Menopause Transition – “Study Finds Possible ‘Recipe’ for Preventing Alzheimer’s”

Source    : NBC News
By           : Maggie Fox and Stacey Naggiar
Category : Menopause Transition, Flu Shot Near Casselberry

Study Finds Possible ‘Recipe’ for Preventing Alzheimer’s

Just two years of exercising, eating healthier food and doing a little brain training boosted people’s memory function, researchers reported Monday. It’s the first proof that some of the things people have been trying to prevent Alzheimer’s may actually work. The study, done in Finland, doesn’t point to any one thing people can do to prevent memory loss. Instead, it’s a cocktail, the researchers told a meeting of Alzheimer’s experts. “It’s the first time we have been able to give people a kind of recipe for what is useful,” said Maria Carrillo, vice president of Medical & Scientific Relations at the Alzheimer’s Association.Various studies have given people hints at what can prevent Alzheimer’s. Some are common-sense: What keeps you healthy overall, such as regular exercise and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, also helps prevent Alzheimer’s. Others have shown that people who are socially engaged are less likely to develop memory loss. Still others have shown that keeping the brain active with puzzles or games can help, and a whole industry has arisen out of that research

Dr. Miia Kivipelto of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues tested people with a combination of all these approaches. They randomly assigned half to do the entire batch of changes, and the other half simply got general health advice. They tested all the 1,260 volunteers, aged 60 to 77, at the beginning of the study and then two years later. Those who did exercise, changed their diet, made an effort to socialize and who did the memory training did significantly better on the memory tests two years later, Kivipelto told the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Copenhagen.It’s the kind of study that researchers say is the most solid — one that randomly assigns people to a treatment or no treatment, and watches the changes in real-time, instead of relying on people to remember what they ate or whether they exercised. It’s similar to what Susan Megerman is trying for herself. Megerman, 69, doesn’t have any memory issues yet, and she does not want to have any if she can prevent it.

“I don’t feel panicked, but with cardiovascular disease in my family, I worry about what that can do,” Megerman told NBC News. She watched her father lose his short-term memory as he struggled with heart valve disease and clogged arteries before his death at age 82 in 1999. Megerman, a program coordinator at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has tried to eat more healthily, exercise more and control her weight. She also takes part in the medical center’s Brain Fit Club, where participants can do computer-based brain training, meditation or tai chi. Megerman went for an assessment. “I was finding myself having difficulty remembering words. Then there were times when I would forget things. So I got nervous,” she said. Luckily, she doesn’t have any serious deficits. People forget stuff all the time. But Megerman didn’t want to just sit back and relax. For one thing, she had a cancer scare when she had an ovarian tumor removed when she was 56. For another, she realizes she might live a long time and she doesn’t want to be impaired. “I recognize that I possibly have some longevity genes,” Megerman said. “If I have got those, I had better take advantage of them.” Her great-grandfather lived to 100, she said, and her mother lived to 93 even though she had heart disease, also. Plus, Megerman says she has a lot to live for. “My grandchildren are aged 4 and younger. When they are ready to marry I’ll be 90,” she said. “I want to stay independent and capable and available for them. I work in a wonderful place and I love what I am doing. I want to work as long as I feel I want to work.” So Megerman has made some changes. “I work really hard not to eat junk food. I generally don’t keep ice cream in the house any more,” she said. “I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. I try to eat as little processed carbohydrate as possible.” The study has not yet shown that the “recipe” actually does prevent Alzheimer’s. That’ll take years more to demonstrate, says Dr. Ronald Petersen of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

SOURCE : nbcnews.com/health/aging/study-finds-possible-recipe-preventing-alzheimers-n155586

Routinely Recommended Childhood Vaccines – “Drink Less To Keep Your Heart Healthy”

Source    : Times Of India
By           : ANI – PR
Category : Routinely Recommended Childhood Vaccines

Drink less to keep your heart healthy

Reducing the amount of alcoholic beverages consumed, even for light-to-moderate drinkers, may promote cardiovascular health, according to a new study by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Researchers found that individuals who carry a specific gene which typically leads to lower alcohol consumption over time have, on average, superior cardiovascular health records. Michael Holmes, MD,research assistant professor in the department of Transplant Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania said that these new results were critically important to their understanding of how alcohol affects heart disease and contrary to what earlier reports had shown, it now appeared that any exposure to alcohol had a negative impact upon heart health. Holmes added that for some time, observational studies had suggested that only heavy drinking was detrimental to cardiovascular health, and that light consumption may actually be beneficial. Holmes further said that this has led some people to drink moderately based on the belief that it would lower their risk of heart disease, however, what they saw with this new study, which used an investigative approach similar to a randomized clinical trial, was that reduced consumption of alcohol, even for light-to-moderate drinkers, may lead to improved cardiovascular health.

SOURCE : timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health/Drink-less-to-keep-your-heart-healthy/articleshow/38209915.cms

Medical Health Topics – “Staples vs. Sutures After C-Section”

Source    : Well Blogs
By            : NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Category : Medical Health Topics, Routinely Recommended Childhood Vaccines

Staples vs. Sutures After C-Section

Staples are faster, but sutures are safer, researchers have concluded in a new study of how incisions are closed after a cesarean section. The scientists randomly assigned  746 women undergoing a C-section to either suture or staple closure. They excluded women with diabetes, those with chronic steroid use, lupus or H.I.V. infection, a history of radiation to the abdomen or pelvis, and those with known sensitivity to the materials used in closing the incision.

The study, which received funding from Ethicon, a maker of sutures, was  published in the June issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology. It found that 10.6  percent of women in the staples  group had wound complications, mostly infections and separations, compared with 4.9 percent of the women with stitches. After controlling for age, race, number of previous C-sections and other factors, they found that sewing was associated with a  57 percent reduced risk of wound complications.

“A woman undergoing a C-section should ask the doctor what they’re going to use,” said one of the authors, Dr. Vincenzo Berghella, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia. “If they hear ‘staples,’ they should question that. It’s clear that sutures are going to cause fewer wound complications.” Stitching takes about nine minutes longer than stapling. But in a C-section, Dr. Berghella said, where local anesthesia is generally used, that time difference is unimportant.

SOURCE : well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/staples-vs-sutures-after-c-section/

Physicians Care Team – “Scientists Are Getting Closer to a Blood Test for Alzheimer’s”

Source    : Time News
By           : Alexandra Sifferlin
Category : Physicians Group Care Team, Physicians Care Team

Scientists Are Getting Closer to a Blood Test for Alzheimer’s

The new prediction method had 87% accuracy in a recent study – A team of scientists have identified 10 proteins in the blood that can predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The study, which was published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, looked at more than 1,000 people and is considered a significant step toward the development of a blood test for Alzheimer’s. The trouble with the disease is that developing drug treatments is difficult since they are often given in clinical trials when the disease has already progressed too far. The hope is that identifying the disease earlier could pave the way for drugs to halt its progression.

In the study, researchers examined blood samples from 1,148 people. There were 476 with Alzheimer’s, 220 with ‘Mild Cognitive Impairment’ (MCI) and 452 elderly control subjects who did not have dementia. All the blood samples were tested for 26 proteins that were previously linked to Alzheimer’s, and some the participants also had an MRI scan on their brain. First, the researchers found that 16 of the 26 proteins were strongly linked to brain shrinkage that happens with Alzheimer’s and MCI. In a second round of testing, researchers looked at which of the 16 could predict if MCI became Alzheimer’s. It was then that they found the combination of 10 proteins that were able to predict which people with MCI would eventually get Alzheimer’s within a year. The prediction method had 87% accuracy.

“Memory problems are very common, but the challenge is identifying who is likely to develop dementia,” slead study author Dr. Abdul Hye from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London said in a statement. “There are thousands of proteins in the blood, and this study is the culmination of many years’ work identifying which ones are clinically relevant. We now have a set of 10 proteins that can predict whether someone with early symptoms of memory loss, or mild cognitive impairment, will develop Alzheimer’s disease within a year, with a high level of accuracy.” Detecting the disease early-on could be a major breakthrough for clinical trials and would be less expensive than current methods that use brain imaging or cerebrospinal spinal fluid to identify the disease.

SOURCE : time.com/2963692/alzheimers-disease-blood-test/

Health Care In Casselberry – “Medical Mysteries: New Network Will Help Rare Disease Detectives”

Source    : NBC News
By           : Maggie Fox
Category : Health Care In Casselberry, Gynecologic Care

Medical Mysteries: New Network Will Help Rare Disease Detectives

They baffle even the finest specialists: rare diseases that affect only a handful of people and that are often caused by extremely rare genetic mutations. Now the National Institutes of Health is setting up a network of research centers where doctors will examine these unlucky patients, test their genetic codes and swap information on what they find. The hope is that by pooling information and patients, doctors can solve these medical mysteries and perhaps also shed light on more common diseases. “The Undiagnosed Diseases Network that we are announcing today will focus on the rarest of disorders — often those that affect fewer than 50 people in the entire world,” said Dr. Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, one of the NIH institutes. “They are so rare that they may never have been discovered or doctors may never have encountered them.” One of the patients who finally got a diagnosis is Louise Benge, 59, from Brodhead, Kentucky. She’s been suffering odd pain since she was 16. “By the time I was in my 20s, the pain in my legs was so bad I had trouble sleeping and lots of trouble walking,” Benge told reporters. Her brothers and sister shared the mysterious affliction. Not only did Benge go to her primary care physician, but she beat paths to the doors of vascular specialists, neurologists and other specialists, too. Then she got into NIH’s early Undiagnosed Diseases Program.

“At NIH they sent us through every doctor imaginable,” Benge said. They had CT scans, MRIs, genetic tests and electrocardiograms. Finally, genetic testing showed Benge and her siblings had ACDC, a rare calcification disorder. It causes calcium to build up in the blood vessels of her hands, legs and feet but, luckily, not to the heart. Eventually the calcium completely blocks blood flow, causing pain and forcing the body to grow new vessels to bypass the blockage. Benge and her family members are taking a drug called a bisphosphonate, usually used to treat osteoporosis or brittle bone disease. The hope is it can stop or even reverse the calcium buildup.

But even if it doesn’t help, Benge may already have benefited, says Dr. William Gahl, who directs NIH’s Undiagnosed Diseases Program. “We should not underestimate the value of hearing a diagnosis,” Gahl said. People with rare diseases have often lived under a veil of suspicion from loved ones, employers and sometimes even their doctors. “How difficult it is to go through life with that element of desperation,’ he said. “Even though it’s a bad diagnosis, they are incredibly grateful and it changes their lives and the lives of their families. Cures and treatments are one thing but changing quality of life is another thing that this program has offered to a number of people.”Rare diseases may each only affect a few people, but collectively they affect about 10 percent of the population, said Dr. James Anderson, director of program coordination at NIH.

SOURCE : nbcnews.com/health/health-news/medical-mysteries-new-network-will-help-rare-disease-detectives-n145766

Family Medical Doctors – “Healthy lifestyle changes can lower heart disease risk in adults”

Source     : Wall Streetotc
By            : Robert Barnes
Category  : Adult Medical Care,Family Medical Doctors

Healthy lifestyle changes can lower heart disease risk in adults

Health experts and dietitians always recommend good lifestyle changes and healthy eating habits especially for those suffering from cardiovascular diseases, pregnant women and obese people. A new study has found that adults can lower their heart disease risk by adopting healthy habits. Factors like eating unhealthy foods including the junk and fatty items, cigarette smoking or alcohol consumption and lack of exercise or being a couch potato lead to heart disease risk in old age.

According to the researchers at the Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, the adults in their 30s or 40s can slow down and even reverse progression of coronary artery diseases by adopting good habits and bringing healthy changes in their lifestyle. Moreover, the researchers also cautioned against picking up unhealthy habits during early adulthood as they say this can increase heart problems in old age. “It’s not too late. You’re not doomed if you’ve hit young adulthood and acquired some bad habits. You can still make a change and it will have a benefit for your heart,” said lead study author Bonnie Spring, who is a professor of preventive medicine at the Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

To establish the hypothesis, the researchers used data from 5,000 participants who were part of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA). The heart health of the participants was assessed at baseline when they were about 18 to 30-year-old. It was recorded again 20 years later. The researchers tried to find out the association between healthy living and coronary artery calcification and thickening. A healthy lifestyle was calculated on the following factors in the study:

•     Not being overweight
•     Non-smoker
•     Being physically active
•     Having low alcohol intake and a healthy diet

In the beginning of the study, about 10 percent of participants reported all five healthy behaviors. But the condition was different 20 years later. When the participants’ heart health was calculated, it was found that at least 25 percent of the CARDIA participants had adopted one habit that was good for their physical health. According to the researchers, each additional healthy habit was linked with reduction in risk of detectable coronary artery calcification and lower intima-media thickness, which are considered to be the two major markers that predict future heart disease risk. About 40 percent of participants picked up unhealthy lifestyle habits, which increased their risk of developing a heart disease.

Spring said in a news release, “This finding is important because it helps to debunk two myths held by some health care professionals. The first is that it’s nearly impossible to change patients’ behaviors. Yet, we found that 25 percent of adults made healthy lifestyle changes on their own. The second myth is that the damage has already been done – adulthood is too late for healthy lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of developing coronary artery disease. Clearly, that’s incorrect. Adulthood is not too late for healthy behavior changes to help the heart.” The study, which was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Institutes of Health, is published in the journal Circulation.

SOURCE : wallstreetotc.com/healthy-lifestyle-changes-can-lower-heart-disease-risk-adults/25256/