Lipitor cuts risk of second stroke.. May 2, 2009
Posted by healthandsurvival in Drugs, Survival, Wellness.Tags: health, lipitor, news, statins, Wellness
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Studies have also shown that statin medications lower inflammation, as measured by high sensitivity C Reactive Protein. After the JUPITER trial was published, many healthcare professionals beleived that this is possibly the mechanism by which statin medications such as lipitor, zocor, pravachol and crestor decrease risk of death and exert their health benefits.
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By Rob Waters
April 29 (Bloomberg) — Patients who reduced their cholesterol and blood pressure by taking Pfizer Inc.’s Lipitor after suffering a stroke were less likely to have a second attack, researchers reported today.
People who lowered their blood pressure, cholesterol and blood fats called triglycerides to recommended levels with the drug cut their risk of a second stroke by 65 percent, according to the study funded by New York-based Pfizer. They also cut their risk of heart attack and other cardiovascular damage by 75 percent. Researchers presented results today at a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Seattle.
All cholesterol-lowering drugs knows as statins are likely to have a similar effect, said Samuel Hunter, a neurologist at the Advanced Neurosciences Institute in Franklin, Tennessee, in an interview yesterday in Seattle. Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the country and causes more serious long-term disabilities than any other disease, according to the National Institutes of Health.
“It is a message of hope for patients,” said Pierre Amarenco, a researcher at Denis Diderot University in Paris and the lead author of the study. “We can now tell them that if they are adherent to treatment, they may reduce the risk” of strokes and of major cardiovascular events...read more here…
Air Conditioners- Are Portable Air Conditioners Right For You? May 2, 2009
Posted by healthandsurvival in Health Products, Home Comfort, Wellness, economy, environment.Tags: air conditioner, air conditioners, air cooler, cooling, dehumidifier, ecommerce, energy, family, health, heat wave, Home, house, Life, mobile air conditioners, new, room conditioner, soleus, sunpentown
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The summer of 2009 is fast approaching and with that, the demand for air conditioners. Portable air conditioners (mobile air conditioners) have become increasingly popular over the last 10 years. While most people spend their time in only 1 or 2 rooms of a home, the costs associated with cooling the entire house can be prohibitive. Not all air conditioners are listed by consumer research . However, that does not mean that the other’s are not quality, simply that they are not discussed.
Portable air conditioners come in different energy capacities. A 7,500 BTU portable air conditioner can comfortably cool a room up to 200 sq ft. while a 13,000 BTU air conditioner will cool over 400 sq. ft. All portable air conditioners I reviewed include a window kit which simplifies the setup, allowing the air conditioner to be used almost immediately upon delivery.
It makes little sense to cool an entire home with central air when you can cool 1 or 2 rooms with a portable room air conditioner or room air cooler. Most portable air conditioners, like those manufactured by Soleus Air or Sunpentown, have wheels which allow them to be transported from one room to the other. Mobile air conditioners are great for home offices or for senior citizens who are on a tight budget.
In addition to cooling your room down to 61 degrees, portable air conditioners also dehumidify the air at the same time. Some units are capable or removing up to 65 pints (8 gallons) of water per day from the air. You may be able to use your portable air conditioner during the winter, if you purchase one that has a built in heater.
The Soleus Air- LX-140 is a 14,000 BTU remote controlled air conditioner which has a dehumidifier and built in heater -all in 1 unit. This unit retails for $799 but we found it priced at a discount for $589 at www.eHealthSupplies.com, with free shipping. Let expensive units , such as the Sunpentown WA-7500 (7500 BTU) can cool up to 200 sq. ft for less than $375. In all, eHealthSupplies.com has 31 different unit to choose from. If you have any questions, their live customer support person can help you choose which portable air conditioner is best for you. Good Luck!
Heart regenerates itself- April 5, 2009
Posted by healthandsurvival in Diseases, Wellness.Tags: cardiology, family, heart, medical, medicine, news, Wellness
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Heart Muscle Renewed Over Lifetime, Study Finds
In a finding that may open new approaches to treating heart disease, Swedish scientists have succeeded in measuring a highly controversial property of the human heart: the rate at which its muscle cells are renewed during a person’s lifetime.
The finding upturns what has long been conventional wisdom: that the heart cannot produce new muscle cells and so people die with the same heart they were born with.
About 1 percent of the heart muscle cells are replaced every year at age 25, and that rate gradually falls to less than half a percent per year by age 75, concluded a team of researchers led by Dr. Jonas Frisen of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The upshot is that about half of the heart’s muscle cells are exchanged in the course of a normal lifetime, the Swedish group calculates. Its results are to be published Friday in the journal Science.
“I think this will be one of the most important papers in cardiovascular medicine in years,” said Dr. Charles Murry, a heart researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle. “It helps settle a longstanding controversy about whether the human heart has any ability to regenerate itself.”
If the heart can generate new muscle cells, researchers can hope to develop drugs that might accelerate the process, since the heart fails to replace cells that are killed in a heart attack.
The dogma that the heart cannot generate new muscle cells has been challenged since 1987 by a somewhat lonely skeptic, Dr. Piero Anversa, now of the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Anversa maintains that heart muscle cells are renewed so fast that a person dying at age 80 has replaced the heart four times over. Many other researchers have doubted this assertion.
Cell turnover rates can easily be measured in animals by making their cells radioactive and seeing how fast they are replaced. Such an experiment, called pulse-labeling, could not ethically be done in people. But Dr. Frisen realized several years ago that nuclear weapons tested in the atmosphere until 1963 had in fact labeled the cells of the entire world’s population.
The nuclear blasts generated a radioactive form of carbon known as carbon-14. The amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere has gradually diminished since 1963, when above-ground tests were banned, as it has been incorporated into plants and animals or diffused into the oceans.
In the body, carbon-14 in the diet gets into the DNA of new cells and stays unchanged for the life of the cell. Because the level of carbon-14 in the atmosphere falls each year, the amount of carbon-14 in the DNA can serve to indicate the cell’s birth date, Dr. Frisen found.
Four years ago he used his new method to assess the turnover rate of various tissues in the body, concluding that the average age of the cells in an adult’s body might be as young as 7 to 10 years. But there is a wide range of ages — from the rapidly turning over cells of the blood and gut to the mostly permanent cells of the brain.
Dr. Frisen has successfully applied his method to the heart muscle cells, but had to navigate a series of technical obstacles created by the special behavior of the cells. Many have two nuclei, instead of the usual one, and within these double nuclei the DNA may be duplicated again. “I was really impressed at the level of rigor they put into this analysis,” Dr. Murry said, calling it a “scientific tour de force.”…read more…
January 1, 2009
Posted by healthandsurvival in Diseases, Drugs, Herbal Medicine, Wellness.Tags: depression, Drugs, health, healthcare, herbs, Life, medicines, news, prevention, st. john's wort, supplements, vitamins, Wellness, zoloft
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(NaturalNews) The herbal supplement St. John’s Wort has long been promoted as an effective alternative for treating depression. Unfortunately, St. John’s Wort has proven ineffective for people suffering severe clinical depression. In fact, the results of a recent study revealed that St. John’s Wort is completely ineffective at treating severe depression. There is another effective natural alternative, however, and it is called SAM-E (S-adenosylmethionine).
Symptoms of Depression:
•Feelings of sadness and emptiness
•Feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, guilt, or worthlessness
•Loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities
•Excessive sleeping or insomnia
•Fatigue
•Lack of energy
•Difficulty concentrating and in decision-making
•Headaches or digestive disorders
•Crying and tearfulness
•Overeating or under eating
In the aforementioned study, St. John’s Wort was tested for eight weeks on 200 patients who were suffering a degree of depression that made daily functioning difficult. St. John’s Wort was no more effective than a placebo.
In a significant number of previous studies, however, St. John’s Wort was found effective for mild to moderate cases of depression. There is some evidence that points to the fact that St. John’s Wort can help with some symptoms of depression. In Germany, in fact, St. John’s Wort is available by prescription.
There have been questions about the quality of some of this research, though. One such criticism cites a lack of studies using a placebo and another drug such as Zoloft. Zoloft is classified as an SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) and these are commonly used drugs for treating depression. These newer drugs also have numerous side-effects, however, and while many claim to be “non-habit forming,” this does not seem to be the case.
To satisfy these criticisms about the St. John’s Wort studies, researchers gave participating patients either St. John’s Wort, Zoloft, or a placebo for up to 26 weeks. When the study concluded, researchers found that neither the prescription drug nor the St. John’s Wort was more effective than the placebo. Almost 33% of the placebo patients showed a large response to their treatment and this was compared to approximately 24% of both the Zoloft group and the St. John’s Wort group.….read more here…
Thiamine (Vitamin B1)’reverses kidney damage’ December 28, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in Diet and Nutrition, Wellness, vitamins.Tags: b complex, diabetes, family, health, kidneys, news, renal, thaimine, vitamin b1, Wellness
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Doses of vitamin B1 (thiamine) can reverse early kidney disease in people with type 2 diabetes, research shows.
The team from Warwick University tested the effect of vitamin B1, which is found in meat, yeast and grain, on 40 patients from Pakistan.
The treatment stopped the loss of a key protein in the urine, the journal Diabetologia reports.
Charity Diabetes UK called the results “very promising” – but said it was too early for any firm conclusions.
The latest findings build on earlier work by the Warwick University team, showing that many diabetes patients have a deficiency of thiamine.
According to the researchers, this cheap and readily available supplement could benefit most people with diabetes – both type 1 and type 2 – as between 70% and 90% of people with diabetes are thiamine deficient.…read more of story here.
