Health News

Real-Time Flu Forecast Predicts Outbreaks in Each US City

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Borrowing ideas from weather forecasting, researchers have developed a system to predict, weeks in advance, when a city will see the peak of its seasonal flu outbreak.

A reliable flu forecast could limit an outbreak by informing people and health officials so they can step up protective measures, the researchers said.

The researchers tested the model on 108 cities across the United States during the 2012-2013 flu season, and found they could accurately predict the timing of the influenza peak in more than 60 percent of the cities two to four weeks in advance, on average, according to the study, published today (Dec. 3) in the journal Nature Communications.
Source: Live Science

Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Brain Damage, Says Study

A recent study, published by researchers from the University of Kentucky, in the journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine, suggests that low levels of vitamin D may cause brain damage.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin present in few natural foods, including fatty fish, cheese and egg yolks; a variety of foods, meanwhile, are artificially fortified with vitamin D, including milk, cereals and margarine. Vitamin D manufacture can also be achieved endogenously, when rays of light strike the skin. This photochemical process triggers the production of vitamin D3 (a.k.a. cholecalciferol) from its precursor, 7-dehydrocholesterol.

Vitamin D confers a number of benefits, ranging from promotion of calcium absorption in the gut, maintaining serum calcium and phosphate levels, as well as bone growth and remodeling. On top of this, vitamin D regulates a number of genes that are involved in cell division, differentiation and an essential form of programmed cellular death (apoptosis). It is thought that vitamin D serves a variety of roles in inflammatory processes and could even serve neuromuscular and immune functions.

The Rat Research Models
The latest scientific research suggests that the vitamin may serve a critical role in protecting the brain from free radical-induced damage. The researchers used a series of rat models to test the influence of differing concentrations of dietary vitamin D. A total of 27 male rats were divided into three separate groups; one group was fed a diet that contained low concentrations of vitamin D (100 IU/kg food), another was used as a control (1000 IU/kg food) and the final group received a diet enriched in the vitamin (10,000 IU/kg food).

The trial began as the rats hit middle-age and lasted for a period of four to five months. The research group measured the level of oxidative and nitrosative stress in a specific part of the rat brains, located in the posterior cortex.

Intriguingly, the group found an elevation in the level of a reactive nitrogen species, called 3-nitrotyrosine, in those rats that had received inadequate levels of vitamin D. Nitrotyrosine is considered a marker of cellular damage and inflammation and has been found to be elevated in a number of pathologies, including inflammatory diseases, lung disease, sepsis and atherosclerosis.

The researchers believe that the increase in nitrotyrosine is caused by disruption of a protein complex (NF-?B) that is recruited during cellular stress. In addition, after performing redox proteomics, a number of proteins in this region of the brain were found to be damaged in those rats that were provisioned low vitamin D diets.

When examining the real-world affect that this vitamin D deficiency had on the rats, the research team established that subjects provided with an abundance of the sunshine vitamin excelled in cognitive performance tests. Specifically, when investigating learning and memory capacity, rats given diets consisting of 100 IU/kg of food were found to lag behind the other two groups, significantly.

The Future
Allan Butterfield was the lead author of the latest study, who works as a professor in the UK Department of Chemistry and as the director of the Center of Membrane Sciences, faculty of Sanders-Brown Center on Aging. Also acting as the director of the Free Radical Biology in Cancer Core of the Markey Cancer Center, Butterfield briefly discussed his research endeavors and what they could mean for elderly populations.

“Given that vitamin D deficiency is especially widespread among the elderly, we investigated how during aging from middle-age to old-age how low vitamin D affected the oxidative the oxidative status of the brain… Adequate vitamin D serum levels are necessary to prevent free radical damage to the brain and subsequent deleterious consequences.”
This problem is exacerbated in developing countries, where food nutrition is problematic. Likewise, individuals that inhabit regions that receive little sunlight and those who work indoors for long periods are also prone to deficiency, as are elderly people who lead sedentary lifestyles.

In the past, prior scientific studies have implicated hypovitaminosis D in Alzheimer’s disease, with a number of researchers suggesting its use as a biomarker of disease progression. A recent study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, entitled Low serum vitamin D concentrations in Alzheimer’s disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis, found there to be low serum vitamin D levels in Alzheimer’s patients, relative to controls.

Meanwhile, a study produced by Lu’o’ng and Nguyen, which explored the beneficial role of vitamin D in Alzheimer’s patients, found that its absence could trigger mood problems and cognitive impairment. They also point to evidence that links vitamin D deficiency to a number of proteins that are adversely affected in Alzheimer’s disease pathology.

Aside from neurological disease, a number of studies have linked deficiency of the vitamin to the development of cancers and cardiovascular pathologies. Osteomalacia and rickets, witnessed in adults and children, respectively, are commonly documented complications of vitamin D deficiency, causing softening and bowing of bones.

In concluding, Butterfield recommends people consult their general practitioners to determine their vitamin D levels, eat food enriched in vitamin D and get a minimum of 10 to 15 minutes of sun exposure every day; he also suggests individuals prone to deficiency should ask their doctor for advice about taking vitamin D supplements.

Source: Guardian express

Radiographic imaging exposes relationship between obesity and cancer

Researchers at the National Institute for Aging are working to improve understanding about obesity and cancer. A study, published today in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, is the first to use direct radiographic imaging of adipose tissue rather than estimates like body mass index (BMI) or waist circumference, and focuses on the relationship between obesity and cancer risk in aging populations. Findings emphasize the negative impact of adiposity on long term health particularly for older men and women.

The researchers investigated relationships between fat mass and risk of developing cancer in 2,519 older adults in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study, a prospective, population-based study supported by the National Institute on Aging. They measured total body fat and body fat within the abdomen and thigh including visceral fat (adipose around the internal organs) and subcutaneous fat with radiographic images. Individuals were followed for cancer incidence over 13 years.

According to the study, “results suggest that adiposity may carry risk for cancers beyond those identified as obesity-related by the National Cancer Institute and further suggest a possible sex differential with respect to adipose and cancer risk.”

Dr. Rachel Murphy, lead author on the study, is a researcher at the Laboratory of Epidemiology, and Population Sciences, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Aging, in Bethesda, Maryland.
She said, “I think it’s important to realize that BMI is not the only indicator of health to concentrate on. After controlling for risk factors we found that greater fat confers risk for cancer in older men and women. For example, women with more overall fat mass and more visceral fat had a higher risk of developing cancer.”

“For men, greater visceral adipose was a particularly strong risk factor for many types of cancer regardless of the individual’s BMI. Men with the most visceral fat had a nearly 3 times higher risk of many types of cancer (esophagus, pancreas, colon and rectum, kidney, thyroid, and gallbladder) compared to men with little visceral fat. When we controlled for BMI, the risk for visceral fat was strengthened.”

“These findings provide new insight into obesity and cancer in old age, and suggest that interventions to target visceral adipose in addition to promotion of healthy body weight may impact future cancer risk.”

Source: Medical express

5 ways to stop snoring

There’s no miracle cure for snoring, but lifestyle changes may help.

As snoring can be related to lifestyle, there are some simple changes you can make to minimise it.

Snoring self-help tips:

Maintain a healthy diet and weight. Being overweight by just a few kilograms can lead to snoring. Fatty tissue around your neck squeezes the airway and prevents air from flowing in and out freely.

Try to sleep on your side rather than your back. While sleeping on your back, your tongue, chin and any excess fatty tissue under your chin will probably relax and squash your airway. Sleeping on your side prevents this.

Avoid alcohol before going to bed. Alcohol causes the muscles to relax more than usual during a normal night’s sleep. This added relaxation of the muscles makes the back of the throat collapse more readily, which then causes snoring.

Quit or cut down on smoking. Cigarette smoke irritates the lining of the nasal cavity and throat, causing swelling and catarrh. If the nasal passages become congested, it’s difficult to breathe through your nose because the airflow is decreased.

Keep your nasal passages clear so that you breathe in through your nose rather than your mouth. Try rubbing a few drops of eucalyptus or olbas oil onto your pillowcase. If an allergy is blocking your nose, try antihistamine tablets or a nasal spray. Ask your pharmacist for advice, and see your GP if you’re affected by an allergy or condition that affects your nose or breathing.

Source: nhs choices

Today’s elderly may be mentally sharper than yesterday’s

Elderly people today might be more mentally nimble than their counterparts were a decade or two ago, according to a new European study.

Researchers found people who were in their 80s when they took thinking and memory tests in the late 2000s performed similarly to others who were tested more than 10 years earlier while in their 70s.

General health in old age is probably improving for most people, Dallas Anderson said.

“People are better educated than they used to be, their economic wellbeing may be better compared to previous groups,” Anderson said. He studies dementia at the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Maryland, and was not involved in the new study.

“All these various factors working together lead to an improved situation.”

For their study, researchers tested the thinking and memory skills of 204 elderly French men and women selected from the memory clinic of a Paris hospital between 1991 and 1997. They compared their test scores to those from 177 similar people tested at the same clinic in 2008 and 2009.

None of the participants had dementia at the time.

As expected, people under age 80 performed better on the cognitive tests than older participants during both study periods, researchers led by Jocelyne de Rotrou from Hôpital Broca in Paris wrote in PLOS One.

The 2000s group as a whole also did better than the 1990s group. Participants tested more recently scored an average 83.2 out of a possible 100 on the exams, compared to 73.5 for their earlier counterparts.

The differences were consistent across almost every component of the tests, including how well people remembered stories and pictures and their ability to separate objects into different categories.

The authors said this trend might simply parallel increased life expectancies: the longer you live, the more good years you have.

But there could be something else going on too, Anderson told Reuters Health, like improvements in the average person’s education and socioeconomic status.

These new results may also indicate that better drug regimens for controlling blood pressure and heart problems are having a positive effect on aging, he said.

“This is consistent with other studies, especially a couple already published from Europe, in Denmark and the UK,” and it’s likely happening in the U.S. as well, he said.

But Louis Bherer, who studies cognitive decline at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, believes it is too soon to generalize the Paris results more broadly.

“France is a country in which education is free and open to everyone, and where everyone has access to free medical care,” he told Reuters Health. “Generalization to countries that do not offer the same social advantages would be misleading.”

It’s possible that more careful screening for early stages of dementia in 2008 and 2009 led to a more mentally sound group, said Bherer, who didn’t participate in the new research.

As often happens, it’s hard to tell whether researchers are sensing a true trend in the population, or tools have improved and changed what they can see.

Bherer and Anderson agreed these types of studies need to be replicated before any larger conclusions can be drawn.

A recent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine highlighted evidence of declining dementia rates in the U.S.

“The idea that some people will get extra years of healthy living before they get demented, that’s important,” Anderson said. “When you look at it from a public health perspective, it’s huge.”

But the trend might not continue, he said, especially in the U.S. as more obese, diabetic generations age into retirement. Their health problems could help speed mental decline.

Dementia is still a public health issue, especially with the baby boomer generation getting older, he said.

“Even if the rates go down, the numbers are still going to go up.”

Source: Reuters

New Test May Help Predict Survival From Ovarian Cancer

By counting the number of cancer-fighting immune cells inside tumors, scientists say they may have found a way to predict survival from ovarian cancer.

The researchers developed an experimental method to count these cells, called tumor-infiltrating T lymphocytes (TILs), in women with early stage and advanced ovarian cancer.

“We have developed a standardizable method that should one day be available in the clinic to better inform physicians on the best course of cancer therapy, therefore improving treatment and patient survival,” said lead researcher Jason Bielas, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in Seattle.

The test may have broader implications beyond ovarian cancer and be useful with other types of cancer, the study authors suggested.

In their current work with ovarian cancer patients, the researchers “demonstrated that this method can be used to diagnose T-cells quickly and effectively from a blood sample,” said Bielas, an associate member in human biology and public health sciences.

The report was published online Dec. 4 in Science Translational Medicine.

The researchers developed the test to count TILs, identify their frequency and develop a system to determine their ability to clone themselves. This is a way of measuring the tumor’s population of immune T-cells.

The test works by collecting genetic information of proteins only found in these cells.

“T-cell clones have unique DNA sequences that are [comparable] to product barcodes on items at the grocery store. Our technology is comparable to a barcode scanner,” Bielas said.

The technique, called QuanTILfy, was tested on tumor samples from 30 women with ovarian cancer whose survival ranged from one month to about 10 years.

Bielas and colleagues looked at the number of TILs in the tumors, comparing those numbers to the women’s survival.

The researchers found that higher TIL levels were linked with better survival. For example, the percent of TILs was about three times higher in women who survived more than five years than in those who survived less than two years.

“We are hoping to investigate whether this is a general phenomena of all cancers,” Bielas said. “There is good evidence now that the same associations can be made for melanoma and colorectal cancer.”

This new technology potentially could be used to predict treatment response, cancer recurrence and disease-free survival earlier and more effectively than current methods, Bielas noted.

It could therefore be used to guide personalized medicine. For example, it could be used to determine which immune and chemotherapy drugs are best to treat a particular patient, Bielas suggested.

“Thus, TIL can be used to guide the selection of drugs for cancer therapy, thereby improving patient outcome. The implementation of this assay in the clinic should improve cancer diagnostics and ultimately save lives,” he said.

Because the test is still experimental, Bielas could not estimate what the test might cost if it were eventually approved and used widely in patients.

Right now the test isn’t ready for general use, according to Dr. Franck Pages, a professor of immunology at the Hospital European Georges Pompidou in Paris, and author of an accompanying journal editorial.

“The new technology does not obviously fulfill the requirements for an easy routine clinical use to quantify T-cell infiltration in a tumor,” Pages said, “but the technology could help in immunotherapy trials to determine the immunological response induced in the tumor.”

Another expert agreed that more work must be done before the test can be used clinically.

“It’s been known for some time that there is a correlation between the level of natural killer cells — T-cells — and the prognosis of patients,” said William Chambers, interim national vice president for extramural research at the American Cancer Society.

“There is going to be a need for other people to verify the findings from this study,” Chambers said. “There is also a need to figure out how this would fit in the context of any sort of clinical approach.”

source: Philly

Exercise Beneficial For Dementia

Exercise may benefit older people with dementia by improving their cognitive functioning and ability to carry out everyday activities, according to a new systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. However, the authors of the review did not see any clear effect of exercise on depression in older people with dementia and say that more evidence is needed to understand how exercise could reduce the burden on family caregivers and health systems.

Due to people living longer, rates of dementia are expected to rise sharply in the coming decades. Dementia affects the brain in different ways and is associated with effects on memory and personality. It is thought that exercise might be useful in treating dementia or slowing its progression, through improvements in the ability to carry out everyday tasks and positive effects on mental processes such as memory and attention, collectively described as cognitive functioning. Exercise may therefore indirectly benefit family caregivers and the healthcare system by reducing some of the burden of dementia.

The study updates a Cochrane review carried out in 2008, when only four trials on the effects of exercise in older people with dementia were available. In the updated review, data from eight trials involving 329 people showed that exercise could improve cognitive functioning. Data from six studies involving 289 people showed that exercise could improve the ability of older people with dementia to carry out daily activities, such as walking short distances or getting up from a chair.

“In our previous review, we were unable to draw any conclusions about the effectiveness of exercise in older people with dementia, due to a shortage of appropriate trials,” said researcher, Dorothy Forbes, an Associate Professor of Nursing who works at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta. “Following this new review, we are now able to conclude that there is promising evidence for exercise programs improving cognition and the ability to carry out daily activities. However, we do still need to be cautious about how we interpret these findings.”

The researchers remain cautious because there were substantial differences among the results of individual trials. In addition, they did not find enough evidence to determine whether exercise improved challenging behaviours or depression in older people with dementia. They were unable to come to any conclusions regarding quality of life, or benefits for family caregivers and health systems, because there was not enough evidence.

However, the researchers suggest that if more evidence becomes available in future, it may help to address the question of whether exercise can help people with dementia remain at home for longer. “Clearly, further research is needed to be able to develop best practice guidelines to enable healthcare providers to advise people with dementia living at home or in institutions,” said Forbes. “We also need to understand what level and intensity of exercise is beneficial for someone with dementia.”

Source: Red orbit

More teens visiting emergency room after using Ecstasy, Molly

The number of U.S. teens who wind up in the emergency room after taking the club drug Ecstasy has more than doubled in recent years, raising concerns that the hallucinogen is back in vogue, federal officials report.

Emergency room visits related to MDMA — known as Ecstasy in pill form and Molly in the newer powder form — increased 128 percent between 2005 and 2011 among people younger than 21. Visits rose from about roughly 4,500 to more than 10,000 during that time, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“This should be a wake-up call to everyone, but the problem is much bigger than what the data show,” said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of The Partnership at Drugfree.org. “These are only the cases that roll into the emergency rooms. It’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

The SAMHSA study comes on the heels of a string of Ecstasy-related deaths. Organizers closed the Electric Zoo music festival in New York City one day early in August following two deaths and four hospitalizations caused by Ecstasy overdoses. The deaths came a week after another young man died from Ecstasy overdose at a rock show in Boston.

Ecstasy produces feelings of increased energy and euphoria, and can distort a person’s senses and perception of time. It works by altering the brain’s chemistry, but research has been inconclusive regarding the effects of long-term abuse on the brain, Pasierb said.

However, ecstasy abuse can cause potentially harmful physical reactions, Pasierb said. Users can become dangerously overheated and experience rapid heartbeat, increased blood pressure and dehydration, all of which can lead to kidney or heart failure.

Alcohol also appears to be a factor. One-third of the emergency room visits involving Ecstasy also involved alcohol, a combination that can cause a longer-lasting euphoria, according to SAMHSA. Teens can become less aware of how much alcohol they’ve consumed, and also can be more likely to make poor decisions that lead to bodily harm.

The newest form of MDMA, the powder Molly, appears to be driving the latest surge in Ecstasy use.

The study relied on data produced by the Drug Abuse Warning Network, a public health surveillance system that monitors drug-related hospital emergency department visits and drug-related deaths.

MDMA affects a person’s level of serotonin, a hormone that helps regulate sleep cycles and is responsible for feelings of happiness and well-being, said Peter Delany, director of SAMHSA’s Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. Overuse can cause depression, confusion, paranoia, anxiety and sleep disorders.

The Molly that currently is on the streets is usually a very pure crystalline form of MDMA, Delany said. Users can snort it, mix it in alcohol or some other liquid, or take it in a gel cap.

Delany noted that the number of emergency room visits caused by MDMA pales in comparison to the 1.5 million ER visits linked to drug use every year, but said both the rapid increase and the age of the victims are causes for concern.

The use of alcohol with MDMA can create a person who is drunk but hyper-aware, said Delany, comparing it to giving coffee to a drunk person. “You don’t want that, because then you have a wide-awake drunk,” he said.

For his part, Pasierb noted how Ecstasy’s popularity has fluctuated.

Ecstasy underwent a huge rise in use between 1999 and 2001, where it jumped from the club scene and into the mainstream, Pasierb said. Then news of deaths related to Ecstasy began to circulate, and use plummeted.

“We’ve had this six-year quiet lull, and now we’ve got a whole new generation of young people who are being marketed a new product under the name ‘Molly,'” he said.

Molly presents additional problems because it is a powder, and often contains a cocktail of chemicals in addition to MDMA, Pasierb said.

“When it was in a finished pill, it was difficult to tamper with,” he said. “But now that it comes in a powder form, you might have an unscrupulous dealer who cuts it with speed or some other substance.”
Source: Philly

Frito-lay releases Cheetos that taste like stew

Frito-Lay has just introduced “Cheetos! Cream stew” that is meant to taste like cream stew, a traditional Japanese meal that contains beef, vegetables and other stock ingredients, according to the website for Japan Frito-Lay Ltd..

Cream stew is just the latest in a string of new and unique Cheeto flavors. Just this summer, Frito-Lay released Pepsi-flavored Cheetos to decidedly mixed reviews. Unfortunately for adventurous American eaters, these special flavors are only sold in Japan.

It might sound wacky, but combining this savory stew with that oh-so-familiar crunchy Cheeto crisp might not be all that bad. Who knows? Maybe we’ll be seeing Chicken Noodle Soup Cheetos soon.

Cream Stew Cheetos hit stories in Japan Monday and will be available until March 2014.

Source: healcon

FDA warns that some Philips HeartStart defibrillators may not work

Federal health regulators are warning the public that certain cardiac defibrillators recalled by Philips Healthcare may fail to deliver a needed shock in an emergency.

Defibrillators are used by emergency responders and others to restore normal heart function in people suffering a heart attack. The FDA says an electrical problem with recalled Philips’ HeartStart devices could cause them to fail to deliver a life-saving shock.

Philips recalled three models of its HeartStart devices in September 2012 due to an internal electrical malfunction. The recall affects about 700,000 defibrillators sold between 2005 and 2012. The recalled HeartStart FRx and HS1 (OnSite and Home) devices include an electrical part called a resistor that could fail when high voltage is applied, and that could prevent the device from delivering the necessary shock. If the resistor fails, the device will emit an audible triple-chirp alert.

Customers who have received the affected devices should contact Philips at 1-800-263-3342 to receive a replacement. Until a replacement is received, the agency does recommend keeping the recalled defibrillators in service because it considers the benefits of attempting to use the device in a cardiac arrest emergency greater than the risk of not attempting to use the defibrillator, said Steve Silverman, director of the Office of Compliance in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, in a statement Tuesday.

In March the FDA proposed new requirements for companies that manufacture external defibrillators, which are found everywhere from hospitals to schools to airports. The proposed rules would require an FDA review of devices before their launch and are intended to curb years of recalls caused by design and manufacturing flaws.

Philips said Tuesday that it has not received any reports of patient harm due to this recall and has been working closely with regulatory authorities and with customers to address this issue.

Source: Fox News