Thefastpharma. Health news blog
Apr 23
Reaching 100 years of age used to be so extraordinary that NBC weatherman Willard Scott devoted a few seconds of the Today show to wishing those long-lived “pretty ladies” and “fine gentlemen” much congratulations and continued health on that miraculous milestone. Nowadays, Today could devote half its air time to wishing 100-year-olds well. Just in [...] [...more]
Posted: under General health.
Tags: General health
Reaching 100 years of age used to be so extraordinary that NBC weatherman Willard Scott devoted a few seconds of the Today show to wishing those long-lived “pretty ladies” and “fine gentlemen” much congratulations and continued health on that miraculous milestone. Nowadays, Today could devote half its air time to wishing 100-year-olds well.
Just in the 10 years between 1980 and 1990, the population of people older than 85 years increased by 40 percent. By 1990, there were about 30,000 people who lived past the 100-year mark. If we stay this course, researchers predict that by the time 2080 rolls around, there could be as many as 10 million centenarians. As this legion of graying Americans pushes into triple digits, it’s likely that the record for maximum life span-currently set at 122 years-will be broken.
But where do we reach our limit?
It depends on whom you ask. There are two camps in the study of longevity. One believes that medical technology promises to churn out a future of modern-day Methuselahs. They contend that life expectancy, which is the estimated number of years that a person is expected to live on average, will reach 100 in the next generation. And soon, living to 200, 300, or more will not be out of the question. The second camp believes that all species have a genetic program for growth, development, and reproduction that inadvertently leads to a biological limit to life. As far as life expectancy goes, we’ve just about reached the practical limit, says Dr. S. Jay Olshansky of the University of Chicago.
Through a combination of curing chronic disease and controlling biological aging factors, the day will come when we live in an “ageless society,” says Ronald Klatz, D.O., M.D., biomedical researcher and president of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine in Chicago, one of the folks who believes that we’ve just begun to climb the ladder of longevity. “We won’t suffer from degenerative diseases like heart disease and cancer that plague us today,” he says. “We’ll just die of total organ shutdown when our cells are no longer able to repair and reproduce. That’s at least around age 160.”
Just as splitting an atom was unthinkable in 1928 (but was accomplished in 1938), so will medical technology advance in ways we can’t begin to imagine, adds Dr. George Webster, researcher in molecular biology and aging. “Each year, the National Library of Medicine receives about 1,700 reports on findings in biomedical research. Who ever imagined that we’d be able to clone a sheep? Yet it didn’t take scientists long to figure that out,” Dr. Webster says.
Scientists have already discovered genes that contribute to aging. They understand how hormones decline over time. They have a handle on how our DNA gets damaged through the years. They’ve studied ways to slow metabolism to prolong life. Now they just have to put it all together, says Dr. Webster. “We’ve been able to more than quadruple the life spans of worms by altering certain genes. Once we understand how these genes work, we can start producing substances that stop their action,” he says. “If medical technology grows during the next 50 years at the pace it has grown during the past 50 years, we could push life expectancy into the hundreds. That’s why I tell men of every age to start living healthfully, because if a 40-year-old or even 60-year-old man can make it another 25 years, he’ll be able to reap the benefits of anti-aging medical technology.”
*5/36/5*
Apr 23
When there is too much inflammation in the body, the inner lining (endothelium) of the artery walls can become damaged. This causes the endothelial cells to produce various adhesion molecules that attract white blood cells and cause them to bind to the artery wall. The particular white blood cells that bind are monocytes and T [...] [...more]
Posted: under Uncategorized.
When there is too much inflammation in the body, the inner lining (endothelium) of the artery walls can become damaged. This causes the endothelial cells to produce various adhesion molecules that attract white blood cells and cause them to bind to the artery wall. The particular white blood cells that bind are monocytes and T lymphocytes. These blood cells migrate deep into the lining of the arteries. The monocytes turn into macrophages, which are a type of white blood cell that act like Ðàñ man; they engulf dead cells, bacteria and various debris. The macrophages start ingesting LDL cholesterol, and once they are filled with fat, they are referred to as foam cells. It is especially oxidized LDL particles that are ingested; these are particles that have been damaged by free radicals, either because of the way food has been processed, or because we do not have enough antioxidants in our body to prevent this. Oxidized LDL cholesterol also causes direct damage to the endothelium.
Inflammatory chemicals called cytokines are produced by the white blood cells that have entered the artery wall. These cytokines attract more white blood cells to the area and also stimulate the growth of smooth muscle cells of the artery wall. As smooth muscle cells accumulate, they cause the artery wall to thicken, which narrows the diameter of the artery. The smooth muscle cells produce enzymes that cause the breakdown of collagen and elastin in the artery wall. The macrophages also produce protein digesting enzymes that break down collagen. This makes the fatty plaque unstable and prone to rapture. If it raptures it is more likely to form a clot and block an artery completely. As atherosclerotic plaques progress, they tend to calcify, or harden because they accumulate calcium; this hardening is referred to as arteriosclerosis.
Damage to the endothelium also impairs the production of nitric oxide by cells lining the artery wall. Nitric oxide is your artery’s best friend because it dilates the arteries, has an anti inflammatory effect, and limits the ability of white blood cells to bind to the artery wall and initiate plaque formation.
*7/53/5*
Apr 23
The approach to treatment for OSA depends on the outcome of a sleep study and the prevalence of symptoms. Urgent intervention is called for when frequent and severe hypoxaemia during sleep induces physiological changes which are frankly life-threatening. However, many patients are only mildly symptomatic. There may be small fluctuations in oxygen saturation with negligible [...] [...more]
Posted: under General health.
Tags: General health
The approach to treatment for OSA depends on the outcome of a sleep study and the prevalence of symptoms. Urgent intervention is called for when frequent and severe hypoxaemia during sleep induces physiological changes which are frankly life-threatening. However, many patients are only mildly symptomatic. There may be small fluctuations in oxygen saturation with negligible or minor physiological consequences, but essentially their problem remains a sociological one with the potential to develop clinical complications if snoring persists over many years. Treatment for these patients is directed at the underlying cause of snoring.
There is no clear definition of what constitutes mild, moderate and severe OSA. Guidelines have been published by specialists in the field but there will always be some variation from one physician to another regarding the timing and nature of medical intervention. When a diagnosis of advanced OSA is made, the most popular and effective mode of treatment is the application of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, or CPAP, a relatively new innovation developed in Australia in the early 1980′s. The technique offers relief to the user by delivering a stream of air from a pump into a comfortably fitting nose mask via a length of flexible tubing. Air pressure introduced through the nose has been described as an airway “splint”, preventing collapse by providing support in the form of positive pressure. CPAP does have some drawbacks. There are patients who never adapt to the sensation of air pressure applied through the nose mask and others who experience nasal irritation or excessive drying of the upper airway. CPAP has nevertheless proven to be extremely successful in the treatment of OSA, eliminating snoring and many of its debilitating symptoms.
When CPAP is not tolerated, or if circumstances make it impossible for the patient to use it effectively on a regular basis (eg. the very young or mentally handicapped patients), then an operation called a tracheostomy would have to be considered. It involves the surgical formation of a hole into the windpipe (trachea), a procedure which had to be relied upon for urgent relief of airway obstruction before the advent of CPAP. The decision to have a tracheostomy is not made without due consideration of potential problems. It is not well tolerated by many patients because of the social and psychological adjustments that have to be made, particularly as normal speech is impaired.
* Daytime sleepiness
* Morning headaches
* Memory lapses
* Disrupted sleep (waking abruptly with sensations of choking, gasping for breath)
* Excessive night sweating
* Personality changes (irritability, paranoia)
Some of the more apparent symptoms which may be associated with obstructive sleep apnoea. Their incidence and severity will depend on the period of time over which snoring and airway obstruction has occurred.
*13/51/25*
Apr 23
The line between health and illness, then, can be somewhat arbitrary, and it is here that the real problems begin because it is not obvious whose responsibility health is. In our society we do not blame people for being ill – even if they themselves nave played a part in the onset of illness. We [...] [...more]
Posted: under General health.
Tags: General health
The line between health and illness, then, can be somewhat arbitrary, and it is here that the real problems begin because it is not obvious whose responsibility health is. In our society we do not blame people for being ill – even if they themselves nave played a part in the onset of illness. We have more ambivalent feelings when it comes to VD and suicide attempts but even then most people do not come down too harshly on the ‘ill’ person.
Although we as a culture do not blame individuals for their illness we do expect them to do simple things to help themselves, and most of us think that ill people should co-operate with doctors to make themselves better. When looked at from a purist’s point of view, much illness is preventable-indeed this book is about what we as individuals can take responsibility for-yet as a culture we have not yet arrived at the stage where we condemn people who do not co-operate, though there are signs that this is starting to happen with smoking-related diseases. Indeed, the anti-smoking campaign in certain western countries has taken something of a dramatic turn recently. But treating smokers as if they were lepers may not be the answer. It could, arguably, push those who would have smoked into other equally dangerous pursuits which fulfill their needs in the circumstances. In the final analysis everyone has the right to kill themselves in the way they choose. The truth is that most will almost certainly do so irrespective of government regulations and social prohibitions. Perhaps the most influential work about health and the lexicalization of modern society is Ivan Illich’s book Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health. In Illich’s view:
Health has ceased to be a native endowment each man is presumed to possess until proven ill, and has become the ever-distant promise to which one is entitled by virtue of social justice. . .
In a morbid society the environment is so rearranged that for most of the time most people lose their power and will for self-sufficiency and finally cease to believe that autonomous action is feasible. The result is a morbid society that demands universal medicalisation and a medical establishment that certifies universal morbidity. In a morbid society the belief prevails that defined and diagnosed ill health is infinitely preferable to any other form of negative label. It is better than criminal or political deviance, better than laziness, better than self-chosen absence from work. More and more people subconsciously know that they are sick and tired of their jobs and of their leisure activities, but they want to be lied to and told that physical illness relieves them of social responsibilities. They want their doctor to act as lawyer and priest. As a lawyer, the doctor exempts the patient from his normal duties and enables him to cash in on the insurance fund he was forced to build. As a priest the doctor becomes an accomplice for the patient, creating the myth that he is an innocent victim of biological mechanisms rather than a lazy, greedy or envious deserter of a social struggle for control over the tools of production. Social life becomes a give and take of therapy, medical, psychiatric, pedagogic or genetic.
In a sense we all control our own health-at least to some extent. We decide on certain health activities (even if they are as simple as cleaning our teeth) and avoid dangerous or illness-promoting situations (by driving carefully, for example), but the level at which we do this depends on all kinds of things, such as our perception of the amount of control we have over our surroundings (and thus our health), our personalities and our social class. Because class is a factor we as a society can influence, perhaps we should look at it in more detail because it has important implications for preventing disease.
*13/72/5*
Apr 23
While aerobic exercise revs up your metabolism and improves your level of fitness, it’s strength training that builds muscle. That’s important because the more muscle you have, the higher the rate at which your body burns calories. What’s more, muscle burns more calories round the clock, even when you’re curled up on the couch reading [...] [...more]
Posted: under Weight Loss.
Tags: Weight Loss
While aerobic exercise revs up your metabolism and improves your level of fitness, it’s strength training that builds muscle. That’s important because the more muscle you have, the higher the rate at which your body burns calories. What’s more, muscle burns more calories round the clock, even when you’re curled up on the couch reading a good book.
Can’t imagine yourself walking into a gym and inquiring where you might find the weight room? Then do a simple but effective strength-training program in your own home, using hand weights or even soup cans. Still, you may want to consult a personal trainer, who can teach you a routine as well as proper form.
A15- to 20-minute session, 2 or 3 days a week, is all the strength training that you need to build muscle and develop a sleeker, firmer appearance. And you’ll see results in as little as 6 to 8 weeks. You’ll feel stronger and more confident. Your clothes will fit better. Your belly will be flatter; your arms and legs, more toned and shapely.
So go ahead and start lifting. You’ll love what you see—and how you feel.
*6\89\8*