Fatty diet may thwart brain’s fullness signal
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Rats that are fed a high-fat diet appear to lose their sensitivity to a hormone that tells the body when it’s had enough to eat—and the same could be true of humans, according to researchers.
In experiments with rats fed either a high- or low-fat diet, researchers at Pennsylvania State University found that the fatty diet diminished the rodents’ sensitivity to a hormone called cholecystokinin, or CCK.
Smaller breast tumors help explain better survival
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The average breast tumor is smaller today than it was 25 years ago, probably because of earlier detection, and this accounts for a “substantial fraction” of the improvement in survival over the last 30 years, researchers report
“This study is important,” said Dr. Elena B. Elkin, “because it shows that if we don’t account for trends in the characteristics of newly diagnosed Breast cancers, such as the shift in tumor size, we may overestimate the impact of advances in treatment.”
Russian bird flu may be spreading
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A bird flu outbreak in Russia’s Siberian regions may be spreading, but no humans have been infected so far, officials and Russian media said on Monday.
The highly potent H5N1 strain, confirmed in the Siberian region of Novosibirsk, has swept parts of Asia and killed more than 50 people since 2003. Outbreaks in Russia and later in neighboring Kazakhstan have been reported since mid-July.
Teacher caught licking students’ wounds
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The Oregon teachers’ board reprimanded a high school football coach for licking the bleeding wounds of student athletes, school officials said on Friday.
The Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission placed Scott Reed, 34, on two years of probation and ordered the coach, who is also a science teacher to attend a class on the risks of blood-borne pathogens.
Chinese officials fired for pig disease cover-up
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Four officials have been sacked for trying to cover up the trail of dead pigs early in an outbreak of a swine-borne disease that has killed 39 people in southwest China, Xinhua news agency said on Monday.
The officials, all from near Neijiang in Sichuan province, had fabricated reports and deceived inspectors and reporters tracing the spread of the Streptococcus suis bacteria, Xinhua said on its English Web site, http://www.chinaview.cn.
Type of dialysis makes a difference to death risk
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For people with end-stage renal disease, those on hemodialysis tend to live longer than those who opt for peritoneal dialysis, according to a new report.
When kidneys fail, toxins in a patient’s blood can be removed by passing the blood over membranes that allow the harmful substances to pass through and be removed. An alternative to hemodialysis is peritoneal dialysis, a process in which fluid is instilled into the abdominal cavity and then drained after several hours, along with unwanted toxins.
High intake of milk may raise ovarian cancer risk
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Could a lot of dairy be too much of a good thing? An analysis of 21 studies that investigated ties between ovarian cancer and the consumption of milk products and lactose provides some support for the notion that a high intake is associated with increased ovarian cancer risk.
“The important observation,” said Dr. Susanna C. Larsson, “is that a high intake of milk and milk sugar (lactose) was associated with increased risk of ovarian cancerr in prospective studies (in which diet has been assessed before the cancer diagnosis) but not in case-control studies (in which diet has been assessed after the cancer diagnosis.”
Bird flu spreads in Russia, maybe in Kazakhstan
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Bird flu has been officially confirmed in two more Russian regions, and the disease may also be spreading in Northern Kazakhstan, officials said on Friday.
Health officials fear that a subtype of bird flu dangerous to humans may mutate into a lethal strain that could rival or exceed the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 20-40 million people worldwide at the end of World War One.
Cloned dog raises ethical questions
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South Korea’s Woo-Suk Hwang has reached the highest peaks of cloning and stem cell research, but critics say he has taken science onto a steep and slippery slope and raised alarming questions about interfering with life.
On Wednesday, Hwang was all smiles as he put on a lab coat and frolicked with an Afghan hound puppy named Snuppy, the world’s first cloned dog, which he helped create.
The dog was named after Seoul National University, where Hwang’s lab has produced results that have put his team at the forefront of cloning and stem cell technology.
Provigil may perk up sleepy shift workers
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Provigil, a drug used to treat Narcolepsy and excessive sleepiness resulting from sleep apnea, may also reduce sleepiness due to shift-work sleep disorder—that is, excessive sleepiness during night work and Insomnia when trying to sleep during the day.
In a 3-month study, Dr. Charles A. Czeisler from Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues randomly assigned 209 shift-workers with chronic sleep disorder to take Provigil (known generically as modafinil) or an inactive “placebo” before the start of each shift. One hundred fifty-three participants completed the study.
Vietnam vaccinates poultry to fight bird flu
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Vietnam has begun to vaccinate 210 million poultry as part of an all-out effort to eradicate the deadly bird flu virus that has killed 42 people in the country, half of them since December.
The Agriculture Ministry said it would use more than 400 million batches of vaccine imported from China and the Netherlands to inoculate chickens, ducks and quails against the deadly H5N1 virus.
“All efforts are for the health of the people. We will have to take whatever action required, regardless of the cost,” Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat said this week as he launched the vaccination campaign.
Topamax may help alcohol-using smokers quit
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The anti-Epilepsy pill Topamax (a.k.a. topiramate) is a safe and promising treatment for helping alcohol-dependent smokers quit cigarettes, according to the results of a new study.
In a previous study, Dr. Bankole A. Johnson, of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and colleagues showed that topiramate is an effective treatment for alcohol dependence. In a further analysis, they examined whether the drug improved the smoking cessation rate among the cigarette smokers in the earlier study.
China in new push to curb addictive online gaming
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China is preparing to introduce new rules to deal with the growing problem of addictive behaviour in the nation’s booming online game sector, one of the country’s top game operators said on Wednesday.
Industry regulator the General Administration of Publication and Press is in the process of formulating the new rules, called “anti-fatigue” rules by some, said Michael Tong, chief operating officer of No. 2 online game operator NetEase.com Inc.
China swine flu outbreak fails to worry residents
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Near the epicentre of China’s worst outbreak of swine flu in years, Lao Luo is too busy stuffing his face with pork dumplings to care.
“It’s all under control,” Luo said between mouthfuls as fat dribbled off his chin at a roadside diner in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, China’s second-most populous province.
That a region famous for its fiery cuisine, bamboo forests and lovable pandas is now host to a bacterial scourge that has killed 37 and infected 205 is dismissed with a shrug and another mouthful.
People with mental illness often victims of crime
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More than one-quarter of people with severe mental illness say they were victims of a violent crime within the past year, giving them a more than 11-fold higher risk than that seen in the general population, according to new study findings.
Study author Dr. Linda A. Teplin of Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, noted that for people without mental illness, being the victim of a crime can be very upsetting; the effect could be even more destabilizing for someone who has a mental illness. “Imagine if you’re already vulnerable,” she said.
