Memory Loss Linked to Sleep Apnea

Author: Allie Montgomery

As we get older, we expect a certain amount of memory loss, but this can be compounded if suffering from sleep apnea. A recent study, conducted by the University of California, shows that people who suffer from sleep apnea show tissue loss in the part of the brain that helps store memory.

The principal investigator for the study, Ronald Harper, a professor of neurobiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA has stated that the study findings "demonstrate that impaired breathing during sleep can lead to serious brain injury that disrupts memory and thinking." Patients that suffer from sleep apnea stop breathing during the night and wake up repeatedly, leading to chronic daytime fatigue and concentration and memory difficulties. Research has also linked this condition to an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.

In this study, the team used MRI to scan the brains of the patients with sleep apnea. The team focused on the brain structures called mammillary bodies that are located on the underside of the brain. They found that these bodies of the 43 patients were almost 20 percent smaller than those 66 patients that did not suffer from sleep apnea. The results of this study will be published in the June issue of the Neuroscience Letters.

Harper suggested that the continued drop in oxygen experienced by the patients might lead to brain injury. He also noted that the lack of oxygen during a sleep apnea episode could cause death to brain cells. "The reduced size of the mammillary bodies suggest that they've suffered a harmful event resulting in sizable cell loss. The fact that patients' memory problems continue despite treatment for their sleep disorder implies a long-lasting brain injury," he said.

The lead author on the study, Rajesh Kumar, an assistant researcher in neurology said that patients that suffer memory loss from other conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or alcoholism also show signs of shrunken mammillary bodies, so the finding from this particular study are very important. Physicians normally treat memory loss problems in patients that suffer from alcoholism with massive amounts of vitamin B1 or thiamine. They are suspecting that the doses given will help the dying brain cells to recover and enable the brain to use them again.

Harper and Kumar plan to study whether taking the supplemental B1 vitamin can help to restore the memory in patients with sleep apnea. The vitamin has been shown to move glucose into cells, which prevents the cells from dying from starvation of oxygen.

National Vital Statistics Report: U.S. Infant Mortality Rates

Author: Madeline Ellis

In an effort to understand the overall differences in infant mortality rates among different ethnic, age-specific and socioeconomic groups, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention compiles information based on infant birth and death certificates for infants under one year of age in all 50 U.S. states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam. The agency recently released this year's report, based on data from 2005, which presents infant mortality data by race and Hispanic origin of the mother, birth weight, period of gestation, sex of infant, plurality, maternal age, live-birth order, mother's marital status, mother's place of birth, infant age at death, and underlying cause of death.

According to the report, the average U.S. infant mortality rate was 6.86 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2005, which is virtually unchanged from the 6.78 statistic in 2004. However, there was a wide variation between ethnic groups. For example, for Asian or Pacific Islander (API) mothers, infant mortality rates were 4.89 deaths per 1,000 live births, 5.76 for non-Hispanic white mothers but 13.63 for non-Hispanic black mothers. Among Hispanics, rates ranged from 4.42 for Cuban mothers and 5.53 for Mexican mothers to 8.30 for Puerto Rican mothers.

Infant mortality rates were higher for infants who were born preterm or at low birth weight. Infants born at the lowest gestational ages and birth weights have a large impact on overall U.S. infant mortality. For example, more than half (55 percent) of all infant deaths in the United States in 2005 occurred to the 2 percent of infants born very preterm (less than 32 weeks of gestation). Infant mortality rates for late preterm infants (34-36 weeks of gestation) were three times those for term infants (37-41 weeks). The preterm-related infant mortality rate for non-Hispanic black mothers was 3.4 times higher and the rate for Puerto Rican mothers was 87 percent higher than the rate for non-Hispanic white mothers.

Female infants had a lower mortality rate (6.12 per 1,000 live births) than male infants (7.56 per 1,000 live births) in each racial group except American Indian or Alaska native (AIAN), but the difference was not significant. And, for multiple births, the infant mortality was 31.50, more than 5 times the rate of 6.00 for single births, accounting for 3 percent of all live births but 15 percent of all infant deaths in the United States. Multiple births are much more likely to be born preterm and at low birth weight than single births.

Infant mortality rates varied with maternal age; the highest death rates are for infants of teenage mothers (10.28) and mothers aged 40 years and over (7.85). The lowest rates are for infants of mothers in their late 20's and early 30's. Infant mortality rates were generally higher for first births than for second births, and then they generally increased as birth order increased. Overall, the infant mortality for first born (6.88) was 14 percent higher than for second born (6.02). The rate for fifth and higher order births (10.36) was 72 percent higher than the rate for second births, likely associated with older maternal age, multiple births, and lower socioeconomic status.

Infants of mothers who are not married were shown to be at higher risk for poor outcomes. In 2005, infants of married mothers had an infant mortality rate of 5.25 per 1,000 live births, 45 percent lower than the rate for infants of unmarried mothers (9.61). Marital status may be a marker for the presence or absence of social, emotional and financial resources. Also, the infant mortality for mothers born in the 50 states and the District of Columbia (7.26) was 43 percent higher than the rate for mothers born elsewhere (5.08). A variety of hypotheses may account for the lower infant rate, including possible differences in migration selectivity, social support, and risk behaviors. Also, women born outside the 50 states and the District of Columbia have been shown to have different characteristics than their U.S. born counterparts with regard to socioeconomic and educational status.

Approximately two-thirds of all infant deaths in 2005 (18,782 out of 28,384) occurred during the neonatal period (from birth through 27 days of age). The neonatal rate for infants of non-Hispanic black mothers (9.13) was more than twice those for AIAN (4.04), non-Hispanic white (3.71), API (3.37), Mexican (3.78), Central and South American (3.23), and Cuban mothers (3.05). The highest postneonatal mortality rates were for infants of non-Hispanic black (4.50) and AIAN (4.02) mothers, about twice the rate for non-Hispanic white mothers (2.05). Postneonatal mortality rates for Mexican (1.75), API (1.51), and Central and South American mothers (1.46) were lower than for non-Hispanic white mothers.

The three leading causes of infant death-congenital malformations (20 percent), low birth weight (17 percent), and sudden infant death syndrome (8 percent)-accounted for 44 percent of all infant deaths. The fourth and fifth leading causes were maternal complications (6 percent) and cord complications (4 percent). Together, the top five causes accounted for 54 percent of all infant deaths in the United States in 2005. The percentage of infant deaths that were ‘‘preterm-related'' increased from 34.6 percent in 2000 to 36.5 percent in 2005.

There were also additional statistics concerning infant mortality risks among education levels, levels of prenatal care, and for infants born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy. The infant mortality rate for mothers who completed 16 or more years of school was 4.15 in 2005. The rate was 51 percent lower than the rate for mothers who completed less than 12 years of education. The rate for mothers with a college degree was 3.60, 63 percent lower than the rate for mothers with less than a high school diploma (9.84).

The timing and quality of prenatal care received by the mother during pregnancy can be important to the infant's health and survival. In 2005, the mortality rate for infants of mothers who began prenatal care after the first trimester of pregnancy or had no care at all was 8.69 deaths per 1,000 live births, 40 percent higher than the rate for infants whose care began in the first trimester (6.20).

The infant mortality rate for infants of mothers who smoked was 11.44, 74 percent higher than the rate of 6.58 for non-smokers. The use of tobacco during pregnancy causes the passage of substances such as nicotine, hydrogen cyanide, and carbon monoxide from the placenta into the fetal blood supply. These substances restrict the growing infant's access to oxygen and can lead to adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes, such as low birth weight, preterm delivery, intrauterine growth retardation and infant mortality. Maternal smoking has also been shown to increase the risk of respiratory infections and inhibit allergic immune responses in infants.

Teaching Kids to Read and Respect Their Body

Author: Kristen Deleo

We all know it's important for kids to learn to read words. Did you also know it's beneficial to teach kids to read their own body? Young athletes develop a respect for their body that comes from knowing the magnificent ways their body responds to the demands of exercise. Studies have shown that kids who respect their body are less likely to do things to harm their body, like smoke or use drugs. So it's important that we, as parents and educators, teach kids a few simple principles of exercise response.

Don't worry—you won't be bogged down with the science. Kids learn best by doing. So the next time your little ones are running on the soccer field or taking the family dog for a walk, point out a few things happening in the amazing machine that is their body. Use your kids' natural love for exercise as a teaching opportunity. Here is a simple guideline:

Imagine the body is a well-oiled machine, like a car. As it zooms around the track, it stops at a few checkpoints along the way.

Body Checkpoint #1
After the onset of activity, prompt your kids to stop briefly and notice how their body feels. Ask them, "Do you feel warmer, like you want to take your jacket off?" Or, "Do you feel like your body is waking up?" Explain that their heart and lungs are stepping up to the challenge of the activity. Blood is moving faster through out their body, warming up their muscles.

Body Checkpoint #2
At the height of their workout, signal your kids to take notice of how their body is responding to an even higher demand. By using the "Talk Test," you can show them how hard their lungs are working. Here's how: While exercising, ask your kids to sing a simple song or recite the Pledge of Allegiance. They'll notice that their breathing is a little labored in doing so—concrete evidence that they're working hard. During intense exercise, you can direct them to put their hand over their heart where they will be able to feel it pounding. Explain that their heart is pumping blood, which carries oxygen to their working muscles. (In a future column we'll explore ways kids can use math to check their heart rate.)

Body Checkpoint #3
It's important for kids to learn that sweating is a good thing. Some kids actually avoid sweating because they associate it with being dirty or stinky. Teach kids that the body is like a machine, and sweating is its cooling system. Sweating prevents the machine from overheating. Encourage kids to embrace sweating by saying, "If you're sweaty say hot tamale!" or some other fun phrase. Also, give out high-fives for sweat. Kids love to wipe their foreheads and give you a wet one.

Body Checkpoint #4
To better understand how the muscles respond to exercise, instruct your kids to do a wall sit. Here's how: Stand against a wall with feet hip distance apart. Edge your feet away from the wall as you slide down into a sitting position (without letting their bum touch the ground). After thirty seconds or so, you'll feel a burning sensation in the quads. That's your cue to stand up and stretch the quads. It's exciting for kids to actually feel the muscles working. But even if kids aren't doing a specific strength training exercise, like a wall sit, it's still important to stretch the working muscles. Running around a basketball court, for example, challenges many muscles in the body and requires recovery stretching. To illustrate this concept, make a fist to represent how a muscle looks when it's contracted. Imagine how uncomfortable it would be to hold that tense position all day? Then slowly open your hand to model how that muscle looks when it relaxes into a stretch.

Body Checkpoint #5
Ask your kids how they feel after completing their intense activity. Relaxed? Proud of themselves? Happy? Those warm and fuzzy feelings are easy to explain. Exercise releases endorphins in the body. Endorphins are hormones that reduce stress and boost your mood. It's just another fascinating way the body works.

All these checkpoints will help you illustrate to your kids how "cool" their body is. Of course, in the lexicon of kids, "cool" brings respect.

Book Review: Total Activation: The New 5 Step Fitness Mantra

Author: Madeline Ellis

I recently had the opportunity to read the new book Total Activation—The New 5 Step Fitness Mantra, penned by author, Nitin Chhoda. Chhoda was born and raised in Mumbai, India and moved to the United States in 2002. He and his wife are both licensed physical therapists and fitness professionals in the state of New Jersey. They also own Total Activation Fitness and Physical Therapy, a company dedicated to the enhancement of the mind, body, and spirit.

The first section of the book is written in a conversation-type format between two characters named Madan Gupta and his friend Rita. Gupta portrays a young man who immigrated to the land of plenty at 23 in order to live a "richer, happier and longer life." He left his modest Indian lifestyle behind and embraced the lavish American lifestyle, finding that America did indeed have plenty to offer-plenty of food and plenty of choices. "They say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do, which is exactly what I did when I first moved to the United States," he says. "I started eating pasta, red meat, and sugars that are part of the American diet." It wasn't long before Gupta joined ranks with the majority of Americans who are overweight and unhealthy, gaining 50 pounds in 4 years.

Rita, on the other hand, is American born and an exception to the rule. She is very health conscious, working our regularly and eating a healthy diet. Throughout the book, Rita nags Gupta about his weight and they trade ideas about the reasons why there is an obesity problem in America and ways to resolve it. Their conversation allows the reader to explore some of the differences between the Indian and American lifestyles and the way each affects our health. For example, a child growing up in India is taught to eat a healthy, balanced meal regardless of taste, smell and visual appeal, whereas Americans let their taste buds dictate their food choices. Gupta also recalls that the meals in India are prepared fresh with no processed ingredients, but a large portion of the food in America is prepackaged, processed foods.

The story eventually leads to a 30-day step-by-step plan designed to slowly integrate changes in five dimensions of your life: emotional, physical, spiritual, social, and intellectual. Each day you incorporate one change in each of the five dimensions. You begin each day with meditation, which is a big part of the plan, and incorporate one change in each of the five dimensions. Nitin provides detailed instructions for each step as well as worksheets for each day.

For example, day 1 is about powerful personal change. Emotional–throughout the day, try to concentrate on the task at hand, not worrying about tomorrow or fretting the past. Physical—make it a point to walk a little more than usual by parking further away from the office or farther down in the grocery parking lot; something that you aren't accustomed to so that you burn calories. Social—look at your friends and family more closely, unraveling new ways to connect with them. Spiritual–pay more attention to your surroundings. Intellectual-begin a journal to record your thoughts and feeling.

I personally found the book very enlightening. I liked looking at the facts through the eyes of someone who has seen both sides of the coin; a healthy underweight child growing up in India who was transformed into an unhealthy overweight adult shortly after moving to America. We all know there is an obesity problem in the U.S. and it appears that nothing we have tried so far is working. I feel there is much to be learned from the Indian culture and have decided to give the 30-day plan a try. I will return at the conclusion of the program to report on my progress and I encourage you to join me in my quest. I must admit that I am looking forward to Day 20 where I can take time to smell the roses!

Do Skin Moisturizers Promote Cancer?

Author: Drucilla Dyess

Every day, women (and men) all over the world slather on moisturizing creams of all prices and varieties, trying to keep their skin supple and defy aging. Starting with advice from our mothers on skin care, and reinforced by modern media, facial creams have always been deemed a must-do ritual. However, several common moisturizing creams have been shown to promote the spread of skin cancer and the growth of tumors in mice exposed to UV radiation. Does this mean you need to retreat and forget all you have learned? No. It just means you need to read the label more carefully to be absolutely safe.

Hairless mice were exposed to UV radiation twice weekly for 20 weeks. The UV treatment was followed by the application of the four common brands of skin moisturizers to the skin of the animals five days weekly for a period of 17 weeks. The treatment resulted in the generation of non-melanoma skin cancer.

The research group, from Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, discovered that the mice treated with the skin moisturizers showed an increase in the rate of tumor formation and found that more tumors developed on mice treated with moisturizers than on those only treated with UV radiation. The rates of increase in tumor activity from the application of each moisturizer in the analysis were:

• 24 Percent for Eucerin Original Moisturizing Cream (Beiersdorf of Hamburg Germany)
• 58 Percent for Vanicream (Pharmaceutical Specialties Inc., in Rochester, Minnesota)
• 69 Percent for Dermabase (Patrick Laboratories in Minneapolis)
• 95 Percent for Dermovan (Galderma Laboratory Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas)

Lead researcher Allan H. Conney from the university's Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research noted, "These creams we tested have tumorigenic (tumor-causing) activities." He also stated, "I need to emphasize that what we have done is only in mice. We don't know what the implications are for humans. But it does raise a red flag that this is something that should be considered."

Some ingredients in the moisturizers were identified as seeming to enhance tumor growth. When mineral oil and sodium lauryl sulfate, previously linked to skin irritation, were removed from the lotion in a mixture created for the analysis by Johnson and Johnson, the altered lotion did nothing to encourage the growth of cancer in mice exposed to UV radiation.

"We really don't know what ingredients in these creams are doing that," Conney said. "There is a need to have the various companies test their creams to see whether or not there is a problem." Conney believes that companies can remove the effect by modifying their products. He also added, "I am sure there are creams on the market that do not have tumorigenic activities and some of them may have anti-tumorigenic activity."

Non-melanoma skin cancer is very common in humans, and is usually surgically curable. However, it can prove fatal in very rare cases. Conney said that further studies are necessary to determine the effects of topical creams on humans since the skin of mice is thinner and more porous than human skin. Many experts doubt the significance of the study for humans.

It is important to note that consumers should not simply stop using moisturizers. As we age and our skin becomes drier, moisture is needed to ward off conditions such as the outbreak of rashes, eczema and dermatitis.

Traces of Arsenic in Drinking Water May Increase Risk of Diabetes

Author: Drucilla Dyess

It has recently been discovered that drinking water contaminated with arsenic may be associated with the development of type 2 diabetes. Arsenic is a natural metal element of the earth's crust that has been used in committing the "perfect murder" for centuries because it is tasteless, colorless, and odorless. Over time, scientists have proven that long-term consumption of drinking water tainted with arsenic causes cancers of the bladder, lung, kidney, and skin, in addition to other diseases and conditions. Type 2 diabetes is a disease that now accounts for 10 percent of all American dollars spent on healthcare. Trace amounts of arsenic that occur naturally in drinking water supplies may be contributing to the disease with those drinking the contaminated water being totally unaware of the dangers.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have found that Americans with the highest inorganic arsenic levels in their urine are more than three times more likely to develop diabetes than those people with the lowest arsenic levels. This discovery coincides with previous research in animals that has shown increases in blood glucose and insulin levels from chronic exposure to arsenic and is consistent with studies from Taiwan, Bangladesh, and Mexico that have connected high arsenic levels with diabetes.

Data was studied from the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, in which 788 adults had their urine tested for arsenic exposure. Those participants with type 2 diabetes had a 26 percent higher level of total arsenic in their urine than those without the disease. Organic arsenic that is non-toxic and often found in seafood, was found to be at similar levels in both groups.

The researchers adjusted for diabetes risk factors and seafood intake and found that participants in the top 20 percent of total urine arsenic had 3.6 times the odds of having type 2 diabetes as those with total urine arsenic in the lowest 20 percent. Researchers then looked at levels of a compound created when inorganic arsenic is metabolized before excretion. Participants with the highest levels had 1.6 times the risk of having type 2 diabetes as those with the lowest levels.

According to Ana Navas-Acien, a physician and epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University and the lead author of the study, although the law requires utility companies to keep arsenic levels in drinking water below 10 parts per billion, 15 percent of Americans who get their drinking water from private wells are offer much less protection allowing people to have high levels of arsenic in their water and without knowing it. Navas-Acien explained, "People who get their drinking water from private wells and live in areas where groundwater is naturally contaminated with arsenic are at an especially high risk of being exposed to water with levels above the 10 parts per billion acceptable limit set by the Environmental Protection Agency."

There is a simple and affordable lab test that can determine if a well has been contaminated with arsenic. The test costs from $20 to $35 and if contamination is found, water filters and other water quality improvement systems can resolve the problem. This is a small price to pay considering the alternative possibilities.

Some reasons that inorganic arsenic may contribute to diabetes include arsenic's contribution to oxygen-related cell damage, inflammation, and cell death. All of these issues are linked to diabetes. In addition, insulin-sensitive cells exposed to insulin plus sodium arsenic seem to take in less glucose than cells exposed to insulin only. Arsenic may also influence genetic factors that interfere with insulin sensitivity as well as other processes. However, additional research needs to be conducted to determine the level of association between arsenic and diabetes.

Teens + Poor Sleep = High Blood Pressure

Author: Madeline Ellis

Sleep is essential for a person's health and well-being, yet millions of American teens don't get enough sleep and many suffer from lack of sleep. It is widely known that insufficient sleep can impair reaction time, vigilance, learning and alertness; so students with short nights and irregular sleep patterns perform poorly in school and in other aspects of their lives and have a tendency for a depressed mood. But poor sleep habits can have an even more profound effect on a teen's health-it can lead to high blood pressure, which can cause stroke, kidney disease and other illnesses.

A team of researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio studied the sleeping habits of 238 adolescents aged 13 to16; 14 percent of whom either had high blood pressure or reading at the borderline, called pre-hypertension. The participants filled out sleep diaries and also wore wrist-watch-like monitors that measured their sleep efficiency. On average, the teens got only 7.71 hours of sleep a night, when they need nine hours at that age. A large portion of them (26 percent) had poor sleep efficiency, either trouble falling asleep or waking up too early. Another 11 percent slept less than 6½ hours per night. The teens that slept fewer than 6½ hours per night were found to have more than twice the risk of high blood pressure and those with troubled sleep had more than triple the risk. The problem was worst among poor and minority teens, which researchers say is a concern because those groups already have an elevated risk of cardiovascular problems. "Our study underscores the high rate of poor quality and inadequate sleep in adolescence coupled with the risk of developing high blood pressure and other health problems," said Dr. Susan Redline, the pediatrician who led the study. "We also found that a low sleep efficiency may be more consistently associated with pre-hypertension than a shorter sleep period."

While previous studies have associated poor sleep and diminished amounts of sleep with hypertension, obesity and hormone intolerance in adults, this is the first to make the connection between sleep patterns and high blood pressure in adolescents. "These associations may have a large public health impact," Dr. Redline said. "Although the overall frequency of sleep insufficiency in children is unknown, our study's prevalence of 26 percent may be underestimated due to the exclusion of children with known sleep disorders and other illnesses."

Dr. Stephen R. Daniels, pediatrician-in-chief at the Children's Hospital in Denver and a spokesman for the American Heart Association, said that though the study is preliminary, "it does point to the direction that the next studies need to go to understand what less sleep and less efficient sleep mean in terms of blood pressure." He said if the findings are confirmed, they could eventually influence school system schedules. Many schools currently start early in the morning for teens and later for younger students. "But the changes in the diurnal patterns for adolescents make it harder for them to get up in the morning and to get to sleep at night. If we reorganize the day-night schedule for adolescents, that could make life easier for them and their parents," he noted.

However, Dr. Redline attributes part of the problem to computers, televisions, stereos and cell phones that occupy the teen bedroom. "There are teens who text message or listen to music all night, compounded by early school hours," she said. Her recommendation for achieving better sleep for teens is to have regular sleep and wake times, keep bedrooms quieter and avoid substances that may disturb sleep, such as caffeine. She also suggests that pediatricians "monitor quality and quantity of sleep as part of a child's overall health strategy."

The study was published in the August 19 issue of the journal Circulation.

Statins and Cancer Risk

Author: Heather Hajek

Do you have high cholesterol and take a drug referred to as a statin? In recent years, there have been several reports released stating statins may lead to health problems, such as cancer. However, recently it was determined that patients' risks of getting cancer was no greater when taking statins, to lower their LDL levels, than they were at risk without the drugs.

The drug class most often referred to as statins, are most effectively used to treat patients with high LDL, bad cholesterol levels, but may also be used to lower blood fats or raise HDL, the good cholesterol levels. Statins are very effective in reducing heart attack and stroke risks, and is the top selling drug in the world. They work by preventing the intestines from absorbing cholesterol, a substance carried in blood particles called lipoproteins found all through the body. Excessive cholesterol can completely block the coronary artery and cause a heart attack. Statins can be found in several medications, such as Advicor® Caduet®, and Vytorin, and the statin drugs that are currently available in the United States are:

• Lipitor
• Lescol
• Mevacor®
• Pravachol®
• Crestor®
• Zocor

Research was recently reported online in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Richard Karas, M.D., Ph.D., with Tufts University and colleagues, conducted the research to determine whether statins lead to cancer. The study involved 51,797 patients who were given statins and over 45,000 patients who were given a placebo, known as the control group. The groups were involved in 15 randomly controlled meta-analysis statin trials, over a four and a half year time frame. The researchers found that patients with the lowest levels of LDL had the greatest risks for cancer. However, those whose LDL levels were lowered through statin drugs had no greater risks of developing cancer than those who had lower LDL levels naturally.

Dr. Karas said, "Despite their LDL, lowering effects, statins don't cause cancer." He said, "When you look at all of the statin trials together what they show is there is no overall effect on cancer, either increasing it or decreasing it," even though during the trial some of the studies did show a cancer risk when using statins, overall on average there was no risk of cancer.

The Payoff of Panic: The Success of Gardasil

Author: Lara Endreszl

Is Gardasil the food bunker of the new millennium? Way back in 1999, you knew someone who was nervous that their bank account would be destroyed, their perishables perished, and time as they knew it wiped out at midnight on December 31st. When nothing happened you could hear the big sigh of relief, and buyers' remorse, of everyone who stocked up their homes for weeks with dried foods and bottled water. In mid-2006, a drug was approved to vaccinate young girls from the danger of the human-papillomavirus, or HPV—the main cause of cervical cancer in women—and the media went nuts.

Elizabeth Rosenthal of the International Herald Tribune states, "Although cervical cancer kills close to 300,000 women a year globally, pap smears and follow-up treatment limit the death toll in countries with good medical care." In fact, in the United States there are less than 4,000 deaths per year to cervical cancer. Elizabeth goes on to point the finger at the pharmaceutical company Merck who dreamed up this aggressive nature behind the vaccine's push.

Dr. Diane Harper, who directs the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group and is a professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, investigated the clinical trial of Gardisil and thinks Merck crossed a line in its marketing campaign, "Merck lobbied...and went directly to the people—it created a sense of panic that says you have to have this vaccine now."

In developing Gardisil, Merck saw dollar signs in their future and they weren't wrong. Having already raked in between $1.4 - 1.6 billion in sales in 2008, Merck worked its magic publicity on doctors, politicians, nurses, schools, and the media to enforce the issue of cervical cancer as a needed preventative measure using Gardasil as the saving grace behind lurking HPV statistics. Doctors can gain up to $4,500 per lecture on the drug and many have been recommending it to their patients since it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in June 2006. Doctor's offices are able to bump up their profits on Gardasil by charging a per needle fee when one series usually costs $361. (Gardasil is a series of three vaccines given over a six-month time period.) But hurry, Merck warns it's only approved in women ages 11 to 26.

A year ago, I wanted to be "one less." I bought into the skateboarding thirteen year old and her concerned mother. The catchy tune snuck out of the television and into my brain where it tickled my reserves. Along with the temptation of my doctor, and already being 24, I went through with the series of treatments. Besides hurting for days afterward, my arm didn't experience any "redness or swelling at the injection site", as the commercial indicates. However, at $200 a piece, my bank account hurt worse. Thankfully, by the time the second vaccine was available, my insurance covered the bill and I didn't have to use my aching arm to write another check.

Some say the FDA acted too quickly and gave the green light too fast to the vaccine. Gardasil only covers 70 percent of cervical cancers and women still have to get regular pap tests. Gardasil's effectiveness is under question; when most new drugs take years to be approved, Merck's baby got its stamp at just six months. Gardasil only went through clinical trials for five years and data is now surfacing that the immunity to the types of cervical cancer could start to lessen in as little as three to five years. So girls who get the treatment at eleven might still be at risk during their high school years. Is the value of a dollar more important than the value of a life? If Merck doesn't know the long-term effects yet, we are left to wonder why the FDA was so quick to approve it. Would this then require vaccinated women to get re-vaccinated? I guess I'll find out at thirty, but at least now I don't have a shed full of freeze-dried ice cream.

Addiction Drug May Promote Weight Loss

Author: Madeline Ellis

The millions of Americans who are overweight or obese are putting their health in jeopardy. Obesity is the second leading cause of preventable death, and can raise your risk of developing heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, asthma and even gum disease. The underlying causes of obesity are numerous, from genetic disposition to binge eating, which may be caused by the same brain changes responsible for addiction. This link prompted researchers to test a potential addiction drug on lab rats bred to be obese-with surprising results.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory tested the drug, called vigabatrin or GVG, in 50 rats, some of which were bred obese and some were of normal weight. The animals were either given injections of various amounts of vigabatrin or a placebo for up to 40 days. The genetically obese rats lost up to 19 percent of their body weight, and normal-weight rats lost 12 to 20 percent of their body weight. "Our results appear to demonstrate that vigabratrin induced satiety in these animals," said Amy DeMarco, who worked on the study. "When we gave GVG, they would steadily lose weight, and when we took them off GVG, they would steadily gain weight," she told Reuters Health.

Vigabratrin works by preventing the increase of dopamine, a chemical produced in the brain that has been linked to addiction and overeating. "Given the growing obesity epidemic, we felt that examining vigabatrin's therapeutic efficacy for obesity was particularly relevant," said lead researcher Dr. Stephen Dewey, who has conducted more than 20 years of preclinical research with the medication. "A fairly significant proportion of subjects who are obese suffer from something called binge eating disorders. They binge-eat based on cues. They see a cake, they smell a hamburger and they crave and they start to eat. One of the great things about this drug is it stops this."

Vigabatrin was originally made by Sanofi Aventis and is sold as Sabril in Canada, Mexico and Britain. Ovation Pharmaceuticals currently hold the U.S. rights to develop vigabatrin as a treatment for epilepsy. It is also currently in U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved Phase II clinical trials as a possible treatment against cocaine and methamphetamine addiction. "The fact that these results occurred in genetically obese animals offers hope that this drug could potentially treat severe obesity," Dr. Dewey said. "This would appear to be true even if the obesity results from binge eating, as this disorder is characterized by eating patterns that are similar to drug-taking patterns in those with cocaine dependency."

The study was published in the August 20 issue of the journal Synapse.

Operation Checklist Issued by W.H.O.

Author: Allie Montgomery

The World Health Organization recently issued it first guidelines on surgical safety in the form of a checklist. They aim to reduce the amount of complications and deaths from the rising numbers of operations now being performed.

The main guidelines are simple safety checks that health organizations said could half the rate of complications during surgeries. The checklist is intended to improve anesthetic safety practices, improve the communication among the members of surgical teams, and avoid infections.

Here is an example of how the guidelines work: one of the guidelines calls for all of the members of the surgical team to identify themselves and their roles in the surgery and ask simple questions like: Does everyone agree that this is Patient X, undergoing knee surgery? Other recommendations call for marking the correct site for the surgery to avoid operating on the wrong patient or performing the wrong procedure on the patient, checking the patient for drug allergies, giving the patient an antibiotic within 60 minutes of making the first incision, counting the sponges and needles to make sure none are left in the patient after surgery, and inserting two intravenous lines for operations that will involve substantial blood loss.

The vice chairman of surgery at the University of Washington, Dr. E. Patchen Dellinger took part in the W.H.O. research, and said that when they discussed the checklist with non-medical people, "The most common reaction is the question: ‘You mean you haven't been doing this all along?'"

The surgical guidelines came from a similar checklist that was aimed at reducing infections in hospitals, developed by Dr. Peter J. Pronovost of Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Atul Gawade of the Harvard School of Public Health said that he borrowed the idea from the industry of aviation. Dr. Gawade and his team at Harvard were asked by the World Health Organization to develop a method to reduce death caused by surgery, and he said they used the infection guidelines as a model. He also said that Britain, Jordan, and Ireland would put the surgery guidelines in force in all hospitals. The professional groups that are endorsing the checklist include the American Society of Anesthesiology, the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses, and the American College of Surgeons.

To develop the guidelines for the checklist, the team at Harvard did two studies with W.H.O. Dr. Gawade's team used surgical data from more than one-fourth of the organization's 192 members states and estimated that 234 million surgical procedures were undertaken worldwide every year. Of all the 172 million, they were in the weather countries, and 40 million of those surgeries were in the United States.

According to Dr. Gwanade's team, as they reported in an article in the journal Lancet, the number of surgical procedures performed in one year is nearly double the number of babies being born "and is probably an order of magnitude more dangerous."

Gwande's team also conducted a pilot study that involved 3,600 patients in eight hospitals in rich and poor countries to determine whether using this new checklist could help reduce surgical complication rates. The data from the first 1,000 patients, which is expected to be told at a meeting in Washington, showed that the use of the checklist increased adherence to the standards of care from 36 percent to 68 percent, and approached 100 percent in some hospitals. The final results are expected to be known later this year.

Believe it or not, some sites in the richer countries did worse that the ones in poorer countries, according to Dr.Gawande. The researchers and hospitals both agreed not to disclose data that was specific from the individual institutions.

The hospitals in this study included, St. Mary's Hospital in London, the University of Washington in Seattle, the University of Auckland in New Zealand, The University of Toronto, Philippine General Hospital in Manila, St. Stephen's Hospital in New Delhi, Prince Hamza Hospital in Amman, the District in Ifakara, Tanzania.

Creating a functional and accurate checklist for surgery took many revisions, Dr. Gawande said. He also added that, "You make bad checklists and you can make good checklists. It is very easy to make a bad checklist that people want to throw away and never use."

New Report Reveals Surprising Facts About Adoption

Author: Madeline Ellis

We probably all know someone who is adopted or has adopted, making it seem like a commonplace occurrence. But in fact, adopting a child has been and remains a relatively rare event in the United States. In 2000, of the 65.6 million children under 18 years of age, only 2.5 percent (1.6 million) were adopted, according to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The report is based on data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth conducted by NCHS, which analyzed adoption experiences of U.S. adults aged 18 to 44, both ever- and never-married, and the demand for children to adopt.

Surprisingly, among ever-married persons, men were more than 2.5 times as likely as women to have adopted, 3.8 percent compared with 1.4 percent. Overall, 2.3 percent of all men had ever adopted a child, compared with 1.1 percent of women; equating to nearly 1.3 million men and 613,000 women. Although the report does not provide conclusive data as to the reasons why more men adopt than women, it does point out that it may be related to the fact that there are greater opportunities for men to adopt their stepchildren than for women, mainly because of post-divorce living arrangements.

While never-married adults were significantly less likely than those who were currently married to have adopted a child, approximately 100,000 never-married women and 73,000 never-married men had adopted a child. One-fourth (26 percent) of women 40-44 years of age who had never given birth to a child and who had ever used infertility services had adopted a child.

One-third of all women 18-44 had ever considered adopting a child, and of these, about one in seven had actually taken steps to adopt. Women who had taken steps to adopt were more likely to be 30-44 years of age, to be currently married, to have used infertility services, and to be surgically sterile or with impaired fertility. Overall, 1.6 percent of all women and 2.0 percent of ever-married women were currently seeking to adopt a child. Hispanic and non-Hispanic black women were more likely to be currently seeking to adopt, compared with non-Hispanic white women.

Women seeking to adopt preferred certain characteristics, such as a child younger than 2 years old, without a disability, and a single child rather than two or more siblings. They would also prefer a girl rather than a boy. While women would accept children with most non-preferred characteristics, two-third of women said they would not accept a child 13 years of age or older or a child with a severe disability.

Over the past 30 years, the combined impact of societal changes and legislative actions has decreased the number of children placed for adoption. First, more unmarried, pregnant women are choosing to keep and raise their babies. In 2002, only 1 percent of children born in the U.S. in 1996-2002 to women 18-44 years of age were relinquished for adoption within their first month of life. Second, there has been an overall decline in the teen birth rate since 1970. Since teen mothers historically were most likely to give their infants up for adoption, this has had a significant effect on the number of infants available. Finally, two pieces of legislation; The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, legislation requiring reasonable efforts be made to preserve and reunify families, and The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which gives preference to placement of children with relatives who meet state standards of safety, have also limited the number of infants available to nonrelatives for adoption.

Because of the decrease in the domestic supply of infants and children available for adoption, more affluent women and couples have increasingly sought to adopt children from other countries. Celebrities such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, Madonna, Meg Ryan and Michelle Pfeiffer have chosen to adopt children from foreign lands. Between 1990 and 2001, the number of children adopted from other countries increased almost threefold from 7,093 to 19,237.

Cost may also be a contributing factor to the low prevalence of adoption among the general population. According to an adoption website, the cost can range from 0-$2,500 for a domestic public agency adoption, $4,000-$30,000+ for domestic private agency adoption, $8,000-$30,000+ for domestic independent adoption and $7,000 to $25,000+ for inter-country private agency or independent adoption.

Chronic Ear Infections May Be Linked to Obesity

Author: Heather Hajek

Those agonizing ear infections that many have as children could lead to obesity later in life. It is thought that chronic ear infections, also called Otitis Media, in children may damage their nerves, which control their taste buds, leading children to prefer more fatty non-healthy foods and may lead to obesity later in life.

While there are surgeries that may help to prevent chronic ear infections, it seems the surgeries may also cause damage to a patient's taste buds. In today's environment, many children either receive tubes to help drain excess fluid from the ears or they may even have their tonsils removed in an effort to ward off chronic ear infections. While the surgeries may help to prevent the ear infections, it may cause damage to taste buds and lead patients to prefer more fatty or sweet foods that could lead to obesity later.

Recently there were several studies presented during the American Psychological Association's 116th annual meeting in Boston supporting the theory that chronic ear infections in children may lead to obesity. One of the studies, presented by Linda Bartoshuk, Ph.D., of the University of Florida, College of Dentistry, evaluated a group of 6,584 people ranging from 16 to 92, who had a history of severe middle ear infections. They found that over 60 percent of the group was more likely to be obese.

John Hayes of Brown University, in another study presented, evaluated 110 middle-aged women who had tastes that were similar to those with nerve damage. They determined it wasn't how much fatty food they ate. Rather, it was how much they preferred fatty foods and sweets that was the best predictor of their weight.

Another group studied tonsillectomies and taste preference, and their effects on children's weight. Researchers determined children from 6 to 11 who had their tonsils removed, compared to children who hadn't had tonsillectomies, were 40 percent more likely to be over weight. Howard Hoffman, one of the researchers said in the article: "A tonsillectomy may damage one of the nerves that carry taste information. In addition, ear infections can also alter taste. Altering taste does have an effect on the preferences for food."

Kathleen Daly, a professor of otolaryngology at the University of Minnesota, in another study, evaluated children from birth to a couple years old who had tubes placed in their ears, to help prevent middle ear nerve damage. Daly determined the tube surgery may help with the children's ear infections, but may also affect children's taste and increase their preference for more fattening foods. Daly said, "There was a trend, but not significant, for recurrent ear infection to lead to overweight."

While everyone's tastes vary along with their genes and physical activities, which can play roles in weight problems, these recent studies lend evidence to other culprits that may eventually lead to weight problems. As if having chronic ear pain wasn't enough, we may also be dealing with all of the side effects of being over weight later on in life, as a result of damage to our taste buds caused from either treatments for ear infections or the ear infections themselves.

Changing Memory Pattern Could Break Drug Addiction

Author: Allie Montgomery

There is now hope for people that are addicted to drugs to reclaim their life. By using a chemical that blocks the creation of memories, researchers have prevented lab rats that were addicted to cocaine from needing a fix. The hope is that physicians may be able to one day give humans some version of this chemical to help stop cocaine addiction in its tracks.

An experimental psychologist at the University of Cambridge in England, Barry Everitt, focused his team's efforts primarily on proteins called NMDA-type glutamate receptors in the brains of the rats. The previous work done on addiction and post-traumatic stress has shown that these types of proteins, which are found on the surface of cells in the brain, are essential to the formation of memory. The receptors are also crucial to reconsolidating our memory as well as moving it from its original storage area in long-term memory to regions of the brain that hand short-term memory.

The researchers on this project will report their findings in the Journal of Neuroscience. The scientists put the lab rats in a cage with a lever in it for a couple of hours daily. When the rats would push the lever, a light would come on and a cocaine solution would then be dispensed to the rats. The rats then began to associate the light that they saw to the cocaine.

After a couple of weeks of the rats being forced to stay sober, the animals were returned to the same cages. Before being returned to the cage, some of the rats received injections of an experimental drug that is used to block NMDA-type glutamate receptors in the amygdala, a region of the brain that has been implicated in memories that are drug-associated.

Both the rats that were treated and untreated, when placed back in the cage, would press the lever again and again. The light would come on as usual but no cocaine would be given to them. The untreated rats continued unfazed, hoping that the cocaine would eventually come out. For the rats that were treated, however, Everitt says, "They press the lever, but it doesn't do anything, so they stop." The rats seemed to forget that the lights in the cage meant that the cocaine was on its way for up to four weeks after only one treatment of the experimental drug.

The scientists suggest that by disrupting the recollection of a memory that is drug-associated, a person that abuses drugs may be able to break the connection between the cues in that environment and the need for the person to have the drugs. Sometimes these particular cues can be quite closely associated to home, possibly a family member or loved one.

A neurobiologist at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Maryland, Yavin Shaham, said that the work is an example of "basic research that can be readily translated to the treatment of cocaine addiction in humans."

With no medications on the market today that are approved to specifically treat a cocaine addiction, most treatments rely on behavioral therapy. According to Everitt, these therapies often involve exposing the addicts to cues that they would normally associate with drug use, but in the absence of the illegal substance. Once the addict is recovered, when they encounter these cues back in their normal lives, they often relapse. Everitt suggests that using an NMDA-type glutamate receptor blocker in the clinic could improve that type of treatment.

Married or Unmarried: Which is Healthier?

Author: Allie Montgomery

In the past, studies have pointed out the benefits of being married, suggesting that married couples tend to be more healthy than their single, divorced, or widowed counterparts. The theory was originally backed up by the fact that being married can give you more access to social support and economic resources, and on the other hand, being single has been said to have negative consequences upon health.

A new research study shows that the gap that is between married and unmarried people has been changing over the past few decades. Researchers show that the health status of the adults that have never been married has increased significantly overtime. According to the study's lead author Hui Liu, which is a professor of sociology at Michigan State University, "Married people are still healthier than unmarried people, but the gap between the married and never-married is closing, especially for men." The new study which is titled "The Times They Are a Changin': Marital Status and Health Differentials from 1972 to 2003," will appear in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Hui Liu also explained that one of the reasons that for the general improvement of the single adults health is that people who are unmarried have greater access to social support today than they did in the past.

The researchers analyzed National Health Interview Survey data from a 30-year period from 1972-2002 and found that the status of health for the people that have never been married has improved for all races and gender groups that were examined: women, men, whites, and blacks. The health of the married women has also shown improvement, while the health of the men who are married remained stable.

The research also suggests that the encouragement of marriage in order to promote better health may be misguided. Studies previously done also showed that married individuals also have rates that are lower for depression and schizophrenia compared to those people that are not married. Also, people that are married have rates that are lower for alcoholism and suicide than the people who are unmarried. The married couples are far less likely to be lonely because they will always have someone around to share their thoughts and feelings with.

Liu said jokingly, "If you get married and then divorced, that will hurt your health."

Having a Heart Healthy Lifestyle May Lower Your Risk For Stroke

Author: Drucilla Dyess

Maintaining a heart-healthy lifestyle including daily exercise, eating a heart-healthy diet and maintaining a healthy weight, drinking alcohol only in moderation and not smoking, are steps you can take to be healthier and to prolong your life. But, just as importantly, this lifestyle also significantly reduce your risk of suffering a stroke, according to a new study recently published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association.

During the study, it was found that people who have developed these healthy lifestyle habits enjoy about an 80 percent lower risk of ischemic stroke when compared to people who acquired none of these healthy habits. This "low-risk" lifestyle is also recommended to decrease the risk of many chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

Stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain functions due to a disturbance in the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain. In the United States, stroke is the third leading cause of death, and a major cause of permanent disability, according to the study.

Ischemic stroke occurs when an artery to the brain is blocked. The brain depends on its arteries to bring fresh blood from the heart and lungs. The blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain, and takes away carbon dioxide and cellular waste. If an artery is blocked, the brain cells cannot make enough energy and will eventually stop working. If the artery remains blocked for more than a few minutes, the brain cells may die.

The research was led by Dr. Stephanie E. Chiuve of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and was funded by The National Institutes of Health. Participants in the study included 43,685 men with an average age of 54 and 71,243 women with an average age 50. These men and women were also participants in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (The Nurses' Health Study).

None of the participants had a major chronic diseases and all provided information about their health and lifestyles every two years from 1986 through 2002 for health professionals and from 1984 through 2002 for nurses. During the period of analysis 994 men and 1,559 women became the victims of stroke.

The study focused on exercising 30 minutes or more each day, maintaining a normal body weight with a body mass index below 25, taking a multivitamin for at least five years, eating a healthy diet including fruits and vegetables, chicken and fish, nuts, legumes, cereal fiber and avoiding high amounts of trans and saturated fats. In addition, participants were encouraged to drink alcohol in moderation, which was defined as one-half to one drink a day for women and one-half to two drinks a day for men, and to avoid smoking.

The researchers found that women who had all the healthy lifestyle factors had a 79 percent lower risk for any type of stroke with an 81 percent less risk of ischemic stroke when compared with women who had none of the lifestyle factors. Men with all five healthy lifestyle factors were found to have a 69 percent lower risk of any type of stroke and an 80 percent lower risk of ischemic stroke when compared to men with none of these lifestyle factors.
Individual factors can also have an impact on your stroke risk. As an example, the study found that quitting smoking reduced the risk of stroke by almost 50 percent, while having a only a glass of alcohol each day can decrease the risk by 10 percent.

In a written statement issued by the American Heart Association, Chiuve stated, "More than half of ischemic strokes, 52 percent in men and 54 percent in women, may have been prevented through adherence to a healthy lifestyle." Chiuve went on to explain, "For total stroke, 47 percent of cases in the women and 35 percent of cases in the men may have been prevented."

Stem Cells Created From Skin May Help In the Fight Against Multiple Diseases

Author: Drucilla Dyess

Using a new method known as induced pluripotent stem (iPS), ordinary cells have been re-programmed to look and act like embryonic stem cells. Experts in stem cell research have now produced a collection of these master cells using skin and bone marrow cells from patients that will be shared freely with other researchers for a nominal cost to cover expenses.

In the journal Cell, the Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital in Boston team write that the point is not to treat anyone yet, but to get as many researchers as possible experimenting with the cells in lab dishes for a better understanding of the diseases. These cells will have to be coaxed into tissues of different types. "That is where all of the science will go on over the next many, many years," said Dr. George Daley, principal member of the institute and senior author of the paper.

Per Doug Melton, the co-directory of Harvard Stem Cell institute, the lines of cells will be made available to researchers through an institute facility established at Massachusetts General Hospital. This new lab is up and running and prepared to shipping lines, according to Daley.

Embryonic stem cells have the ability to produce any type of tissue or blood cell. The new cells come from patients with 10 incurable genetic diseases and conditions, including Parkinson's, the paralyzing disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, juvenile diabetes and Down's syndrome. Daley noted that this is only the first wave of diseases.

"This is a broader and more important collection of degenerative diseases for which there are no good treatments and, more importantly, no good animal models," Melton said. "The cells will allow researchers access for the first time to cell types of interest, to watch the disease progress in a dish, to watch what goes right or wrong. We'll see in the years ahead that this opens the door to a new way of treating degenerative disease."

Only last week, a team of scientists from the institute announced the successful transformation of skin cells from patients with Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) into motor neurons genetically identical to patient neurons. This gives scientists the ability to create unlimited numbers of cells to better study the disease process.

Daley and Melton explained that every cell in the human body contains the same genetic instructions, and in people with inherited genetic diseases, every cell carries the same mistakes. Stem cells as well as the new iPS cells will grow virtually immortal in the lab, and given the right conditions, can be made to form any desired tissue, from heart muscle to brain cells. It is hoped that one day they can be used as tailor-made patches to repair diseased or damaged organs.

The number of lines that will be needed is dependent on factors such as how many ways a person can get a disease. For instance, if there are 50 ways to get type 1 diabetes, scientists will need to develop more stem cell lines. If there are only a couple of ways of acquiring the disease, fewer lines will be necessary.

Although the cells are an alternative to taking embryonic stem cells from a human embryo they do not replace them. The federal government severely restricts embryonic stem cell research because of moral objections. "Even though the iPS methodology gives us a facile way for making disease-specific lines, it does not eliminate the value or need for continuing to study human embryonic stem cells," Daley said. "Those are really the gold standard for pluripotent stem cell types. They have no genetic modifications and, at least for the foreseeable future, and I would argue beyond that, are going to be extremely valuable tools. Human embryonic stem cells allow you to ask questions that we never can ask with iPS cells."

The iPS method also requires the use of viruses, which limits the therapeutic potential of the lines. "Whether or not we're going to be able to figure out how to do it without viruses so we can use the cells therapeutically is, as of today, an unanswered question," Daley said. "I'm confident we're going to get there and that within the next year or two, we will have several strategies for reprogramming cells without viruses, and when that happens, we may have cells in our hands that may be valuable for cell replacement therapy."

Large Number of Uninsured Americans Are Chronically Ill

Author: Allie Montgomery

Today, approximately one out of three people that are of working age are uninsured and are suffering from a chronic Illness. And since they don't have insurance, they aren't getting the medical care that they require. This fact is supported by a recently completed study that appeared in the August 5th issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

The authors of this new study did not specifically look at the health consequences of their lack of insurance or the lack of access to proper medical care, but it is reasonable to assume that these two factors could lead to many medical complications. Dr. Andrew Wilput, an instructor in medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle and a fellow at Harvard Medical School while the study was being conducted, said, "This is something that is very true in my clinical experience. The uninsured can't get in to see the doctor, they miss medications, their blood pressure is out of control and, really, you see devastating consequences."

Another expert agreed that the lack of insurance along with someone who has a chronic illness could be a combination that is potentially lethal. Dr. Oliver Fein, the president-elect of Physicians for a National Health Program and a professor of clinical medicine and public health at Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University in New York City, said, "These people are going to end up with complications of their illnesses prematurely. They will be disabled early. They will probably die younger. It is a major public health disaster....Longer-term, there will be expensive admissions to hospitals, usually through the emergency department, due to diabetes out of control and congestive heart failure because of hypertension."

The number of Americans that do not have insurance is approximately 47 million in 2006, which is up from 31 million in the year 1987 is plentiful information. However, what has been less clear in the study is how many individuals suffer from a chronic illness, although some, including the policymakers, have suggest that many of the people are healthy.

The data came from interviews with almost 12,500 people that were between the ages of 18 and 64 who had participated in the National Health and Nutritional Survey. From this information, the authors concluded that approximately 11.4 million of the working-age Americans with at least one out of seven chronic medical conditions did not have any health insurance.

These people included 15.5 percent out of the 38.2 million with hypertension, 7.8 million with cardiovascular disease, 16.6 million out of the 8.5 million with diabetes. Some other conditions that were examined include high cholesterol, previous diagnosis of cancer, asthma, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Wilper said that they found some pretty big differences when they compared uninsured people with on of these seven conditions with people who were insured with one of the conditions. Approximately 26 percent of the people who did not have insurance reported no standard site of care, versus the 6.2 percent of the people who did have insurance. More than 22 percent of the people who were uninsured reported that they had not been to see a physician within the last year and 7.1 of those uninsured with a chronic illness report that the emergency room was their main site for medical care. The 6.2 percent of the people with insurance did report that they had seen a physician within the last year and only 1.1 percent of those went to the emergency room for medical care.

Wilper stated that the conditions listed are ones that they can take care of in a clinic. Physicians know that they can prevent complications that are disabling or catastrophic if they are able to manage the conditions. Greg Scandlen, the founder and the director of Consumers for Health Care Choices, an advocacy group for health-care consumers that is non-profit, said that none of the findings are surprising. It is interesting that we are finding that chronic conditions are shown to be more common among the people with insurance than ones without, although, that is not surprising either. The people that suffer from a chronic condition are more likely to place a higher value on their insurance coverage and they will work harder to get it and keep it. Scandlen added, "But having insurance is not likely to prove to be a panacea for these folks....People with chronic conditions who are insured are not doing so well, either. We do not do a very good job of delivering chronic care in this country for anyone."

The new findings after study concluded corroborated those from a study that was published July 22 in Health Affairs. That particular study concluded that access to health care among people that are uninsured and U.S. adults that are non-elderly and have a chronic condition actually has gotten worse between the years of 1997 and 2006.

Genetic Trait Increases Risks for Aids in African Americans

Author: Allie Montgomery

A genetic trait once found to have possibly protected African Americans from malaria has now shown that it may increase their risk of contracting the HIV virus. The new research reports that African Americans are much more likely to have this genetic trait that will make them more susceptible to infection of the virus. Scientists estimate that this trait might account for up to 11 percent of the HIV cases in Africa. Africa is known to be the continent that is hit hardest by the AIDS epidemic.

The co-author of the study, Matthew J. Dolan, of the Wilford Hall United States Air Force Medical Center and San Antonio Military Medical Center said that the findings overall shows how the past history of our evolution and disease still effects all of us today. "The benefit that the Africans got from a mutation that gave them some resistance to malaria has, statistically at least, rendered them some increased susceptibility to HIV," he stated.

Researchers have spent many years wondering and trying to understand why some people that are exposed to the AIDS virus do not get infected. It is estimated that between 70 and 90 percent of the children born to infected mothers actually do not develop the disease, and some men that are homosexual have avoided it despite their repeated exposure. In the new study that was conducted, the team of researchers studied more than 1,200 members of the United States military who are infected with the HIV virus. They wanted to find out more about how genetics affects the disease. The findings from the study were published in the July issue of Cell Host & Microbe.

The team of researchers found that one genetic trait, which is found in approximately 60 percent of African-Americans and 90 percent of Africans, makes the HIV infection 40 percent more likely to be contracted. This trait is virtually nonexistent in Caucasians. The trait that was also protecting people against one form of malaria is now uncommon as well.

The evidence shows that the genetic makeup of some Africans have evolved to give them the protection against the form of malaria, stated Dolan. He also said unfortunately that the trait ultimately "set the African continent for increased susceptibility" to the HIV virus. Dolan has estimated that the increased susceptibility could account for more than a million extra cases of the HIV virus. On the other hand, the people who have the trait seem to live an average of two years longer with the disease once they contract it.

The vice president of the research with the Foundation for AIDS Research, Rowena Johnston, said that the new findings provide even more evidence of the evolutionary struggle between this disease and humans. Unfortunately, it will not be easy to make this information useful. She also stated, "Since any one individual has tens of thousands of genes, each of which may influence susceptibility in one direction or another, it's difficult to predict the outcome for any individual with any one particular genotype."

Secondhand Smoke Raises Stroke Risk for Spouses of Smokers

Author: Drucilla Dyess

We have long known that smokers endanger their nonsmoking spouses and significant others through secondhand smoke, but recent research has shown that it significantly increases the risk of them having a stroke. In addition, an ex-smoker whose spouse continues to smoke has an even higher risk for stroke.

Maria Glymour, an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and her team analyzed data drawn from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a National Institute on Aging sponsored survey of U.S. adults nationwide who were 50-plus years of age and married. The more than 16,000 participants were grouped according to smoking habits, and monitored for occurrences of stroke over an average nine-year period of time between 1992 and 2006. During the study period, 1,130 first strokes were reported. The study evaluated cigarette use but did not include the use of cigars or pipe tobacco.

Nonsmokers with spouses that currently smoke were discovered to have a 42 percent higher risk for stroke when compared with those with couples who had never smoked. Ex-smokers married to current smokers had a 72 percent greater risk for stroke. Current smokers had significantly elevated stroke rates compared to those who had never smoked, and the smoking status of spouses did not affect the risk among current smokers.

According to Glymour, "This adds to the growing evidence that secondhand smoke is bad for you, and I hope that it will help people who want to stop smoking to know that it will probably be good for their spouse's health, too." Glymour is a health and society scholar in the department of epidemiology at Columbia University in New York City in addition to her Harvard affiliations.

Being married to a former smoker was not found to be associated with any increase in stroke risk compared to having a spouse who had never smoked. Therefore, the data suggests that even though your stroke risk is higher if your spouse smokes, the increased risk is eliminated if your spouse stops smoking. Findings have shown that non-smokers married to former smokers had nearly the same stroke risk as couples who had never smoked.

It was not clear as to how much time would need to pass after a smoker quit before their spouse's stroke risk was fully dissipated. Glymour noted that she and team members believe the risk to the spouse likely begins to decline right away. She explained that this would be consistent with what is already known about stroke and active smoking, which is that if you stop smoking your own health risks decline quickly.

This study is one of few to focus on the possibility of a link between secondhand smoke and stroke risk and the data indicates that the association is very real and strong.