POTASSIUM RICH FOODS CUT STROKE DEATH RISKS AMONG OLDER WOMEN

Postmenopausal women who eat foods higher in potassium are less likely to have strokes and die than women who eat less potassium-rich foods, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke.

"Previous studies have shown that potassium consumption may lower blood pressure. But whether potassium intake could prevent stroke or death wasn't clear," said Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, Ph.D., study senior author and distinguished university professor emerita, department of epidemiology and population health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY.

"Our findings give women another reason to eat their fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are good sources of potassium, and potassium not only lowers postmenopausal women's risk of stroke, but also death."

Researchers studied 90,137 postmenopausal women, ages 50 to 79, for an average 11 years. They looked at how much potassium the women consumed, as well as if they had strokes, including ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes, or died during the study period. Women in the study were stroke-free at the start and their average dietary potassium intake was 2,611 mg/day. Results of this study are based on potassium from food, not supplements.

The researchers found:

Women who ate the most potassium were 12 percent less likely to suffer stroke in general and 16 percent less likely to suffer an ischemic stroke than women who ate the least.

Women who ate the most potassium were 10 percent less likely to die than those who ate the least.

Among women who did not have hypertension (whose blood pressure was normal and they were not on any medications for high blood pressure), those who ate the most potassium had a 27 percent lower ischemic stroke risk and 21 percent reduced risk for all stroke types, compared to women who ate the least potassium in their daily diets.

Among women with hypertension (whose blood pressure was high or they were taking drugs for high blood pressure), those who ate the most potassium had a lower risk of death, but potassium intake did not lower their stroke risk.

Researchers suggested that higher dietary potassium intake may be more beneficial before high blood pressure develops. They also said there was no evidence of any association between potassium intake and hemorrhagic stroke, which could be related to the low number of hemorrhagic strokes in the study.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends that women eat at least 4,700 mg of potassium daily. "Only 2.8 percent of women in our study met or exceeded this level. The World Health Organization's daily potassium recommendation for women is lower, at 3,510 mg or more. Still, only 16.6 percent of women we studied met or exceeded that," said Wassertheil-Smoller.

"Our findings suggest that women need to eat more potassium-rich foods. You won't find high potassium in junk food. Some foods high in potassium include white and sweet potatoes, bananas and white beans."

While increasing potassium intake is probably a good idea for most older women, there are some people who have too much potassium in their blood, which can be dangerous to the heart. "People should check with their doctor about how much potassium they should eat," she said.

The study was observational and included only postmenopausal women. Researchers also did not take sodium intake into consideration, so the potential importance of a balance between sodium and potassium is not among the findings. Researchers said more studies are needed to determine whether potassium has the same effects on men and younger people.

An Older Persons Struggle With Neuropathy Vid

Today's video comes via the neuropathyassociation Facebook page (see link below) and shows  a real life story of an older lady suffering from severe neuropathy. Sometimes we need to see this sort of video to understand what people with neuropathy are going through in their daily lives and sometimes, after watching it, we may realise that our own situation is perhaps not as bad as we think. Certainly worth 4 minutes of your time.


Circle of Care
Angela Macropoulos (a caregiver in our community) submitted this video featuring her mother Josephine Macropoulos' ongoing neuropathy fight to the American Academy of Neurology Foundation for its 2011 Neuro Film Festival.



https://www.facebook.com/NeuropathyAssociation

The Older Generation Living With HIV

Today's post from guardian.co.uk (see link below) is a break from tradition on this blog, in that it doesn't talk about neuropathy, it's treatments or its symptoms. However, as this is also a blog for people living with HIV, most of those living with neuropathy and over the age of 50 will recognise much of what is written here. With even HIV organisations proclaiming the arrival of a  'normal' life brought about by antiretroviral drugs and combinations, there is a danger that a large group of people will be 'forgotten'  in the general optimism. These people contracted the virus some time ago and are experiencing both old age and the side effects of both drugs and HIV at the same time. Very often they are not part of an extended family and end up with physical difficulties and loneliness as well. These are the people this article is about. Even if you don't have HIV but are reading this as a neuropathy sufferer, this piece is worth reading if only to show that whatever the cause, many of us end up with the same result.

HIV survivors: alive, but facing poverty, loneliness and prejudice
Thousands heading into an old age they did not think they would see, having given up jobs expecting to die young

Sarah Boseley in Washington The Guardian, Friday 27 July 2012 

In the 1980s and 1990s they were told they were going to die young, so they gave up their jobs and cashed in the pensions they wouldn't need, buried their friends and tried to make the most of their last months on Earth.

Decades later, thousands of men and women with HIV in the UK, US and across the world are heading into an old age they never expected to see. In the US in 2001, 17% of people with HIV were over 50. Now that figure stands at 39% and by 2017 it will be half. In the UK, the Health Protection Agency says one in six people (16.8%) being seen for HIV care in 2008 were over 50 – and that will double in the next five years.

Many of those who were saved by the discovery of antiretroviral drugs in the early 1990s felt it was a miracle to be alive. But life for the survivors of HIV, as they age, is bittersweet. Many are poor and have long since been edged out of the workforce. Half a lifetime spent on powerful drugs has taken its toll. Aside from the physical health issues as a result of the virus, there are high rates of mental health problems too.

John Rock, from Sydney, Australia, was diagnosed with HIV 30 years ago. "My partner started getting sick in 1983 and died early in 1996," he said at an international Aids conference in Washington DC. "Many of my colleagues and friends were pushed out of the workforce around the mid-90s because they were not well enough to work. Subsequently triple combinations [of antiretroviral drugs] came along and they are still alive, but at the peak of their earning capacity they were out of the workforce for 10 years. Now they are destined for a retirement they thought they never would have, but it's going to be in poverty."

Lisa Power from the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), who spoke at the conference about the ageing HIV-positive community in the UK, acknowledged the unfortunate consequences of advice from support groups to those who were thought to be dying. "In the 1980s and 90s we encouraged people to give up work and go on state benefits and not be economically productive," she said. "Now we have condemned people to live on an old-age state pension."

Money is not the only need. Many feel lonely and isolated. In a video made for a project called The Graying of HIV in the US, Bill Rydwels, 77, from Chicago, recalled a time of terror and sadness when Aids was scything down his friends. It was nonetheless a time of warmth and support that he no longer has. "It's just so much better today and yet it is a lonelier time. Years ago it was a time that we all spent together. It was a terrible time and a wonderful time because you got to know everybody very, very well. They cried on your shoulder and laughed with you. You don't get that any more."

Recent research from THT in the UK reveals similar sadness. James, 61, a gay man living in the UK who did not want to give his full name, is suffering from serious health problems, including blindness resulting from the use of an experimental drug to treat another condition (not HIV). "My life is empty," he told researchers. "I have tried so hard over the last 10 years to fill the emptiness. Worked really hard at it. I am in a cul-de-sac. It would be nice just to have somebody to telephone.

"I am fed up with people at the top of HIV organisations saying because there is combination therapy everyone is fine. People with neuropathy, and in wheelchairs, we are the forgotten people."

Half the world away, in Africa, which now bears the brunt of the epidemic, the numbers of older people with HIV are also rising fast. Epidemiologists at the University of Sydney estimate that there are more than 3 million people over 50 with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, and that the figure is rising rapidly.

Ruth Waryero, from Kenya, now 65, had an HIV test when she was 48. She went home and told her husband. "He listened to me and then he got up and said, it's up to you.

"Take care of yourself – I'm off. Since that time I have not seen him again and yet he was the breadwinner in the family. He left me with the four children and two years later I had two grandchildren.

"In Kenya we have different problems [from those in Europe]. Older men try to get younger women for sex. They ignore you because as far as you are concerned, you are finished. You don't need sex and they can apply to the young girls.

"But when you are old you are likely to be raped by those who are positive because they believe if they rape you, as old as you are, they will turn negative."

Older women also face embarrassment at clinics when they go for tests or drugs, she said. They are asked who they are collecting the drugs for.

"You are not supposed to have sex at your age," she said. "As a woman they ask if you are a sugar mummy. I say this HIV came from an old man and the old man has run away from me."

The older HIV generation – in Africa and elsewhere – is not only made up of those diagnosed years ago. Some are people who have been diagnosed late, having lived for years without knowing they were infected. And many people are now becoming infected later in life.

Laura, who took part in the THT research, is a white, heterosexual, divorced mother of two. At the age of 52 she started a new relationship and then suddenly became ill. Because her symptoms were similar to those of a friend who had been diagnosed with HIV, she took a test. When she was told it was positive, she felt numbness and shock, she said. She cannot believe, as a well-educated person, that she stopped using condoms with her partner and allowed it to happen.

Mark Brennan-Ing, from the Aids Community Research Initiative of America, told the conference of the "fragile social networks among people living with HIV in the US and Europe". Families have abandoned them or do not give them enough help, meaning they end up relying on friends, who often have HIV themselves.

Men who have sex with men, he said, are much less likely to have partners, spouses or children to care for them in their old age. Many of those interviewed live in fear of encountering hostility and rejection in care homes. A 52-year-old gay man from London told the THT: "I am somewhat fearful of a lonely old age. In practical terms, if I become mentally or physically frail, the prospect of being the only gay man in an old people's home is very frightening indeed."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jul/27/hiv-survivors-poverty-prejudice

Should Older People Take Advantage Of Available Vaccines

Today's post from bgdailynews.com (see link below) may seem slightly off-topic as far as this blog is concerned but actually, very little publicity is given to the fact that vaccinations can be very useful for adults with other conditions, as well as children. It's important to know which vaccinations are available and whether they're available in your area. As far as neuropathy patients are concerned, the so-called shingles vaccine is generally available to older people but possibly not publicised because of rising costs in health sectors - nevertheless, it's an important vaccine if you've had or are susceptible to shingles and/or neuropathy. Other vaccines mentioned here may also be of interest to people living with neuropathy - discuss it with your doctor.
 

Vaccines important for adults to lower exposure to diseases  
By ALYSSA HARVEY aharvey@bgdailynews.com Aug 23, 2015

When many people think of immunizations, they automatically assume they are strictly for kids, but adults need them as well.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the more people who are vaccinated, the lower the possible risk of anyone’s exposure to vaccine-preventable diseases.

“The challenge is keeping up with vaccines that you’ve had. People forget it’s important to keep track,” said Julie Anderson, practice manager at the Glasser Clinic.

“That’s one of the advantages of having a family doctor because we keep track of that.”

Being immunized is important even as people grow older, said Dr. Jayashree Seshadri, an internist and employee health physician at The Medical Center.

“As you get older your immunity comes down and you’re susceptible to all kinds of illnesses,” she said.

Many vaccinations will provide a booster effect, Anderson said.

“The immunity doesn’t always last forever,” she said.

World travelers need to be immunized, Anderson said.

“If somebody’s traveling to an area of the world where they might have more or different diseases than we have here then you can get vaccinations for them,” she said.

A lot of people are asking for the whooping cough vaccine, Anderson said. The whooping cough immunization, which is part of the tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccine, also known as Tdap, is recommended by the CDC to be gotten in one dose and then a booster dose every 10 years.

“Sometimes kids get whooping cough, but we have a mild infection and give it to kids who have not been immunized,” said Seshadri. “It’s very important when you’re around a newborn child you are immunized for the whooping cough.”

People also ask about the shingles vaccine, Anderson said.

“If you’ve had chicken pox as a child, you’re more prone to get shingles as an adult. (Vaccines) may prevent that. No vaccination is 100 percent guaranteed,” she said. “Check with your insurance carrier to see what vaccinations they cover. Medicare covers shingles vaccine in a pharmacy setting only, and that’s in an attempt to save costs. You have to have a prescription for that.”

The shingles vaccine is recommended for people 60 and older, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved them for ages 50 and older, Seshadri said.

“The only problem is that it is a live virus vaccine, so you have to talk to your doctor about whether or not to get it,” she said.

Fever and stress can cause the dormant chicken pox to become shingles. Complications from shingles include painful lesions and nerve pain called neuropathy that lasts after the lesions heal.

“The older you get, the opportunity of getting shingles is higher. The vaccine is designed to prevent the flare ups,” she said.

“Even if you get the flare ups they’re not as severe as they could be.”

Another vaccine elderly people over 65 should think about is for pneumonia, which can cause complications and death. Younger people with certain health conditions – including diabetes, heart failure, sickle cell disease and HIV – may also be recommended to be immunized. The vaccine is given in two doses, Seshadri said. One of them has been developed in the last two years.

“Even if you were vaccinated with the old vaccine, it’s important to think about the new vaccine,” she said.

It is vital to have flu shots every year, Seshadri and Anderson agreed.

“We know that flu is a contagious infection,” she said. “It can be mild or severe and sometimes causes death.”

Other vaccines Seshadri recommended include a tetanus shot every 10 years; the meningitis shot, particularly for those who will live in a college residence hall; and the human papillomavirus shot.

“We’re trying to catch them as kids, but if you are not vaccinated you can get them as adults,” she said of the human papillomavirus vaccine.

— For more information about adult vaccination schedules, visit the CDC website at cdc.gov.

— Follow features reporter Alyssa Harvey on Twitter at twitter.com/bgdnfeatures or visit bgdailynews.com.

http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/vaccines-important-for-adults-to-lower-exposure-to-diseases/article_8a4fd809-f808-533e-8a0a-7b705220814a.html