Mid-Week News Update: Healthy Living, China’s Earthquake and New Rules for Nurses

Today’s news updates offers links to stories relating to China’s earthquake, the diet that fights alzheimers and the state of nurse practitioners’ authority in the country.

Rescuers Seek Survivors of China’s Earthquake

SHANGHAI—Rescuers used shovels, pry bars and their bare hands to dig through the rubble of collapsed homes and schools as they raced to find survivors of a severe earthquake that authorities said killed about 400 people and injured roughly 10,000 in a remote, predominantly Tibetan community in western China.

The quake hit shortly before 8 a.m. Wednesday, jolting mountainous Yushu prefecture, part of the Chinese province of Qinghai on the Tibetan plateau, and flattening most of the town of Jiegu, one of the area’s main population centers. About 97% of the people in Yushu are ethnically Tibetan. Many earn their living raising yaks, sheep and horses.

Alzheimer’s and Diet: Good for Heart May Be Good for Brain

A diet rich in fruits and vegetables as well as omega-3 fatty acids may not only be good for your heart — it may also reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Looking at more than 2,000 dementia-free adults ages 65 and older, researchers revealed that persons who consumed a Mediterranean-type diet regularly were 38 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease over the next four years, according to Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas of Columbia University in New York and colleagues.

The findings were published online in the journal Archives of Neurology.

States May Give Nurse Practitioners More Authority

With the U.S. facing a shortage of primary care physicians, several states are considering giving more authority to nurse practitioners, according to an April 13 article by AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson.

By definition, a nurse practitioner is a registered nurse who has completed an advanced medical education program, usually resulting in a master’s or doctorate degree. They are trained in the diagnosis and treatment of most common medical conditions, and are currently allowed to treat a limited number of mental or physical ailments and provide other health care services.