Could melatonin help strength bone density?

elatonin help strength bone density

New insight into the relationship between circadian rhythms and bone degeneration could mean that hope for osteoporosis prevention may lie in an unlikely source: melatonin.

A study led by Faleh Tamimi, a professor at McGill’s School of Dentistry, found that supplemental doses of the naturally occurring hormone increased bone strength in elderly rats.
Well known to regulate circadian rhythms, melatonin may inhibit the activity of osteoclasts, nocturnal bone cells that spur the breakdown process.

“As we age, we sleep less well, which means that the osteoclasts are more active,” said Tamimi. “This tends to speed up the process of bone breakdown.”

In the study, 20 male rats that were 22 months old were given melatonin supplements diluted in their drinking water.

After 10 weeks – equivalent to approximately six human years — bone density and bone strength tests revealed increased volume and density in the test group and little difference in the control group.
Despite positive results, Tamimi said more testing is necessary to determine whether supplemental doses of the sleep hormone are preventing bone breakdown or reversing it.

“Until there is more research as well as clinical trials to determine how exactly the melatonin is working, we can’t recommend that people with osteoporosis go ahead and simply take melatonin supplements,” said Tamimi.

Melatonin is produced by the endocrine gland in the brain. Upon passage to receptor cells, it provokes sleep by lowering the body temperature. Considered a natural sleep aid, melatonin is available over-the-counter in North America, by means of prescription in several European countries and not at all in others.

Tamimi said she has applied for more funding to pursue the research.

Source: ctv news

Lower IQ in kids linked to mom’s exposure to flame retardants in pregnancy

Lower IQ in kids linked to mom's exposure to flame retardants in pregnancy

Debates over the toxicity of chemicals like lead and mercury have long been extinguished, but mounting research into flame retardant has ignited a deeper probe of man-made chemicals.

Learning deficits and decreased IQ in children has been linked to synthetic chemicals once commonly used in household items to prevent fire, according to a new study out of British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University.

The study, published online Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found a 4.5 drop in IQ and greater hyperactivity in five-year-olds was associated with their mother’s exposure to flame retardants during early pregnancy and after the babies were born.
The research joins five other international studies highlighting the potential dangers of polybrominated diphenyl ethers, known as PDBEs, which were once widely used in products like couches, carpets and car seats.

“Now we’ve seen this pattern of toxicity with low level environmental chemicals — lead, mercury, now fire retardants — let’s not do it again,” said SFU health sciences Prof. Bruce Lanphear, one of the study’s authors.

“Let’s set a regulatory framework in place to make sure these products, these chemicals, are safe before they’re marketed to children and pregnant women.”

The study started 10 years ago as realization donned that chemical compounds throughout the consumer market had little research answering questions about their safety. The researchers tested blood, urine and hair samples of 309 women and their children in Cincinnati, Ohio, starting from 16 weeks of pregnancy and until their children were five.

In 2004, manufacturers in the U.S. and Canada began voluntarily withdrawing PBDEs from their formulas, while further concerns over harmful effects on wildlife and mammals prompted a United Nations body to ban two of three commercial PBDEs in 2009.

Two problems, however, still persist. Many household goods produced over the past three decades remain in homes and offices with potential to leach toxins, while the industry is replacing the old synthetics with new without accompanying research.

“It’s not simply about the flame retardants,” Lanphear said. “If we replace them with a chemical that hasn’t been sufficiently studied and it turns out to be toxic, have we really solved the problem?”

But as the trend away from chemicals continues to grow in popularity, especially on the West Coast, the industry points out that safety was the original intention behind their inclusion in manufactured products.

“Flame retardants currently in commerce help save lives and provide an important layer of fire protection to families,” said Bryan Goodman, with the North American Flame Retardant Alliance, based in Washington, D.C.
He said in a statement that flame retardants, like all chemicals, are subject to review by the Environment Protection Agency and other regulatory agencies in the United States and around the world.

“It is still important to view the study with caution and consider the limitations of the research conducted when evaluating its conclusions,” he added.

Precaution is warranted, Lanphear said. Policy-makers should start by assuming chemicals have the potential to be toxic, and move to implement a system that scientifically examines their potential for consequence before manufacturer’s clearance, he advised.

In the short-term, expectant mothers and parents would be prudent to toss old furniture and tear up carpets in favour of wood surfaces that can easily be cleaned, he said. At least one new chemical is currently being used in the market to safeguard against flames, he noted.

The federal government has regulations in place aimed at insulating the country’s environment from risks associated with PBDEs, preventing their manufacture and restricting their use in Canada.

“These actions … will contribute to ensuring that the Canadian environment is protected and that Canadians’ exposure to these substances is minimized,” reads a statement on Environment Canada’s website.

Source: Ctv news

Raise your confidence and reduce anxiety in 2 minutes

depression

If you are nervous or anxious before important events,under a lot of stress or fearful, agitated etc… you probably have a problem with you’re levels of testosterone and cortisol. These two hormones are essential for your feelings and actions in stressful situations.

Testosterone has a strong anti-aging effect . He turns fat into muscle , keeps skin taut , increases bone density , gives us a positive mood , and enhances the ability to handle stress.

Testosterone is known as personality hormone. He gives us motivation , a sense of power, confidence, and heightened sexual energy. When we have a sufficient amount of testosterone in the blood we are ready to risk more and live our lives without delays.

On the other side,cortisol hormone has opposite effects and its secreted during physical and mental stress and greatly provokes anxiety in people making them impossible to operate efficiently.

When you have an important event usually testosterone level decreases and cortisol levels increase as a result of stress or pressure.It may be a first date,speech in front of many people, exam or any other important yet stressful event for you .

Imagine that you have a way to change this situation to your advantage and gain important confidence by lifting the level of testosterone and simultaneously reduce cortisol levels and in two minutes.

Source: Secretly healthy

Almond Milk

Almond Milk

Vegetable milk – healthy alternative to animal milk

Plant milks are becoming more prevalent in today’s diet, not just for people who are only using raw or vegan food, but for all the others who want a healthier alternative for normal milk.

Alternative milk is made from a variety of nuts, seeds and grains: almonds, hazelnuts, cashew nut, hemp, oats, coconut, etc.. The process is simple and almost the same for all of them.

Ingredients for almond milk:

– 0.2 pounds of almonds (not roasted and salt-free)
– optional sweetener (honey, maple syrup, agave syrup or 4-5 date palms)
– 3 pounds of water

*Almonds should stay in water at least 6 hours or overnight to soften, just enough to relieve their enzyme inhibitors to make them more easily digestible .

*Water should be changed several times to be fresh and that water should not be consumed.

Almond Milk 2

*After that peel the almonds (this takes about 30 minutes , so plan accordingly if you want the drink to be ready at a certain time) .

*Place the peeled almonds along with sweetener of your choice in blender and add 10 oz of water . Blend until you get creamy

mass.

*Then add the rest of the water and blend it a few minutes … and the milk is ready – enjoy !

Almond milk can be refrigerated in a glass bottle or jar , approximately 3 days .

* Enough for 6-8 cups

Source: secretly healthy

Immunotherapy for prostate cancer coming soon

immunotherapy-testicular-bw

A new treatment called Ipilumumab may soon be approved for people with advanced prostate cancer, according to an international study.

Previous research has shown that prostate cancer patients who are resistant to conventional treatments such as hormones and chemotherapy may benefit from the immunotherapeutic agent Ipilumumab. In the new study, scientists from the MedUni Vienna, examined whether the immunotherapeutic agent could treat prostate cancer in its advanced stages.

The results of the study, published in the journal The Lancet Oncology, were successful in that the Ipilumumab antibodies essentially disabled “inhibitors” and helped boost the body’s immune system. However, the researchers also noted that Ipilumumab will be a suitable treatment only for people with advanced prostate cancer who are in good general health. They explained that since the newly-boosted immune system can also attack the body’s own tissues, people who are in poor health overall may experience negative side effects.

Researchers are now conducting a follow-up study on patients with advanced prostate cancer who are in good overall health, which they expect to be completed in 2015.

Source: health central

Stress in relationships may raise risk of death

stressed relation

Worries, conflicts and demands in relationships with friends, family and neighbors may contribute to an earlier death suggests a new Danish study.

“Conflicts, especially, were associated with higher mortality risk regardless of whom was the source of the conflict,” the authors write. “Worries and demands were only associated with mortality risk if they were related to partner or children.”

Men and people without jobs seemed to be the most vulnerable, Rikke Lund, a public health researcher at the University of Copenhagen, and her colleagues found.

The health-protecting effects of support from a social network and close connections with family and friends are widely recognized, Lund’s team writes in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

“Less is known about the health consequences of stressful aspects of social relations, such as conflicts, worries and demands,” they write.

To examine the influence of relationship stress on all causes of death, the researchers looked at data from a long-term study in Denmark. They included 9,870 adults in their 30s, 40s and 50s when the study began and tracked their health from 2000 to the end of 2011.

The researchers measured stressful social relations by comparing answers to questions about who – including partners, children, relatives, friends and neighbors – caused worry and conflicts in the participants’ lives.

They also looked at answers to questions about emotional support and symptoms of depression.

During the study period, 4 percent of the women and 6 percent of the men died. Almost half the deaths were from cancer; other causes included cardiovascular disease, liver disease, accidents and suicide.

About one in every 10 participants said that their partner or children were always or often a source of demands and worries. Six percent said they always or often experienced conflicts with other members of their families and 2 percent reported always or often having conflicts with friends.

The researchers also found that 6 percent of participants had frequent arguments with their partner or children, 2 percent with other relatives and 1 percent with friends or neighbors.

Source: Standard media

Mental Illness Can Shorten Life Span as Much as Smoking

depressed-woman-400x400

Serious mental illness can take between seven and 24 years off a person’s life, which is similar to or worse than the impact of heavy smoking, researchers report.

“We found that many mental health diagnoses are associated with a drop in life expectancy as great as that associated with smoking 20 or more cigarettes a day,” Dr. Seena Fazel, of the department of psychiatry, at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, said in a university news release.

“There are likely to be many reasons for this. High-risk behaviors are common in psychiatric patients, especially drug and alcohol abuse, and they are more likely to die by suicide,” Fazel noted. “The stigma surrounding mental health may mean people aren’t treated as well for physical health problems when they do see a doctor.”

Fazel’s team examined 20 studies that looked at the link between mental illness and death rates. The studies included more than 1.7 million people, and 250,000 deaths.

The researchers found that major mental disorders can greatly shorten people’s lives. For example, the average life expectancy was 10 to 20 years shorter than normal for people with schizophrenia, 9 to 20 years shorter for those with bipolar disorder, 7 to 11 years shorter for those with recurrent depression, and 9 to 24 years shorter for people with drug and alcohol abuse.

By contrast, heavy smoking shortens life by an average of 8 to 10 years, the study authors noted.

Although this study found an association between mental illness and an increased risk of premature death, it did not prove that mental illness causes early death.

While mental illness appears to greatly increase the risk of premature death, it’s not a major public health priority, the researchers noted. One of the reasons is the tendency to separate mental and physical health.

“Many causes of mental health problems also have physical consequences, and mental illness worsens the prognosis of a range of physical illnesses, especially heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Unfortunately, people with serious mental illnesses may not access health care effectively,” Fazel said in the news release.

He and his colleagues said their findings should push governments and health officials to place a much higher priority on mental health.

Source: health

To Age Well, Walk

To Age Well, Walk

Regular exercise, including walking, significantly reduces the chance that a frail older person will become physically disabled, according to one of the largest and longest-running studies of its kind to date.

The results, published on Tuesday in the journal JAMA, reinforce the necessity of frequent physical activity for our aging parents, grandparents and, of course, ourselves.

While everyone knows that exercise is a good idea, whatever your age, the hard, scientific evidence about its benefits in the old and infirm has been surprisingly limited.

“For the first time, we have directly shown that exercise can effectively lessen or prevent the development of physical disability in a population of extremely vulnerable elderly people,” said Dr. Marco Pahor, the director of the Institute on Aging at the University of Florida in Gainesville and the lead author of the study.

Countless epidemiological studies have found a strong correlation between physical activity in advanced age and a longer, healthier life. But such studies can’t prove that exercise improves older people’s health, only that healthy older people exercise.

Other small-scale, randomized experiments have persuasively established a causal link between exercise and healthy aging. But the scope of these experiments has generally been narrow, showing, for instance, that older people can improve their muscle strength with weight training or their endurance capacity with walking.

So, for this latest study, the Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders, or LIFE, trial, scientists at eight universities and research centers around the country began recruiting volunteers in 2010, using an unusual set of selection criteria. Unlike many exercise studies, which tend to be filled with people in relatively robust health who can easily exercise, this trial used volunteers who were sedentary and infirm, and on the cusp of frailty.

Ultimately, they recruited 1,635 sedentary men and women aged 70 to 89 who scored below a nine on a 12-point scale of physical functioning often used to assess older people. Almost half scored an eight or lower, but all were able to walk on their own for 400 meters, or a quarter-mile, the researchers’ cutoff point for being physically disabled.

Then the men and women were randomly assigned to either an exercise or an education group.

Those in the education assignment were asked to visit the research center once a month or so to learn about nutrition, health care and other topics related to aging.

The exercise group received information about aging but also started a program of walking and light, lower-body weight training with ankle weights, going to the research center twice a week for supervised group walks on a track, with the walks growing progressively longer. They were also asked to complete three or four more exercise sessions at home, aiming for a total of 150 minutes of walking and about three 10-minute sessions of weight-training exercises each week.

Every six months, researchers checked the physical functioning of all of the volunteers, with particular attention to whether they could still walk 400 meters by themselves.

The experiment continued for an average of 2.6 years, which is far longer than most exercise studies.

By the end of that time, the exercising volunteers were about 18 percent less likely to have experienced any episode of physical disability during the experiment. They were also about 28 percent less likely to have become persistently, possibly permanently disabled, defined as being unable to walk those 400 meters by themselves.

Most of the volunteers “tolerated the exercise program very well,” Dr. Pahor said, but the results did raise some flags. More volunteers in the exercise group wound up hospitalized during the study than did the participants in the education group, possibly because their vital signs were checked far more often, the researchers say. The exercise regimen may also have “unmasked” underlying medical conditions, Dr. Pahor said, although he does not feel that the exercise itself led to hospital stays.

A subtler concern involves the surprisingly small difference, in absolute terms, in the number of people who became disabled in the two groups. About 35 percent of those in the education group had a period of physical disability during the study. But so did 30 percent of those in the exercise group.

“At first glance, those results are underwhelming,” said Dr. Lewis Lipsitz, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston, who was not involved with the study. “But then you have to look at the control group, which wasn’t really a control group at all.” That’s because in many cases the participants in the education group began to exercise, study data shows, although they were not asked to do so.

“It wouldn’t have been ethical” to keep them from exercise, Dr. Lipsitz continued. But if the scientists in the LIFE study “had been able to use a control group of completely sedentary older people with poor eating habits, the differences between the groups would be much more pronounced,” he said.

Over all, Dr. Lipsitz said, “it’s an important study because it focuses on an important outcome, which is the prevention of physical disability.”

In the coming months, Dr. Pahor and his colleagues plan to mine their database of results for additional followup, including a cost-benefit analysis.

The exercise intervention cost about $1,800 per participant per year, Dr. Pahor said, including reimbursement for travel to the research centers. But that figure is “considerably less” than the cost of full-time nursing care after someone becomes physically disabled, he said. He and his colleagues hope that the study prompts Medicare to begin covering the costs of group exercise programs for older people.

Dr. Pahor cautioned that the LIFE study is not meant to prompt elderly people to begin solo, unsupervised exercise. “Medical supervision is important,” he said. Talk with your doctor and try to find an exercise group, he said, adding, “The social aspect is important.”

Mildred Johnston, 82, a retired office worker in Gainesville who volunteered for the LIFE trial, has kept up weekly walks with two of the other volunteers she met during the study.

“Exercising has changed my whole aspect on what aging means,” she said. “It’s not about how much help you need from other people now. It’s more about what I can do for myself.” Besides, she said, gossiping during her group walks “really keeps you engaged with life.”

Source: new york times

When you need antibiotics – and when you don’t

When you need antibiotics

You’re sick. You’re not sure what it is, but you know you would really love for this achy feeling, stuffed up head, or painful cough to go away. So you go to the doctor — and demand drugs. If recent research is any indication, your physician will likely prescribe you an antibiotic, even if he or she knows it won’t make you better any faster.

“Research has shown that several common infections do not require antibiotics. Yet we continue to unnecessarily take them,” said Amanda Helberg, a physician assistant at Scott & White Lago Vista Clinic in Lago Vista, Texas. “This overuse of antibiotics has led to ‘superbugs,’ and now bacterial resistance is on the rise.”

A letter published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows doctors prescribe antibiotics for acute bronchitis approximately 70% of the time, despite decades of evidence demonstrating that these drugs don’t work against respiratory illness.

“Despite clear evidence, guidelines, quality measures and more than 15 years of educational efforts stating that the antibiotic prescribing rate should be zero … physicians continue to prescribe expensive, broad-spectrum antibiotics,” write Dr. Michael Barnett and Dr. Jeffrey Linder with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Save yourself some money at the doctor’s office by knowing which common ailments require antibiotics, and which ones don’t:

Cold and flu
Upper respiratory infections, better known as the common cold, and influenza are caused by viruses. Antibiotics only kill bacteria.
“Antibiotics are not needed and are of no benefit” for cold and flu, said Dr. John Joseph, a family medicine physician at Scott & White Killeen Clinic in Killeen, Texas.

The best way to prevent the flu is to get vaccinated every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you’ve already got it, talk to your doctor about taking an antiviral drug to speed your recovery.

Colds usually last seven to 10 days, Helberg said, and will go away on their own with plenty of rest and fluids. You can take over-the-counter medications to relieve some of the symptoms.

Bronchitis
As the journal letter mentions, “acute bronchitis in otherwise healthy adults does not need to be treated with antibiotics,” Joseph said. But there are exceptions. “Patients with complicating factors such as emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may receive antibiotics since these patients are more susceptible to developing secondary bacterial infections,” he said.

Ear infections
It’s probably best to let your doctor make the call on ear infections.
Ear infections can be caused by viruses or bacteria, and “the only definitive method for determining the cause of the ear infection is to puncture the eardrum and culture the fluid,” Joseph said. “In the U.S., most physicians treat with antibiotics instead of obtaining the culture.” Some doctors recommend first waiting to see if the infection clears up on its own, according to WebMD, but others worry that letting bacteria go untreated could do more damage.

Pneumonia
Pneumonia can be caused by a variety of things: bacteria, viruses and fungi, according to Mayo Clinic. Antibiotics will work if the doctor has identified the specific type of bacteria causing your infection. Antiviral medications can also be used to treat viral pneumonia.

Sinus Infection
Sinusitis is inflammation of the sinuses, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The infection can be bacterial, viral or fungal, or due to allergies. Most sinus infections are caused by viruses, Joseph said, and do not require antibiotics. Once again, there are exceptions.

Your doctor may prescribe antibiotics if the symptoms are severe and include high fever along with nasal drainage and a productive cough. Antibiotics may also be necessary if you feel better after a few days and then your symptoms return, or if the infection lasts more than a week.

Strep throat
Strep throat is a bacterial infection, and as such, antibiotics are required to fight it, Helberg said. But only a tiny portion of sore throats are actually strep throat, so make sure your doctor makes the right diagnosis based on a physical exam and lab test.

Bottom line
“Consult your doctor or physician assistant when you feel ill,” Helberg said. “Do not take leftover medication for a new infection, do not share antibiotics, and do not take antibiotics for a virus.”

Source: cnn news

Trust your doctor, not Wikipedia, say scientists

Trust your doctor, not Wikipedia,

Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, contains errors in nine out of 10 of its health entries, and should be treated with caution, a study has said.

Scientists in the US compared entries about conditions such as heart disease, lung cancer, depression and diabetes with peer-reviewed medical research.

They said most articles in Wikipedia contained “many errors”.

Wikimedia UK, its British arm, said it was “crucial” that people with health concerns spoke to their GP first.

Open-access ‘concerns’
The online encyclopaedia is a charity, and has 30 million articles in 285 languages.

It can be edited by anybody, but many volunteers from the medical profession check the pages for inaccuracies, said Wikimedia UK.

The open-access nature has “raised concern” among doctors about its reliability, as it is the sixth most popular site on the internet, the US authors of the research, published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, said.

Up to 70% of physicians and medical students use the tool, they say.

The 10 researchers across America looked at online articles for 10 of the “most costly” conditions in the US, including osteoarthritis, back problems and asthma.

They printed off the articles on 25 April 2012 to analyse, and discovered that 90% of the entries made statements that contradicted latest medical research.

Lead author Dr Robert Hasty, of the Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine in North Carolina, said: “While Wikipedia is a convenient tool for conducting research, from a public health standpoint patients should not use it as a primary resource because those articles do not go through the same peer-review process as medical journals.”

Dr Hasty added the “best resource” for people worried about their health was their doctor.

Contact GP ‘first’
Stevie Benton, at Wikimedia UK, said there were a “number of initiatives” in place to help improve the articles, “especially in relation to health and medicine”.

He said the charity had a project to bring together volunteer Wikipedia editors with a medical knowledge to identify articles that need improvement, find credible sources and make entries more “accurate and more readable”.

Mr Benton said Wikipedia was also working with Cancer Research UK to review cancer-related articles by clinical researchers and writers to keep them accurate and up-to-date.

But he added: “However, it is crucial that anybody with concerns over their health contacts their GP as a first point of call. Wikipedia, like any encyclopaedia, should not take the place of a qualified medical practitioner.”

Wikipedia also expressed concern at the small sample size used in the research, as it may not be representative.

The study did not account for Wikipedia leaving out important information.

Source: bbc news