Clipmarks | dmegivern's 'health' clips

PTSD is a Risk Factor for Heart Disease

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:53:27 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

PTSD causes early death from heart disease: study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) significantly raises the risk of premature death from heart disease, according to results of a long-term study of Vietnam veterans.

In the study, veterans who experienced PTSD were roughly twice as likely to die from heart disease during follow up as veterans without PTSD.

PTSD causes the body to release stress hormones, which leads to inflammation and damage to the arteries and cardiovascular system. Stress hormones also tend to reduce the amount of cortisol in the body, a hormone that fights inflammation.

Tags: health, mental health, risk, stress

American Medical Association Apologizes for Racism

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:18:59 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

(CNN) -- The American Medical Association, the nation's largest organization of physicians, apologized Thursday for its history of discriminatory policies toward African-American physicians, including those that effectively restricted membership to whites.

Dr. Nelson L. Adams said the AMA's practices had a "devastating" effect on African-Americans' health.

For a long portion of the organization's history, the AMA required that its members belong to a state or local medical society, groups that in some states did not allow African-Americans as members, Davis said.

Joyner said African-Americans disproportionately suffer from chronic diseases that include heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.

"In accepting this apology for past wrongs, it is important we seize this opportunity to move forward to correct these injustices," she said

Tags: racism, health

The Diabetes and Depression Link

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:34:11 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

Increased Risk of Depression for Diabetics

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

New research discovers individuals with treated type 2 diabetes are at increased risk for developing depression, while a more modest association was found between persons with depression and the risk of diabetes.

These associations may be related to increased risk of depressive symptoms in individuals with diabetes, increased risk of type 2 diabetes in individuals with depressive symptoms, or both. It is unclear whether type 2 diabetes is a risk factor for increased symptoms of depression.

“Our findings of an association in participants with treated but not untreated type 2 diabetes suggests that the psychological stress associated with diabetes management may lead to elevated depressive symptoms,” the authors write.

“… the present study contributes to a growing body of literature indicating a bidirectional association between these 2 serious long-term diseases.

Tags: health, diabetes, depression

Migraine Sufferers Have Thick Brain Fibers

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:43:41 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.itwire.com

Migraine-headache sufferers have thick brain fibers

Harvard researchers scanned the brains of migraine headache patients and volunteers without such headaches. They found that fibers in the brain, which relay pain signals, were thicker in migraine patients.

The conclusion from the experiment was that the somatosensory cortex, the part of the brain that processes sensations from the face and head, was about 21% thicker in migraine headache sufferers than people who do not get migraines.

Hadjikhani was paraphrased, in the New Scientist magazine article "Mighty migraines" (November 24, 2007, page 19): "it's becoming increasing clear that migraines are symptomatic of progressive neurological disease."

Tags: migraine, research, health, science, headache

Sleep, Food, Exercise, and Weight

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:23:06 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern
clipper's remarks: There are more and more articles linking poor quality sleep with weight gain and vice versa.

Clip Source: www.healthday.com

High-Fat Diet Can Disrupt Body's Clock

Like a midnight raid on the fridge for junk food -- sleep often suffers, study says

TUESDAY, Nov. 6 (HealthDay News) -- There's more bad news about a high-fat diet -- it disrupts the body's 24-hour internal (circadian) clock, which regulates sleeping, waking, eating, as well as the daily rhythms of many metabolic functions, U.S. researchers say.

The team also found that a high-fat diet caused changes in genes that encode the circadian clock in the brain and in peripheral tissues (such as fat), resulting in reduced expression of these genes.

"The answer is, yes; alterations in feeding affect timing. We found that as an animal on a high-fat diet gains weight, it eats at the inappropriate time for its sleep/wake cycle -- all of the excess calories are consumed when the animal should be resting. For a human, that would be like raiding the refrigerator in the middle of the night and binging on junk food," Bass said.

Tags: sleep, weight, food, diet, exercise, health

W.H.O. Ranks U.S. 37th in Health Care

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:23:42 GMT

clipped by: thedoorway
clipper's remarks: Does it make you feel "proud to be an American" when the world's wealthiest country, the U.S., ranks behind little countries like Dominica and Costa Rica in healthcare? Is that the kind of country we want to leave our kids and grandkids? We spend more money on healthcare than any other country, but our dollars only buy us 37th place worldwide? Something's dramatically wrong with that picture. Call it GREED! Maybe it's time everyone went to see Michael Moore's "Sicko" movie when it opens on June 29th.

Clip Source: www.photius.com

The World Health Organization's ranking
of the world's health systems.
Source: WHO World Health Report - See also Spreadsheet Details (731kb)

Rank Country

1 France 2 Italy 3 San Marino 4 Andorra 5 Malta 6 Singapore 7 Spain 8 Oman 9 Austria 10 Japan

30 Canada 31 Finland 32 Australia 33 Chile 34 Denmark 35 Dominica 36 Costa Rica 37 United States of America 38 Slovenia 39 Cuba 40 Brunei

Tags: w.h.o., u.s., healthcare, greed, healthcare industry, health