Health & WellnessS


Heart

Herbs for Energy

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Ginseng has been used to treat erectile dysfunction and fatigue in cancer patients.
Enter winter. The earth's days are shorter; yours are not. You have as much to do as in summer and spring but all the cold and dark is sapping vital energy. Put down that Red Bull can and the 5,000 hour energy shot. Stop it with the triple dose lattes. Did you notice that you are still out of it a half hour later? Not to mention the shakes... Seriously, it's time go herbal on your energy crisis.

Pills

Company 'knew of drug fears before withdrawal'

Evidence that the painkiller Vioxx might increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes emerged nearly four years before the drug was voluntarily withdrawn from the market, research has shown.

Vioxx, the brand name for rofecoxib, was designed to fight the pain of arthritis. It was launched in May 1999 by Merck & Co Inc. But in September 2004, Merck voluntarily pulled Vioxx following a large trial that was halted early after finding evidence linking Vioxx to a raised risk of cardiovascular events.

Key

Particles From Car Brakes Harm Lungs

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Brake wear is responsible for 20 per cent of traffic pollution
Findings highlight the importance of reducing brake particle emissions as well as exhaust to safeguard human health

Particles released by cars when they brake have been found to cause damage to lung cells.

Researchers at the University of Bern and the Institute of Health in Switzerland found that in laboratory tests the metals in brake wear particles can damage junctions between cells.

Crusader

Catholic Bishops Enact Plan For "300,000 Terri Schiavos"

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops released an "Ethical and Religious Directive" this month that would ban any Catholic hospital, nursing home or hospice program from removing feeding tubes or ending palliative procedures of any kind, even when the individual has an advance directive to guide their end-of-life care. The Bishops' directive even notes that patient suffering is redemptive and brings the individual closer to Christ.

The Catholic bishops have become more involved in political fights in recent years, particularly the issue of abortion coverage and immigration provisions in the current health care debate. This has caused a schism in the American Catholic community, which bubbled to a head yesterday with Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) being denied communion because of his position on choice.

People

Early Relationships Influence Teen Pain and Depression

Angst could be more than a rite of passage for insecure teenagers, according to a study published in the Journal of Pain. Researchers from the Université de Montréal, Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center and McGill University have discovered that insecure adolescents experience more intense pain in the form of frequent headaches, abdominal pain and joint pain. These teens are also more likely to be depressed than peers with secure attachments.

Dr. Isabelle Tremblay, a researcher at the Université de Montréal and its affiliated Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center, and Dr. Michael Sullivan, a psychology professor at McGill University, launched this study to build on previous findings that childhood experiences play a major role in the relationships people develop in later life. Simply put: insecure infants grow up to be insecure adolescents, and later, insecure adults.

"Although previous studies in adults found that an individual's security level was influenced by painful experiences, it was not clear why relationship security should be related to pain," says Dr. Tremblay. "We found that adolescents with insecure relationships tend to be more 'alarmist' about their pain symptoms; they have a tendency to amplify the degree of threat or severity of their pain. This amplification leads to more intense pain and more severe depressive symptoms."

Magnify

Flaxseed Oil May Reduce Osteoporosis Risk

Animal studies suggest that adding flaxseed oil to the diet could reduce the risk of osteoporosis in post-menopausal women and women with diabetes, according to a report to be published in the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health.

Mer Harvi and colleagues at the National Research Center, in Cairo, Egypt, have studied the effect of diabetes on bone health and evaluated how flaxseed oil in the diet might delay the onset of osteoporosis. The researchers studied 70 female albino rats of which 30 had their ovaries removed (ovx) to simulate the post-menopausal state and experimental diabetes was present in one group of rodents.

The researchers then classified the rats as control, sham, diabetic, diabetic received flaxseed oil in the diet, ovx, ovx-diabetic and ovx-diabetic received flaxseed oil in the diet.

Magnify

Saving the Single Cysteine: New Antioxidant System Found

We've all read studies about the health benefits of having a life partner. The same thing is true at the molecular level, where amino acids known as cysteines are much more vulnerable to damage when single than when paired up with other cysteines.

Now, researchers at the University of Michigan, along with colleagues in Belgium, have discovered a new antioxidant system that protects single cysteines. The research appears in the Nov. 20 issue of the journal Science.

Our body's proteins, which are made up of amino acids and perform essential roles, can be injured by reactive species known as oxidants. Over time, the injuries can lead to cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and other serious medical conditions. To guard against such harm, our cells have special proteins that can repair or reverse oxidative damage. But until now, no such repair system had been identified for single cysteines, which are particularly susceptible to the damage.

In the current research, U-M's Kate Carroll and colleagues used previously developed chemical probes to investigate and nail down the mechanism involved.

Pills

Doctor-drugmaker Ties: Psychiatrist Received Nearly $500,000 from Antipsychotic Drug's Manufacturer

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© Abel Uribe / July 30, 2009)Chanile Hayes says Dr. Michael Reinstein told her taking the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel would help her lose weight. Instead, she says, she went from 140 pounds to nearly 300 pounds within two years.
Executives inside pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca faced a high-stakes dilemma.

On one hand, Chicago psychiatrist Dr. Michael Reinstein was bringing the company a small fortune in sales and was conducting research that made one of its most promising drugs look spectacular.

On the other, some worried that his research findings might be too good to be true.

Ambulance

Scientist Repeats Swine Flu Lab-Escape Claim in Published Study

Adrian Gibbs, the virologist who said in May that swine flu may have escaped from a laboratory, published his findings today, renewing discussion about the origins of the pandemic virus.

The new H1N1 strain, which was discovered in Mexico and the U.S. in April, may be the product of three strains from three continents that swapped genes in a lab or a vaccine-making plant, Gibbs, and fellow Australian scientists wrote in Virology Journal. The authors analyzed the genetic makeup of the virus and found its origin could be more simply explained by human involvement than a coincidence of nature.

Their study, published in a free, online journal reviewed by other scientists, follows debate among researchers six months ago, when Gibbs asked the World Health Organization to consider the hypothesis. After reviewing Gibbs' initial three-page paper, WHO and other organizations concluded the pandemic strain was a naturally occurring virus and not laboratory-derived.

Health

Children Who Suffer Physical or Emotional Abuse May Be Faced With Accelerated Cellular Aging as Adults

Children who suffer physical or emotional abuse may be faced with accelerated cellular aging as adults, according to new research from Butler Hospital and Brown University.

The findings, which are published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry, draw a direct connection between childhood psychological trauma and accelerated reduction in the size of telomeres, the "caps" on the end of chromosomes that promote cellular stability. Telomeres typically shorten with age.

After measuring DNA extracted from blood samples of 31 adults, researchers found accelerated shortening of telomeres in those who reported suffering maltreatment as children, compared to study participants who did not.

"It tells us something. It gives us a hint that early developmental experiences may have profound effects on biology that can influence cellular mechanisms at a very basic level, said Dr. Audrey Tyrka, the study's lead author. Tyrka is assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and associate chief of the mood disorders program at Butler Hospital in Providence, R.I.