Some Elderly Men Really Suffer From Andropause, But Much Less Frequently Than Previously Thought

Some Elderly Men Really Suffer From Andropause, But Much Less Frequently Than Previously Thought.
In describing a set of reliable symptoms for "male menopause" for the foremost time, British researchers have also ascertained that only about 2 percent of men age-old 40 to 80 suffer from the condition, far less than previously thought. Male menopause, also called "andropause" or late-onset hypogonadism, allegedly results from declines in testosterone production that occur later in life, but there has been some think on how real the phenomenon is, the study authors noted. "Some aging men undeniably suffer from male menopause.

It is a genuine syndrome, but much less common than previously assumed," concluded Dr Ilpo Huhtaniemi, chief author of a study published online June 16 in the New England Journal of Medicine. "This is outstanding because it demonstrates that genuine symptomatic androgen deficiencies androgens are virile hormones is less common than believed, and that only the right patients should get androgen treatment," added Huhtaniemi, a professor of reproductive endocrinology in the control of surgery and cancer at Imperial College London.

Many men have been taking testosterone supplements to grapple the perceived effects of aging, even though it's not acquit if taking these supplements help or if they're even safe. The result has been mass confusion, not only as to whether male menopause exists but also how to boon it. "A lot of people abuse testosterone who shouldn't and a lot of men who should get it aren't," said Dr Michael Hermans, an confederate professor of surgery in the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and boss of the section of andrology, male sexual dysfunction and man's infertility at Scott & White in Temple, Texas.

Study Of Obesity Among Africans

Study Of Obesity Among Africans.
A genetic anomaly associated with an increased endanger of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and other health problems is trite in Africans and people of African descent worldwide, according to a new study Dec 2013. The findings may relieve explain why Africans and people of African descent are more likely to develop insensitivity disease and diabetes than many other racial groups, the Weill Cornell Medical College researchers said. The modification in the ApoE gene is linked to increased levels of triglycerides, which are fats in the blood associated with conditions such as obesity, diabetes, knock and heart disease.

The researchers' analysis of worldwide material revealed that the "R145C" variant of the ApoE gene is found in 5 percent to 12 percent of Africans and woman in the street of African descent, especially those from sub-Saharan Africa. The variant is rare in grass roots who are not African or of African descent. "Based on our findings, we estimate that there could be 1,7 million African-Americans in the United States and 36 million sub-Saharan Africans worldwide with the variant," work senior founder Dr Ronald Crystal, chairman of genetic medicine at Weill Cornell, said in a college low-down release.

Pain And Depression In Patients With Cancer Is Reduced By Intervention

Pain And Depression In Patients With Cancer Is Reduced By Intervention.
Cancer patients' capacity to get along with pain and depression was improved through a program that included home-based automated characteristic monitoring and telephone-based care management, a new cramming has found. The study, called the Indiana Cancer Pain and Depression (INCPAD) trial, included patients in 16 community-based urban and country cancer practices - 202 patients were assigned to the intervention program and 203 received usual care. Of the 405 patients, 131 had recess only, 96 had vexation only, and 178 had both depression and pain.

The patients in the intervention body received automated home-based symptom monitoring by interactive voice recording or Internet, and centralized telecare command by a nurse-physician specialist team. The patients were assessed for signs of downheartedness and pain symptoms at the start of the study, and then again at one, three, six and twelve months.

Elderly Needs Mechanical Assistants

Elderly Needs Mechanical Assistants.
Two-thirds of population over the age of 65 constraint help completing the tasks of daily living, either from special devices such as canes, scooters and bathroom clutch bars or from another person, new research shows. "If people are finding ways to successfully deal with their helplessness with help from devices or people, or they're reducing their activity because of a disability, I reckon these groups are probably missed when we look at public health needs," said memorize author Vicki Freedman, a research professor at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. "How populace adapt to their disabilities is important, and it helps us identify who needs public haleness attention".

The study identified five levels on the disability spectrum: people who are fully able; kinsmen who use special devices to work around their disability; people who have reduced the frequency of their activity but divulge no difficulty; people who report difficulty doing activities by themselves, even when using special devices; and people who get staff from another person. One expert said the findings shed light on how many seniors are struggling with particular levels of disability.

"The fact that about 25 percent of people are unable to perform some activities of every day living without assistance wasn't surprising," said Dr Stanley Wainapel, clinical kingpin of the department of rehabilitation medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. "What was riveting to me was that this study gave me more information on the other 75 percent. Just because 25 percent cannot do at least one job of daily living doesn't mean the other 75 percent can get along just fine.

It's not as black and white as we might have thought. There's a Twilight Zone parade-ground between those who are perfectly fine and those who aren't, and these are the people who can probably be helped most with rehabilitation group therapy or assistive devices. Results of the study were released online Dec 12, 2013 in the American Journal of Public Health. Data for the widespread research came from the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study.

Obesity Can Be A Barrier To Pregnancy

Obesity Can Be A Barrier To Pregnancy.
Women should tarry at least one year after having weight-loss surgery before they analyse to get pregnant, researchers say. The chubbiness rate among women of child-bearing age is expected to rise from about 24 percent in 2005 to about 28 percent in 2015, and the enumerate of women having weight-loss surgery is increasing, the researchers noted. In a review, published Jan 11, 2013 in The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, investigators looked at c whilom studies to assess the safety, limitations and advantages of weight-loss ("bariatric") surgery, and guidance of weight-loss surgery patients before, during and after pregnancy.

Obesity increases the imperil of pregnancy complications, but weight-loss surgery reduces the chance in extremely obese women, the criticize authors said. One study found that 79 percent of women who had weight-loss surgery proficient no complications during their pregnancy. However, the review also found that complications during pregnancy can occur in women who have had weight-loss surgery.

Treatment Options For Knee

Treatment Options For Knee.
Improvements in knee despair following a common orthopedic form appear to be largely due to the placebo effect, a new Finnish study suggests. The research, which was published Dec 26, 2013 in the New England Journal of Medicine, has heavy implications for the 700000 patients who have arthroscopic surgery each year in the United States to fixing a torn meniscus. A meniscus is a C-shaped filling of cartilage that cushions the knee joint.

For a meniscal repair, orthopedic surgeons use a camera and trifling instruments inserted through small incisions around the knee to shear damaged tissue away. The idea is that clearing sharp and unstable debris out of the communal should relieve pain. But mounting evidence suggests that, for many patients, the procedure just doesn't pan out as intended. "There have been several trials now, including this one, where surgeons have examined whether meniscal run surgery accomplishes anything, basically, and the answer through all those studies is no, it doesn't," said Dr David Felson, a professor of medication and public health at Boston University.

He was not convoluted in the new research. For the new study, doctors recruited patients between the ages of 35 and 65 who'd had a meniscal dash and knee pain for at least three months to have an arthroscopic wont to examine the knee joint. If a patient didn't also have arthritis, and the surgeon viewing the knee ascertained they were eligible for the study, he opened an envelope in the operating room with further instructions.

At that point, 70 patients had some of their damaged meniscus removed, while 76 other patients had nothing further done. But surgeons did all they could to place the sham procedure seem like the real thing. They asked for the same instruments, they moved and pressed on the knee as they otherwise would, and they occupied mechanical instruments with the blades removed to simulate the sights and sounds of a meniscal repair. They even timed the procedures to total sure one wasn't shorter than the other.

Healthy And Young People Are Often Ill H1N1 Flu

Healthy And Young People Are Often Ill H1N1 Flu.
A year after the H1N1 flu chief appeared, the World Health Organization has issued c the most encyclopedic report on the pandemic's activity to date. "Here's the definitive reference that shows in black-and-white what many bodies have said in meetings and talked about," said Dr John Treanor, a professor of panacea and of microbiology and immunology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. The H1N1 flu disproportionately attacked children and young adults, not the older adults normally captivated by the traditional flu, states the report, which appears in the May 6 children of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The review offers few new insights, said Dr Len Horovitz, a pulmonary professional with Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, exclude "that pregnant women were more at risk in the second and third trimesters and the finding that tubbiness and morbid obesity were also risk factors. Obesity is something that has not been associated with influenza deaths before".

The best-seller virus first appeared in Mexico in the spring of 2009. It has since spread around the world resulting in "the first influenza pandemic since 1968 with circulation outside the usual influenza age in the Northern Hemisphere," the report's authors said.

As of March 2010, the virus has hit almost every country in the world, resulting in 17700 known deaths. By February of this year, some 59 million colonize in the United States were hit with the bug, 265000 of who were hospitalized and 12,000 of whom died, the article stated. Fortunately, most of the disability tied to infection with H1N1 has remained somewhat mild, comparatively speaking.

The overall infection compute is estimated at 11 percent and mortality of those infected at 0,5 percent. "It didn't have the affable of global impact on mortality we might have seen with a more virulent epidemic but it did have a very substantial impact on health-care resources. Although the mortality was slash than you would expect in a pandemic, that mortality did occur very much in younger people so if you gaze at it in terms of years of life lost, it becomes very significant".

Impact Of Energy Drinks On The Heart

Impact Of Energy Drinks On The Heart.
Energy drinks may purvey a flash too much of a boost to your heart, creating additional strain on the organ and causing it to roll more rapidly than usual, German researchers report. Healthy people who drank energy drinks cheerful in caffeine and taurine experienced significantly increased heart contraction rates an hour later, according to delve into scheduled for presentation Monday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, in Chicago, 2013. The contemplation raises concerns that energy drinks might be bad for the heart, mainly for people who already have heart disease, said Dr Kim Williams, vice president of the American College of Cardiology.

We recognize there are drugs that can improve the function of the heart, but in the long nickname they have a detrimental effect on the heart," said Williams, a cardiology professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine, in Detroit. For example, adrenaline can sort the heart race, but such overexertion can fraying the heart muscle down. There's also the possibility that a person could develop an irregular heartbeat.

From 2007 to 2011, the calculate of emergency room visits related to energy drinks nearly doubled in the United States, rising from a little more than 10000 to nearly 21000, according to a meeting news release. Most of the cases affected young adults aged 18 to 25, followed by people aged 26 to 39. In the recent study, researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess the heart function of 18 healthy participants both before and one hour after they consumed an energy drink.

The puissance drink contained 400 milligrams of taurine and 32 milligrams of caffeine per 100 milliliters of transparent (about 3,4 ounces). Taurine is an amino acid that plays a covey of key roles in the body, and is believed to enhance athletic performance. Caffeine is the illegitimate stimulant that gives coffee its kick. After downing the energy drink, the participants experienced a 6 percent expand in their heart contraction rate, said study co-author Dr Jonas Doerner, a radiology living in the cardiovascular imaging section at the University of Bonn, in Germany.

Vaccination Against Tuberculosis Prevents Multiple Sclerosis

Vaccination Against Tuberculosis Prevents Multiple Sclerosis.
A vaccine normally worn to short-circuit the respiratory illness tuberculosis also might help prevent the development of multiple sclerosis, a blight of the central nervous system, a new study suggests Dec 2013. In grass roots who had a first episode of symptoms that indicated they might develop multiple sclerosis (MS), an injection of the tuberculosis vaccine lowered the probability of developing MS, Italian researchers report. "It is feasible that a safe, handy and cheap approach will be available immediately following the first episode of symptoms suggesting MS," said studio lead author Dr Giovanni Ristori, of the Center for Experimental Neurological Therapies at Sant'Andrea Hospital in Rome.

But, the swat authors cautioned that much more scrutiny is needed before the tuberculosis vaccine could possibly be used against multiple sclerosis. In people with MS, the unaffected system attacks healthy cells in the central nervous system, which includes the perspicacity and spinal cord. One of the first signs of MS is what's known as "clinically secluded syndrome". Symptoms include numbing and problems with vision, hearing and balance.

About half of relations who experience clinically isolated syndrome develop MS within two years. The study, published online Dec. 4 in the log Neurology, included 73 people who'd had clinically lonely syndrome. Thirty-three received the tuberculosis vaccine and the remaining 40 were given a placebo, or dummy, injection. The tuberculosis vaccine is a active vaccine called the Bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine, which isn't extensively used in the United States.

The same vaccine also is being studied as a treatment for specimen 1 diabetes. The participants had monthly MRI scans of their brains for the first six months of the review to look for lesions associated with multiple sclerosis. For the next year, they received a narcotize (interferon beta-1a) given to people with MS. After that, they received the treatment recommended by their own neurologist. After five years, the participants were reexamined to glom if they had developed MS.

Therapeutic Talking With The Doctor After A Stroke Can Help To Survive

Therapeutic Talking With The Doctor After A Stroke Can Help To Survive.
After misery a stroke, patients who disparage with a therapist about their hopes and fears about the tomorrow are less depressed and live longer than patients who don't, British researchers say. In fact, 48 percent of the nation who participated in these motivational interviews within the first month after a act were not depressed a year later, compared to 37,7 of the patients who were not involved in talk therapy. In addition, only 6,5 percent of those interested in talk therapy died within the year, compared with 12,8 percent of patients who didn't learn the therapy, the investigators found.

So "The talk-based intervention is based on portion people to adjust to the consequences of their stroke so they are less likely to be depressed," said guide researcher Caroline Watkins, a professor of stroke and elder care at the University of Central Lancashire. Depression is universal after a stroke, affecting about 40 to 50 percent of patients. Of these, about 20 percent will decline major depression.

Depression, which can lead to apathy, social withdrawal and even suicide, is one of the biggest obstacles to solid and mental recovery after a stroke, researchers say. Watkins believes their come near is unique. "Psychological interventions haven't been shown to be effective, although it seems like a well-thought-out thing. This is the first time a talk-based therapy has been shown to be effective.

One reason, the researchers noted, is that the group therapy began a month after the stroke, earlier than other trials of psychological counseling. They speculated that with later interventions, sadness had already set in and may have interfered with recovery.

Early therapy, Watkins has said, can help occupy set realistic expectations "and avoid some of the misery of life after stroke". The report was published in the July exit of Stroke. For the study, the researchers randomly assigned half of 411 example patients to see a therapist for up to four 30- to 60-minute sessions and the other half to no visits with a therapist.