Natural therapy: Could

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Friday, August 9, 2013

Brisk Walks Could Keep Dementia at Bay

by Sheela Philomena on? August 02, 2013 at 5:19 PM Research News 20 minute brisk walking could help beat dementia, as it improves the walker's brain function, reveals study. Brisk Walks Could Keep Dementia at Bay
Dr Laura Phipps, of Alzheimer's Research UK said that while there is currently no way to prevent dementia, the best evidence shows that regular exercise, along with eating a healthy diet, not smoking and keeping the blood pressure and cholesterol in check can help lower the risk, the Daily Express reported.

On a programme of moderate exercise, the researchers examined people aged 60 to 88, out of which half had mild cognitive impairment.

They were all asked to do their walking on a treadmill, guided by a personal trainer and it was found that respondents with cognitive impairment and those without improved their cardiovascular fitness by about 10 per cent.

Scans showed for the first time that the gentle workouts also improved brain function.

All participants improved their memory performance and showed enhanced ability at memory retrieval tasks.

The study is published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

Source-ANI

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Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Scientists: Sleeping Stem Cells Could Hold Key to Treatment of Aggressive Blood Cancer

by Rukmani Krishna on? August 02, 2013 at 12:02 AM Cancer News Rather than displacing healthy stem cells in the bone marrow as previously believed, the cancer is putting them to sleep to prevent them forming new blood cells, discovers scientists studying an aggressive form of leukaemia. Scientists: Sleeping Stem Cells Could Hold Key to Treatment of Aggressive Blood Cancer
The finding offers the potential that these stem cells could somehow be turned back on, offering a new form of treatment for the condition, called Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). The work was led by scientists at Queen Mary, University of London with the support of Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute.

Around 2,500* people are diagnosed with AML in the UK each year, both young and old. Although AML is curable in some the majority die from this disease.

Normally, the bone marrow produces haematopoietic stem cells which mature into "adult" blood cells. In people with AML the bone marrow is invaded by leukaemic myeloid cells which aren't able to develop into normal functioning blood cells.

The result is that the body does not have enough red blood cells or platelet cells, which can cause symptoms of anaemia, such as tiredness, and increase the risk of excessive bleeding. Patients are also more vulnerable to infection as the white blood cells, which fight bacteria and viruses, are not properly formed.

Dr David Taussig, from the Barts Cancer Institute at Queen Mary, University of London, who led the research, said: "The widely accepted explanation has held that AML causes bone marrow failure by depleting the bone marrow of normal haematopoietic stem cells by killing or displacing them.

"However, we have found that samples of bone marrow in both mice models and patients with AML contain the same, or more, of these normal stem cells than usual. So the cancer isn't getting rid of them, instead it appears to be turning them off so they aren't going on to form healthy blood cells.

"If we can find out how the cancer cells are doing this, we can look at exploiting it to find ways to wake these stem cells up. This is very important as, while the cure rate for younger patients can be around 40 per cent, in older patients it is much lower. The treatments we have, such as chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants, just aren't very successful in this older patient group."

The scientists studied the levels of haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) in the bone marrow of mice transplanted with human AML. They found the numbers of normal mouse HSCs stayed the same, however what did change was that the HSCs were no longer going through the stages of development which finally results in the formation of new blood cells.

The findings were confirmed by the analysis of bone marrow from 16 patients with AML.

Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician, said: "Although major progress has been made in treating AML over the years, there's still an urgent need for more effective treatments to improve long-term survival. This study takes us an important step forwards in our understanding of what's going on in the bone marrow of people with AML, an area that we have not known enough about previously, and the challenge now is to turn this understanding into new treatments for patients."

Dr Taussig added: "Usually when the body is stressed, the stem cells become very active. For example, if you have a haemorrhage, they will jump into action to produce more new blood cells. The cancer cells are somehow over-riding this and our next phase of work will concentrate on how they are doing this."

Source-Eurekalert

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Monday, August 5, 2013

Scientists: Sleeping Stem Cells Could Hold Key to Treatment of Aggressive Blood Cancer

Around 2,500* people are diagnosed with AML in the UK each year, both young and old. Although AML is curable in some the majority die from this disease.

The findings were confirmed by the analysis of bone marrow from 16 patients with AML.

Source-Eurekalert

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Friday, July 26, 2013

Paid Sick Leaves Could Reduce Risk of Spread of Flu Infection

The researchers made use of data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics to simulate a flu epidemic in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. The researchers calculated the number of people with paid sick days and the probability of them actually using them and found that if all the employees had access to paid sick leaves, then the spread of flu infection could drop by six percent.

The researchers also observed the effect of giving the employees extra days off especially when they had the flu and found that giving the sick employees one extra day cut down the flu infection spread by 25 percent and giving two days off cut down the spread by 40 percent. The study has been published in the American Journal of Public Health.

"Our simulations show that allowing all workers access to paid sick days would reduce illness because fewer workers get the flu over the course of the season if employees are able to stay home and keep the virus from being transmitted to their co-workers", lead researcher Supriya Kumar said.

Source-Medindia

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Friday, July 19, 2013

Breast Cancer Risk In Women Could Be Doubled By Long Term Night Shifts

by Rukmani Krishna on? July 04, 2013 at 1:11 PM Women Health News Women who had worked in nights shifts for 30 or more years are twice as likely to suffer from breast cancer, claim researchers. Breast Cancer Risk In Women Could Be Doubled By Long Term Night Shifts
In the study, they assessed whether night shifts were linked to an increased risk of breast cancer among 1134 women with breast cancer and 1179 women without the disease, but of the same age, in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Kingston, Ontario.

The women, who had done various different jobs, were asked about their shift work patterns over their entire work history; hospital records were used to determine tumour type.

Around one in three women in both groups had worked night shifts. There was no evidence that those who had worked nights for up to 14 years or between 15 and 29 years had any increased risk of developing breast cancer.

But those who had worked nights for 30 or more years were twice as likely to have developed the disease, after taking account of potentially influential factors, however, the numbers in this group were comparatively small.

The authors said that the suggested link between breast cancer and shift work has been put down to melatonin, but sleep disturbances, upset body rhythms, vitamin D or lifestyle differences could also play their part.

Source-ANI

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Saturday, July 13, 2013

Keeping Blood Pressure and Cholesterol in Check Could Cut Heart Disease Risk by Half: Study

by Rukmani Krishna on? July 04, 2013 at 1:11 PM Heart Disease News A new research has claimed that controlling your high blood pressure and high cholesterol simultaneously could decrease your risk of attaining heart disease by half or more. Keeping Blood Pressure and Cholesterol in Check Could Cut Heart Disease Risk by Half: Study
Brent M. Egan, M.D., lead study author and a professor of medicine and pharmacology at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, S.C, said that undertreated high blood pressure and cholesterol affect millions of Americans - posing a major public health threat.

He said that the reality is that they know more than enough to prevent 75 percent of heart disease and strokes, but people not doing everything that they can do or even do it at a reasonable level.

Egan asserted that some gradual improvements have been made over the years, but there is still a lot of progress to be made.

The findings are based on data of more than 17,000 American adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys during in 1988-94, 1999-2004 and 2005-10.

In addition to reviewing patients' blood pressure and cholesterol levels, researchers considered race, age, insurance status, whether patients smoked, had diabetes, had diagnosed heart disease and/or chronic kidney disease, and if they visited a doctor every year.

Egan also said that if patients' cholesterol tests show a good high-density lipoprotein (HDL) level, which is the healthy, protective cholesterol, then the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) number might get overlooked.

He explained that not all HDL is equally protective and some people with a normal HDL are at high risk and in those patients, there might be a false sense of assurance that cholesterol really isn't a problem.

He added that LDL and non-HDL readings are the ones to really watch and patients seeing their doctors for BP treatment should ask about their LDL and non-HDL levels and make sure both are under control at the same time.

The research has been published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

Source-ANI

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Friday, July 12, 2013

Nasal Spray That Could End Painful Dentist Injections Developed

by Sheela Philomena on? July 05, 2013 at 4:55 PM Dental News A nasal spray prepared by American scientists could help do away with painful anaesthetic injections for most dental procedures. Nasal Spray That Could End Painful Dentist Injections Developed
According to researchers at the University of Buffalo, the spray- Kovacaine Mist- was as effective as standard anaesthetics in four out of five patients, the Independent reported.

Dr Nigel Carter, chief executive of the British Dental Health Foundation told the publication that patients anxious of the dentist are, in theory, likely to have poorer oral health than those who get regular check-ups.

Carter said that this nasal spray could be a very promising addition to any dental practice.

The product has passed phase two clinical trials in the USA and safety trials with the US Food and Drugs Administration could be complete by the end of the summer.

According to the manufacturer, St Renatus LLC, final product approval in the USA could be achieved by next year.

Source-ANI

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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Banned Fountain of Youth Drug Could be Making a Comeback After 30 Years

by Kathy Jones on? July 05, 2013 at 11:06 PM Drug News Gerovital H3 drug, also known as the 'fountain of youth drug', which has been banned in the United States over the past 30 years could be making a comeback in the country. Banned Fountain of Youth Drug Could be Making a Comeback After 30 Years
In an editorial published in this month's Journal of the American Geriatrics Society BUSM researcher Thomas Perls, MD, points out that a few U.S.-based anti-aging and longevity clinics have begun to advertise Gerovital H3 in pill form and as intravenous infusions despite the fact that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned it in 1982.

Gerovital H3 is the dental anesthetic procaine hydrochloride (novocaine), yet in the 1950s, this drug was abused among Hollywood stars. According to Perls governmental bodies such as the FDA are relied upon to protect their citizens from drugs that do not do what they are claimed to do or are unsafe, yet in communist Romania, the opposite occurred with the state-sponsored marketing of Gerovital H3. In 1956, a paper titled "A new method for prophylaxis and treatment of aging with Novocain-eutrophic and rejuvenating effects" was published in the now discontinued journal Therapiewoche by Ana Aslan, director of the Geriatrics Institute of Bucharest. As a result the communist regime established an anti-aging resort and clinic for foreigners.

Perls explains that by the 1970s, the National Institute on Aging commissioned a thorough evaluation of the studies and claims surrounding Gerovital H3. "The conclusion of that work was that, except for a possible mild monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor effect that would potentially ameliorate depression, there was no scientifically credible evidence supporting the claims that procaine hydrochloride is beneficial in treating age-related diseases or syndromes," said Perls, professor medicine at BUSM and director of the New England Centenarian and Supercentenarian Studies at Boston Medical Center. Perls points out that a plausible explanation for why some subjects might have experienced some improvements in health was that, in addition to receiving Gerovital H3, they were receiving other interventions such as exercise, stress reduction and healthy nutrition. "Thus, a glaring problem for the demonstration of any benefit associated with Gerovital H3 or similar compounds is the absence of any double-blind, placebo controlled trials demonstrating a significant improvement in the outcomes that anti-aging doctors and entrepreneurs claimed," he added.

Additional studies were later performed to further investigate a possible MAO inhibitory effect from procaine hydrochloride and any subsequent neurocognitive benefit but there was no evidence that procaine and its preparations could treat or preventing cognitive impairment or dementia.

"Gerovital H3 appears to have experienced a recent rebound in marketing and sales in the United States, primarily because of Internet-based marketing. A search for "Gerovital H3" on Google or Yahoo! results in more than 300,000 hits. Inquiring patients and the public need to be informed about the approved and unapproved uses of procaine hydrochloride and aware that there is no scientific evidence supporting any systemic health benefits or "anti-aging" effects of the drug," said Perls.

Source-Eurekalert

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

High Fat Diet During Pregnancy Could Increase Chances of Obesity in Offspring

by Dr. Nithin Jayan on? June 25, 2013 at 11:35 AM Health Watch High fat diet during pregnancy may predispose the offspring to overeating; permanent changes are induced in brain cells that control food intake. An increased preference for fatty and sugary foods has been shown in offspring who were exposed to high fat diet while in the womb.
The study performed on monkeys, funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, showed the influence that maternal diet had on offspring's dietary habits. Male offspring born to monkeys that ate a high-fat diet during pregnancy had increased body weight, compared with the offspring of mothers that ate a low-fat diet.

"Studies in humans have demonstrated that maternal obesity during pregnancy is a strong determinant of offspring body mass index, or BMI," said the study's lead author, Juliana Gastao Franco, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Oregon Health and Science University.

"Our group demonstrated that consumption of a high-fat diet during gestation alters fetal development of neurons that control food intake, ultimately leading to an increased preference for high-calorie food and to increased body fat in the offspring."

Investigators studied monkeys born to females that consumed either a low-fat (control) diet, consisting of 14 percent of calories from fat, or a high-fat diet in which 36 percent of calories came from fat. The total food intake, dietary preferences, body composition, physical activity and metabolic rate, which is the rate at which the body burns calories, were measured once the monkeys were 6 to 11 months of age.

Detailed studies that focused on the monkeys' hypothalamus, the region of the brain that regulates food intake, were then performed. All male offspring that had prenatal exposure to a high-fat diet had increased body weight, despite having no changes in their metabolic rate and regardless of what they ate after weaning. An increased overall food intake and increased binge eating of food with high sugar and fat were noticed.

Researchers explain that the altered habits are due to permanent changes in their hypothalamus of the monkeys due to prenatal exposure to high-fat diet. The study was presented at the Endocrine Society's 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco. At this time, it would be premature to make definitive conclusions based on these 'animal trials'. However to be on the safer side, pregnant mothers are advised to adhere to healthy diets as per body requirements. Always visit your obstetrician and nutritionist for more advice on diet.

Source-Medindia

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Common Antidepressants Could Double Risk of Babies Being Born With Heart Defect

by Sheela Philomena on? June 25, 2013 at 12:40 PM Drug News Popular antidepressants in early pregnancy could double the risk of babies being born with a heart defect, warns expert. Common Antidepressants Could Double Risk of Babies Being Born With Heart Defect<br /><br />
Professor Stephen Pilling of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), said that evidence suggests that there is a risk associated with the Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), the BBC reported.

He said that a lot of effort is put in to dissuade women from smoking or drinking alcohol during pregnancy, however, its not the same with antidepressant medication, which may be carrying similar - if not greater - risks.

Pilling said that the guidance is now going be re-written to take in to account evidence that the SSRI antidepressants, as a group, are associated to heart defects in babies.

He asserted that the risk of a child being born with a heart defect is around two in 100; but the new evidence shows that if the mother took an SSRI during early pregnancy the risk raises to around four in 100.

Source-ANI

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Friday, June 7, 2013

Newly Identified Immune Protein Could Stop Diabetes in Its Tracks: Melbourne Researchers

The discovery has wider repercussions, as the protein is responsible for protecting the body against excessive immune responses, and could be used to treat, or even prevent, other immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Professor Len Harrison, Dr Esther Bandala-Sanchez and Dr Yuxia Zhang led the research team from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute's Molecular Medicine division that identified the immune protein CD52 as responsible for suppressing the immune response, and its potential for protecting against autoimmune diseases.

So-called autoimmune diseases develop when the immune system goes awry and attacks the body's own tissues. Professor Harrison said CD52 held great promise as a therapeutic agent for preventing and treating autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes.

"Immune suppression by CD52 is a previously undiscovered mechanism that the body uses to regulate itself, and protect itself against excessive or damaging immune responses," Professor Harrison said.

"We are excited about the prospect of developing this discovery to clinical trials as soon as possible, to see if CD52 can be used to prevent and treat type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. This has already elicited interest from pharmaceutical companies," he noted.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that develops when immune cells attack and destroy insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.

Professor Harrison said that T cells that have or release high levels of CD52 are necessary to maintain normal balance in the immune system.

"In a preclinical model of type 1 diabetes, we showed that removal of CD52-producing immune cells led to rapid development of diabetes. We think that cells that release CD52 are essential to prevent the development of autoiummune disease, and that CD52 has great potential as a therapeutic agent," he said.

CD52 appears to play a dominant role in controlling or suppressing immune activity in the early stages of the immune response, Professor Harrison said.

"We identified a specialised population of immune cells (T cells) that carry high levels of CD52, which they release to dampen the activity of other T cells and prevent uncontrolled immune responses," Professor Harrison said.

"The cells act as an early 'braking' mechanism," he added.

Professor Harrison said his goal is to prevent and ultimately cure type 1 diabetes.

He revealed that they can prevent and cure type 1 diabetes in animal models and he's hopeful that these results will be translatable into humans, hopefully in the not-too-distant future.

The research was published today in the journal Nature Immunology.

Source-ANI

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Monday, June 3, 2013

Study Shows How Frog Embryos Could Help Fight Disease

Scientists at Northwestern University and the Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie in Germany, in collaboration with the Advanced Photon Source at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, X-rayed an embryo during gastrulation, the period when its hundreds of cells start to organize into differentiated tissues that eventually form the nervous system, muscles and internal organs.

The study titled "X-ray phase-contrast in vivo microtomography probes new aspects of Xenopus gastrulation."

Studies of African clawed frog embryos can provide clues to the evolution of vertebrates and how human genes turn on or off to create diseases.

Until now, however, it has been difficult to study these embryos. Classical absorption imaging requires a contrast agent and large X-ray dose that can harm living organisms.

Researchers from the German synchrotron ANKA proposed a new method of nondestructive analysis using X-ray diffraction.

In the experiment, Xianghui Xiao, a scientist at the APS who collaborated on the work, and his colleagues took regular 15-second exposures separated by periods of 10 minutes over the course of two hours of different gastrulas.

The resulting 13 time-lapse scans provided a detailed portrait of the transfiguration of the frog cells.

The scientists discovered new morphological structures and clarified the process for redistributing fluid in the embryo. They also were able to locate the areas of the embryo that were driving the migration of tissues and cells during gastrulation.

The findings have been published in the journal Nature.

Source-ANI

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