redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online
A new study of migraine sufferers is the latest to demonstrate the remarkable power of the placebo effect, finding that what a doctor tells you when prescribing medicine can influence your body’s response to it. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, compared the effects of the common migraine drug Maxalt (rizatriptan) to an inactive placebo (sugar pill) in 66 sufferers of chronic migraine headaches, a condition whose symptoms include throbbing headaches, nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light and sound.
The researchers from Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston found that study participants reported relief from the placebos even when they knew they were taking them.
Interestingly, the researchers also found a ‘reverse-placebo’ effect, whereby patients who believed they were getting the placebo found that the real drug did not work as well as it should have.
The so-called ‘placebo effect‘ is a powerful, effective medical treatment and has been found to help treat or reduce the symptoms of a wide variety of conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), depression, anxiety, ADHD, restless leg syndrome and others.
However, the current study is the first to quantify how much pain relief is attributed to a drug’s pharmacological effect, and how much to a placebo effect, and demonstrates that a positive message and a powerful medication are both important for effective clinical care.
The study uncovered three key findings: 1) the benefits of Maxalt increased when patients were told they were receiving an effective drug for the treatment of acute migraine; 2) when the identities of Maxalt tablets and placebo pills were switched, patients reported similar reductions in pain from placebo pills labeled as Maxalt as from Maxalt tablets labeled as placebo; and 3) study participants reported pain relief even when they knew the pill they were receiving was a placebo, compared with no treatment at all.
“One of the many implications of our findings is that when doctors set patients’ expectations high, Maxalt [or, potentially, other migraine drugs] becomes more effective,” said Rami Burstein, PhD, the study’s senior author and Director of Pain Research in the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at BIDMC.
“Increased effectiveness means shorter migraine attacks and shorter migraine attacks mean that less medication is needed,” he said.
“This study untangled and reassembled the clinical effects of placebo and medication in a unique manner,” said the study’s other senior author, Ted Kaptchuk, Director of the Program in Placebo Studies and Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS) at BIDMC and Harvard Medical School.
“Very few, if any, experiments have compared the effectiveness of medication under different degrees of information in a naturally recurring disease. Our discovery showing that subjects’ reports of pain were nearly identical when they were told that an active drug was a placebo as when they were told that a placebo was an active drug demonstrates that the placebo effect is an unacknowledged partner for powerful medications,” Kaptchuk said.
The researchers studied over 450 attacks in the 66 participants. After an initial “no treatment” episode in which patients documented their headache pain and accompanying symptoms 30 minutes after headache onset, and again two hours later (2.5 hours after onset), the participants were provided with six envelopes containing pills to be taken for each of their next six migraine attacks.
Of the six treatments, two were made with positive expectations (envelopes labeled “Maxalt”), two were made with negative expectations (envelopes labeled “placebo”), and two were made with neutral expectations (envelopes labeled “Maxalt or placebo”). In each of the three situations – positive, negative or neutral – one of the two envelopes contained a Maxalt tablet while the other contained a placebo, no matter what the label actually indicated. The patients then documented their pain experiences in the same manner as they had initially in the no-treatment session.
The results consistently showed that giving the pills accompanied by positive information incrementally boosted the efficacy of both the active migraine medication and the inert placebo.
“When patients received Maxalt labeled as placebo, they were being treated by the medication – but without any positive expectation,” Burstein said.
“This was an attempt to isolate the pharmaceutical effect of Maxalt from any placebo effect.”
Conversely, the inert placebo labeled as Maxalt was an attempt to isolate the impact of the placebo effect from pharmaceutical effect.
“Even though Maxalt was superior to the placebo in terms of alleviating pain, we found that under each of the three messages, the placebo effect accounted for at least 50 percent of the subjects’ overall pain relief. When, for example, Maxalt was labeled ‘Maxalt,’ the subjects’ reports of pain relief more than doubled compared to when Maxalt was labeled ‘placebo.’ This tells us that the effectiveness of a good pharmaceutical may be doubled by enhancing the placebo effect,” said Kaptchuk.
The researchers were surprised to find that even when subjects were given a clearly labeled placebo, they reported pain relief when compared with no treatment.
“Contrary to conventional wisdom that patients respond to a placebo because they think they’re getting an active drug, our findings reinforce the idea that open label placebo treatment may have a therapeutic benefit,” wrote the study’s authors.
The researchers said the study’s findings suggest that placebos may someday provide a therapeutic boost to drug treatments, although further research is needed to explore how this is best applied in clinical care settings.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Sometimes a snoring sleeping partner requires a little nudge to stop them from ruining your sleep, but what if a little shove isn’t enough? The latest Sleep Number bed may have you covered, as the new x12 model has a Partner Snore button that raises the head of the offending sleeper’s side of the bed.

That button is just one of many new features in the new $8,000 bed. In addition to having the adjustable firmness feature that made Sleep Number famous, the new model boasts extensive sleep monitoring features such as tracking heart and breathing rates. The bed can also track the movements of an entire body to determine sleep quality, instead of simply tracking wrist movement as some wearable devices do.

The bed can gather sleep data from two different people and send it to an iOS app that reports each night’s sleeping performance.

“Too much lately we don’t get enough sleep,” company spokesman Pete Bils told BBC News‘ Dave Lee. “That places a premium on the quality of sleep that we get.”

The new Sleep Number bed was debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, but it wasn’t the only sleep-oriented device on display this year. The French company Withings also showed off a sleep monitoring system called Aura.

“You spend about a third of your life in bed,” said Withings spokesperson Alain Amador. “As of now we’ve only done tracking, but nothing to help you go to sleep and wake up.”

The Aura system’s most prominent element is a smart lamp that plays some relaxing sounds and emits a soft, red light into the room at bedtime. The company says the color has been scientifically proven to stimulate the body’s release of melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone. In the morning, the lamp emits a blue light, which is supposed to suppress the secretion of melatonin – encouraging the user to wake up alert.

The system also uses a sensor pad placed under the mattress to record when a user is moving around the most, so the lamp can switch from red to blue at the optimal time.

Another CES product, SleepPhones, are a music-playing headband, described as “pajamas for your ears”, while Lighting Science’s Good Night light bulb is supposed to filter out the light waves that “get in melatonin’s way.”

While some of these products may have the faint aroma of snake oil about them, Brian Blau, an analyst with information technology research and advisory firm Gartner, said the products should be credited for highlighting a long-neglected problem, low sleep quality.

“In the medical field, to diagnose your sleep problems you need to go to a special facility and be there for multiple nights,” he said. “So, maybe these consumer sleep products can help people with issues they have.”

One interesting product, not at CES, takes sleep-oriented technology in a completely different direction. The Remee sleep mask is said to increase the frequency of lucid dreams, dreams where you’re conscious of the fact that you are dreaming. Lucid dreamers are said to have the power to control their own dreams.

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Adding a little avocado to your lunch not only adds some extra nutrition, but it also may reduce the desire to keep on snacking, according to a new study. Researchers writing in the Nutrition Journal found that adding one-half of a fresh avocado to a lunch helped reduce people’s desire to eat between meals.

The study compared the effects of incorporating fresh avocado into a lunch to determine how it could influence satiety, blood sugar and insulin response and later food intake. Researchers found 26 healthy, overweight adults to participate in the study, some of which added half a fresh avocado to their lunch.

Fresh Hass avocados like the ones used in the study contain three grams of total carbohydrates, less than a gram of natural sugar per one ounce serving and contribute 8 percent of the daily value for fiber.

According to the findings, those who had avocado with their lunch reported a significantly decreased desire to eat, by 40 percent over a three-hour period, and by 28 percent over a five-hour period after the meal. This group of participants also reported increased feelings of satisfaction by 26 percent over the three hours following the meal.

“Satiety is an important factor in weight management, because people who feel satisfied are less likely to snack between meals,” said Joan Sabaté, MD, DrPH, Chair of the Department of Nutrition who led the research team at Loma Linda University.

“We also noted that though adding avocados increased participants’ calorie and carbohydrate intake at lunch, there was no increase in blood sugar levels beyond what was observed after eating the standard lunch. This leads us to believe that avocados potential role in blood sugar management is worth further investigation.”

The researchers said that the avocado contained an additional 112 kcal, which may have accounted for the observed increase in satisfaction and decreased desire to eat.

The team said that more research is still needed to help determine whether the study’s results can be applied to adults with varying BMI and among insulin resistant individuals. However, the findings offer a good basis for future research in how avocados effect satiety, glucose and insulin response.

“These research findings provide support for the emerging benefits of avocados,” Nikki Ford, PhD, Director of Nutrition at the Hass Avocado Board (HAB), said in a statement. “These results further complement our research efforts in weight management and diabetes as well as our continued work to explore the many benefits that fresh avocados have to offer when consumed in everyday healthy eating plans.”

Gerard LeBlond for www.redorbit.com – Your Universe Online

The first Surgeon General’s Report about smoking and its health risks was issued in 1964. This year marks its 50th anniversary. Since then, much progress has been made, with the number of adults smoking being cut by half. However, the use of tobacco products is still the number one cause of disabilities and death in the country.

According to a study published January 7, 2014 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the 1964 report by the Surgeon General that featured tobacco’s effect on health, as well as tobacco control, has helped eight million people extended their lives 20 years.

David T. Levy, PhD, from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the senior author of the study says, “The report and subsequent tobacco control efforts represent the most dramatic and successful public health campaign in modern history, in terms of benefit to the entire population.”

He added, “In 1964, more than 40 percent Americans [sic] adults smoked, and now, 50 years later, less than 20 percent use cigarettes. Our research suggests that this dramatic reduction is due to the 1964 Surgeon General’s report and the tobacco control activity that followed. While this is a significant public health achievement, we have much more to do — smoking continues to be the leading contributor to the nation’s death toll.”

In the past 50 years, an estimated 17.6 million smoking-related deaths have occurred, with 6.6 million of them occurring in people below the age of 65, according to the researchers.

The study was led by Theodore Holford, PhD, of Yale School of Public Health, along with others from the University of Michigan and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

The study involved examining smoking patterns up through 1964, then using those statistics to determine what most likely would have happened if there was no tobacco control or warning labels on cigarette packages. They compared the estimated deaths in the study to actual deaths and found that an estimated 157 million years of life were saved. Approximately 5.3 million of the lives saved were in men and 2.7 million were in women.

“An estimated 31 percent of premature deaths were avoided by this effort, but even more encouraging is the steady progress that was achieved over the past half-century, beginning with a modest 11 percent in the first decade to 48 percent of the estimate what we would have seen from 2004 to 2012 in the absence of tobacco control,” said Holford.

“Today, a 40-year-old man can expect on average to live 7.8 years longer than he would have in 1964, and 30 percent of that improvement can be attributed to tobacco control. The gains for women have been slightly less, 5.4 years, but tobacco control accounts for 29 percent of that benefit.”

Tobacco control, consisting of warnings and higher cost per packs, have contributed to reduced smoking among adults.

Although the percentage of smokers has decreased, the number of cigarette smokers has increased worldwide due to the increase in population, according to the study.

The study revealed that smoking among women decreased by 42 percent, and among men by 25 percent between 1980 and 2012. Four countries — Canada, Iceland, Mexico and Norway — have reduced smoking in both men and women by over 50 percent since 1980.

Dr. Christopher Murray, who is the director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) said, “Despite the tremendous progress made on tobacco control, much more remains to be done. We have the legal means to support tobacco control, and where we see progress being made we need to look for ways to accelerate that progress. Where we see stagnation, we need to find out what’s going wrong.”

The study found that more than six trillion cigarettes are smoked around the world and in 75 countries an average of 20 cigarettes per day were lit up by each smoker in 2012.

“Tobacco control is particularly urgent in countries where the number of smokers is increasing,” said Alan Lopez, Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne. “Since we know that half of all smokers will eventually be killed by tobacco, greater numbers of smokers will mean a massive increase in premature deaths in our lifetime.”

“Although in several countries substantial uncertainty remains in monitoring tobacco exposure and estimating the disease burden associated with it, there can be no doubt that both are large. Policies and strategies to improve global health must include comprehensive efforts to control tobacco use, as envisaged under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. But implementation of policies is not enough; countries, and the global health community, need to collect timely, reliable, and detailed information on the effect of those policies, particularly among vulnerable populations and those being directly targeted by the tobacco industry. If global tobacco control is to benefit from concerted policy action, population-level surveillance of tobacco use and its health effects needs to be strengthened and routinely used to evaluate the impact of tobacco control strategies,” the authors write.

The 1964 tobacco report was released by then Surgeon General Luther Terry. He started a committee who reviewed 7,000 scientific articles and worked alongside more than 150 consultants to gather information for his report. The time of the report’s release — which was on a Saturday — was to gain maximum media coverage for Sunday newspapers. He later referred to the report as a “bombshell.”

The original report sparked levels of the government and businesses to initiate efforts to control smoking. Some of them include, warning labels on cigarette packages, increased taxes, advertising restrictions, limit public smoking areas and products and programs to help people stop smoking.

Rebekah Eliason for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

A new study revealed that the drug ketamine, a potent anesthetic used in human and veterinary medicine and as an illegal recreational drug, is a potential candidate for fast treatment of depression for individuals who do not respond to other types of medications.

From the RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies in Japan, new research using PET imaging studies has demonstrated that ketamine increases the activity level of serotonergic neurons in brain areas that regulate motivation in macaque monkeys. Researchers concluded that the effects of ketamine on serotonin, often referred to as the ‘feel-good neurotransmitter,’ could provide an explanation for its effects as an antidepressant in humans.

This new study utilizes Positron Emission Tomography (PET) molecular imaging and demonstrates that this technique may be a useful in diagnosing major depressive disorder in humans and in developing new antidepressants.

Recently, ketamine was found to act as an antidepressant with short onset and long-term duration among patients suffering from treatment-resistant major depressive disorder. The typical treatment for major depressive disorder includes selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), monoamine oxidase inhibitors and tricyclic antidepressants.

The mechanism behind ketamine’s effect on the depressive brain is still unclear. In this study, Dr. Hajime Yamanaka and Dr. Hirotaka Onoe designed a PET imaging method on conscious non-human primates to understand the effects of ketamine on the serotonergic system in the brain. Along with an international team, they performed the PET study on rhesus monkeys.

The researchers performed a PET imaging study on four rhesus monkeys. Two types of molecules known as tracer molecules were used because they bind almost exclusively to the serotonin 1B receptor 5-HT1B and the serotonin transporter.

Analysis of the images generated by the PET scans enabled the researchers to determine that ketamine causes increased binding of serotonin to its receptor 5-HT1B in the nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum. It also causes decreased binding to the transporter SERT in the same brain regions. Both the nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum are brain regions which are associated with motivation and are closely related to depression.

Additionally, the researchers discovered that using the drug NBQX, which is known to obstruct the antidepressive effects of ketamine in rodents, cancels the effect of ketamine on the serotonin receptor but not on the SERT transporter.

Combining this information, researchers were able to determine the mechanism for ketamine is possibly caused by an increase in the expression of receptors that is mediated by the glutamate AMPA receptor.

The team’s study was published this week in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Most New Year’s resolutions include wanting to become healthier, or to lose weight. There are literally thousands of products out there claiming that they can help a person achieve those goals. Not all of them tell the truth, nor do they have ethical practices when advertising.

This week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a “law enforcement initiative stopping national marketers that used deceptive advertising claims to peddle fad weight-loss products, from food additives and skin cream to dietary supplements,” along with a $34 million dollar settlement with four companies accused of using deceptive advertising practices.

According to Alison Young of USA Today, the FTC says the companies lured consumers with promises of easy weight-loss.

However, “the chances of being successful just by sprinkling something on your food, rubbing cream on your thighs, or using a supplement are slim to none,” said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s consumer protection bureau. “The science just isn’t there.”

The FTC initiative, called “Operation Failed Resolution,” was aimed at stopping misleading claims for products promoting easy weight loss and slimmer bodies.

The four companies in question are Sensa, L’Occitane, LeanSpa, and HCG Diet Direct. All four have been required to drop unsubstantiated claims from their ads, as well as refunding money to customers, according to Diane Bartz of Reuters.

* Sensa made claims that sprinkling its product over food would help customers lose weight without diet or exercise. The FTC charges that the claims are unfounded by scientific studies and the company used misleading endorsements. Sensa, which has had US sales of over $364 million, will pay $26.5 million to its customers. The FTC will also bar the company, its CEO Adam Goldenberg, and creator Alan Hirsh from making weight-loss claims about any dietary supplement, food or drug unless they have two adequate and well-controlled human clinical studies.

* L’Occitane marketed two skin creams, promising that they had “clinically proven slimming effectiveness” and would “visibly reduce the appearance of cellulite.” According to the FTC, these claims were completely without scientific backing. The company will pay $450,000 in reimbursements to customers.

* LeanSpa used fake news sites to promote the acai berry and weight-loss “colon cleanse” supplements. LeanSpa was shut down by the FTC and the state of Connecticut in 2011. Boris Mizhen and his wife Angelina Strano, along with three companies he controls, will surrender over $7 million in cash and real estate in a partial settlement. The FTC is still pursuing lawsuits against other defendants.

* HCG Diet Direct marketed “liquid drops of a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin, which is produced by the human placenta and found in the urine of pregnant women,” according to the Washington Post. The FTC calls this an “unproven human hormone that has been touted by hucksters for more than half a century as a weight-loss treatment.” The FTC won a $2 million settlement against HCG Diet Direct, but the judgment has been suspended due to the company’s inability to pay.

This is not the first time the FTC has taken action against marketers of weight-loss products.

“We do like to periodically bring new cases and new sweeps, both to deter conduct by companies in this area and also remind consumers about the fact that many of the claims in this area are not accurate, and they should be wary of those,” Rich said.

She also stated that media organizations need to do more screening for, and reject deceptive advertisements. The FTC will be sending letters to 75 publishers, broadcasters and media trade groups asking that their staffs be educated on how to spot bogus claims. The agency has also created a “Gut Check” website that will have updated guidance to identify seven weight-loss marketing claims that evidence show are never true.

[ Watch the Video: Best Diets Rated – DASH Takes Top Spot ]
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
U.S. News & World Report published its fourth annual Best Diets rankings this week, ranking DASH Diet as best and the Paleo Diet as dead last. The latest Best Diets ranking includes a collection of 32 in-depth analyses, reviewed by a panel of nutrition and health experts. In order for a diet to make the top of the list, it has to be relatively easy to follow, nutritious, safe, effective for weight loss and protective against diabetes and heart disease.
The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, or DASH diet, topped the list, outscoring both the TLC Diet and the much vaunted Mediterranean diet. This diet was developed to help fight high blood pressure, but has also shown nutritional completeness, safety, ability to prevent or control diabetes, and a strong role in heart health. This diet may not be the best for weight loss, but it does provide great nutrition and a healthy heart.
The DASH diet essentially emphasizes foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and low-fat dairy. It also requires participants to shun things like high-calorie and high-fat sweets and red meat. Finally, the DASH diet says participants should cut back on salt.
The Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) diet took second place on the rankings. This diet was created by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is particularly good at promoting cardiovascular health. This diet works by asking people to choose a target calorie level, cut saturated fat to less than seven percent of daily calories and consume no more than 200 milligrams of dietary cholesterol per day, which is about two ounces of cheese.
Weight Watchers took home the prize for the best weight-loss diet, while the Biggest Loser diet was tied for second place along with the Jenny Craig diet and Raw food diet. Weight Watchers assigns every food a points value, based on its protein, carbohydrate, fat, fiber, calories and how hard your body has to work to burn it off. This diet also won the award for the easiest diet to follow. Experts say that this diet has been proven to help people lose weight and keep it off.
The Paleo Diet first rose to popularity in the 1970s by asking people to follow a diet similar to what our ancestors in the Paleolithic era 2.6 million to 10,000 years ago would have eaten. People following this diet are asked to eat like hunter-gatherers, consuming lots of produce and animal protein while steering clear of processed sugar, grains, legumes and dairy.
The caveman diet was the most searched term on Google in 2013, but the latest ranking shows it falls dead last in both overall health and weight-loss. Experts say the diet was too restrictive for people to follow long-term and that it limited some essential nutrients. While the idea of eating like our ancestors seems attractive to some, the authors of the new report suggest sticking to modern-day diets like DASH, TLC and Mediterranean instead.

Gerard LeBlond for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
A new study from Johns Hopkins University suggests that mindfulness meditation can improve anxiety and depression along with reducing pain.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, included 47 different trials involving 3,515 different people. Results showed that the meditation had small but positive effects on pain, anxiety and depression.
“Anxiety, depression, and stress/distress are different components of negative affect. When we combined each component of negative affect, we saw a small and consistent signal that any domain of negative affect is improved in mindfulness programs when compared with a nonspecific active control,” wrote the researchers, as cited by HuffPost.
In an email to Reuters Health, study lead author Dr. Madhav Goyal wrote, “Many people have the idea that meditation means just sitting quietly and doing nothing. That is not true. It is an active training of the mind to increase awareness, and different meditation programs approach this in different ways.”
Results from the study indicated that people who did mindfulness meditation had a five to ten percent improvement in anxiety symptoms and ten to twenty percent improvement in depression symptoms over people who participated in other activities.
Some studies review the potential harm of mindfulness meditation, but in nine of the included trials, no harmful effects of any kind were reported.
There are differences between mantra meditation and mindfulness meditation. Mantra meditation focuses on a particular word or sound, whereas mindfulness meditation involves paying attention to whatever enters the mind without becoming too focused on it.
Mantra meditation programs involve “use of a mantra in such a way that it transcends one to an effortless state where focused attention is absent.” Programs such as these seem to show no particular health benefits, although the researchers noted that very few studies meet their criteria to be included in the review.
“This lack significantly limited our ability to draw inferences about the effects of mantra meditation programs on psychological stress-related outcomes, which did not change when we evaluated transcendental meditation separately from other mantra training,” they wrote.
The researchers believe more studies need to be done on meditation to attain results on the health benefits of mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness meditation takes time to acquire the skill and it is presumed that the longer you do it the greater the benefits you will gain.
In the same journal, Dr. Allan H. Goroll, MD, from Harvard Medical School, published an article stating that most of the studies were less than 12 months long so, “longer study duration will be needed to address the question of maximum efficacy.”
“Nonetheless, the small but potentially meaningful reductions in the distress of anxiety and depression associated with limited-term mindfulness programs argue for consideration of their use as a means of moderating the need for psychopharmacologic intervention in these conditions,” he added.
Goroll also noted that some of the studies found no benefit, but the desire to control anxiety is a reason why mindfulness meditation is becoming popular today.
He concurred that more studies are needed because people make treatment decisions on what they believe instead of data.
“That is particularly the case with alternative and complimentary approaches to treating medical problems. It ranges from taking vitamins to undergoing particular procedures for which the scientific evidence is very slim but people’s beliefs are very great,” Goroll concluded.
Roughly nine percent of the people in the US reported some type of meditation in 2007, and one percent said they used it as a form of treatment or medicine.
The study included randomly assigning people who had a certain condition like anxiety, pain or depression to do meditation. The people were found through several electronic databases that catalog medical research.
Goyal suggested that meditation was not created for treating health conditions, “Rather, it is a path we travel on to increase our awareness and gain insight into our lives. The best reason to meditate is to gain this insight. Improvements in health conditions are really a side benefit, and it’s best to think of them that way.”

Gerard LeBlond for www.redorbit.com – Your Universe Online

A diet consisting of fresh produce, chicken, fish and olive oil can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes even without weight loss, according to a new study led by Spanish researchers from the Centro de Investigación Biomédica.

The new study involved more than 3,500 older adults with a high risk of heart disease. They were placed into three different groups: a low-fat diet and two Mediterranean diets, one with the addition of mixed nuts and the other with extra-virgin olive oil. They also received no special instructions pertaining to weight loss or exercise.

The Mediterranean diet consisted of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish. The group who used olive oil was allowed just over three tablespoons a day. The mixed nut group was allowed walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts once a day.

The researchers adjusted for other risk factors for diabetes and found that the olive oil group had a 40 percent reduced risk of developing the disease than the low-fat diet group. For5  the mixed nut group, the risk was only 18 percent reduced.

According to the LA Times, three risk factors the study used to determine the subgroup were active smokers, overweight or obesity; family history of premature heart disease; or hypertension or high cholesterol.

The men and woman ranged in age from 55 to 80 and were monitored over four years and between the years 2003 to 2010. The study revealed that 80 people who were in the olive oil group developed type 2 diabetes, 92 in the mixed nut group and 101 in the low-fat diet group.

The research was published online January 7, in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Editor-in-chief of the journal, Dr. Christine Lane, who was not part of the research, commented that the study, “suggests it is possible to reduce the risk of diabetes by changing the composition of your diet. It is another piece of evidence that the Mediterranean diet has health benefits.”

She also added that people, “should work hard to maintain a healthy body weight.”

Olive oil has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, which may be the reason for the reduced risk. But, even though the study suggests long term olive oil consumption will reduce this risk, it doesn’t determine the cause-and-effect.

People who have diabetes don’t produce the hormone insulin and have trouble controlling blood sugar. Frequency of this disease has more than doubled worldwide in the past 30 years. It can cause blindness, kidney failure and lead to amputation.

Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis told Kathleen Doheny of HealthDay, “The important message from this study is the value of a Mediterranean diet plan to satiety and overall health. Inclusion of plant foods, including nuts, along with the use of olive oil in place of solid fats provides a wider variety of phytonutrients, which promote health, aid metabolism and provide feelings of fullness, all important aspects of weight control.”

Dr. David Heber, from UCLA’s Center for Human Nutrition, believes that people should still cut fat from their diets. He stated that when people lose five to ten percent of their body weight by reducing calorie intake as well as exercise, they cut the risk of developing the disease by close to 60 percent.

“Saying that it’s beneficial to consume more olive oil, which has over 100 calories per tablespoon, without weight loss encourages magical thinking about diabetes,” Heber added.

Dr. James B. Meigs, an internal medicine specialist at Harvard, commented that the latest research suggests a Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of the disease as much as preventive medicine. But, he still recommends a low-fat, low calorie diet along with 30 minutes of exercise per day. He also suggest that physicians should still advise weight loss and exercise but sees, “little harm … of also encouraging” a Mediterranean diet.

The groups on the Mediterranean diet were allowed seven glasses of wine per week and the low-fat diet group was told to avoid nuts and vegetable oil, limit store-bought sweets to one per week and remove visible fat from meat. They were also encouraged to eat three servings of low-fat dairy products per day and limit bread, potatoes, pasta or rice to three servings per day.

One factor that may have had an effect on the results was that the groups in the Mediterranean diets stuck to the guidelines more. The researchersnoted that the considerable compliance difference between the Mediterranean groups and the low-fat group were significant. They wrote, “These differences were probably critical.”

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online
A mysterious illness has left a three-year-old Oregon boy with a partially paralyzed face and the inability to blink his eyes due to a shrinking cerebellum, ABC News and other media outlets reported on Monday.
Young Corban Durant has already been to the hospital countless times, including more than 80 times during the first 10 months of his life, according to FoxNews.com. He has a heart valve problem, liver-lung disorder, low muscle tone and neuropathy in his legs, according to reports, but doctors have been unable to locate the root cause of his health issues.
According to Gilliam Mohney of ABC’s Good Morning America, Corban’s cerebellum is apparently shrinking, which can cause nerve degeneration and impair motor function. Despite years of testing, doctors have been unable to provide concrete answers for the boy’s condition. They told Corban and his family that a genetic abnormality is the most likely culprit, but multiple tests searching for specific abnormalities have all come back negative.
His doctors have recommended that Corban be taken to the Mayo Clinic, but as the Daily Mail pointed out, that facility charges an initial consultation fee of $20,000 and the family’s insurance will not cover a visit there. The Durant family has turned to bake sales, car washes, and online fund-raising efforts in an attempt to help Corban get the medical care that he needs.
“We’re really hoping for a diagnosis, an overall diagnosis of his condition, so that we are able to care for him the best that we can and help prolong his life and make it full,” his mother, Natasha Durant, told reporters. She explained that his current doctors “were working on this for four years” and “decided it’s time for him to see a new team.”
“While the disease has taken a physical toll, Durant said Corbin [sic] remains a very outgoing kid and he appears to be aware of how other people perceive his illness,” Mohney said.
Likewise, Natasha said that until three months ago, the energetic Corban “didn’t have a care in the world… [but] he’s starting to understand.” She added that she is hopeful that the Mayo Clinic doctors will be able to find “something to slow it down.”

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Although concussions are caused by a physical trauma, a new study showed that mental exertion after suffering a head injury can delay a full recovery. The new study, which was published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday, suggested that kids who suffer a concussion should try to give their brains a few days rest before returning to normal activities.

“After a concussion, we recommend rest because kids tend to do too much,” study author, Dr. Naomi Brown, a physician in the division of sports medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told HealthDay.

The study included 335 patients between the ages of 8 and 23 who visited the sports concussion clinic at Boston Children’s Hospital. The study team found that almost half of the children and young adults in the study who didn’t reduce their mental strain took 100 days or longer to completely recover. Almost all participants who cut back the most on their daily mental strain had recovered by 100 days, most within two months.

Co-author Dr. William Meehan said while vigorous mental exertion appeared to be detrimental to recovery, more modest levels of mental effort do not seem to delay recovery.

“We recommend a period of near full mental rest after injury – approximately three to five days – followed by a gradual return to full levels of mental activity,” said Meehan, director of the Sports Concussion Clinic at Boston Children’s Hospital.

In the study, participants were asked to describe their symptoms and how much mental work they had done since their last visit. They were given five options for describing their amount of mental work during studies and video games: complete mental rest, minimal mental activity, moderate mental activity, significant mental activity or full mental activity.

The study researchers emphasized that only those who reported the highest level mental activity took the longest time to completely recover and parents should take the study’s findings as a reason to keep their child away from mental activities.

“If you shut down completely, meaning you don’t go to school or do any reading or screen time, or if you do a little bit less than normal, you recover in the same time period – an average of 20 to 50 days,” Brown said.

The doctor said young people who suffer a concussion should slowly resume standard daily mental activity, possibly working only until symptoms such as headaches begin to appear.

“We are not recommending complete abstinence from school, especially after the first week,” she said. “If you go to school for a couple of hours and you are doing OK, then the next day you can go for a little bit more and slowly test it out.”

Brown added that every concussion and every patient is different.

Dr. John Kuluz, a traumatic brain injury expert at Miami Children’s Hospital, said he tells concussion patients to take it easy.

“Rest is the cornerstone of concussion therapy,” he said. “I tell my patients, ‘You have to slow down, but I don’t want you to do nothing. I want you to find the right amount of mental activity for you, and you find that level by paying attention to your symptoms,'” he added.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

A team of American researchers has stumbled upon a way to prevent binge drinking in animal subjects, according to a new report in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience.

By using light to stimulate specific neurons in the brain, the study team was able to show a cause-and-effect relationship between the discharge of dopamine in the brain and drinking behaviors of animals.

“For decades, we have observed that particular brain regions light up or become more active in an alcoholic when he or she drinks or looks at pictures of people drinking, for example, but we didn’t know if those changes in brain activity actually governed the alcoholic’s behavior,” study author Caroline E. Bass, an assistant professor of pharmacology and toxicology in the University at Buffalo’s School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

For the study, the research team trained laboratory rats to model binge-drinking behavior in humans.

“By stimulating certain dopamine neurons in a precise pattern, resulting in low but prolonged levels of dopamine release, we could prevent the rats from binging. The rats just flat out stopped drinking,” Bass said.

The researchers were able to activate dopamine neurons through new type of deep-brain stimulation called optogenetics. The technique uses light instead of the electrical impulses used by traditional methods to stimulate neurons.

“Electrical stimulation doesn’t discriminate,” Bass explained. “It hits all the neurons, but the brain has many different kinds of neurons, with different neurotransmitters and different functions. Optogenetics allows you to stimulate only one type of neuron at a time.”

The pharmacology professor used a virus to place a specially-designed, light-responsive protein into the rodents’ brains. While the protein was activated, it stimulated a specific cohort of dopamine neurons in the subjects’ brains.

“I created a virus that will make this protein only in dopaminergic neurons,” said Bass, who has extensive experience working with viruses.

The UB professor said neuronal pathways explored by this research are involved in many cognitive disorders. This means that the study results have applications in treating mental illnesses and neurological diseases that are dopamine-related. Bass noted that this study’s capacity to target specific dopamine neurons could possibly lead to the use of a novel gene therapy for the brain.

“We can target dopamine neurons in a part of the brain called the nigrostriatal pathway, which is what degenerates in Parkinson’s disease,” she said. “If we could infuse a viral vector into that part of the brain, we could target potentially therapeutic genes to the dopamine neurons involved in Parkinson’s. And by infusing the virus into other areas of the brain, we could potentially deliver therapeutic genes to treat other neurological diseases and mental illnesses, including schizophrenia and depression.”

The new study, which involves mapping the neuronal circuits behind specific behaviors, is a primary focus of President Obama’s Brain Research for Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies initiative (BRAIN). Run under the National Institutes of Health (NIH), BRAIN aims to “fill major gaps in our current knowledge and provide unprecedented opportunities for exploring exactly how the brain enables the human body to record, process, utilize, store, and retrieve vast quantities of information, all at the speed of thought,” according to a statement on the NIH website.

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
The 2013-2014 influenza season is underway in the United States, with more than half the country reporting widespread cases of flu activity, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
While last year’s flu season was one of the worst in recent years in the US, one of this year’s strains – H1N1 – is making up more than half of the cases so far reported. It was during the 2009-2010 flu season that H1N1 caused a global pandemic, spreading from central Mexico to more than 70 other countries, killing in the neighborhood of 284,000 people, according to the CDC.
In just the past week, the number of states reporting above average cases of seasonal flu jumped from 10 to 25, with widespread activity reported in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington state and Wyoming.
According to the CDC, “widespread activity” means that more than 50 percent of geographic regions within a state are reporting flu activity. This particular CDC data measures the overall spread of flu, but not the severity of illnesses.
The flu is responsible for thousands of deaths each year in the US, with peak activity from October to March. This season, the flu is spreading relatively quickly.
“We are seeing a big uptick in disease in the past couple of weeks. The virus is all around the United States right now,” Dr. Joe Bresee, chief of Epidemiology and Prevention in the CDC’s Influenza Division, told Reuters.
During the 2009-2010 flu season, younger people were more susceptible to H1N1. This year it is still too early to tell if the same age group will be most at risk, noted Bresee.
At least six children have died as a result of influenza this year, according to CDC data.
“There is still a lot of season to come. If folks haven’t been vaccinated, we recommend they do it now,” Bresee said.
Dr. Michael Jhung, a medical officer in the CDC’s flu division, told CNN that despite the quick spread, “it’s a typical influenza season.”
He said that flu cases usually peak in January and February, noting that the only difference this year is that H1N1 is the most common strain.
H1N1, which was called swine flu when it broke out around the world in 2009, has maintained a human presence in each flu season since then. Because of this, H1N1 is no longer regarded as swine flu but rather a human seasonal virus, according to Jhung.
In fact, the H1N1 strain is now so common, it was included in this year’s vaccine.
While it is difficult to track illnesses and deaths of each particular strain, CDC data estimates that 381,000 US citizens were hospitalized last year due to influenza; 171 children had also died during the 2012-2013 flu season, which health experts have called a relatively severe season.
Still, flu vaccinations last year prevented 6.6 million illnesses, 3.2 million doctor visits and at least 79,000 hospitalizations, the CDC reported.
Flu vaccines are recommended for all people over the age of six months, especially those who are pregnant and at high risk of complications, which includes the elderly, children under the age of five and those with underlying medical conditions or who have compromised immunity.
For those who do get sick, antiviral medications are a good treatment, Jhung told CNN. He added that antivirals should be administered within two days of the first sign of symptoms for the best effect.
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, told USA Today’s Elizabeth Weise that this year is looking a lot different than last year’s flu season.
H3N2 was the dominant strain in 2012-2013 and was responsible for a larger number of deaths in older people. With H1N1 being the main strain this year, “we fully expect to see many more cases in younger children and middle-aged adults,” Osterholm told Weise.
“Mark my word, by the end of next week we’ll probably see some fear and panic as it starts to hit kids,” Osterholm added.
On a positive note, H1N1 has not had much time to develop a resistance to antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu, noted Bresee.
In Texas, where 25 people have so far died from this season’s flu outbreak, the Texas Department of State Health Services issued an “influenza health alert,” advising clinicians to consider antiviral treatment when necessary, even if an initial rapid-flu test comes back negative. It is also urging all citizens to get the annual flu shot.
“The flu is considered widespread in Texas,” Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman for the state’s health department, said in a statement to Reuters.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

New research published in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology has revealed that odor receptors aren’t just found in the nose – they also line the lungs as well. However, instead of being used to detect the aroma of blueberry cobbler or a succulent roasting chicken, the odor receptors in the lungs trigger a response designed to protect the airways.

“We forget,” said study author Yehuda Ben-Shahar, “that our body plan is a tube within a tube, so our lungs and our gut are open to the external environment. Although they’re inside us, they’re actually part of our external layer.”

“So they constantly suffer environmental insults, and it makes sense that we evolved mechanisms to protect ourselves,” added Ben-Shahar, and assistant professor of biology and medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.

While odor receptors in the nose are embedded in the cell membranes of nerve cells, receptors in the lungs are found in the membranes of neuroendocrine cells. When the lung receptors detect a harsh smell, they set off a hormonal response that constricts the airways, protecting them from harm.

Since airway diseases are marked by hypersensitivity to volatile molecules, the study team theorized that the lungs must have a way of sensing inhaled chemicals. A study published in the journal Science in 2009 found a group of ciliated cells in the respiratory system that have bitter-taste receptors. When bitter odor molecules were detected, the cilia worked harder to sweep them out of the airway.

In the new study, the research team decided to investigate this phenomenon further. By exposing cultured cells to volatile chemicals, the researchers found that respiratory tissues also express odor receptors. These receptors were not found on ciliated cells, but on neuroendocrine cells that release serotonin and other neuropeptides when they are activated.

Ben-Shahar said his team’s finding should have been expected.

“When people with airway disease have pathological responses to odors, they’re usually pretty fast and violent,” said Ben-Shahar. “Patients suddenly shut down and can’t breathe, and these cells may explain why.”

The researchers noted that the cells in the airways are secretory, not neuronal – meaning they are broadly tuned with multiple receptors. Also, instead of sending signals to the brain, the lung receptors inundate local nerves and muscles with hormones.

“They are possibly designed to elicit a rapid, physiological response if you inhale something that is bad for you,” Ben-Shahar explained.

The study team suspected that these pulmonary neurosecretory cells play a role in the hypersensitivity of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to airborne irritants. COPD is a class of diseases that are marked by coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and chest tightness.

When the researchers examined tissues from patients with COPD, they found more neurosecretory cells than in airway tissues from healthy donors. Ben-Shahar says that future research should focus on exploring the genetic mechanisms behind these neurosecretory cells.

“Clearly, primates have evolved distinct cell lineages and signaling systems for respiratory-specific functions,” he added.

Rebekah Eliason for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

For centuries, Chinese medicine has used the roots of the flowering plant Corydalis, which is a member of the poppy family, as a pain reliever. It appears that the roots of this flowering plant contain the compound dehydrocorybulbine (DHCB), which is key pain-relieving compound.

Olivier Civelli of the University of California, Irvine said, “Our study reports the discovery of a new natural product that can relieve pain. This analgesic acts in animal assays against the three types of pain that afflict humans, including acute, inflammatory, and neuropathic or chronic pain.”

This discovery was made from the herbalome project, an attempt to catalog all of the chemical components in traditional Chinese medicine. “Today the pharmaceutical industry struggles to find new drugs. Yet for centuries people have used herbal remedies to address myriad health conditions, including pain. Our objective was to identify compounds in these herbal remedies that may help us discover new ways to treat health problems. We’re excited that this one shows promise as an effective pharmaceutical. It also shows a different way to understand the pain mechanism,” said Civelli.

The new study focused on the corydalis plants which grow mainly in central eastern China. Their underground tubers are harvested, ground and boiled in hot vinegar. Often the concoctions are prescribed to treat pain that includes headaches and back pain.

Researchers began by searching for compounds in corydalis that seemed likely to function in a manner similar to morphine. Civelli explained, “We landed on DHCB but rapidly found that it acts not through the morphine receptor but through other receptors, in particular one that binds dopamine.” Earlier studies have indicated that the dopamine D2 receptor could be a significant player in pain sensation. This new research adds evidence to this theory.

Although corydalis extracts and isolated DHCB are effective for all types of pain, this compound brings a special hope for people who suffer with persistent, low-level chronic pain. One significant aspect is that DHCB does not appear to lose effectiveness when used over long periods of time like traditional opiate drugs.

“We have good pain medications for acute pain: codeine or morphine, for example,” Civelli says. “We have pain medication for inflammatory pain, such as aspirin or acetaminophen. We do not have good medications for chronic pain. DHCB may not be able to relieve strong chronic pain, but may be used for low-level chronic pain.”

Although various prepared types of corydalis are available to be purchased online, Civelli and Liang say DHCB is not ready for the market yet. Before doctors should consider prescribing it to patients, additional testing for toxicity is necessary. These findings were reported on January 2, 2014 in the journal Current Biology.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

A small adhesive wireless patch worn on the chest for up to two weeks is better at detecting abnormal and potentially dangerous heart rhythms than the Holter monitor, the gold standard of care for decades, the Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI) reported Thursday in the American Journal of Medicine.

The researchers said the ZIO Service – which includes the FDA-approved ZIO Patch, data analysis and a diagnostic report provided by device maker iRhythm Technologies – could replace the Holter monitor as the preferred method of tracking electrical heart activity in ambulatory patients.

“This is the first large prospective validation that this new technology superseded the device invented by Norman Holter in 1949,” said the study’s senior author and cardiologist Eric Topol, MD, STSI director and chief academic officer of Scripps Health.

“By tracking every heart beat for up to two weeks, the ZIO Service proved to be significantly more sensitive than the standard Holter, which uses multiple wires and typically is only used or tolerated for 24 hours.

“For millions of people who present each year with suspected arrhythmia, this may prove to be the new standard for capturing the culprit heart rhythm electrical disturbance, most commonly atrial fibrillation which carries a significant risk of stroke,” he said.

The ZIO Patch is a compact, low profile, noninvasive, water-resistant device that is worn for up to two weeks throughout normal activity, and then mailed by the patient to iRhythm for analysis with a proprietary algorithm. The Holter monitor, which was first introduced in the 1940s, includes a fist-sized recorder typically worn at the waist with up to seven lead wires that attach to the chest.

The STSI study used electrocardiograph data collected from 146 patients who were fitted with a ZIO Patch and a Holter monitor after being referred to the cardiac investigations laboratory at Scripps Green Hospital for ambulatory heart monitoring. The Holter monitor was worn for 24 hours, while the ZIO Patch was worn for up to 14 days.

The results showed that the ZIO Service detected 96 arrhythmia events while the Holter monitor detected 61, something the researchers mainly attribute to the patch’s prolonged monitoring.

Doctors who reviewed data from both devices reported attaining a definitive diagnosis 90 percent of the time when using the patch results, compared with 64 percent of the time when using Holter monitor data. Additionally, a survey of study participants found that 81 percent of them preferred wearing the patch over the Holter monitor, with 76 percent saying the Holter monitor affected their daily living activities.

One unexpected finding from the study was that the Holter monitor detected 11 more arrhythmias than the ZIO Service during the initial 24-hour period when both devices were working simultaneously. However, all of those arrhythmias were detected beyond 24 hours by the patch during the device’s extended monitoring period, and the ZIO Service detected two arrhythmias not captured by the Holter during the initial 24-hour period.

“On the basis of these findings, novel, single-lead, prolonged-duration, low-profile devices may soon replace conventional Holter monitoring platforms for the detection of arrhythmia events in patients referred for ambulatory ECG monitoring,” the study’s authors concluded.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online
Researchers have developed a new method of diagnosing wrist problems by creating “movies” of the radiocarpal joint in motion using a series of brief magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, according to a study appearing in Tuesday’s edition of PLoS ONE.
The process is known as Active MRI, and according to the study authors, it could be used to diagnose subtle changes in physiology indicative of the onset of conditions such as wrist instability. The high-speed images produced using the technique are “like a live-action movie,” according to lead author and University of California-Davis radiology professor Robert Boutin.
“The movie can be slowed, stopped or even reversed as needed. Now patients can reproduce the motion that’s bothering them while they’re inside the scanner, and physicians can assess how the wrist is actually working,” Boutin said. “After all, some patients only have pain or other symptoms with movement.”
According to senior author Abhijit Chaudhari, an assistant professor of radiology at UC Davis, wrist instability typically occurs when the carpal bones become misaligned and impact joint function. Typically this occurs as the result of trauma that injures the ligaments between those wrist bones, and it can cause chronic pain, impair mobility and ultimately lead to osteoarthritis.
“Good outcomes in managing the condition are more likely with early diagnosis, when less-invasive treatments are possible,” the university said. “Methods such as dynamic computed tomography and fluoroscopy can image the moving wrist, but these approaches involve radiation and do not show soft tissue such as ligaments – a major part of the wrist’s intricate architecture – as well as MRI scans.”
“MRI scans provide detailed anatomical information of wrist structures without using ionizing radiation, but they cannot help diagnose problems with bone or tendon position that are best seen when the wrist is moving,” Chaudhari added. “Active-MRI provides a detailed and ‘real time’ view of the kinesiology of the wrist in action using a widely available and safe technology.”
Ordinarily, a complete MRI exam takes between 30 to 45 minutes, with each image set requiring at least three minutes. That is nowhere near fast enough to create a video, the researchers said, so instead they developed a new MRI protocol that takes one image every 0.5 seconds and delivers a series of images in just 30 seconds.
In addition, Boutin, Chaudhari and their colleagues had to overcome the issue of imaging errors known as banding artifacts. Movement within the wrist bones can interfere with the scanner’s magnetic field, creating signal drop-offs and creating dark bands that can conceal the moving wrist. In order to address this problem, the investigators used dielectric pads to stabilize the magnetic field and give doctors a clear look at the wrist bones.
As part of their latest study, the investigators used the Active MRI process on 15 wrists belonging to 10 different participants, none of whom reported symptoms associated with wrist problems. The scans were taken during 10 minute exam sessions. During each, the subjects performing a variety of movements, including clenching their fists, rotating their wrists and waving their hands from side-to-side, the university explained.
“It’s quite phenomenal that we can look inside the body while it’s in action using MRI,” Boutin said. “Routine MRI provides exquisite details, but only if the body is completely motionless in one particular position. But bodies are made to move. We think Active MRI will be a valuable tool in augmenting traditional, static MRI tests.”
“Our next step is to validate the technology by using it on patients with symptoms of wrist instability,” added Chaudhari. “We also want to use Active-MRI to study sex distinctions in musculoskeletal conditions, including why women tend to be more susceptible to hand osteoarthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome.”

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

While it may cause some grumbling among smokers, high taxes on tobacco products have been shown to be an effective way to reduce the use of cigarettes. A research review published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine has called for these prohibitive taxes to be taken a step further – suggesting that a tripling of taxes could cut the number of smokers by one-third and stop 200 million premature deaths.

Such a large tax increase, which would double the retail price of cigarettes in some countries, would be especially helpful in low- and middle-income countries where the fairly cheap cigarettes fuel a rising smoking rate, the study authors said.

Study author Dr. Phabhat Jha said the proposed tax increase would also be effective in more affluent countries. He noted that France cut its cigarette consumption in half between 1990 and 2005 by raising taxes well above the rate of inflation. The prohibitively high taxes would also narrow the price gap between the cheapest and most expensive cigarettes, encouraging cessation instead of simply downgrading brands.

“Death and taxes are inevitable, but they don’t need to be in that order,” said Jha, a public health professor at the University of Toronto. “A higher tax on tobacco is the single most effective intervention to lower smoking rates and to deter future smokers.”

Agreements made at the United Nations General Assembly and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2013 Assembly were focused on lowering the popularity of smoking by about one-third by 2025, effectively reducing premature deaths from lung cancer and other chronic diseases.

“Worldwide, around a half-billion children and adults under the age of 35 are already – or soon will be – smokers and on current patterns few will quit,” said study author Richard Peto, an epidemiologist at the University of Oxford. “So there’s an urgent need for governments to find ways to stop people starting and to help smokers give up.”

“This study demonstrates that tobacco taxes are a hugely powerful lever and potentially a triple win – reducing the numbers of people who smoke and who die from their addiction, reducing premature deaths from smoking and yet, at the same time, increasing government income,” Peto added. “All governments can take action by regularly raising tobacco taxes above inflation, and using occasional steep tax hikes starting with their next budget. Young adult smokers will lose about a decade of life if they continue to smoke – they’ve so much to gain by stopping.”

The study team emphasized that studies from the past year have found that men and women who began smoking as children and continued throughout adulthood had two or three times the mortality rate of non-smokers. Both Jha and Peto published papers in 2012 showing that people who stopped smoking when they were young were able to regain nearly ten years of life they might otherwise have lost.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), smoking cessation reduces the risk of lung cancer, coronary heart disease, declining lung function and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Women who stop smoking in their reproductive years have been shown to reduce their risk for infertility.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

A new study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association on Wednesday has indicated that taking vitamin E supplements during the early stages of Alzheimer’s can slow the progression of cognitive decline symptoms.

Study researchers said they found the supplement allowed patients’ to maintain their ability to perform basic tasks by an average of about six months.

“It will be very interesting to see to what extent this will change practice,” study author Dr. Maurice Dysken told Reuters. “I think it will, but we’ll have to see how people in the field such as providers view the findings and patients too.”

Previous research had revealed that the vitamin hampered the disease’s progression in people with a moderately severe Alzheimer’s. However, vitamin E had not been shown to be an effective treatment for people with a pre-Alzheimer’s condition called mild cognitive impairment.

For the new study, the researchers recruited over 610 volunteers between August 2007 and March 2012 from 14 Veterans Affairs medical centers. Participants were arbitrarily assigned to one of four groups.

One group took a daily supplement containing 2,000 International Units (IU) of vitamin E. A second group received the Alzheimer’s medication memantine. A third group took both the supplement and the drug and the final group took a placebo.

After an average of approximately 2.3 years, the study team found that only the group taking the daily supplements showed a slower decline in the ability to perform daily tasks such as bathing or dressing themselves compared to the placebo group.

“I think it’s a well done study, but I think the results are modest,” said Dr. Ronald Petersen, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the Mayo Clinic. He noted that a previous study showed higher risk of death among people taking vitamin E and effect that was not seen in the new JAMA study.

“Nevertheless, it’s out there and it’s published,” he said. “You have to let people know it could be a small risk.”

The researchers warned that their study shouldn’t be seen as way of preventing Alzheimer’s.

“This is not a prevention trial,” Dysken said. “We were enrolling patients with a diagnosis and what we’re looking at is slowing the rate of progression. It does not stop it.”

In an editorial published alongside the study, a trio of experts agreed that the study simply showed a modest way to treat symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

“Considering the difficulties inherent in trying to treat rather than prevent very high-prevalence diseases and the limitations thus far of the therapeutic efforts for people with AD, shifting to more emphasis on prevention seems warranted,” they wrote.

“I think this is an example that we’re really doing research across the entire spectrum of the disease,” the experts added.

One of the editorial authors, Dr. Denis Evans of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, said he was considering mentioning the study to his patients as something with which they could consider supplementing their regular treatment regimen.

“I think a six-month delay will be meaningful for many – if not most – patients,” Dysken said. “But it really does depend on the conversation that needs to be had between patient and primary care provider.”

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

That tightening you feel in your chest when you’re anxious, or that warm sensation that washes over your entire body when you feel loved – those sensations aren’t just in your head, according to new research which maps the physiological changes that accompany different emotions.

The study, which appears in the journal Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences, said that feelings can alter both our mental and physical states in response to various challenges detected in the environment around us. The sensations that arise due to the body changes are an essential part of the emotional experience, and the authors of the study reveal exactly how these emotions are experienced throughout the body.

Dr. Lauri Nummenmaa, an assistant professor in the Aalto University Department of Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science, and colleagues discovered that the emotions most commonly experienced by people trigger strong sensations in the body. Furthermore, they found that the body maps of these sensations were topographically different based on the different emotions experienced.

“The sensation patterns were, however, consistent across different West European and East Asian cultures, highlighting that emotions and their corresponding bodily sensation patterns have a biological basis,” the university explained in a statement. The study was conducted online, and involved over 700 individuals from Finland, Sweden and Taiwan, each of whom were asked to color in the parts of the body when they felt activity increasing or decreasing.

Dr. Nummenmaa and his colleagues conducted five experiments, each involving between 36 and 302 of the 701 total participants. Those subjects reported bodily sensations linked to six basic and seven complex emotions, as well as a neutral state, and colored in the images on a computer based on what they experienced.

Using linear-discriminant analysis, the investigators found that the study participants classified neutral state and basic emotions with a mean accuracy of 72 percent. Furthermore, they were able to discriminate all emotions from each other (complete classification) more than one-third of the time, the study authors reported.

According to Dr. Nummenmaa, by adjusting our bodily states, emotions help prepare us to react quickly to dangers as well as to more pleasurable social interactions present in the environment around us. Awareness of these physical changes could help trigger conscious emotional sensations such as happiness, he added.

“The findings have major implications for our understanding of the functions of emotions and their bodily basis. On the other hand, the results help us to understand different emotional disorders and provide novel tools for their diagnosis,” the university said. The study was funded in part by the European Research Council (ERC) and the Academy of Finland.

Image 2 (below): Different emotions are associated with discernible patterns of bodily sensations. Credit: Dr. Lauri Nummenmaa, Aalto University

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

In one of his final acts as the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg signed a law expanding the Big Apple’s ban on indoor smoking to include electronic cigarettes, various media outlets have reported.

According to a CNN.com blog, Bloomberg gave his seal of approval Tuesday to an initiative expanding the city’s Smoke Free Air Act. Now, use of the battery-operated devices will be prohibited in offices, bars, restaurants and even in city parks.

While Columbia University professor Amy L. Fairchild told CNN’s Poppy Harlow that smoking is “one of the most important public health problems” in the US today, Business Insider’s Dylan Love counters that e-cigarette supporters would be “sure to hate this [new law] because the ‘smoke’ coming out of an electronic cigarette is actually nothing more than water vapor.”

“Smokers turn to them to get their nicotine fix in bars and restaurants and funeral homes and operas and anywhere else that smoking is banned,” Love added. Now, however, since the devices “will be legally identified” as equal to cigarettes, “e-cig smokers will no longer enjoy the loophole/exception” that permitted their use anywhere.

After Bloomberg signed the bill, two protesters immediately lit up cigarettes in the City Hall Blue Room in protest, according to the New York Daily News. One of those protestors was Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment (CLASH) founder Audrey Silk, who had her cigarette seized by security.

“Good people disobey bad laws,” Silk told reporter Erin Durkin. Bloomberg, who Durkin described as “nonplussed” by the protest, said, “We just don’t permit smoking in public buildings. I think it’s time to leave. Thank you very much.” The new bill was one of 22 signed by the outgoing mayor on Tuesday, with the others including a ban on Styrofoam and a measure designed to reduce toxic emissions from trade waste delivery vehicles.

However, it is the bill equating e-cigarettes to the actual tobacco-based products they are designed to replace that has generated the most media buzz, due largely to the controversy surrounding the devices themselves.

While supporters tout that they are safe and effective replacements for cigarettes, a group of 40 state attorneys general petitioned the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September, calling upon the agency to begin regulating e-cigarettes in much the same way that they do tobacco products.

Earlier in December, a poll of American parents conducted by the University of Michigan found that nearly half of them were concerned that their sons and daughters will use e-cigarettes, and 44 percent of those polled feared that the devices will encourage children and teenagers to start using actual tobacco products. Furthermore, 86 percent of those adults were in favor of prohibiting sale of the devices to anyone under the age of 18.

Gerard LeBlond for www.redorbit.com – Your Universe Online
Next year vending machines will be required to display the calorie information for the products inside as part of Obamacare.
Christine Romans from CNN reports, “The new rules apply to more than 10,000 vending machines companies nationwide that operate 20 or more machines.” In total, about five million vending machines will be affected.
The cost to the companies that supply these machines will be an initial $25.8 million and an estimated $24 million yearly.
The FDA says that if just 0.2 percent of obese people ate 100 fewer calories per week, there would be a savings of $24 million a year in health care costs.
According to the National Automatic Merchandising Association, the initial investment of $2,400 plus an annual cost of $2,200 is a substantial amount for small companies who only profit a few thousand yearly.
Eric Dell, the vice president of the group said, “The money that would be spent to comply with this – there’s no return on the investment.”
Companies will have one year to comply with these new regulations, but the group wants the government to allow more flexibility.
The information may be displayed electronically or some companies may just place stickers on the machine.
Brennan Food Vending Services, a small company in Londonderry, Ohio, doesn’t like the new rules. Owner Carol Brennan, who employs five people and services hundreds of machines, says she’ll be forced to limit items so her employees don’t spend a lot of time updating the calorie information.
“It is outrageous for us to have to do this on all our equipment,” she stated. “How many people have not read a label on a candy bar?” she added. “If you’re concerned about it, you’ve already read it for years.”
A man from Seattle, Kim Gould, said while standing at a vending machine with his 12-year-old daughter, “People have their reasons they eat well or eat poorly.”
Gould said he only makes purchases when he is hungry and when there are no other options. He added, “How do we know people who are buying candy in the vending machines aren’t eating healthy 99 percent of the time?”
A New York study in 2011 found that one in six people look at nutritional information at restaurants, according to an AP report appearing in USA Today. Those who did look at the nutritional content ordered a meal with about 100 fewer calories. Another recent study in Philadelphia determined there was no difference in calorie consumption after the city’s labeling law took effect.
Brian Ebel, an assistant professor at New York University’s department of population health and medicine, said, “There is probably a subset of people for whom this information works, who report using it to purchase fewer calories, but what we’re not seeing though is a change at an overall population level in the number of calories consumed.”
He also noted that the implement of labels on vending machines might be just as ineffective.
In 2005, the vending machine group produced a “Fit Pick” system that includes stickers that display fat and sugar content on the front of products. This system is used by almost 14,000 businesses, schools, government agencies and all branches of the military.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online
The number of US states reporting widespread seasonal flu activity has more than doubled in the last week, and the H1N1 swine flu is the predominant strain of influenza in the south-central part of the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday.
According to CNN’s Ashley Hayes, the states that are reporting an increase in flu activity being experienced in over 50 percent of their counties or geographical regions jumped from four to 10 last week. Previously, only Alabama, Louisiana, New York and Texas had reported widespread activity, but Alaska, Kansas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wyoming have joined those states.
While the CDC’s flu activity measures only the spread of the flu and not the severity of the illness, Hayes noted six states (Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas) have reported a high ratio of outpatient visits to doctors or hospitals associated with flu-like symptoms. CDC medical officer Dr. Michael Jhung told CNN that thus far it has been “a typical influenza season, if I can use that word.”
However, one aspect of the season that has not been typical is the fact that H1N1 has been the most commonly reported strain. In fact, according to Associated Press reporter Juan Carlos Llorca, the so-called swine flu has already resulted in 13 deaths in the Houston, Texas area, including one teenager.
Approximately 95 percent of the influenza A cases reported statewide have been H1N1, Llorca added.
Jhung told reporters the strain is “the same H1N1 we have been seeing the past couple of years and that we really started to see in 2009 during the pandemic,” and Steven Reinberg of HealthDay News explained this particular strain is different from other types of flu because “it tends to strike younger adults harder than older adults.”
“This year, because it’s an H1N1 season so far, we are seeing more infections in younger adults, and some of these folks have underlying conditions that put them at risk for hospitalization or death,” the CDC flu expert added. On the plus side, he noted this year’s version of the flu vaccine protects against swine flu.
The CDC expects flu activity to increase nationally over the next few weeks, and should reach peak levels during the first two months of 2014. While agency officials do not expect the spread of H1N1 to reach pandemic levels like it did four years ago, they nonetheless recommend vaccinations for anyone over the age of six months.