Health Related articles updated on daily Basis.

[Night_Hawk]

Vitamin B can modestly boost memory

(Reuters)

10 January 2012
Older adults who took vitamin B12 and folic acid supplements for two years had greater improvements on short- and long-term memory tests than adults who did not take the vitamins, according to an Australian study.
[FONT=&quot]The benefits were modest but encouraging, said author Janine Walker, a researcher at Australian National University, of the study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]‘(Vitamins) may have an important role in promoting healthy ageing and mental wellbeing, as well as sustaining good cognitive functioning for longer on a community-wide scale,’ said Walker in an email to Reuters Health. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The researchers asked more than 700 people aged 60 to 74 years to take a daily dose of folic acid and vitamin B12, or placebo pills that resembled the vitamins. The vitamin dose included 400 micrograms of folic acid and 100 micrograms of vitamin B12, and participants didn’t know which they were assigned to take. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The people taking part in the study showed signs of depression, but none had been diagnosed with clinical depression, the researchers said. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]‘We felt that older people with elevated depressive symptoms were an important cohort to target given evidence that late-life depression is associated with increased risk of cognitive impairment,’ Walker said. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]After 12 months, there seemed to be no difference between the groups in how well people scored on mental tests, including memory, attention and speed. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But after two years, those who took the vitamins showed more, if modest, improvement in their scores on the memory tasks. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]For instance, on a short term memory test, those who took the fake pills improved their score from about 5.2 to about 5.5 over two years. Those who took the vitamins increased their test scores from 5.16 to about 5.6. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Short term memory is used to dial a number someone has just told you, while long term memory comes into play when you try to call that number a day or week later. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]It’s not yet clear how taking vitamins might work to boost brain functioning, and not all studies have agreed on their benefits. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]One idea is that the vitamins reduct the body’s levels of a molecule called homocysteine, which is linked to cardiovascular disease and poor cognitive function. The thinking goes that lowering homocysteine could perhaps reduce the cardiovascular risk, and in turn affect mental functioning. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Joshua Miller, a professor at the University of California, Davis, said it’s difficult to translate the memory improvement on the tests into real life benefits, with some people likely having larger memory improvements and others much less. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]‘For any given individual, there may or may not be an effect,’ he said. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]‘But on a population level, a small increase in cognitive function can have very real ramifications on the functioning of the population as a whole, and on the costs of healthcare.’ [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Further tests are needed, including whether other groups of people, especially those older than people in the new study, would also benefit from taking vitamins, Walker said. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]SOURCE: http://bit.ly/yyx6YW [/FONT]

 

[Night_Hawk]

9 January 2012 Last updated at 19:50 ET

[h=1]Nicotine 'may aid memory for in early dementia'[/h] By Michelle Roberts Health reporter, BBC News

The patches deliver nicotine - the "addictive" chemical found in cigarettes



Nicotine patches may improve the memory of elderly people experiencing the earliest symptoms of dementia, researchers suspect.
The patches appear to give a cognitive boost to people with mild memory impairment.
The findings, published in the journal Neurology, come from a small study of 67 people over a period of six months.
Experts say the results are not conclusive, merely hinting of a benefit and do not mean people should smoke.
The health risks of smoking massively outweigh any potential nicotine benefits. And nicotine is known to be addictive.
Longer and larger studies are now needed to fully assess nicotine's effect on memory and whether it might point the way to new treatments for Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, they say.
Early promise There are some 820,000 people in the UK living with dementia. Although some drugs are already available that can lessen some of the symptoms of the disease, there is no cure for this progressive disorder.
Memory and cognition are some of the first functions that begin to fail in a person with dementia.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16467186#story_continues_2 [h=2]Start Quote We do not know whether benefits persist over long periods of time and provide meaningful improvement[/h] Lead researcher Dr Paul Newhouse

They may find it difficult to recall recent events or facts or become increasingly confused, even when in familiar surroundings, for example.
Scientists have known for some time that the brain contains receptors that respond to nicotine and that a number of these are lost in Alzheimer's.
The latest work found that six months of treatment with nicotine patches appeared to improve how well individuals with "pre-dementia" or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) performed on tests designed to assess memory, attention and response times.
After six months of treatment, the nicotine-treated group regained 46% of normal performance for age on long-term memory, whereas the placebo group worsened by 26% over the same time period.
However, the findings were not statistically significant - a measure investigators need results to meet in order to rule out any chance findings.
The scientists say more studies are now needed to confirm their preliminary findings.
Lead author Dr Paul Newhouse, of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, said: "This study provides strong justification for further research into the use of nicotine for people with early signs of memory loss.
"We do not know whether benefits persist over long periods of time and provide meaningful improvement."
Derek Hill, professor of medical imaging science at University College London, said the study gave some exciting evidence that mild memory problems might be treatable before they develop into full blown dementia.
But he added: "Nicotine is just one of the existing or experimental drugs that could prove beneficial for this patient group. It should encourage more investment into research into possible treatments.
"It is quite likely that no treatment will help everyone - and so new diagnostic tests to match patients to treatments may be also needed to tackle dementia."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16467186

 

[Night_Hawk]

9 January 2012 Last updated at 17:04 [h=1]Routine aspirin 'may cause harm'[/h] By James Gallagher Health reporter, BBC News

Should healthy people take aspirin?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16468337#story_continues_1

Healthy people who take aspirin to prevent a heart attack or stroke could be doing more harm than good, warn researchers.
An analysis of more than 100,000 patients, published in Archives of Internal Medicine, concluded the risk of internal bleeding was too high.
The UK-led study said only people with a history of heart problems or stroke should take the tablets.
Experts said any decision should be made with a doctor.
Aspirin helps people who have had a heart attack or stroke. It prevents blood clots from forming by preventing cells, known as platelets, from sticking together. By reducing the number of clots formed, the tablets reduce the risk of another heart attack or stroke.
There have also been suggestions that the drug can prevent some cancers, however, the drug is known to increase the chance of internal bleeding, including bleeds on the brain.
The discussion has been whether at-risk or even healthy people should also take aspirin.
Official guidelines were issued in 2005 by the Joint British Societies, which includes the British Cardiac Society, British Hypertension Society and The Stroke Association. It recommended 75 mg of aspirin a day for high risk patients over the age of 50. The Drugs and Therapeutics Bulletin said in 2008 that preventative aspirin should be abandoned unless there was already evidence of cardiovascular disease.
Good or bad? Researchers analysed data from nine trials, from a total of 102,621 patients.
They said that while there was a 20% reduction in non-fatal heart attacks in people taking aspirin, there was no reduction in deaths from heart attack, stroke or cancer.
Meanwhile the risk of potentially life threatening internal bleeding increased by 30%.

Lead researcher Prof Kausik Ray, from St George's, University of London, told the BBC: "If you treat 73 people for about six years you will get one of these non-trivial bleeds.
"If you treat about 160 people for the same period of time, you're preventing one heart attack that probably wouldn't have been fatal anyway.
"It suggests that the net benefit for aspirin is not there, it certainly doesn't prolong life. If you think about it the net benefit, actually there is net harm.
The study followed patients for an average of six years. An analysis led by Prof Peter Rothwell, from Oxford University, suggested that regularly taking aspirin reduced the risk of a series of cancers, when patients were followed for much longer.
Prof Rothwell said the new study was "very nicely done, but I don't think it develops [the argument] much further".
He added: "It really just emphasises the need for a more detailed analysis of how risks change over time."
Natasha Stewart, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "Aspirin can help reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke among those with known heart disease, and this group of people should continue to take aspirin as prescribed by their doctor.
"Our advice is that people who don't have symptomatic or diagnosed heart disease shouldn't take aspirin because the risk of internal bleeding may outweigh the benefits.
"If you're taking prescribed aspirin and have any concerns, don't simply stop taking it. Always talk to your doctor first."
Sotiris Antoniou, from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said: "People who buy aspirin should consult with their pharmacist to make sure that it is appropriate for them based on their individual likelihood of having a heart attack or stroke and their likelihood of experiencing a side effect such as stomach ulceration.
"If you are already taking aspirin, don't simply stop taking it, speak to the pharmacist about your individual circumstances."

[h=2]More on This Story[/h] [h=3]Related Stories[/h]

• Routine aspirin benefits queried 28 MAY 2009, HEALTH
• Aspirin 'can block bowel cancer' 27 OCTOBER 2011, HEALTH
• Daily aspirin 'cuts cancer risk' 06 DECEMBER 2010, HEALTH
• Heart patients: Stay on aspirin 19 JULY 2011, HEALTH
• Daily aspirin 'cuts cancer deaths' 07 DECEMBER 2010, HEALTH
• Aspirin and cancer prevention 28 OCTOBER 2011, HEALTH
• Aspirin: What are pros and cons? 07 DECEMBER 2010, HEALTH

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16468337

 

[Night_Hawk]

Sleep apnea, sudden deafness linked
(Reuters)

22 January 2012
Sudden hearing loss might be tied to an underlying sleep disorder that interrupts breathing, suggests a new study from Taiwan.
[FONT=&quot]Consulting a large health insurance database, researchers found that people whod suffered sudden deafness were more likely to have a previous diagnosis of sleep apnea than a comparison group without hearing loss.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The absolute difference was small: 1.7 percent of those with hearing loss had sleep apnea, compared to 1.2 percent without hearing trouble.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]

If there is sudden hearing loss, I would investigate the presence of apnea as well, given that its easy to diagnose and its easy to treat, said Dr. Seva Polotsky, a sleep apnea researcher from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore who wasnt involved in the new study.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Obviously we dont know from this paper whether treating apnea will reduce hearing loss, or the chance of having hearing problems in the first place.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]For now, he said, There are more questions than answers.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Polotsky added, its possible that sleep apnea, which is known to increase the buildup of plaque in blood vessels, could affect vessels in areas of the brain that control hearing, or vessels that feed the nerves responsible for hearing.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But he said more research will be needed to find out what could be behind this linkor whether something besides the apnea, itself, might explain an increased risk of deafness.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]There are about 4,000 new cases of sudden deafness each year in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health, and there are many possible causes, including infections and head injuries.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Typically the deafness only occurs in one ear, and most people regain their hearing over a period of weeks, sometimes aided by steroid treatment. But occasionally the hearing loss becomes more serious.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Looking at health records of one million Taiwanese, researchers led by Dr. Jau-Jiuan Sheu, of Taipei Medical University Hospital, found almost 3,200 had been diagnosed with sudden deafness between 2000 and 2008. For each of those people, they picked out another five of the same age and sex without hearing loss to serve as a comparison.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Out of those 19,000 people in total, 240 had been diagnosed with sleep apnea before the episode of sudden deafness occurred.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]When researchers took into account health and lifestyle factors that may be related to both sleep problems and hearing losssuch as obesity and heart diseasethey found that men with sudden deafness were 48 percent more likely to have a previous sleep apnea diagnosis than men without hearing loss.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The association for women was less clear, the researchers reported in the Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Sleep apnea is characterized by closing off of the airways during sleep, leading to repeated drops in oxygen levels in the blood and frequent short wake-ups, along with snoring. Its often treated with a mask and breathing device, called continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, but one of the most effective treatments is weight loss.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The new study doesnt prove that sleep apnea causes sudden hearing loss. The researchers couldnt account for peoples smoking and drinking, for example, which may affect the risk of both conditions.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Sheu and colleagues speculated, however, that inflammation and changes in blood vessels linked to sleep apnea could contribute to the risk of deafness.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Tinnitus, the sensation of ringing in the ears, has been linked to circulatory disorders, for example.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Polotsky added that most of the complications associated with sleep apnea, which include high blood pressure and diabetes, are thought to result from frequent oxygen fluctuations during the night.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]And sudden hearing loss could fit into that category, he told Reuters Health.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But the current study, Polotsky said, doesnt really establish that. It just shows us a new potential area to research.[/FONT]

 

[Night_Hawk]

Diet drinks up risk of heart attack

(IANS)

2 February 2012
People who consume diet soft drinks daily could be unwittingly inviting strokes and heart attacks.
[FONT=&quot]Conversely, taking them in moderation dont seem to perk chances of vascular events, a form of cardiovascular disease primarily affecting the blood vessels, says a new study. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]It was conducted by Hannah Gardener and colleagues from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Columbia University Medical Centre, the Journal of General Internal Medicine reports. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]

Diet soft drinks are typically sugar-free, artificially sweetened, non-alcoholic carbonated beverages generally marketed towards health-conscious people, diabetics, athletes, and other people who want to lose weight. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Gardener and team examined the relationship between both diet and regular soft drink consumption and risk of stroke or myocardial infarction (heart attack), according to a Miami statement. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Data were analyzed from 2,564 participants in the Northern Manhattan Study, which was designed to determine stroke incidence, risk factors and prognosis in a multi-ethnic urban population. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The researchers looked at how often individuals drank soft drinksdiet and regularand the number of vascular events that occurred over a 10-year period. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]They found that those who drank diet soft drinks daily were 43 percent more likely to have suffered a vascular event than those who drank none, after taking into account pre-existing vascular conditions such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes and high blood pressure. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Gardener concludes: Our results suggest a potential association between daily diet soft drink consumption and vascular outcomes. However, the mechanisms by which soft drinks may affect vascular events are unclear.[/FONT]

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[Night_Hawk]

The flexible benefits of stretching

(Reuters)

31 January 2012
NEW YORK - Whether your workout routine involves running a marathon or playing a game of basketball, a sequence of stretching exercises is often the easiest thing to cut out of it.
[FONT=&quot]That’s a shame, experts say, because stretching can help you sharpen your performance, stave off injury, perk up your posture and even boost your mood. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“Essentially it’s like trying to drive a car without first making sure all the tires are on it,” said Los Angeles-based personal trainer Matt Berenc of the stretch-less routine. “Stretching is essentially preparing the body for movement.” [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Berenc, who manages trainers at Equinox, the U.S. national chain of fitness centers, said stretching is typically one of the simplest things to do and one of the first things people avoid. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“People value other parts of the workout above it. They say, ‘I only have so much time, so I’ll skip this’,” he said, adding that if they took some time to focus on their stretch their workout would be better. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“If nothing else to create better movement throughout the body,” he said. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]In 2010 the American College of Sports Medicine issued guidelines recommending “a stretching exercise program of at least 10 minutes in duration involving the major muscle tendon groups of the body with four or more repetitions per muscle group performed on a minimum of two to three days per week” for most adults. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]All stretches are not the same. A static stretch is essentially a stretch held in one position; dynamic stretching involves active movements. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“In static stretching you hold a position for a length of time,” said Berenc, “like in a hamstring stretch where a client is lying on the back and you’re holding the leg straight up to stretch the back of it.” [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]A dynamic stretch involves active range of motion movements, such as arm circles or leg swings. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Berenc often starts by rolling a foam roller over different parts of the client’s body to prepare their tissues for stretching. Then it depends on client needs. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“If hips are tight, I’ll static stretch the hips,” he said. “Then I’ll get the clients up on their feet for a dynamic stretch to get into the full range of motion.” [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Deborah Plitt, a trainer with Life Fitness, the equipment manufacturer, said a dynamic warm-up, such as stepping or ankle circles, can increase range of motion before hopping on the treadmill or elliptical trainer. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“The goal before your workout is to lubricate the joints,” said Plitt. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]She is a firm believer in the post-workout stretch. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“Static stretches, held for 20 to 30 seconds increases increase blood flow to the muscles and improves flexibility,” she said. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Jessica Matthews of the American Council on Exercise said while flexibility remains the main goal, stretching exercises can also help relieve stress and even improve posture. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“It’s a great way to unwind,” she said. “Most people don’t associate that with stretching.” [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Matthews, an exercise physiologist, said to keep post-workout static stretches safe and effective, they should be held only to the point of tension-never to the point of pain. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Berenc said with stretching, as with any activity, to avoid injury, listen to your body. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“Sometimes you see people on the exercise floor trying to stretch and the expression on their faces is excruciating,” he said. “Where you first start feeling the stretch is where you should stop.”


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[Night_Hawk]

Glass of milk makes for smarter brain

(IANS)

3 February 2012
Drinking a glass of milk daily not only smartens the brain but also supplies the vital nutrients it requires to be in a peak condition.
[FONT=&quot]Besides the many known benefits of milk, from bone health to cardiovascular health, the potential to stave off mental decline would potentially benefit an aging population. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Adults who drank more milk scored significantly higher on memory and other brain function tests than those who drank little to no milk. They were five times less likely to fail the test, compared to non-milk drinkers, the International Dairy Journal reports. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]

University of Maine researchers put more than 900 men and women ages 23 to 98 through a series of tests, spatial, verbal and working memory tests and tracked their milk consumption habits. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]In the series of eight different measures of mental performance, regardless of age and through all tests, those who drank at least one glass of milk each day had an advantage, according to a Maine statement. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The highest scores for all eight outcomes were observed for those with the highest intakes of milk and milk products compared to those with low and infrequent milk intakes. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The benefits persisted even after controlling for other factors that can affect brain health, including cardiovascular health and other lifestyle and diet factors. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Study co-authors suggest some of milks nutrients may have a direct effect on brain function and that easily implemented lifestyle changes that individuals can make present an opportunity to slow or prevent neuropsychological dysfunction.




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[Night_Hawk]

Drinking tea cuts blood pressure

(IANS)

29 January 2012
Drinking up to eight cups of tea a day lowers blood pressure and could prevent heart disease, Australian scientists have found.
[FONT=&quot]Researchers at the University of Western Australia gave black leaf tea, such as Earl Grey or English Breakfast to volunteers with normal to high blood pressure.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]They were given drinks containing 429 milligrams of the plant chemical polyphenols—or the equivalent of eight and a half cups of tea a day.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]

A second group were given a tea-flavoured placebo.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]After six months, the blood pressure of the tea-drinking group had fallen by between two and three mmHg, the measurement of pressure used in medicine.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]A blood pressure fluctuating with the heartbeat between 112 and 63 mmHg is considered healthy, while a reading fluctuating between 140 and 90 is deemed high. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]If the experiment was emulated by the general population, the number of people with high blood pressure would be cut by 10 percent and the risk of heart disease would fall by between seven and 10 percent.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“Our study has demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge that long-term regular consumption of black tea can result in significantly lower blood pressures in individuals with normal to high-normal range blood pressures,” the team, led by Jonathan Hodgson, wrote in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Adding milk to tea also does not affect the body’s ability to absorb polyphenols, earlier studies have suggested.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Green tea is believed to have many health benefits as it is high in antioxidants. It is said to help in weight loss, prevent glaucoma and reduce risk of cancer.


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[Night_Hawk]

Neurons hold key erasing pain
(IANS)

14 February 2012
TORONTO - Researchers have found the key to how memories of pain are stored in the brain, especially in nerve cells (neurons), and how they can be erased to ease pain.


The central nervous system is known to “remember” painful experiences, that they leave a memory trace of pain.

And when there is new sensory input, the pain memory trace in the brain magnifies the feeling so that even a gentle touch can be excruciating.

”Perhaps the best example of a pain memory trace is found with phantom limb pain,” suggests McGill University neuroscientist Terence Coderre.

”Patients may have a limb amputated because of gangrene, the patients continue to feel they are suffering from pain in the absent limb,” he said, according to a McGill statement.

Recent work has shown that the protein kinase PKMzeta plays a crucial role in building and maintaining memory by strengthening the connections between neurons (nerve cells).

Now Coderre and his colleagues have discovered that PKMzeta is also the key to understanding how the memory of pain is stored in the neurons. They were able to show that after painful stimulation, the level of PKMzeta increases persistently in the central nervous system (CNS).

Even more importantly, the researchers found that by blocking the activity of PKMzeta at the neuronal level reverses the hypersensitivity to pain that neurons develop after irritating the skin by applying capsaicin—the active ingredient in hot peppers.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Green tea tied to less disability with age

(Reuters)

6 February 2012
Elderly adults who regularly drink green tea may stay more agile and independent than their peers over time, according to a Japanese study that covered thousands of people.
[FONT=&quot]Green tea contains antioxidant chemicals that may help ward off the cell damage that can lead to disease. Researchers have been studying green tea’s effect on everything from cholesterol to the risk of certain cancers, with mixed results so far. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]For the new study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers decided to examine the question of whether green tea drinkers have a lower risk of frailty and disability as they grow older. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]

[/FONT]Yasutake Tomata of the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine and his colleagues followed nearly 14,000 adults aged 65 or older for three years. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]They found those who drank the most green tea were the least likely to develop “functional disability”, or problems with daily activities or basic needs, such as dressing or bathing. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Specifically, almost 13 percent of adults who drank less than a cup of green tea per day became functionally disabled, compared with just over 7 percent of people who drank at least five cups a day. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“Green tea consumption is significantly associated with a lower risk of incident functional disability, even after adjustment for possible confounding factors,” Tomata and his colleagues wrote. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The study did not prove that green tea alone kept people spry as they grew older. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Green-tea lovers generally had healthier diets, including more fish, vegetables and fruit, as well as more education, lower smoking rates, fewer heart attacks and strokes, and greater mental sharpness. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]They also tended to be more socially active and have more friends and family to rely on. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But even with those factors accounted for, green tea itself was tied to a lower disability risk, the researchers said. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]People who drank at least five cups a day were one-third less likely to develop disabilities than those who had less than a cup per day. Those people who averaged three or four cups a day had a 25 percent lower risk. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Although it’s not clear how green tea might offer a buffer against disability, Tomata’s team did note that one recent study found green tea extracts seem to boost leg muscle strength in older women. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]While green tea and its extracts are considered safe in small amounts, they do contain caffeine and small amounts of vitamin K, which means it could interfere with drugs that prevent blood clotting. [/FONT]

 

[Night_Hawk]

Osteoporosis — who is at risk?
Dr Vivek Mishra, Specialist Orthopaedics, Zulekha Hospital, 
Sharjah. (Staff Reporter)

4 February 2012
DUBAI - Osteoporosis is a common and destructive condition which leads to the fragility of the bone and a consequent increase in fracture risk, explains Dr Vivek Mishra, Specialist Orthopaedics, Zulekha Hospital, Sharjah.
Osteopenia is the forerunner of Osteoporosis. “Given the increasingly sedentary lifestyle followed by many people, particularly children, and an increasingly elderly population, the number of men and women suffering an osteoporotic fracture is likely to grow,” said the doctor.

No matter what your age and sex, osteoporosis can affect you. There are no visible signs and symptoms. One may notice loss of height and development of a hump in back with increasing age. Mostly osteoporosis is diagnosed after a painful fracture has occurred. This fracture is commonly in back or hips. After the first fracture, risk for subsequent fracture increases.
Non-modifiable risk factors for the disease include age, sex, ethnicity and family history. Decreasing estrogen at menopause in women is also one cause. White women are at higher risk compared to Afro-Caribbean women.
“There is a genetic link as well. If your mother had osteoprosis, chances are higher for you also getting osteoporosis,” said Dr Vivek.
The modifiable factors include low body mass index (BMI), smoking, alcohol intake, exercise and diet. A diet low in calcium, smoking, little or no exercise increases the risk. Bone Mineral Density (BMD) is the major criterion used for diagnosis and monitoring of osteoporosis. Assessment of bone density from plain x-rays is not appropriate as there is a observer variation. Recommended test for BMD is dual energy x-ray.
Around 1000mg of calcium everyday significantly reduces risk of osteoporosis-linked fractures. Dairy products including skimmed milk, yogurt, hard cheese offer a good source of calcium.
High impact strength training like jumping is not recommended for people with osteoporosis; exercise programme should start at low level and has to be comfortable for the person. Advice from a physiotherapist will help. For people having confirmed osteoporosis, consultation with a specialist is advisable to reduce fracture risk and to start the pharmacological therapy.
—[email protected]

 

[Night_Hawk]

Take tea to protect your health
(IANS)

18 February 2012
While many of us may remain undecided about how much is too much for us to take tea in a day, researchers have claimed drinking three cups of tea a day could help us keep the heart attacks and type 2 diabetes at bay.
A review shows regular drinking of tea, with or without milk, can reduce the risk of heart problems by cutting levels of bad cholesterol and blood sugar, Daily Mail reported.
As per experts, the benefits of tea are largely due to the flavonoid content - antioxidant ingredients that counteract cardiovascular disease.

One cup of tea provides 150-200mg of flavonoids and it is the best source of antioxidants in the diet.
Drinking three or more cups of black tea a day protects against heart disease and two or more cups a day may protect against type 2 diabetes, a review in the journal Nutrition Bulletin found.
Nutritionist Carrie Ruxton, co-author of the latest review and a member of the industry-backed Tea Advisory Panel (TAP), said: “There is far more to the nation’s favourite drink than we realise.
“With its antioxidant flavonoids, black tea packs a powerful punch with many health benefits particularly for the heart. And recent studies show that the flavonoids work their magic whether or not we choose to add milk.”
In addition, a 12-week study of 87 volunteers showed how drinking three cups of tea a day produced a significant improvement in various cardiovascular risk factors.
Flavonoids found in tea are thought to control inflammation, reduce excess blood clotting, promote blood vessel function and limit furring up of the arteries.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Choose chicken over beef to cut stroke risk
(Reuters)

14 January 2012
While a high-protein diet may have health benefits, not all protein is equal — eating lots of red meat raises the risk of having a stroke while poultry lowers it, according to a US study.
[FONT=&quot]“The main message from this paper is that the type of protein or the protein package is really important for the risk of stroke,” Frank Hu at the Harvard School of Public Health said of the study, which was published in the journal Stroke. “We have to consider protein in the context of the foods.” [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Hu and a team of researchers collected data from two massive health surveys that tracked nearly 130,000 men and women from roughly middle age to their senior and elderly years. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Over the 20-some years of the study, nearly 1,400 men and more than 2,600 women had a stroke. To see what influence different types of dietary protein had on the risk of stroke, the researchers divided up the people in the study based on how much red meat, poultry, fish, dairy and other sources of protein they typically ate each day.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Men who ate more than two servings of red meat each day, which was at the high end of the meat eaters, had a 28 per cent increased risk of stroke compared to men who on average had a third of a serving of red meat each day, the low end of the meat eaters. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Women who ate nearly two servings of red meat a day had a 19 per cent higher risk of stroke than women who ate less than half a serving each day. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Swapping in one serving of poultry lowered stroke risk by 27 per cent, a serving of nuts or fish was linked to a 17 per cent drop, and a serving of dairy dropped the risk by 10 to 11 per cent. A serving of red meat was considered to be 113 to 170 grams (4 to 6 oz) of beef, or a hamburger patty. A serving of poultry was considered to be 113 grams. People who ate the most chicken or turkey each day, about a half serving for women and three-quarters of a serving for men, had a 13 per cent reduced risk of stroke compared with those who ate barely more than a serving a day. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Researchers did not prove that beef is to blame for the increased number of strokes, but Adam Bernstein, lead author of the study, said it could be that the fat and iron in red meat play a role. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]An earlier study led by Susanna Larsson at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, also found that eating red meat had a link to the risk of stroke. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“I do not think that poultry has been considered as a protein source that might lower the risk of stroke. This is new,” Larsson told Reuters Health in an email. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]One surprise was that fish seemed to offer no protection against stroke, although Bernstein said it was possible that the benefits of fish depend on how it’s served. “There’s a lot of variation in how people cook and prepare fish, and we couldn’t get down to that level,” he said. [/FONT]

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[Night_Hawk]

Obesity rates rise, threaten health
(Reuters)

21 February 2012
LONDON - More people in developed countries are overweight or obese than ever before, dooming them to years of ill health, pushing up healthcare costs and piling more pressure on health systems, a report by the OECD found on Tuesday.
[FONT=&quot]The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found obesity rates vary widely from a low of 4 percent in Japan and Korea to 30 percent or more in the United States and Mexico. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But in more than half of the 34 OECD countries, at least one in two people is now overweight or obese, and rates are projected to rise further. In some countries, two out of three people will be obese within 10 years, the report said. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“(These people) will die early, and send healthcare costs ever higher,” the report’s authors wrote. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Experts say severely obese people die on average eight to 10 years sooner than people at normal weight, with every 15 extra kg increasing risk of early death by around 30 percent. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Obesity, defined by the World Health Organisation as a body mass index of more than 30, is estimated to be responsible for between 1 and 3 percent of total health spending in most countries - and for between 5 and 10 percent in the United States - and “costs will rise rapidly in coming years as obesity related diseases set in”, the OECD report said. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Body mass index or BMI is a measurement which compares weight and height. People are defined as overweight if their BMI is greater than 25 kg per metre squared (kg/m2) and obese if it is greater than 30 kg/m2. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]A large global study last year found that more than half a billion people, or one in 10 adults worldwide, were obese and that the obesity epidemic was rapidly spilling over from wealthy into poorer nations. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]This report, which the OECD said was a 2012 update to its 2010 report on the economics of obesity prevention entitled “Fit Not Fat”, did however find some good news. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]New data for 10 of the 34 OECD countries showed that over the past decade, obesity rates slowed or stopped growing in England, Hungary, Italy, Korea and Switzerland, and grew by only 2 to 3 percent in France and Spain. Yet in Canada, Ireland and the United States obesity rates rose by 4 to 5 percent. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Looking at childhood obesity, rates have stabilised England, France, Korea and the United States and the OECD said this was partly due to governments stepping up efforts to tackle the root causes of obesity. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]It noted that some governments, including those in Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, had passed legislation in 2011 imposing higher tax rates on high-fat or high-sugar foods.[/FONT]

 

[Night_Hawk]

New compound staves off obesity
(IANS) 7 April 2012 WASHINGTON -

A compound present in grapes and other fruits could potentially stave off obesity by blocking the development of fat cells.
Kee-Hong Kim, assistant professor of food science at Purdue University, and Jung Yeon Kwon, a graduate student, reported that this compound piceatannol blocks an immature fat cell’s ability to develop and grow.
While similar in structure to resveratrol - the compound in red wine, grapes and peanuts that is believed to combat cancer, heart disease and neurodegenerative diseases - piceatannol might be an important weapon against obesity, the Journal of Biological Chemistry reports.
Resveratrol is converted to piceatannol in humans after consumption, said Kim, according to a Purdue university statement. “Piceatannol actually alters the timing of gene expressions, gene functions and insulin action during adipogenesis, the process in which early stage fat cells become mature fat cells,” Kim said. “In the presence of piceatannol, you can see delay or complete inhibition of adipogenesis,” said Kim.
Over a period of 10 days or more, immature fat cells, called preadipocytes, go through several stages to become mature fat cells, or adipocytes.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Spring into spring
Samineh I. Shaheem (Out of Mind) 31 March 2012

Look around, take a deep breath; spring is here! Hopefully you wont inhale any sand particles due to the recent dust storms we have all had to endure or be sneezing incessantly because of the rising pollen in the air.
[FONT=&quot]Still, the dawning of a new cycle should be refreshing and rejuvenating, representing another opportunity for us to begin this beautiful season of hope by looking at all the significantly colourful and complex variables affecting our psychological and physical well-being.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]So the same way we would spring clean our homes, we should also take some time to spring clean our lives. Our minds can get cluttered with things we dont need, accumulated dust, disorganized dimensions, bad habits, and previously formed ideas and impressions that should be thrown away or at least reconsidered for accuracy and consistency.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]This is a period to engage in a kind of life inventory; to get rid of what you dont need and retain all that has proved beneficial. In doing so, you are reminded about everything that youve accomplished, how you were inspired and what you can do to continue improving and discovering your lifes purpose. Of course this takes effort, honesty, courage and a conscious determination to want to invite change into your life.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]So lets roll up our sleeves, put on our gloves and begin.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Open the windows of your mind This is a great chance to broaden your understanding of people and places, to allow new insights and experiences, challenge old assumptions and learn new thing.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Dispose of misunderstandings If you have recently had an argument with someone and not talked to them for a while, throw out the misunderstanding and try to reconcile. Let the clean fresh scent of understanding and friendship back into your life. Bottled up anger and resentment can be poisonous for your health[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Unwrap a new hobby What better time to awaken the artist in you? Perhaps start a book club? Join a Zumba class?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Polish up procrastination Nothing creates more anxiety than procrastinating on a task that you know needs to be completed. Dont delay it; choose to confront it so that you can enjoy the celebratory sensations of achievement.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Carve out some nothing time when was the last time you simply stared out the window, allowing your mind to be guided by your heart? Drop the phone, computer and any other distractions and just enjoy the view.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Unblock pleasing sounds and block out noise Psychological research has proven that irritating noise can raise stress levels by up to 30 per cent. So instead put on your favourite music more often and experience relaxation washing over you.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Dust off your talents Life has a way of keeping us busy. So much that we forget about our creative characteristics. Think about what you used to enjoy and were good at and plan to get into it again. When we master routine, we make room for creativity.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Omit old habits Start by making a list of any negative behaviours or habits you may have. The top culprits are smoking, bad eating habits, not sleeping enough and sedentary lifestyle with no exercise. If you can begin any of these, you will feel the incredible health advantages gained within the first week.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Scrub up your finances Are you behind in some bills? Do you have a budgeting structure? Are you in control of your spending? This is an area that needs to be managed proactively and very carefully. The good news is that if financial issues are not one of your strengths, you can seek advice from a professional who will get your money matters in order in no time[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Brush up your relationship Think about the way you have been interacting during the last few months. How effective is your communication? Do you understand one another? Are you best friends? Do you have mutual respect for each other?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Dont forget how blessed you are and begin renewing your appreciation for your life and those around. Focus more on all that you dont need rather than everything you keep waiting or hoping for.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]So as you blossom while taking stock of your life and make necessary changes, dont be afraid to throw away redundant items and behaviours. This is your chance to pave the way to a cleaner and clearer future.[/FONT]
[h=4][FONT=&quot]Remember, learning more, results in living more[/FONT][/h] [FONT=&quot]Samineh I Shaheem is an author, an assistant professor of psychology, currently lecturing in Dubai, as well as a cross-cultural consultant at HRI. She has studied and worked in different parts of the world, including the USA, Canada, UK, Netherlands, and the UAE. She co-hosts a radio program (Psyched Sundays 10-12pm) every Sunday morning on Dubai Eye 103.8 FM discussing the most relevant psychological issues in our community.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Please forward your thoughts and suggestions for future articles to [email protected][/FONT]

 

[Night_Hawk]

Study: Turmeric extract may protect heart after surgery

(Reuters) / 16 April 2012

Extracts from turmeric spice, known for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, may help ward off heart attacks in people who have had recent bypass surgery, according to a study from Thailand.

During bypass surgery the heart muscle can be damaged by prolonged lack of blood flow, increasing the patient’s risk of heart attack. But the new findings, published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Cardiology, suggest that curcumins - the yellow pigment in turmeric - may ease those risks when added to traditional drug treatment.
The conclusions are based on a relatively small group of subjects and needs to be confirmed in larger studies, said researchers led by Wanwarang Wongcharoen from Chiang Mai University. Turmeric extracts have long been used in traditional Chinese and Indian medicine.
Research has suggested inflammation plays an important role in the development of a range of diseases, including heart disease, and curcumins could have an effect on those pathways, said Bharat Aggarwal, who studies the use of curcumins in cancer therapy at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.
“It’s very, very encouraging,” said Aggarwal of the study, which he did not take part in.
The researchers studied 121 patients who had non-emergency bypass surgery at their hospital between 2009 and 2011.
Half of those patients were given one-gram curcumin capsules to take four times a day, starting three days before their surgery and continuing for five days afterwards. The other half took the same number of drug-free placebo capsules.
The researchers found that during their post-bypass hospital stays, 13 percent of patients who’d been taking curcumins had a heart attack, compared to 30 percent in the placebo group.
After accounting for any initial pre-surgery differences, Wongcharoen and his colleagues calculated that people on curcumins had a 65 percent lower chance of heart attack.
Researchers said it’s likely that the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of curcumins may have helped limit heart damage in the patients.
“Curcumin has for many years now been shown to reduce inflammation and to reduce oxygen toxicity or damage caused by free radicals in a number of experimental settings,” said Jawahar Mehta, a cardiologist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, who didn’t work on the study.
“But that doesn’t mean that this is a substitute for medication,” he said, noting that drugs like aspirin, statins and beta blockers have been proven to help heart patients and people in the current study were taking those as well.
One limitation was that the study was relatively small. Another is that while curcumins are thought to be safe, there could be side effects at very large doses.
“Taken in moderation or used in cooking, (curcumins) are quite useful. But I wouldn’t go to a health food store and start taking four grams of curcumin a day, as was done in this study,” Mehta said.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Doctors try to keep human touch in age of gadgets

Lauran Neergaard (AP) / 31 March 2012

As the United States moves to paperless medicine, doctors are grappling with an awkward challenge: How do they tap the promise of computers, smartphones and iPads in the exam room without losing the human connection with their patients? Are the gadgets a boon or a distraction?Thats the tension I feel every day, says Dr. Vincent WinklerPrins, a family medicine specialist at Georgetown University. The medical school is developing one of a growing number of programs to train new doctors in that balancing act, this one using actors as patients to point out the problems ahead of time.

Across the country at Stanford University this summer, medical students will bring a school-issued iPad along as they begin their bedside training amid cautions not to get so lost in all the on-screen information that they pay too little attention to the patient.
Face your patient, excuse yourself to check the screen and put away the gadget when you dont really need it, say Stanford guidelines that specialists say make sense for physicians everywhere. And, of course, no personal Internet use in front of a patient.
The promise of these devices to augment the delivery of clinical care is tremendous, says Stanfords Dr. Clarence Braddock. He uses a secure app on his iPad to pull up patient charts if hes called after hours, no matter where he is.
Braddock helped develop Stanfords standards understanding there are different hurdles. Middle-aged doctors may be less comfortable with the technology and take longer with it. Younger ones who grew up texting while multitasking may not realise how intrusive patients might find the devices. Even Braddock has a confession: To his embarrassment, his phone once beeped an email alert about a sports tournament while he was with a patient.
Its not just a matter of etiquette. If the doctor spends too much of your 15-minute visit typing or staring at a screen, you have to wonder: What if I have a symptom that just got missed?
If the screen is turned away from the patient, they dont know if youre looking at their electronic health record or playing solitaire or looking up stocks, notes Dr. Glen Stream of the American Academy of Family Physicians. A longtime user of computerised records, Stream makes sure to show his patients what hes doing especially when seeing pictures on the screen can help them better understand a health condition.
Electronic health records, or EHRs, are considered the future of health care for good reason they can help prevent medical errors. For example, the systems can warn if doctors are about to prescribe a drug that could interact badly with another one the patient already uses. As these computerised charts become more sophisticated, they also have the potential to spur more efficient care: no more getting another X-ray just because you forgot to bring in your last scan if the doctor can call it up digitally.
About a third of doctors report using electronic records, double the number since 2008, says a report this month in the journal Health Affairs.
Georgetowns WinklerPrins limits screen time in front of his own patients by typing notes into their charts after they leave.
A group of actors gathered at Georgetown one recent morning, each there to play the role of an older diabetic seeking care for the first time since a spouses death. WinklerPrins watched on a monitor outside the room as medical students conducted a 15-minute office visit. They used computerised records while giving each actor-patient test results, setting a treatment plan and sending an electronic prescription to the pharmacy.
Afterward, the patients offered valuable feedback. One was irritated that her would-be doctor got stuck e-prescribing and, her mind on the computer, kept repeating the same question rather than saying, Give me a minute.
The students see the value of electronic health records but also how easy it is to be distracted.
Hopefully, the systems will get less clunky, WinklerPrins said: We dont lose, in the meantime, the focus on the patient.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Low-fat dairy foods can lower stroke risk (IANS) / 21 April 2012 People who drink low-fat milk and eat low-fat curd and cheese have a lowered stroke risk compared to those who consume full-fat dairy foods, says a new study.Researchers who surveyed 74,961 adults aged 45 to 83 found that those who ate low-fat dairy foods had a 12 percent lower risk of stroke and a 13 percent lower risk of ischemic stroke (when an artery to the brain is blocked) than those who ate high-fat dairy foods. Participants were free of heart disease, stroke and cancer at the start of the study. All completed a 96-item food and beverage questionnaire to determine dietary habits. Food and drink consumption frequency was divided into eight categories, ranging from never to four servings per day, the journal Stroke reports. “This is the largest study to date to examine the association between consumption of total, low-fat, full-fat and specific dairy foods and the risk of stroke in adult men and women,” said Susanna Larsson, associate professor of epidemiology at the National Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Sweden, who led the study. During the 10-year follow-up, 4,089 strokes occurred (1,680 in women and 2,409 in men), 3,159 ischemic, 583 hemorrhagic and 347 unspecified strokes, according to a Karolinska statement. “From a public health perspective, if people consume more low-fat dairy foods rather than high-fat dairy foods, they will benefit from a reduced risk of stroke and other positive health outcomes,” added Larsson. “It is possible that vitamin D in low-fat dairy foods may explain, in part, the observed lowered risk of stroke in this study because of its potential effect on blood pressure,” Larsson said.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Eating berries may slow brain’s decline: study

(AFP) / 26 April 2012

Women who eat plenty of blueberries and strawberries experience slower mental decline with age than women who consume fewer of the flavonoid-rich fruits, a US study said on Thursday.Based on a survey of more than 16,000 women who filled out regular questionnaires on their health habits from 1976 through 2001, the findings showed that those who ate the most berries delayed cognitive decline by up to 2.5 years.

Every two years from 1995 to 2001, researchers measured mental function in subjects over age 70, according to the study published in the Annals of Neurology.
“We provide the first epidemiologic evidence that berries may slow progression of cognitive decline in elderly women,” said Elizabeth Devore, a doctor with Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.
“Our findings have significant public health implications as increasing berry intake is a fairly simple dietary modification to test cognition protection in older adults.”
Devore added that the findings are of particular importance to the aging population, which is on the rise.
The number of Americans aged 65 and older grew 15 percent from 2000 to 2010, according to the US Census.
Robert Graham, an internist at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital who was not involved with the study, said eating more berries is good idea for people of any age.
“Large epidemiological studies, such as this one, add to the basic science research that the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of berries have a beneficial role in age-related cognitive decline,” said Graham.
“I would advise all my patients, at any age, to eat more berries. Berries are an easy, nutritious and delicious way to preserve brain function.”
Flavonoids are antioxidants that are found in berries, apples, citrus fruits, tea, red wine and onions, and previous research has shown they may reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
“The current study demonstrates that women who consumed the most flavonoids, especially berries, had a slower cognitive decline over time than women with lower intakes,” said Nancy Copperman, director of public health initiatives at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in New York.
“Increasing our intakes of fruits and vegetables is one of the best ways to live a healthy life.”