Drug cuts fractures in Alzheimer, stroke patients
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People with Alzheimer’s Disease or certain types of Stroke are at increased risk for breaking a hip, but investigators in Japan have found that the bone-strengthening drug Actonel reduces this risk in both patient groups.
Vitamin D deficiency ultimately leads to bone thinning in female patients with Alzheimer’s, Dr. Yoshihiro Sato and colleagues note in their report.
Trust fosters correct drug use when cash is tight
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When strapped for cash, it is not uncommon for people to cut back on taking their prescribed medications. Now, new research indicates that this tendency—which can have obvious adverse health consequences—is offset by a high degree of trust between patients and doctors.
“In our study of over 900 diabetic patients in a VA health system, we found that medication costs were a problem for everybody, regardless of whether they trusted their doctors or not,” lead author Dr. John D. Piette, from the VA Ann Arbor Health Care System in Michigan, told Reuters Health. “Nevertheless, when people didn’t trust their doctors, they were much more likely to cut back on medications because of cost pressures.”
Brain disease may cause death during sleep
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When an elderly person dies in his or her sleep, cessation of breathing related to the loss of neurons in a particular area of the brain could be a possible cause of death, if animal experiments are any indication.
A brain region called the ventrolateral medulla is critical for generating regular, rhythmic breathing, and neurons in this area show high levels of a receptor termed NK1R. Dr. Leanne C. McKay and colleagues at the University of California Los Angeles theorized that a lack of NK1R-carrying neurons could underlie central sleep apnea.
Tests show promise for bird flu vaccine in humans
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Human tests of an experimental vaccine show it is effective at stimulating the immune system to fight the bird flu strain that experts worry could spur a worldwide pandemic, a top government scientist said on Saturday.
The findings are a step forward but do not overcome the major hurdle of producing enough vaccine to meet demand in the event of a flu pandemic, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The vaccine is grown in chicken eggs and production can take months.
EU authorizes GMO maize type by legal rubberstamp
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The European Union authorized imports of a genetically modified (GMO) maize on Monday, the third GMO product to win approval since the EU ended its unofficial biotech ban last year, officials said.
The maize, known as MON 863, is engineered by U.S. biotech giant Monsanto to resist the corn rootworm insect.
UN fears epidemic as malaria sweeps Ethiopia
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A sharp increase in Malaria cases and deaths across Ethiopia has raised fears of an epidemic in the east African country, the United Nations said on Monday.
Health experts say most of the one million deaths caused annually by Malaria occur in Africa, costing the continent more than $12 billion every year.
Polio cases hit 205 in Indonesia, two in capital
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Health workers have identified 205 children infected with polio in Indonesia since the disease resurfaced this year, and two of the cases are in the densely populated capital Jakarta, officials said on Monday.
Polio, a water-borne disease that can cause irreversible paralysis in hours, reemerged in May in the world’s fourth most populous country, which had been polio-free since 1995.
Fatty diet may thwart brain’s fullness signal
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Rats that are fed a high-fat diet appear to lose their sensitivity to a hormone that tells the body when it’s had enough to eat—and the same could be true of humans, according to researchers.
In experiments with rats fed either a high- or low-fat diet, researchers at Pennsylvania State University found that the fatty diet diminished the rodents’ sensitivity to a hormone called cholecystokinin, or CCK.
Smaller breast tumors help explain better survival
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The average breast tumor is smaller today than it was 25 years ago, probably because of earlier detection, and this accounts for a “substantial fraction” of the improvement in survival over the last 30 years, researchers report
“This study is important,” said Dr. Elena B. Elkin, “because it shows that if we don’t account for trends in the characteristics of newly diagnosed Breast cancers, such as the shift in tumor size, we may overestimate the impact of advances in treatment.”
Russian bird flu may be spreading
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A bird flu outbreak in Russia’s Siberian regions may be spreading, but no humans have been infected so far, officials and Russian media said on Monday.
The highly potent H5N1 strain, confirmed in the Siberian region of Novosibirsk, has swept parts of Asia and killed more than 50 people since 2003. Outbreaks in Russia and later in neighboring Kazakhstan have been reported since mid-July.
Teacher caught licking students’ wounds
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The Oregon teachers’ board reprimanded a high school football coach for licking the bleeding wounds of student athletes, school officials said on Friday.
The Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission placed Scott Reed, 34, on two years of probation and ordered the coach, who is also a science teacher to attend a class on the risks of blood-borne pathogens.
Chinese officials fired for pig disease cover-up
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Four officials have been sacked for trying to cover up the trail of dead pigs early in an outbreak of a swine-borne disease that has killed 39 people in southwest China, Xinhua news agency said on Monday.
The officials, all from near Neijiang in Sichuan province, had fabricated reports and deceived inspectors and reporters tracing the spread of the Streptococcus suis bacteria, Xinhua said on its English Web site, http://www.chinaview.cn.
Type of dialysis makes a difference to death risk
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For people with end-stage renal disease, those on hemodialysis tend to live longer than those who opt for peritoneal dialysis, according to a new report.
When kidneys fail, toxins in a patient’s blood can be removed by passing the blood over membranes that allow the harmful substances to pass through and be removed. An alternative to hemodialysis is peritoneal dialysis, a process in which fluid is instilled into the abdominal cavity and then drained after several hours, along with unwanted toxins.
High intake of milk may raise ovarian cancer risk
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Could a lot of dairy be too much of a good thing? An analysis of 21 studies that investigated ties between ovarian cancer and the consumption of milk products and lactose provides some support for the notion that a high intake is associated with increased ovarian cancer risk.
“The important observation,” said Dr. Susanna C. Larsson, “is that a high intake of milk and milk sugar (lactose) was associated with increased risk of ovarian cancerr in prospective studies (in which diet has been assessed before the cancer diagnosis) but not in case-control studies (in which diet has been assessed after the cancer diagnosis.”
Bird flu spreads in Russia, maybe in Kazakhstan
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Bird flu has been officially confirmed in two more Russian regions, and the disease may also be spreading in Northern Kazakhstan, officials said on Friday.
Health officials fear that a subtype of bird flu dangerous to humans may mutate into a lethal strain that could rival or exceed the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 20-40 million people worldwide at the end of World War One.
