Higher prostate cancer risk tied to severe acne
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New research suggests a link between acne and prostate cancer, but the study’s authors urge caution in interpreting their findings.
Men who had taken tetracycline, an antibiotic used to treat severe acne, for 4 years or longer were 70 percent more likely than men who hadn’t used the drug, or had used it for a shorter time, to develop prostate cancer over a 10-year period, Dr. Siobhan Sutcliffe of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore and colleagues found.
“Although intriguing, these findings should be interpreted cautiously,” Sutcliffe and her team say, pointing to the small number of people who had used tetracycline for at least 4 years (just 0.5 percent of the 34,629 men in the study), the indirect assessment of severe acne, and the fact that acne can have multiple, complex causes.
Ike Turner’s death ruled cocaine overdose
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The late rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Ike Turner died of a cocaine overdose, the San Diego County medical examiner said on Wednesday.
Turner, 76, was found dead on December 12 at his home in San Marcos near San Diego. He had a history of cocaine addiction stretching back more than 30 years.
The medical examiner said an autopsy showed that a long history of cardiovascular disease and emphysema contributed to Turner’s death.
Just hours apart, 2 brothers undergo robotic prostate cancer surgery
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“We are blessed to have each other to depend on. If you have to go through something bad like cancer, you’re glad to have a friend to go through it with,” said one of two brothers from Savannah, Georgia recovering from robotic prostate cancer surgery. The two siblings flew to The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York to have lifesaving surgery on the same day this week. Dr. David B. Samadi, M.D., Chief of Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery in the Department of Urology at Mount Sinai successfully performed the robotic prostate cancer surgeries on the siblings one after another on Monday, January 14th, 2008.
“The brothers have benefited physically and even emotionally as a result of having their prostatectomy with the da Vinci robotic technology at Mount Sinai together,” said Dr. Samadi. “Each minimally invasive surgery was an hour and twenty minutes which included only a few tiny incisions, limited blood loss (50 CC), no need for blood transfusions, less pain, and a faster recovery which included each of the patients walking the next day and were released from the hospital two days after surgery.”
Evidence Found for Genes That Affect Risk of Developing Alzheimer’s Disease
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Through one of the largest studies yet of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients and their brothers, sisters, and children, researchers at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville have found strong evidence that genes other than the well-known susceptibility risk factor APOE4 influence who is at risk for developing the neurodegenerative disease later in life.
Studying 25 multigenerational families of individuals diagnosed with late onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD), the most common form of the disorder, as well as hundreds of other participants, the research team found that blood levels of amyloid beta (Aß) proteins associated with AD were significantly elevated compared to protein found in non-blood relatives, such as spouses.
These first-degree relatives were cognitively normal and age 65 or less — many of them too young for symptoms of LOAD to show up.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Morning Cortisol Response
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People who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) often endure months of persistent fatigue, muscle pain, and impaired memory and concentration. Understanding the physiological changes that accompany CFS, however, has been difficult, but a new study accepted for publication in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) reveals that abnormally low morning concentrations of the hormone cortisol may be correlated with more severe fatigue in CFS patients, especially in women.
“We’re learning more and more about the complexities of the illness that is chronic fatigue syndrome,” said William C. Reeves, M.D., with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Ga., and lead author of the study. “This research helps us draw a clearer picture in regards to how CFS affects people, which ultimately will lead to more effective management of patients with CFS.”
For their study, the researchers screened 19,381 residents of Georgia, selecting 292 people who had CFS, 268 who were considered chronically unwell, and 163 who were considered well to participate. The researchers then measured free cortisol concentrations in saliva, which was collected on regular workdays, immediately upon awaking and 30 minutes and 60 minutes after awakening. The data indicated different profiles of cortisol concentrations over time among the groups, with the CFS group showing an attenuated morning cortisol profile.
Calcium may increase heart attack risk
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Calcium supplements may increase the risk of heart attack in healthy post-menopausal women, a University of Auckland study found.
First author Mark J. Bolland said while calcium supplementation is commonly prescribed to post-menopausal women to maintain bone health, there is little research on calcium and vascular disease.
The study involved 1,471 healthy post-menopausal women age 55 years or older who had previously taken part in a study to assess the effects of calcium on bone density and fracture rates.
Genes, parenting linked to teen depression
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U.S. researchers are using a new design that allows them to test the interaction of genetic and environmental liabilities concerning depression.
University of Notre Dame psychologist Gerald Haeffel and colleagues investigated whether a gene associated with dopamine interacted with maternal parenting style to predict episodes of depression.
Mediterranean Diet in Pregnancy Helps Ward Off Childhood Asthma and Allergy
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Mums to be who eat a Mediterranean diet while pregnant could help stave off the risks of asthma and allergy in their children, suggests research published ahead of print in Thorax.
The findings are based on 468 mother and child pairs, who were tracked from pregnancy up to 6.5 years after the birth.
What the mothers ate during pregnancy and what their children were eating by the time they were 6 years old were assessed using food frequency questionnaires.
Combined HRT Increases Risk of Lobular Breast Cancer Fourfold After Just Three Years of Use
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Postmenopausal women who take combined estrogen/progestin hormone-replacement therapy for three years or more face a fourfold increased risk of developing various forms of lobular breast cancer, according to new findings by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
“Previous research indicated that five or more years of combined hormone-therapy use was necessary to increase overall breast-cancer risk,” said Christopher I. Li, M.D., Ph.D., the lead author of the report, published in the January issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. “Our study, the first specifically designed to evaluate the relationship between combined HRT and lobular breast cancers, suggests that a significantly shorter length of exposure to such hormones may confer an increased risk.”
The study, which confirms previous reports of the association between combined hormone-therapy use and increased risk of lobular breast cancers, is the largest study of combined HRT and lobular cancer risk in the United States. It is also the first such study to take into account the recency and duration of hormone use and the first to include a centralized pathological review of tumor specimens to confirm their histological type: ductal, lobular or mixed ductal-lobular.
Smoking Belies Milder Disease but Worse Prognosis for IPF Patients
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Smokers and ex-smokers with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), an untreatable progressive lung disease that usually leads to death within a few years of diagnosis, have a worse prognosis than non-smokers, according to research from London.
Previous research had counter-intuitively suggested that current smokers with IPF might live longer than ex-smokers, but the new study establishes that the data likely reflected a healthy smoker effect.
The study appears in the second issue for January of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.
Expert commentary on origins of syphilis study
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Next week the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases will publish a new phylogenetic analysis by Kristin Harper and colleagues on the origins of venereal syphilis.
Along with the analysis, the journal will also publish an expert commentary by Sheila Lukehart (University of Washington, Seattle) and colleagues that discusses the strengths, limitations, and implications of the new study. The commentary is attached and will be online at http://www.plosntds.org on January 14 at 5pm PDT.
Love, hope for shunned kids in India AIDS school
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In a smart blue tunic and red ribbons in her hair, 12-year-old Komal’s laughing eyes hide a fear of death that stalks every student in her village school.
Within months or years she could be dead, but while she lives she is fulfilling a dream—of going to school again after she was expelled from her previous one because she was infected with HIV.
Cold and flu more serious in diabetics
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Flu season is unpleasant for everyone, but if you have diabetes it can be even worse. If diabetics fail to manage their disease while sick, the complications can be serious, the American Diabetes Association warned in a statement this week.
“Your average person (with the flu) will spend three or four days at home but they’ll do okay,” said Dr. John Buse, president of medicine and science at the ADA. “In patients with diabetes, occasionally they even have to be hospitalized.”
Aggression as rewarding as sex, food and drugs
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New research from Vanderbilt University shows for the first time that the brain processes aggression as a reward - much like sex, food and drugs - offering insights into our propensity to fight and our fascination with violent sports like boxing and football.
The research will be published online the week of Jan. 14 by the journal Psychopharmacology.
“Aggression occurs among virtually all vertebrates and is necessary to get and keep important resources such as mates, territory and food,” Craig Kennedy, professor of special education and pediatrics, said. “We have found that the ‘reward pathway’ in the brain becomes engaged in response to an aggressive event and that dopamine is involved.”
Heart risk factor control worse in diabetic women
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Deaths from cardiovascular disease are declining among men with diabetes, but not women, and poorer control of blood pressure and cholesterol levels may be to blame, a new study suggests.
Among diabetic patients with existing cardiovascular disease, Dr. Assiamira Ferrara of Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California and colleagues found, women were 5.4 percent less likely than men to have systolic blood pressures at recommended levels, and 5.9 percent less likely to have their “bad” LDL-cholesterol under control.
