News tagged with 'Living Well'

Who knew the "Sunshine Vitamin" could do so much?   The latest findings link a deficiency of vitamin D to the risk of heart attack and stroke. Half of adults, and at least 30 percent of children are deficient in this vitamin that is so easy and inexpensive to acquire. 

Earlier studies have found exercise helps prevent cognitive decline and maintains the brain as people age. New research suggests people who engage in long-term, regular exercise had substantially more small blood vessels in their brains and more blood flow than people who performed little exercise over the years.

The children of centenarians seems relatively free of heart disease and that partially accounts for their long life too. Whether it's in the genes or healthy life style or both, remains uncertain.

A newly published study on the herb, Ginko biloba, says it's not effective in fighting memory loss. That contradicts 5,000 years of Chinese medicine and smaller studies. This is a case where the consumer is left to consider his own options.  

While community gardens, grass-fed beef, hiking and college degrees are the norm in Burlington, Vermont, unemployment, southern fried food and a lack of exercise underscore life in Huntington, West Virginia. Guess which is healthier?

Can salmon be organic? The short answer is no, but that's not stopping the National Organic Standards Board from meeting Monday to discuss that possibility.  There are too many variables out at sea, critics charge, pointing to the industry as a slight improvement over industrialized factory-farming agriculture at sea.  

The AARP reports that many Americans 45 and older are tapping into the future retirement accounts just to cover day-to-day expenses. The lobbying group for Americans over the age of 50, is encouraging the use of automatic IRA enrollment to jump start savings and the economy.

A small amount of alcohol consumption has been found to benefit the heart, but not the brain. Even a small amount of alcohol may lead to brain shrinkage, a new study reorts. The study concludes if you drink a lot you’re going to hurt your brain, the impact being more noticable in women. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is raising the guidelines on vitamin D for infants, children and adolescents as rickets appears to be on the rise in the U.S. once again.  The recommendation is to have at least 400 IU a day for children beginning in infancy. For adults 1,000 IU daily may not be enough.

Don't have time to exercise?  How about ten minutes.  The new Health and Human Services guidelines suggest that everyone has time to exercise and needs to, no excuses!

Vitamin C supplements and chemotherapy aren't a good combination. Vitamin C reduced the effectiveness of many cancer drugs, found in laboratory and animal studies, according to a team of New York researchers.

Glucosamine and chrondroitin offer many sufferers of osteoarthritis relief from pain. But research from the National Institutes of Health, Alternative Medicine division find that the natural supplements have mixed results, largely disappointing.  Some of the researchers take fees from pharmaceutical giants, the research discloses.  

Who earns the most?  This organizational psychology study finds that men with traditional views about being the breadwinner make more than women or men with egalitarian views, regardless of education, the job or hours. They may be more aggressive about negotiating a salary or the employers may have a bias. The findings surprised researchers who thought this was a male-female issue.

Researchers find that the smell of roses made dreams more emotionally pleasant in subjects tested. The smell of rotten eggs had the opposite effect. Now they hope to take those findings to help people who experience nightmares. 

A new study published in the journal Lancet Oncology suggests significant lifestyle changes including a healthier diet and more exercise can help to improve levels of an enzyme that controls cell aging.