Your health

Girl talk

Do training bras help the breasts to grow? It's a logical enough question, if you think about it. A preteen girl might want to ask - if she just wasn't way too embarrassed.

"Taking Care of Your 'Girls'" (Three Rivers Press, $15.95) is a new book by a breast cancer specialist and her teenage daughter that gives frank answers to girls' questions about breast development and health.

The book follows a survey of more than 3,000 teenage girls that found more than 25 percent had worried that a normal change in their growing breasts was a sign of cancer; nearly 75 percent know someone close who has had breast cancer, and few realize how their teenage habits can affect their risk later on.

"No woman is too young to start practicing good breast health," said co-author Dr. Marisa Weiss, founder of www.breastcancer.org.

For more information on the book, visit www.Taking CareofYourGirls.com.

Jump for bones

Just 10 minutes of jumping and skipping two times a week can make teenagers' bones stronger, a new report shows.

Students in an Australian school warmed up before P.E. classes and sports with tuck jumps, star jumps, side lunges and skipping - all exercises that put a bone-stimulating, weight-bearing load on the skeleton. By the end of the eight-month study, the youngsters had worked up to about 300 jumps per session.

Boys showed an overall improvement in bone mass and a reduction in body fat. Girls' bone mass improved in the hip and spine - two key areas for fractures later in life due to osteoporosis.

The study was reported in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

Don't share those pills

It's a definite no-no, but people do it anyway. More than a third of women ages 18 to 44 reported borrowing or sharing prescription medications - most often allergy or pain pills. Men and older women are less likely to share pills.

The study, published in the online edition of Journal of Women's Health, stresses the risks of prescription-drug sharing, including unexpected side effects, interactions with other drugs, incorrect dosages and even addiction.