Category: Research (Page 45 of 93)

Insurers Don’t Like the Big Business of Sleep Apnea

January 22, 2012 / Staff

Sleep apnea is proving to be a drain on insurance companies.

Snoring was once considered an annoyance, however, research has shown that complications can increase the risk of several serious illnesses, including heart disease, stroke and dementia.

Testing can be a lucrative business, and labs have popped up in free-standing clinics and hospitals across the country. Over the past decade, the number of accredited sleep labs that test for the disorder has quadrupled, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
At the same time, insurer spending on the procedure has skyrocketed. Medicare payments for sleep testing increased from $62 million in 2001 to $235 million in 2009, according to the Office of the Inspector General.

Although the initial cost may be a burden on insurers the hope lies in the prevention of more serious and costly ailments in the future.

Health Insurance, Medicare, Research, Resources, Wellness

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Alzheimer’s Treatment By 2025

January 21, 2012 / Staff

Finding an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s has become a priority for the U.S. government.

Regardless, an estimated 5.4 million Americans already have Alzheimer’s or similar dementias — and how to help their families cope with day-to-day care is a priority, the advisory committee made clear Tuesday.
The disease is growing steadily as the population ages: By 2050, 13 million to 16 million Americans are projected to have Alzheimer’s, costing $1 trillion in medical and nursing home expenditures. That doesn’t count the billions of dollars in unpaid care provided by relatives and friends.

Among the goals being debated for the national plan:

—Begin a national public awareness campaign of dementia’s early warning signs, to improve timely diagnosis.

—Give primary care doctors the tools to assess signs of dementia as part of Medicare’s annual check-up.

—Have caregivers’ health, physical and mental, regularly checked.

—Improve care-planning and training for families so they know what resources are available for their loved one and themselves.

Health Care Policy, Research, Resources, Wellness

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Very Few Are Spending the Most Health Care Dollars

January 20, 2012 / Staff

White, elderly, women with private health insurance are spending the most health care dollars, the federal government reported.

$2.6 trillion the nation spent on health care in 2010 translated into just over $8,400 per person.

But that is not the whole story.

A different study just released by a separate federal agency shows that second number doesn’t actually mean very much.

Specifically, in 2009, just 1 percent of the non-institutionalized population accounted for 21.8 percent of all U.S. health spending. And just 5 percent accounted for half the total spending.
Meanwhile, the bottom half of the population accounted for a mere 2.9 percent of total health spending in 2009.

Health Care Policy, Health Insurance, Medicare, Research, Resources

Care for the elderly Health Care health insurance health insurance cost insurance premiums National health care

Common Weight Loss Mistakes That Are Keeping You Fat

January 20, 2012 / Staff

The most common weight loss mistakes go against everything we’ve learned about losing weight.

Calories in-calories out, exercise and restriction seem like perfectly reasonable ways to shed unwanted pounds; but that is not the whole story.

Running for hours on the treadmill and eating too few calories could be sabotaging your efforts.

A prolonged calorie deficit causes your metabolism to slow.

This is a survival instinct to prevent you from losing weight in times of famine.

When you do lose weight, you’ll be losing both fat and muscle.

This further slows your metabolism.

Nutrition, Quality Control, Research, Wellness

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Why Is Alcohol So Addictive?

January 19, 2012 / Staff

What makes alcohol so addictive?

New studies are attempting to understand the nature of addiction and how to break the cycle with help from our brains.

The University of California study included 13 people who identified themselves as heavy drinkers and 12 people who did not.
Using PET imaging, the researchers were able to measure opioid release in the brain before and immediately after the study participants drank the same amount of alcohol.
Drinking alcohol was found to be associated with opioid release in the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal cortex — two areas of the brain associated with reward processing.

Research, Wellness

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