Sakthi  News -July to Sept-2006

Daytime Light Exposure Dynamically Enhances Brain Responses
Exposure to light is known to enhance both alertness and performance in humans, but little is understood regarding the neurological basis for these effects, especially those associated with daytime light exposure. Now, by exposing subjects to light and imaging their brains while they subsequently perform a cognitive test, researchers have begun to identify brain regions involved in the effects on brain function of daytime light exposure. The findings are reported by Gilles Vandewalle and Pierre Maquet of the University of Liège, Derk-Jan Dijk of the University of Surrey, and additional colleagues and appear in the August 22nd issue of the journal Current Biology, published by Cell Press.
        Our brain does not use light only to form images of the world. Ambient light levels are detected by our nervous system and, without forming any image, profoundly influence our brain function and various aspects of our physiology, including circadian rhythms, hormone release, and heart rate. These responses are induced by a special non-image-forming (NIF) brain system, which researchers have begun to characterize in animal models. In human studies, much work has focused on the effects of nighttime light exposure, but little is known about daytime responses to light. Especially mysterious are the neural correlates of these responses, and their temporal dynamics. Such issues are of significant interest given that daytime sleepiness is a major source of complaint in modern society and has considerable socio-economic implications.

In the present study, the researchers showed that a brief (21-minute) morning exposure to a bright white light increases alertness and significantly boosts the brain's responses to an experimental test that requires attention only to sound. In a parallel neuroimaging analysis, this boost in alertness was found to correlate with responses in various areas of the brain, including regions of the cortex known to support performance on the auditory test. The regional brain changes were found to be highly dynamic, dissipating within a few minutes. These new findings therefore show that light exposure, even during the day, can quickly modulate regional brain function in areas involved in alertness and non-visual cognitive processes.

Vandewalle et al.: "Daytime Light Exposure Dynamically Enhances Brain Responses." Publishing in Current Biology 16, 1616--1621, August 22, 2006 DOI 10.1016/j.cub.2006.06.031. http://www.current-biology.com

25th August 2006  

Aromatic Oils and healing

While essential oils may not directly stimulate the immune system, they can complement cancer treatment by boosting the system's ability to fight off infections, says Perez.

Certain oils can also stimulate lymphatic drainage or have antibacterial properties. Since it has many potential uses ranging from managing anxiety and nausea to helping with sleep, general relaxation, memory and attention, many individuals, including cancer patients, can benefit from aromatherapy [See Sidebar 1: Five Oils to Reduce Stress and Relieve Ailments.]

There are a variety of different products and methods of diffusion to obtain the healing benefits of oils. Some oils - like lavender, ylang ylang and sandalwood can be applied directly to the skin - while others are too concentrated and need to be diluted into carriers such as massage oils, bath soaps and lotions [See Sidebar 2: Everyday Uses for Aromatherapy.] Most typically, Perez advises patients to put a few drops of an oil, or a combination of oils onto a handkerchief and "fan themselves like Scarlett O'Hara." Burning oils or incense is not recommended because most are poorly constructed and give off unhealthy fumes and soot.

Who should, or shouldn't, use oils?

Widely sold in health food stores and beauty chain stores, essential oils do have chemical properties that can affect the brain and enter the bloodstream, and for some patients may be toxic when combined with common cancer therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Perez says essential oils, like many medicines, can increase a person's sensitivity to the sun and should be used with caution. Patients should always inform and discuss with their physicians before using aromatherapy oils to complement a medical condition.

People with high blood pressure should avoid hyssop, rosemary, sage and thyme, while diabetics should avoid angelica oil. Women who are pregnant or nursing should avoid a number of oils that stimulate the uterus including star anise, basil and juniper to name a few and should use with caution peppermint, rose and rosemary in the first trimester. According to Perez, pediatric patients can use aromatherapy essential oils in very low concentrations. [See Sidebar 3: Tips for Buying Oils.]

Aromatherapy's role in cancer treatment

"The nature of aromatherapy makes it challenging to study due to the fact that it is difficult to create a placebo and every person is different in their nasal sensitivities and skin absorption rates," says Perez. In the future, however, she would be interested in designing research to examine how aromatherapy can be used to treat/heal burns caused from radiation treatment safely and effectively, soothe pre-treatment anxiety and manage loss-of-memory issues in cancer survivors.

M. D. Anderson is located in Houston and was designated by the National Cancer Institute as one of the first three Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the United States. For 4 of the last 7 years, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center has ranked number one in cancer care in "America's Best Hospitals," a survey published annually in U.S. News & World Report. M. D. Anderson has provided care for more than 600,000 cancer patients since 1944.

FIVE OILS TO REDUCE STRESS AND RELIEVE AILMENTS

Lavender - First used as perfume by ancient Egyptians 2,500 years ago, lavender is now used to treat insomnia, migraines and provide stress relief.
Rosemary - This fragrant plant relieves muscle pain, low blood pressure and cold feet and hands.
Spearmint - The oil from spearmint aids digestion and eases nausea and vomiting.
Masculine scents - Scents such as bay laurel and ylang-ylang appeal to men for their deep scent. They also treat skin rashes, rheumatism and stomach ailments.
EVERYDAY AROMATHERAPY USES

Muscle Relaxation Bath Salts - 2 cups of Epsom salts, 5 drops of each oil - lavender, lemon grass, tea tree & orange. Use 1/2 cup mixture per bath.
Room Spray Diffusion - Use any oil 5-20 drops along with 2 to 4 ounces of distilled or spring water. Common sense precaution - don't spray in your eyes.
Energizing Carpet Cleaner - Combine pink grapefruit oil with baking soda and sprinkle before vacuuming.
Natural House Cleaner - Blend lemon and ravensara leaf oils with distilled water and non-sudsing soap.
TIPS FOR BUYING OILS

When purchasing oils for themselves, Perez gives the following guidelines:

Essential oils from a bath or general store may be of questionable quality; shop for oils in a specialty store, staffed by salespeople with aromatherapy training.
Quality oils, which are light and heat sensitive, will be in a blue or brown light protective glass.
Labeling on the bottle should provide should provide both the common and botanical name for the oil.
Steer clear of concentrated oils with rubber eyedroppers since the oils react with the rubber causing it to break down and contaminate the oil.

25th August 2006  

Acne Medication Associated With Abnormal Blood Test Results
Elevated cholesterol levels and liver enzyme levels appear to be more common than previously thought among patients taking the acne medication isoretinoin, including those who had normal blood test results before beginning therapy, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
         Isoretinoin, commonly marketed as Accutane, is the most effective acne treatment currently available, according to background information in the article. As many as 89 percent of patients taking the medication achieve long-term remission from acne. Side effects include elevations in the levels of triglycerides, blood fats that can have an adverse effect on cardiovascular health; liver enzymes, the presence of which indicates liver disease or inflammation; and total blood cholesterol. According to the article, the Accutane package insert notes that 25 percent of patients develop elevated triglycerides and 15 percent elevated liver enzymes. Other studies have found elevated triglycerides in 5 to 18 percent and elevated total cholesterol in 6 to 32 percent of individuals taking the drug.
        Patients taking isoretinoins had an increased incidence of elevated triglyceride, total cholesterol and liver enzyme levels, but not hemoglobin levels, white blood cell counts or platelet counts. Among patients with normal pretreatment laboratory tests, 44 percent developed high triglycerides, 31 percent high cholesterol and 11 percent high liver enzymes while taking the medication. "Moderate to severe abnormalities in triglyceride, total cholesterol and transaminase levels were generally transient and reversible," the authors write. "Among those subjects with such abnormalities who received posttreatment testing, the proportion returning to normal or grade 1 [slightly elevated] levels by the end of the posttreatment period was 92 percent for transaminase level, 80 percent for triglyceride level and 79 percent for total cholesterol level."
         Still, patients with acne who develop substantially high triglyceride levels are at risk for high cholesterol and the metabolic syndrome, which in turn may increase the risk for coronary artery disease; further study is needed regarding these side effects, the authors write.
 

24th August 2006  

New Study Shows That Being Overweight At Middle Age Can Be Harmful
Being overweight during midlife is associated with an increased risk of death, according to a new study conducted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health
Previous research had established a link between obesity and increased risk of death, but whether a relationship also existed between being overweight and increased risk of death remained uncertain. In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 34.1 percent of the U.S. adult population was overweight, but not obese**. Overweight and obesity are defined using a measurement called body-mass index (BMI), calculated as a person's weight divided by the square of their height. A BMI of 18.5 - 25.0 is considered normal, whereas people who have a BMI of 25.0 - 29.9 are considered overweight, and individuals with a BMI over 30.0 are regarded as obese.Excess body weight is known to increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, pulmonary disease, and diabetes. Furthermore, a recent study suggested that increased body weight is related to an elevated risk of mortality from cancer.

24th August 2006  
Scientists Learn More About How Roughage Keeps You 'Regular'
If you ever wondered just how a high-fiber diet helps keep you, well, "regular," scientists may have the answer. Drs. Paul L. McNeil (left) and Katsuya Miyake, MCG cell biologists.

Their results suggest that as these bulky foods make their way down the gastrointestinal tract, they run into cells, tearing them and freeing lubricating mucus within. More mucus is good, says Dr. Paul L. McNeil, cell biologist at the Medical College of Georgia and corresponding author on the study published online Aug. 21 and scheduled for the September print issue of PloS Biology. "When you eat high-fiber foods, they bang up against the cells lining the gastrointestinal tract, rupturing their outer covering. What we are saying is this banging and tearing increases the level of lubricating mucus. It's a good thing."

The fact that consuming roughage increases mucus production was known, and years ago, Dr. McNeil discovered frequent cell injury and repair occur when we eat.

The new research ties the two together.

"It's a bit of a paradox, but what we are saying is an injury at the cell level can promote health of the GI tract as a whole," says Dr. McNeil. Even though epithelial cells usually live less than a week, they are regularly bombarded, in most of us at least three times a day as food passes by. "These cells are a biological boundary that separates the inside world, if you will, from this nasty outside world. On the cellular scale, roughage, such as grains and fibers that can't be completely digested, are a mechanical challenge for these cells," says Dr. McNeil.

But in what he and colleague Dr. Katsuya Miyake view as an adaptive response, most of these cells rapidly repair damage and, in the process, excrete even more mucus, which provides a bit of cell protection as it eases food down the GI tract.

In research published in 2003 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. McNeil showed proof of his then decade-old hypothesis that cells with internal membranes use those membranes to repair potentially lethal outer-membrane injuries. A recent paper published in Nature in collaboration with Dr. Kevin Campbell's laboratory at the University of Iowa showed how human disease, including certain forms of muscular dystrophy, can result from a failure of this mechanism.

An outer membrane tear is like an open door through which calcium just outside the cell rushes in. Too much calcium is lethal but that first taste signals the vulnerable cell it better do something quick. With epithelial cells, several of the internal mucus-filled compartments fuse together within about three seconds, forming a patch to fix the tear. In the process the compartments expel their contents so, almost like a bonus, extra mucus becomes available to lubricate the GI tract.

"We have found a very natural way we can enhance mucus production," says Dr. Miyake, cell biologist and the study's first author. He and Dr. McNeil suspected for years that mucus escaped cells as a result of injury. "You might have predicted it, but science is about testing predictions," says Dr. McNeil.

To test their theory, Dr. Miyake, co-director of MCG Cell Imaging Core Laboratory, began working on a method to reproduce cell injuries. "Dr. Miyake developed a very potent cutting edge technology involving the two photon laser that allowed us to blast small holes in cells, mimicking what happens in the living animal. It also allowed us to assess in those living cells whether they could reseal, repair the damage and how they might respond biologically, namely in this case, whether they responded by secreting mucus as part of the healing process," Dr. McNeil says.

They found time and again that most cells did just that, including intact cells in a section of the GI tract. "Epithelial cells are high-turnover cells but they have a built-in survivability," Dr. McNeil says.

The scientists aren't certain how many times cells can take a hit, but they suspect turnover is so high because of the constant injury. Potentially caustic substances, such as alcohol and aspirin, can produce so much damage that natural recovery mechanisms can't keep up. But they doubt a roughage overdose is possible.

The research was funded by NASA. Dr. Toru Tanaka, a pharmacologist at the Josai University in Japan and an expert in mucus measurement, is a study co-author.

24th August 2006  
Canada High In Ulcerative Colitis And Crohn's Cases: Is Canada Too Clean?
Canada has among the highest incidences of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease cases per capita in the world, a new study shows.
About one in 350 Canadians suffer from ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease, otherwise known collectively as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), the study shows. The study was published recently in the American Journal of Gasteroenterology.

IBD is a wearing away of the lining of the intestinal tract until it becomes red and raw and begins to bleeds, like a skinned knee. The difference between ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease is where they occur: ulcerative colitis occurs only in the large intestine, and Crohn's disease, which is more common, occurs in both the large and small intestines.
Fedorak said the disease does not exist in some parts of the world, such as China and Africa. The explanation for this, he added, may be that children in developed countries are not exposed to as many intestinal bacteria as are children in the developing world, and, therefore, some children in the developed world may not develop immune systems that are able to prevent IBD in adulthood.

"There are theories, but at this point we're not really sure what causes IBD," Fedorak said. "But if we can find the causes and understand the disease a little better, then of course this might lead us to develop treatments or even be able to prevent it, and that's what we're working toward."

24th August 2006  
Decrease In Progression Of Prostate Cancer With Plant-based Diet And Stress Reduction
One out of six American men will develop prostate cancer at some point in their life, and more than a third of them will experience a recurrence after undergoing treatment, putting them at high risk to die of the disease. New research from the Moores Cancer Center and School of Medicine at University of California, San Diego suggests that diet changes, reinforced by stress management training, may be effective in slowing or halting the spread of the this deadly cancer.
The 6-month study, published in the September issue of Integrative Cancer Therapies, focused on the change in the levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), an indicator of the cancer, in response to a plant-based diet and stress reduction. Patients were taught to increase consumption of plant-based foods such as whole grains, cruciferous and leafy green vegetables, beans and legumes, and fruit, and to decrease the intake of meat, dairy products and refined carbohydrates. They were also provided with stress management training, which included meditation, yoga and t'ai chi exercises.

The plant-based diet and stress reduction intervention was effective in significantly reducing the PSA rate, indicating a reduction in the rate of progression of the prostate cancer. Ten patients with recurrent, invasive prostate cancer completed the pilot clinical trial. Rates of PSA rise were determined for each patient from the time of disease recurrence following treatment up to the start of the study (pre-study), and from the time immediately preceding the study intervention to the end of the intervention (0-6 months).

By the end of the intervention, four of 10 patients experienced an absolute reduction in their PSA levels, and nine of 10 experienced a decrease in the rate of further PSA rise. The median time it took for the men's PSA levels to double increased from 11.9 months at pre-study to 112.3 months (intervention).

"The magnitude of effect of these findings is the strongest observed to date among dietary and nutritional interventions in this patient population," said Cancer Center member Gordon Saxe, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of family and preventive medicine at UCSD School of Medicine. "These results provide preliminary evidence that adoption of a plant-based diet, in combination with stress reduction, may slow, stop, or perhaps even reverse disease progression and have therapeutic potential for management of recurrent prostate cancer. Further research is needed to validate these findings and establish the long-term effectiveness of this intervention."

24th August 2006  
Exposure To Sunlight May Decrease Risk Of Prostate Cancer
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- In the largest such study to date, a research team from three cancer centers measured sunlight exposure in men and found that increased exposure to sunlight may decrease the risk of prostate cancer.
Reporting in the June 15 issue of Cancer Research, the researchers, led by Esther John, Ph.D., of the Northern California Cancer Center

Previous research by Schwartz and his colleagues had shown that the prostate uses vitamin D to promote the normal growth of prostate cells and to inhibit the invasiveness and spread of prostate cancer cells to other parts of the body.

"The genes involved are those that determine the type of vitamin D receptors a person has," said Schwartz. "These receptors, which function with vitamin D like a lock and key, vary in their ability to bind vitamin D and thus to influence cell behavior."

22nd August 2006  

'Mint' Pain Killer Takes Leaf Out Of Ancient Medical Texts
        A new synthetic treatment inspired by ancient Greek and Chinese remedies could offer pain relief to millions of patients with arthritis and nerve damage, a new University of Edinburgh study suggests.

       The Greek scholar Hippocrates treated sprains, joint pains and inflammation by cooling the skin, and traditional Chinese remedies used mint oil to the same end. Now scientists have discovered that cooling chemicals which have the same properties as mint oil have a dramatic pain-killing effect when applied in small doses to the skin. Unlike conventional pain killers, these compounds are likely to have minimal toxic side-effects, especially because they are applied externally to the skin. This should mean they are ideal for chronic pain patients for whom conventional pain killers often do not work.

      The Edinburgh study sets out exactly how the 'mint oil' compounds (and related more powerful chemicals) work. They act through a recently discovered receptor (a protein which is capable of binding with these chemicals) which is found in a small percentage of nerve cells in the human skin. The scientists have found that when this receptor, called TRPM8, is activated by the cooling chemicals or cool temperatures, it inhibits the 'pain messages' being sent from the locality of the pain to the brain. Thus, the new treatment makes good use of the body's own mechanisms for killing pain.

     The findings would doubtless have been of interest to Hippocrates, the founding father of modern medicine. Writing in the fifth century BC, in chapter 5 of his classic text, Aphorisms, he stated: "Swellings and pains in the joints, ulceration, those of a gouty nature, and sprains, are generally improved by a copious affusion of cold water, which reduces the swelling, and removes the pain; for a moderate degree of numbness removes pain."

     "This discovery of the pain-relieving properties of mint oil and related compounds has great potential for alleviating the suffering of millions of chronic pain patients, including those with arthritis or those who have had nerve damage or spinal injury following major accidents. Conventional painkillers such as morphine are often ineffective in cases of chronic pain, and simply lowering the temperature of the skin is too inexact."

      "Our discovery means that patients can be given low doses of a powerful pain killer, delivered through the skin, without side effects. We hope clinical trials on the compounds will begin within the year."

22nd August 2006  

Researchers Discover How Acid Reflux Leads To Esophageal Cancer
A particular enzyme is significantly higher in cancer cells that have been exposed to acid, leading to the overproduction of hydrogen peroxide, and offering a possible explanation for how acid reflux may lead to cancer of the esophagus, according to a recent study in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
         The study found that the enzyme NOX5-S is affected by exposure to acid and that it produces stress on cells, activating genes that lead to DNA damage. For the first time, researchers have outlined the signaling pathway from cells damaged by acid, to the progression of esophageal cancer. They believe the same process may happen in the body when cells are exposed to acid reflux

22nd August 2006  

Strokes Will Cost U.S. $2.2 Trillion By 2050 If Prevention, Treatment Don't Improve
Unless Americans do more to lower their risk of stroke and improve stroke care, the nation will pay $2.2 trillion over the next 45 years to care for people who suffer the most common form of stroke, a new University of Michigan study predicts.
        The study projects the cost of ischemic strokes, which account for about 88 percent of all strokes. They occur when a clot or a clogged blood vessel blocks the flow of blood to all or part of the brain.
        "Doing the right thing now ultimately could be cost-saving in the future, but we have a long way to go before all Americans receive adequate stroke prevention and emergency stroke care," she says. "If our society is not going to do it for the right reasons, perhaps we can do it because it's going to be obscenely expensive."

            What can Americans do to decrease this looming bill? No matter what their age or ethnicity, individuals can cut their own risk of a future stroke by quitting smoking, losing weight, eating healthily, exercising, and keeping their blood pressure, cholesterol levels and any heart-rhythm problems under control, says Brown.

22nd August 2006  

Study Finds Cardiac Toxicity Rates High With Use Of Breast Cancer Drug
The first study to look at "real world" use of Herceptin in advanced breast cancer patients found a higher incidence of cardiac toxicity -- 28 percent of patients treated -- than clinical trials of the drug have reported to date, but also concluded that the majority of this heart damage could be reversed with treatment.

22nd August 2006  

Pigments In Corn, Squash And Other Vegetables May Help Protect Against Age-related Vision Loss
Women younger than age 75 years who eat diets rich in the yellow plant pigments lutein and zeaxanthin may have a reduced risk of developing the eye disease age-related macular degeneration, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) occurs when the macula, the area at the back of the retina that produces the sharpest vision, deteriorates over time. The condition is the leading cause of blindness in aging Americans, according to background information in the article. There is no cure for AMD and limited treatment options are available to slow its progression, so research on preventive measures is essential. Previous studies have suggested a potential link between AMD and lutein and zeaxanthin, plant pigments known as carotenoids and found in leafy green vegetables, corn, egg yolks, squash, broccoli and peas. These compounds may reduce the risk of AMD by absorbing blue light that could damage the macula, by preventing free radicals from damaging eye cells and by strengthening eye cell membranes.

Suzen M. Moeller, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, and colleagues with the Carotenoids in Age-Related Eye Disease Study (CAREDS) Research Study Group, assessed the effects of dietary lutein plus zeaxanthin in 1,787 women ages 50 to 79 years in Iowa, Wisconsin and Oregon. The women with the highest and lowest dietary intakes of lutein and zeaxanthin in the Women's Health Initiative, a large study of postmenopausal women that began between 1994 and 1998, were recruited to participate in CAREDS.
     A higher intake of lutein plus zeaxanthin was associated with a lower risk of intermediate-stage AMD in women younger than age 75 years who had a stable intake of the carotenoids over the 15-year period and did not have previous AMD or a chronic disease, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes or hypertension, that might alter their dietary habits. However, no significant difference was observed in the overall group of women or when comparing lutein and zeaxanthin levels in the blood to AMD occurrence. There was a weak association between dietary lutein plus zeaxanthin and advanced-stage AMD in all the women and in women younger than age 75 years.

The lack of a link between intake of carotenoids and AMD in the overall study group could be due to several factors, including the fact that the older women who participated in the study may have been more likely to have consumed higher levels of fruits and vegetables during their lifetimes than other older adults who have already died. Many nutrients may work together to provide protection against AMD, and the study may not have measured other dietary deficits that influence risk, the authors write.

"This exploratory observation is consistent with a broad body of evidence from observational and experimental studies that suggests that these carotenoids may protect against AMD," they conclude. "Still, given the numerous analyses performed in this study, our results could be due to chance. More conclusive evidence from long-term prospective studies and clinical trials is needed to determine whether the intake of macular carotenoids themselves, or as markers of broader dietary patterns, can protect against intermediate AMD or delay progression in individuals who have early stages of the disease." (Arch Ophthalmol. 2006;124:1151-1162. Available pre-embargo to the media at www.jamamedia.org.)

16th August 2006  

Adverse Effects And Costs Of Chemotherapy Greater Than Previously Thought
 

         Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School have found that breast cancer patients 63 years of age or younger may experience more chemotherapy-related serious adverse effects than reported in clinical trials, according to a new study in the August 16 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
         "This is the first study, to our knowledge, of chemotherapy-related serious adverse effects in a population-based sample of younger women with breast cancer," said Hassett, who is also an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. "We found that eight chemotherapy-related serious adverse effects may be more common than reported in large clinical trials, and, therefore, these adverse effects may be responsible for more patient suffering and higher health care expenditures than currently predicted."

Doctors often prescribe chemotherapy to eliminate residual cancer cells in women who have undergone surgery for breast cancer. Women who received chemotherapy were more likely to be hospitalized or visit emergency rooms for problems that are typically related to chemotherapy, including fever or infection, low white blood cell or platelet count, nausea, diarrhea, malnutrition, or dehydration.

Researchers studied 7,052 women from a database of claims made to health plans that contract with large employers in the U.S. The group was equally divided into two cohorts of 3,526: those who received chemotherapy within 12 months of their first breast cancer diagnosis, and those who did not.

In addition to more incidents of chemotherapy-related adverse effects, women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer also experienced increased healthcare costs: $1,271 more per year for hospitalizations and emergency room visits and $17,617 more per year for ambulatory care than women who did not receive chemotherapy.

Additional contributors of the report are from Dana-Farber and the Harvard School of Public Health.

The research was funded by grants from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Institutes of Health.

 

16th August 2006  
Unmasking Nutrition's Role In Genes And Birth Defects
       Expectant mothers may someday get a personalized menu of foods to eat during pregnancy to complement their genetic makeup as a result of new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Researchers used transparent fish embryos to develop a way to discover how genes and diet interact to cause birth defects.

"By the time most women know they are pregnant, the development of the fetus' organs is essentially complete," said Bryce Mendelsohn, co-author and an M.D./Ph.D. student in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University School of Medicine. "Since we currently do not understand the interaction between genetics and nutrition, the goal of this research was to understand how the lack of a specific nutrient, in this case copper, interacts with an embryo's genetics during early development."
          In humans, copper is found in all body tissues and is critical for maintaining stable iron levels, connective tissue formation, nerve cell function in the brain, hormone production and pigmentation. The trace metal is commonly found in shellfish, nuts, chocolate and liver.

The researchers next plan to adapt these same methods to find other genes that affect the body's use of important nutrients during early development. This could provide insight into how poor nutrition and genetic variation act together to contribute to birth defects. "We already know that nutrition is a critical issue in birth defects and that folic acid is an essential supplement in some women for the prevention of spina bifida in the developing fetus," said Gitlin. "The ultimate goal of this research is to bring the power of genomic medicine to every woman. The knowledge of genetic variations serves as a unique, individual guide for providing the essential nutritional intake that will ensure a normal, healthy infant."
 

16th August 2006  
New Study Suggests Link Between Maternal Diet And Childhood Leukemia Risk
BERKELEY A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that women who eat more vegetables, fruit and foods containing protein before pregnancy may have a lower risk of having a child who develops leukemia, the most common childhood cancer in the United States.
       The study, published in the August 2004 issue of Cancer Causes and Control, is the first time researchers have conducted a systematic survey of a woman's diet and linked it to childhood leukemia risk.

The researchers compared 138 women who each had a child diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) with a control group of 138 women whose children did not have cancer. The children of all the women in the study, which is part of the Northern California Childhood Leukemia Study, were matched by sex, age, race, and county of residence at birth.

After comparing the women's diets in the 12 months prior to pregnancy, the researchers found that the higher the intake of vegetables, fruit and foods in the protein group, the lower the risk of having a child with leukemia.

"Fetal exposure to nutritional factors has a lot to do with what mom eats," said Christopher Jensen, a nutritional epidemiologist at UC Berkeley and lead author of the paper. "These findings show how vital it is that women hoping to get pregnant, as well as expectant moms, understand that critical nutrients in vegetables, fruit and foods containing protein, such as meat, fish, beans and nuts, may protect the health of their unborn children."

The few studies that have been conducted on maternal diet and childhood cancer risk looked only at specific foods or supplements, and results have been mixed. This study is the first attempt to capture a woman's overall dietary pattern - using a 76-food-item questionnaire - and its relationship to the development of leukemia in a child.

Although the researchers only surveyed the foods eaten in the year before conception, they point to studies showing that dietary patterns remain stable throughout the pregnancy.

"The general habits of what you like and don't like to eat are not likely to change during pregnancy," said study principal investigator and co-author Gladys Block, UC Berkeley professor of epidemiology and public health nutrition. "If you hated liver before you got pregnant, you'll probably hate liver while you're pregnant."

Within the fruit and vegetable food groups, certain foods - including carrots, string beans and cantaloupe - stood out as having stronger links to lower childhood leukemia risk. The researchers point to the benefits of nutrients, such as carotenoids, in those foods as potential protective factors.

"This finding is consistent with research about the benefits of a diet high in fruits and vegetables in preventing adult cancers," said Block. "The positive message here is that mothers may be able to transfer some of those benefits to their children."

The researchers also studied the use of vitamin supplements, but did not find a statistically significant link to childhood leukemia risk.

One of the more surprising results of the study is the emergence of protein sources, such as beef and beans, as a beneficial food group in lowering childhood leukemia risk.

"The health benefits of fruits and vegetables have been known for a long time," said Block. "What we found in this study is that the protein foods group is also very important."

The researchers looked further and found that glutathione was the nutrient in the protein group with a strong link to lower cancer risk. Glutathione is an antioxidant found in both meat and legumes, and it plays a role in the synthesis and repair of DNA, as well as the detoxification of certain harmful compounds.

National guidelines recommend that people eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day, and two to three servings of foods from the protein group.

A growing number of scientists believe that genetic changes linked to cancer later in life begin in the womb. Prior studies on children diagnosed with leukemia have found that blood samples taken at birth tested positive for the same genetic markers that were later found in the cancer.

"It goes back to the old saying to expectant mothers, 'You're eating for two,' " said Patricia Buffler, study co-author, UC Berkeley professor of epidemiology and head of the federally funded Northern California Childhood Leukemia Study. "We're starting to see the importance of the prenatal environment, since the events that may lead to leukemia are possibly initiated in utero. Leukemia is a very complex disease with multiple risk factors. What these findings show is that the nutritional environment in utero could be one of those factors."

Funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences helped support this study.

16th August 2006  
Childhood Obesity Caused By 'Toxic Environment' Of Western Diets, Study Says

A UCSF researcher has determined that a key reason for the epidemic of pediatric obesity, now the most commonly diagnosed childhood ailment, is that high-calorie, low-fiber Western diets promote hormonal imbalances that encourage children to overeat.
         According to the National Institutes of Health, the number of children who are overweight in the United States has doubled during the past three decades. Currently one child in five is overweight. The increase is true for children and adolescents of all age groups and races and for boys and girls.

Diseases that once were only seen in adults, like type 2 diabetes, now are occurring in increasing numbers in children, according to Lustig. Overweight children tend to become overweight adults, which also puts them at greater risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. Children who are obese also are socially ostracized and teased, putting them at risk for depression and other psychiatric conditions, he adds.

"Our current Western food environment has become highly 'insulinogenic,'" Lustig says, "as demonstrated by its increased energy density, high-fat content, high glycemic index, increased fructose composition, decreased fiber, and decreased dairy content."

"In particular, fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin," he adds.

Lustig says that it has long been known that the hormone insulin acts on the brain to encourage eating through two separate mechanisms. First, it blocks the signals that travel from the body's fat stores to the brain by suppressing the effectiveness of the hormone leptin, resulting in increased food intake and decreased activity. Second, insulin promotes the signal that seeks the reward of eating carried by the chemical dopamine, which makes a person want to eat to get the pleasurable dopamine "rush."

Calorie intake and expenditure normally are regulated by leptin, Lustig says. When leptin is functioning properly it "increases physical activity, decreases appetite, and increases feelings of well-being." Conversely, when leptin is suppressed, feelings of well-being and activity decrease and appetite increases -- a state called "leptin resistance."

Changes in food processing during the past 30 years, particularly the addition of sugar to a wide variety of foods that once never included sugar and the removal of fiber, both of which promote insulin production, have created an environment in which our foods are essentially addictive, he adds.

Lustig also notes that children cannot be blamed or expected to take personal responsibility for their dietary behavior in an environment when the foods they are offered -- especially cheaply prepared "fast foods" that are full of sugar and devoid of fiber -- are toxic.

"The concept of personal responsibility is not tenable in children. No child chooses to be obese," he says. "Furthermore, young children are not responsible for food choices at home or at school, and it can hardly be said that preschool children, in whom obesity is rampant, are in a position to accept personal responsibility."

"If we don't fix this, our children will continue to lose," he emphasizes.

One of the nation's top children's hospitals, UCSF Children's Hospital creates a healing environment where children and their families find compassionate care at the edge of scientific discovery, with more than 150 experts in 50 medical specialties serving patients throughout Northern California and beyond.

16th August 2006  
Bad Vibrations? Ultrasound disturbs mouse brains
Prolonged and frequent use of fetal ultrasound might lead to abnormal brain development, a study in mice suggests. The finding sounds a cautionary note for pregnant women getting the commonplace procedure.

In that technique, an ultrasound probe sends high-frequency sound waves into the abdomen of a pregnant woman. The waves bounce back to detectors, creating images of the fetus. Doctors use the pictures to check for birth defects and to assess a fetus' size and movements. Many women also undergo ultrasounds to create collections of early baby pictures.

Ultrasound has generally been regarded as safe. However, a few studies have suggested that it might cause neurological changes, such as delayed speech or an increase in left-handedness. Researchers hadn't studied how the number or duration of ultrasound procedures affects neurons growing in the fetal brain, says neuroscientist Pasko Rakic of Yale University.

Neurons are created in discrete places within the brain as it develops, and they then travel to the brain's outer layers. Rakic and his colleagues study this process, which is known as neural migration.

16th August 2006  
Side Effect Revealed: Heart risk found in leukemia drug
      Since its introduction a few years ago, the cancer drug imatinib has given patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia an unprecedented chance at long-term survival. But studies of the drug in people and mice reveal an unexpected risk of heart failure lurking beneath imatinib's benefits.

16th August 2006  
Oxygen saturation trends immediately after birth.

   The process of transitioning to a normal postnatal oxygen saturation requires more than 5 minutes in healthy newborns breathing room air.   J Pediatr. 2006 May;148(5):590-4

16th August 2006  
The physiologic interferon response. VI. Interferon activity in human plasma after a meal and drinking water.
Interferon are natural body produced ant-viral agents. Their activity in plasma was found negligible in the morning and slightly increased in the afternoon. However, because of the wide variability of the results, the difference was not statistically significant even though the existence of a circadian rhythm appears possible. The afternoon increase of IFN activity could be at least in part due to increased abdominal lymphatic drainage following digestion and absorption. In fact, it has been shown that there is a significant transient increase in IFN plasma level 2 hours after a fat-rich meal or drinking 700 ml of water. IFN activity was due to acid-labile IFN-alpha. This is another, yet indirect, indication of the existence of the physiologic IFN response that entails a localized production of lymphomonokines with limited spillover in the circulation.  Lymphokine Res. 1985 Spring;4(2):151-8.


16th August 2006  
Effect of exercise on plasma interferon levels.
The effect of exercise on plasma interferon activity was studied on eight male subjects before and after exercise on a bicycle ergometer for 1 h at 70% of their maximal O2 consumption (VO2 max). Acid-labile interferon, alpha-type according to immunological characterization, rose significantly from a preexercise value of 3 +/- 1 to 7 +/- 2 IU/ml postexercise. Negligible changes were recorded for plasma protein, lipid, and glucose concentrations, whereas blood lactate slightly increased only at the end of exercise. According to hematocrit and plasma protein values before and after exercise, hemoconcentration did not occur. These data provide evidence that plasma interferon activity increased following a bout of submaximal exercise. J Appl Physiol. 1985 Aug;59(2):426-8.
 

16th August 2006  

New brain cells die without a job to do
      When it comes to brainpower they say you either use it or lose it. Now a study in mice suggests that the survival of newly formed adult brain cells depends on the amount of input they receive.

Fred Gage of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, and his colleagues infected genetically engineered mice with a virus that stops new brain cells from producing NMDA receptors - proteins that sit on the surface of brain cells and help them communicate with each other. The virus used infects only newly generated cells, leaving other cells untouched.

Infected cells that lacked NMDA receptors died sooner than their normal counterparts, suggesting that communication is essential for survival (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature05028).

To confirm this the researchers injected some of the virus-infected mice with a compound that blocks all NMDA receptors. They found this increased the survival rate of the brain cells infected by the virus, and lowered that of the normal, uninfected cells. Gage speculates that preventing any brain cell communication via NMDA receptors levels the playing field, giving all the brain cells an equal chance of survival - indirect evidence that activation of NMDA receptors affects the survival of brain cells.

Since the cells the team studied were in the hippocampus, a brain region involved in learning and memory, Gage suggests that the fate of brain cells generated there helps guide the formation of memories and skills.
 

5th August 2006  

Popular curry Spice is a brain booster

04 August 2006 New Scientist
         Call it yellow ginger, haldi, turmeric or E100, the yellow root of Curcuma longa, a staple ingredient in curry, is turning out to be gratifyingly healthy. Now Tze-Pin Ng and colleagues at the National University of Singapore have discovered that curry eating seems to boost brain power in elderly people.

Curcumin, a constituent of turmeric, is an antioxidant, and reports have suggested that it inhibits the build-up of amyloid plaques in people with Alzheimer's. Ng's team looked at the curry-eating habits of 1010 Asian people unaffected by Alzheimer's and aged between 60 and 93, and compared their performance in a standard test of cognitive function, the Mini Mental State Examination. Those people who consumed curry "occasionally" (once or more in 6 months but less than once a month) and "often" (more than once a month) had better MMSE results than those who only ate curry "never or rarely" (American Journal of Epidemiology, DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwj267).

"What is remarkable is that apparently one needs only to consume curry once in a while for the better cognitive performance to be evidenced," says Ng, who says he wants to confirm the results, possibly in a controlled clinical trial comparing curcumin and a placebo.

From issue 2563 of New Scientist magazine, 04 August 2006, page 18

5th August 2006  

Study Shows Ingredient Commonly Found In Shampoos May Inhibit Brain Development
An ingredient found in many shampoos and other personal care products appears to interfere with normal brain development in baby mice when applied to the skin of pregnant mice, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have discovered.
When Diethanolamine (DEA) was applied to the skin of pregnant mice, the fetuses showed inhibited cell growth and increased cell death in an area of the brain responsible for memory - the hippocampus.
Previous research on DEA has focused on its potential as a carcinogen. The current study is the first exploration of the compound's affect on brain development.

5th August 2006  
Protein-added Sports Drinks Don't Boost Performance During Exercise, Study Finds
Adding protein to a sports drink won't make you race faster, suggests findings from researchers at McMaster University.
 "Sports drinks improve performance during prolonged exercise because of two key ingredients: carbohydrate, which provides fuel for working muscles, and sodium, which helps to maintain fluid balance," says Martin Gibala, an associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster. "Research also supports the practice of consuming protein after exercise to promote muscle recovery. However, the alleged benefit of consuming protein during exercise is controversial."
 "Eating a little protein after exercise is important to help repair damaged muscles and promote training adaptations," says Gibala, "but no compelling evidence suggests that endurance athletes need protein during exercise."

5th August 2006  
Miscarriage Significantly Associated With Increasing Paternal Age
In a study conducted at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the New York Psychiatric Institute researchers found that increasing paternal age is significantly associated with increased rates of spontaneous abortion, a pregnancy loss occurring before twenty weeks of gestation. Results indicate that as the male partner ages there is a steady increase in rate of miscarriage. Women with partners aged 35 or older had nearly three times as many miscarriages as compared with women conceiving with men younger than 25 years of age.

5th August 2006  

Breastfed Babies Cope Better With Stress In Later Life Than Bottle Fed Babies
Breastfed babies cope better with stress in later life than bottle fed babies, suggests research published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Relevant information was obtained at the children's birth, and at the ages of 5 and 10 years, from midwives and health visitors, parents, and teachers. This included how much the child weighed at birth and whether s/he was breastfed.
It also included factors that might influence or be linked with a child's reactions to stress and coping mechanisms, including maternal depression, parental education levels, their social class, and smoking habits.
When the children were 10 years old, their teachers were also asked to rate the anxiety of their pupils on a scale of zero to 50, while parents were interviewed about major family disruption, including divorce or separation, which had occurred when their child was between 5 and 10 years of age.
Unsurprisingly, when all the data were analysed, the findings pointed to a greater likelihood of high anxiety among children whose parents had divorced or separated.
But children who had been breastfed were significantly less anxious than their peers who had not been breastfed.
Breastfed children were almost twice as likely to be highly anxious, while children who had been bottle fed were over 9 times as likely to be highly anxious about parental divorce/separation.
The findings held true, irrespective of other factors likely to influence the results.
The authors emphasise that their research does not prove that breastfeeding itself makes children cope better with life stress; rather, it may be a marker of some other maternal or parental factors, they say.
But they cite animal research, which suggests that the quality of physical contact between mother and baby during the first few days of life may influence the development of the offspring's neural and hormonal pathways that are involved in the stress response. Babies with more of the type of contact experienced during breast feeding coped better with stress when older.
Breastfeeding may also affect the quality of the bonding between mother and child, and the way in which the two relate to each other. And this may have a lasting impact on the child's anxiety levels in response to stressful life events, the authors suggest.
[Breast feeding and resilience against psychosocial stress Online First Arch Dis Child 2006 doi: 101136/adc.2006.096826]

5th August 2006  
Research Shows Benefits Of Apple Juice On Neurotransmitter Affecting Memory
For those who think that apple juice is a kid's drink, think again. Apples and apple juice may be among the best foods that baby boomers and senior citizens could add to their diet, according to new research that demonstrates how apple products can help boost brain function similar to medication.

Animal research from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) indicates that apple juice consumption may actually increase the production in the brain of the essential neurotransmitter acetylcholine, resulting in improved memory. Neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine are chemicals released from nerve cells that transmit messages to other nerve cells. Such communication between nerve cells is vital for good health, not just in the brain, but throughout the body.

Earlier studies by Shea's research team had strongly suggested apples must possess a unique mix of antioxidants that improve cognition and memory via inhibition of oxidation in the brain. Those results encouraged Shea to evaluate the neurotransmitter effect, as is done in the current study. Medications given to humans with Alzheimer's disease have been shown to inhibit the production of specific enyzmes (cholinesterase inhibitors) that break down acetylcholine in the brain. The end result in the animal study is similar -- there are more of these critical messengers remaining in the brain to enhance memory.

The results obtained were from the animals consuming moderate amounts of apple juice --comparable to drinking approximately two 8 oz. glasses of apple juice or eating 2-3 apples a day. The findings also suggest that the apple-supplemented diet was most helpful in the framework of an overall healthy diet.

5th August 2006  
Altering Fatty Acid Levels In Diet May Reduce Prostate Cancer Growth Rate
UCLA researchers found that altering the fatty acid ratio found in the typical Western diet to include more omega-3 fatty acids and decrease the amount of omega-6 fatty acids may reduce prostate cancer tumor growth rates and PSA levels.
The omega-6 fatty acids contained in corn, safflower oils and red meats are the predominant polyunsaturated fatty acids in the Western diet. The healthier marine omega-3 fatty acids are found in cold-water fish like salmon, tuna and sardines.

"Corn oil is the backbone of the American diet. We consume up to 20 times more omega-6 fatty acids in our diet compared to omega-3 acids," said principal investigator Dr. William Aronson, a professor in the department of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a researcher with UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center. "This study strongly suggests that eating a healthier ratio of these two types of fatty acids may make a difference in reducing prostate cancer growth, but studies need to be conducted in humans before any clinical recommendations can be made."

The study showed that tumor cell growth rates decreased by 22 percent and PSA levels were 77 percent lower in the group receiving a healthier balance of fatty acids compared with the group that received predominantly omega-6 fatty acids.
"This is one of the first studies showing changes in diet can impact the inflammatory response that may play a role in prostate cancer tumor growth," Aronson said. "We may be able to use EPA and DHA supplements while also reducing omega-6 fatty acids in the diet as a cancer prevention tool or possibly to reduce progression in men with prostate cancer."
 

5th August 2006  
Chemicals In Curry And Onions May Help Prevent Colon Cancer
A small but informative clinical trial by Johns Hopkins investigators shows that a pill combining chemicals found in turmeric, a spice used in curries, and onions reduces both the size and number of precancerous lesions in the human intestinal tract.
      In the study, published in the August issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, five patients with an inherited form of precancerous polyps in the lower bowel known as familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) were treated with regular doses of curcumin (the chemical found in turmeric) and quercetin, an antioxidant in onions, over an average of six months. The average number of polyps dropped 60.4 percent, and the average size dropped by 50.9 percent, according to a team led by Francis M. Giardiello, M.D., at the Division of Gastroenterology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Marcia Cruz-Correa, M.D., Ph.D., at Johns Hopkins and the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine.

"We believe this is the first proof of principle that these substances have significant effects in patients with FAP," says Giardiello.
Previous observational studies in populations that consume large amounts of curry, as well as laboratory research on rodents have strongly suggested that curcumin -- a relatively innocuous yellow pigment extracted from turmeric, the powdered root of the herb curcuma longa and one of the main ingredients in Asian curries -- might be effective in preventing and/or treating cancer in the lower intestine, according to Cruz-Correa. She said curcumin has been given to cancer patients, and previous studies have demonstrated that is well tolerated at high doses.

5th August 2006  
Study Suggests TV Watching Lowers Physical Activity
A study of low-income housing residents has documented that the more television people say they watched, the less active they were, researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and colleagues report.

The findings of television's effects on physical activity are the first to be based on objective measurements using pedometers, rather than the study subjects' memories of their physical activity, say the researchers. The study will be published online by the American Journal of Public Health on July 27 and later in the journal's September 2006 issue.

"Clearly the more time a person spends watching television the less time they have to be physically active, and in many lower income communities, other factors might have influenced the study participants' decisions to spend time watching television," said the paper's lead author, Gary Bennett, PhD, of Dana-Farber's Center for Community-Based Research and the Harvard School of Public Health.

These factors may include fear of street crime and poor maintenance of parks and playground equipment, which create barriers to outdoor activities. Older people were particularly prone to staying indoors and watching television, which reflects their increasing isolation in society today, Bennett said.
Results showed that the participants watched an average of 3.6 hours a day of television, with some reporting spending no time watching television while others watched as much as 14.5 hours on weekdays and 19 hours on weekend days.

Researchers have estimated that 10,000 steps a day measured with a pedometer roughly approximates recommended daily activity levels. In the current study, on an average day, each hour of television viewing was associated with 144 fewer steps walked -- or an average of 520 fewer steps a day for those who spent 3.6 hours in front of the television.

In addition, for each hour of television they watched, participants were 16 percent less likely to achieve the 10,000-step-per-day goal. For those who watched the 3.6-hour-a-day mean value, their odds of walking 10,000 steps a day were 47 percent less than non-television-watchers.

The study findings represent "a piece of a larger puzzle for us -- how do we help people to become more active?" said Bennett. Simply telling people not to watch television "doesn't work terribly well," he explained, and often leads to substituting other sedentary activities like reading and computer use.
 

28th  July 2006
 

Preclinical Study Shows Chronic Stress Agitates Ovarian Cancer; Reducing Stress Slows Tumor Growth
When mice with ovarian cancer are stressed, their tumors grow and spread more quickly, but that effect can be blocked using a medication commonly prescribed for heart disease, according to a preclinical study by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

The finding, published in the journal Nature Medicine, now available on-line, provides the first measurable link between psychological stress and the biological processes that make ovarian tumors grow and spread. Specifically, the researchers showed that stress hormones bind to receptors directly on tumor cells and, in turn, stimulate new blood vessel growth and other factors that lead to faster and more aggressive tumors.

"This study provides a new understanding of how chronic stress and stress factors drive tumor growth," says Anil Sood, M.D., associate professor of gynecologic oncology and cancer biology and director of ovarian cancer research.

In fact, when the researchers blocked the stress hormone receptors in their experimental system using a heart disease drug called propranolol, also known as a "beta blocker," they were able to stop the negative effects of stress on tumor growth. The researchers used the beta blocker because the same hormone receptors, called beta adrenergic receptors, are found in the heart and normally work to maintain blood flow.

"The concept of stress hormone receptors directly driving cancer growth is very new," says Sood, the study's senior author. "Not much had been known about how often these receptors are expressed in cancer, and more importantly, whether they had any functional significance. Our research opens a new area of investigation."

The research began when Sood and his colleague Susan Lutgendorf found an association between ovarian cancer patients who reported high levels of stress in their lives and an increase in a factor that stimulates blood vessel growth in tumors. By contrast, patients who had more social support in their lives had lower levels of this factor. Sood wondered if hormones associated with chronic stress might affect how cancers grow.

Sood's research team, led by investigators Premal Thaker, M.D., Liz Han, M.D., and Aparna Kamat, M.D., in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology, developed a mouse model of ovarian cancer to study the link. In their experiments, the researchers confined the mice in a small space for zero, two or six hours during the day.

The confinement caused the mice to produce the same stress hormones as humans produce when they are under stress. These beta adrenergic hormones are sometimes called the "fight-or-flight" hormones because they are released when people are fearful or threatened, and are also responsible for causing the heart to beat harder and faster.

Sood and his colleagues found that, surprisingly, cancer cells make receptors for these hormones on their surface and that when these receptors are activated they set in motion a chain of events that leads to formation of new blood vessels that feed tumors, a process called angiogenesis. New blood vessel formation is known to allow tumors to grow and spread more rapidly.

"We were quite surprised to find these beta adrenergic receptors on ovarian cancer cells," says Sood. "In fact, we found them in 17 of 19 ovarian cancer cell lines we tested."

After three weeks, the researchers measured the number and size of tumors in the mice. The number of tumors was 2.5 times greater in the mice that had been in the 2-hour stress group and 3.6 times greater in the 6-hour stress group compared to the mice with no stress. In addition, tumor growth was confined in the no-stress mice, but had spread to the liver or spleen in half of the stressed mice.

In additional experiments, the researchers gave the stressed mice propranolol, which blocked the effect of stress hormones. The medication completely neutralized the effect of stress on tumor growth," says Sood.

"Beta blockers have been shown to be protective against cardiac disease," he says. "No one has studied their effect on chronic stress as it relates to cancer in humans. There is a lot of interest now in this area of combining behavioral interventions to reduce stress, as well as using beta blockers in cancer patients."

In follow-up studies, Sood and his team are in the process of further refining the role of stress in cancer using animal models and examining the hormone receptor status of cancers besides ovarian cancer.

28th  July 2006
Gene Variant Increases Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes; But Healthy Lifestyle Changes Reduce Genetic Risk
Researchers have confirmed that a gene variant confers susceptibility to type 2 diabetes in participants of the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), a large clinical trial in adults at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes. The finding, published in the July 20, 2006, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, follows the discovery by deCode Genetics that a variant in a gene called TCF7L2 predisposes people to type 2 diabetes.

The researchers were delighted to observe that even the participants at highest genetic risk benefited from healthy lifestyle changes as much or perhaps more than those who did not inherit the variant. “The lifestyle intervention reduced risk even in those who carried both copies of the risk variant,” said lead author Jose Florez, M.D., Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston. “This finding emphasizes that people at risk of diabetes, whether they’re overweight, have elevated blood glucose levels, or have this particular genetic variant, can benefit greatly by implementing a healthy lifestyle.”

About 20.8 million people in the United States — 7 percent of the population — have diabetes, the most common cause of blindness, kidney failure, and amputations in adults and a major cause of heart disease and stroke. Type 2 diabetes accounts for up to 95 percent of all diabetes cases. The prevalence of this form of diabetes has skyrocketed in the last 30 years, due mostly to the upsurge in obesity. In addition, at least 54 million U.S. adults age 20 and older have pre-diabetes, which independently raises the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The NDEP (www.ndep.nih.gov) is providing those at risk and their health care providers with the tools for lifestyle change proven effective in the DPP.

28th  July 2006

Cherry Juice Reduces Muscle Pain Induced By Exercise
Cherry juice can reduce muscle pain and damage induced by exercise, suggests a small study published ahead of print in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Many approaches have been used to try and stave off muscle pain and damage after exercise, but few have been effective, say the authors.
There was a significant difference in the degree of muscle strength loss between those drinking the cherry juice blend and those taking the dummy mixture.
Pain also peaked at 24 hours for those drinking cherry juice, but continued to increase for those on the dummy mixture for the subsequent 48 hours.

China's GM cotton battles a new bug
18:30 25 July 2006
NewScientist.com news service

The benefits of growing genetically engineered cotton resistant to bollworm pests appear to have been eroded as new pests move in, a new study suggests.

The five million Chinese GM cotton farmers appear to have created a natural vacuum by growing cotton genetically engineered to kill the bollworm larvae which used to destroy their plants. With the bollworm larvae gone, other pests called mirids have taken over, forcing farmers to eradicate them with lashings of expensive insecticide that have all but destroyed the original economic benefits.

When GM cotton was first grown in China in the late 1990s, it produced miraculous results that were hailed as proof that GM technology could benefit poor farmers. They saw great gains – in the first three years of planting the crop called Bt cotton – they cut pesticide use by more than 70%.

But seven years down the line, mirids are spoiling the party to such an extent that the farmers have to spray their crops up to 20 times per growing season to control them.

Problems crop up
“The farmers are very upset about it, because GM cotton was such a wonderful thing, and they don’t understand why it won’t work now,� says Shenghui Wang of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, US, who interviewed 481 Chinese farmers in 2004 about their more recent experiences with the GM cotton.
“GM cotton has helped more than five million Chinese farmers. Over that period, up till 2004, farmers have really been much better off, and the environment has benefited,� says Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Wang’s supervisor. “It was a tremendous success story. But over time, things developed that must be dealt with, just as with other technologies. It doesn’t mean farmers shouldn’t use it.�

Natural predators
There are solutions, they say. The most immediate is for the Chinese government to encourage of the siting of non-GM cotton fields, or wildlife “refuges� in areas neighbouring GM fields. These fields attract the usual pests, including bollworm larvae, and have to be sprayed with powerful insecticides that would also keep the mirids in check.

Longer term alternatives include identifying and introducing natural predators of the mirids, or equipping GM cotton with new toxins that kill them as well.

Pinstrup-Andersen says the findings should also alert governments and researchers in other countries that have adopted the technology to take action, such as India and Argentina. The one good bit of news is that bollworm larvae appear not to have developed resistance to the GM cotton. “That is a plus,� says Pinstrup-Andersen.

28th  July 2006

Low GI diet reduces fat and bad cholesterol

A diet that scores low on the "glycaemic index" helps overweight people lose body fat while also reducing levels of "bad" cholesterol that contributes to the risk of heart attack and stroke, a study shows.

The glycemic index (GI) measures the impact of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. Food with a high GI score, like a biscuit, causes sharper peaks in sugar levels than a low GI food, such as pasta. Earlier research has shown that low GI foods make people feel fuller for longer, and may promote the breakdown of fat. These foods also tend to contain more soluble fibre, which reduces total and low density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol.

In a study of 189 overweight and obese adults, Joanna McMillan-Price at the University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues found that a diet high in either protein or carbohydrates, but with a low total GI score, brought about the biggest reduction of body fat. They also found that a high-carbohydrate and low GI diet caused the greatest drop in total and LDL cholesterol levels.
People on the high-carbohydrate, low-GI diet, saw total and LDL cholesterol levels decreased significantly, compared with levels at the start of the study. "I think that's because low GI foods have such intrinsically high levels of soluble fibre – and that has the effect of lowering cholesterol," McMillan-Price says.

Low Glycemic Index Diet Best For Weight Loss And Cardiovascular Health
The most effective diet for weight loss and cardiovascular health is a high carbohydrate plan based on low glycemic index (GI) foods, according to a study by University of Sydney researchers.

"Our findings suggest that dietary glycemic load, and not just overall energy intake influences weight loss and postprandial glycaemia (blood sugar levels after eating)," said Joanna McMillan-Price.

"We found that moderate reductions in glycemic load appear to increase the rate of body fat loss, particularly in women. Diets based on low-glycemic index, whole grain products, tend to be better for the heart, maximising cardiovascular risk reduction - particularly if protein intake is high," said Joanna McMillan-Price.
 

28th  July 2006
Honey Helps Problem Wounds
A household remedy millennia old is being reinstated: honey helps the treatment of some wounds better than the most modern antibiotics. For several years now medical experts from the University of Bonn have been clocking up largely positive experience with what is known as medihoney. Even chronic wounds infected with multi-resistant bacteria often healed within a few weeks. In conjunction with colleagues from Düsseldorf, Homburg and Berlin they now want to test the experience gained in a large-scale study, as objective data on the curative properties of honey are thin on the ground.


The fact that honey can help wounds to heal is something that was known to the Ancient Egyptians several thousand years ago. And in the last two world wars poultices with honey were used to assist the healing process in soldiers' wounds. However, the rise of the new antibiotics replaced this household remedy. "In hospitals today we are faced with germs which are resistant to almost all the current anti-biotics," Dr. Arne Simon explains. "As a result, the medical use of honey is becoming attractive again for the treatment of wounds."

Dr. Simon works on the cancer ward of the Bonn University Children's Clinic. As far as the treatment of wounds is concerned, his young patients form part of a high-risk group: the medication used to treat cancer known as cytostatics not only slows down the reproduction of malignant cells, but also impairs the healing process of wounds. "Normally a skin injury heals in a week, with our children it often takes a month or more," he says. Moreover, children with leukaemia have a weakened immune system. If a germ enters their bloodstream via a wound, the result may be a fatal case of blood poisoning.

For several years now Bonn paediatricians have been pioneering the use in Germany of medihoney in treating wounds. Medihoney bears the CE seal for medical products; its quality is regularly tested. The success is astonishing: "Dead tissue is rejected faster, and the wounds heals more rapidly," Kai Sofka, wound specialist at the University Children's Clinic, emphasises. "What is more, changing dressings is less painful, since the poultices are easier to remove without damaging the newly formed layers of skin." Some wounds often smell unpleasant -- an enormous strain on the patient. Yet honey helps here too by reducing the smell. "Even wounds which consistently refused to heal for years can, in our experience, be brought under control with medihoney -- and this frequently happens within a few weeks," Kai Sofka says.

In the meantime two dozen hospitals in Germany are using honey in their treatment of wounds. Despite all the success there have hitherto been very few reliable clinical studies of its effectiveness. In conjunction with colleagues from Düsseldorf, Homburg and Berlin, the Bonn medical staff now want to remedy this. With the Woundpecker Data Bank, which they have developed themselves, they will be recording and evalu-ating over 100 courses of disease over the next few months. The next step planned is comparative studies with other therapeutic methods such as the very expensive cationic silver dressings. "These too are an effective anti-bacterial method," says Dr. Arne Simon. "However, it is not yet clear whether the silver released from some dressings may lead to side-effects among children."

Effective bacteria killer

It has already been proved that medihoney even puts paid to multi-resistant germs such as MRSA. In this respect medihoney is neck and neck in the race to beat the antibiotic mupirocin, currently the local MRSA antibiotic of choice. This is shown by a study recently published by researchers in Australia. In one point medihoney was even superior to its rival: the bacteria did not develop any resistance to the natural product during the course of treatment.

It is also known today why honey has an antiseptic effect: when producing honey, bees add an enzyme called glucose-oxidase. This enzyme ensures that small amounts of hydrogen peroxide, an effective antiseptic, are constantly being formed from the sugar in the honey. The advantage over the hydrogen peroxide from the chemist's is that small concentrations are sufficient to kill the germs, as it is constantly being produced. As a rule much larger quantities of hydrogen peroxide would have to be used, as hydrogen peroxide loses its potency over time. However, in large concentrations it not only damages the bacteria, but also the skin cells.

Furthermore, medihoney consists of two different types of honey: one which forms a comparatively large amount of hydrogen peroxide, and another known as "lepto-spermum honey". Leptospermum is a species of tree which occurs in New Zealand and Australia. Honey from these trees has a particularly strong anti-bacterial effect, even in a 10% dilution. "It is not yet known exactly why this is," Dr. Arne Simon says. "Probably it is a mix of phenol-type substances which come from the plant and make life particularly difficult for the bacteria in the wound."

28th  July 2006
Clean Water: Clean Wounds
Drinking water could be a simple, cheap and effective way to clean wounds according to a recent study by the University of Western Sydney and Sydney South West Area Health Service.

Professor Rhonda Griffiths, from the UWS School of Nursing, says the research arose from an inquiry by community health nurses who needed evidence to support a common practice and belief that showering patients with leg ulcers was both safe and effective.

"In response we searched for studies done by others on cleansing wounds using the shower, however we were unable to locate any evidence to support the practice," Professor Griffiths says.

"So we conducted a six-week double blind, randomised controlled trial in South Western Sydney involving 35 patients with 49 wounds.

"None of the wounds cleansed with tap water showed signs of infection and we found no sign that the healing rate was slow.

"We came to the conclusion that where there is access to tap water that is suitable for drinking, it may be as effective – and certainly more cost effective – than other methods," Professor Griffiths says.

"Although the results need to be confirmed by a larger study, we believe that with this simple, yet robust, trial we have uncovered evidence that could save nurses' time, reduce costs and also make it easier to involve patients in their own self-care of wounds.

"This research shows how a clinical problem identified by working nurses, can promote research to then go on to inform existing practice," she says.

'Water for Wound Cleansing' by UWS researchers Ms Ritin Fernandez, Professor Rhonda Griffiths and Ms Cheryl Ussia has become one of the top 25 accessed reviews in The Cochrane Library, which holds more than 2,500 systematic reviews of health care interventions.

The report is now one of the most highly-accessed reviews currently published by an international library of health care studies.

28th  July 2006

Researcher Sees Trees As A Clean, Green Solution
Here's an idea that will grow on you: using trees and other plants to reduce water and ground pollution -- and reducing overall cleanup costs.

That's the goal of environmental engineer Joel Burken, an assistant professor of civil engineering at UMR, who is leading a team of graduate and undergraduate students in this nontraditional research effort.

"Who would have thought that trees could help purify water?" says Burken.

But that's exactly the goal behind a relatively new idea in environmental engineering. Known as "phytoremediation," the method involves using plants to clean up pollutants.

A green revolution

"I hope that phytoremediation will revolutionize the process of remediating contaminated sites," Burken says. "The effort could replace the current methods now being used to cleanse contaminated soil and groundwater."

Some of those current methods of water purification consists of pumping, heating or even baking the ground to extract the pollutants. "All of those measures, especially pumping, are incredibly expensive," Burken says. "In contrast, phytoremediation uses living plants to reduce contaminated soil, sludges and groundwater in a less expensive way."

Phytoremediation has also been expanded to provide safer methods of cleaning metals, crude oil, and landfill leachates, Burken says. Working in conjunction with the University of Connecticut and Ecolotree Inc., an environmental engineering company, Burken plans to cut costs by using poplar trees to remove the pollutants from water tables that may be used for drinking water. One method involves incorporating genetically enhanced microbes with the planting of the trees. This type of "genetic engineering" gives the microbes the ability to break down naturally, Burken says.

University of Connecticut researchers do the actual genetic engineering part of the process, creating the enhanced microbes. Burken carries on the process by inoculating cuttings from the trees. Burken tests the trees to see the impacts of the genetic engineering. The research has proven to be beneficial, Burken says. "In one case, 1,700 poplar trees were planted on a contaminated U.S. Navy site. The efforts resulted in saving the site about $5 million in the clean-up process."

While "there are still many questions left unanswered about exactly why this process works, it seems to work," says Burken. "But we don't know exactly why. It is just a simple but elegant process that does the job."

28th  July 2006
Topical Oxygen Helps Hard-To-Heal Wounds Heal Faster And Better
COLUMBUS, Ohio A new study suggests that brief exposures to pure oxygen not only help chronic and other hard-to-heal wounds heal completely, such exposures also help wounds heal faster.

Ohio State University surgical scientists used topical oxygen therapy to treat 30 patients with a total of 56 wounds. The therapy required placing a bag containing pure oxygen over the wound for 90 minutes a day. More than two-thirds of the difficult wounds healed with the oxygen treatment alone.

Wounds in this clinical study ranged from post-surgical wounds to injuries resulting from acute trauma to ulcers such as diabetic hand ulcers and bedsores. Many of the patients had conditions like diabetes that hindered wound healing.

Ultimately, more than two-thirds (38 out of 56) of the wounds healed with the oxygen treatment alone. Four additional wounds required surgery for complete closure. Altogether, three-quarters of the wounds healed with the use of topical oxygen.

"The quality of closure is very impressive," said Chandan Sen, the study's lead author and director of the Wound Healing Research Program in Ohio State's department of surgery. "There was much less scarring than we had anticipated."

"In most cases, the amount of residual scar tissue in the healed wounds after oxygen therapy appeared to be substantially less than we would expect after treatment with more standard forms of wound care," said Gayle Gordillo, a study co-author and a plastic surgeon at Ohio State. "There was less defective tissue in the area once the wound healed."

The research appears in the current issue of the journal Pathophysiology. Sen and Gordillo conducted the clinical case series study with Richard Schlanger, director of Ohio State's wound healing clinic, and Loree Kalliainen, of Ohio State's department of surgery.

Physicians at the university's medical center monitored participants for up to nine months.

The study included people who had wounds that failed to heal with standard treatments, such as with stitches or the addition of wound care creams, and wounds at high risk of developing healing problems after surgery.

Topical oxygen treatment was delivered with an inflatable, see-through plastic bag with edges that adhered to the skin. It was secured around the affected limb or wounded area, and pure oxygen was administered for 90 minutes a day for four days, followed by a three-day rest period. This cycle was repeated for as long as the wound appeared to be healing.

Participants were treated in the hospital, in their homes or in extended care facilities. Treatment duration ranged from 24 days to about eight months.

Photos were taken before, during, and at the completion of the therapy. Wounds were considered healed once they were completely covered with epithelial tissue. Follow up ranged from less than one month to eight months. When a wound hadn't begun to heal after 16 weeks, physicians attempted to close the injury with surgery.

Acute traumatic and post-surgical injuries had the best healing rates: such wounds on the trunk, arms and hands had a 75 percent and 100 percent healing rate, respectively. Half of all acute wounds on the legs and feet healed. Chronic wounds that responded well to the oxygen therapy included venous stasis ulcers (92 percent healing rate) and diabetic hand ulcers (91 percent healing rate), while bedsores had a less encouraging 44 percent healing rate.

"The differences in healing rates reinforce a link between other health conditions, such as diabetes and obesity, and wound healing outcomes," said Sen, who is also the associate director of the Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute. Most patients in the study had at least one health condition, such as diabetes, cancer or an active infection.

Overall, the wounds least responsive to topical oxygen therapy were post-surgical wounds on the legs and feet, pressure ulcers and neuropathic foot ulcers.

"While topical oxygen helps wounds heal, it alone may not be adequate for managing lower extremity wounds and bedsores," Sen said. "For these types of injuries, topical oxygen may be helpful as an adjunct to surgery or other forms of standard wound care.

"However, it is a good alternative to traditional wound-healing treatments for people with chronic wounds or wounds that have a high chance of healing poorly," he said. "There have been no reported side effects from topical oxygen treatment, and the majority of chronic wounds in this study plus all of the acute wounds either healed or decreased in size during therapy."

Topical oxygen chambers, which have FDA approval, may also be a more cost-effective treatment choice, too.

"The cost of a home health-care nurse can run $100 an hour," said Gordillo. "If a person can take two weeks off his expected healing time, the cost of using topical oxygen will probably pay for itself."

"The alternative to topical oxygen therapy, high-pressure chamber oxygen therapy, is considerably more expensive," Sen said. "Also, it's not readily applicable to all wound patients, as some are sensitive to high levels of oxygen.

"Topical oxygen is a simple form of therapy which, if necessary, many people could use at once, such as in the case of a public disaster," he said. "These bags are also suitable for use in the field, so the treatment may be an option for deployed military troops. Further research testing the potential of topical oxygen therapy is warranted."

The researchers received the topical oxygen chambers used in this study from GWR Medical, Inc. The researchers have no financial interests in this company.

28th  July 2006
Examining The Healing Mystery Of Aloe
COLLEGE STATION - If grandma gets a bedsore, the best thing to put on it might be a plant that's been used for 5,000 years.

The mysterious Aloe vera has been a source for healing since Old Testament times, and a Texas A&M University researcher is trying to uncover just what the substances are in the plant that work wonders and how they do it so that more might be learned about treating wounds.

Dr. Ian Tizard, a professor of immunology in the College of Veterinary Medicine, is studying a special polysaccharide, the substance that forms along cell walls of the Aloe vera, to see how it performs its healing tricks.

The Aloe vera is native to North Africa but now can be found almost worldwide, Tizard says. A succulent, it thrives in warm and dry climates very much like cactus does.

But unlike its prickly cactus cousin, Aloe vera is in a class by itself when it comes to certain healing properties.

There are more than 100 species of aloe, but Tizard says Aloe vera is the one that has drawn the most scientific interest.

"When Aloe vera is placed on many types of wounds, such as bedsores, it can often heal the wound quickly, and the likely reason why is the special polysaccharide in it," Tizard explains.

"Many plants contain this polysaccharide, but the kind found in Aloe vera works differently, we've learned. It seems to bind growth factors in wounds whereas normally they would be destroyed. Aloe vera polysaccharide seems to speed along the healing process much quicker.

"How it does this, that's what we're trying to find out."

Aloe vera (aloe is an Arabic word for a bitter substance, vera is Latin for truth) has long, pointed leaves consisting of green rind and clear pulp. The pulp is the part of the plant that has the healing agents in it.

"It comes out of the plant like a clear liquid, but when it touches human skin, it becomes a gel," Tizard says. "It acts as a wound sealant in this gel state, and no other plants do so."

Especially benefiting from such treatments could be the elderly, who are susceptible to bedsores, diabetic ulcers and vascular (circulation) ulcers.

"Geriatric patients often have wounds that won't heal properly or take longer to heal," Tizard says. "That's one of the things we're looking at - how can wounds heal quicker, and what role does the Aloe vera plant play in this quicker healing process?"

There's not much of the Aloe vera plant that isn't useful, Tizard notes.

The rind of the plant has been used as a laxative while the pulp has been put on burns and wounds for thousands of years. Besides being used in lotions and medicines, in recent years cosmetic companies have used Aloe vera in a variety of products, especially moisturizers.


Tizard's research is funded by Delsite Biotechnologies of Irving, Texas.


28nd July 2006

Fluid Derived From Aloe Plant Prolongs Life After Hemorrhagic Shock In Animal Study
PITTSBURGH, July 26 A novel resuscitation fluid derived from aloe vera that was developed by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh's McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine has the potential to save the lives of patients with massive blood loss, according to results of an animal study published in the August edition of the medical journal Shock. The findings could have a significant impact on the treatment of hemorrhagic shock caused by both civilian and military trauma.

In a rodent model of hemorrhagic shock, animals that were given a very small amount of the fluid, an aloe vera-derived drag reducing polymer (DRP), had significantly longer survival time and increased systemic whole body oxygen consumption, even in the absence of resuscitation with blood or other fluids, compared to animals that did not receive DRP.

"We hope this fluid will offer a viable solution to a significant problem, both on and off the battlefield. Typically, hemorrhagic shock is treated by controlling ongoing bleeding and restoring blood volume by infusing a lactate solution and packed red blood cells. Soldiers wounded in combat often lose significant amounts of blood, and there is no practical way to replace the necessary amount of blood fast enough on the front lines. When this happens, there is inadequate perfusion of the organs which quickly leads to a cascade of life-threatening events," said senior author Mitchell P. Fink, M.D., professor and chair, department of critical care medicine and Watson Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

"Medics would need only to carry a small amount of this solution, which could feasibly be administered before the soldier is evacuated to a medical unit or facility," he added.

The central ingredient of Pitt's resuscitation fluid comes from the slick substance inside the leaves of the aloe vera plant. A so-called mucilage, it is rich in polysaccharides and has a high molecular mass and specific "visco-elastic" properties that allow it to reduce resistance to turbulent flow when added to a fluid at minute concentrations.

22nd July 2006

Migraines With Aura Associated With Increased Risk For Cardiovascular Diseasec
Women age 45 years or older who experience migraines with aura (associated neurologic symptoms such as temporary visual disturbances) are at a higher risk for heart attack, ischemic stroke, angina and death due to ischemic cardiovascular disease compared to women who do not report a migraine history, according to a study in the July 19 issue of JAMA. In contrast, migraine without aura, the most common form of migraine, was not associated with increased risk of any cardiovascular event.

22nd July 2006
An Exercise Of The Will: Improving Physical Health, Quality Of Life For Breast Cancer Survivors
Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have found that exercise decreases pain and helps breast cancer survivors feel healthier and increase participation in daily activities.  The Active for Life after Breast Cancer Study, published Friday in the journal, Patient Education and Counseling, evaluated the effect of exercise on former cancer patients' physical well-being.
Study leaders emphasized that physical activity need not be an organized, lengthy endeavor, but rather a lifestyle activity that could include vacuuming, brisk walking or climbing stairs rather than taking the elevator.
 The fight to maintain a healthy life style is an ongoing one, but one that I must pursue. After attending recent lectures on the great advantages of yoga, I'm excited about having another avenue to help me stay active," said Smith.

22nd July 2006
Number Of Indoor Swimming Pools Per Capita Linked To Rise In Childhood Asthma
The prevalence of childhood asthma and wheeze rises around 2 to 3 per cent for every indoor swimming pool per 100,000 of the population across Europe, indicates research published ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
The researchers analysed the rates of wheezing, asthma, hay fever, allergic rhinitis, and atopic eczema, reported in the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), by video or written questionnaire.

22nd July 2006
Research Documents Children's Exposure To Pesticides, Suggests Need For Family Education
Two studies of immigrant farmworker families in North Carolina and Virginia found evidence of pesticide exposure in young children, and prompted researchers to call for pesticide safety training for workers' spouses.

In the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine report that urine samples from 60 children revealed higher levels of pesticide exposure than had been found in similar studies elsewhere. And, in Health Education & Behavior, they conclude that workers' spouses need more education to protect their children from exposure.
In the study of children from six North Carolina counties, urine samples were analyzed for evidence of exposure to organophosphate insecticides, the most widely used pesticides. High levels of exposure can cause coma and death. Long-term exposure at lower levels can increase risk for sterility, birth defects and cancer.

22nd July 2006
Study Supports 'Urgent' Need For Worldwide Ban On Lead-based Paint
Environmental and occupational health experts at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have found that major countries—including India, China and Malaysia—still produce and sell consumer paints with dangerously high lead levels.

This public playground in Mangalore, India is one example of the crumbling lead-based paint dangerous to children.

Lead is a malleable metal previously used to improve the durability and color luster of paint used in homes and other buildings and on steel structures, such as bridges. Now scientifically linked to impaired intellectual and physical growth in children, lead is also found in some commonly imported consumer products, including candy, folk and traditional medications, ceramic dinnerware and metallic toys and trinkets.

About 50 percent of the paint sold in China, India and Malaysia—none of which appear to have regulations on lead—had lead levels 30 times higher than U.S. regulations.
 

22nd July 2006

Improving Your Diet May Not Help You Beat Stress
Research published online in the Journal of Proteome Research, shows how improving the diet of rats placed in stressful environments did not normalise their metabolic profile, an indicator of their health.

The team from Imperial College London and the Nestle Research Centre divided 36 rats into groups of six. Groups A to D were fed a standard diet, while groups E and F were fed a diet enriched with long chain polyunsaturated acids (LC-PUFA) which are normally found in milk and dairy products.

The rats were subjected to different types of stress, one where they were separated from their mothers periodically during the first few weeks of life and a second stress at a later stage where they were placed on a platform suspended above water. Following the tests, samples of blood plasma were taken from the rats and analysed using NMR spectroscopy.

Group A was used as a control group and not subjected to any stress, while groups B, C, and D were subjected to either one or both stresses. Groups E and F were subjected to water avoidance or both maternal separation and water avoidance, as well as being fed the enriched diet.

They found the stress caused by maternal separation led to a decrease in lipoproteins and an increase in amino acids, glucose, lactate, creatine and citrate. The stress caused by the water avoidance resulted in increased levels of O-acetyl glycoproteins.

Giving the rats the LC-PUFA enriched diet did help to improve their metabolic profiles, an indicator of health, although the diet failed to totally normalise them.

Dr Elaine Holmes, from Imperial College London, who led the research said: "Although the study shows this particular dietary intervention did not work to significantly improve health, the importance of a good diet in remaining healthy should not be underestimated."

"However this work could have important implications for the development of other dietary interventions. The research shows it is possible to accurately measure and quantify how changing diet impacts health. This could ultimately lead to the development of more targeted and more effective products."

22nd July 2006
Antioxidants May Slow Vision Loss
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have successfully blocked the advance of retinal degeneration in mice with a form of retinitis pigmentosa (RP) by treating them with vitamin E, alpha-lipoic acid and other antioxidant chemicals.

In patients with RP, rod photoreceptors die from a mutation, but it has not been known why cone photoreceptors die. After rods die, the level of oxygen in the retina goes up, and this work shows that it is the high oxygen that gradually kills the cones. Oxygen damage is also called "oxidative damage" and can be reduced by antioxidants. So for the first time, scientists have a treatment target in patients with RP, added Campochiaro.
Retinas in all mammals, from mouse to man, are made up of light-sensitive cells known as cones and rods, named for their shapes, which convert light into nerve signals that are then transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve. Cones are needed to see colors and make vision possible in bright light, whereas the far more numerous rods permit sight in low light. The human retina contains approximately 125 million rod cells and six million cone cells. In diseases like RP and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), these cells die off and eventually lead to blindness (in the case of RP) or legal blindness (in the case of AMD).
In mice that received vitamin E or alpha-lipoic acid, 40 percent of the cones survived, about twice as many as in the control group or the groups treated with the other antioxidants, which had no identifiable effect.

"What's clear is the link between oxygen and photoreceptor damage, as well as the potential of antioxidant treatment," Campochiaro said. "These experiments suggest that an optimized regimen of antioxidants may help to protect patients with retinitis pigmentosa."

Antioxidants naturally occur in some fruits and vegetables, and are available as supplements, but Campochiaro said it remains unclear whether the amounts of antioxidants consumed in foods provided any benefit to people with these types of vision impairments.

22nd July 2006
Being Overweight As A Teen Associated With Premature Death In Adulthood
Children and adolescents in the U.S. and around the world are becoming more overweight. A new study from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has found that there may be serious consequences to that trend. Researchers found that being overweight at age 18 is associated with an increased risk of premature death in younger and middle-aged women. The study appears in the July 18, 2006 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

22nd July 2006
Couch Potatoes Who Start Exercising After 40 Can Still Stave Off Heart Disease
Couch potatoes who start exercising in later life can still significantly cut their chances of developing coronary artery disease, suggests a small study published ahead of print in Heart.
Those who had been active all their lives had the lowest risks. They were around 60 per cent less likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease.

But those who became very physically active after the age of 40 were around 55 per cent less likely to be diagnosed with heart disease than those who had embraced inactivity all their lives.

The authors conclude that while optimal health is likely to be enjoyed by those who exercise all their lives, it is not too late to start. Regular exercise, even if started in older life, still confers many benefits and substantially cuts the risk of heart disease.
 

17th July 2006

Seaweed compound blocks cervical cancer virus
   A seaweed extract called carrageenan strongly inhibits human papillomavirus – known to cause cervical cancer – from entering human cells in the lab, a new study shows. The compound, derived from red algae, is already used as a thickening agent in infant feeding formulas and in sexual lubricants. The researchers hope their findings could one day help prevent the spread of the virus. Developing an inexpensive gel, or microbicide, to block HPV might help stop its spread, says the John Schiller at the National Cancer Institute in Maryland, US.

His team tested various compounds in the lab, screening for the ones that interfered most with the virus’ ability to invade human cells. The researchers found that carrageenan strongly inhibited different HPV strains’ ability to attach and therefore enter human cells. “We were floored by how much better it worked than anything else we have tested,” says Schiller

17th July 2006
Major flaw in miscarriage test
         Fertility treatments designed to suppress the immune system and help women who suffer repeated early miscarriage may be based on bad science. EXPENSIVE fertility treatments designed to suppress the immune system and supposedly help women who repeatedly suffer miscarriages early in pregnancy now appear to be based on bad science. A new study, the largest of its kind so far, shows that the blood test used to determine whether women should be given these treatments is ineffective.
       The controversy centres around immune cells called natural killer (NK) cells. NK cells belonging to the mother are found close to the outermost layers of the embryo, and high numbers of them here have been linked to miscarriages. This has led a growing number of fertility clinics to offer tests to measure the level of NK cells in the blood. Women with an excess of such "peripheral" NK cells are often then offered therapies such as steroids or immunoglobulins to dampen the immune system and reduce the number of NK cells in the uterus
 

17th July 2006

Most Effective Antipsychotic Drug Has Serious Health Consequences
Patients who take clozapine, the most effective antipsychotic drug, have significantly higher rates of metabolic syndrome, according to a first-of-a-kind study by University of Rochester Medical Center researchers.
      Metabolic syndrome is a group of conditions that increase the risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes. The conditions include high blood pressure, excess body fat around the waist, abnormal levels of cholesterol and triglycerides and insulin resistance. Any one of the conditions increases the risk of serious disease. In combination, the risk grows greater.
 

16th July 2006
Moderate Exercise Improves Survival Rates For Colon Cancer Survivors
People who have been treated for colon cancer can substantially reduce the risk that the disease will return and improve their overall chance of survival by engaging in regular exercise, according to new research by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists.

In a pair of studies published on the Journal of Clinical Oncology Web site, and slated to appear in the journal's Aug. 1 issue, the researchers found that colon cancer patients engaging in moderate levels of exercise six to 12 months after completing therapy had an approximately 50 percent higher survival rate than those who didn't exercise. The improvement took place in patients with very early and more advanced (but non-spreading) colon cancer, all of whom had undergone surgery intended to cure the disease.

Researchers found that patients who engaged in moderate physical activity – the equivalent of walking six or more hours a week at an average pace of 2-2.9 miles per hour – were 47 percent more likely to be alive and free of disease than those who were less physically active.

Scientists do not have a definite physiological explanation for the benefit of exercise for colon cancer survivors, but they speculate it may be tied to a reduction in the body's production of insulin and a similar compound, insulin-like growth factor, which fuel the growth of some cancer cells.
 

14th July 2006
Stress in pregnancy hits offspring's emotional brain
   Stress experienced by a pregnant female can alter the structure of her offspring’s brain, particularly regions vital for emotional development, scientists have discovered.
Furthermore, in rodents at least, the effects differ in male and female offspring. That might help explain the different susceptibilities of men and women to emotional and psychiatric disorders, says Katharina Braun, from the University of Magdeburg, in Germany.
Braun and colleagues at the University of Jerusalem in Israel studied the effects of stress on pregnant rats. If they become stressed in the last trimester of pregnancy, their offspring developed fewer nerve connections in two brain regions that control emotions – the cingulate cortex and orbitofrontal cortex.
In addition, the nerve cells in several other regions show different branching patterns to normal, with different effects on males and females. In the hippocampus, an important region that controls memory and emotion, males show an increase in branching while females show a decrease. In the prefrontal cortex, the males develop shorter nerve branches, while the females do not.
Braun has not yet tested the behavioural effects of these changes on adult rats, but the results could reveal a possible mechanism for the development of emotional disorders seen in humans.
Boys and girls
Boys are more likely to develop attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than girls – a disorder that seems to be related to the brain's prefrontal attention systems, while women are more likely to develop depression, which is known to be related to shrinkage in the hippocampus.
“Early experiences, especially emotional experiences, shape brain circuits for later life,” says Braun. The susceptibility to stress continues after birth, with different types of stress and trauma leading to different brain effects, she adds.
For example, daily painful stimuli given to young rodent pups, or separation from their mother, each led to changes in the prefrontal cortex. But while separation led to more nerve connections, painful stimuli led to fewer.
Further experiments on brush tail rats – which are unusual in that the father helps care for the offspring – showed that removal of the father early in the pups’ life also leads to fewer neuron connections in the brain's emotion centres.
The pups grow up underactive and do not respond to the voices of their mothers. Animals that were emotionally deprived seem to develop emotional and social deficits.
Frozen emotions
Braun compared the results to the sad experiences of Romanian orphans. “Like the animal brain, the human brain needs to learn the grammar of emotions,” she says. “Children after they are adopted catch up nicely on cognitive level, but the emotional side looks like it has been somehow frozen.” (See Orphaned boys and girls react differently to care .)
“We are now collaborating with psychiatrists, asking questions such as 'Can these effects be reversed?',” says Braun. Knowing when the adult brain loses the flexibility of the young brain will be important, she says.
Some evidence for hope came from work by Igor Branchi, at the University of Rome in Italy. He reported that when rodents were allowed extra social stimulation – the mouse equivalent of kindergarten – a lot of early emotional deficits could be improved.

14th July 2006

Farm Fresh Pesticides

U.S. agriculture has developed a heavy reliance on chemicals to safeguard crops from yield-robbing weeds. However, many of those herbicides can pose substantial health risks to people, pets, and wildlife, which is why laws prescribe how some of these chemicals are handled in fields. A study now finds that trace quantities of such agricultural chemicals nonetheless find their way into consumers' homes—not on the fruits and vegetables they buy but probably by hitchhiking on dust.

The findings are disturbing for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the link between pesticide exposure and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a malignancy whose incidence has exploded during recent years. Indeed, the new study was as an offshoot of a larger non-Hodgkin's lymphoma study financed by the National Cancer Institute.

What the research shows is that home exposure to agricultural weed killers increases as the acreage of nearby croplands increases.
 

14th July 2006

Living alone may double heart disease risk

Living alone doubles the risk of heart disease, suggests the largest prospective study so far to examine a possible link. But the same research also suggests that divorce may do the heart some good – but only for women.

Kirsten Nielsen of the Aarhus Sygehus University Hospital in Aarhus, Denmark, and colleagues used information from their national health database on people aged 30 to 69 living in Aarhus. They also examined these individuals’ health records from 2000 to 2002.
Though the study was not designed to identify the cause of the various risk levels discovered, the researchers suggest that people who live alone may be less likely to visit the family doctor or to eat a healthy diet. They also note, for example, that social isolation may be caused by illness, as people in poor health sometimes withdraw from society.

“Some patients are happy being isolated and some unhappy. Are those groups different? These are the sorts of issues we have to sort out for the field to move forward,” says cardiologist Allan Jaffe at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, US.

14th July 2006

Prevention Is The Best Option: Fighting Autoimmune Diseases
Australian scientist Barbara Fazekas de St. Groth, a leader in inflammatory bowel disease research, has demonstrated for the first time the important role of T cells in the prevention of autoimmune diseases in humans.

In a study involving 38 patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, the two common forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and 43 healthy controls, Assoc Prof Fazekas at the Centenary Institute Of Cancer Medicine And Cell Biology and colleagues found that healthy individuals have up to twice the number of disease-fighting regulatory T cells compared with IBD patients at the onset of disease.


14th July 2006
Cell Phone Emissions Excite The Brain Cortex
Electromagnetic fields from cell phones excite the brain cortex adjacent to it, with potential implications for individuals with epilepsy, or other neurological conditions. This finding is published in Annals of Neurology, a journal by John Wiley & Sons. The article is also available online via Wiley Interscience.

More than 500 million people in the world use cell phones which emit electromagnetic fields (EMFs). Though many studies have looked at the effects of EMFs on the body, few have focused on their effects on the brain. Such effects could be harmful, neutral, or beneficial and might be particularly important for individuals with conditions involving cortical excitability, such as epilepsy

14th July 2006
Study Examines Kidney Stone Prevention In Astronauts
As the space shuttle Discovery prepares to launch on July 1, researchers at the University of Minnesota have identified a way for astronauts to reduce their risk of developing kidney stones while in space.

While astronauts have exercised in space to attempt to combat bone loss, the lack of gravity makes it difficult to achieve enough resistance to maintain their pre-flight fitness levels.

Kidney stones are mineral deposits in the kidneys that can travel through the urinary tract, causing intense pain. One of the most common types of kidney stones is caused by the buildup of calcium oxalate.

Monga found that the non-exercising study participants had higher levels of urinary calcium than the exercising group, and thus had a greater risk of developing kidney stones. Additionally, many astronauts do not drink enough water while in space, so their urine output is lower, and the food they consume is higher in sodium, which also increases the risk for kidney stone development.

"In combination with hydration therapy, exercise in a machine that simulates gravity could reduce the astronaut's risk of developing kidney stones, a condition that could be particularly painful and lead to an aborted mission," Monga said.

14th July 2006
Shock Wave Therapy For Kidney Stones Linked To Increased Risk Of Diabetes, Hypertension
Mayo Clinic researchers are sounding an alert about side effects of shock wave lithotripsy: in a research study, they found this common treatment for kidney stones to significantly increase the risk for diabetes and hypertension later in life. Risk for diabetes was related to the intensity of the treatment and quantity of the shock waves administered; hypertension was related to treatment of stones in both kidneys.
 

14th July 2006

Mushrooms As Good An Antioxidant Source As More Colorful Veggies
Portabella and crimini mushrooms rank with carrots, green beans, red peppers and broccoli as good sources of dietary antioxidants, Penn State researchers say.

N. Joy Dubost, who recently earned her doctorate in food science at Penn State, measured the activity of two antioxidants, polyphenols and ergothioneine, present in mushrooms. Dubost explains that assays are a first step toward determining how effective a food is in providing protection against oxidative damage. Anti-oxidants inhibit increased rates of oxidation, which can damage proteins, lipids carbohydrates and DNA. Dubost says, "You don't have to eat only the vegetables with the highest anti-oxidant capacity to benefit. If you eat a variety of mushrooms along with a variety of other vegetables, you'll be getting a variety of antioxidants."

3rd July 2006

Pomegranate Juice Helps Keep PSA Levels Stable In Men With Prostate Cancer
Drinking an eight ounce glass of pomegranate juice daily increased by nearly four times the period during which PSA levels in men treated for prostate cancer remained stable, a three-year UCLA study has found.
"That's a big increase. I was surprised when I saw such an improvement in PSA numbers," Pantuck said. "In older men 65 to 70 who have been treated for prostate cancer, we can give them pomegranate juice and it may be possible for them to outlive their risk of dying from their cancer. We're hoping we may be able to prevent or delay the need for other therapies usually used in this population such as hormone treatment or chemotherapy, both of which bring with them harmful side effects."

The study appears in the July 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Association of Cancer Research.

"This is not a cure, but we may be able to change the way prostate cancer grows," Pantuck said. "  Pomegranate juice is known to have anti-inflammatory effects and high levels of anti-oxidants, which are believed to protect the body from free-radical damage. It also contains poly-phenols, natural antioxidant compounds found in green tea, as well as isoflavones commonly found in soy, and ellagic acid, which is believed to play a role in cancer cell death.

"There are many substances in pomegranate juice that may be prompting this response," Pantuck said. "We don't know if it's one magic bullet or the combination of everything we know is in this juice. My guess is that it's probably a combination of elements, rather than a single component." The data was impressive enough to test pomegranate juice in clinical trials, Pantuck said. Pantuck said he has men on the study more than three years out who are not being treated for prostate cancer other than drinking pomegranate juice and their PSA levels continue to be suppressed. "The juice seems to be working," he said.

Cell Phone Emissions Excite The Brain Cortex
Electromagnetic fields from cell phones excite the brain cortex adjacent to it, with potential implications for individuals with epilepsy, or other neurological conditions. This finding is published in Annals of Neurology, a journal by John Wiley & Sons. The article is also available online via Wiley Interscience.

More than 500 million people in the world use cell phones which emit electromagnetic fields (EMFs). Though many studies have looked at the effects of EMFs on the body, few have focused on their effects on the brain. Such effects could be harmful, neutral, or beneficial and might be particularly important for individuals with conditions involving cortical excitability, such as epilepsy
 

3rd July 2006

Study Examines Kidney Stone Prevention In Astronauts
As the space shuttle Discovery prepares to launch on July 1, researchers at the University of Minnesota have identified a way for astronauts to reduce their risk of developing kidney stones while in space.

While astronauts have exercised in space to attempt to combat bone loss, the lack of gravity makes it difficult to achieve enough resistance to maintain their pre-flight fitness levels.

"This becomes a real health concern, as the time astronauts spend in space and living in the space station is extended," said Manoj Monga, M.D., professor of urologic surgery and lead investigator. The study will be published in the July 2006 print issue of the Journal of Urology and is available online now.

Kidney stones are mineral deposits in the kidneys that can travel through the urinary tract, causing intense pain. One of the most common types of kidney stones is caused by the buildup of calcium oxalate.
   Monga found that the non-exercising study participants had higher levels of urinary calcium than the exercising group, and thus had a greater risk of developing kidney stones. Additionally, many astronauts do not drink enough water while in space, so their urine output is lower, and the food they consume is higher in sodium, which also increases the risk for kidney stone development.

"In combination with hydration therapy, exercise in a machine that simulates gravity could reduce the astronaut's risk of developing kidney stones, a condition that could be particularly painful and lead to an aborted mission," Monga said.
 

3rd July 2006

Shock Wave Therapy For Kidney Stones Linked To Increased Risk Of Diabetes, Hypertension
Mayo Clinic researchers are sounding an alert about side effects of shock wave lithotripsy: in a research study, they found this common treatment for kidney stones to significantly increase the risk for diabetes and hypertension later in life. Risk for diabetes was related to the intensity of the treatment and quantity of the shock waves administered; hypertension was related to treatment of stones in both kidneys.

 

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