No mental effects seen with Arimidex
Women taking Arimidex to prevent breast cancer can be fairly reassured that it won’t affect their mental capacities, British researchers report.
Arimidex, a. k. a. anastrazole, belongs to a class of drugs called aromatase inhibitors, which block the production of estrogen. There have been concerns that estrogen depletion might impair cognitive abilities in women, but the results of a new study suggest that anastrazole does not have this effect in women past menopause.
“These findings should be reassuring in the short term for postmenopausal women being treated with anastrozole, their clinicians, and carers,” lead author Dr. Valerie A. Jenkins concludes.
Breast or bottle? New mothers get mixed message
After giving birth in the United States, a woman is likely to leave the hospital with the message that breast-feeding is best for her baby—and a free sample of baby formula, as well as discount coupons to buy formula for her newborn.
That’s despite the fact that federal health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are opposed to giving new mothers free formula samples when they leave the hospital, as are the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the World Health Organization.
In a report released this week, Anne Merewood of Boston University School of Medicine and colleagues say the prevalence of sample formula pack distribution is “disturbing and incongruous given extensive opposition, but encouraging trends suggest that the practice may be curtailed in the future.”
Increase in Youth Suicide Rate Following Decade-Long Decline May Reflect Emerging Health Crisis
A sudden and dramatic increase in pediatric suicides may reflect an emerging trend rather than a single-year anomaly. That’s the conclusion of new suicide research, conducted at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and published in the September 3rd issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), which looked at pediatric suicide trends over a 10-year period.
Following a decade of steady decline, the suicide rate among U.S. youth younger than 20 years of age increased by 18 percent from 2003-2004 – the largest single-year change in the pediatric suicide rate over the past 15 years. Although worrisome, the one-year spike observed in 2003-2004 does not necessarily reflect a changing trend. Therefore, researchers examined national data on youth suicide from 1996-2005 in order to determine whether the increase persisted from 2004-2005, the latest year for which data are available.
Researchers estimated the trend in suicide rates from 1996-2003 using log-linear regression. Using that trend line, they estimated the expected suicide rates in 2004 and 2005 and compared the expected number of deaths to the actual observed number of deaths. Researchers found that although the overall observed rate of suicide among 10 to 19 year olds decreased by about 5 percent between 2004 and 2005 (the year following the spike) both the 2004 and 2005 rates were still significantly greater than the expected rates, based on the 1996-2003 trend.
Monitoring immune responses in disease
A recent study (doi:10.1016/j.clim.2008.06.009) published in Clinical Immunology, the official journal of the Clinical Immunology Society (CIS), describes a new method enabling the detection of multiple parameters of single human cells. The report demonstrates the characterization of specific blood cells from an individual with type 1 diabetes, providing information about the role these cells might play in the development of the disease and during therapy.
Classification of blood cells, including B and T cells, is important for distinguishing immune responses to pathogens, allergens, or self-antigens in autoimmune diseases. Although various techniques are available to identify cell surface determinants, cytokines and antibodies secreted by blood cells, so far it has not been possible to study multiple secreted proteins while also assigning surface displayed markers to individual living cells.
A collaborative group of investigators from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA, describe how a combination of existing and enhanced immunological methods can identify and characterize rare B cells from blood of a recent onset type 1 diabetic subject.
How gastric bypass rapidly reverses diabetes symptoms
A report in the September Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press, offers new evidence to explain why those who undergo gastric bypass surgery often show greater control of their diabetes symptoms within days. It also helps to explain why lap-band surgery doesn’t offer the same instant gratification. By studying mice that have undergone both procedures, the researchers show that changes in the intestine are the key.
In addition to removing about two-thirds of the stomach, gastric bypass in effect produces a “double intestine,” said Gilles Mithieux of Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale in France. The portion closest to the stomach is taken out of the loop so that it receives no nutrients. The segment normally farther down is then attached directly to the stomach, where it receives all the nutrients coming in.
In both cases, those positional changes ramp up production of blood sugar by the small intestine, Mithieux said. He noted that fasting normally induces blood sugar production by the upper small intestine. By placing the lower small intestine, which doesn’t normally produce much glucose, in close proximity to the stomach, it starts to act more like the upper portion.
Too much calcium in blood may increase risk of fatal prostate cancer
Men who have too much calcium in their bloodstreams may have an increased risk of fatal prostate cancer, according to a new analysis from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin.
“We show that men in upper range of the normal distribution of serum calcium subsequently have an almost three-fold increased risk for fatal prostate cancer,” said Gary G. Schwartz, Ph.D., associate professor of cancer biology and of epidemiology and prevention at Wake Forest, a part of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Such excess calcium can be lowered, he said.
The research appears in the September issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
New study reveals higher protein breakfast may help dieters stay on track
A new study published online today in the British Journal of Nutrition found that timing of dietary protein intake affects feelings of fullness throughout the day. The study concluded that when people ate high-quality protein foods, from sources such as eggs and lean Canadian bacon, for breakfast they had a greater sense of sustained fullness throughout the day compared to when more protein was eaten at lunch or dinner.i
“There is a growing body of research which supports eating high-quality protein foods when dieting to maintain a sense of fullness,” said Wayne W. Campbell, PhD, study author and professor of Foods and Nutrition at Purdue University. “This study is particularly unique in that it looked at the timing of protein intake and reveals that when you consume more protein may be a critical piece of the equation.”
A Closer Look at the Study
The study included overweight or obese men who ate a reduced calorie diet. The diet consisted of two variations of protein intakes, both which were within federal nutrition recommendations: normal protein intake (11-14 percent of calories) or increased protein (18-25 percent of calories). The researchers tested the effect of consuming the additional protein at specific meals – breakfast, lunch or dinner – or spaced evenly throughout the day.
Guide helps doctors manage vaccine allergies
With careful monitoring, even children who have had allergic reactions to a vaccine can still be vaccinated, a U.S. team of experts said on Tuesday.
The team developed a step-by-step guide to help pediatricians quickly identify children with allergic reactions to vaccines and safely immunize them.
“We cannot reiterate enough that the vaccines used today are extremely safe, but in a handful of children certain vaccine ingredients can trigger serious allergic reactions,” said Dr. Robert Wood of Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, whose research appears in the journal Pediatrics.
Obesity not a red flag for spotting diabetes
Obese people with diabetes are just as likely to go undiagnosed as their slimmer peers with the disease, Harvard Medical School researchers report.
It’s well recognized that obesity increases the likelihood of developing diabetes, yet “obesity does not increase the likelihood that an individual’s diabetes will be diagnosed,” Dr. Christina C. Wee and her colleagues from Harvard and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston report.
There is no consensus on who should be screened for diabetes, Wee and her team note in their report in the medical journal Diabetes Care. Early diagnosis of diabetes is particularly important for obese people, they add, because research shows they are less likely to be offered the preventive care that can help stave off serious complications of the disease.
