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Posted on Monday, November 28, 2011 8:33 PM
You have a headache...just add water! Patients with recurrent headaches should be advised to drink more water, a randomised trial concludes. Although advice to drink an extra 1.5L per day did not cut actual numbers of headaches, it did significantly boost patients’ perceived quality of life and led many to feel their headaches improved. And given the low risk associated with the approach, the researchers say all headache patients should try it, at least for a time. The study involved 102 primary-care patients in the Netherlands who had experienced multiple headaches in the preceding month, and who were drinking less than 2. |
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Posted on Monday, September 19, 2011 9:20 PM
 Omega 3 and Depression in the elderly Recent observations showed that long chain omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids could represent a potential treatment for elderly depression. A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial study was conducted over a two month period, in a Nursing Home in Pavia, Italy. The study included 46 depressed females, aged 66-95 years old. The dosages given were 1.67 grams of EPA and 0.83 grams of DHA. The results after the 2 month period showed that the use of supplement essential fatty acids was helpful and significantly alleviated the symptoms of depression (assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale). |
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Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2011 3:39 PM
The Neuroscience of the Gut  Strange but true: the brain is shaped by bacteria in the digestive tract
People may advise you to listen to your gut instincts: now research suggests that your gut may have more impact on your thoughts than you ever realised. Scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Genome Institute of Singapore led by Sven Pettersson recently reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that normal gut flora, the bacteria that inhabit our intestines, have a significant impact on brain development and subsequent adult behaviour. |
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Posted on Friday, June 03, 2011 2:13 PM
 Are Cholesterol-Lowering Drug Regimens Causing Depression? Low cholesterol is a risk factor for depression, according to integrative psychiatrist James Greenblatt, MD, of Waltham, MA. Speaking at the recent iMosaic conference, Dr. Greenblatt said there are 11 studies showing strong correlations between low total cholesterol and increased depression and suicidality.
The brain is the most cholesterol-rich organ, and cholesterol is a building block for many important hormones. This doesn’t mean that high cholesterol levels are healthy, but neither are levels that are too low. |
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Posted on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 1:36 PM
Curcumin compound boosts head and neck cancer therapy  The May, 2011 issue of the American Medical Association journalArchives of Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgerypublished the finding of researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center of a benefit for a derivative of curcumin, which occurs in the spice turmeric, in the treatment of head andneck cancer with cisplatin, a platinum-based chemotherapeutic drug. The development of chemotherapy-resistant tumor cells is a major cause of treatment failure in head and neck cancer, resulting in relapse or metastasis. |
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Posted on Monday, May 30, 2011 1:24 PM
 Blueberries May ReverseAge-Related Mental Decline
A new study with lab rats suggests that supplementing with blueberries for one month may slow and even reverse the decline in mental function associated with age. Cognitive performance declines naturally with age, but new results published in Nutrition indicate that for elderly rats, one month's supplementation with blueberries was associated with an improvement in the memory scores, as measured in a maze. In addition, data showed that two months of consuming the blueberry-enriched diet was associated with a prolongation of the benefits after the diet was stopped, and the performance of the aging rats was similar to that of younger rats. |
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Posted on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 12:25 PM
 Elimination diet for ADHD The study by Lidy Pelsser and colleagues (Feb 5, p 494)attempted to determine whether a restricted elimination diet is an effective treatment for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Although the design had some methodological strengths, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Unfortunately, the study's design was severely flawed since none of the outcome assessments was blind to treatment status. The investigators should have included at least one objective, independent assessment of attention, impulsivity, or activity level. |
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Posted on Monday, May 16, 2011 1:54 PM
Mentally-ill doctors failing to get treatment  Doctors are under so much pressure to keep-up the image of a “super-person” that those struggling with a mental-illness are failing to access healthcare, a new study suggests. A survey of doctors including GPs reveals that “unrealistic expectations” are preventing those with a mental illness from seeking help. “Several described self-treating with medication, exercise, relaxation, etc until a point of crisis or desperation was reached.” |
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Posted on Friday, April 29, 2011 12:47 PM
 Insulin: Predictor for Alzheimer’s? Could Alzheimer’s be a form of diabetes? Brain levels of insulin and its related cellular receptors fall during the early stages of Alzheimer’s, and as insulin levels continue to drop, the disease becomes more severe. Now, doctors are looking at memory problems like Alzheimer’s disease as a form of brain starvation, and one doctor says glucose metabolism can be the key to helping prevent this deadly disease.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. |
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Posted on Monday, March 28, 2011 11:59 AM
 Brain Health Breakthrough The three-pound human brain is comprised of 100 billion neurons with branches that connect to more than 100 trillion connections in the brain. This mind-boggling “neuron forest” is the very foundation of connectivity to our inside and outside world. When things begin to go wrong with this network, the system starts to run slower, access to memory files become sluggish and eventually begin to fail. Just like with the office or home computer, routine maintenance prevents fragmentation of one’s hard drive, decreased CPU speed and protection against corruption of vital files. |
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Posted on Monday, March 21, 2011 4:58 PM
 Diabetes linked withincreased Parkinson’s risk Evidence is mounting for a link between diabetes and Parkinson’s disease, although the jury is still out on whether the association is causal. Patients with a diagnosis of diabetes were at 36% increased risk of Parkinson’s disease compared with those without diabetes,according to a case-control study involving almost 2000 Danish patients with Parkinson’s disease. The effect was found to be stronger in women, and with respect to early-onset Parkinson’s disease. |
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