Archive for Your Health
Americans with high blood pressure, cholesterol go untreated
Posted by: | CommentsNearly a third of all adults have high blood pressure and another third have high cholesterol, but most aren’t being treated, leaving them at risk for developing heart attacks, strokes and related vascular diseases, according to new data out from the CDC.
Half of American adults with high blood pressure and two thirds of those with high cholesterol aren’t getting adequate treatment, the agency reports.
And it’s not lack of health insurance keeping people from the doctor. Some 80 percent of people with uncontrolled hypertension or high cholesterol have some form of coverage, the CDC reports.
So what’s the problem? Well, while patients may have insurance, they may not have regular access to medical care, or the counseling and support needed to care for these chronic conditions. Others don’t go to the doctor for follow-up visits and about half just stop taking their medicine all together.
Heart attack, stroke and other vascular diseases kill more 800,000 Americans a year and cost the nation about $300 billion a year in medical costs. Thing is, medications can control high blood pressure and high cholesterol before they become serious, the CDC urges.
Omega-3 Deficiency Linked to Depression
Posted by: | CommentsBORDEAUX, France, Jan. 31 (UPI) — Reduced levels of Omega-3 in mice had deleterious consequences on synaptic functions and emotional behaviors, French researchers say.
Researchers at the Institut national de la sante et de la recherche medicale and the French National Institure for Agriculatural Research say the human dietary ratio between omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid and Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid Omega-3 increased continuously over the course of the 20th century.
Olivier Manzoni, head of research at INSERM in Bordeaux and the Institut de Neurobiologie de la Mediterranee in Marseille, and Sophie Laye, head of research at INRA in Bordeaux, and co-workers studied mice fed a lifelong diet imbalanced in Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.
The study, published in the journal Nature neuroscience, finds Omega-3 deficiency disturbed neuronal communication and the neuronal dysfunction was accompanied by depressive behaviors among the malnourished mice.