_ Aging Well Welcome, Youngest Baby Boomers! By Sondra Forsyth article Here at ThirdAge, where we focus on the health and well-being of women 50+ and their families, we want to extend a heartfelt welcome and a happy 50th birthday to those of you who were born in 1964 -- the last year of the post-war baby boom. The oldest Boomers, born in 1946, are 18 years older than you are so plenty of people point out that your coming-of-age experiences are a lot different that those of people in the 60+ cohort.
_ Improved Delivery of Anti-Cancer Drugs By Jane Farrell article Scientists have taken a significant step in the field of nanomedicine, in which infinitesimal particles fight cancer by delivering a targeted drug to affected cells. Now, they have found out how to use nanoparticles to sequentially deliver the drugs to different parts of a cancer cell.
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
_ Exercise Injuring Tendons as We Age By article The risk of tendon injuries increases with age but scientists have never fully understood why. Now research led by Queen Mary University of London has discovered a specific mechanism that is crucial to effective tendon function. The finding could reveal why older people are more prone to tendon injury.
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.
_ 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.
Nutrition Guidelines Needed for Full-Service Restaurants By article You avoid fast food chains and patronize full-service chains instead, so you’re eating healthy. Right? Maybe not. According to a study done at Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania, food served at full-service restaurant chains is typically high in calories, saturated fat, and sodium. The team maintains that standard definitions are needed for ''healthy choice'' tags and for entrées targeted to vulnerable age groups. The article was published in the January 2014 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior foods
_ Special Focus Issue on Sepsis By article A special issue on sepsis has been released by the publisher of the journal Virulence, Landes Bioscience based in Austin, Texas. The articles were written by world-class investigators and provide new insights into both the pathogen-related factors and the host defense mechanisms that lead to septic shock and contribute either to its resolution or fatal outcome.
_ 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.
_ The Right Way to Practice = Faster Learning By article The old adage notwithstanding, practice doesn’t make perfect unless you do it the correct way -- especially when it comes to learning quickly. That’s the finding of research done at the University of Sheffield in the UK and The New York Times Research and Development Lab. The study was published in the journal Psychological Science.
_ 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.
_ Apologizing After a Caregiving Blowup By Jane Farrell article Caregiving, even during the best of times, can be stressful. Family members and friends who are clueless about the realities of caregiving, often add to the stress by offering "advice," which sounds to you like criticism rather than help. You're a good person and likely they are, too, so you stuff your irritation, bite back a sarcastic response and let the comments or actions pass – this time.
Grief Sighing or Breathing Relief? By Jane Farrell blog Do you sigh throughout the day? Perhaps you don’t recognize that you’re sighing. It’s a deep breath in as your entire upper body rises, and then you release with an long audible exhale and your body sinks as do your hopes.
Medicare to Ban Dangerous Prescribers By article According to a January 6th 2014 report in Pro Publica by Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein, Medicare plans to “arm itself with broad new powers to better control — and potentially ban — doctors engaged in fraudulent or harmful prescribing.” Pro Publica is an independent, non-profit newsroom based in New York City that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.
_ Detecting Prostate Ca Overdiagnosis By article Use of a “nomogram,” – a calculating device for prediction – can estimate individual risks that a screen-detected prostate cancer has been overdiagnosed, according to a study done at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and published January 6th 2014 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
_ Refilling Prescriptions Online Can Help Your Health By Jane Farrell article Using an online service to refill medications actually helped some people with their health, according to a new study. Researchers from Kaiser Permanente and the University of California, San Francisco Medical School followed 17,760 diabetic patients who got care from Kaisesr Permanente in northern California between 2006 and 2010. The subjects used online patient portals, which allow users to order prescription refills, communicate with their health care providers, schedule appointments, access their health records and view their lab test results
_ Chinese Herb Improves Memory By article Mannotriose, the main component of the Chinese herb Rehmannia, can improve learning and memory. This effect happens because mannotriose protects neurons in the hippocampal region of the brain from injury caused by high- concentrations of corticosterone, or cortisol, the “stress hormone” that impacts emotional memories and long-term memory. That’s the finding of Dr. Lina Zhang and colleagues from Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.