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	<title>Health &#38; FamilyCategory: Stroke &#124; Health &#38; Family &#124; TIME.com</title>
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	<description>A healthy balance of the mind, body and spirit</description>
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		<title>Health &#38; FamilyCategory: Stroke &#124; Health &#38; Family &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Salty Truth: Adults Worldwide Eating Too Much Sodium</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/03/22/salty-truth-adults-worldwide-eating-too-much-sodium/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/03/22/salty-truth-adults-worldwide-eating-too-much-sodium/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:45:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food & Drink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heart Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AHA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[high blood pressure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[high sodium diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hypertension]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[salt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sodium]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=82816</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The latest research shows that almost everyone needs to hold the salt. It&#8217;s a critical flavor enhancer for so many foods, and in centuries past, it was necessary for preserving perishables before the advent of refrigerators. But salt, alas, is one of the many factors plaguing American health. The American Heart Association (AHA) links too much salt in the diet to a higher risk for heart disease, hypertension and stroke, and according to research presented this week at the AHA&#8217;s 2013 Scientific Sessions, excessive salt led to nearly 2.3 million heart-related deaths worldwide in 2010. The researchers analyzed 247 surveys of adults participating in the 2010 Global Burden of Disease Survey, which is a collaborative study involving researchers from 50 different countries. The participants reported on their sodium intake from 1990 to 2010 in food questionnaires. Overall, adults around the world ate an average of 4,000 mg of sodium a day, either from prepared foods or from table salt, soy sauce or additional salt sprinkled into meals while cooking. That&#8217;s twice the amount recommended by the World Health Organization (2,000 mg per day) and nearly three times the amount the AHA says is healthy (1,500 mg per day). (MORE: Top 10 Sources of Salt in Your Diet) Of the 187 countries represented in the surveys, 181, home to 99% of the world&#8217;s population, exceeded the World Health Organization&#8217;s salt limit; only Kenya adhered to the AHA&#8217;s recommendation. To emphasize the contribution that high sodium intake can have on health, the researchers then conducted a meta-analysis of 107 trials that measured the relationship between participants&#8217; salt consumption and blood pressure and heart-disease risk. Among people dying from heart attacks, strokes or other heart-related disorders, 40% were premature and occurred in people 69 and younger. Excessive salt intake — defined as anything above 1,000 mg per day — was linked to 84% of the deaths, and the majority occurred in low- and middle-income countries. Out of the 30 largest countries in the world, the U.S. ranked 19th, with 429 deaths per million adults due<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=82816&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Heart Disease</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/heart-disease/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/88030838.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">salt and pepper shakers</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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	</item>
		<item>
		<title>It&#8217;s the Olive Oil: Mediterranean Diet Lowers Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/25/its-the-olive-oil-mediterranean-diet-lowers-risk-of-heart-attack-and-stroke/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/25/its-the-olive-oil-mediterranean-diet-lowers-risk-of-heart-attack-and-stroke/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Feb 2013 10:45:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alice Park</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diet & Fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food & Drink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heart Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[extra virgin olive oil]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fish]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[heart]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[heart attack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[heart health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[low fat diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mediterranean diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[olive oil]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stroke]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=80938</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Mediterranean diet is a well-known weapon in the fight against heart disease, but exactly how effective is it? To find out, researchers led by Dr. Ramón Estruch, from the Department of Internal Medicine at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, put the Mediterranean diet to the test against a low-fat diet. They followed participants to track rates of heart attack, stroke and heart-disease-related death. After nearly five years, the results were so striking for one group that the study was stopped early, according to research published online by the New England Journal of Medicine. The group that showed the least heart problems and lowest rate of heart disease deaths? Those who ate a Mediterranean diet high in extra-virgin olive oil. Coming in at a close second were participants who ate a Mediterranean diet high in nuts. Compared with those eating the low-fat diet, the extra-virgin-olive-oil group showed a 30% lower risk of having a heart attack, stroke or dying of heart disease after five years, while those consuming the Mediterranean diet with more nuts showed a 28% lower risk of these outcomes. (MORE: Mediterranean Diet Linked to Lower Child-Asthma Risk) “We think the strength of this study comes from the fact that we measured hard outcomes and not just blood pressure or changes in cholesterol levels,” says Estruch. “We really believe the Mediterranean diet lowers incidence of [heart attack], stroke and cardiovascular deaths.” Previous studies have linked Mediterranean diets to fewer heart attacks and deaths from heart disease, but most of those have correlated people’s recall of their diet with heart-disease outcomes rather than randomly assigning participants to eat specific diets and then following them for heart-disease risk, as Estruch and his colleagues did. In the study, the participants in the Mediterranean diet groups agreed to replace red meat with white meat like chicken and eat three or more servings of fish each week, along with three or more servings of fruit and two or more servings of vegetables a day. The extra-virgin-olive-oil group also consumed more than four tablespoons of the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=80938&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Diet</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/diet-fitness/diet-diet-fitness/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/160439093.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Olives, leaves and olive oil in a pattern</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/69fc92d1c4598c5b98d03fde16cdfa74?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">apark7</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Marijuana Linked to Increased Stroke Risk</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/08/marijuana-linked-to-increased-stroke-risk/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/08/marijuana-linked-to-increased-stroke-risk/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:00:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maia Szalavitz</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Drugs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heart Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cannabis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[health risks marijuana]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[heart attack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marijuana]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marijuana addiction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mortality risk marijuana]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stroke]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=79682</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Two new studies add to the confusion over the health effects of marijuana. In one presentation to the American Stroke Association&#8217;s International Stroke Conference, researchers from the University of Auckland in New Zealand found an increased risk of stroke among those smoking marijuana compared to those who did not, while research published in the American Heart Journal said marijuana users who had heart attacks were no more likely to die than those those hadn&#8217;t smoked cannabis. The stroke study, which incorporated preliminary data, is the first trial of its kind to study a possible connection between marijuana use and stroke. It included 160 patients aged 18 to 55 who had suffered a stroke connected to a blood clot in the brain, and who agreed to have their urine tested for marijuana within 72 hours of the stroke.  These results were compared to those from 160 controls who had not had a stroke but came to the hospital for other reasons. They were matched on age, gender and ethnic background, all of which can also affect the risk for this type of stroke. About 16% of the stroke patients showed traces of marijuana in their urine, compared to 8% of those in the control group, suggesting a doubling of the risk of stroke. MORE: Two U.S. States Become First to Legalize Marijuana “This is the first case-controlled study to show a possible link to the increased risk of stroke from cannabis,” lead author Dr. Alan Barber of the University of Auckland in New Zealand said in a statement. The study, however, could not separate tobacco smokers from marijuana smokers, because all but one of those testing positive for marijuana in the urine also showed signs of nicotine. Still, Barber said to Everyday Health &#8220;We know cannabis can cause changes in blood pressure and heart rate that are associated with increased stroke risk. Importantly, it can also cause heart palpitations, [a sign of atrial fibrillation]. And atrial fibrillation is very strongly associated with stroke.&#8221; The heart attack study, led by Dr. Murray<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=79682&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Stroke</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/stroke-medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/148983820.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/148983820.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Close Up Of Marijuana Leaf</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/0a5ac57e99124922fa628492ad3db6b2?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">MaiaSzalavitz</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Hillary Clinton Hospitalized for Blood Clot: How Concussions and Clots Connect</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/31/hillary-clinton-hospitalized-for-blood-clot-how-concussions-and-clots-connect/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/31/hillary-clinton-hospitalized-for-blood-clot-how-concussions-and-clots-connect/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 31 Dec 2012 19:17:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alice Park</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Brain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroke]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=77035</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[UPDATED: Dec. 31, 2012, 7 p.m. Hillary Clinton&#8217;s doctors released a statement announcing that the Secretary of State experienced a blood clot &#8220;between the brain and the skull behind the right ear.&#8221; In such cases, says Dr. Geoff Manley, professor of neurological surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, doctors turn to blood-thinning medications to ensure that blood flow out of the brain is not interrupted; such obstruction can cause permanent swelling and damage to brain tissue. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was hospitalized Sunday night for a blood clot that a State Department press release says is related to a concussion she suffered in early December. While the statement does not specify how life threatening the clot may be, the treatment she is receiving — blood-thinning drugs known as anticoagulants — provides some clues. In general, following a concussion, during which the brain is rattled inside the skull, tiny blood vessels crisscrossing the surface of the brain can rupture and bleed, leading to clots as the body attempts to stem the flow of blood. Vessels that are nestled in the folds of brain tissue can also tear during a blow to the head and lead to clotting. But in both of these cases, says Dr. Lee Schwamm, vice chairman of the Department of Neurology and director of the Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital, blood thinners would be the last treatment doctors would recommend since the drugs might increase the risk of additional bleeding and swelling in the brain. That&#8217;s not the case if the clot occurs in the space between the brain and the skull, says David Hovda, director of the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center. In those circumstances, doctors would be more concerned about ensuring that any clogged vessels are unobstructed so blood that has circulated through the brain and is on its way back to the heart is flowing freely. In older patients, this space is slightly more expansive than that among younger people since the brain tends to shrink gradually with age. Schwamm, who has<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=77035&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Brain</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/mental-health/brain/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/hl-hillary-clinton-1231.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/hl-hillary-clinton-1231.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">image: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers a speech at Dublin City University in Ireland Dec. 6, 2012.</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/69fc92d1c4598c5b98d03fde16cdfa74?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">apark7</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Study Shows More Than Half of All Americans Will Get Heart Disease</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/07/study-shows-more-than-half-of-all-americans-will-get-heart-disease/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/07/study-shows-more-than-half-of-all-americans-will-get-heart-disease/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Nov 2012 13:00:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Laura Blue</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Diabetes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heart Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Longevity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obesity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tobacco]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cholesterol]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[high blood pressure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hypertension]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smoking]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=73332</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Heart disease is the leading killer of Americans, and the lifetime risk among healthy Americans remains dangerously high. Despite the plethora of data on what contributes to heart disease, no study has calculated the lifetime risk of the disease for the average adult. So Northwestern University cardiologist John Wilkins and his colleagues pooled data from five long-running studies of U.S. heart health, and used them to calculate disease risks at various ages, and for people with different combinations of risk factors. Together, the data cover tens of thousands of people who were monitored and followed up for cardiovascular events for various periods between 1964 and 2008. (MORE: Diagnosing Heart Disease, Faster) Previous studies have calculated heart disease risk over short time intervals of just a few years, or assessed  the lifetime risk of developing a single cardiovascular condition, such as congestive heart failure. The latest analysis considers the lifetime risk for all cardiovascular diseases, a category that includes coronary artery disease (whose symptoms are most often heart attack and angina) along with strokes, congestive heart failure, and more. And the results are sobering. At age 45, the lifetime heart disease risk is 60.3% for men and 55.6% for women, according to the researchers. That means that, on average, a 45-year-old man without heart disease can expect that he will develop the disease at some point in his life with 60.3% probability. Or, alternatively, that three out of five men without heart disease at age 45 will develop the condition at some point in their lives. Risks are higher for men than for women at all ages, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (MORE: Gum Disease Doesn&#8217;t Cause Heart Disease After All) These lifetime risks are also strongly linked to known heart risk factors such as smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. The greater the number of risk factors, the higher the probability that a person will eventually get heart disease. But even for people with none of the conditions<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=73332&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Heart Disease</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/heart-disease/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/200272267-001heartdiscrop.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/200272267-001heartdiscrop.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/200272267-001heartdiscrop.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Heart wrapped in barbed wire</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a069e8b4ff0dc386def0882f71bbfee6?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Laura Blue</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Multivitamins Don&#8217;t Lower Risk of Heart Disease Among Men</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/05/multivitamins-dont-lower-risk-of-heart-disease/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/05/multivitamins-dont-lower-risk-of-heart-disease/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 05 Nov 2012 18:14:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Laura Blue</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heart Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Prevention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Supplements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[heart attack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[multivitamin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nutrition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nutrition supplements]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=73247</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A daily multivitamin doesn&#8217;t protect against heart attack, stroke or heart-related death, according to a new large-scale study among men. It&#8217;s the first large trial in which men were randomly assigned to either take a multivitamin or a placebo and then followed to see if the vitamins had any effect on their rate of heart disease. But after 10 years, researchers found no difference in heart-disease rates between the two groups. Previous studies on the topic have been both conflicting and confusing, with some showing a higher risk of early death, including from cancer, among those taking multivitamins or supplements, and others showing a benefit in avoiding death from cancer among men. But most of those trials followed people who chose to take multivitamins and compared them with people who did not, setting up a potential bias since it&#8217;s hard to determine if multivitamin users are more health conscious and therefore do other things to protect their health, including taking a multivitamin, that may account for their lower risk of heart problems. (MORE: The Truth About Vitamin D) For this latest study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers led by Howard Sesso of the Brigham and Women&#8217;s Hospital and Harvard Medical School studied a group of almost 15,000 male physicians age 50 or older in the Physicians&#8217; Health Study, a long-term trial begun in 1997 that analyzes a number of different health outcomes. The researchers randomly selected half of the physicians to take a daily multivitamin while the other half took a placebo. None of the study participants knew whether they were receiving the real vitamin supplements or an inactive stand-in. Over 11 years of follow up, the physician participants recorded 652 heart attacks and 643 strokes, and 829 men died from a cardiovascular-related cause. But there was no significant difference in the rates of these events between the men who took the multivitamins and the men who did not. The multivitamins didn&#8217;t seem to make any difference at all. (MORE: Nutrition in a Pill?) More than<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=73247&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Supplements</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/diet-fitness/supplements/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/86055860multivitcrop.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/86055860multivitcrop.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/86055860multivitcrop.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Vitamins and supplements</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a069e8b4ff0dc386def0882f71bbfee6?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Laura Blue</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why Even Healthy People Should Watch Their Salt Intake</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/05/why-even-healthy-people-should-watch-their-salt-intake/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/05/why-even-healthy-people-should-watch-their-salt-intake/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 05 Nov 2012 13:00:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Laura Blue</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diet & Fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food & Drink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heart Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nutrition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blood pressure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[high blood pressure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hypertension]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kidney disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[salt]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=73163</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Salt is a ubiquitous part of the American diet, but even healthy people should be cutting back to avoid high blood pressure and life-threatening heart disease and stroke. That&#8217;s the message from the American Heart Association (AHA) in its latest advisory. The AHA takes issue with recent studies disproving a link between salt and heart-disease risk that it says have been &#8220;widely misinterpreted.&#8221; It also re-affirms its 2011 recommendation that all Americans should limit their sodium intake to just 1,500 mg per day — less than the amount found in a single teaspoon of table salt (sodium chloride). The typical American now eats more than twice that amount. (MORE: To Salt Or Not to Salt? Study Questions Benefits of Reducing Dietary Sodium) &#8220;Americans of all ages, regardless of individual risk factors, can improve their heart health and reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease by restricting their daily consumption of sodium to less than 1,500 mg,&#8221; AHA chief executive officer Nancy Brown said in a statement. The data on salt and its impact on health, however, has been confusing and often conflicting. That&#8217;s because it&#8217;s challenging to design the fool-proof study that isolates just the effect of salt, and not other diet or lifestyle factors, from health outcomes like heart disease and hypertension. In addition, most studies rely on participants&#8217; recollection of what they ate, a notoriously unreliable measure of dietary intake. Measuring sodium levels in urine is more accurate, but also more costly and too intrusive to test a large number of people several times. (MORE: Cutting Back on Salt: How Low Is Too Low?) Then there is the &#8221;reverse causality&#8221; effect, in which high blood pressure may actually be linked to lower blood pressure since people with hypertension may have decided to limit their salt intake at the advice of their doctor. According to the AHA, said this may explain several studies published in the past year that found unusual associations between poor heart health and low sodium intake. Still, experts agree on one thing: that whatever the healthy cut-off<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=73163&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Nutrition</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/diet-fitness/nutrition/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/115788609.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/115788609.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/115788609.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Salt and salt shaker</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a069e8b4ff0dc386def0882f71bbfee6?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Laura Blue</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>High Blood Pressure a Danger for People as Young as 40</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/02/high-blood-pressure-a-danger-for-people-as-young-as-40/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/02/high-blood-pressure-a-danger-for-people-as-young-as-40/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Nov 2012 12:00:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Laura Blue</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Alzheimer's Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brain Injury]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heart Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blood pressure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brain damage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cognitive decline]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dementia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[high blood pressure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hypertension]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[neurology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prehypertension]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=73035</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[High blood pressure may lead to brain injury and to premature brain aging, even among people with only slightly elevated readings. Brain scientists from the Alzheimer&#8217;s Disease Center at the University of California, Davis, are studying the links between systolic blood pressure (that&#8217;s the first number in a reading, and measures the pressure of the blood on the vessels as the heart beats) and various indicators of brain injury among middle-aged adults. In their latest work, published in Lancet Neurology, the scientists report &#8220;a subtle, negative effect&#8221; of high systolic blood pressure on the structural integrity of the brain&#8217;s white matter, and a similar negative effect of elevated blood pressure on the volume of grey matter in the brain. (MORE: A Salty Diet is a Recipe for High Blood Pressure in Kids Too) That means that by age 40, the brain of a person with hypertension or clinically high blood pressure of 140/90 mm Hg, looks 7.2 years older than the brain of a person with normal blood pressure, according to indicators of brain function and anatomy that the researchers measured. And it&#8217;s not just those with clinical hypertension who have to worry; the team saw changes in brain structure among people with normal blood-pressure readings or with systolic readings just slightly higher than normal. The higher the systolic blood pressure, it seems, the greater the signs of brain damage. These findings are consistent with previous research that links hypertension to brain damage. But this is the first study to show an association beginning so early in life. This study finds the same kind of structural injuries that have been linked to cognitive decline and increased risk of dementia among elderly people, but instead among those in just their 30s and 40s. (MORE: Blood Pressure Only Slightly High? You May Still Be at Risk of Stroke) &#8220;The message here is really clear: People can influence their late-life brain health by knowing and treating their blood pressure at a young age, when you wouldn&#8217;t necessarily be thinking about it,&#8221; said Dr.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=73035&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Brain</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/mental-health/brain/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/102628185highbpbaincrop.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/102628185highbpbaincrop.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Blood pressure monitor</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a069e8b4ff0dc386def0882f71bbfee6?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Laura Blue</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Smoke-Free Laws Are Saving Lives</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/30/smoke-free-laws-are-saving-lives/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/30/smoke-free-laws-are-saving-lives/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Oct 2012 10:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Laura Blue</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Environmental Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heart Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Regulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tobacco]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[public smoking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smoke-free law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smoking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smoking ban]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=72719</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You can&#8217;t smoke in most restaurants and malls, and those laws may be responsible for saving thousands of lives. According to two separate studies, recent laws that limit smoking in public places are contributing to fewer tobacco-related hospital visits and deaths. In 2009 the Institute of Medicine concluded that smoking bans contributed to fewer heart problems in areas where the policies were implemented, but the panel was unable to determine how much benefit the laws provided. The new research provides some objective improvements in lower heart attack rates and adds to a growing body of evidence for the tangible health effects of stricter smoke-free laws across the USA and all around the world. Since 2000, more than half of U.S. states have enacted laws to restrict indoor smoking, and new smoke-free policies have taken hold in countries such as  Germany, Bhutan, and Vietnam. Although these regulations are relatively new, researchers are eager to document what effect they have on health; with strong data, public health experts hope that more smoke-free policies will be considered in countries where smoking-related deaths continue to cost nations in health and productivity. (MORE: Can Asia Kick the Habit?) For one of the two new studies, published in Archives of Internal Medicine, scientists at Minnesota&#8217;s Mayo Clinic  analyzed effects of smoke-free laws that were introduced in Olmstead County, MN, over the past ten years. Most of the county&#8217;s more than 144,000 residents receive health care from the Mayo Clinic, allowing the researchers to obtain consent to track heart-related health outcomes. In 2002, Olmstead County required restaurants to be smoke-free, and a few years later passed even stricter anti-smoking laws, mandating that all workplaces, including bars, become smoke-free in 2007. When they compared the 18-month period before the restaurant ban to the 18-month period directly afterward, the researchers found a per-capita drop of 33% in the number of heart attacks in the county, and a 17% drop in the number of sudden cardiac deaths. The decline occured at the same time that rates of hypertension, diabetes and<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=72719&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Tobacco</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/tobacco/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/130882676.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/130882676.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">130882676</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a069e8b4ff0dc386def0882f71bbfee6?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Laura Blue</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Being Fit in Middle Age Can Lower Risk of Disease Later in Life</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/28/being-fit-in-middle-age-can-lower-risk-of-disease-later-in-life/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/28/being-fit-in-middle-age-can-lower-risk-of-disease-later-in-life/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:30:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alice Park</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Alzheimer's Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cancer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diabetes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Exercise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heart Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Longevity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[colon cancer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lung cancer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[physical activity]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=67476</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We all know that exercise is good for you — it keeps the heart healthy, works out the muscles and prepares you to take the stairs at work without fainting from exhaustion. But does all that activity actually prevent you from getting sick? According to a study published online by the Archives of Internal Medicine, the answer is yes. Researchers say that people who are more fit when they are middle-aged have a lower rate of chronic diseases, including heart problems, diabetes, stroke, kidney disease, obstructive pulmonary conditions, lung cancer, colon cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Previous studies have shown that people who are more physically fit have a lower risk of dying early than those who aren&#8217;t as in shape, but the current analysis, led by Dr. Jarrett Berry of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, is the first to expose a connection with chronic diseases. Berry and his colleagues compared data on fitness levels of 18,670 healthy men and women in their 40s and 50s to Medicare claims for chronic disease treatments a couple of decades later, when the participants became eligible for coverage after age 65. Each of the volunteers performed a treadmill test, during which the researchers measured the length of time they exercised to exhaustion as an indicator of their fitness. For every one-unit improvement in fitness, measured as metabolic equivalents, the volunteers enjoyed a 20% drop in the incidence of the eight conditions the scientists tracked. MORE: Fit Vs. Fat : Which Matters More for Longevity? Even more encouraging, says Berry, is the fact that those with the highest fitness levels battled fewer chronic conditions in the last five years of life, meaning they spent more of this time healthy rather than burdened by disease. “The results show that fitness can not only delay morbidity but prevent it,” says Berry. So how do you get fit? It&#8217;s partly genetic, he says, but exercise can help. About half of a person’s fitness is determined by the cumulative effect of lifetime exercise, which is why physical<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=67476&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Exercise</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/diet-fitness/exercise/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/76510293fitnesscrop.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/76510293fitnesscrop.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Middle-aged couple running</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/69fc92d1c4598c5b98d03fde16cdfa74?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">apark7</media:title>
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	</item>
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		<title>It&#8217;s Called the Graveyard Shift for a Reason</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/27/its-called-the-graveyard-shift-for-a-reason/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/27/its-called-the-graveyard-shift-for-a-reason/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:47:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Laura Blue</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Diabetes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family & Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heart Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mental Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sleep]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Work & Life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[heart attack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[night shift]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shift work]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stroke]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=64822</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[People who work irregular schedules or work outside of normal daytime hours are at higher risk of heart attack, stroke and other coronary events, according to a new study published this week in the British Medical Journal. This study is not the first to show a link between shift work and heart health, but it is the largest-ever analysis of its kind. It pools together results from 34 previous studies on the topic, with a combined 2 million study participants from across the industrialized world, estimating that shift workers are at 23% greater risk of heart attacks than the other workers, 5% greater risk of ischemic strokes and 24% greater risk of all coronary events combined (a category that includes heart attack but not stroke). Shift workers also had slightly higher overall death rates than average, but those results were not statistically significant. (MORE: Working the Night Shift May Boost Breast Cancer Risk) In their analysis of shift work, the study&#8217;s authors included any regularly scheduled work outside of normal daytime hours — such as evening shifts, night shifts and early-morning shifts — as well as on-call or casual shifts, split shifts or irregular working hours, no matter what time of day that work typically occurred. In Canada (where many of the new study&#8217;s authors are based), about one-third of the workforce is engaged in shift work. What&#8217;s not clear, however, is why those workers have worse heart health. Shift workers may be engaged in a wide range of industries, from retail to health care to transportation, and they may be highly skilled employees, like medical doctors, or relatively unskilled, like fast-food workers. In their paper, the researchers write that shift work can disrupt sleep cycles and circadian rhythms, and that many night-shift workers in particular report insomnia, which is an independent risk factor for heart attack. (MORE: Why Shift Work and Sleeplessness Lead to Weight Gain and Diabetes) But irregular working hours can also be a source of stress. Erratic schedules make it tougher for people to organize convenient child care,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=64822&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Work &amp; Life</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/family-parenting/work-life-family-parenting/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/late-night.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/late-night.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/late-night.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">late-night</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a069e8b4ff0dc386def0882f71bbfee6?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Laura Blue</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Lack of Sleep Linked with Higher Stroke Risk</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/12/lack-of-sleep-linked-with-higher-stroke-risk/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/12/lack-of-sleep-linked-with-higher-stroke-risk/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Jun 2012 17:30:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sleep]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lack of sleep]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stroke]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=61781</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Adults who routinely get less than six hours of shut-eye a night are four times more likely to suffer a stroke, compared with people getting seven or eight hours, according to a study recently presented at the SLEEP 2012 conference in Boston. To the surprise of the authors, the risk applied to adults who were at a healthy weight, had no risk factors or history of stroke and no increased risk for sleep apnea or other sleep problems. &#8220;People know how important diet and exercise are in preventing strokes,&#8221; lead author Megan Ruiter of the University of Alabama in Birmingham told USA Today. &#8220;The public is less aware of the impact of insufficient amounts of sleep. Sleep is important — the body is stressed when it doesn&#8217;t get the right amount.&#8221; The three-year study followed 5,666 adults aged 45 or older. The participants self-reported their sleep duration and stroke symptoms every six months. The researchers recorded the first stroke symptoms, as well as demographic information, stroke risk factors, depression symptoms and various health behaviors. In healthy people of normal weight, those who slept less than six hours a night were 4.5 more likely to suffer stroke symptoms than people getting seven or eight hours of sleep. Researchers didn&#8217;t find the same elevated risk in overweight or obese people. “Our thought is that habitually sleeping less than six hours is kind of like a precursor,” Ruiter told MSNBC. “It might kind of lead to some of these stronger and more severe risk factors later on.” Experts recommend that adults get about seven to nine hours of sleep a night, but according to recent data, about 30% of working American adults are eking by on six hours or less. MORE: Getting More Sleep at Night May Help Keep You Slim<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=61781&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Sleep</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/sleep/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/143070867.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/143070867.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/143070867.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">143070867</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/dd9dc95ff828efb70c16a5a509a75150?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>A Simple Drawing Test May Predict Men&#8217;s Odds of Death After Stroke</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/11/a-simple-drawing-test-may-predict-mens-odds-of-death-after-stroke/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/11/a-simple-drawing-test-may-predict-mens-odds-of-death-after-stroke/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 May 2012 14:45:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cognitive decline]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[death]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dementia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drawing test]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[men]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MMSE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stroke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stroke risk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TMT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trail Making Test]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=59138</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A Swedish research team seeking a reliable way to determine who is most at risk of dying after stroke discovers that a simple drawing test may be a good predictor. The team, lead by Dr. Bernice Wiberg from Uppsala University in Sweden, looked at participants in the Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men, which has tracked various heart disease and stroke risk factors in 2,322 men since age 50. For the current study, the researchers included more than 900 of the original participants, monitoring them from 1991 to 2006, starting when the men were about 70. None of the men had been diagnosed with stroke at the start of the follow-up. (MORE: Study: Chocolate Lovers Have Lower Risk of Stroke) The participants got a full medical exam and also underwent assessments of cognitive function. They completed a drawing test called the Trail Making Test (TMT) as well as the mini mental state exam (MMSE), a widely used screening test for dementia. The TMT involves drawing lines as fast as possible between numbers or letters in ascending order; your score is the number of seconds it takes you to complete the task. The MMSE rates performance on general cognitive tasks involving orientation, memory and numeracy. During the 14-year follow-up period, 155 men had a stroke. Of these men, more than half died within 2.5 years, with 22 dying within a month of their stroke. The researchers found that those who had done poorly on their TMT were more likely to die. That result held even after the researchers took into account other risk factors like old age, high blood pressure and education level. Men whose scores on the TMT were the bottom 30% were three times more likely to die after their stroke than those who scored in the upper 30%. There was no similar association found for MMSE test scores. (MORE: Study: An Apple a Day May Keep Stroke at Bay) In previous research, Wiberg found that the TMT was a strong predictor of stroke itself. These new findings take the association a step<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=59138&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Stroke</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/stroke-medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/128593568.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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		<title>Skim Milk Drinkers Rejoice: You May Have a Lower Stroke Risk</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/20/skim-milk-drinkers-rejoice-you-may-have-a-lower-stroke-risk/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/20/skim-milk-drinkers-rejoice-you-may-have-a-lower-stroke-risk/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:45:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heart Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[low fat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[low-fat cheese]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[low-fat dairy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[low-fat milk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[low-fat yogurt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stroke]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=57847</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A recent Swedish study found that people who consumed low-fat milk, yogurt and cheese had a lower long-term risk of stroke compared with those who ate full-fat dairy products. The study looked at 74,961 Swedish adults who were were free of heart disease at the start of the study. The participants filled out dietary and lifestyle questionnaires and were followed for 10 years — making the study one of the largest to date on the subject. Their food and drink consumption was divided into eight categories ranging from no dairy intake to four servings of dairy per day. (MORE: Study: Chocolate Lovers Have Lower Risk of Stroke) During the 10 years, 4,089 strokes occurred, with those consuming low-fat dairy at lower risk. The results found that those who ate an average of four servings of low-fat dairy products a day had a 12% lower risk of stroke and a 13% lower risk of ischemic stroke than people who consumed high-fat dairy foods. &#8220;From a public health perspective, if people consume more low-fat dairy foods rather than high-fat dairy foods, they will benefit from a reduced risk of stroke and other positive health outcomes,&#8221; said study author Dr. Susanna Larsson, an associate professor of epidemiology in the division of nutritional epidemiology in the National Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, said in a statement. Although the study could not confirm the reasons why low-fat dairy products were associated with a lower stroke risk, the researchers speculate it is related to the calcium, potassium, magnesium and vitamin D found in the foods. Also, it makes sense that choosing foods that are lower in fat would be a benefit to cardiovascular health. &#8220;Low-fat dairy foods but not high-fat dairy foods has been shown to reduce blood pressure, and high blood pressure is a strong risk factor for stroke,&#8221; says Dr. Larsson in an email. (MORE: Study: An Apple a Day May Keep Stroke at Bay) &#8220;The bottom line is that if you&#8217;re consuming more fat in your day — no matter where it&#8217;s coming<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=57847&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Stroke</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/stroke-medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/101553840.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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		<title>How an Appreciation for the Arts May Boost Stroke Recovery</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/16/how-an-appreciation-for-the-arts-may-boost-stroke-recovery/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/16/how-an-appreciation-for-the-arts-may-boost-stroke-recovery/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Mar 2012 20:06:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[art]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stroke]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=55615</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It elevates the soul, but an appetite for the arts may also do the body good. A new study found that stroke survivors who enjoyed music, painting and theater had better recovery than patients who did not. Researchers from the University Tor Vergata School of Nursing in Rome asked 192 stroke survivors whether they did or did not like art: the participants were fairly split, with 105 reporting an interest in music, painting and theater, and 87 reporting no appreciation. The researchers then compared quality of life for patients who liked art and patients who didn&#8217;t. Overall, art lovers reported a slew of positive physical and mental health benefits. They had more energy, better general health and improved mobility. They were also happier, less anxious or depressed and had better memory and communication skills. &#8220;Stroke survivors who saw art as an integrated part of their former lifestyle, by expressing appreciation towards music, painting and theater, showed better recovery skills than those who did not,&#8221; lead author Dr. Ercole Vellone, assistant professor in nursing science at the University Tor Vergata, said in a statement. MORE: Study: Chocolate Lovers Have Lower Risk of Stroke The results underscore the value of lifelong exposure to art, suggesting that it can make long-term changes to the brain that may help it recover from injury, Vellone said. Introducing art to patients during post-stroke care may also help by boosting mood — previous research has shown, for example, that listening to a favorite piece of music stimulates the release of dopamine in the brain, which causes feelings of pleasure. &#8220;Dopamine improves quality of life each time it is released in the brain,&#8221; said Vellone. &#8220;Further research is needed to see if other art forms stimulate dopamine release.&#8221; The new findings, presented at the annual Spring Meeting on Cardiovascular Nursing in Copenhagen, Denmark, fall in line with a 2008 study from Finland that reported that patients who listened to music had easier stroke recovery. That study looked at 60 stroke patients and found that those who listened to music for<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=55615&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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