Tag Archives: people

The Mysterious Disease Affecting 50 Million People

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ketogenicA disease impacting close to three million Americans and 50 million people worldwide has been perplexing doctors since it was first reported. It affects more people than Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, and Lou Gehrig’s Disease but still can’t seem to shake its nasty stigma.

Historically, epilepsy has been viewed as the mark of a witch. Continue reading →

Language Protein Differs in Males, Females

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Findings could lead to greater understanding of sex differences in language acquisition

Male rat pups have more of a specific brain protein associated with language development than females, according to a study published February 20 in The Journal of Neuroscience. The study also found sex differences Continue reading →

How Some People Live to the Age of 100, 122, or Even 150 Years Old

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Advancements in medicine and technology have allowed us to stretch the limits of our maximum life span, and some scientists now believe it is possible to lengthen that span to 150 years and beyond.

     How would you like to live to the age of 100 … or 122 … or even 150 years?

     There is one major thing that limits the average human lifespan to 79 years old— Continue reading →

New Burden of Disease Study Shows World’s People Living longer but with More Disability

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The health of most of the planet’s population is rapidly coming to resemble that of the United States, where death in childhood is rare, too much food is a bigger problem than too little, and life is long and often darkened by disability.

High blood pressure is now the leading “risk factor” for disease around the world. Alcohol use is third. Low-back pain now causes more disability than childbirth complications or anemia. Continue reading →

The Island Where People Forget to Die

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In 1943, a Greek war veteran named Stamatis Moraitis came to the United States for treatment of a combat-mangled arm. He’d survived a gunshot wound, escaped to Turkey and eventually talked his way onto the Queen Elizabeth, then serving as a troopship, to cross the Atlantic. Continue reading →

Many People Are Missing This Important Mineral

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Copper is often forgotten when it comes to checking mineral levels. After all, do we really need copper for our good health? Researchers at the University of North Dakota would argue that, in fact, copper is very important for maintaining health.

The researchers state that copper has been known to be essential for health for more than three-quarters of a century. Myriad experiments with animals reveal that the cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and nervous systems are most sensitive to deficiency. Copper in the Western diet has been decreasing at least since the 1930s; in fact, at least one-fourth of adults consume less than the estimated average requirement published for the United States and Canada.

The research team reviewed clinical trials Continue reading →

Most People Can’t Find Their Hearts

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Communicating with a doctor can be difficult since doctor’s appointments are often rushed and end quickly. And now researchers have uncovered another difficulty: Patients are illiterate when it comes to anatomy and don’t know where their organs are located. Most of them can’t even locate their hearts.

In research published in the open access journal BMC Family Practice, it was demonstrated that 54.5 percent of people cannot correctly identify where the heart is in the body. Although about 86 percent of people can tell you where the intestines are and 81 percent know where the bladder is found, about 69 percent can’t even identify the position of the lungs.

The researchers point out that doctor-patient communication becomes even more challenging when patients can’t discuss their bodies knowledgeably with their healthcare practitioner.

Oh, and in case someone asks, the heart is in the middle of the chest, just behind and slightly left of the breastbone (your left!), and located between the two lungs.

Source for Story: Continue reading →

People Who Avoid the Sun Need More Vitamin D

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A team of scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine recently found that following a dermatologist’s advice to stay out of the sun may leave people with a deficiency in vitamin D.

Authors of the study said their findings highlight the fine balance between protecting one’s skin and getting adequate amounts of vitamin D, a nutrient which tends to be lacking in typical American diets but is essential to maintaining good health.

“It’s not as simple as telling everyone to wear sunscreen,” said dermatologist Eleni Linos, M.D., Ph.D. “We may instead need to begin tailoring our recommendations to the skin tones and lifestyles of individual patients. It’s clearly a very complex issue.” Continue reading →

Secrets of the Longest-Living People in the World

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If you want to live longer and healthier, anti-aging researchers suggest that all you have to do is search for clues in the places where people already enjoy the longest and most exceptionally healthy lives.

One such place is the land of the Inca people … centered around the Andes highland city of Cuzco, which is in Peru.

The Inca people usually lived to be 100 years of age or older—with no assistance from any form of modern medicine.  The holy Amautas, keepers of sacred knowledge, often lived active lives well beyond the age of 120.

For many years, scientists and tourists alike have journeyed to the lands encompassed by the ancient Inca Empire looking for the secrets of long life.  Continue reading →

More People are Turning to Prayers to Help with Health Issues

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When it comes to their health, more Americans are turning to a higher power.

A paper published in the May issue of the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality found that an increasing number of people are praying about their health.

In 2007, 49 percent of adults said they prayed about their health during the previous year. That number rose from 43 percent in 2002. The increase is part of a larger trend, researchers say, as only 14 percent of people said they had prayed about their health in 1999.

Researchers were unsure about what might be causing the increase in health-related prayer. Continue reading →

Most People are Clueless to Which Ingredients Are in their Painkillers

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If you asked the average person what active ingredients are found in their favorite over-the-counter (OTC) painkiller drugs, most would be unable to properly identify them — even if they personally use them. A new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine has found that roughly 69 percent of people surveyed were unaware that McNeil Consumer Healthcare’s painkiller drug Tylenol contains acetaminophen, while an astounding 81 percent had no idea that Pfizer’s Advil contains ibuprofen.

A research team from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine sampled  Continue reading →

Social Groups Keep People Healthy

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SYDNEY – If you are part of a social group, your are more likely to stay away from conditions like stroke, dementia and even the common cold.

Well, new research by researchers at the Universities of Exeter and Queensland, Australia, suggests that membership of social groups has a positive impact on health and well-being.

The researchers highlights the importance of belonging to a range of social groups, of hanging onto social groups, and of building new social groups in dealing with life changes such as having a stroke and being diagnosed with dementia.

The researchers reviewed a number of previous studies, which identified a link between group membership, and physical and mental health.

Commenting on the latest work, Professor Alex Haslam, of the University of Exeter, said: “We are social animals who live and have evolved to live in social groups. Membership of groups, from football teams to book clubs and voluntary societies, gives us a sense of social identity. This is an indispensable part of who we are and what we need to be in order to lead rich and fulfilling lives. For this reason groups are central to mental functioning, health and well-being.”

The researchers said that a 2008 study showed that being able to maintain valued group memberships played as important a role in positive recovery as an ability to overcome cognitive difficulties (e.g., problems with memory and language).

A 2009 study showed that those who participated as a group in decisions related to the decoration of communal areas used those areas 57 percent more over the next month and were far happier as a result.

Another 2009 study found that a strong sense of identity associated with perceived membership of social groups, was a much better predictor of residents’ well-being than their level of dementia.

The study has been published in Scientific American Mind, and the findings were presented at the British Science Festival.