Two new studies conducted by researchers at Prostate Cancer UK and Cancer Research UK indicate that prostate cancer is more frequent among black men than prostate incidences among Caucasian and Asian patients.
Although these facts have been long known, medical experts have only recently managed to scientifically prove that prostate cancer is more frequent among black men, based on the information they have gathered during their recent researches. Prostate Cancer UK has made up a list of prostate cancer patients divided according to their ethnicity, whereas researchers at Cancer Research UK have created the first genetically-structured classification of prostate cancer.
The medical evolution of more than 25 million cancer patients has been analyzed during the recent researches, scientists have explained. The database included information from the Public Health Department of England, the Office for National Statistics, as well as other medical authorities.
More than 102,252 prostate cancer diagnoses and 26,521 deaths occurring as a result of the said diagnosis were analyzed during the research allowing scientists to observe important connections between this disease and the genetic heredity of the patients. The experiment has been conducted from 2008 until 2010.
Based on the collected information, medical experts have noticed that African American males have one in four chances of receiving a prostate diagnosis (29,3%) whereas only one in eight medical prognoses (13.3%) is related to prostate among Caucasian patients.
Asian men are less likely to suffer from prostate cancer, as the study has pointed out. It appears that during the analyzed time interval only one in 13 cases turned out to be related to this affection.
Interesting facts have also been observed as scientists have looked at the death rates of prostate cancer patients. Based on their declarations, black men are still the ones who are more likely to die from this disease (8.7%). The percentage among white patients is significantly smaller, approximately 4.2%, whereas Asians rarely die from this disease (2.3%), according to scientists.
The results of the Prostate Cancer UK research have been centralized by the Cancer Research UK Institution and a genetically-based classification of prostate has been made. No similar classification has been achieved before and doctors believe these new categories could help physicians better adapt their treatments to the needs of their patients.
Further researches could be made on this topic, particularly in relation to the factors that lead to an increased prostate rate among black patients. Scientists have also warned doctors to keep their African American patients informed in relation to the health risks they are exposed when it comes to this particular disease.
Image source: www.healthieryoumag.com
The procedure is harmless and will take less than half an hour.
One third of the American population is suffering from obesity, so now a stomach filling balloon is FDA approved for weight loss that might open new ways to trim down the numbers. The Food and Drug Administration released as statement on Tuesday that the “belly balloon” is an approved method for weight loss.
Developed by ReShape Medical, the ReShape Integrated Dual Balloon System (or more simply known as the ReShape Dual Balloon) is a device planted in the patient’s stomach that will give off the impression of “fullness” and help with the unhealthy reflex of overeating, one of the main causes of obesity.
The ReShape Dual Balloon is placed in the stomach through a relatively harmless outpatient procedure, an endoscopy, that is much less invasive than other surgical solutions currently available for weight loss. It will generally last less than 30 minutes while the patient is under mild sedation. After the device is implanted, it’s then filled with nontoxic saline solution.
The study was conducted on 326 people suffering from obesity aged between 22 and 60 years old, all of which had at least one obesity-related condition, such as heart issues or diabetes. The 187 participants who opted for the “balloon belly implant” recorded a 6.8% loss of their body weight after the typical six months of recommended time, while the rest 139 lost only 3.3%.
It has shown promise as a minimally invasive procedure and vast improvement over a similar design created in 1992, which ruptured and caused artery blockage in patients. The company aimed to take that concept and improved on it.
However, while the device has shown decent results in patients, over the next six months after its removal, most of them gained up to two thirds of their weight back. It forces the issue that a matter of nutrition change should also be accompanied with the implant and a permanent modification in the food pallet. Or else it was all for nothing.
The Food and Drug Administration spokesman, Deborah Kotz, has stated that the ReShape Dual Balloon device is meant for obese people who have already tried the traditional diet and exercise regime, but with little results. As well, it will also be meant as a solution to people suffering from obesity who do not qualify for other procedures.
The stomach filling balloon will be soon an available treatment, though the company has not yet disclosed an official price or the medical centers where it will be available.
Image source: medpagetoday.com
The molecule resulted in lower glucose level and 5% body weight loss.
A team of researchers at the University of Southampton have discovered and claimed that their Compound 14 could be the diet pill that mimics exercise to help the battle against obesity and type 2 diabetes. They are one of the issues of grave concern in United States, where one third of Americans are considered obese and type 2 diabetes makes up for 95% of the cases.
Chemical biology professor, Dr. Ali Tavassoli, and his team have developed a drug that inhibits the activity of ATIC, a cellular enzyme with a vital role in metabolism. How it works is that when the ATIC’s function is blocked, another molecule ZMP gathers in the cell and triggers the energy sensor known as AMPK, thus tricking them into thinking the body is low on energy.
In order to make up for it, the cells then instantly power up and try to increase the energy by accelerating the body’s metabolism and heightening glucose intake. That is a process commonly occurring during exercise and is widely attributed to weight loss.
To test out the new Compound 14, the team of scientists have gathered two separates groups of mice. One group consisted of rodents on a normal diet, with normal weight and glucose levels. The other group included mice who were on a diet rich in fat, reaching the status of obese, and who were also glucose intolerant, which is the sign of pre-diabetes.
After just one appliance of the drug, it was noticed that while normal mice held steady in their glucose levels, obese mice showed reduced levels that lowered them to the standard number. It is presumed that this could see the same effects in humans suffering from type 2 diabetes or, at the very least, prevent early signs from developing into the full condition.
Furthermore, the normal mice recorded no weight loss, but the obese mice lost 5% of their body weight after a seven day course of Compound 14.
By accelerating the metabolism and forcing the cells into overdrive, the molecule is able to trick the body into thinking it’s exercising, thus lowering glucose levels and resulting in weight loss. Researchers believe this could pave the way for new medication that will battle against widely-spread obesity and diabetes alike.
However, before anyone tosses their workout gear and packs up their exercise mats, it is to be noted that the drug only functions on those suffering from obesity, so the normal way of losing weight is still applicable to them and should not rush into pharmacies just yet.
So far, it has not been proven to be harmless to humans, but trials are expected to be underway soon enough and Compound 14 could be integrated into innovative drugs sometime in the near future.
Image source: healthydietbase.com
Drastic blood pressure fluctuations may indicate problems to your heart or arteries.
It’s imperative to pay attention to your blood pressure swings, according to a new study, as highly varied fluctuations can be indicative of heart disease or arterial damage. It may be a red flag that patients should not take lightly as it could be the warning for future coronary problems.
Statistically, 1 in 3 Americans have high blood pressure, and while the condition has no outward symptoms, it could lead to major damage to your heart, blood vessels or kidneys. Many patients consult their doctors on the matter and are being prescribed medication to keep it within normal ranges, but a new factor should now be considered.
From visit to visit, patients should inquire for a blood pressure test as it has been recently discovered that a wide swing between the numbers might indicate future heart problems.
The study gathered data from the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial, a large database of patients who received blood pressure medication after suffering a harmful coronary episode or other cardiac events.
A number of 25,814 patients participated in the study, each agreeing to five, six or seven visits along the course of 28 months, during which their blood pressure measurements would be taken in order to ascertain if they developed any cardiovascular condition through time.
Over the course of the trial, the study recorded 1,948 deaths, 606 strokes, 921 heart failures and 1,194 cases of either fatal heart disease or non-fatal heart attacks. It was observed that those with an average swing of 15 mm Hg in systolic blood pressure from visit to visit had an increased risk of undergoing a cardiac event or other heart diseases.
Participants who recorded the wide fluctuations were 30% more likely of experiencing myocardial infarction or fatal heart problems and 46% more likely to suffer a stroke. Furthermore, the risk of death in any coronary condition or episode was increased by 58% in cases that they might’ve otherwise survived.
Lead researcher Paul Muntner, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Alabama School of Public Health at Birmingham, states that these findings stress how important it is for patients to keep an eye on their blood pressure and require tests regularly in order to prevent potentially fatal heart problems in the future.
However, it has also been underlined that the study was based on analysis only, which means that there is no cause-and-effect between blood pressure and heart disease, but it can be a significant alarm signal to future problems and patients should consider what medications they can take to keep the numbers stable.
Image source: menshealth.com
High frequency SCS was reportedly twice as effective low frequency treatment.
A recent study has discovered that high frequency spinal cord stimulation relieves pain in patients with chronic pain in their back or limbs twice as effectively than the traditional low frequency treatment. The findings could provide a relief for those with daily sores and difficulty moving.
The usual treatment might be soon shifted, though the method will remain the same. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a form of managing pain via implant, where a small device is surgically placed underneath the patient’s skin in order to relieve chronic pain in the torso or limbs. The implant then sends low frequency SCS, between 40 and 60 Hz, in order to treat and relieve the unbearable aches.
However, recent findings have come to the conclusion that high frequency SCS (otherwise known as HF10) will prove to be more effective, by turning the device to deliver pulses up to 10,000 Hz, which is around 200 times stronger than previous methods.
Researchers gathered a number of 171 patients, who suffered from chronic pain in their back and limbs, in order to better understand the effectiveness in change of treatment. All patients already had an SCS device implanted, so the adjustments were made accordingly to the findings, meaning that 90 received high frequency treatment, while the rest of 81 remained at the previous standard.
According to Dr. Leonardo Kapural, a professor of anesthesiology, this was the first time the two treatments were offered at the same time and studied for differences. And the results proved that the modification was highly effective only after three months.
Out of the patients receiving high frequency SCS treatment, 83% of those with chronic leg pain and 85% of the patients with back pain felt much better, stating that their aches have seen an improvement of at least 50%. Meanwhile, only 56% of the participants with leg pain and 44% of those with back pain undergoing low frequency SCS treatment reported the same progress.
Over the course of one year, it was reported that 55% of the patients treated with high frequency SCS had declared themselves fully satisfied and their chronic pains definitively lessened, while only 32% of those receiving the traditional treatment claimed the same.
Furthermore, those undergoing the HF10 treatment also reported a complete lack of parathesia, a common side effect of SCS implants that can cause uncomfortable tingling or buzzing sensation. It can reduce the effectiveness in SCS, but patients who had picked high frequency treatment recorded none.
It can be quite a giant leap forward in the field of reducing chronic pains, with no risks, and twice the benefits for patients who have to live daily with excruciating aches in their limbs or back that drugs cannot ease.
Image source: healthnewsline.net
Physicians need to better communicate with mothers about the health of their children.
A survey funded by the National Institutes of Health has discovered that doctors offer little advice to new mothers in regards to infant care. Medical professionals have a long list of recommendations and possible guidelines to offer that may help a newborn child’s health or even save their lives, but yet a surprising amount of mothers are discharged without crucial advice.
The study inquired about infant care to 1,031 mothers gathered from 32 different hospitals, all with young children in between the ages of 2 and 6 months old. They were questioned on whether they had received guidance or advice from doctors after giving birth concerning matters such as breastfeeding, sleep positions, pacifiers and immunization for their children.
The statistics were indeed worrying and showed a lack of communication between new mothers and their physicians, who should be doing all they can to prevent accidents. Out of all the participants, 20% stated that they did not receive any advice regarding breastfeeding or the significance of placing their child to sleep on their backs.
One of the leading causes in newborns deaths is sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), yearly claiming 3,500 lives. Placing infant children to sleep on their backs severely decreases the risk of SIDS, with the stomach being the highest risk, followed by young mothers allowing their newborns to sleep on their side.
Over 50% of the new mothers did not receive any professional advice on where their child should sleep, while in the room but in a separate bed has long been proven to be the safest option, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The organization has offered many useful and beneficial guidelines for mothers to follow, but it seems in part doctors or nurses are neglecting to pass them on.
However, earlier studies have shown that, when advice is inquired, mothers listen to their physicians and doctors indeed have the opportunity of preventing accidents or the loss of lives. Fortunately, most of the advice offered seems to be well in line with the AAP guidelines and recommendations for infant care.
Only 10% to 15% of the advice offered on breastfeeding was inconsistent with the AAP guidelines and 25% regarding the infant’s sleep position or location. However, a worrying 85% of new mothers were advised to place their children on their backs or their side when sleeping, the latter of which increases the chance of SIDS.
Physicians, doctors or nurses need to provide better and more consistent advice to young mothers, and review the way they communicate with patients upon giving birth. They might be constrained by beliefs, chaotic work hours or disagreement with certain recommendations, but the study emphasized the need for more efficient informing which could save the lives of infants.
Image source: localsyr.com
A recent study has revealed that an affordable breast cancer treatment is possible. The study concluded that two drugs could be able to fight with breast cancer and decrease the rate of fatalities in women who are post-menopausal. The study published by the team of scientists from the University of Oxford in London claims that breast cancer recurrence could be greatly prevented by combining two affordable drugs.
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer for women, with a total of 25 percent of cancer cases and being responsible for around 520,000 deaths from the 1.68 million cancer cases recorded in 2012. The new study investigated which possible drugs could prevent the recurrence of breast cancer in women who are post-menopausal, after surgery.
The decrease in number of deaths from breast cancer every year has been reported by just simply changing the medication prescribed to these women. A study was conducted on 30,000 women who were post-menopausal and developed breast cancer over the course of one year. The treatment consisted of nine clinical trials, in which the patients were given aromatase inhibitors working as endocrine treatments in order for it to prevent the recurrence of breast cancer.
However, aromatase inhibitors have serious side effects, and one of the most important side effect of the drug is its impact on bone health. Fortunately, the second drug called bishphosnates prevents that.
After a period of 5 years, the death rates of the patients was drastically reduced by giving the patients a treatment based on the endocrine components from the aromatase inhibitors. The results are a lot better when compared to using the current tamoxifen, which is the endocrine therapy of choice at the moment.
The drug decreased the chances of developing breast cancer by one third and reduced the risk of death as a cause of breast cancer by around 15 percent in the following decade after the treatment. Treatments for cancer are already very expensive and groups of support are trying to cut the costs down. The scientists discovered that the affordable breast cancer treatment also helped in improving the rates of survival for patients after a two year period.
It is now extremely important for the drug manufacturers not to linger around while the patients are battling the serious disease and allow the recent study to prevent the loss of more lives.
The recent study has been published in The Lancet journal.
Image Source: lafitness.files.wordpress.com
Health experts warn in a report about the dangers of marijuana edibles such as pot brownies and others after last year a man committed suicide. The death of the man has been blamed on marijuana.
On Friday, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that there may be a danger in consuming marijuana edibles. This comes after an incident that happened in March involving a 19-year-old man who jumped from a fourth floor balcony of a hotel in Denver to his death while being high.
Levy Thamba ate a whole marijuana cookie that had been bought from a legal and licensed marijuana shop in Colorado. The man ignored the seller’s recommendation to split the cookie up in small portions before consuming it. After he ate the cookie, the man started to display an erratic behavior, said witnesses. According to the coroner’s report in Denver the man jumped out of the bed all of a sudden and went outside the room where he jumped over the railing of the balcony.
The death of the young man was attributed to numerous injuries caused by a fall; however, the coroner also said that at the time of the incident, the intoxication from marijuana was a contributing factor as well.
After releasing the new report coming from the CDC, the agency has also confirmed that this is the first case of death linked to marijuana consumption in Colorado. Marijuana consumption was allowed as recreational use in the state since 2014.
The CDC said that the case shows a potential danger connected to the recreational use of marijuana edibles. The agency added that drinks, food and pills with THC are responsible for about 45 percent of pot sales. THC is the main compound in marijuana that makes you high.
An epidemic intelligence officer at the CDC and one of the authors of the report, Jessica Hancock-Allen said that if a person ingests a significant quantity of marijuana edibles in a very short period of time, that person risks to overdose and faces a higher risk of experiencing mental health effects.
Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician from New York said that the man did not ingest a lethal amount and that Thamba may have had an inclination or some hidden mental issues that they were not aware of and which were unmasked at the time that he ate the marijuana edibles.
The warning from CDC was published on Friday in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Image Source: media.salon.com
Inappropriate terminology might have led to an unusual increase in children’s autistic rates.
A recent study conducted by researchers at the Penn State University suggests that the number of autistic children has increased so much during the past decade as a result of the blurry diagnosis procedures that doctors use. In awe of this finding, medical experts blame reclassification for increased autism.
Girirajan, the assistant professor at Penn State University, who was also in charge of the recent experiment, explained that researchers wanted to determine how autism evolved among children in the past eleven years. For the current research, they have analyzed the data collected between 2000 and 2010.
Results have shown that doctors have increasingly used autism as a diagnosis to account for many of the children’s health affections. This explains why the percentage of autistic children has more than tripled in this time interval.
Girirajan has used statistic reports to prove his recent finding. He has stated that in 2000 only 93,624 have been labeled as autistic, whereas in 2010 their number grew to 419,647. A closer look at the medical records of these patients has further revealed that children could have been diagnosed with other mental affections except autism, such as, mental retardation and inability to communicate.
However, the general confusion and blurriness specific to autistic symptoms have led medical experts to diagnose children with autism because this term is more comprehensive. Thus, we may conclude that autism did not, in fact increase in the past decade; it is only a matter of semantics, scientists at Penn State have concluded.
There could be other factors contributing to this distortion of reality facts, Girirajan has further added. While some states might have overused the diagnosis ‘autism’, others might have not properly diagnosed children because they have very little knowledge in relation to this disease. It is also the case of Alabama where the media rarely enters small communities and where the needs of these families remain unknown to the rest of the population.
Annette Estes, the director of the Autism Center from the University of Washington has, nevertheless, stated that past researches have already tried to link increased autism rates with imprecise diagnoses, but no concrete conclusion has been reached in this sense. Estes has further expressed her believe that thorough data analyses have to be performed in order for this theory to be proven.
Girirajan has agreed with her that the current research must be complemented by additional studies. He, nonetheless, believes that improper diagnoses could have occurred as a result of the unusually big variation between autistic symptoms.
Image source: www.geneticliteracyproject.org
A new proposal of the Food and Drug Administration would require all nutrition labels on packaged foods to specify in how much added sugars they contain and how much that would represent of the daily calorie intake that’s recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Manufacturers of beverages and foods had a quick reaction to the proposal, instantly opposing it – which didn’t surprise or fool anyone. Two of their main arguments were that the new labels might confuse customers as to what they actually represent, and that the dietary limits set on added sugars are in fact just recommendations that aren’t scientific.
Basically, added sugars do not find in foods naturally, but are included before production and packaging. According to the federal recommendations, Americans are encouraged to keep the added sugar amounts under 10 percent of their daily calorie intake.
FDA officials have filed last year, for the first time, a proposal that required companies to list added sugars on nutrition labels, but under the new proposal food companies would also have to give the customer the percentage of calories.
The agency recommends that both adults and children aged 4 or older should not exceed the upper daily limit of 50 grams of added sugars. Prof Marion Nestle, who teaches nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, put that in terms we can understand: no more than one 16-ounce soda per day.
Professor Nestle is a committed supporter of the new proposal, as she believes it would benefit both the public and the manufacturers; customers who read nutritional labels would make healthier choices; and food makers would be incentivized to cut down on added sugars.
One of the fiercest opponents of the agency’s proposal is the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the trade group representing the biggest food companies.
Their officials deemed the FDA’s dietary standards for added sugars as inadequate, saying that before this proposal was made, the dietary recommendation should’ve been evaluated by an independent, rigorous scientific organization.
And according to a survey conducted in 2014 by the International Food Information Council Foundation, food manufacturers have indeed a reason to fight and fear this proposal. When consumers were asked to interpret food labels that contained information on added sugars, it turned out the majority found the new language confusing.
The survey also discovered that listing added sugars on a product’s nutrition panel significantly decreased the chance that the customer would buy it.
Image Source: Food Navigator