Health
Johnny Depp visits children’s hospital dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow in ‘magical moment’
An impromptu visit from Captain Jack Sparrow was a surprise treasure for some young cancer patients.
Actor Johnny Depp, who was in Spain for the San Sebastian Film Festival, dressed as the famous character from the popular “Pirates of the Caribbean” film series and dropped into the Osakidetza Donostia University Hospital.
Depp visited the pediatric and oncology wards, where he interacted with the delighted children and their families.
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A spokesperson from the hospital described the actor’s visit as “exciting, endearing and unforgettable.”
“Both the children admitted to the hospital and their families and professionals who were working at that time welcomed him with great enthusiasm and affection,” the spokesperson said.
“In a situation of illness, anyone, but especially children, greatly appreciates a distraction of this magnitude. It was a breath of fresh air, a magical moment in which they forgot about their illness and were transported to the magical world of pirates.”
The entire hospital team, the admitted children and their families are all “enormously grateful” for Depp’s visit, the spokesperson said.
“It has been a pleasure and an honor to have Jack Sparrow with us, a great pirate.”
‘Meaningful impact’
Harpreet Pall, MD, chair of pediatrics at K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center, confirmed that a celebrity role model visiting a children’s hospital can have a “meaningful impact” on the patients’ emotional health.
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“Some of the psychological benefits include improved self-esteem and confidence, distraction from illness, improved optimism and a morale boost,” Pall told Fox News Digital.
“A celebrity visit can create excitement and decrease some of the stress of being in the hospital.”
The visit can also increase children’s engagement with their health care team, the doctor said, leading to better adherence to the treatment plan.
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Pall added, “In addition, having a positive outlook and social interaction promotes healing for hospitalized children.”
Health
To reduce dementia risk, seniors should take up this outdoor activity, study suggests
Gardening could help aging adults stay sharp later in life, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland found that tending to gardens at an older age is associated with “small but detectable cognitive benefits.”
The long-term study tracked participants who shared details of their lifestyles and completed “frequent assessments” of their thinking skills up to age 90.
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The “Lothian Birth Cohort 1921” study followed people who were born in the Edinburgh area, starting at age 11. The participants regularly took an intelligence test known as the Scottish Mental Survey of 1932.
Hundreds of participants sat for the same exam at age 79.
Out of 467 participants, 31% had never gardened, while 43% gardened regularly.
The results revealed that the 280 who gardened frequently or occasionally showed “greater lifetime improvement in cognitive ability compared with those who never gardened or rarely did so.”
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Between the ages of 79 and 90, the participants’ cognitive ability — including memory, problem-solving and word fluency — declined in general, but the researchers found that the “earlier advantage of gardeners endured.”
Study co-author Dr. Janie Corley wrote in a press release how identifying behaviors that “facilitate healthy cognitive aging are of major public interest for the prevention of cognitive decline and dementia.”
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“Gardening is a key leisure activity in late adulthood,” she said. “Engaging in gardening projects, learning about plants and general garden upkeep involve complex cognitive processes, such as memory and executive function.”
She continued, “Consistent with the ‘use it or lose it’ framework of cognitive function, more engagement in gardening may be directly associated with a lower risk of cognitive decline.”
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Dr. Azza Halim, MD, an anti-aging specialist, noted that gardening has been studied as an anti-aging activity for seniors, providing physical, mental and emotional benefits, including for longevity and cognition.
Gardening also counts as “low-impact exercise” that is beneficial for cardiac health and circulation, the physician added.
“It provides mental stimulation to reduce cognitive decline, as well as fostering mental and emotional well-being, relaxation and decreased anxiety,” she said.
“At any age, it is important to engage in physical and social activities to maintain youthfulness — and more so in later years to stave off high blood pressure, depression, weight gain and cognitive decline.” “Engaging in gardening projects … involves complex cognitive processes.”
The researchers noted that their work cannot prove a direct correlation between gardening and improved cognitive ability, as factors like available greenery and social interactions could have impacted these results.
The study is supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Executive Health Department.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers for comment.
Health
How an Indigenous Diet Helped One Man Lose 200 Pounds + Tips for Boosting Your Health
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Health
To reduce cancer risk, researchers recommend adopting these 4 healthy habits
While some cancers are driven by genetics, studies have shown that up to half of all cases are caused by behavioral risk factors — which means they’re preventable.
Doctors recommend some common lifestyle changes to prevent cancer, such as not smoking, eating nutritious foods, wearing sun protection and limiting exposure to carcinogens — but each person’s means of reducing risk can look different.
Researchers at Mass General Brigham have compiled four specific, research-backed strategies for reducing risk.
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1. Stay on top of preventive screenings
Procrastination is one of the top reasons for missed cancer screenings, research has shown.
For example, colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in Black individuals in the U.S., but many do not get the recommended screenings.
A study by Dr. Adjoa Anyane-Yeboa, a gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), found that “self-reported procrastination” was the primary reason for the skipped screenings, fueled by “financial concerns, COVID-19 concerns and fear of both the test and bowel preparation.”
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“The key takeaway from this study is that all providers should discuss colorectal cancer screening at regular intervals with all of their patients, because early detection through screening saves lives,” Anyane-Yeboa told Fox News Digital.
“To reduce their cancer risk, all people should be screened starting at age 45 and talk to their families about their family history to figure out if they need to be screened earlier.”
“Colorectal cancer is preventable with screening, and screening really does save lives.”
Screening guidelines for other types of cancers can be found on the American Cancer Society website.
2. Improve your sleep health
Insufficient or poor-quality sleep has been linked to a higher risk of developing cancers.
Heming Wang, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), led a research team that examined the impact of insomnia on ovarian cancer risk.
OVARIAN CANCER SIGNS, SYMPTOMS, DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OPTIONS
“Insomnia is a common sleep disorder among ovarian cancer patients,” Wang told Fox News Digital.
“Our research revealed that insomnia increases the risk of a specific subtype of ovarian cancer and is associated with reduced survival in patients,” he went on.
“These findings highlight the importance of addressing insomnia in the prevention and management of ovarian cancer.”
Based on these findings, seeking treatment for insomnia can help reduce the risk of certain types of ovarian cancer, according to the researchers.
3. Know the risks and benefits of daily aspirin use
Research has shown that regularly taking aspirin or another non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) can reduce the risk of developing colorectal cancer — but it can also lead to dangerous side effects, such as bleeding and inflammation.
“It is important to know if you are more likely to benefit from daily aspirin use,” according to MGH.
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Daniel Sikavi, MD, and Andrew Chan, MD, of MGH, led a study that explored the link between aspirin and colon cancer risk.
“Our results suggested that people with a less healthy lifestyle — higher body mass index, more smoking, greater alcohol use, less physical activity and poorer diet quality — had a greater absolute benefit from aspirin use in reducing their risk of colorectal cancer,” Sikavi told Fox News Digital.
People with a healthier lifestyle had a lower overall risk of colon cancer, the researchers found, but regular aspirin use didn’t have the same protective effects for that group.
“This work is an important example of a more personalized approach to cancer prevention by targeting effective prevention strategies to populations that are the most likely to benefit,” Sikavi noted.
4. Cut down on sugar-sweetened beverages
More than half of the U.S. population consumes sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) on any given day, studies have shown.
Research by the American Cancer Society (ACS) found that men and women who drank two or more servings of SSBs per day had a 5% higher risk of dying from an obesity-related cancer.
“Despite their sweet taste, sugary drinks pose significant health risks,” Longgang Zhao, PhD, a researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told Fox News Digital.
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“Researchers have already linked the beverages to obesity, diabetes and heart disease.”
Zhao recently led a study that investigated the link between sugar-sweetened beverages and liver cancer risk among postmenopausal women.
“In our current study using data from the Women’s Health Initiative prospective cohort, we found that postmenopausal women who drank one or more sugar-sweetened beverages per day had a higher risk of developing liver cancer and dying of chronic liver disease than those who drank less than three or fewer sugar-sweetened beverages per month,” he said.
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“If a causal link is established between sugary drinks and liver disease, the broader implications for global public health initiatives are substantial.”
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