With rising stress levels and erratic lifestyle playing havoc with health, a new study has found that more than half of the population over the age of 40 suffers from metabloic syndrome, a condition which predisposes people to heart attack and stroke.
Breaking a myth that cardiovascular diseases are an urban lifestyle phenomenon, a three-year-long study in 45 villages of Andhra Pradesh has revealed that heart-related problems are the largest killer in rural areas too.
Men and women with elevated blood pressure who make healthy lifestyle changes and sustain them for up to a year and a half can substantially reduce their rates of high blood pressure and potentially decrease their heart disease risk. With behavioral counseling, increases in physical activity, and adoption of a healthy eating plan called DASH, rates of high blood pressure dropped from 37 to 22 percent among participants in a study conducted by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health.
New research provides more evidence that some Parkinson’s drugs have rare and unusual side effects: They seem to make patients oversexed and turn them into compulsive gamblers.
Patients who underwent a minimally invasive procedure to reduce their risk of a stroke by clearing plaque from neck arteries had unexpected gains in memory and mental skills, according to a study that will be presented today at a medical conference in Toronto.
Following are the best health articles in March 2006:
Smoking cessation tips:
Men who sleep too much or too little are at an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to a study by the New England Research Institutes in collaboration with Yale School of Medicine researchers.
Neurogenic bladder is a condition in which the nerves of the urinary system don?t work properly when the bladder is full. It can lead to different kinds of problems, including urine leakage if the muscles holding urine do not get the right message. For some, the muscles don?t get the message the bladder is full and its time to let go. If the bladder becomes too full, urine may back up into the kidneys, and the extra pressure causes damage to the tiny blood vessels in the kidney. Urine that stays too long may also cause an infection of the bladder or ureters.
Patients with periodontitis, especially infections causing a high concentration of pathogens in the blood, have an increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), according to findings published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.