Health & Medical

Alzheimer's brain plaques 'rapidly cleared' in mice

2012-02-12T06:42:00.000-08:00

Destructive plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients have been rapidly cleared by researchers testing a cancer drug on mice. The US study, published in the journal Science, reported the plaques were broken down at "unprecedented" speed. Tests also showed an improvement in some brain function. Specialists said the results were promising, but warned that successful drugs in mice often failed to work in people.

The exact cause of Alzheimer's remains unknown, but one of the leading theories involves the formation of clumps of a protein called beta-amyloid. These damage and kill brain cells, eventually resulting in memory problems and the inability to think clearly. Clearing protein plaques is a major focus of Alzheimer's research and drugs are already being tested in human clinical trials. In the body, the role of removing beta-amyloid falls to apolipoprotein E - or ApoE. However, people have different versions of the protein. Having the ApoE4 genetic variant is one of the biggest risk factors for developing the disease. Scientists at the Case Western Reserve University in Ohio were investigating ways of boosting levels of ApoE, which in theory should reduce levels of beta-amyloid.

They tested bexarotene, which has been approved for use to treat cancers in the skin, on mice with an illness similar to Alzheimer's. Plaques, in brown, form around brain cells, in blue, which kills parts of the brain. After one dose in young mice, the levels of beta-amyloid in the brain were "rapidly lowered" within six hours and a 25% reduction was sustained for 70 hours. In older mice with established amyloid plaques, seven days of treatment halved the number of plaques in the brain.

The study said there were improvements in brain function after treatment, in nest building, maze performance and remembering electrical shocks. Researchers Paige Cramer said: "This is an unprecedented finding. Previously, the best existing treatment for Alzheimer's disease in mice required several months to reduce plaque in the brain."
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Discovery Uses 'Fracture Putty' to Repair Broken Bone in Days

2012-02-09T03:55:00.000-08:00

Broken bones in humans and animals are painful and often take months to heal. Studies conducted in part by University of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Center researchers show promise to significantly shorten the healing time and revolutionize the course of fracture treatment.

"Complex fractures are a major cause of amputation of limbs for U.S. military men and women," said Steve Stice, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, animal and dairy scientist in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and director of the UGA Regenerative Bioscience Center. "For many young soldiers, their mental health becomes a real issue when they are confined to a bed for three to six months after an injury," he said. "This discovery may allow them to be up and moving as fast as days afterward."

Stice is working with Dr. John Peroni to develop a fast bone healing process. "This process addresses both human and veterinary orthopedic needs," said Peroni, an associate professor of large animal surgery in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine and a member of the RBC. Peroni and Stice are leading a large animal research project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. The project includes scientists and surgeons from the Baylor University College of Medicine, Rice University and the University of Texas, who conducted the early studies.
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Tai Chi May Help Parkinson's Patients

2012-02-09T02:27:00.000-08:00

Practicing the ancient art of Tai Chi twice a week helped Parkinson's patients improve their balance and walking ability, a new study shows. "Tai Chi has been suggested for a while [for those with Parkinson's], but it's not been scientifically or clinically validated," said study author Fuzhong Li, a research scientist at the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene.

The new research is published in the Feb. 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke funded the study. Li and his team compared the effects of Tai Chi with resistance training and stretching. They randomly assigned 195 patients with mild to moderate Parkinson's to one of the three groups. Every patient put in 60-minute sessions twice a week for 24 weeks.

Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative brain disorder, affects about 1 million people in the United States, according to the National Parkinson Foundation. It typically progresses slowly, but as it does the ability to control movement declines and symptoms such as tremors, muscle stiffness and instability appear. Physical activity is known to help slow this deterioration of motor function.

The researchers looked at changes in what is called postural stability, which is important to maintain balance. They also looked at how the patients walked and their physical strength. "Tai Chi did better in comparison to resistance training and stretching in terms of improvement in balance and walking ability," Li said. It was better than stretching and equal to resistance training at reducing the number of falls, Li found. Tai Chi includes gentle physical exercise and stretching. The postures or movement are done in a slow, graceful way. During a session, the body stays in motion as one movement flows into the next.
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Smoking accelerates rapid cognitive decline in men

2012-02-06T22:41:00.000-08:00

Researchers reported middle-aged male smokers experience more rapid cognitive decline, compared to non-smoking men. However over at least 10 years of no smoking, the male body can repair itself, lowering its risk of rapid decline in cognitive function. This study was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

In the study, led by Severine Sabia of University College London’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, self-reported medical history information was collected from 5,099 men and 2,137 women and assessed for smoking correlations. In addition, cognitive tests were performed among subjects. For comparison, the subjects were divided up by the following age groups, 44 to 69-years-old, 50 to 74-years-old and 55 to 80-years-old, and gender.

In conclusion, male smokers were found to be at higher risk for developing dementia than non-smokers. With more cigarette smoking, the cognitive decline was more severe.

In the study, researchers found that potential brain changes from smoking were not always permanent. Among men who stopped smoking 10 years before assessment, their risk for cognitive decline was similar to the risk associated with nonsmokers. However, men who stopped smoking within 10 years before assessment, their risks for cognitive decline was more similar to current smokers’ risk.
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About vitamin D

2012-01-28T09:27:00.000-08:00

One of the most important things you can do for your health is to learn about the benefits of proper sunlight exposure and vitamin D. This section provides information on how to effectively incorporate sun exposure and/or vitamin D supplementation into your daily health regimen.
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The Role of Flaxseed Oil in Preventing Breast Cancer

2012-01-27T17:37:00.000-08:00

NATURES ANSWER TO BREAST CANCER
The National Cancer Institute has begun to focus on diet as a preventative measure to avoid certain cancers. It has been found that certain fruits, vegetables, and grains possess potent cancer fighting and protective compounds known as phytonutrients (naturally occurring and nontoxic plant chemicals). Perhaps the most powerful phytonutrient plant food discovered to date is flaxseed. This ancient grain contains a phytonutrIent called fignan that once ingested is converted to compounds that compete with estrogen for binding sites on estrogen receptors. The net result is a flushing of excess estrogen (linked to high incidence of colon and breast cancer) from the body. Ironically, lignans may someday replace the need for estrogen therapy in postmenopausal women due to the fact that they resemble estrogen on the receptor site, but without the potential risk!
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Flaxseeds

2012-01-27T17:35:00.001-08:00

The warm, earthy and subtly nutty flavor of flaxseeds combined with an abundance of omega-3 fatty acids makes them an increasingly popular addition to the diets of many a health conscious consumer. Whole and ground flaxseeds, as well as flaxseed oil, are available throughout the year.

Flaxseeds are slightly larger than sesame seeds and have a hard shell that is smooth and shiny. Their color ranges from deep amber to reddish brown depending upon whether the flax is of the golden or brown variety. While whole flaxseeds feature a soft crunch, the nutrients in ground seeds are more easily absorbed.
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Flaxseed Oil and Brain Health

2012-01-27T17:34:00.001-08:00

Omega-3 fatty acids found in flaxseed and fish is good for maintaining brain health as about 60 percent of the brain consists of lipids (fats) which make up the lining, or cell membrane, of every brain cell. The types of fats present in the brain influence its structure and function. How well your mind works depends, in the long run, on what you eat.

Flaxseed Oil, Heart health, and Blood Pressure
Flaxseed has recently gained attention in the area of cardiovascular disease primarily because it is the richest known source of both alpha-linolenic acid ( ALA) and the phytoestrogen, lignans, as well as being a good source of soluble fiber. Human studies have shown that flaxseed can modestly reduce serum total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations, reduce postprandial glucose absorption, decrease some markers of inflammation, and raise serum levels of the omega-3 fatty acids, ALA and eicosapentaenoic acid. In a human clinical conducted at Harokopio University, Athens, Greece, supplementation with flaxseed oil resulted in significantly lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels compared with linoleic acid.
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Flaxseed and flaxseed oil - Mayo Clinic

2012-01-27T17:32:00.000-08:00

Flaxseed and its derivative flaxseed oil/linseed oil are rich sources of the essential fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid, which is a biologic precursor to omega-3 fatty acids such as eicosapentaenoic acid. Although omega-3 fatty acids have been associated with improved cardiovascular outcomes, evidence from human trials is mixed regarding the efficacy of flaxseed products for coronary artery disease or hyperlipidemia.
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Flaxseed

2012-01-27T17:30:00.000-08:00

Flaxseed is the seed from the plant Linum usitatissimum. The seed or the seed oil is used to make medicine. The information on this page concerns medicine made from the SEED only. There is a separate listing for flaxseed OIL.

People use flaxseed for many conditions related to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, including ongoing constipation, colon damage due to overuse of laxatives, diarrhea, inflammation of the lining of the large intestine (diverticulitis), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or irritable colon, sores in the lining of the large intestine (ulcerative colitis), inflammation of the lining of the stomach (gastritis), and inflammation of the small intestine (enteritis).

Flaxseed is also used for disorders of the heart and blood vessels, including high cholesterol, “hardening of the arteries” (atherosclerosis), high blood pressure (hypertension), and coronary artery disease.

Flaxseed is also used for acne, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), kidney problems in people with a disease called systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), symptoms of menopause, and breast pain. It is also used for diabetes, obesity and weight loss, HIV/AIDS, depression, bladder infections, malaria, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Some people use flaxseed to lower their risk of getting weak bones (osteoporosis) and to protect against breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, and prostate cancer.
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Black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa [L.] Nutt.)

2012-01-26T17:04:00.001-08:00

Black cohosh is popular as an alternative to hormonal therapy in the treatment of menopausal (climacteric) symptoms such as hot flashes, mood disturbances, diaphoresis, palpitations, and vaginal dryness. Several studies have reported black cohosh to improve menopausal symptoms for up to six months, although the current evidence is mixed.

The mechanism of action of black cohosh remains unclear and the effects on estrogen receptors or hormonal levels (if any) are not definitively known. Recent publications suggest that there may be no direct effects on estrogen receptors, although this is an area of active controversy. Safety and efficacy beyond six months have not been proven, although recent reports suggest safety of short-term use, including in women experiencing menopausal symptoms for whom estrogen replacement therapy is contraindicated. Nonetheless, caution is advisable until better-quality safety data are available. Use of black cohosh in high-risk populations (such as in women with a history of breast cancer) should be under the supervision of a licensed healthcare professional.
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Black Cohosh - Web MD

2012-01-26T17:02:00.000-08:00

For centuries, the roots of the North American black cohosh plant have been used for various ailments. Black cohosh is now a popular remedy for the symptoms of menopause. This has been especially true since the risks of a standard treatment for menopause -- hormone therapy -- were publicized in 2002.

Why do people take black cohosh?

Black cohosh is most often used to control the symptoms of menopause, such as:

Headaches
Hot flashes
Mood changes
Sleep problems
Heart palpitations
Night sweats
Vaginal dryness

Some studies have found evidence that black cohosh does help with these symptoms. However, many experts consider the evidence unclear and say that we need more research.

Other uses of black cohosh have less scientific support. Women sometimes take it to regulate periods, ease PMS symptoms, and induce labor. Black cohosh has also been used to relieve arthritis pain and help lower blood pressure. There are some preliminary laboratory studies showing that black cohosh may be useful in preventing or treating prostate cancer. Definitive research has not verified black cohosh's effectiveness for these uses.

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What is Black Cohosh?

2012-01-26T17:00:00.000-08:00

Black cohosh is a tall perennial plant in the buttercup family that grows in eastern and central areas of the United States. Black cohosh was used by Native Americans as a traditional folk remedy for womens' health conditions, such as menstrual cramps and hot flashes, arthritis, muscle pain, sore throat, cough and indigestion. The juice of the plant was used as an insect repellent and was made into a salve and applied to snake bites.

Today, black cohosh is used primarily as a nutritional supplement for hot flashes, mood swings, night sweats, vaginal dryness and other symptoms that can occur during menopause, as well as for menstrual cramps and bloating.
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Black Cohosh: Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet

2012-01-26T16:57:00.000-08:00

This fact sheet provides an overview of the use of black cohosh for menopausal symptoms.

Key points

Black cohosh is an herb sold as a dietary supplement in the United States.
Black cohosh is used for hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms.
Although preliminary evidence is encouraging, the currently available data are not sufficient to support a recommendation on the use of black cohosh for menopausal symptoms. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health is funding arigorous scientific study to determine whether treatment with black cohosh reduces the frequency and intensity of hot flashes, and other menopausal symptoms.
In 2001, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists stated, primarily on the basis ofconsensus and expert opinion, that black cohosh may be helpful in the short term (6 months or less) for women with vasomotor symptoms of menopause [1].
Although few adverse events have been reported, long-term safety data are not available.

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Black Cohosh

2012-01-26T16:55:00.000-08:00

Black cohosh, a member of the buttercup family, is a plant native to North America. It has a history of use for rheumatism (arthritis and muscle pain) but has been used more recently to treat hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, and other symptoms that can occur during menopause.
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Osteoporosis

2012-01-18T11:33:00.000-08:00

Osteoporosis, a chronic progressive disease of multifactorial etiology (see Etiology), is the most common metabolic bone disease in the United States. It has been most frequently recognized in elderly white women, although it does occur in both sexes, all races, and all age groups.

This disease is considered a "silent thief" that generally does not become clinically apparent until a fracture occurs (see Clinical Presentation). Screening at-risk populations is, therefore, essential (see Workup).

Osteoporosis can affect almost the entire skeleton. It is a systemic skeletal disease characterized by low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue, with a consequent increase in bone fragility.^[1]The disease often does not become clinically apparent until a fracture occurs.

Osteoporosis represents an increasingly serious problem in the United States and around the world. Many individuals, male and female, experience pain, disability, and diminished quality of life as a result of having this condition. The economic burden the disease imposes is already considerable and will only grow as the population ages.^[2]

Despite the adverse effects of osteoporosis, it is a condition that is often overlooked and undertreated, in large part because it is so often clinically silent before manifesting in the form of fracture. For example, a Gallup survey performed by the National Osteoporosis Foundation revealed that 75% of all women aged 45-75 years have never discussed osteoporosis with their physicians. Failure to identify at-risk patients, to educate them, and to implement preventive measures may lead to tragic consequences.

Medical care includes calcium, vitamin D, and antiosteoporotic medication such as bisphosphonates and parathyroid hormone. Antiresorptive agents currently available for osteoporosis treatment include bisphosphonates, the selective estrogen-receptor modulator (SERM) raloxifene, calcitonin, and denosumab. One anabolic agent, teriparatide (see Medication), is available as well. Surgical care includes vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty. (See Treatment and Management.)

Osteoporosis is a preventable disease that can result in devastating physical, psychosocial, and economic consequences. Prevention and recognition of the secondary causes of osteoporosis are first-line measures to lessen the impact of the disease (see the images below).

Osteoporosis of the spine. Observe the considerable reduction in overall vertebral bone density and note the lateral wedge fracture of L2.Osteoporosis of the spine. Note the lateral wedge fracture in L3 and the central burst fracture in L5. The patient had suffered a recent fall.

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Milking Your Bones

2012-01-18T11:31:00.000-08:00

Bone Density: The Big Dairy Fallacy

While the National Osteoporosis Foundation tells us we need more calcium to build stronger bones, especially from cow's milk, the scientific evidence does not support this.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong performed successive studies in the 1990s analyzing milk and calcium intake as they relate to the growth of children. This was an ideal place and time for such an investigation, because cow's milk was just making its way into popular use in that country, and the traditional diet was not high in calcium.

The first study looked at children from birth to five years of age. With 90 percent of the study children drinking milk, their average calcium intake was 550 mg. At age five, the current level of calcium intake for each child did not correlate with their bone mineral levels. The calcium intake during the second year of life proved to be the strongest predictor of bone "hardness" at age five (breast milk would provide the same or more advantage as cow's milk or other sources).¹

In the second study, seven-year-old children were given calcium supplements to bring their daily calcium intakes up to 800 mg. Over 18 months no increases were seen in height or arm or leg bone density beyond those not supplemented, although some improvement in spinal bone density was seen.² At ages 12 to 13, calcium intake did not correlate to bone mineral content, except that the girls who consumed the higher levels of calcium had lower bone density in their arms.³

In all these studies, higher weight and greater physical activity were strongly associated with higher bone mineral content. By adolescence, neither calcium intake nor physical activity had any more influence on bone mineral improvement.⁴ A 14-year British study found that in young adults, their early teenage body weight and physical activity levels determined their bone mineral densities, with a slight effect from calcium intake.⁵

In a widely quoted study by a British hospital, researchers provided an extra glass of cow's milk to adolescent girls' diets, comparing their growth to those who drank an average of just over one half cup per day. Total daily calcium intake at the beginning of the study was 750 mg, and the extra milk group increased to 1,100 mg. The researchers reported about 10 percent greater bone growth rate for those with the extra milk.⁶ These children also gained a little more weight, but not height. The reported extra bone density could not be validated by any changes in the blood enzyme markers that typically reflect bone growth and bone re-absorption. Insulin-like growth factor was also found to be higher in the extra milk group.

Several experts wrote replies to this study, which had been paid for by the U.K. dairy industry. One expert, doing his own math from the study, found the milk group to have a slightly lower average total bone mineral content at the end of the study.⁷

A U.S. study on child twins found some increases in bone density in the arms and spine with calcium supplements (not milk).⁸ Once puberty began, however, calcium provided no benefits.

While dairy promotions also include praise for the protein of milk as well, this protein may be more of a problem in osteoporosis than calcium could be a solution. The animal proteins of meat and dairy products cause calcium loss.⁹The level of calcium needed in the diet depends greatly on the animal protein intake.¹⁰ For many of the high animal protein diets of Americans, it may not be possible to consume enough calcium in the diet to compensate for the amount lost to these high-acid proteins.¹¹ For this reason, Americans have among the highest osteoporosis rates in the world, while their dairy intake is also among the highest. Doubled animal protein causes 50 percent more calcium loss. Yet, when a high protein intake is soy-based, a positive calcium balance can be maintained with only 450 mg of calcium per day.¹²

The chief concern over bone density is that it gradually reduces with maturity. At a certain point of bone loss, the term osteoporosis is used. This is a level where low-trauma bone fractures become more frequent. Spinal fractures are a problem, as are hip and arm fractures, which are easier to measure for research purposes. The highest level of bone density attained in young adulthood correlates with bone density maintained in later decades. What is not entirely understood is how much impact dietary factors have on these events. Some studies suggest that childhood calcium intake before puberty may have some slight positive effect. At the same time that diabetes, cancer, and other concerns may limit the amount of dairy that should be given to a child, it also appears that bone protection is no reason to promote dairy consumption beyond childhood.

In 1986 a Harvard researcher produced a graph that demonstrated a nearly direct relationship between calcium intake and hip fractures - the more calcium, the more fractures.^13,14

A 1987 study of 106 adult women suggested that calcium intake between 500 and 1,400 mg per day led to no difference in bone mineral densities.¹⁵

A larger Italian study found that in women who consumed between 440 and 1,025 mg of calcium per day, a slightly increased number of hip fractures occurred with higher milk intakes.¹⁶

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Rethinking osteoporosis - Causes of osteoporosis

2012-01-18T11:27:00.000-08:00

It is often suggested that the major causes of osteoporosis are low calcium intake and lower estrogen levels at menopause. Tracking a cross-cultural perspective, however, we find that this is not always true. For example, people in many countries have lower calcium intakes than in the US, yet osteoporosis is less prevalent in these cultures. As an example, the Japanese calcium intake has only recently risen to 540 mg per day, much less than the US RDA for post-menopausal women of 1,200 mg per day. And yet the US hip fracture rate is twice that of Japan! In fact, research has shown that countries with the highest calcium intake have the highest hip fracture rates. Furthermore, I have identified at least 19 nutrients in addition to calcium that are essential to bone health.

The same holds true for estrogen. Women all over the world experience a lowering of estrogen at menopause, but not all women experience osteoporosis. Attributing the causes of osteoporosis to the natural decrease in estrogen at menopause is too simplistic. The fact is that Mayan Indian women, Bantu women of Africa, and Japanese women all have lower estrogen levels than women of various ethnic groups in the United States, but they all experience many fewer fractures than American women. Also, the few years before menopause are a time of very rapid bone loss for most women, yet a woman’s estrogen level at this time is generally higher than during her reproductive years.

There are ways to detect low bone density and ongoing bone loss. It is not easy, however, to predict who will actually suffer an osteoporotic fracture. Bone density tests attempt to measure bone mass in various areas of the body, and markers of bone resorption can tell if your body is likely breaking down excessive bone at any given time. These tests can detect low bone density and high bone breakdown before a fracture occurs, and thus help identify your chances of a future fracture. They cannot, however, predict who will fracture. For example, over half of all women who experience an osteoporotic fracture do not have an “osteoporotic” bone density. They have either moderately low bone density, known as osteopenia, or even normal bone density. Given this, everyone, even those with good bone density, would do well to maintain a strong bone-building program.

A more realistic picture of the causes of osteoporosis portrays a variety of bone-depleting factors, each building one upon the other. Each bone-depleting factor adds to the others until the total load is more than our bone can support, so to speak. The camel image shown here depicts many of the factors that contribute to poor health and osteoporotic fractures. The array of bone-depleting factors is more wide-ranging and more important than generally recognized.

Total load model of bone-depleting factors ©2009.
Please click here for a printable version.

The camel drawing shows that there are many complex factors contributing to osteoporosis — and even this overloaded camel doesn’t contain all of them! It’s virtually impossible, in fact, for any single person to have all of these factors going on at once, although certainly many of them are interconnected. But it shows us that the causes of osteoporosis can vary greatly from person to person. So it makes sense that the best ways to prevent and treat osteoporosis will also vary from person to person. Every case must be carefully analyzed to develop the best individualized osteoporosis program. Yet for everyone, dietary improvements — specifically, changing to an Alkaline for Life® diet — nutrition supplement therapy, exercise, and lifestyle modifications are powerful bone-strengthening tools.

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Creatine for Mind, Body, and Longer Life

2012-01-16T23:52:00.000-08:00

Creatine is quickly becoming one of my favorite supplements, and not just because of the way it helps me in the gym. It’s been shown that creatine can also be used as a nootropic and as a way to stave off potential neurodegeneration. Because earlier reports of damage to the kidneys and liver by creatine supplementation have now beenscientifically refuted, creatine is becoming increasingly accepted as a powerful and multi-faceted daily supplement.

So what is it? Creatine a nitrogenous organic acid that occurs naturally in vertebrates and helps to supply energy to all cells in the body—primarily muscle. It’s also been shown to assist in the growth of muscle fibres. Creatine achieves this by increasing the formation of Adenosine triphosphate (ATP). It is an osmotically active substance, so it pulls water into muscle cells. Creatine is naturally produced in the human body from amino acids primarily in the kidney and liver and is transported in the blood for use by muscles.

Back in the early 1990s it became common for bodybuilders, wrestlers, sprinters and other athletes to take creatine as word got out that it contributed to increased muscle mass and energy. Athletes began to consume two to three times the amount that could be obtained from a high protein diet. Creatine, which is typically bought in pills or flavored powders and mixed with liquid, increases the body’s ability to produce energy rapidly. With more energy, athletes can train harder and more often, producing better results.

In fact, research shows that creatine is most effective in high-intensity training and explosive activities. This includes weight training and sports that require short bursts of effort, such as sprinting, football, and baseball. As a CrossFitter and an occasional user of creatine, I can certainly vouch for these effects. I believe that creatine is responsible for adding as much as five to twenty pounds to my lifts (depending on the kind of lift) along with an added boost of muscular endurance—two very desirable qualities for CrossFit athletes.

Recently I have switched from being an occasional user of creatine (3000 mg per day, cycling monthly) to a daily low dosage user (750 to 1500 mg per day every day) while on a high protein diet. I’ve done this for cost reasons while still hoping to take advantage of its benefits, which aren’t just limited to the physical realm.

Indeed, creatine has been shown to have a significant impact on brain health. It’s been shown to boost brain performance, including positive impacts on working intelligence and memory—both of which require improved cognitive processing speed. Back in 2003, a study showed that people who took creatine for six weeks scored better on tests measuring intelligence and memory than those who did not take it. And interestingly, some of the most significant cognitive benefits are experienced byvegetarians and vegans, probably on account of protein deficiencies (which has an impact on the body’s ability produce creatine naturally).
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What Doctors Know — and We Can Learn — About Dying Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2012/01/16/what-doctors-know-and-we-can-learn-about-dying/#ixzz1j

2012-01-16T23:38:00.000-08:00

Physicians are more likely to sign advance directives and avoid rescue measures at the end of their lives

Last month, an essay posted by retired physician Ken Murray called “How Doctors Die” got a huge amount of attention, some negative but mostly positive. Murray tells the story of an orthopedic surgeon who, after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, chose not to undergo treatment. The surgeon died some months later at home, never having set foot inside a hospital again.

Critics said that the essay was a biased opinion of how one should die, not an actual analysis of how doctors actually do die. And indeed, much of Murray’s essay was anecdotal. Murray writes that his physician friends wear medallions with DNR, or Do Not Resuscitate, orders. They instruct their colleagues to not take any heroic measures and to keep them out of the ICU at the end of life. He’s even seen a colleague with a DNR tattoo, something I’ve been threatening to get for a long time.

(MORE: The Real Issues of End-of-Life Care)

And yet, there is good evidence that physicians have thought out end-of-life issues more thoroughly than laypeople and are more likely to decline medical intervention. For example, they sign advance directives far more often than the rest of us do. Less than half of severely or terminally ill patients have an advance directive in their medical records. These are legal documents that indicate the kind of medical care we prefer at the end of life and where we would like to spend our last few days or weeks. Contrast that to a study published a few years back that found 64% of doctors surveyed had signed such documents. Those who had were nearly three and a half times more likely to refuse rescue care, like CPR, compared with doctors who had not signed an advance directive.

Why would doctors be so anxious to avoid the very procedures they deliver to their patients every day? For one thing, they know firsthand that these procedures are most often futile when performed on a frail, elderly, chronically ill person. Only about 8% of people who go into cardiac arrest outside of the hospital are revived by CPR. Even when your heart stops in the hospital, you have only a 19% chance of surviving. That’s a far cry from the way these procedures are portrayed on TV, where practically everybody survives having his heart shocked and undergoing CPR.

Doctors also know that undergoing heroic measures is a lousy way to die. They’ve seen what it’s like for an elderly patient to end up in the ICU, hooked up to machines, often semiparalyzed, in pain, lying on what philosopher Sidney Hook called “mattress graves” during his own terminal illness. At a recent meeting I attended, one emergency physician tearfully admitted she didn’t think she could stand to hear the sound of ribs breaking as she perform CPR on yet another elderly patient who almost certainly would not survive.

PSA screening doesn't prevent cancer deaths: study

2012-01-07T20:27:00.000-08:00

(Reuters Health) - Annual screening for prostate cancer doesn't cut men's chances of dying from the disease, according to the latest results of a large screening trial.

Comparing men who were screened each year with so-called PSA tests, for prostate specific antigen, or rectal exams to those who received their usual care, researchers found that more men in the screening group had been diagnosed with prostate cancer after 13 years -- but there was no difference in how many had died from it.

The results support a previous report by the same researchers that found no difference in deaths seven to 10 years after the screening program started.

They are also consistent with recent draft guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommending that average-risk men not undergo regular PSA screening, according to a researcher who worked on the study.

"Men, if they're considering screening, should be aware that there's a possibility that there's little or no benefit (and) that there certainly are harms to PSA screening," said study co-author Philip Prorok, from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.

Those harms include catching and treating small cancers that never would have been detected or caused men any problems, Prorok told Reuters Health.
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France to pay for removal of risky breast implants

2011-12-23T19:05:00.001-08:00

France took a costly and unprecedented leap Friday in offering to pay for 30,000 women to have their breast implants removed because of mounting fears the products could rupture and leak cheap, industrial-grade silicone into the body. Tens of thousands of other women elsewhere in Europe and in South America have the same French-made implants, but authorities there have so far refused to follow suit. The silicone-gel implants in question are not sold in the U.S.

Over the past week, the safety fears have created a public furor over something usually kept private, even in France. Women, some whose own families didn't know they had their breasts enlarged, marched on Paris to demand more attention to worries about what might be happening inside them. Images of leaky, blubbery implants and women having mammograms have been splashed on French TV. More than 1,000 ruptures pushed Health Minister Xavier Bertrand to recommend that the estimated 30,000 women in France with the implants get them removed at the state's expense.
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Brain Stimulation Reduces Post-Stroke Neglect

2011-12-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

Post-stroke hemispatial neglect improved significantly after a two-week course of magnetic stimulation of the affected brain area, according to results of a small clinical trial. The degree of neglect improved by 16% after two weeks and by 23% after one month, as assessed by a standardized behavioral inattention test (BIT). In contrast, patients treated with sham stimulation had no improvement in hemispatial neglect, Giacomo Koch, MD, PhD, of the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome, and co-authors reported in the Jan. 3 issue of Neurology."These findings suggest that a two-week course of continuous theta-burst stimulation over the left hemisphere posterior parietal cortex may be a potential effective strategy in accelerating recovery from visuospatial neglect in subacute stroke patients, possibly counteracting the hyperexcitability of the left hemisphere parieto-frontal circuits," they wrote in conclusion. "This study provides class III evidence that left posterior parietal cortex theta-burst stimulation improves hemispatial neglect for up to two weeks after treatment," the authors added.As many as 40% of stroke patients develop hemispatial neglect, which refers to the inability to recognize or respond to stimuli on the side opposite to the brain infarction. The syndrome is particularly disabling to patients who have unilateral strokes of the right hemisphere.READ ARTICLE

Drug combos could hold off advanced breast cancer, studies say

2011-12-07T16:46:00.000-08:00

Combinations of drugs could impede advanced breast cancer tumors in different ways, two large studies suggest. Treatment for advanced breast cancer could improve significantly if doctors give women combinations of medications that attack tumors in different ways, two large clinical trials suggest.

In one study, researchers found patients fared better when a breast cancer drug called an aromatase inhibitor was combined with another medication, Afinitor, which is used to treat kidney cancer but is not yet approved for breast cancer. In the second study, two standard medications for women with a type of breast cancer known as HER2-positive were more effective when the investigational drug pertuzumab was added to the regimen.

The findings, reported Wednesday at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, point to a new paradigm in treating advanced breast cancer, a field that has not seen significant progress in recent years, cancer specialists said. The studies signal that advanced breast cancer may be best treated with a strategic combination of targeted medications that wage war on the cancer along several biological pathways.

"These are two terrific, new options. They are laying out a map on the way forward for breast cancer," said Dr. José Baselga, a professor of medication at Harvard Medical School who was involved in both trials. "The way forward is by doing smart combination therapies."

The approach in many ways mimics that used in treating those who are infected by HIV: Just as treatment with multiple drugs cuts the chance that the virus can develop resistance, attacking the cancer cells on multiple fronts reduces the chance that the tumors can mutate to thwart the assault against them.

Scientists cautioned that the data so far show only that the patients survived longer before their tumor advanced in size. They have not shown that survival rates are lengthened as well.
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2011-12-05T10:03:00.000-08:00

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The Nanomembrane Probe Brings Us Closer to a Cure for Epilepsy

2011-12-05T06:15:00.000-08:00

This new device allows researchers to record brain activity over a much larger area and with higher resolution than anything previously used. Recording signals from the brain has just become a whole lot easier. And a lot more flexible. A new, ultra-thin device capable of recording brain activity without having to use penetrating electrodes could potentially allow researchers to learn information about the brain's electrical activity without invasive implants.

The device is comprised of 720 silicon nanomembrane transistors in an array consisting of 360 different channels. The silicon enables it to be more flexible and foldable than a conventional rigid electrode array. This means it can be placed not only on the brain surface, but inside the grooves or sulci and the deeper fissures as well as between the brain's hemispheres.

The array eliminates the requirement for each sensor to have its own separate wire. This arrangement allows the device to cover a much larger brain area with higher resolution than standard electrode arrays currently used by neuroscience laboratories around the world.

The team demonstrated the feasibility of the flexible electrode array by performing in vivo recordings on 10 cats using the new device. The investigators used the flexible array to observe responses to visual stimuli, electrical signals during sleep, and brain activity during induced epileptic seizures. In all three experiments, the researchers recorded types of signals that had previously only been recorded from brain slice preparations of brain, never from intact brain.

The signals observed during the seizures gave the researchers new insight into the pattern of activity that exists during epilepsy. The array recorded abnormal spiral waveforms that were very similar to the electrical signals produced by the heart during cardiac arrhythmias. The investigators, from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Bioengineering, believe that by preventing these abnormal spiral waves by breaking some of the neural connections that cause them, doctors could possibly cure epilepsy in humans.

This article was published online on Nov. 13, 2011, in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
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U.Va.'s Artificial Pancreas a Real-World Success for Diabetes Patients

2011-12-01T21:25:00.000-08:00

For the first time ever, patients with Type 1 diabetes have controlled their disease in a real-life setting using an artificial pancreas system developed by University of Virginia researchers. This milestone means researchers are even closer to revolutionizing diabetes care for millions of people with Type 1 diabetes.

At the heart of the system is a novel hand-held device developed by a U.Va. research team, led by Patrick Keith-Hynes and Boris Kovatchev, members of the psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences faculty in the School of Medicine. The device uses a "smart" algorithm to automatically deliver insulin and regulate a person's blood sugar levels – taking much of the burden of constant monitoring off the patient.

This first outpatient study marks the latest milestone in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Artificial Pancreas Project, which involves an international research consortium including teams from U.Va., the University of California in Santa Barbara, Montpellier University Hospital (France), and the universities of Padova and Pavia (Italy).

Researchers in Europe recently announced the trial results. The study took place in France and Italy. In the study, two patients with Type 1 diabetes attained near-normal glucose levels after spending one night outside of a hospital while using the artificial pancreas system. The patients were able to eat a restaurant meal and spend one night at a hotel while using the device.
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The Center for Diabetes Technology at UVA
The staff at the CDT understands where the treatment of type 1 diabetes is headed tomorrow. Our familiarity with current technology and our advancement and innovation of new technology, gives us a special perspective not offered anywhere else. Here, current technologies and new developments come together to advance the future of diabetes care.

VA Health Topics - A to Z Index

2011-12-01T20:58:00.000-08:00

The items in the Veterans Health A-Z Index (listed in the blue bar above) represent popular topics, frequent inquiries and areas of critical importance to Veterans and their caregivers. This navigational and informational tool is designed to help you quickly find and retrieve specific information. The A-Z Index is structured so that synonyms, acronyms, and cross-referencing provide multiple ways for you to access the topics and features on Veterans Health websites. The index will continue to evolve as additional topics are added.

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New report highlights metal hip implant problems

2011-11-29T20:01:00.001-08:00

Modern, all-metal hip implants appear no more effective than traditional implants and may be less safe, according to a new report, a finding that could hurt orthopedic companies that make the devices and accelerate lawsuits. The report, published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal, found that patients who received so-called metal-on-metal implants were more likely to require repeat surgery than those who received traditional implants.

Every year, more than 700,000 joint replacements are performed in the United States, of which some 270,000 are hip replacements, according to the report. The materials used in a replacement hip's ball-and-socket structure can vary to include metal, ceramic or plastic. Metal on metal implants were supposed to be more durable than earlier metal on polyethylene implants. But over the past few years, reports have emerged that the metal implants fail at a greater rate than traditional implants.

Last year, Johnson & Johnson's DePuy Orthopaedics Inc unit recalled its metal ASR hip system after it failed at a higher-than-expected rate. Some patients experienced pain, swelling, joint dislocation and even systemic damage caused by toxic levels of metal ions. Professor Art Sedrakyan of Weill Cornell Medical College said that while the analysis is preliminary, it indicates that patients implanted with a metal-on-metal device are doubly at risk of requiring a repeat procedure.
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Groundbreaking research looks at how blasts injure brain

2011-11-29T02:09:00.000-08:00

LANDSTUHL, Germany — During a firefight in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province in 2002, U.S. Army Maj. Kevin Kit Parker stood atop a hill awaiting a Medevac flight for an injured soldier when a bomb exploded several miles away.

He saw the bomb’s intense light first, then felt its shock waves ripple through his body.

“It felt like it was lifting my bowels, and I was quite far away,” Parker said.

Several years later, when he was working in bioengineering research at Harvard University, a friend of Parker’s suffered a severe traumatic brain injury, and Parker was reminded of his Kandahar experience. Parker chose to shift his focus from cardiac tissue to brain research after receiving encouragement from Col. Geoffrey Ling, a neurologist and program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

Now a professor at Harvard, Parker has published groundbreaking research describing how blasts injure the brain. Gathering data directly on the battlefield from servicemembers who’ve been in close proximity to blasts, he said, will be key to understanding the devastating yet subtle damage caused.

The military currently is fielding several new technologies in Afghanistan to do exactly that. Now:

● Soldiers are being outfitted with high-tech gauges that can detect a blast’s severity and alert medics on site that a soldier has been exposed to shock waves.

● Armored vehicles are equipped with sensors that connect to each vehicle’s “black box,” which measures and stores information on blasts.

Gauging blasts

But new research is adding credence to the theory that a blast’s shock waves can cause a brain injury. Traveling at more than 1,600 miles per hour after an explosion, these violent waves of air, called overpressures, penetrate the skull and reach the brain, researchers say.

Overpressures have long been known to cause other types of internal injuries, including collapsed lungs. New research suggests that a blast’s shock waves can stretch brain cells, causing them to tear, or force the long nerves between brain cells to expand and contract, damaging them, or stretch the blood vessel walls beyond their limit, causing an injury called vasospasms.

To measure the force of blast waves on troops near explosions, DARPA developed a blast gauge. About the size of a watch face and weighing an ounce, the portable blast gauge can be attached to helmets and body armor. Inside it are a microprocessor and sensors that detect the blast’s force and measure its overpressures, storing the data until it can be downloaded.

In addition to measuring the bomb’s force, the device is designed to give medics attending blast victims an instant read of their exposure to blast waves. The medic inserts a stylus or pen tip into the device, causing a light to flash green, yellow or red. The color indicates whether the blast was strong enough to require the soldier receive further medical attention and rest.

“Thank God this is coming out now,” Parker said. “We can’t get this in the field fast enough.”
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Medicare's Drug Coverage Gap Shrinks

2011-11-27T06:37:00.000-08:00

Medicare's prescription coverage gap is getting noticeably smaller and easier to manage this year for millions of older and disabled people with high drug costs. The "doughnut hole," an anxiety-inducing catch in an otherwise popular benefit, will shrink about 40 percent for those unlucky enough to land in it, according to new Medicare figures provided in response to a request from The Associated Press.

The average beneficiary who falls into the coverage gap would have spent $1,504 this year on prescriptions. But thanks to discounts and other provisions in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law, that cost fell to $901, according to Medicare's Office of the Actuary, which handles economic estimates.

A 50 percent discount that the law secured from pharmaceutical companies on brand name drugs yielded an average savings of $581. Medicare also picked up more of the cost of generic drugs, saving an additional $22. "For people with high drug expenditures, the 50 percent discount offers real savings," said Tricia Neuman, director of Medicare policy for the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. "It's certainly more helpful than no coverage at all, which is what they had previously."
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Four common meds send thousands of seniors to hospital

2011-11-27T06:26:00.000-08:00

Medications previously designated "high-risk" were implicated in only 1.2 percent of hospitalizations, the study found.Working with a nationally representative database, CDCresearchers identified more than 5,000 cases of drug-related adverse events that occurred among people aged 65 and older from 2007 to 2009 and used that to make their estimates for the whole population.

Nearly half (48 percent) of the hospitalizations occurred among adults 80 and up, according to the study, published in the Nov. 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Nearly two-thirds (66 percent) were the result of unintentional overdoses.

The four medications, used alone or together, most often cited:

The blood thinning medication warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven), which is used to treat blood clots, was involved in 33 percent of emergency hospitalizations.

Insulin, used to control blood sugar in diabetes patients, was involved in 14 percent of cases.

Antiplatelet drugs such as aspirin and clopidogrel (Plavix), which are used to prevent blood clots, were involved in 13 percent of cases.

Oral hypoglycemic agents -- diabetes medications taken by mouth -- were involved in 11 percent of cases.
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Lack of record access drives up costs at L.A. hospitals for poor

2011-11-25T07:36:00.000-08:00

L.A.'s safety-net hospitals are scrambling to match others nationally that use electronic records and integrated systems to manage care for low-income patients and cut costly hospitalizations.

The emergency room at White Memorial Medical Center on Los Angeles' Eastside was buzzing when paramedics arrived on a Friday night with an elderly man slurring his words and complaining of aching bones. The nurse in the receiving bay immediately ran through standard triage questions: "Are you diabetic? Do you havehigh blood pressure? Are you allergic to any medications?" Each drew the same response: "I don't know." The hospital and doctors had no record of the man or his medical history. And with their only guide a piece of crumpled paper they found tucked into the man's pants that seemed to indicate he might have had cancer, doctors had to order a full diagnostic work-up, including blood tests and an EKG to check his heart. It was another night of high-priced detective work at one of America's urban hospitals. "We're mostly flying blind here," said Dr. Brian Johnston, the senior emergency room physician at White Memorial, shaking his head at the high costs generated by the lack of records and unnecessary testing. Waste bedevils much of America's fragmented healthcare system, driving up already skyrocketing costs. As health spending overwhelms government budgets, the stakes are especially high for safety-net institutions like White Memorial that serve the country's poorest patients, largely at taxpayer expense. The best safety-net systems — in Denver, Dallas, New York and elsewhere — have found ways to practice medicine more efficiently, using electronic records and integrated systems to manage care for low-income patients and cut costly hospitalizations.
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Antibiotic Use On Farms Linked To Rising Rates Of Drug-Resistant Infections

2011-11-24T08:33:00.000-08:00

As families across America adorn their dinner tables with plump, juicy turkeys this Thursday, they've likely given little thought to what their future food previously consumed.

By the end of this year, an estimated 248 million turkeys will have been raised in the U.S., approximately 83 percent on farms that produce more than 60,000 turkeys each and most eating a diet that includes low doses of antibiotics. This common agricultural practice results not only in more meaty birds, according to experts, but also in greater risks to public health.

"Antibiotic use in animals comes back to haunt people," said Stuart Levy, a Tufts University microbiology professor who focuses on antibiotic resistance. He recently co-authored a review of the evidence showing how animal antibiotics affect human health -- via direct contact and indirectly via food, water, air and anywhere manure goes.

Levy and other experts warn that the widespread use of antibiotics to treat sick livestock, prevent the spread of disease in cramped conditions or simply promote animal growth has fueled the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which is making many infections in humans harder to treat. As The Huffington Post reported in August, some human infections now resist multiple antibiotics.

Livestock receive an estimated 80 percent of the nation's antibiotics. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, about 90 percent of those antibiotics are consumed by the animals in their feed or water -- usually at very low doses. What doesn't kill bacteria, however, often makes them stronger and more likely to defeat medicine's current range of weaponry.

"Turkey is one of the most frequently contaminated meats," said Ellen Silbergeld, a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She highlighted a study from earlier this year that found 77 percent of turkey samples collected from U.S. supermarkets tested positive for the bacteriaStaphylococcus aureus. Of those, approximately 96 percent were resistant to at least one antimicrobial agent. A few of other recent studies hint at the growing problem of multidrug-resistant infections, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), in meats sold to consumers, including turkey.
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Keep this Diet Trick in Mind After the Holidays and Your Waistline Will Thank You

2011-11-24T05:49:00.000-08:00

Here's something to consider, and take a little solace in, after you've stuffed yourself this Thanksgiving: Losing weight may be as easy as having soup and crackers for lunch a few times a week. A new study from researchers at Cornell University gives us encouragement to believe this simple advice, but for a reason that may not seem immediately obvious.

The study closely monitored the food intake of 17 volunteers who pigged out as much as they wanted at a lunch buffet for one week. For the next two weeks, half of the group switched to eating one of six commercially available, portion-controlled foods (can of soup, chili, pasta, etc), but were allowed to eat as much as they wanted at other meals and snacks. For the final two weeks, the other half of volunteers followed the same eating regimen.

The results: while eating portion-controlled lunches, each volunteer ate 250 fewer calories per day and lost an average of 1.1 pounds.

The reason may seem to be that the volunteers ate smaller lunches and therefore consumed fewer calories--full stop--but it's not quite that straightforward. Rather, the reason is that eating portion-controlled lunches did not result in the volunteers eating more calories during the rest of the day to compensate for less calories at lunch -- a result that contradicts conventional thinking about diets.

The "why," as suggested by the researchers, is that our brain doesn't possess a very effective mechanism for noticing small drops in energy intake. Making a few small reductions in energy intake during the week won't trigger an overcompensation response, and cumulatively that can yield significant weight loss. Over a year, the volunteers in this study following the simple regimen would lose at least 25 pounds.
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Surgery Outcomes Better With Some Fat on the Bones

2011-11-22T03:18:00.000-08:00

Surgical patients with a body mass index at the lower end of the normal range were more likely to die within 30 days of the procedure than those in the moderately overweight range, researchers found. Compared with patients with a BMI of 26.3 to 29.6, those with a value below 23.1 had a significantly higher risk of death (adjusted OR 1.40, 95% CI 1.25 to 1.58), according to an analysis of 189,533 surgeries performed in 2005 and 2006 and recorded in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database.

Patients with higher BMI values above 23.1 -- including the morbidly obese -- had about the same risk of 30-day mortality as the moderately overweight, George J. Stukenborg, PhD, of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, and colleagues, reported online in Archives of Surgery. But for some individual types of surgeries, obesity was associated with increased mortality, the researchers found.

"These individual types of procedures include procedures with which the general surgeon should have definite experience: colorectal resection, colostomy formation, cholecystectomy, hernia repair, mastectomy, and wound debridement," Stukenborg and colleagues wrote.

NSQIP data in the study were extracted from medical records at 183 participating hospitals. Those with low volumes reported all cases performed each year whereas high-volume hospitals reported the first 40 consecutive cases for 42 eight-day cycles each year.

Patients in the study were categorized into BMI quintiles, with values of less than 23.1 being the lowest and those above 35.2 being the highest. For the overall 30-day mortality risk calculation, the middle quintile -- 26.3 to 29.6 -- served as the reference. BMI values of 20 to 25 are considered normal. A value of 30 is the standard threshold separating overweight from frank obesity.
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New Stent Type Has Rare But Potentially Serious Problem, FDA Investigates

2011-11-20T21:28:00.000-08:00

The FDA says it is working with drug-eluting stent makers to better understand what makes the devices shrink or become deformed on rare occasions. A drug-eluting stent is a scaffold placed into narrowed, diseased peripheral or coronary arteries; it releases a medication to block cell proliferation, which helps prevent eventual reclogging of the blood vessel. The DES (drug-eluting stent) is placed during an angioplasty procedure.

The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) says it is working closely with Boston Scientific Corp. the makers of several devices, including the Ion and Promus. The Ion stent was approved by the FDA this year, while earlier in 2011 Boston submitted the Promus Element for approval.

The FDA said to Reuters news agency: "FDA is actively working with (drug-eluting stent) manufacturers, including Boston Scientific, to better understand longitudinal stent deformation with respect to its causes, predisposing underlying anatomic conditions, operator techniques that can reduce the likelihood of its occurrence, and treatment strategies should it occur."
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Eat Like an Okinawan - LIVE LONGER

2011-11-16T11:39:00.000-08:00

A few years ago scientists were studying Cretans for clues to their longevity. The conclusion: high consumption of olive oil, fruits, grains, and vegetables, plus lots of hard physical work, was what kept heart disease rates low on Crete and in other parts of Greece. Now another island, Okinawa, is in the news, thanks to a best-selling book called The Okinawa Program, by researchers Bradley and Craig Willcox and Makoto Suzuki.

Okinawa is one of the Ryukyu islands south of Japan; in 1945 it was the site of one of World War II's bloodiest battles as U.S. forces pushed toward the Japanese mainland. Though the island was returned to Japan in the early 1970s, the U.S. still maintains large military bases there.

Since 1976 the Japanese Ministry of Health has been studying older Okinawans (who live in traditional cultures presumably unaffected by the American presence), hoping to unlock the secrets of their amazing good health. What's most interesting about them is that they have the longest disability-free life expectancy in the world. Okinawa boasts the highest percentage of centenarians anywhere. Heart disease rates are low: 80% fewer heart attacks than Americans, and Okinawans who have heart attacks are more likely to survive. Breast and prostate cancer are so rare as to be unheard of among the older population. Obesity is equally rare. Smoking, the reader is led to conclude, is also rare among older Okinawans, though the book cites no statistics.
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Looking at the link between diabetes and dementia

2011-11-08T11:51:00.000-08:00

Researchers look at preventing memory disorders by controlling blood sugar now.
Two of the most worrisome trends in healthcare — the soaring rates of Type 2 diabetes and dementia — share several key biological processes. And scientists are beginning to think that is more than just a coincidence. Many researchers now believe that proper control of blood sugar could pay dividends in the future by reducing the number of people stricken by Alzheimer's disease, other forms of dementia and even the normal cognitive decline that comes with age.

The concept that brain diseases share little in common with diseases arising elsewhere in the body is rapidly crumbling, says Debra Cherry, executive vice president of the Alzheimer's Assn. California Southland. The key characteristics found in the development of heart disease and stroke — clogged arteries and inflammation in cells — also affect the brain. On the flip side, she adds, "what is good for the reduction of diabetes risk is also good for reduction of the risk of cognitive impairment."

About 6.8 million people in the U.S. have some type of dementia. Alzheimer's disease is the most common, affecting 5.4 million people, a number that is projected to double by 2040, according to the Alzheimer's Assn. The cause of Alzheimer's is unknown, although studies show people with the disease have higher concentrations of clumps made up of a protein called beta amyloid in their brains. There are no treatments to slow or stop the disease process.

More than 8% of American adults and children have either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, a number that is expected to grow in conjunction with the rise in rates of obesity, which is a risk factor for the Type 2 form of the disease. Diabetes is diagnosed when the body can't produce enough insulin or use insulin properly to remove sugar from the bloodstream. When blood sugar remains too high, it can damage organs and lead to heart disease, kidney failure, nerve damage and many other complications. There are medications to lower blood sugar, and in severe cases, people with diabetes must take insulin.

Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in childhood and requires insulin, while Type 2 typically involves weight gain in adulthood. But both diseases could affect cognitive health later in life.

The relationship between diabetes and dementia diseases drew headlines in September when a large study conducted in Japan reported that people with diabetes are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. The study, published in the journal Neurology, found that even people with impaired glucose tolerance — a level of poor glucose control that precedes diabetes — were 35% more likely to develop some type of dementia.

An estimated 1 in 10 cases of dementia may be attributable to diabetes, says neurologist Dr. Geert Jan Biessels of Utrecht University in the Netherlands and a leading researcher on the relationship between the two diseases. These disorders may contribute to dementia decades before symptoms such as memory loss occur. Thus, he says, treating diabetes and the risk factors associated with it — such as hypertension and high cholesterol — may help prevent many dementia cases.

The disheartening failure in recent years to find effective treatments for Alzheimer's disease has caused researchers to look with extra interest at the link to diabetes and other diseases such as heart disease and stroke.

"We want to find ways of intervening before people develop cognitive impairment and dementia," says Dr. Denise G. Feil, a geriatric psychiatrist and clinical researcher at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.
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Treating Symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

2011-10-09T06:44:00.000-07:00

Do you suffer from pain or numbness in your wrist and hand? These could be symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, a nerve compression disorder that strikes women three times as often as men. Early treatment is essential to avoid permanent damage. Find out what causes this ailment, how to get carpal tunnel relief, and preventive measures you can take…

You’re working at your desk, trying to ignore the tingling or numbness you’ve had for months in your hand and wrist. Suddenly, a sharp, piercing pain shoots through the wrist and up your arm. Just a passing cramp? More likely you have symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful progressive condition caused by compression of a key nerve in the wrist.

What is carpal tunnel syndrome?
It occurs when the median nerve, which runs from the forearm into the hand, becomes pressed or squeezed at the wrist. This nerve controls sensations to the palm side of the thumb and fingers (although not the little finger), as well as impulses to some small muscles in the hand that allow the fingers and thumb to move.
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These Four Things Happen Right Before a Heart Attack Read more on Newsmax.com: These Four Silent Heart Attack Symptoms Happen Right Before a Heart At

2011-10-09T06:35:00.000-07:00

Every year, approximately 785,000 Americans suffer a first heart attack. And 470,000 who’ve already had one or more heart attacks have another one. The scary thing is that 25 percent of ALL heart attacks happen “silently,” without clear or obvious symptoms.

Even when symptoms occur, they can be so mild or vague, most people don’t even realize it’s heart-related (unless they are made aware). Four things in particular are the most sinister signs of a silent heart attack.

These four things are the focus of a recent video presentation by renowned cardiovascular expert Dr. Chauncey Crandall: Silent Heart Attacks: A Special Newsmax Heart Health Report. According to Dr. Crandall, the reason silent heart attacks go untreated is because people don’t even notice the symptoms, so he created a special video presentation to show the four things to look for that may be a silent warning — before it’s too late to intervene and survive the damage.
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Editor’s Note: For a limited time, Newsmax Health is making Silent Heart Attacks: A Special Newsmax Heart Health Report available at no charge. Click here to see the four things that happen before a heart attack
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Time for the Flu Vaccine

2011-10-08T03:47:00.000-07:00

Influenza specialist Kristin Nichol, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School, says both new flu shots may come to occupy a "special niche" in the arsenal against influenza. "It's very exciting to have these new vaccines available," she says.

As for the nasal spray flu vaccine that was first introduced in 2003, it is a weakened live vaccine recommended only for those ages 2 to 49; those 50 and older should not get it. Although an annual flu shot for older people has long been a mainstay of U.S. public health policy, the last several years have brought increasing debate among experts about just how effective the vaccine is in older people.

Research has suggested that getting the shot decreases an older person's chances of being hospitalized for flu or pneumonia, and of dying. But studies also make clear that the vaccine doesn't always protect older men and women against the flu. That's partly because the vaccine works by stimulating the body's own immune reaction — and the aging immune system tends to mount a weaker protective response.
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Am I Having a Heart Attack?

2011-10-08T03:34:00.000-07:00

Spending precious minutes searching for information about heart attack symptoms as you experience them is not wise, doctors say, because "time is heart muscle." If you suspect you're having a heart attack, call for an ambulance immediately. And don't be embarrassed if it turns out you're not.

"It's not always straightforward," says Tomaselli. "If you develop the classic symptoms — pressing chest pain, sweating, nausea — then you're pretty clear that there's a big problem that needs to be dealt with quickly." But, he says, many people, especially women, may develop completely different symptoms when experiencing a heart attack.

Chest pain: Most people do call 911 or get to the hospital if they feel like they've got an elephant sitting on their chest, but even this most common heart attack symptom may be hard to recognize.
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Eggs May Increase Risk Of Lethal Prostate Cancer In Healthy Men

2011-10-02T07:15:00.000-07:00

Eating eggs may increase men's risk of developing the more lethal form of prostate cancer, concluded US researchers in a study published recently in the journal Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

First author Erin L. Richman from the department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and colleagues, write that we already know red and processed meat may increase risk of advanced prostate cancer, and although post-diagnostic data on diet and prostate cancer is "sparse", there have been suggestions that eating poultry with skin and eggs may hasten the progress of the disease.

So they decided to do a study using dietary data from 27,607 men who had been followed from 1994 to 2008 and who had no cancer at the start of the period. This group included men who developed prostate cancer that spread to other organs and also who died from the disease, enabling the researchers to examine total, unprocessed and processed red meat, poultry and egg intake in relation to risk of lethal prostate cancer.

The researchers report that for the risk analysis, they noted there were 199 observed events over 306,715 person years (when you multiply the number of people observed by the number of years each was followed for and compare this to the number of events you are interested in observing, you get a sense of how populated the "map" of available data points for analysis is).

They found that men who ate 2.5 eggs or more a week had a significant 81% higher risk of developing lethal prostate cancer compared to men who ate fewer than 0.5 eggs a week on average. For the case-only survival analysis, they observed 123 events during 19,354 person-years. From these data points they found a suggestion, but this was not statistically significant, that eating poultry and processed red meat after a diagnosis of localized prostate cancer was linked to progression to lethal disease.

The researchers conclude that "consumption of eggs may increase risk of developing a lethal form of prostate cancer among healthy men".
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Thriving with flax seed oil

2011-09-26T10:48:00.000-07:00

Having to take medications for high cholesterol has become quite the norm. From the age of 20, doctors warned me of dangerously high cholesterol. And yes, it’s all bad and not good cholesterol.

At 30, my physician recommended Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease. In this trailblazing treatise based on years of critically acclaimed research, we learn that diet, exercise and mental health consistently result in a rapid reversal of plaque build-up in the coronary arteries that surround the heart. So with less plaque, there is less likelihood of a heart attack by 40.

At nearly 50, now, I live a healthy, physically active life – one free of expensive cholesterol-reducing drugs. Two other books worth skimming are T. Colin Campbell’s The China Study and Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr.’s Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.

So what is it about flax seed oil that is so beneficial? It is high in oils containing omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. These are low in saturated fats and high in mono- and polyunsaturated fats. These oils (1) reduce the cholesterol carried in the blood and (2) increase the good to bad cholesterol ratio.

Good flax seed oil is best obtained in the refrigerated sections of health food stores. A few spoons of the bitter oil can be added to things like spaghetti sauce, Texas chili or even curried veggies with no negative change in flavor. Put the oil in hot foods, but never cook with it.

Because flax seed oil is bitter, it is more difficult to use as salad oil. A tasty compromise is to use sweet balsamic vinegar with spices to offset the bitter aftertaste. On top of a quickly prepared chopped salad, this dressing provides a rich flavor and adds years to our good health. Enjoy!

hanz on thriving

Chopped salad

1/4 cored green cabbage

1/8 cored red cabbage

Chop cabbage strips at a right angle.

2 medium carrots

1-2 sweet apples

Juice of 1/2 – 1 lemon

Chop cabbage into roughly 1/4 inch squares. Set chopped cabbage aside for mixing. Use a coarse cheese grater to grate carrots and add to chopped cabbage. Core, but do not peel apple(s) and chop up into fine pieces. Add to the chopped salad and toss with lemon juice to keep the cut apple from turning brown.

There are many other ingredients that may be added to taste: radish, jicama, tomatoes, avocado, celery, green onion, red pepper, etc.

Balsamic and flax seed oil dressing

1/4 cup flax seed oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute

Add the Seasoning to the vinegar. Shake and add the flax seed oil. Refrigerate dressing for at least one hour before serving.
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Scientists discover virus that kills all types of breast cancer ‘within seven days’

2011-09-24T05:02:00.000-07:00

Tags: breast cancer cells, cervical cancer cells, penn state scientists

Scientists at the Penn State College of Medicine said this week they have discovered a virus that is capable of killing all types of breast cancer "within seven days" of first introduction in a laboratory setting.

The virus, known as adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2), is naturally occurring and carried by up to 80 percent of humans, but it does not cause any disease.

Researchers learned of its cancer-killing properties in 2005, after Penn State scientists observed it killing cervical cancer cells. They also found that women who carried the AAV2 virus and human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer, had a lower propensity to develop cervical cancer.

When combined in a lab recently, AAV2 eradicated all the breast cancer cells "within seven days," according to researchers. Better still, it proved capable of wiping out cancer cells at multiple stages, negating the need for differing treatments used today.

"If we can determine which viral genes are being used, we may be able to introduce those genes into a [therapy]," explained Penn State research associate Samina Alam. "If we can determine which pathways the virus is triggering, we can then screen new drugs that target those pathways. Or we may simply be able to use the virus itself."

The Center for Disease Control says that breast cancer is the most common type of cancer affecting American women, causing more deaths than any other form of the disease.

The American Cancer Society estimates that up to 39,520 women in the U.S. will die from cancer just this year, out of about 230,480 new cases discovered by doctors.
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Are Glucose Guidelines Too Strict?

2011-09-12T03:52:00.000-07:00

Are Glucose Guidelines Too Strict: There is a radical new idea being discussed in diabetes care. If you read articles here long enough you will find experts that advocate very strict control of blood glucose. Some medical practitioners are now saying it may be time to lighten up a bit on treatment options.

For this report we are relying heavily on a self-penned article by Dr. John Morley in the stltoday.com website. Morley begins by stating, “As an endocrinologist, I have spent more than 30 years trying to lower the sugar levels in diabetics to a normal level. As a diabetic, I have tried to keep my fasting glucose level below 100 mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter) and my hemoglobin A1C (or glycated hemoglobin level) below 6 percent.”

It should be noted that as a diabetic Morley has a vested interest in keeping his own glucose levels under control, yet it seems he struggles with new information, “Three studies conducted during the past couple of years are causing me to rethink my approach to treating diabetes.

“The most dramatic was published this year. Craig Currie and his Cardiff University colleagues examined two groups of more than 20,000 patients in the United Kingdom who were being treated for diabetes. Members of both groups were at least 50 years old. The researchers found that those who were least likely to die had a hemoglobin A1C of 7.5 percent. This is higher than the American Diabetes Association’s recommended hemoglobin A1C level of 7 percent or lower. Those who took insulin, researchers said, had worse outcomes,” said Morley.

In scientific times past there were instances where beliefs were challenged with new information and resulting changes provided improved health care, but does this new information really mean A1C levels no longer matter? Morley continues, “The finding has created a major conundrum for those of us who are diabetic or treat people with diabetes. Rather than trying to reduce the glycated hemoglobin level to close to normal, we should try to keep a patient’s HbA1C in the range of 7 percent to 8 percent. Further support for this strategy comes from studies in older people that suggest patients with HbA1C levels below 7 percent are more likely to fall.

“The reasons for these findings are uncertain. Possibly tight control of glycated hemoglobin levels leads to a condition called hypoglycemia, which occurs when blood sugar levels dip too low.”

Morley then discussed the potential for new diabetic drugs to interfere with normal heart health or provide accumulated fat that can clog arteries. It almost seems as if Morley may be considering the potential of returning to a more simplified approach to managed care.

Morley concludes by asking and answering his own question, “So how will I treat diabetes? Of the medicines for diabetes, the drug that has clearly been shown to decrease death is metformin. The bottom line: I’ll suggest my patients who have type 2 diabetes use metformin and make lifestyle changes — especially exercise — which is the treatment of choice.”

It is interesting that no matter where a medical practitioner ultimately stands on the pharmaceutical side of diabetes care the common denominator in overall health care seems to revert to lifestyle alterations that include watching the foods you eat and working to maintain a healthy weight through exercise. These two approaches can help avert diabetes and can help lessen the effects post-diagnosis.
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Osteoporosis Drugs Must State How Long Patients Should Take Them

2011-09-12T02:34:00.000-07:00

Osteoporosis drugmakers must clarify how long patients should take the popular treatments in order to prevent harmful side effects, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted Friday.

The drugs are known as biphosphonates, and include bestsellings brands osamax, Boniva, Actonel, Atelvia and Reclast. The FDA itself will determine later whether they will be required to state how long patients should take each drug, but it's still unclear how long that might be.

According to the FDA, in 2009 more than 5 million prescriptions were filled for bisphosphonates, which reverse dangerous thinning of bones, preventing hip and spine fractures that cause pain and can result in serious health problems and hospitalizations.

At the meeting Friday in Adelphi, Md., a panel of advisers to the FDA reviewed details of several studies. A few patients have suffered serious complications, including jawbone destruction, unusual thighbone fractures and cancer of the esophagus after several years of taking the medications, and some have sued the drugs' makers.

Dr. Elizabeth Shane, past president of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, told HealthDay that side effects like atypical fractures and osteonecrosis of the jaw are "extremely rare, when considered in the context of how many people take bisphosphonates for osteoporosis." She was "less certain about the esophageal cancer issue...but when you consider the number of very dangerous, life-threatening fractures that are prevented by these drugs, the benefits dwarf the side effects," Shane, a professor of medicine at Columbia University, told reporters.

"I am really not in favor of putting a limit on use of bisphosphonates and dictating the use of drug holidays," Shane said.
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U.S. News Best Hospitals 2011-12

2011-08-31T04:46:00.000-07:00

U.S. News surveyed nearly 10,000 specialists and sifted through data for almost 5,000 hospitals to rank the best in 16 adult specialties, from cancer to urology. Death rates, patient safety, and hospital reputation were a few of the factors considered. Only 140 hospitals were nationally ranked in one or more specialties. The Honor Roll features the 17 that scored near the top in at least six specialties.
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Hip Implant Complaints Surge, Even as the Dangers Are Studied

2011-08-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

The federal government has received a surge in complaints in recent months about failed hip replacements, suggesting that serious problems persist with some types of artificial hips even as researchers scramble to evaluate the health dangers.

An analysis of federal data by The New York Times indicates that the Food and Drug Administration has received more than 5,000 reports since January about several widely used devices known as metal-on-metal hips, more than the agency had received about those devices in the previous four years combined.

The vast majority of filings appear to reflect patients who have had an all-metal hip removed, or will soon undergo such a procedure because a device failed after only a few years; typically, replacement hips last 15 years or more.

The mounting complaints confirm what many experts have feared — that all-metal replacement hips are on a trajectory to become the biggest and most costly medical implant problem since Medtronic recalled a widely used heart device component in 2007. About 7,700 complaints have been filed in connection with that recall.

Though immediate problems with the hip implants are not life-threatening, some patients have suffered crippling injuries caused by tiny particles of cobalt and chromium that the metal devices shed as they wear.

Hip replacement is one of the most common procedures in the United States and, until a recent sharp decline, all-metal implants — one in which both the artificial ball and cup are made of metal — accounted for nearly one-third of the estimated 250,000 replacements performed each year. According to one estimate, some 500,000 patients have received an all-metal replacement hip.

One of the most problematic devices, the A.S.R., or Articular Surface Replacement, was recalled last year by Johnson & Johnson and accounted for 75 percent of the complaints reviewed by The Times. A precise count of failed implants reported to the F.D.A. is hard to come by because of the agency’s overlapping reporting system, though The Times sought to eliminate duplicate reports about the same incident. Some complaints came from outside the United States.

Under F.D.A. rules, many all-metal devices were sold without testing in patients or without a requirement that producers track their performance. But in an unusual intervention, the F.D.A. in May ordered producers to study how frequently the devices were failing and to examine the threat to patients. Now, researchers say, producers face substantial hurdles in recruiting the hundreds of patients needed to conduct sound studies because of the lack of patient registries.
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Cholesterol-Lowering Foods Reduce LDL Levels More Than Low-Fat Foods

2011-08-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

Millions of Americans pop statins to keep their cholesterol levels down. But new research suggests that cholesterol-friendly foods, such as soy products and tree nuts, may also contribute to lowering LDL, or "bad," cholesterol levels.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that people who ate a healthy diet filled with cholesterol-lowering foods experienced a 13 percent decrease in their LDL cholesterol levels. Those who followed a diet low in saturated fats experienced a 3 percent decrease.

"The main takeaway here is that people can lower their cholesterol with diet if they put their minds to it," said Dr. David Jenkins, a professor of nutrition and metabolism at University of Toronto and lead author of the study. "These can be small changes. We're not asking people to live behind bars."

Jenkins created the "portfolio diet," which combines foods that allow maximum benefit in lowering cholesterol and preventing heart disease. The regimen includes regular consumption of tree nuts and high amounts of fiber from oats, barley and vegetables. The diet says to replace butter with plant sterol-enriched margarine and substitute soy-based products for meat.

"Replacing sources of saturated fat, such as red meat and dairy products, with sources of healthy fats, such as nuts and soy products will definitely have greater benefits than replacing red meat and dairy products with carbohydrates," said Dr. Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Lower Your Cholesterol Without Medication

Before suggesting medication, doctors generally encourage high cholesterol patients to change their diet and lifestyle. If noninvasive measures do not sufficiently lower the levels, they will often prescribe statin drugs, which reduce the production of cholesterol in the liver.

"Diet should be used with drugs to reach LDL and non-HDL cholesterol goals," Dr. Robert Eckel, director of the General Clinic Research Center at Colorado Health Science University, wrote in an email to ABCNews.com. "The bulk of evidence indicates the importance of fruits and vegetables, whole grains (fiber), lean poultry and fish to reduce cardiovascular disease risk."

"If goals are not reached with lifestyle changes (including appropriate amounts of physical activity), statins are the drug of choice to reduce cardiovascular disease risk," continued Eckel.

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Heart Patients in Marital Bliss May Live Long After Bypass Surgery

2011-08-23T07:42:00.000-07:00

New research found that happily married couples who have undergone heart bypass surgery are more than three times as likely to survive 15 years post surgery, than those who are unmarried. A happy marriage can play just as big a role as good heart health after quitting smoking, losing weight or keeping a low blood pressure, experts say. University of Rochester researchers surveyed 225 people who had undergone bypass surgery between 1987 and 1990, asking them about their marital status at the time of surgery and to rate their marital satisfaction a year after their operations.

In the study, published in the Aug. 22 issue of Health Psychology of the American Psychological Association, married cardiac patients who had bypass surgery were two-and-a-half times more likely to survive another 15 years or more than those who were single at the time of their surgery. "There is something in a good relationship that helps people stay on track," said Kathleen King, lead author of the study and a professor emeritus of nursing at the university.

Fifteen years after bypass surgery, 83 percent of wives deemed happily married were still alive, compared to 28 percent of women in unhappy marriages and 27 percent of unmarried women, the study found. Among men, 83 percent of happily married husbands were alive 15 years after bypass surgery, compared to 60 percent of men in less-than-satisfying marriages and 36 percent of unmarried men.

Researchers noted that married patients who reported a "satisfying" relationship got the biggest boost in survival and satisfied wives especially benefited. Harry Reis, coauthor of the study and a psychology professor at the university, said marital satisfaction is "every bit as important to survival after bypass surgery as more traditional risk factors like tobacco use, obesity and high blood pressure."

Reis said wives need to feel satisfied in their relationships to get a health benefit, even though "the payoff for marital bliss is even greater for women than for men." The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Las Vegas.
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Johnson & Johnson Hip Replacement Lawsuit Spearheaded by Houston Attorney

2011-07-30T05:24:00.000-07:00

A "medical disaster" has occurred and a Texas attorney is, in his opinion, working to clean up the mess. Ed Blizzard is a heavy-hitting, Houston-based pharmaceutical injury lawyer and mass tort litigation expert. As a chief negotiator in a 1990s case against Dow Corning -- which was found to have harmed close to 200,000 women with its silicone breast implants -- Blizzard helped to win a $3.2 billion settlement against the pharmaceutical giant. The attorney has also taken down Merck for $4.5 billion, Glaxo, Pfizer and more.

Now, the plaintiffs lawyer is going head to head with the big boys of Johnson & Johnson over what Dr. Thomas Joyce, a biomedical engineering professor at Newcastle University (United Kingdom), recently called "the biggest disaster in the history of orthopedics." In 2010, The New York Times exposed Johnson & Johnson subsidiary DePuy Orthopedics for surgically implanting faulty artificial hips that were designed to last 15 years or more, but instead failed after just a few years.

"What has happened is the friction of metal on metal has caused a shedding of metal debris that causes bone erosion and tissue death," says Blizzard. "The longer it goes on, the more likely it is that when it gets removed, the second revision surgery will not be a success." The metallic debris can include cobalt and chromium, which some medical professionals claim are cancer-causing agents.

When words fail him, the attorney points to a Blizzard, McCarthy & Nabers presentation dubbed "DePuy Implant Looks Like a Maserati but Performs Like a Pinto," which includes some absolutely disgusting and graphic photos of hip-replacement surgeries. (Trust us, we're doing you a favor by withholding the images.)

Blizzard explains that there are two separate litigations in the works against DePuy. One involves more than 1,000 nationwide complaints with the brand -- on August 24, 2010, Johnson & Johnson recalled approximately 93,000 of these devices -- while the other is the older hip implant Pinnacle, which, as of the time this post was published, had not been recalled.
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LINK BETWEEN PTSD AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

2011-07-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System

11301 Wilshire Boulevard, B500 Rm6005C

Los Angeles, CA 90073

Contact: Wileen Hernandez

310-268-3340

wileen.hernandez@va.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RESEARCHERS AT LOS ANGELES VA FIND LINK BETWEEN PTSD AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

LOS ANGELES, CA., July 26 - VA Greater Los Angeles (GLA) researchers Dr. Naser Ahmadi and Dr. Ramin Ebrahimi have found a link between cardiovascular disease and PTSD.

The study conducted is the first of its kind to make a direct association between PTSD and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Dr. Ahmadi and Dr. Ebrahimi want veterans and other individuals to know that while PTSD is a psychological/psychiatric disorder, it could have significant medical consequences. “PTSD may increase the risk of other medical disorders,” said Dr. Ebrahimi, VA GLA Researcher.

The population of veterans involved in the study (637 veterans) consisted of veterans without known coronary artery disease. Those veterans were then scanned for clinical indicators and their psychological health status (PTSD and without PTSD). In subjects with PTSD, coronary artery calcium (CAC) was more prevalent than those without PTSD. Also, risk of death in each CAC category was higher in subjects with PTSD than those without PTSD.

Both researchers hope that with these findings, the association between PTSD and cardiovascular disorders are studied more closely to improve the care provided to patients.

Should you have further questions or concerns regarding this matter, please contact our public affairs office at (310) 268-3340.

About the VAGLAHS: VAGLAHS is the largest, most complex healthcare system within the Department of Veterans Affairs. GLA consists of three ambulatory care centers, a tertiary care facility, and 10 outpatient clinics.

GLA serves Veterans residing throughout five counties: Los Angeles, Ventura, Kern, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo. There are 1.4 million Veterans in the GLA service area.
Visit us on the web for more information www.losangeles.va.gov

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Lab-made organ implanted for first time

2011-07-10T05:42:00.000-07:00

For the first time, a patient has received a synthetic windpipe that was created in a lab with the patient's own stem cells and without using human donor tissue, researchers said Thursday. Previous lab-generated transplants either used a segment of donor windpipe or involved tissue only, not an organ.
In a laboratory in London, scientists created a trachea, which is a tube-like airway that connects at the voice box and branches into both lungs.
On June 9, doctors implanted this synthetic windpipe into a 36-year-old man with late-stage tracheal cancer at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. The patient is doing well and is expected to be released from the hospital Friday, said Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, professor of regenerative medicine there. Tracheal cancers are extremely rare, accounting for less than 1% of all cancers.

After the patient's initial diagnosis in 2008, he had exhausted every treatment available, including chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, Macchiarini said. The patient, an Eritrean who had been studying in Iceland, is the subject of a BBC documentary airing Thursday in Sweden.

His tumor had almost blocked his windpipe, doctors said. Rather than waiting for a transplant, his doctors suggested growing an organ. Scientists created a Y-shaped framework for the new trachea, modeling it after the specific shape of the patient's windpipe. The form was made of polymers that had a spongy and flexible texture. Stiff rings around the tube mimicked the structure of a human trachea.
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Study: Mammograms reduce cancer deaths 30%

2011-06-28T06:47:00.000-07:00

"What this tells us is that, in the long term, screening for breast cancer is a very good investment," said epidemiologist Robert A. Smith, director of cancer screening at the American Cancer Society and a coauthor of the paper appearing in the journal Radiology.

Critics had argued that overuse of the procedure produced too many false positives, requiring many women to undergo unnecessary invasive procedures — which have risks of their own — to rule out the presence of a tumor.

"There is little question that there is some overdiagnosis," Smith said, "but the number we have identified is really quite small. We estimated it is less than half the number of lives saved, so it is really pretty low."

The findings are "a really big deal," said Dr. Loretta Lawrence, chief of breast imaging at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y. "A 30% reduction in mortality translates to 15,000 to 20,000 lives saved by mammography screening each year."

The new study does not address the controversy surrounding the value of screening women in their 40s because the results did not stratify women by age. Nor does it address the controversial issue of how frequently a woman should have a mammogram: In the U.S., annual mammograms are generally recommended, and some scientists have argued that the period between screens should be lengthened. The women in the study were screened less frequently: every 24 months for women aged 40 to 49, and every 33 months for older women.The longest study yet to examine women who undergo mammography shows that it reduces deaths from breast cancer by at least 30%, a finding that many doctors say may help ease the recent controversy surrounding the procedure.

The three-decade study in Sweden showed that one breast cancer death can be prevented for every 414 to 519 women who are screened, a much lower number than the 1,000 to 1,500 that had been projected in previous studies.
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Research shows promise in reversing Type 1 diabetes

2011-06-24T20:19:00.000-07:00

Preliminary experiments in a handful of people suggest that it might be possible to reverse Type 1 diabetes using an inexpensive vaccine to stop the immune system from attacking cells in the pancreas. Research in mice had already shown that the tuberculosis vaccine called BCG, prevents T cells from destroying insulin-secreting cells, allowing the pancreas to regenerate and begin producing insulin again, curing the disease.

Now tests with very low doses of the vaccine in humans show transient increases in insulin production, researchers will report Sunday at a San Diego meeting of the American Diabetes Assn. The Massachusetts General Hospital team is now gearing up to use higher doses of the vaccine in larger numbers of people in an effort to increase and prolong the response.

The findings contradict an essential paradigm of diabetes therapy — that once the insulin-secreting beta cells of the pancreas have been destroyed, they are gone forever. Because of that belief, most research today focuses on using vaccines to prevent the cells' destruction in the first place, or on using beta cell transplants to replace the destroyed cells.

The new findings, however, hint that even in patients with long-standing diabetes, the body retains the potential to restore pancreas function if clinicians can only block the parts of the immune system that are killing the beta cells.
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Weight loss surgery may cure obese diabetics: study

2011-06-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

Most obese people with diabetes will be cured of it by weight loss surgery, with gastric bypass surgery allowing more than 80 percent of patients to come off their diabetes medication, according to a study. The report in Archives of Surgery concerned a review of earlier studies led by Rick Meijer, at the Institute for Cardiovascular Research at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, who said the findings exceeded what was possible with more conventional diabetes treatments.

Meijer and his colleagues pooled data from nine studies of diabetics who underwent either a gastric bypass -- which makes the stomach smaller and allows food to bypass part of the small intestine -- or gastric band surgery, in which the capacity of the stomach is reduced by using an adjustable band.

"In standard practice, only a very minor group of individuals with an iron will can lose enough weight to be cured from type 2 diabetes mellitus," Meijer said in an email to Reuters Health, referring to the most common type of diabetes. After gastric bypass, 83 percent of patients could stop taking their diabetes medications, some within days of the surgery. After gastric banding, 62 percent could stop.
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Type 2 diabetes in newly diagnosed 'can be reversed'

2011-06-24T03:10:00.000-07:00

An extreme eight-week diet of 600 calories a day can reverse Type 2 diabetes in people newly diagnosed with the disease, says a Diabetologia study. Newcastle University researchers found the low-calorie diet reduced fat levels in the pancreas and liver, which helped insulin production return to normal. Seven out of 11 people studied were free of diabetes three months later, say findings published in the journal. More research is needed to see whether the reversal is permanent, say experts.

Type 2 diabetes affects 2.5m people in the UK. It develops when not enough insulin is produced in the body or the insulin that is made by the body doesn't work properly. When this happens, glucose - a type of sugar - builds up in the blood instead of being broken down into energy or fuel which the body needs.

The 11 participants in the study were all diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes within the previous four years. They cut their food intake drastically for two months, eating only liquid diet drinks and non-starchy vegetables.

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FDA says decision to put silicone breast implants back on market was the right one

2011-06-22T09:02:00.000-07:00

Five years after allowing silicone breast implants back on the market, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that further studies showed that the decision was sound. The FDA was criticized by consumer groups in 2006 for approving the implants after a 14-year hiatus because of widespread fear that they caused a wide range of illnesses.

But research by the two manufacturers of the implants, released in a report Wednesday, indicates that they have a "reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness" when used properly, the FDA said. "I don't know what the critics will ultimately say," said Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, in an interview, "but what we can say is the current data doesn't indicate that silicone-gel-filled breast implants are linked to breast cancer or connective tissue disease or infertility."

Until 2006, women seeking implants for cosmetic reasons had been limited to the less-popular saline variety, which stayed on the market. But the report was also quick to warn consumers against the assumption that silicone implants are risk free. Patients should still get MRIs every two years to screen for "silent ruptures" of the silicone implants, which don't deflate when they break, as saline implants do.

The FDA effectively banned them in 1992, after fears arose of a possible link between the implants and certain autoimmune diseases. Their use was restricted to mastectomy patients participating in clinical trials. At the time, some in the medical research community criticized the ban, saying the decision was based on public opinion, not science – and that in fact little evidence existed on either side of the debate. What followed was a rash of lawsuits by women claiming leaked silicon from burst implants had caused ailments including lupus, cancer and arthritis. Dow Corning, the biggest manufacturer of silicone implants at the time, went bankrupt after settling a $4-billion class-action suit brought by women claiming injuries. Since then, there have been a number of major studies that show no link between the silicone implants and connective tissue disease, reproductive problems or breast cancer.

The report summarizes initial findings by the devices' manufacturers, Santa Barbara-based Mentor Inc. and Irvine-based Allergan, which were required to conduct post-approval studies on more than 80,000 women over 10 years. Five years in, the evidence doesn't link silicone implants to such diseases. This is welcome news to the more than 300,000 women who received breast implants last year, more than 60% of whom opted for silicone. The studies, however, will continue. Mentor and Allergan will be required to continue the research until 2016.
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Free-moving Japan robot camera may ease stomach exams

2011-06-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

A tiny, free-moving capsule camera with fins that can be gulped down and controlled remotely may one day make stomach exams much easier to handle. Japanese scientists and medical researchers say they have successfully tried out what they believe to be the world's first free-moving, fin-equipped capsule camera small enough to be swallowed and swim through the human digestive tract.

"This shape had to be something that people can swallow, and thus move around freely inside the body and take a picture," said Kazuhide Higuchi at Osaka Medical College in western Japan, one of the lead researchers, to a local broadcaster. Capsule cameras already exist but most are propelled through the stomach and intestine by peristalsis, the movement of muscles in the digestive tract, limiting their usefulness, said Higuchi and fellow researchers on their website.

But thanks to their efforts, and that of colleagues at Ryukoku University, a capsule has been given magnetic field-powered fins that help it swim around on remote control as it sends pictures back to the examining doctors.
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Simvastatin can damage muscles in high doses

2011-06-08T23:45:00.000-07:00

The cholesterol-lowering drug simvastatin can cause severe muscle damage and should not be prescribed in high doses to patients who have taken it for less than a year or in any dose to people taking certain drugs, health officials said Tuesday. Last year, doctors wrote 94 million prescriptions for the two brand-name drugs, according to IMS Health, which tracks the medical marketplace. Millions more people take generic versions of the drug, says Michael Rosenblatt, chief medical officer of Merck & Co. Inc., the company that developed simvastatin.

Rosenblatt says it is crucial to alert people taking the drug to the link between simvastatin and muscle damage, which was bolstered by a Food and Drug Administration review announced last March. Research has shown that the highest dose of simvastatin, 80 milligrams, causes muscle damage in 61 of every 1,000 patients, far higher than the eight-per-10,000 rate in patients taking a 40-milligram dose, Rosenblatt says. About 12% of people taking Merck's simvastatin, or 1.2 million people, are taking the 80-milligram dose. "We really want to get the word out," he says.

The FDA said any patient now taking the 80-milligram dose of simvastatin who has been on it less than a year should be switched to a different cholesterol-lowering statin of equal potency. Patients taking any dose of simvastatin who are also taking certain anti-fungal drugs, antibiotics or protease inhibitors for treating HIV should also be switched to other statins.

Patients taking certain heart drugs should be switched to a lower dose.
"We don't want patients stopping their medicine on their own. We want them to call their doctors," Rosenblatt says. "They're on this medicine because their high cholesterol puts them at high risk of cardiac events." All of the statins have been linked with muscle injury and rare cases of muscle breakdown, a condition called rhabdomyolysis, which occurs in about five of every 100,000 patients taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
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Breast cancer drug with fewer side effects found to cut risk of tumors

2011-06-04T14:55:00.000-07:00

Exemestane, sold under the brand name Aromasin, can reduce the risk of tumors by 65% among menopausal women prone to develop breast cancer, researchers say. It's already used to treat breast cancer and does not appear to have the lethal side effects of tamoxifen or raloxifene.

Exemestane, sold under the brand name Aromasin, provides an even greater reduction in risk and so far does not appear to have those lethal side effects, a team headed by Dr. Paul E. Goss of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center reported at a Chicago meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Exemestane thus provides an alternative for women who wish to avoid severe side effects, and some experts predict that the number of women taking prophylactic therapy should increase significantly, particularly since the drug is already on the market for fighting breast cancer and physicians can prescribe it for any purpose they choose.

"Breast cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer in and one of the most feared diagnoses for women in the United States," Dr. Nancy E. Davidson and Dr. Thomas W. Kensler of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute wrote in an editorial accompanying the report. "We have the knowledge and tools to reduce its incidence today. We have run out of excuses. What are we waiting for?"

But Dr. Joanne Mortimer, director of the Women's Cancers Program at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte noted that, even though all three drugs have been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer, there is as yet no evidence that they reduce the risk of dying. That is why "most patients opt not to take them," she said.

Many studies have shown that estrogen produced by the body promotes breast tumors. Tamoxifen and raloxifene are so-called anti-estrogens that bind to receptors on the surface of breast tissue cells, preventing estrogen from binding. Exemestane, manufactured by Pfizer Inc., is one of a family of drugs called aromatase inhibitors, which block production of estrogen by the body. Astrazeneca's Arimidex and Novartis' Femara are members of the same family, but have not been tested for cancer prevention.
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A Good Night’s Sleep Isn’t a Luxury; It’s a Necessity

2011-06-04T00:11:00.000-07:00

In my younger years, I regarded sleep as a necessary evil, nature’s way of thwarting my desire to cram as many activities into a 24-hour day as possible. I frequently flew the red-eye from California, for instance, sailing (or so I thought) through the next day on less than four hours of uncomfortable sleep.

But my neglect was costing me in ways that I did not fully appreciate. My husband called our nights at the ballet and theater “Jane’s most expensive naps.” Eventually we relinquished our subscriptions. Driving, too, was dicey: twice I fell asleep at the wheel, narrowly avoiding disaster. I realize now that I was living in a state of chronic sleep deprivation.

I don’t want to nod off during cultural events, and I no longer have my husband to spell me at the wheel. I also don’t want to compromise my ability to think and react. As research cited recently in this newspaper’s magazine found, “The sleep-deprived among us are lousy judges of our own sleep needs. We are not nearly as sharp as we think we are.”

Studies have shown that people function best after seven to eight hours of sleep, so I now aim for a solid seven hours, the amount associated with the lowest mortality rate. Yet on most nights something seems to interfere, keeping me up later than my intended lights-out at 10 p.m. — an essential household task, an e-mail requiring an urgent and thoughtful response, a condolence letter I never found time to write during the day, a long article that I must read.
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Aspirin May Reduce Prostate Cancer Deaths

2011-06-03T23:40:00.000-07:00

Men who use aspirin or other blood thinners after treatment for prostate cancer have a substantially lower risk of dying or seeing the cancer spread to another organ, new research shows. In a study of nearly 5,300 men with prostate cancer, only 4 percent of those taking blood-thinning medications such as aspirin had died from a recurrence of their cancer after 10 years, versus 10 percent of those not taking the medication — reducing the risk of dying from cancer by more than half.

Aspirin use may benefit prostate cancer patients. Blood thinners interfere with blood-clotting mechanisms, said Kevin Choe, M.D., a radiation oncologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and lead author of the study. "There is good evidence from laboratory studies which suggests that these clotting mechanisms play an important role in cancer growth and spread as well," Choe said.
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Prof. Konofagou Develops Method To Directly Diagnose Arrhythmias

2011-06-01T07:33:00.000-07:00

Abnormalities in cardiac conduction — the rate at which the heart conducts electrical impulses to contract and relax — are a major cause of death and disability around the world. Researchers at Columbia Engineering School lead by Professor Elisa Konofagou have been developing a new method, Electromechanical Wave Imaging (EWI), that is the first non-invasive direct technique to map the electrical activation of the heart. Based on ultrasound imaging, EWI will enable doctors to treat arrhythmias more efficiently and more precisely. The study was published online in the May 9 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Up until now, other research groups have mostly focused on measuring the electrical activation directly but invasively, through electrode contact, or non-invasively but indirectly, through complex mathematical modeling based on remote measurements. “This is an important breakthrough,” says Konofagou, an associate professor of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology at Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. “The approach we have chosen — to look at the minute deformations following the electrical activation of the heart — is both direct and noninvasive. Electromechanical Wave Imaging is also eminently translational as it can be incorporated into most ultrasound scanners already available in hospitals and clinics, and can be modified at little or no cost to use our technology.”

Using their EWI method, the Columbia Engineering team imaged the heart with ultrasound five times faster than standard echocardiography and mapped the local deformations of the heart with their images. The researchers then looked at small regions of the heart (just a few millimeters squared) and measured how much these regions were stretched or compressed every 2/1000s of a second. This enabled them to precisely identify at what time each region of the heart began to contract, a.k.a the electromechanical activation, in all four chambers of the heart. They compared their maps with the electrical activation sequence and found they were closely correlated, both at the natural rhythm of the heart and when the heart was artificially paced.

Arrhythmias occur when the normal electrical activation sequence in the heart is disrupted and their prevalence is expected to rise, as people live longer. In some cases, effective treatments exist. For example, a pacemaker can be surgically placed or a catheter can be brought into the cardiac chambers and used to burn diseased regions of the heart or pacing leads can be implanted in the heart to bypass the diseased conduction system and replace it by artificial electrical activation. But doctors can’t always tell where to ablate with a catheter or who will benefit from artificial electrical activation. EWI could help determine in advance which patients can benefit from these treatments or identify with more precision which regions of the heart should be ablated. It could also be used to adapt treatment parameters as the patient's condition evolves.
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Columbia University Engineers Patch A Heart

2011-06-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

Researchers at Columbia Engineering have established a new method to patch a damaged heart using a tissue-engineering platform that enables heart tissue to repair itself. This breakthrough, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is an important step forward in combating cardiovascular disease, one of the most serious health problems of our day.

Led by Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, professor of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, the researchers developed a novel cell therapy to treat myocardial infarction (heart damage that follows a heart attack). They were able, for the first time, to combine the use of human repair cells that were conditioned during in-vitro culture to maximize their ability to revascularize and improve blood flow to the infarcted tissue with a fully biological composite scaffold designed to deliver these cells to the damaged heart. With this platform, they could both keep the cells within the infarct bed (in contrast to the massive cell loss associated with infusion of cells alone) and enhance cell survival and function in the infarct bed, where most of the cells would have died because of the obstruction of their blood supply.

“We are very excited about this new technique,” said Dr. Vunjak-Novakovic. “This platform is very adaptable and we believe it could be readily extended to the delivery of other types of human stem cells we are interested in to rebuild the heart muscle and further our research of the mechanisms underlying heart repair.”
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Birth Control Pills: Some Carry Higher Risk of Blood Clots

2011-04-22T06:20:00.000-07:00

Two new studies add to the growing evidence that birth control pills containing a newer type of progestin may put some women at higher risk for blood clots.

Both studies, published today in the British Medical Journal, found that women who took pills containing drospirenone -- which includes the brands Yasmin, Yaz and Ocella -- more than doubled their risk of nonfatal blood clots when compared with those who took pills containing levonorgestrel, an older form of progestin, included in the brands Levlite or Levlen.

But the overall risk for blood clots with any birth control pill -- whether it contains drospirenone or levonorgestrel -- remains low, said Dr. Lauren Streicher, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.

"While there may be an increase in blood clots, it's important to keep in mind that the likelihood of developing a blood clot is so low in a low-risk population that a two- to three-fold increase may not translate to large absolute numbers," said Streicher.

Women who are pregnant are at higher risk for blood clots than women who are on the pill -- a blood clot occurs in one pregnant woman for every 1,000 to 1,500 pregnant women, while one in 3,000 women who take birth control pills experience some form of blood clot, according to the National Blood Clot Alliance.
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Early retirement may be hazardous to your health

2011-04-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

A doctor has come to believe that most people just plain do better, both intellectually and physically, when they continue to work.

Americans are hard-wired to consider retirement age to be 65. Social Security, under a formula established in the 1930s when the average age at death was about 15 years earlier than it is today, reinforced that idea. And now that retirees can begin collecting Social Security and/or pensions before they turn 65, a growing number of people leave the workplace even earlier.

As a geriatrician, I've come to believe that working longer is generally a good thing. Most people just plain do better, both intellectually and physically, when they continue to work. I've observed many times that mature patients who quit working — whether they have been laid off or retired voluntarily — are likely to gain weight, become hypertensive and even develop depression.

These tendencies have been substantiated by research. One 2007 study, for example, found that "retirement was associated with a significantly higher odds for a decline in physical activity." TheWhitehall II study, a longitudinal examination of British civil servants, found that continuing to work may reduce the risk of cognitive decline. And a recent study by the Rand Corp. and the University of Michigan found that "men and women in countries where people worked longer did better on a test of cognitive skill involving memory than those in countries where early retirement was the norm."

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What’s the Single Best Exercise?

2011-04-17T16:59:00.001-07:00

“I personally think that brisk walking is far and away the single best exercise,” said Michael Joyner, M.D., a professor of anesthesiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a leading researcher in the field of endurance exercise.

As proof, he points to the work of Hiroshi Nose, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of sports medical sciences at Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan, who has enrolled thousands of older Japanese citizens in an innovative, five-month-long program of brisk, interval-style walking (three minutes of fast walking, followed by three minutes of slower walking, repeated 10 times). The results have been striking. “Physical fitness — maximal aerobic power and thigh muscle strength — increased by about 20 percent,” Dr. Nose wrote in an e-mail, “which is sure to make you feel about 10 years younger than before training.” The walkers’ “symptoms of lifestyle-related diseases (hypertension, hyperglycemia and obesity) decreased by about 20 percent,” he added, while their depression scores dropped by half.

Walking has also been shown by other researchers to aid materially in weight control. A 15-year study found that middle-aged women who walked for at least an hour a day maintained their weight over the decades. Those who didn’t gained weight. In addition, a recent seminal study found that when older people started a regular program of brisk walking, the volume of their hippocampus, a portion of the brain involved in memory, increased significantly.

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Weight Loss Improves Memory, Research Reveals

2011-04-16T02:26:00.000-07:00

According to a study led by John Gunstad, assistant professor of psychology at Kent State University, weight loss may improve concentration and overall cognitive ability.

"We've known for a long time that obesity is a risk factor for things like Alzheimer's disease and stroke, and more recent work really shows that obesity is a link to memory problems and concentration problems before that even begins," said Gunstad. "If excess weight causes these problems, can losing weight help reverse them? That's what we wanted to research."

Gunstad tested the memory and attention of 150 overweight people. Then, some of the participants underwent gastric bypass surgery while others did not.

"What we found is that by individuals who went through the weight loss surgery showed improvements in memory about 12 weeks after surgery," said Gunstad. "They were able to show improvements moving from the kind of mildly impaired range into the normal range, which clinically is a pretty good, is a pretty meaningful change."

Prior to surgery, 23.9 percent of all the participants showed impaired learning and 22.9 percent had poor recognition memory.

Twelve weeks after surgery, the average performance for those that went under the knife was within average range or above average on all cognitive tests, improvements that were not seen in the group of people that decided to not have gastric bypass surgery.
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Am I Having a Heart Attack?

2011-04-15T18:41:00.000-07:00

If you Googled this article because you think you're having a heart attack — stop. Call 911. Then chew an aspirin. Spending precious minutes searching for information about heart attack symptoms as you experience them is not wise, doctors say, because "time is heart muscle."

One of the symptoms for a heart attack in women is pain in the shoulder blades. — "If you think you're having a heart attack, that's not the time to try and figure out whether you're right," says Gordon Tomaselli, M.D., president-elect of the American Heart Association, who adds he has patients who have done exactly that.

And yet, among the most commonly searched subjects online is "heart attack signs," according to the search engine Google. In fact, the number of searches for that term has increased by a whopping 90 percent in the last five years or so, according a company spokesperson. Searches for "Am I having a heart attack?" alone have risen by more than 35 percent since 2008, the company says.

One reason people are searching online for emergency information is that it's not always easy to tell whether you're having a heart attack — even doctors have a tough time knowing without tests. If you suspect you're having a heart attack, call for an ambulance immediately. And don't be embarrassed if it turns out you're not.

"It's not always straightforward," says Tomaselli. "If you develop the classic symptoms — pressing chest pain, sweating, nausea — then you're pretty clear that there's a big problem that needs to be dealt with quickly." But, he says, many people, especially women, may develop completely different symptoms when experiencing a heart attack.
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An Apple a Day Keeps an-apple-a-day-keeps-cholesterol-at-bay

2011-04-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

Lending credence to the old adage about eating an apple a day, a new study finds that women who ate the fruit daily saw improvements in cholesterol levels and markers of inflammation — suggesting a lower risk of heart disease — in a year's time.

The study, conducted by researchers at Florida State University, involved 160 women who were randomly assigned to eat about 2.7 ounces (75 g) of dried apples or prunes (dried plums) daily. Researchers did blood tests at the three-, six- and 12-month marks to measure heart-risk factors. (More on TIME.com: The Updated Egg: Less Cholesterol, But Is It a 'Healthy' Food?)

After a year, the women who ate dried apples had lowered their total cholesterol by 14%; their levels of LDL (or "bad") cholesterol had fallen by 23%, and their levels of HDL (or good) cholesterol had increased by about 4%. Participants also experienced a 32% decline in C-reactive protein, an indicator of inflammation in the body and a risk factor for heart disease.

The women who ate prunes saw also slight reductions in these risk factors, but not to the same extent as those who ate apples, said study author and professor of nutrition Bahram H. Arjmandi.

As an extra benefit, the women in apple group lost about 3.3 lbs. on average — even though the dried fruit added an extra 240 calories to their diets.

Study Supports Watchful Waiting for Low-Risk Prostate Cancer

2011-04-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

Active surveillance for low-risk prostate cancer offers a safe alternative to immediate curative intervention and may reduce overtreatment and adverse events, investigators in a large clinical study concluded. A third of 769 patients eventually had surgery or radiation therapy, but delaying intervention for as long as 10 years caused no apparent harm.

The cohort had a median survival free of intervention of 6.5 years, and the 10-year intervention-free survival was 41% in study participants, who had a median age of 66 at diagnosis, according to an article published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. "This study offers the most conclusive evidence to date that active surveillance may be the preferred option for the vast majority of older men diagnosed with a very low-grade or small-volume form of prostate cancer," senior author H. Ballentine Carter, MD, of Johns Hopkins, said in a statement. "These are men with a favorable-risk disease profile to begin with."

Since widespread use of PSA screening for prostate cancer began in the 1990s, disease stage at diagnosis has declined dramatically, such that the majority of newly diagnosed prostate cancers are low risk. Although highly successful, PSA screening has sparked controversy about the potential for overdiagnosis and overtreatment of clinically trivial disease that would not become life-threatening in a man's lifetime (J Natl Cancer Inst 2003; 95: 868-878)
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Stealth Vegetables Help Dieters Lose Weight

2011-04-01T17:45:00.000-07:00

Pureeing vegetables and then slipping them into food where they'll be undetectable — that's a sneaky technique parents have been using on picky kids for ages. But researchers at Pennsylvania State University decided to try it on a group of adults to see whether it could help them cut calories and lose weight.

It worked — even better than the researchers expected. The unsuspecting men and women, who ate various comfort foods enhanced with vegetable purees, not only liked the doctored dishes, but also more than doubled their vegetable consumption and cut their calories by up to 360 calories a day.

Imagine — if people could eat 360 fewer calories a day, they could lose one pound of body fat in 10 days. Definitely something to consider in a country where 70 percent of adults over age 20 are overweight or obese.

In the study, which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 41 subjects, ages 20 to 45, agreed to eat three meals at a laboratory once a week for three weeks. The meals were always the same: Carrot bread at breakfast, macaroni and cheese at lunch, and chicken-and-rice casserole for dinner. The subjects could eat as much as they wanted, along with side dishes like rolls, strawberry yogurt, and broccoli and green beans, depending on the meal. Portion size was controlled by weight, and researchers tracked the amount of food each participant ate.
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Now, a one-hour operation to change heart valve

2011-03-27T03:47:00.000-07:00

An Indian-origin surgeon-led team in Britain has come up with a one-hour keyhole operation to replace heart valve, a breakthrough which offers hope to cardiac patients too sick to undergo an open-heart surgery. Vinayak Bapat of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital and his team have developed the procedure, called transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), which treats heart-valve failure under local anaesthetic without the need for a bypass surgery.

"For seriously ill patients who do not have the option of heart surgery, TAVI is their one chance of life. It has the potential to save thousands of lives and is ultimately cheaper than prescribing years of medication," Dr Bapat was quoted by the 'Daily Mail' as saying.

Aortic stenosis is the most common type of valve disease which can be caused by birth defects though in older patients it is usually the result of calcium building up in heart's main valve, the aortic valve, hindering blood flow.
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getting started

2011-03-25T06:57:00.000-07:00

Many people lose weight and then gain most of it - or all of it - back. That makes no sense.

Go to: www.weightcommander.com

Losing weight just got a lot easier :-)

Michael

Want to find a "special" article?

2011-03-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

Would you like a directory to earlier articles?

The "Blog Archive" near the bottom on the left lists all articles.

Dog Owners are More Healthy, Says Study

2011-03-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

A new study by Michigan State University claims that people who have pet dog are much healthier than those without dog.

The study revealed that most of the dog owners have to take their dogs out for a walk or a short run frequently, which boost their activity level. Further, the team claims that dog owners follow a regular exercise regime as compare to those without dog. The study revealed that dog owners usually spend 30 minutes on an average to do exercise for five days a week which gives them an edge over others.
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low calorie snacks

2011-03-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

Salsa. The hard part is picking out a brand. There's many brands and most come in different styles of 'heat'. I don't know what to tell you - experiment on your own, But none of them are bad really.

I enjoy salsa a lot. I eat chicken often and salsa is just the perfect accent for chicken. It also makes an interesting dip for fresh vegetables, especially carrot sticks and cauliflower. I sometimes use it as a hamburger topping instead of catsup. And when you cook up some eggs, it makes a terrific cold side dish.

Most salsas run around 10 calories/ounce so you don't have to worry about how much you're using.
I always have a bottle in my refrigerator.

Michael
Your Weight Commander front page is at: http://www.weightcommander2.com/d9/1048073641.php

low calorie snacks

2011-03-15T07:19:00.001-07:00

I hope you like oatmeal because I think it makes a wonderful snack. It's very filling for the amount of calories
it contains and you can microwave instant oatmeal in less than 2 minutes. And it is very inexpensive even if
you buy it in those little packettes.

One dry ounce of plain oatmeal contains about 100 calories. Adding cinnamon and artificial sweetener
adds practically no calories - put in 10 or 15 raisins and you've only added 20 calories.

Most of the flavored oatmeals you'll see on the shelf have lots of extra calories. You'll want to skip past
them. But if you are ever by a Walmart they have an excellent 'Cinnamon Roll Flavored Oatmeal' under their Great Value
brand. It has about the same calorie count as plain oatmeal and it is very, very good.

Michael
Your Weight Commander front page is at: http://www.weightcommander2.com/d9/1048073641.php

low calorie snacks

2011-03-15T07:18:00.001-07:00

I like flour tortillas. I mean I really like them. Although they are not low-cal,
they allow you to make some things that are below average in calories and delicious as well.
An 8 inch tortilla, which is pretty good sized, weighs around 1.75 ounces and has about 120 calories.
If you spread on some mustard, add letuce and then some sliced chicken breast, you're still under 200
calories and you have a very filling snack. And I think you'll enjoy it.

Instead of mustard, you can use light mayo and Tabasco sauce. And the chicken can be exchanged for some
sliced ham. Once in a while I'll do it with peanut butter and jelly - no lettuce of course
and with a very thin layer of peanut butter. It's easy to invent your own variation.

Michael
Your Weight Commander front page is at: http://www.weightcommander2.com/d9/1048073641.php

Pageviews by Countries; Feb 12 – Mar 13

2011-03-14T03:24:00.000-07:00

AudienceRefresh

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2011 Feb 12 – 2011 Mar 13

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Hormones During Menopause? The Timing Is Critical

2011-03-07T17:36:00.000-08:00

Delaying drugs reduces risk for breast cancer

Timing plays an important role in the relationship between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and breast cancer risk, according to a huge new study from the United Kingdom. Taking the drugs around the time of menopause carries significantly more risk for the disease than starting them later, after a gap of at least five years, the study found. And while the study confirms that breast cancer risk rises with increasing time on the drugs, even women who took them for less than five years had more breast cancers than nonusers.

The analysis, published Jan. 28 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, looked at data from the Million Women Study, which recruited a quarter of all British women ages 50 to 64 in the late 1990s through 2001. Though not a clinical trial in which participants are randomly assigned to either a treatment or control group — considered the most telling and bias-free approach — the size of this study makes it a key addition to the Women's Health Initiative. In that large U.S. trial, the study of estrogen-progestin HRT was halted in 2002 because of evidence that the treatment, while reducing colon cancer and hip fractures, promoted heart disease, stroke and blood clots — as well as breast cancer.

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Diabetes can takes six years off your life by increasing risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, study says

2011-03-02T17:51:00.000-08:00

A 50-year-old with Type 2 diabetes will lose an average of six years of life as a result of the disease, only one year less than would be lost by a smoker of the same age, researchers reported Wednesday. He or she is more than twice as likely to die of cardiovascular disease as someone without diabetes and 25% more likely to die of cancer, according to the report, an international study of more than 820,000 people published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

People with Type 2 diabetes are also more likely to die from kidney disease, liver disease, pneumonia, infectious diseases and even intentional self-harm, according to the study, which was conducted by the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration, based at the University of Cambridge in England.

The data are especially concerning in light of the rapidly expanding incidence of diabetes in the United States, fueled by the increase in obesity. An estimated 25.8 million Americans have diabetes, 10 million more than two decades ago.
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Diet and exercise help prevent, control diabetes, studies find

2011-02-10T09:24:00.000-08:00

Medication helped somewhat, but lifestyle choices were the most effective factors.

Researchers have been looking at the ways lifestyle affects Type 2 diabetes. Here's what they've found:

What: In 2002, the National Institutes of Health published results from the landmark Diabetes Prevention Program study in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the trial, 3,234 overweight people at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes were split into three groups to test whether lifestyle changes or the drug metformin could prevent the onset of diabetes.

• Group 1 received extensive training in diet and exercise, with goals of exercising 150 minutes per week and losing and keeping off 7% of their body weight.

• Group 2 received 850 milligrams of the diabetes drug metformin twice a day.

• Group 3 received placebo pills.

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Diabetes and Salt - WebMD

2011-02-10T08:55:00.000-08:00

Having diabetes puts you at greater risk for high blood pressure. High levels of salt (sodium) in your diet can further increase that risk. So your doctor or dietitian may ask you to limit or avoid these high-salt foods...

Here are some helpful tips for all of us.

Previous clinical studies showed an apparent correlation between hypertension and insulin resistance, and patients with diabetes are known to have increased blood pressure responsiveness to salt loading.

article

What is your daily salt intake? If you have type 2 diabetes, it's important to watch the amount of salt you eat everyday. Diabetes can put you at increased risk for hypertension and cardiovascular complications. The USDA recommends that the average person should eat no more than 2300 mg. of salt a day. This is about a teaspoon. Most Americans get nearly twice that amount everyday.

article

Researchers work to harness power of good cholesterol

2011-01-30T03:56:00.001-08:00

When it comes to cholesterol, doctors are sure of two things: High levels of the bad kind increase the risk of heart disease, and lowering those levels reduces the risk. So traditional treatments are aimed at cutting bad cholesterol through diet, exercise and drugs called statins.

Now cardiologists are trying to harness the power of good cholesterol to help stave off heart disease. Clinical trials of drugs designed to boost good cholesterol are underway. Meanwhile, scientists are learning more about how it contributes to health: A new study suggests it's not just the total amount of good cholesterol that matters, but how efficiently it's able to gobble up bad cholesterol.

"We're getting very excited about good cholesterol," says Dr. Christopher P. Cannon, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "That may become the next big thing."

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