Nearly 1 in 10 Americans Has A Relative With Kidney Failure
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Approximately ten percent of U.S. adults have a family history of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), and these individuals appear to be at increased risk of developing kidney disease themselves, reports a study in the April Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
“A family history of kidney disease is more frequent in African-Americans, who are also at substantially higher risk of ESRD,” comments Dr. William McClellan of Emory University in Atlanta, lead author of the new study. “Our results suggest that efforts to reduce the risk of progressive kidney disease and ESRD targeted at these families might help improve the detection, treatment, and control of early kidney disease.”
Diabetes and severe depression raise risk of death
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Heart disease, diabetes, and depression can be a deadly combination, according results of a study that suggest that, in people with coronary artery disease, the presence of diabetes or depression increases the risk of dying from heart disease.
The risk is even higher when both diabetes and severe depression are present, investigators reported today at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society in Budapest, Hungary.
Pain complicates depression treatment in elderly
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By interfering with normal activities, chronic pain can impede recovery from depression in older adults, according to findings reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Dr. Shahrzad Mavandadi, of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and colleagues examined the effects of pain on the response to depression treatment in 524 men, 60 years of age or older, who were seen at a VA medical center.
Smoking boosts risk of tuberculosis
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Cigarette smoking appears to be a risk factor for tuberculosis infection and tuberculosis disease, according to findings from a systematic review of the literature and pooled analysis of studies.
Dr. Kirk R. Smith, of the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues searched eight databases for relevant articles on the topic and identified 24 that met their inclusion criteria.
Kids learn better if they figure it out themselves-study
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Toddlers have an easier time learning new words when they figure out the meanings themselves, according to new study reported on Thursday.
Meredith Brinster, an undergraduate researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, compared the effectiveness of two different word-learning strategies on 100 children between the ages of 36 and 42 months.
Stroke patients admitted to hospitals on weekends may be more likely to die
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Patients admitted to hospitals for ischemic stroke on weekends had a higher risk of dying than patients admitted during the week, in a Canadian study published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
A “weekend effect” has been previously documented when looking at other conditions such as cancer and pulmonary embolism; however, little is known of its impact on stroke death.
U.S. Child Health System Needs Total Overhaul, UCLA Researchers Say
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When it comes to health care for our kids, we live in a hardscrabble world that is only going to get tougher. That is the underlying message from three UCLA professors who are calling for a complete overhaul of the U.S child health care system, which they describe as a “patchwork of disconnected programs, policies and funding” that lacks “clear accountability or performance goals.”
In their report, which appears in the current issue of the journal Health Affairs, Dr. Neal Halfon, director of the Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities at UCLA’s School of Public Health, and his co-authors argue that even as Congress, the nation’s governors and the Bush administration debate federal spending on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers low-income uninsured children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, our leaders are not tackling more fundamental challenges facing the nation’s child health system.
Biologists Trace Cause Of Early Blindness To Tissue Defect
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Researchers at Texas A&M University are shedding light on a rare form of early blindness, identifying the cells involved and paving the way for possible therapies to treat or even prevent what is currently an incurable disease.
The findings, funded by Fight for Sight and the National Institutes of Health, are published in the March 5-9 online Early Edition (EE) of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers show how obesity causes breakdown in system which regulates appetite and weight
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New research led by scientists at the Oregon National Primate Research Center demonstrates how obesity causes the breakdown of a brain system that regulates appetite. The research provides a clear picture of some factors involved in obesity. More than 60 percent of American adults are overweight and more than 30 percent are obese The study results may have also identified possible targets for new drug therapies aimed at assisting individuals in weight loss. The research is published in the March issue of Cell Metabolism.
The research provides new understanding of leptin resistance. Leptin is a hormone secreted by fat cells. It can suppress food intake by affecting brain cells that control appetite. However, high levels of leptin which can be found in severely overweight individuals, can lead to leptin resistance. Leptin resistance means that the body no longer responds to the hormone’s weight suppressing effects.
How eating less might make you live longer
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Caloric Restriction in non-obese people translates into less oxidative damage in muscle cells, according to a new study by Anthony Civitarese, Eric Ravussin, and colleagues (Pennington Biomedical Research Center). As oxidative damage has been linked to aging, this could explain how limiting calorie intake without malnutrition extends life span.
A calorie-restricted diet provides all the nutrients necessary for a healthy life but minimizes the energy (calories) supplied in the diet. This type of diet increases the life span of mice and delays the onset of age-related chronic diseases such as cancers, heart disease, and stroke in rodents. There are also hints that people who eat a calorie-restricted diet might live longer than those who overeat. In addition, calorie-restricted diets beneficially affect several biomarkers of aging, including decreased insulin sensitivity (a precursor to diabetes). But how might caloric restriction slow aging? A major factor in the age-related decline of bodily functions is the accumulation of “oxidative damage” in the body’s proteins, fats, and DNA. Oxidants - in particular, chemicals called “free radicals”- are produced when food is converted to energy by cellular structures called mitochondria. One theory for h ow caloric restriction slows aging is that it lowers free-radical production by inducing the formation of efficient mitochondria.
Tamiflu side effect concerns grow after Japan deaths
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Concerns that the influenza drug Tamiflu—seen as effective against a possible pandemic triggered by bird flu—may induce fatal side effects are growing in Japan after two people who took it fell to their deaths last month.
The deaths, the latest cases of abnormal behavior by those who took Tamiflu, prompted the Health Ministry to issue a warning last week that influenza patients could show psychiatric problems, although it has denied the drug was responsible for them.
Treating depression improves diabetes control
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A study of type 2 diabetics with depression confirms that depression has a negative impact on glycemic (blood sugar) control, researchers report, and “affirms the importance of depression management in diabetic patients in its potential to improve glycemic control.”
Researchers from Missouri treated 93 patients with type 2 diabetes and depression with the antidepressant bupropion (Wellbutrin).
Ovarian Cancer May Mimic Fallopian Tube Formation
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A new study suggests that ovarian cancer cells form by hijacking a developmental genetic process normally used to form fallopian tubes. Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Ovarian Cancer Institute discovered that the protein, PAX8, is involved in the development of fallopian tubes and is present in ovarian cancer cells, but not in normal ovarian tissue. The discovery not only provides a new target for diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, but also opens new avenues for basic research in ovarian cancer pathology. The research appears in Volume 104, Issue 3 of the journal Gynceologic Oncology.
“Our finding sustains the promise of a molecular genetic understanding of different cancers and emphasizes the importance of describing cancer in the context of normal human development that has gone awry due to genetic and epigenetic alterations,” said Nathan Bowen, Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scientist at Georgia Tech and the Ovarian Cancer Institute (OCI).
Parent education helps young kids lose weight
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Giving parents the skills to cope effectively with their young children’s weight problems can make it easier for these kids to slim down, a study from Australia shows.
Forty-five percent of children whose parents received skills training, along with intensive lifestyle interventions, experienced a significant drop in their body mass index (BMI) after one year, compared to 24 percent of those who received the lifestyle interventions alone and 19 percent of those who received no intervention.
Could Viagra cure chronic pelvic pain?
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The impotence drug Viagra could help men suffering from pelvic pain. As many as one in ten men in the UK have pelvic pain syndrome, with symptoms including lower back and groin pain, and bladder problems.
A trial has been looking at the use of the drug - originally developed to help angina patients, but now widely used to treat impotence - to see if it can help to open the constricted blood vessels that may be the source of the discomfort.
