Health is a unity and harmony within the mind, body and spirit which is unique to each person, and is as defined by that person. The level of wellness or health is, in part, determined by the ability to deal with and defend against stress. Health is determined by physiological, psychological, socio-cultural, spiritual, and developmental stage variables.
Sunshine could benefit health and prolong life, study suggests – Exposing skin to sunlight may help to reduce blood pressure, cut the risk of heart attack and stroke – and even prolong life. Researchers have shown that when our skin is exposed to the sun’s rays, a compound is released in our blood vessels that helps lower blood pressure.
High school athletes say concussions won’t sideline them — Survey of football players shows many would not report symptoms to a coach – Many high school football players say it’s OK to play with a concussion even though they know they are at risk of serious injury. The study of 120 high school football players in the Cincinnati area also found that one-quarter had suffered a concussion, and more than half acknowledged they would continue to play with symptoms of a concussion.
‘Lazy eye disorder — A promising new therapeutic approach – Popular puzzle video game Tetris is used in an innovative approach to treat adult amblyopia, commonly known as “lazy eye”. By distributing information between the two eyes in a complementary fashion, the video game trains both eyes to work together, which is counter to previous treatments for the disorder (e.g. patching).
Cholesterol increases risk of Alzheimer’s and heart disease – High levels of blood cholesterol increase the risk of both Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease, but it has been unclear exactly how cholesterol damages the brain to promote Alzheimer’s disease and blood vessels to promote atherosclerosis.
Ordinary skin cells morphed into functional brain cells — Scientists at CWRU School of Medicine discover new technique that holds promise for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy – Researchers at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine have discovered a technique that directly converts skin cells to the type of brain cells destroyed in patients with multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and other so-called myelin disorders.
NIH-supported study finds U.S. dementia care costs as high as $215 billion in 2010 — Formal and unpaid dementia care costs are tallied – The costs of caring for people with dementia in the United States in 2010 were between $159 billion to $215 billion, and those costs could rise dramatically with the increase in the numbers of older people in coming decades, according to estimates by researchers at RAND Corp. and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Issues Updated Sports Concussion Guideline: Athletes with Suspected Concussion Should Be Removed from Play – With more than one million athletes now experiencing a concussion each year in the United States, the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) has released an evidence-based guideline for evaluating and managing athletes with concussion. This new guideline replaces the 1997 AAN guideline on the same topic.
Use of certain therapies for inflammatory diseases does not appear to increase risk of shingles – Although patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have a disproportionately higher incidence of herpes zoster (shingles), an analysis that included nearly 60,000 patients with RA and other inflammatory diseases found that those who initiated anti-tumor necrosis factor therapies were not at higher risk of herpes zoster compared with patients who initiated nonbiologic treatment regimens.
Intermountain study finds length of DNA strands can predict life expectancy — Findings may help patients at risk – Can the length of strands of DNA in patients with heart disease predict their life expectancy? Researchers from the Intermountain Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City, who studied the DNA of more that 3,500 patients with heart disease, say yes it can.
Cleveland Clinic research shows anemia drug does not improve health of anemic heart failure patients — Phase 3 findings published in NEJM provide answers about treatment with darbepoetin alfa – Researchers from Cleveland Clinic and Sweden-based Sahlgrenska University Hospital have found that a commonly used drug to treat anemia in heart failure patients – darbepoetin alfa – does not improve patients’ health, nor does it reduce their risk of death from heart failure.
Cholesterol levels rise, fall with changing seasons — Shifts in metabolism, behaviors and other factors at work – Cholesterol levels seem to fluctuate significantly with the turning seasons, which may leave some people with borderline high cholesterol at greater cardiovascular risk during the winter months, showing heart attacks and heart-related deaths increase during the winter months.
Women are better at inductive reasoning: the ability to arrive at general principles from the study of detailed facts – Women may have smaller brains than men, but they are more efficient at completing a task. It has been a mystery for scientists and reasearchers why women show no difference in intelligence, although their brains are eight per cent smaller than men’s.
