Category Archives: Health

Brain Health Research: Controlling Blood Pressure Reduces Age-Related Cognitive Loss

From a National Institute on Aging news release:

Blood Pressure link to white matter lesions“These initial results support a growing body of evidence suggesting that controlling blood pressure may not only reduce the risk of stroke and heart disease but also of age-related cognitive loss,” said Walter J. Koroshetz, M.D., director of the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). “I strongly urge people to know your blood pressure and discuss with your doctors how to optimize control. It may be a key to your future brain health.”

In a nationwide study, researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of hundreds of participants in the National Institutes of Health’s Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT) and found that intensively controlling a person’s blood pressure was more effective at slowing the accumulation of white matter lesions than standard treatment of high blood pressure. The results complement a previous study published by the same research group which showed that intensive treatment significantly lowered the chances that participants developed mild cognitive impairment.

To read more click on following link: https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/intensive-blood-pressure-control-may-slow-age-related-brain-damage

Health Care Technology: Human Voice Sound Wave Analysis Detects Disease Onset, Checks Depression

From a Wall Street Journal online article by Sarah Krouse:

In medicine, measuring slight changes in voice is starting to help doctors detect the onset of diseases like Parkinson’s or more quickly measure the efficacy of treatments for illnesses like depression, researchers say.

Human voice technology Photo by Ellen Winstein for the Wall Street JournalSlower speech, for example, could indicate fatigue or sorrow at one point in time, but over longer periods could signal something more severe, co-founder Jim Harper said.

That voice-based data isn’t yet robust enough to base medical decisions on alone, but is being used alongside clinical trials for drugs to treat depression, Mr. Harper said.

The sound of your voice is becoming a new type of fingerprint.

Increasingly sophisticated technology that detects nuances in sound inaudible to humans is capturing clues about people’s likely locations, medical conditions and even physical features.

To read more click on the following link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-your-voice-reveals-about-you-11565716426

Chronic Pain Treatment: Medical Discussion On What Does And Doesn’t Work (UCTV Video)

     Chronic Pain: Observations as Patient and Provider About What Works          (…And What Doesn’t)

Chronic Pain ManagementDr. Grace Dammann, medical director of the Pain Clinic at Laguna Honda Hospital, and seven of her colleagues talk about what does and does not work in the treatment of chronic pain. She talks as both a patient and a provider. There is also a discussion of various non-pharmacologic and complementary medicine modalities to treat pain.

UCTV

Health Studies: Vitamin D Deficiency Can Increase Lower Back Pain, With Lower Muscle Strength

From a U.S. National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health release:

Vitamin D CapsulesIn people having lack of Vitamin D, the muscle strength of waist, back, neck decreases. Decreased muscle strength can cause herniated disc and cervical discal hernia. All of this is reflected in the patient’s pain. We wanted to pay attention to the necessity of considering the lack of Vitamin D in low back pain (LBP) which is one of the common complaints of our patients.

LBP and lack of vitamins are the most common health problems in our country and all over the world. The synthesis of >90% of Vitamin D in the body occurs under the influence of sunlight. Vitamin D, taken with foods, does not have a significant contribution, especially after a supplement is not taken. Seasonal and geographical changes are inevitable in the synthesis of Vitamin D in the derailment as the primary source is sunlight.[,,] The average prevalence in Vitamin D deficiency prevalence studies in the USA is reported as 41.6%, which is 82.1% in Black people and 69.2% in Hispanics.[] Hovsepian et al.[] reported a 50.8% prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in the young adult population.

To read more click on the following link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6157211/

Drug Studies: Ibuprofen & Anti-Inflammatories “Enhance Spread Of Antibiotic Resistance

From a BioRxiv.com online news release:

Antiobiotic Resistance IllustrationAntibiotic resistance is a global threat for public health. It is widely acknowledged that antibiotics at sub-inhibitory concentrations are important in disseminating antibiotic resistance via horizontal gene transfer. While there is high use of non-antibiotic human-targeted pharmaceuticals in our societies, the potential contribution of these on the spread of antibiotic resistance has been overlooked so far. Here, we report that commonly consumed non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (ibuprofen, naproxen, diclofenac), a lipid-lowering drug (gemfibrozil), and a β-blocker (propanolol), at clinically and environmentally relevant concentrations, significantly accelerated the conjugation of plasmid-borne antibiotic resistance genes.

To read more click on following link: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/724500v1.full

Boomers Health Care : Connecticut Launches “HealthScoreCT.com” To Evaluate Costs & Quality

From a MiddleTownPress.com online article:

HealthScoreCT Cost InformationThe quality scorecard rates health care organizations through a five-star system on more than 30 health measures outlined by an advisory council composed of consumer advocates, providers, community organizations, state agencies, and payers. The range of measures focus on the quality of care provided by primary care providers and span more than 10 areas, including behavioral health, children’s health, women’s health, chronic conditions, and preventative health.

Health care organizations are also evaluated on patient experience in four categories: office staff, provider communication, timely care, and an overall patient experience rating.

Users can access interactive tables and graphs to compare provider networks, like Hartford HealthCare and Western Connecticut Health Network, to each other and the state average for any given health measure, such as asthma or diabetes. In addition, users can compare the overall performance rating of provider networks against all networks across all quality measures.

To read more click on following link: https://www.middletownpress.com/middletown/article/New-CT-health-care-rating-system-helps-patients-14290596.php

Future of Health Care: Kite Smart Insulin Port Provides “Right Dose At Right Time” Diabetes Management Technology

From a YankoDesign.com article:

Kite Smart Insulin Port DesignImagine a smart insulin port attached to your skin, delivering the right dose, and at the right time. At the same moment, getting all information regarding your sugar levels, meds timings and health data, managed and analyzed with the accompanying app.

Kite replaces the need to pump yourself with over 30 injections a week, thanks to the soft cannula insertion. It turns any device into a ‘smart’ device, and automatically dispenses the accurate insulin dose. Designed to be affordable, a device like this can be very helpful in the lifestyle management of diabetics.

The functions of the port include: dispensing the dose, capturing data and sending to the diabetes management app. The app integrates blood sugar levels, carb intake and activity. Kate also has wireless connectivity.

Designers: Mitul Lad & Cambridge Consultants

Website: https://ifworlddesignguide.com/entry/234687-kite-smart-insulin-port

Aging Well: Harvard Magazine Highlights Six “Exellent Predictors” To Flourish In Retired Life

From a HarvardMagazine.com online archive article:

How To Age Well - Harvard MagazineSix factors measured by age 50 were excellent predictors of those who would be in the “happy-well” group–the top quartile of the Harvard men–at age 80: a stable marriage, a mature adaptive style, no smoking, little use of alcohol, regular exercise, and maintenance of normal weight. At age 50, 106 of the men had five or six of these factors going for them, and at 80, half of this group were among the happy-well. Only eight fell into the “sad-sick” category, the bottom quarter of life outcomes. In contrast, of 66 men who had only one to three factors at age 50, not a single one was rated happy-well at 80. In addition, men with three or fewer factors, though still in good physical health at 50, were three times as likely to be dead 30 years later as those with four or more.

The book examines the lives of a group of Harvard men who have been studied from their college years all the way to retirement and, in some cases, death. Its cornerstone is the Grant Study, a longitudinal investigation conceived in 1937 and launched at Harvard in 1939. With funding from dime-store magnate W. T. Grant, researchers signed up 268 members of the classes of 1941 through 1944, in their sophomore years, for an in-depth, lifelong study of “normal” adult development.

To read more click on the following link: https://harvardmagazine.com/2019/08/the-talent-for-aging-well

Diet Studies: “Profound Benefits” Of Fasting For Weight Loss, Longevity And Chronic Disease

From a Wall Street Journal article by Andreas Michalsen:

Fasting article Wall Street Journal by Andreas Michalsen Aug 2019At the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, I’ve employed what’s called intermittent fasting, or time-restricted eating, to help patients with an array of chronic conditions. These include diabetes, high blood pressure, rheumatism and bowel diseases, as well as pain syndromes such as migraines and osteoarthritis.

Fasting is one of the biggest weight-losstrends to arise in recent years. Endorsed by A-list celebrities and the subject of a spate ofbest-selling books, it was the eighth most-Googled diet in America in 2018.

There are different ways to go about it, but Iadvise patients to omit either dinner or breakfast, so that they don’t ingest any foodfor at least 14 hours at a stretch.

Brain Health Research: Risk Of Dementia Can Increase With Low & High Levels Of Hemoglobin

From a Neurology.org online Journal article:

Neurology JournalLow and high levels of hemoglobin are associated with an increased risk of dementia, including AD, which may relate to differences in white matter integrity and cerebral perfusion.

Objective: To determine the long-term association of hemoglobin levels and anemia with risk of dementia, and explore underlying substrates on brain MRI in the general population.
Methods: Serum hemoglobin was measured in 12,305 participants without dementia of the populationbased Rotterdam Study (mean age 64.6 years, 57.7% women). We determined risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease (AD) (until 2016) in relation to hemoglobin and anemia. Among 5,267 participants without dementia with brain MRI, we assessed hemoglobin in relation to vascular brain disease, structural connectivity, and global cerebral perfusion.

To read more click on following link: https://n.neurology.org/content/neurology/early/2019/07/31/WNL.0000000000008003.full.pdf