Archive for June, 2009

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Too much cola zaps muscle power

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Sugars and caffeine in cola are probably to blame
Excessive cola consumption can lead to anything from mild weakness to profound muscle paralysis, doctors are warning.This is because the drink can cause blood potassium to drop dangerously low, they report in the International Journal of Clinical Practice.

They tell of the curious case of an Australian ostrich farmer who needed emergency care for lung paralysis after drinking 4-10 litres of cola a day.

He made a full recovery and was advised to curtail his cola drinking.

 

We have every reason to think that it is not rare

 

Dr Clifford Packer from the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Centre in Ohio
Another example included a pregnant woman who regularly consumed up to three litres a day for the last six years and complained of tiredness, appetite loss and persistent vomiting.

A heart trace revealed she had an irregular heartbeat, probably caused by her low blood potassium levels.

Once she stopped drinking so much cola, she made a full and uneventful recovery.

The investigators believe these cases are not atypical and that many people risk problems due to their intake.

 

Moderate consumption of cola drinks is completely safe and people can continue to enjoy such drinks as part of a balanced diet and active lifestyle

A spokeswoman from the British Soft Drinks Association
Manufacturers insist the products are safe when consumed in moderation.

In a commentary, Dr Clifford Packer from the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Centre in Ohio said: “We have every reason to think that it is not rare.

“With aggressive mass marketing, super-sizing of soft drinks, and the effects of caffeine tolerance and dependence, there is very little doubt that tens of millions of people in industrialised countries drink at least 2-3 l of cola per day.

“It follows that the serum potassium levels of these heavy cola drinkers are dropping, in some cases, to dangerous low levels.”

Moderation

The author of the research paper, Dr Moses Elisaf from the University of Ioannina in Greece, said it appeared that hypokalaemia can be caused by excessive consumption of three of the most common ingredients in cola drinks – glucose, fructose and caffeine. (more…)

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Researchers uncover how nanoparticles may damage lungs

Monday, June 29th, 2009

Fri Jun 12, 2009 6:28am EDT

HONG KONG, June 12 (Reuters) – Researchers in China appear to have uncovered how nanoparticles which are used in medicine for diagnosis and delivering drugs may cause lung damage.

Nanotechnology, or the science of the extremely tiny, is an important industry. One nanometre is one-billionth of a metre.

Apart from medicine, it is used in products like sporting goods, cosmetics, tyres and electronics and has a projected annual market of around US$1 trillion by 2015.

However, concerns are growing that it may have toxic effects, particularly to the lungs. But it has never been clear how the damage is caused.

In an article published in the Journal of Molecular Cell Biology, the Chinese experts said a class of nanoparticles used in medicine, ployamidoamine dendrimers (PAMAMs), may cause lung damage by triggering a type of programmed cell death known as autophagic cell death.

In experiments, they observed how several types of PAMAMs killed human lung cells but found no evidence that the cells were dying by apoptosis, a natural and common type of cell death. (more…)

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Gut check: Solve your stomach’s woes

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

Eating enough fiber, taking prebiotics can aid digestion
Even if you have ripped abs, digestive problems can turn and knot anyone’s stomach.
Patrick Sheandell O’Carroll
By Jenna Bergenupdated 8:25 a.m. ET, Thurs., March. 19, 2009
Mark Smith is a 27-year-old lawyer living in Washington, D.C. Only that’s not his real name. Like any smart lawyer, he doesn’t want clients Googling him and reading up on his stomach woes, which include diarrhea, gas, and knife-sharp pains. “I won’t schedule meetings before 10 a.m.,” he gripes. “My stomach goes nuts after breakfast.”

The shame and discomfort pass, along with his stool … eventually. And Smith isn’t alone: Digestive problems can turn and knot anyone’s stomach. Like your skin, the lining of your stomach comes into direct contact with the big, bad outside world 24/7. When this protective layer fails to absorb the helpful stuff or block the harmful stuff, your entire body is imperiled. So we talked to the best gut docs to learn what you should and shouldn’t be doing to pacify the growling beast in your belly. Start by answering the following questions.

Are you taking in enough fiber? Are you eating the right kind?
Why it’s important: Fiber adds bulk to stool, speeding its transit through your intestine so your body has less time to absorb toxins. “Fiber is also used as food for many of the healthy microbes lining the colon,” says Walter J. Coyle, M.D., gastroenterology program director at Scripps Clinic Torrey Pines, in La Jolla, California.
How to make the grade: Aim for 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day, including seven to nine servings (½ cup each) of fruits and vegetables. “Their fiber has phytochemicals and antioxidants that benefit your colon lining,” says Dr. Coyle. Need help topping off your tank? A methylcellulose-based fiber supplement, such as Citrucel, won’t cause flatulence.

Gut goof-up: Don’t go from 3 grams to 30 overnight, or you’ll pay an embarrassing price. “That will lead to bloating and flatulence,” says Dr. Coyle. “Start slowly, and gradually increase your intake from there.”

Are you taking prebiotics along with your probiotics?
Why it’s important: You’ve probably heard about probiotics, those friendly microorganisms that help regulate digestion. But to get the most out of them, you need prebiotics, carbohydrate fibers (a.k.a. oligosaccharides) that your stomach and small intestine can’t digest. Once these fibers reach your large intestine, bacteria break them down, feeding the good microbes.

“Prebiotics increase the number of beneficial bacteria in the intestine and help maintain the populations of friendly bacteria already present there,” says James Versalovic, M.D., Ph.D., the director of microbiology at Texas Children’s Hospital and an associate professor of pathology at Baylor College of Medicine.

How to make the grade: Along with taking a daily dose of a billion units of probiotics, consume 5 grams of prebiotics. Quality yogurts and other fortified dairy products provide plenty of the former; artichokes, wheat-based cereals, onions, garlic, and bananas are particularly rich sources of the latter. Prebiotic-fortified foods are also available – look for the words inulin and fructooligosaccharides on a product’s list of ingredients. Or mix a 3-gram scoop of Jarrow Formula’s Inulin FOS with juice or water and drink it twice a day.

Gut goof-up: If you miss a dose of prebiotics, there’s no need to push the panic button. “Nutrients stay in the gut for quite a while,” says Dr. Versalovic.

Are you using antibiotics only when you need them?
Why it’s important: Antibiotics seek to wipe out unwanted infectious agents, but there’s collateral damage. “An antibiotic is like an atomic bomb exploding in the colon,” says Patricia Raymond, M.D., a fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology. “Healthy microbes die indiscriminately.”

The long and winding road
Everything you swallow embarks on a 30-foot-long journey through the intricate world of your digestive tract. Here’s what goes down each time you open wide.

1. Mouth
Your teeth grind up whatever you eat for a few seconds. The food is then hit with a burst of digestion-starting saliva and swallowed.

2. Esophagus
This 10-inch-long, 1 ½-inch-wide muscular tube squeezes food into your stomach. Just picture a snake guzzling down a mouse. (more…)

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Nearly 2 Million Teens Depressed, Government Urges Screening for All

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

Monday, March 30, 2009CHICAGO – An influential government-appointed medical panel is urging doctors to routinely screen all American teens for depression – a bold step that acknowledges that nearly 2 million teens are affected by this debilitating condition.

Most are undiagnosed and untreated, said the panel, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which sets guidelines for doctors on a host of health issues.

The task force recommendations appear in April’s issue of the journal Pediatrics. And they go farther than the American Academy of Pediatrics’ own guidance for teen depression screening.

An estimated 6 percent of U.S. teenagers are clinically depressed. Evidence shows that detailed but simple questionnaires can accurately diagnose depression in primary-care settings such as a pediatrician’s office.

The task force said that when followed by treatment, including psychotherapy, screening can help improve symptoms and help kids cope. Because depression can lead to persistent sadness, social isolation, school problems and even suicide, screening to treat it early is crucial, the panel said.

The task force is an independent panel of experts convened by the federal government to establish guidelines for treatment in primary-care. Its new guidance goes beyond the pediatrics academy, which advises pediatricians to ask teen patients questions about depression. Other doctor groups advise screening only high-risk youngsters.

Because depression is so common, “you will miss a lot if you only screen high-risk groups,” said Dr. Ned Calonge, task force chairman and chief medical officer for Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment.

The group recommends research-tested screening tests even for kids without symptoms. It cited two questionnaires that focus on depression tip-offs, such as mood, anxiety, appetite and substance abuse. (more…)

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Autopsy planned after Jackson’s sudden death

Friday, June 26th, 2009

‘King of Pop’ had been spending many hours preparing for comeback tourMichael Jackson had been planning to start a series of comeback concerts in London and had been rehearsing in the Los Angeles area for the past two months. Promoters of the shows said in March that he had passed a lengthy physical examination.

June 26: Michael Jackson had solo custody of his three children, ages 12, 11 and 7. The children’s godfather, Mark Lester, and investigative reporter Diane Dimond talk with NBC’s chief legal analyst Dan Abrams.

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson, defined in equal parts as the world’s greatest entertainer and perhaps its most enigmatic figure, was about to attempt one of the greatest comebacks of all time. Then his life was cut shockingly – and so far, mysteriously – short.

The 50-year-old musical superstar died Thursday, just as he was preparing for what would be a series of 50 concerts starting July 13 at London’s famed 02 arena. Jackson had been spending hours and hours toiling with a team of dancers for a performance he and his fans hoped would restore his tarnished legacy to its proper place in pop.

An autopsy was planned for Friday, though results were not likely to be final until toxicology tests could be completed, a process that could take several days and sometimes weeks. However, if a cause can be determined by the autopsy, they will announce the results, said Los Angeles County Coroner Investigator Jerry McKibben.

Police said they were investigating, standard procedure in high-profile cases.

Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center after being stricken at his rented home in the posh Los Angeles neighborhood of Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his home for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.

“It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known,” his brother Jermaine said.

Cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm that stops the heart from pumping blood to the body. It can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems.

Jackson’s death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music’s premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.

His 1982 album “Thriller” – which included the blockbuster hits “Beat It,” “Billie Jean” and “Thriller” – is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.

As word of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play videos from Jackson’s heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital. In New York’s Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.

“No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow,” Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. “It’s like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died.”

The public first knew him as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the singing group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Ind. Among their No. 1 hits were “I Want You Back,” “ABC” and “I’ll Be There.”

He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his backward-gliding moonwalk, his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched singing, punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks, as was his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.
“For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don’t have the words,” said Quincy Jones, who produced “Thriller.” “He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I’ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.” (more…)

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Autism teacher celebrates every gain

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

The Marcus Autism Center’s goal: Teach skills so kids can move into communityStudents at Marcus Center are grouped not by age, but by level of function

Classes are small, with certified special education teacher plus several assistants

Some children arrive with no “readiness” skills, like talking or putting on shoes

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — A group of seven preschoolers gathered at a small table in the center of a brightly lit classroom and started playing with plastic blocks.
Certified special education teacher Stefanie Waldrop works with students at the Marcus Autism Center.

Their teacher, 27-year-old Stefanie Waldrop, sat in the middle of the group. She periodically asked the students what they were making. Some were unable to speak, others were squirming in their tiny chairs; several interrupted the playtime to use the bathroom.

The children, ages 2 to 5, have one thing in common: They all have autism.

“We come in here in the morning not knowing what the day’s going to hold,” said Waldrop, who teaches at the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta. “We have to be really flexible about the stuff we do in the classroom.”

Waldrop, who’s been on the job for five years, is one of three certified special education teachers in the Center’s Early Intervention Program.

Along with a group of assistants, the teachers spend the seven-hour school day moving from classroom to playroom to playground with 22 students who fall somewhere along the autism spectrum.

The American Academy of Pediatrics describes the autism spectrum as “a group of brain-based disorders that affect a child’s behavior, social and communication skills.”

The students at the Marcus Center are grouped not by age, but by their level of function. Waldrop is paired with children who have never received educational intervention before and have no readiness skills to transition to a public school.

In addition to helping the students learn to communicate, it’s Waldrop’s job to teach some of the basics, such as “going to the bathroom, washing hands…putting on their own socks and shoes, sitting in a chair without jumping up, and making eye contact.” iReport.com: Have attitudes changed towards autism? Tell us about your experience

The job can be physically and emotionally demanding with a high burnout rate, according to Dr. Catherine Trapani, director of the education program at the Marcus Autism Center. (more…)

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Hand, Foot and Mouth Virus Kills 18 Kids

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Friday, March 27, 2009
March 27, 2009: A child has her mouth disinfected in prevention against hand-foot-mouth disease at a kindergarten in Suining, Sichuan province.
Chinese health officials said Friday that hand, foot and mouth disease has sickened 41,000 people across the country and killed 18 children so far this year.

The outbreak appears more widespread than in recent years, based on previously released data, with around twice the number of people infected than during the same period last year.
The disease typically strikes infants and children, and while occasionally deadly, most cases are mild with children recovering quickly after suffering little more than a fever and rash.

Li Xinwang, a doctor at Beijing’s Ditan Hospital, said the peak season for the spread of the virus is usually May through July, but that this year’s early spike in cases indicates the toll will likely be higher than average.

He attributed the high number of cases early in the year to “dramatic temperature fluctuations” which helped spread the virus, particularly in rural areas where sanitation is poor and health care is substandard. (more…)

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Fake product sneaks by medical review board

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Investigators win approval for item that would be risky – if it were realupdated 7:16 p.m. ET, Thurs., March. 26, 2009
WASHINGTON – Government investigators looking into lax screening of medical research said Thursday they easily won approval from a private review board of a fake product to be used in medical testing on human subjects.

The Government Accountability Office also said it was able to register with the Health and Human Services Department a fictitious institutional review board, a panel of doctors and scientists that must approve any medical drug or device to be used in federally funded testing on humans. The president of this fake review board was a dog named Trooper.

The GAO said its investigation showed that they system “is vulnerable to unethical manipulation, particularly by companies or individuals who intend to abuse the system or to commit fraud.”
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight and investigations panel, said the findings “raise serious questions” about both the specific IRB that approved the fake product and “the entire system for approving experimental testing on human beings.”

Officials from HHS and the Food and Drug Administration assured lawmakers that there were substantial protections in place to ensure that testing is done in a responsible and ethical manner.

‘Hoodwinked’
The review board that fell for the GAO ruse, Coast IRB, LLC., of Colorado Springs, charged that the GAO violated federal and state criminal laws by falsely representing itself to be a medical device company and forging a medical license. (more…)

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Heavy? You may live three to 10 years less

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Extra pounds as bad for health as lifetime of smoking, large study saysupdated 8:00 p.m. ET, Tues., March. 17, 2009
LONDON – Being obese can take years off your life and in some cases may be as dangerous as smoking, a new study says.

British researchers at the University of Oxford analyzed 57 studies mostly in Europe and North America, following nearly one million people for an average of 10 to 15 years. During that time, about 100,000 of those people died.

The studies used Body Mass Index (BMI), a measurement that divides a person’s weight in kilograms by their height squared in meters to determine obesity. Researchers found that death rates were lowest in people who had a BMI of 23 to 24, on the high side of the normal range.
Health officials generally define overweight people as those with a BMI from 25 to 29, and obese people as those with a BMI above 30.

The study was published online Wednesday in the medical journal, Lancet. It was paid for by Britain’s Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and others.

“If you are heading towards obesity, it may be a good idea to lose weight,” said Sir Richard Peto, the study’s main statistician and a professor at Oxford University. (more…)

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Surgery to reshape heart found ineffective

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:15am EDTBOSTON (Reuters) – A controversial operation that folds the scarred portion of a damaged heart in on itself to get it to beat more effectively offers no real benefit to most patients, researchers reported on Sunday.

The operation, known as ventricular reconstruction, is designed to help people with heart failure, a condition that affects about 5 million in the United States alone and often occurs after tissue is damaged by a heart attack.

Generally, the heart tries to compensate for the damage by getting larger, but it also pumps far less efficiently.

Doctors in a trial called STICH compared what happened to 1,000 volunteers, who all got heart bypass operations. Half also got ventricular reconstruction.

Ventricular reconstruction did nothing to reduce the death rate or the risk of going back to the hospital. Nor did it improve the quality of life after four years, the researchers told a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Orlando.

“It doesn’t seem to have any great benefit at all,” Dr. Robert Jones of Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina said in a telephone interview. With the surgery, “many patients have a lot fewer symptoms, but some people improve that much with good medical treatment” that includes drugs.

By not doing the reconstruction, the researchers said, it will save an average of $14,595 in hospital costs per patient, and patients will spend one half hour less in the operating room.

“The cost difference is substantial,” said Jones.

Dr. Robert Michler of the Montefiore-Einstein Heart Center in New York City said in a telephone interview that the operation is seldom done in the United states anyway, and estimated that 3,000 to 5,000 such procedures have been done worldwide in the last 10 years.

“This started in South America, it was really popular in Europe, and there are a lot of evangelists for this operation,” said Jones. But others have seen in practice that it adds little benefit, he said. “I think those guys have figured out on their own that it’s not a whole lot better. A lot of surgeons have been waiting for the results of this trial.”

The findings, based on work at 96 medical centers in 23 countries, were also published in the New England Journal of Medicine. (more…)

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