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