Health

One of every two North American adults has high blood pressure, and only 40 percent of those taking medications have their hypertension well-controlled (Int...

Up to 70 percent of North American adults will develop diabetes or pre-diabetes, usually from insulin resistance caused by excess fat in the liver and muscles. Exercise helps to empty fat from the liver and muscles, so exercise helps both to prevent and to treat diabetes. A study of 6,718 diabetics, average age 58, followed from 4-96 weeks, found that exercise reduced HBA1c (a blood test that measures cell damage from high blood sugar levels). The more a diabetic exercised, the greater the reduction in HBA1c.

Having a fatty liver is associated with a marked increase in heart attacks and liver damage, even in people who are not overweight (Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol, 2017 Oct;15(10):1604-1611). Getting both obese and normal weight people to lose weight helps them to get fat out of their livers and markedly reduce their chances of being diabetic.

It is never too late to adopt a healthful lifestyle. Researchers followed the records of people over age 80 (61 percent women) for an average five years and found that those with the most healthful lifestyle (no smoking, regular exercise and varied diet) were most likely to live to be 100 years old, be free of chronic diseases, have higher physical and cognitive function, and have far less mental illness. Less likely lifestyle factors for living from age 80 to 100 were: where a person lived, years of education, marital status, having chronic medical conditions, u.sing alcohol or being obese. In this study, 1454 people lived to be 100 and 3768 died before reaching 100 years

Checking your own blood pressure several times a day may offer better blood pressure control than just taking occasional blood pressure measurements in a doctor's office.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men in the U.S. A study of 2062 men with an average age 65.0, diagnosed with localized prostate cancer and followed in 43 different urology practices, found that the men with cancer who ate the most plant-based foods had a 47 percent reduced chance of having their prostate cancer spread in 6.5 years, compared to men who ate the least plant-based foods

More than half of North American adults over 65 years of age suffer from osteoarthritis, and recent studies show that inflammation is involved. An inflammatory diet can increase joint damage as well as diabetes and premature death. A study of 3804 patients with osteoarthritis found that patients who ate a high-inflammatory diet died at a significantly younger age than those who ate an anti-inflammatory diet.

About 40 percent of U.S. households cook with gas stoves. A recent study reported that “12.7 percent of current childhood asthma in the US is attributable to gas stove use." However, the authors did not show that gas stoves cause asthma. They presented evidence that gas stoves emit gases such as nitrogen dioxide, that can worsen symptoms in people who have asthma. Any air pollutant can cause an asthmatic to cough, wheeze and become short of breath. These authors have not demonstrated cause-and-effect, they only found an association between gas stoves and asthmatic symptoms.

Dry skin on any part of the body can be annoying and can cause flaking and cracking, redness due to scratching, and unsightly patches of thick or hard skin. When dry skin occurs on the feet, the symptoms are magnified due to wearing shoes, the stretching of the skin on the feet with every step . . .

Many studies have shown that metformin helps to treat the life-shortening diseases that are the leading causes of death in North America today — diabetes, heart disease, several types of cancers, kidney disease, liver disease, obesity and others (Front Endocrinol, August 4, 2021;12). A review of 53 studies found that metformin is associated with a reduction of the death rate from these diseases, but at this time, metformin cannot be prescribed to slow aging because we do not have studies to show that metformin helps to prevent aging, not just symptoms of specific diseases. The TAME trial wants to change this by investigating whether metformin can delay aging overall, instead of just treating specific age-related diseases individually.

Up to 60 percent of North American adults suffer from night-time leg cramps, a sudden painful contraction usually of the calf muscles that can last from a few seconds up to 10 minutes or more. Doctors do not know what causes most cases of leg cramps, but usually they are not caused by dehydration or lack of minerals.

Most heart attacks are caused by clots, and aspirin helps to prevent clots, but taking aspirin to prevent clots may cause bleeding so it is not for everyone. • In 1988, a study reported an impressive 44 percent reduction in heart attacks in North American male physicians, aged 40-84, who took aspirin. As a result, by 2017, many people took aspirin with the belief that they were helping to prevent heart attacks.

A new study found that a two-year program of personalized instruction on specific lifestyle changes helped to delay and prevent loss of memory in a study group of 172 people who were at high risk for dementia (JAMA Intern Med, Jan 1, 2024;184(1):54-62). The modifiable risk factors identified for this study included hearing loss, high blood pressure, alcohol consumption, obesity, smoking, air pollution, depression, levels of physical activity and socialization, and diabetes control. People in the special instruction group had a 74 percent greater improvement in memory, compared to the group that did not receive regular and continuous special instruction.

Too much sun exposure can cause skin cancers, but getting small amounts of sunlight on your skin for short periods may have some benefits beyond providing vitamin D The problem is that nobody really knows how much sun exposure an individual can tolerate without increasing skin cancer risk.

Almost all skin cancers are caused by repeated damage to the DNA in skin cells from excessive exposure to sunlight. Every cell in your body is programmed to live for a limited time and then die. This is called apoptosis. For example, red blood cells live for only around 120 days and then die. A new skin cell starts on the inner bottom layer of your skin and then progressively moves to the outside, where it is sloughed off as dander or dandruff at about 28 days.

Human papilloma viruses (HPVs) can cause several types of cancer. There are 12 high-risk HPV types: HPV 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, and 59. Two of these, HPV 16 and HPV 18, are responsible for most HPV-related cancers.

A new position statement from the International Diabetes Federation says that a blood sugar level greater than 155 mg/dL (8.6 mmol/L) one hour after eating a meal means that a person should immediately be referred to a diabetes prevention center and instructed to follow all the lifestyle rules recommended for diabetics.

Dentists do not agree on whether it is better to brush before or after breakfast. I think you should brush after breakfast, but you should try to wait and brush at least 30 minutes after eating. If that doesn't fit into your schedule, do whatever works best for you. Any brushing is better than no brushing.

Virtually all doctors agree that exercise helps to keep you healthy and to prolong your life. People who exercise into later life live longer than non-exercisers and are at reduced risk for high blood pressure, heart attacks, premature death, diabetes, strokes and even some cancers (Circulation, July 25, 2022;146(7):523–534). Endurance bicycle racers who participated in the Tour de France from 1947 to 2012 have lived an average of five years longer than their countrymen. People who exercise regularly are far less likely to develop irregular heartbeats called atrial fibrillation.

The macula is located in the retina in the back of the eye and provides central vision, most of the color vision and the fine details of vision. Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is a chronic eye disorder. The earliest symptoms of macular degeneration are blurring of vision, distortion of vision (i.e. lines are no longer straight or letters seem bunched up) or areas of central vision that appear to be blackened, greyed or whited out.

Two recent breakthrough studies on controlling blood pressure found that frequent blood pressure variation between one doctor's appointment and the next is a major risk factor for heart attacks; and, in people with high blood pressure, reducing salt intake can lower their average blood pressure in as little as one week.

A study of 937 patients suggests that all cancer patients should follow heart-attack preventing lifestyle changes including a heart-healthy diet such as the Mediterranean, MIND or DASH diets (Presented at the American Heart Association Congress meeting in Philadelphia, November 2023). The study found that having a history of cancer increases heart attack risk and that having heart-attack risk factors is associated with increased cancer risk.

Sitting and lying without moving for long periods is a significant risk factor for dementia. In a recent study, almost 50,000 non-demented people in the UK, age 60 and older, wore wrist accelerometers 24 hours a day for a week to measure their levels of activity, and were then followed for almost seven years. By the end of the follow-up period, 414 of the participants had been diagnosed with dementia. Compared to sitting for a little over nine hours a day, those who spent 10 hours a day sitting or lying had an eight percent increased risk for becoming demented and those who spent 12 or more hours not moving had a 63 percent increased risk for becoming demented.

The Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS) followed 568 men with diabetes, pre-diabetes or metabolic syndrome. Erectile dysfunction (ED), inability to achieve and maintain an erection, was reported by 37 percent of men with diabetes and 41 percent of those with pre-diabetes.

A recent study found that that fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome may actually be the same diseases. It is easy to understand the similarity of the two conditions with different names. Both are characterized by extreme muscle fatigue and tiredness as if a person had just run a marathon, even though they walked only a few feet. Both also involve sleep and memory problems.

Having blood triglyceride levels above 150 mg/dL (1.7 mmol/L) puts you at increased risk for a heart attack, stroke, or heart valve disease, even if your blood cholesterol levels are normal (Eur Heart J, Dec 2021;42(47):4791-4806). About 10 percent of North Americans suffer from high triglyceride levels. High triglycerides are often found in people who are diabetic, obese or alcoholic.

Two studies were presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Studies (2023), showing that regular use of marijuana markedly increases risk for heart attacks and strokes in people with high blood pressure and/or high cholesterol (CNN Health, Nov 6, 2023). Marijuana increases risk for heart failure by about one-third, compared to people who reported never using marijuana.

All people can develop body odor when certain bacteria or fungi colonize on their skin. Normal sweat doesn’t smell when it first reaches your skin. The odor usually comes only after certain microbes on the skin’s surface break down the fat in sweat to form chemicals that smell. Most sweat glands produce sweat that contains no fat, but the sweat glands around the breasts, genitals and armpits produce sweat that contains fat.

A study from the UK examined the links between having a big belly, amount of physical activity and risk for a heart attack. The study followed 70,830 people, average age 61, for 6.8 years and in that time, 2795 suffered heart attacks. Among those people in the study group who had large bellies, those who jogged regularly for about 30 to 35 minutes per week had their heart attack rate reduced to the same level as people who did not have a big belly.

Statins may raise your blood sugar levels, but your doctor is still likely to recommended them if you have risk factors for heart attacks or strokes. Reviews of many studies show that statins can raise blood sugar levels, which increases risk for diabetes and cataracts, but they are so effective in helpi.ng to lower the bad LDL cholesterol and to prevent heart attacks that doctors should still prescribe them