Centenarians a Happy Lot, Survey Says

FRIDAY, May 3 (HealthDay News) -- Centenarians are more likely to be content with their lives than aging baby boomers are, and these oldest Americans tend to put more stock in healthy eating habits and exercise as keys to happiness, a new survey finds.

Half of Americans aged 100 and older wouldn't change a thing about the way they lived their lives, while only 29 percent of Baby Boomers (aged 60 to 65) would leave their pasts untouched and 26 percent wished they had made more money. Baby boomers were also more than twice as likely as centenarians to wish they had taken more risks in their lives, 12 percent vs. 5 percent.

The average American today lives to be about 80, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When asked what could have made their extra 20 or more years even better, 33 percent of the centenarians said nothing, while 33 percent wished for more time with their spouse or loved ones, 13 percent wished for better health and only 6 percent wished they had more money, according to the UnitedHealthcare's eighth annual 100@100 survey.

Nearly all centenarians (98 percent) said that keeping their mind active is a secret to healthy aging, and 100 percent of baby boomers agreed. Staying mobile and exercising is also important, according to 96 percent of centenarians and 98 percent of the baby boomers.

Both age groups also agree that physical health is more difficult to maintain as they age, compared with mental health, emotional/spiritual health, social connections and independence.

Many centenarians try to remain active. More than half said they walk or hike weekly, more than one-third said they do strength training exercises at least once a week, and nearly 20 percent do a cardiovascular workout indoors one or more times a week.

Centenarians and baby boomers do differ on other healthy habits. Centenarians are more likely than the boomers to eat nutritiously balanced meals regularly (86 percent vs. 77 percent), to get more than eight hours of sleep per night (66 percent vs. 54 percent), and to attend a social event every day (37 percent vs. 28 percent).

Only 31 percent of centenarians said that maintaining one's sex life is important for healthy aging, compared with 80 percent of the boomers. Centenarians were also less likely than the boomers to believe that it's very important to continue to look forward to each day (72 percent vs. 88 percent) and to maintain a sense of purpose (57 percent vs. 79 percent).

While 29 percent of centenarians said they expected to live to 100, only 21 percent of the boomers said they expect to reach the same milestone. But a good number of them might make that goal. The centenarian population in the United States is expected to grow to more than 600,000 by 2050, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

"The centenarians in this year's 100@100 survey show that maintaining a positive outlook isn't all about focusing on what the future holds," Dr. Rhonda Randall, chief medical officer of UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement, said in a company news release.

"Reflecting fondly and confidently on the choices they've made throughout their lives helps the longest-living Americans maintain a sense of satisfaction and well-being that's vital to healthy aging," she said.

Young adulthood was the most fondly remembered time in centenarians' lives (45 percent), despite challenges such as balancing the demands of work and family. The second most fondly remembered time in centenarians' lives was approaching their 100th birthday (12 percent).

There were notable differences between the two groups in their view of marriage or life partnership. Thirty-one percent of centenarians and 19 percent of the boomers said that sharing the same political views as your partner is very important, 40 percent of centenarians and 22 percent of boomers said having the same hobbies as your partner is very important, and 56 percent of centenarians and 46 percent of boomers said sharing the same religious faith as your partner is very important.

Only 49 percent of boomers said that it's very important to maintain the traditional roles of husband and wife, compared with 67 percent of centenarians.

Both groups said that friends and family have the biggest impact on their lives and provide them with the most support. Staying close to friends and family is a secret to healthy aging for 97 percent of centenarians and 99 percent of boomers, and more than one-third of centenarians said they've maintained a friendship for more than 75 years.

-- Robert Preidt
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: UnitedHealthcare, news release, May 2, 2013

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Over-Exercising

Lately I have been obsessing about exercising, especially this past week. I try to stay as active as possible, and almost never let myself sit down or participate in sedentary activities like watching TV or using the computer. When I eat breakfast, I stand and walk around my yard and read simultaneously. This week, I started running again, and have been doing many other exercises. Here's what my week's looked like:

Monday: Running-25 minutes, yoga-15 minutes, and cleaning for 1 hour, 200 bicycle crunches 

Tuesday: yoga/aerobics-35 minutes, gymnastics- 1 hour, 200 bicycle crunches

Wednesday: running-27 minutes,walking-3 minutes yoga/aerobics- 35 minutes, swimming-10 minutes, 200 bicycle crunches, 

Thursday: running-32 minutes, walking-3 minutes, cleaning counters and cabinets for 2 hours, 320 bicycle crunches, 90 girl pushups, 4 1-minute planks, 100 hip raises

Friday: running- 45 minutes, walking- 25 minutes, gymnastics- 1 hour

Each day this week I've eaten 1800 calories. I just can not get myself to eat more than 1800 calories! And now my brain always tells me I need to exercise as much as possible, and I feel terribly guilty if I ever sit down or am resting. Even though my body is tired, and I feel like I have almost no energy, My brain continues to tell me to exercise exercise exercise! Tonight, while I was babysitting after gymnastics practice, my chest and rib bones had this terrible achey pain, and it was hard to even play dolls with the girl I was babysitting.

Do you think I'm over exercising? Has anyone experienced something similar, and what is the best thing to do? I'm in anorexia recovery, for those who do not know.

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Multi-purpose Primer

Blue-ray Activating Face Primer, £23, CARGO available from Debenhams (May 6th) and http://www.beautybay.com/

A face primer that reduces shine, refines pores and minimises fine lines and imperfections. Sound like a dream? It's a reality. CARGO's blue-ray Activating Face Primer guarantees that your skin will look better after 28 days of using the product. The wondrous primer acts as a "dual-purpose skin treatment with instant flawless results and long-term benefits."

The primer leaves skin feeling smooth and flawless, not only that, it is a silicone-free/paraben-free formula which makes it suitable for all skin types. Hooray!

By Lisa JC

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Multiple Sclerosis and Diet: Vitamin D, Swank and Wahls Diets, and More

SOURCES:

Ellen Mowry, MD, assistant professor, department of neurology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

National MS Society: "Nutrition and Diet."

Allen C. Bowling, MD, PhD, medical director, Multiple Sclerosis Service, Colorado Neurological Institute; clinical associate professor of neurology, University of Colorado-Denver and Health Sciences Center; author, Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Multiple Sclerosis; co-author, The Everything Health Guide to Multiple Sclerosis.

Yale News: "Yale Researchers Identify Salt as a Trigger of Autoimmune Diseases."

Jagannath, V. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2010.

Terry Wahls, MD: "Eating the Wahls Way."

National Multiple Sclerosis Society: "Vitamins, Minerals, & Herbs in MS: An Introduction."

Multiple Sclerosis Foundation: "Multiple Sclerosis FAQs."

Wergeland, S. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica, 2012.

Swank MS Foundation: "About the Swank Low-Fat Diet for the Treatment of MS."

National Multiple Sclerosis Society: "The Omega-3 Factor."

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Longer Wait for Mammogram After Benign Breast Biopsy May Be Warranted

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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Quicker Infant Growth Tied to Higher IQ Later

But difference in scores was fairly small in study of full-term babies

By Serena Gordon

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, June 21 (HealthDay News) -- Babies who gained weight and head circumference more rapidly during the first month of life scored slightly higher on intelligence tests when they were 6 years old, according to a large new study.

But a baby's early rate of growth didn't influence the child's behavior later in life, according to the study.

"We found that faster growth in the first four weeks following birth was linked to a small increase in intelligence quotient scores at 6.5 years, but there were no clear effects on children's behavior," said the study's lead author, Lisa Smithers, a postdoctoral research fellow in early life nutrition at the University of Adelaide, in Australia.

She added that these findings suggest that "it is important that parents seek help for any concerns they might have about their baby's growth or feeding quite quickly so that any problems can be addressed early."

"[However], we cannot say that faster growth causes a higher IQ," Smithers said. "It is possible that a phenomenon called 'reverse causality' may be at play, for example, if children with lower IQs had poorer growth."

The study results appeared online June 17 and in the July print issue of the journal Pediatrics.

The study included about 17,000 mothers and their babies from Belarus. Only mothers who delivered a single, healthy baby were included in the study. In addition, the babies were all born at or after 37 weeks of gestation.

Researchers measured the babies' weights and head circumferences over the first four weeks of life. Intelligence was measured using several IQ scales that were combined to yield a full-scale IQ score at 6.5 years. The full-scale IQ scores can range from 50 to 150, Smithers said, and the average score is 100. To assess behavior, parents and teachers completed behavior questionnaires.

Babies with the highest growth in weight and head circumference scored 1.5 points higher on the IQ scale compared to babies with the lowest growth. The researchers found no statistically significant differences in children's later behavior based on early growth.

"Our study involved thousands of healthy babies, so our findings reflect a wide range of growth patterns that might be expected within a healthy population," Smithers said.

Researchers accounted for other important factors, such as family income and parental education, in their analysis.

"The size of the effect we found on children's IQ would not be noticeable to individuals," Smithers said.

But the results may be important in the bigger picture, a U.S. expert said.

"A 1.5-point difference would be meaningless in an individual child and that child's success in life, but on a population level, such a difference may matter," said Dr. Lisa Thornton, medical director of pediatric rehabilitation at LaRabida Children's Hospital in Chicago.

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Health Tip: Got Power?

(HealthDay News) -- When the power goes out, don't forget about your refrigerator and freezer packed with food that can spoil.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics offers these guidelines for keeping your food after you lose power:

Don't open your refrigerator and freezer doors, if possible. Food will stay longer this way.If you don't open your refrigerator, the appropriate temperature may be maintained for at least four hours.A fully packed freezer can remain frozen for about two days if the door hasn't been opened. A partially full freezer may stay frozen for one day.

-- Diana Kohnle
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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Jerry Hall and Georgia May Jagger at the Sunglasses Hut launches Mother’s Day campaign in New York

We've suddenly realised how much Georgia May Jagger looks like her mother. Oh to be famous, fabulous, and the daughter of fashion/rock royalty. 

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Breastfeeding and Losing Weight

Are there any other moms on here who are trying to find the balance between losing weight while still providing nutrition for your baby?

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Obama Administration to Challenge Judge's Ruling on 'Morning-After' Pill

Move follows FDA ruling that females aged 15 or older could get Plan B drug without a prescription

By Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, May 1 (HealthDay News) -- A federal judge's order to eliminate any age limit on who can buy morning-after birth control pills without a prescription was challenged in court Wednesday by the Obama administration.

The government appeal follows on the heels of a Tuesday decision by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to lower the age that people can buy the Plan B One-Step morning-after pill without a prescription to 15 - younger than the current limit of 17.

With the appeal, the government has signaled that it will only ease access to emergency contraception a certain amount, the Associated Press reported Wednesday night.

The emergency contraceptive is made by Teva Women's Health Inc.

"Research has shown that access to emergency contraceptive products has the potential to further decrease the rate of unintended pregnancies in the United States," FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg said in an agency news release.

"The data reviewed by the agency demonstrated that women 15 years of age and older were able to understand how Plan B One-Step works, how to use it properly and that it does not prevent the transmission of a sexually transmitted disease," she said.

To prevent girls under the age of 15 from buying Plan B, the FDA said the product will bear a label stating that proof of age will be required, and a special product code will prompt such an inquiry from the cashier. "In addition, Teva has arranged to have a security tag placed on all product cartons to prevent theft," the FDA noted.

On April 5, Judge Edward Korman, from the Eastern District of New York, gave the FDA 30 days to remove age restrictions on the sale of emergency contraception, such as Plan B One-Step. Until now, girls 16 and younger needed a doctor's prescription to get the pill, which typically works if taken within 72 hours after intercourse.

Other brands of emergency contraception include Next Choice and Ella.

The move is the latest chapter in a 10-year, controversial debate about who should have access to the drug and why.

Plan B prevents implantation of a fertilized egg in a woman's uterus through use of levonorgestrel, a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone used for decades in birth control pills. Plan B contains 1.5 milligrams of levonorgestrel, more than "the Pill" contains. It is considered a form of birth control, not abortion.

Women's health advocates praised the FDA decision.

"While there are still practical questions to resolve, this is an important step forward to expand access to emergency contraception and for preventing unintended pregnancy," Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a news release.

"Emergency contraception is a safe and effective form of birth control that can prevent pregnancy if taken within five days of unprotected sex," she added. "This decision will eliminate some of the biggest barriers and hurdles that women face in getting emergency contraception when they need it, which means many more women will be able to prevent unintended pregnancy."

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paleo or vegan?

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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Why I Owe My Life To Slayer

For those among you that haven't cottoned on by now, I'm a bit of a goth. I don't mean that in the traditional, platform boots, residency in Whitby sense, but I am partial to the colour black. And Joy Division. Oh, and red wine. Dark, solitary spaces. And if I'm going to be completely honest, I find graveyards places of serenity and beauty, rather than fearful expanses of land, in which I am continually spanked in the face with tombstone-shaped reminders of my own, lumbering mortality. I am largely unaffected by gore. I love a bloody horror movie. I appreciate any form of music/film/art that challenges the socially acceptable, much of which, as a result, is often considered deeply offensive. I wish black magic was real. I wish unicorns were real (not so goth). And I can't stop reading stories about serial killers.

OK, FINE.

I'm a lot goth.

But it is within the dimly lit world I choose to inhabit that I continually source my own light. And it all started with one record: Slayer's Reign In Blood.

Perhaps it was fate that brought us together. I'd grown up listening to metal bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica, AC/DC and Megadeth, thanks to my older brother's stellar taste in music and my excellent tape-stealing skills. Whole childhood holidays were spent buried away in a back room, Walkman in ears, listening to hours of blistering Bay Area thrash while my pals learned the words to Wannabe by the Spice Girls. Hell, my dad used to get us to sleep as babies by playing Black Sabbath's Paranoid on repeat, so it's fair to assume that the aurally intense has always provided me with some form of comfort.

But it was during some particularly difficult years as a young adult that those sounds started to feel as redundant as I did. The primary-coloured melodies of Maiden and Megadeth did little to provide the catharsis I now needed. Plus, it's hard to seek solace in the music of a grown man who refuses to take to the stage dressed in anything other than school uniform.

So it's funny to think that just nine months before I was born, four men - Tom Araya, Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman and Dave Lombardo - and one production legend, Rick Rubin, set to work on the album that would not only define the emerging US thrash scene and propel the development of extreme music, but would go on to colour my not-yet-existent life for the better.

I'm almost certain it was no coincidence that 7 October 1986 was the date Def Jam chose to release Reign In Blood into the world. I was born just one week later, a true child of Slayer from the offing by sheer association. It was clearly meant to be.

Yet it wasn't until some 16 years later, when vinyl had all but been replaced by the shiny, iridescent wonders we now know as the Compact Disc, that I switched on, whacked up the volume and was finally able to connect with something that - through its aural assault of blistering blast beats, off-key devil scales and hellish vocals - was just as angry and dark and desperate as I felt.

And my connection didn't stop there. After becoming a fully-fledged fan from the moment I pressed play, they became the first real band I ever saw live. As a teenage girl, you can imagine my terror as grown, hulking men began hurling themselves off the balcony at the Brixton Academy into the whirling mosh pits below, as the guitars boomed, heavy and low, the drums pounded like a pneumatic drill and cries of 'Angel Of Death!' filled the sweat-drenched air. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't particularly clever, either. But I loved every minute of it. And I couldn't wait to relive it all over again.

A few years after that show, I decided I wanted to become a music journalist. Slayer had acted as a real gateway, opening up the possibilities of strange new genres and giving me an insatiable appetite for discovering new music.

I started by writing for my student paper. Then for online music blogs. I ran a rock club, put on my own shows, got involved in the local DIY scene, and eventually landed an internship at Terrorizer. After doing A CRACKING job (own trumpet = blown), I wound up writing for the metal music mag. My dreams came true when they asked me to interview Kerry King, Slayer's enigmatic, tattoo-headed guitarist.

I can't remember much from our meeting, other than him asking "who the f*ck" these kids Trivium were (they were main support for Slayer that day) and telling me just how many friends he had in the business. All I wanted to do, quite unprofessionally, was reach over, knuckle that famous noggin of his, and tell him just how much that record meant to me. How much it had defined my life thus far. I didn't, of course.

Since then, I've gone on to write for a bunch of people - including Revolver, Rock Sound, the Record Collector, a load of local and national papers, GQ.com, CNTraveller.com and Iron Fist, to name a few. I'm now the Entertainment Editor for GLAMOUR.com. I've travelled quite a way away from the alternative world I started out in, but I've never discriminated against a genre and stand by the belief that doing something out of the ordinary enriches your knowledge and experience in other things, rather than takes away from them.

Even so, I've never given up Slayer, and no matter where I've worked, I've continued to write about the band over the years.

The last time I had the pleasure of harping on about Reign In Blood was for a piece I wrote for TheQuietus.com, in which I quizzed frontman Tom Araya about guitarist Jeff Hanneman's ill health. In true, horror movie style, he'd managed to contract a flesh-eating disease caused by a spider bite he'd picked up, but was starting to play guitar again and they were hoping he'd recover enough to make it back on tour.

Tragically, last night, the band confirmed the news that Jeff Hanneman had died. He'd suffered a liver failure, leaving his wife and siblings behind him. He was just 49.

"It's hard to envision a world in which thrash pioneers Slayer do not exist," I wrote in the opening line.

That envisioning is now very much a reality. Never again will any of us see the original line-up of Slayer play live. Never will they make another record. Never will they hilariously call out Metallica's clangers or take a pop at Mr Mustaine (he just makes it too easy). None of this will ever happen again.

Yes, I am a massive cliché, I fully realise. But I genuinely owe my life to this band. So if you see a slightly gothy-looking girl in skinny jeans and a Slayer jacket this weekend, stop and give her a hug. She's going to need it. 

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Kelly the Robot Helps Kids Tackle Autism

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, May 1 (HealthDay News) -- Using a kid-friendly robot during behavioral therapy sessions may help some children with autism gain better social skills, a preliminary study suggests.

The study, of 19 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), found that kids tended to do better when their visit with a therapist included a robot "co-therapist." On average, they made bigger gains in social skills such as asking "appropriate" questions, answering questions and making conversational comments.

So-called humanoid robots are already being marketed for this purpose, but there has been little research to back it up.

"Going into this study, we were skeptical," said lead researcher Joshua Diehl, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, who said he has no financial interest in the technology.

"We found that, to our surprise, the kids did better when the robot was added," he said.

There are still plenty of caveats, however, said Diehl, who is presenting his team's findings Saturday at the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) in San Sebastian, Spain.

For one, the study was small. And it's not clear that the results seen in a controlled research setting would be the same in the real world of therapists' offices, according to Diehl.

"I'd say this is not yet ready for prime time," he said.

ASDs are a group of developmental disorders that affect a person's ability to communicate and interact socially. The severity of those effects range widely: Some people have mild problems socializing, but have normal to above-normal intelligence; some people have profound difficulties relating to others, and may have intellectual impairment as well.

Experts have become interested in using technology -- from robots to iPads -- along with standard ASD therapies because it may help bridge some of the communication issues kids have.

Human communication is complex and unpredictable, with body language, facial expressions and other subtle cues coming into the mix, explained Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks.

A robot or a computer game, on the other hand, can be programmed to be simple and predictable, and that may help kids with ASDs better process the information they are being given, Dawson said.

"Broadly speaking," she said, "we are very excited about the potential role for technology in diagnosing and treating ASDs." But she also agreed with Diehl that the findings are "very preliminary," and that researchers have a lot more to learn about how technology -- robots or otherwise -- fits into ASD therapies.

For the study, Diehl's team used a humanoid robot manufactured by Aldebaran Robotics, which markets the NAO robot for use in education, including special education for kids with ASDs. The robot, which stands at about 2 feet tall, looks like a toy but it's priced more like a small car, Diehl noted.

The NAO H25 "Academic Edition" rings up at about $16,000. (Diehl said the study was funded by government and private grants, not the manufacturer.)

The researchers had 19 kids aged 6 to 13 complete 12 behavioral therapy sessions, where a therapist worked with the child on social skills. Half of the sessions involved the robot, named Kelly, which was wheeled out so the child could practice conversing with her, while the therapist stood by.

"So the child might say, 'Hi Kelly, how are you?'" Diehl explained. "Then Kelly would say, 'Fine. What did you do today?'" During the non-Kelly sessions, another person entered the room and carried on the same conversation with the child that the robot would have.

On average, Diehl's team found, kids made bigger gains from the sessions that included Kelly -- based on both their interactions with their therapists, and their parents' reports.

"There was one child who, when his dad came home from work, asked him how his day was," Diehl said. "He'd never done that before."

Still, he stressed that while the robot sessions seemed more successful on average, the children varied widely in their responses to Kelly. Going forward, Diehl said, it will be important to figure out whether there are certain kids with ASDs more likely to benefit from a robot co-therapist.

Dawson agreed that there is no one-size-fits-all ASD therapy. "Any therapy for a person with an ASD has to be individualized," she said. The idea with any technology, she added, is to give therapists and doctors extra "tools" to work with.

A separate study presented at the same meeting looked at another type of tool. Researchers had 60 "minimally verbal" children with ASDs attend two "play-based" sessions per week, aimed at boosting their ability to speak and gesture. Half of the kids were also given a "speech-generating device," like an iPad.

Three and six months later, children who worked with the devices were able to say more words and were quicker to take up conversational skills.

Dawson said the robot and iPad studies are just part of the growing body of research into how technology can not only aid in ASD therapies, but also help doctors diagnose the disorders or help parents manage at home.

But both Diehl and Dawson stressed that no robot or iPad is intended to stand in for human connection. The idea, after all, is to enhance kids' ability to communicate and have relationships, Dawson noted. "Technology will never take the place of people," she said.

The data and conclusions of research presented at meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Joshua Diehl, Ph.D., assistant professor, psychology, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind.; Geraldine Dawson, Ph.D., chief science officer, Autism Speaks; May 4, 2013, presentation, International Meeting for Autism Research, San Sebastian, Spain

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Weight gain after metabolic crash

stomach pain, bloating & meal plan help please! qwertylolokellz 4 Jun 09 2013
22:32 (UTC) Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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