Women Who Smoke Prior to First Pregnancy Have a Higher Risk of Breast Cancer
Researchers outline in the November issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings their study of postmenopausal women, which supports the hypothesis that women who smoke cigarettes before first full-term pregnancy have a 20 percent increased risk of breast cancer compared with women who began smoking after the birth of their first child or were never smokers.
The study is a strong indicator of the continued need for smoking prevention messages to all, but especially ones tailored to this group of young women.
Too much sugar raises diabetes risk in Latino kids
Overweight Latino children who eat lots of sugar and drink sugary drinks may show signs of poor beta cell function, which is associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, according to the results of a new study.
“The take-home message is something we know already—eating a lot of sugar is not good for you,” said Dr. Michael I. Goran, of the University of Southern California’s Institute for Prevention Research.
Poor Health, Poverty, Minority Status Major Factors in Depression
Preliminary results from the STAR-D project, one of the nation’s largest studies of depression, show that chronic depressive episodes are common and are associated with poorer physical health, lower quality of life, socioeconomic disadvantage and minority status.
Findings of this study highlight the common occurrence of chronic episodes of major depression and the range of factors that contribute to them in both psychiatric and primary care settings.
Perk up that memory with some caffeine
It seems brain scans confirm what coffee drinkers already know - that caffeine gives the brain a boost.
Austrian researchers say the scans show that caffeine found in coffee, tea, soft drinks and chocolate stimulates areas of the brain governing short-term memory and attention.
Go-cart injuries in children - bad!
Researchers have used diagnostic images to conduct a study of go-cart injuries in children and the results are concerning, according to findings presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
“We found skull and facial fractures, scalp detachment, brain injury, fractures to the upper and lower extremities and burns,” said study co-author Annemarie Relyea-Chew, J.D., M.S., research scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Colonoscopy with Normal Results Doesn’t Reassure IBS Patients
FINDINGS: A UCLA/VA study found that irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients under age 50 who undergo a colonoscopy with normal results aren’t reassured about their condition or seem to have an improved quality life due to the procedure ruling out a more serious condition.
BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that 10 percent of all colonoscopies in the U.S. are performed for evaluation of IBS symptoms. Irritable bowel syndrome affects 15 percent of the population and is a chronic disorder characterized by recurrent abdominal pain and altered bowel habits.
Dendritic Cells Offer New Therapeutic Target for Drugs to Treat MS
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have found that a gene pathway linked to a deadly form of leukemia may provide a new way to treat autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis. Their tests in cell cultures and mice suggest that blocking the pathway by interfering with a blood cell growth gene, known as FLT3, targets an immune system cell often ignored in favor of T-cell targets in standard therapies.
FLT3, which controls the development of healthy blood cells, was identified as a treatment target in patients with acute myeloid leukemia, a blood cell cancer, several years ago by the same Johns Hopkins investigators. In the current work, the Hopkins team has confirmed that the gene is activated in dendritic cells, whose role is to distribute “look here” information about unwanted foreign invaders to soldiering T-cells.
