One known cause of SCD is Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a disease in which the heart muscle becomes abnormally thick, making it harder for the heart to pump blood. HCM often goes undetected and is the most common cause of sudden death in athletes. SCD can also occur in people who are born with coronary arteries that are abnormally connected to the heart. During exercise, these arteries may become compressed and unable provide proper blood flow to the heart.

However, with the lack of telltale symptoms and limited availability of diagnostic tests to detect SCD, predicting who is at risk is largely dependent upon genetics. An international team of researchers including members from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Technical University in Munich as well as others have now identified 10 common variants of genes that alter QT interval, or the timing of the contraction of the heart, that may help to pinpoint predisposition for sudden cardiac death. The study has recently been published in Nature Genetics.

Among the other genes identified, several had been suspected. However, according to Dan Arking, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, “almost half were surprising new genes that no one would have guessed as being involved in cardiac biology.” Arking also stated, “It really does open up a new world of investigation because these are genes that would have never come up if we had only focused on a list of known candidate genes.”

As a kid, I had a bunch of little round magnets that were supposed to be glued onto the back of homemade refrigerator magnets. Instead I used to stack them up on the kitchen table and turn them around and around attracting and repelling the little discs for the sheer wonder of the power they held. Little did I know magnets have been widely used as an alternative method of treating pain from headaches and motion sickness to joint pain.

Ancient healers thought that the blood contained magnetic energy and when it became low or displaced, the patient became ill. After the Civil War, magnets were put into clothing in order to reduce the need for doctors, which were hard to find. In the United States, magnets are still in use today, not so much in clothing to replenish deficiencies in the body, but for shoe insoles to stabilize painful foot symptoms, inside a mattress pad for general body well being, and inside discreet elastic bands to wear against pressure points (most common on the inside of your wrist) to ward off sickness from the sea, from altitude, or motion in genera—like a long car ride in the backseat.Multiple conditions are said to be fought by manipulating the magnetic fields coursing through your body. Liver and kidney problems, back pain, and fibromyalgia are some of the major health concerns people look to magnets to solve.

Whatever type of medical theory you subscribe to, doctors and researchers alike warn to use your own judgment when applying magnetic fields to what ails you. Talk to your physician and rate the pros and cons. Whether or not this type of magnetic manipulation appeals to your common sense, I think we all have learned that magnets aren’t just for the refrigerator anymore.

A growing body of medical evidence suggests that the key to building and maintaining brain cells, staving off memory loss and perhaps even preventing dementia is lifelong stimulation.

Contrary to popular belief, losing your memory is not a normal part of aging. While there is some decline as we age, it is not serious enough to cause trouble later in life as long as we remain physically and emotionally healthy.

The results showed that participants who read books, used computers, played games, and did crafts such as pottery or quilting in their later years had a 30 to 50 percent lower risk of developing memory loss compared to those who didn’t do these types of mental activities. Participants who watched television less than seven hours a day in their later years were 50 percent less likely to develop memory loss than those who spent more than seven hours a day in front of the tube. By contrast, watching television for hours on end significantly increased the chance of suffering problems.

Other mentally-stimulating activities like video games have been seen to improve cognitive performance in older age. Last November, a team from the Mayo Clinic and the University of Southern California announced that one computer-based mental training program appeared to improve older people’s cognitive performance by as much as 10 years.

Previous studies have shown that good mental function in later years corresponds to high levels of education. Experts think that advanced education may help keep memory strong by getting people into the habit of being mentally active. Those who are bilingual have shown a similar resistance to memory loss, which was accounted for because of the intellectual effort required to switch between languages.

Health care in the United States is preparing to be put to the test. At a crucial time in the economic history of the country, advances made toward providing health care to more and more people may not be enough to counter the vast numbers of citizens losing health care benefits in the current recession. While it may be months or years before the truth is revealed in numbers and statistics, there is no doubt that the health care system is now facing one of its greatest challenges in decades.

The Senate voted 66 to 32 to pass the SCHIP bill, which will now be delivered to the desk of President Obama for his signature. The final version included medical coverage for legal immigrants, which had been a sore subject with Congressional Republicans but is only the tip of the health care iceberg that was Obama’s campaign promise of providing all Americans with health care. With nearly 7 million children soon to be covered under the SCHIP program, further steps can be taken to ensure that other uninsured groups of Americans will be absorbed into government-related programs as well.

But will any of those steps be enough to ward off a health care crisis in America? People are being laid off from jobs in near-record numbers. Each day, the news media reports thousands —even tens of thousands —more jobs being lost to cost-cutting measures at companies big and small. And the majority of those losing jobs are losing health care as well, due to the overwhelming costs of extended plans like COBRA or the sheer inability to pay for health care when income has dropped or disappeared.

The stimulus plan was passed by the House of Representatives days ago but is undergoing much scrutiny as it goes before the Senate, a governmental body that may not have the majority needed to pass the bill. The plan, as it came from the House, called for a temporary expansion of COBRA, making it possible for those having been at a job for ten years to stay on COBRA until the age of 65, and those with less than ten years of employment at the same job but aged 55 or older could do the same. In addition, the cost of COBRA would be decreased by nearly two-thirds for one year. The bill also addresses those who don’t qualify for COBRA, allowing them to fall under the Medicaid umbrella and claim benefits under that plan. Another part of the complicated and far-reaching stimulus plan would call for improvements to record-keeping in the medical field, which could spur job growth in the information technology field.

However, there is a cost to it all. Opponents of the plan not only argue that the proposals are short-term and will not solve the long-term problem of people losing health care coverage due to job loss, but the price tag on those portions of the bill is high. The COBRA extensions may cost up to $40 billion, and the Medicaid part of the plan will rocket past the $80 billion mark. The record-keeping proposal adds another $20 billion to the overall cost.