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

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

Show your heart some love and boost your odds of a longer life by stir-frying this Chinese green: bok choy. A large-scale study found that people who eat the most vegetables have lower mortality rates -- especially from heart troubles. But the strongest protective benefits were tied to intake of cruciferous vegetables, like bok choy. Not All Vegetables Created Equal The study followed over 100,000 middle-aged men and women in Shanghai, China -- a part of the world where people consume lots of veggies, particularly cruciferous ones. And a diet survey there revealed that people whose daily diets included the most vegetables were 15% less likely to have died during the 5-year study period. And the risk of heart disease-related death was particularly low for the vegetable lovers. But the surprising insight? People who consumed the most cruciferous vegetables were the best protected The Cruciferous Quotient Bok choy is just one example from the cruciferous vegetable gro

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

Go ahead. Fire up the grill and feast to your heart's content on your favorite barbecue fare. Just use these prep-and-cook methods to healthy up things first. Rethink your marinade: Rather than drown meats in spices and high-fat oils, make fruit juice, vinegar, or wine the focus of your marinades. Going light on the oil but heavy on the spices and acids will add plenty of moist flavor to your grilled meats without all the extra calories. Plus, marinated meats produce far fewer carcinogenic by-products during high-heat cooking.    Make over your burgers: Might sound strange, but tart cherries make for juicier, tastier, more healthful burgers. Just mix one-third cup of chopped tart cherries into a pound of ground turkey or beef before forming your patties for the grill. Your burgers will not only have less fat but also produce 90 percent fewer heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) – carcinogenic by-products that form during high-heat cooking.    Turn down the gril

Eating foods rich in B vitamins and omega-3s, like hummus, can be a real memory booster, according to Samantha Heller, author of  Get Smart . And these nutrients will be especially brain-friendly if you combine them with a few extra ZZZs. The Hummus Has It Hummus is a Mediterranean staple made from vitamin B6-rich chickpeas and high-in-omega-3 olive oil -- nutrients that Heller says are key to a swift, sharp memory. A spinach salad with a little drizzle of olive oil and vinegar will net you brain-friendly nutrients as well, because spinach is rich in B9. And tuna is another great source of both B vitamins and omega-3s.   And a Side of Sleep Sleep helps consolidate newly learned information into your memory bank. So when you're working on a brain-friendly menu, remember to hit the hay early, too. Heller notes that combining B vitamins, omega-3s, and better sleep is a surefire recipe for improving your recall. To improve your sleep habits, keep a regular sleep schedule, eliminate

CDC Committee: To Stop Deadly Infant Whooping Cough, Give Vaccine Late in Pregnancy To halt a spike in whooping cough cases and deaths in infants, pregnant women now are advised to get a booster shot of the pertussis vaccine in their late second or third trimester. Vaccination against whooping cough -- pertussis -- can't start before age 2 months. But the disease is particularly deadly for unprotected infants. Of the 194 U.S. pertussis deaths from 2000 to 2009, 152 were in infants ages 1 month or less. Twenty-three deaths were in infants ages 2 to 3 months. Doctors have been fighting recent outbreaks of whooping cough by giving the Tdap booster vaccine to women as soon as they give birth -- and also vaccinating everyone else who comes into contact with an infant. The idea, called "cocooning," is a good one. But in the real world, it's been nearly impossible to vaccinate most fathers -- and even harder to find and vaccinate grandparents, siblings, an

Give the frontline soldiers of your immune system some reinforcements by serving a skewer of white button mushrooms with your favorite meals. Nothing brings you down like a summer cold. But eating white button mushrooms may help make colds less likely. Seems something in mushrooms encourages your dendritic cells -- important immune system helpers -- to grow up and get to work. Mushroom Secrets Dendritic cells lasso viruses -- like the rhinoviruses and influenza viruses responsible for colds and flu. Then they bring those viruses to your germ-killing B lymphocytes to be finished off. And though it's not clear how or why, researchers think that polysaccharides -- compounds in white button mushrooms -- may help trigger the whole process. But there's no reason to hold out on mushrooms while researchers unravel the mystery. We already know that mushrooms have a host of health-promoting qualities: They're low in fat, low in calories, and full of a little antioxi

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