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Emma Stone shows off a long blond bob and a full fringe – Hair Do's & Don'ts brought to you by Glamour.com. Visit Glamour.com for the latest dos and don'ts for hairstyles, with celebrity photos.Continue reading...
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Emma Stone’s long bob and full fringe
Emma Stone shows off a long blond bob and a full fringe – Hair Do's & Don'ts brought to you by Glamour.com. Visit Glamour.com for the latest dos and don'ts for hairstyles, with celebrity photos.Continue reading...
Former NFLers at Risk for Brain, Mood Problems
Jan. 7, 2013 -- Problems in thinking skills and depression may be more common in former National Football League players compared with other people as they age, according to a new study.
The research suggests the problems may be linked with a history of concussions."It's clear that concussions can pose an increased risk of developing cognitive problems and mood problems later in life," says researcher John Hart Jr., MD, medical science director at the Center for Brain Health and director of the Brain Health Institute for Athletes at the University of Texas at Dallas.
However, he says, many players in his small study of 34 former NFL players had no such problems, despite a history of concussion. He can't explain which people might be most vulnerable.
"Half the players we studied had nothing wrong whatsoever," Hart says, "and they had a bunch of concussions."
A concussion is a brain injury that can change a person's behavior, thinking, or functioning for a period of time. In contact sports such as football, it's usually caused by a forceful blow.
Thousands of former NFL players are suing the league, accusing it of concealing information that links football-related injuries to brain damage over the long-term.
Previous studies have also found a link (but not cause and effect) between head trauma in retired football players and thinking and memory problems later.
Guidelines about how to handle concussions in players are now in place for pro, collegiate, and high school athletics.
Hart and his team studied 34 former NFL players, on average age 62. They self-reported concussions. (All but two had a history of concussions.) On average, they reported four.
Hart's team gave the players neurological and neuropsychological assessments. Twenty-six players also had neurological imaging tests.
These images were compared with images in 26 healthy men from a comparison group matched for age and other features.
Of the 34 former players, Hart found 20 had normal mental skills. Eight of the 34 had depression. Most had not been treated for depression or been diagnosed with it previously.
That rate of depression is about double that expected in the general population of the same age, the researchers say.
Fourteen players had either a mild problem with thinking skills or full-blown dementia.
Those with thinking problems had trouble with findings words. They had memory problems and trouble with naming things.
They also had disruptions in the white matter of the brain, Hart found. He says it is the first time such a link has been found.
This white matter is crucial to allowing information to travel between brain cells.
Hart also found blood flow differences to brain regions linked with skills such as memory or finding words in those who had thinking problems.
Blood Pressure Drug May Lower Alzheimer's Risk
Jan. 7, 2013 -- Can commonly prescribed blood pressure pills help reduce the risk of developing dementia?
Maybe, according to a new study of 774 elderly Japanese-American men.
While it’s well known that high blood pressure in midlife raises a person’s risk for developing thinking and memory problems as they age, and that certain types of blood pressure medications may help lower this risk, little was known about how a class of drugs called beta-blockers stacked up, until now.
According to the new findings, men who took beta-blockers were less likely to have changes in their brains that can be signs of Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia, compared to men who took other types of blood-pressure-lowering drugs.
The findings will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego.
All of the men took part in the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. Of the 774 men, 610 had high blood pressure or were being treated for high blood pressure. Among about 350 who had been treated, 15% received a beta-blocker, 18% received a beta-blocker plus one or more other medications, and the rest received other blood pressure drugs.
All types of blood pressure medications seemed to have a positive effect on the risk of dementia, the study shows.
Researchers led by Lon White, MD, of the Pacific Health Research and Education Institute in Honolulu, Hawaii, performed autopsies on the brains of these men. They looked for brain lesions indicating Alzheimer’s disease and microinfarcts, scars left behind most likely from unrecognized mini-strokes.
Men who had received beta-blockers alone showed fewer brain abnormalities than those who had not been treated for high blood pressure or who had received other blood pressure drugs. Study participants who had taken beta-blockers alone or in combination with another blood pressure medication showed less shrinkage in their brains.
Richard Isaacson, MD, says the new study findings add more grist to the mill when it comes to preventing Alzheimer’s disease. Isaacson is an associate professor of clinical neurology and the director of the Alzheimer's division at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
“Treating blood pressure, in general, is quite likely to reduce the risk of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease, and specific treatments may be preferential,” he says.
Exactly how high blood pressure increases the chances of dementia, and how treating it reduces this risk, is not fully understood, Isaacson says. It may reduce the risk of mini-strokes that can lead to dementia or help brains maintain their volume. “We know that treating high blood pressure reduces your risk for stroke and heart attack, and now the icing on the cake may be that it can also delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of cognitive decline.”
sex in the golden years
Getting older can bring new sexual challenges -- as well as new pleasures.Reviewed by Melinda Ratini, DO, MS
During the last two decades, several studies have left little doubt that seniors have sex well into their 60s, 70s, and beyond. But what quantitative studies don't always show is what senior sex is like -- including its pleasures and problems.
Take the case of a couple I counseled recently. Both were in their 70s, and both were worried about their sex life. The problem? The wife wanted to have sex more often than the husband. As a result, she feared that her spouse no longer found her attractive, and he felt bad about his low libido as well as his short-lived erections and inability to satisfy his wife’s desires.
Such physical and psychological problems in relation to sex are not all that unusual among seniors.
Certain medications, such as those used to treat high blood pressure and depression, can reduce libido. So, too, can declining levels of testosterone in both men and women. Nerve damage caused by diabetes and other conditions can impair a man’s ability to get and sustain an erection. And low levels of estrogen can thin and dry a woman’s vaginal tissues, making intercourse uncomfortable.
On the emotional front, long-simmering relationship difficulties may dampen desire, as can shame about an aging body. And either partner can suffer a dramatic blow to his or her sex life if the other partner is incapacitated by illness or injury.
Many problems that affect senior sexuality can be treated. But studies show most seniors don’t talk about sex with their doctors, perhaps because they were raised to believe such talk is taboo.
It’s important to get help if you need it, however. Regular sex keeps circulation flowing to the genitals (which in itself boosts pleasure). It also helps couples survive the ups and downs of long-term relationships.
In the case of the elderly couple I counseled, the man saw a doctor, who gave him testosterone supplements to increase his libido. I also coached the couple on ways to enjoy sex without intercourse, including oral sex and other forms of foreplay, so the man could free himself of some of his performance anxiety.
Last I heard, my septuagenarian patients were sexually happy and healthy -- and enjoying new modes of intimacy.
Ask your doctor if your problem has a medical cause -- and a solution.
Use lubricant to help with vaginal dryness.
Experiment with masturbation to satisfy unfulfilled desire.
Kick things off with foreplay. Older men need more touching to get an erection, and older women need more touching to get lubricated.
Mollie King at the NBC Universal 2013 Winter Television event
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Jessica Chastain on the street in New York
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Karolina Kurkova at the NBC Universal 2013 Winter Television event
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Jessica Chastain’s side-swept waves
Jessica Chastain shows off side-swept glossy tangerine waves – Hair Do's & Don'ts brought to you by Glamour.com. Visit Glamour.com for the latest dos and don'ts for hairstyles, with celebrity photos.Continue reading...
Kerry Washington at the Django Unchained Paris premiere
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Jessica Chastain at a Mama film screening in NY
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