July 12, 2006, 7:10 AM CT

Removal Of Ovaries Does Not Completely Eliminate Risk

Even after having their ovaries and fallopian tubes removed on a preventive basis, women who carry one of two gene mutations known to be linked to high rates of breast and ovary cancer are still at risk of developing a form of ovary cancer, cancer in the peritoneum, a large international study released Tuesday confirms.

About four per cent of women who had the preventive procedure, called a salpingo-oophorectomy, went on to develop peritoneal cancer within 10 years of the operation, the researchers, from the Hereditary Ovarian Cancer Clinical Study Group, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Senior author Dr. Steven Narod, a leading researcher in the field of inherited breast and ovary cancers, said that means that even after having their ovaries and fallopian tubes removed women with the mutations - known as BRCA1 or BRCA2 - still face a risk of developing peritoneal cancer that is significantly higher than that faced by women who didn't inherit either of the genes.........

Posted by: Emily      Permalink         Source

July 11, 2006, 11:35 PM CT

Type 2 Diabetes Increases The Risk Of Glaucoma

A 20-year study of women in the Nurses' Health Study has shown that Type 2 diabetes is associated with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), the most common form of glaucoma, accounting for about 60 to 70% of all glaucomas. The study is reported in the recent issue of the journal Ophthalmology.

Scientists at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School observed 76,3128 women who were enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study from 1980 to 2000. Eligible participants were at least 40 years old, did not have POAG at the beginning of the study, and reported receiving eye exams during follow-up. After controlling for age, race, hypertension, body mass index, physical activity, alcohol intake, smoking and family history of glaucoma, they found that type 2 diabetes was positively associated with POAG. However, the relation between type 2 diabetes and POAG did not increase with longer durations of type 2 diabetes.

"The study supports the notion that type 2 diabetes is associated with an increased risk of glaucoma," said Louis Pasquale, M.D., lead author of the study and co-director of the Glaucoma Service at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) and an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. "While obesity fuels the type 2 diabetes epidemic, it appears that factors uncorrelation to obesity contribute to the positive association between type 2 diabetes and glaucoma. We were surprised to find this. Our study had a large enough sample to allow us to focus on type 2 diabetes only and to study its relation to newly diagnosed POAG cases. We were also able to correct for other factors that could contribute to glaucoma. Our work suggests, but in now way proves, that factors other than lifestyle behavior contributing to insulin resistance could lead to elevated intraocular pressure and glaucoma".........

Posted by: JoAnn      Permalink         Source

July 11, 2006, 10:09 PM CT

Obesity Map Of The United States

Using data from CDC, MSN has created this interesting obesity map of the United States.

With such a large percentage of the population weighing more than is healthy, the public-health implications of being overweight have taken on greater importance. The burgeoning percentage of heavy Americans has economic consequences, too. Scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and RTI International estimated that 2003 health-care costs attributable to obesity reached $75 billion, with taxpayers picking up about half of the bill through programs like Medicare and Medicaid.........

Posted by: JoAnn      Permalink         Source

July 11, 2006, 5:00 PM CT

Secrets Of Metastasis Viewed In 3D

A story begins! A cancer cell acquires capacity to break away from the main tumor and move to relocate in a new surrounding. Once settled in the new environment, the cancer cell would start dividing again.

Pharmaceutical companies typically use simplistic two-dimensional assays for this process, which is known as metastasis, to evaluate anti-cancer therapeutics. In these assays, cells crawl across the surface of a matrix, traveling in a single plane. But a new study indicates that this approach misses some crucial phenomena.

Working in the labs of Whitehead Member Paul Matsudaira and MIT professor Douglas Lauffenburger, postdoctoral researcher Muhammad Zaman discovered that cells move quite differently in three dimensions. His study, which focused on human prostate tumor cells, appeared this week in the online early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Two-dimensional assays ignore the obstacles that cells face in their natural contexts," explains Zaman, who recently became an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin. "In 3D, cells move through a thick jungle of fibers, or 'vines', that hinder forward progress".

Cells must either squeeze through or chop up these putative vines to get anywhere. As a result, they move slower in three dimensions.........

Posted by: Janet      Permalink         Source

July 11, 2006, 7:22 AM CT

Hypertension Provokes Cardiac Insufficiency

The Journal of the American College of Cardiology has just published, in its electronic edition, an article by scientists from the CIMA of the University of Navarra and the Hospital Donostia of San Sebastián. The article describes a newly-discovered mechanism through which the hearts of persons with high blood pressure can suffer structural damages, which can impede functioning and provoke cardiac insufficiency in these patients.

The authors designed a blood analysis which detects whether this mechanism is damaging the heart, which in turn makes possible the use of therapeutic techniques to block the mechanism. The article opens a new path for the understanding of cardiac insufficiency in hypertensive patients, as well as early detection and possible prevention of cardiac damage.

5 years after first diagnosis, the survival rate is less than 50%.

As is known, cardiac insufficiency is the clinical situation which results from the majority of chronic cardiac diseases. The prevalence of cardiac insufficiency has been increasing considerably for a number of years, and has come to be an issue of epidemic proportions. Along with the magnitude of the problem, there is also its severity: 5 after initial diagnosis, the survival rate of the patients is below 50%.........

Posted by: Daniel      Permalink         Source

July 11, 2006, 7:15 AM CT

Higher risk for cervical cancer with multiple HPV types

The risk for developing the tissue abnormalities, or lesions, that typically precede cervical cancer is much higher for women infected with multiple genotypes of the human papillomavirus (HPV) than previously reported, as per a research studyreported in the recent issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

Eventhough doctors have known that the cervical tissue at the opening to the womb can harbor multiple HPV types, this study is the first to document that the risk for developing cervical cancer, the second most common form of cancer in women worldwide, is higher in females infected with multiple HPV types than those infected with just one HPV type.

In addition, the study's findings provide baseline data for analyzing over time the impact of the newly approved vaccine, Gardasil, on the dynamics of HPV infection.

"Women who harbor multiple infections are at higher risk for cervical lesions than those ever infected with one type only and should be followed more closely," said Eduardo L. Franco, Dr.PH., leader of the study and professor of epidemiology and oncology, and director, division of cancer epidemiology at McGill University.

Like prior studies on HPV in cervical cancer, the new research found that pre-malignant abnormalities primarily occurred in women infected with HPV 16 and 18, the targets of Gardasil.........

Posted by: Emily      Permalink         Source

July 11, 2006, 7:05 AM CT

How Group Dynamics Affect Fitness, Eating Habits

Imagine break-room vending machines featuring fruit juice and vegetables instead of cookies and soda pop. Consider colleagues who insist on mid-morning group exercise breaks and applaud a lunchtime workout rather than criticizing the cut of the sweat suit. Ponder an organizational culture that encourages walking the stairs instead of riding the elevator.

A UCLA-evaluated study of a demonstration project led by Community Health Councils, Inc. (CHC) in Los Angeles shows how incorporating physical activity and healthy eating into an office or other organizational culture pays dividends for participants.

Reported in the July 2006 edition of the peer-reviewed journal Health Promotion Practice, the study finds that a six-week wellness-training program significantly increases vigorous physical activity among participants. A 12-week curriculum, meanwhile, boosts fruit and vegetable intake while reducing feelings of sadness and depression, and can even reduce waistlines.

"Creating a culture of healthy living within an organizational framework requires buy-in by leadership, staff and clientele," said Dr. Antronette K. Yancey, lead author of the study and associate professor of health services at the UCLA School of Public Health. "Both the physical and social environment must change.........

Posted by: JoAnn      Permalink         Source

July 10, 2006, 6:57 AM CT

Why Do Statistics About Overweight And Obesity Differ?

The definitions or measurement characteristics for overweight and obesity have varied over time, from study to study, and from one part of the world to another. The varied definitions affect prevalence statistics and make it difficult to compare data from different studies. Prevalence refers to the total number of existing cases of a disease or condition in a given population at a given time. Some overweight- and obesity-related prevalence rates are presented as crude or unadjusted estimates, while others are age-adjusted estimates. Unadjusted prevalence estimates are used to present cross-sectional data for population groups at a given point or time period. For age-adjusted rates, statistical procedures are used to remove the effect of age differences in populations that are being compared over different time periods. Unadjusted estimates and age-adjusted estimates will yield slightly different values.

Prior studies in the United States have used the 1959 or the 1983 Metropolitan Life Insurance tables of desirable weight-for-height as the reference for overweight.[3] More recently, a number of Government agencies and scientific health organizations have estimated overweight using data from a series of cross-sectional surveys called the National Health Examination Surveys (NHES) and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted these surveys. Each had three cycles: NHES I, II, and III spanned the period from 1960 to 1970, and NHANES I, II, and III were conducted in the 1970's, 1980's, and early 1990's. Since 1999, NHANES has become a continuous survey.........

Posted by: JoAnn      Permalink

July 10, 2006, 6:44 AM CT

Exercise Reduces Recurrence Of Colon Cancer

Patients with stage III colon cancer who walked at an average pace six days a week or had equivalent exercise had a 51% reduced risk of having their cancer return compared to those who were less active.

As part of a study comparing two chemotherapy regimens, patients were enrolled in an evaluation of their exercise levels after therapy. Scientists compared exercise using a standardized unit called a MET or metabolic equivalent task. One MET equaled the energy expended during an hour of sitting quietly Walking at an average pace for an hour equaled 3 METS, running expended 12 METS, while swimming, bicycling, and tennis each resulted in 7 METS per hour.

To be sure that illness from cancer or chemotherapy was not effecting exercise levels, patients were questioned about their exercise activities 6 months after finishing chemotherapy for their cancer and only those who were cancer-free were included in the study.

Patients whose exercise reached 18 METS in a week had an 85% chance of being alive and cancer-free three years after the study questionnaire, those with less than 18 METS had a 75% chance of similar survival. 18 METS was equivalent to walking a mile at an average pace 6 days a week.

Both men and women benefited from exercise as did people younger and older than 60. There was no significant difference in benefits based on body mass index, number of lymph nodes, therapy received, or overall health at the beginning of therapy. Furthermore, exercise benefits after cancer diagnosis and therapy were independent of exercise habits before cancer. Additional exercise above the 18 METS improved disease-free survival even more, but after about 27 METS a week improvement reached a plateau.........

Posted by: Sue      Permalink         Source

July 9, 2006, 7:48 PM CT

Medication Use And Farmers' Injuries

Older farmers are at high risk for injury when they stop taking prescribed pain medications, shows a study done in part by the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

A case review of farmers aged 66 and older in Alberta, Canada, revealed some previously unknown relationships may exist between the use of pain medications and subsequent injury. For instance, when farmers stopped taking prescribed pain or anti-inflammatory medications within the 30 days previous to the date of injury, there was a higher risk of getting hurt while working on the farm. The injuries included falls, being struck by an object, or wounds inflicted while working with farm machinery or livestock.

By linking data from various health and agricultural registries, the scientists identified 8,129 male farmers aged 66 or older. In that group, 282 suffered farm-related injuries correlation to how they used their pain medication.

Scientists were able to identify several possible reasons for this, said Dr. Don Voaklander, one of the study's authors and a professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Queens University also worked on the study.

"The first is that pain, unmasked when they stop using medication, distracts the farmer when he's doing his work. This means less attention to the task at hand. A second possibility involves limitations on mobility for farmers who are in pain or who are guarding their movements as a result of pain." Third, those who use pain medicine may be experiencing withdrawal symptoms that again may be distracting in a dynamic work environment.........

Posted by: Mark      Permalink         Source