Your diet, how much you exercise, how much salt you eat, and your age can affect your blood pressure. And if you have high blood pressure, you’re at risk for heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure. The older you get, the more your risks can go up.
It’s not easy, but it could be the most important decision you ever make. Quitting smoking, or never starting, is so vital to your health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched a new campaign, Tips from Former Smokers, to show just how harsh tobacco can be, first and second hand.
Home should be a safe haven for a kid. But researchers who looked at national data on emergency department visits say falls down stairs account for a lot of injuries – and many can be prevented.
Being active improves quality of life. The Presidential Active Lifestyle Award, also known as PALA+, is a program that challenges kids and adults to be more active. PALA+ challenges us to be physically active, five days a week, for six weeks.
Rates of unintentional injury deaths by children and teens have been dropping – but rates for some causes have been going up.
Research indicates college students can have as good a time at a party when they don’t drink. At the Miriam Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, Lori Scott-Sheldon looked at data on 19 studies involving more than 1,400 college students. Her study found students were less likely to drink alcohol when their beliefs about the positive effects of drinking were challenged.
Learning something new might open other possibilities for older people. Researchers who gave older people training in thinking skills and puzzles to solve report the older people then felt more open to other experiences.
A study indicates that even if people can’t work off the weight, being physically active may reduce factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which can affect their risk of cardiovascular disease. At the University of South Carolina, researcher D.C. Lee saw this in six years of weight and exercise data on more than 3,100 healthy adults. Lee saw a benefit even if people gained weight.
“Adult immunizations are an excellent way to prevent many diseases that can be deadly. Vaccines aren’t just for kids. Some of the protection you got from childhood vaccines may have worn off.”
A study indicates overeating may eat into older peoples’ ability to remember. Researcher Yonas Geda of the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, saw it in data on more than 1,200 people ages 70 and 89.
Age is no excuse. Young or old, we should all be physically active. For adults, that means 30 minutes of activity a day, five days a week. For kids, that means 60 minutes of activity a day, five days a week. You can also count your steps using a pedometer. Experts say adults should walk 8,500 steps a day. Kids should walk around 12,000 steps a day.
After long stays in intensive care, patients might not be able to return to the life they once had. But a study finds that family members who have to make decisions for the patient often hadn’t talked with the patient about these quality of life issues. Sara Douglas of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland saw that in an analysis of 116 family meetings.
Think about what you eat. Think about how much of it you eat, and how often. Twenty-thousand participants did just that, and researchers were able to make food patterns of it, based on demographics.
It is possible for obese people to lose weight, and researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston say national survey data indicates many do. So the researchers also looked at the data to see what worked.