Health & WellnessS


People

Personality study shows risk of first depression episode late in life

Even after the age of 70, people prone to feelings of anxiety, worry, distress and insecurity face a risk for a first lifetime episode of clinically significant depression, according to a unique study led by a University of Rochester Medical Center researcher.

"We assume that because depression has not developed for people with these personality traits by the age of 70 that it won't develop," said Paul R. Duberstein, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry who led the study. "But even in older adulthood, these traits confer risk. Presumably something about aging helps take down the façade or destroys the protective sheath that has kept them from significant depression."

The findings from the prospective study, the first of its kind, are published in the May issue of the journal Psychological Medicine.

Having a working-class background also may place older adults at heightened risk for depression, particularly prior to the age of 80, the study found. Consistent with previous research, women were found to be at greater risk than men. The study enhances the understanding of late-life depression and could aid in the identification and treatment of people at risk.

Pocket Knife

Upset Over Your Figure? Some Bodies Really Are Painful

Orthopaedic Surgeons Explain How Some Common Body Features Cause Pain

People may not always talk about it, but many in America feel hurt over their body type and physical features.

There's the obvious emotional angst of those whose figures don't compete with those of swimsuit models or Hollywood starlets. But then, there's the actual physical pain.

At least 15 percent of the population has complained of musculoskeletal pain in the last year: more than people with allergies and headaches combined, according to The Burden of Musculoskeletal Disease in the United States, a publication from the United States Bone and Joint Decade.

Some of this pain comes from injury, but some also occurs as a result of a person's specific body type. If you ask orthopaedists, it turns out that, what we might think makes us beautiful, doesn't help us feel pain-free.

Ambulance

Healthcare, poverty and race

The American Cancer Society recently came out with a new batch of statistics on cancer prevalence and death rates. While the news might appear positive overall and reflect advances in cancer treatments and screening technology, the United States continues to deliver the best care to wealthier, white citizens.

Bulb

Public lack basic disaster survival skills, study shows

Dubai: The public do not have the basic knowhow that can save their lives in a disaster. In a recent study it was found most 16-year-olds in Bahrain and Scotland did not know that simply by boiling water it would be made safe to drink.

Bizarro Earth

India two-faced baby's family refuses special care



two faced indian baby
©Reuters
A girl born with two faces rests in her relative's lap at Saini village

The family of an Indian baby born with two faces has refused special medical treatment for the infant, saying she is the incarnation of a Hindu goddess.

Bulb

Getting forgetful? Then blueberries may hold the key

If you are getting forgetful as you get older, then a research team from the University of Reading and the Peninsula Medical School in the Southwest of England may have good news for you.

If you are getting forgetful as you get older, then a research team from the University of Reading and the Peninsula Medical School in the South West of England may have good news for you.

They have found that phytochemical-rich foods, such as blueberries, are effective at reversing age-related deficits in memory, according to a study soon to be published in the science journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine. The researchers working at the Schools of Food Biosciences and Psychology in Reading and the Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences at the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter supplemented a regular diet with blueberries over a 12-week period, and found that improvements in spatial working memory tasks emerged within three weeks and continued throughout the period of the study.

Wine

Wine may protect against dementia

There may be constituents in wine that protect against dementia. This is shown in research from the Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

The findings are based on 1,458 women who were included in the so-called Population Study of Women from 1968. When they were examined by physicians they were asked to report how often they drank wine, beer, and liquor by selecting from seven categories on a scale from 'never' to 'daily.' The researchers know nothing about how much they drank on each occasion, or how correct the estimates were. For each beverage the women reported having drunk more than once a month, they were classified as a consumer of that particular beverage.

Thirty-four years after the first study, 162 women had been diagnosed with dementia. The results show that among those women who reported that they drank wine a considerably lower proportion suffered from dementia, whereas this correlation was not found among those who had reported that they regularly drank beer or liquor.

Sherlock

Impairments in Language Development Can Be Detected in Infants as Young as Three Months

Uncover how the brains of infants distinguish differences in sounds and it may become possible to correct language problems even before children start to speak, sparing them the difficulties that come from struggling with language.

New studies conducted by Professor of Neuroscience April Benasich and her Infancy Studies Laboratory at Rutgers University in Newark are revealing new and exciting clues about how infant brains begin to acquire language and paving the way for correcting language difficulties at a time when the brain is most able to change.

Benasich and her lab were the first to determine that how efficiently a baby processes differences between rapidly occurring sounds is the best predictor of future language problems. Using methods developed by Benasich and her lab, it can be determined as early as three to six months whether a baby will struggle with language development.

Magnify

Virginia health officials investigate brain disorder

Richmond, Va. - State health officials are investigating a possible case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare brain disorder.

Magic Wand

Cleaning 'improves mental health'

Working up a sweat while performing household chores may not just improve the cleanliness of your home, but your mental health too, a survey suggests. Just 20 minutes of sustained exercise a week - from cleaning to jogging - can impact upon depression, the British Journal of Sports Medicine study found.