Vitamin D-based treatment key to halting Multiple Sclerosis

Researchers have discovered a vitamin D-based treatment that can halt – and even reverse – the course of the disease in a mouse model of Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

The treatment involves giving mice that exhibit MS symptoms a single dose of calcitriol, the active hormone form of vitamin D, followed by ongoing vitamin D supplements through the diet.

Lead scientist biochemistry professor Colleen Hayes said that all of the animals just got better and better, and the longer we watched them, the more neurological function they regained.

While scientists don’t fully understand what triggers MS, some studies have linked low levels of vitamin D with a higher risk of developing the disease. Hayes has been studying this “vitamin D hypothesis” for the past 25 years with the long-term goal of uncovering novel preventive measures and treatments.

Over the years, she and her researchers have revealed some of the molecular mechanisms involved in vitamin D’s protective actions, and also explained how vitamin D interactions with estrogen may influence MS disease risk and progression in women.

First, Hayes’ team compared the effectiveness of a single dose of calcitriol to that of a comparable dose of a glucocorticoid, a drug now administered to MS patients who experience a bad neurological episode. Calcitriol came out ahead, inducing a nine-day remission in 92 percent of mice on average, versus a six-day remission in 58 percent for mice that received glucocorticoid.

Next, Hayes’ team tried a weekly dose of calcitriol. They found that a weekly dose reversed the disease and sustained remission indefinitely.

But calcitriol can carry some strong side effects – it’s a “biological sledgehammer” that can raise blood calcium levels in people, Hayes says – so she tried a third regimen: a single dose of calcitriol, followed by ongoing vitamin D supplements in the diet.

The study has been published online in the Journal of Neuro immunology.

Source: http://article.wn.com

 

Diabetics more likely to develop breast and colon cancer

A new study has warned that diabetes sufferers are more prone to developing breast and colon cancer and at an even higher risk of dying from them.

Dr Kirstin De Bruijn said that previous studies have examined the association between diabetes and dying from cancer but death from specific types of cancer has not been well-studied.

“Our meta-analysis is the first to combine incidence and death from breast and colon cancer, while excluding all other causes of death. We have investigated the link between diabetes and the risk of developing as well as the risk of dying from these cancers,” she said.

Dr De Bruijn, a PhD student in the Surgery Department at the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and colleagues analyzed results from 20 trials that had taken place between 2007 and 2012, involving more than 1.9 million patients with breast or colon cancer, with or without diabetes.

They found that patients with diabetes had a 23 percent increased risk of developing breast cancer and a 38 percent increased risk of dying from the disease compared to non-diabetic patients.

Diabetic patients had a 26 percent increased risk of developing colon cancer and a 30 percent increased risk of dying from it compared to non-diabetic patients, the findings showed.

Bruijn said that the results for breast and colon cancer incidence in patients with diabetes are consistent with other meta-analyses, additionally their meta-analysis showed a higher risk and a stronger association between diabetes and death from breast and colon cancer than previously reported.

Bruijn said that cancer patients, who are obese and diabetic, are an already more vulnerable group of individuals when it comes to surgery, as they have an increased risk of developing complications both during and after surgery.

Source: http://in.lifestyle.yahoo.com

Infertile woman, 30, gives birth after experimental ovary surgery

The treatment, designed to stimulate dormant ovarian follicles, is being tried on a small group of Japanese women with primary ovarian insufficiency, an uncommon form of infertility. Scientists hope it may eventually help women who have trouble getting pregnant due to age.

A 30-year-old infertile woman gave birth after surgeons removed her ovaries and re-implanted tissue they treated in a lab, researchers report.

The experimental technique was only tried in a small group of Japanese women with a specific kind of infertility problem, but scientists hope it can also help women in their early 40s who have trouble getting pregnant because of their age.

The new mother gave birth to a son in Tokyo last December, and she and the child continue to be healthy, said Dr. Kazuhiro Kawamura of the St. Marianna University School of Medicine in Kawasaki, Japan. He and others describe the technique in a report published online Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The mother, who was not identified, had been diagnosed with primary ovarian insufficiency, an uncommon form of infertility sometimes called premature menopause. It appears in about 1 percent of women of childbearing age. The cause of most cases is unknown, but the outcome is that the ovary has trouble producing eggs.

source: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health

Do weight loss pills actually work?

Q: Hi my name is Rohan and I am obese. I want to lose weight quickly. Tell me do weight loss pills work? Are they safe?

Rohan we are sorry to disappoint you but there’s no shortcut to losing weight. The only way to do it is a proper diet and exercise. While weight loss pills do work to a certain extent by either suppressing your appetite or loading your system with caffeine so that you work out for a longer period of time. The bad thing about them is that once you stop taking them, there’s a tendency for the lost weight to come back.

In the true sense they’re catalysts rather than miracle pills, and unless you watch what you eat and workout, they won’t work. In the long run, people who use them, develop tolerance and the drug stops being of any effect.

You also need to watch out for the side-effects of weight loss pills. Expert nutritionist Shilpa Mittal has seen many clients scammed into using these products, ‘Most pills are either suppressants or stimulants that hinder the absorption of fat into your body. Subsequently, they can also hinder the absorption of other essential nutrients and vitamins. They’ve also been known to increase the heart rate, blood pressure and cause other gastrointestinal side-effects like constipation,’ she said. They can also cause heavy sweating, insomnia, mood swings, headaches and anxiety.

Recently, one sort of weight loss pills called DNP 2,4 was in the news after it caused two deaths in the UK. One of them was an 18-year-old Indian student who was an avid bodybuilder and another one was a 23-year-old medical student who suffered from bulimia – an eating disorder. These pills though banned in 1938 continue to be available underground in the bodybuilding community or otherwise despite wide-ranging side-effects like nausea, vomiting, restlessness, flushed skin, sweating, dizziness, headaches, palpitations and could even lead to coma and death.

The matter of the fact is that there is no shortcut to losing weight and having lost 37 kg I can assure you that it is something that’s extremely doable with a little effort.

Source: Zee News

The 4 super foods keep you healthy this autumn

Autumn is here and that means a new crop of seasonal nutrient-dense fruit and vegetable “super foods”, that increase our overall wellness and nutrition and help support a healthy lifestyle, will be harvested soon.

Kari Kooi, registered dietician at Houston Methodist Hospital, said super foods are brimming with nutrients and antioxidants. The benefits of adding them into your everyday meals are numerous, as a nutritious diet can really have a positive impact on both your physical and mental health.

Kooi suggested top four super foods that you can incorporate into your daily meals.

The researcher said that Pumpkins are rich in beta-carotene which turns into vitamin A, also known as the vision vitamin. They are versatile and can be added into just about anything. If you like pumpkin pie, stir a little pumpkin puree into your oatmeal and add some pumpkin pie spice for a healthier alternative.

On the other hand seeds of Pumpkin are a super food powerhouse all on their own. They have heart healthy fat, protein, and fiber. They also have a lot of minerals like magnesium, which aids in bone health, and iron, which helps deliver oxygen to our cells. You can try roasted pumpkin seeds, which can be eaten shell and all, for a healthy snack during the day.

Pomegranates earn super food status because they are extremely rich in antioxidants.

Kooi said that Kiwis have a “tutti fruity” taste, with flavors reminiscent of different fruits like strawberries, melons, pineapples, bananas, and citrus. They also have a lot of fiber and a whopping amount of Vitamin C, which makes them a great super food. To enjoy a kiwi on-the-go, try cutting it in half and scooping the flesh out with a spoon.

Source: http://www.siasat.com/english/news

Brain processes ‘big’ words faster than ‘small’ ones

Human brain can quickly understand words for big things, like whale, than ‘small’ words like plum, a new study has found.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow had previously found that big concrete words – ocean, dinosaur, cathedral were read more quickly than small ones such as apple, parasite and cigarette.

Now they have discovered that abstract words which are thought of as big greed, genius, paradise are also processed faster than concepts considered to be small such as haste, polite and intimate.

“It seems that size matters, even when it’s abstract and you can’t see it,” Dr Sara Sereno, a Reader in the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, who led the study, said.

Participants were presented with a series of real words referring to objects and concepts both big and small, as well as nonsense, made-up words, totaling nearly 500 items. The different word types were matched for length and frequency of use.

The 60 participants were asked to press one of two buttons to indicate whether each item was a real word or not.

This decision took just over 500 milliseconds or around a half second per item.

Results showed that words referring to larger objects or concepts were processed around 20 milliseconds faster than words referring to smaller objects or concepts.

“This might seem like a very short period of time, but it’s significant and the effect size is typical for this task,” said Sereno.

“It turned out that our big concrete and abstract words, like ‘shark’ and ‘panic’, tended to be more emotionally arousing than our small concrete and abstract words, like ‘acorn’ and ‘tight’. Our analysis showed that these emotional links played a greater role in the identification of abstract compared to concrete words,” Lead author Dr Bo Yao said.

“Even though abstract words don’t refer to physical objects in the real world, we found that it’s actually quite easy to think of certain concepts in terms of their size,” said co-author Professor Paddy O’Donnell.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news

Kids born to young moms are at risk of child mortality:

Kids born to young moms are at risk of child mortality:Children born to mothers under 30 are more likely to die than those born to older mums, a report on child deaths in the UK suggests.

While overall child mortality fell by 50% in the past 20 years, young maternal age was found to be a risk factor for death in early childhood.

Support should be extended to mothers of all ages, not just first-time teenage mums, the report said.

The research was led by the Institute of Child Health at UCL.

It looked at why children die in the UK using death registration data from January 1980 to December 2010.

It focused on child injuries, birth weight and maternal age to assess the risk factors for child deaths.

The research found that in England, Scotland and Wales, the difference in mortality between children of mothers under 30 and those born to mothers aged 30 to 34 accounted for 11% of all deaths up to nine years old.

This is equivalent to an average of 397 deaths in the UK each year, the report said

Deaths in children born to mothers under 20 accounted for just 3.8% of all child deaths up to nine years old.

The study compared children with similar birth weight in each age category.

‘Alcohol use, smoking and deprivation’

It reported that the biggest difference in deaths was in infants aged from one month to one year.

Among this age group, 22% of deaths in the UK were due to “unexplained causes”, the report said, “Which are strongly associated with maternal alcohol use, smoking and deprivation”.

The report added that the current policy, which focuses support on teenage first-time mothers, was not wide-ranging enough because mothers aged fewer than 30 accounts for 52% of all births in the UK.

Ruth Gilbert, lead researcher and professor of clinical epidemiology at UCL Institute of Child Health, said the findings were important.

“Young maternal age at birth is becoming a marker of social disadvantage as women who have been through higher education and those with career prospects are more likely to postpone pregnancy until their 30s.

“Universal policies are needed to address the disparities.”

Jill Rutter, head of policy and research at the Family and Childcare Trust, said the government needed to do more.

“Disadvantage and maternal age are factors often associated with child deaths. The government has recognized the vulnerability of the children of teenage mothers and given these families extra help with parenting.

“In England the Family Nurse Partnership is an intensive, structured, home-visiting program, which is offered to first-time parents under the age of 20.

“A specially trained nurse visits regularly from early pregnancy until the child is two years old. This project has excellent results, but is not available to older mothers.

“We would like the Family Nurse Partnership to be extended to take older mothers who need help.”

Toll from injuries

The study, commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership and published by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, had other key findings.

First, injuries continue to be the biggest cause of death in childhood, but they are declining,

Between 1980 and 2010, injuries accounted for 31% of deaths in one to four-year-olds and 48% of deaths in those aged 15 to 18.

England had consistently lower rates of deaths from injury than the other UK countries, particularly among older boys.

But there was no decline in deaths due to intentional injury or self-harm over 30 years, the report found.

Dr Hilary Cass, president of the royal college, said this was worrying.

“Injuries remain the biggest cause of child deaths but are declining, so we need to continue to build upon public policy interventions such as traffic calming.

“The lack of decline in intentional injuries calls for a concerted focus on reducing violence and self-harm in older children.”

Disabilities and serious diseases

The study also found that up to 70% of children who die in the UK have chronic conditions such as cancer, cystic fibrosis or epilepsy.

This was not necessarily the cause of their death but likely to be an underlying factor in it.

Prof Gilbert said that although the overall number of children dying is falling, the picture was complicated by the increasing number of children now surviving with disabilities and serious diseases, and this meant that proactive care was vital.

“For some children with serious chronic conditions who are expected to die, this means high-quality end-of-life care for the child and to support their families.

“For others, their death may have been premature or completely preventable. Most children with chronic conditions are managed at home by parents with support from primary and community care services as well as hospitals. We need to focus on the quality of long-term care at home for these children as well as in hospital.”

 Source:

Diet and exercise improves osteoarthritis pain

Diet and exercise improves osteoarthritis pain

When compared with the exercise group, the diet and exercise group had less knee pain, better function, faster walking speed, and better physical health-related quality of life.

Eighteen months of intensive diet and exercise together lead to less knee pain and better function among overweight and obese adults with knee osteoarthritis, new research has revealed.

Stephen P. Messier, Ph.D., of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, and colleagues conducted a study to determine whether a 10% or greater reduction in body weight induced by diet, with or without exercise, would reduce joint loading and inflammation and improve clinical outcomes more than exercise alone. The study included 454 overweight and obese older community-dwelling adults (age 55 years or older with a body mass index of 27-41) with pain and radiographic knee OA. The interventions consisted of intensive diet-induced weight loss plus exercise, intensive diet-induced weight loss, or exercise. It was found that average weight loss was greater in the diet and exercise group and the diet group compared with the exercise group. When compared with the exercise group, the diet and exercise group had less knee pain, better function, faster walking speed, and better physical health-related quality of life. The study found that participants in the diet and exercise and diet groups had greater reductions in Interleukin 6 (a measure of inflammation) levels than those in the exercise group, and those in the diet group had greater reductions in knee compressive force than those in the exercise group. Researchers said the findings from this trial suggested that intensive weight loss may have both anti-inflammatory and biomechanical benefits; when combining weight loss with exercise, patients can safely achieve a mean long-term weight loss of more than 10%, with an associated improvement in symptoms greater than with either intervention alone. The study is published in journal JAMA. Source: http://www.dnaindia.com

Indian-origin scientist gets top Canadian award

 

A 42-year-old Indian-origin scientist has been named this year’s recipient of a prestigious Canadian award that recognizes excellence in complementary and alternative medicine.

Sunita Vohra, director of Canada’s first academic pediatric integrative at the University of Alberta medicine program was named the winner of the $250,000 Dr. Rogers Prize at a gala dinner in Vancouver on Thursday, the Vancouver Sun reported.

The Dr. Rogers Prize carries the largest cash prize of its kind in North America.

“It is overwhelming, about being chosen as this year’s recipient,” the report quoted Vohra as saying.

“It is a huge honour. I have not had enough time to digest it. It’s incredible and humbling at the same time,” she said.

Clinician scientist Vohra said that she didn’t have specific plans for the money other than she would use it to help get the kind of research she does out of books and into policy that makes changes in the world.

Vohra said since childhood she wanted to be a physician because her grandfather was a doctor but never thought of taking up medicine as a career.

Initially, Vohra decided to take up pediatrics but then she got interested in clinical science when she was doing her specialty training in pharmacology at a hospital for sick children in Canada’s financial capital Toronto as well as an advanced research degree in clinical epidemiology at McMaster University in Hamilton.

She learnt how little traditional medicine knew about the therapies being used to treat children.

Vohra said she was evaluating the effectiveness of pediatric integrative medicine alongside traditional care at Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton.

She said she wanted to explore alternative and complementary therapies which were extremely popular in Canada.

“I think that therapies are along a continuum,” Vohra said.

“I think that patients make choices around therapies that interest them and the things they’re willing to take. I think that conversation with their healthcare provider can be inclusive around all their health care providers.”

The $250,000 Dr. Rogers Prize for Excellence in Complementary and Alternative Medicine is awarded every two years to celebrate the achievements of researchers, practitioners and others in the field of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) healthcare. The award was initiated in 2007.

The prize is funded by the Lotte and John Hecht Memorial Foundation in Vancouver.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Mobile phones, towers do not cause cancer’

The Delhi Medical Association (DMA) Friday rubbished reports that radiation emitted from cell phones and their towers cause cancer.

“Radiation from mobiles and mobile towers pose no threat to the health or cause cancer as it is commonly believed,” DMA president Anil Agarwal said at a press conference here.

“The radiation waves are too weak too cause such a deadly disease and moreover there are no empirical findings to establish that mobile tower radiation causes cancer or any such disease,” he said, adding the medical experts from the DMA have come to this conclusion after reviewing the study done by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO conducted a research where they had consulted 4,50,000 cell phone users in the past 13 years, but had not been able to provide support for any relationship between the emission of radiation from mobile phones and cancer, said P. Ramakrishna, a consultant on electro-magnetic fields (EMF).

Even the study done by US’ National Cancer Institute shows no increased risk for brain tumors from cell phone use, he added.

Source: http://www.sify.com/news/