An aspirin a day may slow brain decline in elderly women at high risk of cardiovascular disease, research finds.

Around 500 at risk women, between the ages of 70 to 92, were tracked for five years – their mental capacity was tested at the start and end of the study.

Those taking aspirin for the entire period saw their test scores fall much less than those who had not.

The Swedish study is reported in the journal BMJ Open.

Dr Silke Kern, one of paper’s authors, said: “Unlike other countries – Sweden is unique, it is not routine to treat women at high risk of heart disease and stroke with aspirin. This meant we had a good group for comparison.”

The women were tested using a mini mental state exam (MMSE) – this tests intellectual capacity and includes orientation questions like, “what is today’s date?”, “where are we today?” and visual-spatial tests like drawing two interlinking pentagons.

No self-medication

But the report found that while aspirin may slow changes in cognitive ability in women at high risk of a heart attack or stroke, it made no difference to the rate at which the women developed dementia – which was also examined for by a neuropsychiatrist.

Dr Simon Ridley, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “The results provide interesting insight into the importance of cardiovascular health on cognition, but we would urge people not to self-medicate with aspirin to try to stave off dementia.

“The study reports no benefit from aspirin on overall dementia rates in the group, and previous trials investigating the potential of drugs like aspirin for dementia have been negative.”

Dr Kern added: “We don’t know the long term risks of taking routine aspirin. For examples ulcers and serious bleeds may outweigh the benefits we have seen. More work is needed. We will be following up the women in this study again in five years.”

Gentlemen, for SOUND ADVICE on the subject of Prostate Cancer, please go to the following link to listen to Dr. Sarah Jarvis.

Prostate check

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19789983

Watch this space, our Civil Rights are being abused yet again. The Minister for Health has banned the sale of non fluoride toothpaste, we no longer have freedom of choice with what we purchase, how farcical can you get Frank ?… Beggaring the pensioners and now poisoning the children of the nation.

Fiji cannot carry out tests, but someone in government  must still be able to read…… Read the latest Harvard Report and others on this poison that your Minister Neil Sharma is wasting taxpayers money on.

Read more facts on Fluoride~http://www.fluoridealert.org/articles/iq-facts/

Read even more ~ http://www.angelfire.com/az/sthurston/fluoride.html

When Eddie Carrillo, a Los Angeles contractor, was found to have prostate cancer at the age of 52, his primary care doctor and his urologist both urged him to have his prostate removed. But after hearing about a “watchful waiting” program on talk radio, Mr. Carrillo decided to simply monitor his disease rather than treat it.

That was 15 years ago, and Mr. Carrillo, still hale at 67, is glad he did not succumb to pressure to undergo surgery.

“What scared me, I wasn’t ready to do the operation right away,” Mr. Carrillo said. “I have two uncles with prostate cancer, and I have quite a few friends who have had their prostates taken out. The discomfort level and what they went through afterward — I didn’t think that was the way I wanted to go.

This year, about 240,000 men will be given a diagnosis of prostate cancer. Although 81 percent of them will discover the disease at a very early stage, and although prostate cancer usually grows very slowly, most of these men will choose aggressive treatment, opting for removal of the prostate, or radiation treatments that often render them impotent or incontinent — or both.

But about 10 percent of men choose a different strategy: no treatment at all. The decision to forgo surgery or radiation is controversial, and is often met with resistance from a man’s own doctors and family members.

Read full article @ http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/choosing-watchful-waiting-for-prostate-cancer/

A good old belly laugh can help heal leg ulcers, experts say.

The Leeds University team said good nursing and the occasional laugh was a better way to get the body healing than using the latest technology.

Hospitals and health clinics are increasingly using low-dose ultrasound for leg ulcers.

But the five-year study of 337 patients found it did nothing to speed up recovery, the British Medical Journal reported.

‘Hearty chuckle’

Instead, lead researcher Professor Andrea Nelson said: “They key to care with this group of patients is to stimulate blood flow back up the legs to the heart. The best way to do that is with compression bandages and support stocking coupled with advice on diet and exercise.

“Believe it or not, having a really hearty chuckle can help too. This is because laughing gets the diaphragm moving and this plays a vital part in moving blood around the body.”

During the study, the team concentrated on patients with hard-to-heal ulcers that had not cleared up after six months or longer.

They found that adding ultrasound to the standard approach to care – dressings and compression therapy – made no difference to the speed of healing or the chance of ulcers coming back.

In mid-December 2000 I knew that there was something wrong with one of my boobs. There was no pain, no ache, not even discomfort. There was merely a sense of being aware of my left nipple – the very slightest tingling, perhaps, but enough to awake that awareness. The feeling had been there for several days. 

A breast palpation assured me that there were no lumps; but then I noticed something odd. My right nipple was clear, but the left was crusty. I cleared the crust away and decided to wait for 24 hours – when a quick check showed that the crustiness had returned.

So off to the doctor, who decided that this was merely a case of mild mastitis and gave me a seven day course of antibiotics. Seven days later the crust was still forming and a return visit to the doctor had me back on the antibiotics for a further seven days. The crust stayed there. So back I go to the doctor.

Now antibiotics play hell with my system – in fact just about any medication other than a Panadol tablet knocks me sideways: I’d have made a lousy drug addict! I went into panic mode when the doctor suggested a third course of antibiotics: three days on the things and thrush is inevitable. So I stood my ground and demanded a mammogram plus an ultra-sound. But it turned out that the mammogram machine was out of order – it would have to be the ultra-sound, which was arranged for two days later.
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