Obesity linked to rapid loss of knee cartilage
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Obesity is strongly associated with an increased risk of rapid loss of cushioning cartilage in the knee in people at risk for osteoarthritis or with early signs of the disease, researchers have found.
In osteoarthritis—the most common form of arthritis—the cartilage breaks down and, in severe cases, can completely wear away, leaving the joint without a cushion. The bones rub together, causing further damage, as well as pain and loss of mobility.
“Osteoarthritis is a slowly progressive disorder, but a minority of patients with hardly any osteoarthritis at first diagnosis exhibit fast disease progression,” Dr. Frank W. Roemer from Boston University Medical Center noted in a statement.
Scientists discover key event in prostate cancer progression
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A study led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reveals how late-stage, hormone-independent prostate tumors gain the ability to grow without need of hormones.
The onset of hormone-independent growth marks an advanced and currently incurable stage of prostate cancer.
The study, published in the July 24, 2009, issue of the journal Cell, focuses on androgen receptors, molecules located in the nucleus of cells of the prostate gland and other tissues. Male sex hormones – androgens – bind with these receptors to activate genes that control cell growth.
The researchers show that in androgen-independent prostate cancer, androgen receptors are reprogrammed to regulate a group of genes involved in a different, later, phase of cell division, triggering rapid cell growth. They further show that a modification of a chief component of the chromosome is responsible for this reprogramming.
Common Cold Virus Efficiently Delivers Corrected Gene to Cystic Fibrosis Cells
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Scientists have worked for 20 years to perfect gene therapy for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, which causes the body to produce dehydrated, thicker-than-normal mucus that clogs the lungs and leads to life threatening infections.
Now University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine scientists have found what may be the most efficient way to deliver a corrected gene to lung cells collected from cystic fibrosis patients. They also showed that it may take this high level of efficiency for cystic fibrosis (CF) patients to see any benefit from gene therapy.
Using parainfluenza virus, one of the viruses that causes common colds, the UNC scientists found that delivery of a corrected version of the CFTR gene to 25 percent of cells grown in a tissue culture model that resembles the lining of the human airways was sufficient to restore normal function back to the tissue.
“Go to the doctor? Only if I’m really sick…”
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African American men could be putting their health at risk by avoiding disease screening, in the belief that the results might threaten their masculinity. Because they prove their masculinity through their sexuality and sexual performance, seeking medical advice including HIV/AIDS testing goes against their notion of masculinity. Waverly Duck, a Post Doctoral Associate from the Department of Sociology at Yale University in the US, argues that current leading theories of gender and masculinity and health behavior models are not relevant enough to African American men and their distinctive notion of masculinity. His results are published online in Springer’s Journal of African American Studies.
Duck studied how African American men conceptualize masculinity and how it relates to their health behaviors. Through a combination of focus groups and in-depth interviews, he asked African American men about their own understanding of their gender identity and examined how that identity, as well as how it is achieved and maintained, relates to their health.
Drugs expose many premature babies to chemicals
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Premature babies are often exposed to additives in their medications that could put them at risk of brain and lung damage, according to a new study.
“Many liquid medications contain additives,” co-author Dr. Hitesh C. Pandya, of the University of Leicester, UK told Reuters Health. “Some of these are necessary to produce the medicine but many are not.”
“Some of these are thought to be toxic to small infants even in small quantities,” he added. “Furthermore, when small infants are given several drugs a day, there is a potential that they may be given quite large doses of a specific additive as a consequence of treatment.”
Healthcare reform needs better choices: report
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Telemedicine, workplace clinics and finding ways to help people stay healthier may be more important for reforming the U.S. healthcare system than insuring everyone, according to a report to be released on Tuesday.
Incentives will be needed to encourage people to change their ways before they develop heart disease, diabetes and other so-called lifestyle diseases that now eat up so many medical resources, consultant Pricewaterhouse Coopers said in the report.
“Cranking up supply to increase access is likely not the answer. The United States now spends more than any nation on healthcare and has a record number of clinicians in the workforce,” the company said in a statement.
Parent stress, air pollution up kids’ asthma risk
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Children with stressed-out parents may be more prone to developing asthma associated with environmental “triggers” such as high levels of traffic-related pollution and tobacco smoke, hints a study published today.
In the study, researchers found that children whose parents reported high levels of psychological stress and who were exposed to cigarette smoke in the womb and to traffic-related pollution early in life had a much higher risk of developing asthma, compared to children only exposed to pollution.
“We found that it was children exposed to the combination of air pollution and life in a stressful environment who were at highest risk of developing asthma,” Dr. Rob McConnell, deputy director of the Children’s Environmental Health Center at University of Southern California, Los Angeles, told Reuters Health.
Researchers Discover Possible Therapeutic Target to Slow Parkinson’s Disease
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University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) researchers have discovered a therapeutic target that, when manipulated, may slow the progression of or halt Parkinson’s disease, a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder that affects an estimated one million people in the U.S.
A team from the Center for Neurodegenerative and Neuroimmunologic Diseases in the Department of Neurology at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School carried out the study. M. Maral Mouradian, M.D., center director and William Dow Lovett Professor of Neurology, was its lead investigator. A paper on their findings, titled “Repression of a-synuclein expression and toxicity by microRNA-7,” appears in the July 20 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
In this publication, the investigators report that the small RNA molecule microRNA-7, which is present in neurons, directly represses the expression of a-synuclein, a protein that, in excess, proves deleterious to certain types of brain cells.
Risk factors of cardiovascular disease rising in poor, young
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Cardiovascular disease is increasing in adults under 50 and those of lower socioeconomic status, despite recent trends which show that cardiovascular disease is declining in Canada overall, say researchers at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. Untreated cardiovascular disease can lead to heart failure, coronary artery disease and death, and is the most common cause of hospitalization in North America.
By exploring national trends in heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, obesity and smoking prevalence from 1994-2005, researchers found that cardiovascular disease is on the rise in adults under 50 and those of lower socioeconomic status according to a study published in the July edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
“Our results indicate that young people are increasingly bearing the burden of cardiovascular risk factors,” says Dr. Douglas Lee, cardiologist and scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). “This is an important group because they are the ones who will predict future heart disease, and earlier onset of cardiovascular disease means potentially longer and more intense treatment over their lifetime.”
Studies shed light on preserving fertility among cancer patients
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Cancer treatment has come a long way, leading to a multitude of therapy options and improved survival rates. These successes, however, have created a challenge for young cancer patients since chemotherapy and radiation treatments that often save lives threaten fertility. Techniques available to safeguard fertility, such as freezing eggs for later embryo development, have poor odds of success, leaving patients with very limited options for the future. But that is beginning to change as researchers improve current techniques, mature human eggs in the laboratory, and discover cellular mechanisms that could help preserve and even restore fertility. Researchers will report on these and other findings at the 42nd annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction (SSR), July 18 to 22, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh.
Summaries of the findings are as follows:
Growing Egg Cells in the Lab
Researchers at Northwestern University are developing a method they hope will help preserve a woman’s fertility after radiation and chemotherapy treatment. Led by Teresa K. Woodruff, Ph.D., the team has grown undeveloped human eggs to near maturity in laboratory cultures. During a 30-day experiment, they grew human follicles―tiny sacs that contain immature eggs―in the lab until the eggs they contained were nearly mature. According to Dr. Woodruff, this is the first step in developing a new fertility option for young cancer patients.
Obama tries to regain momentum in healthcare debate
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President Barack Obama appealed to Americans on Saturday to back his ambitious revamp of the U.S. health care system, seeking to regain momentum amid growing worries among lawmakers over how to pay for it.
Trading on his personal popularity, Obama has gone on the offensive to try to persuade doubters and face down critics of his more than $1 trillion plan to set up a government-run health insurance plan to compete with private insurers.
The Democratic president used his weekly radio address to again call upon lawmakers, including skeptics within his own party, to “seize this opportunity—one we might not have again for generations—and finally pass health insurance reform this year, in 2009.”
Sinai Physiatrist Enthusiatic About Word Addition
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It’s a word that’s been around since the days of the Truman presidency. But a patient looking up “physiatry” would find nothing in the dictionary.
Until now.
Last week, Merriam-Webster Inc. released its list of the more than 100 entries now included in the latest edition of its Collegiate Dictionary. Physiatry, a synonym for physical medicine and rehabilitation, made the cut, along with locavore, fan fiction and earmark.
The physiatrists at Sinai Hospital couldn’t be happier about the linguistic recognition of their field.
Study singles out pesticide in Parkinson’s risk
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New research provides more evidence for a link between pesticide exposure and Parkinson’s disease and pinpoints a specific risky chemical.
Dr. Jason R. Richardson of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, New Jersey, and his colleagues found that Parkinson’s disease patients were more likely to have detectable levels of beta-hexachlorocyclohexane (beta-HCH) in their blood, and also had higher average levels, than healthy individuals or Alzheimer’s disease patients.
The first evidence suggesting an association between pesticides and the degenerative brain disease Parkinson’s came out in the 1990s, but the current findings are the first to finger a specific chemical, Richardson told Reuters Health.
CBO says costs will rise as healthcare expanded
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Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Elmendorf told lawmakers on Thursday legislation to expand health care coverage would increase federal healthcare costs “to a significant degree” and revenue will need to be found to keep from increasing the deficit.
Asked by the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee about his remarks to a Senate committee earlier Thursday that the legislation would not hold down healthcare costs, he said, “The point I made earlier this morning is that it raises future federal outlays more than it reduces future federal outlays.”
Elmendorf told the panel, “The coverage proposals in this legislation would expand federal spending on health care to a significant degree and in our analysis so far we don’t see other provisions in this legislation reducing federal health spending by a corresponding degree.”
Psoriasis treatment may up cancer risk
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Patients with moderate to severe psoriasis may need life-long treatment with a variety of therapies to relieve symptoms of the scaly skin condition and research has shown that both traditional and newer therapies for psoriasis can increase patients’ risk of certain cancers.
Long-term treatment with so-called PUVA therapy, they note, is associated with increased risks of deadly malignant melanoma as well as a less deadly non-melanoma skin cancer called cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, Dr. Jeffrey M. Weinberg, of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, and colleagues note in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
During PUVA therapy, patients are given the photosensitizing drug psoralen and exposed to ultraviolet A light.
