_ Honey as an Antibiotic By article Honey could be a solution to the problem of bacterial resistance to, to research done at Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I and presented in March 2014 at the 247th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Dallas. A release from the society noted that medical professionals sometimes use honey successfully as a topical dressing but that the researchers predicted it could play a larger role in fighting infections..
_ When Medicine Does More Harm Than Good By Jane Farrell article About 20 percent of older Americans with chronic conditions are taking medicines that work against each other, according to a new study. In other words, the medication being used to treat one condition can make another condition worse. The problem affects millions of Americans, since three out of four older adults have multiple chronic conditions.
How to Love an Angry Man: Part 2 ΓÇô Dealing with Anger vs. Rage By blog Dear Dr. Jed, I’m worried about my husband. He’s angry all the time and blames me for everything that is wrong. He calls me names, yells at me, looks at me with such hatred, I want to disappear. He’s never hit me, but I’m afraid of him. He totally denies that there are any problems with him. When he gets mad he calls me a bitch and a lot worse and tells me I’m crazy and should be hospitalized.
_ A Blood Test for Alzheimer's By Jane Farrell article There’s an Alzheimer’s blood test now – a procedure that can detect whether a healthy person will develop mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s within three years. The test has a 90 percent accuracy rate. Described in the April issue of Nature Medicine, the test could lead to the development of treatment for early-stage Alzheimer’s, when therapy would be more effective at slowing or preventing onset of symptoms.
Clues to the Mystery of Disease By article Researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have devised a new biochemical technique that will allow scientists to delve much deeper than ever before into the specific cellular circuitry that keeps us healthy or causes disease.
_ 10 Things Docs & Older Patients Should Question By article “Choosing Wisely”, and initiative of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation, has released a 2014 update from the American Geriatrics Society listing 10 procedures and tests that should not be routinely performed or prescribed for older patients:
_ Sleep Health How to Keep Your Body from ΓÇ£Falling BackΓÇ¥ By Jane Farrell article By Julia Samton, MD
_ Hope for TX for Brain Disorders & Pain Issues By article Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA and at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN have created the most detailed 3-D picture yet of a membrane protein that is linked to learning, memory, anxiety, pain, and brain disorders such as schizophrenia, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and autism. The research, which focuses on the mGlu1 receptor, was reported in the March 6th, 2014 issue of the journal Science.
_ Prehospital Alerts for Stroke Patients By article Prehospital stroke alerts by emergency medical services personnel can shorten the time to effective treatment with "clot-busting" drugs for patients who have had a stroke, according to a report in the March issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.
_ Is Your Hearing Getting Worse? By Jane Farrell article From NIH SeniorHealth.gov. Hearing loss, a common yet complex problem, involves both the ear’s ability to detect sounds and the brain’s ability to interpret those sounds, including speech. Several factors have to be taken into account to determine how much of an effect hearling loss will have on quality of life. They include: *the degree of the hearing loss *the pattern of hearing loss across different frequencies (pitches) *whether one or both ears is affected
_ Alzheimer's in a Petri Dish By article Pearse, PhD, confirmed what had long been observed in mouse models—that the mutations associated with early-onset Alzheimer's disease are directly related to protein cleavage errors that cause a rise in amyloid-beta (Aβ) protein 42, which all people produce but somehow clump together to form plaques in Alzheimer's patients.
_ Proposed 2015 Medicare Part C Updates By article Medicare beneficiaries can get greater protections, value, and care in the Medicare services they receive through the proposed policies in March of 2014 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The 2015 Advance Notice and draft Call Letter takes important steps to improve payment accuracy for Medicare Advantage (Part C) for 2015.
_ Breast Cancer 14 Questions About Your Breast Cancer Diagnosis By article prognosis and medical choices.
_ Medicare Part D Saved $1.5 Billion a Year By article Good news about Medicare Part D from a study done by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Illinois at Chicago: The prescription coverage saved expenditures totaling $1.5 billion annually for the first four years and also significantly reduced hospital admissions. The data were published in March 2014 by the National Bureau of Economic Research
_ Over 80s Over-Treated for Stroke Prevention By article People in their 80s are often prescribed drugs to ward off a stroke when the risk of a stroke is not that high and the drugs have other side effects, according to research doneby Dr. Kit Byatt of the Department of Geriatric Medicine at The County Hospital in Hereford, UK and published online in the journal Evidence Based Medicine. Byatt maintains that people in this age group are being "over-treated" and that doctors need to rethink their priorities and beliefs about stroke prevention.
_ Exercise Need Motivation At The Gym? Just Add Music By Jane Farrell article By Joe Vennare, PT We will try anything to get a boost in the gym. Caffeine and pre-workout supplements might do the trick for some, but they come with a host of potential side effects in tow. Other people opt for performance enhancing drugs, legal or otherwise. This probably isn’t the best bet either. Breaking the law seldom is.
The Secret of Life is One Thing: How to Be Successful at Love and Work By blog After spending his life helping people, the “father” of modern psychology and psychoanalysis made a simple observation: “Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.” Most of us recognize that when things are going well at home and at work our lives are joyful. If our love life or our work life is stressful, we suffer.
Women's Health and Wellness Diabetes & Stroke Linked for Women By article New research done at at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and published in the journal Diabetologia shows that diabetes in women is associated with an increased risk of stroke. Yet the data do not show the same association among men. Also, the researchers found the risk of stroke among diabetic women was substantially raised for women aged 55 years and over compared with younger women.