Nearly 6 million older Americans fall each year-report
A survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that 5.8 million adults aged 65 and older fell at least once in 2006, and for 1.8 million of these individuals, the resulting injury required a doctor visit or restricted activity.
“The effect these injuries have on the quality of life of older adults and on the US healthcare system reinforces the need for broader uses of scientifically-proven fall-prevention interventions,” investigators emphasize in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for March 7. According to the report, one of the most effective interventions is exercise.
Weight loss common in stroke survivors
Many people lose weight after suffering a stroke, a finding that highlights the need for closer observation of nutritional status in stroke patients, the researchers say.
Loss of weight in stroke patients may be related to a variety of factors, including difficulty swallowing, depression, decreased food intake, and other neurologic deficits that contribute to eating difficulties, Dr. Ann-Cathrin Jonsson and colleagues from Lund University, Sweden, note in a report in the journal Stroke.
Depression, inactivity up teen girls’ fatigue risk
Anxiety and depression and an inactive lifestyle can herald the development of persistent and severe fatigue in teen girls, according to the first study to look at fatigue in adolescent girls over time.
Dr. Cobi J. Heijnen of University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands and colleagues found that one in four girls who reported being fatigued at the study’s outset were still fatigued one year later. “It’s a very constant phenomenon,” Heijnen told Reuters Health.
Strokes more common in springtime
Strokes occur more often in the spring than any other season, and the heightened risk is seen in men, women, young and old alike, new research suggests.
In a study of Japanese adults who had suffered a stroke between 1988 and 2001, researchers found that the risk of having a stroke in the spring was roughly one-quarter higher than it was in the summer.
US House OKs bill backing mental health coverage
A bill to require health insurers to provide the same level of coverage for mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction as for other ailments was passed on Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The White House made clear its opposition to the bill, saying it favored a less-expansive version passed unanimously by the Senate last September.
Known as mental health parity, the idea is making progress in Congress after a decade-long crusade by advocates for the mentally ill who say insurers can shortchange people with mental conditions ranging from depression to schizophrenia.
“Dirty Dancing” star Patrick Swayze has cancer
Actor and dancer Patrick Swayze, star of such hit films as “Dirty Dancing” and “Ghost,” has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer but is responding well to treatment, his publicist said on Wednesday.
The 55-year-old performer was working during his treatments, publicist Annett Wolf said, dismissing reports in the tabloid media that portrayed him in grave condition with only weeks to live.
Wolf issued a written statement from his physician, Dr. George Fisher that said: “Patrick has a very limited amount of disease and he appears to be responding well to treatment.”
Torrefacto-roasted coffee has higher antioxidant properties
Torrefacto-roasted coffee has higher antioxidant properties, according to a dissertation defended at the University of Navarra
Torrefacto-roasted coffee has higher antioxidant properties than natural roast, according to the dissertation defended by a biologist of the University of Navarra, Isabel López Galilea. She has emphasized in her study that the addition of sugar during the roasting process increases the development of compounds with high antioxidant activity.
The researcher of Department of Food Sciences, Physiology and Toxicology of the University of Navarra analyzed eleven varieties of commercial coffee for her study, which was entitled “The Influence of Torrefacto Roasting on the Principal Components of Coffee and its Antioxidant and Pro-oxidant Capacity.”
Quitting smoking—it’s never too late
Many people spend a lifetime trying to give up smoking, but there is good news for older smokers from research carried out at the Peninsula Medical School in South West England.
A study by Dr. Iain Lang and his colleagues has revealed that the point of retirement is one of the most effective times to try to give up smoking. The study followed 1712 smokers aged 50 years and older over a six-year period, taking into account their work status (whether an individual was working or retired) and smoking status (whether a non-smoker or smoker).
The research showed that a total of 42.5 per cent of those who had recently retired had quit smoking, compared with 29.3 per cent of those in employment and 30.2 per cent for those who were already retired. The results indicate those who undergo the transition into retirement are more likely to quit smoking than those who do not.
Depression, anxiety tied to unhealthy habits
Depression and anxiety are associated with obesity and poor health behaviors like smoking, drinking, and inactivity, new research indicates.
“Depression and anxiety are serious mental health conditions and without treatment may assume a chronic course,” Dr. Tara W. Strine who led the study told Reuters Health. “Given this, it is important to take depression and anxiety seriously and to seek medical care when needed.”
Strine, from the division of adult and community health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta and colleagues analyzed data from 217,379 U.S. adults who took part in the 2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System—a large telephone survey that monitors the prevalence of key health behaviors.
Cancer pill could affect women’s fertility - report
Long-term use of the cancer pill Gleevec may produce fertility problems in women, Greek doctors reported on Wednesday.
Chemotherapy and radiation have long been known to damage the fertility of patients, but little is known about more targeted drugs such as Gleevec, known generically as imatinib.
Dr. Constantinos Christopoulos of the Amalia Fleming General Hospital in Athens and colleagues reported on the case of a 30-year-old woman with chronic myeloid leukemia who stopped menstruating after two years of taking Gleevec, made by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.
