High-Fat Ketogenic Diet to Control Seizures Is Safe Over Long Term
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Current and former patients treated with the high-fat ketogenic diet to control multiple, daily and severe seizures can be reassured by the news that not only is the diet effective, but it also appears to have no long-lasting side effects, say scientists at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
A study report supporting their conclusion, and believed to be one of the first analyses of the long-term safety and efficacy of the diet, appears online in the February edition of the journal Epilepsia.
The ketogenic diet, consisting of high-fat foods and very few carbohydrates, is believed to trigger biochemical changes that eliminate seizure-causing short circuits in the brain’s signaling system. Used as first-line therapy for infantile spasms and in children whose seizures cannot be controlled with drugs, the diet is highly effective but complicated and sometimes difficult to maintain. It can temporarily raise cholesterol, impair growth and, in rare cases, lead to kidney stones, among other side effects.
Swine flu outbreak threatens at World Cup
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South Africa faces a possible health crisis if a swine flu outbreak strikes during the soccer World Cup this year, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told parliament on Monday.
“One of our biggest nightmares is the fact that 2010 is going to be held in June when there is a possibility of another bout of H1N1,” Motsoaledi said.
The month-long tournament, hosted in Africa for the first time, is expected to attract 450,000 tourists during the South African winter.
Obesity ‘tipping point before age 2
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The “tipping point” in obesity often occurs before age 2 and sometimes as early as 3 months, U.S. researchers found.
Principal investigator Dr. John Harrington, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters and of Eastern Virginia Medical School, and colleagues examined records from a pediatric practice of 111 children whose body mass index exceeded 85 percent of that of the general population.
Researchers determined that these children had started gaining weight in infancy at an average rate of .08 excess body mass index units per month. On average, the progression began when the children were 3 months old.
Scientists find protein culprit for obesity
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Researchers have discovered a protein that leads to obesity. Previous studies reveal that one protein - p62 - produced obesity in mice when scientists studied how obesity occurs in the absence of p62. Now scientists have discovered a protein that pairs with p62 and is the real culprit that promotes fat cell growth and leads to obesity.
The new findings show that the ERK protein works in conjunction with p62 to make fat cells in the body that in turn leads to obesity, insulin resistance, and eventually diabetes and other obesity related problems.
In earlier research, Jorge Moscat, PhD, chair of UC’s cancer and cell biology department at the University of Cincinnati found that mice who lack p62 became fat and used less energy, becoming insulin resistant in adulthood, compared to mice who ate the same diet and expended the same amount of energy - an important note for individuals who despite exercise and diet cannot lose weight.
New Pain Management Approaches Reduce Pain, Speed Recovery for Knee or Hip Replacement
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Patients undergoing knee or hip replacements recover more quickly when treated with targeted pain-blocking medications that may eliminate the need for general anesthesia during surgery and intravenous narcotics drugs after surgery.
The February issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter explains the newer pain management options and their benefits.
A decade ago, patients undergoing hip or knee replacements were almost exclusively given general anesthesia during surgery and intravenous narcotic pain medications afterward. This approach works for most people and still is commonly practiced. But both general anesthesia and intravenous narcotic drugs can cause nausea, vomiting, grogginess, decreased bowel function and other side effects.
Taiwan’s hospital payment cuts tied to stroke deaths
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Cuts in reimbursement to hospitals made by Taiwan’s universal healthcare system in recent years may have slowed a decade-long decline in stroke deaths, hints a new study.
What the findings could mean for the U.S. and other countries wrestling with the question of how to control healthcare costs is unclear. But Taiwan’s experience might offer some wider lessons, the researchers say.
The study, published in the journal Stroke, found that from 1998 to 2007, the 30-day death rate among Taiwanese patients hospitalized for a stroke gradually declined—from 5.8 percent in 1998 to 3.7 percent by 2007.
If children won’t go to school
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Children and adolescents who refuse to attend school should not be given doctors’ sick notes. In the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2010; 107[4]), child and adolescent psychiatrist Martin Knollmann and colleagues explain the causes of school avoidance and describe measures to tackle the problem.
Truancy assumes psychiatric relevance only if it occurs frequently and is accompanied by psychiatric symptoms. Children typically play truant for the first time at the age of about 11 years, whereas anxiety related school avoidance occurs in children as young as 6 years. School avoiders seem to be exposed to more stressful life events, but physical disorders such as asthma or obesity may also play a part.
In contrast to truancy, of which parents are usually unaware, children displaying school avoiding behavior often stay at home. They often express fears and anxieties, especially in the morning, and complain of diffuse physical symptoms.
Facing morbid obesity, two ‘big losers’ tell how they achieved extreme weight loss
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In eight years, more than half of Oklahomans are projected to be overweight. And according to the United Health Foundation, that will make Oklahoma the most obese state in the nation. Oklahoma has fallen to next-to-last on a recently released listing of healthiest states, dropping 17 spots since 1990 to No. 49.
The popularity of weight loss reality shows seems to underscore the determination some people have to shed significant amounts of weight. They may not have done it with cameras rolling, but two area residents each have lost more than 100 pounds. Reversing poor physical health requires a willingness to make, and stick with, difficult lifestyle changes.
Here’s how they did it.
China sets up national food safety commission
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China has set up a national food safety commission, headed by a powerful vice premier, who at the watchdog’s first meeting set his sights on the persistent problem of dangerously tainted milk, state media said on Wednesday.
Li Keqiang, tipped to take Premier Wen Jiabao’s place in three years, ordered inspectors to trace and destroy all milk products tainted with melamine, an industrial compound that killed at least six children in 2008, the People’s Daily said.
A number of cases of milk contaminated with melamine have surfaced in the past few months, some apparently old batches of tainted powder slated for destruction but hoarded away instead by dairy firms and later repackaged.
Association Discovered Between Eczema in Early Childhood and Psychological Problems
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Association Discovered Between Eczema in Early Childhood and Psychological Problems in Children at Age 10 Years
Neuherberg, February 10., 2010. Eczema in early childhood may influence behavior and mental health later in life. This is a key finding of a prospective birth cohort study to which scientists of Helmholtz Zentrum München contributed. In cooperation with colleagues of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Technische Universität München (TUM) and Marien-Hospital in Wesel, North Rhine-Westphalia this study followed 5,991 children who were born between 1995 and 1998. The study has been published in the current issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 125 (2010); 404-410.
Researchers, led by Assistant Professor Jochen Schmitt of Dresden University Hospital, Dr. Christian Apfelbacher (Heidelberg University Hospital) and Dr. Joachim Heinrich of the Institute of Epidemiology of Helmholtz Zentrum München, discovered that children who suffered from eczema during the first two years of life were more likely to demonstrate psychological abnormalities, in particular emotional problems, at age ten years than children of the same age who had not suffered from the disease. “This indicates that eczema can precede and lead to behavioral and psychological problems in children,” Dr. Heinrich explained.
Three Routines to Help Cut Obesity Risk in Kids
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Experts say one out of every eight kids under the age of five is overweight or obese in this country.
For the first time, a study in the journal Pediatrics outlines three household routines that can dramatically reduce the risk of obesity in your kids.
The first routine is sitting down to dinner every night as a family.
For obese, vaccine needle size matters
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Our ever-expanding waistlines may have outgrown the doctor’s needle, researchers say, in what could be another casualty of the obesity epidemic.
In a new study, the researchers report that using a standard 1-inch needle to immunize obese adolescents against hepatitis B virus produced a much weaker effect than using a longer needle.
“As obesity rises in the US, we need to be aware that the standard of care may have to change to protect obese youth,” study co-author Dr. Amy Middleman of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston told Reuters Health.
Men who eat soy may have lower lung cancer risk
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Men who don’t smoke and eat a lot of soy may have a lower risk of lung cancer, according to a new study.
Soy contains isoflavones, which act similarly to the hormone estrogen, and may have anti-cancer qualities in hormone-related cancers of the breast and prostate, the researchers note in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Cells in the lung have properties that suggest they may also respond to isoflavones.
Dr. Taichi Shimazu, of the National Cancer Center in Tokyo, and colleagues studied more than 36,000 Japanese men and more than 40,000 Japanese women, 45 to 74 years old and free of cancer at the start of the study.
Gene doping a risky route to glory for athletes
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Gene therapy offers Olympic athletes a tempting new way to go for the gold, but the technology is far too risky a way to cheat, a top gene therapy expert said on Thursday.
Gene doping - in which DNA is introduced into the body through an inactivated virus or by other means - can alter a person’s genetic make up and improve athletic performance by building muscle and increasing blood flow.
“We know we can introduce genes now to correct disease. It’s not a great leap to say we can also change genes related to normal human performance, like those required for athletic performance,” said Dr. Ted Friedmann, director of the Center for Molecular Genetics at the University of California’s San Diego’s School of Medicine.
Costs of obesity too high to ignore
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If improving your physical and mental well being isn’t enough to motivate you to get healthy, consider a financial motivation.
Recently, Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, reported that the United States spends nearly $150 billion a year fighting obesity. That’s more than this nation spends on fighting cancer, and double what it spent to fight obesity 10 years ago.
In fact, $650 million of economic stimulus money is earmarked on programs to fight obesity and smoking.
