Month: December 2013

G8 nations sets 2025 target to find treatment for dementia

A pledge by the G8 countries to find a cure or treatment for dementia in 12 years is highly optimistic considering no drug is anywhere close to being developed, health officials have acknowledged.

The promise came at the end of a day-long meeting in London involving representatives of health, business and non-profit sectors from Canada, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia and Italy. In a communiqué, G8 health ministers vowed to identify a cure or “disease-modifying therapy” by 2025. They also promised to “significantly increase” the amount they spend on dementia research and share scientific data. They also plan to appoint a global envoy for dementia innovation to co-ordinate international efforts.

“No one here is in any doubt about the scale of the dementia crisis,” British Prime Minister David Cameron told the conference, adding that one new case of dementia is diagnosed every four seconds around the world. “This disease steals lives, wrecks families and breaks hearts.”

The 2025 target immediately came into question and Britain’s Health Minister Jeremy Hunt conceded it was ambitious. “We know that it’s a big challenge and I don’t think we have that cure yet,” he said. “If we don’t aim for the stars, we won’t land on the moon. I think we should be aiming for the stars.”

Dementia is a term used to describe Alzheimer’s and other diseases in which brain cells die in vast numbers. Developing a drug to stop the deterioration has proven fruitless so far despite roughly 10 years of efforts and $12-billion (U.S.) spent by drug companies.

Not one clinical trial has succeeded and officials say some drug makers have given up altogether. Over all, spending on dementia research is a fraction of the amount devoted to cancer, HIV/AIDS and other illnesses, even though the number of those affected is soaring as the population ages. About 44 million people worldwide have dementia, an increase of 22 per cent in three years.

“In terms of a cure, or even a treatment that can modify the disease, we are empty-handed,” World Health Organization director-general Margaret Chan told the meeting. “The ‘business as usual’ model hasn’t worked.”

Harry Johns, chief executive of the U.S. Alzheimer’s Association, said Alzheimer’s is the only disease “among the top 10 killers that has no way to prevent or treat effectively.”

Source: the globe and mail

Five reasons why you should eat oranges

Whether you have it as a snack, add it to your dish for a sweet and tangy flavour or just squeeze it to make a glass of fresh juice – oranges are one of the most popular fruits around the world power packed with immense health benefits. A rich source of Vitamin C and packed with antioxidants, flavonoids and dietary fibre this citrus fruit is said to have anti-inflammatory, anti-tumour and anti-oxidant properties.

Here are some of the health benefits for oranges:

Boost immunity: Just one orange supplies 116.2% of the daily value for vitamin C. Vitamin C, is vital for the healthy functioning of the immune system. It also helps prevent colds and recurrent ear infections.

Prevents cancer: Vitamin C, a primary water-soluble antioxidant protects the cells from damages by free radicals reducing risk of cancer. The fibre in oranges can grab cancer-causing chemicals and keep them away from cells of the colon, providing yet another line of protection from colon cancer. Beta-cryptoxanthin, an orange-red carotenoid may significantly lower risk of developing lung cancer.

Lowers cardiovascular disease risk: Folate, also known as vitamin B9, helps lower levels of homocysteine- an amino acid produced by the body – high levels of which can cause hardening and narrowing of the arteries, heart attack, stroke and blood clot formation. The potassium in oranges helps lower blood pressure, protecting against stroke and cardiac arrhythmias; and the vitamin C, carotenoids and flavonoids have been identified as having protective cardiovascular effects. Iron and Vitamin B6 in oranges help in the production of haemoglobin and increase the oxygen carrying capacity.

Prevents stomach ulcers: Oranges are a very good source of fibre which helps keep your stomach and intestines healthy. A diet rich in fibre helps stimulating digestive juices and helps prevent constipation and stomach ulcers.

Great for diabetics: A single orange provides 12.5% of the daily value for fibre and has a high glycaemic index which makes it a good food option for diabetics. Fibre helps to keep blood sugar levels under control. In addition, the natural fruit sugar in oranges, fructose, can help to keep blood sugar levels from rising too high after eating.

Source: zee news

 

E-cigarettes: a burning question for U.S. regulators

At the Henley Vaporium, one of a growing number of e-cigarette lounges sprouting up in New York and other United States cities, patrons can indulge in their choice of more than 90 flavours of nicotine-infused vapour, ranging from bacon to bubble gum.

The lounge, located in Manhattan’s trendy Lower East Side, features plush seating, blaring rock music, and fresh juice and coffee. A sprawling sign on one wall lists all the carcinogens that e-cigarette users avoid by kicking their smoking habits and using the devices instead.

But the growing popularity of e-cigarettes has not escaped the notice of the industry’s critics, who have stepped up calls for new regulations, including bans on their use in public places, even though the scientific evidence about exposure to their vapours remains inconclusive.

Selling for about US$30 to US$50 (S$37.60 to S$62.66) each, e-cigarettes are slim, reusable, metal tubes containing nicotine-laced liquids that come in exotic flavours. When users puff on the device, the nicotine is heated and releases a vapour that, unlike cigarette smoke, contains no tar, which causes cancer and other diseases.

The product, introduced in China in 2006, has become a worldwide trend at least in part because it may help smokers of regular cigarettes break the habit.

“It’s an addiction — not everyone can quit cold turkey,” Mr Nick Edwards, 34, a Henley employee who says he kicked a 15-year cigarette habit the day he tried his first e-cigarette, said yesterday (Nov 11). “E-cigarettes give you a harm-reduction option.”

That’s one reason why the market for e-cigarettes is expected to surge, reaching US$2 billion by the end of this year and US$10 billion by 2017, according to Ms Bonnie Herzog, an analyst at Wells Fargo Bank in New York.

Ms Herzog said the US market alone could top US$1 billion this year. She predicts that by 2017 e-cigarettes sales will overtake sales of regular cigarettes. That estimate does not take into account the impact of potential government regulations on sales.

E-cigarettes may help smokers save money too. Mr Edwards, for one, says he cut his US$60 monthly cigarette bill in half when he switched. On top of the cost of the device, the smoking liquids cost around US$10 per refill.

Despite the perceived benefits, critics worry that the addictive nicotine found in e-cigarettes could lure more people into smoking and discourage others from quitting all together.

SOurce: today online

Older people may be less tired: Study

Senior citizens reported feeling less tired than younger people, including teenagers, in a new US study.

To the researchers’ surprise, 15- to 24-year-olds – the youngest people in their study – said they felt the most fatigued of all during daily activities. The difference between the two age groups was almost one full point on a scale of 0 to 6, with 6 representing “very tired.”
“It’s a big effect,” Laura Kudrna told Reuters Health. She and her colleague, Paul Dolan, conducted the study at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The link between increasing age and decreasing fatigue held steady when they factored in how much people slept, how many children they had, whether they were employed and their general health.

Additionally, the researchers found people who were more educated and healthier tended to be less tired. Women reported feeling more tired than men. And feelings of fatigue increased with each additional child in the family.

The study of nearly 13,000 Americans is one of very few to investigate tiredness on a large scale, said Kudrna. It was published in the Journals of Gerontology Series B.

“The evidence on this so far is quite mixed, and most studies have either been done in clinical settings or in Europe,” she said.

Source: your health

Sleep problems common among middle-aged women

Almost a quarter of middle-aged women report their quality of sleep is less than good, according to a new study.

Sleep problems were tied to poor quality of life, chronic illness and medication use, researchers found.

The new study adds to earlier research by looking at common sleep problems among women before they hit menopause, according to Dr. Päivi Polo. She led the study at the University of Turku in Finland.

“Typically we think that these are problems of menopause and thus menopause is the reason for everything,” Polo told Reuters Health.

“Then we try to treat all menopausal insomnia symptoms with hormone replacement therapy … but because in some women the sleep problems are already evident before the menopause, the HRT may not alleviate all sleep problems and we physicians are wondering what to do next.”

After menopause, hot flashes and night sweats increase sleep problems, she said.

Polo and her colleagues surveyed 850 mothers about their sleep when they were 42 years old, on average. One third had a chronic illness, like diabetes or heart disease, and 28 percent were on regular medication.

Women most often reported waking up frequently at night. Sixty percent of them had that problem at least once a week.

Sixteen percent of women reported having difficulty falling asleep and 20 percent said they woke up too early in the morning on a weekly basis.

Morning sleepiness was reported by 42 percent and daytime sleepiness by 32 percent.

Sleep troubles are not new for people of any age, but they do seem to be a bit more common among women. Hormonal changes related to menstrual cycles or menopause may be partly to blame, the authors write in Maturitas.

Occasional alcohol drinking was tied to better sleep quality and less falling asleep at work, they found.

But women’s weight and physical activity levels were not linked to sleep problems. That might be because most women in the study were in the normal range for body size, Polo said. Other studies have tied obesity to sleep problems like sleep apnea.

“There is likely a bidirectional association such that obesity may induce poor sleep, and short sleep may induce weight gain and subsequent obesity,” Dr. Helen Driver, who researches sleep at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, said.

“The study was not designed to assess much detail about the relationship between physical activity and sleep, which is a complex interaction depending on factors such as physical fitness, aerobic capacity, exercise type (aerobic, non-aerobic, stretching) and timing,” Driver told Reuters Health in an email.

All sleep problems can affect daytime tiredness, work performance and quality of life, Driver said.

Women tend to get about seven hours of sleep each night during the week, but sleep needs are unique to individuals, she said.

“Sleep is so crucial, since we sleep one third of our life and it affects so much of our health,” Polo said. Sleep problems can be a symptom of a disease or mental state, which doctors should keep in mind, she said.

Women having sleep problems should talk to their doctor and be sure to note any potential sleep-related side effects of medications, researchers said.

“A good start is to keep a sleep diary and note any patterns or symptoms such as snoring, restlessness, morning headache,” Driver said. “If there is concern ask your family physician for a referral to a sleep center for a
n assessment by a qualified sleep specialist.”

Source: US web daily

Malaria control efforts saved 3.3 million since 2000, WHO says

Global efforts to curb malaria have saved the lives of 3.3 million people since 2000, cutting global death rates from the mosquito-borne disease by 45 percent and by half in children under 5, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

WHO said in its World Malaria Report 2013 that expanded prevention and control measures helped produce declines in malaria deaths and illness. Of the 3.3 million lives saved, most were in the 10 countries with the highest malaria burden and among children under age 5, the group most afflicted by the disease.

“Investments in malaria control, mostly since 2007, have paid off tremendously,” said Ray Chambers, the United Nations secretary-general’s special envoy for malaria.

According to the WHO report, child deaths fell to fewer than 500,000 in 2012.

Overall, there were an estimated 207 million cases of malaria in 2012, which caused some 627,000 deaths, according to the report, which includes information from 102 countries with malaria transmission.

The estimated number of malaria cases per 1,000 at-risk individuals – a figure that takes population growth into account – shows a 29 percent drop globally between 2000 and 2012, and a 31 percent drop in Africa.

During the same period, death rates per 1,000 at-risk individuals fell by 45 percent globally and 51 percent in children under age 5.

“This remarkable progress is no cause for complacency: absolute numbers of malaria cases and deaths are not going down as fast as they could,” WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan said in a statement accompanying the release of the report.

“The fact that so many people are infected and dying from mosquito bites is one of the greatest tragedies of the 21st century.”

FUNDING CUTS

Malaria is endemic in more than 100 countries worldwide but can be prevented by the use of bed nets and indoor spraying to keep the mosquitoes that carry the disease at bay. The mosquito-borne parasitic disease kills hundreds of thousands of people a year, mainly babies in the poorest parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

An estimated 3.4 billion people continue to be at risk for malaria, mostly in Southeast Asia and in Africa where around 80 percent of cases occur.

Chambers said progress against malaria has been threatened by funding cuts in 2011-2012, which translated into a flattening in the curve of the decline. The WHO noted significant drops in delivery of insecticide-treated bed nets in its 2013 report.

But that could begin to ease. Last month, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, UNICEF, the UK’s Department for International Development and the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative agreed to provide over 200 million nets in the next 12 to 18 months, which will replace 120 million existing bed nets and provide 80 million new ones.

WHO also continues to track emerging parasite resistance to artemisinin, the core component of malaria drugs known as artemisinin-based combination therapies, or ACTs, and mosquito resistance to insecticides.

Four countries in Southeast Asia reported artemisinin resistance in 2013, and 64 countries found evidence of insecticide resistance, suggesting recent gains against malaria are still “fragile,” Dr Robert Newman, director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme, said in a telephone interview.

“The greatest threat to the future isn’t biological, but financial. It’s not having enough money to stay a step ahead,” Newman said.

Source: reuters

Driving with a hangover could be as dangerous as drunk driving, studies showv

Two new studies indicate that driving with a hangover could be just as dangerous as driving drunk, Medical Daily reported.

In one study, researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and the University of the West of England in the U.K. put study participants through a series of driving tests that mimicked highway driving. All of the individuals had consumed an average of 10 drinks the night before.

Although no alcohol was present in the blood of any participants at the time of testing, the subjects demonstrated increased weaving in traffic and a decreased ability to pay attention on the road. Their results were comparable to those of a person who had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .05.

The second study, conducted by the same researchers, asked participants to undergo a driving test that simulated stop-and-go traffic after a night of drinking, according to Medical Daily. According to researchers, the drivers experienced delayed reaction times and drove at inconsistent speeds.

The researchers said that people experiencing a hangover are undergoing short-term withdrawal from alcohol, combined with other factors like dehydration and sleep deprivation, which can ultimately make driving dangerous. They hope their studies will create awareness about the risks of driving after a night of drinking.

“We have a law that’s based on blood alcohol concentration. There’s no real way of measuring how hungover someone is. So we’re a bit limited in what we can do,” said Dr. Mark King, senior researcher at the Center for Accident Research and Road Safety at the Queensland University of Technology. “…All we can really do is provide advice to people and say your driving could be affected just as badly as if you were under the influence of alcohol as when you’re hungover.”

Source: news.nom

Gene test can help recommend best psychiatric medications for patients

Psychiatrists can use a simple genetic test to determine which psychoactive medications will be most easily metabolized by their patients. And a third clinical study has confirmed that this test has a positive effect on treatment outcome.

The Pine Rest study, published in Discovery Medicine, showed that when psychiatrists have their patients use GeneSite, those in the group whose treatment is guided by the technology showed a greater than two-fold response and remission rate.

GeneSite only requires swabbing the inside of the cheeks and sending the swab into a central lab. Basically, the test segments medications into “green” (use as directed), “yellow” (use with caution) or “red” (use with increased caution) categories, depending on the way a patient’s unique genomic makeup will interact with psychiatric medicines.

Psychiatrists who used GeneSite in the study were twice as likely to switch medications or adjust dosages of medications. In fact, 100 percent of clinicians using GeneSite made such changes, whereas only 50 percent of clinicians without the guidance did so.

The results of the Pine Rest study are similar to those of the La Crosse Study, published in July 2013 in Pharmacogenetics and Genomics. In that study of 227 participants, the GeneSite-guided group experienced a more than two-fold improvement in symptoms and likelihood to achieve remission.

Given the repeated success of GeneSite in these trials, I now use it frequently to help tailor medication treatment for patients. I suggest that you speak with your psychiatrist about it, as well.

Source: top news today

U.S. issues rules for removing antibiotics from farms

In response to concerns about the rise in drug-resistant super bugs worldwide, US regulators issued voluntary guidelines to help cut back on antibiotics routinely fed to farm animals.

The plan described by the Food and Drug Administration is not mandatory, and applies only to certain pharmaceuticals that are given to healthy livestock in a bid to grow bigger animals and boost food production.

“We need to be selective about the drugs we use in animals and when we use them,” said William, deputy director Flynn yesterday for science policy at the FDA’s Centre for Veterinary Medicine.

“Antimicrobial resistance may not be completely preventable, but we need to do what we can to slow it down.”

The FDA guidelines set out a three-year timeframe for phasing out the use of antibiotics that are important in human medicine for growth uses in farm animals.

Companies that make animal feed containing antibiotics would be restricted to marketing them only for sick animals.

The medicines would also have to be administered or prescribed by a veterinarian with a view to preventing or controlling disease.

The World Health Organisation says inappropriate use of antimicrobial medicines in farm animals is one the factors underlying the spread of drug-resistant infections in people, including tuberculosis, malaria and gonorrhea.

Other factors include people’s failure to complete the full doses of antibiotics when sick and the lack of a coordinated global response to dangerous illnesses.

Consumer advocates say 80 percent of antibiotics sold in the United States are destined for use in livestock, so leaving the responsibility in the hands of business is a mistake.

Louise Slaughter, the only microbiologist in Congress, described the FDA’s voluntary guidance as “an inadequate response to the overuse of antibiotics on the farm with no mechanism for enforcement and no metric for success.”

This guidance “falls woefully short of what is needed to address a public health crisis,” she added in a statement.

Source: the Japan Times

A technology can help detect drowsy drivers

A Dutch luxury bus company is testing technology that monitors whether a driver is becoming drowsy.

Royal Beuk BV said Tuesday it is outfitting 20 vehicles from six different charter vacation bus lines with a system designed by Australian company Seeing Machines.

It uses infrared light and a camera to register eye movements to see whether a driver’s gaze is distracted from the road for too long, or if he is blinking progressively more slowly — signs he may be close to nodding off.

If the system’s software algorithms determine there’s a problem, it will first sound an alarm for the driver. Further alarms will pull in human assistance or intervention

“What we see is that drivers learn very quickly not to be distracted from the road,” Ken Kroeger, the CEO of Seeing Machines, said in a telephone interview. “However, you can’t train someone to not be tired.”

Other technologies with a similar goal are on the market.

Mercedes and Volvo have both introduced automobile systems that measure drowsiness by analyzing steering wheel movements, while Ford uses cameras to check whether a car is drifting out of its lane.

Cheaper solutions include ear-mounted devices that sound an alarm if a head has fallen forward, and a variety of smar tphone apps that try to predict sleepiness or just keep a sleepy driver awake.

After completing trials during this winter and next summer’s holiday seasons, Beuk will act as European distributor for Seeing Machines.

Canberra-based Seeing Machines has previously signed deals with Caterpillar and BHP Billiton. The industrial version of the systems cost up to $20,000 each — in vehicles that can cost more than a million. The slimmed-down version going into the buses will cost less than $5,000, and the company hopes eventually to market them to the trucking industry as well.

Fatigued drivers are a major cause of road accidents, said University of Pittsburgh Professor Timothy Monk, who studies the effect of sleep disturbances. He said he couldn’t speak to the merits of the Seeing Machines system Beuk is installing, but he applauded the effort.

“We’re just starting to recognize that driving drowsy is a lot like driving drunk, only there’s no social taboo on it,” he said. “But it’s just as dangerous, and you’re just as dead at the end of it.”

Source: fox news