FRIDAY,
MAY 16, 2003
- Molecule
Battles Heart Disease
- Cancer
Society Endorses Mammograms
- Older
Hispanics' Eyesight Suffers More
- Home
BP Monitoring OK, but Devices May Be Off
- School
Screening for Asthma, Allergy in Works
- Hemophilia
Drug May Have Wider Use
- Alcohol
Doesn't Protect Against Parkinson's Disease
- Miscarriage
More Likely with Older Father: Report
- Cranberry
or Blueberry?
- Smoking
Ups Hereditary Pancreatic Cancer: Study
- Rheumatoid
Arthritis Tied to Birth Weight
THURSDAY, MAY 15, 2003
- Study:
Fish Fine for Pregnant Women
- New
Medical Journal Refuses Drug Ads
- Epilepsy
Drug Shows Promise in Alcoholism
- No
Clear Link Between Alcohol, Parkinson's: Study
- Veteran
Journalist Shines Light on Depression's Darkness
- Viral
Protein Explains Why Some HIV+ Stay Healthy
- Understanding
Prostate Cancer
- In
Women, Low Bone Mass Linked to Alzheimer's
- How
Hot is Hot?
- Cell
Changes May Explain Diabetes Risk in Elderly
- Green
Tea Gives Skin Healthy Glow
- Study
Links Migraine, Major Depression
- Study:
Radiation Starves Cancer While Killing It
- U.S.
Moms Stop Breastfeeding Too Soon: Study
- Study
Contends Secondhand Smoke Won't Kill You
- New
York City Women Less Likely to Get Mammogram
- Aging
May Shortcircuit Body's Ability to Ward Off Diabetes
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14,
2003
- Remember
This
- U.S.
Changes Guidelines on Blood Pressure
- A
Drink a Day Improves Overall Heart Health
- Too
Much Booze Damages Key Hormones
- CDC:
Fourth of Americans Get No Exercise
- A
Hair-Raising Discovery
- Even
Short Walk Reduces Deadly Clot Risk in Obese
- Broccoli
Could Be Prostate Cancer Fighter
- Obesity
Reported to Cost U.S. $93B a Year
- Acetaminophen
Fights High-Altitude Headaches
- Nicotine-Blocking
Drug May Curb Alcohol Cravings
- Drinking
Gives Pause to Thinking
- Teens
Exposed to Alcohol Ads, Study Says
- Italians
Getting Healthier and Taller: Survey
- Sleep
Well
TUESDAY,
MAY 13, 2003
- Personality
Keeps Changing with Age, Study Finds
- Magazines
Shower Teens With Alcohol Ads
- Starting
Exercise May Help Older Women Live Longer
- Study
Suggests War in Africa Spread an AIDS Virus
- Genentech
Arthritis Drug Fails Key Test
- Mental
Risk High in Children of Schizophrenic Mom
- Inactivity
Blamed for Teens' Weight Gains
- African
Milkbush Plant May Cause Childhood Cancer
- Genetics
Play Part in Hardening of Arteries
- Some
Rehab Patients Use Illicit Drugs to Ease Pain
- The
Key to Vision?
- Big
Eaters May Live Longer with Colorectal Cancer
- The
Odds of Beating Prostate Cancer
- Protein
Speeds Bone Healing in Animal Studies
- Painting
an Unappetizing Picture
- Regular
Drinking May Raise Rectal Cancer Risk
- Do
More Calories Help Colon Cancer Patients?
- Compound
May Ease Side Effects of Parkinson's Drug
- North
Americans Better at Controlling High Blood Pressure
- New
Malaria Drug Combo Said Promising
- Fewer
People Get Health Info Online Than Thought
MONDAY, MAY 12, 2003
- Pneumonia
Vaccine May Hold Heart Benefits
- Hospital
Water Can Carry Fungus Dangerous to Some
- Fen-Phen Gone,
but Other Diet Drugs Still Popular
- Spread
of HIV Strain Began in 1940, Spurred by War
- A
Pitch for Kid-Friendly Baseball
- Americans
Don't Understand Danger of Mini-Strokes
- Cutting
Down on Medication Mistakes
- Study
Looks at Chiropractic Treatment, Stroke Risk
- Coffee
Highs
- Fewer
Ear Infections for Babies Who Sleep on Backs
- The
Facts on Endometriosis
- Less
Patching for 'Lazy Eye' Still Effective: Study
- Scan
Predicts Heart Trouble in the Healthy
- Tick
Infections Often Go Undetected: Study
- Many
Asthmatics Ignore Added Risk of Smoking
- Gender,
Ethnicity Impede Info Giving to Doctors
SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2003
- Stuffy
Nose Can Mean Many Things
SATURDAY, MAY 10, 2003
- Kids
Who Lost Parent in 9/11 Attacks Still Suffer
- Sesame
Oil Lowers Blood Pressure
FRIDAY,
MAY 16, 2003
Molecule
Battles Heart Disease
HealthScoutNews
Friday, May 16, 2003
FRIDAY, May 16 (HealthScoutNews) --
A molecule called beta3 integrin that scientists thought
contributed to heart disease now appears to help fight it.
The surprise finding comes from researchers
at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The scientists fed a high-fat diet to
mice that lacked the beta3 molecule and got unexpected results.
The mice developed lung inflammation and clogged arteries,
and about two-thirds of the mice died within six weeks.
That suggests that long-term suppression
of this beta3 molecule may contribute to the development
of heart disease, instead of preventing it, the study concludes.
The information may help guide new strategies for developing
drugs to combat heart disease.
The findings were published online this
week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Beta3 sits on the surface of cells and
interacts with other molecules in the body, helping regulate
functions such as blood clotting and inflammation. One of
the proteins that beta3 interacts with is critical in causing
blood platelets to form blood clots.
Because of that connection, people having
heart attacks are often treated with drugs that block the
action of beta3. By inhibiting beta3, these drugs prevent
platelets from collecting in, and blocking, blood vessels.
That helps preserve normal blood flow.
Many experts have suggested long-term
use of these beta3 inhibitor drugs might prevent clogged
arteries that result in heart attacks. But the results of
this study seem to challenge that hypothesis.
More information
Here's where you can learn more about
different forms of heart
disease.
Back
to the Top
Cancer
Society Endorses Mammograms
By Daniel Yee
Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
Friday, May 16, 2003
ATLANTA - Mammograms remain the most
important tool in detecting breast cancer
and women need not worry about performing breast self-exams,
the American Cancer Society said
Thursday.
The Atlanta-based society updated its
breast cancer guidelines for the first time since 1997.
More research has confirmed the society's 1997 recommendation
for women to receive mammograms annually from age 40.
"A lot of women were reading a year
or so ago that some people were not sure whether mammography
had any benefit," said Debbie Saslow, the society's director
of breast and gynecologic cancers.
"The level of confidence in the benefit
is higher than ever. Mammograms find 80 percent to 85 percent
of cancers — we know they increase survival dramatically."
The largest change in the guidelines
involves the breast self-exam, which previously was recommended
once a month. But research has found the exams did not contribute
to breast cancer survival rates.
Where mammograms typically find cancers
that have grown for two years, self-exams typically detect
cancer that has been growing for six years, Saslow said.
"We don't have evidence that doing it
every month is having any survival benefit," she said. "For
us it's not a huge change as a lot of people weren't doing
breast self-exams anyway. To the public it probably is a
big change."
The recommendations say women in their
20s should be told about the benefits and limitations of
the self-exam and that it is OK for women to choose to perform
it occasionally or not to perform it at all.
"Unfortunately by the time you can feel
something, it's big enough where it's either had a chance
to spread and grow or it's pretty benign and finding it
wouldn't hurt if you didn't find it," Saslow said.
The society also said women ages 20
to 39 should receive a clinical breast exam every three
years and annually for women age 40 or older.
Older women who are healthy may find
benefit in a mammogram but those with health problems need
to consult their doctor to determine if the mammogram will
be helpful, as "the survival benefit of a current mammogram
may not be seen for several years," the society said.
Women at increased risk — such as those
with a family history of breast cancer — may wish to have
mammographies at age 30 as well as breast ultrasound or
breast MRI.
But women who receive the breast MRI
should receive it at a facility able to perform an MRI-guided
biopsy in case something is detected that cannot be seen
in a mammogram or by touch, Saslow said.
The society also warned that new, non-mammography
screening technologies must equal or exceed the detection
ability of mammography before they should be used as screening
tools.
"There's over a dozen out there, some
have not been approved," Saslow said. "None of them are
far enough along or have enough effectiveness for screening
instead of mammography."
Officials from the Susan G. Komen Breast
Cancer Foundation said in a statement on their Web site
they concurred with the society's updated guidelines and
were "pleased to see updated recommendations specific to
older women and women at increased risk."
On the Net:
American Cancer Society: www.cancer.org
Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation:
www.komen.org
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to the Top
Older
Hispanics' Eyesight Suffers More
HealthScoutNews
Friday, May 16, 2003
FRIDAY, May 16 (HealthScoutNews) --
Older Hispanics suffer more visual impairments than their
counterparts in other ethnic or racial groups.
So says the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study,
the largest comprehensive study ever done to identify eye
problems among Hispanics.
The five-year study included more than
6,200 Hispanic men and women over age 40 living in communities
in and around the city of La Puente, Calif. Study volunteers
were screened for eye disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.
They were also interviewed about their
eye disease risk factors such as weight, health-care access,
family history of eye disease and alcohol use.
The study found Hispanics have the following
rates of vision impairment: ages 65-69, more than 2 percent;
ages 70-74, nearly 4 percent; ages 75-79, nearly 7 percent;
ages 80-84, nearly 12 percent; 85 and older, nearly 18 percent.
"Latinos are expected to make up about
26 percent of the U.S. population by 2025. It's important
to get an estimate of disease in Latinos, and we found that
vision-related problems in this community that need to be
addressed," study leader Dr. Rohit Varma, an associate professor
of ophthalmology at the Keck School of Medicine at the University
of Southern California, says in a news release.
The study was presented recently at
the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision
and Ophthalmology in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
More information
Here's where you can learn more about
eye
problems.
Back
to the Top
Home
BP Monitoring OK, but Devices May Be Off
Reuters Health
Friday, May 16, 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Home blood
pressure monitoring appears to help people lower their high
blood pressure, the results of a new study suggest.
But a separate study also being reported
this week indicates that the monitors patients use are often
incorrectly calibrated and sized, which can result in inaccurate
readings.
Dr. Margaret Scisney-Matlock and colleagues
at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor found benefits
to home monitoring in a sample of 161 women with high blood
pressure.
The women, aged 31 to 83, were randomly
assigned to either daily home blood pressure monitoring
-- morning and evening -- or monitoring plus reading patient
education literature that urged them to take their blood
pressure medication.
Systolic blood pressure (the top number
in a blood pressure reading) fell by 9 millimeters per liter
of mercury (mm Hg) in the monitoring-only group and by 6
mm Hg in those who monitored their blood pressures and read
the literature.
The women in the second group may have
had worse results because they happened to have higher blood
pressures at the start of the study than the monitoring-only
group, Scisney-Matlock said.
The study included 60 African American
women, whose blood pressure numbers improved slightly more
than Caucasians during the study, with decreases of 11 mm
Hg in the best-performing group.
"This is good (news) for African American
women," Scisney-Matlock said.
Despite the encouraging news about home
blood pressure monitoring, another study suggests that the
devices are often inaccurate because they are poorly adjusted.
Melissa J. Goalen, a nurse practitioner
at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, tested more
than 100 home-monitoring devices and found that about 20
percent yielded measurements that were inaccurate by at
least 4 mm Hg.
"Five mm Hg, over or under, will affect
treatment," Goalen noted.
The researchers found that the inaccurate
devices were either improperly calibrated or had arm cuffs
that were incorrectly sized. Cuffs that are too small will
overestimate blood pressure, while those that are too large
will underestimate it, she said.
To get accurate readings, the devices
need to be calibrated by the patient's health care provider
and the patient's arm should be measured, according to Goalen.
The studies will be presented on Friday
and Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Society
of Hypertension in New York.
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School
Screening for Asthma, Allergy in Works
By Kathleen Doheny
HealthScoutNews Reporter
HealthScoutNews
Friday, May 16, 2003
FRIDAY, May 16 (HealthScoutNews) --
Vision and hearing tests are commonly given to students
at school, but screening programs for allergies and asthma
may soon become routine, too.
In a series of articles in the May issue
of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology,
researchers report on four school-based pilot screening
programs for allergy and asthma. In the programs, conducted
in Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, and Rochester, Minn., researchers
polled both students and parents with various questionnaires,
capturing information on more than 7,600 students.
Next, the researchers hope to develop
a model questionnaire by pulling the good features from
the four questionnaires used in the pilot studies.
One barrier to screening for asthma
and allergy is that schools have not had such a validated
questionnaire, says Dr. Robert Miles, past president of
the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology,
who chaired a coordinating committee for the pilot projects.
"We'll soon have validation," he adds.
The college funded the pilot projects
with grants.
The hope is to phase the screening program
into schools gradually and to have the program in all schools
nationwide within a few years, Miles says. Screenings would
probably occur annually.
The questionnaires used in the pilot
programs varied, but in general students and parents were
asked about any breathing problems, symptoms such as having
a runny nose without a cold, having difficulty sleeping
because of breathing problems, or having breathing problems
after exercising or being out in the cold.
In 2001, 6.3 million Americans under
18 reported having asthma, according to the National Center
for Health Statistics. While it is the most common chronic
disease among children, the frequency with which it is recognized
varies, Dr. Raoul L. Wolf, director of the Chicago pilot
project, writes in his report.
"Studies show the sooner you recognize
asthma and get it treated, the better the outcome," Miles
says. Early diagnosis and treatment is also recommended
for allergies.
"Earlier detection of children who might
have asthma and allergies would lead to better and earlier
management," agrees Wolf, a pediatric allergist at the University
of Chicago and LaRabida Children's Hospital.
Children miss about 2 million school
days annually due to asthma symptoms, according to the American
Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
In the past few years, Wolf says, people,
including parents, have become more knowledgeable about
the diseases. "The level of understanding has gone up,"
he says. The school screenings, he says, will help even
more.
More information
For help in how to manage asthma at
school, try the American
Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology,
which also has a page devoted to helping your child take
control of his allergies.
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Hemophilia
Drug May Have Wider Use
By Steven Reinberg
HealthScoutNews Reporter
HealthScoutNews
Friday, May 16, 2003
FRIDAY, May 16 (HealthScoutNews) --
A drug developed to quickly control bleeding in hemophiliacs
appears to have wider uses, especially in situations where
swift bleeding control is essential but difficult, such
as severe trauma and some surgeries.
The drawback is cost. At $6,000 a vial,
use of the drug -- NovoSeven -- is not always practical.
"NovoSeven, which is a Factor VII accelerant,
is a very expensive, very effective way of treating bleeding
in patients with Factor VIII inhibitor, but there is indication
from other studies that it may have a much broader use,"
says Dr. Marcus E. Carr Jr.
Carr, from Virginia Commonwealth University
Medical Center, notes one of the problems has been determining
the right dose and showing that it is effective.
"This is important because the drug
is so expensive, it is not appropriate for all patients,"
he adds.
Carr and his colleagues have developed
a test that shows how NovoSeven works in normal blood and
in blood taken from patients with different types of hemophilia,
according to their paper in the May issue of Thrombosis
and Heamostatis.
"We looked at clotting in whole blood,
not in plasma alone, as is done in most other studies,"
Carr says. Platelets in whole blood are essential for clotting
and this new test measures how strong the platelets are.
NovoSeven improves the production of thrombin, which in
turn strengthens the platelets faster than normal, he notes.
However, the optimal dose remains unclear.
"The correct dose will probably vary from patient to patient
and from condition to condition. In certain situations,
a higher-than-recommended dose is called for, while in other
situations a lower-than-recommended dose is better. This
study shows that there are ways to determine how well the
drug is working, so we should be able to tailor the dose
to individual patients," Carr says.
The study was funded in part by Novo
Nordisk, the makers of NovoSeven.
In another recently completed study,
Carr's team found the test is useful in determining the
dose not only of NovoSeven but other drugs used to treat
bleeding disorders.
NovoSeven is being used in certain trauma
situations and in surgery where there is extensive bleeding,
although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn't
approved the drug for these purposes. In the future, NovoSeven
will be more widely used for these applications, Carr predicts.
But Dr. Nigel S. Key, from the University
of Minnesota, is skeptical. Key and his colleagues have
developed a similar test based on activated clotting time,
which they think is a better way of determining dosage.
"The truth is that neither Carr nor
I know for sure if his test is accurate, because there is
no clinical data to confirm what was found in the test tube,"
Key says.
Until clinical data are available, "it
is not certain that what is found in the test tube will
correlate with clinical outcomes," he adds.
Key believes NovoSeven works in some
circumstances. However, he says it's still too early to
determine whether it works in conditions other than hemophilia.
More information
To learn more about hemophilia, visit
the National
Hemophilia Foundation. To
learn more about blood clotting, check with Indiana
State University.
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Alcohol
Doesn't Protect Against Parkinson's Disease
By Steven Reinberg
HealthScoutNews Reporter
HealthScoutNews
Friday, May 16, 2003
FRIDAY, May 16 (HealthScoutNews) --
Whether alcohol can protect you from developing Parkinson's
disease is a hotly debated issue
among researchers.
Now, a new study indicates alcohol has
no effect on preventing onset of the disease.
"There is not a very strong association
between alcohol consumption and the risk of Parkinson's
disease," says study author Dr. Miguel A. Hernan.
Parkinson's is a chronic neurological
condition with symptoms ranging from tremors on one side
of the body to slowness of movement, stiffness of limbs
and balance problems. It affects about 1.5 million Americans,
with an additional 50,000 new cases diagnosed each year.
While it can start at any age, Parkinson's is most common
among adults over 50 years of age.
Hernan, who is from the Harvard School
of Public Health, and his colleagues collected data from
two large population-based studies -- the Nurses Health
Study, which followed 121,700 female nurses for 25 years,
and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, which followed
51,529 male health-care professionals for 15 years.
Of the 88,722 women and 47,367 men for
whom data on drinking were available, 167 of the women and
248 of the men developed Parkinson's, according to the findings,
published in the May 15 issue of the Annals of Neurology.
There was no correlation between moderate
to low alcohol consumption and the development of Parkinson's,
Hernan says. There was no data available for heavy drinkers,
he adds.
Some studies have shown cigarette smoking
and coffee have a protective effect, Hernan says. Other
studies have shown that alcohol helps reduce the risk of
Parkinson's, he notes.
But Hernan says, "Our findings show
that alcohol drinking is not associated with a lower or
higher risk of Parkinson's. It is possible that beer is
associated with a slightly lower risk."
Hernan is quick to say that these findings
and the findings of other studies should not encourage you
to drink more beer or start smoking. The risk to your health
from smoking or from excessive drinking far outweighs any
possible benefit, he stresses.
Harvey Checkoway, a professor of environmental
health at the University of Washington, adds that "the absence
of any clear association with total alcohol consumption
is not surprising in view of the mixed results from previous
studies."
"The [Harvard] researchers' observation
of a slightly reduced Parkinson's risk in beer drinkers
is provocative, although somewhat unanticipated," Checkoway
adds. "It is possible, as the authors mention, that components
of beer other than alcohol may have a protective effect.
Identifying what the specific protective factors are, and
how they act in the brain, could be a valuable area for
additional research."
More information
To learn more about Parkinson's disease,
visit the Parkinson's
Disease Foundation or the
National
Library of Medicine.
Miscarriage
More Likely with Older Father: Report
By Alison McCook
Reuters Health
Friday, May 16, 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Researchers
have long known that older women are more likely to have
a miscarriage, and now new research suggests that a man's
age may also affect the risk, too.
European researchers discovered that
25-year-old women were more than twice as likely to have
a miscarriage if their partners were at least 35 at the
time of pregnancy than if their partners were younger than
35.
Study author Remy Slama told Reuters
Health that some fetuses do not survive a pregnancy because
they carry certain genetic abnormalities, which can come
from either parent.
Previous research has suggested that
older men have more genetic abnormalities in their sperm
than do younger men, Slama noted, a trend that could explain
why older fathers may increase the risk of miscarriage,
also known as spontaneous abortion.
"This is, in brief, our biological hypothesis:
the frequency of genetic and chromosomal anomalies in the
(sperm) could increase with male age," Slama said. "Since
these anomalies, if transmitted to the fetus, may cause
a spontaneous abortion, male age could increase the risk
of spontaneous abortion."
However, Slama cautioned that the current
study did not measure the genetic health of the men whose
partners had a miscarriage. The French researcher said that
further research is needed to say for sure whether more
abnormalities in older sperm increase the risk that the
fetus will abort.
"I think that this is a plausible hypothesis
but that there are too few studies on the subject to be
positive about it," Slama, based at INSERM-INED in France,
said.
During the current study, Slama and
colleagues interviewed 1,151 women who had been pregnant
between 1985 and 2000. The women reported a total of almost
2,500 pregnancies, 12 percent of which had ended in miscarriage,
according to a report in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Although the risk of miscarriage with
older men was clearly seen when they partnered with young
women, male age appeared to have no effect on miscarriage
risk in 35-year-old women.
Slama said that this finding does not
necessarily mean that a man's age does not influence miscarriage
risk in older women, however -- only that this effect was
not observed in the study.
The researcher explained that once women
reach 35, their own age also starts to influence the health
of the fetus, and this and other female factors may "blur"
the influence male age has on pregnancy success.
"Indeed, it may be easier to detect
an effect of male factors -- i.e., age -- in a group of
couples in which women have ... rather good reproductive
health," Slama said. "In this group, fewer female factors
are likely to blur the effect of male factors."
Just how much of a role men play in
the health of a fetus is a relatively new question, and
one that will likely have a better answer as time goes on,
the researcher said.
"There is still a lot to learn about
the male influences on the ability to obtain a live birth,"
Slama said. "This is partly due to the fact that researchers
have for a long time been almost exclusively interested
in the female role. We are trying to take into account both
partners, and there is still a lot of work on (the) way."
Source: American
Journal of Epidemiology 2003;157:815-824.
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Cranberry or Blueberry?
HealthScoutNews
Friday, May 16, 2003
(HealthScoutNews) -- Which is better
for you, blueberries or cranberries?
It's not even close, according to the
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, citing a
study from the Technical University of Denmark.
Blueberries are rich in phenolic compounds,
which are antioxidants, so researchers thought blueberry
juice might be a useful antioxidant drink. They compared
the benefits of a pint of cranberry juice cocktail with
a pint of blueberry juice.
Cranberry juice, which is rich in vitamin
C -- a powerful antioxidant -- showed real benefits. But
the phenolic compounds in blueberry juice proved no more
effective than sugar water.
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Smoking
Ups Hereditary Pancreatic Cancer: Study
Reuters Health
Friday, May 16, 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with
two or more family members with pancreatic cancer should
be encouraged to kick the habit as smoking may nearly quadruple
their odds of developing the disease, researchers report.
Among people with a family history of
pancreatic cancer, smoking appears to increase the risk
of the disease even more in men and in people younger than
age 50, according to the results of a new study.
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading
cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. An estimated 30,000 people
will be diagnosed with the disease in 2003. Most people
with pancreatic cancer do not have a family history of the
illness, but about 10 percent of pancreatic cancer cases
are hereditary, according to a report published in the journal
Gastroenterology.
Little is known about what factors might
play a role in tumor formation in familial, or hereditary,
pancreatic cancer, according to a team led by Dr. Stephen
J. Rulyak of the University of Washington in Seattle.
Previously, researchers identified a
number of environmental factors, including smoking, that
may increase the risk for non-familial pancreatic cancer,
but such effects have not been evaluated for pancreatic
cancer that runs in families, the authors report.
To investigate, Rulyak's team evaluated
risk factors for pancreatic cancer among 251 individuals
from 28 families. All families had at least two members
with pancreatic cancer.
Smoking was an independent risk factor
for familial pancreatic cancer, with smokers being almost
four times more likely to develop the disease than nonsmokers,
the authors report.
The risk was increased about five times
in male smokers and more than seven times in smokers younger
than 50.
In addition, the researchers found that
smokers developed cancer almost a decade earlier than nonsmokers
-- at an average age of 59.6 years versus 69.1 years.
The researchers also found that the
risk of cancer increased with the number of close relatives
-- mother, father, sister or brother -- who had the disease.
For each first-degree relative with pancreatic cancer, the
risk rose by 40 percent.
Although the pancreas produces the sugar-processing
hormone insulin, diabetes was not a risk factor for pancreatic
cancer, according to the report.
"Overall, our results further highlight
the dangers of cigarette smoking and emphasize the need
for additional research focusing on gene-environment interactions
in the genesis of pancreatic cancer," the authors conclude.
The study received financial support
from the National Institutes of Health,
the C.D. Smithers Foundation, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
and the Italian Association for Cancer Research.
Source: Gastroenterology
2003;124:1292-1299.
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Rheumatoid Arthritis Tied to Birth Weight
By Ed Edelson
HealthScoutNews Reporter
HealthScoutNews
Friday, May 16, 2003
FRIDAY, May 16 (HealthScoutNews) --
A Swedish study finds a relationship between high birth
weight and development of rheumatoid arthritis later in
life.
It's a puzzlement, as are the other
relationships found in the study, says Dr. Lennart Jacobsson,
who reports the finding in the May 17 issue of the British
Medical Journal. But then, a lot about rheumatoid arthritis
is puzzling.
This is not the wear-and-tear arthritis,
formally called osteoarthritis, that many people experience
as they grow older. Instead, it is an autoimmune disorder,
in which the body's immune system attacks joints and surrounding
tissue for unknown reasons.
"We know that genetics can explain about
50 percent of cases," says Jacobsson, an associate professor
in the Malmö University Hospital department of rheumatology.
"We have not yet identified a major environmental factor
that is involved."
He and his colleagues tried to identify
such a factor by digging up the birth records of 77 people
with rheumatoid arthritis who were born in the Malmö
area between 1940 and 1960 and comparing them with the records
of 308 area residents who don't have arthritis.
They looked at just about everything
in the perinatal period, the time around birth, that could
be looked at: mother's age, father's occupation, whether
the baby was breast-fed, the baby's weight at birth, whether
the mother had a previous miscarriage, and so on. And a
few associations emerged.
One of them was high birth weight. Babies
weighing more than 4,000 grams (about 9 pounds) were more
likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than those of average
weight. Another was breast-feeding; breast-fed babies were
less likely to develop the disease. Another was the father's
occupation. Babies of office workers were more likely to
develop rheumatoid arthritis than those of manual laborers.
The birth weight association has been
seen in other studies, Jacobsson says, but he admits frankly,
"I can't say why it is so."
The journal paper proposes several reasons
for the association: the way the immune system develops
in the womb, the way the immune system develops after birth,
or simply "unmeasured confounding factors." Your guess is
as good as his about which might be correct, Jacobsson says.
He does plan more studies to get a clearer
picture of the genetic and environmental factors that can
lead to rheumatoid arthritis.
Jacobsson's attitude of bewilderment
is shared by many in the arthritis medical community. Asked,
"What is the cause of arthritis?" on a Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine Web site, Dr. Alan K. Matsumoto, an assistant
professor of medicine in the Hopkins division of molecular
and clinical rheumatology, posted this answer:
"There are many different types of arthritis
and each has different causes. Likely even the same type
of arthritis has multiple causes involving a complex interplay
of genetic and environmental factors. Ask me again in 50
years."
More information
You can get an overview of rheumatoid
arthritis from the Arthritis
Foundation or the National
Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.
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THURSDAY,
MAY 15, 2003
Study:
Fish Fine for Pregnant Women
By Adam Marcus
HealthScoutNews Reporter
HealthScoutNews
Thursday, May 15, 2003
THURSDAY, May 15 (HealthScoutNews) --
Pregnant women who eat fish-rich diets don't consume enough
mercury to threaten the health of their baby's brain.
So says a new study of women and children
in the Seychelle Islands of East Africa, where ocean fish
are a daily staple. The study, appearing in the May 17 issue
of The Lancet, found no solid evidence that babies
exposed to mercury in the womb suffered neurological deficits
later in life.
"To date we have not found evidence
to support" a link between fish consumption by pregnant
women and developmental problems in their babies, says Dr.
Gary Myers, a neurologist at the University of Rochester
Medical Center and leader of the research.
But not for lack of trying. Myers and
colleagues have been looking for such an association for
the last 30 years. They became curious about the idea after
investigating an outbreak of mercury poising in Iraq
during the early 1970s, caused when people ate seed grain
coated with methyl mercury to deter fungus.
The vast majority of American women
have relatively minor contact with methyl mercury, the organic
form of the element and the version believed to be most
toxic. However, about 8 percent of women have blood levels
of the metal above the acceptable limit set by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency,
a recent study found.
People are exposed to mercury through
coal burning, the incineration of medical waste, dental
fillings, and in various occupations. But the principal
route of exposure is the diet, through fish and seafood
that accumulate the toxin in their own food chain. Mercury
levels are almost four times as high in women who eat at
least three servings of fish a week, compared to those who
eat no fish.
Certain ocean fish are higher in mercury
than others. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
recommends that pregnant women avoid eating swordfish, shark,
tilefish and king mackerel altogether. Other fish and shellfish
should be limited to no more than 12 ounces per week, or
between two and four servings. However, most people in this
country eat only one fish dish a week.
Myers says the latest study suggests
the FDA's recommendations are reasonable.
The researchers tracked neurological
development in 779 children and their mothers, who ate an
average of 12 fish meals a week. Mercury exposure during
pregnancy was measured by sampling the women's hair, which
stores the toxin and can be used to estimate the amount
a fetus would encounter in the womb.
The typical woman in the study had mercury
levels of 6.9 parts per million in her hair, or about seven
times the average U.S. exposure.
When the children were 9, the researchers
ran them through 21 mental and motor tests to evaluate their
language skills, memory, and other important developmental
benchmarks. In only one case -- a peg-board test -- increased
exposure to mercury predicted a worse score, and only in
boys. The researchers attribute this result to chance. Higher
mercury exposure also was associated with lower scores on
a test for hyperactivity, which again the scientists consider
a fluke.
Fish are a good source of important
brain-building nutrients, like fatty acids, and it's possible
that loading up on these overcomes any deleterious effect
of mercury, Myers says. His group is now looking for such
an effect in their Seychelles subjects.
Dr. Constantine Lyketsos, a psychiatrist
at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and author of an
editorial accompanying the study, says pregnant women should
heed the FDA's caution, though he doubts most are aware
of the guidelines. "I think in general fish consumption
is probably fine if the concern is the neurodevelopment
of the children," he says.
Still, much about mercury remains a
mystery, Lyketsos says. In high doses, mercury is certainly
toxic, and even deadly. Yet scientists don't know the lower
boundary for how much exposure can harm the brain. Nor do
they know if exposure over time or a single, high dose is
more dangerous. "There's a range of exposure which for some
people is harmful and for others is not," he says.
More information
For more on mercury, try the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration
or the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency.
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New
Medical Journal Refuses Drug Ads
By Karen Pallarito
Reuters Health
Thursday, May 15, 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Six medical
organizations will launch a new research journal this month
that stands apart from many other peer-reviewed publications
in a very visible way: it won't run drug advertising.
The new Annals of Family Medicine, an
outlet for health care research focusing on the whole person,
will be supported mainly through dues paid by members of
the sponsoring organizations. The journal will accept classified
advertisements but has invoked a ban on commercial drug
advertising.
Several major medical journals have
taken steps to curb the pharmaceutical industry's influence
over published research results and improve disclosure of
financial ties with the drug industry, yet they continue
to take money from pharmaceutical manufacturers to run ads
for their products.
"Journals are doing a lot of work now
to try to avoid the conflicts-of-interest involved in that,"
explained Annals of Family Medicine editor Dr. Kurt Stange,
a family physician, epidemiologist and professor at Case
Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Dr. Jesse Gruman, executive director
of the Center for the Advancement of Health and a member
of the journal's editorial board, said the decision by Stange
and the board to take drug ads off the table as an issue
reflects a strong commitment by the sponsoring medical groups.
"In some ways, it's a real statement,"
she told Reuters Health. If it works, she said, it could
"really be a challenge to the status quo."
With backing from the American Academy
of Family Physicians, American
Board of Family Practice, Society of Teachers of Family
Medicine, Association of Departments of Family Medicine,
Association of Family Practice Residency Directors and the
North American Primary Care Research Group, the Annals of
Family Medicine will strive to fill a gap in existing peer-reviewed
literature.
"I work in the business of trying to
make the best possible use of scientific information in
health care policy and practice, and one of the problems
we see again and again is that research doesn't answer the
questions people have," Gruman said.
To bridge the gap, the bimonthly journal
will seek to run content crossing various disciplines and
focusing on those things doctors on the front lines need
to know to work better.
For the audience the journal is targeting,
"the latest little quiver of some liver enzyme" is less
important than "talking to people about taking their drugs
right," for instance, Gruman said.
The Annals will also serve as an outlet
for the growing body of evidence being produced by researchers
in primary care-based settings, Stange said.
The premier issue will feature studies
on prostate cancer screening,
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and Cesarean section,
among others.
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Epilepsy
Drug Shows Promise in Alcoholism
By Emma Ross
AP Medical Writer
The Associated Press
Thursday, May 15, 2003
LONDON - An epilepsy drug offers significant
promise in helping alcoholics quit drinking and appears
to be more effective than drugs now in use for the problem,
a new study shows.
Half of the 55 alcoholics who took the
anti-seizure drug topiramate either quit drinking altogether
or cut back their drinking sharply.
Researchers found that those given the
medication were six times more likely than those on a dummy
pill to abstain from alcohol for a month, according to the
report published Friday in The Lancet.
"This finding is a major scientific
advance in the treatment of alcoholism," said Dr. Domenic
Ciraulo, head of phsychiatry at Boston University, who was
not connected with the research.
Three drugs are now available worldwide
for combatting alcoholism. One of them, disulfiram, sold
as Antabuse, makes people feel sick when they drink.
"The problem with that drug is that
people know that if you want to drink, all you have to do
is throw the tablet away. It is not a treatment. All it
does is punish you for drinking," said Dr. Bankole Johnson,
chief of alcohol and drug addiction research at the University
of Texas at San Antonio and lead investigator in the latest
study.
The other two drugs — acamprosate, available
in Europe but not the United States, and naltrexone — are
given to ward off relapses once an alcoholic has stopped
drinking.
"What is good about topiramate is you
can take it while you are still drinking," Johnson said.
Scientists believe that the brain chemical
dopamine is what provides the pleasure from alcohol and
that topiramate, sold as Topamax by Johnson & Johnson,
works by washing away the excess dopamine released by drinking
alcohol.
Long-term studies in epileptic patients
show no serious problems related to topiramate.
The study involved 103 hardcore alcoholics
followed for three months. Many had already tried methods
such as Alcoholics Annonymous, medication, psychotherapy
and rehab clinics. When they enrolled in the study it had
been at least six months since they had been in treatment
and they were drinking the equivalent of two bottles of
wine a day.
Fifty-five drinkers were given topiramate,
while 48 were given a dummy pill. The dose of topiramate
was gradually increased.
All the participants got regular counseling
to encourage them to keep taking the drugs and refrain from
drinking.
By the time the study ended, 13 out
of the 55 in the topiramate group, or 24 percent, had abstained
continuously for a month. That compares with two out of
48 people, or 4 percent, in the placebo group.
"This is continuous abstinence. This
is the strictest way of looking at it. You are not including
people who may have had the odd drink," Johnson said.
The gap between the two groups was even
wider when it came to binge drinking.
In the topiramate group, 28 out of 55,
or 50 percent, did not binge in the final month, compared
with 8 out of 48, or 16 percent, of those taking the fake
pill. This means those taking the drug were nearly four
times less likely to binge.
In the topiramate group, reported cravings
were cut in half, compared to a 15 percent drop in the placebo
group.
Ray Litten, chief of treatment research
at the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism,
said topiramate could be a significant advance in treating
alcoholism.
"It does look like topiramate might
be stronger than naltrexone or acamprosate," Litten said.
"It's very promising and it certainly has potential, but
this is only one study and more trials need to be done."
Litten said a combination of drugs and
psychological therapy is considered the best treatment.
"Alcoholism is a complex disease and
there's no magic bullet out there," Litten said. "But just
to get a menu of different treatments is a step in the right
direction."
Many experts say abstinence should still
be the goal, but Johnson argues that treatments that help
alcoholics cut down — say, from 10 drinks a day to two a
day — is worthwhile.
"If you can make most people stop drinking
at a hazardous level, you have done them a power of good.
You are going to improve these people's quality of life,
help save their marriages, their jobs," Johnson said.
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No
Clear Link Between Alcohol, Parkinson's: Study
By Linda Carroll
Reuters Health
Thursday, May 15, 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - While some
research suggests alcohol drinkers have a lower risk of
Parkinson's disease than abstainers,
a study out Thursday shows no clear association between
drinking and Parkinson's -- though there was evidence moderate
beer intake might offer some protection.
But because no alcohol other than beer
was tied to a lower Parkinson's risk, researchers suspect
that a beer ingredient other than alcohol might bestow the
benefit.
Their report is published in the online
edition of the Annals of Neurology.
Over the past few decades, researchers
have debated whether cigarettes, coffee and alcohol can
help stave off Parkinson's disease, a movement disorder
that arises from the loss of brain cells that produce the
chemical dopamine.
Several recent studies have produced
strong evidence that cigarette smokers and caffeine consumers
have some protection against Parkinson's, and researchers
believe it's biologically plausible that tobacco smoke and
caffeine might shield brain cells from the damage that marks
the disease.
But there is another possibility.
Some scientists have suggested that
the absence of these addictive behaviors -- caffeine consumption,
smoking, drinking -- might be a sign of a certain kind of
personality, according to the authors of the new study,
led by Dr. Miguel A. Hernan of the Harvard School of Public
Health in Boston.
"It has been hypothesized that people
who are destined to develop Parkinson's disease have a characteristic
personality -- moralistic, law-abiding, conscientious, risk
averse -- that leads them to avoid novelty seeking behaviors
or that they have an underlying metabolism (genetic or as
a result of a toxic insult early in life) that makes these
behaviors particularly unrewarding to them," the researchers
explain.
If this hypothesis is correct, then
drinking, smoking and caffeine consumption should all appear
to reduce the risk of developing Parkinson's, Dr. Alberto
Ascherio, a study co-author also at Harvard, told Reuters
Health.
"Our result does not support that,"
Ascherio said in an interview.
"Indirectly," he added, "it supports
the idea that caffeine and something in cigarette smoke
is protective."
Currently, there are ongoing studies
to look at the effects of caffeine in people who already
have Parkinson's, Ascherio noted.
For the new study, the researchers looked
at data from two large, long-running U.S. studies -- the
Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals' Follow-up
Study.
After examining information from nearly
89,000 women and 47,000 men, the researchers found "little
association between total alcohol consumption and Parkinson's
disease incidence," according to the report.
When they broke the data down into different
types of alcohol, though, people who drank moderate amounts
of beer did show a 30-percent lower risk of Parkinson's.
But, the authors write, "because this
lower risk was not found among wine or liquor drinkers,
it is possible that some components of beer, other than
(alcohol), may reduce the risk of Parkinson's disease."
Source: Annals
of Neurology 2003;54.
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Veteran Journalist Shines Light on Depression's
Darkness
By Gary Gately
HealthScoutNews Reporter
HealthScoutNews
Thursday, May 15, 2003
THURSDAY, May 15 (HealthScoutNews) --
When it all got to be too much, when the darkness of depression
had sapped his last remnants of joy, Tom Johnson would sneak
off to a room adjoining his office.
And the one-time publisher of the Los
Angeles Times would lie on the floor, waiting for the
despair to lift.
At the paper, only his assistant and
a friend in human resources knew that one of the most influential
figures in journalism often felt like he couldn't bear being
alive. He maintained the public persona -- a "Herculean"
effort -- because, in the late 1980s, he thought he had
no other choice.
"Because of the stigma, people thought
of depression and mental illness as a sign of weakness,"
says Johnson, 61. And in corporate America, he says, "leaders
are expected to be supermen and superwomen. But no matter
what position you hold in life, depression can hit you."
Behind the facade, his world shrank,
eclipsed by depression's shadows. He lost all interest in
his beloved Dodgers. He avoided friends and public functions
where he'd always thrived. Eventually, he sought the shelter
of staying home in bed whenever he could.
Johnson kept his illness out of public
view and struggled to wear the mask and the mantel of the
corporate executive.
And, in what he now realizes was a big
mistake, he didn't heed his wife's initial advice to see
a psychiatrist. "I had resisted going to a psychiatrist
because, frankly, like with most other things in life, I
dealt head-on with it and thought I could work my way through
it," he says.
So Johnson started running three to
five miles a day. He lost lots of weight, but not the much
heavier burden of depression. He finally went to see a psychiatrist
at the University of California, Los Angeles, beginning
arduous trial-and-error attempts to find medications that
worked, everything from Lithium to Prozac. He experienced
serious side effects -- dry mouth, a "zombie-like" wooziness
-- but the depression persisted.
The sense of hopelessness grew nearly
unbearable in June 1989, when Johnson got word he was being
replaced as the Times' publisher. "After that came
the darkest periods," he says. "I continued to just spiral
downward, and that was when I first started having thoughts
of suicide."
He finally found relief more than a
year later after moving to Atlanta to become head of CNN
News. A psychiatrist prescribed Effexor, a newer antidepressant
that acts on two key brain chemicals thought to affect moods.
Johnson went public with his struggle
in January 2002, and quickly learned just how many others
knew intimately the malaise that William Styron called "darkness
visible." From all across the country, calls, notes and
e-mails poured in, congratulating Johnson, asking his advice,
thanking him for shining a light on a taboo subject.
Today, Johnson is retired from CNN,
though still acting as a consultant to the network. But
the story this veteran journalist feels most compelled to
tell is at once intensely personal and familiar to the 20
million Americans who suffer depression.
He's made it his personal mission to
help eliminate the stigma of depression, to demystify the
malaise. He knows it's a disease and a life-threatening
one. Among the estimated 30,000 Americans who kill themselves
each year were some of Johnson's acquaintances: an Atlanta
doctor, two business executives, a CNN staffer. None of
them, he says, had gotten treatment for their depression.
Perhaps they thought, as he once had,
that they could beat it alone. Perhaps others gave them
familiar advice with the best of intentions. "Unless you
have experienced depression, you can't really describe it,"
Johnson says. "People want you to get up, get out. They
say, 'What's wrong with you? You need more exercise or a
better diet.'"
Johnson knows that often, depression
sufferers need much more than that. So he keeps telling
his story, writing about it, speaking about it. He gives
freely of his time and money to support mental health treatment
centers. He has testified before Congress and a presidential
commission. He advises national health policy leaders like
the ones who just launched "Real Men, Real Depression,"
a massive public-awareness campaign aimed at encouraging
men to seek treatment for depression.
He urges insurance companies to stop
what he calls discriminatory practices that impose limits
on coverage of mental disorders. And he responds personally
to pleas for help strangers battling depression.
"It's important for those of us who've
had depression to try to help others, to keep others from
taking their own lives, to eradicate this stigma that keeps
people from telling others, and keep people from getting
treatment," Johnson says. "I'm convinced today that, with
the right diagnosis and treatment, most people can get better,
in most cases, get back to their old selves -- before the
depression hit them."
More information
Learn more about the national public-awareness
campaign, Real
Men, Real Depression. You
can take an online
depression screening test
developed by the New York University School of Medicine.
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Viral
Protein Explains Why Some HIV+ Stay Healthy
By Alison McCook
Reuters Health
Thursday, May 15, 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A group
of Canadian and U.S. scientists reported Thursday that people
who stay healthy even years after infection with HIV
are more likely than other HIV-positive people to be infected
with virus that has an alteration in a particular protein.
The finding offers another possible
explanation why a small number of people with HIV never
develop AIDS, and points toward
new therapies that might prevent the progression of HIV
in other patients, as well.
Experiments with the HIV protein, known
as viral protein R (Vpr), revealed that altering or deleting
the protein altogether greatly decreased the number of immune
cells destroyed by HIV, the process that enables HIV to
progress to AIDS.
Since Vpr appears to play an important
role in turning HIV into AIDS, treatments that block Vpr
may help infected people stay healthy, study author Dr.
Andrew Badley of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota,
told Reuters Health.
"Since mutations in Vpr can alter the
outcome of HIV disease, it is possible, if not likely, that
we can develop inhibitors of Vpr that may also modify disease
outcome," Badley said.
In the small number of HIV patients
known as nonprogressors, levels of the virus in the bloodstream
remain low, even without treatment, and AIDS does not develop.
Some nonprogressors have now lived as long as two decades
with no signs of the illness.
Researchers have long been puzzled over
how this can happen, but new clues are emerging. About 25
to 30 percent of those patients just happen to lack receptors
that HIV uses to enter and infect cells.
To see if a weaker virus might explain
other cases, Badley and his team examined the makeup of
HIV extracted from the blood of people with HIV, some of
whom were nonprogressors. Once the researchers identified
that a particular mutation was present more often in HIV
from nonprogressors, they designed samples of HIV that contained
normal or mutated forms of Vpr, and some samples that lacked
the protein altogether.
Badley and his team then mixed those
different forms of HIV with human blood cells, and discovered
that each type of virus had a different effect on immune
cells, according to the report in the Journal of Clinical
Investigation.
"The amount of cell death was minimal
in the virus that did not have Vpr, was quite high in the
virus that contained normal Vpr, and was kind of halfway
in between in the virus that contained the mutant Vpr,"
Badley said.
He explained that HIV in nonprogressors
likely succeeds in killing immune cells, but at such a slow
rate, people are able make new immune cells fast enough
that their immune system does not become compromised.
Given that HIV in nonprogressors is
more likely to contain this mutation than virus in progressors,
Badley said it is possible that people who become infected
with HIV from nonprogressors are more likely to be nonprogressors
as well.
Whether that is, in fact, the case,
remains unclear, Badley added.
"But certainly that is one of our hopes,"
he said.
He noted that he and his colleagues
are currently looking at developing Vpr inhibitors, but
stressed that new treatment options based on this principle
are not around the corner.
"Certainly, we're talking a number of
years, as opposed to a number of months" before a new treatment
would be available for people, he said.
Source: Journal
of Clinical Investigation 2003;111:1547-1554,1455-1457.
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Understanding Prostate Cancer
HealthScoutNews
Thursday, May 15, 2003
THURSDAY, May 15 (HealthScoutNews) --
Three new University of California-Davis Cancer Center studies
try to understand why some prostate cancers become resistant
to androgen-suppression therapy.
About 190,000 men in the United States
develop prostate cancer each year,
and a number of them require androgen-suppression therapy
to lower their levels of male hormones. This treatment can
shrink or limit the growth of prostate cancers.
However, the treatment eventually fails
as prostate cancer cells adapt to an androgen-depleted environment.
It's called androgen independence and, when it occurs, there
are few remaining treatment options.
The UC Davis studies focused on trying
to determine how androgen independence develops and how
it can be countered.
"If we could prevent androgen independence
from happening, it would have a dramatic impact on treatment
and outcomes for prostate cancer," Ralph deVere White, chairman
of urology at UC Davis School of Medicine, says in a news
release.
The UC-Davis studies were presented
recently at the annual meeting of the American Urological
Association in Chicago.
More information
Here's where you can learn more about
prostate
cancer.
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In
Women, Low Bone Mass Linked to Alzheimer's
By Alison McCook
Reuters Health
Thursday, May 15, 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women with
low bone mass in their later years appear to have a higher
risk of eventually developing the memory-robbing disease
Alzheimer's, researchers said Thursday.
The same relationship between bone mass
and memory decline was not present in men, however.
In women, it is not likely low bone
mass itself, but what it represents, that may increase the
risk of memory problems, study author Dr. Zaldy Tan told
Reuters Health.
Studies have shown that the drop in
estrogen production at menopause accelerates bone loss in
women, and the amount of bone mass a woman carries into
old age is a "marker for lifelong estrogen exposure," Tan
said.
Consequently, if a woman has low bone
mass in her 70s, "that may mean (her) estrogen exposure
during (her) lifetime is not as high as it should be," he
added.
Previous research has also suggested
that estrogen may protect the brain from memory loss, the
researcher said.
As such, he reasoned that the findings
are "suggestive" that lifetime exposure to estrogen may
help prevent Alzheimer's disease
and dementia.
However, Tan added that it is too soon
for doctors to attempt to gauge a woman's risk of memory
decline in old age using bone scans conducted years earlier.
This current study produced "definitely
an interesting finding," said Tan, who is based at Beth
Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard University in
Boston.
"But I think we need some more studies
to confirm this" before doctors begin applying this information
to their patients, he added.
Tan and his colleagues reported their
findings during the annual meeting of the American Geriatrics
Society in Baltimore.
During the study, Tan and his team recorded
bone mass measurements for 987 men and women, average age
76, then followed them for up to 13 years and noted who
developed Alzheimer's or dementia.
They found that women with the lowest
bone mass measurements were more than twice as likely to
later develop Alzheimer's or dementia as those with stronger
bones.
In men, however, earlier bone mass had
no relationship to Alzheimer's or dementia risk, suggesting
that changes in estrogen may have a different effect on
men than women, Tan said.
Although the findings suggest that estrogen
may protect against dementia and Alzheimer's in women, Tan
noted that previous research has shown that estrogen does
not help treat these conditions once they develop.
"I think, ultimately, (estrogen) will
be more of a prevention than treatment" of mental decline,
he predicted.
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How
Hot is Hot?
HealthScoutNews
Thursday, May 15, 2003
(HealthScoutNews) -- If you're a tea
drinker and believe in its health benefits, then you need
to know what the perfect brewing temperature is.
According to Toxicology Letters,
researchers at the Food Safety and Toxicology Center of
Michigan State University in Lansing studied the question
of which brewing temperature yielded the best extracts of
polyphenols, the chemicals in tea that have all the health
benefits.
The answer turns out to be 176 degrees
Fahrenheit (80 degrees Celsius). Anything less won't extract
the same levels of polyphenols, and anything more will damage
the polyphenols with too much heat.
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Cell
Changes May Explain Diabetes Risk in Elderly
HealthScoutNews
Thursday, May 15, 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Diabetes
may become more common with age because of a decline in
the function of mitochondria, the powerhouses of the body's
cells, researchers reported Thursday.
The good news, they say, is that exercise
might counter this decline.
In a study that compared 13 healthy
people ages 18 to 39 with 16 healthy people ages 61 to 84,
the elderly participants were found to have greater insulin
resistance, which is a precursor to type 2 diabetes.
However, the difference was not due
to higher body fat among the older participants, who were
just as lean as their younger counterparts.
Insulin is a hormone produced by the
pancreas that allows blood sugar, or glucose, to enter cells
so it can be used as energy. Mitochondria, found in a cell's
cytoplasm, are responsible for converting glucose and fatty
acids into energy.
This process is impaired during insulin
resistance, when the body becomes less sensitive to the
effects of insulin, prompting the pancreas to pump out more
insulin to try to compensate.
A big question has been why older adults
have high rates insulin resistance and full-blown type 2
diabetes. Type 2 diabetes affects about one in four people
older than 60, noted study author Gerald I. Shulman of the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Yale University in New
Haven, Connecticut.
In the new study, reported in the May
16th issue of Science, Shulman and colleagues showed that
the metabolic activity of the mitochondria in muscle cells
was about 40 percent lower in the older participants.
They also showed more fat accumulation
in their muscle and liver tissue, assessed through non-invasive
scans.
"This finding is important because studies
in our lab and others have shown that the amount of lipid
(fat) inside the muscle cell is a very good predictor of
insulin resistance," Shulman said in a statement.
The results suggest that fat builds
up in the muscle of older people because of the decreased
activity of the cells' fat-burning mitochondria, according
to the researchers.
"These data support the hypothesis that
an age-associated decline in mitochondrial function contributes
to insulin resistance in the elderly," they conclude in
the report.
On a positive note, exercise may help
counter this process, because research has shown that physical
activity increases mitochondria in muscle by activating
an enzyme known as AMP kinase, Shulman explained in the
statement.
"This is yet another reason for seniors
to maintain an active lifestyle," he said.
Source: Science
2003;300:1140-1142.
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Green Tea Gives Skin Healthy Glow
HealthScoutNews
Thursday, May 15, 2003
THURSDAY, May 15 (HealthScoutNews) --
The skin-healing properties of green tea may help scientists
develop new treatments for skin disease and wounds, say
researchers at the Medical College of Georgia.
Green tea contains compounds called
polyphenols, which help eliminate free radicals. These free
radicals can cause cancer by altering DNA. Polyphenols also
protect healthy cells while promoting the death of cancer
cells.
Cell biologist Dr. Stephen Hsu recently
began studying the most abundant green tea polyphenol, called
EGCG, and its effect on skin cells. Hsu and his colleagues
compared the growth of normal skin cells to those exposed
to EGCG.
They found the EGCG reactivated dying
skin cells.
"Cells that migrate toward the surface
of the skin normally live about 28 days, and by day 20 they
basically sit on the upper layer of
