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THURSDAY, July 29, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Something as simple as having a glass of orange juice in the morning or an apple at lunch could be one of the keys to protecting your brain health.People who consumed just a half serving a day of foods high in a naturally occurring compound called flavonoids had a 20% lower risk of mental decline, according to a new study. "We think it may have important public health implications because based on what you're seeing in the current study, it could be that just by making some simple changes to your diet, that is, by adding these flavonoid-rich foods into your diet, you could potentially help prevent cognitive decline," said study co-author Dr. Tian-Shin Yeh, a research fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.Besides bananas, apples,...

THURSDAY, July 29, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- There's much Americans may disagree on, but many share one thing in common: chronic pain.More than half of U.S. adults suffer from pain, with backs and legs the most common sources, according to researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Overall, the investigators found that nearly 59% of American men and women were saddled with pain."Pain is one of the most common presenting complaints to a doctor's office," said Dr. Yili Huang, director of the Pain Management Center at Northwell Health's Phelps Hospital, in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y."It is often the body's warning sign that something may be wrong. Pain is a symptom and not a disease, so when experiencing new pain, it is...

THURSDAY, July 29, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- In a finding that could mean more patients desperate for a heart transplant get a new lease on life, two new studies show that hearts from donors who abused drugs can be safely donated.In the past two decades, the U.S. opioid crisis has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans -- often young, otherwise healthy people. One result is that a rising percentage of potential donor organs come from people who abused drugs.For a long time, the question was whether those organs were more likely to fail in the long run.Research in recent years has been offering reassurance on those issues. And experts said the two new studies provide even more.In one, researchers looked at long-term survival among U.S. heart transplant patients who'd...

THURSDAY, July 29, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Illustrating a heartbreaking cycle, new research finds that lonely seniors are much more likely to take opioid painkillers, sedatives, anti-anxiety drugs and other medications.This puts them at increased risk for drug dependency, attention problems, falls, accidents and mental decline, the University of California, San Francisco researchers warned."There's a misconception that as we age, we become more withdrawn and less sociable," said first author Dr. Ashwin Kotwal, an assistant professor in the Division of Geriatrics. "In fact, older people are more socially active than other age groups and frequently play major roles in their communities. When older people are not socially active, we need to recognize that there's a problem."His team's...