Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:57:11 GMT

Patients and Researchers

CureTogether, a new web 2.0 startup, plans to bring together patients and scientists to create an open-source health research system.

An excerpt from the Kurzweil.net article:

The first conditions being studied are migraine, endometriosis, and vulvodynia; each affect more than five million Americans. Patients will also be able to share ideas and provide their anonymous medical data to an aggregate database available “open source” to any researcher in the world to study.

“We chose these conditions because they are underfunded, involve daily pain, and have personal meaning for us,” said co-founder Alexandra Carmichael. “We saw the suffering of our close family and friends with these chronic conditions, and we wanted to do something to help.” So they partnered with the Chandran Family Foundation for Healthcare Research and Education and researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “We may expand to other conditions if enough patients come together to request it,” she added.

It seems to be something similar to what 23andMe is doing. Looks promising. Posted by: Bertalan      Read more     Source

August 20, 2008, 8:05 PM CT

China sees spike in rabies cases

A new Chinese study has reported a dramatic spike in rabies infections. The research, published recently in the open access journal BMC Infectious Diseases, shows that in some provinces of China the number of human rabies cases has jumped dramatically since the new millennium.

Jia-Hai Lu, from the School of Public Health at Sun Yat-Sen University, China, led a team of scientists who studied the rabies trend in China between 1990 and 2007. Lu describes how things have changed in the last eight years "In China, human rabies was largely under control during the years 1990-1996, via nation-wide rabies vaccination programmes. Since the end of the century, however, cases of human rabies have jumped high enough to trigger a warning sign for control and prevention".

Rabies, an infection of the nervous system, transmitted by animal bites, causes over 50,000 deaths each year around the world. During recent years, most of the research on control of rabies has concentrated on the development of post-exposure prophylaxis (preventative therapy in this case, preventing the worsening of an infection). As per the researchers, "The use of human and equine rabies immunoglobulins (HRIG/ERIG) has saved the lives of countless patients who would have died if treated with vaccine alone. However, both products are often in short supply worldwide and are virtually unaffordable in developing countries"......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

August 20, 2008, 1:39 AM CT

Obesity raises risks of serious digestive health concerns

The prevalence of obesity and overweight in the United States coupled by the increased risk of gastrointestinal diseases correlation to obesity raises serious implications for the health of Americans. Several scientific studies in the recent issue of The American Journal of Gastroenterology examine the association between obesity and the risk of colorectal cancer and gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD.

Dr. Frank K. Friedenberg and his colleagues from Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia provide an extensive overview of scientific research on the epidemiologic and pathophysiologic associations between obesity and GERD.

Several studies featured in the article highlight the connection between increasing body mass index (BMI) and the frequency and severity of acid reflux symptoms. One particular study observed that accumulation of abdominal fat, as measured by the waist-to-hip ratio, may be the most important risk factor for the development of acid reflux and related complications such as Barrett's esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

The authors also examined data on the effects of weight loss through diet or surgical methods on acid reflux disease. Several studies suggest weight loss through caloric restriction was beneficial in reducing GERD symptoms. When the authors compared the different surgical approaches for weight loss, a surgical technique called "Roux-en-Y" gastric bypass appeared to be the best method, and was most consistently linked to improvement in the symptoms and findings of GERD. "The mechanism of action through which this surgery is successful at improving GERD may be independent of weight loss and needs further examination," said Dr. Friedenberg......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

August 13, 2008, 1:05 AM CT

Overweight children at significant risk for pre-diabetes

A study by scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) observed that overweight Hispanic children are at significant risk for pre-diabetes, a condition marked by higher than normal blood glucose levels that are still not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. The persistence of pre-diabetes during growth is linked to progression in risk towards future diabetes, as per the study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Diabetes, and is now available online.

With a population of more than 35 million, Hispanics are the largest and fastest growing minority group in the United States. Despite the fact that Hispanics are at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes, few prior studies have looked at physiological causes of the disease within this population.

Scientists led by Michael I. Goran, Ph.D., professor of preventive medicine, physiology and biophysics and pediatrics, and director of the USC Childhood Obesity Research Center at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, followed a cohort of 128 overweight Hispanic children in East Los Angeles. The children were tested over four consecutive years for glucose tolerance, body mass index, total body fat and lean mass and other risk factors for type 2 diabetes. The study observed that an alarming 13% of the children had what the researchers termed "persistent pre-diabetes"......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

August 13, 2008, 0:56 AM CT

Causes for sexual dysfunction change as people age

Sexual dysfunction is not an inevitable part of aging, but it is strongly related many factors, such as mental and physical health, demographics and lifetime experiences, a number of of which are interrelated, as per a new study by scientists at the University of Chicago.

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, observed that a history of sexually transmitted disease also has an impact on sexual health during the later part of life. People who had an STD are also more likely to have had sexual experiences over their lifetimes that included more risks and multiple sex partners.

"Having had an STD roughly quadruples a woman's odds of reporting sexual pain and triples her lubrication problems," said Edward Laumann, the George Herbert Mead Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology at the University, and lead author of the paper, "Sexual Dysfunction Among Older Adults: Prevalence and Risk Factors from a Nationally Representative U.S. Probability Sample of Men and Women 57 to 85 Years of Age," reported in the current issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine

Men are more than five times as likely to report sex as non-pleasurable if they have previously had an STD.

Laumann was joined in writing the paper by University researcher Aniruddha Das, and Linda Waite, the Lucy Flower Professor in Sociology at the University......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

July 30, 2008, 0:12 AM CT

Smoking predicts increased stroke risk for your spouse

Eventhough Second Hand Smoke (SHS) is widely accepted as a risk factor for coronary heart disease, there have been few studies investigating the association of SHS and stroke risk. In a new study, reported in the September 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, scientists report on evidence of increased risk of stroke for spouses of smokers.

For those who never smoked, being married to a current smoker was linked to a 42% increase in risk of stroke in comparison to being married to a never-smoker. For former smokers, being married to a current smoker was linked to a 72% increase in risk in comparison to being married to a never-smoker. Being married to a former smoker was not linked to any increase in risk in comparison to being married to a never-smoker. This suggests that eventhough stroke risk is elevated if your spouse smokes, that risk is eliminated if your spouse stops smoking. For example, never-smokers married to former smokers had nearly the same stroke risk as never-smokers married to never-smokers. Current smokers had significantly elevated stroke rates in comparison to never-smokers, and spousal smoking status did not affect this risk among current smokers.

The data were drawn from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a National Institute on Aging sponsored longitudinal survey of U.S. adults nationwide aged ≥50 years and their spouses. Enrollments occurred in 1992, 1993, 1998 and 2004 and final analyses included 16,225 respondents. Spousal smoking status was assessed at the time of enrollment and participants were followed an average of 9.1 years after enrollment for the occurence rate of stroke. All models were adjusted for age; race; Hispanic ethnicity; Southern birthstate; parental education; paternal occupation class; years of education; baseline income; baseline wealth; obesity; overweight; alcohol use; and diagnosed hypertension, diabetes or heart disease......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

July 30, 2008, 0:04 AM CT

Gaining advantages from childhood experience

It often seems that certain aspects of our personalities are influenced by events that occurred in our childhoods. A recent study by Dr. Akaysha Tang's research team from the University of New Mexico Psychology Department (http://atlab.unm.edu) and collaborators at Rockefeller University examined how early life experience influences social skills and ability to handle stressful situations using a rat model. The study will be published on July 30th in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE

In this study, Dr. Tang and his colleagues examined whether rats that experienced greater novelty by spending three minutes a day away from their familiar home environment during infancy had a greater ability to compete against other rats for exclusive access to chocolate reward in comparison to their siblings that stayed in the home environment during infancy. They observed that novelty-exposed rats were able to "beat out" their competitors more often than their home-staying siblings. They also observed that across repeated sessions of competition, novelty-exposed rats decreased their release of stress hormones into the bloodstream, suggesting that they adapted faster to the stressful situation.

These findings were made among rats that were 24 months of ageconsidered old age for a rat. Perhaps most remarkably, the differences in early experience were induced by approximately 60 minutes of cumulative differential therapy carried out during the first 3 weeks of life. This means that very brief exposures to a novel environment during infancy can have a life-long influence on social competitive ability and the stress response......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

July 22, 2008, 8:22 PM CT

Sugar study is sweetener for stem cell science

Researchers at The University of Manchester are striving to discover how the body's natural sugars can be used to create stem cell therapys for heart disease and nerve damage thanks to a 370,000 funding boost.

All cells that make up the tissues of the body such as skin, liver, brain and blood are surrounded by a layer of sugars that coat the cells.

These sugars help the cells to know what type of cell they are and to respond to the other cells which surround them and the chemical messages that pass between cells.

Now Dr Catherine Merry from The School of Materials has been awarded a prestigious New Investigator Research Grant by the Medical Research Council (MRC) to investigate how different cells make different sugar types and to test out theories on how sugars can influence cell behaviour.

Dr Merry, who is leading the research, said: "At present, the way in which cells make these sugars is not well understood. From the little we do know, we believe isolated fragments of these sugars could be used to instruct cells to behave in particular ways.

"We also think we might be able to force cells to make one particular type of sugar and not another, thereby influencing the way in which that cell grows and interacts with other cells......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

July 22, 2008, 7:45 PM CT

New Guidelines for Treating Rheumatoid Arthritis

Proven combinations of medicines and the introduction of new anti-arthritis drugs have significantly improved the therapy of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), as per guidelines issued by the American College of Rheumatology and co-authored by physicians at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Lead author Kenneth Saag, M.D., M.Sc., a professor in the UAB Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, said the new guidelines update strategies for treating RA with the goal of preventing joint damage and disability.

The new recommendations do not strive to replace individualized medical decisions, Saag said. Instead, they are meant to guide rheumatologists and other health care workers toward the most updated recommendations. The last set of American College of Rheumatology RA therapy guidelines was published in 2002. "The recommendations developed are not intended to be used in a 'cookbook' or prescriptive manner, or to limit a physician's clinical judgment," Saag said. "They provide guidance based on clinical evidence and expert panel input".

BIOLOGICS AND DMARDs.

The recommendations focus on several classes of anti-arthritic drugs, including a potent group of agents called disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Newer genetically engineered DMARDs called biologics often work in combination with earlier therapies......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

July 21, 2008, 9:30 PM CT

A virtual toothache helps student dentists

Masha is a dental patient. Her oral health problems continue to change as she meets new Case Western Reserve University student dentists in Second Life's virtual dental office.

The middle-aged avatar is an integral part of a new research project of the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and the College of Arts and Sciences department of communication sciences to teach and give students practice time to communicate with mock patients.

Not only do findings from the study have potential to revolutionize dental education but also to change the way national testing is done for patient-side communication skills.

Kristin Z. Victoroff from the dental medicine's department of community dentistry will direct the three-year Innovative Dental Assessment Research and Development (IDEA) Grant project from the American Dental Association's Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations. She will develop patient communication scenarios for simulated education and test their effectiveness in preclinical training for students.

"More dental schools are experimenting with simulation as a way to teach," said Victoroff. She is joined in the research project by Roma Jasinevicius and Catherine Demko from the dental school faculty in testing and implementing simulations in dental education at the university......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source