Tag Archives: world

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/

Tai chi: Getting there more slowly, but gracefully and intact

For modern, harried lifestyles focused on getting and spending, fitness experts say tai chi, the ancient Chinese slow-moving exercise, can be an ideal way for anyone to stay fit. A staple in senior citizen centers and a common dawn sighting in public parks, the practice can offer long-term benefits for all age groups. “In this high-tech world that's all about speed, greed and instant gratification, tai chi is the antidote to bring us back to balanced health,” according to Arthur Rosenfeld, a tai chi master and the author of a new book called “Tai Chi — The Perfect Exercise: Finding Health, Happiness, Balance, and Strength.” “It doesn't mean you can win the marathon or clean and jerk 750 pounds or win a cycle sprint,” said the South Florida resident, 56. “It's not about getting there sooner.” Tai chi is more about how the body works than how it looks, and is about aging gracefully and “with less drama.” “The last time I looked, there were some 500 studies about the various physical benefits of tai chi, from improving balance and attention span to boosting the immune system to beating back the symptoms of arthritis, asthma and insomnia,” said Rosenfeld. An estimated 2.3 million U.S. adults have done tai chi in the past 12 months, according to a 2007 National Health Interview Survey. The practice is not perfect. Tai chi “does not supply the cardiovascular component that we'd be looking for in a well-rounded routine,” said Jessica Matthews, a San Diego, California-based exercise physiologist. “The exertion level, while challenging, is not going to increase your heart rate.” 'Grand ultimate motion' T'ai chi ch'uan, as it is formally known, derives from a form of Chinese martial arts. Explaining the slow, circular movement of the practice, Rosenfeld said tai chi is a philosophical term that means the harmonious interplay of opposing forces. When nature encounters a strong force, the way it answers that force to maintain harmony in the world is with a spiral, he said. “Astronomers see galaxies moving in spirals, water goes down the drain in a spiral, tornados form as a spiral. We spiral in tai chi because the most effective way to move fluid through solid is a spiral.” Hawaii-based personal and group-fitness trainer Jordan Forth, who has studied tai chi since 2006, said one translation of tai chi is “grand ultimate motion.” “I recommend it to everybody,” said Forth. “It teaches people to move well in multiple planes of motion with a state of awareness not cultivated in everyday fitness. Most people check out on a treadmill or during high-intensity activity.” Forth said tai chi improves mobility, movement and flexibility and can be even more dynamic than yoga, which the 35-year-old has studied since he was a teenager. “With tai chi you're grounded the entire time,” he said. “For me, (it) translates more into functional everyday movement.” Matthews, who is also a spokeswoman for the American Council on Exercise, said because tai chi is slow motion and low impact, many assume it's just for older people or not a viable means of exercise. Not so, she said: Research studies have found that the practice increased mineral bone density, boosted endurance, strengthened the lower body, and eased depression.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/17/tai-chi-getting-there-more-slowly-but-gracefully-and-intact/

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. …

The new science of weight loss: Introducing the anti-inflammatory diet

You likely haven't given much thought to your cells since high-school biology, but focusing on them might be the key to unlocking your best body ever. While most diets prioritize cutting calories and fat, the anti-inflammatory diet—Hollywood's new favorite healthy-eating plan—operates on a biochemical level.  Designed to neutralize the inflammation that occurs inside your body, the regimen offers big benefits, including a slimmer waist, a clearer mind, fewer cravings, and better skin. No surprise, then, that image-minded celebrities have taken notice: Matthew Fox followed an anti-inflammatory eating plan to get in shape for his upcoming movie World War Z. So how does it work? Eating high levels of saturated fats, trans fats, and refined sugars (read: the modern American diet) sets off a series of reactions: The “bad fat” triggers the liver to release chemicals to fight the toxins, which causes inflammation. Meanwhile, the glucose in food can't be transported to your cells while the body is inflamed, which means that your brain isn't registering the intake. The result: You're left feeling foggy, hungry, and more prone to cravings, which then restarts the cycle. “The more inflammation you have, the less efficiently you're using your calories, so you eat more and feel worse,” says Jackie Keller, the Los Angeles–based founder of the NutriFit meal-delivery service, who crafts anti-inflammatory diet plans for Channing Tatum, Penelope Cruz, and Charlize Theron. Cellular inflammation also stiffens up your arteries, causes skin breakouts, and makes you more prone to heart disease and cancer. “Because we're eating so many processed foods, inflammation is a bigger problem than ever before,” said Kristin Kirkpatrick, a registered dietitian and wellness manager at the Cleveland Clinic. “This diet is partly about what you don't eat—saturated fats, trans fats, and sugar—and a lot about what you do eat.” The focus is on unsaturated fats in fish and olive oil, plus plenty of produce, especially deeply colored fruits and vegetables, which are packed with phytonutrients that help neutralize inflammation.  Another major hallmark is a reliance on herbs and spices: Powerful compounds including quercetin in garlic, gingerol in ginger, cinnamaldehyde in cinnamon, and curcumin in turmeric may all help fight inflammation, said Kirkpatrick. “Not all of my clients understand the science,” Keller said. “But they feel better and they find it easier to lose weight, and that's what matters. ___________________________________________________ More From Details: Elimination Diets: A Primer Why You Should Be a Meat and Potatoes Guy 8 (Surprising) Things That Make You Fat ___________________________________________________ The Anti-Inflammatory Menu Breakfast: 1 cup cooked steel-cut oats with cinnamon and 1 oz almonds. Morning Snack: 1½ cups seasonal berries with 1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt. Lunch: 4 oz baked chicken, cut into strips, mixed with 2 cups steamed or stir-fried Asian vegetables, such as bok choy and shiitake mushrooms, with garlic and ginger. Afternoon Snack: 1 cup fresh cherries or 1 cup cherry juice. Dinner: 6 oz grilled fresh trout seasoned with curry powder (which includes turmeric), 2 cups dark-green vegetables (preferably broccoli, Brussels sprouts, or kale) cooked in 2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil. Dessert: 1 oz dark chocolate.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/13/new-science-weight-loss-introducing-anti-inflammatory-diet/

Scientists say new study shows pig health hurt by GMO feed

Pigs fed a diet of only genetically modified grain showed markedly higher stomach inflammation than pigs who dined on conventional feed, according to a new study by a team of Australian scientists and U.S. researchers. The study adds to an intensifying public debate over the impact of genetically modified crops, which are widely used by U.S. and Latin American farmers and in many other countries around the world. The study was published in the June issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Organic Systems by researchers from Australia who worked with two veterinarians and a farmer in Iowa to study the U.S. pigs. Lead researcher Judy Carman is an epidemiologist and biochemist and director of the Institute of Health and Environmental Research in Adelaide, Australia. The study was conducted over 22.7 weeks using 168 newly weaned pigs in a commercial U.S. piggery. One group of 84 ate a diet that incorporated genetically modified (GM) soy and corn, and the other group of 84 pigs ate an equivalent non-GM diet. The corn and soy feed was obtained from commercial suppliers, the study said, and the pigs were reared under identical housing and feeding conditions. The pigs were then slaughtered roughly five months later and autopsied by veterinarians who were not informed which pigs were fed on the GM diet and which were from the control group. Researchers said there were no differences seen between pigs fed the GM and non-GM diets for feed intake, weight gain, mortality, and routine blood biochemistry measurements. But those pigs that ate the GM diet had a higher rate of severe stomach inflammation - 32 percent of GM-fed pigs compared to 12 percent of non-GM-fed pigs. The inflammation was worse in GM-fed males compared to non-GM fed males by a factor of 4.0, and GM-fed females compared to non-GM-fed females by a factor of 2.2. As well, GM-fed pigs had uteri that were 25 percent heavier than non-GM fed pigs, the study said. The researchers said more long-term animal feeding studies need to be done. Biotech seeds are genetically altered to grow into plants that tolerate treatments of herbicide and resist pests, making producing crops easier for farmers. Some critics have argued for years that the DNA changes made to the transgenic plants engineer novel proteins that can be causing the digestive problems in animals and possibly in humans. The companies that develop these transgenic crops, using DNA from other bacteria and other species, assert they are more than proven safe over their use since 1996. CropLife International, a global federation representing the plant science industry, said more than 150 scientific studies have been done on animals fed biotech crops and to date, there is no scientific evidence of any detrimental impact.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/12/scientists-say-new-study-shows-pig-health-hurt-by-gmo-feed/

WHO: MERS coronavirus has potential to cause pandemic

The World Health Organization on Monday urged health workers around the world to be on the alert for symptoms of the deadly Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS), which has the potential to circle the globe and cause a pandemic. The United Nations agency, which issued new, long-awaited guidance to countries on influenza pandemics, said the world was also in the same “alert phase” for two human strains of bird flu - H5N1, which emerged a decade ago, and H7N9, first detected in China in March. “We are trying to find out as much as we can and we are concerned about these (three) viruses,” Andrew Harper, WHO special adviser for health security and environment, told a news briefing on its new scale for pandemic risk. The interim guidance, to be finalized later this year, incorporates lessons from the 2009/2010 pandemic of H1N1 swine flu, which caused an estimated 200,000 deaths, roughly in line with annual seasonal flu. Having been adjusted to include the notion of severity when assessing risk, the new scale has just four phases against six previously and is intended to give countries more flexibility in judging local risks. “International concern about these infections is high, because it is possible for this virus to move around the world. There have been now several examples where the virus has moved from one country to another through travelers,” the WHO said of MERS, which causes coughing, fever and pneumonia. Travelers have carried the virus to Britain, France, Germany and Italy. Infected people have also been found in Jordan, Qatar, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. “Consequently, all countries in the world need to ensure that their healthcare workers are aware of the virus and the disease it can cause and that, when unexplained cases of pneumonia are identified, MERS-CoV should be considered.” MERS-coronavirus, a distant relative of SARS that emerged in Saudi Arabia last year, has been confirmed in 55 people worldwide, killing 31 of them. Forty cases occurred in Saudi Arabia, many in a hospital in the eastern province of al-Ahsa. “The overall number of cases is limited but the virus causes death in about 60 percent of patients,” the WHO said, reporting on a week-long mission of international experts to Saudi Arabia that ended on Sunday. “So far, about 75 percent of the cases in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have been in men and most have occurred in people with one or more major chronic conditions.” But the source of the MERS virus remained unknown, it said. Clusters of cases have occurred in families and health facilities, indicating a limited capacity to spread among people in close contact with an infected person, it said. All countries in the Middle East should urgently intensify disease surveillance to detect any MERS infections, it said. The WHO has not yet drawn up advice for Travelers ahead of the annual haj pilgrimage in October, which draws millions of Muslims to Saudi Arabia.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/10/who-mers-coronavirus-has-potential-to-cause-pandemic/

Public health crisis in Mexico as breastfeeding rates drop, experts claim

Despite the well-known advantages to breast milk and vigorous campaigns around the world championing breast as best, Mexican mothers say the bottle is better. In a dramatic decline over the past six years, today only one in seven mothers in Mexico breast-feeds exclusively in the first six months, the standard recommended by the World Health Organization. That leaves Mexico with nearly the lowest level of breast-feeding in Latin America. Experts call it a public health crisis for a country where millions still live in extreme poverty, dirty water threatens the health of many families and education is poor. Mother's milk is richer in nutrients and antibodies that protect newborns from infections. Mexico has the highest infant mortality rate among the world's 40 largest economies. Between 2005 and 2010, breast cancer deaths increased twice as fast as Mexico's female population, with some experts blaming declining rates of breast-feeding; studies show it cuts a woman's risk of cancer by 50 percent or more. Officials blame an invasion of baby food ads, little regulation of formula companies and the failure of doctors to promote breast-feeding for an overreliance on formula. “Mexico has become the example of what not to do. It's the strongest case of a setback in breast-feeding,” said Marcos Arana Cedeno, a child nutrition expert and health adviser for the state of Chiapas. Feeding newborns with breast milk can save lives in developing nations, where children have higher chances of dying from diarrhea and pneumonia. The WHO has recommended for the past decade that infants be given only breast milk for the first six months. The percentage of Mexican moms who nurse their babies that long fell from 22 percent in 2006 to 14 percent last year, according to a Health Department survey. Only the Dominican Republic has a lower rate of breast-feeding in the region, at 8 percent. Other nations have improved their numbers, led by Brazil and Colombia, which in the past two decades more than tripled the percentage of mothers breast-feeding - to 47 percent in Colombia and 39 percent in Brazil. For many mothers drawn into the urban workforce, nursing a baby while juggling a job is too difficult. “I had to go back to work and I wasn't going to be able to breast-feed him for long. That's why I chose formula,” said Ruth Gonzalez, a clothing company manager. Gonzalez nursed her baby boy, Luis, only at night, after work. He drank formula during the day, and went off breast milk completely after a month. “Formula was just easier,” she said. Yet, even in traditional rural areas, the trend is downward. Breast-feeding fell by half in poor, rural areas, where babies are exposed to more sanitation problems, according to the Health Department survey. Nutritionists complain that Mexico has not adopted laws to meet guidelines adopted by WHO in 1981, which asked countries to restrict companies from providing free samples of formula or approaching new mothers to push their product. “It really is a tragedy,” said Teresa Gonzalez de Cossio, a nutritionist who researches breast-feeding at the National Institute of Public Health. “There is no one making sure we are following international codes. The country is not setting any goals regarding breast-feeding.” Countries such as Brazil and the United States have long stressed the importance of breast-feeding. The U.S. has improved its rate of mothers who exclusively breast-feed for the first six months to 16 percent in 2012 from 11 percent in 2007, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most New York City hospitals no longer hand out promotional samples of formula and ask new mothers to participate in talks on why human milk is better. Portland, Maine, started a campaign asking businesses to make mothers feel welcome to breast-feed wherever they want. Brazil reversed a decline in breast-feeding in the 1980s by strictly limiting advertising by baby food companies and airing prime-time informational spots with national celebrities to dispel myths, such as that women with small breasts were incapable of nursing. Mexico lets companies self-regulate on following the WHO guidelines. It has rules that say hospitals and doctors should guide new mothers through breast-feeding, but it doesn't enforce them. Dr. Rufino Luna Gordillo, the Health Department's deputy director of maternal and newborn care, said Mexico is renewing periodic checks of breast-feeding practices at public and private hospitals, a policy born in the early 1990s that had fallen by the wayside. “It's clear that these efforts have not been enough to get to the ideal breast-feeding levels,” Luna said in a written statement. “We need to debunk many myths about breast-feeding, limit the abuse of infant formula makers ... and award companies that offer nursing rooms.” Some new mothers say they didn't receive any help on breast-feeding after giving birth and say nurses, without seeking permission, offered formula to newborns at the nursery. In addition, with half of the babies born in Mexico via cesarean-section, many mothers struggle to nurse in the first hours and days after surgery. With little government promotion of breast-feeding, myths proliferate: sagging breasts do not provide healthy milk, or that nursing babies will spoil them. Pediatricians also hear women say that they want to stop breast-feeding so they won't lose their perky breasts. “In Mexico, breast-feeding is not a normative behavior,” said Chessa Lutter, the Pan American Health Organization's regional adviser for food and nutrition. “You are going to see probably walking down the street in Mexico City a lot more bottle-feeding than you are breast-feeding.” Advocates for breast-feeding say big business is to blame. They claim doctors are plied with gifts by formula makers to get them to help introduce infant formula to newborns. Elia Rangel, mother of a 9-month-old girl, Samantha, said a family physician told her not to breast-feed after six months. “We don't have information that is up to date,” she complained. “I came across a doctor at a public hospital who asked me how old Samantha was. She was 7 months. He told me, `Breast milk is no good; it can even harm her.' I was like, `Wow, where did you get this information?'” The government says it discourages the unnecessary use of formula, but Mexico's own Social Security Institute, whose logo shows a mother breast-feeding, provides formula to women even without a medical need if they present a doctor's note. As long ago as 1993, a study warned that Mexico needed to review that policy because of the high cost in both financial and health terms. The government still pays about $35 million a year on cans of infant formula from the Swiss-based food company Nestle, which receives more than 96 percent of the public money spent on formula. Nestle and the U.S.-based Mead Johnson, the two main baby food companies in Mexico, responded in statements that they support the WHO's code for breast-milk substitutes and comply with the law. They say they don't advertise food for babies less than 1 year of age or discourage mothers from breast-feeding. Nestle said it “does not give free supplies of infant formula to hospitals” and cited a 1992 “self-regulatory agreement” that the industry signed with Health Department to end the provisions of formula samples to Mexico's hospitals and doctors. Chris Perille, spokesman for Mead Johnson, said the company tells health professionals about the benefits of their products but doesn't break the rules. “Our work with these experts is conducted in accordance with the highest standards of ethics and integrity, and in compliance with all applicable laws, professional requirements and industry guidelines,” Perille said in a statement.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/06/public-health-crisis-in-mexico-as-breastfeeding-rates-drop-experts-claim/

Group therapy helps rape victims in poor countries

Group therapy works better than individual support for women in low-income countries who have been victims of sexual violence, according to the results of a new study done in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The method has already been shown to be effective in wealthier countries. Because measures of depression, anxiety, general functioning and post-traumatic stress disorder improved faster with group therapy, the technique may be useful in other countries were war and unrest often contribute to sexual violence, researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. “We're giving them the skills to rethink the meaning they're giving to their thoughts and feelings” about their attack, lead author Judith Bass of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore told Reuters Health. The study “offers promising evidence” that a form of group therapy can help women who have been exposed to sexual violence, Charlotte Watts and her colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine wrote in a linked editorial. In the DRC, 40 percent of women have been victims of some type of sexual violence. The researchers evaluated 157 women in seven villages who were offered one individual session and 11 group sessions of so-called cognitive processing therapy. “The women were being taught to identify what thoughts are not helpful to them,” Bass explained. “Thinking 'It's my fault' is not helpful to them. And it involves how to deal with that and get over some of these thoughts that are keeping them from healing.” Those women were compared with 248 women in eight villages who received individual support that included counseling and sympathetic listening. Women in both treatment groups improved even though each village had at least one major security incident during the trial, including attacks and armed robberies. But the improvement was most pronounced with group cognitive therapy. On a combined scale of depression and anxiety, where the worst score was 3 and the best was 0, women in the cognitive therapy group went from 2.0 at the outset to 0.8 at the end of treatment. Six months after treatment their average score was 0.7. The respective scores for women receiving individual support started at 2.2, dropped to 1.7 and eventually fell to 1.5. After six months, 9 percent of group therapy participants and 42 percent of women who received individual support still likely had a diagnosis of depression or anxiety, Bass and her colleagues found. The study did not include the most severe cases - seven of the 494 women screened for the study were found to be severely suicidal and were treated immediately. “Despite illiteracy and ongoing conflict, this evidence-based treatment can be appropriately implemented and effective,” the researchers concluded. “Given the high rates of sexual violence globally, and especially in conflict-affected countries such as the DRC, this finding is very important,” the Watts team wrote in its editorial. “Rape during war is not unique to the DRC; indeed, it affects many, if not most, countries that are at war, including several African states and, more recently, countries in the Middle East.” The study was funded by the World Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development Victims of Torture Fund. “We do this because we see mental health as such a large cause of disability and dysfunction,” Bass said. “We want to improve people's health. But when you have such high rates of rape and violence, and such a high rate of mental health problems, it's an often-neglected piece in the bigger development picture.”source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/06/group-therapy-helps-rape-victims-in-poor-countries/

To stop MERS, longer quarantines may be necessary

A detailed look at two cases of a deadly new respiratory virus called MERS suggests people who have the disease should be isolated for at least 12 days to avoid spreading it, doctors reported. The new germ, a respiratory infection, was first seen in the Middle East and so far has sickened more than 40 people worldwide, killing about half of them. In the report published online in the journal Lancet, French scientists said the first patient visited Dubai. He is thought to have caught MERS there before passing it onto the second patient, who had no travel history and with whom he shared a room for three days. Health officials have previously noted MERS can be spread among people if they are in close contact and clusters of the illness have been spotted in countries including Britain, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. Experts aren't sure how humans are catching the virus but think it may originate in animals like bats or camels. In a speech on Monday in Geneva, the World Health Organization's Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, said her greatest health concern is MERS. She called the ongoing outbreaks “alarm bells” and said the virus “is a threat to the entire world.” French doctors estimated the disease's incubation period to be from 9 to 12 days for the second case, longer than the 7 to 10 days previously reported by others. They said longer quarantines might be necessary to stop the virus' spread and noted people with underlying medical conditions could be at higher risk. The scientists wrote that if the virus evolves further, it could become more dangerous. With further mutations, they said MERS “might become increasingly transmissible” and must be continuously assessed. Earlier this week, French officials said the first patient died. The second remains in critical condition.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/31/to-stop-mers-longer-quarantines-may-be-necessary/