Women who take vitamin D supplements through multivitamins are 40 percent less likely to develop multiple sclerosis (MS) than women who do not take supplements, according to a study published in the January 13 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Food is a source of vitamin D, and the body makes vitamin D through exposure to sunlight.
“Because the number of cases of MS increases the farther you get from the equator, one hypothesis has been that su
Trastuzumab (Herceptin) – a treatment that has increased survival in many breast cancer patients – has failed to live up to hopes that it might also help lung cancer patients.
In a Phase II trial of over 100 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) reported today (Tuesday 13 January) in Annals of Oncology[1], those treated with trastuzumab in combination with two chemotherapy agents gemcitabine and cisplatin, did no better than patients treated with gemcitabine and cisplatin alone.
Genes that help wounds heal are most often the “good guys,” but a new study paints them as the enemy in some types of cancer. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found that some tumors activate these wound-healing genes and, when they do, the tumors are more likely to spread. This work could help highlight new ways to treat the disease along with helping doctors decide which cancers to approach more aggressively.
“This is a feature we can find early on in the dise
Surgeons at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) are enrolling people with degenerative disc disease in a research study to determine if new artificial discs will have the long-term durability to safely provide increased range of motion and less strain on the adjacent discs than spinal fusion. Northwestern Memorial Hospital is one of approximately 30 sites around the country testing the Maverick artificial disc made from cobalt-chrome alloy. Currently, three artificial discs are being investi
In experiments in the laboratory and with mice, the Johns Hopkins researchers found that the chemical prostaglandin-E2 protects brain cells from damage. The finding was completely unexpected, the researchers say, because prostaglandin-E2 causes damage in other tissues and is made by an enzyme, COX-2, known to wreak havoc in the brain after injury. The findings appear in the Jan. 7 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
“It’s kind of paradoxical, that the product of an enzyme that causes
In fighting cancer, the sooner doctors can determine how a patient will respond to a particular therapy, the more effective overall treatment will be. Researchers have now shown that 18F-FDG PET scans are better than CT scans at predicting response to imatinib mesylate, a drug that has recently been found effective in treating gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs).
The result is significant, as the PET scan allows doctors to determine if the therapy regimen is working very early in the tr
Moderate amounts of exercise, such as walking 12 miles per week, may help prevent weight gain, and can promote weight loss in non-dieting individuals, according to an article in the January 12 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Fifty-five percent of Americans are overweight or obese, according to the article. From 1991 to 1998, the prevalence of obesity increased by almost 50 percent. Obesity is associated with a higher risk for several health prob
Morning headaches affect about one person in 13 in the general population and are associated with depression and anxiety disorders, according to an article in the January 12 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
According to the article, waking up with a headache is traditionally associated with sleep disorders. Studies have reported a high association between morning headache and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, and snoring. The prevalence of morni
It has been said that a human being is a veritable encyclopedia of proteins. Proteins are the fabric of life – they provide the bricks and mortar of our cells, and run day-to-day operations. When these functions go awry – when too much or too little protein is produced, when a daisy-chain network of proteins working together is disrupted – illness can arise.
While an errant genetic code may underlie a disorder, biologists have estimated that 98 percent of disease is caused by something wrong
In one of the biggest advances to come from the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in its 16-year history, researchers have unlocked at least part of the mystery of how tumors flourish undetected by keeping their presence a secret from sentries of the body’s immune system.
“Flying beneath the radar” is how Nature Reviews Cancer (http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nrc/journal/v4/n1/full/nrc1261_fs.html) labels the mechanism of tumors evading capture, a proce
Two groups of researchers (from the University of Lubeck and from University of Sydney) report on a novel method of measuring the experience of suffering in the January issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.
Measuring the impact of illness is important for several reasons. The Pictorial Representation of Illness and Self Measure (PRISM) is a recently developed tool purported to assess burden of suffering due to illness. The nature of the PRISM task suggests a conceptual link to the illn
Research among households in Peru in this week’s issue of THE LANCET highlights how healthy growth of infants in less-developed countries is directly related to water supply, water storage, and sanitation-children who grow up in households where these facilities are unavailable or of poor quality are more likely to experience diarrhoeal disease and reduced body growth, with implications for later adult development.
William Checkley from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins
Age at Onset and Inflammatory Cells Define Patient Subsets, Guide Treatment
People who develop asthma as children may have a different disease than those who develop it as an adult. A study in the January issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology adds to the growing body of evidence that asthma is not a single disease, but a group of syndromes with different origins and biological characteristics. The research team, led by Sally Wenzel, M.D., a pulmonologist at National
Studies on common baker’s yeast have led to the discovery of what may be a long-sought mechanism in the life cycle of retroviruses, including the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Knowing the details of this step in the infection process could help pinpoint targets for new classes of drugs to fight HIV.
In the Jan. 9 issue of the journal Science, Thomas Menees and Zhi Cheng of the University of Missouri-Kansas City describe the formation of a lariat structure with the genetic materia
New insights may help brain scientists, diabetic patients, many others
A mystery of basic cell metabolism that has persisted for a century has come a major step closer to giving up its secrets.
Teams of scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a mechanism that triggers increased blood flow to brain cells actively engaged in work. The findings appear in two papers in the Jan. 13 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sci
Milestone discovery of the 3-D structure and function of vinculin explains how this protein changes its shape to perform different functions in health and disease
The discovery of how a protein called vinculin undergoes exquisitely precise changes in its shape is helping to answer some major questions about the life of cells, the development of tissues and organs and the spread of cancer from one part of the body to another. These findings, to be published in the Jan. 8, 2004, issue o
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