Forward By Robert R. Barney
I better watch out! I knew my big belly was a prime risk for heart trouble, now it looks like I will go senile as well. OK, maybe I already have according to some. The AP is reporting that
Having a big belly in your 40s can boost your risk of getting
Alzheimer's disease or other dementia decades later, a new study
suggests.Read More...........
Learning God's Healthy way to a better Life!
Car crashes deadlier for younger teenagers
Children in their early teens are more likely to be killed in a car accident than younger children are, a new U.S. study finds.
Writing in the March issue of The Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, researchers said they saw a big change in fatality rates after age 12. The researchers, led by Dr. Flaura Koplin Winston of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, based their findings on a six-year review of more than 45,000 crashes in 50 American states.
The study pointed to several possible reasons fatality rates keep increasing for several years after age 12.
More............When the disease eludes a diagnosis
Published: March 25, 2008
NEW YORK: Lucy, one of my longtime patients, has a neurological ailment she believes I have been unable to adequately diagnose.
Although I hope to make further progress on her case, I have also told her that there may never be a definitive answer. Not surprisingly, she is feeling pretty frustrated with me.
Why do doctors and patients often approach the diagnosis of disease so differently?More............
The Fiber Menace
[Editor Note: We have NOT checked out these claims, and in no way endorse this book, however we do think that the public needs to be aware that there are other "facts" out there concerning fiber.....]
Greetings! My name is Konstantin Monastyrsky. I wrote Fiber Menace for people who believe fiber prevents cancers, reduces the risk of heart disease, regulates blood sugar, wards off diabetes, lowers appetite, induces weight loss, cleanses the colon, and eliminates constipation.More...........
Fiber and Health
Debunking Constipation Myths:
The Truth About High Fiber Diets And Laxatives
ScienceDaily (Jan. 14, 2005) — There are a lot of common myths about constipation treatment. An article in the January issue of The American Journal of Gastroenterology dispels those myths and clears numerous misconceptions regarding chronic constipation. From a high fiber diet to taking laxatives, researchers address the common beliefs concerning various aspects of the condition and review results based on medical trials.More...........
Early retirement may mean earlier death
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People looking forward to an early retirement may want to rethink those plans -- new research suggests there may be a connection between retirement and mortality in apparently healthy people.
In a study of nearly 17,000 Greek adults, researchers found that those who were retired at enrollment were 51 percent more likely to die during the study period than their same-age counterparts who were still working.
Among retirees, those who left the workforce at a younger age were at greater risk of dying during the study, the researchers report in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
All of the study participants, who ranged in age from their 20s to 80s, were apparently healthy when they enrolled. None had been diagnosed with a major medical condition like heart disease, diabetes or cancer.
The findings are not explained by poorer health among early retirees, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Christina Bamia of the University of Athens.
Read More...A good marriage could be the key to better blood pressure
NEW YORK (AP) -- A happy marriage is good for your blood pressure, but a stressed one can be worse than being single, a preliminary study suggests.
Doctors say a new study shows that the quality of your marriage could be a factor in a souse's blood pressure. That second finding is a surprise because prior studies have shown that married people tend to be healthier than singles, said researcher Julianne Holt-Lunstad. It would take further study to sort out what the results mean for long-term health, said Holt-Lunstad, an assistant psychology professor at Brigham Young University. Her study was reported online Thursday by the Annals of Behavioral Medicine. The study involved 204 married people and 99 single adults. Most were white, and it's not clear whether the same results would apply to other ethnic groups, Holt-Lunstad said. Study volunteers wore devices that recorded their blood pressure at random times over 24 hours. Married participants also filled out questionnaires about their marriage. Analysis found that the more marital satisfaction and adjustment spouses reported, the lower their average blood pressure was over the 24 hours and during the daytime. Read More...5 Things You Didn't Know About Your Period
Even well-informed women have questions about their menstrual cycle. Here are answers to the most common questions encountered by gynecologists.
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
So you've had your period for a few years -- or for decades -- and you think you're in the know. Then up pops a question from you or one of your friends that no one can answer with certainty. That doesn't surprise gynecologists, who say they often field menstrual cycle questions from their patients.
Here, three top gynecologists talk about the most common questions they get about periods and what they tell their patients.
1. Why do I get PMS?Read More.........Serious Concerns Over Hepatitis B Vaccine
As some readers know, we have expressed our concerns about childhood vaccinations a number of times. (See Newsmax,com Medicine Men Archives.) We are not saying that all vaccines are bad, but we ask that parents, physicians, and health authorities proceed with care and caution and sometimes resist some of the "automatic" childhood vaccinations. Today the issue is that of the hepatitis B vaccine. More........
AIDS research in crisis as 'miracle' vaccines actually INCREASE chance of catching virus
Big blow: Researchers have found that two 'miracle' AIDS cures not only failed to work but can actually increase people's chances of contracting the virus
It is a massive blow to Aids research, which has ground to a halt - with seven other trials of similarly designed would-be vaccines either suspended or called off indefinitely.
The US government alone pumps £250million a year into research to try to find a "Holy Grail" vaccine which would put an end to Aids.
Now scientists fear the disastrous outcome of the two most promising trials leaves them back at square one.
Hailed as major breakthroughs when the tests began, the US-funded STEP and Phambili studies were shut down when it became clear the vaccines could leave patients more susceptible to the virus, which attacks the immune system and which killed more than two million victims last year - 320,000 of them children.
More than 25million people have died from Aids since 1981 and an estimated 33million are living with the disease, most in Africa.
In the UK, there have been at least 17,600 Aids-linked deaths and more than 88,000 people have contracted the HIV virus which leads to Aids.
The two aborted studies used the same vaccine, made from a common respiratory virus loaded with fragments of HIV.
The STEP study involved male homosexuals in North and South America, the Caribbean and Australia.
The Phambili trial, involving more than 3,000 men and women heterosexual volunteers in South Africa, was halted less than one year into its four-year schedule after it, too, raised fears that the vaccine could endanger patients.
The vaccine was supposed to cut the numberof infections and make the HIV virus less deadly and less contagious in those who had already contracted it.
But, rather than protect the immune system, the tests appeared to show that the vaccine somehow primed it to become more susceptible to HIV.
Results from both trials, which cost about £16million, suggested that people were twice as likely to become infected after having the vaccine.
The debacle has sent shockwaves through Aids organisations that have raised millions of pounds towards research over the past 20 years.
"This is on the same level of catastrophe as the Challenger disaster that destroyed a Nasa space shuttle," said Robert Gallo, co-discoverer of the HIV virus and head of the Institute for Human Virology in Baltimore.
Mark Harrington, head of Treatment Action Group, an Aids activist organisation, said: "We can't afford any more trials like this. We have to stop and reassess and recommit to basic science, or people will begin to lose faith."
However, John Moore, an Aids virologist at America's Weill Cornell Medical College, said: "I do think that what happened in this trial is an example of scientists blindly rushing into dangerous things."
Even before the tests came to a grinding halt, some experts were questioning whether the type of vaccine being looked at would be successful.
Rather than a drug to help ease the effects of the virus, people in areas worst hit by the epidemic were looking for a wholesale cure. As it turned out, the vaccine's abject failure has rendered arguments over marketing unnecessary.
The US National Institutes of Health, which funded both programmes, is holding a crisis meeting next week.
But experts fear a bleak future. "None of the products currently in the pipeline has any reasonable chance of being effective in field trials," said Harvard University molecular geneticist Ronald Desrosiers.
"We simply do not know at the present time how to design a vaccine that will be effective against HIV."
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