Older Diabetics With Depression Face Higher Death Rate

(HealthDay News) -- In a group of Medicare beneficiaries who have diabetes, being depressed was associated with a higher death rate, according to a new study.

Publishing in the October issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, researchers from the University of Washington tracked 10,704 Medicare beneficiaries (average age of 75.6 years) who had diabetes and were enrolled in a disease management program in Florida. The participants' depression status was assessed by physician diagnosis, patient reports of antidepressant use, and answers to a brief screening test.

The researchers followed the participants for two years and recorded any deaths and causes of death that took place during that time.

The participants who had both diabetes and depression had an approximately 36 percent to 38 percent increased risk of dying from any cause. A total of 12.1 percent of these participants died during the study, compared with 10.4 percent of the participants without depression. Read more...

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DHA and micronutrients may prevent brain shrinkage with age

Vitamins, DHA, and the aging brain

It is known that a Western diet is associated with dementia – the risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease are almost identical to those for cardiovascular disease.1 In contrast, higher vegetable and fruit intake is associated with decreased risk of cognitive decline and dementia.2,3
Vitamins are essential for thousands of chemical reactions in the body, and certain vitamins and other phytochemicals have been singled out for their critically important functions in the brain. These include B vitamins, vitamins C, D, and E, and omega-3 DHA. Read more...

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Pricey heart disease screening program virtually useless

Researchers in the U.K. are questioning the effectiveness of a $387 million a year heart screening program started in the country back in 2008. According to a report published in the British Medical Journal on the issue, the money being spent on this program would be much better spent on patients who are actually at high risk of developing heart disease.

In most developed nations around the world, cardiovascular disease is the primary cause of death. According to reports, $46.4 billion is spent every year in the U.K. dealing with heart disease, and more than $503 billion is spent each year in the U.S. Many countries have been working on programs to help curb the disease.

But rather than screen basically everyone between the ages of 40 and 74 as is currently being done in the U.K., some experts are now suggesting that only people whose medical records indicate that they are at a "high risk" of developing heart disease be screened. And according to the research, following this approach, which is much less expensive than screening everyone, will achieve the same results. Read more...

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Managing Blood Pressure, Cholesterol Cuts Stroke Risk

(HealthDay News) -- People who have suffered a stroke can significantly reduce the odds of a second stroke or a heart attack by controlling their blood pressure and cholesterol, new research shows.

"There are about 800,000 new strokes in the U.S. and 1 million in Europe each year," said study author Dr. Pierre Amarenco, of Denis Diderot University and Medical School in Paris. "Among them, between 5 and 10 percent will have a recurrent stroke and about 2 percent will have a myocardial infarction."

For the study, researchers followed 4,731 people who had suffered a stroke or "mini-stroke." Half of the patients received the cholesterol-lowering drug atorvastatin (Lipitor), while half received a placebo. Pfizer Inc., which makes Lipitor, funded the study.

The researchers found that over an average of 4.9 years, patients who maintained optimal levels of LDL ("bad") cholesterol, HDL ("good") cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure were significantly less likely to suffer a secondary stroke or other cardiovascular problems. The findings were presented Wednesday at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in Seattle. Read more...

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Vitamin D and Prostate Cancer Risk

I have had discussions with the top research at the Council for responsible nutrition who informed me that their high level consensus was that up to 10,000 units of Vitamin D is safe for virtually anyone. Now we have a slight cloud on that; however, I think this article clarifies just how slight that "cloud" on Vitamin D Safety really is.

This excellent article from NCI suggests that it is only a very remote possibility that the most aggressive forms of Prostate cancer might be aggravated by Vitamin D. This article, however, concludes with the obvious that the overall benefits from improving Vitamin D status clearly outweigh any such remote possibility. This article also recognizes what I have been teaching for 20 years, which is the incidence of prostate cancer by age 60 is clearly at least 50% and most of those cancers are not linked to the cause of death in those patients. Read more...

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