Tag Archives: medical

Antidepressants may help with heart disease

For some patients with heart disease, taking antidepressants may reduce the risk of heart problems brought on by mental stress, a new study suggests. Researchers looked at patients with myocardial ischemia a condition in which the heart doesn't get enough blood as they preformed mentally stressful activities. All of the patients also had coronary heart disease, or a narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the heart. Patients in the study who took the antidepressant escitalopram (sold as Lexapro) were about 2.5 times less likely than those who took a placebo to experience myocardial ischemia triggered by mental stress. The findings suggest that an antidepressant, or other treatments that help patients cope with stress, could improve symptoms for some people with coronary heart disease, said study researcher Dr. Wei Jiang, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. However, future studies are needed to confirm the results, and to identify the people most likely to benefit from such treatment, Jiang said. Stress and the heart About 30 years ago, doctors observed that mental stress could bring on myocardial ischemia.tudies also have found that people with mental-stress-induced myocardial ischemia are at increased risk of dying from heart disease. Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and about 50 percent of patients with the condition experience mental-stress-induced myocardial ischemia yet few studies have attempted to find treatments. In the new study, 127 patients were randomly assigned to receive escitalopram or placebo for six weeks. Participants completed a number of tests at the beginning and end of the study, including a treadmill stress test, a math test and a test in which participants told a sad story in order to evoke emotion. During the tests, the researchers examined certain heart symptoms to diagnose myocardial ischemia, such as a reduction in blood pumped out of one of the heart's cambers. After six weeks, about 34 percent of participants taking the antidepressant did not experience myocardial ischemia during the mental-stress tests, compared with 17 percent in the placebo group. The antidepressant did not affect whether patients experienced myocardial ischemia during exercise. Dr. Andrew Freeman, a cardiologist at the National Jewish Health hospital in Denver, said it was not very surprising that drugs that blunt the brain's response to stress would also blunt the heart's response to stress. But what the findings mean for patients in the long term is not known, said Freeman, who was not involved in the study. Future studies are needed to see whether antidepressants might reduce the risk of cardiovascular events like heart attacks, Freeman said. How does it work?

Cannabis use associated with lower blood sugar

A new study published in the American Journal of Medicine has revealed a potential benefit from the use of cannabis. The article, entitled “The Impact of Marijuana Use on Glucose, Insulin, and Insulin Resistance among U.S. Adults,” investigated the blood sugar-related effects of cannabis use among participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2005 to 2010. In several other studies of large populations, lower rates of both obesity and diabetes have been noted among users of cannabis, as compared with non-users. This curious fact encouraged the three primary authors of the study to examine cannabis use among the 4657 participants in the national survey. The researchers noted that although cannabis smokers generally consume more calories than non-users, they paradoxically live with lower body mass indexes (BMIs) and reduced rates of both obesity and diabetes. Of the participants in the national survey, 579 were currently using cannabis and 1975 had previously used cannabis. To assess blood glucose, insulin resistance and other factors among cannabis users, the authors organized survey participants into three groups – those who had never used cannabis, those who had used cannabis but not within 30 days, and those who were current users. The authors put study participants through tests for fasting blood sugar levels, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) testing, and assessments of blood pressure, BMI and waist circumference. The researchers found that subjects who were current cannabis users had lower levels of fasting insulin, lower levels of insulin resistance, smaller waist circumference, and higher levels of HDL cholesterol, which is known to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. This supported findings from earlier studies in which cannabis users showed improved weight, improved insulin resistance, and reduced incidence of diabetes, as compared with non-users. While the potential relationship between cannabis and improved body mass and blood sugar has yet to be fully understood, it is believed that cannabis acts on the cannabinoid 1 and 2 receptors in the brain, enhancing the activity of adiponectin. This hormone helps to regulate blood sugar and plays a role in controlling weight and reducing the tendency toward diabetes.   Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States, with approximately 17 million regular users. Medical marijuana has been legalized in 19 states plus the District of Columbia, and two states, Colorado and Washington, have legalized cannabis outright. A number of states have effectively decriminalized the possession of small quantities of cannabis and its use. This fundamental shift in legal status has drawn more researchers to investigate cannabis for any possible health benefits. This study strikes at the heart of two major epidemics: obesity and diabetes. Based on results reported in this study and supported by other epidemiological surveys, it is possible that cannabis use helps to reduce the tendency toward both obesity and type 2 diabetes. Thus, the substance that induces “the munchies” may hold hope for two epidemic diseases arising from overeating.Chris Kilham is a medicine hunter who researches natural remedies all over the world, from the Amazon to Siberia. He teaches ethnobotany at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he is Explorer In Residence. Chris advises herbal, cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies and is a regular guest on radio and TV programs worldwide. His field research is largely sponsored by Naturex of Avignon, France. Read more at& MedicineHunter.com.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/22/cannabis-use-associated-with-lower-blood-sugar/

Bunions should be blamed on genes, not shoes, study shows

Bunions are likely inherited and not caused by faulty footwear, Counsel and Heal reported. Bunions are a painful foot condition characterized by bony bumps that form on the joint at the base of the big toe.  Earlier research indicates that 23 percent of people 18 to 65 years of age and 36 percent of people over the age of 65 have bunions. The new study, published in the journal Arthritis Care and Research, analyzed information from 1,370 people, with an average age of 66 years old, who were enrolled in the Framingham Foot Study. Each participant received a foot exam between 2002 and 2008 to screen for bunions, toe deformities or plantar soft tissue atrophy, a breakdown of the fatty “cushion” under the ball of the foot, Counsel and Heal reported. The study found that 31 percent of participants had bunions and 30 percent had toe deformities like “hammer toes,” both of which were highly inheritable, depending on age and sex, especially among people of European descent. Twenty-eight percent had plantar soft tissue atrophy, but this condition was not found to inheritable.                 “Our study is the largest investigation of the heritability of common foot disorders in older adults, confirming that bunions and lesser toe deformities are highly inheritable in Caucasian men and women of European descent,” Dr. Marian Hannan from Hebrew SeniorLife and Harvard Medical School in Boston said in a news release. “These new findings highlight the importance of furthering our understanding of what causes greater susceptibility to these foot conditions, as knowing more about the pathway may ultimately lead to early prevention or early treatment,” she concluded. Click for more from Counsel and Heal.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/20/bunions-should-be-blamed-on-genes-not-shoes-study-shows/

Genetic diversity within tumors predicts outcome in head and neck cancer

"Our findings will eventually allow better matching of treatments to individual patients, based on this characteristic of their tumors," says Edmund Mroz, PhD, of the MGH Center for Cancer Research, lead author of the Cancer report. "This method of measuring heterogeneity can be applied to most types of cancer, so our work should help researchers determine whether a similar relationship between heterogeneity and outcome occurs in other tumors." For decades investigators have hypothesized that tumors with a high degree of genetic heterogeneity — the result of different subgroups of cells undergoing different mutations at different DNA sites — would be more difficult to treat because particular subgroups might be more likely to survive a particular drug or radiation or to have spread before diagnosis. While recent studies have identified specific genes and proteins that can confer treatment resistance in tumors, there previously has been no way of conveniently measuring tumor heterogeneity. …

Proposed measure would require doctor drug tests

A proposed state ballot measure would require doctors to be randomly subjected to drug and alcohol testing. The San Francisco Chronicle reports the so-called “Pee in the Cup” initiative is being pushed by Bob Pack, a technology mogul and former executive at AOL and NetZero. Pack's campaign, already armed with $2 million in funding, will be launched this summer. He is touting a new poll showing 85 percent of California voters would support random testing of physicians. The newspaper says the initiative might also seek to lift the cap on damages in medical malpractice cases. The goal is to get the measure on the November 2014 ballot. A spokesperson for the California Medical Association calls the effort by Pack a “publicity stunt.”source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/20/proposed-measure-would-require-doctor-drug-tests/

Childhood ADHD tied to obesity decades later

Boys who are diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in elementary school are more likely to grow up to be obese adults than those who don't have the condition, a new study suggests. Researchers surveyed two groups of 41-year-old men and found those with a history of ADHD were 19 pounds heavier than their non-ADHD counterparts, on average. The findings are consistent with past studies that looked only at children or only at adults and linked ADHD to extra pounds, researchers said. “There's definitely been enough research now where it does appear there is some connection between these two disorders,” said Sherry Pagoto, who has studied ADHD and obesity at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Data for the new study came from 207 white boys with ADHD who were referred to a research clinic at around age eight and followed as they grew up. Ten years later another group of teenage boys without ADHD, who were otherwise similar to the original participants, were added to the study. By the time they were asked to report their weight at age 41, 111 men from each group were still in the study. On that survey, men with a history of ADHD reported weighing 213 pounds, on average, and 41 percent of them were obese. In comparison, men without ADHD weighed in at an average of 194 pounds, and 22 percent qualified as obese, Dr. F. Xavier Castellanos from the Child Study Center at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York and his colleagues wrote in Pediatrics. “As we learn more about the regions of the brain that may be implicated in obesity, they overlap with brain regions implicated in ADHD,” Castellanos told Reuters Health. “The reward system seems to be relevant to both conditions.” In addition, he added, “There is the speculation that the obesity is at least partly reflecting some of the impulsivity, poor planning and the difficulty in making choices” that come with ADHD. Pagoto, who was not involved in the new research, agreed that young people with the disorder could be more impulsive when it comes to their food choices and may also spend more time in front of screens than their peers. “Parents of children who have ADHD should pay special attention to how that child's weight is changing over time, knowing that they may be at greater risk for becoming obese,” she told Reuters Health. “If they're at higher risk of obesity, that may bring other things with it,” such as type 2 diabetes, she added. Contrary to the study team's hypothesis, they found that men who no longer had their childhood ADHD symptoms were especially likely to be obese - not those who still had persistent attention and hyperactivity problems. Pagoto agreed that finding was unexpected and said the study may simply have been too small to tease out reliable differences among adults with a history of ADHD. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, parents report that close to one in ten kids and teenagers has been diagnosed with ADHD. Boys are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed as girls. Castellanos recommended parents of children with ADHD make sure their kids are getting enough exercise and help them cut back on sugary drinks and other high-calorie food choices.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/20/childhood-adhd-tied-to-obesity-decades-later/

Lifestyle change may ease heart risk from job stress

Being under stress at work is tied to a higher risk of heart problems, new research confirms - but putting down the beer bottle and going for a walk may help. Researchers found that job strain - defined as having a lot of demands at work, but little control - was tied at a 25 percent higher chance of having a heart attack or dying of heart problems. But heart risks were cut in half among people - stressed or not - who maintained a healthy lifestyle compared to those who drank, smoked or were obese. “For many people avoidance of work stress is unrealistic,” lead researcher Mika Kivimaki, from University College London, said in an email. “Thus, we wanted to ask the question whether adopting an otherwise healthy lifestyle would reduce heart disease risk among those with job strain,” he said. Kivimaki and his colleagues combined the results of seven European studies that surveyed 102,000 people about their general lifestyle habits and health, including how much strain they were under at work. None of those participants had heart disease at the start of the study. Over the next seven years, on average, there were about 1,100 heart attacks or deaths from heart disease across the trials. About one in six people in the studies initially reported being under job strain. Rates of heart problems over a decade ranged from 12 cases per 1,000 generally healthy people without job strain to 31 per 1,000 people with job strain and multiple lifestyle risks, such as rarely exercising or having more than three or four alcoholic drinks a day. Kivimaki's team calculated that close to 4 percent of all heart attacks and heart disease deaths could be attributed to job strain and about 26 percent to drinking, smoking, obesity and lack of physical activity. The researchers wrote in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that for people with stressful jobs, adopting a healthier lifestyle may be a strategy to lower heart risks. “We hope this message reaches those who want to reduce their heart disease risk but feel they cannot avoid work stress,” Kivimaki said. One researcher who has studied work stress and heart disease separately said the new review may underestimate the link between job strain and heart disease. OTHER FACTORS? Paul Landsbergis of SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, said other types of job stress that may influence heart risks - such as having low social support and job insecurity - weren't taken into account. The new study doesn't prove pressure at work caused heart problems. But cardiologist Dr. Vincent Figueredo from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia said the results are in line with past studies suggesting that chronic stress, including from job strain, can have negative health effects. “With chronic stress, there's activation of these systems that can have long-term effects on things like insulin resistance, central obesity (and) high blood pressure,” Figueredo, who wasn't involved in the new research, said. What this review adds, he said, is that workers may be able to do something about those extra risks. “It does offer some hope for those people who do have that job strain they can't do anything about at work,” Figueredo said. “If you're stuck being stressed at work, at least go out and exercise, don't smoke and eat healthy.”source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/17/lifestyle-change-may-ease-heart-risk-from-job-stress/

Vocal cord paralysis: Explaining Google CEO Larry Page’s rare condition

Earlier this week, Google CEO Larry Page finally revealed the reason behind his soft, hoarse-sounding voice: he suffers from a rare condition called vocal cord paralysis Though Page was able to speak on Wednesday at Google I/O, the company’s annual developer conference, he recently wrote on his Google Plus profile that he has struggled with vocal cord paralysis for the past 14 years. Page said he was first diagnosed with paralysis in his left vocal cord after a bad cold. However, his condition worsened last summer when his right vocal cord also became paralyzed. Experiencing paralysis in both vocal cords is extremely uncommon, according to Dr. Nicole Maronian, director of the Voice Center at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, who did not treat Page for his condition. “Since I’ve been in practice, since 1998, it’s been one patient. Having it affect both vocal cords, it’s pretty rare,” Maronian told FoxNews.com. Normal vocal cords open and then close completely every time they are stimulated by the nerves. “They have to close in a tight line to get the kind of strong voice out that you and I have today,” Maronian said. But when vocal cords become paralyzed, they are not able to close completely, leaving a gap.  “If there’s a gap, air starts leaking through, and you start sounding breathy, softer,” Maronian explained.   In addition to hoarseness, patients with this paralysis can also experience shortness of breath due to air leaking through the gap between the vocal cords. “They often get a little bit high-pitched, trying to project or pitch the voice. They get short of breath because of all that air leaking out, or have trouble getting full sentences out because of the air leaking out,” Maronian said. Some patients even experience aspiration, when recently swallowed fluids leak through the space in between the vocal cords. Aspiration can lead to coughing symptoms or even “aspiration pneumonia, which has significant morbidity and mortality,” Maronian said. While the paralysis is typically thought to be caused by a viral infection, such as a cold, pneumonia or bronchitis, other factors may be to blame as well.   “Lots of things can affect the nerve: A virus, compression from a thyroid issue, other things like cancer, (or) surgeries where the nerve is ether stretched or pulled,” Maronian said. Page disclosed that he was also diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis in 2008, an inflammation of the thyroid gland, which may or may not affect his vocal cord paralysis. “Sometimes the thyroid gets big which can compress the nerve and push on it. Usually though, the gland burns out and gets small and the nerve compression issue isn’t a piece of it anymore,” Maronian said. Recovery time for vocal cord paralysis can vary. Some patients rebound within months, while others take much longer to heal, Maronian noted. Depending on the needs of the patient, doctors can offer several treatment options for vocal cord paralysis. Patients can wait and see if the condition improves on its own, but many opt for vocal cord injections or surgical procedures to achieve faster relief and recovery. “In the office or operation room, we can (inject) a material next to the vocal cord that pushes it into a more natural position, so it can get closure. (We then) watch and hope it recovers on its own,” Maronian said. Page said in his statement that he plans to “fund a significant research program” through the Vocal Health Institute, led by Dr. Steven Zeitels from the Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital Voice Center.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/16/vocal-cord-paralysis-explaining-google-ceo-larry-pages-rare-condition/

Angelina Jolie’s surgery: What you need to know about breast reconstruction

As more women are learning about the heroic steps that Angelina Jolie took when she decided to undergo a prophylactic mastectomy, I’ve received many questions regarding the surgical techniques used in these reconstructions and how they have improved. We spoke to leading reconstructive surgeon Dr. Richard Winters, vice chairman of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, about the latest techniques. Once a woman decides to have this surgery, what are her options? …