Today’s medical announcement would be astounding if it wasn’t almost intuitive; the results clearly demonstrate that lifestyle behaviors do contribute to stroke risk independently of the intermediate risk factors.

We are all aware that the following four behaviors are beneficial to one’s health. Physical activity, moderate alcohol consumption, no smoking, and the daily consumption of five or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day can only have a positive impact. The strength of that impact was recently bolstered by a defining EPIC (European Prospective Investigation of Cancer) study conducted in England.

20,040 men and women ages 40 to 79 had a physical exam and completed a detailed health and lifestyle questionnaire upon enrolling in the study. This data determined which participants smoked, drank, were physically active, and whether they ate their fruits and vegetables. The risk of stroke for those who did not practice any of the above mentioned behaviors increased twofold compared with individuals who adopted all four.

“These results provide further incentive and support for the notion that small differences in lifestyle can have a substantial potential impact on risk,” the authors concluded.

A study comparing the results of touch therapy and massage therapy found that both relieved pain and improved mood, but massage was twice as effective. Furthermore, there was an increase in pain relief as treatment continued over time.

The results are important, suggesting a non-medical way for cancer patients to receive pain relief.

It’s been long known that touch has a soothing affect on the human body, but there have been few studies supporting it.

Touch therapy consists of a therapist placing their hands on specific spots on the body and applying light pressure for a few moments. The treatment comes out of the holistic healing movement and has not garnered much support among those in the medical field.

Massage therapy is more vigorous, including pressing, rolling, and finger pressure at trigger points. Though not common in the hospital, massage therapy is a commonly offered as part of a physical rehabilitation program. Now, it may become an option for patients receiving painful treatments for debilitating diseases.

If you aren’t sure what palliative care is, that’s part of the problem.

Palliative care is a care program that includes management of pain and other debilitating symptoms and increased communication and care coordination between physician and family. Palliative care increases the quality of life for patients with complex prognoses . . . Greater palliative care has been linked to lower death rates, fewer intensive care admissions during a patient’s final months, and lower overall expense per patient.

The statistics speak, and palliative care has been increasing around the nation, but it is still almost unavailable in many rural hospitals and the south. The trend is upward, but the problem is still widespread.

The best way to receive palliative care is via hospice care, delivered in specialized institutions, such as nursing or assisted living facilities. Such facilities are smaller, more specialized, and less hectic than hospitals, permitting them greater latitude in customizing the service their patients receive.

Palliative care utilizes a broad range of services for one goal: relieve suffering and increase quality of life. When paired with standard medical treatment, the results is a more comfortable treatment and faster recovery.

Sonography is a popular new form of diagnosis because of its safe, non-invasive procedure. Borrowed from bats, sonagraphy utilizes the technology of sonar, which bounces sound waves off of objects to create dynamic pictures of them. Sonographers send and receive sound waves through a transducer, a thick baton that they run over the patient’s skin to sense what is underneath. Sonography is used to take a look at the heart, liver, kidneys, bloodstream, and most famously, unborn babies. It can be used to diagnose and treat heart disease, heart attack, and vascular disease that can lead to stroke. It is also used to guide probes and needles in surgery.

When you need a sonogram for diagnostic purposes, you don’t want to wait all day for it. That’s why Mobile DH provides rapid sonography service at your bedside, for hemologists, cardiologists, internists and other medical specialists, as well as homecare patients, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities.

Research has shown that while stimulants used to treat ADHD are known to raise blood pressure and heart rate, serious heart complications appear rare in kids who take the drugs. Undergoing an ECG would be reasonable but in some cases the ECG might result in false-positive readings, indicating heart risk where there is none.

The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology released a joint statement urging research to be done to determine the link between sleep apnea and heart disease, following increasing evidence of just such a connection, as well as the widespread prevalence of sleep apnea and rising levels of obesity in the United States, especially among young people. Obesity is a major cause of sleep apnea

“We feel it is important to alert the cardiovascular community to the implications of this emerging area of research. It is possible that diagnosing and treating sleep apnea may prove to be an important opportunity to advance our efforts at preventing and treating heart disease,” said Dr. Virend K. Somers, a professor of medicine and cardiovascular diseases at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

“We need to more clearly define the cause and effect relationship between sleep apnea and cardiovascular diseases and risk factors,” he noted. “There is evidence that sleep apnea may be a cause of some cases of high blood pressure, but for other cardiovascular conditions, the evidence is largely circumstantial

New research findings by the University of Arizona show a link between a woman’s high bone mineral density and a greater likelihood of developing breast cancer. This factor is independent of the risk level predicted by using the popular Gail model. The Gail model utilizes family history, age and other factors to estimate a woman’s risk of breast cancer over five years and over her lifetime, but it does not include data on bone mineral density, which is known to be a risk factor for breast cancer.

Recently other studies have linked bone health and  breast cancer risk in various ways. At the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting,  a study was presented that showed how Zometa (zoledronic acid), a drug used to treat osteoporosis, lowered the risk of breast cancer recurrence in premenopausal women.Other research revealed that women with breast cancer who are deficient in vitamin D  at the time of their diagnosis were more likely to have a recurrence or to die from their disease. Vitamin D is also vital to bone health.

Women with high bone density tend to be overweight or obese which does raise their risk of breast cancer.

According to Dr. Jay Brooks, Chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, “This is more information that shows a link in my opinion, between increasing weight, obesity and the development of breast cancer”.

Dementia isn’t all about aging, studies show. Health in mid-life can have a marked effect on cognitive ability later on.

A British study of 10,308 people, mostly men, followed the subjects from roughly the ages of 35-55 (the study started in 1985) to about 60-75 years (the study ended in 2004).

Coronary heart disease in midlife was found to be linked to lower cognition in later years. In men, heart disease was linked to lower reason, vocabulary, and MMSE scores. In women, it corresponded additionally to lower phonemic and semantic fluency.

The longer the heart disease – meaning, the earlier it was contracted – the greater the drop in cognitive ability over the years. This suggests that heart disease creates an ongoing condition that continuously deteriorates mental function until dementia kicks in.

According to the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Radiology  – the “policy would have a profoundly negative impact on Medicare beneficiaries by limiting needed access to this technology for clinically appropriate indications.”

High-tech scans are one of the fastest growing areas of health-care spending, and The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service is determined to cuts costs. But for now, the agency will let the Regional Medicare carriers make their  own decisions on this and they usually tend to cover the test.

Medicare paid for an estimated 70,000 of the heart scans in 2006, at a cost of $40 million to $50 million.

The scans can serve a purpose similar to conventional angiography, in which X-ray images of the coronary vessels heart are enhanced with a dye injected by a catheter. A set of guidelines, created by several medical societies, recommends using the scans only on certain patients who have some evidence of heart disease, such as those with chest pain and a hard-to-evaluate stress test.

Since CT scans are less invasive than angiography, there is some concern that they might be used for screening patients who don’t show symptoms of disea