Some cases of Alzheimer’s may be transmitted
Houston, TX, United States (AHN) – Some cases of Alzheimer’s disease may be transmitted similar to other infectious illnesses, according to a new study.
Researchers with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston said that the brain damage associated with Alzheimer’s may originate in a way similar to that of what are known as infectious prion diseases such as mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform.
“Our findings open the possibility that some of the sporadic Alzheimer’s cases may arise from an infectious process, which occurs with other neurological diseases such as mad cow and its human form, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,” researcher Claudio Soto said in a statement.
Soto said the underlying mechanism of Alzheimer’s disease is “very similar” to the prion diseases.
“It involves a normal protein that becomes misshapen and is able to spread by transforming good proteins to bad ones. The bad proteins accumulate in the brain, forming plaque deposits that are believed to kill neuron cells in Alzheimer’s,” Soto said.
Soto and his colleagues injected the brain tissue of a confirmed Alzheimer’s patient into mice and compared the results with a group of mice injected with the tissue of someone without the disease. None of the mice injected with the control showed signs of Alzheimer’s, but all of the rodents injected with Alzheimer’s brain extracts developed plaques and other alterations associated with the disease.
“The mouse developed Alzheimer’s over time and it spread to other portions of the brain. We are currently working on whether disease transmission can happen in real life under more natural routes of exposure,” Soto said in a statement.
A full report on the study appears in the Oct. 4 online issue of the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
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Exercise shown to help combat brain fatigue
Charleston, SC, United States (AHN) – Those suffering from brain fatigue may want to consider starting an exercise regimen.
Researchers at the University of South Carolina said a new study confirms that exercise increases the brain cells responsible for generating energy.
An increase in these brain cells, called mitochondria, is thought to be behind many of the positive physical effects of exercise, including increased strength and endurance.
The researchers conducted their work on lab mice, which were assigned to either an exercise group that ran on a treadmill six days a week for an hour, or to a sedentary group. After eight weeks, the scientists examined the brain and muscle tissue from some of the mice in each group to test for signs of increased mitochondria.
The exercise group experienced in increase in mitochondria in their muscles, and they increased their run to fatigue time from about 74 minutes to about 126 minutes. No change was seen for the sedentary mice.
A full report on the study appears in the American Journal of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology.
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FDA to review safety of bone drugs
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Two U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panels will meet on Friday to review popular bone drugs. Included in the panels’ agenda is to discuss a possible recommendation for women to rest first from taking the medication due to concerns over side effects on long-term use.
The comprehensive safety review to determine if it is safe for females to use the bone drugs beyond three to five years comes 16 years after the drugs such as Fosamax were launched into the market.
The FDA recommendation is expected to affect about four million women in the U.S. who take biphosphonates, which inhibit the bone renewal process by adding bone mass. However, its possible side effects include causing the bones to become brittle.
The FDA review will cover at least four branded bisphosphonates and generic counterparts, used for the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis. It includes:
- Fosamax (alendronate sodium) tablets and solution and Fosamax Plus D made by Merck
- Actonel (risedronate) and Actonel with calcium made by Warner Chilcott
- Bonivia (ibandronate sodium) tablets and injection made by Roche, and
- Reclast (zoledronic acid) made by Novartis.
Among the reported risks to long-term use of the osteoporosis drugs are jawbone death, unusual broken thigh bones and esophageal cancer. Due to those risks, the FDA ordered in October the manufacturer of the drugs to add a warning of the higher risks for atypical femur fractures and in 2005 a warning for osteonecrosis.
Because of the side effects, Merck has 1,115 lawsuits over jaw damage and another 535 over unusual femur fractures and other bone injuries.
After the patent of Fosamax, which was launched in 1995, expired in 2008, generic versions of the medication came out in the market.
In 2010, global sales of bone drugs reached $7.6 billion, which went down from a peak of $8.8 billion in 2007.
The FDA is expected to issue a report on the results of the Friday discussion on Wednesday, Sept. 14.
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Readers Face Multiple Dilemmas About Insurance Coverage, Costs
Washington, DC, United States (KaiserHealth) – This week, we address readers’ questions about health insurance coverage and costs.
My son was denied coverage on the basis that he had been drinking before going to the ER with a broken shoulder. Is drinking a legitimate reason for denial of coverage? John Johnson, Tucson, Ariz.
More From This Series Insuring Your Health
As of 2008, 36 states allowed insurers to exclude coverage for injuries related to alcohol and/or drug consumption, according to research from George Washington University’s Department of Health Policy at the School of Public Health and Health Services.
The practice dates to’47 when, as a way to discourage drinking, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners adopted a model statute that excluded coverage of alcohol-related health claims. More than 40 states and the District subsequently passed such laws.
But as the benefits of drug and alcohol treatment programs became apparent, these laws were recognized as counterproductive, since they discouraged emergency department and other medical personnel from screening people for and counseling them about drug and alcohol abuse. In 2001, the NAIC reversed course and recommended that such laws be scrapped.
My husband had a stroke in December, and the insurance reps refused to discuss his account with me because they didn’t have his signature on a form, and he couldn’t tell them over the phone it was okay to talk to me. And it is MY insurance! They said they had to follow HIPAA [the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which protects patients' medical privacy]. Is this true? Name withheld, Lawrenceville, Ga.
It’s a common misperception by health-care providers and insurers that HIPAA prohibits them from discussing patients’ medical information with family members, says Deven McGraw, director of the health privacy project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a civil liberties group that promotes health privacy. “It’s not true; it has never been true,” she says. Unless the patient objects, such information can be shared with family members.
Advance planning documents can help avoid confusion and heartache, say experts. A living will spells out what if any measures you wish to have taken to prolong your life — being put on a breathing machine or on dialysis, for example. A health care proxy names the person you choose to make medical decisions for you in the event that you can’t do so yourself.
In addition, most states have surrogacy laws that assign decision-making responsibility to family members based on their relationship to the patient. Typically, if someone is incapacitated, state law would assign decision-making to the patient’s spouse, says Jay Horton, clinical program manager at the Lilian and Benjamin Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. If there is no spouse, the laws spell out who would be assigned to make decisions instead, based on their relationship to the patient.
Our doctor recommended that my husband get a preventive colonoscopy since it had been five years since his last one. The doctor found two benign polyps and removed them. Our [health] plan was to cover 100 percent for a preventive colonoscopy. Because the doctor removed the polyps during the procedure, it is now not covered. We have to pay the deductible, and the balance owed. I can assure you that many, many people will not have this procedure done (as I will not) when they are made aware of the additional costs involved. Pam Nevin, Rutherfordton, N.C.
Under the new federal health law, Medicare beneficiaries and members of new private health plans starting this year can generally receive free colonoscopies to screen for colon cancer if they meet age and other criteria.
Unfortunately, like you, others have been hit with sometimes substantial charges if a growth or mass called a polyp is discovered during a routine screening colonoscopy they thought would be free. Once a preventive procedure turns into a diagnostic procedure or other type of treatment, providers can charge you for it under the new law. According to the interim final rules: “A plan or issuer may impose cost-sharing requirements for a treatment that is not a recommended preventive service, even if the treatment
results from a recommended preventive service.”
Some experts have expressed concern that colonoscopy charges raise questions about what other newly free preventive services might incur similar hidden costs. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear that it will be a widespread problem, says Stephen Finan, senior director of policy for the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network. The reason: Colonoscopies appear to be the only procedure covered under the new guidelines for free preventive care where both prevention and diagnosis happen during
the same procedure. Usually they’re separate, as when something suspicious turns up on a woman’s mammogram. In that case, a separate procedure such as a biopsy would be scheduled to diagnose the problem, says Finan. “Colonoscopy is a very unique scenario,” he says.
Got a question for Michelle Andrews to answer in a future column? khnquestions@kff.org
– Provided by Kaiser Health News.
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Walking around the best way to shorten hospital stay
Haifa, Israel (AHN) – Walking around the ward is one of the most effective ways a geriatric patient can lessen his or her stay in the hospital, according to a new study.
Israeli researchers with the University of Haifa’s Department of Nursing said that walking around can shorten a patient’s hospital stay by an average of a day and a half compared with those who stayed immobile.
The researchers surveyed 485 patients aged 70 and older who were hospitalized for at least two days. Those confined to a bed were excluded from the study.
Older patients in the hospital are often under the mistaken belief that they should stay in bed. But the researchers said the opposite is true.
“The muscle’s reserve capacity can decompose quite quickly in older people. If they shift from a mode of mobility – even if it was minimal – to a state of almost complete immobility, and even for just a few short days of hospitalization, they could very quickly lose their muscle ‘reserves,’” the researchers said in a statement.
A full report on the study is published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
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Health researchers warn against too much sitting
Melbourne, Australia (AHN) – Lack of physical exercise has long been associated with poor health, but new research suggests the act of sitting too much could be its own separate risk factor for disease.
The researchers said that health care professionals are already beginning to take action against too much sitting through educational campaigns and messages about not being sedentary at home and at the workplace.
The researchers suggested methods like height-adjustable desks at work, community entertainment venues and events considering non-sitting alternatives and community infrastructure changes to promote walking and biking instead of using motor transportation to reduce sitting time spent in cars.
A report on the study is published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
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Cultural mainstreaming leaves MSM at high HIV risk
Bangkok, Thailand (IRIN) – Gay rights activists in Thailand say a unique combination of muted discrimination and cultural mainstreaming of the gay and transgender community is to blame for a dangerous lack of knowledge about HIV among gay and transgender persons, especially the youth.
“There are no discrimination laws here against gay people, so a young gay Thai may feel like, ‘My life is free, I can do anything I want,’ when in reality, most gay people here live a double life, both with a straight male identity and with a gay identity,” said Narupon Duangwises, a cultural anthropologist who works as a consultant with Bangkok Rainbow , an NGO that supports the gay community.
Teenagers who identify as gay and transgender seamlessly blend with Bangkok’s mainstream youth culture, spending their days at the city’s popular, glitzy malls. At home, however, many find entertainment on the video chat service CamFrog, which they use to meet other young gay Thais, and sometimes as a platform to sell or buy sexual services.
“Young people cannot go to bars, so they go on CamFrog. They don’t know about HIV, because they don’t learn [about it] in school,” Nikorn Arthit, president of Bangkok Rainbow, which has begun an online HIV-educational campaign through CamFrog. “They are excited to be meeting people but they don’t know how to protect themselves.”
CamFrog says it has more than 30 million users, mainly in Asia.
Duangwises expressed concern that not enough was being done to address the HIV needs of young gay people. “The gay organizations don’t know what has happened with this health situation. The community is not well organized,” he said. “We think HIV infections may be much higher than we realize. We need to instill a sense of social responsibility among gay Thais. We can’t just be passing out condoms.”
Thai health workers say a similar lack of knowledge is also caused by the disparity between the levels of HIV programming for male and female sex workers. According to Noi Apisuk, director of the Empower Foundation , an NGO for sex workers, Bangkok’s female sex workers know all about safe sex and can always find multiple sizes of condoms at Empower’s office.
Nicha Jitjang, program officer for the male and transgender sex worker rights’ group Service Workers In Group, or SWING , estimates that most seasoned male and transgender sex workers know to use a condom when engaging in sexual activity, but the same cannot be said for newbies.
Her colleague, Nanokporn Sukprasert, a transgender former sex worker, remembers first learning about HIV two or three years after she began working at a bar.
“I sometimes used condoms and I sometimes didn’t use them,” she said. “I didn’t know about HIV and STIs [sexually transmitted infections]; I saw many of my friends get HIV, but I thought they were different because they were MSM.”
“We focus now on talking with new people who come every day and think they can get HIV from sharing food or from swimming in the same pool,” she explained. “It’s a perspective we are trying to change.”
SWING regularly connects with more than 5,000 male and transgender sex workers.
On a typical night, Sukprasert will visit about 50 bars, dropping off boxes of condoms for male and transgender sex workers; if a bar is missed out, the owner may telephone, complaining that his employees are waiting.
“We give them knowledge, condoms and lubricants every day – one box of condoms per bar and people share with their friends,” she said. “In the past they didn’t want to talk about HIV with us because it is a personal issue, but now people know us and they are more open.”
Approximately 16.7 percent of Thai male sex workers were found to be HIV positive in 2010, according to Bangkok Rainbow, compared with 3 percent of Thailand’s estimated 200,000 female sex workers known to be living with HIV, according to Apisuk.
An estimated 1.3 percent of Thai adults aged 15 and older are HIV-positive, according to UNAIDS.
al/kr/mw
– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.
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FDA says silicone breast implants not meant for lifetime use
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Silicone breast implants are not meant to last for a woman’s lifetime, according to new federal data.
The Food and Drug Administration said this week that the longer a woman has silicone gel-filled implants, the more likely she is to experience complications. One in five patients who receive implants for breast augmentation will need to have them removed within 10 years.
For patients who receive implants for breast reconstruction, as many as one in 12 will need to have them removed 10 years after the operation, according to an FDA statement.
The most frequently-seen complications are hardening of the area around the implant, the need for additional surgeries and implant removal. Other complications include implant ruptures, wrinkling, asymmetry, scarring, pain and infection.
The FDA also stated that silicone implants do not appear to cause breast cancer, reproductive problems or connective tissue disease, based on preliminary data.
The FDA approved silicone breast implants in 2006, 14 years after the agency banned their use. The alternative to silicone gel-filled implants are those filled with saline, which are less popular.
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What Should You Look For When Choosing a Mattress?
Choosing the right mattress can sometimes be hard and there are a lot of conflicting opinions as to what constitutes the best mattresses on today’s market. Well, the good news is that most of these opinions are correct but they just aren’t put forward in the right way. Basically, all you need to think about is comfort and support. Finding a mattress that’s supportive will usually mean it’s comfortable.
We spend a third of our lives in bed and that’s a long time in the grand scheme of things. It’s therefore important to realise that support should be your top priority. If your mattress doesn’t support you properly you can end up with a poor posture and back pain or neck pain.
A lot of us have office jobs these days and hours and hours spent at a computer desk isn’t really very good for you at any rate. Therefore having a good night’s sleep is how our bodies recover and if you’re in an awkward position in bed as well then you will end up with problems. Read more
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