Degree of obesity raises risk of stroke, regardless of gender, race
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The higher a person’s degree of obesity, the higher their risk of stroke — regardless of race, gender and how obesity is measured, according to a new study published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
“It has not been clear whether overweight and obesity are risk factors for stroke, especially among blacks,” said Hiroshi Yatsuya, M.D., Ph.D., study lead author and visiting associate professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “There are also questions about which measure of excess weight (body mass index [BMI], waist circumference or waist-to-hip ratio) is most closely associated with disease risk.”
Analyzing the ARIC Study database in which subjects’ BMI, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio were measured at the study’s start, Yatsuya and colleagues followed 13,549 middle-aged black and white men and women in four U.S. communities from 1987 through 2005. Participants started the study free of cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Stain repellent chemical linked to thyroid disease in adults
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A study by the University of Exeter and the Peninsula Medical School for the first time links thyroid disease with human exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). PFOA is a persistent organic chemical used in industrial and consumer goods including nonstick cookware and stain- and water-resistant coatings for carpets and fabrics.
Published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, The study revealed that people with higher concentrations of PFOA in their blood have higher rates of thyroid disease. The researchers analysed samples from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s nationally representative National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
Tamara Galloway, a professor Ecotoxicology at the University of Exeter and the study’s senior author, says: “Our results highlight a real need for further research into the human health effects of low-level exposures to environmental chemicals like PFOA that are ubiquitous in the environment and in people’s homes. We need to know what they are doing.”
Obesity Rates Hit Plateau in U.S., Data Suggest
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Americans, at least as a group, may have reached their peak of obesity, according to data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Wednesday.
The numbers indicate that obesity rates have remained constant for at least five years among men and for closer to 10 years among women and children — long enough for experts to say the percentage of very overweight people has leveled off.
But the percentages have topped out at very high numbers. Nearly 34 percent of adults are obese, more than double the percentage 30 years ago. The share of obese children tripled during that time, to 17 percent.
Insulin pumps may be better than shots: report
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Pumps that deliver insulin to the body as needed may be more effective than insulin injections for helping people with type 1 diabetes keep their blood sugar under control, according to a new review of 23 studies comparing the two approaches.
But the analysis didn’t provide evidence on the risk of complications and the costs associated with the two approaches to managing type 1 diabetes.
In people with type 1 diabetes, known as juvenile diabetes even though it can strike people at any age, a person’s body loses the ability to secrete insulin. In order to survive and stay healthy, these individuals must monitor their blood sugar closely and give themselves injections of insulin as needed.
Disclosing sexual abuse is critical
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Half of sexual abuse survivors wait up to five years before disclosing they were victimized, according to a collaborative study from the Université de Montréal, the Université du Québec à Montréal and the Université de Sherbrooke published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.
“The number of victims who never reveal their secret or who wait many years to do so is very high,” says co-author Mireille Cyr, a psychology professor of the Université de Montréal. “This is regrettable because the longer they wait to reveal the abuse, the harder and more enduring the consequences will be.”
The research team surveyed 800 Quebec men and women and found 25 percent of respondents never divulged being sexually abused as children. The scientists also found a sharp contrast between genders: 16 percent of women remain quiet about abuse, while 34 percent of men never share their secret.
Complications common, often linked to trauma in children receiving cochlear implants
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Some complications may occur in children receiving cochlear implants, and are highly correlated with trauma to the ear area and inner ear malformation, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Cochlear implants are electronic devices that can help provide a sense of sound to individuals who are deaf or severely hearing-impaired. “The success of cochlear implantation as an auditory rehabilitative tool requires a thorough knowledge of indications, limitations and potential risks,” the authors write as background information in the article. “Since 1990, the number of pediatric cochlear implants has increased significantly, and more specific pediatric evaluation of the medical and surgical risks can be collected.”
Natalie Loundon, M.D., and colleagues at Hôpital d’Enfants Armand-Trousseau, Paris, studied 434 patients who underwent cochlear implantation at one facility between 1990 and 2008. All patients were younger than 16 at the time of operation (average age 4.7 years), 41 (9.4 percent) were younger than 24 months and 43 (9.9 percent) had inner ear malformations. They were followed up for an average of 5.5 years, with complications tracked and classified as early (zero to eight days) or delayed (more than eight days after surgery), and major (requiring a new admission and/or extended hospital stay) or minor.
Some 390 tons of US ground beef recalled
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Some 390 tons of ground beef produced by a California meat packer, some of it nearly two years ago, is being recalled for fear of potentially deadly E. coli bacterium tainting, U.S. officials said on Monday.
California, and shipped mainly to California outlets, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food safety arm said.
An initial problem, in ground beef shipped by the plant from Jan. 5 to Jan. 15, was discovered during a regular safety check, the Food Safety and Inspection Service said.
For doctors in Haiti, worst is yet to come
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An earthquake killing up to 200,000 people would have been bad enough anywhere, but in Haiti, where AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are rampant, children are malnourished and hygiene is already a challenge, it may create one of the worst medical disasters ever.
Medical teams pouring in to set up mobile hospitals say they are already overwhelmed by the casualties and fear the worst is yet to come as infection and disease take hold.
“The number one risk is always bacterial infections where they have open wounds,” said Josh Ruxin, a Columbia University public health expert living and working in Rwanda.
Child fitness: Sneaky strategies aim to get kids moving
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Is your rug rat becoming a sofa spud?
To get that texting, tweeting, gaming child up and exercising, a new book suggests parents try sneaking fitness into the day-to-day routine.
“A sneaky fit kid can burn an extra 400 calories per day,” said Missy Chase Lapine, who co-authored “Sneaky Fitness: Fun, Foolproof Ways to Slip Fitness into Your Child’s Everyday Life” with personal trainer Larysa DiDio.
From biological basics to diabetes discovery
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In two major studies published in Nature Genetics today, researchers use biological understanding to dissect the genetics of diabetes. An international team comprising researchers from more than 100 institutions analysed vast suites of genetic data from more than 100,000 people of European descent to uncover the associations.
In the first study, the team identified ten novel genetic markers for biological traits underlying type 2 diabetes. In a companion paper the same consortium identified three new variants that are associated with raised levels of glucose seen in a common test for type 2 diabetes. The results help to unravel the complex biological story of type 2 diabetes: as well as revealing five new associations that influence directly the risk of diabetes, this research will drive studies to understand the biology of disease and to search for treatments to alleviate the burden caused by the disease.
The team are working to understand the normal metabolism of glucose as well as diseases of glucose metabolism, such as diabetes. They seek to uncover new genetic variants that are risk factors for the development of diabetes, as well as identifying genes that influence variation in the healthy range. Diabetes occurs when our bodies fail to produce sufficient insulin or when our cells fail to recognise and react to the insulin produced, resulting in abnormally high blood glucose or sugar levels.
Higher stroke, heart disease risks for A-bomb survivors
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A study of atomic bomb survivors in Japan conducted over 53 years has found that they appear to suffer a far higher risk of heart disease and stroke because of their exposure to radiation.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal, involved 86,611 survivors from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, which forced Japan into surrendering to the Allied Powers and officially ending World War II.
Each person was exposed to an absorbed radiation dose of between 0 and 4 Gy (Gray) at the time of the bombings.
Physician First in Virginia to Deliver New Cancer Fighting Technique
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The world’s smallest flexible microscope is diagnosing some big diseases and allowing physicians to treat patients on the spot. Dr. Michel Kahaleh, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Virginia Health System, is the only physician in Virginia currently using probe-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (pCLE). pCLE is a technique that lets him view live tissue in real time at the cellular level. This allows the identification of cancer with pinpoint precision and permits precise removal of the diseased tissue.
“Until now, if we found suspicious tissue during one of these diagnostic procedures, we often had to randomly sample it and send it to the laboratory for analysis, which can take up to a week,” says Kahaleh. “With pCLE, we can pinpoint the dangerous tissue during the initial diagnostic procedure and remove or treat it the same day.”
Kahaleh and his team are using pCLE to more accurately differentiate cancerous and pre-cancerous tissue during colonoscopies, upper endoscopies, and the standard pancreatic and bile duct cancer detection procedure.
Genetic Risk Factor Identified for Parkinson’s Disease: Gene Variant Influences Vitamin B6 Met
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Munich, January 11, 2010. An international team of doctors and human geneticists has identified a new genetic risk factor for Parkinson’s disease. The institutions involved in the study were the Institute of Human Genetics of Helmholtz Zentrum München and Technische Universität München, the Neurological Clinic of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU) and the Mitochondrial Research Group of Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
“Our study reveals the interaction of genetic and environmental factors such as dietary habits in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease,” explained Dr. Matthias Elstner of the Neurological Clinic of LMU and Helmholtz Zentrum München, lead author of the study. In addition, this genome-wide expression and association study confirms that vitamin B6 status and metabolism significantly influence both disease risk and therapy response (Annals of Neurology, January, 2010).
Scientists of the two Munich universities and Helmholtz Zentrum München investigated neurons in the brain to determine which genes modify their activity in Parkinson’s disease. Among other findings, the research group detected increased activity of the pyridoxal kinase gene.
Mental health expert testifies on the effects of Prop. 8
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In an effort to show that Proposition 8 caused harm, lawyers for two same-sex couples presented expert testimony today that the ballot measure represented the kind of prejudice that has made gays and lesbians twice as likely as heterosexuals to suffer mood disorders and substance abuse.
Proposition 8, which resurrected a California ban on same-sex marriage, “sends a message that gay relationships are not respected, that they are of secondary value if they are of any value at all,” testified Columbia University Professor Ilan H. Meyer, an expert in mental health issues among gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
Meyer, who teaches in Columbia’s public health department, said Proposition 8 also sent a public message that it was OK “to designate gay people as a different class of people in terms of their intimate relationships.”
Lung Cancer Conference Leaders Honor Paul A. Bunn Jr., M.D.
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The American Association for Cancer Research and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) honored Paul A. Bunn Jr., M.D., for his leadership in lung cancer research at the first Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer conference this week. The conference, held from Jan. 11-14, 2010, drew more than 300 people from around the world. Bunn is professor of medicine and the James Dudley chair in cancer research at the University of Colorado, Denver.
“Dr. Bunn has been an inspiration to physicians and scientists working in the field of lung cancer. He deserves this award for everything that he has contributed to this important field past, present and future,” said conference co-chairperson Roy Herbst, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the section of thoracic medical oncology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Conference co-chairperson David Carbone, M.D., Ph.D., Harold L. Moses chair in cancer research and director of the Specialized Program of Research Excellence in Lung Cancer at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, concurred.
