Category: Wellness (Page 55 of 116)

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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Paula Deen Has Diabetes

January 21, 2012 / Staff

Paula Deen announces she has diabetes and has no plans to change her cooking.

Deen, who is famous for her use of copious amounts of fat, butter and sugar, encourages moderation in her defense.

Deen has also signed on as a paid spokesperson for Novo Nordisk proving that she is more interested in being part of the problem than a part of the solution to the diabetes epidemic.

While Deen’s recipes — which promote prodigious amounts of butter and fried foods — may not specifically cause diabetes, eating that kind of high fat and high sugar food regularly can make it very difficult to maintain a healthy weight.
And for people who did inherit a susceptibility, lifestyle can make a difference. That means they may stave off diabetes by maintaining a healthy weight and exercising regularly.

Nutrition, Quality Control, Resources, Wellness

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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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