April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

New research led by researchers with the Shamatha Project at the University of California, Davis suggests that focusing on the present rather than allowing the mind to drift may help lower levels of stress hormones.

Focusing your mind and mental resources on immediate experience is an aspect of mindfulness that can be improved by meditation training.

“This is the first study to show a direct relation between resting cortisol and scores on any type of mindfulness scale,” said Tonya Jacobs, a postdoctoral researcher at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain.

Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal gland. High levels of cortisol have been linked to physical or emotional stress, with prolonged release contributing to wide-ranging, adverse effects on a number of physiological systems.

The Shamatha Project is a comprehensive, long-term, control-group study of the effects of meditation training on the mind and body that has drawn attention from scientists and Buddhist scholars alike, including the Dalai Lama. The new findings are the latest results to come from the Shamatha Project, led by Clifford Saron. Saron is an associate research scientist at the UC David Center for Mind and Brain.

The study, published in the journal Health Psychology, employed a questionnaire to measure aspects of mindfulness amongst participants before and after an intensive, three-month meditation retreat. Participants’ cortisol levels in the saliva were measured as well.

Buddhist scholar and teacher B. Alan Wallace of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies trained participants in such attentional skills as mindfulness of breathing, observing mental events, and observing the nature of consciousness during the long retreat. Individuals also practiced cultivating benevolent mental states. Such states include loving kindness, compassion, empathic joy and equanimity.

Individually, the study found a correlation between a high score for mindfulness and a low score in cortisol before and after the retreat. People who increased their mindfulness score after the retreat showed a decrease in cortisol.

“The more a person reported directing their cognitive resources to immediate sensory experience and the task at hand, the lower their resting cortisol,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs stresses that the research did not show a direct cause and effect. She notes that the effect could run either way, in fact. Reduced levels of cortisol could lead to improved mindfulness, rather than the other way around. Mindfulness scores on the questionnaire increased from pre- to post-retreat. Cortisol levels, however, did not change overall.

Training the mind to focus on the present, according to Jacobs, may reduce the propensity to ruminate about the past or worry about the future. Thought processes such as these have been linked to cortisol release.

“The idea that we can train our minds in a way that fosters healthy mental habits and that these habits may be reflected in mind-body relations is not new; it’s been around for thousands of years across various cultures and ideologies,” Jacobs said. “However, this idea is just beginning to be integrated into Western medicine as objective evidence accumulates. Hopefully, studies like this one will contribute to that effort.”

For the purposes of this study, Saron notes that the researchers used the term “mindfulness” to refer to behaviors that are reflected in a particular mindfulness scale, which was the measure used in the study.

“The scale measured the participants´ propensity to let go of distressing thoughts and attend to different sensory domains, daily tasks, and the current contents of their minds. However, this scale may only reflect a subset of qualities that comprise the greater quality of mindfulness, as it is conceived across various contemplative traditions,” he said.

Prior Shamatha Project research has shown that the meditation retreat had positive effects on visual perception, sustained attention, socio-emotional well-being, resting brain activity and on the activity of telomerase, an enzyme important for the long-term health of body cells.

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com — Your Universe Online

Researchers wrote in the journal Public Health Nutrition that the more educated the parent, the more likely their child would eat fewer fatty and sugary foods.

The study was performed on nearly 15,000 children between the ages of two and nine years old from eight European countries; including Italy, Estonia, Cyprus, Belgium, Sweden, Hungary, Germany and Spain.

The researchers found that parents with a lower level of education feed their children foods rich in sugars and fats more often than parents with a higher level of education, who feed their children more products of a higher nutritional quality, such as vegetables, fruit, pasta, rice and wholemeal bread.

“The greatest differences among families with different levels of education are observed in the consumption of fruit, vegetables and sweet drinks”, explains Juan Miguel Fernández Alvira, the author of the work and researcher from the University of Zaragoza to SINC.

The researchers say their study implies a greater risk of developing obesity in children from less advantaged socio-culture groups.

“The [programs] for the prevention of childhood obesity through the promotion of healthy eating habits should specifically tackle less advantaged social and economic groups, in order to [minimize] inequalities in health”, concludes Fernández Alvira.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says nearly 40 million children under the age of five suffered from being overweight in 2010. The recommendations for children over two are not much different than adults. Experts say their diet should include cereals, fruit, vegetables, dairy products, lean meats, fish, poultry, eggs and nuts.

Dieticians say parents should offer children a wide variety of foods and avoid using food as a method to reward or punish behavior.

University of Illinois researchers wrote in January about how adding minutes to family mealtime might help keep away childhood obesity. The team said that children in families who engage each other over a 20-minute meal four times a week weighed less than kids who left the table after 15 to 17 minutes.

Scientists are finding more and more reasons to try and put an end to childhood obesity. A UCLA study found that consequences of childhood obesity could actually be immediate. Children who are overweight face nearly twice the risk of having three or more reported medical, mental or developmental conditions than normal weight children.

“The findings should serve as a wake-up call to physicians, parents and teachers, who should be better informed of the risk for other health conditions associated with childhood obesity so that they can target interventions that can result in better health outcomes,” said lead author Dr. Neal Halfon, a professor of pediatrics, public health and public policy at UCLA.

Peter Suciu for redOrbit.com — Your Universe Online

While it is easy enough today to head down to the grocery store and pick up a container of salt, in earlier times, salt wasn´t so readily available or even affordable. One of the oldest natural preservatives and seasonings, salt has long been essential to life. And in parts of the world where salt was hard to obtain, it was sometimes traded ounce for ounce with gold.

This resulted in a salt trade from North Africa to West Africa where caravans would carry the white mineral across the Sahara to trading centers like Djenne and Timbuktu. In the Roman Empire soldiers were paid in salt, which is where the term “worth one´s salt” came from as well as the word “salary.”

Today salt isn´t so hard to come by. In fact, it can be quite difficult not to ingest more than the amount recommended by health professionals. Not only can salt be readily purchased at the grocery store, it is already in much of the prepared and packaged food on our tables. According to the FDA, more than 75 percent of dietary sodium comes from eating packaged and restaurant foods. A recent study even suggested that children are getting too much salt from pre-packaged food.

A new balanced review published in the March 27 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine, cited correlations between blood pressure and salt intake in a number of different studies.

Dr. Theodore A. Kotchen, M.D., professor of medicine and associate dean for clinical research at the Medical College of Wisconsin, was the lead author of the article. He is also the author or co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed publications dealing with mechanisms of blood pressure control, hypertension treatment strategies and genes associated with hypertension.

Kotchen has noted a possible causation between lowering salt intake and decreased blood pressure, which occurs in individuals who have been diagnosed with hypertension. And while not as pronounced, Kotchen has also noted a link between salt intake and blood pressure in non-hypertensive individuals as well.

Recent studies have also indicated a possible connection between reduced salt intake leading to decreased cardiovascular disease and decreased mortality.

“Salt is essential for life, but it has been difficult to distinguish salt need from salt preference,” said Dr. Kotchen in a statement. “Given the medical evidence, it seems that recommendations for reducing levels of salt consumption in the general population would be justifiable at this time.”

There have been efforts to get people to shake the salt habit. Recent national studies in Great Britain and Finland have resulted in national salt-reduction programs. Back in the United States, New York City has also toyed with the idea of a salt ban for some years, going so far as to ban donations to homeless shelters because the city can´t assess the amount of salt, fat or fiber content.

However, while salt could be a cause for health concerns, Kotchen admits there´s no one-size-fits-all recommendation. He notes that a lower limit for salt consumption has not been clearly identified and maintains that in certain patients groups less rigorous targets for salt reduction could be appropriate.

There is also the fact that salt could have benefits that outweigh possible health risks.

Salt could help those who don´t have access to clean water, as NPR reported recently that “Sun, salt and lime sounds like the beginnings of a cocktail recipe, but for some, it could mean cleaner, life-sustaining water.” The salty water may not be especially healthy or even taste good, but Joshua Pierce, associate professor of materials science and engineering at Michigan Tech, noted that it is an effective way to reduce pathogens in contaminated water.

Just as salt is crucial to life, so is water, and the salt added to purify the water is actually less than the amount found in Gatorade — proving that in our modern world salt is indeed everywhere.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

The formula currently used to calculate an individual´s “bad” cholesterol levels is often inaccurate, sometimes underestimating low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels in those most at risk, researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered.

Their study, published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, explains that the Friedewald equation — which has been used to gauge a patient´s LDL levels since 1972 — is an estimate and not an exact measurement. It is currently used by doctors to assess a patient´s risk of having a heart attack due to the accumulation of plaque in arteries, but the new research calls its accuracy into question.

“In our study, we compared samples assessed using the Friedewald equation with a direct calculation of the LDL cholesterol. We found that in nearly one out of four samples in the ℠desirable´ range for people with a higher heart disease risk, the Friedewald equation had it wrong,” Seth Martin, lead author and clinical fellow at the hospital´s Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease, said in a statement.  “As a result, many patients may think they achieved their LDL cholesterol target when, in fact, they may need more aggressive treatment to reduce their heart disease risk.”

“In patients with heart disease, we want to get their LDL level below 70 — that is the typical goal,” added Steven Jones, senior author and director of inpatient cardiology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Based on their findings, however, many people may falsely believe that their cholesterol targets have been met — especially those with high levels of triglycerides (a type of lipid or fat in the blood that can increase a person´s risk of cardiovascular disease).

Martin, Jones and their colleagues analyzed detailed lipid profiles for more than 1.3 million US adults dating from 2009 through 2011. The LDL cholesterol and blood lipid components in those samples had been measured using ultracentrifugation, a technique which uses a centrifuge to separate the particles so that they can be examined. They were then also evaluated using the Friedewald equation, and the results of each method were compared.

The Friedewald equation calculates LDL cholesterol using a specific formula — total cholesterol minus HDL cholesterol minus triglycerides divided by five, the researchers said. The result is then expressed in milligrams per deciliter. The Johns Hopkins team suggests an alternative method which they claim will be more accurate — the use of non-high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels, in which the so-called “good” cholesterol is subtracted from total cholesterol.

The revised calculation would include not only LDL, but also very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) particles, which are also known to cause plaque in a person´s heart arteries. On average, the non-HDL reading would be approximately 30 points higher than LDL cholesterol readings calculated using the Friedewald method, the researcher said. That number could vary, though, and Martin believes it could provide a better measurement as to whether or not a patient needs to make specific lifestyle changes or alter his/her medications.

“Non-HDL cholesterol is a much better target for quantifying risk of plaques in coronary arteries,” Jones said. “Looking at non-HDL cholesterol would make it simpler and more consistent, and would enable us to provide our patients with a better assessment.”

In addition to Martin and Jones, authors of the study included Michael J. Blaha, Mohamed B. Elshazly, John W. McEvoy, Parag H. Joshi, Peter O. Kwiterovich, Andrew P. DeFilippis and Roger S. Blumenthal from Johns Hopkins; Eliot A. Brinton from the Utah Foundation for Biomedical Research and Utah Lipid Center; Peter P. Toth from the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria; and Krishnaji R. Kulkarni and Patrick D. Mize from Atherotech Diagnostics Lab in Birmingham, Alabama.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com — Your Universe Online

They may be responsible for everything in your life, from conception to death, they may be inside every living cell in your body — but you do not own your own genes, legally speaking.

According to a report in Genome Medicine, patents essentially cover the entire human genome, hampering research and raising the question of “genomic liberty.”

The legal standing of genomic patents could change next month when the Supreme Court reviews patent rights for two key breast and ovarian cancer genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, which include segments of genetic code as small as 15 nucleotides, known as 15mers.

“This is, so to speak, patently ridiculous,” said report co-author Dr. Christopher E. Mason of Weill Cornell Medical College. “If patent claims that use these small DNA sequences are upheld, it could potentially create a situation where a piece of every gene in the human genome is patented by a phalanx of competing patents.”

In their report, Mason and Dr. Jeffrey Rosenfeld, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, looked at patents for two different categories of DNA fragments: long and short. They revealed 41 percent of the human genome is covered by “long” DNA patents that can include whole genes. Because many genes share similar sequences within their code that are patented, the combination of all these “short” DNA patents covers 100 percent of the genome.

“This demonstrates that short patent sequences are extremely non-specific and that a 15mer claim from one gene will always cross-match and patent a portion of another gene as well,” Mason said. “This means it is actually impossible to have a 15mer patent for just one gene.”

To reach their conclusions, the researchers first looked at small sequences within BRCA1 and noticed one of the company’s BRCA1 patents also covered almost 690 other human genes. Some of these genes are unrelated to breast cancer — instead being associated with brain development and heart functioning.

Next, researchers determined how many known genes are covered by 15mers in current patent claims. They found 58 patents covered at least ten percent of all bases of all human genes. The broadest patent claim matched 91.5 percent of human genes. When the team took patented 15mers and matched them to known genes, they found 100 percent of known genes are patented.

Finally, the team also looked at “long” DNA sequences from existing gene patents, ranging from a few dozen to thousands of base pairs. They found these long sequences added up to 41 percent of known human genes.

“There is a real controversy regarding gene ownership due to the overlap of many competing patent claims. It is unclear who really owns the rights to any gene,” Rosenfeld said. “While the Supreme Court is hearing one case concerning just the BRCA1 patent, there are also many other patents whose claims would cover those same genes.

“Do we need to go through every gene to look at who made the first claim to that gene, even if only one small part? If we resort to this rule, then the first patents to be granted for any DNA will have a vast claim over portions of the human genome,” he added.

Another legal question surrounds patented DNA sequences that cross species boundaries. The researchers found one company has the rights to 84 percent of all human genes for a patent they received for cow breeding.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Law enforcement has been using breathalyzers for years to protect the public from drunk drivers, but a new study from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles suggests that breathalyzers might serve to protect certain people from doughnuts and other fatty foods.

According to the study, which appeared in the“¯Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, someone with a higher body mass index (BMI) is associated with higher concentrations of hydrogen and methane gas in their breath. These gases are associated with a methane-producing intestinal microorganism called Methanobrevibacter smithii (M. smithii).

“Normally, the collection of microorganisms living in the digestive tract is balanced and benefits humans by helping them convert food into energy,” said lead author Dr. Ruchi Mathur, director of the hospital´s Outpatient Diabetes Treatment and Education Center in the Division of Endocrinology. “When M. smithii becomes overabundant, however, it may alter the balance in a way that makes the human host more likely to gain weight and accumulate fat.”

In the study, researchers analyzed the breath-chemical content of over 790 people. An analysis of the breath showed four different patterns: normal breath content, higher levels of methane, higher concentrations of hydrogen, or higher levels of both gases. Participants whose breath test contained higher concentrations of both gases tended to have a higher BMI and higher percentages of body fat.

“This is the first large-scale human study to show an association between gas production and body weight — and this could prove to be another important factor in understanding one of the many causes of obesity,” Mathur said.

As M. smithii metabolizes hydrogen in the digestive tract it produces methane, which is eventually exhaled by the individual. The scientists say this bacterial action allows for a more efficient extraction of nutrients from food — resulting in a greater risk of weight gain and obesity for the human host.

“Essentially, it could allow a person to harvest more calories from their food,” Mathur said.

It should be noted that Mathur´s connection between bacterial action and obesity is only a theory and the study did not establish a concrete causal relationship between the two. Previous research has shown conflicting evidence on the relationship between M. smithii and body fat.

A June 2012 article published in the International Journal of Obesity by a group of French researchers found that obese individuals were associated with the intestinal microbe“¯Lactobacillus reuteri and lower levels of“¯M. smithii. And a 2009 study in the journal PLOS ONE by the same research group found that high levels of“¯M. smithii were associated with“¯anorexia.

Despite some conflicting evidence, Mathur continues to explore the potential connection between M. smithii and body fat. She is currently working on a study that looks at the effects of targeting the bacteria with a specific antibiotic.

“We’re only beginning to understand the incredibly complex communities that live inside of us,” she said. “If we can understand how they affect our metabolism, we may be able to work with these microscopic communities to positively impact our health.”

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Three decades after thousands of pounds of a cancer-causing agent accidentally leaked from a tank in a Garfield, New Jersey factory, researchers plan to measure the impact of the incident on the city´s residents in a most unusual way — by analyzing their toenail clippings.

According to Sheila M. Eldred of Discovery News, scientists from New York University (NYU) are planning to gather toenail clippings from the Bergen County city´s populace in order to test for accumulation of the toxic carcinogen.

The NYU researchers will be able to tell how much of the substance has been built up over the past 18 months due to the slow-growing nature of the protein-based covering.

“The risk of contamination comes from a 1983 leak where thousands of pounds of hexavalent chromium seeped out of a tank at a factory surrounded by houses and apartment buildings,” explained ABC News reporter Christina Ng. “Scientists say only 30 percent of the leak was cleaned up, and 10 years later chromium was found in area basements and a firehouse.”

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told Ng that the underground plume of the substance (a metal typically used for industrial production purposes) is approximately three-fourths of a mile wide and slightly less than one mile long.

NYU School of Medicine professor and research scientist Judith Zelikoff added that the region they are concerned about involves 600 homes and businesses, and that more than 3,700 people could be affected.

“Residents of the area are being given kits that include a stainless steel nail clipper (cheap nail clippers may contain traces of chromium), a plastic bag for the clippings, nail polish remover, alcohol swabs, instructions and an envelope for the clippings. The results will take about five weeks,” the ABC News reporter said.

“Samples are being collected from people ages 18 to 65 who are non-smokers and do not take chromium supplements. The people must have been residents of Garfield for at least two years,” she added.

The three-decade old lead originated at a tank at the EC Electroplating Company, a factory which Katie Zezima of the Associated Press (AP) reports was “surrounded on all sides by houses and apartments.”

New Jersey officials started cleaning up the spill, but stopped after two years of work, the wire service reporter explained. Then, in 1993, chromium was detected at a now defunct firehouse, and then later in people´s homes.

The EPA dubbed the location a “Superfund” site — essentially declaring it one of the most toxic uncontrolled hazardous waste sites in the country — back in 2011. They also warned residents to remain out of their basements in order to prevent possible exposure to the carcinogen.

Chromium was removed from the building and then demolished last year, Zezima said, but EPA officials discovered the presence of tanks that had holes in them. That could have caused the metal to leak into the groundwater, though officials report that the city´s drinking water supply has not yet been affected.

There are, however, concerns that “people could inhale chromium dust that has been found in basements where groundwater has leached in,” Zezima said. “High quantities of the metal have been found in 14 homes that have since been cleaned up. Trace amounts were found in 30 to 40 homes. Testing continues, and a nearby school did not show elevated chromium levels.”

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Although they have been credited with saving thousands of lives, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended new regulations for automated external defibrillators (AED), including the requirement that the devices must meet federal approval before hitting the market.

“[The] FDA is not questioning the clinical utility of AEDs,” said FDA spokesman Dr. William Maisel in a statement on Friday. “These devices are critically important and serve a very important public health need.”

“The importance of early defibrillation for patients who are suffering from cardiac arrest is well-established,” he added.

AEDs can be found in workplaces, schools and restaurants across the country. They are designed to electrically jump-start the heart after it has gone into arrest and are supposed to be used only by properly trained individuals.

FDA officials said their new proposal would require manufacturers to submit evidence showing their devices are safe and efficient in order to be approved for or to remain on the market. The FDA rules would also necessitate that manufacturers provide inspection reports and submit details to the FDA of any changes made to the device.

“Today’s action does not require the removal or replacement of AEDs that are in distribution. Patients and the public should have confidence in these devices, and we encourage people to use them under the appropriate circumstances,” Maisel said.

He noted that it would be difficult to determine how many deaths defective devices have caused as the patients may have died due to cardiac arrest anyway. However, Maisel said there were enough problems with devices to warrant action by the federal government.

“Tens of thousands of adverse events is too many. We think 88 recalls are too many,” Maisel said. “So, by calling for pre-market approval we can focus our attention on the types of problems that have been observed and our expectation is that we will observe an improvement in the reliability over time with these devices.”

Stories of AED malfunctions range from software problems to power failures to component failures.

The FDA said the new proposals are based on recommendations by its Circulatory System Devices Panel, which said AEDs should be a Class III medical device, requiring pre-market approval.

Many of the device´s makers stand by their AEDS and say they have been expecting this announcement for some time. Device maker Physio-Control’s chief executive, Brian Webster, said the increasing number of device failures could be due to their increasing prevalence.

“While it is the FDA’s position that defibrillator failures have risen over the past several years, the number of devices in the market has grown dramatically over that same time period,” he told Reuters. “An evaluation of the number of defibrillator malfunctions must include the number of devices deployed to accurately assess whether the failure rate is increasing or actually decreasing.”

Rachel Bloom-Baglin of Philips also told Reuters that while the company has not yet seen the official written proposal, they have been in discussions with the FDA regarding their AEDs. She said the company believes more federal oversight would not result in an interruption of device or parts supply.

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Researchers studying stem cells removed from amniotic fluid have found a possible role the cells have on healing damage caused by necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a severe inflammation that can destroy tissues in the gut and lead to major organ failure.

The findings, published in the journal Gut, are based on early animal tests that reveal healing and an increase in survival. The researchers say the evidence could lead to a new form of cell therapy for premature babies, but cautioned that more research is needed first.

The study was funded by Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) Children´s Charity and led by University College London´s (UCL) Institute of Child Health (ICH). The researchers investigated how the stem cells work in relation to NEC, which is the most common gastrointestinal surgical emergency in newborns, with mortality rates or around 15 to 30 percent in the UK.

While breast milk and probiotics are known to offer some level of protection against NEC, there are currently no medical treatments available other than emergency surgery. Surgical removal, however, shortens the bowel and can lead to intestinal failure, with some babies needing ongoing intravenous nutrition or intestinal transplant.

Babies born prematurely often have guts that are ill-prepared to handle food, and about one in 10 preemies in neonatal intensive care go on to develop NEC. The inflammation can cause tissue death and lead to holes in the intestine which can lead to even more serious infections.

“It is quite a problem and we think it is on the increase,” said Dr. Simon Eaton, from UCL´s Institute of Child Health.

Dr. Eaton, who was part of the research team investigating the role of amniotic stem cells in laboratory rats programmed to develop fatal NEC, said the injections of the stem cells appeared to increase the survival times of the rats.

“We’re able to prolong survival by quite a long way,” he told the BBC. “What appears to be happening is a direct effect on calming inflammation and also stimulating resident stem cells in the gut to be more efficient at repairing the intestines.”

The researchers harvested amniotic fluid stem (AFS) cells from rodent amniotic fluid and injected them into rats with NEC. Other rats with the same condition were given bone marrow stem cells taken from their femurs, or were kept on normal nutrition with no treatment, to compare clinical outcomes.

The rats injected with AFS cells showed significantly higher survival rates a week after given the treatment, compared to the other two groups. Upon further inspection of their intestines, the researchers found inflammation was significantly reduced, with fewer dead cells, greater self-renewal of gut tissue and better overall intestinal function.

The researchers noted that bone marrow stem cells have been shown in the past to reverse colonic damage in irritable bowel syndrome, but the beneficial effects from bone marrow did not spill over into NEC therapy, indicating different mechanisms were at play for NEC. Following the injections of AFS cells into the gut, the cells moved into the intestinal villi — small, finger-like projections that protrude from the lining of the intestinal wall which pass nutrients from the intestine to the blood.

The researchers found that instead of directly repairing the damaged tissue, the AFS cells appeared to release specific growth factors that acted on progenitor cells in the gut which in turn, reduced inflammation and triggered the formation of new villi.

“Stem cells are well known to have anti-inflammatory effects, but this is the first time we have shown that amniotic fluid stem cells can repair damage in the intestines,” said lead author Dr. Paolo De Coppi, of UCL´s Institute of Child Health.

“In the future, we hope that stem cells found in amniotic fluid will be used more widely in therapies and in research, particularly for the treatment of congenital malformations. Although amniotic fluid stem cells have a more limited capacity to develop into different cell types than those from the embryo, they nevertheless show promise for many parts of the body including the liver, muscle and nervous system,” he added.

“Once we have a better understanding of the mechanisms by which AFS cells trigger repair and restore function in the gut, we can start to explore new cellular or pharmacological therapies for infants with necrotizing enterocolitis,” noted Dr. Eaton.

Before the research can be tested in human premature babies, the researchers said far more testing is needed to ensure it would be a safe treatment option. Stem cells would have to be taken from a donor as it would not be practical to store fluid from every birth. And with donor cells, there runs the risk of rejection.

Also, there is a risk that the stem cells can become other types of cells posing a risk of developing cancer.

The researchers hope that in the future, if the treatment is proven viable, a drug can be harnessed from the AFS cells.

“It’s not the cells, they’re delivering something and if we knew what that was then we could deliver that directly,” Dr. Eaton told the BBC´s James Gallagher.

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

A recent study has shown (based on animal models) that babies who are started too early on foods high in carbohydrates will likely have a lifelong struggle with excess weight gain and obesity. New research to be published in the April issue of Pediatrics and released online today has found that forty percent of mothers start feeding their babies solid foods much too early, with many claiming they were given the go-ahead by their healthcare providers.

The researchers found that mothers who used baby formula (54 percent) were more than twice as likely as those who exclusively breastfed (28 percent) to start solid foods before their babies turned 4 months old. While many moms claimed their providers said it was fine to feed their babies earlier, other popular reasons for the switch to solids were that moms believed their babies were ready or that it would help them sleep better and longer at night.

Study coauthor Kelley Scanlon, and epidemiologist with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said an early switch to solids is associated with numerous health problems, so it is important to understand the motivation these mothers have.

These findings “don’t offer a full understanding why, but they give us some insight,” she said.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) states that head and neck control and other coordination skills infants need to safely eat solid foods does not develop until around 4 months of age. The group also notes that introducing solids too soon ends the exclusive benefits of breastfeeding, which it recommends be continued until 6 months of age as it offers many health benefits including reduced risk of respiratory and ear infections, diarrhea and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

The study team noted that the introduction of solids too early may also increase the risk of chronic disease, such as diabetes, obesity and celiac disease.

Some healthcare providers recommend that a small amount of cereal be added to formula to help babies with reflux, said Lana Gagin, a pediatrician at the Helen DeVos Children´s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who was not involved in the study. She warned, however, that “there is no good, solid evidence that it helps a baby sleep.”

For the study, researchers analyzed a monthly record of information collected from 1,334 mothers on when and why they introduced solid food to their babies.

“We didn’t expect to see so many (give solids) before 4 months,” said Scanlon. While similar studies in the past asked mothers to recall when and why they offered solids two to three years down the road, the new study asked mothers to recall what was fed within the past week.

Among the findings in the study, the researchers discovered that mothers who introduced solids before 4 months are more likely to be younger, single, have less education or are in the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.

They also found that 8 percent of mothers introduced solid food as early as 1 month or earlier.

Furthermore, a whopping 89 percent of mothers said they introduced solids early because they believed the baby was old enough to begin eating them; 71 percent said the baby seemed hungrier than usual; 67 percent said the baby showed interest in solid food; 56 percent said the healthcare provider recommended solids; and 8 percent said the baby had a medical condition that may have been helped by eating solids.

As for getting advice from a medical provider to start solids, the researchers said: “We don’t know actually what advice the health care provider gave. But at least this was the perception the parents got – that this was the time to begin solids.”

These findings highlight the importance that pediatricians and other medical providers need to give clear, accurate and supportive advice to parents, said Gagin.

“We sometimes wait until (parents) come in for the 4-month well visit to discuss complementary foods, when introducing the subject during the 2-month check might be better,” Gagin told USA Today´s Michelle Healy. “We may not spend enough time explaining why they should wait and explaining that every time a baby cries doesn’t mean they’re hungry.”

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

One two-foot-tall humanoid robot is acting as a therapist to help train children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

The humanoid robot NAO (pronounced “now”) features an elaborate system of cameras, sensors and computers designed to help children learn how to coordinate their attention with other people and objects. Known to researchers as ℠joint attention´, children with autism typically have a difficult time mastering this social skill — which is where NAO comes in.

Researchers wrote in the March issue of the publication IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering that children with ASD paid more attention to the robot and followed its instructions almost as well as they did that of a human therapist in standard exercises.

The authors suggest that robots could play a crucial role in responding to the growing number of children being diagnosed with ASD. According to recent statistics, there has been a 78 percent increase in ASD diagnoses in the past four years.

“This is the first real world test of whether intelligent adaptive systems can make an impact on autism,” said team member Zachary Warren, who directs the Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD) at Vanderbilt´s Kennedy Center.

NAO is a commercial humanoid robot made in France, so the team had to essentially build the brains of the robot beforehand. In order to get NAO to work with children, the researchers had to develop a sophisticated adaptive structure around the robot that they dubbed Adaptive Robot-Mediated Intervention Architecture (ARIA). They say their system has the greatest potential for working with young children.

“Research has shown that early intervention, individualized to the learner´s needs, is currently the most effective approach for helping children with autism develop the foundational social communication skills they need to become productive adults,” said“¯Julie Crittendon, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The team created an “intelligent environment” around NAO, where the robot stands on a table at the front of the room and the child sits in a chair at eye level with it. The room is equipped with a number of web cameras aimed at the chair to track the child’s head movements, which allows the system to determine whether he or she is paying attention.

They programmed NAO to have a series of verbal prompts like “look over here” and “let’s do some more.” The robot also has gestures like looking and pointing at one of the displays in the room.

The training sessions begin with a verbal prompt that asks the child to look at an image or video displayed on one of the screens. If the child doesn’t respond, the therapists provide increasing support by combining a verbal prompt with physical gestures. Once the child looks at the target, the therapist responds with “good job.”

Researchers found that children in groups who spent time with the robot versus those who spent time training with a human-led therapist actually looked at NAO more than they did the real therapist.

“The children´s engagement with the robot was excellent,” Crittendon said, “and we saw improvements across the board in both groups.”

NAO is also able to adapt its behavior to each child automatically depending on how he or she is responding to the prompts — an effective tool since all children with ASD tend to behave a little bit differently.

“There is a saying in the field, ℠If you´ve seen one child with ASD, you´ve seen one child with ASD.´ So one size does not fit all. To be useful, the system must be adaptive,” Warren said.

He said he hopes the robotic system can act as an “accelerant technology” that increases the rate at which children with ASD learn the social skills they need.

NAO is not just a one-trick-pony robot when it comes to education. NAO was named the best robot for education as part of Carnegie Mellon’s “Robot Hall of Fame” competition last year.

“NAO has provided us with an exciting tool to teach students robotics, to introduce robotics related concepts and to show how robots can be applied in the real world,” said Timothy Gifford, researcher at UConn, and CEO of Movia Robotics.

The robot also showed off its dance skills last year when redOrbit attended the 2012 ICRA last year.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

A new study has shown that norovirus is now the primary cause of acute gastroenteritis, or the ℠stomach bug,´ among children under five years of age who seek medical treatment for the condition, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Thursday.

Gastroenteritis involves the inflammation of the stomach and small intestine, and is typically caused by one of several different types of viruses. Also commonly known as the ℠stomach virus´ or ℠stomach flu,´ gastroenteritis often results in a combination of vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal cramping.

The authors of the paper, which appears in the latest edition of The New England Journal of Medicine, tracked over 141,000 infants and young children suffering from the illness from October 20o8 through September 2010. The subjects lived in three different US counties, and their specimens underwent laboratory testing to determine whether norovirus or another type of virus was present.

According to the CDC, norovirus was found in 21 percent (278) of the 1,295 confirmed cases of acute gastroenteritis. Rotavirus, normally the most common cause of the stomach bug in children, was only found in 12 percent (152) of the cases. Nearly half of the medical care visits linked to norovirus infections were in children between the ages of six and 18 months, and infants to one-year-old youngsters were more likely to be hospitalized than older children.

Furthermore, the health organization reported that norovirus was responsible for nearly one million pediatric medical in the US in 2009 and 2010, and that the overall rates of norovirus in emergency rooms and outpatient offices were at least 20 and perhaps up to 40 times higher than hospitalization rates.

“Infants and young children are very susceptible to norovirus infections, which often result in a high risk of getting dehydrated from the sudden onset of intense vomiting and severe diarrhea,” explained Dr. Daniel Payne, an epidemiologist in the CDC´s Division of Viral Diseases. “Our study estimates that 1 in 278 US children will be hospitalized for norovirus illness by the time they turn 5 years of age.”

“It is also estimated that about 1 in 14 children will visit an emergency room and 1 in 6 will receive outpatient care for norovirus infections,” he added. “Our study confirmed that medical visits for rotavirus illness have decreased. Also, our study reinforces the success of the US rotavirus vaccination program and also emphasize the value of specific interventions to protect against norovirus illness.”

The researchers estimate that in 2009 and 2012, there were approximately 14,000 hospitalizations, 281,000 emergency room visits, and 627,000 outpatient visits due to norovirus illness in children under the age of five — resulting in an estimated annual treatment cost of more than $270 million. The CDC reports that norovirus vaccines are currently in development for patients most at risk, including young children.

“Each year, more than 21 million people in the United States get infected with norovirus and develop acute gastroenteritis, and approximately 800 people die,” the CDC said. “Young children and elderly people are more likely to suffer from severe norovirus infections.”

“The virus spreads primarily through close contact with infected people, such as caring for someone who is ill. It also spreads through contaminated food, water and hard surfaces,” they added. “The best ways to reduce the risk of norovirus infection are through proper hand washing, safe food handling, and good hygiene.”

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com — Your Universe Online

Are you having to force feed your child carrots and broccoli to ensure their diet isn’t solely based on plain-and-dry McDonald’s cheeseburgers? Well, a new study suggests bad parenting may not be why your child is a picky eater, but rather, it may be because of their genes.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill say fearing new foods, or food neophobia, is similar to a child’s temperament or personality.

“Some children are more genetically susceptible than others to avoid new foods,” said Myles Faith, an associate professor of nutrition at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. “However, that doesn’t mean that they can’t change their behaviors and become a little less picky.”

Researchers looked at 66 pairs of twins between the ages four and seven years old, and found genes explained 72 percent of the variation among children in the tendency to avoid new foods. They examined the relationship between food neophobia and body fat measurements in both parent and child. They found if the parent was heavier, the child was heavier only if he or she avoided trying new foods.

“It’s unexpected, but the finding certainly invites interesting questions about how food neophobia and temperament potentially shape longer-term eating and influence body weight,” said Faith.

The authors suggest parents should consider each child’s idiosyncrasies when thinking about how to increase a child’s acceptance of new foods. They say parents can serve as role models and provide repeated exposure to new foods at home, or show their child how much they enjoy the food being avoided.

“Each child may respond differently to each approach, and research needs to examine new interventions that take into account children’s individuality,” said Faith. “But what we do know through this and other emerging science is that this individuality includes genetic uniqueness.”

Previous studies have shown a similar genetic influence for food neophobia in 78 percent of children and 69 percent of adults, which suggests the impact of genes on food neophobia is constant across the developmental spectrum.

Sneaking vegetables and fruits into a child’s food isn’t a great strategy to overcome this phobia either. Scientists wrote in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior picky eaters are less apt to like food they are unfamiliar with, even if the new food has been snuck into past meals by parents.

Researchers do suggest parents may want to try adding a little more color to a child’s meal to entice them to eat more nutritionally. Cornell University scientists found children were more attracted to food with color, particularly food plates with seven different items and six different colors.

“What kids find visually appealing is very different than what appeals to their parents,” said Brian Wansink, professor of Marketing in Cornell´s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. “Our study shows how to make the changes so the broccoli and fish look tastier than they otherwise would to little Casey or little Audrey.”

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Job training can allow workers to take on new responsibilities and a team of oncologists from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York found that the same thing applies to the body´s immune system.

By essentially taking T cells, a type of white blood cell, back to school — the oncologists were able to successfully eradicate a certain type of acute leukemia.

Similar previous research has shown promise in young children, but the newly developed treatment was able to beat back cancer in four out of the five patients who participated in a clinical trial. The previous treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) showed only about a 30-percent effectiveness for adults.

According to the oncologists´ report in journal Science Translational Medicine, T cells play a huge role in the new treatment. These cells are designed to eliminate viruses and other invaders that are studded with homing beacons that the cells can recognize. Because T cells cannot recognize certain beacons, they are not able to remove invaders such as cancer cells and some viruses.

Therefore, the oncologists decided to train the T cells to spot beacons of leukemia´s cancerous cells and eliminate them. First, the doctors removed T cells from patients with ALL. Then, the research team introduced them to a harmless virus that delivered genes for a three-part molecule into the cell. One part of the molecule allows the T cells to recognize foreign leukemia cells that are marked with an antigen called CD19. Another part of the specially designed molecule, trains T cells to kill any such marked cells they find. The third part allows the T cells to survive longer than usual.

After a 10- to 12-day ℠training process,´ the modified T cells were then returned to their five patients, ages 23, 58, 56, 59 and 66. Leukemia in four of five patients went into remission after the treatment, becoming undetectable in 18 to 59 days. Unfortunately, the fifth patient was too sick to undergo a bone marrow transplant and died.

After their treatment sessions, one of the four relapsed patients subsequently died of a blood clot. The three surviving patients have been in remission from five to 24 months, depending on when they were treated.

Despite the relative success of the treatment, the process was not without complications. After receiving the modified T cells, one patient developed a cytokine storm, in which cytokines, or hormones, are produced en masse, leading to dropping blood pressure and an intense fever. Another patient also suffered from the cytokine storm, but both patients were successfully treated with steroids.

The researchers said the results of their study reinforced the clinical approach of using the body´s own immune system to fight off the advance of cancer and keep it at bay.

“The T cells are living drugs,” said study co-author Dr. Michel Sadelain. “They see the CD19, they kill the cancer cells, and they persist in the body.”

The oncology team said they are currently raising funds in the hopes of performing more extensive clinical trials in the near future. They also plan to see the treatment trials expanded to other cancer centers such as the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

A new study from the University of Michigan reveals that a common test currently used to determine mercury exposure from dental amalgam fillings may significantly overestimate the amount of toxic metal released from fillings.

Although scientists agree that mercury vapor is released into the mouth by dental amalgam fillings, the amount released remains controversial, as does the question of the health risk posed by this release.

Previous public health studies have assumed that the mostly inorganic mercury in urine can be used to estimate exposure to mercury vapor from amalgam fillings, while the mostly organic mercury in hair is used to estimate exposure to organic mercury from a person’s diet.

The new study, published in a recent issue of Environmental Science and Technology, measured mercury isotopes in the hair and urine of 12 Michigan dentists. The researchers found that the urine contained a mixture of mercury from two sources: organic mercury from the dietary consumption of fish, and inorganic mercury vapor from amalgam fillings.

“These results challenge the common assumption that mercury in urine is entirely derived from inhaled mercury vapor,” said Laura Sherman, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES).

“These data suggest that in populations that eat fish but lack occupational exposure to mercury vapor, mercury concentrations in urine may overestimate exposure to mercury vapor from dental amalgams. This is an important consideration for studies seeking to determine the health risks of mercury vapor inhalation from dental amalgams,” U-M biogeochemist Joel D. Blum, professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said in a statement.

The study findings demonstrate that mercury isotopes can be used to more accurately test for exposure to the metal and the related health risks, than traditional measurements of mercury concentrations in hair and urine samples. Isotopes provide a unique chemical tracer that the scientists can use to “fingerprint” both organic and inorganic mercury sources.

Mercury is an element that occurs naturally, but more than 2,000 tons are emitted into the atmosphere annually from man-made sources such as coal-fired power plants, small-scale gold-mining operations, metals and cement production, incineration and caustic soda production.

These mercury emissions are deposited onto land and into water. Micro-organisms then convert some of it to methylmercury, which is a highly toxic organic form that builds up in fish and the animals that eat them, including humans. There are harmful side effects to this build up, including damage to the central nervous system, heart and immune system. Fetuses and young children are especially vulnerable with their developing brains.

Inorganic mercury, of the sort found in dental amalgam fillings, can also cause central nervous system and kidney damage. Inhalation of elemental mercury vapor accounts for the majority of exposure to inorganic mercury, with industrial workers, gold miners and dentists being at highest risk. The risk to dentists has been decreasing as they have increasingly switched to resin-based composite fillings and restorations in recent years.

A vast majority of inhaled mercury, approximately 80 percent, is absorbed into the bloodstream in the lungs and transported to the kidneys. It is then excreted in urine. The mercury in urine is almost entirely inorganic, leading scientists to use it as an indicator, or biomarker, for exposure to mercury from dental fillings.

The U-M study suggests that the mercury found in urine consists of a mixture of inorganic mercury from dental amalgams and methylmercury from fish that has undergone a chemical breakdown in the body called demethylation. The amount of inorganic mercury in the urine contains a significant amount of inorganic demethylated mercury from fish.

The research team used a natural phenomenon called isotopic fractionation to distinguish between the two types of mercury. All the atoms of a particular element, in this case mercury, have the same number of protons in the nucleus. There can be various forms of any given element, called isotopes, each with a different number of neutrons in the nucleus.

There are seven stable, or nonradioactive, isotopes of mercury. Different mercury isotopes react to form new compounds at slightly different rates during isotopic fractionation. Specifically, the U-M research team used a type of isotopic fractionation called mass-independent fractionation to obtain the chemical fingerprints. These chemical fingerprints enabled them to distinguish between exposure to methylmercury from fish and mercury vapor from dental amalgam fillings.

Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Each fall, legions of freshman descend upon the campuses of our nation´s colleges and universities. The first real taste of freedom too many is often at the bottom of a beer bottle. With stories and studies on underage binge drinking spattering the news sites, a new study conducted by several Penn State scientists aimed to zero in on the long-term effects that drinking at this important stage might have on the neurological development of these post-adolescent students.

This first-of-its-kind longitudinal pilot study, researchers have used brain maps to study the neural processes that occur when these students are presented with alcohol-related cues and how they change during a freshman´s first year of college.

In just the 2012-2013 academic year, numerous stories have grabbed the attention of the nation highlighting not only the negative social but also the negative physical effects associated with the dramatic increase in alcohol use that many students experience after setting foot on their higher education campus. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this came from the University of Tennessee and the now infamous ℠butt chugging´ incident that sent one student to the hospital with alcohol poisoning.

Behind the headlines, however, the behavioral changes a student exposed to alcohol undergoes go unreported. These behavioral changes are indicative of significant alterations in how the brain functions. While the immediate effects of alcohol use are known, its effect on the brain´s continuing development from adolescence into early adulthood is not well understood. This important period includes the transition from high school to college.

The research team, headed up by psychology graduate student Adriene Beltz, sought to investigate the changes to the neural processes in the brains of a small group of first-year students as a result of exposure to alcohol.

To conduct their study, researchers recruited 11 incoming students. Each of these participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) along with a data analysis technique known as effective connectivity mapping. The students underwent three individual fMRI and mapping sessions from just before the start of classes and culminating mid-way through their second semester

“We wanted to know if and how brain responses to alcohol cues — pictures of alcoholic beverages in this case — changed across the first year of college, and how these potential changes related to alcohol use,” said Beltz. “Moreover, we wanted our analysis approach to take advantage of the richness of fMRI data.”

Upon reviewing the analyzed collected data, the team says the study participants revealed signs in their brains´ emotion processing networks of habituation to alcohol-related stimuli. Additionally, they found a significant alteration in the region of the brain responsible for cognitive control.

Previous studies have alluded to the fact that young adults´ cognitive development isn´t fully complete until they are in their mid-20s, specifically in those regions of the brain responsible for decision-making or judgment-related activity. The timing of this development has been likened to a form of cognitive ℠fine tuning,´ the culmination of which is responsible for defining who we are and who we will become.

Still other studies have suggested that binge drinking during this integral period of neural development may negatively affect the brain in ways that could last into adulthood.

THE BRAIN AS A COMPLEX NETWORK

This current research by Beltz and colleagues suggests that dramatic changes may occur among the emotion processing and cognitive control regions of the brain as a result of exposure to both alcohol and alcohol-related cues. These changes, they say, might also exert influence over regions within the brain responsible for a young adult´s decision-making and judgment abilities.

As Beltz explained: “The brain is a complex network. We know that connections among different brain regions are important for behavior, and we know that many of these connections are still developing into early adulthood. Thus, alcohol could have far-reaching consequences on a maturing brain, directly influencing some brain regions and indirectly influencing others by disrupting neural connectivity.”

The student participants in the study were observed in an fMRI scanner at the Penn State Social, Life, and Engineering Sciences Imaging Center. While in the scanner, the participants were asked to complete a task for the researchers. Their task involved responding as quickly as possible by pressing a button on a grip device to an image of either an alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage when presented with images of both consecutively on a screen. The resultant data allowed the researchers to create an effective connectivity map for each individual as well as for the group as a whole.

After they finalized connectivity maps, the researchers noted brain regions involved in the processing of emotion exhibited a vastly diminished connectivity when the study participants responded to an alcohol cue as opposed to a non-alcohol cue. The timing of the measurements also showed that regions of the brain associated with cognitive control displayed greater connectivity during the first semester for these new students. What this finding suggests is that the student participants needed to heavily recruit brain regions involved in cognitive control in order to overcome the alcohol-associated stimuli when they were instructed to respond to the non-alcohol cues presented to them.

“Connectivity among brain regions implicated in cognitive control spiked from the summer before college to the first semester of college,” said Beltz. “This was particularly interesting because the spike coincided with increases in the participants’ alcohol use and increases in their exposure to alcohol cues in the college environment. From the first semester to the second semester, levels of alcohol use and cue exposure remained steady, but connectivity among cognitive control brain regions decreased. From this, we concluded that changes in alcohol use and cue exposure — not absolute levels — were reflected by the underlying neural processes.”

While the team believes their pilot study paints a clear picture of the effects of alcohol use in these first-year students, they note that there are still a number of unanswered questions in relation to the longer-term effects of alcohol use on neural development, both after the first year of college and, perhaps more importantly, later in the individuals´ lives.

Because the long-term effects on neural development are still unknown, Beltz intends to conduct a follow-up study, tracking a larger number of participants over a greater length of time.

Parents, no doubt, will be concerned about cutting ties with their kids as they send them off to school, in light of this most recent research. However, another recent study from Penn State may help put their minds at ease. In it, researchers found that parents who have a meaningful conversation with their children about alcohol use can positively affect their relationship with alcohol once they arrive on campus.

WATCH VIDEO: [Under The Skin, A Tiny Laboratory]

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Swiss scientists from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a tiny blood-work laboratory that sits just under the skin and wirelessly transmits results to a patient´s physician.

According to a statement from the EPFL team, the device can detect as many as five proteins and organic acids simultaneously, allowing for a more personalized and immediate level of care than traditional blood test monitoring. The device could be particularly useful for patients with a chronic illness or those undergoing chemotherapy.

A report on the device will be published and presented today at the 2013 Design, Automation and Test in Europe conference (DATE 13), Europe’s largest electronics show.

Developed by a team led by EPFL scientists Giovanni de Micheli and Sandro Carrara, the bio-implant measures only a few millimeters across and operates on a battery that is contained within a patch, which sits on top of the skin and generates 0.1 watts of electricity.

To collect information from a patient´s bloodstream, sensors on the implant are individually coated with an enzyme.

“Potentially, we could detect just about anything,” explains De Micheli. “But the enzymes have a limited lifespan, and we have to design them to last as long as possible.”

The enzymes remain active for about a month and a half — which is long enough to perform the necessary amount of blood work in most cases.

Once the information has been collected, the implant sends information to the skin patch via radio waves. After the patch collects the data, it transmits the information via Bluetooth to a mobile phone, which then sends it on to the doctor over a wireless network.

The scientists emphasized that the device could be particularly useful during chemotherapy treatments since oncologists use periodic blood tests to evaluate their patients’ ability to tolerate a treatment dosage.

De Micheli said the new system will enable a better, more personalized form of chemotherapy.

“It will allow direct and continuous monitoring based on a patient’s individual tolerance, and not on age and weight charts or weekly blood tests,” he said.

For patients who suffer from a chronic condition, the device will be able to detect early warning signs of the condition progressing into a more serious stage.

“In a general sense, our system has enormous potential in cases where the evolution of a pathology needs to be monitored or the tolerance to a treatment tested,” De Micheli said.

The EPFL prototype has been set to test for five different substances, and compared favorably to traditional analysis methods in a laboratory setting, according to the EPFL scientists.

To make the device, the researchers enlisted electronics experts, computer scientists, doctors and biologists from EPFL, and other Swiss institutions, including the Istituto di Ricerca di Bellinzona, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) and ETHZ, a university in Zurich. The team predicted that the system will be commercially available within four years.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Using aspirin for cardiovascular health remains a popular preventative medicine regimen for many people, even though recent studies have suggested that the popular pain killer might not be as beneficial as previously believed, according to new research published in the journal Canadian Family Physician.

Study authors Olga Szafran and Mike Kolber of the University of Alberta´s Department of Family Medicine polled patients over the age of 50 from two Alberta-based clinics.

They discovered that more than 40 percent of those individuals took daily doses of aspirin in order to prevent a heart attack, stroke, or similar cardiovascular ailment.

“A lot of this comes from many years ago where they did this study on physicians and it showed that physicians who take Aspirin seem to do better than those who don’t,” Kolber said in a statement.

“The problem is, physicians aren’t a generalized group of people, physicians are healthier and they’re educated,” he added. “All the literature that’s been coming out over the last three to five years, said Aspirin for primary prevention really doesn’t change long-term mortality.”

In addition, the researchers also found that 62 percent of those individuals who have cardiovascular disease are also taking the anti-inflammatory medication each day.

They refer to this style of treatment as secondary prevention, and unlike the previous group — who are practicing what is known as primary prevention — this group actually benefits from a regular aspirin regiment, they report.

“I think the hope is that this paper will sensitize physicians to their own practice and create a growing awareness of the issue,” Szafran said.

“If we can get it out there and ensure physicians and patients have the discussion, perhaps we could shift the use a little bit,” added Kolber. “Discuss the importance, if you have cardiovascular disease, of taking an anti-platelet like Asprin, and probably less important if you don’t have an event, to be taking that.”

According to the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), nonprescription aspirin can be used to prevent heart attacks in those who have already had one and those who have angina, or chest pains resulting from a lack of oxygen to the heart.

The drug can also be used to reduce the fatality risk of those who are experiencing or have recently experienced a heart attack, and is capable of preventing some types of stroke, including those that occur when a blood clot blocks the flow of blood to the brain, they explained.