Feetish

Many men don't bother to see a doctor when they have foot troubles, but there are five foot problems they should never ignore, says the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons:

* Heel pain. This is often caused by tissue inflammation but can also result from a broken bone, a tight Achilles tendon, a pinched nerve, or other problem.

* Ankle sprains. They always require prompt medical attention. Skipping medical care increases the likelihood of repeated ankle sprains and the development of chronic ankle instability.

* Big toe stiffness and pain. This usually develops over time, as cartilage in the big toe joint wears down and eventually leads to arthritis. The sooner it's diagnosed, the easier it is to treat.

* Achilles tendonitis. This causes pain and tenderness at the back of the foot or heel. This is usually the result of a sudden increase in physical activity. The risk of an Achilles tendon rupture can be reduced by treating the symptoms of Achilles tendonitis.

* Ingrown toenails. These can pierce the skin, allowing bacteria to enter the body. Men shouldn't try to perform dangerous "bathroom surgery" in such cases. A doctor can perform a quick procedure that will stop the pain and permanently cure an ingrown toenail.

Source: HealthDay News

Time Bomb

Here's an article from TIME Magazine written by Laura Blue that according to a new study, researchers have found a link between Anxiety and Heart Attack.

This is study is not really new but just a re- affirmation of that age- old belief with regards to the relationship between a person's frame of mind and disease.

So, to all of you out there, Relax and Enjoy Life. . :)

Read on...

It's no secret that men with angry, explosive personalities are at a higher risk of a heart attack. But they're not alone: Nervous, withdrawn and chronically worried people are courting coronary problems, too, according to a new long-term study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Of 735 American middle-aged or elderly men who had good cardiovascular health in 1986, those who scored highest on four different scales of anxiety were far more likely to suffer heart attacks later in life. Men in the top 15% on any of the four scales, or on a combined scale of all four, had a 30% to 40% greater chance of heart attack than their less anxious peers.

Researchers have long known that problems of the mind can affect health. Other studies have looked at the relationships between heart-attack risk and factors like "Type A" personality, anger or depression. But "very few studies look at many psychological factors at one time," says Biing-Jiun Shen, lead author on the anxiety paper and an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Southern California. "I think that's a unique part of this study."

Using data from the U.S. Normative Aging Study, Shen reviewed the men's responses to a series of questions on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (a commonly administered personality test), and pulled out their scores on four separate anxiety scales that measured obsessive or compulsive thoughts; introversion and social exclusion; phobias; and a predisposition to become tense or have a physical reaction, like nausea or hyperventilation, to stressful situations. Even after accounting for other mood problems, like depression or anger, and for a whole host of physiological and demographic indicators — including age, body mass index, education, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and smoking and drinking habits — the effect of chronic anxiety was clear. It was also a stronger risk factor for heart attack than any of the other psychological problems in the study.

What's not so clear is why that might be. The relationship between stress, psychological problems and coronary disease or other physical woes is still not well understood. But it is the subject of intense scientific scrutiny. Many other researchers are trying to understand the interaction between mood disturbances like anxiety or depression and other health problems.

Shen notes the results of his study may not be universally applicable across populations. "We only looked at men who are older, around 60," he says. While men may suffer more heart attacks than women, women are far more likely to suffer from anxiety, just as they're more likely to suffer from depression. Gender aside, there's no reason to believe that the link between anxiety and heart attacks is straightforward. "We're not saying depression's not important. We're not saying anger's not important," Shen says. "Different factors can be essentially different for different groups." Still, psychological problems are often related, which means that different problems can affect the body in the same ways. The bottom line is that more study will be needed before we know how much sway our brains have over our heart function — and how much we can control what happens in the mind to prevent a heart attack.

ER Toxicity

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Study: Timing of BP Pills Might Matter

Taking a blood pressure pill at bedtime instead of in the morning might be healthier for some high-risk people.

New research suggests that simple switch may normalize patterns of blood pressure in patients at extra risk from the twin epidemics of heart and kidney disease.

Why? When it comes to blood pressure, you want to be a dipper. In healthy people, blood pressure dips at night, by 10 to 20 percent. Scientists don't know why, but suspect the drop gives arteries a little rest.

People with high blood pressure that doesn't dip at night — the non-dippers — fare worse than other hypertension sufferers, developing more serious heart disease. Moreover, heart and kidney disease fuel each other — and the 26 million Americans with chronic kidney disease seem most prone to non-dipping. In addition to heart problems, they're at extra risk of their kidney damage worsening to the point of dialysis.

Most blood pressure patients need two or three medications. So Italian researchers performed an easy test: They told 32 non-dippers with kidney disease to switch one of those drugs from a morning to a bedtime dose. In two months, nearly 90 percent of these high-risk patients had turned into dippers. Their nighttime blood pressure dropped an average of 7 points, without side effects or increase in daytime blood pressure.

Better, a key sign of kidney function improved significantly, too, Dr. Roberto Minutolo of the Second University of Naples reports this month in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.

It's the latest research in the field of chronotherapy: How our bodies' internal rhythms make certain diseases worse at certain times of the day, and in turn affect how to time treatments.

While the Italian study is too small for proof, similar studies from Europe also back a bedtime switch for non-dippers. The work is catching the attention of U.S. hypertension specialists, and now doctors at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University are planning a larger study to see if a bedtime switch really could give certain people healthier hearts and kidneys.

How big a problem is non-dipping?

"I think it's huge," says Hopkins' Dr. Lawrence Appel. "This is our best lead" into why black Americans with kidney disease, in particular, tend to worsen despite treatment.

Appel found 80 percent of black kidney patients in a recent study were non-dippers. Most startling, 40 percent had nighttime blood pressure that was even higher than daytime levels.

Two-thirds of chronic kidney disease patients, and at least 10 percent of the general population, are estimated to be non-dippers, says Dr. Joseph Vassalotti of the National Kidney Foundation. One theory is that their bodies have trouble excreting salt.

Yet few patients have ever heard of the problem — and few doctors know who is affected. Most people get their blood pressure checked only during the day. A 24-hour blood pressure monitor can tell but is rarely used, partly because insurance seldom pays for the extra visit to download and diagnose the readings.

And most patients who take several once-a-day pills swallow them all in the morning, meaning they all start wearing off around the same time, says Dr. Gina Lundberg of St. Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta.

"It does make good sense to take some in the morning and some in the evening," says Lundberg, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association.

Everyone has an internal clock, determined by genes, that affects health. Many of these biological rhythms are circadian, meaning they fluctuate on a 24-hour cycle.

Consider how that can affect the timing of treatments. Some older "statin" pills fight cholesterol best if taken at bedtime; they target a liver enzyme that's most active at night. Asthma attacks are more frequent at night, and the stomach secretes more heartburn-causing acid at night, affecting some patients' dosing requirements. Researchers even are studying how to better time certain cancer chemotherapies and allergy treatments.

The best-known example: Blood pressure jumps in the early morning hours, as the awakening body produces more stress hormones. That's also why heart attacks and strokes are most common in the morning.

The nighttime dipping problem has gotten far less attention. The new Italian study marks an important advance, says Dr. Mahboob Rahman of the University Hospitals of Cleveland.

"We know now that you can change medication timing and lower blood pressure at night," he explains.

That doesn't mean everyone should switch willy-nilly to bedtime dosing. Morning may be best for people on just one drug, and no one yet knows if the switch truly gives non-dippers better overall health. "That's the million-dollar question," Rahman cautions.

Still, Lundberg says it's worth asking your doctor how to time doses, saying one at night for someone taking multiple medicines couldn't hurt.

--LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer

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