A recent published survey on health data accumulated over 40 years on 5,100 American women (they were aged 30-44 when the survey began so most are now comfortably into retirement age) concluded that women who regularly worked in paying jobs during the first 20 years of the survey had fewer physical health limitations and symptoms […]
Wanna know the definition of useless spending in the medical world? There are lots of candidates for this title of course but the one that stands out for me is Xray imaging of the spine for recent-onset low back pain. Studies have concluded that the majority (probably the great majority) of Xrays of the lower […]
Just in time to add some holiday cheer to us older folks who take care of our grandkids from time to time (or even very often), a study published in the BMJ Open on Dec 18 has concluded that caring for grandkids is actually beneficial to the grandparents in that this study of nearly 4000 […]
So, you all know that getting too little sleep or not getting enough good quality sleep is related to poorer health outcomes, meaning a higher risk not only of developing lots of chronic illnesses but also of dying prematurely. But it’s also the case that sleeping too many hours is related to higher risks of […]
Sure, vaping can get some people to quit smoking, although how effective a tactic vaping is for smoking cessation is still a mystery, and I for one, think it’s not nearly as effective as its proponents would like it to be. Time will tell, however. What is not debatable, though, is that vaping has drawn […]
Adequate hydration is important for good health, although you certainly don’t have to blindly follow the mantra of 8 glasses of water a day. There is nothing magical about water – if you ask me, coffee is a much healthier liquid to consume – and there is especially nothing magical about the number 8: Drink […]
So, what a surprise, eh: Yet another study has concluded that if you eat right, you have a much better chance of avoiding a specific health problem than if you eat an unhealthy diet. In this case, the researchers were looking at the eye scourge known as age-related macular degeneration or AMD, which manifests itself […]
This one should interest lots of you: A recent study about how healthy living improves a very specific element of vision, namely night vision. In this paper from a UK research group, the researchers found that taking fish oil supplements led to an improvement in night vision, and as anyone who is getting older and […]
Migraines are extremely common, with studies claiming that roughly 10 % of men and 18 % of women world-wide suffer from chronic migraines. That’s a lot of people in pain. The good news is that there are many medication options for chronic migraine therapy, both meds to prevent migraines and meds to treat them. The […]
So, according to a recent review published in BMJ Open (which, by the way, has become a terrific news source that very often strongly challenges accepted medical “wisdom”; who says the UK’s era is over?), prescriptions for vitamin D supplements for kids went up a staggering 26-fold between 2008 and 2016 (and I’m sure they […]