Tough job: Volunteers needed for chocolate study
Calling all chocoholics: British researchers recruiting volunteers willing to eat a bar of chocolate daily for a year, guilt-free and all in the name of science.
The trial starting in June will explore whether compounds called flavonoids found in chocolate and other foods can reduce the risk of heart disease for menopausal women with type 2 diabetes, the researchers said on Monday.
“We are looking at a high risk group first,” said Aedin Cassidy, a biochemist at the University of East Anglia, who will lead the study. “We hope there will be an additional benefit from dietary intervention in addition to the women’s drug therapy.”
Poor diet undermines health of northern Afghans
Lunch at Gada Mohammed’s single-room mud-brick house in Afghanistan’s far north is the same as most other meals: dry bread washed down with tea.
“We make our living collecting and selling this herb,” said Mohammed, a 45-year-old father of four, pointing to a pile of roots on the floor of his smoke-blackened room.
Badakhshan, bordering Tajikistan to the north, is far from the fighting with Taliban insurgents in the south, but is still one of Afghanistan’s poorest provinces. Those that fare worst live in the mountains where they are snowed in for up to six months of the year.
More babies born to diabetic mothers: study
More American women are entering pregnancy with diabetes, raising the odds of a problem pregnancy and the potential that their children will become diabetic in the future, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
They found that rates of diabetes before motherhood more than doubled over six years among 175,000 teenage and adult women.
The researchers said the increase was likely tied to rising levels of diabetes and obesity in the United States.
Black women may overestimate cancer screening rates
Many African-American women may overestimate the number of cancer screening tests they have had, potentially putting them at risk of late cancer detection, a small study suggests.
Researchers at the American Cancer Society found that among 116 black women they interviewed about their cancer screening history, there were generally large discrepancies between the women’s memories and their medical records.
In most of these cases, women remembered having a test that, based on the records, was not done, the researchers report in the journal Oncology Nursing Forum.
Research Seeks to Understand Memory Loss in Older People
Today, one out of very 12 people aged 65 and older will experience a decline in their ability to remember, think clearly, reason and make daily decisions. The decline in memory and mental abilities may be subtle, but it limits quality of life and oftentimes leads to depression.
Misericordia University researchers are leading a team of students and faculty from two regional institutions of higher education in a six-month study to better understand how to treat people with memory problems and who have a decreased ability to think clearly.
James Siberski, M.S., assistant professor, Geriatric-Care Manager Certificate Program director and coordinator of the Gerontology Education Center for Professional Development at Misericordia University; and his colleague, Margie Eckroth-Bucher, R.N., associate professor of nursing at Bloomsburg University; are spearheading the research with Misericordia students Jamie Donahue, Mehoopany, Pa.; Grant Greenberg, Douglaston, N.Y.; Pam Roberts, Shavertown, Pa.; Cheryl Wilson, Shohola, Pa.; and Emily Getz, Kunkletown, Pa., at the Maria Joseph Manor’s Continuing Care Community in Danville.
Transitioning patients with pediatric disease to adulthood
Growing pains can mean one thing for a typical adolescent and quite another to an older teen with cerebral palsy attempting independence in an adult world. A unique program, the Indiana University School of Medicine Center for Youth and Adults with Conditions of Childhood (CYACC) is helping these youths spread their wings and live more independently.
IU pediatricians at Riley Hospital for Children have been at the forefront of innovative care for patients, including advances that over the past three decades have created new challenges for patients with special needs and their caregivers. Now, Riley physicians are leading the way to providing a solution.
CYACC provides interdisciplinary consultation in a health-care setting to specifically address transition and adult life issues regardless of the youth or adult’s diagnosis.
Insulin Resistance and Atherosclerosis: The “Missing Link”
New research will highlight the “missing link” between the insulin resistance (metabolic) syndrome and cardiovascular disease at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) 17th Annual Meeting & Clinical Congress, on Thursday, May 15, 2008, at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort in Orlando.
“Insulin resistant patients face a constellation of cardiovascular risk factors without diabetes ever being present,” AACE Member and the session’s speaker Ralph A. DeFronzo, MD said. “These must be seriously considered during treatment.”
Job characteristics may be linked to dementia risk
High-complexity jobs that primarily involve work with people or things are associated with a reduced risk of developing dementia, a Canadian study suggests.
Dr. Edeltraut Kroger and colleagues found the risk of dementia may be 34 percent lower in occupations like teaching that require highly complex interactions with people, as opposed to jobs requiring lower levels of people interaction.
The investigators also observed about a 28 percent reduced risk for dementia among people with jobs that involve high levels of complex interactions with things, such as farming. However, this association was “less reliable, and the result we observed has not been confirmed by other studies,” Kroger told Reuters Health.
