_ Brain Health Sleep HealthA Good Night’s Sleep Boosts Brain Power as We Age By Sondra Forsyth articleA University of Oregon-led study published in the June 2014 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that middle-aged or older people who get six to nine hours of sleep a night think better than those sleeping fewer or more hours.The study reaffirms numerous small-scale studies in the United States, Western Europe and Japan, but it does so using data compiled across six middle-income nations and involving more than 30,000 subjects for a long-term project that began in 2007.
_ Heart HealthCheaper & Better Drug for Heart Attack Procedure By Sondra Forsyth articleA study done in the UK and published in The Lancet on July 4th 2014 compares outcomes for two drugs used to prevent blood clot formation during emergency heart attack treatment. The study suggests that use of one of the drugs, heparin, could result in improved outcomes such as a reduced rate of repeat heart attacks, compared to the other drug tested, bivalirudin, which is in widespread use in high-income countries and is around 400 times more expensive than heparin.
_ Alternative HealthAlternative Treatments for Fibromyalgia By Jane Farrell articlePeople who suffer from fibromyalgia, a chronic disorder with symptoms that include musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, and tenderness, often seek relief from alternative-health practices. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) part of the National Institutes of Health, talks about the research:
_ Alternative HealthNeeded: A Better Understanding of Chinese Medicine By Jane Farrell articleAlthough millions of people in the West use Chinese medicine, including acupuncture and herbs, there aren’t enough physicians who have Chinese-language training so they can understand the nuances of those methods.Researchers from UCLA’s Center for East-West Medicine say that there are only a few U.S. schools that have Chinese-language training. Additionally, only a few Chinese medical texts have been translated into English.
_ Watch: Why the Lazy Days of Summer Are Good for Your Health By Sondra Forsyth articleHere's another addition to our ThirdAge Video Collection. Press play to start learning!
_ MenopauseToolkit to Diagnose Menopause By Sondra Forsyth articleThe “Practitioner Toolkit for Managing the Menopause”, designed to guide physicians in the management of menopausal conditions for women from the age of 40 has been designed by researchers at Monash University in Australia. The kit, which includes a diagnostic tool as well as a compendium of approved hormone therapies, was published on July 6th 2014 in the journal Climacteric.
_ Skin Skin HealthSunless Tanning: What You Need to Know By Jane Farrell articleDon't want to expose your skin to the sun's damaging rays, but still want that sun-kissed glow? Consider trying sunless tanning products. Start by understanding how sunless tanning products work — and the importance of applying them carefully and correctly.HOW DO SUNLESS TANNING PRODUCTS WORK?
_ Heart HealthPainless AFib Treatment By Sondra Forsyth articleA technique called cardiac optogenetics achieves defibrillation without the pain of electric shocks, according to research presented on July 4th at Frontiers in CardioVascular Biology (FCVB) 2014 in Barcelona, Spain. The meeting is organized by the Council on Basic Cardiovascular Science of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in collaboration with 13 European cardiovascular science societies.
Healthy Diet & Nutrition Senior HealthNutrition Screenings for Older Adults By Sondra Forsyth articleAs 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.
Heart HealthUnnecessary Blood Tests Waste Money By Sondra Forsyth articleResearchers 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.
_ Skin Skin HealthFear Of Illness Can Be A Good Thing By Jane Farrell articleWhen it comes to skin cancer, many people are influenced by fear, not statistics, to use sunscreen.“Most health behavior studies don’t account for the more visceral, emotional reactions that lead people to do risky behaviors, like eat junk food or ignore the protective benefits of sunscreen,” says Marc Kiviniemi, lead researcher and assistant professor of community health and health behavior in the University of Buffalo’s School of Public Health and Health Professions.
_ Pancreatic CancerThunder God Vine Helps Kill Pancreatic Ca Cells By Sondra Forsyth articleA 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.
_ Alternative HealthSt. John's Wort & Drug Interactions By Sondra Forsyth articleSt. 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.
High blood pressure / hypertensionBlood Pressure Monitoring Kiosks Aren't for Everyone By Sondra Forsyth articleConvenience 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.
_ Heart HealthWomen and Heart Disease: A New RIsk By Jane Farrell articleHormonal changes during menopause could increase a woman’s risk of heart disease, researchers have found.The study, by investigators from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, was done by using an advanced method to analyze “cholesterol carriers” in the blood. The researchers found that during the transition to menopause, the quality of those carriers degrades.Investigators said the study showed that the quality of cholesterol carriers could be as important as cholesterol numbers.
Mental & Emotional HealthHow to Put Your Inner Child in Time-Out By Sondra Forsyth article By Steven Jay FogelThe 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.
Breast CancerSome Cancers Respond to Anti-Inflammatory Drugs By Sondra Forsyth articleResearch 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.
_ MenopauseMenopause Brain: What You Need to Know Beat the Odds By Sondra Forsyth articleBy Soriyya BawaAs 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.