Some Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids are Effective

by Dr Alex Jimenez | Anti Aging

A handful of over-the-counter “personal sound amplification products” fared as well as an expensive hearing aid in helping people pick up more words in conversation, researchers report.

While the study took place in a sound booth, “in this controlled environment, some of these devices helped people with mild to moderate hearing loss as well as a hearing aid,” said study author Nicholas Reed. He is an audiologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, in Baltimore.

An estimated 16 percent of Americans have trouble hearing, and the U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders estimates that almost 30 million people could benefit from hearing aids.

But hearing aids can cost thousands of dollars, and Medicare doesn’t cover them, the researchers noted.

“Hearing aids are regulated medical devices and should all be able to aid someone with hearing loss,” Reed said. “While not all hearing aids are the same, they should all be able to meet this minimum requirement of making sound louder at appropriate frequencies and with minimal distortion.”

In contrast, personal sound amplification products, available at stores and online, aren’t regulated and can’t be marketed as hearing aids. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says they’re supposed to be used by people without hearing problems to help them hear distant sounds. The devices fit in or around the ear and make use of Bluetooth technology.

People do use the devices as hearing aids, however, said Todd Ricketts, vice chair of graduate studies with the department of hearing and speech sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. But these products tend to be less technologically advanced than hearing aids, although some offer advanced features.

Should you go out and buy one of the amplification devices instead of getting a hearing aid from a hearing specialist? Some audiologists will refuse to fit you for one, and the U.S. government doesn’t consider them appropriate for people with hearing loss.

For the study, researchers recruited 42 patients at a university audiology clinic who had mild to moderate hearing loss. Two-thirds were women, and their average age was 72.

In a sound booth, the participants listened to sentences with “speech babble noise” in the background. The participants tried to understand what was said without any hearing assistance; while using a hearing aid (costing $1,910); and while using personal sound amplification products bought online and at a pharmacy (one was $30, and the others cost between $270 and $350).

The researchers measured the average accuracy — the percentage of the time that the participants understood the sentences. It was 77 percent without a hearing aid, 88 percent with the hearing aid, and 81 to 87 percent with four of the amplification devices (Sound World Solutions CS50+, Soundhawk, Etymotic Bean and Tweak Focus).

“The results suggest that the devices are technologically and objectively capable of improving speech understanding in persons with hearing loss,” Reed said.

A fifth amplification device, the $30 MSA 30X Sound Amplifier, scored the worst, with an average accuracy level of 65 percent, the researchers reported. Reed said the device caused distortion.

Reed added that the findings suggest that both hearing aids and the amplification devices should be regulated and available over-the-counter. In that case, he said, “the FDA would set technical standards for all of these devices.”

For now, he said, adults with mild to moderate hearing loss may want to consider using one of the devices and consult an audiologist if needed to adjust it.

Ricketts cautioned that “the downside of just trying these or ordering them is that they may not be appropriate. People aren’t very good at self-diagnosing how much hearing loss they have.”

That’s where an audiologist could be helpful, he said, but some won’t sell these devices.

The study was published in the July 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Chocolate is Good for Your Brain

by Dr Alex Jimenez | Anti Aging

Is your idea of a balanced diet chocolate in both hands? If so, you may be onto something — at least as far as your brain is concerned, according to a recent review published in Frontiers in Nutrition. Cocoa beans, it found, are a rich source of flavanols, a class of compounds that has neuroprotective effects.

Italian researchers studied available literature on the effects of cocoa flavanols on the brain — what happens to your brain in the hours immediately following eating cocoa, and what happens when you eat a cocoa flavanol enriched diet for a prolonged period of time.

They discovered that most randomized controlled trials found that cocoa flavanols had a beneficial effect on cognitive performance. Participants showed enhancements in working memory performance and improved visual information processing after having had cocoa flavanols.

For women, eating cocoa after a night of total sleep deprivation actually counteracted the cognitive impairment that such a night brings about. The results are promising for people who suffer from chronic sleep deprivation or work shifts.

The effects of relatively long-term ingestion of cocoa flavanols, ranging from five days to three months, has generally been investigated in elderly individuals. For them, cognitive performance was improved by a daily intake of cocoa flavanols.

In the elderly, factors such as attention, processing speed, working memory, and verbal fluency were greatly affected, and were most pronounced in older adults with mild cognitive impairments.

“This result suggests the potential of cocoa flavanols to protect cognition in vulnerable populations over time by improving cognitive performance,” said authors Valentina Socci and Michele Ferrara from the University of L’Aquila in Italy.  

“If you look at the underlying mechanism, the cocoa flavanols have beneficial effects for cardiovascular health and can increase cerebral blood volume in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus,” they said. “This structure is particularly affected by aging and therefore the potential source of age-related memory decline in humans.”

So should we eat chocolate every day to improve our brains? “Regular intake of cocoa and chocolate could indeed provide beneficial effects on cognitive functioning over time,” said the authors.

“There are, however, potential side effects of eating cocoa and chocolate,” they warned. “Those are generally linked to the caloric value of chocolate, some inherent chemical compounds of the cocoa plant such as caffeine and theobromine, and a variety of additives we add to chocolate such as sugar or milk.”

Nonetheless, the scientists practice their results: “Dark chocolate is a rich source of flavanols. So we always eat some dark chocolate. Every day.”

Recent studies have found that chocolate has additional benefits. British researchers found that magnesium, an essential nutrient found in dark chocolate, helps cells keep track of the natural cycles of day and night.

Need an energy boost? Dark chocolate containing at least 60 percent cacao beans can enhance your energy levels in the afternoon. Volunteers at the University of Northern Arizona University ate dark chocolate or a placebo product, then did thinking and memory activities while undergoing EKGs of their brains. Those who ate the chocolate were more alert.

Popular Prostate Drugs Can Cause Harm

by Dr Alex Jimenez | Anti Aging

Popular hormone-based drugs for treating an enlarged prostate could increase men’s risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease or stroke, a new study suggests.

A group of German men taking the drug Avodart (dutasteride) for three years wound up with higher blood sugar and cholesterol levels than men taking another class of prostate medication that does not affect male hormones, the researchers reported.

“Our small study suggests there are really adverse effects on metabolic function from these drugs that has not been reported previously,” said lead researcher Abdulmaged Traish. He is a professor of urology with the Boston University School of Medicine.

But Dr. Ashutosh Tewari, chair of urology for the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, said the new findings run counter to prior clinical trials of the drug, and do not warrant any change in use at this time.

Still, Traish believes urologists should talk about these new results with patients before prescribing either Avodart or another hormone-based prostate drug called Proscar (finasteride). Both are in the class of drugs known as 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors.

“They should have a clear, open and honest discussion with their patients,” Traish said. “This drug might cause some of these problems.”

However, according to Tewari, “This is an interesting finding which is a little different than the large ‘controlled’ studies. It needs to be studied in a larger pool of patients in a prospective manner.”

The association seen in the study doesn’t prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

The prostate is a walnut-sized gland surrounding the urethra where it connects to the bladder. The prostate produces fluid that goes into semen, and is essential for male fertility. But as men age, their prostates tend to enlarge, pinching the urethra and making urination more difficult.

Avodart reduces production of dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a hormone linked to enlargement of the prostate gland. Treatment with Avodart can cause a man’s prostate to shrink by roughly 18 percent to 20 percent, Traish noted.

“The men urinate a little bit better,” Traish said. “They don’t have to stand an hour and a half in the bathroom at the airport.”

However, DHT also plays an important role in the function of other organs, particularly the liver, Traish said. He and his colleagues are concerned that reducing DHT could have other unknown health effects.

To examine the issue, Traish’s team reviewed records of 460 men treated at a single urologist’s office in Germany for enlarged prostate.

Half of the men had been prescribed Avodart to treat their problem, and the other half had been prescribed Flomax (tamsulosin). Flomax, in the class of drugs known as alpha-blockers, does not affect hormones, but works by causing the smooth muscle tissue of the prostate to relax, Traish said.

The researchers tracked all of the men for 36 to 42 months, performing blood tests and assessing prostate size and function.

Avodart was linked to an ongoing rise in blood sugar levels among men who received the drug, while men taking Flomax did not experience any such increase, the study authors said.

Further, long-term Avodart treatment was linked to increased “bad” LDL cholesterol levels in men, the investigators found. Men on Flomax experienced a smaller but yet significant increase in their LDL cholesterol levels, but also had an increase in their “good” HDL cholesterol levels, the findings showed.

Based on his findings, Traish said he would lean toward prescribing Flomax first rather than a hormone-based prostate drug.

“I would rather have my patient try something safer, and if it works for him, keep him on that,” Traish said.

Tewari noted that the clinical trials that found Avodart effective in treating enlarged prostate did not show any of these other metabolic problems.

Those clinical trials relied on men being randomly assigned Avodart, Tewari said. The men in this new study were not assigned medication randomly, but were allowed to choose their treatment following discussion with a doctor.

The new study also did not compare men taking Avodart to a control group taking a placebo, and relied on past data rather than an entirely new experiment, Tewari continued.

“This is interesting, yet needs to be verified in a controlled setting with a larger pool of patients,” Tewari explained. “At this time, I’m not too impressed with any clinical significance of this study.”

The study was published online recently in the journal Hormone Molecular Biology and Clinical Investigation.

Is This Hidden Condition Robbing Your Strength?

by Dr Alex Jimenez | Anti Aging

You may be familiar with osteoporosis, the so-called “brittle bone” disease, but there is another condition – sarcopenia – that can lead to disability as we age, a top expert says.

“Sarcopenia is an age-related condition that can make walking and daily functioning difficult. It can also set the stage for bone fractures but, unlike osteoporosis, few people are aware of it,” Dr. Neerav Padilya, Ph.D., tells Newsmax Health.

Sarcopenia is defined as condition resulting in age-related loss of muscle mass, strength, and function, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) says.

The condition was first described in 1997, and experts – including the NIH – say it is an independent risk factor for physical disability, unrelated to age or other health problems.

Our bones get larger and stronger until the age of 30, when muscle mass begins to diminish, and sarcopenia can begin to set in, says Padilya, vice president of research at Qurr, a New Jersey based company which makes a supplement that targets the condition.

“We rely upon our muscle mass for our mobility, as well as to maintain balance, so if you start to lose it due to sarcopenia, by time you’re in your late 60s or 70s, this will have a direct impact on your life,” adds Padilya, a researcher and patent-holding inventor.

“The condition also causes a lack of hand grip strength, so if this becomes weak, imagine trying to open a jar of pickles,” he adds.

In addition, a loss of muscle mass may increase the risk of diabetes, he says.

Research studies note that increased muscle mass can help the body handle glucose, reducing the risk of the disease, Padilya notes.

But the biggest danger that sarcopenia poses, says Padilya, is that it predisposes people to falling, and suffering a potentially life-threatening fracture.

“About 50 percent of the people over the age of 65 that die have suffered a fracture, so it is a very serious problem,” he adds.

Since muscle mass begins to diminish in your 30s, it’s never too early – or too late – to take steps to prevent sarcopenia, says Padilya.

Here are his recommendations:

• Make sure you are eating enough protein. Eat foods with protein uniformly at meals throughout the day, not only at dinner. Consume 60 grams of protein daily, or 20 grams at each meal.
• Get up and move. Even a small amount of activity on a daily basis really helps you reduce body fat and maintain muscle.
• Introduce weight lifting and resistance training into your exercise program.
• Make sure you’re getting enough vitamin D. Take a multi-vitamin with vitamin D in it, and also make sure you are getting calcium from milk or eggs. Bone health and muscle health are closely connected.

Drinking Ages Cells

by Dr Alex Jimenez | Anti Aging

The more alcohol people drink, the faster their cells appear to age. Researchers from Japan’s Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine found that alcoholic patients had shortened telomeres which placed them at greater risk for age-related illnesses.

Telomeres are the pieces of DNA that act as protective caps on the ends of chromosomes. Chromosomes, which protect our genes, get shorter every time a cell divides. Once a chromosome gets too short, it dies. Many studies have shown that shortened chromosomes are associated with the diseases of aging, especially cardiovascular disease, dementia, and diabetes.

“Telomeres, the protein caps on the ends of human chromosomes, are markers of aging and overall health,” said Naruhisa Yamaki, M.D. But aging isn’t the only cause of shortened telomeres.

“Our study showed that alcoholic patients have a shortened telomere length, which means that heavy drinking causes biological aging at a cellular level,” he said.

Yamaki and his co-authors recruited 255 study participants from alcoholism treatment services at Kurihama National Hospital in Yokosuka, Japan: 134 alcoholic patients and 121 age-matched controls or non-alcoholics, ranging in age from 41 to 85 years old. DNA samples, as well as drinking histories and habits, were collected from all participants.

“We also found an association between telomere shortening and thiamine deficiency (TD),” said Yamaki. Thiamine is a B vitamin.

 “TD is known to cause neuron impairments such as Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome. Although how exactly TD can cause neural impairments is unclear, it is well known that oxidation stress causes telomere shortening and, thus, it is possible that oxidation stress may also cause neuron death.”

According to a study from King’s College London, one in five seniors drinks too much, which could have devastating effects on baby boomers. “As the baby boomer generation become seniors, they represent an ever increasing population of older people drinking at levels that pose a risk to their health,” said lead author Dr. Tony Rao.

“This study shows the need for greater awareness of the potential for alcohol related harm in older people.”

10 Unusual Warning Signs of Disease

by Dr Alex Jimenez | Anti Aging

Gray hair could be an early warning sign of heart disease. Hiccups that won’t go away may foreshadow cancer. Sometimes your body sends seemingly unrelated signals that something is wrong.

Since the key to treating most health problems is to catch them early, it can pay off big time to spot the tip-offs. And the first thing to check out is your skin.

“Skin is the only organ of the body that you wear on the outside,” says dermatologist Dr. Robert Brodell. “Since it’s connected to internal organs through blood vessels, nerves and other things, it can be like a window to see what’s going on inside.”

Here are 10 symptoms and what they may really mean:

Rash on shins: Formally called necrobiosis lipoidica diabeticorum (NLD), a raised red-brown patch with yellow blotches could mean that you have diabetes or are poised to get it. “Sometimes we see this in patients and know they are diabetic before they know it themselves,” says Brodell, chairman of the dermatology department at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. “In some cases, their blood sugar is normal, but over the next six months to two years, they develop diabetes.”

Splinter hemorrhages: They look like thin red splinters running lengthwise under fingernails and could be caused by endocarditis, a bacterial infection of the heart valves. “You wouldn’t think that someone looking at fingernails could detect what could be a significant heart problem,” Brodell tells Newsmax Health.

Rash on eyelids: This violet-hued rash is a symptom of dermatomyositis, an inflammatory muscle disease that is associated with various forms of cancer, most commonly ovarian. Other symptoms include raised scaly bumps on knuckles and ragged cuticles that separate from the nail.

Skin discoloration: The most common is jaundice, a yellowing of the skin that is a classic symptom of hepatitis and other liver conditions. Less known is a darkening of the skin in creases and old scars that may indicate an adrenal gland problem, such as Addison’s disease.

Tender nodules on shins: A condition called erythema nodosum is marked by red swollen bumps on the front of the legs. Brodell says that while they are sometimes a reaction to medications or oral contraceptives, they could also be a warning of the inflammatory pulmonary disease sarcoidosis.

Persistent hiccups: For most of us, this spasm of the diaphragm is an annoying but harmless problem. But when hiccups last two days or more, they could be an early warning sign of deadly esophageal cancer.

Shoplifting: If your elderly mom or dad starts getting sticky fingers, it could be a sign of a certain type of dementia. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Neurology details how people with frontotemporal dementia lose their sense of societal conventions and may take items in shops without paying for them.

Color blindness: The inability to distinguish between different hues is a sign of Parkinson’s disease. Other odd symptoms of the neurological disorder are writing smaller and swimming in circles.

Earlobe wrinkle: A diagonal crease in one or both earlobes has long been linked to heart disease. Also called “Frank’s sign” after Dr. Sanders T. Frank, the physician who first made the association, this odd symptom has been supported in several studies, though no one has yet to figure out why.

Gray hair: A touch of gray is another early warning sign of cardiovascular problems, regardless of age and other factors, according to a recent study by Egyptian researchers. Heart disease in general can generate several seemingly unrelated symptoms, including bleeding gums, swollen feet, frequent urination at night, uncontrollable head bobbing, yellow spots on eyelids…and the list goes on.

“The reason that heart disease has so many varied symptoms may be because there are many types of heart disease that will present in different ways,” explains Dr. Richard Greenberg, a cardiologist at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pa. “Another reason is that the circulatory system is connected to every cell in the body, so it follows that symptoms of heart disease could show up anywhere.”