Study questions health benefits of moderate drinking
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The majority of studies suggesting that “moderate” drinking helps prevent heart disease may be flawed, according to an international research group.
In a new report, researchers from the U.S., Canada, and Australia analyze 54 studies that linked how much people drink with risk of premature death from all causes, including heart disease. Researchers from the University of Victoria in British Columbia and the University of California, San Francisco led the team.
The researchers investigated a suggestion put forth in the scientific community that many of the studies conducted so far on drinking and premature death made a consistent and serious error by including as “abstainers” people who had cut down or quit drinking due to declining health, frailty, medication use or disability. When such studies show a higher death rate for abstainers than for moderate drinkers, this result may reflect the poor health of some abstainers who recently quit drinking rather than indicating a protective effect for alcohol.
A Body Temperature of 98.6° Is Anything but Normal
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The 98.6° F “normal” benchmark for body temperature comes to us from Dr. Carl Wunderlich, a 19th-century German physician who collected and analyzed over a million armpit temperatures for 25,000 patients. Some of Wunderlich’s observations have stood up over time, but his definition of normal has been debunked, says the April issue of the Harvard Health Letter. A study published years ago in the Journal of the American Medical Association found the average normal temperature for adults to be 98.2°, not 98.6°, and replaced the 100.4° fever mark with fever thresholds based on the time of day.
Now, researchers at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., have found support for another temperature truism doctors have long recognized: Older people have lower temperatures. In a study of 150 older people with an average age of about 81, they found that the average temperature never reached 98.6°. These findings suggest that even when older people are ill, their body temperature may not reach levels that people recognize as fever. On the other hand, body temperatures that are too low (about 95°) can also be a sign of illness.
Sleep problems under-studied in US, report finds
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Although more than 50 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep disorders, too few scientists study the problem and too few health-care professionals are trained to diagnose and treat it, a panel of experts reported on Tuesday.
Sleep troubles not only make people miserable—they cost the nation hundreds of billions of dollars every year in medical expenses, lost productivity, accidents and other costs, the Institute of Medicine said in a report.
“Although sleep research and care for individuals with sleep disorders have expanded over the past several years, we currently don’t have the capacity to adequately diagnose and treat all who suffer from these problems,” said Harvey Colten, who chaired the committee that wrote the report.
Menopause linked to new onset of depression
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Women who haven’t previously suffered from depression are at increased risk of developing depressive symptoms around the time they enter menopause, according to two studies appearing in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
The transition to menopause is often considered a high-risk period for depressive symptoms, yet scientific evidence supporting this association is lacking, points out one of the research teams, led by Dr. Ellen W. Freeman from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
In an 8-year study, Freeman’s group tracked 231 women who were about to enter menopause, none of whom had any history of depression up to the time they enrolled. The Center for Epidemiological Studies of Depression (CED-D) scale was used to assess depressive symptoms during follow-up.
WHO advisers urge drugs firms cut prices for poor
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International drugs companies should seek to reduce prices for medicines sold to the poorest countries and avoid filing for patent protection there, a report prepared for the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.
The 228-page study, drawn up by an independent team led by former Swiss president Ruth Dreifuss, also urged rich states not to toughen intellectual property protection conditions in trade pacts to the point where they could limit access to medicines.
“All companies should adopt transparent and consistent pricing policies and should work toward reducing prices on a more consistent basis for low and middle income developing countries,” the report said.
Heavier TV watching may mean earlier sex for teens
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Certain teenagers who watch more television are more likely to become sexually active than those who spend less time in front of the tube, a new study shows.
Dr. Sarah Ashby of the University of Wisconsin School of Public Health in Madison and her colleagues found that, among a group of 4,808 boys and girls younger than 16, those who said their parents strongly disapproved of sex—nearly three quarters of the group—were more likely to start having sex in the following year if they watched two hours or more of TV daily.
The findings, appearing in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, support the hypothesis that “kids who are at overall lower risk of initiating sex may be more influenced by things that they see,” Ashby told Reuters Health. For teens who don’t sense parental disapproval, she added, “the cat is already out of the bag.”
Physical activity low among emphysema patients
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People with chronic obstructive lung disease, commonly emphysema, have low levels of physical activity during and after being hospitalized for an acute flare-up of their condition, researchers report. This in turn can lead to further worsening of their condition.
“Acute exacerbations have a negative impact on various aspects of the progression of COPD,” write Dr. Rik Gosselink, of University Hospitals, Leuven, Belgium and colleagues in the medical journal Chest, “but objective and detailed data on the impact of hospitalizations for an acute exacerbation on physical activity are not available.”
To investigate, the researchers used an activity monitor to assess physical activity in 17 COPD patients while they were in the hospital for an acute exacerbation and after they were discharged.
New drug ups survival in advanced colon cancer
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Among patients with colorectal cancer that has spread to other areas of the body and who have not been helped by standard chemotherapy, a new drug called panitumumab produces a highly significant improvement in time without worsening of disease, according to data released at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
“Panitumumab is a new important treatment option for patients with chemo-resistant colorectal cancer, and it can add to the survival of these patients and their quality of life,” researcher Dr. Marc Peeters from University Hospital Ghent in Belgium said at a press briefing.
Panitumumab targets a growth factor receptor that is a key player in cancer cell growth.
First study of uterine fibroid embolization to treat post-menopausal women
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The first study of uterine fibroid embolization to treat post-menopausal women shows that the non-surgical treatment was technically successful in 100 percent of patients, and improved bulk-related symptoms in 92 percent of the women.
The research was presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 31st Annual Scientific Meeting in Toronto. Uterine fibroid embolization (UFE) has been performed by interventional radiologists since 1995 to treat symptomatic non-cancerous tumors in the uterus. During the technique the physician makes a tiny nick in the skin to insert a catheter into the femoral artery at the groin. Using real-time imaging, the physician guides the catheter through the artery and then releases tiny particles, the size of grains of sand, into the uterine arteries that supply blood to the fibroid tumor. This blocks the blood flow to the fibroid tumor causing it to shrink and die.
Lack of sleep linked to high blood pressure
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Skimping on sleep over a prolonged period appears to be an important risk factor for developing high blood pressure, according to a report in the medical journal Hypertension.
“People who sleep for only short durations raise their average 24-hour blood pressure and heart rate,” Dr. James E. Gangwisch, from Columbia University in New York, said in a statement. “This may set up the cardiovascular system to operate at an elevated pressure.”
Previous reports have linked sleep disorders with cardiovascular disease, but it was unclear if sleep deprivation in people who did not have a sleep disorder affected the likelihood of developing hypertension.
Cancer virus protein p13 needed for successful infection and reproduction
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New research shows that a protein made by a cancer-causing virus that was thought to be unimportant for its replication is in fact critically needed by the virus to initiate an infection and to reproduce.
The study examined the human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and a protein it makes called p13. The protein is one of the virus’ so-called accessory proteins, proteins that earlier studies done in laboratory-grown cells suggested that the virus could live without.
But this new study - done using an animal model that the virus can infect - suggests that HTLV-1 needs the p13 protein to successfully infect the body and reproduce.
Johns Hopkins scientists identify genes in fruitflies that may shed light on human cancer spread
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By searching through all the genes in the fruitfly genome, Johns Hopkins scientists have identified those required for a certain type of cell migration and simultaneously captured a global view of all the genes turned on when cells are on the move.
The study, to be published April 3 in Developmental Cell, has implications for understanding cell migration and perhaps controlling cancer cells that move similarly to spread beyond an original tumor, which are what eventually kills most cancer patients.
The research identified several hundred genes that are preferentially turned on in so-called border cells of the fruitfly ovary that migrate during normal development. Two main types of genes came out of this search: those known to be involved in maintaining cell shape and structure and which become very dynamic in migrating cells; and a group of genes involved in transporting materials from the inside of a cell to its membrane surface and back again.
Regular use of COX-2 inhibitors may reduce the risk of breast cancer
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Results from a new, five-year study show that regular use of popular prescription pain relievers may reduce the risk of breast cancer by up to 71 percent and may offer similar benefit in the prevention of prostate, colon and lung cancers.
The study findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C.
“We believe this is the first study to show that selective COX-2 inhibitors have significant chemopreventive effects against breast cancer,” says Dr. Randall Harris, professor and director of the Center for Molecular Epidemiology and Environmental Health in The Ohio State University College of Medicine and lead author of the study.
Panitumumab shows promise for patients with colorectal cancer
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Results from a Phase III study of a new drug show promise for patients with colorectal cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, according to a study presented during the 97th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Investigators have shown that panitumumab improves progression-free survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) who had failed standard chemotherapy. In the randomized trial of 463 patients, those who received panitumumab with best supportive care every two weeks (231 pts) showed a 46 percent decrease in the rate of tumor progression or death versus those who received only best supportive care (232 pts). At week 24, approximately four times as many pantimumab patients were alive and progression-free versus those on best-supportive care (18 percent versus five percent). Twice as many panitumumab patients were alive and progression-free at week 32 (10 percent versus four percent).
Compare Major Complications for Surgery vs. UFE For Uterine Fibroids
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Canadian research of 377 women shows that surgical treatments for symptomatic uterine fibroids, such as hysterectomy and myomectomy, have a higher rate of major complications, infection and pulmonary embolism compared to non-surgical uterine fibroid embolization. In the surgical group, there were 20 (6.3%) cases of major complications ranging from death to bowel injury and anemia. In the UFE group, there were no complications. There were three cases of pulmonary embolism in the surgical group, with none in the UFE group. In the surgical group, there were 27 cases of infection (10.5%) compared to none with UFE. The findings were presented today at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 31st Annual Scientific Meeting.
Of the 600,000 hysterectomies performed annually in the United States and of the 50,000 performed annually in Canada, one-third of these are due to fibroids - non-cancerous tumors in the uterus that may cause heavy, prolonged menstrual periods, pelvic pain, urinary frequency, constipation, and painful intercourse.
In the study, surgical treatments were compared to uterine fibroid embolization (UFE), also known as uterine artery embolization. UFE is performed by an interventional radiologist and does not require general anesthesia. The interventional radiologist makes a tiny nick in the skin in the groin and inserts a catheter into the femoral artery. Using real-time imaging, the physician guides the catheter through the artery and then releases tiny particles, the size of grains of sand, into the uterine arteries that supply blood to the fibroid. This blocks the blood flow to the tumor causing it to shrink and die.
