Mobile Apps improve your health

Today’s Wall Street Journal highlighted some significant apps for those of us concerned with health and fitness in an article entitled “Your iPhone Just Called: Your Blood-Sugar Is High.”

“Earlier this year, Mike Dionne signed up for Polka, a smart-phone application that lets him use his iPhone to keep tabs on the health of his elderly father, who lives 80 miles away. It tracks his dad's numerous doctors' appointments, his insulin and medication schedule and other health information.”

Applications for the iPhone, Blackberry and other smart phones, otherwise known as “apps” have become popular for gadget enthusiasts. While some think these apps are limited to finding bathrooms, restaurants and video games, they would be missing an entire category of helpful apps dedicated to health and fitness.

Health Vitals Tracker allows the user to track and monitor their vitals on their mobile.

Health & Fitness Mobile provides free video workouts from the top minds in fitness, Health & Fitness Mobile.

These apps are not strictly developed for Apple’s iphone, many are also developed for users of RIM’s Blackberry devices.

Thanks to technology, we can continue to monitor and improve our health without excuses.

Natural Proteins Fight Flu

With the recent concern surrounding the H1N1 virus causing people to be alert to the warning signs, information surrounding preventative care is on the increase for both H1N1 and the seasonal flu.

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital have identified antiviral proteins in cells that naturally fight off influenza infections, a finding that may lead to better ways to make vaccines and protect people against the flu. Currently, their findings are relevant to strains of influenza A now found in seasonal flu, the West Nile virus and dengue virus.

In the meantime, hand washing and other precautions are still necessary measures, which can be found at our entry entitled “Swine Flu Preparedness is a Serious Matter.”

You can also contact our professional customer care representatives to learn about our full line of H1N1 products by calling 1-800-500-4321.

Green Tea Helps Elderly Beat Blues

Newsmax Health is reporting on a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on the benefits of Green tea.

"Elderly men and women who sip on several cups of green tea a day may be less likely to have the blues, hint findings of a study from Japan.

Dr. Kaijun Niu, at Tohoku University Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering in Sendai, and colleagues found men and women aged 70 and older who drank four or more, versus one or fewer, cups of green tea daily were 44 percent less likely to have symptoms of depression."

To read the article in its entirety: http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/health_stories/green_tea_beat_blues/2009/12/21/301090.html?s=al&promo_code=93E1-1

Enzyme May Help Offer New Approach to Hypertension Therapy

From DNAIndia.com:

An enzyme called ACE2 may help offer an alternative therapy for treating some types of hypertension, a new study has found.

The research by the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine will appear in the January issue of Hypertension in a paper by lead author Jan Wysocki, a post-doctoral fellow in nephrology at the Feinberg School.

The study was conducted on mice in the laboratory of Daniel Batlle, M.D., professor of medicine at the Feinberg School and staff nephrologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

According to Batlle, while current hypertension therapies such as ACE inhibitors work to block the formation of angiotensin II - a protein that causes blood vessels to constrict and drives blood pressure up - the approach with ACE2 is novel because it focuses on breaking down angiotensin II already in the system.

WebMD offers some insight into who is most likely to develop hypertension:

• People with family members who have high blood pressure
• People who smoke
• African Americans
• Women who are pregnant
• Women who take birth control pills
• People over the age 35
• People who are overweight or obese
• People who are not active
• People who drink alcohol excessively
• People who eat too many fatty foods or foods with too much salt

In reference to our previous post on heart disease, it appears the American Heart Association’s suggestions for a healthier lifestyle, including eating the right foods prepared in healthful ways, maintaining a healthy weight, and embarking on a personalized exercise plan, are also applicable to preventing and/or managing hypertension, whether genetic or the result of lifestyle choices.

Heart Disease to Cost U.S. $503 Billion in 2010

A sobering report from KGMI-AM Radio:

Cardiovascular disease and stroke will cost the United States an estimated $503.2 billion in 2010, an increase of nearly 6 percent, and many cases could have been prevented, the American Heart Association said on Thursday.

The figure includes both health care costs and lost productivity due to death and disease, according to an update published online in the journal Circulation.

The heart association says obesity and other risk factors, like too little exercise and poor diet, are fueling the expected increase in health care costs associated with heart disease and stroke.

"Current statistical data show Americans to be on average overweight, physically inactive and eating a diet that is too high in calories, sodium, fat and sugar," said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, head of the American Heart Association Statistics Committee.

Lloyd-Jones, a cardiologist at Northwestern University in Chicago, said too many people do not take cholesterol-lowering medicines that could lower their risk.

"One reason it will cost us more to treat tomorrow's patients is because there will be more of them if current trends continue," Lloyd-Jones said in a statement.

According to the heart association, 59 percent of adults who responded to a 2008 national survey described themselves as physically inactive.

The report also says fewer than half of people with heart disease symptoms are receiving cholesterol-lowering drugs, like statins.

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of men and women in the United States and in most industrialized countries. According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes accounted for 32 percent of all deaths globally in 2005.

As the study suggests, better lifestyle habits can help reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. As such, the American Heart Association recommends the following:

• You are what you eat – choosing the right foods and preparing them in healthy ways
• Managing your weight – understanding how to maintain a healthy weight, avoid fad diets and personalize an eating plan that’s right for you
• Getting Active – discovering the best exercise regimen for you
• Going Red for Women – getting the facts about heart disease in women and taking the proper steps to good heart health if you are a female

For more tips on embarking upon a healthy lifestyle incorporating proper diet and exercise, check out the American Heart Association’s Start! Program.

Effective Pain Relief All Year Long

Did you know that in the United States, visits to the E.R. spike by about 13,000 between November and January? And while hanging out in the emergency room isn’t exactly a great way to celebrate the season, this statistic is hardly surprising.

Amid the constant frenzy of activity including cooking, decorating, driving back and forth to seemingly endless festivities, climbing ladders to string festive lights on the house, and carrying heavy packages out of the shopping mall – chances of sustaining some form of injury are much greater than usual. Add in a cup or two of eggnog, and it’s easy to see why so many more Americans will find themselves dealing with an unwelcome injury this Holiday Season.

Fortunately, there are plenty of sensible precautions you can take to help minimize the risk of injury, such as:

• Avoiding drinking and decorating
• Distributing the weight of heavy packages evenly between both arms
• Purchasing smaller laptops and televisions which pose a lesser threat of serious injury if accidentally dropped
• Keeping the Christmas tree well-hydrated to avoid a fire; and
• Mixing up non-alcoholic eggnog and specialty drinks.

Of course, if you are already coping with chronic pain thanks to conditions like arthritis and fibromyalgia, or to previous physical trauma, you already know that pain management is a year-round proposition.

That’s why we offer a full-line of Biofreeze – a fast-acting, deep-penetrating, long-lasting pain reliever that can effectively help relieve chronic pain from sore muscles; muscle sprains; back, shoulder and neck pain; arthritis; and painful ankle, knee, hip and shoulder joints.

Biofreeze Cryotherapy Pain Relieving Gel is designed to provide cool, soothing pain relief for therapy, exercise, athletic training and overall comfort with ILEX – an herbal extract from a South American holly shrub. Biofreeze Roll On affords a number of unique features that can enhance the effectiveness and convenience of the application process, allowing the health care professional or patient to apply the product without getting it on their hands. This is especially helpful if you’re trying to get to hard to reach places, or per doctor’s recommendation, must apply product throughout the day while in the workplace.

Biofreeze Spray, the newest no-touch method of application, is particularly beneficial for acute conditions involving severe muscle spasms of the lower back, or acute spasms of the upper back and neck. And Biofreeze Tube or Pump Bottles give doctors the opportunity to create a more thorough application by massaging the affected area during treatment. Through this type of massage, patients benefit through increased blood flow and warming of the region at the cellular level, for better absorption.

So no matter the cause of your pain, you can find relief not just during the Holidays but throughout the entire year.

Ultralow Dose Hormone Therapy a Welcome Relief for 40 Percent of Post-Menopausal Women

Earlier, we noted the correlation between the use of antidepressants and the risk of stroke for post-menopausal women. For females experiencing menopause that had been nervous about using hormone therapy to combat hot flashes and other discomfiting symptoms, this new study featured in US News & World Report may be of interest:

Women…have been frightened away from hormone therapy ever since a large clinical trial called the Women's Health Initiative found seven years ago that the treatments raised the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and strokes. Prescriptions for estrogen and progesterone—the typical combination regimen that protects against uterine cancer, which can result from taking estrogen alone—quickly dropped (breast cancer rates did too, partly because of this).

Today, doctors no longer prescribe hormones as they once did to prevent osteoporosis, clogged arteries, and dementia. Many experts, however, contend that the pendulum has swung too far, leaving women without any effective remedy for severe menopausal symptoms. The WHI study, designed to test whether long-term use of hormone therapy could prevent age-related illnesses, "was never meant to test the effectiveness of hormones for symptoms," says Nanette Santoro, director of Montefiore Medical Center's Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Health. The average age of the participants was 63, more than a decade beyond the average age of menopause (and well past the worst of its annoyances).

So now, after trying unhappily to go without, many of the 40 percent of menopausal women who suffer from severe hot flashes and night sweats are turning to a new way of using hormones—an ultralow dose for as short a time as possible. "The initial drop in hormone prescriptions . . .is now tapering off," says Anne Nedrow, medical director of women's primary care at Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland, who treated Kirchoff. "We are really filtering out the women that require it for quality-of-life symptom control."