May 8, 2008, 9:11 PM CT

Major shift in HIV prevention priorities needed

As per a new policy analysis led by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of California, Berkeley, the most common HIV prevention strategiescondom promotion, HIV testing, therapy of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), vaccine and microbicide research, and abstinenceare having a limited impact on the predominantly heterosexual epidemics found in Africa. Furthermore, some of the assumptions underlying such strategiessuch as poverty or war being major causes of AIDS in Africaare unsupported by rigorous scientific evidence. The scientists argue that two interventions currently getting less attention and resourcesmale circumcision and reducing multiple sexual partnershipswould have a greater impact on the AIDS pandemic and should become the cornerstone of HIV prevention efforts in the high-HIV-prevalence parts of Africa.

The paper appears in the May 9, 2008 issue of the journal Science.

Despite relatively large investments in AIDS prevention efforts for some years now, including sizeable spending in some of the most heavily affected countries (such as South Africa and Botswana), its clear that we need to do a better job of reducing the rate of new HIV infections. We need a fairly dramatic shift in priorities, not just a minor tweaking, said Daniel Halperin, lecturer on international health in the HSPH Department of Population and International Health and one of the papers lead authors......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

May 8, 2008, 9:08 PM CT

Drink and drugs for better sex

Teenagers and young adults across Europe drink and take drugs as part of deliberate sexual strategies. Findings published recently in BioMed Centrals open access journal, BMC Public Health, reveal that a third of 16-35 year old males and a quarter of females surveyed are drinking alcohol to increase their chances of sex, while cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis are intentionally used to enhance sexual arousal or prolong sex.

The study was conducted by scientists in public health and social sciences from across Europe. More than 1300 people aged between 16 and 35 and who routinely socialise in nightlife settings completed anonymous questionnaires.

Virtually all of the survey participants had drunk alcohol with most having had their first drink when 14 or 15 years old. Three quarters of the respondents had tried or used cannabis, while around 30 percent had at least tried ecstasy or cocaine.

Overall, alcohol was most likely to be used to facilitate a sexual encounter, while cocaine and cannabis were more likely to be utilised to enhance sexual sensations and arousal.

Despite these perceived sexual benefits, drunkenness and drug use were strongly linked to an increase in risk taking behaviour and feeling regretful about having sex while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Thus, participants who had been drunk in the past four weeks were more likely to have had five or more partners, sex without a condom and to have regretted sex after drink or drugs in the past 12 months. Cannabis, cocaine or ecstasy use was associated with similar consequences......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

May 7, 2008, 6:56 PM CT

Mental Fitness and Multi-Lingualism

Children who speak a second or third language may have an unexpected advantage during the later part of life, a new Tel Aviv University study has observed. Knowing and speaking a number of languages may protect the brain against the effects of aging.

Dr. Gitit Kave, a clinical neuro-psychology expert from the Herczeg Institute on Aging at Tel Aviv University, together with her colleagues Nitza Eyal, Aviva Shorek, and Jiska Cohen-Manfield, discovered recently that senior citizens who speak more languages test for better cognitive functioning. The results of her study were reported in the journal Psychology and Aging.

However, Kave says that one should approach these findings with caution. "There is no sure-fire recipe for avoiding the pitfalls of mental aging. But using a second or third language may help prolong the good years," she advises.

Exercising the Brain

A person who speaks more languages is likely to be more clear-minded at an older age, she says, in effect "exercising" his or her brain more than those who are monolingual. Languages may create new links in the brain, contributing to this strengthening effect.

The research was based on a survey taken in 1989 on people between the ages of 75 and 95. Each person was asked how a number of languages he or she knew, what his or her mother tongue was, and which language he or she spoke best. The scientists compared bilingual speakers to tri- and multilingual speakers......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

May 5, 2008, 8:51 PM CT

Youths in towns with smoke-free restaurant laws

Young people who live in towns where regulations ban smoking in restaurants may be less likely to become established smokers, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

A number of studies have examined the risk factors that lead young people to try their first cigarette, as per background information in the article. However, fewer scientists have differentiated these factors from those that cause children and teens to progress to established smoking, or having smoked 100 or more cigarettes. Yet understanding this difference is critical, the authors write. It would allow us to determine the age and stage at which youths are most sensitive to various types of interventions, thus enabling the more specific tailoring and more effective delivery of smoking prevention interventions.

Michael Siegel, M.D., M.P.H., of Boston University School of Public Health, and his colleagues studied 3,834 Massachusetts youths who were age 12 to 17 at the first interview, conducted between 2001 and 2002. Of those, 2,791 were interviewed again two years later and 2,217 were interviewed four years later.

Overall, 9.3 percent of the participants became established smokers over the study period, including 9.6 percent of those living in towns with weak restaurant smoking regulations (where smoking is restricted to designated areas or not restricted at all), 9.8 percent of those in towns with medium regulations (smoking is restricted to enclosed or ventilated areas, or no smoking is allowed but variations are permitted) and 7.9 percent of those in towns with strong regulations (complete smoking bans). The strength of local smoking regulations was not linked to the transition from non-smoking to experimentation, but was linked to the transition from experimentation to established smoking......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

May 5, 2008, 6:10 PM CT

Preference for alcohol may lead to heavy drinking

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have shown a correlation between early drinking patterns and a tendency to be a heavy drinker in adulthood, in a study of adolescent rats.

Drinking patterns in adolescents may be set after only a few exposures to alcohol, said Nicole L. Schramm-Sapyta, research associate in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University School of Medicine. Rats that demonstrated a taste for alcohol after only three nights of drinking were very likely to be the biggest drinkers after longer-term exposure.

During the first three nights of the study, the rats were given only alcohol to consume. After that, for 10 days, they had a choice of water or alcohol. Their drinking was measured right after they had traveled through an elevated maze, a way to raise anxiety levels and measure stress-related hormone levels. They also were tested for drinking after researchers observed their preference for new objects and for exploring a new place.

We decided to examine stress and novelty seeking because these are two characteristics we see among people who develop problem drinking, said Schramm-Sapyta, first author of the study reported in the recent issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The study was funded by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

May 3, 2008, 7:51 PM CT

Uninsured kids in middle class

Nationwide, uninsured children in families earning between $38,000 and $77,000 a year are just as likely to go without any health care as uninsured children in poorer families. More than 40 percent of children in those income brackets who are uninsured all year see no physicians and have no prescriptions all year, as per new research from the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Theres an assumption that children in families with higher income levels dont need insurance, that they are uninsured but are somehow still receiving health care anyway, said Laura Shone, Dr.P.H., M.S.W., an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center and author of the study being presented today at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. This study shows that in reality, a large percentage of these children dont receive any care at all which pediatricians say is unacceptable, and parents know is unrealistic. Even healthy, older children need to see their physicians at least once over the course of a year.

Overall, almost 3 million uninsured children had no medical care and no prescription use for a full year, as per an analysis of nationally representative data from the 2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Of those, about 1.6 million children may qualify for public coverage but are not enrolled, and about 1 million more could be covered through expansions that were proposed yet vetoed at the national level in late 2007. The percentage of uninsured children who forego all health care for a full year is:........ Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

May 3, 2008, 7:36 PM CT

Unemployment having impact on kids' health-care

Two new studies conducted by scientists at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center point to the negative impact of parental job loss on childrens healthcare and the importance of having continuous health insurance coverage to meet childrens healthcare needs and reduce healthcare disparities.

The studies will be presented Saturday May 3 at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Honolulu.

These studies describe a situation that should be of grave concern to parents, health care providers and policymakers, says Gerry Fairbrother, Ph.D., a researcher in the division of health policy and clinical effectiveness at Cincinnati Childrens who was an author of both studies. The impact of not having insurance coverage in place year-round hurts children in a number of ways, including not being able to get the prescribed medications they need, and not having a regular source of health care and that puts their health at risk.

The first study shows that children whose parents lose or change jobs were twice as likely to lose their health care coverage as children whose parents did not lose or change jobs. In addition, children with private insurance were more than three times as likely to lose coverage.

This is a especially disturbing finding, coming at a time when job loss is becoming more common due to the economy, says Dr. Fairbrother, Ph.D., the studys lead author. As unemployment rises, more and more children are likely to experience a break in coverage that affects their health care. Our study showed that most of these children are eligible for public coverage but are not getting the coverage to which they are entitled. Much more needs to be done to reach out to children with private coverage when their parents experience job loss or change......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

May 2, 2008, 8:17 AM CT

Blood pressure killing the world's workers

In a todays issue of The Lancet, international health experts call for urgent action from international development banks and pharmaceutical companies to stem the epidemic of blood pressure-related diseases affecting developing countries worldwide.

New findings reveal that each year 8 million people die from heart disease and stroke, the two leading blood pressure-related diseases. The majority of these deaths occur in the developing world where victims are often workers, whose deaths directly result in poverty for families and other dependents. As per the authors these deaths are largely avoidable, but no substantive effort to address this issue has been made by the international development banks or the major drug companies.

Author and Principal Director of The George Institute for International Health in Sydney, Professor Stephen MacMahon said today, Ten years ago, The Global Burden of Disease Project predicted this epidemic, yet none of the key players who determine priorities for international health investment have made any real effort to address the problem. As a consequence in the last decade, blood pressure related diseases have killed more than 50 million people, disabled a number of more and taken billions of dollars from the already fragile economies of the developing world......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

April 30, 2008, 5:55 PM CT

Salk study links diabetes and Alzheimer's disease

Diabetic individuals have a significantly higher risk of developing Alzheimers disease but the molecular correlation between the two remains unexplained. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies identified the probable molecular basis for the diabetes Alzheimers interaction.

As per a research findings reported in the current online issue of Neurobiology of Aging, researchers led by David R. Schubert, Ph.D., professor in the Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory, report that the blood vessels in the brain of young diabetic mice are damaged by the interaction of elevated blood glucose levels characteristic of diabetes and low levels of beta amyloid, a peptide that clumps to form the senile plaques that riddle the brains of Alzheimers patients.

Eventhough the damage took place long before the first plaques appeared, the mice suffered from significant memory loss and an increase in inflammation in the brain. Eventhough the toxic beta amyloid peptide was first isolated from the brain blood vessels of Alzheimers patients, the contribution of pathological changes in brain vascular tissue to the disease has not been well studied, says Dave R. Schubert, Ph.D., professor and head of the Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory. Our data clearly describe a biochemical mechanism to explain the epidemiology, and identify targets for drug development......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

April 30, 2008, 5:26 PM CT

Elderly heart patients with ICD devices live longer

Elderly patients diagnosed with congestive heart failure who receive implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) for primary prevention of sudden cardiac death live longer than those that do not, as per scientists at the University of Pennsylvanias School of Medicine. Further, the health care costs linked to ICDs, while substantial at the time of implantation, do not greatly increase downstream health care costs in this population. The study is among the first to analyze the health outcomes and costs linked to primary prevention ICDs for patients outside of a clinical trial setting.

Scientists examined health care data from a nationally representative sample of 14,250 Medicare beneficiaries over age 66 who were treated for congestive heart failure at over 2,000 academic and community hospitals nationwide. Peter Groeneveld, M.D., M.S., Assistant Professor of General Internal Medicine, and his co-authors reported their findings in the May 2008 issue of the journal Heart Rhythm.

Scientists observed that, on average, patients receiving ICDselectric monitoring devices that deliver a lifesaving shock to the heartfor primary prevention had a 38 percent lower mortality rate than patients who did not. Thirteen percent of patients who received ICDs died in the first year after implantation, compared with 23 percent of patients who did not receive ICDs. During the second year, the gap widened, as 17 percent of ICD recipients died, compared with 29 percent who did not receive the device......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

April 28, 2008, 9:53 PM CT

Will you be misdiagnosed?

New York, April 28, 2008 How frequently do doctors misdiagnose patients? While research has demonstrated that the great majority of medical diagnoses are correct, the answer is probably higher than patients expect and certainly higher than doctors realize. In a Supplement to the recent issue of The American Journal of Medicine, a collection of articles and commentaries sheds light on the causes underlying misdiagnoses and demonstrates a nontrivial rate of diagnostic error that ranges from <5% in the perceptual specialties (pathology, radiology, dermatology) up to 10% to 15% in a number of other fields.

The sensitive issue of diagnostic error is rarely discussed and has been understudied. The papers in this volume confirm the extent of diagnostic errors and suggest improvement will best come by developing systems to provide physicians with better feedback on their own errors.

Guest Editors Mark L. Graber, MD, FACP (Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Northport, NY and Department of Medicine, SUNY Stony Book) and Eta S. Berner, EdD (School of Health Professions, University of Alabama at Birmingham) oversaw the development and compilation of these papers. Drs. Berner and Graber conducted an extensive literature review concerning teaching, learning, reasoning and decision making as they relate to diagnostic error and overconfidence and developed a framework for strategies to address the problem......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 28, 2008, 8:48 PM CT

Language skills develop at 6

Psychology experts at the University of Liverpool have discovered that children as young as six are as adept at recognising possible verbs and their past tenses as adults.

In a study conducted by the Universitys Child Language Study Centre, children aged between six and nine were given sentences containing made-up verbs such as the duck likes to spling and were asked to judge the acceptability of possible past tense forms. The study focused on the process the children used to come to their conclusions rather than whether their answers were right or wrong.

They observed that the childrens judgements followed a virtually identical pattern to those of linguistics students who took part in a similar study at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the US.

University of Liverpool psychology expert, Ben Ambridge, said: Prior studies have concentrated on getting children to produce past tense forms for made-up words. This study is unique in that the children were asked to judge the acceptability of different forms that we gave them.

One of the main questions raised when looking at childrens ability to pick up their native language is whether abstract symbolic rules or the use of memory and comparison affect how a child attributes past tenses to words......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

April 24, 2008, 10:26 PM CT

Racial disparities in smoking cessation treatment

A new study from the American Cancer Society finds black and Hispanic smokers are less likely than whites to receive and use smoking cessation advice and aids. The study, published in the recent issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, also finds men and those without a usual source of medical care were less likely to be screened for tobacco use and receive advice to quit.

Members of several racial and ethnic minority populations bear a disproportionate share of the adverse health consequences of tobacco use. There is strong evidence that interventions, ranging from a health care workers brief advice to quit to extensive counseling and the use of pharmaceutical and behavioral adjuncts, can considerably improve cessation rates in smokers. Smoking is associated with socioeconomic disadvantage and is an important contributor to inequalities in health.

For their study, American Cancer Society researchers led by Vilma Cokkinides, Ph.D., analyzed survey results from 4756 smokers (aged 18 and older) who visited a healthcare provider within the past year. All were participants in the 2005 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). The analysis found that compared to white smokers, black and Hispanic smokers were less likely to have been asked about tobacco use (85 percent in whites versus 77 percent in blacks and 72 percent in Hispanics); less likely to have been advised to quit (63 percent in whites versus 55 percent in blacks and 48 percent in Hispanics); and less likely to have used tobacco-cessation aids during the past year in a quit attempt (38 percent in whites versus 24 percent in blacks and 21 percent in Hispanics).These racial/ethnic differences in the use of smoking cessation remained significant even after controlling for various other factors (for example, health insurance coverage, or socio-economics status of smokers)......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 24, 2008, 10:21 PM CT

Docs need better bedside manners

As the 2008 national presidential election heats up, one topic remains a voter hot button and a constant debate issue the health care crisis in America. Political affiliations aside, there is one aspect everyone can agree on the importance of access to quality health care. But what defines quality health care today" As per a new survey conducted by Kelton Research for the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, a vast majority of Americans wish their doctors demonstrated the care in the term heath care. The survey unveiled that nearly eight out of ten polled (78 percent) complain that todays doctors need better bedside manners and less than half of survey respondents could describe their doctors recent conduct as attentive (49 percent), communicative (44 percent) or compassionate (32 percent) at their last medical visit.

A number of past studies have shown a strong connection between patient and doctor satisfaction and better overall patient outcomes when doctors develop a relationship with their patients, said Arnold P. Gold, MD, founder of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. What this survey shows us is that patients are still craving for their doctor to see the person behind the prognosis and really want a connectedness with their doctor.

As the leading Foundation dedicated to keeping the care in healthcare, the Arnold P. Gold Foundation sponsored the online survey of 1,000 Americans over the age of 18 to garner patient perceptions about their physicians commitment to providing compassionate care. Survey respondents indicate that along with the need for better beside manner, less than half (47 percent) of the doctors visited have displayed an interest in their overall well-being as a person rather than the specific ailment at hand. In addition, a number of Americans report that their dissatisfaction with doctors is due to an experience of disconnection, such as the doctor making them feel rushed (40 percent), not providing enough opportunity to discuss their concerns and questions (36 percent), or even being outright rude or condescending (23 percent)......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 22, 2008, 9:27 PM CT

Low grades, bad behavior? Siblings may be to blame

We all know the story of a man named Brady and the group that somehow formed a family. But if the iconic 70s sitcom about a blended family reflected reality, the Brady Bunch likely would have been dealing with much more than silly sibling squabbles.

Heres the real story: On average, adolescents living with half- or stepsiblings have lower grades and more school-related behavior problems, and these problems may not improve over time, as per Florida State University Assistant Professor of Sociology Kathryn Harker Tillman.

These findings imply that family formation patterns that bring together children who have different sets of biological parents may not be in the best interests of the children involved, Tillman said. Yet one-half of all American stepfamilies include children from prior relationships of both partners, and the majority of parents in stepfamilies go on to have additional children together.

A number of studies have focused on the structure of parent-child relations in connection to academic achievement, but Tillmans study is unique in that it focuses on the composition of the entire family unit. Tillman studied data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative study of more than 11,000 adolescents in grades 7 through 12 in the United States. Her study is reported in the journal Social Science Research......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 22, 2008, 9:18 PM CT

Ozone Air Pollution and Premature Death

Short-term exposure to current levels of ozone in a number of areas is likely to contribute to premature deaths, says a new National Research Council report, which adds that the evidence is strong enough that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should include ozone-related mortality in health-benefit analyses correlation to future ozone standards. The committee that wrote the report was not asked to consider how evidence has been used by EPA to set ozone standards, including the new public health standard set by the agency last month.

Ozone, a key component of smog, can cause respiratory problems and other health effects. In addition, evidence of a relationship between short-term -- less than 24 hours -- exposure to ozone and mortality has been mounting, but interpretations of the evidence have differed, prompting EPA to request the Research Council report. In particular, the agency asked the committee to analyze the ozone-mortality link and assess methods for assigning a monetary value to lives saved for the health-benefits assessments.

Based on a review of recent research, the committee observed that deaths correlation to ozone exposure are more likely among individuals with pre-existing diseases and other factors that could increase their susceptibility. However, premature deaths are not limited to people who are already within a few days of dying......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 17, 2008, 7:45 PM CT

Parents stricter with older kids to set example

Parents are more likely to punish their teen's risky behavior when there are younger kids in the family, driven by a desire to set a strict example for these siblings, says new game theory research from the University of Maryland, Duke University and The Johns Hopkins University.

The research team used economic game theory to predict levels of parental discipline. Parental concern for their reputation as a disciplinarian with the younger children would be a powerful motivator, they predicted.

Their study, reported in the April edition of the Economic Journal, concludes that the exercise of parental control is effective in modifying the risky adolescent behavior.

This is particularly true in the case of the older children, who expect stronger penalties because their parents are making an example of them.

But as the younger siblings grow up and the games get played out a second or third time, the parents resolve tends to dwindle, the scientists say.

Tender-hearted parents find it harder and harder to engage in tough love as they have fewer young children in the house, since they have less incentive to uphold reputations as disciplinarians, says University of Maryland economist, Ginger Gin, one of three co-authors of the study, and herself an older sister and a parent of two. As a result, the theory predicts that last-born and only children, knowing that they can get away with much more than their older brothers and sisters, are, on average, more likely to engage in risky behaviors......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 17, 2008, 7:29 PM CT

Slight Of Hand Is Not So Slight

Typing on a keyboard or scribbling on paper may be similar activities, but there is a significant difference in how the body moves, as per new motor development research.

"In language we start with letters that lead to syllables that lead to words, and we use grammar to put everything together," said Howard N. Zelaznik, a Purdue University professor of health and kinesiology. "One of the fundamental questions in motor control is whether there is an alphabet that guides movement.

"We wanted to know if discrete skills, which have a definite beginning and end, such as typing, are controlled identically to continuous skills, such as scribbling, which do not have such a clear beginning and end. Or, are continuous movements composed of a series of discrete movements that are knotted together? On both accounts, the answer is no".

Zelaznik was part of research team led by Viktor Jirsa, director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and a professor of movement sciences at the University of the Mediterranean in Marseilles, France, and Raoul Huys, a research associate at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique as well as at the University of the Mediterranean. Purdue graduate students Breanna Studenka and Nicole Rheaume also were part of the team. Their research findings were published Thursday (April 17) in the Public Library of Science's Computational Biology online journal......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

April 13, 2008, 9:27 PM CT

Keep Boys and Girls Together

Boys and girls may learn differently, but American parents should think twice before moving their children to sex-segregated schools. A new Tel Aviv University study has observed that girls improve boys' grades markedly at school.

"Being with more girls is good for everybody," says Prof. Analia Schlosser, an economist from the Eitan Berglas School of Economics at Tel Aviv University. "We find that both boys and girls do better when there are more girls in the class." She investigated girls and boys in mixed classrooms in the elementary, middle, and high-school grades of the Israeli school system.

In an unpublished paper, Prof. Schlosser concluded that classes with more than 55 percent of girls resulted in better exam results and less violent outbursts overall. "It appears that this effect is due to the positive influence the girls are adding to the classroom environment," says Prof. Schlosser. She carried out the study while on a post-doctoral fellowship at Princeton University, and will study the effects of gender in higher education lecture halls next.

This is one of few studies of its kind to use scientific data to address the question of gender effects in school.

The Report Card

Boys with more female peers in their classes show higher enrollment rates in both advanced math and science classes, but overall benefits were found in all grades for both sexes......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 10, 2008, 9:24 PM CT

Wine may protect against dementia

There may be constituents in wine that protect against dementia. This is shown in research from the Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

The findings are based on 1,458 women who were included in the so-called Population Study of Women from 1968. When they were examined by physicians they were asked to report how often they drank wine, beer, and liquor by selecting from seven categories on a scale from never to daily. The scientists know nothing about how much they drank on each occasion, or how correct the estimates were. For each beverage the women reported having drunk more than once a month, they were classified as a consumer of that particular beverage.

Thirty-four years after the first study, 162 women had been diagnosed with dementia. The results show that among those women who reported that they drank wine a considerably lower proportion suffered from dementia, whereas this correlation was not found among those who had reported that they regularly drank beer or liquor.

The group that had the lowest proportion of dementia were those who had reported that the only alcohol they drank was wine, says Professor Lauren Lissner, who directs the study in collaboration with Professor Ingmar Skoog, both with the Sahgrenska Academy......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

April 9, 2008, 10:03 PM CT

Your neighborhood can affect your health

Research carried out at the Peninsula Medical School, South West England, has found strong links between neighbourhood deprivation and the physical and intellectual health of older people.

Two studies were conducted, both using data on participants in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).

The first study investigated over 7,000 individuals aged 52 and older who lived in urban areas across England. The study observed that even when individual differences in education and income were taken into account, people who lived in the most deprived areas were significantly more likely to have poorer cognitive function than those living in the least deprived areas. These findings represent a cause for concern because poor cognitive function in older people is closely associated with the risk of developing dementia.

Meanwhile, the second study, which involved 4,148 individuals aged 60 and over, assessed whether mobility disability and neighbourhood deprivation are linked. Over a two-year period, 13.6% of those in the most deprived areas developed problems with mobility in comparison to 4.0% of those in the least deprived areas. As with the first studies, these figures took into account individual differences in income, education, and health.

Dr. Iain Lang from the Peninsula Medical School, who led the research for both studies, commented: These findings show the first direct links between the state of a neighbourhood and levels of functioning among its middle-aged and older residents. For both men and women, those living in deprived areas have poorer cognitive function and higher rates of mobility problems than their counterparts in better areas......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 9, 2008, 9:58 PM CT

How Fast You'll Age is Written in the Bones

Perhaps the aging process can't be stopped. But it can be predicted, and new research from Tel Aviv University indicates that people may live longer and lead healthier lives as a result.

Scientists have developed a new biological marker that represents the age of a body's bones. It reveals that the speed of physical aging is strongly influenced by genetics.

Christened the osseographic score (OSS), this new marker can be used by doctors as a scientific tool for predicting a person's general functioning and lifespan, says Tel Aviv University scientist Dr. Leonid Kalichman, an instructor at The Stanley Steyer School of Health Professions. He is a co-author of the study published in Biogerontology and the American Journal of Human Biology (2007), which was conducted in partnership with Dr. Ida Malkin and Prof. Eugene Kobyliansky, both from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University.

Add Years to Your Life.

If a doctor can determine that a person is aging "biologically faster" than he or she should, measures such as vitamin supplements and exercise can help slow down the process, says Dr. Kalichman.

"While different biomarkers such as grey hair, wrinkles or elasticity of the skin can help us estimate a person's biological age, these features are hard to quantify," he says. But with the new OSS biomarker, and therapy at a younger age, "at age 90 people can function as though they are 30," says Kalichman......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 9, 2008, 9:55 PM CT

A Serious Illness Occurs Later In Life

A new study underscores the need for seniors to maintain their health -- in order to maintain their wealth.

Building on a 2003 study that observed that healthy seniors are more likely to retain their savings, Ohio State University scientists have now discovered that the during the later part of life a serious illness occurs, the more damage it does to a person's finances.

The study observed that when seniors develop a new and serious health problem -- experiencing what the scientists call a "health shock" -- early in retirement, they lose a substantial portion of their savings immediately. But if they experience the health shock during the later part of life, they will lose even more.

Study participants over 70 years of age lost 40 percent more of their savings than similar seniors who were just four years younger.

The results appear in a recent issue of the Journal of Population Economics.

The impact of health problems on seniors' finances has been studied over the years, but researchers have drawn different conclusions -- in part because they measured health and wealth in different ways, said Jinkook Lee, professor of consumer sciences at Ohio State.

This study is the first to gather a long-term perspective on how chronic illness diminishes seniors' wealth over time......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 9, 2008, 9:45 PM CT

Study on egg consumption

A study reported in the April 2008 issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition(1) suggests an association between high egg consumption and all-cause mortality, an unusual finding for which the scientists do not provide an explanation. The researchers, Djouss and Gaziano, analyzed data from the Physicians Health Study I which followed male physicians over a 20 year period.

The fact is, healthy adults can continue to enjoy eggs as part of a balanced diet, and the findings certainly are not strong enough to suggest that anyone change their diet. As an epidemiological study, it does not show cause-and-effect and has other inherent weaknesses. The scientists did not control for a variety of factors including intake of other foods and nutrients including saturated fat. In addition, the high egg consumers exhibited other lifestyle and dietary patterns linked to increased health risks. In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Robert Eckel, co-chair of the Committee on Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases, comments that The study suffers from the lack of detailed dietary information that may confound the interpretation, such as patterns of dietary intake of saturated fat and trans fats.(2) This is a significant point, given that some people who eat eggs often consume them with foods high in saturated fat......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 9, 2008, 9:43 PM CT

Forecasting Physicians' Choice of Prescriptions?

Physicians' choice of prescriptions are often influenced by patients, with patient experience with specific drugs playing a strong role, as per the Management Insights feature in the current issue of Management Science, the flagship journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®). The results have important implications for those who market pharmaceuticals.

Management Insights, a regular feature of the journal, is a digest of important research in business, management, operations research, and management science. It appears in every issue of the monthly journal.

"A Dynamic Competitive Forecasting Model Incorporating Dyadic Decision-Making" is by Min Ding of Smeal College of Business at Pennsylvania State University and Jehoshua Eliashberg of the Wharton School.

The scientists addressed several questions: Do physicians incorporate patients' inputs into their prescription decisions? If so, to what extent modeling such inputs improves the forecasting performance in comparison to models that do not explicitly incorporate patients' inputs? Additionally, to what extent do the patients' inputs depend on the type of patients, disease, and the physicians themselves?.

Using prescription data from different therapeutic classes and doctor specialties, the empirical results indicate improvement in forecasting when patients' inputs are explicitly considered......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 8, 2008, 10:13 PM CT

Marijuana increases alcohol toxicity

Marijuana is among the most frequently used illicit drugs by women during their childbearing years and there is growing concern that marijuana abuse during pregnancy, either alone or in combination with other drugs, may have serious effects on fetal brain development. There is good evidence that THC, the main psychoactive component of marijuana, crosses the placenta, that maternal marijuana abuse results in intrauterine growth retardation and that infants exposed to marijuana exhibit a temporary syndrome that includes lethargy and decreased muscle tone. Fetal exposure to THC can also result in attention deficits, learning disabilities and behavioral problems. A new study using rats observed that THC combined with mildly intoxicating doses of alcohol induced widespread nerve cell death in the brain. The study is reported in the Annals of Neurology (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/ana), the official journal of the American Neurological Association.

Led by Henrik Hansen and Chrysanthy Ikonomidou, at the Neuroscience Research Center of the Humboldt University in Berlin and the Department of Pediatric Neurology, University of Technology Dresden, Gera number of, scientists administered THC, a synthetic form of THC, ethanol, MK-801 (an anticonvulsant) and phenobarbital by injection to rats between 1 and 14 days old. A prior study by the same group had shown that ethanol and drugs such as sedatives, anesthetics and anticonvulsants triggered widespread nerve cell death in the developing brain of immature rodents; the current study was conducted to determine if cannabinoids had the same effect......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 6, 2008, 8:13 PM CT

More likely to choose cocaine over food

Having a lower social standing increases the likelihood that a monkey faced with a stressful situation will choose cocaine over food, as per a research studyat Wake Forest University School of Medicine. More dominant monkeys undergoing the same stressful situation had fewer changes in brain activity in areas of the brain involved in stress and anxiety and were less likely to choose cocaine.

Robert Warren Gould, a graduate student in the laboratory of Michael A. Nader, Ph.D., presented the study results Sunday at Experimental Biology 2008 in San Diego. The presentation was part of the scientific program of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET).

Male cynomolgus monkeys live in a complex social structure in which the social hierarchy is established by physical aggression and maintained by clear signals. A monkey that has established his dominance over another monkey can elicit a subordinate response with no more than a meaningful look.

The scientists exposed four dominant and four subordinate monkeys to a socially stressful situation in which an individual monkey was taken out of his home cage and placed in an unfamiliar cage surrounded by four unfamiliar animals. The monkey was physically safe, but he could see and hear the animals around him engaging in aggressive behavior......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

April 6, 2008, 8:02 PM CT

Growing body of knowledge of genetics of height

Researchers are beginning to develop a clearer picture of what makes some people stand head and shoulders above the rest. A team of scientists who last year identified the first common version of a gene influencing height has now identified a further twenty regions of the genome which together can make a height difference of up to 6cm.

The results, published together with two independent studies online today in the journal Nature Genetics, mean that researchers now know of dozens of genes and genetic regions that influence our height. This provides researchers with a fascinating insight into how the body grows and develops normally and may shed light on diseases such as osteoarthritis and cancer.

Unlike many other body size characteristics such as obesity, which is caused by a mix of genetic and environmental factors (so called "nature and nurture"), 90 per cent of normal variation in human height is due to genetic factors rather than, for example, diet. Last year, a team of scientists including Dr Tim Frayling from the Peninsula Medical School, Exeter, and Professor Mark McCarthy from the University of Oxford identified the first common gene variant to affect height, though it made a difference of only 0.5cm.

Now, using DNA samples from over 30,000 people, a number of taken from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium the largest study ever undertaken into the genetics underlying common diseases and from the Cambridge Genetics of Energy Metabolism (GEM) consortium and the CoLaus Study in Switzerland, the scientists have identified 20 loci (regions of genetic code), common variations of which influence adult height......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 2, 2008, 10:16 PM CT

Natural trans fats have health benefits

Contrary to popular opinion, not all trans fats are bad for you.

University of Alberta researcher Flora Wang observed that a diet with enriched levels of trans vaccenic acid (VA) a natural animal fat found in dairy and beef products can reduce risk factors linked to heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

Results indicated this benefit was due in part to the ability of VA to reduce the production of chylomicrons particles of fat and cholesterol that form in the small intestine following a meal and are rapidly processed throughout the body. The role of chylomicrons is increasingly viewed as a critical missing link in the understanding of conditions arising from metabolic disorders.

Our results provide further evidence of the important role of chylomicrons in contributing to risk factors linked to metabolic disorders, said Wang, a PhD candidate in the University of Alberta Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences. They also indicate a strong opportunity for using diets with enhanced VA to help reduce these risk factors.

The research involved two VA feeding trials one short-term (three weeks) and one long-term (16 weeks) using model rat species for obesity and the metabolic syndrome.

The results, presented recently at the International Symposium on Chylomicrons in Disease, included novel findings that VA may have direct effects on the intestine. In addition, they showed key metabolic risk factors were reduced. For example, in the long-term trial, total cholesterol was lowered by approximately 30 per cent, LDL cholesterol was lowered by 25 per cent and triglyceride levels were lowered by more than 50 per cent......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 2, 2008, 10:10 PM CT

Do we need alcohol prevention programs for 'tweens?'

The article examined a large study of six grade students across a metropolitan area, to see which factors distinguished young alcohol users from nonusers, including even their stated intentions regarding future alcohol use. Understanding that early alcohol use can affect development during a crucial time in life and can cause significant problems later, the scientists explored some current teen alcohol abuse prevention programs, concluding that even earlier intervention is imperative. The study looked at both positive and negative influences affecting early drinking, including such things as:

• Parental influences, including communication, monitoring, and expectations

• Peer influences, peers actual alcohol use and kids perceptions of peer use

• The environment, access to alcohol, owning and wearing alcohol-related items

• Kids involvement in sports, religious and other extra-curricular activities

• Use of other substances, including tobacco and marijuana

Early users of alcohol are already at very high risk and earlier intervention is critical to alter risk factors while students are in their tweens, write the authors. Eventhough some research has been done in the primary prevention of developmental problems with tweens, the data suggests that a specific focus on particular alcohol-related risk factors is also needed to affect those at highest risk for teen alcohol use......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

April 2, 2008, 10:08 PM CT

Study finds that discrimination varies by gender and race

Men are more likely to tolerate discrimination than women, however both sexes tend to accept prejudice against poorly educated immigrants and Arab-American airplane travelers, as per a research studyby the USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law and Politics.

In a survey of more than 3,300 people, scientists at USC Gould School of Law and USC College observed that both men and women are less willing to tolerate discrimination against the genetically disadvantaged. The study, would be published in June in Political Research Quarterly, also found tolerance levels between the sexes vary depending on whether or not their response is anonymous: men tend to understate, and women to overstate, their tolerance for discrimination when speaking to a live interviewer, as opposed to answering questions over the Internet.

Edward J. McCaffery, a USC law professor, who co-authored the study, said that an individual who sees nothing wrong with certain kinds of biases will often find others objectionable.

A number of political struggles of our time, in the United States as elsewhere, amount to clashes over the appropriate boundary between permissible and impermissible forms of discrimination, McCaffery said. We have observed that, while discrimination in its traditional forms based on race and gender may be receding somewhat, discrimination in other domains, as based on appearance, persists. Here we observed that people are more willing to accept discrimination against poorly educated immigrants, for example, than so-called genetic discrimination. Men are more willing to accept discrimination, but both men and women converge when we did a telephone survey and there was a live interviewer women became more, and men less, openly tolerant of discrimination......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

April 1, 2008, 9:11 PM CT

The future of children's health

Can diseases such as Alzheimers, obesity and diabetes be prevented before birth? As per Jonathan D. Gitlin, M.D., the Helene B. Roberson Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Genetics at the Washington University School of Medicine, researching whether diseases that strike adults are already genetically encoded in individuals while still in the womb, may enable physicians to one day address and prevent diseases in infancy.

In a talk entitled Child Health Research in the 21st Century: Obstacles and Opportunities, Dr. Gitlin, who is also scientific director of the Childrens Discovery Institute, will address why, despite substantial investments in both the academic and private sectors, the health status of our nation remains dismal especially the health and wellness of our children.

Childrens health has been pushed aside, states Dr. Gitlin. The amount of money currently dedicated to research that could identify key factors leading to diseases both in childhood and later in their adult lives is very small in comparison to the funding for adult onset diseases such as heart disease or cancer. Dr. Gitlin says researchers need to redirect their thinking to find a way to identify and ultimately offset diseases in children that may affect them during the later part of life, such as obesity, depression or even drug and alcohol addiction......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

April 1, 2008, 8:48 PM CT

Hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer

Millions of post-menopausal women use hormone replacement treatment (HRT) as a method to reduce symptoms linked to menopause. In a recent University of Missouri study, scientists observed that one of the hormones used in HRT, a synthetic progestin, could be a major factor in promoting breast cancer. At the same time, the scientists have compelling evidence that using an antibody that prevents new blood vessel formation in tumors, or a small molecular drug, known as PRIMA, with similar properties as the antibody may be effective in treating or preventing the negative effects of progestin.

As per a research findings reported in the journal, Cancer Research, MU scientist Salman Hyder and his research team observed that exposing tumor cells to progestin caused an increase in a growth factor that is involved in the formation of new blood vessels in tumors. Increasing the blood supply allows the tumors to expand as the availability of nourishment increases. However, when they used an antibody that inhibits the growth factor, the tumor shrank. Hyders team found similar results using PRIMA, which re-activated a protein known as p53. When p53 was activated within tumor cells, the number of breast cancer cells reduced significantly.

As women age, a number of develop tiny lesions in their breasts, said Hyder, professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center. The majority of the time, these lesions never expand. We think this might be due to a specific protein, p53, that, under normal circumstances, prevents tumor cells from living. We found in our study that when the protein is active, it reduces the number of breast cancer cells in the body by inhibiting the growth factor that supplies blood vessels to the tumor. However, when the cells of these lesions are exposed to progestin in a body that does not have an active p53 protein, we observed that the cells might start expanding and turn into tumors......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

March 31, 2008, 9:25 PM CT

Healthy Gums are Something to Smile About

A smile is one of the most universally recognizable facial expressions, helping to depict an individual's happiness, confidence, attractiveness, sociability and sincerity. And now, as per a recent study reported in the Journal of Periodontology (JOP), the official publication of the American Academy of Periodontology (AAP), a smile may also help convey healthy teeth and gums. Scientists found evidence that periodontal, or gum, disease may negatively affect an individual's smiling patterns and deter someone from displaying positive emotions through a smile. Study Abstract *.

The study, conducted at the University of Michigan, reviewed the smiling patterns of 21 periodontal patients while viewing a segment of a comedy program. At predetermined measurement points throughout the segment, the scientists assessed three dimensions of each patient's smile: the horizontal width of the mouth in millimeters, the open width of the mouth in millimeters, and the number of teeth shown. In addition, the scientists also noted the number of times the patient covered his or her mouth while watching the segment. Individual perceptions of how the patient's quality of life is affected by oral health were also considered. The data were then reviewed along with a clinical exam of the patient's periodontal health......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

March 27, 2008, 9:39 PM CT

Risks of over-the-counter medicines

The risks of increasing peoples access to over-the-counter medicines may outweigh the benefits, warn experts in this weeks BMJ.

They suggest that the safety of over-the-counter medicines should be kept under close review and that patients should be urged to report any adverse reactions.

Medicines are currently divided into classes that do or do not require prescription, write Robin Ferner, Director at the West Midlands Centre for Adverse Drug Reactions and Keith Beard, Consultant Clinician at the Victoria Infirmary Glasgow.

Prescription only medicines are subject to a range of controls that are relaxed when medicines are made more freely available over the counter.

When deciding if a medicine should be reclassified to make it available over the counter, regulatory authorities must balance the benefits of easier access against the potential harm from unsupervised or inappropriate use.

Once medicines have been reclassified, they remain subject to safety review.

Patients, doctors and pharmacists can all benefit if medicines are available over the counter. For example, patients can call at a pharmacy any time rather than waiting to see a doctor, general practitioners no longer need to write prescriptions for minor ailments, and pharmacists can make better use of their professional skills......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

March 26, 2008, 9:51 PM CT

The Upside Of Anger

Here's a maxim from the "duh" department: People typically prefer to feel emotions that are pleasant, like excitement, and avoid those that are unpleasant, like anger.

But a new study appearing in the recent issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, says this may not always be the case. Psychology experts Maya Tamir and Christopher Mitchell of Boston College, and James Gross of Stanford University tested whether people prefer to experience emotions that are potentially useful, even when they are unpleasant to experience.

The authors wanted to examine whether individuals are motivated to increase their level of anger when they expect to complete a confrontational task, where anger might enhance performance. They told the study participants that they will either play a computer game that is confrontational (Soldier of fortune -- a first person shooter game where killing enemies is your primary goal) or one that is not confrontational ("Diner Dash"-- a game in which players guide a waitress serving customers). They were then asked to rate the extent to which they would like to engage in different activities before playing the game.

The scientists observed that participants preferred activities that were likely to make them angry (e.g., listening to anger-inducing music, recalling past events in which they were angry) when they expected to perform the confrontational task. In contrast, participants preferred more pleasant activities when they expected to perform a non-confrontational task......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

March 25, 2008, 10:21 PM CT

Seeing may be believing -- but is it the same as looking?

If you see something, its because youre looking at it, right? A recently published study examined this question and established that while people do tend to notice objects within their gaze, it is the assumptions they make about their environment that affects their perceptions. This study gives insight into how the brain and the eye work together to interpret everyday observations.

The study If I saw it, it probably wasnt far from where I was looking, reflects the work of a group of scientists led by E.M. Brenner, PhD of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The article recently appeared in the Journal of Vision (http://www.journalofvision.org/8/2), published by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.

Previous studies have confirmed that peoples familiarity with the world around them allows them to make credible assumptions about what they see. This study sought to discover how people would visually interpret a constantly changing or uncertain environment in the absence of common visual assumptions.

Eight subjects participated in two experiments to identify the location of a jumping target (a circular green cursor). In the first session, the target jumped to different locations within five concentric circles (arranged around a fixation point) every 250 milliseconds. The subjects had to position a mouse cursor at the location where the target had been at the moment of a flash. The second session mimicked the first except a tone replaced the flash. Each session continued until subjects made 250 responses......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source