NY Times – Scientists who have studied a degenerative brain disease in athletes have found the same condition in combat veterans exposed to roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, concluding that such explosions injure the brain in ways strikingly similar to tackles and punches. The researchers also discovered what they believe is the mechanism by which explosions damage brain tissue and trigger the wasting disease, called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., by studying simulated explosions on mice. The animals developed evidence of the disease just two weeks after exposure to a single simulated blast, researchers found. Read article
Reuters – Three months of acupuncture improved breathing problems in people with chronic lung disease, in a new study from Japan. According to one researcher, the benefits seen with the alternative treatment were on par with, or better than, what’s been shown for conventional drugs and exercises used to treat the disease. But the study was small, he added, and more research will be needed to convince doctors and policymakers of acupuncture’s usefulness. Read article
NBC – A rise in prescription drug abuse involving Xanax and similar anti-anxiety pills in recent years has prompted some doctors in the U.S. to rethink the frequency with which they dole out the prescription. Between 2004 and 2009, New York City emergency room visits involving Xanax and other anti-anxiety prescription drugs known as benzodiazepines increased more than 50 percent. That’s up from 38 out of 100,000 New Yorkers in 2004 to 59 out of 100,000 New Yorkers. Read article
Nature – European researchers have identified a gene that is linked to improved memory, but also to increased risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Dominique de Quervain of the University of Basel in Switzerland and his colleagues recruited around 700 healthy young volunteers, obtaining DNA samples from them to analyse the sequence of their PRKCA gene. This gene is one of many known to be involved in the formation of emotional memories, and encodes an enzyme called protein kinase C-?. The researchers then showed the participants a series of emotionally affecting photographs and shortly afterwards asked them to write down short descriptions of the images. Read article
The Nation – Willice Onyango is an enterprising university student in western Kenya who is traveling the country with an unusual offer for women living with HIV. It goes like this: you join a cohort of ten to fifteen other HIV-positive women, together you come up with a viable plan for a small business, and you get an intrauterine device (IUD) to serve as long-term birth control. In return, you will be paid $40. Read Article
Reuters – Malaria-carrying mosquitoes in Africa and India are becoming resistant to insecticides, putting millions of lives at greater risk and threatening eradication efforts, health experts said on Tuesday. While existing prevention measures such as mosquito nets treated with insecticide and indoor spraying are still effective, experts said tight surveillance and rapid response strategies were needed to prevent more resistance developing. Read article
Reuters – People getting checked for signs of colon cancer may not need to take a laxative if they choose a CT scan for their cancer screening over a tradition colonoscopy, according to a new study. The findings suggest a so-called CT colonography is almost as good at identifying certain polyps as a traditional colonoscopy, and researchers said eliminating the need for laxatives may encourage more people to get screened. Read article
Reuters – When London marathon medical director Sanjay Sharma was called to attend someone who had collapsed with suspected cardiac arrest a mile from the finish line last month, he expected to find a man in his seventies. “I had to hide my horror as I saw a young, athletic woman,” he says. “I had to… compose myself for a few seconds before we started resuscitation.” Read article
NY Times – One day last summer, Anne and her husband, Miguel, took their 9-year-old son, Michael, to a Florida elementary school for the first day of what the family chose to call “summer camp.” For years, Anne and Miguel have struggled to understand their eldest son, an elegant boy with high-planed cheeks, wide eyes and curly light brown hair, whose periodic rages alternate with moments of chilly detachment. Michael’s eight-week program was, in reality, a highly structured psychological study — less summer camp than camp of last resort. Read article
Reuters – More than half of kids who were part of a new study from California tested positive for secondhand smoke exposure — despite only a handful of their parents admitting to lighting up. Parents may think kids are only exposed if they’re around someone actively smoking a cigarette, researchers said, or are unaware of where else their children might be breathing in smoke. Read article
Huffington Post – Bees are making headlines these days, and not in a positive way. Colony collapse disorder has cut through honeybee populations, with some beekeepers reportedly losing up to 90 percent of their stock in recent years. European bee populations are also declining, and so are some species of North American bumblebee. That data is often interpreted to mean that all of the world’s 20,000 bee species are in danger, and that we may be in the midst of a “global pollinator crisis.” But there’s little data to back up those claims, scientists say. Read article
ScienceDaily — Scientists are reporting a possible link between the use of sunscreen containing a certain ingredient that mimics the effects of the female sex hormone estrogen and an increased risk of being diagnosed with endometriosis, a painful condition in which uterine tissue grows outside the uterus. They describe the report, published in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology, as the first to examine whether such a connection may exist. Read article
The Telegraph – Common chemicals found in household products may be causing a range of medical problems such as cancer, reduced fertility and obesity, Europe’s environmental watchdog has warned. The European Environment Agency (EEA) warned other items such as cosmetics and medicines which contain endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) could be harmful to humans. The agency said the link between some diseases and these disrupter chemicals was now fully accepted. Read article
Science Alert – Lupus patients show more severe symptoms of the disease if their vitamin D levels are low, an Australian-first study has found. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), which affects more than five million people worldwide, was found to be worse in vitamin D deficient SLE patients than in those with normal levels, in the study led by Professor Eric Morand, head of the Monash Lupus Clinic and Southern Clinical School at Monash Medical Centre. Read article
AP — A deadly lead poisoning outbreak that began two years ago in northern Nigeria continues to claim young victims even today, an aid agency official said Thursday, while calling on the government to do more to protect those at risk. Ivan Gayton of Doctors Without Borders also criticized the government of oil-rich Nigeria for not taking the threat seriously, despite 4,000 children already being sickened by the outbreak linked to gold mining. Foreign aid groups have done much of the work to clean the villages affected in rural Zamfara state and provide care to the children, who likely will suffer long-term brain damage from their exposure to the lead. Read article
Reuters – Experimental drugs that show a big effect early in development for treating serious or life-threatening diseases would get a faster and cheaper path to U.S. approval, under a proposal likely to become law this year. U.S. drug regulators would be able to label such treatments “breakthrough” therapies, and work with companies to speed up clinical trials, for example by testing the drugs for a shorter time or enrolling fewer patients. Read article
BBC – A simple drawing test may help predict the risk of older men dying after a first stroke, a study in the journal BMJ Open suggests. Taken while healthy, the test involves drawing lines between numbers in ascending order as fast as possible. Read article
Reuters – A new study suggests that women who have liposuction to trim their tummies may gain some fat deeper within the abdomen — a type of fat that’s particularly unhealthy. Brazilian researchers found that within months of abdominal liposuction, there may be an increase in the so-called “visceral” fat that surrounds the abdominal organs. But the good news, they say, is that regular exercise may prevent that deep fat from forming. Read article
Live Science – A decline in the variety of life — including the plants and animals that live around us, as well as the microbes on our bodies — may play a role in the rapid rise in allergies and asthma, indicates new research. The study focused on a predisposition for allergies among 118 Finnish teenagers, finding links between a healthy immune system (the body’s system for fighting disease), growing up in more natural environments and the presence of certain skin bacteria. Read article
Daily Mail – Life-threatening asthma cases will rocket this summer if the record-breaking rainfall continues, a leading healthcare expert has warned.
Recent record rainfall has triggered a spike in the number of ‘thunderstorm asthma’ admissions to hospitals, visits to doctors surgeries and emergency out-of-hours calls.
Medics say the heavy rain stirs fungal spores, especially one identified as alternaria which can cause a life-threatening asthma attack. Read article
NPR – Sun, salt and lime sounds like the beginnings of a cocktail recipe, but for some, it could mean cleaner, life-sustaining water. In many developing countries, the only source of water is contaminated with viruses and bacteria. In fact, the United Nations estimates that 1 in 6 people don’t have access to enough fresh drinking water. Read article
The Scientist – …Lou Tartaglia decided that now was the perfect time to start a company to target obesity. …Tartaglia is betting on the newest science in this area: brown-fat biology. Unlike white fat cells, which get their name from the excess lipids they store and whose relatively few mitochondria transfer energy from the lipids and sugars to the energy-storing molecule ATP, brown fat cells’ many mitochondria contain an “uncoupling protein” that allows them instead to release the energy from sugars and lipids as heat—to warm hibernating animals, for example. Researchers think that by increasing the numbers of brown fat cells in adults, or by activating those that already exist, they will be able to help people burn calories, shedding extra pounds as a result. Read article
BBC – One in six cancers – two million a year globally – are caused by largely treatable or preventable infections, new estimates suggest. The Lancet Oncology review, which looked at incidence rates for 27 cancers in 184 countries, found four main infections are responsible. Read article
Reuters – U.S. healthcare group Allergan has received a subpoena from the U.S. government over its gastric banding system that is used to treat obesity. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday Allergan said the subpoena from the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, requests the production of documents relating to its Lap-Band gastric banding system. Read article
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