Altura

Neighborhood Healthcare and Altura are pleased to share a toolkit to supplement the Building Clinical Trial and Health Research Access for People of Color via Community Health Centers (CHCs) white paper. Its aim is to provide CHCs a range of options to support patients and increase diversity in and access to clinical studies of all types. Additionally, a call to action for life science companies and research organizations is included. To learn more and download the white paper and toolkit, please visit https://lnkd.in/g9kxmKVU To post a study on the HCP Studies research engagement platform for access by CHCs, patients and communities, please email: info@alturastudies.com.

Altura’s CEO, Pete Fronte, MBA, shares an important message on cancer screening: Early detection can make all the difference in long-term survival, which means more time with your loved ones and for fulfilling your dreams. As we enter the new year, consider scheduling any needed screening, as timing matters. American Cancer Society #AmericanCancerSociety #cancerprevention #cancer

Taking steps to increase patient education about osteoporosis — a bone-weakening condition that’s common in people with Parkinson’s disease — could potentially lower the risk of falls and encourage higher calcium intake for stronger bones among those with both conditions, a new study published in the Turkish Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation suggests. The researchers recommended distributing an educational brochure about the bone condition, and combining that with “a training program for osteoporosis, specifically for [Parkinson’s disease]." According to the researchers, these findings show that osteoporosis education can help improve knowledge and daily habits in people with Parkinson’s. While giving out a brochure had some benefits, the extra verbal education led to better results, the team noted. The data showed that the intervention group had fewer falls compared with the control group, suggesting that patient osteoporosis education helped reduce the risk of falls. “Although patient education, as a prevention and treatment method, is not a sufficient method alone to create behavior change, some behavioral changes may occur if the individual’s decision to control the disease develops,” the researchers wrote. “This is called self-management.” #Parkinsons https://ow.ly/7yJf50UwhI9

Dancing lowers the depression associated with Parkinson disease, and the benefits can be seen in multiple ways, a new study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research shows. The participants took weekly dance classes for 8 months, which progressed from simple leg and foot work and pliés to interpretive movements, waltzes, and more complicated, choreographed dances. The researchers found that after each dance class, reported depression rates dropped, and the effect was cumulative from class to class, with significant improvements after 8 months. They also found that the MRI scans showed reduced signals in a frontal-cortex brain region associated with emotional regulation and that in a smaller subset of the participants, a significant decrease in depression scores was correlated with changes in the SCG node. "We essentially showed that SCG BOLD [blood oxygen level–dependent] signal decreases while dancing over time. Which means that the SCG was not functioning as fast as it would if you had depression" said Karolina Bearss. #Parkinsons #Depression https://ow.ly/Vz8v50UwhHk

A little wine every day can protect your heart health, a new study suggests. People who drank half to one glass of wine a day had a 50% lower risk of heart attack, stroke or heart disease, compared to wine teetotalers, researchers reported in the European Heart Journal. Even light drinking -- one glass a week, or less than half a glass a day -- reduced heart risk by 38%, results showed. However, these benefits evaporated in people who had more than one glass of wine a day. In people at high risk of heart disease following a Mediterranean diet, light-to-moderate wine drinking reduced heart risk by 50%, results show. "Recent studies indicate that the protective effects of wine consumption are observed starting from the age of 35 to 40," said senior researcher Dr. Ramon Estruch. This study could have "far-reaching" implications for public health recommendations regarding wine consumption, according to an editorial accompanying the study. #heart https://ow.ly/kUr050UwhFF

Sleep apnea is known to wreak havoc with the body, contributing to heart problems, diabetes and liver disease. The sleep disorder also appears to have direct effects on brain health, a new study in the journal Neurology shows. People with sleep apnea appear to experience accelerated aging of the brain's white matter, which serves to connect the various regions of the brain, researchers reported. Sleep apnea also is associated with an increase in the size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory and thinking. Brain scans taken 10 years after the sleep test showed that those with the most sleep problems had greater brain volume in the hippocampus, results show. In fact, the size of the hippocampus increased with the number of sleep disruptions a person experienced, researchers said. Lower oxygen levels during sleep were also associated with increase hippocampal volume, as well as changes in white matter. "Both brain shrinkage and brain growth can harm memory and thinking by disrupting normal brain functions, increasing the risk of cognitive decline and dementia," said lead researcher Dr. Alberto Ramos. #health https://ow.ly/Q1E250UwhFa

Whether they're lifelong buddies or recently connected, close to home or miles away, a new poll from the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging shows the key role that friends play in the lives and wellbeing of adults aged 50 and older. In all, 90% of people aged 50 and older say they have at least one close friend, and 75% say they have enough close friends. What's more, 70% of those with a close friend say they can definitely count on them to provide support in discussing their health. In addition, 47% of those with fair or poor mental health said they don't have enough close friends. Older adults in fair or poor physical or mental health were also much more likely to say it's harder to make friends now than earlier in life. They found that 79% of those with at least one close friend said that they can turn to them for emotional support, and that 50% had a friend who had encouraged them to make healthier choices like eating better and getting more exercise in the past year. In addition, 35% said a close friend had encouraged them to get a symptom checked out by a health professional, and 32% had a friend who had helped them when they were sick or injured. "When health care providers see older adults, we should also ask about their social support network, including close friends, especially for those with more serious health conditions," said poll director Jeffrey Kullgren. #olderadults https://ow.ly/3PaI50UwhEf

Can you literally step away from depression? A new global review of data published in the journal JAMA Network Open found that "increasing the number of daily steps, even at modest levels, was associated with a reduction in depressive symptoms". Compared to a baseline of 5,000 steps taken per day, folks who took even 1,000 more steps daily saw a 9% drop in their odds for developing depression, the researchers found. Those benefits quickly mounted up: Compared to folks walking 5,000 steps per day or less, those who walked 7,000 steps/day had a 31% lower odds for depression, the study found. "In addition, counts above 7,500 steps/d were associated with a 43% lower prevalence of depression," Estela Jimenez-Lopez wrote, and those trends held true for "all age groups, [and] females and males." The new findings add walking to many other forms of physical activity -- aerobics, weight training, yoga and even tai chi -- as ways to help keep depression at bay, the researchers said. The bottom line: "Setting goals for the number of daily steps may be a promising and inclusive public health strategy for the prevention of depression," the study authors concluded. #depression https://ow.ly/NNCC50UwhBV

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends screening for cervical cancer, with different approaches recommended for those aged 21 to 29 years and 30 to 65 years. These recommendations form the basis of a draft recommendation statement published online Dec. 10. Based on findings, the USPSTF recommends cervical cancer screening every three years with cervical cytology alone in women ages 21 to 29 years and every five years with hrHPV primary screening for women aged 30 to 65 years. For women aged 30 to 65 years, the USPSTF recommends continued screening every three years with cervical cytology alone or screening every five years with hrHPV testing combined with cytology as an alternative to primary screening. #CancerResearch https://ow.ly/IGiO50UtHNG

Colorectal cancer, the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, may be fueled by the food on our plates. Research published in Gut has uncovered a potential link between the Western diet – dominated by ultra-processed foods and unhealthy oils – and the chronic inflammation that drives tumor growth. "It is well known that patients with unhealthy diets have increased inflammation in their bodies," said Dr. Timothy Yeatman. "We now see this inflammation in the colon tumors themselves, and cancer is like a chronic wound that won't heal – if your body is living off of daily ultra-processed foods, its ability to heal that wound decreases due to the inflammation and suppression of the immune system that ultimately allows the cancer to grow." According to Yeatman, the findings emphasize the urgent need to reevaluate the components of the Western diet, which typically consists of excessive consumption of added sugars, saturated fats, ultra-processed foods, chemicals and inflammatory seed oils. #CancerResearch https://ow.ly/r30k50UtHL7