Reward for information on bogus drugs

PANAJI: In a bid to curb the menace of spurious drugs, cosmetics and medical devices, food and drugs administration has offered a scheme to reward informers (whistleblowers) who provide vital information leading to seizure of such fake products.

"The reward can be a maximum of up to 20% of the total cost of consignments seized and up to Rs 25 lakh," says Pramod Jain, director food and drugs administration (FDA). "This will be shared by the informer and the officials carrying out the raid."

Though cases of spurious drugs and devices are not much in Goa, Jain said there are reports of the menace in other parts of the country. "This is due to awareness among people in Goa," Jain said. Explaining further, he said, "It has been found that instead of licensed manufacturers, criminals and those without any antecedents get into this activity," Jain said.

The government of India has taken a stern view of the evil and amended Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 to provide for stringent penalties to offenders. "The punishment to criminals will be stringent and has been increased," Jain said.

Special courts designated to handle cases of spurious drugs and medicines will be set up and these will be expedited.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Low Vitamin D Levels Linked to Heart Disease

If your levels of vitamin D are too low, you may be at significantly increased risk for stroke, heart disease and death, a new study suggests.

Researchers followed 27,686 people, aged 50 and older, with no history of cardiovascular disease. The participants were divided into three groups based on their vitamin D levels: normal (more than 30 nanograms per milliliter), low (15 to 30 nanograms per milliliter), or very low (less than 15 nanograms per milliliter).

After one year of follow-up, those with very low levels of vitamin D were 77 percent more likely to die, 45 percent more likely to develop coronary artery disease and 78 percent more likely to have a stroke, and twice as likely to develop heart failure compared to people with normal vitamin D levels, the researchers found.

"We concluded that among patients 50 years of age or older, even a moderate deficiency of vitamin D levels was associated with developing coronary artery disease, heart failure, stroke and death," study co-author Heidi May, an epidemiologist with the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, said in a news release from the center.

"This is important because vitamin D deficiency is easily treated. If increasing levels of vitamin D can decrease some risk associated with these cardiovascular diseases, it could have a significant public health impact. When you consider that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in America, you understand how this research can help improve the length and quality of people's lives," May added.

Because this was an observational study, a definitive link between vitamin D levels and heart disease couldn't be established, but the findings point to the need for further research, said study co-author Dr. Brent Muhlestein, director of cardiovascular research at Intermountain's Heart Institute.

"We believe the findings are important enough to now justify randomized treatment trials of supplementation in patients with vitamin D deficiency to determine for sure whether it can reduce the risk of heart disease," Muhlestein said in the news release.

The study was to be presented Monday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

Source:http://health.usnews.com

Gut disorder 'blamed on leaks'

Genetic defects leading to a leaky gut are a key cause of the inflammatory disorder ulcerative colitis, UK research suggests.

Ulcerative colitis is a life-long, incurable condition, which can cause diarrhoea, fever, abdominal pain and swelling and weight loss. It affects approximately one in 1,000 people. The disorder causes ulceration of the rectum and the colon, but its exact cause has yet to be pinned down. The latest study links the condition to four genes which all play a role in keeping the intestine lining healthy.

The Nature Genetics study is based on an analysis of the genes of 12,700 people. It is twice as large as any previous study - giving the results far greater robustness. The researchers, from the UK IBD Genetics Consortium and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, compared the genomes of 4,700 people with the condition, with those of 8,000 healthy people.

Their work highlighted variants in three regions of the genome which appeared to increase the risk of the condition.

In particular, they zeroed in on four genes - LAMB1, CDH1, CDH3 and HNF4A - which keep the epithelium - the lining of the intestine - working.

The genes affect the seals at the junctions between the cells of the epithelium.

The gut contains a huge number of bacteria which play a key role in the digestive process, and in keeping the gut healthy. However, defects in the epithelium can allow these bacteria to leak into the wall of the intestine, where they can trigger an immune reaction, leading to prolonged inflammation.

Many experts believe this is one of the causes of ulcerative colitis - and the latest research provides hard evidence of a genetic basis to the theory.

Robust evidence

Researcher Dr Miles Parkes, Consultant Gastroenterologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, said: "We have long suspected that genetic defects in the epithelial barrier are important in ulcerative colitis. This large scale genetic study provides the first robust genetic evidence that this is the case."

Professor Chris Mathew, from King's College London, who also worked on the study, said: "This is very significant as most treatments to date are based on damping down immune response. In fact, our data suggests there may be mileage in trying to tighten up the mucosal barrier as well."

One of the genes highlighted by the research, CDH1, has also been implicated in the spread of colon cancer, suggesting their may be a genetic link between the two conditions.

Sir Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, said the study strongly suggested genetic inheritance was to blame for some people's vulnerability to ulcerative colitis. “Although it is a long way from this discovery to developing new treatments for inflammatory bowel disease, new approaches to the treatment and prevention of chronic diseases require new insights into their causes."

Richard Driscoll, Director of the National Association for Colitis and Crohn's Disease, welcomed the research. He said: "Every increase in knowledge moves us closer to the time when identifying a person's genes may enable them and their doctor to make decisions on treatment with a more certain understanding of how their disease is likely to develop over time."

Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk

A gene that can help you live to 100 'identified'

Scientists have identified a gene which can help one live to 100 years, a breakthrough that they claim may pave the way for anti-ageing drugs.

An international team, led by Albert Einstein College of Medicine, studying a group of people in American Ashkenazi Jewish community with an average age of 97, found they had all inherited a gene that appears to prevent cells ageing.

Their study found that the 86 people analysed and their children had higher levels of an enzyme telomerase which is known to protect the body's DNA from degrading, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

According to the scientists, the finding could lead to anti-ageing drugs.

Telomerase is known to protect telomeres which stop the string of DNA unravelling much like the plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces stop fraying. Each time a cell divides, its telomeres shortens and the cell becomes more susceptible to dying.

By boosting telomerase, the scientists believe they could eventually stop the cells dying and so protect against old age.

The study has been published in the 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' journal.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Too much selenium linked to high levels of cholesterol

High dietary intake of selenium may increase risk of high cholesterol, a new study by Dr. Dsverio Stranges at the University's Warwick Medical School suggests.

The study recently published in the Journal of Nutrition found that in people who had higher levels of serum selenium, the total cholesterol level increased by 8 percent compared to those who had lower levels.

Selenium is a trace essential mineral and consumers use it as a dietary antioxidant supplement. Selenium is high in Brazil nuts produced from selenium-rich soil, shrimp, carb meat, salon, halibut, brown rice, and whole wheat bread.

Dr. Stranges and colleagues examined data from 1042 participants aged 19 to 64 in the 2000-2001 UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey. The subjects were interviewed for their eating and drinking habits. Blood samples were taken for analysis.

Higher selenium levels were not just linked with higher total cholesterol. The researchers also found that higher levels of selenium in the blood also raise non-high density lipoprotein by 10 percent. Lipoprotein can help predict the risk of a heart attack or chest pain.

Additionally, they found that of those with the highest selenium levels, 48.2 percent reported that they regularly took dietary supplements.

It is uncertain whether higher levels of serum selenium are the cause for the increase in total cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol. The dyufy merely found the association between high selenium levels and higher levels of cholesterol.

Source:www.foodconsumer.org

'Love Hormone' Also Boosts Negative Behavior

Scientists at the University of Haifa, in Israel, have recently determined that the hormone that has been primarily been associated with love – oxytocin – also plays an important part in bolstering negative states of mind. In other words, the chemical is able to make people feel empathy, trust, and generosity, but can also trigger adverse feelings such as jealousy and gloating. The person's state of mind at the time seems to be the only thing that determines whether oxytocin will act positively or negatively.

“Subsequent to these findings, we assume that the hormone is an overall trigger for social sentiments: when the person's association is positive, oxytocin bolsters pro-social behaviors; when the association is negative, the hormone increases negative sentiments,” UH expert Simone Shamay-Tsoory, who was the leader of the new research. Details of the recent scientific investigation were published in the latest issue of the respected scientific journal Biological Psychiatry, AlphaGalileo reports.

The investigation comes on the heels of different studies, which have shown the positive effects that the hormone has on positive states of mind and behaviors. In natural instances, the chemical is released in larger quantities when women go through childbirth, or during intercourse. In the new study, which involved 56 participants, some of them were made to inhale a chemical containing oxytocin, and all of them became more altruistic to each other. Therefore, the team hypothesizes, it may be that, evolutionarily speaking, the chemical plays a crucial role in helping us get more friends.

“Following the earlier results of experiments with oxytocin, we began to examine the possible use of the hormone as a medication for various disorders, such as autism. The results of the present study show that the hormone's undesirable effects on behavior must be examined before moving ahead,” Shamay-Tsoory adds of the research. She adds that other batches of studies demonstrated that aggressive rats that were given oxytocin became even more so, suggesting new obstacles in the path of using the chemical to do good.

Source:http://news.softpedia.com

Breast cancer overtakes cervical cancer as No 1

It may well be a wake-up call for all women in the country, as breast cancer is rapidly becoming the number one cancer pushing the cervical cancer to the second spot. Also, while the latter can be prevented, breast cancer can not be prevented in majority of cases, leaving its early detection the only way to cure the deadly cancer.

While the recent figures of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has reported that one in 22 women in the country is likely to suffer from breast cancer during her lifetime, a study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has projected that country would witness around 2,50,000 new cases of deadly cancer by 2015.

It is to be mentioned that even as the discerning figures are enough to indicate the gravity of the situation, health experts in the region seem to be more worried about the lack of awareness for prevalence as well as early detection of the breast cancer.

There is general lack of awareness about early signs and symptoms of breast cancer especially in the rural areas, said AK Khanna, head, department of General Surgery, Banaras Hindu University while talking to TOI on Saturday. Another problem with preventing breast cancer is that there is no one cause that can be pinpointed for its existence. It, therefore is important to spread awareness of the prevalence of the cancer and advice women on undertaking self-breast examination (SBE), he added.

Sharing the problems associated with breast cancer, Khanna said it usually does not cause pain or show any symptoms in its early stages. Even, the lump in the breast does not cause pain and women usually do not bother about this lump. It is a very crucial stage, and women especially middle aged women must visit a doctor, once the lump formation takes place in the breast, he added.

Referring to recent studies that have shown that majority of the breast lump in the young women are not cancerous, he said that only 10 per cent of breast lumps are cancerous, but even then women should consult a doctor in case of a lump formation. It is the best way for early detection of breast cancer and once it is detected, it can be cured by surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormonal treatment, he said.

To generate awareness, the department of General Surgery, BHU is going to organise continuing medical education (CME) programme on breast cancer on Sunday.

At a glance -

1. Breast cancer is rapidly becoming the number one cancer in women in the country; cervical cancer stands second

2. One in 22 women in India is likely to suffer from breast cancer during her lifetime.

3. There would be around 2,50,000 new cases of breast cancer in India by 2015

4. The average age of the high risk group in India is between 43 and 46 years, while in the West women aged 53 to 57 years are more prone to breast cance.

5. Only one in 10 lumps (10 per cent) in the breast is cancerous.

Early detection techniques -

1. Self-breast examination (SBE), that involves detecting lump in the breast and consulting the doctor

2. Physical examination by the doctor, also called palpation.

3. Thermography, involves detection through temperature and heat variations

4. Mammography and ultrasound, exposure to radiation involving technical equipment of high standard

5. Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) and biopsy

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Laser eye surgery has no long-term effects on cornea

A research team, including an Indian-origin boffin, has found that laser eye surgery that corrects vision does not lead to later problems with the cornea – at least not after nine years .

Two types of laser surgery—photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK)—are often used to correct refractive errors such as nearsightedness.

However, little is known about how these procedures affect the cornea, the transparent membrane covering the eye, on the cellular level over the long term.

Sanjay V. Patel, M.D., and William M. Bourne, M.D., of Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., studied 29 eyes of 16 patients who had undergone LASIK or PRK. Photographs of the cells lining the cornea (endothelial cells) were taken and analysed before and nine years after surgery.

The annual rate of corneal endothelial cell loss in the eyes of patients who had had surgery was compared with those of 42 eyes that had not undergone either procedure.

Nine years after surgery, the density of cells lining the cornea had decreased by 5.3 percent from their preoperative state.However, the average annual rate of cell loss (0.6 percent) was the same in corneas of eyes that were operated on and those that were not.

"Our results support the findings of numerous short-term studies that found no significant endothelial cell loss after LASIK and PRK," the authors said. They added: "The importance of the findings in our study relates to using corneas that have undergone LASIK or PRK as donor tissue.”

The study has been reported in the November issue of Archives of Ophthalmology , one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Deadliest lung cancer breakthrough

British researchers have found that a drug destroys tumours in a form of inoperable lung cancer that kills more than nine out of 10 sufferers. The treatment works by blocking the growth of the cancer cells and eventually causing them to self destruct. In more than 50 per cent of the trials, the treatment, which appears to have no side affects, killed all traces of the disease.

"We are very excited about it," said Professor Michael Seckl, the molecular oncologist who led the study at Imperial College London, "If you get diagnosed with this cancer your chances of surviving are very small. Over the last 30 years we have made very little progress in its treatment. This is why this is so exciting. It is pretty unusual to see a drug that makes these tumours completely disappear."

More than 34,000 people die each year from lung cancer in the United Kingdom, the heaviest death toll of any cancer.

One in five lung cancer sufferers have a particularly virulent strain called small cell lung cancer which kills all but three per cent of sufferers within five years of diagnoses. With this form of lung cancer, tumours spread quickly so it is rarely possible to remove the tumours surgically. Because of this, small cell lung cancer is treated with chemotherapy.

Initially, the treatment often appears to work, reducing the size of the tumours. However, the tumours usually grow back rapidly and then become resistant to further treatment.

The researchers behind the new study published in the journal Cancer Research have identified a drug that, in half of the mice treated, was able to completely shrink tumours away.

It was also able to stop tumours from growing back and it helped other forms of chemotherapy to work more effectively.

If the drug proves successful in humans, the researchers hope that it could help patients with this kind of lung cancer to live longer with five to 10 years.

Prof Seckl said: "I have been working on small cell lung cancer for many years and to find something that can take a measurable piece of tumour and make it go away is wonderful. Lung cancer is the most common cancer killer in the world and over 100 people in the UK are diagnosed with the disease every day. Although it responds to chemotherapy initially, the tumours soon become resistant to treatment and sadly nearly all people with the disease do not survive."

Dr Joanna Owens, Cancer Research UK's science information manager, said: "It's encouraging to see potential new drugs for lung cancer in the initial stages of development. The early results from this study are impressive but we'll need to wait for the results of clinical trials before we'll know if the drugs could work for patients."

Source:www.telegraph.co.uk

Scientists Develop Premier Atlas of Bacterial Diversity Across Human Body

The first atlas of bacterial diversity across the human body, describing the several activities of microbes, has been developed at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The atlas charts wide variations in microbe populations that live in different regions of the human body and which aid us in physiological functions that contribute to our health.

Rob Knight, senior author on the study, said that their research showed humans carry "personalized" communities of bacteria around that vary widely from our foreheads and feet to our noses and navels.

The researchers found unexpectedly wide variability in bacterial communities from person to person in the study, which included nine healthy volunteers and which targeted 27 specific sites on the body.

"This is the most complete view we have yet of the microbial side of ourselves, one that our group and others will be adding to over the coming years. The goal is to find out what is normal for a healthy person, which will provide a baseline for further studies to look at people with diseased states. One of the biggest surprises was how much variation there was from person to person in a healthy group of subjects," said Knight.

There are an estimated 100 trillion microbes residing on and within each human being that are thought to collectively endow us with the essential traits we rely on for a variety of functions, including the proper development of our immune systems, efficient digestion of key foods and resistance to invasion by lurking microbial pathogens.

Source:www.medindia.com

Younger women prone to breast cancer

Amit Bhargav, consultant oncologist at the Max Healthcare hospital in the capital, said that in his career, the age group vulnerable to breast cancer has dropped drastically.

"When I started practicing oncology about 15 years back, women mostly in the age group of 50-55 were most vulnerable to breast cancer. But these days the incidence of the disease has become common amongst women aged between 35-45," Bhargav told IANS.

Saturday was observed as Breast Cancer awareness day and doctors like Bhargav said that they are doing their bit to spread as much awareness on the disease so that early detection was possible and improve chances of recovery.

"Breast cancer is mostly an urban disease. The maximum incidence of the disease is seen in metropolitan cities where life is fast. Most girls work, have late marriages and then have children even later. All these factors work at increasing the chances of breast cancer," Bhargav said.

Harish Chaturvedi, a cancer expert, added: "High pollution level in cities also contribute to higher chances of breast cancer. Smokers and those who consume alcohol are also a high risk group. Junk food is also a threat."

Stress and obesity are other factors that can increase the chances of having breast cancer.

While genetics - if a woman below 45 years of age has breast cancer, her daughter's chances for the same rise - puts women in the high risk group, those who have had an early menarchy or have attained menopause are also a vulnerable group.

According to B.Niranjan Naik of Dharamshila hospital, a cancer speciality hospital, almost 75,000 new cases of breast cancer are detected in India every year.

"20-25 percent of cancer cases in Indian women is that of breast cancer. The main symptoms which one should look out for are a lump in the breast, discharge from the nipples, skin retraction or thickening, ulceration and skin irritation.

"Early detection is the key to avoid breast cancer. Women in the high risk group must go for breast screening tests when they touch 30," Naik said.

Bhargav added: "Although there is no study done, an estimated 50,000-70,000 women die every year due to breast cancer in India".

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Circumcision can reduce AIDS risk

Austrian researchers analyzing biopsies from 20 circumcised and uncircumcised men found that the inner foreskin of the penis contains a higher concentration of Langerhans cells – a prime target of the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV – than any other part of the male foreskin. Because this would make the inner foreskin more susceptible to HIV, removing it through circumcision would help lower a man's risk of contracting HIV, they concluded.

In the second study, a two-year study of nearly 3,000 Kenyan men found that those who were recently circumcised were less likely to suffer coital injuries, such as scratches, cuts, scrapes or soreness, than those who had their foreskin intact. Sexual function was determined to be similar between the circumcised and uncircumcised groups, according to the research team, which was from the United States, Canada and Africa.

"These are important reports which support the concepts that circumcision does not interfere with sexual function and it is an important element of HIV prevention in sub-Saharan Africa," association spokesman Dr. Ira D. Sharlip said in a news release issued by the organization.

"At the same time, it should be emphasized that circumcision must be combined with other techniques of HIV prevention, such as safe sex and voluntary testing," he said. "It is not sufficient to rely on circumcision alone to prevent HIV transmission."

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Blood vessels could predict how prostate cancer would behave

Blood vessels in prostate cancer could act as predictor of how it would behave, say researchers at The Ohio State University and the Harvard School of Public Health.

The study of 572 men with localized prostate cancer indicates that aggressive or lethal prostate cancers tend to have blood vessels that are small, irregular and primitive in cross-section. On the other hand, slow-growing or indolent tumours have blood vessels that look more normal.

“It’s as if aggressive prostate cancers are growing faster and their blood vessels never fully mature,” said study leader Dr. Steven Clinton. “Prostate cancer is very heterogeneous, and we need better tools to predict whether a patient has a prostate cancer that is aggressive, fairly average or indolent in its behavior so that we can better define a course of treatment – surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormonal therapy, or potentially new drugs that target blood vessels – that is specific for each person’s type of cancer. Similarly, if we can better determine at the time of biopsy or prostatectomy who is going to relapse, we can start treatment earlier, when the chance for a cure may be better,” added Clinton.

The study analyzed tumor samples and clinical outcome data from men participating in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, which involves 51,529 male North American dentists, optometrists, podiatrists, pharmacists and veterinarians.

After an average follow-up of 10 years, 44 of the 572 men had developed metastatic cancer or died of their cancer.

Men whose tumours had smaller vessel diameters were six times more likely to have aggressive tumours and die of their disease, and those with the most irregularly shaped vessels were 17 times more likely to develop lethal prostate cancer.

The findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Source:www.newspostonline.com

Exercise Cuts Prostate Cancer Risk

A new study suggests that men who get moderate amounts of exercise regularly may reduce their risk of prostate cancer, including the type consisting of aggressive, fast-growing tumors.

The study, published in the November 2009 issue of Journal of Urology, showed prostate cancer was less likely to be diagnosed in men who got exercise regularly than those who led a sedentary lifestyle.

Dr. Stephen J. Freedland and a team of his colleagues of the Duke University Prostate Center and the VA Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina analyzed data from 190 men who underwent biopsies for suspected prostate cancer and found the association.

They found that those patients who exercised moderately, or those who engaged in three to six hours of walking each week, were two-thirds less likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than their sedentary counterparts. Of 111 men who followed a sedentary lifestyle in the study, about 50 percent were diagnosed with the disease compared to 27 percent of those who exercised to a degree equivalent to three to six hours of walking each week.

The researchers also found that men who got the amount of exercise equivalent to one to three hours of walking each week were 86 percent less likely to develop an aggressive form of the cancer.

Of the men diagnosed with prostate cancer, aggressive cancer was found in 51 percent of those who lived a sedentary life and only 22 percent in those who were physically active - getting the equivalent of one to three hours of walking every week.

The study found an association between exercise and reduced risk of prostate cancer. But the results do not prove that exercise is the cause for the reduction in the male reproductive cancer; however, the possibility cannot be excluded either. Exercise or being physically active has been linked to a reduced risk of cancer in general, not just prostate cancer. One possibility is that those who exercise may follow a healthy lifestyle including a healthy diet.

However, exercise by itself may potentially have a protective effect against prostate cancer and possibly other types of cancer as well.

To say the least, it has been known that exercise lowers blood levels of sexual hormones like testosterone and others that are known to promote prostate cancer growth. Exercise can also boost immunity and the body's anti-oxidation mechanisms, which may help reduce odds for men to acquire prostate cancer.

A recent study published on Oct 27, 2009 in the online British Journal of Cancer, also suggests that being physically active may help reduce risk of prostate cancer.

Source:www.foodconsumer.com

Turmeric may help offer treatments for colon cancer, psoriasis, alzheimer's

Curcumin, a potent antioxidant found in the turmeric, is being viewed as a promising disease-fighter. The research team is developing nano-size capsule that would boost the body's uptake of curcumin and help fight several diseases.

Trials are underway to test its safety and effectiveness in fighting colon cancer, psoriasis, and alzheimer's disease.

The digestive juice in the gastrointestinal tract quickly destroys curcumin so that little actually gets into the blood. It is already known that encapsulating insulin and certain other drugs into structures called liposomes can boost absorption.

The scientists prepared the liposomes encapsulating curcumin and fed them to laboratory rats. They found that encapsulating more than quadrupled absorption of curcumin, and also boosted antioxidant levels in the blood.

The researchers said that encapsulating process could be an answer to the problem of increasing curcumin's absorption in the digestive environment of the gastrointestinal tract.

The study appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication.

Source:www.expressindia.com

Chronic Kidney Disease in Women Underdiagnosed

A paper being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 42nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego, California says that women are at particular risk of their primary care physicians delaying diagnosis of chronic kidney disease (CKD).

The findings suggest that educating practitioners about CKD could increase the timely diagnosis of CKD, thereby leading to improvements in care to patients and savings in Medicare dollars.

Maya Rao, MD, of Columbia University, reviewed records from nearly 900 patients at 18 rural, community-based primary care clinics in Oregon, to investigate whether primary care physicians accurately diagnosed CKD in patients with known kidney dysfunction. Chronic kidney disease is estimated to affect up to 19 million adults in the U.S. and is usually diagnosed and treated in the primary care setting. The analysis showed that 52.4 percent of patients found to have CKD did not have a diagnosis in their charts. Females were more likely to be undiagnosed than males, except at the most advanced stages of CKD.

"Chronic kidney disease is very prevalent, uses a great deal of Medicare dollars and needs to be detected early in order to begin an effective treatment plan. Without early diagnosis and treatment, the patient may be more likely to need dialysis and suffer related consequences, such as heart disease," said Dr. Rao. "This study shows that CKD is still being missed by primary care physicians, especially among women patients, and that more education is needed to ultimately improve early detection and diagnosis."

Source:www.medindia.net

Marijuana helpful for post-traumatic stress

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a condition in which the patient continues to suffer from stress symptoms months after going through a traumatic event like a car accident or a terror attack. These symptoms include reawakened trauma, evasion of anything that could remind the patient of the trauma, and mental and physiological disturbances.

In the study conducted by Eti Ganon-Elazar, a research student at the Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, Israel, under the supervision of Dr. Irit Akirav, a synthetic form of marijuana was used on rats to find out the effectiveness of a cannabinoid treatment for post-traumatic stress.

The researchers also discovered that synthetic marijuana dampened the release of the stress hormone that is produced in the body as a reaction to stress.

Dr. Akirav said: "The results of our research should encourage psychiatric investigation into the use of cannabinoids in post-traumatic stress patients."

The study has appeared in the Journal of Neuroscience .

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

MRSA Strain Linked To High Death Rates

A strain of MRSA that causes bloodstream infections is five times more lethal than other strains and has shown to have some resistance to the potent antibiotic drug vancomycin used to treat MRSA, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study.

What is MRSA ?

MRSA, or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is a bacterium that is resistant to common antibiotics like penicillin. It can cause skin, bloodstream and surgical wound infections and pneumonia. The majority of infections occur among patients in hospitals or other health care settings, though a growing number of infections are being acquired by otherwise healthy people outside those settings.

MRSA strains can be resistant to many drugs, though they are typically susceptible to the antibiotic vancomycin. MRSA infections are often treated with vancomycin administered intravenously.

One study found that 50 percent of the patients infected with the strain died within 30 days compared to 11 percent of patients infected with other MRSA strains.

Researchers say the strain USA600 contains unique characteristics that may be linked to the high mortality rate. But they say it is unclear whether other factors like the patients' older age, diseases or the spread of infection contributed to the poor outcomes collectively or with other factors. The average age of patients with the USA600 strain was 64; the average age of patients with other MRSA strains was 52.

The study is being presented at the 47th annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America Oct. 29-Nov. 1 in Philadelphia.

"While many MRSA strains are associated with poor outcomes, the USA600 strain has shown to be more lethal and cause high mortality rates," says Carol Moore, PharmD., a research investigator in Henry Ford's Division of Infectious Diseases and lead author of the study.

"In light of the potential for the spread of this virulent and resistant strain and its associated mortality, it is essential that more effort be directed to better understanding this strain to develop measures for managing it."

Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Researchers link asthma risk to folic acid during pregnancy

Babies born to women who have taken folic acid supplements during their pregnancy are up to 30% more likely than other children to develop asthma, researchers have found.

Mothers-to-be who take folic acid when they are between 30 and 34 weeks pregnant as a health measure may inadvertently prompt the breathing condition in their offspring, a new study says.

The research, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, claims that its findings may help explain the huge global rise over the last 50 years in asthma, especially among children, which has puzzled experts and led to speculation over the causes of the increase.

"We believe that this is the first published study in humans to demonstrate that increasing consumption of folic acid, and specifically supplemental folate during late pregnancy, significantly increases the risk of physician-diagnosed asthma in the child at 3.5 years, persistent asthma (at 3.5 and 5.5 years), and possibly asthma at 5.5 years," write the authors, led by associate professor Michael Davies of the Research Centre for the Early Origins of Health and Disease at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Davies and his team studied the effect of 557 Australian expectant mothers' folate consumption on their child's later development of asthma by examining their diet during pregnancy and how many of their children had asthma at 3.5 years and 5.5 years.

However, while intake of folic acid supplements in later pregnancy was potentially problematic, intake of folate – the natural form of folic acid – through consumption of green leafy vegetables, certain nuts and fruits involved no risk, said Davies. Nor did folic acid intake in early pregnancy, he added.

His research showed how changing diet patterns, and especially over-use of a supplement, could play a role in explaining childhood asthma, he added.

The Department of Health recommends that women should take folic acid for a month before they conceive and during the first trimester of pregnancy, but not beyond, as a way of reducing the number of babies born with neural tube defects, notably spina bifida. While a third of mothers take it pre-pregnancy, some continue to take it throughout, either as a single supplement or as part of a range of vitamins. But Prof Terence Stephenson, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said he doubted the research was very important.

"The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health strongly supports the use of folic acid in pregnancy. It will significantly reduce the number of children born with serious abnormalities of the brain or spine and the associated disabilities. These conditions have profound implications for the child and parents or carers," he said. "The study published this week suggesting a link between folic acid in pregnancy and subsequent increased risk of childhood asthma is not a randomised trial. It relied on a postal questionnaire with a 76% response rate. The increased risk, if there is any, is only just statistically significant. Asthma is treatable whereas spina bifida is a serious and lifelong condition."

Leanne Metcalf, of Asthma UK, said: "The benefits of taking folic acid supplements in pregnancy, particularly with regards to prevention of birth defects like spina bifida, far outweigh the risk of developing asthma."

That view was also supported by Siobhan Freegard, co-founder of Netmums, a social networking site for mothers which claims to have 2.4 million users. "It's better to have the folic acid and take my chances of asthma against the really serious risk of spina bifida that low folate intake in your diet can cause. The best thing is to take folic acid before you conceive, if you can, and for the first three months, and then get folate naturally from then on through eating things such as spinach," she said.

The government is coming under pressure to introduce the mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid as a way of reducing neural tube defects.

The move is backed by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN), its official advisers, and the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

Source:www.guardian.co.uk

Fish reveals 'secret of regeneration'

Thanks to a tiny fish, scientists have moved a step closer to unlocking the secrets of body part regeneration, a power possessed by some animals and not humans.

For example, flatworm Planaria can be cut into as many as 32 pieces but each of which will grow into a whole new animal complete with eyes, mouth and organs. Researchers are aware regeneration involves mechanisms found in developing embryos, but are still not clear about what they are.

Now, an international team has carried out a study on zebrafish and identified a key cellular pathway which appears to trigger regeneration by switching on certain genes, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

According to the scientists, the ability to grow back a perfectly formed duplicate organ or limb to replace one lost through injury or disease is the "Holy Grail" of regenerative medicine.

Source:www.zeenews.com

Deadlier Strain of MRSA Emerges

A newly discovered strain of drug-resistant staph bacteria is five times more deadly than other strains, a new study suggests.Adding insult to injury, the new superbug appears to have some resistance to the antibiotic commonly used to treat it, researchers report.

Half of patients infected with the new strain of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) died within 30 days, says Carol Moore, PharmD, a research investigator in infectious diseases at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. That compares to only about 10% of patients infected with other MRSA strains, she tells WebMD.

Moore and colleagues studied 16 people infected with the new strain, called USA600, and 64 people infected with other MRSA strains at their institution. MRSA strains are typically susceptible to the antibiotic vancomycin, Moore says. But the USA600 strain was at least party immune to vancomycin, she says.

Though the new superbug appears to have unique characteristics that make it deadly, other factors, such as the patients' older age, may have played a role, Moore says. The average age of patients infected with the USA600 strain in the study was 64 vs. 51 for patients with other MRSA strains.

The study was presented at the meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

While USA600 infections have only been seen in hospitalized patients to date, a growing number of MRSA infections are being seen in otherwise healthy people in the community.

"In light of the potential for the spread of this virulent and resistant strain and its associated mortality, it is essential that more effort be directed to better understanding this strain to develop measures for managing it," Moore says.

Source:www.webmd.com

Paediatricians want pneumonia vaccine included in routine immunisation schedule

The simple, three-pronged approach of "protect, prevent and treat" has the potential to save more than a million children who die of pneumonia each year, said members of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) on the occasion of World Pneumonia Day on Monday.

"Programmes stressing exclusive breast-feeding for the first six months of life can protect children from pneumonia," said paediatrician Jagadish Dhekne, president of IAP, Pune branch. "Similarly, immunisations against pneumonia can prevent pneumonia deaths. Vaccines against pneumococcus and Hib should be added as soon as possible," he added.

Pneumonia caused by these two bacteria is largely preventable through vaccination, said Nitin Shah, chairperson of the India chapter of the Asian Strategic Alliance for Pneumococcal disease prevention (ASAP). "Awareness levels about pneumococcal disease, which kills more children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined, is very low in India," he added.

Shah welcomed the Indian health ministry's move to introduce a pentavalent (five-in-one) vaccine which includes haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), one of the two bacteria causing pneumonia and meningitis.

"The government should follow this up with the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) which immunises children against pneumonia and other diseases caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae," said Shah. "India cannot achieve the Millennium Development Goal 4 of reducing child mortality by two-thirds unless we tackle the pneumonia burden (and the diarrhoea burden) in the country."

Dhekne said that the bacterium Streptococcus pneumonia can also cause other serious infections such as bacteria septicemia (blood infection), meningitis (infection of the coverings of brain and spinal cord), sinusitis (infection of the sinuses) and otitis media (middle ear infection).

"These diseases are collectively called pneumococcal disease and, besides causing acute illness and sufferings can also lead to long-term sequelae like brain damage, paralysis, learning disabilities, speech delays and at times death," added Dhekne.

Paediatrician Shishir Modak, vice-president, IAP, Pune branch, said that the main cause of pneumococcal disease is a weak immune system, lack of hygiene and living in overcrowded areas. The symptoms include high fever, breathlessness and grunting and pain in the chest in older children.

"Half of all severe cases of pneumonia and deaths under five years of age are preventable and this can be done by using the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine," said Modak. More than five lakh children in India under the age of five die every year because of pneumonia, he added.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Pregnant women should get flu shot as winter bites: WHO

Pregnant women and other people at high risk should be vaccinated against the H1N1 swine flu virus as the cold weather begins to bite in the northern hemisphere, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

It voiced concern that some vulnerable people are shying away from the pandemic vaccine, which the WHO stressed had not caused any unusual side effects in hundreds of thousands of people to have received it worldwide so far.

"Certainly the fact that the vaccine isn't being used by those who would have access to it and who would be in priority risk groups is of concern, yes," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told a news briefing.

At least 5,712 people have died from the swine flu virus, according to the United Nations agency. Health workers, pregnant women and people with conditions such as asthma are deemed at greatest risk and should be top priority for getting the shot.

"We have seen many, many instances of people in high risk groups such as pregnant women who have very severe disease or outcomes. These outcomes could be in all likelihood avoided if one were to get vaccinated," Hartl said.

Unlike seasonal flu, which is most dangerous to the elderly, H1N1 is hitting younger adults and children especially hard.

The WHO recommends a single vaccine dose for protecting adults against H1N1. It has also urged governments to consider giving a single dose to as many children under age 10 as possible, but says more research is needed into child dosages.

In the United States, studies show that children under the age of 9 will need two doses of the vaccine to be fully protected, officials there said on Monday [ID:nN02462530].

Parts of North America and Europe have already crossed the epidemic threshold, ahead of the normal influenza season which peaks in January-February for the northern hemisphere, WHO says.

"There is substantial influenza activity and we would expect to see more. Certainly the indications are that this will become something quite widespread across the northern hemisphere temperate zones as we go forward through the late autumn and winter," Hartl said.

But the WHO is reluctant to speak of a "second wave" of outbreaks, as the virus may have just been less active in the summer months, he said. Colder weather favors its spread.

Countries from China to the United States have rolled out vaccination campaigns and the rare side effects have been mild, in line with those caused by seasonal flu vaccines, Hartl said.

Source:www.reuters.com

Epilepsy drugs may help treat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

A potential new function for anti-epileptic drugs in treating neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s has been discovered by US researchers.

The study, published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Molecular Neurodegeneration, found that neurons in the brain were protected after treatment with T-type calcium-channel blockers, which are commonly used to treat epilepsy.

Calcium signaling pathways play a vital role in the survival of neurons in the brain. As age increases, calcium homeostasis can be disrupted in the brain, which may lead to cognitive and functional decline. It therefore raises the possibility that chemicals able to modulate calcium homeostasis could protect neurons.

Jianxin Bao and colleagues, from Washington University, Missouri, USA, were one of the first teams to explore the possible protective effects of blockers for T-type calcium channels. The mechanisms for neuroprotection by these antiepileptic drugs were previously unknown.

Bao’s team established cell culture models to directly test whether these drugs could preserve neurons in long- and short-term cultures in vitro.

They found that neurons showed an increase in viability after treatment with either L-type or T-type calcium channel inhibitors. Furthermore, neurons in the long-term and short-term cultures were protected, respectively, by L-type and T-type calcium channel blockers, suggesting that more than one calcium-signaling mechanism exists to regulate long- and short-term neuron survival.

There are presently no effective medications for age-related neurodegeneration.

Bao said “Our data provides implications for the use of this family of anti-epileptic drugs in developing new treatments for neuronal injury, and for the need of further studies of the use of such drugs in age-related neurodegenerative disorders.”

Source:www.newspostonline.com

Antipsychotics linked to weight gain in kids

While weight gain is a known possible side effect of new antipsychotics in adults, a new study finds a similar relation in children and teens.

According to the study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, children and teens taking such drugs for treating conditions such as schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, aggressive behavior and even autism are more vulnerable to weight gain than adults.

The study showed taking Abilify was associated with an average of 4.4 kg, Risperdal with 3.5 kg, Seroquel with 6.1 kg, and Zyprexa with nearly 8.5 kg weight gain in children and teens using the drugs for about 11 weeks.

Children who took Zyprexa were reported to have the most dramatic weight gain and the biggest changes in metabolic factors such as blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglycerides, all of which could place the individual at an increased risk of heart problems and diabetes.

Abilify, an antipsychotic not linked with weight gain in adults, contributed to minor weight gain in the absence of any increase in cholesterol or blood sugar levels.

Scientists concluded that one third of children and adolescents who took common antipsychotic drugs for the first time become overweight or obese in as little as 11 weeks. They therefore urged physicians to monitor these children for cardiometabolic changes in the first three months of treatment.

Source:www.presstv.ir

Diet drinks 'could harm the kidneys'

Diet fizzy drinks may damage the kidneys, a study suggests.

Research on 3,000 women found that two or more artificially sweetened drinks a day doubled the risk of a faster-than-average decline in kidney function. The link persisted after taking account of other risk factors including age, high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, and heart disease.

Drinks made with sugar did not have the same effect on kidney function. The scientists from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts said more work was needed to understand what was behind the trend.

Dr Julie Lin, who led the research, said: 'There are currently limited data on the role of diet in kidney disease. While more study is needed, our research suggests that higher sodium and artificially sweetened soda intake are associated with greater rate of decline in kidney function.'

All the study participants were older Caucasian women. The scientists said it was not clear whether the findings also applied to men or people of different ethnic backgrounds.

The American Beverage Association said: "It's important to remember that this is an abstract being presented at an annual meeting.

Source:www.dailumail.co.uk