Avoid ADHD drugs, Canada tells heart patients
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Canada’s health ministry on Friday warned individuals with hypertension (high blood pressure), heart disease, clogged arteries (atherosclerosis) or hyperthyroidism not to take drugs used to manage attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Health Canada said that in rare cases, patient with these conditions could suffer “rare heart-related side effects” from these drugs. In a statement, it warned people who are already taking these drugs not to stop before consulting their physician.
“All ADHD drugs stimulate the heart and blood vessels… The effects are usually mild or moderate, but in some patients this stimulation may—in rare cases—result in cardiac arrests, strokes or death,” said Health Canada.
Osteoporosis drug may also normalize heart rate
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Treatment with raloxifene appears to reduce heart rate variability in elderly women with osteoporosis, Turkish researchers report in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
There is some evidence that raloxifene, sold under the trade name Evista, may have a protective effect on women with cardiovascular disease or who have a high risk of developing cardiovascular disease, but the effects are still unclear, Dr. Mert Gol and colleagues at Dokuz Eylul University Hospital, Izmir, note.
The researchers therefore studied 43 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. The women were randomly assigned to raloxifene at 60 mg daily or another drug that prevents or slows down osteoporosis—alendronate (trade name Fosamax) at 10 mg daily.
Virtual coach designed to help smokers quit
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If you’ve tried to give up smoking but don’t have the willpower or are too embarrassed to seek help, Dutch researchers may have the answer.
They are developing a virtual coach to provide smokers with round-the-clock reinforcement to help them kick the habit.
“Shrouded in the anonymity provided by the Internet, smokers can log on to a Web site and type questions and confessions into a chat box,” New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.
Adolescents who live in poverty are more likely to be overweight
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Adolescents aged 15-17 years who live in poverty are more likely to be overweight than those not living in poverty, a difference that has emerged in the past decade, according to a study in the May 24/31 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.
The number of adolescents in the U.S. who are overweight has more than doubled during the past 3 decades. As the prevalence of adolescent overweight continues to increase, so too will its associated consequences, including type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, poor quality of life, and increased illness and risk of death in adulthood, according to background information in the article. Whether the increasing prevalence of adolescent overweight is characterized by larger, smaller, or unchanged disparities in overweight status across socioeconomic strata has not been known.
Richard A. Miech, Ph.D., M.P.H., of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and colleagues examined trends in the prevalence of overweight among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years by family poverty status. The researchers used data from four cross-sectional, nationally representative surveys (U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys [NHANES] of 1971-1974, 1976-1980, 1988-1994, and 1999-2004).
Muscle training may lessen COPD symptoms
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For people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) such as emphysema, high intensity training of the muscles used for breathing can improve muscle function and reduce dyspnea (difficulty breathing) and fatigue, according to a study.
Still, used alone, such training is unlikely to yield clinically relevant improvements in exercise capacity, which is often a problem for COPD patients, researchers say.
So-called inspiratory muscle training (IMT) “may be of particular benefit to COPD patients who report dyspnea during activities of daily living and/or fatigue, but are unable to effectively participate in whole-body exercise training because of comorbid conditions, such as musculoskeletal impairments,” note Dr. P. R. Eastwood, from the Sir Charles Gairnder Hospital in Nedlands, Western Australia, and colleagues.
U.S. study finds no marijuana link to lung cancer
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Marijuana smoking does not increase a person’s risk of developing lung cancer, according to the findings of a new study at the University of California Los Angeles that surprised even the researchers.
They had expected to find that a history of heavy marijuana use, like cigarette smoking, would increase the risk of cancer.
Instead, the study, which compared the lifestyles of 611 Los Angeles County lung cancer patients and 601 patients with head and neck cancers with those of 1,040 people without cancer, found no elevated cancer risk for even the heaviest pot smokers.
Video games can help cut surgical errors
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A new study suggests that people preparing for surgery ask their doctor: “Have you played your video games today?”
Surgeons who warmed up by playing video games like “Super Monkey Ball” for 20 minutes immediately prior to performing surgical drills were faster and made fewer errors than those who did not, said Dr. James “Butch” Rosser, lead investigator on the study slated for release on Wednesday.
The research involved 303 surgeons participating in a medical training course that included video games and was focused on laparoscopic surgical procedures—which use a tiny video camera and long, slender instruments inserted through small incisions. The study was conducted by Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City in conjunction with the National Institute on Media and the Family.
Identification of molecule that links both sides of the brain
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A Queensland Brain Institute-led team has identified a molecule that plays a key role in establishing the major nerve connections between each side of the adult brain.
QBI neural migration laboratory head Associate Professor Helen Cooper said her group’s research provided new clues regarding development of the corpus callosum, the main connecting nerve tract that shuttles information between the left and right hemispheres of the adult brain.
Using a mouse model, neuroscientists at The University of Queensland - working with Associate Professor Steven Stacker and his team at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Melbourne - have identified a molecule that helps control development of the corpus callosum.
Movement Problems Not the Only Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease
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Many people think that tremors and slow, rigid movements are the only symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, although these are the most noticeable ones, they’re not always the most distressing. In one survey, 88% of PD patients reported troubling non-movement symptoms. If not recognized as part of PD and treated accordingly, these symptoms can have a severe impact on a person’s life, says Harvard Women’s Health Watch.
The newsletter urges people with PD to talk to their neurologists if they experience any of the following:
Low Carbohydrate Diet Did Not Increase Bone Loss
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A strict low-carbohydrate diet had no effect on bone loss for adults following an Adkins-type diet for weight loss, a three-month study by rheumatologists at the University of South Florida found. The clinical study was published this week in the online issue of the journal Osteoporosis International.
Low carbohydrate diets have become popular as a weight loss technique; however, critics contend such diets may have harmful side effects. One concern has been that low carbohydrate diets, which replace calories from carbohydrates with more consumption of high-protein foods like meat and eggs, alter the body’s acid balance. This imbalance could lead to increased bone turnover (more rapid depletion than formation of bone)—increasing the risk for osteoporosis.
“That’s not what our study found,” said lead author John D. Carter, assistant professor in the Division of Rheumatology, USF College of Medicine. “Patients on the low carbohydrate diet did lose weight, but the diet did not appear to compromise bone integrity or lead to bone loss.”
Constipation drug effective, study suggests
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Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Wyeth said on Tuesday that their experimental treatment for constipation caused by opioid painkillers proved effective in a late-stage clinical trial.
The 133-patient study is the second pivotal-stage trial of the subcutaneous drug, called methylnaltrexone, in patients with painful, terminal illnesses, such as cancer and heart disease, who also suffer from constipation.
The study showed that 48 percent of severely constipated patients experienced a bowel movement within four hours of receiving their first dose of the drug, compared with 16 percent given a placebo. More than 70 percent of methylnaltrexone patients responded by the end of the first week of treatment.
Hepatitis B virus prevalent among Asians in NY
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Approximately 15% of Asians living in New York City are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus, according to a new study by New York University School of Medicine researchers and their colleagues.
Chronic hepatitis B infection usually will lead to liver inflammation and can progress to cirrhosis and liver cancer. The reported infection rate is 35 times higher than the rate in the general U.S. population.
The new study appears in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Common painkillers could up chance of heart failure in seniors
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New research has revealed that commonly used over-the-counter painkillers, such as ibuprofen, are linked with a 30% increased risk of first hospital admission for heart failure.
The researchers say that though that risk may at first glance appear quite small, it has implications in particular for the elderly who are at greater risk of heart failure.
They say the revelation may also have a considerable impact on public health.
Women with COPD Fare Worse than Men with Same Level of Disease
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Women with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) fare worse than men both in terms of the severity of their disease and their quality of life, according to a study to be presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference on May 22nd.
These differences may play a role in the increased death rate seen among female patients with COPD, said researcher Claudia Cote, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
The researchers studied 85 women, and compared them with 95 men who had the same levels of COPD severity according to guidelines of the Global Initiative for Chronic Lung Disease (GOLD). They found that female patients were significantly younger than male patients with the same severity of disease. The women had lower lung function, more trouble breathing, and reported a worse quality of life. The women also received a worse score on the BODE index, which looks at lung function, nutritional status, symptoms and exercise capacity in order to measure a COPD patient’s disease severity and predicted survival.
Research Reveals Control of Potent Immune Regulator
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A new study reveals how the production of a potent immune regulator called interferon gamma (IFNg) is controlled in natural killer (NK) cells, immune cells that typically defend the body against cancer and infections.
IFNg, produced by NK cells and other cell types, plays a critical role in killing pathogen-infected cells and in defending against tumor cells. However, overproduction of IFNg is also dangerous to the body and can cause autoimmune diseases. But exactly how the body tightly controls IFNg production - and, therefore, NK-cell activity - is not known.
The study, published in the May issue of the journal Immunity, looked at substances called pro-inflammatory cytokines, which cause NK cells to make IFNg and stimulate their activity. It also looked at transforming growth factor beta (TGFb), a substance also made by NK cells that lowers IFNg production.
