20 February 2020
THURSDAY, Feb. 20, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Caring for a loved one at home can be rewarding, but it can also be overwhelming and take a toll on your own health, a new study suggests.
According to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 1 in 5 of the nearly 18 million Americans who provide informal, unpaid care may be in fair or poor health.
"As the population of America ages and the number of older adults with diseases such as Alzheimer's continue to grow, there concomitantly has been a growth in the number of non-paid, informal caregivers," said Dr. Teresa Murray Amato, director of geriatric emergency medicine at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills in New York City.
"Many of these caregivers are family members, which can be very helpful for...
12 February 2020
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 12, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Grab your golf clubs. Spending a day on the green at least once a month may lower the risk of early death among older adults, a new study finds.
About 25 million Americans play golf, which is a sport that can reduce stress and yield exercise benefits. Social in nature and played at a controlled pace, people often continue enjoying the sport into old age.
"Our study is perhaps the first of its kind to evaluate the long-term health benefits of golf, one of the most popular sports among older people in many countries," said lead study author Dr. Adnan Qureshi. He is a professor of neurology at the University of Missouri, in Columbia.
"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans does not yet...
11 February 2020
TUESDAY, Feb. 11, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Daily exposure to ground level ozone increases city residents' risk of early death, researchers warn.
Ground level ozone -- commonly found in cities and suburbs -- forms when pollutants react in sunlight.
New study findings suggest that thousands of ozone-related deaths "could be potentially reduced under stricter air quality standards," according to study co-author Ana Vicedo-Cabrera and her colleagues. She is with the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine in Bern, Switzerland.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data gathered between 1985 and 2015 from 406 cities in 20 countries. They concluded that thousands of deaths could have been avoided each year in those cities if their countries had stronger air pollution laws.
The...
10 February 2020
MONDAY, Feb. 10, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Two experimental drugs do not appear to slow memory loss or mental decline in patients in the early stages of a rare, inherited form of Alzheimer's disease, according to initial results from a clinical trial.
The international phase 2 and 3 clinical trial separately evaluated the two drugs -- solanezumab (Eli Lilly and Co.), and gantenerumab (Roche and its U.S. affiliate, Genentech) -- in nearly 200 people with dominantly inherited Alzheimer's disease, also called autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease.
People with this form of Alzheimer's suffer declines in memory and thinking skills starting in their 50s, 40s or even 30s.
The patients were followed for up to seven years, with an average of five years. Initial analysis suggests that...