A recent study funded by the National Center for Complimentary and alternative Medicine shows that a patient can benefit from taking a placebo, even if they are fully aware that they are taking a placebo.

The study followed eighty patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome who were separated into two groups.  The groups consisted of participants who were knowingly prescribed a placebo and those that received no medication.

Within just a few weeks of beginning the study nearly twice as many subjects that were prescribed the placebo reported having improvements compared to those that weren’t taking medication.  Those that were taking the placebo also seemed to feel better

A recent study conducted by researchers from the Cooper Institute in Dallas reveals that supplementing with fish oil while exercising and dieting doesn’t promote greater weight loss.

The study followed more than one hundred overweight and obese individuals for a period of six months.  All participants were placed on a program consisting of 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise and 40-60 minutes of strength training per week.  In addition to the prescribed exercise program, individuals were given either five fish oil pills or five pills of a placebo per day.

A recent study conducted by the University of Maryland shows that a person’s primary source of energy has a profound impact on risk of death.  The study followed more than twenty five hundred seniors between the ages of 70-79 and grouped them into six different categories according to their primary sources of calories.

Based the advice that your health care provider has been doling out for years, it should probably come as no surprise that seniors who fell into the “healthy foods” category had the lowest risk of death.  A diet containing lean proteins, fresh fruits and vegetables and healthy fats seems to be the wisest choice for those that want to maintain a healthy weight and have a better quality of life.

After analyzing findings of more than 50 previous studies, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force has concluded that vitamin D and regular exercise can help to minimize chances of falling in seniors.

Based on the wealth of information reviewed, experts were able to determine that participating in regular exercise helped reduce the risk of falls by an average of thirteen percent.  The numbers represented reflected strength training, movements designed to improve balance and exercises for flexibility.

What may be even more impressive than the improvements

A recent study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University shows that imagining eating a certain type of food works much better than suppressing all thoughts of it in order to avoid overindulgence.

Several dozen participants took part in a variety of different experiments during the course of the study.  In instances where the subjects imagined repeatedly eating a particular food, researchers noticed either a decrease in the desire or in consumption of that food when compared to those who didn’t use repeat mental imagery.

New and improved methods of treatment and higher quality care have resulted in a major decline in deaths from heart disease and stroke over the course of the last decade.  This means that more patients are getting the type of care that they need in a timely enough manner to continue living longer, but even with the sizeable decrease, heart disease remains the number one killer in the US.

Between 1997 and 2007 deaths from heart disease decreased by more than 25%, which makes it look as though we are making tremendous headway in the fight against the number one killer of US adults.  It’s important to note though that during the same time period the number of cardiovascular surgeries performed increased by

A new study published in the Archives of Neurology demonstrates a possible connection between high levels of HDL cholesterol and a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease in senior citizens.

The study followed more than eleven hundred seniors with no history of any kind of dementia for a period of about four years.  Subjects underwent a series of blood tests and tests on the brain once every eighteen months through the course of the study.

By the end of the four year study, just over a hundred participants had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. 

Right on the heels of the alarming prediction that more than thirty percent of Americans will be suffering from diabetes by the year 2050, a bit of new treatment advice has come to light.

The American Diabetes Association and the American College of Sports Medicine have issued new guidelines for people suffering from type 2 diabetes.  The new guidelines call for diabetes sufferers to get at least two and a half hours of moderate to intense aerobic activity through the course of a week and to not skip exercising on more than two days during a week.

A new “report card” has been released for women based upon the goals set for the Healthy People 2010 initiative and the overall national scores are far from where federal officials had hoped.  Of the 26 goals set forth in the initiative only three have been met or exceeded nationally.

According to the report enough US women are getting mammograms, colorectal screenings and annual dental exams to fall within the targeted range, but the majority of important goals are well off the pace.  The national incidence of obesity in women is up to over 26%, which is pushing twice the 15% goal set by the Healthy People 2010 initiative.  Percentages of women with high blood pressure and

A newly published study comprised of information collected from more than three thousand people over the course of a twenty year period reveals some interesting facts about hypertension.  The study, which appears in the January edition of Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association, shows that factors like race, gender and geographic location can all play a part in developing the diseases.

According to information gathered by researchers, African Americans were at a higher risk for developing hypertension than whites.  The biggest discrepancy was seen among women with nearly 38% of African American women suffering from high blood pressure by the end of the study compared to just over 12% for white women.