Space Research Explores Bone Loss
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Astronauts who travel in space are at risk for bone loss in much the same way that cancer patients who receive radiation therapy are, and both groups are more likely to develop fractures than the general population.
To better understand the causes, Clemson researchers have developed the first model to study the rate of bone loss in those two groups. Their results are published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.
Clemson bioengineering professor Ted Bateman said, “Recent exams of astronauts who were on the International Space Station showed signs of bone loss in the neck and vertebrae. Even five years after returning to Earth, they have not completely recovered from this loss.”
Diabetes and MS linked in Danish study
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People with type 1 diabetes are more than three times more likely to develop multiple sclerosis (MS) than are those without diabetes, new research from Denmark shows.
In addition, the two diseases appear to be linked, albeit to a weaker extent, within families.
Both type 1 diabetes and MS are auto-immune diseases, in which the body mounts an aberrant immune response against its own tissues—attacking insulin-producing cells in the case of diabetes, and the myelin sheath surrounding neurons in MS.
Angola embarks on massive child vaccination drive
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Three-year-old Josefina Beamgh screams as the needle punctures her tiny back. A drop of blood spouts to the surface and the terrified child drops to the ground, distraught but safe from the scourge of measles.
“Do the next one,” Kisi Josefina Beamgh, the child’s mother, tells a nurse as she grabs one of Josefina’s four wide-eyed siblings. One by one, each receives the jab as well as an oral polio vaccination and Vitamin A supplement.
The scene was repeated throughout Angola’s capital Luanda on Wednesday as the southwestern African nation began one of its largest childhood vaccination and anti-malaria campaigns since winning independence from Portugal in 1975.
Weight gain, particularly after menopause, is associated with increased risk of breast cancer
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Weight gain, particularly after menopause, is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in women, according to an article in the July 12 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association.
Background information in the article indicates that weight loss after menopause lowers circulating estrogen hormones in women, and because estrogen is directly related to breast cancer, weight loss is thought to decrease risk of the disease. Studies show that weight gain since early adulthood is associated with increased breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women, particularly those not taking postmenopausal hormones. However, weight changes in middle-aged to older women (50 years and older) has been studied less extensively.
Medical Sleep Studies Can Help Correct Common Sleep Disorders
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If you have trouble falling or staying asleep, you’re not alone. The National Sleep Foundation reports that nearly seven out of 10 Americans say they frequently have problems getting a good night’s sleep. And that may be cause for concern, says Henry Raroque, Jr., M.D., a board-certified neurologist and sleep specialist on the medical staff at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Grapevine.
A long-term pattern of disrupted sleep may reflect an underlying sleep disorder that, left untreated, could become a serious health issue.
“Shortchanging our bodies of the sleep we need not only leads to extreme fatigue,” Dr. Raroque explains, “but also could contribute to high blood pressure, stroke, heart problems and even depression.”
Healthy Lifestyle Reduces Women’s Stroke Risk
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Women who are non-smokers, exercise regularly, have a healthy diet, including moderate alcohol consumption, and otherwise live a healthy lifestyle may have a reduced risk of stroke, according to a report in the July 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
About 700,000 strokes occur each year in the United States, approximately one-fourth of which are fatal and an additional one-fourth of which leave patients permanently disabled, according to background information in the article. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, the more common type, in which a blocked artery causes a lack of blood flow to the brain; and hemorrhagic, which occurs when a ruptured blood vessel causes blood to leak into the brain. Several individual risk factors, including smoking, exercise and body mass index (BMI), have been linked to stroke. However, in contrast to studies assessing risk for heart disease and diabetes, researchers have not previously examined how the combination of these behaviors may contribute to stroke.
People with Parkinson disease can be apathetic without being depressed
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People with Parkinson disease can be apathetic without being depressed, and apathy may be a core feature of the disease, according to a study published in the July 11, 2006, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Apathy is a mental state characterized by a loss of motivation, loss of interest, and loss of effortful behavior. In apathy, the mood is neutral and there is a sense of indifference. In depression, the mood is negative and there is emotional suffering. Because apathy and depression share some of the same symptoms, the disorders can be misdiagnosed.
“This study shows that it’s important to screen for both apathy and depression so patients can be treated appropriately,” said study author Lindsey Kirsch-Darrow, MS, of the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Study finds sleep vital for memory
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Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the University of Pennsylvania found that sleep benefits an individual’s ability to recall recently learned declarative memories, even when recall of these memories is challenged hours later by competing information.
This finding is particularly important for individuals with mentally demanding lifestyles, such as doctors, medical residents and college students, who often do not get adequate amounts of sleep.
The study appears in the July 11, 2006 issue of Current Biology.
Protein may help detect Alzheimer’s - study
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Sampling spinal fluid for a protein that makes up the plaques that clog the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients may help diagnose the mind-wasting disease, researchers said on Monday.
As plaques build up in the brain, levels of the protein—A beta 42—are thought to decline elsewhere in the body, including the spinal fluid, according to the study appearing in the Archives of Neurology.
Other than giving suspected Alzheimer’s patients mental tests, a diagnosis can only be confirmed after death from the telltale plaques found in the brain.
Anti-herpes drug reduces need for Caesarean sections in infected women
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Giving an anti-viral drug to pregnant women who have a history of genital herpes significantly lowers the rate of Caesarean sections needed to protect the infant from becoming infected with the virus, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
The UT Southwestern study is the first large-scale confirmation that the drug valacyclovir hydrochloride (Valtrex) is effective in the last month of pregnancy, the researchers said. The study appears in this month’s issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.
“I think this will help immensely in giving doctors stronger evidence in using this treatment,” said Dr. Jeanne Sheffield, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UT Southwestern and lead author of the study. “Besides reducing the number of herpes outbreaks at birth, we also dropped the numbers of women without symptoms who were shedding the virus into the birth canal.”
Apathy often a part of Parkinson’s disease
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Patients with Parkinson’s disease may exhibit apathetic behavior without being depressed, a group of clinicians report. They suggest in the medical journal Neurology that apathy may therefore be a “core” feature of the disease.
“It’s important to screen for both apathy and depression so patients can be treated appropriately,” noted Dr. Lindsey Kirsch-Darrow in an American Academy of Neurology statement.
“It will also be important to educate family members and caregivers about apathy to help them understand that it is a characteristic of Parkinson’s disease,” she continued. “Apathetic behavior is not something the patient can voluntarily control, and it is not laziness or the patient trying to be difficult—it is a symptom of Parkinson’s disease.”
In-home eating “rules” may improve teens’ diet
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A team of dietitians and nutritionists in California say they’ve identified a number of promising ways to help adolescents make healthier food choices—like reaching for fruits and vegetables instead of cookies and sweets.
Dr. Marion F. Zabinski from the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues used an online questionnaire to determine psychological and social factors that correlated with fruit, vegetable, and dietary fat intake among 878 girls and boys ages 11 to 15 years.
The researchers also interviewed the adolescents on multiple occasions to ask about what they had eaten the day before.
Second-generation airbags safer for kids
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A new study confirms that newer airbags designed to be less hazardous to children and small adults are indeed safer for young children, without putting adults at greater risk.
The first generation of air bags, built to protect an average-size male, “have been lethal for children and adults in some crashes,” Dr. Carin M. Olson of the University of Washington in Seattle and her colleagues note in the July 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Second-generation air bags developed to deal with this problem were included in most cars built in 1998 and nearly all passenger cars of subsequent model years, they add. These air bags include depowered air bags, which inflate with less force, and advanced air bags.
Hallucinogen in mushrooms creates mystical/spiritual experiences
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Using unusually rigorous scientific conditions and measures, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown that the active agent in “sacred mushrooms” can induce mystical/spiritual experiences descriptively identical to spontaneous ones people have reported for centuries.
The resulting experiences apparently prompt positive changes in behavior and attitude that last several months, at least.
The agent, a plant alkaloid called psilocybin, mimics the effect of serotonin on brain receptors-as do some other hallucinogens-but precisely where in the brain and in what manner are unknown.
Focus on Multiple Sclerosis
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The authors describe how the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Centers of Excellence use healthcare information technology to care for veterans with MS. The approach is based on a chronic-disease model that was effective for diabetes, asthma, and depression. In this model, the approach to healthcare delivery focuses on two essential elements: “prepared, proactive, practice teams” who use tools such as evidence-based guidelines, and patients who actively participate in their healthcare. Through use of an organized healthcare information system, this model will capitalize on the advantages of information technology and lead to improved healthcare outcomes.
Veterans Health Administration multiple sclerosis surveillance registry: The problem of case-finding from administrative databases, pg. 17
The authors discuss the development of a Veterans Health Administration (VHA) multiple sclerosis (MS) surveillance registry. Numerous VHA registries target specific patient populations as part of programs for improving the quality and availability of veteran care. These registries are often compiled from administrative data based on diagnostic codes that rarely precisely identify veterans in the target patient population. In this study, the authors compare classification of patients (not MS vs MS/possible MS) by chart review and by application of a statistical database algorithm. Results suggest that the algorithm reliably eliminates non-MS cases from the initial surveillance registry and is a reasonable case-finding method.
