_ Heart Health Irrational Health Beliefs & Skipped Cardiac Rehab By article Heart patients with beliefs about health that aren’t based on medical evidence are more likely to skip sessions of cardiac rehabilitation, according to a study done at Ohio State Univeristy and available online in April 2014 in the journal Health Psychology and slated to be published in a future print edition. Among the irrational beliefs assessed were the following: *Doubting the preventive power of the flu vaccine
_ The New Challenges of Alzheimer's By Jane Farrell article The growing incidence of Alzheimer’s raises many question beyond diagnosis and, eventually treatment. As a society, we also need to think about the ethical and policy choices we are faced with, an expert says.
Esophageal Cancer Month, April 2014 By article April is Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month and ECAN, the Esophageal Cancer Action Network, is urging Americans to get the facts about this deadly disease, which usually isn’t detected until it’s too late. Some basic facts about Esophageal Cancer in the U.S. *Most cases of esophageal cancer in the United States are caused by the effects of GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease), where acid from the stomach moves back into the esophagus. The most common symptom of GERD is heartburn.
_ A Simple Step Toward Better Healing By Jane Farrell article Heart-attack patients’ recovery can improve if hospitals keep to regular day-night cycles during the first few days after the attack, research shows. Previous studies have shown that circadian rhythms, or day-night cycles, can affect the timing of a heart attack. But this is the first investigation to show the importance of keeping to circadian rhythms in the first few days after the attack. The findings, by researchers from the University of Guelph, in Toronto, were published in the journal Circulation Research.
_ Being Underweight Is as Hazardous as Obesity By article Being underweight puts people at the highest risk of dying just as obesity does, according to research dome at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and published in March 2014 in the Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health. A release from the hospital written by Leslie Shepard notes that the connection between being underweight and the higher risk of dying is true for both adults and fetuses. This is so even when factors such as smoking, alcohol use or lung disease are considered, or adults with a chronic or terminal illness are excluded, the study found.
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.
Continuity of Care for Elderly Patients Needed By article Older patients with chronic illnesses often have care that is poorly coordinated. They may see many different health care providers working in multiple clinical locations, and poor communication between provider and patient is common. These factors can lead to higher use of health services and poorer outcomes. Improving the coordination of care for elderly patients with chronic diseases trims costs, reduces use of health services, and cuts complications. Those are the finding of a study done by the RAND Corporation and published online in March 2014 by JAMA Internal Medicine.
_ FDA Wants to Update Nutrition Labels By article The Food and Drug Administration wants to update the look and content of the Nutrition Facts Label to help consumers make better food choices and follow healthy dietary practices. The proposed changes include:
_ 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
_ Blood-Pressure Meds and Serious Falls By Jane Farrell article Blood-pressure medications have an unintended and potentially deadly side effect: they increase the risk of serious fall injuries by up to 40 percent. Yale School of Medicine researchers looked at 4,961 patients older than 70 who had hypertension. Among the participants, 14 percent didn’t take any medication, 55 percent took moderate doses and 31 percent took high doses.
Aging Well Hispanics Live Longer Than Whites By article One in every six people in the U.S. is Hispanic/Latino and as a group they live longer than non-Hispanic whites -- 81.4 years vs. 78.8 years. Yet despite their strong representation and relative longevity, little is understood about this group's health conditions and behaviors, according to a release from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Yeshiva University in the Bronx, NY.
_ Racial Disparities in Type 2 Diabetes By article Two surprising risk factors – diminished lung function and low serum potassium levels - appear to have nearly the same impact as obesity in explaining why African-Americans are disproportionately prone to developing type 2 diabetes, according to research done at Duke University Medicine and published in the February 2014 print edition of the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The finding points to potential new avenues for developing treatments.
_ Antidepressant Helps With AD Agitation By Sondra Forsyth article The antidepressant drug citalopram, sold under the brand names Celexa and Cipramil and also available as a generic medication, significantly relieved agitation in a group of patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to research led by a Johns Hopkins team and reported in the February 19th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. However, side effects including sings of abnormal heart function and a slight increase in cognitive decline.
_ Carbon Monoxide: Preparation Is the Key to Protection By article By Morgan Ellsworth As you age, your body becomes more vulnerable to carbon monoxide. And for people who have heart problems, breathing disorders or sickle cell anemia, exposure becomes even more hazardous.
_ What You Need to Know About COPD By Jane Farrell article Along with lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, affects a patient’s very ability to breathe. COPD, which is also called emphysema or chronic bronchitis, is a progressive lung disease in which the airways of the lungs become damaged, making it hard to breathe. COPD is also known as emphysema or chronic bronchitis. According to the National Institutes of Health, COPD is a major cause of death and illness worldwide. In the U.S., it kills more than 120,000 Americans every year, or one every four minutes.
_ Heart Health When Good Cholesterol Goes Bad By article A dysfunctional version of the normally protective protein that makes high-density lipoprotein (HDL) – the so-called "good cholesterol" –promotes inflammation and coronary artery disease. That’s the finding of researchers at the Cleveland Clinic who discovered the process by which HDL loses its cardio-protective properties, and instead causes atherosclerosis, or the clogging and hardening of the arteries. Their research was published online January 26th 2014 in the journal Nature Medicine.
Home Health Care: Navigating Racial and Cultural Differences By blog Roz, now 95 years old, spent all her life in Westchester County in the company of Jewish people like herself. She was not strictly religious, but she grew up in a time and place when, as she said, "like associated with like." She still recalls one evening, some 70 years ago, when she went on her first and only date with a non-Jewish boy. "I felt like the whole town was watching and judging," she said.
Aging Well Sun Exposure May Help Lower Blood Pressure By Jane Farrell article Exposure to sunlight has a newly found health benefit: reducing blood pressure and cutting the risk of heart attack and stroke, according to a new study. The findings, published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, indicate that sunlight alters the level of nitric oxide (NO), a small messenger molecule, in skin and blood. Martin Feelisch, Professor of Experimental Medicine and Integrative Biology at the University of Southampton, UK, comments: “NO along with its breakdown products, known to