Researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center focused their current study on the COX-2 enzyme. According to a university statement, scientists already knew this enzyme played a role in causing inflammation. They also knew that COX-2 played an important role in bone formation during skeletal repair.

But for the first time, the current study shows that COX-2 levels drop dramatically as you age. This decline explains why stem cells no longer turn into cartilage as efficiently—and thus impact an early step in the healing process.

Another first for this research team was their confirmation that lost healing ability can be restored by manipulating the COX-2 pathway with existing, experimental drugs.

Local injections of the drug CP-734432 took the place of missing COX-2 enzyme to compensate for age-related reductions in fracture repair. It also significantly reduced the amount of immature cartilage seen and helped mature bone form more efficiently.

Once you’re past 30, you need to take in plenty of calcium to help prevent the breakdown of bone tissue. The key to maintaining healthy calcium levels is getting enough vitamin D to help you absorb it.

Unfortunately, as you get older it becomes more difficult for your body to make vitamin D from sunlight. But a high-quality supplement that contains both nutrients can provide maximum bone protection and optimal health!

Researchers developed an Inter-Professional Falls Prevention Program (IFPP), to improve physical function and balance in seniors. Also, the program worked to reduce the fear of falling in the elderly with a history of falls.

Reuters Health reported that Catherine Sherrington, Ph.D., and her colleagues from The George Institute for International Health in Sydney, Australia, conducted the pilot program using 9,603 men and women—65 percent of whom were 75 years of age or older.

Combined data from these trials showed marked improvements in the participants’ balance… strength… and functional mobility. What’s more, the results showed that the participants’ fear of falling improved.

Exercises that produced the best results challenged the participants’ balance. An example included standing with legs close together or on one leg.

But exercise programs that included walking did not necessarily improve fall prevention. The research team said that walking could increase the risk of falls for seniors. They said more research could determine whether well-designed walking programs could prevent falls.

According to a Reuter’s report, researchers at Tufts University in Massachusetts said low-carb diets may play a role in clouding your short-term memory. But they found these same diet strategies could actually improve your ability to focus and pay attention.

This is because cutting down on carbs can cause you to have low blood sugar levels, or hypoglycemia. This is known to worsen brain function. Low-carbohydrate diets can force your body into ketosis—which causes your body to use fat as fuel.

The fact that doctors often use low-carb diets to trigger ketosis for controlling seizures “suggests that they can profoundly influence brain functioning,” said lead researcher Holly A. Taylor, Ph.D. “Low carbohydrate is okay; no carbohydrate is not,” she said.

Taylor said low-carb diets initially begin as NO-carb diets—and this is when they have the greatest potential to impair brain function. This is because glucose is the primary fuel for your brain.

Your body breaks carbohydrates down into smaller components—such as glucose—that travel through your bloodstream to nourish your brain and other body parts. When a low-carb diet begins to deplete your carbohydrate stores, your brain will begin to starve.

During the study, 19 women chose one of two diets: 1) a low-calorie, balanced diet recommended by the American Dietetic Association (ADA), or 2) a diet in which they cut out carbohydrates completely for a week and then gradually began to eat them again.

Study participants completed several tests of mood and brain function 72 hours before they began the diets. They repeated the tests at 48 hours, one week, two weeks and three weeks after starting the diet.

The results? The nine women who chose the low-carb diet showed the worst performance on memory tests during the first week of the diet, when no carbohydrates were allowed. What’s more, when they started eating carbs again, the memory differences between the two groups disappeared!

After the first week, the group of low-carb dieters performed better on a test of sustained attention than the low-calorie dieters. They also reported feeling less confused.

The current findings are reported in the journal Appetite.

According to a Reuter’s Health report, Earl S. Ford, M.D., and colleagues at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta analyzed 7,601 adult men and women. The researchers examined the link between body mass index (BMI) and headache prevalence. BMI is the ratio between height and weight used to determine the weight range you fall into.

Participants included men and women, 20 years of age or older, who participated in the 1999 to 2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. About 35 percent of the study group had a BMI between 25 and 30—numbers considered to be overweight. Another 30 percent were obese—with a BMI over 30—and 33 percent were in the normal weight range with a BMI between 18.5 and 25.

During the course of the study, about 15 percent of the men and 28 percent of the women reported they had severe headaches or migraines during the previous three months. They found that being overweight or obese upped the likelihood of headaches by 1.2 to nearly 1.4 times.

The group of participants in the lower BMI range represented about 2 percent of the study population. Ford’s group noted a two-fold higher prevalence of headache among the underweight participants. But their limited number prevented researchers from conducting further analysis.

After adjusting for other factors—such as gender, ethnicity, smoking, diabetes and cholesterol levels—the overweight and obese subjects still had a greater headache frequency than normal-weight participants.

The researchers recommend further analyses to establish “whether obesity is casually related to the development of headaches. If obesity increases the risk for headaches, weight management might be a useful approach in headache management,” Ford and colleagues suggest.

The study findings were reported in the medical journal Cephalalgia.

According to a statement from the American Cancer Society, taking the estrogen-blocking drug tamoxifen for five years after surgery reduces the risk that breast cancer will resurface. And drugs such as letrozole (Femara^®) and anastrozole (Arimidex^®) block the enzyme aromatase—which produces small amounts of estrogen in post-menopausal women.

But taking these estrogen-blocking drugs can produce uncomfortable side effects such as fatigue… hot flashes… vaginal discharge… and mood swings. Steroids or antidepressant prescription drugs can also cause weight gain, loss of libido and nausea.

In this study, researchers at Henry Ford Hospital Department of Radiation Oncology in Detroit, Mich., studied 47 women who were taking either tamoxifen or anastrozole. The women also had at least 14 hot flashes per week.

Researchers split the women into two groups over the course of 12 weeks: 1) one group of 24 women who received acupuncture and 2) one group of 23 women who took the antidepressant venlafaxine (Effexor^®).

After 12 weeks, researchers noted that both groups experienced fewer hot flashes and menopausal symptoms—and less depression, too! But here’s the difference…

The women treated with acupuncture reported no adverse effects. In fact, the patients said they felt more energized and had increased energy, clarity of thought and sexual desire compared to before the treatment!

In contrast, the group taking Effexor^® reported side effects including nausea, headaches, insomnia, dizziness, increased blood pressure, constipation and body jerking during the night.

“Our study shows that physicians and patients have an additional therapy for something that affects the majority of breast cancer survivors and actually has benefits, as opposed to more side effects,” said Eleanor Walker, M.D., lead author of the study and a radiation oncologist at the Henry Ford Hospital.

The researchers said that while these study results show acupuncture could be an effective alternative to antidepressants for treating side effects of hormone therapy—more research is needed to back this claim.

Carol W. Bassim, D.M.D., with the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in Bethesda, Md., said in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society that, “several studies have shown that poor oral hygiene or inadequate oral care are also associated with pneumonia.”

To prove these findings, Bassim and associates studied the impact of enhanced oral hygiene on two groups of elderly patients. One group lived on two wards of a Florida nursing home. The second group lived in two other wards.

The first group of older, more disabled patients received oral hygiene assistance from nurse aides. The members of the second group did not receive assistance with their oral care.

Researchers initially noted no difference in the mortality rate from pneumonia between the two groups. But in comparing the group that received oral care assistance with the group that did not—the risk of dying from pneumonia was more than three times higher for those who did not receive assistance!

Bassim and associates said pneumonia is the leading cause of death in elderly nursing home residents. It is often caused by sucking in saliva or food.

Although the quantity of saliva inhaled may not be changed through improved oral care, they said “this study indicates that oral care may be involved in significantly reducing the harmful quality of the intra-oral environment, reducing the risk of a patient dying from pneumonia.”

To ensure that you don’t create unnecessary health risks for yourself, try making these steps part of your daily routine:

• Brush your teeth regularly—each morning, after meals, and before going to bed at night.
• Devote sufficient time to really getting your teeth clean—at least three to four minutes is recommended for an effective job.
• Use an electric toothbrush—the rapid motion helps remove plaque from your teeth more effectively.
• Floss your teeth after each meal—to remove small food particles that hide in between your teeth and gums.

Adopting these simple steps can help you brighten your smile—and maintain a healthy body!

The new findings suggest that low potassium may be an important factor contributing to high blood pressure, especially among African Americans. Researchers also identified a gene that may influence potassium’s effects on blood pressure.

According to a statement from the American Society of Nephrology, these findings were presented at the group’s 41st Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in Philadelphia, Pa., in November 2008.

“There has been a lot of publicity about lowering salt or sodium in the diet in order to lower blood pressure, but not enough on increasing dietary potassium,” said lead study author Susan Hedayati, M.D., of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The researchers analyzed data from 3,300 participants in the Dallas Heart Study. About half of these patients were African American, and were found to be at higher risk of developing high blood pressure from the potassium deficiency. Hedayati said the results showed that “the lower the potassium in the urine… the lower the potassium in the diet, [hence] the higher the blood pressure.”

Hedayati said the potassium deficiency had an even stronger effect on raising blood pressure than a high-sodium diet. And the relationship between low potassium and high blood pressure remained significant even when other factors such as age, race, cholesterol levels, diabetes and smoking were taken into account.

Research performed in the laboratory of Chou-Long Huang, M.D., a co-author of this study, has found evidence that a specific gene, called WNK1, may be responsible for potassium’s effects on blood pressure.

“We are currently doing more research to test how low potassium in the diet affects blood pressure through the activity of this gene,” Hedayati added.

Previous research such as the landmark “Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension” study (DASH) also showed the link between potassium deficiency and high blood pressure.

The researchers encourage people to include more high-potassium foods such as bananas, citrus fruits and vegetables to help lower blood pressure. And if you’re not getting enough potassium through the foods you eat—try a high-quality supplement to help boost your intake.

A Reuters Health report said new research shows that brain function in a group of study participants declined faster by middle age in smokers, compared with their non-smoking peers.

And according to W. M. Monique Verschuren, M.D., and colleagues from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in Bilthoven, the Netherlands, the results indicate that quitting smoking at ANY age may prevent further smoking-induced brain damage!

The researchers followed 1,964 men and women age 43 to 70 years old for five years. They wanted to determine whether smoking was a controllable risk factor for dementia.

In a study conducted five years earlier, the team found that 21.3 percent of study participants who smoked had lower scores on overall brain function, as well as mental speed and flexibility compared to non-smokers.

In the current study, researchers found that memory declined 1.9 times faster in the smokers than in non-smokers! And declines in brain flexibility and function were also 2.4 and 1.7 times faster, respectively, in the smokers!

What’s more, the research team noted that the more cigarettes a person smoked during their lives—the steeper the decline in brain functions.

The researchers concluded that the best way to preserve mental abilities as you age is either to never start smoking or to quit—no matter what your age!

You might be surprised to know that a healthy dose of laughter is often just what you need for a healthy mind and body. This can be especially true when you are feeling down in the dumps… experiencing anxiety or stress… or battling a serious health problem.

Frequent laughter can help lower levels of heart disease and stress, and even help boost your immune system, according to Michael F. Roizen, M.D., professor of anesthesiology and internal medicine at State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University in Syracuse.

Laughing can also help improve your pain tolerance, and even reduce food cravings. Roizen, who authored the books RealAge and RealAge Makeover, said laughter can even reduce your calendar age by as much as eight years!

When you laugh, your body reacts by producing a feeling of great happiness, well-being and euphoria. According to the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, “Laughter reduces tension, clears the mind and lifts the spirits.” It also increases your hormone production and heart rate, and it contributes to better circulation and muscle tone.

The next time you need a boost, laugh it up with some of the following strategies:

• Seek humor through entertainment—find a knee-slapping movie or sitcom on television; many cable stations show reruns of classic “oldies but goodies”!
• Visit a comedy club—share your sense of humor with some friends; a good laugh can be contagious when more are sharing in the fun. “Laughter is not primarily about humor,” said Robert Provine, Ph.D., in Laughter: A Scientific Investigation, “but about social relationships.”
• Find humor in bad situations—try to frame the incident in a more positive light; after recuperating from an embarrassing situation, you may find something to make you laugh—or at least smile!
• Fake it—try smiling even when you don’t feel the smile INSIDE; studies show you’ll experience positive effects from smiling whether the smile is fake or real!

So if you want to feel younger, healthier and happier—learn to laugh it up!