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3 Surprisingly Easy Things You Can Do to Live Longer     By David B. Agus, MD                       Jan. 26,2014

Keep a Regular Schedule:  Your body loves predictability. It's one of the best ways to reduce stress and maintain a balanced state of being.

 

Get off Your Butt More (in Addition to Formal Exercise):   Our bodies were designed to move. In fact, movement makes our bodies work. It's how virtually every system and organ in the body stays nourished, refreshed, and ready to tackle any challenges.

 

Mobilize Your Medical Data:   Since any of us can fall ill while on vacation or at midnight on a weekend when the doctor's office isn't open, we need to be in charge of our own data and make sure it's there when we need it.

 

Shingles linked to stroke risk for young people                                                                           Jan. 19, 2014

The shingles virus is connected to the chicken pox, which many children contract since it is contagious. It stays in the body after that indefinitely. Shingles causes a painful rash that can lead to an infection if left untreated. Now, however, scientists believe that there could be more serious consequences of having the virus than just a simple rash.

Published in the online version of the journal Neurology, people under 40 who had shingles were 74 percent more likely to have a stroke later in life. They were also 2.4 times more likely to have a warning stroke if they had had shingles and 50 percent more likely to have a heart attack than those who did not have shingles. Interestingly, in the age group over 40 the results were not as severe; having the shingles virus did not result in anywhere close to the same risk factor as for people below 40.

DASH Diet Ranked Best Overall                                                                                                     Jan. 12, 2014

The new annual ‘‘best diets” list is out from U.S. News & World Report. The DASH diet repeats as best diet overall. It was originally developed by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to prevent high blood pressure. The DASH diet stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, recommend: Eating more fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy foods; Cutting back on foods that are high in saturated fat, cholesterol, and trans fats; Eating more whole grain products, fish, poultry, and nuts; Eating less red meat (especially processed meats) and sweets; Eating foods that are rich in magnesium, potassium, and calcium.

A New Osteoporosis Drug                                                                                                                Jan. 5, 2014

A new medication for osteoporosis prompts the body to rebuild bone and could potentially strengthen the skeleton against fractures, researchers report.The experimental drug, romosozumab, frees the body's ability to stimulate bone production by blocking biochemical signals that naturally inhibit bone formation, explained Dr. Michael McClung, founding director of the Oregon Osteoporosis Center in Portland, Ore.The treatment is one-and-a-half to three times more effective than current osteoporosis drugs in rebuilding bone density at the lumbar spine, according to clinical trial results McClung and his colleagues reported in the Jan.1 online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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