Restorative Yoga Practice Benefits

In modern age of period, Most yoga teachers recommend a strict discipline of nostril breathing. Some of us are chronic mouth breathers, which can result in a host of problems from a dry mouth to shortness of breath. Not only is the habit of breathing through the mouth damaging to the body or also exceed pain relief, as air does not pass through the filtering mechanisms of the nose, the ancient Yoga texts say that it is harmful to the mind as well for your health.

In now days Restorative yoga has many benefits in regarding of health and fitness tips point of view,that also useful for creating a well balanced yoga practice. There are a variety of poses, each with its own benefits and energetic qualities. Generally restorative poses relieve stress by taking students into a deep state of relaxation. It also stimulates and soothes organs and improves concentration.

A restorative practice is excellent for calming and grounding, with the fast pace of life for healthy foods, it is common for the sympathetic nervous system to be on overdrive and for our bodies to stay in a constant state of heightened alert. Our bodies do not know the difference between stress created from work and actual danger such as the threat of an attack by a bear. In order to restore, the body needs to be able to relax and return to the parasympathetic nervous system. Restorative yoga poses support the muscles and bones with props so that they can relax. As a result, the nervous system sends less messages to the brain, the mind quiets and the body returns to the parasympathetic nervous system. This lowers the heart rate, reduces blood pressure and slows down the breath.

Restorative yoga is a good antidote to the stressful, busy lifestyles that many people lead. Just as you take time each day to eat and sleep, so should you take time to relax. Your muscles will become less tight, your mind less restless, and your life less stressful. where she is studying the benefits and effects of restorative yoga. In addition to yoga and travel, Emily enjoys writing, painting, walking, reading memoirs, live music, and food.

Read more »

Surgery May Boost Survival With Dangerous Heart Condition

Surgery May Boost Survival With Dangerous Heart Condition

For patients with a condition called infective endocarditis, coupled with heart failure, heart valve surgery can reduce the risk of dying by nearly two-thirds, a new study suggests. Infective endocarditis, an infection of the lining of the heart that often includes the heart valves, has been associated with a high risk of death. Previous studies have found that in-hospital mortality can be as high as 20 percent and death after a year can reach 40 percent.

"Cardiac surgery during hospitalization for infective endocarditis is associated with significantly lower in-hospital and one-year mortality, compared to medical therapy [drug therapy] alone, even for heart failure which is mild or moderate in severity," said lead researcher Dr. Andrew Wang, a cardiologist and associate professor of medicine at Duke University.
About one-third of patients with endocarditis experience heart failure as a complication, which is typically advanced or severe in degree and due to an acute heart valve problem, he said.

"Nearly two-thirds of patients with this complication undergo surgery during the initial hospitalization, and surgery is associated with lower mortality at one year," Wang added.
Patients with endocarditis and mild heart failure should be evaluated by a team of specialists for possible cardiac surgery, he noted. "Increased use of cardiac surgery for patients with this complication may lower the mortality rate in endocarditis," Wang said.
The study was published in the Nov. 23/30 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

For the study, Wang's team looked at data from more than 4,000 patients with endocarditis of a heart valve from June 2000 to December 2006, in 61 hospitals in 28 countries.
Among patients with chest X-rays available, 33 percent had heart failure and 67 percent of these patients had heart failure so severe it limited their activities.
More than 800 of these heart failure patients underwent heart valve surgery.
Wang's group found that nearly 30 percent of the heart failure patients died in the hospital, and those who had surgery were at lower risk (20.6 percent) compared with patients treated with drug therapy alone (44.8 percent).
After one year, 29 percent of the patients who had surgery died, compared with 58 percent of the patients who were on drug therapy alone, the researchers found.
Factors connected with dying in the year after treatment included older age, diabetes, an infection contracted in the hospital, other infections, stroke and complications from the surgery, the study authors noted.

In the United States, there are about 15,000 new cases of infective endocarditis each year, according to background information in the study.
Wang noted that the average Medicare payment to hospitals for heart valve replacement surgery ranges from $25,000 to $45,000.
"In our study, surgery for patients with heart failure as a complication of endocarditis was associated with a 50 percent lower mortality, compared to medical treatment alone, so was more effective than medical therapy," he said.
Commenting on the study, Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a spokesman for the American Heart Association, said that "infective endocarditis results in very substantial morbidity and mortality."
The risks these patients face are even higher if the infective endocarditis results in heart failure. In these patients, the benefits of valvular heart surgery generally outweigh the risk, he said.

"Current guidelines from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology recommend surgery in patients with endocarditis complicated by heart failure, even in older patients with multiple comorbid [pre-existing] conditions," Fonarow said.
"These findings suggest that there are further opportunities to improve the care of patients with infective endocarditis, both in identifying appropriate patients for surgery and improving outcomes for those treated surgically," he added.

Related articles

• Patients With Infective Endocarditis And Heart Failure Have Reduced Mortality With Valvular Surgery (medicalnewstoday.com)

Read more »

CDC: Teens Don't Eat Enough Fruits and Veggies

CDC: Teens Don't Eat Enough Fruits and Veggies

Many American teenagers may be eating fewer fruits and vegetables each day than nationwide guidelines recommend for this age group, a CDC report suggests.In 2010, about one in four high school students ate fruit less than once a day, and one in three didn't eat vegetables more than once a day.
Although diets rich in fruits and vegetables can help control weight and are also linked with a lower risk of chronic diseases and some cancers, most teens are falling short of the recommended daily levels.

To find out how much produce teenagers were typically eating, the CDC reviewed data from the 2010 National Youth Physical Activity and Nutrition Study.
For this study, students attending both public and private high schools across the country were asked to complete a survey describing the kinds of fruits and vegetables they had eaten in the last week and how often they had them.

The survey of 10,765 high school students showed that teens ate both fruits and vegetables an average of 1.2 times a day. Researchers say that's likely to mean that they're eating much less than the 1.5 cups of fruits and 2.5 cups of vegetables for girls, and 2 cups of fruit and 3 cups of vegetables for boys that dietary guidelines advise for many kids this age who participate in less than 30 minutes of physical activity daily.
Teens involved in sports are encouraged to get even higher amounts of these good-for-you foods.

Increasing Fruits and Vegetables

Researchers found that certain groups were leaving fruits and vegetables off their plates more often than others.
Hispanic teens and non-Hispanic black students ate the least amount of vegetables each day, while non-Hispanic whites ate a little more. On average, fruit was eaten slightly more often by boys (1.4 times a day) than by girls 1.2 times a day.
Few students gave fruits and veggies much love: Nearly 17% of teens ate fruits four or more times a day and roughly 11% of them ate vegetables this often.
Since fruits and vegetables aren't frequently part of teenager's meals, the report calls for more effective strategies to boost their consumption.
To improve teens' interest in these healthy foods, it is recommended that more school cafeterias offer salad bars and that school breakfast and lunch programs regularly include fruits and vegetables that students may not get a chance to taste at home.
Farm-to-school programs can also give students access to fresh-picked produce at meals. And school gardens can teach teens where foods come from and involve them in their preparation.
Communities can encourage food growers to host more farmers markets in their neighborhoods and work with grocery stores to keep seasonal produce on their shelves at affordable prices.

Related articles

• new iphone, curtis painter, new iphone 5 release, ... (searchingfreegadget.blogspot.com)
• amanda knox, apple press conference, apple event, ... (searchingfreegadget.blogspot.com)

Read more »

Female Orgasm - Brain Activity Captured In FMRI Imaging Device

Brain activity during a female orgasm has been described as secondary to an epileptic seizure, after researchers from Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA recorded the upsurge of oxygen utilization in a 5-minute period of brain networking activity with a fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) scanner.

The researchers presented their findings at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, 2011, Washington D.C.

The video footage shows how brain activity develops during the crescendo period, the orgasm itself, and the recovery period. It shows how unrelated brain regions come to life, reach a climax of activity, and then settling back down again.

Lead researcher, Professor Barry Komisaruk, said:

"We're looking at the sequence of brain regions that get recruited at increasing intensity leading up to orgasm. It's such a compelling behavioral and sensory phenomenon with so many implications and so little understanding."

Nan Wise, 54, a sex therapist, who is a Rutgers PhD candidate, reached orgasm by self-stimulation. The researchers explained that every part of her brain was activated when she reached orgasm.

Wise said:

"When I first started grad school in '80s, we didn't have these methods. Now we can study how the brain is recruiting these regions to create the big bang of orgasm. Secondary to an epileptic seizure, there's no bigger brain networking event. It's a fantastic opportunity to examine the connectivity of the brain. Theoretically, it's going be helpful to know how things work. I think the caveat is understanding that sexuality is very complex."

In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, UK, Wise said:

"It's my dissertation. I'm committed
to it."

Prof. Komisaruk said they aim to find out what goes wrong in individuals of both sexes who fail to reach sexual orgasm.

The movie animation - consisting of a series of snapshots taken two seconds apart - shows how 80 different brain regions (40 on each laterality) respond. It uses colors to represent oxygen utilization levels in the brain, displayed on a spectrum from dark red, progressing to orange, yellow and finally white (highest level of activity). When orgasm is reached, nearly the entire brain becomes an illuminated yellow/white.
Female Orgasm in Brodmann Brain Regions
Early on in the movie, one can see that the genital area of the sensory cortex becomes active first - what the researchers say is a response to being touched in the genital area. Then the limbic system comes into action - this part of the brain is involved in long-term memory and emotions.
When the orgasm is about to arrive, the cerebellum and the frontal cortex become much more active - Komisaruk says this is due to muscle tension.

Activity reaches a peak in the hypothalamus during orgasm - oxytocin is released, a pleasure-inducing chemical that makes the uterus contract. The nucleus accumbens, a region in the brain linked to pleasure and reward, also becomes very active.

After the orgasm subsides, so does activity in all the stimulated brain regions.

Komisaruk has developed a technique whereby the individual being scanned can see his/her own brain activity on a monitor, providing neurofeedback. The team aims to help people learn how to alter their brain activity, and perhaps eventually improve their symptoms related to pain, depression and anxiety.

Komisaruk said:

"We're using orgasm as a way of producing pleasure. If we can learn how to activate the pleasure regions of the brain then that could have wider applications."

Written by Christian Nordqvist

Related articles

• Female Orgasm - Brain Activity Captured In FMRI Imaging Device (medicalnewstoday.com)

Read more »

Moderate Alcohol Intake Linked To Lower Female Diabetes Risk

Females in middle age who drink alcohol moderately and consume large amounts of refined carbohydrates have a 30% lower chance of developing diabetes type 2, compared to women with similar dietary habits who don't drink, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Examples of refined carbohydrate foods include sugary drinks, white bread, some pastas, and (polished) white rice.

The authors explained, as background information to their report, that very little prior research has focused on whether there might be an association between glycemic index load, glycemic index, alcohol consumption and diabetes type 2 risk.

Dr. Frank Hu and team set out to determine what impact alcohol intake (or lack of it) might have on diabetes risk in middle aged women whose refined carbohydrate (carb) intake was high. They tracked 81,827 women for 26 years. The women had participated in the Nurses' Health Study and were all free of diabetes type 2 when the study began.
Their cumulative averages of glycemic index, glycemic load, total carb intake and total alcohol intake were calculated every two to four years using questionnaires.
During the follow-up period 6,950 participants developed diabetes type 2.
They found that the women with a high refined-carb intake who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol had a 30% lower chance of developing diabetes type 2 compared to women whose refined-carb intake was also high but consumed no alcohol.
In an interview with Reuters news agency, Dr. Hu said:

"If you eat a high carb diet without drinking alcohol, your risk of developing diabetes is increased by 30 percent.
However, if you eat a high carb diet, but (drink) a moderate amount of alcohol, the increased risk is reduced."

The authors concluded in an Abstract in the journal:

"Our findings suggest that a higher alcohol intake (≥15 g/d) attenuates the positive association between GL and T2D incidence."

The moderate drinkers in this study consumed an average of 0.8 once (24 grams) of alcohol each day, the equivalent of approximately two drinks each week. A very small percentage were classed as heavy drinkers - consuming at least two ounces of alcohol each day - they did not have a lower diabetes type 2 risk.
The authors stressed that their study should not encourage people to start drinking if they do not do so now. Rather, they encourage a diet low in refined carbs and high in whole grains. If you are a drinker, they added, you should do so with moderation.

Refined and unrefined grains

Refined grains have been milled so that their outer bran coating has gone, leaving just the endosperm. Examples include white rice, white pasta and white bread. When referring to rice, the term polished is often used with the meaning 'milled'.
Unpolished long-grain rice with bran
Polished Indian sona masuri rice grains
In whole grain products, the germ and endosperm are still there. Bran is a good source of fiber, while the germ has protein, minerals and vitamins - the endosperm has carbohydrates (mainly in the form of starch).
Whole grains, also known as unrefined grains (unrefined carbs) are rich in antioxidants and phytochemicals - these help protect us against diabetes, some cancers and coronary heart disease. Some studies have demonstrated that individuals who consume at least three portions of whole grains each day have a lower risk of developing heart disease compared to people who don't.

Here you can see the bran, germ and endosperm
Written by Christian Nordqvist

Read more »

Women, Younger Men Under-Treated Before Heart Attack: Study

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Women and younger men account for a large number of heart attacks in the United States but are less likely than older men to receive preventive medications that lower heart attack risk, a new study indicates.

Researchers evaluated more than 3,000 heart attack patients treated at the Minneapolis Heart Institute between March 2003 and January 2010, and found that 70.3% of them had not been diagnosed with coronary heart disease (CHD) and 60% of those undiagnosed patients were men 55 and younger and women 65 and younger with premature CHD.
Even though rates of high cholesterol among the women and younger men were similar to the rate in older men, those two groups of patients were nearly half as likely (10% vs. 19%) to be taking cholesterol-lowering statins prior to their heart attack and were much less likely to be on aspirin and combination therapy.

The study was scheduled for presentation Wednesday at an American Heart Association annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

"For those patients with known coronary disease, the evidence and guidelines are fairly clear about the benefit of aggressive medical therapy, including an aspirin and statin, regardless of your age or gender," said Dr. Michael Miedema, a cardiology fellow at the University of Minnesota working with researchers at the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital.

"However, for patients without known coronary disease, the optimal approach is much less clear," he added in an institute news release. "We currently only treat high-risk patients, but our data show that women and young males, who rarely qualify as high-risk, make up a substantial portion of the current heart attack population."

The most widely used cardiac event risk calculator is the Framingham Risk Score, which uses the patient's age, gender and factors such as cholesterol and blood pressure. But this approach is heavily weighted toward age and gender, according to Miedema.
"If you're an older male, you're much more likely to qualify for preventive therapy while females and younger males often do not meet criteria despite similar risk factors," he said.
"While older males are still the most likely group to have heart attacks, we have shown that women and patients with premature disease make up a substantial portion of the heart attacks we are seeing and very few of these patients are on the medications which research has shown to prevent heart attacks. Better methods of risk assessment could potentially allow us to target more people truly at high risk for an event and avoid excessive treatment of those who are low risk," Miedema concluded.
Research presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
-- Robert Preidt

Related articles

• Traffic, Pollution and Heart Attacks | heart attack (whatontoday.com)

Read more »

Easy-to-Treat Condition Can Disrupt Breast-Feeding

 A "tongue-tie" condition in infants that hinders breast-feeding can be quickly diagnosed and treated in many cases, an expert says.
The condition, also known as ankyloglossia, occurs in 4 percent to 10 percent of newborns. The most common type is easy to identify and occurs when a tight band of tissue causes a heart-shaped tongue indentation at the front of the mouth.

Another form of the condition is harder to detect, according to Dr. Dale Tylor, an assistant professor of pediatric otolaryngology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.

"For an infant to properly breast-feed, the baby needs to move his or her tongue to their lips to allow sucking to occur," Tylor said in a Vanderbilt news release. "If there's a tethering, the baby has a hard time latching on and uses his or her gums or lips. It becomes painful for the mom, and can even cause bleeding."

Other indications of tongue-tie include a baby who breast-feeds for up to an hour at a time, is frustrated during feeding, or falls asleep before becoming full.
These problems can cause mothers to supplement breast-feeding with formula or give up breastfeeding altogether.

But Tylor said more than two-thirds of mothers of babies with tongue-tie can successfully breast-feed their babies after a simple, outpatient tongue-tie-clipping procedure called a frenotomy.

Tylor also said her research shows that early treatment of tongue-tie reduces the risk of speech problems. Left untreated, tongue-tie can cause other problems.
"They may have problems taking a spoon," Tylor said. "Or they may not be able to lick an ice-cream cone or stick out their tongues with their brother, sister or peers. They could even have problems into adulthood with common social activities like brushing their teeth or even kissing."
-- Robert Preidt

Read more »

Painkiller Dependence Before Knee Surgery May Slow Recovery

Image via Wikipedia

 Recovery after knee replacement surgery can be much more difficult if patients are dependent on powerful opioid painkillers before the procedure, a new study shows.
Opioids are narcotics such as morphine, codeine and oxycodone.

U.S. researchers compared results of 49 knee replacements in opioid-dependent patients with recovery rates for a group of patients not dependent on narcotics. They found that patients who were opioid-dependent before surgery tended to have longer hospital stays, more unexplained pain or stiffness, a higher rate of complications and were more likely to require additional surgery, compared to patients who were not opioid-dependent.
The study was published Nov. 2 in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

"We expected to find that the opioid-dependent patients have worse outcomes. But the differences between the two groups of patients were even greater than we thought they would be. The chronic narcotics users did significantly worse in every category," principal investigator Dr. Michael A. Mont, director of the Center for Joint Preservation and Reconstruction at the Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, said in a journal news release.

"This doesn't mean that opioid users shouldn't have the surgery," he added. "But those patients and their physicians should know that their results may not be as optimal. It might be possible that we can work with these patients to improve their surgical outcomes."
Mont and his colleagues suggested several ways to improve recovery for opioid-dependent knee surgery patients. These include: weaning them off strong opioid medications before surgery; prescribing alternate, non-opioid pain medications; and using drug-free pain management methods.

"Previous studies have found that patients who use opioids are more dissatisfied after surgery," Mont said. "But these are more powerful findings since patients require additional surgeries. This is a topic our orthopedic community and other care providers need to address together."
-- Robert Preidt

Read more »

Bed/Wake Times Affect Kids' Weight

Australian kids seem to stay slim and active if they go to bed early and get up early. Late risers, on the other hand, were 1.5 times more likely to become obese, almost twice as likely to be physically inactive, and 2.9 times more likely to sit in front of a screen - computer or TV - for more hours than the early birds. Researchers at the University of South Australia looked at the hours sleeping, bedtimes and wake times of 2,200 youngsters ages 9 to 16 as well as at their weight and how they spent their time over four days.

Earlier research suggests that not getting enough sleep puts kids at risk of becoming overweight or obese, but this study found that all the kids averaged the same number of hours of sleep. The differences in weight and amount of physical activity seen related to the timing of their sleep, and that timing was not dramatic: the night owls stayed up 70 to 90 minutes later than the early birds and woke up 60 to 80 minutes later. The study was published in the Oct. 1 issue of SLEEP.

Related articles

• amanda knox, apple press conference, apple event, ... (searchingfreegadget.blogspot.com)
• new iphone, curtis painter, new iphone 5 release, ... (searchingfreegadget.blogspot.com)

Read more »

Fish Oil for Arthritis

New research from England suggests that fish oil may help slow the progression of osteoarthritis - the "wear and tear" version of arthritis that often is an unwelcome feature of getting older. In fact, based on their study in guinea pigs, the investigators from Britain's University of Bristol say that fish oil may help to prevent arthritis from occurring in the first place. The study team fed omega-3 rich diets to guinea pigs that have a genetic pre-disposition to develop osteoarthritis and found that compared to a control group of animals eating a standard guinea pig diet, the fish oil diet reduced incidence of the disease by 50 percent. Positive effects of the diet included a reduction of the degradation of collagen in cartilage and better retention of the molecules that give cartilage its shock-absorbing properties. Evidence also indicated that omega-3 influences the biochemistry of arthritis and as a result can help prevent osteoarthritis and slow progression where it has already occurred. The study was published in the September 2011, issue of the journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage.

My take? We've known for some time that eating oily fleshed, cold water fish such as salmon or sardines two to three times a week or taking fish oil supplements (two grams daily of a brand that contains both EPA and DHA) helps reduce the inflammation that damages tissues and makes osteoarthritis so painful. Daily fish oil has also been studied for its benefits in those with high cholesterol, diabetes, symptoms of PMS, coronary artery disease, breast cancer, memory loss, depression, insulin resistance and rheumatoid arthritis.

Read more »

Smoking and Stroke

New data from Canada suggests that smokers' risk having strokes or mini-strokes nearly a decade earlier than non-smokers. After they reviewed the records and clinical courses of patients referred to a stroke clinic because they were at high risk after suffering either a stroke or a mini-stroke (called transient ischemic attack or TIA), investigators found that smokers were at risk at a younger age, 58, on average, as opposed to 67 for non-smokers.

Habitual smoking hardens and narrows arteries and makes blood stickier, the researchers noted, and added that these changes might explain the association seen between smoking and stroke. What's more, they concluded that quitting has a big impact on stroke risk: within 18 months to two years of putting out that last smoke, the risk of stroke declines to that of a non-smoker. The researchers looked at stroke risks among 982 patients at an Ottawa stroke prevention clinic: 718 non-smokers and 264 smokers. The findings were presented October 3 at the Canadian Stroke Congress in Ottawa.

Related articles

• New Study Ties Blood Type To Stroke Risk (medicalnewstoday.com)

Read more »

Oral Contraceptive Use Tied To Prostate Cancer

There is a significant link between use of oral contraceptives or birth control pills and the incidence of prostate cancer, said researchers who set out to investigate the suggestion that byproducts of these drugs get into the environment, for instance the water supply, and lead to an increase in low level estrogen exposure in affected populations.
David Margel, and Neil E Fleshner from the Princess Margaret Hospital at the University of Toronto in Canada, write about their findings in the 14 November online issue of BMJ Open. They conclude that their study shows a significant association between oral contraceptives and prostate cancer and that:

"It is hypothesised that the [oral contraceptive] effect may be mediated through environmental oestrogen levels; this novel concept is worth further investigation."
Several studies have already suggested that exposure to estrogen may increase the risk of prostate cancer, so Margel and Fleshner took this a stage further: what if use of oral contraceptives could be placing enough estrogen into the environment that it increases prostate cancer risk in the exposed population?
For their ecological study they analyzed global data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) for 2007 and the United Nations World Contraceptive Use 2007 report to correlate statistics on prostate cancer incidence and related deaths to use of contraceptives.
They analyzed the data by country and by continents, and they compared results from oral contraceptive use with all other forms of contraception, such as intra-uterine devices, condoms or vaginal barriers.
The results showed that:

• Oral contraceptive use was significantly tied to prostate cancer incidence and related deaths in individual nations.
• Oral contraceptive use was also linked to prostate cancer incidence in Europe.
• There was no link between use of other forms of contraceptive and prostate cancer incidence or deaths.
• Further analysis showed the links with oral contraceptive use did not depend on a country's wealth.

Although the authors point out the study does not prove a cause and effect link, the findings suggest there is a need for further investigation, both to confirm them and to try and find out the chemical and biological pathways between possibles causes and effects.
In their discussion, they suggest one plausible explanation for the link between oral contraceptive use and prostate cancer is that the oral contraceptives in use today frequently contain high doses of ethinyloestradiol (an orally bio-active estrogen), that is "excreted in urine without degradation. This can then end up either in the drinking water supply or passed up the food chain".

Related articles

• Oral Contraceptive Use Tied To Prostate Cancer (medicalnewstoday.com)

Read more »

Young People With Depression At Increased Risk Of Heart Disease Mortality

The negative effects of depression in young people on the health of their hearts may be stronger than previously recognized. Depression or a history of suicide attempts in people younger than 40, especially young women, markedly increases their risk for dying from heart disease, results from a nationwide study have revealed.

The results are published in the November 2011 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
"This is the first study looking at depression as a risk factor for heart disease specifically in young people," says senior author Viola Vaccarino, MD, PhD, chair of epidemiology at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health. "We're finding that depression is a remarkable risk factor for heart disease in young people. Among women, depression appears to be more important than traditional risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, obesity and diabetes which are not common in young women."

First author is Amit Shah, MD, a cardiology fellow at Emory University School of Medicine. The researchers analyzed data from 7,641 people between the ages of 17 and 39 who participated in the NHANES-III (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey-III), a nationwide survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics between 1988 and 1994. Deaths were tracked through 2006.

Women with depression or a history of attempted suicide had a three times higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 14 times higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease (heart attack). The corresponding figures for men were 2.4 times higher risk for cardiovascular disease and 3.5 times higher risk for ischemic heart disease.

Many previous studies of depression and heart disease included older individuals, who generally have a larger burden of heart disease risk factors and associated diseases that may confound the results.

This is the first study to examine a history of suicide attempts along with depression as a marker for future mortality from cardiovascular disease. Also, unlike most previous studies of depression and heart disease, the authors examined major depression, which was assessed with a clinical interview based on accepted diagnostic criteria, instead of using questionnaire scores for depression symptoms. The authors suggest that clinical diagnosis may be "a more robust risk indicator."

Use of antidepressants was not included as a risk factor because less than six percent of those with depression or a history of attempted suicide reported their use, and no cardiovascular-related deaths occurred in that subgroup.

The researchers considered the possibility that depressed people may have more lifestyle-related risk factors such as smoking and poor diet. They found a significant link to heart disease risk coming from depression and suicide attempts, even after correcting statistically for unhealthy behaviors.

"Direct physiological effects of depression may play a greater role than lifestyle factors in this young population," the authors write.

Depression may increase risk of heart disease through physiological mechanisms, such as lower heart rate variability and increased cortisol (a stress-related hormone) and inflammation.

"This is a group that normally should be low risk," Vaccarino says. "Studying these individuals more intensively could be important for understanding how depression affects the heart."

Related articles

• Abused Girls May Have Higher Risk Of Heart Disease, Stroke As Adults (beinhealthwomen.blogspot.com)
• Sugary Drinks May Increase Heart, Diabetes Risk In Women, Even Of Normal Weight (beinhealthwomen.blogspot.com)
• Female Shift Workers May Be At Higher Risk Of Heart Disease (beinhealthwomen.blogspot.com)

Read more »

Dietary Supplement May Help Treat MS

Image by Andrei Z via Flickr

A dietary supplement similar to glucosamine (commonly used to address arthritis symptoms) may turn out to be a treatment that could put the brakes on multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune diseases. Research from the University of California, Irvine, found that oral N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) inhibited the growth and function of abnormal T-cells that, in MS, direct the immune system to attack tissue that protects nerves. The studies were done in mice with an MS-like autoimmune disease that causes leg weakness. The supplement, given orally, reversed progression of the weakness, preventing its usual course to paralysis. The research team leader said that GlcNAc works by correcting a genetic defect that induces cells to attack the body. In MS, this correction would suppress hyperactivity of abnormal T-cells (a type of immune system cell) and the autoimmune response by increasing sugar modifications to T-cell proteins. The UC Irvine lead researcher noted that elsewhere a clinical trial found that eight of 12 children with treatment-resistant autoimmune inflammatory bowel disease improved significantly after taking GlcNAc for two years. More human studies are needed to further explore this approach. The study was published online September 29 in The Journal of Biological Chemistry.

My take? It will be interesting to see if this new approach is as promising as this study suggests it may be. MS is one of the most baffling of all diseases - we know very little about what triggers it and what factors influence its progression and outcome. Integrative approaches are ideal for MS patients because of the disease's variability and potential to go into remission, as well as its responsiveness to non-pharmaceutical interventions including stress reduction, mind/body therapies and changes in diet and lifestyle. Read more about multiple sclerosis.

Read more »

Achieved prefect shape of fitness

In  age  of modern technology, it has made  extremely important for people that they look so good and as a result of this they spend a great deal of time getting into perfect shape, most of time some persons to achieve  solid level of fitness, it not only helps them physically but mentally as well. If you are someone who is struggling to get back into shape, read the following article to learn about ways to improve your level of fitness in regarding of taking healthy foods .some time We all expect immediate results. That is just part of the age we live in. Communication is fast. Food is immediately available .Ideas are at our finger tips.


Being aware of the many misconceptions there are about a good figure, it is very important that you gather all the information you need regarding nutrition and exercises in order to achieve the desired results. Owing to the fact that these fitness tips on being in good shape significantly differ from one another,

it is essential that you follow only the right tips. On the other hand, avoiding tips that involve getting great results over night can be very beneficial. if today we  conclude about that, want to made  great shape not only makes us feel good about ourselves, but it also helps us stay healthy though health tips. Regular exercises and good nutrition are a perfect combination for an ideal figure and for a long life as well.

Related articles

• Slimming Cream (produkperawatan.wordpress.com)

Read more »

Abused Girls May Have Higher Risk Of Heart Disease, Stroke As Adults

Sexually and physically abused girls may have higher risks for heart attacks, heart disease and strokes as adults, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2011.
In the study, compared to women who weren't molested or raped as children or teens, women who reported:

• Repeated episodes of forced sex in childhood or adolescence had a 62 percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease as adults.
• Severe physical abuse in childhood or adolescence was associated with a 45 percent increased risk of cardiovascular events.

Mild to moderate physical or sexual abuse was not associated with increased risk.
"The single biggest factor explaining the link between severe child abuse and adult cardiovascular disease was the tendency of abused girls to have gained more weight throughout adolescence and into adulthood,' said Janet Rich-Edwards, Sc.D., M.P.H., lead author of the study and associate professor in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass.

The researchers studied the associations of child and adolescent abuse with confirmed cardiovascular disease events such as heart attacks and strokes from 1989-2007 among 67,102 women in the Nurses' Health Study II. Eleven percent reported forced sexual activity during childhood and adolescence and 9 percent reported severe physical abuse.
Associations of severe abuse were stronger for stroke than for heart attack. Risk factors such as adult body mass index, smoking, alcohol use, hypertension and diabetes accounted for 41 percent of the association of severe physical abuse and 37 percent of the association of forced sex with cardiovascular disease events. "These traditional cardiovascular risk factors explain about 40 percent of the association we see between abuse and cardiovascular disease - which suggests that other factors may play an important role, such as increased stress reactivity among people with a history of abuse," said Rich-Edwards.
Researchers conducted the study with primarily white nurses, so further research should be done with different socio-demographic groups, Rich-Edwards said.

"Women who experience abuse need to take special care of their physical and emotional well-being to reduce their risk of chronic disease," Rich-Edwards said. "Primary care health professionals need to consider childhood abuse histories of women as they transition into adulthood but to help the health professionals prevent cardiovascular disease among women with a history of abuse, we need to learn more about specific psychological, lifestyle, and medical interventions to improve the health of abuse survivors."

Related articles

• Female Shift Workers May Be At Higher Risk Of Heart Disease (beinhealthwomen.blogspot.com)
• Childhood Abuse May Increase Risk For Heart Attack, Stroke (huffingtonpost.com)

Read more »

Sugary Drinks May Increase Heart, Diabetes Risk In Women, Even Of Normal Weight

Women who drink two or more sugary drinks a day, even if they are of normal weight, appear to be at higher risk of heart disease and diabetes, according to a new study presented over the weekend to the American Heart Association's (AHA's) Scientific Sessions 2011, which is running from 12-16 November, in Orlando, Florida. An abstract of the study is available to view online in the AHA journal Circulation.
Sugar-sweetened drinks includes beverages such as carbonated sodas or flavored waters with added sugar.

Previous studies have examined and found links between drinking sugar-sweetened beverages and obesity, high blood fats, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes. But studies following large, ethnically diverse populations looking at links with cardiovascular risk factors are sparse, said the researchers.
Lead author Dr Christina Shay, an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City and colleagues, compared middle-aged and older women who consumed two or more sugar-sweetened drinks to women who drank one or less a day.

They found that women who drank two or more such drinks a day were significantly more likely to develop larger waists and have impaired fasting levels of glucose. They were also nearly four times as likely to develop high triglycerides, a type of blood fat linked to increased risk of heart disease.
They didn't find any such links in men.
Shay said in a press statement:
"Women who drank more than two sugar-sweetened drinks a day had increasing waist sizes, but weren't necessarily gaining weight. These women also developed high triglycerides, and women with normal blood glucose levels more frequently went from having a low risk to a high risk of developing diabetes over time."
"Most people assume that individuals who consume a lot of sugar-sweetened drinks have an increase in obesity, which in turn, increases their risk for heart disease and diabetes. Although this does occur, this study showed that risk factors for heart disease and stroke developed even when the women didn't gain weight," she added.
For the study, Shay and colleagues examined data from 4,166 African-American, Caucasian, Chinese-Americans and Hispanic adults who took part in the the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). The participants, aged from 45 to 84 years, had completed food-frequency questionnaires when the study started in 2000-2002.
During five years of follow-up, the participants underwent three exams from which the researchers were able to assess changes in body weight, waist size, levels of high density lipoproteins (HDL "good" cholesterol), levels of low density lipoproteins (LDL "bad" cholesterol), triglycerides, levels of fasting glucose, and presence of type 2 diabetes.
The study was conducted at Northwestern University's Department of Preventive Medicine in Chicago, where Shay used to be based.

She and her colleagues noted that the metabolic influence of sugar-sweetened beverages is "complex and is not homogenous between men and women".
They said we know that women need fewer calories than men, so it looks like when a higher proportion comes from drinking sugar-sweetened drinks, they therefore experience a higher cardiovascular risk.

But exactly how such drinks influence cardiovascular risk, what biological mechanisms might be involved, is still somewhat unclear and warrants further investigation, said the researchers, who are planning to do just that.

Funds from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute helped pay for the study.

Related articles

• 2 sugary drinks a day can boost heart disease, diabetes risk in women (news.bioscholar.com)
• Sugary drinks tied to heart disease in women: What about men? (cbsnews.com)

Read more »

Prehypertension Boosts Stroke Risk

We've long known that high blood pressure is a primary risk factor for stroke, but new research suggests that blood pressure on the high end of normal can be a threat, too. This condition, called prehypertension, is diagnosed when the top blood pressure number (systolic) is between 120 and 139 mmHg and the low number (diastolic) between 80 and 89 mmHg. The new information follows a review of 12 studies that included data on more than 518,000 participants in the United States, Japan, China and India taken from studies that lasted from 2.7 to 32 years. The researchers, from the University of California, San Diego, found that people with prehypertension were 55 percent more likely to have a stroke compared to individuals whose blood pressure was normal.

The review also revealed that people younger than 65 with prehypertension had a stroke risk that was 68 percent higher than normal, and that regardless of age those whose blood pressure was in the range of 130 to 139 had a stroke risk 79 percent higher than normal. In the United States, one-third of adults have prehypertension. The study was published online on September 28 in Neurology.

My take? We've known for some time that prehypertension can raise the risk of cardiovascular disease. Although the studies this report was based on encompassed a lot of people, it was only an analysis, not a study, and the authors appropriately noted that their findings must be confirmed before deciding upon the best approach to treatment. In the meantime, if your blood pressure has been edging up, lifestyle changes - losing weight, getting more exercise, giving up smoking, learning to relax and cutting back on salt, alcohol and caffeine - may help bring it down.

Related articles

• Baseline prehypertension and risk of stroke (paul.kedrosky.com)
• Prehypertension Tied to Increased Risk of Stroke (webmd.com)

Read more »

Resolve back Pain through modren treatment

Modren science fiction writers who invented telepathy years ago, real humans can't tell what each other are thinking or feeling. As we grow up, we learn all about pain when we fall over or bump into furniture. Our parents and anyone else around us show us how we are supposed to respond. Fortunately, most back pain problems are temporary, often caused by excessive pressure on muscles or ligaments supporting the spine. However, if the pain is due to serious injury or a medical condition such as kidney damage, cancer, nerve damage, it must be treated with care and patience.

Boys may be encouraged to get up and fall over again. Girls may be cuddled until they stop crying. Although there are nerve endings all over the body, all the messages signaling pain relief are processed in the brain. At the other end of the scale, doctors have no way of knowing exactly how much pain is being experienced by their patients.

Technology is trying to produce a more scientific way of measuring pain using brain scans. If this research is a success, it should reduce overprescribing potentially addictive opiate drugs. So far, the researchers think they have found the bit that registers lower back pain. In a study involving 32 people, half of whom had chronic lower back pain, the participants were asked to move in the same way or were subjected to heat. If the level of blood flow and neuron activity changes as predicted as regarding healthy foods, this will allow doctors to give individual dosages rather than dosages based on averages. That's why painkillers target the neurotransmitters and block the messages before they reach the conscious levels of the brain.

Related articles

• Everett Chiropractor - Don't Delay Getting the Right Treatment (thediamondringreview.com)
• Chronic pain fact sheet_P3 (bupa.com.au)

Read more »

Coffee May Protect Women from Depression

Here, a large study involving nearly 51,000 women found that drinking four or more cups of coffee a day appears to lower the long-term risk of depression. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health followed participants in the long-running Nurses' Health Study to see what effect coffee would have on the risk of depression. At the study's outset, none of the women reported being depressed, and none were taking antidepressants.

As the study progressed, results indicated that women who drank four or more cups of coffee daily had a 20 percent lower risk of depression than those who drank one cup or less daily. Those who consumed two to three cups had a 15 percent lower risk of depression. Too much caffeine can jangle the nerves, boost anxiety levels, and contribute to other health risks, but caffeine does have well-known short-term positive effects on mood - it can provide an energy boost and increase alertness. Until now, however, little has been known about its possible long-term effects on mood. The study was published in the September 26 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Related articles

• Coffee Lowers Depression Risk In Older Females (beinhealthwomen.blogspot.com)
• Drink Coffee, Stay Happy? (beinhealthwomen.blogspot.com)
• Women and depression (aboundingwellness.wordpress.com)

Read more »