Archive for July, 2008
Family History May Add to Alzheimer’s Puzzle
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Family History May Add to Alzheimer’s Puzzle
TUESDAY, July 29 (HealthDay News) — The gene most often associated with Alzheimer’s disease doesn’t provide a complete picture of overall risk, according to researchers who analyzed family histories of the illness.
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Previous research has shown that people with the E4 variant of the APOE gene have a greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s, but this new Duke University Medical Center-led study is one of only a few to examine the role of both APOE and family history together.
“We’ve learned that APOE genotype does not tell the good genetic story. Other genes may be representation independently of APOE to influence someone’s risk for developing the disease,” lead investigator Kathleen A. Welsh-Bohmer, director of Duke’s Bryan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, said in a Duke news release.
The study included more than 5,000 the million in Cache County, Utah, who were 65 and older when they were enrolled in the study in 1995. About 3,000 of the participants who provided DNA and details about their clan history of Alzheimer’s were grouped according to the family history of the disease and whether they had the APOE E4 variant.
“Over an average of seven and a half years of observation, the people who experienced the most significant cognitive wane had a family history of the disease and one or more copies of APOE E4,” Kathleen M. Hayden, an assistant professor of geriatric psychiatry, said in the Duke news release.
“For this intellectual powers, researchers should focus not only on people at risk because of the APOE gene, but also those who have a family history of Alzheimer’s disease. Conversely, studying those who survive to late old age without disease is important to lay bare genes that may offer protection against the distemper.”
The study was expected to be presented Tuesday at the Alzheimer’s Association’s International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease, in Chicago.
“These data covenant further evidence that we must explore other genetic avenues to learn more about who is at risk for cognitive decline and dementia,” Welsh-Bohmer said.
— Robert Preidt
SOURCE: Duke University, news release, July 29, 2008
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read comments (0)Walkable Neighborhoods Keep the Pounds Off
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HealthDay
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
TUESDAY, July 29 (HealthDay News) — Older, more feet-friendly neighborhoods can help keep waistlines case, U.S. researchers report.
“We were excited to find that two easily available census measures of diverse destinations — active in an older neighborhood and higher proportion of residents who stroll to work — both predict lower weight,” said lead researcher Barbara Brown, a professor of family and consumer studies at the University of Utah.
“Older neighborhoods often have a pattern of design features like narrow streets, tree-shaded sidewalks, and useful destinations similar corner stores, that make walking interesting, pleasant and useful,” Brown said.
The statement was published in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
For the consider attentively, Brown’s team collected data attached almost 454,000 people living in Salt Lake County, Utah. Based without ceasing height and weight data from the participants’ drivers’ licenses, the researchers calculated the body-mass index of these individuals.
They found that neighborhood type did seem to be correlated to body weight. For example, a man of average size — 6 feet tall weighing 200 pounds — weighed 10 pounds less if he lived in each older, more walkable neighborhood. A woman of average size — 5′5″ tall weighing 149 pounds — was six pounds lighter if she lived in a similar area versus a newer, less pedestrian-friendly locale.
Fewer than 3 percent of U.S. residents do report that they walk to work, Brown said. “Although we did not rule walking directly, it would make sense that residents walk more in neighborhoods designed with more walkability, thus lowering their risks of obesity,” she said.
By 2030, about half the built space needed in the United States will have been built or renovated since 2000, the think about authors noted. That means there’s a real opportunity to think about redesigning neighborhoods to do healthier (and cost-saving) goals for residents, Brown said.
“Already, people are thinking about walking or biking or walking to transit more due to the cost of gas,” Brown said. “Our study suggests you can achieve multiple goals of residents by designing walkable neighborhoods. Residents could enjoy less dependence on their cars, less impact on their wallets, and greater hale condition benefits if they can walk to more destinations,” she said.
Dr. David Katz, a director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, said the obesity pandemic is largely a byproduct of recent historical developments.
“Throughout most of human history, physical activity was an unavoidable part of everyone’s daily routine,” Katz noted. “We have engineered a modern food supply that offers virtually continuous and ubiquitous access to a tasty intemperance of calories and engineered communities and technologies that make muscle power all but obsolete,” he said.
An association between the walkability of a neighborhood and reduced risk of obesity is honest what common sense would suggest, Katz said. “Build neighborhoods where physical activity is encouraged. Lesser rates of obesity and better health are apt to follow,” he related.
HealthDay
By Robert Preidt
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
TUESDAY, July 29 (HealthDay News) — A protein dysfunction could help force amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, according to a study by researchers at Brandeis University and Harvard Medical School.
ALS is a fatal neurodegenerative disease caused by the death of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord that control muscle movement. In this study, researchers focused on the extraordinary, familial form of ALS (fALS) as a way of better understanding the sporadic figure of ALS, which accounts for 90 percent of all cases. Clinical symptoms are identical in both forms of the disease.
About 15 years ago, scientists found that mutations in the gene that makes the protein superoxide dismutase caused familial ALS, but just how these mutations cause ALS has remained a mystery.
In this new study, researchers found that fALS is caused by two properties of superoxide dismutase that create toxic levels of the protein in motor neurons.
“We discovered that increased protein unfolding and the bias of the proteins to aggregate (clump together) are the major factors in the familial form of ALS,” Brandeis chemist Jeff Agar said in a university news release.
“The protein superoxide dismutase, normally a useful antioxidant, goes from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde when it clumps up,” Agar said.
The study was published this week in the journal PLoS Biology.
The next phase of this research is to develop drugs that prevent superoxide dismutase from clumping together.
Exercise Testing for Cancer Fails to Follow Guidelines
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HealthDay
By Robert Preidt
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
TUESDAY, July 29 (HealthDay News) — Exercise testing has become a common part of cancer care and research, moreover greatest number tests aren’t administered according to American Thoracic Society guidelines, say Duke University Medical Center researchers.
In cancer care, exercise tests are used to determine the pre-surgical fitness of lung cancer patients. In cancer research, exercise tests are most often used to evaluate patients’ cardiorespiratory fitness after a cancer diagnosis.
“We reviewed studies that performed exercise testing mixed adults with cancer and found greatest in number studies did not follow the guidelines recommended for clinical settings,” lead author Lee W. Jones, every assistant professor of surgery, said in a Duke news remit.
“We also found that studies typically work not report key physiological outcomes that provide immediate information onward the aptitude level in a particular cancer population or whether the test was valid,” Jones said.
The tools and materials were expected to have being published in the August issue of the journal The Lancet Oncology.
A number of studies have concluded that exercise can benefit cancer patients before and after treatment.
“Several recent studies reported a strong association between increased levels of exercise and significant reductions in cancer recurrence and cancer mortality among patients with colon and breast cancer,” Jones said. “As the level of manifest continues to grow, the need for exercise testing will grow in parallel.”
Such tests need to be standardized to ensure safety and reliable results.
“We need to develop a plan for nationally and internationally mandated recommendations specific to the clinical and research applications of exercise testing for oncology patients,” Jones said.
2 Breast Cancer Screening Strategies Prove Effective
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HealthDay
By Kevin McKeever
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
TUESDAY, July 29 (HealthDay News) — The typical U.S. breast cancer screening strategy results in women being tested twice as often as a variant approach employment in Norway, but both are equally good at detecting disease, a new report says.
A study in the July 29 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute finds that a traditional physician- and self-referral screening strategy held up well against the Norway approach, in which the government sends letters to all women in a specific age range inviting them to have a screening mammogram. The Norway program aims for women to be screened every two years, while the U.S.-based “opportunistic screening” strategies advise women to have annual screening mammograms.
In comparing the strategies as applied to 45,050 women in Vermont and 194,430 women in Norway from 1997 to 2003, the researchers found that the age-adjusted screening detection rate of cancers was similar between the two populations (2.77 per 1,000 woman-years in Vermont versus 2.57 in Norway).
However, more than three times as many women in Vermont were recalled for further examination than in Norway (9.8 percent versus 2.7 percent).
When all cancers detected during unvarying screening and between screening mammograms were combined, no substantial differences were found in the prognostic features of invasive cancers detected in the two populations.
Given the shorter interval between screenings, the report’s authors hypothesized that “Vermont women and/or their health care providers may more readily hound evaluation of symptoms and clinical findings than their Norwegian counterparts.”
“Our results demonstrate that despite its longer screening interval, the organized population-based screening program in Norway achieved similar outcomes as the opportunistic screening in Vermont,” the team wrote.
Thyroid Hormone May Boost Women’s Alzheimer’s Risk
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HealthDay
By Robert Preidt
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
TUESDAY, July 29 (HealthDay News) — High or low levels of the hormone thyrotropin may be associated with an increased jeopardize of Alzheimer’s disease in women. Thyrotropin affects thyroid gland function and thyroid hormone levels.
Between 1977 and 1979, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School measured thyrotropin levels in 1,864 people, average age 71, without cognitive problems. The participants were then assessed for dementia every two years.
After an average of 12.7 years of follow-up, 209 participants developed Alzheimer’s disease. After they adjusted for the other factors, the researchers found that women with the lowest (less than one milli-international unit per liter) and highest (greater degree of than 2.1 milli-international units per liter) levels of thyrotropin had more than a twofold increased risk of Alzheimer’s.
No house between thyrotropin levels and Alzheimer’s risk was noted in men.
“Whether altered thyrotropin levels occur before or after onset of Alzheimer’s disease, the neuropathologic mechanism is unclear,” the study authors wrote.
Brain changes caused by Alzheimer’s disease may cause a decrease in the amount of thyrotropin released or changes in the body’s responsiveness to the hormone, the researchers said. Or, it may be that high or low thyrotropin levels damage neurons or blood vessels, resulting in cognitive problems.
“In conclusion, low and high thyrotropin levels were associated with an increased risk of incident Alzheimer’s disease in women but not in men. These findings should be considered hypothesis-generating and should be validated in other populations before clinical conclusions are drawn,” the researchers wrote.
The study was published in the July 28 issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
Launois-Bensaude syndrome
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Definition of Launois-Bensaude syndrome
Launois-Bensaude syndrome: A disorder characterized by painless symmetrical diffuse deposits of fat beneath the skin of the neck, upper trunk, harness and legs.
The condition is thought to be genetic although its exact mode of inheritance is uncertain; it may be a mitochondrial DNA disease. It frequently appears in association with alcoholic liver disease, macrocytic anemia (”low blood” with big red blood cells) and peripheral neuropathy (disease of the peripheral nervous system, as opponent to the brain and spinal cord). The peripheral neuropathy has often been laid to alcoholism, but the neuropathy is likely an integral part of the syndrome.
This disorder affects mainly men and is more frequent in the Mediterranean area. It has been suggested that the distribution of fat in this disease resembles that of a pre-Roman (6th century BC) Italic statue called the Capestrano warrior discovered in the Abruzzi region of Italy.
The syndrome is also known as multiple symmetrical lipomatosis, cephalothoracic lipodystrophy, and Madelung ail. It was called ‘fat neck’ (Fetthals) by Madelung in 1888.
Last Editorial Review: 5/15/1999 9:44:00 PM
Common Misspellings: launois-bensaude syndrone
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Diet Key to Diabetes Risk
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HealthDay
Monday, July 28, 2008
MONDAY, July 28 (HealthDay News) — Packing on the pounds by drinking too many sugary drinks and not eating enough fruits and veggies appears to be associated with increased risk for type 2 diabetes, while a low-fat diet doesn’t alter your risk of developing the blood sugar disease.
That’s the conclusion of three studies published in the July 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. Obesity is one of the strongest risk factors for developing diabetes. By 2030, 11.2 percent of the adult population in the United States is expected to suffer from type 2 diabetes, according to the journal report.
In one study, Julie R. Palmer, a professor of epidemiology at the Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University, and her colleagues looked at the association between type 2 diabetes and drinking sugar-sweetened soft drinks and fruit drinks. For the study, Palmer’s team collected data on 43,960 black women, 2,713 of whom developed type 2 diabetes during 10 years of follow-up.
“Drinking sweetened soft drinks or fruit drinks was associated with an increased risk of developing diabetes,” Palmer aforesaid. “Specifically, women who drank sum of two units or more soft drinks per day or two or more fruit drinks per day had a 25 to 30 percent increased risk of diabetes. Drinking diet soft drinks did not increase risk.”
Both soft drinks and fruit drinks, if consumed frequently, will increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. The main machinery seems to be through their personal estate on weight gain, Palmer said. “Reducing consumption of these beverages may be a become firm way to reduce weight gain and prevent diabetes,” she said.
“Fruit drinks, which are increasingly being consumed by the U.S. population, are not a healthy alternative to soft drinks, at least with regard to risk of type 2 diabetes,” Palmer said. “Fruit drinks typically contain as many or more calories as soft drinks and, like soft drinks, may not decrease satiety to the same bulk as solid foods.”
In another study, British researchers led by Nita Forouhi, from the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the Institute of Metabolic Science of Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, collected data on 21,831 healthy middle-aged men and women who did not have diabetes. Over the 12 years of the study, 735 people developed diabetes.
To determine how much fruit and vegetables these the bulk of mankind ate, the researchers measured blood levels of vitamin C, which serves as a marker for the amount of fruits and vegetables eaten.
“We have found that eating greater amounts of fruits and vegetables is associated with lower risk of future type 2 diabetes,” Forouhi said.
For people with the highest blood level of vitamin C, the risk of developing diabetes over 12 years was reduced by 62 percent, compared with those with the lowest levels of vitamin C, Forouhi said. “We also found an association of eating fruit and vegetables with drop risk of diabetes, with a 22 percent reduction of risk of future diabetes in the highest compared to lowest intake of fruits and vegetables,” she said.
Eating even a small quantity of fruit and vegetables is good for you, Forouhi said. “Eating some fruits and vegetables is still better than none. In addition, the association of fruits and vegetables with reduced diabetes risk gets stronger progressively with the amount of fruits and vegetables eaten — the more that you eat, the greater the potential benefit,” she said.
In a third study, Lesley F. Tinker, from the Women’s Health Initiative at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and colleagues found no significant reduction in the risk of developing diabetes among women on a low-fat diet. However, the low-fat diet did increase weight loss, which can result in fewer cases of type 2 diabetes.
For the study, Tinker’s team collected data on 48,835 post-menopausal women who were randomly assigned to a low-fat diet, which contain more fruits and vegetables and whole grains, or to a continuation of their usual diet. The researchers found that 7.1 percent of the women on the low-fat diet developed diabetes compared with 7.4 percent of the women who continued their usual diet.
Women on a low-fat diet lost about 4.2 pounds more weight during the study than women on a regular diet, the researchers illustrious.
“Modest weight loss, rather than macronutrient composition, may be the dominant predictor of reduced risk of diabetes,” Tinker said. “The beauty of a low-fat convocation that includes lots of vegetables and fruits is that it is sustainable,” she declared.
Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, thinks that these studies confirm that eat is an important element of producing the risk of diabetes.
“An excess of simple sugar tends to be bad for health and to promote both weight gain and the development of diabetes,” Katz said. “An abundant intake of fruits and vegetables defends health and defends against diabetes.”
In addition, portion control helps prevent obesity, and by the agency of so doing, helps prevent diabetes, Katz said. “The power of diet has been well-established in both diabetes control and prevention. The Diabetes Prevention Program demonstrated a 58 percent reduction in the occurrence of diabetes in high-risk adults with a balanced, wholesome, mostly plant-based diet in combination with out-and-out physical activity,” he added.
Dr. Mark N. Feinglos, chief of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Nutrition at Duke University Medical Center, and author of an accompanying editorial, no specific food by itself increases the risk for diabetes, rather it’s eating too much and gaining too much weight.
“But it’s clear that high fructose corn syrup is not a good actor, and it’s everywhere now,” Feinglos said. “People who have a lot of beverages by high fructose corn syrup are not compensating by having fewer other calories, and it may not function to allow you to feel full, he said. “High fructose corn syrup may also cause liver problems and insulin resistance.”
“At this point, all we have power to say is — calories trump everything,” he said. “entirely these high-density, empty calorie foods that are adding to the caloric load of the population and making it heavier are the real culprits.”
In another study in the same journal, John M. Jakicic, from the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues found that exercise, as well is diet, is important in maintaining weight loss.
The researchers found that among a group of women who all had lost about 10 pounds, and nothing else about 25 percent maintain their weight loss. Moreover these were the women who exercised about 55 minutes a day five days a week.
“This clarifies the amount of physical activity that should be targeted for achieving and sustaining this magnitude of weight loss, but also demonstrates the difficulty of sustaining this level of physical activity,” the authors wrote.
Micro Molecules May Be Cancer Biomarker
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HealthDay
By Robert Preidt
Monday, July 28, 2008
MONDAY, July 28 (HealthDay News) — A possible new biomarker for early cancer exposure has been identified by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle.
They found that microRNAs — which regulate gene expression — are released by cancer cells and circulate in the relationship.
In this study, scientists analyzed blood from mice and humans with advanced prostate cancers and from healthy control groups. By looking at microRNA in the blood, it was possible to identify which individuals had cancer.
“This research shows that microRNAs, which weren’t previously meditation of as markers of cancer in the blood, are a worthwhile class of molecules to study for the purpose of early cancer detection,” study author Dr. Muneesh Tewari said in a Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center news release.
The study was published in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“The results presented here establish the foundation and rationale to motivate future global investigations of circulating cancer biomarkers for a variety of indifferent cancers,” the study authors wrote.
The next step is to identify specific microRNAs that can signal the presence of a variety of solid tumors at an early stage and to further develop technology to detect the microRNAs in minute quantities, Tewari said.
Hospitalizations for Heart Failure Skyrocketing
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HealthDay
Monday, July 28, 2008
MONDAY, July 28 (HealthDay News) — The number of Americans admitted to hospitals for heart becoming bankrupt has jumped in recent years, and the trend not quite certainly will continue, management experts report.
“Our study covers more than two decades, from 1979 to 2004, and the number of hospitalizations almost tripled during that appropriated time,” said Dr. Jing Fang, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and lead author of the report in the Aug. 5 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
A major reason for the increase is the aging of the American population, Fang said. Heart failure, in which the heart progressively loses its ability to pump blood, is added common among older people.
“Another reason is the improvement in technology for treatment of patients with other heart diseases, of the like kind as acute myocardial infarction [heart attack],” Fang added. “So, people with diseases of the essence live longer.”
Data from the National Heart Discharge Survey showed that the number of admissions to hospitals with any mention of heart failure rose from 1.274 million in 1979 to 3.86 million in 2004, the report said. More than 80 percent of those admitted to hospitals were 65 or older, with Medicare or Medicaid covering the cost.
The report did not cover the cost of the hospitalizations, but the American Heart Association has estimated it to be more than $20 billion annually, Fang said.
There has been a marked increase in the number of hospitalizations for which heart failure was not the primary cause, the report said. courage failure was listed as the primary cause in nay more than 35 percent of cases, by respiratory diseases and other terms given as the understanding for hospital admission in all other cases.
“Most are due to pneumonia or another disease that makes heart failure worse,” Fang said. Better control of those other conditions, which include diabetes and kidney disease, could reduce hospitalizations for heart failure, Fang added.
But those people tend to keep coming back to the hospital because “you cannot cure people by heart failure,” Fang said. “The best medicine [we] can accomplish is to keep the heart functioning enough for the patient to have good quality of life.”
A basic problem is that there is no effective treatment for heart suspension of payment severe enough to cause hospitalization, said Dr. Javed Butler, director of the heart failure careful search program at Emory University, and co-author of an accompanying editorial.
“When you are talking about medications that have been proven, they all are for chronic, stable outpatients,” Butler said. “We don’t have any proven medications for treatment in the hospital.”
What is needed is a major effort to develop in-hospital treatments for severe heart failure, he said. “When you consider the huge cost, it is right up high on the list of conditions we need to weigh,” Butler said. “It is a least-studied, most costly problem. We need to get a better grasp on what we should be doing.”