Can eating a big breakfast help you lose weight?

Research suggests that having a big breakfast with carbohydrates and lean protein, and even a piece of chocolate, will help keep your appetite in check all day and help you lose weight. The study compared sedentary, obese women eating a big breakfast containing carbs with sedentary, obese women eating a low-carbohydrate breakfast. Results showed that at the end of the eight-month trial, women eating... Read more

Traumatic Brain Injuries Linked to Long-Term Health Issues for Iraq Vets

A new report provides evidence linking traumatic brain injury sustained by troops in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan to a variety of long-term health problems including dementia, aggression, depression and symptoms similar to those seen in Parkinson’s disease. But the Institute of Medicine committee charged with developing the report also pointed to a troubling lack of scientific data on such... Read more

Study Recruiting From Alzheimer’s-Prone Families

The adult children of people with the rarer, inherited form of Alzheimer’s disease are being sought for a new study to better understand the biology of the brain disorder. Three hundred adults with a biological parent diagnosed with a known genetic mutation causing the rare, early-onset form of Alzheimer’s are needed for the six-year, $16 million study being funded by the U.S. National... Read more

Scientists doubt utility of CT scan as heart test

The U.S. health insurance program for the elderly, Medicare, is spending money on state-of-the-art CT scanners without clear evidence showing their usefulness in combating heart problems, commentators in the New England Journal of Medicine said on Wednesday. CT scanning, used to diagnose coronary artery blockages, is one case where the U.S. government appears to be wasting money because pressures to... Read more

Author Terry Pratchett in UK Alzheimer’s plea

Top-selling author Terry Pratchett will deliver a petition to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday calling for an urgent increase in funding for dementia research. Pratchett, 60, creator of the “Discworld” series, revealed last December he had been diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. “I am appalled that research into Alzheimer’s and... Read more

A Third of Medicare Clients Unfamiliar With Benefits

How well a person on Medicare understands the program’s benefits affects their access to health care, a new study says. The report, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, found that a third of the surveyed Medicare beneficiaries from across the United States considered themselves as being unfamiliar or very unfamiliar with their program’s benefits. The lack of understanding... Read more

Costly heart pumps extend lives for some: study

Heart pumps can buy time for people with failing hearts in need of a transplant but implanting heart-assist devices in the elderly as a substitute for a heart transplant benefits only some — and at a high financial cost, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. They said about half of people 65 and older who got the devices between 2000 and 2006 under Medicare, the U.S. health insurance program for... Read more

Home interventions benefit older cancer survivors

A home-based diet and exercise program may improve physical functioning in elderly, long-term cancer survivors, results of a controlled study indicate. “Today, two thirds of individuals diagnosed with cancer survive their cancer,” Dr. Wendy Demark-Wahnefried noted a conference sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research. “That’s good news. However, the dark side... Read more

Retirees hit by “longevity risk”

Like many other elderly Americans, Edie Stark has been hard hit by the meltdown in U.S. financial markets. She is 84 and has been worried a lot lately about outliving her savings. A retired nurse, Stark is a prime example of what financial planners coldly call “longevity risk,” a reference to the need for a secure income and lasting savings at a time when growing numbers of Americans can... Read more

When the Caregiver Becomes the Patient

The stress of providing care for a loved one with Alzheimer’s results in 25 percent of family caregivers having at least one emergency room or hospital visit every six months, says an Indiana University study. It’s long been recognized that family care of an Alzheimer’s patient is difficult, but the Indiana University researchers said their study is the first to actually measure the... Read more

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