Vote on healthcare reform stalled until September

As the debate over healthcare reform intensifies, news came from Washington that the vote on a new healthcare plan would be postponed until September. A Washington Post article suggests that both sides of the issue will have to draw up new media campaigns to win support during the next two months. Last Thursday, the Post says, the Obama Administration launched advertisements about "the cost of doing nothing" via the Democtratic National Committee, the article said. On the other side of the issue, the organization Americans for Prosperity is buying better than $1 million of advertisements on a national cable television station this week to criticize the Canadian-style health care the Obama Administration's plan would allegedly institute. The Obama camp's Organizing for America group also is expected to step up its e-mail campaign to seek support for the plan. The truth is we won't really know if a national health care plan works until it is up and running for several years. There are undeniable pros and cons of such a system, but with the economy shaky and unemployment rising, Americans may be too afraid of another big government program that further increases the deficit. On the other side of the argument, the longer we wait on healthcare the more those without coverage face sure financial ruin if a catastropic event strikes their families.

Aromatherapy and stress: It really is helpful to take time to smell the flowers

Taking time to smell the flowers may prove very helpful to lowering your stress levels. New research reports that certain fragrances, such as lemon, mango, and lavender, can alter gene activity and blood chemistry in ways that lower your stress levels. Japanese researchers studied rats who were given linalool, reporting that it returned stress-elevated levels of neutrophils and lymphocytes — key parts of the immune system — to near-normal levels. Inhaling linalool also reduced the activity of more than 100 genes that go into overdrive in stressful situations. The findings of this study could aid in the development of new blood tests for identifying fragrances that can soothe stress, the researchers say.

Two studies support benefits of healthy lifestyle for heart health

A lifestyle with healthy diet, exercise and other good health measures has genuine heart benefits, according to two new studies released this week and summarized in a Boston Globe article. The first study followed about 20,000 men with the average age of 52 for about 22 years. They report that men who exercised regularly , drank only moderate amounts of alcohol, did not smoke, and ate a diet that included breakfast cereal, fruits and vegetables and had a 1 in 10 risk of developing heart failure over their lifetimes. Men who adopted none of those practices had a 1 in 5 lifetime risk of heart failure. In the second study which examined women with hypertension, in a study about women and hypertension. researchers followed more than 83,000 healthy women for 14 years in the Nurses' Health Study. They were measured on how close they came to a normal weight, daily exercise, modest drinking, and a diet high in fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains but low in salt. They also took painkillers no more than once a week and took a folic acid supplement. Women who displayed all six "positive" health behaviors were 80 percent less likely to develop high blood pressure than women who followed none. Each behavior helped some, but having a normal weight made the greatest difference. It helped lower the risk of high blood pressure by 40 percent. Both research teams were from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Johns Hopkins and Mayo Clinic top new list of best U.S. hospitals

U.S. News & World Report released its list of the nation's best hospitals yesterday. Johns Hopkins, the Mayo Clinic and UCLA Medical Center topped the list. Johns Hopkins received the highest ratings for rheumatology, urology and ear, nose and throat specialties. The Cleveland Clinic, Massachusetts General, New York Presbyterian, the University of California/Sn Francisco Medical Center and the Hospital of the University of Pennsyvania also received high marks, while Barnes Jewish Hospital/Washington University and a tie between Brigham and Women's Hospital/Boston and Duke University Medical Center rounded out the top ten. U.S. News said it ranked hospitals in 16 specialties, from cancer and heart disease to respiratory disorders and urology. A total of 4,861 hospitals were examined for this 20th annual survey. According to the publication, only 174 hospitals scored high enough to be ranked in even one of the 16 specialties. Just21 qualified for th U.S. News Honor Roll by ranking at or near the top in at least six specialties.

Changes in white matter of brain may signal dementia

Older adults suffering from memory problems are more likely to later develop thinking problems if they show signs of growing "brain rust," or small areas of brain damage, according to a Science Daily article. The study was published in the July 14, 2009, print issue of Neurology®. After49 people who began the study with no memory problems were followed for 9.5 years, the researchers found 24 participants who developed cognitive impairment or other memory problems that are precursors to Alzheimer's or dementia. In participants with the fastest rate of growth in the amount of small areas of brain damage, or white matter hyperintensities, the researchers said they were more likely to see development of permanent thinking problems that in many cases led to dementia than those with a slow rate of growth in these types of brain lesions. For each cubic centimeter (less than a quarter of a teaspoon) increase in the amount of brain lesions in the participants, there was an associated 94 percent increased risk of developing cognitive impairment. That's an incredibly high risk factor...

More bad news for hormone replacement therapy

Ever since studies several years ago linked hormone replacement therapy to an increased risk of breast cancer, many women stopped taking the treatment, and coincidentally, breast cancer rates have consistently dropped each year. Now another study links HRT to an increased risk of ovarian cancer among women who have taken the therapy, compared with those who have never taken it. And this study has similar risk reduction when women stopped taking the treatments. The HRT group had an overall 38 percent increased risk of ovarian cancer, according to a Danish report that appears in the July 15 issue of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association). The research team at Copenhagen University notes that the risk of ovarian cancer declined with longer time since last HRT use, but the risk of ovarian cancer did not differ significantly regardless of particular formulations, regimens, types of progestin or routes of administration. So once again, it appears that HRT is linked to a type of cancer and that once women stop using it, the risk declines. The researchers caution that because ovarian cancer is often fatal, doctors and patients should weigh the benefits vs. the risks accordingly.

Mixed results for omega-3 fatty acid DHA in Alzheimer's study

Some health gurus have suggested that omega-3 fatty acids, commonly found in fatty fish, fish oil and in supplement form, can help ward off Alzheimer's disease (AD) but two new studies of DHA have returned mixed results, according to a release from the Alzheimer's Association. The results of the first study, conducted by the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS)and supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), did not find any benefit to taking DHA supplements in people with mild to moderate AD who took DHA for 18 months. Another study of DHA by Martek Biosciences had a positive result on one test of memory and learning, but that study was in healthy older adults, not people with AD or another dementia. The researchers presented data from both studies at the Alzheimer's Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna. Early detection could be the key to tackling AD and dementia. "These two studies – and other recent Alzheimer's therapy trials – raise the possibility that treatments for Alzheimer's must be given very early in the disease for them to be truly effective," said William Thies, PhD, Chief Medical & Scientific Officer at the Alzheimer's Association. "For that to happen, we need to get much better at early detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer's, in order to test therapies at earlier stages of the disease and enable earlier intervention." So, maybe older adults should start taking DHA as a preventive meaasure to keep their memories fine-tuned while they are still healthy, instead of waiting until they see the first signs of memory problems.

Perpetual diet may be the answer to longer life

Everyone knows someone who is on a perpetual diet and now new research suggests these folks who practice daily calorie reduction may be on a health track that prolongs their lives. At least that's what a study of rhesus monkeys on a restricted diet for decades has shown, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. In a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in a recent issue of the journal Science, results from primates showed that calorie restriction had the same benefits observed in mice, rats worms,and spiders. The researchers suggest that it might have the same effects in humans. The monkeys' risk of dying from cancer, heart disease and diabetes fell by more than two-thirds, according to the study.

"Mild caloric restriction is beneficial to everybody," Dr. Luigi Fontana, a medical professor at Washington University in St. Louis told the L.A. Times. Fontana examined people who have been practicing caloric restriction for an average of 6 1/2 years and said their heart function was equivalent to those of people 16 years younger. That's something to think about...breaking the bad habit of eating too much, too often, is the challenge facing most of us.

Rapamycin: Can it slow the aging process?

We all want to stay young and slow the natural aging process. A new drug found in South Pacific soil may eventually be the answer to many older adults' prayers. A study published in the journal Nature reports that rapamycin, a drug used in humans to prevent transplanted organ rejection, extended the lives of mice by up to 14% — even when the mice received the drug late in life. The one glitch in the findings is that rapamycin also suppresses the immune system and that could complicate its development as an anti-aging drug. Researchers are expected to continue studying the drug to see if they can separate the immune suppression from the anti-aging effect. One researcher who worked on the project said it might someday be possible to tweak rapamycin in this way, or to target the other molecules in the pathway instead. His lab is already working on these challenges.

Of mice, men and coffee...

I am returning to blogging after a few days vacation followed by the hospitalization of my mother...Will the reactions of little mice with induced Alzheimer's disease ring true for humans, too? A recent study fed the equivalent of 500 milligrams of caffeine to mice who had the same memory changes as those seen in Alzheimer's disease, according to a CBS News report and the San Francisco Chronicle. The researchers said the caffeine, roughly equivalent to five cups of coffee in humans, had a positive effect on memory and thinking actions over a two-month period. The brains of the mice receiving caffeine also showed a 50% reduction in the protein that contributes to dementia. This could mean that caffeine can reverse Alzheimer's progress, although more research is needed to obtain definitive results. The studies appeared in the July 5 online edition of the Journal of Alzheimer's Association.