Health Technology Research Synopsis

10th Issue Date 30 OCT 2007

Compiled By Ralph Turchiano

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Public release date: 22-Oct-2007

Spending more for lung cancer treatment did not substantially increase patients’ lives

A new study finds that survival for elderly patients with lung cancer has changed little despite large increases in healthcare expenditures for lung cancer treatment. The study by Harvard University, National Cancer Institute, and National Bureau of Economic Research researchers, published in the December 1, 2007 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, finds that average life-expectancy rose by less than one month between 1983 and 1997, while costs rose by over $20,000 per patient

The U.S. spends more than five billion dollars a year on detection, determining the disease severity, and treatment of lung cancer. This is a significant increase over the last few decades, mirroring similar increases in general healthcare spending over the same period. The one-year survival rate for lung cancer has increased slightly, from 37 percent in 1975-1979 to 42 percent in 2002, largely due to improvements in surgical techniques and combined therapies. However the five-year survival rate for all stages of lung cancer combined has remained relatively stable, and is currently only about 16 percent.

Cost-effectiveness, as measured by the cost of an additional year of life gained, was poor, with a high average cost of $403,142. While early stage cancer treatment was more cost-effective by conventional standards than treatments for advanced disease, the gains still were limited. When analyzed by disease severity, the cost per additional year gained for local and regional disease was $143,614 and 145,861, respectively. For metastatic cancer, the cost per additional year gained was $1,190,322.

Public release date: 22-Oct-2007

Can you feel the heat? Your cilia can

Johns Hopkins researchers and colleagues have found a previously unrecognized role for tiny hair-like cell structures known as cilia: They help form our sense of touch.

Humans and genetically engineered mice lacking functional cilia respond more slowly to physical sensations such as exposure to hot water or a sharp poke with a stick. Results of the study, appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week, will help doctors better understand diseases already linked to defective cilia like Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) and polycystic kidney disease (PKD)

Cilia, tail-like projections found on the surface of cells, are perhaps best known as molecular flippers that help cells move around. Recently, researchers like Nico Katsanis, Ph.D., associate professor at Johns Hopkins’ McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, have found that cilia are important for many other biological processes, including three of our five senses: vision, hearing, and smell (ciliopathies are often characterized by loss or deficiency in these senses). “That leaves two unexplored possibilities,” says Katsanis. “Taste and touch; we tried touch.”

“This will certainly aid our efforts to both diagnose ciliopathies and relate to the patients,” says Katsanis. “People with ciliopathies are often thought to have mental retardation or autism because they appear ‘slow’. Now it appears that many aspects of their mental capacity may be just fine, they are just slow because they can’t sense things as well as other individuals.”

Public release date: 22-Oct-2007

Funding source may be associated with findings regarding adverse effects in corticosteroid studies

Studies of inhaled corticosteroids, medications frequently prescribed for asthma and other respiratory problems, appear less likely to find adverse effects if they are funded by pharmaceutical companies than if they are funded by other sources, according to a report in the October 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

“Remarkably, type of funding was a major determinant of the authors’ interpretation of the adverse effects,” the authors write. In studies that did find a significant association between corticosteroids and adverse effects, authors of manufacturer-funded studies were more likely to conclude the drugs were safe than authors of studies with no pharmaceutical funding

Because the interpretations are subjective, it is difficult to determine if studies funded by the manufacturer are too positive or studies with no pharmaceutical funding are too cautious, the authors note. “However, we postulate that having information on source of funding will help readers of these studies have a better informed and balanced judgment on the authors’ interpretations,” they conclude. “Disclosure of conflicts of interest should be strengthened for a more balanced opinion on the safety of drugs.”

***Ralph’s Note- You can perform the most non bias clinical trial. Still you have to pay some one to interpret those results. That is where the corruption begins. As in the case of the hormone replacement craze.

Public release date: 22-Oct-2007

High numbers of men and women are overweight, obese and have abdominal fat, worldwide

DALLAS, Oct. 23 – A new global study revealed that 40 percent of men and 30 percent of women are overweight, while 24 percent of men and 27 percent of women are obese, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

In the study, 168,159 people (69,409 men, 98,750 women) from 18 to 80 years old (average age 48) in 63 countries across five continents were evaluated by their primary care physicians

“This is the largest study to assess the frequency of adiposity (body fat) in the clinic, providing a snapshot of patients worldwide,” said study lead author Beverley Balkau, Ph.D., director of research at INSERM in Villejuif, France. (INSERM is the French equivalent of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.)

“The study results show that excess body weight is pandemic, with one-half to two-thirds of the overall study population being overweight or obese,” Balkau said. “Central adiposity adds significantly to the risk of developing heart disease and particularly of developing diabetes.”

 

Being overweight or obese has health consequences, but abdominal obesity has even worse consequences, she added. As measured by WC using International Diabetes Federation Caucasian criteria, more than half the study population – 56 percent of men and 71 percent of women – had abdominal adiposity (WC ¡Ý 37 inches (94 cm) in men and ¡Ý 31.5 inches (80 cm) in women).

***Ralph’s Note- The population of the globe, will decrease if this event move’s forward.

Public release date: 22-Oct-2007

More fast food means greater BMI

Americans are less willing to pay more for healthy dishes, less knowledgeable about healthy menu items, and more likely to consider healthy items bland tasting, finds a Temple University analysis

Americans also reported eating out approximately five times a week in 2006. Fast-food restaurants were the most popular eating establishments for breakfast and lunch, while fast-food and casual dining were the two most popular places for dinner. Ease, convenience and cost were among the top reasons respondents ordered value/combo meals at fast-food restaurants.

In 2006, about 50 percent of respondents strongly agreed that they would be more likely to order healthy items if they were offered as part of a value/combo meal, and 41 percent would like to see actual nutritional information printed on menus.

***Ralph’s note- Fast food restaurants have changed their menu’s before to accommodate this belief. This feel good policy, was a failure each time. Somehow having a dish of broccoli with an Ice Cream Sundae and French Fries combo, never took off.

Public release date: 22-Oct-2007

XDR TB in South Africa traced to lack of drug susceptibility testing

In South Africa, the 2001 implementation of the World Health Organization’s anti-tuberculosis program may have inadvertently helped to create a new strain of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB). In a new study published in the December 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, currently available online, researchers tracked the developing drug resistance of one particular strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis over 12 years. They found that at the time of the 2001 adoption of the DOT+ strategy for multi-drug resistant strains, the strain was already resistant to one or more of the drugs mandated by that strategy, thus allowing the strain to survive and develop resistance to additional drugs.

The spread of a highly transmissible strain of drug-resistant tuberculosis has been facilitated by applying standard treatment regimens for susceptible and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in the absence of drug resistance surveillance,” said one of the authors, A. Willem Sturm, MD, of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine in South Africa. “Public health programs for the treatment and control of infectious diseases need to be supported by drug resistance surveillance programs.”

Unfortunately, at least one strain of M. tuberculosis in South Africa had already developed resistance to one or more of these second-line drugs by the time they were introduced. Drug susceptibility tests would have warned doctors that the standard second-line regimen was unlikely to help the patient but was likely to lead to additional drug-resistance, but these tests were not performed or were not available. Indeed, the reduced efficacy of the regimen allowed the strain to survive and, over time, develop resistances to other drugs

Public release date: 22-Oct-2007

Broccoli sprout-derived extract protects against ultraviolet radiation

A team of Johns Hopkins scientists reports in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that humans can be protected against the damaging effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation — the most abundant cancer-causing agent in our environment — by topical application of an extract of broccoli sprouts.

The results in human volunteers, backed by parallel evidence obtained in mice, show that the degree of skin redness (erythema) caused by UV rays, which is an accurate index of the inflammation and cell damage caused by UV radiation, is markedly reduced in extract-treated skin.

Importantly, notes investigator Paul Talalay, M.D., professor of pharmacology, this chemical extract is not a sunscreen. Unlike sunscreens, it does not absorb UV light and prevent its entry into the skin. Rather, the extract works inside cells by boosting the production of a network of protective enzymes that defend cells against many aspects of UV damage. Consequently, the effects are long-lasting; the protection lasts for several days, even after the extract is no longer present on or in the skin.

 

The protective chemical agent in the broccoli sprout extracts is sulforaphane. It was first identified by Talalay and his colleagues more than 15 years ago and has been shown to prevent tumor development in a number of animals treated with cancer-causing chemicals.

Ralph’s Note – Now for the next generation sun screen’s (smelly)

Public release date: 22-Oct-2007

Zinc may reduce pneumonia risk in nursing home elderly

BOSTON — When elderly nursing home residents contract pneumonia, it is a blow to their already fragile health. Simin Nikbin Meydani, DVM, PhD of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University and colleagues report that maintaining normal serum zinc concentration in the blood may help reduce the risk of pneumonia development in that population.

“Based on our data, it appears that daily zinc intake can help nursing home residents who are susceptible to pneumonia, especially those with low serum zinc concentrations in their blood,” says Meydani, corresponding author and director of the Nutritional Immunology Laboratory at the USDA HNRCA . “The study participants with normal serum zinc concentrations in their blood reduced their risk of developing pneumonia by about 50 percent. Additionally, deaths from all causes were 39 percent lower in this group.”

 

Meydani and colleagues analyzed blood samples from a previous study that investigated the role of Vitamin E in preventing respiratory infections in nursing home residents ages 65 and older. The study enrolled 617 men and women from 33 nursing homes in the Boston area. All of the participants received daily supplements containing 50 percent of the recommended dietary allowance of several vitamins and minerals, including zinc, for one year. Foods that provide zinc include oysters, red meat, poultry, whole grains, beans and dairy products.

In the present study, published in the October issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the authors compared blood samples collected at the beginning and the conclusion of the one-year study. The participants whose serum zinc concentrations remained low throughout that 12-month period had more difficulty battling pneumonia. “Not only did those participants have a higher risk of developing pneumonia when they did become sick, they did not recover as quickly and required a longer course of antibiotics,” says Meydani, who is also a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, both at Tufts University. “We also noted a higher rate of death from all causes.”

Maintaining normal serum zinc concentration in the blood throughout the 12-month study period benefited the participants even if they did develop pneumonia. Meydani adds, “Those participants with normal serum zinc concentrations in their blood were more likely to spend fewer days on antibiotics and recover more quickly.”

***Ralph’s Note- Everyone received the same amount of Zinc. Some most likely either absorbed less, or needed more due to the low serum concentrations in the blood.

Public release date: 22-Oct-2007

Exercise improves thinking, reduces diabetes risk in overweight children

Just three months of daily, vigorous physical activity in overweight children improves their thinking and reduces their diabetes risk, researchers say.

“Is exercise a magic wand that turns them into lean, healthy kids? No. They are still overweight but less so, with less fat, a healthier metabolism and an improved ability to handle life,” says Dr. Catherine Davis, clinical health psychologist at the Medical College of Georgia and lead investigator.

Looking at the children’s insulin resistance, a precursor of type 2 diabetes in which it takes more insulin to convert glucose into energy, researchers found levels dropped 15 percent in the 20-minute exercise group and 21 percent in the 40-minute group. The control group stayed about the same.

 

 

Public release date: 23-Oct-2007

More on mate tea: lower cholesterol and an international agreement

When a study in her lab showed that mate (mah’ tā) tea drinkers had experienced a significant increase in the activity of an enzyme that promotes HDL (good) cholesterol while lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol, University of Illinois scientist Elvira de Mejia headed for Argentina where mate tea has been grown and taken medicinally for centuries.

In the cholesterol study, blood levels of the cardio-protective enzyme paraoxonase-1 were measured before and after healthy volunteers consumed either 0.5 liters of mate tea, milk, or coffee. Activity of the enzyme increased an average of 10 percent for mate tea drinkers compared to the other drinks.

Heck characterized the tea consumed in the cholesterol study in de Mejia’s U of I labs and is now working with the tea brought back from Argentina. He said that mate is high in xanthines (mainly caffeine), and he has found 12 polyphenolic compounds at different concentrations, depending on where the tea was grown. Polyphenols are thought to have a protective effect against cancer and cardiovascular disease

 

Public release date: 24-Oct-2007

IRON DEFICIENT WOMeN COUGH MORE

New research investigates a possible link between iron deficiency in women and idiopathic cough. Italian researchers evaluated 16 healthy, non-smoking women, all of whom had normal lung function tests. All of the women suffered from chronic idiopathic cough and were iron deficient. Researchers found that these symptoms were strongly associated with extrathoracic airway hyperresponsiveness in all of the participants.

American College of Chest Physicians

Public release date: 24-Oct-2007

FRAGMENTED SLEEP AFFECTS CHOLESTEROL

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have released a new study, examining the relationship between sleep fragmentation and lipid profiles. Both normal and overweight individuals underwent three nights of testing, which included polysomnography and blood testing to determine total cholesterol and triglycerides. Results showed that moderate sleep fragmentation was associated with reduced cholesterol in the overweight participants only.

Public release date: 24-Oct-2007

NECK SIZE IS BEST PREDICTOR OF SLEEP APNEA SEVERITY

A new study evaluates the roles of gender and body measurements in the severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) requirements. Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital, in Texas, took multiple body measurements from 144 men and women with OSA. They found that patients’ neck circumference, rather than their body mass index (BMI), was more predictive of OSA severity, especially in women. Both neck circumference and BMI correlated to CPAP requirements.

Public release date: 24-Oct-2007

VITAMINS MAY IMPROVE SMOKERS’ LUNG FUNCTION

New research shows that antioxidants—vitamins A, C, and E—may help improve lung function in people who smoke. Researchers from Bangladesh compared the lung function of 200 healthy male smokers who took one vitamin—A, C, or E— or all three in combination for 2 months. Results showed that patients taking vitamins, improved their lung function after 2 months, with those taking all three vitamins in combination experiencing the largest improvement in lung function. The study also found that when vitamin supplementation was ceased, smokers’ lung function decreased, leading researchers to conclude that the beneficial effects of vitamins are temporary if they are not taken consistently.

Public release date: 24-Oct-2007

Daylight savings time disrupts humans’ natural circadian rhythm

When people living in many parts of the world move their clocks forward one hour in the spring in observance of daylight saving time (DST), their bodies’ internal, daily rhythms don’t adjust with them, reports a new study appearing online on October 25th in Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press. The finding suggests that this regular time change—practiced by a quarter of the human population—represents a significant seasonal disruption, raising the possibility that DST may have unintended effects on other aspects of human physiology, according to the researchers

“When we implement small changes into a biological system which by themselves seem trivial, their effects, when viewed in a broader context, may have a much larger impact than we had thought,” said Till Roenneberg of Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich, Germany. “It is much too early to say whether DST has a serious long-term impact on health, but our results indicate that we should consider this seriously and do a lot more research on the phenomenon.”

“While we generally think that the time changes enforced by the DST transitions are ‘only an hour,’ they have far more drastic effects if viewed in the context of the circadian clock’s seasonal changes,” Roenneberg said. “This seemingly small hour translates to a repeat of 10 weeks in the annual progression of the relationship between our sleep-wake cycle and dawn—four weeks in spring and six weeks in autumn. In effect, it’s as if the entire population of Germany, for example, is transported to Morocco in spring and back again in autumn.”

Public release date: 24-Oct-2007

Contamination from depleted uranium found in urine 20 years later

Inhaled depleted uranium (DU) oxide aerosols are recognised as a distinct human health hazard and DU has been suggested to be responsible in part for illness in both military and civilian populations that may have been exposed.

The issue has been the subject of investigations by the Royal Society (UK), the National Academy of Science (US) and other bodies, but studies of individuals who have been clearly exposed to environmental contamination are lacking.

Professor Parrish commented: “Our objective was to develop a high sensitivity method of EU detection in urine, using MC-ICP mass spectrometry that would be capable of detecting an individual’s exposure to DU up to 20 years after the event.

“We developed this method and applied it to individuals, either known or likely to have had a DU aerosol inhalation exposure, and to a large voluntary cohort of 1991 Gulf conflict veterans to assess DU exposure screening reliability and accumulate data on exposure.”

Using his method, Professor Parrish and his research team have found traces of DU in urine more than 20 years later, in those cases where exposure to DU aerosol has been unambiguous and in sufficient quantity. This is true even when the U concentration is at the low end of the normal range.

Public Release: 24-Oct-2007

Scientists discover a direct route from the brain to the immune system

– It used to be dogma that the brain was shut away from the actions of the immune system, shielded from the outside forces of nature. But that’s not how it is at all. In fact, thanks to the scientific detective work of Kevin Tracey, MD, it turns out that the brain talks directly to the immune system, sending commands that control the body’s inflammatory response to infection and autoimmune diseases. Understanding the intimate relationship is leading to a novel way to treat diseases triggered by a dangerous inflammatory response.

Dr. Tracey, director and chief executive of The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, will be giving the 2007 Stetten Lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. His talk – Physiology and Immunology of the Cholinergic Anti-inflammatory Pathway – will highlight the discoveries made in his laboratory and the clinical trials underway to test the theory that stimulation of the vagus nerve could block a rogue inflammatory response and treat a number of diseases, including life-threatening sepsis

With this new understanding of the vagus nerve’s role in regulating inflammation, scientists believe that they can tap into the body’s natural healing defenses and calm the sepsis storm before it wipes out its victims. Each year, 750,000 people in the United States develop severe sepsis, and 215,000 will die no matter how hard doctors fight to save them. Sepsis is triggered by the body’s own overpowering immune response to a systemic infection, and hospitals are the battlegrounds for these potentially lethal conditions.

Dr. Tracey is a neurosurgeon who came into research through the back door of the operating room. More than two decades ago, he was treating a young girl whose body had been accidentally scorched by boiling water and she was fighting for her life to overcome sepsis. She didn’t make it. Dr. Tracey headed into the laboratory to figure out why the body makes its own cells that can do fatal damage. Dr. Tracey discovered that the vagus nerve speaks directly to the immune system through a neurochemical called acetylcholine. And stimulating the vagus nerve sent commands to the immune system to stop pumping out toxic inflammatory markers. “This was so surprising to us,” said Dr. Tracey, who immediately saw the potential to use vagus stimulation as a way to shut off abnormal immune system responses. He calls this network “the inflammatory reflex.”

Public release date: 24-Oct-2007

Dietary supplement boosts IVF hopes

“AT THIS point I’ll try anything I can to have a child,” says Emma*, a 38-year-old teacher from London. Emma faces a similar problem to many women: her ovaries produce too few ripe eggs for doctors to extract and use for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). She is also one of a number of women undergoing IVF who is self-medicating with a supplement called dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in an attempt to beat the biological clock

Researchers at the Center for Human Reproduction in New York began exploring the effects of DHEA in 2004, when they learned that an older patient of theirs had been taking the drug without telling them. Desperate to conceive a child using her own eggs, the then 42-year-old woman had scoured the scientific literature and found a very small trial suggesting that DHEA could improve ovarian function (Human Reproduction, vol 15, p 2129).

The number of eggs doctors could extract from her jumped from one per cycle of IVF to 19 over the course of seven cycles. “We were kind of stunned,” says Norbert Gleicher, the doctor who treated her. Since then, Gleicher has been advising some of his patients aged 40 and above to take three dose of DHEA every day. Each 25-milligram dose costs under $1.

It is a hormone produced naturally by the body, where it is converted into the sex hormones oestrogen and testosterone. Exactly how it influences egg maturation is unclear. According to Barad, it appears to induce a form of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a condition in which high levels of the hormone cause a “backlog” of ripening eggs that fail to release naturally. Women taking DHEA as part of IVF treatment avoid the negative symptoms linked to PCOS, such as weight gain, perhaps because doctors harvest the ripe eggs each month, Barad says.

Public release date: 24-Oct-2007

Natural product discovery by Cleveland medical researchers blocks tissue destruction

CLEVELAND – Scientists at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine have published in the Journal of Inflammation a remarkable discovery with a natural product derived from the Amazon rainforest. The discovery’s unique actions suggest a broad set of applications in various joint, skin and gastrointestinal diseases, including osteoarthritis and irritable bowel syndrome

The publication revealed that Progrado®, an extract from a rainforest tree called Croton palanostigma, was a remarkably potent antioxidant and prevented the destruction of human cartilage by molecular s scissors called matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). According to the researchers, these enzymes cut collagen, which forms the backbone of the cartilage, into tiny pieces during states of inflammation and alter the fabric that holds tissues together.

“This is an exciting finding,” said Tariq Haqqi, professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University/University Hospitals of Cleveland and the lead investigator and senior author of the study. “This is the first time a natural product has been shown to directly block these molecular scissors while showing potential to stimulate repair. This is a testament to the wound healing properties of this traditional medicine and the distinctive therapeutic opportunities that nature offers.”

Public Release: 25-Oct-2007

Drugstore in the Dirt

Boulder, CO, USA – French clay that kills several kinds of disease-causing bacteria is at the forefront of new research into age-old, nearly forgotten, but surprisingly potent cures. Among the malevolent bacteria that a French clay has been shown to fight is a “flesh-eating” bug (M. ulcerans) on the rise in Africa and the germ called MRSA, which was blamed for the recent deaths of two children in Virginia and Mississippi

In laboratory tests at ASU’s Biodesign Institute, co-PI Haydel, an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences, showed that one clay killed bacteria responsible for many human illnesses, including: Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), penicillin-resistant S. aureus (PRSA), and pathogenic Escherichia coli (E. coli).

It also killed Mycobacterium ulcerans, a germ related to leprosy and tuberculosis that causes the flesh-eating disease Buruli ulcer. This effect was first described in 2002, by Line Brunet de Courssou, a French humanitarian working in the Ivory Coast, Africa, who cured Buruli ulcers with daily applications of French clay she knew from childhood. Currently, advanced cases of Buruli ulcer can only be cured by surgical excision or amputation.

The new medicinal clay research will be presented on Monday, 29 October 2007, at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Denver.

Public release date: 26-Oct-2007

New Screening Method May Identify Tumor Viruses

For the first time, a new screening method shows promise for identifying new human tumor viruses, as well as determining which cancers are caused by infection and which are not. The researchers report their findings in the October 2007 issue of the Journal of Virology.

Statistics now show that infection contributes to over 20% of human cancers worldwide. Presently, the list of confirmed carcinogenic infectious agents is short, however studies suggest that new infectious agents yet to be identified contribute to a wide range of diseases, including cancers. A major obstacle in new pathogen discovery is whether an infectious agent isn’t identified due to lack of presence or technical failure, emphasizing the need for reliable screening methods

Conjunctival carcinomas are tumors long suspected of having a direct infectious origin, meaning direct carcinogens are present in the tumor mass with at least one genome copy per cell. In the study researchers developed a process called digital transcript subtraction (DTS), a system for subtracting known human sequences from library data sets while leaving nonhuman sequences behind for further analysis. DTS analysis of 241,122 conjunctival carcinoma cells disclosed only 21 that didn’t concur with previous sequences from human databases, indicating its ability to screen human sequence data and identify those most likely to be of viral origin

Public release date: 28-Oct-2007

Walking prevents bone loss caused from prostate cancer treatment

Exercise may reduce, and even reverse, bone loss caused by hormone and radiation therapies used in the treatment of localized prostate cancer, thereby decreasing the potential risk of bone fractures and improving quality of life for these men, according to a study presented on October 28, 2007, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology’s 49th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.

Men with localized prostate cancer frequently receive radiation therapy followed by months of hormone therapy to treat their cancer. Radiation is used to kill the cancer cells, while hormone therapy decreases testosterone and estrogen that feed the cancer cells, thereby keeping the tumor from growing. Men undergoing hormone therapy lose between 4 to 13 percent of their bone density on an annual basis, compared to healthy men who lose between .5 to 1 percent per year, beginning in middle age. Men are typically not thought to be at risk for osteoporosis and bone fractures; however, their rate of bone loss is greater than that of post-menopausal women.

The study shows that prostate cancer patients undergoing hormone therapy that walked about five times a week for 30 minutes at a moderate pace maintained or gained bone density, while those who didn’t exercise lost more than two percent of their bone density in eight to nine weeks.

***Ralph’s Note – That was 4% to 13% bone density loss every year.

Public release date: 29-Oct-2007

The widening mortality gap between people with rheumatoid arthritis and the general population

Life expectancy for RA patients has not improved over the past 4 decades, finds Mayo Clinic study, indicating urgent need for improved intervention strategies

Researchers compared the survival rates of patients diagnosed with RA in 5 time periods: 1955-1964, 1965-1974, 1975-1984, 1985-1994, and 1995-2000 using Cox regression models, adjusting for age and sex. In the 5 time periods, there was no significant difference in survival rates for RA subjects—which also means no significant gains in longevity.

“We found no evidence indicating that RA subjects experienced improvements in survival over the last 4-5 decades” states the study’s leading author, Dr. Sherine Gabriel. “In fact, RA subjects did not even experience the same improvements in survival as their peers without arthritis, resulting in a worsening of the relative mortality in more recent years, and a widening of the mortality gap between RA subjects and the general population throughout time.”

Public release date: 29-Oct-2007

New study shows smoking increases risk of psoriasis

New York, October 29, 2007 — Another disease can be added to the list of smoking-related disorders — psoriasis. Researchers have found that smoking increases the risk of developing psoriasis, heavier smoking increases the risk further, and the risk decreases only slowly after quitting. Investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Harvard School of Public Health, all in Boston, USA, and Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada, have published the results in the November 2007 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

Compared with women who never smoked, the risk of psoriasis was 37% higher among past smokers and 78% higher among current smokers. Pack-years were associated with a graded increase in the risk for psoriasis. Compared with never smokers; the risk was 20% higher for 1-10 pack-years, 60% higher for 11-20 pack-years, and more than two times higher for +21 pack-years. The significant trends persisted with smoking duration in both current and past smokers. Furthermore, exposure to passive smoke during pregnancy or childhood was associated with an increased risk of psoriasis. The risk of psoriasis among former smokers decreases nearly to that of never smokers 20 years after cessation

 

***Ralph’s Note- Keep in mind there are a wide variety of different chemicals in modern cigarettes. Cigarettes are only about 50% standard tobacco these days.

Public release date: 29-Oct-2007

Study reveals ‘huffing’ household chemicals connected to teen suicide

DENVER— With suicide as the third leading cause of death among adolescents in the United States, a new University of Denver (DU) study reveals inhaling or “huffing” vapors of common household goods, such as glue or nail polish, are associated with increased suicidal thoughts and attempts.

Of the study’s participants, 33 percent reported having inhaled volatile solvents, 25 percent had attempted suicide, and 58 percent reported suicidal thoughts

Stacey Freedenthal and Jeffrey M. Jenson of DU’s Graduate School of Social Work joined researchers from Chapel Hill and the University of Pittsburgh in a study of 723 incarcerated youth. “Inhalant Use and Suicidality among Incarcerated Youth” appeared in the September 2007 issue of the academic journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. The study was the first work to categorize both levels of severity of inhalant use and gender in relation to suicidal ideas and suicide attempts.

The study found the correlation between huffing and suicidality greater in girls than boys. More than 80 percent of girls who abused inhalants revealed a history of suicide attempts, while less than 60 percent of boys showed the same history. The study also indicated that suicidal thoughts were much higher for girls than boys. Suicidal thoughts and attempts were considered two separate constructs, since thoughts do not always lead to attempts, and attempts are not always preceded by much thought

The study involved 723 participants incarcerated by the Missouri Division of Youth Services, 629 boys and 94 girls at an average age of 15. Participants were asked if they huffed any of the 35 common household substances, such as paint, paint thinner, shoe polish, spot remover, floor polish, kerosene, gasoline, antifreeze, permanent markers, nail polish remover, mothballs, waxes, lighter fluid, and others.

Public release date: 29-Oct-2007

Study Reveals that Nitrogen Fertilizers Deplete Soil Organic Carbon

URBANA – The common practice of adding nitrogen fertilizer is believed to benefit the soil by building organic carbon, but four University of Illinois soil scientists dispute this view based on analyses of soil samples from the Morrow Plots that date back to before the current practice began.

The research, also drawing upon data from other long-term trials throughout the world, was conducted by U of I soil scientists Saeed Khan, Richard Mulvaney, Tim Ellsworth, and Charlie Boast. Their paper “The Myth of Nitrogen Fertilization for Soil Carbon Sequestration” is published in the November/December 2007 issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality.

“It is truly fortunate that researchers over the past 100 years have been diligent in collecting and storing samples from the U of I Morrow Plots in order to check how management practices have affected soil properties,” said Khan. The Morrow Plots are America’s oldest experimental field. “We were intrigued that corn growth and yields had been about 20 percent lower during the past 50 years for the north (continuous corn) than for the south (corn-oats-hay) end of the Morrow Plots, despite considerably greater inputs of fertilizer nitrogen and residues.”

To understand why yields were lower for plots that received the most nitrogen, Khan and his colleagues analyzed samples for organic carbon in the soil to identify changes that have occurred since the onset of synthetic nitrogen fertilization in 1955. “What we learned is that after five decades of massive inputs of residue carbon ranging from 90 to 124 tons per acre, all of the residue carbon had disappeared, and there had been a net decrease in soil organic carbon that averaged 4.9 tons per acre. Regardless of the crop rotation, the decline became much greater with the higher nitrogen rate,” said Khan.

We don’t question the importance of nitrogen fertilizers for crop production,” said Ellsworth. “But, excessive application rates cut profits and are bad for soils and the environment. The loss of soil carbon has many adverse consequences for productivity, one of which is to decrease water storage. There are also adverse implications for air and water quality, since carbon dioxide will be released into the air, while excessive nitrogen contributes to the nitrate pollution problem.”

Public release date: 30-Oct-2007

Chemical in red wine, fruits and vegetables stops cancer, heart disease, depending on the dose

The next cancer drug might come straight from the grocery store, according to new research published in the November 2007 issue of The FASEB Journal. In the study, French scientists describe how high and low doses of polyphenols have different effects. Most notably, they found that very high doses of antioxidant polyphenols shut down and prevent cancerous tumors by cutting off the formation of new blood vessels needed for tumor growth. Polyphenols are commonly found in red wine, fruits, vegetables, and green tea.

At relatively low doses, the French researchers found that the same polyphenols play a beneficial role for those with diseased hearts and circulatory systems by facilitating blood vessel growth. The amount of polyphenols necessary for this effect was found to be the equivalent of only one glass of red wine per day or simply sticking to a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables containing polyphenols. This diet is known as the “Mediterranean Diet.” This study also adds to a growing body of research showing dose-dependent relationships for many types of commonly used compounds. For instance, research published in the October 2006 issue of The FASEB Journal shows that aspirin, through different mechanisms, also has a dose-dependent relationship for heart disease and cancer.

“When it comes to finding treatments for complex diseases, the answers are sometimes right there waiting to be discovered in unexpected places like the produce aisles and wine racks of the nearest store,” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. “But it takes modern science to isolate the pure compound, test it in the lab, and to go on from there to find new agents to fight disease.”

According to the authors, the amount of polyphenols necessary to obtain an anti-cancer effect is the equivalent of drinking about a bottle of red wine each day. This amount of daily alcohol consumption obviously is unhealthy, but the research suggests that polyphenols extracted from plants or red wine could be converted into a pill that is highly likely to be safe. Such a pill also would be relatively easy and inexpensive to create and deliver

“The use of plant polyphenols as therapeutic tools presents important advantages,” said Daniel Henrion, senior author of the study, “because they have a good safety profile, a low cost and they can be obtained everywhere on the planet.”

 

Rosemary Protects Your Brain From Free Radicals

Rosemary not only tastes good in culinary dishes such as Rosemary chicken and lamb, but scientists have now found it is also good for your brain. A collaborative group from the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham Institute) in La Jolla, CA and in Japan, report that the herb rosemary contains an ingredient that fights off free radical damage in the brain. The active ingredient in rosemary, known as carnosic acid (CA), can protect the brain from stroke and neurodegeneration that is due to injurious chemical free radicals. These radicals are thought to contribute not only to stroke and neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s, but also to the ill effects of normal aging on the brain.

In two expedited publications by The Journal of Neurochemistry and Nature Reviews Neuroscience, the scientists report for the first time that CA activates a novel signaling pathway that protects brain cells from the ravages of free radicals. In animal models, the scientific group, led by Drs. Takumi Satoh (Iwate University, Japan) and Stuart Lipton (Burnham Institute), found that CA becomes activated by the free radical damage itself, remaining innocuous unless needed, exactly what is wanted in a drug. The scientists call this type of action a “pathological-activated therapeutic” or PAT drug. A “pat” represents a gentle tap and not the heavy sledge hammer that some drugs produce, including significant side effects in areas of the body where their effects are not needed and not wanted.

“This new type of drug works through a mechanism known as redox chemistry in which electrons are transferred from one molecule to another in order to activate the body’s own defense system,” said Stuart A. Lipton, MD, PhD, the senior author on the paper and Director, Professor, and Senior Vice President at the Burnham’s Del E. Webb Neuroscience, Aging, and Stem Cell Research Center. “Moreover, unlike most new drugs, this type of compound may well be safe and clinically tolerated because it is present in a naturally-occurring herb that is known to get into the brain and has been consumed by people for over a thousand years.” Dr. Lipton is also a practicing neurologist at the University of California, San Diego, and therefore knows first-hand that such drugs are critically needed for care of the aging and neurologically-ill patients.