Concerned Citizens For Disability Advocacy

Fat Doctors Are Less Likely to Help Patients Lose Weight

2012-01-30T04:15:00.000-06:00

Obesity
Fat Doctors Are Less Likely to Help Patients Lose Weight
Would you take weight-loss advice from a doctor who hasn't got control of his own size?
By Alice Park | @aliceparkny | January 30, 2012 | +
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Monica Rodriguez / Getty Images
Monica Rodriguez / Getty Images

It inspires confidence when a dentist has good teeth, or a hairstylist has a chic ‘do, or when the salesperson at a boutique has an immaculate sense of personal style. The same may be true of doctors who maintain a healthy weight — which may help explain why those who are overweight are less likely to broach the topic of weight loss with their patients.

In a study of 500 primary care physicians around the country, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that a doctor’s own size influenced how he or she cared for patients with weight problems. Overweight or obese physicians were less likely to discuss weight loss with heavy patients: only 18% of these doctors discussed losing weight with their patients while 30% of normal weight physicians did.

What’s more, the researchers found that 93% of doctors diagnosed obesity in their patients only if they believed their own weight was equal to or less than that of their patients; only 7% of doctors who believed their weight exceeded that of their patients diagnosed obesity.

“I was totally surprised by the findings,” says lead author Sara Bleich, an assistant professor of health policy at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

PHOTOS: Obesity Rehab

The study builds on earlier work that analyzed how doctors’ own smoking habits affected their advice to patients; there, too, researchers found that physicians who lit up were less likely to recommend smoking cessation for their smoking patients, most likely because of the hypocritical nature of their telling patients to quit while they continued to puff away themselves.

But the results also shed light on the complexities of the doctor-patient relationship, especially concerning obesity, and suggest that anti-obesity efforts that focus nearly exclusively on patients may be too one-sided. Indeed, doctors are just as heavy as the rest of Americans: the Johns Hopkins study found that 53% of the physicians were overweight or obese, which tracks with the 64% of U.S. adults who fall in the same categories.

That means that doctors’ weight may be playing an indirect role in perpetuating the obesity epidemic on several levels. First, by not addressing healthy weight with their patients, these physicians are passing up an opportunity to help people improve their health and avoid chronic weight-related conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and joint disorders. Second, overweight doctors are putting their own health at risk. And third, they may be sending the wrong message about weight to their patients, who might rationalize their own prodigious size if their doctors look the same as they do.

“For me, the results raise a lot of questions,” says Bleich. “I’d be surprised if this behavior is intentional. I think a lot of it is subconscious. What this study suggests is that physical attributes of physicians have a much bigger contribution to their care of patients than I realized before.”

MORE: America’s Obesity Crisis: Eating Behavior: Why We Eat

In the study, when overweight or obese doctors did address obesity, they were more likely than their normal weight counterparts to prescribe anti-obesity medications (26% vs. 18%), rather than lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise. That may reflect a lack of confidence in these approaches to weight loss, either because of the physicians’ own personal experiences or because of their subconscious concern that such advice wouldn’t appear reliable to patients coming from someone who wasn’t slim.

Most experts say that changes in diet and exercise habits are a crucial part of any long-term weight-loss strategy, even if patients use medications initially to kick-start weight loss.

Compared with overweight doctors, slim physicians were more confident in their ability to dispense advice about diet and exercise to heavier patients, and 72% believed that they should be models of healthy weight for their patients. Only 56% of heavy doctors said the same.

The results represent yet another challenge in the war against obesity — doctors are notoriously bad at taking care of themselves and at being good patients — but the study also signals an opportunity. “If we improve physician well-being, and improve their lifestyles toward weight loss or weight maintenance, that can go a long way toward influencing the care they provide their patients,” says Bleich.

Doctors who have successfully lost weight and who eat well and exercise regularly may be more likely to share their own experiences with patients, making it more likely that their patients will in turn follow their advice, Bleich says. “By making physicians healthier, we are making patients healthier, and helping two groups at one time,” she says.

Source and More:
http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/30/fat-doctors-are-less-likely-to-help-patients-lose-weight/

Activist Erin Brockovich looking into teens' mystery ailment

2012-01-27T06:14:00.000-06:00

Environmental activist Erin Brockovich has started her own investigation into the mysterious illness that's caused symptoms of facial tics and verbal outbursts among teenagers in Le Roy, N.Y., in light of new evidence about a toxic chemical spill more than 40 years ago that caused water and ground contamination nearby.

Brockovich gained notoriety with a 2000 movie (Erin Brockovich, starring Julia Roberts) about her efforts to expose a toxic chemical coverup in California.

She told USA TODAY on Thursday that after families of affected teens and other community members asked her to look into the Le Roy case, she has spent the past week studying federal and state reports of a 1970 train derailment that spilled cyanide and an industrial solvent called trichloroethene within 3 miles of the high school attended by the 12 girls who started reporting neurological symptoms last fall. Three other teens, including one boy, are reportedly experiencing similar symptoms.

MORE: N.Y. teens' mystery illness labeled 'conversion disorder'
STORY: Facial tics, verbal outbursts perplex community

A statement issued by the school district said "medical and environmental investigations have not uncovered any evidence that would link the neurological symptoms to anything in the environment or of an infectious nature." An indoo- air-quality report and a mold report are posted on the school district's website.

"When I read reports like this that the New York Department of Health and state agencies were well-aware of the spill and you don't do water testing or vapor extraction tests, you don't have an all-clear," says Brockovich, of Los Angeles.

According to a 1999 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, one ton of cyanide crystals spilled to the ground in the derailment, along with 35,000 gallons of trichloroethene. The crystals were removed but the trichloroethene was absorbed into the ground.

Brockovich says she has received about 100 e-mails regarding the girls' symptoms and the diagnosis of stress-related "conversion disorder."

"We don't have all the answers, but we are suspicious," Brockovich says. "They have not ruled everything out yet. The community asked us to help and this is what we do."

Source and More:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-01-26/new-york-school-mystery-disease/52804710/1?csp=34news

Morgellons disease probably a delusion, feds say

2012-01-26T05:21:00.000-06:00

Morgellons disease - a creepy illness that leaves patients with painful lesions, gives them a feeling that bugs are crawling all over their body, and has them seeing colorful, threadlike fibers poking through their skin - isn't infectious and probably isn't caused by anything in the environment, according to the first government study of the condition.

Rather, Morgellons is likely to be a mental illness and should probably be treated with the same drug and psychiatric care that works for people who suffer delusions, researchers with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

"There were some possibilities of what could be causing this, and we've taken a couple of the big ones off the table. That's a really big step forward," said Dr. Mark Eberhard, director of the CDC's Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria and a lead investigator in the study.
Seeking acknowledgement

The study focused on patients in the Bay Area, where a cluster of Morgellons cases have been reported over the past several years. Patients all complained of the same strange, often horrifying symptoms, and they became increasingly angry and frustrated that physicians weren't taking their condition seriously.

Just getting the research done was a major coup for Morgellons sufferers, who had been clamoring for a serious scientific study of their illness for years. But by ruling out infectious and environmental causes of the disease and suggesting it's a delusional condition, the CDC report was disappointing, patients said Wednesday.

Most of them aren't ready to accept that the mysterious illness that plagues them is all in their head.

"We just want to be acknowledged. This is not a delusion," said Cindy Casey, 49, who worked as a nurse in a Bay Area intensive care unit for 16 years before she went on disability from Morgellons. She now lives in Texas, where she runs a foundation for Morgellons research.

"We would really love to understand the etiology and be able to hope for some kind of treatment," Casey said. "A cure is really too much to ask for at this point, but to be able to manage the symptoms would be good."

Casey said she suffers from lesions all over her body and a "popping and tingling" sensation, primarily in her legs. She itches all over, so badly that it's painful and she has trouble sleeping, she said.

The symptoms can be so maddening, she said, that she has no doubt that many Morgellons patients come across as "crazy" to doctors - and it's not surprising that she and others are labeled as delusional, she admits.
'We don't really understand'

Dr. Raphael Stricker, a Lyme disease specialist who treats about 60 people in the Bay Area whom he says suffer from Morgellons, agreed that his patients often seem delusional. "If you had these fibers coming out of your skin, wouldn't you go a little nuts?" he said.

But he's convinced that Morgellons is not a mental illness and has done his own research to try to find a cause, or at least an explanation for the strange filaments he's seen growing out of and under patients' skin.

"I want to commend the CDC for doing this study and trying to get a handle on this disease, which has baffled many people and is a big problem," Stricker said. "But the only thing it really tells us clearly is that we need to do more work, because we don't really understand this disease."

The CDC study focused on members of Kaiser Permanente Northern California, using patient records to find people who suffered from symptoms commonly associated with Morgellons. They found 115 such patients, most of them middle-age white women. That worked out to about 4 cases per 100,000 Kaiser members, making the condition very rare, Eberhard said.

While there was no doubt that the patients were all sick, the cause of their illness was unclear, researchers found. More than two-thirds of patients reported chronic fatigue, and about 60 percent had cognitive problems, often related to memory or their ability to concentrate.
Fibers blamed on clothing

All of the patients had complained at least once of some kind of threadlike filament growing out of their skin. Most patients identified the filaments as fibers, but some referred to them as worms, "fuzz balls" or larvae. The CDC researchers examined filaments taken from 12 patients and found that they were most likely fibers that came from clothing and had stuck to the skin.

"Clearly these people have something that's very impactful on their health," Eberhard said. "But a number of those problems can be treated. We really think there's the potential to significantly help a fair number of these folks."

Source and More:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/25/MNQ61MUKDT.DTL

Talking things through in your head may help autism

2012-01-25T04:13:00.000-06:00

Teaching children with autism to "talk things through" in their heads may help them solve tricky day-to-day tasks and could increase the chances of them living independent lives when they grow up, British scientists said Wednesday.

Psychologists who studied adults with autism found that the mechanism for using "inner speech," or talking things through in your head is intact, but they don't always use it in the same way as typically developing people do.

The researchers found that the tendency to "think in words" is also strongly linked to the extent of a person's communication skills, which are rooted in early childhood.

The results suggest teaching autistic children how to develop inner speech skills may help them cope with daily tasks later in life. It also suggests children with autism may do better at school if they are encouraged to learn their daily timetable verbally rather than using visual plans, which is currently a common approach.

Autism, which affects around one percent of the population worldwide, includes a spectrum of disorders ranging from mental retardation and a profound inability to communicate, to relatively milder symptoms such as seen in people with high-functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome.

Among core features of autism are poor communication skills and difficulties with social engagement.

"Most people will 'think in words' when trying to solve problems, which helps with planning or particularly complicated tasks," said David Williams of Durham University's department of psychology, who led the study.

Typically developing children tend to talk out loud to guide themselves through tricky tasks, and only from about 7 years old do they talk to themselves in their heads to try to solve problems, he said. How good people are at it is partly determined by their communication experiences as a young child.

Williams said children with autism often miss out on the early communicative exchanges, which may explain their tendency not to use inner speech when they are older. He said the lack of inner speech use might also contribute to some of the repetitive behaviors which are common in people with autism.

"Children with autism probably aren't doing this thinking in their heads, but are continuing on with a visual thinking strategy," Williams said in a telephone interview.

"So this is the time, at around six or seven years old, that these teaching methods would be most helpful."

The study, conducted by researchers at Durham, Bristol and City University London and published in the Development and Psychopathology journal, involved 15 adults with high-functioning autism and 16 neurotypical adults for comparison.

The volunteers were asked to complete a test of planning ability for which typical people would normally use "thinking in words" strategies.

When the two groups were asked to do the task while also repeating out loud a certain word -- such as "Tuesday" or "Thursday" -- designed to distract them, the control group found the task much harder, while the autistic group were not bothered by the distraction.

"In the people with autism, it had no effect whatsoever," Williams explained. This suggests that, unlike neurotypical adults, participants with autism do not normally use inner speech to help themselves plan.

Source and More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/25/us-autism-inner-speech-idUSTRE80O0O620120125

First patients shown to improve with embryonic stem cells

2012-01-24T04:47:00.000-06:00

Before treatment, the 51-year-old graphic artist was legally blind, unable to read a single letter on a standard eye chart. She has suffered from Stargardt's disease, the most common form of macular degeneration in young patients, since she was a teenager, and it was getting progressively worse.

A second patient, aged 78, suffered from dry macular degeneration - the leading cause of blindness in the elderly -and could not even see well enough to go shopping.

But after being treated with stem cells from a donated human embryo, both women have improved dramatically, researchers said on Monday. Stem cells are master cells that can differentiate into any of the 200 kinds of cells in the human body.

Their results are the first-ever report of the medical use of stem cells taken from human embryos, making them crucial barometers of whether the controversial technique will ever find widespread therapeutic uses.

In a paper published online in The Lancet on Monday, physicians at the University of California, Los Angeles, and scientists at biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology report that the first two patients in the clinical trial suffered no adverse health effects from the treatment and seem to have benefited from it.

A week after having cells derived from a days-old embryo injected into her eye, the graphic artist could count fingers, and after one month she could read the top five letters on the eye chart. She can see more color and contrast, has started using her computer, and for the first time in years can read her watch and thread a needle. The macular degeneration patient recently went to the mall for the first time in years.

The safety findings, not any vision improvement, is what people should focus on, said Dusko Ilic, senior lecturer in stem cell science at Kings College London, who was not involved in the work.

"If everyone expects that the blind patients will see after being treated ... it will end up as disaster," he said.

Nevertheless, advocates for the blind are already hailing the results. "At last we are seeing fruits of human embryonic stem cell research entering clinical trials," said Peter Coffey, Director of the London Project to Cure Blindness.

OBJECTIONS AND RISKS

Using human embryonic stem cells for research or treatment has incited controversy for ethical and medical reasons. Some opponents argue that because removing stem cells from days-old human embryos almost always destroys the embryo, the technique amounts to murder.

ACT is the only company currently testing human embryonic stem cells in study patients. Last November, stem-cell pioneer Geron announced that it was halting what had been the first-ever clinical trial of the cells-testing them in patients with spinal cord injuries-and leaving the field.

When Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of ACT, approached ophthalmic surgeon Steven Schwartz of UCLA about leading the clinical trial, Schwartz asked for ethical advice from two of his patients: elderly nuns. They gave him the go-ahead, he said last year.

Even scientists who support stem cell research argue that they could be dangerous to use therapeutically. The very property that makes them so valuable in research - stem cells can morph into any of the kinds of cells in the human body - also makes them risky.

They can form teratomas, a type of tumor that arises when stem cells differentiate into a profusion of cell types.

Another concern is that transplanting cells derived from human embryos could be rejected by the patient's immune system. The ACT team got around that by targeting the eye, which is an "immunoprivileged" site that does not produce a strong immune response to foreign tissue.

In the study, physicians led by Schwartz injected what are called retinal epithelial cells into one eye of each patient. RPE cells lie at the back of the eye and bathe the retina's rods and cones in substances called growth factors. When RPE cells die, as they do in macular degeneration, so do the photoreceptors, eventually causing blindness.

Transplanting RPE cells grown from stem cells, Lanza reasoned when he began this research almost a decade ago, might rejuvenate the eye's rods and cones, restoring lost vision.

To produce RPE cells, Lanza and his colleagues arranged to obtain days-old embryos created by in vitro fertilization. The parents, who no longer wanted the embryos, donated them for research. The scientists then removed a single stem cell from one embryo, grew it in the lab to obtain millions of cells, and differentiated them into RPE cells.

The primary purpose of the clinical trial was to determine whether the implanted cells caused any harm. So far, neither patient has experienced inflammation, an indication that their immune system is not attacking the foreign cells.

And there is no evidence that a teratoma formed in either patient. Researchers also found that the RPE cells still survive after being implanted four months ago.

NOT A CURE FOR THE BLIND

The goal of the study was to determine safety and, at most, see whether the therapy can slow down or arrest vision loss, not restore it. "The fact that we're seeing measurable improvements in their vision, persisting for more than four months, is a bonus," Lanza said in an interview.

Although rods and cones cannot be brought back from the dead, he explains, "until you lose them completely you can rescue them." He believes that the transplanted RPE cells both bathed the deteriorating rods and cones in nourishing growth factors and gobbled up fragments of dead rods and cones, keeping the retinal environment healthier for the survivors.

The UCLA physicians plan to enroll a total of 12 Stargardt's patients and 12 macular degeneration patients in the ongoing clinical trial, with groups of three patients each receiving a different number of retinal epithelial cells.

The two patients being reported on Monday each received the smallest dose, 50,000 cells. Other patients will receive at least twice that many. The trial is also expanding across the Atlantic: the first patient was treated at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London last Friday. In a later trial, they hope to treat patients with earlier-stage disease, before so much of their vision has been lost.

David Prentice of the Family Research Council, a pro-life group that has opposed the use of human embryos for research, says the results will require more scrutiny.

"You have to follow the patients longer to know if it's safe," he told Reuters. "People will also want to know if there are other routes to the same end," using sources of stem cells other than human embryos.

Lanza is planning just that. He believes that skin cells "re-programmed" to revert to embryonic status might prove just as good a source or RPE and other specialized cells as human embryonic stem cells. Called IPS (for "induced pluripotent stem") cells, they can be derived from a patient's own skin cells and pose no risk of immune rejection.

"I think we can be up and running in the clinic with IPS cells in one or two years," Lanza says.

Source and More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/23/us-stemcells-idUSTRE80M21R20120123

Anxiety, other disorders more common in autism

2012-01-23T03:57:00.000-06:00

Autism tends to go hand in hand with a variety of other mental and behavioral conditions in kids, suggests a new study that highlights the fuzzy nature of autism diagnoses themselves.

Researchers said that other disorders that often go along with autism -- such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or learning disabilities -- may complicate the diagnosis, or slow down any improvement in kids who do get diagnosed and treated early.

"The most important message that (the study) underscores is that these children tend to have multiple disabilities, not just autism," said Johnny Matson, who studies autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disabilities at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge but wasn't involved in the new research.

Dr. Andrew Zimmerman from Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Lexington and his colleagues found that the conditions they typically saw occurring together with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis varied depending on the age of the child.

Learning disabilities were more common in the youngest kids with an autism spectrum disorder, while anxiety, speech problems and seizures were more often seen in elementary school kids and teens.

The study also found that one-third of kids who had ever been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder no longer had the diagnosis at the time their parents were surveyed.

The researchers note in their report, published in Pediatrics, that past studies have also found that some kids who originally have an autism spectrum disorder eventually lose that diagnosis and are no longer considered autistic.

Whether that's due to a mistaken first diagnosis or actual changes in kids' brains and behaviors is controversial.

Autism spectrum disorders include autism, Asperger's syndrome and "pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified," or PDD-NOS. The number of kids diagnosed with one of those conditions has spiked in recent years, with about one in every 110 kids in the United States now considered to have an autism spectrum disorder, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

An upcoming revision of psychiatrists' Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is expected to narrow the definition of autism and related disorders, potentially shrinking the number of children and adults who qualify for the diagnosis.

The new study included data from a phone survey of about 92,000 parents of kids age 17 and younger in the U.S. in 2007 and 2008.

Parents were asked if a doctor had ever told them their child had an autism spectrum disorder and if the child had one of the disorders currently, as well as if kids had a range of other mental and behavioral conditions such as anxiety and developmental delays.

In total, 1,366 of the parents surveyed said their kid had a past or current diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder. In 453 of those cases, kids had at one point been diagnosed as having one of the disorders but didn't anymore, parents said.

Compared to kids who had lost their diagnosis, the youngest kids that were still considered autistic were more likely to have a learning disability or delayed development, while elementary school kids had more anxiety disorders and teens more often had a speech problem or mild seizures and epilepsy.

In her own studies, "the kids that had more co-occurring diagnoses tended to be diagnosed (with autism) later," when an autism diagnosis may be more definitive and stable, said Dr. Susan Levy, an autism and child development researcher from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

In addition, she told Reuters Health, "The kids that had more co-occurring diagnoses had a lot more difficulties and their progress may have been impeded," making it harder for their autism-related symptoms to improve with treatment.

Some of the kids who ended up not having an autism spectrum disorder may have originally been diagnosed incorrectly, especially if they got the diagnosis when they were very young, researchers said.

Kids and teens in the study that had once been considered autistic but weren't any longer were more likely to have hearing problems than those who still had an autism spectrum disorder -- suggesting that those problems might have been originally mistaken for autism.

But experts disagreed about whether it's possible for kids who are diagnosed correctly with one of the autism-spectrum disorders to improve to the point where they are no longer affected.

"When you're autistic, you're autistic. It's a very stable condition," Matson said, noting that even when symptoms improve, people with autism have to keep getting treatment and work to maintain that progress.

Zimmerman argued that recognizing autism early and starting treatment can increase the likelihood for real, lasting improvement.

"It's not unusual to see a child start out with more severe autism and then become more moderate and even mild as the years go by. A lot of the kids are improving, and we don't really know why, except we know there's a lot of moldability of the developing brain," he told Reuters Health.

"We think that earlier treatment is essential and there are reasons to think that we can improve the kids. I'm very optimistic."

Source and More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/23/us-anxiety-autism-idUSTRE80M0EO20120123

1 In 5 Americans With Mental Illness, National Survey

2012-01-20T04:54:00.000-06:00

Some 45.9 million, or around 1 in 5 American adults (age 18 and over) experienced a mental illness in the past year, according to the US government's latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released this month.

The survey, published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), finds that the rate of mental illness among 18 to 25-year-olds was more than twice as high as among people aged 50 and over (29.9% versus 14.3% respectively).

Source and More:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240539.php

New Definition of Autism May Exclude Many, Study Suggests

2012-01-19T19:10:00.000-06:00

Bloggers Note:MAKE THIS AS VIRAL AS POSSIBLE PLEASE. WE NEED TO GET THIS INFORMATION OUT ASAP!
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Proposed changes in the definition of autism would sharply reduce the skyrocketing rate at which the disorder is diagnosed and may make it harder for many people who would no longer meet the criteria to get health, educational and social services, a new analysis suggests.

The definition is under review by an expert panel appointed by the American Psychiatric Association, which is completing work on the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The D.S.M, as the manual is known, is the standard reference for mental disorders, driving research, treatment and insurance decisions.

The study results, presented on Thursday at a meeting of the Icelandic Medical Association, are still preliminary, but they offer the latest and most dramatic estimate of how tightening the criteria for autism could affect the rate of diagnosis. Rates of autism and related disorders like Asperger syndrome have taken off since the early 1980s, to prevalence rates as high as one in 100 children in some places. Many researchers suspect that these numbers are inflated because of vagueness in the current criteria.

“The proposed changes would put an end to the autism epidemic,” said Dr. Fred R. Volkmar, director of the Child Study Center at Yale University School of Medicine and an author of the new analysis. “We would nip it in the bud — think of it that way.”Experts working on the new definition — a group that formerly included Dr. Volkmar — strongly questioned the new estimate. “I don’t know how they’re getting those numbers,” said Catherine Lord, a member of the task force working on the diagnosis.

Previous projections have concluded that far fewer people would be excluded under the proposed diagnosis change, said Dr. Lord, director of the Institute for Brain Development, a joint project of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical College, Columbia University Medical Center and the New York Center for Autism.

Disagreement about the effect of the new definition will almost certainly increase scrutiny of the finer points of the psychiatric association’s changes to the manual The revisions are about 90 percent complete and will be final by December, according to Dr. David J. Kupfer, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and chairman of the task force making the revisions.

At least a million children and adults have a diagnosis of autism or a related disorder, like Asperger syndrome or “pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified” — or P.D.D.-N.O.S. People with Asperger’s or P.D.D.-N.O.S. endure some of the same social struggles as those with autism but do not meet the definition for the full-blown version. The proposed change would consolidate all three diagnoses under one category, autism spectrum disorder, eliminating Asperger syndrome and P.D.D.-N.O.S. from the manual. Under the current criteria a person can qualify for the diagnosis by exhibiting six or more of 12 behaviors; under the proposed definition, the person would have to exhibit three deficits in social interaction and communication and at least two repetitive behaviors — a much narrower menu.

Dr. Kupfer said the proposed changes were an attempt to clarify these permutations and put them under one name.

Hundreds of thousands of people receive state-backed special services to help offset the disorders’ disabling effects, which include learning and social problems, and the diagnosis is in many ways central to their lives. Close networks of parents have bonded over common experiences with children; and the children, too, may grow to find a sense of their own identity in their struggle with the disorder.

Mary Meyer, of Ramsey, N.J., said that a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome was crucial in getting her daughter, who is 37, access to services that have helped tremendously. “I’m very concerned about the change in diagnosis because I wonder if my daughter would even qualify now,” she said. “She’s on disability, which is partly based on the Asperger’s, and I’m hoping to get her into supportive housing, which also depends on her diagnosis.”

Mark Roithmayr, president of Autism Speaks, an advocacy organization, said that the proposed diagnosis should bring needed clarity but that the effect on services was not yet clear. “We need to carefully monitor the impact of these diagnostic changes on access to services and ensure that no one is being denied the services they need,” Mr. Roithmayr said by e-mail. “Some treatments and services are driven solely by a person’s diagnosis, while other services may depend on other criteria such as age, I.Q. level or medical history.”

In the new analysis, Dr. Volkmar, along with Brian Reichow and James McPartland, both at Yale, used data from a large 1993 study that served as the basis for the current criteria. They focused on 372 children and adults who were among the highest-functioning and found that over all, only 45 percent of them would qualify for the proposed autism spectrum diagnosis now under review. The focus on a high-functioning group may have slightly exaggerated that percentage, the authors acknowledge.

The likelihood of being left out under the new definition depended on the original diagnosis: About a quarter of those identified with classic autism in 1993 would not be so identified under the proposed criteria; about three quarters of those with Asperger’s would not qualify; and 85 percent of those with P.D.D.-N.O.S. would not.

Dr. Volkmar presented the preliminary findings on Thursday. The researchers will publish a broader analysis, based on a larger and more representative sample of 1,000 cases, later this year. Dr. Volkmar said that although the proposed diagnosis would be for disorders on a spectrum and implies a broader net, it focuses tightly on “classically autistic” children on the more severe end of the scale. “The major impact here is on the more cognitively able,” he said.

Dr. Lord said that the study numbers are probably exaggerated because the research team relied on old data, collected by doctors who were not aware of what kinds of behaviors the proposed definition requires. “It’s not that the behaviors didn’t exist, but that they weren’t even asking about them — they wouldn’t show up at all in the data,” Dr. Lord said.

Source and More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/health/research/new-autism-definition-would-exclude-many-study-suggests.html?_r=2&nl=afternoonupdate&emc=aua2

Disabled Girl Denied Kidney Transplant

2012-01-19T05:15:00.000-06:00

Bloggers Note: Are there ANY Disability Advocates in this little girl's area that can jump in and see if ANYTHING can be done to help this little girl?
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A hospital in Philadelphia is denying a 3-year-old a kidney transplant because she suffers from mental disabilities, her parents say.

Chrissy Rivera, the mother of Amelia, last week posted a blog entry that described an encounter she claimed happened at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She said she was there to discuss treatment for her daughter, Amelia, who was born with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, a rare genetic defect that can cause physical and mental disabilities.

Experts say the situation is much more complex.

Rivera wrote that a doctor, whom she did not name, told her and her husband, Joe Rivera, that Amelia wouldn't be eligible for a transplant because of her quality of life and her mental condition.

Source and More:
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2012/01/18/disabled-girl-denied-kidney-transplant/

A Special UN Session On Mental Health Called For By International Health Experts

2012-01-18T04:00:00.000-06:00

A group of international health experts has called for a special session of the United Nations (referred to as UNGASS - United Nations General Assembly Special Session) to focus global attention on mental, neurological, and substance use disorders as a core development issue requiring commitments to improve access to care, promote human rights, and strengthen the evidence on effective prevention and treatment.

Writing in this week's PLoS Medicine, the health experts, led by Vikram Patel from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK and Judith Bass from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, USA say: "The time has come for recognition at the highest levels of global development, namely the UN General Assembly, of the urgent need for a global strategy to address the global burden of MNS disorders."

Mental, neurological, and substance use disorders (MNS disorders - a relatively new acronym coined by the World Health Organization to refer to the complete range of disorders of the brain and the mind) are leading contributors to the global burden of disease and profoundly impact the social and economic well-being of individuals and communities. Yet the majority of people affected by MNS disorders globally do not have access to evidence-based interventions and many experience discrimination and abuses of their human rights.

The authors outline three broad areas of action needing urgent investment: to enhance access to evidence-based packages of care for the treatment of MNS disorders; to realize the human rights commitment enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to ensure that people with MNS disorders live a life with dignity; and to expand knowledge about MNS disorders.

The authors say: "Securing the commitment of a majority of governments for a UNGASS will require a concerted effort from the diverse group of stakeholders concerned with MNS disorders" but argue: "the fact that MNS disorders affect people in all countries should offer considerable incentive for investments by both public and private sectors in this initiative."

The authors also encourage support for the development of a ''People's Charter for Mental Health'' that intends to identified priority needs into practical actionable steps for country implementation. The authors explain: "This charter will be developed in consultation with the organizations from 96 countries who have signed up to the ''Great Push'' initiative so far, representing over one million people including consumers, family members, advocates, researchers, professional organizations, and policy makers."

The authors conclude: "Together, this grand coalition of local, national, and global actors will converge their energies towards the implementation of a UNGASS to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing the global burden of MNS disorders."

Source and More:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240411.php

Treatment Integration for Depression, Diabetes Increases Success for Both

2012-01-17T04:16:00.000-06:00

Individuals treated for both depression and Type 2 diabetes have better medication compliance and experience significant improvements in depression and blood sugar levels compared to those receiving typical treatments, according to a new study out of the University of Pennsylvania.

Over 60 percent of patients who received both treatments along with a short period of intervention to encourage adherence to prescribed medication regimens experienced improved blood sugar levels and 58 percent had fewer depression symptoms, compared to only 36 percent and 31 percent, respectively, of patients who received regular care.

Depression is a known risk factor for diabetes, and diabetes also increases the risk for the development of depression. Depression is frequently found in patients with diabetes, and it tends to contribute to poor adherence to medication routines, which hinders diabetes management.

“Though research demonstrates the link between depression and diabetes, few integrated programs are being implemented in practice,” said lead author Hillary Bogner, MD, MSCE, an assistant professor in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

“Our results demonstrate that integrated treatment for both conditions, combined with a brief program focused on adherence for primary care patients with Type 2 diabetes and depression can result in a significant improvement in clinical outcomes.”

“We hope the findings will encourage the adoption of adherence programs aimed at improving outcomes.”

For the study, researchers randomly assigned volunteers to integrated care or usual care groups. Integrated treatment combined typical primary care with a brief medication adherence program.

Patients and primary care physicians worked with integrated care managers to identify and talk about possible potential medication regimen problems, such as the cost of medications, or a lack of social support.

Individualized programs were developed to improve adherence to antidepressants and diabetes medication. By attaching electronic monitors to pill bottles, researchers kept track of the precise date and time participants took their prescribed medications over the 12-week period.

In the end, 60.9 percent of subjects who received the integrated approach had improved blood sugar levels, compared to only 35.7 percent of patients who received only the usual primary care. Also, patients in the integrated care group were more likely to show fewer depression symptoms in comparison with patients in the usual care group (58.7 percent vs. 30.7 percent, respectively).

“Our study calls for a greater emphasis within healthcare systems on the development and promotion of clinical programs to enhance medication adherence, particularly among patients with chronic medical conditions and depression,” said Dr. Bogner.

“An integrated approach to depression and type 2 diabetes treatment may facilitate adoption in practices with competing demands for limited resources.”

Source and More:
http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/01/15/treatment-integration-for-depression-diabetes-increases-success-for-both/33694.html

STOP STEM CELLS EXPERIMENT ON THE DEAF BABIES?

2012-01-16T19:35:00.000-06:00

After reading everything on this petition site Concerned Citizens For Disability Advocacy Blog will not and does not support this petition nor ever will and here is why.

This valuable Stem Cell Research could potentially help millions in the future. Why would anybody in their right mind want to stop research that could help others in the future unless they have some hidden agenda or selfish motives?

What next are these same people who are pushing this petition going to push for laws to take away these same types of children from their parents who are trying to help them or want to help them so others can be helped in return?

What a sad nation and a society we have become when the gift of helping others is being silenced if you will by this exclusive group pushing this petition.

It truly sickens me to no end.

Source and More:
http://signon.org/sign/stop-stem-cells-experiment.fb1?source=s.fb&r_by=1974967

Does Paula Deen Have Type 2 Diabetes?

2012-01-16T04:40:00.000-06:00

Is Paula Deen suffering from type 2 diabetes? That’s the current gossip in the food world. It isn’t new gossip, however. The National Enquirer reported that the Queen of the kitchen was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes last spring, which went unconfirmed.

The most recent gossip surrounding the Food Network star was that she would announce to the world that she was dealing with the disease and that she would also announce her partnership with Novartis, a pharmaceutical company that produces a drug to help treat the disease. The gossip is just that – gossip.

No one has been able to confirm that 64-year-old Deen has the disease nor can they prove that it came from her cooking. Now it is quite possible that the star is seeing some ill effects from the way she cooks. She uses large amounts of fats and sugars that just cannot be healthy. One of her recipes, Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding, calls for 2 dozen donuts, a stick of butter, a whole box of confectioner’s sugar, and sweetened condensed milk. I think I gained 5 pounds reading the ingredients.

The recent gossip started on Friday when The Daily reported in the headlined article “Paula’s Big Fat Secret” that, “the queen of high-calorie, Southern cooking — is about to come clean and confess that she can’t eat her own dishes anymore because she has diabetes.”

A CBS report later in the day on Friday claimed the rumor of Deen breaking the silence on her diabetic condition was false and that Deen has no deal with Novartis. The representative of Novartis told CBS, “The rumors that Novartis has signed a multi-million dollar spokesperson deal with Paula Deen for a diabetes treatment are not true. Novartis is not working with Ms. Deen.”

Deen and her representatives have remained silent on the situation leaving fans and non-fans to speculate on whether she is actually suffering from her preference for unhealthy foods. Her son has tried to put a spin on his mom’s food by starting a new show on The Cooking Channel called, “Not My Mama’s Meals,” where he takes his mom’s recipes and converts them into healthier dishes. For his first episode he turned his mama’s Krispie Kreme Bread Pudding into a healthier Fresh Fruit Bread Pudding.

It is doubtful that Deen would confess to having type 2 diabetes if she has been afflicted. She has often been criticized for her recipes that are filled with fat, salt and sugar.

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, you have a higher risk for diabetes if you are over 45, have excess body weight, a family history of diabetes, a poor diet, and a low activity level. Type 2 Diabetes is a serious disease, but it is also one of the most preventable of human diseases and there is evidence that it is reversible with a lifestyle change of losing weight, eating right, and exercising.

Perhaps it might be in Deen’s best interest to follow in her son’s footsteps by making her recipes healthier.

Source and More:
http://www.ecorazzi.com/2012/01/15/does-paula-deen-have-type-2-diabetes/

Educating women about heart attacks could save lives

2012-01-13T04:22:00.000-06:00

Heart attacks in women go largely unrecognized 30 to 55 percent of the time and those who miss the warning signs and fail or delay getting help, run the risk of death or grave disability. But researchers at Binghamton University and SUNY Upstate Medical University have developed an educational program they believe will shorten the time to treatment and ultimately, save lives.

Source and More:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-women-heart.html

Australian airlines reject 'fat tax'

2012-01-12T04:34:00.000-06:00

Calls for overweight passengers to pay a surcharge to fly with Australian airlines fell flat Thursday with the major carriers all rejecting the idea.

It followed former Qantas chief economist Tony Webber saying obese passengers should pay more to cover extra fuel costs incurred by airlines.

"When the passengers weigh more, or where there's extra weight on the aircraft, that generates more fuel burn and higher fuel costs," he told ABC radio.

"Airlines are really preoccupied at the moment with reducing their fuel costs because the price of jet fuel is so high at the moment.

"On a flight from Sydney to London-Heathrow via Singapore, you're only looking at (a surcharge of) between five and 10 bucks."

He cited Indonesia as an example where he said authorities often weigh the baggage and the passenger at the same time.

"You'd have to work out the total weight of the baggage and the person and then have a critical weight, say 90 kilos (200 pounds) or 100 kilos, above which you'd impose a surcharge," he said.

But Australian carriers said they had no plans to go down this road.

A spokeswoman for his former employer said: "Qantas currently has no plans to introduce a surcharge nor does it have a policy in place for customers of size."

Virgin also poured cold water on the idea.

"Such a notion is not under consideration at our airline," a spokesman told reporters, while Tiger Airways replied: "In short, no," when asked if it would ever consider the proposal.

The idea of a weight tax has been around for years with some airlines around the world charging for a second seat if passengers are unable to lower both armrests.

Source and More:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-australian-airlines-fat-tax.html

Does healthy eating help children with ADHD?

2012-01-11T04:17:00.000-06:00

A new study shows healthy eating can help ease your child's hyperactivity when medications and other methods fail.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, looked at previous studies done on the issue.

It found diets that restrict sugar, additives and preservatives can be effective in easing symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

But, researchers said they aren't necessarily a practical alternative to medication and other methods because they are often time consuming and only work well in certain patients.

Source and More:
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/health/does-healthy-eating-help-children-with-adhd

Stem cell therapy reverses diabetes

2012-01-10T04:46:00.000-06:00

Type 1 diabetes is caused by the body's own immune system attacking its pancreatic islet beta cells and requires daily injections of insulin to regulate the patient's blood glucose levels. A new method described in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine uses stem cells from cord blood to re-educate a diabetic's own T cells and consequently restart pancreatic function reducing the need for insulin.

Stem Cell Educator therapy slowly passes lymphocytes separated from a patient's blood over immobilized cord blood stem cells (CBSC) from healthy donors. After two to three hours in the device the re-educated lymphocytes are returned to the patient. The progress of the patients was checked at 4, 12, 24 and 40 weeks after therapy.

C-peptide is a protein fragment made as a by-product of insulin manufacture and can be used to determine how well beta cells are working. By 12 weeks after treatment all the patients who received the therapy had improved levels of C –peptide. This continued to improve at 24 weeks and was maintained to the end of the study. This meant that the daily dose of insulin required to maintain their blood glucose levels could be reduced. In accordance with these results the glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) indicator of long term glucose control also dropped for people receiving the treatment, but not the control group.

Dr Yong Zhao, from University of Illinois at Chicago, who led the multi-centre research, explained, "We also saw an improved autoimmune control in these patients. Stem Cell Educator therapy increased the percentage of regulatory T lymphocytes in the blood of people in the treatment group. Other markers of immune function, such as TGF-beta1 also improved. Our results suggest that it is this improvement in autoimmune control, mediated by the autoimmune regulator AIRE in the CBSC, which allows the pancreatic islet beta cells to recover."

More information: Reversal of type 1 diabetes via islet beta cell regeneration following immune modulation by cord blood-derived multipotent stem cells. Yong Zhao, Zhaoshun Jiang, Tingbao Zhao, Mingliang Ye, Chengjin Hu, Zhaohui Yin, Heng Li, Ye Zhang, Yalin Diao, Yunxiang Li, Yingjian Chen, Xiaoming Sun, Mary Beth Fisk, Randal Skidgel, Mark Holterman, Bellur Prabhakar and Theodore Mazzone BMC Medicine (in press)

Source and More:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-stem-cell-therapy-reverses-diabetes.html

We Get Happier with Age, But Why?

2012-01-09T04:34:00.000-06:00

Research shows that when older people look at pictures of faces or events, they tend to focus on and recall the happier ones more and the negative ones less. But why? Some psychologists assert that cognitive processes are responsible; for example, when an older person fixates on and remembers positive events and forgets the bad ones, it helps regulate emotions, allowing the person to view life in a better light.

In a new article in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science, psychologist Derek M. Isaacowitz of Northeastern University and the late Fredda Blanchard-Fields of Georgia Institute of Technology assert that more rigorous research is needed.

“There is a lot of good theory about this age difference in happiness,” says Isaacowitz, “but much of the research does not provide direct evidence” of the links between such phenomena and actual happiness.

Other research supports the idea that as people get older, they seek out situations that will lift their moods.

For example, they might trim social circles of friends or acquaintances who bring them down. Still other work shows that older adults are better able to let go of loss and disappointment over their unachieved goals, and direct their thoughts toward greater wellbeing.

What’s missing, however, is a consistently demonstrated and direct link between these strategies and phenomena and changes of mood for the better, say the authors. One reason, Isaacowitz suggests, is that lab tests yield results that are not straightforward.

“When we try to use those cognitive processes to predict change of mood, they don’t always do so,” he explains. “Sometimes looking at positive pictures doesn’t make people feel better.”

Research on this subject also reveals contradictions. Some people—younger ones, for example—may make themselves feel better by thinking of the negative in others’ lives.

nd whereas some psychologists find that high scores on certain cognitive tests correlate in older people with the ability to stay happier, other researchers suggest late life happiness is an effect of cognitive losses, which force older people to concentrate on simpler, happier thoughts.

More rigorous research won’t necessarily overthrow the current theories, says Isaacowitz, but may actually complicate the picture. “It won’t be as easy to say old people are happier. But even if they are happier on average, we still want to know in what situations does this particular strategy make this particular person with these particular qualities or strengths feel good.”

Source and More:
http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/01/08/we-get-happier-with-age-but-why/33433.html

Assisted suicide: 'Strong case for legalisation'

2012-01-06T04:36:00.000-06:00

Bloggers Note: In the worst extreme cases where the individual is suffering I support this cause. MUST READ!!
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There is a "strong case" for allowing assisted suicide for people who are terminally ill in England and Wales, a group of experts says.

The Commission on Assisted Dying - set up and funded by campaigners who want to see a change in the law - said the current system was "inadequate".

It said it was possible to allow assisted dying within a strict set of rules to ensure it was not abused.

But the report has had a mixed response. Critics say it is biased.

The commission was chaired by Lord Falconer, a barrister and former justice secretary, and included a wide range of experts including doctors, an ex-police commissioner and a former president of the General Medical Council.

The panel received evidence from more than 1,300 sources during its year-long inquiry, although some groups opposed to a change in the law refused to take part because of its remit and way it was put together.

Source and More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16410118

The Battle over California's Adult Day Programs

2012-01-05T04:31:00.000-06:00

Want to see the future of adult day programs for the frail elderly and adults with disabilities? Just watch what is happening in California, where 26,000 participants and the centers that care for them are struggling to manage state budget cuts and huge uncertainty.

Adult day programs can be a key support for the frail elderly or other adults with disabilities who are trying to live at home. They provide much-needed meals, exercise, companionship, and often an early warning system for health problems. They can also provide critical respite for family caregivers. They may, although the evidence is not clear, make it possible for people to stay at home and, at the same time, avoid unneeded hospitalizations.

But adult day is often funded by state Medicaid programs. And Medicaid, which is under severe financial stress, is looking to squeeze dollars from its burgeoning budgets. As I wrote last year, California, whose budget problems are worse than most, tried to end its support of adult day for 35,000 seniors and other adults with disabilities in nearly 300 centers. Had the cuts taken effect, most of those centers would have closed. Last year, California spent about $169 million on adult day through its Medicaid program (called Medi-Cal).

In response, advocacy groups sued and the state settled. It agreed to continue to provide care for 9,000 of those who most need assistance. Each of the remaining 26,000 participants must now each be evaluated to determine if they meet tight new rules for eligibility. Nice story on this assessment process on Kaiser Health News today.

California officials believe that about half will be declared ineligible for financial support. They say they can save $28 million this year and $92 million next year.

It is not clear what the assessments and the inevitable appeals will cost, but it won’t be cheap. And the Kaiser story suggests that most participants will eventually be found eligible even under the new criteria so it isn’t clear how much money the state will save, even in the short run.

In the longer term, it is likely that at least some of those who are kicked out of the adult day programs will no longer be able to live at home, and may end up in nursing homes–at far greater cost to California. Nursing home care costs on average three times as much as an adult day program. But in today’s budget environment, few elected officials are thinking about the long run.

The uncertainty has already taken a toll. The Los Angeles Times reports that 20 adult day programs closed last year in anticipation of the budget cuts and others remain in limbo. While some participants pay privately, most receive government assistance. Many centers are run by non-profits that face their own budget challenges.

Sadly, I suspect this story will be repeated elsewhere in the country.

Source and More:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/howardgleckman/2012/01/04/the-battle-over-californias-adult-day-programs/

Diabetes during pregnancy may raise ADHD risk

2012-01-04T04:49:00.000-06:00

Young children are far more likely to experience attention and hyperactivity problems if their mother develops diabetes during pregnancy and they are born into a poor or lower-middle-class household, a new study suggests.

The study, published this week in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, found that children whose mothers received a diabetes diagnosis during pregnancy (known as gestational diabetes) were twice as likely as their peers to meet the criteria for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at age six.

Living in a family with below-average socioeconomic status likewise doubled the risk of ADHD in six-year-olds. But children with both risk factors -- those who were exposed to gestational diabetes and grew up in a less-than-affluent household -- had a 14-fold increased risk of ADHD compared to children with neither risk factor.

Health.com: What causes ADHD? 12 myths and facts

The findings don't prove that gestational diabetes directly causes ADHD, but the researchers say they send a message to mothers and doctors that gestational diabetes may pose hidden dangers to a child well after birth, especially if the child grows up in a challenging environment.

Source and More:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/02/health/diabetes-pregnancy-adhd-risk/index.html

2012 Medicare debate is all about the baby boomers

2012-01-03T03:47:00.000-06:00

Baby boomers take note: Medicare as your parents have known it is headed for big changes no matter who wins the White House in 2012. You may not like it, but you might have to accept it.

Dial down the partisan rhetoric and surprising similarities emerge from competing policy prescriptions by President Barack Obama and leading Republicans such as Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.

Limit the overall growth of Medicare spending? It's in both approaches.

Squeeze more money from upper-income retirees and some in the middle-class? Ditto.

Raise the eligibility age? That too, if the deal is right.

With more than 1.5 million baby boomers a year signing up for Medicare, the program's future is one of the most important economic issues for anyone now 50 or older. Health care costs are the most unpredictable part of retirement, and Medicare remains an exceptional deal for retirees, who can reap benefits worth far more than the payroll taxes they paid in during their careers.

"People would like to have what they used to have. What they don't seem to understand is that it's already changed," said Gail Wilensky, a former Medicare administrator and adviser to Republicans. "Medicare as we have known it is not part of our future."

Two sets of numbers underscore that point.

First, Medicare's giant trust fund for inpatient care is projected to run out of money in 2024. At that point, the program will collect only enough payroll taxes to pay 90 percent of benefits.

Second, researchers estimate that 20 to 30 percent of the more than $500 billion that Medicare now spends annually is wasted on treatments and procedures of little or no benefit to patients.

Taken together, that means policymakers can't let Medicare keep running on autopilot and they'll look for cuts before any payroll tax increases.

Privatization is the biggest divide between Democrats and Republicans.

Currently about 75 percent of Medicare recipients are in the traditional government-run, fee-for-service program and 25 percent are in private insurance plans known as Medicare Advantage.

Ryan's original approach, part of a budget plan the House passed in the spring, would have put 100 percent of future retirees into private insurance. His latest plan, developed with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., would keep traditional Medicare as an option, competing with private plans.

Older people would get a fixed payment they could use for private health insurance or traditional Medicare. Proponents call it "premium support." To foes, it's a voucher.

Under both of Ryan's versions, people now 55 or older would not have to make any changes. GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich praise his latest plan.

How would it work? Would it save taxpayers money? Would it shift costs to retirees as Ryan's earlier plan did? Would Congress later phase out traditional Medicare? Those and other questions must still be answered.

"I'm not sure anybody has come up with a formula on this that makes people comfortable," said health economist Marilyn Moon, who formerly served as a trustee helping to oversee Medicare finances.

White House spokesman Jay Carney says the Wyden-Ryan plan "would end Medicare as we know it for millions of seniors," causing the traditional program to "wither on the vine."

But what administration officials don't say is that Obama's health care law already puts in place one of Ryan's main goals by limiting future increases in Medicare spending.

Ryan would do it with a fixed payment for health insurance, adjusted to allow some growth. In theory that compels consumers and medical providers to be more cost-conscious. Obama does it with a powerful board that can force Medicare cuts to service providers if costs rise beyond certain levels and Congress fails to act.

Like several elements of Obama's health care overhaul, the Independent Payment Advisory Board is in limbo for now, but it is on the books. If the board survives Republican repeal attempts, it could become one of the government's most important domestic agencies.

The White House wants to keep the existing structure of Medicare while "twisting the dials" to control spending, said a current Medicare trustee, economist Robert Reischauer of the Urban Institute think tank.

Ryan's latest approach is arguably an evolution of the current Medicare Advantage private insurance program, not a radical change, Reischauer said. That's particularly so if traditional Medicare remains an option.

"In the hot and heavy political debate we are in, participants are exaggerating the difference between the proposals," he said.

During failed budget negotiations with Republicans last summer, Obama indicated a willingness to make more major changes to Medicare, including gradually raising the age of eligibility to 67, increasing premiums for many beneficiaries, revamping co-payments and deductibles in ways that would raise costs for retirees, and cutting payments to drugmakers and other providers.

"I was surprised by how much the president was willing to offer in terms of Medicare changes without a more thorough vetting and discussion," said Moon. Obama says he will veto any plan to cut Medicare benefits without raising taxes on the wealthy.

Democrats are still hoping to use Ryan's privatization plans as a political weapon against Republicans in 2012, but the Medicare debate could cut both ways. For the 76 million baby boomers signing up over the next couple of decades, it will pay to be watching.

Source and More:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hMbwQ8-qjTfY-BT5jMysNqe-vyDw?docId=0afdc6d6d32d4e0aab378e0d14d36bf5

High-fat diet can hurt brain

2012-01-02T04:31:00.000-06:00

Eating a highfat diet even for a short period may change the brain in ways that makes it harder to lose weight, a new study has found.

In experiments on rodents, a team from the University of Washington School of Medicine found that when placed on a high-fat diet, animals developed injuries to a brain area called hypothalamus that controls the urge to eat and sends signals to stop eating when full. Signs of similar damage in the same brain area in obese people have also been found, the researcher said.

"Within 24 hours of switching rodents to a highfat diet, we found injury in the hypothalamus area," study co-author Michael Schwartz, an endocrinologist at the University said.

According to the researchers , obesity causes inflammation in the tissues and organs. This isn't the same type of inflammation you get during an allergic reaction. Instead it's a low level of inflammation that persists in the body.

The team speculated that obesity might be linked with inflammation in the hypothalamus , "which may prevent it from responding to hormones like insulin that regulate our body weight" , said co-author Joshua Thaler.

Source and More:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/High-fat-diet-can-hurt-brain/articleshow/11333642.cms

School Absenteeism, Mental Health Problems Linked

2011-12-30T05:11:00.000-06:00

School absenteeism is a significant problem, and students who are frequently absent from school more often have symptoms of psychiatric disorders. A new longitudinal study of more than 17,000 youths has found that frequently missing school is associated with a higher prevalence of mental health problems later on in adolescence, and that mental health problems during one year also predict missing additional school days in the following year for students in middle and high school.

The study, published in the journal Child Development, was conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Florida, Boston University, the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center, the Oregon Social Learning Center, and Johns Hopkins University.

"We've long known that students who are frequently absent from school are more likely to have symptoms of psychiatric disorders, but less clear is the reason why," says Jeffrey Wood, associate professor of educational psychology and psychiatry at UCLA, who led the study. "These two aspects of youths' adjustment may at times exacerbate one another, leading over the course of time to more of each."

The study found that between grades 2 and 8, students who already had mental health symptoms (such as antisocial behavior or depression) missed more school days over the course of a year than they had in the previous year and than students with few or no mental health symptoms. Conversely, middle and high school students who were chronically absent in an earlier year of the study tended to have more depression and antisocial problems in subsequent years. For example, 8th graders who were absent more than 20 days were more likely to have higher levels of anxiety and depression in 10th grade than were 8th graders who were absent fewer than 20 days.

"The findings can help inform the development of programs to reduce school absenteeism," according to Wood. "School personnel in middle schools and high schools could benefit from knowing that mental health issues and school absenteeism each influence the other over time. Helping students address mental health issues may in turn help prevent the emergence of chronic absenteeism. At the same time, working to help students who are developing a pattern of chronic absenteeism come to school more consistently may help prevent psychiatric problems."

The researchers looked at more than 17,000 children in 1st through 12th grades using three datasets: the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents in grades 7 to 12; the Johns Hopkins Prevention Intervention Research Center Study, a longitudinal study of classroom-based interventions involving children in grades 1 to 8; and the Linking the Interests of Families and Teachers trial, a longitudinal study of children in grades 1 through 12.

Researchers interviewed students and parents annually or biennially, and they gathered information from school attendance records. In addition, students, parents, and teachers filled out questionnaires.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies.

Source and More:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239688.php

Getting a cat ups allergy risk in adults

2011-12-29T04:27:00.000-06:00

While having a cat as a kid may protect against future allergies, getting one in adulthood nearly doubles the chances of developing an immune reaction to it -- the first step toward wheezing, sneezing and itchy eyes.

That's according to a study that found people with other allergies were at extra high risk of reacting to a new feline in the house.

"If you are an adult with asthma and/or allergies, you should think twice about getting a cat and particularly, if you do so, letting it into your bedroom," said Dr. Andy Nish of the Allergy and Asthma Care Center in Gainesville, Georgia, who wasn't involved in the new work.

For the study, researchers surveyed more than 6,000 adult Europeans twice over nine years and took blood samples. None of participants had antibodies against cat in their blood to begin with, meaning they weren't sensitized to the animal's dander.

Sensitization can also be measured in a skin prick test. It doesn't necessarily lead to symptoms, but in many cases it is the harbinger of full-blown allergies.

About three percent of people who didn't have a cat at either survey became sensitized over the study, compared to five percent of those who acquired a cat during those nine years.

Four in 10 of the newly sensitized also said they experienced allergy symptoms around animals -- four times the rate seen among people without antibodies against cats.

The findings, by Dr. Mario Olivieri of the University Hospital of Verona in Italy and colleagues, appear in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The team found that people who'd had a cat in childhood had a much smaller risk of becoming sensitized to it than those who were new cat owners.

"We thought that having a cat in early childhood may be protective against the development of cat allergy in childhood, but this study seems to indicate that that protection extends into adulthood," Nish told Reuters Health by email.

It also turned out that only people who let their pet into the bedroom became sensitized.

"Keeping the cat out of the bedroom is a step I have always advised," said Nish. "It is remarkable that none who did not allow the cat in the bedroom became sensitized."

For people who have a cat and have become allergic, he recommended finding a new home for the pet.

"Second best is to keep the cat outdoors always," Nish added. "If it comes in even occasionally, its dander will remain in the house for months. If the cat needs to be indoors, at least keep it out of your bedroom, consider a HEPA filter for your bedroom and consider washing the cat at least once a week."

Nish said that there are also medical treatment options for people who can't or won't avoid pet contact, including allergy shots and immunotherapy.

SOURCE: bit.ly/vbZHAT The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, online December 12, 2011.

Source and More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/27/us-cat-allergy-risk-idUSTRE7BQ0PU20111227

Teen obesity tied to poor mom-child relationship:study

2011-12-28T04:55:00.000-06:00

Toddlers who have poor relationships with their mother are more likely to pack on extra weight as they grow up, according to a U.S. study.

Researchers who followed nearly 1,000 children into their teens found that more than 25 percent of those who scored lowest on mother-child relationship tests as toddlers went on to become obese at age 15, findings in Pediatrics said.

By contrast, only 13 percent of the children who had a good relationship with their mother became obese.

While that doesn't prove cause and effect, researchers say other work has shown links between children's emotional and intellectual development and how they interact with their mother at a young age.

It's possible that a stressful childhood could make a lasting impression on children's brains, said Sarah Anderson, who worked on the study.

"There is an overlap in the brain between the areas that govern stress and energy balance," said Anderson, at the Ohio State University College of Public Health in Columbus.

"This stress response could be related to obesity through appetite regulation."

The study was based on 977 children who were videotaped while playing with their mother at about one, two and three years of age.

Researchers then assessed the toddler's relationship to their mothers based on the mother's ability to recognize her child's emotional state and respond with warmth, as well as the child's tendency to explore its environment freely, a measure of "attachment security."

A quarter of the toddlers had a "poor-quality" relationship to their mothers, whereas 22 percent achieved perfect scores at each session.

At 15 years, 26 percent of the children with relationship trouble were obese -- twice as many as those without such problems.

However, the gap narrowed as more factors were taken into account, including maternal education and household income.

David Gozal, a pediatrician who was not involved in the study, agreed, although he said unhealthy food and a lack of physical activity and sleep are likely to play a bigger role.

Still, stress -- both via genetic reprogramming and behavioral changes -- may also have an impact, and a poor mother-child relationship could be part of that, he said.

"What you see in adulthood is obviously the cumulative effect of what has happened earlier in life," said Gozal, physician-in-chief at the Corner Children's Hospital in Chicago.

Today, 17 percent of all children and adolescents in the United States are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But Anderson said that even if poor relationships at home contributed, there is no point in chiding mothers.

Source and More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/28/health-obesity-teens-idUSL3E7NS02S20111228

Airline Forced Disabled Boy To Fly Without Safety Seat

2011-12-27T04:35:00.000-06:00

For one New Hampshire family, what should have been a dream vacation to Disney World turned into a nightmare.

The parents of Nicholas Dainiak said they were given an ultimatum by a Southwest flight crew: either check special equipment Nicholas needs to sit with or get off the plane.

The crew told the couple the safety seat Nicoholas travels with violates FAA rules.

Nicholas suffers from Batten Disease. It has stripped him of his ability to walk, talk, eat and even blinded him. Without a cure, it will ultimately take his life.

Faced with the prospect of spending Christmas in the Orlando airport, the family chose to forgo the safety seat and instead were forced to use a neck pillow to try and brace Nicholas's head for the duration of the flight.

Southwest has apologized and refunded the Dainiak's their airfare.

The Dainiaks have been active to set up a foundation and website, OurPromiseToNicholas.com.

Source and More:
http://www.wmur.com/r/30077571/detail.html

Acid reflux cases on rise, obesity to blame

2011-12-26T05:22:00.000-06:00

Acid reflux, Gastro-esophageal reflux disease, or commonly known as GERD is a condition where the stomach juices, acids, and food content leaks back into the esophagus causing ‘heart burn’.

Acid reflux is not so common among the people couple of decades ago. But now we see people suffering from acid reflux everywhere. Acid reflux is high among the countries such as US, UK and other European countries.

There are several things that cause acid reflux. One of the most common causes for the acid reflux is obesity. The obese people are twice likely to get acid reflux when compared to the normal people. Alcohol consumption and high fatty food consumption also cause acid reflux.

Acid reflux is a complicated health disorder. One shouldn’t be careless with acid reflux. If you find symptoms such as heart burn, backflow of water or food into the throat, or a feeling of lump in throat, you should immediately meet your personal doctor.

If GERD is left untreated, the acids in the stomach flow back into the esophagus and destroy its thin mucus layer and might cause esophageal cancer. Now this esophageal cancer often leads to death as it’s too difficult to treat.

Lifestyle changes such as good diet, regular exercise, weight loss, giving up alcohol and smoking often give good results.

Source and More:
http://www.healthnews18.com/acid-reflux-or-gerd-cases-on-rise-obesity-to-blame.html

Journal retracts paper on chronic fatigue syndrome

2011-12-23T04:51:00.000-06:00

A scientific paper embraced by many chronic fatigue syndrome patients as a ray of hope is being retracted by the journal that published it after a tumultuous year that included allegations of data manipulation and the arrest of the study's lead researcher on a felony charge of possessing stolen property.

In the paper, published in 2009 by the journal Science, researchers reported they had found evidence of a retrovirus called XMRV in the blood of patients diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome much more frequently than in the blood of healthy peers. The paper caused a stir and led other scientists to try to confirm the findings.

Patients rejoiced at the possibility of an explanation for their illness, which has long confounded researchers. Some patients even began taking antiretroviral drugs designed to treat a different retrovirus, HIV.

At the same time, the paper's lead researcher, Judy Mikovits, then employed at the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease in Reno, began linking XMRV to other frustrating disorders, including autism and Gulf War syndrome, without publishing data to support her statements.

Soon, independent teams of scientists began reporting they could not find evidence of the retrovirus in the blood of chronic fatigue patients or anyone else. Researchers hypothesized that lab contamination could have caused the original findings. Mikovits denied it.

Then, several authors on the original paper reported their data were flawed, resulting in a partial retraction. Science's staff attempted to get the paper's authors — including Mikovits — to agree to a full retraction, but the group could not agree on the wording, Science executive editor Monica Bradford said in an interview.

In particular, Mikovits and others wanted to include a statement that they had confidence in their larger conclusions about the presence of the virus, Bradford said. But some of the authors were uncomfortable with that, as was Science, she said.

On Thursday, Science's editor in chief, Bruce Alberts, said the journal would take the unusual step of retracting the paper itself.

Alberts listed several reasons: the partial retraction of data earlier in the year, the failure of multiple labs to reliably find evidence of XMRV in chronic fatigue patients' blood, poor quality control in some of the experiments and the acknowledgment by the paper's authors that they had left out some important information.

"Science has lost confidence in the report and the validity of its conclusions," Alberts wrote. "We regret the time and resources that the scientific community has devoted to unsuccessful attempts to replicate these results."

In an interview, Alberts said the episode was an unfortunate waste of time and resources for scientists and for patients. "I think this whole thing has been a tragedy for science," he said. "It is very sad that the patients got tied up and confused by it."

Attempts to contact Mikovits were unsuccessful.

Annette Whittemore, president of the Whittemore Peterson Institute, said in a statement that the institute would carry on with research on the illness. "It is not the end of the story," she wrote. "Rather it is the beginning of our renewed efforts."

At the center of the controversy is Mikovits, the scientist hired to be director of research by the institute, which was founded by the parents of a woman with chronic fatigue syndrome.

After the Science paper was published, some patients showered adulation on Mikovits. They wrote to her, crowded her at conferences and set up a defense fund when she ran into legal trouble. One patient signed message board postings: "In Judy We Trust."

Mikovits was controversial. Shortly after the paper came out, she spoke at the Autism One conference in Chicago, joining a lineup of speakers that included disgraced autism researcher Andrew Wakefield, who had lost the right to practice medicine in Britain for professional misconduct. There she linked XMRV to autism, a baseless assertion that has since been picked up by some in the autism community.

Earlier this year, the Chicago Tribune reported that Science was investigating whether data in the original paper had been manipulated after an Oklahoma graduate student, Abbie Smith, pointed out that Mikovits had presented the same figure twice — once in the Science paper and once at a conference — but with different labeling.

Science's executive editor, Bradford, said Mikovits explained the problem as an "honest error."

In September, the Whittemore Peterson Institute fired Mikovits and later filed a civil lawsuit alleging that she possessed key lab notebooks and other property belonging to the institute. An employee filed affidavits alleging Mikovits had instructed him to take the notebooks from the institute and hand them over to her.

Just before Thanksgiving, Mikovits was arrested in California and spent five days in jail. An arrest warrant issued by University of Nevada at Reno police listed two felony charges: possession of stolen property and unlawful taking of computer data, equipment, supplies or other computer-related property.

A spokeswoman for the institute said that Mikovits returned some but not all of the lab notebooks and that when she returned one computer, its hard drive had been wiped clean. Another computer is in police custody, the spokeswoman said.

On Monday, a Nevada judge granted a default judgment in the civil lawsuit in favor of the institute, and ordered Mikovits to pay attorney's fees.

Source and More:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-chronic-fatigue-20111223,0,6669848.story

Poor People May Have More Compassion

2011-12-22T04:32:00.000-06:00

Have you ever noticed that the financially challenged are often more compassionate than individuals who are in a better socioeconomic position?

Researchers now say that emotional differences between the rich and poor, as depicted in such Charles Dickens classics as “A Christmas Carol” and “A Tale of Two Cities,” may have a scientific basis.

For the well-to-do, life’s silver spoon seems to limit exposure to hardship and the difficult challenges that are core for learning compassion and gratitude.

Investigators from the University of California, Berkeley, discovered that people in the lower socio-economic classes are more physiologically attuned to suffering, and quicker to express compassion than their more affluent counterparts. By comparison, the study found that individuals in the upper middle and upper classes were less able to detect and respond to the distress signals of others.

Researchers say the results indicate that socioeconomic status is associated with the level of empathy and compassion that people show in the face of emotionally charged situations.

“It’s not that the upper classes are coldhearted,” said UC Berkeley social psychologist Jennifer Stellar, lead author of the study. “They may just not be as adept at recognizing the cues and signals of suffering because they haven’t had to deal with as many obstacles in their lives.”

The research findings are published online in the journal Emotion.

Stellar and her colleagues’ findings challenge previous studies that have characterized lower-class people as being more prone to anxiety and hostility in the face of adversity.

“These latest results indicate that there’s a culture of compassion and cooperation among lower-class individuals that may be borne out of threats to their well-being,” Stellar said.

Researchers say that rising class tension, expressed in the Occupy Wall Street Movement, show that the less privileged are not without a voice and can make a significant contribution and difference in the way that our society evolves.

Rather than widen the class divide, Stellar said she would like to see the findings promote understanding of different class cultures. For example, the findings suggest that people from lower socio-economic backgrounds may thrive better in cooperative settings than their upper-class counterparts.

“Upper-class individuals appear to be more self-focused, they’ve grown up with more freedom and autonomy,” she said. “They may do better in an individualist, competitive environment.”

In the study, more than 300 ethnically diverse young adults were recruited for three experiments using three separate groups of participants.

Because all the volunteers were college undergraduates, their class identification – lower class, lower middle class, middle class, upper middle class or upper class – was based on parental income and education.

In the first experiment, 148 young adults were rated on how frequently and intensely they experience such emotions as joy, contentment, pride, love, compassion, amusement and awe.

In addition, they reported how much they agreed with such statements as “When I see someone hurt or in need, I feel a powerful urge to take care of them,” and “I often notice people who need help.”

Compassion was the only positive emotion reported at greater levels by lower-class participants, the study found.

In the second experiment, a new group of 64 participants viewed two videos: an instructional video on construction and an emotionally charged video about families who are coping with the challenges of having a child with cancer. Participants showed no differences while watching the “neutral” instructional video, and all reported feeling sad in response to the video about families of cancer patients.

However, members of the lower class reported higher levels of compassion and empathy as distinct from sorrow.

Heart rates were also monitored as individuals watched the neutral and emotionally charged videos. Lower-class participants showed greater decreases in heart rate as they watched the cancer family video than upper-class participants.

“One might assume that watching someone suffering would cause stress and raise the heart rate,” Stellar said. “But we have found that, during compassion, the heart rate lowers as if the body is calming itself to take care of another person.”

In the third experiment, 106 participants were randomly divided into pairs and pitted against one another in mock interviews for a lab manager position. To further raise the stress level in interviews, those who performed best were to win a cash prize.

Post-interview reports from the participants showed that the lower-class interviewees perceived their rivals to be feeling greater amounts of stress, anxiety and embarrassment and as a result reported more compassion and sympathy for their competitors.

Conversely, upper-class participants were less able to detect emotional distress signals in their rivals.

“Recognizing suffering is the first step to responding compassionately. The results suggest that it’s not that upper classes don’t care, it’s that they just aren’t as good at perceiving stress or anxiety,” Stellar said.

Source and More:
http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/12/21/poor-people-may-have-more-compassion/32856.html

Sleep disorders common among cops: study

2011-12-21T04:34:00.002-06:00

A survey from the United States and Canada found 40 percent of police officers had symptoms of a sleep disorder, including sleep apnea and insomnia.

Officers who screened positive for those disorders were also more likely to be burned out, depressed or have an anxiety disorder. Over the next two years, they committed more administrative errors and safety violations and were more prone to falling asleep at the wheel than sound sleepers.

"In general we have this cultural attitude of, sleep is for the weak," said Dr. Michael Grandner, from the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

"When you're in an environment where signs of weakness are particularly discouraged, there may be a social pressure to not address sleep problems or to shrug them off," added Grandner, author of a commentary published with the new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

When police officers in particular suffer from sleep problems, he said, it becomes a public health and safety problem. "It's not just the people with sleep disorders that are affected," Grandner told Reuters Health. "If they're impaired, you're at risk."

Researchers say police departments could do more to make sure that officers with sleep disorders receive appropriate treatment, which may include sleep machines, therapy or changes in work schedules.

For the new study, close to 5,000 police officers were surveyed on sleep problems and other health topics. That included Philadelphia officers and Massachusetts state police as well as a broader range of other U.S. and Canadian cops.

The officers were on average 38 to 39 years old and most had been in the police force for more than decade. For the full study, see: bit.ly/hwxtTL

Dr. Charles Czeisler from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and his colleagues found that 40 percent of the officers screened positive for at least one sleep disorder.

The most common was sleep apnea, which affected a third of cops, followed by moderate or severe insomnia and shift work disorder, which consists of sleepiness and insomnia associated with working at night.

DEPRESSION, BURNOUT, ANXIETY

Officers with a sleep disorder were more than twice as likely as healthy sleepers to report depression, emotional exhaustion or burnout and anxiety disorders on their original surveys.

On follow-up questionnaires sent out over the next two years, they were also 40 to 60 percent more likely to report making serious administrative errors, falling asleep while driving or committing a fatigue-related error or safety violation during work.

Poor sleepers reported more citizen complaints and more often showed uncontrolled anger toward a suspect or citizen.

"You have people who are sleep deprived, which means that their ability to make good decisions, to respond effectively, to drive emergency vehicles well ... all of those things are impaired," said Bryan Vila, a criminal justice professor who studies sleep and performance in cops at Washington State University in Spokane but wasn't involved in the study.

The researchers noted that being heavy increases the risk of sleep apnea, and that almost 80 percent of the officers they surveyed were overweight or obese.

Czeisler said the lowest rates of both sleep apnea and overweight and obese conditions were in Massachusetts state cops, and that that's no coincidence.

Those officers get one hour paid exercise time for every work shift, he told Reuters Health, and undergo regular fitness tests that simulate chasing a suspect or dragging a victim, with a bonus in pay if they pass.

"It's an impressive program and perhaps a model for the nation," Czeisler said.

HEALTH AND SAFETY ISSUES

Putting in measures to catch sleep disorders early could help prevent future health and safety consequences, researchers say. Those could include on-the-job screening in police departments, according to Czeisler, and making sure cops with sleep problems get help.

"We have great treatments for sleep disorders, we have great screening tools, the technology is there," Grandner told Reuters Health. Sleep apnea can be treated with a breathing machine and mask used at night, and behavioral therapy is often the first line of treatment for people with insomnia, he said.

For cops with shift-work disorder, cutting back on extra-long shifts and overtime hours could help.

"What are we doing with impaired cops working these critical jobs where the public safety is at risk?" Vila, also a former law enforcement officer, told Reuters Health. "This is a critical problem, and it affects a population we rely on to do some of the most sensitive things in society."

Some of the researchers reported receiving funding from pharmaceutical companies, including those that develop and manufacture sleeping pills. The current research was funded by a sleep medicine foundation as well as the U.S. Department of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Czeisler said next up is a study funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to look at sleep disorders in firefighters.

Source and More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/20/us-police-idUSTRE7BJ2AZ20111220

Tough Times Can Make You Tougher

2011-12-20T04:35:00.000-06:00

New research shows that while going though bad experiences like an assault, a hurricane, or the loss of a loved one can be psychologically damaging, small amounts of trauma may help people develop resilience.

“Of course, everybody’s heard the aphorism, ‘Whatever does not kill you makes you stronger,’” says Mark D. Seery of the University at Buffalo, whose paper on adversity and resilience appears in the December issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.

But in psychology, he says, a lot of ideas that seem like common sense aren’t supported by scientific evidence. In fact, a lot of psychology research shows that having miserable life experiences is bad for you, he notes. Serious events, like the death of a child or parent, a natural disaster, being physically attacked, experiencing sexual abuse, or being forcibly separated from your family, can cause psychological problems.

Some research has suggested that the best way to go through life is having nothing ever happen to you. But not only is that unrealistic, it’s not necessarily healthy, Seery says.

In one study, Seery and his colleagues found that people who experienced many traumatic life events were more distressed in general, but they also found that people who had experienced no negative life events had similar problems. The people with the best outcomes were those who had experienced some negative events.

Another study found that people with chronic back pain were able to get around better if they had experienced some serious adversity, while people with a lot of adversity or none at all were more impaired.

One possible explanation is that people who have been through difficult experiences have had a chance to develop their ability to cope, the researchers say.

“The idea is that negative life experiences can toughen people, making them better able to manage subsequent difficulties,” Seery says. In addition, people who get through bad events may have tested out their social network, learning how to get help when they need it, he adds.

The research uncovers a silver lining, according to Seery.

“Just because something bad has happened to someone doesn’t mean they’re doomed to be damaged from that point on,” he says.

Source and More:
http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/12/19/tough-times-can-make-you-tougher/32739.html

FDA warns Lap-Band doctors to stop misleading consumers

2011-12-19T04:34:00.000-06:00

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warnings several medical centers to stop their misleading advertising for the Lap-Band weight loss device.

The Lap-Band is a silicone gastric band that a surgeon places around the stomach to create a small pouch near the top, limiting the amount a person can eat at one time and making them feel fuller sooner.

There are currently two gastric bands approved by the FDA, the Lap-Band by Allergan Inc. and Realize Adjustable Gastric Band by Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc.

This month, the FDA sent warning letters to the marketing company 1-800-GET-THIN LLC and the eight California surgical centers San Diego Ambulatory Surgery Center, LLC, Bakersfield Surgery Institute Inc., Beverly Hills Surgery Center, Palmdale Ambulatory Center, Valley Surgical Center, Top Surgeons LLC, Valencia Ambulatory Center LLC and Cosmopolitan Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery telling them to stop their misleading advertising of the Lap-Band medical device.

According to the FDA, their billboard and pamphlet advertising failed to provide risk information, including warnings, precautions, possible side effects and contraindications as required by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Where they did communicate risks, the font size of the text was too small for consumers to read.

“FDA’s concern is that these ads glamorize the Lap-Band without communicating any of the risks,” says Steven Silverman, director of the Office of Compliance in FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health in a Consumer Update. “Consumers, who may be influenced by misleading advertising, need to be fully aware of the risks of any surgical procedure.”

Gastric banding is only for patients who fit certain obesity criteria. The FDA has approved Lap-Band for morbidly obese patients with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of at least 40, or a BMI of 30-40 in conjunction with obesity related conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes or sleep apnea. The Realize Adjustable Gastric Band is FDA approved for patients with a BMI of 40, or of 35 in conjunction with other obesity related conditions.

Gastric banding is not a cure for obesity. For successful weight loss, patients must make major, long-term dietary changes in addition to gastric banding.

There are risks of serious complications with gastric banding. In addition to surgical risks, people with a gastric band may suffer:

gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
erosion of the band through the stomach wall
stretching of the esophagus or new stomach pouch
leaking of the gastric band
migration of the gastric band
abdominal pain
difficulty swallowing
nausea
vomiting
indigestion

The Los Angeles Times reports that four patients died following procedures at surgical centers affiliated with the ad campaign, and a fifth death is under investigation.

A spokesperson for Allergan, maker of the Lap-Band, told Medscape Medical News that it had no financial ties to 1-800-Get-Thin and has no control how its customers, the surgeons, promote the device.

Source and More:
http://newyorkcity.injuryboard.com/fda-and-prescription-drugs/fda-warns-lapband-doctors-to-stop-misleading-consumers.aspx?googleid=296874

Interactive: Texas' Shortage of Psychiatrists, Mental Health Workers

2011-12-17T09:11:00.000-06:00

Thank you Tammy Heinz for permission to post your story here.
*********************
State health officials estimate that more than 488,000 adult Texans are living with serious, persistent mental illness [PDF]. Among children, roughly 154,000 are living with a severe emotional disturbance. While more Texans are being diagnosed with mental health problems every year, advocates say treatment costs are rising [PDF] and there aren't enough behavioral health professionals available to meet the demand for services. This includes psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, licensed professional counselors and advanced practice nurses. Use our interactive maps below to see how dire the shortage is in each county in Texas, as well as how the percentage of Texans who rely on the state for mental health services has changed since 2005.

Mental health experts say the state is simply not producing enough psychiatrists — professionals who hold a medical degree and are able to prescribe medications for patients who suffer from severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia and manic depression. Since 2003, when lawmakers first cut Medicaid reimbursements and residency training to meet a budget shortfall, 10 residency programs statewide have struggled to increase the number of training slots. For each year between 2008 and 2011, the state reports, between 306 and 351 medical school graduates have undergone psychiatry training. Though children and seniors are considered two of the highest-need populations in Texas right now, there are only 49 residents training in adolescent psychiatry and not a single geriatric psychiatry resident. The Tribune's Thanh Tan spoke with a Texan living with anxiety and depression, the executive director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health at the University of Texas and the head psychiatrist for Austin Travis County Integral Care, to find out the reasons behind the shortage.

Source and More:
http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/texas-mental-health-shortage/

Video Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-FkIAg04Y_k

Diabetes risk reduced among Latinos in UMass clinical study

2011-12-16T04:29:00.000-06:00

An inexpensive, culturally sensitive diabetes prevention program created by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School reduced pre-diabetes indicators in a Latino population at risk for developing diabetes. Results of this three-year study, which were published online in the American Journal of Public Health, are significant because they replicate results of earlier studies that were similar but carried out in more educated and higher-income populations, and much more expensive to conduct. The model for the Lawrence intervention could provide an affordable approach for similar low-income populations.

The Lawrence Latino Diabetes Prevention Project, a $2.6 million clinical trial funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2004, brought together an array of community groups in Lawrence to introduce weight control, nutrition and exercise programs to Lawrence Latinos who were at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

The study was conducted by principal investigator Ira Ockene, MD, the Barbara D. Milliken Professor of Preventive Cardiology and professor of medicine, Milagros Rosal, PhD, associate professor of medicine, and other colleagues from UMass Worcester and UMass Lowell. In addition to the researchers, the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, the Lawrence Senior Center and the YWCA of Greater Lawrence were essential community partners.

"The study results are important as they suggest that small reductions in weight may reduce the risk of diabetes in some ethnic populations that have a high risk for developing diabetes, such as disadvantaged Latinos," said Dr. Rosal.

The goal of the study was to test a community-based, literacy-sensitive and culturally tailored lifestyle intervention among low-income, Spanish-speaking Latinos with increased risk for diabetes. More than 300 participants, each of whom was followed for one year, were randomly assigned to lifestyle intervention care or usual care between 2004 and 2007.

The intervention was implemented by trained Spanish-speaking individuals from the community who shared the culture of the study participants. They used a 16-session curriculum that included cooking and exercise classes and strategies for food shopping and eating out in restaurants, as well as education about diabetes, the risk factors for developing it and the consequences of having it. Unique aspects of the program included a soap opera that illustrated common attitudes and lifestyles of Latinos and desirable changes toward a healthier lifestyle, and a food guide that helped people distinguish between healthy, less healthy and unhealthy foods in accordance with the colors of a traffic light (green=healthiest; yellow=caution; red=avoid or eat in very small amounts and infrequently). Participants discussed the content of the soap opera and applied their knowledge of foods during cooking classes that emphasized modifying ethnic recipes to make them healthier, rather than eating unfamiliar foods.

Participants were encouraged to increase intake of whole grains and non-starchy vegetables and reduce the intake of sodium, total and saturated fat, portion sizes and refined carbohydrates and starches, with a physical activity component that called for increasing walking by 4,000 steps per days as measured with a pedometer that they were provided.

The results were small but meaningful. Compared with individuals who had usual care (or no intervention), the individuals who participated in the intervention had modest but significant weight reduction and clinically meaningful reduction in indicators for pre-diabetes, including insulin resistance. They also consumed a lower percentage of total and saturated fat in their diets. Previous research has shown that even small reductions such as those shown in the Lawrence study can have a significant impact on long-term health.

In addition to the clinical success of the study, the close collaboration between the researchers from UMass and the partnering community organizations was a model for participatory community research and resulted in effective recruitment of study participants and a notably low drop-out rate.

Source and More:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-diabetes-latinos-umass-clinical.html

Hairy limbs keep bed bugs at bay

2011-12-15T04:53:00.000-06:00

Hairier skin may be the key to avoiding being bitten by bed bugs, claim Sheffield academics.

Hungry bugs placed on shaved arms were more likely to try to feed compared with those on unshaved arms, the journal Biology Letters reported.

Researchers say the hair slows down the bed bugs and warns the victim.

Pest controllers say the UK is currently experiencing a steep rise in the number of bed bug infestations.

Prof Michael Siva-Jothy, from Sheffield University's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, recruited 29 brave volunteers to test the theory further, watching the bedbugs as they found a place to feed and removing them only as they were about to bite.

He found that more layers of both longer visible hairs and finer, "vellus" hairs near the surface appeared to work as a deterrent to the insects, with the finer hairs also acting as an early warning system.

Prof Siva-Jothy said: "Our findings show that more body hairs mean better detection of parasites - the hairs have nerves attached to them and provide us with the ability to detect displacement."

He said they also slowed down the insect as it searched for a tasty spot to bite.

"The results have implications for understanding why we look the way we do, what selective forces might have driven us to look the way we do, and may even provide insight for better understanding of how to reduce biting insects' impact on humans."

However, even though men are naturally hairier than women, they do not appear to be bitten less often.

Professor Siva-Jothy suggested this pointed to an evolutionary battle between bed bugs and their prey, with the insects adapting to automatically head for relatively hairless bits of the body, such as wrists and ankles.

He added that extreme hairiness might also be more of a disadvantage than an advantage.

"If you have a heavy coat of long thick hairs it is easier for parasites to hide, even if you can detect them.

"Our proposal is that we retain the fine covering because it aids detection and if we lost all hair, even the relatively invisible fine hair, our detection ability goes right down."
Evolutionary pressure

This tallies with other studies which look at how humans came to be relatively less hairy than apes.

Other scientists have suggested that swapping thicker fur for clothes was a way of making insect bites and parasitic infestations less likely.

Prof Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading, said that biting parasites remain a major cause of disease and death worldwide, making them a potentially enormous evolutionary pressure on early man.

He said: "This vellus hair is certainly no use for anything else, so it is a reasonable hypothesis that it developed in response to a strong selective pressure in our past.

"Mammals are unique in developing this wonderful fur, and humans are the only mammals to jettison it, so there must have been a very good reason to do so."

Source and More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16166134

Horticulture Improves Heart Rate, Stress Levels Of Mentally Challenged Adults

2011-12-14T05:19:00.000-06:00

Participation in horticultural activities can improve confidence and social skills, cultivate a positive attitude, and rejuvenate the mind and body. Many studies have emphasized the effects of horticultural activities in relation to physical and psychological rehabilitation, but few have considered the influence of these types of activities on mentally challenged people's autonomic nervous system (ANS) and on the stress hormone cortisol. A new study examined how activities such as pressing flowers, planting, creating flower arrangements, and making topiaries affect stress relief for patients who are mentally challenged.

In the first experiment of the study, the heart rate variation (HRV) was measured in 30 mentally challenged people at a rehabilitation center in Daegu, South Korea. Researchers in the second experiment measured the cortisol levels of 20 mentally challenged people from a residential home in Yeongcheon, South Korea. Min-Jung Lee from the Department of Horticultural Therapy at the Catholic University of Daegu (South Korea) published the results of both experiments in a report in HortTechnology.

For the first experiment, subjects participated in four indoor horticultural activities: a pressed flower activity, flower planting, flower arranging, and topiary crafting. Participants' heart rate variation was measured five minutes before and five minutes after each horticultural activity was performed. The pressed flower group and the planting group showed a significant improvement in the standard deviation of the normal-normal (SDNN) interval heart rate variation measurements. The planting group's SDNN and low frequency (LF) significantly improved; a significant improvement in total power (TP) and high frequency was also observed. The flower arrangement group displayed a significant difference in LF, while the topiary group showed a significant difference in TP.

The second experiment used the same four horticultural activities, but collected participants' saliva in order to analyze their cortisol levels. Compared with the baseline measurement, the pressed flower group displayed a significant decrease in cortisol density from the first to the seventh day of testing, however no significant difference was observed on the fourth day. The planting group showed a significantly decreasing difference in cortisol density on day seven compared with day four. The topiary group continued to show a significant decrease in cortisol density at each cortisol collection after the first day of topiary activities.

Interestingly, the participants in the flower arrangement group showed increased stress (as measured by low frequency), and showed no great change in cortisol density. "We inferred that activities such as cutting stems with shears and arranging the cut stems in the exact location are difficult jobs for mentally challenged people", Lee said.

The topiary group exhibited a significant difference in total power, and not only had the most significant difference in TP but also had the largest significant decrease in cortisol density among the four indoor horticultural activities. Lee noted that topiary activities are thought to be fairly valuable in aiding emotional stability and vocational rehabilitation for mentally challenged people.

The research supports previous studies that show that touching and mixing soil affects the activity of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and relieves stress. Planting activities resulted not only in the greatest change in mentally challenged people's ANS but also in a significant gradual decrease in cortisol density.

Lee concluded that planting activities are the most effective horticultural activity for stress relief and added that the extension of indoor planting activities to outdoor planting activities targeted for mentally challenged individuals will have a greater effect not only on vocational rehabilitation, but also on emotional stability.

Source and More:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239120.php

Radiation can also cause 'chemo brain,' study suggests

2011-12-13T04:47:00.000-06:00

Chemotherapy is not solely to blame for the mental fog, commonly called chemo brain, that some breast cancer patients complain about after treatment, a new study suggests.

Radiation therapy, another widely used cancer treatment, is another potential culprit behind the memory lapses and concentration problems that affect some breast cancer patients - and symptoms can last several years after treatment is finished, researchers have found.

"Everybody has been calling this chemo brain, but it's not necessarily just in people who have been exposed to chemo-therapy," said Paul Jacobsen, senior author of the study and researcher at the Moffitt Cancer Centre in Florida.

The study, published Mon-day in the peer-reviewed medical journal Cancer, looked at breast cancer survivors who had been treated with chemotherapy, radiation or both treatments for three years after finishing treatment.

"We really found in our study that our focus on mental abilities was not limited to women with chemotherapy," said Jacobsen. "In fact, we found a similar pattern in women who were treated only with radiation therapy."

Radiation therapy involves a machine using high-energy rays directed specifically at an affected area to destroy cancer cells.

Chemotherapy involves one or a combination of drugs that work together to kill cancer cells. Chemo is given either through pill form or intravenously directly into the blood stream where it circulates throughout the body.

The study's findings are surprising, said Jacobsen, as the researchers did not anticipate radiation therapy directed at the chest would affect the brain.

"We were not expecting that," he said. "We were thinking that radiation is a localized treatment, and that radiation treatments would look much like the healthy controls."

The study involved 62 breast cancer survivors who had been treated with chemotherapy, 67 breast cancer survivors treated with radiotherapy only, and 184 healthy women with no cancer history.

The researchers had the women take a series of tests to gauge their memory, mental processing speed, attention and concentration abilities.

"What these tests all have in common is they draw on mental flexibility," he said. "The more that you are thinking in a flexible manner, the better you can perform on this type of test."

To rule out other factors that can affect mental processing abilities, like age and intellectual skills, the researchers included a healthy control group with similar age ranges and education levels as the breast cancer patients.

The researchers also did not find a link between hormone therapy drugs, like Tamox-ifen, that prevent breast cancer recurrence and memory or concentration problems.

While earlier studies have con-firmed the connection between chemotherapy and mental cloudiness, this was the first study to also include a group of patients who had undergone radiation treatment only.

It is also the only study to follow breast cancer patients for three years after treatment, said Jacobsen.

Jacobsen said it was alarming to see how long the problems with memory and concentration persisted for breast cancer survivors after their cancer treatment ended.

As the study only followed the women three years out of treatment, Jacobsen could not say how long memory and concentrations problems continue to persist.

However, he said most of the cognitive changes some women experience after chemotherapy or radiation are not often debilitating problems.

Source and More:
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Radiation+also+cause+chemo+brain+study+suggests/5851108/story.html

Seniors in Sweden 'stayin' alive' with exercise

2011-12-12T04:30:00.000-06:00

The disco beat of 'Stayin' Alive' pulses through the room as Lennart Zetterqvist heaves dumbbells out to his side, zipping through the paces of a workout class with a twist: it's for seniors aged 90 and up.

Zetterqvist, the baby of the group at 90, is part of a growing group of pensioners in Sweden who are determined to stay in shape and remain active as they age.

"In the past people wanted to take life easy when they retired. Now they want to be active and keep fit until they're 100," says Kristoffer Sjoeberg, a personal trainer who leads the group of old-timers through their weekly class at the Sickla Haelsocenter health club on the outskirts of Stockholm.

Anne-Marie Novotny, a spry and vivacious 91-year-old in a pink tee-shirt, overdoes it a touch on the abdominal exercises.

"I just had a liver operation so I'm going to take it easy for the next few minutes," she says, adding that until last spring she hadn't exercised since she finished school in 1938.

She was one of 16 pensioners over the age of 90 who accepted the local municipality's offer of a free weekly gym class.

The idea is that keeping older people fit means they can continue to live independent lives -- and stay out of hospitals and elderly care homes, which in Sweden's cradle-to-grave welfare state are funded by municipalities.

"We focus a lot on strength and balance, and we've seen a big improvement since we started this class in March. Back then most of the people came with canes or walkers, now almost none of them do," Sjoeberg says.

"I sometimes forget to take my cane with me nowadays!" exclaims Alice Wettergren, 92.

While this group is exceptional -- it's the only one for the 90-plus crowd in Sweden -- it illustrates a growing trend as Sweden, like the rest of Europe, grapples with an ageing population.

According to the Seniorbarometern study published in September, there are 1.8 million pensioners out of Sweden's population of nine million, and the group is expected to grow by another 850,000 by 2015. UN projections forecast that seniors will account for 25 percent of the population by 2050.

"These are no couch potatoes, they're much more active than the average Swede," the head of the study, Linus Blom, told AFP.

Among those aged 59 and up, 38 percent say they do some form of exercise every day. One in six say they are considering buying a membership at a gym.

-- 'Best and cheapest medicine' --

And since 2000, the number of people over the age of 65 who have completed the Stockholm Marathon has increased four-fold.

"This is just a mirror of today's society: older people are living healthier, longer lives and they want to stay active much longer," Stockholm Marathon organiser Thomas Enstroem told AFP.

As far as runners go, few can beat Herbert Liedtke.

It took three strokes in the past year to get the now 95-year-old to give up sprinting in international masters competitions.

After driving a taxi for 40 years and never exercising, Liedtke took up running at the age of 69 on a whim when he tagged along with colleagues 15 years his junior to their regular track workout.

"I had never run a day and I outran all of them," he recalls with a proud grin, standing ramrod straight in sweat pants and runners in the kitchen of his retirement home where his cluster of medals hangs in the doorway.

At 85, in 2001, he set a new world record for 400-metres in his age category in Australia. (And as at every other competition, he insisted on doing a headstand on the winners' podium.)

Blom noted that those now entering retirement are the post-war "baby boomers", many of whom have stronger finances than previous retirees and who are expected to make up a key market for gyms and health clubs.

Bodil Hedenstroem is a case in point.

At 71, she attends workout classes three to four times a week at the upscale Sturebadet health club in central Stockholm.

"I need this! I can't go without it," says the tall, slender blonde, adding she and her husband often take cycling or hiking holidays.

"I feel more limber, my balance is better and I notice my stamina is better," she explains.

Goeran Murvall, the doctor who came up with the idea for the 90+ workout group, says keeping seniors thinking positively is as important as the exercise.

He wanted to get them "dreaming about next year's hiking trip, or holiday in the Alps, or 'how I'm going to climb down into the sailboat one more summer'."

"The elderly need to believe in the future and set new goals," he says, adding: "Physical activity, especially for seniors, is the best and cheapest medicine there is."

Personal trainer Sjoeberg cautions that today's younger generations are going to need to think about exercising even more than today's senior citizens.

"This generation of seniors was much more active for many years," he says.

They walked and cycled more every day, and as pastimes on weekends picked mushrooms or berries in the woods or skied in the forests.

"Now, the younger generations sit still so much in front of the computer and television and they drive everywhere. So they need to exercise so that they can live to be 90 and have a good life when they are 90," he says.

Source and More:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-seniors-sweden-stayin-alive.html

Seniors With Disabilities Struggle To Remain At Home As Public Programs Lose Funding

2011-12-09T05:29:00.000-06:00

California's low-income seniors with disabilities are struggling to remain in their homes as public funding for long-term care services shrinks and may be slashed even further, according to a new study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research conducted with support from The SCAN Foundation.

Should as much as $100 million in additional cuts be made to In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) on Dec. 15, as proposed by the state Legislature, seniors with disabilities will lose crucial support systems that allow them to remain safely in their homes and out of nursing homes. This vulnerable group could face a 20 percent loss in the number of paid caregiver hours they receive, on top of cuts already enacted earlier this year.

"California was once a national model for long-term care, but those services are being rolled back," said Kathryn Kietzman, the study's lead author. "Our system is far from perfect, but as our population ages, this isn't the time to take away the supports seniors depend on.

"A 20 percent cut in caregiver hours would be devastating to disabled seniors' health and well-being," she added. "And in the long run, it could cost the state more, because ailing seniors will end up in expensive emergency rooms, hospitals and nursing homes."

For the study, researchers spent a year following and documenting the lives of a typical group of seniors with disabilities who are enrolled in Medicare and Medi-Cal and receive in-home and community care in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties. The seniors depend on fragile networks of paid public programs and unpaid help to live safely and independently at home in spite of already limited caregiving hours.

Aging safely and independently at home is not only a strongly held desire of most Americans; the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Olmstead v. L.C. and E.W. (1999) requires public programs to honor these desires when feasible, the study authors said.

The study found:

Needs of seniors with disabilities are unstable

Older adults' health and abilities change continually, sometimes unpredictably. Most of the respondents' declines in health were slow to moderate, but for several, their health worsened dramatically in a short period. For instance, Michael, 74, depended on one IHSS caregiver for 40 hours a week to help manage his diabetes. But when Michael was alone, he could not give himself the appropriate medications and eventually had to move into a nursing home.

For many seniors, their declining health and uncertain support also exacerbated existing mood disorders and other chronic mental health conditions.

Seniors, families try to cobble together a support system to survive

Some older adults with disabilities need around-the-clock care, while others manage with a limited number of caregiver hours each week. Miriam, 81, suffered a massive stroke and manages a host of chronic diseases, including diabetes and high blood pressure. She uses a wheelchair, has minimal use of her arms and needs help to eat, dress, bathe, use the toilet and perform other tasks.

For more than a decade, Miriam has relied on various support networks, including an IHSS caregiver, a family caregiver partially paid by IHSS, and the help of extended family members. Miriam's six children helped cover the cost of her care, but when one daughter recently lost her job, Miriam used all her savings to pay for help. The family doesn't know how they will continue to pay for Miriam's care.

Recession, budgets cuts greatly impact low-income seniors

In addition to a possible 20 percent reduction in IHSS hours set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2012, seniors with disabilities are also faced with the downsizing and transition of Adult Day Health Care (ADHC) centers into a much reduced and yet-to-be defined program on Mar. 1, 2012. ADHC serves many seniors with Alzheimer's and other debilitating conditions. The Multipurpose Senior Services Program, which provides social and health care management for those who are certifiable for placement in a nursing facility but who wish to remain in the community, has also been reduced. And study participants who rely on supplemental security income checks experienced continued reductions in their cash assistance, forcing them to cut back on already meager budgets by reducing food purchases and making other cuts.

For Monique and her husband, the ADHC centers provide essential respite hours that allow them to work full time and care for Monique's mother, Yvette, 78. Yvette attends an ADHC center five days a week. Should the center close in the future due to budget cuts or reduce its hours, the couple is worried about who will care for Yvette and how they will pay for it.

The recession and continued economic downturn also has hurt the state's low-income seniors. Fran, 82, who has diabetes, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis and a history of a brain tumor, was living in a home she owned when the study started a year ago. During the last interview with a researcher, she was facing foreclosure and was in search of affordable housing.

Consolidating programs, enhancing caregiver programs could improve long-term care

California has a system of fragmented and uncoordinated programs for older adults with disabilities that are difficult to navigate. The study's authors recommend establishing a single point of entry with a common eligibility and assessment process, such as the national Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), which pools Medi-Cal and Medicare funds. The Affordable Care Act has already designated four California counties to design innovative ways to coordinate long-term supports and services with the goal of a statewide program. The law could also better prepare, educate and engage both family caregivers and unrelated home-care workers, who are already overworked and underpaid.

"While it is challenging to contemplate transforming systems of care during difficult financial times, policy solutions should work toward a more person-centered and better organized approach to long-term services and supports for vulnerable Californians," said Dr. Bruce Chernof, president and chief executive officer of The SCAN Foundation. "California cannot simply cut its way out of this problem.

"We need to develop a network of community-based services and supports that focus on an individual's needs, values and preferences so that all who need daily support can access the right services - from the right provider, at the right time and in the right place."

Source and More:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/238858.php

Shield Healthcare pays $5M to settle Medi-Cal suit

2011-12-08T04:30:00.000-06:00

A Santa Clarita medical supply provider has paid $5 million to settle a lawsuit in which a whistleblower alleged the company overbilled Medi-Cal.

US attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek says Shield Healthcare was accused of submitting inflated bills to the state's health insurance program for the poor.

Medi-Cal relies on Shield as a major supplier of incontinence supplies, such as adult diapers and waterproof sheeting.

Shield was accused of billing Medi-Cal more than double their net purchase price for supplies.

Shield is owned by Dharma Ventures Group. The settlement was paid Nov. 17.

The federal government gets $2 million of the settlement and the state of California gets $3 million.

A phone message was left with Shield after business hours Wednesday.

Source and More:
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19493659

Research: Bedbugs Can Thrive Despite Inbreeding

2011-12-07T04:42:00.000-06:00

Bedbugs aren't just sleeping with you. They're sleeping with each other.

Researchers now say that the creepy bugs have a special genetic gift: withstanding incest.

It turns out that unlike most creatures, bedbugs are able to inbreed with close relatives and still produce generally healthy offspring. That means that if just a few bedbugs survive in a building after treatment, they repopulate quickly.

Coby Schal and Ed Vargo are entomologists at North Carolina State University, and they presented preliminary research on genetic diversity in bedbug populations on Tuesday in Philadelphia, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

"We kept discovering the same thing. Within a given apartment, or even a given building, there was extremely low genetic diversity," said Schal. "In most cases there's just a single female that founded the population."

Schal said that was a surprise, since an animal or insect population with limited diversity will usually build up and then crash, because genetic defects tend to magnify with inbreeding.

"But somehow bedbugs are able to able to withstand the effects of inbreeding, and do quite well," he said.

The new research is important, said Zachary Adelman, an entomologist at Virginia Tech University who wasn't part of the North Carolina State team.

"No one had looked at these things," he said of the genetic makeup of bedbugs. "It's pretty exciting."

And pretty depressing.

The researchers also found that while the community within a building tends to be similar, there are many different strains of bedbugs throughout the East Coast, suggesting that new colonies also get introduced through foreign travel or commerce.

"That means they're coming into the country from lots of different places," which means that the bedbug problem isn't going to stop anytime soon, said Adelman.

The findings may also help explain another part of the bedbug boom.

Bedbugs — and other insects — develop resistance to insecticides. Schal said that if a treatment kills anything less than 100 percent of the bugs, the survivors will not only repopulate, but pass on the resistance they've developed to future generations.

"The insecticides really need to be robust" to do the job, Schal said.

Bedbugs are wingless, reddish-brown insects that bite people and animals to draw blood for their meals. Though their bites can cause itching and welts, they are not known to spread disease.

Another researcher notes that you have to discover a problem before you can treat it.

Rajeev Vaidyanathan of SRI International, a nonprofit research firm with headquarters in Silicon Valley, said he's working on a quick, easy test so people can discover bedbugs before they get bitten.

Vaidyanathan said current technology comes down to spotting live or dead bedbugs, or using dogs to sniff them out.

"Both are often ineffective and tedious," he said.

So Vaidyanathan is trying to developing a biochemical test to identify bedbug-specific proteins that they leave behind, even when only a few bugs are present. Homeowners would swab a section of their home, and dip it in a special compound.

"A home pregnancy kit type of read-out. If there's a color change, you have a bug," he said, but it's too early to say when or if the idea will make it to market.

Vaidyanathan also pointed out some other forces behind the spread of bedbugs.

"The problems we are seeing with bedbugs in North America did not happen overnight," said Vaidyanathan. "We have the highest concentration in the history of our species of humans living in cities. Bedbugs do not have wings; they are nest parasites, so our own population density has helped them to thrive."

Source and More:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/research-bedbugs-thrive-inbreeding-15102082

Some with ADHD have genetic variants

2011-12-06T04:26:00.000-06:00

U.S. researchers analyzed genetic influences on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and found changes in some genes affected brain signaling pathways.

Study leader Dr. Hakon Hakonarson, director of the Center for Applied Genomics at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said the discovery raises the possibility that drugs acting on those pathways might offer a new treatment option for patients with ADHD who have those gene variants.

"At least 10 percent of the ADHD patients in our sample have these particular genetic variants," Hakonarson said in a statement.

The study team did whole-genome analyses of 1,000 children with ADHD, recruited at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, compared to 4,100 children without ADHD.

The researchers searched for copy number variations, which are deletions or duplications of DNA sequences, and evaluated the initial findings in multiple independent cohorts that included nearly 2,500 cases with ADHD and 9,200 control subjects.

Co-first author Dr. Josephine Elia, a child psychiatrist at Children's Hospital, said thousands of genes may contribute to the risk of ADHD, but identifying a gene family responsible for 10 percent of cases is a robust finding in a common neuropsychiatric disorder such as ADHD.

The study appears online in Nature Genetics.

Source and More:
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/12/06/Some-with-ADHD-have-genetic-variants/UPI-22461323154859/

Stem cells show promise for repairing damaged hearts

2011-12-05T05:57:00.000-06:00

The promise of stem cell research just got a lot brighter.

There was some very good news from the world of medicine just a couple of weeks ago. For the first time, stem cells were injected into the hearts of humans who had suffered serious heart damage, and patients improved dramatically. It appears that, as everyone hoped, the stem cells grew into new heart cells to replaced the damaged tissue. This is the promise of all stem cell research: to repair or replace damaged organs that otherwise would never recover. In principle, we can someday use the same technique to replace damaged livers, kidneys, spinal cords, cartilege, and virtually all other tissues in the human body.

In the new study, just published in The Lancet, a group of researchers led by Robert Bolli grew stem cells from patients’ own hearts, after the patients had suffered serious heart attacks, leaving their hearts permanently damaged. Bolli explained to CNN reporter Caleb Hellerman:

“Once you reach this stage of heart disease, you don’t get better. You can go down slowly, or go down quickly, but you’re going to go down.”

And yet, in this study, they did not “go down.” Instead, they got better. Bolli and colleagues collected a small amount of tissue from each patient’s own heart, and purified stem cells from that tissue. By using the patient’s own cells, there is no danger of rejection as there would be with cells from an unrelated donor.

They measured the patients’ heart function by how much blood was being pumpled through the left ventricle. The patients had an average Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction (LVEF) of 30.3% at the beginning of the study, an indication of very severe heart disease. Four months later, the 16 patients who received the stem cells had an average LVEF of 38.5%, while patients in the control group (who didn’t get the stem cells) showed no change. Even more dramatically, after one year the patients LVEF had improved further, to 42.5%.

Thus, remarkably, the cardiac stem cells seem to have “taken” in these patients, growing back into healthy cardiac cells in these severely ill patients. The researchers used MRI to measure the damaged heart tissue in 7 of their patients, and found that it had actually decreased by 30% after one year. In a companion trial at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, Dr. Eduardo Marbán reported similarly positive results. Marbán told CNN’s Hellerman that the patients grew approximately 600 million new heart cells after the procedure, comparable to the number of cells that die in a serious heart attack.

One reason these findings are especially dramatic is that they show convincingly that the human heart contains stem cells that can re-grow into new heart cells. It is entirely possible that heart damage that has always been thought to be irreversible can be completely repaired – someday.

The results are very preliminary, and only a few patients have been treated so far, but this is a major triumph for stem cell research. The research in question used adult stem cells, but embryonic stem cells may prove even more effective, and may be easier to obtain because they don’t have to come directly from someone’s heart.* Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., and we should be pursuing every avenue that offers hope for better treatments, especially this very promising new direction. Those who oppose stem cell research – including embryonic stem cell research – should wake up and take notice: many lives are at stake.

Source and More:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2011/12/04/stem-cells-show-promise-for-repairing-damaged-hearts/

Foster Kids Are Overly Medicated, Report Says

2011-12-02T04:39:00.000-06:00

Foster children on Medicaid received psychotropic drugs—including antipsychotics and antidepressants—at a higher rate than other children covered by the government insurance program, according to a federal report released Thursday.

The study by the Government Accountability Office is raising concern among lawmakers and medical experts that doctors are overprescribing psychiatric drugs to treat children in the foster-care system.

Foster children are wards of the state placed in the homes of certified caregivers, or foster parents, often on a short-term basis until a permanent situation can be arranged.

While such children often struggle with emotional problems, medical experts say some are receiving the medications at unjustifiably high levels.

The report found that drug amounts exceeding maximum doses for a child's age were many times more likely to be prescribed to foster children than to other children in the federal-state program for lower-income people. The GAO, which submitted its findings as part of a Senate hearing, also found that foster children were several times more likely than other Medicaid youngsters to be taking five or more psychotropic drugs at the same time.

Among the drugs analyzed were antipsychotics such as Abilify and Risperdal, antidepressants such as Cymbalta and Paxil, and attention-deficit hyperactivity-disorder drugs such as Ritalin and Strattera. The GAO found that foster children were between 2.7 and 4.5 times as likely to be on psychotropics as non-foster youngsters in Medicaid, depending on which state they lived in.

Foster kids often have more emotional troubles and painful pasts than other Medicaid children, but both groups can be overmedicated because they're often seen by general doctors rather than getting counseling.

"The high-risk practices identified by the GAO study raise significant concerns regarding the treatment of severely mentally ill and vulnerable youth," child psychiatrist Jon McClellan of the University of Washington told lawmakers Thursday.

Senators in both parties said federal and state agencies supervising Medicaid need to curb overprescription of the drugs.

"There is no evidence for use of five mind-altering medications in an adult, let alone a child," said Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware. Sen. Scott Brown, a Massachusetts Republican, called the findings "shocking."

Bryan Samuels, a senior official overseeing Medicaid at the federal Department of Health and Human Services, agreed that "the current use of psychotropic medications among children, particularly children in foster care, goes beyond that which is supported by empirical research." He said his department has written to state Medicaid agencies "to raise awareness of these issues."

The GAO study focused on Medicaid programs in Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Texas in 2008. The GAO said 1,752 children in those programs were getting five or more such drugs at the same time.

At the hearing, 12-year-old Ke'onte Cook, a former foster child from McKinney, Texas, said he was taking five psychotropic drugs at times while in foster care. Describing occasions when the drugs made him lethargic, he said. "Some of the meds were for bipolar disease and seizures, and I am not bipolar or have seizures," he testified.

Source and More:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204397704577072743861074270.html

D.C. funds for needy used more for perks

2011-12-01T13:50:00.000-06:00

MUST READ!!
***********

D.C. Council member Tommy Wells on Wednesday called for the elimination of special funds the city’s lawmakers are supposed to use to help the needy — money critics consider “slush funds” rarely tapped to help residents.

A Washington Times review of 10,000 payments totaling $3.3 million since 2004 shows that just 3 percent or $84,000 has gone to power and water bills, presumably for needy constituents, and $37,000 for phone bills. More — $133,000 — has been spent at pro sporting events.

Members also spent about $22,000 for delivery of bottled water and wrote $63,000 in checks to themselves, reimbursing themselves for meals with constituents and undisclosed other expenses from the so-called constituent services funds. Lawmakers raise money for the accounts from businesses and unions.

Mr. Wells, Ward 6 Democrat, called for the reform — backed by some but denounced by a pair of fellow council members — as part of a wish list of suggested changes to a comprehensive ethics bills under review by the Committee on Government Operations.

The proposed legislation by council member Muriel Bowser, Ward 4 Democrat and the committee’s chairwoman, took ideas from 10 ethics bills and set a starting point for restoring public faith in city lawmakers after two years of political scandal.

“This is a good first step,” Mr. Wells said of the bill. “I think it needs to go further.”

Ms. Bowser has indicated she wants to pass sweeping ethics legislation before the end of the year, a key priority outlined by council Chairman Kwame R. Brown. The bill reduces the amount each elected official can raise for his or her constituent services fund from $80,000 to $40,000.

The Times‘ review shows that source of the money aside, the expenditure of funds on perks and swag is the norm, not the exception, and sometimes goes to vendors and nonprofits connected to the politicians and their staffs.

Functions that were repeatedly heralded at Wednesday’s hearing as reasons the funds were essential, such as funeral expenses, appear minimally in expense records. Funerals and burial expenses accounted for only about $70,000, or two percent of the funds’ uses.

Council member Jim Graham’s fund has written $11,400 in checks to the Ward 1 Democrat for expenses. Mr. Brown’s fund paid him $15,000, typically justified simply as “reimbursement,” including a check written Sept. 27 for $2,082. In response to an inquiry, Mr. Brown’s office said the payments reimbursed the council chairman for costs including the production of a family Christmas card, parking and a camera.

“There is seriously something wrong when you’re not required to disclose exactly what it was spent on,” said Brendan Williams-Kief, deputy chief of staff for council member David Catania, at-large independent. “We keep receipts because we think that’s how you do things, but as the rules stand, they don’t demand that you do that.”

Twenty-four thousand dollars in checks were written to Mr. Catania’s former chief of staff, Ben Young, which Mr. Williams-Kief said a binder of receipts showed repaid him largely for money he spent out of pocket on parades.

Constituent funds also are regularly tapped for computers, cab rides and other travel costs, records show.

Ward 7 Democrat Yvette Alexander, who represents some of the city’s poorest and lashed out against those who suggested eliminating the funds, saying the move would deprive needy residents, has used about $6,000 assisting impoverished constituents including $1,200 on gift cards — 4 percent of the $141,000 she has spent, The Times analysis found. Some $6,000 more was donated to assorted charities at fundraisers, while the remainder went toward expenses like consultants’ fees, desserts, catering, advertising and office costs.

Ms. Alexander’s office did not elaborate on or clarify the expenditures to The Times.

Source and More:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/30/city-funds-for-needy-used-more-for-perks/

"The Folded Napkin - A Truck Stop Story"

2011-12-01T04:28:00.000-06:00

This is our article/story of the day. It could be true it could be one of the greatest stories ever presented but it shows real caring,true diversity and true inclusion and so much love for the Disabled Citizen.
********************************************

The Folded Napkin.

I try not to be biased, but I had my doubts about hiring Stevie. His placement counselor assured me that he would be a good, reliable busboy. But I had never had a mentally handicapped employee and wasn't sure I wanted one. I wasn't sure how my customers would react to Stevie.

He was short, a little dumpy with the smooth facial features and thick-tongued speech of Downs Syndrome. I wasn't worried about most of my trucker customers because truckers don't generally care who buses tables as long as the meatloaf platter is good and the pies are homemade.

The ones who concerned me were the mouthy college kids traveling to school; the yuppie snobs who secretly polish their silverware with their napkins for fear of catching some dreaded 'truck stop germ'; the pairs of white-shirted business men on expense accounts who think every truck stop waitress wants to be flirted with. I knew those people would be uncomfortable around Stevie so I closely watched him for the first few weeks...

I shouldn't have worried. After the first week, Stevie had my staff wrapped around his stubby little finger, and within a month my truck regulars had adopted him as their official truck stop mascot.

After that, I really didn't care what the rest of the customers thought of him. He was like a 21-year-old in blue jeans and Nikes, eager to laugh and eager to please, but fierce in his attention to his duties. Every salt and peppershaker was exactly in its place, not a breadcrumb or coffee spill was visible when Stevie got done with the table.

Our only problem was persuading him to wait to clean a table until after the customers were finished. He would hover in the background, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, scanning the dining room until a table was empty. Then he would scurry to the empty table and carefully bus dishes and glasses onto his cart and meticulously wipe the table up with a practiced flourish of his rag.

If he thought a customer was watching, his brow would pucker with added concentration. He took pride in doing his job exactly right, and you had to love how hard he tried to please each and every person he met.

Over time, we learned that he lived with his mother, a widow who was disabled after repeated surgeries for cancer. They lived on their Social Security benefits in public housing two miles from the truck stop. Their social worker, who stopped to check on him every so often, admitted they had fallen between the cracks. Money was tight, and what I paid him was probably the difference between them being able to live together and Stevie being sent to a group home. That's why the restaurant was a gloomy place that morning last August, the first morning in three years that Stevie missed work.

He was at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester getting a new valve or something put in his heart. His social worker said that people with Downs Syndrome often have heart problems at an early age so this wasn't unexpected, and there was a good chance he would come through the surgery in good shape and be back at work in a few months.

A ripple of excitement ran through the staff later that morning when word came that he was out of surgery, in recovery, and doing fine.

Frannie, the head waitress, let out a war hoop and did a little dance in the aisle when she heard the good news.

Bell Ringer, one of our regular trucker customers, stared at the sight of this 50-year-old grandmother of four doing a victory shimmy beside his table.

Frannie blushed, smoothed her apron and shot Bell Ringer a withering look.

He grinned. 'OK, Frannie , what was that all about?' he asked..

'We just got word that Stevie is out of surgery and going to be okay.'

'I was wondering where he was. I had a new joke to tell him. What was the surgery about?'

Frannie quickly told Bell Ringer and the other two drivers sitting at his booth about Stevie's surgery then sighed: 'Yeah, I'm glad he is going to be OK,' she said. 'But I don't know how he and his Mom are going to handle all the bills. From what I hear, they're barely getting by as it is.' Bell Ringer nodded thoughtfully, and Frannie hurried off to wait on the rest of her tables. Since I hadn't had time to round up a busboy to replace Stevie and really didn't want to replace him, the girls were busing their own tables that day until we decided what to do.

After the morning rush, Frannie walked into my office. She had a couple of paper napkins in her hand and a funny look on her face.

'What's up?' I asked.

'I didn't get that table where Bell Ringer and his friends were sitting cleared off after they left, and Pony Pete and Tony Tipper were sitting there when I got back to clean it off,' she said. 'This was folded and tucked under a coffee cup.'

She handed the napkin to me, and three $20 bills fell onto my desk when I opened it. On the outside, in big, bold letters, was printed 'Something For Stevie'.

'Pony Pete asked me what that was all about,' she said, 'so I told him about Stevie and his Mom and everything, and Pete looked at Tony and Tony looked at Pete, and they ended up giving me this.' She handed me another paper napkin that had 'Something For Stevie' scrawled on its outside. Two $50 bills were tucked within its folds. Frannie looked at me with wet, shiny eyes, shook her head and said simply: 'Truckers!!'

That was three months ago. Today is Thanksgiving, the first day Stevie is supposed to be back to work.

His placement worker said he's been counting the days until the doctor said he could work, and it didn't matter at all that it was a holiday. He called ten times in the past week, making sure we knew he was coming, fearful that we had forgotten him or that his job was in jeopardy.

I arranged to have his mother bring him to work. I then met them in the parking lot and invited them both to celebrate his day back.

Stevie was thinner and paler, but couldn't stop grinning as he pushed through the doors and headed for the back room where his apron and busing cart were waiting

'Hold up there, Stevie, not so fast,' I said. I took him and his mother by their arms. 'Work can wait for a minute. To celebrate you coming back, breakfast for you and your mother is on me!'
I led them toward a large corner booth at the rear of the room.

I could feel and hear the rest of the staff following behind as we marched through the dining room. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw booth after booth of grinning truckers empty and join the procession. We stopped in front of the big table. Its surface was covered with coffee cups, saucers and dinner plates, all sitting slightly crooked on dozens of folded paper napkins 'First thing you have to do, Stevie, is clean up this mess,' I said. I tried to sound stern.

Stevie looked at me, and then at his mother, then pulled out one of the napkins. It had 'Something for Stevie' printed on the outside. As he picked it up, two $10 bills fell onto the table.

Stevie stared at the money, then at all the napkins peeking from beneath the tableware, each with his name printed or scrawled on it. I turned to his mother. 'There's more than $10,000 in cash and checks on that table, all from truckers and trucking companies that heard about your problems.. 'Happy Thanksgiving.'

Well, it got real noisy about that time, with everybody hollering and shouting, and there were a few tears, as well.

But you know what's funny?
While everybody else was busy shaking hands and hugging each other, Stevie, with a big, big smile on his face, was busy clearing all the cups and dishes from the table.....

Best worker I ever hired.

Plant a seed and watch it grow..

At this point, you can bury this inspirational message or forward it, fulfilling the need!

If you shed a tear, hug yourself, because you are a compassionate person.

Well.. Don't just sit there! Send this story on! Keep it going, this is a good one!

Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.

ps....my screen is a little blury right now.......how about yours ?

Source and More:
Reed Hickam.

Q&A: The future of stem cell research

2011-11-30T04:55:00.000-06:00

Already in clinical use through therapies such as bone-marrow transplants and cartilage repair, regenerative medicine has only started to realize its potential. Although scientists may eventually use stem cells and biomaterials to cure everything from heart disease to neurodegenerative illnesses, developing and commercializing these technologies will take time.

“What we all hope is that there will be new curative treatments for debilitating diseases,” says Peter Zandstra, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and a Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Bioengineering. “It’s not clear right now if our approaches will be successful, but I think there’s a lot of hope and promise.”

Among other regenerative medicine projects, U of T’s Dr. Zandstra is utilizing new technologies, such as tissue engineering. “We generate cells such as cardiac cells [and] we’re interested in formulating these cells into micro-tissues that mimic adult heart tissue,” he says. “Then we can use those for drug screening.”

Dr. Zandstra, who works closely with Toronto’s McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, stresses the importance of collaboration with fellow researchers here and abroad. He also wants to see innovative technology reach the marketplace. In addition to his research duties, Dr. Zandstra is chief scientific officer of the new Centre for the Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM).

The Toronto-based centre takes early-stage technologies from Ontario institutions and adds value to help commercialize them, he explains. “One of the problems that we face in regenerative medicine – and there are many – is that numerous technologies that come out are too early for real commercialization, and we need this extra step of turning them into products.”

So what's the future for stem cell medicine, and how long will it take these new therapies to move from the lab to the market? Join us for a live discussion with Dr. Zandstra at noon E.ST. this Thursday. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments section.

Source and More:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/shaping-the-future/qa-the-future-of-stem-cell-research/article2253933/

Ohio officials take 200-pound boy from mother

2011-11-29T04:41:00.000-06:00

The case of an 8-year-old Cleveland Heights boy taken from his family because he weighs more than 200 pounds has renewed a debate on whether parents should lose custody if a child is severely obese.

The boy was removed from his family and was placed in foster care in October after county case workers said his mother wasn't doing enough to control his weight. The boy, at his weight, is considered at risk for developing such diseases as diabetes and high blood pressure. Government growth charts say most boys his age weigh about 60 pounds.

Roughly 2 million U.S. children are extremely obese — weighing significantly more than what's considered healthy.

Cuyahoga County removed the boy because case workers considered the mother's inability to get his weight down a form of medical neglect. The county's Children and Family Services agency said Monday it stood by its custody move, which was approved by a judge.

"We have worked very hard with this family for 20 months before it got to this point," agency Administrator Patricia Rideout said.

Rideout said the issue has created a buzz among agency staff members and she has heard it was a popular Internet item. She said she was following state law in withholding the boy's name in his best interest.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity tries to address the roles of nutrition and physical activity in improving public health and preventing and controlling chronic diseases. It says achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is part of an ongoing lifestyle that can be adopted. It offers resources to help people determine which foods are needed for a healthy diet and promotes regular physical activity to reduce the risk for diseases and control weight.

There's no easy answer when it comes to determining who's to blame in such obesity cases, said Dr. Naim Alkhouri, who works with overweight children and their families at Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital and leads its pediatric metabolic clinic.

"It's not only the parents or the child," he said. "Obesity is an epidemic in the United States. As a society we're all responsible."

It's not enough to just encourage some children to eat healthier and exercise, he said, because there's also "a big psychological component."

"When it comes to involving the authorities, I don't think we have clear guidelines," he said. "Starting the debate is a good thing. We need more guidance on how to react to the issue."

County workers were alerted to the boy's weight early last year after his mother took him to a hospital for breathing problems. He was diagnosed with sleep apnea, which is characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep and can be weight-related, and he was given a breathing machine.

Parents have lost custody of obese children a few times in the United States, and an opinion piece in the Journal of the American Medical Association in July said putting children temporarily in foster care is in some cases more ethical than obesity surgery, which can involve removing part of the stomach.

Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Harvard-affiliated Children's Hospital Boston, said the point isn't to blame parents but rather to act in children's best interest and get them help their parents can't provide.

Dr. Norman Fost, a medical ethicist at the University of Wisconsin's Madison campus, said Monday that foster care wouldn't cure the Ohio boy's obesity but might help.

"The goal is to make him less obese," he said.

Fost said the boy's sleep apnea could be related to his weight and could be imminently dangerous. A target weight of 150 pounds might improve the apnea problem, he said.

The boy's mother said she has worked on the weight issue.

"They are trying to make it seem like I am unfit, like I don't love my child," she told The Plain Dealer newspaper, which didn't reveal her identity because the case could involve abuse.

A public defender, Sam Amata, said Monday the custody removal would be challenged based on the contention that the boy is not in imminent danger.

"We don't feel there's that kind of requisite danger," he said.

Source and More:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ikO5Bjv68uXOjTlgzRBersF3fFLA?docId=364292340d44424286c764aca99873ce

Wasim Akram: I won't let diabetes bowl me out

2011-11-28T04:27:00.000-06:00

Wasim hopes that his own example of perseverance will inspire others.

"I meet patients in hospitals wherever I go to motivate people. I take my shots of insulin in front of them, eat with them, and generally boost their morale. I hope to motivate youngsters to adopt a healthier lifestyle. I want to show them it's normal to have this condition."

To anyone sceptical of being able to live a normal life with diabetes, Wasim's answer is simple: "I took 250 wickets after I was diagnosed with diabetes. You think you can't beat it?!"

Types of diabetes

Type 1 diabetes, sometimes called insulin-dependent, immune-mediated or juvenile-onset diabetes. Caused by an auto-immune reaction where the body's defense system attacks the insulin-producing cells. The disease can affect people of any age, but usually occurs in children or young adults. People with this form of diabetes need injections of insulin every day to control the levels of glucose in their blood.

Type 2 diabetes, sometimes called non-insulin dependent diabetes or adult-onset diabetes. Accounts for 90 per cent of all cases of diabetes. Can remain undetected for many years and the diagnosis is often made from associated complications or incidentally through an abnormal blood or urine glucose test. Often, associated with obesity, which itself can cause insulin resistance and lead to elevated blood glucose levels.

Gestational diabetes (GDM). Occurs with high blood glucose levels during pregnancy. Usually disappears after pregnancy but women with GDM and offspring are at an increased risk of type 2 diabetes later in life.

Source: International Diabetes Federation

Wasim's record

Wasim Akram is regarded as one of the best fast bowlers in the history of cricket. Known as the Sultan of Swing for the way he gets the ball to swing, he's taken an impressive 881 wickets in first-class cricket. He's second only to Sri Lankan off-spin bowler, Muttiah Muralitharan, in terms of One Day International (ODI) wickets, with 502. He is said to have devised the reverse swing bowling technique. He was the first bowler to reach the 500-wicket landmark in ODI cricket during the 2003 World Cup. In 2002, the cricket reference book, Wisden, released its only and final list of best players of all time: Wasim was ranked as the best bowler in ODI with a rating of 1223.5, ahead of Allan Donald, Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Joel Garner, Glen McGratt and Muralitharan.

Source and More:
http://gulfnews.com/life-style/health/wasim-akram-i-won-t-let-diabetes-bowl-me-out-1.935660

Good Governance Required In Mental Health Research

2011-11-25T04:37:00.000-06:00

In this week's PLoS Medicine Taghi Yasamy from the WHO, Geneva, Switzerland and colleagues identify challenges facing good mental health research governance in low- and middle-income countries and provide suggestions for a way forward.

The authors recognize the need to establish the general orientation of mental health research to deal with problems such as organizational structure, research prioritization and relatively limited capacity and resources, and to balance expensive research with assessment of services and resources using low-cost methods.

The authors state: "Low resource countries face a range of challenges that leads to little or inappropriate research. They need to use their limited financial and human resources for mental health research as effectively as possible. They need sound governance of their mental health research to achieve this."

Source and More:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/238126.php

10 Technology Gadgets Linked to Cancer and Disease

2011-11-24T04:20:00.000-06:00

Fans of Star Trek have long been fascinated with the “technology” developed on the show, though skeptics of the day were often derisive in their reviews of the Star Trek vision. Modern medical science has come to the rescue of all Trekkies by bringing to the real world (the “real” real world) much that Kirk and his crew took for granted. Among the myriad examples of technological wizardry available today are some that have already been battle-star tested. Below are some examples of medical gadgets in use today; those with Star Trek “origins” are noted.

The Little Mermaid – Designed for endoscopy, the Mermaid is a small camera-equipped capsule capable of snapping two pictures every second. It was developed in Japan by a team of university researchers.
Jet Injectors – Compressed air or gas directly injects liquid through the skin, eliminating the need for a steel needle. Trekkies are familiar with the Hypospray, which did basically did the same thing.
Mini Monitors – Palm-sized units, suitable for home use, are now available that can track vital signs from heart-rate to blood pressure to body temperature and more. These little guys make it easier for home-bound patients to record information that their care-givers can utilize.
Prosthetics – It wasn’t long ago that prosthetic devices were little more advanced than what Capt. Hook sported, but medical technology has come a long way in a short period of time. Prostheses have advanced to the point where they can rival natural limbs in utility function.
Miniature Mass Spectrometer – A hand held unit used to trace food contaminants among other functions. An MMS can also help detect cancer in the liver, though it won’t tell you if a time-traveler has been nearby, as will the Star Trek equivalent, the Tricorder.
Needle-Free Glucose Monitor – People hate to jab themselves with needles, and they especially hate to do it repetitively. Glucose monitoring until recently has been nothing but self-inflicted pain, which doesn’t lead to good health maintenance. Echo Therapeutics has come out with a commercially available needle-free product that can monitor glucose and deliver medication. echotx.com
iPad – Cancer education for children is the point behind the activities of Donna’s Good Things, DonnasGoodThings.org The iPads are used by both care-givers and patients to help the children through difficult times.
Jordy – Jordy (Joint Optical Reflective DisplaY) is a device that was actually named after a Star Trek character. The Trekkie gadget was called the Visor (Visual Instrument ans Sensory Organ Replacement) and enabled the blind to “see”. The Jordy is a marvelous tool that enables many with serious vision problems (20/70 or worse) to read and write and even watch TV. Some low vision problems such as macular degeneration and glaucoma can become untreatable with regular prescription lenses.
Watches – Wristwatches today can do a lot more than just tell time. Now a watch can measure your heart rate, count your calories and tell you when your next medication is due. BestMedicalDirect.com
Dr. Smart Phone – No, not a real doctor, but cell phones now have medical-related capabilities that are astounding, for everyone from the patient to nurses to doctors. Skyscape.com Some phones are even equipped to detect airborne toxins and explosives residue.

Even Mr. Spock didn’t have everything we mere Earthlings have at our disposal.

Source and More:
http://www.internetserviceproviders.org/blog/2011/10-technology-gadgets-linked-to-cancer-and-disease/

Hefty impact of poor eating habits

2011-11-23T04:46:00.000-06:00

Too much fast food, poor meal choices and bad eating habits are causing more Canadians to be overweight or obese. Despite this trend, individuals who eat well are 20 per cent less likely to be obese, according to a study by Concordia University economists published in the Journal of Primary Care & Community Health.

"The risk of being obese or overweight is directly related to bad eating habits such as skipping meals, eating away from home, high consumption of fast and processed foods, as well as low consumption of fruit and vegetables," says first author Sunday Azagba, a PhD candidate in the Concordia Department of Economics. "In Canada, food purchased from restaurants accounts for more than 30 per cent of the average weekly food expenditure per household."

As part of their study, the researchers examined data from the Canadian National Population Health Survey to evaluate how eating habits could impact obesity trends among adults aged 18 to 65. The World Health Organization, which uses the body mass index (BMI) to measure weight-for-height, estimates that a BMI greater than or equal to 25 makes for an overweight person and a BMI greater than or equal to 30 equals obesity.

"More than 25 per cent of Canadians aged 31 to 50 exceed the safe limit of total calories derived from fats," adds co-author Mesbah Sharaf, a PhD candidate in the Concordia Department of Economics, noting advances in food engineering by producers may have contributed to the difficulty of resisting food craving and increase obesity rates.

Measures to encourage healthier eating

Higher taxes on fatty foods might encourage healthier eating, the economists suggest, yet higher prices won't sway everyone to choose a better diet. "Some people are unresponsive to taxes and such added costs to fast food would reduce their spending power without altering their eating behavior," says Azagba, noting an alternative would be for governments to subsidize less calorie-dense foods such as fruit and vegetables. "This might induce more people to substitute healthy foods for unhealthy ones."

Other measures to encourage healthier eating could entail subsidizing healthy meal plans at schools and universities, restricting junk food in educational institutions and improving physical education programs in schools. "Education programs that raise awareness of the benefits of physical activity and the health implications of food choices, as well as compulsory warning labels about the health risks on food packaging, similar to those on cigarette packages, may also help to mitigate obesity rates," says Sharaf.

It's imperative that obesity rates across Canada decline, says Azagba: "Health-care costs for caring for obese individuals are estimated to be 42 per cent greater than for people with normal weight. Research has found excessive body weight to be a risk factor for many chronic disease, such as cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, liver diseases, as well as prostate, breast and colon cancer."

Excessive body weight is an epidemic with repercussions beyond Canada. The World Health Organization estimates that 1 billion adults are overweight and that obesity accounts for more than 2.6 million deaths each year. The European Union estimates the combined direct and indirect costs of obesity to be €33 billion a year, whereas in the United States the total cost of obesity is estimated to be $139 billion annually.

Source and More:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-hefty-impact-poor-habits.html

Alzheimer's makes people 'forget to eat'

2011-11-22T05:46:00.000-06:00

Those who are fat in middle age are actually more likely to develop Alzheimer's decades later, said scientists at Kansas University in the US.

By contrast, being an overweight pensioner appears to offer some protection from the disease.

The researchers think they are now beginning to understand this so-called "obesity paradox".

They say those who are overweight or obese in middle age are more likely to develop Alzheimer's because of a variety of medical factors - or due to "heterogeneous pathophysiology" as they put it.

Writing in the journal Neurology, they say that one explanation for the paradox is "a long preclinical phase" to the disease, which can include changes to the brain without outward signs, and "accelerated weight loss".

They write: "Alzheimer's disease related neurodegenerative brain changes may influence body composition."

Possible ways Alzheimer's could lead to weight loss are by making people forget to eat, and by reducing the amount of physical activity they take - which can result in a person becoming thinner if accompanied by a corresondingly lower calorie intake.

However, the Alzheimer's Society said more work was needed to tease out exactly what was going on.

Dr Anne Corbett, research manager for the charity, said: "As yet it is unclear whether a low body mass index (BMI) is actually part of Alzheimer’s, or a side effect caused by the disease.

"Although this study shows a link between it and changes in the brain common to Alzheimer’s, there was no association between BMI and symptoms of the disease such as memory loss.

"More work is needed before we can say if these findings could be used to develop better ways of diagnosing the early stages of the condition.

"What we do know is that living well will reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer's Society recommends people eat healthily and exercise regularly."

Source and More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8904649/Alzheimers-makes-people-forget-to-eat.html

Fighting for air? It could be COPD

2011-11-21T05:00:00.000-06:00

November brings awareness to the third-leading cause of death in the United States - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. The American Lung Association in Iowa is partnering with Iowa Hospice to host 15 COPD educational presentations across the state. The presentations will explain what COPD is, what causes it, and its symptoms and treatment options. The participants will also have an opportunity to take a COPD screen test to see if they are at risk for COPD.

The presentation will take place from 2 t 4 p.m. today at Southfield Assisted Living Community in Webster City.

COPD is a serious lung disease that makes it difficult to breathe. Twelve million Americans have COPD and another 12 million have symptoms, but are not yet diagnosed. COPD is an umbrella term for chronic lung diseases including emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Reports show that COPD is the fastest-growing chronic disease and will affect 25 percent of all adults ages 35 and older in their lifetime.

COPD is treatable, and early diagnosis will help patients breathe better and live longer. Symptoms for COPD include a chronic cough, excess sputum or phlegm, shortness of breath, wheezing, and feeling that you cannot take a deep breath.

Many people believe their symptoms are signs of being out of shape or the natural process of aging. If you or someone you know feels that their shortness of breath or cough has slowed them down, encourage them to see their doctor for a simple breathing test called "spirometry."

COPD is most commonly caused by exposure to tobacco smoke either through smoking or secondhand smoke. You can also get COPD through exposure to environmental pollutants and genetics.

COPD is a progressive disease. Without treatment it will continue to get worse, but with the right treatment you will breathe better. For more information, visit: www.LungIA.org or call the American Lung Association Helpline at (800) LUNG-USA.

Source and More:
http://www.webstercitynews.com/page/content.detail/id/517108/Fighting-for-air--It-could-be-COPD.html?nav=5004

California adult day healthcare centers get a reprieve

2011-11-18T05:16:00.000-06:00

Bloggers Note: This is just a sign of what is to come.
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Just weeks before the planned closure of adult day healthcare centers throughout California, state officials and disability rights attorneys reached a legal settlement Thursday that preserves services for those low-income seniors and disabled residents most at risk of being institutionalized.

The state, which faces a $3.7-billion revenue shortfall, had targeted the centers as part of a plan to reduce spending on Medi-Cal, the government health program for the poor and disabled. Adult day healthcare centers provide nursing care, occupational therapy, physical therapy, meals and exercise to people with serious disabilities, brain injuries and chronic illnesses.

Center care is an optional Medi-Cal benefit, and its elimination would have resulted in the closure of many of the roughly 275 centers.

After the discussion of cuts began, lawyers filed a federal class-action lawsuit in 2009 on behalf of 35,000 benefit recipients. The suit alleged that many would have nowhere else to go for care, except to hospitals and nursing homes.

"We are very, very relieved," Elissa Gershon, senior attorney with Disability Rights California, told reporters. "In this fiscal crisis, some cuts are just not OK."

The settlement allows the adult day healthcare program to operate in its current form until Feb. 29 and creates a new program that will provide similar, center-based services for many benefit recipients after that date. The new program will be called Community-Based Adult Services.

State officials said roughly half of the current participants will be eligible for the new program and will be required to obtain the benefits through managed-care health plans. The eligible would include those with complex medical conditions, chronic mental illnesses, developmental disabilities and cognitive impairments like Alzheimer's disease.

The other half of benefit recipients would receive intensive case management to help them remain in their homes, state officials said.

"We are very pleased with the settlement," said Toby Douglas, director of California's Department of Health Care Services. It ensures that there is a program for "the most vulnerable participants."

State officials estimate a savings of about $28 million this fiscal year and $92 million next year. The adult day healthcare program currently costs the state $169 million, officials said.

Lydia Missaelides, executive director of the California Assn. for Adult Day Services, said she was thrilled with the settlement because it means patients will be able to stay at home and in their communities.

But over the last year, she said, more than 20 centers have closed in anticipation of the cuts. "It has just been a huge chaotic mess for our patients, families and staff," she said.

The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, 74-year-old Esther Darling, attends a center in Northern California. She started going to the center 10 years ago after a stroke and suffers from congestive heart failure, diabetes and high blood pressure. Darling said Thursday that she was glad she would be able to keep going to the center. "This is my home away from home," she said. "Everybody here at the center is my family."

Nina Nolcox, program director at Graceful Senescence Adult Day Health Care Center in South Los Angeles, said cutting off the benefit would have been devastating because about 80% of the 230 participants at her center receive Medi-Cal.

Nolcox said she was grateful that the state committed to continuing care for the most needy patients. But, she said, the settlement is just the first step.

"Moving forward, the devil is in the details," she said.

Source and More:
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-adult-daycare-20111118,0,3138702.story

Now, take heart from stem cells

2011-11-16T05:00:00.000-06:00

NEW DELHI: Results from the first small scale human trials to use the heart's own stem cells to battle heart failure have been found to be promising.

Published in the Lancet on Monday, the study showed that Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction (LVEF) - the measurement of how much blood is being pumped out of the left ventricle of the heart (the main pumping chamber) with each contraction after the patient received an infusion of one million cardiac stem cells (CSCs) via a balloon catheter increased from 30·3% before the procedure to 38·5% four months later.

The positive effects of CSCs were even more pronounced at the end of a year in eight of the CSC patients, whose LVEF increased by 12.3% (from 30.2% before the procedure to 42.5%).

In the seven treated patients, whose cardiac MRI could be done, the size of the dead tissue decreased from 32.6g by 7·8g (24%) after four months and 9·8g (30%) at the end of the first year.

The study was conducted by Professor Roberto Bolli from University of Louisville and Professor Piero Anversa from Harvard Medical School. The authors concluded the results are significant because they introduce a new potential treatment for heart failure.

Dr Sujay Shad, head of the cardiac transplant programme at Sir Gangaram Hospital, said, "If the study can be replicated, it's a great advance. Around eight in every million people suffer significant heart failure, who require hospital admission. The two-year mortality among these patients in India is 75%, and in five years' time, none of them are expected to be alive."

Heart failure is a common, disabling and an expensive disorder. Despite advances over the past 30 years, the prognosis for patients remains poor, with a five-year mortality that is nearly 50% worse than those suffering from breast or colon cancer.

Ischaemic heart disease - the blocking of heart blood vessels causing death of heart muscle tissue - is the most common cause of heart failure. This leads to the heart pumping less blood, leading to in a decrease in LVEF. Available treatments do not address the fundamental problem of the loss of cardiac tissue.

Consequently, interest in attempts to repair the failing heart with the use of stem cells has been increasing, since this approach has the potential to regenerate dead tissues and could alleviate the underlying cause of heart failure.

The paper says, "The adult heart contains CSCs that are self-renewing, clonogenic and multipotent. This means they differentiate into all three major cardiac lineages - myocytes, vascular smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells). We, therefore, undertook a phase 1 clinical trial of CSCs in patients with heart failure after a heart attack to assess the safety and feasibility of intracoronary CSC infusion. Our results suggest that CSCs can be isolated and expanded."

The authors reported the results in 23 patients with severe heart failure (LVEF less than 40%), each of whom has had coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Around 16 of these received CSCs, while the other seven (control group) received standard care.

"The initial results suggest that intracoronary infusion of autologous CSCs in patients with chronic ischaemic cardiomyopathy and severe heart failure is feasible, safe and apparently highly efficacious in restoring LV systolic function up to one year after treatment," it added.

Source and More:
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-11-15/india/30401100_1_heart-failure-left-ventricular-ejection-fraction-cells

1 in 10 Adults Could Have Diabetes by 2030

2011-11-15T04:43:00.000-06:00

The International Diabetes Federation predicts that at least one in 10 adults could have diabetes by 2030, according to its latest statistics.

In a report issued on Monday, the advocacy group estimated that 552 million people could have diabetes in two decades' time based on factors like aging and demographic changes. Currently, the group says that about one adult in 13 has diabetes.

The figure includes both types of diabetes as well as cases that are undiagnosed. The group expects the number of cases to jump by 90 percent even in Africa, where infectious diseases have previously been the top killer. Without including the impact of increasing obesity, the International Diabetes Federation said its figures were conservative.

According to the World Health Organization, there are about 346 million people worldwide with diabetes, with more than 80 percent of deaths occurring in developing countries. The agency projects diabetes deaths will double by 2030 and said the International Diabetes Federation's prediction was possible.

"It's a credible figure," said Gojka Roglic, head of WHO's diabetes unit. "But whether or not it's correct, we can't say."

Roglic said the projected future rise in diabetes cases was because of aging rather than the obesity epidemic. Most cases of diabetes are Type 2, the kind that mainly hits people in middle age, and is linked to weight gain and a sedentary lifestyle.

Roglic said a substantial number of future diabetes cases were preventable. "It's worrying because these people will have an illness which is serious, debilitating, and shortens their lives," she said. "But it doesn't have to happen if we take the right interventions."

Source and More:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/DiabetesNews/wireStory/522-million-people-diabetes-2030-14944807

Sugary drinks bad for women's heart

2011-11-14T04:46:00.001-06:00

A new study has found that drinking two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day may expand woman's waistline and increase her risk of heart disease and diabetes.

In this study, researchers compared middle-aged and older women who drank two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day, such as carbonated sodas or flavoured waters with added sugar, to women who drank one or less daily.

Women consuming two or more beverages per day were nearly four times as likely to develop high triglycerides, and were significantly more likely to increase their waist sizes and to develop impaired fasting glucose levels. The same associations were not observed in men.

"Women who drank more than two sugar-sweetened drinks a day had increasing waist sizes, but weren't necessarily gaining weight," said Christina Shay, Ph.D., lead author of the study and assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Centre in Oklahoma City.

"These women also developed high triglycerides and women with normal blood glucose levels more frequently went from having a low risk to a high risk of developing diabetes over time," she stated.

Women may have a greater chance for developing cardiovascular disease risk factors from sugar-sweetened drinks because they require fewer calories than men which makes each calorie count more towards cardiovascular risk in women, Shay said.

Researchers have yet to determine exactly how sugar-sweetened beverages influence cardiovascular risk factors such as high triglycerides in individuals who do not gain weight, Shay said, but further work is planned to try and figure that out.

The study was presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2011.

Source and More:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health/Sugary-drinks-bad-for-womens-heart/articleshow/10727273.cms

Kansas cuts mental health spending more than most states

2011-11-11T04:40:00.000-06:00

A new report shows Kansas is among 10 other states that have made the deepest cuts to mental health spending and that those reductions could lead to more risks for a growing number of people with mental illnesses, according to the Kansas chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Kansas trimmed mental health spending by about 12 percent in the past four years, the nonprofit mental health advocacy group reported.

The report is based on data for non-Medicaid mental health services financed by state general funds through the state’s mental health agencies.

NAMI Kansas Executive Director Rick Cagan said state cuts go beyond what the report shows. He said data shows cuts to mental health reform grants, Medicaid, MedKan, community support medication program and funds for non-Medicaid psychiatric inpatient screenings.

John Brennan, a Wichita lawyer and member of the NAMI Kansas Board of Directors, said people with serious mental illness face challenges in getting services.

“We have to make up for lost ground,” he said in a prepared statement.

In 2006, the group gave Kansas an F on its national report card. It upgraded Kansas to a D in 2009.

Source and More:
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/11/10/3258304/kansas-cuts-mental-health-spending.html

Cancer treatment shows promise for rapid weight loss

2011-11-10T04:52:00.000-06:00

A drug born of a revolutionary approach to cancer treatment causes rapid weight loss and improved metabolic function in monkeys, scientists have found. Coming in the wake of multiple setbacks for proposed diet drugs, the early success of a peptide dubbed "adipotide" by its creators may open a new front in the war against obesity, several researchers said.

The study, published Wednesday, describes trials in which three species of primates responded to injections of the synthetic peptide by eating less, shedding belly fat and showing changes in metabolic function likely to keep at bay Type 2 diabetes — a frequent consequence of obesity.

Source and More:
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-drug-fat-loss-20111110,0,5914182.story

Helping others helps teens stay on the road to addiction recovery

2011-11-09T04:50:00.000-06:00

A new study of teens undergoing substance abuse treatment finds helping others helps the adolescent helper by reducing cravings for alcohol and drugs, a major precipitator of relapse. These novel findings stem from the "Helping Others" study (http://helpingotherslivesober.org) led by Maria Pagano, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Results of this large investigation involving 195 substance dependent juvenile offenders reveal that helping others in 12-step programs significantly improves adolescent treatment response. Featured in the November issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, this study also shows that youth service participation mediates the influence of lifetime religious practices on treatment outcomes.

"Our findings indicate that service participation in 12-step programs can reduce the craving symptoms experienced by adolescents in treatment for alcohol and or drug addiction," Dr. Pagano says. "Similarly, we found that substance-dependent adolescents with greater religious backgrounds participate more during treatment in 12-step programs of recovery, which leads to better health outcomes."

This observational, longitudinal study is the first to examine the relationship between adolescent 12-step participation during treatment, lifetime religiosity, and clinical outcomes, replicating findings shown among adults in Dr. Pagano's prior collaborative research.

Funded by the John Templeton Foundation, the investigation comprised 93 boys and 102 girls, ages 14-18, court-referred for residential treatment at New Directions, the largest adolescent residential treatment facility in Northeast Ohio. The majority were marijuana dependent (92%) with comorbid alcohol dependence (60%). Participants were interviewed within the first 10 days of treatment and two months later at treatment discharge. Outcomes assessed included urine toxicology screens, alcohol/drug craving symptoms, clinical characteristics, and global psychosocial functioning.

Controlling for background characteristics and clinical severity, Dr. Pagano and colleagues found that Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous-related helping, as part of treatment, improved four of seven outcomes. These included reductions in two types of craving symptoms, reduced narcissistic entitlement, and improved psychosocial functioning. Higher lifetime religious practices, such as prayer, worship, and meditation, were associated with higher service participation during treatment, which in turn, led to better outcomes.

"Because most religions encourage altruistic behaviors, youths entering treatment with greater religious backgrounds may have an easier time engaging in service in 12-step programs of recovery," Dr. Pagano explains. "In turn, youth entering treatment with low or no religious background may require greater 12-step facilitation or a different approach to derive equal benefit from treatment."

Adolescent addiction has increased dramatically in the past decade at a time when treatment resources are dwindling. Craving for alcohol and drugs is a major precipitator of relapse and can linger long after the detoxification period. While newly developed medications can block cravings, they are not approved for use with adolescents. Service participation is a natural, no-cost behavioral approach that can reduce adolescents' craving symptoms as they adjust to a sober lifestyle.

Source and More:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-teens-road-addiction-recovery.html

Depression in dads affects kids

2011-11-08T04:44:00.000-06:00

Children who live with a father who has mental health problems and depression have higher rates of behavioural and emotional problems themselves, according to a new study.

Though the effect of mother's depression upon her children is a well known, this study is the first to the reveal the influence a father's depression may have on his children, the Daily Mail reported.

The team, led by Dr Michael Weitzman at NYU's Langone Medical Center, looked at a nationally representative sample of almost 22,000 children over four years.

They found that 11 per cent of children with depressed fathers had behavioural and emotional problems.

For children without depressed parents, the figure was just six per cent; while for a child of a depressed mother, the number was 19 per cent.

It is believed that a parents' depression affects the way he or she interacts with a child, in turn contributing to a child's behaviour.

Dr Weitzman told Good Morning America that the study is "remarkable" because it is the first of its kind.

The researchers hope the study will add to more successful treatment of depressed fathers and better education of health care workers.

Source and More:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/relationships/parenting/Depression-in-dads-affects-kids/articleshow/10652561.cms

Diabetes and the stem cell promise

2011-11-07T04:39:00.000-06:00

Ever since scientists started talking about the medical potential of embryonic stem cells, curing Type 1 diabetes has been one of the dearest dreams.

When researchers announced in 1998 that they had derived stem cells from human embryos, their landmark report flagged juvenile-onset diabetes as a disease that might be treated by stem cell transplants.

In the run-up to the 2004 vote on California's Proposition 71, diabetes was repeatedly mentioned as a target by scientists campaigning to form a state-backed stem cell agency.

Years later, the promise remains. But success has been elusive. Scientists are still studying how embryonic stem cells, which can develop into any type of cell in the body, can be coaxed to become cells that make insulin at just the right time, in just the right amounts, and that can be transplanted into patients to cure diabetes. Getting the cells to develop properly and figuring out how to administer them safely has been challenging.

"It's maddeningly simple as a concept," says Dr. Gordon C. Weir, a longtime diabetes researcher at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. "It's been incredibly frustrating that we can't bring this to the clinic more quickly."

Type 1 diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes, is an autoimmune disorder that is usually diagnosed when patients are children or young adults. According to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, as many as 3 million Americans have the disease. They face a lifetime of vigilance, blood monitoring and daily insulin injections to keep the condition in check.

(More than 90% of people with diabetes have another form, Type 2 diabetes, which develops when the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin or the body becomes unresponsive to it.)

One reason why Type 1 diabetes seemed to be such a great fit for stem cell therapies was how motivated patients and their advocates were to find a cure, says Meri Firpo, a stem cell scientist at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Groups such as the Juvenile Research Diabetes Foundation were willing to fund research using human embryonic stem cells — often controversial, because it involves destroying embryos — before other organizations were.

There were technical reasons too that made the disorder an attractive target, Firpo adds.

In Type 1 diabetes, for reasons not fully understood, a combination of genetic and environmental factors triggers a patient's immune system to kill off his or her own beta cells, the insulin-producing factories that group together in the pancreas into clusters known as the islets of Langerhans.

Healthy people have about a million functioning islets in the pancreas, each comprised of about 1,000 beta cells. In Type 1 diabetes, those islets are destroyed. Restoring the islet cells would cure the disease — and researchers already know that they can do that. Scientists made the first successful islet cell transplant in 1989, placing beta cells from a cadaver into a diabetic patient.

The treatment, which is still considered experimental, isn't perfect. Islet recipients must take anti-rejection drugs, which can lead to infection and organ damage, to prevent the body from attacking the foreign cells. Nonetheless, in the last two decades these transplants have greatly improved recipients' diabetes to the point where some no longer require insulin injections, at least until their new beta cells peter out and a new transplant is needed.

If there were enough cadaver pancreases to go around, a better diabetes treatment would already be available. But there aren't. About 35,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes each year and only around 2,000 cadaver pancreases become available for transplantation, says Weir of the Joslin Center. One donor pancreas may not provide enough cells for even a single transplant, which has meant that only people with especially poor glucose control are candidates for the procedure.

But if scientists can figure out how to turn embryonic cells (or adult cells that have been transformed back to a versatile, embryonic state) into functioning beta cells, they'll have access to a possibly endless supply for transplantation.

Researchers at a company called ViaCyte Inc. of San Diego have successfully nudged human embryonic stem cells to become precursors to beta cells. Transplants of those cells into mice have yielded promising results. Once implanted, the cells developed into beta cells and reversed diabetes in the animals.

But fine-tuning the cells to make them safe and effective for human use will take time. For example, beta cells do more than just produce insulin; they also respond to body cues to produce just the right amount of insulin when it's needed and thus regulate glucose levels with great precision. If you make beta cells that produce too much insulin, the level of glucose can drop dangerously low — and people can pass out, lapse into a coma or even die.

"We have not regenerated the intricate mechanisms that regulate the levels of secretions," says Matthias Hebrok, director of the UC San Francisco Diabetes Center. "Beta cells are like a Porsche — an amazing, calibrated machine. What we've made is more like a Volkswagen Beetle."

Another major problem facing a cure in humans is the issue of autoimmunity — the problem that causes Type 1 diabetes in the first place. "Even if we are able to generate beta cells from stem cells, if you put them into a patient with Type 1 diabetes, they'll be eliminated quickly, because the immune system is primed to destroy those cells," Hebrok says.

Currently, physicians combat autoimmune responses with anti-rejection drugs. In the future, immunologists hope to figure out ways to specifically interfere with the interaction of the immune system and beta cells.

Another approach to the autoimmune problem is being tested by ViaCyte. The company is working on an embryonic stem cell-based therapy that will enclose beta-cell precursors inside a membrane envelope, then implant them under a diabetic patient's skin. The pouch will allow insulin to flow out of it, into a patient's bloodstream, but won't allow cells of the immune system to get in and attack the implant (or allow rogue cancers from the transplant, should they arise, to escape into the recipient's body).

Finally, diabetes researchers face the same challenges as any other scientists working with stem cells: They need to figure out how to produce large numbers of the beta cells and make sure they're safe and stable.

Over the long term, the best solution would probably be to study how stem cells generate beta cells to figure out how to teach a patient's body to regrow islets for itself from stem cells, and possibly even other types of cells, already in the body, Firpo says. "We could have stem cell therapies that don't actually involve a stem cell being transplanted into a person."

Weir, Firpo and Hebrok all say they can't predict when stem cell therapies for diabetes might become available.

Hebrok adds that he isn't discouraged, though. "To be honest, I think we're amazingly fast. When I started in 1996, we really had no idea" how to produce beta cells, he says. "What we've learned in the past decade and a half is truly amazing."

Still, the pace of progress can seem unbearably slow to some. The soonest ViaCyte's technology would begin human trials would be 2013. Other proposed cures won't be ready for testing until even further in the future.

"There was too much hype for this type of technology. There are no shortcuts in this kind of research," says Dr. Camillo Ricordi, an islet cell transplantation expert at the University of Miami Diabetes Research Institute.

"Next century, when you look back at it, two decades won't seem like much. But for those affected right now, every month is too long."

Source and More:
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-diabetes-stem-cells-20111107,0,5759144.story

10 Famous Athletes Who Managed to Beat Cancer

2011-11-07T04:00:00.002-06:00

The recent revelation that Eagles running back Jerome Harrison has a brain tumor — hopefully it’s not cancerous — underscores the reality that athletes are just like you and I. They suffer through the same traumas and dramas, and are vulnerable to the general unpredictability of life. Despite their physical and mental toughness, each of which they’ve forged through years of athletic competition, nothing can prepare them for undertaking the fights of their lives. The following athletes accepted the challenge presented by cancer, triumphantly defeating it as we cheered them on. Not all athletes are role models, but these guys — just a handful of the many cancer survivors in sports — exhibited traits everyone should emulate.

Source and More:
http://www.medicalbillingandcoding.org/blog/10-famous-athletes-who-managed-to-beat-cancer/

Diabetes shame plus denial a risky combo

2011-11-04T04:58:00.000-06:00

Mary Hyde, 64, recalls her mother’s response after hearing Hyde had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

“I told you not to eat all those sweet rolls when you were a teenager.”

For years after her mother’s reproach, Hyde kept her condition and treatment pretty much to herself. “I didn’t speak about it. I never tested my blood sugar in public,” says Hyde, who lives in San Diego.

Hyde's efforts to hide her diabetes aren't unusual. Few chronic diseases carry more stigma than Type 2 diabetes. While patients with heart disease or cancer are often showered with sympathy, people with Type 2 diabetes are criticized for being fat, lazy or junk food junkies.

Even diabetics themselves can have a blame-the-victim feeling, says Theresa Garnero, a diabetes nurse educator at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. “Granted, if you’re not eating healthfully, and you’re not exercising like you should — and most people don’t — there could be a modicum of truth to that.”

Clinical psychologist Susan Guzman, director of clinical services at the Behavioral Diabetes Institute in San Diego, hears the recrimination over and over again: “You give it to yourself by being overweight or eating badly or not taking care of yourself.”

While excess weight is a major risk factor for Type 2 diabetes — more than 85 percent of people who have it are overweight, according to government estimates — not everyone who is overweight is diabetic. There are uncontrollable risk factors, including family history or age. And some ethnic groups such as African-Americans and Hispanics are more likely to develop it.

The problem is, shame plus denial, especially with loved ones or medical professionals, can be a risky combination when it comes to managing diabetes, experts warn. People who hide their condition may not be as careful about monitoring their blood sugar or eating healthfully.

Even Guzman’s own father went into "diabetes denial" when Guzman diagnosed him a couple of years ago at a family get-together. She’d brought along a meter to check his blood sugar. “He avoided talking to his doctor about it for a good six months.”

Her dad finally faced facts, Guzman says, and his diabetes is now well-controlled.

Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease in the U.S., is linked to a range of serious problems, including kidney disease, heart attack and cancer. It doesn’t help, Guzman says, that the American Diabetes Association and other well-intentioned organizations have described diabetes as the leading cause of blindness and amputations.

“That’s false,” Guzman says, “because it’s poorly managed diabetes that’s the cause of those things. Well-managed diabetes is the cause of nothing.”

Ann Bloise, 50, is convinced her diabetes is all her fault. No one else in her family has the disease. She is obese and hates to exercise.

After being diagnosed five years ago, she didn’t tell anyone, not even her immediate family, for the first few weeks. “I think I told my mom first. I burst out crying. I felt ashamed,” she says.

Bloise, who lives in Dallas, still shares her diagnosis only with few close friends – whom she’s told only so someone could help in case her blood sugar spiked or fell too much. “I don’t take medicine in front of people. Even when other people tell me they have it, I don’t talk about it,” she says. She admits, “it’s not as under control as it should be.”

One of Garnero's clients has yet to tell her sister that she has diabetes, which worsens the situtaion. “When she goes to visit, and her sister gives her ginormous boxes of chocolate because it’s Halloween time or whatever, she won’t correct her,” says Garnero.

Hyde, who was diagnosed at 46, finally started to open up about her condition about five years ago, after both her parents had died. Although she had never been terribly overweight, and she took her medication and exercised a little, she was still “very confused about nutrition.” She’s since become a certified health coach and started her own diabetes support group. Often newcomers arrive at the group full of self-recrimination.

Hyde reassures them. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Source and More:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45137643/ns/health-diabetes/

12 Charged In Medicare Fraud Scheme

2011-11-03T04:02:00.002-06:00

Twelve people have been charged in a Medicare fraud and money laundering scheme that resulted in $95 million in false claims.

The Department of Justice said the group, which includes doctors and health care professionals, was indicted for their roles in separate fraud schemes in Brooklyn and Queens.

The indictment alleges they recruited Medicare beneficiaries to their clinic and offered them lunches and other perks in exchange for their Medicare numbers and then billed them for services that were never rendered.

The cases were brought as a part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which aims to pursue those stealing from the Medicare program.

Source and More:
http://brooklyn.ny1.com/content/top_stories/150111/12-charged-in-medicare-fraud-scheme

Judge William Adams beats Disabled daughter for using the internet

2011-11-02T04:13:00.000-06:00

Warning: Violence,language,pain,abuse of a disabled child and the list goes on.
----------------------------------------------

2004: Aransas County Court-At-Law Judge William Adams took a belt to his own teenage daughter as punishment for using the internet to acquire music and games that were unavailable for legal purchase at the time. She has had "ataxic cerebral palsy from birth" that led her to a passion for technology, which was strictly forbidden by her father's backwards views. The judge's wife was emotionally abused herself and was severely manipulated into assisting the beating and should not be blamed for any content in this video. The judge's wife has since left the marriage due to the abuse, which continues to this day, and has sincerely apologized and repented for her part and for allowing such a thing, long before this video was even revealed to exist. Judge William Adams is not fit to be anywhere near the law system if he can't even exercise fit judgement as a parent himself. Do not allow this man to ever be re-elected again. His "judgement" is a giant farce. Signed, Hillary Adams, his daughter.

Source and More:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl9y3SIPt7o

Too shocking. As a victim of abuse myself I felt every slap of that belt myself all over again.

Yoga better than conventional methods

2011-11-01T03:46:00.000-06:00

Yoga, compared to conventional methods, can be a better treatment for chronic lower back pain, a new major study has suggested.

The study, led by the University of York, found that people offered a specially-designed 12-week yoga programme experienced greater improvements in back function and more confidence in performing everyday tasks than those offered conventional forms of GP care.

Although improvements in back function were more pronounced at three months, researchers found there was still an improvement in people's ability to perform tasks such as walking more quickly, getting dressed without help or standing up for longer periods of time even nine months after the classes had finished.

The trial involved two groups of people who were both receiving GP care for chronic or recurrent back pain

A 156-strong group were offered group yoga classes specially designed to improve back function, while a second control group of 157 people were offered GP care alone.

The trial showed that there was more reduction in pain in the yoga group than the usual care group, but of marginal statistical significance.

The findings are published in the Annals of Internal Medicine this week.

Source and More:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health/Yoga-better-than-conventional-methods/articleshow/10567159.cms

Policies for a healthier European diet: Are they effective?

2011-10-31T03:43:00.000-06:00

A Europe-wide project led by the University of Reading to assess the effect of policies encouraging healthier eating has found that much more work still needs to be done for these to be successful.

EATWELL is an EU-funded project that aims to help tackle one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century: unhealthy diets. European Union member states have initiated various national policy campaigns to encourage physical activity and healthier diets. The EATWELL project was devised to identify the successes, failures and uncertainties of these campaigns and use the results to provide advice for policy-makers on creating more successful healthy eating policies.

The latest results from the project were announced this week at the European Nutrition Conference in Madrid.

Bruce Traill, Professor of Food Economics at the University of Reading, said: "Very little work has been done on how policy interventions introduced by governments across Europe impact on behavior - do people actually change their diets, their eating habits as result?

"EATWELL's international team of researchers reviewed healthy eating policy actions, interviewed policy-makers and industry, and surveyed more than 3,000 European citizens as well as undertook fresh analysis of data. The work has led to the identification of over 100 policy interventions in Europe. However, not all of these had the desired effects."

Two broad categories of intervention were identified; those aimed at supporting more informed choice by providing information or education, such as the UK 5-a-day information campaign or nutrition labelling, and those seeking to change the market environment by changing prices or food availability, such as imposing taxes on foods high in saturated fat or providing vouchers for disadvantaged consumers.

Some policies were found to be almost absent in Europe, such as nutrition information on menus, fiscal measures and nutrition-related food standards. Current evidence suggests that information and education measures show limited success. Attitudes and knowledge have been enhanced but behavior has been slow to follow. Fiscal measures, such as fat taxes, are only starting to be implemented in Europe, but the body of evidence collected outside Europe suggests they elicit small behavioral responses, but large tax revenues.

The Mediterranean countries and transition economies have only a recent history of policy action and these are mostly confined to information and education measures.

Professor Traill said: "We want to determine which interventions work in order to give advice to governments and the EU as to which ones are effective, both in terms of encouraging healthy eating and cost effectiveness."

In its final year, findings and recommendations for action will be exposed to stakeholders for feedback in a series of workshops.

Source and More:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-policies-healthier-european-diet-effective.html

Why dieters tend to regain weigh

2011-10-28T04:29:00.000-05:00

As if Americans needed any reminder that weight loss is hard and maintaining weight loss even harder, a study has found that for at least a year, subjects who shed weight on a low-calorie diet were hungrier than when they started and had higher levels of hormones that tell the body to eat more, conserve energy and store away fuel as fat.

The report, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, helps explain why roughly 4 in 5 dieters wind up gaining back lost pounds within a year or two of losing them — and, sometimes, pack on a few extra pounds for good measure.

FOR THE RECORD:
An earlier version of this report said Meridia was an over-the-counter medication. It is a prescription drug.

It is a close look at the disheartening pattern: In the wake of weight loss, "multiple compensatory mechanisms" spring to life, the study illustrates, and work together to ensure that weight loss is reversed quickly and efficiently.

The researchers, led by Joseph Proietto of the University of Melbourne's Department of Medicine, write that more than one solution to the crisis of obesity will likely be necessary: "a combination of medications" that will have to be safe for long-term use.

The study comes as the quest to develop effective medications to fight obesity has hit a long rough patch. Over the last four years, the Food and Drug Administration has rejected or sent back for further research applications for the approval of four different weight-loss drugs. And it has ordered the withdrawal of one of the prescription medications already on the market, Meridia.

In almost all cases, regulators cited the drugs' marginal effectiveness and concerns about their safety if used by a broad swath of the population over long periods.

Meanwhile, two-thirds of Americans and a growing proportion of the developing world's population are overweight or obese, and though obesity rates in the U.S. have begun to stabilize, there's been no real decline. Public health officials already fear that an entire generation of Americans will suffer poorer health and earlier deaths due to the extra pounds they carry.

The Australian study paints a "very comprehensive" and "really discouraging" picture of the breadth of the body's response to weight loss, said Dr. Daniel Bessesen, an endocrinologist and obesity researcher at University of Colorado's Denver Health Medical Center. It captures just how many resources the body musters to ensure that pounds are put back on — a long list of hormones that regulate appetite, feelings of fullness after eating and how calories are used.

The study enrolled 50 obese men and women without major health problems, and put them on a strict low-calorie diet for eight weeks. Within two weeks after subjects completed that diet, and again one year later, researchers measured blood levels of nine distinct hormones that affect appetite and metabolism, and queried each subject about his or her feelings of hunger after meals, between meals and as mealtime approached.

The challenges of weight control quickly became evident. Thirty-four of 50 enrolled subjects made it to the one-year mark. Four withdrew during the eight-week period of dieting — a rigorous 550-calorie per day regimen. Seven failed to lose 10% of their body mass, which researchers had set as a condition of continued participation.

And five withdrew during the yearlong "weight maintenance" phase, when subjects got regular counseling on a diet-and-exercise plan to help them hold steady at the new weight.

Of those who remained, the average weight loss at 10 weeks, when hormone levels were first measured, was just short of 30 pounds.

One year out, those subjects had gained back an average of just over 12 pounds. But after and between meals, their appetites — and the hormones that influence hunger — rebounded even more robustly.

With names such as leptin, ghrelin, amylin, cholescystokinin and insulin, the hormones vary widely. Some are secreted from the gut, others by the pancreas or fat cells themselves. Some dial appetite up, others send word to the brain that plenty has been consumed, and still others help regulate how calories are used.

But 52 weeks after subjects had completed their crash diets and were struggling to maintain their loss, that cacophony of hormones was sending a single message, loudly, clearly and after every meal: Eat more.

And subjects were getting that message. When asked, they said they were just as hungry as they had been upon completion of their crash diets and significantly hungrier than they had been before their diets had begun.

"The high rate of relapse after dieting is not surprising," the authors concluded.

Barbara E. Corkey, an obesity researcher at Boston University, said that although the subjects' rapid regain of weight was no shock, the authors had turned up important evidence on how distinct hormones work individually and collectively to fight weight loss.

The result, she said, could help in devising new drugs and strategies to support dieters who just want to hang on to their losses.

Source and More:
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/26/health/la-he-diet-hormones-20111027

Study: Local, organic foods not always safer

2011-10-27T05:09:00.000-05:00

Shoppers nervous about foodborne illnesses may turn to foods produced at smaller farms or labeled "local," "organic" or "natural" in the hopes that such products are safer. But a small outbreak of salmonella in organic eggs from Minnesota shows that no food is immune to contamination.

While sales for food produced on smaller operations have exploded, partially fueled by a consumer backlash to food produced by larger companies, a new set of food safety challenges has emerged. And small farm operations have been exempted from food safety laws as conservatives, farmers and food-lovers have worried about too much government intervention and regulators have struggled with tight budgets.

The government has traditionally focused on safety at large food operations - including farms, processing plants, and retailers - because they reach the most people. Recent outbreaks in cantaloupe, ground turkey, eggs and peanuts have started at large farms or plants and sickened thousands of people across the country.

"While it's critical that food processors be regularly inspected, there is no way the Food and Drug Administration would ever have the resources to check every farm in the country, nor are we calling for that," says Erik Olson, a food safety advocate at the Pew Health Group. "Unfortunately, there are regulatory gaps, with some producers being completely exempt from FDA safeguards."

The FDA, which oversees the safety of most of the U.S. food supply, often must focus on companies that have the greatest reach. A sweeping new egg rule enacted last year would require most egg producers to do more testing for pathogens. Though the rule will eventually cover more than 99 percent of the country's egg supply, small farms like Larry Schultz Organic Farm of Owatonna, Minn., would not qualify. That farm issued a recall last week after six cases of salmonella poisoning were linked to the farm's eggs.

A new food safety law President Barack Obama signed earlier this year exempts some small farms as a result of farmers and local food advocates complaining that creating costly food safety plans could cause some small businesses to go bankrupt. The exemption covers farms of a certain size that sell within a limited distance of their operation.

Food safety advocates unsuccessfully lobbied against the provision, as did the organic industry. Christine Bushway of the Organic Trade Association, which represents large and small producers, says food safety comes down to proper operation of a farm or food company, not its scale.

"How is the farm managed? How much effort is put into food safety?" she asks. "If you don't have really good management, it doesn't matter."

Smaller farms do have some obvious food safety advantages. Owners have more control over what they are producing and often do not ship as far, lessening the chances for contamination in transport. If the farm is organic, an inspector will have to visit the property to certify it is organic and may report to authorities if they see food being produced in an unsafe way. Customers may also be familiar with an operation if it is nearby.

But those checks aren't fail-safe. The FDA has reported at least 20 recalls due to pathogens in organic food in the last two years, while the Agriculture Department, which oversees meat safety, issued a recall of more than 34,000 pounds of organic beef last December due to possible contamination with E. coli.

Egg safety is equally ambiguous. While many people like to buy cage-free eggs, those chickens may be exposed to bacteria on the grounds where they are roaming.

So what can a consumer do? Experts say to follow the traditional rules, no matter what the variety of food. Cook foods like eggs and meat, and make sure you are scrubbing fruit and cleaning your kitchen well.

Do your part, and hope for the best, the experts say.

"Labels like organic or local don't translate into necessarily safer products," says Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "They are capturing different values but not ensuring safety."

Bushway of the Organic Trade Association says one of the best checks on food safety is the devastating effect a recall or foodborne illness outbreak can have on a company's bottom line.

"It's just good business to make sure you are putting the safest products on the market," she says.

Source and More:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-local-foods-safer.html

Study: Soft drinks linked to violent tendencies in teens

2011-10-26T04:43:00.000-05:00

Teens who drink lots of soda seem to be prone to violence, new research suggests. But the study authors concede that sodas are probably not the direct cause of the aggression.

While there's a chance that the sugar and caffeine from carbonated drinks contributes to violent behavior, the study shows an association, not a cause-and-effect. Soda consumption, for example, may be a marker of heightened violent tendencies already present in the teen, or of poor parenting, the researchers said.

"Soda (could be) a red flag that is indicating something else is wrong," said study co-author Sara Solnick, an associate professor of economics at the University of Vermont in Burlington.

The study is published in the Oct. 24 online issue of Injury Prevention.

The researchers asked about 1,900 Boston public high school students how many non-diet sodas they drank during the last week, as well as whether they carried a weapon or had been violent toward family members or peers.

Nearly 43% of teens who drank 14 or more cans of soda a week said they carried a weapon at some point, compared with 23% of teens who drank less than one can of soda a week.

The researchers also saw an association between soda and weapons even when kids drank less than 14 cans. About 33% of teens who drank two to four cans a week said they'd carried a knife or a gun at some point, as did 38% of teens who drank five to seven cans of soda.

There was a similar "dose relationship" on other measures of violence. About 27% of teens who drank 14 or more cans of soda a week admitted to violence against a romantic partner, compared with 15% of those drinking less than one can a week.

And 59% of those drinking 14 or more cans a week had been violent toward peers, compared with 35% of those drinking one can or less. Teens who drank lots of soda were also more likely to be aggressive toward a sibling — 45% compared with 25% among teens who drank little soda.

The authors were able to control for a number of factors including gender, race and tobacco and alcohol use but not for some other important factors that could affect the likelihood of violence, such as quality of parenting and poverty. Those who reported drinking lots of soda were also more likely to have also used alcohol or smoked cigarettes.

Nearly 30% of the ninth- to 12th-graders said they drank more than five cans of soda a week.

It's possible that the association is explained by the soda itself, researchers said. Teens who drink lots of soda could be missing important micro-nutrients found in healthier foods, according to background information in the study, or could be drinking soda to combat low blood sugar, which is linked to irritability or violence.

Soft drinks also contain sugar and caffeine, which might affect behavior.

But the studies on the effect of caffeine and sugar on behavior are inconclusive, said another expert.

"There's no definitive explanation that this explains how or if this might affect behavior," said Alan Manevitz, a psychiatrist with Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Alternatively, "soda could be showing that this person is not having a healthy diet or they don't have a great upbringing," Solnick said. "Those things are connected to violence."

In the study, the authors make mention of the infamous "Twinkie Defense" in which defendant Dan White was convicted only of voluntary manslaughter instead of homicide in the deaths of San Francisco city district supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone in 1979.

White's lawyers argued that the crime wasn't premeditated because White was hyped up on junk food and Coca-Cola.

Since then, other studies have further probed possible effects of unhealthy food, with one study finding poor mental health among Norwegian teens who drank a lot of soft drinks. Another study found antisocial tendencies among U.S. college students who consumed a lot of soda.

Source and More:
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/parenting-family/teen-ya/story/2011-10-25/Study-Soft-drinks-linked-to-violent-tendencies-in-teens/50916334/1

FDA: Chantix Benefits Still Outweigh the Risks

2011-10-25T04:49:00.000-05:00

New studies show that the benefits of the stop-smoking drug Chantix still outweigh its risks, the FDA says.

The FDA-sponsored studies find that Chantix does not increase a person's risk of psychiatric hospitalization. But the studies "do not rule out an increased risk of other neuropsychiatric events with Chantix," the FDA says in a statement.

This means that warnings on the current Chantix label are strong enough for the FDA.

"The Agency continues to believe that the drug's benefits outweigh the risks and the current warnings in the Chantix label are appropriate," the FDA says.

In 2009, the FDA required Chantix -- and Zyban, a different kind of stop-smoking drug -- to warn users of the risk of "serious psychiatric symptoms." These include behavior changes, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts, and attempted suicide.

More recently, the FDA warned that Chantix may add to the risk of heart attack in people with underlying heart disease.

However, the benefits of quitting smoking are enormous. And clinical trials show that Chantix greatly increases a smoker's odds of kicking the habit.

The FDA cited two studies. In the first, the Veterans Administration compared over 14,000 Chantix users to people trying to quit smoking by using a nicotine patch or other nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs). In the second, the Department of Defense compared nearly 20,000 Chantix users to some 16,000 NRT users.

Overall, the studies found no increased risk of psychiatric hospitalization in Chantix users. However, the Department of Defense study followed patients for only 30 days. And neither study looked at psychiatric symptoms that were not serious enough to require hospitalization.

Pfizer, which makes Chantix, is conducting a large safety study to look more closely at the drug's psychiatric risks. Results of that study should be announced in 2017.

Chantix works by partially blocking nicotine receptors in the brain. This takes away much of the rewarding effect of smoking. Chantix also mimics the effects of nicotine on the brain, although to a lesser extent than nicotine itself.

Source and More:
http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/news/20111024/fda-chantix-benefits-still-outweigh-the-risks

Teen sleep deprivation related to weight gain

2011-10-24T04:23:00.000-05:00

Sleeping less than 8 hours a night may be linked to weight gain in teens, shows a new study presented at CHEST 2011, the 77th annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP). Furthermore, obesity was linked to short sleep duration in teen males, with the fewest hours slept linked to the highest BMI levels.

"Sleep is food for the brain. When teens do not get enough sleep, they fall asleep in class, struggle to concentrate, look and feel stressed, get sick more often, and do not meet their obligations due to tiredness," said study author Lata Casturi, MA, RPSGT, Baylor College of Medicine Sleep Center in Houston, TX. "Teens who sleep fewer than eight hours may also consume more calories than those who sleep more than eight hours. Therefore, they have a higher risk for obesity and associated health problems, including high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke."

Ms. Casturi and colleagues, including coauthor Anita Rao, presently a 10th grader at Dawson High School in Pearland, TX, surveyed 255 teens (108 males and 147 females) in high school to obtain self-reported measures of height and weight (used for BMI calculation) and both weekday and weekend quantity of sleep. Among males, results indicated the average sleep time on weekdays was 6 hours 32 minutes and on weekends 9 hours 10 minutes. Among females, the average weekday sleep time was 6 hours 30 minutes and the average weekend sleep duration was 9 hours 22 minutes. Teen males who slept 7 hours or less on weekdays had an average BMI that was 3.8 percent higher than those who slept more than 7 hours. Likewise, teen females who slept 7 hours or less had a BMI that was 4.7 percent higher than females who got more than 7 hours of sleep per weekday.

But how does lack of sleep really affect weight gain? According to researchers, hormones leptin and ghrelin work in a "checks and balances" system to control feelings of hunger and fullness. Ghrelin, which is produced in the gastrointestinal tract, stimulates appetite, while leptin, produced in fat cells, sends a signal to the brain when you are full. "When you don't get enough sleep, it drives leptin levels down, which means you don't feel as satisfied after you eat. Lack of sleep also causes ghrelin levels to rise, which means your appetite is stimulated, so you want more food," said co-author Radha Rao, MD, DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, TX. "The two combined, can set the stage for overeating, which in turn may lead to weight gain."

Furthermore, after adjusting for potential cofounders, short sleep duration (<8 hours) was associated with obesity in male teens. A negative correlation also was found between weekday sleep duration and obesity in males, with the fewest hours of weekday sleep associated with the highest BMI. There was no evident correlation between obesity and weekday sleep hours in teen females.The researchers believe the sex-related difference in sleep and weight gain may be due to the differences in body composition during puberty. "Males and females experience differential growth rates and hormone secretion during puberty. The sleep factors that impact metabolism may increase weight gain differently in the two sexes," explained Ms. Casturi.In addition to weight gain, lack of sleep during teenage years can result in poor sleep habits that continue into adulthood and result in long-term health consequences."Sleep promotes growth in children and adolescents and strengthens the immune and nervous systems. Hence, sleep deprivation early in life may cause the youngsters to suffer from a lifetime of irreversible higher health risks," said Anita Rao. Researchers recommend that parents educate teens about good sleep habits early in life, which include setting a regular sleep schedule, turning off technological devices at night, and avoiding caffeine and exercise at bedtime."Sleep deprivation can have an immediate impact on our physical performance and cognitive function, but can also lead to long term health problems, including cardiovascular and respiratory conditions," said Suhail Raoof, MBBS, FCCP, President of the American College of Chest Physicians. "Developing good sleep habits in adolescence may help to reduce the risk of related health conditions later in life."

Source and More:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-teen-deprivation-weight-gain.html

CDC: Americans consume too much sodium

2011-10-21T04:34:00.000-05:00

Most Americans consume too much sodium, and new strategies and stronger efforts are needed to reduce the amount of dietary salt, according to a new study by federal government researchers.

High levels of sodium consumption are associated with increased risk of high blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease and stroke, experts warn.

In general, people aged 2 years and older should limit daily sodium intake to less than 2,300 milligrams (mg), according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

MORE: High salt, low activity also bad for brain health

People who would benefit from reducing their sodium intake to less than 1,500 mg per day include those aged 51 years and older, blacks and anyone with high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease. These groups account for 47.6 percent of all Americans aged 2 and older and the majority of adults.

But the new analysis of 2005-2008 data from nearly 19,000 participants in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that 98.6 percent of Americans who should reduce their daily sodium intake to 1,500 milligrams, and 88.2 percent of those who should reduce their intake to less than 2,300 mg per day, consume more than those amounts.

The study is published in the Oct. 21 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most of the sodium Americans consume does not come from the salt shaker. About 75 percent of the sodium in the typical American diet is added to commercial foods during processing or during preparation of restaurant foods. Only about 25 percent occurs naturally or is added at the table or in cooking by the consumer, the CDC report explained.

This means that new population-based strategies and increased public health efforts will be required to meet the sodium targets in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the researchers said.

The study authors pointed to an effort in the United Kingdom to show that population-level strategies can work. There, a food manufacturer-government partnership that established voluntary maximum levels of sodium in certain processed foods led to a 9.5 percent reduction in sodium intake over 7 to 8 years, they said.

In the United States, a similar reduction in sodium intake would save an estimated $4 billion in health care costs a year and $32.1 billion over the lifetime of adults aged 40 to 85, the researchers said.

Source and More:
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/fitness-food/diet-nutrition/story/2011-10-20/CDC-Americans-consume-too-much-sodium/50844370/1

Men with breast cancer feeling 'isolated'

2011-10-20T05:28:00.000-05:00

New research by the Medical Research Council has shown men who have been diagnosed with breast cancer feel isolated by services geared up only for women.

A new information source for men with breast cancer, on the website "health-talk-online", hopes to give them more support as they encounter widespread ignorance.

Some even describe being addressed as "Mrs" at clinic appointments.

Source and More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-15380731

Down syndrome blood test comes to U.S.

2011-10-19T05:30:00.000-05:00

Pregnant women in the U.S. who want to know whether they're carrying a fetus with Down syndrome now have access to a commercial genetic blood test that has a 99 per cent accuracy rate.

Down syndrome, which results in a range of cognitive delays, is caused by having an extra copy or parts of chromosome 21.

Current screening tests such as amniocentesis involve inserting a needle into the woman's womb to get a sample for diagnosis. Amniocentesis is invasive and comes with a risk of miscarriage.

But as this week, Sequenom is offering women in 20 major U.S. cities a blood test that analyzes fetal DNA in the woman's blood.

The company published a study this week in the journal Genetics of Medicine that suggested the test picked up 98.6 per cent of fetuses with Down syndrome with a false-positive rate of 0.20 per cent.

The blood test, called MaterniT21, can be used as early as 10 weeks into a pregnancy for those at high-risk.

"The pregnant women can be safely assured that all we will be taking is just a blood sample," said Dr. Rossa Chiu of the University of Hong Kong, who helped develop the test. "The majority of cases would not need to go on to an invasive test."

Source and More:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/10/18/down-syndrome-blood-test.html

ADHD Evals for Preschoolers: New Guidelines Stir Overdiagnosis Fears

2011-10-18T05:30:00.000-05:00

The American Academy of Pediatrics expanded its guidelines regarding attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder this weekend, recommending that pediatricians start evaluations as early as preschool and continue them through high school

Previous guidelines, developed more than a decade ago, targeted kids between the ages of 6 and 12, but mounting evidence suggests that it's possible to diagnose and treat the disorder starting at age 4 and as late as age 18, according to a report on ADHD released Sunday.

The verifiable explosion of ADHD diagnoses in the past decade has fanned fears over the potential to overdiagnosis it. According to the Academy of Pediatrics, anywhere from 4 to 12 percent of school-age kids are diagnosed with ADHD, and in many cases, are prescribed stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall as the first-line approach to treatment.

Broadening the age group for evaluation fans fears that ADHD coud be overdiagnosed and kids overmedicated.

Source and More:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/adhd-evals-preschoolers-guidelines-stir-overdiagnosis-fears/story?id=14756347

No cupcakes here! Gold-medal school fights obesity

2011-10-17T05:08:00.000-05:00

Five-year-olds dance hip-hop to the alphabet. Third-graders learn math by twisting into geometric shapes, fifth-graders by calculating calories. And everyone goes to the gym - every day.

In the middle of America's heartland, a small public school, Northeast Elementary Magnet School, has taken on a hefty task - reversing obesity.

And it's won a gold medal for it, becoming the first elementary school in the country to receive that award from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. The Alliance was founded by the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation to reduce childhood obesity. Only two other schools have taken the gold.

The cafeteria here serves fresh fruit and veggies, low-fat or no-fat milk, no sodas or fried foods and no gooey desserts. There are no sweets on kids' birthdays and food is never used as a reward. Teachers wear pedometers and parents have to sign a contract committing to the school's healthy approach.

Northeast Elementary is not in some posh, progressive suburb. It's in Danville, Ill., an economically struggling city of 30,000 in farm country some 150 miles south of Chicago. But teachers, parents and students have embraced the rigorous curriculum and kids even call it "fun."

From the outside, it's a drab 50's-era yellow brick building in a blue-collar neighborhood of modest frame homes, a few blocks from a homeless shelter and a Salvation Army donation center. Inside, it's a cheerful oasis for almost 300 kids and has caught the attention of some of the nation's biggest obesity-fighting advocates.

Former President Bill Clinton says the steps Northeast has taken are an exemplary way to tackle "a terrible public health problem."

"We will never change it by telling people how bad it is. We've got to show people how good it can be," Clinton said, paraphrasing a colleague at the Alliance's June awards ceremony in Little Rock, Ark.

Northeast's strict, no-goodies program might sound extreme, but students seem to have bought it.

During a recent nutrition lesson, first-graders sat raptly on the hallway floor as a teacher read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," a classic kids' story about a caterpillar that can't seem to stop eating - all kinds of fruit at first. But when the bug moved on to chocolate cake and ice cream, the youngsters gasped and said in hushed tones, "junk food," as if it were poison.

"We're a healthy school," says 10-year-old Naomi Woods, a shy, slim fifth-grader. "We're not allowed to eat junk food or stuff like that."

Sandy-haired Timothy Mills, a fourth-grader, says the focus "just keeps us more fit, plus we have a lot more fun."

Like Mills, an earnest, heavy-set 9-year-old, Northeast kids aren't all skinny. Even some kindergartners are clearly overweight. But they still jump enthusiastically to the alphabet song, and though chubbier kids struggle to run around the football field during gym class, there doesn't seem to be much grumbling.

Physical education teacher Becky Burgoyne said it's sometimes tough to get kids of "all different shapes and sizes" to be physically active.

"I just ask that students do their best and improve on what they can already do," Burgoyne said.

Some schools "may have physical education twice a week, once a week, and that's not acceptable. Children need to move," she said. "To have a healthy body is to have a healthy brain and therefore they become better at reading and math and science. It all works together."

The students mostly mirror Danville and surrounding Vermilion County - generally poorer, less healthy than the state average, with many families struggling with obesity and related problems.

The percentage of overweight kids at Northeast increased in 2009, the program's third year, but dropped slightly last year, to 32 percent; 17 percent are obese. Those are similar to national figures, Principal Cheryl McIntire said. With only three years of data, it's too soon to call the slight dip in the percentage of overweight children a trend. But she considers it a promising sign, and there's no question that the children are learning healthy habits.

In a recent math class, fifth grade teacher Lisa Unzicker explained how food labels can be misleading by listing only calories per serving, not per container. Pointing to an image of a pretzel bag label projected on a screen at the front of the classroom, she taught students to figure out how many calories are in a whole bag, based on the amount in each serving.

You have to be careful about potato chips and candy bars, she told the class. "This is why it pays to be a very conscious consumer."

Teachers and parents credit McIntire for the school's success. The principal joined Northeast in 2008, a year after the staff moved to adopt the healthy focus, and has made it her mission to instill that mantra.

McIntire literally "walks the walk." When students need a talking-to, she walks to their classrooms and escorts them to and from her office rather than just messaging for them. When it's her turn for recess duty, she walks with her pedometer around the school's big field instead of standing on the sidelines. She recalls a student recently calling out, "Hey, Mrs. McIntire, are you doing your steps?"

McIntire is closely involved with choosing school menus and secured money from the state and local school district that have paid for fresh produce, including things like kiwi fruit that many children have never seen before.

A recent lunch menu featured whole-grain, reduced-fat cheese pizza, broccoli and cauliflower buds, sweet corn, chilled pears, low-fat pudding, and 1 percent low-fat milk.

McIntire has changed her own eating habits, giving up potato chips and shedding 15 pounds since last year.

Tall, slender and a youthful 56, McIntire guides Northeast with a firm but loving hand. She greets students by name each morning, helps with untied shoelaces, and offers hugs. And she scolds kids who have messy uniforms or are rude to their classmates.

School hallways feature signs about good food choices and being healthy, and a poster about the Alliance's gold award is prominently displayed near the school office.

The Alliance established a Healthy Schools' program in 2006, with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It helps schools that want to become healthier and meet alliance criteria for winning medals. More than 500 schools have won bronze and silver awards. Those gold medals are tougher to come by. Memorial High School in West New York, N.J., was the first school in the country ever to win a gold. Last year, Northeast became the first elementary school to do that. Rio Hondo Elementary in suburban Los Angeles is the latest to win it.

Ginny Ehrlich, chief executive officer for the Alliance for a Healthier Generation says of Northeast, "They truly stand out." The school has done a remarkable job of making "healthy eating and activity the norm."

Since Northeast is a magnet school, students have to apply to attend, although they don't need to test in. Besides committing to the healthy mindset, parents must volunteer 26 hours at the school each year.

"There certainly are people who are much more invested than others, but we have gotten so much positive feedback from parents," McIntire said.

In her first year, McIntire recruited students by posting advertisements in the local newspaper. "I don't need to do that anymore," she said. For the current school year, there were more than 80 applications for 48 kindergarten slots.

"We have people calling everyday wondering if their child can get in," she said.

Shelbi Black says Northeast has had an "amazing, life-altering" influence on her kids, 10-year-old Kayla and Carter, 5. They've come home requesting fruits and vegetables they used to reject. Carter was thrilled to make frozen fruit shish kebobs in school, and Kayla "was so excited the other day because she made her goal in running the mile and she was so happy that she knocked down her time from last year," Black said.

Tim Mills' mom, Charlyn Hester, says since the school adopted the healthy program, her family has switched from eating lots of convenience foods to lean grass-fed beef and lots of fruits and vegetables. Her oldest daughter, a recent Northeast graduate, has slimmed down and Hester says she thinks Tim and his 11-year-old sister will, too. Hester herself has lost almost 100 pounds since 2009.

The family's grocery bills are higher, but Hester, a freelance writer, says she and her husband, a security officer, have decided it's worth spending more on food and forgoing things like a new car, for their kids' health.

"It's not necessarily a financial hardship, but it's certainly an investment," she said.

Health department officials say they have not calculated obesity rates for children in Danville and the county. Psychologist Richard Elghammer, who works with a large rural health clinic in Danville, says about one-third of the kids treated there are overweight or obese - similar to the national average. National data suggest that the county's obesity rate alone for adults, about 32 percent, is also similar to the national average. About two-thirds of adults are overweight.

But Vermilion County rates of obesity-related illness including heart disease are higher, and more than 80 percent of county residents don't eat government-recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, according to national surveys.

Dr. Thomas Halloran, an internist who treats adults in Danville, has been working to provide financial support and resources to Northeast, through his medical group, Carle Clinic. Halloran says many of his patients have diabetes and other illnesses tied to a lifetime of obesity and poor health habits. By instilling healthy habits in kids starting in kindergarten, the school is making an important contribution to the community's health, Halloran said.

Source and More:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-cupcakes-gold-medal-school-obesity.html

Top GOP senator open to changes in military health

2011-10-14T05:42:00.000-05:00

The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee is recommending that a special committee searching for ways to slash the deficit consider some of President Barack Obama's proposed changes to health and retirement benefits for the military.

In a letter to the bipartisan panel, Arizona Sen. John McCain signaled he was open to cost-saving steps in military benefits, a move certain to send shock waves through Congress and among powerful groups of retired officers and veterans resistant to change.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter.

The Pentagon's health care costs have skyrocketed from $19 billion in 2001 to $53 billion, but lawmakers and various groups argue that members of the military and their families sacrifice far more than the average American, with a career that includes long and dangerous deployments overseas that overshadow civilian work. Health and retirement benefits help attract service members to the all-volunteer force.

McCain said he would support establishing an annual enrollment fee for TRICARE for Life, the health care program that has no fee for participation. Obama had proposed an initial annual fee of $200.

"This proposal would be the first such change since Congress established this program in 2001, a period during which national health care costs have risen significantly," the senator wrote.

McCain also urged the so-called supercommittee to consider restricting working-age military retirees and their dependents from enrolling in TRICARE Prime, which has the lowest out-of-pocket expenses. The retirees could still enroll in other TRICARE programs. McCain pointed out that the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that such a move would save $111 billion over 10 years.

Active-duty personnel still would be enrolled in the program automatically.

McCain, who was Obama's rival for the presidency in 2008, also said he supported Obama's proposal for a commission to review military retirement benefits that should consider changes to the military compensation system. He said he agreed with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who said those currently serving in the military should be "grandfathered" in, so expected benefits aren't reduced.

Veterans groups challenged Obama's proposals last month and are certain to mobilize to fight any effort by the supercommittee to adopt McCain's recommendations.

"Our nation's financial situation cannot be solved by breaking faith with those who singlehandedly fight our nation's wars — be it today or tomorrow," Richard L. DeNoyer, the head of the 2 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars, said in a statement last month.

McCain also told the supercommittee he rejects any deeper cuts in overall defense spending beyond the 10-year, $450 billion cuts already set by the administration and Congress.

"I fully support the president's decision not to propose any additional reductions in defense spending limits beyond those he has already called for," he said.

Source and More:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/14/ap/congress/main20120353.shtml

Study shows acidic food and drink can damage teeth

2011-10-13T05:24:00.000-05:00

Eating fruit such as apples could be up to four times more damaging to teeth than carbonated drinks, according to a new study led by Professor David Bartlett at the King’s Dental Institute.

Published in the Journal of Dentistry, the study looked at links between diet and tooth wear at several sites in the mouth, in more than 1,000 men and women aged 18 to 30.

The researchers looked for damage to the 2mm surface enamel of volunteers’ teeth, and at the dentine, the main supporting structure of the tooth beneath the enamel, and compared it with a questionnaire about their diet.

The findings showed that people who ate apples were 3.7 times more likely to have dentine damage, while those who consume carbonated drinks had no additional risk.

Fruit juice increased the likelihood of damage to the enamel around the top of the teeth near the gums fourfold, while lager, which is acidic, raised the chances of dentine damage by up to three times.

Professor David Bartlett, Head of Prosthodontics at the Dental Institute, said: ‘It is not only about what we eat, but how we eat it.

'Doctors quite rightly say that eating apples is good, but if you eat them slowly the high acidity levels can damage your teeth. The drinks most often associated with dietary erosion, particularly cola, showed no increased risk in this study.

‘The results emphasise that dietary advice should be targeted at strong acids rather than some of the commonly consumed soft drinks.'

The researchers say that they do not want these findings to deter people from consuming fruit and fruit juices, as they are important for overall health and wellbeing.

‘The underlying message is that acids in your diet can damage teeth if consumed throughout the day. These acids can dissolve the teeth if the mouth is not given sufficient time to counteract the effect.
'Snacking on acidic foods throughout the day is the most damaging, whilst eating them at meal times is much safer. It's not what you eat it's how you eat it - an apple a day is good, but taking all day to eat the apple can damage teeth,’ Professor Bartlett continued.

‘The results of this study confirm previous clinical observations and add to our understanding of tooth wear and provide further evidence that drinking behaviour and the consumption of foods with strong acidity are important factors in tooth erosion,’ he concluded.

Source and More:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-acidic-food-teeth.html

October Is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

2011-10-12T05:40:00.000-05:00

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time when national public service organizations, medical associations and government agencies work together to promote breast cancer awareness and offer resources and access to services.

The National Breast Cancer Awareness Month organization's Web site is a great, year-round resource for breast cancer patients, survivors, caregivers and the general public. Important information on early detection and mammograms can be found in this recent press release from the group:

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM). Since the program began in 1985, mammography rates have more than doubled for women aged 50 and older and breast cancer deaths have declined.

This is exciting progress, but there are still women who do not take advantage of early detection at all and others who do not get screening mammograms and clinical breast exams at regular intervals.

Women age 65 and older are less likely to get mammograms than younger women, even though breast cancer risk increases with age.
Hispanic women have fewer mammograms than Caucasian women and African-American women.
Women below the poverty line are less likely than women at higher incomes to have had a mammogram within the past two years.
Mammography use has increased for all groups except Native Americans and indigenous Alaskans.

If all women age 40 and older took advantage of early detection methods – mammography and clinical breast exams – breast cancer death rates would drop much further, up to 30 percent. The key to mammography screening is that it is done routinely – once is not enough.

For more information about NBCAM, please visit www.nbcam.org. For additional information, please call one of the following toll-free numbers: The American Cancer Society at 800-227-2345, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at 800-4-CANCER (800-422-6237) and the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization at 800-221-2141.

Another prominent organization is Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a global leader in the fight against breast cancer. The Connecticut affiliate of the group cooperates with 124 other affiliates worldwide. The organization works locally to fulfill a commitment to saving lives and ending breast cancer forever by empowering people, ensuring quality care for breast cancer patients and funding efforts to find cures. The Connecticut branch's primary focus is on the local community and educating the women and men in Connecticut.

Did you know that Connecticut has the second-highest incidence of breast cancer in the US? For other facts, read the group’s 2011 community profile of breast heath in Connecticut.

The upcoming Survivors in Fashion Show is s major event to benefit breast cancer programs. It will take place at Foxwoods on Oct. 20. The casino’s Fox Theatre will host 25 women who will take your breath away. Join them for an evening of hope and inspiration featuring breast cancer survivors as both fashion models and role models. All of the funds raised by this show will be directed to the breast cancer survivors fund at Norwich’s William W. Backus Hospital and patients in the local community. Visit this page for ticket and other information.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer takes place on Oct. 23 at Hartford's Bushnell Park. Each step you take is personal, and each dollar you raise will help save lives as folks walk (not race) the 3.2-mile course. People of all ages are welcome to participate and help raise funds. If you'd like to join the efforts to help end breast cancer, sign up by visiting cancer.org/stridesonline or call 800-227-2345.

Source and More:
http://manchester.patch.com/articles/october-is-national-breast-cancer-awareness-month-08b964e0

Men with disabilities 4 times more likely to be sexually abused than men without disabilities

2011-10-11T05:29:00.000-05:00

Previous studies have documented that women with disabilities are more likely to be sexually assaulted than women without disabilities. A new study published online today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine is the first population-based investigation to examine sexual violence victimization against men with disabilities. Researchers report that men with disabilities are more than four times more likely to be victimized by sexual assaults compared to men without disabilities.

"Men with disabilities are at a heightened risk for lifetime and current sexual violence victimization," according to lead investigator Monika Mitra, PhD, Research Scientist, Center for Health Policy and Research, and Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Massachusetts Medical School. "The most notable finding is that the prevalence of lifetime sexual violence, completed rape, and attempted rape against men with disabilities was comparable to that against women without disabilities, and past-year rates for men with disabilities exceeded those for women without disabilities."

Dr. Mitra adds that "this study also broadened research of such victimization against men with disabilities beyond the intimate partner context to acquaintances and strangers, as well as family members, intimate partners, and dates. This is particularly relevant for people with disabilities whom earlier studies have suggested are especially likely to experience abuse from caregivers and personal care and other attendants, in addition to intimate partners."

Investigators from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health used data from close to 22,000 respondents collected as part of the 2005-2006 Massachusetts Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (MA-BRFSS), which is an annual health survey of noninstitutionalized adults conducted in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Approximately 13.9% of men with disabilities reported lifetime sexual violence, compared to 3.7% of men without disabilities, 26.6% of women with disabilities, and 12.4% of women without disabilities. Men with disabilities (5.3%) were more likely to report past-year sexual violence than men (1.5%) and women (2.4%) without disabilities and less likely than women with disabilities (6.3%).

Participants were asked (1) whether anyone ever had or attempted to have sex with them without their consent; and (2) whether in the past year anyone had touched them sexually without their consent/despite their objections or had exposed them to nonconsensual sexual situations that did not involve physical touching.

To determine disability status, respondents were asked whether they had limitations because of physical, mental, or emotional problems, any health problem that required use of special equipment, trouble learning, remembering or concentrating because of a health problem or impairment, or a physical, mental, emotional, or communication-related disability. Those responding yes to any of these questions and whose disability had limited their activities for at least one year were classified as having a disability.

More information: The article is "Sexual Violence Victimization Against Men with Disabilities" by Monika Mitra, PhD, Vera E. Mouradian, PhD, and Marci Diamond, MPA. (doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2011.07.014). It appears in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 41, Issue 5 (November 2011)

Source and More:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-men-disabilities-sexually-abused.html

Go Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness

2011-10-10T05:19:00.000-05:00

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. And awareness of this deadly disease needs raising: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the latest figures show that in New Jersey, between 124 and 139 people out of 100,000 develops or dies from breast cancer each year. That includes women and men.

We can raise awareness through boosting visibility and by sharing our breast cancer-related stories.

The pink ribbon has become the symbol for breast cancer awareness, so let your neighbors see you wear it: Wear a pink ribbon and snap a photo of yourself with it, or wear it and introduce yourself on video. Upload your photos and video to the Patch site. It’s easy. And then view area businesses and people who are going pink this month!

And while going pink, also share your stories, your inspirations, your struggles, your memories. Using the comments section, tell us about the loved one you lost to breast cancer. Or share the stories of how your sister, your friend, your dog, your boss or your neighbor encouraged you during your own recovery.

The more we raise awareness, the better the chance for offering comfort, boosting positivity and finding a cure. So go pink! And show your support for those who are fighting breast cancer.

Source and More:
http://parsippany.patch.com/articles/go-pink-for-breast-cancer-awareness-85f007f5

Your brain could fix your diabetes

2011-10-07T05:43:00.000-05:00

The cure for diabetes could be sitting in our brains, Japanese researchers say.

The AIST Institute in Tsukuba has discovered that using patients' neural stem cells can overcome shortage of insulin-producing cells without the need for gene transfer to treat diabetes.

Beta cells in the pancreas produce insulin, which regulates glucose levels.

The research has revealed how harvesting stem cells could overcome a lack of beta cell transplants from donors.

Diabetes is caused by a lack of insulin production by the pancreas and affects more than 200 million people worldwide.

There is currently no cure, leaving patients to rely on external supplies of insulin or treatments to alter levels of blood glucose.

The research, led by Dr Tomoko Kuwabara, focussed on developing methods for defining human stem cell differentiation, the process through which cells can be adapted to a specialized role, for use in cell replacement treatments.

"As diabetes is caused by the lack of a single type of cell the condition is an ideal target for cell replacement treatments," said Kuwabara.

"However donation shortages of pancreatic beta cells are a major hurdle to advancing this treatment. So a safe and easy way of using stem cells for obtaining new beta cells has been long awaited," he added.

The hippocampus and olfactory bulb, at the front of the brain provide an easily accessible tissue source for cells that could be transplanted directly into the pancreas. Normally neuronal cells do not produce high levels of insulin, pancreatic cells do.

However, once they had been transplanted into diabetic rats the cells not only started to express several key characteristics of pancreatic beta cells, but insulin production was increased and blood glucose levels were reduced.

The removal of the transplant increased levels of blood glucose, revealing that transplanting neural stem cells into the pancreas could be an effective treatment for diabetes.

Source and More:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health/Your-brain-could-fix-your-diabetes/articleshow/10265851.cms

Scientists take key step in stem cell therapy

2011-10-06T04:28:00.000-05:00

For the first time, scientists have used cloning techniques — inserting genetic material from adult cells into unfertilized human eggs — to create embryonic stem cells.

The advance, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature, moves scientists one step closer to their goal of developing therapies to treat maladies including diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, researchers said.

In the world of stem cell research, the achievement marks an important step, but only a step.

The stem cells created by the team at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Laboratory in New York City and collaborators at Columbia University and UC San Diego were genetically abnormal, containing a mixture of DNA from the adult skin cells that were cloned and from the egg used in the procedure. That's because the team bypassed a step in the process in which genetic material from the egg is removed.

They did so because, like others in the past, they were not able to get an embryo to develop to a sufficiently advanced stage if they removed the genetic material from the egg.

That hurdle must be overcome if anyone wants to use cloning technology to create stem cells suitable for therapeutic use, said Dieter Egli, a senior research fellow at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Laboratory, who led the study along with senior research fellow Scott Noggle.

Still, the research shows that somatic cell nuclear transfer, as the cloning procedure is technically called, could one day help create stem cell therapies tailored to prevent immune rejection, said Dr. Robert Lanza, an embryonic stem cell researcher at Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass.

"This is saying 'It can be done,' " said Lanza, who was not involved in the study.

Physicians who would like to harness embryonic stem cells — which have the potential to develop into any type of cell in the body — to rebuild or replace diseased tissues and organs face a major problem: Such cells may be rejected by patients unless they're a good genetic match. Stem cells made from cloning a patient's own tissue would get around that problem.

Since 2006, researchers have been able to create well-matched stem cells without the use of either cloning or human embryos by genetically tweaking body cells and rewinding them to an embryonic state.

But although these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells are promising and avoid some of the ethical problems posed by use of human embryos, recent studies have shown that the reprogramming trick might raise a cancer risk and that the cells maintain some "memory" of their original state.

These glitches may make it difficult to use them to safely treat disease.

"As we've looked closely at those cells, they have some warts," said Dr. George Q. Daley of the Stem Cell Transplantation program at Children's Hospital Boston, who wrote an article accompanying the new study in Nature.

But, Daley added, pursuing both avenues of research — and finding out which one works better — carries the best chance of bringing treatments to patients as quickly as possible.

The next step for Egli and other researchers who hope to make stem cells from clones will be figuring out a way to take out the egg's DNA but keep whatever it is within the egg that allowed the abnormal embryos to grow for long enough to make embryonic stem cells.

It is possible the missing factor is not the DNA itself but certain proteins within the egg's nucleus, where the DNA is housed, Lanza said.

Lanza added that studying these cloned embryos to see exactly how the egg promotes growth may help scientists perfect the creation of safe and sufficiently versatile induced pluripotent stem cells.

"We don't know which of these technologies is going to give you a line that will do the trick best," he said. "All we need is one method."

Neither the study authors nor other stem cell scientists who were interviewed said they had any interest in creating cloned human babies from the technology, a possible fallout from such work that — along with the use of human embryos — has shrouded the field in some controversy.

The scientists created two lines of stem cells, one of which was derived from a person with Type 1 diabetes.

The research was privately funded. The team paid women $8,000 to donate eggs. After donation, the women could choose to have their eggs used for research or for reproductive purposes.

Source and More:
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-sci-stem-cell-cloning-20111006,0,1856857.story

Obese kids at triple the risk of high BP

2011-10-05T05:16:00.000-05:00

Parents beware. Children who are overweight or obese compared to their peers are nearly three times more likely to have high blood pressure, warns a new study.

Wanzhu Tu, Ph.D., from Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, and colleagues followed a total of 1,111 healthy schoolchildren with a mean age of 10.2 years children over a period of 4.5 years.

They found that when the children's body mass index (BMI) reached or passed the 85th percentile - the beginning of the overweight category - the adiposity effect on blood pressure was more than four times that of normal weight children.

Among the study participants, 14 per cent of the blood pressure measurements from overweight/obese children were in prehypertensive or hypertensive levels, compared to 5 per cent in normal weight children.

Blood levels of leptin, a hormone in fat tissues, and heart rate had a similar pattern as blood pressure. So leptin may have played a mediating role in obesity-induced blood pressure elevation, the researchers said.

On average, children in the study underwent 8.2 assessments each, for a total of 9,102 semi-annual blood pressure and height/weight assessments to determine BMI.

"Important questions that remain unanswered are what makes the blood pressure go up when you have an increase in the BMI percentile and what mechanisms are involved in the process," Tu said.

"This study wasn't set up to answer those questions," he said.

Further study may determine how the increase in adiposity affects blood pressure and whether other factors such as leptin, insulin or inflammatory cytokines may play a role.

The finding appears in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Source and More:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health/Obese-kids-at-triple-the-risk-of-high-BP/articleshow/10242842.cms

Anesthesia Before Age 2 Linked to Learning Problems

2011-10-04T04:57:00.000-05:00

There are new concerns about an increased risk for learning problems in very young children exposed to general anesthesia during surgical procedures.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., found a twofold increase in learning disabilities in children who had more than one exposure to general anesthesia with surgery before age 2.

The study is published in the November issue of Pediatrics.

The FDA requested and funded the study. Last spring, an FDA panel met to review the research examining the effect of early exposure to anesthesia on the developing brain.

Following the meeting, FDA director of anesthesia and analgesia products Bob Rappaport, MD, wrote that additional studies are needed. He noted that "at present, there is not enough information to draw any firm conclusions" about the long-term impact of early exposure to general anesthesia on the brain.

The new study adds to the evidence linking repeated exposure to general anesthesia very early in life to an increased risk for learning disabilities, but it does not prove the link, says Randall Flick, MD, who led the Mayo research team.

"I fully support the FDA's conclusion that we do not yet have sufficient information to prompt a change in practice," he tells WebMD.
Anesthesia and the Developing Brain

Each year in the U.S., millions of babies and toddlers have surgeries that require general anesthesia. These surgeries range from lifesaving operations to elective procedures.

Studies in rodents and monkeys have repeatedly shown that exposure to anesthesia at a very young age kills brain cells.

In 2009, Flick and colleagues reported that children exposed to general anesthesia during surgery on two or more occasions before age 4 had a twofold increase in learning disabilities when they reached school age.

Their latest research expands on this work by considering the potential impact on brain development of the illness that made the surgery necessary in the first place, Flick says. One criticism of the earlier work, he says, was that the role of other existing illnesses was not taken into account.

"Sick children have more learning disabilities and sick children require more surgeries," Flick says.

The study included 1,050 children born between 1976 and 1982 in a single school district in Rochester, Minn., enrolled in a larger health study.

A total of 350 children who had one or more surgeries requiring general anesthesia before age 2 were compared to 700 children with no such history.

Among the major findings:

About 37% of children who had had multiple surgeries requiring general anesthesia before age 2 had learning disabilities, compared to 24% of children who had just one surgery and 21% of children who had no surgeries.
After factoring in the impact of health status, having two or more surgeries requiring general anesthesia was associated with a twofold increase in learning disabilities.
Children who had two or more surgeries prior to age 2 were three to four times as likely to have been identified by their schools as needing special help for language and speech difficulties through an individualized education program (IEP) mandate.

Source and More:
http://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20111003/anesthesia-before-age-2-linked-to-learning-problems

Five ways to squeeze Medicare

2011-10-03T05:28:00.000-05:00

Nearly 50 million people on Medicare, as well as those entering the program at a pace of one every eight seconds, are likely to get more than their money's worth before they die.

The same can't be said for anyone under 55 who will rely on the federal health care program for those 65 and older in the future. They face higher costs and, possibly, longer waits before they qualify for coverage.

Medicare — one of the most popular programs ever devised by the federal government — is on the chopping block. Again.

But just a year after President Obama's health care overhaul called for $500 billion in Medicare savings, a variety of factors may protect the program this time. An effort to exempt older workers from cuts, the advertising and lobbying clout of health care providers, and the approaching 2012 elections all point toward putting off major changes.

"There's not much left in the well," says Dan Mendelson, CEO of Avalere Health, a consulting firm. "There's nothing that is politically acceptable or pain-free."

Since its creation in 1965, Medicare has risen in public esteem. Today it enjoys the sort of favorable ratings President Obama and Congress can only dream of.

Since the late 1980s, Medicare has battled efforts to tame its explosive growth or make it more self-sustaining. Powerful lawmakers have been chased down city streets and lofty commissions rendered impotent by the forces that rely on Medicare for their health or wealth, from the AARP to the American Medical Association.

Today the program is again the top target of budget-cutters. They know the nation can't keep running the $1 trillion annual deficits that have sent the national debt to $14.7 trillion — nearly the size of the $15 trillion economy.

The aging of the Baby Boom generation will boost enrollment by 1.6 million annually over the next two decades, bringing it to 81 million by 2030. Actuaries must project out 75 years; when they do, they see 120 million people on Medicare.

Its annual cost — $555 billion, more than 15% of the federal budget — will rise to 18% of the budget within a decade. Over the next 75 years, it will owe $38 trillion to its beneficiaries.

So clear is the need to trim the program that Obama and Congress agreed on a deficit-reduction law in August virtually guaranteeing some reductions: If lawmakers fail to do it themselves, automatic cuts will begin to squeeze up to 2% savings from almost every part of the program.

Here's one problem for the budget-cutters: There's not much appetite among policymakers to give less to those age 55 and up, who will qualify for the program within 10 years.

Here's another: Doctors, drugmakers, hospitals, medical colleges, home health providers, medical equipment manufacturers and insurers have been targeted before — most recently in last year's health care law. They agreed to those cuts because the overhaul is projected to expand insurance coverage to 32 million people who likely would seek more services. This time, they have no such incentive.

And another: Although a 12-member congressional "supercommittee" has until late November to propose a deficit-reduction plan, the following November already beckons. That's when Obama and most members of Congress run for re-election. In 2008, 70% of seniors ages 65 to 74 turned out to vote, the highest rate of any age group.

The message from many Medicare beneficiaries, says Robert Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at Harvard University's School of Public Health, is simple: "Don't cut my benefits, and don't ask me to pay a lot more for what I have."

Most Americans, in fact, are protective of Medicare. A non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation poll in September found that 51% of people didn't want Medicare cut at all to reduce the federal deficit. Only 13% favored "major reductions."

To make sure lawmakers get the picture, AARP, the nation's biggest seniors group with 37 million members, is running a multimillion-dollar ad campaign. "We're giving voice to what people actually tell us," says legislative policy director David Certner.

Here are five ways Medicare could be squeezed — and the reasons it will be difficult.

Source and More:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/usaedition/2011-10-03-medicare-costs_CV_U.htm

Bed Bugs Conference Held in Chicago This Week

2011-09-30T05:05:00.000-05:00

Bed bugs were the topic of discussion at a conference held in Chicago this week, Reuters reports.

According to Reuters, about 75 companies gathered at the conference in the hopes of launching the perfect bed bug killer. Some of the ideas presented at the conference included freezing them with vacuum-like machines that spout carbon dioxide, baking them in heated tents, and dehydrating their shell with a dust made of crushed fossils, called diatomaceous earth, that can be sprinkled on floors.

"I never figured I'd be in Chicago for a bed bug conference. I never thought that in my wildest dreams," Mike Bourdeau, of Flynn Pest Control in Massachusetts, said at the second annual Bed Bug University.

Bourdeau added that the bed bug business is booming. It went from virtually zero percent of his company less than five years ago to about 20 percent of what the company brings in today.

"It's probably going to be a big part of our business for ... the next ten years," he said.

A 2011 study by University of Kentucky researchers and the National Pest Management Association showed that more than 80 percent of surveyed pest control companies said they believed bed bug infestations were on the rise. Additionally, 80 percent of those companies had treated hotels for bed bugs within a year, up from 67 percent a year ago.

Source and More:
http://www.thirdage.com/news/bed-bugs-conference-held-in-chicago-this-week_09-30-2011

A gluten-free for all drives product sales

2011-09-29T05:10:00.000-05:00

Los Angeles voice actor Nancy Truman landed a new role as a full-time gluten-free baker after she tweaked her recipes to replace the wheat that was making her feel miserable.

Truman is among the estimated 18 million people in the United States who are sensitive to gluten -- a hard-to-digest protein found in wheat, rye and barley.

Another 3 million-plus Americans are thought to have celiac disease, a potentially life-threatening autoimmune disorder that is treated by eliminating dietary gluten.

In business, as in acting, good timing proved crucial for Truman.

Sales of gluten-free products have been booming despite the weak U.S. economy. Health advocates and gluten-free celebrities such as 2011 U.S. Open champion Novak Djokovic, Chelsea Clinton and TV host Elisabeth Hasselbeck have helped drive demand by raising awareness about celiac disease and gluten sensitivity.

Truman also had the good luck of being a friend and neighbour to Waylynn Lucas, one of Los Angeles' most celebrated pastry chefs, who is a fan of her gluten-free goodies.

The two now are partners in (fonuts), a new coffee shop that sells baked, not fried, doughnuts. Gluten-free options account for half of sales at (fonuts).

Lucas said customers are either avoiding gluten themselves or "have a friend, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a cousin, a father, a mother, a whatever, who is gluten intolerant."

"When they see it can be delicious and a little more healthful, they're really turned on," Truman said.

GLUTEN-FREE GROWTH

Gluten is everywhere. It is in baked goods, pasta and beer, as well as some unexpected items, such as McDonald's (MCD.N) French fries, lunch meat, lipstick and some medicines.

Euromonitor International forecasts 2011 gluten-free sales of $1.31 billion in the United States and $2.67 billion worldwide. Sales have more than doubled since 2005 and are expected to hit $1.68 billion in the United States and $3.38 billion globally in 2015.

"Consumers do feel some sort of reward when they eat gluten-free products. They don't feel bloated. They don't have belly aches. This usually encourages them to repeat the purchase," said Ewa Hudson, Euromonitor International's head of health and wellness research.

Europe is ahead of the United States when it comes to celiac disease testing and awareness. Italy, for example, helps people with celiac disease pay for the additional cost of gluten-free foods.

But big U.S. companies are jumping into the fray.

General Mills Inc (GIS.N) is a leader, having reformulated some Chex breakfast cereals, Betty Crocker cake and brownie mixes and Bisquick pancake mix to remove gluten.

Anheuser Busch Inbev SA (ABI.BR) sells a gluten-free beer called Redbridge, which is sold in many mainstream supermarkets.

P.F. Chang's China Bistro Inc (PFCB.O) for years has had a gluten-free menu and Subway, the popular sandwich chain, is testing gluten-free bread and brownies in Texas and Oregon.

Media mogul Oprah Winfrey and actress Gwyneth Paltrow have talked about avoiding gluten as part of detox diets, comments that prompted critics to dub gluten-free the diet du jour.

Trend chasers who have no medical reason to be on a gluten-free diet account for more than half of the daily consumption of gluten-free products, said Alessio Fasano, medical director at the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research.

Top-notch professional athletes are the only other people who get some measurable benefit from cutting out gluten without a doctor's orders, he said. Eliminating dietary gluten appears to free up energy that otherwise would be used to break down the tough-to-digest protein, said Fasano, who joked that athletes use the diet as a "legal performance enhancer."

Still, he does not mind that fads are boosting sales.

"If anything, it's good for the market" because the extra customers should help improve quality and lower cost, he said.

Interest from big retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) also should help bring down gluten-free product prices, which run 2 percent to 3 percent higher than similar items containing gluten, said Alice Bast, founder of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness.

Consumers have been preoccupied with food sensitivity for some time (remember lactose intolerance?) and there is growing interest in foods that support digestive and overall health, said Tamara Barnett, ethnographic research manager at the Hartman Group, a research and consulting firm. Gluten-free products overlap those trends, she said.

Better-tasting products also help.

"They went from being sawdust to being really good," said "Living Gluten-Free for Dummies" author Danna Korn.

Shauna James Ahern was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2005 and recommends focusing on readily available and naturally gluten-free foods such as fruit, vegetables, dairy and meat.

The cookbook author and "Gluten-Free Girl" blogger, says the category has staying power and suspects she knows why people who do not have a medical reason for going gluten-free feel better when they do.

"They're eating whole foods for the first time in their lives," she says.

Source and More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/29/uk-food-glutenfree-idUSLNE78S00W20110929

Sleep Disruption May Be Tied to Alzheimer’s

2011-09-28T04:51:00.000-05:00

Researchers have discovered a marker for Alzheimer’s disease that rises and falls in the spinal fluid in a daily pattern that mimics the sleep cycle.

The cyclic pattern is strongest in healthy young people and flattens in older adults. Experts say this finding reinforces a hypothesis between increased Alzheimer’s risk and inadequate sleep — a relationship that has been discovered in animal models.

Scientists believe the brain’s relative inactivity during sleep may provide an opportunity to finish clearing away the Alzheimer’s marker, a protein byproduct of brain activity called amyloid beta.

The brain clears amyloid beta by depositing the substance in the spinal fluid and by other mechanisms.

In the new study, scientists report that the normal highs and lows of amyloid beta levels in the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord begin to flatten in older adults, whose sleep periods are often shorter and more prone to disruption.

In older adults with brain plaques linked to Alzheimer’s disease, the ebb and flow is eradicated, and amyloid beta levels are close to constant.

The study is now online in Archives of Neurology.

“In healthy people, levels of amyloid beta drop to their lowest point about six hours after sleep, and return to their highest point six hours after maximum wakefulness,” said Randall Bateman, M.D., associate professor of neurology.

“We looked at many different behaviors, and the transitions between sleep and wakefulness were the only phenomena that strongly correlated with the rise and fall of amyloid beta in the spinal fluid.”

Bateman’s laboratory conducted the study in partnership with Washington University’s Sleep Medicine Center.

“We’ve known for some time that significant sleep deprivation has negative effects on cognitive function comparable to that of alcohol intoxication,” said Stephen Duntley, MD, professor of neurology and director of the center.

“But it’s recently become apparent that prolonged sleep disruption and deprivation can actually play an important role in pathological processes that underlie diseases. This connection to Alzheimer’s disease isn’t confirmed yet in humans, but it could be very important.”

Older adults often sleep less and have fewer periods of deep slumber. Often the normal pattern of sleep and waking is disturbed by factors that accompany the aging process. While the reasons for sleep difficulties can be varied, a lack of exercise is often a significant factor.

Sleep disruptions often become more pronounced as individuals age – and, the risk of Alzheimer’s disease also increases with age.

In the current study, three set of subjects were evaluated. One group consisted of individuals aged 60 or older who tested positive for the presence of amyloid beta plaques in the brain; another group in the same age range who did not have plaques; and a group of healthy persons age 18-60.

Researchers used a spinal tap to monitor amyloid beta in the spinal fluid hourly for 24 to 36 hours, and videotaped patients’ activities and monitored their brain activity during that period.

In the group with brain plaques, amyloid beta levels were close to constant. But in the other two groups, the levels regularly rose and fell in a sinusoidal pattern. The highs and lows of this pattern were much more pronounced in younger subjects.

Lead author Yafei Huang, Ph.D., reviewed the subjects’ activities during the monitoring period at 30-second intervals. She grouped them into categories such as eating or drinking, watching television, using the bathroom, and using a computer or text messaging.

None of these activities could be closely correlated with changes in amyloid beta levels. In contrast, peaks in sleep and wakefulness, assessed both by videotape and by records of patients’ brain activity levels, consistently occurred before the peaks and valleys of amyloid beta levels.

Researchers are studying whether sleep interruptions in young healthy subjects disrupts the normal daily decrease in spinal amyloid beta. Scientists may follow these studies with tests of whether sleeping pills and other interventions that improve sleep help maintain the rise and fall of amyloid beta in the spinal fluid.

“It’s still speculation, but there are tantalizing hints that better sleep may be helpful in reducing Alzheimer’s disease risk,” said Duntley.

“We know from a number of studies that exercise enhances sleep, and research also has shown that exercise is associated with decreased risk of Alzheimer’s. Sleep might be one link through which that effect occurs.”

Source and More:
http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/09/27/sleep-disruption-may-be-tied-to-alzheimers/29809.html

Reports Of Mental Health Disability Increase In U.S.

2011-09-27T05:51:00.000-05:00

The prevalence of self-reported mental health disabilities increased in the U.S. among non-elderly adults during the last decade, according to a study by Ramin Mojtabai, MD, PhD, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. At the same time, the study found the prevalence of disability attributed to other chronic conditions decreased, while the prevalence of significant mental distress remained unchanged. The findings will appear in the November edition of the American Journal of Public Health.

"These findings highlight the need for improved access to mental health services in our communities and for better integration of these services with primary care delivery," said Mojtabai, an associate professor in the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health. "While the trend in self-reported mental health disability is clear, the causes of this trend are not well understood."

For the study, Mojtabai reviewed data from the U.S. National Health Interview Survey covering 312,364 adults ages 18 to 64 years. He found that the prevalence of self-reported mental health disability increased from 2.0 percent of the non-elderly adult population from 1997 to 1999 to 2.7 percent from 2007 to 2009. According to Mojtabai, the increase equates to nearly 2 million disabled adults. He also noted the increase in the prevalence of mental health disability was mainly among individuals with significant psychological distress who did not use mental health services in the past year. Findings showed that 3.2 percent of participants reported not receiving mental health care for financial reasons between 2007 and 2009, compared to 2.0 percent from 1997 to 1999.

In a study published last month, Mojtabai and his colleagues found that prescriptions for antidepressant drugs by non-psychiatrist providers without any accompanying psychiatric diagnosis increased more than 30 percent over the last decade.

The research was funded by the Center for Mental Health Initiatives at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Source and More:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/234960.php