Your Health by John Denniston

 
Days are short, but getting some sun is still important
Soaking up a few rays even during the short days of February may help you live longer, a study from the Institute for Cancer Research in Oslo, Norway, concludes.
 
The body’s main source of vitamin D is the sun, and studies have shown that vitamin D, which helps the immune system work, is an important protection against some cancer, osteoporosis and diabetes. Given the same amount of time outside, people who live near the equator produce 4 times the amount of vitamin D than do people in northern Europe, according to the study, and are less likely to die from cancer.
 
The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, recommended daily sun exposure for about half the time it takes to get sunburn. The report also called for the development of a sunscreen that allows short ultraviolet waves that produce the vitamin to reach the skin while blocking long ultraviolet waves that trigger skin cancer.
 
Low Vitamin D levels linked to heart attacks, strokes
Speaking of vitamin D, which also comes from some food and supplements: low levels in the body may be linked to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes, according to a five-year Framingham Heart Study.
 
Researchers studied 1,739 people with an average age of 59 in the Massachusetts city and found that those with the lowest levels of vitamin D had a 62 percent higher risk of cardiovascular trouble than those with the next highest levels, according to the report published in Circulation. The risk was especially high for people who also had high blood pressure.
 
Study in mice finds relationship between sugar, memory loss
Sugar may be worse for your brain than it is for your waist, according to a study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
 
Researchers found that mice that were given sugar in their water showed significant impairments in learning and memory than did mice that were given no sugar. After the 25-week study, the sugar-fed mice had three times the amount of an Alzheimer’s-associated protein in their brains and more than double the amount of a protein that causes “plaques” in brain tissue. Those plaques are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s.
 
The mice were given the amount of sugar a person would consume drinking five 12-ounces cans of soda a day, relative to body weight. The study in the Journal of Biological Chemistry cautioned, however, that because a mouse’s metabolism is seven times greater than a human’s and thus able to process the sugar faster, a person probably wouldn’t have to have that much sugar daily for the same effects to take place.
 
Arthritis affects 46 million, and the number is growing
More than 46 million people in the United States suffer from arthritis, which is now the most common cause of disability, according to a new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The painful joint inflammation affects 21 percent of adults in the U.S. today, and it is expected that by 2030, more than 40 percent of the adult population will have some type of arthritic disease.
 
Osteoarthritis, which has risen sharply, is a gradual breakdown of cartilage in the joints and is the most common form. Rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disorder that leads to chronic inflammation at the joints, has shown a decline since 1990.
 
Exercise won’t cure hot flashes, but will help with stress
Exercise can help postmenopausal women cope with stress, anxiety and depression, researchers from Temple University in Philadelphia conclude in a new study, but it probably won’t help with hot flashes.
 
The eight-year study of 380 women found that even though exercise won’t reduce the number of hot flashes—there was some evidence that exercise may actually increase them in some instances—15 to 30 minutes of walking lowered levels of stress and anxiety often associated with them.
 
This is particularly important, according to researchers, because postmenopausal women often have higher levels of stress and anxiety because they have lower levels of the hormone estrogen.
 
 
Winter’s uninvited visitors can be killed by cleaning
Bringing your pets inside during the winter doesn’t necessarily mean you have to live with fleas or resort to potentially dangerous pesticides, according to a new study from Ohio State University.
 
Vacuum cleaners will kill fleas as well as poison does, according to the report in the journal Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata. A standard vacuum cleaner will kill 96 percent of adult fleas and 100 percent of younger fleas, researchers said, by brushing away the insects’ outer layer, causing the pesky little bugs to dry up and die.
 
 
Four keys will help you live longer, study says
A lifestyle that includes exercise, moderate alcohol consumption, eating at least five servings of vegetables or fruit daily and not smoking could help you live 14 years longer, according to a British study published in the journal PloS Medicine.
 
University of Cambridge researchers and the Medical Research Council followed 20,000 people, ages 45 to 79, from 1993 to 2006 and found that, after factoring in age, the participants who followed the four lifestyle behaviors were four times less likely to have died during the period. The researchers also found that people who followed none of the behaviors had the same risk of dying as someone 14 years older.
 
Each of the lifestyle behaviors has been shown to influence health, but this is one of the first studies to show the effect of the combination of the four, according to the report.
 

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