Beyonce Knowles’ father first suspected something was wrong when he noticed a dot of blood that kept appearing on his shirts and bedsheets. “Imagine a piece of white paper and you took a red pen and just put a dot,” Mathew Knowles told the New York Times. “That’s what it looked like in my T-shirt.” Knowles scheduled a mammogram in July after he squeezed a nipple and a bit of bloody discharge came out. The diagnosis: stage 1A breast cancer. Knowles is one of about 2,670 cases of breast cancer that will occur among men in 2019, according to the American Cancer Society. About 500 men die from breast cancer every year. “Most men who get breast cancer usually present with a mass behind the nipple,” said Dr. Hank Schmidt, an associate professor of surgery with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. It’s an extremely rare form of cancer in men, and male breast cancer accounts for just 1% of all breast cancer cases, said Dr. Siddhartha Yadav, a hematology-oncology fellow with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Men just don’t have as much breast tissue in which a tumor could grow, Yadav said. They also don’t have high levels of the female hormone estrogen, which can fuel breast cancer. “Men just don’t have that kind of exposure,” Yadav said. About 9 out…  read on >

Certain risk factors in childhood can identify those who are more likely to suffer severe obesity in adulthood, a new study finds. The research included more than 12,000 participants from different countries who were followed from childhood in the 1970s and 1980s into adulthood. In childhood, 82% of the participants had normal weight, 11% were overweight, 5% were obese and 2% were severely obese. About 20 years later, 41% had normal weight, 32% were overweight, 15% were obese and 12% were severely obese, the findings showed. Obesity rates were higher among Americans than participants from other nations, according to the study, which was led by researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Severe obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 35 or higher. In the study, those who were severely obese as children had the highest risk of severe obesity as adults. But the researchers noted that more than one-third of severely obese adults had normal weight as children. “The risk of severe obesity in adulthood was substantially higher for girls than boys, for black participants than white, and for those with lower education levels,” study leader Jessica Woo said in a medical center news release. “Early prevention and treatment are critical, because severe adult obesity has significant adverse health outcomes, such as diabetes and heart disease,” Woo added. “And unfortunately,…  read on >

Many studies have shown that a stable and happy marriage is good for the health of both partners, increasing longevity. But did you know that there’s also a link between one spouse’s happiness and the health of the other? Building on the idea that a happy person is often a healthy person, researchers from Michigan State University and the University of Chicago explored whether a happy outlook could positively affect relationships. After studying nearly 2,000 couples, they found that people with a happy spouse are more likely to report better health over time — above and beyond their own happiness. It may be that a happy spouse offers their partner more TLC than an unhappy one who is often focused more on his or her own needs. A happy partner, especially one who follows a healthy lifestyle including regular exercise and smart food choices, is more likely to motivate their spouse to follow their example and become healthier in the process. Also, a happy spouse is likely to place fewer demands on a partner, reducing the likelihood of unhealthy behaviors like drinking. How can you create a happier environment within your relationship? It’s easier than you might think. Showing affection fosters feelings of well-being. These can be physical demonstrations, like kisses and hugs and holding hands as you sit or walk, as well as verbal…  read on >

Married folks not only live longer than singles, but the longevity gap between the two groups is growing, U.S. government health statisticians report. The age-adjusted death rate for the married declined by 7% between 2010 and 2017, according to a new study from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Not only is the rate for married lower, but it’s declining more than any other group,” said lead author Sally Curtin, an NCHS statistician. Statistically, death rate is the annual number of deaths for every 100,000 people. It’s adjusted so that a 26-year-old and an 80-year-old married or widowed or divorced are on equal footing. The new study reported that the death rate for never-marrieds declined only 2%, while that for divorced people hasn’t changed at all. Worst off were the widowed, for whom the death rate rose 6%. They have the highest death rate of all the categories, researchers said. Married men in 2017 had an age-adjusted death rate of 943 per 100,000, compared to 2,239 for widowers. The death rate was 1,735 per 100,000 for lifelong bachelors and 1,773 for divorced men. Married women had a death rate of 569 per 100,000, two-and-a-half times lower than the 1,482 rate for widows. The death rate was 1,096 for divorcees and 1,166 for never-married women.…  read on >

THURSDAY, Oct. 10, 2019America’s child obesity epidemic shows no signs of shrinking. About 4.8 million American kids aged 10 to 17 — just over 15% — were obese in 2017-2018, according to a new report. “These new data show that this challenge touches the lives of far too many children in this country,” said Dr. Richard Besser, the president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which produced the new report. It found that the five states with the highest youth obesity rates were Mississippi (25.4%), West Virginia (20.9%), Kentucky (20.8%), Louisiana (20.8%) and Michigan (18.9%). The lowest rates were seen in Utah (8.7%), Minnesota (9.4%), Alaska (9.9%), Colorado (10.7%) and Montana (10.8%). Progress against child obesity seems to have stalled: The report’s authors said that no states had statistically significant changes in obesity rates between 2016 and 2017-2018. The report also noted large racial and ethnic disparities. Obesity rates among black and Hispanic youth (22% and 19%, respectively) were sharply higher than among whites and Asians (about 12% and 7%, respectively). “Black and Hispanic youth are still at greater risk than their white and Asian peers,” Besser said in a foundation news release. Family income also had a major impact, the findings showed. The obesity rate among youth in households with incomes below the federal poverty line was nearly 22%, compared to about…  read on >

If you’re Hispanic and missing out on needed sleep, a new study suggests that could make you more prone to memory problems and possibly Alzheimer’s disease. “This finding is particularly important because Hispanics have a significantly higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease compared with non-Hispanic whites,” said study leader Dr. Alberto Ramos. He is a sleep expert and associate professor of neurology at the University of Miami. For the study, the researchers assessed the brain function of more than 5,200 Hispanics, aged 45 to 75, in Chicago, Miami, San Diego and New York City at the start of the study, and again seven years later. “We observed that prolonged periods of sleep and chronic insomnia symptoms led to declines in memory, executive function and processing speed. Those measures can precede the development of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease,” Ramos explained in a university news release. The study also included measures of sleep apnea, which has been linked to memory and thinking problems. “No previous studies used data from a representative sample of U.S. Hispanic/Latinos for these multiple types of sleep disturbances,” Ramos said. The findings should help make doctors aware that sleep problems may be connected with mental decline, particularly in Hispanics, according to Ramos. “We may also be able to identify at-risk patients who may benefit from early intervention to prevent or reduce the…  read on >

Don’t get too mad at that new puppy who piddled on the rug or chewed up your favorite slippers. In the long run, that scamp is going to help you live a longer and healthier life. A pair of new reports found that dog owners have a lower risk of early death than people without canine companionship, particularly when it comes to dying from a heart attack or stroke. Dog ownership decreases a person’s overall risk of premature death by 24%, according to researchers who conducted a review of the available medical evidence. The benefit is most pronounced in people with existing heart problems. Dog owners had a 65% reduced risk of death following a heart attack and a 31% reduced risk of death from heart disease, the researchers said. “People who had a heart attack prior to getting a dog had even more reduction in mortality,” said lead author Dr. Caroline Kramer, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, Canada. That analysis was backed up by a separate Swedish study, which found that heart attack and stroke victims who own dogs have a lower risk of dying, particularly if they live alone. Owning a dog reduced a heart attack patient’s risk of death by 33% if they live alone, and 15% if they live with a partner or child, according to…  read on >