Therapist Unlimited Blog

A recent study has shown that a healthy body and lifestyles keep professional athletes notably football players and even ordinary men free from heart disease after their retirement from the game or work.
Based on the research, compared to other men in a similar age range, retired National Football League players had a significantly lower prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, sedentary lifestyles and metabolic syndrome.
"Despite their large body size, retired NFL players do not have a greater prevalence of heart disease risk factors when compared to the general population,"
said Dr. Alice Chang, assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern and the study’s lead author. "In fact, other factors such as age and high
cholesterol levels were better predictors for heart disease than the body size of the former athletes in our study."
When body mass index (BMI) standards are applied, more than half of all professional football players are considered overweight or obese, which is
considered an indicator for heart disease risk. Dr. Chang said although a majority of these players are not as fit and active after retirement, they still
had fewer risk factors for heart disease than men of the same age and body size from the Dallas Heart Study, a groundbreaking investigation of
cardiovascular disease that involves thousands of Dallas County residents.
 

Retirees who wish to be free from heart disease should keep their body healthy through exercise and a healthy lifestyle.

Staying physically fit earlier in life might have offset the risks associated with a large body size, said the study’s senior author, Dr. Benjamin Levine,
a professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern, and director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine a joint program of UT
Southwestern and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.
The study examined 150 former pro athletes and 150 normal counterparts from the Dallas Heart Study with an average age of 55. The median BMI for both
groups was higher than 31, which is considered to be in the obese range.
Retired NFL players didn’t get a totally clean bill of health, however. As a group they were found to have developed similar amounts of coronary
atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) as the group of non athletes. Although they were less likely to have diabetes, they had higher rates of
pre-diabetes, high fasting blood-sugar numbers that increase their risk for developing diabetes in the future.
The study authors’ scientific investigation with a high-profile group could have far-reaching implications. More than 60 percent of offensive and defensive
linemen at the high-school level, they note, also can be characterized through BMI as overweight or obese.
"The good news is that as long as you remain active and fit, even with a larger body, you can lower your risk for heart disease," Dr. Chang said. "The bad
news is that being a professional athlete doesn’t eliminate your risk for developing heart disease later in life. Even professional athletes may be at risk
for developing heart disease as they age."
Professional athletes should continue exercise regimens after their professional careers are over, Dr. Chang said. For the public at large, the study
reaffirms that exercise is an important way to decrease the risk for heart disease, Dr. Chang said.
Other UT Southwestern researchers who contributed to the study include Dr. Song Zhang, assistant professor of clinical sciences; and Amit Patel,
fourth-year medical student. Researchers from the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, the University of Washington, Emory University School of Medicine, the Baptist Cardiac and Vascular Institute, and the Living Heart Foundation also contributed to the study.

A recent study has shown that people over the age of 60 are the most vulnerable to heat waves, with 82% to 92% more deaths than average occurring in this age group.
Based on the research, risks for heat-related illness or injury such as heat stroke, heat exhaustion and heat cramps are also
heightened in people with obesity, heart disease, diabetes and respiratory conditions as these decrease the body’s ability to adapt to temperature changes.
The researchers said physicians and their patients must be aware of the risk factors for older people and people with chronic disease in excessive heat conditions and counsel and manage accordingly.
According to the researchers, laboratory-based physiologic studies show that the ability to detect heat is reduced, and the physiological response to heat with adequate blood distribution and sweating to cool the body is slower, in otherwise healthy older individuals compared to younger people.
The research team explained their ability to respond to thirst is also delayed and they take longer to recover from dehydration.
Moreover, the study has also shown that people of lower socio-economic groups, lower levels of education and those who are socially isolated have a greater risk of mortality.

The elderly need to be careful since they are at higher risk from suffering from heat stress.

The researchers said air conditioning is associated with a risk reduction of 80% and working fans with a 30% reduction.
The researchers added housing may be a factor as lower income people often live in crowded or poor-quality housing, with inadequate ventilation and cooling systems.
They revealed homeless people are at risk because of lack of shelter from extreme heat and often also by underlying physical or psychiatric issues.
Dr. Glen Kenny from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa and his co-authors said the new research should focus not only on filling these gaps in the science-based information but also on developing clinical guidelines for health professionals to facilitate the giving of advice to patients.

Who says it is better to find medical cure in the past than today?
A recent analysis has found that adolescents and young adults who were recently diagnosed with blood-related cancers have
better long-term survival rates than those who were diagnosed in the 1980s.
Based on the study it was uncovered that significant advances have been made in the treatment of 15 to 24 year-olds with leukemias and lymphomas; however, survival rates in this age group are
still lower than those seen in younger children.
It is said that few studies have looked at trends in the long-term survival of adolescents and young adults with blood-related cancers, which include Hodgkin’s lymphoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute myeloblastic leukemia, and chronic myelocytic leukemia.
To get the data, Dianne Pulte, MD, of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and her colleagues analyzed data from the Surveillance,
Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, which is a population-based cancer registry in the United States.
The team then compare survival rates of young patients diagnosed in recent years with those diagnosed two decades ago.

Those who are suffering from leukemia and lymphoma find better cure today than in the past.

Based on the information they gathered from SEER data from 1981-1985 with data from 2001-2005, they found that survival significantly improved in each of the five blood-related malignancies.
The researchers revealed the 10-year survival rates increased from 80.4 percent to 93.4 percent among adolescents and young adults with Hodgkin’s lymphoma; from 55.6 percent to 76.2 percent for non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma; from 30.5 percent to 52.1 percent for acute lymphoblastic leukemia; from 15.2 percent to 45.1 percent for acute myeloblastic leukemia; and from 0 percent to 74.5 percent for chronic myelocytic leukemia.
Furthermore, the researchers also that survival improved steadily over the two decades for the lymphomas and chronic myelocytic leukemia, but survival was stable during the late 1990s and early 21st century for the
acute leukemias.
In addition, the exception of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, survival in adolescents and young adults still lags behind survival in children and, in the case of acute myeloblastic leukemia, even behind survival in older adults.
The researchers explained the persistent lower survival rates for adolescents and young adults with acute leukemias compared with children with these diseases remain a major challenge.
They said more research into how to treat these diseases and how to make sure that all patients have access to the best treatment is needed.
 

Contrary to what most people think, old age offers happiness to people around the world.
Researchers speaking at an international psychology conference said there was evidence that people get happier as they age, and that older people are better at controlling their emotions and avoiding things that make them unhappy.
However, the research team clarified this does not include people with dementia or who are trapped in situations of high stress that they cannot escape from, such as care giving.
Dr. Laura Carstensen, a psychology professor at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA, and founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, explained life expectancy changed because people changed the way they lived.
Carstensen added now that we’re here, we have to keep adapting, we are in the middle of a second revolution and it’s up to us to make adulthood itself longer and healthier.
She revealed Carstensen said by 2050 there will be twice as many people over the age of 65 in the world as there are today.

Generally older people are happy than sad.

And the segment of the population that is growing faster than any other, is the over 85s.
Susan Turk Charles, from the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior at the University of California, Irvine, in a separate presentation, talked about several studies on aging and mental health that she had reviewed.
Excluding people with dementia and related diseases, the evidence supports the idea that, on the whole, mental health improves with age.
Charles referred to a study that followed three groups of people at different life stages for 23 years and found emotional happiness increased as they got older.
She said research also shows that older adults are better at controlling their emotions than younger adults, and this helps them avoid negative situations, or at least limit the emotional damage they can cause. One study she reviewed asked younger and older adults to report what they were thinking and feeling just after hearing personal criticisms by other people.
The results showed that the younger adults tended to dwell far more on the comments and demanding information about their origins than the older adults whose reports were less negative overall.
Charles said that work by Carstensen and others suggests older people are increasingly aware that life is finite and the time they have left is shrinking.
She added they want to make the best of it so they avoid engaging in situations that will make them unhappy.
She said they have also had more time to learn and understand the intentions of others which help them to avoid these stressful situations.

The financial crisis happening around the world is not affecting the global economy but the health of the people as well.
A recent research has shown that levels of debt have been associated with an increased risk of being fat.
According to the research the high price of healthy food and a tendency for people worried by debt to comfort eat.
To get the data, Eva Munster, from the University of Mainz, Germany, worked with a team of researchers to study more than 9000 people.
Based on the study they found out that 25% of the 949 people in debt were medically obese, compared to only 11% of the remaining 8318 participants.
Munster explained the recent credit crunch will have health implications for private households.
Munster added while income, education and occupational status are frequently used in definitions of socioeconomic status, levels of debt are not usually considered.
She said their study has shown that debt can be associated with the probability of being overweight or obese, independent of these factors.

Aside from the hardships it offers, the financial crisis can also make people fat.
 

She revealed a person’s ability to pick and choose the food they eat often depends on the financial resources they have available.
Munster said energy-dense foods such as sweets or fatty snacks are often less expensive compared to food with lower energy density such as fruit or vegetables.
Moreover, the researchers explain that debt can affect a series of risk factors for chronic diseases, for example by limiting leisure time activities and participation in social events.
The researchers said the quality of an individual’s diet can also be negatively affected.

A recent study has shown that a lack of sunlight is associated with reduced cognitive function among depressed people.
Shia Kent, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, led a team of US researchers who used cross-sectional data from 14,474 people in the NIH-NINDS-funded REGARDS study, a longitudinal study investigating stroke incidence and risk factors, to study associations between depression, cognitive function and sunlight.
To get the relevant information, the researchers used weather data from NASA satellites to measure sunlight exposure across the United States and linked this information to the prevalence of cognitive impairment in depressed people.
Kent revealed they found that among participants with depression, low exposure to sunlight was associated with a significantly higher predicted probability of cognitive impairment.
He said this relationship remained significant after adjustment for season.

Depressed people should avoid darkness since the scenario could affect their thinking skills.
 

He added this new finding that weather may not only affect mood, but also cognition, has significant implications for the treatment of depression, particularly seasonal affective disorder.
Kent and his colleagues speculate that the physiological mechanisms that give rise to seasonal depression may also be involved in sunlight’s effect on cognitive function in the context of depressive symptoms.
It is said that cognitive function was assessed by measurement of short-term recall and temporal orientation.
As well as regulating the hormones serotonin and melatonin, light has been shown to also affect brain blood flow, which has in turn been linked with cognitive functions.
Moreover,  the researchers said discovering the environment’s impact on cognitive functioning within the context of seasonal disorders may lead not only to better understanding of the disorders, but also to the development of targeted interventions to enhance everyday functioning and quality of life.

In is time to gain weight for those who are underweight and lose weight to the obese.
This developed after a recent medical study has shown that obese and underweight people to die early than people with normal weight.
In the study conducted by the Statistics Canada, Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Portland State University, Oregon Health & Science University, and McGill University it was discovered that, those who are underweight and obese are in a higher risk of dying that those who have normal weight.
Mark Kaplan, DrPH, co-author and Professor of Community Health at Portland State University explained their study only looked at mortality, not at quality of life, and there are many negative health consequences associated with obesity, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes.
To get the data, the researchers examined the relationship between body mass index and death among 11,326 adults in Canada over a 12-year period (BMI uses height and weight to estimate body fat.)

It is time to lose weight for obese people if they wish to live longer like those persons who have normal weight.
 

Researchers found that underweight people had the highest risk of dying, and the extremely obese had the second highest risk. Overweight people had a lower risk of dying than those of normal weight.
This medical finding should serve as motivation to both obese and underweight to do something about their weight if they wish to live longer and spend more time with their family and friends.
 

To those people who are easily get depressed it is time to cheer up and avoid sadness and sorrow.
This developed after a recent study by researchers revealed that those people suffering from depression have strong tendencies to also be inflicted with the deadly Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease, which is named after the German physician Alois Alzheimer who first described it in 1906, is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 50 to 70 per cent of cases.
It is a progressive and fatal brain disease with no cure and the 7th leading cause of death in the US.
Alzheimer’s destroys brain cells, causing problems with memory, thinking and behavior that impair ability to work, relate to others, enjoy hobbies and get on with every day life.
The National Institute on Aging reports that according to recent estimates, as many as 2.4 to 4.5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s.
The astounding medical discovery was made possible through the study conducted by Dr. Po H Lu, assistant professor of neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and colleagues.

It is time to cheer up for depressed persons to avoid strong chances of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

In order to gather the data, Lu and his team closely monitored 756 people between 55 and 91 years of age who had Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), a form of depression for three years.
According to the information gathered by the researchers it was discovered that participant’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s went up by 3 per cent for each point increase on the depression test.
With the result of their research, Lu and his team came to the conclusion that the results suggest that depression is predictive of progression from amnesic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) to Alzheimer disease (AD).


 

According to a recent study, those people who are depressed have higher tendencies of suffering from chronic pain.
Based on the study conducted by the Wayne State University they found out that the incidence of chronic pain, defined as pain persisting for six months, was 22 percent.
The researchers revealed approximately 35 percent of those with chronic pain had depression, but mood problems were not associated with a particular pain condition or pain site.
The researchers gathered their data on 1,100 Michican residents who volunteered to take part of the study.
The team studied several demographic factors and found that older age was generally related to chronic pain but with comorbid depression.
They noted that depression tends to decrease with age while pain tends to increase.
Evaluating the data they gathered, the researchers concluded that in middle-age women chronic pain might not be the cause of depression but pre-existing mood problems could be associated with development of chronic pain. They further concluded that depression could increase vulnerability to experiencing persistent pain.

People should avoid depression since such a condition could lead to chronic pain.

Moreover, the researchers believe the study also showed that African Americans were more likely to have chronic pain with depression than Caucasians.
The group revealed further analysis showed that racial differences were not attributable to possible socioeconomic factors but might be associated with differences in the use of pain coping strategies.
They believe though income was not a significant risk factor for the study, the authors indicated that occupational factors, such as physically demanding work and poor or no health insurance coverage, may account for the link between lower socioeconomic status and pain, and that financial strain and stress are closely linked with depression.
From the data they discovered, the authors recommend that clinicians screen pain patients for depression and pay close attention to middle-age women and African Americans for whom risk for comorbid depression is the highest.

Here is a piece of good news to those people who love to drink half a glass of wine in a daily basis.
A recent study has shown that those people who drink at least half a glass of wine everyday could increase their life span by five more years.
According to the research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health it was discovered that light long term alcohol consumption of all types-up to 20 g a day- extended life by around two extra years compared with no alcohol at all.
The researchers also discovered that extended life expectancy was slightly less for those who drank more than 20 g.
It was also learned that men who drank only wine, and less than half a glass of it a day, lived around 2.5 years longer than those who drank beer and spirits, and almost five years longer than those who drank no alcohol at all.
The findings were based on 1,373 randomly selected men whose cardiovascular health and life expectancy at age 50 were repeatedly monitored between 1960 and 2000.

Wine drinkers who drink half a glass of the liquor everyday could increase their life expectancy by five more years according to a recent study.

The team of experts conducted the research by looking into how much alcohol the men drank, what type it was, and over what period, in a bid to assess whether this had any impact on the risks of their dying from cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, and from all causes.
The team also tracked weight and diet, whether the men smoked, and for how long, and checked for the presence of serious illness.
Based on their 40 years of monitoring, 1,130 of the men died. Over half the deaths were caused by cardiovascular disease.
The proportion of men who drank alcohol almost doubled from 45% in 1960 to 86% in 2000, with the proportion of those drinking wine soaring from 2% to 44% during that period.
Furthermore, the researchers found out that drinking wine was strongly associated with a lower risk of dying from coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and death from all causes.
The researchers said the results of their findings held true, irrespective of socioeconomic status, dietary and other lifestyle habits, factors long thought to influence the association between wine drinking and better health.