Countries with more wealth, better hygiene have higher Alzheimer’s risk

People living in wealthier countries with better access to clean water and good hygiene may have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, Medical News Today reported.
In a study published in the journal Evolution, Medicine and Public Health, researchers analyzed data from the World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report in 2009.
They noted that countries with better access to clean drinking water, lower rates of infectious disease and a greater percentage of the population residing in urban areas all had higher rates of Alzheimer’s disease, according to Medical News Today.
Researchers explained their findings using the ‘hygiene hypothesis,’ which suggests that people who live in places with access to better hygiene have less exposure to certain germs. With no harmful bacteria to fight, people’s immune system’s develop insufficiently, putting them at a higher risk for autoimmune diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s.
“The 'hygiene hypothesis,' which suggests a relationship between cleaner environments and a higher risk of certain allergies and autoimmune diseases, is well-established,” lead study author Dr. Molly Fox, from the University of Cambridge, said. “We believe we can now add Alzheimer's to this list of diseases."
Currently, more than 50 percent of people with Alzheimer's live in the developing world, and by 2025, this figure is expected to rise to more than 70 percent, according to Fox.
“An awareness of this by-product of increasing wealth and development could encourage the innovation of new strategies to protect vulnerable populations from Alzheimer's,"

(foxnews)

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Exercise Helps Prevent Kidney Stone Risk

In older women, exercise was found to cut kidney stone formation, find researchers.

The study noted that even walking for a couple hours a week could cut the risk of developing this painful and common problem by about one-third, the New York Daily News reported.

Dr. Mathew Sorensen of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, who led the study, said that just getting a minimum amount of exercise could help.

The study was discussed Friday at an American Urological Association conference in San Diego.

Kidney stone problem is a little more common in men. But incidence has risen 70 percent over the last 15 years, most rapidly among women.

Obesity raises the risk, as do calcium supplements, which many women take after menopause. A government task force has recently advised against supplements for healthy older women, saying that relatively low-dose calcium pills don't do much to keep bones strong but make kidney stones more likely.

The new research involved nearly 85,000 women 50 and older in the government-funded Women's Health Initiative study.

Participants said how much exercise they usually got and that was translated into "METs" - a measure of how much effort an activity takes.

After about eight years, 3 percent of the women had developed a kidney stone. Compared to women who got no leisure-time exercise, those who got up to 5 METs per week had a 16 percent lower risk for stones.

The risk was 22 percent lower with 5 to 10 METs per week and 31 percent lower for 10 METs or more. Exercise beyond 10 METs added no additional benefit for kidney stone prevention. Exercise intensity didn't matter - just how much women got each week.

The researchers explained that exercise changes the way the body handles nutrients and fluids that affect stone formation.

Exercisers also sweat out salt and tend to retain calcium in their bones, rather than having these go into the kidneys and urine where stones form, they said.

They also tend to drink water and fluids afterwards, another plus for preventing stones.

Exercise is also known to cut the risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and other conditions that raise the risk of kidney stones.

Next, researchers aim to study men and younger women to see if exercise helps prevent kidney stones in them, too.

Source-medindia.net

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