ouch!Should you be worried about taking ibuprofen or acetaminophen for soreness after a good workout or training session? Yes. After all, they’re drugs and some studies show that when used for this purpose they aren’t even effective.Here’s how to beat the pain naturally:Instead of the drugs, try taking 2 vitamin E capsules and drink some black tea. Vitamin E reduces inflammation naturally and the black tea reduces muscle soreness.Now you can train a little harder and recover more quickly…naturally. And isn’t that what we all want to accomplish?Ibuprofen and acetaminophen are classified as NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and aren’t good for your kidneys in the long run. As always, check with your doctor about using vitamin supplements.*****Dr. Ken Romeo is a Board-Certified Physician in Alternative Medicine, a scientist and a nutrition expert who teaches how to improve brain health, memory, physical fitness and age reversal through lifestyle modification and Nutraceutical supplementation in The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™.Dr. Ken Romeo, The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program ...read more

  Nearly half of all Americans take a daily vitamin or supplement. But is your body absorbing all of the vitamins that you paid for and see on the label?Before a vitamin can be absorbed in your small intestines, it has to be adequately broken down in the stomach. Here’s a simple test to check it out:All you will need is a glass and some white vinegar.Pour a little vinegar in a glass and drop your vitamin pill in. The vinegar mimics the digestive juices of the stomach.If the vitamin is giving up its nutrients at the proper speed, the vitamin tablet will be fully dissolved in about 35 minutes. If it isn’t fully dissolved – you can still see a lump of vitamin pill — then it’s probably time to think about changing your vitamin.By the way, if there’s foamy-like stuff floating on the top of the liquid after the test…the vitamin manufacturer is probably using sawdust as a filler. If there’s a grit-like substance on the bottom of the glass…the vitamin manufacturer is probably using sand as a filler.*****Dr. Ken Romeo is a Board-Certified Physician in Alternative Medicine, a scientist and a nutrition expert who teaches how to improve brain health, memory, physical fitness and age reversal through lifestyle modification and Nutraceutical supplementation in The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™. ...read more

  How much are these people paid? www.8womendream.comIf you’re like most people, you’ve probably used the same brand of deodorant for years. But maybe it’s time for you to think about changing it.Why?When you sweat your armpits harbor bacteria, and just as bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics, it’s possible for your armpits to become immune to the ingredients in your current deodorant.Ideally, you want to switch brands about every 6 months to prevent resistance. Using an antiperspirant will help. You should look for one that contains about 10% aluminum chloride — according to experts in this field. How do you become an armpit odor expert?????????*****Every once in a while I need a break from writing about health, medicine, running, diet, etc. Hope you enjoyed this and learned something. ...read more

  The Grim Reaper: masterofink.comMany people get all fired-up about their new exercise program, overdo it and forget this important fact: EXERCISECANCAUSE A FATAL HEART ATTACK! (so start slow and check with your doctor first)How does this happen?It has to do with what are called “oxygen differential lines” – part of the heart is well nourished with oxygen and another part of the heart is not.The line between the part that is well nourished (pink) and the part that is not well nourished (blue, which is probably due to narrowing of the small arteries because of plaque) causes the event.The differential causes a variance in the electric potentials of the two parts of the heart – the under-oxygenated blue part causes the normal pink part of the heart to have a drop in voltage. This can cause the heart to flutter and unless medical help is available, you’re pretty much done for.To a great extent this can be corrected with exercise which produces collateral arterial growth which enriches the blood supply to the oxygen starved portion of the heart.Please don’t make the mistake of believing that exercise alone can prevent plaque from forming in the arteries.It can’t.ONLY diet + exercise can prevent plaques from forming in the arteries.*****Dr. Ken Romeo is a Board-Certified Physician in Alternative Medicine, a scientist and a nutrition expert who teaches how to improve brain health, memory, physical fitness and age reversal through lifestyle modification and Nutraceutical supplementation in The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™. Dr. Romeo has been studying, writing and “speaking out” about the effects of lifestyle on disease for over 10 years.Dr. Ken Romeo, The Romeo OptiLIFE Health ProgramDr. Romeo’s entire practice and program are designed to help people feel better, look better, live longer and avoid, reverse or control those “diseases of age” that modern society has come to believe are inevitable in their senior years like heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, arthritis, slowed thinking, impaired memory, hearing loss and some forms of cancer to name a few.Dr. Romeo’s practice is located in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Romeo does not engage in the practice of medicine in the State of Nevada. ...read more

  All politics aside, Michelle Obama’s “War on Childhood Obesity” is admirable. Childhood obesity leads to adult obesity which leads to type-II diabetes, coronary artery disease and host of other diseases which lead to an often painful and early death.So exactly when and wheredoesthe War on Childhood Obesity begin?It actually begins inyourbody during pregnancy!Medical science has demonstrated that expectant mothers who gain large amounts of weight tend to give birth to heavier infants who are at higher risk for obesity later in life. But it’s never been proven that this tendency results from the weight gain itself rather than genetic or other factors that a mother and baby share. A large population-based study from Children’s Hospital Boston which looked at two or more pregnancies in the same mother, now provides evidence that excess maternal weight gain is a strong, independent predictor of high birth weight.The study, which was published in TheLancet, highlighted the importance of weight management efforts by the mother before giving birth to her child. This may be one of the best gifts that a mother can give to an unborn child besides eating a proper diet, having regular doctor check-ups, not smoking or drinking alcohol and using Nutraceutical supplementation under the advice of a physician.High birth weight increases risk for obesity and diseases such as cancer and asthma later in life. While it’s appropriate for a baby to be born with some fat, a baby born too fat indicates that the fetus developed in an abnormal environment during the most critical nine months of life.Animal studies suggest that excess maternal weight or excess weight gain during pregnancy affects the uterine environment, producing changes in the hypothalamus, pancreatic islet cells, fat tissue and other systems that regulate body weight. Hormones and metabolic pathways, and even the structure of tissues and organs that play a role in body weight maintenance are affected.In the study, The Department of Economics at Columbia University used statewide birth records to examine all known singleton births in Michigan and New Jersey from 1989 through 2003. They identified mothers with two or more live births, allowing a comparison of pregnancies in the same mother. Infants born before 37 weeks or after 41 weeks of gestation were excluded, as were mothers with diabetes and infants with extremely low or high birth weights. This left 513,501 women and 1,164,750 infants for analysis. This is a very large study population by any standard.On average, the women gained an average of 30 pounds during their pregnancies, but with much variation; 12 percent of pregnancies involved weight gains of more than 44 pounds. High-birth-weight babies (8.8 lbs or more) accounted for 12 percent of all births.“When comparing between siblings to control for genetic influences, we found that increasing amounts of maternal weight gain led to the birth of progressively heavier infants,” said Dr. Ludwig, the study’s author.Compared to those gaining just 18-22 pounds, expectant mothers gaining 44-49 pounds were 1.7 times more likely to have a high-birth-weight baby, and those gaining more than 53 pounds were 2.3 times more likely to do so. The pattern was the same after excluding women who had ever smoked, those who delivered by caesarean section, and those who had any pregnancy of less than 39 weeks or more than 40 weeks.Recently updated guidelines from the Institute of Medicine suggest that women gain 28 to 40 pounds if underweight at the start of pregnancy, 25 to 35 pounds if they are normal weight, 15 to 25 pounds if overweight, and 11 to 20 pounds if obese. Talk to your doctor about these guidelines.*****Dr. Ken Romeo is a Board-Certified Physician in Alternative Medicine, a scientist and a nutrition expert who teaches how to improve brain health, memory, physical fitness and age reversal through lifestyle modification and Nutraceutical supplementation in The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™. Dr. Romeo has been studying, writing and “speaking out” about the effects of lifestyle on disease for over 10 years.Dr. Romeo’s practice is located in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Romeo does not engage in the practice of medicine in the State of Nevada. ...read more

  It’s Spring. It’s training season. It’s 174 days to the Olympic Games. And if you’re a serious female athlete….It’s time to check your iron levels!Female athletes with low levels of iron in their bodies, yet who are not anemic, may be at a disadvantage even before their competitive season starts and could benefit from early screening and monitoring for anemia and low iron reserves at the beginning of the training season. This is not news to any female athlete following The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™, but it may be news to the rest of you.A new study which confirms what I have been telling my female athlete clients for years was just published in theInternational Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.It examined the iron levels of college-age female rowers at the beginning of the training season and sought to determine the link between iron deficiency without anemia and the athletes’ rowing performance.The authors studied iron levels in 165 non-anemic women rowers from five colleges in central New York State.Those who had lower iron levels were 21 seconds slower in a simulated 2-kilometer race than rowers with normal iron levels.This is a pretty big deal if you are a competitive athlete.Iron deficiency is the most common nutrient deficiency in the world. In the United States, anemia affects 3 percent to 5 percent of the population of premenopausal women; iron depletion — not at the level of anemia — affects 16 percent, the authors write.Compared with sedentary women, female athletes are more susceptible to low iron levels. And the consequences may hit female athletes harder. Low iron reduces their endurance and the efficiency with which they use energy, and it increases muscle fatigue.Iron is an essential component of blood hemoglobin and when a deficiency results in anemia it plays an important role in oxygen transport and use. When people consume iron-deficient diets (which is impossible to do on The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program) or when other factors cause them to become iron deficient, they first deplete their iron stores in the liver; at the final stage of iron depletion, they become anemic due to insufficient iron to produce new red blood cells.I recommend female endurance athletes get early screening not only for anemia but also for low iron reserves; and that female athletes take iron supplements at the beginning of a season to prevent decreases in iron levels throughout the training and competitive periods — since I am not there to see you personally,only take iron supplements upon the recommendation of your physician. Iron supplementation can be dangerous and should only be done under the care of a qualified physician.Be sure to ask your doctor about this at your next physical examination if you are a serious athlete.Other studies have shown that iron supplementation improves resistance to fatigue and endurance capacity in non-athletes with low levels of iron. Athletes with a history of anemia or iron deficiency should also regularly monitor their iron levels.*****Dr. Ken Romeo is a Board-Certified Physician in Alternative Medicine, a scientist and a nutrition expert who teaches how to improve brain health, memory, physical fitness and age reversal through lifestyle modification and Nutraceutical supplementation in The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™. Dr. Romeo has been studying, writing and “speaking out” about the effects of lifestyle on disease for over 10 years.Dr. Romeo currently serves on the Medical Committee of the United States Olympic Team at USA Boxing. He formerly worked in professional sports on the medical staff of the Astros, World Cup Indoor Soccer League, US Women’s National Boxing Team, Australian Men’s Olympic Boxing Team and in professional boxing and mixed martial arts.Dr. Romeo’s entire practice and program are designed to help people feel better, look better, live longer and avoid, reverse or control those “diseases of age” that modern society has come to believe are inevitable in their senior years like heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, arthritis, slowed thinking, impaired memory, hearing loss and some forms of cancer to name a few.Dr. Romeo’s practice is located in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Romeo does not engage in the practice of medicine in the State of Nevada. ...read more

  Bloggers come and bloggers go – especially in the field of health.Lose 30 Pounds in 30 Days on The GREEN SLIME Diet! Who could resist this tempting offer?Seems like every week a new personal blog emerges that will reveal the ultimate weight loss and health program and we readers get a day-by-day blow of the author trying a myriad of shakes, tonics, wild exercise routines and attempts to lose 30 or 40 pounds in a month, regain youthful vitality, and look like a Cover Girl or GQ model.They always fail. But I root for them none the less. And they only seem to stick around for about 30 Days. I call it the 30-Day Fizzle.Drastic measures can certainly produce drastic results in your health in a very short period of time, but in The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™ we strive for balance and long-term results.Our program addresses all the known risk factors for heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, and we counsel you to have an all-encompassing vision of your own life and activity. Too much of any one thing will cause damage – imbalance.Healthy change means makingmore thanone decision!This may be the most important realization that you can make and it’s certainly central to The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™. Good health comes as the result of the intermeshing of so many different factors – a good diet, a good exercise program, a good handle on the challenges of life – and each of these factors means making what are oftensmall but crucial changesin what you eat and how you live.Long term health will never come from addressing only one disease risk factor…you have to consider them all and work on them slowly and steadily.*****Dr. Ken Romeo is a Board-Certified Physician in Alternative Medicine, a scientist and a nutrition expert who teaches how to improve brain health, memory, physical fitness and age reversal through lifestyle modification and Nutraceutical supplementation in The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™. Dr. Romeo has been studying, writing and “speaking out” about the effects of lifestyle on disease for over 10 years.Dr. Romeo’s entire practice and program are designed to help people feel better, look better, live longer and avoid, reverse or control those “diseases of age” that modern society has come to believe are inevitable in their senior years like heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, arthritis, slowed thinking, impaired memory, hearing loss and some forms of cancer to name a few.Dr. Romeo’s practice is located in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Romeo does not engage in the practice of medicine in the State of Nevada. ...read more

  Bloggers come and bloggers go – especially in the field of health.Lose 30 Pounds in 30 Days on The GREEN SLIME Diet! Who could resist this tempting offer?Seems like every week a new personal blog emerges that will reveal the ultimate weight loss and health program and we readers get a day-by-day blow of the author trying a myriad of shakes, tonics, wild exercise routines and attempts to lose 30 or 40 pounds in a month, regain youthful vitality, and look like a Cover Girl or GQ model.They always fail. But I root for them none the less. And they only seem to stick around for about 30 Days. I call it the 30-Day Fizzle.Drastic measures can certainly produce drastic results in your health in a very short period of time, but in The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™ we strive for balance and long-term results.Our program addresses all the known risk factors for heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, and we counsel you to have an all-encompassing vision of your own life and activity. Too much of any one thing will cause damage – imbalance.Healthy change means makingmore thanone decision!This may be the most important realization that you can make and it’s certainly central to The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™. Good health comes as the result of the intermeshing of so many different factors – a good diet, a good exercise program, a good handle on the challenges of life – and each of these factors means making what are oftensmall but crucial changesin what you eat and how you live.Long term health will never come from addressing only one disease risk factor…you have to consider them all and work on them slowly and steadily.*****Dr. Ken Romeo is a Board-Certified Physician in Alternative Medicine, a scientist and a nutrition expert who teaches how to improve brain health, memory, physical fitness and age reversal through lifestyle modification and Nutraceutical supplementation in The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™. Dr. Romeo has been studying, writing and “speaking out” about the effects of lifestyle on disease for over 10 years.Dr. Romeo’s entire practice and program are designed to help people feel better, look better, live longer and avoid, reverse or control those “diseases of age” that modern society has come to believe are inevitable in their senior years like heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, arthritis, slowed thinking, impaired memory, hearing loss and some forms of cancer to name a few.Dr. Romeo’s practice is located in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Romeo does not engage in the practice of medicine in the State of Nevada. ...read more

  This article is meant for “medical geeks only” that want a little more knowledge regarding cancer and state-of-the-art treatments. We’re talking “the future” here…If you’ve read my blog for any length of time or are following The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™ you know that the best place for sugar is in the garbage can. Few substances cause more harm to our bodies than consuming excess sugar, but scientists working at the Medical Research Council have identified changes in the patterns of sugar molecules that line pre-cancerous cells in the esophagus, a condition called Barrett’s dysplasia, making it much easier to detect and remove these cells before they develop into esophageal cancer.Esophageal cancer is the eighth leading cause of cancer deaths for men in the United States. Moreover, the number of people diagnosed with this disease is increasing rapidly. Individuals with a pre-cancerous condition known as Barrett’s esophagus are at an increased risk of developing esophageal cancer, and need to be closely monitored to make sure that the disease is not progressing.Dysplasia offers a stage at which cancer can be prevented by removing these cells. However correctly identifying these areas has proved to be problematic, as they can easily be missed during endoscopy and biopsy, which only take samples from a small part of the esophagus. This can result in false reassurance for patients in whom their dysplasia has been missed, and conversely those without dysplasia having to undergo further unnecessary treatments.Researchers discovered a new mechanism for identifying Barrett’s dysplasia cells by spraying on a fluorescent probe that sticks to sugars and lights up any abnormal areas during endoscopy. By analyzing the natural sugars present in human tissue samples taken from different stages on the pathway to cancer, they found that there were different sugar molecules present on the surface of the pre-cancerous cells.This technology uses sugar binding proteins, known as lectins, to identify changes in sugars and pinpointed carbohydrate binding wheat germ proteins as a potential diagnostic. When the wheat germ proteins, attached to a fluorescent tag that glows under a specific type of light, were sprayed onto tissue samples, it showed decreased binding in areas of dysplasia, and these cells were clearly marked compared with the glowing green background.Bottom line: researchers have demonstrated that binding of a wheat germ protein, which is cheap and non-toxic, can identify differences in surface sugars on pre-cancerous cells. When coupled with fluorescence imaging using an endoscopic camera, this technique offers a promising new way of finding and then treating patients with the highest risk of developing esophageal cancer, at the earliest stage.These findings were reported in the journalNature Medicine, and have important implications for patients and may help to monitor their condition and prevent the development of cancer.This is going to save some lives!****Dr. Ken Romeo is a Board-Certified Physician in Alternative Medicine, a scientist and a nutrition expert who teaches how to improve brain health, memory, physical fitness and age reversal through lifestyle modification and Nutraceutical supplementation in The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™. Dr. Romeo has been studying, writing and “speaking out” about the effects of lifestyle on disease for over 10 years.Dr. Romeo’s entire practice and program are designed to help people feel better, look better, live longer and avoid, reverse or control those “diseases of age” that modern society has come to believe are inevitable in their senior years like heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, arthritis, slowed thinking, impaired memory, hearing loss and some forms of cancer to name a few.Dr. Romeo’s practice is located in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Romeo does not engage in the practice of medicine in the State of Nevada. ...read more

  I am asked this question all the time so I thought I’d put this issue to rest once-and-for-all. This answer is from my upcoming book,The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™which explains exercise and its relationship to health in greater detail. The following advice applies to athletes of all levels — from an Olympian to a person covering from a heart attack.“It’s better not to exercise if you’re ill or have a fever or muscle aches, since your body is already under stress and additional stress could be harmful. After even a minor illness, you should resume your exercise program cautiously. Although you may be anxious to get started again, cut your program back by about one-third if you’ve missed more than a week of exercise, and check with your doctor before resuming if you’ve been extremely sick.Don’t be discouraged if you seem more out of shape than you want to be. The wisest and medically prudent thing to do is to build back up to your previous fitness level carefully.”***Dr. Romeo currently serves on the Medical Committee of the United States Olympic Team at USA Boxing. He formerly worked in professional sports on the medical staff of the Astros, World Cup Indoor Soccer League, US Women’s National Boxing Team, Australian Men’s Olympic Boxing Team and in professional boxing and mixed martial arts.Dr. Ken Romeo is a Board-Certified Physician in Alternative Medicine, a scientist and a nutrition expert who teaches how to improve brain health, memory, physical fitness and age reversal through lifestyle modification and Nutraceutical supplementation in The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™. Dr. Romeo has been studying, writing and “speaking out” about the effects of lifestyle on disease for over 10 years.Dr. Romeo’s entire practice and program are designed to help people feel better, look better, live longer and avoid, reverse or control those “diseases of age” that modern society has come to believe are inevitable in their senior years like heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, arthritis, slowed thinking, impaired memory, hearing loss and some forms of cancer to name a few.Dr. Romeo’s practice is located in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Romeo does not engage in the practice of medicine in the State of Nevada. ...read more

  We all know that eating fish is a good idea for adults because some fish are loaded with long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (DHA) which contributes to our brain function and heart health. But could eating fish during pregnancy have a positive effect on the brain function of an unborn child and boost its brainpower?The findings of a study, presented in theAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition, show how children born to women who consumed more fish during their pregnancies demonstrated improved outcomes in tests for verbal intelligence, fine motor skills and social behavior.Oily fish is the leading source of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a key structural component of cells and particularly the cell membranes of the brain. The European Commission supports health claims that DHA ‘contributes to the normal brain development of the fetus and breastfed infants and to the normal development of the eye of the fetus and breastfed infants’. (EFSA Journal2011;9(4):2078)In the NUTRIMENTHE study, the researchers investigated how fish mediate the effect and genetic variation on brainpower. The project partners focused primarily on polymorphisms in the fatty acid desaturase (FADS) gene cluster that codes for the enzymes delta-5 and delta-6 desaturase involved in the synthesis of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.Using blood samples taken from more than 2,000 women at 20 weeks of pregnancy and from the umbilical cord at birth, researchers assessed omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and the genotyping of 18 FADS single nucleotide polymorphisms. The team supplied omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids to the developing child by placental transfer via the umbilical cord. How maternal and child FADS genotypes impact the levels of these fatty acids had not been investigated until now.In this study, the research team discovered how polymorphisms in the FADS gene cluster affect fatty acids in women during pregnancy. According to the researchers, the composition of fatty acids in cord blood needs maternal and child genotypes, such that maternal genotypes are primarily associated with omega-6 precursors, and that child genotypes are mainly linked to omega-6 products. They also found that the DHA amounts were equally associated with maternal and child genotypes.In a previous study, researchers had found that consumption of fish during pregnancy is associated with verbal intelligence quotient (IQ) at age 8, but what does fish have that mediates the effect?While the study identified how eating fish is associated with maternal levels of DHA, no data has emerged on whether maternal DHA levels are directly related to outcomes in children. The NUTRIMENTHE project, which is expected to end in 2013, will work at resolving this issue.The NUTRIMENTHE partners hosted a symposium called ‘Nutrition and Cognitive Function’ at the European Nutrition Conference in Madrid in late October of 2011. Researchers from Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States are part of the NUTRIMENTHE consortium. (EFSA Journal2011;9(4):2078)More information:http://www.nutrimenthe.eu/Eating fish is good for adults and it may prove to be beneficial for an unborn child.*****Dr. Ken Romeo is a Board-Certified Physician in Alternative Medicine, a scientist and a nutrition expert who teaches how to improve brain health, memory, physical fitness and age reversal through lifestyle modification and Nutraceutical supplementation in The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™. Dr. Romeo has been studying, writing and “speaking out” about the effects of lifestyle on disease for over 10 years.Dr. Romeo’s entire practice and program are designed to help people feel better, look better, live longer and avoid, reverse or control those “diseases of age” that modern society has come to believe are inevitable in their senior years like heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, arthritis, slowed thinking, impaired memory, hearing loss and some forms of cancer to name a few.Dr. Romeo’s practice is located in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Romeo does not engage in the practice of medicine in the State of Nevada. ...read more

  In a recent study published in the journalNeurology, scientists say that individuals who develop early-onset Alzheimer’s in middle age are at a high risk of being misdiagnosed because many of their initial symptoms are not memory related.Dr. Ken RomeoScientists, led by Dr. Albert Llado from the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, examined the brain tissue from 40 patients who had suffered from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Of these 40 patients, 15 had not shown any of the typical signs of memory loss.The patients had displayed language disturbances, vision problems and behavioral changes.Out of these 15 patients, 53 percent had been misdiagnosed with neurological disorders and other forms of dementia, with 47 percent still having the incorrect diagnosis at their time of death. Of the patients that did show signs of memory loss, only four percent had been misdiagnosed at the beginning.Early-onset Alzheimer’s usually hits patients between the ages of 40 and 60, and this study stresses the importance in recognizing that memory loss is not always an initial symptom. While there is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s, there is medication and behavioral treatment designed to delay the progression of the disease. In all 40 patients in the study, there was a delay of almost three years before a diagnosis was given, even in those with memory issues. The scientists believe this is because most physicians do not look for dementia and Alzheimer’s in patients in this age group.Dr. Ken Romeo, “The Alzheimer’s Doc,” is a Board-Certified Physician in Alternative Medicine. He is also the inventor ofBrainWaves™,Tools That Measure the Mind and Motor Skills of Seniors.BrainWaves™products are sold worldwide to professional Caregivers, and to families that have been affected by Alzheimer’s disease.His practice in the field of nutrition, brain health, cognition and healthy aging is located in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Romeo does not engage in the practice of medicine in the State of Nevada. ...read more

  Dr. Ken RomeoAlzheimer’s disease has become the 6 leading cause of death in the United States. And patients, especially those in nursing homes, die too often with many distressing symptoms and are subject to burdensome interventions because dementia is under recognized as a terminal illness by many doctors.Recently, a retrospective study was conducted that examined the clinically relevant characteristics of nursing home residents with advanced dementia 90 days prior to death. The data pool of the study included 1,581 Medicare/Medicaid certified nursing homes in 5 US States and identified 62,174 individuals (mean age of 84 years, 73% female) with Alzheimer’s disease who died during the years 1998-2000. This is my kind of study because it is large enough to allow us to draw meaningful conclusions about the data collected.At the last assessment immediately preceding death, which was on average between 90-100 days prior to death, 50% of residents were considered in “unstable condition,” but only 2% were judged to be in a terminal state and thus were not referred to hospice care.Pain was present in 38% of the nursing home residents, agitation in 39% (See my article on Aggression in Alzheimer’s Disease), with pressure ulcers in 18% of the patients; a feeding tube was in place on 14% of the residents.Twenty six percent of residents were prescribed antipsychotics and an additional 4% were physically restrained. Nursing home diagnoses of infectious disease were as follows: pneumonia 6%, urinary tract infection 13%, and septicemia 1%. As many as 18% of the residents had a hospitalization or an emergency room visit in the 90 days preceding death. This is most likely where palliative care should have been prescribed.Nursing homes are increasingly the place of death for patients with advanced dementia. Distressing symptoms and burdensome interventions are common among such patients. This study underscores the need to improve the quality of palliative care in nursing homes, and to develop strategies of effective communication with health care proxies in order to reduce the physical suffering of residents with advanced dementia who are dying.Dr. Ken Romeo, “The Alzheimer’s Doc,” is a Board-Certified Physician in Alternative Medicine. He is also the inventor ofBrainWaves™,Tools That Measure the Mind and Motor Skills of Seniors.BrainWaves™products are sold worldwide to professional Caregivers, and to families that have been affected by Alzheimer’s disease.His practice in the field of nutrition, brain health, cognition and healthy aging is located in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Romeo does not engage in the practice of medicine in the State of Nevada.Reference: Gambassi, G., Brown University, Providence, RI. ...read more

  DO NOTSTARTORSTOPDAILY ASPIRIN THERAPY UNLESS UNDER A DOCTORS ADVICEThat being said, it was found that people without a history of cardiovascular disease (such as heart attack or stroke) were unlikely to benefit from a regular dose of aspirin, given the associated risk of internal bleeding. This was the finding of the largest study to date into the effects of aspirin in people without established cardiovascular conditions.Aspirin reduces the risk of clots forming in blood vessels and thereby protects against heart disease and stroke. It is widely used to prevent a repeat heart attack or stroke among people who have already suffered from one of these conditions, known in the medical field as secondary prevention. Many medical experts have also prescribed regular aspirin as a primary prevention technique – a precaution among people without a previous history of heart attack or stroke, but who may be considered at increased risk of these conditions in the future due to the presence of risk factors for heart attacks or strokes.Researchers from Professor Kausik Ray’s group at St George’s, University of London investigated the drug’s effectiveness in primary prevention and the prevalence of side effects. They also assessed if aspirin had any impact on the risk of death from cancer among people considered at risk of cardiovascular disease.They analyzed data from nine clinical trials involving over 100,000 participants without a history of cardiovascular disease. Half of the participants took aspirin and half took a placebo. The average participant in the aspirin arm of these trials took aspirin for about six years.The researchers found that although aspirin in conventional daily or alternate day doses reduced the risk of total cardiovascular disease events by 10 per cent, this was largely due to a reduction in non-fatal heart attacks. It did not include a reduction in other cardiovascular disease events including death from heart attack, or fatal or non-fatal stroke.The study also showed that this benefit was almost entirely offset by a 30 per cent increase in risk of life-threatening or debilitating internal bleeding events. This means that while one cardiovascular disease event was averted for every 120 people treated with aspirin for about six years, one in 73 people suffered from potentially significant bleeding during the same period.The lead author of this report, Dr. Rao Seshasai, emphasizes that people with an established history of heart conditions must not stop taking their medication:“The beneficial effect of aspirin on preventing future cardiovascular disease events in people with established heart attacks or strokes is indisputable. We urge people with these conditions not to discontinue their medication unless advised to do so by their physicians for valid reasons.“However, the benefits of aspirin in those individuals not known to have these conditions are far more modest than previously believed and, in fact, aspirin treatment may potentially result in considerable harm due to major bleeding. Hence, it would be worthwhile to review the existing recommendations, such as the US Preventive Services Task Force guidelines and the Joint British Societies’ Guidelines, for the use of this agent in low-risk populations, and consider aspirin treatment more selectively on a case-by-case basis.”By concurrently investigating the effects that aspirin had on death from cancer in the same population, the researchers found that, contrary to some recent reports, aspirin did not reduce the risk of death from all cancers.Dr. Seshasai added that: “There is an enormous interest in understanding the role of aspirin in cancer prevention. No evidence of benefit was found in the studies reviewed, but more research is needed given these were only of six years in duration.”The results of this study are published in theArchives of Internal Medicineonline (9 January 2012).******Dr. Ken Romeo is a Board-Certified Physician in Alternative Medicine, a scientist and a nutrition expert who teaches how to improve brain health, memory, physical fitness and age reversal through lifestyle modification and Nutraceutical supplementation in The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™. Dr. Romeo has been studying, writing and “speaking out” about the effects of lifestyle on disease for over 10 years.Dr. Romeo’s entire practice and program are designed to help people feel better, look better, live longer and avoid, reverse or control those “diseases of age” that modern society has come to believe are inevitable in their senior years like heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, arthritis, slowed thinking, impaired memory, hearing loss and some forms of cancer to name a few.Dr. Romeo’s practice is located in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Romeo does not engage in the practice of medicine in the State of Nevada. ...read more

Antibiotics for acute infections are a pillar of medicine, but the pillar is crumbling as pharmaceutical companies neglect antibiotic development and instead pursue gigantic profits from chronic illnesses and lifestyle diseases. I’m not trying to pick a fight with Big Pharma here, but let’s face it: the industry really hasn’t put a lot of money into antibiotic development in recent years. Why? There’s not a good return on investment with antibiotics when you compare them to drugs for diabetes, heart disease and other chronic diseases that need lifelong medication. Antibiotics are basically used in short courses to treat infections and there’s no return on investment. The relatively few new antibiotics suitable for resistant organisms are often used very sparingly to avoid the bugs finding ways to overcome them – and this practice compounds the commercial disincentive to develop such medicines. Bottom line: There’s no profit in it, and therefore the research has dried up. Meanwhile, bacterial resistance has increased. There are now some organisms in hospital practice that are resistant to everything we’ve got and patients are dying. We are running out of antibiotics – but the microorganisms are doing well and the chemists have not given us what we should have. The profit orientated approach, which has been quite successful for chronic diseases because there’s money in it, is not working for antibiotics, and ultimately for us as a nation. ...read more