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September 8, 2011  In This Issue... - One-Minute Cure For Healing Virtually All Diseases
- Got a Problem? There's a Gadget for That!
- The 10 Biggest and Deadliest Heart Myths
- Stressed in the City?
- Spell-What?
One-Minute Cure For Healing Virtually All Diseases If you’re like everyone on this planet, you’ve undoubtedly been affected by disease in one way or another. Either you have suffered from disease yourself -- or someone you care about is (or has been) a victim of a devastating disease -- or maybe even died from it. Did you know... that there’s a simple therapy that has been scientifically proven that creates an environment within the body where disease cannot thrive. It enables the body to cure itself of disease. From minor ones like the flu to "incurable" and life-threatening ones like cancer, AIDS and Alzheimer’s Disease. Click here to discover the one-minute cure today! You might even end up saving someone’s life.
Got a Problem? There's a Gadget for That! Technology seems to be one of the few areas enjoying a financial boom these days. It’s also providing some very cool medical- and health-related devices. Much more than mere gadgets, these are devices that make life easier. I contacted Andrew Carle, assistant professor and founding director of the program in senior housing administration at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and an expert on new health technologies, to talk about some of these problem solvers. As we talked, we agreed on six of the most interesting technologies we’ve come across lately... High-Tech Weight Loss BodyMedia FIT Armband System: This weight-loss tool uses an armband worn almost around the clock to keep track of your every move -- and every calorie you burn. Using galvanic skin response, heat dissipation and temperature sensors, it charts your movement like an electronic spy. Cheating on your exercise routine is not allowed! This device can tell when you’re sitting and when you’re doing moderate vs. vigorous activity. It can even tell when you’re sleeping. (Research shows that a good night’s sleep is important if you want to lose weight!) It also combines an online service that houses the data you upload from the armband and an app for your iPhone or Android phone to give you up-to-the-minute readings, so you have near real-time information about the energy you expend vs. the calories you take in and can fine-tune your day as you go. Price: $180 for armband and USB cable. Subscription (required) to the Activity Manager Web site: Free for the first three months, then $12.95/month for month-to-month... $9.95/month for six months... $6.95/month for one year. Learn more at www.bodymedia.com. Fine-tuning Fitness Zephyr BioHarness: The Bioharness is an unobtrusive monitoring device made up of a cloth chest strap and electronics that measure the user’s vital signs -- heart rate, respiration, skin temperature, activity level, posture and blood pressure -- and transmits that information wirelessly to any smart phone or computer by sending an e-mail. Used in the military to monitor the health of soldiers in the field, the device is handy for athletes who are tracking the progress of their training as they are able to watch their heart rate and oxygen intake and track improvements in endurance. Prices for the BioHarness start at $710. www.zephyr-technology.com/. Help for Caregivers Philips Medication Dispensing Service: This service includes a programmable medication-dispenser and medication-tracking system meant to make life easier and safer for an older person living at home. Mind you, it does not replace a caregiver -- no machine ever could -- but it does make a caregiver’s role considerably easier. The caregiver first loads the machine with one to 40 days’ worth of medications -- the machine will then dispense whatever pills are needed, up to six different times during the day. It has an audio alert with adjustable volume that lets a person know when it’s time to take his or her medicine. There’s also a red flashing light that blinks for attention if a person is hard of hearing. The machine uses as many as four preprogrammed phone numbers to alert a caregiver if the dispensing button isn’t pressed. The machine itself is roughly the size of a small cappuccino maker and fits on a kitchen counter. Installation costs $85... and rental and monthly monitoring is $75, including tracking when medications are dispensed -- or an alert is missed -- as well as how many doses are left to dispense. The monitoring service also alerts the caregiver should the senior lose power in his home. For more information, visit the Philips Medication Dispensing Service Web site at www.managemypills.com. The GPS Shoe: Professor Carle helped to develop this one. It’s a shoe with built-in GPS tracking technology meant to be worn by people with Alzheimer’s disease or other types of cognitive impairment. It’s not unusual for people with these impairments to sometimes wander away from home or simply become disoriented. The GPS shoes can be tracked electronically. And Carle has reasoned that while patients with cognitive challenges will often discard objects they aren’t familiar with, they are far less likely to do this with something as familiar as their shoes. Plus, with GPS shoes, it’s possible to set up a safe zone (also called a "geo-fence") for the person you fear may wander. For instance, if your loved one should travel beyond the boundaries you’ve set, an alert can be sent to a designated cell phone or computer, allowing the caregiver to locate the wearer and safely return him or her back home. The shoes are expected to be available this fall. Price: Estimated at between $250 to $300 for the shoes, along with a $15 to $20 per month monitoring fee. GpsShoe.com. An APP for organizing your medicine chest ePocrates Rx: Ever mixed up your pills? This free application for iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerry, Palm, Android and Windows Mobile devices has pictures of pills to help you identify the medication in front of you in easy-to-follow steps. It also has a feature that explains drug and herbal remedy interactions as well as other contraindications -- so you might think of it as an overall medication management assistant. Both the free and more deluxe versions (available for $99/yr.... $159/yr.... $199/yr.) are meant for medical professionals but are available to anyone and include information on alternative remedies, an infectious disease treatment guide and more. www.ePocrates.com. back to basics Pedometer 24/7: Yes, it’s a basic pedometer app -- it uses an iPhone’s accelerometer to track the steps you take each day (just keep your iPhone in your pocket) and records those steps over time so that you can track your exercise history and graph your progress. The timer stops when you stop and resumes when you do. It also keeps track of calories burned. Why get excited over something so basic? If we were each inspired to do something active, like walking a little more every day, we might avoid the need for some of the other technologies listed above. And that’s worth thinking about. Price: $0.99 at the iTunes App Store. Source(s):
Andrew Carle, MHSA, assistant professor and founding director, program in senior housing administration, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.
The 10 Biggest and Deadliest Heart Myths The number of heart attacks has increased by 27 percent over the past 20 years, in spite of all the supposed advances of modern medicine. What’s going on here? Could we be mistaken about some things? Perhaps we’re under some major misconceptions about heart disease. Like... Myth #1 -- Heart disease and heart attacks are an inevitable part of aging. Myth #2 -- Cholesterol is the main cause of heart disease and heart attacks. Myth #3 -- Blood pressure drugs help you avoid heart problems and live longer. Myth #4 -- Aggressive, "type A" behavior increases your risk of a heart attack. Myth #5 -- Low-fat, low cholesterol diets are good for you and your heart. Learn more...
Stressed in the City? You might think that living in a city would teach you how to cope with stress. After all, city folk are known to be tough, street smart and nobody’s fools. The surprise? That assumption may not reflect urban reality accurately at all. A recent German study tells us that city dwellers may not be nearly as resistant to stress and strain as it sometimes seems. In fact, the findings show that people who grow up in urban environments are typically less able to deal with stress than those who are raised in the country... and that there’s a link between urban stress and mental illness! I had to stop and think about this for a minute. I myself have lived in big cities. Stressful at times? Well, of course. But... mental illness? I decided to call the lead researcher, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, MD, PhD, of the Central Institute of Mental Health at the University of Heidelberg. He told me that the city stress factor is very real and that if there’s good news, it’s that the study will show the way to help urban residents cope with it better and ultimately to help urban planners design cities in ways that reduce some of the most stressful characteristics. "More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities, making the creation of a healthy urban environment a major policy priority," researchers said in the study, which was published in the June 23, 2011, issue of Nature. It’s been known for several decades, Dr. Meyer-Lindenberg said, that city dwellers are at greater risk for psychiatric disorders, including mood disorders and depression, than are people who live in the country. The Heidelberg study now reveals how city living and upbringing affects certain parts of the brain when a person undergoes stress. To do the study, researchers induced social stress in two groups of volunteers, some of whom had been living in cities for varying lengths of time (for the purposes of the study, we’re talking about cities with populations above 100,000) and others who lived in the country. Each of these 79 participants was put into an fMRI scanner that monitors brain activity and was given a math test to take while being scanned. As the subjects took the test, researchers induced stress by criticizing them for not doing better. During these tests, researchers looked at the subjects’ stress hormone levels, blood pressure and heart rates -- all indicators of stress. At the same time, fMRI scans showed that when urban-dwelling test subjects were criticized, they had greater activity in the amygdala, a part of the brain associated with stress, depression and anxiety disorders. Dr. Meyer-Lindenberg said these results provided the first glimpse of the brain mechanism causing higher levels of mental illness among city dwellers. FOR CITY DWELLERS -- A WALK IN THE PARK? Rather than get further stressed, what should city dwellers do? Dr. Meyer-Lindenberg suggested that reducing their stress should be a big priority, and that one of the most powerful ways to do this is to build and maintain a network of supportive friends and acquaintances. (It’s true -- living in the human crush of a city can be, ironically, very isolating!) In fact, research shows that the size of one’s social support network helps make the amygdala and prefrontal cortex network (essential in processing emotions and avoiding stress) work better. Other measures might include the usual options of regular exercise... yoga or meditation... massage... exploring one’s spirituality -- or simply making a point of laughing more often. An upcoming study at the University of Heidelberg is expected to give those who live in the city more specific information, Dr. Meyer-Lindenberg said. It will use electronic devices to track participants as they move through the city and the countryside. Their brains will then be tested to see which experiences in which environments are the most stressful. In the meantime, if you’re a person who calls the city home, be sure to make a habit of spending a quiet hour or so at the library, taking a walk in a park or having dinner in a small, favorite restaurant with friends. Insist on a measure of serenity in your life! Source(s):
Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, MD, PhD, professor and chairman of psychiatry and psychotherapy at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He is also director of Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim.
Spell-What? I don’t go looking for typographical errors... they find me. I see them in everything I read, from text messages and e-mails (the worst offenders) to newspapers, magazines, Web sites, product labels and books -- places where even professional proofreaders are messing up. Read more...
Be well, 
Carole Jackson
Bottom Line's Daily Health News
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