Calcium Supplements Linked to Boost in Heart Attack Risk
July 31, 2010
Although millions of people take calcium supplements to boost bone health and ward off osteoporosis, New Zealand researchers say the supplements have little effect on bone strength and contribute to a small increase in the risk for heart attack among older people.
Rather than relying on calcium supplements, the researchers suggest that people get their required calcium, if possible, from foods.
“When you look at major trials where people have been randomly assigned to take calcium or placebo, there is an increase in the risk of heart attack in the people who were randomly assigned to take calcium,” said the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Ian Reid, from the Department of Medicine in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland.
Plant Compound Resveratrol Shown to Suppress Inflammation, Free Radicals
July 29, 2010
Resveratrol, a popular plant extract shown to prolong life in yeast and lower animals due to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, appears also to suppress inflammation in humans, based on results from the first prospective human trial of the extract conducted by University at Buffalo endocrinologists.
Results of the study appear as a rapid electronic publication on the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism website and will be published in an upcoming print issue of the journal.
The paper also has been selected for inclusion in Translational Research in Endocrinology & Metabolism, a new online anthology that highlights the latest clinical applications of cutting-edge research from the journals of the Endocrine Society.
Huntington Disease Discovery Provides New Hope For Treatment
July 28, 2010
Huntington’s disease is a genetic disease with no cure, characterized by a steady decline in motor control and the dysfunction and death of brain cells. The cause of the disease has long baffled scientists.
Symptoms tend to first appear when the person is in their thirties or forties. The most common symptom is jerky movements of the arms and legs. A person with Huntington’s disease may also have difficulties with speech, swallowing and concentration.
Using state of the art technology, Dr Danny Hatters and his colleagues at the University of Melbourne’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Bio 21 Institute observed how human mutant ‘huntingtin’ proteins form into large clumps, which kills brain cells and leads to progressed Huntington’s disease.
World-First Vaccine Candidate For Newborns To Help Combat Deadly Rotavirus
July 28, 2010
The vaccine candidate, developed by the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, is the culmination of almost four decades of research in Australia by MCRI, the University of Melbourne and the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne following the discovery of rotavirus by a team of staff led by Professor Ruth Bishop in 1973.
Current rotavirus vaccines are given to babies from six to eight weeks of age, which may leave newborn infants at risk of early infection and, in countries with limited health care access, may delay timely administration of the vaccine.
“This is a contribution of major importance to global child health by Australian researchers and one that has enormous potential to reduce suffering and mortality among the most vulnerable children around the world,” said lead researcher Professor Julie Bines of the University of Melbourne, MCRI and The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.
“The new vaccine candidate has the potential to save many thousands of lives by vaccinating babies at birth while they were still in a health care setting.”
Extended Use Of Anti-Clotting Drug Helps Some Bedridden Patients
July 27, 2010
A treatment plan used to prevent potentially dangerous blood clots in recovering surgical patients can also benefit some patients immobilized by acute medical illness, doctors have found in a multi-institutional study.
In women, patients age 75 or older, and patients strictly confined to 24-hour bed rest, a month of extended treatment with a blood thinner significantly reduced the chances of blood clots while only slightly increasing the risk of bleeding.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and several other institutions report the results online this week in Annals of Internal Medicine. The double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was funded by Sanofi-Aventis, the manufacturer of enoxaparin, a form of the blood thinner heparin that was used in the study.
Industry Gifts Okay with Most Doctors
July 26, 2010
Most physicians believe that interaction with industry representatives does not influence their decisions about patient care.
Increased emphasis on conflicts of interest has yet to sway physicians’ generally positive attitudes toward drug and device manufacturers’ marketing activities, a survey of almost 600 attending physicians and trainees showed.
More than 70% of respondents saw nothing inappropriate about attending sponsored lunches, and 25% had no problems with accepting large gifts from industry representatives, according to an article in the June issue of Archives of Surgery.
Surgeons, trainees, and respondents unfamiliar with institutional policies on conflict of interest tended to have more positive attitudes about gifts.
Are Antidepressant Drugs Better Than Placebo For Depression?
July 26, 2010
Clinical psychologist Irving Kirsch is selling a new book in which he argues that anti-depressants aren’t much better than placebo. He bases his claim on sophisticated statistical studies he has done that combine the results of antidepressant research trials from over the years.
The scary part is that he had to use the freedom of information act to get a hold of some of the studies.
His analysis shows that for all but very depressed patients, the impact of using antidepressants wasn’t any better than using placebo.
This turns out to be very similar to the results of a recent study published in JAMA — antidepressants didn’t really help mild depressions.
Stroke Risk Temporarily Increases For An Hour After Drinking Alcohol
July 25, 2010
Call it the not-so-happy hour. The risk of stroke appears to double in the hour after consuming just one drink — be it wine, beer or hard liquor — according to a small multi-center study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
“The impact of alcohol on your risk of ischemic stroke appears to depend on how much and how often you drink,” said Murray A. Mittleman, M.D., Dr.P.H., senior author of the Stroke Onset Study (SOS) and director of the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass.
Prior to the SOS, researchers didn’t know if alcohol consumption had an immediate impact on ischemic stroke (caused by a blood clot in a vessel in or leading to the brain), although modest alcohol use (less than two drinks per day) may potentially lower risk in the long term.
Researchers interviewed 390 ischemic stroke patients (209 men, 181 women) about three days after their stroke regarding many aspects of their lives. Patients were excluded if the stroke seriously impaired their ability to speak or if they weren’t well enough to participate. Fourteen patients had consumed alcohol within one hour of stroke onset.
Hopkins Team Discovers Sweet Way To Detect Prediabetes
July 25, 2010
Having discovered a dramatic increase of an easy-to-detect enzyme in the red blood cells of people with diabetes and prediabetes, Johns Hopkins scientists say the discovery could lead to a simple, routine test for detecting the subtle onset of the disease, before symptoms or complications occur and in time to reverse its course.
Pilot studies, published online April 22 in Diabetes, show the enzyme O-GlcNAcase is up to two to three times higher in people with diabetes and prediabetes than in those with no disease: “That’s a big difference, especially in an enzyme that’s as tightly regulated as this one is,” says Gerald Hart, Ph.D., the DeLamar Professor and director of biological chemistry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Building on their previous research, which showed how an abundant but difficult-to-detect sugar switch known as O-GlcNAc (pronounced oh-GLICK-nack) responded to nutrients and stress, the Hopkins team knew this small molecule was elevated in the red cells of patients with diabetes. “The question was whether the elevation happened in the earliest stages of diabetes and therefore might have value as a diagnostic tool,” Hart said.
Viagra For Muscular Dystrophy
July 23, 2010
As a family doc in practice for over 30 years I have been always tried to conceptualize disease states beyond the standard text book parameters.
Thus I was elated by the prospect of discovering a new beneficial treatment for muscular dystrophy when 5 years ago I gave some Viagra to a 57-year old patient of mine with limb girdle muscular dystrophy for the usual purpose. In June, 2005 he returned to tell me that for 2 to 5 days after he took Viagra he felt substantially stronger in all his muscles.
He had better balance; he could get out of a chair easier; he could now do standing push-ups against a wall for exercise. Over 3 days this would gradually wear off and he would return to his base line state. This phenomenon was reproducible with additional doses.