Princess Health andMost women are unaware of female-specific stroke symptoms and risks, according to a national survey by Ohio State.Princessiccia

Princess Health andMost women are unaware of female-specific stroke symptoms and risks, according to a national survey by Ohio State.Princessiccia

research stroke survey women's health

Gusty 14:23 Add Comment

Most women are unaware of the symptoms and risks of stroke for females, according to a national survey by the Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center. The survey found that just 11 percent of the 1,000 respondents knew that pregnancy, lupus, migraine headaches and oral contraception or hormone replacement therapy are female-specific stroke risks.

Also, only 10 percent of those surveyed knew that hiccups and atypical chest pain with or followed by typical stroke symptoms are early warning signs. According to the National Stroke Association, stroke is the third leading cause of death for women, and Diana Greene-Chandos, a neurologist and director of the neuroscience critical care at Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center, said, "We have a ways to go when it comes to educating women about stroke and their unique risk factors."

Other symptoms unique to women include dizziness that is not class vertigo, headaches, atypical chest pain and/or numbness of the body, especially if one side is more numb than the other. Early recognition and treatment are key for strokes.

"Women do not think they are going to have a stroke," said Greene-Chandos. "They think of it as a man's disease." The reality is that 60 percent of stroke deaths occur in females and 40 percent for males. Every year, 137,000 Americans die from a stroke. Smoking, failing to exercise and having high blood pressure are risk factors for both men and women. To take an assessment created by Ohio State's stroke experts to determine risk of stroke, click here.

Princess Health andTeen use of electronic cigarettes has tripled in one year.Princessiccia

Princess Health andTeen use of electronic cigarettes has tripled in one year.Princessiccia

e-cigarettes research smoking

Gusty 16:33 Add Comment

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

The number of middle- and high-school students using electronic cigarettes tripled from 2013 to 2014, surpassing the current use of all teen use of tobacco products, including conventional cigarettes, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Data from CDC/CDC National Youth
Tobacco Survey; Image: NPR

The findings came from CDC's 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey,which found that e-cigarette use by high-school students increased to 13.4 percent in 2014 from 4.5 percent in 2013, and to 3.9 percent in 2014 from 1.1 percent in 2013 for middle-school students. That amounts to 2 million high school students and 450,000 middle school students smoking e-cigarettes.

The report also found that the use of traditional cigarettes remained the same for middle-school students at 7.7 percent, but fell among high-schoolers to 9.2 percent in 2014 from 12.7 percent in 2013, the "lowest level in years," CDC said in a press release.

�We want parents to know that nicotine is dangerous for kids at any age, whether it�s an e-cigarette, hookah, cigarette or cigar,� CDC Director Tom Frieden said. �Adolescence is a critical time for brain development. Nicotine exposure at a young age may cause lasting harm to brain development, promote addiction, and lead to sustained tobacco use.�

There is great debate about how safe e-cigarettes are. Most public-health officials have called for them to be controlled by government regulations, including advertising regulations, and say more controlled studies need to be done to determine their safety.

And while many proponents of e-cigarettes say the devices may be helpful in helping some smokers give up traditional cigarettes and are safer than traditional cigarettes, a recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health says that using electronic cigarettes doesn't help smokers quit, and Brady Dennis of The Washington Post reports that another study, published in the journal Tobacco Control, found that the chemicals used to flavor e-cigarettes could prove unsafe when inhaled over time.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has yet to issue new regulations for e-cigarettes, despite its announced plans to do so last April. Meanwhile, Kentucky enacted a law last year banning the sale of "alternative nicotine products" such as e-cigarettes to minors, and local Kentucky smoking bans have slowly been adding e-cigs to their local ordinances. Several Kentucky schools have also added language to their school policies to include e-cigarettes in their smoking bans, with one school official in Webster County recently saying e-cigarettes are "high on every school system's radar right now."

But not everyone sees this increase in teen use of e-cigarette use as a cause for alarm.

�The CDC should really be jumping for joy at the fact that smoking rates are declining. This is a huge success,� Michael Siegel, a professor and tobacco-control specialist at Boston University�s School of Public Health, told Dennis. �Instead, they are using this as another opportunity to demonize e-cigarettes.�

Siegel said that while minors shouldn't have access to any tobacco products, the CDC numbers also suggest that e-cigarettes are not serving as a gateway to traditional cigarettes and might be diverting them away from them, Dennis reports.

Gregory Conley of the American Vaping Association told NPR that the data, which show a decrease in tobacco smoking by teens as they have increased experimentation with vaping "should be part of the discussion."

Princess Health andKynect has an app for smartphones .Princessiccia

Princess Health andKynect has an app for smartphones .Princessiccia

health insurance Kynect technology

Gusty 09:49 Add Comment

Kentucky's state health benefits exchange, Kynect, is offering a free mobile app that will provide "on-the-go" access to the health-insurance marketplace.

The  smartphone app will allow you to log in to your account, browse plans, report changes in your circumstances, take photos of required verification documents and upload those photos directly to your account.

It can also help determine if you qualify for low-cost or free health coverage, get information about your coverage options, find out enrollment dates and learn how certain life events can qualify you to enroll now.

It allows you to log in to your Kentucky Online Gateway Account, look at the status of your health care plan or application, get more information about your current health care plan, access alerts, notifications or messages related to your account and view and update contact information.

And if you have further questions, it can connect you to an insurance agent or nearby "Kynector."

The app is available for download in the iTunes Store for Apple devices or in the Google Play Store for Android users.

Princess Health andBaptist Health is first stand-alone health provider to become founding partner of Shaping our Appalachian Region effort.Princessiccia

Princess Health andBaptist Health is first stand-alone health provider to become founding partner of Shaping our Appalachian Region effort.Princessiccia

Appalachia Central Baptist Hospital economy governor health care

Gusty 18:02 Add Comment

Baptist Health has become the first stand-alone health-care provider to sign on as a founding partner in Shaping Our Appalachian Region, an initiative to improve the economy of Eastern Kentucky.

Baptist will work with SOAR to develop and implement health and education initiatives for residents of Appalachian Kentucky and has committed $150,000 to the initiative over the next three years, the organizations said in a press release.

�Baptist Health understands Eastern Kentucky because we have a proven and time-honored commitment to the health and well-being of our people,� Stephen C. Hanson, chief executive officer of Baptist Health, said in the press release. �Our participation in SOAR reflects this pledge. Besides Richmond, we�ve also got hospitals in Corbin and Lexington, along with outpatient facilities, doctors� offices and other services all over Eastern Kentucky, the rest of the commonwealth and indeed throughout the region."

The University of Kentucky was the first founding sponsor of SOAR, pledging $300,000 over the next three years and winning the right to use the UK HealthCare brand on SOAR materials as well as the university's general logo.

Gov. Steve Beshear and Congressman Hal Rogers formed SOAR in the fall of 2013 to create strategic plans to improve Eastern Kentucky's economy and quality of life.

�Our primary objective is creating and maintaining jobs across eastern Kentucky, and in order to do that, we need a healthy and well-educated workforce,� Beshear said in the release. �I�m pleased that Baptist Health understands the key connections among our efforts and the critical role that health will play in the future of this region."

Princess Health andResearchers discover why common blood-pressure medicine doesn't work for some people: your kidneys don't want to lose salt.Princessiccia

Princess Health andResearchers discover why common blood-pressure medicine doesn't work for some people: your kidneys don't want to lose salt.Princessiccia

blood pressure heart health research

Gusty 11:40 Add Comment

Each year, more than 120 million prescriptions are written around the world for thiazide drugs, which lower salt to treat high blood pressure. High blood pressure affects 28 percent of Kentucky adults, according to the state Department for Public Health. Thiazide drugs often save lives but are ineffective in some patients and only work for a time in others. A study by University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers has found a key reason for the failure.

Thiazides prevent salt from moving through the kidney, causing it to expel salt and water. However, the researchers found that the kidney seems to know "that it's losing too much salt and activates mechanisms to retain salt in other ways," said Paul Welling, a professor of physiology at the University of Maryland.

The researchers studied an animal model designed to prevent salt retention, which imitated the thiazides' effects. They discovered almost 400 genes that alter their activity to assist regulation of the kidney's salt control. Eventually, it might be possible to make drugs that affect the body's mechanisms that control how the body interacts with thiazides.

Welling and his colleagues also may have discovered a "biomarker" that could allow doctors to easily find out in which patients thiazides will not work. When the kidney is working against the thiazides, a certain molecule increases in the urine. "Now that we know more about these novel pathways and processes, we can begin to find new ways to help patients with high blood pressure," said Dean E. Albert Reece, vice president for medical affairs at the University of Maryland.

Princess Health andStudy suggests that adolescent exposure to alcohol can negatively affect learning, memory and behavior in adulthood.Princessiccia

Princess Health andStudy suggests that adolescent exposure to alcohol can negatively affect learning, memory and behavior in adulthood.Princessiccia

alcohol behavioral health children children's health learning disorders research

Gusty 11:44 Add Comment

A study at Duke University suggests that repeated exposure to alcohol during adolescence causes long-lasting changes in the part of the brain that controls learning and memory. The study, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, helped explain how exposure to alcohol before the brain has fully developed can cause cellular and synaptic abnormalities and negatively affect behavior. Kentucky is ranked 9th in the nation for the percentage of children who drank alcohol before age 13 (25.1 percent), according to the state Department for Public Health.

"In the eyes of the law, once people reach the age of 18, they are considered adult, but the brain continues to mature and refine all the way into the mid-20s," said lead author Mary-Louise Risher, a post-doctoral researcher in Duke's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. "It's important for young people to know that when they drink heavily during this period of development, there could be changes occurring that have a lasting impact on memory and other cognitive functions.

Studies had shown that animals exposed to alcohol at an early age do not perform as well in memory tasks as those not exposed to it. The new study, which involved exposing young rodents to alcohol and waiting for them to grow into adulthood, found that the exposure also affects the hippocampus, the area of the brain that controls memory and learning. The researchers measured a cellular mechanism called long-term potentiation, which involves the strengthening of brain synapses being used to learn new tasks or bring up memories. Ideally, LTP should be high, especially in young people. The researchers found that the adult rodents exposed to the alcohol during adolescence had higher levels of LTP, which may seem to be a positive outcome but is actually not.

"If you produce too much LTP in one of these circuits, there is a period of time where you can't produce any more," said senior author Scott Swartzwelder, a Duke professor. "The circuit is saturated, and the animal stops learning. For learning to be efficient, your brain needs a delicate balance of excitation and inhibition�too much in either direction, and the circuits do not work optimally."

The researchers also observed a structural change in individual nerve cells: those exposed to alcohol at a young age have brain cells that appear immature, even in adulthood. "It's quite possible that alcohol disrupts the maturation process, which can affect these cognitive functions later on," Risher said. She also noted that the immature appearance of the cells might be associated with behavioral immaturity.

Princess Health and New Study Strengthens the Case that LDL Causes Heart Disease. Princessiccia

Princess Health and New Study Strengthens the Case that LDL Causes Heart Disease. Princessiccia

cardiovascular disease

Gusty 14:00 Add Comment

There is little remaining doubt in the scientific/medical community that high levels of LDL, so-called "bad cholesterol", cause heart disease. Yet in some alternative health circles, the debate continues. A new study adds substantially to the evidence that LDL plays a causal role in heart disease.

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