Vanessa Hudgens’s Chic Lob Is All the Hair Inspo

Photo: Getty Images

Stop everything. It seems like Vanessa Hudgens might have bid adieu to her super long, voluminous curls. Yes, you read that right.

The Grease star has been spotted with a new hairstyle which is way different than the look she’s been rocking all summer long and at every music festival. But as you would probably expect, it’s chic as hell. That’s a given, no?

Hudgens was spotted over the weekend wearing her new ‘do while with bestie Ashley Tisdale attending a Selena Gomez concert in LA. Yep, celebrity friends go to each other’s concerts. The entire 1985 Taylor Swift tour is proof of it.

Vanessa looked elegant in an orange cutout jumpsuit (need one now) with her brunette hair styled in a sleek and silky lob. The duo also took to Instagram to share a snap of their night out, of course.

RELATED: Vanessa Hudgens Is Already a Fan of BFF Ashley Tisdale’s Makeup Line

Last year, the star chopped off her long hair into a bob, and there for a while was rocking what was in-between a bob and a lob. Then, a few months ago, the star added in some extensions thanks to the help of Nine Zero One salon. She posted a pic of her transformation with the caption, “Annnnnd I can’t help myself. When the weather heats up, my hair gets long.”

Well, we can’t help but be totally jealous of how effortlessly chic she looks. #HairGoals, we tell ya.

This article originally appeared on InStyle.com/MIMI.

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/29C4jMS

Cancer Drug Shows Early Promise for Parkinson’s Disease

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — A drug used to treat leukemia has shown initial signs of promise for advanced cases of Parkinson’s disease, researchers are reporting.

Experts stressed that the study was small, and primarily designed to see whether the drug — called nilotinib (brand name Tasigna) — is even safe for Parkinson’s patients.

It did appear “relatively safe” among the dozen patients studied, said Dr. Charbel Moussa, the senior researcher on the work.

One patient had to withdraw from the study because of heart complications. But the drug was “well tolerated” in the remaining patients, according to Moussa, an assistant professor of neurology at Georgetown University Medical Center, in Washington, D.C.

Plus, he said, there were hints of benefit.

The researchers found signs that the drug boosted the brain’s production of dopamine, a chemical that helps regulate movement. It also appeared to reduce certain “toxic proteins” that build up in the brains of people with Parkinson’s.

On top of that, the patients typically showed some improvement in both physical symptoms and problems with memory and thinking, the findings showed.

“I think this is a very promising beginning,” Moussa said.

But he also emphasized how much remains to be seen.

“We have to be very cautious about the safety profile of this drug in Parkinson’s patients,” Moussa said. “We also need to clarify the symptom areas that it may benefit, [and] how and when should this drug be used.”

That cautious tone was echoed by James Beck, vice president of scientific affairs for the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation.

“It’s still the early days,” said Beck, who wasn’t involved in the research.

He pointed to a number of issues that make it difficult to know how nilotinib could fit into Parkinson’s treatment, if at all.

For one, the study included only people who were in advanced stages of Parkinson’s and had some degree of dementia, including memory loss and thinking problems.

And since the study was designed only as an early “proof of concept,” it lacked the rigors that are used in later-stage trials: There was no comparison group given a placebo (inactive treatment), Beck said, and all of the study patients (and researchers) knew they were on the drug.

Moussa acknowledged those limitations. He said his team is planning two trials that will put nilotinib to a tougher test — where patients will be randomly assigned to take either the drug or a placebo.

One study, Moussa said, will include patients with moderate-stage Parkinson’s. The other will focus on people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease — since there is evidence the drug could affect dementia symptoms.

Nearly one million Americans and up to 10 million people worldwide have Parkinson’s, according to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation.

It is a chronic, progressive movement disorder that causes tremors, stiffness in the limbs, slowed movement and problems with balance and coordination. Most people also have symptoms that are unrelated to movement, according to the foundation. For some, those include memory issues, fuzzy thinking or even full-blown dementia.

No one is sure exactly what causes Parkinson’s, but it involves the death of certain brain cells — including ones that produce dopamine, which help regulate movement.

For the past 50 years, the mainstay of Parkinson’s treatment has been levodopa, a drug that boosts brain dopamine levels.

“But what we’ve all been waiting for,” Beck said, “is a treatment that can actually alter the course of Parkinson’s.”

According to Moussa, nilotinib “gets more to the roots” of Parkinson’s.

The drug belongs to a group of cancer agents called tyrosine kinase inhibitors, which block certain proteins that fuel cancer growth.

Lab research has shown that small amounts of nilotinib can reach the brain, and help cells shed toxic proteins without killing the cell itself, Moussa said.

“The drug acts like a switch,” he explained. “It turns on the ‘garbage disposal mechanism’ in the cell, so it can get rid of toxic proteins.”

For the current study, Moussa’s team had 12 patients take low doses of nilotinib every day for six months. One patient had to withdraw after one month because he had a heart attack.

Nilotinib carries a boxed warning about potentially risky changes in heart rhythm. That’s a concern, Beck said, because Parkinson’s patients are generally older and often have other conditions that can raise their risk of heart problems.

He also said the improvements in patients’ symptoms are “difficult to interpret.”

The improvements happened quickly — within a month, Beck pointed out. That, he said, suggests a “symptomatic benefit” only, due to higher dopamine levels, rather than any shift in the course of the disease.

With nilotinib already on the market, some patients and doctors might be tempted to try it without more evidence, Moussa acknowledged. But he cautioned against that.

“We should not rush to conclusions,” he said.

The study was supported by government and philanthropic funds. Moussa is listed as an inventor on a Georgetown University patent application related to the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors for treating Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

The findings are published in the July 11 issue of the Journal of the Parkinson’s Disease.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about Parkinson’s disease.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/29OFPjS

Pedal Away From Type 2 Diabetes

TUESDAY, July 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Opting for two wheels rather than four could lower your risk for type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.

The study found that people who bike to work or regularly cycle for fun were less likely to get the illness.

That was true even for those who started biking late in life, Danish researchers said.

“Because cycling can be included in everyday activities, it may be appealing to a large part of the population. This includes people who, due to lack of time, would not otherwise have the resources to engage in physical activity,” said study leader Martin Rasmussen, from the University of Southern Denmark.

The study included more than 50,000 Danish men and women. They were between 50 and 65 years old.

The researchers found that those who biked routinely were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes. And, the more time the participants spent cycling, the lower their risk for type 2 diabetes, the study showed.

After a period of five years, the participants’ biking habits were reassessed. Those who started riding a bike on a regular basis had a 20 percent lower risk for type 2 diabetes than those who didn’t routinely cycle.

The researchers took risk factors into account that could have affected the participants’ risk for type 2 diabetes, such as waist circumference, diet, alcohol, smoking and other forms of exercise. But they acknowledged that other factors could have influenced their results, too. Their study only found an association between biking and type 2 diabetes risk, rather than a cause-and-effect link.

The findings were published July 12 in the journal PLOS Medicine.

Still, the study authors said their findings should support programs that encourage cycling.

“We find it especially interesting that those who started cycling had a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, given that the study population were men and women of middle and old age,” Rasmussen said in a journal news release.

These findings emphasize that “even when entering elderly age, it is not too late to take up cycling to lower one’s risk of chronic disease,” he said.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases provides more was to prevent type 2 diabetes.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/29OFVYN

Dietary Mineral Could Be One Key to Blood Pressure Control

TUESDAY, July 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Sufficient dietary levels of the mineral nutrient magnesium might be a boon to good blood pressure, new research suggests.

“Magnesium dilates arteries, and in doing so lowers the blood pressure,” explained Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, a cardiologist who reviewed the new findings.

“Foods high in magnesium include whole grains, beans, nuts and green leafy vegetables,” she added.

The new study was led by Dr. Yiqing Song, associate professor of epidemiology at Indiana University’s School of Public Health. According to the researchers, past studies that focused on the role of magnesium in regulating blood pressure have been relatively small, and produced mixed and controversial results.

To help sort the data out, Song’s group pooled the data from 34 clinical trials on magnesium supplements, which together involved more than 2,000 people.

The daily dosage of magnesium supplements used ranged from 240 milligrams (mg) to 960 mg. Most trials had participants meet or exceed the U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowance for daily magnesium intake.

Sifting through the collected data, Song’s team detected a small but significant link between magnesium intake and healthy reductions in blood pressure.

For example, the study found that taking about 368 mg of magnesium daily for about three months resulted in overall reductions in systolic blood pressure (the top number in a reading) of 2 millimeters of mercury (mm/Hg) and diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) of 1.78 mm/Hg.

Higher magnesium levels were associated with better blood flow — another factor linked to lower blood pressure, the researchers added.

Song and his colleagues believe that the benefits of magnesium in regulating blood pressure may only apply to people with a magnesium deficiency or insufficiency.

Still, the finding “underscores the importance of consuming a healthy diet that provides the recommended amount of magnesium as a strategy for helping to control blood pressure,” American Heart Association spokeswoman Penny Kris-Etherton said in an AHA news release.

“This amount of magnesium [368 mg/day] can be obtained from a healthy diet that is consistent with AHA dietary recommendations,” said Kris-Etherton, who is a professor of nutrition at the University of Pennsylvania.

That means that, with a healthy diet, it isn’t necessary to take magnesium supplements, the AHA said.

“As clinicians, we need to stress the importance of a well-balanced meal, not only for all the cholesterol lowering and sugar-modulating benefits, but for ensuring an adequate amount of magnesium in the blood,” said Steinbaum, who directs Women’s Heart Health at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

She believes that, based on the new findings, “checking magnesium levels as part of a screening for heart health may become an essential part of prevention and for treatment of blood pressure.”

The findings were published July 11 in Hypertension.

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements provides more information on magnesium.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/29OG9iN

Do More to Fight HIV in Africa: Study

TUESDAY, July 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — New HIV infections in African men could be prevented by increasing male circumcision rates and providing more women with HIV antiretroviral therapy (ART), a new study finds.

Researchers said these strategies were linked to a considerable drop in the number of men newly infected with HIV in specific communities in rural Uganda.

“The biology of these two prevention strategies has been proven, but the big question was whether these strategies could have an impact on the number of new HIV infections in communities still struggling to control the spread of the disease,” said study leader Xiangrong Kong. She is an associate scientist in epidemiology and biostatistics at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

“Before our study, there was no empirical data to show the effects of scaling up these two interventions in real-world settings. It’s important to know whether prevention is working and this is evidence that strongly suggests that African nations should redouble their efforts to scale up these programs,” Kong said a school news release.

The researchers said these promising HIV prevention tactics should be expanded throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In that area, about 25.8 million people are living with the virus that causes AIDS.

The new study included surveys from 45 communities in rural south-central Uganda. The information was collected between 1999 and 2013.

The surveys included data on sexual behaviors, the prevalence of existing HIV infections, rates of new HIV infections, the number of people on ART, and male circumcision rates.

The researchers examined three distinct periods: early years before ART and circumcision became available; years when these preventive measures started to become available; and later when these programs were offered more widely.

During the whole study period, the median coverage of male circumcision increased within the communities from 19 percent to 39 percent. This is still far short of the goal set by the World Health Organization to achieve an 80 percent circumcision rate among men in sub-Saharan Africa, the researchers noted.

In communities where more than 40 percent of men were circumcised, the rate of new HIV infections among men fell by 39 percent, compared to areas where just 10 percent or fewer men were circumcised, the findings showed.

Circumcision helps prevent HIV infection because the foreskin, which is removed during the procedure, has many cells that are HIV targets, the researchers explained.

Still, many men in the areas studied are resistant to the idea of circumcision, the study authors pointed out.

Median ART coverage increased from 0 percent to 21 percent among men and 23 percent among women during the study period, according to the report.

In communities where more than 20 percent of women with HIV were taking ART, rates of new HIV infection among men dropped by 23 percent.

Rates of HIV didn’t fall among women during the study. But the study authors suggested this may change when ART use among men increases.

During the study, ART was only given to those showing signs of reduced immunity in their blood. The researchers noted, however, that it’s now understood that ART is an effective way to prevent the virus from spreading since it makes infected people less contagious.

Anyone diagnosed with HIV should receive ART. That’s true even if they don’t have signs of a weakened immune system, the investigators said.

“We still have a long way to go in curbing the HIV epidemic in Africa,” said Kong. “People need to adopt these strategies, and we need to have sustainable funding to support these efforts.”

The study was published July 12 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about HIV prevention.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/29Ne8sn

More Older Americans Cared for at Home

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — More older Americans with chronic health problems are opting to live at home, relying on help from family, paid caregivers or friends, a new study finds.

In 2012, half of seniors with a disability had some type of home health care, an increase from 42 percent in 1998, University of Michigan researchers found.

“The majority of seniors would prefer to stay at home rather than go to a nursing home,” said Dr. R. Sean Morrison, past president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

But the unintended consequence of being cared for at home is the strain it puts on caregivers, added Morrison, who is also with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. He wasn’t involved in the study.

“Research has shown that 40 percent [of caregivers] spend 20 or more hours a week caring for an older relative — that’s half of a full-time job,” Morrison said.

Besides lost work and income, this can lead to depression and other health issues for caregivers, he said.

Also, most insurance plans, including Medicare, provide only very limited coverage for home health aides, Morrison said.

“We can’t say we want more care in the home, less care in institutions, without providing our families the resources that allow them to care for a seriously ill older relative at home,” he said.

If rates from this Michigan study are representative of the nation as a whole, more than 3.1 million more American seniors had home help in 2012 than in 1998, said the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Claire Ankuda, from the university’s department of medicine.

For the study, Ankuda and her colleagues collected data on nearly 5,200 people 55 and older who took part in the Health and Retirement Study by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. All had one or more disabling conditions.

People with more than a high school education and above-average net worth accounted for most of the increase in use of paid home health care aides, the researchers found.

This suggests a growing disparity in paid care for disabled seniors. It might also indicate a trend to aging at home, even among those who might be able to afford a nursing home, Ankuda said.

Still, about two-thirds of men and 45 percent of women had no caregiving help, despite some trouble with basic tasks such as making meals, getting dressed, going to the bathroom or managing their medications, she said.

The sharpest increase in home care was observed among seniors with milder disabilities. The researchers also found that paid caregiving accounted for the biggest jump in home health aid, although more seniors also reported relying on spouses and adult children. The percentage using friends for care remained stable.

Support groups can help caregivers cope with the strain, but that’s not enough, Ankuda said. Public policy and the health care system need to pay more attention to caregivers to make sure they’re supported, she said. This is especially true for unpaid family members and friends, she added.

“While caregiving can be meaningful for caregivers, it can lead to burnout and strain, and that can have poor health effects,” Ankuda said. “We have to think about them as part of the health care system.”

Morrison predicted the problem will likely get worse.

“In about 20 to 30 years, there are not going to be enough younger adults to care for us, because we are not having as many children,” Morrison said. “We have to start thinking about that now or in 20 to 30 years it’s going to be a real crisis.”

The report was published July 12 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

More information

Health in Aging has more on home elder care.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/29NdET4

If 1st Baby’s Early, 2nd Will Be Too: Study

TUESDAY, July 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Women who give birth to their first child even a couple of weeks early are up to three times more likely to deliver their next baby prematurely, new research suggests.

“The magnitude of the increased risk surprised us — it really is a potent factor,” said senior study author Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski. She is associate director of precision health with the University of California, San Francisco’s Preterm Birth Initiative.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 160,000 women who gave birth in California between 2005 and 2011.

The study authors defined “preterm” as birth at less than 37 weeks’ gestation and “early term” birth at 37 to 38 weeks’ gestation.

Preterm birth is the leading cause of infant death and a major cause of life-long neurological issues, such as cerebral palsy, developmental delays, and vision and hearing loss, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

First, the researchers took other risk factors for premature birth into account — such as illegal drug use during pregnancy, high blood pressure, diabetes and urinary tract infections. Still, the researchers found the risk for a subsequent premature delivery was two to three times higher for women who went into early term labor with their first baby. This finding held whether the women went into labor naturally or were induced due to a medical concern, the study found.

Based on these findings, more women could be targeted for closer monitoring and treatments that could help reduce the risk for premature delivery during a second pregnancy, the researchers suggested.

Of all the first-time deliveries included in the study, almost 6 percent of the women were preterm and would automatically be considered high-risk for another premature delivery. But the researchers noted that 22 percent of the women who delivered between 37 and 38 weeks of pregnancy would not have been labeled as high risk in the future under existing standards of care.

“There are so few avenues to lower preterm birth rates, so I’m always thrilled when our work suggests an additional one,” Jelliffe-Pawlowski said in a university news release.

The researchers added that women and their doctors should communicate more clearly so that women have a better understanding of prematurity and their risk of delivering early.

The study findings were published July 11 in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

More information

The March of Dimes has more about premature babies.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/29Ne0J6

How Safe Is Condomless Sex When Partner With HIV Takes Meds?

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — HIV transmission is highly unlikely among straight couples who have sex without condoms when one partner carries the virus but takes medication, new research suggests.

For gay couples in the same scenario, the risk seems to be only slightly higher.

The Danish study had some major limitations. It only tracked couples for up to two years, and there’s no way to know if the risk of HIV transmission will grow over time as couples age. Also, the HIV-positive participants were almost always careful to take their medication.

And at least one AIDS prevention expert expressed some caution about the study’s conclusions.

Still, “it [the study’s findings] is really great news for patients and their partners,” said HIV specialist Dr. Jared Baeten, vice chair of global health at the University of Washington in Seattle. He was not involved with the study but is familiar with the findings.

“For so long, patients have really cared deeply about the chance they would transmit this virus to people they love. What’s very reassuring about this study, and the bulk of information from other studies, is that people who have HIV and are on treatment appear to have an incredibly low chance of passing on the virus,” Baeten said.

The new study is groundbreaking because it examines the risk of HIV transmission in couples who don’t always use condoms. Most prior studies examined the risk in couples who used condoms, said study co-author Dr. Jens Lundgren, a professor of viral diseases at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

In the study, the researchers tracked 888 couples in which only one person was HIV-positive. The participants lived in 14 European countries and were followed for a median of slightly over a year between 2010 and 2014.

About two-thirds of the couples were heterosexual and the rest were gay males. The average age of those in all couples was 42 years.

The study found that 11 partners became infected with HIV — 10 gay men and one heterosexual. But the analysis of the virus in their bodies revealed that none were infected by their partners. Instead, they’d contracted HIV by having sex outside their relationships; 33 percent of HIV-negative gay men reported having condomless sex with other partners compared to 4 percent of heterosexuals.

While no one was infected with HIV by their partners, the researchers acknowledged that chance could have played a role in the findings and that there could be a small actual risk. But the study said it’s unlikely this risk is above 0.3 percent per year for straight couples or 0.7 percent per year for gay male couples.

Lundgren cautioned that the results for heterosexual couples are more certain than those for gay men, and the ongoing study will continue to provide better numbers about their risk.

“The message to heterosexual couples is that the risk of HIV transmission via condomless vaginal sex is extremely low and likely negligible,” Lundgren said, as long as the HIV-positive person has been on full antiretroviral therapy for several months and uses the medication consistently.

For gay male couples, the risk is “very low,” he said, but the research doesn’t yet confirm it’s “extremely low.”

Why do some couples prefer sex without condoms?

Rowena Johnston, vice president and director of research at amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, said, “If we’re honest and talk about what happens in the real world, pretty much everyone thinks condomless sex feels better. That’s what they want to move to if they can.”

For couples like those in the study, the research “suggests that might not be a very risky proposition, but any researcher would find it hard to recommend that you don’t need to use condoms at all,” Johnston said.

Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, noted that “condoms remain an inexpensive, highly effective means to prevent HIV transmission. Condoms also protect against transmission of many other sexually transmitted diseases.”

The study was published in the July 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

More information

For more about HIV and condoms, visit AIDS.gov.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/29NdSJz

Nerve Zap Eased Rheumatoid Arthritis in Small Study

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Electronic stimulation of a nerve running from the brain to the gut may help ease stubborn symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, preliminary research suggests.

The study, of 17 adults with the painful autoimmune disease, tested the effects of vagus nerve stimulation — a technique long used to control seizures in some people with epilepsy.

It found that over six weeks, most of the patients showed some improvements in joint swelling and other symptoms.

One rheumatologist called the treatment approach “intriguing.”

“This isn’t pie in the sky. It’s a potentially viable alternative to what’s available now for RA [rheumatoid arthritis],” said Dr. David Borenstein, a rheumatologist at George Washington University Medical Center, in Washington, D.C.

Vagus nerve stimulation, or VNS, is done using a device that is surgically implanted under the skin of the chest, with a wire that connects it to one of the vagus nerves in the neck. The implant is programmed to periodically send electrical pulses to the nerve.

Recent lab research has suggested the tactic could be useful against RA, said Dr. Kevin Tracey, one of the researchers on the new study.

Rheumatoid arthritis arises when the immune system mistakenly attacks and inflames the lining of joints throughout the body, leading to pain, swelling and stiffness. Over time, that inflammation can cause irreversible damage to the joints.

The vagus nerves pass through the neck and chest into the abdomen, affecting many different processes in the body.

It turns out, Tracey explained, that select fibers that branch off the nerves play a key role in inflammation.

Animal research has shown that stimulating the vagus nerve can lower levels of inflammatory chemicals produced by the immune system, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin-6.

Basically, Tracey explained, the nerve acts as a “natural protective mechanism” against those inflammatory chemicals.

In that way, it works similarly to many of the standard drugs used for RA, said Tracey, who is president of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, in Manhasset, N.Y.

Those RA medications, known as “biologics,” include drugs like Enbrel (etanercept), Humira (adalimumab) and Remicade (infliximab).

For some people, Tracey said, the drugs work “miraculously.”

“But for many patients, they are not enough,” he added. “And some people would prefer an alternative to those drugs, which are expensive and have side effects.”

For its study, Tracey’s team implanted a VNS device in 17 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Seven were in the earlier stages of the disease, and had not responded to a standard anti-inflammatory drug called methotrexate. The rest had more advanced disease and had failed to improve after trying at least two biologic drugs.

Six weeks after the VNS devices were implanted, most of the patients were doing better, the study found.

About 70 percent had at least a 20 percent improvement in their symptoms — including a reduction in the number of tender, swollen joints. In the group with early stage rheumatoid arthritis, 57 percent had at least a 50 percent improvement; that was true for about 30 percent of patients with more advanced RA.

On top of that, their blood levels of TNF and some other inflammatory chemicals declined.

There was no “control group” to compare the patients against, Borenstein pointed out. But, he said, the symptom improvements were comparable to what’s typically seen with biologic drugs.

According to Tracey, there were no major side effects: Some patients developed hoarseness, which is a known issue with VNS devices.

There are still plenty of questions left, though.

It’s not clear how long the benefits last, or what side effects there could be in the long run. Tracey said that because the therapy lowers TNF in the blood, in theory it could have the same side effects that biologic drugs do — such as an increased risk of infections.

“We won’t know all of the side effects until we do larger trials,” he said.

But, Tracey added, VNS has been used for years for epilepsy and has proven “very safe” for those patients.

Borenstein agreed that more studies are needed to see how vagus nerve stimulation might fit into RA treatment.

He also questioned whether other methods of stimulating the vagus nerve — including simple breathing techniques — could be helpful.

“Is there an approach that could be used as a complementary therapy, along with medication?” Borenstein said.

SetPoint Medical, a company that is developing “neuromodulation” therapies for rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases, funded the study. Tracey is a consultant to the company, and several of his co-researchers are SetPoint employees.

More information

The American College of Rheumatology has more on rheumatoid arthritis.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/29AS2qH

Drink Water, Stay Slimmer?

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Water might be a secret weapon for dieters, research involving nearly 10,000 adults suggests.

“Those who were inadequately hydrated had higher body mass indexes (BMIs) than those who were adequately hydrated,” said study leader Dr. Tammy Chang, an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.

Also, people who took in too little water daily had 50 percent higher odds for obesity compared to those who consumed enough, the study found.

That link held even after the researchers compensated for factors such as age, gender and income.

The study “indicates hydration might impact weight, but it does not prove that,” said Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis.

“What it does show, though, is that a diet that includes more water, whether as a beverage or the water found in fruits and vegetables, is likely associated with a healthier weight,” said Diekman, who wasn’t involved in the study.

For the study, water intake was assessed as adequate or inadequate based on urine samples provided for the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009-2012. The more than 9.500 participants ranged in age from 18 to 64, and nearly one-third were inadequately hydrated, the study found.

BMI is a calculation of body fat based on height and weight. Overall, the sufficiently hydrated adults had an average BMI of 28, versus 29 for those deemed inadequately hydrated. (A BMI of 25 is considered overweight; 30 is obese.)

“Our study is a cross-sectional study, a snapshot in time,” said Chang. The researchers can’t actually prove cause and effect, or even which direction the link or association seems to work.

“It might be that people who are obese have behaviors that keep them from being hydrated,” Chang said. They may eat, for instance, when they are actually thirsty.

Conversely, drinking enough water may also make people feel fuller, Diekman said, so they eat less and don’t gain excess weight. Or someone who is adequately hydrated may eat an overall healthy diet, she noted.

Explaining why water intake may be linked with a healthier weight was beyond the scope of the study, Chang said.

Chang suggests a simple measure to gauge hydration: “I just say look at your urine,” she said. “If your urine is very light, like water, you know you are getting enough water. If it’s dark yellow, that means you probably need more water.”

Advice on fluid needs should be included in weight loss advice, the researchers said.

Recommendations vary, but the Institute of Medicine suggests 125 ounces of water daily for men and 91 ounces for women, from all food and beverages combined.

Water also can be found in water-laden foods such as apples, celery, cucumbers, plums and watermelon, to name a few.

Heavier people need to consume more fluids than slimmer ones, the study authors said.

While coffee and other caffeine-containing drinks can act as diuretics, they don’t seem to boost dehydration risk, experts say. You can count them in fluid intake, Chang said, ”but I wouldn’t recommend drinking coffee to hydrate.”

The study was published in the July-August issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has advice on attaining a healthy weight.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/29ARvVP