Healthy Heart

Nearly one in eight US adults may have "masked" hypertension, says new research in American Journal of Epidemiology. Thats high blood pressure not found during checkups. It raises risk of stroke and premature death.

Too much sitting and too little exercise may speed biological aging by as much as 8 years, suggests an American Journal of Epidemiology study. A group of 1,481 women (average age, 79) from a nationally-representative sample wore motion sensors for one week.

You may not give much thought to adding a splash of cream and a spoonful of sugar to your coffee or tea, but these add-ins can add up in calories. A study published in Public Health aimed to figure out just how much.

Not only can substitution save the day when you lack an ingredient called for in a recipe, but it also enables you to make a recipe better for you. That's helpful whether you are trying to improve your overall eating pattern or are cooking for a specific health condition.

Seeing you're down several pounds or finding your clothes are fitting looser may sound like a good thing - but not when you aren't trying to lose weight. Unwanted weight loss is of special concern in aging since it could point to an undiagnosed illness, leave you prone to infections or decrease your independence.

Should you buy the big 2-quart bottle of vegetable oil for $2.50 or spend $12 on a 1-quart bottle of extra-virgin olive oil? "Olive oil has been regarded by many as a unique oil for cardiovascular health, but the data dont really support it as being superior to common vegetable oils," says Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc, director of Tufts' HNRCA Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory.

Have you read your groceries lately? Many of them tout reasons why health-minded shoppers should buy them, such as to lower cholesterol, reduce risk of osteoporosis or prevent cancer. Some sport bright red hearts claiming the products are heart healthy. But can you trust such health claims?

Beetroot juice is currently a 'hot' nutritional supplement for its touted effects both on reducing cardiovascular disease risk and its potential to improve endurance exercise performance. Beetroot is naturally high in nitrate, which is converted to a signaling molecule called nitric oxide in the body. Nitric oxide has beneficial effects on vasodilation (relaxation and widening of blood vessels, increasing blood flow).

Setting specific limits on sugar intake can alarm groups that profit from sugar use. A recent study in Annals of Internal Medicine reviewed the evidence for limits on sugar intake advised by nine public health groups. The conclusion was that sugar intake guidelines are based on low-quality evidence.

Hearing loss increases with age, affecting 40 to 66% of adults over age 65 and 80% of adults over age 85. Scientists are exploring whether iron deficiency contributes to the problem. Using clinical data from electronic medical records of 305,339 young to elderly adults, scientists examined the relationship between hearing loss and iron deficiency anemia.