Is it true or just plain misconception that acid reflux affects only stressed out adults and not youngsters?

Studies show that the above statement is just a misconception, and that more than 5% of youngsters in the age bracket of 10 to 17 years suffer from acid reflux. And the figure continues to increase in the age bracket of 18-25 years.

The ‘Ashlee Simpson incident’

Doctors knew all along that kids too can suffer from acid reflux, but the general public became aware of this fact only when pop star Ashlee Simpson was reported to be suffering from acid reflux. While performing on Saturday Night Live in October 2004, her condition became so bad that she had to lip-sync her own song on live TV. Ashlee’s representatives claimed that acid reflux had caused damage to her vocal cards. She was all of twenty years old at the time.

Insomnia, a health condition that was earlier only prevalent in adults, is now fast affecting teens too. Recent studies have shown that while teenagers should ideally sleep for 9 hours, many young adults today sleep for just 7 hours and 53 minutes on an average.

Lack of Sleep and Depression

Studies show that lack of sleep and depression are interlinked. Lack of sleep fuels depression in teenagers just as it does in adults.

Studies show that teenagers who sleep less than 5 hours have a 71% risk of developing symptoms associated with depression. Another startling figure that studies report is that teenagers who stay up late after midnight are at a 20% increased risk of getting clinically depressed and having thoughts of suicide. It isn’t without reason then, that the moniker “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy and wise” is still so prevalent to this day.

High blood pressure or hypertension, as it is commonly known, has no cure. However, with the right treatment and by making positive changes in your lifestyle, this very common health condition can be controlled.

A new surgery to control hypertension

Medical scientists in Britain have shown that the condition of high blood pressure can be effectively controlled by a simple and short surgical process known as the rental sympathetic-nerve ablation.

Mel Lobo, who is a specialist at Britain’s National Health Service, is very upbeat about this new development and believes that this surgery could be a colossal step towards curing high blood pressure- ever since the high blood pressure treatment was developed nearly fifty years ago.

Check out the questionnaire section below to learn more about this wonder surgery.

Until now, LDL or bad cholesterol has been believed to cause most health conditions that occur due to high levels of cholesterol in the blood. But now, it seems LDL has an accomplice. The New England Journal of Medicine has recently published a study which shows that a new constituent of cholesterol also has a damaging effect.

The name of this new component is Lipoprotein (LP).

LP plays a significant role in causing cardiovascular diseases.  The reasons for high levels of LDL and LP in the human body are different; while the high LDL levels are typically the result of poor eating habits and lifestyle, the latter is inherited and its levels cannot be managed by altering diet or lifestyle.

However, medicines such as CETP inhibitors and Niacin are available and help in reducing the levels of LP.

The bigger culprit

Research shows that LDL is the bigger culprit between the two. Martin Farrall, a leading researcher, states that the risk associated with high levels of LDL is more pronounced than the high levels of LP. He also said that one in every six individuals carry the gene(s) for LP.

Hypertension or high blood pressure is different from other life-threatening health conditions in the sense that unlike other serious health conditions, symptoms of hypertension are not easily noticeable. And due to this specific reason, hypertension is often called the silent killer.

Hypertension can be fatal, as the condition affects various organs, none more than the heart and kidney.

Is conventional treatment best for elderly hypertension patients?

As of now, elderly hypertension patients (patients that are above 80 years) are given the same treatment as younger hypertensive patients. However, recent studies point that current treatment for elderly hypertensive patients may not be in their best interest. In fact, some studies advocate that current treatments are too aggressive for hypertension patients above 80 years.