ThirdAge Health Headliners of the Week

As we do every week, we've culled the most important articles we brought you based on breaking stories from around the world that can help you and your family stay well. Whether you missed these items the first time they appeared or you caught them and could use a refresher, our goal is to help you stay up-to-date on medical research that can impact your life.

We hope you'll like what you find and come back every Friday for a new installment!

The Heat's On! Stay Safe. The Center for Disease Control cautions that "Boomers and Beyond" – and their young grandchildren – are prime targets for heat-related conditions ranging from annoying rashes to fatal heat stroke. From 1979-2003 in the United States, more people in this country died from extreme heat than from hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes combined. As temperatures in most areas of the country skyrocket to record highs this season, be sure to take precautions that will keep you safe and healthy.

Click here to learn what the CDC recommends.

Some Need 2 Pneumonia Shots One vaccination for pneumonia may not be sufficient if you have any conditions that compromise your immune system or if you're taking immunosupressants after transplant surgery or have had chemotherapy. The previous recommendation was one shot for people over 65, but the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices reported on June 20th at one of their meetings that two shots are warranted in some cases.

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Absendmindedness Doesn't Mean Alzheimer's Older adults commonly forget words that are on the tip of their tongue, but that doesn’t mean they are getting Alzheimer’s, according to a new study. The research, conducted by experts at the University of Michigan, found that memory lapses, like forgetting words, forgetting where they had placed something or having to reread a sentence for comprehension, were common in 61 percent of the adults they surveyed. Adults who took part were healthy, well-educated and 65 to 92 years old.

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How to Keep Your Gall Bladder Healthy: 7 Tips By Robin Westen About 10 percent of Americans have gallstones. That’s usually no big deal since most of us won’t experience any symptoms. But for one to two percent, gallstones lodge in bile ducts and cause abdominal pain, vomiting, inflammation, and even life-threatening infection. So why not take precautions? These simple home remedies can keep your gall bladder happy.

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How to Keep Your Home Safe We’ve all heard horror stories about houses suddenly going up in flames, someone dying as the result of a household fall, and a child or an adult being poisoned by household chemicals. Knowing how to keep your home safe is crucial, but all the information and details involved can be overwhelming. Dan Hannan, a Certified Safety Professional (CSP), has written a book that makes it simple: "Preventing Home Accidents: A Quick & Easy Guide." Hannan, a veteran teacher of construction-safety courses approved by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, explains all you should know. To keep your home safe, he says, you need to have an overview of household risks, potential problems and techniques to solve them. Here are some tips to get you started:

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Liver Injury & Arthritis "Medical Food" If you're taking Limbrel (generic name flavocoxid) for symptoms of osteoarthritis, you could be at risk for serious injury to your liver. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine reports that the prescription "medical food," a blend of flavonoids and other nutrients derived from botanicals, "can cause clinically significant liver injury, which seems to resolve within weeks after cessation." The obvious lesson here is that if you ever develop symptoms such as jaundice, itching, abdominal pain, fever, and rash, you should stop taking the supplement immediately in order to allow your liver to heal.

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Walk Test to Predict Heart Disease Data from the "Heart and Soul Study" published online in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that the addition of a simple six-minute walking test, or 6MWT,to traditionalprognostic tools for coronary heart disease improved risk prediction and was comparable with treadmill exercise capacity. Lead author Alexis L. Beatty, MD of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and colleagues instructed participants to walk continuously on a 145.5 foot hospital corridor, covering as much ground as they could during six minutes. The researchers encouraged the walkers every minute and recorded how far each one walked in six minutes.

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Six Migraine Myths By Robin Westen This much we know: More than 29.5 million Americans suffer with migraines, and up to 80 percent who do, also have a family history of the condition. If you experience this often excruciating ailment, knowing what’s true -- and what’s not -- can help you deal with your condition.

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Streisand for Women's Heart Health Babs hosted a bash at her oceanfront compound in Malibu on June 14th as a fundraiser for the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center. She personally donated $10 million to create the new research and treatment facility at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

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Feeling Old May Up Dementia Risk If you think of yourself as old, you may be increasing your chance of experiencing cognitive decline. Researchers at the University of Exeter, who presented their findings atthe International Conference on Social Identity and Health on June 12th, report that when seniors see themselves as "older," their performance on a standard dementia screening test makes them five times more likely to meet the criteria for dementia.

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