Eating fish regularly delays dementia - study
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Eating fish at least once a week slows the effects of aging on the brain, while obesity at midlife doubles the risk of dementia, a pair of studies concluded on Monday.
Omega-3 fatty acids contained in fish have been shown to boost brain functioning as well as cut the risk of stroke, and eating fish regularly appears to protect the brain as people age, the six-year study of Chicago residents said.
Active obese adults may have less digestive trouble
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Obese adults who exercise may be less likely than their sedentary peers to suffer abdominal cramps, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems, according to a new study.
Though it’s not clear that exercise explains the difference, the findings suggest that overweight people might ease their digestive symptoms by becoming more active, researchers say.
The wealthy more apt to gain weight
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Over the past three decades, obesity has increased more dramatically among higher-income groups than among the poor, a new study shows.
“Despite the fact that there is often a lot of attention surrounding the association between poverty and obesity, our study shows that it really is not typically the poor who are gaining the most the fastest,” Dr. Virginia W. Chang who led the study told Reuters Health. “This is especially true among blacks.”
Blood pressure drugs may prevent headaches
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Findings from a large analysis of clinical trial data indicate that the use of blood pressure-lowering drugs can prevent a substantial proportion of headaches.
The fact that agents of different classes produce this effect suggests that the mechanism is the ability to lower blood pressure, lead author Dr. Malcolm Law, from London Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry, and colleagues note. Yet, findings from observational studies have not supported a link between high blood pressure and headaches.
Retina disease linked to stroke in nondiabetics
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New research suggests deterioration of the retina, or retinopathy, as determined with retinal photography, is an independent predictor of stroke or stroke-related death in older adults without diabetes.
“The blood vessels in the eyes share similar anatomic characteristics and other characteristics with the blood vessels in the brain,” lead author Dr. Paul Mitchell, from the University of Sydney in Australia, and colleagues note. “More research needs to be done to confirm these results, but it’s exciting to think that this fairly simple procedure could help us predict whether someone will be more likely to have a stroke several years later.”
Stroke treatment a step closer after trial
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A potential new treatment for stroke has taken a major step forward following promising results from the first clinical trial.
Researchers at The University of Manchester have shown in laboratory studies that a naturally occurring protein called IL-1ra protects brain cells from injury and death.
Scientists Finding Out What Losing Sleep Does to a Body
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With a good night’s rest increasingly losing out to the Internet, e-mail, late-night cable and other distractions of modern life, a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that too little or erratic sleep may be taking an unappreciated toll on Americans’ health.
Beyond leaving people bleary-eyed, clutching a Starbucks cup and dozing off at afternoon meetings, failing to get enough sleep or sleeping at odd hours heightens the risk for a variety of major illnesses, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity, recent studies indicate.
Psychiatric Drugs’ Use Drops for Children
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Warnings that drugs such as Prozac, Paxil and Effexor can increase suicidal behavior in some children have resulted in a nearly 20 percent drop in U.S. pediatric prescriptions of the widely used antidepressants and have triggered deep concerns about the quality of current data on psychiatric drugs, doctors and regulators said.
The unprecedented fall of what were once considered wonder drugs comes as a series of taxpayer-funded analyses have systematically undermined the claims of industry-funded drug trials, raising thorny questions about the ways in which psychiatric drugs are being tested, marketed and used.
New Diabetes Drug may Help
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New research is turning up mixed results on the benefits of a Diabetes drug.
British researchers studied 5,200 patients with type 2 diabetes and heart disease, half of who took the drug pioglitazone in addition to their regular medications. They found the pioglitazone patients had a slightly reduced risk of problems like heart attack and stroke but an increased risk of heart failure compared to patients who took their regular medications and a placebo.
Body mass index of healthy men compared with healthy women in the United States
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Objective:
To compare the distributions of body mass index (BMI) in relatively healthy nonsmoking men and women in the United States.
Design:
Cross-sectional national survey data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III).
Atkins diet may reduce seizures in children with epilepsy
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The popular Atkins low-carbohydrate diet not only helps some people lose weight, it might have a role in preventing seizures in children with epilepsy, say researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
In a study of six patients, including three patients 12 years old and younger on the Atkins regimen for at least four months, two children and one young adult were seizure-free and were able to reduce use of anti-convulsant medications, according to Johns Hopkins. Findings of the study also showed that seizure control could be long-lasting on the diet, with the three patients continuing to be seizure-free for as long as 20 months.
Drug Can Reduce Risk of Death, Heart Attack, and Stroke in Diabetes Patients
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A Diabetes drug called pioglitazone can reduce the risk of death, heart attack, and stroke in high-risk patients with type 2 diabetes, concludes an article in this week’s issue of The Lancet.
Patients with diabetes have a two to four-fold increased risk of a cardiovascular event compared with non-diabetics. Until now there has only been indirect evidence suggesting that pioglitazone could reduce cardiovascular-related deaths and illness in diabetics.
Baby blues or depression?
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The question:
What are “the baby blues”? Are they an early warning sign of postpartum depression?
Safe sleep for babies
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MANY mothers like to keep their newborns in bed with them to bond and breastfeed. Now, after years of hedging about the wisdom of the practice, the American Academy of Pediatrics has said that sleeping in a bed with a baby can increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.
“Bed-sharing during sleep is hazardous,” says Dr. John Kattwinkel, chairman of the association’s task force on SIDS and a neonatologist at the University of Virginia. “We have strong evidence from 10 controlled studies showing this increases risk.”
Breastfed infants show little effect when moms take popular anti-depressant
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Most breastfed infants nurse without showing meaningful effects from their mothers taking 20 to 40 mg of the anti-depressant fluoxetine ( Prozac ) daily, according to a study by Yale researchers.
Postpartum major depression affects about 10 percent of women. Prozac belongs to a class of anti-depressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which are the most commonly prescribed class of anti-depressants for postpartum depression.
