My Doctor Won’t Listen to Me
The best doctors sit down, relax, and listen to the patient’s story. The doctor patient visit is all about the patient. Robert Centor, MD, Professor and Associate Dean of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA, comments on a recent Archives of Internal Medicine article, “Physician self-disclosure in primary care visits: enough about […]
Depression During Pregnancy Regaining Control – Part 7
Depression During Pregnancy: Consequences of Becoming the best mom that I can – Re-grounding self and regaining control. Re-grounding self and regaining control describes the consequences of the strategies undertaken in confining the threat. All women had undergone counseling; ten took antidepressant medication during pregnancy, five commenced antidepressant medication within two months of delivering, and […]
The Atkins Low Carbohydrate Diet: Does It Work?
The Atkins low carbohydrate diet is the diet that promotes weight loss through the consumption of foods low in carbohydrates and quite high in fat and protein contents, but not necessarily low in calories. It was the brain-child of Dr. R. C. Atkins who claimed that it would initiate a greater weight loss than a […]
Alcohol’s Effect on Heart Disease Risk
Alcohol’s Effect on Heart Disease Risk – Frequency of Light-to-Moderate Drinking Reduces Heart Disease Risk in Men. A 12-year study of 38,077 male health professionals found that men who drank alcohol three or more days per week had a reduced risk of heart attack compared with men who drank less frequently. Men who drank less […]
Diabetes Health News 16 May 2008
Not All Fat Created EqualIt has long been known that type 2 diabetes is linked to obesity, particularly fat inside the belly. Now, researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have found that fat from other areas of the body can actually reduce insulin resistance and improve insulin sensitivity. In a study published in the May […]
Causes of Memory Loss – Low Folate Levels
High homocysteine levels and low folate levels cause memory loss. The B vitamin folate may help reduce memory loss according to data from a recent nationwide health and nutrition survey, NHANES III. Researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, Mass., were looking for a relationship […]
ADHD Stimulant Medications – Heart Attack, Strokes and Mental Problems
ADHD Stimulant medications increase stroke and heart attack risks and risks of adverse mental symptoms. On February 21, 2007, the FDA directed the manufacturers of all ADHD stimulant medications approved for the treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to develop Patient Medication Guides to alert patients to possible cardiovascular risks and risks of adverse […]
Trans Fats Increase LDL Cholesterol Levels
Research conducted by scientists at the Beltsville (Maryland) Human Nutrition Research Center (BHNRC) contributed to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans including recommendations that people in the United States limit their intake of fats and oils that are high in trans fatty acids. Joseph Judd (now retired), and nutritionist Beverly A. Clevidence, and colleagues fed […]
When Weight Loss Diets Don’t Work, Adopt a Healthy Lifestyle Instead
The “Every Size” strategy, a health-centered rather than weight-centered program, may help chronic dieters reshape their thinking, shed unhealthy habits, adopt new patterns of eating, become more physically active, and increase their self-esteem. That’s according to Nancy L. Keim, a chemist with ARS. “Chronic dieters are those who either have failed at a sequence of […]
High Homocysteine Levels and Heart Disease
High levels of homocysteine are strongly associated with heart disease. Cholesterol isn’t the only blood component associated with the risk of heart disease and stroke. Since the early 1990s, the amino acid homocysteine-a byproduct of amino acid metabolism-has emerged as another important risk factor. Researchers believe that when body cells dump too much homocysteine into […]
Menopause: Hormone Replacement Therapy and NSAIDs
There is currently a great deal of uncertainty regarding the effect of hormone replacement therapy on heart disease in women subsequent to menopause. Premenopausal women are much less likely to experience heart attacks and strokes than men, a difference that does not exist between postmenopausal women and men. One mechanism that might explain these observations […]
COPD Awareness and Neglect
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major and increasing global health epidemic that has received insufficient attention from the health-care profession, governments, and the pharmaceutical industry. Urgent action is now required to recognise COPD, predicted to soon become one of the major causes of death and disability, and to develop more effective prevention and […]
Coenzyme Q10: Exercise Duration Is Increased
Coenzyme Q10 appears to increase the duration of exercise to exhaustion in healthy untrained and trained individuals. Coenzyme Q10 is a vitamin like, fat-soluble substance existing in all cells. Coenzyme Q10 acts as an essential antioxidant and supports the regeneration of other antioxidants. Coenzyme Q10 has been used as a supplementary treatment for chronic diseases […]
Homocysteine Levels: What Lowers Homocysteine Levels Effectively and Safely?
In people who have dramatically elevated levels of homocysteine, different food supplements have been shown to bring down homocysteine levels and to reduce the risk of heart disease and strokes. A link between high levels of homocysteine, a sulfur-containing amino acid, and heart disease was first suggested in the 1960s, when it became clear that […]
Heart Health and Healthy Eating Habits
The health consequences of eating one large meal a day compared with eating three meals a day has not been established. Now two recently published journal articles are among the first to report the effects of meal skipping on key health outcomes, based on a study involving a group of normal-weight, middle-aged adults. For the […]
Dealing With Depression During Pregnancy – Part 6
Whether or not to take antidepressants drugs was a difficult decision. Stage 2. Gaining knowledge. Hearing the diagnosis.Receiving a definitive diagnosis, while difficult for some women, created a sense of relief and hope, and was a turning point for the women: it signified an identifiable, manageable disorder, justified and explained how they were feeling, and […]
Foods High in Antioxidants
We’ve all read about the foods high in antioxidants but few studies have been aimed at investigating how well our bodies use these antioxidant-rich foods, and whether or not their ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) scores really translate into practical, disease-fighting capabilities in humans. The ORAC method, which was developed and refined by ARS scientists, […]
Foods That Lower Cholesterol, Triglycerides and Prevent Cancer – Muscadine Grapes
Muscadine grapes are a natural food source for lowering both total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, blood pressure, triglycerides and also protects against coronary heart disease, gastrointestinal diseases, and colon cancer. Research conducted by ARS horticulturist James B. Magee and Mississippi State nutritionist Betty J. Ector predicts that the muscadine will not only be […]
Natural Remedies for ADHD Children – Zinc
Most notable among ADHD studies are the ones particularly examining the relation between zinc and ADHD. Indeed, zinc is basic for the production and modulation of melatonin, which helps regulate dopamine function, supposed to be an important factor in ADHD and its treatment. Therefore, ADHD children with zinc deficiency might benefit from a change in […]
How Drug Reps Make Friends and Influence Doctors
Table 1. Tactics for Manipulating Physicians Click image to enlarge (Will open in a new window). Table 1. Continued Click image to enlarge (Will open in a new window).
A Natural Remedy for Depression – Alleviating Sleep Apnea?
Could correcting sleep apnea remedy depression? Studies link sleep apnea and depression, therefore the correction of sleep apnea may be a remedy for depression. For more than twenty years studies have suggested the existence of a relationship between depression and obstructive sleep apnea in the general population. A researcher at Stanford University found that in […]
Planting Information Muscadine Grapes
Information on planting muscadine grape vines, pests and diseases and potential alternative markets for growers. They were as wild and untamed as the land they covered. In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh described them as being “on the sand and on the green soil, on the hills as on the plains, as well as on every […]