Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that people who use prescription sleep aids are more likely to be older, female or well-educated.

The report found that approximately 4 percent of all American adults say they recently used a sleep medication. That percentage was higher, however, for those between the ages of 50 and 59, as well as those 80 and older.

Study author Yinong Chong says that people in their 50s could have trouble sleeping because of compounded stress from work and family responsibilities.

“It gives the picture of a sandwiched group who has family, not only children but also probably elderly parents but still you’re likely to be in the workforce, so you get squeezed at both ends in terms of family responsibility and job responsibility,” said Chang, an epidemiologist at the CDC. Chang also notes that sleep habits may improve during the 60s as people retire but before potential chronic health problems usually set in.

In the study, the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics surveyed adults 20 and older about their use of prescription sleep aids within the last 30 days. Participants were also asked to show interviewers their relevant medication or prescription information.

“You get how many people are actually using them,” Chong said. “This is actual use.”

The researchers found that 5 percent of women surveyed had reported recently taken a sleep aid compared to about 3 percent of the men surveyed. The CDC team found that education was also a factor: Approximately 3 percent of those without a high school diploma reported using sleep aids compared to 4.4 percent of those with a high school diploma or higher.

Critics of prescription sleep aids point out that some patients continue to feel their effects after they wake up – making driving and other activities potentially dangerous. the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is starting to take these criticisms seriously and has ordered that dosages of some of the drugs be lowered.

In their report, the study authors noted that prescriptions for sleep medications have tripled over the past 20 years. The study, which examined trends from 2005 to 2010, is the first to look at changes in sleep aid use through the lens of social and demographic groups, say the authors. They also noted that between 50 million and 70 million Americans have sleep issues or are sleep-deprived.

“Prescription sleep aids are one of the treatment options for trouble going into or maintaining sleep,” the authors wrote, adding that their long-term use can be harmful.

According to the nonprofit advocacy group the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), the typical adult needs seven hours of sleep to avoid a higher risk or death or other health issues. The amount of sleep is determined by two factors: basal sleep – the amount of sleep your body regularly needs – and sleep debt – sleep that is lost due to sickness, environmental factors or other reasons, according to the NSF.

“Two studies suggest that healthy adults have a basal sleep need of seven to eight hours every night, but where things get complicated is the interaction between the basal need and sleep debt,” said a statement on the group’s website. “For instance, you might meet your basal sleep need on any single night or a few nights in a row, but still have an unresolved sleep debt that may make you feel more sleepy and less alert at times.”

“The good news is that some research suggests that the accumulated sleep debt can be worked down or ‘paid off,’” the group said.

Peter Suciu for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

While the 1970 Clean Air Act was put in place by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to protect the public health, a new study by researchers from MIT’s Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment have found that these efforts likely aren’t doing enough.

This new study found that vehicle emissions are the biggest contributor to premature death. According to the study more than 200,000 early deaths occur in the United States each year due to combustion emissions, and the leading causes are road transportation and power generation.

The findings were published in the journal Atmospheric Environment.

“Combustion emissions adversely impact air quality and human health,” the paper’s abstract noted. “A multiscale air quality model is applied to assess the health impacts of major emissions sectors in United States. Emissions are classified according to six different sources: electric power generation, industry, commercial and residential sources, road transportation, marine transportation and rail transportation. Epidemiological evidence is used to relate long-term population exposure to sector-induced changes in the concentrations of PM2.5 and ozone to incidences of premature death.”

The MIT researchers tracked the different emission sources, and found that road transportation is the most significant contributor, causing 53,000 premature deaths, followed closely by power generation, with 52,000.

The researchers noted that California suffers the worst health impacts from air pollution, in a state-by-state analysis, with about 21,000 early deaths annually, mostly attributed to road transportation and to commercial and residential emissions from heating and cooking. In addition, the researchers sought to map local emissions in 5,695 US cities. They found that the highest emissions-related mortality rate was in Baltimore, where 130 out of every 100,000 residents are likely to die in a given year due to long-term exposure to air pollution.

“In the past five to 10 years, the evidence linking air-pollution exposure to risk of early death has really solidified and gained scientific and political traction,” said Steven Barrett,  an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. “There’s a realization that air pollution is a major problem in any city, and there’s a desire to do something about it.”

These findings are in line with a new study from NASA that found a strong connection between pollution and population density. That study utilized satellite observations to calculate air pollution’s dependence on population for cities in the United States, Europe, China and India.

The MIT study found that a person who dies from an air pollution-related cause typically dies about a decade earlier than he or she otherwise might have. In looking at the effects of air pollution the team obtained emissions data from the EPA’s National Emissions Inventory, a catalog of emissions sources nationwide, to determine the number of early deaths.

The researchers looked at collected data from the year 2005, which was the most recent data available at the time of the study. From here the study’s authors divided the data into six emissions sectors: electric power generation; industry; commercial and residential sources; road transportation; marine transportation; and rail transportation. Barrett’s team fed the emissions data from all six sources into an air-quality simulation of the impact of emissions on particles and gases in the atmosphere.

While the study is based on data that is more than seven years old, Barrett said the results are likely representative of today’s pollution-related health risks.

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

A salad-mix packaging facility associated with the Cyclospora outbreak that has so far sickened more than 600 people in 22 US states has been given the green light to return to production following an extensive investigation.

Over more than a week, from August 11-19, the FDA with the cooperation of the Mexican government, conducted a thorough environmental assessment of the processing facility owned and operated by Taylor Farms de Mexico, S de RL de CV as well as five farms identified during an initial Cyclospora outbreak traceback investigation.

Following the initial traceback investigation, which was jointly conducted by the FDA, the CDC, and state health departments in Iowa and Nebraska, it was discovered prepackaged salad mix used at Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants was directly related to the Cyclospora outbreaks in Iowa and Nebraska. That salad mix was found to be produced and distributed by Taylor Farms de Mexico.

Following that news, Taylor Farms de Mexico reported to the FDA on August 12 it had voluntarily ceased production and halted deliveries of its product on August 9. However, the company also noted it would return to production even without FDA approval once it deemed its facilities were safe. Still the agency conducted a thorough environmental assessment of the produce company, which wrapped up last week.

Upon completion of this assessment, FDA officials found conditions and practices observed at these facilities were in accordance with current food safety protocols. As well, no illnesses have cropped up in Iowa or Nebraska since July 2 that could be tied to Taylor Farms. Nor, states the FDA, has any other US state currently dealing with a Cyclospora outbreak been linked to this company.

As a result, the FDA has agreed to the firm’s plan to resume its operations. Taylor Farms de Mexico “has committed to a comprehensive Cyclospora sampling program for leafy green and other products from their farms and processing facility in Mexico,” said the FDA “This will include both sampling of their products and water and continued monitoring of the sanitary conditions of their facilities.”

The company had resumed operations as of August 25.

While the investigation of Taylor Farms is likely over for now, the FDA, CDC and state health departments continue to probe the Cyclospora outbreak that is gripping at least 20 other states in the Union.

As of August 23, the CDC has been notified of 610 cases of cyclosporiasis – the disease associated with the single-celled Cyclospora parasite.

The following states have been affected by this outbreak: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Texas continues to receive the highest amount of cases with the latest official number at 258 infections. Iowa has seen the second-highest number of cases with 156 infections. Nebraska has reported 86 infections and Florida 31. All other states have seen fewer than 20 cases with most of those fewer than 6 cases.

It is still unclear if the cases seen in states besides Iowa and Nebraska are all linked to a similar source, or if they are all part of separate outbreaks. The FDA is continuing its investigation and has not ruled out any possibilities.

According to an Associated Press report, it may continue to be a difficult investigation due to the fact that Cyclospora is not commonly found in the US and there may be many illnesses that have gone unidentified. Cyclospora testing must be done specifically and many doctors don’t bother because of the rarity of the illness. The CDC also said it doesn’t have the tools to distinguish one strain from another, which makes it even harder to determine if the outbreaks are from a unique source or from several.

It may be likely the investigators will not find the source of infection in the latest round of outbreaks. Still, the probe continues.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Astronomers have developed groundbreaking optical techniques to bring distant stars into focus and this same technology is now being appropriated by eye care professionals to improve their analysis and corrective methods.

According to a recently published review in the journal Optometry and Vision Science by Indiana University optometrist Larry N. Thibos, the concept of ‘wavefront optics’ is transforming how vision professionals are looking at issues they encounter in their everyday practice.

“Instead of light arriving at a lens from a star, imagine a point source of light reflected from the retina and emerging from the eye’s optical system as a wavefront,” Thibos explained in the review. “If we can measure the slope of the emerging wavefront at many points on the wavefront, then we have all of the information needed to reconstruct the shape of that wavefront, thereby obtaining a comprehensive description of the eye’s optical aberrations.”

Thibos said the traditional method for assessing the eye involves complications that are eliminated by wavefront optics.

“Although it is possible to accomplish the same result by measuring the intersection point of light rays with an image plane near the focus point, that approach is more difficult because the rays overlap and get confused near the focus point, so they must be isolated and measured sequentially,” he said “By measuring wavefront slope near the eye, where individual rays are well separated, it becomes possible to make many measurements simultaneously.”

According to Dr. Anthony Adams, Editor-in-Chief of Optometry and Vision Science, an array of ‘higher-order’ abnormalities in the eye can cause problems for both the patient and the eye care professional looking to diagnose any problems.

“In the past two decades, optometry and ophthalmology researchers have borrowed techniques for measuring and correcting these higher-order abnormalities,” Adams said. “Astronomers already used these techniques to enable a clear telescopic view of planets and stars, undistorted by the focusing aberrations resulting from the earth’s atmosphere.”

In his review, Thibos predicted important advances in vision care that would result from pursuing wavefront optics approaches, such as monitoring potential deterioration of the tear film, assessing the outcomes of certain corrective therapies, and tracking visual abnormalities in growing eyes. He added that some cutting-edge methods are already being used.

“Some of these corrections are even finding their way into contact lens and spectacle designs,” he said.

In addition to describing the rewards of pursuing a wavefront optics approach, Thibos’ review includes several diagrams and teaching tools that could be used in an educational setting.

As noted in the journal article, Thibos was recently named the 2012 winner of the American Academy of Optometry’s Charles F. Prentice Medal, which is awarded annually to someone who has contributed significantly to the visual sciences.

“Dr. Thibos is quite unique in his extraordinary ability to relate these advances in optics to the very fundamentals of ophthalmic optics which the ‘Father of Optometry,’ Charles F. Prentice, articulated more than 120 years ago,” Dr. Adams comments. “It is fitting that he was awarded the Charles F. Prentice Medal for his work—the highest Award of the American Academy of Optometry.”

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Coffee consumption could help limit the progression of prostate cancer, as well as helping prevent the disease from recurring, experts from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) claim in a new study.

Writing in the journal Cancer Causes & Control, the researchers reported that men who consumed at least four cups of the caffeinated beverage each day experienced a 59 percent decrease in their risk of prostate cancer recurrence and/or progression in comparison with those who only drank no more than one cup each week.

Corresponding author Janet L. Stanford, co-director of the Program in Prostate Cancer Research in the Fred Hutch Public Health Sciences Division, and her colleagues conducted their research in order to determine whether or not the bioactive compounds found in coffee and tea could help prevent recurrence of this typically slow-growing cancer of the walnut-sized gland.

Stanford’s team did not find a link between coffee consumption and a reduction in the risk of mortality from prostate cancer, though they said that the study included too few men who succumbed to the ailment in order to directly address that issue. Furthermore, the authors were unable to reach any conclusion regarding the potential impact of drinking them on prostate cancer-related death.

“To our knowledge, our study is the first to investigate the potential association between tea consumption and prostate cancer outcomes,” they wrote. “It is important to note, however, that few patients in our cohort were regular tea drinkers and the highest category of tea consumption was one or more cups per day. The association should be investigated in future studies that have access to larger populations with higher levels of tea consumption.”

Over 1,000 prostate cancer survivors between the ages of 35 and 74, all of whom were diagnosed between 2002 and 2005 and were residents of King County in Washington, participated in the study. They answered a series of questions regarding their food and beverage consumption two years prior to their diagnoses, and were also interviewed regarding their demographics, lifestyle information, family history of cancer, medication use and screening history for prostate cancer. The researchers followed up with each for a period of over five years after diagnosis.

Six-hundred thirty of the participants answered questions regarding coffee intake, fit the follow-up criteria and took part in the final analysis, the authors said. Of those men, 61 percent said that they drank at least one cup of coffee each day, while 12 percent said that they consumed four or more on a daily basis.

Stanford’s team reports that their findings are consistent with the Harvard’s Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS), which found that men who drank at least six cups of coffee each day had a 60 percent decreased risk of metastatic/lethal prostate cancer versus non-drinkers.

“The researchers emphasize that coffee or specific coffee components cannot be recommended for secondary prevention of prostate cancer before the preventive effect has been demonstrated in a randomized clinical trial,” FHCRC explained. “Further, there’s ongoing debate about which components in coffee are anti-carcinogenic, and additional large, prospective studies are needed to confirm whether coffee intake is beneficial for secondary prevention.”

Earlier this month, experts from National University of Singapore and Duke University published research suggesting that drinking coffee could reduce fatty liver in people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition found in 70 percent of people diagnosed with diabetes that can currently only be treated through diet and exercise.

Furthermore, the caffeinated beverage has also recently been linked to a 21 percent increase in overall mortality risk for those drinking over 28 cups a week, and a more than 50 percent increase in both men and women younger than 55 years of age. According to the latest National Coffee Drinking Study from the National Coffee Association, over 60 percent of US adults drink coffee every day, consuming slightly more than three cups a day on average.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

The anti-seizure drug valproate has been shown to be extremely effective, but a new study has found that it increases the risk of pregnant women giving birth to a child with spina bifida or hypospadias when taken in higher doses.

The finding allows for women who suffer from seizures to make a more informed decision when deciding if they want to have a child.

“For many women on epilepsy medication, the desire to start a family can be fraught with fear that they could have a baby with a range of disabilities or malformations,” said study co-author Terry O’Brien, an epilepsy specialist with The Royal Melbourne Hospital.

“Previous studies have shown a strong relationship between the dose of valproate taken and the risk of the child having a birth defect,” O’Brien added. “However, for many women valproate is the only drug that will help control their seizures.”

Spina bifida is an incurable, debilitating birth defect of the spine and spinal cord, which occurs in the first three months of pregnancy. Hypospadias is a birth defect of the penis that can be treated by corrective surgery.

“Through our research, we now know that by reducing the dose taken in the first trimester of pregnancy, the risk of having a baby with spina bifida or hypospadias will be greatly reduced,” O’Brien said.

The neurologist added that other birth defects such as cleft palates and heart defects were prevalent in women who took the anti-seizure drug, regardless of dosage.

The study was based on data from the Australian Pregnancy Register (APR), which included information on more than 1,700 women with epilepsy who have been or are currently pregnant. Based at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, the APR has gathered game-changing epilepsy data since 1999.

According to study author and epilepsy expert Frank Vajda, the study could make a significant difference for women with epilepsy and their families.

“We always knew that epilepsy drugs were responsible for the high level of fetal malformations but we never knew how much dosage played a role until recently,” he said. “The present findings for spina bifida are clinically significant, as 80 percent of all instances of spina bifida in the APR were associated with valproate exposure.”

“However, since the collection of data for the APR started, we have noted that valproate was being taken less often by pregnant women and in lower dosages,” Vajda added. “This evidence now tells us that by using valproate in the lowest dose that can control severe seizures may reduce the hazard of one of the most devastating birth defects.”

Despite its effectiveness, valproate has been the subject of a growing number of studies finding negative side effects of its use, particularly for unborn children. A study published by JAMA in April found a connection between a pregnant woman’s use of the drug and a higher risk of her child developing autism.

“There must be a continuous effort to include this information along with all the other risks in discussions with women of childbearing age who are candidates for valproate,” said the study’s lead author Jakob Christensen.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Long-anticipated rules that would limit exposure to silica dust in the workplace were proposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on Friday.

According to Neela Banerjee of the Los Angeles Times, the new rules would cut exposure to the tiny particles in half. The proposal was developed “amid mounting evidence that current standards do not protect workers from increased risk of lung cancer and silicosis, a progressive, incurable disease,” she added.

Current silica dust standards for workers in the shipbuilding, railroad and construction industries were established more than four decades ago, Banerjee said. The new standards would establish a legal limit of 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air for workplace silica dust concentrations for all industries, over an eight-hour day.

Previously, separate rules limited construction sector (250 micrograms) and the general and maritime industry (100 micrograms). However, in light of a recent domestic oil and gas boom due largely to the practice of hydraulic fracturing, a 2012 federal study conducted last year demonstrated that an increasing number of workers in the energy sector were increasingly at risk of being exposed to respirable silica dust.

OSHA estimates that the new regulations could save as many as 700 lives each year, while also preventing up to 1,600 cases of silicosis annually, according to Wall Street Journal reporter Melanie Trottman. Dr. David Michaels, an assistant secretary in the Labor Department, told Trottman that the rule “uses common sense measures that will protect workers’ lives and lungs – like keeping the material wet so dust doesn’t become airborne.”

Nonetheless, it has already drawn somewhat of a backlash from industrial groups arguing that the changes are unnecessary. Amanda Wood, director of labor and employment policy at the National Association of Manufacturers, told the Wall Street Journal that companies had already taken steps to contain the particles, while the American Foundry Society claims that the proposal would cost the metalcasting industry nearly $1.5 billion annually.

Dr. Michaels also told Steve Greenhouse of the New York Times that the new regulations, which come after a delay of more than two years, would affect over 530,000 businesses – 90 percent of them in the construction industry. He added that the rules would cost industry an average of $1,242 per company (a total of $640 million) to comply, but that the benefits resulting from the OSHA proposal would exceed $4 billion.

“Crystalline silica – tiny particles no more than one-hundredth the size of grains of sand – is created during work with stone, concrete, brick or mortar,” Greenhouse explained. “It can occur during sawing, grinding and drilling and is common in glass manufacturing and sand blasting. One government study found that many workers in hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, were exposed to 10 times the permissible level of silica.”

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

A new study from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland found grandmothers who are a household’s primary caregiver are more likely to suffer from depression, but are highly receptive to assistance.

In one of the longest-running studies of its kind, researchers focused on grandmothers in a variety of family situations, from being full-time caregivers to having no direct role in the care of their grandchildren.

“Although we expected the primary caregiver grandmothers raising grandchildren would have more strain and depressive symptoms,” said co-author Carol Musil, a professor of nursing at Case Western, “we were surprised at how persistent these were over the years examined in the study.”

According to Census data, 5.3 percent of all American households have a grandparent living in the house. Musil said more than 1 million grandmothers have the responsibility of directly raising grandchildren because their parents do not live in the home.

In the study, which was published in the journal Nursing Outlook, the researchers followed 240 randomly-selected grandmothers over six-and-a-half years to see how caring for their grandchildren 16 years and younger affected their well-being. For the first three years, participants, who averaged almost 58 years old, were surveyed about their physical and mental health annually. An additional two surveys were conducted between 2 and 2.5 years apart.

Participants were divided into three caregiving situations: fulltime caregivers for their grandchildren, living in multigenerational households and non-caregivers. The women came from various backgrounds representing rural, suburban and urban Ohio.

While participants showed signs of depression and stress, researchers found that a full-time caregiver situation had no effect on a grandmothers’ resourcefulness, and these women were generally open to receiving a variety of assistance.

Musil said the study showed that grandmothers in a highly stressful situation might be open to resourcefulness training, which has been shown to reduce depressive symptoms in pilot studies.

“They need support from others,” she said, “but the most important thing is to maintain and perhaps develop new cognitive and behavioral skills and approaches for handling some very challenging family issues.”

The Case Western study comes just after another study presented at the Sociological Association’s annual meeting in New York City indicated that a strong grandparent-grandchild bond can benefit both generations.

“We found that an emotionally close grandparent-adult grandchild relationship was associated with fewer symptoms of depression for both generations,” said study co-author Sara M. Moorman, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and the Institute on Aging at Boston College. “The greater emotional support grandparents and adult grandchildren received from one another, the better their psychological health.”

“Grandparents who experienced the sharpest increases in depressive symptoms over time received tangible support, but did not give it,” Moorman added. “There’s a saying, ‘It’s better to give than to receive.’ Our results support that folk wisdom — if a grandparent gets help, but can’t give it, he or she feels badly.”

This study was based on tracking the mental health of almost 380 grandparents and 340 grandchildren from 1985 to 2004 using surveys that were taken every few years.

April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

There are many reasons our bodies age. The process is determined by an accumulation of various kinds of cell damage that impair the function of bodily organs.

A new study from the Karolinska Institutet and the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging shows the damage occurring in the cell’s power plant – the mitochondrion – is of particular importance in the aging process and is determined by the genes we inherit from our mothers as much as the accumulated damage. The findings of the study were published in a recent issue of Nature.

“The mitochondrion contains its own DNA, which changes more than the DNA in the nucleus, and this has a significant impact on the aging process,” says Nils-Göran Larsson, professor at Karolinska Institutet and principal investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging. “Many mutations in the mitochondria gradually disable the cell’s energy production.”

The mitochondrion is located in the cell and generates most of the cell’s supply of ATP, which is used as a source of chemical energy.

This study represents the first time researchers have shown the aging process is influenced by DNA inherited from an individual’s mother, as well as the accumulation of mitochondrial DNA damage during a person’s lifetime.

“Surprisingly, we also show that our mother’s mitochondrial DNA seems to influence our own aging,” said Larsson. “If we inherit mDNA with mutations from our mother, we age more quickly.”

DNA, whether normal or damaged, is passed down between generations. The question of whether it is possible to affect the degree of mDNA damage through lifestyle intervention, however, is yet to be investigated. For now, all the researchers know is mild mDNA damage transferred from the mother contributes to the aging process.

“The study also shows that low levels of mutated mDNA can have developmental effects and cause deformities of the brain,” said Jaime Ross, PhD, at the Karolinska Institutet.

“Our findings can shed more light on the aging process and prove that the mitochondria play a key part in aging; they also show that it’s important to reduce the number of mutations,” said Larsson.

“These findings also suggest that therapeutic interventions that target mitochondrial function may influence the time course of aging,” said Barry Hoffer, MD, PhD, from the Department of Neurosurgery at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Hoffer is also a visiting professor at the Karolinska Institutet.

“There are various dietary manipulations and drugs that can up-regulate mitochondrial function and/or reduce mitochondrial toxicity. An example would be antioxidants. This mouse model would be a ‘platform’ to test these drugs/diets,” said Dr. Hoffer.

The team plans to continue their research on mice, and expand to using fruit flies, to investigate whether reducing the number of mutations can extend their lifespan.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

In the absence of other contributing factors, men between the ages of 48 and 60 are at moderate to severe risk of suffering a heart attack, according to new research appearing in the International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology.

By comparison, in the absence of other risk factors (such as alcohol consumption, smoking and high blood cholesterol), women over the age of 50 only face a mild cardiac risk, Subhagata Chattopadhyay of the Camellia Institute of Engineering in Kolkata and his colleagues wrote in their paper.

Cholesterol levels, alcohol intake and passive smoking continue to be the most important risk factors when it comes to mild, moderate and severe heart disease risk, the study authors discovered. Those conclusions are the result of a data mining exercise used to construct a risk model for heart attacks.

As part of their research, Chattopadhyay’s team used 300 real-world sample patient cases with varying levels of cardiac risk, culling the results based on twelve predisposing factors: age, gender, alcohol abuse, cholesterol level, smoking (active and passive), physical inactivity, obesity, diabetes, family history, and prior cardiac event.

Determining a person’s risk of experiencing an adverse health event such as a heart attack is difficult, as clinical history, symptoms and warning signs typically do not follow a set path. The risk level tends to vary from patient to patient, and the interpretations of the diagnoses rarely conform to the rules of epidemiology.

Using computational data mining techniques makes it possible for experts to extract useful information from real-world clinical data, the researchers explained. It could also help eliminate the subjectivity of clinical prognosis to some degree, allowing the epidemiology to work more precisely at the patient level.

Chattopadhyay’s study is not the first time these types of data mining techniques have been used. Previous studies have reportedly had issues in that data classification was based on decisions made by doctors. As a result, the records were exposed to the subjectivity the researchers were hoping to avoid in this study.

“The essence of this work essentially lies in the introduction of clustering techniques instead of purely statistical modeling, where the latter has its own limitations in ‘data-model fitting’ compared to the former that is more flexible,” Chattopadhyay explained.

“The reliability of the data used, should be checked, and this has been done in this work to increase its authenticity,” he added. “I reviewed several papers on epidemiological research, where I’m yet to see these methodologies used.”

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

One California health system’s efforts to help high blood pressure patients through a comprehensive treatment program resulted in a reduction in hypertension-related stroke and heart disease risk, claims research published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Through the program, experts from Kaiser Permanente Northern California (a coalition of 21 hospitals and 73 doctors’ offices) managed to nearly double the rate of blood pressure control among adult patients diagnosed between 2001 and 2009. The rate of hypertension control throughout their network increased from 43.6 in 2001 to 80.4 percent eight years later, the authors of the JAMA study explained in a statement.

During that time, the national mean control rate increased from 55.4 percent to 64.1 percent, while the California state control rate increased from 63.4 percent in 2006 (the first year for which the data was available) to 69.4 percent in 2009. Those percentages are according to the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set quality measurement set by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, the researchers noted.

“I think there are many parts of this program that would likely be applicable in other primary care settings,” lead author Dr. Marc Jaffe, an endocrinologist at Kaiser Permanente South San Francisco Medical Center, told Reuters Health. “Since the end of the study, the hypertension control rates (at Kaiser) have continued to improve, and as of 2011, our control rates were as high as 87 percent.”

Elements of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) hypertension program include the creation of a comprehensive hypertension registry, the development and sharing of performance metrics, and the establishment of evidence-based guidelines. Furthermore, the approach calls for medical assistant visits for blood pressure measurement, and single-pill combination pharmacotherapy, in which multiple drugs are combined into one pill.

“Two features likely played a big role in the program’s success,” said Lindsey Tanner of the Associated Press (AP). The first was the single-pill combination therapy, which combined the blood pressure drugs lisinopril and a diuretic into a less expensive, easier-to-take form of treatment.

The other part of the program Tanner credits for its success is the fact, starting in 2007, officials at KPNC “began offering free follow-up visits with medical assistants, rather than doctors, checking blood pressure readings. Besides charging no insurance copayment, these brief visits were available at more flexible times, increasing chances that patients would stick with the program.”

Dr. Jaffe called KPNC’s initiative the “first successful, large-scale program” of its kind to be sustained over a long period of time. He noted the study’s success, and the health system’s continued positive results in recent years, “has huge implications for the health of our members” because it reduces their risk of suffering from a stroke or heart disease. Hypertension affects a reported 65 million American adults (or nearly 30 percent of all US residents over the age of 18) and is a major contributor to cardiovascular disease.

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs have been a controversial topic since their effects were first discovered in the 1940s. The euphoric emotions and experiences felt by those under their influence have led some researchers to believe using the drug can lead to mental illness and other negative long-term effects.

A study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), however, now claims LSD and other psychedelics are not linked to mental illnesses. On the contrary, clinical psychologist Pål-Ørjan Johansen and researcher Teri Krebs say there’s a link between the hallucinogens and fewer mental health issues. Their research is now publicly available in the journal PLOS ONE.

Those who experiment with psychedelics often hail them as life-changing and report having spiritual experiences while under their influence. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was an outspoken proponent of the use of LSD in his early days and said his experimentation with the drug marked a turning point in his life. On the other hand, songwriter Brian Wilson (Beach Boys) blames the drugs for the mental anguish he experienced for many years thereafter. Syd Barret, legendary guitarist for Pink Floyd, also claims to have experienced mental issues after taking these drugs.

To conduct their research, Krebs and Johansen borrowed data from the 2001 − 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health conducted in the United States. Here, participants were asked about their mental health and any treatments they had taken over the past 12 months. Specifically, the NTNU researchers were looking for reported cases of general psychological distress, anxiety disorders, mood disorders and psychosis.

Of those surveyed, 22,000 reported taking psychedelics at least once. After analyzing the data, they discovered those who took the drugs as recently as the previous year were not any more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness. There was also no link between those who continued to use acid, peyote or psylocybin mushrooms throughout their lifetime. In fact, Krebs and Johansen found, if anything, these hallucinogens were associated with fewer mental health issues. Those who continued to use the drugs were less likely to find themselves in a mental health facility or take psychiatric medications.

Though their results showed no direct link between taking psychedelics and developing mental illness, they have not ruled out the possibility of any negative side effects.

“We cannot exclude the possibility that use of psychedelics might have a negative effect on mental health for some individuals or groups, perhaps counterbalanced at a population level by a positive effect on mental health in others,” they wrote in their research. On the other hand, notes Johansen, other clinical trials have also been unable to discover a link between the drugs and mental illness, and numerous anecdotal cases continue to report long-lasting benefits and life-changing experiences.

“Other studies have found no evidence of health or social problems among people who had used psychedelics hundreds of times in legally-protected religious ceremonies,” said Johansen.

Previous studies have found some positive physical benefits associated with taking psychedelic drugs. As hallucinogens are known to give people the ability to access and relive lost or repressed memories, those who struggle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have been prescribed these drugs to help them work out their disorder.

One hallucinogen, called ibogaine, has been known to give users a 36-hour trip which allows them to access their emotions and relive experiences. This drug — and the resulting trip — has also been successfully shown to break people of their addictions to alcohol, cocaine, heroine and methamphetamine.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

An international team of researchers has discovered the genetic basis of chronic mountain sickness (CMS), a condition developed during prolonged exposure to high altitudes, according to research appearing in the August 15 edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics.

The condition, which is also known as “Monge’s disease,” is the result of low oxygen levels and can cause severe damage to the body, including heart attacks, stroke and early-onset pulmonary issues.

Now, researchers have studied the DNA of Andean residents in an attempt to discover the genetic mutations associated with CMS. For the study, a total of 20 Andean individuals had their DNA sequenced. Ten of those participants had CMS and 10 were control subjects and did not suffer from the condition.

Following a high-efficiency survey of the entire spectrum of genetic variations, the investigators discovered 11 regions which demonstrated significant differences in haplotype frequencies consistent with selective sweeps. In those regions, the researchers located two genes – ANP32D and SENP1 – that were found to have significantly increased expression in CMS individuals when compared to their non-CMS counterparts.

Those genes were found to play an essential role in tolerance to hypoxia, a pathological condition in which the entire body or a specific part of it is deprived of adequate oxygen supply. The information will also help experts better understand the mechanisms behind human adaptation to hypoxia, the researchers said.

“They speculated that the increased expression of SENP1 may play a role in the basic pathogenesis of polycythemia in CMS individuals,” the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), which was one of the institutions involved in the research, said in a statement. “ANP32D acts as an oncogene, which may alter cellular metabolism in a fashion that is similar to that of cancer cells, especially given that such cells can flourish in low oxygen conditions.”

“We showed that the genes that were identified by the whole-genome scan were actually linked causally to sickness in low-oxygen environments,” added co-senior author Dr. Gabriel Haddad of the University of California, San Diego. “With further study, the two genes we identified and validated may become potential drug targets for treating conditions related to low oxygen levels, such as strokes and heart attacks. In addition, they may also be considered as targets for a potential drug treatment for chronic mountain sickness.”

Going forward, the authors said they will look to complete whole genome sequencing for the nearly 100 remaining patient samples in the hopes they can locate biomarkers that can be used to predict CMS. In addition, they retrieved skin samples from the study participants. Those cells could be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells that could ultimately be used to test resilience to low oxygen levels.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

A preliminary study at a Baltimore hospital found that drinkers of hard liquors and high-alcohol beers like Steel Reserve were more prevalent in the emergency room than drinkers of regular beers.

“Recent studies reveal that nearly a third of injury visits to Level I trauma centers were alcohol-related and frequently a result of heavy drinking,” said lead study author David Jernigan, a director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Johns Hopkins University.

“Understanding the relationship between alcohol brands and their connection to injury may help guide policy makers in considering taxation and physical availability of different types of alcohol given the harms associated with them.”

The study, published in the journal Substance Use and Misuse, was the first to look at how alcohol related to serious injury according to brand, researchers said.

The team collected their information at the Johns Hopkins Hospital Emergency Department in East Baltimore on weekend nights between April 2010 and June 2011. Of the more than 100 respondents who said they had been drinking alcohol before their injury, 69 percent were male and 69 percent were African American, which reflected the demographics of the hospital’s surrounding neighborhood.

Participants also told researchers about their alcohol consumption by brand. After comparing their results to market data from research company Impact Databank, the researchers found that the proportion of distilled spirits consumed by participants was higher than the market share for distilled spirits. Vodka, gin and cognac were more prevalent in the emergency room than their national market share. The same was true for ‘ready-to-drink’ beverages. Female participants were more likely to report consuming higher amounts of these pre-packaged cocktails.

While hard liquor was over-represented in the ER sample, beer was underrepresented compared to the national market share for the popular beverage. However, male participants were more likely to report consuming large quantities of beer or malt liquors. Almost half of participants said they drank Steel Reserve, Colt 45, Bud Ice and King Cobra before their injury. These four beverages make up only 2.4 percent of beer consumption in the United States.

The researchers noted that these are only preliminary findings from a small sample set in an urban hospital. They said they plan to pursue this research in a larger sample across emergency rooms in multiple cities and hospitals.

They also suggested policy implications that could include requirements for clear labeling of alcohol content on certain beverage containers, limits on availability and graduated taxation of alcohol based on alcohol content to cut consumption of higher-alcohol products.

One type of drink tracked in the study, ready-to-drink beverages, is rapidly growing in popularity. According to data released last year by researcher Technomic’s Adult Beverage Resource Group, Skinny Girl bottled cocktails are the fastest growing spirits brand in the US. Growing almost 390 percent from 2010 to 2011, the company was owned by reality television star Bethany Frankel until 2011 when she sold it to Beam Global for a reported $120 million. The company released four new products earlier this year: Moscato, White Cherry Vodka, Mojito and Grapefruit Margarita.