Contraception and birth control Archive

Simple strategies can help you regain control.

As men age, the simple act of urinating can get complicated. Prostate surgery often leaves men vulnerable to leakage when they cough, sneeze, or just rise from a chair. Or the bladder may become impatient, suddenly demanding that you find a bathroom right now. "Thousands of years ago, it was not as much of an issue," observes Dr. Anurag Das, a urologist at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "There were lots of trees, and you could just find one and go."

But tricky bladders can be whipped into shape. The first step is a careful assessment of what triggers those difficult moments. Then your doctor can suggest helpful strategies and possibly medication to improve urinary control.

Just as regular exercise has a host of health benefits for the body, staying mentally active appears to preserve memory and general sharpness. But for getting a good night's sleep, light workouts for both body and brain may be best, according to a study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The study focused on 72 people, ages 67 to 79, who reported poor sleep as well as declining mental sharpness. They were assigned at random to do either strenuous aerobic exercise or a gentler stretching routine, paired with either watching educational DVDs (followed by short quizzes) or engaging in more demanding computer-based brain training.

Men are at greater risk for developing prostate cancer if their fathers or brothers also developed the disease. A new study shows that having second- or third-degree relatives with the disease also increases a man’s risk.

You don't have to develop the stoop and "dowager's hump" that were once thought to be inevitable consequences of aging.

If you're over 50, the odds that you'll experience a major fracture because of osteoporosis are one in two. Although osteoporosis increases the risk of fractures in every bone of the body, the spinal bones (vertebrae) are particularly vulnerable. For women with osteoporosis, as little as a cough or a sudden movement can cause a compression fracture, creating pain and potential deformity.

Although research suggests that women over 70 with early-stage breast cancer can skip radiation treatment, nearly two-thirds of women in that age group continue to receive it, according to findings published online Dec. 2, 2014, by the journal Cancer.

Researchers from Duke University sought to determine whether evidence from a large, randomized clinical trial published in 2004 had influenced treatment for early breast cancer. That study showed that adding radiation therapy to surgery plus tamoxifen does not reduce five-year recurrence rates or prolong survival in older women with early-stage tumors.

The Mediterranean diet consistently has been linked with an array of health benefits, including decreased risk of heart disease, diabetes, dementia, and cancer. In a study published online Dec. 2, 2014, by the medical journal BMJ, researchers at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital linked the Mediterranean diet to longer life as well. The researchers analyzed information from 4,676 healthy women in the Nurses' Health Study who had completed a food questionnaire and whose telomere lengths had been measured. (Telomeres are repetitive DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes that get shorter every time a cell divides, and thus are markers of cell aging.) They found that a greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with longer telomeres, and that even small changes in diet made a difference. In effect, the women who had followed the Mediterranean diet were biologically younger than those who hadn't.

The Mediterranean diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, nuts, seeds, beans, and legumes. Animal protein is furnished by seafood and moderate amounts of poultry, eggs, and dairy. Red meat and sweets are considered occasional treats. This study gives another reason to follow this healthy—and tasty—eating plan.

Low bone strength, or osteoporosis, is not just a women's problem, but some men may not receive the level of scrutiny they should for the condition, suggests a study at one hospital in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

Doctors reviewed five years of medical records of 95 men and 344 women, all over age 50, who were treated for wrist fractures at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Breaking a bone is a possible sign osteoporosis, and some guidelines suggest bone density testing for people 50 and older after a fracture.