Jane Farrell – Page 103

Watch: Do You Have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

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Exercise Could Prevent Cognitive Decline

Cardiovascular exercise, which has been shown to help our bodies, may also protect our minds, according to new research.

Study: Watch Out for Prescription-Level NSAIDs

Three widely used drugs, known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, alter the activity of enzymes within cell membranes and could lead to unwanted side effects.

Those side effects could be the results of taking the drugs for a long period of time and/or at a higher-than-approved dosage level.

The NSAIDS, sold over the counter as aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen, would have the effects primarily at prescription levels.

Watch: 6 Easy Stress Busters

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Back to Basics: Counting Calories

Despite all the diet strategies out there, weight management still comes down to the calories you take in versus those you burn off. Fad diets may promise you that avoiding carbs or eating a mountain of grapefruit is the secret to weight loss, but it’s really all about calories.

CALORIES: FUEL FOR YOUR BODY

Calories are the energy in food. Your body has a constant demand for energy and uses the calories from food to keep functioning. Energy from calories fuels your every action, from fidgeting to marathon running.

Antibacterial Soap May Be Unhealthy

Antibacterial soap may not have the health benefits you thought: A new study shows that washing with the soap exposes hospital workers to a high level of the potentially unsafe levels of the chemical triclosan.

Watch: How to Cope with Tech-Related Dry Eyes

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Which Alternative Headache Remedies Are Safe?

Depending on the severity of their condition, headache sufferers may take over the counter medications or prescription remedies. Many “alternative” treatments are available as well. According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), researchers are continuing to study the effectiveness of these treatments. While some of these widely-touted remedies may not work as advertised, others are effective.

Here, from the NCCAM, is a rundown of the current research on alternative remedies for headaches:

Yoga Can Sharpen Your Mind

Regular practice of yoga can improve older adults’ performance of cognitive tasks, according to new research.

Investigators from the University of Illinois found that eight weeks of hatha yoga classes, three times a week, led to speedier and more accurate performance on tests of information recall, mental flexibility and task-switching than before the patients had taken the yoga class.

The Newest IBS Medicines

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is an often misunderstood and underdiagnosed condition that affects about 15.3 million people in the United States.

No one remedy works for all patients, so there’s a great medical need to develop new therapies for IBS, Andrew Mulberg, M.D., a gastroenterologist with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said in one of the agency’s “Consumer Update” articles.

Making Surgery as Easy as Possible

Have you been told by your doctor that you need surgery? If so, you’re not alone. Millions of older Americans have surgery each year.

Your primary care doctor may suggest a surgeon to you, and your state or local medical society can tell you about your surgeon’s training. Try to choose a surgeon who operates often on medical problems like yours.

Crucial Heart-Disease Devices Benefit People of Color

Racial and ethnic minorities who get implantable devices to treat heart failure derive the same survival benefit as white patients, new research shows. But non-white patients are getting the devices at a much lower rate.
The study, one of the largest to compare the survival benefits of the devices by race and ethnicity, looked at 15,000 patients from 167 medical practices across the U.S. The findings are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Watch: 4 Medical Tech Devices for Senior Care

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Progress in Fighting Tough Tumors

Spanish researchers have found the strongest proof yet that inhibition of a gene could be used to fight cancerous tumors.

Research led by the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Barcelona, found that the inhibiting mutations of the Myc gene could be accomplished via the drug Omomyc. That inhibitor was designed by Laura Soucek, Principal Investigator of VHIO´s Mouse Models of Cancer Therapies Group.

The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.

Multiple Sclerosis: 5 Things You Should Know

MS can happen to just about anyone.

The central nervous system disorder affects your brain and spinal cord. But it spares the nerves and muscles that lead away from the spinal cord. Nearly 350,000 people in the United States have MS.

MS is a long-term illness. Infection-fighting white blood cells enter the nervous system and cause injury by stripping off the myelin sheath that protects nerves. When this happens, the nerves cannot conduct electricity as well as they should. This causes symptoms.

Many Elderly ER Visitors Are Malnourished

In a new study, researchers found that more than half of elderly patients in a hospital emergency room were either malnourished or at risk of malnutrition.

Additionally, more than half of the patients who were malnourished hadn’t been diagnosed with the condition.

Researchers focused on patients 138 65 and older who were seen at the University of North Carolina hospitals over an eight-week period. The patients were not cognitively impaired or critically ill. None of them lived in a nursing home or skilled nursing facility.