Month: January 2016

Children’s food allergies related to immunosuppression

Food allergies affect around 15 million Americans, including many children. Symptoms of allergies and intolerance can range from relatively minor, such as a harmless skin rash, to potentially fatal anaphylactic shock.

Many individuals outgrow their allergy as they reach adulthood. This is thought to be due to the immune system learning to tolerate food that it previously perceived as “foreign.”

Researchers from La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LJI) in San Diego, CA, led by Charles Surh, PhD, wanted to explain why children, who have more limited exposure to novel foods than adults, are more prone to food allergies.

They hypothesized that consuming a normal diet would stimulate cells in the gut that prevent the immune system from rejecting food.

Food and pathogens both display macro molecular markers known as antigens. These antigens announce to the immune system that a food is “foreign.”

Mouse studies have previously looked at how the body would distinguish antigenic “friend” from “foe.”

The mice were fed with an egg protein that they had not eaten before. Researchers observed that an immunosuppresive cell, called a Treg cell, was produced in the gut. These Treg cells blocked the immune response to the new substances.

It was not known if this would happen when young mammals encountered new foods in “real life.”

Surh used “antigen-free” mouse models to represent an immunological blank slate. The mice were raised in a germ-free environment. They were also fed a diet of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, instead of foods that contain the proteins themselves.

This made the mice “immunologically naïve,” because amino acid building blocks are not big enough for the immune system to recognize them. It meant that the mice had little or no previous contact with antigenic proteins and other macromolecules.

Other mice were germ free but fed on a normal diet.

Molecular marker analysis revealed that the mice that consumed amino acids had no Tregs in the small intestine. In contrast, mice that were fed a normal protein diet had a large number of Tregs.

This suggests that when proteins are contained in food, they stimulate Treg development. It also indicates that Tregs in the gut of normal mice might serve to prevent a potentially disastrous immune response to those proteins.

The researchers also demonstrated that food and beneficial bacteria in the gut generate different types of Tregs.

Germ-free mice appear to have only food-dependent Tregs and lack the kind of Tregs that are induced by healthy microbes. These mice are also known to be very susceptible to allergies.

The scientists deduced that to prevent allergic symptoms, the gut needs both food- and microbe-induced Tregs.

Source: medicalnews today

Zika virus spreads explosively, four million cases forecast: WHO

The Zika virus, linked to severe birth defects in thousands of babies in Brazil, is “spreading explosively” and could infect as many as 4 million people in the Americas, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

Director-General Margaret Chan told members of the U.N. health agency`s executive board the spread of the mosquito-borne disease had gone from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions. The WHO would convene an emergency meeting on Monday to help determine its response, she said.

“The level of alarm is extremely high,” Chan told the Geneva gathering.

“Last year, the virus was detected in the Americas, where it is now spreading explosively. As of today, cases have been reported in 23 countries and territories in the region,” Chan said, promising quick action from the WHO.

The agency was criticised last year for reacting too slowly to West Africa`s Ebola epidemic, which killed more than 10,000 people, and it promised to cut its response time.

“We are not going to wait for the science to tell us there is a link (with birth defects). We need to take actions now,” Chan said, referring to the condition called microcephaly in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and brains that have not developed properly.

There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, which is like dengue and causes mild fever, rash and red eyes. An estimated 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms. Much of the effort against the illness focuses on protecting people from mosquitoes and reducing mosquito populations.

Developing a safe and effective vaccine could take a year, WHO Assistant Director Bruce Aylward said, and it would take six to nine months just to confirm whether Zika is the actual cause of the birth defects, or if the two are just associated.

“In the area of vaccines, I do know that there has been some work done by some groups looking at the feasibility of a Zika virus vaccine. Now something like that, as people know, is going to be a 12-month-plus time frame,” he said.

U.S. health officials said the United States has two potential candidates for a Zika vaccine and may begin human clinical trials by the end of this year, but there will not be a widely available vaccine for several years.

Marcos Espinal, head of communicable diseases at the Pan American Health Organization, the WHO`s Americas arm, forecast 3 to 4 million Zika cases in the Americas.

As the virus spreads from Brazil, other countries in the Americas are likely to see cases of babies with Zika-linked birth defects, according to Carissa Etienne, regional director for the Pan American Health Organization.

Brazil has reported around 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly, vastly more than in an average year and equivalent to 1 to 2 percent of all newborns in the state of Pernambuco, one of the worst-hit areas.

The WHO`s Chan said that while a direct causal relationship between Zika virus infection and birth malformations has not yet been established, it is strongly suspected.

“The possible links, only recently suspected, have rapidly changed the risk profile of Zika from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions,” she said.
Health and law expert Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University in Washington, who had urged the WHO to act, welcomed Chan`s decision to convene an expert meeting, calling it “a critical first step in recognising the seriousness of an emerging epidemic.”

Source: Zee news

Texting at night affects teens’ sleep, academic performance

Can’t stop texting? If you’re a teenager, it may be to blame for falling grades and increased yawning in school, according to a new Rutgers study.

The study, published in the Journal of Child Neurology, is the first of its kind to link nighttime instant messaging habits of American teenagers to sleep health and school performance.

“We need to be aware that teenagers are using electronic devices excessively and have a unique physiology,” says study author Xue Ming, professor of neuroscience and neurology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. “They tend to go to sleep late and get up late. When we go against that natural rhythm, students become less efficient.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that media use among children of all ages is increasing exponentially; studies have found that children ages 8 to 18 use electronic devices approximately seven-and-a-half hours daily.

Ming’s research is part of a small but growing body of evidence on the negative effects of electronics on sleep and school performance. But few studies, Ming says, have focused specifically on instant messaging.

“During the last few years I have noticed an increased use of smartphones by my patients with sleep problems,” Ming says. “I wanted to isolate how messaging alone – especially after the lights are out – contributes to sleep-related problems and academic performance.”

To conduct her study, Ming distributed surveys to three New Jersey high schools – a suburban and an urban public school and a private school – and evaluated the 1,537 responses contrasting grades, sexes, messaging duration and whether the texting occurred before or after lights out.

She found that students who turned off their devices or who messaged for less than 30 minutes after lights out performed significantly better in school than those who messaged for more than 30 minutes after lights out.

Students who texted longer in the dark also slept fewer hours and were sleepier during the day than those who stopped messaging when they went to bed. Texting before lights out did not affect academic performance, the study found.

Although females reported more messaging overall and more daytime sleepiness, they had better academic performance than males. “I attribute this to the fact that the girls texted primarily before turning off the light,” Ming says.

The effects of “blue light” emitted from smartphones and tablets are intensified when viewed in a dark room, Ming says. This short wavelength light can have a strong impact on daytime sleepiness symptoms since it can delay melatonin release, making it more difficult to fall asleep – even when seen through closed eyelids.

“When we turn the lights off, it should be to make a gradual transition from wakefulness to sleep,” Ming says. “If a person keeps getting text messages with alerts and light emission, that also can disrupt his circadian rhythm. Rapid Eye Movement sleep is the period during sleep most important to learning, memory consolidation and social adjustment in adolescents. When falling asleep is delayed but rising time is not, REM sleep will be cut short, which can affect learning and memory.”

Ming notes some benefits to early-evening media use, such as facilitating collaboration for school projects, providing resources for tutoring, increasing school readiness and possibly offering emotional support systems.

She suggests that educators recognize the sleep needs of teenagers and incorporate sleep education in their curriculum. “Sleep is not a luxury; it’s a biological necessity. Adolescents are not receiving the optimal amount of sleep; they should be getting 8-and-a-half hours a night,” says Ming. “Sleep deprivation is a strong argument in favor of later start times for high schools – like 9 a.m.”

Source: Sciencedaily

Heart attack causes and symptoms are different in women

The causes of heart attacks and the warning symptoms that can signal the need for immediate medical attention are different in women than in men, according to a scientific statement issued today by the American Heart Association.

When women don’t recognize this, they may suffer worse outcomes, a fate that is even more likely in black and Hispanic women, according to the AHA.

The organization published its first comprehensive statement on gender differences in heart attack patients in its journal Circulation.

“Women seem to do worse for several reasons,” said Dr. Laxmi Mehta, the lead author of the recommendations and the director of women’s cardiovascular health at Ohio State University in Columbus.

Importantly, people don’t realize that while both sexes may experience chest pain before or during a heart attack, women may be more likely to have unusual symptoms instead, such as shortness of breath, nausea or vomiting, and back or neck pain.

Then, when they do get to a hospital, women may be less likely than men to receive medications that help to prevent clots, decrease the heart’s workload and lower blood pressure or cholesterol.

“There is a lot at stake for women when there is a delay in treatment or lack of adherence to recommended therapies,” Mehta added by email. “Women face higher rates of being readmitted to the hospital, heart failure and death.”

Biology is also part of the problem.

Even though both women and men get heart attacks caused by blockages in the main arteries leading to the heart, the way the clots develop may differ, according to the scientific statement.

Men tend to have a more “classic” type of blockage where plaque ruptures off the artery wall, forms a blood clot and causes a complete halt of blood flow through the artery to the heart, said Dr. Sheila Sahni, chief fellow in cardiovascular disease at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles.

“Women, more often, tend to have a plaque erosion where smaller pieces of plaque break off, become exposed and cause the formation of smaller blood clots which may or may not cause total occlusions all at once, leading to a more subtle presentation,” Sahni, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

In addition, women tend to be about a decade older than men when they suffer heart attacks, potentially making them frailer and more likely to suffer from other health problems such as diabetes that can make their treatment more complicated, Sahni added.

Risk factors also differ by gender, with high blood pressure more strongly associated with heart attacks in women than in men. For young women with diabetes, the risk for heart disease is four to five times higher than it would be for a similar young man.

Race, too, is an issue. Compared to white women, black women have a higher incidence of heart attacks in all age categories and young black women have greater odds of dying before they leave the hospital. Black and Hispanic women are also more likely to have heart-related risk factors such as diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure at the time of their heart attack.

Once a heart attack begins, the best way for women to minimize damage is to get help quickly, said Dr. Leslie Cho, director of the women’s cardiovascular center at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

“Time is muscle,” Cho, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “If women are diagnosed and treated later in the course of the heart attack, they can suffer from irreversible heart damage.”

Source: foxnews

Water births ‘pose no extra risk’

Birthing pools have been used for some time in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In the US, they have gained popularity. However, safety concerns have caused controversy.

Immersion in water during labor is thought to have various benefits, including less need for pain medication and, theoretically, a smaller chance of vaginal trauma, as the perineum becomes more elastic and relaxed in water.

The water is believed to reduce stress hormones and decrease blood pressure, easing tension in the mother. For the baby to pass from the amniotic sac into the warm water may also be less stressful for the neonate, possibly reducing fetal complications.

One concern is the possibility of drowning. When babies are born, they have a “dive reflex,” which means they can block their throats when underwater. This should mean there is little chance of drowning. However, near-drownings have been reported due to the baby breathing in fluid from the tub.

There is also a small risk that water will enter the mother’s bloodstream, causing a water embolism. The fear of additional exposure to infection has also been voiced, although at least one study has indicated that this is unlikely.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics support laboring in water but not being immersed when the baby is born.

Researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) studied data on nearly 17,000 women who gave birth in the US between 2004-2009. The majority were attended by Certified Professional Midwives.

The source of the data was the Midwives Alliance of North America Statistics Project (MANA Stats), and the midwives provided detailed reports on their cases from their medical records.

Of the 17,000 recorded cases, more than 6,500 of the deliveries were water births. These births were all attended by midwives, and they all took place either in a dedicated birthing center or at home. None of the water births analyzed were carried out in a hospital.

Source: medical news today

Irregular heartbeat is riskier for women

An irregular heartbeat, also known as atrial fibrillation, appears to be a stronger risk factor for heart disease and death in women than in men, according to research published in The BMJ.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with a higher risk of stroke and death generally, with an estimated 33.5 million people affected globally in 2010, and an age-adjusted mortality rate of 1.7 per 100,000 people.

The prevalence is increasing in both developed and developing countries.

Evidence is now emerging that women and men experience risk factors, such as diabetes and smoking, differently for cardiovascular disease (CVD).

This could have significant implications for estimating the AF burden, targeting treatment to manage it and for future research into gender differences.

An international team of researchers set out to estimate the association between AF and CVD and death in women and men and to compare the genders.

In a meta-analysis of 30 studies published between January 1966 and March 2015, they analyzed data for over 4 million participants.

12% higher risk of mortality for women with AF
All the studies had a minimum of 50 participants with AF and 50 without, which reported sex-specific associations between AF and all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, stroke, cardiac events – including cardiac death and non-fatal myocardial infarction – and heart failure.

They took into consideration the differences in study design and quality in order to minimize bias.

AF was linked to a 12% higher relative risk of all-cause mortality in women and a much stronger risk of stroke, cardiovascular mortality, cardiac events and heart failure. The reason for the gender differences is not known.

With respect to clinical care, the results support the development of a specific risk score for AF in women and more aggressive treatment of risk factors in women, as recently recommended by the American Heart Association (AHA).

In relation to public health policy, the researchers say estimation of the global and regional burden of AF should be independent of sex, while “allocation of public health resources for prevention and treatment of AF should also consider the differential effects of AF by sex.”

Finally, they say future research should aim to determine the underlying causes of the observed sex differences.

Source: BBC news

Families happier with less aggressive end-of-life cancer care

Families may be more satisfied with end-of-life care for loved ones dying of cancer when treatment is focused on comfort rather than aggressive treatment and provided outside of a hospital, a U.S. study suggests.

When patients received at least three days of hospice care focused on comfort and quality of life, 59 percent of their loved ones thought their treatment was excellent, compared with just 43 percent when patients received little or no hospice care, the study found.

At the same time, family members of cancer patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) in the last month of life reported excellent care just 45 percent of the time, compared with 52 percent when patients didn’t receive this type of aggressive treatment.

“Interventions should focus more on increasing early hospice enrollment and decreasing ICU admissions and hospital deaths,” said lead study author Dr. Alexi Wright of Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

“The best way to do this is to encourage patients, physicians and family members to talk about their end-of-life wishes,” Wright added by email.

Many patients with advanced cancer receive aggressive medical care during their dying days even though growing evidence suggests that high-intensity treatments may not be associated with better quality of life or outcomes for patients, or an easier bereavement for the loved ones they leave behind, Wright and colleagues report in JAMA.

For the current study, researchers interviewed family members and close friends of 1,146 patients aged 65 and older who died of lung or colorectal cancers.

In most patients, the cancer had spread beyond the original location to other tissue and organs.

Overall, 51 percent of relatives and friends rated their loved ones’ end-of-life care as excellent, and another 29 percent said the quality of care was very good.

When patients had received at least three days of hospice care, most family members – 73 percent – said their loved ones had died where they wanted to. But when patients got little or no hospice care, only 40 percent of participants said the death happened in the location of the patient’s choice.

When patients died in the hospital, just 42 percent of their loved ones reported excellent care, compared with 57 percent when patients didn’t die in a hospital.

It’s possible that hospitalized patients didn’t get good pain or symptom management or emotional and spiritual support, said Dr. David Casarett, director of palliative care for Penn Medicine in Philadelphia.

“Hospice is very good at providing that sort of support and is designed to help people remain in their homes,” Casarett, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

It’s also possible that families with loved ones in the ICU didn’t have a chance to come to terms with the patient’s death, and were more surprised by the course that events took, Casarett added.

The findings underscore the importance of having family discussions about wishes for end-of-life care and communicating clearly with healthcare providers about these preferences, Casarett said.

If hospice is preferable to more aggressive treatment, it’s crucial to communicate that as early as possible.
Source: fox news

High fish consumption in pregnancy tied to brain benefits for kids

When mothers eat three sizeable servings of fish each week during pregnancy it may benefit children’s brains for years to come, according to a large study in Spain.

Researchers followed nearly 2,000 mother-child pairs from the first trimester of pregnancy through the child’s fifth birthday and found improved brain function in the kids whose mothers ate the most fish while pregnant, compared to children of mothers who ate the least.

Even when women averaged 600 grams, or 21 ounces, of fish weekly during pregnancy, there was no sign that mercury or other pollutants associated with fish were having a negative effect that offset the apparent benefits.

“Seafood is known to be an important source of essential nutrients for brain development, but at the same time accumulates mercury from the environment, which is known to be neurotoxic,” lead author Jordi Julvez, of the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona, said in an email.

In an attempt to balance the potential harms of such pollutants with the general health benefits of fish, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2014 guidelines encourage pregnant women to eat fish, but no more than 12 ounces per week.

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The European Food Safety Authority recently issued a scientific opinion endorsing 150 g to 600 g of fish weekly during pregnancy, Julvez and colleagues note in the American Journal of Epidemiology. But, the study team writes, the effects of maternal fish consumption during development are still not well understood and more research could help give pregnant women clearer guidance.

The researchers analyzed data from the Spanish Childhood and Environment Project, a large population study that recruited women in their first trimester of pregnancy, in four provinces of Spain, between 2004 and 2008.

Source: foxnews

Broken sleep raises risk of stroke

As people age, they experience new sleep patterns. Insomnia creeps in and falling asleep takes longer. Sleep fragmentation, when sleep is interrupted by repeated awakenings or arousals, can also be a problem.

Changes that occur in circadian rhythms, the body clock that coordinates timing of bodily functions, including sleep, can cause older people to become sleepier in the early evening and to wake earlier in the morning.

Sleep problems can stem from an underlying medical or psychiatric condition, but they are also a risk factor for further health issues, including cardiovascular disease.

Poor sleep quality has been linked with more severe arteriolosclerosis in older people’s brains and of higher levels of oxygen-starved brain tissue, or infarcts. These factors increase the risk of stroke and cognitive impairment.

In the current study, researchers wanted to see if there was an association between sleep fragmentation and detailed microscopic measures of blood vessel damage and infarcts in autopsied brain tissue from the same individuals.

Reduced supply of oxygen to the brain
The team, led by Dr. Andrew Lim, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Toronto, Canada, examined autopsied brains of 315 people, of whom 70% were women; the average age was 90 years.

Participants had undergone at least 1 full week of around-the-clock monitoring for rest or activity, from which sleep quality and circadian rhythms were quantified. Sleep fragmentation caused sleep to be disrupted on average almost seven times each hour.

In all, 29% of the patients had suffered a stroke, while 61% had signs of moderate to severe damage to their blood vessels in the brain.

Greater sleep fragmentation was associated with a 27% higher chance of having severe arteriolosclerosis. For every additional two arousals per hour of sleep, there was a 30% higher chance of having visible signs of oxygen deprivation in the brain.

Other cardiovascular risk factors, such as body mass index (BMI), smoking history, diabetes, hypertension and other medical conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, pain, depression or heart failure were all adjusted for.

Source: Medical News Today

Easy Way to Prevent Arthritis Pain During Winter Season

My arthritis becomes worse during winter. What can I do for it? What is difference between rheumatic and arthritis pain, and treating arthritis pain? Arthritis is a sensation of discomfort joint and sometimes very painful.

Arthritis can be classified as auto immune arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis as inflammatory and osteoarthritis or degenerative. Many people are suffer from degenerative arthritis, a condition that stem from tear and wear in the cartilage.

Both type of arthritis are responding to anti inflammatory medication and few anti inflammatory supplement foods can help it. On the diet program, it was highly saturated with fat and high sugar content includes high fructose corn syrup that lead to inflammation. It is important to avoid high fat as well as fried foods, saturated red meat and sugary foods.

In order to decrease inflammation, it is recommended to eat food with high nutrient as well as veggies whole grain, leaf green veggie, high fiber foods, pear, whole wheat spaghetti and raspberry. There are large numbers of supplement that can reduce inflammation. Some research shown that turmeric, hops, ginger, ground flax, and fish oil can reduce joint pain.

Some people added chondroitin and glucosamine supplement to find good result at the clinic. Last, modify lifestyle can relieve joint pain because the body can get more healing times. Give more adequate sleep and pay attention to balance and decompress stress to reduce inflammation and enhance body capacity to heal by bound and leaps.

Source: Secretlyhealthy