Daily Health Tips: Trusted Medical Information, Health Tips and Advices

Dropping a few pounds is just a matter of eating less and exercising more, right? Wrong. You'll shed more weight if you add these two steps to the formula: Chill out and turn in early. That's right. A recent study found that curbing stress and getting plenty of sleep can boost weight-loss success. Relax, Sleep, and Lose Researchers put 432 obese adults on a standard eat-less/exercise-more weight-loss plan for 6 months. Although most folks lost weight, those with lower stress levels at the start of the study lost a lot more than their anxious counterparts did. Sleep also impacted the amount of weight lost. People who snoozed at least 6 – but not more than 8 -- hours a night were more likely to achieve the study's pre-established goal of at least 10 pounds, compared to those who got less or more shut-eye. Study participants with the most stress and sleep difficulties were 50 percent less likely than the mellow, well-rested dieters to reach the study's 10-pound goal.  Ho

Guys: The next time you go out for seafood, think twice before saying, "I'll have what she's having." Here's why: When it comes to the diabetes-dodging powers of seafood, new findings suggest that they may not be the same for men and women. Gender Bender A 15-year Chinese study found that for women, a diet that included all types of seafood helped protect them from type II diabetes , but for men, diabetes defense came only from eating shellfish. Further studies are needed to explore possible reasons for these gender-specific differences, but most researchers agree that it's the omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) in seafood that keep insulin -- the body's blood sugar-controlling hormone -- working well. ( Related: Keep your blood sugar in check with this nutritional formula. )

  In the moments before you "stop and smell the roses," it's likely your brain is already preparing your sensory system for that familiar floral smell. New research from Northwestern Medicine offers strong evidence that the brain uses predictive coding to generate "predictive templates" of specific smells -- setting up a mental expectation of a scent before it hits your nostrils. Predictive coding is important because it provides animals -- in this case, humans -- with a behavioral advantage, in that they can react more quickly and more accurately to stimuli in the surrounding environment. The study, published in the Oct. 6 issue of the journal Neuron , was led by Christina Zelano, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Jay Gottfried, M.D., associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and attending physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The researchers used functional MRI techniques and

Study found omega-3 fatty acids linked to lower risk of age-related macular degeneration. MONDAY, March 14 (HealthDay News) -- Women who consume fish regularly -- and the abundance of omega-3 fatty acids found in that meal choice -- have a lower risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), new research suggests. This latest evidence of a protective link between fish oil and eye health mirrors past research that has found the same benefit. In this study, Harvard researchers performed a dietary analysis on more than 38,000 women. "Our observational data needs to be confirmed in randomized trials," cautioned study author William G. Christen, an associate professor with the division of preventive medicine in the department of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. "But already the message seems to be simple and strong," Christen added. "Fish oil, that is the omega-3 fat

You slather on sunscreen, limit sun time, and keep an eye on those moles. But here's one more thing you could do to prevent skin cancer: pop a calcium and vitamin D supplement. In a large 7-year study of women who'd previously had skin cancer, those who took a calcium and vitamin D supplement every day experienced 57 percent fewer melanomas compared with the women who didn't take the supplement. How D Controls Cells More research is needed to confirm the results of this early study. And researchers are not yet sure whether a calcium and vitamin D supplement could play a role in helping prevent melanoma in people who've never had the disease. But plenty of other research has shown that vitamin D -- which helps control how quickly cells replicate -- has the potential to keep the growth of many different types of cancer cells in check, including colon, breast, and prostate cancer cells. And if you've had another form of skin cancer, you're at high

To feel more satisfied with your food -- and possibly avoid pigging out -- use this mind trick: Just focus on the calories. Doing so could dial down your hunger big-time -- especially if you convince yourself you're indulging in a rich, high-calorie treat. Because new research shows that people's perception of calorie content affects their appetite-control hormones. Mind over Hunger Pangs In a study, researchers gave a small group of college students the same 350-calorie milk shake but told half the students that it was an indulgent 650-calorie treat. The other half thought it was a sensible 140-calorie snack. And what the students thought had a huge impact on how many hunger hormones their bodies produced. For the students who thought they were drinking a creamy, high-cal shake, their bodies' production of hunger-inducing ghrelin totally nosedived. But in the other group? Not as much. Which led researchers to conclude that just the perception of calorie

Study Suggests NSAIDs, Cox-2 Inhibitors May Raise Risk of Atrial Fibrillation Widely used anti-inflammatory pain relievers may increase the risk of atrial fibrillation, a common heart rhythm disorder associated with stroke and heart failure. In a newly published study from Denmark, use of non-selective, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and Cox-2 inhibitors was associated with a significantly increased risk for atrial fibrillation. Non-selective NSAIDs include the active ingredients in drugs such as Advil, Motrin and Aleve, and Naprosyn. The prescription drug Celebrex is a Cox-2 inhibitor. The researchers also included older Cox-2 inhibitor drugs such as diclofenac (Voltaren), etodolac (Lodine), and meloxicam (Mobic). The risk was highest for new users of the drugs. New NSAID users had a 46% increase in risk, and new Cox-2 inhibitor users had a 71% increase in risk compared to people who did not take the pain relievers. WebMD contacted Pfizer -- the m

Are your ears ringing? Then you might want to take a break from your cell phone. As cell phone ownership has surged in recent years, so have questions about how extended use may affect health. One new potential impact researchers have discovered? Tinnitus -- a little-understood condition that causes distracting ringing, buzzing, humming, or other low-level sounds in the ears. Ring, Ring . . . In a recent study, researchers examined a group of people who already had tinnitus, as well as a group of people of a similar age who didn't. And after doing ear exams and hearing tests and surveying people about their cell habits and history, researchers discovered that the risk of tinnitus was about 71 percent higher among people who used their mobile phones at least 10 minutes a day. The odds of having the condition were also doubled in people who'd been using a cell phone for at least 4 years.    Stay Tuned It's one of the first studies on the topic, and much mo

To keep your waistline trim, you might want to make sure this flavor enhancer doesn't make its way into your mouth: MSG. Too much monosodium glutamate (MSG) -- an additive used in restaurant and processed foods to boost flavor -- may be a fast track to weight gain, a new study shows. Investigating MSG Have you heard of MSG? It's basically a salt that comes from glutamic acid. Restaurants and food manufacturers use it because it gives flavors a little lift. But that pleasure for your mouth may come at the expense of your hips. People who started a study at a healthy weight but were among the highest MSG consumers -- taking in about 5 grams a day -- were 33 percent more likely to be overweight at the end of the study 5 years later. And, surprisingly, it's not because better-tasting food enticed people to eat more. Eating lots of MSG bumped up the risk of extra pounds, regardless of calorie intake. Weighted Speculations The study researchers suspect MSG m

Staying Well Hydrated May Lower Risk of Hyperglycemia Drinking about four or more 8-ounce glasses of water a day may protect against the development of high blood sugar (hyperglycemia), French researchers report. In a study of 3,615 men and women with normal blood sugar levels at the start of the study, those who reported that they drank more than 34 ounces of water a day were 21% less likely to develop hyperglycemia over the next nine years than those who said they drank 16 ounces or less daily. The analysis took into account other factors that can affect the risk of high blood sugar, including sex, age, weight, and physical activity, as well as consumption of beer, sugary drinks, and wine. Still, the study doesn't prove cause and effect. People who drink more water could share some unmeasured factor that accounts for the association between drinking more water and lower risk of high blood sugar, says researcher Ronan Roussel, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at t

Study Shows a Link Between Car Accidents and Drivers With Less Than Legal Limit for Alcohol in Blood Driving with a buzz can be as dangerous as driving when you are fully intoxicated, a new study suggests. The blood-alcohol content (BAC) limit in the U.S. is set at 0.08%, but levels well below this legal limit are associated with car accidents that cause incapacitating injury and death. According to the CDC, close to 30 people in the U.S. die every day in motor vehicle crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver. This is the equivalent of one death every 48 minutes. "Buzz kills," says David Phillips, PhD a sociologist at University of California, San Diego. "No amount of alcohol seems to be safe for driving." The new study appears in Addiction. In the study, drivers who tested positive for blood alcohol at levels well-below the legal BAC limit were more likely to be in severe car accidents than sober drivers largely because they drove significant

You can't go anywhere without being confronted by calories. Restaurants now print calorie counts on menus. You go to the supermarket and there they are, stamped on every box and bottle. You hop on the treadmill and watch your "calories burned" click upward. But just what are calories? The more calories we take in, the more flab we add—and if we cut back on them, then flab starts to recede too, right? After all, at face value, calories seem to be the factor by which all foods should be judged. But if that were true, 500 calories of parsnips would equal 500 calories of Double Stuf Oreos. Not quite. There's nothing simple about calories. Learn the distinctions and lose the lard. Want Health tips from our Expert Click Here  Myth #1: Calories Fuel Our Bodies   Actually, they don't A calorie is simply a unit of measurement for heat; in the early 19th century, it was used to explain the theory of heat conservation and steam engines. The term entere

Unhealthy Foods So Accessible That Distance From Schools Makes Little Difference A child's risk for becoming overweight or obese does not seem to increase when fast food establishments and stores are located near school grounds, a new study finds. "Unhealthful food choices are ubiquitous and consequently stores selling these food items near schools have no significant effect on student obesity," researchers led by David E. Harris, PhD, of the University of Southern Maine in Portland say in the July/August 2011 Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior . Researchers compared the weight and height of 552 students from 11 high schools in Maine to the proximity of food stores to their schools. They computed the driving distance to all food stores within 1.24 miles of the schools or to the closest store. Ten schools had one or more stores that sold soda, and eight schools had one or more fast food restaurant less than a mile from their grounds, the study sh

Our personalities influence our health more than imagined and being carefree and easy- going may not be as great as you think…   YOU COULD be the butt of jokes among friends for being a hardworking, laborious fool in an age when smart work pays more than hard work. But the reality is that health wise you are better off than your peers. A new study says that those who take their work seriously and work harder tend to live longer. The finding comes from the latest book The Longevity Project by psychology professors Howard Friedman and Leslie Martin at the University of California. Quoting a study done on school kids for 80 years, the book says that the kids who worried about their exams and projects and studied hard, lived longer than the extraordinarily bright and cheerful kids. This debunks the old theory that happy and carefree people live the longest. Rather, it's persistence and a cautious attitude that add years to life. "Having a conscientious personality

Study Shows Patients Treated With Injections Have a Reduction in Symptoms It is a common, life-altering medical condition, but you aren't likely to see a celebrity taking up the cause or a telethon devoted to finding a cure. More than 5 million Americans have some degree of fecal incontinence. And many suffer in silence because they are too embarrassed to seek medical help. As is the case with urinary incontinence, injections of a bulking agent are sometimes used to treat patients with moderate to severe bowel leakage, but the benefits of this therapy have not been proven. Now a new study, to be published Friday in The Lancet , does appear to show a benefit for the therapy when compared to sham treatment. But an expert who spoke to WebMD is not so certain. Christine Norton, PhD, RN, who founded the UK Continence Foundation, was the lead author of a recent analysis concluding that there is not enough clinical evidence to recommend bulking agent injections for th

Physical Activity Benefits Knee Cartilage and Overall Knee Joint Health, Researchers Say Despite some previous research casting doubt on the value of physical activity for the knees, a new study says it's beneficial for knee joint health. Researchers in Australia say although it's true that exercise has been linked to bony spurs called osteophytes, physical activity in general is good for the knees. "Several studies have already examined the impact of physical activity on the knee as a whole, but none [has] looked at the effect of physical activity on individual parts of the knee," Flavia Cicuttini, PhD, one of the researchers, says in a statement. Cicuttini, of the Baker Heart Research Institute and Monash University in Melbourne, says "exercise affects each part of the knee differently, which helps explain why there have been conflicting reports for so long." Study Based on Data for Nearly 10,000 People The research team, led by Cicutti

Eating lunch at your desk? Good for productivity, maybe. But very bad for your waistline. Research confirms it. Seems that eating when your mind is somewhere else -- whether it's on a work project, a YouTube video, or a magazine article -- can make you apt to eat more than you need to. Food out of Focus In a study, men and women were served a lunch consisting of several different foods. Half of the participants played a computer card game while eating; the other half had a distraction-free lunch. After the meal, people who played the game reported feeling less full compared with the nongamers, and they ate twice as many cookies during a taste test 30 minutes later. The card players also had more trouble listing in order the food items they had eaten for lunch.    Multitasking Mayhem A number of studies have shown that people tend to eat more while watching TV. But this study associates the effects of distracted eating with other activities. Basically, anything

Study Shows Depression May Raise Risk of Diabetes and Vice Versa Depression and diabetes may be linked, according to new research in the Archives of Internal Medicine . "People usually think of these as two isolated conditions, but there is growing evidence that they are linked behaviorally and biologically," says study researcher Frank Hu, MD, PhD, MPH, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. "This data provide strong evidence that we should not consider these two isolated conditions any longer." About 23.5 million Americans have diabetes, and about 14.8 million Americans have major depressive disorder in a given year, according to statistics in the new report. Of the 65,381 women aged 50 to 75 in 1996 who were study participants, 2,844 women were newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and 7,415 women developed depression in the ensuing 10 years. Depression and Diabetes Risk Depression increased

Study Shows Dangers for Women Who Are Overweight but Consider Themselves to Be Normal Weight Nearly one in four women who is overweight perceives her weight as normal, according to a new study. The study also shows 16% of the normal-weight women studied had weight misperceptions, considering themselves overweight, says researcher Mahbubur Rahman, PhD, MBBS, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and a senior fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Women's Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston. There were dangers with both groups of what he terms "misperceivers," he tells WebMD. "Overweight women who were misperceivers are less likely to have healthy weight-loss behaviors." Those of normal weight who thought they were overweight, likewise, had unhealthy behaviors, such as using diet pills or smoking . The study is in the December issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology. "The fact that people mis

Case Study Suggests a Link Between a Man's Asthma Attack and His Use of the Social Networking Site Can Facebook actually trigger asthma attacks? A case study out of Italy suggests it's possible. Reporting in the Nov. 20 issue of The Lancet , researchers led by Gennaro D'Amato, MD, of High Specialty Hospital A Cardarelli in Naples, Italy, discussed symptoms experienced by an 18-year-old man. The man became depressed after his girlfriend broke up with him and "unfriended" him from Facebook. The man created a new nickname for himself, befriended his ex-girlfriend on Facebook, and began developing shortness of breath every time he visited her Facebook page. The patient's medical history, a physical examination, and other environmental and infectious factors were ruled out as being linked to the asthma attacks. "The [man's] mother was advised to ask him to measure the peak expiratory flow before and after internet login and, indeed, 'p