Tag Archives: king

Medical assessment in the blink of an eye

There are many routes to making snap judgments (not all of them particularly useful). One of these is our ability to get the "gist" of an entire image by analyzing the whole scene at once, based on interpretation of global properties and image statistics, not focusing on specific details.That seems to be what medical experts can do. They are not perfect in a fraction of a second but they do far better than random guessing when classifying medical images as normal or abnormal even though, in that blink of an eye, they cannot tell you where the problem might be located. …

Venezuela considers prohibiting bottle feeding for infants

Venezuela's Congress will discuss legislation this week that would prohibit bottle feeding of infants to try to encourage breast feeding and reduce the use of baby formula, said a lawmaker of the ruling Socialist Party. Legislator Odalis Monzon said the proposal would “prohibit all types of baby bottles” as a way to improve children's health. “We want to increase the love (between mother and child) because this has been lost as a result of these transnational companies selling formula,” Monzon said on state television on Thursday. She said the Law for the Promotion and Support for Breast-Feeding, passed in 2007, did not establish any sanctions for using formula. However, she did not say what the sanctions might be if the proposed change to prohibit bottle feeding is passed by Congress, where the Socialist Party has a majority. Monzon said, however, that exceptions would be allowed, such as in the case of the death of a mother, or for women with limited breast milk production, as determined by the health ministry. She did not respond to phone calls seeking details, including how long babies would be breast-fed. Such legislation would likely raise the ire of opposition sympathizers who say the government of the late President Hugo Chavez excessively extended the reach of the state into the lives of private citizens. “People are free to feed their children as they see fit,” said Ingrid Rivero, a 27-year-old mother in Caracas. “My daughter stopped breast feeding after seven months. What can I do?

Sibling bullying is under-recognized, study finds

Across the U.S., parents, educators, doctors and other experts have rallied to protect children from bullies. However, bullying by brothers and sisters is often chalked up to normal sibling behavior. Now a new study finds that sibling aggression, like peer aggression, causes mental distress, which can lead to anger, depression and anxiety in the child who is being targeted. The researchers found that 32 percent of the children and adolescents had experienced one type of sibling aggression during the previous year. Further, the study showed that regardless of whether the aggression was mild or severe, bullied kids had significantly worse mental health than children who were not bullied. “There is a natural emotional intensity to sibling relationships,” said lead author Corinna Jenkins Tucker, an associate professor of family studies at the University of New Hampshire. “There is a lot of love, but also the potential for a lot of conflicts.” More from LiveScience The researchers analyzed information from telephone interviews with nearly 3,600 adolescents ages 10 to 17, and with adult caregivers of children 9 and under. Each youngster had at least one sibling under 18 who was living at home. The data were obtained as part of The National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence, which documents the incidence and prevalence of youngsters' exposure to violence. During the interviews, the researcher asked if the adolescent or child had been bullied by a sibling during the past year. As the researchers defined it, bullying included physical assault, property victimization (such as forcibly taking something a child was wearing, or destroying something belonging to the child), or psychological aggression (such as name-calling, or telling the child he or she wasn't wanted around). In addition, researchers asked the youngsters if they had experienced anger, depression or anxiety during the previous month. Eight percent of the children interviewd had experienced two or more types of sibling bullying duringthe previous year. Children who were even mildly physically assaulted by a sibling had greater mental distress than adolescents who were not assaulted. However, all the kids were similarly affected by the other types of sibling aggression. Tucker said that parents and other adults often downplay sibling aggression. As a result, it's “under-recognized and under-estimated,” she said. “Our work is showing that in some cases, the mental distress associated with sibling aggression is similar to what we see with peer aggression. It is something to be taken seriously.”  Mark E. Feinberg, a research professor at the Prevention Research Center at Penn State University, said “while our society has been working to eliminate bullying, it has not touched the relationship that is most violent — the sibling relationship.” The findings are “are not news to those of us who have been paying attention to sibling relationships,” but because the study involved a large, nationally representative sample, the findings should focusattention on sibling aggression, said Feinberg, who was not involved with the study. “The question then is, what do we do about it?” he said. “Nobody yet has the answer on how to deal with this problem.” According to Tucker, when parents notice bullying, they should step in. “It is an opportunity for parents to act as a mediator, and teach constructive conflict skills,” she said. Parenting programs, Tucker added, should include discussions about sibling bullying as well. “There is a big push now to stop aggression, particularly between peers, and we are suggesting that these programs include a focus on siblings,” she said. The study is published June 17 in the journal Pediatrics. 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/2013/06/17/sibling-bullying-is-under-recognized-study-finds/

Meet the man who claims he doesn’t need food

It may seem a little hard to digest, but a man who hasn’t eaten three solid meals a day in months claims he has stumbled upon the secret to good health — and it doesn’t involve calorie counting and exercise. But Rob Rhinehart isn’t on a fad diet or starving himself in a bid to lose weight. He simply wanted to revolutionize his life when he created what he says is a formula which gives his body the exact amount of vitamins and minerals it needs to survive. Spurned on by a poor diet and lack of time to shop and prepare food, the 24-year-old began researching what his body needed, down to the biochemical level, and made Soylent — a drink mixture of vitamins and minerals which includes calcium, potassium, zinc, vitamins A, B, C, D, E and K. “I was really tired of eating poorly and wondered why it had to be difficult to obtain healthy food,” he said. “I started seeing food on a biochemical level and developed a new form that is much more efficient and scalable by including only the necessary components — and was surprised to find it worked.” He swapped his favorite pizzas, burgers and other foods with his Soylent formula for a month and says he begun to enjoy food for the first time as he learned how to eat for pleasure instead of greed. Mr Rhinehart, who now has Soylent for 90 percent of his meals, said he believed his formula could be the ideal replacement for unhealthy fast food, or for time-poor people who wanted to avoid the stress of shopping and cooking. Not to be confused with the 1973 sci-fi film Soylent Green in which most of the population lives off rations including one aptly called Soylent Green, Mr Rhinehart’s says his formula may be just as effective in helping solve food shortages. He admits to still having the occasional craving for a big hearty meal, but says he mostly wants healthy, fresh tasting flavors. “I still eat, but I have not been to the grocery store, cooked, or cleaned a dish in months,” he said. “I enjoy my favorite foods a few times per week, mostly out with friends on the weekends, which is really all I crave.” Mr Rhinehart insists his diet is far from boring. “I assumed I would quickly get tired of the taste but this does not happen,” he writes in his blog. “It’s really nice to always be full and healthy, and still enjoy food just for fun when I want to.” And he reckons even the biggest foodie could learn to eat less using a mix of Soylent and prepared meals as people would be left with more time to enjoy the things they want. “People will find a good balance of Soylent meals and regular meals to ensure maximum enjoyment of food and health. I think it could vastly improve our relationship with food and agriculture,” he said. But nutritionists warn that such a formula-type diet is not only restrictive, but unsustainable. Sydney-based nutritionist Susie Burrell said while supplements could be developed to replace the contents of a meal, the reality was that humans enjoyed sitting down to meals. “While technically you can develop supplements that replace the nutrients content of a meal, which can be used to support weight loss or feed those who do not have access to food, the reality is that human beings like to eat, which is why dietary restriction and meal replacements are not proven to work long term,” she said. “Claiming such a product can solve the nutrition issues of the world is a simplistic view of very complex issues including obesity, malnutrition, food security, eating behaviour and basic nutrition.” Nutrition consultant Tracie Hyam said Mr Rhinehart may think he’s learning to eat properly, but that it actually wasn’t the case. “Meal-replacement shakes can definitely have a place in a weight-loss program or plan, but in the long-term the shakes will not deliver a healthy eating habit for him,” she said, adding there were a lot of other reasons such a diet was far from ideal. “If his digestive system isn’t used to chewing or digesting food, that one meal a week out with friends might be a big shock to the system,” she said. “Food in moderation, and definitely nutritious food, is there to be enjoyed. So replacing most meals of the day, is really taking away that enjoyment.” Click for more from news.com.au. source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/17/meet-man-who-doesnt-need-food/

Drinking alcohol to shrink?

Alcohol and your weight have a tricky relationship. So tricky, in fact, that experts have had a tough time nailing down exactly why some women wind up with a beer gut (or butt) while others drink daily and never seem to gain a pound. Here's what we know: Your average drink—beer, wine, martini, pick your poison—is usually a combination of carbs, sugar and ethanol (pure alcohol). When it goes down the hatch, it makes a pit stop at your stomach, where some of the alcohol is absorbed through the lining and into your bloodstream, giving you that initial buzz. The carbs and sugar go the traditional digestive route, while ethanol, a toxin, is diverted to the liver. This is when that innocent little drink starts messing with your internal fat incinerator. Ethanol has no nutritional value, so your body burns it off first. That means any remaining calories in your stomach—whether they're from the margarita or the chips and guacamole you had with it—will likely be stored as fat.  And the more fattening the foods you eat, the easier the calories are to store. (Bear in mind that research published in Physiology & Behavior found that alcohol makes us focus on immediate pleasure and ignore the consequences, which often results in eating junk food.) Unlike protein and carbs, which require some energy for the body to break down and store, fat can directly deposit itself, so those chips are first in line to be plastered to your thighs. MORE: The 3 Biggest Weight Loss Mistakes Still, the situation might not be as bleak as it appears, because the real problem may not be drinking itself, but how often and how hard we hit the bottle. Drink and Shrink? A 2010 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine may be the best news for booze since the 21st Amendment. Researchers found that women who had one or two alcoholic drinks a day were actually less likely to gain weight than those who shunned the sauce. And they did it while consuming more calories overall (from food and drink) than both heavy drinkers and teetotalers. Short of striking a deal with the devil, how did they manage to pull that off? Researchers believe that the bodies of long-term moderate drinkers somehow adapt to metabolize alcohol differently than heavy or occasional drinkers. They use more energy, burning the calories in the drink—or even more than that—while digesting it, Dr. Lu Wang, the lead researcher of the study and an instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said.  Researchers are still working out the specifics of how and why this happens, but they've figured out that for women who drink up to eight ounces of an alcoholic beverage a day, those calories simply don't end up as extra fat. MORE: 15 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism Of course, there's a catch. Women who bank their daily drinks for weekends or girls' nights out don't qualify for the free-calorie plan (and among the 18-to-25 crowd, this “binge” behavior is on the rise, according to a 2009 Addiction study).  “Your body adjusts metabolically to the amount you drink, and when you don't drink regularly, your body can't adjust,” Wang said.  Instead of learning to disregard those nutritionally empty calories, your body automatically stores them—as fat. It's akin to tossing old clothes you don't wear into the back of your closet, only your body doesn't have the good sense to hide the junk. It tends to store the fat front and center, in your belly. MORE: 4 Amazing Abs Exercises Booze Clues Evidence suggests that moderate drinkers also tend to practice healthier habits than teetotalers. If you're used to having three or four drinks every week as part of your diet, you're probably compensating for them with fewer calories elsewhere.  “These women know how to moderate how much they drink, so it makes sense that they'd moderate what they eat as well,” Robert Klesges, a professor of preventive medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, said. The Archives study found that these women also exercise more, which knocks off additional calories. Another thing that helped: The women in the Archives study were served no more than two four-ounce glasses of wine or two 1.5-ounce shots of liquor a day. In real life, you're likely to be handed far more than that by a bartender or waitress—20 to 45 percent more, according to a 2009 study in the journal Alcohol. And we're not much better when left to our own devices.  “Eyeballing the right amount is very difficult,” William C. Kerr, a senior scientist at the Alcohol Research Group in Emeryville, Calif., said. “Most of us don't even know how much we should be shooting for, so overpouring is typical.” MORE: 20 Habits That Make You Fat It's especially easy to overdo it with vino, given that the average wineglass these days looks big enough to hold a school of fish. So a bottle of light beer may be your best bet.  “Unlike wine and mixed drinks, it's portion controlled—the bottle is right there with the calories printed on it,” says Lisa Young, R.D., author of “The Portion Teller Plan.” “It eliminates the guesswork.”source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/14/drinking-alcohol-to-shrink/

Using math to kill cancer cells

"Oncolytic viruses are special in that they specifically target cancer cells," explains Dr. Bell, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine. "Unfortunately, cancer is a very complicated and diverse disease, and some viruses work well in some circumstances and not well in others. As a result, there has been a lot of effort in trying to modify the viruses to make them safe, so they don’t target healthy tissue and yet are more efficient in eliminating cancer cells." Dr. …

Court ruling may open access, decrease costs for breast cancer gene test

A ruling by the Supreme Court that human genes can't be patented is expected to increase access and drop the cost for tests for gene mutations that greatly raise the risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer. In a bit of a mixed message, the court unanimously decided that certain types of gene tests may still be protected by patents, yet it struck down patents that a company has long held for BRCA genes. The company makes the only test for two of those breast cancer genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2. “It appears that it will allow the market to open up so that other laboratories can offer the test,” said Rebecca Nagy, a genetics counselor at Ohio State University and president of the National Society of Genetic Counselors. And that should make the tests cheaper and available to more women, she said. Hours after the ruling, one company - DNATraits, part of Houston-based Gene By Gene, Ltd. - said it would offer BRCA gene testing in the United States for $995 - less than a third of the current price. A primer on the case: Q: What did the court say? …

Air pollution can trigger heart arrhythmias, study shows

For people with existing heart problems, exposure to high levels of air pollution can trigger the irregular heartbeats that may lead to a stroke or heart attack, according to a new study. Past research has linked air pollution to ventricular fibrillation, electrical confusion in the lower chambers of the heart which can cause sudden death. The new study also finds an association with atrial fibrillation (AF), erratic quivering in the heart's upper chambers and the most common type of irregular heartbeat. “As in all epidemiological studies we do not prove causation, but rather an association,” said lead author Dr. Mark Link, a cardiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. His study included people with so-called implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), which record when the heart's electrical activity is abnormal and deliver shocks to try to right the rhythm. Link and his colleagues analyzed data from the ICDs of 176 heart patients and compared it to air quality data collected in the region. Over about two years, 49 of those people had a total of 328 AF episodes. The researchers found that the level of air pollution, including soot-like particles, on a given day was directly tied to heart rhythm problems. With every 6 microgram per cubic meter increase in fine particulate pollution, for example, people were 26 percent more likely to have an AF episode in the next two hours, the study team reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. That extra risk is greater than the 1 percent increased risk of death from heart attack and the 18 percent increased risk of stroke seen with each 10 microgram per cubic meter rise in pollution in other studies, Link noted. The daily average particulate pollution level in Massachusetts, where the study took place, was 8.4 micrograms per cubic meter, well below the upper limit of 35 set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). More than two million Americans have AF, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although it can cause rapid heartbeat, lightheadedness and fatigue, AF doesn't always come with symptoms. “This study does show that there is an increased association, especially within two hours of air pollutant levels being high, with a person having an irregular heart rhythm,” said Dr. Comilla Sasson, who studies community-wide risk for cardiac arrest at the University of Colorado in Denver. But it does not look at how often those irregular rhythms lead to more deadly problems such as heart attack or sudden death, she added. “Although this is interesting, it still leaves a lot more questions than providing answers,” Sasson said in an email. She questioned whether or not the EPA should reevaluate its air quality standards and if doctors should be talking to patients about increased risks on pollution-heavy days. “There is much more research that will need to be done, especially in other cities, to see if these results hold true,” she said. Although the study focused on people at unusually high risk already, an increase in the chance of AF could have implications for anyone, Link said. “Unfortunately, all of us are at risk for AF, especially as we age. It is by far the most common arrhythmia in the U.S. and for that matter, the entire world,” he said. Boston has relatively clean air, which makes the results all the more troubling, Link said. “Imagine what the effect of air pollution is in cities without the clean air of Boston,” he said.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/14/air-pollution-can-trigger-heart-arrhythmias-study-shows/

Protein protects against breast cancer recurrence in animal model

Precisely what causes breast cancer recurrence has been poorly understood. But now a piece of the puzzle has fallen into place: Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania have identified a key molecular player in recurrent breast cancer — a finding that suggests potential new therapeutic strategies. The study, performed in the laboratory of Lewis A. …

Infections linked to mood disorders

Infections and autoimmune disorders may increase the risk of developing a mood disorder such as depression later in life, a new study from Denmark suggests. In the study, which included more than 3 million people, those who were hospitalized for infections were 62 percent more likely to subsequently develop a mood disorder compared with people not hospitalized for infections. And those hospitalized for an autoimmune disease were 45 percent more likely to subsequently develop a mood disorder. Autoimmune diseases are those in which the immune system goes awry and attacks the body's own cells or tissues. The risk of mood disorders increased with the number of times a person was hospitalized. Those who were hospitalized three times with infections during the study had double the risk of a mood disorder, and those who were hospitalized seven times had triple the risk, compared to those not hospitalized with infections. The findings support the hypothesis that inflammation, from either an infection or autoimmune disease, may affect the brain in a way that raises the risk of mood disorders, the researchers say. If the link is confirmed in further studies, the researchers said, their estimates show that infections could be responsible for up to 12 percent of mood disorders. However, the study found an association, and cannot prove that infections or autoimmune diseases are the cause of mood disorders. It's possible that other factors, such as stress or the experience of hospitalization, may explain the link, said Ian Gotlib, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, who was not involved in the study. The study is published June 12 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. Infections and mood disorders The study included people born in Denmark between 1945 and 1996 who were followed until the end of 2010. During the study, more than 91,000 people visited a hospital for a mood disorder, including bipolar disorder or depression. Of these, about 32 percent visited hospitals for an infection before their mood disorder, and 5 percent visited the hospital for an autoimmune disease before their mood disorder. The risk of a mood disorder was greatest in the first year following an infection or autoimmune disease. People who visited a hospital for both an infection and an autoimmune disease had a greater risk of developing a mood disorder than those who visited a hospital for either of the two conditions alone. This may indicate the two conditions interact to increase the risk of mood disorder, the researchers said. Because the study looked at information from only people hospitalized with infections, autoimmune disorders and mood disorders, its not clear whether the findings may apply to people with less severe infections, or mood disorders. What's the cause? Gotlib called the study “impressive” and said it raises important questions. Previous studies have shown that people with depression have lower numbers of T cells (a type of immune cell), and are at increased risk for autoimmune diseases, Gotlib said. But there are also many other risk factors for mood disorders that were not taken into account in this study, such as smoking and socioeconomic status, Gotlib said. Future studies should attempt to untangle whether infections are really the cause of mood disorders, or if the two just happen to occur together. In addition, studies should investigate how, on a biological level, infections and autoimmune diseases might affect the brain to cause mood disorders, Gotlib said. 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/2013/06/12/infections-linked-to-mood-disorders/