Health A-Z – thirdAGE

Coming Next Week! September 8th to September 12th 2014

Here’s a sneak preview of the articles, slideshows, and blogs we’ll be posting during the coming week on ThirdAge, the biggest and best site for “boomer and beyond” women since 1997. As always, we’ll bring you the latest information from top experts about maintaining a healthy body, mind, and spirit as you navigate both the… Continue reading Coming Next Week! September 8th to September 12th 2014

When Swelling Isn’t So Swell: Curbing Chronic Inflammation

By Dr. Mickey Barber Of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States, chronic, low-level inflammation contributes to at least seven, including heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and kidney failure (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). It is now widely believed that chronic inflammation that goes… Continue reading When Swelling Isn’t So Swell: Curbing Chronic Inflammation

An Effective Treatment for Ebola

A leading Ebola researcher from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has gone on record stating that a blend of three monoclonal antibodies can completely protect monkeys against a lethal dose of Ebola virus up to five days after infection, at a time when the disease is severe.

Coming Next Week! September 1st to September 5th 2014

AHA E-Cigarette Recommendations

The American Heart Association issued new policy recommendations August 25th 2014 on the use of e-cigarettes and their impact on tobacco-control efforts. The guidance was published in the association’s journal, Circulation.
Based on the current evidence, the association’s position is that e-cigarettes that contain nicotine are tobacco products and should be subject to all laws that apply to these products. The association also calls for strong new regulations to prevent access, sales and marketing of e-cigarettes to youth, and for more research into the product’s health impact.

How Lizards Grow New Tails

The secret of how lizards regenerate their tails could offer hope that researchers may be able to develop ways to stimulate the regeneration of limbs in humans. A team of researchers from Arizona State University in Phoenix is one step closer to solving that mystery. The scientists have discovered the genetic “recipe” for lizard tail regeneration, which may come down to using genetic ingredients in just the right mixture and amounts.

Local Body Clock & Overactive Bladder

Researchers at the University of Surrey in the UK have discovered that the local biological clock and its control are weakened in aging bladders. The study, which explains how the receptors responsible for contractions in the bladder regulate the body’s clock genes, was published August 21st 2014 in The FASEB Journal. The team found that this clock activity in turn regulates the cycle of all cells in the body.

ThirdAge Health Close-Up: “I Felt Like I Was Buried Alive”

As told to Sherry Amatenstein, LCSW

On October 17, 2010 shortly after her 49th birthday Allison O’Reilly didn’t feel like herself. The McLean, Virginia author of Out of Darkness explains, “My left arm hurt all day. I took Advil. That night the room started spinning, my ears were ringing, and I felt really sick.”

Epidemics and the Global Village 

By Bill Miller  MD

The agitating Ebola emergency has captured headlines. There are some who undoubtedly assume that this kind of epidemic is unusual. However, localized epidemic disease has been a part of the biological system of the planet since the origin of life. Pandemics in which the spread of disease can encompass a continent or the world are just as ancient a process.  

Coming Next Week! August 25th to August 29th 2014

Staying Smoke Free After Hospital Discharge

Smokers admitted to U.S. hospitals can’t smoke during their stay and could use this time as an opportunity to quit, but few are able to stay smoke-free after returning home. Now a study done at Massachusetts General Hospital and published in the August 20th 2014 issue of JAMA describes a program that increased the proportion of hospitalized smokers who successfully quit smoking after discharge by more than 70 percent.

Stay Safe During Lightning

Here’s advice from the Centers for Disease Control to help you protect yourself and your loved ones from lightning during a thunderstorm:

The weather forecast calls for a slight chance of thunderstorms, but you can only see a few fluffy white clouds overhead. So you and your tennis partner grab your racquets and balls and head for the tennis court.

You spend a few minutes warming up and then—wait! Is that thunder you hear? Was that a lightning flash?

Toward Tx for Interstitial Cystitis

A search for biomarkers is aimed at improving treatment of the painful bladder condition called interstitial cystitis (IC). Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem North Carolina are taking advantage of technology that can analyze tissue samples and measure the activity of thousands of genes at once.

Highly Drug Resistant Pathogen in Ohio

A team of clinician researchers has discovered a highly virulent, multidrug resistant form of the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa in patient samples in Ohio. Their investigation suggests that the particular genetic element involved, which is still rare in the United States, has been spreading heretofore unnoticed, and that surveillance is urgently needed. The research, which was done at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, was published ahead of print in August 2014 in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Coming Next Week! August 18th to August 22nd 2014

Little Known Facts about Helicobacter Pylori

By Marina Gafanovich M.D.

Helicobacter pylori, commonly known as H. pylori, is a gram-negative microaerophilic bacterium that is found in the stomach. It is helix-shaped and approximately 3 micrometers long with a diameter of 0.5 micrometers. This particular bacterium was identified in 1982 by two Australian scientists, Barry Marshall and Robin Warren. Further research by a British scientist Stewart Goodwin revealed that H.

Coming Next Week! August 11th to August 15th 2014

Safety Concerns About New Drugs

The authors of a study published in the August 2014 issue of Health Affairs contend that when the FDA approval process for medications changed in 1992 with the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), which allowed the FDA to collect fees to expedite drug approvals, the new process may have led to the release of drugs before they could be adequately evaluated for safety issues.