- OK: One egg a day(maybe more).
- Good: Statin use, Word and number puzzles, Magnetic stimulation of the brain, Whole grains, Avocados, Nuts, Soy protein.
- Bad: Red and processed meat, Ultra-processed foods, A pathological obsession with healthy eating or consuming only healthy food, Drinking six or more coffees a day, Wearing tight-fitting jeans or pants four or more times a week, or removing hair from the mons pubis.
- Possibly bad: Grapefruit juice , Meditation, Sunscreen.
Walking and strength training may decrease the risk of dying from liver disease
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 15 hours ago
- Physical activity, including walking and muscle-strengthening activities, were associated with significantly reduced risk of cirrhosis-related death, according to research presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2019. Chronic liver disease is increasing, partly due to the obesity epidemic, and currently there are no guidelines for the optimal type of exercise for the prevention of cirrhosis-related mortality. Researchers hope these findings will help provide specific exercise recommendations for patients at risk for cirrhosis and its complications. "The benefit of exercise is n... more »
Fitness reduces risk of lung, colorectal cancer and increases survival likelihood after diagnosis
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 2 weeks ago
In a recent study, adults who were the most fit had the lowest risk of developing lung and colorectal cancer. Also, among individuals who developed lung or colorectal cancer, those who had high fitness levels before their cancer diagnosis were less likely to die compared with those who had low fitness levels. The findings are published early online in *CANCER*, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. There is limited data on the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and lung and colorectal cancer risk and mortality. To investigate, Catherine Handy Marshall,... more »
Medicine
Statin use associated with reduced risk of dementia after concussion in older adults
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 16 hours ago
JAMA Neurology *Bottom Line:* Concussion is a common brain injury. This observational study of nearly 29,000 adults (66 and older) diagnosed with concussion examined whether statin use was associated with risk of long-term dementia after a concussion. The analysis compared 7,058 patients who received a statin prescription in the 90 days after a concussion with 21,757 who didn't. After an average follow-up of four years, 4,727 patients developed dementia (1 in 6). The risk of dementia in older adults after concussion was substantial, and statin use was associated with modestly reduc... more »
Statins linked to lower risk of early death in patients with colorectal cancer
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
Use of statins before or after a diagnosis of colorectal cancer was linked with a lower risk of premature death, both from cancer and from other causes, in a *Cancer Medicine* analysis of published studies. The meta-analysis included 14 studies involving 130,994 patients with colorectal cancer. Pre-diagnosis statin use was linked with a 15 percent lower risk of dying early from any cause and an 18 percent lower risk of dying from cancer. Post-diagnosis statin use was linked with a 14 percent lower risk of all-cause death and a 21 percent lower risk of cancer-specific death. "Conside... more »
Men taking medications for enlarged prostate face delays in prostate cancer diagnosis
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 2 weeks ago
Men treated with medications for symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) experienced a two-year delay in diagnosis of their prostate cancer and were twice as likely to have advanced disease upon diagnosis, report University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers. Men who took drugs that inhibit the enzyme 5α-reductase, known as 5-ARIs, were diagnosed with prostate cancer 3.6 years after the first signs of elevated levels of a protein called prostate-specific antigen (PSA) compared to 1.4 years for men who did not use 5-ARI. The findings are published in the Ma... more »
Sunscreen
Does sunscreen compromise vitamin D levels?
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
Sunscreen can reduce the sun's adverse effects, but there are concerns that it might inhibit the body's production of vitamin D. In a new *British Journal of Dermatology*study, however, investigators recorded an increase of vitamin D in participants during a week of cloudless weather, with very high UV index, even when sunscreens were used properly and prevented sunburn. Sunlight contains UVA and UVB radiation, and the latter is essential for vitamin D synthesis. Two sunscreens with the same SPF were compared. Sunscreen with a high UVA protection factor enabled significantly high... more »
Absorption of sunscreen active ingredients into bloodstream
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 2 weeks ago
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends that active ingredients in sunscreen absorbed into the bloodstream above a certain level undergo toxicology testing. Researchers from the FDA conducted this small randomized clinical trial of 24 healthy volunteers to determine bloodstream concentrations of four active ingredients (avobenzone, oxybenzone, octocrylene and ecamsule) in four sunscreens applied four times per day for four days with blood samples collected from study participants over seven days. Researchers report that all four active ingredients were found in blood samp... more »
Diet
Dietary cholesterol or egg consumption do not increase the risk of stroke
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 16 hours ago
A new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows that a moderately high intake of dietary cholesterol or consumption of up to one egg per day is not associated with an elevated risk of stroke. Furthermore, no association was found in carriers of the APOE4 phenotype, which affects cholesterol metabolism and is remarkably common among the Finnish population. The findings were published in the *American Journal of Clinical Nutrition*. Findings from earlier studies addressing the association of dietary cholesterol or egg intake with the risk of stroke have been contradictory. S... more »
A substantial benefit from replacing steak with fish
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 4 days ago
*The average Dane will gain a health benefit from substituting part of the red and processed meat in their diet with fish, according to calculations from the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark. Men over 50 and women of childbearing age in particular would benefit from such a change in diet.* In a PhD study at the National Food Institute, Sofie Theresa Thomsen has developed a method to calculate the total health impact of replacing one food with another in the diet. The method has been used to assess the health impact that would be achieved by replacing red and ... more »
Heavily processed foods cause overeating and weight gain
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 4 days ago
People eating ultra-processed foods ate more calories and gained more weight than when they ate a minimally processed diet, according to results from a National Institutes of Health study. The difference occurred even though meals provided to the volunteers in both the ultra-processed and minimally processed diets had the same number of calories and macronutrients. The results were published in *Cell Metabolism (link is external)*. This small-scale study of 20 adult volunteers, conducted by researchers at the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (N... more »
Coffee addicts really do wake up and smell the coffee
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 6 days ago
Regular coffee drinkers can sniff out even tiny amounts of coffee and are faster at recognising the aroma, compared to non-coffee drinkers, new research has found. Habitual coffee drinkers are not just more sensitive to the odour of coffee and faster to identify it, but the more they craved coffee, the better their ability to smell it became. It is the first time evidence has been found to prove coffee addicts are more sensitive to the smell of coffee. The results could open the door to potential new ways of using aversion therapy to treat people addicted to substances with a dist... more »
When does clean eating become an unhealthy obsession?
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 6 days ago
Researchers at York University's Faculty of Health say those who have a history of an eating disorder, obsessive-compulsive traits, dieting, poor body image, and a drive for thinness are more likely to develop a pathological obsession with healthy eating or consuming only healthy food, known as orthorexia nervosa (ON). Although eating healthy is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, for some people this preoccupation with healthy eating can become physically and socially impairing. In the first exhaustive review of the psychosocial risk factors associated with orthorexia nervos... more »
Whole grain can contribute to health by changing intestinal serotonin production
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
Adults consuming whole grain rye have lower plasma serotonin levels than people eating low-fibre wheat bread, according to a recent study by the University of Eastern Finland and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). In the study, the consumption of cereal fibre from rye or wheat was also found to reduce serotonin levels in the colon of mice. In light of the results, the health benefits of whole grain cereals may be linked, at least in part, to the alteration of serotonin production in the intestines, where the majority of the body's serotonin is produced. The re... more »
Drinking six or more coffees a day can be detrimental to your health, increasing your risk of heart disease by up to 22 per cent
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
Latte, cappuccino or short black, a morning coffee is an essential for many people looking to kick start their day. But while the humble coffee may be a vital feature of the daily grind, how much is too much? While the pros and cons of drinking coffee have been debated for decades, new research from the University of South Australia reveals that drinking six or more coffees a day can be detrimental to your health, increasing your risk of heart disease by up to 22 per cent. In Australia, one in six people are affected by cardiovascular disease. It is a major cause of death with one p... more »
Following DASH diet can reduce heart failure risk in people under 75
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
A diet proven to have beneficial effects on high blood pressure also may reduce the risk of heart failure in people under age 75, according to a study led by researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine, part of Wake Forest Baptist Health. The observational study of more than 4,500 people showed that those individuals under 75 who most closely adhered to the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet had a significantly lower risk of developing heart failure than those whose eating habits were least in keeping with the diet. The research is published in the current onlin... more »
Avocados, as a substitution for carbohydrates, can suppress hunger without adding calories
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
A new study released by the Center for Nutrition Research at Illinois Institute of Technology suggests that meals that include fresh avocado as a substitute for refined carbohydrates can significantly suppress hunger and increase meal satisfaction in overweight and obese adults. As rates of obesity in the United States continue to rise, the findings from Illinois Tech suggest that simple dietary changes can have an important impact on managing hunger and aiding metabolic control. The new research, published in the peer-reviewed journal *Nutrients*, assessed the underlying physiologi... more »
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Grapefruit juice may impose risk on patients with long QT syndrome and should be avoided when taking QT-prolonging drugs
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
Grapefruit juice is already listed as a substance to avoid when taking QT-prolonging medications because it increases the toxicity of many drugs. Investigators have now confirmed the QT-prolonging effects of grapefruit juice in a new study and call for a stronger warning to patients who are taking QT-prolonging drugs or who have long QT syndrome because of the potential risk. They report their findings in *Heart*Rhythm, the official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society and the Cardiac Electrophysiology Society, published by Elsevier. There are over 200 medications that prolong the QT... more »
Maternal nut consumption during pregnancy linked to improvements in neurodevelopment in children
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
Nuts are known to help reduce the risk of hypertension, oxidative stress and diabetes and they may exercise a protective effect against cognitive decline in older age. To this list of beneficial health effects, we can now add new evidence from a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institute supported by "la Caixa". The study, published in the *European Journal of Epidemiology*, found links between a maternal diet rich in nuts during the first trimester of pregnancy and improved neurodevelopment in the child. The study was carried out in Spain and i... more »
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 2 weeks ago
Soy protein has the ability to lower cholesterol by a small but significant amount, suggests a new study led by St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) planning to remove soy from its list of heart healthy foods, researchers at St. Michael's set out to provide a meta-analysis of 46 existing trials that evaluated soy and determine whether the proposed move aligns with existing literature. Of the 46 trials, 43 provided sufficient data for meta-analysis. Forty-one trials examined the protein's effects on low-density lipoprotein (LDL) choleste... more »
Aging
Regular crosswords and number puzzles linked to sharper brain in later life
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 4 days ago
Older adults who regularly take part in word and number puzzles have sharper brains, according to the largest online study to date. The more regularly adults aged 50 and over played puzzles such as crosswords and Sudoku, the better their brain function, according to research in more than 19,000 participants, led by the University of Exeter and King's College London. The findings emerge from two linked papers published today (May 16th) in the *International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry*. The researchers have previously presented their findings on word puzzles at the Alzheimer's ... more »
Magnetic stimulation of the brain improves memory in younger and older adults
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 5 days ago
Magnetic stimulation of the brain improves working memory, offering a new potential avenue of therapy for individuals living with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, according to new research from the Duke University School of Medicine. Healthy younger and older adult participants who received a therapy called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) performed better on a memory task than during an rTMS-like placebo in the study, which was published here in *PLoS One*. "This study relies on highly individualized parameters, from the selection of the stimulat... more »
Good sleep quality and good mood lead to good working memory with age
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
A team of psychologists has found strong associations between working memory -- a fundamental building block of a functioning mind -- and three health-related factors: sleep, age, and depressed mood. The team also reports that each of these factors is associated with different aspects of working memory. Working memory is the part of short-term memory that temporarily stores and manages information required for cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehension. Working memory is critically involved in many higher cognitive functions, including intelligence, creative pro... more »
Physical and mental health of seniors linked to optimism, wisdom and loneliness
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
Ten thousand Baby Boomers turn 65 every day. By 2029, the entire generation born between 1946 and 1964 will be at least that old. What happens next concerns millions of Americans. Advancing age is broadly associated with declining cognitive, physical and mental health. In a new study of older adults living independently in a senior continuing care facility, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine analyzed how distinctive factors, such as wisdom, loneliness, income and sleep quality, impact -- for good and bad -- the physical and mental functioning of old... more »
Older adults with obesity may have fewer years of healthy life
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
A team of researchers at Duke-NUS Medical School found that older adults with obesity could expect fewer years of remaining life, at age 60, 70 and 80, with no limitation in physical function and no limitation in activities of daily living compared to individuals of normal weight. The results of this study are published in the *International Journal of Obesity*. Obesity is becoming increasingly prevalent among adults in many countries, especially those with aging populations. While some previous studies have reported that older adults with a heavier body mass index can expect to li... more »
Anger more harmful to health of older adults than sadness
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
Anger may be more harmful to an older person's physical health than sadness, potentially increasing inflammation, which is associated with such chronic illnesses as heart disease, arthritis and cancer, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. "As most people age, they simply cannot do the activities they once did, or they may experience the loss of a spouse or a decline in their physical mobility and they can become angry," said Meaghan A. Barlow, MA, of Concordia University, lead author of the study, which was published in *Psychology and Agin... more »
General Health
Feeling healthy: A good start, but not always a good indicator of heart disease risk
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 4 days ago
Most people feel they have a general idea of how healthy they are based on their diet and exercise regimen and how often they get sick. But a new study by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers adds to evidence that how healthy people think they are isn't always an accurate indicator of their risk for cardiovascular disease. In a study of medical information gathered on more than 6,800 people in the United States, the researchers found that 10% of those who rated themselves in excellent health had measurable evidence of cardiovascular disease without sympt...
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 6 days ago
Ever wonder how some people seem to meet their fitness goals with ease and love eating healthy foods while others constantly struggle to do either? According to a new study from the Communication Neuroscience Lab at the Annenberg School, people with stronger life purpose are more likely to accept messages promoting health behavior change than those with a weaker sense of purpose. And this might be because they experience less decisional conflict while considering health advice. "Purpose in life has been robustly associated with health in previous studies," says postdoctoral fellow Y... more »
Healthy habits could avoid 27% of cancer cases
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 6 days ago
Lifestyle risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, overweight and obesity, unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity are associated with a third of all deaths caused by 20 types of cancer in Brazil, according to a new epidemiological study. Published in the journal *Cancer Epidemiology*, the study shows that lifestyle risk factors account for 114,497 annual cases of cancer in Brazil, which represents 27% of all cancer cases, and 63,000 deaths, or 34% of cancer mortality. The study was conducted by researchers from the Preventive Medicine Department of the University of S... more »
Being wise is good for your health
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 6 days ago
*Can science measure what it means to be wise? A growing body of evidence suggests that wisdom is a complex concept that contributes to mental health and happiness, according to a review in the May/June issue of Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.* Different aspects of wisdom may be traced to specific areas of the brain, and might possibly be enhanced by behavioral interventions, suggests the article by Dilip V. Jeste, MD, and Ellen E. Lee, MD, of the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, University of Ca... more »
The death of a close friend hits harder than we think
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 6 days ago
The trauma caused by the death of a close friend endures four times longer than previously believed, according to new research from The Australian National University (ANU). The researchers warn a lack of recognition about the time it takes people to mourn a close friend is leading to inadequate support being made available during the grieving process. The study shows the death of a close friend will significantly affect a person's physical, psychological and social well-being up to at least four years. Previous studies suggested the grieving period las... more »
Older fathers put health of partners, unborn children at risk
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
Men who delay starting a family have a ticking "biological clock" -- just like women -- that may affect the health of their partners and children, according to Rutgers researchers. The study, which reviewed 40 years of research on the effect of parental age on fertility, pregnancy and the health of children, was published in the journal *Maturitas*. "While it is widely accepted that physiological changes that occur in women after 35 can affect conception, pregnancy and the health of the child, most men do not realize their advanced age can have a similar impact," said study autho... mor
Cancer screening rates decline when patients see doctors later in day
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
Compared to patients who see their primary care doctor earlier in the day, cancer screening rates decline significantly as the day goes on, according to a new study from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School both of the University of Pennsylvania. The researchers, whose findings were published today in *JAMA Network Open*, believe these rates of decline may be in part due to "decision fatigue" -- which results from the cumulative burden of screening discussions earlier in the day -- and doctors falling behind in their busy schedules. "Our findings sug..
Diabetes linked to numerous cancers in large Chinese study
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
A new *Journal of Diabetes* study from China, which has the highest number of people with diabetes among all countries, found that type 2 diabetes was linked with an elevated risk of 11 types of cancer in men and 13 types of cancer in women. The possible association between diabetes and cancer risk has long been speculated, but previously reported findings have been inconsistent. In the largest study to date concerning the association between type 2 diabetes and cancer risk in mainland China, investigators examined information from the Shanghai Hospital Link database. They identifie... more »
Meditation needs more research: Study finds 25% suffer unpleasant experiences
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
More than a quarter of people who regularly meditate have had a 'particularly unpleasant' psychological experience related to the practice, including feelings of fear and distorted emotions, a UCL-led study has found. The research, published in *PLOS ONE*, also found those who had attended a meditation retreat, those who only practiced deconstructive types of meditation, such as Vipassana (insight) and Koan practice (used in Zen Buddhism), and those with higher levels of repetitive negative thinking, were more likely to report a 'particularly unpleasant' meditation-related experi... more »
Tight pants and pubic-hair removal increase risk of vulvodynia
Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago
Risk of chronic vulva discomfort and pain nearly doubled by removing hair from mons pubis, or wearing tight-fitting jeans or pants four or more times a week. Vulvodynia is chronic, unexplained, and debilitating vulva pain, affecting an estimated 16 percent of women over their lifetimes. A new Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) study finds that the risk of vulvodynia is nearly doubled by wearing tight-fitting jeans or pants four or more times a week, or removing hair from the mons pubis. Published in the *Journal of Lower Genital Tract Disease*, it is the first study t... more »
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