OCD Link to a Genetic Marker May Pave the Way for New Treatments

Researchers have found a genetic marker associated with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The finding could help increase the understanding of this mental disorder and aid in the development of new treatments.

It is estimated that OCD affects 1 to 2 percent of the U.S. population. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), OCD is one of the more disabling mental health conditions worldwide. Now, a group of researchers has identified a genetic marker that may be associated with the development of OCD.

OCD is one of the least understood mental disorders in terms of causes and mechanisms. Treatment for the disorder includes antidepressants, known as SSRIs, and behavioral therapy. However, these treatments are only effective for some people.

According to the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH), OCD is characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce anxiety (obsessions), repetitive behaviors engaged in to reduce anxiety (compulsions), or a combination of both. OCD can have a tremendous negative impact on daily functioning.

[via - healthline.com]

Report: Tobacco fields poisoning kids

Kids can’t buy tobacco products, but in Tennessee children as young as 9 are working in tobacco fields and suffering symptoms consistent with acute nicotine poisoning, according to a report by an international human rights group.

In most cases, there is nothing illegal about the practice. State and federal child labor laws carve out exemptions for agricultural work, allowing children of any age to work on small farms. Children 12 and older can work unlimited hours outside of school at any farm with a parent’s permission. At 14, children can do farm work without a parent’s permission.

But a new report by New York-based Human Rights Watch highlights hazards facing children laboring in tobacco fields.

“I’ve gotten sick,” a 9-year-old identified in the report only as “Patrick W.” told researchers about his work at a Macon County farm. “We started cutting [tobacco plants], and I had to go home. I kept on coughing (heaving), and I had to eat crackers and drink some Gatorade. … I threw up a little bit. It took two or three hours before I felt better.”

[via - tennessean.com]

Too much exercise may be bad for the heart

Everyone knows exercise is fundamental for good cardiovascular health, but a new and surprising body of research is finding that too much exercise may also increase the risk of death from heart attack or stroke in patients with existing heart problems.

The new study, which was just published in the journal Heart, tracked a decade's worth of exercise habits and survival of more than 1,000 people with diagnosed -- but stable -- coronary artery disease. The majority of the study's participants were in their 60s and had attended a cardiac rehabilitation program to avoid future heart attacks or strokes.

Around 40 percent of the study participants did an hour of moderate-intensity aerobic activity 2 to 4 times per week; of the remaining 60 percent, half exercised at that level more than four times a week and the other half exercised less. Overall, 1 in 10 said they rarely or never exercised.

The researchers found those who were most sedentary were around twice as likely to have a heart attack or stroke as those who were regularly physically active. They were around four times as likely to die of cardiovascular events and all other causes.

[via - cbsnews.com]

Study: Lung cancer screening could cost Medicare billions, add $3 to monthly premiums

Every person covered by Medicare would shell out an additional $3 a month if the government agreed to pay to screen certain current and former smokers for lung cancer, a new study estimates.

It would cost Medicare $2 billion a year to follow recent advice to offer these lung scans — and fuel angst about rising health costs that are borne by everyone, not just smokers, the study found.

Joshua Roth of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle said the researchers merely were tallying the cost of screening, and were not "judging value" or saying whether Medicare should pay it. He led the study, which was released Wednesday and will be presented at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference later this month.

Lung cancer is the world's top cancer killer, mainly because it's usually found too late for treatment to do much good. Most deaths involve Medicare-age people, and most are due to smoking.

Recently, a major study found that annual CT scans, a type of X-ray, could cut the chances of dying from lung cancer by up to 20 percent in those most at risk — people ages 55 through 79 who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 30 years or the equivalent, such as two packs a day for 15 years.

Based largely on that, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in December recommended screening that group, about 10 million Americans. The scans cost $100 to as much as $400. Under the new health care law, cancer screenings recommended by the task force are to be covered with no copays.

[via - startribune.com]

NY to Consider Indoor E-Cigarette Ban

State lawmakers are looking at whether to include electronic cigarettes in New York's indoor public smoking ban.

The Senate Health Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the matter Monday.

The panel will consider whether the existing ban on public indoor smoking should be applied to e-cigarettes and review current regulations on liquid nicotine, which is used in the devices.

The committee is expected to take testimony from supporters and opponents of increased regulations....

[via - nbcnewyork.com]

More Women Waiting to Have First Child

The number of women over 35 giving birth for the first time has increased nine-fold according to data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control. Researchers examined trends over four decades starting in 1973 and ending in 2012, the most recent year with complete information.

Researchers did not look at why the change in birth rates occurred, but reason that in today’s society, more women are delaying having their first child to focus on their careers. The change in first birth rate was evident in all races and ethnic groups, who saw the most dramatic increase in older women. The number of non-Hispanic black women becoming first-time moms in the 40 to  49 age group jumped 171 percent between 1990 and 2012....

[via - techsonia.com]

Study examines why polar bears are fat yet healthy

When it comes to healthy eating, polar bears break all the rules. They eat mostly fat, but they don't get heart disease the way humans would.

Scientists said the Thursday in journal Cell that the reason lies in their genes.

Some speedy evolutionary tricks, particularly in the genes which handle how fats are metabolized and how fats are transported in the blood, have allowed polar bears to survive in the Arctic, scientists said.

And it all happened within the last 500,000 years, after the polar bear split from its cousin, the brown bear, according to research that compared the two animals' genomes.

Scientists found that polar bears are much younger than previously thought, with past estimates of the divergence time between polar and brown bears ranging from 600,000 to five million years ago.

"It's really surprising that the divergence time is so short," said Rasmus Nielsen, a University of California Berkeley professor of integrative biology and of statistics

[via - natureworldnews.com]

Soy Sauce Mistake Leads to Potential HIV Therapy

A compound that was accidentally discovered when soy sauce manufactures were crafting new flavor enhancers could potentially treat HIV more effectively than currently used drugs.

Patients currently suffering from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are most likely to be treated with AIDS-prevention medications such as the drug Tenofovir - a first-line therapy that, while initially helpful, quickly becomes very ineffective.

This reportedly occurs because the virus mutates to devlop a resitance to these drugs, forcing physicians to move their patients onto more potent medications with many adverse effects.

However, according to a study recently published in The International Journal of Pharmaceutics, researchers have discovered that new drug therapies developed using a molecule called EFdA can potentially help halt the spread of the virus without a high risk of increasing drug resistance.

Authors of the study explained in a recent press release that EFdA was discovered in 2001, when a soy sauce company was attempting to create a new flavor enhancer. When the compound was made, scientists quickly realized it was a "nucleoside analogue" - a type of compound commonly used for viral treatment.

[via - natureworldnews.com]

'Star Wars' prosthetic arm gains FDA approval

DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics program, which aimed to gain U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for a "prosthetic upper limb with near-natural control mechanisms," has been successful. DARPA says the FDA approved the DEKA Arm System shown here in less than eight years after the start of the program.

The agency says the aim of the program is to offer more choices for amputees. The split-hook prosthetic commonly used by amputees was invented in 1912. (Via DARPA, Flickr / Divine Harvester)

Using specialized sensors attached to the upper arm or the feet, the device can translate what the user aims to do — turning electrical signals in the muscles into movement. (Via  ​DARPA)

DARPA says the battery-powered arm is comparable to a natural arm in weight and size. The system is delicate enough to handle grapes and even eggs, as we showed you before.

[via - ajc.com]

Leadless Pacing Shows Promise, But Hits Snags

Longer-term results from the first-in-man study of the Nanostim leadless pacemaker showed the device continued to work as expected, but a postmarketing study in Europe has been temporarily halted following reports of perforations and deaths.

Through 1 year, measures of pacing threshold, impedance, R-wave amplitude, percentage pacing, and battery voltage remained similar to those seen in the initial 3 months of follow-up, according to Vivek Reddy, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

Also, there were no additional adverse events uncovered from 3 to 12 months in the 33 patients enrolled in the preliminary study, Reddy reported at the Heart Rhythm Society meeting here.

The results indicate that leadless right ventricular pacing is feasible, Reddy said. He acknowledged that the study was small, but said that "this raises the possibility of being able to remove the weakest link of pacemaker systems, which is of course the lead."

[via - medpagetoday.com]

Researchers Find Gene That Augments Cognitive Capabilities

A recent study has revealed that persons who have a variant of longevity gene called KLOTHO had better brain skills like judgment, knowledge and recollection, regardless of their age, sex or whether they have a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease

Researchers have also noticed that when KLOTHO gene levels were increased in mice, they became smarter. The phenomenon could be explained due to the strength of connection between nerve cells in the brain.

The research is headed by Dena Dubal, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of neurology, the David A. Coulter Endowed Chair in Aging and Neuro-degeneration at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). According to Dena, it could pave way to help millions of patients around the world who are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia caused by Brain degeneration. If it is possible to repair and boost the brain’s ability to function, we could be looking at a revolutionary new approach in treating dementia.

[via - thewestsidestory.net]

Bacon Flavored Condom Could Make Porking More Fun and Safe

If you're wanting a little more porking during a coitus sesh, now, you can have it all! According to recent news, a company is creating a bacon flavored condom. Yum!

J&D's, a company whose tagline is "everything should taste like bacon," tests that maxim with their latex condoms that have been coated in "baconlube," a water-based meat-flavored personal lubricant. They also promise "An even more hot pork experience." Who can beat that ad?

Read More....

[via - Scienceworldreport]

Study: Hormone therapy increases breast cancer risk, mortality

LOS ANGELES — In the nearly 11 years since researchers first rang alarm bells that women on hormone replacement therapy faced an increased risk of breast cancer, some have suggested that taking estrogen and progestin to treat symptoms of menopause might not be so dangerous after all.

Though it was generally agreed that women who took the two hormones to curb their hot flashes and night sweats upped their chances of developing the disease, many studies suggested that the cancers the women developed were less likely to be deadly.

Read More....

[via - Washingtonpost]

Stillbirth risk upped by how mom sleeps

ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 30 (UPI) --Pregnant women in Ghana who slept on their backs were at heightened risk of stillbirth compared with women who did not, U.S. researchers say.

Senior author Louise O'Brien, an associate professor in University of Michigan's Sleep Disorders Center, and colleagues and said although the study was conducted in a maternity hospital in Ghana, a recent case-control study from New Zealand also found a link between maternal supine sleep -- sleeping on their backs -- and stillbirth.

Read More....

[via - UPI]

Children Aging 9 to 11 Should be Tested for High Cholesterol Levels, Report Says

The new health instructions urging parents to their children, aging between 9 and 11, for the detection of high cholesterol levels. Appeal was made also by the guidelines for children between the ages of 17 and 21.

The reasoning behind the call is to prevent the beginning of heart disease later in life of children and that are common sources of cholesterol in children at higher levels. The reasoning behind the call is to prevent the beginning of heart disease later in life of children and that are common sources of cholesterol in children at higher levels.

As we know that having high cholesterol in the body can cause different problems, but cholesterol is sadly the main cause of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, as it is a main reason of heart disease.

The new guidelines suggest that children in the strict sense, especially in the age group above, should be screened against the disease to keep them safe.

The above calls are one of the most important changes that have recently been done to existing guidelines that were set up in 1992 and originally called for the cholesterol check for those kids who had a family record of high level of cholesterol and heart disease.

"It's the old way was lost children who had high cholesterol levels," says Steve Daniels, MD, Ph. D., professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Daniels said of his side by saying that fatty streaks are generally an indication to the start of atherosclerosis in the first decade of life, as if nothing is done can at least develop into a dangerous accumulations of fat that can clog and harden the arteries in later life. Therefore, to protect the kids who undergo from such problems later in life, it is crucial that they are first examined.