Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
While eating home-cooked meals has long been viewed as being a healthier alternative to eating out, especially at fast food restaurants, the same cannot necessarily be said about preparing those dinners, researchers from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago have discovered.
In fact, while experts from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health recently reported that those who eat home-cooked meals typically consume fewer calories, fewer carbohydrates, less sugar and less fat than those who cook less or not at all, the new study indicates that spending a lot of time cooking can also be unhealthy.
According to Rodger Dobson of The Telegraph, lead investigator Dr. Brad Appelhans and his colleagues found a link between the amount of time people spend preparing dinners and an increased risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other problems associated with heart disease.
On the other hand, those who spent less time cooking meals at home reduced their risk of developing these conditions by more than one-third, according to the results of research involving over 2,700 women. The reason may be that people who cook for themselves tend to eat larger portions than those buying ready-made meals or snack foods, or those easier-to-prepare foods may have gotten healthier, Dobson said.
“While the reasons underlying this association are still unclear, we think these findings indicate the need to revise our public health messaging, including the need to emphasize healthy cooking methods and to consider the potential benefits of healthy convenience meals,” said Dr. Appelhans. Little research has been done on the impact of home cooking on a person’s wellbeing, he said, suggesting that doctors take another look at the practice.
He and his co-authors examined 14 years of data provided by more than 2,755 women ranging in age from 40 to 60. They measured five markers of metabolic syndrome, a condition in which a person has three out of the five factors that put them at greater risk for heart disease and published their findings in the latest edition of the journal Preventative Medicine.
The women who spent the longest time cooking and cleaning up meals were more likely to be at risk for developing those symptoms, which include obesity, fat levels in the blood, cholesterol, hypertension and blood glucose levels, said Fiona Macrae of the Daily Mail. The risk of developing metabolic syndrome increased over time, especially in those who spent the most time preparing foods, while that risk fell in those individuals who reduced the time they spent cooking.
“In the past three or four decades, the proportion of our food that we prepare at home has decreased, and the prevalence of obesity has increased. Noting this, public health experts frequently promote home cooking as a way to curb the obesity epidemic and reduce risk factors for heart disease and diabetes,” Dr. Appelhans told Macrae.
“However, our research… [found] that greater time spent preparing food each week is actually linked to increasing odds of having risk factors for heart disease and diabetes,” he added.
This is not the first study to find that preparing home-cooked meals can be unhealthy, as researchers from the North Carolina State University sociology and anthropology departments reported in September that making dinners for the whole family to enjoy can be a source of stress and conflict for many mothers.
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.
—–
May we suggest – 100 Days of Real Food: How We Did It, What We Learned, and 100 Easy, Wholesome Recipes Your Family Will Love by Lisa Leake

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Obese children may crave more sugar than other children, according to new research that demonstrates that the reward centers of their brains are stimulated more intensely when exposed to sweet foods.

According to Sarah Knapton, Science Editor for The Telegraph, the study authors are not sure if the change takes place over time, or if some kids are simply born with a biological impulse to crave sugary foods. Their research appears in the International Journal of Obesity.

“The study is a wake-up call that prevention has to start very early because some children may be born with a hypersensitivity to food rewards or they may be able to learn a relationship between food and feeling better faster than other children,” first author Kerri Boutelle of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) told Knapton.

“The take-home message is that obese children, compared to healthy weight children, have enhanced responses in their brain to sugar,” added Boutelle, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and founder of the university’s Center for Health Eating and Activity Research (CHEAR). “That we can detect these brain differences in children as young as eight years old is the most remarkable and clinically significant part of the study.”

The UCSD researchers scanned the brains of 23 children between the ages of eight and 12 as they tasted one-fifth of a teaspoon of water mixed with table sugar (sucrose). They were told to swirl the sugar-water mixture in their mounts with their eyes closed, mentally focusing on the taste, the university said in a statement.

Ten of the youngsters participating were obese, while the remaining 13 had healthy weights, as classified by their body mass index (BMI) readings. They were all pre-screened for potential confounding factors, including psychiatric disorders such as ADHD, and all of them liked the taste of sucrose.

“The brain images showed that obese children had heightened activity in the insular cortex and amygdala, regions of the brain involved in perception, emotion, awareness, taste, motivation and reward,” the university said. “Notably, the obese children did not show any heightened neuronal activity in a third area of the brain – the striatum – that is also part of the response-reward circuitry and whose activity has… been associated with obesity in adults.”

Typically, this part of the brain does not fully develop until adolescence, the researchers said. One of the more interesting findings of their study, they added, was the fact that the brain scans could be documenting the early development of the food reward circuitry in pre-adolescents for the first time.

Sumit Passary of Tech Times noted that the study does not show a direct relationship between overeating and sugar hypersensitivity, but it does support the belief that obese kids likely have an increased psychological reward response to food. That means they could be attracted to sugary foods throughout their lifetimes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that more than one-third of the overall American population is obese, Passary said. In addition, research suggests that children who are obese are between 80 percent and 90 percent likely to become obese adults, added Hannah Osborne of International Business Times.

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
A substance produced by bees to coat and seal their hives, could help balding people reverse their hair loss, researchers from Hokkaido University in Japan report in a recent edition of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Propolis, a natural compound that is produced by honeybees which Medical Daily’s Susan Scutti explains is used in much the same way that people use caulk in their own homes, was found to encourage hair growth in mice. While more research is required, the study authors believe it could also work on humans.
Lead author Ken Kobayashi and his colleagues said that the resin-like substance, which is comprised primarily of tree sap, is used to seal small gaps in their hives. Not only does propolis serve as a physical barrier, but it also contains active compounds that can help prevent fungi and bacteria from infiltrating the bees’ home, the American Chemical Society (ACS) said in a statement.
“People from ancient times had noticed propolis’ special properties and used it to treat tumors, inflammation and wounds. More recently, research has shown that the substance promotes the growth of certain cells involved in hair growth though no one had yet tested whether that in turn would result in new locks,” the ACS said.
Kobayashi and his colleagues set out to do just that, and when they tested the substance on mice that had been waxed or shaved, they found that those who had been treated with it regrew their fur faster than those that had not been. Furthermore, they also found that applying the topical solution “stimulated migration of hair matrix keratinocytes into the hair shaft” – in other words, increasing the number of cells involved in the process of growing hair.
“Although they tried the material on mice that could grow fur rather than balding mice, the researchers note that hair loss conditions often result from abnormal inflammation,” the Chemical Society noted. “Propolis contains anti-inflammatory compounds, so they expect it could help treat balding conditions. They add that further testing is needed to see if the beehive material affects human hair follicles.”
Scutti said that propolis contains biologically active compounds called flavonoids, and over 2,00 years ago, people started using it for a variety of medical reasons, including tumor treatment and fighting infection in open wounds. These days, the substance is available at pharmacies and health food markets in several forms, including creams, ointments, powders, tablets, capsules, and extracts.
“In most cases, it is recommended you apply propolis directly to the area being treated (with the exception of the eyes), and generally it is considered nonirritating to the skin,” she said. “Oral uses, though less common, also exist and safety studies suggest it is nontoxic. However, it is not uncommon for people to have an allergic reaction.”
“Tested by scientists, propolis is active against bacteria, viruses, and protozoans, among other microorganisms,” Scutti added. “Most often, people use it to treat wounds and also to speed the healing of canker sores and outbreaks of genital herpes. Taken in the form of a mouthwash, propolis helps soothe following oral surgery. And a study… found the extract worked about as well as the drug against the parasite giardiasis.”
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Provided by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine

A new study shows that paid work time is the primary waking activity exchanged for sleep and suggests that chronic sleep loss potentially could be prevented by strategies that make work start times more flexible.

Results show that work is the dominant activity exchanged for less sleep across practically all sociodemographic categories. Compared to normal sleepers, short sleepers who reported sleeping 6 hours or less worked 1.55 more hours on weekdays and 1.86 more hours on weekends or holidays, and they started working earlier in the morning and stopped working later at night. The highest odds of being a short sleeper were found among adults working multiple jobs, who were 61 percent more likely than others to report sleeping 6 hours or less on weekdays. Respondents who were unemployed, retired or absent from the labor force also obtained significantly more sleep and were less likely to be short sleepers.

“The evidence that time spent working was the most prominent sleep thief was overwhelming,” said lead author Dr. Mathias Basner, assistant professor of sleep and chronobiology in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

Short sleepers also traveled more, started traveling earlier in the morning, and stopped later in the evening than normal sleepers. The travel pattern, with peaks at 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., strongly suggests that the majority of travel time is associated with commuting.

According to Basner, the results point to several possible solutions for workers’ lack of sleep.

“Potential intervention strategies to decrease the prevalence of chronic sleep loss in the population include greater flexibility in morning work and class start times, reducing the prevalence of multiple jobs, and shortening morning and evening commute times,” he said.

Results show that with every hour that work or educational training started later in the morning, sleep time increased by approximately 20 minutes. Respondents slept an average of only 6 hours when starting work before or at 6 a.m. and 7.29 hours when starting work between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Self-employed respondents with more flexible work times also obtained significantly more sleep than private sector employees and were 17 percent less likely to be a short sleeper.

Study results are published in the December issue of the journal Sleep.

“Getting at least seven hours of nightly sleep is essential to be at your mental, emotional and physical best for whatever you will pour yourself into, either at work or at home,” said American Academy of Sleep Medicine President Dr. Timothy Morgenthaler, who was not involved in the study.

Basner and colleagues Andrea M. Spaeth, PhD, and David F. Dinges, PhD, analyzed responses from 124,517 Americans 15 years and older who completed the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) between 2003 and 2011. The computer-assisted telephone interview, which is sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and conducted annually by the U.S. Census Bureau, asks participants how they spent their time between 4 a.m. on the previous day and 4 a.m. on the interview day. Responses were combined into 40 distinct activities that captured 99.1 percent of the 24-hour day. Responses combined into the “sleeping” category included napping, waking up and dreaming.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 30 percent of employed U.S. adults typically sleep 6 hours or less in a 24-hour period, which represents approximately 40.6 million workers. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that adults get about 7 to 9 hours of nightly sleep for optimal health, productivity and daytime alertness.

The study was supported by funding from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) through NASA. The work was performed at the Division of Sleep and Chronobiology, Department of Psychiatry, at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

> Continue reading…

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Provided by Phil Sneiderman, Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins computers scientists, who have already used Twitter posts to track flu cases, say their techniques also show promise as a tool to gather important information about some common mental illnesses.

By reviewing tweets from users who publicly mentioned their diagnosis and by looking for language cues linked to certain disorders, the researchers say, they’ve been able to quickly and inexpensively collect new data on post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, bipolar disorder and seasonal affective disorder.

In research presented at three scientific conferences this year, the scholars described how their techniques of mining public data have yielded fresh numbers on cases of these illnesses, allowing for analyses that were previously difficult or expensive to obtain. The scholars emphasized, however, that their findings did not disclose the names of people who publicly tweeted about their disorders.

The researchers said their goal is to share with treatment providers and public health officials some timely additional information about the prevalence of certain mental illnesses. Using computer technology to sift through tweets, they said, can help address the slow pace and high costs associated with collecting mental health data through surveys and other traditional methods.

“With many physical illnesses, including the flu, there are lots of quantifiable facts and figures that can be used to study things like how often and where the disease is occurring, which people are most vulnerable and what treatments are most successful,” said Glen Coppersmith, a Johns Hopkins senior research scientist who has played a key role in the project. “But it’s much tougher and more time-consuming to collect this kind of data about mental illnesses because the underlying causes are so complex and because there is a long-standing stigma that makes even talking about the subject all but taboo.”

Coppersmith, who is affiliated with the university’s Center for Language and Speech Processing and its Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, added, “We’re not aiming to replace the long-standing survey methods of tracking mental illness trends. We believe our new techniques could complement that process. We’re trying to show that analyzing tweets could uncover similar results, but could do so more quickly and at a much lower cost.”

Earlier this year, Coppersmith, with Johns Hopkins colleagues Mark Dredze and Craig Harman, presented two papers describing their methods at two professional conferences in Baltimore and Ann Arbor, Mich.

Also, in August, at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Boston, Coppersmith and colleagues from the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center spoke about their promising early results in an ongoing study that uses Twitter posts to study mental illness in particular geographic areas.

Their analyses indicated that PTSD was more prevalent at military installations that frequently deployed during the recent Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, and that signs of depression were more evident in locations with higher unemployment rates. While neither of these findings is surprising, they demonstrate that analyzing Twitter posts could become a useful yardstick in quickly measuring mental health trends, particularly after dramatic events such as natural disasters and military conflicts.

The computer algorithms used to discover mental health data from tweets look for words and language patterns associated with these ailments, including word cues linked to anxiety and insomnia, and phrases such as “I just don’t want to get out of bed.” The formula for zeroing in on mental health cases was based on a review of more than 8 billion tweets. The technique is built upon earlier Johns Hopkins work led by Dredze that successfully used Twitter posts to track outbreaks of the flu.

“Using Twitter to get a fix on mental health cases could be very helpful to health practitioners and governmental officials who need to decide where counseling and other care is needed most,” said Dredze, an assistant research professor in the Whiting School of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science. “It could point to places where many veterans may be experiencing PTSD, for example, or to towns where people have been traumatized by a shooting spree or widespread tornado damage.”

The idea has begun to generate some positive attention. After a recent conference presentation on the team’s social media research, an editorial in the Boston Globe stated, “Twitter is, apparently, the quiet therapist to whom we reveal much more that we realize. As such, it could be a valuable public-health tool. More work needs to be done in considering how such information could be used while still preserving privacy, but it’s an inquiry worth pursuing.”

A recent Newsweek article on new high-tech methods of tracking mental health trends also quoted Coppersmith as saying, “Mental health is something that has touched every single one of us at some point in our lives, whether it’s a personal experience or watching family or friends go through it. I don’t know how you can’t attack this problem. This is the one everyone should care about.”

In November, the Johns Hopkins team hosted a 48-hour hack-a-thon, bringing together scholars from six universities and a handful of industry partners to foster collaboration and innovation on these topics. The hack-a-thon was organized to prepare for the second Computational Linguistics and Clinical Psychology Workshop, which will be held in Denver next spring in conjunction with the 2015 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics. Coppersmith and Dredze will serve on the program and organization committee, headed by a previous Johns Hopkins post-doctoral researcher, Margaret Mitchell, now at Microsoft Research.

> Continue reading…

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Eric Hopton for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Even microbugs need a holiday from time to time – a well-earned break from all that munching and sucking. And a bunch of them might be coming to an airplane seat near you this Christmas.
A study by a team of University of Michigan researchers has found that we share our cabin space with countless hitchhiking dust mites and a host of other bugs. The results of the research have been published in the journal PLOS ONE.
“What people might not realize when they board a plane is that they can share the flight with a myriad of microscopic passengers, including house dust mites, that take advantage of humanity’s technological progress for their own benefit,” said Pavel Klimov, who is a biologist and assistant research scientist in the U of M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
“House dust mites can easily travel on an airline passenger’s clothes, skin, food and baggage,” added Klimov. “Like humans, they use air travel to visit new places, where they establish new populations, expand their ranges and interact with other organisms through various means.”
The genetic study was conducted by Klimov and U of M visiting scholar Rubaba Hamid. The aim was to look for connections between the different house dust mite populations in the United States and South Asia.
The results confirmed that genetic mutations were shared by mites in both the U.S. and Pakistan. This indicates that the mites are indeed travelling between continents.
“What we found suggests that mite populations are indeed linked through migration across continents, though geographic differences still can be detected,” Hamid said. “Every time a mite successfully migrates to a new place, it brings its own genetic signature that can be detected in the resident population a long time after the migration event.”
The work concentrated on two “medically important” species of mite, the American and European house dust mites, both of which are found worldwide. Scientists believe that the species probably split around 81 million years ago at a time when they lived mainly in bird nests. Today, however, house dust mites have adapted to a new host – human beings and they live happily in our homes. Beds, sofas, and carpets are full of them and cleanliness is no protection. House dust mites are around a quarter of a millimeter long and eat human skin scales.
The problem is that, though we cannot see them, house dust mites can cause serious allergic reactions, including asthma, eczema and allergic rhinitis. Over 65 million people around the world are affected each year. Often, it is not the mite itself that causes allergic reaction, but the proteins in their droppings. Mites can leave about 20 droppings every day, which can remain allergenic long after the mite itself has died.
The team studied genetic variations in the group 1 allergen gene (which encodes the most important allergy-causing protein) taken from the two species’ separate populations in the U.S. and Pakistan. This protein is used around the world in standard skin-prick tests for allergies.
In order to be fully effective, the test would need to include local genetic variants of the protein but, until now, there has been little research into these geographical variations in U.S. mites.
“We need to have a better idea about the diversity of allergenic proteins around the world, and particularly in the United States,” said Klimov.
The study discovered mutations at 14 positions along the length of the group 1 allergen gene in genetic sequences taken from American house dust mites (Dermatophagoides farinae). Of the 14 mutations, all but one were “silent,” meaning that they occur at the DNA level, but do not change the amino acid structure of the protein. It is these mutations at the protein level that are medically important, as they can alter the allergenic properties.
The research discovered that a previously unknown mutation occurred at the active site of the protein at position 197, according to Klimov. “This was a rare mutation, found in only a single population of house dust mite in South Asia,” he said. Klimov’s analysis indicates that this mutation may change the enzyme activity of the protein.
These studies are a first step towards explaining how mites have traveled from different parts of the world, but more research is needed if we are to understand the way allergenic properties, immune response and cross-reactivity of the protein work.
“Follow-up experiments to elucidate these issues are underway in our lab,” said Klimov.
Hamid is in the Department of Zoology at the Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The other authors of the PLOS ONE paper are Muhammad Inam of the University of the Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan; Farhana Riaz Chaudhary of the Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University; and Barry OConnor of the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
The research was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Higher Education Commission and the International Research Support Initiative Program in Pakistan, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, and the U.S. National Pediculosis Association.

Provided by Bruce Goldman, Stanford University School of Medicine

A study of more than 9,000 men with fertility problems has revealed a correlation between the number of different defects in a man’s semen and the likelihood that the man has other health problems.

The study, conducted by investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine, also links poor semen quality to a higher chance of having various specific health conditions, such as hypertension, and more generally to skin and endocrine disorders.

The findings, published online Dec. 10 in Fertility and Sterility, may spur more-comprehensive approaches to treating male infertility. They also point to the wisdom of performing complete physical examinations of men experiencing reproductive difficulties.

“About 15 percent of all couples have fertility issues, and in half of those cases the male partner has semen deficiencies,” said the study’s lead author, Michael Eisenberg, MD, assistant professor of urology and director of male reproductive medicine and surgery at Stanford. “We should be paying more attention to these millions of men. Infertility is a warning: Problems with reproduction may mean problems with overall health.”

A study Eisenberg co-authored a few years ago showed that infertile men had higher rates of overall mortality, as well as mortality linked to heart problems, in the years following an infertility evaluation. “But here, we’re already spotting signs of trouble in young men in their 30s,” he said.

Analyzing medical records

In the new study, Eisenberg and his colleagues analyzed the medical records of 9,387 men, mostly between 30 and 50 years old, who had been evaluated at Stanford Hospital & Clinics (now Stanford Health Care) between 1994 and 2011 to determine the cause of their infertility. The men had routinely provided semen samples, which the researchers assessed for characteristics including volume, concentration and motility. In about half of all the male infertility cases, the problem was abnormal semen; in the rest, the fault lay elsewhere. So, using the database, the investigators were able to compare the overall health status of men who had semen defects to that of the men who didn’t.

With a median age of 38, this was a fairly young group of men. However, 44 percent of all the men had some additional health problem besides the fertility problem that brought them to the clinic. In particular, the investigators found a substantial link between poor semen quality and specific diseases of the circulatory system, notably hypertension, vascular disease and heart disease. “To the best of my knowledge, there’s never been a study showing this association before,” said Eisenberg. “There are a lot of men who have hypertension, so understanding that correlation is of huge interest to us.”

In addition, as the number of different kinds of defects in a man’s semen rose, so did his likelihood of having a skin disease or endocrine disorder. When looking at the severity of all health problems, the scientists observed a statistically significant connection between the number of different ways in which a man’s semen was deficient and the likelihood of his having a substantial health problem.

Health, semen quality ‘strongly correlated’

The study wasn’t designed to determine precisely how connections between semen deficiencies and seemingly unrelated disorders, such as cardiovascular or endocrine disease, come about. But, Eisenberg noted, some 15 percent of all genes in the human genome are connected fairly directly to reproduction, and most of these genes also have diverse functions in other bodily systems. He also noted that it may not be a disease itself, but the treatment for the disease, that’s actually responsible for reproductive malfunction. He said he is exploring this possibility now.

“A man’s health is strongly correlated with his semen quality,” he said. “Given the high incidence of infertility, we need to take a broader view. As we treat men’s infertility, we should also assess their overall health. That visit to a fertility clinic represents a big opportunity to improve their treatment for other conditions, which we now suspect could actually help resolve the infertility they came in for in the first place.”

> Continue reading…

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Rayshell Clapper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Breast cancer is scary. Its prevalence certainly should make all women aware and active in preventing, catching it early, and taking an active role in treatment. And even though women should have a voice in their treatment, often they simply follow the guidelines set out by their doctors. Likely this is because breast cancer is scary enough, but it is also probably because they trust their doctors. Both of these are legitimate, but if breast cancer patients do not speak up, they could end up with unnecessary longer treatments. As the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine recently reported, about “two-thirds of the women treated for early-stage breast cancer in the US receive longer radiation therapy than necessary.”

The University of Pennsylvania research team consisted of Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, and Dr. Justin E. Bekelman, MD. USA Today states that their study further supports four other studies that support the fact that many women receive too much radiation. Emanuel and Bekelman found that after a lumpectomy (otherwise known as a breast conserving surgery), women with early-stage cancer currently receive six to seven weeks of radiation in the US, but three weeks of radiation provides three major benefits: it is just as clinically effective, costs less, and is more convenient. The procedure of three weeks of radiation after breast conserving surgery is called hypofractionated whole breast radiation.

As of 2013, only 34.5 percent of early-stage breast cancer patients over 50 received hypofractionated radiation, while only 21.1 percent of younger women received the shorter treatment. Other leading countries use hypofractionated radiation, including Canada and the United Kingdom. In Canada, over 70 percent of women with breast cancer received hypofractionated radiation therapy, and in the United Kingdom that percent is even higher. In both those countries, women with breast cancer experience remission and health again, which supports that the hypofractionated therapy works.

Moreover, both of the above-mentioned countries have national healthcare systems where the focus is not on insurance companies and making money through healthcare treatments. If the US started using hypofractionated therapy, then insurance companies would surely see the savings as would the patients. On top of the costs of the actual treatment, patients would not have to suffer the costs of time and transportation. As USA Today explains, for women who have hourly wage jobs, families, or live in rural parts of their states, to have to undergo radiation for seven weeks can seriously impede their lives. And if the shortened therapy works just as well, if not better, then why wouldn’t they opt for that?

Moreover, anyone who has undergone radiation therapy knows just how damaging it is to the body. If a cancer treatment can cut that down but four weeks, and still see the positive results, naturally she will want that. Radiation is hard on the body. Three weeks of radiation certainly sounds better than seven.

Part of the problem comes from the fact that women do not ask their doctors about different treatment options like this. The for-profit nature of the healthcare system in the US also contributes to the issue. Hospitals, medical companies, and pharmaceutical companies make more money on seven weeks of radiation. Fran Visco, the president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, stated her frustrations: “How much evidence does the medical community need before it changes practice?” Visco also noted that doctors may make more money from longer treatment courses. “As patient advocates, we don’t want to believe this is financially motivated but find it difficult to understand what else could be the barrier,” she said. Not all doctors are motivated by profits, but if the research shows that hypofractionated radiation therapy is just as effective, more cost efficient, and less burdensome, then that is worth noting. And if practice in other countries further supports these, then women need to take action.

Yes, breast cancer is scary, but women must take an active role in their treatments. They must research, ask questions, and find the treatment that is best for them. Doctors need to provide more options and information instead of rushing to what has always been done or what makes the most money. People’s lives are more important than all that.

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

When eating a meal, we typically don’t feel full until we’ve eaten much more food than we need – resulting in those extra calories being added to our body in the form of stored fat. Researchers from the United Kingdom may have found a way to hack that process.

According to a new study in the journal Gut, a compound known as inulin-propionate ester (IPE) can be added to food to make it more filling.

IPE contains propionate, which causes the stomach to discharge hormones that tell the brain to lower feelings of hunger. Propionate is generated naturally when dietary fiber is broken down by microbes in the gut, but IPE supplies greater amounts of propionate than people can get with a standard diet.

In the first part of the study, 20 participants received either IPE or inulin, a nutritional fiber, and were told they could eat what they wanted from a buffet. Volunteers given IPE consumed an average of 14 percent less than their counterparts and had greater levels of appetite-reducing hormones in their blood.

In the second part of the study, 60 overweight participants were tracked for 24 weeks with half of the group given IPE powder to supplement their food and the other half given inulin. The study team saw that 1-in-25 participants given IPE who finished the study gained over 3 percent of their body weight, as opposed to 6-in-24 participants in the inulin group. Not one of the volunteers in the IPE group gained greater than 5 percent of their body weight, as opposed to four in the control group. The IPE group also had less fat in the stomach and liver compared to the control group.

“We know that adults gain between 0.3 and 0.8 kilos (0.8 and 2.1 pounds) a year on average, and there’s a real need for new strategies that can prevent this,” said study author Gary Frost, a professor of medicine at Imperial College London.

“Molecules like propionate stimulate the release of gut hormones that control appetite, but you need to eat huge amounts of fiber to achieve a strong effect,” he added. “We wanted to find a more efficient way to deliver propionate to the gut.”

Frost said the new “proof-of-principle study” demonstrates that supplemental IPE could prevent weight gain in people who are already overweight.

“You need to eat it regularly to have an effect,” he said. “We’re exploring what kinds of foods it could be added to, but something like bread or fruit smoothies might work well.”

“Packaging propionate up to more efficiently deliver it to the large intestine has allowed us to make direct observations in humans that propionate may play an important role in weight management,” said study author Douglas Morrison, a biochemist at the University of Glasgow. “These exciting findings could at last open up new ways to manipulate gut microbes to improve health and prevent disease.”

Study researchers are currently working with technology company Imperial Innovations to take the novel ingredient to market.

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

—–

Recommended Reading – 100 Days of Real Food: How We Did It, What We Learned, and 100 Easy, Wholesome Recipes Your Family Will Love by Lisa Leake

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Google and Autism Speaks are joining forces to sequence the genomes of 10,000 people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and store the information in the cloud so that it could be easily accessed by researchers.
The groundbreaking initiative known as MSSNG was launched with the intention of creating “the world’s largest database of sequenced genomic information on people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their family members,” the advocacy group explained in a statement Tuesday.
MSSNG (pronounced “missing”) deliberately omits vowels in order to “represent the missing pieces of the autism puzzle. It is symbolic of the missing information about autism that the project is designed to find,” Autism Speaks said. The organization hailing the program as “a significant milestone in advancing genomic research of autism” that “could lead to breakthroughs into the causes, subtypes and better diagnosis and treatment for the disorder.”
According to Washington Post reporter Jim Tankersley, an estimated one of every 68 children has ASD, and scientists have only recently started figuring out the genetic and environmental factors responsible for the disorder. Much of that progress is the result of analysis of DNA of people with the condition, and Autism Speaks and Google believe that digitizing genetic information could lead to the next great breakthrough.
Rob Ring, the chief science officer at Autism Speaks, told the Washington Post that he and his colleagues were hopeful that the cloud-based initiative “will provide the data on which discoveries around autism are made for years to come.” The group has been collecting volunteered sequences for years, Tankersley said.
MSSNG “will open its cloud portal to scientists early next year with 1,000 of them already in the bank. Researchers anywhere in the world will have the opportunity to tap in and look for new clues in that data,” he added. “The goal is for that access to produce a sort of crowdsourcing for autism answers.”
Fast Company’s David Matthews said that Google’s advanced search capabilities are at the core of this new initiative. MSSNG will use Google Genomics, a tool launched earlier this year on the Mountain View, California-based tech giant that uses its search engine algorithm to investigate genetic data to find clues that will help experts better understand autism.
“The relative cheapness and ease of genetic sequencing today versus the early days of genetic research have certainly been a boon to researchers, but it has also created an increasingly unmanageable volume of data,” Matthews said. “A single human genetic sequence typically runs to around 100 gigabytes, and when you’re trying to tackle numbers of sequences in the tens of thousands, server space becomes an issue.”
Google’s involvement in the project will give researchers a virtual place to organize data collectively instead of having to ship hard drives back and forth to one another, he added. In addition to allowing Google to take part in a potentially important service to the healthcare community, the project will enable them to showcase and enhance the capabilities of its cloud-based service, added Wired.com’s Marcus Wohlsen.
“Millions of people living with autism today need answers. The MSSNG project is the search for those answers, and we’re going to find them,” said Autism Speaks President Liz Feld. “The best research minds in the world are going to mine this database of DNA so we can uncover and understand the various subtypes of autism. Then we can get to work developing customized treatments and therapies so we can improve the quality of life for so many people who need help.”

Recommended Reading – The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism. “One of the most remarkable books I’ve ever read. It’s truly moving, eye-opening, incredibly vivid.” — Jon Stewart, The Daily Show
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
A team of UK researchers led by Oxford University scientists has devised a new test that could help doctors diagnose breast cancer earlier by detecting changes in a person’s zinc levels, according to research currently appearing in the journal Metallomics.
The study authors, which also included experts from Imperial College London and the Natural History Museum in London, explained they were able to demonstrate that changes in the isotopic composition of zinc (which can be detected in a person’s breast tissue) could serve as a biomarker of early breast cancer.
According to Daily Mail science correspondent Fiona Macrae, the researchers hope that the metal-detecting blood test could detect cancer before a woman develops a lump, thus allowing doctors to treat it during its earliest stages and potentially save thousands of lives.
“There is a survival rate of about 80 percent for breast cancer but the earlier you can detect it, the more chance you have of treating it,” lead author Dr. Fiona Larner from the Oxford University Department of Earth Sciences told the Daily Mail on Tuesday. “If you can detect it earlier, you can give more women a better chance of survival.”
The test focuses around the so-called heavy and light forms of zinc that exist in a person’s body. Breast tissue is known to absorb zinc and release it back into the bloodstream, Macrae said. Dr. Larner’s team found that cancerous cells tend to absorb more zinc, and also hold onto more of the light form of the metal.
If breast tumors have more of the light version in their tissue, the unwanted heavy version of zinc should be floating around in the bloodstream. Thus, if a woman has higher-than-average levels of the heavy form of the metal in her blood, she could have breast cancer, Dr. Larner said. She and her colleagues are developing a blood test that uses this diagnostic, and they hope that it will be available within the next five years.
As part of the pilot study, the researchers analyzed zinc in the blood and blood serum of 10 subjects (five breast cancer patients and five healthy control subjects) along with a range of breast tissue samples from cancer patients. By using highly-sensitive techniques, they were able to demonstrate that they could detect key differences in zinc caused when cancer makes subtle changes to the way that the body’s cells process the metal.
Similar changes in copper in one of the breast cancer patients provided additional evidence supporting the notion that it could be possible to identify a biomarker for early breast cancer. This discovery, the researchers said, could be used to develop a simple, non-invasive diagnostic blood test that can detect the disease when it is most treatable.
“It has been known for over a decade that breast cancer tissues contain high concentrations of zinc but the exact molecular mechanisms that might cause this have remained a mystery,” Dr. Larner said in a statement.
“Our work shows that techniques commonly used in earth sciences can help us to understand not only how zinc is used by tumor cells but also how breast cancer can lead to changes in zinc in an individual’s blood – holding out the promise of an easily-detectable biomarker of early breast cancer,” she added.
Dr. Larner told the UK Press Association that she is hopeful the test will be used to help screen all women in the UK for early signs of breast cancer within the next 10 years. In the meantime, however, the test is most likely to be reserved for higher-risk women with inherited breast cancer genes, such as BRCA1 or 2, the news organization added.
“The hope is that this research is the beginning of a whole new approach,” said Dr. Larner. “Understanding how different cancers alter different trace metals within the body could enable us to develop both new diagnostic tools and new treatments that could lead to a ‘two-pronged’ attack on many cancers. Further research is already underway to see what changes in other metals may be caused by other cancers.”
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Over 50 years ago, the US Surgeon General released the first-ever report on smoking, which officially declared that it caused both chronic bronchitis and lung cancer.
Despite the ramifications of that report and the significant drops in smoking rates, cigarettes still cause about 30 percent of all cancer-related deaths in the US, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society.
A similar report from 30 years ago found that 30 percent of all American cancer deaths were linked to smoking, and the new American Cancer Society study is the first attempt to update that statistic. While the new report, published in the Annals of Epidemiology, might infer that progress hasn’t been made – new smoking-related cancers have been added to the conversation.
In the new study, researchers examined the most current information on smoking rates from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and information on the hazards of smoking taken from epidemiologic research studies, to figure out what is called the population attributable fraction (PAF), or the percentage of cancer deaths in the population brought on by smoking.
Based on their data, the study team conservatively estimated that the PAF for active cigarette smokers was 29 percent, which included only deaths from the 12 cancers formally established as smoking-related. When estimated more liberally, meaning the inclusion of all cancers, the PAF was 32 percent. The researchers pointed out that their estimates do not contain cancer deaths due to second-hand smoke or other kinds of tobacco use such as cigars or smokeless tobacco.
“Our results indicate that cigarette smoking causes about three in 10 cancer deaths in the contemporary United States,” the study team wrote. “Reducing smoking prevalence as rapidly as possible should be a top priority for US public health efforts to prevent future cancer deaths.”
Some people have claimed that electronic cigarettes are a less hazardous option compared to conventional cigarettes, but a new study from a team of Japanese researchers has revealed high amounts of carcinogens in at least one brand of e-cigarettes.
“In one brand of e-cigarette the team found more than 10 times the level of carcinogens contained in one regular cigarette,” study researcher Naoki Kunugita, who led a team from the National Institute of Public Health, told the AFP news agency at the time.
Additionally, the Japanese team found both formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, two major carcinogens, in the vapor of several e-cigarette liquids.
While he wouldn’t reveal the name of the highly-toxic brand identified in the study, Kunugita said the study’s take away is that e-cigarettes aren’t the harmless products that the manufacturers of these products would have us believe.
“We need to be aware that some makers are selling such products for dual use (with tobacco) or as a gateway for young people” to start smoking, Kunugita said.
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Rayshell Clapper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Every single month, women across the globe suffer from premenstrual syndrome, more commonly known as PMS. In fact, about 80 percent of women suffer from at least one symptom of PMS as the Office on Women’s Health (OWH) website explains.

What exactly are the symptoms of PMS? According to the OWH website, the symptoms can be physical and emotional, and they include the following:

• Acne
• Swollen or tender breasts
• Feeling tired
• Trouble sleeping
• Upset stomach, bloating, constipation, or diarrhea
• Headache or backache
• Appetite change or food cravings
• Joint or muscle pain
• Trouble with concentration or memory
• Tension, irritability, mood swings, or crying spells
• Anxiety or depression

Each woman who has PMS experiences different symptoms. Any one of these could leave women feeling awful, but some women suffer more than one, which could be devastating. Although the symptoms may be temporary, each month brings them back. Obviously, anyone who experiences any symptom of PMS would desire treatment. Current treatments include lifestyle changes, alternative therapies, and medications. OWH breaks down the current treatments. For lifestyle changes, the focus is on exercise, healthy diet, good sleep, stress management, and avoiding smoking. Current alternative therapies include adding certain vitamins and minerals to one’s daily life. Medications given to treat PMS consist of ibuprofen, ketoprofen, naproxen, and aspirin.

Despite all this, many women still suffer through the pains and troubles of PMS.

However, a collaborative study between the University of Bristol, the University College London, and the University of Sao Paolo-Ribeirão Preto in Brazil has found a possible new treatment in the form of the anti-depressant Prozac, also called fluoxetine.

According to the University of Bristol, “PMS appears to be triggered by the fall in secretion of the ovarian sex steroid hormone progesterone that occurs towards the end of the menstrual cycle and leads to a decline in its breakdown product allopregnanolone, which acts in the brain as a potent sedative and tranquilizing agent.”

In layman’s terms, this means that women with PMS suffer from a type of natural drug withdrawal response. The brain reacts to the drop of progesterone and the subsequent decline of allopregnanolone.

The researchers found a connection between the anti-depressant fluoxetine and how the brain inhibits a certain enzyme, which deactivates allopregnanolone. As the fluoxetine inhibits the enzyme, the allopregnanolone does not decline in its breakdown thus the brain retains its necessary chemical balance. The connection was first recognized in rats, but the study found that fluoxetine had the same effect on the human brain, which means that it could potentially help women who suffer from PMS.

As the University additionally explains: “A paper published in the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology, coupled with the team’s recent findings published in the British Journal of Pharmacology, show that short-term treatment with a low dose of fluoxetine immediately prior to the rat’s premenstrual period not only raised brain allopregnanolone and prevented the development of PMS-like symptoms but also blocked the increase in excitability of brain circuits involved in mediating the stress and fear responses that normally occur during this phase of the cycle.”

Further good news from this study comes in the fact that the dose of the fluoxetine was much lower than that given to patients dealing with depression. Moreover, the study showed that the lower dose of the anti-depressant worked much sooner to prevent symptoms of PMS versus treating the symptoms of depression. In those who take the drug for depression, it has to get into the system for weeks before the patient experiences any benefits. For those who may take it to treat PMS, it started working within hours.

For the 80 percent or so of women who suffer from one or more of the aforementioned PMS symptoms, the study about fluoxetine and its potential benefits could mean the difference between happiness and depression, between living life and hiding due to the mental and physical pains. As human trials begin in Brazil, perhaps new drugs will develop as well. A future without PMS is certainly one most of us would like to see, men and women alike.

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Provided by Cathy Wilde, University at Buffalo
A new study has shown that smoking can inhibit the success of treatment for alcohol abuse, putting people who are addicted to both tobacco and alcohol in a double bind.
According to findings by the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions (RIA), clients who smoke have shorter stays in alcohol treatment programs than non-smokers and may have poorer treatment outcomes than non-smokers.
Kimberly Walitzer, PhD, deputy director and senior research scientist at RIA, led the study, which analyzed more than 21,000 adult treatment seekers from 253 community outpatient substance abuse clinics across New York State.
“The data suggest that smoking is associated with difficulties in alcohol treatment,” Walitzer says. “Tobacco smokers had shorter treatment durations and were less likely to have achieved their alcohol-related goals at discharge relative to their nonsmoking counterparts.
“This should be a major concern for treatment providers, as the majority of people with alcohol disorders are, in fact, smokers,” she explains.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, less than 20 percent of people in the US are regular smokers. However, a much higher percentage of people with alcohol use disorders are smokers. Further, both smoking and problem drinking are associated with life challenges such as unemployment, lack of high school diploma or GED, criminal justice involvement, mental illness and/or other substance abuse.
For women, these associations are even stronger. Although less than 15 percent of women smoke in the general community, Walitzer’s data indicate that 67 percent of women seeking alcohol treatment were smokers, compared to 61 percent of the men. Unfortunately, the study’s results show that women who smoke have even more difficult circumstances and poorer alcohol treatment outcomes than men who smoke.
What is the solution? “Previous research indicates that if people can quit smoking when entering alcohol treatment, they may have better alcohol outcomes,” Walitzer says. “However, simultaneous cessation is a task that is very challenging to accomplish.”
The study appears in the journal Substance Use and Misuse, and its co-authors are RIA’s Ronda L. Dearing, PhD, senior research scientist; Christopher Barrick, PhD, senior research scientist; and Kathleen Shyhalla, PhD, data analyst. It was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Eating or drinking from bottles or cans lined with the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) could increase a person’s blood pressure, according to new research published Monday in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension.
While previous research has linked consumption of BPA, a substance used as an epoxy lining for cans and plastic bottles, with high blood pressure and heart rate variability, the new Seoul National University College of Medicine-led study indicates that exposure from canned beverages actually has the same effect.
“A 5 mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure by drinking two canned beverages may cause clinically significant problems, particularly in patients with heart disease or hypertension,” study author Yun-Chul Hong, director of the South Korean university’s Environmental Health Center and chair of its Department of Preventive Medicine, said in a statement. “A 20 mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure doubles the risk of cardiovascular disease.”
As part of their study, Hong and co-author Sanghyuk Bae recruited 60 adults over the age of 60 (mostly Korean women) from a local community center for a randomized crossover trial. Each participant visited the study site on three different occasions, and was randomly provided with soy milk in either cans or glass bottles.
Two hours after the consumption of each beverage, urine samples were later collected and tested for BPA concentration levels, blood pressure and heart rate variability. The researchers found that urinary BPA concentration increased by as much as 1,600 percent in those consuming canned beverages versus the glass-bottled ones.
Hong and Bae explained that soy milk was the ideal beverage for the test, as it contains no ingredient known to cause blood pressure to become elevated. They believe their findings could help policy-makers, the healthcare industry and the general public become more aware of the cardiovascular health risks associated with BPA exposure.
“Because these results confirm findings from other studies, doctors and patients, particularly those with high blood pressure or heart disease, should be aware of the possible risks from increased blood pressure when consuming canned foods or beverages,” Hong told Stephen Reinberg of HealthDay News.
“Thanks to the crossover intervention trial design, we could control most of the potential confounders… Time variables, such as daily temperatures, however, could still affect the results,” he added. “I suggest consumers try to eat fresh foods or glass bottle-contained foods rather than canned foods and hopefully, manufacturers will develop and use healthy alternatives to BPA for the inner lining of can containers.”
Steven Gilbert, director and founder of the US Institute of Neurotoxicology and Neurological Disorders, emphasized the need to find safer alternatives to BPA for can linings, telling Reinberg that he was particularly concerned about children being exposed to the chemical. BPA has been linked to physical and mental development including gynecomastia (male breast growth), he said, as well as behavioral issues, obesity and type 2 diabetes.
However, Steven Hentges from the American Chemistry Council’s Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group disputed the study’s findings, telling HealthDay News that the claims that BPA, which has been declared safe by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “’may pose a substantial health risk’ is a gross overstatement of the findings, an incredible disservice to public health, and runs contrary to years of research by government scientists.”
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Provided by Amanda Boundris, McMaster University

Researchers from McMaster have identified an important hormone that is elevated in obese people and contributes to obesity and diabetes by inhibiting brown fat activity.

Brown adipose tissue — widely known as “brown fat” — is located around the collarbone and acts as the body’s furnace to burn calories. It also keeps the body warm. Obese people have less of it, and its activity is decreased with age.

Until now, researchers haven’t understood why.

There are two types of serotonin. Most people are familiar with the first type in the brain or central nervous system which affects mood and appetite. But this makes up only five percent of the body’s serotonin.

The lesser-known peripheral serotonin circulates in the blood and makes up the other 95 percent of the body’s serotonin. McMaster researchers have discovered that this kind of serotonin reduces brown fat activity or “dials down” the body’s metabolic furnace.

The study, published Monday in Nature Medicine, is the first to show that blocking the production of peripheral serotonin makes the brown fat more active.

From left to right: Co-authors Waliul Khan, associate professor of pathology and molecular medicine and Gregory Steinberg, professor of medicine, with lead author and post-doctoral fellow, Justin Cran. Credit: McMaster University

“Our results are quite striking and indicate that inhibiting the production of this hormone may be very effective for reversing obesity and related metabolic diseases including diabetes,” said Gregory Steinberg, the paper’s co-author and professor of medicine at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. He is also co-director of MAC-Obesity, the Metabolism and Childhood Obesity Research Program at McMaster.

“Too much of this serotonin acts like the parking brake on your brown fat,” he explained. “You can step on the gas of the brown fat, but it doesn’t go anywhere.”

The culprit responsible for elevated levels of peripheral serotonin may also have been found.

“There is an environmental cue that could be causing higher serotonin levels in our body and that is the high-fat western diet,” said Waliul Khan, co- author, associate professor of pathology and molecular medicine for the medical school and a principal investigator at Farncombe Family Digestive Research Institute. “Too much serotonin is not good. We need a balance. If there is too much, it leads to diabetes, fatty liver and obesity.”

The majority of serotonin in the body is produced by tryptophan hydroxylase (Tph1). The McMaster team found that when they genetically removed or inhibited this enzyme that makes serotonin that mice fed a high-fat diet were protected from obesity, fatty liver disease and pre-diabetes due to an enhanced ability of the brown fat to burn more calories.

Notably, inhibiting the peripheral serotonin doesn’t affect the serotonin in the brain or central nervous system functioning, said Steinberg.

This is in contrast to earlier weight loss drugs which worked to suppress appetite by affecting levels of brain serotonin, but were associated with problems including cardiac complications and increased risk of depression and suicide.

“Moving forward, we think it’s a much safer method to work with increasing energy expenditure instead of decreasing the appetite, which involves more risks,” said Steinberg.

The researchers conclude that reducing the production of serotonin by inhibition of Tph1 “may be an effective treatment for obesity and its comorbidities,” and so the team is now working on a pharmacological “enzyme blocker.”

This study, conducted over five years, was supported by funding from the Canadian Diabetes Association, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Crohn’s and Colitis Canada, MAC-Obesity and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

> Continue reading…

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.