Health News - Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Chronic dizziness that is not due to vertigo, a problem that has puzzled doctors for years, may have a variety of causes including anxiety disorders and brain injury, according to a study published on Monday.
Vertigo, a feeling of turning or whirling usually involving inner ear problems, is well recognized, according to the report from the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia. But so-called chronic nonspecific dizziness where victims also suffer imbalance and are super-sensitive to some motions such as walking in a busy store or driving in the rain is more complex, it added. Continue reading
It is an odd adage that has stuck around for ages: women who suffer heartburn during pregnancy will have babies with full heads of hair. But doctors have long shrugged it off. Until now, that is.
In December, researchers at Johns Hopkins University conducted a study intending to put the claim to rest. To their surprise, they ended up confirming it. The study, published in the current issue of the journal Birth, followed 64 pregnant women, about 78 percent of whom reported having some heartburn. After the women gave birth, two outside observers looked at pictures of their infants and rated their levels of hair. Of the 28 women who reported moderate to severe heartburn, 23 had babies with average or above-average amounts of hair. Conversely, 10 of the 12 women who reported no heartburn had babies with little or no hair. Continue reading
Increased pulse pressure -- the difference between the high and the low numbers that designate blood pressure -- is an important indicator of the risk of developing the dangerous abnormal heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, data from a major heart study show.
"The normal value of pulse pressure is about 40," explained cardiologist Dr. Gary F. Mitchell, president of Cardiovascular Engineering, a private company that does research funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. "When you get into the 50 range, the risk of atrial fibrillation starts to go up substantially." Mitchell's team tracked more than 5,300 participants in the Framingham Heart Study for an average of 16 years. Continue reading
Mounting scientific evidence on the effects of exercise suggests that what's good for our hearts and waistlines also is good for our minds.
"Exercise in many ways optimizes your brain to learn," says Dr. John Ratey, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston who's at work on a book about exercise and the brain. Exercise improves circulation throughout the body, including the brain, Ratey explains. Exercise also boosts metabolism, decreases stress and improves mood and attention, all of which help the brain perform better, he says. Continue reading
Smoking causes long-lasting changes in the brain similar to changes seen in animals when they are given cocaine, heroin and other addictive drugs, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
A study of the brain tissue of smokers and nonsmokers who had died showed that smokers had the changes, even if they had quit years before, the team at the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported. "The data show that there are long-lasting chemical changes in the brains of humans," said Michael Kuhar of Emory University in Atlanta, who was not involved in the study. "The chemical changes alone suggest a physiological basis for nicotine addiction." Continue reading
In men who have become impotent following prostate cancer surgery, implantation of nerve grafts into the penis allows some men who were potent before surgery to recover erectile function, researchers report.
The findings come from a study that reviewed the records of 44 consecutive patients who underwent implantation of two grafts after treatment for prostate cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The overall 5-year recovery rate of erectile function, which was defined as erections satisfactory for intercourse with or without oral medication, was 34 percent and the rate of consistent penetration was 11 percent, report Dr. Fernando P. Secin and his associates in The Journal of Urology. Continue reading