Get a new car, with no credit check, as Uber driver. Email motherhealth@gmail.com to train you in making $2500 between Sept 16 to Oct 5, 2016
Source: $700 bonus for driving with Uber
L-glutamine in food sources to fight diabetes
L-glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the bloodstream and it makes up 30-35 percent of the amino acid nitrogen in your blood. It’s actually known as a conditionally essential amino acid be…
L-glutamine in food sources to fight diabetes
L-glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the bloodstream and it makes up 30-35 percent of the amino acid nitrogen in your blood. It’s actually known as a conditionally essential amino acid because your body uses it in large amounts.
The most common uses of glutamine powder were to meet the following goals: to lose weight fast, burn fat and build muscle. And while that remains the case, science is now showing that L-glutamine benefits are abundant – and that this amino acid is especially helpful in treating leaky gut and improving your overall health.
10 Proven L-Glutamine Benefits
New research is now showing that L-glutamine benefits the body in the following ways:
- Improves gastrointestinal health because it is a vital nutrient for the intestines to rebuild and repair
- Helps heal ulcers and leaky gut by acting as a Band-Aid for protection from further damage
- Is an essential neurotransmitter in the brain and helps with memory, focus and concentration
- Improves IBS and diarrhea by balancing mucus production, which results in healthy bowel movements
- Promotes muscle growth and decreases muscle wasting
- Improves athletic performance and recovery from endurance exercise
- Improves metabolism and cellular detoxification
- Curbs cravings for sugar and alcohol
- Fights cancer
- Improves diabetes and blood sugar
Stop sugar cravings with wild fish, eggs, grass-fed beef, parsley, spinach, beans and red cabbage, beets, kale, asparagus, onions, garlic, spirulina, broccoli raab, bone broth, cottage cheese, turkey, venison
Glutamine also helps regulate cells as they absorb water across the junction between the small intestine and blood stream. This is a very important part of keeping the body from losing fluid and becoming dehydrated. When water is not absorbed back into the body, diarrhea is the result. Diarrhea can be disastrous because we lose both water and other vital nutrients.
Finally, glutamine plays a very important role in both cellular and systematic detoxification processes. The lymphatic system maintains fluid and protein balance in the body, carries immune cells, and filters out toxins that are stored in tissues. Glutamine is a key energy source for lymphatic cells allowing them to better remove toxic debris. Additionally, glutamine acts as a transport molecule to carry ammonia out of major tissues, including the brain, where it is shipped to the liver for conversion into urea.
Glutamine is found in many different foods with the highest levels found in grass-fed beef, bison, chicken, & free range eggs. Raw dairy products from grass-fed cows and goats are also very high in L-glutamine. This includes grass-fed, non-denatured whey protein powder, which is considered the most bioavailable form of L-glutamine from an animal source. Using an ample amount of this form of whey protein in a shake with coconut milk, berries, & cinnamon every day is a fantastic way to naturally boost L-glutamine levels.
Red Cabbage is considered the most dense vegetable form of L-glutamine. An amazing way of bringing in the high quality nutrition from red cabbage is through juicing or shredding & fermenting it. Red cabbage sauerkraut made with apple cider vinegar may be one of the most bioavailable ways to consume L-glutamine; this is due to the deep fermentation processes that create an abundance of enzymes and good bacteria that allow amino acids and other nutrients to be better absorbed and utilized within the body.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/031811_glutamine_amino_acids.html#ixzz4JW6rSV1v
Herbs to help cut sugar cravings
Gymnema, fenugreek and garcinia are generally regarded as safe. For individuals with cancer who are on chemotherapy, there is a lack of evidence regarding possible herb-chemotherapy interactions, so it is unknown if these herbs are safe for chemotherapy patients. For people with diabetes, especially those taking oral diabetes medications, there is a greater risk for hypoglycemia as the herbs may enhance the effect of the diabetes medications. Individuals on anti-coagulation therapy should take fenugreek with caution as it may lead to anti-coagulant effects. There is little research on the effects of various herbs on pregnant women or a developing fetus. According to the American Pregnancy Association, the active substances in some herbs may cause uterine contractions, premature birth, miscarriage or injury to the fetus. Seeking medical advice for any of the previously described conditions prior to consuming herbs is the safest route to take.
If you still wanted a little bite of sugary dessert, eat a little after a meal of fish and veggies (high in fiber).
Connected and monitored health data, NIH funded
This summer, National Institutes of Health (NIH) will launch a Participant Technologies Center to test and maintain connected sensor technologies as part of the White House’s Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI), NIH Director Francis Collins announced today at the Precision Medicine Summit. Vanderbilt University, with help from Verily (formerly known as Google Live Sciences) as advisors, will conduct a pilot to prototype a set of technologies and experiments, which would help the NIH understand how to successfully work with the large cohort.
In addition to working with advisors from Verily, Vanderbilt will work with the University of Michigan and the Broad Institute. Vanderbilt plans to enroll 50,000 volunteer participants but NIH’s overall goal is 79,000 volunteer participants by the end of this year.
“This team will explore the optimal approaches and systems for engaging, enrolling, and retaining participants in the PMI cohort,” Collins said. “The pilot will start in the near future. The initial volunteers will help establish and test innovative methods and technologies for enabling user-friendly data collection and robust participant engagement. This approach will help us learn how to create durable relationships with volunteers who will be our true partners in the research process.”
Collins said that the NIH also plans to launch a technology center and take a few other steps to prepare for the cohort by this summer.
“This includes establishing a coordinating center to manage the overall project,” he said. “A network healthcare provider organizations that will engage, enroll, and support data collection for a large segment of the program’s participants — by the way a large number of health care provider organizations have already applied for the change to take part. We will establish a bio bank to store and manage biological specimens provided by participants. And we will establish a Participant Technology Center to harness the latest opportunities in mobile phone and sensor technologies.”
A grant description published towards the end of 2015 listed four objectives of the Participant Technologies Center. The first is to develop, test and maintain mobile apps that help researchers with enrollment, consent, data collection, and communication. One way the NIH said it wants to collect data is to use “home sensors and mHealth technologies to correlate body measurements and environmental exposures with health outcomes”.
The second objective is to come up with alternatives for participants who do not have a smartphone. The third is to collect and manage the data that is generated from whichever technologies are used. And the last is to work with technology companies to increase access to smartphones and passive sensor technologies for certain participants.
There are at least four other healthcare organizations that have announced precision medicine projects that use digital health technologies and are aligned with the White House’s initiative. These groups aren’t necessarily integrated with any of the federal government’s specific PMI projects, but their work is also furthering the overall goal of PMI.
The White House highlighted a number of these parallel initiatives today, including: Ochsner Health System partnered with Apple and Epic to expand its remote monitoring programs, currently focused on heart failure and hypertension, to other conditions.
Another organization, Sage Bionetworks, announced that in March, participants in its mPower study, focused on Parkinson’s disease, will be able to share their data easily with a broader group of researchers. Meanwhile, St. Joseph Health, a health system, partnered with Hart, Allscripts, and Meditech, to provide patients with access to their data using the HartOS API.
Health data platform company Validic said this year it would work with EHRs, hospital systems, and pharma companies to help patients share their health data. This would include an opt-in form that allows patients to donate their health data to science.
Finally, Cornell Tech, Open mHealth and Android developer touchlab announced that the companies will release ResearchStack, an open source framework that allows Android users to participate in app-based research studies, on April 15.
The government’s $215 million Precision Medicine Initiative was first announced last year during President Obama’s State of the Union Address. About $130 million of the funding went to the NIH to develop a research cohort of at least one million people that would share health data to help researchers grow their understanding of preventive health and disease.
Six months later, the NIH announced that the organization was considering using smartphones and wearables for data collection and sought out feedback fromthe industry about using health sensing technologies for the initiative.
Mobile Health applications for diagnosis, FDA regulated
Developers of health and medical apps will now have strict rules to abide by with Apple’s new App Store Guidelines that establish a high bar for any app aimed at health and wellness.
Previous iterations of the guidelines already laid out the proper protocol for human research subjects and avoiding physical harm, but the new rules carry much more detailed and specific language, ranging from privacy protection to warnings about inaccurate data that could potentially cause physical harm. With a whole section on physical harm (previously a short line in the rules) Apple’s new guidelines aren’t letting anything slide.
“If your app behaves in a way that risks physical harm, we may reject it,” the guidelines state, and go on to describe in detail possible pitfalls. Apple is also snuffing out any marijuana related apps and those that encourage people to place their iPhones under a mattress or pillow while charging, such as sleep-tracking apps.
Potential issues include medical apps that could provide inaccurate data or information, or those that could be used in diagnosing or treating patients. If the app has received FDA clearance, the developers must submit a link to the documentation. Previously allowable apps, such as the super popular Instant Blood Pressure app, were subsequently shown to be inaccurate, and wouldn’t make the cut under today’s guidelines. Apple is also cracking down on drug dosage apps, which it has been enforcing the past year already.
“Drug dosage calculators must come from the drug manufacturer, a hospital, university, health insurance company, or other approved entity, or receive approval by the FDA or one of its international counterparts,” the guidelines state. “Given the potential harm to patients, we need to be sure that the app will be supported and updated over the long term.”
With the hundreds of thousands of health and medical apps, it’s tough for regulators to keep up. TheFDA recently released new guidelines and the FTC also offered up tools to help developers of health apps, but they still aren’t the de facto gatekeeper of the app store, like Apple is. While the FDA’s guidelines seek to clarify the regulatory process and encourage device and app makers to share data with patients, the App Store rules could potentially curb problematic apps faster and right at the source. The screening guidelines can stop questionable apps from even getting to the market — at least on iOS — and puts additional pressure on developers to also make their policies, information and selves more available.
As Dr. Iltifat Husain of iMedical Apps, who broke the news, wrote, “The changes they are announcing contain the most stringent language I have ever seen Apple use for the health and medical categories of apps. Frankly, these are a long time coming.”
Dietary needs of seniors with Parkinson’s disease
Good for PD: Vitamin A, Carotenoid Carotenoids (alpha- and beta-carotene) are precursors of vitamin A in human. Egg yolks, organ meats, and milk are rich sources of vitamin A, while carotenoid rich…
Dietary needs of seniors with Parkinson’s disease
Good for PD: Vitamin A, Carotenoid
Carotenoids (alpha- and beta-carotene) are precursors of vitamin A in human. Egg yolks, organ meats, and milk are rich sources of vitamin A, while carotenoid rich diet includes carrots, sweet potatoes, and peaches, as well as other fruits and vegetables. Previously, vitamin A and beta-carotene were shown to inhibit alpha-synuclein fibril formation and destabilize formed fibrils in dose-dependent manner in vitro [6]. While several human studies did not identify a link with vitamin A and PD [7–10], Miyake et al. found a protective effect of beta-carotene in PD (Parkinson’s Disease) in a Japanese population
Good for PD: Vitamin B
Vitamin B complexes are found in meat, fish, cereal, dairy products, and some vegetables (i.e., potato) and fruits (i.e., banana). Although there are several types of vitamin B, the focus of this discussion is on vitamin B2 (riboflavin), B6 (pyridoxine), B9 (folate), and B12 (cobalamin).
Homocysteine is a metabolite of methionine that is essential for the DNA synthesis and has been shown to exert adverse effects of mitochondrial alterations. Vitamins B6, B9, and B12 indirectly regulate level of homocysteine [13, 14]. Folate-deficient diets result in increases in homocysteine [15]. High homocysteine level damages DNA and depletes energy reserves, subsequently inducing neuron apoptosis [16, 17].
In one study on the effects of folate deficiency, two-month-old C57B1/6 mice were subjected to a diet lacking folate or control diet containing 2 mg folate/kg of food for two months followed by intraperitoneal (ip) MPTP injection at subtoxic doses or saline [15]. Mice fed with control diet did not exhibit differences in motor activity between MPTP or saline groups. Similarly, motor activity in folate-deficient mice was not significantly different from mice with control diet. However, MPTP-induced motor activity impairment and loss of nigral dopaminergic neurons were exacerbated in folate-deficient mice. Further, vitamin B2 deficiency in rodents was shown to decrease circulating iron levels and increase iron turnover, resulting in disturbance of iron metabolism, which is one of the well-established hypotheses in PD [18, 19]. Therefore, in animal models, vitamin B deficiency appears to exacerbate neurotoxicant-induced motor deficits and pathology.
Epidemiological studies presented variable findings. Higher intake of vitamins B6, B9, and B12, but not B2, was associated with lower risk of PD in a German populatio
Good for PD: Saltwater fish, Vit D
Major vitamin D rich foods are fortified milk, liver, and saltwater fish [28]. Vitamin D is metabolized into its active form, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25-(OH)2 Vit D or calcitriol) in the cytoplasm of neurons and glial cells [29, 30]. The vitamin D receptor (VDR) is activated by binding to calcitriol which increases calcium uptake in bones.
Although a protective role of vitamin D against PD is not well established, there are number of laboratory studies suggesting that exogenous administration may be protective: MPP+ toxicity in primary mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons was decreased by low doses of vitamin D (1–100 nM) in vitro [31]. Pretreatment of rats with calcitriol prior to 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) administration attenuated neuronal toxicity in vivo [32]. It is worth noting that significantly lower bone mass index and vitamin D deficiency were detected in PD patients
Good for PD: Vit E in nuts and vegetable oils
Vitamin E is found at high levels in vegetable oils, nuts, and whole-grain products. It has strong antioxidant capacity. Pretreatment of neurons with vitamin E alleviated MPTP-induced dopaminergic neuron toxicity in vitro [42]. Further, vitamin E-deficient mice exhibit heightened sensitivity to MPTP
Good for PD: Berries and citrus fruits
Flavonoids are the most common groups of polyphenols in human diet [52]. Many plant-based foods and beverages are rich in flavonoids, such as berry fruits and citrus fruits [53]. Flavonoids have high antioxidant capacity [54]; they have been shown to modulate oxidative-related enzymes and regulate mitochondrial function in neurons [52, 55]. These findings point to a potential protective role of flavonoids in PD.
Nobiletin, a flavonoid that is found in citrus fruit peel, was found to improve MPTP-induced motor and cognitive deficits in mice [56]. Although nobiletin administration (50 mg/kg) via ip injections for 2 weeks did not prevent loss of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain of MPTP-induced PD model mice, motor deficits were alleviated significantly compared to mice that did not receive the injections.
A potential neuroprotective role of flavonoids in PD was recently examined using anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins. Strathearn et al. reported that the treatment of primary midbrain cultures with blueberry, grape seed, hibiscus, blackburrant, or Chinese mulberry extracts rescued rotenone-induced loss of dopaminergic neurons [57]. Here, blueberry and grape seed extracts were shown to rescue disruption of mitochondrial respiration, suggesting that the protective effect might be mediated via enhancement of mitochondrial function.
Good for PD: Beer
A meta-analysis was performed recently to investigate association of alcohol consumption with PD risk [178]. Meta-analysis of 32 studies including 9,994 cases among 677,550 subjects found a significant association of beer with decreased risk of PD (RR 0.59, 95% CI 0.39–0.90), but not with wine and liquor.
Good PD, good fat: MUFA and PUFA
Dairy products and meat are rich in saturated acids. Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) are found in sunflower oil, peanut oil, and olive oil, which are commonly used in Mediterranean diet. There are different types of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA): vegetable oils that contain omega-6 and omega-3 is abundant in fish and marine products. MUFAs and PUFAs have been shown to have anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties, by reducing the oxidative stress and inhibiting neuronal apoptosis [105–110]. PUFAs help regulation of dopamine activity in basal ganglia, controlling movement [111, 112]. Omega-3 fatty acid is crucial for neurogenesis in olfactory bulb and myelination by oligodendrocytes, which has been shown to be significantly affected in PD [113]. Moreover, omega-3 deficiency causes alteration of the dopamine mesocorticolimbic pathway, which is anatomically relevant to PD [114, 115]. Zimmer et al. reported that dopamine levels in cerebral areas and D2 receptor mRNA expression in frontal cortex were lower in rat fed with omega-3 deficient rats.
Good for PD: Dietary restriction
Dietary restriction has been repeatedly shown to prolong lifespan and decrease age-related diseases [61–63]. Low calorie intake attenuated age-related decline in dopamine signaling and increased resistance of nigral neurons to excitotoxic or oxidative stress [64, 65]. Dietary restriction in mice enhanced expression of neurotrophic factor, especially brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), in hippocampus, resulting in an excitoprotective effect, preventing excitotoxicity which is caused by neurotransmitters such as glutamate [66–68]. Protein chaperones, such as hsp70, that help cells to resist various stressors, were also induced in vivo
Good for PD: Magnesium
Dopaminergic neurodegeneration in the substantia nigra was more evident in magnesium-deficient rats than calcium and magnesium deficient rats. The same study also suggested that magnesium deficiency is toxic to the dopaminergic system only if occurring in fetal and newborn periods of life, suggesting the importance of magnesium in early development of dopaminergic neurons. The synergistic effect of calcium and magnesium was confirmed in a mouse model as well. Mice fed with low calcium/magnesium-deficient diet displayed cataleptic behavior, which was inhibited by treatment with L-DOPA in a dose-dependent manner, and these mice had significantly lower TH activity in substantia nigra [169]. Since magnesium was found to decrease NMDA activity [170], hypofunction of dopamine might be due to supersensitivity of NMDA receptors enhanced by lack of magnesium.
In humans, magnesium showed a protective effect against PD in a Japanese population (OR 0.33, 95% CI 0.17–0.73 for highest quartile >312.9 mg/day; P = 0.002) [11]. A relatively small-sized case control study in Sweden reported that lower dietary magnesium intake was associated with lower brief smell identification test score (P = 0.012), which is an olfactory function test in which PD patients generally perform less efficiently than healthy controls.
60% Calcium, 40% Magnesium, Vit C and D
Good for PD: Women and Caffeine (with no estrogen therapy):
The relation between caffeine intake, estrogen use, and PD is difficult to explain and requires more careful consideration of case-control study design with discrepancies among hormone usage when dealing with female populations.
Toxic: Manganese, iron, toxins
Occupational manganese exposure at chronic and high levels in welders, miners, and smelters was associated with increased incidence of Parkinsonian-like symptoms.
The iron hypothesis in PD suggests that Fenton’s reaction induces production of hydroxyl radical and higher oxidation states of iron [138–140]. Hydroxyl radicals are toxic to neurons by inducing lipid peroxidation and subsequent cell death. Lewy bodies in PD brains are iron-positive and iron has been shown to induce alpha-synuclein accumulation [141, 142]. Reactive microglia, a common pathological finding in PD brains, contain high levels of iron
Toxic: metals
Epidemiologic studies have found increased risk of PD associated with exposure to environmental toxicants such as pesticides, solvents, metals, and other pollutants, and many of these compounds recapitulate PD pathology in animal models.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4320877/
Practicing Medicine in California Through Telehealth
Telehealth (previously called telemedicine) is seen as a tool in medical practice, not a separate form of medicine. There are no legal prohibitions to using technology in the practice of medicine, …
Source: Practicing Medicine in California Through Telehealth
Practicing Medicine in California Through Telehealth
Telehealth (previously called telemedicine) is seen as a tool in medical practice, not a separate form of medicine. There are no legal prohibitions to using technology in the practice of medicine, as long as the practice is done by a California licensed physician. Telehealth is not a telephone conversation, email/instant messaging conversation, or fax; it typically involves the application of videoconferencing or store and forward technology to provide or support health care delivery.
The standard of care is the same whether the patient is seen in-person, through telehealth or other methods of electronically enabled health care. Physicians need not reside in California, as long as they have a valid, current California license.
In 1996, Senate Bill 1665 (M. Thompson; Chap 864, Stats of 1996) enacted the “Telemedicine Development Act of 1996” which imposed several requirements governing the delivery of health care services through telemedicine and also made several changes to different sections of law, which are also related to telemedicine.
Below we have listed a few highlights of Senate Bill 1665:
- The act shall not be construed to alter the scope of practice of any health care provider or authorize the delivery of health care services in a setting, or in a manner, not otherwise authorized by law.
- Exempts out-of-state practitioners, as defined, from the Medical Practice Act when consulting either within this state or across state lines, with a licensed practitioner in California. Prohibits the out-of-state practitioner from having ultimate authority over the care or primary diagnosis of a patient in California.
- Requires the practitioner to obtain verbal and written informed consent from the patient prior to delivering health care via telemedicine, and also requires that this signed written consent statement becomes part of the patient’s medical record.
- Provides that no health care service plan contract that is issued, amended, or renewed, on and after January 1, 1997, shall require face-to-face contract between a health care provider and patient for services appropriately provided through telemedicine, subject to all terms and conditions of the contract agreed upon.
In 2011, AB 415 repealed existing law related to telemedicine and replaced this law with the Telehealth Advancement Act of 2011, which revises and updates existing law to facilitate the advancement of telehealth as a service delivery mode in managed care and the Medi-Cal program. This bill repeals and replaces section 2290.5 of the Business and Professions Code to do the following:
- Defines “Asynchronous store and forward” as the transmission of a patient’s medical information from an originating site to the health care provider at a distant site without the presence of the patient.
- Defines “Distant Site” as a site where a health care provider is located while providing services via a telecommunications system.
- Defines “Originating Site” as a site where a patient is located at the time health care services are provided via a telecommunications system or where the asynchronous store and forward transfer occurs.
- Defines “telehealth” as the mode of delivering health care services and public health via information and communication technologies to facilitate the diagnosis, consultation, treatment, education, care management, and self-management of a patient’s health care while the patient is at the originating site and the health care provider is at the distant site. States that telehealth facilitates patient self-management and caregiver support for patients and includes synchronous interactions and asynchronous store and forward transfers.
- States that this section shall not be construed to alter the scope of practice of any health care provider.
- Provides that all laws regarding the confidentiality of health care information and a patient’s rights to his or her medical information shall apply to telehealth interactions.
- This bill also applies the Business and Professions Code Section to the laws relating to Health Care Service Plans and to the Insurance code and requires health care service plans and health insurance companies to adopt payment policies to compensate health care providers who provide covered health care services through telehealth. This bill also applies these requirements to the Medi-Cal managed care program.
In 2015, AB 809 revised the informed consent requirements relating to the delivery of health care via telehealth by permitting consent to be made verbally or in writing, and by deleting the requirement that the health care provider who obtains the consent be at the originating site where the patient is physically located. This bill requires the health care provider to document the consent.
http://www.mbc.ca.gov/Licensees/Telehealth.aspx
Physicians using telehealth technologies to provide care to patients located in California must be licensed in California. Physicians are held to the same standard of care, and retain the same responsibilities of providing informed consent, ensuring the privacy of medical information, and any other duties associated with practicing medicine regardless of whether they are practicing via telehealth or face-to-face, in-person visits.
Motherhealth mobile application , Health Mobile Outpatient , is inviting all doctors to participate in the development and customization of this telemedicine application to cater to the needs of doctors and patients and delight users in an Uber-like telemedicine experience. Email motherhealth@gmail.com to be part of this health application to be delivered this year with the blessing of as many doctors and patients.
Motherhealth , 1708 Hallmark Lane San Jose CA 95124
Muscle health is brain health
Electrical impedance myography, or EIM, is a non-invasive technique for the assessment of muscle health that is based on the measurement of the electrical impedance characteristics of individual mu…
Source: Muscle health is brain health
Muscle health is brain health
Electrical impedance myography, or EIM, is a non-invasive technique for the assessment of muscle health that is based on the measurement of the electrical impedance characteristics of individual muscles or groups of muscles. The technique has been used for the purpose of evaluating neuromuscular diseases both for their diagnosis and for their ongoing assessment of progression or with therapeutic intervention. Muscle composition and microscopic structure change with disease, and EIM measures alterations in impedance that occur as a result of disease pathology.
EIM has been specifically recognized for its potential as an ALS biomarker (also known as a biological correlate or surrogate endpoint) by Prize4Life, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the discovery of treatments and cures for ALS. The $1M ALS Biomarker Challenge focused on identifying a biomarker precise and reliable enough to cut Phase II drug trials in half.
The prize was awarded to Dr. Seward Rutkove, chief, Division of Neuromuscular Disease, in the Department of Neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, for his work in developing the technique of EIM and its specific application to ALS. It is hoped that EIM as a biomarker will result in the more rapid and efficient identification of new treatments for ALS. EIM has shown sensitivity to disease status in a variety of neuromuscular conditions, includingradiculopathy,[4] inflammatory myopathy,[5] Duchenne muscular dystrophy,[6] and spinal muscular atrophy.[7]
In addition to the assessment of neuromuscular disease, EIM also has the prospect of serving as a convenient and sensitive measure of muscle condition. Work in aging populations[8] and individuals with orthopedic injuries[9] indicates that EIM is very sensitive to muscle atrophy and disuse and is conversely likely sensitive to muscle conditioning and hypertrophy.[10] Work on mouse and rats models, including a study of mice on board the final Space Shuttle mission (STS-135),[11] has helped to confirm this potential value.
ALS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease and motor neurone disease (MND), is a specific disorder that involves the death of neurons that control voluntary muscles.[1][2][3][4] Some also use motor neuron disease for a group of five conditions of which ALS is the most common.[5] ALS is characterized by stiff muscles, muscle twitching, and gradually worsening weakness due to muscles decreasing in size.[6] This results in difficulty in speaking, swallowing, and eventually breathing.
Brawn and Brains
The scientists focused on the twins’ muscles rather than their exercise habits largely because the power measures were objective, unlike people’s notoriously unreliable recollections of how much they have worked out. (There was a correlation, though, between more self-reported exercise and sturdier legs.)
The scientists then asked the twins to visit a laboratory and repeat the cognitive tests.
Twenty of the identical twin pairs also completed brain-imaging scans.
Then the researchers compared leg power 10 years earlier with changes in brain function over the same time period.
They found that of the 324 twins, those who had had the sturdiest legs a decade ago showed the least fall-off in thinking skills, even when the scientists controlled for such factors as fatty diets, high blood pressure and shaky blood-sugar control.
The differences in thinking skills were particularly striking within twin pairs. If one twin had been more powerful than the other 10 years before, she tended to be a much better thinker now.
In fact, on average, a muscularly powerful twin now performed about 18 percent better on memory and other cognitive tests than her weaker sister.
Similarly, in the brain imaging of the identical twins, if one genetically identical twin had had sturdier legs than the other at the start of the study, she now displayed significantly more brain volume and fewer “empty spaces in the brain” than her weaker sister, Dr. Steves said.
Over all, among both the identical and fraternal twins, fitter legs were strongly linked, 10 years later, to fitter brains.
Death from opioid analgesic and benzodiazepine combo
The agency says that nearly 400 prescription opioid analgesics, opioid-containing cough products, and benzodiazepine products will be required to have boxed warnings—the agency’s strongest kind—and guides that provide “information about the serious risks associated with using these medications at the same time.”
Outcomes of mixing the medications at the same time “include extreme sleepiness, respiratory depression, coma and death.”
The FDA decided to make this change after data showed that the “number of patients who were prescribed both an opioid analgesic and benzodiazepine increased by 41 percent between 2002 and 2014.”
The agency also saw that from “2004 to 2011, the rate of emergency department visits involving non-medical use of both drug classes increased significantly, with overdose deaths…involving both drug classes nearly tripling during that period.”
Effects of obesity: bullying, difficulty finding doctors, sleep disorder, infertility, cancer, and migraine
By now you’ve probably heard that obesity increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes. But you might not know that the extra weight can have other serious health consequences, including cancer.
A new study found that 10 percent of all gallbladder, kidney, liver, and colon cancers could be attributed to excess weight. A whopping 41 percent of uterine cancers were tied to obesity, according to the study published today in The Lancet.
More than 36 percent of Americans are now considered obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An additional 34 percent are considered overweight. Effects of obesity: bullying, difficulty finding doctors, sleep disorder, infertility, cancer, and migraine.
Cancer
The Lancet study of 5.4 million people found that every 1-point population-wide increase in body mass index or BMI would result in 3,790 additional cancers each year. That’s worrying, considering that the average BMI in the U.S. has risen nearly 2.5 points for men and almost four points for women since 1971, according to a 2013 study.
The National Cancer Institute estimates that obesity contributes to 34,000 new cases of cancer in men and 50,000 in women each year. But if every adult reduced their BMI by 1 percent – a loss of roughly 2.2 pounds – about 100,000 new cases of cancer could be avoided, according to the agency’s website.
Prevent high risk drug abuse among elderly in the south
‘Geography is destiny’
Residents of the South Atlantic, East South Central and West South Central regions of the country — an area stretching from parts of Texas to South Carolina — had a 10 to 12 percentage point higher risk of receiving potentially harmful prescriptions than people in New England, who had the lowest chance, the analysis found.
The trend persists at the finer resolution of “hospital-referral regions” or HRRs, the authors note. “The 20 lowest performing HRRs were all in the Southern region of the United States. In contrast,” they wrote in the journal, “only one of the 20 highest performing HRRs was in the South.”
Albany, Ga., had the highest rate of receipt of single high-risk prescriptions: 38.2 percent. Seniors in Alexandria, La., led the nation in receiving at least two high-risk prescriptions, with a rate of 13.5 percent. Mason City, Iowa (9.6%) and Worcester, Mass. (0.7%), had the best rate of single and multiple high-risk prescription use, respectively.
In another demographic analysis, women across the country had a 10 percentage point greater likelihood of receiving a high-risk prescription. Other differences were less stark. Generally the lower the socioeconomic status of a patient’s region, the more likely they were to receive a high-risk medication. Residents of the poorest areas had a 2.7 percentage point higher risk than the residents of the richest areas.
Connie’s comments: Caregivers, family members and spouses should monitor the health status of the elderly they care for after taking medications every day. Note status of urination, constipation, loss of appetite and dizziness. Talk to the doctor about your observations and ask for lower dose or stopping or substituting a particular medication with adverse side effects.
Outpatient population are not regularly monitored once they leave the hospitals.