_ The Newest IBS Medicines By Jane Farrell article Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is an often misunderstood and underdiagnosed condition that affects about 15.3 million people in the United States. No one remedy works for all patients, so thereΓÇÖs a great medical need to develop new therapies for IBS, Andrew Mulberg, M.D., a gastroenterologist with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said in one of the agencyΓÇÖs ΓÇ£Consumer UpdateΓÇ¥ articles.
_ Making Surgery as Easy as Possible By Jane Farrell article Have you been told by your doctor that you need surgery? If so, you're not alone. Millions of older Americans have surgery each year. Your primary care doctor may suggest a surgeon to you, and your state or local medical society can tell you about your surgeon's training. Try to choose a surgeon who operates often on medical problems like yours.
_ Heart Health Crucial Heart-Disease Devices Benefit People of Color By Jane Farrell article Racial and ethnic minorities who get implantable devices to treat heart failure derive the same survival benefit as white patients, new research shows. But non-white patients are getting the devices at a much lower rate. The study, one of the largest to compare the survival benefits of the devices by race and ethnicity, looked at 15,000 patients from 167 medical practices across the U.S. The findings are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
_ Watch: 4 Medical Tech Devices for Senior Care By Jane Farrell article Here's another addition to our Third Age video collection. Press play to start learning.
_ Mental & Emotional Health Should You See a Shrink? By article By Sherrie Campbell, PhD It is often the assumption that if you go to therapy that you have serious problems you cannot manage on your own and there is something fundamentally wrong with you. In reality, if someone is attending therapy, the person tends to be on the healthier side of self-love and self-awareness. Because seeing a therapist is stigmatized many people who want to seek help, either often they donΓÇÖt, or they keep their therapy private so they do not invoke judgment.
_ Progress in Fighting Tough Tumors By Jane Farrell article Spanish researchers have found the strongest proof yet that inhibition of a gene could be used to fight cancerous tumors. Research led by the Vall dΓÇÖHebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Barcelona, found that the inhibiting mutations of the Myc gene could be accomplished via the drug Omomyc. That inhibitor was designed by Laura Soucek, Principal Investigator of VHIO┬┤s Mouse Models of Cancer Therapies Group. The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.
_ Multiple Sclerosis: 5 Things You Should Know By Jane Farrell article MS can happen to just about anyone. The central nervous system disorder affects your brain and spinal cord. But it spares the nerves and muscles that lead away from the spinal cord. Nearly 350,000 people in the United States have MS. MS is a long-term illness. Infection-fighting white blood cells enter the nervous system and cause injury by stripping off the myelin sheath that protects nerves. When this happens, the nerves cannot conduct electricity as well as they should. This causes symptoms.
_ Many Elderly ER Visitors Are Malnourished By Jane Farrell article In a new study, researchers found that more than half of elderly patients in a hospital emergency room were either malnourished or at risk of malnutrition. Additionally, more than half of the patients who were malnourished hadnΓÇÖt been diagnosed with the condition. Researchers focused on patients 138 65 and older who were seen at the University of North Carolina hospitals over an eight-week period. The patients were not cognitively impaired or critically ill. None of them lived in a nursing home or skilled nursing facility.
_ Watch: Widow of Ebola Virus Victim Speaks Out By Jane Farrell article Here's another video from our Third Age collection. Press play to start learning.
_ Mental & Emotional Health How to Cultivate Contentment By Jane Farrell article By Mayo Clinic Staff Do you know how to be happy? Or are you waiting for happiness to find you?
_ Using a Computer to Help Treat Mental Health By Jane Farrell article Experts are developing a genetic computer model that may eventually predict whether a patient going to suffer from a mental illness, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The researchers, from the University of Texas, Arlington; the University of Illinois; and the Beijing Genomics Institutes in Wuhan, China, published their findings in the journal Biomed Research International.
_ Osteoporosis Progress in Preventing Osteoporosis By Jane Farrell article Researchers are progressing in the development of a more effective treatment of osteoporosis, a widespread and serious health problem in the U.S. The investigators, from the UCLA School of Dentistry, are working on a treatment that both slows down the destruction of bone and promotes bone formation. The researchers found that a growth factor, Wnt4, which is secreted in the bone marrow, prevented bone loss in mice with osteoporosis. Wnt4 does that by blocking a signaling pattern that would otherwise promote inflammation.
_ Women's Health and Wellness What's Your Bladder Telling You About Your Health? By Jane Farrell article How your bladder functions every day can tell you a lot about your overall health. How often you urinate during the day and during the night, the color of your urine and whether you can ΓÇ£hold itΓÇ¥ all provide clues to health conditions that donΓÇÖt involve your urinary system. ΓÇ£Eighty percent of the causes of bladder problems are related to conditions outside of the bladder,ΓÇ¥ says urologist Raymond Rackley, MD. These can include problems with the nervous or cardiovascular systems, Rackley says. So what should you look out for?
_ Exercise How Exercise Can Improve Osteoarthritis By Jane Farrell article Osteoarthritis, the degeneration of joint cartilage, is age-related. Most cases involve stiffness in the knee, hip and thumb joints. But while it is a painful condition, osteoarthritis doesnΓÇÖt necessarily limit your from physical activity. In fact, the right kind of exercise can improve the condition.
_ More Health Research Needed on Natural Gas Drilling By Jane Farrell article Projects involving gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, should be subject to public-health and community analysis before they begin, an expert panel says. The panel called for groundwater and air quality testing before, during, and after the drilling, saying that the analysis is a key component of guaranteeing the safety of communities near the drilling site.
_ Colon-Cancer Screenings: Weighing the Options By Jane Farrell article Editor's note: If you ever thought getting a colonoscopy was the only way to screen for colon cancer, you're wrong. Here, the experts from the Mayo Clinic explain what the choices are: WHAT IS YOUR DOCTORΓÇÖS APPROACH TO COLON-CANCER SCREENING? Make sure that you're comfortable with the colon cancer screening test your doctor recommends. If your doctor specializes in a particular test but you'd rather have another test, express your wishes. If necessary, your doctor might offer a referral to someone trained in the test with which you feel most comfortable.
_ Breast Cancer Scientists Zeroing In on Third Breast-Cancer Gene By Jane Farrell article Researchers have discovered more about a breast-cancer gene that could be as important as the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in determining a womanΓÇÖs likelihood of getting breast cancer. An international team of 17 researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, said that the gene, PALB 2, could be a candidate to be ΓÇ£BRCA 3.ΓÇ¥ They said that women with the gene have an average one in three chance of developing breast cancer by the age of 70. The findings were reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. Although itΓÇÖs been known for a while that PALB2 was l
_ 5 Emotions to Watch Out for In Your Relationship with Money By Jane Farrell article By Meriflor Toneatto Everyone has a relationship with money, but for women, itΓÇÖs much more fraught with emotion. When we avoid and ignore those emotions, we allow them to quietly guide our decision-making ΓÇô which inevitably holds us back. Understanding our emotions, fears and doubts about money and how they affect our behavior can help us heal them so we can experience financial and personal freedom. For women, money is an emotional currency. ItΓÇÖs tied to our sense of self-worth and self-confidence, and our feelings of safety and security.