Study finds wine boosts bone health
A new study shows drinking a couple glasses ofwine each day boosts bone health in women going through menopause. This is an interesting contrast to previous studies which show alcohol abuse contributes to bone loss.
Menopause and bone health
As women enter menopause estrogen levels decline. This leads to a number of side effects including hot flashes, memory problems, fatigue, loss of bone density, and other physical symptoms. Some doctors recommend estrogen treatments to help prevent bone loss, but in this study published in the journal Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society, the women participating were not on hormone replacement therapy.
Study shows wine boosts bone health
While the results of this study may be news to some, it isn’t a surprise in the research community. Past research including the Framingham Heart Study, have suggested moderate drinkers consistently show higher bone density when compared to heavy drinkers or people who don’t drink at all. The results of this study seem to confirm these findings.
Keep a journal to lose weight, study finds
A new study has backed up what others have found: Women who want to loose weight should keep a food journal, avoid skipping meals and eating in restaurants, especially at lunch.
The study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, looked at self-monitoring and diet-related behaviors and meal patterns among overweight post-menopausal women.
The conclusion was total calories matter more than the kind of diet.
“When it comes to weight loss, evidence from randomized, controlled trials comparing different diets finds that restricting total calories is more important than diet composition such as low-fat versus low-carbohydrate. Therefore, the specific aim of our study was to identify behaviors that supported the global goal of calorie reduction,” said Dr. Anne McTiernan, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
Living by the sea is good for your health
Sick people have been sent to the seaside for centuries and now a study has proven that living by the coast is good for your health.
Bad news for inland folk, good news for the majority of New Zealanders, as about 65 per cent of Kiwis live within five kilometres of the coast.
The study, published in the Health and Place journal this week, examined census data to determine how health varied across England.
After adjusting for age, sex, greenspace density and socio-economic factors, there was an increase in people reporting good health the closer to the coast they lived. The reporting of the link was also stronger among poorer communities.
However, the problem for poorer communities – in New Zealand as in Britain – is getting a financial toehold beside the sea.
Geography professor and director of the GeoHealth Laboratory at the University of Canterbury, Simon Kingham, said that, because living by the sea was seen as desirable, it was therefore more expensive. “Thus you often find wealthier people living nearer the sea. We know that people with greater income generally have better health and therefore you would possibly expect people living nearer the sea to be healthier.”
Adult human lungs able to re-grow
New research has uncovered the first evidence that the adult human lung is capable of regenerating, to an extent after being removed surgically.
Researchers used MRIs with hyperpolarized helium-3 gas to show that existing alveoli which are the tiny, air-exchange units of the lung, increased in number after a 33-year-old woman had her entire right lung removed due to cancer.
A year and a half after the surgery, the woman started a daily exercise program which included yoga, walking and cycling to get back into shape. Doctors theorize that it is the exercise that helps in the re-growth of the lung.
In the study, a 64 percent increase in the number of alveoli in the woman’s lung was found 15 years after her surgery.
“The research clearly shows that some form of lung growth can occur in the adult human,” said study author James Butler, an associate professor of medicine in the department of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Friendships influence weight loss/gain
Whether you’re hopelessly out of shape or in prime physical condition, your friends may be the ones to blame (or thank).
Researchers at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine examined data from two large suburban high schools and found that students were more likely to gain weight if they had friends who were heavier than they were.
The converse was also true: students were more likely to lose weight — or gain weight at a slower pace — if they had a slimmer groups of friends.
The team led by David Shoham used data from schools that participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health in 1994 and 1995.
Over the course of two years, the students were surveyed about their weight, friendships, sports activities and television and computer time. Researchers also calculated each student’s body mass index (BMI).
The results, published in the journal PLoS ONE last month, found that students were more likely to gain weight if they had friends who were heavier than they were. The converse was also true: students were more likely to lose weight — or gain weight at a slower pace — if they had a slimmer groups of friends.
Vitamin D May Delay Deterioration of Smokers’ Lungs
Among smokers, lung function may decline faster in those who have a vitamin D deficiency than in those with normal vitamin D levels, a new study suggests.
However, although boosting levels of vitamin D may offer some protection to the lungs from the effects of smoking, it won’t prevent deteriorating lung function or smoking-related health problems, such as heart disease, stroke and cancer, the researchers warned.
“Vitamin D, possibly due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, could provide a small amount of protection against lung damage that occurs from smoking,” said lead researcher Dr. Nancy Lange, of the Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
“If these findings are replicated in other studies and interventional trials, vitamin D supplementation could have the potential to provide some protection against the damage to lung function that is due to smoking,” she said.
Lange emphasized that the effect was small and “the most important intervention, for both lung and overall health, is for people to stop smoking.”
New Immunoglobulin Treatment Stops Alzheimers in Three Year Study
On Tuesday, a group at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City presented data at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Vancouver demonstrating a lack of deterioration over three years in a very small group of Alzheimer’s patients being treated with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), a treatment previously approved for immune deficiency and autoimmune diseases (1). Now, it must be emphasized that there were only 4 patients in the study that were treated over the whole 3 years with the highest dose of the IVIG and showed this lack of deterioration, but the Alzheimer’s scientific world was still extremely excited about this preliminary result, largely because of the relatively consistent lack of effect of every Alzheimer’s drug tested in people to date. Five years ago, every large pharmaceutical company had a thriving Neuroscience Research and Development (R&D) group, with a primary focus on Alzheimer’s disease. Clearly, with the aging population continuing to grow, and 5.4 million Americans presently suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, finding a treatment for this disease would be a huge blockbuster from both the financial and humanitarian perspective. But now, the most common news on the Alzheimer’s R&D front is termination of a clinical program and dissolution of pharmaceutical R&D. Alzheimer’s disease has proven to be a really tough nut to crack.
Obese women have higher risk for rheumatoid arthritis
Obese women may have an increased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis — adding one more chronic illness to the list of ills brought on by extra pounds.
Women with rheumatoid arthritis are already more prone to heart attacks than the general population because of their autoimmune disease.
The Mayo Clinic study, published in Arthritis Care & Research, found the risk of getting rheumatoid arthritis was about 20 percent more for overweight women.
The researchers followed 813 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and the same number of controls. They also studied other patient data from 1980 to 2007 and found that from 1985 to 2007 the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis rose 9.2 percent per 100,000 women. Obesity accounted for 52.2 percent of the increase.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease that causes pain, swelling and stiffness in the joints and surrounding tissues. About 1.3 million people in the U.S. have the disease, which occurs in two to three times as many women as men, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Common Causes and Treatments for Insomnia
Insomnia is caused by multiple factors like an underlying medical condition, lifestyle routines, stress and sleep problems. The cause of insomnia can also be unknown. Some of other causes of insomniaare environmental distractions, consuming coffee and other caffeine containing drinks, rotating work schedule that disrupts your sleep pattern and some medications that can prevent you to have a good sleep.
On the other hand, the treatment for insomniabegins by going to the doctor to see if you have an underlying medical problem. If a specific cause is found, you can follow the advice of the health care professional. Some of the treatments for insomnia are cognitive behavioral therapy, lessons about healthy sleeping habits and the use of temporary medication to aid you on your sleep. There are also complementary guidelines like avoiding day naps and limiting alcohol intake before bed time. And lastly, acupuncture, yoga and massage therapy are also used in treating insomnia.
Benefits of Aloe Vera Juice
Aloe vera is consists of 96% water and 4% of 75 known chemicals and this is rich in vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and beneficial plant chemicals which make it so nutritious. It detoxifies our body and helps in eliminating unwanted elements in our system. It is easily absorbed and digested so it is best with people who are having an insomnia, poor appetite, digestive problems, and inflamed stomach or intestine. The growth of bacteria and viruses can be counteracted through drinking aloe vera juice because it is highly alkanilizing. Drinking aloe-vera juice daily will also give you the energy you will need during the day.
