Eat barley to reduce blood sugar level, risk of cardiovascular disease

You can use barley in salads, soups, stews, or as an alternative to rice or potatoes.

       Barley leads to increase in gut hormones which regulate metabolism and appetite.

Eating a special mixture of dietary fibres found in barley can help reduce appetite and blood sugar levels, finds a new study.

According to researchers, barley can also rapidly improve people’s health by reducing risk for cardiovascular disease.

“It is surprising yet promising that choosing the right blend of dietary fibres can — in a short period of time — generate such remarkable health benefits,” said Anne Nilsson from Lund University in Sweden.

Approximately 11-14 hours after their final meal of the day, participants were examined for risk indicators of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The study was conducted with healthy middle-aged participants who were asked to eat bread largely made out of barley kernels (up to 85 percent) for three days — at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

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80% of heart attacks in men can be prevented through healthy lifestyle behaviors

Due to the results of a recent study, researchers stress that people can save a lot of money and preserve their well-being by living a healthy lifestyle. The study examined various aspects of healthy living as well as the rates by which men experienced myocardial infarction (MI) or a heart attack.

An estimated 1.5 million cases of MI occur in the U.S. each year. This condition leaves the muscle tissue in the heart irreversibly damaged, according to Medscape.

The study's aim was to examine the benefit of a combined low-risk diet with healthy lifestyle practices on MI occurrences in men. To explore this goal, the researchers reviewed detailed questionnaires filled out by men regarding their diets and lifestyles.

Medical records were also examined, which included checking the men's history for cancer, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and high cholesterol levels. The participants included more than

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Fast-Tracking Drugs Leads to Weaker Post-Market Review, Study Finds

By Susan E. Matthews, Everyday Health Staff Writer

New research shows that drugs that are expedited for approval are tested on fewer patients and don't get proper follow-up research.

A new paper out in JAMA Internal Medicine questions whether FDA fast-tracking of drugs is safe for patients.

Researchers at the Institute for Safe Medication Practices in Horsham, Penn., and at Wake Forest School of Medicine looked at track records on the 40 percent of new drugs the FDA approved in 2008 that were fast-tracked. They found that fast-tracked drugs had been tested in fewer patients than drugs that went through the regular approval process, and that required post-approval follow-up studies still have not been conducted on many of the drugs.

“We’ve placed all this emphasis on approving drugs quickly,” said study author Thomas Moore, A.B., of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices. “The questions we left on the table get answered very slowly.”

The researchers analyzed all of the drugs the FDA approved in 2008. Of the 20 that were approved, 8 had been expedited to increase the speed of the process, which is done for particularly promising or novel drugs, or those for life-threatening diseases.

The drugs that were expedited that year were approved after only an average of 5.1 years of clinical development, with the shortest time to approval being 1.6 years and the longest 10.6 years. For drugs on a normal track, the average length of clinical development was 7.5 years, with the fastest being 4.7 years and the slowest coming in at 19.4.  Additionally, the researchers found that expedited drugs had been tested only on a median 104 patients, while normal-track drugs had been tested

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Say Good-Bye to Your Love Handles

If you're not in love with your muffin top, use this easy guide to amp up your cardio to burn those fat pockets and sculpt the muscles that lie beneath.

They’re called cutesy names such as muffin tops and love handles, but let’s face it, no one loves the roll of flab that pops over the waistband of your jeans and ruins the sleek line of fitness clothes, clingy sweaters, and tailored shirts.

“Love handles are one of the most common reasons people exercise and hire a personal trainer,” observes certified trainer Jason Keigher CSCS, CPT, who works with clients in New York City. It’s often after an ab workout consisting of thousands of crunches that frustration finally leads people to get help from a fitness pro.

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High-Rise Living Linked to Lower Survival After Cardiac Arrest

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

The higher the floor you live on, the lower your chance of surviving a cardiac arrest, according to a new study.

Canadian researchers studied 7,842 responses to cardiac arrest calls in private residences in and near Toronto from 2007 through 2012. Cases of trauma and those witnessed by 911 responders were excluded.

When the cardiac arrest occurred below the third floor, 4.2 percent of the patients survived discharge from the hospital, compared with 2.6 percent of those on higher floors. Above the 16th floor, 0.9 percent survived, and above the 25th, where 30 people had cardiac arrests, none lived to leave the hospital. The study is in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The time it took emergency responders to get from the building entrance to the patient was the most important factor in predicting survival. Older age and being male were also associated with lower survival.

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The Health Benefits of Knitting

  By JANE E. BRODY

About 15 years ago, I was invited to join a knitting group. My reluctant response — “When would I do that?” — was rejoined with “Monday afternoons at 4,” at a friend’s home not three minutes’ walk from my own. I agreed to give it a try.

My mother had taught me to knit at 15, and I knitted in class throughout college and for a few years thereafter. Then decades passed without my touching a knitting needle. But within two Mondays in the group, I was hooked, not only on knitting but also on crocheting, and I was on my way to becoming a highly productive crafter.

I’ve made countless afghans, baby blankets, sweaters, vests, shawls, scarves, hats, mittens, caps for newborns and two bedspreads. I take a yarn project with me everywhere, especially when I have to sit still and listen. As I’d discovered in college, when my hands are busy, my mind stays focused on the here and now.

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Irregular Heartbeats? Coffee May Not Be So Bad for You

People with irregular heartbeats are often advised to give up caffeine, but a new study suggests they may not have to forgo their coffee.

Researchers had 1,388 people record their intake of coffee, tea and chocolate over a one-year period, and used Holter monitors to get 24-hour electrocardiograms.

More than 60 percent of the participants reported consuming one or more caffeine-containing foods daily. But the electrocardiograms revealed no differences in premature beats or episodes of accelerated heart rate between caffeine users and abstainers. The study is in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

“There’s no clear evidence that drinking more caffeine increases the risk for early beats,” said the senior author, Dr. Gregory M. Marcus, an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. In fact, evidence from other studies suggests

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Physical attraction linked to genes that control height

Some may believe that chance brings you together with your loved one, but scientists have found a far less romantic reason. Mate choice is influenced by our genes, in part by those responsible for our height, according to research published in Genome Biology.

An analysis of the genotype of more than 13,000 human heterosexual couples found that genes that determine your height also influence your choice of mate by height. This provides more understanding into why we choose partners of a similar height.

Over the last century, numerous studies have found that height was a key trait when choosing a mate, but until now there has been no explanation for this preference. This study investigates both, individual physical traits in relation to mate choice and the role played by underlying genetic variation.

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Why your brain makes you slip up when anxious

As musicians, figure skaters and anyone who takes a driving test will know, the anxiety of being watched can have a disastrous effect on your performance.

Now neuroscientists at the University of Sussex's Sackler Centre and Brighton and Sussex Medical School have identified the brain network system that causes us to stumble and stall just when we least want to.

Dr Michiko Yoshie and her colleagues Professor Hugo Critchley, Dr Neil Harrison, and Dr Yoko Nagai were able to pinpoint the brain area that causes the performance mishaps during an experiment using functional magnetic resonance neuroimaging (fMRI).

Previous research has shown that people tend to exert more force when they know they are being watched. For example, pianists unconsciously press keys harder when they play in front of an audience compared to when playing alone.

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Poor Sleep Tied to Hardened Brain Arteries in Older Adults

Older people who sleep poorly may have a slightly increased risk of having hardened blood vessels in the brain, and oxygen-starved brain tissue, according to a new study.

Both of these issues may contribute to a greater risk of stroke and cognitive impairment, the researchers said.

"The forms of brain injury that we observed are important because they may not only contribute to the risk of stroke but also to chronic progressive cognitive and motor impairment," study author Dr. Andrew Lim, a neurologist and scientist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto, said in a statement. [7 Things That May Raise Your Risk of Stroke]

The researchers had shown that fragmented sleep — which is sleep interrupted by frequent awakenings or arousals — was linked with an increased risk of dementia and cognitive decline, Lim told Live Science. "However, there were gaps in what we knew about

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8-Hour Sleepers More Likely to Be Heart Healthy

by Sara G. Miller, Staff Writer

ORLANDO, Fla. — People who get at least 8 hours of sleep each night are more likely to have good heart health than those who get less sleep, a new study finds.

In the study, researchers compared groups of people who slept for different average lengths of time, looking at how well each group met the seven criteria from the American Heart Association for "ideal" heart health.

The researchers found that people who slept 8 or more hours a night were 2.7 times more likely to meet six or seven of the ideal heart-health criteria, compared with people who got less than 6 hours of sleep a night. [Heart Disease: Types, Prevention & Treatments]

Although previous studies

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Whooping Cough Outbreak: How Effective Is the Vaccine?

 An outbreak of whooping cough, or pertussis, at a Florida preschool in which nearly all the students had been fully vaccinated against the disease, raises new concerns about the vaccine's effectiveness, a new report suggests.

During a 5-month period between September 2013 and January 2014, 26 preschoolers, two staff members and 11 family members of the students or staff at the facility in Leon County came down with whooping cough, according to a report of the outbreak published today (Jan. 13) in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Only five of 117 students attending the preschool had not received all of the shots required by their age. This is the first time a "sustained transmission of pertussis in a vaccinated group of 1- to 5-year-old children has been reported in the United States," the report said.

 It was surprising that this outbreak occurred among a highly vaccinated preschool population, said five epidemiologists who are staff members at the Florida Department of Health in Tallahassee —writing to Live Science in a joint email. "This age group is generally thought to be protected against whooping cough through vaccination," they said.

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Brief Psychotic Breaks Remain a Mystery

 Not all psychotic episodes signal the beginning of a long-term mental health disorder like schizophrenia. In fact, when patients experience one of these short-term breaks with reality, it's not precisely clear how the individuals should be diagnosed.

Now, a new study finds there are no significant differences in the prognosis for patients who have four different types of brief psychotic episodes. (Such episodes may involve hallucinations or delusions, or less severe symptoms such as disorientation, disorganized thinking or speech that doesn't make sense.)

The new findings, based on a review of research covering 11,133 patients, highlight how little is understood about how psychosis may progress, the researchers said.

Not all psychotic episodes signal the beginning of a long-term mental health disorder like schizophrenia. In fact, when patients experience one of these short-term breaks with reality, it's not precisely clear how the individuals should be diagnosed.

Now, a new study finds there are no significant differences in the prognosis

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What's the Difference Between the Right Brain and Left Brain?

You may have heard people describe themselves as strictly "right-brained" or "left-brained," with the left-brainers bragging about their math skills and the right-brainers touting their creativity. That's because the brain is divided down the middle into two hemispheres, with each half performing a fairly distinct set of operations.

Much of what is known about brain function is owed to Roger Sperry, whose experiments examined the way the human brain's hemispheres operate both independently and in concert with each other. The two hemispheres communicate information, such as sensory observations, to each other through the thick corpus callosum that connects them.

The brain's right hemisphere controls the muscles on the left side of the body, while the left hemisphere controls the muscles on the right side of the human

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Mysterious Cancers of 'Unknown' Origin in Men Traced Back to HPV

Some cancers are mysterious, in that doctors cannot determine where they originate and how they will spread. These cancers often are given the unwieldy name "unknown primary squamous cell carcinoma" (UPSCC).

About 4 percent of head and neck cancers are of the UPSCC variety. They may appear in this area of the body, having metastasized or spread from elsewhere, but the specific origin of the cancer cells is not clear. And this lack of knowledge of the cancer type tends to make the cancer harder to treat.

Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore have found that the human papillomavirus (HPV) is strongly associated with UPSCCs in the head and neck area and, more specifically, cancer of the oropharynx, the middle part of the throat that includes the tonsils and the base of the tongue.

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Home Remedies To Treat Obesity Naturally

What Is Obesity?

Obesity is the condition in which a person is overweight and has a high degree of body fat. Obesity is measured by the Body Mass Index of a person (BMI). BMI is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms with your height in meters squared.  A person with BMI 25-29 is considered as overweight and the person with a BMI between 30 and 40 are considered as obese. Obesity can lead to various life threatening diseases like diabetes, heart diseases, some varieties of cancer, stroke etc. obesity can occur in people of all ages. Consumption of more calories and sedentary lifestyle are the major cause for obesity. It is possible to control obesity or get rid of obesity using various home remedies and lifestyle changes.

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Home Remedies For Treating Liver Disease

What Is Liver Disease?

Any disturbances in liver function that can lead to an illness of a person is known as liver disease. The liver is the organ responsible for a number of critical functions in the body. When they get injured or diseased it will affect the proper functioning of the body. Liver disease is otherwise known as hepatic disease. The liver plays an important role in the metabolism of sugar, fat and iron. It produces bile which helps in fat digestion. It is also involved in protein production and the production of blood clotting factors. Symptoms of liver diseases include fatigue, weakness, weight loss, nausea, vomiting, yellow discoloration of the skin known as Jaundice etc. It requires more than 75% of the liver tissues to be damaged to affect the function of the liver.

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