Painkillers increase your risk of dementia

We all take painkillers occasionally, but the dangers of becoming dependent on them are well known. However now there is another cause for concern with over the counter drugs such as those containing ibuprofen that are commonly taken to help with a short term headache or a long term condition like arthritis.

Previous studies have indicated that taking painkillers to ward off dementia might be effective, but a new study done in Seattle on 2,700 people found that as many as 66 percent were actually MORE likely to develop dementia if they took heavy, regular doses of painkillers.

They also had a tendency to have more diabetes, arthritis, and signs of heart failure. High doses of painkillers can have serious side effects, including stomach problems leading to ulcers and small bleeds in the brain have also been reported.

Painkillers are strong drugs and very useful for their prescribed medical purpose. Self medicating with them is never a good idea and they are not designed to be a preventive but a palliative for pain.

Heart disease risk for women increased with exposure to plastic food containers

New research presented in Washington in June has shown that exposure to bisphenol A (BPA)– a chemical found ion plastics – causes abnormal heart activity in women. It is the oestrogen receptors that are responsible for this effect in heart muscle cells.

BPA is an environmental pollutant with oestrogen activity, and is used to make hard, clear plastic and is commonly used in many plastic food containers, including water bottles.

Even low doses of BPA markedly increased the frequency of arrhythmic events the researchers found and it was made worse when exposed to estradiol, the major oestrogen hormone in women.

BPA is already linked to neurological defects, diabetes and breast and prostate cancer.

Oh really? Cocaine and heroin can harm the placenta

Prepare, as ever, to be astounded. Apparently cocaine and heroin can harm the placenta as they increase its permeability and so allow it to be passed through to the foetus. Well really, as it’s already well known that babies are born ‘addicted’ from their mothers who have a drug habit I wonder why anyone thought this needed proving? It seems that Antoine Malek from Zurich University Hospital’s Department of Obstetrics, felt the need to prove the obvious – and guess what, he managed it. Let’s be clear here, all drugs potentially could pass into the placenta which is why doctors are careful about what they prescribe to pregnant women and anyone who is a habitual drug user is usually aware of the risks, even if they ignore them or aren’t able to come off the drugs during the pregnancy. Often the solution is to go on methadone as a substitute, but users need to be aware that too much of it can also harm the foetus, and particularly if it is combined with any other drugs.

Log on to treat depression

Those enterprising Aussies have potentially found a new treatment approach for depression. Researchers from the University of New South Wales have shown that Internet-based therapy programmes are as effective as face-to-face therapies.

Actually getting an appointment can be the first hurdle in treating depression so anything that offers instant access is worth investigating. They set up the Sadness programme which was based solely on email contact with a therapist. On average participants needed an average of only 111 minutes of contact with a therapist over an eight-week period, which is significantly less than other comparable treatment.

Social phobias and other anxiety disorders have been previously treated online, but this is a first. It has been assumed that depression would be more difficult because of the lack of motivation usually associated with the condition, but this is clearly not the case.

The programme consisted of six online lessons with weekly homework assignments and contact by email from a clinical psychologist. Evaluation of those who h ad completed the programme showed that more than a third (34 percent) no longer met the criteria to be diagnosed as depressed and that is a result similar to face-to-face therapy. A significant majority (82 percent) who completed a post-treatment questionnaire reported being either very satisfied or mostly satisfied with the overall program.

To me there are significant benefits to this idea. First, many people do not have easy access to qualified therapists either by means of lack of facilities in their area, lack of time to travel and see a therapist due to their work or lack of mobility. This, plus the fact it is still not easy for people to admit to wanting to see a mental health professional, make this a good step forward.

I know there is resistance to working online, but on a different tack I coach creative people by email and once they have experienced how easy and convenient it is they are usually converts. To be able to log on for a treatment programme in the privacy of your own home, and at a time that is convenient for you, is going to be attractive to many people.

More trials are to be set up, and I will keep you posted on whether this is an Aussie export that will successfully make it across the pond.

Men only – Pass it on!

Men’s Health Week aims to get men more aware of their own health, and to take action when it’s needed. These health stories could make a difference to you, or someone you know, so pass them on:

Increased health risks for men with chronic insomnia

A ten year study of over 1,700 men and women followed found that men with insomnia and short sleep duration were almost five times more likely to die than men who had normal sleep. Short sleep duration was defined as less than six hours uninterrupted sleep per night, chronic insomnia as lasting more than one year and poor sleep as difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up excessively early in the morning.

Promoting prostate health

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in England, causing about one in four of all new cases. Unlike many cancers, prostate cancer can grow slowly and show no symptoms, however a minority are fast-growing and have to be treated quickly and aggressively. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to tell which is which so that the key factor lies in monitoring your own health and having regular check ups.

Known risk factors are being over 50, a family history of it, being of African-Caribbean or West African descent, being overweight and having a high-fat and high-dairy diet.

Top 3 Tips for a healthy prostate:

1) Dietary sense. Research suggests that diets containing foods with antioxidants may reduce the risk of prostate cancer as well keeping your diet low in red meat, dairy products and saturated fats as these all can increase the risk. To lower your risk eat more tomatoes, soy foods and fish. Include green tea as it contains compounds that can block the actions of an enzyme that promotes prostate cancer. Include a daily multivitamin with good levels of antioxidants, particularly selenium, and vitamin D.

2) Exercise sense. To reduce your risk, start some form of regular aerobic exercise that you enjoy and will maintain.

3) Screen sense. To get early detection it is essential to have regular screening, particularly once over 50.

Prostate problems are the number one concern for men’s health and there have been some positive anecdotal reports on men with prostate cancer who have used natural progesterone cream. There is no clinical evidence, or trial, but much of John Lee’s work was based on his own patients’ responses so it might be worth investigating if you have concerns about your prostate health.

Laptops Linked To Male Infertility

Young men and computers are almost synonymous, but there is a hidden danger in frequent laptop use. Being a father might not be an immediate priority, but if it is a hope for your future then as well as avoiding hot tubs and wearing boxers instead of briefs you might want to limit your laptop use. These three factors all can reduce male fertility, but the laptop link is a new problem according to Dr Kavic, who is a reproductive specialist in Chicago.

The problem is that the heat generated from laptops can damage both sperm count and motility and therefore has an impact on fertility. Dr Kavic recommends placing laptops on desktops and I suggest if it has to be on your lap you need some barrier between you and it such as a cushion or what I use, which is a lap tray with a rigid top and beanbag base to provide a ‘safe zone’.

Successful dieting depends on vitamin D

The Endocrine Society reported at their AGM of 12 June that if you are planning on a low calorie diet to get in shape for those summer clothes then you need to have good levels of vitamin D in your body at the start if you want it to succeed.

The study was reported on from a study at the University of Minnesota and although we associate Vitamin D deficiency with obesity, it’s never been clear as to whether low levels of vitamin D causes obesity or the other way around. The study put their test subjects on a diet that provided 750 calories a day less than they actually felt they needed. Most of their people had low levels of vitamin D at the start, but surprisingly even low levels were able to predict how successful the diet would be. The more vitamin D in their blood, then the greater the weight loss – and vice versa.

Probably of more interest before you shimmy into that swimsuit is the fact that higher baseline levels of vitamin D levels also predicted there would be a greater loss of fat from the abdomen – the prime target for most dieters.

Just taking vitamin D as a supplement won’t help you lose weight on its own. Sadly the same advice applies as usual – eat less, exercise more and focus on healthy foods rather than saturated fats and alcohol. Liqueur chocolates are probably the worst combination, so wait until Christmas!

Botox benefits overactive bladders

You see, there is a benefit in everything if you just know where to look for it. Botox has never struck me as a particularly healthy way of improving your looks, rather that it preserves a fixity of expression that my mother used to warn me would happen if the wind changed and caught me – however. It now seems that if you have an overactive bladder, which is both a social nuisance and embarrassment for many women as they get older, then apparently Botox injections can help.

Previous research has shown that as many as one in six people over the age of 40 suffer from an overactive bladder so it is an important health issue that is not often talked about. UK urologists from Guy’s Hospital and King’s College London carried out a randomised, double-blind placebo trial on 34 patients with an average age of 50 and all of them had failed to tolerate or respond to the anticholinergic drugs that are usually prescribed for this condition. They then found that the subjects reported significant improvements in their lives, as well as their symptoms, for at least 24 weeks. This is a very small study; of the 34 half were given a placebo injection so we are only talking 16 people, of whom nine were women.

I am not going to detail exactly where and how the injections were given, I find it too difficult to sit still and write about, but they say it is minimally invasive and involved 20 injections of 200ml of Botox. If you want to tell your own urologist about this, it was five in the midline posterior bladder wall, five in the left lateral wall, five in the right lateral wall and five across the dome of the bladder.

Back pain benefits from exercise

Lower back pain can be so debilitating and also difficult to treat, and if affects nearly 80 percent of the population. You may feel like lying flat on your back and doing nothing, but new research shows you are better off exercising more, not less. This news comes from the University of Alberta in Canada and they found that both men and women with chronic lower-back pain definitely benefited from regular exercise. If they managed to work at a gym with weights for four days a week they improved their quality of life, had nearly 30 percent less pain and an impressive 36 per cent less disability. Those with similar lower back problems who only exercised two or three days a week did not show the same level of change or gain the same benefit.

Working with weights seems to be what did the trick in this study, but please only under supervision and with someone who can give you proper, qualified, professional advice. In the UK the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which is the government’s own health watchdog, has recommended for the first time ever that complementary therapies be prescribed for lower back pain. They suggest a course of acupuncture, exercise classes like Pilates, or massage if the symptoms persist for six weeks or more – I would be there within a week myself!

Do you need an alibi?

Not for anything criminal you understand, but in order to help you to better health? I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the importance of probiotics in helping our overall health, and the rise of a new focus on prebiotics that are designed to help your body’s natural defence system perform at its best. The newest way to take these is in a product called Alibi that you will find in the soft drinks section of your supermarket or health store and it works by combining a blend of 17 body cleansing ingredients including vitamins, amino acids and herbal extracts. The herbs include milk thistle, gingko, shchizandra and last weeks featured weed – dandelion! If you are tired of throwing down supplements, then Alibi looks and tastes like any other refreshing soft drink and you can get it in two flavours, though personally I prefer the pomegranate. It is claimed to help keep you healthy and has associated itself with a campaign, POM354, which persuades farmers in Afghanistan to replant opium poppy fields with pomegranates. So they shouldn’t run out of ingredients any time soon.

Alli – All it’s cracked up to be?

This is the time when the diet industry is maximising it’s advertising as we approach the season of maximum exposure. Great if you are body confident, but the statistics show that the vast majority of women are unhappy with their weight, so the advent of a new ‘miracle’ diet product is greeted with delight, but is it justified?

Alli is on sale at pharmacies like Boots and has been highly featured in magazines as a ‘miracle’ weight loss product, but it is a drug and ought to be treated with caution.

What and how

The pills contain Orlistat that has been used for years but only on prescription to treat obesity. It works by attaching itself to some of that fat in your food and blocking it from being broken down by your body’s natural enzymes. It then passes the fat through your digestive system, into your intestines and eventually out through your bowels. So most of the fat you eat isn’t being absorbed by the body, so those calories aren’t heading for your hips. So what’s the problem?

It won’t get rid of any fat you have already stored, just new intake, so you still have to go on a low calorie diet and these are linked to weight re-gain and unbalanced hormones. Also, these pills strongly suggest you seriously restrict the amount of fat intake you have, but when you block fat from being absorbed in the body, you are blocking the valuable nutrients that fat can provide. You will see those effects in the deteriorating condition of both your skin and hair.

If you go over the fat amount recommendations with Alli you get something called “Treatment Effects”. This has been reported by women as meaning that you will spend a lot of time in the loo as your body rushes to expel the fat straight out of your system, and it will be mostly liquid. Effects include leaking, wet gas, and diarrhoea, plus a sense of urgency you could probably live without.

Risk links you don’t need

The National Cancer Institute in the USA reports a study showing significant increase in the incidence of aberrant crypt foci that are widely believed to be a precursor of colon cancer. There also appears to be a link between Orlistat and breast cancer that the FDA reported as being a higher relative risk of between four and seven times than in women not taking Orlistat. There is also a risk of liver damage from the prescription strength version of Alli available in the USA called Xenical. This is currently under FDA investigation and lists hepatitis as one of the side effects.

There is no doubt that Alli is highly effective for some people, but like all supplements and drugs what suits one may not be ideal for someone else. Popping a pill to lose weight is not a healthy option, sadly the only effective way to diet is to eat less of healthy foods, reduce saturated fats, sugar and alcohol and exercise more. Now if I could get that into a pill I would probably make a fortune!

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