Subscribe to one of our feedsfont size
Print
Period Ending August 31, 2007
OBESITY: PEOPLE ORDER MORE CALORIES AT “HEALTHY” RESTAURANTS
A study from the Journal of Consumer Research explains the paradoxical rise in obesity rates and the popularity of healthier food. In a series of four studies, the researchers reveal that people over-generalize “healthy” claims. In fact, consumers chose beverages, side dishes, and desserts containing up to 131 percent more calories when the main dish was positioned as “healthy,” even though, in the study, the “healthy” main course already contained 50 percent more calories than the “unhealthy” one. The researchers said the studies help explain why the success of fast-food restaurants serving lower-calorie foods has not led to the expected reduction in total calorie intake and in obesity rates.
DIABETES: TREATMENT DURING PREGNANCY CAN BREAK LINK TO CHILDHOOD OBESITY
Treating diabetes during pregnancy can break the link between gestational diabetes and childhood obesity, according to a Kaiser Permanente study featured in Diabetes Care. The largest study of its kind, this research shows that the risk of childhood obesity rises in tandem with a pregnant woman’s blood sugar level and that untreated gestational diabetes nearly doubles a child’s risk of becoming obese by age 5 to 7. The study also shows for the first time that by treating women with gestational diabetes, the child’s risk of becoming obese is significantly reduced. In fact, children whose mothers were treated for gestational diabetes had the same risk for becoming obese as children whose mothers had normal blood sugar levels.
AGING: RESEARCHERS IDENTIFY LONGEVITY GENES THAT PROTECT THE OLD
People who live to 100 or more are known to have just as many—and sometimes even more—harmful gene variants compared with younger people. Now, scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered the secret behind this paradox: favorable “longevity” genes that protect very old people from the bad genes’ harmful effects. The novel method used by the researchers could lead to new drugs to protect against age-related diseases. The study, which appears in PLoS Computational Biology, found some disease-related gene variants were as prevalent or even more prevalent in the oldest test subjects than in the younger ones.
ALZHEIMER’S: STATIN TREAMENT MAY CURB BRAIN CHANGES
People who take statin drugs may be less likely to develop the brain changes that signal Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published in the journal Neurology. Previous research had suggested that people who received statins might be less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, but the study from University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle was the first to compare the brains of people who had received statins with those who had not. Statins are widely prescribed to lower cholesterol of people who have heart disease or are at risk for it. The two changes in the brain that are considered the most definitive hallmarks of Alzheimer’s are brain plaques and tangles. After controlling for variables including age at death, gender, and strokes in the brain, the researchers found significantly fewer tangles in the brains of people who had taken statins than in those who had not.
MS: STUDY IDENTIFIES “DESIGNER ESTROGEN” AS POTENTIAL DRUG
UCLA scientists have found the first evidence that a specific form of estrogen can protect the brain from degeneration yet not increase the risk for estrogen-induced cancers of the breast and uterus. The study took place in mice infected with the animal equivalent of multiple sclerosis. While people with MS have many choices for anti-inflammatory drugs to help prevent flare-ups of their physical symptoms, no medication exists to stop the disorder from causing degeneration of the brain and spinal cord. The UCLA findings offer potential for a “designer estrogen,” a synthetic hormone that doctors could prescribe in higher doses without increasing a patient’s cancer risk, as well as a potent MS cocktail blending the hormone with a standard anti-inflammatory treatment. The synthetic hormone has been altered so it does not express certain proteins implicated in the development of cancer in some women. The researchers said this form of estrogen also offers a new weapon for combating brain degeneration caused by Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease, spinal cord injury and even normal aging. Finally, men may be able to use it without fear of developing the feminine side effects often produced by standard estrogen treatments.
STROKE: PATIENTS WHO STOP USING STATINS FACE INCREASED RISK OF DEATH
Patients who stop taking cholesterol-lowering drugs within a year of surviving a stroke had a two-fold increased risk of death, researchers reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Statins can benefit patients who have suffered a stroke caused by a clot. However, stroke survivors often stop taking these drugs—an issue previously not studied in a clinical setting, according to researchers from the Institute for Clinical Research Santa Lucia Foundation of Rome. They said their study was the first evidence linking discontinuation of statin therapy to increased death rates in stroke survivors who have no other clinical evidence of heart disease. Statins effectively lower blood levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), known as “bad” cholesterol.
OBESITY: SO-CALLED “SKINNY GENE” DOES EXIST
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that a single gene might control whether or not individuals tend to pile on fat, a discovery that may point to new ways to fight obesity and diabetes. The researchers, who report their findings in the journal Cell Metabolism, said the gene controls fat formation in animals from worms to mamals. The finding could explain why so many people struggle to lose weight and suggests an entirely new direction for developing medical treatments that address the current epidemic of diabetes and obesity. The gene, called adipose, was discovered in fat fruit flies more than 50 years ago by a graduate student at Yale University, but its mechanism was unknown. It remained a mystery whether it was important in other genes. The researchers discovered that the gene, which is also present in humans, is likely to be a high-level master switch that tells the body whether to accumulate or burn fat.
HEART ATTACK: HUMAN DERIVED STEM CELLS REPAIR DAMAGE TO RAT HEARTS
When human heart muscle cells derived from embryonic stem cells are implanted into a rat after a heart attack, they can help rebuild the animal’s heart muscle and improve function of the organ, scientists report in Nature Biotechnology. The researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle and at Geron in Menlo Park, California also developed a new process that they said greatly improves how stem cells are turned into heart muscle cells and then survive after being implanted in the damaged rat heart. The findings suggest that stem cell-based treatments might one day help people suffering from heart disease, the leading cause of death in most of the world. The scientists set out to tackle two of the main challenges to treating damaged hearts with stem cells: the creation of cardiac cells from embryonic stem cells, and the survival of those cells once they are implanted in a damaged heart. The next step in studying stem-cell treatments for the heart is to conduct similar experiments in large animals, like pigs or sheep, while further refining the treatment in rats. Early human clinical trials could begin in about two years.
POPCORN WORKER’S LUNG: CHEMICAL CULPRIT IDENTIFIED
Researchers in the Netherlands have identified a chemical agent that may be the culprit in bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome or “popcorn worker’s lung,” a severe occupational lung disease first noted in 2001 among workers at an American plant that makes microwaveable popcorn. The research, which examined a population of workers at a chemical plant that produced a key component of butter flavoring known as diacetyl, was reported in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. The researchers from the Environmental Epidemiology at the Universiteit Utrecht in the Netherlands said they found a cluster of previously undiagnosed cases of bronchiolitis obliterans in a diacetyl production plant. While the researchers were unable to rule out contributions of other chemicals to the development of the disease, the study significantly narrows the field of suspects to diacetyl and the components and byproducts of its manufacturing process.
TOBACCO: SMOKING TURNS GENES ON PERMANENTLY
Research published in the online open access journal BMC Genomics could help explain why former smokers are still more susceptible to lung cancer than those who have never smoked. A Canadian team at the BC Cancer Agency, took samples from the lungs of 24 current and former smokers, as well as from non-smokers who have never smoked. Only about a fifth of the genes in a cell are switched on at any given time, but environmental changes such as smoking lead to changes in gene activity. The researchers found changes that were irreversible, and some changes that were reversed by stopping smoking. The reversible genes were particularly involved in managing chemicals not produced in the body, nucleotide metabolism and mucus secretion. Some DNA repair genes are irreversibly damaged by smoking, and smoking also switched off genes that help combat lung cancer development.
EYE DISEASE: ZINC LINKED TO DEVELOPMENT OF MACULAR DEGENERATION
A team of scientists, including three researchers at George Mason University, found that the mineral zinc could play a role in the development of macular degeneration. In studying eye tissue samples, the researches found that deposits, that are hallmarks of age-related macular degeneration, contain large amounts of zinc. This finding, published in the journal Experimental Eye Research, might be particularly important because zinc supplements are widely given to patients to help boost weak immune systems. Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the United States with about 13 million Americans.
INFECTIONS: NEW CANCER DRUGS MIGHT FIGHT ICU INFECTIONS
HSP 90 inhibitors, which are finding favor in fighting cancer, may also help battle overwhelming infection in intensive care patients, according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia Vascular Biology Center. Studies in an animal model of sepsis, a major cause of intensive care unit patient death, indicate HSP 90 inhibitors help degrade proteins perpetuating inflammation. In an article in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the researchers said the results included restored lung function, reduced blood vessel leakage, which can lead to dangerous swelling in the lungs, and fewer byproducts of inflammation such as white blood cells.
HOT FLASHES: FLAXSEED CAN DECREASE POSTMENOPAUSAL SYMPTOM
Data from a new Mayo Clinic study suggest that dietary therapy using flaxseed can decrease hot flashes in postmenopausal women who do not take estrogen. The findings from the pilot study are published in the Journal of the Society for Integrative Oncology. A hot flash is often described as a flush of intense warmth across much of the body that may be accompanied by sweating, reddening of the skin, or, occasionally, cold shivers. Although until recently hormone replacement therapy was the most commonly prescribed treatment for hot flashes, unwanted side effects have led to the search for nonhormonal solutions. The researchers chose to study flaxseed because it is a plant-based estrogen source. It contains lignans and omega-3 fatty acids. Lignans are antioxidants with weak estrogen-emulating characteristics, and have some anti-cancer effects. Flaxseed also appears to have anti-estrogen properties and has been shown in some recent research trials to decrease breast cancer risk.
PERIMENOPAUSE: PINE BARK REDUCES SYMPTOMS
A study to be published in an upcoming edition of the Scandinavian Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology reports that Pycnogenol, pine bark extract from the French maritime pine tree, reduces perimenopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, depression, panic attacks, elevated cholesterol, and others. The results from researchers at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Germany’s University of Munster suggest Pycnogenol may serve as an alternative treatment to estrogen replacement therapy, which is the most common remedy of pre-menopause symptoms. Perimenopause is the natural part of aging that signals the ending of a woman’s reproductive years. It marks the time when a woman’s body begins its move into menopause and can last anywhere from two to eight years. Pycnogenol is marketed by Natural Health Science is North America.
PERSONALIZED MEDICINE: RESEARCHERS QUESTION FDA SCREENING GUIDELINES FOR CANCER DRUG
Not everyone needs a genetic test before taking the cancer drug irinotecan, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should modify its prescription guidelines to say so, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Irinotecan, also known by its brand name Camptosar, is used mainly as a second-line treatment for colorectal cancer. The FDA recommends screening patients for a gene that could make them more susceptible to the harmful side effects of the drug, the most worrisome of which is neutropenia, an abnormally low number of white blood cells. In a paper published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, researchers reported that at low doses the drug is well tolerated and can be taken by most people. They said as the dosage increases, genetics become a larger factor in determining what side effects patients experience, and then testing becomes essential.
HOUSEHOLD MOLD: RESEARCHERS LINK PRESENCE TO DEPRESSION
A public health study has found a connection between damp, moldy homes and depression. The study from researchers at Brown University is the largest investigation of an association between mold and mood and is the first such investigation conducted outside the United Kingdom. The findings, reported in the American Journal of Public Health, surprised the researchers. They had set out to debunk the notion of any link, but instead said they found a solid association between depression and living in a damp, moldy home. They said the depression was likely driven by a perceived lack of control over the housing environment or mold-related health problems such as wheezing, fatigue, and a cold or throat illness.
FACIAL TRANSPLANTS: RESEARCHERS SAY SAFER THAN THOUGHT
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati and University of Louisville report that immunosuppressive risks associated with facial transplantation may be lower than previously thought, possibly making the procedure a safer option for people who have suffered severe facial injuries. Previous data on the immunosuppression risks involved in facial transplantation were misleading, the researchers reported in an article in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The first recorded facial transplant was performed in France in 2005 on a 38-year-old woman whose nose, lips, and chin had been bitten off by a dog. Tissues, muscles, arteries, and veins were taken from a brain-dead donor and successfully transplanted to the patient’s lower face. There have been only two similar attempts since.
HIV: ONE-FOURTH OF PATIENT BELIEVE THEIR DOCTORS STIGMATIZE THEM
Physicians might want to be extra careful about how they treat HIV-infected patients—not just in the clinical sense but in the way they behave toward them. Even the perception that physicians are stigmatizing patients for carrying the virus that causes AIDS can discourage these individuals from seeking proper medical care, according to a new UCLA study. The study, published in the journal AIDS Patient Care and STDs, found that up to one-fourth of patients surveyed in the Los Angeles area reported feeling stigmatized by their health care providers. This perception was also linked to low access to care among these patients, a large proportion of whom are low-income and minorities.
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR WEEKLY EMAILS
 |
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
.gif) |
 |