Uncategorized

MONDAY, March 4, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Getting older can be a lonely business, and a new survey shows that health problems only make matters worse. The online poll of more than 2,000 adults, aged 50 to 80, revealed that one in four said they feel isolated from other people at least some of the time, and one in three say they don’t have regular companionship. Health played a role in just how lonely someone was. Those with fair or poor physical health/mental health or hearing loss were more likely to say they felt isolated or lacked companions. “More than a quarter of poll respondents said they only had social contact once a week, or less, with family members they don’t live with, or with friends and neighbors,” said poll co-director Erica Solway, a social science researcher at the University of Michigan. “These results indicate the importance of proactively reaching...

MONDAY, March 4, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Your metabolism rate determines how fast you burn calories, and that can influence how fast you lose weight — and how easily you can gain it. After age 25, metabolism naturally slows by 5 percent every decade. So if you eat as much in your 40s as you did in your 20s, you’re going to add extra pounds — especially if you exercise less and lose muscle. In addition to weight training to maintain muscle, these tips from the American Council on Exercise can help. Stick to well-spaced meals at the same times each day. This lets your body know to expect fuel at regular intervals and prevents it from conserving calories and adding to fat stores. Calorie cutting is important if you need to lose weight, but reducing your intake to starvation levels also puts your body in conservation mode, slowing down...

(HealthDay News) — Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) occurs when pressure is placed on a nerve stretching from the arm to the hand.
Often, this is due to stress on the hands and wrists. Adjusting your daily routine can help prevent CTS.

NYU Langone Health offers these suggestions:

• • Minimize repetitive hand movements.
  • Keep wrists straight.
  • Alternate between activities or tasks.
  • Avoid holding an object the same way for long periods.

Copyright © 2018 HealthDay. All Rights Reserved.

(HealthDay News) — From heart disease to arthritis, many major diseases have been linked to chronic inflammation. Favoring anti-inflammatory foods in your diet could reduce your risk of illness.
Harvard Medical School recommends that anti-inflammatory diets include:

• • Tomatoes.
  • Olive oil.
  • Nuts.
  • Fatty fish, such as salmon and tuna.
  • Green leafy vegetables, such as spinach and kale.

Copyright © 2018 HealthDay. All Rights Reserved.

FRIDAY, March 1, 2019 (HealthDay News) — When Giuseppina Miller’s 8-year-old son, Peter, was first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, he necessarily got a lot of his parents’ attention. “We tried to adjust pretty well, but I was getting no sleep because I had to check his blood sugar in the middle of the night, and I was worried all the time. My two younger daughters felt the stress and ended up getting ignored a little bit,” Miller said. The young girls — just 7 and 5 at the time — struggled to understand why their brother suddenly garnered so much parental attention, and one day Miller overheard the girls teasing their brother about his diabetes. “They didn’t really understand, so I thought it might help if they lived a day like he did. I had them eat like he did. And, at the time, he had a very strict...

FRIDAY, March 1, 2019 (HealthDay News) — While genetics, such as carrying BRCA gene mutations, play a role in who is more likely to get breast cancer, everyday lifestyle factors are involved, too. Research published in JAMA Oncology used data from thousands of women to identify which lifestyle factors in particular could affect a woman’s risk for breast cancer. The study found that three specific steps could potentially prevent up to 29 percent of all breast cancers: Avoid alcohol and, after menopause, avoid both obesity and estrogen-progestin replacement hormone therapy. The researchers noted that these recommendations could be most helpful for women at a high risk of breast cancer because of factors they can’t change, like genetics and their age at menstruation and menopause. In fact, for them, having a low body mass index, not drinking alcohol, not smoking and not taking hormone therapy could lower breast cancer risk to...

THURSDAY, Feb. 28, 2019 (HealthDay News) — When it comes to getting the best taste and the greatest nutritional value from grains, keep it whole grain. Quinoa, oats, short-grain brown rice and wild rice, polenta (which is made from corn) and barley are most nutritious in their whole, unprocessed form. That’s because the bran is still intact, and the bran is where most of the minerals, vitamins and plenty of fiber reside. Processed and packaged foods are rarely made from 100 percent whole grains. Think of them as empty carbs with lots of preservatives, so switch to these flavorful grains to load up on nutrition, including essential minerals and even some protein. Tip: Don’t be fooled by the word “multi-grain” on packages — this does not mean that a variety of or even any whole grains were used. Brown rice is high in magnesium and tryptophan, barley is high in...

(HealthDay News) — Loneliness is a common source of stress among the elderly. Older men and women who have companionship live longer than those without, a recent study in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests.
Figuring out how to prevent loneliness can be difficult, but companionship can take many forms.

Those who can help include:

• • Family, friends or a partner.
  • Live-in carergivers.
  • Pets.

Talk to your loved one to see which option is best.

Copyright © 2018 HealthDay. All Rights Reserved.

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 27, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Google Translate might be a valuable ally for doctors when they’re treating patients who don’t speak English, new research suggests. “Google Translate is more accurate than a lot of clinicians believe, and I think it’s definitely more useful than not providing anything at all,” said first author Dr. Elaine Khoong. She’s a primary care research fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. “We cautiously support its use,” she added in a university news release. To come to that conclusion, Khoong and her team analyzed 100 sets of emergency discharge instructions translated by Google and found it was 92 percent accurate for Spanish and 81 percent accurate for Chinese. Of the inaccurate translations, only 2 percent of the Spanish ones and 8 percent of the Chinese ones had the potential to cause significant harm, according to the researchers. Most of those significant problems...

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 27, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Your food processor can help you get a healthy and hearty dinner on the table with a quick flick of a switch. Here are two taste-pleasers. Love making meatloaf, but don’t like handling raw meat? All the healthy ingredients can be combined in a food processor — ground turkey, which is high in protein and low in fat; oats, high in heart-healthy fiber; mushrooms, high in B vitamins; and an egg, rich in iron and B vitamins. Chunky Mushroom Meatloaf 1 pound ground turkey 1 cup quick-cooking oats 1 cup small mushrooms (white button or cremini) 1 egg 1/2 cup low-sugar, low-sodium BBQ sauce, plus an optional 1/4 cup for glaze Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place all the ingredients except the optional BBQ sauce in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Transfer to a loaf pan and smooth...

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 27, 2019 (HealthDay News) — If you’re in a frequent tug of war with your kids over turning off their gadgets, it could be the tactic you use when you try to persuade them to disengage. It turns out that giving 1- to 5-year-olds a time warning that screen viewing is about to end makes the transition away from a tablet, smartphone TV or other device more painful, according to University of Washington researchers. Gadgets play a role in a growing number of households with little children. There are positives, such as helping distract toddlers during unpleasant events like getting a shot. But kids also get attached to gadgets quite easily, and getting them to put down a tablet or smartphone can be a challenge. Tech-driven situations that worsen the problem include the “autoplay” feature, which automatically starts another video when one ends, and video teasers that pop...

(HealthDay News) — Winter can be hard for those watching their weight, the U.S. National Institutes of Health says. But you don’t have to wait until it warms up to burn those calories.
Losing winter weight can start with equipment-free, in-home exercises:

• • Squats.
  • Push-ups.
  • Planks.
  • Wall sits.
  • Lunges.
  • Jumping jacks.
  • Mountain climbers.

Working out for 30 minutes each day can burn hundreds of cold-weather calories.

Copyright © 2018 HealthDay. All Rights Reserved.