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Showing posts from February, 2018

Every Dog Needs a Home foverer

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I was amazed by this dog Rex because he was very gentle around my dogs when he came to visit me. They seemed to get along very well. I wanted to know more about the Shiba Inu. I had to investigate a little bit more about this breed of dog. I asked my brother because he owns 2 of them. I wondered why he was always getting over the fence. Also I wondered why he would run away when he was called to come home? I found out that a Shiba Inu will dart out if given half a chance. This is a dog breed that is very attached to his human family members and can't stand being isolated from them. To think of keeping a Shiba in the backyard or in the garage is a mistake because that bold, bright natured dog will create loud noise and be destructive in that situation. He will be charming and affectionate around his human family, but has a sense of humor about him when it comes to human commands. A Shiba Inu is very challenging to raise and train. A high-spirited, an independent spirit, has to alway...
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Sea swimming associated with increased ailments

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People who swim, bathe or take part in water sports in the sea are substantially more likely to experience stomach bugs, ear aches and other types of illness than those who do not. The large-scale research analysis was led by the University of Exeter Medical School in collaboration with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. It is the first systematic review to examine the evidence on whether spending time in the sea is associated with increased risk of reporting a variety of ailments. The results demonstrated that sea bathing doubled the odds of reporting general ear ailments, and the odds of reporting earache specifically rose by 77%. For gastrointestinal illnesses, the odds increased by 29%. Dr Anne Leonard, of the University of Exeter Medical School, said:  "In high-income countries like the UK, there is a perception that there is little risk to health of spending time in the sea. However, our paper shows that spending time...
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Only 25 percent of women receive appropriate advice on pregnancy weight gain

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A new study of the role of healthcare provider recommendations on weight gain during pregnancy showed that while provider advice did influence gestational weight gain, only about one in four women received appropriate advice and another 25% received no advice. The impact of provider recommendations for pregnancy weight gain that are consistent with current Institute of Medicine (IOM) guidelines is reported in an article published in Journal of Women's Health , a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers . The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website. The article entitled "Achieving Appropriate Gestational Weight Gain: The Role of Healthcare Provider Advice" was coauthored by Nicholas Deputy, PhD, MPH, Andrea Sharma, PhD, MPH, Shin Kim, MPH, and Christine Olson, MD, MPH, Emory University, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps., Atlanta, GA. The researc...
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Vegetarian and Mediterranean diet may be equally effective in preventing heart disease

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A lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet, which includes eggs and dairy but excludes meat and fish, and a Mediterranean diet are likely equally effective in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation . Previous separate studies have shown that a Mediterranean diet reduces certain risk factors for cardiovascular disease, as does a vegetarian diet; however, this was the first study to compare effects of the two distinct eating patterns. Current study authors said they wanted to evaluate whether switching to a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet would also be heart-healthy in people who were used to eating both meat and fish. "To best evaluate this issue, we decided to compare a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet with a Mediterranean diet in the same group of people," said Francesco Sofi, M.D., Ph.D, lead study author and professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Florence and Careggi University...
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Researchers find low magnesium levels make vitamin D ineffective

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Study in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association suggests up to 50 percent of US population is magnesium deficient There is a caveat to the push for increased Vitamin D: Don't forget magnesium.  A review published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association found Vitamin D can't be metabolized without sufficient magnesium levels, meaning Vitamin D remains stored and inactive for as many as 50 percent of Americans. "People are taking Vitamin D supplements but don't realize how it gets metabolized. Without magnesium, Vitamin D is not really useful or safe," says study co-author Mohammed S. Razzaque, MBBS, PhD, a professor of pathology at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. Razzaque explains that consumption of Vitamin D supplements can increase a person's calcium and phosphate levels even if they remain Vitamin D deficient. The problem is people may suffer from vascular calcification if their magne...
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DASH-Style diet associated with reduced risk of depression

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Eating a diet that emphasizes vegetables, fruit and whole grains it may lead to a reduced risk of depression, according to a study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center. Study author Dr. Laurel Cherian will present a preliminary study abstract with these conclusions during the American Academy of Neurology's 70th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles from April 21 to 27, 2018. Study participants who closely adhered to a diet similar to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet were less likely to develop depression than people who did not closely follow the diet. The DASH diet recommends fruits and vegetables and fat-free or low-fat dairy products and limits foods that are high in saturated fats and sugar. "Depression is common in older adults and more frequent in people with memory problems, vascular risk factors such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol, or people who have had a stroke," said ...
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Ice chips only? Study questions restrictions on oral intake for women in labor

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At most US maternity units, women in labor are put on nil per os (NPO) status--they're not allowed to eat or drink anything, except ice chips. But new nursing research questions that policy, showing no increase in risks for women who are allowed to eat and drink during labor . The study appears in the March issue of the American Journal of Nursing , published by Wolters Kluwer . "The findings of this study support relaxing the restrictions on oral intake in cases of uncomplicated labor," write Anne Shea-Lewis, BSN, RN, of St. Charles Hospital, Port Jefferson, N.Y., and colleagues. Adding to the findings of previous reports, these results suggest that allowing laboring women to eat and drink "ad lib" doesn't adversely affect maternal and neonatal outcomes. No Increase in Complications with 'Ad lib' Oral Intake During Labor The researchers analyzed the medical records of nearly 2,800 women in labor ad...
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The 90+ Study finds link between moderate Alcohol Consumption and Longevity

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University of California-Irvine faculty investigator, Dr. Claudia Kawas, presented findings from The 90+ Study at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual conference this past weekend, highlighting the link between moderate alcohol consumption and longevity. In an observational study of participants age 90 and older, Dr. Kawas and her team found that consuming about two glasses of beer or wine daily was associated with 18% reduced risk of premature death. Findings also suggest regular exercise, social and cognitive engagement, and a few extra pounds in older age are associated with longevity. The 90+ Study  was initiated in 2003 to study the oldest-old, the fastest growing age group in the United States.   The   90+ Study  is one of the largest studies of the oldest-old in the world. More than 1,600 people have enrolled.  Because little is known about pe...
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Simple walking test may help make difficult diagnosis

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There's a cause of dementia that can sometimes be reversed, but it's often not diagnosed because the symptoms are so similar to those of other disorders. Now researchers say a simple walking test may be able to accurately diagnose the disease, according to a study published the February 21, 2018, online issue of Neurology ®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The test involves seeing how fast a person can walk while doing something else at the same time, such as counting backwards or carrying a tray. The study found that the walking test may help differentiate whether someone has idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus or progressive supranuclear palsy. Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH), caused by excess fluid in the brain, can often be reversed but it is usually not diagnosed because it shares symptoms like walking, balance and thinking problems with other neurologic conditions, primarily progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP...
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Exercise reduces risk of developing diabetes

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Exercising more reduces the risk of diabetes and could see seven million fewer diabetic patients across mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, according to new research. Researchers have found that higher levels of Leisure-time Physical Activity (LTPA), such as walking, jogging or running, are linked to a lower risk of diabetes in high-risk individuals. And they have observed health benefits from low-intensity physical activity too - making it possible for older people to take steps to improve their health and reduce the risk of diabetes. The research team, led by experts from the University of Birmingham, recommends that swift action is taken by health chiefs to promote physical activity as a way of reducing diabetes and combating China's growing obesity epidemic. Over an 18-year period, researchers studied the lifestyles of 44,828 Chinese adults, aged between 20 and 80, who had been recently diagnosed with impaired fasting gl...
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How a combination of exercise and music helps us feel less pain

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Often, pain emerges as a consequence of disease, injury or intense physical demands. About seven per cent of adults in Germany experience chronic pain and feel constrained by it. There are several options to help manage this. A new alternative to painkillers or heat therapy could be Jymmin, a mixture of working out on gym machines and free musical improvisation, jamming, developed by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (MPI CBS) in Leipzig. They found out that this new fitness technology makes us less sensitive to pain. In Jymmin, fitness machines are modified in a way that movement strength on the abdominal trainer, pull bar or stepper creates a wide range of sounds. Software for music composition developed at MPI CBS and a related sensor system enable users to produce a unique accompaniment from each fitness machine. The exerciser becomes the composer and the machines their instruments. "We found that Jymmin increases th...
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Sleep problems in menopause linked to hot flashes, depression -- and may not last

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A new study of middle-aged women found that sleep problems vary across the stages of menopause, yet are consistently correlated with hot flashes and depression. The findings suggest that addressing those risk factors may also address sleep disruptions, as well as give women hope that their sleep symptoms may not last past the menopausal transition, said Rebecca Smith, a professor of pathobiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Smith conducted the study with Jodi Flaws and Megan Mahoney, professors of comparative biosciences at Illinois. "Poor sleep is one of the major issues that menopausal women seek treatment for from their doctors," Mahoney said. "It's a huge health care burden, and it's a huge burden on the women's quality of life. Investigating what's underlying this is very important." The Illinois group used data from the Midlife Women's Health Study, which followed 776 women aged 45-54 in the greater Ba...
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Low-fat or low-carb? It's a draw

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New evidence from a study at the Stanford University School of Medicine might dismay those who have chosen sides in the low-fat versus low-carb diet debate. Neither option is superior: Cutting either carbs or fats shaves off excess weight in about the same proportion, according to the study. What's more, the study inquired whether insulin levels or a specific genotype pattern could predict an individual's success on either diet. The answer, in both cases, was no. "We've all heard stories of a friend who went on one diet -- it worked great -- and then another friend tried the same diet, and it didn't work at all," said Christopher Gardner, PhD, professor of medicine and the lead author of the study. "It's because we're all very different, and we're just starting to understand the reasons for this diversity. Maybe we shouldn't be asking what's the best diet, but wha...
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Your Guide to the New, Smarter CPR

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The good news is you don't need to know mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to save a life Every year some 350,000 people suffer cardiac arrest—when the heart suddenly stops working—away from the relative safety of a hospital. Whether those people receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation right away can literally mean the difference between life and death. Research has found that the willingness of bystanders to perform CPR can result in a twofold increase in a victim’s chance of survival. But research also shows that many people are afraid to jump in and help. Less than a third of people who go into sudden cardiac arrest receive CPR from a bystander, according to recent studies. “Often people hesitate to do CPR because they haven’t had training, are afraid of doing it wrong, or even fear they might get sued if they cause an uni...
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Sunlight Protects Against Influenza

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Recent medical literature suggests that vitamin D supplementation protects against acute respiratory tract infection. Humans exposed to sunlight produce vitamin D directly. This paper investigates how differences in sunlight, as measured over several years within states and during the same calendar month, affect influenza incidence.  The researchers find that sunlight strongly protects against influenza. This relationship is driven by sunlight in late summer and early fall, when there are sufficient quantities of both sunlight and influenza activity. A 10% increase in relative sunlight decreases the influenza index in September by 3 points on a 10-point scale. This effect is far greater than the effect of vitamin D supplementation in randomized trials, a differential due to broad exposure to sunlight, hence group immunity.
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Not being aware of memory problems predicts onset of Alzheimer's disease

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Doctors who work with individuals at risk of developing dementia have long suspected that patients who do not realize they experience memory problems are at greater risk of seeing their condition worsen in a short time frame, a suspicion that now has been confirmed by a team of McGill University clinician scientists.   Some brain conditions can interfere with a patient's ability to understand they have a medical problem, a neurological disorder known as anosognosia often associated with Alzheimer's disease. In a study published today in Neurology , Dr. Pedro Rosa-Neto's team from McGill's Translational Neuroimaging Laboratory shows that individuals who experience this lack of awareness present a nearly threefold increase in likelihood of developing dementia within two years. Joseph Therriault, a master's student in McGill's Integrated Program in Neuroscience and lead author of the paper drew on data available through the A...
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Women who clean at home or work face increased lung function decline

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Women who work as cleaners or regularly use cleaning sprays or other cleaning products at home appear to experience a greater decline in lung function over time than women who do not clean, according to new research published online in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine . In " Cleaning at Home and at Work in Relation to Lung Function Decline and Airway Obstruction ," researchers at the University of Bergen in Norway analyzed data from 6,235 participants in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey. The participants, whose average age was 34 when they enrolled, were followed for more than 20 years. "While the short-term effects of cleaning chemicals on asthma are becoming increasingly well documented, we lack knowledge of the long-term impact," said senior study author Cecile Svanes, MD, PhD, a professor at the university's Centre for International Health. "We ...
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Link between chronic pain and glutamate consumption

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Chronic pain is among the most vexing health problems, including in the developing world, where most research suggests that the prevalence of pain is similar to the United States and other developed nations. Preliminary research from a small pilot study carried out in Meru, in eastern Kenya, shows a link between chronic pain and consumption of glutamate, a common flavor enhancer found in Western and non-Western diets worldwide. Results demonstrated that when study participants cut monosodium glutamate from their diets, their symptoms improved. The findings are published in the journal Nutrition . "This preliminary research in Kenya is consistent with what I am observing in my chronic pain research here in the United States," said Kathleen Holton, lead author of the study and assistant professor of health studies at American University. "We don't know what exposure is leading to this susceptibility to dietary glutam...
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Eating yogurt may reduce cardiovascular disease risk

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A new study in the American Journal of Hypertension , published by Oxford University Press, suggests that higher yogurt intake is associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk among hypertensive men and women. High blood pressure is a major cardiovascular disease risk factor. Clinical trials have previously demonstrated beneficial effects of dairy consumption on cardiovascular health. Yogurt may independently be related to cardiovascular disease risk. High blood pressure affects about one billion people worldwide but may also be a major cause of cardiovascular health problems. Higher dairy consumption has been associated with beneficial effects on cardiovascular disease-related comorbidities such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and insulin resistance. For the current analyses, participants included over 55,000 women (ages 30-55) with high blood pressure from the Nurses' Health Study and 18,000 men (ages 40-75) who partic...
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Medical cannabis significantly safer for elderly with chronic pain than opioids

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Medical cannabis therapy can significantly reduce chronic pain in patients age 65 and older without adverse effects, according to researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the Cannabis Clinical Research Institute at Soroka University Medical Center. The new study, published in The European Journal of Internal Medicine , found cannabis therapy is safe and efficacious for elderly patients who are seeking to address cancer symptoms, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis, and other medical issues. "While older patients represent a large and growing population of medical cannabis users, few studies have addressed how it affects this particular group, which also suffers from dementia, frequent falls, mobility problems, and hearing and visual impairments," says Prof. Victor Novack, M.D., a professor of medicine in the BGU Faculty of Health Sciences (FOHS)...
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One or more soda a day could decrease chances of getting pregnan

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The amount of added sugar in the American diet has increased dramatically over the last 50 years. Much of that increase comes from higher intake of sugar-sweetened beverages, which constitute approximately one-third of the total added sugar consumption in the American diet. While consumption of these beverages has been linked to weight gain, type 2 diabetes, early menstruation, and poor semen quality, few studies have directly investigated the relationship between sugary drinks and fertility. Now, a new study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researchers has found that the intake of one or more sugar-sweetened beverages per day--by either partner--is associated with a decreased chance of getting pregnant. The study was published in Epidemiology . "We found positive associations between intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and lower fertility, which were consistent after controlling for many other factors,...
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Climb stairs to lower blood pressure and strengthen leg muscles

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 If you don't have the time or money for aerobic and resistance training, why not try climbing the stairs? A new study demonstrates that stair climbing not only lowers blood pressure but also builds leg strength, especially in postmenopausal women with estrogen deficiencies who are more susceptible to vascular and muscle problems. The study results are published online today in Menopause , the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS). Few people would argue that exercise is good for you. But for postmenopausal women, identifying the right form of exercise to achieve the desired benefits without creating additional health problems is more complicated. High-intensity resistance training, for example, is an effective intervention for reducing age-related loss of muscle strength in postmenopausal women. However, it also has the potential to increase blood pressure in middle-aged adults with prehypertension or hypertension. These negative effects have been m...
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Everyday activities associated with more gray matter in brains of older adults

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Higher levels of lifestyle physical activity - such as house cleaning, walking a dog and gardening, as well as exercise - are associated with more gray matter in the brains of older adults, according to a study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center. The Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences will publish the study's findings on Feb. 14. The gray matter in the brain includes regions responsible for controlling muscle movement, experiencing the senses, thinking and feeling, memory and speech and more. The volume of gray matter is a measure of brain health, but the amount of gray matter in the brain often begins to decrease in late adulthood, even before symptoms of cognitive dysfunction appear. "More gray matter is associated with better cognitive function, while decreases in gray matter are associated with Alzheimer's disease and other related dementias," said Shannon Halloway, PhD, the lead author of the Journa...
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Poor fitness linked to weaker brain fiber, higher dementia risk

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Scientists have more evidence that exercise improves brain health and could be a lifesaving ingredient that prevents Alzheimer's disease. In particular, a new study from UT Southwestern's O'Donnell Brain Institute suggests that the lower the fitness level, the faster the deterioration of vital nerve fibers in the brain. This deterioration results in cognitive decline, including memory issues characteristic of dementia patients. "This research supports the hypothesis that improving people's fitness may improve their brain health and slow down the aging process," said Dr. Kan Ding, a neurologist from the Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute who authored the study. White matter The study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease focused on a type of brain tissue called white matter, which is comprised of millions of bundles of nerve fibers used by neurons to communicate across the brain. Dr. Ding's team enrolled older patien...
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Avoiding risky sedatives in older adults

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They help many people sleep, or feel calmer or less anxious. But in older people, they also double the risk of car crashes, falls and broken hips. That's why the medications known as benzodiazepines show up on international guidelines as drugs that very few people over the age of 65 should take. Yet a sizable percentage of adults in that age group still have an active prescription for one, according to new research from three countries that have made a special effort to reduce their use. Currently, about seven percent of older veterans in the United States have a benzodiazepine prescription, and the numbers are even higher in Canada and Australia, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society . There's been a steady decline in all such prescriptions since new guidelines came out, the research shows. And the number of older adults starting on the drugs for the first time has dropped even ...
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