From the birthplace of Dolly the sheep comes another advancement in cloning, as scientists at Scotland’s University of Edinburgh have reportedly created brain tissue from patients suffering from mental illnesses.
According to NewsCore reports, researchers at the university’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CRM) have developed a method of taking a patient’s skin sample, turning it into stem cells, and then directing them to grow into brain cells. They then study those man-made brain cells hoping to learn more about patients suffering from ailments such as bipolar depression and schizophrenia.
“A patient’s neurons can tell us a great deal about the psychological conditions that affect them, but you cannot stick a needle in someone’s brain and take out its cells,” CRM Director Charles ffrench-Constant told Robin McKie of The Guardian on Saturday.
“However, we have found a way round that,” he added. “Essentially, we are turning a person’s skin cells into brain. We are making cells that were previously inaccessible. And we could do that in future for the liver, the heart and other organs on which it is very difficult to carry out biopsies.”
In addition to mental illnesses, the scientists are looking for ways to treat neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and motor neuron disease, McKie wrote. The former project is being led by Professor Andrew McIntosh of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, while ffrench-Constant is heading up the latter.
“We are making different types of brain cells out of skin samples from people with schizophrenia and bipolar depression,” McIntosh told the Guardian. “Once we have assembled these, we look at standard psychological medicines, such as lithium, to see how they affect these cells in the laboratory. After that, we can start to screen new medicines.”
“Our lines of brain cells would become testing platforms for new drugs. We should be able to start that work in a couple of years,” he continued, adding that previously scientists could only obtain test samples from patients who had already passed on, and in many cases those samples were contaminated by whatever disorder killed them and whatever medication they had been taking to treat their condition(s).
Meanwhile, ffrench-Constant will attempt to create brain cells from MS patients, hoping to determine why some patients can live many years with the ailment while others see their condition degenerate rapidly.
“We will take skin samples from MS patients whose condition has progressed quickly and others in whom it is not changing very much,” he said, adding that if they “can find out the roots of the difference, we may be able to help patients.”
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On the Net:

• University of Edinburgh Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CRM)
• Royal Edinburgh Hospital
• Charles ffrench-Constant Lab

The discovery of a carcinogenic substance has led officials to warn millions of people in southern China not to drink water from a pair of polluted rivers, various media outlets reported on Friday.

According to Reuters, more than three and a half million people living in Liuzhou in the Guangxi region have been advised to not consume water from the Liujiang River, the main source of drinking water in the area, due to high levels of the cancer-causing agent cadmium.

Earlier this week, the substance was also discovered in the Longjiang River, a tributary of the Liujiang, the wire service added.

David Eimer of the Telegraph reported that “panicked residents were rushing to stock up on supplies of bottled water” after learning of the elevated cadmium levels in the rivers, even though local leaders, including  Gan Jinglin, the head of Liuzhou’s Environmental Bureau, were offering assurances that the water was still safe for human consumption.

“The deadly discharge occurred almost two weeks ago on January 15th, but was only reported by state media on Thursday,” Eimer wrote on Friday.

“The Guangxi Jinhe Mining Company in Hechi City is being blamed for the release of the cadmium. It is not known for how long the company had been discharging the pollutant into the Longjiang River or in what quantities,” he added.

The pollution of waterways, especially those vital as sources of drinking water, is a “pressing issue” for the Chinese, according to Ken Willis of Reuters. Willis says that officials have been calling for stricter policy regarding such pollution, but adds that “the problem shows no sign of going away.”

Following the detection of the toxic metal in the Longiang River at Hechi, officials opened sluices at a quartet of hydrological stations located upstream in the hopes of diluting it, and local firefighters poured hundreds of tons of the neutralizing agent aluminium chloride into the water.

Despite those efforts, the elevated cadmium levels resulted in the death of many fish, leading in part to the run on bottled water by local residents.

Reuters, citing the Xinhua news agency, added that “local authorities had warned citizens not to drink water from the polluted sections of the river, and the government began looking for alternative water sources out of concern the pollution might spread further.”

“As of Friday, hundreds of residents near the source of the spill were still dependent on bottled water because wells there had also become contaminated,” Willis added, again referencing Xinhua.

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On the Net:

• Liuzhou

Persistent bacterial infections can make a mess of our bowels and the usual treatment method of adding antibiotics usually causes even more disruptions. Researchers, however, are fine tuning a treatment that involves adding a sample of the stool of another which jump-starts the infected patients immune system, reports Kerry Grens for Reuters Health.

The procedure is used primarily to treat patients with infections from the bacterium Clostridium difficile. “It´s unbelievably effective,” said Dr. Neil Stollman, who was not involved in this research, but who has reported similar success using colonoscopy to deliver a stool transplant.

“C. diff,” as doctors refer to it, can cause chronic diarrhea, weight loss, abdominal pain and complications such as kidney failure or a hole in the colon. Treating other infections with antibiotics can disrupt the body´s normal bacterial harmony.

The researchers, led by Dr. Christine Lee at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, asked two healthy volunteers to donate fecal matter, which was diluted in water and given to by enema to 27 patients who had failed to recover after antibiotic treatments.

“The rationale for using an enema is it can be used in any setting and it´s not an invasive procedure,” Lee says.

All but two of the patients recovered after the procedure, and the vast majority felt better within one day, Lee and her colleagues report in Archives of Internal Medicine.

“I would recommend it to anyone who has had recurrent Clostridium difficile infection. Right now we´re dealing with a high rate of relapse, particularly in light of the type of strain that´s circulating now. It´s difficult to treat,” explains Lee.

How, exactly, the transplanted material helps yet unclear. Lee believes it could be that the newly introduced bacteria outcompete the C. diff bugs, or it could be that bacterial by-products in the stool help restore balance to the gut.

“The whole underpinning of this procedure is, if I don´t know which bacteria to put in and in what concentration, let´s put it all in,” said Stollman. “It´s an inelegant procedure with an elegant outcome.”

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On the Net:

• McMaster University
• Archives of Internal Medicine

A new study finds that receiving plenty of nurturing, motherly love while young may prevent illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease well into middle age, even for those raised in severe poverty.

Previous studies have shown that kids who grew up in poor areas are more likely to suffer from chronic illness in adulthood.  It has also been known that people who endured stressful childhoods increased their risks for conditions such as diabetes, stroke and high blood pressure later in life.

On the other hand, adults at risk of these chronic illnesses who grew up with a loving mother were found to be in better overall health than those who had not been as close to their moms.

Researchers believe this is due, primarily, to the empathy, coping strategies and self-respect that loving mothers teach their children.

The researchers from Brandeis University in Massachusetts assessed 1,000 adults for illnesses associated with lower socio-economic status, such as diabetes and strokes, and also followed 1,200 people over a ten year time period to determine the possible affects maternal nurturing had on overall health.

“The literature is very clear that people who are low in socioeconomic status have worse health than their same age counterparts,” said study author Professor Margie Lachman.

“Modifiable factors play an important role, and we are realizing that things can be done to try to minimize these health disparities.”

While money and access to quality health care certainly play a role, numerous studies show it is a very minor one, as countries with universal health care have the same social gradient, Lachman said.

“Emerging literature reveals that many of the health problems in midlife, including metabolic syndrome, can be traced back to what happened in early childhood.”

“The stresses of childhood can leave a biological residue that shows up in midlife. Yet, among those at risk for poor health, adults who had nurturing mothers in childhood fared better in physical health in midlife.”

“Perhaps it’s a combination of empathy, the teaching of coping strategies or support for enrichment.”

The findings were published January 25 in journal Psychological Science.

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On the Net:

• Psychological Science
• Brandeis University

Australian doctors and scientists are urging universities to stop teaching “nonsense” alternative medicine courses like aromatherapy and homoeopathy.

Friends of Science in Medicine say universities have been trashing their reputations by teaching “quackery” and pseudoscience courses.

Half of Australia’s universities offer courses in alternative medicine, including Chinese herbal remedies, chiropractics, homoeopathy, naturopathy, reflexology and aromatherapy.

The group has written to the heads of universities asking them to find evidence to back the science they are teaching, rather than give “undeserved credibility to what in many cases would be better described as quackery”.

Professor John Dwyer, one of the group’s founders, said 19 universities across the country were offering “degrees in pseudoscience.”

“It’s deplorable, but we didn’t realize how much concern there was out there for universities’ reputations until we tapped into it,” Prof Dwyer told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. “We’re saying enough is enough. Taxpayers’ money should not be wasted on funding [these courses] “¦ nor should government health insurance rebates be wasted on this nonsense.”

The group said it wants to “reverse the trend which sees government funded tertiary institutions offering courses in the health care sciences that are not underpinned by convincing scientific evidence.”

Some of the courses listed as “quackery” include energy medicine, tactile healing, homoeopathy, iridology, kinesiology, chiropractic, acupuncture and reflexology.

German and British medical insurance providers are currently in the process of removing alternative therapies from the list of treatments they cover.

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On the Net:

• Friends of Science in Medicine

Your genes could be a strong predictor of whether you stray into a life of crime, according to a research paper co-written by UT Dallas criminologist Dr. J.C. Barnes.

“Examining the Genetic Underpinnings to Moffitt´s Developmental Taxonomy: A Behavior Genetic Analysis” detailed the study´s findings in a recent issue of Criminology. The paper was written with Dr. Kevin M. Beaver from Florida State University and Dr. Brian B. Boutwell at Sam Houston State University.

The study focused on whether genes are likely to cause a person to become a life-course persistent offender, which is characterized by antisocial behavior during childhood that can later progress to violent or serious criminal acts later in life.

The framework for the research was based on the developmental taxonomy of anti-social behavior, a theory derived by Dr. Terri Moffitt, who identified three groups, or pathways, found in the population: life-course persistent offenders, adolescent-limited offenders and abstainers. Moffitt suggested that environmental, biological and, perhaps, genetic factors could cause a person to fall into one of the paths.

“That was the motivation for this paper. No one had actually considered the possibility that genetic factors could be a strong predictor of which path you end up on,” said Barnes, who is an assistant professor of criminology in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences at UT Dallas. “In her (Moffitt´s) theory, she seems to highlight and suggest that genetic factors will play a larger role for the life-course persistent offender pathway as compared to the adolescence-limited pathway.”

Adolescent-limited offenders exhibit behaviors such as alcohol and drug use and minor property crime during adolescence. Abstainers represent a smaller number of people who don´t engage in any deviant behavior.

Barnes and his co-researchers relied on data from 4,000 people drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to identify how people fell into each of the three groups. The researchers then compared the information using what is known as the twin methodology, a study design that analyzed to what extent genetic and environmental factors influenced a trait.

“The overarching conclusions were that genetic influences in life-course persistent offending were larger than environmental influences,” he said. “For abstainers, it was roughly an equal split: genetic factors played a large role and so too did the environment. For adolescent-limited offenders, the environment appeared to be most important.”

The analysis doesn´t identify the specific genes that underlie the different pathways, which Barnes said would be an interesting area for further research.

“If we´re showing that genes have an overwhelming influence on who gets put onto the life-course persistent pathway, then that would suggest we need to know which genes are involved and at the same time, how they´re interacting with the environment so we can tailor interventions,” he said.

Barnes said there is no gene for criminal behavior. He said crime is a learned behavior.

“But there are likely to be hundreds, if not thousands, of genes that will incrementally increase your likelihood of being involved in a crime even if it only ratchets that probability by 1 percent,” he said. “It still is a genetic effect. And it´s still important.”

The link between genes and crime is a divisive issue in the criminology discipline, which has primarily focused on environmental and social factors that cause or influence deviant behavior.

“Honestly, I hope people when they read this, take issue and start to debate it and raise criticisms because that means people are considering it and people are thinking about it,” Barnes said.

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On the Net:

• UT Dallas
• Criminology
• Florida State University
• Sam Houston State University

New studies describe which teens are likely to drive with multiple friends, and how these passengers may affect teen drivers right before a crash

— A pair of studies by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and State Farm® identify factors that may lead teens to drive with multiple peer passengers and, then, how those passengers may affect their driver’s behavior just before a serious crash. The studies were published Jan 24 in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Experts have long known that peer passengers increase teen driver crash risk. What hasn’t been well understood was how they increase crash risk. “These studies help us understand the factors that may predispose teens to drive with multiple friends and how those passengers may contribute to crashes by distracting the driver and promoting risky driving behaviors, such as speeding, tailgating, or weaving,” said study author Allison Curry, PhD, director of epidemiology at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention. “Knowing this, we can develop programs that work in tandem with current Graduated Driver Licensing laws that limit the number of passengers for teens during their first year of driving.”

The first study surveyed 198 teen drivers and found that teens who are most likely to drive with multiple passengers shared the following characteristics: considered themselves “thrill-seekers,” perceived their parents as not setting rules or monitoring their whereabouts, and possessed a weak perception of the risks associated with driving in general.

“The good news is that that these teens make up the minority,” said Jessica Mirman, PhD, study author and a behavioral researcher. “Teens in this study generally reported strong perceptions of the risks of driving, low frequencies of driving with multiple passengers, and strong beliefs that their parents monitored their behavior and set rules.”

The second study analyzed a nationally-representative sample of 677 teen drivers involved in serious crashes to compare the likelihood of driver distraction and risk-taking behaviors just prior to the crash when teens drive with peer passengers and when they drive alone.

“Both male and female teen drivers with peer passengers were more likely to be distracted just before a crash as compared to teens who crashed while driving alone,” explained Dr. Curry. “Among the teens who said they were distracted by something inside the vehicle before they crashed, 71 percent of males and 47 percent of females said they were distracted directly by the actions of their passengers.”

Additionally, the researchers found males with passengers were almost six times more likely to perform an illegal maneuver and more than twice as likely to drive aggressively just before a crash, as compared to males driving alone. Females rarely drove aggressively prior to a crash, regardless of whether they had passengers in the car.

“Most teens take driving seriously and act responsibly behind the wheel. However, some may not realize how passengers can directly affect their driving,” said Dr. Mirman. “Teen passengers can intentionally and unintentionally encourage unsafe driving. Because it can be difficult for new drivers to navigate the rules of the road and manage passengers, it’s best to keep the number of passengers to a minimum for the first year.”

The study authors also emphasized the important role parents play in supporting safe driving among teens and their passengers. They recommend parents set a house rule of no non-sibling teen passengers for the first six months of driving and only one non-sibling passenger for the second six months.

“It’s critical that parents stay involved in their teens’ driving beyond the learner permit phase. This includes continuing to monitor their driving activities and to review ways teens can be safe drivers and passengers,” said Chris Mullen, research director at State Farm. “Combined with Graduated Driver Licensing laws that limit passengers for the first year of driving, involved parents are an effective strategy to protect teens from a dangerous and preventable crash risk — driving with their friends.”

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On the Net:

• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
• State Farm
• Journal of Adolescent Health

Brain scans of individuals under the influence of so-called magic mushrooms have given scientists the clearest illustration yet as to how such psychedelic drugs can affect people, while also providing hope that the active ingredient in this substance could be used to help treat depression.

In two separate studies announced Monday, researchers discovered that the ingredient in question, psilocybin, does not increase activities in areas of the brain that tend to be suppressed by anti-depression treatments.

Rather, the substance also decreased brain activity in those regions, according to January 23 reports by Kate Kelland of Reuters and Stephanie Pappas of LiveScience.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek’s Makiko Kitamura, one of the two studies involved 30 healthy volunteers receiving intravenous transmissions of psilocybin while inside magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners.

Lead researchers David Nutt and Robin Carhart-Harris of Imperial College London reported that activity levels in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which tends to become hyperactive when a person is suffering from depression, was lowered instead.

Meanwhile, the second study, of which Nutt was also the senior author, found that 10 volunteers who received psilocybin were more likely to recall positive personal memories versus those who received a placebo, Kelland and Kitamura said.

Subjects in that study were asked to rate the changes in the overall emotional state two weeks after receiving either the psilocybin or the placebo, Imperial College London said in a press release. The researchers found a “significant positive correlation” between the vividness of the positive images they experienced and their overall mental wellbeing 14 days later.

The findings from that study were published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, while the second will appear in Thursday’s edition of the British Journal of Psychiatry.

“Psilocybin was used extensively in psychotherapy in the 1950s, but the biological rationale for its use has not been properly investigated until now,” Carhart-Harris, who worked on both studies, said in a statement Monday. “Our findings support the idea that psilocybin facilitates access to personal memories and emotions.”

“Previous studies have suggested that psilocybin can improve people’s sense of emotional wellbeing and even reduce depression in people with anxiety. This is consistent with our finding that psilocybin decreases mPFC activity, as many effective depression treatments do. The effects need to be investigated further, and ours was only a small study, but we are interested in exploring psilocybin’s potential as a therapeutic tool,” he added.

Even so, Carhart-Harris warned against trying to use these “magic mushrooms” to self-medicate depression.

“We’re not saying go out there and eat magic mushrooms,” he told Reuters. “But…this drug has such a fundamental impact on the brain that it’s got to be meaningful — it’s got to be telling us something about how the brain works. So we should be studying it and optimizing it if there’s a therapeutic benefit.”

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On the Net:

• Imperial College London
• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• British Journal of Psychiatry

Engineers at Brown University have designed a biological device that can measure glucose concentrations in human saliva. The technique could eliminate the need for diabetics to draw blood to check their glucose levels. The biochip uses plasmonic interferometers and could be used to measure a range of biological and environmental substances. Results are published in Nano Letters.
For the 26 million Americans with diabetes, drawing blood is the most prevalent way to check glucose levels. It is invasive and at least minimally painful. Researchers at Brown University are working on a new sensor that can check blood sugar levels by measuring glucose concentrations in saliva instead.
The technique takes advantage of a convergence of nanotechnology and surface plasmonics, which explores the interaction of electrons and photons (light). The engineers at Brown etched thousands of plasmonic interferometers onto a fingernail-size biochip and measured the concentration of glucose molecules in water on the chip. Their results showed that the specially designed biochip could detect glucose levels similar to the levels found in human saliva. Glucose in human saliva is typically about 100 times less concentrated than in the blood.
“This is proof of concept that plasmonic interferometers can be used to detect molecules in low concentrations, using a footprint that is ten times smaller than a human hair,” said Domenico Pacifici, assistant professor of engineering and lead author of the paper published in Nano Letters, a journal of the American Chemical Society.
The technique can be used to detect other chemicals or substances, from anthrax to biological compounds, Pacifici said, “and to detect them all at once, in parallel, using the same chip.”
To create the sensor, the researchers carved a slit about 100 nanometers wide and etched two 200 nanometer-wide grooves on either side of the slit. The slit captures incoming photons and confines them. The grooves, meanwhile, scatter the incoming photons, which interact with the free electrons bounding around on the sensor´s metal surface. Those free electron-photon interactions create a surface plasmon polariton, a special wave with a wavelength that is narrower than a photon in free space. These surface plasmon waves move along the sensor´s surface until they encounter the photons in the slit, much like two ocean waves coming from different directions and colliding with each other. This “interference” between the two waves determines maxima and minima in the light intensity transmitted through the slit. The presence of an analyte (the chemical being measured) on the sensor surface generates a change in the relative phase difference between the two surface plasmon waves, which in turns causes a change in light intensity, measured by the researchers in real time.
“The slit is acting as a mixer for the three beams – the incident light and the surface plasmon waves,” Pacifici said.
The engineers learned they could vary the phase shift for an interferometer by changing the distance between the grooves and the slit, meaning they could tune the interference generated by the waves. The researchers could tune the thousands of interferometers to establish baselines, which could then be used to accurately measure concentrations of glucose in water as low as 0.36 milligrams per deciliter.
“It could be possible to use these biochips to carry out the screening of multiple biomarkers for individual patients, all at once and in parallel, with unprecedented sensitivity,” Pacifici said.
The engineers next plan to build sensors tailored for glucose and for other substances to further test the devices. “The proposed approach will enable very high throughput detection of environmentally and biologically relevant analytes in an extremely compact design. We can do it with a sensitivity that rivals modern technologies,” Pacifici said.
Tayhas Palmore, professor of engineering, is a contributing author on the paper. Graduate students Jing Feng (engineering) and Vince Siu (biology), who designed the microfluidic channels and carried out the experiments, are listed as the first two authors on the paper. Other authors include Brown engineering graduate student Steve Rhieu and undergraduates Vihang Mehta, Alec Roelke.
The National Science Foundation and Brown (through a Richard B. Salomon Faculty Research Award) funded the research.
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Image Caption: Each plasmonic interferometer — thousands of them per square millimeter — consists of a slit flanked by two grooves etched in a silver metal film. The schematic shows glucose molecules “dancing” on the sensor surface illuminated by light with different colors. Changes in light intensity transmitted through the slit of each plasmonic interferometer yield information about the concentration of glucose molecules in solution. Credit: Domenico Pacifici
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On the Net:

• Brown University
• Nano Letters Abstract

When suffering from the same medical conditions, on average, women claim to experience more intense pain than men, according to a new study published online in The Journal of Pain on Monday.

According to a Stanford University Medical Center press release, physician Dr. Atul Butte and colleagues looked at the electronic medical records of more than 72,000 male and female patients.

The data covered a spectrum of 47 different total ailments and more than 161,000 instances where a patient was asked to describe pain levels on a scale of 0 to 10 (which “0” being no pain and “10” being the worst pain imaginable).

The researchers narrowed their findings down to 14 disorders, including back problems, arthritis, and sinus pain, Helen Shen of MercuryNews.com reported. In each case, women said that they experienced “greater suffering” then men, though most of the differences were described as small, she added.

“We saw higher pain scores for female patients practically across the board,” Butte, the chief of systems medicine in the department of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine, said in a statement. “In many cases, the reported difference approached a full point on the 1-to-10 scale. How big is that? A pain-score improvement of one point is what clinical researchers view as indicating that a pain medication is working.”

“That was the most surprising finding,” he added in an interview with Time’s Alice Park on Monday . “We completely wouldn´t have expected such a difference across almost all disorders, where women were reporting a whole pain point higher on the 0-to-10 scale than men.”

One possible cause for the phenomenon, Park said, is that the hormone estrogen could dampen women’s pain receptors, making them potentially more sensitive to feelings of pain. Another, she says, could be machismo — men might feel compelled to give a lower number to appear that the agony affects them less.

“The reasons may be biological or they may not be, but we should still be aware of the bias that patients have in reporting pain,” Butte said.

However, some experts have criticized the study, according to Susan Donaldson James and Dr. Elizabeth Chuang of ABCNews.com. They point out that the authors did not consider whether or not other disease may have caused additional pain in the women, thus being the root cause of the pain-level ranking differences.”

Dr. Lloyd Saberski, medical director of the Advanced Diagnostic Pain Treatment Centers at Yale University, told James and Chuang that the Stanford study was “flawed” and that the data was “probably not too accurate.” Saberski added that it was a “dangerous” and potentially misleading report, and contributes “nothing” to the medical profession’s understanding of pain mechanisms.

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On the Net:

• The Journal of Pain
• Stanford University Medical Center
• Yale University

If you’re feeling the need to scratch an itch, the ankle is the best place to do so, claims a new study published in the latest issue of the British Journal of Dermatology (BJD).
According to a Sunday report by IndianExpress.com, the study, which was the work of researchers from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), states that the sensation of itchiness is felt most intensely at the ankle.
That area of the body is also the most satisfying place to scratch — edging out those tough-to-reach places on the back, the researchers report, based on an analysis of both male and female volunteers between the ages of 22 and 59.
“The itches were induced on three parts of the body — forearm, ankle and back” by using cowhage, a plant which is known to cause skin irritation, Roger Dobson of the Telegraph wrote in a January 22 article. “For five minutes participants were banned from scratching, while being asked to record how itchy they felt at each spot.”
Afterwards, the researchers scratched each location using a laboratory brush, making sure to use a consistent technique, Dobson added. The scientists then asked the subject how pleasurable the sensation was at each region of the body.
The results, the Telegraph said, revealed that the ankle was both the itchiest spot and the area which produced the most pleasure when scratched. Conversely, ” the forearm was the least itchy spot, and scratching there produced pleasure that was briefer and lower in intensity,” Dobson added.
Francis McGlone, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at LJMU, a member of the International Forum for the Study of Itch (IFSI), and one of the researchers on the study, called the findings “interesting“¦ because the back has been well-known as a preferred site for scratching.”
“Generally, if something is nice to do, like scratching an itch, there is a reason for it other than pleasure,” McGlone added, according to the Telegraph. “It may, for example, that we evolved to feel itch on the ankle and get the most pleasure from scratching it, because our feet were exposed to microbes, fleas and so on.”
While IndianExpress.com reports that there was “no clear explanation” for the results of the study, Dobson says that the professor believes that the ankle region may have become more sensitive through evolution because they are more likely to come into contact with bugs, germs, and other foreign bodies that could be removed by scratching.
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On the Net:

• British Journal of Dermatology (BJD)
• Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU)
• International Forum for the Study of Itch (IFSI)

The scientists behind a pair of controversial research projects designed to make a deadly strain of bird flu more contagious have agreed to halt their work for 60 days in order to allow experts to determine whether or not the research could lead to a global pandemic or a possible bioterrorism threat.
A letter announcing the decision, authored by the three scientists behind the two studies — Ron Fouchier, Adolfo García-Sastre, and Yoshihiro Kawaoka — and three dozen other top influenza researchers was published Friday in the journals Science and Nature, Denise Grady of the New York Times reported. Both scientific journals will also publish reports on the research in an edited form so that the work cannot be reproduced, Grady added.
“The continuous threat of an influenza pandemic represents one of the biggest challenges in public health,” the authors of the letters wrote. “Recent research breakthroughs identified specific determinants of transmission of H5N1 influenza viruses in ferrets. Responsible research on influenza virus transmission using different animal models is conducted by multiple laboratories in the world using the highest international standards of biosafety and biosecurity practices that effectively prevent the release of transmissible viruses from the laboratory.”
The studies, which were conducted separately at labs in the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Erasmus MC in the Netherlands, discovered that viruses that contained a hemagglutinin (HA) protein from the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus could be transmitted by ferrets. They called that discovery “critical information that advances our understanding of influenza transmission,” while adding that more research was needed to figure out how flu viruses occurring naturally can become a pandemic threat to mankind.
Karen Herzog and Mark Johnson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the decision to enact the two-month long research freeze came following Wednesday evening and Thursday morning discussions between Fouchier and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony S. Fauci.
The moratorium, Herzog and Johnson added, will give scientists time to schedule an international forum in order to debate and discuss the research, and specifically safety issues associated with the two studies. The meeting could take place as early as next month in Geneva, Switzerland, the Journal Sentinel reported.
“Despite the positive public-health benefits these studies sought to provide, a perceived fear that the ferret-transmissible H5 HA viruses may escape from the laboratories has generated intense public debate in the media on the benefits and potential harm of this type of research. We would like to assure the public that these experiments have been conducted with appropriate regulatory oversight in secure containment facilities by highly trained and responsible personnel to minimize any risk of accidental release,” the researchers wrote in the letter explaining their decision.
They added that they could not test whether or not the altered virus could be transmitted amongst humans.
“We recognize that we and the rest of the scientific community need to clearly explain the benefits of this important research and the measures taken to minimize its possible risks,” they added. “We realize that organizations and governments around the world need time to find the best solutions for opportunities and challenges that stem from the work. To provide time for these discussions, we have agreed on a voluntary pause of 60 days on any research involving highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 viruses leading to the generation of viruses that are more transmissible in mammals. In addition, no experiments with live H5N1 or H5 HA reassortant viruses already shown to be transmissible in ferrets will be conducted during this time.”
Fouchier, who worked on the Netherlands-based experiment, told Martin Enserink of Science that the decision to temporarily halt the research came in the wake of press coverage and political debates, and that various third-party groups — including unspecified governments and the organizations funding their research — advised them to enact the moratorium.
Fouchier also said that they had not been directly threatened with a ban on their work, but that such a move was a possibility “that we can’t rule“¦ out.”
“It’s a pity that it has to come to this,” he added. “I would have preferred if this hadn’t caused so much controversy, but it has happened and we can’t change that. So I think it’s the right step to make.”
Time’s Alice Park points out that this is not the first time that controversial scientific work has been voluntarily postponed. In the early 1970s, the scientists who first successfully took the genes of one species and inserted them into the genome of a different one temporarily paused their research over concerns that it could lead to the creation of mutant creatures of genetic monsters, she said.
“Following the voluntary research stoppage, the National Institutes of Health convened a committee to advise the government on how to regulate research in the field responsibly, without impinging on the forward momentum represented by the science,” Park added. “The researchers met themselves, at the Asilomar Conference in 1975, to provide their own proposals for how the work should continue. Today, such recombinant DNA studies are the foundation of experiments in infectious disease and cancer.”
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On the Net:

• Science
• Nature
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Erasmus MC
• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Are teen birth control messages reaching their intended audience? A new study of nearly 5,000 teen mothers suggests that proper use, or any use at all, of birth control is not being exercised.

About 2,500 of the new moms in the survey said they were not using any birth control when they became pregnant. These numbers were surprisingly higher than surveys of teens in general, which have found that less than 20 percent of contraception use during their most previous sexual encounter.

“I think what surprised us was the extent to which they were not using contraception,” Lorrie Gavin, a CDC senior scientist who co-authored the report, told the Associated Press (AP).

After interviewing teen mothers in 19 states, researchers concluded that about a third of them who didn´t use birth control said the reason was they didn´t believe they could get pregnant. Why they thought that isn´t clear Shari Roan of the LA Times reports, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey didn´t ask teens to explain.

“This report underscores how much misperception, ambivalence and magical thinking put teens at risk for unintended pregnancy,” Bill Albert, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, told AP. “I think what surprised us was the extent to which they were not using contraception.”

CDC officials said they do not believe the birth control was faulty, they think the teens failed to use it correctly or consistently. Thirteen percent of those not using contraception said they failed to do so because they had trouble obtaining birth control pills, an IUD or condoms.

Almost 25 percent of the teen moms who did not use contraception said they didn´t because their partner pressured them not to. This suggests that sex education must include not only information about anatomy and birth control, but also about how to deal with situations in which a girl feels pressured to do something she doesn´t want to, Albert continued.

“The findings are sobering but it´s important to remember that the overall teen birth rate has been falling for some time, and recently hit its lowest mark in about 70 years.” Albert said it would be a mistake to come away from the report saying, “They can´t figure this out?” ℠´Most of them are figuring it out,” he said.

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On the Net:

• CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)

Finding that lysozymes have jaws could aid in early diagnosis of cancer

A disease-fighting protein in our teardrops has been tethered to a tiny transistor, enabling UC Irvine scientists to discover exactly how it destroys dangerous bacteria. The research could prove critical to long-term work aimed at diagnosing cancers and other illnesses in their very early stages.

Ever since Nobel laureate Alexander Fleming found that human tears contain antiseptic proteins called lysozymes about a century ago, scientists have tried to solve the mystery of how they could relentlessly wipe out far larger bacteria. It turns out that lysozymes have jaws that latch on and chomp through rows of cell walls like someone hungrily devouring an ear of corn, according to findings that will be published Jan. 20 in the journal Science.

“Those jaws chew apart the walls of the bacteria that are trying to get into your eyes and infect them,” said molecular biologist and chemistry professor Gregory Weiss, who co-led the project with associate professor of physics & astronomy Philip Collins.

The researchers decoded the protein’s behavior by building one of the world’s smallest transistors — 25 times smaller than similar circuitry in laptop computers or smartphones. Individual lysozymes were glued to the live wire, and its eating activities were monitored.

“Our circuits are molecule-sized microphones,” Collins said. “It’s just like a stethoscope listening to your heart, except we’re listening to a single molecule of protein.”

It took years for the UCI scientists to assemble the transistor and attach single-molecule teardrop proteins. The scientists hope the same novel technology can be used to detect cancerous molecules. It could take a decade to figure out, but would be well worth it, said Weiss, who lost his father to lung cancer.

“If we can detect single molecules associated with cancer, then that means we’d be able to detect it very, very early,” Weiss said. “That would be very exciting, because we know that if we treat cancer early, it will be much more successful, patients will be cured much faster, and costs will be much less.”

The project was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and the National Science Foundation. Co-authors of the Science paper are Yongki Choi, Issa Moody, Patrick Sims, Steven Hunt, Brad Corso and Israel Perez.

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On the Net:

• University of California – Irvine
• Science

Do you ever wear your headphones on the go, listening to your favorite music on your iPhone or your MP3 player, and unaware to the world around you? Well if you do, then you should read this:

According to a new US study, serious accidents involving pedestrians wearing headphones connected to their personal mobile devices such as iPods, have tripled over the past six years. An increase in the use of headphones while walking in the street has led to the dramatic rise in the number of injuries and deaths, particularly with teenagers, men and young adults.

There is increasing concern about the near trance-like state people seem to enter while using their mobile devices. Psychologists call this “divided attention” or “inattentional blindness” and it has become a focus for road safety campaigners across the country.

The research, published in the Injury Prevention journal, analyzed data from 2004 to 2011 on injuries to pedestrians using headphones. The researchers excluded data on users of mobile phones, including the hands-free sets, and also on cyclists

In compiling the data, they found 116 pedestrians in the US wearing headphones had died or been seriously injured during the study period. The number of pedestrians who had died or were injured jumped from 16 in 2004-05 to 47 in 2010-11.

About 68 percent of the victims were men, and 67 percent were under the age of 30. About one in 10 of all cases happened to people under the age of 18. Eighty-nine percent of the accidents occurred in urban settings, and more than half of the victims — 55 percent — were struck by trains.

According to the study, 81 of the 116 accidents — roughly 70 percent — resulted in death.

The researchers suggested that the use of headphones may have played a significant role in each of the accidents, as the users could not hear warnings of impending danger. In 29 percent of the cases, an explicit warning — such a shout, horn or siren — had been sounded before the accident.

Data for the study was taken from the US National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Google News archives and a university research database.

“The use of headphones may pose a safety risk to pedestrians, especially in environments with moving vehicles,” said study leader Dr. Richard Lichenstein, of the University of Maryland Hospital for Children in Baltimore.

Previous studies have shown that people wearing headphones or are distracted because they are talking on their mobile phone respond less to external stimuli, such as sounds and traffic when crossing the street. This reduction in attention to external stimuli has been dubbed “iPod oblivion.”

“Although we do not have robust data about this type of accident in the UK, we have heard of cases in which pedestrians have been knocked down while listening to headphones or talking on mobile phones,” Kevin Clinton, the head of road safety at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, told The Guardian. “If you are using these devices while walking, RoSPA advises that you ensure you are not dangerously distracted and that you remain aware of what is happening around you.”

“Pedestrians and cyclists seem to get lost in a private cocoon when they´re on a mobile in the street, or wearing headphones,” added Andrew Howard, head of road safety at the AA. “Precise figures don´t appear to be available here. There are many close calls. You´ve only got to look around to see it´s on the rise.”

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On the Net:

• Injury Prevention
• University of Maryland Hospital for Children

Researchers from Sweden suggest that there is a strong link between processed meats, such as sausage and bacon, and pancreatic cancer.

Eating 50 grams of processed meats every day — the equivalent of one sausage or two pieces of bacon — can increase the risk of pancreatic cancer by 19 percent, compared to those who do not eat processed meats of any kind.

For those who consume double the amount of processed meats, 100g per day, the increased risk also doubles to 38 percent. But while Swedish researchers find such a strong link to pancreatic cancer, experts caution that the overall risk of developing the life-threatening disease is relatively low — in the UK, the lifetime risk of developing pancreatic cancer is one in 77 for men and one in 79 for women.

Nevertheless, the disease is deadly and is most often diagnosed at an advanced stage and kills 80 percent of those diagnosed within a year. Only 5 percent of patients are still alive five years after diagnosis.

Professor Susanna Larsson, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, leader of the new study, told BBC News that links to other cancers were “quite controversial.” She said it is known that “eating meat increases the risk of colorectal cancer, it´s not so much known about other cancers.”

Larsson´s study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, analyzed data from 11 trials and 6,643 patients with pancreatic cancer. The study found inconclusive evidence on the risks of eating red meat overall, compared to eating no red meat. In men, the study found a 29 percent increase in pancreatic cancer risk for men eating 120g of red meat per day but no increased risk for women. This may be because men in the study tended to eat more red meat than women.

“The increased risk was found only in processed meat,” Hazel Nunn from Cancer Research UK told James Gallagher of BBC News.

“Pancreatic cancer has poor survival rates. So as well as diagnosing it early, it´s important to understand what can increase the risk of this disease, said Larsson.

Eating less red meat is definitely a start, she said.

“Findings from this meta-analysis indicate that processed meat consumption is positively associated with pancreatic cancer risk,” the study authors conclude. “Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings.”

This new study adds to understanding about the risk factors for developing pancreatic cancer. Smoking is believed to account for nearly a third of all cases of the disease, and smokers have a 74 percent increased risk of developing it compared to non-smokers.

“There is strong evidence that being overweight or obese [also] increases the risk of pancreatic cancer and this study may be an early indication of another factor behind the disease,” Dr Rachel Thompson, deputy head of science at World Cancer Research Fund, told BBC and The Guardian.

Larsson said if diet also affects the disease “then this could influence public health campaigns to help reduce the number of cases of this disease developing in the first place.”

More than 8,000 people were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the UK in 2008 — 3 percent of all cancer cases — and nearly 96 percent died from it. “The jury is still out as to whether meat is a definite risk factor for pancreatic cancer and more large studies are needed to confirm this. But this new analysis suggests processed meat may be playing a role,” Sara Hiom, director of information at Cancer Research UK, told BBC News.

“We will be re-examining the factors behind pancreatic cancer later this year as part of our Continuous Update Project, which should tell us more about the relationship between cancer of the pancreas and processed meat,” said Thompson.

“Regardless of this latest research, we have already established a strong link between eating red and processed meat and your chances of developing bowel cancer, which is why WCRF recommends limiting intake of red meat to 500g cooked weight a week and avoid processed meat altogether,” Thompson concluded.

“These findings, if confirmed by further studies, could help inform people on which lifestyle factors could play a role in limiting their chances of developing the disease,” Alex Ford, chief executive of Pancreatic Cancer UK, told The Guardian.

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On the Net:

• Karolinska Institute
• British Journal of Cancer

The Coca-Cola Co. admitted that they alerted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about low levels of fungicide in its orange juice products. The alert caused juice prices to rise and brought about the need for the government to test for the fungicidal residue, ABC News reports.

Coca-Cola, which makes the Minute Maid and Simply Orange brands of juice notified the FDA about low levels of the fungicide carbendazim in theirs and their competitor´s orange juice products.

Currently carbendazim is not approved for use on citrus in the United States, but it is used in Brazil, one of the world´s largest exporters of oranges and orange juice.

The Guardian notes that the FDA has not established a maximum residue level for carbendazim in orange juice and has not said what levels of the fungicide raise concerns. But Coca-Cola reported levels of up to 35 parts per billion, far below the European Union´s acceptance level of 200 parts per billion.

Nega Beru, an FDA official, wrote a letter earlier this week telling the Juice Products Association that they will begin testing shipments of orange juice at the border and will detain juice that contains traces of the fungicide, because its use is illegal.

Beru asked that the industry´s suppliers ensure that producers stop using the chemical on its fruit.

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On the Net:

• Article: Increased Testing, Ban on Imports, Possible Price Increases in Wake of OJ Contamination
• Coca-Cola Co.
• Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Two different U.S. companies have announced plans to release equipment that can sequence an individual’s genome in a single day, with both machines being revealed to the public within hours of each other on Tuesday.
The first to announce their genome-sequencing machine was Ion Torrent, a Connecticut-based division of the Life Technologies Corporation, according to Reuters and Associated Press (AP) reports.
The company, which claims that its Ion Proton Sequencer is 1,000 times more powerful than existing DNA decoding technology, is currently taking orders for the tabletop machine (which is said to be about the same size as a printer) and expects it to be delivered in approximately a year.
Reuters’ Sharon Begley reports that the device will cost between $99,000 to $149,000 dollars, “making it affordable for large medical practices or clinics.” In comparison, existing devices cost up to three-quarters of a million dollars, the wire service noted.
Less than 24 hours later, the AP reported that a second firm San Diego-based Illumina also announced a new piece of equipment that, like the Ion Proton Sequencer, has the potential to decode an entire genome in about one day.
While the AP said that the company’s statement did not make reference to a price for the unit, Illumina Chief Executive Jay Flately had told Matthew Herper of Forbes that the machine would cost $740,000.
While costing far more than its competitor, Herper suggests that it will be a higher-quality genome sequencer, noting that it “will provide scientists with exactly the kind of data that researchers have come to expect.” He claims that Illumina machines are currently responsible for nine out of every 10 DNA base pairs that are sequenced by researchers.
According to Begley, newborns may be the ones to benefit most from the new technology. She says that every U.S. state currently requires them to be screened for a minimum of 29 genetic diseases.
Which of the two machines will emerge victorious, though? Herper posed the question to Chad Nusbaum, the co-director of the Genome Sequencing and Analysis Program at the Broad Institute, who has already used the Ion Torrent system and told Forbes that he expected the lower price point to give it the edge.
“The speed is good,” Nusbaum said, speaking of the Illumina device, “but cost is going to be a blocker“¦ We´re in a world where you can buy a machine for a lot less. Now machines are getting cheap again, and I think that is what the world is going to expect. Otherwise it costs you too much to get in the game.”
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On the Net:

• Ion Torrent
• Illumina

A new study, published in the January 11 issue of the online journal PLoS One, has linked addiction to online activity with changes in a person’s brain not unlike those that occur in alcoholics or drug addicts.

“Internet addiction disorder may be associated with abnormal white matter structure in the brain,” the statement said. “These structural features may be linked to behavioral impairments, and may also provide a method to study and treat the disorder.”

As part of the study, Hao Lei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan and colleagues reportedly took MRI scans of the brains of 18 adolescents suffering from Internet addiction disorder (IAD).

Compared to their peers, the brains of IAD subjects “showed impairment of white matter fibers in the brain connecting regions involved in emotional processing, attention, decision making and cognitive control,” not online those addicted to substances like alcohol, pot, or cocaine, according to Jeremy Laurance of The Independent and the PLoS One statement.

“The researchers“¦ found that IAD is characterized by impairment of white matter fibers connecting brain regions involved in emotional generation and processing, executive attention, decision making, and cognitive control, and suggest that IAD may share psychological and neural mechanisms with other types of impulse control disorders and substance addiction,” the press release added.

According to Laurance, somewhere between 5% and 10% of all Internet users are said to be addicted to the activity, meaning that they cannot control their desire to be active online, often to the detriment of their work, schooling, social lives, hygiene, health and wellbeing. The researchers believe that these findings may make it possible to find new ways to try and treat this disorder.

“The majority of people we see with serious internet addiction are gamers — people who spend long hours in roles in various games that cause them to disregard their obligations,” Henrietta Bowden Jones, consultant psychiatrist at Imperial College, London, told Laurance. “I have seen people who stopped attending university lectures, failed their degrees or their marriages broke down because they were unable to emotionally connect with anything outside the game.”

However, in their paper, the authors admit that they cannot determine for certain whether or not the changes in the brain are the cause of the Internet addiction, or a result of IAD.

Likewise, Professor Michael Farrell, Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, told The Independent that the study was limited because it was “not controlled,” that it was possible that “illicit drugs, alcohol or other caffeine-based stimulants might account for the changes,” and that the diagnosis of IAD itself was “questionable.”

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On the Net:

• PLoS One
• Chinese Academy of Sciences
• University of New South Wales

A University of Connecticut researcher, Dipak K. Das – researching the link between aging and a substance found in red wine – has been found to have committed more than 100 acts of data fabrication and falsification, the university said on Wednesday, throwing most of his research into question.

University officials, after an internal review, found 145 instances over seven years in which Das fabricated, falsified and manipulated data, and the US Office of Research Integrity has opened an independent investigation of his work.

“We have a responsibility to correct the scientific record and inform peer researchers across the country,” Philip Austin, the university´s interim vice president for health affairs, said in a statement.

Resveratrol has been promoted by a number of dietary supplement manufacturers as slowing the ageing process as and retaining health.

Dr. Nir Barzilai, whose research team conducts resveratrol research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, said Das is not a major figure in the field, according to Stephanie Reitz for the Associated Press. The new allegations will not make a material difference to resveratrol research, which is being conducted extensively around the world with encouraging results from many labs, Barzilai said.

A widely reported study in 2006, which Das was not involved in, revealed obese mice living longer, healthier lives after receiving doses of resveratrol. This research began a wave of enthusiasm for the substance among the health industry.

Das´s research was placed under investigation beginning in January 2009, two weeks after the university received an anonymous allegation about research irregularities in his laboratory, reports Nicholas Wade of the NY Times.

“We have a responsibility to correct the scientific record and inform peer researchers across the country,” Philip Austin, interim vice president for health affairs, said in a written statement about the notifications to the 11 scientific journals.

Das has had dismissal proceedings launched against him. He has been employed by the Health Center since 1984 and was granted tenure in 1993. Das could not immediately be reached for comment.

Das wrote in a 2010 letter to university officials that the investigation was a “conspiracy” against him. The work was “repeated by many scientists all over the world.”

“As you know, because of the development of a tremendous amount of stress in my work environment in recent months, I became a victim of stroke for which I am undergoing treatment,” he wrote in a separate letter.

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On the Net:

• University of Connecticut
• US Office of Research Integrity

A new study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that the lung capacity of marijuana smokers is not diminished by regular toking, even among those who smoked once or twice a week, reports Genevra Pittman for Reuters Health. This disproves one of the major concerns about marijuana – that smoking it must be just as risky as lighting up a cigarette.
Only those who smoked 20 or more joints a month saw a negative impact on the pulmonary system. However that level of marijuana use is unusual, researchers said. They suggest that marijuana smoke doesn´t affect lung function the way tobacco does simply because people don´t smoke as much marijuana as they do tobacco.
“Previous studies have had mixed results,” Dr. Stefan Kertesz, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham explained to Pittman. “Some have hinted at an increase in lung air flow rates and lung volume (with marijuana smoking), and others have not found that. Others have found hints of harm.”
While marijuana smoke has a lot of the same toxins as cigarette smoke, he added, people who use pot tend to smoke fewer joints each day than tobacco users smoke cigarettes. That and the method of inhaling may offer some relative lung protection, researchers have proposed.
Doctors and patients who are considering using marijuana for medical care to ease pain and nausea, can breathe a little easier, suggested Dr. Mark Pletcher, a UCSF epidemiologist and lead author of the study.
But that´s not to say that Pletcher or his colleagues are ready to give the all clear to anyone who wants to smoke pot, reports Erin Allday of the San Francisco Chronicle.
“This study shouldn´t be interpreted as marijuana is totally harmless,” said Dr. Stephen Sidney, a study author with Kaiser Northern California´s division of research in Oakland. “We don´t see marijuana having a big impact on lung function or lung disease. But it doesn´t mitigate the fact that we have an issue with marijuana, at least in terms of dependence on it.”
Smoking cigarettes has such dramatic, long-term health consequences – including emphysema and lung cancer – that doctors have long assumed that marijuana smoking, too, must be detrimental.
“This study is challenging the preconceived notions we´ve had for some time about the dangers of smoking cannabis and the similarities to smoking tobacco,” explained Amanda Reiman, a UC Berkeley lecturer and director of research at the Berkeley Patients Group, a medical marijuana dispensary, to Allday.
“No one would ever claim that drinking water has the same effect as drinking vodka, even though they´re both liquids and you´re ingesting them the same way,” she explained. “But for some reason we have assumed that because we know the negative outcomes with cigarettes, inhaling any plant material is going to have the same outcomes.
The study lumped together all types of inhaled marijuana use, meaning researchers did not differentiate among those who smoked joints or pipes or any other implement.
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On the Net:

• Journal of the American Medical Association
• University of Alabama at Birmingham
• Kaiser Northern California, Oakland

According to a new study, the newly bereaved are at a greatly increased risk of having a heart attack after the death of a loved one.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School´s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center say that a “perfect storm” of stress, lack of sleep and forgetting to take regular medications puts mourners at a severely high risk a heart attack in the days following a loved one´s death.

In the study of nearly 2,000 people, published in the journal Circulation, the researchers found that heart attack risk is 21 times higher within the first day and also six times higher than normal within the first week.

Experts say intense grief puts extra strain on the heart. The psychological stress associated with loss can raise heart rate, blood pressure and blood clotting, which, in turn, can increase the chance of heart attack. Loss of a loved one can also affect a griever´s sleep and appetite. Add self-neglect to the mix, and the result can be severe.

“During situations of extreme grief and psychological distress, you still need to take care of yourself and seek medical attention for symptoms associated with a heart attack,” said Dr. Murray Mittleman, of Harvard Medical School’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and lead author of the study. “Caretakers, healthcare providers and the bereaved themselves need to recognize they are in a period of heightened risk in the days and weeks after hearing of someone close dying.”

Among the 1,985 heart attack survivors studied, researchers determined 270 (13.6 percent) experienced the loss of a loved one within six months, including 19 losing a loved one within one day of their heart attack.

The researchers also found that the increased risk of heart attack within the first week after the loss of a loved one ranges from one per 320 people with a high heart attacks risk to one per 1,394 people with a low heart attack risk. This study is the first to focus on heart attack risk during the first few days and weeks after a loved one´s death.

To determine their findings, the research team reviewed charts and interviewed patients while in the hospital after a confirmed heart attack between 1989 and 1994. Patients answered questions about circumstances surrounding their heart attack, as well as whether they recently lost someone significant in their lives over the past year, when the death happened, and also the importance of their relationship.

“We´re already aware that, under exceptional circumstances, emotional stress can trigger a heart attack,” Professor Peter Weissberg of the British Heart Foundation, told BBC News. “But we shouldn´t lose sight of the fact that heart attacks triggered by stress normally only happen in people with underlying heart disease. It´s very important that if you´re taking medication because you have, or are at high risk of, heart disease, don´t neglect taking it following a significant bereavement.”

Elizabeth Mostofsky, coauthor of the research, agreed that grieving people sometimes neglect taking their regular medications, possibly leading to adverse heart events. “Friends and family of bereaved people should provide close support to help prevent such incidents, especially near the beginning of the grieving process,” she added.

“Similarly, medical professionals should be aware that the bereaved are at much higher risk for heart attacks than usual,” Mostofsky noted.

“During situations of extreme grief and psychological distress, you still need to take care of yourself and seek medical attention for symptoms associated with a heart attack,” Mittleman said.

Heart attack signs include chest discomfort, upper body or stomach pain, shortness of breath, breaking into a cold sweat, nausea or light-headedness.

Mostofsky and Mittleman think that being aware of the heightened risk can go a long way toward “breaking the link between the loss of someone close and the heart attack.”

“Physicians, patients and families should to be aware of this risk and make sure that someone experiencing grief is getting their physical and medical needs met,” said Mittleman. “And if an individual develops symptoms that we´re concerned might reflect the beginnings of heart attack, we really need to take it very seriously and make sure that that patient gets appropriate evaluation and care.”

Providing proper psychological interventions for those grieving is also important. “We do think it´s plausible that social support during that increased time of vulnerability would help mitigate the risk of heart attack,” added Mostofsky.

Future studies are needed to make more specific recommendations based on the study, Mittleman cautioned.

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On the Net:

• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
• Circulation