Health News

Lundbeck hopes to launch new Alzheimer’s drug in 2017

Danish pharmaceutical group Lundbeck said on Monday that it hopes to launch a new Alzheimer’s medicine in 2017 in what would be the first new drug for the condition in more than a decade.

Dementia – of which Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form – already affects 44 million people worldwide and is set to reach 135 million by 2050, according to non-profit campaign group Alzheimer’s Disease International.

There is currently no treatment that can cure the disease or slow its progression, but Lundbeck’s new drug – known as Lu AE58054 – is designed to alleviate some of the symptoms and improve cognitive function.

As such, it would build on treatments currently on the market rather than competing with more ambitious projects under way at large drug companies, which aim to modify the biology of the disease.

“If the studies that we are currently running end well, then we wi

ll probably be the first company to launch a new Alzheimer’s drug in 10 to 15 years,” Lundbeck Chief Scientific Officer Anders Gersel Pedersen told Reuters.

The Danish company, together with its Japanese partner Otsuka, is currently testing its experimental Alzheimer’s drug in 3,000 patients in four final-stage Phase III clinical studies.

Pedersen said he expected the drug to have annual worldwide sales of considerably more than $1 billion, if it is approved.

“There is a huge market for this kind of medicine, until the day you cure the disease,” Pedersen said.

It is more than a decade since the last drug, Ebixa, also from Lundbeck, was approved to treat Alzheimer’s.

Although there is still no treatment that can effectively modify the disease or slow its progression, a number of companies – including Eli Lilly, Merck & Co, Roche and Johnson & Johnson – are pursuing a variety of approaches to get to the root of the memory-robbing disorder.

Health ministers from the Group of Eight countries last week set a goal of finding a cure or a disease-modifying therapy by 2025 – a target that is seen as ambitious given that scientists are still struggling to understand the fundamental biology of Alzheimer’s. (Editing by Simon Johnson and David Goodman)

Source: US web daily

Oakland girl declared brain dead three days after having tonsils removed

The family of Jahi McMath wants answers after the 13-year-old girl suffered complications soon after having her tonsils out. ‘She wasn’t able to talk, and she started to write notes to her mother saying I’m swallowing too much mucus, mom — am I OK? Mom — I feel like I’m choking,’ her uncle says. The family is hoping for a Christmas miracle by keeping Jahi on life support.

She was just supposed to have her tonsils out, and now her heartbroken family wants answers.
Jahi McMath, 13, was declared brain dead on Thursday, three days after undergoing surgery at Children’s Hospital Oakland. Despite the tragic development, the family is holding out hope and refusing to take Jahi off life support.
“It’s shock, it’s disbelief,” uncle Omari Sealey told the San Jose Mercury News. “You never think something like this will happen to you.”

Jahi, an eighth grader at E.C. Reems Academy of Technology and Arts in Oakland, underwent the tonsils procedure on Dec. 9 in order to improve her sleep apnea. After the surgery she asked for a popsicle and seemed OK, but just 30 minutes later she started choking on her own blood, NBC reported.
“She wasn’t able to talk, and she started to write notes to her mother saying I’m swallowing too much mucus, mom — am I OK? Mom — I feel like I’m choking,” Sealey told the Mercury News. “And she began to write these notes because she couldn’t talk because there was so much blood — it wasn’t mucus — it was blood. But my sister, the mother, was too afraid to let her know that it was blood and not mucus.”
Jahi went into cardiac arrest and was revived, but was declared brain dead two days later, family members told the Mercury News. They are urging the hospital to investigate what they believe to be shoddy emergency care.

‘here catch them with the cup so we can measure them,'” mom Nailah Winkfield told ABC.
Grandmother Sandra Chatman, a surgical nurse at a different hospital, was stunned by the lack of attention that Jahi received.
“I went in and I said ‘is this normal, do you guys find this to be normal?,'” Chatman told ABC. “And they said ‘I don’t really know,’ and I said ‘well then get a doctor.'”

Sealey told NBC that family members believe “an error was committed by the hospital, either before, during, or after surgery. I absolutely believe that somewhere along the way, there was a protocol that wasn’t followed, or there was a surgical error.”
Hospital spokeswoman Melinda Krigel said in a statement: “We’re very sad about this outcome, about what’s happened to her, but at this point I have no information on the details of the surgery. We will certainly investigate what happened. In any surgery there are risks and there can be unexpected, unanticipated complications.”

The family is hoping for a Christmas miracle by keeping Jahi on life support, even though doctors say she is brain dead.
“My little girl in there, my little niece, is in there with her own heartbeat, which lets me know that she is alive,” Sealey told NBC.

source: Daily news

Scientists develop new technique to diagnose autism in babies

Scientists have developed a new technique to diagnose autism in babies as young as 12 months.

Dr Josephine Barbaro from Australia’s La Trobe University has developed an accurate set of “red flag” markers of the condition, which include a failure by babies to make consistent eye contact, to smile, show their toys to others, to play social games, point and respond when their name is called

Barbaro is training medical experts around the globe in the use of her diagnostic method on children under two years of age.

“All typically developing babies are pre-wired to be social, look at other people’s faces, learn from them and copy what they’re doing. Children with autism are not doing this – and we can now accurately identify this at a much younger age and take action,” Barbaro said.

Barbaro and her team are training doctors in Tianjin in China, as part of an Australia-China Science and Research Fund Group Mission.

They have helped to train 300 doctors monitor children’s development using the early autism identification programme.

Based on these preliminary findings, the Tianjin government has agreed to conduct autism surveillance using Barbaro’s programme for every child born in the city for the next seven years.

The team is also training healthcare workers in Poland, Korea, Japan and Bangladesh.

Source: Times of India

How to Keep Your Kitchen Germ-Free

Most of us practically live in our kitchens, but if we’re not careful bacteria can take up residence there too, says cleaning pro Laura Dellutri, author of Speed Cleaning 101. “It’s the busiest germ factory in your house.” Here, how to fight back.Countertop

The problem: You bake a cake and spill some batter with raw egg in it, and don’t get it all wiped up. Later you make a turkey sandwich on the same spot.

Fix: Use a disinfecting wipe or spray after any food prep to kill lingering bacteria. To truly banish the yucky stuff, the cleanup-product label should say that it kills 99.9% of germs and bacteria, Dellutri says.

Faucet filter
The problem: You bump the dirty dishrag against the faucet as you’re rinsing it out, or dirty water or food splashes up on it. Bacteria can grow, and so can lime-scale residue if you have hard water.

Fix: Take out the filter and soak it in white vinegar overnight once a week.

Cutting board
The problem: It’s used for everything from chopping scallions to slicing roast beef.

Fix: After washing with hot soapy water and rinsing, spray the board with a mixture of one teaspoon of bleach to 16 ounces of water that you keep in a clearly labeled spray bottle. Then rinse the board with hot water or toss it in the dishwasher on high.

The “cleanest” boards? Dellutri says glass or plastic are best because they’re nonporous and most resistant to germs. If you love wood, choose the dishwasher-safe kind that’s been treated with Microban, an antimicrobial compound. Whatever the material, throw out your board if it’s very worn or has lots of knife-cut indentations on it; they can trap bacteria.

Dish towel
The problem: You rinse your pieces of chicken and wipe your hands on the towel before continuing to cook. Salmonella alert!

Fix: During food prep with raw meat, use paper towels (not cloth) and toss them. And wash hands immediately with soap and water.

Knife block
The problem: You use a knife to clean a piece of fish, then rinse it and return it—wet—to the knife block. That can cause mold, which can grow in just 24 to 48 hours.

Fix: Scrub your knives with dish-washing liquid and hot water, then wipe them thoroughly with a dry cloth before putting them into the knife block. Better yet, keep your knives in a drawer or on a magnet strip.

Sink
The problem: All the stuff you rinse in the sink—shrimp, the turkey—leave behind bacteria, juices, and blood.

Fix: Disinfect with bleach and water right after you’ve cooked with raw meat, eggs, or poultry.

Sponge
The problem: You use it to wipe up everything from crumbs to meat juices—and then put it back in a holder or on the edge of the sink.

Fix: Clean your sponges every few days by soaking them in a bowl of water with one teaspoon of bleach. Or zap the dirty sponge in the microwave (place it in a bowl and cover it with water) for two to three minutes. (Don’t do this if the sponge has a metal scrubber side).

Those leftovers
The problem: While you’re busy cleaning the kitchen, the leftovers sit out too long.

Fix: Stick ’em in the fridge right away. If they’re warm, leave the lid off to chill faster. Food that’s between 40 and 140 degrees F allows bacteria to grow much faster; the goal is to get leftovers below 40 degrees as quickly as possible. After reheating, stir, and use a thermometer to make sure they’re 165 degrees, the temp at which bacteria is killed
Source: Healthy Living

 

Heavy marijuana use may alter brain structure and harm memory

Teens who are heavy marijuana users show abnormal changes in their brain structures that are associated with having schizophrenia, a new study has found.

Researchers from the Northwestern University found that chronic smokers, those who smoked marijuana daily for about three years, showed changes in their brain structures related to working memory and performed poorly on memory tasks.

Researchers observed the brain abnormalities and memory problems during the individuals’ early twenties, two years after they stopped smoking marijuana, which could indicate the long-term effects of chronic use.

Memory-related structures in their brains appeared to shrink and collapse inward, possibly reflecting a decrease in neurons.

The study showed the marijuana-related brain abnormalities are correlated with a poor working memory performance and look similar to schizophrenia-related brain abnormalities.

Of the 15 marijuana smokers who had schizophrenia in the study, 90 per cent started heavily using the drug before they developed the mental disorder, researchers said.

Marijuana abuse has been linked to developing schizophrenia in prior research.

This is the first study to target key brain regions in the deep subcortical gray matter of chronic marijuana users with structural MRI and to correlate abnormalities in these regions with an impaired working memory.

Working memory is the ability to remember and process information in the moment and – if needed – transfer it to long-term memory.

The younger the individuals were when they started chronically using marijuana, the more abnormally their brain regions were shaped, the study found.

The findings suggest that these regions related to memory may be more susceptible to the effects of the drug if abuse starts at an earlier age.

“The study links the chronic use of marijuana to these concerning brain abnormalities that appear to last for at least a few years after people stop using it,” said lead study author Matthew Smith, an assistant research professor in psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Source: Indian Express

Messy babies make faster learners

Researchers at the University of Iowa released a study showing kids who play with their non-solid food in a highchair learn words for those foods faster. Non-solid foods include things like oatmeal and yogurt.

The study, “Highchair Philosophers,” was recently published in the journal Developmental Science by UI associate professor in psychology Dr. Larissa Samuelson and her team.

“We wanted to see if we put them in the context they’re used to experiencing non-solids, the highchair, does that help them maybe when we try to teach them new words,” Samuelson said.

During the study, researchers assigned non-solid foods made-up names like “kiv” or “wug.” They gave the foods to 16-month old children using the made-up names and asked the kids to identify the foods.

Samuelson said the newest part of the study used highchairs as part of the experiment. The kids seated in the highchair tended to learn the word faster than the kids who were not. They were also the messiest ones. Researchers believe this is because kids know they can get messy in their highchairs and that messiness translates into learning.

“They are amazing learning machines. And to some extent we need to let them do that learning in the best way that they know how, which is playing, exploring, getting their hands in there,” Samuelson said.

Babies have an easier time learning words for solids, because they are recognizable. Things like spoons look the same even if kids throw or knock them around. But non-solid things like pudding can look different depending on its container. The changing shape makes recognizing the food and learning the word difficult.

“What they have to learn is that for some things, I have to attend to shape, other kinds of things, I should attend to material. And that speeds up learning,” Samuelson said.

But not all professionals agree with letting kids get messy at mealtime. Dr. Dyan Hes, medical director at Gramercy Pediatrics in New York City, said that while it’s good for children to touch, poke and play, it can be hard for kids to separate messy time from when they need to behave.

She said parents should let kids get their hands and faces messy, but it shouldn’t be where they learn to eat.

“I think a good way to differentiate is when you put them in a different area, you put a smock on them; they know it’s art time and playtime and not dinner time,” Hes said.

Whether your child is in a highchair or at a play table, parents, slow down on whipping out the wipes and let your kids get messy.

Source: News.nom

Road Crashes Found to be Americans Biggest Killers While Abroad

Americans traveling abroad are faced with larger health threats including road crashes, a new study finds.

Between 2003 and 2009, more Americans have died abroad from crashes that involved cars or motorcycles than from homicide and other terrorist events, the researchers involved in the study wrote in the journal Injury Prevention. “Money spent on public health interventions related to homicides has apparently been spent successfully,” said Dr. David Bishai, lead author of the study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“But there is a gap in funding now,” he added. “What gets travelers abroad isn’t so much infectious disease or homicide – it’s road safety. The U.S. Department of State spends approximately $51.6 billion annually to protect its citizens both abroad and at home, but health risks during international travel can be very tricky. Bishai and his team measured deaths per one million visits to a country by American travelers. During the six-year study period, the U.S. Department of State data showed a total of $5.417 unnatural deaths among Americans while traveling abroad.

The top-five countries for international deaths were Colombia, with 13.7 international deaths per million American visits, the Dominican Republic with 11 deaths per million; Thailand and Morocco, each with 5.5 international deaths per million visits and the Philippines, with a rate of 21 per million visits. With the exception of the Philippines, more Americans died from road crashes in all of the 160 countries surveyed than from homicide.

Thailand has the most number of traffic fatalities with 16.5 deaths per million visits, followed by Vietnam with 15 fatal road accidents per million visits. “People will go to Vietnam and ride on a motorcycle because it’s the way to get around,” Bishai said.

Source: parent herald

FDA Approves New Magnet Device to Treat Migraines

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first device aimed at easing the pain of migraines preceded by aura — sensory disturbances that occur just before an attack.

The Cerena Transcranial Magnetic Stimulator would be obtained through prescription, the FDA said in a statement released Friday. Patients use both hands to hold the device against the back of their head and press a button so that the device can release a pulse of magnetic energy. This pulse stimulates the brain’s occipital cortex, which may stop or ease migraine pain.

“Millions of people suffer from migraines, and this new device represents a new treatment option for some patients,” Christy Foreman, director of the Office of Device Evaluation in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in the statement.

The agency’s approval is based on a trial involving 201 patients who had suffered moderate-to-strong migraine with aura. One hundred and thirteen of the patients tried treating their migraines while an attack was in progress, and it was the testimony of this group that led to the approval of the new device, the FDA said.

More than a third (38 percent) of people using the stimulator said they were pain-free two hours later, compared to 17 percent of patients who did not use the device. A full day after the onset of migraine, nearly 34 percent of device users said they were pain-free, compared to 10 percent of people who hadn’t used the device.

Two experts welcomed the news of the approval.

“The Cerena TMS is another tool in the battle to relieve migraines,” said Dr. Mark Green, director of Headache and Pain Management at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. “Experience with TMS over the past few years have shown that these agents have the potential to reduce the pain of an attack without the use of medications, or in addition to medical treatment.”

Dr. Noah Rosen is director of the Headache Center at North Shore-LIJ’s Cushing Neuroscience Institute, in Manhasset NY. He said that, “although only 20 percent of migraneurs suffer from an aura associated with their headaches, they suffer significantly. Although this device is unwieldy, it may be a preferred choice by those who don’t want [drug] treatment.”

Side effects from the device were rare, the FDA said, but included “single reports of sinusitis, aphasia (inability to speak or understand language) and vertigo.”

The new device is approved only for use by those aged 18 or older, and should not be used by people with suspected or diagnosed epilepsy or a family history of seizures. It should also not be used by anyone with any metal device implanted in the head, neck or upper body, or by people with “an active implanted medical device such as a pacemaker or deep brain stimulator,” the FDA said.

The stimulator, manufactured by eNeura Therapeutics of Sunnyvale, Calif., is not meant to be used more than once every 24 hours, the FDA added. It has also not been tested to see if it is effective against other symptoms of migraine such as nausea or sensitivities to light or sound.

Green called that last point “disappointing,” and added that “the other concern is whether insurance carriers will make the product available [to patients].”

Source: Web md

FDA examining antibacterial soaps, body washes

Manufacturers of antibacterial hand soap and body wash will be required to prove their products are more effective than plain soap and water in preventing illness and the spread of infection, under a proposed rule announced Monday by the Food and Drug Administration.

Those manufacturers also will be required to prove their products are safe for long-term use, the agency said.
“Millions of Americans use antibacterial hand soap and body wash products,” the agency said in a statement. “Although consumers generally view these products as effective tools to help prevent the spread of germs, there is currently no evidence that they are any more effective at preventing illness than washing with plain soap and water.

“Further, some data suggest that long-term exposure to certain active ingredients used in antibacterial products — for example, triclosan (liquid soaps) and triclocarban (bar soaps) — could pose health risks, such as bacterial resistance or hormonal effects.”
About 2,000 individual products contain these products, health officials said.

“Our goal is, if a company is making a claim that something is antibacterial and in this case promoting the concept that consumers who use these products can prevent the spread of germs, then there ought to be data behind that,” said Dr. Sandra Kweder, deputy director of the Office of New Drugs in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

“We think that companies ought to have data before they make these claims.” Studies in rats have shown a decrease in thyroid hormones with long-term exposure, she said. Collecting data from humans is “very difficult” because the studies look at a long time period.

Get dangerous germs out of your home

Before the proposed rule is finalized, companies will need to provide data to support their claims, or — if they do not — the products will need to be reformulated or relabeled to remain on the market.

“This is a good first step toward getting unsafe triclosan off the market,” said Mae Wu, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “FDA is finally taking concerns about triclosan seriously. Washing your hands with soap containing triclosan doesn’t make them cleaner than using regular soap and water and can carry potential health risks.

The FDA first proposed removing triclosan from certain products in 1978, the council said, “but because the agency took no final action, triclosan has been found in more and more soaps.”

In 2010, the council said it sued FDA to force it to issue a final rule. The new proposed rule stems from a settlement in that suit, according to the NRDC.

The rule is available for public comment for 180 days, with a concurrent one-year period for companies to submit new data and information, followed by a 60-day period for rebuttal comments, according to the FDA.

The target deadline is June 2014 for the public comment period, then companies will have until December 2014 to submit data and studies. The FDA wants to finalize the rule and determine whether these products are “generally recognized as safe and effective” by September 2016.

“Antibacterial soaps and body washes are used widely and frequently by consumers in everyday home, work, school and public settings, where the risk of infection is relatively low,” said Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

“Due to consumers’ extensive exposure to the ingredients in antibacterial soaps, we believe there should be a clearly demonstrated benefit from using antibacterial soap to balance any potential risk.”

The action is part of FDA’s ongoing review of antibacterial active ingredients, the agency said. Hand sanitizers, wipes and antibacterial products used in health care settings are not affected.

Most hand sanitizers have 60% alcohol or ethanol and are generally recognized as safe when water isn’t available, Kweder said. However, health officials still believe washing hands with soap and water is the best method.

Source: CNN

Severed Hand Saved By Being Sewn To Ankle

Man has severed hand attached to leg to keep it alive, Changsha, Hunan Province, China - 10 Dec 2013

Graphic images show a man’s severed hand attached to his ankle – surgery that saved his limb.

A man who lost his right hand in an accident at work has had it successfully reattached after doctors
grafted it to his ankle for a month.

Xiao Wei underwent reattachment surgery in Changsha, Hunan province, after badly injuring himself in
November.

Initially, doctors said they would be unable to save his limb.

Mr Wei said: “I was just shocked and frozen to the spot, until colleagues unplugged the machine and
retrieved my hand and took me to the hospital.

“I am still young, and I couldn’t imagine life without a right hand.”

However, doctors at a larger hospital offered a solution and opted to sew the hand to the ankle to stop
it dying while they treated his other injuries.

Wei’s doctor told Rex Features: “His injury was severe. Besides ripping injuries, his arm was also
flattened. We had to clear and treat his injuries before taking on the hand reattachment surgery.”

Nearly a month after his hand was severed, Wei had recovered sufficiently to undergo reattachment
surgery.

According to doctors he will need to undergo several other procedures, but they are hopeful that he will
regain full function of his hand.

Source: sky news