Got milk?

If you're like me you long ago acquired the notion that milk isn't good for you. I don't know where that got started. I recall those "Got milk?" TV commercials and marveled at how they have to sell something that for centuries everybody just drank.

Now there's evidence that milk is actually good for you. (I feel silly writing that.)

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.

Regardless of diet, researchers found participants with the highest dairy calcium intake 6 months into the study (averaging about 580mg per day – the amount in nearly 2 glasses of milk) lost about 12 pounds at the end of the 2 years, compared to about 7 pounds for those with the lowest dairy calcium intake (averaging about 150mg, or about half of a glass).

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.

I went to Wikipedia and found:

Studies show possible links between low-fat milk consumption and reduced risk of arterial hypertension, coronary heart disease, colorectal cancer, and obesity. Overweight individuals who drink milk may benefit from decreased risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. One study has shown that for women desiring to have a child, those who consume full fat dairy products may slightly increase their fertility, while those consuming low fat dairy products may slightly reduce their fertility. Milk is a source of conjugated linoleic acid.
Milk appears to be effective at promoting muscle growth.

Here's some of the stuff in whole milk:

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy	252 kJ (60 kcal)
Carbohydrates	5.26 g
Sugars	5.26 g
Lactose	5.26 g
Fat	3.25 g
saturated	1.865 g
monounsaturated	0.812 g
polyunsaturated	0.195 g
Protein	3.22 g
Tryptophan	0.075 g
Threonine	0.143 g
Isoleucine	0.165 g
Leucine	0.265 g
Lysine	0.140 g
Methionine	0.075 g
Cystine	0.017 g
Phenylalanine	0.147 g
Tyrosine	0.152 g
Valine	0.192 g
Arginine	0.075 g
Histidine	0.075 g
Alanine	0.103 g
Aspartic acid	0.237 g
Glutamic acid	0.648 g
Glycine	0.075 g
Proline	0.342 g
Serine	0.107 g
Water	88.32 g
Vitamin A equiv.	28 μg (3%)
Thiamine (Vit. B1)	0.044 mg (3%)
Riboflavin (Vit. B2)	0.183 mg (12%)
Vitamin B12	0.44 μg (18%)
Vitamin D	40 IU (10%)
Calcium	113 mg (11%)
Magnesium	10 mg (3%)
Potassium	143 mg (3%)

That's not all. You also get:

• Biotin
• Pantothenic acid
• Iodine
• Potassium
• Magnesium
• Selenium
• Thiamine
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin B₁₂
• Riboflavin
• Vitamins D
• Vitamin K

That's a lot of stuff. No wonder cows look tired.

The hidden stress of unemployment

If you're still employed, you probably know someone who isn't. Lurking just underneath the surface, if not on the surface, is a huge amount of stress.

According to one study, finances and work lead the list of stressors in our society. It's serious business. Two economists have studied the stress of unemployment and concluded that long-term unemployment can reduce life expectancy by a year or more.

The effects extend beyond the one who is out of work.

A recent study at the University of California, Davis, found that children in families where the head of the household had lost a job were 15 percent more likely to repeat a grade. Ariel Kalil, a University of Chicago professor of public policy, and Kathleen M. Ziol-Guest, of the Institute for Children and Poverty in New York, found in an earlier study that adolescent children of low-income single mothers who endured unemployment had an increased chance of dropping out of school and showed declines in emotional well-being.

In the long term, children whose parents were laid off have been found to have lower annual earnings as adults than those whose parents remained employed, a phenomenon Peter R. Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, mentioned in a speech last week at New York University.

Many years ago I left a company where I'd worked for 16 years. It was the only job my children had known. They were deeply affected. Having lost jobs over the years I know that the stress can creep up on you. You seem to be managing the transition well enough, but you're carrying some emotional baggage. Recognizing it is the first step in dealing with it.

Here's one breakdown of symptoms:

• Changes in body functions and physical health
• Changes in emotions and feelings
• Changes in behavior
• Changes in thoughts

That article breaks those down further and provides a chart for you to assess yourself -- and have someone else assess you, too. If you see yourself there, tell your doctor. Be aware, though, that busy doctors don't always listen closely to those complaints.

Should you be taking a statin?

Statins are prescribed to reduce cholesterol. One of them, Lipitor, has become the best-selling pharmaceutical in history.

C-reactive protein

Two years ago a major clinical trial known as JUPITER showed that millions more people could benefit from taking statins, even if they have low cholesterol. That study involved patients with low cholesterol levels but elevated levels of CRP, or C-reactive protein, which indicates inflammation in the body and suggests a greater risk of heart attack and stroke.

A new study suggests that broader statin use among adult patients may be a cost-effective way to prevent heart attack and stroke. The Stanford University School of Medicine study also found that screening for  CRP to identify patients who may benefit from statin therapy would be cost-effective, but only under certain scenarios.

The researchers developed a model to analyze the cost-effectiveness of three approaches: following current guidelines; doing CRP screening in individuals who don't meet the current guidelines for treatment, with statin therapy for those with elevated CRP levels; and providing statin therapy based on an individual's cardiovascular risk alone, without CRP testing. Their model followed hypothetical patients, starting at 40 years of age, with normal lipid levels and no clinical evidence of heart disease or diabetes.

Their conclusion? Assigning statin therapy based on risk alone, without CRP testing, was the most cost-effective strategy. The optimal strategy for men with no risk factors, for example, would be to start a statin at the age of 55.

The researchers found, however, that the optimal strategy for prevention changed if the assumptions in the model were altered. For instance, if patients with normal CRP levels get little or no benefit from statin therapy, CRP screening would be the optimal strategy. And if harms from statin use are only slightly greater than currently thought, statin therapy would not be reasonable in low-risk individuals, and following current clinical guidelines would be the most cost-effective strategy.

So a lot of questions remain. But it's worth a discussion with your doctor. And here's something you can use: the researchers have developed an interactive tool that doctors can use to determine the most cost-effective approach to statin therapy for individual patients. The calculator can be found at http://med.stanford.edu/hsr/crp-screening/.

Are those local farmers' markets a good thing?

We've got a farmer's market in town. It sets up shop once a week, and I've been there once. This idea has become something of a fad everywhere. I guess the idea is that you get very fresh produce, and you also get to pretend that you're saving the plant by buying broccoli not trucked from California.

Well ...

According to The New York Times: A surprising investigation by the local NBC affiliate in Los Angeles discovered several examples of false claims at various Southern California farmers’ markets, including a vendor who purchased boxes of produce from wholesale produce warehouses, including items grown on big commercial farms as far away as Mexico.

So how do you know?

Operators of farmers markets we spoke to suggest shoppers get to know vendors they buy from, and ask them a lot of questions. Ask for the exact location of the farm where the produce is grown. If they claim their produce is “pesticide free,” ask them what methods they use to control pests on their crops. Ask exactly when the produce was picked. If the farmer can’t give you specific answers, or seems unwilling to answer your questions, market operators say you should walk away.

The Wall Street Journal weighs in with another perspective on the local markets: Patronizing local farmers who produce in small batches tends to cost more. You may find some peak-season bargains at the farmers' market, but there's no such thing as a free locavore lunch. Virginia Postrel writes:

The locavore ideal is a world without trade, not only beyond national borders but even from the next state: no Florida oranges in Colorado or California grapes in New Mexico, no Vidalia onions in New York or summer spinach in Georgia.

Fully realized, that ideal would eliminate one of the great culinary advances of the past half century. Unripe peaches notwithstanding, today's supermarket produce departments are modern marvels. American grocery shoppers have choices that would have been unimaginable only a few decades ago. When I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, the only way to get fresh spinach or leaf lettuce was to plant a garden. Avocados were an exotic treat, asparagus came in a can, and pomegranates existed only in books.

Now my neighborhood supermarket sells five types of lettuce, plus spinach, endive, escarole, radicchio, frisée, rapini, three kinds of chard, mustard greens, dandelion greens and kale. That's not including all the cabbages—or, of course, the prewashed salads in a bag that have particularly boosted fresh-spinach purchases. In this ordinary produce department, you can buy not only avocados, asparagus and pomegranates, but everything from purple baby cauliflowers to spiky kiwano melons that look like some kind of scary deep-sea creature. Need portobello mushrooms, Japanese eggplant or organic ginger at 2 a.m.? The store is open 24/7.

 The most important thing, in my opinion, is how close to the door you can park.

Eat your vegetables. Not.

Your government now recommends four and a half cups of fruits and vegetables (that’s nine servings) for people who eat 2,000 calories a day. The guidelines will be updated later this year, The New York Times reports, and some suggest making them more visual, for example, filling half the plate or bowl with vegetables.

It probably won't work. Right off the bat, do you eat nine servings of anything in a day?

This month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a nationwide study of fruit and vegetable consumption. Only 26 percent of the nation’s adults eat vegetables three or more times a day, it concluded.

And this week the NPD Group, a market research company, released the 25th edition of its annual report, “Eating Patterns in America.” Only 23 percent of meals include a vegetable. The number of dinners prepared at home that included a salad was 17 percent; in 1994, it was 22 percent. At restaurants, salads ordered as a main course at either lunch or dinner dropped by half since 1989, to a mere 5 percent.

Sugar is sugar

Last week the Corn Refiners Association suggested changing the term "high-fructose corn syrup" t to “corn sugar,”because we all know the first is bad for us. About 55 percent of Americans list the corn sweetener among their food-safety worries, right behind mad cow disease and mercury in seafood. But is it the only villain?

Only about half of the added sugar in the American diet comes from corn sources, The New York Times reports.

All added sugars, nutrition scientists say, including those from sugar cane and beets, are cause for concern. Today, sugar calories now account for 16 percent of the calories Americans consume, a 50 percent increase from the 1970s.

There are some chemical differences between high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose, or table sugar, and scientists debate whether they act differently in the human body. Best bet for all of us to assess all of the sugar, whatever the type, in our diets.

Dr. George A. Bray, professor of medicine at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., who wrote an article in 2004 that became fodder for the anti-corn syrup crowd, says it should not have been singled out.  “Sugar is sugar,” he says. While high-fructose corn syrup isn’t any more detrimental than regular sugar, he says, the benefit of focusing on the ingredient is that it has drawn attention to too much sugar in the American diet.

The new healthcare law is starting

Obamacare kicks in on Thursday. The AP has a rundown of some of the changes we can expect:

Q: Will everyone's health insurance change on Thursday?

A: No. It depends on when your health insurance plan year starts. Many of the new requirements begin with plan years starting on or after Sept. 23. But if your plan year starts Jan. 1, as many do, that's when the changes start.

"Grandfathered" plans, those that existed before the law was enacted March 23 and which remain essentially unchanged, must meet only some of the requirements. New plans and those with significant changes in benefits or out-of-pocket costs must comply with even more changes in the law.

Q: What are some of the new benefits?

A: Free preventive care, for one. Some people will no longer have to pay copays, coinsurance or meet their deductibles for preventive care that's backed up by the best scientific evidence. That includes flu vaccines, mammograms and even diet counseling for adults at-risk of chronic disease.

Q: Are there exceptions?

A: Free preventive care isn't required of existing health plans that haven't changed significantly, those "grandfathered" plans we mentioned earlier. New plans, and those that change substantially on or after Sept. 23, must provide this benefit.

Q: I've heard lifetime limits are being eliminated. What does that mean?

A: Millions of Americans have insurance that sets a cap on what their insurance will pay to cover their medical costs over a lifetime. The caps have left very sick patients with medical bills topping $1 million or $2 million high and dry. These lifetime limits will be eliminated for plans issued or renewed on or after Sept. 23. Those who have maxed out because of the caps but remain eligible for coverage must be reinstated on the first day of the plan year that begins on or after Sept. 23.

Q: What about annual limits?

A: Plans issued or renewed on or after Sept. 23 can't have annual limits lower than $750,000. Annual limits will be eliminated entirely by 2014.

More at the link.

To sleep, perchance to not get diabetes

Could the epidemic of diabetes be caused by our poor sleeping habits?

Biologists have found that a key protein that regulates the biological clocks of mammals also regulates glucose production in the liver and that altering the levels of this protein can improve the health of diabetic mice.

Their discovery provides an entirely new biochemical approach for scientists to develop treatments for obesity and type 2 diabetes. It also raises the interesting possibility that some of the rise in diabetes in the U.S. and other major industrialized countries could be a consequence of disturbances in sleep-wake cycles from our increasingly around-the-clock lifestyles.

Cryptochrome

The work zeroed in on a particular protein.

"We know that mice that don't have good biological clocks tend to develop diabetes and obesity," said Steve Kay, Dean of the Division of Biological Sciences at UC San Diego and one of the lead authors of the research study. "And we know that mice that have developed diabetes and obesity tend not to have very good biological clocks. This reciprocal relationship between circadian rhythm and the maintenance of a constant supply of glucose in the body had been known for some time. But what we found that's so significant is that a particular biological clock protein, cryptochrome, is actually regulating how the hormone that regulates glucose production in the liver works in a very specific way."

"We used to think that our metabolism was regulated primarily by hormones that are released from the pancreas during fasting or feeding. This work shows that the biological clock determines how well these hormones work to regulate metabolism," says Marc Montminy, a professor in the Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. "The study may explain why shift workers, whose biological clocks are often out of kilter, also have a greater risk of developing obesity and insulin resistance."

Don't start thinking you're special. Cryptochrome also regulates the biological clocks of plants and fruit flies.

Try a little ginger

A new study shows that ginger may also be an effective pain reliever for sore muscles. The study, published in The Journal of Pain, showed a daily dose of two grams of ginger eased muscle pain caused by exercise-induced muscle injury. The results showed that raw and heat-treated ginger reduced muscle pain by 25% and 23%, respectively. Researchers say previous studies in animals have shown that ginger has anti-inflammatory properties, which might help explain its beneficial effects on muscle pain.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, says it is unclear whether ginger is effective in treating rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, or joint and muscle pain.

The center takes a conservative view on all supplements, and that's a good thing, because there's a lot of baseless information out there.

My yoga instructor, Zen Momma, swears by ginger and turmeric for muscle relief. The NCCAM says that preliminary findings from animal and laboratory studies suggest that a chemical found in turmeric—called curcumin—may have anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antioxidant properties, but these findings have not been confirmed in people.

These guys just can't be fun at parties.

Diabetes: eat your blueberries

A maturing Polaris blueberry

Drinking blueberry smoothies helped obese adults who were pre-diabetic improve insulin sensitivity, researchers report.

Sixty-seven percent of people who drank a blueberry smoothie twice a day for six weeks experienced a 10% or greater improvement in their insulin sensitivity, compared with 41% of people in the placebo smoothie group.

The findings suggest that compounds found in blueberries, which have also been found to improve heart health, may help people with prediabetes by making the body more responsive to insulin. What the biochemical chain reaction or cellular pathways might be remain unclear. Compounds in blueberries, called anthocyanins, have antioxidant properties, which may contribute to health benefits such as improved insulin sensitivity.

Wikipedia has more on the good stuff in blueberries.

Especially in wild species, blueberries contain anthocyanins, other antioxidant pigments and various phytochemicals possibly having a role in reducing risks of some diseases, including inflammation and certain cancers. 

Researchers have shown that blueberry anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, resveratrol, flavonols, and tannins inhibit mechanisms of cancer cell development and inflammation in vitro. Similar to red grape, some blueberry species contain in their skins significant levels of resveratrol, a phytochemical.

Although most studies below were conducted using the highbush cultivar of blueberries (V. corymbosum), content of polyphenol antioxidants and anthocyanins in lowbush (wild) blueberries (V. angustifolium) exceeds values found in highbush species.

At a 2007 symposium on berry health benefits were reports showing consumption of blueberries (and similar berry fruits including cranberries) may alleviate the cognitive decline occurring in Alzheimer's disease and other conditions of aging.

A chemical isolated from blueberry leaves can block replication of the hepatitis C virus and might help to delay disease spread in infected individuals.

Feeding blueberries to animals lowers brain damage in experimental stroke. Research at Rutgers has also shown that blueberries may help prevent urinary tract infections.

Other animal studies found that blueberry consumption lowered cholesterol and total blood lipid levels, possibly affecting symptoms of heart disease.[34] Additional research showed that blueberry consumption in rats altered glycosaminoglycans which are vascular cell components affecting control of blood pressure.

A study soon to be published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that supplementation with wild blueberry juice enhanced memory and learning in older adults, while reducing blood sugar and symptoms of depression.

All that in a little berry.

Some men get a break on the PSA test

The PSA test is designed to do two things: 1) screen men for prostate cancer, and 2) drive men up the wall with anxiety. That's because it's an imprecise test that can lead to biopsies that aren't needed and surgeries that don't prolong life, but do make it miserable.

Now comes some hope for some men. A blood test at the age of 60 can accurately predict the risk that a man will die from prostate cancer within the next 25 years, according to researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in New York, and Lund University, in Sweden. This could have important implications for determining which men should be screened after the age of 60 and which may not benefit substantially from continued prostate cancer screening.

Following more than a thousand men, the researchers found:

Men with a PSA level above 2 ng/ml at age 60 should be considered at increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer and should continue to be screened regularly. Men with a PSA level below 1 ng / ml had a 0.2 percent chance of death from prostate cancer. The researchers concluded that men with PSA levels in this range, which is about half of all men, should be considered at low risk of prostate cancer death and may not need to be screened in the future.

In another study, Professor Philipp Dahm and colleagues at the University of Florida reviewed six trials, involving 387,286 participants. They found that PSA screening aids in the diagnosis of prostate cancer at an earlier stage, but does not have a significant impact on mortality, and comes at the risk of over-treatment.

The authors say there is insufficient evidence to support actively inviting all men in certain age groups to attend screening for prostate cancer (as happens with breast cancer screening for women), and they suggest men should be better informed about the uncertainties associated with screening.

What to do? Science Daily quotes Gerald Andriole, Chief of Urologic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine. He suggests that PSA testing should be tailored to individual risk.

He recommends that young men at high risk of prostate cancer, such as those with a strong family history and higher baseline PSA concentrations, should be followed closely, while elderly men and those with a low risk of disease could be tested less often, if at all. "Approaches such as these will hopefully make the next 20 years of PSA based screening better than the first 20," he says.

You need to have a heart to heart with a doctor you trust, and if you don't like what you hear or feel it is incomplete or that you are being rushed into a decision, get a second opinion. This is one of those conditions that requires the patient to make decisions, and you might as well get educated now, before any alarms go off.

Coming to a health insurance premium near you

I did not like the headline this morning: health insurance premiums may go up by 20 percent here in Connecticut, where I live. If you don't live here, don't count your blessings.

Matthew Sturdevant reports in The Hartford Courant:

The overall price shift is the clearest indicator yet of what customers and employers can expect when health insurers submit proposed 2011 rates in late October and November. The current round of price requests launches a clash between insurers who say the increases are justified and consumer advocates and government officials who say the numbers are wildly inflated.

Indeed officials at the federal and state level jumped on their high horses to express outrage, but the insurance companies point to specifics in the new law. Anthem, with which we have a policy, says:

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut, by far the largest insurer of Connecticut residents, said in a letter that it expects the federal health reform law to increase rates by as much as 22.9 percent for just a single provision — removing annual spending caps. The mandate to provide benefits to children regardless of pre-existing conditions will raise premiums by 4.8 percent, Anthem said in the letter. Mandated preventive care with no deductibles would raise rates by as much as 8.5 percent, Anthem said.

On Sept. 23, health insurers will be required to comply with an array of provisions that were part of federal health reform laws passed six months ago. New regulations include eliminating cash limits on how much insurers pay per person each year, and throughout a person's lifetime. Insurers won't be able to deny coverage to children under 19 who have a pre-existing medical condition.

"If you fail to recognize that the new requirements around benefits that were passed in federal reform were going to drive price, I think you're being intellectually irresponsible," said Keith Stover, a lobbyist with the Connecticut Association of Health Plans. "Those are new benefits that are going to cost money," Stover said. "You can't just wave the magic wand and say, 'Do all these things, and they're free.' It just doesn't work that way."

I'm no fan of the insurance companies, but I think he has a point.

Air or towel dry your hands?

Germs missed after hand washing.

With flu season upon us, we start remembering the little things. Do those hot air hand driers found in pubic restrooms -- I hate them -- work better than paper towels?

The New York Times points to what it says is the only independent study of the matter.

In 2000, the Mayo Clinic conducted one of the few independent studies of the matter. Researchers recruited 100 people, contaminated their hands and then instructed them to wash with soap and water. Afterward, they had them run their hands under a warm air dryer for a single 30-second cycle, or use a cloth or paper towel for 15 seconds.

In the end, the scientists called it a draw: both methods dried the hands thoroughly and produced equivalent reductions in bacterial counts. (Other studies that looked at alcohol hand sanitizers found that they eliminated the most bacteria but not all viruses, including the norovirus. And to be effective, they must be at least 60 percent alcohol.)

 I posted this on disinfectants yesterday. A sign of the times, I guess: the Centers for Disease Control teaches us how to wash our hands here.

Hand disinfectants don't prevent the flu

I bought some bottles of disinfectant last year and spread them around the house so people could ignore them. Turns out, it didn't matter.

The regular use of alcohol-based disinfecting hand gels authorities recommended during the A(H1N1) pandemic has little effect on the disease's infection rate, according to a new study.

The findings suggest that the pandemic virus and similar strains may be most effectively transmitted in the air, rather than by contact with infected surfaces, the authors of the study said.

"An alcohol hand disinfectant with enhanced antiviral activity failed to significantly reduce the frequency of infection with either rhinovirus or influenza," wrote the authors of the study presented Sunday at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC).

This year I'll buy gas masks.

If you can move, you're still alive

And the better you can move, the longer you will live.

If your grip is strong and you’re able to raise from a chair quickly, walk fast, and balance on one leg, chances are you’ll live longer than people who have difficulty doing such things, says a study published in BMJ, formerly the British Medical Journal.

Scientists at University College London’s Medical Research Council say people who can perform such acts with relative ease are likely to live longer than their peers who are weaker and slower.

The association of grip strength with mortality not only held true for older people, but younger ones as well. Five studies that looked at grip strength had participants with an average age under 60.

“Objective measures of physical capability are predictors of all-cause mortality in older community dwelling populations,” the authors conclude. “Such measures may therefore provide useful tools for identifying older people at higher risk of death.”

So get out of your chair and grab something.

On the horizon: new treatments for wounds, cancer

Breakthroughs in medicine:

A multidisciplinary research group at UCLA has now teamed up to not only visualize a virus but to use the results to adapt the virus so that it can deliver medication instead of disease. The work provides critical structural information for researchers around the world attempting to modify the adenovirus for use in vaccine and gene-therapy treatments for cancer.

A gene therapy in the form of a thick gel is about to revolutionize wound treatment. The gel is called Nexagon, and when you apply it to a wound, it reprograms the cells to heal more quickly and efficiently.

Since last April, 19 cancer patients whose liver tumors hadn’t responded to chemotherapy have taken an experimental drug. Within weeks of the first dose, it appeared to work, by preventing tumors from making proteins they need to survive. The results are preliminary yet encouraging. With a slight redesign, the drug might work for hundreds of diseases, fulfilling the promise that wonder cures like stem cells and gene therapy have failed to deliver.

 Choking a Tumor MRI scans show that blood flow [red] decreases in liver tumors 

after ALN-VSP therapy, which stops cancer cells from making proteins that form blood vessels.

If a drug can be guided to the right place in the body, the treatment is more effective and there are fewer side-effects. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now developed magnetic nanoparticles that can be directed to metallic implants such as artificial knee joints, hip joints and stents in the coronary arteries.

Scientists today reported that frog skin contains natural substances that could be the basis for a powerful new genre of antibiotics.

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, researchers say.

Too little sleep may lead to diabetes

People who sleep less than six hours a night may be three times more likely to develop a condition that leads to diabetes and heart disease, according to new research.

A study by a team of researchers from the University of Warwick and the University at Buffalo finds short sleep duration is associated with an elevated risk of a pre-diabetic state, known as incident-impaired fasting glycaemia (IFG). 

The condition means that your body isn’t able to regulate glucose as efficiently as it should. People with IFG have a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and are at an increased risk of heart disease and stroke.

“We found that short sleep—less than six hours—was associated with a significant, three-fold increased likelihood of developing IFG, compared to people who got an average of six to eight hours sleep a night,” says lead author Saverio Stranges of the Warwick Medical School.

“Previous studies have shown that short sleep duration results in a 28 percent increase in mean levels of the appetite stimulating hormone ghrelin so it can affect feeding behaviors. Other studies have also shown that a lack of sleep can decrease glucose tolerance and increases the production of cortisol, a hormone produced in response to stress."

We'll soon be paying more for health insurance

And it's due to Obamacare, insurers say.

Aetna Inc., some BlueCross BlueShield plans and other smaller carriers have asked for premium increases of between 1% and 9% to pay for extra benefits required under the law, according to filings with state regulators, the Wall Street Journal reports.

About 9% of Americans buy coverage through the individual market, according to the Census Bureau, and roughly one-fifth of people who get coverage through their employer work at companies with 50 or fewer employees, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. People in both groups are likely to feel the effects of the proposed increases, even as they see new benefits under the law, such as the elimination of lifetime and certain annual coverage caps.

And that's not all, the Journal says. Many carriers also are seeking additional rate increases that they say they need to cover rising medical costs. As a result, some consumers could face total premium increases of more than 20%.

An apple a day

I eat one everyday, because I like apples and I have the vague notion that they're good for me. "An apple a day keeps ... " and all that. Well, there is some truth to it.

Not only can apples keep the doctor away by helping your immune system with healthy food but studies at the University of Ulster have found that apple phenols protect the DNA in colon cancer cells: "Our results indicate that a crude extract of apple phenolics can protect against DNA damage." Researchers at Cornell University have found that up to six apples a day can prevent breast cancer in primates and believe this can be extrapolated to humans. "Consumption of apples may be an effective strategy for cancer protection," say the researchers.

A quick search found evidence of this: scientists are reporting isolation of chemical compounds from apple peel that may be involved in the apple's beneficial health effects.

And this. And this.

Heart of the matter, iron, vitamin D, plaque

New research on heart disease and its prevention, from Science Daily:

Plaque-causing bacteria can jailbreak from the mouth into the bloodstream and increase your risk of heart attack, says a scientist at the Society for General Microbiology.

Survival rates in heart failure patients with reduced levels of vitamin D are lower than in patients with normal levels, according to a major study at University Medical Center, Groningen, Netherlands.

Recent research has now demonstrated that iron deficiency affects at least one-third of non-anaemic chronic heart failure patients, according to a presentation at the European Society of Cardiology's Congress 2010 in Stockholm.

Researchers have provided the first direct evidence using a biological marker --  a method to measure cortisol levels in hair -- to show chronic stress plays an important role in heart attacks.

Why fish oil protects against diabetes

You've heard that fish oil is good for you for a lot of reasons, but nobody ever knew exactly why. Now some scientists have discovered that omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation that can lead to diabetes.

By studying fat tissue in the mice consuming fish oil, researchers found that omega-3 fatty acids seem to act on a particular receptor on cells, GPR120, which, when activated, blocks inflammatory processes.
Chronic inflammation can lead to insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes.

"If we can fix the inflammation part, it's possible that we could prevent insulin resistance or even ameliorate diabetes," said study co-author Saswata Talukdar, a post-doctoral fellow at University of California, San Diego.

Here's more of the science.

Fat tissue contains macrophages, immune system cells that gobble up bacteria, clear out cellular debris and help rid the body of infection. But macrophages found in fat can also have a downside. When macrophages "go rogue," Talukdar said, they produce cytokines and other pro-inflammatory proteins.

A build up of cytokines can result in a "signaling cascade," that eventually leads to low-grade, chronic inflammation and insulin resistance, Talukdar said. In people with insulin resistance, cells are unable to properly utilize insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels. That can lead to type 2 diabetes, which is often linked to obesity.

While studying fat tissue, researchers found that omega-3 fatty acids, especially docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), acted on the specific receptor, GPR120 (for G protein-coupled receptor), found on the surface of macrophages.

The GPR120 receptor is found only on pro-inflammatory macrophages in mature fat cells, according to the study. Exposure to omega-3 fatty acids activates the receptor, which reduces the runaway pro-inflammatory cascade.

This study focused on diabetes, but omega-3 fatty acids may also help with other diseases in which inflammation plays a role, including cancer and cardiovascular disease, researchers said.


Being appropriately cautious, the researchers said it is not guaranteed that the same result would be found in humans.

The National Institutes of Health has a lot of information on omega-3s here, including dosing information.

For healthy adults with no history of heart disease, the American Heart Association recommends eating fish at least two times per week. In particular, fatty fish are recommended, such as anchovies, bluefish, carp, catfish, halibut, herring, lake trout, mackerel, pompano, salmon, striped sea bass, tuna (albacore), and whitefish. It is also recommended to consume plant-derived sources of α-linolenic acid, such as tofu/soybeans, walnuts, flaxseed oil, and canola oil. The World Health Organization and governmental health agencies of several countries recommend consuming 0.3-0.5 grams of daily EPA + DHA and 0.8-1.1 grams of daily α-linolenic acid. A doctor and pharmacist should be consulted for dosing for other conditions.

A common diabetes drug may prevent cancer

There's growing evidence that metformin, a drug commonly prescribed for diabetes, may also help prevent some cancers. Researchers reported this week that it hold promise as a way to keep smokers from developing lung cancer.

Metformin has been shown to switch on an enzyme that blocks mTOR -- a protein that helps tobacco-induced lung tumors grow.

They said metformin prevented lung tumor growth in mice exposed to a cancer-causing agent found in tobacco smoke, and because it is already widely used in people, it may be worth further study.

"Although smoking cessation is the most important step for current smokers, over half of lung cancer cases are diagnosed in former smokers, raising the importance of identifying those at highest risk and identifying effective preventive treatments," said Dr. Philip Dennis of the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. The findings were so strong the team now wants to test it in smokers to see if it can keep then from developing tumors.

Other studies have shown that metformin can cut diabetics' risk of pancreatic and breast cancers, and it has also been investigated for a role in preventing prostate cancer.

The problem with all these studies is that metformin is now a generic drug, so there is no incentive for pharmaceutical companies to launch an expensive clinical trial to demonstrate the drug's utility when they would not be the exclusive beneficiary of their findings.


"Among the various treatment options for Type 2 diabetes, if all other things are equal, early evidence that metformin might have benefit on the oncology side may play a role in decision making," said Dr. Michael Pollak, a medical oncologist at McGill University in Montreal, who surveyed recent metformin research in an article in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.

Another breakthrough in cancer research

A multidisciplinary research group at UCLA has now teamed up to not only visualize a virus but to use the results to adapt the virus so that it can deliver medication instead of disease.

The work provides critical structural information for researchers around the world attempting to modify the adenovirus for use in vaccine and gene-therapy treatments for cancer.

"If our work is successful, this therapy could be used to treat most forms of cancer, but our initial efforts have focused on prostate and breast cancers because those are the two most common forms of cancer in men and women, respectively," said Lily Wu, a UCLA professor of molecular and medical pharmacology.

Another reason to get your sleep

Men with a complaint of chronic insomnia and short sleep duration have an elevated risk of death, a new study shows.

Compared to men without insomnia who slept for six hours or more, men with chronic insomnia who slept for less than six hours were four times more likely to die during the 14-year follow-up period. Results were adjusted for body mass index, smoking status, alcohol use, depression and obstructive sleep apnea. Further adjustments for hypertension and diabetes had little effect on the elevated mortality risk. No significant mortality risk was found in women with insomnia and a short sleep duration of less than six hours.

The study also found an even higher risk of death when men with chronic insomnia and a short sleep duration also had hypertension or diabetes. Previous studies based on the same cohort have shown that chronic insomnia with short sleep duration is associated with deficits in neurocognitive function and increased risks of both type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

The authors cautioned that six hours of sleep is not recommended as the optimum sleep duration for the general population. They used a six-hour cut-off point only for the statistical evaluation of the severity of insomnia. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine reports that most adults need seven to eight hours of nightly sleep to feel alert and well rested during the day.

Medical bracelets: a new look and more power

Not your father's medical bracelet

And not just looks, but the ability to carry a load of medical information that might be useful in an emergency. Laura Landro at The Wall Street Journal reports:

New bracelets and other medical-identification systems can fill in first responders on practically a patient's complete health history. They're a far cry from the simple identification bracelets of the past, which with a few engraved words informed medics that a person was, perhaps, allergic to penicillin. They can steer first responders to a secure website or toll-free phone number, or initiate a text message, to get the medical and prescription history of a patient who may be unconscious or unable to talk about their condition. 

If you're not the jewelry type, you can carry a specially marked USB flash drive loaded with emergency data that medics can read from any computer in an emergency.

Engraved on bracelets issued by MedicAlert are a patient's member number and a toll-free number to access a 24/7 hot line for information. The service costs adults $39.95 for the first year and $30 annually after that; children's fees are less. MedicAlert has added services like notifying family members in an emergency. 

Other options:

For people whose doctors don't keep electronic medical records, companies like MedInfoChip sell software programs for about $50 that help consumers set up their own health records on a computer and load them onto a USB device. American Medical ID offers a flash drive in a dog-tag style pendant for $44.95 that can be engraved with basic medical information and loaded with a patient's medical records.

Another program, called Invisible Bracelet, does away with the need to wear a bracelet or carry a device. The program allows members for $10 a year to upload personal medical data to a secure website and receive a personal identification number. Members get cards to place behind their driver's license, key fobs and stickers that can be put on, say, a bike helmet that show their identification number and the website address.

Also posted at My Skunkworks