Strategies for Surviving a Crisis: Authors Linda and Tony Cole describe their 11 coping strategies for crises including: recruit and accept help and emotional support through family and friends; be proactive; educate yourself and be involved; recognize that “this too shall pass;” find your mental get-away; focus on others; stay busy; exercise regularly, sleep and eat well; and find a place where you can really cy, but set a limit on it.

Women who get lots of omega-3 fatty acids are less likely to develop age-related macular degeneration (AMD), an eye disease affecting millions of older adults in the U.S. That's the conclusion of a new study, which jibes with earlier research linking fish consumption to slower progression of AMD. Fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids such as DHA and EPA include salmon, trout, sardines, herring and tuna. The primary types of fish linked with lower AMD risk were canned tuna, and dark-meat fish such as salmon and sardines. Archives of Ophthalmology, online March 14, 2011.

Many Americans aged 65 and older are not receiving potentially lifesaving preventive health services, says a new report by several U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agencies. Too few seniors are getting recommended vaccinations for influenza and pneumococcal disease, including bloodstream infections, meningitis and pneumonia; help with quitting smoking; or screenings for breast cancer, colorectal cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol and osteoporosis, according to the report released March 14.

The likelihood of Medicare patients being diagnosed with a chronic disease may depend on where they live, a disparity that makes it more difficult to assess the quality of care patients receive, a new study finds. Certain groups of Medicare patients in regions with the most diagnoses also had a lower case-fatality rate for chronic conditions such as coronary artery disease and kidney failure, but the reasons for that are unclear, the researchers reported. It would stand to reason that whether a person is diagnosed with a chronic disease has to do with how ill they are, the researchers said. But instead, the findings suggest that chronic disease diagnosis is influenced by the "intensity of health care" in a particular region, which includes how many doctors and specialists are operating in a particular region, access to those doctors and the likelihood of doctors to send you to a specialist or to order lab and imaging tests. JAMA 3/16/11

Two studies published online this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggest that some medical “pictures” may not be worth as much as we would like to think. In one study, Canadian researchers compared CT scans of the coronary arteries, which use multiple X-rays to create three dimensional images of the heart, to the “gold standard,” coronary angiograms, in which doctors thread a tube from the groin into the coronary arteries and inject a dye to make blockages visible on an X-ray. They found that the CT scans were reasonably accurate but there was significant variation in accuracy across centers. The second study looked at what difference CT heart scans made in how physicians treated healthy patients trying to prevent heart problems. It turns out not much—there was little change in the drugs they prescribed, the tests they ordered, or the advice they gave on diet, exercise, or smoking cessation. So why expose patients to radiation and significant expense if nothing good happens as a result?

A comprehensive review concludes that the best diabetes drug is one of the oldest and cheapest diabetes drugs: metformin. Annals of Internal Medicine 3/11 Online

After 20 months of a randomized controlled trial, Guided Care patients, a new form of primary care, experienced, on average, 30 percent fewer home health care episodes, 21 percent fewer hospital readmissions, 16 percent fewer skilled nursing facility days, and 8 percent fewer skilled nursing facility admissions. Only the reduction in home health care episodes was statistically significant. According to the study, Guided Care produced even larger reductions in a subset of patients who received their primary care from one well managed health system. Archives of Internal Medicine 3/11

Life expectancy in the United States has reached an all-time high, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday. In 2009, life expectancy increased to 78.2 years, up from 78 years in 2008, it said. For women, life expectancy was 80.6 years, up one-tenth of a year. The life expectancy for men rose to 75.7 years, an increase of two-tenths of a year. Life expectancy for whites increased two-tenths of a year and stayed the same for blacks. Suicide surpassed blood poisoning to become the 10th leading cause of death, the CDC said. Heart disease remained the top killer, although death rates dropped in that category and in nine of the other top 15 causes of death. There were 2.4 million deaths in the United States in 2009, down 36,336 from the year before, the agency said. Reuters 3/16/11

The high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets many people turn to for weight loss might have potentially harmful long-term effects on the colon, a small study hints. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online March 9, 2011

Nearly three quarters of those seeking health insurance in the U.S. individual market in recent years faced roadblocks or were turned down due to prior medical conditions, a report released on Wednesday said. The report by the Commonwealth Fund, a healthcare advocacy group, said 71 percent of an estimated 26 million people who tried to buy insurance on the individual market in the previous three years had problems purchasing affordable insurance.

New research shows that people who own dogs are about 34 percent more likely to get the recommended minimum amount of exercise each week, thanks to their furry friends.

Data from 58 studies about more than 220,000 people, with a mean age of 58 were studied for heart attack or stroke. Conventional risk factors like blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and smoking were accurate predictors of a heart attack or stroke, but additional information about weight or body shape (ascertained by measuring waist circumference or waist-to-hip ratio) did not improve the ability to predict risk. Lancet

Combing a weekly tai chi exercise class with a standard depression treatment for a group of depressed elderly adults, found greater improvement in the level of depression -- along with improved quality of life, better memory and cognition, and more overall energy -- than among a different group in which the standard treatment was paired with a weekly health education class. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 3/11

If you don't have signs of heart disease, there is no evidence to suggest that getting heart tests like CT scans or echocardiography will do you much good, researchers say. Archives of Internal Medicine 3/11