Higher Taurine Intake in the Diet Correlates with Some Measures of Strength in Middle Age
Taurine is a amino acid mainly found in fish and meat in the diet. It is not an essential amino acid, and can be synthesized in humans. Circulating taurine levels in the bloodstream decline with age by about 50% by middle age for reasons that have yet to be determined. Studies in aged mice and non-human primates have shown modestly improved function and slowed aging following taurine supplementation. Past human studies of taurine supplementation have produced entirely unimpressive outcomes, but given that they predated present aging clocks it may be that the researchers were evaluating the wrong metrics. Taurine may act on...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 16, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

What Is Genetics?
This post is the first in our miniseries on genetics. Stay tuned for more! Genetics is the study of genes and heredity—how traits are passed from parents to children through DNA. A gene is a segment of DNA that contains instructions for building one or more molecules that help the body work. Researchers estimate that humans have about 20,000 genes, which account for about 1 percent of our DNA. The remainder of the DNA plays a role in regulating genes, and scientists are researching other potential functions. DNA Details Credit: NIGMS. DNA is shaped like a twisted ladder, called a double heli...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - April 8, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Genes Common questions DNA Genetics Miniseries Genomics Source Type: blogs

How to control high blood pressure without medications
Just because you have been told that your blood pressure is above normal need not mean that you are tied up to medications lifelong. Changes in lifestyle can definitely bring down your blood pressure even without medications. In those already taking medications, the dose of medications can be brought down by important lifestyle changes. Some lucky ones may be able to stop medications as well. But you have to continue monitoring your blood pressure regularly so that any recurrence can be picked up. One of the important ways in which to reduce elevated blood pressure is by reducing extra weight. Roughly the blood pressure mi...
Source: Cardiophile MD - April 6, 2024 Category: Cardiology Authors: Johnson Francis Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs

An Urgent Call to Raise Awareness of Heart Disease in Women
By KELLY CARROLL There is a dire need to raise awareness about heart disease in women. It is the number one killer of American women, and key data points reveal a lack of cognizance among doctors and women. An assessment of primary care physicians published in 2019 revealed that only 22% felt extremely well prepared to evaluate cardiovascular disease risks in female patients. A 2019 survey of American women showed that just 44% recognized heart disease as the number one cause of death in women. Ten years earlier, in 2009, the same survey found that 65% of American women recognized heart disease as the leading cause o...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 5, 2024 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Medical Practice heart disease Kelly Carroll Life Essential 8 prevention Womens health Source Type: blogs

Common pitfalls underlying cause-and-effect relationships
In the realm of medicine, cause-and-effect relationships are those where a specific cause, such as a disease, condition, or treatment, directly leads to a specific outcome or effect. An example of this is the established fact that smoking causes lung cancer. Similarly, it is well-documented that regular, heavy alcohol consumption directly leads to liver cirrhosis. Read more… Common pitfalls underlying cause-and-effect relationships originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 1, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Physician Psychiatry Source Type: blogs

A 50-something with chest pain. Is there OMI? And what is the rhythm?
Written by Willy FrickA man in his 50s with history of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and a 30 pack-year smoking history presented to the ER with 1 hour of acute onset, severe chest pain and diaphoresis. His ECG is shown:What do you think?The history thus far is highly suggestive of OMI, so we must study the ECG very closely to see if we can confirm this. Looking at the rhythm strip, we see there is more going on than simple sinus rhythm, and in fact there are two different morphologies of QRS complexes. Take a closer look at the rhythm by itself and see if you can figure out what ' s going on before scrolling further....
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - March 22, 2024 Category: Cardiology Authors: Willy Frick Source Type: blogs

Microplastics, Major Problem
By KIM BELLARD It’s been almost four years since I first wrote about microplastics; long story short, they’re everywhere. In the ground, in the oceans (even at the very bottom), in the atmosphere. More to the point, they’re in the air you breathe and in the food you eat. They’re in you, and no one thinks that is a good thing. But we’re only starting to understand the harm they cause. The Washington Post recently reported: Scientists have found microplastics — or their tinier cousins, nanoplastics — embedded in the human placenta, in blood, in the heart and in the liver and bowels. In one re...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 19, 2024 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Tech Kim Bellard Microplastics Source Type: blogs

poem
 Broken HomeDivorce is Wednesday nights at Villas For pizza and all you can drink cokesAsking Dad for another quarterTo stick in the table side jukeboxSo I can listen toFunkytownAnd Another One Bites the DustIt ’s drawing pictures of your new stepmomWith horns coming out of her headAnd flames for hair It ’s getting in big trouble forCracking an egg on the skullOf your toddler half brother.It ’s calling Dad collect on his birthdayBecause Mom didn ’t get a child support check. Divorce is figuring out ridesTo weeknight baseball practice. It ’s hearing the phrase “broken home”And realizin...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 18, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs

Why is the angiogram normal?
Written byWilly FrickA man in his 50s with a 15 pack-year smoking history presented to his primary care physician ' s office complaining of intermittent headache. He also complained of intermittent mild chest pain radiating into into both shoulders and his back, as well as occasional unexplained sweating. (Although radiation into the left arm is most classic for coronary ischemia, radiation into both arms is actually modestly more predictive). The primary care physician ' s note indicates low suspicion for cardiac ischemia, but " for completion, check troponin and ECG. " If an ECG was obtained in the office,...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - March 17, 2024 Category: Cardiology Authors: Willy Frick Source Type: blogs

A man in his 40s with 3 days of stuttering chest pain
Written byWilly FrickA man in his early 40s with BMI 36, hypertension, and a 30 pack-year smoking history presented with three days of chest pain. It started while he was at rest after finishing a workout. He described it as a mild intensity, nagging pain on the right side of his chest with nausea and dyspnea. It woke him the next day and radiated into his back. He was only able to sleep while sitting in a chair. He went to urgent care and had an ECG (not available) which was interpreted as normal, and was sent home. His pain returned, and he went back to the urgent care but was sent to the ER. His ECG is shown:What do you...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - March 13, 2024 Category: Cardiology Authors: Willy Frick Source Type: blogs

Bonus Features, ViVE Edition – February 27, 2024 – GE and Biofourmis collaborating on care at home, DeepScribe and AWS Health Scribe partnering, plus 20 other stories
This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job. This edition is a special dispatch from the first days of ViVE 2024. There have been a lot of new research reports, products, and partnerships announced in Los Angeles. We wanted to try and cover as many announcements for the He...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - February 27, 2024 Category: Information Technology Authors: Brian Eastwood Tags: Healthcare IT 2morrow AvaSure AWS HealthScribe Axil Health Biofourmis Cancer Moonshot CenTrak Clearstep Health Coeus Health CPSI DeepScribe Dolbey Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin GE Healthcare Healthcare IT Today Source Type: blogs

Fight Aging! Newsletter, February 19th 2024
This study aimed to explore the metabolic mechanisms and potential biomarkers associated with declining HGS among older adults. We recruited 15 age- and environment-matched inpatients (age, 77-90 years) with low or normal HGS. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) gene sequencing were performed to analyze the metabolome of serum and stool samples and the gut microbiome composition of stool samples. Spearman's correlation analysis was used to identify the potential serum and fecal metabolites associated with HGS. We assessed the levels of serum and fecal metabolites belonging to...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 18, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs

Allostatic Load as a Correlate of Aging
Allostatic load is the concept of wear and tear on the body that emerges from stresses via overactivation of the neuroendocrine system. Causative stresses can range from starvation to psychological stress to a high burden of age-related dysfunction. At some point reactions to stress that are compensatory tip over into being themselves damaging. Thus one could expect allostatic load to correlate with degenerative aging and risk of mortality to at least some degree. In practice, however, there is little agreement on how to measure allostatic load, particularly in human patients, which makes it hard to compare results from st...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 14, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs

The power of nutrition in cancer prevention
In its annual cancer statistics report released this week, the American Cancer Society (ACS) predicted over 2 million new cancer cases and over 600,000 cancer deaths in the United States in 2024. The ACS cites decreased smoking rates, earlier detection, and improved treatments as the primary reasons for decreased death rates from cancer in recent decades. Missing Read more… The power of nutrition in cancer prevention originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - February 13, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Conditions Nutrition Source Type: blogs

Putting West Virginia Students on the Path to Scientific Careers
Credit: NIGMS. Two NIGMS-funded programs are teaming up to shape the future of science and technology in West Virginia (WV). One engages high school students in science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine (STEM+M); introduces them to research; and provides direct access to college through tuition waivers. In the other program, undergraduate students are paired with a researcher at their institution for a paid internship—an important step toward a career in science. The Health Sciences & Technology Academy “We liken our students to rosebuds. As they grow, you see them blossom into self-confident lea...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - January 31, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist STEM Education SEPA Training Source Type: blogs