Here’s another good reason to avoid secondhand smoke: it can increase the risk of dementia. This link was revealed in a newly published joint study from British and Chinese researchers who looked at 5,921 Chinese men and women over age 60. The data gathered included information on the participants’ smoking history, exposure to secondhand smoke and mental status. Published in the January 2013 issue of the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the study not only demonstrated an association between exposure to secondhand smoke and dementia, but found that the risk is similar to that of coronary heart disease. The researchers reported that about 10 percent of the study participants had severe dementia and nearly 15 percent had dementia described as “moderate.” These numbers held true for participants exposed to smoke who never smoked themselves as well as for former smokers. Earlier research has shown that smoking itself raises the risk of dementia and damages parts of the brain responsible for reason.
My take? This is not surprising news. It adds to earlier evidence suggesting that secondhand smoke is even worse than we thought - that exposure to someone else's cigarette smoke can have health effects that are almost as detrimental as active smoking. An analysis of 29 studies of the effects of secondhand smoke on the cardiovascular system showed that within minutes after inhaling even small amounts of secondhand smoke, significant, harmful changes can be measured in blood, blood vessels, and heart rhythm and, overall, concluded that regular exposure to secondhand smoke may increase the risk of heart disease by as much as 30 percent. The latest study results reinforce the need to steer clear of secondhand smoke.
Source:
Ruoling Chen et al, “Association between environmental tobacco smoke exposure and dementia syndromes,” Occupational Environmental Medicine. January 2013;70(1):63-9. doi: 10.1136/oemed-2012-100785. Epub 2012 Oct 26.
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You don’t have to sweat through a 30-minute workout to get the health benefits of exercise. A study published in the January/February 2013 issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion adds to earlier findings from Queen's University in Ontario, Canada that short bouts of activity several times a day can do the trick and a small study from Arizona State that showed that three 10-minute aerobic exercise sessions daily was an effective alternative to longer bouts of exercise to reduce the risk of heart disease in the study participants who were prehypertensive. The researchers, from Bellarmine University in Kentucky, found few differences between “less than 10-minutes” exercisers and those who spent more time working out. But you do have to log enough of the short bouts to add up to 150 minutes per week. The data for the study came from a national survey of more than 6,000 people ages 18 to 85 whose activity levels were measured along with their blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels. The less-than-10-minutes crowd had improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels similar to those who exercised for longer periods of time. You can squeeze exercise into your day by taking the stairs instead of the elevator and exploring similar opportunities to be active, noted Bellarmine researcher Paul Loprinzi, Ph.D.
The younger a woman is when she has her ovaries removed during a hysterectomy or some other type of surgery, the higher her risk of declining memory and thinking skills, but this doesn’t happen when women reach menopause naturally. These findings, from the Rush Memory and Aging Project at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, are scheduled to be presented in March 2013 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. The study, which included 1,837 women between the ages of 53 and 100, also reported that the declines in memory and thinking seen after ovary removal were slower in women who had been receiving long term hormone replacement therapy. Compared to women who kept their ovaries, the study documented a faster decline in long-term memory related to concepts and ideas, in memory that relates to time and places and in overall thinking abilities. It also found a significant association between the age at which the ovaries are removed and the plaques linked to Alzheimer’s disease. The results remained the same when the researchers weighed other factors such as age, education and smoking history.
The latest update on women’s health makes for good eating: three weekly servings of blueberries or strawberries can help cut the risk of a heart attack by as much as one-third. This finding follows a review of health information obtained from 93,600 women ages 25 to 43 enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study II. The participants completed questionnaires about their diet every four years for 18 years. In analyzing the data, the researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the UK’s University of East Anglia, noted that women who reported eating the most berries had a heart attack risk that was 32 percent lower than those who ate blueberries or strawberries only once a month or less, even if their diets were otherwise rich in fruits and vegetables. The berries may have made the difference because of the anthocyanins they contain - the investigators said that these naturally occurring compounds may help dilate arteries, counter the buildup of plaque and provide other cardiovascular benefits. The berries’ positive effects were apparently independent of other heart attack risk factors, such as age, high blood pressure, family history of heart attack, body mass, exercise, smoking, caffeine or alcohol intake. The study was published in the January 15, 2013 issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
If you want to feel good about yourself, give some money away. That’s the gist of a new study from Harvard Business School presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Researcher Michael Norton’s findings suggest that the act of giving away money makes people who aren’t rich feel wealthier and, therefore, happier and more satisfied with their lives. Based on his studies Norton, an associate professor of marketing, calculated that giving away $500 increased feelings of wealth as much as did earning an extra $10,000. In other words, the act of giving away money fosters the idea that being able to do so must mean that you’re better off than you thought you were. This increases your sense of power, which may lead to feeling happier because the donations “fulfill a deeper desire to signal wealth,” Norton explained. He noted that other studies have found that actually having a lot of money doesn’t necessarily make you happy.
A new study from UCLA shows that overweight and obese kids face a wide range of health problems in their youth in addition to the ones they could encounter later in life. Researchers compared these kids to normal weight youngsters and found that obese boys and girls are at nearly twice the risk of experiencing medical, mental or developmental conditions, while overweight kids had a risk that was 1.3 times higher. The researchers analyzed data on nearly 43,000 young people between the ages 10 and 17 and found that those who are obese have poorer health; more disability; a greater tendency toward emotional and behavioral problems; higher rates of grade repetition, more frequent missed school days and other school problems; ADHD; conduct disorder; depression; learning disabilities; developmental delays; bone, joint and muscle problems; asthma; allergies; headaches; and ear infections. The investigators speculated that the health problems these kids reported are “likely related to decades of underappreciated changes in the social and physical environments in which children live, learn and play” and urged targeting these influences in obesity-prevention measures. They also encouraged screening youngsters for the disorders associated with obesity. The study is available online and in the January/February 2013 issue of Academic Pediatrics.
