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THURSDAY, May 14, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Drinking lots of sweetened soda may increase the risk of developing chronic kidney disease, two new studies find. "Consumption of 500 milliliters [16.9 fluid ounces] of a commercially available soft drink sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup increased vascular resistance in the kidneys within 30 minutes," the researchers found. In a second study, the investigators found changes in blood flow in the kidneys was caused by the corn syrup, not the caffeine, in the soda. The two studies included a total of 25 healthy men and women, with an average age of 22 to 24. Christopher Chapman, of the University at Buffalo in New York, and colleagues explained that vascular resistance occurs when blood vessels constrict, reducing blood flow in...

THURSDAY, May 14, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A new study offers reassurance that many surgery patients can safely be freed from one discomfort of recovery -- wearing compression stockings to prevent blood clots. The garments, which help keep blood from pooling in the lower legs, have long been used post-surgery. One reason has been to thwart blood clots, which can form in the leg veins when a patient is laid up in recovery. But rates of such blood clots have fallen dramatically over the years, according to researcher Dr. Alun Davies. That's due to various improvements in care, he said -- like getting patients out of bed and moving soon after surgery, and discharging them from the hospital earlier. That raises the question of whether old-fashioned compression stockings still hold any...

THURSDAY, May 14, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Memory and thinking skills are generally worse after a stroke for people with type 2 diabetes compared to people with normal blood sugar levels or prediabetes, new research suggests. "We found that diabetes, but not prediabetes, is associated with poorer cognitive performance in every aspect of cognition tested," said study lead author Jessica Lo. She's a research associate from the University of New South Wales Sydney's Center for Healthy Brain Aging in Australia. Prediabetes is a condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not yet high enough to be considered type 2 diabetes. People with diabetes are more likely to have strokes than people without the disease. In fact, every two minutes someone with diabetes in the...

THURSDAY, May 14, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Older Americans were going hungry even before the coronavirus pandemic short-circuited the nation's food supply, a new poll finds. Before the COVID crisis, 1 in 7 adults ages 50 to 80 had difficulty getting enough food because of high costs or other factors, according to the National Poll on Healthy Aging conducted by the University of Michigan. The number unable to obtain needed food in the past year was even higher among blacks, Hispanics and those not yet getting Medicare, researchers said. "Access to nutritious food and health status are closely linked, yet this poll reveals major disparities in that access," said poll director Dr. Preeti Malani, a professor of internal medicine at Michigan Medicine. "Even as we focus on preventing...