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'Always be my baby'
January/February 2012
SILVER SPRING, MD - The best thing to do to lower the event of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) - unexplained death of a baby under one year - is to put a baby on its back to sleep, with zilch else in a crib, www.HealthNewsDigest.com noted.
That's the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plan, which is trying to stop makers of babies sleep products from saying their use will prevent/lower a SIDS event.
The items take in crib bedding, pillows, crib tents, and baby monitors. FDA has never OK'd a product to prevent SIDS and is asking manufacturers to stop marketing their products with these claims until they've received FDA clearance or approval, or to change their labeling to remove all medical claims.
WASHINGTON - Avastin shouldn't be used for advanced breast cancer because there’s no proof it extends lives and presents dangerous side effects. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruling was certain to disappoint women who’ve run out of other options as breast cancer spread. Impassioned patients had lobbied to keep it as a last shot. "This was a difficult decision," said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, but added "it's clear women who take Avastin for metastatic breast cancer risk potentially life-threatening side effects without proof the use of Avastin will provide a benefit, in terms of delay in tumor growth, that would justify those risks." Those risks include severe high blood pressure, massive bleeding, heart attack/failure, and perforations in parts of the body such as the stomach and intestines. Avastin is used for certain forms of colon, lung, kidney, and brain cancers. Doctors could prescribe it - but insurers may not pay for it.
LONDON - GlaxoSmithKline will pay $3 billion - its biggest legal pact - to resolve U.S. criminal and civil charges into whether the U.K. company marketed drugs for unapproved uses and other matters. Talks on terms will be completed IN 2012, the firm stated. The cost will be paid from cash resources, Glaxo said. The accord would trump the $2.3 billion Pfizer paid in 2009 over marketing of its Bextra painkiller and other drugs and the $1.4 billion Eli Lilly paid in 2009 over sales of its Zyprexa anti-psychotic medicine. The Bextra accord had been the largest pharmaceutical marketing pac in U.S. history.
STANFORD, CA - Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects about 400,000 Americans - as the immune system attacks the brain, Ivanhoe Newswire reports. For years, the only treatments had to be injected. Now, FDA has approved the first oral treatment: Gilenya. "Patients are excited because it's oral. We've never had that before," Dr. Jeffrey Dunn, a clinical neuro-immunologist at Stanford School of Medicine, said. In MS, the immune system attacks myelin, which protects nerves. Gilenya holds certain immune cells in the lymph nodes so they can't reach the myelin. In clinical studies, Gilenya cut MS relapses by 54% versus a placebo and 52% versus another common injectable drug. "What we don't know is what can happen long-term; we don't know that until we have a lot more patients on the drug," Dr. Melissa Ortega, a clinical instructor and MS specialist at the University of Miami, said. Gilenya can cause side effects like slowed heart rate, liver problems, headaches, and a build-up of fluid in the eye.
SAN DIEGO - Did you know stroke leads U.S. disability causes? Yearly, about 795,000 people suffer stroke; 137,000+ die from stroke-related ills, www.HealthNewsDigest.com posts. Nearly 85% of all strokes are acute ischemic: a blood clot in a brain artery or vessel keeps brain cells from getting oxygen-carrying blood they need. This blockage causes brain cells to start dying; there's a sudden brain function loss. Stroke can result in permanent mental/physical impairments, such as trouble thinking, speaking, or moving. It's figured about 1.9 million brain cells die each minute during a large-vessel stroke; time is vital to seek aid. "Don't hesitate if you or a loved one begins to [show] signs and symptoms of stroke," said Dr. Justin Zivin, Ph.D., professor of neurosciences, University of California. Signs and symptoms include speech impairment, arm numbness/weakness, severe headache, sudden confusion, trouble seeing out of one or both eyes, and uncontrollable drooping of the face. With any symptom, call 9-1-1 immediately.
STOCKHOLM - Ivanhoe Newswire posted a possible link between shift work and risk of multiple sclerosis (MS). Those with off-hour jobs before 20 may be at risk due to disrupted circadian rhythm, sleep pattern. Circadian disruption and sleep restriction are tied to working night shifts, said to disturb melatonin secretion and raise inflammatory responses, promoting disease. MS is an autoimmune inflammatory disorder with an vital environmental component. Dr. Anna Karin Hedström and her team at Karolinska Institute, analyzed data from two population-based studies and compared rate of MS among study subjects exposed to shift work at various ages against those never exposed. All subjects were Swedish, 16-70. Shift work was permanent or alternating hours 9 p.m.-7 a.m. "Our analysis revealed a significant [tie] between working shift young and occurrence of MS," Dr. Hedström stated."
LONDON - The Guardian reported a study of ovarian cancer reproductive factors found women on the contraceptive pill for 10 or more years cut ovarian cancer risk by about 45%. Pregnancy was the next most protective behavior, cutting risk by 29% versus those never pregnant. The larger the family, the less likely a woman would get ovarian cancer; each baby cut her risk another 8%.The study in the British Journal of Cancer is on links between diet, lifestyle, and cancer. The European Prospective Investigation of Cancer is following more than one million Europeans, and the U.K. How much safety a woman would get reflects her own risk of ovarian cancer, because some causes are genetic. The study figured 28 in 100,000 women who used the pill for 12 months or less would get ovarian cancer - a rate that dropped to 15 per 100,000 for those who took it for 10 years or more. "It isn't uncommon for women to have fewer children or none at all," said Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK health information director. "Women tend to be unaware these reproductive factors have a protective effect on their risk of ovarian cancer."
PITTSBURGH - Seven years after a motorcycle accident damaged his spinal cord, paralyzed Tim Hemmes reached up to touch hands with his girlfriend in a tender high-five, www.HealthNewsDigest.com posted. He's the first to be in a trial assessing whether thoughts of a person with SCI can control a device, such as a computer cursor or a sophisticated prosthetic arm. The project, one of two brain-computer interface (BCI) studies at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC Rehabilitation Institute, used a grid of electrodes on the surface of the brain to control the arm. It was a unique robotic arm and hand, designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory that Hemmes willed to extend first toward the palm of a team researcher and later to his girlfriend’s hand. He said, "I got to reach out and touch somebody for the first time in seven years." Dr. Michael Boninger, institute director, said, "This first round of testing reinforces the great potential BCI technology holds [and] enhancing physical and emotional connections with their friends and family."
BALTIMORE - Every weekday, nurse Jill Ross calls some of her sickest patients to see how they’re doing, if they saw a specialist, if meds changed, seeing what’s going on with them. The calls are part of a new approach to primary medical care Maryland is testing. Instead of a doctor seeing patients mostly when they’re sick - and the physician gets paid for that visit or service, this program gives financial rewards to practices that use a team of doctors, nurses, and other staff to treat the whole person on a continuing basis, not just one illness. The team focuses on patients with chronic ills, develops personal care plans, and coordinates with specialists. Emphasis is on prevention and comprehensive care. For a patient, it's like having a doctor’s office that acts like mom - with nags and nudges designed to promote better health.
INDIANAPOLIS - A study shows a person’s stroke risk profile - high blood pressure, smoking, and diabetes - may be helpful seeing if someone will have memory/thinking woes later. Research in the journal Neurology® reveals REGARDS study scientists followed 23,752 people, average age 64, free of stroke and cognitive ills at the study start. A Framingham Stroke Risk Profile set a person’s stroke risk using age, blood pressure, education, heart disease history, smoking/diabetes status, whether they have heart muscle thickening, and an abnormal heart rhythm. After an average of four years of follow-up, 1,907 people had memory/thinking problems. The study found the higher a person’s profile score, the greater the chance of cognitive woes four years later: 15% of people among the highest 25% on the test had cognitive problems versus 3% of those who scored among the bottom 25%. "It appears the total Stroke Risk Profile score, while initially created to predict stroke, is useful determining the risk of cognitive problems," said study author Frederick Unverzagt, Ph.D., of Indiana University School of Medicine.
IRVINE, CA - As a fetus grows, it gets constant messages from its mother, posts www.HealthNewsDigest.com.
It’s not just hearing her heartbeat and whatever music she play's to her belly; it gets chemical signals via the placenta.
A study in Psychological Science finds this includes signals about her mental state.
If she's depressed, that affects how the baby develops after birth.
Researchers found the environment a fetus grows in - the womb - is very important.
Some effects are obvious: smoking/drinking can be devastating; others are subtler.
Studies show people born during the Dutch famine of 1944, most had starving mothers, were likely to have health problems later.
Curt Sandman, Elysia Davis, and Laura Glynn, of the University of California, found what mattered to the babies was if the environment was consistent before and after birth.
Babies who did best had mothers who were healthy before and after birth.
MINNEAPOLIS - HealthDay News disclosed heart attack severity can be affected by time of day, a U.S. National Library of Medicine study suggests. Analysis of data from 1,000+ heart attack patients was online at the journal Circulation Research. It revealed most injury occurs when an attack occurs 1 a.m.-5 a.m. The peak damage is 82% greater than when injury is lowest. Findings could lead to new ways to prevent heart attack, state researchers at Minneapolis Heart Institute/Abbott Northwestern Hospital. "We were trying to ascertain whether the time of day when a heart attack occurs influences damage the heart sustains, or was this a phenomenon exhibited in rodents," said study senior author Dr. Jay Traverse, an institute cardiologist. "It's important to understand the heart's ability to protect itself against more severe damage varies over a 24-hour cycle. Identifying those changes may be particularly relevant for pharmaceutical makers."
PHILADELPHIA - Pro athletes score in the game of folk remedies, www.ThePostGame.com noted. Whether buttering a burn or rubbing dirt on a cut, they'll do almost anything if it'll help them...even drinking pickle juice. It's been used for decades and got media attention in 2000 when NFL's Eagles trainer Rick Burkholder credited pickle juice as the secret weapon that helped his team stomp the Cowboys in Texas Stadium. Field temps soared above 110 degrees - perfect for a cramp-fest. Eagles players avoided crippling injury and won 41-14. A BYU study last year proved it. Subjects exercised to the point of mild dehydration and had cramps induced. Those who drank pickle juice felt relief within 85 seconds, almost twice as fast as water or other sports drinks. "Pickle juice is a natural source of sodium and other electrolytes," says Buccaneers team nutritionist Kevin Luhrs. "Sodium is a component of sweat. The rationale is that sodium from the pickle juice helps replace sodium losses from sweat and even helps retain water in the body."
BOSTON - Mutated genes in inner ear sensory hair cells prevent sound waves from conversion to electrical signals, a fundamental first step in hearing, Ivanhoe Newswire states. Restoring electrical signals in deaf mice sensory cells by inserting new genes allowed the mice to hear. This paves the way for a gene therapy test to reverse a type of deafness. Scientists have long believed hair cells carry a protein that converts this mechanical motion into electrical signals. Researchers had been unable to find the critical protein required for hearing. "People have been looking for more than 30 years," stated Jeffrey Holt, Ph.D., in the otolaryngology department at Children's Hospital. Holt, Andy Griffith, and colleagues found related proteins, TMC1 and TMC2, are essential for hearing. They make gateways which sit atop the hair-like projections and let electrically-charged molecules move to the cell, generating an electrical signal that ultimately travels to the brain.
WASHINGTON - An ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure, chiefly In preventing medical identity theft (MID), reports www.HealthNewsDigest.com. MID can affect your finances and health. ID thieves can use your personal/health insurance data to get medical treatment, Rx drugs, or surgery. MID has many forms: i.e., dishonest people in a medical setting may use it to submit false bills to insurers. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asserts you may be a MID victim if: You get billed for services you didn’t get; a debt collector calls you about med debt you don’t owe; you order a copy of your credit report and see collection notices you don’t recognize; you make a legitimate insurance claim and your health plan says you’ve reached the benefits limit, or you're denied insurance because your medical records show a condition you don’t have. FTC suggests: Be wary of "free" health services or products; get a copy of your medical records - review them for inaccuracies; shred your health insurance forms, Rx, and physician statements - after filing taxes.
HOUSTON - EatingWell Magazine chows down on herbs and spices: they let you cut some less healthy ingredients, such as salt, added sugars, saturated fat - and some have inherent health benefits.
"We're starting to see a scientific basis for why people have been using spices medicinally for thousands of years," says Bharat Aggarwal, Ph.D., professor at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and author of Healing Spices (Sterling, 2011).
He notes that in his native India incidence of diet-related diseases like heart disease and cancer have long been low.
When Indians adopt Westernized eating patterns, their rates of those diseases rise.
Aggarwal and other experts believe herbs and spices - or the lack of them - are an important piece of the dietary puzzle.
"When Indians eat more Westernized foods, they're getting much fewer spices than their traditional diet contains," he explains.
"They lose the protection those spices are conveying."
Eight of the healthiest spices and herbs are: chili peppers; ginger; cinnamon; turmeric; saffron; parsley; sage, and rosemary.
ONTARIO - Diabetes is a significant fracture risk predictor, excluding usual risk factors, Canadian scientists told MedPage Today. After adjustment for osteoporosis meds, age, sex, bone mineral density (BMD), and other factors, diabetes was related significantly to a greater risk of major osteoporotic fracture during the next 10 years, Lora Giangregorio, Ph.D., of the University of Waterloo, noted at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research annual meeting. Her group analyzed data from a Manitoba database of 3,518 diabetics and 36,085 non-diabetics. Fracture risk was set to the World Health Organization's FRAX tool, which rates risk by several factors - such as age, sex, height, weight, smoking, glucocorticoid use, and personal/parental hip fracture history. At baseline, more diabetics were men and were older, heavier, more likely to have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and taking glucocorticoid meds. "Despite all these risk factors, fewer of those with diabetes were receiving osteoporosis medications," Giangregorio said.
BETHESDA, MD - The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded a study which found kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in regular classes may be more likely to aidd social skills if their typically-developing peers are taught how to interact with them versus ASD kids being taught such skills.
In the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Thomas R. Insel, director, National Institute of Mental Health, said: "Real life doesn't happen in a lab, but few studies reflect that.
As this study shows, taking into account a person's typical environment may improve treatment outcomes." Connie Kasari, Ph.D., of the University of California/Los Angeles, and her team compared different interventions among 60 kids, six-11, with ASD.
All were mainstreamed for at least 80% of the school day.
ASD kids whose peers got training - including those who may also have gotten the child-focused way - spent less time alone on playgrounds and had more classmates naming them as a friend versus those who got the child-focused interventions.
Teachers noted ASD students in the peer-mediated groups showed much better social skills after the intervention.
ROCHESTER, MN - Multiple sclerosis (MS) may progress from the brain's outermost layers to its deep parts, states a collaborative study from scientists at the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic. The perception was MS begins in the white matter bulk of the brain’s inside, and extends to the cortex. Findings sustain an opposite process: from the cerebrospinal fluid-filled subarachnoid space, that cushions the outside and cortex, into white matter. The findings will guide researchers as they seek to understand/treat MS. The study was in the New England Journal of Medicine. "Our study shows the cortex is involved early in MS and may even be the initial target of disease," says Dr. Claudia F. Lucchinetti, study co-lead author and Mayo Clinic neurologist. "Inflammation in the cortex must be considered when investigating the causes and progression of MS," she says. Understanding how the cortex is involved is critical to creating new therapies for MS.
ANN ARBOR, MI - Hospitals work harder to avoid hospital-acquired infections, but a survey shows few are fighting aggressively the most common one: catheter-related urinary tract infections. In the University of Michigan Health System and Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare Center survey, up to 90% of U.S. hospitals raised use of methods to prevent central line-related bloodstream infections and ventilator-related pneumonia 2005-2009. Prevention practices for urinary tract infections were used regularly by a minority of hospitals, notes the survey in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. "Despite being the most common healthcare-related infection in the country, hospitals appear not to be using as many practices for prevention when relative to bloodstream infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia," says senior author Dr. Sanjay Saint, director of the VA/UM Patient Safety Enhancement Program, and U-M professor of internal medicine. Yearly, 5-10% of hospitalized patients get a hospital-acquired infection, resulting in about $45 billion in healthcare costs.
BALTIMORE - New data suggests that, in people who don’t have memory ills, those with smaller regions of the brain’s cortex may be more likely to develop symptoms consistent with very early Alzheimer’s disease. The study online at Neurology® states, "The ability to identify people who aren't showing memory problems and other symptoms but may be at a higher risk for cognitive decline is a very important step toward new ways to detect Alzheimer’s," said Susan Resnick, Ph.D., of the U.S. National Institute on Aging, in a related editorial. Researchers used brain scans to set thickness of regions of the brain’s cortex in 159 people free of dementia average age 76. Of the 159, 19 were deemed at high risk for early Alzheimer’s due to smaller size of particular regions known to be vulnerable; 116 were seen as average risk, 24 as low risk. The study found 21% of those at high risk had cognitive decline in three years of follow-up versus 7% of those at average risk, and none at low risk. Study author Dr. Bradford Dickerson, of Massachusetts General Hospital, said the study found 60% of the group seen most at risk for early Alzheimer’s had abnormal levels of proteins tied to the disease.
That's the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plan, which is trying to stop makers of babies sleep products from saying their use will prevent/lower a SIDS event.
The items take in crib bedding, pillows, crib tents, and baby monitors. FDA has never OK'd a product to prevent SIDS and is asking manufacturers to stop marketing their products with these claims until they've received FDA clearance or approval, or to change their labeling to remove all medical claims.
WASHINGTON - Avastin shouldn't be used for advanced breast cancer because there’s no proof it extends lives and presents dangerous side effects. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruling was certain to disappoint women who’ve run out of other options as breast cancer spread. Impassioned patients had lobbied to keep it as a last shot. "This was a difficult decision," said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, but added "it's clear women who take Avastin for metastatic breast cancer risk potentially life-threatening side effects without proof the use of Avastin will provide a benefit, in terms of delay in tumor growth, that would justify those risks." Those risks include severe high blood pressure, massive bleeding, heart attack/failure, and perforations in parts of the body such as the stomach and intestines. Avastin is used for certain forms of colon, lung, kidney, and brain cancers. Doctors could prescribe it - but insurers may not pay for it.
LONDON - GlaxoSmithKline will pay $3 billion - its biggest legal pact - to resolve U.S. criminal and civil charges into whether the U.K. company marketed drugs for unapproved uses and other matters. Talks on terms will be completed IN 2012, the firm stated. The cost will be paid from cash resources, Glaxo said. The accord would trump the $2.3 billion Pfizer paid in 2009 over marketing of its Bextra painkiller and other drugs and the $1.4 billion Eli Lilly paid in 2009 over sales of its Zyprexa anti-psychotic medicine. The Bextra accord had been the largest pharmaceutical marketing pac in U.S. history.
STANFORD, CA - Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects about 400,000 Americans - as the immune system attacks the brain, Ivanhoe Newswire reports. For years, the only treatments had to be injected. Now, FDA has approved the first oral treatment: Gilenya. "Patients are excited because it's oral. We've never had that before," Dr. Jeffrey Dunn, a clinical neuro-immunologist at Stanford School of Medicine, said. In MS, the immune system attacks myelin, which protects nerves. Gilenya holds certain immune cells in the lymph nodes so they can't reach the myelin. In clinical studies, Gilenya cut MS relapses by 54% versus a placebo and 52% versus another common injectable drug. "What we don't know is what can happen long-term; we don't know that until we have a lot more patients on the drug," Dr. Melissa Ortega, a clinical instructor and MS specialist at the University of Miami, said. Gilenya can cause side effects like slowed heart rate, liver problems, headaches, and a build-up of fluid in the eye.
SAN DIEGO - Did you know stroke leads U.S. disability causes? Yearly, about 795,000 people suffer stroke; 137,000+ die from stroke-related ills, www.HealthNewsDigest.com posts. Nearly 85% of all strokes are acute ischemic: a blood clot in a brain artery or vessel keeps brain cells from getting oxygen-carrying blood they need. This blockage causes brain cells to start dying; there's a sudden brain function loss. Stroke can result in permanent mental/physical impairments, such as trouble thinking, speaking, or moving. It's figured about 1.9 million brain cells die each minute during a large-vessel stroke; time is vital to seek aid. "Don't hesitate if you or a loved one begins to [show] signs and symptoms of stroke," said Dr. Justin Zivin, Ph.D., professor of neurosciences, University of California. Signs and symptoms include speech impairment, arm numbness/weakness, severe headache, sudden confusion, trouble seeing out of one or both eyes, and uncontrollable drooping of the face. With any symptom, call 9-1-1 immediately.
STOCKHOLM - Ivanhoe Newswire posted a possible link between shift work and risk of multiple sclerosis (MS). Those with off-hour jobs before 20 may be at risk due to disrupted circadian rhythm, sleep pattern. Circadian disruption and sleep restriction are tied to working night shifts, said to disturb melatonin secretion and raise inflammatory responses, promoting disease. MS is an autoimmune inflammatory disorder with an vital environmental component. Dr. Anna Karin Hedström and her team at Karolinska Institute, analyzed data from two population-based studies and compared rate of MS among study subjects exposed to shift work at various ages against those never exposed. All subjects were Swedish, 16-70. Shift work was permanent or alternating hours 9 p.m.-7 a.m. "Our analysis revealed a significant [tie] between working shift young and occurrence of MS," Dr. Hedström stated."
LONDON - The Guardian reported a study of ovarian cancer reproductive factors found women on the contraceptive pill for 10 or more years cut ovarian cancer risk by about 45%. Pregnancy was the next most protective behavior, cutting risk by 29% versus those never pregnant. The larger the family, the less likely a woman would get ovarian cancer; each baby cut her risk another 8%.The study in the British Journal of Cancer is on links between diet, lifestyle, and cancer. The European Prospective Investigation of Cancer is following more than one million Europeans, and the U.K. How much safety a woman would get reflects her own risk of ovarian cancer, because some causes are genetic. The study figured 28 in 100,000 women who used the pill for 12 months or less would get ovarian cancer - a rate that dropped to 15 per 100,000 for those who took it for 10 years or more. "It isn't uncommon for women to have fewer children or none at all," said Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK health information director. "Women tend to be unaware these reproductive factors have a protective effect on their risk of ovarian cancer."
PITTSBURGH - Seven years after a motorcycle accident damaged his spinal cord, paralyzed Tim Hemmes reached up to touch hands with his girlfriend in a tender high-five, www.HealthNewsDigest.com posted. He's the first to be in a trial assessing whether thoughts of a person with SCI can control a device, such as a computer cursor or a sophisticated prosthetic arm. The project, one of two brain-computer interface (BCI) studies at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC Rehabilitation Institute, used a grid of electrodes on the surface of the brain to control the arm. It was a unique robotic arm and hand, designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory that Hemmes willed to extend first toward the palm of a team researcher and later to his girlfriend’s hand. He said, "I got to reach out and touch somebody for the first time in seven years." Dr. Michael Boninger, institute director, said, "This first round of testing reinforces the great potential BCI technology holds [and] enhancing physical and emotional connections with their friends and family."
BALTIMORE - Every weekday, nurse Jill Ross calls some of her sickest patients to see how they’re doing, if they saw a specialist, if meds changed, seeing what’s going on with them. The calls are part of a new approach to primary medical care Maryland is testing. Instead of a doctor seeing patients mostly when they’re sick - and the physician gets paid for that visit or service, this program gives financial rewards to practices that use a team of doctors, nurses, and other staff to treat the whole person on a continuing basis, not just one illness. The team focuses on patients with chronic ills, develops personal care plans, and coordinates with specialists. Emphasis is on prevention and comprehensive care. For a patient, it's like having a doctor’s office that acts like mom - with nags and nudges designed to promote better health.
INDIANAPOLIS - A study shows a person’s stroke risk profile - high blood pressure, smoking, and diabetes - may be helpful seeing if someone will have memory/thinking woes later. Research in the journal Neurology® reveals REGARDS study scientists followed 23,752 people, average age 64, free of stroke and cognitive ills at the study start. A Framingham Stroke Risk Profile set a person’s stroke risk using age, blood pressure, education, heart disease history, smoking/diabetes status, whether they have heart muscle thickening, and an abnormal heart rhythm. After an average of four years of follow-up, 1,907 people had memory/thinking problems. The study found the higher a person’s profile score, the greater the chance of cognitive woes four years later: 15% of people among the highest 25% on the test had cognitive problems versus 3% of those who scored among the bottom 25%. "It appears the total Stroke Risk Profile score, while initially created to predict stroke, is useful determining the risk of cognitive problems," said study author Frederick Unverzagt, Ph.D., of Indiana University School of Medicine.
IRVINE, CA - As a fetus grows, it gets constant messages from its mother, posts www.HealthNewsDigest.com.
It’s not just hearing her heartbeat and whatever music she play's to her belly; it gets chemical signals via the placenta.
A study in Psychological Science finds this includes signals about her mental state.
If she's depressed, that affects how the baby develops after birth.
Researchers found the environment a fetus grows in - the womb - is very important.
Some effects are obvious: smoking/drinking can be devastating; others are subtler.
Studies show people born during the Dutch famine of 1944, most had starving mothers, were likely to have health problems later.
Curt Sandman, Elysia Davis, and Laura Glynn, of the University of California, found what mattered to the babies was if the environment was consistent before and after birth.
Babies who did best had mothers who were healthy before and after birth.
MINNEAPOLIS - HealthDay News disclosed heart attack severity can be affected by time of day, a U.S. National Library of Medicine study suggests. Analysis of data from 1,000+ heart attack patients was online at the journal Circulation Research. It revealed most injury occurs when an attack occurs 1 a.m.-5 a.m. The peak damage is 82% greater than when injury is lowest. Findings could lead to new ways to prevent heart attack, state researchers at Minneapolis Heart Institute/Abbott Northwestern Hospital. "We were trying to ascertain whether the time of day when a heart attack occurs influences damage the heart sustains, or was this a phenomenon exhibited in rodents," said study senior author Dr. Jay Traverse, an institute cardiologist. "It's important to understand the heart's ability to protect itself against more severe damage varies over a 24-hour cycle. Identifying those changes may be particularly relevant for pharmaceutical makers."
PHILADELPHIA - Pro athletes score in the game of folk remedies, www.ThePostGame.com noted. Whether buttering a burn or rubbing dirt on a cut, they'll do almost anything if it'll help them...even drinking pickle juice. It's been used for decades and got media attention in 2000 when NFL's Eagles trainer Rick Burkholder credited pickle juice as the secret weapon that helped his team stomp the Cowboys in Texas Stadium. Field temps soared above 110 degrees - perfect for a cramp-fest. Eagles players avoided crippling injury and won 41-14. A BYU study last year proved it. Subjects exercised to the point of mild dehydration and had cramps induced. Those who drank pickle juice felt relief within 85 seconds, almost twice as fast as water or other sports drinks. "Pickle juice is a natural source of sodium and other electrolytes," says Buccaneers team nutritionist Kevin Luhrs. "Sodium is a component of sweat. The rationale is that sodium from the pickle juice helps replace sodium losses from sweat and even helps retain water in the body."
BOSTON - Mutated genes in inner ear sensory hair cells prevent sound waves from conversion to electrical signals, a fundamental first step in hearing, Ivanhoe Newswire states. Restoring electrical signals in deaf mice sensory cells by inserting new genes allowed the mice to hear. This paves the way for a gene therapy test to reverse a type of deafness. Scientists have long believed hair cells carry a protein that converts this mechanical motion into electrical signals. Researchers had been unable to find the critical protein required for hearing. "People have been looking for more than 30 years," stated Jeffrey Holt, Ph.D., in the otolaryngology department at Children's Hospital. Holt, Andy Griffith, and colleagues found related proteins, TMC1 and TMC2, are essential for hearing. They make gateways which sit atop the hair-like projections and let electrically-charged molecules move to the cell, generating an electrical signal that ultimately travels to the brain.
WASHINGTON - An ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure, chiefly In preventing medical identity theft (MID), reports www.HealthNewsDigest.com. MID can affect your finances and health. ID thieves can use your personal/health insurance data to get medical treatment, Rx drugs, or surgery. MID has many forms: i.e., dishonest people in a medical setting may use it to submit false bills to insurers. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asserts you may be a MID victim if: You get billed for services you didn’t get; a debt collector calls you about med debt you don’t owe; you order a copy of your credit report and see collection notices you don’t recognize; you make a legitimate insurance claim and your health plan says you’ve reached the benefits limit, or you're denied insurance because your medical records show a condition you don’t have. FTC suggests: Be wary of "free" health services or products; get a copy of your medical records - review them for inaccuracies; shred your health insurance forms, Rx, and physician statements - after filing taxes.
HOUSTON - EatingWell Magazine chows down on herbs and spices: they let you cut some less healthy ingredients, such as salt, added sugars, saturated fat - and some have inherent health benefits.
"We're starting to see a scientific basis for why people have been using spices medicinally for thousands of years," says Bharat Aggarwal, Ph.D., professor at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and author of Healing Spices (Sterling, 2011).
He notes that in his native India incidence of diet-related diseases like heart disease and cancer have long been low.
When Indians adopt Westernized eating patterns, their rates of those diseases rise.
Aggarwal and other experts believe herbs and spices - or the lack of them - are an important piece of the dietary puzzle.
"When Indians eat more Westernized foods, they're getting much fewer spices than their traditional diet contains," he explains.
"They lose the protection those spices are conveying."
Eight of the healthiest spices and herbs are: chili peppers; ginger; cinnamon; turmeric; saffron; parsley; sage, and rosemary.
ONTARIO - Diabetes is a significant fracture risk predictor, excluding usual risk factors, Canadian scientists told MedPage Today. After adjustment for osteoporosis meds, age, sex, bone mineral density (BMD), and other factors, diabetes was related significantly to a greater risk of major osteoporotic fracture during the next 10 years, Lora Giangregorio, Ph.D., of the University of Waterloo, noted at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research annual meeting. Her group analyzed data from a Manitoba database of 3,518 diabetics and 36,085 non-diabetics. Fracture risk was set to the World Health Organization's FRAX tool, which rates risk by several factors - such as age, sex, height, weight, smoking, glucocorticoid use, and personal/parental hip fracture history. At baseline, more diabetics were men and were older, heavier, more likely to have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and taking glucocorticoid meds. "Despite all these risk factors, fewer of those with diabetes were receiving osteoporosis medications," Giangregorio said.
BETHESDA, MD - The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded a study which found kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in regular classes may be more likely to aidd social skills if their typically-developing peers are taught how to interact with them versus ASD kids being taught such skills.
In the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Thomas R. Insel, director, National Institute of Mental Health, said: "Real life doesn't happen in a lab, but few studies reflect that.
As this study shows, taking into account a person's typical environment may improve treatment outcomes." Connie Kasari, Ph.D., of the University of California/Los Angeles, and her team compared different interventions among 60 kids, six-11, with ASD.
All were mainstreamed for at least 80% of the school day.
ASD kids whose peers got training - including those who may also have gotten the child-focused way - spent less time alone on playgrounds and had more classmates naming them as a friend versus those who got the child-focused interventions.
Teachers noted ASD students in the peer-mediated groups showed much better social skills after the intervention.
ROCHESTER, MN - Multiple sclerosis (MS) may progress from the brain's outermost layers to its deep parts, states a collaborative study from scientists at the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic. The perception was MS begins in the white matter bulk of the brain’s inside, and extends to the cortex. Findings sustain an opposite process: from the cerebrospinal fluid-filled subarachnoid space, that cushions the outside and cortex, into white matter. The findings will guide researchers as they seek to understand/treat MS. The study was in the New England Journal of Medicine. "Our study shows the cortex is involved early in MS and may even be the initial target of disease," says Dr. Claudia F. Lucchinetti, study co-lead author and Mayo Clinic neurologist. "Inflammation in the cortex must be considered when investigating the causes and progression of MS," she says. Understanding how the cortex is involved is critical to creating new therapies for MS.
ANN ARBOR, MI - Hospitals work harder to avoid hospital-acquired infections, but a survey shows few are fighting aggressively the most common one: catheter-related urinary tract infections. In the University of Michigan Health System and Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare Center survey, up to 90% of U.S. hospitals raised use of methods to prevent central line-related bloodstream infections and ventilator-related pneumonia 2005-2009. Prevention practices for urinary tract infections were used regularly by a minority of hospitals, notes the survey in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. "Despite being the most common healthcare-related infection in the country, hospitals appear not to be using as many practices for prevention when relative to bloodstream infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia," says senior author Dr. Sanjay Saint, director of the VA/UM Patient Safety Enhancement Program, and U-M professor of internal medicine. Yearly, 5-10% of hospitalized patients get a hospital-acquired infection, resulting in about $45 billion in healthcare costs.
BALTIMORE - New data suggests that, in people who don’t have memory ills, those with smaller regions of the brain’s cortex may be more likely to develop symptoms consistent with very early Alzheimer’s disease. The study online at Neurology® states, "The ability to identify people who aren't showing memory problems and other symptoms but may be at a higher risk for cognitive decline is a very important step toward new ways to detect Alzheimer’s," said Susan Resnick, Ph.D., of the U.S. National Institute on Aging, in a related editorial. Researchers used brain scans to set thickness of regions of the brain’s cortex in 159 people free of dementia average age 76. Of the 159, 19 were deemed at high risk for early Alzheimer’s due to smaller size of particular regions known to be vulnerable; 116 were seen as average risk, 24 as low risk. The study found 21% of those at high risk had cognitive decline in three years of follow-up versus 7% of those at average risk, and none at low risk. Study author Dr. Bradford Dickerson, of Massachusetts General Hospital, said the study found 60% of the group seen most at risk for early Alzheimer’s had abnormal levels of proteins tied to the disease.