kphy

Genes test may guide dieting

Diet not working? A new test claims to show whether people will do better on a low-fat or a low-carb weight loss plan, according to media reports Thursday.
According to Associated Press, a study this week found that women on diets well-matched to their genes, as defined by the test, lost roughly five times more weight than those on mismatched diets.
\”We were able to explain why some people were successful\” and others were not, even though they ate the same way, said Mindy Dopler Nelson, a nutritional biologist at Stanford University who led the study.
While some scientists find this hard to swallow, it\’s another test being peddled without enough research to show it really works, it said.
\”I\’m afraid this may be another attempt to lure the public into purchasing genetic tests that provide little value for those struggling with their weight,\” said Raymond Rodriguez, director of the National Center of Excellence for Nutritional Genomics at the University of California, Davis.
The research shows \”nothing that should move the American public out to get their genome tested,\” said Dr. Robert Eckel, a former American Heart Association president and cardiologist at the University of Colorado-Denver.

Obese kids face greater risk of future heart disease

Kids suffering from obesity are more likely to develop heart disease in the future, a new study suggests.
In the study, researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine found warning signs for future heart disease in children as young as three.
Obese children have higher levels of C-reactive protein — a sign of inflammation and heart disease risk, according to the study published online on Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
Obese kids at ages six and nine also have higher levels of two other signs of inflammation.
\”We\’re seeing a relationship between weight status and elevated inflammatory markers much earlier than we expected,\” said study author Asheley Cockrell Skinner, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the school.
\”Most adults understand that being overweight or obese isn\’t good for them. But not as many people realize that it may be unhealthy for young children to be overweight,\” said Skinner.
The researchers came to their conclusions after analyzing data collected between 1999 and 2006 in a national survey. More than 16, 000 children aged one to 17 took part in the study.
Nearly 15 percent of the children were defined as overweight, 11 percent were obese and 3.5 percent were considered very obese.
\”A lot more work needs to be done before we figure out the full implication of these findings,\” said study co-author Dr. Eliana Perrin.
\”But this study tells us that very young, obese children already have more inflammation than children who are not obese, and that\’s very concerning. It may help motivate us as physicians and parents to take obesity at younger ages more seriously,\” said Perrin.

Sleep habits linked to fat gain in younger adults

Younger adults who get either little sleep or a lot of it may see a greater expansion in their waistlines over time, a study published on Monday suggests.
Researchers found that among black and Hispanic adults younger than 40, those who typically slept for five hours or less each night had a greater accumulation of belly fat over the next five years, versus those who averaged six or seven hours.
Those who logged eight hours or more in bed each night also showed a bigger fat gain – but it was less substantial than that seen in \”short sleepers.\”
The study, reported in the journal Sleep, does not prove that too little or too much sleep directly leads to excess fat gain. But the findings support and extend those of other studies linking sleep duration – particularly a lack of sleep – to weight gain and even to higher risks of diabetes and heart disease.

The study adds to past research in part because it focused on black and Hispanic Americans – two understudied groups who are at increased risk of obesity and its related ills, said lead researcher Dr. Kristen G. Hairston, of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
It also zeroed in on the relationship between sleep and gains in abdominal fat – both the superficial fat layers just below the skin and the \”visceral\” fat that surrounds the abdominal organs. Deep abdominal fat is believed to be particularly important in the risks of health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, Hairston told Reuters Health.
The study included 332 African-American and 775 Hispanic-American men and women ages 18 to 81. At the outset, all reported on their sleep habits, diets, exercise levels and other lifestyle factors. The researchers used CT scans to measure participants\’ abdominal fat, at the start of the study and again five years later.
Among participants younger than 40, the study found, those who said they slept for five hours or less each night gained more belly fat than those who averaged six or seven hours of sleep.
On average, short sleepers showed a 32 percent gain in visceral fat, versus a 13 percent gain among those who slept six or seven hours per night, and a 22 percent increase among men and women who got at least eight hours of sleep each night.
A similar pattern was seen with superficial abdominal fat. Even when the researchers considered factors like calorie intake, exercise habits, education and smoking, sleep duration itself remained linked to abdominal-fat gain.
The findings, according to Hairston, support the belief that sleep habits affect weight, and health in general. \”Sleep is an important part of your overall health – not just in whether you\’re tired during the day,\” she said.
Individuals vary in their sleep needs, so there is no one set prescription. But \”extremes of sleep,\” such as less than five hours per night, should raise concerns, according to Hairston. \”And if you\’re concerned about your sleep,\” she said, \”discuss it with your healthcare provider, just as you would discuss diet or exercise.\”
As for why sleep duration might affect abdominal-fat gain, there are several theories.
There may be indirect effects; people who get too little sleep may be too tired during the day to exercise, while those who spend a lot of time in bed may spend less time being active, relative to people who sleep fewer hours.
Research also suggests that sleep loss alters people\’s levels of appetite-regulating hormones – which could, in theory, spur them to overeat.
Depression, which often affects people\’s sleep and has been linked to weight gain, could also be a factor, Hairston noted. She and her colleagues had no information on study participants\’ depression symptoms.

Fish oils have no mental benefits: study

A new Finnish study shows that the fatty acids of fish oils bring no mental benefits as many people tend to believe, even though they have a number of health-promoting benefits, local media reported Sunday.
Researchers at the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare followed the health records of 12,000 Finnish men and women, many of whom ate a lot of fish, and found neither a high consumption of fish nor omega-3 supplements had any effect on their mental health.
Contrary to popular belief, the Finnish study also found that men, whose blood contains higher levels of docosahexaenoic acid, a fatty acid found in fish, are more prone to suffer from mental distress.
Researchers said that alcohol consumption, smoking and level of physical activity also played a role in the results.

Experts warn over desire to have twins

Women who try for twins through artificial measures should think twice, medical experts warned yesterday.
Interventions such as in vitro fertilization or hyperstimulation of the ovaries will result in a high incidence of premature birth, low birth weight and other syndromes, a forum in the city heard.
The natural incidence of twins is one in every 80 to 90 pregnancies, but doctors at local maternal hospitals said they were seeing more women carrying twins as the result of medical intervention.
Dr Duan Tao, president of Shanghai No. 1 Maternity and Child Health Hospital and director of Shanghai Prenatal Diagnosis Center, said: \”Double children don\’t only mean double happiness but also double trouble. Mortality of twins is also double that of one child and their chances of suffering prematurity, low birth weight and cerebral palsy are also much higher.\”

Charities spread awareness of hemophilia

Seven-year-old Lu Zhongqian was born healthy in July 2002 in Beijing but 11 months later his father Lu Jinsheng discovered his son was different from others.

Doctors and an NNHF manager fill in the Chinese calligraphy which reads \”change the course of hemophilia\” at the NNHF\’s second-phase project launching ceremony in Shanghai at the end of last month. [File photo]
\”I found ecchymosis (bruising) on his body and joints that we could not explain. So we sent him to a hospital,\” recalled Lu, a worker with the Ministry of Railways in Beijing.
The boy was soon diagnosed with hemophilia, a congenital bleeding disorder that affects males and which usually becomes apparent in the first years of life when the child starts to move about independently.
It is estimated that about 600,000 males have hemophilia worldwide. Approximately one in every 5,000 men are born with hemophilia A.
The worried parents then began a long quest to seek a cure for their son. Aside from going to hospitals, they contacted volunteers of the patient group Hemophilia Home of China (HHC) to learn about modern treatments through its website and related medical publications.
\”Now my son is almost cured, and I\’m so glad to see him going to primary school as a normal kid, though he is one year behind his contemporaries because of his illness,\” said the proud father, watching his son bouncing on to the stage to sing a song in front of a group of doctors dedicated to treating the disease in Shanghai.
Lu Zhongqian is just one of the hundreds of hemophilia patients in China that received support from HHC and the Denmark-based pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, which have been working together towards improving the care and treatment of hemophilia patients in China.
The latter has launched a two-phase project to help teach medical staff, patients and their families regarding treatments and promote knowledge about the disease in China.
Since 200the Novo Nordisk Hemophilia Foundation (NNHF) has launched a 3 million yuan first-phase project in China focusing on education, screening and registration within the six main medical centers in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Hefei, Guangzhou and Jinan.
In China, a nation with a population of 1.3 billion, only about 5 percent of the estimated 130,000 sufferers are registered and treated, largely because of a lack of awareness of the disease in China\’s vast countryside.
NNHF helped launch China\’s first hemophilia web-based registry system and, so far, more than 6,200 patients have signed up.
NNHF also helps fund six laboratory technicians from three medical centers in China to study at the Royal Free Hospital Laboratory in London and aided the training of 330 physicians, 89 nurses and 65 laboratory technicians in China.
So far, a total of 1,616 people with hemophilia have been tested to confirm their diagnosis and the extent of their bleeding disorder.
With a comprehensive training program for healthcare professionals and patients with their families, the NNHF project team also reached out to a total of 464 sufferers and 275 family members to educate them through workshops over the past two years.
It has printed 34,000 copies of related material such as treatment guidelines and nursing manuals concerning the illness.
NNHF announced at the end of last month it would launch the second phase of its project in China, aiming to promote the project to 10 more cities with another investment of 3 million yuan.
All these efforts received positive feedback and support from the nation\’s health authority, with the Ministry of Health (MOH) of China issuing a formal notice at the end of November last year to require all provincial authorities to launch their registry centers for the illness.
According to Yi Mei, the division chief for Blood Management at the MOH, the ministry will further encourage registration of hemophilia by designating a hospital in each province as responsible for signing up patients and conducting diagnoses.
\”We hope that through charity projects such as NNHF, we can improve society\’s awareness of the project and help educate more patients to improve the quality of their lives eventually,\” Chen Jun, vice-president of strategic business development at Novo Nordisk China, told China Business Weekly.
\”In the first phase, we mainly focus on promoting medical treatment among relatively economically well-off cities such as Shanghai and Beijing. We found out that even in these areas, awareness among doctors and patients was relatively low,\” he said.
\”That\’s why we are now launching the second phase, to further expand the project\’s coverage to more inland provinces in central and western China to enable more people from these areas to get first-hand treatment.\”

Severe sleep apnea leads to lower frequency of nightmare recall

Patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are more likely to have a significantly lower frequency of nightmares than patients with mild or no sleep apnea, a new study shows.
The findings indicate that OSA suppresses the cognitive experience of nightmare recall, according to the study published in the Feb. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
This is the first large study to address both reported dream and nightmare recall frequency in a clinically evaluated sample of patients with a high frequency of severe OSA, said researchers at the University of Colorado Medical School.
This retrospective study involved 393 consecutive patients who were evaluated by overnight polysomnography over a two-year period. Their mean age was 50.5 years with a range of 13 to 82 years, and 67 percent of participants were male.
The results show that the percent of participants with frequent nightmare recall decreased linearly as sleep apnea severity increased. Frequent nightmare recall, occurring at least weekly, was reported by 71.4 percent of people who did not have OSA and 43. 2 percent of patients with mild OSA, which was defined as an apnea- hypopnea index (AHI) of five to less than 15 breathing pauses per hour of sleep.
The rate of frequent nightmare recall decreased to 29.9 percent in patients with moderate OSA (AHI of 15 to less than 30) and 20.6 percent in patients with severe OSA (AHI of 30 or more).
Sleep apnea severity in people who reported infrequent nightmare recall (mean AHI of 40.3) was significantly higher than in those who frequently recalled nightmares (mean AHI of 24.6).
The authors noted that the study clearly demonstrates that increasingly severe OSA has a much greater negative effect on reported nightmare recall frequency than it does on reported dream recall.
The decline in frequency of nightmare recall may be attributed to the sleep fragmentation that is caused by OSA, leading to a reduction in the amount of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is the sleep stage when nightmares generally occur, according to the study.

Scientists report on way to derail spread of AIDS

A successful AIDS vaccine remains elusive, but researchers say aggressive, early anti-viral therapy might provide a way to derail the spread of disease.
The goal is to catch new AIDS cases early and administer therapy to reduce the amount of virus in the patient\’s system.
Anti-retroviral therapy has increased in the past five years. But it\’s been given too late in the course of infection.
By the time people start therapy they have infected most of those that they would have infected anyway. That\’s according to Brian Williams of the South African Center for Epidemiological Modeling and Analysis.
The research was presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego.

Australian scientists find breast cancer link

Australian scientists revealed on Tuesday they had found that gene variants known to increase a woman\’s risk of breast cancer also played a determining role in the density of her breast.
Professor John Hopper, of the University of Melbourne\’s School of Population Health, said the discovery points to new \”pathways\” for the development of breast cancer, and it opens a new avenue for research into targeted treatment.
\”Previous twin studies have suggested there is a genetic link between mammographic density and breast cancer,\” he said.
\”For the first time, we have been able to identify some of the breast cancer genetic variants involved.\”
The research took in mammogram results and blood samples collected from 830 sets of twins and 600 of their sisters recruited via the Australian Twin Registry.
Scientists then looked for any link between women who had lots of \”light areas\” – high-density breast tissue – on their mammogram scans and a range of 12 gene variations known to increase the breast cancer risk.
\”We aimed to determine if these genetic variants associated with breast cancer risk also influenced mammographic density … and we found at least two of the variants were linked,\” said Dr Jennifer Stone, who led the research into mammographic density.
\”This is the beginning of a new research focus on how cancers begin and the role mammographic density plays.\”

New study refutes vaccination-autism link

There is no evidence that autism is linked with the measles vaccine, a new study suggests.
The new findings come about a week after The Lancet retracted a 1998 study suggesting that the MMR vaccine contributes to autism risk.
The 1998 study alarmed many parents and led to major declines in measles and MMR vaccination rates in some places.
In the new study published by HealthDay News on Friday, Polish researchers found that there is no apparent link between autism and the measles vaccine — whether the shot is given alone or as part of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).
The researchers compared 96 autistic children with 192 children who did not have the disorder.
The researchers said they reached their conclusion after adjusting for autism risk factors, including mother\’s age and education, length of gestation, medications during pregnancy and the child\’s condition after birth.
In fact, vaccinated children were found to be less likely to develop autism, especially those who\’d gotten the MMR vaccine, though that finding could be due to other unmeasured factors affecting the children\’s health, according to the researchers.
\”For example, health-care workers or parents may have noticed signs of developmental delay before the actual autism diagnosis and, for this reason, have avoided vaccination,\” wrote the team, led by Dorota Mrozek-Budzyn of Jagiellonian University Medical College, in Krakow.