Research from the University of North Carolina has shown that children at risk of developing schizophrenia have brains that function differently than those not at risk.
Brain scans of children who have parents or siblings with the illness reveal a neural circuitry that is hyperactivated or stressed by tasks that peers with no family history of the illness seem to handle with ease. Continue reading
Pharmaceutical antidepressants are usually among a class of varied chemicals known as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Serotonin is the feel good central nervous system neurotransmitter that is produced in the body.
The phrase re-uptake inhibitor is confusing to most of us laypersons. Why does inhibiting a feel good chemical make someone feel less depressed?
The SSRIs purportedly modulate and redistribute serotonin, keeping it from being taken in by some neuron receptors and Continue reading
Imagine how excited Big Pharma executives would be if they could come up with a drug that could slash women’s risk of heart attacks by one-third. To top it off, what if this prescription could be conveniently taken three times a week and — as an added bonus — what if the medicine tasted great and had no side effects? Drug makers would have doctors pushing these pills as a “miracle drug” and Big Pharma would Continue reading
Did You Know…
…You can slash your risk of Alzheimer’s by almost half with a very simple shift in your diet?
If you’re concerned about your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, it’s time to pass on the muffins. You’ll also want to curb consumption of cake, bread, pasta, and other high carbohydrate foods.
That’s because in a news release on October 16, Mayo Clinic announced that senior citizens who consumed high carbohydrate diets Continue reading
It’s not very often that a dessert food gets profiled front and center in the health news. But that’s exactly what’s happened when it comes to chocolate. Now Swedish researchers are saying that eating chocolate could help lower your risk for having a stroke.
The scientists — a joint team from the Institute of Continue reading
Wintertime infection risk cut in half among children with very low initial vitamin D levels
A study conducted in Mongolian schoolchildren supports the possibility that daily vitamin D supplementation can reduce the risk of respiratory infections in winter. In a report that will appear in the journal Pediatrics and has received early online release, an international research team found that vitamin D supplementation decreased the risk of respiratory infections among Continue reading
Their Mexican-born counterparts at lesser risk
In a large epidemiologic study, researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center found that the children of U.S.-born Latina women are at higher risk of having retinoblastoma, a malignant tumor of the retina which Continue reading
Supplements containing a compound found in curry spice may help prevent diabetes in people at high risk, according to a Thai study.
Researchers, whose results were published in the journal Diabetes Care, found that over nine months, a daily dose of curcumin seemed to prevent new cases of diabetes among Continue reading
New research confirms that successful pregnancies are common for female liver transplant recipients. The study appearing in the June issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, found miscarriage risk was lower and the live birth rate higher among women following liver transplantation than in the general U.S. population. Continue reading
A study that correlated exposure to sunlight with cancer risk found that people exposed to more sunlight had a significantly lower risk of many types of cancer (Lin, 2012). This study followed more than 450,000 white, non-Hispanic subjects aged 50-71 years from diverse geographic areas in the US. Researchers correlated the calculated ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure in these different areas with the incidence of a variety of cancers. The diverse sites included six states Continue reading
Associated with increased blood pressure and elevated blood sugar levels Continue reading
Opthalmology
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most frequent cause of blindness in the Western World. A report from the University of Copenhagen and Glostrup Hospital in Denmark published today shows the number of new cases of blindness and severe visual loss in Denmark has been halved during the last ten years. Continue reading
A study has linked certain medications, such as over-the-counter and prescription sleep aids as well as medications for allergies, depression, pain, nausea, hypertension, congestive heart failure, and incontinence, with having anticholinergic effects that can cause cognitive impairment and possibly early death in older adults. Continue reading
There are many additives used in the foods you eat. All are supposed to be harmless and safe for human consumption. Today’s health news is about one so called “harmless” food additive: “carrageenan.” Carrageenan is used as a thickening agent. It is processed from seaweed or algae. Food manufacturers often laud the fact that carrageenan is vegetarian unlike another popular thickening agent — gelatin — that is extracted from animal bones. Continue reading
This health e-letter concerns some recent news on the diabetes front. According to Japanese researchers, having diabetes will up your risk for dementia. Diabetes has been linked to cognitive problems before, but this new study shows that even pre-diabetes (blood sugar levels that are elevated higher than normal) raises the risk for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
The Japanese researchers followed 1,017 men and women, age 60 and older. Each participant took a glucose test to determine if they were diabetic or pre-diabetic. The researchers then followed them for an average of 11 years. Two hundred and thirty-two of the participants subsequently developed dementia.
Now here’s where the study gets interesting. Continue reading