Endocrinology
Diabetes case tied to growth hormone ‘doping’
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Athletes who take growth hormone in an effort to enhance their performance risk developing diabetes, two doctors from the UK warn in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
In the paper, Dr. James Young and Aresh Anwar from University Hospital Coventry and Warwick, Warwickshire, describe what they believe is the first reported case of diabetes associated with taking high doses of growth hormone.
Spearmint tea—A possible treatment for mild hirsutism
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Women with hirsutism grow hair on their faces, breasts and stomachs. This can cause great distress. The hair grows because they have abnormally high levels of the ‘masculinising’ androgen hormones. Androgens travel around the body in the blood stream, and a key way of treating hirsutism is to reduce the level of these androgens.
Data just published in Phytotherapy Research shows that drinking two cups of spearmint tea a day for five days could reduce the level of androgens in women with hirsutism.
Lipid plays big role in embryonic development
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A little-known lipid plays a big role in helping us grow from a hollow sphere of stem cells into human beings, researchers have found.
They found that in the first few days of life, ceramide helps stem cells line up to form the primitive ectoderm from which embryonic tissues develop, says Dr. Erhard Bieberich, biochemist at the Medical College of Georgia.
Growth hormone may be halted in puberty for some
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In children previously diagnosed with a deficiency in growth hormone (GH), retesting of GH levels during puberty—and withdrawal of growth hormone therapy if appropriate—does not diminish adult height, a study shows.
“GH treatment can be safely interrupted, in subjects with non-severe GH deficiency, at mid-puberty if GH secretion has proved to be normal,” Dr. Stefano Zucchini from the University of Bologna, Italy told Reuters Health.
He and colleagues retested 69 individuals with GH deficiency at puberty and, if found normalized, left them untreated until the end of growth. Those with persistent GH deficiency continued GH treatment.
Radioactive iodine linked to thyroid disease
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The long-term risk of developing a tumor in the thyroid gland or autoimmune thyroiditis, a progressive inflammatory disease of the thyroid, is increased after exposure to radioactive iodine in childhood, according to a re-analysis of data from children exposed to radiation from a nuclear test site in Nevada.
Since 1965, researchers have been studying children exposed to radioactive iodine from nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site from 1951 through 1962.
In 1993, Dr. Joseph L. Lyon, of the University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, and colleagues, reported that among the 2,497 subjects examined, there was an association between radiation exposure from the Nevada Test Site and thyroid tumors.
Low vitamin D linked to seniors’ risk of falling
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Older men and women with vitamin D deficiency are more likely to fall multiple times in the course of a year than their peers with adequate vitamin D levels, researchers in The Netherlands have found.
Vitamin D may be best known for its role, along with calcium, in maintaining bone health. However, vitamin D is also important for muscle mass and strength, and compromised muscle function may explain the fall risk seen in this study, according to the researchers.
The findings suggest that older adults should be sure to get adequate vitamin D from food and multivitamins, lead study author Dr. Marieke B. Snijder, of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, told Reuters Health.
Research Links Hunger Hormone to Learning and Memory
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The hormone produced in the stomach that tells you you’re hungry also helps you remember and learn, according to a new study co-authored by Saint Louis University scientists.
While more research is needed, the findings could point to a new direction for a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease: a replacement therapy for ghrelin, the hunger hormone, to restore memory.
“This shows a direct link between the stomach and the brain,” says John E. Morley, M.D., director of the division of geriatric medicine at Saint Louis University and study researcher. “A human is truly what he or she eats.”
Thyroid problems in mother affect newborn
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There is an increased risk of neurological development problems in infants born to mothers who had low levels of thyroid hormone early in pregnancy, according to a report in the medical journal Pediatrics.
The results indicate that low thyroid hormone levels in the mother, even if they don’t cause any symptoms, can have important neurological development consequences in the newborn, lead author Dr. Libbe Kooistra, from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, told Reuters Health. The question now is whether the magnitude of these problems warrants implementation of maternal thyroid screening programs, he added.
