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People who eat a strict Mediterranean diet are at less risk of developing heart disease, cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, Italian researchers report.
A so-called Mediterranean diet is rich in olive oil, grains, fruits, nuts, vegetables and fish, and includes a moderate amount of red wine but is low in meat, dairy products and other alcohol.
Fish oil supplements may work slightly better than a popular cholesterol-reducing drug to help patients with chronic heart failure, according to new research released Sunday.
Chronic heart failure is a condition that occurs when the heart becomes enlarged and cannot pump blood efficiently around the body.
Federal regulators are working on a stronger label for a widely used diabetes drug marketed by Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co. after deaths were reported with the medication despite earlier government warnings.
The Food and Drug Administration said Monday it has received six new reports of patients developing a dangerous form of pancreatitis while taking Byetta. Two of the patients died and four were recovering.
* As we snooze, our brain is busily processing the information we have learned during the day.
* Sleep makes memories stronger, and it even appears to weed out irrelevant details and background information so that only the important pieces remain.
* Our brain also works during slumber to find hidden relations among memories and to solve problems we were working on while awake.
Older adults who regularly eat fish may have a lower risk of subtle brain damage that contributes to stroke and dementia -- as long as the fish isn't fried -- researchers reported Monday.
In a study that followed 3,660 adults age 65 and older, Finnish researchers found that those who ate more fish were less likely to show certain "silent" brain infarcts -- tiny areas of tissue that have died because of an insufficient blood supply -- on an MRI scan.
For people who dislike needles, medical tests that require a drop of saliva instead of a vial of blood will one day make a trip to a doctor or dentist much easier. But as scientists now construct the first of these saliva tests for early signs of cancer and other diseases, they continue to push the technological envelope in interesting ways.
New tools based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be enlisted to diagnose Alzheimer's disease in its early stages so that doctors can treat patients earlier to slow the progression of the disease.
Research represented Sunday at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Chicago showed that conventional, clinical-strength MRI could result in images of brain plaques like those found in Alzheimer's patients.
Fresh produce was too expensive or too far away until the state-funded "Veggie Mobile" started bringing the fruits and vegetables to him at a lower price.
"I'm a diabetic and I have problems with my heart," the 66-year-old said. "The canned stuff has so much sodium in it. So now with the fresh fruit, it's less sugar and carbohydrates and stuff."
People are often advised to try to keep up their levels of so-called good cholesterol to reduce their risk of heart disease. But high levels may also help prevent a decline in memory, a new study says.
More people are hurt snowboarding than any other outdoor activity, accounting for a quarter of emergency room visits, according to the first national study to estimate recreational injuries.
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Trailing snowboarding are sledding and hiking, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report in the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine.
At 32, he's not worried about losing his memory. He's taking advantage of a growing market in "brain fitness" spurred by aging baby boomers.
Teenagers cramming for tests and people worried about "senior moments" can now turn to an explosion of brain-assisting video games, such as Nintendo's Brain Age; puzzles that are said to ward off dementia, such as Sudoku and crosswords; and online tips that claim to train the brain.
Blocking the body's response to ghrelin has been suggested as a weight loss treatment but it may also produce unintended effects on mood, they said.
The Nature Neuroscience study found mice with increased levels of the hormone showed fewer signs of depression and anxiety.
The increase is due mainly to falling mortality rates in almost all the leading causes of death, federal health officials said. The average life expectancy for babies born in 2006 was about four months greater than for children born in 2005.
Japan has the longest life expectancy — 83 years for children born in 2006, according to World Health Organization data. Switzerland and Australia were also near the top of the list.
If antioxidant supplement labels are to be believed, you should stop reading this article and gobble down some pills: Spurred by the rising sales of antioxidant supplements, Pom Wonderful, makers of pomegranate juice, now makes an antioxidant supplement that they claim has "extraordinary health benefits."
The F.D.A. said that it had received reports of 30 cases of cancer over 10 years among children and young adults treated with those drugs, which are sold by Amgen, Abbott Laboratories and other companies.
"The best of all healing worlds -- modern Western medicine blended with centuries-old Oriental wisdom."