Tag Archives: british

Scientists discover why man stores no fat under skin

British paracyclist Tom Staniford has discovered he is one of just eight people in the world with a rare syndrome. Staniford, 23, is unable to store fat under his skin, losing all the fat around his face and limbs during childhood (despite) having been born a normal weight, the BBC reports. In spite of his wasted frame, Staniford's body thinks he is obese, meaning he has type 2 diabetes. His hearing also became impaired in his childhood, requiring him to wear hearing aids since the age of 10. Staniford’s condition - MDP syndrome - was not identified until recently, when a research team went to work mapping and analyzing his DNA, in a quest to isolate the gene mutation responsible. This was only possible after a second person with the same condition was found. Using the most recent genome sequencing technology, scientists from England, India, Italy and the US were able to identify the single genetic mutation responsible for the rare condition. “All Tom's features can be explained by this one specific change,” said Exeter University scientist Professor Andrew Hattersley, who believes the genetic mutation would have occurred in Staniford’s father’s sperm very early in Staniford's life. Staniford has not let the condition hold him back from achieving several goals, including being British national paracycling circuit race champion in 2011, as well as a degree in law and French. He hopes to become Paralympic circuit race champion at Rio 2016. Staniford does concede, however, that his condition presents particular challenges to training: “I have just 40 percent of the muscles of an average male. I struggle to metabolize sugar and carbohydrates efficiently due to the diabetes - and I struggle to recover due to lack of immediate fuel sources, low testosterone etc. “My muscles have a very narrow margin of efficiency and they're also tight, stiff and inflexible because I don't have fat to perform that role. “This is why I have to constantly experiment and attempt to find, through trial and error, what works.” Staniford is not one to dwell on the rarity of his condition, but says: “[It] is reassuring to know that there are other people with the condition and that we can lead relatively normal lives.” Click for more at news.au.com.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/18/scientists-discover-why-man-stores-no-fat-under-skin/

Babies have sympathy for bully victims, study suggests

Babies may be able to show sympathy before their first birthday, according to a new study in which 10-month-olds preferred the victims rather than the aggressors in a bullying encounter. The research, published June 12 in the journal PLOS ONE, is the first to find evidence of possible sympathy in children younger than toddlers, the researchers said. Sympathy is the feeling of concern for others. Because 10-month-olds can't yet express sympathy verbally, Kyoto University researcher Shoji Itakura and colleagues turned to a common tactic in baby-brain research: using simple animations to determine what infants prefer. They showed 40 babies an animation of a blue ball and a yellow cube. Half of the infants watched a short clip in which the blue ball chased the yellow cube around the screen, hitting it seven times before finally squishing it against a wall. The other half of the group saw the same movements, including the squishing, but the two shapes moved independently without interacting. In some cases, the “bully” and “victim” roles were swapped, so that the yellow cube was the bad guy. After watching the show, the babies were shown a real yellow cube and a real blue ball, and given the chance to reach for one of the objects. In cases where the babies had seen one shape beating up on the other, they overwhelmingly reached for the victim, 16 out of 20 times. In comparison, when the shapes hadn't interacted, the babies' choices were basically random nine went for the shape that had gotten squished, and the other 11 went for the nonsquished shape. Picking the victim The results could have simply indicated that babies preferred to steer clear of a nasty character, not that they felt sympathy for the bullied one. To rule out that possibility, the researchers conducted a second experiment with 24 babies, also 10 months old. These babies saw a show nearly identical to the first, except there was a third character: a red cylinder. The red cylinder was a neutral presence on-screen, neither bullying nor being bullied. After watching the animation, the babies were again given a choice of two toys. Half could pick between the “victim” shape and the neutral shape, while the other half got to choose between the bullying shape and the neutral shape. This time, 10 out of 12 babies given the neutral-or-bully option went with the neutral cylinder. Meanwhile, of the 12 given the neutral-or-victim option, 10 picked the victim. In other words, even when there was no mean character present that a baby might want to avoid, the babies still picked the victim. It goes too far to call this proof of sympathy, said Kiley Hamlin, an infant cognition researcher at the University of British Columbia who was not involved in the study. Nevertheless, Hamlin told LiveScience, the findings are “a great first step” in establishing the development of sympathy. Previously, Hamlin has reported that babies as young as 8 months old prefer to see wrongdoers punished rather than treated nicely. Brainy babies Some researchers have raised concerns about the kinds of animations used in infant cognition studies, arguing that babies might be marking their preferences based on extraneous information, like whether one character bounces or moves differently than the others. Itakura and colleagues aimed to control for those concerns by making sure their character shapes moved with the same speed and consistency. “They did a great job controlling for things like movement and amount of color on the stage,” Hamlin said. Though more studies will be needed to nail down babies' motivations for preferring victims of aggression, Hamlin said anecdotes suggest that even young babies notice others in distress, and seem bothered by that distress. “This is a nice way of saying, 'Okay, this is a far more abstract situation, is this something that 10-month-olds are noticing and responding to?” Hamlin said. “It seems to be that case that they are.” Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/13/babies-have-sympathy-for-bully-victims-study-suggests/

New diet craze offers 5 days of feasting for 2 days of famine

Forget abandoning carbohydrates or detoxing. The new dieting craze sweeping Britain and taking off in the United States lets people eat whatever they like - but only five days a week. “The Fast Diet”, also known as the 5:2 diet, is the brainchild of TV medical journalist Michael Mosley and journalist Mimi Spencer and allows people to eat what they want for five days but only eat 600 calories a day on the other two. Their book, “The Fast Diet”, has topped bestselling book lists in Britain and the United States this year and been reprinted more than a dozen times. Mosley said the diet is based on work by British and U.S. scientists who found intermittent fasting helped people lose more fat, increase insulin sensitivity and cut cholesterol which should mean reduced risk of heart disease and diabetes. He tried this eating regime for a BBC television science programme called “Eat, Fast, Live Longer” last August after finding out his cholesterol level was too high and his blood sugar in the diabetic range. He was stunned by the results. “I started doing intermittent fasting a year ago, lost 8 kgs (18 pounds) of fat over 3 months and my blood results went back to normal,” Mosley told Reuters. Mosley said he had been amazed at the way the diet had taken off with a list of websites set up by followers of the 5:2 diet or variations of the eating regime to share their experiences. Following the success of “The Fast Diet”, Spencer joined forces with dietitian Sarah Schenker to bring out “The Fast Diet Recipe Book” in April which has topped amazon.co.uk's food and drink list with 150 recipes containing under 300 calories. Eating a 600 calorie daily diet - about a quarter of a normal healthy adult's intake - could consist of two eggs for breakfast, grilled chicken and lettuce for lunch, and fish with rice noodles for dinner with nothing to drink but water, black coffee or tea. One day at a time Mosley put the diet's success down to the fact it is psychologically attractive and leads to steady drop in weight with an average weekly loss of 1 pound (0.46kg) for women and slightly more for men. “The problem with standard diets is that you feel like you are constantly having to exercise restraint and that means you are thinking about food all the time, which becomes self-defeating,” said Mosley. “On this regime you are only really on a diet two days a week. It is also extremely flexible and simple.” Britain's National Health Service (NHS) initially expressed doubts about the diet and its long-term effects, saying side effects could include sleeping difficulties, bad breath, irritability, anxiety, and daytime sleepiness. But as the popularity of the 5:2 diet has grown and become one of the most searched diets on the Internet, the NHS has started to look again at the diet and its effects. On its website last month the NHS said the British Dietetic Association (BDA) reviewed a 2011 study by researchers at the UK's University Hospital of South Manchester that suggested intermittent fasting could help lower the risk of certain obesity-related cancers such as breast cancer. “The increasing popularity of the 5:2 diet should lead to further research of this kind,” the BDA said in a statement. Schenker, a sports and media dietitian who works with football clubs and food companies, said it was a shame that the NHS had criticized the eating regime that had proved such a success with so many people. “We are in the midst of an obesity crisis and you need to balance up which is worse - intermittent fasting of staying obese?” Schenker told Reuters. Despite concerns raised by the NHS, the 5:2 diet has been widely praised by those who follow it. Deb Thomas, 50, a management coach from London, said she has followed the diet for six months and dropped a couple of dress sizes. This has also inspired her husband to join her in fasting two days a week. “It is such an easy diet to follow that fits into my way of life,” Thomas said. “You have a tough day of not eating but you know the next day you can eat normally again, and that keeps you going.”source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/13/new-diet-craze-offers-five-days-feasting-for-two-days-famine/

Hepatitis A outbreak linked to frozen berry mix sickens 87

WASHINGTON – & The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says an outbreak of hepatitis A linked to a frozen berry mix sold at Costco has grown to 87 people with illnesses in eight states. The CDC said Tuesday that illnesses have been reported in Arizona, California Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Washington. Townsend Farms of Fairview, Ore., last week recalled its frozen Organic Antioxidant Blend, packaged under the Townsend Farms label at Costco and under the Harris Teeter brand at those stores. So far the illnesses have only been linked to the berries sold at Costco. Craig Wilson, director of food safety at Costco, said the store is providing vaccinations for people who ate the berries within the last two weeks and is reimbursing others who have gotten the vaccine outside the store. The store has contacted about 240,000 people who purchased the berries at one of their stores, Wilson said. The company knows who bought the berries because purchases are linked to a membership card that customers present when they check out. The Food and Drug Administration is investigating the cause of the outbreak. The CDC said the strain of hepatitis is rarely seen in North or South America but is found in the North Africa and Middle East regions. Townsend Farms has said the frozen organic blend bag includes pomegranate seeds from Turkey. Hepatitis A is a contagious liver disease that can last from a few weeks to a several months. People often contract it when an infected food handler prepares food without appropriate hand hygiene. The CDC said that food already contaminated with the virus can also cause outbreaks, as is suspected in this case. Illnesses occur within 15 to 50 days of exposure to the hepatitis A virus, CDC said. Symptoms include fatigue, abdominal pain, jaundice, abnormal liver tests, dark urine and pale stool. Vaccination can prevent illness if given within two weeks of exposure, and those who have already been vaccinated are unlikely to become ill. CDC said the illnesses date back to mid-March. The same genotype of hepatitis A was identified in an outbreak in Europe linked to frozen berries this year, the CDC said, as well as a 2012 outbreak in British Columbia related to a frozen berry blend with pomegranate seeds from Egypt. The agency said there is no evidence the outbreaks are related. Lawsuits have already been filed against Townsend Farms in California, Colorado, Hawaii and Washington state, with more expected in the other affected states, said a spokeswoman for Seattle-based food safety lawyer Bill Marler. The class action lawsuits ask for compensation for the treatment and also reimbursement for the vaccines.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/12/hepatitis-linked-to-frozen-berries-sickens-87/

Vegetarian diet tied to fewer deaths over time

People who limit how much meat they eat and stick to mostly fruits and vegetables are less likely to die over any particular period of time, according to a new study. “I think this adds to the evidence showing the possible beneficial effect of vegetarian diets in the prevention of chronic diseases and the improvement of longevity,” said Dr. Michael Orlich, the study's lead author from Loma Linda University in California. In 2012, a Gallup poll found about 5 percent of Americans reported to be vegetarians. Previous research has found that people who eat mostly fruits and vegetables are less likely to die of heart disease or any other cause over certain periods of time. Another study from Europe, however, found British vegetarians were just as likely to die at any point as meat eaters, so it's still an “open question,” Orlich said. For the new study, he and his colleagues used data from 73,308 people recruited at U.S. and Canadian Seventh-day Adventist churches between 2002 and 2007. At the start of the study, the participants were asked about their eating habits and were separated into categories based on how often they ate dairy, eggs, fish and meat. Overall, 8 percent were vegans who didn't eat any animal products while 29 percent were lacto-ovo-vegetarians who didn't eat fish or meat but did eat dairy and egg products. Another 15 percent occasionally ate meat, including fish. The researchers then used a national database to see how many of the participants died by December 31, 2009. Overall, they found about seven people died of any cause per 1,000 meat eaters over a year. That compared to about five or six deaths per 1,000 vegetarians every year. Men seemed to benefit the most from a plant-based diet. Orlich cautioned, however, that they can't say the participants' plant-based diets prevented their deaths, because there may be other unmeasured differences between the groups. For example, Alice Lichtenstein, director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at Tufts University in Boston, said the participants who were vegetarians were healthier overall. “It's important to note that the vegetarians in this study were more highly educated, less likely to smoke, exercised more and were thinner,” Lichtenstein, who was not involved with the new study, told Reuters Health. Those traits have all been tied to better overall health in the past. Should you go veg? Dr. Robert Baron, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new study in JAMA Internal Medicine, said the new evidence doesn't mean everyone should switch to a plant-based diet. “I don't think everybody should be a vegetarian, but if they want to be, this article suggests it's associated with good health outcomes,” said Baron, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Instead, he writes limiting added sugars, refined grains and saturated fats trumps whether or not to include a moderate amount of dairy, eggs, fish or meat. Previous research has found that people who were on a mostly plant-based diet still had lower cholesterol while eating a small amount of lean beef. “It's like everything else, you have to think about it in terms of the whole package,” Lichtenstein said.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/04/vegetarian-diet-tied-to-fewer-deaths-over-time/

Michael Douglas’ interview: Can you get throat cancer from oral sex?

The Guardian newspaper published an interview with Michael Douglas on Sunday, in which the 68-year-old actor said his throat cancer hadn’t been caused by drinking or smoking – but by having oral sex. “Without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus,” Douglas told the British newspaper.  Douglas also went on to speculate that the stress of his son Cameron’s incarceration might have helped trigger the cancer as well. While a representative for Douglas maintains the actor did not specifically say oral sex was the cause of his cancer, the conversation still begs the question: Does having oral sex play a role in the development of oral cancer? While a connection between the two may seem bizarre, it is very possible that some oral cancers are the end result of intimate sexual contact. Rates of oral cancer – sometimes referred to as head and neck cancers – have been on the rise over the past decade.  While the main risk factors for oral cancers typically include drinking alcohol and smoking, around 25 percent of mouth and 35 percent of throat cancers are related to human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. “(HPV) is present within the fluids that are part of oral sexual behavior,” Dr. Marshall Posner, director of the head and neck oncology program at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, told FoxNews.com. “The vaginal fluids and semen will contain epithelial cells that have the virus on them and also free viral particles that can cause infection.” HPV cannot be transmitted through blood contact, but Posner said it may be possible to contract the virus from the direct contact of fluids through kissing. This can occur if an individual kisses someone who previously performed oral sex on someone else who had the virus. “If the virus is present in the oral pharynx and if it gets secreted in the saliva, then the saliva will contain potentially dangerous viral particles,” Posner said. There are more than 100 different types of HPV, and nearly everyone contracts some form of the virus in their youth.  Fortunately, the majority of HPV strains do not cause any symptoms, and in 90 percent of cases, the infection is naturally eradicated from the body within two years. However, some HPV types can cause genital warts, while others may lead to certain cancers in rare cases. HPV 16 and HPV 18 – which are sexually transmitted – are most closely associated with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer. According to Posner, 3 percent of adult males and 1 percent of adult females will have detectable HPV 16 in their saliva at any given moment in time.  However, just because HPV is detected in a sample of someone with oral cancer does not necessarily mean HPV caused the cancer.  According to the National Health Service in Britain, the virus becomes part of the pre-existing cancer cells’ genetic material, fostering the cells to grow. Oropharyngeal cancer symptoms include a lump in the back of the throat or mouth, pain in the ear or back of tongue, and difficulty swallowing. While the prognosis for HPV-negative oropharyngeal cancer is around 40 to 50 percent, the survival outcomes are generally better for HPV-positive cancers, ranging from 80 to 95 percent.  However, that prognosis is affected by drinking and smoking, which may have been a problem for Douglas. In the United States, HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer represents 60 percent of the total number of orapharyngeal cancer cases, which equal to about 15,000 per year.  Posner estimated that those cases will increase to 20,000 a year by the year 2015. While researchers cannot fully explain the rising rates of these cancers, one of the biggest risk factor for contracting HPV-positive oroharyngeal cancer includes having a high number of sexual partners, Posner said. “In smoking cigarettes and cancer, it doesn’t matter what brands you smoked, it matters how many you smoked,” Posner said.  “With HPV, it’s about the number of ‘brands’ you’ve been involved with. If you have numerous partners, you have a much higher risk of developing cancer. So (monogamous) people should go ahead and have the same intimate and personal relationship that they have with their partners and not be worried about it.” For those looking to protect themselves from contracting dangerous forms of HPV, practicing safe sex by using protection such as condoms and dental dams may help to diminish the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.  Posner also called for parents to get their children – including young boys –vaccinated against HPV. “I think people should make every effort to have children vaccinated, so I don’t have to treat this in the future,” Posner said.  I think it’s very important and to cure cancer we have to support research – it’s the best way we have to figure out how to cure this. Click to learn more about HPV from Mount Sinai Hospital.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/michael-douglass-reveal-can-get-throat-cancer-from-oral-sex/

Longer tamoxifen use reduces breast cancer recurrence

Breast cancer is less likely to recur if women previously treated for the disease take the drug tamoxifen for 10 years, instead of the recommended five years, according to a British study. The study was a component of a larger international trial, for which similar results were announced last year. “I think it's huge because it's the second trial to show a benefit for 10 years versus five years,” said Dr. Sandra Swain, medical director of the Cancer Institute at Washington Hospital Center and president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, or ASCO. “It is important not only in the U.S., but for the world. It is a very inexpensive drug.” Tamoxifen, available as a low-cost generic, has long been used for younger, premenopausal, women with early-stage breast cancer that responds to estrogen. Most start taking the estrogen-blocking drug immediately after completing their initial surgery or chemotherapy. Around 70 percent of breast cancers are estrogen-receptor positive, meaning they are fueled by the hormone. ASCO guidelines now call for women at increased risk of breast cancer to take tamoxifen for five years. For postmenopausal women, the guidelines say raloxifene, an estrogen receptor modulator sold by Eli Lilly under the brand name Evista, may also be considered. The latest findings, presented at the annual ASCO meeting in Chicago this weekend, found that side effects increased with longer tamoxifen use, but concluded that overall benefits outweigh those risks. Researchers estimated that, compared with taking no tamoxifen, 10 years of the drug reduces breast cancer death rates by a third in the first 10 years and by half after that. “Until now, there have been doubts whether continuing tamoxifen beyond five years is worthwhile,” said lead study author Richard Gray, professor of medical statistics at the University of Oxford. Between 1991 and 2005, 6,953 women in the United Kingdom who had been taking tamoxifen for five years were randomly assigned to continue treatment or to stop immediately. Breast cancer recurred in 16.7 percent of the 10-year group, compared with 19.3 percent in the five-year group. Longer treatment also reduced the risk of dying from breast cancer. The women who continued tamoxifen treatment had a 25 percent lower recurrence rate and a 23 percent lower breast cancer mortality rate than the women who had been allocated to stop after only five years. The results were called “practice changing for premenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer,” by Dr. Sylvia Adams, associate professor New York University School of Medicine. In the United States, postmenopausal women at high risk of breast cancer are usually offered drugs in a newer class known as aromatase inhibitors, such as Arimidex, sold by AstraZeneca. “For premenopausal women the standard of care will likely include 10 years of tamoxifen,” Dr. Adams said. “For women who enter menopause during that period, AIs are still an option. Tamoxifen will also be an option.” Rare but serious side effects of tamoxifen include increased risk of endometrial cancer (cancer of the lining of the uterus), blood clots and stroke. The British researchers said they observed no excess incidence of stroke with 10 years of tamoxifen therapy, although the endometrial cancer risk was higher. They estimated that for every endometrial cancer death that occurs as a side effect of long-term tamoxifen, 30 deaths from breast cancer would be prevented.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/longer-tamoxifen-use-reduces-breast-cancer-recurrence/

Scientists put bowel cancer under the microscope

Patients with bowel cancer — the third most commonly diagnosed form in the United Kingdom — could enjoy increased survival rates as a result of a new study led by an expert from London’s Kingston University. Professor Helmout Modjtahedi is heading an investigation examining why some tumours are hard to treat and how they can be targeted with the most effective therapies. During the study, specimens from patients with tumours of the colon or rectum, known as colorectal or bowel cancer, will be examined for biomarkers — proteins on the surface of cells. This would help pinpoint which individuals were most likely to benefit from specific therapies, particularly two new antibody-based drugs, Professor Modjtahedi said. …

Key find for early bladder cancer treatment

"With better knowledge of this protein, we can better determine a patient’s prognosis and see who needs more aggressive treatment immediately and who can be given a milder treatment without a risk to their life. We can see at an early stage which patients are in the risk zone for cancer recurrence," said Karolina Boman, a doctoral student at the Division of Pathology at Lund University…