Alternative Medicine Use For Pain Increases With Age And Wealth
April 29, 2010
In a University of Michigan Health System study, 1 out of 3 patients with chronic pain reported using complementary and alternative medicine therapies such as acupuncture and chiropractic visits for pain relief.
Socioeconomic factors – primarily race and age – played a large role in the use of alternative therapy in chronic pain patients, the study showed. Whites used alternative modalities more frequently than blacks and elderly adults had a higher frequency of using alternative therapies than younger adults.
According to the lead author, Carmen R. Green, M.D., U-M professor of anesthesiology and obstetrics and gynecology and associate professor of health management and policy, this pattern may be due to alternative medicine therapies usually attracting individuals with higher education levels and income, or the pattern could be a result of differences in insurance coverage.
Also, as people age, there is a greater chance that they will deal with chronic pain, therefore as age increases, so does the likelihood that people will seek alternative therapies to deal with the pain.
Natural Compounds, Chemotherapeutic Drugs May Become Partners in Cancer Therapy
April 28, 2010
Research in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University suggests that some natural food compounds, which previously have been studied for their ability to prevent cancer, may be able to play a more significant role in treating it – working side-by-side with the conventional drugs that are now used in chemotherapy.
A new study just published in the International Journal of Cancer examined the activity of chlorophyllin and found that, on a dose-by-dose basis, it was 10 times more potent at causing death of colon cancer cells than hydroxyurea, a chemotherapeutic drug commonly used in cancer treatment.
Beyond that, chlorophyllin kills cancer cells by blocking the same phase of cellular division that hydroxyurea does, but by a different mechanism. This suggests that it – and possibly other “cocktails” of natural products – might be developed to have a synergistic effect with conventional cancer drugs, helping them to work better or require less toxic dosages, researchers said.
“We conclude that chlorophyllin has the potential to be effective in the clinical setting, when used alone or in combination with currently available cancer therapeutic agents,” the researchers wrote in their study.
Zinc Defiencies A Global Concern
April 28, 2010
Other vitamins and nutrients may get more headlines, but experts say as many as two billion people around the world have diets deficient in zinc – and studies at Oregon State University and elsewhere are raising concerns about the health implications this holds for infectious disease, immune function, DNA damage and cancer.
One new study has found DNA damage in humans caused by only minor zinc deficiency.
Zinc deficiency is quite common in the developing world. Even in the United States, about 12 percent of the population is probably at risk for zinc deficiency, and perhaps as many as 40 percent of the elderly, due to inadequate dietary intake and less absorption of this essential nutrient, experts say. Many or most people have never been tested for zinc status, but existing tests are so poor it might not make much difference if they had been.
“Zinc deficiencies have been somewhat under the radar because we just don’t know that much about mechanisms that control its absorption, role, or even how to test for it in people with any accuracy,” said Emily Ho, an associate professor with the Linus Pauling Institute at OSU, and international expert on the role of dietary zinc.
Low Vitamin D Levels Are Related to MS Brain Atrophy, Cognitive Function
April 28, 2010
Low vitamin D levels may be associated with more advanced physical disability and cognitive impairment in persons with multiple sclerosis, studies conducted by neurologists at the University at Buffalo have shown.
Their results, reported at the American Academy of Neurology meeting, held earlier this month, indicated that:
- The majority of MS patients and healthy controls had insufficient vitamin D levels.
- Clinical evaluation and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images show low blood levels of total vitamin D and certain active vitamin D byproducts are associated with increased disability, brain atrophy and brain lesion load in MS patients.
- A potential association exists between cognitive impairment in MS patients and low vitamin D levels.
Scientists Learn To Block Pain At Its Source
April 27, 2010
A substance similar to capsaicin, which gives chili peppers their heat, is generated at the site of pain in the human body. Scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio have discovered how to block these capsaicin-like molecules and created a new class of non-addictive painkillers.
The findings were published April 26 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
The senior investigator was Kenneth Hargreaves, D.D.S., Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Endodontics in the Dental School at the UT Health Science Center. Amol M. Patwardhan, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., a graduate of the Health Science Center’s Department of Pharmacology who worked under Dr. Hargreaves’ supervision, is the lead author.
“Nearly everyone will experience persistent pain at some point in their lifetime,” Dr. Hargreaves said. “Our findings are truly exciting because they will offer physicians, dentists and patients more options in prescription pain medications. In addition, they may help circumvent the problem of addiction and dependency to pain medications, and will have the potential to benefit millions of people who suffer from chronic pain every day.”
For $520 Million, AstraZeneca Settles Case Over Marketing of a Drug
April 27, 2010
AstraZeneca has completed a deal to pay $520 million to settle federal investigations into marketing practices for its blockbuster schizophrenia drug, Seroquel, the Attorney General, Eric Holder, said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
“AstraZeneca paid kickbacks to doctors as part of an illegal scheme to market drugs for unapproved uses,” Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services, said at the event in Washington. She said the company promoted drugs for unapproved uses by children, the elderly, veterans and prisoners.
Glenn Engelmann, AstraZeneca’s U.S. general counsel, released a statement saying the company denies the allegations but settled the investigation with the payment.
“It is in the best interest of AstraZeneca to resolve these matters and to move forward with our business of discovering and developing important, life-changing medicines — while avoiding the delay, uncertainty, and expense of protracted litigation,” Mr. Engelmann said.
AstraZeneca becomes the fourth pharmaceutical giant in the last three years to pay to settle federal investigations into illegal marketing of antipsychotic drugs, a lucrative category of medications that have quickly risen to the top of United States sales charts.
Cancer Patients’ Dilemma: Expensive Pills Vs. Invasive Chemo Treatment
April 27, 2010
Gaps in insurance policies make oral drugs too pricey for some patients, including Jere Carpentier. She was treated last year for advanced colon cancer. (Christina Koch Nernandez for KHN)
When Jere Carpentier learned last year that she had advanced colon cancer — her third malignancy in a dozen years — she worried about spending hours in a clinic tethered to an intravenous line, enduring punishing chemotherapy that would make her hair fall out. Her veins ruined by earlier treatments, Carpentier was elated when her oncologist said this time she could avoid needles and take a pill at home that would specifically target the cancer cells and spare her hair.
“I let that be the thing that made this okay,” she recalled.
But the former human resources manager, who lives in San Jose, soon discovered that her insurer would not pay for the pill called Xeloda, which cost $4,000 per month, because a cheaper IV drug was available. So instead, she underwent surgery to implant a port in her chest through which she received 46-hour-long chemotherapy infusions, mostly at home. One night the device, which included a large needle that constrained her every move, sprang a leak and began emitting a shrill alarm, requiring a race to the emergency room. “It was the scariest thing that happened to me,” Carpentier, now 60, recalled, “and I’d been through two cancers.”
Scary and also unnecessary, in Carpentier’s view. “Surgery for the port and the ER visit alone cost more than it would have for them to cover the damn pill,” she said.
Investigational Drug for Advanced Prostate Cancer Shows Promise
April 25, 2010
An investigational drug that’s shown promise in men with advanced prostate cancer will now move one step further in clinical development. In Phase II clinical trials, MDV3100 has been shown to effectively lower prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels — a marker for tumor growth — in men with advanced prostate cancer who have no other treatment options. The investigational drug also has been shown to shrink prostate cancer lesions identified on imaging studies in some patients. Now, MDV3100 is moving forward to a Phase III clinical trial that will determine whether the drug extends the lives of men with advanced metastatic prostate cancer.
The Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute is one of just three original centers worldwide to enroll participants in all phases of MDV3100 clinical trials. Two additional centers joined the study as it progressed. Recent findings from the phase I and II trials on MDV3100 are published in this week’s edition of The Lancet.
“This clinical trial is yet another example of how the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute is consistently able to bring the most exciting and promising new drugs and treatment options to Oregonians,” said Tomasz Beer, M.D., OHSU principal investigator, director of the Prostate Cancer Research Program, and deputy director of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. “We saw the majority of men respond favorably to treatment, including men whose cancers were resistant to both hormonal therapy and chemotherapy and who have no good treatment options today.”
Comprehensive Alzheimer’s Drug is Licensed
April 25, 2010
Ladostigil — a novel compound designed to provide comprehensive medical treatment for Alzheimer’s disease — is one step closer to reaching the market. Born in the minds and labs of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s Prof. Moussa B.H. Youdim and Hebrew University Prof. Marta Weinstock-Rosin, the drug in animal studies provided symptomatic anti-Alzheimer’s, anti-Parkinson’s and anti-depressant activities, and the potential to improve behavioral and psychological dementia symptoms, such as depression, anxiety and extrapyramidal symptoms.
Ladostigil was developed as a derivative of the anti-Parkinson’s disease drug rasagiline (Azilect), which is thought to possess disease modifying activity to slow the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease for sustained periods of time and to modify the pathology associated with the disease. The cholinesterase, brain-selective monoamine oxidase inhibitor and neuroprotective agent has already been proven safe and well tolerated in Phase I/IIa clinical trials.
Visualizing “Your Brain on Drugs”
April 23, 2010
Over the past 35 years, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed and refined an imaging protocol that allows them to visualize the activity of the brain’s reward circuitry in both normal individuals and those addicted to drugs. The technique has led to better insight into why people take recreational drugs as well as ways to evaluate which strategies are most effective in treating addiction.
Joanna Fowler, a senior scientist in Brookhaven’s medical department and recent recipient of the National Medal of Science, will present highlights from this research program at the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Anaheim, California, on April 26, 2010.
Drug addiction is a complex process that involves numerous biological and environmental factors, but a central element is how the drugs affect the activity of dopamine, the chemical “messenger” that regulates pleasure and reward in the brain.