Epilepsy May Triple ADHD Risk, Danish Study Finds

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, July 13, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Children who suffer from epilepsy or fever-related seizures may face a higher risk of also having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), new Danish research suggests.

The findings echo those of some previous research. But, U.S. experts said the new study is notable because of the large number of study participants — nearly 1 million — and the length of follow-up, which was up to 22 years.

The study looked at children born in Denmark from 1990 through 2007, tracking them until 2012. The investigators found those with epilepsy seemed to have nearly three times the risk of developing ADHD compared to children without epilepsy. And children who had fever-related seizures appeared to have an almost 30 percent increased risk of ADHD.

Children with both epilepsy and fever-related seizures had a risk of ADHD more than three times higher than those without a history of either condition, the findings suggested.

The researchers only found an association, and couldn’t prove cause and effect. Even so, the links held up even after the researchers took into account other factors that might have affected risk, such as birth weight and family history of neurodevelopmental disorders or epilepsy.

“The link between these conditions is not surprising,” said Dr. Josiane LaJoie, a pediatric neurologist at NYU Langone Comprehensive Medical Center in New York City. “All have their root within the central nervous system.”

Another pediatric expert agreed.

“Overall, it strengthens the finding which people have found before,” said Dr. Sayed Naqvi, a pediatric neurologist and epileptologist at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami.

Naqvi said he has seen the link between epilepsy and ADHD in his own patients, but not one between fever-related seizures and ADHD.

ADHD is a common neurodevelopmental condition, marked by inattention, inability to focus and impulsivity. Fever-related seizures usually involve a fever of 102 degrees Fahrenheit or above. Epilepsy is a brain disorder that causes seizures.

It isn’t known why the conditions seem to be linked. However, the researchers speculated that common genetic risk factors might help explain the connection, among other possibilities. The three conditions share some other risk factors, including low birth weight and family history.

The study has limitations, Naqvi said, and the researchers addressed them in the report. For instance, no information was available on the medications given to treat epilepsy, so the drugs could have affected the risk of developing ADHD, the researchers noted.

The take-home message for doctors, the Danish researchers said, is to identify ADHD early so treatment can be initiated before symptoms become problematic.

Parents of children with either epilepsy or a history of fever-related seizures should be on the lookout for possible ADHD symptoms, said Naqvi. One of the first warnings, if the child has started school, is a decline in school performance, he said. “That could be a red flag,” he said.

And, LaJoie added, “It is vital that when caring for a child with epilepsy, some of the medical visit involves attention to academic achievement and psychosocial functioning.”

The study was published online July 13 in the journal Pediatrics.

More information

To learn more about epilepsy, visit the Epilepsy Foundation.

---

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

How to lose the last two kilos

 

 

They say the last two kilograms are the hardest to lose, but we’ve found a loophole.

STEP 1.

 

Calculate your baseline

Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the number of calories you’d burn per day if you were to lie in bed 24/7. It’s based on various factors including your height, age and body composition (a higher muscle to fat ratio will burn more calories even at rest). To calculate your BMR, plug your deets into this equation (known as the Harris-Benedict equation): 

BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age in years)

e.g. a 30-year-old female measuring 167 cm tall and weighing 54.5 kg would compute 655 + 523 + 302 – 141 to get a maintenance level daily calorie need of 1,339, or 5,624 kJ, per day (multiply calories by 4.2 to convert to kJ lingo).

STEP 2. 

Body audit

If your numbers come in low, don’t panic. In addition to what you burn to maintain basic bodily functions, you need to add your other energy usage. What you want to work out how many kJs you’re burning on average per day, and how many kJs you need to cut to lose your target kilos, is your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), which comprises BMR (65 per cent), physical activity and thermic effect of food. 

To calculate your TDEE, multiply your BMR by your activity level according to these numbers.

Sedentary = BMR x 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)

Lightly active = BMR x 1.375 (light exercise / sports 1–3 days/week)

Moderately active = BMR x 1.55 (moderate exercise / sports 6–7 days/week)

Very active = BMR x 1.725 (hard exercise every day, or exercising 2 times/day)

Extra active = BMR x 1.9 (hard exercise 2 or more times per day, or training for marathon, or triathlon, etc.)

e.g. If your BMR is 1,339 calories, or 5,624 kJ, and you’re lightly active, your activity factor is 1.375, making your TDEE 1.375 x 1,339 or 5,624, or 1,841 calories/7,733 kJ. In theory consuming 7,733 kJ each day (or 54,129 kJ a week – there’s no penalty for zig-zagging to accommodate a dinner party) will maintain your current weight.

STEP 3. 

Budget crunch

Based on the 0.5 kg a week deemed optimal, you’ll need a cumulative deficit of 14,700 kJ a week (there are 14,700 kJ in half a kilo of body fat). A weekly deficit of 7,350 kJ will translate to loss of 0.25 kg per week. Aim to eat approximately the same amount of kJs each day, but don’t get obsessive. If you want to go out for parma (around twice the kJs in a Lean Cuisine dinner), shoot for 1,000 kJ less than your loss needs the following day and you’ll come out square. 

STEP 4. 

Loophole phase 

You can’t out-train a bad diet because it’s so much easier to consume calories than burn them. (A flavoured milk packs in more than an hour’s workout burn in a few gulps.) Yet exercise can give you an extra food allowance. By burning 400 calories in spin class, you can still eat 7,080 kJ and lose your half a kilo a week.

Looking for more weightloss tips? Check out Alexa Towersey's top fat loss tips. 

 

{nomultithumb}

 

Source Weight Loss http://ift.tt/29PMYAw

3 Power Moves We Can All Steal From Beyoncé

Photo: Getty Images

Last week, Vulture posted an interview with the Shonda Rhimes, AKA creator of the hit TV shows Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, and The Catch. In it, she discusses how she starts each morning. One thing she does daily: “I have a tiny little dance party,” Rhimes admits, and of course the music she currently gets down to is from, wait for it, Beyoncé. “So Beyoncé and I are having a little dance party every morning. I’m getting in formation,” she says. “And that usually puts me in a good mood. And then I leave the house.”

This little nugget of information not only made us smile, but it also got us thinking: If dancing to a little Beyoncé could set a positive tone for the day for one of the most powerful women in television (Hello, TGIT!), what else could us mere mortals learn from the singer? The answer: confidence, how to win big, and who makes the best role model. Read on to see how you can incorporate Beyoncé’s strategies into your own life.

Stand like Wonder Woman

Ever notice how often Bey stands with her hands on her hips? We don’t think it is by accident. Here’s why: Research shows that standing tall with your chest out and hands on your hips can make you feel bolder. In fact, in a Ted Talk social psychologist Amy Cuddy noted that holding this pose for just two minutes can boost your levels of testosterone and lower your levels cortisol, and that these hormonal change can configure your brain to be assertive, confident, and comfortable. Enough said.

RELATED: Beyoncé’s Lead Dancer on What It Takes to Keep Up With Bey

Fill your wardrobe with red

Whether it’s on her current tour (The Formation World Tour), in the video for “Formation,” or at awards shows, this Houston native has rocked red over the years like nobody’s business. Clearly Queen Bey knows the secrets behind this scarlet color, which include more energy, the possibility of earning more money (because “the best revenge is your paper”) or giving you the edge you need to beat your opponents (ahem, Beyoncé was the highest paid woman in music in 2015). Rhimes also recognizes the power of a red outfit, tweeting back in May: “Bey gets to wear this to work. And she slays. I am seriously considering this for my next big meeting. #LEMONADE” And may we add #powercolor.

Bey gets to wear this to work. And she slays. I am seriously considering this for my next big meeting. #LEMONADE http://pic.twitter.com/FD3nmVc8Uh

— shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) May 15, 2016

RELATED: Here’s How to Do 5 Beyoncé-Inspired Dance Moves

Be your own hero

According to research from the journal Social Psychological & Personal Science, powerful people look to themselves as a source for inspiration, not others. And if you just give a little listen to some of Beyoncé’s lyrics, she definitely puts herself on a pedestal (no shade). Take “Flawless” for instance, when she sings, “I know when you were little girls/ You dreamt of being in my world/ Don’t forget it, don’t forget it/ Respect that, bow down b***.” It doesn’t take an interpreter to see that Beyoncé is telling us that we should aspire to be like her. And let’s be real, who doesn’t want to be on her level?

For a more poignant example, consider these “Formation” lyrics: “I see it, I want it, I stunt, yellow-bone it/ I dream it, I work hard, I grind ‘til I own it/ I twirl on them haters, albino alligators/ El Camino with the seat low, sippin’ Cuervo with no chaser/ Sometimes I go off (I go off), I go hard (I go hard)/Get what’s mine (take what’s mine), I’m a star (I’m a star)/ Cause I slay (slay), I slay (hey), I slay (Okay), I slay (okay).”

Here, in our honest opinion, the multi Grammy Award winner has practically laid out an outline—albeit a very loose one— for why she is so successful. And we are taking notes.

Okay ladies, now let’s get in formation and go out there and be great. But first, a dance break: “Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, oh no no.”

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

Genes Tied to Red Hair, Pale Skin Greatly Raise Melanoma Risk?

TUESDAY, July 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — DNA that’s tied to red hair, fair skin and freckles may also be highly linked to a person’s genetic odds of skin cancer, new research suggests.

The study’s British authors estimate that having the gene is roughly equivalent to the person spending an extra 21 years in the sun.

“It has been known for a while that a person with red hair has an increased likelihood of developing skin cancer, but this is the first time that the gene [tied to red hair] has been proven to be associated with skin cancers with more mutations,” study co-lead author Dr. David Adams, of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said in an institute news release.

A skin cancer expert in the United States stressed that redheads can still prevent getting skin cancer. However, they may need a little extra help in determining their genetic risk.

“Identifying this subset of patients could [someday] help decrease the risk of melanoma and ultimately save lives,” said Dr. Michele Green, a dermatologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

The genetics outlined in the study “make proper sun protection more important than ever, especially in this red-haired group,” Green said.

The gene mutation in question is called MC1R. As the researchers explained, this DNA affects the type of melanin pigment people produce in their skin.

People with red hair have two copies of a variant of this gene, which also results in pale skin that’s more prone to sunburns and freckles, Adams’ group said.

Carrying even one copy of this red hair-linked gene appears tied to a jump in the number of mutations linked to melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, the investigators found.

People with other hair hues aren’t off the hook, either. That’s because people who don’t have red hair can still carry these common variants, the researchers said. So they, too, should be careful about exposure to the sun’s harmful UV rays.

For the study, the researchers examined tumor DNA sequences collected from more than 400 people. There were 42 percent more mutations linked to sun damage in the tumors of those carrying the red hair gene variant than in those without that DNA, the findings showed.

All of this means that, for freckle-faced, red-haired people, skin cancer isn’t just about being more vulnerable to the sun’s harmful UV rays. Carrying the MC1R gene variant raises the number of mutations triggered by sun exposure, the researchers explained, but it also raises the level of non-sun-linked mutations within tumors.

“This important research explains why red-haired people have to be so careful about covering up in strong sun,” Dr. Julie Sharp, head of health and patient information at Cancer Research UK, said in the news release.

“It also underlines that it isn’t just people with red hair who need to protect themselves from too much sun,” she added. “People who tend to burn rather than tan, or who have fair skin, hair or eyes, or who have freckles or moles are also at higher risk,” Sharp explained.

“For all of us, the best way to protect skin when the sun is strong is to spend time in the shade between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., and to cover up with a t-shirt, hat and sunglasses,” Sharp said. “And sunscreen helps protect the parts you can’t cover; use one with at least SPF15 and four or more stars, put on plenty and reapply regularly.”

Another melanoma expert agreed.

“The use of sunscreen is a modifying factor [in preventing skin cancer], and should be stressed,” said Dr. Ross Levy, chief of dermatology at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y.

The findings were published July 12 in Nature Communications.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about skin cancer.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/29V5Q3V

Watch Where Pokemon Go Leads You

TUESDAY, July 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The Pokemon Go craze sweeping the globe can pose some serious health risks — and not just to the digital creatures that are the game’s intended targets.

The free “augmented reality” game, designed for Apple and Android smartphones, lets players use their phone’s camera to capture, train and trade virtual Pokemon characters that can appear without warning in a real-world setting.

But the immensely popular game — the top grossing app on iTunes, less than a week after its release — is so enthralling that players are unintentionally placing themselves in harm’s way. Unanticipated consequences include sprained ankles, bruises from walking into traffic, trees and lamp posts, risky driving and even some robberies, according to reports from across the United States.

In O’Fallon, Mo., for instance, four teens intent on robbery staked out locations they knew would attract Pokemon Go players, police said.

“People really need to watch what they’re doing and make sure their kids understand where this game could lead them,” O’Fallon Police Sgt. Phil Hardin told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Our concern is that some of the way points in this game are in geographically more dangerous areas than others. Other people are using the machinations of all this to put people in danger.”

Injuries have been reported in the obsessive pursuit of the digital creatures. Mike Schultz, 21, of Long Island, N.Y., told the Associated Press he lost control of his skateboard and cut his hand while looking for Pokemons on his phone.

“I just wanted to be able to stop quickly if there were any Pokemons nearby to catch,” he admitted.

Any problems are the fault of the users, not the game, suggested John Hanke, chief executive officer for Niantic, the game’s maker.

“That was a very deliberate choice,” Hanke said of the Long Island man’s mishap. Hanke told Business Insider that players need to pay attention to their surroundings. When a Pokemon appears on a screen in a dangerous location, users don’t have to rush to capture it, he said.

The Park Ridge, N.J., Police Department posted this warning on its Facebook page: “There have been several reports throughout the country concerning accidents and injuries from children and adolescents walking around, solely focused on their wireless devices and not realizing what is taking place around them. There have been pedestrians struck, vehicle accidents, and personal injuries due to falls.

“Around Park Ridge, we have also seen large groups congregating near busy roadways, while on their devices playing the game. Although this is a game that encourages people to get outside and walk around, we would be remiss if we did not mention the associated risks and concerns,” the department added.

In other cities and towns, police have offered safety tips for folks playing the game, especially children. The Philadelphia Police Department told a local news station that parents should remind kids of the dangers of meeting strangers. They should also restrict where kids can capture Pokemon so they can keep track of their children, said Philadelphia Police spokesman Eric Gripp, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

He, too, urged users to watch where they’re going.

“I’ve already seen a number of people — both kids and adults — so engrossed while staring at their phones and following a map that they’ve walked right into the street and into objects,” Gripp said. “Pay attention!”

Despite the potential hazards, there may be a bright side to this phenomenon. Instead of the stereotype of “gamers” who are holed up indoors, some Pokemon Go users are outdoors — on streets, in parks and on beaches for hours on end.

Kay Collins, 22, a health care worker in San Francisco, told The New York Times she played Pokemon Go for half a day on Sunday. “My pedometer says I’ve taken way, way more steps throughout the day than I used to before I started playing this game,” she said.

More information

To learn more about augmented reality, visit howstuffworks.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/29P12tY

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