Welcome to the Stars Hollow Gazette‘s Health and Fitness News weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.
Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.
You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here and on the right hand side of the Front Page.
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Credit Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Of all the do-it-yourself projects I wanted to try, homemade yogurt was not at the top of the list. After all, it’s a lot easier to find a decent yogurt on the market than it is to track down, say, preserved lemons or cabbage-free kimchi.
But then I fell in love with a whole-milk yogurt that was so smooth, thick and milky tasting that it blew away anything I’d had before. Naturally, it was made by a Brooklyn artisan, it cost a fortune, and it was in such high demand that the fancy shop where it was sold was often out of stock.
So I decided to try making my own. If I used the expensive yogurt as a starter, maybe I could approximate that beloved flavor for a fraction of what I was paying. And I’d never have to worry about running out.
The Internet has plenty of yogurt how-to’s, but I found the most accessible and complete guide in a book called “Yogurt Culture,” by Cheryl Sternman Rule, published last year.
You can substitute low-fat milk here if you’d rather; 2 percent works a lot better than 1 percent. Skim milk will give you a thinner yogurt, though if you add some dry milk powder to the milk as it heats (about 1/2 cup), that will help thicken it.
WHO: Months Needed to Establish Link Between Zika, Microcephaly
Evidence is piling up of a causal link between the Zika virus and both microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome, according to the World Health Organization.
WHO reports show that more than 40 countries in four of the WHO’s six regions have recorded Zika virus infections while only two places — Brazil and French Polynesia — have shown an increase in microcephaly cases.
The situation is particularly serious in Brazil, which has recorded more than 4,700 cases of babies born with abnormally small heads and brains.
Argentina Battles Major Outbreak of Dengue as Mosquito Population Swells
Argentina is grappling with its worst outbreak of dengue in seven years as the population of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which also transmit the Zika virus, expands in the subtropical northeast of the country.
The outbreak, which some officials are describing as an epidemic, has the authorities in Misiones and Formosa Provinces scrambling to arrest the spread of the virus. There were nearly 4,900 reported cases of dengue in Argentina in the first five weeks of the year, according to data compiled by the Pan American Health Organization. Experts say the figure could be 10 times higher.
Stents, surgery equally durable, safe for reducing stroke risk
The second part of long-term study on the safety and efficacy of stents versus surgery to prevent strokes in patients with blocked arteries found no difference between the two, according to the new research.
The ten-year study measured the long-term effects of each treatment, with the conclusion of the second affirming doctors can choose the treatment best fit for patients without worrying that one is better than the other.
The two studies were conducted at 117 medical centers in the United States and Canada, and coordinated by the Mayo Clinic, Rutgers University and the University of Alabama Birmingham.
Early Behavior Therapy Found to Aid Children With A.D.H.D.
Children with attention-deficit problems improve faster when the first treatment they receive is behavioral — like instruction in basic social skills — than when they start immediately on medication, a new study has found. Beginning with behavioral therapy is also a less expensive option over time, according to a related analysis.
Experts said the efficacy of this behavior-first approach, if replicated in larger studies, could change standard medical practice, which favors stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin as first-line treatments, for the more than four million children and adolescents in the United States with a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or A.D.H.D.
Testosterone Gel Has Modest Benefits for Men, Study Says
More than a million men have smeared testosterone gels on their bodies in recent years, hoping it would rejuvenate them, energize them, and increase their libido. But until now, there has never been a rigorous study asking if there were any real benefits to testosterone therapy for healthy men with so-called low T.
The first results of such research were published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. Although it found at best modest benefits, mostly in sexual functioning, it is a landmark study, said Dr. Eric S. Orwoll, a professor of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University, because it provides the first credible data on testosterone’s effects on some of the problems it is thought to resolve.
Egg Yolks Are Probably Not Linked To Heart Disease
“Dietary cholesterol does not translate into high levels of blood cholesterol,” said Dr. Luc Djoussé, an associate professor and heart disease researcher at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, via TIME.
During the study, researchers followed over 1,000 healthy men between the ages of 42 and 60-about a third of whom were carries of ApoE4-a gene variant that may increase the risk of both Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and heart disease.