They advise heart disease patients and those at risk of developing this major killer to avoid spending time outdoors in rush-hour traffic. These experts also advocate decreasing fossil fuel usage to protect the public’s health.

Identifying the Problem

Ample evidence associates outdoor air pollution with worsening current heart patients’ conditions, leading to cardiac disease in healthy people, and contributing to premature deaths. Unfortunately, research shows that the air pollution/cardiovascular risk factor connection is bi-directional. Pollutants might exacerbate hypertension and impaired insulin sensitivity while increasing diabetic and obese people’s cardiovascular disease risks.

The authors note that indoor air pollution plays a significant role. When outdoor pollutants enter buildings, most exposure tends to occur inside. The indoor air quality in workplaces, community facilities, homes, and schools can be problematic. Fossil fuels also contribute to air pollution and greenhouse gases in major ways.

Avoiding Health Consequences

Luckily, air pollution is the ninth most adjustable disease risk factor before inadequate exercise, high-sodium diets, and elevated cholesterol levels. Steering clear of air pollution whenever possible can help manage and prevent cardiovascular disease. The authors urge heart patients and other people with high risks of developing cardiovascular disease to take measures that decrease their air pollution exposure through:

• Avoiding walking and biking on high-traffic streets, especially around rush hour
• Working out in secluded park and garden areas that are distant from major roads
• Limiting time outdoors during high-pollution periods, particularly for people with cardiac and respiratory disorders, the elderly, and infants
• Using a filtered ventilation system in high-pollution vicinities to clean the indoor air at home

Storey hopes that cardiologists will include these warnings in their lifestyle advice for heart patients. Taking your primary cardiovascular drugs or secondary preventative medications can help reduce air pollution exposure’s possible adverse effects. Buy your prescriptions for these and other medical conditions from our licensed Canada Drug Pharmacy. Learn how convenient and affordable using a foreign pharmacy can be.

These recommendations should encourage government entities to make air pollution regulation a priority. Policymakers can address this urgent need by decreasing outdoor pollution limits, which also will minimize indoor pollution. The authors urge legislators to encourage or require planning authorities to incentivize housing developments located farther away from polluting industries and high-traffic roads. Using sources other than fossil fuels to produce energy also could provide major health benefits from reducing air pollution exposure to mitigating climate change.

Preventing Heart Disease

Dr. Om Ganda, M.D., and the Mayo Clinic offer helpful ways to lower your heart disease risk.

Don’t smoke.

Any smoking amount is unsafe. Even smokeless tobacco, low-nicotine and low-tar cigarettes, and secondhand smoke are risky. The chemicals in smoke can harm your heart while narrowing your blood vessels, which may lead to atherosclerosis and heart attacks. Carbon monoxide replenishes some of your blood’s oxygen. Your heart must struggle to provide adequate oxygen, elevating your blood pressure and heart rate. Quitting smoking drops your heart disease risk to be near a nonsmoker’s in around five years.

Regulate your weight.

Carrying excess pounds and fat, especially around your waist, can lead to conditions that strain your heart and increase your cardiac disease chances. Losing only five to 10 percent can help lower your blood pressure and cholesterol while reducing your diabetes risk.

Be physically active.

Engage in moderate-intensity exercise for 30 to 60 minutes most days. If you’ve been sedentary, start out slowly and increase your workout intensity, time, and frequency gradually.

Follow a heart-smart diet

. Eat high-fiber foods like fruits, veggies, and whole grains. Low-fat protein sources like beans and fatty fish including salmon or mackerel can decrease your heart disease risk. Skip trans fats from fried fast foods, baked goods, packaged snacks, and margarine. Limit saturated fats from red meats, dairy products, and oils like palm and coconut. If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation.

Lower your bad cholesterol.

Healthy plant-based fats from nuts, olives, olive oil, and avocados reduce your low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, which in turn protects your heart.

Control your blood sugar.

Maintaining healthy glucose levels can protect your heart while preventing numerous diabetic complications.

Sleep well.

Not getting enough quality sleep can raise your risk of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and heart attack. Maintain a regular sleep s

Guidelines Offer Hope to Millions

Researchers report that an estimated 140 million adult Americans, or around 65 percent of the population, need behavioral weight-loss therapy. Some 83 percent (about 116 million) of those also need pharmacotherapy. About 25 percent (32 million) of the people who could benefit from both remedy types are potential bariatric surgery candidates.

The Obesity Guidelines focus on crucial questions regarding treatments while providing evidence-based advice on topics including:

• Which Americans need to lose weight?
• How can doctors determine the amount of weight loss that’s necessary to improve patients’ health?
• What are the most appropriate and effective weight-reduction methods?

Dr. June Stevens, Ph.D., the lead researcher, and her team weren’t surprised to learn that massive numbers of Americans need to take off excess pounds. They used nationally characteristic data to estimate how many non-pregnant adults age 20 and up should lose weight. The scientists based their recommendations on an algorithm combining height, weight, and waist circumference with risk factors such as hypertension, lipid levels, and diabetes. By comparing various demographics, they found that the most likely weight-loss candidates were African-American and Hispanic men over age 45 without college degrees who had health insurance through Medicaid and Medicare.

These results highlight obesity as a serious illness that the public, health care providers, and policymakers should take seriously, notes Obesity Journal’s Dr. Donna Ryan, M.D. The exorbitant numbers of affected Americans underscore the need for widespread obesity management upgrades in primary care settings. With over half of adults receiving weight-loss therapy recommendations, all physicians and registered dietitians should examine and recommend these guidelines to obese patients. Fortunately, well-researched solutions are accessible for most obese adults needing weight-loss interventions. But health insurance companies continue to deny millions of obese Americans coverage for proven weight-loss remedies.

Various organizations are advocating changes. The Obesity Society invites others to join its Advocacy Action Center efforts. New pharmacotherapy guidelines expand on the Obesity Guidelines. This combination will provide a foundation for obesity treatment, which has been lacking clinically. Seeking support from a provider can encourage weight-loss improvement, Ryan notes. Uniting diet and exercising with FDA-approved obesity medications can promote weight loss, especially if lifestyle modifications alone haven’t been successful.

Treatment Options

The intention of both guidelines is to provide evidence-based tools to help doctors recognize and treat any patients who might need extra support. You and your physician should decide together if adding medical or surgical solutions is right for you, Ryan advises. Obesity increases your risks of developing over 30 additional illnesses including hypertension, heart problems, and diabetes. Order prescription drugs for these conditions and a host of other widespread maladies from Canada Drug Pharmacy. To find multiple medication options, shop Drugs by Condition.

Six Weight-Loss Steps

If you exceed your ideal body weight by 100 or more pounds or if your body mass index (BMI) is over 40, research shows that you’re morbidly obese. Losing that much weight takes time and requires persistence. These six proven tips may help improve your efforts.

1. Consume less to decrease your daily calories.Eliminating 500 calories per day will enable you to drop 1 pound per week. Generally, a 1- or 2-pound weekly weight loss is healthy. But combining diet and exercise can encourage more weight loss during your initial weeks.
2. Eat whole nutrient-dense foods.Vegetables should cover half of your dinner plate. Fill a quarter with a heaping whole-grain serving and the other fourth with a small, lean protein portion. Choose low-fat or fat-free dairy products over full-fat varieties.
3. Replace sugary drinks with plenty of water.One study discovered that drinking around 7 cups of water per day helped subjects eat almost 200 less calories than people who consumed under one daily cup.
4. Substitute healthy fats for saturated ones.That means choosing lean poultry, unsalted seeds and nuts, and olive oil instead of fatty animal products. Read nutrition labels to eliminate processed foods that contain unhealthy trans fats.
5. Work out.The Department of Health and Human Services advises that most healthy adults should engage in moderate aerobic activities like walking briskly and swimming for 150 or more minutes per week or vigorous aerobics such as running and jogging for 75 minutes. For some people, 300 minutes of moderate exercising is necessary to drop or sustain weight loss. Each workout period should be 10 or more minutes long. Practice safety by starting slowly and increasing your session length as your fitness improves.
6. Discuss bariatric surgery with your doctor. A Mayo Clinic study showed that this procedure provided long-term heart failure symptom reduction and quality of life improvements for morbidly obese patients.

Smoking-Related Brain Activity Leads to Pain

Northwestern Medicine’s lead study author Bogdan Petre found that smoking affects the brain’s reaction to back pain. Subjects included 160 adults with subacute back pain that had lasted four to 12 weeks, 32 people who’d suffered from chronic pain for five or more years, and 35 pain-free controls. They underwent five MRI brain scans over a year. Each time the researchers examined these scans, subjects rated their back pain’s intensity and filled out questionnaires on their smoking habits and additional health issues.

Investigators evaluated activity in two brain regions that impact addictive behaviors and inspired learning. They learned that this particular circuitry is crucial for chronic pain development. These brain areas communicate with each other. A stronger connection between the two reduces chronic pain resistance. Petre concluded that corticostriatal circuitry raises the chances of back pain becoming chronic in smokers. The scientists determined that smoking makes people less resilient to pain episodes. By demonstrating how a learning segment of the brain permits tobacco dependence to converse with chronic pain, this study suggests that pain and addiction may have a relationship in general.

The circuit in question was active and strong in smokers’ brains, Petre noted. But a significant activity drop corresponded to a decreased vulnerability to ongoing pain among subjects who quit smoking voluntarily during this study. This evidence is the first to link chronic pain and smoking to the brain region that’s responsible for addictions and rewards. Treatments including anti-inflammatory medications helped participants control pain, but they didn’t alter their brain circuitry activity. So the scientists propose that behavioral interventions like smoking-cessation strategies could influence brain mechanisms to relieve chronic pain or reduce its risk.

Dr. Tae Shin, who wasn’t part of this study, reports that nicotine limits blood flow to discs cushioning your vertebrae while increasing your degenerative change rate. Smoking cigarettes also inhibits new bone growth and decreases calcium absorption, doubling your osteoporotic fracture risk, compared to non-smokers. Another study attributed about 14 million major diseases to smoking among Americans. These smoking-related illnesses cost $200 billion and kill around 6 million people worldwide annually.

Treating the Tobacco/Pain Connection

Combining smoking cessation aids and anti-inflammatory or other chronic pain medications may be necessary for relief. Search Canada Drug Pharmacy for medications that treat both conditions as well as others. Learn the online shopping advantages that this pharmacy’s buySAFE seal guarantees.

Your Metabolism May Influence Quitting Aid Effectiveness

Many products are available to help the 42 million American grownup, young adult, and teenage smokers quit. Yet predicting which strategies may help most can be difficult. Almost 70 percent of smokers’ quitting attempts fail in the initial week. Previous studies have inspected the metabolism/smoking cessation aid relationship. But they didn’t test participant metabolisms before investigators made random treatment assignments. And they didn’t include Chantix (Varenicline), a prescription drug.

According to new research, your metabolism might help you select your most effective stop smoking medications. The new collaborative study involving four medical centers included 1,246 smokers seeking quitting remedies. To test their metabolisms, the researchers examined blood samples for the ratios between two nicotine-generating metabolites. These proportions reflect liver enzyme activity that helps metabolize nicotine. This information allowed the scientists to classify 584 people as normal metabolizers and 662 as slow metabolizers.

Then they randomly placed participants in 11-week treatment programs with Varenicline with placebo patches, nicotine patches and placebo pills, or placebo patches and pills. All participants also participated in behavioral therapy. The scientists assessed their smoking behaviors after the final week and during follow-ups at six months and one year.

Among normal metabolizers, the researchers found that almost 40 percent of Varenicline patients hadn’t relapsed, but 22 percent of patch subjects had. For slow metabolizers, these two treatments’ effectiveness was similar. But slow metabolizers experienced more Varenicline side effects. The authors concluded that slower metabolizers may receive more benefits from patches rather than pills. Quitting success decreased at the follow-ups, common occurrences in previous smoking cessation research, but ratios among both metabolizer groups using Varenicline and patches held.

These findings support using nicotine metabolite ratios as biomarkers to improve remedy choices while emphasizing that tobacco dependency is a heterogeneous issue and confirming that quitting smoking option effectiveness differs between patients. Doctors could use this helpful genetic biomarker clinically, notes Dr. Caryn Lerman, the lead author. Basing treatment decisions on nicotine metabolizing rates could guide smokers and physicians to choose medications that will improve their quitting rates.

Positive Outcomes Rise

A research team assessed the effects of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) including Nexium, Prevacid, and Prilosec along with histamine 2 receptor blockers (H2 blockers) like Pepcid, Tagamet, and Zantac on neck or head cancer patients. Study subjects included 596 people with squamous cell carcinomas. Two-thirds used one or both antacid types following their cancer diagnoses. Compared to the one-third of untreated controls, PPIs decreased participants’ death risk by 45 percent while the H2 blocker reduction was 33 percent.

University of Michigan’s researchers suspected that antacids would affect patient outcomes favorably, according to lead study author Dr. Silvana Papagerakis. So their subject review included screening them for typical acid-neutralizing medicines, which proved helpful. Because the scientists couldn’t pinpoint the heartburn treatments’ underlying mechanisms that improved patients’ survival rates, they’ve begun searching for answers.

Patients might take these medications off and on, depending on when acid reflux symptoms occur. The investigators contend that antacids also can help stop cancers from progressing. So extended pharmacological therapy durations might affect cancer survival significantly, Papagerakis added. This study shows that heartburn drugs may provide more benefits than just minimizing cancer treatment side effects. The investigators also plan to examine whether antacids could lower neck and head cancer risks in GERD and precancerous lesion patients.

Cancer Statistics

Annually, about 50,000 Americans receive cancer diagnoses in areas above the shoulders and more than 11,000 don’t survive. For most of these patients, their cancers had already metastasized. Regional nodal involvement occurs in 43 percent while 10 percent have distant metastases. These diverse and uncommon tumors display aggressive biological behaviors frequently. Anotolaryngology cancer history may lead to a second primary tumor. Other statistics include:

Gender:

Men experience 66 to 95 percent of cancers from the neck up. But 80 percent of Plummer-Vinson syndrome cases occur in women.

Age:

Risk raises with age, particularly after 50. Most patients range from 50 to 70, but younger people can develop these cancers as well.

Race:

Laryngeal cancer affects more African-Americans than Caucasians, Asians, and Hispanics. The five-year survival rate for all otolaryngology cancers is 34 percent among African-Americans and 56 percent for whites.

Geography:

High incidences among urban American males may reflect alcohol and tobacco use. Smokeless tobacco (snuff) increases oral cancer risks for rural women.

Risk Factors

According to the Cancer Network, these factors increase your head and neck cancer odds:

Tobacco:

Tumors occur mostly with tobacco use. Smoking raises the death risk by one percent per pack-year. During radiation treatment, smoking doubles the death risk.

• Cigarettes:These tumors afflict six times as many cigarette smokers as nonsmokers. The heaviest smokers are 20 times more apt to die from laryngeal cancer. A study found that cancer patients who continue smoking during radiation therapy have double the annual odds of a second primary tumor developing than those who quit or never smoked. Unfiltered cigarettes and air-cured dark tobacco increase risks even more.
• Cigars:Smoking cigars changes aerodigestive tract cancers’ site distribution. Cancers of the lungs, larynx, and other sites that cigarettes cause happen less with cigars, but cancer rates are higher for other areas like the oropharynx and esophagus where saliva pooling and carcinogen exposure occur.
• Smokeless tobacco:Chewing snuff increases cancers in your oral cavity, gums, and mucous membranes. Premalignant lesions like oral leukoplakia can develop into invasive carcinomas.

Alcohol:

Drinking can lead to laryngeal and pharyngeal tumors. Combining tobacco with alcohol multiplies your risk.

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure:

Sunlight can cause lip cancer. At least one-third of these patients work outdoors.

Occupational hazards:

Research has linked nasal cancer to wood dust inhalation and maxillary sinus cancer with nickel exposure.

Radiation exposure:

This thyroid cancer risk factor also may cause salivary gland cancer.

Viruses:

Evidence shows that the Epstein-Barr virus can lead to nasopharyngeal cancer, and HPV may contribute to oropharyngeal cancer.

Symptoms

Otolaryngology cancers don’t cause symptoms always, and other conditions can produce the same signs. Consult your doctor if any of the following symptoms is troubling you:

• Swelling or sores that won’t heal
• White or red patch inside your mouth
• Painful or painless bump, lump, or mass above your shoulders
• Relentless sore throat
• Offensive mouth odor despite good hygiene
• Voice change or hoarseness
• Ongoing nasal congestion or obstruction
• Abnormal nasal discharge and/or numerous nose bleeds
• Breathing difficulties
• Double vision
• Weakness or numbness from the neck up
• Pain or difficulties moving your tongue or jaws, chewing, or swallowing
• Jaw and/or ear pain
• Bloody phlegm or saliva
• Loose teeth
• Misfitting dentures
• Unexpected weight loss
• Exhaustion

Common Concurrent Conditions

Traditional depression odds are 10 to 25 percent in women and five to 12 percent among men. But a chronic condition raises everyone’s risk to 25-33 percent. Your chances are particularly high if you have a depression history. The likelihood of simultaneous chronic disease and depression rises according to illness severity and the amount of everyday disruption this combination creates.

Scientific evidence indicates that the most common coexisting conditions are chronic pain syndrome, heart attacks, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cancers, strokes, diabetes, and heart disease without cardiac arrest. Order affordable medicine from Canada Drug Pharmacy for these and additional illnesses.

Chronic pain syndrome:

Some 30-54 percent of these patients experience depression. Pain combines an unpleasant physical sensation with an emotional reaction that resembles depression. This condition is depressing while depression triggers and deepens pain. Ongoing pain triples psychiatric symptom odds of developing anxiety or mood disorders, and depression raises your chronic pain chances three times.

Heart attacks:

The depression rate for these patients is 40 to 65 percent. Although mental stress impacts heart health, depression plays a key destructive role after cardiac arrests. Researchers determined that depressed heart attack survivors had a 17-percent higher death risk during the first six months while that rate was just three percent among cardiac arrest subjects without depressive disorders.

Parkinson’s disease:

Depression affects 40 percent of these patients. Besides a serious illness diagnosis triggering depression, Parkinson’s disease involves pathological causes. Brain images revealed that Parkinson’s patients might have an elevated number of serotonin reuptake pumps, which help regulate mood. They reduce serotonin levels, which may increase depression. The National Institute of Mental Health warns that each illness can worsen the other’s symptoms.

Multiple sclerosis:

About 40 percent of MS patients experience depression. This life-changing diagnosis creates emotional stress, but the physical disease process may deepen depression. MS damages your brain’s nerve and myelin fibers. If it impacts the areas you need for emotional processing, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society reports that behavioral changes including depression can occur. MS also can lead to neuroendocrine and/or immune system changes that affect depression. Some evidence shows that immune parameter changes accompany mood fluctuations in MS patients. Certain MS drugs including corticosteroid and interferon medications might activate or intensify depression.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder:

One study found that 40 percent of the people suffering with PTSD developed depression four months after their traumatic events.

Cancers:

A third of advanced cancer patients, a fourth of all cancer sufferers, and a fifth of terminal cancer patients experience depression. Yet under half receive treatment. Any cancer diagnosis can generate anxiety, depression, and fear. The American Cancer Society notes that you may feel helpless and grieve over this dreaded life event that’s beyond your control while also dealing with alarming implications and unexpected body image changes. Unpredictable suffering and death may be terrifying. Nausea, pain, and fatigue are likely to create emotional distress, reducing medication adherence.

Stroke:

Sadness and despair occur in 10 to 27 percent of stroke patients. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, hopelessness might interfere with your functioning while inhibiting your quality of life. Untreated depression may be dangerous because it slows the stroke recovery process. Biological and behavioral risk factors like the stroke damaging your brain, genetic influences, and social isolation may lead to depression. You might be more irritable, experience personality changes, or not follow your treatment regimen.

Diabetes:

Moodiness afflicts 25 percent of diabetics. The American Diabetes Association warns that untreated depression may create problems. Daily blood sugar management can be stressful and overwhelming while causing sadness and isolation. Diabetes, depression, and limited energy can initiate an unhealthy cycle. If anxiety prevents you from thinking straight, your diet may suffer. Skip meals, and your glucose level can plummet while deepening your depression. Even after adjusting for additional risk factors including exercise and weight, depression increases women’s diabetes odds by 17 percent.

Heart disease without cardiac arrest:

Major depression affects up to 20 percent of patients who’ve undergone coronary artery bypass surgeries and up to 15 percent of cardiovascular disease patients. People in the first group who go without depression treatment have greater illness and mortality rates. Depressed cardiac patients have higher heart disease risks like greater platelet reactivity, reduced heart variability, and elevated pro-inflammatory markers. The American Heart Association recommends that all cardiac patients undergo depression screenings.

Research demonstrates that a blend of biological, genetic, psychological, and environmental factors can lead to depression. Combining it with a chronic disease affects people differently. Either condition can cause the other. Depression may stem from an ongoing malady’s biological and physical effects. An illness can bring on difficulties that trigger depression or disrupt healthy functioning, which can impact your mood adversely.

Some serious diseases can necessitate considerable life changes, which may limit your independence and mobility. If doing what you enjoyed previously becomes impossible, sadness and despair may replace your confidence and hopes for the future.

Discovering How this Combination Occurs

A chronic disease that triggers depression tends to worsen, especially if it involves discomfort and weakness or restricts your interacting abilities. Depression may intensify your pain, sluggishness, and fatigue. Simultaneous sickness and depression may lead to self-imposed isolation, which will probably worsen your depression.

A study found that patients suffering from depression experience a lower quality of life with nearly twice the number of missed work or restricted activity days. Besides exacerbating your ongoing illness, depression increases mortality rates.

Recognizing Depression Symptoms

You, your family, and doctor may disregard your depression symptoms, assuming that sadness is typical with your serious illness. Physical medical problems also might mask your depression indicators. While your doctor focuses on your long-term medical illness, he may overlook depression as a coexisting condition that requires treatment. He might not consider that something besides your chronic disease is causing poor concentration or fatigue. So he might treat your symptoms but not your underlying depression. Or he may skip treatment because your physical ailment would depress anyone.

When you suffer from continuous disease and depression simultaneously, you need concurrent treatments for both. Dr. Joan Mackell, Ph.D., advises consulting your doctor if any of these symptoms arise during a chronic malady:

• Lost interest in typically enjoyable activities
• Significant weight or appetite changes that aren’t related to your lingering disease
• Sleeping too little or too much
• Exhaustion that’s unrelated to your chronic health problem
• Feeling worthless or guilty
• Trouble concentrating or slower thinking
• Suicidal ideas or actions

Depression may cause these unhealthy behaviors that can worsen your serious condition:

• Reduced treatment adherence
• Increased smoking and drinking
• Physical inactivity
• Poor diet

Exploring Treatment Options

If your chronic condition brings on depression, your mood can inhibit your disease treatment’s success. Take action to overcome depressive symptoms by seeing a medical or mental health professional for a depression screening as quickly as possible.

Prompt diagnosis and early treatments can ease your distress. Understand your treatment options including medications, psychotherapy, or a combination that can help control any negative thinking so you can view your circumstances and yourself more optimistically.

Seroquel (Quetiapine) will stabilize your mood to help control your anxiety and depression symptoms. Over 80 percent of patients improve with treatments for depression and underlying diseases. When this pairing occurs, adjusting your chronic medication also may be necessary. Search Canada Drug Pharmacy for medications that treat various health problems.

Handling your disease’s emotional components is vital to stop the dangerous descent that these interrelated illnesses can create. Depression treatment can lower your complication and suicide chances while upgrading your interminable condition, encouraging ongoing treatment plan compliance, and enhancing your quality of life.

Coping with Depression During Long-Term Disease

The vicious cycle of enduring illness, disability, and depression can take a toll on you physically and emotionally. Experts offer tips to help you manage this challenging combination.

• First, you must accept your concurrent illness and depression situation.
• Choose expert medical and/or mental health professionals who are trustworthy, supportive, and open to addressing all of your questions, fears, anger, and concerns.
• Study your mental and medical conditions.Understanding depression can help you appreciate the necessity of seeking the mental health care you need. Knowledge will inspire you to get the best treatments available so you can maximize your control and independence.
• Build a support system of relatives, friends, and fellow sufferers.Frequent interactions with people who care about you can help you avoid isolation and fight depression. Consider joining a support group for peer guidance and encouragement. Visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness website to find support and educational programs. Your physician or therapist also may be able to recommend additional community resources.
• Consult your doctor for pain management medications and techniques.
• If you think any medicines could be impairing your mood, ask your provider about switching drugs.
• Serious suicidal thoughts or attempts require emergency treatment.
• Your doctor can recommend a helpful fitness program.Stay active by engaging in exercises that are appropriate for your medical condition and well-being.
• Practice healthy habits.Eating well and abstaining from alcohol and tobacco can reduce your chronic condition’s negative effects and depression risk.
• Maintain your regular routine.Your continual illness is a manageable challenge that you can integrate into your daily life.
• Continue fun activities whenever possible.Connecting with other people, pursuing hobbies you enjoy, and learning new skills will boost your confidence, sense of belonging, and mood.

Veteran Study Results

Previous research determined that dementia patients include five percent of older adults aged 70 to 79 and 37 percent of elderly people in their 90s. Past studies on the association between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and dementia risk have provided mixed results, notes Deborah Barnes, the lead author. So along with her colleagues, she conducted a sizable study to clarify that relationship by considering additional conditions.

The research team examined medical records on 188,764 U.S. veterans aged 55 and up who’d undergone health evaluations from 2000 to 2003 without dementia diagnoses. Each patient had at least one follow-up doctor visit from 2003 to 2012. The investigators examined multiple subsequent effects of head traumas. Even after allowing for other factors, veterans with physical damage histories had 60-percent greater chances of developing dementia as they aged.

Records showed that 1229 veterans had received TBI diagnoses in the initial three-year baseline period. Injuries included concussions, fractured skulls, and bleeding within their skulls. During the second evaluation period, 196 (16 percent) of the patients with TBI histories developed dementia. In addition, 18,255 (10 percent) of those without injuries acquired some cognitive impairment like Alzheimer’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, or vascular dementia. Veteran records were unclear if brain injuries occurred during or after military service and whether patients suffered single incidents or multiple mild head impacts.

On average, TBI veterans developed dementia two years sooner than subjects without such injuries. Because these statistics represent population averages, many affected veterans won’t develop dementia while many without TBIs will. Having experienced a head wound increases you risk. Veterans who’d suffered head shocks were more prone to develop additional medical issues like diabetes, depression, hypertension, PTSD, and cerebrovascular disease than uninjured veterans.

Understanding TBIs

Any impacts on your head that disturb normal mental functioning can cause traumatic brain injuries. Up to one in five Afghanistan and Iraq veterans have endured brain injuries, Barnes reports. But her results apply to civilians as well, due to the similarities among military and noncombatant brain traumas. In war, head injuries from explosives are common, but falls cause the most TBIs among civilians of all ages. Problems also occur following auto wrecks, sports injuries, bullet wounds, and other skull or brain jolts.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, people 75 and up have the greatest TBI-related hospitalizations and deaths. Head traumas are controversial, notes Dr. Rodolfo Savica. Because coexisting health problems were common among veterans with TBIs, he speculates that they may be more vulnerable to diseases. So follow-ups are important for patients like these. He advises telling your doctor about all extra health conditions including mental ones like depression and PTSD.

Doctors classify head injuries as mild, moderate, or severe, based on whether they cause blackouts, unconsciousness periods, and symptom severity. Even though most TBIs like concussions are mild because they aren’t life threatening, their ongoing effects may be serious. Lingering or permanent direct symptoms may include unconsciousness, no memory of your trauma, confusion, dizziness, impaired learning skills, difficulty recalling new details, and trouble thinking and speaking coherently. You also might experience headaches, problems with your hearing, ringing in your ears, blurry vision, nausea, vomiting, disorientation, unsteadiness, coordination deficiencies, and emotional or sleep pattern changes.

But how do head traumas trigger dementia years later? Barnes suggests that a physical blow could contribute to other factors that drain your cognitive reserves. Or TBI could hasten the accumulation of toxic proteins in your brain that affect cognitive functioning. Additional possibilities include blood-brain barrier damage and disrupted axon transport. All dementia forms are progressive, worsening over time. They can affect your quality of life, compromise efforts to control other medical conditions, and shorten your life span.

Reduce Your Dementia Chances

The study authors report that head injury survivors can try to reduce their dementia risks by pursuing mental, physical, and socializing activities while controlling diabetes and hypertension, and also seeking treatment for mental health concerns like depression or PTSD. They linked head injuries to mental health issues because subjects with both risk factors had greater chances of developing dementia than vets with just one condition.

Barnes notes that TBI patients might decrease their dementia odds by trying to limit further head injuries. Consider the potential risks of various activities before pursuing them. Brain protection strategies may help preserve your cognitive health. The Alzheimer’s Association recommends maintaining your vehicle properly, following all driving rules, and always using seatbelts. Also safeguard your head by wearing protective equipment including a helmet whenever you bike, skate, or play contact sports.

While the new study results underline the benefits of avocados for heart health, it’s important to remember that avocados should be eaten as part of a generally healthy diet. And while diet alone may be enough to control blood cholesterol for many patients, others will need to use medication, too.

A Daily Avocado Lowers Health

For the study, which was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers at Pennsylvania State University assigned one of three different cholesterol-reducing diets to a group of 45 overweight and obese people aged 21 to 70. The study participants suffered from no other health problems.

The three diets consisted of:

• A low-fat diet that did not include avocado
• A moderate-fat diet that did not include avocado
• A moderate-fat diet that included one avocado per day

For the purposes of the study, the researchers used Hass avocados.

Study participants began by eating a normal American diet for two weeks, and the researchers measured their LDL cholesterol levels before proceeding to put them on one of the three cholesterol-lowering diets studied. The study participants were found to have an average LDL cholesterol level of 128 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) after two weeks of eating the American diet. The Mayo Clinic recommends maintaining an LDL cholesterol blood level of below 100 mg/dL.

After the study participants ate their assigned diets for five weeks, the researchers measured their LDL cholesterol levels again. Those who ate the low-fat diet had LDL cholesterol levels an average of 7.4 mg/dL lower. Those on the moderate-fat, no-avocado diet had LDL cholesterol levels an average of 8.3 mg/dL lower.

But those who ate the moderate-fat, daily-avocado diet had the lowest LDL cholesterol levels of all — an average of 13.5 mg/dL lower after five weeks. After taking these initial measurements, the researchers re-assigned the test diets so that each study participant ate each diet for a total of five weeks. The results remained the same throughout, suggesting that it was the avocados, and not other, more individualized factors, that caused the drop in LDL cholesterol. The study participants maintained their pre-study activity levels throughout the study, and none of them lost any weight.

Can Avocados Alone Lower Your Cholesterol?

For some patients, eating a daily avocado alone may be able to lower LDL cholesterol levels sufficiently to keep them off medication. However, avocados are expensive, especially when they’re out of season, so eating one every day can be cost-prohibitive. Plus, avocados are high in monounsaturated fats, so other sources of fats — ideally, sources of saturated fats — must be removed from the diet in order to compensate for the added fats from the avocado. It’s also important to note that other cholesterol-lowering diets are still effective for protecting heart health, even if they don’t lower cholesterol as drastically as the avocado diet.

Lead study author Penny Kris-Etherton points out that even though the avocado diet can lower LDL cholesterol somewhat, it’s nowhere near as effective as using cholesterol-lowering drugs like Lipitor, which may be the best choice for many patients.

Incorporating Avocados into Your Diet

Though eating avocados alone may not be a practical way to lower your LDL cholesterol, that doesn’t mean that they can’t form a part of a heart-healthy diet. Kris-Etherton warns against eating avocados primarily in the form of guacamole, since guacamole is often eaten with salty, high-fat tortilla chips.

Instead, eat avocados as part of a salad, on a sandwich or slice of toast, or with lean meats like chicken or fish. Use avocados to make a healthy salsa. Avocados can be used to make soup, and can even be added to a milk shake, or incorporated into a cheesecake. If your avocado is too unripe to eat, ripen it by placing it in a paper bag with a banana or apple and leave it on the countertop overnight.

If you’re looking for a new way to help lower your LDL cholesterol levels, you might want to try eating more avocados. That’s because the results of a new study suggest that eating an avocado every day, as part of a heart-healthy diet, can lower your LDL cholesterol by as much as 13.5 mg/dL. Even if you can’t eat an avocado every day, eating these nutritious fruits more often can protect you from heart disease and may have other health benefits, too.

It doesn’t help that those around you may further confuse you by attributing normal emotional estates to your illness. In order to fully understand which experiences and feelings are part of your illness and which are part of your personality, you first need to learn as much as you can about bipolar disorder and its symptoms. Know what you’re like when you’re not experiencing a depressive or hypomanic episode. Keep track of your feelings, thoughts, and moods. Try to stay in the moment. Don’t be afraid to ask others how they’d react to situations you’re experiencing.

Understand Your Illness

Before you begin treatment for bipolar disorder with medications like Seroquel combined with psychotherapy, you may not realize at all that many of the emotional experiences you have are not normal.

Once you get a diagnosis and enter treatment, your first step should be to learn all you can about bipolar disorder and its symptoms. Read books and articles, attend workshops, join online forums, participate in workshops, and, of course, speak with your psychiatrists about the symptoms you can expect to experience. The more information you have about bipolar disorder symptoms, the better prepared you can be to recognize them in yourself.

Know What You’re Like When You’re Not in the Midst of an Episode

Many people with bipolar disorder go through periods when they’re not experiencing symptoms of the disorder — they’re neither depressed nor manic, and they feel normal. Make a list of qualities that define you when you’re in this space. When you’re feeling neither manic nor depressed, what kinds of things do you like? What do you dislike? What are your thoughts like, and at what pace do they move? What are your speech patterns like? Do you speak quickly or slowly?

It’s important to record in writing what you’re like when you’re in a normal mood, but you should also make sure to discuss it with those around you. Your friends and loved ones need to know how to recognize a return of bipolar disorder symptoms, too. Once the people who love you have a firm grasp of what you’re like when you’re in a normal mood versus what you’re like when you’re feeling depressed or manic, they can also be on the alert and help to tip you off when you’re entering a mood swing.

Track Your Mental and Emotional State

Keeping a journal is a great way to document your thoughts, feelings, and moods from one day to the next. By keeping a daily record of the way you feel and think, you can begin to notice patterns and stay aware of your emotional responses. If you start thinking more quickly or become overwhelmed by a long-lasting, overarching emotional state, journaling can help bring your attention to that.

Live in the Moment

Practicing mindfulness can help you cultivate the self-awareness necessary to identify those sometimes miniscule changes in your emotional state that can pinpoint impending mood swings. Many people with bipolar disorder can tell the difference between “normal” emotions and disordered ones because they feel different physically and mentally, but it takes a bit of mindfulness practice before you can begin to make that distinction.

Mindfulness practice can also help you to accept yourself and grow your self-confidence, which can be a big issue for people with bipolar disorder. Once you learn to accept yourself and your emotions, you have a chance of dealing with those emotions without also having to slog through the burden of all the other emotions you feel about your emotions. For example, it’s much easier to deal with feeling angry with your parents if you can accept that you feel angry with your parents, and you don’t have to also deal with feeling guilty, anxious, or sad about feeling angry with your parents.

Ask for Other Perspectives

One of the easiest ways to identify whether your feelings about a particular situation are normal is to ask others how they would feel about a similar situation in their lives. Of course, it’s important to choose people that you can trust and that don’t suffer from bipolar disorder. But keep in mind that everyone learns how to react to social situations and life events by taking cues from the people around them; there’s no shame in checking your own reactions against those of the people around you.

Bipolar disorder symptoms can have such a profound effect on your mood, emotions, and thoughts that it can take years to figure out who you really are underneath it all. Learn all you can about your illness, discuss your reactions with others, accept yourself, and try to keep track of your thoughts and feelings. With time, you’ll become an expert at identifying which thoughts and feelings are “real” and which ones are symptoms of your bipolar disorder.

BPD symptoms typically appear in adolescence and may develop even earlier. Symptoms of BPD are usually present from the beginning of a person’s life, and they make up the sufferer’s personality — that’s why BPD is known as a personality disorder. Bipolar disorder symptoms, on the other hand, consist of mood and emotional changes that are different from the person’s normal personality, which usually appears in late adolescence or early adulthood. While medication is necessary for the treatment of bipolar disorder, psychotherapy is the most effective form of treatment for BPD.

BPD and Bipolar Disorder Cause Different Mood Symptoms

Though both BPD and bipolar disorder are characterized by changes in mood, BPD mood changes occur much more rapidly than bipolar disorder mood changes. A person with BPD may experience several severe mood changes each day, with emotional states that last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. That’s because people with BPD experience what’s known as affective dysregulation, or overwhelming, unpleasant, and painful emotional reactions to things that are going on in their lives.

Their most common mood symptoms include sadness, anger, paranoia, fear of abandonment, and anxiety. They may react to these mood changes with fits of rage, threats of suicide, and self-harm.

An important point to remember is that most often, mood changes in people suffering BPD occur in reaction to something that’s happening in their lives, usually perceived rejection or abandonment by someone they care about. It’s also vital to note that, unlike people with bipolar disorder, people with BPD do not cycle from sadness, anger, anxiety, or other negative emotions into a euphoric or elated manic state. They go from a state of emotional upheaval to merely feeling not upset for a brief time, and do not experience euphoria.

For people with bipolar disorder, the disordered emotional states they experience last much longer, typically for days, weeks, or months. While it’s possible that bipolar mood swings can occur due to some triggering stress, there often isn’t any such trigger — the mood changes just happen for no apparent reason. While people with bipolar disorder may experience many of the same emotional states as people with BPD — including feelings of anger and rage — they will demonstrate one particular emotional state that people with BPD almost never display. That emotional state is mania or hypomania, characterized by grandiose thinking and euphoria, as well as possible anger or irritability.

Both people with BPD and bipolar disorder will demonstrate impulsivity, although people with BPD may demonstrate this quality as an overarching personality trait, while people with bipolar disorder tend to display it mostly during manic and hypomanic phases. BPD is driven largely by a fear of abandonment, and leads to rocky, emotionally intense relationships, low self-esteem, suicidal behavior, self-harming behavior, emotional emptiness, and anger management problems.

When a person with bipolar disorder is in a manic phase, he or she will talk more often and more quickly, make lots of grand plans, take more risks, seem to have a lot more energy than normal, need less sleep, and appear to be elated or irritable. When depressed, a person with bipolar disorder exhibits classic symptoms of depression. There will often be periods of normalcy, too, in which the person with bipolar disorder reverts to his or her old self again.

Correct Diagnosis Is Vital

Whether you have bipolar disorder or BPD, correct diagnosis is vital to appropriate treatment. People with bipolar disorder need medication to manage the symptoms of the illness. Medications like Abilify and Seroquel can be used to treat bipolar disorder symptoms, as can certain antidepressants. Psychotherapy is also a valuable tool to educate people with bipolar disorder about their condition and help them learn how to manage their symptoms.

Since BPD is a personality disorder, it can be difficult to treat, but with the right combination of therapy and medication, up to 85 percent of people with BPD can experience remission. While psychotherapy is more important for people with BPD, some medications can be used to control mood swings, depression, impulsivity, and suicidal thoughts. Psychotherapy for BPD usually involves dialectical behavior therapy, which can help patients learn to gain control over their emotions, build healthier thought patterns, and have more fulfilling relationships.

Bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder often look so similar that it can be difficult even for professionals to tell the difference. But getting the correct diagnosis can make all the difference to your prognosis. Don’t be afraid to ask your doctor why he or she gave you your diagnosis, and to talk about any concerns you may have.

But depression isn’t the only medical condition that can cause these symptoms. There are also several medical conditions of a physical nature that can cause psychological symptoms similar to those of depression, like hypothyroidism, hypoglycemia, and even vitamin D deficiency. Other mental illnesses, like anxiety and bipolar disorder, can also cause symptoms similar to those of depression.

1. Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism, a condition that affects about 10 million Americans, impairs the ability of the thyroid gland to produce the crucial hormones necessary for metabolic regulation. These hormones affect the way that cells use nutrients to make energy. When thyroid hormone levels are too low, it can have a profound impact on every part of the body, including the brain.

Many of the symptoms of hypothyroidism mimic those of depression, including low mood, weight gain, fatigue, impaired libido, and difficulty concentrating. If you’re also experiencing symptoms like muscle stiffness and cramps, chills, hoarseness, lowered heart rate, and dryness of the hair and skin, you might be suffering from hypothyroidism instead of depression. The good news is that treatment for hypothyroidism is relatively straightforward, and typically requires taking a daily dose of synthetic thyroid hormone.

2. Hypoglycemia

Hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, occurs when you’re hungry and can cause symptoms similar to those of depression, especially if you suffer from rapidly changing blood sugar levels on a regular basis. If your blood sugar is up and down every day, it could be a sign you’re developing insulin resistance and may be at risk for Type 2 diabetes.

However, a drop in blood sugar can cause moodiness, irritability, and other depressive symptoms because hunger triggers the stress response. If you think you might be having problems with your blood sugar, eat low-carb, high-protein meals every few hours and consider having a glucose tolerance test and a serum insulin test, also known as a fasting insulin test, to check your insulin resistance levels.

3. Vitamin D Deficiency

Up to 75 percent of Americans suffer from a vitamin D deficiency, and most don’t even know it. While it used to be thought that vitamin D deficiency mostly causes bone problems, it’s now understood that a deficiency of this key vitamin can cause symptoms similar to depression.

Vitamin D doesn’t occur naturally in very many foods, although most milk, orange juice, cereal, and some other foods in the United States are fortified with this vitamin. Your body can make its own vitamin D, but it needs adequate exposure to sunlight to do so. How much sun exposure you need depends on your skin color and where you live — the quality of the sunlight you receive will vary based on your latitude. If you wear sun block or other protective gear, you may not be getting all the sunlight you need. Ask your doctor to check your vitamin D level and make sure you get enough of the nutrient by eating fortified foods or taking a supplement. Aim for about 600 IU of vitamin D a day.

4. Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder is often mistaken for depression because people with this disorder typically cycle through a depressive phase, as well as a manic phase and a period of normality. People experiencing the manic phase of bipolar disorder often don’t feel that they need help, but they might seek help during the depressive phase — and they might seek it from an overworked general practitioner who has little knowledge of psychiatric disorders and may be willing to write a prescription for antidepressants without referring the patient to a psychiatrist. Many people with bipolar disorder spend more time in a depressive state than they do in a manic one.

However, bipolar disorder is best treated with mood stabilizing and anti-manic drugs like Seroquel or Abilify. Antidepressants like Prozac can cause a person with bipolar disorder to go into a manic phase. That can be dangerous, because mania often causes risky behavior like gambling or unsafe sex. When combined with the right medication, however, certain antidepressants might be beneficial for people with bipolar disorder.

5. Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders like PTSD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder can cause depression-like symptoms, just as depression can often be accompanied by anxiety. Many patients with an anxiety disorder also suffer from depression, and vice versa. While antidepressants can be used to treat anxiety disorders, many anxiety disorders can benefit from specialized psychotherapy — which can only be administered if an appropriate diagnosis is made.

Depression isn’t the only condition that can cause feelings of sadness, irritability, fatigue, and trouble concentrating. If you’re being treated for depression and your symptoms aren’t abating, it might be worth seeking a second opinion.