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ANOREXIA
What is anorexia nervosa?Anorexia nervosa is an illness that usually occurs in teenage girls, but it can also occur in teenage boys, and adult women and men. People with anorexia are obsessed with being thin. They lose a lot of weight and are terrified of gaining weight. They believe they are fat even though they are very thin. Anorexia isn't just a problem with food or weight. It's an attempt to use food and weight to deal with emotional problems.
What is the difference between anorexia and bulimia?
People with anorexia starve themselves, avoid high-calorie foods and exercise constantly. People with bulimia eat huge amounts of food, but they throw up soon after eating, or take laxatives or diuretics (water pills) to keep from gaining weight. People with bulimia don't usually lose as much weight as people with anorexia.
Why do people get anorexia?
The reason some people get anorexia isn't known. People with anorexia may believe they would be happier and more successful if they were thin. They want everything in their lives to be perfect. People who have this disorder are usually good students. They are involved in many school and community activities. They blame themselves if they don't get perfect grades, or if other things in life are not perfect.
What are the problems caused by anorexia?
Girls with anorexia usually stop having menstrual periods. People with anorexia have dry skin and thinning hair on the head. They may have a growth of fine hair all over their body. They may feel cold all the time, and they may get sick often. People with anorexia are often in a bad mood. They have a hard time concentrating and are always thinking about food. It is not true that anorexics are never hungry. Actually, they are always hungry. Feeling hunger gives them a feeling of control over their lives and their bodies. It makes them feel like they are good at something--they are good at losing weight. People with severe anorexia may be at risk of death from starvation.
What is the treatment for anorexia?
Treatment of anorexia is difficult, because people with anorexia believe there is nothing wrong with them. Patients in the early stages of anorexia (less than 6 months or with just a small amount of weight loss) may be successfully treated without having to be admitted to the hospital. But for successful treatment, patients must want to change and must have family and friends to help them.
People with more serious anorexia need care in the hospital, usually in a special unit for people with anorexia and bulimia. Treatment involves more than changing the person's eating habits. Anorexic patients often need counseling for a year or more so they can work on changing the feelings that are causing their eating problems. These feelings may be about their weight, their family problems or their problems with self-esteem. Some anorexic patients are helped by taking medicine that makes them feel less depressed. These medicines are prescribed by a doctor and are used along with counseling.
How can family and friends help?
The most important thing that family and friends can do to help a person with anorexia is to love them. People with anorexia feel safe, secure and comfortable with their illness. Their biggest fear is gaining weight, and gaining weight is seen as loss of control. They may deny they have a problem. People with anorexia will beg and lie to avoid eating and gaining weight, which is like giving up the illness. Family and friends should not give in to the pleading of the anorexic patient.
Warning signs of anorexia
* Deliberate self-starvation with weight loss
* Fear of gaining weight
* Refusal to eat
* Denial of hunger
* Constant exercising
* Greater amounts of hair on the body or the face
* Sensitivity to cold temperatures
* Absent or irregular periods
* Loss of scalp hair
* A self-perception of being fat when the person is really too thin
source : American Academy of Family Physicians
Labels: anorexia
Video Game Injuries a Holiday Hazard
THURSDAY, Dec. 28 (HealthDay News) -- For those children who got new video games and systems this Christmas, parents need to make sure their youngsters don't suffer hand and thumb injuries caused by overuse of those games, the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) says. Constant stress on tendons, nerves and ligaments in children's hands and arms can cause long-term problems such as tendonitis, bursitis and carpal tunnel syndrome, according to Cindy Miles, owner of a pediatrics physical therapy practice in Whitehall, Pa.
Symptoms of repetitive stress injuries caused by overuse of video games include fatigue and loss of strength, minor or acute aches and pains, burning and tingling.
The APTA offers the following tips on how to prevent injuries caused by overuse of video games:
* Keep wrists straight. Don't let them bend downward when holding a game controller.
* Practice good posture while playing. Sit in a chair that provides solid back support and keep your feet comfortably on the floor.
* Stretch and move. Get up and stretch about every 20 minutes to give your head, neck and shoulder muscles a break.
* Watch for warning signs such as headaches, fatigue, muscle pain or cramping. If you notice these signs, take a break or do a different activity.
healthday.com
Labels: news
Africa has high-tech tools to beat meningitis
DAKAR (Reuters) - A young girl, unconscious by the time her mother brought her to a rural clinic in southern Burkina Faso, had the classic symptoms of meningitis: fever, stiffness, vomiting.With treatment, doctors hoped to be able to save her life although she may be permanently disabled: deafness, epilepsy or paralysis are among the effects of the disease. This latest outbreak in the remote Leraba region bordering Ivory Coast triggered alarms far away in the capital, Ouagadougou, amid fears of another epidemic wave of the disease.
In the arid Sahel region south of the Sahara, every year from December through May thousands of people, many of them children, get meningitis. Up to one in 10 who contract the disease die. Africa's "meningitis belt," stretching from Senegal to Ethiopia through some of the world's poorest and most war-scarred places including Sudan's Darfur, accounts for more than half the cases of the disease worldwide each year.
Climate conditions such as dust wind and cold nights increase the risk of the illness along with overcrowded living and the movement of large populations. Now health workers using high-tech methods to diagnose, control and even predict the disease hope to reduce its grim toll.
They say a new low-cost vaccine, lasting longer than those currently available, could be available as soon as 2009. A new test should make diagnosis quicker. And by studying the climate, they hope to be able to tell in advance where the disease will hit, and intervene before the first patient gets sick.
Experts say the new vaccine could eradicate meningitis from a community in much the same way that sustained vaccinations have all but wiped out polio worldwide."That is going to change the face of epidemic meningitis in the region," said William Perea, a
World Health Organization (WHO) meningitis expert.
NEW EPIDEMIC
Meningitis cases in the region reached a 20-year low in 2005. But then by April 2006, more than 30,000 had been reported to the WHO -- five times as many as the previous year. The pattern is typical. Since the 1970s, there have been meningitis epidemic waves every decade or so, each lasting three to four years.
Experts say last year's surge signals the start of another major epidemic in the Sahel region. In a worst-case scenario, according to WHO estimates, there could be as many as 160,000 cases in the next two years. Meningitis is an infection of the thin lining that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. It is caused by different bacteria but when diagnosed early and treated with antibiotics many patients recover fully.
It can cause complications including brain damage, deafness and learning problems. About 5-10 percent of patients die from the illness, according to the WHO. It is an infectious illness that is spread by sneezing, coughing and living in close quarters. Early symptoms include a stiff neck, headache, fever and sensitivity to light.
Health workers across the meningitis belt report cases to a central agency, in cooperation with the WHO, every week. "In a district of fewer than 30,000 people, we try to compare the figures from two weeks," said Salam Sanne, director of emergency medicine in Burkina Faso for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF --
Doctors Without Borders), who helped treat the girl.
"If there are two cases, and next week there are four, then we consider it an epidemic."
When the alarm is raised, medical teams spring into action to supply extra antibiotics and launch a vaccination campaign. But the WHO's Perea said the current system is not enough. For one thing, it is too slow because vaccines are targeted against specific strains of the disease. Identifying each means first sending a bacteria sample from the patient's spinal fluid to a laboratory: "The whole response may be delayed," he said.
And the current vaccine is not effective enough. "The current vaccine has a short-lived immunity. In three years there is no more immunity," said Perea. A quick and simple diagnostic test, now in final trials at Niger's Center for Medical and Health Research, should help.
"You just put a few drops of the cerebral-spinal fluid in the tube and you put your dipstick inside your tube and about 10 minutes later you will have the result," said Suzanne Chanteau, director of the research team that developed the test.
WATCHING THE DUST
Her team, known by its French acronym CERMES, is also working on improving predictions of where the next outbreak will hit. "There is a hypothesis that the low humidity in this region and also maybe the dust winds are favorable conditions for the development of infection," Chanteau said.
Researchers use satellite data to track Sahara dust storms and determine the extent of the connection between the dry, dusty air and meningitis. "We want to have atmospheric conditions categorized and be able to say if ... there are favorable conditions to have meningitis or not," says Isabelle Jeanne, head of the Geographic Information Systems-based project at CERMES. "The whole time-length will be shortened for intervention," Perea said, adding that vaccines and other new technology should help "eliminate epidemics from the belt."
Naomi Schwarz
www.reuters.com
Labels: news
Brazil transfixed by 4th anorexia death
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - The struggle for food has long been a drama for millions of impoverished Brazilians. But these days the nation is transfixed by another sort of starvation: anorexia among the successful and well off. The deaths of four young women in recent weeks from anorexia — a disorder characterized by an abnormal fear of becoming obese, an aversion to food and severe weight loss — have been splashed across the front pages of newspapers nationwide.The subject has become a morbid fascination for Brazilians, and is even the theme of a popular TV soap opera. It has also touched off a debate within Brazil's fashion industry that has long presented the rail-thin model as the paragon of female beauty.
The most recent victim was Beatriz Cristina Ferraz Lopes Bastos, a 23-year-old teacher whose death Sunday at a hospital in Jau, 200 miles northeast of Sao Paulo, was reported by national television news programs.
Local media reports said she was 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed just 77 pounds.
"Another victim of anorexia," the newspaper Globo said on its Web site Tuesday, alongside a glamorous photo of the blonde Bastos, who was also a skilled pianist, amateur historian and author of a literature column for a hometown Web site.
The newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported she described herself as "thin" on an Internet discussion group and friends said they had to "fight with her to eat." A former boyfriend, Leandro Murgo, told reporters Bastos was a chubby teenager and became fixated on losing weight.
Anorexia became big news in Brazil last month with the death of 21-year-old Ana Carolina Reston, a successful model who died of generalized infection caused by anorexia nervosa. She reportedly carried just 88 pounds on her 5-foot-8 frame.
"Take care for your children because their loss is irreparable," Reston's mother, Miriam, told Globo after her death. "Nothing can make the pain go away. No money in the world is worth the life of your child."
Two days later, on Nov. 16, college student Carla Sobrado Casalle, 21, died in the southeastern city of Araraquara, also with symptoms linked to anorexia. She was just under 5-foot-9 and weighed 99 pounds. A third anorexia victim died later in the month.
Eating disorders are also a daily subject for viewers of the prime-time soap opera "The Pages of Our Lives," in which a 15-year-old ballet dancer suffers from bulimia, secretly making herself vomit after eating to keep her weight down.
Death and illness from malnourishment is not uncommon in this nation of 185 million people, where 26.5 million must survive on the minimum wage of $160 a month or less. According to the IBGE Census Institute, at least 8 percent of Brazilians are underweight.
As it has in other countries, the attention on eating disorders is renewing pressures on Brazil's fashion industry, whose officials insist they do not urge models to starve themselves to attain an "ideal" body.
They noted a fashion show in Sao Paulo already had said it would bar models under age 16 as part of a national effort to raise awareness about eating disorders.
"In Paris and Milan, models under 16 years can't participate in these types of events," said Paula Marini, a spokeswoman for the Ford Models agency. "In Brazil, this is a new procedure."
Europeans also have stepped up their attention to the sometimes unhealthy aspects of fashionable looks. Organizers of Madrid's Fashion Week, for instance, announced in September that they was banning overly thin models.
Organizers of Sao Paulo Fashion Week, held every year in late January, added the minimum-age requirement to a previous rule requiring that agencies present a signed medical certificate attesting that their models are in good health.
"Beauty and fashion is about health in the first place," the creative director of Sao Paulo Fashion Week, Paulo Borges, said in a statement in July.
PETER MUELLO, Associated Press Writer
www.ap.org
Labels: news
How to get healthy in 4 hours a week
A Nielsen Media Research report from fall 2006 shows that the average American spends four hours and 35 minutes watching television each day. Each week, television viewing adds up to more than 30 hours — well beyond a part-time job.Other reports show that national and local commercials now total an average of eight minutes for every half-hour show. So the average viewer is watching 40 minutes of commercials a day, or more than four and a half hours weekly.
Television is not necessarily wasted time, as people use it to relax and learn. But lack of time is one of the most commonly reported reasons that people don’t exercise or plan and prepare healthier meals. Perhaps it is worth considering the benefits that the time you spend watching television could bring.
A gold mine of time
If lack of time keeps you from adopting some healthful habits but you aren’t ready to reduce your television-watching time, you might reconsider the way you spend your commercial-watching time. There are several different approaches you could take to make use of this gold mine of time.
First, you could use commercial times to accomplish those health-supporting tasks you never seem to get done. Many people find that one of the secrets to healthier eating is to plan meals ahead. This allows you to grocery shop more efficiently and avoid the stress that comes when you haven’t given dinner a thought until a few minutes before you hope to eat. In the course of an hour of television programming, you could plan close to a week’s worth of meals and perhaps even write the grocery list for a weekly shopping trip.
People often say that they would like to save money and eat better by bringing their lunch to work, but that they have no time to make it. Others say they find no time to prepare the fruit they’d like to have with their breakfast. Commercials offer plenty of time to do these tasks. You could also assemble foods for the next day’s breakfast.
What about fitness goals that are never met? In a single commercial break you could do several sets of crunches to tone those ab muscles, other strength-training exercises or stretches to improve your flexibility. Stashing weights or exercise bands near the television allows you to readily start an activity when the commercials start.
A second approach is to use commercials to take care of small general tasks that eat up the time you’d like to spend going for a walk or attending a fitness class. By using commercials to pay bills, do laundry and sort through mail and e-mails, the average American can accumulate more than four hours of time saved in the course of a week, enough to make a substantial boost in exercise time.
Technology offers a third option. If you have a recording technology, you can record television shows and fast-forward through the commercials. You can finish four and a half hours of television shows in fewer than four hours. The trick, however, is to use the extra time to work for you, instead of to watch yet another show.
Nutrition Notes is provided by the American Institute for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C.
Labels: health tips
cancer
What is cancer?The organs and tissues of the body are made up of tiny building blocks called cells. Cells in different parts of the body may look and work differently but most reproduce themselves in the same way. Cells are constantly becoming old and dying, and new cells are produced to replace them. Normally, the division and growth of cells is orderly and controlled but if this process gets out of control for some reason, the cells will continue to divide and develop into a lump which is called a tumour. Tumours can either be benign or malignant. Cancer is the name given to a malignant tumour.
In a benign tumour the cells do not spread to other parts of the body and so are not cancerous. However, if they continue to grow at the original site, they may cause a problem by pressing on the surrounding organs.
It is important to realise that cancer is not a single disease with a single type of treatment. There are more than 200 different kinds of cancer, each with its own name and treatment.
What is a cancer cell?
And just as there are hundreds of types of cell, there are hundreds of types of cancer, few of which can be treated in the same way. Every cell's life is mapped out in advance by coded instructions, called genes, held in its nucleus. These tell it how to behave, when to reproduce by dividing - and when to die.
When the instructions relating to cell multiplication and dying are wrong, the cell may start dividing uncontrollably, and not die when it should. In addition, the cancer may not follow the usual instructions that keep cells spaced out properly.
Every time the cell divides, the "bad" instruction is reproduced, so the out-of-control multiplication carries on. As these cells can be multiplying more rapidly than healthy cells, the cancer cells can form a growing lump in the body called a tumour or a lesion. As this gets larger, it can even grow its own vessels to keep it supplied with blood. A benign, or non-cancerous tumour shares this uncontrolled growth, but will not generally invade neighbouring tissues and damage them.
Tumours which do this are "malignant", or "cancerous". The type of cell in which the cancer starts will generally determine the speed at which it grows, and its resistance to treatment, although there are many variations.
Cancers harm health in a number of ways. The very size of the tumour can interfere with nearby organs, or ducts which carry important chemicals, causing pain or other symptoms.
For example, a tumour on the pancreas can grow to block the bile duct, leading to the patient developing obstructive jaundice. And a brain tumour can push on important parts of the brain, causing blackouts, fits and other problems. Even benign tumours can cause these problems if located in the wrong place.
When a cancer invade nearby tissues, they can cause bleeding from damaged blood vessels, and stop the organ which they are invading from working properly.
What happens if it spreads?
As a tumour grows, cells can break off and start growing on adjacent tissues and organs. For example, if a bowel cancer has spread through the wall of the bowel itself, it can start growing on the bladder. Cells can also enter the bloodstream and travel to distant organs, such as the lungs or brain. The technical term for this is "metastasis".
When new tumours form on distant organs, they behave like the original tumour - so a bowel cancer cell growing in the lung will not be lung cancer. Once other organs are involved, then any symptoms of the cancer can get worse. However, it may be some time before a growing cancer in certain parts of the body produces symptoms that the patient can notice. Once a cancer has started to spread beyond its original site, then the chances of a cure often begin to fall, as it becomes more difficult to treat.
How is it treated?
There are three principal ways of treating cancer:
The first is surgery, normally an operation to remove the cancerous growth, and, depending on its type, nearby tissues and organs.
A cancer patient may first undergo a minor operation called a biopsy to take a small sample of the cancer for analysis.
The surgeon will try to remove as much of the cancer as possible, but sometimes extra treatment will be needed.
This could either take the form of radiotherapy or chemotherapy, or a combination of treatments.
Types of cancer
Carcinomas
About 85% of cancers are carcinomas. They start in the epithelium, which is the covering (or lining) of organs and of the body (the skin).
Sarcomas
These form in the connective tissues of the body such as muscle, bone and fatty tissue (6% of cancers).
Leukaemias/Lymphomas
These occur in the tissues where white blood cells (which fight infection in the body) are formed, i.e. the bone marrow, and lymphatic system (5%).
Others forms of cancer
Brain tumours and other rare forms of cancer make up the other 4% of cancers.
Who gets cancer?
1 in 3 people will develop cancer during their lifetime, but cancer is not common in children or young people - it mainly occurs in the later years of life. Cancers can occur at any age, but the risk of developing cancer increases with age. Over 70% of all newly diagnosed cancers occur in people aged 60 years or more.
Some cancers are very common and others are very rare. The most recent statistics for the UK show that for men the most common cancer is lung cancer (19%), followed by prostate cancer (17%), large bowel cancer (14%) and bladder cancer (7%). For women the figures are breast cancer (29%), large bowel cancer (12%), lung cancer (11%) and cancer of the ovary (5%).
Many people with cancer can be cured. Even if a cancer cannot be cured, it can often be controlled with treatment for months or years. Cancerbackup has information on all the main types of cancer, and on some of the rarer cancers.
Why do cancers come back?
A cancerous (malignant) tumour consists of cancer cells which have the ability to spread beyond the original site. If left untreated they may invade and destroy surrounding tissues. Sometimes cells break away from the original (primary) cancer and spread to other organs in the body by travelling in the bloodstream or lymphatic system. When these cells reach a new area of the body they may go on dividing and form a new tumour, often referred to as a "secondary" or a "metastasis".
Cancer Web Link
www.cancer.org
American Cancer Society - Information and Resources for Breast ...
Dedicated to helping persons who face cancer. Supports research, patient services, early detection, treatment and education.
www.cancer.gov
Comprehensive Cancer Information - National Cancer Institute
Official site for the National Institute of Health's principal agency for cancer research.
www.cancer.ca
Canadian Cancer Society - Société canadienne du cancer
Community-based organization aimed at the eradication of cancer and enhancement of the quality of life for people living with the condition.
www.cancerresearchuk.org
Cancer Research UK: the UK's leading cancer charity
Funding world-class research and training to improve cancer treatment and prevention, and providing authoritative cancer information and advocacy.
www.kankerindo.org
Indonesian Cancer Foundation
Situs ini telah dikunjungi oleh 5249 pengunjung Published by Yayasan Kanker Indonesia Pusat.
Labels: cancer
AIDS
What is Aids?There is still no cure for Aids, but a combination of various drugs can reduce the virus which causes Aids to virtually undetectable levels.Some people mistakenly believe the drugs cure Aids and this has led to fears that people are becoming complacent about the disease.
Aids stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. People with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) can look and feel well.
As the virus attacks the immune system, an infected person will be open to a large number of illnesses. This means there are a wide variety of symptoms.
HIV usually leads to Aids, which is diagnosed when a person has developed one of several opportunistic diseases associated with the virus as well as underlying immune problems.
The diseases include pneumonia, Kaposi's sarcoma - a form of purplish skin cancer not normally seen in young people before the advent of Aids - and dementia.
How is it transmitted?
HIV is relatively difficult to transmit as it does not live for long outside the body. It is carried in the semen, vaginal fluids, breast milk and blood. The main transmission routes are through sharing needles, sex, blood transfusions, transplants, getting infected fluid into open wounds and breast feeding.
High risk groups or behaviour
Certain groups are believed to be at higher risk of developing the virus. These include those who share needles and children who are breast fed with infected milk. As the disease began in the West in the gay community, gay men are at higher risk than heterosexuals. Sex workers and those who have multiple sexual partners are also at higher risk than average. People with other sexually transmitted diseases are also thought to be more likely to contract HIV than others.
What is the treatment?
If you want to know if you have HIV, you should contact your doctor or a sexually transmitted disease clinic about a blood test. They will usually suggest counselling before you take an HIV test to make sure you are prepared for all the implications of the result, including the impact on life insurance and mortgages. Aids organisations have reported that, in some cases, just taking the test can be enough for some companies to refuse you insurance or a mortgage.
If you test positive for the virus, there are a range of treatments you may be offered. The most popular is combination therapy, a cocktail of different anti-Aids drug, including AZT. The drugs can have powerful side effects, such as anaemia, and not everyone responds well to them.
People who take the numerous drugs have to stick to a rigid regime, but they have been shown to reduce the virus and rebuild the immune system. In some cases, the virus has been reduced to undetectable levels. However, doctors say it is too early to say yet how long they will last.
Stigma
Because of the way HIV is transmitted and the groups it has affected most - including drug users, gay men and people immigrant communities, it has attracted much media attention and prejudice. This has often made it hard for sufferers to come forward for testing. The all-parliamentary group on Aids says tackling the stigma of the disease is vital for reducing its impact.
History of the disease
The search for the origins of Aids has been dogged by political controversy.
According to the latest theory, published in Nature magazine in February and widely supported by leading experts in the field, the Aids virus first passed into people from a particular sub-species of chimp in the Central African rainforest.
Human infection occurred in the first half of the century as a result of people hunting and eating the chimps, the scientists believe. This practice continues today.
The international team, led by Dr Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama, say genetic tests show the main human virus, HIV-1, is closely related to a virus that infects chimps but does not make them sick.
They are now studying how common the virus is in chimps in the wild, but they face problems because the sub-species in which they found the virus - the Pan troglodytes troglodytes - is endangered.
Experts say there is evidence that HIV may have transferred to humans throughout history, but only became an epidemic in the 20th century, possibly because of increased sexual promiscuity, civil unrest and movement of people to cities.
Last year, researchers said they had found the first known case of Aids - in a Bantu man who died in 1959 in the Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and home of the sub-species of chimps.
AIDS Link
www.aids.org
Educating - Raising HIV Awareness - Building Community
Non-profit organization for the free and open exchange of information in the fight against AIDS.
www.aidsonline.com
Official journal of the International AIDS Society.
www.aidsinfo.nih.gov
Provides information about federally approved treatment guidelines for HIV and AIDS.
www.unaids.org
UNAIDS: The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
Joint United Nations program on AIDS/HIV. A global source of information on the AIDS epidemic, includes comprehensive information on UN policies, news, ...
www.worldaidsday.org
World AIDS Day - the international day of action on HIV and AIDS which takes place every year on 1 December.
www.thewellproject.org
Get updated on HIV/AIDS & women. Facts, resources, treatments & more
www.prb.org
HIV AIDS Reports. International Data & Analysis. Get Relevant & Objective Trend Data
www.projectinform.org
HIV / AIDS Information. Choose hope over despair. Advocacy, treatment information & more.
www.GlobalGiving.com
Improve Lives Worldwide. Support Global Healthcare
www.unicef.org
AIDS Affects Our Children, Unite for Children. Unite against AIDS - Join Now
Educating - Raising HIV Awareness - Building Community
Non-profit organization for the free and open exchange of information in the fight against AIDS.
www.aidsonline.com
Official journal of the International AIDS Society.
www.aidsinfo.nih.gov
Provides information about federally approved treatment guidelines for HIV and AIDS.
www.unaids.org
UNAIDS: The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
Joint United Nations program on AIDS/HIV. A global source of information on the AIDS epidemic, includes comprehensive information on UN policies, news, ...
www.worldaidsday.org
World AIDS Day - the international day of action on HIV and AIDS which takes place every year on 1 December.
www.thewellproject.org
Get updated on HIV/AIDS & women. Facts, resources, treatments & more
www.prb.org
HIV AIDS Reports. International Data & Analysis. Get Relevant & Objective Trend Data
www.projectinform.org
HIV / AIDS Information. Choose hope over despair. Advocacy, treatment information & more.
www.GlobalGiving.com
Improve Lives Worldwide. Support Global Healthcare
www.unicef.org
AIDS Affects Our Children, Unite for Children. Unite against AIDS - Join Now
Labels: aids
Good News ... And Lots of Questions
It was big news this week when researchers from the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston reported that breast-cancer rates dropped after millions of women stopped taking hormone therapy to relieve menopausal symptoms. But does that mean that these hormones (basically estrogen and sometimes a progestin) actually cause breast cancer? That’s the provocative question raised by the study. The researchers found an overall 7 percent decline in breast-cancer incidence in 2003, a year after a major study of hormonescalled the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) was halted early because of increased breast cancer and heart disease among participants. The steepest decline, 12 percent, occurred in the number of women diagnosed with a kind of breast cancer that is especially sensitive to hormones.Another recent study, by researchers in California, echoes these findings. Christina Clarke, an epidemiologist at the Northern California Cancer Center, and her colleagues found that breast-cancer rates in California dropped even more steeply after the WHI—12 percent fewer in 2003 and 2004. Clarke attributes the difference to the fact that California women were more likely to use hormones than women in other states. “We rarely see changes this dramatic over such a short time period,” Clarke says.
But while the connection may seem clear, researchers caution that they really won’t understand the meaning of the drop until they see national numbers for 2004, which are expected next spring, and analyze these and other statistics more carefully. Scientists need to know whether there’s a difference in breast-cancer rates between women who’ve been on hormone therapy and those who haven’t and what happens to former hormone users years after they quit. It’s possible that stopping hormone therapy merely slowed the growth of tumors that will eventually emerge—which means breast-cancer rates could rise again. Without all that data, the current numbers show only an association, not causation, says Marcia Stefanick, chair of the WHI steering committee and a professor of medicine at Stanford University.
Doctors who treat menopausal women say the new numbers shouldn’t be the only basis for a decision on whether or not to use hormones. “This isn’t a cause for alarm,” says Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of the Division of Preventative Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “It has been known for a while that estrogen plus progestin increases the risk of breast cancer.” But, she adds, that shouldn’t necessarily stop women with severe symptoms from using low-dose hormones for two or three years. “I think it underscores the importance of looking at your personal risk factors for breast cancer and cardiovascular disease,” says Manson, author of “Hot Flashes, Hormones & Your Health,” “and whether the benefits are likely to outweigh the risks.”
That emphasis on balancing risks and benefits is an important legacy of the WHI, says Clarke. “I think we’re really moving into an era in science where medicine is going to become personalized. It really depends on you and how bad your symptoms are and what your personal risk is for breast cancer. Do you have a history? Have you been diagnosed with a benign breast tumor before? I think you have to put all those things together with your doctor to come up with a decision.”
Since the WHI, pharmaceutical companies have begun offering many more different forms and dosages of hormone therapy—not just pills, but also lotions, patches and local therapy for symptoms like vaginal dryness. All these give women many more choices. But researchers say that if you do take hormones, it’s important to reconsider that decision regularly with your doctor—at least once a year if not more. “We don’t know how long you can go before your risk exceeds some benefits,” says Brenda K. Edwards, associate director of the surveillance research program at the National Cancer Institute. “Women and their physicians need to keep that in mind.” When it comes to hormone therapy, about the only thing that’s certain is that we need more information.
Barbara Kantrowitz
newsweek
Labels: Article, cancer news
Behavioral therapy can help chronic back pain
NEW YORK - Pooled results from 22 clinical trials show that psychological interventions help individuals with chronic low back pain experience less actual pain, less pain-related interference with daily living, less depression and work-related disability, and greater health-related quality of life. Dr. Robert D. Kerns, who led the analysis, told Reuters Health, “The data across randomized, controlled studies are consistent.” Psychological interventions for chronic low back pain elicit “positive results.”
Kerns, of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven and colleagues limited their pooled analysis to studies involving adults with low back pain not related to cancer for at least three months. Most of the study subjects had suffered with low back pain for much longer — 7-1/2 years on average.
In the overall analysis, psychological treatments — namely, behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapies; self-regulatory therapies such as hypnosis, biofeedback and relaxation; and supportive counseling — either alone or as part of a multidisciplinary approach proved superior to no treatment or “treatment as usual.”
“The largest and most consistent effect was a reduction in pain intensity,” Kerns told Reuters Health. “This is good news for persons with pain and for providers who struggle to find effective and sustained approaches for reducing unnecessary pain and suffering of the lower back.”
www.reuters.com
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Parents advised to limit kids' use of noisy toys
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -Some toys emit noise at a high enough level to cause permanent hearing damage if they are held too close to the ear, new research from the UK shows. "With most toys, your child will only damage their hearing if they use them for too long a duration, or if they stick them in their ear," Dr. Brad Backus, a research fellow at University College London's Ear Institute who performed the study, said in a press release. "Our advice is pretty simple: don't let your child hold noisy toys too close to their ear, and don't let them play with them for more than an hour a day."In a study commissioned by Deafness Research UK, Backus tested the noise levels of 15 popular toys for children aged 3 months to 15 years. The recommended top noise limit for toys is 85 decibels. Prolonged exposure to noise above this level can cause permanent hearing damage.
Eight of the toys emitted an average of 81 to 105 decibels when held 25 centimeters from the testing microphone, roughly arm's length for a child. Pixar Cars "Lightning McQueen" emitted 82.5 decibels, while Laser Command's noise level was 88.6 decibels.
But when held at 2.5 centimeters from the microphone, approximating the distance if the toy was held close to the ear, 14 of the toys, including Fireman Sam's Action Jupiter and Tomy's "Spin n' Sound" remote controlled car, had average noise levels between 84 and 115 decibels. The only toy with noise levels below the safety threshold was a VTECH cell phone for babies.
Toy guns were the worst offenders, emitting 120 to 140 decibels when held at arm's length and 130 to 143 decibels when held close to the ear. Noise of 140 decibels or above can cause immediate hearing damage.
"If I had children, I wouldn't give any of these gun-toys to them," noted Backus, who said his ears were ringing after testing the guns. "And I would recommend that people avoid them. They have the very real potential to cause permanent hearing loss."
SOURCE: http://www.deafnessresearch.org.uk
Labels: news
Menopause study disputes herb treatment
PHILADELPHIA - A popular herbal treatment called black cohosh is practically ineffective at relieving hot flashes and night sweats in women going through menopause, a study found. The findings were disappointing news for women seeking alternatives to estrogen-progestin hormone supplements, which have been linked to breast cancer and heart problems.The yearlong study of 351 women suffering from hot flashes and night sweats found that those given black cohosh got about the same amount of relief as those who took a placebo. And those groups saw nothing close to the improvement in women on hormones.
"It's disappointing news," said Katherine Newton, an epidemiologist who helped lead the study, funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. "It would be nice to offer something safe and effective."
The study was conducted at Seattle-based Group Health, a health plan, and was published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Black cohosh — an herb that is a member of the buttercup family and is commonly given to ease menopause symptoms — is available in pill or liquid form and is sold over the counter in many health food stores and over the Internet.
It is among a host of supplements including soy, wild yam, red clover and St. John's wort that have been tried for relief of hot flashes and night sweats, but studies almost universally have found they don't work.
Certain antidepressants have proved effective, and one company, Depomed Inc. of Menlo Park, Calif., plans to seek the
Food and Drug Administration's approval to sell an anti-seizure drug, gabapentin, for relief of hot flashes.
In the latest study, some participants were given black cohosh, while others received hormone supplements, a placebo or a botanical treatment that included black cohosh, alfalfa, licorice and ginseng.
Women taking the herbal treatments saw hot flashes reduced by only about half an episode per day compared with those taking the placebo, the study found. Those who got hormone therapy reduced their hot flashes by about four episodes per day when compared with the placebo.
Menopausal women can still make behavioral changes such as dressing in layers, sleeping in a cooler room and avoiding possible triggers such as very hot liquids and alcohol, Newton said. The study also shows that symptoms decreased over the course of the 12-month period and that they nearly always go away on their own.
The findings come less than a week after researchers reported a dramatic decline in U.S. breast cancer cases, a drop doctors attributed partially to fewer women using hormone therapy to treat menopause.
In 2002, a government study found a higher risk of breast cancer and heart problems occurred among women taking estrogen-progestin pills. Millions of women stopped taking the supplements. Doctors urged women with serious menopausal symptoms to use the lowest dose for as short a time as possible.
The latest study, conducted between 2001 and 2004, could hurt hopes for herbal remedies.
"We hope that this is not it," said Dr. Susan Reed, another of the study's authors. "However, there's not much that appears promising that is currently on the horizon."
The news may not all be bad. Since women who took a placebo saw some improvement, experts say there is hope that some could get relief through meditation or self-hypnosis.
"If you can relax your mind appropriately, you can also relax your body," said Barrie Cassileth, an alternative-medicine researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who was not involved in the study. "If 30 percent of women could lose hot flashes because their mind made them do it, that's fantastic."
PATRICK WALTERS, Associated Press Writer
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NKorea should spend money on food not nukes: UN rights envoy
SEOUL (AFP) - A United Nations rights envoy urged North Korea to spend its money feeding its people rather than on nuclear weapons, as talks opened in Beijing on scrapping the nuclear program. Vitit Muntarbhorn, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, was speaking after a four-day fact-finding visit to
South Korea. He is barred from visiting the North.
"The military-first policy, particularly its expenditure on arms and nuclear proliferation in the DRPK (North Korea), is regrettable because the money should be spent on human development and particularly to address food security issues as well as other human needs," he told a press conference in Seoul.
Vitit said donors had also become less willing to contribute after the North's missile tests in July and its nuclear test on October 9.
He said the UN's World Food Programme had appealed for just over 100 million dollars to feed 1.9 million people over the next two years, but had received only 12-13 percent of this in donations.
"The whole humanitarian aid has been very much impacted upon by the nuclear test and missile tests, as some contributors become much more reluctant both multilaterally and bilaterally to give aid."
Vitit also noted that food shortages dated back to the mid-1990s "due to natural disasters and mismanagement." But at the end of last year the North decided to accept less monitoring of food aid and "started to pressure UN agencies and NGOs to limit their operations and even to leave the country."
Saying it "takes two to tango," he urged the North to show its commitment by allocating its own funds to ensure adequate food supplies.
Vitit visited South Korea's Hanawon refugee resettlement centre and said all those he met talked of "hardship, deprivation and repression" in the North.
He urged nations which receive North Koreans fleeing their homeland to treat them as refugees rather than economic migrants.
Vitit did not single out any nation but rights groups have strongly criticized China which routinely returns refugees to North Korea, where they face imprisonment and torture.
He said positive developments in the six-party talks, which resumed Monday, would open opportunities for humanitarian action.
"There may be in that process, some possibilities for addressing other issues, security concerns, as well as possibly human rights," Vitit said.
He urged the North to end its "discrepancies and transgressions" on human rights and implement the four international treaties to which it is a party.
In a report released in October, Vitit accused North Korea of practising "merciless discrimination against handicapped persons by setting up collective camps for them where they are designated according to their physical deformity or disability."
The report also charged that women in North Korea were being subjected to violence as well as "human trafficking and sexual exploitation."
The envoy, in the report, also focused on the root causes pushing North Koreans to flee abroad -- citing political repression and widespread hunger.
www.afp.com
Labels: news
Shop for shoes, see a movie, get a shot of Botox
DALLAS - Amy Andrade had been thinking about Botox for a while. So when she spotted a spa-like “cosmedical” clinic in the upscale Dallas mall she visits about once a month, she was immediately interested.When she learned the clinic was connected with one of Texas’ leading medical institutions, she was sold. She had Botox injected into her 32-year-old forehead and near her eyes to smooth out infinitesimal wrinkles.
“It was great. I felt like I was getting a facial,” said the furniture showroom manager.
She was hoping to look younger and knew about Botox because several of her friends have had the injections.
Medical spas like the one at Dallas’ NorthPark Center are booming. The number in the United States has jumped from 50 in 2002, when Botox injections won federal approval, to about 2,500 this year, according to the International Medical Spa Association. Malls and other retail sites are the hot spot locations as companies and medical institutions move closer to their customers.
Such spas offer minimally invasive cosmetic procedures like injections of Botox, which relaxes facial muscles to make lines fade, and fillers like Restylane, which add volume.
Not all medical spas have ties with a major medical institution like the Klinger Advanced Aesthetics Cosmedical Center, Spa and Salon at NorthPark, which has teamed up with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Some “cosmedical” clinics don’t even require their practitioners to be plastic surgeons or dermatologists.
Those who specialize in the field say involvement by a plastic surgeon or dermatologist ensures consumer safety.
Dr. Rod Rohrich, professor and chairman of the department of plastic surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, is one of two plastic surgeons who help oversee cosmetics procedures at the NorthPark operation.
“When you peel back 'Botox in the mall,’ you have a top-notch medical facility in a mall setting,” he said. “What you’re doing is you’re getting the best of the best in a place where people shop and you’re doing it safely.”
www.ap.org
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Health Tip: Monitor Your Child's TV Watching
(HealthDay News) -- Too much time in front of the TV can lead to aggressive behavior and a tendency to engage in risky, unhealthy activities, the American Academy of Pediatrics says. Parents should set rules around TV watching, including limiting time to no more than one hour or two hours each day, and never while doing homework. Carefully choose shows that your child is allowed to watch, and watch the shows with your child when you can.
Try to avoid watching shows that may convey stereotypes or inappropriate messages for children, the AAP says. Also look for educational, appropriate videos made to help children learn, grow, and develop mentally.
www.healthday.com
Labels: health tips
Vaccine could stop transmission of malaria: study
CHICAGO (AFP) - US researchers said that they have developed an experimental vaccine that could theoretically eliminate the deadly parasite carried by mosquitoes that causes malaria. The vaccine, which so far has only been tested in mice, would not offer people immunity like most regular shots.
Instead, the goal is to use the blood of a vaccinated person to kill the malaria parasite inside the mosquitoes after they bite their first victim.
That could effectively prevent the mosquitoes from further spreading malaria.
"It's a transmission-blocking vaccine that attempts to get rid of the parasite reservoir inside its mosquito host," explained Owen Rennert, scientific director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Borne by mosquitoes, malaria afflicts mainly people in the tropical parts of Africa, Asia and South and Central America, and kills up to three million people a year, many of them children.
Scientists have spent decades searching for a vaccine for the disease.
But numerous experimental vaccines tried against the form of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite that resides in humans have been unsuccessful, or produced only limited immunity.
Plasmodium falciparum incites the most deadly of several forms of malaria, all caused by parasites from the Plasmodium genus.
In this study, the scientists decided to go after the early-stage form of the parasite living in the gut of the mosquito, before it matures and transfers to humans when they are bitten by the insect.
The researchers created a vaccine using a souped-up version of a protein taken from Plasmodium falciparum, and injected it into mice to create antibodies.
When serum was taken from the mice several months later and mixed in a test tube with the parasite cells, the mouse antibodies prevented the parasite cells from developing, effectively ending their life cycle.
A vaccine made in this way would not offer humans a first-line of defense against the disease, Rennert said.
The vaccinated person would still likely be infected by the mature parasite when first bitten by the mosquito.
But in feeding on their blood, the mosquito would absorb antibodies from the vaccine that would wipe out the immature Plasmodium cells inside the insects gut.
The result, they hope, could be to reduce the number of malaria cases down the line, as growth and transmission of the parasite is stifled.
But scientists at the
National Institutes of Health, which includes the Child Health and Human Development institute, are also looking at ways to combine this vaccine with one of the experimental vaccines that offer direct protection from infection.
"The two combined might give you a better response than either alone," said Rennert.
The study appears in the newest edition of the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.
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Survivors recall horror of flu pandemic
CHEVY CHASE, Md. - At the height of the flu pandemic in 1918, William H. Sardo Jr. remembers the pine caskets stacked in the living room of his family's house, a funeral home in Washington, D.C. The city had slowed to a near halt. Schools were closed. Church services were banned. The federal government limited its hours of operation. People were dying — some who took ill in the morning were dead by night.
"That's how quickly it happened," said Sardo, 94, who lives in an assisted living facility just outside the nation's capital. "They disappeared from the face of the earth."
Sardo is among the last survivors of the 1918 flu pandemic. Their stories offer a glimpse at the forgotten history of one of the world's worst plagues, when the virus killed at least 50 million people and perhaps as many as 100 million.
More than 600,000 people in the United States died of what was then called "Spanish Influenza." The flu seemed to be particularly lethal for otherwise healthy young adults, many of whom suffocated from the buildup of liquids in their lungs.
In the United States, the first reported cases surfaced at an Army camp in Kansas as World War I began winding down. The virus quickly spread among soldiers at U.S. camps and in the trenches of Europe. It paralyzed many communities as it circled the world.
In the District of Columbia, the first recorded influenza death came on Sept. 21, 1918. The victim, a 24-year-old railroad worker, had been exposed in New York four days earlier. The flu swept through the nation's capital, which had attracted thousands of soldiers and war workers. By the time the pandemic had subsided, at least 30,000 people had become ill and 3,000 had died in the city.
Among the infected was Sardo, who was 6 years old at the time.
He remembers little of his illness but recalls that his mother was terrified.
"They kept me well separated from everybody," said Sardo, who lived with his parents, two brothers and three other family members. His family quarantined him in the bedroom he had shared with his brother. Everyone in the family wore masks.
The city began shutting down. The federal government staggered its hours to limit crowding on the streets and on streetcars. Commissioners overseeing the district closed schools in early October, along with playgrounds, theaters, vaudeville houses and "all places of amusement." Dances and other social gatherings were banned.
The commissioners asked clergy to cancel church services because the pandemic was threatening the "machinery of the federal government," The Washington Star newspaper reported at the time. Pastors protested.
"There was a feeling that they couldn't turn to God, other than in prayer," Sardo said. "They liked the feeling of going to church, and they were forbidden."
The flu's spread and the ensuing restrictions "made everybody afraid to go see anybody," he said.
"It changed a lot of society," Sardo said. "We became more individualistic."
In a list of 12 rules to prevent the disease's spread, the Army's surgeon general wrote that people should "avoid needless crowding," open windows and "breathe deeply" when the air is "pure" and "wash your hands before eating."
One slogan was, "Cover up each cough and sneeze. If you don't, you'll spread the disease."
Those who were healthy wore masks when venturing outside. People who were known to be infected were threatened with a $50 fine if they were seen in public. Sardo remembers people throwing buckets of water with disinfectant on their sidewalks to wash away germs from people spitting on the street.
At the time, rumors swirled that the Germans had spread the disease — which Sardo did not believe.
A second flu survivor, 99-year-old Ruth Marshall, says she, her two sisters and a brother came down with what they thought was a cold. Then the fever struck and the illness became severe, she said.
Marshall, who lived just steps from the Capitol at the time, said the influenza deaths reported in the newspapers came as a surprise.
"We never thought we were going to die. We did pretty good — a lot of prayers," she said.
Others were not so fortunate. As the death toll started to mount, there was a shortage of coffins. Funeral homes could not keep up. Sardo's father, who owned William H. Sardo & Co., and other funeral-home directors turned to soldiers for help embalming and digging thousands of graves.
Talk of the threat of another pandemic brings back memories for Sardo, who says he has gotten a flu shot every year they are available.
"It scares the hell out of me. It does," Sardo said.
BRETT ZONGKER, Associated Press Writer
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Scientists identify gene mutation in autism
PARIS (Reuters) - French scientists have identified genetic mutations in a small number of children with autism which could provide insight into the biological basis of the disorder. They sequenced a gene called SHANK3 in more than 200 people with autismspectrum disorders (ASD), which includes autism, and found mutations in the gene in members of three families.ASD covers a range of problems that affect communication, social interaction, verbal skills and behavior.
"These mutations concern only a small number of individuals, but they shed light on one gene ... that is involved in autism spectrum disorders," Thomas Bourgeron, of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, said in a report in the journal Nature Genetics.
ASD, which affect six out of 1,000 children, range from mild to severe forms. The disorders are caused by chromosomal rearrangements in 3 to 6 percent of cases.
In people with cognitive deficits and with autistic behavior a part of their chromosome 22 is often affected. That region contains the SHANK3 gene.
In all three families identified in the study, the researchers found they had various types of mutations in the gene. Two brothers in one family had small deletions, while another child in a different family had significant deletions.
A girl with a deletion of SHANK 3 in the third family suffered from autism while her brother, who had an additional copy of the gene, had a mild form of autism called Asperger syndrome.
The cause of autism is unknown. It usually develops before the age of 30 months. A minority of autistic children, who are known as autistic savants, show remarkable artistic, musical or mathematical skills.
The protein encoded by SHANK3 interacts with other proteins called neuroligins, which have a role in giving impulses to the brain, spinal column and nerves.
www.reuters.com
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Study: No Evidence Cell Phones Cause Cancer
Summary: Using cell phones, even over a long period of time, does not appear to raise a person's risk for cancer, Danish researchers report. Their study, which appears in today's Journalof the National Cancer Institute, is the first to include people who had used cell phones for as long as 21 years.Why it's important: Because cell phones emit a type of low-energy radiation, there is concern that using them over a long period of time could lead to cancer, especially in the brain. The growing popularity of cell phones makes it important to learn if this technology actually does have an effect on cancer.
What's already known: Of 16 previous studies looking at cell phone use and brain tumors, only 2 have found any link, says Michael Thun, MD, MS, the
American Cancer Society's vice president of epidemiology and surveillance research. However, the methods used in those 2 studies led many researchers to question the findings. One problem researchers face is that cell phones are relatively new devices, so there aren't a lot of people who have used them for more than about 10 years. It can take longer than that for some cancers to develop, so it's not clear whether using cell phones for more than 10 years might pose a problem.
How this study was done: The Danish researchers tried to address this problem by including people who had begun using cell phones as early as 1982. They looked at cell phone records for more than 420,000 adults in Denmark, and compared those to cancer cases listed in the Danish national cancer registry. They were looking to see if the number of cancer cases among cell phone users was different from what would be expected in the general population. That's a way of finding out whether cell phone users have a higher or lower cancer risk than other people. People who had had cancer before getting a cell phone were excluded from the study.
What was found: The overall number of cancers among cell phone users (14,249) was about the number expected (15,001). Cell phone users did not have a higher risk of brain or central nervous system cancers, salivary gland tumors, eye tumors, or leukemia. This was true even for people who had used cell phones for longer than 10 years. In fact, these long-term users appeared to have a lower risk of brain cancer. The researchers don't have a good explanation for that; they think it might be a chance finding and say more studies are needed.
The bottom line: Thun calls the new findings "reassuring," but not the final answer.
"Because of the widespread use of cell phones, there is an ongoing need to monitor whether risks appear over continuing follow-up," he says. "In the meantime, consumers who are concerned can minimize their exposure by using products with a remote antenna that attaches to their belt or outside the car."
www.cancer.org
Brain can repair alcohol's damage
LONDON (Reuters) - Excessive drinking can damage brain cells but the brain can repair some of the harm, a team of international researchers said on Monday.But they warned alcoholics should get sober as quickly as possible because the longer they continue to drink heavily, the less likely their brains will be able to regenerate.
"The core message from this study is that, for alcoholics, abstinence pays off and enables the brain to regain some substance and to perform better," said Dr Andreas Bartsch, of the University of Wuerzburg, in Germany.
Slurred speech, blurred vision and an inability to walk without swaying can occur after a few drinks but chronic alcohol abuse can cause more lasting damage and poor general health.
Research in animals has shown that alcohol can disrupt the development of new brain cells in adults. Heavy drinking during pregnancy can also affect the development of the baby's brain.
Bartsch and scientists from Germany, Britain, Switzerland and Italy uncovered the brain's regenerative ability by measuring the volume, form and function of the brains of 15 alcoholic men and women before and after they stopped drinking to see how much they changed over seven weeks.
Using sophisticated scanning techniques they showed that after 38 days without a drink the brain volume of the patients increased by an average of nearly 2 percent.
"Only the one patient with the longest history of alcohol dependence had a slightly reduced brain volume," said Bartsch, whose findings are reported online by the journal Brain.
The volunteers also performed better in concentration and attention test and had higher levels of chemicals linked to brain cell function.
All of the patients had stopped drinking without medication.
"The human brain, and particularly its white matter, seems to possess genuine capabilities for re-growth," Bartsch said.
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Air pollution killer in Asian cities
MANILA (AFP) - Air pollution is killing more than half a million people in Asian cities each year and shows no sign of improving as urban centers expand, studies by the Asian Development Bank show. A recent ADB conference in Indonesia, was told that air pollution had reached "serious" levels in several Asian cities, with the problem worsening due to increased urbanization and motor vehicle use.
World Health Organization (WHO) expert Michal Krzyzanowski said that the estimate of premature deaths caused by urban air pollution has been revised upwards to over 750,000 globally, including more than 530,000 in Asia.
Experts cited the increase in an air pollutant known as fine particulate matter or PM10 that "enters the lungs and stays there."
PM10 is a result of burning fossil fuels and much of the PM10 in Asian cities is emitted by motor vehicles, the experts said.
"The concentration of the fine particulate matter is serious in Beijing, Dhaka, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Kathmandu, Kolkata, New Delhi, and Shanghai," the ADB warned in a report.
"There is a strong association between fine particulate matter and health issues in Asia as there is in Europe and the US, but in Asia the concentrations of particulates are much higher," said the report's author, Dieter Schwela.
In many cities, the concentration of PM10 exceeds 70 micrograms per cubic meter. New WHO guidelines say this should be lower than 20 micrograms per cubic meter.
Bringing the level down to the guidelines could lower the number of deaths in polluted cities by as much as 15 percent every year, the WHO said, calling for lower limits of other pollutants such as ozone and sulphur dioxide.
"Asia's growth in population, urbanization, motorization and energy consumption remain key challenges in efforts to counter air pollution. For example, lower emissions from vehicles are counter-balanced by a higher volume of vehicles," the ADB said.
Another ADB study said emerging Asia currently has rather low levels of personal motorized transport, in many cases comprising mainly motorcycles, but these levels are likely to increase drastically as incomes in these countries grow and the urban populations expands.
The Manila-based bank cited China, already the world's fourth-largest economy, where the number of cars and sport utility vehicles could rise by as much as 15 times over the next 30 years to more than 190 million vehicles.
In India, the growth could be as much as 13-fold, it said.
Correspondingly, carbon dioxide emissions could be expected to rise by 3.4 times for China and 5.8 times for India over the same period, the ADB study said.
To help address these problems, the Indonesia conference, attended by representatives of 20 Asian countries, issued a call for a review of air quality standards and air pollution indices all over the region to make them more effective and more comparable to each other.
The conference summary also called for a new "roadmap" for improved fuel quality and emission standards for new vehicles as well as more strategies to control emissions from vehicles that are already on the roads.
Other recommended measures included promoting clean, alternative, renewable energy, encouraging the use of mass public transport systems and even promoting urban housing that lowers energy consumption and emissions.
Mynardo Macaraig
www.afp.com
Labels: news
Study: Holidays can make women eat more
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Emi Fujiwara's holidays can hardly be called that as she juggles a full-time job and evening studies and tries to find money and time to buy presents, organize parties and cook for family and friends. The 26-year-old trainee nurse, who works at a children's hospital, says she indulges in comfort eating during what she describes as the most stressful time of the year. The seemingly endless invitations to parties and dinners make it easier to overeat, she said.
"Well, I am a cracker-and-cheese and wine kind of girl. Once I see all that out there, it is trouble for me," she said after going to the gym for the first time in weeks, seeking to burn off excess calories.
Nearly half of all women in the United States suffer from increased stress during the holidays, a condition that contributes to rising levels of comfort eating, drinking and other coping mechanisms that can lead to weight gain, according to a survey conducted in October by the American Psychological Association.
A national stress survey the association conducted in January showed one in four people in the United States agrees that "when I am feeling down or facing a problem, I turn to food to help me feel better." The October survey showed that the proportion increases to one in three people during the holidays.
Comfort eating and unhealthy drinking increases among men too, but is more common among women.
Forty-one percent of women in the survey agreed that they eat for comfort during the holidays, compared with 31 percent during the rest of the year. Among men, 25 percent report holiday-season comfort eating, compared with 19 percent during the year, according to the survey.
Others may not even notice gaining weight, said Russ Newman, the association's executive director for professional practice.
"This time of year everyone is bundled up, so you don't really realize it until springtime when you have to pull out the T-shirts, the tank tops and that sort of thing," Fujiwara said.
The holiday season is the most emotional time of the year for many Americans, particularly for women who often feel pressured to make it special to those they care about, said Sharon Gordetsky, a psychologist who specializes in children, families and issues of female development.
Even in families where fathers play a bigger role in parenting, child caring and household work, "women tend to often still do more of the planning, do more of the nurturing, do more of the social and family organization" for the holidays, said Gordetsky, an assistant professor at the Tufts-New England Medical Center's Comprehensive Family Evaluation Center.
Too true, said Sissy McPhearson, who teaches while working on a dissertation at Harvard University's Divinity School.
"My husband and I both work and normally we divide household tasks equally. But during the holidays he doesn't care as much about decorating the house or wrapping presents or hosting dinners — so I end up doing it all even though I work full-time" for about 70 hours a week, she said.
McPhearson says the stress of preparing for holidays, plus increased invitations to go out, makes it easier for many to reach out for that extra drink.
"I go out a lot more now, maybe three or four nights a week ... and have a couple of drinks. Usually I just go out maybe once a week," she said.
Women have to take care of themselves if they are to be able to take care of others, Gordetsky said.
Among the healthier methods experts recommend to cope with the holiday stress are opting for less elaborate festivities and saying no to that serving of delicious roast beef, lasagna, chocolate or chilled glass of white wine.
"Exercise helps. I work out ... and I am getting a massage Tuesday," McPhearson said.
The holiday stress survey was conducted Oct. 2-5 by the Washington-based Greenberg, Quinlan Rosner Research. The telephone poll, with a margin or error of plus or minus 3.5 percent, reached 369 men and 417 women and was weighted by gender, age, race and education.
RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press Writer
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Health Tip: If Your Blood Sugar is Low
(HealthDay News) -- Hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, occurs when the body's supply of sugar becomes too low. This is very common in diabetics, especially if too much insulin is administered to prevent high blood sugar (sometimes called an insulin reaction).Here are warning signs of low blood sugar, courtesy of the American Academy of Family Physicians:
* Headache.
* Confusion, nervousness or anxiety.
* Dizziness and shaking.
* Sweating.
* Rapidly beating heart.
* A powerful feeling of hunger.
healthday.com
Labels: health tips
Synthetic marijuana helps cancer patients: study
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A synthetic version of the active ingredient in marijuana, a legal treatment for nausea in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, also helps symptoms like pain, anxiety and depression, according to research presented on Friday. "The findings show how great the potential is to improve the quality of life for cancer patients," said lead investigator Dr. Vincent Maida of the University of Toronto.
The 139-patient study involved a drug called nabilone, sold under the brand name Cesamet by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International. It has been available in Canada for years, and was approved in May by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration for patients who have failed to respond adequately to conventional anti-nausea treatments.
The drug is part of a class known as cannabinoids that are similar to the active ingredient found in naturally occurring cannabis, or marijuana.
But Cesamet, as with similar drugs such as Solvay SA's Marinol, is designed to target specific cannabinoid receptors and does not carry the toxic effects associated with smoking marijuana, Maida said.
"This is not the pot pill," he said. "It has absolutely no street value."
That contrasts with morphine-based pain drugs, such as OxyContin, that are associated with addiction and abuse, the investigator said.
The study, based on questionnaires filled out by cancer patients, found that those treated with the drug experienced significantly more pain reduction than patients treated with standard therapy. Scores for drowsiness, tiredness, appetite and well-being were stable in the Cesamet group, but deteriorated in the non-Cesamet group.
Depression and anxiety were also reduced significantly in the nabilone group, but increased in the non-cannabinoid group, according to the study, which was presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
"There are no other drugs that are as broad-spectrum as cannabinoids. By using them, we can reduce the use of other drugs which are riskier, burdensome and expensive," Maida said.
Side effects of Cesamet include drowsiness, dizziness, dry mouth and euphoria.
But Valeant's sales of the drug, which was launched in the United States in August, totaled just $7.3 million in the first half of this year.
"The issue is the stigma," Maida said. "There is some timidity on the part of practitioners to prescribe these drugs."
Deena Beasley
www.reuters.com
Labels: Article
Over 250 sick after eating at Indiana Olive Garden
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - More than 250 people have reported becoming sick after eating at an Olive Garden restaurant in Indianapolis, Indiana, a county health official said on Friday,a day after an outbreak of E.coli at Taco Bell restaurants was declared over.The news makes Olive Garden at least the third U.S. restaurant chain this month to be linked to widespread customer illnesses and those scares followed a high-profile outbreak of E.coli earlier this year, linked to spinach, that killed three people and sickened 200 others.
Officials are working on identifying the cause of the Indiana illnesses and an Olive Garden spokesman said there was no indication they were connected to any other outbreak.
Some customers who ate at the Olive Garden restaurant in northeast Indianapolis between December 9 and December 13 have reported nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and in some cases fever, said John Althardt, a spokesman for the Marion County Health Department.
Three of those people have been hospitalized.
A spokesman for Olive Garden, which is owned by Orlando, Florida-based Darden Restaurants Inc., said the company was in the process of closing the affected restaurant to help health officials investigate the source of the illnesses.
"The primary focus of the health department is on some employees that have been exhibiting flu-like symptoms," said Olive Garden spokesman Steve Coe.
Coe added that the restaurant had also been sanitized twice and that appropriate food safety practices had been reinforced with its staff.
An employee who answered the phone at the Olive Garden restaurant on E. 82nd Street in Indianapolis said that was the outlet where the sick people had eaten. He also said the restaurant was still open.
Tests of both the sick peoples' stool and leftovers they took home from the restaurant will be conducted later today or Monday, Althardt said. He added the tests would take about 48 hours.
At least six employees at the restaurant have also reported being sick in the last week, although Althardt said those illnesses may not be related to the patrons' sicknesses.
A spokeswoman for the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration, Julie Zawisza, said she had no information on the illnesses linked to Olive Garden.
Late on Thursday, federal health officials said an outbreak of E.coli that sickened 71 people in the U.S. Northeast who ate at the Taco Bell fast-food chain was over.
That outbreak, which officials have said was likely caused by contaminated lettuce, has led to a drop in sales at Taco Bell restaurants since it was disclosed earlier this month.
Also this week, restaurant chain Taco John's said E.coli sickened 54 of its customers in Iowa and Minnesota. That case is believed to be unrelated to the Taco Bell outbreak, federal health officials have said.
Nichola Groom
www.reuters.com
Labels: news
Virgin process can produce stem cells, study says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mouse embryos created through a "virgin birth" process called parthenogenesis show that egg cells can be a source of valued embryonic stem cells, researchers said on Thursday. The cells can be closely matched to the immune system of the recipient, making them a potential source for transplants, the researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
There are fewer obstacles to developing these stem cells than by using cloning technology, also called somatic cell nuclear transfer, researchers said.
"I think it is a much more real-world possibility than nuclear transfer," said Dr. George Daley of Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, who led the study.
If the experiment could be reproduced in humans, such cells might provide an alternative way to produce tailored tissues for transplanting, or for studying disease, Daley said in a telephone interview.
"We are aggressively trying to produce human parthenogenetic embryonic stem cells," Daley said.
Stem cells are the master cells of the body, and while they occur throughout all tissues and organs, they are difficult to find and grow.
Those found in the earliest embryos are powerful because they can form any kind of cell and are virtually immortal in the laboratory. Scientists want to study them to understand disease and find ways to better help the body repair itself.
The use of human embryonic stem cells - which can be made either from embryos left over from fertility clinics or by using cloning technology - is controversial because of concerns about the sanctity of human life, and is restricted in some countries.
President Bush has allowed very limited use of federal funds for embryonic stem cell research, although privately funded labs can do what they like.
VIRGIN BIRTH
Daley's work, and the work of a few other labs, offers a third way - parthenogenesis. The word comes from Latin and Greek roots meaning virgin beginning, and the process occurs when an egg cell starts dividing to produce an embryo without the use of sperm to fertilize it.
Scientists have done this before with mice. In mammals, parthenotes -- embryos made using this process -- stop developing very early because they need genes from a father to complete development.
"What is really new is the realization that you can genetically select the parthenote cells that are a complete match for histocompatibility for the donor," Daley said.
That means a good immune match - an easy match for any tissue transplant. In theory, researchers could create batches of immune-matched tissue or even organs to use for transplant.
Even cells that were only a half-match to the donor took well as transplants in the mice, Daley's team reported.
But producing such stem cells still would require a large number of eggs donated by women, not an easy obstacle to overcome. Also, some groups object to the ethics of using a woman's body in this way.
Daley said the cell lines could also be studied for a better understanding of the basic biology of disease.
"For instance, a woman with a genetic condition - some kind of early-onset Parkinson's, bone marrow failure - you could use them as an in-vitro (lab dish) model of the disease," he said.
Maggie Fox
www.reuters.com
Health Tip: Understanding Trans Fats
(HealthDay News) -- Trans fats, also called hydrogenated fats, are man-made compounds that are made from processed liquid oils. These harmful fats will raise bad cholesterol, and could lower a person's good cholesterol levels.Because these fats are so thick and stiff,they can also clog up arteries and blood vessels, which can lead to heart attack or stroke, says the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Trans fats are commonly found in processed foods such as potato chips, cookies, doughnuts, cakes and many fast foods. You can avoid trans fats by choosing natural, healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grain breads and cereals. Check ingredient labels for hydrogenated fats, and try to avoid those foods.
www.healthday.com
Labels: health tips
Lettuce suspected in Taco Bell E. coli
WASHINGTON - Health officials on Wednesday zeroed in on lettuce as the likely suspect in the E. coli outbreak linked to Taco Bell, though tracing the vegetable's source may prove difficult. The outbreak apparently has run its course after 71 confirmed casesof the disease in five states, primarily New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, officials said.Investigators considered cheddar cheese and ground beef as possible contaminated ingredients before settling on lettuce. The company first believed green onions were responsible, but follow-up testing by the government failed to confirm that.
Interviews with patients and other investigative work pointed toward lettuce as the culprit.
"That I would say is the most likely vehicle. I would warn we are not done with the investigation," Dr. Christopher Braden, a medical epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters.
Taco Bell's menu, with its various combinations of the same ingredients, made it difficult to pinpoint the source of the contamination.
"That has been the case and is part of the reason it has taken a number of days to identify what might be the contaminated ingredient," Braden said.
Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer at the
Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition discussed plans to trace the lettuce to its source. But because the shredded lettuce was processed in bulk, that could turn out to be a hard task.
The evidence that lettuce was responsible for the illnesses was statistical — it was the item that victims most commonly reported eating.
Taco Bell's president, Greg Creed, said the
CDC and FDA told the company "it was highly unlikely it's cheese or beef because cheese is pasteurized and the beef preparation ruled them out."
He declined to identify the supplier of the lettuce to the Northeastern restaurants, said 80 percent of the lettuce from that supplier did not go to Taco Bell and noted Taco Bell has a new supplier for those states.
The lettuce potentially linked to the outbreak came from the West, he said, declining to be more specific.
Acheson said no Taco Bell food samples, other than white onions from a New York restaurant, have tested positive for E. coli, Acheson said. The E. coli found in the white onion did not match the strain that sickened Taco Bell customers, however.
He said there is no evidence the Taco Bell outbreak is connected to cases of illnesses linked to Taco John restaurants in Iowa and Minnesota.
Health officials in those states said the cause of the outbreak — which has sickened at least 50 people in Iowa and 27 in Minnesota — has been tied to lettuce served at Taco John's in three cities.
Most E. coli infections are associated with undercooked meat, but increasingly produce is to blame. This fall, an outbreak linked to fresh spinach killed three people and sickened more than 200 others.
"This is a situation that is not tenable," Braden said.
Health officials believe most cases of E. coli contamination originate on the farm, where produce can come into contact with animal feces laden with the bacteria.
E. coli, or Escherichia coli, is a common and ordinarily harmless bacteria found in the guts of cattle and other animals. The E. coli O157:H7 strain can cause abdominal cramps, fever, bloody diarrhea, kidney failure, blindness, paralysis, even death.
ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer
www.ap.org
Labels: news
New Year-Round Contraceptive Pill Safe and Effective
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 13 (HealthDay News) -- A new year-round contraceptive pill called Lybrel, which eliminates menstrual cycles altogether, appears to be safe and effective, researchers report.Lybrel is not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but a decision is expected next year.Currently, there are contraceptives available that reduce the number of menstrual periods to four a year, but this is the first study that shows it is safe to eliminate menstrual periods.
The report is published in the December issue of Contraception.
"One advantage to using this pill is that you take one pill regularly with the expectation that you are not going to have a regular menstrual bleeding period," said lead researcher Dr. David F. Archer, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
The downside is that some women who use this pill will have some bleeding or spotting, Archer said. "You get rid of the anticipated menstrual period, but you replace it with some erratic, unpredictable bleeding or spotting," he said. "So, this is a group of women who are going to be willing to put up with that type of nuisance bleeding."
This unpredictable bleeding and/or spotting affects about 20 percent of the women taking the pill after a year, and it can last up to six days, Archer said. "It's impossible to predict which women will have bleeding and spotting," he added. However, it is the main reason that 18.5 percent of the women of the 8 percent who quit the study quit, he noted.
Another benefit to this pill is the elimination of menstrual cycle-related symptoms, such as mood changes, menstrual cramps and headaches, Archer said.
In the study, which was conducted at 92 sites in North America, Archer's group used a birth-control pill consisting of 20 micrograms of ethinyl estradiol and 90 micrograms of levonorgestrel. The pill was developed by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.
The researchers gave the pill to 2,134 sexually active women, aged 18 to 49. The women took a pill daily without any breaks.
During the 18 months of the study, the number of days of bleeding decreased progressively. After one year, 79 percent of the women reported an absence of bleeding. Moreover, 58.7 percent of the women reported having no menstrual cycles.
In addition, only about one woman out of a hundred will become pregnant while taking the pill, Archer said.
One expert says that because of the incidences of bleeding, this pill isn't for every woman.
"The main advantage is that this continuous pill provides a lower dose than other continuous oral contraceptive pills like, Seasonale," said Dr. Philip D. Darney, chief of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at San Francisco General Hospital and the University of California, San Francisco.
"Women who want to avoid menses and take a pill continuously, which for some women may provide greater efficacy and fewer side effects, will be able to use an 'ultra low-dose' pill, which may have some advantages for rare adverse effects of oral contraceptives, like thrombosis," Archer said. "Still, the main reason for stopping this pill was bleeding disruptions, so, it won't suit all pill users."
Another expert is concerned with the high number of women who continued to experience bleeding while taking the pill.
"I think continuous contraception is a great idea," said Dr. Camelia Davtyan, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Nevertheless, the rate of uterine bleeding-related complications is quite high."
Davtyan thinks that to really test its efficacy, this new pill should be tested against the standard birth-control pill in a clinical trial. In addition, she said she is concerned that nothing is known about any side effects from the long-term use of this pill.
By Steven Reinberg
healthday.com
Labels: news
Cancer Survivors: Watch Weight, Eat Right, Exercise
Getting to a healthy weight, exercising, and eating lots of fruits and vegetables are just as important for cancer survivors as for people who've never had the disease, according to a new guide released by the American Cancer Society."Nutrition and Physical Activity During and After Cancer Treatment" is designed to help survivors make smart food and activity choices so they can feel better during treatment and perhaps reduce their risk of the cancer coming back.
"Living a healthy lifestyle is especially important for cancer survivors because they may be at increased risk for other cancers, heart disease, and diabetes," said Colleen Doyle, MS, RD, director of nutrition and physical activity at ACS and first author of the new guide. "These recommendations provide survivors with the most up-to-date information on how eating well, being active, and maintaining a healthy weight can not only improve their health, but their quality of life as well."
Healthy Weight and Diet Important
Weight is one of the most important factors for cancer survivors -- and being too thin is sometimes as much of a concern as being too heavy.
Many cancers and cancer treatments can cause changes in eating patterns (because of side effects like nausea or vomiting, changes to taste and smell, or mouth irritation that makes eating painful) that can lead to drastic weight loss and even malnutrition. Overweight patients may have more complications from certain treatments and may also have a higher risk of cancer recurrence.
For these reasons, the guide recommends getting survivors to a healthy weight and helping them stay there. Nutritionists who specialize in cancer nutrition can help those who are too thin find ways to eat enough and get the nutrients they need. Likewise, they can help survivors who need to lose weight do so safely, even during treatment.
Eating lots of fruits and vegetables is key to getting to a healthy weight, the guide says. There hasn't been much research looking at whether these foods can keep cancer from coming back; still, eating at least 5 servings of vegetables and fruits each day has other health benefits that can help cancer survivors. Whole grains also have important nutritional benefits.
Cancer survivors should cut back on sugar and fat, the guide says, and stick with low-fat protein choices like fish, poultry, lean meat, and beans. A vegetarian diet can be healthy but isn't necessary.
Cancer survivors may also benefit from taking a multivitamin that provides about 100% of the daily requirement of essential vitamins and minerals, the guide says. However, the authors caution against taking high doses of any vitamin, especially antioxidants. That's because it's possible that high doses may interfere with treatment or have other unforeseen consequences. The guide says survivors should talk with their doctor about any supplements they want to take.
Focus on Food Safety
Whatever they eat, cancer survivors need to pay special attention to food safety, especially during treatment, when their immune system may not be in top form. Germs that may not harm a healthy person could make someone with a compromised immune system very sick.
It's important to wash hands thoroughly before cooking or eating. Raw fruits and vegetables also need to be washed carefully, as do knives, cutting boards, or other tools that come in contact with raw meat. For some people, it may be best not to eat raw foods at all.
Store foods at cold temperatures to keep bacteria from growing, and cook meat, poultry, and seafood thoroughly to kill any bacteria they may harbor. The guide also recommends staying away from restaurant foods that could be sources of harmful bacteria: salad bars, sushi, and raw or undercooked meat, fish, shellfish, poultry, and eggs.
Most Survivors Should Exercise
Exercise is another essential part of keeping cancer survivors healthy. Physical activity can improve anxiety, mood, and depression, boost self esteem, and relieve fatigue in survivors.
Those who can should strive to get 30-60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity on 5 or more days a week -- the same amount of exercise recommended for the general public for cancer prevention. Survivors who weren't active before diagnosis may want to consult with an exercise specialist for personalized recommendations on how much to do and how often to do it.
However, there are some situations that survivors need to watch out for, the guide notes. For instance, people with anemia (low red blood cell counts) may need to wait to exercise until it is under control. People treated with radiation should avoid swimming pools to prevent irritation from the chlorine; those with permanent catheters should keep out of pools to avoid bacterial infection in the catheter. These survivors also need to be careful not to dislodge the catheter by strenuous lifting.
The guide lists specific recommendations for some of the most common types of cancer including breast, colorectal, lung, prostate, and head and neck cancer, as well as blood cancers and those treated with stem cell or bone marrow transplants. It also answers questions about specific foods and nutrients.
The full guide is published in the ACS journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians
Labels: cancer news, news
For super-sized kids, a McGym is new on the US menu
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US fast-food giant McDonald's, often accused of catering to expanding waistlines, has a new item on its menu for kids -- gyms.The company is testing R Gyms -- in-restaurant mini-gyms with stationary bicycles hooked to video games, obstacle courses and aerobics exercises -- in seven of its restaurants to help customers age 4 to 12 fight flab as they ingest calories.
The latest R Gym, named for the restaurant's advertising mascot Ronald McDonald, opened in California earlier this month and the company is hoping to spread the concept across the United States.
"What we've been able to do with the R Gym is to provide our youngest customers with a more relevant contemporary experience, including games and activities that are more suitable to children's lifestyles today and of course tomorrow," Danya Proud, a spokeswoman for McDonald's told AFP.
But critics say the mini-gyms are but an attempt by the burger giant to polish its image at a time when Americans are increasingly aware of the health hazards linked to obesity.
"The number of calories that a child is likely to burn in one of those gyms is quite small compared to what they can eat, even in a small meal," said Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.
It would take a child, for example, more than three hours of exercise to burn off a 200-calorie milkshake.
The new gyms would eventually replace play areas currently available in some 5,500 McDonald's outlets throughout the country. McDonald's is also considering R Gyms for its restaurants overseas.
But specialists like Brownell warn the gyms could have an adverse effect in that they could lull people into believing they can eat more since they're exercising.
"One risk is that the children or parents overestimate how much benefit they are getting from the exercise and feel licensed to eat more -- a larger order of French fries or an ice cream cone," he said.
Proud answers to such criticism saying that McDonald's has "always been concerned about health."
"McDonald's has been providing nutritious menu options to all of our customers for 52 plus years," she said.
According to health experts, about one third of children in the United States are either overweight or obese and trends are showing the numbers increasing.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (
CDC) recently identified fast food as a significant factor in the country's obesity epidemic. According to the CDC, nearly 19 percent of American children between the ages of 6 and 11 are overweight and some 14 percent are in that category before the age of 5.
Brownell said with that in mind, McDonald's R Gyms could be an attempt by the company to ward off class-action lawsuits from public-health advocates who see fast food as their new target after tobacco.
"McDonald's is not in the business of getting the population more physically active but if through these maneuvers they appear to be on the right side of the issue, they may be able to forestall litigation, legislation that hurts them and just bad public opinion in general," he said.
Jocelyne Zablit
www.afp.com
Labels: news
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Canadian man alive and kicking, but has no heartbeat
MONTREAL (AFP) - A Canadian is believed to be the only man alive without a pulse after his heart failed and a new silent pump was embedded in his chest to keep blood gushing through his veins, doctors said.The Quebec man underwent surgery on November 23 after suffering severe heart failure due to a heart attack months earlier, Ian Popple, a spokesman for McGill University Health Center in Montreal, told AFP.
Due to other medical conditions, the 65-year-old patient was deemed an unsuitable candidate for a transplant, doctors said.
So, a mechanical heart was implanted as a last resort, as part of ongoing North American clinical trials of the product.
However, an "interesting feature" of the novel device is that it provides a continuous flow of blood, so the patient has no pulse, said Popple.
Surgeon Renzo Cecere told reporters his patient is "the only individual living in Canada without a pulse and without a measurable blood pressure."
A spokesman for the mechanical heart maker Thoratec said he had not heard of a similar occurrence with some 400 patients who received the implants, about the size of a standard D flashlight battery, in Europe or the United States.
"Everyone who has received one of these has some level of heart muscle contractions," he told AFP.
Popple noted: "It's kind of a weird concept because if anything happened to him, a car accident or something, and he was lying there on the ground, breathing, but with no pulse, it could upset people."
"I think he was a bit unnerved himself about having no pulse, but he is very much alive," he added.
The patient was expected to be discharged from hospital later in the day.
www.afp.com
Labels: news
Health Tip: Low Blood Pressure May Be Dangerous, Too
(HealthDay News) -- Low blood pressure (hypotension) occurs when the pressure within the artery walls is too low during and after a heartbeat. If it becomes too low, blood flow to the heart, brain and other organs may be compromised.The most common symptoms of low blood pressure are dizziness and feeling lightheaded, says the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
The condition can be caused by certain medications, including anti-anxiety drugs, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular medications, antidepressants and narcotics.
Other potential causes include heart attack, dehydration, irregular heartbeat, heart failure, anaphylaxis, shock or diabetes.
If you have low pressure and begin to feel dizzy or lightheaded, have black or maroon stools, chest pain, shortness of breath, an irregular heartbeat, fever higher than 101 degrees, or severe upper back pain, contact your doctor at once.
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Circumcision may cut risk of HIV
WASHINGTON - Circumcising adult men may reduce by half their risk of getting the AIDS virus through heterosexual intercourse, the U.S. government announced Wednesday, as it shut down two studies in Africa testing the link.The National Institutes of Health closed the studies in Kenya and Uganda early, when safety monitors took a look at initial results this week and spotted the protection. The studies' uncircumcised men are being offered the chance to undergo the procedure.
The link between male circumcision and HIV prevention was noted as long ago as the late 1980s. The first major clinical trial, of 3,000 men in South Africa, found last year that circumcision cut the HIV risk by 60 percent.
Still, many AIDS specialists had been awaiting the NIH's results as a final confirmation.
"Male circumcision can lower both an individual's risk of infection, and hopefully the rate of HIV spread through the community," said AIDS expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
But it's not perfect protection, Fauci stressed. Men who become circumcised must not quit using condoms nor take other risks — and circumcision offers no protection from HIV acquired through anal sex or injection drug use, he noted.
"It's not a magic bullet, but a potentially important intervention," agreed Dr. Kevin De Cock of the
World Health Organization.
Male circumcision is common at birth in the United States. But in sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than half of the world's almost 40 million HIV-infected people, there are large swaths of populations where male circumcision is rare.
The WHO plans an international meeting early next year to discuss the studies' results and how to translate them into policies that promote safe male circumcision — done by trained health workers with sterile equipment — while teaching men that it won't make them invulnerable.
If male circumcision were widely adopted, officials predicted that could help to avert tens of thousands of HIV infections in coming years; Fauci cited one model from South Africa that suggested possibly up to 2 million infections could be averted over a decade.
"This is tremendous news, and it could help millions of men while in turn reducing the risk faced by millions of women," said Paul Zeitz of the Global AIDS Alliance.
Why would male circumcision play a role? Cells in the foreskin of the penis are particularly susceptible to the HIV virus, Fauci explained. Also, the foreskin is more fragile than the tougher skin surrounding it, providing a surface that the virus could penetrate more easily.
Researchers enrolled 2,784 HIV-negative men in Kisumu, Kenya, and 4,996 HIV-negative men in Rakai, Uganda, into the studies. Some were circumcised; others were just monitored.
Over two years, 22 of the circumcised Kenyans became infected with HIV compared with 47 uncircumcised men, a 53 percent reduction. In Uganda, 22 circumcised men became infected vs. 43 of the uncircumcised, a 48 percent reduction.
The researchers are offering all of the studies' uncircumcised men the chance to undergo the procedure, and 80 percent of the uncircumcised Ugandans already have agreed, said lead researcher Ronald Gray of Johns Hopkins University.
Side effects were rare, including some mostly mild infections that were easily treated. The rate of side effects was comparable to those seen in circumcised U.S. infants, said Robert Bailey of the University of Illinois at Chicago, who led the Kenyan trial.
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer
Weight gain linked to prostate cancer death
NEW YORK - Excess weight may not raise a man’s risk of developing prostate cancer, but it may make him more likely to die of the disease, researchers reported Monday.In a study of nearly 288,000 U.S. men, researchers found that obese men were actually less likely than their thinner counterparts to develop prostate cancer during the five-year study period.
However, the heavier a man was, the greater his risk of dying from the disease.
Dr. Margaret Wright and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute report the findings in the journal Cancer.
Past studies have come to conflicting conclusions about the role of excess weight in prostate cancer. While some have suggested that increased weight is a risk factor for the disease, most have found no relationship.
The new study followed 287,760 men 50 to 71 starting in 1995. At the outset, the men completed a questionnaire about their overall health, diet and lifestyle habits, height and weight.
Over the next five years, 9,986 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer. Severely obese men had the lowest risk of developing the disease.
When it came to prostate cancer deaths, however, the risk climbed in tandem with a man’s weight. Overweight men were 25 percent more likely than thin men to die, while obese men were 46 percent more likely.
Similarly, the amount of weight a man gained through adulthood was unrelated to his prostate cancer risk. But greater weight gain was linked to a higher risk of death from the disease.
According to the researchers, hormones might help explain why excess fat would be linked to prostate cancer death, but not development. Obesity lowers levels of testosterone, which helps fuel prostate cancer, so excess weight may help prevent the disease in the first place.
On the other hand, Wright and her colleagues explain, heavy men have higher levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 and leptin — two hormones that may aid the progression of tumors. So once an overweight man develops prostate cancer, it may be more likely to prove fatal.
The findings, they conclude, suggest that prostate cancer progression could be added to list of health consequences of obesity.
www.reuters.com
Labels: cancer news
Two new drugs slow growth of kidney cancer
BOSTON - Two new drugs developed by Bayer AG , Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Pfizer Inc. help slow the growth of the most common form of kidney cancer, two studies published by the companies said Wednesday. The biotech drugs, called Sutent and Nexavar, “are a major step forward in our struggle against kidney cancer,” said Dr. James Brugarolas of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
“Both (drugs) delay the growth of kidney cancer by three to six months,” Brugarolas wrote in a commentary on the results, to be published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.
About 30,000 cases of renal cell carcinoma, involving the outer cells of the kidney, are diagnosed in the United States each year. It is responsible for up to 90 percent of all kidney cancers, and accounts for 1.5 percent of cancer deaths.
Patients typically survive for just a year.
Interleukin-2 and interferon alfa are often given to treat it. But they work only in about 5 percent of patients whose tumors have spread. Only interleukin is approved for that use in the United States.
In the test of sunitinib, a drug marketed under the brand name Sutent, the response rate was 31 percent versus a rate of 6 percent for treatment with interferon alfa, said the team led by Robert Motzer of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
The 375 who received the Pfizer drug as part of the test involving researchers from the United States, France and Poland typically went for 11 months without having their tumor progress, compared with five months for an equal number of volunteers receiving interferon.
However, the drug also produced more side effects such as diarrhea and vomiting, and initial results showed no clear increase in survival.
Motzer called treatment with Sutent a new standard of care for advanced kidney cancer.
The test of sorafenib, sold as Nexavar, did not compare the drug to any established treatment. Half of the 903 volunteers in 19 countries received a placebo instead.
Response to the drug was so strong that the research team, headed by Bernard Escudier of the Gustave Roussy Institute in Villejuif, France, allowed placebo recipients to begin taking Nexavar.
While patients who received the placebo went an average of 2.8 months without their tumor progressing, the delay was 5.5 months for those getting Nexavar.
The drug affected the tumors of 10 percent of the volunteers, compared with just 2 percent among placebo recipients.
But, once again, the initial results did not yet show that patients given the drug lived any longer, and Nexavar produced side effects such as skin problems and diarrhea.
Brugarolas said the side effects of both drugs can be severe in 10 percent of patients. He said until the two drugs are compared in a head-to-head test, nobody will know which is better.
Both drugs work by inhibiting tumor growth and limiting the amount of blood going to a tumor.
www.reuters.com
Labels: cancer news
Experts meet on cervical cancer vaccine
LONDON - Experts met in London Tuesday to discuss how to make a cervical cancer vaccine available to women in poor countries who need it most. The two-day meeting was being attended by some 60 representatives from public health agencies, pharmaceutical companies, non-governmental organizations and philanthropic foundations to try to accelerate the developing world's access to the vaccine.Merck & Co.'s Gardasil is the first licensed vaccine, and among the places it is available are the U.S., Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. GlaxoSmithKline PLC is expected to file for approval of its vaccine, Cervarix, next year. Both vaccines protect against two types of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which cause 70 percent of cervical cancers.
While the HPV vaccine has been hailed as a breakthrough in cancer prevention, its price — $360 for a three-shot dose — puts it out of reach for the developing countries where more than 90 percent of cervical cancer occurs.
Last year, more than 500,000 women worldwide were diagnosed with cervical cancer, which is usually fatal if untreated. It is the second-most common type of cancer in women.
"With a technology like this vaccine, the world has a moral obligation to make sure it reaches the women who need it," said Dr. Nothemba Simelela, a senior official at International
Planned Parenthood Federation.
Public health officials are working with pharmaceutical companies to strategize how women in developing countries might get vaccinated as quickly as possible.
"We would be prepared to subsidize the price in the short term, if in the long term it became affordable," said Dr. Julian Lob-Levyt, executive secretary of the GAVI alliance, a global partnership that buys vaccines for poor countries.
He said the alliance must first examine whether the HPV vaccine would become a priority purchase — and whether GAVI might have the funds to then buy it in large amounts.
That decision, Lob-Levyt said, will only come once more data is available from vaccine trials in poorer countries. To date, the HPV vaccine has only been tested in the West, and it is not known exactly what kind of impact it might have in developing countries, as well as what kind of social barriers might exist.
Screening and treatment programs in the West have saved the lives of millions of women from cervical cancer, but the diagnosis remains essentially a death sentence in poor countries, which don't have the resources for such programs.
"They have nothing at the moment," said Dr. Lutz Gissmann, a virologist at Germany's DFKZ Heidelberg who is working on a cheaper, bacteria-based HPV vaccine, which would be one-tenth the cost of commercial vaccines.
While there are a few second-generation HPV vaccines in development, none have been tested in humans. One vaccine under consideration at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine may offer wider coverage against more strains of the human papillomavirus. And another being researched in Switzerland will hopefully protect not only against cervical cancer, but typhoid as well.
It will be years before any of these candidate vaccines proves successful enough to be adopted widely. The lag time between the discovery of a new vaccine in the West and its implementation worldwide, which often coincides with development of a cheaper version of the original, has typically been at least 10 to 15 years.
In the case of the hepatitis B vaccine, which fights liver cancer, it took two decades before the vaccine was widely available. First produced in the U.S. at a cost of $18, it is now churned out in Indian factories for as little as 30 cents a dose.
Some experts believe poorer countries should be developing their own vaccine manufacturing capabilities.
"By flooding the market with cheap vaccine, countries can cut the price of a vaccine substantially," said Dr. John Schiller of the U.S.
National Cancer Institute
By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer
Labels: cancer news, news
Possible Alzheimer's fingerprint found
WASHINGTON - Scientists appear to have found a fingerprint ofAlzheimer's disease lurking in patients' spinal fluid, a step toward a long-awaited test for the memory-robbing disease that today can be diagnosed definitively only at autopsy.
Researchers at New York's Weill Cornell Medical College discovered a pattern of 23 proteins floating in spinal fluid that, in very preliminary testing, seems to identify Alzheimer's — not perfectly, but with pretty good accuracy.
Far more research is needed before doctors could try spinal-tap tests in people worried they have Alzheimer's, specialists caution.
But the scientists already are preparing for larger studies to see if this potential "biomarker" of Alzheimer's, reported Tuesday in the journal Annals of Neurology, holds up.
"We're looking to an era in which the kinds of uncertainties that many patients and their families face about the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease will no longer be a problem," predicts Dr. Norman Relkin, a neurologist and the study's senior researcher.
About 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's, a toll expected to more than triple by 2050 as the population grays. The creeping brain disease gradually robs sufferers of their memories and ability to care for themselves, eventually killing them. There is no known cure; today's drugs only temporarily alleviate symptoms.
Currently, doctors diagnose Alzheimer's mainly by symptoms. That makes early diagnosis particularly difficult, and even more advanced disease can be confused with other forms of dementia. Nor is there a good way to track the disease's progression, important both for decisions about patient care as well as in testing the effectiveness of new drugs.
Major research is under way to try to change that, including a $60 million study now under way to give brain scans to 800 older Americans and try to pin down the earliest brain changes associated with Alzheimer's.
At the same time, scientists also are hunting what they call biomarkers — signs of the disease in areas other than hard-to-test brain tissue.
"A valid biomarker for Alzheimer's disease is sorely needed," said Dr. Sam Gandy, a neuroscientist at Philadelphia's Thomas Jefferson University and spokesman for the Alzheimer's Association.
But the new protein pattern requires "rigorous validation" by other researchers to make sure it really is linked to Alzheimer's, he cautioned.
By hunting for one protein at a time, scientists have discovered a few other biomarker candidates in cerebrospinal fluid. But Relkin and colleagues at Cornell University expanded the hunt: Using a technology called proteomics, they simultaneously examined 2,000 proteins found in the spinal fluid of 34 people who died with autopsy-proven Alzheimer's, comparing it to the spinal fluid of 34 non-demented people.
What emerged were 23 proteins, many that by themselves had never been linked to Alzheimer's but that together formed a fingerprint of the disease.
Then the researchers looked for that protein pattern in the spinal fluid of 28 more people — some with symptoms of Alzheimer's or other dementia, some healthy. The test indicated Alzheimer's in nine of the 10 patients that doctors suspect have it, and incorrectly fingered three people.
What's next? That huge brain-scanning study is collecting spinal fluid samples from some participants, and Relkin has begun talks with those researchers about testing his results. At his own hospital, he's using the protein test in a study of an experimental Alzheimer's treatment to see if changes in the fingerprint may predict when the drug does or doesn't work.
Scientists believe that Alzheimer's begins its insidious brain attack years, even decades, before forgetfulness appears — and if so, there should be evidence of those changes in the spinal fluid, Relkin explained.
"The spinal tap gives people pause," he acknowledged, agreeing that a blood test would be easier. But, "in expert hands ... it's not much more traumatic than having blood taken."
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer
Labels: news
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