healthy living for women + their families
Experts are developing a genetic computer model that may eventually predict whether a patient going to suffer from a mental illness, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
The researchers, from the University of Texas, Arlington; the University of Illinois; and the Beijing Genomics Institutes in Wuhan, China, published their findings in the journal Biomed Research International.
Researchers are progressing in the development of a more effective treatment of osteoporosis, a widespread and serious health problem in the U.S.
The investigators, from the UCLA School of Dentistry, are working on a treatment that both slows down the destruction of bone and promotes bone formation.
The researchers found that a growth factor, Wnt4, which is secreted in the bone marrow, prevented bone loss in mice with osteoporosis. Wnt4 does that by blocking a signaling pattern that would otherwise promote inflammation.
How your bladder functions every day can tell you a lot about your overall health. How often you urinate during the day and during the night, the color of your urine and whether you can “hold it” all provide clues to health conditions that don’t involve your urinary system.
“Eighty percent of the causes of bladder problems are related to conditions outside of the bladder,” says urologist Raymond Rackley, MD. These can include problems with the nervous or cardiovascular systems, Rackley says.
So what should you look out for?
Osteoarthritis, the degeneration of joint cartilage, is age-related. Most cases involve stiffness in the knee, hip and thumb joints. But while it is a painful condition, osteoarthritis doesn’t necessarily limit your from physical activity. In fact, the right kind of exercise can improve the condition.
Projects involving gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, should be subject to public-health and community analysis before they begin, an expert panel says.
The panel called for groundwater and air quality testing before, during, and after the drilling, saying that the analysis is a key component of guaranteeing the safety of communities near the drilling site.
Editor’s note: If you ever thought getting a colonoscopy was the only way to screen for colon cancer, you’re wrong. Here, the experts from the Mayo Clinic explain what the choices are:
WHAT IS YOUR DOCTOR’S APPROACH TO COLON-CANCER SCREENING?
Make sure that you’re comfortable with the colon cancer screening test your doctor recommends. If your doctor specializes in a particular test but you’d rather have another test, express your wishes. If necessary, your doctor might offer a referral to someone trained in the test with which you feel most comfortable.
Researchers have discovered more about a breast-cancer gene that could be as important as the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in determining a woman’s likelihood of getting breast cancer.
An international team of 17 researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, said that the gene, PALB 2, could be a candidate to be “BRCA 3.” They said that women with the gene have an average one in three chance of developing breast cancer by the age of 70.
The findings were reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Although it’s been known for a while that PALB2 was l
By Meriflor Toneatto
Everyone has a relationship with money, but for women, it’s much more fraught with emotion.
When we avoid and ignore those emotions, we allow them to quietly guide our decision-making – which inevitably holds us back.
Understanding our emotions, fears and doubts about money and how they affect our behavior can help us heal them so we can experience financial and personal freedom. For women, money is an emotional currency. It’s tied to our sense of self-worth and self-confidence, and our feelings of safety and security.
Almost every summer, there is a deadly heat wave in some part of the country. Too much heat isn’t safe for anyone, and it’s even riskier if you’re older or have health problems. That’s why it’s important to get relief quickly, and even better, to prevent overexposure in the first place.
Being hot for too long can cause several illnesses grouped under the designation hyperthermia:
Work-related stress has been linked to illnesses, including heart disease. New research proves that it is a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes as well.
The findings, by researchers from the Helmholtz Zentrum München, in Germany, were published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.
The scientists, headed by Dr. Cornelia Huth and Prof.
Shingles is a disease that affects nerves and causes pain and blisters in adults. It’s caused by the same varicella-zoster virus that causes chickenpox in children. After you recover from chickenpox, the virus doesn’t leave your body, but continues to live in some nerve cells. For reasons that aren’t totally understood, the virus can become active instead of remaining inactive. When it’s activated in adults, it produces shingles.
Most adults live with the varicella-zoster virus in their body and never get shingles.
A deficiency in Vitamin D has been linked to a high risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia in older people, according to new research.
An international team of investigators studied 1,658 elderly Americans who participated in the Cardiovascular Health Study. They concluded that the participants who were severely deficient in Vitamin D were 125 percent likelier to develop dementia of any kind. People who were moderately deficient in Vitamin D had a 53 percent higher risk. The subjects were followed for six years after the initial assessment.
Most of us love looking at wild animals in their natural habitat. But unfortunately, some animals are carrying rabies, a dangerous virus that you can get if you handle or are bitten by the critters. Here, from the experts at the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC), are some tips on what you should know about rabies so you can protect yourself, your family and your pets:
Each year 30,000 to 40,000 people in the U.S. require a series of post-bite shots because of potential exposure to rabies.
Although the health benefits of aspirin have been proven, there aren’t many doctors recommending it to patients at risk of heart attack or stroke.
Researchers from the University of Rochester based that conclusion after studying a national sample of more than 3,000 middle-aged patients, both men and women. Most of the participants said they couldn’t recall their doctor telling them to take aspirin.
By Eve Marx
Aphrodisiacs are aromatic foods, recipes and potions believed to be sexual and sensual enhancers found in nature. Many of these potent love tools and libido lifters have been in use for centuries. There are dozens of known aphrodisiacs in the world. Is it time for you to learn about some of them?
Essential oils that do more than smooth
We’re bombarded daily by commercials that promise everything from weight loss to sexual fulfillment if we just buy the dietary supplement they’re advertising. But how do we know whether the substance is safe, let alone effective? Here, experts from the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) outline what you should know about these supposed curatives:
Scientists have developed a mathematical model to measure happiness, and that may eventually lead to better treatments for mood disorders.
Researchers from University College London used the equation to analyze the happiness of more than 18,000 people worldwide. As a result, they found that moment-by-moment happiness is due not only to how well things are going but whether they are going better than a person expected.
If you’ve ever wanted to speak up about your pain but didn’t quite dare because you didn’t want to “complain,” or wondered whether it was normal, the experts at the National Institute on Aging have want to shatter some pain myths. Here are a few of the untruths about pain – and what the reality actually is:
Most people don’t have to live with pain.
There are pain treatments that work for most people. If your doctor has not been able to help you, ask to see a pain specialist.
