Men's Health Statins Help With Erectile Function By Jane Farrell article In addition to lowering blood cholesterol, statin drugs also appear to help with erectile dysfunction. Researchers said they hope that conclusion will encourage men who need statins to take them. The finding is to be presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session.
_ Grow Your Own Organic Produce By article By Bob McClendon Growing your own food can be a fun project that yields healthy results. Here are my tips to help you to start or make the best of your own garden at home:
_ Exercise The Zero Gravity Lesson We Learned from Astronauts By article By Roger Landry, MD, MPH “Houston, we have a problem.”
_ Digestive Health Are You Lactose Intolerant? By Jane Farrell article If you find yourself suddenly having unpleasant digestive effects from dairy products, the culprit might be lactose intolerance. Even if you’ve never suffered from it, lactose intolerance can manifest itself in adulthood. Here, from the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearing House (NDDIC), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is some information on what it is, why you might have it and how you can manage it:
_ Heart Health Are Relaxed BP Guidelines Safe? By Jane Farrell article Relaxed guidelines about hypertension could lead to 5.8 fewer million adults taking blood pressure medicine, according to an analysis by Duke Medicine researchers. That finding is the first peer-reviewed study the impact of guidelines announced in February by the Eighth Joint National Committee, an expert panel. The committee changed the blood pressure goal in adults 60 years and older to 150/90, instead of the previous goal of 140/90. Goals were also eased for adults with diabetes and kidney disease.
Marriage Marriage Not as Heart-Healthy at 50+ By article People who are married have lower rates of several cardiovascular diseases compared with those who are single, divorced or widowed, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session in March 2014 in Washington D.C. However, Boomers and Beyond take note: The relationship between marriage and lower odds of vascular diseases is especially pronounced before age 50. For people aged 50 and younger, marriage is associated with 12 percent lower odds of any vascular disease.
_ Women's Health and Wellness Diet Drinks May Be Risky for Older Women By article Healthy postmenopausal women who drink two or more diet drinks a day may be more likely to have a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular problems, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session in March 2014 in Washington D.C..
_ Pain Management "Relaxation" May Not Help Migraines By Jane Farrell article Relaxation is usually a good thing, but perhaps not when it comes to migraine, according to a new study. Researchers from the Montefiore Headache Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that migraine sufferers who experienced reduced stress from one day to the next are at significantly greater risk of migraine onset on the subsequent day. Although stress has often been believed to be a common trigger of headaches, the researchers found that relaxation following the heighted stress was an even more significant trigger.
_ CT Scans Better At Finding Gout By Jane Farrell article Researchers from the Mayo Clinic have discovered a new way of diagnosing gout that doesn’t involve needle aspiration. Until now the painful form of inflammatory arthritis has been detected only through drawing fluid or tissue from an affected joint via a needle and looking for uric acid crystals. But needle aspiration doesn’t seem to work as well as the one just developed by Mayo: X-rays known as dual-energy CT scans. According to a release from Mayo, the scans found gout in one third of patients who had tested negative for the illness.
_ Aging Well Helping Boomers Age in Place By article As the Baby Boom generation ages, the number of older adults living in America will double by 2050, with nearly 19 million of those adults age 85 or older. While the needs of this older adult population continue to grow and change, the current paradigm of care—institutional settings like nursing homes and assisted living facilities—is an inflexible and expensive way of caring for older adults with physical limitations or chronic health conditions.
_ Women's Health and Wellness WomenΓÇÖs Peak Heart Rate Different from MenΓÇÖs By article The formula for peak exercise heart rate that doctors have used for decades in tests to diagnose heart conditions may be flawed because it does not account for differences between men and women, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session in March 2014 in Thousand Oaks, CA.
_ Surgical Residents And Patients Benefit From 24-Hour Shifts By Jane Farrell article Limiting the number of working hours for surgical residents hasn’t improved patient outcomes and may actually have increased patient complications. Additionally, shorter hours seem to lead to higher failure rates on certification exams. The finding, by researchers from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, was published in the journal Annals of Surgery.
_ Health Concerns About E-Cigarettes By article With sales of electronic cigarettes, or "e-cigarettes," on the rise and expected to hit $1.5 billion this year, concerns over potential health risks of using the trendy devices are also gaining momentum and political clout. An article in the March 2014 issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly magazine of the American Chemical Society, delves into what scientists and regulators are doing about e-cigarettes, which are now being cleverly marketed under more appealing names such as hookah pens and vape pipes.
_ Heart Health Repeat Aortic Valve Replacement Safe at 80+ By article Surgical aortic valve replacement generally improves patients' symptoms and prolongs survival. However, the perceived risk of surgical aortic valve replacement in patients over 80 may result in surgery being denied or a recommendation for alternative therapy. Investigators at the Mayo Clinic challenge the way these patients have been managed. They report that repeat sternotomy in patients over 80 who have previously had coronary bypass graft surgery can be done with low risk.
_ Task Force: Impairment Screening Shouldn't Be Routine By Jane Farrell article The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has issued a recommendation against routine cognitive-impairment screening for older adults who do not have symptoms. The task force said there isn’t enough evidence to determine the effectiveness of screening all older adults. [The evidence] “is insufficient at this time,” said Task Force co-vice chair Al Siu, M.D., M.S.P.H.
40 Steps to Making a Bed... And Other Lessons in Caregiving By blog One recent morning, a clinical manager who helps train aides at the home care agency where I work, shared with me a lighthearted comment that she'd overheard from one of her newest trainees. "Who knew making a bed was so complex?" the aide had said. That got me thinking -- and counting.
Pain Management Natural Migraine Prevention Tips By article By Romie Mushtaq M.D. Headaches are fifth-leading cause of emergency room visits among all Americans, according to a 2013 National Institutes of Health report that calls headaches a major public health problem. The key to preventing headaches is, of course, to figure out what’s triggering them. While migraine and stress headaches can both be triggered by stress, migraines have many other possible triggers and they vary from one individual to the next.
_ Tweaking Electronic Alerts to Reduce Rx Errors By article Changing how medication alerts are presented in electronic medical records resulted in safer prescribing, increased efficiency, and reduced workload for health care providers who placed drug orders, according to study published online in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. A release from Indiana Universoty quotes study leader said Alissa L. Russ, Ph.D as saying, "We are looking at ways to improve the alert system for providers and for patient care."