Author: Sondra Forsyth

Sondra Forsyth is Co-Editor-in-Chief of ThirdAge.com. She is a National Magazine Award winner with scores of major magazine bylines and twelve books to her credit. Her most recent book is “Candida Cleanse: The 21-Day Diet to Beat Yeast and Feel Your Best”. Sondra was Executive Editor at “Ladies’ Home Journal,” Features Editor at “Cosmopolitan,” and Articles Editor at “Bride’s”. A former ballerina, she founded Ballet Ambassadors, an arts-in-education company in New York City, and served as Artistic Director for 16 years.

Not Wild about Your Backyard Wildlife?

By Diane Blum

A variety of wildlife routinely exists in many neighborhood backyards. Homes that are near open space, hills, natural water sources, meadows and the like are known as an urban or suburban interface. In these areas in particular, people not only will see deer and other small animals, but sometimes more dangerous wildlife may move in. Hillside development may destroy previously wild habitat. Drought can also cause bears, mountain lions, and other predators to move in to residential areas.

5 Steps To Establish a Workout Routine for Better Health

By Andrea Warshaw-Wernick

There aren’t many guarantees in life but working out can be one. By working out, you can see and control your results. And with summer in full swing, there’s no better time to hit the gym and start integrating exercise into your every day life.

Acupuncture Helps Breast Ca Patients

Use of electroacupuncture (EA) – a form of acupuncture where a small electric current is passed between pairs of acupuncture needles – produces significant improvements in fatigue, anxiety and depression in as little as eight weeks for early stage breast cancer patients experiencing joint pain related to the use of aromatase inhibitors (AIs). That is the finding of a randomized, placebo-controlled trial examining the intervention led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and published online in July 2014 in the journal Cancer.

Beware of Claims About Cosmetic Stem Cells Procedures

Advertising claims for cosmetic procedures using stem cells are running far ahead of the scientific evidence for safety and effectiveness, according to a review in the August 2014 issue ofPlastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

Dr. Michael T. Longaker of Stanford University Medical Center and colleagues wrote: “Stem cells offer tremendous potential, but the marketplace is saturated with unsubstantiated and sometimes fraudulent claims that may place patients at risk.”

Controversy Over Changes to Food Labels

To help Americans make better decisions about what they eat, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this year proposed significant changes to the Nutrition Facts label found on nearly every food product in the U.S. An July 2014 article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society (ACS), explains the suggested updates — and the fight that has ensued.

Telephone Support Helps Dementia Caregivers

Rhode Island Hospital researchers have found that a support program administered entirely by telephone can significantly reduce depression and other symptoms in informal caregivers, such as family or friends, of individuals with dementia. The study was published in July 2014 online in advance of print in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

3 Bad Sleep Habits To Give Up (And 5 Good Habits To Start)

This article, which is adapted from Sleep Soundly Every Night, Feel Fantastic Every Day, originally appeared on DemosHealth.com.

Drug Halves Risk of Kidney Transplant Rejection

Oxford University scientists in the UK have shown that a powerful drug given at the time of a kidney transplant operation not only halves the early risk of rejection, but that it also allows a less toxic regimen of anti-rejection drugs to be used after the operation.

Omega-3 Lessens Severity of Osteoarthritis

Mice consuming a supplement of omega-3 fatty acids had healthier joints than those fed diets high in saturated fats and omega-6 fatty acids, according to Duke Medicine researchers.

The findings, published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases on July 11th 2014, suggest that unhealthy dietary fats – not just obesity – may contribute to worsening osteoarthritis.

Menus Trick You Into Choosing Unhealthy Items

After analyzing 217 menus and the selections of over 300 diners, Cornell Food and Brand Lab study published in July 2014 in the International Journal of Hospitality Management showed that any food item that attracts attention with bold, hightlighted or colored font or set apart in a text box makes people more likely to order it. Unfortunately, according to a release from Cornell, lead author Brian Wansink, author of , said, “In most cases, these are the least healthy items on the menu.”

$15 Billion Physician Training System Needs Overhaul

The U.S. should significantly reform the federal system for financing physician training and residency programs to ensure that the public’s $15 billion annual investment is producing the doctors that the nation needs, says a new report release in July 2014 by the Institute of Medicine. Current financing — provided largely through Medicare — requires little accountability, allocates funds independent of workforce needs or educational outcomes, and offers insufficient opportunities to train physicians in the health care settings used by most Americans, the report says.

3 Tips for Choosing an Assisted-Living Home
 for Your Parents

By Peder Johnsen

Seventy percent of people age 65 and older will need long-term care at some point in their lives, according to a 2014 study by CareScout, a division of Genworth Financial Services. But that doesn’t mean they have to sacrifice quality of life. In fact, a person who needs some assistance with day-to-day living will often find he or she is much happier in a good assisted-living community with an atmosphere that reminds them of their former home.

Why Bad Breath Complaints Heat Up in the Summer

By Bob Kross PhD

Whether it’s a picnic, beach day, family gathering or a night out with friends, summer is a time when people come together for fun. Don’t let that great social buzz kill, bad breath, spoil the fun!

For a significant number of people bad breath, also called halitosis, is an unnecessary embarrassment caused by malodorant sulfur compounds created by putrefying bacteria in your mouth, primarily in crevices of your tongue.

Trees Save Lives, Especially in Cities

In the first broad-scale estimate of air pollution removal by trees nationwide, U.S. Forest Service scientists and collaborators calculated that trees are saving more than 850 human lives a year and preventing 670,000 incidences of acute respiratory symptoms. The researchers valued the human health effects of the reduced air pollution at nearly $7 billion every year in a study published recently in the journal Environmental Pollution.

Surprising Mechanism Behind Neurodegeneration

A research team led by Professor Susan Ackerman, Ph.D. at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Mane has pinpointed a surprising mechanism behind neurodegeneration in mice, one that involves a defect in a key component of the cellular machinery that makes proteins, known as transfer RNA or tRNA.

Cell Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis

Scientists at The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute are one step closer to creating a viable cell replacement therapy for multiple sclerosis from a patient’s own cells.

Psoriatic Arthritis Patients Need Better Screening

Leading experts have joined together for the first time to call for better screening of psoriatic arthritis to help millions of people worldwide suffering from the condition.

A release from the Universoty of Leeds in the UK explains that psoriatic arthritis (PsA) causes painful joint inflammation and can cause irreversible joint damage if left untreated.

PsA tends to affect people with psoriasis. This skin condition causes a red, scaly rash. Around one in five go on to develop PsA – usually within ten years of the initial skin problem being diagnosed.

Debunking Myths About Robotic Surgery

By Keith Chisholm, MD

Robotics-assisted surgery has become enormously popular, with physicians around the world performing 1.5 million procedures from hysterectomies to heart valve repairs in 2011.