_ Senior Health Stroke Stroke Rates Have Dropped 40% for People 65+ By Sondra Forsyth article A new analysis of data from 1988-2008 by researchers at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine has revealed a 40% decrease in the incidence of stroke in Medicare patients 65 years of age and older. The decline is greater than anticipated considering this population's risk factors for stroke. Not only that, but the drop applies to both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. The team also found that deaths resulting from stroke declined during the same period. The findings are published in the July 2014 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
_ Heart Health Potassium May Save Lives for Heart Patients on Diuretics By Sondra Forsyth article Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that patients taking prescription potassium supplements together with loop diuretics for heart failure have better survival rates than patients taking diuretics without the potassium. The degree of benefit increases with higher diuretic doses. The team, including senior author Sean Hennessy, PharmD, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology in PennΓÇÖs Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CCEB), report their findings in a study published online July 16th 2014 in PLoS ONE.
_ Breast Cancer Breast Ca Screening for Older Women = High Cost But No Benefit By Sondra Forsyth article Medicare spending on breast cancer screening increased substantially between 2001 and 2009 but the detection rates of early stage tumors were unchanged, according to a study done at Yale and published July 16th 2014 in the JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
_ 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.
_ Losing Your Sense of Smell By Jane Farrell article Many older people are not even aware that they have a problem with their sense of smell because the changes occur gradually over several years. They may not even notice that they are experiencing a loss of smell until there is an incident in which they don't detect food that has spoiled or the presence of dangerous smoke.
_ Stroke Fewer Stroke Deaths Over Past 2 Decades By Sondra Forsyth article Fewer Americans are having strokes and those who do have a lower risk of dying from them according to a a study led by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers and is published in the July 16th 2014 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
_ Stress-Free Living Health Issues Stress Americans the Most By Sondra Forsyth article Reports of great a deal of stress are more than twice as common among people in poor health, according to an NPR/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) poll released ton July 8th 2014. The survey examined the role of stress in Americans' lives and found that about half of the public (49%) reported that they had a major stressful event or experience in the past year. Nearly half (43%) reported that the most stressful experiences related to health.
_ Senior Health Older Adults Can Safely Donate Kidneys By Sondra Forsyth article Previous studies linking older age with kidney and heart disease have raised concerns about the safety of living kidney donation among older adults. However, in the first study to look closely at this issue, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report that older kidney donors (55 years and above) enjoy similar life expectancy and cardiovascular health as very healthy older people who did not donate their kidneys.
Love and Words By blog I recently read a magazine article written by a woman who was reminiscing about a camping trip she went on during her senior year of high school. She thought of herself as plain, gangly, insecure girl with frizzy hair, so she was shocked one evening on that trip when a handsome boy stopped to chat.
_ Patients Are Helping Doctors Do Research By Jane Farrell article PatientsΓÇÖ participation in health-care research is becoming more active thanks to ΓÇ£big dataΓÇ¥ research projects that use many people to provide real-time information on symptoms, side effects and results. An analysis published in the journal Health Affairs said that new technologies such as electronic health records and monitoring devices are playing an increasing part in major studies.
_ Alternative Health Needed: A Better Understanding of Chinese Medicine By Jane Farrell article Although millions of people in the West use Chinese medicine, including acupuncture and herbs, there arenΓÇÖt enough physicians who have Chinese-language training so they can understand the nuances of those methods. Researchers from UCLAΓÇÖs Center for East-West Medicine say that there are only a few U.S. schools that have Chinese-language training. Additionally, only a few Chinese medical texts have been translated into English.
Heart Health Unnecessary Blood Tests Waste Money By Sondra Forsyth article Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center used two relatively simple tactics to significantly reduce the number of unnecessary blood tests to assess symptoms of heart attack and chest pain and to achieve a large decrease in patient charges.
_ Skin Skin Health Fear Of Illness Can Be A Good Thing By Jane Farrell article When it comes to skin cancer, many people are influenced by fear, not statistics, to use sunscreen. ΓÇ£Most health behavior studies donΓÇÖt account for the more visceral, emotional reactions that lead people to do risky behaviors, like eat junk food or ignore the protective benefits of sunscreen,ΓÇ¥ says Marc Kiviniemi, lead researcher and assistant professor of community health and health behavior in the University of BuffaloΓÇÖs School of Public Health and Health Professions.
_ Aging Well Testing Competency of Aging Drivers By Sondra Forsyth article As the American population continues to age, using tests to evaluate competency behind the wheel is critical. However, research done at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver found ΓÇ£significant barriers to evaluations important to the continued safety and competency of older driversΓÇ¥ according to a release from the university. The study was published 2014 in the journal Occupational Therapy in Health Care.
Life in a Sandwich By blog About a third of all AlzheimerΓÇÖs and dementia patient caregivers are living their lives ΓÇ£sandwichedΓÇ¥ between caring for their loved one and raising their own children or grandchildren. With women often having their children later, and with so many young adults moving back into the nest, more families are finding themselves dealing with multi-generational caregiving challenges.
_ 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.
Breast Cancer Some Cancers Respond to Anti-Inflammatory Drugs By Sondra Forsyth article Research done at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis raises the possibility that some cancer patients with aggressive tumors may benefit from a class of anti-inflammatory drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. The investigators published their findings in a 2014 issue of the journal Cell Reports.
_ Local Anesthesia Better for Hip-Fracture Surgery By Jane Farrell article General anesthesia may not always be best for patients undergoing hip-fracture surgery, a study has found. The researchers, from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, found in another study that there were high rates of mortality and functional disability among nursing-home residents who were treated for hip fracture. Each year, about 300,000 hip fractures occur in the United States. They often happen as a result of serious falls that can impair functionality.