The 8 determinants of life expectancy and health span

 There is a recent report on the American Heart Association (AHA) Life's Essential 8 metric and its association with both life expectancy and health span or life expectancy free of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, diabetes, and dementia.

A new Harvard study leveraged the UK Biobank and included more than 135,000 UK adults with a mean age of 55. The AHA metric was defined as including the following lifestyle behavioral factors:

• Not smoking;
• Regular physical activity;
• Healthy weight;
• Healthy diet;
• Healthy sleep (defined as an average of 7-9 hours nightly);
• Blood pressure in a healthy range:
• Blood glucose in a healthy range; and
• Non-HDL cholesterol in a healthy range.

This study was just published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

"Overall, the findings make a compelling case for the importance of lifestyle factors in extending health span and years free of chronic disease. It can be motivating to tell our patients that a healthy lifestyle not only extends life expectancy but also extends years of health free of chronic disease."

Says Dr. JoAnn Manson one of the articles authors. Really?

To be brutally honest none of this is news to anyone, but it doesn't become fact until it is published in JAMA so there you have it, breaking news!

So while we are at it the JAMA neurology journal just published an article about hormone replacement and dementia, more breaking news!

Alzheimer's disease is caused by the deposition of certain proteins in the brain known as tau and amyloid. This study which was funded by the NIH imaged the brains of women who did and did not take hormone replacement.

Early menopause and delayed initiation of hormone therapy (HT) have been linked to an increase in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology in women, this new imaging study shows.

Investigators found elevated levels of tau protein in the brains of women who initiated HT more than 5 years after menopause onset, while those who started the therapy earlier had normal levels.

Tau levels were also higher in women who started menopause before age 45, either naturally or following surgery, but only in those who already had high levels of beta-amyloid.

The findings were published online April 3 in JAMA Neurology.

Here is the link to an abstract of the article

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/article-abstract/2802791

Most of my patients know that I believe hormone replacement to be another critical component of aging well, especially in people over 50. Make that determinant of health number 9. In women, estrogen is critical in the prevention of heart disease, osteoporosis and dementia. Hopefully Harvard and JAMA will come around to doing a study on it and when they produce an article in a decade then it will be considered fact AKA breaking news!!

April 2023 Testimonial for Anti-Aging Hair Growth Serum

A kind patient agreed to do this testimonial for me last week.

Its about the Hair Growth Serum, he is very happy with it. Click on this link which will take you to You Tube

 https://youtu.be/UCPyBdvUA90

New Covid vaccination recommendations for Spring 2023

 Here is the communique from the Maryland Department of Health.

Following the FDA April 18, 2023 announcement, CDC has taken steps to simplify COVID-19 vaccine recommendations and allow more flexibility for people at higher risk who want the option to receive an additional COVID-19 vaccine dose.

These changes include:

• CDC’s new recommendations allow an additional updated (bivalent) vaccine dose for adults ages 65 years and older and additional doses for people who are immunocompromised. This allows more flexibility for healthcare providers to administer additional doses to immunocompromised patients as needed.  
• Monovalent (original) COVID-19 mRNA COVID-19 vaccines will no longer be recommended for use in the United States. 
• CDC recommends that everyone ages 6 years and older receive an updated (bivalent) mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of whether they previously completed their (monovalent) primary series.  
• Individuals ages 6 years and older who have already received an updated mRNA vaccine do not need to take any action unless they are 65 years or older or immunocompromised. 
• For young children, multiple doses continue to be recommended and will vary by age, vaccine, and which vaccines were previously received.  

Alternatives to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines remain available for people who cannot or will not receive an mRNA vaccine. CDC’s recommendations for use of (monovalent) Novavax or Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccines were not affected by the changes made today. 

Why should you take hormone replacement?

 A few quick words about my favorite topic: Hormone Balance.

Firstly, hormones are not just for women over 50 a lot of younger women have hormone balance issues like PMS, PMDD, depression, severe period pain, mood swings, irregular periods etc.

For post menopausal women studies have shown that it is the fear of cancer, specifically breast cancer, that prevents most women from taking HRT. This is understandable since the incidence of breast cancer is 1 in 9 (or 8 in some places), so it is very common. However, HRT does NOT cause cancer and in fact estrogen has been shown to be protective AGAINST breast cancer.

Another interesting fact: Women who develop breast cancer (it is very common after all) while on HRT have a lower risk of dying than women not taking it.

Lastly, remember that the benefits of HRT go way beyond symptom relief: it protects the cardiovascular system, reducing heart attacks, improves bone health, improves the immune system and reduces the incidence of dementia. The power of estrogen!

If you haven't read my book yet, please give it a read and evaluate your own state of balance. Feel free to contact me with any questions.