Low Carbohydrate Diet Did Not Increase Bone Loss
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A strict low-carbohydrate diet had no effect on bone loss for adults following an Adkins-type diet for weight loss, a three-month study by rheumatologists at the University of South Florida found. The clinical study was published this week in the online issue of the journal Osteoporosis International.
Low carbohydrate diets have become popular as a weight loss technique; however, critics contend such diets may have harmful side effects. One concern has been that low carbohydrate diets, which replace calories from carbohydrates with more consumption of high-protein foods like meat and eggs, alter the body’s acid balance. This imbalance could lead to increased bone turnover (more rapid depletion than formation of bone)—increasing the risk for osteoporosis.
“That’s not what our study found,” said lead author John D. Carter, assistant professor in the Division of Rheumatology, USF College of Medicine. “Patients on the low carbohydrate diet did lose weight, but the diet did not appear to compromise bone integrity or lead to bone loss.”
Constipation drug effective, study suggests
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Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Wyeth said on Tuesday that their experimental treatment for constipation caused by opioid painkillers proved effective in a late-stage clinical trial.
The 133-patient study is the second pivotal-stage trial of the subcutaneous drug, called methylnaltrexone, in patients with painful, terminal illnesses, such as cancer and heart disease, who also suffer from constipation.
The study showed that 48 percent of severely constipated patients experienced a bowel movement within four hours of receiving their first dose of the drug, compared with 16 percent given a placebo. More than 70 percent of methylnaltrexone patients responded by the end of the first week of treatment.
Hepatitis B virus prevalent among Asians in NY
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Approximately 15% of Asians living in New York City are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus, according to a new study by New York University School of Medicine researchers and their colleagues.
Chronic hepatitis B infection usually will lead to liver inflammation and can progress to cirrhosis and liver cancer. The reported infection rate is 35 times higher than the rate in the general U.S. population.
The new study appears in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Common painkillers could up chance of heart failure in seniors
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New research has revealed that commonly used over-the-counter painkillers, such as ibuprofen, are linked with a 30% increased risk of first hospital admission for heart failure.
The researchers say that though that risk may at first glance appear quite small, it has implications in particular for the elderly who are at greater risk of heart failure.
They say the revelation may also have a considerable impact on public health.
Women with COPD Fare Worse than Men with Same Level of Disease
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Women with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) fare worse than men both in terms of the severity of their disease and their quality of life, according to a study to be presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference on May 22nd.
These differences may play a role in the increased death rate seen among female patients with COPD, said researcher Claudia Cote, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
The researchers studied 85 women, and compared them with 95 men who had the same levels of COPD severity according to guidelines of the Global Initiative for Chronic Lung Disease (GOLD). They found that female patients were significantly younger than male patients with the same severity of disease. The women had lower lung function, more trouble breathing, and reported a worse quality of life. The women also received a worse score on the BODE index, which looks at lung function, nutritional status, symptoms and exercise capacity in order to measure a COPD patient’s disease severity and predicted survival.
Research Reveals Control of Potent Immune Regulator
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A new study reveals how the production of a potent immune regulator called interferon gamma (IFNg) is controlled in natural killer (NK) cells, immune cells that typically defend the body against cancer and infections.
IFNg, produced by NK cells and other cell types, plays a critical role in killing pathogen-infected cells and in defending against tumor cells. However, overproduction of IFNg is also dangerous to the body and can cause autoimmune diseases. But exactly how the body tightly controls IFNg production - and, therefore, NK-cell activity - is not known.
The study, published in the May issue of the journal Immunity, looked at substances called pro-inflammatory cytokines, which cause NK cells to make IFNg and stimulate their activity. It also looked at transforming growth factor beta (TGFb), a substance also made by NK cells that lowers IFNg production.
Botox effective for overactive bladder: study
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The popular wrinkle treatment Botox may have more than just cosmetic applications for people with a far more pressing quality of life issue than a wish to present an unfurrowed brow in public.
Botox, or botulinum-A toxin, was highly effective in treating patients with severe overactive bladder in a clinical trial and the desired effect lasted for months, according to results presented by researchers at a meeting of the American Urological Association in Atlanta on Sunday.
Allergan Inc., which sells Botox, did not sponsor the study, which was conducted independently by researchers in urology. An Allergan spokeswoman said the company has been “seeing very positive and encouraging trends” in the use of Botox for overactive bladder in its own clinical studies.
Bird flu will not reach US soon
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Sick poultry and infected people, rather than migratory birds, are more likely to bring the H5N1 bird flu virus into the United States, although that is unlikely to happen soon, a leading virologist said.
Robert Webster from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the United States said the virus is more likely to be introduced via human activities, such as poultry smuggling.
“There is no H5N1 in the United States. And I don’t think it is going to get there this year by wild birds…maybe not even next year,” he said on the sidelines of a conference organized by Fort Dodge Animal Health, a unit of Wyeth.
Metabolic syndrome raises risk of heart failure
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The findings of a new study suggest that the metabolic syndrome is a risk factor for heart failure, and this relationship is seen with or without the presence of other known heart failure risk factors, such as previous heart attack.
Individuals with the metabolic syndrome have a cluster of heart disease and diabetes risk factors, such as excess body weight, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol levels.
The results imply that the “metabolic syndrome provides important risk information beyond that of established risk factors for heart failure,” lead author Dr. Erik Ingelsson, from Uppsala University in Sweden, and colleagues note. They suggest that insulin resistance and higher than normal levels of insulin in the blood may underlie this increased heart failure risk in these patients.
Early violence exposure doesn’t raise future risk
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Children who witness domestic or other interpersonal violence are no more likely to become adult victims of violence than those who do not witness abuse, results of a new study suggest.
Abuse is common and many children witness abuse, co-author Dr. Amy A. Ernst, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, told Reuters Health. “Still, it’s not necessarily a correlation,” she said.
The findings of the study were presented last week at the annual meeting of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine in San Francisco.
Benadryl edges Clarinex for hay fever
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Diphenhydramine hydrochloride—more familiarly known as Benadryl—appears to be more effective than desloratadine, a.k.a. Clarinex, in relieving symptoms of moderate to severe hay fever, according to researchers.
“Benadryl provided significantly better overall allergy symptom relief than Clarinex,” investigator Dr. James T. Angello told Reuters Health. “Even more noteworthy in this study is the finding that Benadryl relieved nasal congestion just as well as it reduced allergic rhinitis (i.e., hay fever) symptoms as a whole.”
However, Benadryl caused more drowsiness than Clarinex.
Lung cancer deaths not higher in female nonsmokers
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Contrary to conventional wisdom, female non-smokers are no more likely to die of lung cancer than their male counterparts, according to a large study.
However, researchers found, that non-smoking African-American women may be at greater risk than white women, for reasons that are as yet uncertain.
Smoking is by far the top cause of lung cancer, and by comparison, few non-smokers develop the disease. But there are other factors that raise the odds of lung cancer, including chronic exposure to secondhand smoke, asbestos or radon—a radioactive chemical found in the soil and at high levels in some homes.
Cholesterol drugs may improve abnormal heart rhythm
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A study of a class of commonly used cholesterol-lowering drugs, called statins, used by patients with enlarged hearts (dilated cardiomyopathy) shows that these patients had significant reductions in mortality, which was due in large measure to an anti-arrhythmic effect.
Investigators with the multicenter Defibrillators in Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy Treatment Evaluation (DEFINITE) trial evaluated the survival benefit and effect of statin therapy on sudden cardiac death in 458 patients with cardiomyopathy. Of the total, 229 patients were randomly selected to receive an implantable cardioverter defibrillator to correct their abnormal heart rhythm. These devices are programed to detect these abnormalities, and to then deliver a shock to restore normal heart rhythm.
Overall, 110 patients were taking a statin, while 348 were not. Statins include drugs such as Lipitor, Pravachol and Zocor.
Sperm donor passes rare dangerous disease on to four children
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According to a new report in the U.S., a sperm donor may have unwittingly passed an extremely rare and dangerous genetic ailment to five children born to four couples.
The case has served to highlight gaps prevalent in the screening process.
The very rare disease, severe congenital neutropenia, can be fatal in children if untreated but it’s very rarity means that sperm banks do not screen for it.
Vegan diet lowers odds of having twins
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Women who eat a vegan diet—a strict vegetarian diet that excludes all animal products including milk—are one fifth as likely as other women to have twins, a U.S. researcher reported on Saturday.
Hormones given to cattle to boost their milk and meat production might be related to these findings, said Dr. Gary Steinman, an obstetrician specializing in multiple-birth pregnancies at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York.
Steinman compared twin births rates among women who ate a regular diet, vegetarians who included dairy products, and vegan women.
