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Health Beat: Is Cannabis Right for You?
Narration provided by Wondervox.
By Mark McNease
Once Upon a Gummy
I’ll be honest: I’m a cannabis guy. I haven’t had a drink for 9-plus years, but several years ago I wanted something to help with stress management. A friend gave me a cannabis gummy, and I took half of it. After years of apprehension, I discovered the sky did not fall, I didn’t want to run off to the nearest drug dealer or bar stool, and I quite enjoyed it.
After years with a clear head, I do not like feeling intoxicated by anything. I did that for decades as a young person, even having a reputation as a pothead in high school. That kind of misuse, of the psychotropic components of marijuana and of my own mind and body, holds no allure for me at this age and hasn’t for a long time.
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Being Well with LGBTSR: Living with Sleep Apnea
Being Well is a regular feature at LGBTSR highlighting health and wellness.
A few years ago I began regularly waking up with headaches. I’m also a loud snorer, as my husband reminded me several times a night with nudges to turn on my side or just wake up long enough to stop. Headaches and snoring … something was probably going on. I made an appointment with a sleep specialist and did a home test for sleep apnea. It recorded 25+ “events” per hour. An event is when the person stops breathing due to sleep apnea. It can lead to multiple health issues, with headaches and snoring being two of the most obvious.
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Lifestyle choices play significant role in Alzheimer’s
My father died a year and a half ago from pneumonia, something that is often a blessing for people with Alzheimer’s. Watching him deteriorate over the course of several years was distressing, and something I would avoid at all costs for myself and my partner (and anyone else I love). A new study outlines several important behavioral choices we can make to significantly reduce the risks.
From AOL Health Living:
PARIS — Taking care of your body just might save your mind. Millions of cases of Alzheimer’s disease worldwide could be prevented by curbing risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, obesity and lack of exercise, new research suggests. The study offers more than the usual pep talk about healthy living. Seven conditions or behaviors account for up to half of the 35 million cases of Alzheimer’s around the world, it found. With no cure or treatment to reverse the mind-robbing disease, preventing new cases is crucial. The study was presented Tuesday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in France, where sessions on prevention have been drawing standing-room-only crowds for several days. “Prevention is a particularly attractive option given the state of therapy. That’s why there’s so much interest in it,” said William Thies, the association’s chief scientific officer. The study was led by Deborah Barnes, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. Results also were published online by the British journal Lancet Neurology. The researchers have grants from the Alzheimer’s Association and the U.S. National Institutes on Aging. The study used a mathematical model to estimate the impact of top modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease: smoking, depression, low education, diabetes, too little exercise, and obesity and high blood pressure in mid-life. How much of an impact each one has on total Alzheimer’s cases depends on how common it is and how strongly it affects dementia risk. Researchers calculated the impact globally and just for the United States. Continue reading]]> -
Family matters: the importance of knowing your family’s health history
I’m adopted, which could have made this one tricky for me had I not reconnected with my birth family. I was able to ask them about any history of glaucoma (my nephew has a severe form), when I was diagnosed with hypertension in my right eye. According to Men’s Health, one of the easiest things to do to keep up on what might be coming our way is to attend a family reunion.
From Men’s Health:
There’s actually a reason to keep in touch with Uncle Jim Bob and Cousin Nancy. Your family cancer history can change quite a bit between the ages of 30 and 50—which could mean you need earlier cancer screenings—according to a study in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
The American Cancer Society’s screening schedule is the guideline most doctors use for average folks to schedule cancer tests. For example, it suggests that you should have your first colorectal cancer screening starting at age 50. However, having a close relative diagnosed with cancer can increase your risk and move up your screening schedule by a decade or even two.
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Heat stress especially acute for seniors
Personally I’d be happy in a climate that never got over 80 degrees, but that’s not going to happen. As heat rolls over the country (with more to come), just a reminder that it can be especially dangerous for older folks. If you are one, or you love one, or you just know one, keep it in mind.
From LargoPatch:
Although living in the Sunshine State means being able to enjoy warm weather and sunny days almost year-round, residents of Florida know that spending the summer here isn’t always easy. As beautiful as summer may be, the heat it brings is not something to be taken lightly.
According to the National Weather Service, heat causes more deaths per year than floods, lightning, tornadoes and hurricanes combined, making it the number one weather related killer in the United States.
Of even more concern is a report from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that states that seniors are more prone to heat stress than younger people. That puts Largo’s 34 percent of seniors 60 and over, based on the U.S. Census 2005-2009 American Community Survey, in the danger zone. Summer heat index values averaging 98 seniors need to take extra precaution to avoid heat related discomfort or a heat stroke.
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Study finds massage can be better than medication for back pain
Two areas of my body tell me another year has passed: my knees, and my back. A new study finds that massage can be more effective in the short-term for back pain than taking medications.
From USA Today:
Massage therapy may be better than medication or exercise for easing low back pain in the short term, a new government-funded study suggests.
Seattle researchers recruited 401 patients, mostly middle-aged, female and white, all of whom had chronic low back pain.
Those who received a series of either relaxation massage or structural massage were better able to work and be active for up to a year than those getting “usual medical care,” which included painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants or physical therapy, the researchers found.
Lead study author Daniel Cherkin, director of Group Health Research Institute, said he had expected structural massage, which manipulates specific pain-related back muscles and ligaments, would prove superior to relaxation or so-called Swedish massage, which aims to promote a feeling of body-wide relaxation.
Structural massage, which focuses on soft-tissue abnormalities, requires more training and may be more likely to be paid for by health insurance plans, which may equate it with physical therapy, said Cherkin.
“I thought structural massage would have been at least a little better, and that’s not the case,” Cherkin said. “If you’re having continuing problems with back pain even after trying usual medical care, massage may be a good thing to do. I think the results are pretty strong.”
The study, funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, is published in the July 5 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.]]> -
Doctors see rise in number of transgender youth
Photograph by: Pierre Obendrauf, Postmedia News, Postmedia News The reality of being transgender wasn’t something that ever occurred to me growing up. I was dealing with being a self-aware gay child and the stresses of being openly gay as a teenager, so the fact there were kids going through something even more challenging wasn’t in my consciousness. I think it’s only been in the last decade or so that transgender and gender identity issues have come into the broader public consciousness, and we still have a long way to go. From the Vancouver Sun: At age five, Shamai was a boy in a little girl’s body. He remembers demanding a short haircut and when a lady on the street “mistook” him for a boy, turning to his mother and saying: “This lady knows better than you. She knows I’m a boy.” In her first recollection that something was wrong, Samantha had this vague sense it didn’t feel right to be in a boy’s body. “I didn’t know what it was. I prayed for a while for things to work out.” She was four years old. James was three years old -and a girl on the outside -when he blurted out to his family: “I was a boy before. What happened?” For years it was a family joke. They are transgender youth, all in their 20s now, from different backgrounds but with stories that are similar: moments of childhood clarity when they realized they weren’t who they appeared to be. [SNIP] National statistics are impossible to find, but counsellors and doctors say they’ve been seeing a steady increase over the last five years in the number of young people seeking advocacy groups, hormone therapy and finally surgery for maleto-female (MTF) or female-tomale (FTM) changes. That increase is attributed in part to greater awareness and support within the community, and better access to sex reassignment surgery. B.C., Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec and Newfoundland cover costs of the procedure, which is most often performed in Montreal at the Centre Metropolitain de Chirurgie Plastique. While some professionals continue to see gender identity issues as psychological, ongoing research is moving toward the hypothesis of biological changes that take place in the womb rather than environmental influences.
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VT Senator Bernie Sanders addresses senior hunger
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New York City creates hospital training video on LGBT health issues
I reported yesterday that New York City hospitals are providing training on issues facing LGBT patients. Their training video is out, and it’s superb.]]>
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NYC hospitals to provide training on issues faced by LGBT patients
Reflecting the growing awareness of health issues unique to the LGBT population, New York City hospitals are adopting competence training for their staff.
From Advocate.com:
The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the nation’s largest urban healthcare agency serving 1.3 million patients, will adopt cultural competence training for staff members to help improve the health of LGBT people.
The launch of the mandatory employee training program will be announced Wednesday by HHC president Alan D. Aviles, deputy mayor Linda Gibbs and National LGBT Cancer Network executive director Liz Margoiles. Dozens of elected officials, community leaders, patients, and hospital staff members are expected to attend the announcement at Bellevue Hospital to include a screening of the new training video, “To Treat Me, You Have to Know Who I Am.”
The 10-minute video, produced in collaboration with the National LGBT Cancer Network, is part of a curriculum that will reach 38,000 physicians, nurses, technicians, administrators, and support services staff at new employee orientations, annual in-service programs and upcoming employee town hall meetings.
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Power-lifting seniors find a home in a California garage
From the Los Angeles Times:
A huge weight was lifted off the shoulders of a group of Chatsworth athletes when Bob Evans opened up his garage to them. The half a dozen veterans of a lifetime of muscle building found themselves without a place to work out two years ago when their friend Kevin Meskew was forced to close the fitness center where they all congregated twice each week. The power-lifters — most in their 60s and 70s — discovered that health clubs filled with young people doing aerobics and Pilates and taking spinning classes were wary of senior citizens coming in and hoisting 500-pound barbells over their heads. That’s when Evans shoved his tools and storage boxes to the side of his three-car garage on Shamrock Place and invited the oldsters in to flex their muscles. “When the gym closed, we decided to do it ourselves,” explained Harry Packer, a 76-year-old retired mortgage broker who lives in Porter Ranch and pumps iron despite undergoing triple-bypass surgery last year. Evans, 64, a retired computer analyst, has lifted weights since he was 15. So he didn’t hesitate when someone suggested that his garage might make a perfect workout room.]]> -
Higher cancer rates reported among gay men
From Yahoo News: WASHINGTON (AFP) – A large study in California released Monday found that cancer may be nearly twice as prevalent among gay men as among straight men. The study relied on self-reported data from the California Health Interview survey, the largest state survey of its kind in the United States, and included more than 120,000 people over three years: 2001, 2003 and 2005. A total of 3,690 men reported a cancer diagnosis as adults. Gay men were 1.9 times as likely as straight men to have been diagnosed with cancer, said the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Cancer. There was no such difference witnessed among lesbian and straight women, but gay and bisexual females were twice as likely to say they were in fair or poor health after a cancer diagnosis compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Lead author Ulrike Boehmer of the Boston University School of Public Health said the data can help guide services for the gay community. “Because more gay men report as cancer survivors, we need foremost programs for gay men that focus on primary cancer prevention and early cancer detection,” she said.
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