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Will you hear me then?
February 2010
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN - Purdue University scientists found tiny molecules that may lead to breakthroughs for hearing loss and deafness.
A global team, with members from Tel Aviv University (Israel) and Purdue, found that lack of these molecules causes inner ear abnormalities and progressive hearing loss.
Donna Fekete, Purdue professor of biological sciences, said this data could provide promising leads to treat hearing loss.
"The molecules could be used as a molecular tool delivered directly into the ears of deaf people to induce regeneration of important sensory cells that would improve hearing," she said.
"The molecules potentially could help people with balance disorders related to inner ear function, such as Meniere's disease."
The National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders reports 36 million U.S. adults have some degree of hearing loss.
In many cases of non-congenital hearing loss, the cause is degeneration of specialized inner ear sensory cells: hair cells.
They convert sound waves into electrical impulses that can be interpreted by the brain.
Excessive noise, certain medications, aging, and disease can damage/destroy hair cells.
Humans can’t replace lost hair cells, so hearing declines as they are lost.
TUCSON, AZ - The movie Extraordinary Measures tells the story of a father's quest to save the lives of his two children with Pompe disease. The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) played a role in Pompe research, with more than $3.4 million in grants. These went to researchers worldwide, including John Howell, at Murdoch University in Western Australia, and Y.T. Chen, at Duke University, whose work ultimately led to the creation of the lifesaving drug Myozyme by the biopharmaceutical firm Genzyme.
CHAPEL HILL, NC - Deployment of soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan raises the need for mental health services provided family members, notes a study by researchers at RTI International, University of North Carolina, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. The study finds extended U.S. Army deployments hike events of depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, and other mental health diagnoses for soldiers’ wives at home. The study in the New England Journal of Medicine figures the tie between the time soldiers spend deployed and use of mental health services/diagnoses among their wives. "This study confirms what many people have long suspected," said Alyssa Mansfield, Ph.D., the study’s lead author, now a research epidemiologist at RTI International. "It provides compelling evidence that Army families are feeling the impact of lengthy and repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. The result is more depression, more stress, and more sleepless nights."
DALLAS - The Associated Press notes seven secrets to a long life: stay away from cigarets; keep a slender physique; get some exercise; eat a healthy diet; and keep your cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar in check. Research shows most 50-year-olds who do that can live another 40 years free of stroke and heart disease, two of the most common killers, says Dr. Clyde Yancy, president of the American Heart Association (AHA). The AHA published the advice online at the journal Circulation. AHAhas an online quiz to help people gauge how close they are to the ideal. If you fall a bit short, it offers tips for improving. "These seven factors - if you can keep them ideal or control them – end up being the fountain of youth for your heart," said Dr. Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, a cardiologist who was lead author of the statement. "You live longer, you live healthier longer, you have much better quality of life in older age, require less medication, less medical care."
WASHINGTON - Michael J. Astrue, Social Security commissioner, and Chubby Checker, Grammy Award-winner rock 'n' roll star, launched a campaign to inform millions of us about a new "twist" in the law that makes it easier to qualify for extra help with Medicare prescription costs. The program provides aid to more than nine million senior and disabled Americans. To apply for extra help, there’s an online application at www.socialsecurity.gov. "Changes in the Medicare law will allow hundreds of thousands of us who are struggling to pay their prescription costs to get extra help during these tough economic times," said Astrue. "Chubby Checker volunteered to help us spread this important message through a TV, radio, and Internet spot plus pamphlets and posters." To qualify, people must meet certain resource and income limits - the new law eases those limits on life insurance as a resource and eliminates aid people get from others to pay household expenses, such as food, rent, mortgage, or utilities from counting as income.
TENAFLY, NJ - According to www.Disaboom.com, if you have a child with Autism and can't imagine staying in a regular hotel room, check this out. Everything in the Alpine Suite at the Clinton Inn Hotel in Tenafly is arranged with you in mind. The inside lock is mounted high on the door. Glassware and cabinet doors are unbreakable. The windows are locked, and the furniture has rounded corners and soft bumper edges. Decorative items are affixed permanently, and the TV is mounted to the wall. If a child tries to exit, an alarm sounds. With U.S. Autism rates of about one in 100 children, isn't it time every hotel had something similar? The staff is trained specially for guests with children who have Autism. Plus, a special-needs menu and free in-room movie are offered. Plus, 5% of the proceeds for the room go to Autism Speaks. (See www.northjersey.com/news/80125527.html.)
BERKELEY, CA - Disability among seniors is rising, a surprise considering the rate had fallen since the 1980s, research noted by HealthDay News found. "People are living longer, but many are living sicker," study co-author Amani Nuru-Jeter, assistant professor of community health/human development at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health, stated. "This study (has) an early warning sign that the decline in disability we've been hearing about might be ending." After analyzing 2000-2005, the team found a 9% rise in non-institutionalized people 65 and older who reported difficulty handling daily activities, such as dressing and bathing, due to a woe lasting six months or more. "Increasing disability rates, plus a growing population of older adults (stresses) … prevention of many chronic conditions (causing) disability," the study's lead author, Esme Fuller-Thomson, University of Toronto professor of social work, explained. "There’s evidence, for example, that the doubling of obesity rates over the last three decades may be linked to rising disability in older people, yet the obesity problem is largely preventable." The findings were in the Journal of Gerontology.
ATLANTA - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Autism prevalence report confirms the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in the U.S. is 1% of the population, or one in 110 of children eight years old in 2006. The report was done by the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (ADDM) at 11 sites and tracks prevalence in children eight years old. ADDM is a group of programs funded by CDC to set the number of U.S. people with ASDs. ADDM sites collect data using the same methods, modeled after CDC’s Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Surveillance Program. "This report confirms what we at the Autism Society have been saying for years about the prevalence of Autism and the critical importance of early identification and interventions. For the first time, we’re hearing our government acknowledge the real increase in Autism and validating the impact this has on individuals, families, and their communities," said Lee Grossman, Autism Society president/CEO. "The question remains: How bad does it have to get before families receive appropriate lifespan services?"
IOWA CITY, IA - The Disability Law & Policy e-Newsletter of the Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa College of Law and the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University disclosed a survey revealed nine of 10 students with Autism are victims of bullying at school, with a majority being hit, kicked, or chased. Massachusetts Advocates for Children surveyed approximately 400 parents from statewide. Almost nine out of 10 children with Autism are bullied at school, verbally or physically. In two of three cases, bullying lasted for several months. Many parents complained the schools haven’t been responsive to bullying reports. A bill in the Massachusetts legislature would require Individualized Education Plan (IEP) teams to address bullying in their child's IEP.
IOWA CITY, IA - The Disability Law & Policy e-Newsletter of the Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa College of Law and the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University noted a federal judge okayed a consent decree settling a lawsuit against Sears Roebuck & Co. under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The $6.2 million accord was the largest reached by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The suit was filed after a Sears service technician was injured at work, took workers' compensation leave, and tried repeatedly to return to work. Sears fired him after his leave expired, saying they perceived no reasonable accommodation would allow him to perform essential job functions. EEOC attorney John Hendrickson noted Sears discovery papers suggested hundreds of other similarly-situated ex-employees were terminated while on leave without Sears seriously considering reasonable accommodations. The settlement requires that Sears change its leave policy, provide written reports that indicate ADA compliance, post a notice of this settlement order in all branches, and provide ADA training for all employees.
DURHAM, NC - Reuters reported a study using new imaging technology found "silent" heart attacks may be far more common - and deadly - than suspected, scientists said. Some studies estimate these often painless unrecognized myocardial infarctions affect 200,000 Americans each year. Dr. Han Kim, of Duke University, suspects the numbers may be greater. "No one has understood fully how often these attacks occur and what they mean," Dr. Kim stated. His study was in the journal PLoS Medicine. Doctors usually can tell whether a patient has had a recent heart attack checking signature electrical activity changes, an electrocardiogram (EKG), and checking for certain blood enzymes. For a prior attack, doctors seek EKG changes called a Q-wave, a marker for damaged tissue. Not all silent attacks yield Q-waves. "Those are the ones we haven't been able to count because we've never had a good way to document them," Dr. Kim said. He and his team used new delayed enhancement cardiovascular magnetic resonance, especially adept at finding damaged heart tissue. They studied 185 patients and found 35% evidenced prior heart attack; these so-called non-Q-wave attacks were three times more common than silent attacks with Q-waves. People who suffered a silent, non-Q-wave attack had an 11-fold higher risk of death from any cause and a 17-fold higher risk of death due to heart problems versus patients who didn’t have any heart damage.
BETHESDA, MD - A history of child abuse or neglect can raise the risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in adulthood, states a study funded partly by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Scientists noted findings in a supplement of the American Journal of Public Health. Drs. Helen W. Wilson (Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science) and Cathy S. Widom (John Jay College/City University of New York) continued to track adults physical or sexual abused or neglected before age 11. Through interviews/assessments over time, they examined STD prevalence in 754 participants; 328 were non-abused or neglected controls, average age 41. Scientists had substantial funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). They found people abused or neglected 30 years before the study were more likely than controls to have had an STD. In some cases, abuse survivors were three times as likely to have had more than one type of STD. Childhood sexual abuse seemed to raise risk for STDs in women but not in men. Any kind of childhood abuse increased overall risk for STDs among white participants, but not black.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - National Public Radio’s All Things Considered reported a urine test appears to shoe which smokers are likely to get lung cancer and which aren’t. The test detects if smokers have a chemical in their urine that's been linked to lung cancer. The lung cancer risk was 8.5 times higher in those who had the highest levels of NNAL, and the highest nicotine levels. It studied about 500 men and women in Shanghai and Singapore; results were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. "A history of smoking has always been thought of as a lung cancer predictor, but it’s actually not very accurate," said Dr. Jian-Min Yuan, public health associate professor at the University of Minnesota. "Smoking absolutely increases your risk, but why it does in some people but not others is a big question." NNAL is created as the body metabolizes tobacco and has been shown to induce lung cancer in lab animals, but the effect in humans hadn’t been studied. Scientists suspect that for genetic reasons, some people produce more NNAL than others, raising their risk of lung cancer.
PARANA, BRAZIL - When it comes to choosing a mate, opposites do attract, Reuters noted. A Brazilian study found people are subconsciously more likely to choose a partner whose genetic make-up is different from their own. It found evidence that married couples are more likely to have genetic differences in a DNA region governing the immune system than were randomly-matched pairs. This was likely to be evolutionary strategy to ensure healthy reproduction because genetic variability is an advantage for offspring, Maria da Graca Bicalho and colleagues at the University of Parana disclosed. "Although it may be tempting to think that humans choose their partners because of their similarities, our research has shown clearly it’s differences that make for successful reproduction, and the subconscious drive to have healthy children is important when choosing a mate," she stated. Scientists said it wasn’t clear what signals attract the body to people genetically dissimilar, but suggested body odor or even face structure could play a role.
NEW YORK - Bicuspid Aortic Valve (BAV), where patients' aortic valves have two leaflets versus the normal three, is the most common cardiac anomaly, affecting up to 2% of the U.S. population. The defect can cause calcification on the heart valve, valve leakage, and may cause tightness in the chest plus shortness of breath. BAV is diagnosed easily; often physicians can hear a "click" or murmur when they listen to a BAV patient's heart with a stethoscope. Studies have shown BAV is likely genetic; the gene hasn’t been identified, and in some families, incidence could run up to 20%. A study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests nearly 33% of first-degree relatives (siblings, children, or parents) of BAV patients are likely to have enlarged aortas, a potentially serious malady that can only be detected by undergoing transthoracic echocardiograms. The study found 32% of first-degree relatives with no heart valve abnormality had significantly larger aortas than likely for age, gender, and body size versus no enlargement seen in control patients. "If you know a relative (has BAV), you know you should be screened," said study author Dr. Kirsten Tolstrup, assistant director, Cardiac Noninvasive Laboratory, Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute.
TUCSON, AZ - The movie Extraordinary Measures tells the story of a father's quest to save the lives of his two children with Pompe disease. The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) played a role in Pompe research, with more than $3.4 million in grants. These went to researchers worldwide, including John Howell, at Murdoch University in Western Australia, and Y.T. Chen, at Duke University, whose work ultimately led to the creation of the lifesaving drug Myozyme by the biopharmaceutical firm Genzyme.
CHAPEL HILL, NC - Deployment of soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan raises the need for mental health services provided family members, notes a study by researchers at RTI International, University of North Carolina, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. The study finds extended U.S. Army deployments hike events of depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, and other mental health diagnoses for soldiers’ wives at home. The study in the New England Journal of Medicine figures the tie between the time soldiers spend deployed and use of mental health services/diagnoses among their wives. "This study confirms what many people have long suspected," said Alyssa Mansfield, Ph.D., the study’s lead author, now a research epidemiologist at RTI International. "It provides compelling evidence that Army families are feeling the impact of lengthy and repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. The result is more depression, more stress, and more sleepless nights."
DALLAS - The Associated Press notes seven secrets to a long life: stay away from cigarets; keep a slender physique; get some exercise; eat a healthy diet; and keep your cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar in check. Research shows most 50-year-olds who do that can live another 40 years free of stroke and heart disease, two of the most common killers, says Dr. Clyde Yancy, president of the American Heart Association (AHA). The AHA published the advice online at the journal Circulation. AHAhas an online quiz to help people gauge how close they are to the ideal. If you fall a bit short, it offers tips for improving. "These seven factors - if you can keep them ideal or control them – end up being the fountain of youth for your heart," said Dr. Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, a cardiologist who was lead author of the statement. "You live longer, you live healthier longer, you have much better quality of life in older age, require less medication, less medical care."
WASHINGTON - Michael J. Astrue, Social Security commissioner, and Chubby Checker, Grammy Award-winner rock 'n' roll star, launched a campaign to inform millions of us about a new "twist" in the law that makes it easier to qualify for extra help with Medicare prescription costs. The program provides aid to more than nine million senior and disabled Americans. To apply for extra help, there’s an online application at www.socialsecurity.gov. "Changes in the Medicare law will allow hundreds of thousands of us who are struggling to pay their prescription costs to get extra help during these tough economic times," said Astrue. "Chubby Checker volunteered to help us spread this important message through a TV, radio, and Internet spot plus pamphlets and posters." To qualify, people must meet certain resource and income limits - the new law eases those limits on life insurance as a resource and eliminates aid people get from others to pay household expenses, such as food, rent, mortgage, or utilities from counting as income.
TENAFLY, NJ - According to www.Disaboom.com, if you have a child with Autism and can't imagine staying in a regular hotel room, check this out. Everything in the Alpine Suite at the Clinton Inn Hotel in Tenafly is arranged with you in mind. The inside lock is mounted high on the door. Glassware and cabinet doors are unbreakable. The windows are locked, and the furniture has rounded corners and soft bumper edges. Decorative items are affixed permanently, and the TV is mounted to the wall. If a child tries to exit, an alarm sounds. With U.S. Autism rates of about one in 100 children, isn't it time every hotel had something similar? The staff is trained specially for guests with children who have Autism. Plus, a special-needs menu and free in-room movie are offered. Plus, 5% of the proceeds for the room go to Autism Speaks. (See www.northjersey.com/news/80125527.html.)
BERKELEY, CA - Disability among seniors is rising, a surprise considering the rate had fallen since the 1980s, research noted by HealthDay News found. "People are living longer, but many are living sicker," study co-author Amani Nuru-Jeter, assistant professor of community health/human development at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health, stated. "This study (has) an early warning sign that the decline in disability we've been hearing about might be ending." After analyzing 2000-2005, the team found a 9% rise in non-institutionalized people 65 and older who reported difficulty handling daily activities, such as dressing and bathing, due to a woe lasting six months or more. "Increasing disability rates, plus a growing population of older adults (stresses) … prevention of many chronic conditions (causing) disability," the study's lead author, Esme Fuller-Thomson, University of Toronto professor of social work, explained. "There’s evidence, for example, that the doubling of obesity rates over the last three decades may be linked to rising disability in older people, yet the obesity problem is largely preventable." The findings were in the Journal of Gerontology.
ATLANTA - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Autism prevalence report confirms the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in the U.S. is 1% of the population, or one in 110 of children eight years old in 2006. The report was done by the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (ADDM) at 11 sites and tracks prevalence in children eight years old. ADDM is a group of programs funded by CDC to set the number of U.S. people with ASDs. ADDM sites collect data using the same methods, modeled after CDC’s Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Surveillance Program. "This report confirms what we at the Autism Society have been saying for years about the prevalence of Autism and the critical importance of early identification and interventions. For the first time, we’re hearing our government acknowledge the real increase in Autism and validating the impact this has on individuals, families, and their communities," said Lee Grossman, Autism Society president/CEO. "The question remains: How bad does it have to get before families receive appropriate lifespan services?"
IOWA CITY, IA - The Disability Law & Policy e-Newsletter of the Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa College of Law and the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University disclosed a survey revealed nine of 10 students with Autism are victims of bullying at school, with a majority being hit, kicked, or chased. Massachusetts Advocates for Children surveyed approximately 400 parents from statewide. Almost nine out of 10 children with Autism are bullied at school, verbally or physically. In two of three cases, bullying lasted for several months. Many parents complained the schools haven’t been responsive to bullying reports. A bill in the Massachusetts legislature would require Individualized Education Plan (IEP) teams to address bullying in their child's IEP.
IOWA CITY, IA - The Disability Law & Policy e-Newsletter of the Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa College of Law and the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University noted a federal judge okayed a consent decree settling a lawsuit against Sears Roebuck & Co. under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The $6.2 million accord was the largest reached by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The suit was filed after a Sears service technician was injured at work, took workers' compensation leave, and tried repeatedly to return to work. Sears fired him after his leave expired, saying they perceived no reasonable accommodation would allow him to perform essential job functions. EEOC attorney John Hendrickson noted Sears discovery papers suggested hundreds of other similarly-situated ex-employees were terminated while on leave without Sears seriously considering reasonable accommodations. The settlement requires that Sears change its leave policy, provide written reports that indicate ADA compliance, post a notice of this settlement order in all branches, and provide ADA training for all employees.
DURHAM, NC - Reuters reported a study using new imaging technology found "silent" heart attacks may be far more common - and deadly - than suspected, scientists said. Some studies estimate these often painless unrecognized myocardial infarctions affect 200,000 Americans each year. Dr. Han Kim, of Duke University, suspects the numbers may be greater. "No one has understood fully how often these attacks occur and what they mean," Dr. Kim stated. His study was in the journal PLoS Medicine. Doctors usually can tell whether a patient has had a recent heart attack checking signature electrical activity changes, an electrocardiogram (EKG), and checking for certain blood enzymes. For a prior attack, doctors seek EKG changes called a Q-wave, a marker for damaged tissue. Not all silent attacks yield Q-waves. "Those are the ones we haven't been able to count because we've never had a good way to document them," Dr. Kim said. He and his team used new delayed enhancement cardiovascular magnetic resonance, especially adept at finding damaged heart tissue. They studied 185 patients and found 35% evidenced prior heart attack; these so-called non-Q-wave attacks were three times more common than silent attacks with Q-waves. People who suffered a silent, non-Q-wave attack had an 11-fold higher risk of death from any cause and a 17-fold higher risk of death due to heart problems versus patients who didn’t have any heart damage.
BETHESDA, MD - A history of child abuse or neglect can raise the risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in adulthood, states a study funded partly by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Scientists noted findings in a supplement of the American Journal of Public Health. Drs. Helen W. Wilson (Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science) and Cathy S. Widom (John Jay College/City University of New York) continued to track adults physical or sexual abused or neglected before age 11. Through interviews/assessments over time, they examined STD prevalence in 754 participants; 328 were non-abused or neglected controls, average age 41. Scientists had substantial funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). They found people abused or neglected 30 years before the study were more likely than controls to have had an STD. In some cases, abuse survivors were three times as likely to have had more than one type of STD. Childhood sexual abuse seemed to raise risk for STDs in women but not in men. Any kind of childhood abuse increased overall risk for STDs among white participants, but not black.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - National Public Radio’s All Things Considered reported a urine test appears to shoe which smokers are likely to get lung cancer and which aren’t. The test detects if smokers have a chemical in their urine that's been linked to lung cancer. The lung cancer risk was 8.5 times higher in those who had the highest levels of NNAL, and the highest nicotine levels. It studied about 500 men and women in Shanghai and Singapore; results were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. "A history of smoking has always been thought of as a lung cancer predictor, but it’s actually not very accurate," said Dr. Jian-Min Yuan, public health associate professor at the University of Minnesota. "Smoking absolutely increases your risk, but why it does in some people but not others is a big question." NNAL is created as the body metabolizes tobacco and has been shown to induce lung cancer in lab animals, but the effect in humans hadn’t been studied. Scientists suspect that for genetic reasons, some people produce more NNAL than others, raising their risk of lung cancer.
PARANA, BRAZIL - When it comes to choosing a mate, opposites do attract, Reuters noted. A Brazilian study found people are subconsciously more likely to choose a partner whose genetic make-up is different from their own. It found evidence that married couples are more likely to have genetic differences in a DNA region governing the immune system than were randomly-matched pairs. This was likely to be evolutionary strategy to ensure healthy reproduction because genetic variability is an advantage for offspring, Maria da Graca Bicalho and colleagues at the University of Parana disclosed. "Although it may be tempting to think that humans choose their partners because of their similarities, our research has shown clearly it’s differences that make for successful reproduction, and the subconscious drive to have healthy children is important when choosing a mate," she stated. Scientists said it wasn’t clear what signals attract the body to people genetically dissimilar, but suggested body odor or even face structure could play a role.
NEW YORK - Bicuspid Aortic Valve (BAV), where patients' aortic valves have two leaflets versus the normal three, is the most common cardiac anomaly, affecting up to 2% of the U.S. population. The defect can cause calcification on the heart valve, valve leakage, and may cause tightness in the chest plus shortness of breath. BAV is diagnosed easily; often physicians can hear a "click" or murmur when they listen to a BAV patient's heart with a stethoscope. Studies have shown BAV is likely genetic; the gene hasn’t been identified, and in some families, incidence could run up to 20%. A study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests nearly 33% of first-degree relatives (siblings, children, or parents) of BAV patients are likely to have enlarged aortas, a potentially serious malady that can only be detected by undergoing transthoracic echocardiograms. The study found 32% of first-degree relatives with no heart valve abnormality had significantly larger aortas than likely for age, gender, and body size versus no enlargement seen in control patients. "If you know a relative (has BAV), you know you should be screened," said study author Dr. Kirsten Tolstrup, assistant director, Cardiac Noninvasive Laboratory, Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute.