While suffering a stroke is already known to raise the risk of breaking your hip, new research shows that the reverse might also be true; something seen previously in other studies. The study out of Taiwan found that patients with a broken hip had more than a 50 percent increased risk of having a stroke within a year of their injury compared to similar patients with no fractures. Hip fractures account for more than 320,000 hospital admissions every year in the U.S., but can they actually cause a stroke -- the nation's third leading cause of death." It is known that the risk of hip fracture is high in those with strokes.

     Cognitive function describes a person's state of consciousness, alertness and orientation, memory, and attention span. A mental status examination (MSE) is a standard test used by healthcare professionals to measure a patient's overall mental health. Evaluating a patient's cognitive function includes, first of all, measuring their level of alertness and orientation.

Endothelial cells lie shoulder to shoulder like a carpet lining blood vessel walls. These cells have to react to changes in the volume of blood flow pushing blood vessels wider; otherwise there is pressure on the heart and blood pressure rises. Poor function of endothelial cells is seen in coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetics, smokers, and people with high cholesterol.

Researchers at Hull York Medical School, UK, conducted a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomized, crossover study on ten subjects with chronic fatigue syndrome who had severe fatigue. They were supplemented with cocoa-polyphenol rich chocolate or the same without the polyphenols daily for 8 weeks. No one received anything for two weeks (a washout period) and then they were switched or crossed-over into the opposite group.

     “Having low testosterone may make you more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease” states John E Morley, director of the division of geriatric medicine at Saint Louis University and coauthor of a study showing that low levels of the male sex hormone testosterone, in older men is associated with Alzheimer’s disease. He says “The take-home message is we should pay more attention to low testosterone, particularly in people who have memory problems or other signs of cognitive impairment.”      Researchers studied 153 Chinese men who were at least 55 years of age, lived in the community and were free of dementia. Of those men, 47 had mild cognitive impairment – or memory loss with problems with clear thinking.