News roundup: echinacea, diabetes, cancer

News from the world of medicine:


Researchers have demonstrated that an antibiotic called "monensin" prevents the growth of prostate cancer cells. Evidenceemerged in a project investigating the effects of nearly 5,000 drugs and micromolecules on the growth of prostate cancer cells. Researchers found that small amounts of compounds -- disulfiram (Antabus), thiram, tricostatin A, and monensin -- can prevent the growth of prostate cancer cells without significant effects on the growth of the normal human prostate epithelial cells.

Researchers at Harvard have identified a substance found primarily in dairy fat that appears to lower the risk of type 2 diabetes. Known as trans-palmitoleic acid, it is present in the fat of ruminant animals such as cows, sheep, and goats. In the Harvard study, people with the highest levels of the fatty acid in their blood had a threefold lower risk of developing diabetes over time than people with the lowest levels. They also had healthier HDL, or good, cholesterol levels, lower body fat, and less insulin resistance.

The vitamin D levels of newborn babies appear to predict their risk of respiratory infections during infancy and the occurrence of wheezing during early childhood, but not the risk of developing asthma. The results support the theory that widespread vitamin D deficiency contributes to risk of infections.

Despite its popularity as a natural remedy for treating the common cold, a new study suggests echinacea does not substantially reduce the severity or duration of the common cold.

Women with breast cancer who take multivitamins with minerals appear to face lower odds of having their cancer come back or dying. "Multivitamins appears to especially benefit women undergoin gradiation treatment," says researcher Heather Greenlee, ND, PhD, of Columbia University's Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center in New York City. The study doesn't prove cause and effect. The association could be explained by other factors.

Lose friends, save your joints

It seems that garlic, and other allium vegetables, such as onions and leeks, have the effect of preventing hip osteoarthritis. Scientists discovered this in a careful study of 1,000 twins in Britain.

They found that in those who consumed a healthy diet with a high intake of fruit and vegetables, particularly alliums such as garlic, there was less evidence of early osteoarthritis in the hip joint. They found that that a compound called diallyl disulphide limits the amount of cartilage-damaging enzymes when introduced to a human cartilage cell-line in the laboratory.

"While we don't yet know if eating garlic will lead to high levels of this component in the joint, these findings may point the way towards future treatments and prevention of hip osteoarthritis," said Dr. Frances Williams, lead author from the Department of Twin Research at King's College London.

Probably a good signal to buy stock in companies selling breath mints.

Can whole milk reduce the risk of diabetes?

New research suggests that whole-fat dairy products -- generally shunned by health experts -- contain a fatty acid that may lower the risk of type 2 diabetes.

The fatty acid is called trans-palmitoleic acid, and people with the highest blood levels of this fatty acid reduce their odds of diabetes by 62 percent compared to those with the lowest blood levels of it.

In addition, "people who had higher levels of this fatty acid had better cholesterol and triglyceride levels, lower insulin resistance and lower levels of inflammatory markers," said study author Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, co-director of the program in cardiovascular epidemiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health.

Whole milk has more trans-palmitoleic acid than 2 percent milk, and 2 percent milk has more of this fatty acid than does skim milk.

Should you start drinking whole milk?

Mozaffarian said it's difficult to know exactly how many servings of dairy it would take to get to the highest levels of trans-palmitoleic acid, but said it was likely three to five servings a day, depending on the type of dairy consumed.

However, he said, it's too soon to make any dietary recommendations based on the results of just this finding.

"This study confirms that something about dairy is linked very strongly to a lower risk of diabetes, but no single study should be enough to change guidelines," he said, adding that he hopes this study will spur more research.

Tell you doctor.

New insights on breast cancer

In recent years, women have heard only bad news about the use of estrogen and progestin to ease symptoms of menopause. Researchers halted a major government study of so-called combination therapy, when women taking these hormones were shown to have a higher risk of breast cancer, heart attack and stroke.

Now, The New York Times reports, there is some second thinking.

A controversial new review of data suggests some good news: certain women who take estrogen alone, without progestin, to treat menopause symptoms may actually be protected from breast cancer.

The review drew immediate criticism from researchers who said it was merely a rehash of old data. But the oncologist behind the report, Dr. Joseph Ragaz, a clinical professor at the University of British Columbia, said the evidence that estrogen can protect against breast cancer had been largely ignored, and that it was time to shine a spotlight on the findings.  

“The data were absolutely missed. They weren’t emphasized, and they weren’t brought to the attention of oncologists,” said Dr. Ragaz, who said he had no ties to any drug firms. “These data are nevertheless very much important because they add to the evidence for estrogen being protective.”

Details at the link. And there's more news on Vitamin D.

More than half of women with breast cancer have low vitamin D levels, British researchers report. 

"Women with breast cancer should be tested for vitamin D levels and offered supplements, if necessary," says researcher Sonia Li, MD, of the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in Middlesex, England. The findings were presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Exercise before you eat in the morning

Exercising in the morning, before eating, seems to significantly lessen the ill effects of a bad diet, a new study shows.

Belgian researchers divided men into three groups and fed them a lot of calories. One group didn't exercise, one exercised after breakfast, and one exercised before breakfast.

The group that exercised before breakfast gained almost no weight and showed no signs of insulin resistance. They also burned the fat they were taking in more efficiently. “Our current data,” the study’s authors wrote, “indicate that exercise training in the fasted state is more effective than exercise in the carbohydrate-fed state to stimulate glucose tolerance despite a hypercaloric high-fat diet.”

Why this happened isn't entirely clear, but there are clues.

As has been known for some time, exercising in a fasted state (usually possible only before breakfast), coaxes the body to burn a greater percentage of fat for fuel during vigorous exercise, instead of relying primarily on carbohydrates. When you burn fat, you obviously don’t store it in your muscles. In “our study, only the fasted group demonstrated beneficial metabolic adaptations, which eventually may enhance oxidative fatty acid turnover,” said Peter Hespel, Ph.D., a professor in the Research Center for Exercise and Health at Catholic University Leuven in Belgium and senior author of the study.

At the same time, the fasting group showed increased levels of a muscle protein that “is responsible for insulin-stimulated glucose transport in muscle and thus plays a pivotal role in regulation of insulin sensitivity,” Dr Hespel said.

In other words, working out before breakfast directly combated the two most detrimental effects of eating a high-fat, high-calorie diet. It also helped the men avoid gaining weight.

These men exercised rather vigorously, so it's not known whether my wimp workout would have any effect. One doctor said, however, that something is better than nothing.

Breakthroughs in our understanding of Alzheimer's

Dark brown amyloid plaques

A surprising new study is part of a wave of unexpected findings that are enriching scientists’ views of the genesis of Alzheimer’s disease.

For years, it seemed, the problem in Alzheimer’s was that brain cells were making too much of a small, sticky protein fragment, beta amyloid. The latest research proves that wrong: It turns out that most people with Alzheimer’s seem to make perfectly normal amounts of amyloid. They just can’t get rid of it.

If researchers could find a way to speed up disposal, perhaps they could slow down or halt the disease. Researchers have also found that amyloid, in its normal small amounts, seems to have a purpose in the brain — it may be acting like a circuit breaker to prevent nerve firing from getting out of control. But too much amyloid can shut down nerves, eventually leading to cell death. That means that if amyloid levels were reduced early in the disease, when excess amyloid is stunning nerve cells but has not yet killed them, the damage might be reversed. 

About all the new research:

The result of all this work is a renewed vigor in the field. After years in which it was not clear how to attack this devastating disease, scientists have almost an embarrassment of riches. The research is in early stages, of course, and there are many questions about which discoveries and insights will lead to prevention or a treatment that works. 

There is a new hopefulness that this terrible disease may eventually be conquered. “We are much closer and quite optimistic that we will be able to do it,” Dr. Richard Mohs, Alzheimer’s group team leader at Eli Lilly, said.

Doctors respond to Obamacare

For all the times that President Obama promised "you'll get to keep your doctor" under his health-care reforms, he apparently failed to ask any practicing doctors.

A recent survey finds that countless MDs will respond to ObamaCare by limiting which patients they'll see.

The Physicians Foundation asked 2,400 doctors and American Medical Association members what they thought of the new law; a full 67 percent were against it.

More important, it asked how they'd cope with the new rules (which don't fully kick in until 2014). Sixty percent said they feel compelled to "close or significantly restrict their practices to certain categories of patients." And 59 percent said the "reform" would oblige them to spend less time with the patients they do have.

Of course, many doctors already limit how many patients they'll take on who depend on government insurance (whose fees rarely cover an MD's costs). But it'll get worse under ObamaCare: In the survey, some 87 percent said they would significantly restrict Medicare patients and 93 percent said they'd significantly restrict Medicaid patients.

Eat right, exercise, live forever

German researchers say you will age slower if you exercise, eat healthy foods, and have a good lifestyle. In fact, they have determined how many years more, on average, you will live if you do those things.

Elderly people who exercise, eat well, and generally have an active lifestyle will live around four (4) years longer than their counterparts that don’t exercise, don’t eat well, and generally have a sedentary lifestyle. People who lived a sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle for most of their lives can begin to live a healthier (and longer) lifestyle if they start to exercise regularly and eat healthy foods later in life.

To reach this conclusion, Dr. Dieter Leyk of German Sport University Cologne looked at a group of physically active people composed of 900,000 marathon and half-marathon runners from the age of 20 to 79 years.

Kinda common sense, no? Here's something to get you started. First, the food pyramid:

And an exercise pyramid:

A better test for prostate cancer

Massimo Mischi, Ph.D. helped develop the new test

Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer among men, but its diagnosis has up to now been inaccurate and unpleasant. Now researchers have developed an imaging technology that can accurately identify tumors.

The technology is based on ultrasound, and also has the potential to assess how aggressive tumors are. This can lead to better and more appropriate treatment, and to cost savings in health care.

Here's why this is important.

After determining the PSA (prostate-specific antigen) level in the blood, biopsies are performed to see if there are tumors in the prostate. However the PSA level is not a very good indicator: two-thirds of all biopsies turn out to have been unnecessary.

The biopsies also have disadvantages; for example they are not targeted, but instead tissue is sampled randomly using 6 to 12 needles. The chance that the needles will miss a tumor is high, causing a false negative result. In around one-third of cases with negative biopsies, tumors are later found to be present. Furthermore doctors often operate after a positive biopsy, but find a tumor so small that it would have been better not to operate.

Current state of the art is in the Dark Ages. Here's how the new test works.

The new technology uses the injection of microbubbles of a contrast agent with no side-effects. The response of the tiny bubbles to ultrasound is different from that of human tissue or blood. This makes the bubbles traceable from the outside, right into the smallest blood vessels. The pattern of blood vessels in tumors is different from that in healthy tissue. The researchers can recognize this pattern from advanced analysis of the bubble concentrations. And because tumors need blood -- and hence new blood vessels -- to grow, the researchers expect to be able to see how aggressive the cancer is from the pattern of the blood vessels.

Tell your doctor.

What's up for kids, Doc?

News from the world of medicine that matters for the younger ones:

Children who attend large group child care facilities before age 2½ appear to develop more respiratory and ear infections at that age, but fewer such illnesses during elementary school years, according to a report.

Targeting the core social deficits of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in early intervention programs yielded sustained improvements in social and communication skills even in very young children who have ASD, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

The "A" grades that high schoolers earn aren't just good for making the honor roll -- they also make them healthier as adults, too. "We already know it matters for things like your work and your earnings, but this proves it also matters for your health." "We already know it matters for things like your work and your earnings, but this proves it also matters for your health," says Pamela Herd, an associate professor of public affairs and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Vitamin A supplements are still an effective way to reduce childhood death and disease. A new study by Cochrane researchers strongly endorses the continuation of vitamin A supplementation programs, which reduce the incidence of measles and diarrhea and ultimately save lives.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and developmental reading disability (RD) are complex childhood disorders that frequently occur together; if a child is experiencing trouble with reading, symptoms of ADHD are often also present. However, the reason for this correlation remains unknown. A new study  has suggested that the disorders have common genetic influences, which may also lead to slow processing speed -- the brain taking longer to make sense of the information it receives.

Only about one-fourth of children participating in organized sports -- such as baseball, softball or soccer -- receive the government-recommended amount of physical activity during team practices, according to a report.

More evidence that aspirin prevents cancer

It's been known that taking an aspirin daily can help prevent certain cancers. Aspirin has been found to slow or prevent the growth of tumor cell lines in the laboratory. Observational studies have reported that people who took aspirin were at lower risk for colorectal cancer recurrences, while other studies have pointed to similar reductions in cancers of the lung, stomach and esophagus.

Now researchers have examined the cancer death rates of 25,570 patients who had participated in eight different randomized controlled trials of aspirin that ended up to 20 years earlier.

“There have been hints of this before, but the quality of this study is the gold standard because it is based on randomized clinical trials,” said Dr. Alan A. Arslan, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and environmental medicine at New York University School of Medicine, who did an observational study several years ago reporting that women who had taken aspirin regularly had a lower risk of ovarian cancer. “Randomized controlled trials carry more weight.” 

But you just can't start popping aspirin without talking to your doctor, because it can cause gastrointestinal bleeding and bleeding in the brain (hemorrhagic strokes). Still, this latest research is significant.

Participants who had been assigned to the aspirin arms of the studies were 20 percent less likely after 20 years to have died of solid tumor cancers than those who had been in the comparison group taking dummy pills during the clinical trials, and their risk of gastrointestinal cancer death was 35 percent lower. The risk of lung cancer death was 30 percent lower, the risk of colorectal cancer death was 40 percent lower and the risk of esophageal cancer death was 60 percent lower, the study reported. 

“This is important as a proof of principle that a single simple compound like aspirin can reduce the risk of cancer substantially,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Peter M. Rothwell, professor of neurology at the University of Oxford. “There’s been a lot of work over the years showing that certain compounds can increase the risk of cancer, but it’s not been shown before that we can reduce the risk with something as simple as aspirin.” 

So, tell your doctor.

How to save on doctor bills

Even if you're covered by insurance, you might be out of pocket for a lot if your doctor is out of network.

But just as big employers and insurance companiesnegotiate prices down as a matter of course, individuals can bargain with doctors and hospitals, too, says Erin Moaratty, chief of external communications at the nonprofit Advocate Foundation.

Ideally, the time to make your case for a discount is before you go in for a procedure. Call the medical facility and ask for the projected fees; if you have insurance, contact the company next to find out how much it will pay. Then talk over your situation with the billing department, requesting a break. 

You might win as much as 50 percent off full price if you offer to pay quickly by cash or check. Providers accustomed to accepting less than they'd like from insurers often realize that getting payment without hassle or delay is preferable to waiting for the full amount or having to hire a collection agency.

More tips at the link.

How much vitamin D is enough?

The very high levels of vitamin D that are often recommended by doctors and testing laboratories — and can be achieved only by taking supplements — are unnecessary and could be harmful, an expert committee says. It also concludes that calcium supplements are not needed.


The group said most people have adequate amounts of vitamin D in their blood supplied by their diets and natural sources like sunshine.

It is not clear how or why the claims for high vitamin D levels started, medical experts say. First there were two studies, which turned out to be incorrect, that said people needed 30 nanograms of vitamin D per milliliter of blood, the upper end of what the committee says is a normal range. They were followed by articles and claims and books saying much higher levels — 40 to 50 nanograms or even higher — were needed.

After reviewing the data, the committee concluded that the evidence for the benefits of high levels of vitamin D was “inconsistent and/or conflicting and did not demonstrate causality.”

I take 2,000 units of vitamin D a day, and get more in other supplements. Several doctors have looked at this and approved. I'll continue until I hear otherwise. 

Eating fish is good for the eyes

Researchers at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, wanted to know how the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) would be affected in a population of older people who regularly ate fish and seafood, since some varieties are good sources of omega-3 fatty acids. 


A diet rich in omega-3s probably protects against advanced AMD, the leading cause of blindness in whites in the United States. High concentrations of omega-3s have been found in the eye's retina, and evidence is mounting that the nutrient may be essential to eye health.


"Our study corroborates earlier findings that eating omega-3-rich fish and shellfish may protect against advanced AMD." Dr. Sheila K. West, PhD, who led the study, said. "While participants in all groups, including controls, averaged at least one serving of fish or shellfish per week, those who had advanced AMD were significantly less likely to consume high omega-3 fish and seafood," she said.

Worship the sun, live forever

My neighbor: she'll outlive me

Women who sunbathe regularly live longer and enjoy health benefits which outweigh the risk of skin, according to research presented at the Swedish Society of Medicine's annual conference.

Studies of the sun exposure habits of 40,000 women in southern Sweden have found that the health benefits of spending extended periods in the sun outweigh the negatives, such as the increased risk for skin cancer.

Researchers claim that exposure to the sun is attributed to helping against blood clots, which are twice as common in the darker periods of the year than in the summer, the newspaper reported.

Furthermore the incidence of type 2 diabetes also shows seasonal variations, with the winter boom in cases attributed to a lack of vitamin D.

Chief physician Håkan Olsson at the division of oncology at Lund University argued that he was not alone in claiming "that there can be other factors other than the sun which affect the risks for developing malignant melanomas," and that exposure to the sun could help protect against a slew of other conditions.

Stay active, fight diabetes

The Centers for Disease control predicts that as many as one in three American adults may have diabetes by 2050 as the number of diabetes patients doubles or triples over the next 40 years.

There's one simple thing you can do -- exercise.

People with Type 2 diabetes should get 150 minutes of aerobic exercise a week, according to a new recommendation a committee that wrote a position paper for the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Diabetes Association.

"There is probably not a better medicine out there for people with diabetes than exercise," said Sheri Colberg-Ochs, an Old Dominion University exercise science professor and chair of the committee.

They also recommended that diabetics not let more than two days pass between exercise because frequent activity is key to keeping blood glucose levels from rising.

The first line of treatment of diabetes should be lifestyle changes, such as improving diet and exercise habits, Colberg-Ochs said. "The medications are supplemental to that. You should not take the medications until you make the lifestyle changes." Many people can come off medications, especially if they start making the changes early in their diagnosis.

Even a little bit of activity counts. The 150 minutes of recommended exercise could come in 10-minute bursts throughout the week.

"Weeding, washing your dishes counts, and is very important in people with diabetes," she said. "People think of it as they join the gym or they don't do anything. There are a lot of things in between."

On the horizon: painless vaccination, new organs

The advances in medicine come daily.

A cluster of stem cells is encouraged to turn into blood vessels.

Growing living tissue and organs in the lab would be a life-saving trick. But replicating the complexity of an organ, by growing different types of cells in precisely the right arrangement—muscle held together with connective tissue and threaded with blood vessels, for example—is currently impossible. Researchers at MIT have taken a step toward this goal by coming up with a way to make "building blocks" containing different kinds of tissue that can be put together.

A new process for creating a personalized vaccine may become a crucial tool in helping patients with colorectal cancer develop an immune response against their own tumors. This dendritic cell (DC) vaccine, developed at Dartmouth and described in a research paper published this week in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, was used after surgical resection of metastatic tumors to try to prevent the growth of additional metastases. 

A spray solution of a patient's own stem cells is healing their severe burns. So far, early experiments under a University of Utah pilot project are showing some remarkable results.

A new breakthrough in imaging technology using a combination of light and sound will allow health care providers to see microscopic details inside the body. Access to this level of detail potentially eliminates the need for some invasive biopsies, but it also has the potential to help health care providers make diagnoses earlier than ever before -- even before symptoms arise.

Doctors perform the world's first trachea transplant using stem cells to regenerate tissue. They took tissue from her nose and bone marrow stem cells to create a trachea biologically identical to the original organ.

An array of dissolving microneedles is shown on a fingertip.

Researchers are advancing a technology for the painless, self-administration of flu vaccine using patches containing tiny microneedles that dissolve into the skin.

Everybody get outside. Now!

Are you worried about your child's health and performance in school. Show him the back door.

This is disturbing: Children aged 8 to 18 today spend more time than ever using electronic media indoors — seven and a half hours a day, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In response to the No Child Left Behind law, 30 percent of kindergarten classrooms have eliminated recess to make more room for academics.

So what?

The resulting lack of physical activity and a growing disconnect with the natural environment have been linked in a host of studies to obesity and obesity-related diseases in children and adults, including Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, asthma and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, as well as vitamin D deficiency, osteoporosis, stress, depression, attention deficit disorder and myopia. Dr. Daphne Miller, a family physician affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco, calls them “diseases of indoor living.”

A consortium of physicians, health insurers, naturalists and government agencies have banded together to help more people of all ages and economic strata engage in health-enhancing physical activity in parks and other natural environments.

Do we really need "experts" to tell us to go outside and play?

Maybe so. A growing number of like-minded doctors have begun writing specific prescriptions for outdoor activity, providing patients with maps, guidelines and programs of gradually increased activity based on their abilities.

As for its health and educational benefits, the National Wildlife Federation cites scientific findings that outdoor play enhances fitness, raises blood levels of vitamin D (which in turn protects against bone loss, heart disease, diabetes and other health problems), improves distance vision, lowers the risk of nearsightedness, reduces symptoms of stress and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, raises scores on standardized tests and improves students’ critical-thinking skills.

Tell the kids that a swing set is a hot new app.

About those home genetic testing kits

A genetic testing product includes a "spit kit."

They're here, and here to stay apparently, but they're not the be all and end all. An article at IndyStar.com explains.

Looking into one's genome can be serious business, and experts say people would be better off doing so under the guidance of a genetic counselor.

The tests look not at genes per se, but at changes that show up across the genome in people with certain conditions, said Stephanie Cohen, a genetic counselor with St. Vincent Cancer Genetics Risk Assessment Program. A group of people with these changes may be more likely to display that characteristic, but an individual will not necessarily do so.

Results can be nebulous. For instance, some test for a common mutation that causes cystic fibrosis, Quaid said. More than 1,000 other mutations can also cause this potentially fatal disease. So this result might provide a false sense of security.

The accuracy of such tests has also been called into question. The U.S. Government Accountability Office did an investigation, sending the same individual's sample to three different companies. Each company reported different results.

Nor do the tests take into account non-genetic features of the person being tested, said Elizabeth Kearney, president of the National Society of Genetic Counselors.That's why genetic counselors advocate that people seek advice from them rather than a test tube. In many instances, genetic counselors do not even run tests but glean risk by taking a detailed family history.

Do it yourself? Protect yourself.

Weight training works against diabetes

A new study predicts that half of Americans will be diagnosed with diabetes by 2020. So that's you or somebody you love.


Here's a strategy for preventing it. A new study suggests that when it comes to exercise, the combination of aerobics and weight lifting is better than either activity alone at lowering blood sugar in diabetes patients.

That doesn't mean double the time spent exercising, however. The study found that doing both types of exercise — some days spent doing cardio, and other days lifting weights — was effective, even if patients' total exercise time did not differ.

To figure out which type of exercise was most effective, researchers recruited 262 sedentary adults with diabetes for a nine-month study. The volunteers were randomly assigned to one of four groups: aerobic exercise only (about 150 minutes of walking on a treadmill per week), resistance training only (upper- and lower-body exercises on weight machines three days per week), aerobic exercise plus weights (two weekly sessions of weight training plus cardio on other days, with total exercise time roughly equaling the other groups), and no exercise.

The researchers found that participants in the combination group were able to lower their blood levels of HbA1C (an indicator of blood sugar) by 0.34%, compared with the aerobics- and weights-only groups, who lowered their HbA1C levels by 0.24% and 0.16%, respectively. The only change that was statistically significant from the control group's, however, was that of the combination exercise group.

Participants in the combination-exercise group lowered the amount of diabetes medication they needed on average. They were also the only ones to lose weight out of all the groups. And while all groups lost some fat mass, the combination-exercise group and lost the most compared with the control group.

"The biggest consumer of blood sugar is skeletal muscle, and anything you do to improve the health of your muscles will help control your use of blood sugar," said the study's lead author, Dr. Timothy Church, director of preventive medicine research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University System.

The good stuff in your Thanksgiving meal

We've all heard of beta carotene, but it turns out there's something else lurking in vegetables that may be better for you: alpha carotene.

People who consume high levels of alpha-carotene -- which is found in several vegetables -- may live longer, researchers have found.

Although there has been much research into the relationship between beta-carotene and risk of disease, less attention has been paid to the role of alpha-carotene, which is found in high concentrations in yellow-orange vegetables such as carrots, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins and dark-green vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, and leaf lettuce. 

The two compounds are chemically similar, but studies have found that alpha-carotene is better at inhibiting the proliferation of human neuroblastoma cells, the tumor-promoting action of glycerol in lung carcinogenesis, and skin tumor promotion. It has also been found to be a potent inhibitor of liver carcinogenesis.

Consumption of high levels of alpha carotene appears to reduce the risk of dying of all causes by up to 39%.

Grandma has plans for Grandpa

Oh, and to spice things up after the game, don't forget the pumpkin pie.

According to a new study, besides satisfying their sweet tooth, the smell of pumpkin pie really turns men on. "The number one odor that enhanced penile blood flow was a combination of lavender and pumpkin pie," Alan Hirsch, Director of Chicago's Smell and Taste Treatment Research Center, says.

But it goes beyond the pumpkin scent. The seeds themselves are great for men's sexual health and are even recommended if guys have issues with their little friend.

No wonder Thanksgiving became a national holiday. Then again, vanilla and strawberry were two other scents that received high responses in Hirsch's test, but, he says, "Every odor we tested aroused the participants."

Let's see. Soak the strawberries in vanilla and apply liberally to the top of a pumpkin pie ...

People of note: Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, master virus hunter

Over the past 20 years, Dr. W. Ian Lipkin of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University has built a reputation as a master virus hunter. He has developed ways to quickly identify familiar viruses and ways to search for new ones.

“We get 10,000 samples a year easily,” Dr. Lipkin said. “We’ve discovered at least 400 new viruses since I came to Columbia in 2002, and the process is accelerating.”

“If scientists are lucky, they’ll identify one novel virus in their whole life,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “Lipkin really stands out from the crowd.” 

Watching AIDS cases in the 1980s, Lipkin decided that there must be a better way to find viruses. Sometimes scientists can detect viruses by rearing vast numbers of them in laboratories. It’s also possible to detect them by looking for antibodies in infected people. But these methods can be slow and unreliable. Dr. Lipkin thought it might be better to find viruses in a different way. He would go fishing for their genes.

As Dr. Lipkin earned his reputation as a virus hunter, other researchers began to bring difficult cases to him. In 1999, for example, doctors noticed a cluster of cases of encephalitis around New York City. They shipped blood from their patients to Dr. Lipkin, who was then at the University of California, Irvine. Analyzing the genetic material, he and his colleagues concluded that the encephalitis had been caused by West Nile virus. It was the first time the virus had been identified in the Western Hemisphere. Since Dr. Lipkin made the discovery, West Nile virus has spread across the continental United States. 

Viruses don’t have to cause such horrific symptoms to have a major effect on people’s health. A number of studies indicate children are at higher risk of schizophrenia and autism if their mothers were infected by viruses during their pregnancy. 

“There isn’t anybody any better at this than Ian Lipkin,” said Dr. Fauci. “If he can’t find it, it probably doesn’t exist.”

News roundup: estrogen, statins, chocolate

News from the world of medicine:

People who exercise regularly not only can reduce their odds of becoming obese, but also cut their risk of developing about two dozen physical and mental health problems, a new review of more than 40 studies indicates. Exercise reduces the risk of some cancers, dementia, sexual problems like erectile dysfunction, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, depression, and hypertension, among many other diseases, according to the review.

Estrogen is an elixir for the brain, sharpening mental performance in humans and animals and showing promise as a treatment for disorders of the brain such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. But long-term estrogen therapy, once prescribed routinely for menopausal women, now is quite controversial because of research showing it increases the risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke. Northwestern Medicine researchers have discovered how to reap the benefits of estrogen without the risk.

An experimental drug, anacetrapib, which boosts levels of "good" HDL cholesterol has cleared a major safety hurdle, renewing hopes of fighting heart disease in a new way. "Our jaws dropped when we saw the 138% increase in HDL [over placebo]. And our jaws dropped even more when LDL went down by 40%," compared with placebo, says study leader Christopher P. Cannon, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

For parents who grow frustrated with their children's seeming inability to understand others who have different points of view, here's hope from the scientists: As children mature, the regions in a specific brain network known as the default-mode network or DMN begin to work together, and parents are likely to notice a difference in the children's ability to look outside themselves, according to new research.

Good news for women who love chocolate: Frequently eating chocolate was associated with a lower risk for atherosclerosis, as well as for hospitalization and premature death from heart disease or heart failure.

Widely prescribed for their cholesterol-lowering properties, recent clinical research indicates that statins can produce a second, significant health benefit: lowering the risk of severe bacterial infections such as pneumonia and sepsis.

What the insurance companies are learning about you

Your online trail is being tracked, and now the insurance companies are following you. From The Wall Street Journal:

Data-gathering companies have such extensive files on most U.S. consumers—online shopping details, catalog purchases, magazine subscriptions, leisure activities and information from social-networking sites—that some insurers are exploring whether data can reveal nearly as much about a person as a lab analysis of their bodily fluids. 

In one of the biggest tests, the U.S. arm of British insurer Aviva PLC looked at 60,000 recent insurance applicants. It found that a new, "predictive modeling" system, based partly on consumer-marketing data, was "persuasive" in its ability to mimic traditional techniques. 

This data increasingly is gathered online, often with consumers only vaguely aware that separate bits of information about them are being collected and collated in ways that can be surprisingly revealing.

A key part of the Aviva test, run by Deloitte Consulting LLP, was estimating a person's risk for illnesses such as high blood pressure and depression. Deloitte's models assume that many diseases relate to lifestyle factors such as exercise habits and fast-food diets. 

Other insurers exploring similar technology include American International Group Inc. and Prudential Financial Inc., executives for those firms confirm. Deloitte, a big backer of the concept, has pitched it in recent months to numerous insurers.

Make you nervous? Let the companies know. Here are their contact pages.

Alvia

AIG

Prudential

Deloitte

An advance against a killer orphan disease

What goes wrong in CF

Cystic fibrosis is a debilitating disease, often fatal, that affects only about 30,000 people in this country. For that reason, it's considered an orphan disease, meaning that there's not a lot of payoff for drug companies or others to investigate a cure.

Still, work is underway, and this seems to be a breakthrough.

A drug being investigated at the University of Alabama has been shown to target the root cause of cystic fibrosis.

The drug, VX-770, was shown to improve function of a faulty protein responsible for cystic fibrosis, according to finding published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Patients who took the drug for 28 showed improvement in several indicators of cystic fibrosis. These indicators included lung function, nasal potential difference measurements and sweat chloride levels. Excessive sweat chloride is how doctors typically diagnose cystic fibrosis.

"Patients with CF have a defective protein in chloride channels in lung cells that, in effect, causes a door to shut too tightly, ultimately leading to severe infections in the lung" said Steven M. Rowe, M.D., M.S.P.H, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and lead investigator at the UAB site, one of 16 study sites nationwide for this VX-770 trial. "The data suggest that the drug seems to improve the function of the protein, so that the door opens and closes more properly."

The drug is now in phase 3 trials and could be submitted for a new drug application in 2011 if data from the studies allows it.

An effective way to bypass the orphan nature of such drugs is investment by the CF Foundation in research, and that's the case with this drug.

VX-770 was discovered in a collaboration between Vertex Pharmaceuticals and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which invested more than $75 million in the project. Vertex is developing the drug.

The Foundation funds more cystic fibrosis research than any other organization in the world, and virtually every approved CF drug available today was made possible in part because of Foundation support.

Another good thing about Vitamin D

Low levels of vitamin D, the essential nutrient obtained from milk, fortified cereals and exposure to sunlight, doubles the risk of stroke in whites, but not in blacks, according to a new report by researchers at Johns Hopkins.

Stroke is the nation's third leading cause of death, killing more than 140,000 Americans annually and temporarily or permanently disabling over half a million when there is a loss of blood flow to the brain.

Nearly 8,000 initially healthy men and women of both races were involved in the latest analysis, part of a larger, ongoing national health survey, in which the researchers compared the risk of death from stroke between those with the lowest blood levels of vitamin D to those with higher amounts. Among them, 6.6 percent of whites and 32.3 percent of blacks had severely low blood levels of vitamin D, which the experts say is less than 15 nanograms per milliliter. 

Besides helping to keep bones healthy, vitamin D plays an essential role in preventing abnormal cell growth, and in bolstering the body's immune system. The hormone-like nutrient also controls blood levels of calcium and phosphorus, essential chemicals in the body. Shortages of vitamin D have also been tied to increased rates of breast cancer and depression in the elderly. 

How to get more vitamin D?

Michos recommends that people maintain good vitamin D levels by eating diets rich in such fish as salmon and tuna, consuming vitamin-D fortified dairy products, and taking vitamin D supplements. She also promotes brief exposure daily to the sun's vitamin D-producing ultraviolet light. And to those concerned about the cancer risks linked to too much time spent in the sun, she says as little as 10 to 15 minutes of daily exposure is enough during the summer months. 

And about supplements.

If vitamin supplements are used, Michos says that daily doses between 1,000 and 2,000 international units are generally safe and beneficial for most people, but that people with the severe vitamin D deficits may need higher doses under close supervision by their physician to avoid possible risk of toxicity.

The U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) previously suggested that an adequate daily intake of vitamin D is between 200 and 600 international units. However, Michos argues that this may be woefully inadequate for most people to raise their vitamin D blood levels to a healthy 30 nanograms per milliliter. The IOM has set up an expert panel to review its vitamin D guidelines, with new recommendations expected by the end of the year. Previous results from the same nationwide survey showed that 41 percent of men and 53 percent of women have unhealthy amounts of vitamin D, with nutrient levels below 28 nanograms per milliliter.

On the horizon: nanoshells, microthreads, stem cells

Among the stories you don't get in the general press are the amazing breakthroughs in medicine. Even if you see them individually you don't get the full impact of what it all means. Every day someone somewhere is discovering something that could only have been described as miraculous few years ago. So read it here:

Gold nanoshells

Nanoshells -- hollow silica spheres covered with gold -- continue to surprise researchers with how effective they are. Researchers say they are killing breast cancer cells at a previously unreachable root level. In a mouse study the nanoshells delivered heat to breast cancer tumors already treated with radiation and not only shrank the tumor but also dramatically decreased the population of cancer stem cells.

Researchers have repaired large muscle wounds in mice by growing and implanting "microthreads" coated with human muscle cells. The microthreads—made out of the same material that triggers the formation of blood clots—seem to help the cells grow in the proper orientation, which is vital for rebuilding working muscle tissue.

Scientists have discovered how to make human blood from adult human skin. The discovery could mean that in the foreseeable future people needing blood for surgery, cancer treatment or treatment of other blood conditions like anemia will be able to have blood created from a patch of their own skin to provide transfusions.

Researchers have generated 100 new lines of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from individuals with lung diseases, including cystic fibrosis and emphysema. The new stem cell lines could possibly lead to new treatments for these debilitating diseases.

For the first time, human cells have been used to create a lab-grown liver. It's a milestone on the way to creating a new source of livers for transplant.

Corneas made in the lab using genetically engineered human collagen could restore sight to millions of visually impaired people waiting for transplants from human donors. Investigators have reported results from the first 10 people in the world treated with the biosynthetic corneas. Two years after having the corneas implanted, six of the 10 patients had improved vision. Nine of the 10 experienced cell and nerve regeneration, meaning that corneal cells and nerves grew into the implant.

MRI's may help those at high risk of breast cancer

For women with a high risk of breast cancer because of genetic mutations or family history, yearly M.R.I. scans in addition to mammograms and breast exams may save lives, a new study finds.

The study, the first to measure survival in a large number of high-risk women receiving M.R.I.’s, found that after six years of follow-up, 93 percent of mutation carriers with cancer were still alive, compared with 74 percent alive at five years in earlier studies. In the new study, all of the women at high risk because of family history were still alive after six years. 

“Carefully screened with M.R.I., clinical breast examination and mammography, even women at high risk for the development of breast cancer may make a rational decision not to have prophylactic mastectomy as a risk-reducing intervention,” said Dr. Andrew D. Seidman, a breast cancer specialist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering who was not involved in the study. 

Breast M.R.I. is not recommended for most women, who have only an average risk of breast cancer, because the scans find too many possible abnormalities and lead to repeat scans and biopsies for things that turn out to be harmless. Even in this study of high-risk women, about 10 percent of the suspicious M.R.I. findings turned out to be false positives.

And the blind shall see

Scientists in Germany have developed a retina implant to restore vision to the blind. Blind patients (mostly suffering from retinitis pigmentosa) were able to see light and dark areas and discern basic shapes only a week after their surgeries. One man was even able to see the difference between objects, and read large letters.

Aaron Saenz writes that retinal implants could restore limited visual sensitivity to thousands or millions around the world, helping them maintain the lives they have built up so carefully.

The device is surgically placed under the retina. Light that enters the eye stimulates the photodiodes which send electric currents through the underlying neurons.

An implant in the retina (left) replaces damaged 
retinal light receptors with a photodiode array (right).

Here's the amazing thing.

Implanted patients also reported a sensitivity to infrared light. The retina implant could only provide very basic vision, but it did so in an extended spectrum. Cybernetic implants like these may not only be able to restore sight to the blind, they could let them see things that no normal person has ever seen before with their own eyes.

Infrared imaging is used extensively for military and civilian purposes.

Military applications include target acquisition, surveillance, night vision, homing and tracking. Non-military uses include thermal efficiency analysis, remote temperature sensing, short-ranged wireless communication, spectroscopy, and weather forecasting.

Here's a picture showing how it works. The camera illuminates the scene at infrared wavelengths invisible to the human eye. Despite a dark back-lit scene, active-infrared night vision delivers identifying details, as seen on the display monitor.

Remember those x-ray glasses you wanted so badly when you were a kid?

Got milk? Lose weight.

Kids who are deficient in vitamin D accumulated fat around the waist and gained weight more rapidly than kids who got enough vitamin D, a new University of Michigan study suggests.

Accumulation of abdominal fat, or central fat, may lead to a so-called apple body shape, which is commonly linked to increased risks of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other chronic conditions later in life, says epidemiologist Eduardo Villamor, associate professor at the U-M School of Public Health and senior author of the study.

"We found that the kids with the lowest vitamin D levels at the beginning tended to gain weight faster than the kids with higher levels," said Villamor, who added that children with the lowest vitamin D levels had more drastic increases in central body fat measures.

Another recent study found positive weight results from drinking milk.

In a 2-year weight loss study, milk drinkers had an advantage over those who skipped the milk. Israeli researchers found that adults who drank the most milk (nearly 2 glasses per day) and had the highest vitamin D levels at 6 months, lost more weight after 2 years than those who had little or no milk or milk products -- nearly 12 pounds weight loss, on average.

Researchers also found that each additional 6-ounce serving of milk or milk products (about 3/4 of a glass of milk) was associated with 10 pounds successful weight loss above the average, at 6 months.

Beyond calcium, the researchers also found that vitamin D levels independently affected weight loss success and in line with previous research, milk and milk products were the top contributors to vitamin D in the diets of the study participants. 

There's more.

A new study in the journal Obesity, by Y. Li and colleagues, showed that compared to a placebo, a low-dose multivitamin caused obese volunteers to lose 7 lb (3.2 kg) of fat mass in 6 months, mostly from the abdominal region. The supplement also reduced LDL by 27%, increased HDL by a whopping 40% and increased resting energy expenditure.

The cows will be happy.

(FuturePundit)

The difference in healthcare systems

Older Americans are not quite as healthy as their English counterparts, but do live just as long, if not longer, according to a new study.

Americans aged 55 to 64 and 70 to 80 had higher rates of chronic diseases than same-aged English people, but they died at about the same rate. And Americans aged 65 and older -- while still sicker than their English peers -- actually lived longer than similar-aged people in England.

"If you get sick at older ages, you will die sooner in England than in the United States," study author James P. Smith, PhD, of the nonprofit RAND corporation in Santa Monica, Calif., says in a news release. "It appears that at least in terms of survival at older ages with chronic disease, the medical system in the United States may be better than the system in England."

Americans and their English counterparts were equally likely to die from chronic diseases during the ages of 55 to 64, but Americans tend to live longer with chronic diseases during their 70s.

The researchers speculate that this may be because these same illnesses are more likely to be fatal in England than in America, or that English people may be diagnosed at later stages in their disease, which would result in a higher mortality rate.

"Both of these explanations imply that there is higher-quality medical care in the United States than in England, at least in the sense that these chronic illnesses are less likely to cause death among people living in the United States," Smith says.

CT scans may prevent lung cancer deaths

A huge government study has found that annual CT scans of current and former heavy smokers reduced their risk of death from lung cancer by 20 percent.

Equally interesting, the scans seem to reduce the risks of death from other causes as well, suggesting that the scans could be catching other illnesses. “What we also have found is that low-dose CT scan gives information on cardiovascular disease, emphysema” and other pulmonary diseases, said Dr. Claudia Henschke, a clinical professor of radiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center .

Patients wishing to get a CT lung screen will most likely have to pay the roughly $300 charge themselves, since few insurers pay for such scans unless an illness is suspected. The federal Medicare program will soon reconsider paying for such screens, a Medicare official said. 

Another caution: One-quarter of those given CT scans were found to have anomalies, nearly all of which were benign. These false signals generally led to more worry, more CT scans and sometimes to lung biopsies and thoracic surgery.

The medical community is still debating whether such scans should become routine. They don't yet know which patients would be best suited for the test. Nevertheless, if you're worried, it's a good thing to discuss with your doctor.

A sting for life

Snake, bee and spider venoms contain hundreds of ingredients. They are biologically active and provide a great resource for researchers. Some can can be developed into drugs, as Popular Mechanics reports. 

Deathstalker Scorpion

Deathstalker Scorpion Venom for Brain Cancer
The deathstalker scorpion's venom is a neurotoxin powerful enough to kill a child or elderly person, often by causing pulmonary edema.

Recently, Miqin Zhang, a materials scientist at the University of Washington, showed that a certain compound called chlorotoxin found in the venom could help in the treatment of brain cancer. In gene therapy, doctors inject small bits of healthy DNA that are attached to nanoparticles, and these move toward the tumor site to repair or replace the cancer-causing gene mutations.

The problem is that many of the substances currently used for delivery either don't deliver the genes efficiently or have potentially harmful side effects. But by attaching chlorotoxin to the nanoparticle, Zhang managed to get significantly more of the therapeutic DNA sequence into the cancerous cells.

Bee Venom in Cancer Treatment
In a similar study, Samuel A. Wickline, a biomedical engineer at Washington University School of Medicine, altered a protein found in bee venom—which often causes inflammation after stings—called melittin. Like chlorotoxin, melittin can help deliver therapeutic drug compounds to damaged cells. Wickline linked the compound to the membrane of nanoparticles, which, without disrupting a drug's normal function, helped it more accurately hit its target. Scientists are primarily focused on using this as an anticancer therapy.

Tarantula Venom for Muscular Dystrophy
Frederick Sachs, a biophysicist at the University of Buffalo, has studied the Chilean rose tarantula, a relatively harmless spider commonly bought in pet stores. Studying the venom, too weak to harm a human, he came across a peptide called GsMtx-4.

Sachs believes it can reduce the amount of stress in muscles. Excessive mechanical stress on muscles is common in muscular dystrophy. By injecting a synthetic version of the peptide into lab mice with dystrophy, Sachs found that muscle activity improves.

Indian Cobra

Cobra Venom for Arthritis
India's traditional medicine system, ayurveda, has used cobra venoms for thousands of years. Earlier this year, physiologist Antony Gomes at the University of Calcutta published a paper showing the role the venom might play in improving arthritis. Male rats were induced with arthritis and then injected with nonlethal doses of Indian monocellate cobra venom. The rats showed significant improvement in their arthritic symptoms. 

How to walk your way to health

Research shows that starting a walking program can help people with type 2 diabetes achieve tighter glucose control, Johns Hopkins reports, but everyone can benefit.

A study by Italian researchers found that sedentary diabetes participants who began walking about 30 minutes a day lowered their hemoglobin A1c levels by 0.4% after two years. The walkers also experienced marked improvements in cholesterol, triglycerides (a type of fat in the blood), protective high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and blood pressure.

Most people with diabetes can follow the American Heart Association and American College of Sports Medicine recommendation to get at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most, and preferably all, days of the week or at least 20 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity three days a week. "Moderate" activity is defined as equivalent to walking at a pace of 3 to 4 miles per hour.

How do you know if you're getting the benefit?

Try to achieve a "target heart range" that's between 50 and 70% of your maximum heart rate (MHR), which is an estimate of how fast your heart would beat at the very peak of physical exertion. This formula may seem a bit complicated at first, but it can help you find an appropriate walking pace for your age that provides solid health benefits.

I've done this and it's not as complicated as it sounds. The heart rate monitor I bought a few years ago even did the calculation for me.

• First, determine your MHR by subtracting your age from the number 220. MHR is 158 (220-62 = 158).

• Now determine your target heart range by first multiplying your MHR by 0.5 then multiplying it by 0.7. Example: If you are 62, your target heart range during exercise is between 79 and 111 beats per minute (158 x 0.5 = 79; 158 x 0.7 = 111). Once you know your target heart range, stop in the middle of your next walk and check your heart rate. Using your middle and index fingers, find your pulse at the base of your wrist or on the side of your neck. Count the beats for 15 seconds (the first beat counts as zero). Take the total and multiply by four to determine your heart rate. Are you within your target heart range?
   
• When first starting out, aim for the low end of your target heart range. Once you have checked your heart rate during exercise a few times you will come to know what the proper intensity feels like.

As an alternative to using this formula, you can purchase a heart rate monitor, which does the work for you. Or you can follow some simple rules of thumb that will keep you moving at a healthy clip:

• Walk as though you're running late to catch a bus or plane, but not so fast that you can't talk and keep up a conversation.

• If you don't break a sweat during a workout, chances are you aren't walking fast enough.

• Start counting. According to a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, walking at a pace equal to roughly 100 steps per minute produces a moderate degree of physical exertion. (If keeping track of steps is too hard, use a pedometer.)

Nature's healing ways

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin prevent colon cancer by triggering diseased stem cells to self-destruct, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Aspirin was originally found in the bark of a willow tree in 1763.

Black raspberries are highly effective in preventing colorectal tumors in two mouse models of the disease, according to a University of Illinois at Chicago study.

Scientists in Yorkshire have developed a process that uses the luminous cells from jellyfish to diagnose cancers deep within the human body.

A new research study offers hope that a natural compound found in daffodil bulbs, called narciclasine, may be a powerful therapeutic against biologically aggressive forms of human brain cancers.

Researchers report that drugs used to treat diabetes may indeed both prevent and contain lung cancer. One is metformin, which was derived from the French lilac.

In a recently published clinical study, pomegranate juice supplements were found to slow down the progression of recurrent prostate cancer in patients who had previously undergone treatment with surgery or radiation therapy.

Will they cure the common cold?

Adenovirus

Researchers in England have discovered something about viruses that some are saying could lead to a cure for the common cold. Others are skeptical for the moment.

The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows how a recently discovered protein, TRIM21, helps destroy a virus linked to upper respiratory infections, once it’s inside of cells and coated with antibodies.

That’s interesting because antibodies are thought to do most of their work outside of our cells, blocking viruses from infecting cells in the first place or flagging invading pathogens to be recognized and eaten by specialist immune cells.

If a drug could treat the virus before it enters a cell we might have something.

The researchers, led by Leo James at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, found that one kind of adenovirus can enter cultured human cells after the researchers treated the viruses with antibodies. Once inside the cells, TRIM21 appears to latch onto the antibodies and shuttle the viruses to cellular structures that recycle proteins, called proteosomes, where the viruses are destroyed.

It’s possible that ramping up TRIM21 could help an immune system battle a viral infection, James told the Guardian. That may be true, but it’s not obvious how one would do that in laboratory animals, let alone safely in humans.

Don't sell your Kleenex stock just yet.

Running from the common cold

The average adult in the United States can expect to have a cold two to four times a year, while children can catch between half a dozen and 10 colds a year, on average, all of which costs the U.S. economy around $40 billion annually.

But we may have a trick up our sleeves: research has found that people who are physically fit and active have fewer and milder colds.

Being older, male, and married, seemed to reduce the frequency of colds, but after taking account of other influential factors, the most significant factors were perceived fitness and the amount of exercise taken.

The number of days with symptoms among those who said they were physically active on five or more days of the week and felt fit was almost half (43% to 46% less) that of those who exercised on only one or fewer days of the week.

The severity of symptoms fell by 41% among those who felt the fittest and by 31% among those who were the most active.

Bouts of exercise spark a temporary rise in immune system cells circulating around the body, the researchers said. Although these levels fall back within a few hours, each bout is likely to enhance surveillance of harmful viruses and bacteria, so reducing the number and severity of infections, such as the common cold.

Is genetic testing in your future?

Nature magazine asked more than 90 genomics centres and labs to estimate the number of human genome sequences they have in the works. Although far from comprehensive, the tally indicates that at least 2,700 human genomes will have been completed by the end of this month, and that the total will rise to more than 30,000 by the end of 2011.

What does this mean for you and me?

FuturePundit writes: This is an example of why I keep saying that the floodgates on genetic data are opening, that the rate of discovery of what genetic mutations mean is rapidly accelerating, and that we will soon learn enormous amounts about what many thousands of our genetic variants mean. The utility of getting yourself genetically tested is going to rise sharply.

He points to this article:

A handful of physicians have quietly begun using whole-genome sequencing in attempts to diagnose patients whose conditions defy other available tools.

"If one hospital is doing it, you can be sure others will start, because patients will vote with their feet," Elizabeth Worthey, a genomics specialist at the Human and Molecular Genetics Center (HMGC) of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

Some in the field say we need better regulation of genetic testing. More here. So be wary, but expect this new field to grow.

Experimenting with your health

Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf throws some doubt on the many provisions of the new health care law.

Calling the bill health care "reform" is misleading. For example, it was sold as a way to reduce costs.

Elmendorf, who is Congress’ chief accountant, said the Democrats’ health care bill will reduce unnecessary spending on health care by insured people -- but only to a "very limited extent" over the next decade. One of the main complaints about the health care law, even as it was being written, is that it doesn’t do enough to control costs.

And if you thought it would make the whole process more predictable:

Elmendorf revealed that some of ObamaCare's so-called reforms may not be reforms at all. Analyzing the many provisions that are supposed to make health care more efficient and less expensive, Elmendorf said that there was little evidence any of them would actually work -- leading CBO to view their potential with skepticism.

“The legislation set up a number of experiments in delivery and payment systems to induce providers to offer higher-quality and lower-cost care,” he said. “However, for a number of reasons, it is unclear how successful the experiments will be.

A grand experiment with our health.

Can we reverse hearing loss?

As we age our hearing tends to decline, and this can set in motion other problems. Not being able to pick up all of a conversation causes us to isolate and miss out. 

Researchers at the W.M. Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco, have been studying the hearing ability of aging rats and think it may lead to new therapies for older people.

In a recent study, UCSF researchers found that trained lab rats were able to recover more than 20 auditory cortex alterations. In most cases, they saw a partial or complete reversal of auditory damage. This study provides compelling evidence that the effects of aging — at least in the auditory cortex of elderly lab rats — are both reversible and preventable.

The study carries hefty implication for the use of audio in neurorehabilitation therapy for humans, especially in cases of age-related dementia, Alzheimer’s and sensory degradation.


In some cases of dementia, music is already being used to ameliorate symptoms of agitation, anxiety and depression. In instances of age-related decline or injury therapy, music and rhythmic cues are being used for cognitive rehabilitation, spatial awareness and muscle recovery. Findings from UCSF may help therapists hone training strategies and tailor their use of audio to not only treat symptoms of age-related decline, but improve the degradation of its causes.

 Say again?