Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

Medicines hold the disease!

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

As the food style changes with the advancement of world, new diseases also comes into play. Since people are lacking in nutrient food, the important content from foods are coming in terms of medicines. These kinds of medicines are available with ortho molecular products. It is normally used to prevent or treat a disease by strengthening the body with exact nutritional molecular quantity. Pure encapsulation is medical firm which provides all clinical essentials and medical support products.

These products will induct the needed nourishment to the human body. Metagenics also provides the lifestyle medicines with supreme medical support and counseling. People can find all kind of metagenics products via online. Cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and musculoskeletal are the specific area of consultations provided. Improve your health and stop the illness from striking you. All that people need to do is to consume the orthomolecular products regularly within certain time interval.

The products or medicines should be taken only with the prescription from the physicians. Customers can get use of the health library available at the official website of pure encapsulation. Medicines are playing their vital role as most of people lives their life with the help of metagenics products. Hence take care of your body with these medicines.

Convenience of maternity clothes

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Petite maternity clothes do not sport buttons, zips and tie-ups that may cause discomfort, when sitting or maintaining a posture. They have special seams that do not stick to the body and are hardly felt, when exercising.

Such clothes are available at shopping malls, local stores and online. A number of manufacturers present single colored ranges that are soothing to the eye. These clothes include tees, vests, camisoles, shorts and pajamas. Material selections are user friendly and mainly cotton and fine, woven fabrics. These fabrics allow air-circulation, free movement and comfort, while practicing and sitting in the different postures.

It is natural for people to be very attentive when selecting office- wear. Psychologists and researchers have related this phenomenon to the increased importance of appearance, in recent times. Smart dressing enhances the presence and increases the confidence-level of the person. Manufacturers carry out detailed market research to focus on what nursing clothes sells. This helps to determine market demands and supply accordingly. Though many plus sized people opt for diet plans, demand patterns reveal that they are a considerable percentage of the American populace.

When shopping for plus sized career clothing for men, shoppers may not experience as much difficulty as women of the same category who need plus size maternity clothes

Mending broken hearts with skin stem cells possible

Friday, February 13th, 2009

After turning skin cells back into stem cells successfully, scientists now have proof that they can indeed form specialised cells making up heart muscle.

University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-M) School of Medicine and Public Health professor Tim Kamp and his research team showed that they were able to grow working heart-muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) from induced pluripotent stem cells, known as iPS cells.

The heart cells were originally reprogrammed from human skin cells by James Thomson and Junying Yu, two of Kamp’s co-authors on the study.

“It’s an encouraging result because it shows that those cells will be useful for research and may someday be useful in therapy,” said Kamp, who is also a cardiologist with UW Health.

“If you have a heart failure patient who is in dire straits - and there are never enough donor hearts for transplantation, we may be able to make heart cells from the patient’s skin cells, and use them to repair heart muscle. That’s pretty exciting.”

It’s also a few more discoveries away. The researchers used a virus to insert four transcription factors into the genes of the skin cell, reprogramming it back to an embryo-like state.

Because the virus is taken up by the new cell, there is a possibility it eventually could cause cancer, so therapies from reprogrammed skin cells will likely have to wait until new methods are perfected.

Still, the iPS cardiomyocytes should prove immediately useful for research. And Kamp said the speed at which knowledge is progressing is very encouraging.

Jianhua Zhang, study co-author noted that it took 17 years, from when a mouse embryonic stem cells were first created in 1981, to 1998, when Thomson created the first human embryonic stem cells, said a UW-M release.

In contrast, the first mouse iPS stem cells were created in 2006, and Thomson and Yu published their paper in November 2007, announcing the creation of human iPS stem cells that began as a skin cells.

The study was published online Thursday in Circulation Research, a journal of the American Heart Association.

Mediterranean Diet Aids the Aging Brain: Study

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

Chalk up another endorsement for the so-called Mediterranean diet: The eating regimen, which is rich in fruits, vegetables, fish and olive oil, may help the brain stay sharp into old age, a new study suggests.

Following the healthful diet reduced the risk of getting mild cognitive impairment — marked by forgetfulness and difficulty concentrating. And it also cut the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease if cognitive impairment was already present, said study lead author Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas, an assistant professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

“We did two different types of analysis,” Scarmeas said of the study, published in the February issue of Archives of Neurology.

Previous research has found that people who follow the Mediterranean are at less risk of developing a variety of diseases besides Alzheimer’s, including heart disease, cancer and Parkinson’s.

The Columbia researchers began the study by evaluating almost 1,400 people without cognitive impairment and 482 people with mild cognitive impairment, and then followed them for an average of 4.5 years. The participants — average age 77 — also completed a food frequency questionnaire, detailing what they had eaten during the past year.

The researchers divided the participants into three groups — those who adhered somewhat or not at all to the Mediterranean diet, those who adhered moderately to it, and those who adhered regularly. Then they evaluated the participants’ cognitive functioning.

They found that the diet helped in both cases — preventing mild cognitive impairment and also the risk of further decline, even if people weren’t entirely strict in their adherence to the diet.

“As compared to the group that ate very little or not at all of the Mediterranean diet, those who ate it to a moderate degree had 17 percent less risk of developing mild cognitive impairment,” Scarmeas said. “Those who adhered a lot had a 28 percent less risk of developing mild cognitive impairment.”

The diet also helped those who already had mild impairment. “Compared to those who adhered not at all or very little, those who ate the Mediterranean diet to a moderate degree had a 45 percent reduction in risk going from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease. Those who adhered a lot had a 48 percent reduction in risk of going from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s,” he said.

Scarmeas said previous research he’s carried out found that a greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

It’s not known exactly how the diet may help keep the brain healthy, Scarmeas said. One possibility is that it might reduce inflammation, which plays a role in brain disease. Or it might work by improving cardiovascular risk factors such as high cholesterol, he said.

Two experts who reviewed the study put their perspective on the findings.

“You see what is called a dose response. The more stringently you follow the Mediterranean diet, the better the outcome,” noted Dr. Gary Kennedy, director of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

Alice Lichtenstein, Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston, said: “It’s encouraging to see the results — those reporting the healthier dietary pattern seem to do better.” What remains to be seen, she added, is whether it was the specific diet that helped people avoid cognitive decline or if those people who ate properly had other healthy habits that decreased their risk.

All three experts agreed: Until more evidence is in that the Mediterranean diet keeps brains sharp, there are plenty of other reasons to follow it, including heart health.

Steps for Preventing Thinning Hair

Friday, February 6th, 2009

A bald head or white hair damages your appearance. It makes your appearance dull. Hair loss treatment is the best way to prevent hair loss. A good hair loss product will rejuvenate the lost shine in your hair and supply essential nutrients for growth of your hair.

Thinning hair can be cured by consulting a good dermatologist. He will be able to give you good suggestions and tips for reducing hair fall. Here is the list of vitamins required for preventing your hair loss. Vitamin A is responsible for growth in the air. Most of the doctors suggest vitamin A tablets for preventing hair fall. Immense tension or high blood pressure is also responsible for hair fall.

Using B-complex tablets will reduce blood pressure and increase growth in hair. These B-complex tables consist of Vitamin B3 which helps in improving the blood circulation in your head. Vitamin B6 and Vitamin B12 are also necessary for hair growth. They improve the melanin content in your hair and bring back lost shine in it. Vitamin C tablets are also good for hair fall. These tablets contain special antioxidants which stop the hair fall. These ingredients are responsible for increasing the strength of hair.

Obesity epidemic shows perils to health reform

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

For years, Bob Clegg’s insurance company paid out some $3,000 a month for doctor visits, drugs and medical devices to treat the health problems caused by his obesity.

In September 2007, when his weight peaked at 380 pounds (172 kg), he had gastric bypass surgery, and now his health issues — joint pain, sleep apnea and esophageal problems — have vanished, and so have the medical bills.

But even though the surgery — in which the stomach is made smaller and part of the intestine is bypassed — has saved his insurance company money, Clegg, who now weighs 240 pounds (108 kg), had to pay the $20,000 cost out of his own pocket.

“It wasn’t until the doctor said my sleep apnea was at a point where we seriously had to consider a tracheotomy that we talked about gastric bypass,” said Clegg, 54. “The irony is that insurance would pay for the tracheotomy, but not the surgery.”

Clegg’s experience highlights the difficulties facing the United States as it confronts an epidemic of obesity, and the problems for President Barack Obama as he sets about extending health insurance to more Americans at a time of runaway costs.

While his experience is typical, unlike most other people, Clegg was in a position to make some changes.

As a member of New Hampshire’s senate, he took what he knew about obesity and the cost of treating related chronic illnesses to the state capitol, where he introduced a bill in January 2008 requiring insurers to offer surgery as a treatment option, just as the state’s Medicaid program for the poor does.

While other states — some of which don’t cover any obesity treatment — are studying New Hampshire’s approach, experts say economics will increasingly drive policy at a time of burgeoning budget deficits.

EPIDEMIC COSTS

About two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese, putting them at an increased risk for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, osteoarthritis, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems and even some cancers.

The direct and indirect costs of obesity is $117 billion each year, according to a 2000 report by the U.S. Surgeon General.

Christine Ferguson, associate professor at George Washington University School of Public Health and the director of STOP Obesity Alliance, said the stigma surrounding obesity and belief that it is not a disease are keeping the government from addressing the crisis.

“At the root of this is that people still have a real problem thinking about obesity as anything other than a willpower issue,” said Ferguson. “It is still perfectly acceptable to think about excluding treatment.”

Ferguson, who has held high level healthcare posts in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, acknowledged the difficulty in changing the way government thinks about spending on obesity.

“If I have to balance my budget at the end of each year, I have a choice between investing money in children who have mental retardation, or children with developmental disabilities … or investing in people who have obesity, choosing obesity is a very hard case to make,” she said.

This is even though insurers would recover the costs of bariatric surgery within two to four years, according to Pierre-Yves Cremieux, a researcher with the economic consulting firm Analysis Group.

Cremieux led a study that showed the operation helps patients’ health and ultimately leads to cost savings. The study was paid for by Johnson & Johnson, which makes bariatric surgery instruments.

OBESITY BIAS

Ronald Williams, the chairman and chief executive of health insurer Aetna, said most large employers that it sells policies to have at least one plan that covers bariatric surgery.

But, he said, he’s more focused on prevention.

“The bigger end of the story is, How do we help people not become obese to begin with?” he said. “If they are suffering the complications from being overweight or obese, how can we help them manage those conditions?”

Clegg blamed difficultly in pushing his bill through partly on society’s bias against the obese. The bill finally passed in June, six months before he left the senate in December.

Other states have had similar difficulties, including Utah, where Jeff Haaga has lobbied the state to require insurers to provide greater coverage there.

“If we could only get our lawmakers to understand, like they did in New Hampshire,” said Haaga, who at 360 pounds is classified as morbidly obese.

“Insurers are covering people who are morbidly obese one way or the other, whether it’s surgery or just keeping us alive with medication.”

In Mississippi, rated the nation’s fattest state for the third consecutive year, a bill that would have banned restaurants from serving obese customers died almost immediately after it was introduced in February.

The Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit group that focuses on disease prevention, reported that adult obesity rates rose in 37 states in the past year, while no state saw a decrease.

In its 2008 report: ‘F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America’, the Trust said Mississippi has per capita medical costs that are among the highest in the nation. It also has a Medicaid policy that specifically excludes coverage for bariatric surgery.

For Clegg, the former New Hampshire lawmaker, Mississippi’s obesity problems are clearly linked to its refusal to pay for bariatric surgery under its Medicaid program.

“If Mississippi is that ignorant and would rather pay for diabetic medicine every month and watch people have heart attacks at a cost of $40,000 … but wont spend $10,000 or $20,000 (for the surgery), well maybe that’s why Mississippi has a problem,” he said.

Understanding Accident Lawyers

Saturday, January 17th, 2009

You are going to need legal help to handle an accident. You will need a large insurance settlement to handle the high costs of the recovery. You won’t just have this handed to you on a silver platter though. You are going to have to earn it. This means that you’ll need the aid of personal injury lawyers Los Angeles. Good legal aid can make all of the difference.

You should understand just what you are gaining though. Legal aid can streamline the whole process, as the insurance company will be forced to handle it privately with your lawyer for the most part. If you are alone in the struggle, then they will often try to get you to hurt your own case. This could be in fairly friendly ways too. A simple recorded phone conversation might accidentally do grievous harm to your case. Misleading paperwork is also a popular way to limit their future settlement. If you have injury attorneys Los Angeles on your side, then they will be able to review anything that the insurance company wants you to do. It will save you a lot of trouble in the beginning.

The biggest help will come in the end though. Neither you nor the insurance company will want to go to court. Court costs are very expensive and usually unnecessary. Most cases end in a negotiated settlement. Having a car accident attorney in Los Angeles on the case at the start will usually result in early negotiations and larger settlements. What more could you want?

Hormone replacement therapy ‘shrinks’ brain

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Hormone replacement therapy may lead to brain shrinkage in postmenopausal women, say researchers.hormone-replacement-therapy1-300x292 Hormone replacement therapy ‘shrinks’ brain

The study showed that volumes of brain lesions were not significantly increased among women prescribed hormone therapy, but that the total

volumes of brain tissue in regions critical to memory were slightly smaller.

The research team found that women who had taken hormone therapy had slightly smaller brain volumes in two critical areas of the brain: the frontal lobe and the hippocampus.

Both areas are involved in thinking and memory skills, and loss of volume in the hippocampus is a risk factor for dementia.

“Our findings suggest one possible explanation for the increased risk for dementia in older women who had previously taken post-menopausal hormone therapy in the Women’’s Health Initiative Memory Study,” said Susan Resnick, Ph.D., of the National Institute on Aging, which is part of NIH.

“Our findings suggest that hormone therapy in older post-menopausal women has a negative effect on brain structures important in maintaining normal memory functioning.

“However, this negative effect was most pronounced in women who already may have had some memory problems before using hormone therapy, suggesting that the therapy may have accelerated a neurodegenerative disease process that had already begun,” she added.

Researchers will next set out to determine whether the negative effects of hormone therapy on brain volumes continue over time through follow-up MRI studies of the women studied.

‘Over-the-counter pills won’t cut unwanted pregnancies’

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

Over the counter contraceptive pill will not reduce unwanted pregnancies, according to an expert.Sarah Jarvis from the Royal College of Physicians said that one of the main reasons behind the high rates of unintended teenage pregnancies in the UK is lack of daily compliance with taking oral contraceptives.

Previous studies have shown that nearly 50 per cent of all women taking the oral contraceptive pill miss one or more pills in each cycle, and nearly a quarter missed two or more.

These women are three times more likely to get pregnant unintentionally than those who take the pill consistently.

Jarvis said that the availability of emergency contraception without prescription has done little to change the rate of teenage pregnancies.

According to her, the solution lies in long acting reversible contraceptives such as the coil, or those, which can be placed under the skin or injected.

She added that they last between three months and three years, and because they are not dependent on patients taking them correctly, are much more reliable than oral contraceptives. “Increased uptake of reliable, non user-dependent methods, rather than making a potentially unreliable method of contraception more easily available, has to be the key,” the British Medical journal quoted her, as saying.

More than half of U.S. cyclists forgo helmets: report

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

More than half of Americans admit they never use a helmet while bicycling and more than a quarter skip the sunscreen, even when they are in the sun all day, according to Consumer Reports National Research Center.

A report released by the consumer group on Monday shows half also neglect to unplug appliances such as toasters — even though leaving them plugged in can cause fires.

The risks of cycling without a helmet are even higher — the group cited the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety as saying 92 percent of bicyclists killed in 2007 were not wearing helmets. Helmets reduce the risk of head injury by 85 percent.

Similarly, sunscreen can prevent skin cancer, which is by far the most common cause of cancer, although the two most common types are rarely deadly. The American Cancer Society estimated that more than 1 million new cases of basal and squamous cell cancers were diagnosed in 2008.

The survey of 1,000 Americans has a margin of error of about 3 percent. It found that 58 percent of Americans never used a helmet while cycling and 27 percent claimed they never used sunscreen.