(Los Angeles Times) Two of the most worrisome trends in healthcare — the soaring rates of Type 2 diabetes and dementia — share several key biological processes. And scientists are beginning to think that is more than just a coincidence.

Many researchers now believe that proper control of blood sugar could pay dividends in the future by reducing the number of people stricken by Alzheimer's disease, other forms of dementia and even the normal cognitive decline that comes with age.

The concept that brain diseases share little in common with diseases arising elsewhere in the body is rapidly crumbling, says Debra Cherry, executive vice president of the Alzheimer's Assn. California Southland. The key characteristics found in the development of heart disease and stroke — clogged arteries and inflammation in cells — also affect the brain.

On the flip side, she adds, "what is good for the reduction of diabetes risk is also good for reduction of the risk of cognitive impairment."

Read more.

Community: I’m keeping lists of things we can do to reduce the risk of diabetes and of cognitive decline.

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(WebMD Health News) People with diabetes may be at increased risk for precancerous colon growths called adenomas, a new study suggests…

People with diabetes also had more adenomas and more advanced adenomas than those who were diabetes-free.

The association between diabetes and precancerous colon growths remained after taking into account age, weight, and race -- three factors that affect diabetes risk.

Read more.

Community: Again, there are practical steps we can take to reduce the risk of diabetes.

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(Reader's Digest) Diabetes stats just keep spiking — a staggering 350 million people around the globe now have the disease, and the U.S. numbers are among the worst in the world. That means more heart attacks, more strokes, and a shorter life expectancy, even if you're otherwise healthy. Eat right; exercise more — the advice is simple but sometimes hard to follow. What do top experts suggest for closing that gap?

1. Have a side salad
When you're indulging in high-carb foods (pasta, potatoes, or rice, for example), serve salad, too — and make sure the dressing contains vinegar. Consuming one and a half tablespoons of vinegar can lower your blood sugar by 42 percent, a small study showed last year.

2. Treat your pasta right
Keeping your cells responsive to insulin is key to warding off diabetes because insulin is the hormone that sweeps sugar out of the blood. Here's an effective, tasty way to do that: Sauté your pasta in extra-virgin olive oil (and throw in some vegetables for good measure). That approach substantially increased insulin sensitivity for overweight women in recent research. The researchers say that sautéing any carb-rich food in olive oil will help hold blood sugar steady.

3. Move a little
Just one session of moderate exercise improves your body's blood-sugar control, new research shows — and mini-bursts of activity seem to be as effective as continuous exercise. (In fact, sitting for hours at a time boosts your risk of a variety of diseases even if you're otherwise active.) Aim to move at least 30 to 45 minutes a day. What makes that goal less daunting: You can rack up some of those minutes during TV commercials or other bits of downtime as long as you move briskly.

4. Enforce a blackout
If you don't sleep seven or eight hours most nights, your risk of developing diabetes — or having it get worse — rises by 37 to 88 percent, says a recent study. To sleep longer and better, go dark because even a small amount of light during bedtime hours slows the production of melatonin, the hormone that makes you sleepy. Reading lights or glowing screens can be enough to rev your body…

5. Substitute nuts for potatoes…
Potatoes deliver a dietary double whammy: They make your blood sugar rise and over the years are particularly likely to make you gain weight, a recent long-term study showed… And a number of recent studies have shown pistachios, almonds, and peanuts have surprising power to keep blood sugar even. 

Read more.

Community: And there are even more ways to fight diabetes.

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(Andrew Weil, M.D.) Managing diabetes mindfully means more than just monitoring blood sugar levels. It also means making prudent dietary choices to lower the risk of common health conditions associated with diabetes, such as heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. Work with your physician and a dietician to create a meal plan that best suits your needs. Research has shown that several nutritional elements may be helpful in managing diabetes-related issues:

·         Eat more magnesium-rich foods such as spinach, tofu, almonds, broccoli, lentils, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.

·         Increase intake of foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as cold-water oily fish, fish oil supplements, walnuts and freshly ground flaxseed.

·         Choose foods that are lower on the glycemic index and have a low glycemic load, such as beans, lentils and whole-grain breads.

Read more.

Community: And there are even more ways to fight diabetes.

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(NBC/KNBC) A new study has found that building muscle can help lower the risk of developing diabetes and help stabilize blood sugar levels.

A year ago, Ravi Nori was told that he was pre-diabetic…

Rather than give in to that diagnosis, Ravi fought back. He changed his lifestyle and started pumping iron several times a week…

UCLA researchers found a link between those who had higher muscle mass to lower rates of diabetes. This study made a difference for Ravi. When he went back to the doctor, he found out that he was no longer pre-diabetic.

"You look at the blood results and it's like, "Wow, I was doing something right,'" Ravi said.

Read more.

Community: And there are even more ways to fight diabetes.

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MyRecipes.com:

Meatless Monday: Spinach and Feta-Stuffed Focaccia
This calzone-like roll mixes fresh spinach with cheese, raisins, and pine nuts—a flavor combination reminiscent of the Mediterranean.

Artichoke, Spinach, and Feta Stuffed Shells

Roasted-Vegetable and Feta Ziti

Tabbouleh with Beans and Feta

EatingWell:

Black Bean Quesadillas
In a hurry? These satisfying quesadillas take just 15 minutes to make. We like them with black beans, but pinto beans work well too. If you like a little heat, be sure to use pepper Jack cheese in the filling. Serve with: A little sour cream and a mixed green salad.

Hot Chile Grilled Cheese

Creamy Avocado & White Bean Wrap

Toasted Pita & Bean Salad

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(EatingWell) 1. Eat Vegetarian a Few Nights a Week

Try to include a couple of vegetarian meals in your menu for the week. Skipping meat, even once or twice a week, can help save money, since meat is usually the most expensive part of a meal. And you will have a lighter impact on the environment…

2. Minimize Waste
One of the easiest ways to save money is to make sure you’re not wasting food. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans throw out more than 25 percent of the food we prepare… So we need to do a better job of using leftovers and learn what to do with food before it’s past its peak…

3. Plug in the Slow Cooker
If you don’t have hours to be at home tending a braise, then try a slow cooker. It will give you the same effect (i.e., it makes inexpensive cuts of meat meltingly tender), but you can plug it in, leave for the day and come home to a dinner…

4. Discover Great Ways to Use Canned Fish
Just like their fresh counterparts, canned salmon and tuna provide omega-3 fats, which help keep your heart healthy by lowering triglycerides and blood pressure. The difference: canned fish is significantly cheaper…

5. Don’t Order a Pizza. Make One at Home
Ordering pizza seems like a cheap and quick solution for dinner. But a typical pie costs more than $15. You can make your own at home … for a lot less and in about the same amount of time delivery takes.

6. Pack a Lunch
When you’re busy at work, the easiest choice is to grab a bite to eat someplace nearby. The problem is that the cost of buying lunch takes a toll on your food budget… So try bringing a lunch from home. When you make dinner, think about what you’re going to eat for lunch tomorrow. If you’re making a salad, make a little extra and put it in a container, undressed. And what about your leftovers? If you have a little extra chicken or half a can of beans, toss that in with your lunch salad.

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(RealAge.com) Need to get your LDL cholesterol down (maybe way down) but your low-fat diet just isn't doing it? Try upping your intake of nuts, including soy nuts. Add a bowl of oatmeal or barley soup, some soy milk, and a little cholesterol-fighting bread spread. Done.

In a new study, people who ate a diet rich in these foods lowered their LDL cholesterol by at least 13% in just 6 months. The shocker: A comparison group that ate a diet low in saturated fat got only a 3% LDL reduction. 

Read more.

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(RealAge.com) Research reveals that consuming a healthy amount of chocolate reduces your risk of heart disease by 37% and stroke by 29% versus eating little or none. (Not coincidentally, it also lowers your bad LDL cholesterol.) In addition, it shrinks your risk of type 2 diabetes by up to 31%. These impressive numbers emerged from an analysis of seven studies involving more than 100,000 people.

What's in chocolate that makes it so good for you? Loads of potent plant antioxidants called polyphenols, including flavonoids. Yep, the same good-for-you substances found in blueberries, wine, green tea, and olive oil, as well as many fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Among polyphenols' many powers is the ability to sooth inflammation in your body. Internal hot zones are linked to all kinds of trouble, from memory damage to joint pain and accelerated aging. (Learn more about chocolate as a healthful treat.)

Like wine, the trick with chocolate is to indulge daily without overindulging. A little goes a long way, because most chocolate contains about 150 calories per ounce, including lots of sugar and fat. Overdo and you could actually increase the health risks you're trying to prevent.

Read more.

Community: I make a healthy cookie that contains chocolate, among other healthy ingredients, and I eat one most nights.

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(RealAge.com) Prunes, or dried plums, are full of healthy surprises. Once mainly known as a laxative in a box, the wrinkly fruit recently rose to diet stardom thanks to evidence that it boosts fat loss and heart health.

Now it turns out that, in the world of fruits and vegetables, prunes are all-stars at building bone density.

This became evident when a team of state university researchers from Florida and Oklahoma gave one group of postmenopausal women 10 dried plums every day for a year, while a second group ate 3.5 ounces of dried apples. All the women in both groups took daily doses of calcium (500 mg) and vitamin D (400 IU).

The prune eaters wound up with significantly denser bones in their forearms and spines than the apple eaters. Why? The prunes slowed the rate of bone breakdown, which starts outpacing the rate of new bone growth as you age. A related lab study on animals found that eating dried plums could restore bone mass after the loss had already occurred. Yes, as in menopause.

Read more.

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(Julie Deardorff, Tribune Newspapers) Servan-Schreiber, the author of the bestselling book, “Anticancer: A New Way of Life,” suffered a relapse and died from brain cancer in July, 19  years after his original diagnosis. He was 51. “Anticancer,” part health guide and part memoir, stressed the use of nutrition, physical exercise, yoga, meditation and stress management to help prevent cancer or cope with it once diagnosed.

Before he died, however, Servan-Schreiber managed to compose a book that he hoped would answer hard questions and serve as a farewell to those who appreciated his previous works. In “Not the Last Goodbye: On Life, Death, Healing & Cancer,” Servan-Schreiber grapples with the elephant in the room: “If David, himself, the living incarnation of this lifestyle, the one who thinks anticancer, eats anticancer, moves anticancer, breathes anticancer, lives anticancer – if even he succumbs to the disease, then what is left of ‘Anticancer’?”

The question forced some soul searching. Ultimately, he found that he didn’t follow his own advice. In at least one regard, “recently, I have not been the ideal embodiment of the anticancer lifestyle,” he wrote.

Servan-Schreiber, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and co-founder of the school’s Center for Integrative Medicine, kept up an exhaustive work and travel schedule. Friends worried he did too much as he criss-crossed the globe, racing from conference to interview and from one project to another.

“I reassured them saying, ‘You’re right, I’m going to slow down,’” he wrote. “But I never did.”

“In retrospect, my mistake is glaringly obvious,” he wrote. “We must not exhaust and overexert ourselves. One of the best defenses against cancer is finding a place of inner calm. … Personally, I never managed to find that calm, and today I regret it.”

Read more.

Community: There are no guarantees. However, I find that I feel much better when I’m in my healthy lifestyle groove, so it’s worth the effort no matter how long I live.

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(The New Old Age, New York Times) This sounds way too good to be true: a quick, effective solution to the insomnia that plagues an estimated 15 to 30 percent of older adults — without drugs, without even needing to consult a physician.

But a University of Pittsburgh team, testing its method on 79 seniors with chronic insomnia (average age: 72), has reported very encouraging results. The treatment required just two explanatory sessions (the first lasts 45 to 60 minutes, the second about half an hour) with a nurse-practitioner, plus two brief follow-up phone calls, over the course of a month…

The idea is to stick to a schedule that maximizes your “sleep efficiency” — the amount of time in bed you spend sleeping, instead of tossing and hoping that sleep will descend. That involves four rules: Reduce the time spent in bed. Get up at the same time every day. Don’t go to bed until you feel sleepy. Don’t stay in bed if you’re not sleeping.

Read more.

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(Reader's Digest) Philadelphia psychologist Suzanne Zoglio, Ph.D., developed a quiz that will reveal your sleep style. Once you know your type, you can determine which actions to take next. Choose which group of sayings applies to you most or flip through the slides to read about all the sleep styles.

1. You're a Strong Starter…
You want to grow, regularly get psyched for change, but lose steam before you meet your goals. Not quite sure why you can't stick to a plan, you'd probably welcome some sound advice and some encouragement. Check out the sleep strategies involving doctors and/or professional advice first.

2. You're a Quick Fixer…
Practical and impatient with a low tolerance for suffering, you are likely to try anything that's fast, simple, and yields quick results, even if they are short term. Sleep strategies you should consider first include sleep medication, waking at the same time every day, and low-fat cookies before bed.

3. You're a Comfort Queen…
If it feels good, smells good, or tastes good, bring it on! You can luxuriate for an hour in a warm bubble bath but you wouldn't be caught dead in a cold, smelly gym. The sleep strategies that will get you started include ones that modify your environment — silk sheets, hot soaks, and cool socks to start.

4. You're a Daydreamer…
While others need to be physically moving, actively engaged, or entertained, you seem quite comfortable alone with your thoughts. Patient, calm, and introspective, you're likely to find the serene sleep strategies — like mental imagery, prayer, and meditation — to be just your cup of tea.

5. You're a Smart Phone Fanatic…
With the middle name "24/7," what can you expect? You're amazing, and everyone knows it. You're never out of contact, seldom say no, and regularly suffer from a mind in overdrive. For you sleep remedies begin with setting boundaries, managing electronics, online therapy, and clarifying your priorities.

Read more.

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(UPI) People who feel they're stuck with something are more likely to be content than people who think there is a way out, U.S. and Canadian researchers say.

Kristin Laurin, a doctoral candidate at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, said studies show two contradictory results about how people respond to rules. Some research found when there are new restrictions, people rationalize them, and the brain comes up with a way to believe the restriction is a good idea.

However, other research found people react negatively against new rules or restrictions, wanting the restricted thing more than ever, Laurin said.

Read more.

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(Science Daily) One of two proteins that regulate nerve cells and assist in overall brain function may be the key to preventing long-term damage as a result of a stroke, the leading cause of disability and third leading cause of death in the United States…

[T]he new research indicates that increased production of two proteins -- cypin and PSD-95 -- results in very different outcomes.

While cypin -- a protein that regulates nerve cell and neuron branching critical to normal brain functioning -- prevents nerve cells not damaged during the initial stroke from losing the ability to communicate with other cells and halts any secondary brain or neurological damage, PSD-95 accelerates cell destruction and inhibits recovery. Secondary injury from a stroke can occur days or even weeks after the injury and often includes a lack of blood flow, insufficient oxygen, and swelling of the brain.

"We don't know how or why cypin acts during this process, but what we do know is that cypin helps nerve cells survive," said [professor Bonnie] Firestein.

Read more.

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(Reuters Health) A man's risk of complications from prostate cancer surgery may be slightly lower if it's done at a hospital connected to a medical school, a new study suggests.

Looking at nearly 90,000 prostate cancer surgeries done at U.S. hospitals, researchers found that men who had their surgery at an academic medical center were less likely to need a blood transfusion or to have a post-surgery complication while still in the hospital.

Read more.

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(Science Daily) Scientists have recently succeeded in rejuvenating cells from elderly donors (aged over 100). These old cells were reprogrammed in vitro to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) and to rejuvenated and human embryonic stem cells (hESC): cells of all types can again be differentiated after this genuine "rejuvenation" therapy…

[Said team leader  Jean-Marc Lemaitre,] "Our strategy worked on cells taken from donors in their 100s. The age of cells is definitely not a reprogramming barrier." He concluded. "This research paves the way for the therapeutic use of iPS, insofar as an ideal source of adult cells is provided, which are tolerated by the immune system and can repair organs or tissues in elderly patients." adds the researcher.

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(HealthDay News) Pumpkin spice candles and pine-scented air fresheners may evoke the holiday season for some. For others, those airborne fragrances trigger allergy symptoms -- from runny, itchy noses and sneezing to asthma attacks.

Allergists say as the popularity of scented products has risen, so have complaints from their patients about reactions to them.

"We're seeing more patients with the problem," said Dr. Stanley Fineman, president-elect of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI)…

Scented candles and air fresheners emit VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, which are chemicals that form a gas or vapor at room temperature, Fineman said. The VOCs present in air fresheners often include formaldehyde, petroleum distillates, limonene, alcohol and esters.

High concentrations of VOCs can trigger eye and respiratory tract irritation, headaches, dizziness, and even memory impairment.

Read more.

Community: My local Jewel grocery store puts out an almost unbearable Christmas scent starting about this time of year and through Christmas. I’ve warned them that it’s too strong, but to no avail.

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South Loop Vineyard:

We grow our grapes on traffic barriers.

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(New York Times) Self-improvement is a deeply embedded American trait, something other cultures find both admirable and amusing. The notion that we can constantly make ourselves better is, in theory, a great idea…

But when we’re constantly reaching rather than occasionally being satisfied with what we have in front of us, that’s a recipe for perpetual dissatisfaction…

This striving for self-improvement and the belief that we can all achieve success if we just work hard enough and figure out the right path, has political, not just personal, ramifications…

That idea that we can all potentially occupy the executive suite is one of the reasons that Americans have been less ready than some other cultures to protest income inequality, said Daniel Letwin, an associate professor of history at Pennsylvania State University.

But Occupy Wall Street and its offshoots may indicate a sea change.

“Clearly, throughout U.S. history there’s been two competing streaks among Americans — acceptance of, even admiration for the wealthy, when people buy into notions of fluid mobility and equal opportunity, and indignation when the inequalities of wealth and power become too grotesque, when the prospects for ordinary people stall no matter how hard they’re trying, and the system seems rigged,” Professor Letwin said.

Occupy Wall Street can be seen both as a rebellion and as an acknowledgment that most of us won’t ever reach the pinnacles of power — and perhaps don’t even want to, [Hollee Schwartz Temple, a professor of law at West Virginia University and co-author of “Good Enough Is the New Perfect”] said.

The reality, she said, is “a lot of people are finding that ‘I don’t want to aspire to what I always thought I wanted to aspire to.’”

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(Chicago News Cooperative) “Super Size Me: Product Size as a Signal of Status” is fascinating Northwestern University research that links obesity with consumers’ status, especially a person’s low rank in the social hierarchy…

[T]he study argues that those who feel relatively powerless will eat bigger food portions when given the choice, since they associate portion size with status. It could be a choice among three sizes of coffee, bagels, pizza, smoothies or fancy hors d’oeuvres. And it won’t matter if the price is the same for the alternatives…

We’ve always known that people seek luxury products and pay a price beyond their actual utility, linking the high cost to the product’s scarcity. And we’ve also associated obesity with poverty, seeing low-income citizens as victims of poor nutritional education and limited access to good food.

What’s different in the new study is discerning how those with a sense of powerlessness link larger food portions to increased status. Even when the researchers took money out of the equation, people would opt for the bigger food product. That was especially so when an experiment put them into a temporary state of powerlessness, like having to take orders from a boss…

[In one test, when] those people who felt they lacked status equated larger hors d’oeuvres with greater status, they ate more of them than did those who saw themselves as powerful. When told that the smaller snacks had greater status, the lower-status group went for those.

The latter tendency suggests that maybe society can alter the size-to-status relationship and cut down on obesity. But it’s a challenge.

Read more.

Community: We also know that lack of social status can result in high blood pressure, a higher cancer death rate, and a shorter life regardless of cause of death. Social status is tied to a sense of efficacy, which we’ve seen can be an important factor in staying healthy. It can help us stick to a healthy exercise regime, fight depression (more here), and deal with pain.

So maybe we need to be working on ways to increase our sense of efficacy. What is working for me is developing a positive attitude and using visualization.

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(U.S.News & World Report) Weight lost doesn't always equal health gained. That new diet that took inches off your waistline could be harming your health if it locks out or severely restricts entire food groups, like carbs, or relies on supplements with little scientific backing, or clamps down on calories to an extreme.

"People are so desperate to lose weight that it's really weight loss at any cost," says Madelyn Fernstrom, founding director of the UPMC-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Weight Management Center and author of The Real You Diet. And when that desperation sets in, says Fernstrom, "normal thinking goes out the window." Who cares if the forbidden-foods list is longer than War and Peace? Pounds are coming off. You're happy. But your body might not be.

You can check the nutritional completeness and safety of 20 popular diets ranked by U.S. News … in detailed profiles of each one. (The profiles also cover scientific evidence, typical meals, and much more.) And now U.S. News is introducing new rankings, Best Diets for Healthy Eating, that give each diet a "healthiness" score from 5 (best) to 1 (worst) for safety and nutrition, with safety getting double weight; while you can modify a diet to some degree to adjust for nutritional imbalances or deficiencies, mere tweaking won't make an unsafe diet safe.

Behind the healthiness scores are ratings by a U.S. News panel of 22 experts in nutrition and diet…

The recurring theme across the diets that excelled in healthiness [DASH, TLC, Mediterranean, Mayo Clinic, Volumetrics, and Weight Watchers] is adequate calories supplied by a heavy load of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, a modest amount of lean protein, nonfat dairy, healthy fats, and an occasional treat. Plants are the foundation and the menu is always built around minimally processed meals made from scratch.

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Community: Mr. Many Years Young’s parents weren’t healthy eaters until they moved into an apartment building in Florida that had a restaurant they were required to eat in a minimum number of times per month. The food was healthy and delicious. They both lived into their 90s, and I’m convinced that the healthy food added at least ten years to each of their lives.

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(WebMD Health News) Many people indulge far too often in trans-fat-heavy foods because it makes them feel good, even though they know these foods may not be good for their hearts and their waistlines.

But while that double cheeseburger or glazed doughnut might temporarily improve your mood, research from Spain suggests the feeling won’t last.

In a study published earlier this year, the Spanish research team found that people who ate the most trans fats also had the highest depression levels.

Now the researchers report that these people also had the lowest scores on tests designed to measure quality of life.

Read more.

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(RealAge.com) If the economy's ups and downs are making you feel like a bronco-busting rodeo cowboy (every day you're rattled and sore) we have one word to get you through this ride calmer and stronger: omega-3s…

They boost brainpower, deter colon cancer, ward off osteoarthritis, protect your vision, and more…

But here's what's giving omega-3s top billing for uncertain times: They also reduce inflammation and anxiety.

Why is that such big news? Stress and anxiety are some of today's biggest mind-body agers, and inflammation damages cells in ways that invite all kinds of trouble, from arthritis and cancer to heart disease and stroke. Omega-3s can cut anxiety symptoms by 20% and reduce cytokines (inflammatory proteins) by 14%. Their benefits may be even greater for older folks at greater risk for problems.

Read more.

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(Andrew Weil, M.D.) Here, a large study involving nearly 51,000 women found that drinking four or more cups of coffee a day appears to lower the long-term risk of depression…

Those who consumed two to three cups had a 15 percent lower risk of depression. Too much caffeine can jangle the nerves, boost anxiety levels, and contribute to other health risks, but caffeine does have well-known short-term positive effects on mood - it can provide an energy boost and increase alertness. Until now, however, little has been known about its possible long-term effects on mood.

Read more.

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MyRecipes.com:

Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Creole Spice Rub
The kicky spice rub for the steaks is easy to make, and the results are dynamite. The steaks need to stand for a few minutes after cooking to allow their juices to reabsorb.

EatingWell:

Slow-Cooker Vegetarian Lasagna
Sure, the slow cooker’s great for stews and soups, but it also happens to make a mean lasagna! In this ingenious slow-cooker recipe, all you have to do is chop your veggies, then layer the ingredients (raw) into the crockpot. Serve with: Garlic bread and a green salad.

Well, New York Times:

Well’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving 2011
Are you ready to re-imagine Thanksgiving without the turkey? All month, we present delicious no-meat recipes for your holiday table from some of your favorite chefs and cookbook authors.

Recipes for Health, New York Times:

Puréed Roasted Squash and Yams With Citrus
This aromatic dish is inspired by a recipe in Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s wonderful book “The Splendid Table.”

Winter Squash and Sage Blini
These are simple buttermilk/buckwheat blini with puréed butternut squash and sage whisked into the batter.

Fried Winter Squash With Mint
In Sicily this dish is served both hot and at room temperature; if you make it for Thanksgiving and don’t want to be in the kitchen frying squash at the last minute, opt for the room-temperature version.

Simple Provençal Winter Squash Gratin
There’s little more than squash here, seasoned with lots of garlic and fresh herbs.

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(WebMD Health News) A review of 22 studies involving 3,096 patients presented at the meeting showed that taking probiotics [such as those in yogurt] while on antibiotics may cut the risk of developing antibiotic-associated diarrhea by about 60%...

"By giving probiotics, you reduce the risk of antibiotic-associated diarrhea that occurs in 40% to 75% of hospitalized patients on antibiotics," says Fergus Shanahan, MD, of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, an industry-funded research center at the National University of Ireland at Cork.

In many cases, the diarrhea is mild and short lived; in others, it is severe and persistent, he says.

"We could debate whether all hospitalized patients on antibiotics need probiotics, but certainly the elderly, who are at high risk," Shanahan tells WebMD.

Read more.

Community: Maybe the pay is creating the warmth.

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(Andrew Weil, M.D.) Approximately 28 million Americans suffer from migraine headaches. Migraines are more common in women than in men, and are likely hereditary, as almost half of those suffering have family members with a history of migraines.

Characterized by recurring, intense, throbbing pain that is usually limited to one side of the head, migraines begin suddenly in and around the eye or temple, spreading to one or both sides of the head. The pain may be accompanied by loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting or a visual aura. To help prevent migraines without resorting to medications, I suggest:

1.    Keeping a diary to help you identify your own triggers.

2.    Learning and practicing relaxation techniques regularly.

3.    Trying biofeedback - this training can teach you how to influence autonomic functions in the body and may help alter blood-flow patterns, including those that can cause migraines.

Read more.

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(MyHealthNewsDaily) Some couples may not know it, but every time a woman has an orgasm, her pelvic floor muscles contract. And there are exercise programs that can strengthen these internal muscles, which are also used in bladder control and childbirth.

Because studies have shown these exercises can help women with urinary incontinence and simultaneously improve their sexual function, researchers in Brazil guessed they also might improve sex for healthy, older women.

But their small study shows that pelvic floor exercises — which consist of contracting the muscles as if to stop urination, and are often called Kegels, after the physician who championed them  — may not influence sexual function as they thought…

"Sexual dysfunction really is multifaceted in women: it's psychological, it's physiological, it includes relationship factors," said Dr. Leah Millheiser, director of the Female Sexual Medicine Program at Stanford University School of Medicine. "A woman may have a perfectly working vagina but have a horrible sex life because of other issues."

Millheiser said more questions about the quality of women's relationships and the stressors in their lives could better pinpoint how well Kegel exercises might improve a woman's sexual function. Yet even then, Millheiser said, researchers would have to account for the hormonal changes in postmenopausal women.

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(HealthDay News) Arthritis of the knee is striking Americans at younger ages, new research has found, but shedding a few pounds if you're overweight may reduce your risk…

"The diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis is occurring much earlier," said study author Dr. Elena Losina…

Losina suspects that obesity and knee injuries, both of which have become more common in the past decade, may be helping to drive the increase in knee OA among younger people.

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(HealthDay News) Two experimental treatments take aim at the destructive immune response believed to cause lupus, according to new research presented at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting.

One study looked at large doses of vitamin D, while the other was a trial of a potential vaccine against an immune system protein called interferon alpha.

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(HealthDay News) Age in itself should not be a factor in deciding whether blood cancer patients are candidates for stem cell transplantation, according to a new study.

Blood cancers include leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

For the study, researchers analyzed long-term outcomes among 372 blood cancer patients aged 60 to 75 who underwent a "mini-transplant," which is a "kinder, gentler" form of allogeneic (cells from another person) stem cell transplantation developed at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle…

Comparable survival rates were seen when the patients were divided into three age groups -- 60 to 64, 65 to 69, and 70 to 75 -- suggesting that age plays a limited role in the success of the mini-transplant.

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(Science Daily) Researcher Thijs Meenink at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) has developed a smart eye-surgery robot that allows eye surgeons to operate with increased ease and greater precision on the retina and the vitreous humor of the eye. The system also extends the effective period during which ophthalmologists can carry out these intricate procedures…

Eye operations such as retina repairs or treating a detached retina demands high precision. In most cases surgeons can only carry out these operations for a limited part of their career. "When ophthalmologists start operating they are usually already at an advanced stage in their careers," says Thijs Meenink. "But at a later age it becomes increasingly difficult to perform these intricate procedures." The new system can simply filter-out hand tremors, which significantly increases the effective working period of the ophthalmologist.

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(New York Times) A well-known psychologist in the Netherlands whose work has been published widely in professional journals falsified data and made up entire experiments, an investigating committee has found. Experts say the case exposes deep flaws in the way science is done in a field, psychology, that has only recently earned a fragile respectability.

The psychologist, Diederik Stapel, of Tilburg University, committed academic fraud in “several dozen” published papers, many accepted in respected journals and reported in the news media, according to a report…

The scandal, involving about a decade of work, is the latest in a string of embarrassments in a field that critics and statisticians say badly needs to overhaul how it treats research results. In recent years, psychologists have reported a raft of findings on race biases, brain imaging and even extrasensory perception that have not stood up to scrutiny. Outright fraud may be rare, these experts say, but they contend that Dr. Stapel took advantage of a system that allows researchers to operate in near secrecy and massage data to find what they want to find, without much fear of being challenged.

“The big problem is that the culture is such that researchers spin their work in a way that tells a prettier story than what they really found,” said Jonathan Schooler, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “It’s almost like everyone is on steroids, and to compete you have to take steroids as well.”

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(AP) President Barack Obama's health care law created a $5 billion fund to shore up coverage for early retirees, and some of that money is flowing to places you might not expect.

Two Texas public employee programs are among the top 25 recipients of the federal subsidy despite Texas Gov. Rick Perry's opposition to the law Republicans derisively call "Obamacare."

And records show the Huntsman family business, where GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman sharpened his executive skills, received about $1 million.

It highlights the gap between dire Republican rhetoric about the health care overhaul and the pragmatic impulse to cash in on a new government benefit.

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Community: Pragmatic? Some might call it exploitative.

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(HealthDay News) When the clocks go back an hour this weekend, some people may have trouble adjusting to the time change…

Exposure to light at an earlier time in the morning may cause some people to wake up earlier than planned. This could cause increased daytime sleepiness that results in impaired mental and physical abilities, Jean-Louis explained.

Those most likely to experience problems with the switch to standard time are people who tend to wake early in the morning and are sleepy early in the evening (morning types).

The National Sleep Foundation offers some tips to help you adjust to this weekend's time change:

·         Start changing your sleep schedule a few days ahead of the time change by gradually advancing bedtime and wake-up time by 15 to 20 minutes.

·         Give your body three to four days to adjust to the new time schedule.

·         If you want to enjoy an extra hour of sleep, go to bed at your regular time on Saturday night, and wake up at your regular time on Sunday morning.

·         Keep your bedroom as dark as possible and reduce the amount of light that will enter your room when sunrise occurs an hour earlier.

·         Reduce or avoid consumption of alcohol, nicotine and caffeine, all of which can make it more difficult for your body's internal clock to adjust to the time change.

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