Anti-obesity compound found in brown seaweed
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Studies in animals suggest that brown seaweed, also known as wakame—commonly used to flavor Asian soups and salads, contains a compound that promotes weight loss. The compound, called fucoxanthin, also has anti-diabetes effects.
At the 232nd American Chemical Society National Meeting in San Francisco today, Dr. Kazuo Miyashita from Hokkaido University reported seeing significant reductions in fat tissue in rats and obese mice fed the edible seaweed carotenoid fucoxanthin.
“The mechanism for this effect is a new one,” Dr. Miyashita points out in a statement, explaining that fucoxanthin induces expression of the fat-burning protein UCP1 that accumulates in fat tissue around the internal organs. Mice fed fucoxanthin showed clear signs of UCP1 expression in fat tissue, whereas mice fed a control diet showed little expression of this protein.
Childless women run the risk of earlier death
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Childless women run the risk of earlier death and poorer health in later life.
A new study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) finds that not only childless women but also mothers of five or more children, teenage mothers and mothers who have children with less than an 18 month gap between births all have higher risks of death and poor health later in life.
Findings are based on a study of three separate datasets of women born from 1911 onwards in Great Britain and the USA. “We already know quite of lot about the impact of a person’s very early life or their socio-economic history on health and mortality in later life,” explains researcher Professor Emily Grundy of the Centre for Population Studies, School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London. “But, in this study we were able to analyse the long-term health implications of a person’s partnership and parenting experiences while taking into account education and other indicators of socio-economic status as well.”
Before Dementia Appears, Weight-Loss Rate Doubles
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A long-term study of the elderly has revealed that their average rate of weight loss doubles in the year before symptoms of Alzheimer’s-type dementia first become detectable. The finding may be useful to researchers seeking ways to detect and treat Alzheimer’s before it causes irreversible brain damage.
The study is the first to confirm in precise detail a link between weight loss and dementia tentatively identified a decade ago. Researchers report in the September 2006 Archives of Neurology that one year before study volunteers were diagnosed with very mild dementia, their rate of weight loss doubled from 0.6 pounds per year to 1.2 pounds per year. The analysis used data from the Memory and Aging Project at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Majority of Medical Interns Exceed Work Hour Limits
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Nearly 84 percent of medical interns reported that they are continuing to work hours that exceeded the limits of a 2003 national standard implemented by the medical profession, a new study finds. A related study concludes that interns are much more likely to injure themselves mistakenly with a needle or another sharp instrument when working in a hospital more than 20 consecutive hours, or at night.
The studies appear in the September 6, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association and were funded by HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. These findings build on previous research and the growing awareness that sleep-deprived first-year doctors in training (interns) working traditional 24-hour shifts make many more serious medical errors and crash their cars more often than those whose work is limited to 16 consecutive hours.
“These studies raise troubling questions about compliance with standards that were developed to reduce medical errors due to work-hour-related fatigue,” said AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy, MD. “Residency programs that don’t comply with these standards could be jeopardizing the safety of both their patients and their interns,” she added.
More data needed on silver tooth fillings: panel
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A U.S. advisory panel on Thursday said a government report that found no evidence of health problems from silver, mercury-based dental fillings was incomplete and urged more study.
The panel of outside experts did not vote specifically if the silver fillings in the mouths of millions of Americans, also called amalgams, were safe. But the panel chairman said members agreed most people would not suffer ill effects.
“The key message is for the vast majority of the general population there is good evidence that amalgams are safe,” panel chairman Dr. Karl Kieburtz said in an interview.
H5 and N1 avian influenza found in Pennsylvania wild bird samples
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The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Interior today announced that the presence of the H5 and N1 avian influenza subtypes in samples from wild mallard ducks in Pennsylvania.
Testing has ruled out the possibility of this being the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain that has spread through birds in Asia, Europe and Africa. Test results thus far indicate this is low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI), which poses no threat to human health.
The ducks were sampled August 28, 2006 in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. The ducks were showing no signs of sickness, which also suggests this is LPAI. The samples were taken by Pennsylvania Game Commission personnel under a cooperative agreement with USDA, as part of an expanded wild bird monitoring program. The Departments of Agriculture and Interior are working collaboratively with States to sample wild birds throughout the U.S. for the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). As a result of this expanded testing program, USDA and DOI expect to identify additional cases of common strains of avian influenza in birds, which is not cause for concern.
Chinese herbs can cause surgery complications
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Herbs used in some traditional Chinese prescriptions can cause complications if they are taken just before anesthesia and surgery, a Hong Kong study has found. The study, published in the September issue of the medical journal Anesthesiology, found that certain herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine can impair blood clotting or lower blood pressure.
It named licorice, rehmannia, astragalus, atractylodes and eucommia as potentially harmful traditional herbs if taken in prescription form before surgery.
Some reduce potassium in the blood, which could result in serious arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, if the person is given anaesthetic drugs at the same time, according to the researchers.
Dealer in German rotten meat probe commits suicide
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A German meat distributor at the centre of a widening police probe into the sale of rotten meat and vegetables has committed suicide, police in the southern city of Munich said on Wednesday.
The 74-year-old’s company is at the heart of a European food safety scare after police last week impounded more than 120 tonnes of tainted meat, some of it more than four years out-of-date, at buildings and cold stores belonging to the firm.
They raided restaurants and launched an investigation into whether tainted produce was sold with altered sell-by dates.
Hand gel kills bird flu virus and Indonesian update
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A company in the UK has come up with a hand gel which has the ability to kill the H5N1 bird flu virus in under a minute.
The gel which could be on the market by the end of the year, has been developed for the prevention of the disease among health workers, consumers and agricultural workers and kills the virus within 30 seconds.
The London based company DermaSalve Sciences, makes products for treating dry skin, and says the gel remains active for 30 minutes after it is applied.
Virgin olive oil deemed especially heart healthy
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When it comes to heart health, virgin olive oil may have an edge over other vegetable fats, new research suggests.
Reporting in the Annals of Internal Medicine, European researchers say virgin olive oil may be particularly effective at lowering heart disease risk because of its high level of antioxidant plant compounds.
In a study of 200 healthy men, the researchers found that virgin olive oil—rich in antioxidants called polyphenols—showed stronger heart-health effects than the more extensively processed “non-virgin” variety.
Researchers Discover Breakthrough in Major Third World Scourge
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Researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), The New Jersey Medical School (NJMS), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have discovered a mechanism that provides natural protection against intestinal roundworm infections, which affect more than 1.4 billion people throughout the world, and which may lead to more effective therapies against nematode parasites.
The breakthrough research in host protection against nematode parasites was published in the August 2006 issue of the prestigious journal, Nature Medicine. The National Institutes of Health funded research was conducted at USU and NJMS by Robert M. Anthony, while a Ph.D. graduate student in USU’s Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB) program, under the supervision of the principal investigator, Dr. William Gause. Dr. Joseph Urban, USDA, also collaborated on this project.
Until now, scientists have been unable to determine how the immune system mounts an effective response against tissue dwelling helminthic parasites. The findings of Drs. Anthony, Gause, and co-workers suggest a new model of resistance, involving macrophages. Macrophages have previously been associated primarily with protection against microbes, including bacteria and viruses. The studies reported in Nature Medicine indicate that during helminth infection, macrophages differentiate along an alternative activation pathway that mediates clearance of these relatively large, multicellular parasites.
Researcher Lights the Way to Better Drug Delivery
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A Purdue University researcher has explained for the first time the details of how drugs are released within a cancer cell, improving the ability to deliver drugs to a specific target without affecting surrounding cells.
“As a general strategy, the indiscriminate delivery of drugs into every cell of the body for the treatment of a few specific pathologic cells, such as cancer cells, is a thing of the past,” said Philip Low, the Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. “Most new drugs under development will be targeted directly to the pathologic, disease-causing cells, and we have shed light on the details of one mechanism by which this is achieved.”
An understanding of the cellular process that leads to the release of targeted drugs is a major advancement for the field, he said.
More companies opening in-house clinics for employees to help reduce health costs
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A “combination of both definable and intangible savings are driving more companies to open medical clinics to cope with ever-rising health care costs,” the AP/Houston Chronicle reports.
According to the AP/Chronicle, savings for companies come from lower doctor fees in addition to improved worker health because the “clinic’s proximity encourages employees to visit doctors and fosters better care of conditions that can be especially expensive to treat when ignored.”
David Beech, a health care consultant at Watson Wyatt Worldwide, said companies with clinics find that their employees make one-third fewer visits to specialists and one-quarter fewer trips to urgent care centers.
World leaders must to do more to address the needs of migrant women
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World leaders must to do more to address the needs of migrant women and to protect them from human rights violations, such as human trafficking, according to this year’s State of the World Population report released Wednesday by the United Nations Population Fund, New Era/AllAfrica.com reports.
The report, titled “A Passage to Hope: Women and International Migration,” examines the “scope and breadth of female migration, the impact of the funds they send home to support families and communities and their disproportionate vulnerability to trafficking, exploitation and abuse,” AllAfrica.com reports (Sibeene, New Era/AllAfrica.com, 9/7).
According to UNFPA figures, nearly half of the 191 million people who migrate each year are women, primarily from countries in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe (Thomas, VOA News, 9/6).
Mexico’s health system reforms working
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Julio Frenk, Minister of Health of Mexico, outlines the results of the country’s 6-year project of health system reform in a Public Health article in this week’s issue of The Lancet.
Mexico is a middle-income country with a population of more than 100 million. Like most developing countries, Mexico is simultaneously facing the double burden of chronic and infectious disease. Over the past 6 years the country has been a ‘global laboratory’ for health system reform, using the best available scientific evidence to address these complex challenges.
Special initiatives to address health threats such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and child mortality over the past 5 years are showing results: the number of cases of malaria have dropped by 60%, six times more people are receiving antiretroviral therapy, TB mortality has fallen by 30%, and Mexico is only one of seven countries on track to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015-the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG4). The reforms have also led to a 17% reduction in the proportion of male teenagers who smoke, a 17% increase in the use of mammography, and a 32% increase in the number of pap smear tests over the past 5 years.
