Forgetfulness is Not Necessarily a Warning Sign of Dementia
One in nine North Americans over age 65 will develop dementia, a progressive brain disorder that interferes with normal daily living and is marked by memory loss, personality changes and impaired reasoning). Aging is the major risk factor for dementia, but forgetfulness among seniors does not necessarily mean the person is headed for dementia.
Are Electric Blankets Safe?
There is no good data to show that electro-magnetic fields (EMFs) produced by electric blankets, cell phones and other devices cause cancer. Electric blankets do emit radiation from the movement of electric current through wires. Extensive studies in animals have repeatedly failed to show that low-frequency radiation EMFs cause cancer.
Many Common Drugs Can Raise Blood Pressure
A very important new study of 27,599 adults, average age 47-50, showed that almost 15 percent of North American adults and almost 19 percent of those with high blood pressure take medications that can raise blood pressure. The blood-pressure-raising medicines taken most frequently were antidepressants, NSAIDs, steroids, and estrogens.
Less Salt, More Potassium to Help Prevent Heart Attacks
A review of six major studies that measured salt intake by the amount of salt in the urine found that a high salt intake is associated with significantly increased risk for suffering heart attacks and strokes. This review is extremely dependable because it measured salt intake directly by how much salt and potassium was secreted in a person’s urine each day, and did not depend on a patient's memory.
Lifestyle Changes to Treat and Prevent Prostate Cancer
Extensive data show that the typical western diet, obesity, and lack of exercise are associated with increased risk for prostate cancer. Recent studies now show that intense exercise and an anti-inflammatory diet help to reduce markers for prostate cancer progression in men who already have prostate cancer.
New Guidelines on Aspirin for Heart Attack Prevention
Daily aspirin can help to prevent heart attacks, but the United States Preventive Services Task Force now recommends that:
adults 60 years and older should not take aspirin to help prevent a first heart attack, and those 40-59 years old who are at high risk for heart disease should take aspirin only on their doctor’s recommendation
Overdiagnosis of Chronic Kidney Disease
Older people may be diagnosed with chronic kidney disease because of their results on a routine blood test called eGFR (Estimated Glomular Filtration Rate) that is used to screen for kidney damage. This test is important because patients with kidney disease often have no symptoms until just before the kidneys fail. However, it is normal for people to lose some kidney function with aging.
The Latest on COVID-19: Archive
This post contains older entries in my summaries of research on COVID-19 vaccinations and other aspects of the epidemic since it began in late 2019. Newer entries can be found in the main post titled The Latest on COVID-19.
Impotence Often Precedes a Heart Attack
Impotence often precedes a heart attack by three to five years. A review of the scientific literature found that men who are impotent have a 59 percent increased risk for heart attacks, a 34 percent increased risk for a stroke, and a 33 percent increased risk for dying from any cause. One study showed that impotent men were twice as likely to develop heart disease.
Stabilizing Plaques with Exercise and Possibly Statins
Heart attacks are not caused by plaques making arteries too narrow. They are caused by plaques suddenly breaking off from the inner lining of a heart artery, followed by bleeding, and then a clot forms that completely blocks all blood flow to a part of the heart muscle.
Does Ivermectin Treat COVID-19?
A review of 41 studies found no good evidence that ivermectin prevents or treats COVID-19 infections. No study compared ivermectin to an intervention with proven efficacy. Additionally, 31 studies are ongoing and 18 studies are awaiting classification until publication of results or clarification of inconsistencies.
Pre-Diabetes and Diabetes Increase Heart Attack Risk
One of the definitions of "pre-diabetes" is a high rise in blood sugar after meals, and people with pre-diabetes are at significantly increased risk for suffering a heart attack or stroke.
High Sugar Intake Associated with Increased Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease
Researchers at Rush University followed 837 patients with 19 different tests for memory and other brain functions. They found that higher consumption of foods and drinks with added sugars was associated with greater loss of ability to recognize objects and remember facts, and with greater risk for developing dementia.
How Your Diet Affects Your Blood Pressure
Extensive recent research shows that high blood pressure is associated with having specific harmful bacteria in your colon, and that reducing harmful colon bacteria and increasing healthful ones can help to control high blood pressure. You can do this primarily by eating an anti-inflammatory diet, as well as by exercising regularly, losing excess weight, and avoiding smoke and alcohol.
Masks Do Not Block Breathing
Researchers showed that “wearing a surgical face mask did not cause gas exchange abnormalities in healthy adults or even in adults with lung function impairment”. The authors measured carbon dioxide exchange and oxygen saturation before and after wearing a surgical mask in physicians with healthy lungs and in people with severe chronic obstructive lung disease.
Anti-Inflammatory Lifestyle to Treat Many Diseases
Many types of arthritis are believed to be caused by inflammation, where a person’s own immune system attacks and damages joints and other tissues in the body. An anti-inflammatory diet may help to control arthritis ) as well as giving its well-established benefit of helping to prevent heart attacks.
Almost All U.S. COVID-19 Hospitalizations and Deaths Are Now In Unvaccinated People
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) list of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths shows that of more than 18,000 people who died from COVID-19 in May 2021, only 150 deaths occurred in fully vaccinated people. That's less than one percent.
Chronic Constipation
The first-line treatment for chronic constipation is to eat lots of foods that are full of fiber such as fruits and vegetables, to severely restrict processed foods, particularly those made from refined carbohydrates (bakery products, pastas and many dry breakfast cereals), and to exercise. If these lifestyle changes do not solve your problem, you may benefit temporarily by taking over-the-counter laxatives
Dementia May Be Preventable
The American Heart Association has published a scientific statement on “Harnessing Healthy Behaviors to Prevent Dementia” (Stroke, Mar 15, 2021:52(6A);52:e295–e308). They report that dementia is associated with the following modifiable risk factors: depression, all heart attack risk factors, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, physical inactivity, an inflammatory diet, smoking, social isolation, excessive alcohol use, sleep disorders and hearing loss.
Arthritis and Colon Bacteria
A study of 1,388 women with hand arthritis, average age 61, showed that they had higher levels in their colons of the bacteria Bilophila and Desulfovibrio that try to invade their colon cells, as well as a lower level of the genus Roseburia that do not invade colon cells. An anti-inflammatory lifestyle has been shown to help grow healthful bacteria in your colon, which can help to treat arthritis.
Treating Type II Diabetes and High Blood Pressure with Diet
Type II Diabetes shortens lives by causing high blood pressure, strokes and heart attacks. Diabetics in the DIRECT study in Scotland, who followed a strict 800-calorie-per-day diet and lost a lot of weight, were also able to lower their high blood pressure.
Routine CT Scans Can Increase Cancer Risk
More than 80 million CT scans are done in the U.S. each year to help diagnose many medical conditions. In 2007, the National Cancer Institute predicted that 29,000 future cancer cases could be linked to the CT scans performed in the U.S. in that year alone, and doctors have ordered more CT scans every year since then.
High-Plant, Low-Salt Diet to Lower Blood Pressure
High blood pressure affects 108 million adults, increasing risk for heart attacks, the leading cause of death in the United States. A Harvard study of 412 adults found that a low-salt version of the DASH diet dramatically lowered both high blood pressure and markers of heart muscle damage in just four weeks
Jim Allison’s Nobel Prize: Toward a Cure for Cancer
In August 2015, the world learned that former U.S. president Jimmy Carter’s melanoma skin cancer had spread to his liver and his brain. Patients with melanoma that had spread through their bodies were expected to die from their disease, but doctors radiated Carter's tumors and then gave him Keytruda, a check point inhibitor. Three months later, there was no evidence of cancer in his 91-year old body.
Risk Factors for Dementia and Heart Attacks Start Early in Life
Researchers in Finland followed 3,596 children (3-18) for 31 years to see whether cardiovascular risk factors in childhood and adolescence were associated with cognitive performance later in life. Cognitive testing was performed in 2,026 of the participants at 34-49 years of age, and the researchers found that early heart attack risk factors were also major risk factors for reduced mental function.
Muscle Pain While Taking Statins for High Cholesterol
More than one hundred million North Americans have taken statin drugs that help to save lives by lowering cholesterol and preventing heart attacks. Ten to 20 percent of people who take statins have been reported to have suffered muscle pain, but a recent study from the UK claims to show that statins are no more likely than a placebo to cause muscle pain.
COVID-19 Update – Vaccines Are Very Effective
An Israeli study followed 596,618 people who were newly vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine during a six-week period from December 20, 2020, to February 1, 2021, and a matched group of the same number of unvaccinated controls. The researchers found that the vaccine offered a high degree of protection, similar to the results shown in the clinical trials.
Excess Belly Fat Increases Heart Attack Risk Even If You Are Not Overweight
The American Heart Association (AHA) reports that a high waist circumference among individuals with normal weight appears to be a more reliable predictor of risk for heart attacks than just being overweight. The AHA recommends using the ratio of waist circumference to body height or the waist-to-hip ratio to warn about increased heart attack risk.
Lack of Sleep Linked to Risk for Dementia
Researchers in the Whitehall Study followed 7959 British men and women for 30 years, with data on their sleep habits collected at ages 50, 60 and 70. They found that those who slept six hours or less per night had a 30 percent increased risk for dementia, compared with those who slept seven hours or more.
Treatable Risk Factors for Severe COVID-19
Don't believe the claims made for nutritional products that are supposed to boost your immunity and protect you from infections, unless you suffer from a specific medical condition or deficiency that can be corrected by that product. The current evidence shows that you are at increased risk for infection with, and severity of, COVID-19 if you have a medical condition that interferes with your immune system such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease, and so forth.
