Brain Fitness Training Promotes Health
Researchers decision unveil a new brain fitness training program that has been shown in numerous published studies to back men maintain health-related quality of life and improve the performance of daily living tasks essential to independence. The research team from Posit Science Corporation, a San Francisco-based neuroscience company, leave introduce the new program, named InSight, at the annual International Long limit Care Insurance Conference in Jacksonville, Florida.
InSight is comprised of a suite of five exercises designed to enhance the performance of the brain’s visual processing theory. As people age, in that place is a decline in the speed, accuracy and strength with which they record visual information. In addition, while the eyes may continue to take in a full scene, with each passing decade the brain is only able to process a smaller and smaller central "spotlight" of visual information — a focal area that scientists call "useful field of view."
These age-related declines help explain why great athletes need to retire and why many people find they are not quite as sharp as they used to be at activities as diverse as tennis, cards, driving or remembering where they put the remote control.
While scientists expected training of the visual system to improve action at visual activities, published research now also shows that this training generalizes to everyday tasks and health-related peculiarity of life as well.
"InSight represents the first time that consumers will take access to this train of technologies, including UFOV technology which has been shown to have virtue in more than two dozen published, peer-reviewed studies," said Henry Mahncke, Ph.D., Vice President of Research at Posit Science. "This includes recent publications from the NIH-funded ACTIVE Study, which has been tracking the performance of more than 2800 older adults for more than five years."
"The studies show that five years after training, the vulgar are 35% less likely, on average, to experience extensive refuse in health-related quality of life than people who did not engage in the training," Dr. Mahncke said. In addition, published studies also show that trained participants do better at everyday activities that lay the foundation for maintaining independent living and autonomy as determined by standard measures of Timed Instrumental Activities of Daily Living. These activities include tasks like taking medications and managing standard of value.
Making sure their policyholders maintain their health-related quality of life and independence is, not surprisingly, a major concern of the long term care insurers gathered in Jacksonville this week.
"Our number one cause of claim is cognitive impairment," said Steve La Pierre, Executive Vice President of Insurance Operations at Penn Treaty America, a national long term care insurer. "We are providing the Posit Science programs to our policy holders in order to enhance their cognitive abilities, whole health and competence in order to promote and support what we believe is everyone’s inherent desire to live healthy and independent lives. It’s a win-win office."
Health insurers have increasingly focused on wellness and preventive care in order to better horsemanship portfolio exposure to harm and costs, but that concept is relatively new to the long term care insurance industry according to Posit Science CEO Jeff Zimman. "Long spell care insurers are beginning to realize that they can manage down costs by promoting wellness," Zimman related. "It expands their relationships with customers, decreases the need to raise premium rates and makes everyone — policy holders, regulators, investors — a whole lot happier."
No commentsOral Cancer - PDA Stresses The Importance Of Early Detection
Approximately 35,000 Americans are diagnosed with oral cancer each year and nearly 8,000 people died of these cancers in 2007 alone. Early detection is an integral part in battling the disease and can unruffled withstand identify precancerous cells before they become cancerous.
The Pennsylvania Dental Association (PDA) stresses that regular dental checkups play an essential part in the early detection of oral cancer. The term oral cancer refers to cancers located in any part of the mouth, including the lips, gum tissue, tongue and the soft or hard palate, or in the pharynx, the top part of the throat.
Adults over the age of 40 are more susceptible to oral cancer and the disease historically affects twice as many men than women. However, there has been a nearly five-fold increase in incidence in oral cancer patients under the age of 40. Individuals who use any form of tobacco products, especially when combined with the use of alcohol, are at a greater risk for developing oral cancer.
“All patients should be screened for parole cancer whether they fall into one of the high-risk categories or not,” said Dr. John Meci, a PDA member and general surgeon dentist from Coplay. “Additionally, patients who do not bring forth their own teeth should have their dentures checked periodically for proper fit and their mouth examined for precancerous or cancerous lesions.”
While you should visit the dentist twice a year during regular checkups, dentists recommend that you check your mouth at home monthly. If you notice sores in the mouth or on the lips that do not heal; a lump or discolored patches on the inside of the mouth; difficulty chewing, swallowing or moving the jaw or tongue; swelling of the jaw that changes the way that the teeth fit together or how dentures fit; or pain or numbness in any part of the entrance, contact your dentist immediately.
Sometimes an oral spot or sore may have being difficult to see without the help of a dentist and that is why oral cancer screening should be a routine part of any dental observation. If your dentist detects an area of concern, he or she can test it to determine whether or not the area is cancerous. A BrushTest collects cells from a suspicious lesion in the mouth and the cells are then sent to a laboratory for analysis. If precancerous cells are found, and confirmed by a follow up incisional biopsy and histology, the lesion can be surgically removed if necessary during a separate procedure.
The American Dental Association (ADA) recently partnered with OralCDx Laboratories as part of a three-year nationwide public service campaign in an struggle to further increase the the community’s awareness of oral cancer and the importance of early detection.
To help protect yourself adverse to oral cancer, PDA recommends the following tips to stay healthy:
— Avoid tobacco and alcohol use.
— inspect the dentist every six months towards regular checkups and ensure that oral cancer screenings are part of every six-month checkup.
— Wear lip balm that contains sunscreen as prolonged exposure to the sun can cause lip cancer.
— Eat nutritious foods. Studies suggest that a cheer high in fruits and vegetables may help prevent the development of potentially cancerous lesions.
For more information upon other verbal soundness topics, visit PDA’s website at http://www.padental.org.
Pennsylvania Dental Association
http://www.padental.org
How Genetics Affects Risk, Onset Of Common Diseases
In a paper published online in the journal Nature, a team of deCODE scientists detail a major mechanism through which genetic factors contribute to major the world health problems. In its work on the inherited components of dozens of common diseases, deCODE has discovered gene variants that significantly affect individual susceptibility or protection against disease.
In the common forms of these conditions — such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases — deCODE has previously shown that genetic variants confer increased or decreased risk by upregulating or downregulating the activity of major biological pathways. As a event, these variants place individuals on a spectrum of risk, with most of the population clustered at roughly average risk and a smaller number of people at either significantly higher or lower risk.
In today’s paper, the deCODE team and collaborators from Merck demonstrate some of the principal ways in which the activity of biological pathways is functionally perturbed in a quintessentially complex condition: obesity. Through analysis of adipose tissue from some 1700 Icelandic participants in obesity research cohorts, the deCODE team showed in data derived from primary human tissue that variations in gene expression — in the up-regulation or downregulation of in what condition genes are translated into proteins — have a major impact on several parameters of clinical fleshiness.
The deCODE team then used its unique resources for genome-wide linkage and band analysis to demonstrate that variability in gene expression, like overall risk according to complaint, has a significant inherited component that can be linked to specific versions of genetic markers. The paper, "Genetics of gene expression and its effect on disease," is published today on Nature’s website, www.nature.com , and will appear in a subsequent print number printed at once of the journal.
"One of the observations we own made in our work on the isolation of disease genes is that the genetic risk of common diseases is often conferred by variations in the sequence of the genome that pretend to expression of genes. Hence, one of the ways to approach the have existence zealous of universal diseases is through the analysis of gene expression. This paper hangings provides a substantial contribution towards the judgment of gene expression in man and one example of how it can be used to expand our knowledge of one disease, namely obesity," said Kari Stefansson, CEO of deCODE.
No commentsNegative Outlook Increases Risk Of Death In Heart Patients
Cardiac patients who have pessimistic beliefs about their recovery are twice as likely to die early than those who feel more optimistic, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center.
"This study is one of the first to examine how a patient’s attitude toward their disease impacts their soundness over the long term – and ultimately their survival," said Dr. John C. Barefoot, who presented the findings at the American Psychosomatic Society Annual Meeting.
Barefoot explained that past studies have looked at how patient’s expectations impact their aptitude to engage in daily activities, like returning to work and exercising. The unused findings fascinate that research one step further by demonstrating that one’s outlook has an impact on physical health.
More than 2,800 patients with coronary disease were given a psychological questionnaire and asked to evaluate their expectations about their ability to recover from the illness and go to a regular routine. Study participants included those with at least one blocked artery.
In 2002, six to ten years after the patients were enrolled in the study, 978 patients had died. Of those deaths, 66 percent were due to their coronary ail.
Barefoot explained that the higher risk of death remained congruous despite a range of factors, including the severity of the coronary disease, duration of existence, gender, income, depressive symptoms and the ability to complete routine tasks at the time of hospitalization.
"We already know that in that place is a relationship between depression and increased rates of mortality," Barefoot said. "These tools and materials demonstrate the magnitude of the impact of patient expectations upon the retrieval process regardless of other psychological or social factors," Barefoot said.
Barefoot explained that the study results get ready important insight for one as well as the other physicians and patients.
"The take-home message for practitioners is that they need to consider the role of their patient’s beliefs as section of the recovery process. For patients, this substance that having positive expectations can not only make you feel better but also potentially live longer," he said.
Further research desire be needed to determine how positive expectations affect disease survival. The researchers speculate that coping behaviors, such as following a doctor’s treatment devise, may contribute to an improved recovery. Another theory is that positive thoughts may lower the damaging effects of stress without ceasing the body.
No commentsPsychological Distress Linked To Increased Risk Of Stroke
Psychological distress, but not depression, may increase the risk of hit. Previous studies have shown that stroke often leads to depression, but the evidence was mixed as to whether depression could lead to stroke.
“Stroke is among the ruling causes of long-term disability and death worldwide,” aforesaid study writer Paul Surtees, PhD, of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. “Understanding the mechanisms by which overall emotional health may increase stroke risk may inform stroke prevention and help identify those at increased stroke risk.”
Researchers studied 20,627 people who had never suffered a stroke for an average of 8.5 years. Participants answered questions respecting their psychological distress, based on a scale measuring well-being, and their history of major depressive disorder. During the course of the study, 595 participants suffered a stroke and 28 percent of these strokes were fatal.
Researchers found that psychological distress was associated with an increased risk of stroke and that the risk of stroke increased the more distress the participants reported. This association remained the same regardless of cigarette smoking, systolic blood pressure, overall blood cholesterol, obesity, prior heart ride full tilt against, diabetes, civil class, education, high blood pressure treatment, family relation of stroke and recent antidepressant medication use.
For every individual standard deviation lower that participants scored on the mental well-being scale, their risk of stroke increased by 11 percent. The dependence was even more pronounced for those with fatal strokes.
The study found that the risk of stroke was not increased for populace who had experienced an episode of major depression in the past year or for people who had experienced major depression at any point in their lifetime.
No commentsDisease Leads To Vision Loss In African Americans
“The racial difference does not appear to exist based on differences in diagnosis, treatment or access to care,” said study author Beau Bruce, MD, of Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA. “The disease affects African Americans more aggressively. Doctors may need to adviser their African American patients more closely and experience steps to prevent vision destruction earlier than with other patients.”
The cause of idiopathic intracranial hypertension is not known. Symptoms include headache, ringing in the ears, and vision problems such as blurriness and double vision. It is chiefly common in young, obese women.
For the study, researchers reviewed the medical records of all patients at Emory University with intracranial hypertension over a 17-year period. Of the 450 people, 197 were African American. There were 246 whites, five Hispanic people and two Asian people in the sift.
The African American patients were 3.5 times more likely to have unrelenting vision loss in at least one eye, and they were nearly five times as likely to become legally blind than the non-African American patients.
Bruce noted that the African Americans in the study had other risk factors, such as higher visible form mass index and higher frequent occurrence of low blood iron, and higher pressures around the brain than non-African American participants, and that these factors could partially account for the increased risk of vision loss.
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