Learning God's Healthy way to a better Life!
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer
NEW ORLEANS - Strokes have tripled in recent years among middle-aged women in the U.S., an alarming trend doctors blame on the obesity epidemic. Nearly 2 percent of women ages 35 to 54 reported suffering a stroke in the most recent federal health survey, from 1999 to 2004. Only about half a percent did in the previous survey, from 1988 to 1994...Read More...
Published: February 25 2008 19:25 | Last updated: February 25 2008 19:25
Prescribing anti-depressants to the vast majority of patients is futile, as the drugs have little or no impact at all, according to researchers.
Almost 50 clinical trials were reviewed by psychologists from the University of Hull who found that new-generation anti-depressants worked no better than a placebo – a dummy pill – for mildly depressed patients.Read More................
Eating two or more servings a day of red meat increases your risk of metabolic syndrome by 25 percent, compared to those who have two servings of red meat each week, a new study found.
A formal investigation has been launched by French authorities against two managers from drug companies GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur. A second investigation for manslaughter has also been opened against Sanofi Pasteur MSD.By David Douglas
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Picking up an E. coli bug from your pet might lead to a urinary tract infection, according to Minneapolis-based researchers.
"Sharing of E. coli strains among humans and pets within a household, including strains that can cause urinary tract infections, is extremely common," Dr. James R. Johnson told Reuters Health.
Harboring the same strain of the bug implies that it is passed from one person or animal to another.
Read More...........by Patrick Totty
According to British researchers at Barts and the London School of Medicine, drinking 500 ml (about one pint) of beetroot juice every day can significantly reduce blood pressure. It's the nitrate contained in the juice that produces the effect.
Bacteria in saliva convert the nitrate into nitrite, which either circulates throughout the body or is converted into nitric acid in the stomach. In either case, the chemical lowers blood pressure.
The effects of the beetroot juice become evident about one hour after ingestion and peak in three or four hours. Researchers noted that in some cases the effect lasts up to 24 hours.
Interestingly, nitrate is also found in leafy green vegetables. Scientists had previously concluded that it was the anti-oxidant vitamins in those vegetables that made them valuable components of a healthy diet. Now it turns out that their nitrate content may be even more important.
The researchers say that their findings may offer a simple, inexpensive way for people worldwide to control their high blood pressure.
source: http://www.diabeteshealth.com
By Megan Rauscher
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cinnamon does not appear to have any impact on blood sugar or cholesterol levels in people with diabetes, Connecticut-based researchers report in the journal Diabetes Care.
"The preponderance of evidence currently available does not suggest that cinnamon has the ability to decrease a person's risk of heart disease by helping them control their diabetes or lower their cholesterol," Dr. Craig I. Coleman, of Hartford Hospital, who was the principal investigator, told Reuters Health.
Several studies have looked at the impact of cinnamon on blood sugar and lipids (fats) in patients with diabetes but had only modest sample sizes and yielded mixed results, Coleman and colleagues note in their report.
This led them to perform a large review, or "meta-analysis," of five studies in which a total of 282 type 1 or type 2 diabetic patients were randomly assigned to receive cinnamon or a placebo and were followed for up to 16 weeks.
All five studies used cinnamon cassia, "the same cinnamon most people have in their spice racks at home," Coleman noted. Doses ranged from 1 to 6 grams daily.
As mentioned, the use of cinnamon did not significantly alter hemoglobin A1C -- a marker of blood sugar control. It also had no effect on fasting blood sugar levels or lipid parameters. Analyses by subgroup and sensitivity did not appreciably alter these results.
Coleman told Reuters Health that the inspiration for conducting this specific analysis came from one of his research fellows, Dr. William Baker. "He works in a chain pharmacy as a pharmacist, now and then, and he was asked by a patient whether cinnamon was useful in treating diabetes."
"As pharmacists,we want to be able to provide patients ... with the best information about these over-the-counter treatments, which are often readily available but under researched," Coleman said. Based on the current study, "we would not recommend its use to patients," he said.
Tumors of the parotid (salivary) glands are significantly more common in people who use cellular phones over a relatively long period, according to a retrospective study of nearly 500 Israelis who contracted such benign or malignant growths compared to more than twice as many healthy controls. This is reportedly the first study of the possible effects of cellphone use by Israelis, who are known to utilize them for many minutes per day and start at young ages.
Illustration.
Photo: Bloomberg [file]
The study, led by Sheba Medical Center physician and Tel Aviv University epidemiologist Dr. Siegal Sadetzki, was announced late last week on the Web site Science Daily (www.sciencedaily.com) and published recently in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Sadetzki, who has appeared several times at Knesset committees about the possible risk of cellular phone usage, said that while the results needed to be confirmed by additional and longer studies, in the meantime precautions should be taken. These include limiting the use of cellphones by children and both kids and adults using earphones and other means to distance the cellphone from the head whenever possible.
She conducted her study as part of the international Interphone Study, which aimed to discover if cellphone use and several kinds of brain and salivary gland tumors were linked.
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