Month: November 2013

12 myths about insulin and type 2 diabetes

When you hear the word “insulin,” do you picture giant needles (ouch!) or pop culture portrayals of insulin users with low blood sugar (like Julia Roberts losing it in Steel Magnolias)?

Either way, most people think of insulin as a difficult, painful, or potentially scary medical treatment.

The problem is that if you have type 2 diabetes, you need to know the real deal before you can make an informed choice about whether or not this potentially lifesaving therapy is right for you.

Here, we take a look at the facts and fiction about insulin when it comes to treating type 2 diabetes.

Diabetics always need insulin

Not necessarily. People with type 1 diabetes (about 5 percent to 10 percent of diabetics) do need insulin. If you have type 2, which includes 90 percent to 95 percent of all people with diabetes, you may not need insulin.

Of adults with diabetes, only 14 percent use insulin, 13 percent use insulin and oral medication, 57 percent take oral medication only, and 16 percent control blood sugar with diet and exercise alone, according to the CDC.

The point is to get blood sugar—which can be a highly toxic poison in the body—into the safe zone by any means necessary.

Taking insulin means you’ve ‘failed’

“This is a big myth,” says Dr. Jill Crandall, professor of clinical medicine and director of the diabetes clinical trial unit at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in the Bronx, N.Y. “Many people who try very hard to adhere to a diet, exercise, and lose weight will still need insulin.”

The fact is that type 2 diabetes is a progressive illness, meaning that over time you may need to change what you do to make sure your blood sugar is in a healthy range. Eating right and exercise will always be important, but medication needs can vary.

“A large percentage of people with type 2 diabetes will ultimately need insulin, and we don’t see it as a failure,” she says.

Insulin injections hurt

“This is absolutely false,” says Crandall. “With the small fine needles we have today, insulin injections are close to painless, if not painless.”

In fact, most people would say that the finger pricks used to measure blood glucose levels hurt more than insulin injections.

“When people get their first injection, they often say, ‘I can’t believe it didn’t hurt,’” says Crandall. What’s more, you may not need to use syringes at all.

There are injector pens on the market that allow you to dial the dose of insulin, snap on a tiny needle, and inject painlessly. Really.

Insulin can cause dangerously low blood sugar

Okay this one is possible, but not likely. People with type 2 diabetes tend to be at lower risk of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) than those with type 1.

A prolonged episode of low blood sugar could cause a loss of consciousness or coma. Still, most people with type 2 can easily recognize the symptoms, which include anxiety, shaky hands, sweating, and an urge to eat.

Consuming a bit of sugar—a few Life Savers, diluted juice, or glucose tablets—quickly reverses the low blood sugar.

Insulin is forever

Not necessarily. Some people with type 2 diabetes may need insulin temporarily, such as right after they’re diagnosed or during pregnancy, whereas others may need to stay on it indefinitely.

Some people who lose a lot of weight (naturally or with the help of bariatric surgery) may find that they no longer need insulin, while others who lose weight may still need it.

(It largely depends on how much damage diabetes has done to the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.)

“It is not always a one-way street,” Crandall says.

Insulin is difficult to take

Gone are the days when insulin injections were bulky, conspicuous, and difficult to administer.

“Today, insulin comes in pen injectors that are easy to carry with you, don’t require refrigeration, and can be used discreetly, often just once a day,” Crandall says.

“There are a large variety of insulin and insulin regimens that are much more convenient than they used to be,” she adds.

Oral medications are better than insulin

Oral diabetes medications can be great when it comes to lowering blood glucose levels. Many have been used for years and are very safe, such as metformin.

Still, they don’t work for everyone. “For some people, insulin is the easiest and best because it always works, but some people respond to pills, and others don’t,” says Crandall.

Not all oral medications have a tried-and-true safety record. For example, Avandia was restricted by the FDA because of research suggesting that it ups the risk of heart attack.

Insulin will make you gain weight

There’s some truth to this one. Some people with type 2 diabetes may gain weight after starting insulin therapy.

However, the insulin therapy itself does not induce weight gain. It’s because if a diabetes treatment is working, the body begins to process blood glucose more normally, and the result can be weight gain. (This is one reason unexplained weight loss can be an early symptom of diabetes.)

The good news is that this tends to level out as insulin therapy continues, and the weight gain may be transient, explains Crandall.

People with type 2 don’t make insulin

This isn’t true. People with type 2 diabetes may actually produce higher-than-normal levels of insulin earlier in the course of the disease, a condition known as hyperinsulinemia.

This happens because type 2 diabetes is caused by insulin resistance, a condition in which the body loses the ability to respond normally to the hormone.

Taking insulin shots can help overcome insulin resistance, and they can take the place of naturally occurring insulin production, which does tend to dwindle over time.

Insulin means your diabetes is “serious”

The truth is diabetes is a serious condition no matter how you treat it—it’s just that so few people realize it. Because you can have diabetes and feel just fine (or ignore symptoms like thirst and fatigue), you may think you’ve got a “touch of sugar” or some other mild-sounding condition.

In reality, high blood sugar poisons the body, damaging the heart, kidney, eyes, and nerves.

The point is to make sure your blood sugar is under control, whether it takes diet, exercise, pills, insulin, or all of these combined.

Insulin use requires multiple daily injections

Not always. If you need insulin, you have options. You can try a long-acting once-a-day insulin (usually given at night), which mimics the low level of insulin normally found in the body all day long.

This may be enough to control blood sugar on its own, or it can be combined with oral medications.

If blood sugar is still too high after meals, however, you may need to take insulin several times a day, just before eating.

Insulin is a treatment of last resort

Although some people exhaust all possible diabetes treatments before resorting to insulin, this may not be the best strategy.

“By the time a person with type 2 starts insulin therapy, they likely already have diabetes-related complication because of poor blood sugar control,” Crandall says.

Because high blood sugar is so toxic and can up the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other problems, you shouldn’t waste too much time undergoing treatments that aren’t getting your blood sugar under control.

In fact, starting insulin sooner may avoid complications, cause oral medications to work better (and be effective longer), or allow you to use a less-complicated insulin regimen for a longer period of time.

Source: topix.com

Closer to cryopreservation: obstacles to freezing human tissues

In order to preserve biological materials over an extended period of time, doctors rely on a process known as cryopreservation – a procedure that involves cooling human tissues to sub-zero temperatures.  This frozen state effectively blocks chemical reactions from occurring and causing any damage to the materials, allowing them to remain viable for medical use later on.

However, cryopreservation is a risky process and is often reserved for the conservation of smaller groups of tissues or individual cells – such as embryos and stem cells.  Freezing larger biological tissues is much more difficult. These materials often contain large amounts of water, which form ice crystals when frozen, causing significant damage to the cells and tissue.

But now, freezing larger amounts of human tissue may soon become a feasible option. Researchers from Villanova University have discovered how ice crystals invade and damage biological material during the freezing process – a significant discovery that could lead to new methods of preventing tissue injury during cryopreservation.

By overcoming this obstacle, freezing complex human tissues such as full-sized donor organs or artificially engineered replacement tissues could be a very real option for physicians.

“If you can cryopreserve tissue or even organs, then you have a way of storing them and of transporting them,” senior author Dr. Jens Karlsson, of the department of mechanical engineering at Villanova University, told FoxNews.com.  “Now if you want to do a (lung) transplantation, you’re rushing the harvest organ from one hospital to another by helicopter, and you only have a few hours to do it. But if you’re able to preserve the tissue, then you have as much time as you want and you can really find the best match for the tissue and transport it over much longer distances.”

To better understand how ice interacts with cells as they freeze, Karlsson and his team utilized a video cryomicroscrope, which allowed them to observe the freezing process using high-speed imaging.

“We could record what happens and play it back in slow motion and really see in great detail what the interactions are between the ice, and cells in the tissue,” Karlsson said.

With this microscope, the team monitored the freezing events of genetically modified cells, some of which contained certain junction proteins and some of which did not.  These junction proteins either suppressed or encouraged the formation of the cells’ gap junctions and tight junctions– channels that connect adjacent cells together.  Gap junctions directly connect the cytoplasm of two cells, while tight junctions provide an even closer connection by firmly stitching together the cells’ plasma membranes.

The researchers found that when the gap junctions were suppressed in the cells, the ice still spread freely throughout the tissue.  This meant that the extremely snug tight junctions played a significant role in allowing the ice to infiltrate the cells.

“What we found was that the ice is able to enter through these pathways that are between cells,” Karlsson said.  “When cells are connected to each other, normally it’s a pretty tight connection, but the ice can actually find its way through nanoscale pores or openings that are in these seams that hold the cells together.  Once the ice finds its way into those spaces, then it can trigger the cells themselves to crystallize.”

With this newfound knowledge, Karlsson said it may be possible to develop new techniques for cryopreservation that involve blocking ice from entering these cell pathways or diverting ice so that it grows in other directions.

“Certainly for the part of the medical industry that deals with living biological materials as a tool in treating illnesses, the ability to cryopreserve is essential,” Karlsson said.  “It can make or break that industry.”

The research was published in the November 5 issue of theBiophysical Journal, a Cell Press publication.

Source: Viralnewschart

How to deal with beauty injuries

Here’s how to cope with tiny elegance mishaps without having an M.D.

 A 1st-Degree Burn From the Curling Iron

The Rx: Handle it as you would any 1st-diploma burn up.

“Wrap ice in a paper towel or a thin fabric and apply it to the burn off suitable absent to awesome down the temperature of the skin,” claimed Carolyn Jacob, an associate clinical teacher of dermatology at Northwestern Memorial Clinic, in Chicago.

Next, utilize a 1 per cent hydrocortisone cream to the burned spot. At night, use a mild cleanser (like Cetaphil) to wash the burned pores and skin, and afterward use a moisturizing ointment (these types of as Aquaphor). Preserve the area protected with a bandage. Consider ibuprofen or aspirin if you are in discomfort. If the burn up commences to blister or develops pus, see a doctor.

Fast camouflage: Test some inventive hairstyling. Facet-swept bangs can deal with a spot on your forehead, while a small side ponytail performs for a burn on your neck.

Itchy, Irritated Pores and skin From a New Face Product

The Rx: Your skin could be reacting to an component in the item. Wash off the product promptly with a delicate, fragrance-free of charge soap. Apply a 1 p.c hydrocortisone cream

You can also use a neat washcloth to soothe swelling and choose an oral antihistamine (like Benadryl) to lessen itching, states Mary P. Lupo, a medical professor of dermatology at Tulane University, in New Orleans

Pare again on other skin-treatment solutions until eventually the discomfort subsides. If your skin begins to blister or flake, see your medical professional you may possibly need to have a prescription for oral steroids or a cortisone shot.

Brief camouflage: Select up a mineral-powder basis to use rather of your frequent base. This kind of basis tends to be gentler and is less probably to irritate.

A Scratch on the Cornea From a Mascara Wand

The Rx: This can be a portal for microorganisms to enter the eye and cause an an infection. Use a few drops of a lubricating eyedrop (these types of as TheraTears or Optive) to flush out any makeup that might even now be in the eye.

“This aids clean absent inflammatory substances developed by the system (which can make the eye purple and puffy),” Dr. Marguerite McDonald, a cornea specialist with Ophthalmic Consultants of Very long Island, stated.

Then utilize a zipper-sealed bag of ice wrapped in a paper towel to the lid. For agony or blurry eyesight that will not improve in 12 to 24 several hours, see an ophthalmologist.

Speedy camouflage: “Use a person drop of an eye-whitening product or service, like Visine,” McDonald stated. (You should not go overboard. If made use of often, these drops can induce rebound redness.)

A Fungal Infection From a Pedicure

The Rx: Fungal bacterial infections develop a diffuse yellowish or white discoloration and can lead to nails to individual from the nail beds or turn out to be thick and start to crumble. Trim your nails shorter. Utilize an antifungal product (this kind of as Lamisil or Lotrimin) on the tops, less than the edges, and about the cuticles of the infected nails, mentioned Stephen Mandy, a dermatologist in South Miami Beach, Florida.

If these steps will not aid immediately after a month, see your health care provider. She may perhaps prescribe an oral antifungal drug or a obvious medicated nail polish known as Penlac, which you use every day right up until the contaminated place grows out absolutely,dermatology teacher Carolyn Jacob mentioned.

Brief camouflage: Apply colored lacquer for a major night out. But eliminate it the subsequent day and go ideal again to your nail therapy.

A Very small Tear in the Skin From Plucking a Hair

The Rx: Preserve continual force on a cold washcloth to constrict the blood vessels and cease the bleeding. Then dab on an antibiotic ointment (this kind of as Polysporin) to protect against infection, advises Roberta Sengelmann, an associate professor of dermatology at the Washington College College of Drugs, in St. Louis.

“Put a bandage on it prior to mattress to create a moist, protected environment,” she mentioned

If the spot is swollen or if pain persists, see a physician.

Rapid camouflage: Remove the ointment with a cotton pad and dab a creamy hypoallergenic concealer on the location. Pat it in with a fingertip.

Red, Uncooked Skin From Exfoliating Much too Vigorously

The Rx: You taken out not only useless pores and skin cells on top but also healthy cells underneath. Use cool washcloths for a few minutes. Then implement a thick, bland, soothing moisturizer (these kinds of as Vanicream) to calm the area. Stay clear of creams with fragrance or exfoliating components, as they can sting and burn up by now sensitized pores and skin. Adhere with a gentle cleanser for a several times, and steer clear of the solar.

“Allow the pores and skin mend prior to you use make-up or place anything at all made up of chemicals on it,” Sengelmann reported.

If the redness and the irritation worsen or if they you should not go away in a 7 days, see a skin doctor.

Swift camouflage: Use a little total of a nonirritating, green-tinted moisturizer, as green lessens purple tones. (Check out Eucerin Redness Aid Every day Perfecting Lotion SPF 15.)

A Melt away or Irritation From Scorching Wax or Hair Removal Cream

The Rx: You really should deal with a burn up from hot wax as you would a curling-iron burn off. For chemical discomfort from a hair removal cream, promptly get rid of the lotion with amazing drinking water and use a cold washcloth.

“Use a 1 p.c hydrocortisone ointment to calm the redness,” Jacob reported.

Continue to keep the place moist, says Lupo, by consistently implementing an ointment with petrolatum (these types of as Aquaphor). Lessen discomfort, acquire an anti-inflammatory drug (these kinds of as ibuprofen). If the redness will not dissipate just after a working day or two, or if you build pustules with a yellow or inexperienced discharge, see a physician.

Quick camouflage: Implement moisturizer to the space, and then pat on a concealer or physique make-up designed for delicate skin.

A Rip in the Pores and skin From Tearing Of a Hangnail

The Rx: This can lead to paronychia, an irritation of the pores and skin encompassing the edge of the nail, and probably to infection. To protect against infection and soothe soreness, soak the finger in a solution of one particular teaspoon white vinegar and four ounces warm water for 3 to 5 minutes, implies Ronald R. Brancaccio, a clinical professor of dermatology at the New York University School of Medicine, in New York Metropolis.

Do this twice a working day for three to seven days. Immediately after soaking, use a topical antibiotic ointment and a bandage to safeguard the space. If you acquire inflammation or a puslike discharge immediately after 48 hrs, see a dermatologist.

Source: dailynewsen

 

Sleepless surgeons operate as well as refreshed ones

All surgery has its risks, but the prospect of being cut open by someone who has not slept the night before may not necessarily be cause for alarm. Researchers from the University of Western Ontario claim that there is no correlation between lack of sleep and adverse patient outcomes.

 In a study, published in JAMA, researchers challenged the idea that sleepy surgeons do not perform as well as their sleep-refreshed counterparts.

In a retrospective cohort study using administrative health care databases in Ontario, Canada, Dr. Christopher Vinden and colleagues set out to establish whether surgeons operating the night before experienced more complications in elective surgery performed the next day.

 The research says:

“Lack of sleep is associated with impaired performance in many situations. To theoretically prevent medical errors, work-hour restrictions on surgeons in training were imposed. There are now proposals for similar work-hour restrictions on practicing surgeons.”

Drawing on data collected from 102 community hospitals, Dr. Vinden and his team identified 2,078 patients who had undergone elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy (keyhole surgery to remove the gallbladder) where the surgeon had operated the night before.

 Working extra hours

Terming these “at-risk” surgeries, the researchers randomly matched them with four other similar operations carried out by the same surgeon in the same year, on days when there was no evidence of having operated the night before. This resulted in a total of 10,390 operations performed by 331 different surgeons.

The most common outcome was conversion from keyhole surgery to open cholecystectomy – involving a large incision into the abdomen to take out the gallbladder.

Although this may not be viewed as a complication, most patients would prefer the keyhole option and view open surgery as an unwelcome outcome. It is also noted that this may serve as an aggregate end point for many complications.

Other adverse outcomes included iatrogenic injury (an injury caused by the surgery), such as accidental puncture or laceration to the bile duct, bowel or major blood vessel, and death within 30 days of surgery.

Dr. Vinden and his researchers did not find any statistical difference between conversion rates to open operations whether or not the surgeon had operated the previous night – 2.2% versus 1.9% with no overnight operation.

Findings for iatrogenic injuries were again similar, with 0.7% versus 0.9%, and death rates were less than or equal to 0.2% for surgeons who had worked the night before, compared with 0.1% for those who had not.

Surgeons ‘must self-assess fatigue level’

The researchers conclude their study by noting:

“Several studies found no association between surgeon sleep deprivation as assessed by operating the night prior to an operation or when surgeons report few hours of sleep and patient outcomes. Prior studies were limited because of small sample sizes and being from single academic institutions. Consequently, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that surgeon performance is compromised by insufficient sleep the night prior to performing surgery.”

“Restructuring health care delivery to prevent surgeons operating during the day after they operated the previous night would have important cost, staffing and resource implications.”

The study does not comment on how often the surgeons skipped sleep, or indeed, if they did sleep on the nights they were not operating. But it makes sense that physicians will appraise their own capabilities before any surgery.

Dr. Michael J. Zinner and Dr. Julie Ann Fresichlag say in an editorial accompanying the study:

“Just as each patient undergoing an operation requires an individualized assessment and operative plan, each surgeon must objectively self-assess fatigue level and honestly determine whether the surgical skills necessary for daytime operations following operating the night before will be comparable to those skills and capabilities following a good night’s sleep. Patient safety and surgeon well-being deserve no less.”

Source: Regator.com

Depression: The Second Leading Cause of Disability

A new study points to growing concern about the impact of depression on quality of life around the world.

Depression can have a profound impact on a person’s life, work, and relationships. But a new study shows the true toll of mental health conditions on a global scale.

New research led by Alize Ferrari from the University of Queensland and the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research in Australia found that depression is the second leading cause of the global disability burden.

Depression, defined as a persistent state of sadness or disinterest in things once found pleasurable, is one of the most common mental disorders.

The World Health Organization states that approximately 350 million people worldwide have depression, or about four percent of the world’s population.

Meet the Famous Faces of Depression »

Rob Dobrenski, a psychologist in New York City and author of Crazy: Notes On and Off the Couch, said more than half of his practice centers around depression.

“While many people have chronic depression that ultimately leads to a disability, it’s common for it to become debilitating immediately. It’s not necessarily something that builds and becomes worse over time,” Dobrenski, who was not involved in the study, said. “Unfortunately, the system moves very slowly so it can take a long time for someone to become qualified [for mental health care], even though they are ‘eligible’ within days.”

However, he added, some types of depression can fade away just as quickly, so it’s sometimes a disservice to designate someone as disabled so quickly.

Depression Around the World

The new study, appearing in the journal PLOS Medicine, shows that rates of major depressive disorder (MDD) vary by country and region, but are highest in Central America and Central and Southeast Asia.

Afghanistan, which has seen political turmoil and war since long before the U.S. occupation began 2001, leads the world in rates of depression, the researchers discovered. Japan, on the other hand, has the lowest rate of depression disability worldwide.

To reach their conclusions, researchers scoured published studies on MDD, or clinical depression, and dysthymia, which is a milder form of depression. They assessed the diseases’ impact on the number of years people lived with disability, and substituted “reasonable estimates” for poorer countries on which few studies have been published.

While the numbers showed that major depression ranked high among the causes of global disability in 2010, depression also contributes to deaths from other conditions, especially suicide and heart disease.

Eat This: 10 Foods to Help Ease the Winter Blues  »

In the U.S., depression is considered a psychiatric disability and is covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The Queensland researchers say their results “not only highlight the fact that depressive disorders are a global health priority, but also that it is important to understand variations in burden by disorder, country, region, age, sex, and year when setting global health objectives.”

It appears that no one is immune to depression. While it most often affects women, men can also get depression, and symptoms in children can appear when they are as young as three years old.

A major hurdle in battling depression worldwide is that it rarely travels alone.

“It can be a stand alone condition or easily mixed with other mental or physical issues,” Dobrenski said. “Depression and anxiety are often paired together, and depression and pain issues are also common.”

Getting Help for Depression

The cause of depression is still unknown, but most current research points to a chemical imbalance in the brain, making it a physical disease that someone cannot simply “snap out of.”

Though there is no cure, depression is a highly treatable disease. Therapy with a mental health professional, medications, and lifestyle changes, including a healthy diet and exercise, have all been shown to successfully improve the quality of life for someone with depression.

“Depression is a treatable condition that I recommend be treated quickly,” Dobrenski said. “Very mild depression can often resolve with cardiovascular exercise and a good support system. Failing that, seeking out a therapist and possibly medication is a smart move, as both of these have a good track record for depression.”

Source: Healthline.com

 

New algorithm ‘boosts accuracy’ of physical activity apps

There are many cell phone apps that track your physical activity. These are useful, not only for your own sense of achievement, but also for doctors who look to these apps to track a patient’s movement and develop tailored treatments. Now, researchers have created a way to make these apps even more accurate.

 A team from Northwestern University in Chicago and Evanston say that previous research surrounding physical activity apps has shown that the majority of people who use them carry their cell phones in a bag, purse or pocket, or they attach it to a belt.

But the researchers note that the location of the phone can have a significant impact on how well the app can pick up a person’s movement.

Therefore, they have created a computer algorithm that can be used in conjunction with a physical activity app that is able to “predict” the location of a mobile phone throughout the day with “near perfect accuracy.”

“Most women carry their phones in a purse. Some people carry theirs on their belt or in their hand. We may change where we carry our phone throughout the day as well,” says first author Stephen Antos, of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University.

“We wanted to solve this problem and find a way to make these trackers as accurate as possible, no matter where you carry your phone.”

Algorithm ‘accurately detects second-by-second activity’

To create the algorithm, researchers recruited 12 healthy participants who were required to carry out a series of physical activities, including walking, sitting and standing.

During these activities, the participants carried smart phones in different locations – in their purse, backpack, belt, hand or pocket. This same method was also used on two people who had Parkinson’s disease.

The data from this experiment was then used to “train” a computer algorithm to predict where a person is carrying their cell phone, and from this, it was able to successfully detect “second-by-second” physical activity.

Commenting on the findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods, principal investigator Konrad Kording, of the Northwestern University Feinburg School of Medicine, says:

“While it remains true that smart phone activity trackers are the most accurate when the phone is placed in the pocket or on a belt, with this algorithm we can provide an estimate of error associated with other locations where the phone is carried.”

The researchers note that this algorithm can be applied to patient populations without hesitation, and Kording believes that in the future, smart phone apps will play a major part in helping us to manage our health.

“I believe we will have apps running on smart phones that will know exactly what we’re doing activity-wise and will warn us of diseases before we even know that we have those diseases,” he says.

“In the future, phones will have a major role in motivating people toward behavior that is good for their health.”

Source: Medical news today

Implantable sensor may monitor Glucose levels

In a paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, scientists describe a newly developed sensor that is able to monitor nitric oxide in living animals and could potentially become a valuable asset to diabetic patients in the future.

 Nitric oxide is considered to be one of the most important signaling molecules in living cells, but in many cancerous cells levels are perturbed. Scientists have needed a new tool to help measure this molecule in the body and in real time.

The new sensor can be implanted under the skin and used to monitor inflammation, which is a process that produces nitric oxide. These sensors can also be adapted to detect other molecules, such as monitoring glucose or insulin levels in diabetic patients.

“So far we have only looked at the liver, but we do see that it stays in the bloodstream and goes to kidneys. Potentially we could study all different areas of the body with this injectable nanoparticle,” Nicole Iverson, who led the study, said in a statement.

Researchers have previously found that carbon nanotubes can detect nitric oxide if the tubes are wrapped in DNA with a particular sequence. Scientists in the latest study were able to modify the nanotubes to create two different types of sensors, including one that can be injected into the bloodstream for short-term monitoring and one that is able to be implanted under the skin for long-term.

Iverson attached a biocompatible polymer that inhibits particle-clumping in the bloodstream in order to make the particles injectable. The researcher found that when injected into mice, the particles flow through the lungs and heart without causing any damage.

The longer-term sensor consists of nanotubes embedded in a gel made from alginate. When this gel is implanted under the skin of the mice, it stays in place and remains functional for 400 days. This sensor could be used to monitor cancer or other inflammatory diseases, or detect immune reactions in patients with artificial hips or other implanted devices.

James Tour, a professor of chemistry at Rice University’s Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, pointed out that the new sensors merge the fields of chemistry, polymers, nanomaterials, biology, medicine, and optics.

“The selectivity and sensitivity are indeed impressive,” Tour, who was not a part of the study, said in a statement.

The team is now working on adapting the technology to help detect glucose by wrapping different molecules around the nanotubes. Diabetic patients have to prick their fingers multiple times a day to take blood glucose readings. However, if Iverson and colleagues are able to modify this sensor then it would not only offer real-time glucose monitoring, but it could also provide relief from the burden of constantly pricking one’s finger.

“The current thinking is that every part of the closed-loop system is in place except for an accurate and stable sensor. There is considerable opportunity to improve upon devices that are now on the market so that a complete system can be realized,” Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT, said in a statement.

Source: redorbit

Electricity may help curb migraine pain

Imagine reducing migraine pain just by delivering low doses of electricity to the brain!

 Ultra-focused electric current can significantly curb pain due to a persistent migraine, a new study suggests.

Alex DaSilva, assistant professor of prosthodontics at the University of Michigan, and colleagues are optimising the next generation for such a technique, called high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation, or HD-tDCS.

The researchers have published several studies with the conventional tDCS, which also treats pain by “shocking” the brain with low doses of electrical current delivered noninvasively through electrodes placed on the scalp.

The current modulates targeted areas of the brain, and one of the mechanisms is by activating the release of opioid-like painkillers.

HD-tDCS delivers an even more precisely focused current to the targeted areas of the brain. Preliminary reports have shown better pain relief in patients and a longer and more pronounced effect on the brain, said DaSilva.

The increased precision of HD-tDCS means researchers can custom-place the electrodes to the skull. In this way, they can modulate specific areas in the brain to treat a wider range of conditions, such as neuropathic pain and stroke.

Other uses include neurophysiological studies and cognitive and behavioural assessments.

One 20-minute session of HD-tDCS significantly reduced overall pain perception in fibromyalgia patients as described in one of the studies.

Researchers control the current by a portable device, which they hope physicians can eventually use in the clinic as a noninvasive treatment for chronic pain patients.

“We are working hard to make the technology available for clinical use at U-M,” DaSilva said.

“Our lab is getting a good number of emails from chronic pain patients looking for treatment,” said DaSilva.

Source: Business standard

Childhood Maltreatment Can Leave Scars In The Brain

Maltreatment during childhood can lead to long-term changes in brain circuits that process fear, researchers say. This could help explain why children who suffer abuse are much more likely than others to develop problems like anxiety and depression later on.

Brain scans of teenagers revealed weaker connections between the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus in both boys and girls who had been maltreated as children, a team from the University of Wisconsin reports in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Girls who had been maltreated also had relatively weak connections between the prefrontal cortex the amygdala.

Those weaker connections “actually mediated or led to the development of anxiety and depressive symptoms by late adolescence,” says Ryan Herringa, a psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin and one of the study’s authors.

Maltreatment can be physical or emotional, and it ranges from mild to severe. So the researchers asked a group of 64 fairly typical 18-year-olds to answer a questionnaire designed to assess childhood trauma. The teens are part of a larger study that has been tracking children’s social and emotional development in more than 500 families since 1994.

The participants were asked how strongly they agreed or disagreed with statements like, “When I was growing up I didn’t have enough to eat,” or “My parents were too drunk or high to take care of the family,” or “Somebody in my family hit me so hard that it left me with bruises or marks.”

There were also statements about emotional and sexual abuse. The responses indicated that some had been maltreated in childhood while others hadn’t.

All of the participants had their brains scanned using a special type of MRI to measure the strength of connections among three areas of the brain involved in processing fear.

One area is the prefrontal cortex, which orchestrates our thoughts and actions, Herringa says. Another is the amygdala, which is “the brain’s emotion and fear center,” he says, and triggers the “fight or flight” response when we encounter something scary.

Herringa says messages from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex are often balanced by input from a third area, the hippocampus, which helps decide whether something is truly dangerous. “So, for example, if you’re at home watching a scary movie at night, the hippocampus can tell the prefrontal cortex that you’re at home, this is just a movie, that’s no reason to go into a full fight or flight response or freak out,” Herringa says.

At least that’s what usually happens when there’s a strong connection between the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, and the fear circuitry is working correctly.

But Herringa says brain scans showed that in adolescents who had been maltreated as children, the connection with the hippocampus was relatively weak. He says in girls who had been maltreated, the connection with the amygdala was weak, too.

That suggests the fear circuitry wasn’t working the way it should, Herringa says. The result seems to explain something he sees in many young patients with anxiety and depression and a history of maltreatment. “These kids seem to be afraid everywhere,” he says. “It’s like they’ve lost the ability to put a contextual limit on when they’re going to be afraid and when they’re not.”

The finding that girls have weaker connections to two areas of the brain, not just one, could help explain why they seem to be more sensitive than boys to maltreatment, Herringa says.

The results of the new study are important because they suggest better ways to diagnose and treat mental problems related to maltreatment, says Greg Siegle, a psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh.

“Maltreatment is a disorder where often people are not even aware of the extent of their symptoms,” Siegle says. So having an objective test would be “a significant advance,” he says.

The study also shows that brain researchers are making some progress in their quest to make mental health care more like physical health care, where objective tests confirm a diagnosis and measure the effectiveness of treatment, Siegle says.

“In psychiatry, in psychology, we very rarely have those tests because we just don’t know the biological and brain mechanisms,” he says. “This study is starting to get at what mechanisms we should be looking at.”

Source: npr.org

New BP guidelines to prevent 25% heart attacks

A new way of using blood pressure-lowering medications could prevent more than a fourth of heart attacks and strokes – up to 180,000 a year – while using less medication overall, a new study has found.

Individualizing treatment recommendations using patients’ risk of heart disease after considering multiple factors – such as age, gender and whether or not the patient smokes – is a more effective way to treat patients than current methods.

According to authors, current medical guidelines use a one-size-fits-all treatment approach based on target blood pressure values that leads to some patients being on too many medications and others are on too little.

Researchers found that a person’s blood pressure level is often not the most important factor in determining if a blood pressure medication will prevent these diseases – but common practice is to base treatment strictly on blood pressure levels.

Lead author Jeremy Sussman, M.D., M.Sc., assistant professor of internal medicine in the Division of General Medicine at the U-M Medical School and research scientist at the Center for Clinical Management Research at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, said that drugs that lower blood pressure are among the most effective and commonly used medications in the country, but we believe they can be used dramatically more effectively.

He said that the purpose of these medications is not actually to avoid high blood pressure itself but to stop heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases.

Sussman asserted that they should guide use of medications by a patient’s risk of these diseases and how much adding a new medication decreases that risk – not solely on their blood pressure level.

He found that people who have mildly high blood pressure but high cardiovascular risk receive a lot of benefit from treatment, but those with low overall cardiovascular risk do not.

The study has been published in the medical journal, Circulation.

Source: article.wn.com