New research confirms that children whose parents smoke are more likely to pick up the habit themselves.

Dr. Stephen E. Gilman of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and his colleagues found that the effect was particularly strong if young people were exposed to a parent’s tobacco use before their teen years.

Gilman also pointed out that in children of ex-smokers “that risk goes away if parents quit.”

The research team noted that while there is increasing evidence that children of smokers are more likely to be smokers themselves, less is known about whether one parent has a stronger effect than the other.

Furthermore, it is still unclear whether the influence of parents on their offspring’s smoking behavior is the same throughout childhood and adolescence.

For the study, researchers chose 559 boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 17 and spoke with one parent of each adolescent participant.

They found 62.4 percent of parents had ever smoked in their lives, while 46 percent had met criteria for full nicotine dependence.

Overall, 27.8 percent of the adolescents reported having used cigarettes, with the prevalence of use increasing with age; 7.2 percent of 12-year-olds said they had smoked, while 61.3 percent of 17-year-olds did.

The researchers concluded that each parent independently influenced the likelihood that a young person would start smoking.

A mother’s smoking affected sons and daughters’ risk equally, but a father’s smoking had a stronger effect on boys than girls, and the smoking habits of fathers who did not live with their families had no affect on offspring’s smoking risk.

It was also determined that the longer a parent smoked, it became more likely that an adolescent would starting smoking. Whether or not the parent was actually dependent on nicotine didn’t affect the strength of the relationship.

Gilman told Reuters Health the most striking result was that the effects were strongest at younger ages. “Children who were 12 or younger when their parents were actively smoking were about 3.6 times as likely to smoke as children of non-smokers,” he said.

“But the adolescents who were 13 and older when their parents smoked were only about 1.7 times more likely to use tobacco.”

The researcher acknowledged that there are many other factors that influence the likelihood of becoming a smoker, from the media to genetic susceptibility to addiction.

“A deeper understanding of the intergenerational transmission of cigarette smoking will provide additional insight into avenues of prevention,” they wrote.

The study suggested that smoking cessation efforts for families and parents would not only reduce the parent’s smoking but also would likely reduce smoking uptake in subsequent generations.

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On the Net:

• Pediatrics
• Harvard School of Public Health

Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have found that the protein Stat3 plays a key role in regulating mitochondria, the energy-producing machines of cells. This discovery could one day lead to the development of new treatments for heart disease to boost energy in failing heart muscle or to master the abnormal metabolism of cancer.

In the study, published online Jan. 8 in Science Express, researchers reported that Stat3, a protein previously known to control the activity of genes by acting in the cell nucleus, also plays a key role in cellular energy production.

The team examined oxygen consumption in cultured cells and hearts of mice. They discovered that when Stat 3 protein was missing, cells consumed less oxygen and produced less ATP, the key molecular form of cellular energy. The findings revealed that Stat3 is necessary for the function of the mitochondrial electron transport chain that generates ATP. Changes in energy production and expenditure are essential to maintain cellular homeostasis.

“We found evidence that Stat3 is present in the mitochondria and that it serves to control the production of ATP,” said principal investigator Andrew C. Larner, M.D., Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the VCU School of Medicine, and co-leader of the Immune Mechanisms research program at the VCU Massey Cancer Center.

“We have described a new pathway by which generation of ATP is regulated. This pathway could suggest new ways for Stat3 to be therapeutically manipulated to treat a variety of diseases where there are imbalances between energy generation and energy demands such as occurs in cancer and heart disease,” he said.

Next, the team will conduct studies to determine the downstream targets of Stat3 in the mitochondria and identify the physiological role of Stat3 that is localized to the mitochondria in heart disease and cancer.

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On The Net:

VCU

Lack of coverage puts low-income children at higher risk of HIV infection

Hospitals in states where Medicaid does not pay for routine male circumcision are only about half as likely to perform the procedure, and this disparity could lead to an increased risk of HIV infection among lower-income children later in life, according to a UCLA AIDS Institute study.

Researchers found that at hospitals in the 16 states where the procedure is not covered, circumcision rates were 24 percentage points lower than at hospitals in other states, with lower rates particularly prevalent among Hispanics. The mean male circumcision rate for all states was 55.9 percent.

The study, published in the January issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

The findings are important because they document the effect of state Medicaid reimbursement policies on the medical services that are actually delivered, said the study’s lead author, Arleen A. Leibowitz, a professor of public policy and a researcher with both the UCLA Center for HIV Identification, Prevention and Treatment Services and the UCLA AIDS Institute. These services include male circumcision, which has been shown to lead to substantial health benefits in later life.

“Since children whose childbirth expenses are paid for by Medicaid are, by definition, lower income, the Medicaid policy in 16 states of not reimbursing for male circumcision is generating future disparities in health between children born to rich and poor families,” Leibowitz said.

In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) stated that the medical benefits of male circumcision were not enough for the group to recommend that the procedure be made routine at all hospitals. As a result, some states began withdrawing Medicaid coverage for circumcision.

But recent clinical trials in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda have revealed that male circumcision can reduce a man’s risk of becoming infected with HIV from a female partner by 55 to 76 percent. In June 2007, the AAP began reviewing its stance on the procedure.

The UCLA researchers relied on data from the 2004 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), collected as part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project of the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. They studied information on about 417,000 routine discharges of newborn males from 683 U.S. hospitals.

In addition to the overall lower circumcision rates, the researchers found that the more Hispanics a hospital served, the fewer circumcisions the hospital performed. For Hispanic parents, the circumcision decision was about more than simply cost, since male Hispanic infants were unlikely to receive the procedure even in states in which it was fully covered by Medicaid.

The 16 states without Medicaid coverage for male circumcision are California, Oregon, North Dakota, Mississippi, Nevada, Washington, Missouri, Arizona, North Carolina, Montana, Utah, Florida, Maine, Louisiana, Idaho and Minnesota.

The study authors estimate that if all states’ Medicaid plans paid for male circumcision, the national rates for the procedure would increase to 62.6 percent. If all states dropped the coverage, the rate would fall to about 38.5 percent.

“State Medicaid plans that attempt to reduce costs in the short run by not covering the cost of infant male circumcision may be generating higher health care costs for HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections in the future,” Leibowitz said.

Study co-authors were Katherine Desmond, M.S., and Thomas Belin, Ph.D, both with UCLA.

A National Institute of Mental Health grant to UCLA’s Center for HIV Identification, Prevention and Treatment Services funded the study.

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On the Net:

• University of California – Los Angeles
• American Journal of Public Health

Consumers, officials break obscured drug laws

Healthcare consumers, benefits managers, and even government officials are using the internet to buy unapproved prescription drugs illegally, according to a report to be published in the International Journal of Electronic Healthcare.

Daniel Lorence of Penn State Center for Technology Assessment, at University Park, Pennsylvania, suggests that the phenomenal growth of the internet as an information source for people seeking medical and health information is being paralleled by growing civil disobedience as healthcare consumers turn to related outlets to purchase the prescription drugs they want directly, that may be otherwise unavailable from their healthcare providers.

“This phenomenon carries important social and policy implications as the delivery of healthcare continues to defy national borders and policies,” says Lorence. “The most recent (2002) US Census data suggests an estimated 43.6 million US citizens did not have health insurance for the previous 12 months,” Lorence points out. These numbers are likely to grow during a period of economic recession as well as the number of people who are simply under-insured or whose insurance precludes access to particular treatments.

Lorence adds that it is no surprise that US consumers are more sensitive to the higher prices they pay for medications relative to other developed countries. The price gap between nations for prescription drugs has widened since 2000 and there is no sign of it narrowing in the foreseeable future.

“Such differences in prices between the USA and the seven wealthy nations, including Canada, largely reflect differing public policies on drug pricing and costs,” explains Lorence. The fundamental reason for this gap is that the US government allows drug makers to raise prices freely whereas other nations limit prices and costs through price negotiations, across-the-board price cuts, reference pricing, profit caps, putting drug spending on a budget, and other methods.

Given this set of circumstances, cheap and readily available prescription drugs via the internet becomes an attractive proposition for countless underinsured Americans.

The purchase of discounted prescription drugs from Canada, via the internet or direct travel across the border, appears as the most long-standing innovation adopted by American seniors and a growing number of health benefits managers in meeting their needs, says Lorence. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is trying to prevent such civil disobedience through various actions. Nevertheless, a growing number of seniors and benefits managers continue to defy the FDA assisted to some extent by off-message government officials and even policy-makers.

The FDA policy to be found on its website (http://www.fda.gov/ora/import/traveler_alert.htm) states: “Avoid purchasing any drug products that are not approved for sale in the U.S. (including foreign-manufactured versions of U.S. approved drugs). FDA cannot assure that these products conform to the manufacturing and quality assurance procedures mandated by U.S. laws and regulations and, therefore, these products may be unsafe. In addition, such products are illegal in the U.S. and, therefore, may be subject to entry refusal”¦”

“The FDA continues to obscure the legality of this issue, while still threatening to prosecute consumers,” says Lorence.

“The internet and civil disobedience: examining a new form of e-health behavior” in Int. J. Electronic Healthcare, Vol 4, 236-243

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On the Net:

• Inderscience Publishers
• International Journal of Electronic Healthcare
• Penn State

A new study has found evidence to suggest that hospitals that have a higher rate of use of health information technology (HIT) may see fewer deaths, fewer complications, and lower health care costs.

The study was conducted by Dr. Ruben Amarasingham, Associate Chief of Medicine at Parkland Health & Hospital System and Assistant Professor of Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical School, and Dr. Neil Powe, Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Their study was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

They found that patients at hospitals that ranked the highest in use of HIT were 15 percent less likely to die than those from lower ranked hospitals.

“If these results were to hold for all hospitals in the United States, computerizing notes and records might have the potential to save 100,000 lives annually,” Dr. Powe said in a statement.

Researchers looked beyond whether or not hospitals had elements of health information technology. They wanted to gauge how much hospital doctors were actually using the technology.

They surveyed physicians at 41 Texas hospitals, and checked the records of more then 160,000 patients over age 50 to see if there was a link between information technology and the care given for one of four conditions: heart attack, heart failure, heart bypass and pneumonia, according to Reuters.

The researchers looked at four types of information systems – those that automate notes and records, manage tests results, manage doctor’s orders for patient care and those that help doctors make medical decisions.

“They found that increased use of information technology was associated with both lower costs and better outcomes,” said Dr. David Bates of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, whose editorial on the study appears in the same journal.

“These findings tell us, straight from the physicians using it, that this technology works to improve quality of care for patients””the first priority of health information technology,” said Anne-Marie Audet, Vice President for Quality Improvement and Efficiency of the Commonwealth Fund, which funded the study.

“But, in order to save lives and keep costs downs, health information technology has to be used to its fullest extent. As President Obama and his health care team consider investing in this technology for the nation, it would make sense to factor in on-going support and training for health care providers so that the technology can live up to its potential,” she added.

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On the Net:

• Commonwealth Fund
• Archives of Internal Medicine

Multi-institutional study supports controversial theory, reveals genetic key

Just when the Food and Drug Administration is reconsidering the use of stimulants to treat asthma, a new research study offers further evidence to support a University of Houston professor’s theory that an opposite approach to asthma treatment may be in order.

Richard A. Bond, professor of pharmacology at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy (UHCOP), has been investigating whether beta-2 adrenoreceptor antagonist drugs (or beta blockers) ultimately might be a safer, more effective strategy for long-term asthma management than the currently used beta-2 adrenoreceptor agonists (or stimulants).

The beta-2 adrenoreceptor is a receptor found in many cells, including the smooth muscle lining the airways, and has long been a target for asthma drugs. However, a recent study shows the absence of asthma-like symptoms in a mouse model that lacks the key gene that produces the receptor. This lends further evidence to Bond’s theory that questions whether the pharmaceutical industry should be working to block or inhibit the receptor instead of the current approach of chronically stimulating it to reduce asthma symptoms.

The study, “Beta2-Adrenoreceptor Signaling is Required for the Development of an Asthma Phenotype in a Murine Model,” is in the current online issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), one of the world’s most-cited multidisciplinary scientific serials. A follow-up commentary by an independent scientist in the field also will be published in the print issue of PNAS in February.

The timely release of this study comes on the heels of the FDA considering a renewed look at the use of long-acting beta agonist drugs (LABAs) ““ at least those used alone, without a steroidal component ““ for the management of asthma symptoms. In an FDA report released in December, an analysis of more than 100 trials on four drugs (two LABAs alone and two LABA/corticosteroid combinations) found an increased risk of hospitalization and asthma-related deaths with the LABA-only therapy. During the same month, an FDA advisory panel urged the FDA to ban the LABA-only drugs and strengthen warnings on the combination drugs.

Bond and his colleagues propose an alternative to stimulants, using antagonists (or beta blockers) instead. This approach, termed paradoxical pharmacology, suggests patients may be treated with medication that initially worsens their symptoms before eventually improving their overall health.

Beta blockers currently are contraindicated for asthma because they typically trigger bronchoconstriction, decreasing the flow of air to the lungs. Bond has suggested, however, that although beta blockers would not replace the need for emergency inhalers for acute episodes, the negative effects associated with beta blockers eventually taper off to provide long-term relief from asthma symptoms. In addition, several studies have shown chronic use of the beta-2 agonists (or stimulants) can negatively affect asthma control and airway hyperresponsiveness by desensitizing the beta-2 adrenoreceptor through regular stimulation.

In this latest study, the research team was unable to trigger the development of asthma-like symptoms in a mouse model in which the beta-2 adrenoreceptor gene had been removed as compared to the mouse model with the intact receptor gene.

“The study indicates that, with regard to developing asthma-like features, the mouse is better off without the beta-2 adrenoreceptor at all,” Bond said. “It means that whether we block receptor signaling pharmacologically by using beta blockers or genetically by ‘removing’ the receptor, we get the same answer. The research shows that blocking or inhibiting the receptor with antagonists, instead of stimulating it with agonists, reduces the asthma-like features of the mouse model.”

Bond’s co-authors come from a multi-institutional research team that include current UH pharmacology graduate student Long P. Nguyen; UH pharmacology Ph.D. graduate Rui Lin; former UH post-doc fellow Sergio Parra; UH biology graduate student Ozozoma Omoluabi; Baylor College of Medicine’s Dr. Nicola A. Hanania; M.D. Anderson Cancer Center’s Michael J. Tuvim and Dr. Burton F. Dickey; and fellow UHCOP faculty researcher Brian J. Knoll.

With support from the Strategic Program for Asthma Research of the American Asthma Foundation, a second human clinical trial based on Bond’s research is under way using the beta-blocker drug nadolol in patients with mild asthma. In the first clinical trial, sponsored by San Francisco-based Inverseon Inc., eight of 10 patients had less airway hyperresponsiveness on beta-blocker therapy at the end of the trial, although some did experience an initial negative response.

Commenting on the results of the first clinical trial, two U.K. researchers wrote in the Jan. 10 issue of the British journal The Lancet that the use of beta-blocker therapy for asthma warrants serious, but careful, consideration and further investigation, including the use of specific alternative types of beta blockers.

To those ends, Inverseon, of which Bond is scientific founder, has filed U.S. patent applications for using beta blockers to treat airway disease. Dr. William Garner, chairman of Inverseon, said the company recently received a notice of allowance ““ one of several procedural steps on the path to patent approval ““ from the U.S. Patent Office.

“The comment in The Lancet on Inverseon’s human asthma study, combined with the notice of allowance from the U.S. Patent Office, represents important external validation of Inverseon’s approach to asthma,” Garner said. “We believe that our oral therapy has the potential to be a significant product for the chronic treatment of asthma.”

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On the Net:

• University of Houston
• FDA
• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Children who talk on cell phones while crossing streets are at a higher risk for injuries or death in a pedestrian accident, U.S. researchers said.

Psychologists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham studied the issue using a virtual reality software program and three screens to display an actual Birmingham-area crosswalk with simulated vehicles of different sizes traveling on the virtual street.

The study, published in the February issue of Pediatrics, found that all of the children — even those who were experienced with talking on cell phones, crossing streets or rated as highly attentive — were more likely to exhibit risky behaviors when they crossed the virtual street while talking on a cell phone.

Children using a cell phone took 20 percent longer to begin crossing the street, and they were 43 percent more likely to be hit by a vehicle or have a close call in the virtual environment. In addition, the children looked both ways 20 percent less often before crossing the street and gave themselves 8 percent less time to cross safely in front of oncoming traffic when they were on the cell phone.

The 77 children, ages 10-11, completed simulated street crossings in the virtual environment. They were asked to cross the virtual street six times without a cell phone and six times while talking on a cell phone.

Doctoral student Despina Stavrinos, under the direction of psychologist David Schwebel, completed the study with graduate student Katherine Byington also contributing to the study.

Researchers in India made a surprising discovery when they tested samples of water from a stream where about 90 drug companies get rid of their waste.

The vials revealed shocking levels of antibiotics ““ about enough in the entire stream to treat 90,000 people. Researchers noted the presence of 21 different drugs, which range in purpose from hypertension to depression.

Half of the drugs measured at the highest levels of pharmaceuticals ever detected in the environment, researchers told the Associated Press, which last year reported on the presence of pharmaceuticals in drinking water being provided to at least 46 million Americans. But researchers say the water being analyzed in India contains 150 times even the highest levels of pharmaceuticals found by AP in the US.

India is one of the world’s leading exporters of pharmaceuticals, and the US – which spent $1.4 billion on Indian-made drugs in 2007 – is its largest customer, said the news agency.

“If you take a bath there, then you have all the antibiotics you need for treatment,” chemist Klaus Kuemmerer at the University of Freiburg Medical Center in Germany, an expert on drug resistance in the environment who did not participate in the research told the AP. “If you just swallow a few gasps of water, you’re treated for everything. The question is for how long?”

Joakim Larsson, an environmental scientist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, studied levels of pharmaceuticals in the stream near Patancheru Enviro Tech Ltd. Researchers had previously attributed high levels of drugs in water to their use rather than manufacturing.

“Who has a responsibility for a polluted environment when the Third World produces drugs for our well being?” Larsson asked scientists at a recent environmental research conference.

In its report last year, the AP found that “human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain pharmaceuticals.”

Researchers in India noted that tadpoles that were exposed to water from the plant were 40 percent smaller than those living in clean water.

“We don’t have any other source, so we’re drinking it,” said R. Durgamma, a mother of four who lives a few miles downstream from the plant.

“When the local leaders come, we offer them water and they won’t take it,” she said.

Larsson’s team also discovered high levels of pharmaceuticals in lakes upstream from the treatment plant, which could suggest potential illegal dumping.

“I’ll tell you, I’ve never seen concentrations this high before. And they definitely … are having some biological impact, at least in the effluent,” Dan Schlenk, an ecotoxicologist from the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved in the India research, told the AP.

But M. Narayana Reddy, president of India’s Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association, says he challenges researchers’ findings.

“It is the wrong information provided by some research person.”

Reddy blames untreated human excrement and past industry abuses.

But Larsson’s findings could spell out more future trouble because continued exposure to drugs could lead to the mutation of bacteria, making them more resistant to powerful treatments. In recent years, many bacteria have developed resistance to the drug, leaving it significantly less effective.

“We are using these drugs, and the disease is not being cured – there is resistance going on there,” said Dr. A. Kishan Rao, a medical doctor and environmental activist who has treated people for more than 30 years near the drug factories.

Dr. Rao called it “a global concern.”

And the consequences could be even worse for the environment, Renee Sharp, senior analyst at the Environmental Working Group, told the AP.

“People might say, ‘Oh sure, that’s just a dirty river in India,’ but we live on a small planet, everything is connected. The water in a river in India could be the rain coming down in your town in a few weeks,” she said.

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On the Net:

• EPA
• Environmental Working Group
• University of Gothenburg

When wearing red, a woman may be more likely to score an invitation to the prom or be treated to an expensive outing, U.S. researchers said.

Two University of Rochester psychologists demonstrate that the color red makes men feel more amorous toward women — yet men are unaware of the role the color plays in their attraction.

Andrew Elliot, professor of psychology, and Daniela Niesta, post-doctoral researcher said it may be no accident that red hearts are associated with Valentine’s Day.

To quantify the red effect, the study looked at men’s responses to photographs of women under a variety of color presentations. In one experiment, test subjects looked at a woman’s photo framed by a border of either red or white and answered a series of questions, such as: How pretty do you think this person is? Other experiments contrasted red with gray, green or blue.

The study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found under all conditions, the women shown framed by or wearing red were rated significantly more attractive and sexually desirable by men than the exact same women shown with other colors.

Many of the 40 million American adults who suffer from anxiety disorders also have problems with balance. As increasing numbers of children are diagnosed with anxiety, Tel Aviv University researchers have discovered that the link between balance and anxiety can be assessed at an early age and that something can be done about it before it becomes a problem.

Dr. Orit Bart at Tel Aviv University’s School of Health Professions, and her colleagues, have found that a simple course of physical treatment for balance problems can also resolve anxiety issues in children.  Her work offers new hope for normal social and emotional development for children with both disorders.

Establishing the Connection

Anxiety has a significant impact on children’s personal and academic well-being. While not all kids with anxiety have balance problems, all those with balance problems do exhibit symptoms of anxiety, pointing to a link between the two conditions.

“This is a breakthrough in the field of occupational therapy,” says Dr. Bart.

Her study “” done in collaboration with TAU researchers Yair Bar-Haim, Einat Weizman, Moran Levin, Avi Sadeh, and Matti Mintz, and to be published in Research in Developmental Disabilities “” investigated the anxiety-balance connection in young children for the first time. Dr. Bart tracked children between the ages of five and seven who had been diagnosed with both problems to see how treatment would affect each disorder.

After a 12-week intervention of sensory-motor intervention, the children in Dr. Bart’s study improved their balance skills. The therapy also reduced the children’s anxiety to normal levels, she reports. As their balance and anxiety issues improved, the children’s self-esteem also increased.

Treating the Mind Through the Body

“You can’t treat children with anxiety in a cognitive way because of their immaturity and lack of operational thinking. Working with the body may be the answer,” Dr. Bart explains. The treatment therefore focused on letting the children use equipment to experience their environment and move in space. Dr. Bart found that by working with their bodies, children could work through their emotional problems, including anxiety.

Dr. Bart is now working on expanding the initial results through a larger study with more control groups. The goal is to explore the exact nature of the relationship between balance and anxiety in children, and to focus the results on more specific treatment types.

“Young children who have anxiety should first be assessed for balance issues to see if that is the source of the problem,” says Dr. Bart. “We can now treat these children because we have a better understanding of the relation between these disorders.”

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On The Net:

Tel Aviv

Lawmakers are struggling to push legislation that will change the way insurers view obesity from a willpower issue to a disease.

Bob Clegg knows about the dangers and high costs of being obese. As told in a Reuters report, for years he struggled with his weight and his insurance company was forced to pay some $3,000 per month for his doctor visits.

But when Clegg’s doctor confronted him in 2007, he gave him a choice between gastric bypass surgery or a tracheotomy. Clegg chose surgery, and since then, his medical problems, which included joint pain, sleep apnea and esophageal problems have gone away along with his medical bills.

Clegg’s story is similar to that of many Americans who struggle with obesity. But many of them shudder to find that although insurance companies will pay for a tracheotomy, they will not pay the $20,000 needed for gastric bypass. Clegg says that’s an irony he’s trying to change.

As a Republican member of New Hampshire’s senate, Clegg took his experience and transformed it into a bill, which he introduced a year ago. The bill would require insurers to offer surgery as a treatment option, just as the state’s Medicaid program for the poor does.

Being overweight adds to the risk of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, osteoarthritis, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems and even some cancers. These issues also add to the cost healthcare providers must pay out.

According to a 2000 report from the US Surgeon General, obesity costs about $117 billion each year through direct and indirect costs.

“At the root of this is that people still have a real problem thinking about obesity as anything other than a willpower issue,” Christine Ferguson, associate professor at George Washington University School of Public Health and director of STOP Obesity Alliance, told Reuters. “It is still perfectly acceptable to think about excluding treatment.”

“If I have to balance my budget at the end of each year, I have a choice between investing money in children who have mental retardation, or children with developmental disabilities … or investing in people who have obesity, choosing obesity is a very hard case to make,” she said.

Clegg noted a societal bias as part of the reason his bill was unable to succeed. Analysts say that economics are becoming an increasingly large factor in policy approval.

Researcher Pierre-Yves Cremieux, with the economic consulting firm Analysis Group, has presented the findings of a study showing that bariatric surgery costs could be recovered within two to four years, and eventually can lead to savings for healthcare providers.

“If we could only get our lawmakers to understand, like they did in New Hampshire,” said Jeff Haaga, at 360 pounds is classified as morbidly obese. He has lobbied for Utah to require insurance companies to provide more coverage for obesity.

“Insurers are covering people who are morbidly obese one way or the other, whether it’s surgery or just keeping us alive with medication.”

The Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit group that focuses on disease prevention, reported that adult obesity rates rose in 37 states in the past year, while no state saw a decrease, according to Reuters Health.

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On the Net:

• STOP Obesity Alliance

Patients with pancreatic cancer can now see all their physicians and receive the results of tests on the same day in the same place with the recent opening of the multidisciplinary clinic at the Elkins Pancreas Center in the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

“Pancreatic cancer is a very complex disease. There are a lot of medical issues and decisions that come with the diagnosis,” said Dr. William E. Fisher, director of the Elkins Pancreas Center and associate professor of surgery at BCM. “Do you administer the chemotherapy and radiation first, then have surgery to remove the tumor, or do you have surgery first and then chemotherapy and radiation?  Physicians who work as a group to treat these patients need to discuss, plan and work together in order to provide the best possible treatment for each individual patient.”

He said the new multidisciplinary clinic will enable physicians and patients to work together on care that is provided on a personalized basis.

Before the clinic’s opening, patients may have seen their medical, surgical and radiation oncologists on different days in different locations, Fisher said. Now, patients have access to all their physicians and tests in one day and are provided with information on their course of treatment.

“Patients come in the morning for their necessary tests and scans and come back in the afternoon when we tell them the course of treatment for which they are a candidate,” said Fisher. “This is extremely convenient for patients traveling to Houston to receive care.”

This speeds up the treatment plan and facilitates the rapid development of personalized treatment, Fisher said.  Without this kind of coordinated effort, it could take weeks to get a plan of treatment together, he said.

“We have all gotten together in one clinic area. We’re meeting once a day in a conference to discuss our patients and go over the best course of management and treatment of the disease,” said Fisher. “When we all get together like this, it truly fosters multidisciplinary care and has a significant effect on patient care.”

Additionally, Fisher said, the collaboration of the physicians helps establish better research programs that will develop improved treatment for the disease.

“We discuss if we have available clinical research studies for all stages of the disease, which trials are best and if we have them all open here.”

“We have a robust basic science research team that is aggressively working on translating research into new treatments for pancreatic cancer,” said Fisher. “We are running multiple, cutting edge clinical trials, one of which I am very proud of because it is a classic example of personalized genomic medicine.”

The trial, Fisher said, involves biopsying the tumor to look for a specific gene mutation. Doctors then administer a vaccine against the mutated protein associated with that gene, said Fisher. This study has passed early phases and doctors are now trying to gauge how effective it is and for which patients it works best.

“We are very excited to have the resources to offer this to patients,” said Fisher. “We think it’s really an important tool in the fight against the disease.”

The Elkins Pancreas Center opened six years ago to provide optimal care to pancreatic cancer patients across the country, to lead the nation in the discovery of effective new methods to diagnose and treat the disease and to educate patients and their families, doctors and trainees and the public about pancreatic cancer.

The Center was named for the late James Elkins, Jr., a philanthropist and former chair of the BCM Board of Trustees.

For referrals to the Elkins Pancreas Center, call 1-877-PANC-CTR (1-877-726-2287.)

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On the Net:

• Elkins Pancreas Center

A U.S. researcher links endometriosis to abnormalities resulting from defects in the early embryo.

Endometriosis is a disease that can cause pain and infertility in woman.

Dr. Serdar Bulun of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago links the disease to molecular abnormalities including a progesterone receptor that is inappropriately turned off and the presence of a enzyme — aromatase — that triggers estrogen production.

This may be a disease that women are born with, Bulun says in a statement. Perhaps when a baby girl is born, it has already been determined that she is predisposed to have endometriosis. Maybe research can now be directed toward the fetal origins of the disease and raise the awareness of how the disease develops.

The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, identifies a protein — SF1 — as key to producing an enzyme called aromatase that was only found only in endometrium tissue located outside the uterine lining.

Estrogen is like fuel for fire in endometriosis, Bulun says. It triggers the endometriosis and makes it grow fast.

Bulun launched clinical trials in 2004 and 2005 testing aromatase inhibitors — currently used in breast cancer treatment — for women with endometriosis to block estrogen formation and secondarily improve progesterone responsiveness.

People on low-carbohydrate diets are more dependent on the oxidation of fat in the liver for energy than those on a low-calorie diet, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in a small clinical study.

The findings, published in the journal Hepatology, could have implications for treating obesity and related diseases such as diabetes, insulin resistance and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, said Dr. Jeffrey Browning, assistant professor in the UT Southwestern Advanced Imaging Research Center and of internal medicine at the medical center.

“Instead of looking at drugs to combat obesity and the diseases that stem from it, maybe optimizing diet can not only manage and treat these diseases, but also prevent them,” said Dr. Browning, the study’s lead author.

Although the study was not designed to determine which diet was more effective for losing weight, the average weight loss for the low-calorie dieters was about 5 pounds after two weeks, while the low-carbohydrate dieters lost about 9½ pounds on average.

Glucose, a form of sugar, and fat are both sources of energy that are metabolized in the liver and used as energy in the body. Glucose can be formed from lactate, amino acids or glycerol.

In order to determine how diet affects glucose production and utilization in the liver, the researchers randomly assigned 14 obese or overweight adults to either a low-carbohydrate or low-calorie diet and monitored seven lean subjects on a regular diet.

After two weeks, researchers used advanced imaging techniques to analyze the different methods, or biochemical pathways, the subjects used to make glucose.

“We saw a dramatic change in where and how the liver was producing glucose, depending on diet,” said Dr. Browning.

Researchers found that participants on a low-carbohydrate diet produced more glucose from lactate or amino acids than those on a low-calorie diet.

“Understanding how the liver makes glucose under different dietary conditions may help us better regulate metabolic disorders with diet,” Dr. Browning said.

The different diets produced other differences in glucose metabolism. For example, people on a low-calorie diet got about 40 percent of their glucose from glycogen, which is comes from ingested carbohydrates and is stored in the liver until the body needs it.

The low-carbohydrate dieters, however, got only 20 percent of their glucose from glycogen. Instead of dipping into their reserve of glycogen, these subjects burned liver fat for energy.

The findings are significant because the accumulation of excess fat in the liver ““ primarily a form of fat called triglycerides ““ can result in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD. The condition is the most common form of liver disease in Western countries, and its incidence is growing. Dr. Browning has previously shown that NAFLD may affect as many as one-third of U.S. adults. The disease is associated with metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance, diabetes and obesity, and it can lead to liver inflammation, cirrhosis and liver cancer.

“Energy production is expensive for the liver,” Dr. Browning said. “It appears that for the people on a low-carbohydrate diet, in order to meet that expense, their livers have to burn excess fat.”

Results indicate that patients on the low-carbohydrate diet increased fat burning throughout the entire body.

Dr. Browning and his colleagues will next study whether the changes that occur in liver metabolism as a result of carbohydrate restriction could help people with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Previous research has shown a correlation between carbohydrate intake and NAFLD.

Other researchers from the Advanced Imaging Research Center involved with the study were Dr. Matthew Merritt, assistant professor of radiology; Dr. Craig Malloy, professor of radiology and internal medicine; and Dr. Shawn Burgess, assistant professor of pharmacology. Other UT Southwestern researchers involved were Jeannie Davis, clinical research coordinator; and Santhosh Satapati, graduate student. A researcher from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center also contributed.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Diabetes Association.

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On the Net:

• UT Southwestern Medical Center
• UT Southwestern’s clinical services in digestive disorders, including liver diseases
• Dr. Jeffrey Browning
• Hepatology

Researchers are studying the use of a NASA device that can be to test whether a cataract is developing before a patient’s vision begins to cloud over.

The noninvasive test can determine if the eyes are losing the natural compound that keeps cataracts, a condition where the eye’s normally clear lens becomes permanently clouded, at bay.  

Cataracts are currently the world’s leading cause of vision loss, and surgery to replace the lens is the only fix.

Interestingly, the device also allows for easier testing of whether certain medications might slow or prevent cataracts from ever forming in the first place.

Research involving astronauts, who are at an increased risk of the condition, and civilians could begin this year.

Knowing their eyes are vulnerable to cataracts could spur people to alter their behavior to reduce their risk, such as avoiding cigarette smoke, improving diet and wearing sunglasses.

Although the government has only a few prototypes of the device and no commercial manufacturer yet lined up, doctors at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University have started experimental use to determine what role the exam might play in the care of a variety of eye patients.

“It’s like an early alarm system,” Dr. Manuel Datiles III of the National Eye Institute, who led a study of 235 people that found the laser light technique can work, told the Associated Press.

It all began when Rafat Ansari, a NASA senior scientist with the agency’s John Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, developed a low-powered laser light device to assist astronauts with experiments growing crystals in space.

Ansari, an expert in physics, not medicine, began looking into the novel use of the device after his father developed cataracts.  

Surprised at the lack of options for those with the condition, Ansari read up on cataracts and learned that the lens primarily consists of proteins and water. One type of protein, alpha-crystallin, is critical to keeping the lens transparent.  When other proteins get damaged, either by aging, cigarette smoke or the sun’s UV radiation, the alpha-crystallins literally scoop them up before they can stick together and clog the lens.  Humans are born with a certain amount of alpha-crystallin, but once the supply is depleted cataracts can form.

Since his space laser measures proteins that make up crystals, Ansari thought, perhaps it could also spot cataract-related proteins. 

So he purchased calf eyes at a slaughterhouse, and enlisted his then-teenage daughter, now a doctor, to dissect the lenses in their kitchen.  He placed them in the refrigerator, and tested them after the cold clouded the lens’ over.  Although he didn’t know it at the time, biologists use the same technique to create models of human cataracts.

When Ansari warmed up the lenses and beamed his device, he discovered that the light scattering differed with the lens’ changing opacity.  He then sought out eye specialists to see if the technique might be applicable in measuring levels of alpha-crystallin.  While it took over ten years of testing, the result is a machine that does just that.  It works by aiming Ansari’s special laser at the lens for five seconds and then calculating light scattering.

Researchers at the National Eye Institute tested 235 people ages 7 to 86, and found that alpha-crystallin decreased consistently both as lenses began to fog and as people with clear lenses aged.

“What we are really looking at is the reserve of this alpha-crystallin,” Ansari told the Associated Press.  

It can “repair any damage if there is a certain concentration. If it depletes below that level then I think the game is over,” he said.

Researchers with NASA and NIH are now planning separate studies to see if special formulations of antioxidants, nutrients found in many fruits and vegetables that fight certain age-related tissue damage, can slow the loss of  alpha-crystallin.

Ansari also plans to measure the impact of long-term space travel on the vision of astronauts.

Already, Datiles has used the device diagnose early stage cataracts in some patients whose doctors found no other reason for their worsening vision.

At Hopkins, ophthalmologist Dr. Walter Stark is using the device to determine if some patients complaining that their LASIK surgery for nearsightedness is wearing off need may require more vision-sharpening surgery, or if they might instead be forming a cataract. 

The National Eye Institute study was published in last month’s Archives of Ophthalmology.

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On the Net:

• NASA John Glenn Research Center
• Archives of Ophthalmology
• Johns Hopkins University
• National Eye Institute

The brain may be injured by the noise, which is produced when, for example, an anti-tank weapon (Bazooka, Karl Gustav) or a howitzer (Haubits) is fired. Scientists at the Sahlgrenska Academy demonstrated mild injury to brain tissue. In response to this, the Swedish Armed Forces restricted the number of rounds per day Swedish personnel can be exposed to.

A number of reports, which have appeared during the last few years, have shown that the brain is sensitive to blast. This study determines whether the occupational standards for the highest levels of blast exposure were valid enough to avoid brain injuries. Traumatic brain injury is very common among war veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan and the majority has been exposed to explosions. The soldiers have symptoms of disorders of memory, mental processes, emotion, sleep, speech, vision and hearing. The symptoms may be similar to those of post traumatic stress syndrome, which may be caused by factors other than combat experience.

The brain may be affected by the blast, which is generated during firing of weapons

The Swedish Armed Forces sponsored a study, which has been carried out by scientists at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. They have examined the effects of noise after the firing of a Haubits, an anti tank weapon (Karl Gustav) and an automatic rifle and by the detonation of plastic explosives underwater. The study was done on anaesthetized pigs and rats.

“We examined the maximal peak level of the blast in the brain transmitted from the blast in the air, as well as, brain tissue changes that were detected with the microscope, says Annette Säljö, one of the scientists who conducted the study.

The noise produced by the firing of both the haubits and the anti-tank weapon exceeds the occupational standards for highest levels of blast exposure. The scientists found that the maximal peak levels of the blast were unexpectedly high in the brain, i.e. that skin and bone appeared to protect the brain poorly. The results suggest that the degree of transmission of a pressure wave from air or water to the brain depends on the dominating frequencies in the frequency spectrum of the noise; low frequencies are transmitted considerably better than high frequencies.

Blast overpressure may result in hemorrhages in the brain

The microscopic examination of the brain showed that the blast from certain weapons produces small hemorrhages (bleeding) in the brain tissue and the meninges (lining of the brain). The examination also suggested that blast exposure leads to the development of brain edema, i.e. increased fluid content. The scientists were later able to support this finding with other measurements. The results are in agreement with findings in the brains of soldiers who had been injured or died after being exposed to explosions in wars, from WW1 to the war in Iraq.

The Swedish Armed Forces have restricted their safety regulations

In summary, the study shows that the maximal peak levels of blast generated by the firing of certain weapons led to a small but measurable effect on the brains of pigs and rats.

The study also showed that this effect on the brain becomes worse with increasing maximal peak blast levels. The results poses the question as to whether exposure to even lower levels of blast than previous thought injurious might be contributing to the large numbers of mild traumatic brain injuries in American military personnel.

“This is of course an occupational question for Swedish Armed Forces. In light of the results of the study, the Swedish military has instituted restrictions in the number of firing rounds a person is allowed to be exposed to in a single day”, says Annette Säljö.

Direct studies on humans are difficult to perform, since biomarkers of injury in cerebrospinal fluid or blood and imaging studies such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) do not appear to be specific or sensitive enough to detect mild brain injury.

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On the Net:

• Journal of Neurotrauma: Neuropathology and Pressure in the Pig Brain Resulting from Low-Impulse Noise Exposure

Researchers from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Univesidad de Alcalá (UAH), confirm that N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) combined with mesalamine produces a significant improvement in patients suffering from ulcerative colitis.

The team headed by Luis González Guijarro, biochemistry and molecular biology professor at the UAH, in collaboration with the pharmaceutical firm Farmasierra S.L., has developed a pilot study of the effects of N-acetyl-L-cysteine on patients suffering from moderate or mild ulcerative colitis. The conclusion reached in this study, and published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology, is that the association of N-acetyl-L-cysteine and mesalamine, reduces the symptoms of patients affected with this condition. Previous to now, these patients were treated solely with mesalamine.

Professor González Guijarro explains that ulcerative colitis is a form of inflammatory bowel disease that specifically affects the colon, producing free radicals and hydrogen peroxide. The cells of our immune system protect the body from infections using several weapons and neutrophils, the most abundant type of white blood cell in our organism, destroying microorganisms and producing hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is unstable and breaks down into hydroxyl radicals that cause damage to the delicate tissues. Professor González Guijarro states that the intention of the co-administration of NAC and mesalamine was to eliminate the hydrogen peroxide and reduce the number of free radicals using N-acetyl-L-cysteine. N-acetyl-L-cysteine is a precursor to glutathione, a molecule that along with glutathione peroxidase, eliminates hydrogen peroxide.

The study carried out in collaboration with the Gregorio Marañ³n hospital and the Princesa hospital, is the first step in the long process that has to take place before any drug reaches drugstores. Work must begin on the association of mesalamine and NAC into a single product; since the study was carried out by administering one drug as a pill and the other as a soluble compound.

The professor of biochemistry and molecular biology insists that the clinical and biochemical effects have to be continuously recorded in order to corroborate the preliminary indications. For example, that this association does not produce any adverse side effects, and that N-acetyl-L-cysteine can be significant in the quimioprevention of colon cancer.

Another objective of the team of the UAH is to direct the molecule to the inflamed colon, using an enteric coating that should degrade at a certain pH. This way when the patient ingests the pill, the drug will pass through the stomach and intestine and will only be released in the colon.

N-acetyl-L-cysteine, is a drug normally used for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to minimize the effects of cold and flu. Its hepatic protective properties also make this drug a useful tool in paracetamol intoxications.

The research team at Alcalá University has been studying the new therapeutic properties of NAC for years, producing results such as an in vitro study where N-acetyl-L-cysteine reduced the negative effects caused by azathioprine, a immunosuppressant of clinical use, on the liver. Currently many research groups are working on the application of NAC in the treatment of diverse pathologies, such as diabetes, alcohol and cocaine dependence syndromes.

Every advance in the treatment of ulcerative colitis is of great relevance because the disease causes many discomforts in the patient while conditioning their life. In the early stages the symptoms are mainly diarrhea, weight loss, and intestinal bleeding, but once it aggravates, intestinal fistulas appear. “Nowadays new extremely powerful drugs are being developed; so-called biological drugs, like anti-TNF antibodies, that even manage to cure the fistulas but cause negative side effects and are very expensive. Every improvement in the application of classic drugs with enteric coatings, combinations of drugs, etc”¦ represent less risk for the patient and savings for the social security” states González Guijarro.

“The future in treating diseases is customized treatments. In order for a drug to work, the weight and age of the patient must be considered, but their genetic information will also provide the key to evaluate whether a certain molecule would be effective for the particular patient” concludes the Professor of the UAH.

Peer reviewed publication and references: Guijarro LG, Mate J, Gisbert JP, Perez-Calle JL, Marin-Jimenez I, Arriaza E, Olleros T, Delgado M, Castillejo MS, Prieto-Merino D, Gonzalez Lara V, Pena AS. N-acetyl-L-cysteine combined with mesalamine in the treatment of ulcerative colitis: Randomized, placebo-controlled pilot study. World J Gastroenterol 2008 May;14(18):2851-2857

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On the Net:

• Univesidad de Alcalá
• World Journal of Gastroenterology

New research reveals the brain activity that underlies our tendency to “follow the crowd.” The study, published by Cell Press in the January 15th issue of the journal Neuron, provides intriguing insight into how human behavior can be guided by the perceived behavior of other individuals.

Many studies have demonstrated the profound effect of group opinion on individual judgments, and there is no doubt that we look to the behavior and judgment of others for information about what will be considered expected and acceptable behavior.

“We often change our decisions and judgments to conform with normative group behavior,” says lead study author Dr. Vasily Klucharev from the F.C. Donders Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging in The Netherlands. “However, the neural mechanisms of social conformity remain unclear.”

Dr. Klucharev and colleagues hypothesized that social conformity might be based on reinforcement learning and that a conflict with group opinion could trigger a “prediction error” signal. A prediction error, first identified in reinforcement learning models, is a difference between expected and obtained outcomes that is thought to signal the need for a behavioral adjustment.

The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain activity in subjects whose initial judgments of facial attractiveness were open to influence by group opinion. Specifically, they examined the rostral cingulate zone (RCZ) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc). The RCZ is thought to play a role in monitoring behavioral outcomes, and the NAc has been implicated in the anticipation and processing of rewards as well as social learning.

The study authors found that a conflict with the group opinion triggered a long-term conforming adjustment of an individual’s own rating and that conflict with the group elicited a neuronal response in the RCZ and NAc similar to a prediction error signal. Further, the magnitude of the individual conflict-related signal in the NAc correlated with differences in conforming behavior across subjects.

“The present study explains why we often automatically adjust our opinion in line with the majority opinion,” says Dr. Klucharev. “Our results also show that social conformity is based on mechanisms that comply with reinforcement learning and is reinforced by the neural error-monitoring activity which signals what is probably the most fundamental social mistake””that of being too different from others.”

The researcher is Vasily Klucharev, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Kaisa Hytonen, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Mark Rijpkema, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Ale Smidts, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; and Guillen Fernandez, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

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On the Net:

• Cell Press
• Neuron

U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday that women with high levels of estrogen not only look and feel prettier, but they may act on those feelings by moving from man to man.

The female hormone estrogen affects fertility and has been shown to make women dress more provocatively and show more thrill-seeking behavior.

Young women felt more attractive when they had high levels of an estrogen known as estradiol, and they acted on those feelings, according to Dr. Kristina Durante of the University of Texas at Austin and colleagues, who conducted a study of female undergraduates.

Durante’s team wrote in the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters: “Women with higher estradiol reported a greater likelihood of flirting, kissing and having a serious affair with someone other than their primary partner and were marginally more likely to date another man.”

“Results provide support for the relationship between physical beauty and fertility and suggest that women high in reproductive health engage in opportunistic serial monogamy — being open to affairs and moving on to a new relationship if a higher-quality mate becomes available.”

The study closely followed 52 female undergraduates between the ages of 17 and 30 who were not taking hormone contraceptives. They took two estradiol samples from each, as hormone levels fluctuate from week to week.

The women were then asked to rate their own attractiveness and have others rate it as well.

“High-estradiol women were considered significantly more physically attractive by themselves and others,” Durante said.

Those rated with higher estradiol levels also reported more sexual behavior, particularly outside of a relationship, although it was not linked to one-night stands.

The team wrote that their results were consistent with the possibility that highly fertile women are not easily satisfied by their long-term partners and are especially motivated to become acquainted with other presumably more desirable men.

Several studies in the past have shown that hormones influence the behavior and success of both men and women.

U.S. and British researchers showed earlier this week that male financial traders whose finger lengths indicate high testosterone levels in the womb were much more successful.

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On the Net:

• University of Texas at Austin
• Royal Society Journal Biology Letters

New research from Carnegie Mellon University finds that those who get less than seven hours sleep a night are three times as likely to catch a cold.  Furthermore, those who sleep poorly were at a five times higher risk of catching a cold.

The researchers paid healthy adults $800 to have cold viruses sprayed up their noses.  Participants then spent five days in a hotel to see if the virus sickened them.  The study’s showed that those who habitually slept eight hours or more were significantly less likely to become sick than those who slept less than seven hours or slept restlessly.

“The longer you sleep, the better off you are, the less susceptible you are to colds,” said Sheldon Cohen, the study’s lead author.

Although previous studies have connected adequate sleep with a boost in the immune system at the cellular level, the current study is the first to demonstrate that minor sleep disturbances can raise the risk of becoming sick, said Dr. Michael Irwin, who studies immune response at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“The message is to maintain regular sleep habits because those are really critical for health,” Irwin, who was not involved in the study, told the Associate Press.

During cold season, it is not always possible to keep away from sneezing family members and co-workers.  The study sought to simulate those conditions by exposing participants to a rhinovirus, with most becoming infected.

However, not everyone developed a cold. The researchers found that those who slept less than seven hours a night in the weeks prior to exposure to the rhinovirus were three times more likely to catch a cold than those who slept eight hours or more.

To find willing participants for the study, the researchers placed ads and recruited 78 men and 75 women for the study.  All were healthy, ranging in age from 21 to 55, and willing to submit to exposure to the virus. 

The researchers recorded the participants’ sleeping habits for two weeks, and interviewed them by telephone about their sleep the previous night.   Participants were asked what time they went to bed, when they awakened, how much time they spent awake during the night and whether or not they felt rested in the morning.

Next, the participants checkED into a hotel, where they were given nose drops that contained the rhinovirus.  Five days later, they were asked to report any signs and symptoms of a cold.  Researchers measured their runny noses by weighing their used tissues, and tested for congestion by squirting dye in the participants’ noses and measuring how long it took to get to the back of their throats. The researchers also collected mucus samples to test for the virus, and obtained participants’ blood samples to test for antibodies to the virus.

After five days, the study found that the virus had infected 135 of the 153 volunteers. However, only 54 people became sick. 

The researchers found that restless sleeping was linked with a greater risk of catching a cold.  Indeed, those who slept restlessly 8 percent of their time in bed were five times more likely to get sick than those who were sleepless only 2 percent of the time. 

Interestingly, the researchers found that feeling rested was not linked to staying well. Cohen said he could not identify the cause for this, other than feeling rested is more subjective than remembering when a person went to bed and woke up.

The researchers accounted for other factors, such as smoking, stress, drinking, and lack of exercise, which may make people more vulnerable to catching a cold.  However, the connection between sleep and cold resistance was still present.

Cold symptoms such as congestion and sore throat are caused by the body’s fight against a virus, not the virus itself, said Cohen. People who produce the precise amount of infection-fighting proteins, called cytokines, to fight the virus will not even be aware their bodies are doing so.  However, if they produce too much they will feel sick.

It may turn out that sleep fine-tunes the body’s immune response, helping regulate the ideal response, Cohen said.

Previous research has tied lack of sleep to a greater risk of weight gain, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and diabetes.  However, University of Pittsburgh sleep researcher Dr. Daniel Buysse said too much time in bed can actually lead to more interrupted sleep, which “seems to be even worse than short sleep” for raising the risk of catching a cold, based on the current study.

In other words, those who take a long time to fall asleep, or who are restless throughout the night, “would probably benefit from spending a little LESS time in bed,” Buysse, who was not directly involved in the current study, told the Associated Press.

“If you fall asleep instantly, have no wakefulness during the night, and are sleepy during the day, you would probably benefit from spending a little MORE time in bed.”

Sat Bir Khalsa, a Harvard University sleep researcher whose studies center on the treatment of insomnia with yoga, said people do not need to take prescription sleep aids to improve their sleep.  Indeed, actions such as establishing a regular bedtime, moving computers and televisions out of the bedroom and, when restless, getting out of bed for a while and doing something soothing can help. 

Cohen said that comprehensive research has shown that herbal supplements and vitamin C are not effective as preventative measures.  However, there is evidence that those who exercise more, drink moderately and lower their stress levels develop fewer colds.

The study, which was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the MacArthur Foundation, was published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

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On the Net:

• Archives of Internal Medicine
• Carnegie Mellon University

Digital mammograms take longer to interpret than film mammograms, researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston found.

The study involved four radiologists who interpreted 268 digital screening mammograms and 189 film-screening mammograms.

The average interpretation time for all of our readers was 240 seconds — 4 minutes — for digital screening mammograms and 127 seconds — 2 minutes, 7 seconds — for film-screen screening mammograms, lead author Dr. Tamara Miner Haygood said in a statement. The digital screening mammograms took nearly twice as long to interpret as the film-screen screening mammograms.

The study identified factors that might have contributed to the time difference.

Those factors were the identity of the interpreting radiologist, whether there were older studies available for comparison, whether the radiologist looked for and hung up additional films, how many images were obtained and whether the study was normal or not, Haygood said. In each of these situations, the digital images took longer to interpret than the film-screen images.

The findings are published in the American Journal of Roentgenology.