The 5 Secrets of Healthy Aging

A 35y long study has identified 5 simple ways to increase your chances of healthy aging. Here they are:

1. eat well
   
2. work out
   
3. drink less
   
4. keep your weight down
   
5. never smoke. 

Secret of healthy ageing discovered in ground-breaking 35-year study - Telegraph

CDC Making Big Mistake on Ebola Patients

"Hospitals should be prepared to recognize possible cases, isolate them — and then call for help. Period,"

Betsy McCaughey: CDC Making Big Mistake on Ebola Patients

COMMENT: I agree. Rapid isolation and triage is the best strategy.

Internet-Based Healthy Eating Program Improves Diet and Body

BACKGROUND: The HealthValues Healthy Eating Programme is a standalone Internet-based intervention that employs a novel strategy for promoting behavior change (analyzing one's reasons for endorsing health values) alongside other psychological principles that have been shown to influence behavior. The program consists of phases targeting motivation (dietary feedback and advice, analyzing reasons for health values, thinking about health-related desires, and concerns), volition (implementation intentions with mental contrasting), and maintenance (reviewing tasks, weekly tips).

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to examine the effects of the program on consumption of fruit and vegetables, saturated fat, and added sugar over a 6-month period.

METHODS: A total of 82 females and 18 males were recruited using both online and print advertisements in the local community. They were allocated to an intervention or control group using a stratified block randomization protocol. The program was designed such that participants logged onto a website every week for 24 weeks and completed health-related measures. Those allocated to the intervention group also completed the intervention tasks at these sessions. Additionally, all participants attended laboratory sessions at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. During these sessions, participants completed a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ, the Block Fat/Sugar/Fruit/Vegetable Screener, adapted for the UK), and researchers (blind to group allocation) measured their body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and heart rate variability (HRV).

RESULTS: fruit and vegetable consumption went up. Intake of saturated fats went down. Sugar intake went down. BMI and WHR both went down. 

CONCLUSIONS: The Web-based nature of the program makes it a potentially cost-effective way of promoting healthy eating.


J Med Internet Res. 2014;16(10):e231

Prevalence of internet and social media usage in orthopedic surgery.

Prevalence of internet and social media usage in orthopedic surgery.

Background: Social networking and Internet usage has become an increasingly important means of patient communication and referral.
Methods: New patients were surveyed (n=752) between December 2012 to January 2013 in a major academic orthopaedic center to complete a 15-item questionnaire including social media and Internet usage information. Data was collected for all orthopaedic sub-specialties and statistical analysis was performed.
Results: Fifty percent of patients use social networking sites, such as Facebook. Sports medicine patients tend to be higher social networking users (35.9%) relative to other services (9.8-17.9%) and was statistically higher when compared to the joints/tumor service (P<0.0001). Younger age was the biggest indicator predicting the use of social media. Patients that traveled between 120 to 180 miles from the hospital for their visits were significantly more likely to be social media users, as were patients that did research on their condition prior to their new patient appointment.
Conclusions: Orthopedic patients who use social media/Internet are more likely to be younger, researched their condition prior to their appointment and undergo a longer average day's travel (120-180 miles) to see a physician. In an increasingly competitive market, surgeons with younger patient populations will need to utilize social networking and the Internet to capture new patient referrals.


Orthop Rev (Pavia). 2014 Aug 8;6(3):5483