Predicting Future Life Longevity With Blood testing

A new research study has been doing a blood test to some people relating about life longevity. Some of you may want to know how long our life or age of death and this can be measured by testing your blood into lab. It is not about forecast using tarot cards or any psychic readings. Recently study claims that blood test can predict your biological age and how much longer you will last.

In UK, there has a test measurement by using the length of telomeres. It means that DNA structure will be able to control the longevity of dividing cells. How does the telomere work? You only see if the telomere is shorter then it will faster your aging. Furthermore, using algorithm which based on the length to be able to assess longevity based on current lifestyle. However, the test actually will not tell you the exact date of year and the prediction was done within a decade.

Maria Blasco, the head of the telomeres research at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, in Madrid said that the telomeres showed both a normal length or not this can give us an indication of our health status as well as physiological age before diseases appear. Talking about how much the cost to do a test lab? In England, the cost is approximately at at £435, if we convert to US dollar around $705 sounds expensive right.

The question is what benefit can be got from testing our blood? This measurement definitely bring some opportunity to make lifestyle changes that lead to increase your lifespan. This is great way to help people change bad habit into good habit if they know how long the age of death. A study published online and in print form, in The Lancet Oncology in 2008, gathered evidence showing major lifestyle changes may extend life and prevent premature cell death.

Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, a UCSF biochemist and known for her discovery of telomeres, along with her lead colleague Dr. Dean Ornish.had been doing a research by taking thirty men who get a low risk prostate cancer. They will be asked to make a significant lifestyle for three months. Some of way was taught stress reduction techniques like how to follow their strict diet, low refined sugars and a diet filled with fresh fruits, veggies, whole foods, fish oil and even supplemental vitamins instead of moderate aerobic activity.

As a result, researchers discovered telomerase in the blood increased by 29 percent. On the other hand, the bad cholesterol had reduced. Basically, Telomerase is not only an enzyme which able to repairs and lengthens telomeres but also a DNA protein complex.

By Susan Brady healthnews

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Research found Kidney Cancer Caused By Heavy Smoking

The research report that people who like smoking will have a high chance to get risk of advanced kidney cancer. 

In a new study, a team from Duke University Medical Center reviewed the cases of 845 patients who had had surgery for kidney cancer -- or renal cell carcinoma -- between 2000 and 2009. They found that current and former smokers were 1.5 to 1.6 times more likely to have advanced cancer rather than nonsmokers.

For smoker that has been smoking for along period of time was associated with advanced renal cell carcinoma. The investigator had found that about 9 percent reduced the risk disease only for every 10 years

The American Urological Association’s annual meeting, in Washington. D.C get special press conference from this findings. Beside that, the rates of bladder cancer did not fall along with lower rates of smoking in the United States. Another study showed that the researchers also examined a national database and found that lung cancer rates decreased per capita consumption of cigarettes between 1973 and 2007, in contrast the same type of consistent decline was not seen in bladder cancer rates.

The researchers at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse said in a news release from the American Urological Association, rising in bladder cancer in a few decades have been offset by other contributing instead of decreasing in bladder cancer duo to smoking.

Dr. Toby Kohler said in the news release that these two studies actually bring a new insight which has two crucial urologic cancers. Moreover, kidney tumors can happened at this day and easily detected by people, it is because the more people smoke, the more aggressive cancer is.  Cessation of smoking seems to lower the risk," Kohler said.

"For bladder cancer on the other hand, the decrease in smoking rates has not impacted the incidence to the same degree that it has for lung cancer, suggesting that there may be other factors which are becoming more important for the development of the disease," he added.

The good way of avoiding risk of kidney cancer is “DON’T SMOKE”.  Try to stay away from cigarette start from now if you don’t want get cancer soon. These studies are being presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Source: Yahoo.Healthnews

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Research Showed Stroke Might Happen while Sleeping

Recent study proved that 1 in 7 get strokes during sleep, About 14 percent of strokes happen while people are sleeping, lowering the chance that they'll be able to get to the hospital in time for a potentially brain-saving treatment, a new study suggests. 

As we know that the only treatment of ischemic stroke should be given a few hour by the time symptoms begin. Ischemic stroke which is caused by blocked blood flow in the brain, usually because of a clot. Mostly, people who wake up with stroke symptoms often can't receive the treatment since we can't determine when the symptoms started. Dr. Jason Mackey, of the University of Cincinnati and a study co-author, said in a news release from the American Academy of Neurology. “some study is trying to develop what benefit will be got in order to make better methods so that study will be conducted to identify it include symptoms started during night

In the study, published in the May 10 issue of Neurology, researchers examined the medical records about 1,854 adults who suffered from ischemic strokes in a one-year period and were treated at emergency rooms in the Cincinnati area. In 14 percent of the cases, people woke up with symptoms of a stroke. The study authors pointed out that Nationwide had accounted for 58,000 people who visit emergency rooms with stroke systems every yearOf 273 people who had so-called "wake-up strokes," at least 98 would have been eligible for treatment with a blood clot-busting drug called tPA if doctors had known when the stroke had begun, the study reported.

"If a stroke started more than a few hours ago, tPA is not indicated because it is so dangeraous which can cause bleeding and more will extend and enlarge the stroke," explained Dr. Byron K. Lee, associate professor of medicine and director of the Electrophysiology Laboratories and Clinics at the University of California, San Francisco. "In wake-up strokes, it's nearly impossible to know when the symptoms started [so] tPA is not an option and, therefore, the neurologic deficits have a higher chance of becoming permanent."

According to the National Stroke Association, there have some possible symptoms of a stroke occur:

• Sudden paralysis or weakness in the face or limbs, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden problems with balance or walking
• Sudden vision problems
• Slurred speech
• Sudden confusion or problems speaking or understanding simple statements
• Sudden severe headache with no apparent cause

In addition, if you wake up feeling strange symptoms, Lee said, don't sit around. "People should not wait for any new neurologic deficits in the morning to pass or go away as they become less groggy," he said. "They should find medical attention at once. Even though tPA may not be an option in wake-up strokes, there are still many other treatments that can be given in an emergency room or hospital."

Stroke experts also offer a simple way to aid people remember what to look for if they think they are witnessing a stroke: Think FAST (Face, Arms, Speech, Time):

• Face means See if the person can smile, or if one side of their face seems to droop.
• Arms mean can the person raise both arms, or does one side drift downward?
• Speech means See if the person is able to speak clearly or repeat a simple phrase.
• Time means Call ambulance immediately if the person exhibits any of these signs.

Source: Healthday

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Keeping kids health weight by giving family meals

If we look Kids who sit down to eat with their families are less likely to be overweight and eat unhealthy foods compared with others who eat lonely, according to U.S. researchers who call for more shared meals.

In the first report to combine all existing studies on the issue, they found kids who eat with their parents spend at least three times or more a week had actually 12 percent lower odds of being overweight.

The percentage showed that the children were also 20 percent less likely to eat junk food, 35 percent less likely to have eating problems like skipping meals or bingeing, and 24 percent proved they are more likely to eat vegetables and other healthy foods. 

The Amber hammons from University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign, whose findings are published in the journal Pediatrics said that sitting down as a family give a nutritional benefit to them especially kids. Still, the 17 studies reviewed in the new work were based on observations, not actual experiments, and Hammons acknowledged that they don't prove shared meals trim waistlines.

"It's just an association," she told Reuters Health. "Families who sit down together could be healthier to begin with."

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity has more than tripled over the past 3 decades, reaching close to 20 percent in 2008.

The extra pounds may weigh down on kids' self-esteem and can set them up for health problems such as heart disease and diabetes.

The new report is based on findings from nearly 183,000 children about 2 to 17 years of age. While those studies yielded mixed results and weren't easy to compare, overall they show regular family meals are tied to better nutrition. 

Parents might give big influence as well as monitor their kids during shared meals. Hammons said beside that the children also less to east eat high-calorie food

As a result, the researchers encourage families to spend more time together around the dinner table.

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Study: Ovary Removal Doesn’t Raise Heart Risk

But Findings Oppose Earlier Study Linking Ovary Removal During Hysterectomy With Heart Risk

A new analysis of data from a major women’s health study finds little evidence that ovary removal during hysterectomy increases heart disease risk.

The findings appear to contradict those from another large study in women suggesting a higher risk for heart disease and stroke associated with the practice.

About 600,000 women in the U.S. have their uteruses surgically removed each year. About half of these procedures include removal of the ovaries.

The newly published data from the Women’s Health Study (WHI), which included more than 25,000 women, confirmed that women who had their ovaries removed during hysterectomy developed fewer ovarian cancers than women whose ovaries were not removed.

Keeping ovaries did not appear to be associated with a lower risk for heart disease, osteoporosis, or cancer among the women in the study.

The findings appear in the April 25 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Choosing Ovary Removal

Ovary removal has benefits for women at high risk for ovarian cancer due to genetic predisposition or family history, and the new analysis appears to tip the scales in favor of removing the ovaries for other women as well.

But it isn’t that simple, experts tell WebMD.

Ovarian cancer is relatively uncommon, while heart disease is the No. 1 killer of older women. More than 10 times as many women die each year from coronary causes as from ovarian cancer.

In the newly published analysis, researchers estimated that one case of ovarian cancer was prevented for every 323 hysterectomies performed with ovary removal.

But keeping ovaries was associated with a clear decrease in heart disease incidence and death from coronary causes in a 2009 analysis of data from the Nurses Health Study (NHS), which included close to 30,000 women.

Health policy researcher Lauren D. Arnold, PhD, MPH, of the University of St Louis, says the contradictory studies can provide a teaching moment for doctors and patients.

“We encourage doctors to practice evidence-based medicine, but that is often interpreted as meaning they need to follow the latest study,” she says. “In this case, we have two very good studies and, for most women, there are still no clear-cut answers.”

Comparing Studies

Two big differences in the studies were the age of the participants and the length of follow-up.

The average age of the women in the Women’s Health Initiative was 63 at enrollment, while women in the NHS trial were enrolled between the ages of 30 and 55. And WHI participants were followed for an average of eight years, while the nurses were followed for 24 years.

NHS researcher William H. Parker, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, says the older age of the women in the WHI trial and the fact that the main intent of the study was to examine the impact of hormone replacement treatments on health could have influenced the outcomes.

The surviving women in the NHS trial have now been followed for more than three decades, and Parker says he plans to present an updated analysis within the next two years.

“At this point, like a lot of medicine, the decision about whether to remove ovaries during hysterectomy is an individual one, with each patient bringing her own set of circumstances to the table,” he tells WebMD.

Arnold agrees.

In an editorial published with the study, she and co-author Graham Colditz, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine, write that the subtle differences in the two studies may be easily overlooked by doctors when they counsel patients about the potential benefits and risks associated with ovary removal during hysterectomy.

Arnold says many women facing this decision may not even fully understand that ovary removal is an elective procedure.

“Doctors need to remember that there are no clear-cut answers for most women,” she says.

Source: Women.Webmd By Salynn Boyles 

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