The faster you walk, the longer you live?

Dr. Susan Hardy of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine reports that out of a study of 439 adults 65 years and older, those who maximized or improved their baseline walking speed lived longer over an eight year period than those seniors whose walking speed remained unchanged or slowed. Dr. Hardy concludes, " . . . Further research is needed to determine whether interventions to improve gait speed affect survival . . . because gait speed is easily measured, clinically interpretable, and potentially modifiable it may be a useful 'vital sign' for older adults . . ."

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, November 2007

Dr. Robert Wilson at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago reports that after following 700 aged subjects for a five year period with yearly evaluations, they found that those seniors who maintained a consistent or high level of cognitive activity (crossword puzzles, hobbies, readings, lectures, etc) had less incidence of dementia than those seniors who failed to maintain an active cognitive life. Specifically, of those 700 who maintained or increased their cognitive activities, they showed a 42% lower incidence of Alzheimer's disease than those who didn't. And if those who maintained regular cognitive activity did develop a dementia, they experienced a less rapid decline in their cognitive functioning. Dr. Wilson concludes, " . . . Overall, the results suggest that cognitively stimulating activities, such as reading a magazine, visiting a library, or writing a letter, are very important for maintaining cognitive ability in old age . . ."

Neurology, November 13th, 2007

Reducing diabetic related deaths by treating depression

Dr. Hillary Bogner of the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Family Practice and Community Medicine reports that in a randomized study involving 20 primary care practices in the New York/Pennsylvania area involving 584 depressed patients whose mean age was 70.3 years and which 21.2% also reported a history of diabetes, they found that those who received psychoeducation or interpersonal therapy addressing their depression, were half as likely to die in a 5 year period than those who did were not in the intervention group. Dr. Bogner concludes, " . . . Basically, they (the depression care managers in the intervention group) found out how the patient was feeling and whether their symptoms had improved. They also assessed whether the patient was having any trouble taking medications. For some patients, the depression care managers provided interpersonal therapy . . . to our knowledge, this is the first study to report on the relationship between diabetes and mortality in a depression intervention trial."

Diabetes Care, November 2007

Fatty acid binding proteins predict heart attack deaths

Drs. Hall and Kilcullen of the University of Leeds in England report that after conducting a prospective study of 1448 patients admitted with acute coronary syndrome, and who had their H-FABP (Heart-type fatty acid-binding protein) measured, upon 12 month follow up, the 296 patients who had died had the highest H-FABP levels which in effect were strongly predictive of their mortality. Specifically, the mortality rate was 2.1% for those with the lowest H-FABP levels (below 5.8mcg/L) compared to a mortality rate of 22.9% for those patients with the highest levels of H-FABP. Dr. Hall concludes, " . . . We are excited about these findings as we believe that they will help us to provide very real benefits for patients and those who care for them."

Journal of the American College of Cardiology, November 22, 2007

Whole grains and the male heart

Drs. Djousse and Gaziano at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School report that after analyzing 21,376 men with an average age of 53.7 who participated in the Physicians Health Study I, those who suffered subsequent heart failure consumed less whole grain cereal per week and per day than those who did not. Drs. Djousse andGaziano conclude that men who consume a higher amount of whole grain breakfast cereals may have a reduced risk of heart failure compared to men who do not.

Archives of Internal Medicine, October 2007

Stress, gratitude and styles of coping

Dr. Alex Wood and colleagues at the Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, England, report that after studying 236 participants with respect to whether gratitude was correlated with a distinct coping style and whether or not that coping style mediated well-being, they found that the coping style which gratitude was most correlated with consisted of using instrumental social support, positive reinterpretation, active coping and problem solving planning. This style of coping mediated the effects of stress on the feeling of gratitude. Gratitude was NOT correlated with disengagement, self-blame, substance use or denial. Dr. Wood and colleagues partly conclude by writing, " . . . The results showed correlations between gratitude and several coping strategies, as well as several indicators of well-being. Coping strategies appeared to mediated up to 51% of the relationship between gratitude and stress, and 11% of the relationship between gratitude and satisfaction with life . . . we found that grateful people were more likely to seek out emotional and instrumental social support, and used coping strategies that were broadly characterized by approaching the problem, rather than avoiding the problem. Additionally, the results suggest coping strategies may be an important mechanism explaining why gratitude is negatively related to stress, although coping strategies do not appear to be the primary mechanism by which gratitude is related to other well-being variables. Gratitude research remains embryonic, and the findings reported here suggest that gratitude has distinct contributions to make to our understanding of the personality and individual difference variables that may influence health and well-being..."

Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, November 2007

Dr. Larry Lachman is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist based in La Jolla, California, who is the co-author of a book on coping with cancer entitled, "Parallel Journeys." Dr. Lachman is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Chapman University and graduate instructor at Argosy University in San Diego. www.DrLarryLachman.com 

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