Magnesium Boosts Brain Function

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Late Shift Boosts Heart, Stroke Risk

Extreme Tanning: Cancer Scare Doesn't...More Health Headlines90 Arrests in War on Synthetic DrugsWhy Boomers Need Hep C TestingMother and Daughters Bond Over 'Russian...Drug Ecstasy May Cause Memory LossTest a Condom, Win a Year's SupplyIn The NewsArthritisAllergiesDr. Richard BesserCold & Flu Home> HealthLate Shift Boosts Heart Attack, Stroke RiskBy STACEY SCHOTT, M.D., ABC News Medical UnitJuly 26, 2012

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Joint Replacement Boosts Heart Attack Risk Right After Surgery: Study

HealthDay – 1 hr 40 mins ago MONDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) -- People who have total hip or knee replacement surgery are about 30 times more likely to have a heart attack in the two weeks after the procedure, a new study finds.

Both surgeries are common treatments for arthritic hips and knees, with almost 2 million done around the world each year, the researchers noted.

"This study confirms the increased cardiac risk in the period following total hip and knee replacement," said lead researcher Dr. Arief Lalmohamed, from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. "Risk assessment and preoperative use of cardiovascular drugs may be necessary to reduce the risk of heart attack."

The effects of the operation are likely responsible for the increased risk of heart attack, Lalmohamed added. While the study showed an association between the two events, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

These side effects of surgery include the aftereffects of anesthesia on the cardiovascular system, blood loss, arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat) and lack of oxygen, all of which are known to increase risk of heart attacks, he said.

"In addition, the period before surgery itself is a very stressful time for the patient, even thinking about surgery increases cardiac risk," Lalmohamed said.

The report was published online July 23 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

For the study, Lalmohamed's team used Danish registries to estimate the risk of heart attack after these operations.

In total, the researchers had data on more than 95,000 patients who underwent total hip or knee replacement surgery between January 1998 and December 2007.

The investigators compared the heart attack risk in these patients to more than 286,000 similar patients who didn't have surgery.

During the first two weeks after surgery, the risk for a heart attack was increased 25-fold for total hip replacement patients and 31-fold for total knee replacement patients, the study authors found.

The risk decreased rapidly after that, the researchers noted.

Six weeks after surgery, the absolute risk of a heart attack had dropped to 0.51 percent in patients who had a total hip replacement and 0.21 percent for those who had a total knee replacement, the investigators found.

The risk of having a heart attack was highest in those aged 60 and older, particularly patients aged 80 and older, and those who had experienced a heart attack in the six months before surgery. The latter increased the risk fourfold in the six weeks after the procedure, the authors noted.

"There is cardiac risk when a patient has a major operation," said Dr. Arthur Wallace, chief of the Anesthesia Service Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco.

"Anesthesiologists, surgeons and hospitalists need to use preoperative cardiac risk reduction to reduce that risk," added Wallace, who wrote an accompanying journal editorial.

Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that "total hip replacement and total knee replacement are commonly performed surgeries, yet the risk of heart attacks occurring during or in the weeks following surgery have not been well-defined compared to the general population."

This new study shows the risk of a heart attack after these surgeries is small in absolute terms (one in 200 to one in 500 patients), he said.

"This increased heart attack risk may be lessened by careful preoperative cardiovascular risk assessment, continuation of aspirin, use of statin medications and careful monitoring in the first two to six weeks after orthopedic surgery," Fonarow said.

More information

For more information on joint replacement, visit the U.S. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.

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Chlorella Boosts Mucosal Immune Defense

Your saliva contains an immune boosting compound that acts as a first line of defense against infections and digestive troubles, but it may not contain enough to be effective. A human study has demonstrated that taking 6,000 mg of chlorella per day over a four week period significantly increased the production of salivary secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA).  This finding is important for those who catch the latest bug, are under high stress, or struggle with ongoing digestive health issues.

It is vital that your saliva contain proper amounts of SIgA for front-line immune chores.  Your immune system needs it to form complexes with hostile germs, rendering them neutralized, so that they cannot attach to your digestive lining and wreak havoc with your health.

For example, if someone coughs or sneezes around you there can be plenty of airborne germs.  Once you breathe in some of these, then you swallow them.  Now they are in your digestive tract.  Your saliva is one of the first points of contact with potential invaders and it must have SIgA in it to defend you.  A person who easily catches “every bug” is typically lacking in SIgA as a baseline of function.

Your SIgA can also be suppressed on a short-term basis, typically from stress. This is one reason why people who are under stress are more prone to infection.  Another example is the stress of heavy exercise, which can also depress SIgA; this is why athletes or whole teams can get sick if they let their systems get worn down.

SIgA is often depleted in those with ongoing digestive problems.  Many times digestive problems start after a bad viral infection, which persists on a low-grade basis and uses up your SIgA trying to fight off the problem. In turn this reduces your digestive health and allows other germ gangs to take up shop.  Problems such as recurring tonsillitis, oral health issues, vaginal issues, Candida overgrowth, and overgrowth of other bacterial germ gangs are indicators of low SIgA defense. If problems persist then highly inflammatory conditions of the GI tract will follow including multiple food intolerance, celiac-like issues, and other inflammatory bowel disorders.

In short, SIgA can be depressed by stress on a short-term basis that places you more at risk for any infection.  It can be depressed on a long-term basis that also places you at risk for any infection as well as developing ongoing digestive health problems of significance.  As the years go by such digestive problems build on themselves, resulting in quality-of-life deteriorating issues.  People with repeated antibiotic use as children are at high risk for such issues as they get older.

The fact that chlorella can help boost up an important aspect of your immune system to help overcome these issues can help you to get over the hump and turn these important issues around.  I have previously explained the broad scope of chlorella as a nutritional super food, that chlorella can lower blood sugar and cholesterol, and that it is a helpful weight loss nutrient.  Thus, the reasons to have chlorella as part of your nutritional support team keep on growing.

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Gene Boosts Tomato's Color, But May Make It Less Tasty

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Exercise Program Boosts Health After Lung Transplant: Study

HealthDay – 31 mins ago WEDNESDAY, June 27 (HealthDay News) -- A structured exercise program boosted the overall health of lung transplant patients and reduced their risk of cardiovascular problems, a new study reports.

Lung transplant patients often have weak muscles and limited physical endurance due to inactivity before the transplant and the drugs they must take after, the researchers said.

Many patients remain inactive after their transplant, and up to half develop conditions such as high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, diabetes and osteoporosis, the study authors noted.

Exercise can help prevent these problems.

The new study included 40 patients with an average age of 59 who had single or double lung transplants. About half were assigned to a three-month exercise program while the rest (the control group) received usual care.

The patients in the exercise group did three 90-minute workouts per week after they were discharged from the hospital. The activities included cycling, walking, stair climbing and leg presses. Exercise intensity increased over the course of the training program.

The control group did not engage in the training regimen, but did perform daily mobility exercises -- such as walking, cycling and stair climbing -- for about six weeks after their surgery.

One year after being discharged from the hospital, patients in the exercise group were walking an average of 85 minutes a day, compared with 54 minutes for those in the control group.

The patients in the exercise group also had significantly more leg strength and self-reported physical functioning, could walk farther in six minutes, did much more physical activity and had lower blood pressure and better cardiovascular health than those in the control group.

The study was published in the June issue of the American Journal of Transplantation.

"Our study showed patients who had uncomplicated lung transplant surgery benefited greatly from supervised exercise training, which was initiated immediately after they were discharged from

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Apple peel compound boosts brown fat, reduces obesity in mice

ScienceDaily (June 20, 2012) — Obesity and its associated problems such as diabetes and fatty liver disease are increasingly common global health concerns. A new study by University of Iowa researchers shows that a natural substance found in apple peel can partially protect mice from obesity and some of its harmful effects.

See Also:Health & MedicineObesityFitnessDiet and Weight LossPlants & AnimalsMiceRodentsCell BiologyLiving WellReferenceSaturated fatAdipose tissueDiabetes mellitus type 2General fitness training

The findings suggest that the substance known as ursolic acid reduces obesity and its associated health problems by increasing the amount of muscle and brown fat, two tissues recognized for their calorie-burning properties.

The study, which was published June 20 in the journal PLoS ONE, was led by Christopher Adams, M.D., Ph.D., UI associate professor of internal medicine and a Faculty Scholar at the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center at the UI.

"From previous work, we knew that ursolic acid increases muscle mass and strength in healthy mice, which is important because it might suggest a potential therapy for muscle wasting," Adams says. "In this study, we tested ursolic acid in mice on a high-fat diet -- a mouse model of obesity and metabolic syndrome. Once again, ursolic acid increased skeletal muscle. Interestingly, it also reduced obesity, pre-diabetes and fatty liver disease.

"Since muscle is very good at burning calories, the increased muscle in ursolic acid-treated mice may be sufficient to explain how ursolic acid reduces obesity. However, we were surprised to find that ursolic acid also increased brown fat, a fantastic calorie burner. This increase in brown fat may also help protect against obesity."

Until quite recently, researchers believed that only infants had brown fat, which then disappeared during childhood. However, improved imaging techniques have shown that adults do retain a very small amount of the substance mostly in the neck and between the shoulder blades. Some studies have linked increased levels of brown fat with lower levels of obesity and healthier levels of blood sugar and blood lipid, leading to the suggestion that brown fat may be helpful in preventing obesity and diabetes.

The UI team, which also included Steven Kunkel, Christopher Elmore, Kale Bongers, Scott Ebert, Daniel Fox, Michael Dyle, and Steven Bullard, studied mice on a high-fat diet over a period of several weeks. Half of the animals also received ursolic acid in their high-fat food. Interestingly, mice whose diet included ursolic acid actually ate more food than mice not getting the supplement, and there was no difference in activity between the two groups. Despite this, the ursolic acid-treated mice gained less weight and their blood sugar level remained near normal. Ursolic acid-treated mice also failed to develop obesity-related fatty liver disease, a common and currently untreatable condition that affects about one in five American adults.

Further study showed that ursolic acid consumption increased skeletal muscle, increasing the animals' strength and endurance, and also boosted the amount of brown fat. Because both muscle and brown fat burn calories, the researchers investigated energy expenditure in the mice and showed that ursolic acid-fed mice burned more calories than mice that didn't get the supplement.

"Our study suggests that ursolic acid increases skeletal muscle and brown fat leading to increased calorie burning, which in turn protects against diet-induced obesity, pre-diabetes and fatty liver disease," Adams says. "Brown fat is beneficial and people are trying to figure out ways to increase it. At this point, we don't know how ursolic acid increases brown fat, or if it increases brown fat in healthy mice. And, most importantly, we don't know if ursolic acid will benefit people. Our next step is to determine if ursolic acid can help patients."

The research was supported by funding from the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center at the University of Iowa, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (grant 5R01AR059115-03), the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the University of Iowa Research Foundation.

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EU boosts Sahel food crisis aid by 40 million euros

"President of the Commission of the West African Economic and Monetary Union Cheikh Hadjibou Soumare (L) and Deputy Executive Secretary of the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel Braoussala Blamsia (R) speak at the EU headquarters in Brussels. The European Commission is increasing humanitarian funding to the Sahel by 40 million euros. (AFP Photo/Georges Gobet)" title

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Dose of zinc boosts recovery chances for sick babies

"Newborn babies lay in their beds in Germany in January 2012. A simple, cheap dose of zinc helps the recovery of newborns suffering from bacterial infections such as pneumonia and meningitis, according to an Indian study reported on Thursday in The Lancet. (AFP Photo/Waltraud Grubitzsch)" title

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Common antibiotic boosts death risk: study

"A popular antibiotic used for treating bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections and sexually transmitted diseases may boost the risk of death, a US study said Wednesday. (AFP Photo/Philippe Huguen)" title

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Pot Belly Boosts Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death: Study

HealthDay – 1 hr 35 mins ago WEDNESDAY, May 9 (HealthDay News) -- A "spare tire" around the midsection raises the odds of sudden cardiac death in obese people, a new study finds.

A larger waist-to-hip ratio matters even more than body-mass index when it comes to sudden cardiac death risk, said study researcher Dr. Selcuk Adabag, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Body-mass index is a measure of weight relative to height used to determine normal weight and obesity.

Obesity, a moderate risk factor for sudden cardiac death, and apple-shaped bodies often go hand in hand.

"The significance of this study is that it shows that abdominal obesity is an independent risk factor for sudden cardiac death, even after accounting for factors such as diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart disease," said Adabag, who is also a cardiac electrophysiologist at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Minneapolis.

Adabag was scheduled to present the findings Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Heart Rhythm Society in Boston.

Sudden cardiac death is responsible for more than 250,000 deaths in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is defined as death that occurs within an hour of initial symptoms. Besides obesity, risk factors include coronary heart disease and heart rhythm problems.

For the study, Adabag looked at the records of more than 15,000 people with an average age of 54 from four U.S. locales who were enrolled in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study. Over 13 years, more than 300 of the participants experienced sudden cardiac death.

After Adabag took into account age, sex, race, education, smoking status and family history of heart disease, he found that body-mass index, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio all were linked with sudden cardiac death.

"I expected there would be some relationship with all

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Colostrum Boosts Immunity to Fight Flu

Colostrum is a proven metabolic and immune support nutrient. As the vital nourishment for a newborn, it provides a dynamic package of protection as well as cofactors that dramatically enhance metabolic rate to sustain early growth. The latest study shows that colostrum boosts key flu fighting immune cells and reduces the severity of intentional flu infection.

In this animal study researchers measured immune cell response to the intake of colostrum. They found it boosted natural killer cells (NK cells) that are needed to knock out viral infection. They also infected the mice with the flu. Those taking colostrum had significantly less symptoms.

It was noted by the researchers that colostrum not only boosted the immune system in general, but it also provided specific benefit to the respiratory tract.

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