Archive for the ‘Elderly Heath,’ Category
Acupuncture
Author: Vic
Acupuncture DOES work – but it’s benefits are all in the mind, says study
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:27 PM on 21st January 2009
Acupuncture has been found to prevent headaches and migraines but the benefits of the technique are mostly in the mind, according to researchers.
They found faked treatments when needles were inserted away from traditional pressure points appeared to work nearly as well as the proper procedure.
Those who had needles incorrectly inserted benefited nearly as much as those who had proper acupuncture
Study author Klaus Linde, who led the analysis said: ‘Much of the clinical benefit of acupuncture might be due to non-specific needling effects and powerful placebo effects, meaning selection of specific needle points may be less important than many practitioners have traditionally argued.’
Acupressure and acupuncture are based on the theory of lines of energy running through the body. With acupressure, a fingertip or a bead is used to press a specific pressure point, while needles are used in acupuncture.
Several studies have shown both treatments may stimulate the release of hormones known as endorphins, which can relieve stress, pain and nausea.
Mr Linde, a complementary medicine researcher at the Technical University in Munich led two reviews of the technique. They included 33 studies of nearly 7,000 men and women to see whether the technique was effective at preventing headaches and migraines.
Overall, they found that over eight weeks people treated with acupuncture suffered fewer headaches compared to men and women given only pain killers.
When it came to migraines, the needles beat drugs but faked treatments worked too, the researchers said. For less severe headaches, acupuncture worked just slightly better than sticking the needles randomly, the researchers said.
‘Doctors need to know how long improvements associated with acupuncture will last and whether better trained acupuncturists really achieve better results than those with basic training only,’ Mr Linde said.
The findings have been published in the Cochrane Review journal.
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A.A.A.D.D. – Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.
Author: Vic
AAADD
KNOW THE SYMPTOMS…..
Thank goodness there’s a name for this disorder. Somehow I feel better even though I have it!!
Recently, I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D. – Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.
This is how it manifests:
I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.
As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mailbox earlier.
I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.
I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full.
So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first.
But then I think, since I’m going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.
I take my checkbook off the table, and see that there is only one check left.
My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Coke I’d been drinking.
I’m going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coke aside so that I don’t accidentally knock it over.
The Coke is getting warm, and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.
As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye–they need water.
I put the Coke on the counter and discover my reading glasses that I’ve been searching for all morning.
I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I’m going to water the flowers.
I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table.
I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I’ll be looking for the remote, but I won’t remember that it’s on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I’ll water the flowers.
I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor.
So, I set the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.
Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day: the car isn’t washed, the bills aren’t paid, there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter, the flowers don’t have enough water, there is still only 1 check in my check book, I can’t find the remote, I can’t find my glasses, and I don’t remember what I did with the car keys. Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I’m really baffled because I know I was busy all day, and I’m really tired.
I realize this is a serious problem, and I’ll try to get some help for it, but first I’ll check my e-mail….
Do me a favor. Get the word out to everyone you know, because I don’t remember who the heck I’ve sent it to..
Keep off dieting to avoid the flu. Elderly people and the flu.
Author: Vic
Dieting at this time of year could impair your body’s ability to fight the flu virus, a study warns.
US researchers found mice who were put on a calorie-controlled diet found it harder to tackle the infection than those on a normal diet.
The findings, published in the Journal of Nutrition, suggest that contrary to the old adage "starve a fever", those with a temperature should eat well.
Flu cases in England and Wales are currently approaching a nine-year high.
Killer cells need food
The team at Michigan State University found even though the mice on the lower calorie diet received adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals, their bodies were still not able to produce the amount of killer cells needed to fight an infection.
As well as being more likely to die from the virus, the mice - which were consuming around 40% of the calories given to their counterparts on a normal diet - took longer to recover, lost more weight and displayed other symptoms of poor health.
"Our research shows that having a body ready to fight a virus will lead to a faster recovery and less-severe effects than if it is calorically restricted," said study author Professor Elizabeth Gardner.
Even those who have received the flu vaccine should steer clear of dieting until the warmer months arrive.
"If the strain of flu a person is infected with is different from the strain included in the flu vaccination, then your body sees this as a primary infection and must produce the antibodies to fight it off," Professor Gardner said.
The study, the team added, should not be seen as a carte blanche to avoid dieting all year, but to reserve weight control to the eight months of the year when flu is not so virulent.
The latest flu data from England and Wales has shown cases are up 73% on last year; experts believe the unusually cold weather may have contributed to the surge.
Professor John Oxford, an influenza expert at Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, said "common sense should prevail at this time of year".
"There are a lot of viruses and while it might have been better to avoid those extra helpings of Christmas pudding in the first place, now is not the time to be thinking about diets."
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