Month: September 2013

Studies confirm colon cancer screening reduces deaths

Studies confirm colon cancer screening reduces deaths

A new analysis suggests that it’s worth it to follow screening recommendations and have the test done every 10 years (or every five for those at high risk.)

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, Harvard researcher Reiko Nishihara and co-authors assessed colonoscopy use, colorectal cancer cases and colorectal cancer deaths among participants in the multi decade Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

Following 88,902 subjects over 22 years, they found that people who underwent endoscopic screenings were less likely to develop colon cancer than people who didn’t. Subjects who had clean colonoscopies, sigmoidoscopies and polypectomies were, respectively, 56%, 40%, and 43% less likely to develop the disease than subjects who were not screened.

The team estimated that 40% of the colon cancers that developed over the study period would have been prevented if all participants in the studies had went in for colonoscopies.

In a separate study in the same journal, Dr. Aasma Shaukat of the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Heath Care System and co-authors wrote that a different screening test — the fecal occult blood test, which detects blood in a stool sample — is also effective in reducing deaths from colorectal cancer.

In that report — a 30-year follow-up on earlier work involving more than 46,000 participants — scientists who reviewed death records through 2008 found a 32% reduction in the risk of death from the disease among patients in the trial who underwent annual screening during the periods of 1976 to 1982 and from 1986 to 1992.

In an editorial also published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Theodore R. Levin and Dr. Douglas A. Corley of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Centers wrote that the studies showed that fecal occult blood tests as well as colonoscopies were effective screening measures, and suggested that current guidelines make sense for patients.

Because the data sets can’t be compared directly, they cautioned against concluding that colonoscopies are necessarily better than the blood test on the basis of the findings. Studies have found that more patients choose to get blood tests in addition to colonoscopies if they are offered — one reason why the Kaiser system in Northern California, where both co-authors work, uses a “combined approach.”

Randomized trials that are already underway may help determine what testing approach prevents the most cancers and deaths, they wrote.

Source: LasAngelestimes

Man diagnosed with brewing beer in his stomach

The Texas man had a rare disease called “auto-brewery syndrome” that made him frequently drunk without ingesting alcohol.

A case study details why an unnamed 61-year-old Texas man was often drunk throughout the day, even on days when he insisted that he had not had a drink. He was eventually diagnosed with “auto-brewery syndrome,” a rare disease that has only a few confirmed cases in the last 30 years.

People with the syndrome have too much yeast in their intestinal tract. When they eat carbohydrates, the yeast turns the carbohydrates into ethanol and they become intoxicated from the inside out

“The physicians were not aware of any way that a person could be intoxicated without ingesting alcohol and therefore believed he must be a ‘closet drinker.'” Dr. Barbara Cordell and Dr. Justin McCarthy, study authors

Doctors — and even the man’s wife, who is a nurse — didn’t believe him for a long time when he said he wasn’t drinking. His wife regularly made him take a Breathalyzer test and he would consistently register a blood alcohol level (BAL) of 0.33% to 0.4%, or 5 times the legal driving limit.

In 2010 the man was placed under strict observation for 24 hours, after which he still had a high BAL. Doctors determined his condition was likely due to medication he had because of a 2004 surgery that destroyed helpful bacteria in his gut. As a result, yeast built up.

The man was placed on a low-carb diet, given antifungal medication and recovered. The study suggest that physicians consider the possibility of the rare condition if confronted with a case of someone claiming they become drunk without drinking.

Source: cir.ca.news

How Biofeedback Train Your Brain to Think Smarter

You exercise your body in the pursuit of optimal function, but what about your brain? Those looking to get an edge in—and out—of the gym are flexing their minds with neuro feedback. We’re not talking Sudoku puzzles here (though they have their benefits), but neuro feedback—the process of hooking up to an electroencephalogram (EEG) in order to “train” your brain

it sounds a bit sci-fi, but it may dial down your stress level and help you tap into your potential. “Neuro feedback [also commonly called biofeedback] is somewhat like putting the brain on an elliptical machine or a stair stepper in order to exercise certain regulatory functions. For example, the brain can get stuck in an anxious state and neuro feedback training enables it to shift into a calmer state for optimal function. Essentially, you’re aiding the brain’s ability to self-regulate,” says neuro feedback specialist Evelyn Shapero of the Brain fitness Centre in Los Angeles.

The practice has been proven effective for treating serious conditions including depression, PTSD, and ADHD, but in today’s tech-driven world many are now seeking it out to alleviate stress. “If a patient has unreasonable fatigue and insomnia, or unexplained weight gain, I test the adrenals to see if there’s a disharmonic pattern to their cortisol production,” says Eva Cwynar, MD, a Beverly Hills endocrinologist, assistant professor of clinical medicine at UCLA, and author of The Fatigue Solution. “If stress hormones like cortisol are too high or low at the wrong times of the day, or too high throughout the day, it can eventually cause the adrenals to say, ‘I quit.’ Once that happens, the only thing I’ve found to help get the body back in balance is neuro feedback.”

How It Works Even though that balance is achieved gradually, rather than as a quick fix, most people note feeling a difference after their first session. The process, while complex and highly individualized, basically works like this: Non-invasive electrodes are attached to the surface of the scalp to measure brain waves and provide feedback as a specialized software program (often a video game) helps guide the brain into a more desired state through subtle and unconscious corrections until the brain ultimately learns to perform at its best—naturally. Think of it like a high-tech fitness coach, guiding you through exercises and correcting your form until, eventually, you no longer need any assistance.

Try it, however, and you may find it hard to give up. Because neurofeedback enhances the function of both the brain and the central nervous system, it can help you tap into that elusive state of flow, one in which mind and body are seamlessly in sync (without any conscious effort), making it a natural for the sports arena where athletes must perform like finely-tuned machines. Olympic athletes have used it as a training tool and tennis great Novak Djokovic, known for his open-minded approach to diet, health, and training, utilizes it to monitor his stress levels. “If the adrenals aren’t functioning well, your neurotransmitters can be affected and the imbalance can extrapolate to every other hormone in the body, influencing testosterone, thyroid, insulin levels, and more,” says Cwynar. “By recreating balance in the body, neuro feedback helps everything run more smoothly, that is why it helps athletes, too. Your metabolism, your ATP, your mitochondria, everything just functions better.”

Source: freenewspos

Breast Screenings Services Increased in VA

In 2007, Breast Cancer Initiative was started.

In the last five years, services for screening and treatment of breast cancer have been increased in the U. S, but with this the time taken for the treatment also increased at one hospital.

In a study conducted by Baltimore Veteran Affairs (VA) Medical Center, it was found that although the number of mammograms conducted after 2007 increased, yet it took women an extra 18 days for getting the treatment after the diagnose. Since 2007 screening and treatment of breast cancer has been given a priority in the hospitals.

The main objective of this study was to find out that with the rise in number of women receiving screening and treatment in made any kind of impact on the time taken for treatment after the positive diagnosis of the disease.

The survey revealed that before this breast cancer initiative, 33 days was the usual time period between the positive diagnosis and the treatment, however, after the initiative since more women came for the screening, this time period extended to an average of 51 days.

It was found that between year 2002 and 2012, as many as 7,355 mammograms were carried out by the Baltimore VA Medical Center and more than 90% of the total number were performed after 2007.

The survey included all the women turning to VA from the rural medical centers. According to the researchers the time gap could also have increased due to the need of second mammograms as well.

Source: topnews.us

 

Harvard study finds food expiration labels are misleading

Harvard study finds food expiration labels are misleading

Americans throw out billions of pounds of food every year because they falsely believe “sell-by” and “best-before” dates on package labels indicate food safety, researchers have found.

A study published Wednesday by Harvard Law School and the Natural Resources Defense Council found that dates printed on packaged foods, which help retailers cycle through stocked products and allow manufacturers to indicate when a product is at its peak freshness, are inconsistent. They confuse consumers, leading many to throw out food before it actually goes bad.

“The labeling system is aimed at helping consumers understand freshness, but it fails – they think it’s about safety. And (consumers) are wasting money and wasting food because of this misunderstanding,” said co-author Emily Broad Lieb, who led the report from the Harvard Law School’s Food Law and Policy Clinic.

Broad Lieb and NRDC scientist Dana Gunders said that, while labels “appear to be a rational system,” they are essentially meaningless to consumers. Manufacturers often decide on their own how to calculate shelf life and what the dates mean.

As a result, huge amounts of food, not to mention considerable natural resources and labor, go to waste in landfill and taxes, and harm the environment.

A lack of binding federal standards on labeling means the dates are governed by a patchwork of state and local laws.

“It’s like the Wild West,” Gunders said.

The authors recommended that “sell-by” dates be invisible to consumers so they cannot be misinterpreted as safety labels; that a clear, uniform date label system be established; and that “smart labels” that rely on technology to provide food safety information be used more frequently.

David Fikes, a spokesman for the Food Marketing Institute, which represents food retailers and wholesalers, said the group agreed there had to be a clearer way for the consumer to read dates. However, it disagreed the code should be hidden from consumers, because that would make it difficult for store employees to stock shelves.

On Wednesday, Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) released a statement pressing for a consistent federal food dating system.

“Under the current patchwork of state and federal laws, consumers are left in the lurch, forced to decipher the differences between ‘sell-by’ and ‘best if used by,’ and too often food is either thrown out prematurely, or families wind up consuming dangerous or spoiled food,” she said.

Lack of understanding about the labels is not necessarily a health hazard. Researchers said they found no significant difference in incidents of food-borne illness between states such as Massachusetts, which has very strict labeling rules, and others such as New York, which is more lax.

In fact, University of Minnesota food safety scientist Dr. Theodore Labuza, who reviewed the study, said that in his more than 30 years of researching date labels, he was unaware of any outbreaks of illness related to food being kept in the refrigerator or on the shelf past an expiration date, as long as it was stored properly.

“People think the use-by date means either the product is going to die or you’re going to die if you eat it. And it’s just not true. You can’t tie shelf life to a date,” Labuza said.

“If the food looks rotten and smells bad, you should throw it away, but just because it’s past the date on the package, it doesn’t mean it’s unsafe.”

Source: Reuters.com

Mind-Control Parasite Kills Mice’s Fear of Cats Permanently

An infection with a weakened form of the protozoan caused mice to permanently lose their innate fear of catsA fair amount of research has taken place on Toxoplasma gondii, the bizarre parasite that makes mice unafraid of cats, and the latest chapter is a strange one.

 

A new study shows that even a brief infection with a weakened form of the protozoan caused mice to permanently lose their innate fear of cats.

The protozoan is known to cause this change in mice after a lingering infection and after it produces cysts in the mouse brain, according to the study, published online Sept. 18 in the journal PLOS ONE. But until now scientists didn’t know this apparently long-lasting change could occur after only a short infection, and without development of cysts and brain inflammation. The study also showed the change occurred with weakened forms of all three major variants of the protozoa found in North America.

“It is remarkable that even after the infection has been largely or completely cleared, a profound behavioral change persists,” said Wendy Ingram, a study author and researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, in a statement from PLOS ONE. “Simply having a transient infection resulting in what is potentially a permanent change in host biology may have huge implications for infectious disease medicine.”

Ingram isn’t sure the mechanism involved in the long-term behavior change, though she speculates the parasite may disrupt the smell region of a mouse’s brain, preventing the rodent from detecting cat odor that would trigger the fear. Another possibility is that the parasite directly modifies mouse brain cells that are linked to memory and learning.

Toxoplasma gondii is found throughout the world and infects a large number of mammals, including humans. However, the protozoan can only reproduce within the bodies of cats, and in mice, the mind-controlling parasite has evidently evolved to make mice unafraid of felines and even, according to some research, sexually attracted to the odor of cat urine; this makes it more likely infected mice will be eaten, and the parasite will make it back into a cat to spawn.

The parasite is found in as many as one-third to one-half of humans, and its presence in the brain has been linked with suicide attempts. It may affect other areas of mental health: One study suggested that people with the parasite scored higher on tests of neuroticism, an emotional or mental trait characterized by high levels of anxiety or insecurity.

Resarchers had the volunteers chew gum, drink a bottle of water, cough or read a section of an article. The participants spent about 40 seconds on each activity.

“Our mouth is an opening into our health — our drinking and eating behaviors shed light on our diet,” said researcher Hao-hua Chu, a computer scientist at National Taiwan University in Taipei. “How frequently we cough also tells us about our health, and how frequently we talk is related to social activity that can be related to health.”

Each of these activities moves teeth in a unique way. When it came to recognizing what a study participant was doing based solely on data from the devices, the system researchers developed was up to 93.8 percent accurate

Source: Live Science.com

Deadly Amoeba in Water Supply Possibly Linked to Hurricane Katrina

Deadly brain eating amoeba inwater may possibly linked to hurricane Katrina

A deadly brain-eating amoeba found in the water supply of a New Orleans suburb could be related to the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina, according to officials from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed last week that the deadly Naegleria fowleri amoeba has been found in the St. Bernard Parish water supply.

The pathogens were discovered after a 4-year-old boy was infected with the amoeba and died. The Naegleria fowleri thrives in warm freshwater and causes a deadly form of meningitis when inhaled through the nose.

Jake Causey, the chief engineer at the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, said the severe drop in population in St. Bernard’s parish immediately after Hurricane Katrina could have affected the water supply. If a majority of a town’s population leaves the area, the water in the water system may remain sitting in pipes longer. As a result the chlorine can dissipate and pathogens can grow.

Before Hurricane Katrina the parish’s population was approximately 67,000, according to the St. Bernard Chamber of Commerce. After the storm, the population dipped below 15,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Jonathan Yoder, an epidemiologist with the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Disease at the CDC, said anything that could dilute the chlorine used to disinfect the water supply could lead to more pathogens in the system.

Girl, 12, in Critical Condition With Brain-Eating Amoeba

“This organism likes warm water and if it can get in the system and there’s not enough disinfection, it can colonize and it can grow in the system,” said Yoder.

While under-use of the water system due to a population drop could affect the chlorine levels, Yoder said, but he clarified it was too early in the CDC’s investigation to confirm, and it was only speculation at this point that Hurricane Katrina could have affected the water supply.

The parish is currently flushing out the water system with chlorine, and water has been turned off at schools in the area.

This is the first time that the amoebas have been found in the treated water of a U.S. water system.

Early symptoms of a Naegleria infection include a severe frontal headache, fever, nausea and vomiting, according to the CDC. But those can swiftly give way to a stiff neck, seizures, confusion and hallucinations as the amoeba makes its way up through the nasal cavity into the brain.

“After the start of symptoms, the disease progresses rapidly and usually causes death within about five days,” the according to the CDC. “People should seek medical care immediately whenever they develop a sudden onset of fever, headache, stiff neck and vomiting, particularly if they have been in warm freshwater recently.”

Source: abcnews.go.com

 

How ‘smart teeth’ could detect health habits

Artificial teeth that detect when people chew, drink, speak and cough could help people track exactly how much they eat, along with other aspects of their health, researchers say.

In a study, the scientists used dental cement to glue sensors onto the teeth of eight volunteers. The devices were accelerometers that recognized movement in all three dimensions, and were coated with dental resin to keep them safe from saliva. Thin wires connected to the sensors helped collect their data.

The researchers had the volunteers chew gum, drink a bottle of water, cough or read a section of an article. The participants spent about 40 seconds on each activity.

“Our mouth is an opening into our health — our drinking and eating behaviors shed light on our diet,” said researcher Hao-hua Chu, a computer scientist at National Taiwan University in Taipei. “How frequently we cough also tells us about our health, and how frequently we talk is related to social activity that can be related to health.”

Each of these activities moves teeth in a unique way. When it came to recognizing what a study participant was doing based solely on data from the devices, the system researchers developed was up to 93.8 percent accurate

Source: huffingtonpost

2-year-old world’s youngest to have bariatric surgery

A morbidly obese two-year-old has become the youngest person in the world to undergo bariatric surgery.

The parents of the toddler from Saudi Arabia who weighed (73 pounds) and had a Body Mass Index of 41 sought help because he suffered sleep apnea that caused him to stop breathing while asleep.

Two attempts to control his weight by dieting failed said the medics who carried out the bariatric surgery Mohammed Al Mohaidlya, Ahmed Sulimana and Horia Malawib in an article in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports.

When he first presented to an endocrinologist at 14 months, the toddler weighed (47 pounds) but after dieting for four months his weight increased by (18 pounds).

The doctors from Prince Sultan Military Medical City at Riyadh were unable to ascertain whether the child’s parents stuck to the diet.

By the time the boy was referred to the obesity clinic he weighed (65 pounds) and his obesity had led to sleep apnea and bowing of the legs.

A further attempt at dieting failed and when he reached (73 pounds) doctors decided to perform surgery.

Surgeons carried out a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy on the boy which involved removing the outer margin of the stomach to restrict food intake, leaving a sleeve of stomach, roughly the size and shape of a banana.

Unlike a lap band, the surgery is not reversible.

“To our knowledge LSG has never been tried in very young age children,” the surgeons say in their report. “We present here probably the first case report of the successful management of a two year old morbidly obese boy.”

Within two months the boy lost 15 per cent of his body weight and two years after the 2010 surgery his weight had fallen from (73 pounds) to (53 pounds) and his BMI of 24 was within the normal range.

Obesity expert adjunct professor Paul Zimmett from the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute said the case was “shocking” and “very unusual”.

“It’s rather like the other day when we saw one of our spacecrafts going out of our solar system into the dark regions of space, it’s going into unknown territory,” he said of the case. “We have no idea what effect this may have on the child’s growth and unless he has proper follow up he may suffer vitamin deficiencies.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/09/19/morbidly-obese-2-year-old-world-youngest-to-have-bariatric-surgery/#ixzz2fQDzapE9

 

Mountain Dew Mouth’ Is Destroying Appalachia’s Teeth

Appalachia has a distinct culture of sipping soda constantly throughout the day. “Here in West Virginia, you see people carrying around bottles of Mountain Dew all the time — even at a public health conference,” says public health researcher Dana Singer.

By now, we’ve all heard of the health risks posed by drinking too much soda.

But over in Appalachia, the region that stretches roughly from southern New York state to Alabama, the fight against soda is targeting an altogether different concern: rotted teeth.

Public health advocates say soft drinks are driving the region’s alarmingly high incidence of eroded brown teeth — a phenomenon dubbed “Mountain Dew mouth,” after the region’s favorite drink. They want to tackle the problem with policies, including restricting soda purchases with food stamps (now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and currently in Congress).

“We are using taxpayer dollars to buy soda for the SNAP program, and we are using taxpayer dollars to rip teeth out of people’s heads who can’t afford dental care and are on Medicaid,” says Dana Singer, a research analyst at the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department in Parkersburg, W.Va., who wants to see stricter regulations on sales of all sugary beverages in the region. “It makes no sense to be paying for these things twice.”

The beverage industry has repeatedly that its products are destroying teeth. But dentists beg to differ.

“I see erosion from the acids in the drinks, and decay from the sugars,” says , a dentist in South Charleston, W.Va. “They go hand in hand many times, and they’re equally bad. I would definitely attribute these problems to drinks.” Both sodas and energy drinks, he says, “are more damaging than food.”

Dentists have also found that the effects of soda on teeth are strikingly similar to the effects of methamphetamine or crack on teeth, as I in May. Drinking more than a soda a day raises the risk that found in many soft and energy drinks will eat away at your tooth enamel and its pearly white color. To get a sense of what that looks like, check out .

Back in 2009, Priscilla Harris, an associate professor at the Appalachian College of Law, issued the first battle cry in the war against Mountain Dew mouth with a legal brief titled “,” which explores how the drink became ingrained in the region’s culture. Since then, she’s been leading the charge to come up with policies to tackle the problem.

Harris says that dental problems are especially bad because dental care is harder to get in Appalachia, which includes many of the poorest and most remote communities in the country. Many people don’t trust the well water in their homes because of pollution concerns and probably drink more soda because of it, she says. She’s received a from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study the problem.

And there’s another reason why soda mouth is so pervasive in Appalachia, Harris says: the region’s distinct culture of sipping soda constantly throughout the day. Singer adds, “Here in West Virginia, you see people carrying around bottles of Mountain Dew all the time — even at a public health conference.”

The drink is also native to the region. Mountain Dew was, before PepsiCo bought the brand.

“What Mountain Dew has going for it is that it’s high in caffeine and high in sugar,” Harris says, adding, “Students tell us it tastes best, and it’s a habit.”

While Harris says that there aren’t a lot of comprehensive surveys of dental health in Appalachia, signs of a rampant problem are unmistakable: Some 26 percent of preschoolers in the region have tooth decay, and 15 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds have had a tooth extracted because of decay or erosion. That’s according to calculations by Singer, who is working with Harris.

The elderly are affected, too. Some 67 percent of West Virginians age 65 or older have lost six or more teeth owing to tooth decay or gum disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Singer says one of the best opportunities to curb the problem is targeting programs like SNAP, which allows recipients to buy soda. According to a by Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, the federal government is spending $1.7 billion to $2.1 billion on soda purchases through SNAP.

Under current guidelines, any kind of soda of any size can be purchased with SNAP card — even Mountain Dew, which has 170 calories in a single 12-ounce can.

Various states, from Florida to Tennessee, have proposed bills that would restrict the use of SNAP to buy soda, sugary treats or other unhealthful foods. Singer says she would like to see West Virginia and other states in Appalachia try this approach.

Basic education, says Harris, is also needed: “We also just need to let people know that you can drink these drinks safely, but they can also do harm.”

Source: npr.org