It may be hard to believe but beet juice is being considered as a way to improve the living conditions of someone with leg artery disease. Some may wonder how this is even remotely possible. However, reports are saying that people who suffer from this disease feel as if beet juice reduces some of the pain when walking. This is a massive revelation because, if true, now doctors and scientists have a sort of remedy for something they did not have before.

Key Takeaways:

• The people who suffer from leg artery disease do not have it easy compared to others.
• Scientists are always looking for new ways to innovate and help people who are suffering.
• Beet juice is something that is unusual but it has been reported to help ease people's pain.

"“This makes it an attractive potential therapeutic approach for individuals with PAD who have severely limited blood/oxygen supply to the lower limbs which severely reduces their function and makes everyday tasks require a vigorous effort,” said senior study author Jason David Allen of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville."

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-blood-vessels-legs/beet-juice-may-reduce-walking-pain-with-leg-artery-disease-idUSKCN1LN2JC?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

Not surprisingly, researchers have linked a lack of sleep to behavioral problems in kids. Specifically, a lack of sleep effects the executive functions in children, making simple tasks more challenging for them in school. These children would benefit from sleeping longer, and they would perform better in school. It is important for parents to see the the recommended amount of sleep for kids in their age brackets, and ensure their kids are getting enough sleep.

Key Takeaways:

• Numerous cognitive functional difficulties, commonly observed by educational staff, among young children, have their roots in poor sleeping patterns, suggests a new study.
• The survey used questionnaires, aimed at parents, to determine if young children were getting sleep amounts that fit the determined norms for optimal health.
• Some things parents can do to optimize children's sleep times and quality, include eliminating distractions, keeping to a schedule and paying attention to individual children's needs.

"Children who aren’t getting the recommended amount of sleep have more difficulties with attention, with emotional control, with reasoning, with problem-solving, and also have behavioral problems."

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-sleep-children-behavior-idUSKBN16N2XS?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

Ensuring that diets include the right amount of certain foods may help the U.S. cut deaths from heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes by almost half, suggests a new study. About 45 percent of deaths from those causes in 2012 could be blamed on people eating too much or too little of 10 types of foods, researchers found.

Key Takeaways:

• Ensuring that diets include the right amount of certain foods may help the U.S. cut deaths from heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes by almost half, suggests a new study.
• About 45 percent of deaths from those causes in 2012 could be blamed on people eating too much or too little of 10 types of foods, researchers found.
• Micha and colleagues identified 10 dietary components tied to heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes: sodium, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, unprocessed red meats, processed meats, polyunsaturated fats like soybean or corn oils, seafood omega-3 fats and sugar-sweetened beverages.

"The good news is that we now understand more about which foods would help prevent Americans from dying prematurely from cardiometabolic diseases."

Reference:

//www.reuters.com/article/us-health-diets-metabolic-casualties-iDuskBN16E2WR?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

Recently there has been a tie shown between dietary magnesium and a lowered risk of heart disease and diabetes in general. The increase in magnesium intake was shown to be associated with a nineteen percent reduction with the risk of diabetes in general. An increase with the intake in magnesium also showed a ten percent reduction in the odds of death from various causes during the study itself.

Key Takeaways:

• A diet rich in magnesium – found in foods like leafy greens, fish, nuts and whole grains – may help lower the risk of chronic health problems like heart disease and diabetes, a research review suggests.
• Compared with people who had the lowest levels of magnesium in their diets, people who got the most magnesium were 10 percent less likely to develop heart disease, 12 percent less likely to have a stroke and 26 percent less likely to develop diabetes.
• The study findings suggest that increased consumption of magnesium-rich foods may have health benefits, the authors conclude.

"When researchers looked at the effect of increasing dietary magnesium by 100 milligrams a day, they didn’t find a statically meaningful impact on the total risk of cardiovascular disease or coronary heart disease."

Reference:

//www.reuters.com/article/us-health-diet-magnesium-iDuskBN14J1DG?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease due to strain being put on the blood vessels and major organs of the body. Forty years ago, the main population to have the condition was the rich. These days, the poor make up a majority of the population with hypertension. This is believed to mainly be due to poor diet. It is estimated that just over 1.1 billion people today have the condition, which is double that of 40 years ago.

Key Takeaways:

• The number of people with high blood pressure has almost doubled in 40 years to over 1.1 billion worldwide, scientists said on Wednesday.
• The increases are especially significant in Africa and South Asia, the researchers said, and could be partly due to poor nutrition in childhood.
• The condition is caused by a number of factors including having a diet high in salt and low in fruit and vegetables, and not taking enough exercise.

"The increases are especially significant in Africa and South Asia, the researchers said, and could be partly due to poor nutrition in childhood."

Reference:

//www.reuters.com/article/us-health-bloodpressure-iDuskBN13A2Y3?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FhealthNews+%28Reuters+Health+News%29

We’ve all heard that we should be getting plenty of vitamin D in our diet. Now there may be an even better reason to keep our vitamin D levels up. A recent study has shown a link between high levels of the vitamin and a better prognosis for breast cancer. They claim that boosting levels during treatment didn’t change the outcomes. Patients who had high levels at the time of diagnosis had the best results in the end. They were less likely to die of any cause from the cancer. It is recommended that adults get 600-800 IU of vitamin D each day.

Key Takeaways:

• Higher levels of vitamin D may be tied to better odds of surviving breast cancer.
• In a recent study of breast cancer patients, roughly 100 women with the lowest vitamin D levels died, compared to only 76 women with the highest levels of vitamin D.
• A randomized control trial is necessary to determine whether there is a direct, causal link.

"For women diagnosed with breast cancer, high vitamin D levels in the blood may be tied to better odds of surviving and having tumors with less deadly characteristics, suggests a new study."

Reference:

//www.reuters.com/article/us-health-vitamind-breast-cancer-iDuskBN13625E?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FhealthNews+%28Reuters+Health+News%29

There may come a day when children who are struggling academically are sent to the gym instead of detention. A recent U.S. study has found a strong link between physical fitness and academic achievement in kids. They assessed the physical endurance of 75 children and then gave them memory, algebra, and other tests to see how well they did. The results showed that children who were more physically fit did much better than those who were not. It has always been recommended for children to get exercise, but now it seems to be even more important.

Key Takeaways:

• Making sure kids have good muscle fitness might also benefit their school performance, according to a recent U.S. study.
• Aerobic fitness has already been linked to better thinking abilities in pre-teen children, but the current study found an independent link between muscle fitness and kids’ performance on memory tests as well as their math and reading skills.
• Aerobic fitness describes the capacity of the lungs to take in and deliver oxygen as well as the heart to effectively distribute oxygen to the body,” Hillman told Reuters Health by email. “Musculoskeletal fitness relates to muscle strength, power and endurance to enable performance in the face of resistance.”

"For the study, which was funded by Nike, 75 kids aged 9 to 11 years completed an aerobic exercise test at steady speed on a treadmill with gradually increasing incline until they were too out of breath to continue."

Reference:

//www.reuters.com/article/us-health-children-muscle-mind-iDuskBN12Y2NG?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FhealthNews+%28Reuters+Health+News%29

A recent announcement from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has highlighted the risk that air pollution poses to the world's children. The agency reported that 1 in 7 children around the world are commonly exposed to high levels of air pollution. This environmental and health crisis is most common in South Asia.

Key Takeaways:

• 7-18 for talks on global warming, to restrict use of fossil fuels to give twin benefits of improved health and slower climate change.
• Worldwide, the WHO estimates that outdoor air pollution killed 3.7 million people in 2012, including 127,000 children aged under five. Factories, power plants and vehicles using fossil fuels, dust and burning of waste were among sources.
• Indoor air pollution, often caused by coal- or wood-burning cooking stoves used in homes in developing nations, killed even more people, 4.3 million, of whom 531,000 were aged under five, it said.

"Almost one in seven children worldwide live in areas with high levels of outdoor air pollution, mostly in South Asia, and their growing bodies are most vulnerable to damage, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Monday."

Reference:

//www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-pollution-iDuskBN12V00J?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FhealthNews+%28Reuters+Health+News%29

A new study from the John Hopkins School of Medicine has linked inhalation of secondhand smoke to an increase risk of stroke. The study concluded that people who had suffered a stroke but never smoked cigarettes were almost 50% more likely to have been exposed to secondhand smoke at home. In America nearly 25% of nonsmokers are still exposed regularly to secondhand smoke.

Key Takeaways:

• The increased risk of stroke that comes with smoking may extend to nonsmokers who live in the same household and breathe in secondhand smoke, a U.S. study suggests.
• Researchers found that those who had a stroke were nearly 50 percent more likely to be exposed to secondhand smoke at home than people who had never had a stroke.
• During the study, stroke survivors exposed to secondhand smoke were also more likely to die from any cause compared to those without secondhand smoke exposure.

"Researchers found that those who had a stroke were nearly 50 percent more likely to be exposed to secondhand smoke at home than people who had never had a stroke."

Reference:

//www.reuters.com/article/us-health-stroke-secondhand-smoke-iDuskCN12L27N?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FhealthNews+%28Reuters+Health+News%29

As smartphones and computers permeate the world the effect they're having on teenagers grows. Studies found that young adults who spend more than two hours talking on a phone or playing video games will have less sleep than those who do not. They also report that they are sleepier during the day than those who play or talk less than two hours each day. Alternatively, these problems do not affect those who watch TV for the same amount of time. The lack of sleep some are getting can increase the risk of depression, attention problems, and cause weight gain.

Key Takeaways:

• Digital distractions, and a more classical one, talking on the phone, are linked to shorter sleeping time and greater daytime sleepiness for teens, Canadian researchers say.
• Researchers found that kids who used computers and videogames for more than two hours per day slept 17 and 11 minutes less, respectively, than youth who used screens for less time.
• One in three teens used computers for more than two hours per day and they were more than twice as likely as the others to sleep less than eight hours per night.

"Researchers found that kids who used computers and videogames for more than two hours per day slept 17 and 11 minutes less, respectively, than youth who used screens for less time."

Reference:

//www.reuters.com/article/us-health-teens-tech-sleep-iDuskCN12R2SQ?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FhealthNews+%28Reuters+Health+News%29