November 20, 2006, 5:06 AM CT

Adolescent Girls More Active if Neighborhoods Have Parks

Adolescent girls who live within half a mile of a public park are significantly more physically active than other girls, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have found.

The study found that physical activity was higher for girls who lived within a mile of parks and showed highest levels among girls who lived less than one-half mile from a park, said Dr. Diane Catellier, a study investigator and research associate professor of biostatistics in the UNC School of Public Health. The researchers found that girls only got about 114 minutes a week of intense physical activity outside of school hours, or about 16 minutes a day.

Dr. Deborah Cohen, a senior natural scientist at RAND Corporation and lead author of the study, said the U.S. surgeon general recommends that all children and adolescents get at least 60 minutes of exercise a day. "We still have a long way to go in encouraging girls to be active".

The results appear in the November 2006 issue of Pediatrics. The study was led by the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization. Researchers from UNC-Chapel Hill, the University of Arizona, the University of South Carolina and San Diego State University participated. Funding was provided by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.........

Posted by: Gina      Permalink         Source

November 16, 2006, 9:25 PM CT

Edible Food Wrap Kills Deadly E. Coli

Researchers have improved upon an edible coating for fresh fruits and vegetables by enabling it to kill deadly E. coli bacteria while also providing a flavor-boost to food. Composed of apple puree and oregano oil, which acts as a natural antibacterial agent, the coating shows promise in laboratory studies of becoming a long-lasting, potent alternative to conventional produce washes, according to a team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the University of Lleida in Spain.

The study comes on the heels of the recent deadly E. coli outbreak in spinach and amid growing concern by experts that some produce-cleaning techniques may not be effective in destroying E. coli. The study is scheduled for the Nov. 29 issue of the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

"All produce-cleaning methods help to some degree, but our new coatings and films may provide a more concentrated, longer-lasting method for killing bacteria," says Research Leader Tara H. McHugh, Ph.D., a food chemist with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service in Albany, Calif. As the films are made of fruit or vegetable puree, they also provide added health benefits such as vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, she says.

Researchers have known about the antimicrobial activity of plant-derived essential oils for some time, but McHugh says that her group is the first to incorporate them into a fruit- or vegetable-based edible food wrap for the purpose of improving food safety. Three years ago, she and her associates developed a similar edible food wrap, but without the antimicrobial properties.........

Posted by: Sarah      Permalink         Source

November 16, 2006, 7:10 PM CT

Dieting Vs Exercise

Those in their 50s and 60s who want to lose weight might consider heading to the cardio workout room instead of counting calories, suggests new research out this month.

Both those who dieted and those who exercised lost a significant amount of weight, according to findings from an NIH-funded study on whether a calorie-restriction diet can extend lifespan. However, while exercisers maintained their strength and muscle mass and increased aerobic capacity, those who dieted lost muscle mass, strength and aerobic capacity.

"Exercise-induced weight loss provides the additional benefit of improving physical performance capacity," says Edward Weiss, Ph.D., lead author and assistant professor of nutrition and dietetics at Saint Louis University's Doisy College of Health Sciences.

"If push comes to shove and somebody wants to know if they should diet or exercise to lose weight, I would suggest exercise, provided they are willing to put in the extra time and effort and not offset the gains they make by eating more".

Weiss is a part of a Washington University team of scientists who studied healthy 50- to 60-year olds whose body mass index was between 23 and 30, placing them at the high end of normal weight or overweight.

Of the 34 study participants, 18 dieted and 16 exercised to lose weight.........

Posted by: Sean      Permalink         Source

November 16, 2006, 4:42 AM CT

New Treatment Strategy For Thyroid Cancer

The actions of a mutated protein in cells linked to thyroid cancer have been uncovered by researchers at Queen's University. The discovery paves the way for the future development of drugs to more effectively target, treat and possibly even prevent both inherited and non-inherited thyroid cancers.

"We now know why this gene causes these tumours and can start looking at how best to target the mutant proteins so that the cells expressing them can be killed or stopped from growing," says Lois Mulligan, professor of pathology and molecular medicine with the Division of Cancer Biology and Genetics of the Queen's Cancer Research Institute. She is senior author of a study to be published November 15 in the journal Cancer Research.

Taranjit S. Gujral, a Ph D student in Queen's Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine and lead author on the paper, developed three-dimensional models of the mutated RET protein implicated in a condition causing cancerous thyroid tumours. The model allowed him to predict and compare the protein's molecular actions and to see that the protein was ten times more active than normal in cells associated with Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia 2B (MEN 2B) syndrome, an inherited cancer syndrome. Co-authors on the study include Vinay K. Singh and Zongchao Jia of Queen's Biochemistry Department.........

Posted by: Sean      Permalink         Source

November 15, 2006, 5:11 AM CT

No Link Found Between Viagra and HIV Infection

Erectile dysfunction (ED) medications known as Phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE-5) inhibitors have been used by millions of men as safe and effective management options linked to high rates of patient and partner satisfaction. Recent reports have appeared, however, that some individuals have misused this class of drug, combining them with narcotics such as methamphetamines. These reports further note that such individuals may be, in particular, at an increased risk for HIV. If such claims of a large and expanding use of PDE-5 inhibitors are correct, this would signify an important public health concern.

A comprehensive, multi-disciplinary conference funded by the National Institutes of Health sought to determine whether the drug class of PDE-5 inhibitors was contributing to an overall increase in HIV infection. The results of this conference appear in the latest issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Convincing evidence was not found to support the conclusion that PDE-5 inhibitor use is a risk factor for HIV infection. For the large majority of men, PDE-5 inhibitor use is conducted in a stable, committed partner relationship. Under such circumstances, the risk of HIV infection is relatively small. Clinicians and educators did emphasize, however, the importance of safe sex practices for those engaging in risky sexual relations.........

Posted by: Sean      Permalink         Source

November 15, 2006, 4:39 AM CT

Holiday Season Could Ring In 'Heartburn Season'

Making merry is often synonymous with overindulging whether from holiday feasts or rich desserts or alcoholic beverages ringing in the holiday season as "heartburn season".

Heartburn generally caused by naturally occurring acids splashing back up from the stomach is often marked by a characteristic burning sensation that sufferers describe as rolling up into their chest. Fatty foods play a starring role in this process.

"Most of the time heartburn is a nuisance, not a tremendous threat to your health," said Dr. Stuart Spechler, professor of internal medicine in digestive and liver diseases at UT Southwestern Medical Center. "I tell most of my patients that it's going to be a tradeoff is the food going to taste good enough to suffer through the heartburn?

"If you know you're going to eat something that ordinarily gives you heartburn, there are medications that you can take before eating that food that might help".

Prevention now emphasized

For decades, the plop-plop-fizz-fizz approach of antacids taken after people already were experiencing heartburn was the only therapy available. Emphasis has since shifted to prevention.

Those who are planning to indulge in foods likely to cause them heartburn can now take a histamine receptor blocker (H2 blockers), which slow the production of stomach acid and are generally available over the counter.........

Posted by: Sean      Permalink         Source

November 14, 2006, 4:48 AM CT

Helping Children Resolve Past Conflicts

When young children argue with their siblings, they are rarely counseled to address their conflicts after the fighting is over. Rather than encouraging children to forget past disagreements, it might be better for parents to use these quarrels to help their children develop useful skills in conflict resolution.

That's the conclusion of researchers at the Universities of Waterloo and Chicago, who asked 64 pairs of siblings ages 4 to 12 to try to solve an ongoing conflict between them. Their goals: to determine whether young children can negotiate with each other to resolve long-standing disagreements; to learn whether siblings can reach compromises that allow both children to meet at least some of their goals, and to identify strategies used when children agree and when they fail to resolve their differences.

The study, reported in the November/December 2006 issue of Child Development, found that at the time conflicts occur, it's difficult for siblings to negotiate constructively and compromise with one another. In contrast, when dealing with past disagreements, many children are able to productively discuss and resolve their differences.

Research shows that children don't readily forget past grievances. But siblings were able to resolve their past differences when they worked together, compromised, and made flexible plans for the future. When children failed to discuss the future or lobbed accusations at each other, they were unable to resolve these conflicts. Even when disagreements were expressed in a reasoned or toned-down manner, they often stood in the way of solutions.........

Posted by: Sean      Permalink         Source

November 13, 2006, 8:34 AM CT

Sports cheats beware

Injecting performance enhancing corticosteroid hormones for other than medical therapy is banned, and tests exist that can detect injected hormones. Injecting synacthen, which stimulates the body to produce extra amounts of its own corticosteroid hormones is also banned. But until now there has been no test that could detect it in a blood sample.

That has just changed. Research published this week in Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry describes a method that can detect synacthen, even though it will only be found in incredibly low concentrations in a person's blood sample.

Synacthen is a protein, and researchers have developed a method that can specifically search for the minute traces of synacthen in a blood sample. Called immunological purification, this technique can find any synacthen molecules even though its concentration is 10,000,000 less than other proteins in blood plasma.

There are severe penalties for any person caught taking banned drugs. It is therefore very important that any test is able to be certain about its statement that a particular molecule is present in this case synacthen. To confirm that the immunological purification has pulled out synacthen, the protein is then subjected to a further two-stage test chromatography separation and mass spectrometric analysis. This lets researchers produce a chemical fingerprint of the molecule a fingerprint that uniquely identifies it.........

Posted by: Jim      Permalink         Source

November 13, 2006, 8:11 AM CT

Cardiocerebral Resuscitation better than CPR Outside

Survival rates following cardiac arrest went up 300 percent when emergency responders used Cardiocerebral Resuscitation, a new resuscitation approach for cardiac arrest pioneered at The University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center. Because the new technique does away with mouth-to-mouth breathing, it enhances the willingness to perform resuscitation in lay individuals.

"In out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the brain and the heart need resuscitation, not the lungs," said Gordon A. Ewy, director of UA Sarver Heart Center, where the new approach was developed. Ewy is one of few people in the world named a "CPR Giant" by the American Heart Association.

In CPR according to current AHA guidelines, 30 chest compressions are delivered, followed by two mouth-to-mouth breaths. While the responder presses on the chest, oxygenated blood is moved through the body and delivered to the organs.

"But when you stop chest compressions to give mouth-to-mouth ventilations, no blood is moved and the organs essentially are starved," Ewy says. "In fact, during CPR, blood flow to the brain and the organs is so poor that stopping chest compression for any reason including so called 'rescue breathing' is not helpful".

At the American Heart Association's 2006 Scientific Sessions in Chicago, Ewy presented data from Emergency Medical Services in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area showing that 9 percent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims survived after the implementation of Cardiocerebral Resuscitation. This equals a 300-percent increase compared to the time when first responders used guideline CPR, resulting in a mere 3 percent survival rate.........

Posted by: Sean      Permalink         Source

November 13, 2006, 7:45 AM CT

Psychological Needs Of Breast Cancer Patients

Almost half of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients are found to have clinically significant emotional distress or symptoms of psychiatric disorders before treatment is begun, according to a new study published in the recent issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study reveals that while virtually all of the women admitted to,experiencing some level of emotional distress, 47 percent met clinically significant screening criteria for emotional distress or a psychiatric disorder, including major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Studies have shown that significant emotional distress, including mood disorders and related functional impairments, afflict up to one-third of breast cancer survivors for up to 20 years after treatment. However, little was previously known about the baseline psychological status of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients.

To help characterize pre-treatment psychological status, Mark T. Hegel, Ph.D. of the Department of Psychiatry and the Norris Cotton Cancer Center of Dartmouth Medical School and colleagues conducted psychiatric and functional screening of 236 women newly diagnosed with breast cancer.

Their findings indicate that almost one in two women met clinically significant criteria for emotional distress or a psychiatric disorder. The most common problem was moderate to severe emotional distress (41 percent). The most commonly reported source of distress was related to the cancer diagnosis (100 percent), followed by uncertainty about treatment (96 percent) and concern about physical problems (81 percent). Twenty-one percent of women met criteria for psychiatric disorders, including major depression (11 percent) and PTSD (10 percent). These women also demonstrated significant declines in daily functioning that were due to the emotional disorders. Treatment for their cancer had not yet begun.........

Posted by: Sean      Permalink         Source