I am 57 years old. My maternal grandmother and mother both had Alzheimer?s disease. There have been some times when I feel like I?m waking up from a fog or mental sleep. I sometimes feel disoriented, or just plain scared (especially when I?m driving). Should I be worried?
New York City health officials are urging doctors to prescribe medicine earlier to people infected with HIV. The medicines help to keep down the amount of virus in a person’s body. Health officials noted that people who get treatment are much less likely to spread the virus to others. But the drugs are expensive. Standard practice has been to prescribe them only after the immune system weakens. New York City health officials said costs will go down as the drugs become generic. They said preventing spread to others also will lower costs. More than 110,000 people in New York City are infected with HIV. That’s more than in any other U.S. city. The city health department is keeping track of 66,000 who are being effectively treated with drugs to suppress the virus. Officials estimated that their new advice would help about 3,000 more people begin treatment.
Many people taking the blood thinner warfarin may cut their risk of blood clots in half by doing required blood tests at home, a study finds. The best dose of warfarin varies, even for the same person. To prevent clots or excess bleeding, people get regular blood tests. Based on the results, they may need to take a different dose. The new study put together results from 11 prior studies. They included a total of 6,400 people. All of the studies compared people who got standard office tests with those who tested at home. The people who tested at home used a special meter to test a drop of blood. People who used office or home testing had similar risks of excess bleeding or death. For some groups, blood clot risk was cut in half or more with home tests. Those who benefited most included people with mechanical heart valves and people under age 55.
Can recent vaccinations cause a false positive elevation in an antibody test for rheumatoid arthritis? I recently had a hepatitis and HPV vaccine and two weeks later, my test came back with an elevated level of 36.
About 38% of U.S. adults who get care from a home health agency are taking at least one inappropriate prescription drug, a study finds. The medicines were on a list of drugs that should be used only with great care among older adults. The rate of potential problem drugs was nearly 3 times as high as other studies have shown for people who get care in a doctor’s office. Researchers used data from the 2007 National Home and Hospice Care Survey. The study included 3,100 patients. All were age 65 or older. The average person in the study took 11 prescription drugs. Potential problem drugs were prescribed most often for those who took the most drugs. They were prescribed 5 to 6 times as often for those taking 15 or more drugs as for those taking 7 or fewer. The Journal of General Internal Medicine published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it November 29.
My son is a picky eater. He?s a little underweight for his age, and also allergic to milk. He likes hot dogs, so I buy him the 98% fat-free turkey dogs. My husband thinks he should get regular hot dogs because he is a still a young child with no health problems ? and he needs the fat for energy. He also thinks he doesn?t need fiber. What should my son be eating?
A common liver disease does not increase the risk of death, a new study concludes. The results surprised researchers. The condition, called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, is found most often among people who are obese. Researchers looked at records for 11,000 Americans, ages 20 to 74. Their health was tracked for up to 18 years as part of a large national survey. About 1 out of 5 people had non-alcoholic fatty liver. But they did not have a higher risk of death than others surveyed. Researchers said they didn’t know why fatty liver does not seem to affect death rates. They suggested that fatty liver may protect the body from some of the effects of obesity and diabetes. The journal BMJ published the study. HealthDay News wrote about it November 28.
I know that there is a health benefit to eating “healthy fats” like olive oil. But I’ve heard that these are only unsaturated fats when raw; when you cook them, they become saturated fats. Is there any truth to this?