Health News

There is a caveat to the push for increased vitamin D: Don’t forget magnesium. A review published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association found vitamin D can’t be metabolized without sufficient magnesium levels, meaning vitamin D remains stored and inactive for as many as 50 percent of Americans. Razzaque explains that consumption of vitamin D supplements can increase a person’s calcium and phosphate levels even if they remain vitamin D deficient.

Lovers of Indian food, give yourselves a second helping: Daily consumption of a certain form of curcumin — the substance that gives Indian curry its bright color — improved memory and mood in people with mild, age-related memory loss, according to the results of a study conducted by UCLA researchers. The research, published online Jan. 19 in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, examined the effects of an easily absorbed curcumin supplement on memory performance in people without dementia.

Relaxing in a hot sauna may not only feel good – it might affect your heart and blood vessels in ways that are similar to moderate exercise. That’s the finding of a new study that tested the effects of a 30-minute sauna session. The researchers say their results may help explain why people who regularly use saunas tend to have a decreased risk for heart disease and even dementia. On average, the study found, sauna users saw a drop in blood pressure and artery “stiffness” immediately after their heat bath. They also showed an increase in heart rate that was similar to the effect from moderate exercise.

Many studies have tried to pinpoint the best time of day to exercise for peak performance and best results. But most of these studies were designed for elite athletes. For general fitness, exercise can be whenever it’s most convenient for you. In fact, the best time of day for exercise is whatever time you can do it consistently. That’s because fitness benefits come from working out on a regular basis. Consider factors like work and home responsibilities, your energy level at various times during the day.

Big Sugar seems to have copied the Big Tobacco playbook, a new report contends. More than four decades ago, a study in rats funded by the sugar industry found evidence linking the sweetener to heart disease and bladder cancer, the paper trail investigation reports. The results of that study were never made public Instead, the sugar industry pulled the plug on the study and buried the evidence, said senior researcher Stanton Glantz.

The number of Americans abusing prescription painkillers has leveled off in recent years, but there is no apparent decline yet. That’s the finding of a new study tracking the U.S. opioid abuse problem. Researchers found that after a large spike in the early 2000s, Americans’ misuse of prescription opioid painkillers has plateaued in recent years. Still, the issue isn’t going away: By 2014, the most recent survey year, close to 14 percent of U.S. adults and teenagers had ever abused the drugs — which include Vicodin (hydrocodone), OxyContin (oxycodone) and morphine.

Overweight and obesity are associated with increased risk of 13 types of cancer. These cancers account for about 40 percent of all cancers diagnosed in the United States in 2014, according to the latest Vital Signs report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Overall, the rate of new cancer cases has decreased since the 1990s, but increases in overweight- and obesity-related cancers are likely slowing this progress. About 630,000 people in the U.S. were diagnosed with a cancer associated with overweight and obesity in 2014. About 2 in 3 occurred in adults 50- to 74-years-old. The rates of obesity-related cancers, not including colorectal cancer, increased by 7 percent between 2005 and 2014. The rates of non-obesity related cancers declined during that time.

New research by a team of health experts at the University of Nottingham has found evidence that being in a positive mood on the day of your flu jab can increase its protective effect. Flu vaccination is estimated to only be effective in 17-53 percent of older adults compared to 70-90 percent of younger people. With the onset of winter and so-called ‘flu season’, the research is likely to be of interest to everyone having their autumn flu jab. This new Nottingham-based study is the first to examine several psychological and behavioural factors that have been shown to affect how well vaccinations work.

In an innovative approach to colorectal cancer (CRC) prevention and treatment, scientists are studying ways to replace missing metabolites in patients prone to gut inflammation and CRC. A new study in The American Journal of Pathology describes how administration of histamine-producing gut microbes to mice lacking the enzyme histidine decarboxylase (HDC) reduced inflammation and tumor formation. These results suggest that alteration of the gut microbiome with probiotics may become a new preventative or therapeutic strategy for patients at risk for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)-associated CRC.