Manic Monday

Weight-Loss Surgery May Be Beneficial for Diabetes

Earlier this year, the American Diabetes Association suggested that obese patients struggling with Type 2 diabetes consider weight-loss surgery. The results of two long-term studies presented this week at a medical conference lend further support to the recommendation.

One study of 177 patients found that among Type 2 diabetes patients who had been very obese, 57 percent remained free of the disease more than eight years after gastric bypass surgery.

As many as 90 percent of the obese patients experienced resolution of their diabetes within a year of gastric bypass surgery. But for many, the effect did not last.

Patients who were dependent on insulin prior to surgery were most likely to experience a recurrence of the disease, with only 30 percent seeing long-term resolution of their condition, said Dr. James Maher, professor of surgery at Virginia Commonwealth University and the paper’s senior author.

Source and More
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/health/29diabetes.html?_r=1&ref=health
___________________________________________________________________________
New tool finds best heart disease and stroke treatments for patients with diabetes

Researchers from North Carolina State University and Mayo Clinic have developed a computer model that medical doctors can use to determine the best time to begin using statin therapy in diabetes patients to help prevent heart disease and stroke.

"The research is significant because patients with diabetes are at high risk for cardiovascular disease and statins are the single most commonly used treatment for patients at risk of heart disease and/or stroke," says Dr. Brian Denton, "and this model can help determine the best course of action for individual patients based on their risk of developing cardiovascular disease." Denton is an assistant professor in NC State's Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering and lead author of the study.

Statins are a key component of current cardiovascular medical treatment guidelines, Denton says. They lower cholesterol levels and may significantly reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, particularly in patients that are considered to be at high risk.

The researchers developed a new mathematical model that examines various possible treatment policies to see how they influence short-term and long-term health outcomes for patients. The model shows how people are affected by diabetes, and how their health changes over time as the disease advances and patients age.

The new model incorporates patient-specific data. An established risk model calculates each patient's probability of heart attack and stroke based on risk factors, such as their cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. This overall risk "score" is used to weigh the medical advantages of beginning statin therapy against the financial cost of the statins.

Overall, by accounting for the progression of diabetes, the patient's specific risk score and the cost-benefit analysis, the new model may help patients and doctors decide on the optimal time to begin statin therapy.

Source and More
http://www.physorg.com/news165492869.html
___________________________________________________________________________
High levels of cycling training damage triathletes' sperm

The high-intensity training undertaken by triathletes has a significant impact on the quality of their sperm, the 25th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology heard today (Monday 29 June). Professor Diana Vaamonde, from the University of Cordoba Medical School, Cordoba, Spain, said that the triathletes who did the most cycling training had the worst sperm morphology.

Professor Vaamonde's team has previously shown that both high exercise intensity and high exercise volume may be detrimental to sperm quality. They decided to take a more profound look at the sportsmen who seemed to show the greatest alteration - the triathletes - and assess the correlation between the volume of training in each activity and sperm quality. Of the three modalities, only cycling, the activity for which triathletes undertake the most training, showed a clear correlation with sperm quality. The more cycling training the sportsmen undertook, both in time and kilometres, the worse their sperm quality became.

The design of this particular study did not allow the scientists to isolate a single factor responsible for this problem, but Dr. Vaamonde believes that it is likely to be mainly due to either the irritation and compression caused by friction of the testes against the saddle, or the localised heat produced by wearing tight clothing. However, she also believes that reactive oxygen species - small molecules that are a natural by-product of oxygen metabolism and which react to stress by increasing to such an extent that they can damage cell structures - and energetic imbalances may play an important role in the alterations in sperm that the team observed.

"The fact that this effect is greater in triathletes than in other sports practices seems to indicate that it is something to do with the volume of training that they need to undertake to achieve and maintain a high level of fitness," said Professor Vaamonde. "We believe that the same effect would be observed in any athletes undertaking a similar amount of cycling training."

Source and More
http://www.physorg.com/news165493540.html
___________________________________________________________________________
Migraines Linked to Brain Lesions and Increased Risk of Stroke in Women

Migraine headaches affect approximately 17 percent of the population at sometime during their life, accounting for more than 1 billion people who suffer from the condition worldwide. American and European studies have shown that 6-8 percent of men and 15-18 percent of women experience migraine every year. The significantly higher rates among women are hormonally driven.

According to a new report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, women who experience migraines accompanied by a visual disturbance known as an aura, have an increased risk of sustaining long-term microscopic damage to brain tissue that is important to both coordination and the senses. In addition, a second study appearing in the journal Neurology revealed that women who experience frequent migraines along with an aura, have a four times greater likelihood of suffering a stroke in later years than women without migraines. The finding supports previous studies that suggest an association between migraines and stroke.

Source and More
http://www.healthnews.com/family-health/womens-health/migraines-linked-brain-lesions-increased-risk-stroke-women-3372.html
___________________________________________________________________________
Studying The Effects Of Early Child Abuse: $2.25 Million Grant

This summer, the University of Rochester's Mt. Hope Family Center will begin a large-scale, comprehensive study of the effects of child abuse. Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the five-year, $2.25 million research project aims to understand how a complex host of factors - from genetics and family environment to hormonal regulation, personality traits, and brain activity - influence the well-being and mental health of children who have experienced child maltreatment.

"What is novel about this study is that it seeks to understand these children from multiple perspectives - neurocognitive, neuroendocrine, and neurophysiological as well as psychological," said Center Research Director Fred Rogosch. "We will obtain very diverse assessments on the same child, providing a holistic view of the multiple ways in which child maltreatment affects development," Rogosch said.

"Our focus on what factors support resilience is equally important," Rogosch added. "Many abused children go on to lead productive, well-adjusted lives. Identifying these pathways to success is vital because it says to children and adults that 'they are not doomed' by an abusive childhood."

Rogosch and Dante Cicchetti, McKnight Presidential Chair and Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota and the former director of the Mt. Hope Family Center from 1984 to 2005, are principal investigators of the study.

Source and More
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155632.php
___________________________________________________________________________
10 Ways to Manage Your Weight on Psych Meds

Awhile back, a Beyond Blue reader asked me to address the problem of weight gain and medication. “How do you deal with this yourself?” she asked me.

I’ll be perfectly honest — it’s a battle. As someone with a history of an eating disorder, I’ve had to work very hard on getting to a place where I eat when I’m hungry. For that reason, I won’t go near drugs like Zyprexa, because the 20 pounds that I gained in one month made me feel almost as bad as my depression.

I totally understand that body image is important to your self-esteem. I wish I wasn’t so shallow, but look at the ads around us. What’s the message that they’re screaming?

“Thin people are beautiful. Overweight people aren’t.” I hate that.

So, since this is Friday’s question that is usually answered by an expert, I read through my Johns Hopkins’s literature and found some helpful modification guidelines by Karen Swartz, M.D., Director of the Clinical Programs and one of the physicians who evaluated me in March of 2006 (and then sent me directly into the inpatient unit!). I hope her guidelines help.

Source and More
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/06/18/10-ways-to-manage-your-weight-on-psych-meds/
___________________________________________________________________________
Stress Reduction Technique Aids Sleep

Stressed-out people sleep better and take sleep medication less often when they learn to let go of intrusive thoughts.

The new study from researchers at Duke Integrative Medicine shows participants who took an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course reported less trouble sleeping through the night, and also less sleepiness during the day.

This is the first study to document several positive effects of mindfulness training on sleep quality in a group of generally healthy, but stressed, individuals.

“When we don’t know what to do with intrusive and persistent thoughts, the mind and body feel threatened,” says Jeff Greeson, PhD, MS, a clinical health psychologist at Duke who presented his preliminary results at the North American Research Conference on Complementary and Integrative Medicine.

“That signals the ‘fight or flight’ response which starts a cascade of sleep-robbing emotions like agitation and anxiety.”

Source and More
http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/06/29/stress-reduction-technique-aids-sleep/6785.html