Category: Health

Physical training can substitute effectively in place of a second medication for people diagnosed with depression

On By A.P.In Depression, ExerciseLeave a comment

 

Exercise can be as effective as a second medication for as many as half of depressed patients whose condition has not been cured by a single antidepressant medication.

“Many people who start on an antidepressant medication feel better after they begin treatment, but they still don’t feel completely well or as good as they did before they became depressed,” said Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and the study’s lead author. “This study shows that exercise can be as effective as adding another medication. Many people would rather use exercise than add another drug, particularly as exercise has a proven positive effect on a person’s overall health and well-being.”

http://www8.utsouthwestern.edu/utsw/cda/dept353744/files/651304.html

Dogs Can Sniff Out Lung Cancer

On By A.P.In Dogs, Health1 Comment

 

Sniffer dogs can be used to reliably detect lung cancer, according to researchers in Germany.

Writing in the European Respiratory Journal, they found that trained dogs could detect a tumour in 71% of patients.

However, scientists do not know which chemical the dogs are detecting, which is what they say they need to know to develop a screening program.

It was first suggested that dogs could “sniff out” cancer in 1989 and further studies have shown that dogs can detect some cancers such as those of the skin, bladder, bowel and breast.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14557224

Feeling Bitter Can Ruin Your Health

On By A.P.In HealthLeave a comment

 

Feeling bitter interferes with the body’s hormonal and immune systems. Studies have shown that bitter, angry people have higher blood pressure and heart rate and are more likely to die of heart disease and other illnesses.

Physiologically, when we feel negatively towards someone, our bodies instinctively prepare to fight that person, which leads to changes such as an increase in blood pressure.

Feeling this way in the short term might not be dangerous — it might even be helpful to fight off an enemy — but the problem with bitterness is that it goes on and on. When our bodies are constantly primed to fight someone, the increase in blood pressure and in chemicals such as C-reactive protein eventually take a toll on the heart and other parts of the body.

Some data suggest that negative mental states cause heart problems with equal magnitude as smoking.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/08/17/bitter.resentful.ep/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

New Urine Test for Prostate Cancer

On By A.P.In Health, Prostate CancerLeave a comment

Prostate cancer screening may become significantly better with the use of a urine test, according to a new study just published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Prostate cancer screening is currently based on a blood test to detect PSA — prostate-specific antigen. But that test often produces false positives and leads to unnecessary biopsies. More than a million men in the U.S. undergo a prostate biopsy each year, and fewer than half of the patients actually have prostate cancer.

The new test appears to be better at detecting prostate cancer and determining which cancers will be aggressive.

Dieting Makes Some Brain Cells Eat Themselves

On By A.P.In Food, Health, Science, The BrainLeave a comment

A report in the August issue of the Cell Press journal Cell Metabolism might help to explain why it’s so frustratingly difficult to stick to a diet. When we don’t eat, hunger-inducing neurons in the brain start eating bits of themselves. That act of self-cannibalism turns up a hunger signal to prompt eating.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110802125546.htm

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/191628/20110803/brain-cells-to-blame-for-failed-diets.htm

Colon Cleansing: Not So Healthy

On By A.P.In HealthLeave a comment

Colon cleansing, technically known as colonic hydrotherapy or colonic irrigation, is a popular treatment, usually performed at spas. It often involves the use of chemicals in the body and in hydrotherapy, the colon is flushed with water through a tube inserted in the rectum.

It has been touted as a natural way to improve your heath and cleanse the soul. But doctors are now finding the procedure known as colon cleansing can cause dangerous side effects.

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/01/colon-cleansing-not-so-healthy-analysis-says/

Thanks to TLR for providing inspiration for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.

It’s Time to Stop the War on Salt

On By A.P.In SaltLeave a comment

For decades now policy makers have tried and failed to get Americans to eat less salt. In April 2010 the Institute of Medicine urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate the amount of salt that food manufacturers put into products; New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has already convinced 16 companies to do so voluntarily.

However, a recent meta-analysis of seven studies involving a total of 6,250 subjects in the American Journal of Hypertension found no strong evidence that cutting salt intake reduces the risk for heart attacks, strokes or death in people with normal or high blood pressure.  Furthermore, in May European researchers publishing in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that the less sodium that study subjects excreted in their urine—an excellent measure of prior consumption—the greater their risk was of dying from heart disease.  

These findings call into question the common wisdom that excess salt is bad for you.

Read about it here:  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=its-time-to-end-the-war-on-salt&WT.mc_id=SA_20110721

Are Hot Dogs as Dangerous as Cigarettes?

On By A.P.In Food, HealthLeave a comment

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a Washington, D.C., group that promotes preventive medicine and a vegan diet, unveiled a billboard Monday near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the advisory: “Warning: Hot dogs can wreck your health.”

The billboard features a picture of hot dogs in a cigarette pack inscribed with skull and crossbones. It aims to increase awareness of a link between colorectal cancer and hot dogs.

“A hot dog a day could send you to an early grave,” said Levin, a registered dietitian. “People think feeding their kids these foods (is) safe, but (it’s) not.”

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/fitness-food/diet-nutrition/story/2011/07/Doctors-group-says-hot-dogs-as-dangerous-as-cigarettes/49665266/1?csp=ylf

Levamisole in the cocaine

On By A.P.In Drugs, Health2 Comments

Levamisole is an anthelminthic and immunomodulator discovered at Janssen Pharmaceutica in 1966.

Levamisole has been used in humans to treat parasitic worm infections, and has been studied in combination with other forms of chemotherapy for colon cancer, melanoma, and head and neck cancer.

The drug was withdrawn from the U.S. and Canadian markets in 2000 and 2003 respectively, due to the risk of serious side effects, including a significant weakening of the immune system called agramulocytosis.

Currently, levamisole remains in veterinary use as a dewormer for livestock.

According to the Department of Justice, some 70 percent of cocaine (most of it distributed in and around New York and L.A.) is cut with levamisole.

Unlike most cuts — usually inert or relatively harmless substances like the B vitamin inositol, which are added by lower-level dealers looking to stretch supplies — levamisole appears to be added to cocaine from the outset, in the countries of origin. The substance has been found in various concentrations in cocaine analyzed in countries around the world, from Switzerland to Australia.

Levamisole is cheap, widely available and seems to have the right look, taste and melting point to go unnoticed by cocaine users, which may alone account for its popularity.
Learn about it here:
 

Thanks to P.C. for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.