Apple Finally Adds Period Tracker to Its Health App

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Your iPhone already knows some incredibly personal details about you—your bank account info, the fact that you still have to Google “how to use a semicolon,” and whomever you text all those heart emojis to, among other things—so it’s not crazy to want a simple way to keep track of your monthly cycle on that electronic second brain of yours.

But to the frustration of women excited about Apple’s Health app, Apple left a period tracker off the supposedly all-encompassing tool they unveiled last September. And despite repeated updates to the program in the nine months since then, Apple continued to ignore it—until now. At Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, it was announced that the Health app will finally include a “reproductive health” tracker as part of its iOS 9 update this fall.

RELATED: 10 Fitness Trackers Worthy of a Spot on Your Wish List

HealthKit period tracker – it’s almost as if Apple just realized that women exist. #WWDC15 http://pic.twitter.com/NuJGy7cGJW

— Tony Webster (@webster) June 8, 2015

We don’t know much about this new feature just yet; all Apple has revealed so far is a quick screenshot of the page, which seems to include a way for women to pinpoint the start of their menstrual cycle and monitor the length and intensity of their flow—all information that can help us make sure we’re regular and even plan to conceive. But considering that plenty of other, extremely popular apps for menstrual tracking already exist (Clue and Period Tracker are two stand-outs), all we have to say is, thanks for finally including women in your world, Apple. Welcome to ours.

RELATED: 4 Cycle-Tracking Apps to Help You Get Pregnant

 

 

 

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Strong Bones After 50? Women May Not Need Next Test Until 65

TUESDAY, June 9, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A postmenopausal woman who is 50 and still shows “normal” readings on her bone density test may not need her next such test for 10 or even 15 years, a new study finds.

However, researchers led by Dr. Margaret Gourlay of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill stressed that younger women who do show signs of bone loss are at high risk for a major fracture, and do require regular testing.

The study involved almost 4,100 postmenopausal American women between the ages of 50 and 64 who took part in the ongoing Women’s Health Initiative study.

All of the women had undergone a bone mineral density test to assess their risk for fractures and osteoporosis. The women were not taking hormones, calcium or vitamin D supplements. They also had never had a broken bone, the team said.

The results: Among women whose tests showed no signs of osteoporosis, it took nearly 13 years for just 1 percent of the youngest women, and almost eight years for 1 percent of the oldest women, to suffer a spinal fracture or broken hip.

It also took roughly 12 years for 3 percent of the younger women and nearly nine years for 3 percent of the older women without osteoporosis to sustain a spinal fracture or break a hip, wrist or arm, Gourlay’s team said.

The researchers believe that — barring significant health issues — younger postmenopausal women with no sign of osteoporosis do not need a repeat bone mineral density test for 10 to 15 years.

The study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and published in the June issue of Menopause.

Two experts in women’s health says the new study gives older women valuable guidance.

“In the past, both physicians and their patients have been led to believe that bone mineral density testing should be performed routinely — even as often as every two years,” said Dr. Rebecca Brightman, an assistant clinical professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City.

The timing of osteoporosis testing should always be a decision made by a woman and her doctor, she said. However, the new study suggests that, “if a recently menopausal woman has a normal bone density she may be able to wait up to 10-15 years before it is repeated,” Brightman said.

Dr. Caroline Messer is an endocrinologist at Lenox Hill Hospital, also in New York City. She believes the study does have “one major drawback,” in that it only looked at the time elapsed until a woman experienced a fracture — not until she first showed signs of bone loss or osteoporosis.

So, “screening at shorter intervals may confer additional benefits beyond short-term fracture risk reduction,” Messer explained. Catching bone loss before it progresses might help prevent osteoporosis, which in turn might prevent fractures from occurring, she explained.

The study authors also stressed that women whose bones already showed signs of weakening at the time of their first bone test will need to be monitored more closely. Women who had osteoporosis when the study began were at much higher risk for broken bones — within just three years, 1 percent of these women suffered a major fracture, the authors said. By 2.5 years, a full 3 percent of these women had such an injury.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases provides more information on osteoporosis.

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U.S. Health Officials Search for Those Exposed to Drug-Resistant TB

TUESDAY, June 9, 2015 (HealthDay News) — U.S. health authorities are trying to find anyone who may have had contact with a woman who has been diagnosed with a highly drug-resistant form of tuberculosis.

The woman flew from India to Chicago in April. She then traveled to Missouri and Tennessee before returning to Chicago, where she sought treatment at a hospital about seven weeks after arriving in the United States, The New York Times reported late Monday.

At the hospital, the woman was diagnosed with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). On Friday, she was transferred by special air and ground ambulances to a U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) hospital in Bethesda, Md.

The woman is in an isolation room and the hospital “is providing care and treatment for the patient in connection with an existing NIH clinical protocol for treating TB, including XDR forms,” the NIH said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is trying to obtain a list of passengers who were on the same flight as the woman, and is also working with Illinois health officials to identify other people who may have had contact with the woman to determine if they require TB tests, The Times reported.

The risk to the public is low, the CDC said.

One U.S. expert agreed, noting that drug-resistant TB is not spread any more easily than other types of TB.

“Factors that determine the spread of bacteria that cause TB depend on the number and density of persons in any given place,” said Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “Spending long periods of time with an infected person also increases the risk of transmission… [and] overcrowded conditions found in prisons, hospitals, as well as spaces with inadequate ventilation, raise risk for transmission.”

Glatter noted that people with compromised immune systems, such as those with HIV or AIDS, are especially vulnerable to TB infection.

“One way we can reduce chances for spread of TB is by properly isolating and rapidly treating patients who are infectious,” Glatter said. “Patients with TB need to follow proper cough hygiene, covering their mouths with a tissue or using a surgical mask in poorly ventilated areas.”

XDR-TB is rare in the United States, with only 63 reported cases between 1993 and 2011, according to The Times. Drug-resistant types of TB are more common in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on tuberculosis.

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Certain Diabetes Drugs May Aid Weight Loss by Curbing Cravings

TUESDAY, June 9, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A class of drugs used to treat diabetes also appears to help patients lose weight by changing how the brain responds to food, a new study suggests.

Researchers have been trying to learn how gut-hormone based medications called GLP-1 receptor agonists also help people with type 2 diabetes shed excess pounds.

A Dutch team said the drugs may reduce cravings and increase satisfaction while eating. The researchers looked specifically at the injectable GLP-1 receptor agonist exenatide (Bydureon, Byetta).

Their findings are to be presented Tuesday at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) annual meeting in Boston. Studies presented at meetings are generally viewed as preliminary until they’ve been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

“When you eat, there are several hormones released. GLP-1 is one of them,” Dr. Liselotte van Bloemendaal, a Ph.D. student at the Diabetes Center, VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, Holland, said in an ADA news release.

“These hormones relay information to the central nervous system about nutritional status to regulate appetite. Using functional MRIs [which measure brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow], we looked at the reward centers in the brains of obese individuals with and without type 2 diabetes and measured the response to the anticipation of and drinking of chocolate milk while being given GLP-1 receptor agonist intravenously versus placebo,” she explained.

When given the drug, the brain didn’t anticipate the food reward as much. The researchers said this could lead to reduced cravings. The drug also seemed to increase the feeling of reward from food while people were eating, which might reduce overeating, according to van Bloemendaal.

The findings may lead to new treatments for obesity, she said. Van Bloemendaal also wants to determine whether these drugs can reduce cravings for drugs, alcohol and nicotine.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases explains how to choose a safe and effective weight-loss program.

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Like Mother, Like Child: Study Hints at Why Obesity May Run in Families

TUESDAY, June 9, 2015 (HealthDay News) — New research offers potential clues as to why children of obese mothers are at increased risk for obesity.

While previous studies have provided clear evidence that children of obese parents are more likely to be obese, the reasons why were unclear.

But the new study found that while in the womb, the cells of children of obese mothers may be programmed to accumulate extra fat, or develop differences in metabolism that could lead to insulin resistance — a condition that increases the risk of type 2 diabetes.

The researchers extracted stem cells from donated umbilical cords of babies of obese and normal-weight mothers and grew the cells into fat and muscle cells in the lab. Compared to those from normal-weight mothers, the lab-grown cells from obese mothers had 30 percent more fat. Further analysis is needed to determine if the cells from obese mothers also have altered metabolism.

“At this point, because this is fairly preliminary, we don’t know how these differences in cells grown in the lab correspond to the physiology of these children after birth,” Kristen Boyle, assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said in an American Diabetes Association news release.

“But it’s clear that there is an inherent propensity toward more fat content in the cells from offspring of obese moms, in [lab research]. We also know that the fat accumulation in these cells corresponded to the baby’s fat mass at birth. The next step is to follow these offspring to see if there is a lasting change into adulthood,” Boyle explained.

The study was scheduled to be presented Tuesday at the American Diabetes Association annual meeting in Boston. The data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

Learn more about keeping children at a healthy weight from the American Academy of Family Physicians.

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Stroke Ages Brain by 8 Years, Study Finds

TUESDAY, June 9, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A stroke robs the brain of nearly eight years, impairing memory and slowing thinking speed, a new study says.

University of Michigan researchers analyzed national data from more than 4,900 black and white Americans aged 65 and older who underwent tests of memory and thinking speed between 1998 and 2012.

Test results among those who suffered a stroke fell as much as if they had suddenly aged 7.9 years, according to the study in the July issue of the journal Stroke.

Stroke had a similar effect on brain function in both blacks and whites in the study. But previous research has found that rates of memory and thinking problems in older blacks are generally twice that of whites.

These new findings show that stroke doesn’t account for that racial disparity as people age, and also highlight the importance of stroke prevention, the researchers said.

“As we search for the key drivers of the known disparities in cognitive [mental] decline between blacks and whites, we focus here on the role of ‘health shocks’ such as stroke,” study author Dr. Deborah Levine, an assistant professor in the University of Michigan medical school, said in a university news release.

“Although we found that stroke does not explain the difference, these results show the amount of cognitive aging that stroke brings on, and therefore the importance of stroke prevention to reduce the risk of cognitive decline,” she added.

Ways to reduce stroke risk include: controlling blood pressure and cholesterol; not smoking; physical activity; and controlling blood sugar in diabetes.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about stroke prevention.

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Widespread Vaccination Fights Serious Stomach Infection in Kids: CDC

TUESDAY, June 9, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The widespread use of a vaccine against a germ that causes gastrointestinal infections in infants and young children has been a resounding success in the United States, a new study suggests.

A team led by Dr. Eyal Leshem of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports a big drop in the number of young children hospitalized with gastroenteritis since routine immunization against rotavirus was launched in 2006.

“Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe acute gastroenteritis — vomiting and severe diarrhea — among children across the world,” said one expert, Dr. Roya Samuels, a pediatrician at Cohen Children’s Hospital of New York in New Hyde Park.

But two vaccines — Rotateq and Rotatrix — can prevent up to 87 percent of all rotavirus illnesses occurring during a baby’s first year, said Samuels, who was not involved in the new study.

In the new research, Leshem’s team tracked data from 26 states. They found a steep decline between 2008 and 2012 for hospitalizations for gastroenteritis among children younger than 5 years of age.

Before rotavirus vaccination was implemented, 76 out of every 10,000 children under 5 was hospitalized for gastroenteritis from any cause, the researchers noted. However, after widespread vaccination began, that rate declined by 31 percent in 2008, by 33 percent in 2009, by 48 percent in 2010, and by 55 percent in 2012.

There were similar rate declines among girls and boys, across all racial/ethnic groups, and in all age groups, the CDC team said.

The largest decreases occurred among children ages 6 months to 23 months, according to the study published June 9 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Before rotavirus vaccination began, the rate of hospitalization gastroenteritis directly linked to rotavirus among children younger than 5 years was 16 cases per 10,000 children. However, after vaccination began, rates fell by 70 percent in 2008, 63 percent in 2009, 90 percent in 2010 and 94 percent in 2012.

The authors say that individual babies are protected by the vaccine, of course, but “herd immunity” is probably playing a big role as well. Herd immunity occurs when a child’s chance of coming into contact with a germ drops because so many other people are also immune to the bug, and are therefore not passing it on.

“The vaccine has truly been amazing if you look at the numbers,” said another expert, Dr. Tuvia Marciano. He directs pediatric endoscopy at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y.

“There was data published previously on the effect of the vaccine,” Marciano said, “and we know it drastically reduced admissions for kids sick with rotavirus and for kids sick with gastroenteritis.” That’s great news, he added, since “gastroenteritis and dehydration makes up a large percentage of [pediatric] hospital admissions.”

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about rotavirus vaccination.

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Technology Offers Hope of Better Bionic Legs

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, June 9, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Scientists say they’re making progress toward developing a motorized artificial lower leg that automatically adjusts to changes in movement, such as from walking to using stairs.

Currently, powered prosthetics are available for the arm, knee, ankle and foot, but not for the length of leg from knee to foot. The technology described in a new study aims to use electronic signals from the user’s brain to control the knee-to-foot prosthesis.

While years away from prime-time use, the advances reported in the study are promising, said lead author Levi Hargrove, director of the Neural Engineering for Prosthetics and Orthotics Laboratory at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

“This is going to make it to the market, and it has the potential to help a large number of people,” he predicted.

Among the U.S. military alone, more than three-quarters of amputations from 2001 to 2011 involved major lower limb loss, according to background research with the study.

Given these numbers, it’s important to find a way to make battery-powered legs more flexible and responsive to the user’s intentions, experts say.

Powered artificial arms have been around for decades using this kind of technology, Hargrove said. But legs are a greater challenge. “They’ve lagged behind the prosthetic arms, and they’ve been difficult to develop technologically,” he said.

Currently, someone with an artificial leg must manually stop and adjust the device for changes in movement — when switching from walking to climbing stairs or descending a ramp, for example, Hargrove explained.

The goal is to find a way for the device to make these switches automatically and seamlessly.

In the new study — published June 9 in the Journal of the American Medical Association — Hargrove and colleagues tested two types of technology in seven people whose legs had been amputated above or at the knee.

Both approaches use sensors and computerized algorithms to predict how the user wants to move in the next stride, but one also monitors electronic signals from the brain.

The technology that uses the brain signals was more accurate, the study found. It misinterpreted the intended type of movement 8 percent of the time on average out of an average of 683 steps. The other technology missed the mark an average of 14 percent of the time across an average of 692 steps.

When the artificial limbs make a mistake, it’s “often the equivalent to scuffing your foot or hitting your toe,” Hargrove said. Fewer than 1 percent of the errors required users to stop moving and reset the device. Still, “we want to reduce all types of errors,” he added.

Dr. Gerald Loeb, director of the Medical Device Development Facility at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, said the findings provide “valuable information” about the devices’ potential to accurately recognize what users want to do via their brain signals.

Still, researchers must look at a wider range of activities and movements, “which greatly complicates study design,” he said.

What’s next? Hargrove said more research is needed, but he believes the technology may be ready for amputees’ use in four or five years. He said the knee-to-foot devices will likely cost tens of thousands of dollars — similar to the cost of existing devices — and he anticipates insurance companies will cover them.

More information

The Amputee Coalition has statistics on limb loss.

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Spinal Cord Injuries Drop Among Young, But Rise Among Older Americans

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, June 9, 2015 (HealthDay News) — While the overall rate of traumatic spinal cord injuries was stable from 1993 to 2012, an increasing number of older Americans have experienced this injury, a new study finds.

“Spinal cord injury is a catastrophic injury that often results in permanent disability,” said lead researcher Dr. Nitin Jain, an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn.

Injuries to the spinal cord can cause paralysis as well as permanent changes in strength, sensation and other functions.

Falls are the major cause of these injuries among older adults, Jain said. In addition, deaths from spinal cord injuries remain high, especially in older patients.

“These problems are likely to increase with our aging population,” he said. “Efforts to understand and prevent falls in elderly persons is a public health priority.”

The report was published June 9 in JAMA.

For the study, Jain’s team collected data on more than 63,000 U.S. patients with acute traumatic spinal cord injury.

They found that the number of spinal cord injuries increased from nearly 2,700 in 1993 to almost 3,400 in 2012. However, the rate of injuries, which is the number of cases per total U.S. population, remained stable. In 1993, the rate of spinal cord injuries was 53 cases per 1 million people. In 2012, it was 54 cases per million, the study revealed.

Although the overall rate of spinal cord injury remained constant, the rate in young males — between ages 16 and 24 — went from 144 per million to 87 per million over the decade. In females of the same age, the study found the rate went from 42 per million in 1993 to 27 per million in 2012.

The study authors suspect that public education, improved motor vehicle safety features,
stricter safety belt laws, as well as stricter drunk driving laws and enforcement of those laws may have contributed to the decline in spinal cord injuries in young people.

But the news wasn’t good for all age groups.

Older men — those between 65 and 74 — saw a large increase in their rate of spinal cord injuries — from 84 per million to 131 per million over the study period. The rate in women of the same age went from 32 per million to 53 per million, according to the study.

Among all Americans 65 and older, the number of spinal cord injury from falls increased significantly. It went from 28 percent in 1997-2000 to 66 percent in 2010-2012, the researchers found.

The number of deaths in hospitals from spinal cord injury increased from 6.6 percent in 1993-1996 to 7.5 percent by 2010-2012. But among those 85 and older, deaths decreased significantly. In 1993-1996, the death rate from spinal cord injury for older people was 24 percent. By 2010-2012, it was down to 20 percent, the study said.

Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician and director of sports medicine and traumatic brain injury in the department of emergency medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said, “Data from this study indicates the need to monitor older persons for falls, especially at home.” He was not involved with the research.

Falls in the home often result from loose objects in hallways, poorly fitting shoes and out-of-date eyeglass prescriptions, he said. “Making sure that older persons use canes or other walking devices is especially important in preventing falls,” Glatter added.

Since many older people today are more active and use smartphones, they may be distracted walking while talking or texting, which may account for some of these injuries, Glatter said. “It’s important that older persons not engage in texting while walking in order to avoid potentially catastrophic spinal cord as well as head injuries,” he said.

“It’s imperative to remind those with balance problems due to neurologic diseases to pay special attention as they walk, keep their eyes in front of them, and have a person to assist them if necessary,” he added.

As people age, loss of balance and fine motor skills, coupled with vision problems, places them at higher risk of falls that result in spinal cord injuries, head injuries and potential concussions, Glatter said.

“Designing a safer home and community that elevates awareness of potential risks for falls and resulting injuries may help to reduce injury and suffering,” he said.

More information

For more information on spinal cord injury, visit the Paralyzed Veterans of America.

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Mercury Is in Retrograde: Why Superstitions Can Be Good For You

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Have things felt a little, I don’t know… off these past few weeks? Maybe you’ve fought with your partner, bombed a presentation at work, or missed a flight, leaving you wondering, what in the heck is going on? Well, here’s one explanation: Mercury happens to be in retrograde right now, until June 11.

What that means: “The planet Mercury tends to move slowly eastward across our night sky, but every few months it passes Earth in its orbit around the sun and, because of the relative alignment, it travels westward across our night sky for a few days,” explains Matthew Hutson, author of The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking ($14, amazon.com). “Some people say this ‘retrograde’ movement causes or signals a kink in the pace of life on Earth. They associate it with all sorts or problems or delays that happen during that time, from computer crashes to romantic breakups.”

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Popular astrologist Susan Miller, for example, cautions against making big decisions like signing contracts or taking a new job while Mercury is in retrograde, which happens for three weeks, three times a year.

Okay—so all of that may sound straight out of Professor Trelawney’s crystal ball. But if you’re among the believers, you’re not alone. A 2012 survey from the National Science Foundation found that more than half of Americans rated astrology as either “very scientific” or “sort of scientific,” which is the highest number of believers since 1983.

Photo: a year without searching/ WordPress

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And engaging in a little magical thinking can’t hurt—in fact, it may actually be good for you.

“There are two main reasons magical thinking can occasionally be healthy: it provides a sense of control and a sense of meaning,” Hutson says. “A sense of control can boost performance by increasing self-efficacy, so if you feel lucky you actually become lucky.”

In one experiment for example, researchers at the University of Cologne in Germany gave a group of about 30 young adults ten tries to sink a put. Half of the people were told they were using a “lucky” golf ball, and in the end those people performed 35% better.

“In other experiments, people who had a lucky charm or were wished good luck performed better on other physical and cognitive tasks. So feeling lucky is a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Hutson adds.

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Meanwhile, a sense of meaning can help you cope with a tough situation and recover faster. If you think a terrible event was meant to be, you can often find a silver lining.

We may even be hardwired for this thought process, Hutson explains. “We quickly form associations between events—you hold a charm and win a game—and expect the patterns to hold up in the future. We see patterns especially when we feel anxious, as a way to regain control.”

In other words, believing your bad luck this month was written in the stars may help restore order in your mind, which is as good of a reason as any to believe it—as long as you don’t take it too seriously.

While there are perks to trusting the planets, Hutson cautions against being overly dependent on such notions. “We might feel lucky and overconfident, taking big risks, or unlucky and defeated, leaving our potential unfulfilled. Since irrational beliefs can be good or bad, we have to be rational about when to encourage them.”

RELATED: 4 Habits That Set You Up for Good Luck

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