Vast distances a barrier to combating HIV/AIDS in India
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Vast distances are a major hurdle to India’s efforts to curb its soaring HIV rate.
India, which has the world’s third largest HIV-positive caseload, gives drugs for free to HIV/AIDS patients. But doctors say this is not enough to stop the spread of HIV which is making inroads in rural India, especially among women infected by itinerant husbands, and also children.
For three days a month, Sambit squeezes into a crowded and often filthy train for a three hour journey to Delhi to receive HIV treatment.
Reliving trauma can help prevent PTSD: study
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People who undergo a type of psychotherapy in which they relive a traumatic event are less likely to get post-traumatic stress disorder than those getting another common form of therapy, researchers said on Monday.
The Australian study, which involved people who had experienced a vehicle crash or a nonsexual assault, was the latest to show the value of using so-called prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD, a sometimes debilitating anxiety disorder.
The growing number of U.S. troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD has focused attention on the condition, adding urgency to efforts to learn how best to deal with it.
Heart changes more common in black NFL players
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Abnormalities seen on electrocardiogram - a test that detects and records the heart’s electrical activity—are twice as common in black professional football players as in white players, researchers have found.
“Importantly, while these ECG changes initially suggested possible structural heart disease that might well put these players at risk for untoward cardiac events like sudden death, further, more extensive evaluation did not show any heart problems,” Dr. Anthony Magalski told Reuters Health.
“Our findings,” he said, “need to be taken into account when people (the medical community, high schools, colleges) debate incorporating the ECG into pre-participation exam programs because it is likely that more blacks than whites would show concerning changes.”
Researchers Identify Gene that Regulates Glucose Levels
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In an effort to understand how genes work, a collaborative study which includes the University of Southern California (USC) has identified a gene that regulates glucose levels. The results, which will be published in the July issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and is currently available online, may provide further understanding of the underlying causes of diabetes.
“Elevations of blood glucose are diagnostic of diabetes. This finding demonstrates there are gene variants that are important for day-to-day regulation of glucose, but they do not appear to play a significant role in disease risk,” says Richard M. Watanabe, Ph.D., associate professor of preventive medicine and physiology & biophysics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and co-senior author of the paper.
The study determined that this variant is not associated with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes.
Patients With Heart Failure Often Overestimate Life Expectancy
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Many patients with heart failure have survival expectations that are significantly greater than clinical predictions, with younger patients and those with more severe disease more likely to overestimate their remaining life span, according to a study in the June 4 issue of JAMA.
Heart failure accounts directly for 55,000 deaths and indirectly for an additional 230,000 deaths in the United States each year. Despite advances in care, the prognosis for patients with symptomatic heart failure remains poor, with median (50 percent of patients still alive) life expectancy of less than 5 years, according to background information in the article. For those with the most advanced disease, 1-year mortality rates approach 90 percent. Prognosis is dependent on various patient characteristics, and a number of prognostic models have been developed to help predict survival in patients with heart failure.
The extent to which patients with heart failure understand their prognosis is not clear. “Patient perception of prognosis is important because it fundamentally influences medical decision making regarding medications, devices, transplantation, and end-of-life care,” the authors write.
Socializing Can Help Elderly Women Stay Sharp
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Socializing with friends and family can do more than lift the spirits of elderly women — it can improve cognition and might help prevent dementia, according to a new study.
The study began in 2001 and included women at least 78 years old who were free of signs of dementia. Researchers conducted follow-up interviews between 2002 and 2005.
“We’ve interviewed people who were not demented and who were able to report on their social network at baseline in 2001,” said lead author Valerie Crooks. “By starting with people who are cognitively intact and following them over time, you can begin to make a legitimate link between social networks and dementia.”
Acupuncture reduces pain after neck surgery
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Acupuncture helped alleviate lingering pain and decreased shoulder mobility in people who had surgery for head and neck cancer, U.S. researchers said on Saturday.
The ancient Chinese therapy also resulted in significant improvements in extreme dry mouth or xerostomia, which often occurs in people who have had radiation treatment for head and neck cancer, they said at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.
Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York studied 70 patients who were at least three months past their surgery and radiation treatments.
Blood test may detect lung cancer in early stages
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A simple blood test may be able to detect lung cancer in its early stages, which would represent a promising strategy to improve survival rates, researchers said on Sunday.
Lung cancer survival rates are poor, mainly because the disease, which kills 1.3 million people globally a year, is often diagnosed in advanced stages.
More girls than boys benefit from breastfeeding, Hopkins Children’s research shows
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Challenging the long-standing belief that breast-feeding equally protects all babies against disease, research led by Johns Hopkins Children’s Center investigators suggests that when it comes to respiratory infections, the protective effects of breast milk are higher in girls than in boys.
Following 119 premature babies in Buenos Aires through their first year of life, researchers found that breast-feeding not only offered more protection to girls than boys, but also that formula-fed girls had the highest risk for severe respiratory infections.
The findings, reported in the June issue of Pediatrics, cast doubt on the theory that immune system chemicals contained in breast milk and passed directly from mother to newborn are responsible for preventing the infections. If this were the case, researchers say, both boys and girls would likely derive equal protection.
Report confirms increased risk of smoking, substance abuse in bipolar adolescents
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A study from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) supports previous reports that adolescents with bipolar disorder are at increased risk for smoking and substance abuse. The article appearing in the June Drug and Alcohol Dependence – describing the largest such investigation to date and the first to include a control group – also indicates that bipolar-associated risk is independent of the risk conferred by other disorders affecting study participants.
“This work confirms that bipolar disorder (BPD) in adolescents is a huge risk factor for smoking and substance abuse, as big a risk factor as is juvenile delinquency,” says Timothy Wilens, MD, director of Substance Abuse Services in MGH Pediatric Psychopharmacology, who led the study. “It indicates both that young people with BPD need to carefully be screened for smoking and for substance use and abuse and that adolescents known to abuse drugs and alcohol – especially those who binge use – should also be assessed for BPD.”
It has been estimated that up to 20 percent of children and adolescents treated for psychiatric problems have bipolar disorder, and there is evidence that pediatric and adolescent BPD may have features, such as particularly frequent and dramatic mood swings, not found in the adult form of the disorder. While elevated levels of smoking and substance abuse previously have been reported in young and adult BPD patients, it has not been clear how the use and abuse of substances relates to the presence of BPD or whether any increased risk could be attributed to co-existing conditions such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder or anxiety disorders.
Spray-on estrogen relieves hot flushes
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A form of estrogen, estradiol, sprayed on the skin is a safe, effective, and convenient way for post-menopausal women to relieve hot flushes, a study shows.
Evamist, which is marketed by Ther-Rx Corporation, is the first transdermal estradiol spray to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for treating moderate-to-severe menopausal symptoms in healthy women, according to the report in the medical journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
“This estradiol ‘spray-on-patch’ is a treatment option for women who will benefit from the advantages of transdermal estradiol delivery but are intolerant of or are not inclined to use patches, gels, or emulsions,” write Dr. John E. Buster, from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and colleagues.
