Therapist Unlimited Blog

 

 

 

Those persons seeking to use aspirin as prevention against cardiovascular disease better abandon the plan now.
A recent medical research has uncovered that the use of low-dose aspirin to ward off heart attacks and strokes in those yet to develop obvious cardiovascular disease can cause serious medical complications.
In the medical world, low-dose aspirin is widely used to prevent further episodes of cardiovascular disease in people who have already had problems such as a heart attack or stroke.
This method known as secondary prevention is well established and of confirmed benefit.
But it is the use of aspirin in primary prevention for those without symptoms, who have not yet had, for example, a heart attack or stroke, but who may be at risk of doing so, following an analysis of the available evidence.
In 2000, cardiovascular disease accounted for two million deaths across the European Union alone, and "worldwide, many people take aspirin every day in the belief that doing so helps prevent cardiovascular disease," says the researchers.

 

 

 

Aspirin could be fatal if not used properly.

 

 

 

The researchers points to various guidelines issued between 2005 and 2008 that recommend aspirin for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in various groups of patients. Examples include people aged 50 and older with type 2 diabetes and those with high blood pressure.
But the team explained that the current evidence does not back up the routine use of low-dose aspirin in such groups, because of the potential risk of serious gastrointestinal bleeds that accompany its use and the negligible impact it has on curbing death rates.
Doctors should review all patients currently taking low-dose aspirin for primary prevention, either as prescribed or over-the-counter treatment, says the research team.
"And the decision about whether to continue or stop treatment should be made only after fully informing patients of the available evidence", they added.
"Furthermore,  the researchers concluded that current evidence for primary prevention suggests the benefits and harms of aspirin in this setting may be more finely balanced than previously thought, even in individuals estimated to be at high risk of experiencing cardiovascular events, including those with diabetes or elevated blood pressure.
The researchers believe, that low dose aspirin prophylaxis should not be routinely used for primary prevention.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drinking too much liquor might be bad for the health but for some instances it is not that harmful.
A recent medical study has shown that drunk patients have better chances of surviving trauma injuries than their sober counterparts.
According to the report, trauma patients who were intoxicated before their injuries were more likely to survive than trauma patients who suffered similar injuries but were sober at
the time.
To get the result, researchers at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed) surveyed 7,985 trauma patients of similar age and with similar injuries to determine if the consumption of alcohol prior to injury affected
outcome.
Based on their study they discovered that 7 percent of the sober patients died compared to just 1 percent of the patients who had been drinking.

 

 

 

Getting drunk is not that all bad after-all.

 

 

 

"This study is not encouraging the use of alcohol," said Christian de Virgilio, MD, LA BioMed’s principal investigator for the study. "It is seeking to
further explore earlier studies that had found alcohol may improve the body’s response to severe injuries. If alcohol is proven to improve the body’s
response to traumatic injury, it could lead to treatments that help patients survive and recover more quickly."
Alcohol consumption is already known to be one of the leading causes of accident and injury, with a previous study finding it contributes to about
one-third of all trauma-related deaths. Previous studies found trauma patients who had abused alcohol for a long period of time had lower survival rates.
But recent studies also found alcohol consumption may protect against death by changing the chemical response to injury.
"This study adds further support to the possibility that alcohol could be altering the body’s response to injury in a way that helps ensure survival," said
Dr. de Virgilio. "Given these findings, more research is needed to determine if there is some role for alcohol in the management of trauma patients.

Cellular phones had more uses aside from communication.
A recent medical study has uncovered that cellular phones could be use to help chain smokers kick their unhealthy habit.
A team of experts lead by Robyn Whittaker, a public health physician at the University of Auckland,  recently conducted four studies: two of text-message only programs and two that used the Internet along with mobile phones to keep up a stream of stop-smoking support.
"It makes a lot of sense," Whittaker said. "Mobiles are well-integrated in daily lives. The programs are using what’s in daily life rather than making people come into a clinic. They’re more proactive, delivering directly to people wherever they are."
Studies included about 2,600 smokers of all ages. After pooling study data, reviewers found that participants in text-message programs were about twice as likely not to smoke after six weeks as smokers in control groups.
People in mixed-media programs cell phone plus Web were significantly more likely to hang in there for at least six months after their chosen quit date.
"Say people are out with friends and feeling really strong cravings. They can text the word ‘crave’ directly into the program and they can get a message with suggestions for techniques to get through the cravings or other things to do to distract them such as listen to music or take a walk around the block," Whittaker said.

 

 

 

Smokers seeking to quit their habit can find solace and help from their own cellular phone.
 

 

 

Studies measured quitting success by self-report and in some cases by testing saliva samples for signs of nicotine. However, not enough people provided saliva samples to make meaningful conclusions based on those.
Two studies conducted in Norway combined e-mail contacts, a Web page and text messages. In the other studies, which took place in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, participants received a barrage of up to six messages daily for a month after their quit date and less frequent messages for up to six months.
""The text messages obviously have to be very brief, to the point; they use a lot of abbreviation but not a lot of texting lingo," Whittaker said. "Motivational messages remind people why they want to quit. Positive reinforcement message tell them they’re doing really well, that they got themselves through the day or week without a cigarette, and to keep up the good work."
Messages can be "personalized and tailored to a certain extent to include information about issues of particular concern to that person, like putting on weight when quitting," Whittaker said.
"However, a lot of information is applicable to most people."
"The problem is that it is not individualized. These are generic messages to help people not use tobacco," said Rebecca Schane, M.D., an internist and pulmonologist with the Center for Tobacco Control Research at the University of California at San Francisco. "
"It is mobile contact but not actual human contact."
"This type of intervention can’t stand alone or substitute for physician visits in any way, shape or form," said Schane, has no affiliation with the review but is familiar with the findings.
"Quitting affects other aspects of people’s health. If they have high blood pressure and they quit, their blood pressure decreases. You need to incorporate that in their treatment," Schane said.
People need a personal touch, she said: "It helps when a physician is in your corner. When you know the physician believes this is a worthwhile step in your life, you’re more likely to do better in quitting."
"For a certain proportion of the population, that’s probably right," Whittaker said, "but a certain proportion prefer not to do face-to-face interventions. Particularly, a lot of young adults preferred something confidential and anonymous."
Both Whittaker and Schane say that quitting is extremely difficult and most people will make several efforts before finding success.
"I’m glad the reviewers are trying to identify new ways to help people quit," Schane said. "What’s out there is relatively stagnant. The protocol hasn’t changed in years. But smokers are changing and our care needs to change. We’re in a bit of a rut; if this study brings to the forefront the idea that there are other ways we can treat smokers, that’s great."

 

 

 

Patients suffering from diabetes had reasons to be happy these days.
A recent medical study has shown that grapes had some substance that could help prevent and cure diabetes.
According to the research, a naturally produced molecule called resveratrol, found in the skin of red grapes, has been shown to lower insulin levels in mice when injected directly into the brain, even when the animals ate a high-fat diet.
The study s from a new UT Southwestern Medical Center study suggest that when acting directly on certain proteins in the brain, resveratrol may offer some protection against diabetes. Prior research has shown that the compound exerts anti-diabetic actions when given orally to animals with type 2 diabetes (non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus), but it has been unclear which tissues in the body mediated these effects.
Dr. Roberto Coppari, assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern explained their research shows that the brain plays an important role in mediating resveratrol’s anti-diabetic actions, and it does so independent of changes in food intake and body weight.
Coppari added these animals were overrun with fat and many of their organs were inflamed.
He said  when we delivered resveratrol in the brain, it alleviated inflammation in the brain.
He revealed the main reason is that resveratrol does not cross the blood brain barrier efficiently.
"In order for the brain to accumulate the same dose of resveratrol delivered in our study, the amounts of red wine needed daily would surely cause deleterious effects,especially in the liver," Coppari said.
Coppari said their study points out that resveratrol’s analogs that selectively target the brain may help in the fight against diet-induced diabetes."

 

 

 

 

A latest medical study has shown that grapes could help prevent and cure diabetes.
 

 

 

For the study, the researchers investigated what happens when resveratrol acts only in the brain. Specifically, they wanted to know whether resveratrol injected in the brain activated a group of proteins called sirtuins, which are found throughout the body and thought to underlie many of the beneficial effects of calorie restriction. Previous animal research has shown that when these proteins are activated by resveratrol, diabetes is improved. In addition, drugs activating sirtuins currently are being tested as anti-diabetic medications in human trials, Coppari said.
In one group of animals, researchers injected resveratrol directly into the brain; another group received a saline-based placebo. All the surgically treated animals consumed a high-fat diet before and after the surgery.
Coppari said the insulin levels of the animals treated with the placebo solution rose increasingly higher post-surgery. "That’s a normal outcome because insulin sensitivity decreases the longer you keep an animal on a high-fat diet."
Insulin levels in the mice given resveratrol, however, actually started to drop and were halfway to normal by the end of the five-week study period, even though the animals remained on a high-fat diet.
In addition, the researchers found that resveratrol did indeed activate sirtuin proteins in the brain.
Coppari said the findings support his team’s theory that the brain plays a vital role in mediating the beneficial effects of resveratrol and that manipulation of brain sirtuins also may have other beneficial outcomes. "By knowing that the central nervous system is
involved, pharmaceutical companies can begin to focus on developing drugs that selectively target sirtuins in the brain," he said.
The next step, Coppari said, is to determine precisely which neurons in the brain are mediating the effects of the resveratrol.
Other UT Southwestern researchers involved in the study include Drs. Giorgio Ramadori, Laurent Gautron and Teppei Fujikawa, postdoctoral researchers in internal medicine; Dr. Claudia Vianna, instructor of internal medicine; and Dr. Joel Elmquist, professor of internal medicine and director of the Center for Hypothalamic Research at UT Southwestern.
The study was supported by the American Heart Association, National Institutes of Health and the American Diabetes Association.

 

 

 

MEDICAL researchers has recently discovered that having their own pets at home or work offers huge health rewards to humans.
According to the study, having a four-legged, furry pet can lower blood pressure, encourages exercise, and improves psychological health.
Researchers from the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction (ReCHAI) conducted the recent study to gather new evidence on the positive impact pets have in the lives of humans.
Rebecca Johnson, associate professor in the MU Sinclair School of Nursing, the College of Veterinary Medicine and director of ReCHAI explained pets are of great importance to people, especially during hard economic times.
Johnson said pets provide unconditional love and acceptance and may be part of answers to societal problems, such as inactivity and obesity.

 

 

Having pets is beneficial to humans.

 

ReCHAI sponsors several projects that attempt to further the understanding and value of the relationship between humans and animals. In 2008, ReCHAI sponsored the "Walk a Hound, Lose a Pound and Stay Fit for Seniors." In the preliminary program, a group of older adults were matched with shelter dogs, while another group of older adults were partnered with a human walk buddy.
For 12 weeks, participants were encouraged to walk on an outdoor trail for one hour, five times a week. At the end of the program, researchers measured how much the older adults’ activity levels improved.
She revealed the older people who walked their dogs improved their walking capabilities by 28 percent.
She added they also had more confidence walking on the trail, and they increased their speed.
Johnson said the older people who walked with humans only had a 4 percent increase in their walking capabilities since human walking buddies tended to discourage each other and used excuses such as the weather being too hot.
Moreover,  Charlotte McKenney, assistant director of ReCHAI revealed today, pets are in more than 60 percent of American homes.
McKenney said research involving human-animal interaction can be extremely beneficial.
She said more people are incorporating pets into their leisure time, such as making them part of their exercise routines, taking them to dog parks and bringing them to family events.

 

Here is a piece of good news to all those patients suffering from heart failure.
A recent research has shown that a therapy called cardiac resynchronization can significantly delay the progression of heart failure.
Based on the research the treatment reduced the risk of serious heart failure events by 41 percent.
Dr. David Wilber, a co-author of the study and director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Loyola University Chicago
Stritch School of Medicine revealed the research has shown that for the first time, the onset of heart failure symptoms and hospitalization for heart failure can be delayed with pacing therapy.
According to researchers, a device implanted in the upper chest delivers electrical impulses that help synchronize contractions of the left ventricle, the heart’s main pumping chamber.
Some 1,820 patients from 110 centers in the United States, Canada and Europe participated in the study.
The researchers revealed all patients in the trial had been diagnosed with early stage, mild heart failure (Class 1 and Class 2 on the New York Heart Association classification system).
The study’s principle investigator is Dr. Arthur Moss of the University of Rochester
Medical Center.
Patients were randomly assigned to two groups. A control group received an implanted defibrillator, and a second group received a defibrillator plus cardiac resychronization. (A defibrillator is a device that shocks the heart back to a normal rhythm if the patient experiences a life-threatening irregular heartbeat.)

 

 

 

 

Those persons suffering from heart failure can now use cardiac resynchronization as treatment for their medical condition.
 

 

 

Compared with the control group, the cardiac resychronization group had a significantly improved heart-pumping efficiency and a 41 percent lower risk of heart-failure events that required hospitalization or outpatient treatment with intravenous drugs.
Loyola heart failure patient Rosemary Jakubowski of Elmwood Park, Il. said that before she received cardiac resychronization, she had experienced significant fatigue.
Since receiving cardiac resychronization, Jakubowski has been taking kickboxing and swim aerobics classes, without fatigue.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved cardiac resychronization for patients with Class 3 (moderate) and Class 4 (severe) heart failure. Such patients experience marked limitations in physical activity or are unable to do any physical activity at all without discomfort.
Wilber said the study has shown that certain patients with early-stage, mild heart failure also can benefit from cardiac resychronization.

 

 

A recent research has shown that playing the computer game tetris offers benefits to human brain.
According to the study made by Mind Research Network in Albuquerque brain imaging they conducted shows playing Tetris leads to a thicker cortex and may also increase brain efficiency.
To get the data, the researchers used brain imaging and Tetris to investigate whether practise makes the brain efficient because it increases gray matter.
The research team for 30 minutes a day over a three-month period, 26 adolescent girls played Tetris, a computer game requiring a combination of cognitive skills.
The girls completed both structural and functional MRI scans before and after the three-month practise period, as did girls in the control group who did not play Tetris.
A structural MRI was used to assess cortical thickness, and a functional MRI was used to assess efficient activity.

 

 

It’s time to play tetris since it is beneficial to the brain.

 

The girls who practised showed greater brain efficiency, consistent with earlier studies. Compared to controls, the girls that practised also had a thicker cortex, but not in the same brain areas where efficiency occurred.
Dr. Rex Jung, a co-investigator on the Tetris study and a clinical neuropsychologist revealed one of the most surprising findings of brain research in the last five years was that juggling practise increased gray
matter in the motor areas of the brain.
Jund added they did their tetris study to see if mental practise increased cortical thickness, a sign of more gray matter.
He said if it did, it could be an explanation for why previous studies have shown that mental practise increases brain efficiency.
He added more gray matter in an area could mean that the area would not need to work as hard during Tetris play.
Furthermore, the researchers hope to continue this work with larger, more diverse samples to investigate whether the brain changes we measured revert back when subjects stop playing Tetris.
Similarly, they are interested if the skills learned in Tetris, and the associated brain changes, transfer to other cognitive areas such as working memory, processing speed, or spatial  reasoning.

 

Researchers has recently discovered that women who get pregnant have a more positive outlook in life.
The researchers also found out that due to the positive effect of childbearing women are also protected against any negative impact on their body image.
The team who made the study also discovered that women’s interpersonal relationships were also very important in relation to their body image, and investment in their
relationships with their baby, partner, family and friends also seemed to protect against body image concerns.

 

 

Women who get pregnant have a more positive outlook in life due to their condition.

 

It is said that the result of the research confirmed the fact all along that giving birth is the greatest gift a woman could have in their lifetime.
Not all women were given the privilege to bore their own child so having the opportunity to get pregnant and eventually give birth is such a memorable moment for any woman in this planet.
It had been chronicled that despite the pain in giving birth to a child and the common instances of getting fat due to the situation, women still accept the responsibility bravely.

 

Those heart patients who wish to avoid heart attack better start undergoing reperfusion therapy now.
According to a latest medical study, the use of reperfusion therapy in patients with heart attack (AMI) can save millions of lives in Europe.
The study has shown that an effective reperfusion therapy in an AMI patient can cut the individual risk of dying by half.
Based on medical facts, AMI is caused by a sudden blockage of a coronary artery, one of the vessels supplying the heart muscle with oxygen and nutrients.
The researchers said an effective reperfusion therapy provides a timely and sustainable reopening of the blockage.
Recent studies has shown that specialist centres can provide effective reperfusion therapy to more than 90% of their AMI patients.
In such centres, in-hospital mortality rate is now as low as around 5%.
The first development in reperfusion therapy was the application of fibrinolytic agents to dissolve the blood clots causing the vessel blockage.
Analysis of data from earlier studies reveals that, on average, fibrinolytic agents can reduce infarct-related mortality rate by 18% compared with no reperfusion therapy.
Fibrinolytic therapy is universally available and is still the mainstay of reperfusion therapy where healthcare resources are limited.
 

 

 

 

Reperfusion therapy offers hope to patients against heart attack.

 

 

 

More modern catheter-based reperfusion strategies, however, are more effective.
Compared with what can be achieved by clot-buster drugs, catheter-based therapy reduces infarct-related mortality by a further 37%. Using this approach, the coronary artery is re-opened mechanically with a balloon catheter and vessel patency is usually stabilised by placement of a stent.
Potent adjunct antithrombotic drug therapy prevents recurrent clot formation.
The larger survival benefit from catheter-based reperfusion therapy as compared with fibrinolytic therapy can be attributed to a higher success rate in reopening blocked vessels (90% versus 40-60%) and to better sustainability.
If no reperfusion therapy is initiated and the infarct-related coronary artery continues to be blocked, the heart muscle supplied by this vessel is destined to die.
Loss of functional heart muscle can cause death by pump failure or break-down of normal heart rhythm.
Moreover, it is a major cause of long-term illness due to heart failure. Effective reperfusion therapy can prevent the death of heart muscle cells and salvages a large proportion of the heart muscle at risk.
In this way, reperfusion therapy effectively prevents chronic illness.The percentage of heart-muscle salvage varies to a large extent on reperfusion modality, timing of reperfusion and patient characteristics.
Catheter-based reperfusion usually salvages around 60% of the heart muscle at risk.
For the individual patient this often means a normal life, despite having suffered a heart attack.

 

The number of college students killed due to drunk driving is rising in the United States of America.
Based on the data gathered by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) it was discovered that drinking-related, accidental deaths among 18- to 24-year-old students have been creeping upward from 1,440 in 1998 to 1,825 in 2005.
According to the data from NIAAA, the proportion of students who reported recent heavy episodic drinking (sometimes called "binge drinking") rose from roughly 42 percent to 45 percent and the proportion who admitted to drinking and driving in the past year increased from 26.5 percent to 29 percent.
The recent data already alarmed lead researcher Ralph Hingson, Sc.D., M.P.H., director of the NIAAA’s division of epidemiology and prevention research.

 

 

Proper measures should be done to stop the rising number drunk driving deaths among college students.

 

Hingson explained the data just showed that government and school officials need to work even harder to weed out drinking addiction among the college students to protect their health and well-being.
The lead researcher said government and school officials need to work together to create a comprehensive strategy to address the drinking addiction problem among college students.
The lead researcher added broader legislation should also be undertaken by both Congress and Senate to deter college students from engaging in drinking addiction.
Furthermore, Hingson said state laws that set the legal drinking age at 21 have been credited with reducing alcohol-related road deaths.
He noted, that the increases in heavy episodic drinking, drinking and driving, and alcohol-related deaths were seen among 21- to 24-year-olds, and not 18- to 20-year-olds.