A shocker: Happier with age
If you’re happy and you know it, chances are you’re no whippersnapper. That’s the upshot of a new Internet survey that found senior citizens report being happier than younger people.
The findings contradict the common assumption that happiness declines with age, said study lead author Heather Pond Lacey, a postdoctoral fellow at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System in Michigan. “In our culture, we think of old age as a time of helplessness, disability, loneliness and isolation,” she said, “none of which are necessarily true.”
On a 1-to-10 scale, with 10 representing the highest level of happiness, the younger group (ages 21-40) reported an average happiness level of 6.65, while the older group (60-86) stood at 7.32.
The results appear in the June issue of the Journal of Happiness Studies, which focuses on the field of “positive psychology.”
Diabetes the `biologic weapon’
The number of new cases of Type 2 diabetes among middle-age Americans has doubled during the last 30 years, researchers report.
“There has been tremendous concern, but probably not enough concern, about the emerging epidemic of diabetes,” said Dr. Robert Rizza, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic and president of the American Diabetes Association. “It doesn’t take long to be doubling before the numbers are simply too great to be even conceived of.
“We’ve got to stop this, and, of course, it’s obesity which is driving it,” Rizza added. “This is a biologic weapon which has been unleashed on our population–its name is diabetes.”
The study findings appear in the June 19 issue of the journal Circulation.
Pain relievers and heart attacks
People who have survived a first heart attack have a higher risk of dying or having a second heart attack if they are taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including the newer class called Cox-2 inhibitors.
The Danish research detailing these findings on pain relievers appears in the June 20 issue of the journal Circulation, mirroring a study first presented at the 2005 meeting of the American Heart Association. The results of the two studies are almost the same, although the latest study shows an even higher correlation between NSAID use and a second heart attack.
Compared with patients not taking these drugs, the risk of death was two to three times higher for patients taking low-dose (25 milligrams or less a day) of Vioxx (rofecoxib) or 200 milligrams or less a day of Celebrex (celecoxib).
The risk of death was five times higher for patients taking high-dose Vioxx (more than 25 milligrams a day); almost five times as high among those taking more than 200 milligrams of Celebrex; more than four times higher for those on high-dose diclofenac (more than 100 milligrams daily); and more than two times greater for those taking high-dose ibuprofen (more than 1,200 milligrams daily).
Although aspirin was not evaluated in the study, it has a proven beneficial effect in preventing heart attacks.
