Mediterranean Diet Appears To Boost Aging Brain Power
May 23, 2013

Built on a foundation of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish, the Mediterranean diet has been associated with everything from increased longevity to reduced cancer risk.

Now a new study indicates that the diet, with added extra virgin olive oil or mixed nuts, may improve the brain power of older people even better than a low-fat diet.

The study's authors from the University of Navarra in Spain, whose research was published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, based their findings on 522 men and women. Participants were between the ages of 55 and 80 and didn't have heart disease, but were still considered high risk because of type 2 diabetes or a combination of factors including blood pressure, cholesterol, obesity, family history and smoking.

The study's participants, who were all taking part in a trial looking at how best to ward off heart disease, were randomly chosen to adhere to a Mediterranean diet with added olive oil or mixed nuts. A control group was asked to follow the low-fat diet typically recommended for preventing heart attack and stroke.

After an average of 6.5 years, they were all tested for signs of cognitive decline. The average scores on the cognitive tests were significantly higher for those following a Mediterranean diet compared with those on the low-fat option.

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Noise, dirty air may be double whammy for the heart
May 23, 2013

Air pollution and noise pollution both may boost the risk of heart disease, new research from Germany suggests.

"Many studies have looked at air pollution, while others have looked at noise pollution," said Dr. Barbara Hoffmann, a professor of environmental epidemiology at IUF Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine and lead author of the new study.

"This study looked at both at the same time and found that each form of pollution was independently associated with subclinical atherosclerosis," Hoffmann said. Atherosclerosis is also known as hardening of the arteries.

Hoffmann and her colleagues are scheduled to present their findings Monday in Philadelphia at a meeting of the American Thoracic Society.

The researchers analyzed data from a continuing population study underway in the Ruhr region of Germany. The data covered how exposure to fine particle pollution and long-term traffic noise exposure affected cardiovascular risk among more than 4,200 residents, average age 60, of three cities in the vicinity.

After controlling for age, gender, smoking status, physical activity, alcohol use and other factors that could affect the results, the team found that air and noise pollution significantly boosted a clinical measure of arterial hardening known as the "thoracic aortic calcification," or TAC.

While local air pollution was found to drive up TAC among the study participants by an average of nearly 20 percent, local noise pollution drove up TAC by roughly 8 percent, the investigators found.

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Scientists for the first time create human stem cells through cloning
May 16, 2013

A breakthrough in stem cell research could pave the way for new medical treatments

A team of scientists have successfully cloned human embryos that can produce stem cells, a major breakthrough that could lead to new medical treatments - and, potentially, human cloning.

Scientists from Oregon Health and Science University, reporting their finding Wednesday in the journal Cell, said they had taken a baby's skin cells and combined them with human eggs. The result? Human embryos genetically identical to the original baby that, crucially, were able to produce fresh stem cells.

The process, known as a somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), involves taking the nucleus of one cell and implanting it into an unfertilized egg that has had its nucleus removed.

"The egg 'reprograms' the DNA in the donor cell to an embryonic state and divides until it has reached the early, blastocyst stage," explains Nature's David Cyranoski. "The cells are then harvested and cultured to create a stable cell line that is genetically matched to the donor and that can become almost any cell type in the human body.

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Angelina Jolie Will Have Ovaries Removed to Lower Chances of Cancer
May 16, 2013

Film star Angelina Jolie will have her ovaries removed to help lower her odds for ovarian cancer, People magazine reported Wednesday.

The news comes just a day after Jolie, 37, revealed in an article published on the editorial page of The New York Times that she had undergone a double mastectomy. Jolie wrote that she made the decision after learning she carried a gene, called BRCA1, that is linked to a significantly higher risk for both breast and ovarian cancers.

Now, Jolie "is also planning to undergo surgery to remove her ovaries," an operation known as oophorectomy, according to People.

Jolie's mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, died of ovarian cancer at the age of 56.

According to the Mayo Clinic, preventive removal of the ovaries can cut the risk of ovarian cancer in a woman with a BRCA mutation by 80 percent to 90 percent.

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Gene test may help guide prostate cancer treatment
May 9, 2013

A new genetic test to gauge the aggressiveness of prostate cancer may help tens of thousands of men each year decide whether they need to treat their cancer right away or can safely monitor it.

The new test, which goes on sale Wednesday, joins another one that recently came on the market. Both analyze multiple genes in a biopsy sample and give a score for aggressiveness, similar to tests used now for certain breast and colon cancers.

Doctors say tests like these have the potential to curb a major problem in cancer care - overtreatment. Prostate tumors usually grow so slowly they will never threaten a man's life, but some prove fatal and there is no reliable way now to tell which ones will. Treatment with surgery, radiation or hormone blockers isn't needed in most cases and can cause impotence or incontinence, yet most men are afraid to skip it.

''We're not giving patients enough information to make their decision,'' said Dr. Peter Carroll, chairman of urology at the University of California, San Francisco. ''You can shop for a toaster'' better than for prostate treatment, he said.

A study he led of the newest test - the Oncotype DX Genomic Prostate Score - is set for discussion Wednesday at an American Urological Association meeting in San Diego.

The results suggest the test could triple the number of men thought to be at such low risk for aggressive disease that monitoring is a clearly safe option. Conversely, the test also suggested some tumors were more aggressive than doctors had believed.

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Chris Christie's lap-band surgery and what it means for 2016
May 9, 2013

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he decided to get lap-band surgery in February for his family. "For me, this is about turning 50 and looking at my children and wanting to be there for them," Christie told the New York Post.

We believe him. But, Christie's decision to undergo surgery to help him lose weight can't be removed from the context of politics since Christie is widely regarded as a presidential candidate in 2016 - assuming he wins re-election to a second term in the Garden State this fall.

The simple fact, which Christie, his advisers and everyone else in politics knows, is this: No one as overweight as the New Jersey governor has come close to winning the presidency (or even a party's nomination) in the modern - read: television - era.

Bill Clinton struggled some with his weight during his presidency - who could forget this picture? - but he was, at most, slightly overweight, not obese. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was very heavy during his time in office but made his remarkable weight loss a major part of his 2008 presidential campaign. (Heck, he wrote a book about it.)

But there aren't that many examples of people with major weight problems - and Christie has acknowledged many times publicly that his issues with weight are serious - who have come close to the presidency. (The only obvious example is, of course, William Howard Taft. But he was president more than a hundred years ago.) Our last two presidents - George W. Bush and Barack Obama - both put a premium on physical fitness, regularly working out or clearing brush (Bush) or playing basketball (Obama).

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ER Visits Tied to Ambien on the Rise
May 2, 2013

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of emergency-room visits related to sleep medications such as Ambien, according to a new U.S. study.

Adverse reactions to zolpidem -- the active ingredient in the sleep aids Ambien, Ambien CR, Edluar and Zolpimist -- rose almost 220 percent between 2005 and 2010, researchers from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found.

The study authors concluded that use of these drugs for the short-term treatment of insomnia should be carefully monitored. Zolpidem, which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has been used safely and effectively by millions of Americans, but adverse reactions to the medication have increased. Most of these cases involved people aged 45 and older, the researchers said.

"Although short-term sleeping medications can help patients, it is exceedingly important that they be carefully used and monitored," SAMHSA administrator Pamela Hyde said in an agency news release. "Physicians and patients need to be aware of the potential adverse reactions associated with any medication, and work closely together to prevent or quickly address any problems that may arise."

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FDA appeals making 'morning-after' pill available to all ages
May 2, 2013

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday appealed a court order directing the agency to make "morning-after" emergency contraception pills available without a prescription to all girls of reproductive age.

Lawyers with the Justice Department filed the appeal with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, according to court documents.

The appeal is the latest foray in the years-long legal battle over the pill known as "Plan B," a drug that has also sparked political and religious clashes. If taken up to 120 hours after unprotected sex, it is designed to prevent pregnancy.

The government is seeking to overturn U.S. District Judge Edward Korman's ruling from April 5 that required the FDA to make the emergency contraception available over-the-counter to women of all ages within 30 days.

The Justice Department has asked the district court to temporarily stop its order from taking effect while the appeal is pending, said FDA spokeswoman Erica Jefferson.

The district judge's ruling came in response to a lawsuit originally filed in 2005 by the Center for Reproductive Rights and other groups seeking to strike down age and access limits to the emergency contraception. They argued that there was no scientific proof that girls of reproductive age could not safely use the drug without supervision.

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