Osteoporosis Too Fit to Fracture By article Experts from the Too Fit to Fracture Initiative have established exercise recommendations for people with osteoporosis, with or without spine fractures. The results were presented at the World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases in Seville, Spain in April 2014.
_ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Breakthrough By article Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies in Japan, in collaboration with Osaka City University and Kansai University of Welfare Sciences, have used functional PET imaging to show that levels of neuroinflammation, or inflammation of the nervous system, are higher in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome than in healthy people.
_ Does a Junk Food Diet Make You Lazy? By article A University of California, Los Angeles psychology study provides evidence that being overweight makes people tired and sedentary — not the other way around, according to a UCLA release written by Stuart Wolpert. The research is online and will be published April 10th 2014 in the print edition of the journal Physiology and Behavior.
_ Weight Loss Can Sun Exposure Help You Lose Weight? By Jane Farrell article Exposure to light in the morning rather than later in the day may be a good way to manage weight, new research shows. The study, from Northwestern Medicine, found that the timing, intensity and duration of light exposure is linked to Body Mass Index (BMI).
_ This Is Your Brain on Meditation By article Brown University researchers have intergrated mindfulness meditation with brain imaging and neural signal data to form testable hypotheses about the science of the practice, and the reported mental health benefits. The investigators maintain that their method of coding the reports meditators provide about their mental experiences can be “rigorously correlated with quantitative neurophysiological measurements”.
_ Stroke Risk Higher after Shingles By article Here’s another reason to get your shingles vaccination: Patients' risk of stroke is significantly increased following the first signs of the telltale rash. However, antiviral drugs appear to offer some protection, according to a study published online in April 2014 in Clinical Infectious Diseases. As you probably already know the painful rash that is typical of shingles is caused by the same virus, herpes zoster, that gave you your childhood bout of chicken pox. The virus stays with you for a lifetime and is sometimes reactivated as shingles.
_ Sleep Health Night-Owl People Bigger Risk Takers Than Early Risers By Jane Farrell article Women who are night owls are as likely as men to be risk-takers. They’re also liable to be single or have short-term romantic relationships. Research by a professor from the University of Chicago suggests that night owls are different from early risers in very important ways. The research suggests that sleep patterns are linked with important character traits and behavior.
_ More People Are Making Living Wills By Jane Farrell article The number of older people who have living wills has nearly doubled in recent years, researchers have found. The change indicates that millions of people are less timid about discussing the complicated, frightening issues surrounding end-of-life medical treatments. Investigators from the University of Michigan and the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Health Care System found that the percentage jumped from 47 percent in 2000 to 72 percent in 2010.
_ CDC Sodium Recommendation Too Low By article Research published in the American Journal of Hypertension finds evidence that the average daily sodium intake of most Americans is actually associated with better health outcomes than intake levels currently recommended by the CDC and major health departments, which are now being viewed by many in the scientific community as excessively and unrealistically low.
Good Vibrations for Diabetic Wounds By article Wounds may heal more quickly if exposed to low-intensity vibration, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago who published their study online in April 2014 in the journal PLOS One. The finding, based on laboratory work with mice, may hold promise for the 18 million Americans who have type 2 diabetes, and especially the quarter of them who will eventually suffer from foot ulcers. Their wounds tend to heal slowly and can become chronic or worsen rapidly.
_ 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.
_ Customers Like Menus With Nutrition Facts By article Customers are more likely to frequent restaurants that provide both healthful foods and nutrition information, according to researchers at Penn State and the University of Tennessee. The results appeared in the February 2014 issue of the International Journal of Hospitality Management.
_ Mental & Emotional Health Presurgical Psych Screening Largely Ignored By article Only 10 percent of orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons follow professional guidelines recommending routine psychological screenings of patients prior to major surgery for severe back and leg pain, according to a Johns Hopkins study published in the April 2014 edition of the Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques.
_ Mobile Tools Boost Smoking Cessation Counseling By article Smartphones and tablets may hold the key to getting more clinicians to screen patients for tobacco use and advise smokers on how to quit. Even though tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the U.S., clinicians often don't ask about smoking during patient exams.
_ Exercise The Zero Gravity Lesson We Learned from Astronauts By article By Roger Landry, MD, MPH “Houston, we have a problem.”
Hearing Loss Makes the Elderly Withdrawn By article As people age, they generally become less outgoing. New research from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden shows that this change in personality is amplified among people with impaired hearing. The findings, which were published in the February 2014 issue of Journal of Personality, emphasize the importance of acknowledging and treating hearing loss in the elderly population. The utilization of hearing aids did not affect the correlation found, which suggests that there is a need for support in the use of hearing devices.
_ Gratitude Trumps Willpower for Resisting Temptation By article Having trouble resisting the urge to eat an unhealthy snack or charge something you don’t really need? Instead of trying to summon your willpower, ramp up your gratitude quotient and you’ll be better able to walk away from temptation. That’s the finding of a study done by researchers at Northwestern University, the University of California, Riverside, and Harvard Kennedy School. The paper will be published in the journal Psychological Science.
_ Common Anesthetic Ups Risk of Brain Damage By article Researchers at the University of Adelaide have discovered that a commonly used technique called hypotensive anesthesia that reduces the blood pressure of patients undergoing surgery could increase the risk of starving the brain of oxygen.