New Techniques Offer Valuable Tools in Analysis of Congenital Anomalies
|
|
New techniques to detect chromosomal abnormalities can offer a higher degree of accuracy. Chromosomal abnormalities are a well-known cause of multiple congenital anomalies, and conventional methods of culture analysis have proven unsuccessful in 10% to 40% of cases. Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques were tested and found successful by analyzing tissue from children who had multiple congenital anomalies.
The May issue of the journal Pediatric and Developmental Pathology reports results from this study, which examined the feasibility of CGH and FISH in retrospective genetic analysis to detect chromosomal abnormalities.
CGH is a new molecular technique that allows the entire genome to be analyzed in frozen or paraffin-embedded tissue. It is based on DNA rather than metaphase cultures like traditional methods of analysis.
What’s Your Hemoglobin A1c?
|
|
Concerned about diabetes or your blood sugar over the last few weeks? Then ask your doctor for a hemoglobin A1c (abbreviated as a HbA1c). This nifty little test is a good long term marker for your sugars, especially if you haven’t been eating that healthy lately.
The results are read in a percentage, such as 5.5 or 9 percent. The American Diabetes Association considers normal less than 7 percent, while the International Diabetes Federation and American College of Endocrinology recommends your results be under 6.5. I tend to recommend under 5.5 percent (much stricter, I know), as I am all about prevention and a study of 48,000 found that a HbA1c above 6.5 percent to have an increased mortality rate.
The higher the HbA1c the worse your blood sugar is over time. Continuous elevations in blood sugar increases the risk for coronary disease, heart attack, stroke, heart problems, kidney problems, erectile dysfunction, vision problems, and numbness in the fingers and toes.
Help For Those Recently Diagnosed with Diabetes
|
|
You can get free help this summer if you have diabetes—the Northern Kentucky Health Department is offering several free programs. Local 12’s Liz Bonis tells us about them.
It looks like a fancy toy—but Joan Geohegan—a diabetes educator uses this toy as a teaching tool to show patients such as Tom Mitts—how fat fat cells shrink when you better manage type two diabetes. “Type two diabetes is when either the insulin the person makes doesn’t work properly or you don’t make enough of it, and insulin is a hormone that helps you use the energy you get from food.”
Mitts was diagnosed with type two diabetes last year—Since then he’s dropped more than 60 pounds—and no longer has diabetes symptoms such as frequent urination, fatigue and increased thirst. “I was drinking I don’t know how many quarts of water just one after another.”
Heart attack presentation, intervention and prevention
|
|
You might think you know a lot about heart attack warning signs and symptoms – crushing chest pain, left arm numbness, a family history of heart disease. “Most people have the basic understanding of these things,” explained Matthews resident Dr. James Roberts of Mid Carolina Cardiology Monroe. “Probably the most confusing thing is pain that may not be that altogether-crushing kind of fatalistic chest pain everyone assumes is a heart attack. Most people think the pain is like an elephant sitting on their chest and it can be very different.
“It doesn’t even have to be in the anterior part of the chest. It can be in the back, the side or even jaw or neck pain. Educating people about those things is very useful.”
Roberts attested that avoidance is, however, a common occurrence. “People will go on for four, five, six hours trying home remedies like Goody’s powder or TUMS that don’t seem to work and not pursuing medical attention,” he said. “The second most common error is people deciding to drive themselves to the hospital once they finally go. It’s not the best idea – you can endanger your life and someone else’s if something happens on the way there.
Min-Sheng General Hospital to host First Asian Diabetes Surgery Summit
|
|
Min-Sheng General hospital in Taiwan will host the First Asian Diabetes Summit July16 and 17, 2010. The summit will look at the medical and surgical aspects of Incretin based Therapy. Bariatric surgery has recently been extended to metabolic surgery because of the associated gut hormone change and Incretin Effect.
Organized by Min-Sheng Hospital’s Bariatric & Diabetes Minimally invasive surgery center, the Diabetes Association of the Republic of China, and the Taiwan Association for Endoscopic Surgery, the summit is sponsored by the Taiwan Medical Association for the Study of Obesity, Taiwan Surgical Society of gastroenterology, and equipment maker Covidien. Speakers from across Asia and the United States will present the latest medical and surgical developments in the treatment of Diabetes Type II. Says Professor Lee Wei-Jei, Chairman of the organizing committee and Honorary President of the Asia Pacific Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Society, “It is an appropriate time for gastro-intestinal metabolic surgeons in Asia to work with endocrinologists and all colleagues involved in the treatment of diabetes, to get together and share personal and institutional experience in the management of this disease.”
Fybromyalgia Symptoms Can Vary Widely By admin
|
|
Sometimes you’ll hear someone grumble that it’s “just aches and pains” or something that one should just suffer through, but in reality 2% of the population suffers from this painful disorder. The American College of Rheumatology and the Food and Drug Administration have recognized this debilitating disorder and drug companies are actively seeking ways of treating Fibromyalgia.
The defining symptoms of this disorder include chronic, widespread pain and tenderness to the touch. Generally, Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue go hand-in-hand. Allodynia, or skin sensitivity that feels like pins and needles, may accompany the pain. As a result of the Fibromyalgia pain, sufferers often encounter sleep deprivation or abnormal sleeping patterns and wake up feeling unrefreshed. Some people have irritable bowel syndrome, leg spasms in the night, headaches or Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction that causes rigidity in the face.
For severe cases, depression, mood disorders, impaired memory, anxiety, dry skin and mouth, or chest pain may accompany the other symptoms, making it nearly impossible to get through the day. In fact, it’s estimated that 30% of people with Fibromyalgia Syndrome are incapable of working and require government assistance.
New Aspirin Guidelines for Diabetes Patients
|
|
Women under 60 and men under 50 who have diabetes but no other major risk factors for heart disease probably should not be on low-dose aspirin therapy, new research suggests.
The new recommendations are based on close examination of nine studies that found the risks of some aspirin side effects, such as stomach bleeding, should be better balanced against the possible benefits of using aspirin.
The new guidelines suggest low-dose aspirin therapy be used by men over 50 and women over 60 with diabetes who have other risk factors for heart attack and stroke.
AAHA releases guidelines on diabetes treatment
|
|
The America Animal Hospital Association has released guidelines for the management of diabetes mellitus in cats and dogs.
The introduction states, in part, “Treatment of DM is a combination of art and science, due in part to the many factors that affect the diabetic state and the animal’s response. Each animal needs individualized, frequent reassessment, and treatment may be modified based on response.”
The first section of the guidelines covers diagnostic criteria and initial assessment for diabetes. The bulk of the document addresses treatment for diabetes, with details about initial and ongoing treatment and monitoring of cats and dogs. Other sections provide additional information about blood glucose concentration, troubleshooting, and client education.
Dental Complications Of Diabetes
|
|
Diabetes can have various adverse effects on sufferers’ health and one of those ill-effects is dental quality. Diabetics have a problem processing sugars, which often leads to a condition called hyperglycemia, which means that there is too much sugar in the blood. The opposite of having too much sugar in your blood is having too little and that is called hypoglycemia.
Both circumstances are governed in healthy people by insulin and herein lies the diabetic’s problem - the body’s automatic production of insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. Both conditions can have serious consequences. Too much sugar in the blood can lead to issues with the kidneys, the heart, the eyes and others, while too little sugar in the blood can cause fits and black-outs.
Tooth and gum disease is normal as are any other health problems. Factors that play a role in tooth and gum disease are age, heredity, smoking and oral hygiene, but the diabetic who is often hyperglycemic has a higher probability of developing dental sickness.
U.S. doctor criticizes Arizona immigration law
|
|
Arizona’s controversial new law cracking down on illegal immigration could put doctors into a pickle, an Arizona physician said in a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.
Dr. Lucas Restrepo of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix said because it specifies that anyone who “harbors” an illegal immigrant can be fined, it could affect medical personnel.
“The new Arizona state immigration bill signed into law on April 23 will seriously obstruct, if not undermine, the practice of medicine in the state of Arizona,” Restrepo wrote.
Low-income Californians especially vulnerable to obesity epidemic
|
|
A new study has found a direct causal relationship between income and obesity rates in Americans. The lower one’s paycheck, the more likely they are to be overweight say researchers at the University of California at Davis.
Those conducting the study attributed the phenomenon to a lack of healthy eating options for low-income households.
According to a 2007 California Health Interview Survey conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, 23 percent of Californians are obese. However, obesity rates in the Central Valley hover closer to one-third of the population. Taken together with U.S. Census data from 2008, the poverty rate of the region is at least 20 percent. Statewide, the poverty rate keeps the same proportional relationship at 13 percent.
Obesity is an Economic Issue at the Supermarket
|
|
Obesity has been linked to everything from genetics to junk food, but a new study indicates that economic status is a key factor in what’s making people fat.
The number of obese grocery shoppers is ten times higher at less expensive grocery stores than at pricier markets, according to a new study. Researchers say these findings show that poverty is a major factor in the American obesity epidemic.
A Seattle-based study looked at the body mass index (BMI) of more than 2000 shoppers at high-priced stores, like Whole Foods, and low-priced supermarkets, like Albertsons. Only four percent of shoppers at the pricier markets were obese, compared with nearly 40 percent of shoppers at the cheaper stores.
Chemist Refines Technique to Treat Prostate Cancer with Light
|
|
There’s more than one way to kill a cancer cell.
Cliff Berkman is working on a better way—one that specifically targets prostate cancer cells and causes a type of natural death that spares surrounding tissues from damage. In a recent paper in the journal “Cancer Letters,” he describes a method that delivers to the cells a chemical that, when exposed to a certain type of light, prompts the cells to die and disappear with minimal side effects.
“Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is cure cancer with light,” said Berkman, a Washington State University chemistry professor.
Community interventions and in-home visits may slow excess weight gain in American Indian children
|
|
Community intervention can help American Indian families change behavior related to early childhood weight gain and obesity, according to a new Kaiser Permanente and Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB) study.
The study, published online in the Journal of Community Health, also finds that adding in-home visits to the community intervention has an even more profound effect on behavior change, and can reduce a child’s body mass index.
Funded by the National Institutes of Health, this is the first study to target obesity prevention among American Indian children starting at birth.
New evidence that chili pepper ingredient fights fat
|
|
Scientists are reporting new evidence that capsaicin, the stuff that gives chili peppers their kick, may cause weight loss and fight fat buildup by triggering certain beneficial protein changes in the body. Their study, which could lead to new treatments for obesity, appears in ACS’ monthly Journal of Proteome Research.
Jong Won Yun and colleagues point out that obesity is a major public health threat worldwide, linked to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and other health problems. Laboratory studies have hinted that capsaicin may help fight obesity by decreasing calorie intake, shrinking fat tissue, and lowering fat levels in the blood. Nobody, however, knows exactly how capsaicin might trigger such beneficial effects.
In an effort to find out, the scientists fed high-fat diets with or without capsaicin to lab rats used to study obesity.
