ASPIRINA...ma non per tutti

(HealthDay News)

Basse dosi di Aspirina possono aiutare a ridurre il rischio di attacco cardiaco in molte persone, ma non è una terapia preventiva adatta a tutti!

L'Associazione Americana per il Diabete sostiene che si dovrebbe evitare la terapia con Aspirina se:

1. Avete un'allergia all'Aspirina.
2. Avete una bassa capacita' di coagulazione e sanguinate facilmente.
3. Avete avuto emorragie recenti nel tratto gastro-intestinale.
4. Avete una patologia al fegato.
5. Siete più giovani di 21 anni.

L'Associazione consiglia di consultare il medico per determinare se la terapia con Aspirina è sicura per voi.

Giornata Mondiale delle Epatiti: 28 Luglio

Epatite: colpisce una persona su dodici.

Di epatiti virali, con un occhio in particolare all’epatite C e all’epatite B, si parlerà in tutto il mondo il 28 luglio, in occasione del World Hepatitis Day (la Giornata Mondiale delle Epatiti).

L’evento è organizzato dal 2008 dalla World Hepatitis Alliance, un’organizzazione internazionale no profit che raggruppa un gran numero di associazioni e istituzioni e dà voce a oltre 500 milioni di persone che convivono nel mondo con epatite B ed epatite Ccronica.

L’iniziativa è promossa in collaborazione con l’OMS, che nel 2010 ha dichiarato le epatiti emergenza sanitaria globale e ha chiesto ufficialmente a tutti i governi di farsi carico di attività e campagne volte a fronteggiare il problema.

L’obiettivo principale di questa edizione del World Hepatitis Day è proprio quello di far conoscere quanto più possibile le epatiti e soprattutto di informare i cittadini di tutto il mondo sulla pericolosità di queste patologie. Nonostante i numeri dell’epidemia, che colpisce un individuo su dodici, gran parte delle persone non conosce le epatiti virali, non sa come si contraggono e come si possono prevenire né sa di esserne affetto.

Non a caso la World Hepatitis Alliance focalizza la sua comunicazione sul messaggio “Am I number 12?” ("Sono io il numero 12?").

Questa dilagante superficialità fa sì che in gran parte dei casi si arrivi ad una diagnosi tardiva.

L’importanza di iniziative come il World Hepatitis Day risiede, quindi, proprio nel suo obiettivo dichiarato: informare e sensibilizzare, perché “le epatiti colpiscono chiunque. In qualsiasi parte del mondo”.

Fonte: Paginemediche.it

Eat broccoli and live longer

To the likely delight of nagging parents, a new study shows that people who eat more fruit and veggies tend to live longer.

Plants from the mustard family -- including broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower -- seem particularly beneficial, although the study can't prove that eating more vegetables automatically increases longevity.It's possible, for instance, that those who consume lots of produce also have a healthier lifestyle in general. Still, the findings "provide strong support for the current recommendation to increase vegetable consumption to promote cardiovascular health and overall longevity," study researcher Dr. Xianglan Zhang, of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, told Reuters Health.Mustard-family vegetables are high in vitamin C and fiber and also contain other nutrients that may have health benefits.The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, is based on a survey of nearly 135,000 adults from Shanghai, China.Participants filled out questionnaires about their eating habits and health history, and the researchers then divided them into five categories according to how much produce they ate.Over five years, four percent of the people died. Those who downed the most vegetables or fruits, however, were 15 percent less likely to die over that period than those who ate the fewest.For mustard-family vegetables, there was an even bigger difference in death rates between people with high and low intakes.The researchers found a similar pattern when they looked at people dying from heart disease -- about a quarter of all deaths in the study. But there was no evidence that eating fruits and vegetables was linked to cancer risk.According to Dr. Lydia Bazzano, who was not involved in the study, the results are promising. But they don't prove that just eating more fruit and vegetables will necessarily make people live longer."Unmeasured health habits may account for some of the association,"Bazzano, of Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, told Reuters Health.The researchers did try to rule out alternative explanations -- such as age, weight, exercise, vitamin use, and smoking -- but acknowledge there could be more factors at play.Still, they encourage people to eat more produce, especially vegetables from the mustard family, as a step toward living longer, healthier lives.Heart disease is the leading killer worldwide, causing more than 600,000 deaths every year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recommends eating two to four cups of fruit and vegetables daily.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/isQvG1 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online May 18, 2011

Could a Diet Help Prevent Alzheimer's?

The low-fat, low-glycemic diet often promoted for general health and well-being may lower the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease if adopted early in life, researchers say.

But starting such an eating plan after symptoms surface doesn't seem to help prevent deterioration of brain function, according to new research published online June 13 in Archives of Neurology."

This is not the first time this concept has emerged, that things you do in midlife or earlier on may have effects later on," said Dr. Marc L. Gordon, chief of neurology at Zucker Hillside Hospital and an Alzheimer's researcher at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y." For example, we know that midlife obesity is associated epidemiologically with a higher risk of late-life dementia," he continued. "Whether that's causal or an effect of the disease is open to speculation, but it suggests that there may be periods of vulnerability that are different in different times in the life span."

Although numerous studies have probed connections between lifestyle factors and cognitive ability, no solid proof yet exists that diet (or much else) can prevent Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia among the elderly. A low-glycemic diet, which focuses on eating fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean meats, avoids spikes in blood sugar and is said to promote feelings of fullness.

A U.S. National Institutes of Health conference convened last spring concluded that, for now, older age is the leading known risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. A gene variation is also tied to increased risk for the brain disorder, the NIH review said. Experts at the conference stressed that the general public should still focus on avoiding behaviors already linked to other chronic diseases.This new study looked at the effect of different diets on biomarkers associated with Alzheimer's, such as blood sugar levels, cholesterol and blood lipid levels. The researchers also tested memory after participants followed the assigned diets. Twenty healthy adults and 29 with mild memory problems that could be predictive of Alzheimer's followed either a high-fat, high simple-carbohydrate diet ("HIGH" diet) or a diet lower in fat and simple carbohydrates ("LOW" diet). After four weeks, healthy participants on the LOW diet had changes in biomarkers, including insulin and lipid levels in the blood, which were moving away from those normally associated with dementia. In participants with mild cognitive impairment, this diet had the opposite effect.Commenting on the study, Dr. Suzanne de la Monte, professor of neurosurgery and pathology at Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, said it remains to be seen if the changes noted in this study actually translate, over the longer term, into differences in risk for developing Alzheimer's disease.

The bottom line, though, is the same as it's been for eons: A healthy diet lowers your risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer and maybe even Alzheimer's.That means staying away as much as possible from processed foods, de la Monte advised.A second study, in the same issue of the journal, also looked at biomarkers and found that different levels were associated with different measures of cognitive function associated with Alzheimer's disease.

This finding could help improve diagnosis of Alzheimer's, which now relies mostly on clinical observation.

SOURCES: Marc L. Gordon, M.D., chief, neurology, Zucker Hillside Hospital and Alzheimer's research, the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, N.Y.; Suzanne de la Monte, M.D., professor of neurosurgery and pathology, Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, R.I.; June 13, 2011, Archives of Neurology, online

FDA Approves HER2 Test for Breast Cancer

The genetic test allows for the measurement of the number of copies of the HER2 gene in breast tumor tissue, enabling clinicians to make more informed decisions about whether a patient would be a candidate for Herceptin therapy.