Tag: healthy

These healthy way of living behavior may well slash danger of prolonged COVID in fifty percent, Harvard review finds

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A man jogs in Brooklyn, N.Y., in entrance of the skyline of decrease Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge on Jan. 25

Adhering to a nutritious life style might lessen the hazard of acquiring extended COVID, according to a examine released on Monday in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

Researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan Faculty of Community Wellness analyzed info from 1,981 feminine nurses who reported a optimistic SARS-CoV-2 exam in between April 2020 and November 2021. They then seemed at 6 healthful way of life things, together with a wholesome system mass index (BMI) never ever smoking cigarettes a large-top quality food plan moderate alcohol intake common exercising, which they determine as at least 150 minutes of average to vigorous physical action for each 7 days and suitable slumber, which they outline as seven to nine several hours of slumber for every night.

The review identified that participants who adhered to five or 6 of these “modifiable hazard factors” prior to contracting COVID-19 experienced 49% much less possibility of likely on to develop extended COVID in contrast to people who adhered to none. Of the six way of living aspects, wholesome human body weight and getting sufficient rest experienced the strongest affiliation with a decreased danger of prolonged COVID.

A technician in a blue gown inserts a probe into the nostrils of a man at a booth marked: COVID-19 Testing.

A man is examined at a COVID-19 screening point on June 6, 2022, in New York. (John Smith/VIEWpress by using Getty Photographs)

For individuals who did acquire very long COVID, people who experienced a more healthy life-style before obtaining COVID-19 had a 30% lessen threat of creating extended COVID signs or symptoms that interfered with every day life.

“Previous experiments have advised that a nutritious life-style is affiliated with decreased threat for continual diseases, these kinds of as diabetic issues and cardiovascular ailments, as perfectly as early death. Our findings advise that a healthful life-style may possibly also be protecting in opposition to infectious disorders,” Siwen Wang, one of the authors of the review, wrote in an e mail to Yahoo Information. “Although some life-style components may perhaps be tough to alter, like being overweight, many others could be easier to adjust, these types of as obtaining more than enough sleep on most days or incorporating a bit more actual physical activity in your each day program. It can be possible that these sorts of adjustments may well decrease your possibility of producing lengthy COVID.”

A person probable explanation

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Healthy lifestyle, diet linked to slower memory decline

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A study found a link between healthy lifestyles and slower memory decline in older adults. Shestock/Getty Images
  • Researchers followed 29,072 older adults (60 years old and over) over 10 years to investigate the link between lifestyle choices and memory loss.
  • They found a link between a healthy lifestyle and slower memory decline, even in the presence of the APOE Ɛ4 gene, which is associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
  • The researchers hope their findings will inform public health initiatives seeking to prevent memory loss in older adults.

The gradual loss of thinking abilities such as memory, reasoning, and psychomotor speed is a natural part of aging. However, studies such as the FINGER clinical trial have shown that it is possible to prevent cognitive decline through lifestyle improvements.

The impact of lifestyle factors on memory has been the subject of many studies. However, previous research typically focused on a single lifestyle factor, such as diet, physical activity, smoking, or drinking. Understanding the combined effect of multiple lifestyle factors on memory decline is important.

For this reason, Dr. Jianping Jia, Ph.D., neurologist and professor at Capital Medical University, Beijing, China, and his colleagues investigated the combined effects of six lifestyle factors on memory decline in a large study population over a 10-year period.

In an interview with Medical News Today, Dr. Jia said:

“[E]ffective strategies for protecting against memory decline may benefit a large number of older adults. Our results showed that adherence to a combination of healthy lifestyle behaviours was associated with a slower memory decline in older adults, including those genetically susceptible to memory decline.”

The results of the study appear in the BMJ.

Dr. Richard J. Caselli, professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic, who was not involved in the study, described the study as “well done and generally supportive of findings from studies such as the FINGER study, this time in a Chinese population.”

The researchers recruited 29,072 study participants from North, South, and West China aged 60 or older with typical cognitive functions. Their mean age was 72.2 years, and 51.5% were men.

Genetic testing at baseline showed that 20.43% of the study participants were carriers of the APOE ε4 gene, the strongest known risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

The researchers followed up with the participants at intervals over the next 10 years, in 2012,

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Association between healthy lifestyle and memory decline in older adults: 10 year, population based, prospective cohort study

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Abstract

Objective To identify an optimal lifestyle profile to protect against memory loss in older individuals.

Design Population based, prospective cohort study.

Setting Participants from areas representative of the north, south, and west of China.

Participants Individuals aged 60 years or older who had normal cognition and underwent apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotyping at baseline in 2009.

Main outcome measures Participants were followed up until death, discontinuation, or 26 December 2019. Six healthy lifestyle factors were assessed: a healthy diet (adherence to the recommended intake of at least 7 of 12 eligible food items), regular physical exercise (≥150 min of moderate intensity or ≥75 min of vigorous intensity, per week), active social contact (≥twice per week), active cognitive activity (≥twice per week), never or previously smoked, and never drinking alcohol. Participants were categorised into the favourable group if they had four to six healthy lifestyle factors, into the average group for two to three factors, and into the unfavourable group for zero to one factor. Memory function was assessed using the World Health Organization/University of California-Los Angeles Auditory Verbal Learning Test, and global cognition was assessed via the Mini-Mental State Examination. Linear mixed models were used to explore the impact of lifestyle factors on memory in the study sample.

Results 29 072 participants were included (mean age of 72.23 years; 48.54% (n=14 113) were women; and 20.43% (n=5939) were APOE ε4 carriers). Over the 10 year follow-up period (2009-19), participants in the favourable group had slower memory decline than those in the unfavourable group (by 0.028 points/year, 95% confidence interval 0.023 to 0.032, P<0.001). APOE ε4 carriers with favourable (0.027, 95% confidence interval 0.023 to 0.031) and average (0.014, 0.010 to 0.019) lifestyles exhibited a slower memory decline than those with unfavourable lifestyles. Among people who were not carriers of APOE ε4, similar results were observed among participants in the favourable (0.029 points/year, 95% confidence interval 0.019 to 0.039) and average (0.019, 0.011 to 0.027) groups compared with those in the unfavourable group. APOE ε4 status and lifestyle profiles did not show a significant interaction effect on memory decline (P=0.52).

Conclusion A healthy lifestyle is associated with slower memory decline, even in the presence of the APOE ε4 allele. This study might offer important information to protect older adults against memory decline.

Introduction

Although a fundamental function of daily life, memory continuously declines as people age,1 impairing both life quality

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Corewell Health has tips to create a healthy lifestyle

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – If your New Years Resolution includes losing weight or getting healthier. Creating a lifestyle that promotes good health can seem complicated. We may know what we should do but how do we create healthier habits? Corewell Health, the new name for Spectrum Health is making it easier by offering a program, called Lifestyle Medicine. Dr. Kristi Artz, emergency medicine physician and medical director of Lifestyle Medicine at Corewell Health joins us now.

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Sponsored by Corewell Health.

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Can a Healthy Lifestyle Prevent IBD?

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Adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle may prevent inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to findings from an analysis of three prospective U.S. cohort studies, which were validated in three external European cohorts.

In the primary analysis, maintaining low modifiable risk scores — based on risk factors including body mass index, smoking status, use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, physical activity, and daily consumption of fruit, vegetables, fiber, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and red meat — could have prevented 42.9% of Crohn’s disease cases and 44.4% of ulcerative colitis cases, reported Hamed Khalili, MD, MPH, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues.

Moreover, adherence to a healthy lifestyle could have prevented 61.1% of Crohn’s disease cases and 42.2% of ulcerative colitis cases, they noted in Gut.

“We were surprised by the proportion of cases that could have been prevented through lifestyle modifications,” Khalili told MedPage Today. “One reason for this finding may be that our population was older and therefore most of our cases of IBD happened in older adults.”

“We know that lifestyle and environmental factors play a bigger role in the development of IBD in this population as compared to those who are diagnosed with disease earlier in life,” he added.

These findings from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), the NHS II, and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS) were largely validated in three external European cohorts — the Swedish Mammography Cohort, Cohort of Swedish Men, and the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.

Looking at cases of Crohn’s disease among the European validation cohorts, adhering to low-risk factors could have prevented 44% to 51% of cases, while adhering to a healthy lifestyle could have prevented 49% to 60% cases. For ulcerative colitis, adherence to low-risk factors could have prevented 21% to 28% of cases, while healthy lifestyle adherence could have prevented 47% to 56% of cases.

For every 1-point increase in modifiable risk score, a higher risk of Crohn’s disease (P for trend<0.0001) and ulcerative colitis (P for trend=0.008) was observed, and was similar for men and women.

IBD affects about 3.1 million people in the U.S. and 1.3 million in Europe, with incidence rising globally, especially among newly industrialized countries, Khalili’s group said. IBD is associated with an annual healthcare cost of $23,000 per patient in the U.S., and there are no current strategies to prevent the development of IBD. While one approach

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Healthy Men: Why men are the way they are | Lifestyle

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Dear Heathy Men: You’ve mentioned several times in this column that men don’t go to the doctor as often as women and that they live shorter, sicker lives than women. I’m sure that’s true. But what I really want to know is why. Why don’t men take better care of themselves?

A: A number of factors keep men (and boys) from being as actively engaged in their own health care as they need to be. Here are some of the biggest ones:

— Socialization. When we’re little, boys are bombarded with the idea that “big boys don’t cry.” When we’re in high school, we’re told we need to “take one for the team.” And when we hit adulthood, it’s “man up.” Overall, the message is clear: Asking for and/or accepting help is a sign of weakness. Not surprisingly, men and boys ignore their symptoms and stay as far away from medical providers as they can.

— Media messages. In a comprehensive study of print advertising for health products and healthy lifestyles, Dr. Salvatore J. Giorgianni, Jr. found that ads were half as likely to be directed at men than at women. “This sends a clear message to boys and young men that (a) only women and girls have health-related needs, and (b) taking care of one’s physical or mental health is women’s responsibility,” says Giorgianni, co-founder and vice president of Healthy Men, Inc. (healthymen.org).

— The health care system is unwelcoming. A 2019 Cleveland Clinic survey found that going to the doctor is “so unappealing” that 7 in 10 men would rather do household chores, like cleaning the bathroom or mowing the lawn, than go to the doctor, and 77% would rather go shopping with their wife or significant other than to the doctor. As a result, about two-thirds of men prefer to self-diagnose and the same percentage will wait as long as possible before finally agreeing to see a provider. By then, it’s often too late.

Some of the blame for men’s experience of being unwelcome and uncomfortable in health care settings rests with providers. A majority of men in the 2019 survey said they would be more likely to have regular checkups if medical offices had more flexible hours. But even when they do make an office visit, according to researcher Will Courtenay’s “Dying to Be Men: Psychosocial, Environmental, and Biobehavioral Decisions in Promoting the Health of Men

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