Looking Young May Cause Longer Living

A 2001 Danish study found that people who look younger than their age live a longer life on average. The test conducted physical and cognitive tests on more than 1,800 pairs of twins over the age of 70 and tracked how long the twins survived over 7 years. The test found that the people who looked younger than their age were more likely to survive, even after factors like gender and environment were adjusted.

There may be a possible biological reason. People who looked younger had longer telomeres, a DNA component that is linked to aging. People with shorter telomeres are assumed to age faster. In the study, the people with longer telomeres looked younger than their age.

Pediatricians Double Vitamin D Recommendation

The American Academy of Pediatrics has doubled its recommendation for the daily dose of vitamin D that children should take to try to prevent diseases, such as rickets, and they say that this decision could have life-long benefits. It is now recommended that children receive 400 international units of vitamin D per day, starting in the few days of their life.

Not getting enough vitamin D can result in the disease rickets, which causes bone-softening, stunted growth, and skeletal deformities if it is not corrected while the child is young. Babies that are breast-fed have a big risk of being vitamin D deficient but these babies can be given supplements of the vitamin.

Good sources of vitamin D include exposure to sunlight, vitamin D fortified milk, fortified cereals, tuna, mackerel, and sardines.

Hospitals Offering Clinical Trials Could Be Better

American and Canadian researchers have found that hospitals that practice drug and device studies could be better at dealing with life-threatening situations and they have lower patient death rates than hospitals that don’t do clinical trials. There was another study done that found that ovarian cancer patients at these types of hospitals have a 28 percent lower mortality rate.

Get a List of Hospitals that Offer Clinical Trials at: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov

The Facts of Botox

Botox injections work by interrupting nerve impulses to the muscles used when a person squints or frowns. When these muscles are relaxed, fine lines and wrinkles smooth out. The smoothing effect last up to 4 months. It could take a couple of weeks for Botox to kick in the first time it is done. The next shots would kick in after a couple of days and would last longer. Botox injections could last up to 4 months and after being in a relaxed state for a long time, the muscles restrain themselves to stay that way. If it is used early, mainly in the 30s and 40s, it can prevent wrinkles from setting in later in life.

Botox injections are often given in low doses of 25 to 75 units, which isn’t considered toxic. A deadly dose is about 3,000 units. Possible side effects of Botox include a small amount of bruising that would last for a few days, headaches, and strange feelings of heaviness. A person could have an uneven brow or a droopy lid if the wrong muscle is injected or unequal amounts are used on each side of the face.

Simple Ways to Live Longer

Living a long and healthy live doesn’t have to be difficult. There are simple things that you can do in your everyday life to increase you lifespan.

Exercising can increase your lifespan. Walking just a half hour each day can lengthen your life. Exercising regularly can burn calories and help to maintain a healthy weight, which can protect you against type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, and colon cancer. Exercising your muscles is very important because your muscles and bones weaken as you get older. Weight lifting can stop the weakening and will strengthen your muscles.

Losing body fat can increase you long you live. A body mass index is a measure of your body fat based on dividing weight and height. A body mass index of 25 to 29.9 takes three years off of your life span. A body mass index of 30 or above takes seven years off of your life. Extra weight can increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

Flossing your teeth can keep you healthier. The same bacteria that can cause periodontal disease can cause an immune response that will make your arteries swell, constrict blood flow, and collect plaque. These issues can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease.

Being optimistic can increase your life span by seven and a half years. This positive attitude and outlook boosts the body’s immune system and helps it to handle stress better.

Not smoking can also increase your life span. People that quit smoking by age 35 live 6 to 8 years longer than people who continue to smoke. Giving up smoking can decrease the risks of lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema.

The Worst Times to be in a Hospital

It is recommended that the best time to have cardiac arrest is during normal workday hours because you will have a better chance of surviving. In every part of a hospital, excluding the emergency room, hospital staff working the night shift are more tired, less experienced, and fewer in number. These things cause a slower response time when a person needs urgent assistance.

If urgent care is needed for a cardiac arrest patient before 11 p.m., the patient has a 20 percent chance of surviving and being discharged from the hospital. If care is needed after 11 p.m., the patient has less than a 15 percent chance of surviving and being discharged. A similar effect is also seen on weekends.

The Good and Bad of Probiotics

Probiotic supplements can make you healthier if you are already healthy and if you are sick they can be threatening to your life. Probiotics have been found to strengthen the immune systems of healthy people and to double the risk of death in people with pancreatitis.

Probiotics work by providing good bacteria in the stomach to keep a healthy balance between good and bad bacteria in the stomach. When a person has an illness, they can put a dangerous strain on the immune system.

Test That Predicts Diabetes Years Before It Happens

A test for three proteins can predict if a woman will develop diabetes years before standard screenings find a problem. The three proteins are signs of inflammation that are linked to insulin resistance. Finding out whether a person will get diabetes early could warn the person and influence them to make lifestyle changes before it’s too late.

The Mid-Life Crisis

Researchers have found that most people between their 40’s and 50’s feel depressed and unsatisfied with their lives. Some people go into full-blown depression. This is called having a mid-life crisis. It effects every population of people around the world, whether a person is rich, poor, has children, has no children, married, divorced, widowed, or single. The crisis is temporary and starts to leave in the mid 50’s. Knowing that the phase is normal can help people move through it.

The Healing Powers of Prayer

There is evidence that praying can help significantly when you need healing. There are studies that have shown that spiritual and religious prayer can lower blood pressure, strengthen immunity, help depression, and create longer life spans. A study that was done on intercessory prayer, which is praying for other people, showed that heart patients who were prayed for daily by other people for four weeks but didn’t know it had 11 percent less complications than normal.

Praying regularly could help and decrease the chances of unhealthy behaviors, such as alcohol and drug abuse. An active spiritual life of also going to church services along with praying could help people deal with stress. Also, people who attend church services regularly could have better health by having a more social life and a larger social network.