HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Smoking Linked to Hearing Loss

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Approximately 42.1 million adults in the US smoke cigarettes, and more than 16 million Americans suffer a disease caused by the habit, such as heart or lung disease. Now, new research from the University of Manchester in the UK finds that smoking and passive smoking may also increase the risk of hearing loss.The researchers calculated that smokers were 15.1% more likely to develop hearing loss, compared with passive smokers and non-smokers, while passive smokers were 28% more likely to develop hearing loss than non-smokers.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Exercise Necessary for Seniors

Regular exercise, including walking, significantly reduces the chance that a frail older person will become physically disabled, according to one of the largest and longest-running studies of its kind to date. The results, published on Tuesday in the journal JAMA, reinforce the necessity of frequent physical activity for our aging parents, grandparents and, of course, ourselves.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Vitamin E-Rich Oils Linked To Lung Inflammation

According to a new sizable study by Northwestern Medicine, vitamin E-rich oils - including canola, soybean and corn - could be contributing to the rising incidence of lung inflammation, airway hyperresponsiveness and possibly asthma. In contrast, vitamin E-rich oils such as olive oil, wheat germ oil, almond and sunflower oil improve lung capacity and function. The National Institutes of Health say the best way to achieve the Recommended Dietary Allowance of vitamin E is by eating vitamin E-rich food sources, such as vegetable oils, nuts, seeds and green leafy vegetables.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: America’s Health Rankings Senior Report rated Minnesota the healthiest state in the nation for adults aged 65 and over,  beating out Hawaii. And that retiree and snowbird haven, Florida? It came in 28th. What could put Minnesota, which just weathered arguably the harshest winter in the country, ahead of those sunny climes? Volunteering is one factor. Minnesotans do more of it and it plays a major role in senior vitality, according to Dr. Reed Tuckson, senior medical adviser to the UnitedHealth foundation, which funds the annual rankings.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Circadian rhythms enforce a 24-hour cycle on our bodies and are often mentioned in conjunction with jet lag. In our modern lives, there are many people whose circadian rhythms are disrupted on a regular basis. Shift workers, for example - including nurses, doctors, firefighters and policemen - have regularly disrupted patterns. Other people have 'social jet lag,' a lifestyle pattern that leads them to maintain a normal schedule on weekdays, but then stay up late and sleep in on the weekends. Researchers from the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago have found that when these rhythms are disrupted and combined with a high-fat, high-sugar diet, they could contribute to inflammatory bowel disease and other conditions.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Though some health officials have warned that electronic cigarettes should not be marketed as smoking cessation aids, a new study finds that, among people who are trying to quit without professional help, those who use electronic cigarettes are 60% more likely to succeed, compared with those who use willpower or nicotine replacement therapies. The study, conducted by researchers at University College London, is published in the journal Addiction.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Drinking just four glasses of wine for women or five glasses for men in 2 hours - the official definition of binge drinking - may do more harm to a person's health than previously thought, according to new research. Dr. Gyongyi Szabo and colleagues from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester report their findings in the journal PLOS ONE. They found even a single alcohol binge drinking episode increases toxins in the blood - due to bacteria leaking from the gut - to levels that can trigger immune cells involved in fever, inflammation and tissue destruction.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: There is no denying a dog's extraordinary sense of smell. While we have around 5 million olfactory cells in our noses - receptors that detect different odors - dogs have approximately 200 million. It is dogs' acute ability to trace scents that has made them so attractive to the medical world. A new study from Italian researchers, presented at the 109th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association in Orlando, FL, found that specially trained dogs were able to detect prostate cancer from urine samples with 98% accuracy.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: In a recent, Brad Bushman, a psychologist at Ohio State University, had 109 married couples monitor their blood sugar for 3 weeks. He also had them stick pins into a voodoo doll that represented their spouse. Bushman says those with lower blood sugar lanced the doll more often. "Hungry people are often angry, cranky and irritable," he says.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Given the nature of contact sports, it is no surprise that the players involved are more susceptible to traumatic brain injuries, such as concussion. But new research among college football players recently published in JAMA finds that those with such head injuries and those who have been playing football for many years are more likely to have smaller brain volumes in the area of the hippocampus than players who have fewer years of football-playing experience. The hippocampus is a brain region involved in regulating emotion and forming, storing and processing memories. According to the background of the study, the hippocampus is particularly vulnerable to moderate and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). 

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Victims of bullying may develop long-term physical and mental health problems, and now researchers have found one possible reason: Being bullied raises the blood’s level of C-reactive protein, or CRP, a marker of systemic inflammation and a risk factor for cardiovascular and other diseases. Scientists followed 1,420 boys and girls ages 9 to 21, interviewing bullies, victims and their parents. “The only other kind of social adversity where we see this kind of long-term effect is in children who are physically abused or neglected,” said the lead author, William E. Copeland, an associate professor of psychiatry at Duke.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: A growing number of Web-based companies offer virtual medical visits, where users can go online and consult with a doctor or other health-care provider, any time of the day or night, from wherever they are. But can downloading an app, and describing your symptoms to a doctor you'll never meet, take the place of an office visit? Can sending a "selfie" of your sore throat help diagnose strep? Those are some of the issues state and federal regulators—and the medical profession itself—are wrestling with as telemedicine spreads rapidly. Long-awaited recommendations on how to add digital privacy protections to health records and particularly to sensitive health information could emerge this June.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Certain risk factors - such as excess weight, smoking and high blood pressure - are known to increase lifetime risk of developing heart disease in women. But now, research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that, from age 30, physical inactivity has the biggest impact on this risk in women. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that all adults get 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity each week.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Research presented at the World Heart Federation's World Congress of Cardiology today suggests that children who spend over 2 hours in front of a TV, computer or video games each day have a significantly increased chance of having high blood pressure. The researchers, led by Dr. Gilles Paradis, of McGill University in Canada, say such children have over a 2.5-fold increase in odds of having high blood pressure (BP), while children with a low level of fitness had odds 3.4 times higher, compared with children with a high level of fitness.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The number of Americans 65 and older is expected to nearly double by the middle of the century when they will make up more than a fifth of the nation’s population, according to a Census Bureau report released Tuesday. By 2050, 83.7 million Americans will be 65 or older, compared with 43.1 million in 2012. Fewer than 10% were older than 65 in 1970.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Coca-Cola is moving to eliminate an ingredient used in many of its citrus-flavored productsafter consumers expressed concerns. A 17-year-old high school junior, Sarah Kavanagh, in Hattiesburg, Miss garnered tens of thousands of signatures on petitions to eliminate the ingredient. The company said on Monday that it was replacing brominated vegetable oil, which contains bromine, an element found in flame retardants, in products that contain it. It did not list the products, but they include Powerade, Fresca and some varieties of Fanta, as well as some fountain drinks.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Researchers from Cornell University  partnered with a high-quality Italian buffet to investigate how pricing influences customers' perceptions of what they are eating. The team offered 139 customers a choice between paying $4 or $8 for the restaurant's standard all-you-can-eat buffet. On average, the $8 diners gave their food an 11% higher score than the $4 diners, despite the two groups eating about the same amount overall. By contrast, the $4 customers were more likely to report feeling that they had overeaten, feeling guilty about eating the meal, and even reported that they liked the food less and less throughout the dining experience.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Past research has suggested that red wine and blueberries may reduce inflammation, prevent heart disease and even some types of cancer. The reason behind such benefits? A compound called resveratrol. And now, researchers from The Scripps Research Institute in Florida say they have discovered one way in which resveratrol has these beneficial effects on health. The research team found that resveratrol blocks interleukin 6 (IL-6). This is a protein in the immune system that can trigger inflammation.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Stem cells are cells that are able to differentiate into specialized cell types, aiding tissue regeneration, cardiovascular disease and blood disease treatments. But now, researchers have found that stem cells from teeth grow to resemble brain cells, a discovery they say could be harnessed in the brain for stroke therapy. The team, from the University of Adelaide in Australia, published their results in the journal Stem Cell Research & Therapy.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: In a new study, researchers from Georgia Regents University in Augusta, found that nail salon dryers, which use UV light to speed the drying and hardening of nail polishes and gels, emit varying levels of radiation that can lead to risky skin damage in as few as 8 visits to the manicurist.