Health Archives - Page 28 of 42

Americans Are Reluctant to Join Clinical Trials

May 25, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

A new survey showed that Americans are reluctant when it comes to participating in clinical trials. It found that only four in 10 Americans have a positive opinion of them, and just one-third citizens would be likely to enroll in one.

According to a study by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, in NYC, the findings of the survey are cause for concern, especially for cancer research. Almost all advances ever made in terms of cancer treatment were first evaluated in a clinical trial.

Previous research has also revealed that only 4 percent of cancer patients in the U.S. actually enroll in clinical trials annually.

“When it comes to advancing cancer care, clinical research is the rocket fuel for better treatments, more accurate diagnoses and, ultimately, cures,” explained Dr. Jose Baselga, head physician and chief medical officer at the cancer center.

If the low rates of enrollment keep up, cancer research and discovery will soon hit a crisis point because further education is the key to participation and progress. At the moment, Memorial Sloan Kettering is conducted around 900 cancer clinical trials.

The recent survey based its statistics on more than 1,500 adults aged 18 to 69 years old. The respondents were mainly worried about safety and potential side effects. Half of them were also concerned about out-of-pocket costs and insurance coverage.

Almost the same number of survey takers was reluctant to participate in clinical trials because of the inconvenience of trial locations, or because they thought they would be part of a control group receiving a placebo instead of an active treatment drug.

Furthermore, another one-third of those surveyed was skeptic about unproven treatments while a similar number said clinical trials makes them feel like a guinea pig.

But the number of respondents who have a positive impression of these trials rose significantly (from 40 to 60 percent) after they were given information about clinical trials.

“While concerns regarding clinical trials are understandable, it is critical that the cancer community address common myths and misunderstandings around issues like effectiveness, safety, and use of placebo,” said Dr. Paul Sabbatini, deputy physician-in-chief for clinical research at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Sabbatini believes it’s critical that more people find out about the importance of clinical trials; they offer the medical community the best opportunity of finding new ways to prevent, treat and cure cancer.
Image Source: Eye For Pharma

Alzheimer’s Risk Connected to Loss of Y Chromosome in Men

May 24, 2016 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

A new study suggests that aging men who lose Y chromosomes from their blood cells could have an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

After analyzing more than 3,200 men for the study, researchers found those who already had Alzheimer’s were three times more likely to have lost some of the Y chromosomes in their blood cells.

Furthermore, older men with fewer Y chromosomes were found to face an elevated risk of developing Alzheimer’s sometime in the next eight years. However, experts explained that the study is not proof that a reduced number of Y chromosomes directly influence the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

But study co-author Lars Forsberg explained it does add to the existing evidence tying loss of Y to increased disease risk. Forsberg, who is a researcher with the Uppsala University in Sweden, added that one day, there could be a test for loss of Y in men’s blood that will be able to predict their risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

The findings were published online in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

For a long time, researchers believed the Y chromosome in men did little more than determine their sex and enable normal sperm production. However, recent studies have proved that the Y chromosome comes with a number of genes whose functions are still to be understood.

At the same time, scientists have also known that as men age, their blood cells can lose some Y chromosome, something that was seen as a normal part of the process. New studies seem to prove otherwise.

For example, a 2014 study conducted by Forsberg and his team discovered that older men with a loss of Y were more likely to have cancer and die earlier than other men.

Dr. Luca Giliberto, a researcher and neurologist at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, who was not part of the study, said the team took into consideration other factors tied to Alzheimer’s risk, such as education levels, older age, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Even so, men with a loss of Y in their blood cells were still nearly seven times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s, compared to other men. But much more is to be learned about this potential connection between the Y chromosome and disease.
Image Source: Chapelboro

Low-Salt Diets Might Lead to Increased Risk of Heart Disease

May 22, 2016 By Karen Jackson 2 Comments

Following a low-salt diet might not be as good for you as it was previously suggested, according to a new study conducted by Canada’s McMaster University.

In fact, they might actually elevate the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and death compared to diets that recommend average salt intake. What’s more, the study suggests that individuals with high blood pressure are the only ones who should worry about reducing the amount of salt they eat.

For the study, the tea, analyzed more than 130,000 people from 49 countries, focusing in particular on the relationship between salt intake and heart disease, stroke, and death in people with either high or low blood pressure.

According to the results from both of the groups, low-salt diets were linked to more strokes, heart attacks, and deaths in comparison to those following a diet with an average salt intake.

“These are extremely important findings for those who are suffering from high blood pressure,” explained lead author Andrew Mente of McMaster University. While the results showed that people with hypertension should not consume salt in high intakes, other people should not reduce their salt intake to low levels.

“Our findings are important because they show that lowering sodium is best targeted at those with hypertension who also consume high sodium diets,” Mente added.

The results are particularly timely since some new guidelines recommend a lowered sodium intake of 2.3 grams per day – a reduction from the current standard intake of 3.5 to 4 grams per day. It means they’re wrong because consuming less than three grams of salt per day could lead to health risks, no matter what the blood pressure is.

“Low sodium intake reduces blood pressure modestly, compared to average intake, but low sodium intake also has other effects, including adverse elevations of certain hormones which may outweigh any benefits,” Mente said.

Interestingly, while the results showed that a low salt intake could be unsafe after a certain point, people with hypertension are not encouraged to consume high levels of salt. In other words, too little and too much salt is equally bad for your health.

The study was featured in May 20 in the journal The Lancet.
Image Source: My Ecoshop

Sunscreen Gene Could Protect Skin Against Melanoma

May 21, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

Summer is almost here, which means it’s time to make sure we keep our skin as protected as possible against the harmful UV radiation.

Almost in time with the season, a team of scientists from the University Of Southern California discovered a so-called “sunscreen gene” that could keep melanoma – the most severe form of skin cancer – at bay.

Researchers noticed that melanoma patients who presented mutant or deficient versions of the “UV radiation Resistance Associated Gene” were less protected from the damaging ultraviolet rays.

“If we understand how this UV-resistant gene functions and the processes by which cells repair themselves after ultraviolet damage, then we could find targets for drugs to revert a misguided mechanism back to normal conditions,” explained Chengyu Liang from the USC.

According to medical reports, over 90 percent of the cases of melanoma skin cancer develop because cells were damaged from being exposed to UV radiation.

People who have low levels of the UV-resistant gene could be at higher risk of skin cancer, especially if they are frequent beach-goers or tanning fans, explained the team.

This study could be the proof that having the UV-resistant gene might be a biomarker for preventing skin cancer. For the research, medical data from 340 melanoma patients was used.

At the same time, the team worked with an experimental group with reduced levels of the UV-resistant gene and a control group with a mutant copy of that gene in melanoma cells and 50 fly eyes.

What they did was give a UV shot to cells with the normal UV-resistant gene and to cells that carried defective copies of it. A day later, the cells carrying normal versions of the gene were able to repair more than 50 percent of the damaged cells.

On the other hand, the defective samples had repaired less than 20 percent of the UV-induced damage. In simpler terms, people with the normal UV-resistant gene can repair the UV-induced sunburns that can occur when they sunbathe or go tanning, whereas those with the defective copy of the gene will have more damage left unrepaired.

In turn, this damage translates into an increased risk of developing skin cancers such as melanoma. Researchers noted their study merely presents a correlation between the sunscreen gene and skin cancer.
Image Source: Barefoot Traveller

Stop Wasting Perfectly Good Food

May 20, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

Most restaurants throw away perfectly edible food.

Congress wants people to stop wasting perfectly good food. The “Domestic Harmony Act” is an undergoing project that wants to bring awareness to the fact that there is a big difference between “expires on” and “best used by.”

Chellie Pingree’s, a member of the Republican party, and Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut State Senator joined forces in order to bring more light to the expiration labels that are put on food products. According to them, when the “Domestic Harmony Act” will be implemented, Americans will have clearer views on how to use certain food products, when to throw them away, and when to repurpose them.

Pingree grew up on a farm, so when she was little, she knew that when a strawberry went stale, you could always put it in a pie. When the milk turned sour, you used it to make biscuits, and when there was a little mold on the cheese, you just scrapped the compromised part and put some macaroni on the stove.

On the other hand, Sen. Blumenthal is the kind of person who checks and double checks the expiration date on a food item before consuming or using it. He was one of the majority of Americans who believe that if a product is labeled “best used before” then the date inscribed on the package is the same as the time in which the food becomes inedible.

There is a tremendous difference between the expiration date on a food item and the “best before” one. The first is, or should be, a clear indicator of the day in which that food expires, turning from thing that is good for you to something that will probably make you sick.

On the other hand, the “best before” date is another thing entirely. This labeling method is used to offer the public a guideline. When the “best before” date passes, you can repurpose that food, cook it, in order to make it edible again.

Americans should stop wasting perfectly good food. They tend to throw away products that could be either eaten, cooked, or donated. Some are starving while others are wasting.

The two Republicans want to bring awareness to the importance of not throwing away food items that can be otherwise used, even if their label says that they’re expired.

Image source: Wikipedia

Air Pollution Has Reached Unimaginable Levels, WHO Report

May 14, 2016 By Nancy Young Leave a Comment

Are you among the 3.9 billion people in this world who live in a city? You might just breathe polluted air, according to the latest report of the World Health Organization’s (WHO).

Not only are you inhaling toxic air, but you’re more likely to develop asthma or heart disease. WHO estimates that more than 80 percent of those living in urban settings exposed to air quality levels that don’t meet WHO’s limits.

The latest Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution report doesn’t bode good news, showing a dramatic difference between poorer and wealthier cities. Among low- and middle-income countries, 98 percent of their cities have heavily polluted air while the percentage drops to 56 in cities of high-income countries.

All of the 3,000 cities included in the report are have populations over 100,000, and WHO has collected information about their air quality. The organization is also responsible for setting air quality guidelines to help keep the level of air pollution under the limit.

This means local authorities are encouraged to take action, because the fine particulate matter that pollutes the air has the potential to pose serious health risk to the cities’ inhabitants, including premature death from asthma, lung cancer, and other diseases.

According to a recent study, air pollution plays a significant role in the death of 5.5 million people annually. Since most of this awful business is not caused by the actions of individuals, the responsibility of air quality control falls on the shoulders of governments.

But there’s also some good news: if concerned governments step up and take action, it’s fairly easy for these cities to increase their air quality.

The report also included data showing that over the 5 years, “more than 50 percent of the cities in high-income countries and more than 33 percent of the cities in low- and middle-income countries [..,] reduced their air pollution levels by more than 5 percent.”

WHO revealed that cities in the Southeast Asian regions and in the eastern Mediterranean have the worst air globally, where air pollution levels exceed five to 10 times the limits set by the organization.

Even though the worst air is usually found in the biggest cities on the globe, there are also smaller cities – like Onitsha, a Nigerian city with a population of 350,000 – which also top the list.
Image Source: Your Story

U.S. Poison Centers Report Surge in Children Ingesting Liquid Nicotine

May 9, 2016 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

More and more young children get poisoned with e-cigarettes, according to a new study that based its conclusions on the increasing number of U.S. poison center calls.

In the vast majority of the cases, children ingested liquid nicotine, which sometimes led to severe complications, such as seizures and comas.

For the study, researchers examined calls to poison centers about exposure to nicotine and tobacco products, but only involving children under the age 6. The records from January 2012 through April 2015 were examined and the resulting study published in the journal Pediatrics.

If you’re wondering why children are attracted to swallow these products, researchers found it’s because of the colorful packaging and flavored nicotine of the e-cigarettes.

Senior author Dr. Gary Smith, head of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, called the situation “an epidemic by any definition.”

In reaction to the unsettling news, the study’s authors call for better parent awareness in terms of keeping the devices out of the reach of young kids. Even though most of the children quickly recovered, one child reportedly died after ingesting liquid nicotine.

Between January 2012 and April 2015, the number of monthly calls regarding young kids inhaling, swallowing, or touching e-cigarettes rose from 14 to 223. During the study period, a total number of 4,128 cases were examined; most children were 2 years old or younger.

The study’s authors also urged stricter regulations and restrictions issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) be put in place. Last week, the FDA required federal review of the devices and their ingredients.

The agency also plans to supplement the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention law by requiring child-resistant packaging and nicotine exposure warnings on the labels.

The Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention rule will take effect this summer and it will require that liquid nicotine containers be child-resistant.

Dr. Joan Shook, chief safety officer at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, who was not involved in the study, called the poisonings “a huge public health issue.”

It’s a real problem that many e-cigarette users don’t treat these products as medication or toxins and they don’t keep them out of reach of children. Attractive flavors could mean poison in homes with children.
Image Source: Flickr

Huge Voluntary Recall of Frozen Fruits and Veggies over Listeria Fears

May 5, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

A Listeria outbreak triggered a huge voluntary recall of frozen fruits and vegetables in all 50 states.

About 350 products sold under 42 separate brands were recalled at four major retailers in all 50 states over fears that they may be contaminated with Listeria. The voluntary recall came after seven people were rushed to the hospital, of whom two died.

The foods were recalled by CRF Frozen Foods, a primary frozen fruit and vegetable supplier for grocery chains like Wal-Mart, Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Jewel-Osco. The company announced that only the products that were processed at its Pasco, Wash., plant starting May 1, 2014, were recalled.

The huge recall comes after CRF Frozen Foods’ less impressive voluntary recall of 15 products last week. Reportedly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has contacted the company telling it that seven people in three states got sick after consuming its products.

CDC investigators suspect that a Listeria infection may be behind the hospitalizations. Two of the seven people died, the agency reported. The sick patients were between 56 and 86 years old, doctors said.

Listeriosis is a food-borne infection that affects people who consume products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes bacteria. The diseases affected especially people with compromised or weak immune systems including the elderly, pregnant women, and newborns.

CRF recently apologized for the inconvenience of the latest recall and urged buyers who have in their homes the recalled products not to eat them.

The company explained that hazardous products have a Best by or Sell by date between Apr. 26, 2016 and Apr. 26, 2018.

Customers can get a refund at the stores they bought the products from or simply discard them. The 350 recalled products include frozen fruits and vegetables both organic and nonorganic including frozen potatoes, stir fry casseroles, cherries, blueberries, strawberries, onions, leeks, Italian beans, corn, carrots, broccoli, and many more.

You can check whether you should throw away a suspicious item in your freezer by checking the Food and Drug Administration’s website.

Experts caution that listeriosis is the most lethal foodborne disease. While healthy people can keep the infection in check, it usually kills one in five people if it gets into the blood stream.

Seniors aged 65 or more have a fourfold risk of getting infected than young adults while pregnant women are 10 times more likely to get sick and transmit the infection to their babies.

Image Source: Pixabay

Study Links A Sweet Tooth in Toddlers with Obesity

April 19, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

Is there a difference between toddlers who prefer sweet or savory snacks? According to a new study, there is. Those who prefer cookies over chips are at risk of experiencing weight gain, possibly even growing to an unhealthy weight.

For the study, researchers asked mothers of 209 children to have the toddler fast for one hour. Then, the child would be given a large lunch and after, a tray of snacks both sweet and salty. The children could eat as much as they wanted.

According to Julie C. Lumeng, a behavioral pediatrician and the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and a researcher in the study, “eating in the absence of hunger is associated with being overweight among older children.”

However, this is the first study that studies the link between overeating and younger children. Toddlers who preferred sweet foods after already eating a substantial meal were found to be at a greater risk of weight gain.

Researchers discovered that the children between 1 and 3 years of age who ate more desserts on a full belly and who became visibly upset when the food was removed, were also the children to experience gradual gain in body fat by the time they were 33 months old.

The team was surprised by these findings, seeing that those who preferred chips and other salty treats did not experience the same increase in body fat.

Lumeng explained that the tendency to eat even when you’re no longer hungry only becomes more of a problem with age, sometimes leading to lifelong complications regarding weight gain.

According to this study, medical researchers need to find ways to suppress this drive to eat before children turn 3 years old.

The findings are also relevant to parents because it helps them regulate food intake for healthy growth in their toddlers.

It’s easier to prevent a lifelong struggle with being overweight by making sure the child avoids the concerning treats than letting the child deal with it when he or she grows up.

Moreover, the study published in the journal Pediatrics, April edition, also shows that there’s a previously unknown connection between sweet treats and obesity, a drive to eat more that researchers should investigate further.

The team hopes to find whether or not there are ways to treat this particular compulsion, which could mean conducting a follow-up study.
Image Source: CTV News

Climate Change Awareness on Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day

April 12, 2016 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

What a good day it is to be an ice cream lover. No matter what you’re facing today – any life or work challenges, and puddles you might step in – you must remember one thing and one thing only: today you can get a free ice cream cone.

Did your dentist tell you to come back for a root canal? Thanks to Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day, you can forget about that for at least the 3 to 5 minutes it takes for you to finish your ice cream cone.

Then you probably should get that root canal done.

Besides the more official International Day of Human Space Flight – which celebrates 55 years since Yuri Gagarin went on the first space trip – April 12 also brings something more tangible to celebrate: Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s.

Check out their website to see all the locations across the U.S. where you can claim your free scoop(s) from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. today.

You can simply walk in and ask for your refreshing ice cream with no strings attached – you don’t have to buy one to get one or pay for some secret coupon no-one is telling you about. The company has been keeping the tradition since 1979, and you might even get seconds if you play nice.

What’s even cooler is that this is the second year when Ben & Jerry’s is using its Free Cone Day to raise awareness and educate people on climate change.

Besides this cool video they published in 2015, you can also go to their website to sign an online petition for “a more effective transition to 100 percent clean energy.”

More than anything else that happened last year, 2015 was the year of climate change, peaking with the United Nations Climate Summit (COP21), which took place in Paris in December.

B&J and thousands of other companies got together and asked their fans to sign over 3.5 million petitions for 100% clean energy by 2050, all before the critical negotiation happened.

On the website of the popular ice cream, the company writes:

“Thanks to all of those who stood up for what they believed in, signed the petition and took action on climate, a landmark agreement was signed by 196 countries with the goal of holding average global temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. This was the first major step in a critical journey towards a healthier climate future.”

See you at the Free Cone Day!
Image Source: Ben & Jerry

Categories