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| By MICHAEL SMITH, UPI.
Stomach cancer, long one of the most
difficult cancers to treat, is yielding to new combination therapies, a
new studyshows. "For most of the past century really," the
only treatment for the disease was surgery, physician John Macdonald
said Monday, and only about one in five patients was cured. But a new
nine-year study of about 600 patients shows that a combination of
surgery, radiation and chemotherapy increases survival by almost
one-third, he told a plenary session of the American Society for
Clinical Oncology here. |
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| By MICHAEL SMITH, UPI A drug derived from the needles of the European yew tree has helped to increase lung cancer survival rates five fold in a small study, researchers said Monday at a major cancer meeting. Adding the drug docetaxel to a chemotherapy regimen increased survival rates to almost 50 percent from less than 10 percent, said David Gandara of the University of California at Davis. "A two-year survival rate of 50 percent has never been achieved before," he told a press conference at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology in New Orleans. Another study presented at the meeting showed that four of the newest chemotherapy approaches to lung cancer are roughly the same in terms of increasing patient survival, but all are better than drugs used a decade ago. "There are no clear winners" among the different approaches, which typically combine two anti-cancer drugs, said physician Joan Schiller of the University of Wisconsin. The study of more than 1,100 patients was the first to rigorously compare the various treatments, she said. The studies are important because lung cancer is "one of the most difficult cancers to successfully treat," said physician Frank Haluska of Harvard Medical School, who moderated the press conference on new approaches to the disease. Lung cancer kills about 160,000 Americans every year -- the leading cancer killer -- even though it is third on the list of most common cancers, after prostate and breast. Haluska said lung cancer is also important because it shares characteristics with many other types of cancer. "Strategies that we work out with lung cancer can be applied to other (cancers)," he said. In the docetaxel study, the researchers examined patients with a late-stage cancer, who were not considered good candidates for surgery because their disease had begun to spread. The current best treatment, he said, is radiation combined with the drugs cisplatin and etoposide. As a follow-up, patients are given two additional cycles of the drugs. The researchers substituted docetaxel for the additional cycles of cisplatin and etoposide, he said. The reasoning, he said, was that radiation therapy and the two other drugs require a gene in the tumor known as p53 to be normal in order to have an effect, while docetaxel does not. P53 is abnormal in more than half of all cancers. Gandara said the study, conducted by the Southwest Oncology Group and financed by the National Cancer Institute, is preliminary. It involved only 81 patients, all of who received the therapy, and there was no control group. "We need to be cautious about being overly optimistic about these results,"Gandara said. But he added the current study is "well-matched" to an earlier study by his group of the standard therapy. That study showed a two-year survival rate of 34 percent. Copyright 2000 by United Press International. All rights reserved. |
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| LONDON, May 24 (UPI)
Scientists are nearing completion of the
first draft of the human blueprint with work on assembling an estimated
3 billion letters that encode the instructions for human life, officials
from two All rights reserved. |
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| SAN FRANCISCO (UPI)
A camera tiny enough to be swallowed may
offer doctors a diagnostic view of the small bowel and colon, researchers
report. By LIDIA WASOWICZ |
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Researchers have found a potential target for cancer therapy. It lies in a region in the telomerase enzyme, which can replenish the tips of chromosomes, called telomeres. These telomeres lose their ends with each cycle of cell division. The enzyme can replenish these lost pieces. Telomeres regulate a cell's lifespan. As they continue to shorten with each cell cycle, they finally reach a stage when they signal the cell to stop dividing. The cell then dies. In the new study, the scientists report in the journal Science that they found a small structure within the RNA molecule of yeast telomerase controls the precision with which the enzyme carries out this key function. This knowledge could one day be used to kill cancer cells, said senior study author Elizabeth Blackburn, professor of microbiology and immunology and biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. LIDIA WASOWICZ - UPI All rights reserved |
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Researchers report a capsule a day can keep bladder problems away. The results come from a large study of the investigational compound Detrol, which has been available in a twice-daily formulation. The trial shows the new once-a-day version of the drug reduced all major symptoms of overactive bladder, the scientists said at the 95th Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association in Atlanta. Overactive bladder affects 17 million Americans. Its symptoms include frequent urination and urgency to urinate. Since many people consider the condition an inescapable part of aging, only 5 percent to 10 percent of individuals with overactive bladder receive treatment. The study of 1,500 patients at 167 centers in North America, Europe and Australia showed the once-a-day capsule reduced incontinence and the urge to urinate, said Dr. Michael Chancellor, associate professor of urology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. LIDIA WASOWICZ - UPI All rights reserved |
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The "pill" is 40 and more popular than ever. The contraceptive, introduced May 9, 1960, is used by more than 100 million women. It is the most popular contraceptive method in 78 of 150 surveyed countries. The figures come from a report from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Md. The report says the pill is used by some 12 percent of married women. "Taken regularly, the pill prevents pregnancy almost without fail. Pill users benefit in other ways, too, such as less anemia and protection from certain cancers," said lead study author Richard Blackburn. The current pill is safer than the original higher-dose contraceptive, which had been associated with increased risk of certain circulatory system diseases, the scientists said. LIDIA WASOWICZ - UPI All rights reserved |
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Researchers have determined the three-dimensional architecture of the core structure of the reovirus. This is a double-st randed RNA virus similar to the rotavirus that causes potentially lethal diarrhea in infants. The feat was achieved with a special technique called X-ray crystallography by a team at Children's Hospital in Boston and Harvard University. "This work will provide much insight," said Aaron Shatkin, director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. The structure could serve as a model for related viruses found in nature. Understanding the mechanisms, such as how the microbes enter and infect cells, could lead to ways to stop the troublemakers dead in their tracks, researchers said. LIDIA WASOWICZ - UPI All rights reserved |
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One year after 31 prostate-cancer patients underwent implantation of radioactive iodine, their quality of life averaged the same or even slightly better than before the treatment. Wake Forest University researchers reported their findings, the first on the brachytherapy technique, at the American Urological Society meeting in Atlanta. Study leader Dr. Jeffrey Martin says brachytherapy, an outpatient procedure that places a radioactive source in or near a tumor, now appears to convey better quality of life than the two other common treatments-prostate removal and standard radiation-for early prostate cancer. His team used a quality-of-life questionnaire before implantation, then one, three, six and 12 months after. Scores on physical, functional, social, and emotional well-being dipped in the first month but gradually rose to meet or slightly exceed pre-brachytherapy scores. All rights reserved. |
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If you are a professional football player there is likely to be a concussion in your future-or your past. In the first scientific survey of the health of retired National Football League players, researchers say that 60 percent of the 1,090 players surveyed said they had suffered at least one concussion, and 26 percent more than one. Dr. Barry Jordan, director of the Brain Injury Program at Burke Rehabilitation Hospital, White Plains, N.Y., says that among those who had suffered concussions, there were twice as many incidents of problems with memory and concentration, confusion, speech or hearing difficulties, headaches, numbness or tingling in hands or feet. While preliminary, scientists hope Jordan's findings may point the way toward understanding why some people who suffer head injury go on to develop neurological injuries and others do not. Jordan reported his study at an American Academy of Neurology meeting in San Diego. |
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An experimental drug shows promise in treating painful diabetic neuropathy, a condition that severely impacts the quality of life for about 5 million people in the United States, researchers report at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. In the largest study of its kind, doctors say 44 percent of the 200 patients taking the drug memantine reported a reduction in pain associated with diabetes by 50 percent. Twenty-nine percent of 200 patients who took a placebo, or sugar pill, reported similar relief. Chief investigator Dr. Richard Pellegrino says about 40 to 50 percent of diabetics develop the neuropathy, which some describe as a sensation like sandpaper or burning-so intense that it can prevent sleep. Pellegrino, president of Central Arkansas Research Inc., Hot Springs, says few drugs can currently treat the condition. Memantine has been used in Europe for treatment of dementia and other degenerative diseases. All rights reserved. |
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WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) Cloning appears to turn back the clock for aging cells, and may increase the life span of cloned creatures, say Massachusetts researchers. Their work contradicts findings by the Scottish pioneers who opened the cloning era with a sheep called Dolly. About two years ago, they made the disappointing discovery that their woolly celebrity had cells that appeared to be older than her years. Scientists don't have a solid explanation for the difference between the two clones, but they think it may have something to do with slight variations in technique used by the Massachusetts team to clone six calves. It may also be a simple difference in the way species react to being cloned, other scientists say. "If this increased life span at the cellular level extends to the whole animal, they could be extremely long-lived," says research leader Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), a biotechnology company in Worcester, Mass., referring to the calves in his study. Human clones, he estimates, could live for two centuries, with chronic diseases not starting until 150. Childbearing could wait until middle-age or beyond, without the help of high-tech in vitro fertilization. But he says the practical, immediate -- and most exciting -- impact of the work will be felt by researchers attempting to use cloning to create replacement tissues and organs for people whose bodies are sick or just old and worn out. Any method to create replacement parts would rely on use of the patient's own cells to grow patches and perhaps whole replacement organs, he says. This creates a problem. Since scientists are starting with cells as old as the patient, by the time these cells were grown into the needed part, it would be a like getting graft from a grandmother. But, Lanza says his new study shows that cloning actually makes cells younger and lengthens their lifespan. So tissues made of cloned cells would be younger than the recipient. Reporting in Friday's issue of the journal Science, the investigators say they created calf clones starting from very old cow cells, which were at the end of their life span. They had about one or two cell divisions left before they were to enter the twilight state known as cell senescence. To their amazement, the scientists found that cells in their clones were seemed younger than those of newborn calves, even at about a year old, says Lanza. In the laboratory, cells from these animals lived twice as long as normal. One sign of aging, a DNA structure at the tip of chromosomes known as a telomere, was actually 50 percent longer than in a normal animal, Michael West, president and CEO of ACT, told UPI. Telomeres are DNA tags at the end of the chromosomes that function as a sort of cellular clock, getting shorter each time cells divide. When they become very short, the cell's machinery starts to break down, and the cells become bloated, sluggish and enter cell senescence, when they can no longer divide. In another part of the experiment, the scientists took cells from cloned and normal fetal calves. On average, West says, the normal cow cells divided about 60 times, but the cloned cells divided about 90 times. Second generation cloned cells had even more staying power, dividing about 110 times, West said. West says it will take at least five years to see if these lengthened telomeres translate a slower aging process, with fewer signs of old age cropping up, like loss of skin elasticity. It will take even long to prove that it all adds up to a doubled or tripled life span. "We have to wait for these animals to grow old. It's like watching a candle burn," he said. Scientists have predicted that one problem with cloning would be that the cells of the replicas will be at least as old as the age of the mother organism, an idea that was supported by research on famed Scottish sheep Dolly. Scientists examining her cells found clear signs of age beyond her years, most notably abnormally short telomeres. But, that does not mean that Dolly herself is old, says Thomas Okarma, president of Geron, which bought the company known as Roslin BioMed, the Scottish firm formed to commercialize the Dolly technology. Dolly has successfully given birth to normal lambs, suggesting that telomere length doesn't have a bearing on the animal's age. "We have no idea if, in our case, short sheep telomeres or, in their case, long cow telomeres have any impact on longevity," says Okarma. "I doubt they do." Lanza believes the difference between the cells might be in the method of cloning that was used. In the Dolly experiment, he said that cells were starved to force them into a resting state thought to improve the process. Lanza's group did not force the cells into this state, and that may be the difference. Also Lanza's group used different kinds of cells than the Dolly cloners. Nevertheless, Lanza says he cannot say for sure what made the difference. Other groups using the Dolly method have found shorter telomeres in cloned offspring, Lanza says. But a team of researchers in Hawaii, the first to successfully clone mice, also have seen longer telomeres in the offspring, says Lanza. This group used an approach similar to the Massachusetts work. Lanza says his team is the first to report on the lengthened telomeres, but he expects see published support for his finding soon. Okarma, however, says the difference may just be related to species, sheep may react one way to cloning, while cows react another way. And, as far as humans are concerned, he says "There's no scientific rationale to take our sheep data or their cow data and apply it to humans." While he applauds the study itself, Okarma was critical of what some of the scientists were making of it. "I think the extensions and speculations that accompany the paper just aren't warranted." Lanza was unwilling to speculate about the implications of the work in the area of pet cloning, already in the commercial realm with companies actively storing cells of beloved animals and millions of dollars invested into a project to duplicate a very special canine pal named Missy. A scientist with a Louisiana based start-up pet cloning company called Lazaron BioTechnologies says the research will eliminate one of the concerns expressed by his customers -- that their brand new cloned pet will start out old. "They say, 'Yeah, we heard that Dolly was aging too fast because of her telomeres,'" says reproductive physiologist Brett Reggio, executive vice president and science director of the year-old firm, which offers cryopreservation of pet cells in anticipation of the day when cat and dog cloning becomes routine. "That's great news," he said, referring to the study. "I guess you can teach an old dog cell a new trick." He said he doubted the research would one day translate into 50-year old pet dogs, but he added, "We never use the word 'impossible' anymore." -- All rights reserved. --
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SAN FRANCISCO, May 1 (UPI) Researchers have been able to slow the progression of lupus in laboratory mice, a feat they say could pave the way to novel treatments for a variety of autoimmune diseases in humans. The scientists found they could curtail symptoms and prolong life in mice with the incurable disorder for which the cause and risk factors remain unknown. They hope their work will one day lead to similarly successful results in humans with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, myasthenia gravis and perhaps even certain types of lymphatic cancers. The advance "is a significant new piece of the puzzle that helps us understand how the immune system is regulated and how it may go awry in a way that contributes to autoimmune-like diseases," said Carl Ware, head of the Division of Molecular Immunology at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology and professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego. "This is a step forward in understanding lupus, but not a cure." Systemic lupus erythematosus affects more than 1 million Americans, according to the Lupus Foundation of America. Some 200,000 of them progress to a severe form of the disease that threatens organs, including the kidneys, which can prove fatal in 10 percent to 20 percent of the cases. The disorder results when the body's disease-fighting immune system mistakenly attacks its own healthy tissue, including the skin, joints, lungs, blood, blood vessels, heart, kidneys, liver, brain and the nervous system. Treatment, which has not fundamentally changed since the 1970s, includes nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen; corticosteroids, such as cortisone; anti-malarial drugs, such as Plaquenil, and immunosuppressants or chemotherapy in the most severe cases, which may produce debilitating side effects. Lupus is difficult to diagnose because it imitates numerous other conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, mononucleosis, malaria and autoimmune liver disease; affects many systems and organs; develops slowly with symptoms coming and going over months or years, and has no single test for positive identification. A new piece to the puzzle fell into place with the recent discovery of a protein called BAFF, which leads to lupus-like symptoms in mice by causing hyperactivity in the immune system's B cells. These cells produce antibodies that attach to foreign matter and initiate the body's attack on the potential troublemakers. In the latest advance, Jane Gross and colleagues of ZymoGenetics, Inc. in Seattle, Wash., developed a specific antagonist for BAFF, called soluble TACI receptor. In studies with autoimmune mice, they found their agent could slow the progression of certain features of lupus. In mice treated with TACI, the proportion of B cells declined, and the rodents suffered less severe symptoms and lived longer than their untreated counterparts. "We have established an important relationship between TACI and SLE in mice," said Gross, lead author of the study published in the British journal Nature. "We can now examine the utility of the soluble TACI receptor as a therapeutic for other autoimmune diseases." Since more than 50 different diseases appear to be associated with overactive B cells, "it is reasonable to speculate that our soluble receptor could have an effect on other autoimmune diseases and certain other diseases involving B cell abnormalities, such as B cell lymphomas," Gross told United Press International. "Our discovery that the soluble TACI receptor inhibits symptoms of autoimmune disease provides further validation of our strategy, which combines expertise in genomics and biology to turn novel proteins into therapeutic candidates," said Bruce Carter, president and chief executive officer of ZymoGenetics. It is too early to predict when, or if, the findings could lead to a successful drug for humans, cautioned Gross and Charles Hart, senior director of business development and strategic planning at ZymoGenetics. Further research is still needed to validate the initial results, the scientists said. "This means more preclinical animal work that we hope will lead to clinical trials in humans," Gross said. "Our ultimate goal would be to make and sell a protein-based drug that will treat patients with a variety of autoimmune diseases, but we have to obtain more experimental evidence before we can say which patient populations would most benefit and whether the drug is safe and effective." While the specially designed rodents used in the study do not mimic the course of disease in humans perfectly, "the autoimmune diseases of rodents provide good models for the same immunological processes that are involved in human autoimmune diseases," Gross told UPI. "Our findings in this model -- which has several features that emulate the development of spontaneous autoimmune disease in humans -- are promising, and we will continue to investigate the possible use of this treatment for human disease." How likely is it that a specific antagonist for the protein that leads to the lupus-like syndrome in mice could potentially slow the progression of the debilitating autoimmune disease in humans? "This is the question that biomedical researchers can now begin to answer, but there is still quite a lot of basic research that needs to be done," said Ware, who wrote the accompanying News and Views article. "For instance, are the levels of the cytokine BAFF high in patients with lupus? Is it the same in all patients or do levels vary? The results in mice are promising but far from definitive." By Lidia Wasowicz, All rights reserved. |
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Researchers are reporting progress in developing a substance that might prevent lung tumors in smokers. Two substances fed to mice exposed to heavy cigarette smoke prevented lung tumors when given in combination over an extended period of time, according to a new study. When given together, myoinositol, which comes from cereal bran, and dexamethasone, a steroid drug, were successful in protecting the mice from developing cancerous lung tumors. Unlike previous experiments, the research team from the University of California in Davis, led by Hanspeter Witschi, exposed their male mice to "whole" cigarette smoke rather than individual components -- such as benzopyrene, or tar - which are believed to be carcinogenic. Witschi said he envisions that myoinositol and perhaps inhaled steroids might be key ingredients in "chemoprevention kits," to reduce smokers' risk of lung cancer, much as people with asthma use inhalers. It is known that smokers' risk of lung cancer continues for a while after they quit. The team's experiment provides the first true animal model for testing agents that could prove to be protective against lung cancer caused by cigarette smoke, Witschi said. Previous experiments did not recreate a true smoking situation in animals, he said, and results were ambiguous. The results of the current experiment led Witschi and colleagues to conclude that "whole" cigarette smoke contains carcinogenic elements in addition to those identified as such. The study was published in the journal Carcinogenesis, and supported by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the NIH in Bethesda, Md. Witschi's team exposed mice to tobacco smoke for five months, gave them one of nine agents -- including aspirin and green tea -- to test their ability to prevent lung cancer, and discovered that of nine, only the two in combination were effective in preventing tumors. The mice had a five-month rest period following exposure to the smoke. Animals who lived in a smoke-filled environment had a lung tumor incidence of 89 percent, and an average of 2.4 tumors per animal, which dropped to 62 percent and one tumor per animal in those who then received the myoinositol-dexamethasone therapy. The lower rates were almost identical to those in animals never exposed to smoke. Some other substances like green tea had been shown to prevent lung cancer caused by one or more chemicals in tobacco smoke, but not against the effects of whole tobacco, said Witschi. "These results are very encouraging that a similar preventive regimen could work in other mammals, including humans," said George Malindzak, program director at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C. "There is no doubt that human clinical trials will be done based on this work," he added. Malindzak hypothesized that the two substances worked to reduce genetic mutations caused by smoke that lead to the tumors. By VICKIE BROWER, UPI All rights reserved. |
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SAN DIEGO, May 1 (UPI) Treat multiple sclerosis early, and treat it with higher doses of medication. That's the message of studies in which treatment of the progressive disease was delayed -- and maybe prevented -- with early use of drugs which have become mainstays of treatment. In one major study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, Dr. Lawrence Jacobs, professor of neurology at the University at Buffalo, New York, said treating patients at the first sign of multiple sclerosis with the interferon beta-1a (Avonex, manufactured by Biogen, Cambridge, Mass.) reduced by 43 percent the risk that the disease would progress in these patients for at least three years. The study was halted by the safety and monitoring committee in February when it became apparent that people receiving treatment were faring better in their disease than those receiving placebo. Not only did the treatment reduce the risk that the disease would progress, but Jacobs said, "There was a rapid onset of action that persisted over the course of the study." He also said that the treatment of these early patients seemed to be safe and well tolerated. Patients were selected for the trial if they suffered a common symptom of multiple sclerosis, usually vision problems. These patients then underwent magnetic resonance brain imaging. If the MRI found evidence of brain abnormalities, the patients were assigned to receive interferon or placebo. Jacobs and colleagues at 50 medical centers in nine countries enrolled 383 patients in the study. Jacobs said he doesn't know if the people treated early will remain free of disease progression further down the road, but he said a substantial number of patients with early treatment remain free of further exacerbations of MS for at least three years. MS affects 350,000 people in the United States and more than 1 million people around the world. In another study, Dr. Mark Freedman of Ottawa General Hospital reported that treating patients with high doses of interferon beta-1a (Rebif, manufactured by Ares-Serono) results in better outcomes than treating patients with lower amounts of the drug. "We can now see the superiority of high doses of interferon beta-1a in slowing disease progression," Freedman said. The study reported at the meeting was an extension of an earlier trial that suggested the higher dose of the drug imparted greater benefit to patients. Freedman said the two-year continuation of that trial showed that higher doses held off progression of the disease. Although the same compound, Avonex, interferon beta 1a in an intramuscular injection, is available in the United States; Rebif, which is administered subcutaneously, is available in Canada and Europe. In a third study, Dr. Donald Goodkin, medical director of the University of California, San Francisco/Mt. Zion MS Center, reported results from a 940-patient trial in which interferon beta-1b (Betaseron, Berlex Laboratories) was used to attempt to slow progression of disease in patients with advanced MS. Goodkin said that while the patients seemed to do better in most of the clinical aspects of the study, there seemed to be no difference in slowing the rate of progression. That seemed to differ from a similar study in Europe in which use of interferon had an impact in slowing disease progression. Dr. Henry McFarland, chief of the neuroimmunology branch at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Md., said that in analyzing the two studies it became apparent that patients in Europe tended to be in an earlier stage of disease than those treated in the North American study. "Interferon may only have an effect on MS in patients in which there is still active inflammation," he said. In advanced MS, inflammatory bouts of the disease are diminished, although deterioration continues. McFarland said that overall, the studies indicated that treating MS patients with the interferon drugs earlier in the course of the MS seemed to be the right direction. By ED SUSMAN All rights reserved. |
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UPI 26 April By ELIZABETH MANNING, A simple breath test can tell how safe an anti-cancer drug will be for a given patient, researchers say. The test for the drug docetaxel takes about 20 minutes, and accurately predicts how patients will react to the drug, according to a study released in the journal Clinical Cancer Research. Drugs used for chemotherapy are often highly toxic, says liver specialist Paul Watkins of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the inventor of the breath test and one of the authors of the study. He explains, "The amount of chemotherapy you need to give for maximum benefit yet not to get life-threatening toxicity variesfrom patient to patient." The key factor is not size or weight, but how quickly a particular patient's liver clears the drug from the system. Watkins's test measures the amount of a docetaxel breakdown product, expelled as carbon dioxide in a chemotherapy patient's breath. He compares that value to that of a control dose, a harmless antibiotic that happens to use the same breakdown pathway. The published study concluded the breath test "was the best predictor" of clearing docetaxel in 21 patients. All rights reserved. |
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UPI 26 April By ELIZABETH MANNING, Color-coded maps can be a treasure trove of information, but not if you're among the 9 million Americans with some form of color blindness. Very few people actually see only in shades of gray --but 8 percent of men, for example, have trouble distinguishing red and green or blue and yellow. So Penn State geography professor Cynthia Brewer has developed color schemes that mapmakers can use to convey their same information without confusing the color-blind. Instead of blue, magenta, green, red-orange and yellow, she says, try a combination like blue, light green, greenish white, gray magenta and dark green. That's a scheme that either eliminates problem colors or clearly separates them with light and dark shades. Brewer explains that red-green color blindness, the most common form, is more than just confusing red and green. Related shades can be indistinguishable as well, and unpredictably: blue-green and purple, for example, or olive and rust. Brewer recently helped develop epidemiological maps for the National Center for Health Statistics. All rights reserved. |
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UPI 26 April By ELIZABETH MANNING, Women who eat lots of fruits, vegetables and grains and watch the sugar and fats may cut their risk of death from all causes by nearly a third. Data from more than 42,000 women were gathered by a research team led by Ashima K. Kant, of Queens College of the City University of New York, and Dr. Arthur Schatzkin, of the National Cancer Institute. The diet survey, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first to examine total eating patterns in a large number of women over a long period of time. Schatzkin says it is important because it shows how different nutrients appear to interact to produce good health, rather than focusing on a single diet factor, such as fiber. The list of 23 healthy foods included apples, cantaloupe, grapefruit, dried beans, tomatoes, spinach, mustard greens, sweet potatoes, lean-cooked chicken and fish, dark breads, and low-fat milk. Schatzkin does add that diet may not be the only factor for a long life, however. The women with better diets tended to be more educated and wealthier, meaning they might exercise more or have better access to medical care. All rights reserved. |
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UPI 26 April By ELIZABETH MANNING, A study of 42 migraine patients finds that 79 percent of them suffer extreme skin sensitivity during their pounding headache attacks. Lead investigator Rami Burstein says the discovery is the first human confirmation of an animal-based theory to explain ineffectiveness of current medications and to point to new targets for drug therapy. While hypersensitive skin -- too tender to tolerate hairbrushing, shaving or even the brush of a bed sheet -- probably sounds familiar to many migraine patients, the symptom has never been scientifically documented before, says Burstein. It suggests that pain signals sensitize fundamental spinal cord nerves as well as those around blood vessels in the head. Burstein, a pain researcher at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, explains that current migraine drugs don't act at the level of the spinal cord. He recommends patients take medication at the first signs of migraine, before spinal cord neurons become sensitized. The study is published in the Annals of Neurology. All rights reserved. |
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Updated 29 August 2005 |
