Monitoring Reactions to AD Risk Status By article A new clinical trial will begin soon at the University of Pennsylvania to test whether early medical intervention in people at risk for Alzheimer's can slow down progression of disease before symptoms emerge. As part of the overall prevention trial, Penn Medicine neurodegenerative ethics experts will monitor how learning about their risk of developing Alzheimer's impacts trial participants. The trial was outlined in March 2014 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
_ Weight Loss Weight Loss Program in Sign Language Helps the Deaf By article A group of deaf adults using American Sign Language in a healthy lifestyle program successfully lost weight, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology & Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity & Metabolism Scientific Sessions in March 2014 in San Francsico.
_ PCPs Must Know More About Menopause By article According to Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Women's Health, "It is essential that new curricula be developed to train internists in the core competencies needed to manage menopausal symptoms."
_ Vision Health Exercise & Light Drinking = Better Vision By article Get moving and raise a glass now and then if you want to stave off the kind of vision problems that can’t be corrected with lenses. That’s what the results of a study done at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health suggest. The team found that a physically active lifestyle and occasional drinking are associated with a reduced risk of developing visual impairment. The article was published online in March 2014 in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
_ Video-Game Technique May Help Avoid Patients' Falls By Jane Farrell article A device using technology similar to that found in video games may eventually help health care practitioners monitor and even prevent falls among hospital patients. Between 700,000 and 1 million people each year fall in U.S. hospitals, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. All patients are at higher risk of falls because they are sick or injured. Falls are especially serious for older patients.
Caregiving Caregiving Challenges: Bathing and Personal Hygiene By article By Diane Blum As Alzheimer’s progresses, poor hygiene can often become more than just an unpleasant issue. It can have medical consequences, such as bacterial infections including UTIs. Gastroenteritis and other health issues can also occur, some quite serious to an immune system weakened as Alzheimer’s progresses.
_ Heart Health Maybe Saturated Fats ArenΓÇÖt So Bad After All By article A study led University of Cambridge in the UK and published March 18th 2014 in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine raises questions about current guidelines that generally restrict the consumption of saturated fats and encourage consumption of polyunsaturated fats to prevent heart disease.
_ Mental & Emotional Health Reducing Anxiety? ThereΓÇÖs an App for That. By article Playing a science-based mobile gaming app for 25 minutes can reduce anxiety in stressed individuals, according to research done at Hunter College in NYC and the City University of New York and published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The study suggests that "gamifying" a scientifically-supported intervention could offer measurable mental health and behavioral benefits for people with relatively high levels of anxiety.
_ Exercise Get Fit For Free By Jane Farrell article Getting and staying fit can be intimidating, especially if you don’t want to go to gyms that might make you self-conscious and cost a lot of money. Even at-home equipment can be costly. But you can have an enjoyable fitness routine without spending anything. Experts from the Go4Life fitness program of the National Institutes of Health have some great suggestions:
Five Questions to Ask Your Surgeon Before An Operation By Jane Farrell article From the Mayo Clinic The news that you will need surgery can prompt many questions and a lot of anxiety. Beyond details about your medical condition and treatment options, what should you ask your surgeon before the operation? Whatever you need to ask to be comfortable with the decisions you make about your care, says Robert Cima, M.D., a colon and rectal surgeon and chair of Mayo’s surgical quality subcommittee.
_ Androgen Deprivation Therapy Ineffective For Early-Stage Prostate Cancer By Jane Farrell article Men who got androgen deprivation therapy as the primary treatment in the early stages of prostate cancer didn’t live any longer than those who got no treatment at all, a study shows. The researchers say that this conclusion, along with the risk of serious side effects such as heart disease and diabetes, “mitigates against any clinical or policy rationale for use of primary androgen deprivation therapy [PADT] in these men.”
_ Mental & Emotional Health Suppressing Unwanted Memories By article Researchers at the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in the UK have shown that suppressing unwanted memories reduces their unconscious influences on subsequent behavior. The team has also shed light on how this process happens in the brain.
_ Heart Health "Bendopnea" = Heart Failure Symptom By article University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center cardiologists have defined a novel heart failure symptom in advanced heart failure patients: shortness of breath while bending over, such as when putting on shoes. The cardiologists dubbed he condition “bendopnea”, which is pronounced “bend-op-nee-ah”/ The easily detectable symptom can help doctors diagnose excessive fluid retention in patients with heart failure, according to the findings published in a March 2014 edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Heart Failure.
Heart Health 5 Common Questions About Sex and Your Heart By Jane Farrell article By Steven Nissen, MD Cleveland Clinic Patients often ask me: Is sex good for your heart? The question seems simple. The answer is complicated, in part because of the limits of what research can tell us. But we do have a strong sense that sex fits in with a heart-healthy lifestyle. Below are answers to five common questions. 1. Is sex exercise?
Heart Health New "Heart Attack Gene" Discovered By Jane Farrell article Researchers have found a previously undiscovered gene variation that reduces heart attack risk, and the discovery could lead to better treatment of high cholesterol and related disorders. The finding, by a team from the University of Michigan and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, took six years of analysis.
A Sharp Drop in Deaths From Colon Cancer By Jane Farrell article Colon cancer screenings have led to a 30 percent drop in cases for people aged 50 and older, the American Cancer Society reports. Death rates have also declined. The drop was measured over the last ten years. The researchers who conducted the study said the decrease was due to more people getting recommended screening tests. And even more deaths could be avoided if everyone got their screening tests on time.
Grow a Nutritious Garden in a Pot By article By Melinda Myers Don’t let a lack of time or space get in the way of gardening your way to a healthy lifestyle. Plant a container of nutritious vegetables and herbs. Include a few planters on a windowsill, the front porch, back patio or right outside the kitchen door.
Tracking a SuperbugΓÇÖs Evolution By Jane Farrell article Using genome sequencing, National Institutes of Health scientists and their colleagues have tracked the evolution of the antibiotic-resistant bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae sequence type 258 (ST258), an important agent of hospital-acquired infections. While researchers had previously thought that ST258 K. pneumoniae strains spread from a single ancestor, the NIH team showed that the strains arose from at least two different lineages.