Health Care Article

Tom Mammone, executive director of Clinique Research and Development, talks about how stress affects aging and the benefits of Clinique’s latest product, Superdefense SPF 25/ PA+++ Age Defense Moisturizer.Does stress really affect aging? When your body is under stress, it releases hormones including adrenaline and cortisol. These stress hormones can cause irritation and loss of immune function in the skin and the effects of this are very similar to what happens during the natural aging process. When skin is irritated it can lead to a compromised barrier function.

A strong barrier keeps moisture in and external aggressors and irritants out. When the barrier is damaged, moisture evaporates more rapidly and irritants can get in more easily, both of which cause damage to the skin.

In addition, when the immune function of skin is compromised, its ability to fight off external invaders and suppress damaged cells before they multiply is also compromised. Why did you choose to approach age prevention this way? We have had anecdotal evidence for a long time that psychological stress can affect skin. (more…)

Does smoking affect a person’s seasoning, memory and other cognitive abilities? A study involved 1964 generally healthy people (average age, 56); about 21% smoked, 44% were former smokers and 35% never had smoked.

At the start of the study, smokers scored lower on average than people who never had smoked on all tested aspects of cognition, except memory; those scores were about the same. During a five-year span. smokers’ scores in all areas, including memory, declined about twice as fast as non-smokers’ did. The more cigarettes smokes, the greater the decline. (more…)

WASHINGTON: Eating or drinking a lot of products containing soy and isoflavones can result in reduced sperm count among men, a Harvard School of Public Health study has shown.

“There has been a lot of interest on whether soy affects fertility because many studies in animals suggest that this is the case, but there are very few studies in humans,” said researcher and lead study
author Jorge Chavarro. “This is only the third study to look at whether soy food has a relationship with
fertility in humans and the first one to find an association in agreement to the animal studies,” he said.

Soy contains isoflavones, an organic compound which acts like female hormones and appears to impede a man’s ability to produce sperm. “Isoflavones are structurally similar to estrogen and can mimic the action of estrogen in the body,” said Chavarro.

“Soy is expected to have estrogen-like activity in many organs and tissues which can be beneficial for some things but it’s certainly not beneficial for sperm production, at least that’s what animal models
suggest.” The Harvard study examined the soy intake of 99 men, determined to be part of couples experiencing fertility difficulties, over the course of three months. - AFP

JOHOR BARU: Two people have died after eating the poisonous puffer fish or ikan buntal, believed to be the first such reported cases in the country.State Health department director Dr Mohd Khairi Yakub said a 54-year-old woman from Kota Tinggi and another 83-year-old woman from Kulai died from eating the fish on May 7 and June 4 respectively.

He added that 34 others from various places in the state, including here, Batu Pahat and Pontian, suffered food poisoning from eating the fish, between May 6 and June 10.

“The 34 have recovered fully,” he said here yesterday, adding that no more such cases were reported after June 10.

Although this was the first time such cases were reported, he did not rule out the possibility this may have happened before as the fish had been sold in the state over the past few years.

The puffer fish contains tetrodotoxin, a natural and lethal poison, and if the fish is not correctly cut or prepared, is very dangerous to eat. The toxin causes numbness in the mouth and attacks the nervous system, causing respiratory problems, and sometimes results in death.

Dr Mohd Khairi said the Health Ministry was warning the public not to buy or eat puffer fish, which has been mostly sold in night markets across the state.

It is believed that supply of the fish came from Kuantan.

“We seriously caution people from eating the fish, and have circulated posters and fliers warning people about eating it.

“Our officers are monitoring premises and markets in the affected areas, and we are stopping the sale of the fish anywhere it is found,” Dr Mohd Khairi added.

He advised those who fell ill after eating the fish to seek immediate medical treatment.

Those with information on the sale of the fish were urged to contact the department or nearest health offices.

Click to read more from Wikipedia: Puffer Fish

A new study casts a shadow on calcium, the essential mineral known to help keep bones strong, hearts healthy and blood pressure controlled. New Zealand researchers report in the journal BMJ that otherwise-healthy, post-menopausal women who took calcium supplements were about twice as likely to suffer a heart attack as those who skipped the supplements.

That finding is surprising, because previous research has shown that calciums helps improve the ratio of healthy to unhealthy cholesterol by 20%. Such changes are linked with a 20% to 30% reduction in so-called vascular events, including heart attacks.

Other research with both calcium and vitamin D shows improvements in overall mortality among those who take the supplements. So what accounts for the increased heart attacks found in this study? “I don’t know what to make of it,” says Robert P. Heaney, a professor of medicine at Creighton University in Nebraska, who has conducted numerous calcium studies. “I think we just have to say that the jury is out.”

Heaney notes that there is a large body of information showing calcium’s benefits: “I don’t expect that to go away.”

Heaney has agreed to collaborate with New Zealand researcher Ian Reid to try to figure out why women who took calcium supplements in the study had an increased risk of heart attacks. ” We will see,” he says, “if the findings pan out.”

We’ve been steadily losing ground in the battle against infections as bacteria develop resistance to more and more antibiotics.

Finally, we have a new weapon. It’s the first in a new class called ketolides, and it’s a major breakthrough in the treatment of drug-resistant respiratory illnesses, including pneumonia, bronchitis and sinusitis. Most of these infections are caused by a strep bacterium that easily overpowers most antibiotics.

Ketek isn’t a perfect solution, because eventually bacteria will likely become resistant to it. Like other classes of antibiotics, ketolides block bacteria’s ability to make life sustaining proteins.

But older drugs disable protein manufacture in just one location; ketolides strike two spots, substantially reducing the chance of resistance.

New research shows that job strain not only increases the risk of a first coronary heart disease (CHD) event, it increases the odds of further events as well. This study “is the first time that the effect of stressful work has been evaluated in a large number of men and women of various ages who have returned to work after a first heart attack,” said study co-author Dr Chantal Brisson, from University Laval in Quebec, Canada.

She added that “previous studies of people who had a heart attack mainly focused on the effect of medical factors or personal characteristics including lifestyle. The effect of the work environment has rarely been studied”. (more…)

Are you getting enough magnesium to keep your body healthy?

Magnesium is an essential mineral as it is needed in more than 300 biochemical reactions in our cells. Yet most people do not consume even the minimum recommended daily intake (RDI) of 400mg. The latest US government study shows that a staggering 68% of Americans do not consume the RDI of magnesium.

Magnesium deficiency can cause a range of problems, from muscle cramps, spasms and pre-menstrual difficulties to irregular heartbeat and sudden cardiac death. Magnesium supplementation may be effective in preventing and controlling many health problems ranging from high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, strokes and high blood sugar levels to migraines, asthma and osteoporosis.

Magnesium Supplementation:
Helps Promote Good Heart Health
Magnesium appears to be critical for the integrity of heart muscles. It has been shown to be effective in preventing abnormalities in heart rhythm which are associated with heart attacks. Besides that, magnesium may prevent spasms in the heart muscles and coronary arteries - other common causes of angina and heart attacks. (more…)