Hospitals prepare for growing ranks of obese
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As Americans keep getting bigger, hospitals are revamping themselves to accommodate an influx of obese patients.
When these patients check into a hospital, they are increasingly likely to find themselves in a room with a wider doorway than the 42-inch standard, a bed that holds up to 1,000 pounds and a ceiling lift system to move them to the bathroom.
Toilets in such a room are extra-sturdy and mounted to the floor instead of a wall.
Viagra helps diabetic women overcome sexual dysfunction
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Young women with diabetes with sexual dysfunction may find that Viagra (sildenafil) improves arousal, orgasm and sexual enjoyment and decreases pain during intercourse, results of a small study suggest.
Diabetic women may experience sexual dysfunction due to vaginal dryness, discomfort, and other factors, Dr. Salvatore Caruso and associates, from the University of Catania in Italy, note in their paper, published in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility. Some of Viagra’s physiologic effects, which are beneficial in men, may also be helpful for women, they hypothesized.
Molecular pathway may contribute to age related diseases
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“A common molecular denominator in aging and many age-related diseases is oxidative stress,” says the study’s lead author Azad Bonni, MD, PhD, Harvard Medical School associate professor of pathology.
The skin of a bitten apple will brown because of its exposure to air, and in some ways that is a good metaphor for the damage that oxidative stress is causing to neurons and other types of cells over time.
Humans and other organisms depend on oxygen to produce the energy required for cells to carry out their normal functions. A cell’s engine, the mitochondria, converts oxygen into energy. But this process also leaves a kind of exhaust product known as free radicals. When free radicals are not destroyed by antioxidants, they create oxidative stress. As the body ages, it produces more and more free radicals and its own antioxidants are unable to fight this process, which results in the generation of highly reactive oxygen molecules that inflict cellular damage by reacting with biomolecules including DNA, proteins, and lipids. A lifetime of oxidative stress leads to general cellular deterioration associated with aging and degenerative diseases.
Genetically Altered Mice No Longer Like Cocaine
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Researchers found that they could eliminate the rewarding effect of cocaine on mice by genetically manipulating a key target of the drug in the animal’s brain.
While the researchers aren’t suggesting that these genetic modifications be made in humans, the work brings to light the key protein that controls cocaine’s effects in the body, which may help scientists develop medications that achieve the same results and therefore help addicts overcome their dependence.
Right now there are no such treatments on the market, said Howard Gu, the study’s lead author and an associate professor of pharmacology and psychiatry at Ohio State University.
Experimental treatment increases response rates in advanced lung cancer
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An early phase study pairing an experimental targeted therapy with a common anti-inflammatory produced promising results in patients with advanced lung cancer, researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center reported.
Pairing the targeted therapy Tarceva with the anti-inflammatory drug Celebrex increased response rates in lung cancer patients by about three-fold, said Dr. Karen Reckamp, an assistant professor of hematology/oncology and lead author of the study. The research appears in the June 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Association of Cancer Research.
Previous laboratory studies at UCLA showed that a cell signaling pathway known as COX-2 may be linked to resistance to drugs like Tarceva, which block tumor cell growth by targeting the protein EGFR, or epidermal growth factor receptor. Researchers theorized that giving Tarceva with Celebrex, a COX-2 inhibitor, would help battle resistance and prove to be an affective combination against lung cancer.
Early Estrogen Exposure Leads to Later Prostate Cancer Risk
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A study in the June 1 issue of Cancer Research presents the first evidence that exposure to low doses of environmental estrogens during development of the prostate gland in the male fetus may result in a predisposition to prostate cancer later in life.
The study, done in an animal model, also demonstrates how the predisposition may arise, and a way to identify those at risk.
Man-made compounds that can mimic the hormone action of estrogens (xenoestrogens) are widespread in the environment. One of these agents is bisphenol A (BPA), used in the manufacture of plastics and epoxy resins. The United States alone produces over 1.6 million pounds of BPA annually. BPA, which can also leach from plastics when heated, turns up in human blood and in placental and fetal tissues in even higher concentrations.
Japan’s fertility rate hit low of 1.25 in 2005
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Japan’s fertility rate—the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime—fell to an all-time low of 1.25 in 2005, the health ministry said on Thursday, the latest sign of the threat to the world’s second-biggest economy from an aging, shrinking population.
Japan’s population declined last year for the first time since 1945. Experts have long predicted the shift, but it came two years earlier than forecast.
“It’s an extremely tough figure,” Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters. “It will become one of the most important items on the policy agenda.”
Blood pressure drugs associated with reduced risk of cancers
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Thousands of individuals currently taking angiotension converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, a type of medication commonly used to lower blood pressure, may be doing more than treating their hypertension.
According to research presented at Digestive Disease Week. 2006 (DDW), ACE inhibitors not only effectively lower blood pressure, but they are also associated with a significant decrease in risk of developing three types of cancers: esophageal, pancreatic and colon.
Using a study population of nearly 500,000 U.S. veterans, researchers from the Overton Brooks VA Medical Center in Shreveport, LA, completed three case-controlled studies examining the correlation between ACE inhibitor use and esophageal, pancreatic and colon cancer incidence. The team analyzed statistics from the Veterans’ Integrated Service Network (VISN 16) database, a resource tool containing information about every veteran that has received care from the South Central VA Health Care Network from October 1998 to June 2004. Among the 483,733 patients in the study, 659 had esophageal cancer, 475 had pancreatic cancer, and 6,697 had colon and rectal cancer; approximately 38 percent were taking ACE inhibitors.
Suicides up in Japan, overwork illnesses also rise
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The number of Japanese who took their own lives rose slightly in 2005 to stay above 30,000 for the eighth straight year, with the number of serious illnesses and deaths blamed on overwork also climbing.
Work-induced stress is not a new problem in workaholic Japan, where the suicide rate is the second highest among the Group of Eight industrialized nations, but official recognition of the issue has lagged.
According to police figures released on Thursday, 32,552 people committed suicide in 2005, up from 32,325 last year but still below the record 34,427 in 2003.
Merck faces grandmother in next Vioxx trial
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Merck & Co. will be back in court in Atlantic City, New Jersey, next week as the next Vioxx liability trial gets under way with the drug maker facing a 68-year-old grandmother who blames the withdrawn pain drug for her 2004 heart attack.
Elaine Doherty says she used Vioxx daily for three years to treat pain from arthritis of the hands and knees and continued to take the medicine after suffering a heart attack in January of 2004.
“She had no idea that Vioxx could cause heart attacks,” Michael Galpern, one of Doherty’s attorneys, told Reuters. “She relied on Merck’s untruthful advertisements and she continued to take it up until it was withdrawn.”
One cigarette may trigger smoking urge years later
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Preteens who have tried smoking just once have an increased risk of becoming a regular smoker years later, UK researchers report in their study, published in the journal Tobacco Control.
Dr. Jennifer Fidler of University College London and her colleagues found that young people who reported trying just one cigarette at age 11 were twice as likely to become regular smokers by age 14, even if they didn’t have a single puff in the intervening years.
While there are many possible explanations for the findings, Fidler told Reuters Health, “I think there’s a lot to be said for the fact that having smoked at an early age breaks down barriers which might prevent a person from trying cigarettes later on.” For example, she notes, kids who’ve had a first puff may feel more comfortable holding a cigarette and less intimidated about smoking in front of their peers.
Girls overtake boys as binge drinkers
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Teenage girls in the UK have overtaken boys as binge drinkers for the first time and are now second only behind Irish girls in Europe, according to a report on Thursday.
The Institute of Alcohol Studies said 29 percent of teenage girls were binge drinkers in 2003 compared with 26 percent of boys. In 1999 the figure was 27 percent and 33 percent respectively.
It said over a quarter of all 15- and 16-year-olds in Britain had been on drink binges three or more times in the last month.
EU paves way for drugs modified for children
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Drugs specifically adapted for pediatric use will become more widely available in the European Union starting next year, following the adoption of new rules released by the European Parliament on Thursday.
More than half the medicines currently used to treat children have only been tested on adults and are not authorized for use specifically on infants, making it difficult for doctors to estimate the right dosage or predict side effects.
Many cancer drugs, such as carboplatin, are widely used to treat children on an “off-label” or unlicensed basis, cancer specialists say.
