inflammation – thirdAGE

Exercise and Chronic Conditions

According to the National Institute on Aging (NIA), almost anyone, at any age, can do some type of physical activity. You can still exercise even if you have a health condition like heart disease, arthritis, chronic pain, high blood pressure, or diabetes. In fact, physical activity may help. For most older adults, physical activities like… Continue reading Exercise and Chronic Conditions

Could A Metal Implant Affect Your Skin?

Millions of people in the U.S. report having a metal allergy, and current estimates state that 10 percent of Americans will receive a medical implant during their lifetime. Board-certified dermatologists who attended the American Academy of Dermatology’s Annual Meeting in New Orleans are seeing more patients concerned about a possible skin hypersensitivity to the nickel… Continue reading Could A Metal Implant Affect Your Skin?

COVID-19 and the Brain

In a study of how COVID-19 affects a patient’s brain, National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers consistently spotted hallmarks of damage caused by thinning and leaky brain blood vessels in tissue samples from patients who died shortly after contracting the disease. In addition, they saw no signs of SARS-CoV-2 in the tissue samples, suggesting the… Continue reading COVID-19 and the Brain

Psoriasis and Your Weight

When it comes to treating the skin ailment known as psoriasis, no one treatment plan works for everyone. Now research suggests that a treatment program may also be helped by what you eat. Weight loss can help because both psoriasis and being overweight increase inflammation in your body. When you reduce inflammation, it can lead… Continue reading Psoriasis and Your Weight

Pollution Linked to Greater Number of Newborns Taken to Intensive Care Units

Infants born to women exposed to high levels of air pollution in the week before delivery are more likely to be admitted to a newborn intensive care unit (NICU), suggests an analysis by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). According to a NIH news release, the researchers found that depending on the type… Continue reading Pollution Linked to Greater Number of Newborns Taken to Intensive Care Units

Can Gout Treatment Reduce Complications of Obesity-Related Type 2 Diabetes?

Researchers who performed a small study have found that the drug colchicine, used to treat the arthritic condition gout, could potentially reduce complications accompanying metabolic syndrome, a combination of high blood pressure, high blood sugar and other conditions that increase the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The discovery was made by investigators… Continue reading Can Gout Treatment Reduce Complications of Obesity-Related Type 2 Diabetes?

How to Fix An Aging Smile

Aging can rob us of many things: our agility, our hair, even our memory. But aging also can cause physical changes to a person’s smile, affecting their self-confidence and their social life. Many adults come to me complaining they have lost their smile. Older patients may have multiple issues that affect their smile, including mutilated… Continue reading How to Fix An Aging Smile

Study Identifies Gene That Makes Gentle Touch Feel Painful After Injury

Researchers have discovered that a particular gene may be responsible for tactile allodynia: the skin’s reaction to injury that makes normally gentle touches feel painful. The gene, PIEZ02, also been shown to control our sense of bodies in space. The most recent discovery was made in a study funded by the National Institutes of Health… Continue reading Study Identifies Gene That Makes Gentle Touch Feel Painful After Injury

E-cigarette Additives Cause Inflammation and Impair Lung Function

Flavoring and additive ingredients in e-cigarettes may increase inflammation and impair lung function, according to new research. The study, published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology–Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, also found that short-term exposure to e-cigarettes was enough to cause lung inflammation similar or worse than that seen in traditional cigarette… Continue reading E-cigarette Additives Cause Inflammation and Impair Lung Function

Calorie Restriction and Fasting Diets: What Do We Know?

You may have heard about calorie restriction and fasting diets and wondered why they’re getting so much attention in the news. Aren’t they just other terms for dieting to lose weight? No, they’re not. Calorie restriction means reducing average daily caloric intake below what is typical or habitual, without malnutrition or deprivation of essential nutrients.… Continue reading Calorie Restriction and Fasting Diets: What Do We Know?

Immune Cells and Brain Aging

A receptor that is responsible for the intoxicating effect of cannabis appears to act as a kind of “sensor” with which neurons measure and control some immune cells in the brain, according to a recent study from the University of Bonn. But if the sensor fails, chronic inflammation may result. The study appeared in the… Continue reading Immune Cells and Brain Aging

Dry Eye and Immune Cells

Immune cells that normally rush in to protect the eyes from infection might actually be disrupting moisturizing glands and causing dry eye, researchers say. Dry eye is a disease that afflicts more than 30 million people in the United States. This finding from a research team led by Duke Eye Center could lead to more… Continue reading Dry Eye and Immune Cells

“Portfolio Diet” Lowers Many Risk Factors for Heart Disease

Researchers have discovered that the portfolio diet, an eating plan shown to lower cholesterol levels, also reduces other cardiovascular-disease risk factors including blood pressure, triglycerides and inflammation. In addition to reducing LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol by about 30 per cent when accompanied by a low-saturated fat diet — a level comparable to medications — the… Continue reading “Portfolio Diet” Lowers Many Risk Factors for Heart Disease

A Common Additive That Could Harm Your Gut

Triclosan, an antimicrobial additive contained in thousands of consumer products, causes colon inflammation and exacerbates colon cancer in mice, scientists say. A news release from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) says the results of the analysis indicate that health authorities might want to reinvestigate regulatory policies about the usage of triclosan.… Continue reading A Common Additive That Could Harm Your Gut

A New Tool in The Fight against Diabetic Blindness

For the first time, researchers have used an animal model to aid in the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a retinal microvascular disease that often causes blindness in adults who have had diabetes mellitus for 10 years or more. Estimates are that 600 million people will have some sort of diabetic retinopathy… Continue reading A New Tool in The Fight against Diabetic Blindness

Gut Microbes Contribute to Age-Associated Inflammation

Inflammation increases with age and is a strong risk factor for death in the elderly, but the underlying cause has not been clear. A study published April 12th, 2017 in Cell Host & Microbe reveals that gut microbes are one of the culprits behind age-associated inflammation and premature death in mice. Imbalances in the composition… Continue reading Gut Microbes Contribute to Age-Associated Inflammation

An Unexpected Benefit of Progesterone?

The female hormone progesterone, widely used in birth control, appears to ward off the worst effects of influenza and may also help damaged lung cells to heal more quickly, researchers have found in an animal study. The findings, by researchers from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, were published in PLOS Pathogens. The… Continue reading An Unexpected Benefit of Progesterone?