_ The Aging Brain Needs REST By article Researchers at the Harvard Medical School have discovered that a gene regulator called REST, which is active during fetal brain development, switches back on later in life to protect aging neurons from stresses including the toxic effects of abnormal proteins. The team also showed that REST is lost in critical brain regions of people with Alzheimer's and mild cognitive impairment.
_ Heart Health Maybe Saturated Fats ArenΓÇÖt So Bad After All By article A study led University of Cambridge in the UK and published March 18th 2014 in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine raises questions about current guidelines that generally restrict the consumption of saturated fats and encourage consumption of polyunsaturated fats to prevent heart disease.
_ Post-Op Cognitive Dysfunction in the Elderly By article Older people in particular tend to suffer from memory lapses and other types of cognitive impairment after undergoing surgical procedures. The condition is call postoperative cognitive dysfunction, or POCD. Surgery has been performed on older patients much more commonly in recent years than ever before, and their pre- and postoperative care has become an important matter.
_ Mental & Emotional Health Reducing Anxiety? ThereΓÇÖs an App for That. By article Playing a science-based mobile gaming app for 25 minutes can reduce anxiety in stressed individuals, according to research done at Hunter College in NYC and the City University of New York and published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The study suggests that "gamifying" a scientifically-supported intervention could offer measurable mental health and behavioral benefits for people with relatively high levels of anxiety.
_ Exercise Get Fit For Free By Jane Farrell article Getting and staying fit can be intimidating, especially if you don’t want to go to gyms that might make you self-conscious and cost a lot of money. Even at-home equipment can be costly. But you can have an enjoyable fitness routine without spending anything. Experts from the Go4Life fitness program of the National Institutes of Health have some great suggestions:
Five Questions to Ask Your Surgeon Before An Operation By Jane Farrell article From the Mayo Clinic The news that you will need surgery can prompt many questions and a lot of anxiety. Beyond details about your medical condition and treatment options, what should you ask your surgeon before the operation? Whatever you need to ask to be comfortable with the decisions you make about your care, says Robert Cima, M.D., a colon and rectal surgeon and chair of Mayo’s surgical quality subcommittee.
_ Too Many Unnecessary Brain Scans By Jane Farrell article The cost of brain scans for headache patients has reached $1 billion annually, a study has found. But many of the scans are unnecessary. Research from the University of Michigan Medical School found that 12 percent of doctor visits in the U.S. for headache resulted in a brain scan. Several national guidelines for physician advise against scanning the brains of patients who complain of headache and migraine. Still, the rate of brain scans is rising, not falling, since the guidelines were issued.
_ Androgen Deprivation Therapy Ineffective For Early-Stage Prostate Cancer By Jane Farrell article Men who got androgen deprivation therapy as the primary treatment in the early stages of prostate cancer didn’t live any longer than those who got no treatment at all, a study shows. The researchers say that this conclusion, along with the risk of serious side effects such as heart disease and diabetes, “mitigates against any clinical or policy rationale for use of primary androgen deprivation therapy [PADT] in these men.”
_ Mental & Emotional Health Suppressing Unwanted Memories By article Researchers at the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in the UK have shown that suppressing unwanted memories reduces their unconscious influences on subsequent behavior. The team has also shed light on how this process happens in the brain.
_ Stretchable Antenna for Wearable Health Monitors By article Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new, stretchable antenna that can be incorporated into wearable technologies such as health monitoring devices to keep track of blood pressure, oxygen in the blood, and pulse rate. The paper is published online in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
_ Heart Health "Bendopnea" = Heart Failure Symptom By article University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center cardiologists have defined a novel heart failure symptom in advanced heart failure patients: shortness of breath while bending over, such as when putting on shoes. The cardiologists dubbed he condition “bendopnea”, which is pronounced “bend-op-nee-ah”/ The easily detectable symptom can help doctors diagnose excessive fluid retention in patients with heart failure, according to the findings published in a March 2014 edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Heart Failure.
Heart Health 5 Common Questions About Sex and Your Heart By Jane Farrell article By Steven Nissen, MD Cleveland Clinic Patients often ask me: Is sex good for your heart? The question seems simple. The answer is complicated, in part because of the limits of what research can tell us. But we do have a strong sense that sex fits in with a heart-healthy lifestyle. Below are answers to five common questions. 1. Is sex exercise?
Heart Health New "Heart Attack Gene" Discovered By Jane Farrell article Researchers have found a previously undiscovered gene variation that reduces heart attack risk, and the discovery could lead to better treatment of high cholesterol and related disorders. The finding, by a team from the University of Michigan and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, took six years of analysis.
A Sharp Drop in Deaths From Colon Cancer By Jane Farrell article Colon cancer screenings have led to a 30 percent drop in cases for people aged 50 and older, the American Cancer Society reports. Death rates have also declined. The drop was measured over the last ten years. The researchers who conducted the study said the decrease was due to more people getting recommended screening tests. And even more deaths could be avoided if everyone got their screening tests on time.
Grow a Nutritious Garden in a Pot By article By Melinda Myers Don’t let a lack of time or space get in the way of gardening your way to a healthy lifestyle. Plant a container of nutritious vegetables and herbs. Include a few planters on a windowsill, the front porch, back patio or right outside the kitchen door.
Tracking a SuperbugΓÇÖs Evolution By Jane Farrell article Using genome sequencing, National Institutes of Health scientists and their colleagues have tracked the evolution of the antibiotic-resistant bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae sequence type 258 (ST258), an important agent of hospital-acquired infections. While researchers had previously thought that ST258 K. pneumoniae strains spread from a single ancestor, the NIH team showed that the strains arose from at least two different lineages.
_ Slowing Down Alzheimer's Plaques By article University of Michigan researchers have learned how to fix a cellular structure called the Golgi that mysteriously becomes fragmented in all Alzheimer's patients and appears to be a major cause of the disease. The scientists say that understanding this mechanism helps decode amyloid plaque formation in the brains of Alzheimer's patients—plaques that kills cells and contributes to memory loss and other Alzheimer's symptoms.
_ Deer HuntersΓÇÖ Trick Can Help Diabetics By Jane Farrell article The scent of a human alerts deer to a hunter’s presence so scientists developed sprays for suppressing the telltale odor. Now, in an unexpected twist, researchers at Mississippi State University have discovered that the work of those scientists could help develop an electronic device to do the work of “diabetes alert dogs”. The team presented the findings at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in March 2014 in Dallas.