ALL ABOUT HEALTH -

17Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Crosswords Slow Memory Loss More Than Video Games

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People of a certain age are bombarded with ads for brain games promising to help keep their mind sharp. Now, a new study suggests that a pretty old-school pastime — the humble crossword puzzle — may actually be better for the aging brain than new-fangled video games.“This is the first study to document both short-term and longer-term benefits for home-based crossword puzzles training compared to another intervention,” lead study author Davangere Devanand, MD, a professor and director of geriatric psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City, said in a statement.“The results are important in light of difficulty in showing improvement with interventions in mild cognitive impairment,” Devanand said.Millions of Americans suffer from mild cognitive impairment, which occurs when a person has difficulty remembering, concentrating, learning new…

17Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Can Stopping Smoking Before Age 35 Wipe Out Health Risks Caused by Cigarettes?

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Cigarette smokers who stopped smoking by the age of 35 years old had mortality rates similar to those of never smokers during a given time period, according to a new study that included more than half a million Americans.If you're a smoker older than 35, don’t despair — the findings, published on October 24 in JAMA Network Open, reported significant benefits for quitting later in life, too.“If current smokers younger than 45 years old quit (the age group that smokes the most), they will reduce their risk of dying from any cause close to that of someone who never has smoked,” says Adam Goldstein, MD, MPH, a professor at UNC Family Medicine and the director of the tobacco intervention programs at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in…

17Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Chicken Patties Sold at Costco Recalled Because of Possible Plastic Contamination

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On October 29, 2022, Foster Farms recalled approximately 148,000 pounds of fully cooked frozen chicken patties that may be contaminated pieces of hard and potentially sharp plastic, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).These items were shipped to Costco distribution centers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah, and Washington, and may have been further distributed to Costco retail locations.The recall is classified as Class I high or medium risk, which the agency defines as having "a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death."So far, there have been no confirmed reports of injury associated with the chicken patties, but the agency believes the hard plastic pieces could be sharp and possibly cause injury.Anyone concerned about an injury or illness should contact a…

17Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Nearly 1 in 10 U.S. Adults Over 65 Has Dementia

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Almost 1 in 10 U.S. adults ages 65 and older have dementia, and another 22 percent have mild cognitive impairment (MCI), according to the first nationally representative study of cognitive impairment prevalence in more than 20 years.Researchers also found that people with MCI or dementia are more likely to be older, have lower levels of education, and to be Black or Hispanic. The findings were published on October 24 in JAMA Neurology.“Such data are critical for understanding the causes, costs, and consequences of dementia and mild cognitive impairment in the United States and for informing policies aimed at reducing their impact on patients, families, and public programs,” said lead study author Jennifer J. Manly, PhD, professor of neurology at the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute for Research…

17Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Can Nose-Picking Really Increase Your Alzheimer’s Disease Risk?

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Need another reason not to pick your nose or aggressively pluck hairs that can sprout in there? A new study in mice offers some preliminary evidence that these habits might indirectly help increase your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.The mouse study, published in Scientific Reports, found that Chlamydia pneumoniae bacteria can easily travel along a nerve running from the nasal cavity into the brain to infect the central nervous system in mice. When these bacteria invade the brain, it’s associated with a key marker of Alzheimer’s disease — the development of what’s known as amyloid beta protein deposits.“We’re the first to show that Chlamydia pneumoniae can go directly up the nose and into the brain, where it can set off pathologies that look like Alzheimer’s disease,” study coauthor James St John, PhD,…

16Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Pfizer’s RSV Vaccine Effective in Keeping Infants Out of Hospital in Phase 3 Trial

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Pfizer announced that its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine showed an efficacy of 82 percent against hospitalization in infants under 90 days old, and 69 percent among those younger than six months, according to a press release from the company.“This is potentially very exciting news,” says William Schaffner, MD, professor of medicine, in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, who was not involved in the vaccine’s development. “RSV is the leading cause of hospitalization in young infants — if we could reduce that by 70 percent, that would an enormous boon,” he says.The rise in RSV, flu, and COVID-19 cases in recent weeks have many experts worried that the United States could soon be dealing with a “tripledemic” of the respiratory viruses.RELATED: How Babies…

16Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Help for Midlife Sex Trouble: NAMS 2022

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New research presented at the North American Menopause Society (NAMS) Annual Meeting in Atlanta, held October 12–15, explored several issues related to the sex lives of midlife women.“Women’s sexual health, particularly in midlife, has been under-addressed,” says Stephanie S. Faubion, MD, the medical director of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS) and the director of the Office of Women’s Health at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.Identifying, understanding, and treating women’s sexual dysfunction is an important component of overall health and well-being, she says.Childhood Trauma and Midlife Sexual Dysfunction: What’s the Link?Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood, and can include violence, abuse, and growing up in a family with mental health or substance abuse problems.One in three children experiences at least one ACE,…

16Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Could Green-Light Eyeglasses Help Manage Anxiety About Fibromyalgia Pain?

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People with fibromyalgia who wore special green eyeglasses for several hours a day had less anxiety and used fewer opioids to manage chronic pain than people who didn’t wear the glasses, according to a new study presented at Anesthesiology 2022 conference, held in San Francisco October 13–17.“Our research found that certain wavelengths of green light stimulate the pathways in the brain that help manage pain,” said the lead author, Padma Gulur, MD, the executive vice chair of Duke Anesthesiology and Duke Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in a press release. “There is an urgent need for additional treatments to reduce the use of opioids among patients with fibromyalgia and other types of chronic pain, and green eyeglasses could provide an easy-to-use, nondrug option,” she said.4 Million U.S. Adults Have FibromyalgiaIt’s estimated…

16Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Hormone Therapy Works for Hot Flashes, Not Disease Prevention — the Distinction Is Important

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On November 1, experts at the U.S Preventive Services Task Force issued its newest recommendations against using menopausal hormone therapy (MHT), in the hopes of preventing chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer.It was the fifth update with the same advice on the topic of women in menopause potentially using estrogen (with or without a progestin) to stave off long-term disease.This recommendation angered scientists from the University of California in San Francisco — not because it was incorrect, but because it was misplaced. The same day they published an editorial in the prestigious journal JAMA decrying this focus on chronic disease prevention because of the confusion it causes women.The USPSTF conclusion that “the use of combined estrogen and progestin for the primary prevention of chronic conditions in postmenopausal persons with…

16Feb 2023 by Janice Holland

Alcohol Responsible For 1 in 5 Deaths in Young Adults Before Pandemic

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Alcohol use spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic as the stressors of daily life and the absence of regular school and work routines drove many people to drink more than they had before. Now, however, a new study of alcohol-related deaths suggests that excessive drinking was a growing problem even before the pandemic hit.Roughly 1 in 8 deaths among U.S. adults 20 to 64 years old were due to excessive drinking over the five-year period ending in 2019, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During this same time frame, drinking caused about 1 in 5 deaths among younger adults 20 to 49 years old.Several policy changes including higher alcohol taxes, tighter regulation of alcohol sales, and expanded screening and treatment for alcohol misuse…