_ Living With and Treating Peripheral Artery Disease By Sondra Forsyth article If you have P.A.D., you may feel pain in your calf or thigh muscles after walking. Try to take a break and allow the pain to ease before walking again. Over time, this may increase the distance that you can walk without pain. Talk with your doctor about taking part in a supervised exercise program. This type of program has been shown to reduce P.A.D. symptoms.
_ Healthy Diet & Nutrition Dehydrated? These 7 Foods Will Satisfy Your Thirst and Hunger By Sondra Forsyth article By Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RD, LD When heat and humidity soar, keeping your body hydrated matters more than ever. Did you know you can hydrate with whatΓÇÖs on your plate ΓÇö not just whatΓÇÖs in your cup? The following foods are heavy on the water content, according to the U.S. Department of AgricultureΓÇÖs nutrient database. In several cases, theyΓÇÖre also full of nutrients that will help you fight disease. So eat up, and beat the heat with your fork. 1. Cucumbers
_ Osteoarthritis Omega-3 Lessens Severity of Osteoarthritis By Sondra Forsyth article Mice consuming a supplement of omega-3 fatty acids had healthier joints than those fed diets high in saturated fats and omega-6 fatty acids, according to Duke Medicine researchers. The findings, published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases on July 11th 2014, suggest that unhealthy dietary fats ΓÇô not just obesity ΓÇô may contribute to worsening osteoarthritis.
_ How to Fight Prediabetes By Jane Farrell article Type 2 diabetes is one of the most serious chronic illnesses in existence; it puts people at risk for everything from heart and kidney disease to amputation of limbs. According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), it is shockingly widespread 29.1 million Americans have the illness. And the ADA estimates that 86 million more Americans have prediabetes, a condition that indicates a high risk of developing the illness. Here, from the federal National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse and the ADA, is what you need to know about prediabetes:
_ Heart Health Women With a Heart Attack Fare Worse Than Men By Sondra Forsyth article While awareness campaigns may be getting women to go to the hospital more quickly during a heart-attack, a new look at hospital data shows women have longer hospital stays and are more likely than men to die in the hospital after a heart attack. For the study published online July 21st 2014 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, researchers from Yale School of Medicine analyzed 230,684 hospitalizations for heart attack in patients age 30 to 54 from a total of 1.1 million hospitalizations reported in a national database from 2001 to 2010.
_ Senior Health Stroke Stroke Rates Have Dropped 40% for People 65+ By Sondra Forsyth article A new analysis of data from 1988-2008 by researchers at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine has revealed a 40% decrease in the incidence of stroke in Medicare patients 65 years of age and older. The decline is greater than anticipated considering this population's risk factors for stroke. Not only that, but the drop applies to both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. The team also found that deaths resulting from stroke declined during the same period. The findings are published in the July 2014 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
_ Heart Health Niacin Linked to Death Risk By Sondra Forsyth article Niacin has been a mainstay of cholesterol therapy for 50 years, but Northwestern Medicine preventive cardiologist Donald Lloyd-Jones, M.D. maintains that the drug should no longer be prescribed for most patients due to potential increased risk of death, dangerous side effects, and no benefit in reducing heart attacks and strokes. His editorial was published in the July 17th 2014 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
_ Statins Prolong Life for Patients With Diabetic Heart Disease By Jane Farrell article Using cholesterol-lowering statins could help prolong life for people who have diabetic heart disease, a new study has found. Researchers from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center published their study in Diabetes Care. ΓÇ£Although our study was not a clinical trial, it did show that people with diabetes and heart disease can still live quite a few years by taking statins,ΓÇ¥ said Don Bowden, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry at Wake Forest Baptist and lead author of the study.
_ Stroke Fewer Stroke Deaths Over Past 2 Decades By Sondra Forsyth article Fewer Americans are having strokes and those who do have a lower risk of dying from them according to a a study led by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers and is published in the July 16th 2014 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
_ New Hope for Alzheimer’s Treatment By Sondra Forsyth article A relatively frequent genetic variant turns out to provide significant protection against Alzheimer's disease and can delay the onset of the disease by as much as four years. That is the finding of research done by Judes Poirier, PhD, C.Q., and colleagues at the Douglas Mental Health Institute and McGill University in Montréal. The discovery opens new avenues for treatment against this devastating disease. Dr. presented the study at the annual Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Copenhagen in July 2014.
_ Kidney Health Supplements & OTCs May Hurt Your Kidneys By Sondra Forsyth article How well are your kidneys working? Unless youΓÇÖve had problems in the past, you probably take for granted that your kidneys are working as they should. But more than one in 10 adults in the United States has kidney disease, and most people who have it donΓÇÖt know it.
Aging Well Senior Health WhatΓÇÖs Really Keeping You From Aging Well? By Sondra Forsyth article By Dr. Kevin J. McLaughlin During my experience as a health care provider, I have realized that, when it comes to aging well, many older women are worried about developing cancer, especially breast cancer, more than any other age-related diseases.
_ Safe Traveling with Diabetes By Jane Farrell article Getting out of your routine is part of the fun of vacation and traveling. But donΓÇÖt forget your medications and your care routine, especially if you have diabetes, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says. Experts at the federal agency, part of the National Institutes of health, say that travel factors such as meals away from home, a change in physical activity, and different time zones can affect your management of your conditions.
_ Making the Best Decisions With Your Doctor By Jane Farrell article Talking with a doctor about a health-care decision is crucial - and can be an intimidating process. Here, from the experts at the National Institute on Aging, are some ways to get the most out of it: Giving and getting information are two important steps in talking with your doctor. The third big step is making decisions about your care.
_ Heart Health Women and Heart Disease: A New RIsk By Jane Farrell article Hormonal changes during menopause could increase a womanΓÇÖs 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 ΓÇ£cholesterol carriersΓÇ¥ 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.
_ Menopause Are You Setting Off Your Hot Flashes? By Sondra Forsyth article By Gary Elkins If you start taking note of your hot flashes, you may recognize some events, emotions, or activities that actually seem to contribute to, or ΓÇ£trigger,ΓÇ¥ the onset of a hot flash. Scientifically speaking, while the physiology of hot flashes is associated with a decrease in estrogen level or an increase in gonadotropin concentrations, the actual physiological mechanism of hot flashes is not known.
_ High blood pressure / hypertension Lower BP Not Always Better By Sondra Forsyth article For decades, common medical wisdom has been "the lower the better" in treating the approximately one in three people in this country who have high blood pressure. But does that approach result in reduced risk for dangerous heart events? Not necessarily, according to research done at Wake Forest Baptists Medical Center in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and published in the June 16th online edition of JAMA Internal Medicine.
Pets Keeping Your Pet (and Yourself) Healthy By Jane Farrell article We Americans love our pets ΓÇô and weΓÇÖve got millions of them. According to the Humane Society of the United States, there are 164 million owned pets across the country, in 62 percent of our households. But while pets provide love, comfort and companionship, they may also have health issues, and some of them can affect us. Here, from the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC), are some tips on keeping your pet (and your family) healthy.