Curcumin for arthritis: Does it really work?
Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that is the most common type of arthritis. Usually, it occurs among people of advanced age. But it can begin in middle age or even sooner, especially if there’s been an injury to the joint.
While there are treatments available — exercise, braces or canes, loss of excess weight, various pain relievers and anti-inflammatory medicines — these are no cures, and none of the treatments are predictably effective. In fact, often they don’t work at all, or help only a little. Injected steroids or synthetic lubricants can be tried as well. When all else fails, joint replacement ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 12, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Arthritis Bones and joints Complementary and alternative medicine Pain Management Source Type: blogs
Assisted Living Shouldn ’t Mean Losing Independence
Photo credit Nashwin Vaswani
Dear Carol: My mom, 78, has some physical disabilities because of severe arthritis. Even so, she’s fully able to manage the two medications that she takes. She can also fix the simple meals that she enjoys and entertain herself with music, TV, and reading. She needs some assistance, but we’re skeptical of assisted living because her friend, also well able to take care of her immediate needs, got burned. This friend liked living in her apartment except that the facility mandated taking over her medications and that she attend a certain number of meals. Their rules made her angry and miserabl...
Source: Minding Our Elders - November 9, 2019 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Stopping the vicious cycle of rebound headaches
Rebound headaches, also known as medication overuse headaches, are caused by the frequent or excessive use of pain-relieving and/or antimigraine drugs to treat headache attacks that are already in progress. (Note that these are not the same as oral prophylactic or preventive medicines, which should be taken daily.) In other words, the same medications that initially relieve headache pain can themselves trigger subsequent headaches if they are used too often. Medication overuse headaches can be disabling, forcing people with this condition to take sick leave and to be less productive at work and home.
To be diagnosed with m...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 7, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Sait Ashina, MD Tags: Drugs and Supplements Headache Health Source Type: blogs
Independent-Minded Mom Refuses Daughter's Care: Getting Their Cooperation
Dear Candid Caregiver: My 79-year-old mom has been widowed for a little over a year. She’d always depended on Dad to help her because her arthritis limited her movement and she uses a walker much of the time. Now, though, there’s been a complete change in attitude, and she insists that she can take care of everything herself, even physical tasks that are clearly a challenge. I’m not certain whether she’s trying to prove something or if it has something to do with Dad’s death. Whatever her reasoning, I worry about her. I can’t be with her all the time, so I want to help make her home safer, wherever that h...
Source: Minding Our Elders - November 5, 2019 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Try These 9 Tips to Better Manage Stress and Protect Your Health
Increasingly, stress is considered a risk factor for dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s. Stress is also a risk factor for stroke and heart attack as well as a trigger for many diseases from arthritis to psoriasis. Obviously, limiting stress in our lives is a good idea. But how? Simply living what we call modern life seems to make stress the norm.
View the full slideshow on HealthCentral to learn more about managing the stress of caregiving:
Carol is the Candid Caregiver
Support a caregiver or jump-start discussion in support groups with real stories - for bulk orders of Minding Our Elders e-mail Carol ...
Source: Minding Our Elders - October 30, 2019 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Bisexuality and health: The cost of invisibility
On September 23, 2019, the 20th anniversary of Bi Visibility Day, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) held its first-ever bisexual health research workshop. As an invited panelist at this event, sponsored by the NIH’s Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office, I joined 19 other researchers to discuss key findings, gaps in knowledge, and future directions.
You may be asking yourself: Is there really a need for this workshop? How is bisexual health different from the health of other groups? How many people even identify as bisexual?
What is bisexuality?
Robyn Ochs, a prominent bisexual activist and writer, defines bis...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - October 29, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Sabra Katz-Wise, PhD Tags: Adolescent health Relationships Sex Stress Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, October 28th 2019
In this study, the enhanced mice live somewhat longer than their unmodified peers, though not as much longer as is the case for the application of telomerase gene therapy. The mice do also exhibit reduced cancer risk, however. The scientists here class telomere shortening as a cause of aging, which is not a point universally agreed upon. Reductions in average telomere length in tissues looks much more like a downstream consequence of reduced stem cell activity than an independent mechanism.
Researchers obtain the first mice born with hyper-long telomeres and show that it is possible to extend life without any geneti...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 27, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Treating Periodontitis Reduces Inflammatory Markers and Blood Pressure in Hypertensive Patients
Researchers here provide evidence for periodontitis, gum disease, to contribute to hypertension, chronic raised blood pressure, via inflammatory mechanisms. Aggressively treating the periodontitis in hypertensive patients reduces both blood pressure and inflammatory markers. Periodontitis has previously been linked with a modestly increased risk of dementia, as well as increased cardiovascular mortality risk. In both cases, increased inflammation is strongly suspected to be the linking mechanism.
Experimental and observational clinical evidence suggests a prominent role of inflammation in the development of hypert...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 22, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Cardiac Glycosides, a Category that Includes Several Approved Drugs, are Found to be Senolytic
In this study it was found that cardiac glycosides selectively eliminate many types of senescent cells, including when senescence has been triggered by irradiation, cancer itself, or chemotherapeutic drugs - such as etoposide or doxorubicin. The fact that ouabain can eliminate different types of senescent cells emphasises its potential as a broad spectrum senolytic.
"These drugs are already used in the clinic, so they could be repurposed to treat a long list of diseases including cancer. This is something we are keen to explore with our clinical collaborators. Moreover, many patients are being treated with digoxin a...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 22, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Help the SENS MitoMouse Rejuvenation Research Project Hit Its Crowdfunding Stretch Goals
The latest crowdfunded research project undertaken by the SENS Research Foundation involves using the genetically engineered maximally modifiable mouse lineage in order to demonstrate the ability to copy a version of the ATP8 mitochondrial gene into the cell nucleus, a process known as allotopic expression, and thus prevent mutational damage to this gene from degrading mitochondrial function. This is a modest step on the road towards bringing this class of genetic engineering project to the point of readiness for commercial development, when a biotech startup company could be created to carry it forward.
In just a f...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 21, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Activism, Advocacy and Education Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, October 21st 2019
In this study, AT1-AAs were detected in the sera of patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and the positive rate was 44.44% vs. 17.46% in non-PAD volunteers. In addition, analysis showed that AT1-AAs level was positively correlated with PAD. To reveal the causal relationship between AT1-AAs and vascular aging, an AT1-AAs-positive rat model was established by active immunization. The carotid pulse wave velocity was higher, and the aortic endothelium-dependent vasodilatation was attenuated significantly in the immunized rats. Morphological staining showed thickening of the aortic wall. Histological examination showe...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 20, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A Mechanism for Mammalian Cartilage Regrowth is Discovered
A theme of recent years is the discovery of processes of regrowth that operate in mammalian tissues long thought to be non-regenerative. In this case, researchers have found a mechanism of regeneration that operates in cartilage, albeit not to the degree that would be helpful for recovery from more serious injury or the wear of aging. Still, where a mechanism exists at all, it should be possible to find ways to enhance its operation. This work is interesting for the resemblance that this regenerative process bears to the way in which salamanders regrow lost organ tissue. Finding ways to bring that sort of exceptional regen...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 16, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Harvard Health Ad Watch: A new treatment for knee arthritis
The TV ad promises pain relief for knee osteoarthritis, the source of most of the 600,000 knee replacement surgeries performed in the US each year. A man in a bowling alley winces with pain. He nearly falls as he rolls a ball into the gutter. (Did I mention the arrow sticking out of his knee?)
“Knee acting up again?” asks his buddy, clearly concerned. When pain pills don’t seem to help, his buddy suggests a procedure called Coolief for knee osteoarthritis.
“I had it done six months ago,” says the bowling buddy. “And the best part is that it lasts up to one year.”
What is Coolief?
Coolief is a procedure, not a...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - October 15, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Arthritis Bones and joints Osteoarthritis Pain Management Tests and procedures Source Type: blogs
Noble ’s Self-Injection Trainers for Rheumatoid Arthritis Drugs: Interview with Joe Reynolds, Research Manager
Last year, Medgadget heard from Noble International about its “smart” training devices that educate patients on safe and effective at-home use of prefilled syringes and autoinjectors. At the time, Joe Reynolds, Research Manager at Noble International, shared some use cases for the company’s products, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Since that interview, longitudinal data has proven the efficacy of Noble’s training devices in clinical studies. All patients who practiced with the trainers at home for 14 days were able to complete all steps required to administer a self-injection without error...
Source: Medgadget - October 14, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Exclusive Medicine Pediatrics Source Type: blogs
