_ Kidney Disease Drug Halves Risk of Kidney Transplant Rejection By Sondra Forsyth article Oxford University scientists in the UK have shown that a powerful drug given at the time of a kidney transplant operation not only halves the early risk of rejection, but that it also allows a less toxic regimen of anti-rejection drugs to be used after the operation.
_ Exercise Does Air Pollution Make Outdoor Exercise Risky? By Sondra Forsyth article By Edward R. Laskowski, M.D. While aerobic activity is one of the keys to a healthy lifestyle, air pollution and exercise can be an unhealthy combination. This is especially true if you have asthma, diabetes, heart or lung conditions, or lower respiratory disease. Even when you're not exercising, exposure to air pollution can cause health problems. But with the combination of air pollution and exercise, the potential health problems are increased.
_ Women's Health and Wellness Hysterectomy With Morcellation Poses Cancer Risk By Sondra Forsyth article Among women undergoing a minimally invasive hysterectomy using electric power morcellation, uterine cancers were present in 27 per 10,000 women at the time of the procedure, according to a study published July 22nd 2014 by JAMA. There has been concern that this procedure, in which the uterus is fragmented into smaller pieces, may result in the spread of undetected malignancies.
_ 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.
_ Glitch in ΓÇ£Garbage RemovalΓÇ¥ Ups Dementia Risk By Sondra Forsyth article An international team of researchers identified a pathogenic mechanism that is common to several neurodegenerative diseases. The findings suggest that it may be possible to slow the progression of dementia even after the onset of symptoms.
_ 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.
_ Women's Health and Wellness For Some Older Women, Calcium Supplements Up Risk of Kidney Stones By Sondra Forsyth article Calcium and vitamin D are commonly recommended for older women, but the usual supplements may send calcium excretion and blood levels too high for some women, according to a study published online June 18th 2014 in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society. Excess blood and urine calcium levels may lead to kidney stones or other problems. The study will be published in the November 2014 print edition of Menopause.
_ Exercise Calling All Couch Potatoes: You Might Be at Risk for this Disease By Sondra Forsyth article HereΓÇÖs yet another compelling reason to get up off the couch: Physical inactivity can increase the risk of colon, endometrial, and lung cancers, according to a study published June 16th 2014 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Time spent watching TV was especially predictive of increased cancer risk.
_ High blood pressure / hypertension Senior Health Diuretics Risky for Older Adults By Sondra Forsyth article Adults over 65 with high blood pressure who have recently begun taking thiazide diuretics are at a greater risk for developing metabolic-related adverse events including acute kidney injury, according to research done at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco. The study was published in June 2014 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
_ Heart Health A Better Assessment Tool For Heart-Disease Risk By Jane Farrell article An international team of researchers has created a heart disease risk assessment tool designed to better evaluate the likelihood of heart disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. People with rheumatoid arthritis are twice as likely as the average person to develop heart problems.
_ Infection Risks in Home Health Care By article Each year, an estimated 12 million Americans receive care from more than 33,000 home health providers in the U.S., where the annual tab for home health services exceeds $72 billion. Patients depend on home health care services to recover from surgeries and hospital stays, as well as to manage daily life with chronic conditions. All too often, however, proven practices for preventing infections aren't followed when care is provided at home.
_ Skin Skin Health Indoor Tanning Ups Melanoma Risk By Jane Farrell article If you or your teenage children or grandchildren believe that getting an indoor tan will prevent burns from outdoor sun exposure, youΓÇÖre courting the deadliest form of skin cancer. ThatΓÇÖs the finding of researchers at the University of Minnesota who published their study May 29th 2014 in the JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The team reports that indoor tanning raises the risk of developing melanoma even if a person has never had burns from either indoor or outdoor tanning.
_ Low Risk Prostate Ca Not Always Low Risk By article The criteria for active surveillance -- often called ΓÇ£watch and waitΓÇ¥ -- in dealing with prostate cancer should be re-evaluated. That is the recommendation of a study done at the University of California, Los Angeles and published in the May 19th 2014 issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Urology.
Watch: Adult Onset Asthma Risk Factors By article Here's another addition to our ThirdAge Video Collection. Press play to start learning!
Osteoporosis Calcium Supplements DonΓÇÖt Up Heart Risk for Women By article Previous studies have suggested that calcium supplements, which many women take to prevent osteoporosis, may increase risk of cardiovascular disease. However, the data has been inconsistent. A new study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) did not find that calcium supplement intake increases risk of cardiovascular disease in women. The article was published online in May 2014 in Osteoporosis International.
_ AFib = Dementia Risk If Meds Are Out of Range By article A study done by researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City has found that atrial fibrillation patients who are on blood thinning medications are at higher risk of developing dementia if their doses are not in the optimal recommended range. The findings presented at the 2014 Annual Heart Rhythm Society Scientific Session on Friday, May 9th, 2014 in San Francisco.
_ Osteoporosis Fracture Risk Tool Is Flawed By article If you’re between the ages of 40 and 65, or if you’ve ever broken a single bone, the World Health Organization's tool for assessing the likelihood of breaks would underestimate your risk of “fragility fractures” resulting from falls. That is the conclusion of a study done at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada and published in April 2014 published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
_ Glucose Dips Overnight a Risk for Diabetics By article Dipping blood sugars cause surprisingly irregular heart rhythms in diabetics and the dangerous overnight low glucose levels often go undetected. That is the finding of research led by Professor Simon Heller at the University of Sheffield in the UK. A release from the university explains that this discovery sheds important new light on the 'Dead in Bed' syndrome in which people without any history of long-term complications die suddenly from the disease.