Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie marry in secret?

The pair are rumoured to have tied the knot in a private ceremony in the Caribbean on Christmas Day.

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Emeli Sandé, Lianne La Havas and Paloma Faith on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny show

Soulful trio du jour - Emeli Sandé, Lianne La Havas and Paloma Faith – provided much entertainment during Jools Holland’s annual musical Hootenanny show on New Year’s Eve

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Anne Hathaway and Adam Shulman out and about in New York

Look. At. Anne’s. Gloves. Look at them. The Les Miserables star, who has been nominated for a Golden Globe for her part as Fantine in the musical, showed off her super-cute knitwear on a lengthy stroll through New York with her husband Alex Shulman and their pet pooch

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Antidepressants During Pregnancy: Safe?

Jan. 1, 2013 -- Antidepressant use during pregnancy, long debated for its safety, is linked with a higher overall risk of stillbirth and newborn death. Now, a new study shows that risk may not be warranted.

"After taking maternal characteristics such as smoking and maternal age into account, as well as previous hospitalization for psychiatric disease ... there was no association between SSRI (antidepressants) and stillbirth and infant [death]," says researcher Olof Stephansson, MD, PhD, of the Karolinksa Institutet in Stockholm.

The Swedish study included more than 1.6 million births in five Nordic countries. Nearly 30,000 of the women had filled a prescription for an SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) during pregnancy.

But a U.S.-based expert has some concerns about the study.

"This study looked at information on dispensed drugs, not ingested drugs, and these numbers are often quite different," says Adam Urato, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Tufts University School of Medicine.

That could result in inaccurate findings, he says. "I don't find the study results particularly reassuring," he says.

Up to 19% of pregnant women have depression during pregnancy, according to the researchers. The depression itself is linked with ill effects, including an increased risk of early delivery, which in turn may cause harm to the newborn.

The new research was funded by the Swedish Pharmacy Company.

The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Previous research about SSRI use during pregnancy has suggested it may be linked with an increased risk of prematurity, stillbirths, and birth defects. Some studies show an increased risk of miscarriage and other problems. 

The three areas the researchers focused on were stillbirths and newborn and infant deaths. The researchers compared the birth outcomes for the women who took SSRIs and those who did not from 1996 through 2007. They got information on the use of SSRIs  from prescription registries.

This type of antidepressant is the most-often prescribed for depression during pregnancy, the researchers say.

Overall, more than 6,000 babies were stillborn. More than 3,600 died as newborns, and another 1,578 died later, from ages 28 days old to 364 days old.

Women registered with an SSRI prescription had higher stillbirth rates -- 4.62 for every 1,000, compared to 3.69 per 1,000 for women who were not on the drugs.

Women registered with an SSRI prescription also had a higher risk of their infants dying at ages 28 days to just under a year.

The rates of early newborn death were similar between groups.

Next, the researchers took into account factors that could have played a role in stillbirths or infant deaths. These included the mother's age, cigarette smoking, and the severity of the mother's psychiatric disease.

When they took those risk factors into account, they found no substantial link between the antidepressant use and risks of stillbirth or death.

Even so, the researchers say women need to discuss SSRI use with their doctor to weigh the pros and cons. "Always discuss medication for depression with your obstetrician in early pregnancy for advice," Stephansson says.

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A Few Extra Pounds Linked to a Longer Life

Jan. 1, 2013 -- Overall, people who carry a few extra pounds tended to live longer than those who are either normal weight or very obese, new research shows.

The review, of 97 studies that included a combined 2.88 million people, questions the notion that people of normal weight live longest.  

“It is possible that under certain circumstances, being a little overweight is good as opposed to bad,” says Steven B. Heymsfield, MD, executive director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. Heymsfield wrote an editorial on the review but was not involved in the research.

About 30% of women and 40% of men in the U.S. are overweight based on their body mass index (BMI), a measure of size that takes into account a person’s height and weight.

While they may not be able to wear their favorite clothing size, Heymsfield says it doesn’t necessarily mean they are sicker than people who are at so-called normal BMIs.

“You have to separate out the cosmetic part from the health part,” he says.

The review, which is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, takes a fresh look at nearly two decades of research into the relationship between body weight and death risk.

“We have a huge amount of data because we collected almost 100 studies,” says researcher Katherine Flegal, PhD, a distinguished consultant with the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics in Bethesda, Md.

People with BMIs under 30 but above normal were less likely to die during the studies compared to people with normal BMIs.

A reduction in the risk of death from all causes was about 6% lower for people who were overweight, and it was remarkably consistent from study to study, Flegal says.

Those people considered obese based on BMI, however, were worse off. They were about 18% more likely to die of any cause compared to those of normal weights.

Though the findings are provocative, they come with some important caveats.

The study only looked at the association between death and body size. It didn’t include other measures of health that may be related to weight.

“Total mortality [death from all causes] is important, but it doesn’t tell you much about quality of life,” says Heymsfield. “It’s not whether you’re at risk of developing diabetes. It’s not whether you’re at risk for developing joint problems."

The study also just shows an association; it doesn’t prove that body weight is the reason that some bigger people tended to live longer than those at normal weights.

For that reason, Flegal says, people shouldn’t give up on their goals to eat right and exercise.

“We’re not trying to make any recommendations,” she says. “It’s not intended as a call to any kind of action.”

But the findings may be reassuring to people who carry some extra weight but are otherwise healthy.

“Maybe a few extra pounds is not as lethal as we’ve been led to believe,” Heymsfield says.

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Healthy Oils, Healthy Fats: The ‘New’ Truth

New research has overturned some long-held ideas about good fats and bad fats. It used to be gospel truth: Saturated fat is bad. New studies suggest that, while no one would call saturated fats "good," in moderation they may not be so hard on your heart after all. What's more, replacing saturated fats with the wrong kinds of foods -- such as the highly refined carbohydrates in white bread, white rice, pastries, and sugary candies or desserts -- may actually increase your heart disease danger.

How can the average person make sense of the new research? Rather than banish saturated fat, many experts say it's more important to eat plenty of vegetables, grains, and fish, as well as a variety of fats in moderate amounts. Here are 5 tips to remember when you're trying to fit fats and oils into your heart-healthy diet.

1. Don't Obsess Over Saturated Fat

Health experts began recommending cutting back on saturated fat when they discovered that it raises LDL, the "bad" cholesterol. That advice made perfect sense. High LDL is linked to heart disease.

The focus on slashing saturated fat may have been misguided. "Recommendations to focus on saturated fat were based on a single biomarker, LDL cholesterol," says Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. "But we now know there are many other important biomarkers for heart disease risk."  

When you look at all of the biomarkers together, he says, the effects of saturated fat aren't as bad as once thought. Indeed, reviewing the evidence, Mozaffarian and his colleague Renata Micha found that levels of saturated fat have very little impact on cardiovascular risk.

Americans currently consume about 11.5% of calories from saturated fat. If we cut that roughly in half, to 6.5%, we might lower our risk of heart disease by only about 10%, says Mozaffarian.

Unfortunately, during the low-fat craze, many people replaced saturated fat with fat-free products made of highly-refined carbohydrates and often too much salt. Studies show that substituting refined carbohydrates for saturated fat may end up increasing our heart disease risk.

Does this mean you can eat as much butter and cheese as you like? No. The American Heart Association still recommends limiting saturated fat to no more than 7% of total calories. Fats of all kinds are high in calories, so it's wise not to overindulge. The new findings simply reinforce the idea that it's also important to be wary of buying foods that claim to be fat-free or low-fat. Check the label to see if they are high in salt and refined carbohydrates, such white flour and sugar.

2. Choose Heart Healthy Plant-Based Oils

Most experts still agree that it's smart to replace some saturated fats with unsaturated fats. Plant-based oils like olive oil or canola oil are a healthier choice than butter, for instance.

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Depression in Elderly May Predict Dementia

Dec. 31, 2012 -- Depression is common among older people who go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease, leading to widespread speculation that it may be one possible cause for age-related dementias.

Now, a new study suggests that rather than being a cause of memory decline, depression in older people may be an early symptom of dementia.

When researchers evaluated 2,000 elderly New Yorkers for depression and then followed them, they found that depression accompanied memory declines but did not necessarily come first.

Having memory problems that are not severe enough to be diagnosed as dementia, but that are more pronounced than the changes associated with normal aging, is known as mild cognitive impairment. Many people with MCI develop dementia, but some do not.

The new research shows that having mild cognitive impairment along with depression doubled the risk of developing full-blown dementia.

But researcher Jose A. Luchsinger, MD, MPH, of Columbia University Medical Center, says depression appears to be a symptom that accompanies age-related memory loss, such as mild cognitive impairment, rather than a separate risk factor for it.

It also means that depression among the elderly should be recognized as a possible early warning sign of age-related memory decline.

The study was published online today in the journal Archives of Neurology.

“When depression and memory complaints occur together in the elderly it is often assumed that the memory problems are caused by the depression,” Luchsinger says. “The thinking is often that by treating the depression the memory problems will go away, but this may not be the case.”

He says older people who are depressed and have memory complaints should be evaluated for mild cognitive impairment or other early signs of dementia.

Neurologist Gayatri Devi, MD, of New York City’s Lenox Hill Hospital, says it makes sense that older people with early memory loss would be more vulnerable to depression.

“Especially in the early stages when people realize that something is not quite right but they don’t really understand what is happening, it is natural to become depressed,” she says.

Devi agrees that depression and memory loss in older patients are too often lumped together instead of being evaluated separately.

“Depression may be related to (memory) decline or it may be totally unrelated,” she says. “From a clinical perspective it is important to understand this. If a patient comes to me in her 70s or 80s with no history of depression and no clear reason for depression, such as the loss of a spouse or a child, I will certainly consider cognitive loss as a possible reason and do the appropriate tests.”

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