_ Skin Skin Health Cause of Eczema Discovered By article Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in California have discovered a key player in the cellular interactions leading to eczema, a chronic inflammatory skin condition affecting more than 14 million Americans. The skin of sufferers becomes inflamed or irritated and is marked by redness, itchiness, and dry, cracked skin.
_ ICE Your Cell Phone for Cold Weather Safety By article As frigid temperatures continue to affect every state in the union, Visiting Angels -- one of the nation’s largest in-home senior care agencies -- has launched the ICE a Cell Phone Safety Campaign to help people in case of emergency. ICE stands for In Case of Emergency. To ICE your cell phone or the phone a loved one in your care, load emergency contacts with the word ICE in front of the names so that if you’re ever in trouble, people will know who to call.
Aging Well WeΓÇÖre Still Living Longer Than the Guys By article Research done atthe Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and Women’s College Hospital in Ontario showed that women continue to outlive men as numbers of centenarians rises. The study was published in January 2013 intheJournal of the American Geriatrics Society.According to the data, a whopping 85% of people 100 and over are females. Not only that, but the total number of centenarians in Ontario has increased by more than 70% over the last 15 years
Pets Include Pets in Healthy Weight Resolutions for 2014 By article Nearly half of all Americans make New Year’s resolutions and of those, almost 40 percent are related to weight loss. This year, why not include pets in a weight management program to ensure they’re at a healthy, optimum weight? One type of tool veterinarians use to rate the body condition of dogs and cats is a scale one to nine, with a healthy pet being in the four to five range. When a pet is at a healthy weight, a pet parent should be able to feel the ribs, but not see them.
_ 5 Treatments Older Adults May Not Need By article By Anne-Marie Botek, Editor-in-Chief of AgingCare.com Overtreatment is a persistent problem among the aging population. Research shows that the more doctors an individual has, the more likely a patient is to be prescribed conflicting medications. Indeed doctors may over treat elderly patients unintentionally.
_ Drugs Protect Against Post-Stroke Damage By article Anticoagulant medications such as Warfarin have long been known to help prevent strokes, but now a large Danish study has shown that the blood thinners can also reduce the risk of death and brain damage when a stroke happens anyway. The research was published in Stroke - Journal of the American Heart Association.
_ 8 Million Lives Saved Since Since Anti-Smoking Warning By article A Yale study estimates that 8 million lives have been saved in the United States as a result of anti-smoking measures that began 50 years ago in January of 1964 with the groundbreaking report from the Surgeon General outlining the deadly consequences of tobacco use. The Yale School of Public Health-led analysis is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
_ Cancer Stats 2014: Fewer Deaths By article The annual cancer statistics report from the American Cancer Society show that the cancer death rate has been continuously declining for two decades, from a peak of 215.1 per 100,000 in 1991 to 171.8 per 100,000 in 2010. This 20 percent decline translates to the avoidance of approximately 1,340,400 cancer deaths, 952,700 among men and 387,700 among women, during this time period.
_ Heart Health 5 Reasons Senior Heart Patients Need Exercise By Jane Farrell article Editor’s Note: You might think that the best course is to simply rest if you have heart disease. But doing the right kind of exercise can benefit you in some very substantial ways. Here, the American Council on Exercise and the Cleveland Clinic offer some suggestions to get you going. Remember, though, to talk with your doctor before beginning or resuming any exercise program, and to follow his or her recommendationis for the right exercises for you. 1. Exercise Optimizes Heart Health.
_ Weight Loss Getting on the Scales Helps Long-Term Weight Loss By Jane Farrell article Long-term weight loss, considered an elusive goal, can be achieved if people keep practicing essential health behaviors, researchers say. And one of those behaviors is weighing yourself regularly.
_ Why You Should Donate Blood By Jane Farrell article Editor’s note: Many people make a list of New Year’s resolutions, and most of us have difficulty keeping them! But here’s one resolution that’s easy to follow through on: donating blood. Hospitals and patients are in critical need for blood, yet the donation rate is very low.
_ What it Really Means to ΓÇ£Just Do Your BestΓÇ¥ By Jane Farrell article By Cindy Laverty When I was fully immersed in my first caregiving journey, one of the things that used to drive me to distraction was when people (who, by the way, had never cared for anyone) told me to relax and "just do my best."
_ Heart Health A Patch for Tracking Heart Rhythms By article Research done at the Scripps Translational Science Institute in San Diego has found that a small adhesive wireless device worn on the chest for up to two weeks does a better job detecting abnormal and potentially dangerous heart rhythms than the Holter monitor that has been the standard of care for more than 50 years.
_ Online Colorectal Cancer Risk Calculator By article Researchers at Cleveland Clinic have developed a new tool called CRC-PRO that allows physicians to quickly and accurately predict an individual's risk of colorectal cancer, as published in the January 2014 edition of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.
_ Heart Health Survival Tips for Heart-Attack Season By Jane Farrell article Snow shoveling is great exercise, but if you’re over a certain age or have health problems, it could prove deadly unless you protect yourself.
Type 2 Diabetes May Be an Inflammatory Disease By article New research done in Denmark and published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology suggests that macrophages, a specific type of immune cell, invade the diabetic pancreatic tissue during the early stages of the disease. Then these inflammatory cells produce a large amount of pro-inflammatory proteins called cytokines, which directly contribute to the elimination of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. , resulting in diabetes. This discovery was published in the January 2014 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology
Vitamin E Helps AD Patients Function Better By article New research from the faculty of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City working with Veterans Administration Medical Centers suggests that alpha tocepherol, fat-soluble Vitamin E and antioxidant, may slow functional decline in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease and decrease caregiver burden. The study is published online first in the January 1st 2014 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.