Low-dose aspirin may reduce pancreatic cancer risk

Low-dose aspirin may reduce pancreatic cancer risk

The heart healthy benefits of low-dose aspirin are widely known, but that’s not all this humble little pill could do to save your life. A growing body of research indicates aspirin may also help lower the risk of one of the deadliest forms of cancer.

A new study published Thursday by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health finds aspirin taken daily in small doses could lower incidences of pancreatic cancer by as much as 48 percent.

Pancreatic cancer kills close to 40,000 Americans each year and has a 5-year survival rate of only 5 percent.

“The thought that there’s something that could lower the risk of someone getting pancreatic cancer is remarkable and exciting to me as a physician who has patients who have gotten — and died from — pancreatic cancer,” said. “There’s very little we can do for most people that get pancreatic cancer.”

For the study, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, researchers recorded information on aspirin use and medical histories of 362 pancreatic cancer patients and 690 patients who did not have the disease, between 2005 and 2009.

The researchers found that patients who took low-dose aspirin (75 to 325 milligrams) for six years or less had a 39 percent reduced risk for pancreatic cancer, while people who took it for more than 10 years reduced the risk for the disease by 60 percent.

The authors suggested that people with a strong family history of pancreatic cancer or other risk factors for the disease may want to consider a daily aspirin regimen to reduce their risk.

This new paper is one of several indicating that aspirin may safeguard patients from cancer. Other studies have shown aspirin can lower risk for ovarian, colorectal, stomach, esophageal, prostate, breast, lung and skin cancer.

So how exactly could this little over-the-counter painkiller be such an effective cancer-buster?

“Aspirin interrupts the inflammatory pathway in the body,” explained LaPook. “It turns out those same pathways look like they’re part of the pathways that can lead to cancer. If you interrupt those pathways, theoretically that might be the reason why you lower the risk for cancer. We don’t know that for sure, but that’s one thought.”

This promising research could also offer a new route for cancer treatments. “There’s also a suggestion that not only is there a role for aspirin in preventing cancer but possibly in treating a cancer like colorectal cancer,” he said.

However, taking aspirin long-term poses a number of serious health risks. “Aspirin can cause gastrointestinal ulceration and bleeding, it can cause bleeding in the brain. These are potentially very serious complications,” said LaPook. “So yet again we say you have to talk to your doctor, you have to weigh the benefits. This is personalized medicine.”

Source: cbs news

Mediterranean diet may control weight among kids

Mediterranean diet may control weight among kids

Children taking a Mediterranean diet are at least 15 percent less likely to be overweight or obese than those children who do not, claims a new study.

Weight, height, waist circumference and percent body fat mass were measured in children from eight countries – Sweden, Germany, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Belgium, Estonia and Hungary.

“The adherence to a Mediterranean-like diet was assessed by a score calculating by giving one point for high intakes of each food group which was considered typical of the Mediterranean diet such as vegetables, fruit and nuts, fish and cereal grains,” explained study author Gianluca Tognon from University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

“One point was given for low intakes of foods untypical of the Mediterranean diet such as dairy and meat products,” he said. High scoring children were then considered high-adherent and compared to the others.

The team found that children with a high adherence to a Mediterranean-like diet were 15 percent less likely to be overweight or obese than low-adherent children.

The findings were independent of age, sex, socio-economic status or country of residence. “The promotion of a Mediterranean dietary pattern is no longer a feature of Mediterranean countries.

“Considering its potential beneficial effects on obesity prevention, this dietary pattern should be part of EU obesity prevention strategies,” said Tognon.

Source: Times of India

Gum disease treatment linked to improvements in other conditions

Gum disease treatment linked to improvements in other conditions

People who were treated for periodontal disease had lower healthcare costs and fewer hospitalizations for other medical conditions compared to those whose gum disease went untreated, a new study has found.

“We were very surprised at the magnitude of the results,” Dr. Marjorie Jeffcoat told Reuters Health. She led the study at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in Philadelphia.

Periodontal disease is a chronic inflammatory condition caused by bacteria that coat the surface of the roots of the teeth. If not treated, it can lead to bone loss around the teeth, infection and tooth loss.

Treatment consists of cleaning the teeth above and below the gum line. In advanced cases, surgery is required.

Jeffcoat said a number of previous small studies hinted that treating periodontal disease may help improve other medical conditions as well and reduce the risk of premature birth among pregnant women.

To learn more, she and her colleagues analyzed claims from two Pennsylvania insurance companies to determine if costs were lower over time for patients who had their gum disease treated.

“We wanted to see if it pays from a financial point of view, to treat the disease,” Jeffcoat said.

For their records to be included in the study, patients had to have been enrolled in both the dental and medical plans for at least one year and have been seen at least once for periodontal disease. They also had to have a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, stroke or rheumatoid arthritis, or have been pregnant.

Treated patients were counted as those who had several follow-up appointments for gum disease coded in their records.

Records for 338,891 patients were included.

The study team found significant reductions in both healthcare costs and hospital stays over a period of five years among treated patients with each of the conditions except rheumatoid arthritis.

On average, non-dental healthcare costs for people with diabetes or stroke were about 40 percent lower if their gum disease was treated. For those with coronary artery disease, costs were about 11 percent lower with treatment.

Women who were pregnant and treated for gum disease had medical costs that were 74 percent lower than those with untreated gum disease, according to findings published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

When gum disease was treated, hospital admissions were also 39 percent lower among people with diabetes, 21 percent lower for stroke patients and 29 percent lower for those with coronary artery disease.

Ryan Demmer, who has studied periodontal disease at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York, said it’s plausible that microbes in the mouth can cause problems elsewhere in the body, but more research is needed because studies have shown mixed results.

Demmer, who was not involved with the new study, said it was a creative and innovative way to address the question using existing data from insurance records.

“But what they’re really getting at here is did treating the oral infections reduce these types of outcomes or adverse events among people with particular (other diseases),” he said, “and I think we need more data from clinical trials that can fundamentally answer that question.”

The authors agree that their study doesn’t prove treating gum disease improved other conditions. For instance, it’s possible that people who elected to have their gum disease treated also took better care of themselves in general.

But Jeffcoat believes the findings are strong enough to recommend that doctors have their patients checked for periodontal disease.

“Absolutely people should be checked – that’s why we published this paper in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine,” she said. “We didn’t publish in a dental journal because we wanted physicians to see it so they could give good advice to their patients.”

Screening for periodontal disease is an easy procedure, Jeffcoat added.

“Checking someone for periodontal disease can take as little as three to five minutes,” she said.

Source: reuters

Having twins? 11 tips for a healthy pregnancy

Having twins 11 tips for a healthy pregnancy

If you are expecting twins and don’t know what to expect, you are not alone. Many women pregnant with twins have no idea what to expect, but that doesn’t mean they — and you — can’t learn. So here is some information to help you understand what’s happening when you’re expecting twins.

A twin pregnancy is a double blessing, but it can also carry greater risks than singleton pregnancies.

In the U.S, about three in every 100 pregnant women give birth to twins or triplets, according to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. And by many accounts, twin pregnancies are on the rise.

Be prepared. Familiarize yourself with the top 11 things you didn’t know about your twin pregnancy from conception through delivery.

No. 1: You are more likely to become pregnant with twins naturally when you are in your 30s and 40s.

We all hear that the older we get, the harder it is to conceive, but advancing age may actually increase the likelihood of a twin pregnancy, says Abdulla Al-Khan, MD, the director and chief of maternal and fetal medicine and surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. “Once you are 25 or into your 30s and 40s, ovulatory cycles are not regular anymore. If you are not regular and do ovulate, you could be ovulating two follicles at the same time.” Voila! A twin pregnancy — without assisted reproductive technologies.

No. 2: If you have two buns in the oven, you may need extra folic acid.

Women pregnant with twins may need more folic acid to help stave off birth defects, says Manju Monga, MD, the Berel Held Professor and the division director of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston.

“We recommend 1 milligram of folic acid per day for twin pregnancies and 0.4 milligrams for singleton pregnancies,” says Monga, who has twins. Folic acid is known to reduce risk of neural tube birth defects such as spina bifida.

No.3: Women pregnant with twins clock in more time at the obstetrician.

Twin pregnancies require more monitoring than single pregnancies, Monga says. “We tend to do more frequent ultrasounds for growth in twin pregnancies, compared with one anatomy scan and one growth scan in a singleton pregnancy.”

But along with additional testing comes risk. For example, the chance of miscarriage after amniocentesis is higher in twin pregnancies, Al-Khan says. “You are sticking the mother twice, so if the risk of miscarriage is one of 1,000 in singleton pregnancies, it would increase it to one in 500 for twins.”

No. 4: Morning sickness may be worse with twin pregnancies.

“One of the things that is postulated as causing morning sickness is high levels of human chorionic gonadotropin, and we know that levels of this hormone are higher in twin pregnancies, so women carrying twins have a higher incidence of nausea and vomiting in the first trimester,” says Al-Khan. The good news? Most morning sickness abates within 12 to 14 weeks of pregnancy — even in twin pregnancies.

That’s not all, Monga says. Moms pregnant with twins complain of more back pain, sleeping difficulties, and heartburn than moms who are carrying one child. Moms pregnant with twins also have a higher rate of maternal anemia and a higher rate of postpartum hemorrhage (bleeding) after delivery.
No. 5: Spotting may be more common during twin pregnancies.

“When you spot in the first trimester, you could be undergoing a miscarriage, and miscarriages are more common in mothers of twins, triplets, and quadruplets — so we see more spotting in first trimester with multiples,” Al-Khan says.

But a little spotting is no reason to hit the panic button even in twin pregnancies. “A little spotting in the absence of cramps is reassuring, but when you are cramping, passing clots, and actively bleeding, that is a sign that’s something is happening and you should seek medical advice.”

No. 6: You don’t feel the babies kicking any earlier with twin pregnancies.

“Generally when you are pregnant with twins, fetal movements become more noticeable at weeks 18 through 20 of pregnancy, and the same is true in singleton pregnancies,” Al-Khan says. When a woman begins to feel fetal movements actually depends on whether she has been pregnant before. “If you have been pregnant before, you know what fetal movement is, but if you are pregnant for the first time, you really can’t distinguish the movement from gastrointestinal activity.”

No. 7: Moms pregnant with twins may gain more weight than moms carrying one child.

“With twins, mothers gain more weight as there are two babies, two placentas, and more amniotic fluid,” says Al-Khan. “You also need more calories for twin pregnancies.”

Still, there is not a well-established formula for weight gain during twin pregnancies, says Monga. “The average weight gain is 25 pounds for singleton pregnancy and 30-35 pounds for twins. We don’t want moms pregnant with twins to gain more than 40 [pounds] or less than 15 pounds.”
The Institute of Medicine’s provisional guidelines for weight gain in women expecting twins say:

Women of normal weight should aim to gain 37-54 pounds
Overweight women should aim to gain 31-50 pounds
Obese women should aim to gain 25-42 pounds
Exactly how much weight should you gain? The IOM recommends that you talk to your health care provider about that, because every pregnancy is unique.

No. 8: Risk of developing gestational diabetes is higher in twin pregnancies.

“The gestational diabetes risk is higher in twin pregnancy,” says Monga. That said, the biggest risk of gestational diabetes is having larger babies and requiring a C-section delivery, she says.

“While gestational diabetes is more common, the morbidity associated with it is less common because twin babies are not big babies.”

Still, moms who develop gestational diabetes during pregnancy are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes later in life, she says.

No. 9: Risk of preeclampsia during pregnancy is higher in twin pregnancies.

“People really don’t know what causes preeclampsia to start, but we know it occurs more frequently in twin pregnancies,” Monga says. Preeclampsia is marked by high blood pressure, protein in the urine, and sometimes swelling in the feet, legs, and hands. It is the precursor to the more serious, potentially fatal eclampsia.

No. 10: Labor (and delivery) may come early with twin pregnancies.

Most moms carrying twins go into labor at 36 to 37 weeks, as opposed to 40 in a single pregnancy, Al-Khan says, and some may go even earlier. “Generally, if the twins are born after 34 weeks, there should not be a major concern, but a premature baby is still a premature baby,” he says. “Twins are at higher risk of preterm labor and delivery and have higher degree of respiratory issues.” As a result of being born too early, twins may be born at low birth weights, and such babies tend to have more health problems than babies born weighing more than 5.5 pounds.

Unfortunately, there is no evidence that bed rest alone prevents preterm labor or delivery in twin pregnancies, and the use of agents to stop preterm labor have not been proven to be effective either, he says. “Stopping premature labor is challenging in multiple gestations.”

No. 11: Cesarean section deliveries may be more common in twin pregnancies.

“The likelihood of having a C-section is absolutely higher in twin pregnancies,” he says. “There is also a higher incidence of the baby being in breech position among twins than singletons.” When the baby is in a breech position, a C-section delivery is usually required.
Source: webmd

Decline of hearing ability: Indian, US experts find gene role

Listening

In a path-breaking research which may have implications for those suffering from a decline of their cognitive and hearing abilities, Indian and American experts have established the role of a specific gene in triggering such conditions.

Experts of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and University of Louisville School of Medicine stated that the MMP-9 gene plays a major role in causing decline of cognitive and hearing functions and removal of the said gene decreases
Hyperhomocysteinemia-induced cognitive and hearing dysfunctions.

Hyperhomocysteinaemia (HHcy) is a medical condition arising due to an abnormally high level of homocysteine in the blood, experts said.

“There is a role of MMP-9 in decline of cognitive and hearing functions. The ablation of MMP-9 decreases Hyperhomocysteinemia-induced cognition and hearing

dysfunction. This research was carried out on mice but has large implication for humans,” said Dr Seema Bhargava, lead author of the research and Senior Consultant, Department of Biochemistry, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

MMP-9 gene is a matrix metallopeptidase which helps in wound healing, cell migration, learning, memory and various other functions.

Currently, 45 per cent of adults in India between 45-92 years of age suffer from hearing impairment. Deficiency of Vitamin B-12 and folate (another form of vitamin) and high homocysteine levels have also been associated with impaired
hearing in women.

“It is important to identify individuals at risk for HHcy (e.g. elderly people)… To reduce homocysteine levels, adequate vitamin supplements should be given. However, if HHcy is already present, vitamins will take several months to reduce the concentration of homocysteine.

“Our study has advocated the role of MMP-9 inhibitors by pharmaceutical companies as a therapeutic option,” Bhargava said.
The research was published in the May edition of Journal of Molecular Biology Reports.

Source: Zee news

Brain signal that may help in drug de-addiction

braintorm

Researchers have discovered a new form of neurotransmission that influences long-lasting memory created by addictive drugs like cocaine and opioids and the craving for them.

Loss of this type of neurotransmission creates changes in brain cells that resemble the changes caused by drug addiction.

The findings suggest that targeting this type of neurotransmission might lead to new therapies for treating drug addiction.

“Molecular therapies for drug addiction are pretty much non-existent,” said Collin Kreple from the University of Iowa in the US.

“I think this finding at least provides the possibility of a new molecular target,” Kreple added.

This neurotransmission involves proteins called acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs), which have previously been shown to promote learning and memory, and which are abundant in a part of the brain involved in drug addiction.
The experiments showed that loss of ASIC signalling increases learned drug-seeking in mice.

When mice learned to associate one side of a chamber with receiving cocaine, animals that lacked the ASIC protein developed an even stronger preference for the “cocaine side” than control mice, suggesting that loss of ASIC had increased addiction behaviour.

The same result was seen for morphine, which has a different mechanism of action than cocaine.

In a second experiment, rats learned to press a lever to self-administer cocaine. Blocking or removing ASIC in the rat brains caused the animals to self-administer more cocaine than control animals.

Conversely, increasing the amount of ASIC by over-expressing the protein seemed to decrease the animals’ craving for cocaine.

The study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Source: yahoo news

Spine function test for back pain treatment

Spine function test for back pain treatment

With most people suffering from back pain at some point of time in their lives, researchers have now developed a digital test to measure the functioning of the spine.

With a digital spine analysis (DSA), a muscular evaluation of the spine, India’s Qi Spine Clinic generated a spine function graph that led to customised treatment and non-surgical therapy for many spine specialists, Qi claimed.

“It is really simple. The diabetes doctor wants to know your blood sugar levels. The cardiologist wants to know your blood pressure (BP) and your angiogram,” said Nithij Arenja, promoter, Qi Spine Clinic.

“What can be measured, can be managed. We generate a Spine Function Graph which provides a vital link to the treatment of your spine function,” Nithij added.

The spine is the least measured and most miraculous engineering marvel in our body, Nithij noted.

“From bankers to housewives, young college students to sportsmen, Qi has seen every conceivable patient category,” said Garima Anandani, head of spine consultants at Qi.

“The problems are all different, and hence the therapy is different for each person too,” Anandani added.

Traditional scanning methods such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and X-rays fail to identify a clear cause for back pain in 85 percent of the cases, a statement from the clinic added.

Source: Business standard

3D brain view may help treat Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s

3D brain view may help treat Alzheimer's Parkinson's

In a breakthrough that may help in developing drugs for Alzheimer’s and other neurological disorders, researchers have developed a 3D view of an important receptor in the brain.

This receptor allows us to learn and remember, and its dysfunction can result in a wide range of neurological diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia and depression.

The unprecedented view gives scientists new insight into how the receptor – called the NMDA receptor – is structured.

And importantly, the new detailed view gives vital clues for developing drugs to combat neurological diseases and conditions.

“This is the most exciting moment of my career,” said Eric Gouaux, a senior scientist with Oregon Health and Science University in the US.

“The NMDA receptor is one of the most essential, and still sometimes mysterious, receptors in our brain. Now, with this work, we can see it in fascinating detail,” he said.

Receptors facilitate chemical and electrical signals between neurons in the brain allowing them to communicate with each other.

The NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor facilitates neuron communication that is the foundation of memory, learning and thought.

Malfunction of the NMDA receptor occurs when it is increasingly or decreasingly active.

The NMDA receptor makeup includes receptor “subunits” – all of which have distinct properties and act in distinct ways in the brain, sometimes causing neurological problems.

Prior to Gouaux’s study, scientists had only a limited view of how those subtypes were arranged in the NMDA receptor complex and how they interacted to carry out specific functions within the brain and the central nervous system.

Gouaux’s team of scientists created a 3D model of the NMDA receptor through a process called X-ray crystallography.

“This new detailed view will be invaluable as we try to develop drugs that might work on specific subunits and therefore help fight or cure some of these neurological diseases and conditions,” Gouaux said.

“Seeing the structure in more detail can unlock some of its secrets and may help a lot of people,” he added.

The findings were published online in the journal Nature.

Source: Hindustan Times

Indo-Canadian duo develops device to detect drug usage

Indo-Canadian duo develops device to detect drug usage

Two Canadians of Indian origin have developed a device that detects marijuana in a person’s breath. Police say it helps to find if a driver is high on the contraband drug.

Vancouver-based Kal Malhi, a former officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the federal police force, has joined hands with Indo-Canadian radiologist Raj Attariwala to develop the device called “breathalyzer” for the police.

A report in the Globe and Mail said Malhi, who worked in the drug investigation branch of the RCMP for four years, believes police badly need a tool that makes it easier to tell if a driver is high.

The breathalyzer is a hand held device that provides accurate reading of marijuana in a person’s breath, says the report. They have applied for the patents of the device and it may take an year before they get it.

“I think it’s more necessary across North America now than it was before, because we’re going through a system when it comes to marijuana, where marijuana is being made readily available across our societies,” Malhi was quoted as saying by the paper.

Colorado and Washington states of teh US have legalised marijuana. So, also the Canadian department of health has allowed medical use of marijuana.

A family doctor can, under certain circumstances, prescribe a dose of up to five grams of marijuana a day (safe dose is 400 mg of Cannabis that contains less than nine percent THC) and should be bought from licensed growers.

After leaving the federal police force in 2011, Malhi reportedly decided to develop the Cannabis Breathalyzer. This test has a major advantage – it can show if a person has smoked marijuana in the past two hours.

According to the report in the Canadian daily, “In saliva and urine tests, marijuana can be detected if it’s been smoked at any point within 72 hours, long after the high has passed.”

“Trying to prove a driver is still high when they’ve gotten behind the wheel,” Malhi said, “can be frustrating for police.”

“It’s largely based on observations you make of the person. And the observations aren’t so obvious for drugged drivers as they are for drunk drivers,” explains Malhi.

Source: healcon

4 Unexpected Benefits of Donating Blood

Benefits of Donating Blood

When’s the last time you stopped to appreciate all the good stuff your blood does for you? Without it, oxygen would never reach your cells and carbon dioxide would be filling your blood vessels as we speak.

Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs blood and more than 41,000 blood donations are needed every day, according to the American Red Cross. So while you may never worry about having enough blood to function, plenty of others aren’t as fortunate. World Blood Donor Day may have passed on June 14, but there’s still more reason than ever to get out and donate.

While giving blood should be all about helping those in need, there are a few things in it for you. Here are four health perks to becoming a blood donor:

Your blood may flow better

“If blood has a high viscosity, or resistance to flow, it will flow like molasses,” says Phillip DeChristopher, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Loyola University Health System blood bank. Repeated blood donations may help the blood flow in a way that’s less damaging to the lining of the blood vessels and could result in fewer arterial blockages. That may explain why the American Journal of Epidemiology found that blood donors are 88% less likely to suffer a heart attack.

It’s not clear if there are lasting health benefits associated with better blood flow. (These kinds of studies can’t prove cause and effect—for example, blood donors might lead healthier lifestyles than the general population.)?“What is clear is that blood donors seem to not be hospitalized so often and if they are, they have shorter lengths of stay,” Dr. DeChristopher says. “And they’re less likely to get heart attacks, strokes, and cancers.”

You’ll get a mini check-up

Before you give blood, you’ll first have to complete a quick physical that measures your temperature, pulse, blood pressure, and hemoglobin levels. After your blood is collected, it’s sent off to a lab where it will undergo 13 different tests for infectious diseases, like HIV and West Nile virus. If anything comes back positive, you’ll be notified immediately.

“If year after year your tests come back negative, then you’ll know for sure there’s nothing you’ve been exposed to,” Dr. DeChristopher says. The physical and blood tests are no reason to skip your annual doctor visit, but they’re good for peace of mind. But you should never donate blood if you suspect you might actually be sick or have been exposed to HIV or another virus.

Your iron levels will stay balanced

Healthy adults usually have about 5 grams of iron in their bodies, mostly in red blood cells but also in bone marrow. When you donate a unit of blood, you lose about a quarter of a gram of iron, which gets replenished from the food you eat in the weeks after donation, Dr. DeChristopher says. This regulation of iron levels is a good thing, because having too much iron could be bad news for your blood vessels.

“The statistics appear to show that decreasing the amount of iron in otherwise healthy people over the long run is beneficial to their blood vessels, and diseases related to abnormalities in blood vessels, such as heart attack and stroke,” he says.

Still, data from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that nearly 10% of women in the U.S. suffer from anemia, a condition where your body lacks red blood cells or hemoglobin (most commonly due to an iron deficiency). In that case, it’s best not to give blood until the anemia is resolved, he says.

Women who haven’t hit menopause yet may find it hard to donate blood, too. “Pre-menopausal females can be somewhat iron depleted with blood counts just under the lower limit,” Dr. DeChristopher says. If you have low iron and you still want to be a donor, taking an oral iron supplement may help you re-qualify, he says.

You could live longer

Doing good for others is one way to live a longer life. A study in Health Psychology found that people who volunteered for altruistic reasons had a significantly reduced risk of mortality four years later than those who volunteered for themselves alone. While the health benefits of donating blood are nice, don’t forget who you’re really helping: A single donation can save the lives of up to three people, according to the Red Cross. “The need for blood is always there,” Dr. DeChristopher says. “It’s important to recognize how important willing donors are.”

Source: TIME