“7 Ways to Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally” plus 5 more Health – TIME |
- 7 Ways to Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally
- How Jimmy Carter Beat Cancer and Became the Oldest President to Attend an Inauguration
- How to Train Yourself to Need Less Sleep
- 5 Dogs Died After Eating Owners’ Skin Cancer Cream, FDA Says
- The Reason Why Abortion Rates Are Dropping
- Maternity Leave Isn’t Getting More Popular
| 7 Ways to Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally Posted: 20 Jan 2017 08:17 AM PST High blood pressure affects about one in three adults for all kinds of reasons, from genetics to stress. While medications can help keep it in check, there are also ways to bring it down naturally. Here are some science-backed tips to ease rising blood pressure, whatever its cause. Exercise Breathe easy Relax
Put down the coffee—and alcohol Drink more tea Eat blueberries Add yogurt to your diet  |
| How Jimmy Carter Beat Cancer and Became the Oldest President to Attend an Inauguration Posted: 20 Jan 2017 07:47 AM PST Former President Jimmy Carter’s attendance at Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday makes him the oldest former commander-in-chief to attend a presidential inauguration ceremony—a fact made more remarkable by his recovery from a cancer diagnosis less than two years ago. Carter, now 92, announced in August 2015 that he had been diagnosed with cancer. He later said he thought he had just “a few weeks to live.” When he began treatment, the melanoma had spread to his liver and brain. But by that December, Carter announced he was “cancer-free.” In a further sign of recovery, in March 2016, Carter said his doctors had told him he no longer needed cancer treatments—which had been a combination of radiation and the new immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab. Immunotherapy, an innovative new approach to treating cancer, uses the body’s immune system to fight the disease—sometimes by enhancing the immune system and sometimes by targeting specific cancer cells. When it works, it improves the body’s ability to fight cancer. Research has show than pembrolizumab—also called Keytruda—can be an effective treatment for patients with late-stage melanoma, and it can be used before or after other types of therapy. Carter, who is now in remission, was the first former president to RSVP for Trump’s inauguration, even though the outdoor winter ceremony has previously led some elderly former presidents to bow out of attending. Former President Gerald Ford was 91 when he missed George W. Bush’s second inauguration in 2005, citing health concerns. Former President George H.W. Bush—who, at 92, is just a few months older than Carter—and his wife will not attend Trump’s inauguration due to Bush’s health. He was hospitalized this week and treated for respiratory problems related to pneumonia. “My doctor says if I sit outside in January, it will likely put me six feet under. Same for Barbara. So I guess we’re stuck in Texas,” Bush wrote in a letter to Trump, apologizing in advance for his absence. Bush also missed President Obama’s second inauguration, which took place soon after he was released from a lengthy hospital stay. Carter has previously spoken about how cancer affected his family. His father died of pancreatic cancer at a young age, and many of his family members also died from the disease. “I think about it with regret, obviously, because all my family have died with cancer,” Carter said in a PBS interview in July 2015, shortly before he announced his own diagnosis. “Both my sisters died with pancreatic cancer. My brother died with pancreatic cancer. My daddy died of pancreatic cancer. My mother died with breast cancer. They all smoked cigarettes. And I never have smoked a cigarette. So, I think that may be a triggering device to some genetic factor. I don’t know what the background is. But the health service of America kind of adopted me as a target. We were the only family in the world for a number of years that was known to have pancreatic cancer deaths in four members. And so I have escaped it so far, thank goodness.” In the same interview, Carter attributed his long life to luck and a good health regimen. “I think a lot is just luck,” he said. “And a lot of it is the fact that Rosalynn and I live a very carefully orchestrated life of proper diet and a lot of exercise. But some of my family members have also had proper diet and a lot of exercise. So, I would say luck.”  |
| How to Train Yourself to Need Less Sleep Posted: 20 Jan 2017 05:00 AM PST With so much to do, and so little time to accomplish it, sleep can feel like a waste of a precious resource. Wouldn’t it be great if we could train our bodies to need less sleep? It is possible, some research has found. But it won’t work for everyone. “There are far more people who would like to need less sleep than who actually need less sleep,” says Dr. Daniel Buysse, professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and a past president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Though the amount of sleep a person needs each night depends on their age and physical activity, most healthy adults should get between seven and nine hours each night. Many don’t hit that target: about one third of Americans get less than seven hours of sleep a night, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sleep is vital for the brain and the body to function at their best, and when a person doesn’t get enough of it, their brain can’t repair or build new pathways, Buysse says. That makes it more difficult to retain information, engage in complex thinking and stay focused. Sleep deficiency has also been linked to physical health problems, such as obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease. When you slash your sleep hours, your body notices—even if you don’t. In one famous sleep study, people cut down their sleep to just six hours a night. Their cognitive performance and reaction times dropped as much as they did in people who went two full nights without sleep, and their bodies didn’t adapt to the new sleep schedule, even though the short sleepers were mostly unaware of their poor performance. “In some ways, sleep deprivation is like intoxication with alcohol,” Buysse says. “People routinely misjudge how impaired they are, and it’s been shown the same thing happens with insufficient sleep.” Still, it may be possible to teach yourself to get by on sleep less, according to Jim Horne, a sleep expert and former director of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University in England. He argues the number of hours people need to sleep is more flexible from person to person and that concerns about not getting your nightly seven or eight hours are often overblown. “I’m not advocating people get less sleep, but I’m advocating that people should not worry so much about not getting enough sleep,” Horne said. “Especially if you’re not sleepy in the day and you’re having a fulfilling wakefulness, then you are getting enough sleep irrespective of how much you’re getting.” Horne’s research shows that people can cut down their regular sleep to about six hours a night, plus a short nap during the day, as long as they do it gradually. In one study, he asked people who regularly slept seven to 8.5 hours a night to shorten their sleep by going to bed a certain amount of time later each night. Volunteers started by pushing back their bedtime one hour during the first week, and then pushed it back by 1.5 hours for the next three weeks. After doing this and waking up at the same time each morning, people were able to successfully function—and get high-quality sleep—on just six to 6.5 hours of sleep each night. Gradually going to bed later might work well for some, but Horne says he wouldn’t recommend it for people who already feel like their sleep time is constricted. If you feel sleepy during the day, Horne said, then six hours is probably not enough for you. Instead, he says, focus on getting quality sleep rather than worrying about the quantity. Making better use of your waking hours is another way to thrive on less sleep. Try exercising in the afternoon, says Sigrid Veasey, a professor at the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. This will raise your body temperature and then cool it down by bed time, helping you fall asleep more quickly and sleep more deeply through the night. Other tips for optimizing your sleep include avoiding a large meal late in the evening, making time to think about worries before bed so you don’t go to sleep stressed, avoiding looking at screens right before you sleep and making sure the bedroom is dark and quiet. These are good places to start if you want to make the most of the sleep you get. But if you’re still feeling sluggish, only more sleep will help.  |
| 5 Dogs Died After Eating Owners’ Skin Cancer Cream, FDA Says Posted: 19 Jan 2017 02:37 PM PST In a sad reminder about how life-saving drugs can also be extremely dangerous, five dogs have died after eating skin cream their owners were using to treat cancer, the Food and Drug Administration announced in a statement yesterday. The FDA is warning pet owners who have this medication—known as 5% Fluorouracil cream USP (or 5-FU) and sold under the brand names Carac, Effudex, and Fluoroplex—to use care when storing and applying the chemotherapy drug, which can be fatal when ingested even in tiny amounts. In one report received by the FDA, a dog was playing with a tube of Fluorouracil cream and punctured it before the owner could get it away. Within two hours, the pet began vomiting and having seizures, and it died 12 hours later. In another case, a veterinarian attempted to treat a dog after it had eaten the contents of a tube—but he still got sick, and had to be euthanized three days later. Health.com: 13 Fun Ways to Work Out With Your Dog While the agency hasn’t received any reports involving cats, health officials expect that they would be extremely sensitive to the drug, as well. Even touching a pet after applying Fluorouracil cream to your own skin could be dangerous, they say, if the pet then ingests traces of the medicine. Fluorouracil is a type of drug known as an antimetabolite, which works by killing fast-growing cancer cells. It’s prescribed to treat a type of skin cancer called superficial basal cell carcinoma, and precancerous skin lesions caused by sun exposure, called actinic keratosis. If you have Fluorouracil cream in your home, the FDA recommends storing it safely out of reach of all pets. Be sure to discard or clean any cloth or applicator you use to apply the cream, and don’t leave any residue on your hands, clothing, carpet, or furniture. Check with your doctor, as well, about whether it makes sense to cover the area of skin that’s being treated. In 2001, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals reported in a toxicology brief that dogs weighing less than 160 pounds could get sick by eating half the contents of a 25-gram tube of Fluorouracil cream, and that dogs less than 70 pounds could die. These tubes are quite small, the brief states—about 11 centimeters long—so even small dogs could easily ingest their entire contents. If your pet does become exposed to this drug or other human medicines—or shows symptoms of poisoning, such as vomiting or seizing—get him or her to the vet immediately, and provide them with as much information as you can. Pet owners and vets are encouraged to report adverse events to the FDA, as well. This article originally appeared on Health.com  |
| The Reason Why Abortion Rates Are Dropping Posted: 19 Jan 2017 01:31 PM PST From 2013 to 2014, 14% fewer abortions were performed in in Texas. That dramatic drop happened largely because the distances to abortion clinics went up, according to a new research letter published in JAMA. In the study, which used data from 2012-2014, researchers took a closer look at the declines in abortions among different Texas counties to see if travel was linked. Indeed, counties in which the distance to the nearest abortion facility increased by at least 100 miles had a 50% decline in abortions. Counties that did not have a provider in 2014 and did not experience a change in distance had basically no change in the abortion rate.
However, counties that had an open facility in 2014 also experienced a 16% drop in abortions—possibly because of factors related to increased demand from surrounding counties, like longer wait times, the study suggests. “While it may seem intuitive that increasing distance to a facility providing abortions limits access, this is the first study to rigorously demonstrate this association,” study author Dr. Joseph Potter, a professor at the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin said in a statement. Abortion access has recently narrowed in the state; in 2012, there were 41 abortion facilities in Texas, but in June 2016, only 17 remained. Many of the clinics shuttered because Texas House Bill 2, one of the most restrictive abortion laws passed in the country, was put into action in 2013. It required, among other things, that doctors who provide abortions must have admitting privileges to a nearby hospital. Three years later, the U.S. Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional, but many abortion clinics in the state had already closed. The new report follows another recent study released by the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that advocates for reproductive rights. That study found that the total number of abortions performed in 2014 was 926,000, a drop from the 958,700 abortions performed in 2013. The researchers says the drop could be due to increased use of effective forms of contraception, but also an increase in abortion restrictions in many states.  |
| Maternity Leave Isn’t Getting More Popular Posted: 19 Jan 2017 01:00 PM PST The number of women taking maternity leave in the United States has not changed over the last two decades, according to a new study, even as the national economy has grown and new family-leave policies have been implemented in three states. The research, from Ohio State University, found that an average of 273,000 women take maternity leave every month. That number has held steady between 1994 and 2015, with no trend upward or downward. However, the number of men taking paternity leave more than tripled during the same period, increasing from 5,800 a month to 22,000 a month. The study used data from a monthly U.S. Census survey, and is published today in the American Journal of Public Health. Study author Jay Zagorsky, a research scientist at Ohio State’s Center for Human Resource Research, expected to see a rise in maternity leave rates in recent years, especially given all the political attention the topic has received recently. He says he began looking into maternity-leave rates after two of his nieces gave birth around the same time last year. “One got an amazing package—full pay for a few months—and the other had to cobble together vacation and sick time,” he says. “I was flabbergasted.” “I did a little research, and there were no numbers,” he added. “The government tracks which employers provide maternity leave, but no one had calculated how many people are using it.” Zagorsky was troubled to find no increase over time, considering research that shows how beneficial it can be—for both parents and newborns—to spend time together. Giving mothers time off from work to bond with new babies has been shown to improve the physical and mental health of mothers, reduce cesarean deliveries, save infants’ lives and encourage breastfeeding, the study notes. Over the 22-year study, the U.S. economy grew 66%, and the gross domestic product (adjusted for inflation) rose from $9.9 trillion to $16.4 trillion a year. During that time, California, New Jersey and Rhode Island enacted the first state laws to provide paid family leave. New York will become the fourth state to offer paid family leave in 2018. In other states, most employees are covered by federal law providing 12 weeks of unpaid time off after a baby’s birth. Individual company or state policies may expand beyond these provisions. But just because maternity leave is available doesn’t mean women will take it, Zagorsky says. The Department of Labor estimates that only about 12% of private sector employees have access to paid family leave, and Zagorsky’s study showed that only 47.5% of the women who took time off in 2015 were paid for it. The rate of paid maternity leave increased over the study period, but only by a quarter of a percent per year. At that rate, Zagorsky says, it will take another decade before even half of U.S. women going on leave receive such benefits. “This is a very low figure for the nation with the world’s largest annual gross domestic product,” he writes. By comparison, 70.7% of men on leave were paid for their time off in 2015. It’s likely that fathers have more of a choice whether to take paternity leave, Zagorsky says, and may be less willing to do so if they have to forfeit income. Even if a woman is paid for her maternity leave, she may opt out because she’s worried about being replaced or valued less at work, the study notes. She may also only receive a fraction of her normal salary, which can make providing for her family unmanageable. The study suggests that the paid maternity-leave laws that are in place may be “ineffective, not fully implemented, or too narrowly defined to have an impact.” The women who took time off after giving birth were more likely to be married, white, better educated and more financially well off than the typical mother. Zagorsky did not have information about the number of births every month, so he was unable to determine the exact percentage of working parents that used family leave. But based on the number of births per year, he estimates that about 10% of men and 40% of women take some time off. Based on employment and economic data, Zagorsky says the stalled maternity-leave numbers can’t be explained by unemployment rates, the recession or women dropping out of the workforce. In a 2007 analysis of 173 countries, the United States was one of only four nations that didn’t have a federal paid maternity-leave policy for women after childbirth. In 98 countries, new mothers were required to receive at least 14 weeks of paid time off. During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump said he supported a plan for six weeks of paid leave to new mothers. (He has not proposed paid leave for fathers or other caregivers.) Even if those six weeks are implemented, Zagorsky says, “we still have a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the world.”  |
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