healthy living for women + their families
Changes in a process that controls genes appear to be linked to some of the increased risk of cancer seen in older people, according to a new National Institutes of Health study.
It’s long been known that age is a leading risk factor for the development of many cancers. But scientists haven’t known exactly why that’s so. They’ve suspected a process called DNA methylation– the binding of chemical tags, known as methyl groups, onto DNA.
About 90 percent of people over 60 years old have rotator-cuff disease. A new ultrasound probe that has been developed at Clemson University in South Carlina could take some of the guesswork out of determining the severity of rotator-cuff injuries, making it easier for doctors to decide whether patients need surgery. Rotator-cuff injuries are the second highest-costing disease in the country, behind only back injuries.
By Paul DiCorleto, Ph. D.
Each year in the United States, 23,000 people die from drug-resistant bacterial infections.
Antibiotics, designed to fight infections, have been one of the greatest medical advances of the past 100 years. But many health experts warn that we are entering a postantibiotic era, where drug-resistant “superbugs” threaten our health and economy.
Our behavior — how we use antibiotics and antibacterial products — may be part of the problem.
How superbugs survive
Dormant prostate-cancer cells in bone tissue can be reawakened, causing the disease to spread to different parts of the body.
The discovery, by researchers in the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, in Los Angeles, could lead to new ways to intervene before the disease progresses.
Fructose has a reputation for causing obesity, but replacing it with glucose doesn’t seem to make much difference.
The findings, published in the journal Current Opinion in Lipidology, show that when portion sizes and calories are the same, fructose does not cause any more harm than glucose.
If you want to lose weight, eating well during the week may be more important than avoiding weekend splurges.
Researchers from Cornell University, in collaboration with researchers from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Tampere University of Technology, examined the impact that the seven-days-a-week human cycle has on weight.
By Dr. Paul Dunion
“Don’t you ever think of others?”
“Make sure you share!”
“That’s you being selfish again.”
Here's another addition to our ThirdAge Video Collection. Press play to start learning!
As a diverse nation, we can embrace our cultural traditions for the foods we love and still prepare them in healthier ways. Here, from the program MyPlate, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is how to eat the best of other cultures’ cuisine without abandoning your health goals:
Along with lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, affects a patient’s very ability to breathe. COPD, which is also called emphysema or chronic bronchitis, is a progressive lung disease in which the airways of the lungs become damaged, making it hard to breathe. COPD is also known as emphysema or chronic bronchitis.
According to the National Institutes of Health, COPD is a major cause of death and illness worldwide. In the U.S., it kills more than 120,000 Americans every year, or one every four minutes.
New York-Presbyterian Hospital, an official health services provider for the Super Bowl, offers advice on dealing with the cold as well as tips for healthy Game Day 2014 snacking:
Beyond Bundling Up: Tips to Stay Safe When Out in the Cold
*Cold temperatures can cause skin disorders or frostbite in some people. See a doctor immediately if you develop color changes in your hands or feet accompanied by pain or ulceration. If you develop extreme pain followed by loss of sensation in a finger or toe, you may have frostbite.
A new database of philanthropic foundations has been created by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The team suggests that consideration of the adoption of the more comprehensive generic term "health legacy foundation" would be a way to foster more precise thinking of the variation in the diverse but related phenomena occurring in health care mergers and other consolidations. The goal of the database is to help communities nationwide better understand local resources.
A caregiver’s depression appears to be related to family and genetic factors more than the difficulty of the caregiving itself, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Washington analyzed 1,228 female twins. Some were caregivers and some were not.
When it comes to life's stressors, most people would put caregiving at the top of the list. But according to Peter Vitaliano, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at UW, there never have been data actually showing caregiving causes psychological distress.
The grandchildren could save your life if you let them play a video game called “The Stroke Hero” that teaches them to recognize stroke symptoms and quickly call 911, according to an article published in in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, over 18 percent of American adults suffer from anxiety disorders. These people suffer from excessive worry or tension that often leads to physical symptoms. A release from the California Institute of Technology reports that previous studies of anxiety in the brain have focused on the amygdala, an area known to play a role in fear. However, Caltech researchers had a hunch that understanding a different brain area, the lateral septum, could provide more clues into how the brain processes anxiety. Their instincts paid off.
Researchers have found that for a substantial percentage of women, moderate to severe hot flashes last up to ten years or more after menopause, and that may mean hormone therapy should be prescribed for a longer period of time.
Investigators from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine discovered that for most women, moderate to severe hot flashes continue, on average, for just five years after menopause, but more than one third of women have hot flashes for a decade or beyond.
Here's another video from our Third Age Video Collection. Press play to start learning!
Antibodies derived from llamas point the way to the development of new treatments for the deadly opportunistic bacterial pathogen Clostridium difficile (C. difficile).That’s the news from researchers from the Alberta Glycomics Centre at the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta in collaboration with researchers at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. The team has revealed the first molecular views showing how highly specific antibodies derived from llamas may provide a new method for controlling lethal infections from C.
