October 15, 2008, 5:54 PM CT

Governments urged to fight global child killer

Pneumococcal disease, one of the world's leading causes of death and serious illness (1), must be recognised as an urgent global health issue together with HIV, malaria and TB, say the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention in the Developing World in a report launching at the House of Lords today. Between 700,000 and one million children under the age of five die each year from pneumococcal disease, equivalent to malaria and more than AIDS and tuberculosis (2,3).

These child deaths are a largely preventable tragedy. A vaccine against pneumococcal disease exists and is being used in the UK. The impact of this vaccine has been seen in England and Wales where there has been a 59% reduction of cases of invasive pneumococcal disease among children under the age of two since it was introduced in September 2006 (4). But developing countries, who account for more than 90% of pneumococcal deaths, do not have access to these vaccines. The UK Parliamentarians urge donor and developing countries to continue their commitment to fighting this killer disease through vaccination, strengthening healthcare systems, sustained political will, funding for research and international coordination of efforts.

"We have a responsibility to help reduce the global health problem of pneumococcal disease, which is under-recognised and until recently, has had few dedicated efforts made to tackle it," said Chair of the Group Dr. Des Turner, MP. "The APPG developed this report in response to the urgent need to improve child survival and tackle the devastating impact of pneumococcal disease in the developing world. As we've highlighted, governments and international organisations have a crucial role to play in preventing pneumococcal disease in the developing world, and need to maintain and grow commitments to mobilise the resources needed to fight the disease"......... Posted by: Mark      Read more         Source

October 15, 2008, 5:52 PM CT

Brain-nourishing molecule may predict schizophrenia relapse

A factor that helps optimize brain formation and function may also provide clues about whether patients suffering with schizophrenia are headed toward relapse, scientists say.

Over the next two- and one-half years, they are regularly measuring levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, in the blood of patients with schizophrenia to see if the pattern of their rise and fall is a good indicator that patients are headed for trouble, say Medical College of Georgia researchers.

"If you had something that would give you a better inkling that somebody is going to get ill, that would be extraordinarily helpful," says Dr. Peter S. Buckley, schizophrenia specialist who chairs the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior in the MCG School of Medicine. "It's a little bit of a shot in the dark, but the payoff would be huge," he says of the study that piggybacks on another federally-funded study looking at whether injectable medicine, rather than tablets, can help deter relapses.

Not taking their medicines as prescribed is a big reason patients relapse but science has already shown that BDNF levels can start dropping even when they do, says Dr. Anilkumar R. Pillai, MCG neuroscientist who studies BDNF and other cell-nourishing trophic factors. That drop likely indicates the drug is becoming less effective and a relapse is imminent, the scientists say......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 15, 2008, 5:45 PM CT

Genetic analysis predicts whether liver cancer likely to recur

Scientists are poised to unlock the genetic secrets stored in hundreds of thousands of cancer biopsy samples locked in long-term storage and previously believed to be useless for modern genetic research. With the aid of a new technique developed by Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers, researchers can now reconstruct thousands of genes that are "shredded" into tiny pieces when tissue samples are treated with a chemical fixative and stored in wax a protocol that is usually used to preserve the samples.

The researchers tested their new technique on liver tissue samples from 307 patients enrolled in clinical studies in four different countries. Using sophisticated microarray technology, the researchers studied RNA from stored liver tissue samples and identified a tell-tale genetic profile that indicates whether liver cancer will recur. Since the testing was done on tissue samples of patients whose clinical outcome was known, the scientists were able to associate specific "gene expression signatures" with particular outcomes.

The scientists are optimistic that oncologists will be able to use this information to determine which liver cancer patients would likely suffer recurrence and treat them to help prevent it.

"It is now possible to scan the entire genome for gene expression profiles in tissues that have been fixed for a very long timein our study as long as twenty-four years," said Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Todd R. Golub, who led the study. "There are lots of those tissues available compared with frozen ones, and tissue availability has been a real bottleneck in cancer genomic research"......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

October 15, 2008, 5:42 PM CT

A walk in the park improves attention in children with ADHD

For children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) tasks that require concentration such as doing homework or taking a test can be very difficult. A simple, inexpensive remedy may be a "dose of nature".

A study conducted at the University of Illinois shows that children with ADHD demonstrate greater attention after a 20-minute walk in a park than after a similar walk in a downtown area or a residential neighborhood.

The study, conducted by child environment and behavior scientists Andrea Faber Taylor and Frances E. Kuo was published in a recent issue of the Journal of Attention Disorders

"From our prior research, we knew there might be a link between spending time in nature and reduced ADHD symptoms," said Faber Taylor. "So to confirm that link we conducted a study in which we took children on walks in three different settings one particularly "green" and two less "green" and kept everything about the walks as similar as possible".

Some children took the "green" walk first; others took it second or last. After each walk, an experimenter who didn't know which walk the child had been on tested their attention using a standard neurocognitive test called Digit Span Backwards, in which a series of numbers are said aloud and the child recites them backwards. It's a test in which practice doesn't improve your score......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 15, 2008, 5:39 PM CT

High-school social skills predict better earnings than test scores

Ten years after graduation, high-school students who had been rated as conscientious and cooperative by their teachers were earning more than classmates who had similar test scores but fewer social skills, said a new University of Illinois study.

The study's findings challenge the idea that racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic gaps in educational attainment and earnings can be narrowed solely by emphasizing cognitive skills, said Christy Lleras, a University of Illinois assistant professor of human and community development.

"It's important to note that good schools do more than teach reading, writing, and math. They socialize students and provide the kinds of learning opportunities that help them to become good citizens and to be successful in the labor market," she said.

"Unless we address the differences in school climates and curriculum that foster good work habits and other social skills, we're doing a huge disservice to low-income kids who may be entering the labor market right after high school, particularly in our increasingly service-oriented economy," Lleras added.

She cited responses to employer surveys that stress the need for workers who can get along well with each other and get along well with the public.

The U of I study analyzed data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study, which followed a diverse group of 11,000 tenth graders for 10 years, tracking not only their scores on standard achievement tests but teacher appraisals of such qualities as the students' work habits, their ability to relate well to peers, and their participation in extracurricular activities, a proxy for the ability to interact well with both students and adults......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 14, 2008, 10:17 PM CT

Searching the Internet increases brain function

UCLA researchers have observed that for computer-savvy middle-aged and elderly adults, searching the Internet triggers key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning. The findings demonstrate that Web search activity may help stimulate and possibly improve brain function.

The study, the first of its kind to assess the impact of Internet searching on brain performance, is currently in press at the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and will appear in an upcoming issue.

"The study results are encouraging, that emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and elderly adults," said principal investigator Dr. Gary Small, a professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA who holds UCLA's Parlow-Solomon Chair on Aging. "Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function." .

As the brain ages, many structural and functional changes occur, including atrophy, reductions in cell activity, and increases in deposits of amyloid plaques and tau tangles, which can impact cognitive function.

Small noted that pursuing activities that keep the mind engaged may help preserve brain health and cognitive ability. Traditionally, these include games such as crossword puzzles, but with the advent of technology, researchers are beginning to assess the influence of computer use including the Internet......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 14, 2008, 10:04 PM CT

Why do women get more cavities than men?

Reproduction pressures and rising fertility explain why women suffered a more rapid decline in dental health than did men as humans transitioned from hunter-and-gatherers to farmers and more sedentary pursuits, says a University of Oregon anthropologist.

The conclusion follows a comprehensive review of records of the frequencies of dental cavities in both prehistoric and living human populations from research done around the world. A driving factor was dramatic changes in female-specific hormones, reports John R. Lukacs, a professor of anthropology who specializes in dental, skeletal and nutritional issues.

His conclusions are outlined in the recent issue of Current Anthropology The study examined the frequency of dental caries (cavities) by sex to show that women typically experience poorer dental health than men. Among research evaluated were studies previously done by Lukacs. Two clinical dental studies published this year (one done in the Philippines, the other in Guatemala) and cited in the paper, Lukacs said, point to the same conclusions and "may provide the mechanism through which the biological differences are mediated".

A change in food production by agrarian societies has been linked to an increase in cavities. Anthropologists have attributed men-women differences to behavioral factors, including a sexual division of labor and dietary preferences. However, Lukacs said, clinical and epidemiological literature from varied ecological and cultural settings reveals a clear picture of the impacts on women's oral health......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

October 14, 2008, 9:47 PM CT

Vitamin B does not slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer's

A clinical trial led by Paul S. Aisen, M.D., professor of neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, showed that high-dose vitamin B supplements did not slow the rate of cognitive decline in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer disease. The study would be reported in the October 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Aisen is director of the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS), a multi-center network spanning the United States and Canada, which conducted the clinical trial to determine if reduction of an amino acid called homocysteine would reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease or slow its progression. Homocysteine is known to be involved in neurological disease, including Alzheimer's, and its metabolism is affected by B vitamins. Therefore, it was thought that B vitamin supplements might offer a new therapeutic approach in treating Alzheimer' disease.

"Previous studies using B vitamin supplementation to reduce homocysteine levels in patients with Alzheimer's weren't large enough, or of long enough duration to effectively assess their impact on cognitive decline," said Aisen. "This study of several hundred individuals over the course of 18 months showed no impact on cognition, eventhough it resulted in lower levels of homocysteine in these patients."........ Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

October 14, 2008, 8:25 PM CT

Alzheimer's disease and blood pressure

A new study (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bihy.2008.04.006) published in Bioscience Hypotheses (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/issn/1756-2392), a recently launched Elsevier journal, proposes that some people suffering from Alzheimer's disease experience a reduction in their hypertension because of cognitive decline.

Publications relating to dementia and blood pressure have been evaluated by the paper's author Dr Sven Kurbel of the Osijek Medical Faculty in Croatia. The cognitive problems suffered by some Alzheimer's patients have previously been put down to low blood pressure (arterial hypotension). The hypothesis put forward by Dr Kurbel is that the opposite is true. He suggests that as the patient's memory fails, they forget the causes of anxiety and worry that was causing high blood pressure: failing memory causes hypotension, not visa versa.

High blood pressure itself is a cause of disease, including strokes, so paradoxically, Dr. Kurbel's hypothesis suggests, therapys which alleviate memory loss could affect other causes of illness. If this hypothesis is correct it could have a significant effect on the therapy of conditions such as metabolic syndrome, which involves increased weight and high blood pressure. Dr. Kurbel concludes that "An important question is would reduction of stressful memories and of stress exposure in everyday life help diminish the risk of getting high blood pressure or metabolic syndrome in the years to come."........ Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 14, 2008, 7:54 PM CT

How brain sees what you do not see

Blindsight is a phenomenon in which patients with damage in the primary visual cortex of the brain can tell where an object is eventhough they claim they cannot see it. A research team led by Prof. Tadashi Isa and Dr. Masatoshi Yoshida of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan, provides compelling evidence that blindsight occurs because visual information is conveyed bypassing the primary visual cortex. Japan Science and Technology Agency supported this study. The team reports their finding in the Journal of Neuroscience on Oct 15, 2008.

The scientists recorded eye movements of Japanese monkeys that had damage in one side of the primary visual cortex. Training with an eye movement task for 2-3 months enabled the monkeys to move their eyes to the correct direction where an object was even in the affected side of their visual fields. Brain became able to feel where an object was without 'seeing' it. After the training, their eye movements looked almost normal; they discriminated five different directions even in the affected visual field. To investigate how eyes move, the monkeys' eye movements to targets in their affected visual field were compared with those to dark targets in their normal visual field. Both were 'equally difficult to see'. By this trick, the scientists found two differences from the normal: 1) the trajectory of their eye movements was straight and 2) the response time of their eye movement was short. These differences were believed to be due to the damage of eye movement control and decision making, not purely on that of vision. Therefore, the scientists concluded that the monkeys' eye movements after damage in the primary visual cortex were mediated by a qualitatively different vision which is supported by alternative brain circuits bypassing the primary visual cortex......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 14, 2008, 7:52 PM CT

Researchers continue to find genes for type 1 diabetes

Genetics scientists have identified two novel gene locations that raise the risk of type 1 diabetes. As they continue to reveal pieces of the complicated genetic puzzle for this disease, the scientists expect to improve predictive tests and devise preventive strategies.

"As we add to our knowledge of the biology of type 1 diabetes and better understand details of the disease's genetic risk, we will be able to develop better diagnostic tests that meaningfully predict who will develop diabetes," said study leader Hakon Hakonarson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Applied Genomics at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

The study appeared online Oct. 7 in Diabetes, the journal of the American Diabetes Association. Hakonarson's co-leader in the study was Constantin Polychronakos, M.D., director of Pediatric Endocrinology at McGill University in Montreal.

Type 1 diabetes, formerly called juvenile diabetes, commonly begins in childhood, when the body's immune system malfunctions and destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Without insulin, blood sugar levels run out of control and can impair blood flow and damage the eyes, nerves and kidneys. It is second only to asthma as the most common chronic disease in American children. Patients are dependent for life on insulin injections or insulin medications......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 9, 2008, 10:39 PM CT

A low-cholesterol diet leaves a bitter taste in the gut

One role for the proteins on the tongue that sense bitter tasting substances, type 2 taste receptors (T2Rs), is to limit ingestion of these substances, as a large number of natural bitter compounds are known to be toxic. T2Rs are also found in the gut, and it has been suggested that there they have a similar role to their function in the mouth (i.e., they might limit intestinal toxin absorption). Data to support this idea has now been generated in mice by Timothy Osborne and his colleagues, at the University of California, Irvine.

By supplementing the food that mice eat with the drugs lovastatin and ezetimibe (L/E), it is possible to reduce the amount of cholesterol that they take up, and they are therefore considered to be consuming a low-cholesterol diet. Such a diet increases the activity of the protein SREBP-2 in the gut. In this study, SREBP-2 was shown to directly induce the expression of T2Rs in cultured mouse intestinal cells as well as in the intestine of mice consuming food supplemented with L/E. In addition, SREBP-2 was shown to directly enhance T2R-induced secretion of the intestinal peptide cholecystokinin in both the cultured mouse intestinal cells and mice consuming food supplemented with L/E. As low-cholesterol diets are naturally composed of high amounts of plant matter that is likely to contain dietary toxins, and one function of cholecystokinin is to decrease food intake, the authors suggest that SREBP-2induced expression of T2Rs might provide a mechanism both to inform the gut that food-borne toxins could be present and to initiate a response that limits their absorption......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 9, 2008, 10:28 PM CT

Communication Between Neurons And Muscle Cells

You can't raise a finger without your brain directing muscle cells, and researchers have figured out another reason that commonly works so well.

A neuron sends a message, or neurotransmitter, to the muscle cell to tell it what to do. To get the message, the receiving cell must have a receptor. Oddly, the unstable protein rapsyn is responsible for anchoring the receptor so it's properly positioned to catch the message.

Medical College of Georgia researchers have found what keeps rapsyn in proper conformation.

It is a heat shock protein, one of a large family of molecular chaperones that make sure proteins get where they are needed and do what they should, says Dr. Lin Mei, chief of developmental neurobiology at MCG and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Neuroscience.

Hsp90ß helps stabilize rapysn so receptors can get and stay where needed, as per research reported in the Oct. 9 issue of Neuron. Dr. Mei suspects that other hsp siblings have a similar caretaker role in neuron-to-neuron communication in the brain.

Researchers knew rapsyn's role in getting neuromuscular receptors to aggregate and stay where needed, but they didn't know what stabilized it. "It makes you wonder how to control this naughty boy which is very important," says Dr. Mei, the study's corresponding author......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 9, 2008, 10:21 PM CT

Steroid Treatment Offers No Benefit In Preemies

Results of a multicenter study led by Johns Hopkins Children's Center challenge the longstanding practice of treating premature babies with hydrocortisone, a steroid believed to fight inflammation and prevent lung disease. The scientists observed that such therapy offers little or no benefit and that low cortisol levels are not even necessarily harmful. High cortisol levels, conversely, appeared to increase the risk of dangerous bleeding in the brain and require that babies be monitored aggressively to ward off life-threatening complications, as per the study reported in the recent issue of Pediatrics.

Premature babies and adults with a condition known as relative adrenal insufficiency have abnormally low levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The standard therapy for this condition in newborns has been hydrocortisone treatment. These findings, however, shed new light on the clinical meaning of low cortisol levels in preemies, showing that contrary to common belief, low blood concentrations of this hormone do not put extremely low-birth-weight babies (those born weighing less than 2.2 pounds) at higher risk for retinopathy of prematurity - a potentially blinding eye condition - inflammation and lung disease.

Scientists also found no difference in health outcomes between babies with low cortisol levels who were treated with hydrocortisone and those given a placebo. While hydrocortisone had no adverse effects on a baby's health, it also did nothing to prevent or reduce respiratory diseases, infections, hemorrhages or retinopathy......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 8, 2008, 9:59 PM CT

Human Mind and Future Infrastructure Systems

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) has announced 12 grants for fiscal year 2008, awarding a total of $23,779,056 over four years to 54 researchers representing 20 institutions.

Interdisciplinary teams will pursue transformative, fundamental research in two areas of great promise: understanding the brain and how its abilities may be used through cognitive optimization and prediction; and developing ways to make complex, interdependent infrastructure systems more resilient and sustainable.

What scientists learn from the brain may open a number of new paths of discovery, in areas such as computing, robotics, medicine and education. Understanding how the brain moves the hand, for example, could illuminate entirely novel ways to help people who are paralyzed or use prosthetic limbs. Understanding how the brain visually recognizes objects will enable advances in artificial vision systems, robotic intelligence and more.

The second area of research will examine complex challenges in our nation's interwoven infrastructures as demands on these interdependent systems are changing. Scientists will investigate how to increase their resiliency and sustainability as, for example, numerous electric vehicles interact with the power grid. In addition to drawing electricity from the grid, electric vehicles may send stored energy to the grid. New research may find a role for these vehicles in stabilizing the electric power grid during a catastrophe and in managing fluctuations in electricity from renewable energy sources......... Posted by: Scott      Read more         Source

October 8, 2008, 9:43 PM CT

Women, the elderly and weekend admissions

Women, the elderly, and patients admitted to the emergency department on weekends are all less likely to receive same-day coronary angioplasty for a life-threatening heart attack in Florida, University of South Florida scientists found. Their study was published this month in the American Journal of Cardiology.

Angioplasty, also known according tocutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), uses a catheter-guided balloon to open a blocked artery and restore blood and oxygen to the heart. A stent is commonly placed to hold open the artery. The procedure is the recommended therapy for the most serious and deadly of heart attacks known as ST-elevation myocardial infarctions or STEMIs, as per guidelines published by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. Studies show that rapid access to PCI can reduce heart muscle damage, hasten recovery, improve survival and prevent long-term disability better than clot-busting drugs alone.

Elizabeth Pathak, PhD, and Joel Strom, MD, both of USF, examined same-day PCI rates in over 58,000 acute heart attack patients who were admitted to emergency rooms in more than 200 Florida hospitals from 2001 to 2005.

The study included men and women ages 18 and older from the three largest ethnic groups in Florida: whites, blacks, and Hispanics. The scientists observed that the use of same-day PCI for heart attack patients more than doubled -- from 20 percent to 40 percent -- during the study period......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

October 8, 2008, 9:39 PM CT

Circadian clock may be critical for remembering

The circadian rhythm that quietly pulses inside us all, guiding our daily cycle from sleep to wakefulness and back to sleep again, may be doing much more than just that simple metronomic task, as per Stanford researchers.

Working with Siberian hamsters, biologist Norman Ruby has shown that having a functioning circadian system is critical to the hamsters' ability to remember what they have learned. Without it, he said, "They can't remember anything".

Though not known for their academic prowess, Siberian hamsters nonetheless normally develop what amounts to street smarts about their environment, as do all animals. But hamsters whose circadian system was disabled by a new technique Ruby and colleagues developed consistently failed to demonstrate the same evidence of remembering their environment as hamsters with normally functioning circadian systems.

Until now, it has never been shown that the circadian system is crucial to learning and memory. The finding has implications for diseases that include problems with learning or memory deficits, such as Down syndrome or Alzheimer's disease. The work is described in a paper published Oct. 1 online in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Ruby is lead author on the paper. Siberian hamsters, also known as dwarf hamsters, are about the size of a mouse......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 8, 2008, 9:37 PM CT

Guidelines urge physical activity during pregnancy

Moderate physical activity during pregnancy does not contribute to low birth weight, premature birth or miscarriage and may actually reduce the risk of complications, as per a Michigan State University professor who contributed to the U.S. government's first-ever guidelines on physical activity.

Kinesiology professor James Pivarnik and doctoral students Lanay Mudd and Erin Kuffel wrote the section on pregnancy and postpartum activity as part of the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines unveiled Oct. 7 in Washington, D.C., by the Department of Health and Human Services. Pivarnik, president-elect of the American College of Sports Medicine, attended the event and spoke on behalf of the organization and MSU.

"There has been quite a dramatic change in regards to pregnancy and exercise," said Pivarnik, who has studied the topic for more than 20 years. "While it used to be thought that avoiding exercise meant avoiding harm to the fetus, research now shows physical activity can not only improve health of the mother but also provide potential long-term benefits for the child".

Specifically, the guidelines call for women to get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week during pregnancy and the postpartum period, preferably spread throughout the week. In addition to health benefits, moderate physical activity also may reduce the length of labor, evidence suggests. The guidelines call for women to avoid doing activities that involve lying on their back after the first trimester and activities with high risk of falling or abdominal trauma......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 8, 2008, 9:36 PM CT

Proteins in sperm unlock understanding infertility

Proteins found in sperm are central to understanding male infertility and could be used to determine new diagnostic methods and fertility therapys as per a paper published by the journal Molecular and Cellular Proteomics (MCP). The article demonstrates how proteomics, a relatively new field focusing on the function of proteins in a cell, can be successfully applied to infertility, helping identify which proteins in sperm cells are dysfunctional.

"Up to 50 percent of male-factor infertility cases in the clinic have no known cause, and therefore no direct therapy. In-depth study of the molecular basis of infertility has great potential to inform the development of sensitive diagnostic tools and effective therapies," write co-authors Diana Chu, assistant professor of biology at San Francisco State University and Tammy Wu, post-doctoral fellow at SF State. The study is included in a special Oct. 10 issue of MCP dedicated to the clinical application of proteomics.

"We suggest how the study of proteins is useful in the clinic, to help people move from infertile to fertile and ultimately to help couples have a baby," Chu said. "The ultimate goal is that a doctor could be able to say to a patient, 'this is the protein that is misregulated in your sperm and this is the drug that corrects it or decreases the level of that protein.' Understanding sperm proteins also means that a doctor could be able to inform patients of the likely success rates of different fertility therapies, an important factor given the high cost of fertility therapys"......... Posted by: Scott      Read more         Source

October 8, 2008, 9:34 PM CT

The pepperoni pizza hypothesis

What's the worst that could happen after eating a slice of pepperoni pizza? A little heartburn, for most people.

But for up to a million women in the U.S., enjoying that piece of pizza has painful consequences. They have a chronic bladder condition that causes pelvic pain. Spicy food -- as well as citrus, caffeine, tomatoes and alcohol-- can cause a flare in their symptoms and intensify the pain. It was thought that the spike in their symptoms was triggered when digesting the foods produced chemicals in the urine that irritated the bladder.

However, scientists from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine believe the symptoms -- pain and an urgent need to frequently urinate -- are actually being provoked by a surprise perpetrator. Applying their recent animal study to humans, the researchers believe the colon, irritated by the spicy food, is to blame.

Their idea opens up new therapy possibilities for "painful bladder syndrome," or interstitial cystitis, a condition that primarily affects women (only 10 percent of sufferers are men.) During a flare up, the pelvic pain is so intense some women administer anesthetic lidocaine directly into their bladders via a catheter to get relief. Patients typically also feel an urgent need to urinate up to 50 times a day and are afraid to leave their homes in case they can't find a bathroom......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

October 7, 2008, 10:50 PM CT

Atomic-resolution views suggest function of enzyme

An atomic-resolution view of an enzyme found only in the eye has given scientists at the University of Washington (UW) clues about how this enzyme, essential to vision, is activated. The enzyme, phosphodiesterase 6 (PDE6), is central to the way light entering the retina is converted into a cascade of signals to the brain.

This particular form of the enzyme comes from the cone photoreceptors of the retina and has not been well-researched, in contrast to its rod form. Rods are involved in night vision and motion sensation; the cones are responsible for color sensitivity, visual acuity, daylight vision, and adjustment to bright light.

The section of the enzyme molecule that most interests the scientists is the so-called GAF A domain. A small messenger molecule, cGMP, binds to the GAF A domain to regulate the enzyme.

"The domain binds to this small molecule with extremely high sensitivity," said UW biochemist Clemens Heikaus, who along with Sergio E. Martinez, now a research associate at Rutgers, carried out the study. "From our structure, we can infer why it prefers cGMP over other messenger molecules." He added that the domain is quick in recognizing and responding to the messenger molecule to create an instantaneous flow of information to the brain......... Posted by: Mike      Read more         Source

October 7, 2008, 10:38 PM CT

Wheezing and asthma in young children

The diagnosis of asthma in a young child may well be more challenging to pediatricians than previously appreciated, as per a review of research and clinical experience literature by Howard Eigen, M.D., of the Indiana University School of Medicine and Riley Hospital for Children appearing in the October 2008 issue of Clinical Pediatrics

"Wheezing can be serious," said Dr. Eigen, the Billie Lou Wood Professor of Pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine and director of pediatric pulmonology and critical care at Riley Hospital. "A comprehensive review of clinical practice and peer evaluated studies show that the difficulty of accurate diagnosis is often underestimated by pediatricians who may link it to a passing cold or other non-serious condition rather than relating it to asthma, a chronic and potentially serious disease".

Dr. Eigen noted in his study that in early childhood asthma is often under recognized and under diagnosed because the symptoms can vary widely and are similar to other common childhood illnesses, including a non-specific cough, flu and bronchitis. Establishing a diagnosis of asthma in young wheezing children also can be challenging for the doctor because the type, severity and frequency of asthma symptoms vary widely among children and, sometimes even with an individual child......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 7, 2008, 10:23 PM CT

Novel Imaging Approach For Atrial Fibrillation

University of Utah scientists have developed a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based method for detecting and quantifying injury to the wall of the heart's left atrium in patients who have undergone a procedure to treat atrial fibrillation. The results of the study are reported in the Oct. 7, 2008, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythm, that involves the heart's two upper chambers, or atria. One effective method of treating AF is Radiofrequency (RF) ablation. In RF ablation, mild, painless radiofrequency energy is used to destroy carefully selected heart muscle cells to stop them from conducting extra electrical impulses. Prior research suggested scar formation within the left atrium (LA) after RF ablation helps to predict the success of the procedure in preventing the recurrence of atrial fibrillation.

"Until now, there has not been an accurate, non-invasive way to assess LA scar formation," said lead author Nassir F. Marrouche, M.D., assistant professor of internal medicine in the University of Utah School of Medicine and director of the Atrial-Fibrillation Program. "We have developed a novel MRI-based method to detect and measure the extent of LA wall scarring and, potentially, predict the success of RF ablation in patients with atrial fibrillation"......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 7, 2008, 10:18 PM CT

Novel Lung Cancer Vaccine Trial Launched

Oncologists at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in La Jolla are hoping to stave off the relentless march of advanced lung cancer by treating patients with a novel kind of cancer vaccine. While a number of vaccines attempt to pump up the immune system to fight off a cancer, the new vaccine, Lucanix, is genetically engineered to also trick the cancer into turning off its immune system-suppressing activities.

The first patients have begun enrolling in a new clinical trial at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center testing the effectiveness of the vaccine. The trial will involve 700 patients at some 90 centers worldwide.

Current therapys for advanced lung cancer have limited effectiveness and new therapies are needed, said Lyudmila Bazhenova, M.D., director of the Lung Cancer Unit at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center and assistant clinical professor of medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

"The future therapys for advanced lung cancer may involve combinations of chemotherapy and targeted agents, and possibly even biologicals such as this," she said.

Roughly 430 patients die of lung cancer every day in the United States, as per Bazhenova, making it the nation's number one killer, despite being the second most common cancer. "While breast cancer mortality has declined about 15 percent, there hasn't been much improvement in mortality in lung cancer in the past several decades," she said. As per the American Cancer Society, an estimated 215,000 new cases of lung cancer will be diagnosed, and 162,000 individuals will die from the disease this year in the United States......... Posted by: Scott      Read more         Source

October 7, 2008, 10:07 PM CT

Compassion meditation to psychological stress

Data from a new study suggests that individuals who engage in compassion meditation may benefit by reductions in inflammatory and behavioral responses to stress that have been associated with depression and many medical illnesses. The study's findings are published online at www.sciencedirect.com and in the medical journal Psychoneuroendocrinology

"While much attention has been paid to meditation practices that emphasize calming the mind, improving focused attention or developing mindfulness, less is known about meditation practices designed to specifically foster compassion," says Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, PhD, who designed and taught the meditation program used in the study. Negi is senior lecturer in the Department of Religion, the co-director of Emory Collaborative for Contemplative Studies and president and spiritual director of Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc.

This study focused on the effect of compassion meditation on inflammatory, neuroendocrine and behavioral responses to psychosocial stress, and reviewed the degree to which engagement in meditation practice influenced stress reactivity.

"Our findings suggest that meditation practices designed to foster compassion may impact physiological pathways that are modulated by stress and are relevant to disease," explains Charles L. Raison, MD, clinical director of the Mind-Body Program, Emory University's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory School of Medicine, and a lead author on the study......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 6, 2008, 10:37 PM CT

African-Americans may be at higher risk of stroke

Cerebral microbleeds, which are small bleeds within the brain, appear to be more common in African-Americans than in Caucasians, increasing the likelihood of having a stroke, as per a research studyreported in the October 7, 2008, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. These types of brain lesions can be an important indicator for stroke.

For the study, 87 people from the Washington, DC, area who had suffered a certain type of stroke, called an intracerebral hemorrhage, underwent brain scans. This kind of stroke involves bleeding in the brain and makes up 10 to 15 percent of all strokes. Scientists also determined the group's risk factors for stroke such as age, high blood pressure and alcohol use. Forty-two of the people were African-American while 45 were Caucasian.

The study observed that African-Americans had 32 percent more microbleeds than Caucasians. African-Americans were also more likely to have these types of lesions in several different areas of the brain. While African-Americans had more lesions in the lower and middle parts of the brain, Caucasians had them most frequently near the surface of the brain.

"Finding racial differences that could be linked with a higher prevalence for these brain lesions may lead to new methods for testing and treating people to prevent stroke," said study author Chelsea Kidwell, MD, with Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC, and member of the American Academy of Neurology......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 6, 2008, 10:33 PM CT

Occasional memory loss tied to lower brain volume

People who occasionally forget an appointment or a friend's name may have a loss of brain volume, even though they don't have memory deficits on regular tests of memory or dementia, as per a research studyreported in the October 7, 2008, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study involved 500 people age 50 to 85 with no dementia who lived in the Netherlands. Participants were asked about occasional memory problems such as having trouble thinking of the right word or forgetting things that happened in the last day or two, or thinking problems such as having trouble concentrating or thinking more slowly than they used to.

Participant's brains were scanned to measure the size of the hippocampus, an area of the brain important for memory and one of the first areas damaged by Alzheimer's disease.

Of the 500 people, 453 reported that they had occasional memory or thinking problems, which are also called subjective memory problems, because they would not show up on regular tests of memory and thinking skills.

The study observed that in people with occasional subjective memory problems, the hippocampus was smaller than in people who had no memory problems. On average, the hippocampus had a volume of 6.7 milliliters in those with occasional subjective memory problems, in comparison to 7.1 milliliters in people with no memory problems......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 6, 2008, 10:28 PM CT

Why current publication practices may distort science

The current system of publishing medical and scientific research provides "a distorted view of the reality of scientific data that are generated in the laboratory and clinic," says a team of scientists in this week's PLoS Medicine

In their Essay, Neal Young (National Institutes of Health, USA), John Ioannidis (Tufts University School of Medicine, USA and University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Greece), and Omar Al-Ubaydli (George Mason University, USA) apply principles from the field of economics to present evidence consistent with a distortion.

There is an "extreme imbalance," they say, between the abundance of supply (the output of basic science laboratories and clinical investigations) and the increasingly limited venues for publication (journals with sufficiently high impact). The result is that only a small proportion of all research results are eventually chosen for publication, and these results are unrepresentative of scientists' repeated samplings of the real world.

The authors argue that there is a moral imperative to reconsider how scientific data are judged and disseminated.

A prior Essay by one of the co-authors, John Ioannidis, which was entitled "Why most published research findings are false" (http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124) has been the most viewed PLoS Medicine article of all time and was called "an instant cult classic" in a Boston Globe op-ed of July 27 2006 (http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/07/27/science_and_shams/)......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

October 6, 2008, 10:19 PM CT

Free drug samples carry risks for children

Cambridge, MA.Free prescription drug samples distributed to children may be unsafe, as per a research studyby physicians from Cambridge Health Alliance and Hasbro Children's Hospital. The national study, the first to look at free drug sample use among children, appears in the October 2008 issue of Pediatrics

The authors, who also serve as scientists at Harvard Medical School and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, observed that children usually receive free drug samples from their doctors. One out of every 20 American children received free drug samples in 2004. Among children who took at least one prescription drug in that year, nearly one in 10 got free samples.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration identified significant new safety concerns for four of the top 15 most frequently distributed samples in 2004. These four medications acquired new black box warnings or had significant revisions to existing black box warnings issued since 2004. In addition, two of the top 15 sample medications given to children were schedule II controlled substances (drugs controlled and monitored by the Drug Enforcement Agency due to high potential for abuse). Distribution of these medications, Strattera (atomoxetine) and Adderall (amphetamine/dextroamphetamine), carries risk, particularly when drug sample closets in physician's offices (or home medicine cabinets) are not strictly monitored......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 6, 2008, 10:14 PM CT

Stool DNA testing for colorectal cancer

The first generation of a stool DNA test to identify early colorectal cancer has limitations, as per a Mayo Clinic-led study reported in the Oct. 7, 2008, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine Results did not corroborate findings of an earlier multicenter study that showed stool DNA testing was more accurate than fecal blood testing for colorectal cancer detection. *.

"But the concerns we identified with stool DNA testing are all solvable," says David Ahlquist, M.D., lead researcher in the study that included 4,482 participants and 22 academic medical centers. Scientists have hoped that stool DNA testing could be the user-friendly and accurate screening tool that would increase screening numbers.

More than half of adults in the United States have never been screened for colorectal cancer, the second-leading cause of cancer deaths. While available screening tools work, the most effective tests involve time, effort and costs. For example, colonoscopy requires fasting, bowel cleansing, a doctor visit, sedation, an invasive procedure and lost work time -- factors that contribute to low screening participation.

This blinded study, conducted from 2001 to 2007, compared screening effectiveness of two widely used fecal blood tests (Hemoccult and HemoccultSensa) with a stool DNA test in average-risk patients, ages 50 to 80. The DNA test used was the prototype for PreGenPlus, the first commercially-used stool DNA test, and waccording toformed on samples sent to EXACT Sciences in Marlborough, Mass. All participants underwent a colonoscopy, the gold standard in current screening. Scientists used colonoscopy as the benchmark to detect cancer or premalignant polyps......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

October 6, 2008, 10:12 PM CT

Using a fan during sleep associated with lower risk of SIDS

Fan use appears to be linked to a lower risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in rooms with inadequate ventilation, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

The national occurence rate of SIDS decreased 56 percent from 1992 to 2003, as per background information in the article. This decline is largely attributed to the increased use of the supine sleep position (lying on the back with head facing up) after the introduction of the "Back to Sleep" campaign in 1994. In more recent years, the decrease in SIDS has leveled off. "Eventhough caretakers should continue to be encouraged to place infants on their backs to sleep, other potentially modifiable risk factors in the sleep environment should be examined to promote further decline in the rate of SIDS." The association between room ventilation and SIDS risk is a factor that has not received sufficient attention. Inadequate room ventilation might facilitate the pooling of carbon dioxide around an infant's nose and mouth, increasing the likelihood of rebreathing. The movement of air in the room may potentially reduce the risk of SIDS.

Kimberly Coleman-Phox, M.P.H., and his colleagues at Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research in Oakland, Calif., analyzed information from interviews of mothers of 185 infants who had died from SIDS and mothers of 312 randomly selected infants from the same county, maternal race/ethnicity and age. Mothers were asked about fan use, pacifier use, open window in the room at the infant's last sleep, room location, sleep surface, number and type of covers over the infant, bedding under the infant and room temperature......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 3, 2008, 5:27 AM CT

Brain pathway responsible for obesity

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers, for the first time, have found a messaging system in the brain that directly affects food intake and body weight.

Published in the Oct. 3, 2008 issue of Cell, the findings--from a study in mice--point to a entirely new approach to treating and preventing obesity in humans. The discovery also offers hope for new ways to treat related disorders, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases--the most prevalent health problems in the United States and the rest of the developed world.

Led by Dongsheng Cai, an assistant professor of physiology at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, the scientists looked specifically at the hypothalamus--the brain structure responsible for maintaining a steady state in the body--and for the first time observed that a cell-signaling pathway primarily linked to inflammation also influences the regulation of food intake. Stimulating the pathway led the animals to increase their energy consumption, while suppressing it helped them maintain normal food intake and body weight.

The research stems from recent explorations into the problem called metabolic inflammation, a by-product of too much food or energy consumption. Unlike the classical inflammation typically observed in infections, injuries and diseases such as cancer, the metabolic inflammation seen in obesity-related diseases is much milder, doesn't lead to overt symptoms or cause tissues damage......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 3, 2008, 5:18 AM CT

Breast cancer cells recycle to escape death

A number of breast cancer cells facing potentially lethal antiestrogen treatment recycle to survive, scientists say.

About 70 percent of breast cancer cells have receptors for the hormone estrogen, which acts as a nutrient and stimulates their growth. Patients typically get an antiestrogen such as tamoxifen for five years to try to starve them to death, says Dr. Patricia V. Schoenlein, cancer researcher in the Medical College of Georgia Schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies.

"About 50 to 60 percent of these women really benefit from hormonal treatment," says Dr. Schoenlein. Why others don't has been asked for at least two decades.

One reason may be breast cancer cells switch into a survival mode that normal cells also use when faced with starvation, as per research reported in the recent issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. Dr. Schoenlein also is reporting on the research during the 2nd World Conference on Magic Bullets (Ehrlich II) Oct. 3-5 in Nürenberg, Gera number of.

It's called macroautophagy - autophagy means "self eating" - and within a week, breast cancer cells can reorganize component parts, degrade non-essentials and live in this state until antiestrogen treatment is stopped or the cells mutate and resume proliferation in the presence of tamoxifen. "It's like taking your foot off of the gas pedal of your car," says Dr. Schoenlein, corresponding author on the study. "The cancer cell is in idle, unable to grow or replicate. But the cell is smart enough to use component parts generated by macroautophagy for the most necessary things mandatory for survival." She notes that macroautophagy can't be maintained indefinitely; cells can actually self-digest. "This is a time-buying strategy"......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

October 3, 2008, 5:11 AM CT

Study examines how doctors discuss medical errors

We can learn from our mistakes, but how willing are we to talk about them? And what happens when those making mistakes are physicians, who are often expected to be infallible?

A new University of Iowa study shows that most general practice doctors in teaching hospitals are willing to discuss their own patient care errors with colleagues, but about one in four do not. At the same time, nearly nine of 10 doctors said that if they wanted to talk about a mistake, they knew a colleague who would be a supportive listener. The findings are published in the Oct. 1 issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics

The results suggest that it is important to ensure that learning occurs not just in the person who made the mistake but also among their peers, said the study's lead author, Lauris Kaldjian, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

"Discussing medical errors can be a form of professional learning for doctors. Mistakes should be considered shared commodities and used for all they're worth," said Kaldjian, who also is director of the college's Program in Bioethics and Humanities. "The findings also point to some challenges for physicians seeking emotional support after making an error"......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

October 3, 2008, 5:09 AM CT

Colonoscopy reduces colorectal cancer

Patients who undergo a complete negative colonoscopy have a reduced occurence rate of colorectal cancer, confirms a study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology However, in the proximal colon, the incidence reduction of colorectal cancer following complete negative colonoscopy differs in magnitude and timing. The reduction of colorectal cancer is observed in about half of the 14 follow-up years and for the most part occurs after just seven years of follow-up. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology is the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.

"Our study raises a question about the effectiveness of colonoscopy in usual clinical practice," said Linda Rabeneck, MD, MPH, of the University of Toronto and Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto and lead author of the study. "Our findings suggest that the effectiveness of colonoscopy is reduced for cancers arising in the proximal colon. Whether this is due to colonoscopy quality, or whether it is due to tumor biology is the key issue that we need to address."



Findings

The relative rate of colorectal cancer overall and the relative rate of distal (left-sided) colorectal cancer in the study group remained significantly lower than the control population. The relative rate of proximal (right-sided) colorectal cancer was significantly lower than the control population in half of the follow-up years, mainly after seven years of follow-up......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

October 2, 2008, 10:35 PM CT

Musicians use both sides of their brains more frequently

Supporting what a number of of us who are not musically talented have often felt, new research reveals that trained musicians really do think differently than the rest of us. Vanderbilt University psychology experts have observed that professionally trained musicians more effectively use a creative technique called divergent thinking, and also use both the left and the right sides of their frontal cortex more heavily than the average person.

The research by Crystal Gibson, Bradley Folley and Sohee Park is currently in press at the journal Brain and Cognition

"We were interested in how individuals who are naturally creative look at problems that are best solved by thinking 'out of the box'," Folley said. "We studied musicians because creative thinking is part of their daily experience, and we observed that there were qualitative differences in the types of answers they gave to problems and in their associated brain activity." .

One possible explanation the scientists offer for the musicians' elevated use of both brain hemispheres is that a number of musicians must be able to use both hands independently to play their instruments.

"Musicians may be especially good at efficiently accessing and integrating competing information from both hemispheres," Folley said. "Instrumental musicians often integrate different melodic lines with both hands into a single musical piece, and they have to be very good at simultaneously reading the musical symbols, which are like left-hemisphere-based language, and integrating the written music with their own interpretation, which has been associated with the right hemisphere"......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 2, 2008, 5:04 AM CT

Acupressure calms children before surgery

An acupressure therapy applied to children undergoing anesthesia noticeably lowers their anxiety levels and makes the stress of surgery more calming for them and their families, UC Irvine anesthesiologists have learned.

As per Dr. Zeev Kain, anesthesiology and perioperative care chair, and his Yale University collaborator Dr. Shu-Ming Wang, this noninvasive, drug-free method is an effective, complementary anxiety-relief treatment for children during surgical preparation. Sedatives currently used before anesthesia can cause nausea and prolong sedation.

"Anxiety in children before surgery is bad because of the emotional toll on the child and parents, and this anxiety can lead to prolonged recovery and the increased use of analgesics for postoperative pain," said Kain, who led the acupressure study. "What's great about the use of acupressure is that it costs very little and has no side effects".

In this study, Kain and his Yale colleagues applied adhesive acupressure beads to 52 children between the ages of 8 and 17 who were to undergo endoscopic stomach surgery. In half the children, a bead was applied to the Extra-1 acupoint, which is located in the midpoint between the eyebrows. In the other half, the bead was applied to a spot above the left eyebrow that has no reported clinical effects......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 2, 2008, 4:59 AM CT

Culture's role on alcohol and violence

Countries with strict social rules and behavioral etiquette such as the United Kingdom may foster drinking cultures characterized by unruly or bad behavior, as per a new report on alcohol and violence released recently by International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP). The report lists 11 cultural features that may predict levels of violence such as homicide and spousal abuse.

The report, "Alcohol and Violence: Exploring Patterns and Responses," examines the association between alcohol and violence through the disciplines of anthropology, clinical psychology, human rights law, gender, and public health.

"We need to look more closely at the meaning attached to both drinking and violence in different.

cultures, without assuming that the one causes the other," writes Anne Fox, PhD, a contributor to the report and founding director of Galahad SMS Ltd. in England.

Dr. Fox writes that the presence of certain cultural features can largely predict levels of homicide, spousal abuse and other forms of violence. Violence-reinforcing cultures tend to share the following features:

• Cultural support (in media, norms, icons, myths, and so on) for aggression and aggressive.
  
  solutions;.
• Militaristic readiness and participation in warssocieties that are frequently at war have.........
  
  
  Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source
  
  

October 1, 2008, 9:32 PM CT

Getting help for depression and anxiety

As per the Mood Disorder Society of Canada, about 1.3 million Canadians suffer from depression.

University of Alberta researcher Ian Colman says most people are not getting the type of therapy they need.

Colman, an assistant professor from the School of Public Health, and his research team decided to perform a study to see the long term effects of taking antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications.

The team studied a group of 200 people who were diagnosed with either depression or anxiety. Of that group, 45 were on medication.

The group of 200 had their mental health assessed in 1989 through a series of questions in a survey asking about their illness and what, if any, therapys they were on. Ten years later the group took a similar questionnaire.

Colman says they were surprised to find those who were not using antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications were three times more likely to be suffering from depression or anxiety 10 years later.

"This is a significant find," said Colman. "What this tells us is that, if people get treated initially, they are less likely to have a relapse in the future. This could be a significant benefit, not only for the patient but also for the health-care system as it's estimated the economic costs in Canada linked to depression are $14 billion per year"......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 1, 2008, 9:30 PM CT

Television Viewing and Aggression

The effect of media violence on behavior is not only an interesting psychological question but is also a relevant public policy and public health issue. Eventhough a number of studies have been conducted examining the link between violence on TV and aggressive behavior, most of these studies have overlooked several other potentially significant factors, including the dramatic context of the violence and the type of violence depicted as well as the race and ethnicity of the viewers.

In a new study appearing in the recent issue of Perspecitves on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychology experts Seymour Feshbach from the University of California, Los Angeles and June Tangney from George Mason University investigated the effect that exposure to violent TV programs has on negative behavior in children from different ethnic backgrounds. To investigate this connection, the psychology experts conducted a study that reviewed TV viewing habits, intelligence, and behavior in 4th, 5th and 6th grade children. To assess these qualities, the children's parents and teachers completed behavioral questionnaires detailing the children's aggression, delinquency and cruelty. The children took IQ tests and completed surveys indicating the TV programs (which were later categorized as violent or non-violent by the researchers) they had watched during a seven day time period......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 1, 2008, 8:25 PM CT

Breakthrough optical technology to assess colon cancer risk

Scientists at NorthShore University HealthSystem (NorthShore) and Northwestern University have discovered that fiber optic technology can for the very first time effectively measure blood levels in the colonic lining (mucosa) in humans, thus having potential applications for analyzing risk of colon cancer.

The study appears in the October 2008 issue of Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.

The study used fiber optic technology to map microvascular blood content in patients during colonoscopy. The results provide the first indication that the early increase in blood supply (EIBS) is detectable in humans and that a high blood level mirrors proximity to neoplasia (process of tumor formation). The findings also suggest that this technology could be a valuable screening tool for enhancing polyp detection and could lead to improvements in colon cancer prevention.

"Our premise is that since the lining of the large intestine -- rectum and colon -- is contiguous, if you see an abnormality in one part of the colon, then somewhere else in the colon you have a higher likelihood of harboring an adenoma [non-malignant tumor] or carcinoma [cancerous tumor]," said Hemant K. Roy, M.D., director of gastroenterology research at NorthShore University HealthSystem and the study's principal clinical researcher. "EIBS strengthens our premise thanks largely to the unique and accurate ability of Four Dimensional Elastic Light Scattering Fingerprinting (4D-ELF)"......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

October 1, 2008, 8:23 PM CT

PTSD impacts veterans' well-being

Deployed peacekeeping veterans with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have significant impairments in health-related quality of life as per research by Dr. J. Donald Richardson of The University of Western Ontario and his co-investigators.

The research, published this month in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, found anxiety disorders such as PTSD are linked to impaired emotional well-being, and this applies just as much to peacekeeping veterans as to combat veterans. "This finding is important to clinicians working with the newer generation of veterans, as it stresses the importance of including measures of quality of life when evaluating veterans to better address their rehabilitation needs," says Dr. Richardson. "It is not enough to measure symptom changes with therapy; we need to objectively asses if therapy is improving their quality of life and how they are functioning in their community".

Richardson is a consultant psychiatry expert with the Operational Stress Injury Clinic at Parkwood Hospital, part of St. Joseph's Health Care, London and a psychiatry professor with the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western. His team studied 125 male, deployed Canadian Forces peacekeeping veterans who were referred for a psychiatric assessment. The average age of these men was 41, and they averaged 16 years of military service. The most common military theatre in which they served were the Balkan states (Bosnia, Croatia, former Yugoslavia, and Kosovo), with 83 per cent having exposure to combat or a war zone......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 1, 2008, 8:16 PM CT

HIV drug maraviroc effective for drug-resistant patients

As a number of as one quarter of HIV patients have drug resistance, limiting their therapy options and raising their risk for AIDS and death. Now, maraviroc, the first of a new class of HIV drugs called CCR5 receptor antagonists, has been shown to be effective over 48 weeks for drug-resistant patients with R5 HIV-1, a variation of the virus found in more than half of HIV-infected patients.

Results of the two Phase 3 multicenter MOTIVATE (Maraviroc Plus Optimized Therapy in Viremic Antiretroviral Treatment Experienced Patients) studies led by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center's Dr. Roy Gulick and reported in the October 2 issue of the New England Journal (NEJM) (NEJM) find that the drug, taken with an optimized standard HIV drug regimen, resulted in significantly greater suppression of the virus at 48 weeks, with concurrent increases in immune system T-cell counts, when compared with placebo. Rates of side effects were not different between the maraviroc and placebo groups.

Preliminary results of these studies led to FDA approval of maraviroc in August 2007.

Because it is from a new class of HIV medications known as HIV entry inhibitors, people living with HIV generally will not have resistance to maraviroc because they have not been exposed to any drugs from the class previously. Unlike earlier HIV drugs that target the virus, maraviroc acts on the human T-cell, binding to it in such a way that prevents HIV from binding and subsequently infecting the T-cell......... Posted by: Mark      Read more         Source

October 1, 2008, 8:40 AM CT

Genes influence effectiveness of weight-loss drug

Obese patients with a specific genetic make-up lose more weight when taking the weight loss drug sibutramine and undergoing behavioral treatment in comparison to those without this genetic make-up, reports a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.

The obesity epidemic continues to be an increasingly global problem: an estimated 1.6 billion adults worldwide are overweight (body mass index [BMI]>25) and 400 million are obese (BMI>30). In addition, the incidences of diabetes and other debilitating diseases attributable to obesity continue to rise.

While there are numerous options for the therapy of obesity, this study examined sibutramine, a medicine approved for the long-term therapy of obesity. The drug creates a feeling of fullness, prevents decline in metabolic rate linked to low calorie diets and causes weight loss, particularly when combined with behavioral treatment. However, weight loss with the drug is highly variable. Therefore, a research team at the Mayo Clinic assessed the influence of specific markers of candidate genes controlling serotonergic and adrenergic mechanisms (α2A-receptor, 5-HTTLPR and GNβ3) on weight loss/body composition in response to sibutramine or placebo......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

September 29, 2008, 10:37 PM CT

Birth size is a marker of susceptibility to breast cancer

Birth size, and in particular birth length, correlates with subsequent risk of breast cancer in adulthood, as per a new study published in PLoS Medicine by scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Associations between birth size, perhaps as a marker of the pre-natal environment, and subsequent breast cancer risk have been identified before, but the findings from epidemiological studies have been inconsistent.

In the new study, led by Isabel dos Santos Silva (Professor of Epidemiology), the scientists re-analysed data from published and unpublished studies to obtain more precise estimates of the extent to which birth size affects the risk of breast cancer during the later part of life and to investigate whether they could be explained by associations with other risk factors.

They examined 32 studies, comprising 22,058 cases of breast cancer among a total of more than 600,000 women, most of whom lived in developed countries. They observed that birth weight was positively linked to breast cancer risk in studies where information on birth size was based on birth records (eventhough not in those based on adult self-reports, which tend to be less accurate). Analyses of women with data from birth records showed that a 0.5 kg increment in birth weight was linked to an estimated 7% increase in the risk of breast cancer......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

September 29, 2008, 10:35 PM CT

Pain is not a symptom of arthritis, pain causes arthritis

Pain is more than a symptom of osteoarthritis, it is an inherent and damaging part of the disease itself, as per a research studypublished recently in journal Arthritis and Rheumatism More specifically, the study revealed that pain signals originating in arthritic joints, and the biochemical processing of those signals as they reach the spinal cord, worsen and expand arthritis. In addition, scientists observed that nerve pathways carrying pain signals transfer inflammation from arthritic joints to the spine and back again, causing disease at both ends.

Technically, pain is a patient's conscious realization of discomfort. Before that can happen, however, information must be carried along nerve cell pathways from say an injured knee to the pain processing centers in dorsal horns of the spinal cord, a process called nociception. The current study provides good evidence that two-way, nociceptive "crosstalk" may first enable joint arthritis to transmit inflammation into the spinal cord and brain, and then to spread through the central nervous system (CNS) from one joint to another.

Furthermore, if joint arthritis can cause neuro-inflammation, it could have a role in conditions like Alzheimer's disease, dementia and multiple sclerosis. Armed with the results, scientists have identified likely drug targets that could interfere with key inflammatory receptors on sensory nerve cells as a new way to treat osteoarthritis (OA), which destroys joint cartilage in 21 million Americans. The most common form of arthritis, OA eventually brings deformity and severe pain as patients loose the protective cushion between bones in weight-bearing joints like knees and hips......... Posted by: Mark      Read more         Source

September 29, 2008, 10:31 PM CT

Second-hand smoke may trigger nicotine dependence

Montreal, September 29, 2008 Parents who smoke cigarettes around their kids in cars and homes beware second-hand smoke may trigger symptoms of nicotine dependence in children. The findings appear in the September edition of the journal Addictive Behaviors in a joint study from nine Canadian institutions.

"Increased exposure to second-hand smoke, both in cars and homes, was linked to an increased likelihood of children reporting nicotine dependence symptoms, even though these children had never smoked," says Dr. Jennifer O'Loughlin, senior author of the study, a professor at the Universit de Montral's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine and a researcher at the Centre Hospitalier de l'Universit de Montral.

"These findings support the need for public health interventions that promote non-smoking in the presence of children, and uphold policies to restrict smoking in vehicles when children are present," adds Dr. O'Loughlin, who collaborated with scientists from the Universit de Sherbrooke, the Universit de Moncton, the University of British Columbia, McGill University, Concordia University and the Institut national de sant publique du Qubec.

Study participants were recruited from 29 Quebec schools as part of AdoQuest, a cohort investigation that measures tobacco use and other health-compromising behaviours. Some 1,800 children aged 10 to 12 years old, from all socioeconomic levels, were asked to complete questionnaires on their health and behaviours. Scientists also asked questions about symptoms of nicotine dependence and exposure to second-hand smoke......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

September 29, 2008, 10:19 PM CT

Hepatitis B exposure and pancreatic cancer

HOUSTON - In a first-of-its-kind finding, scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have discovered that exposure to the hepatitis B virus (HBV) may increase the risk of pancreas cancer.

The study, reported in the Oct. 1 edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, also suggests that patients with this lethal form of cancer treated with chemotherapy may face danger of reactivation of their HBV.

Pancreas cancer is diagnosed in 37,000 people in the United States each year, and more than 34,000 people die of the disease annually, as per the American Cancer Society. It is often diagnosed in the late stages and is particularly perplexing because few risk factors are known.

"If this study is validated, it will give us more information about the risk factors of pancreas cancer and possibly even help prevent it in some cases," said lead author Manal Hassan, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology.

HBV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are major global health problems, affecting about 2 percent of the population worldwide. In the United States 1.25 million people have chronic HBV, while 3.2 million have chronic HCV. These systemic viruses can harm the body in a variety of ways, including traveling through the bloodstream and damaging tissues throughout the body......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

September 29, 2008, 9:28 PM CT

Supplements no better than placebo in slowing cartilage loss

In a two-year multicenter study led by University of Utah doctors, the dietary supplements glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate performed no better than placebo in slowing the rate of cartilage loss in the knees of osteoarthritis patients.

This was an ancillary study concurrently conducted on a subset of the patients who were enrolled in the prospective, randomized GAIT (Glucosamine/chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial). The primary objective of this ancillary study was to investigate whether these dietary supplements could diminish the structural damage of osteoarthritis. The results, reported in the recent issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, show none of the agents had a clinically significant effect on slowing the rate of joint space width loss the distance between the ends of joint bones as shown by X-ray.

However, in line with other recent studies, the scientists found that all the study's participants had a slower rate of joint space width loss than expected, making it more difficult to detect the effects of the dietary supplements and other agents used in the study.

Rheumatologist Allen D. Sawitzke, M.D., associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine, was lead investigator. "At two years, no therapy achieved what was predefined to be a clinically important reduction in joint space width loss," Sawitzke said. "While we found a trend toward improvement among those with moderate osteoarthritis of the knee in those taking glucosamine, we were not able to draw any definitive conclusions"......... Posted by: Mark      Read more         Source

September 28, 2008, 9:11 PM CT

Less nicotine to the brain than regular cigarettes?

For decades now, cigarette makers have marketed so-called light cigarettes which contain less nicotine than regular smokes with the implication that they are less harmful to smokers' health. A new UCLA study shows, however, that they deliver nearly as much nicotine to the brain.

Reporting in the current online edition of the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, UCLA psychiatry professor Dr. Arthur L. Brody and his colleagues observed that low-nicotine cigarettes act similarly to regular cigarettes, occupying a significant percentage of the brain's nicotine receptors.

Light cigarettes have nicotine levels of 0.6 to 1 milligrams, while regular cigarettes contain between 1.2 and 1.4 milligrams.

The scientists also looked at de-nicotinized cigarettes, which contain only a trace amount of nicotine (0.05 milligrams) and are currently being tested as an adjunct to standard smoking-cessation therapys. They observed that even that low a nicotine level is enough to occupy a sizeable percentage of receptors.

"The two take-home messages are that very little nicotine is needed to occupy a substantial portion of brain nicotine receptors," Brody said, "and cigarettes with less nicotine than regular cigarettes, such as 'light' cigarettes, still occupy most brain nicotine receptors. Thus, low-nicotine cigarettes function almost the same as regular cigarettes in terms of brain nicotine-receptor occupancy......... Posted by: Scott      Read more         Source

September 28, 2008, 8:47 PM CT

Deadly rugby virus spreads in sumo wrestlers

Rugby players may get more than just the ball out of a scrum herpes virus can cause a skin disease called "scrumpox" and it spreads through physical contact. Scientists have studied the spread of the disease among sumo wrestlers in Japan and have discovered that a new strain of the virus could be even more pathogenic, as per an article reported in the recent issue of the Journal of General Virology

"Scrumpox", or herpes gladiatorum, is a skin infection caused by the herpes virus, which can cause coldsores. It is spread through direct skin-to-skin contact so it is common among rugby players and wrestlers. Symptoms can start with a sore throat and swollen glands and the telltale blisters appear on the face, neck, arms or legs. The disease is highly infectious, so players who are infected are often taken out of competition to stop the virus from spreading.

"Researchers in Japan think that a strain of herpes virus called BgKL has replaced the strain BgOL as one of the most common and pathogenic, causing a skin disease in sumo wrestlers," said Dr Kazuo Yanagi from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo, Japan. "We wanted to see if this is the case, so we studied the spread of the disease in sumo wrestlers in Tokyo".

The scientists looked at samples taken from 39 wrestlers diagnosed with herpes gladiatorum, who were living in 8 different sumo stables in Tokyo between 1989 and 1994. Tests showed that some of the cases were primary infections, being the first time the wrestlers had been infected. However, in some cases the disease had recurred several times......... Posted by: Mark      Read more         Source

September 28, 2008, 8:44 PM CT

Existing anti-obesity drugs may be effective against flu, hepatitis and HIV

Viruses dramatically increase cellular metabolism, and existing anti-obesity drugs may represent a new way to block these metabolic changes and inhibit viral infection, as per a research studypublished recently in the journal Nature Biotechnology

Metabolism refers to all the reactions by which living things break down nutrients to produce energy, along with those by which they rebuild broken-down nutrients into complex molecules (e.g. DNA). A significant example is the breakdown of blood sugar (e.g. glucose) and its conversation via chain reactions into adenosine triphosphate, the energy-storing currency of cellular life. As an important offshoot of that process, glucose can also be converted into fatty acids, the lipid building blocks of human hormones and cell membranes. A number of viruses, including influenza, HIV and hepatitis, use those same fatty acids to build instead their viral envelopes, outer coatings that help them penetrate human cells. Going into the study, little was known about the mechanisms through which viruses hijack metabolic building blocks from their cellular hosts, with older techniques providing a limited picture.

In the current study, a team of scientists from the University of Rochester Medical Center and Princeton University created a new technique to clarify these mechanisms, and observed that the technique could identify anti-viral therapeutic targets. Scientists combined drug discovery technologies to capture for the first time the exact concentrations and turnover, in other words, the fluxes, of interchangeable molecules within the metabolic chain reactions that convert sugars into fatty acids. The fields of metabolomics and fluxomics have emerged to measure these patterns, and to provide insight into diseases with a metabolic component, from diabetes to infectious diseases to cancer......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

September 28, 2008, 8:42 PM CT

'Hub' of fear memory formation identified in brain cells

A protein mandatory for the earliest steps in embryonic development also plays a key role in solidifying fear memories in the brains of adult animals, researchers have revealed. An apparent "hub" for changes in the connections between brain cells, beta-catenin could be a potential target for drugs to enhance or interfere with memory formation.

The results are published online this week and appear in the recent issue of Nature Neuroscience

The protein beta-catenin acts like a Velcro strap, fastening cells' internal skeletons to proteins on their external membranes that connect them with other cells. In species ranging from flies to frogs to mice, it also can transmit early signals that separate an embryo into front and back or top and bottom.

During long-term memory formation, structural changes take place in the synapses the connections between neurons in the brain, says Kerry Ressler, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. Ressler is a researcher at Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center, where the research was conducted, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

"We thought beta-catenin could be a hub for the changes that take place in the synapses during memory formation," says Ressler. "But because beta-catenin is so important during development, we couldn't take the standard approach of just knocking it out genetically"......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source