182 oral snuff users with 420 cigarette smokers, researchers at the University of Minnesota Cancer Center found the snuff users were exposed to higher levels of nitrosamines, which are linked to lung cancer.