ISLAMABAD (Online)- Elderly people who take regular walks are less likely to suffer dementia than those who take little exercise, a pair of studies said. Keeping active has already been proven to lessen the risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Now moderate daily exercise such as long strolls has been found to keep elderly minds healthier, said the authors of studies published in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "We now have evidence that regular walking is also associated with benefits that are related to cognitive function later in life," said Robert Abbott, a biostatistician at the University of Virginia Health System. His study tracked the habits and mental functioning of 2,257 Hawaiian Asian-American men aged 71 to 93 years and found those who walked less than one-quarter mile a day were 1.8 times as likely to develop dementia than men who walked at least two miles a day. The second study, involving elderly women participating in the Nurses' Health Study at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, found those who exercised regularly such as walking at an easy pace for 1-1/2 hours a week were less likely to suffer mental decline. "What is most striking is that for older women who are able to engage in several hours per week of physical activity (for example, walking at least six hours per week), their cognitive function seemed to be comparable to that of a woman several years younger," said study author Jennifer Weuve of the Harvard School of Public Health. More active people also tended to have a healthier lifestyle and eat a better diet than sedentary people, which could also help preserve mental acuity, Abbott said. "There is also the possibility that people who walk are less likely to get diseases later on in life that could lead to dementia versus people who are inactive," he said. Sinus and migraine headaches often go together New research indicates that migraines are fairly common among patients with sinus headache. Symptoms in sinus area are frequently reported during migraine attacks, but are not considered in making a diagnosis, Dr Mary S. Richardson, of GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and colleague's report in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Under-diagnosis of migraine may be partly attributed to variability in the patient's symptoms, and migraines with sinus symptoms may be part of the problem. The researchers examined the rate of migraine-type headaches in 2991 patients who experienced sinus headaches in the past. Of these subjects, more than 80 per cent met the diagnostic criteria for migraines. The most common sinus symptoms reported by patients at screening were pressure, pain and nasal congestion. Of the patients with migraine, 67 per cent were dissatisfied with the medication they used to treat their sinus headaches. "The results indicate that the presence of nasal or (eye) symptoms often considered to be features of 'sinus' headache should not automatically trigger a sinus diagnosis or exclude a diagnosis of migraine but should prompt assessment of the patients for migraine as well as sinus headache," Richardson and colleagues write. "Accurate diagnosis of headache is essential for patients to receive appropriate therapy and to achieve an optimal treatment outcome," they conclude. Acupuncture helps ease post-surgical ills Acupuncture, already shown to help ease the nausea patients often suffer after having surgery, may actually work better than drugs, U.S researchers reported. And patients were happier with the treatment, the team at Duke University Medical Centre in North Carolina found. The researchers studied 75 women having major breast surgery such as breast augmentation, breast reduction or mastectomy. All needed general anesthesia to be rendered unconscious and immobile. This often causes nausea upon awakening. The 75 women were randomly divided into three groups. One group received acupuncture, another group was given an anti-nausea drug called ondansetron, sold by GlaxoSmithKline under the brand name Zofran, and the third group received neither. Two hours after surgery, 77 per cent of the patients given acupuncture had no nausea or vomiting, compared to 64 per cent for those given the drug and 42 percent who received nothing. Writing in the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia, Dr Tong Joo Gan and colleagues said they used an electro-acupuncture device that delivers a small electrical pulse through the skin, rather than traditional needles. "The patients in our randomised trial who received acupuncture enjoyed a more comfortable recovery from their surgery than those who received an anti-sickness medication," Gan said in a statement. "In the areas of postoperative nausea and vomiting control, pain relief, and general overall satisfaction, acupuncture appears to be more effective than the most commonly used medication, with few to no side-effects."