Amyloid plaques and tangles in the brain are characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease and are known to increase the risk for mental decline; blood levels of the protein may reflect levels of its deposits in the brain. Researchers studied 1,219 mentally healthy people over 65, recording their diet over one and a half years and testing their blood for beta-amyloid and for vitamins and other nutrients.

They found that the higher the omega-3 fatty acid levels were, the lower the beta-amyloid levels. The subjects got their omega-3 mainly from fish, poultry, margarine and nuts.

The treatment is based on a hypothesis by Italian vascular surgeon Dr. Paolo Zamboni who thinks that narrowed neck veins create a backup of blood that can lead to lesions in the brain and inflammation.

The treatment, which involves opening blocked neck veins with balloons, is not offered in Canada, but patients have travelled around the world to get it, even though it hasn’t been approved by medical bodies. At least two Canadians died after getting the treatment overseas.

Other serious complications reported include:

• Stents migrating from a vein to another part of the body, including the heart.
• Injuries to veins.
• Blood clots in the jugular vein or the brain.

Despite the U.S. announcement, Health Canada officials say they are going ahead with ahead with a proposed clinical trial, which  is in the works.

That’s how much longer Ontarians would live, on average, if we could ditch five bad habits: smoking, excessive drinking, poor diet, a sedentary lifestyle and stressing out.

The Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and Public Health Ontario came to that conclusion after crunching the numbers. And that staggering number of 7 and a half years is just an average, it’s not the worst of it.

For those who have all five bad habits, life expectancy is 68.5 years for men and 71.5 years for women.

Compare that to people with the healthiest lifestyles, non-smoking, moderate drinkers who exercise regularly and eat lots of fruit and veggies: their life expectancy is 88.6 years for men and 92.5 years for women. That’s a 20-year difference between the worst and the best lifestyles.

The latter group also lives a decade longer without the chronic conditions and disabilities that are common in older Zoomers. Don’t feel too badly if you’re somewhere in the middle. Only 1.4% of Ontarians have no bad habits. And other factors like income and education have an impact.

But the report says those five unhealthy habits account for more than 60 per cent of premature death. And smoking, drinking, eating and sitting are things we can all try to control.

Now there’s evidence that for some people with diabetes, surgery may be the best medicine. Two studies have found that weight-loss operations worked much better than the standard therapies for Type 2 diabetes in obese and overweight people whose blood sugar was out of control. Those who had surgery, which stapled the stomach and rerouted the small intestine, were much more likely to have a complete remission of diabetes, or to need less medicine, than people who were given the typical regimen of drugs, diet and exercise.

The surgery also helped many to lower their blood pressure and cholesterol.

The research published in The New England Journal of Medicine, is the first to rigorously compare medical treatment with these operations as ways to control diabetes. Doctors had been noticing for years that weight-loss operations, also called bariatric surgery, could sometimes get rid of Type 2 diabetes. But they had no hard data.

Most heart attacks happen when fatty deposits in an artery burst open, and a blood clot then forms to seal the break. If the clot is too big, it blocks off blood flow.

The problem: Today’s best tests can’t predict when that’s about to happen.

But researchers have a new lead — by searching the blood for cells that appear to flake off the lining of a severely diseased artery.

They measured high levels of those deformed cells, floating in the blood of 50 people who’d just had a heart attack. But there were very few of them in the healthy volunteers. The research is reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The next step is to begin studies to learn how early those cells might appear before a heart attack, and if spotting them could allow use of clot-preventing drugs to ward off damage

Researchers at Oxford University found that after three years of daily aspirin use, the risk of developing cancer was reduced by almost 25 percent when compared with a control group not taking aspirin. After five years, daily aspirin reduced the risk of dying of cancer by 37 percent.

In addition, a different study found that a daily dose reduced the risk of metastatic cancer by 36 percent and the risk of some common solid cancers including colon, lung and prostate cancer — by 46 percent.

The findings add to a body of evidence suggesting that cheap and widely available aspirin may be a powerful if overlooked weapon in the battle against cancer. But the research also poses difficult questions as regular doses of aspirin can cause gastrointestinal bleeding and other side effects. Past studies have suggested that the drawbacks of daily use may outweigh the benefits, particularly in healthy patients.

The researchers say red meat is associated with a higher risk of dying from heart disease, cancer and any other cause.
For many people, red meat is a primary source of protein and fat, and they eat it every day. The researchers looked at data on 120,000 people over 28 years and calculated that for every daily serving of red meat, the risk of dying increased 12 percent. It was up to 20 percent for processed red meat.
On the other hand, replacing that meat with something healthier reduced the risk of death. The study in the Archives of Internal Medicine said it went down 7 percent for fish, 14 percent for poultry and whole grains, 10 percent for legumes and low-fat dairy products. 19 percent for nuts.
Bottom line most nutritionists agree we should move to a more plant-based diet.

After reviewing data on 2.4 million people and 44,000 cardiac events, the article’s authors found female smokers have a 25 per cent greater risk for coronary heart disease than males who smoke cigarettes.

The researchers also found the difference in risk for male and female smokers increased by two per cent for every year they smoke.

This is either because of physical differences between men and women, or differences in smoking habits.

For example, women may inhale more smoke or smoke more intensively, and researchers figure that may make them absorb more harmful chemicals

Their next step is a similar study to see if the same thing is true for other complications related to smoking, such as strokes.

A fifth of the world’s 1.1 billion smokers are women.

These results are part of a landmark study you probably heard about.  Statistics Canada  found that between 1981 and 2009, the average weight of a 45-year-old man ballooned by 20 pounds while women that age are 12 pounds heavier. Both genders gained three inches around the waist. More than 60 % of Canadians are now overweight and it usually happens by the age of 36. Hopefully, these numbers will be a wake-up call and an inspiration to help us become more active.