Lesbians at higher risk for obesity: study
Lesbians are twice as likely as heterosexual women to be overweight or obese, which puts them at greater risk for obesity-related health problems and death, U.S. researchers said.
The report, published in the American Journal of Public Health, is one of the first large studies to look at obesity among lesbians.
Emotional health often strong after breast cancer
Most older women who survive breast cancer maintain their emotional well-being, though some are at greater risk of a change for the worse, a new study suggests.
Researchers found among a large group of older women they followed for 5 years after breast cancer surgery that the majority showed little change in various measures of emotional health. Some, however, were more likely to suffer a decline—including women who’d initially believed they wouldn’t be cured.
Aspirin doesn’t preserve older women’s memory
Among healthy older women, low-dose aspirin does little to prevent or delay mental decline over the following decade, according to analysis of data from the Women’s Health Study.
“Because aspirin protects cardiovascular health, we thought it would also protect against cognitive decline,” Dr. Jae Hee Kang from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital told Reuters Health. But trials to establish this association have yielded inconsistent results.
Help comes in the mail for drinkers
Mailing a simple information pamphlet to interested drinkers in the general population reduced binge drinking by 10 per cent, and is a promising public health approach to reduce the health and social problems associated with heavy drinking, shows a new study led by the University of Alberta.
Brief interventions to help people change their alcohol use have long been recognized as a potentially useful strategy, but past research in this area has focused on college students, problem drinkers screened in clinics and hospitals or people seeking specialized counselling and alcohol rehabilitation treatment.
Rheumatoid arthritis and the impact of genetic factors on mortality
Study associates DRB1 shared epitope genotypes with increased risk of death from heart disease or cancer in rheumatoid arthritis patients
A chronic autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is marked by inflammation that takes a progressive toll on not only the joints, but also various organs and the whole body. RA sufferers, as many studies have shown, tend to face a high risk for early death, increasing with the severity of their symptoms. The most prevalent cause of death among RA patients is cardiovascular disease. As in the general population, classic factors such as age, hypertension, diabetes, and smoking have been implicated in the RA death rate. Little is known, however, about the specific influence of genetic factors on mortality.
