An international team of researchers identified a pathogenic mechanism that is common to several neurodegenerative diseases. The findings suggest that it may be possible to slow the progression of dementia even after the onset of symptoms.
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.
Nutrition Screenings for Older Adults
As older adults typically have one or more chronic health conditions that can affect dietary intake, malnutrition has been identified as a serious for this population. For this reason, nutrition screenings should be a mandatory part of the comprehensive geriatric analysis (CGA), according to a review article published on July 3rd 2014 in the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition’s (A.S.P.E.N.) Nutrition in Clinical Practice journal.
Unnecessary Blood Tests Waste Money
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center used two relatively simple tactics to significantly reduce the number of unnecessary blood tests to assess symptoms of heart attack and chest pain and to achieve a large decrease in patient charges.
Thunder God Vine Helps Kill Pancreatic Ca Cells
A diagnosis of pancreatic cancer—the fourth most common cause of cancer death in the U.S.—can be devastating. Due in part to aggressive cell replication and tumor growth, pancreatic cancer progresses quickly and has a low five-year survival rate of less than 5 percent.
How to Choose the Best Energy-Boosting Bars and Gels
By The Bone, Muscle, and Joint Team at HealthHub from Cleveland Clinic
Contributor: Kylene Guerra, RD
Do you stand in the aisle of energy bars and sports gels wondering what to choose? When it comes to offering you the best health benefits and fuel for your sports performance, not all energy bars and sports gels are equal. Below, find tips to choosing the best ones for you.
Energy bars
St. John’s Wort & Drug Interactions
St. John’s wort is the most frequently used complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatment in the U.S. for depression and similar psychiatric disorders. The many commonly prescribed medications that St. John’s wort can interact with—sometimes with serious consequences such as life-threatening “serotonin syndrome” or heart disease—are reviewed in the July 2014 issue of The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine and on the web site.
Testing Competency of Aging Drivers
As the American population continues to age, using tests to evaluate competency behind the wheel is critical. However, research done at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver found “significant barriers to evaluations important to the continued safety and competency of older drivers” according to a release from the university. The study was published 2014 in the journal Occupational Therapy in Health Care.
Blood Pressure Monitoring Kiosks Aren’t for Everyone
Convenience can come with tradeoffs. The next time you put your arm in the cuff at a kiosk that measures blood pressure, you could get an inaccurate reading unless the cuff is your size.
Menopause Brain: What You Need to Know Beat the Odds
By Soriyya Bawa
As if hot flashes and irritability weren’t enough to handle, women going through menopause also worry about the risk of memory loss. Some of the common cognitive concerns relating to memory loss that are reported by women going through menopause include trouble with routine mental tasks and remembering what was once easily retrievable information. A lot of research has delved into evaluating the link between menopause and memory loss, and we’re now beginning to understand even more.
How to Put Your Inner Child in Time-Out
By Steven Jay Fogel
The human brain is a wonder of the universe, but our understanding of it can seem contradictory. On the one hand, we’re often told of those crucial years that our brain develops in childhood, when we’re rapidly progressing in development of our language and other skills, and our preadolescent and teenage years, when our brains undergo a sort of second Big Bang of learning.
Some Cancers Respond to Anti-Inflammatory Drugs
Research done at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis raises the possibility that some cancer patients with aggressive tumors may benefit from a class of anti-inflammatory drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. The investigators published their findings in a 2014 issue of the journal Cell Reports.
AD Drug to Prevent Brain Blood Clots
Experiments done in Sidney Strickland’s Laboratory of Neurobiology and Genetics at Rockefeller University in New York have identified a compound that might halt the progression of Alzheimer’s by interfering with the role amyloid-β, a small protein that forms plaques in Alzheimer’s brains, plays in the formation of blood clots. This work is highlighted in the July 2014 issue of Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.
Liver Transplants for Hep C: A Surprising Finding
An international team of researchers was surprised to find that in some hepatitis C patients who receive liver transplants, genes that target the hepatitis C virus (HCV) as part of the innate immune system actually enable the patients to tolerate a foreign organ without taking immunosuppressant medication. The study was published in July 2014 in Science Translational Medicine.
Milk & Egg Allergies More Worrisome Than Nut Allergies
If you’re the grandparent or parent of a child with food allergies, you know that constant vigilance is called for regarding everything your off-spring child eats. A hidden ingredient can be fatal.
Coming Next Week! June 30th – July 4th 2014
Here’s a sneak preview of the articles, slideshows, and blogs we’ll be posting during the coming week on ThirdAge, the biggest and best site for “boomer and beyond” women since 1997. As always, we’ll bring you the latest information from top experts about maintaining a healthy body, mind, and spirit as you navigate both the challenges and the joys of being a ThirdAger.
Food Ingredient Fears
Daily headlines on Internet pages and blogs claim: “New ingredient X is harmful to your health.” Such warnings can scare people into avoiding these ingredients without actually knowing the facts, leading some people to have food fears about ingredients such as sugar, fat, sodium, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), mono sodium glutamate (MSG), and others. While some of these food fears are merited, others can be misleading.
New Tx for Food Allergies
For some people, an allergic reaction to common foods such as peanuts, milk, or eggs can cause a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction. At present no effective treatment for food allergy exists, and strict dietary avoidance of known food triggers is the only preventive option available. However, ongoing trials are exploring options for oral immunotherapy (OIT) for desensitization in the treatment of Immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated food allergy, as described in a Review article in Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonology,
Convenience Store Confidential: Eat Smart When You’re on the Road
By Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RD, LD
Americans love hitting the open road, especially during summer. Road trips mean long hours in the car, with pit stops at gas station convenience stores — often the only options on long stretches of highway.
Too often, when we fuel up our cars, we fuel up our bodies with snack choices we regret 20 miles down the road.