Grant targeting obesity awarded to HealthNet
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The New York State Department of Health awarded a five-year grant to Herkimer County HealthNet, Inc. to establish programs to prevent obesity, type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases in Herkimer County.
The grant is for $87,500 for the first six months — October 2010-April 2011 — and $175,000 each year for the remaining period of the grant.
Obesity and diabetes are the two most critical public health threats to New Yorkers and Americans, reducing quality of life, likely shortening the life span, increasing health care costs and reducing productivity in the work place and at school.
Free diabetes checks from Coalition
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A MILLION free health checks to detect the early onset of chronic diseases such as diabetes will be given at work places and chemists under a state Coalition government.
In the battle of the bulge ahead of next month’s poll, the Opposition will today announce a $10 million health check plan aimed at keeping people out of hospital. People will be offered free tests for blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and even waist measurements to detect obesity.
If an abnormal or “at risk” result is returned, the chemist will then recommend the patient visit a doctor.
Treating mild strokes with clot-busting drug could save $200 million annually, study shows
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Treating mild strokes with the clot-busting drug approved for severe stroke could reduce the number of patients left disabled and save $200 million a year in disability costs, according to new research from the University of Cincinnati (UC).
The study led by Pooja Khatri, MD, an associate professor in the department of neurology, examined the public health impact of treating mild strokes with the clot-busting drug intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). It is being presented Wednesday, Feb. 9, in Los Angeles at International Stroke Conference 2011, the annual meeting of the American Stroke Association.
The research is part of the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Stroke Study, begun in 1993 at the UC College of Medicine, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and identifies all hospitalized and autopsied cases of stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA) in a five-county region. The NIH also funded the study led by Khatri.
Research Explores Little-Understood Brain Disease
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The population of aged persons worldwide is expanding rapidly, and it is becoming increasingly clear that there are many different diseases that affect the minds of these individuals. Researchers at the University of Kentucky are breaking new ground in the ongoing project of identifying and defining those diseases most likely to affect an aged population. Dr. Peter Nelson of the University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging is the lead author on a paper soon to be published in the journal BRAIN; the paper deals with the little-understood but serious condition hippocampal sclerosis (HS-AGING). He is also the recipient of a newly approved grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct a study of HS-AGING genetics.
Many different diseases may produce symptoms of dementia - defined as cognitive decline and impaired memory - in aged persons. Although Alzheimer’s disease is probably the most recognized cause of dementia, HS-AGING also causes serious cognitive impairment in older adults. In those who live to a very advanced age (beyond the age of 95) HS-AGING is roughly as prevalent as Alzheimer’s.
It is important for physicians and scientists to understand the unique pathology of HS-AGING, and to be able to differentiate it from other diseases, as it is only by making an accurate diagnosis that clinicians can hope to treat people who present with signs of cognitive decline.
Hope for stroke victims
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Much of the devastation of stroke and head trauma is due to damage caused the overproduction of a substance in the brain called glutamate. Preventing this damage has been impossible, until now, as many drugs don’t cross the so-called blood-brain barrier, and those that do often don’t work as intended. But a method originally devised at the Weizmann Institute of Science may, in the future, offer a way to avert such glutamate-induced harm.
Prof. Vivian I. Teichberg of the Institute’s Neurobiology Department first demonstrated a possible way around these problems in 2003. Glutamate – a short-lived neurotransmitter – is normally all but absent in brain fluids. After a stroke or injury, however, the glutamate levels in brain fluid become a flood that over-excites the cells in its path and kills them. Instead of attempting to get drugs into the brain, Teichberg had the idea that one might be able to transport glutamate from the brain to the blood using the tiny “pumps,” or transporters, on the capillaries that work on differences in glutamate concentration between the two sides. Decreasing glutamate levels in blood would create a stronger impetus to pump the substance out of the brain. He thought that a naturally-occurring enzyme called glutamate-oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT, for short) could “scavenge” blood glutamate, significantly lowering its levels. By 2007, Teichberg and his colleagues had provided clear evidence of the very strong brain neuroprotection that oxolacetate (a chemical similar to GOT) afforded rats exposed to a head trauma.
Two new studies – conducted by Fransisco Campos and others from the lab of Prof. Jose Castillo in theUniversity of Santiago de Compostela, Spain – now provide a definitive demonstration of Teichberg’s results.
Childhood sexual abuse may be a risk factor for later psychotic illness
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An Australian study suggests that children who are sexually abused, especially if it involves penetration, appear to be at higher risk for developing schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Previous studies have established that abused children are more likely to develop depression, anxiety, substance abuse, borderline personality disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder and suicidal behavior, according to background information in the article. “The possibility of a link between childhood sexual abuse and later psychotic disorders, however, remains unresolved despite the claims of some that a causal link has been established to schizophrenia,” the authors write
Margaret C. Cutajar, D.Psych., M.A.P.S., of Monash University, Victoria, Australia, and colleagues linked data from police and medical examinations of sexual abuse cases to a statewide register of psychiatric cases. Rates of psychiatric disorders among 2,759 individuals who had been sexually abused when younger than age 16 were compared with those among 4,938 individuals in a comparison group drawn from electoral records.
Over a 30-year period, individuals who had experienced childhood sexual abuse had significantly higher rates than those in the comparison group of psychosis overall (2.8 percent vs. 1.4 percent) and schizophrenia disorders (1.9 percent vs. 0.7 percent).
Can breastfeeding transmit yellow fever after maternal vaccination?
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A five-week old infant most likely contracted a vaccine strain of yellow fever virus through breastfeeding, according to a case report published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only)
“Until recently, avoidance of vaccination of breastfeeding women with yellow fever vaccine had been based on theoretical grounds only,” writes Dr. Susan Kuhn, with coauthors. “We report the probable transmission of vaccine strain of yellow fever virus from a mother to her infant through breastfeeding,” which supports current recommendations for breastfeeding mothers to avoid the vaccine.
The yellow fever vaccine is a live-virus vaccine that has been used since the 1940s.
Childhood Chronic Illness Affects Future Income, Education, Career
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Today, more children than ever survive serious chronic illness. Many thrive as young adults, but a large new study finds that for some, early illness can lead to fewer years of education, more joblessness and lower pay.
The good news is that when they grow up, these kids are just as likely to blossom socially, enjoy romantic relationships and get married as healthy kids, finds the study in the Journal of Adolescent Health online.
Researchers led by Gary Maslow, M.D., looked at two sets of interview data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The more than 13,000 respondents were middle or high school students during the 1994-1995 school year.
FREE Dental Services for Low-Income Children
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Up to 150 low-income children will receive free dental services on Saturday, Feb. 5 from Nova Southeastern University’s College of Dental Medicine.
Known as “Give Kids a Smile” day, the event will provide services such as X-rays, exams, cleaning, prophylaxis, fluoride treatment, sealants and restorations to low-income children between the ages of 2 and 18, who have been referred to the College of Dental Medicine from Boys & Girls clubs in South Florida. It will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the university’s Health Care Centers’ dental clinic, located at the corner of 30th Street and University Drive in Davie.
Give Kids a Smile is an annual national event sponsored by the American Dental Association.
Food industry partnerships may carry risks
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Health charities and health organizations must tread carefully when partnering with the food industry as it may risk compromise health promotion goals, states an editorial in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only).
Partnerships with major food companies are attractive for health charities and organizations because they bring additional funding and support. For the food industry, these relationships can help burnish their brands, support marketing efforts and help with lobbying but they may obscure the very messages that health organizations are promoting.
“Corporations are not the problem,” write Drs. Paul Hébert, Editor-in-Chief, CMAJ and Yoni Freedhoff, Medical Director, Bariatric Medical Institute, Ottawa. “By definition, corporate spending must serve to increase shareholder value - a transparent fiduciary requirement that should encompass philanthropic efforts. Health organizations, even when desperate for money or resources, should avoid co-branding with the food industry.”
Hepatic vein thrombosis following liver resection
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Patients undergoing liver surgery have long been considered to be at low risk of venous thromboembolism. However, pulmonary embolism has recently emerged as an increasingly frequent and potentially fatal complication following liver resections.
A research article published on January 21, 2011 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The authors shed a new light on this discrepancy by reporting two patients who developed thrombi in their hepatic veins following hepatectomy.
The report indicated that thrombosis may occur in hepatic veins after liver resection as a result of intra- or postoperative local injury. This would explain why pulmonary emboli have been observed in the absence of peripheral deep vein thrombosis. This hazard should be taken into account when performing extensive coagulation of the raw surface of the liver when a major hepatic vein is exposed.
Genetic clues to compulsive, self-injurious behavior in rare childhood disorder
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Research from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine provides new clues for the compulsive behavior and cognitive defects associated with a rare childhood neurological disease called Lesch-Nyhan Disease (LND). Two pathways found to be defective in LND are known to be associated with other neurodegenerative disease, such as Alzheimer’s and Parknson’s diseases, suggesting common causes of cognitive and behavioral defects in these neurological disorders.
The research is published on-line today in the PLoS ONE.
“This study is important because it opens completely new and unexpected areas of research into the genetic cause of compulsive and self-injurious behavior in Lesch-Nyhan disease,” said principal investigator Theodore Friedmann, MD, professor of pediatrics at UCSD’s Center for Neural Circuit and Behavior and Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, a research and teaching affiliate of the UCSD School of Medicine.
Fast growth, low defense—plants facing a dilemma
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Plants are attacked by a multitude of insects and mammals. As defense against these herbivores they developed complex defense mechanisms over the course of evolution: spines, thorns, leaf hairs and a number of toxic chemical substances. For decades it has been controversially discussed whether the production of defense traits incurs costs to the plants. Now, using a new method the ecologists and plant biologists of the University of Zürich together with their American colleagues demonstrate these costs accurately in a Proceedings of the Royal Society article.
For their study, the researchers planted different «knockout»-mutants of the same genotype of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. They then harvested a subset of these plants in evenly distributed intervals to measure the biomass growth over the whole plant life. «Mutants with suppressed defense mechanisms showed an increased growth rate» Tobias Züst explains the result of his study. But the faster growth comes at an added cost: aphids reproduce faster on these plants than on slow growing plants with intact defense mechanisms. This is a result of the fact that fast growing plants provide more resources to the herbivore than slow growing plants in the same amount of time.
The study shows that natural resistance is often not compatible with fast growth. This finding is of great importance for agricultural crops: These crops have been selected for high yield and as a consequence have very low natural resistance to herbivores, consequentially requiring high input of insecticides.
IU-led “Growing Our Own” report offers solutions to address decline in U.S. dental faculty
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A new report by an Indiana University School of Dentistry department chair with researchers from six other U.S. dental schools is calling for quick and creative solutions to address the growing scarcity of full-time faculty members within the nation’s dental school programs.
The report cites widening pay gaps between private practice dentists and clinical professors at dental schools as one factor in fewer dentists committing to careers in teaching. Clinical faculty also report being overwhelmed and burned out by the workload demands of teaching, clinical, research and administrative responsibilities. Published in the January edition of the Journal of Dental Education, the paper calls for the development of mandatory mentoring programs, among other recommendations, to help reverse the trend.
“We feel it is essential that mentoring programs be considered mandatory within dental schools if this trend toward a major crisis in dentistry is to be reversed as rapidly as possible,” said Dr. Vanchit John, chairman of the IU School of Dentistry’s Department of Periodontics and Allied Dental Programs and the lead author of the report. “Clinical faculty shortages could be characterized as the most critical challenge confronting dentistry.”
Gene study shows way to help save orangutans
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Orangutans are notoriously slow and gentle, and a study of their DNA shows they have evolved in a similar way, researchers reported on Wednesday.
The findings, published in the journal Nature, could help conservationists do a better job of saving the endangered great apes and might provide insights into human health.
“In terms of evolution, the orangutan genome is quite special among great apes in that it has been extraordinarily stable over the past 15 million years,” Richard Wilson of Washington University in St. Louis, the genomics expert who oversaw the study, said in a statement.
