The Potential Health Benefits of Metformin
A recent scientific study suggests that metformin, an affordable drug commonly used to treat diabetes, may offer numerous health benefits beyond glycemic control. Researchers believe that metformin’s anti-inflammatory effects could potentially protect against cancer, cognitive decline, and heart disease.
The TAME Trial: Testing Metformin’s Longevity Effects
To further investigate the potential aging benefits of metformin, scientists have initiated a six-year clinical trial called The TAME Trial. This trial aims to enroll 3,000 older healthy adults between the ages of 65 and 79. By examining whether metformin can slow down aging and prevent disease in this population, researchers hope to provide valuable insights into its efficacy.
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Personal Testimonials Confirming Positive Impact
Attorney Michael Cantor and his wife Shari Cantor credit metformin for improving their lifestyle. Both in their mid-60s, Michael started taking the drug a decade ago to manage weight and blood sugar levels while Shari began using it during the pandemic due to potential infection prevention qualities.
“I tell all my friends about it. We all want to live a little longer with high-quality lives if we can,” shared Michael with NPR.
Promising Findings from Observational Studies
Various observational studies have indicated that metformin consumption is associated with reduced risks of blood, urologic, gastrointestinal cancers, as well as dementia and cardiovascular issues.
“I don’t know if metformin increases lifespan in people, but the evidence that exists suggests that it very well might,” states Steven Austad, a senior scientific advisor at the American Federation for Aging Research.
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The Push for Further Research and Clinical Trials
Most current findings regarding the potential health benefits of metformin are based on observational studies. Experts like Steven Austad believe a clinical trial is necessary to confirm these associations and shed more light on metformin’s diverse preventive effects.
“A bunch of us went to the FDA to ask them to approve a trial for metformin. If you could help prevent multiple problems simultaneously like we think metformin may do, then that’s almost the ultimate in preventative medicine,” explains Austad.
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The Amazing Benefits of Climbing Stairs: Improve Your Health and Fitness Today!
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Climbing stairs is a simple but very effective way to exercise. This exercise, which offers numerous benefits for improving health and fitness, is an activity that can easily be practiced in daily life. In particular, it is considered one of the most effective exercises for maintaining health because it has effects on both strength training and aerobic exercise. What is the much appreciated benefit of climbing stairs?
Climbing stairs is considered the best exercise for your healthㅣSource: Midjourney
1. Improves cardiorespiratory endurance
Climbing stairs improves cardiopulmonary function by increasing heart rate and respiratory volume. Continuously climbing stairs is considered aerobic exercise and helps improve cardiovascular fitness and circulatory health. In fact, according to a study by Harvard Medical School in the United States, climbing 10 floors just twice a week reduces the risk of death from myocardial infarction by 20%.
2. Strengthen your muscles
Climbing stairs is very effective for strengthening the muscles of the lower body. Since you primarily use your leg and hip muscles, you can develop your hamstring and calf muscles. By strengthening your muscles, you can effectively control your blood sugar level. This is because muscles are the organs that consume the most glucose in our body. In particular, the thigh muscles consume 70% of total glucose as energy, so climbing stairs after a meal can effectively prevent diabetes.
3. Reduce body fat
Climbing stairs also helps reduce body fat because it uses large muscle groups to expend energy. In fact, climbing stairs uses about 1.5 times more energy than walking on flat ground. This is the same level of calorie burn as swimming.
How to climb stairs correctly to protect your joints
When climbing stairs, you need to keep your back and torso in a straight line. Maintain a posture with a straight back, shoulders slightly back and abdomen pulled in. Also, when climbing stairs, point your head forward, straighten your neck and look towards the front of the stairs. This will help you maintain balance and good posture. When climbing stairs, you should step only on the front half of the foot, and it is best to keep your feet in an 11 shape. To protect your knee joints, you need to minimize the bending angle of your knees and be careful not to let the knees move forward beyond the feet.
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#climbing #stairs #health #benefits
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- Topics: Cardiovascular exercise, chronic disease, complications of diabetes, Department of Family Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescence, Diabetes (insulin dependence), Diabetes (non-insulin dependent), diet, Drinking, endocrine system, Endocrinology, gallbladder, health care, health directory, hidoc, Interview with the expert, Liver, mental health, news, Nutrition, obesity, pancreas, Parenting, plastic surgery, recipe, Sex and love, strength training, to smoke, training, Weight loss diet
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The Amazing Benefits of Climbing Stairs: Improve Your Health and Fitness Today!
Heart pumps, what does the safety warning issued in the USA mean?
The Impella heart pumps, produced by Abiomed (Johnson & Johnson group), were recently the subject of a safety “alert” from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US regulatory body: the use of these devices is believed to be the cause of 129 cases of injury, including 49 deaths, in patients with acute cardiac symptoms. Yet over the years, Impella pumps have become widely used in clinical practice and continue to accumulate evidence of survival benefits. Interviewed by Salute, Claudio RussoDirector of the Cardiac Surgery and Heart Transplant Unit of the Niguarda Hospital in Milan (one of the hospitals of excellence for cardiology), clarifies.
Hospitals of excellence: Noemi Penna’s guide 29 February 2024
When the heart can’t pump
There are circumstances in which a heart needs help to perform its pumping function. It happens in the case of acute myocardial infarction, for example: “Ischemia sometimes involves so much heart muscle that it compromises the ability to pump oxygenated blood from the left ventricle beyond the aortic valve throughout the body – explains Russo – In the most serious, the patient can evolve towards a picture of cardiogenic shock: in this case, since not enough oxygenated blood arrives, peripheral tissues and organs (liver, kidneys, brain, muscles, intestine, and so on) can suffer: a extremely critical situation to avoid which it is necessary to support the heart until the possible recovery of cardiac function”.
In these scenarios, heart pumps such as Impella, in addition to conventional drug therapy, can play a crucial role. These are small turbine devices that, through the femoral or subclavian artery, are positioned beyond the aortic valve directly into the left ventricle. Once in place, the microturbine draws blood into the left ventricle to push it past the aortic valve into the peripheral circulation.
Cardiogenic shock, why we need to act quickly and what can be done by Federico Mereta 25 March 2024
The benefits of heart pumps
These cardiac micropumps are indicated in hospitalized patients in critical conditions of heart failure and are maintained for a variable period of time so that the heart can recover. “The mechanical support guarantees good peripheral perfusion on the one hand, and on the other the emptying of the left ventricle – specifies the cardiac surgeon – This is an important advantage because the ventricle, if it does not contract due to ischemia, dilates and consumes further more oxygen, further increasing the infarct damage to the heart muscle.”
“These systems work well: the data says so” – adds Russo, who recalls, as an example, a very recent publication in the New England Journal of Medicine in which the authors, analyzing the results of a multicenter randomized controlled study, conclude that the Impella pumps associated with conventional therapy significantly increase survival in the event of post-infarction cardiogenic shock compared to conventional therapy alone.
Heart door Heart, a micro pump saves it when it shuts down after a heart attack by Federico Mereta 10 April 2024
On the market for some years now, Impella pumps are now widely used: there are currently over 66 thousand in the United States and around 26 thousand in the world. In over 10 years, Abiomed vice president Seth D. Bilazarian said in a statement, about 300,000 have been used. “More and more centers are using them. Obviously, adequate experience and expertise are needed, but they are easier to manage than other mechanical supports to the circulation – underlines the cardiac surgeon – ECMO, i.e. extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, for example, involves more complex installation and management”.
What are the risks?
As with any medical-surgical device, even with the choice to use an intraventricular heart pump (in patients who – it should be remembered – are already critical due to severe heart failure) there are associated risks. “Precisely because it must be positioned inside the left ventricle, the maneuver must be carried out with adequate technique to prevent the pump from tearing or even perforating the wall of the heart or damaging the aortic valve by crossing it. This risk was greater in patients such as the elderly or women, who have smaller hearts,” specifies Russo.
From pacemakers to syringes: sex and gender also make a difference for medical devices by Elisa Manacorda 22 March 2024
The FDA warning (which is not the first that the agency has issued regarding Impella pumps) was necessary not only because of the reports of injuries and deaths (the statement mentions 129 cases of injuries, including 49 deaths) following the application of the devices, but also because the manufacturing company did not promptly report the adverse events to the FDA itself, limiting itself to communicating on its website an update of the risk of perforation and that of the instruction manual for the usage.
“There is no mention of the structural danger of the system, so much so that a withdrawal from the market of these devices is not foreseen – concludes Russo – As the FDA underlines in its communication, however, it is necessary to pay particular attention during the positioning maneuvers of the intraventricular pump, making use of adequate instrumental monitoring, especially in subjects most at risk or during resuscitation maneuvers”.
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Heart pumps, what does the safety warning issued in the USA mean?