Category Archives: health

Bigger waist, greater tax on lungs

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There’s more bad news for people who carry oodles of fat around their waists. Not only is it associated with diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease and but also with decreased lung function.

The study analysed around 120,000 people from the Paris Investigations Preventives et Cliniques Center, and assessed demographic background, smoking history, alcohol consumption, as well as lung function, including FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in one second) and FVC (forced vital capacity, or the total expiratory volume) with respect to BMI, waistline and other measures of metabolic health.

“After adjustment for age, sex, BMI, smoking status, alcohol consumption, leisure time physical activity and cardiovascular history, metabolic syndrome remained independently associated with lung function impairment,” wrote co-author Natalie Leone, of the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (FNIHMR).

“We found a positive independent relationship between lung function impairment and metabolic syndrome due mainly to abdominal obesity,” she said. Abdominal obesity was defined as having a waist circumference of greater than 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men, said an FNIHMR release.

“Prospective studies are needed to determine the temporal relationship between lung function impairment and metabolic syndrome, including abdominal adiposity in particular. Mechanistic studies are also required to clarify the underlying physiopathological pathways,” concluded Leone. The results were published in the second issue for March of the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

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Scientists close in on ‘universal’ vaccine for flu: study

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Scientists on Sunday unveiled lab-made human antibodies that can disable several types of influenza, including highly-lethal H5N1 bird flu and the “Spanish Flu” strain that killed tens of millions in 1918.

Tested in mice, the antibodies work by binding to a previously obscure structure in the flu virus which, when blocked, sabotages the pathogen’s ability to enter the cell it is trying to infect, according to the study.

Because this structure – described by one scientist as a “viral Achilles’ heel” – is genetically stable and has resisted mutation over time, the antibodies are effective against many different strains.

The breakthrough “holds considerable promise for further development into a medical tool to treat and prevent seasonal as well as pandemic influenza,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which helped fund the study.

Clinical trials on humans could begin within a couple of years, the researchers said. Seasonal flu kills more than 250,000 people every year, and pandemic flu, which occurs with the emergence of deadly viral y, remains an ever-present threat.

Vaccines have long been the first line of defence against flu, but even seasonal viruses evolve so rapidly that the vaccines need to be updated every year. Even then, they are not always effective.

A team led by Wayne Marasco, a professor at Harvard Medical School, began the study by scanning tens of billions of so-called monoclonal antibodies in the laboratory.

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Mobile phones aim to be a ‘doctor in your pocket’

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Not content with offering calls, texts and Internet access, the mobile phone industry is convinced it can help save lives and offer health services to millions worldwide.

The idea of a phone serving as a “doctor in your pocket” has gained traction at the industry’s biggest trade show, the Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona.

Among a slew of possible applications in poor countries, insiders stressed the potential for the mobile phone to remind people to get vaccinations, take medicine, or undergo HIV tests.

Doctors and nurses working at distance from hospitals or clinics can also use mobile connections to relay information on local patients or report disease outbreaks.

“When you consider that there are 2.2 billion mobile phones in the developing world, 305 million computers but only 11 million hospital beds you can instantly see how mobiles can creat effective solutions to address healthcare challenges,” said Terry Kramer, strategy director at British operator Vodafone.

The Rockefeller Foundation, the UN Foundation and The Vodafone Foundation announced the Mobile Health (mHealth) Alliance this week, a partnership to advance the use of mobile technology in healthcare.

The UN and Vodafone also released a study, “mHealth for Development: The Opportunity of Mobile Technology for Healthcare in the Developing World,” detailing 51 programmes in 26 countries.

The biggest adopters are India with 11 projects and South Africa and Uganda with six each.

“Innovative technology could reduce the pressure on public healthcare systems,” Daniel Carucci, vice-president of health at the UN Foundation, told delagates here.

In Uganda, for example, a multiple choice quiz about HIV/AIDS was sent to 15,000 subscribers on the Celtel network in a rural region, inviting them to answer questions and seek tests.

Users who completed the quiz were given free airtime and each time they answered a question wrong they received a message informing them of the correct response.

At the end of the quiz, a final SMS was sent to motivate participants to go for voluntary testing and counseling at a local health centre.

Slightly less than one in five responded and the number of people who went for testing at the centre increased from 1,000 to 1,400 during a six-week period, the report said.

In another example given in the report, health workers in the Amazonas state of Brazil began filling in surveys last October on their mobile phones on incidences of the mosquito-borne dengue fever.

“The devices are providing us with precision (and) the information we need to develop (effective responses) in the areas where the infection levels are high,” Luzia de Melo Mustafa, an Amazonas health agent is quoted as saying.

In Mexico, a medical hotline called MedicallHome was launched in 1998 to provide for people without access to a doctor. They can ring or send an SMS to ask for advice.

“Sixty percent of the time, you can replace the doctor,” Pedro Yrigoyen, co-founder of MedicallHome told delegates here, highlighting the fact that mobile phones outnumber fixed lines in Mexico by five-to-one.

“Public healthcare is overwhelmed… people wait for hours just to see the doctor.”

Elizabeth Boehm, an analyst at research group Forrester, sees the potential

for mobile phones to help in public health information campaigns, but also points out limitations.

“One of the main challenges, in mobile health, is that people who are most in need of healthcare are usually more aged, so they don’t use the mobile or they’re not comfortable with it,” she told AFP.

In the developed world, researchers are also looking for ways to harness mobile technology.

In several countries, diabetes sufferers can measure their blood sugar level with a device connected to a mobile phone which sends the data to doctors to verify.

Other applications are seen for monitoring people with heart problems or Alzheimer’s disease.

In the United States, a service called “Foodphone” enables a user to take a photo of his or her food before a meal and send it to an expert who replies with information about the nutritional value.

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Gum disease feared to trigger full-blown AIDS: Japan study

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An acid produced in the mouth due to gum disease invigorates the virus that can lead to full-blown AIDS, a Japanese researcher said Thursday, billing the finding as a world first.

A group of bacteria causes periodontal disease — a chronic inflammation that erodes bony structure in the gum — posing a threat to the teeth and the entire body, the researcher said.

“They produce a large amount of butyric acid, which smells like socks you wore for a long time,” said Kuniyasu Ochiai, professor who chairs the Microbiology Department at Tokyo-based Nihon University.

The acid, which can also exist in rancid butter, hinders a kind of enzyme called HDAC that blocks HIV from proliferating, Ochiai told AFP.

In-vitro experiments have shown that the virus in two kinds of cells related to the immune system rapidly proliferates after given culture fluid containing the gum disease-causing bacteria and butyric acid they produced, he said.

“Serious periodontal disease could lead to the development (of AIDS) among HIV-positive people… although the probability largely depends on individual physical strength,” Ochiai said.

“There are fears that even those whose were unaware that they had contracted HIV could develop the epidemic once they have periodontal disease,” he said, underscoring the importance of oral health care.

Previous research has shown that gum disease is linked to diabetes and heart disease but it is the world’s first finding that it activates HIV, Ochiai said.

The study will be published in the March issue of the US monthly Journal of Immunology, he said.

The research team also plans to confirm the finding in tests on animals, he said.

The study has been led by Ochiai as well as Takashi Okamoto, molecular biology professor at Nagoya City University in central Japan and research assistant Kenichi Imai there.

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Long space stay makes bones weak

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Astronauts who spend months in space tend to lose bone strength, making them increasingly vulnerable to fractures in later life.

Universities of California (UC) Irvine and San Francisco evaluated 13 astronauts who spent four to six months on the International Space Station and found that, on an average, their hipbone strength decreased 14%.

Three astronauts experienced losses of 20% to 30%, rates comparable to those seen in older women with osteoporosis.

These results alarmed researchers because they revealed a greater rate of bone deterioration than previously measured using less powerful technologies.

Orthopaedic researchers looking into the effects of long-duration spaceflight usually study the hipbone or spine. The hip experiences the greatest rate of bone loss in space, and a hip fracture almost always requires hospitalisation and major surgery.

It can impair a person’s ability to walk unassisted and may cause prolonged or permanent disability or even death. Fractures of the vertebra also have serious consequences, including loss of height, severe back pain and deformity.

“If preventive measures are not taken, some of our astronauts may be at increased risk for age-related fractures decades after their missions,” said Joyce Keyak of UC Irvine, biomedical engineering professor, who led the study.

For as long as there have been astronauts, researchers have studied why the environment of space makes bones more fragile. While previous studies looked at bone mineral density, this study is the first to specifically evaluate bone strength.

Keyak and her colleagues used a novel computer programme she developed over the past 20 years to identify hipbone fracture risk in people with osteoporosis. The study team used this programme to analyse structurally the hipbone CT scans of one female and 12 male International Space Centre crewmembers, said an UCI release.

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Exercise for just 7 min a week enough to stay fit

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Rigorous workouts lasting as little as three minutes may help prevent diabetes by helping control blood sugar, British researchers said on Wednesday.

The findings published in the journal BioMed Central Endocrine Disorders suggest that people unable to meet government guidelines calling for moderate to vigorous exercise several hours per week can still benefit from exercise. “This is such a brief amount of exercise you can do it without breaking a sweat,” said James Timmons, an exercise biologist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, who led the study.

“You can make just as big as an effect doing this as you can by doing hours and hours of endurance training each week.”

Timmons and his team showed that just seven minutes of exercise each week helped a group of 16 men in their twenties control their insulin. The volunteers, who were relatively out of shape but otherwise healthy, rode an exercise bike four times daily in 30 second spurts two days a week.

After two weeks, the men had a 23% improvement in how effectively their body used insulin to clear glucose from the blood stream, Timmons said. The effect appears to last up to 10 days after the last round of exercise, he added.

“The simple idea is if you are doing tense muscle contractions during sprints or exercise on a bike you really enhance insulin’s ability to clear glucose out of the bloodstream,” he said.

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Japanese researchers develop all-round flu vaccine

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Researchers in Japan said Thursday they had developed a flu vaccine that works against multiple viruses and could prevent a deadly pandemic of bird flu mutations.

The research team has tested the vaccine on mice implanted with human genes, confirming that it works even if flu viruses mutate, according to Tetsuya Uchida, researcher at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.

Currently flu vaccines use a protein covering the surface of viruses but the protein frequently mutates to make the vaccines ineffective.

The newly developed vaccine is based on common types of protein inside the bodies of flu viruses as they rarely change, Uchida told AFP. The viruses used are the Soviet-A and Hongkong-A along with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

“We expect this will also be effective on new variations” of the much-feared H5N1 strain in addition to conventional flu viruses, he said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that millions of people could die worldwide if the avian influenza virus mutates into a form easily transmissible among humans.

Uchida said it would likely take several years to put the vaccine to practical use as the research team needs to confirm the vaccine’s safety with further experiments on mice and possibly larger animals before tests on humans.

The study is being jointly conducted by researchers from the national institute, Hokkaido University, Saitama Medical University and NOF Corp., a chemicals company based in Tokyo.

Similar vaccination studies on attacking the inside of the virus body rather than its surface are also under way abroad, including at Oxford University in Britain, Uchida said.

About 250 people have died of avian flu since 2003, according to the WHO.

Indonesia is the country worst-hit by avian influenza with 115 deaths officially recorded since 2003. Five people have fallen victim in China this year.

Human victims consist mostly of people in close contact with sick birds. There is no evidence so far that the deadly strain of bird flu has mutated into a form that could set off a pandemic.

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Cutting down calories does not prolong life

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Cutting down on calories may reduce weight, but it does not necessarily increase one’s life span, warns an Indian American expert.

“Today there are a lot of very healthy people who look like skeletons…,” said Raj Sohal, professor at the University of Southern California’s (USC) School of Pharmacy.

He and Michael Forster of the University of North Texas Health Science Centre compared the life span and caloric intake of two genetically engineered strains of mice.

“The fat strain, known as C57BL/6, roughly doubles in weight over its adult life. That strain benefited from caloric restriction. The lean strain, DBA/2, does not become obese,” said Sohal.

However, caloric restriction did not extend the life of these mice, confirming previous work by Forster and Sohal.

“Our study questions the paradigm that caloric restriction is universally beneficial,” Sohal said. “Contrary to what is widely believed, caloric restriction does not extend (the) life span of all strains of mice.”

By measuring the animals’ metabolic rate, Sohal and his colleagues came to a deceptively simple conclusion: Caloric restriction is only useful when, as in the case of the obese mice, an animal eats more than it can burn off.

“Your energy expenditure and your energy intake should be in balance,” Sohal said. “It’s as simple as that. And how do you know that? By gain or loss of weight. The whole thing is very commonsensical.”

For humans of normal weight, Sohal strongly cautions against caloric restriction. In a 2003 study, he and Forster found that caloric restriction begun in older mice – both in DBA and leaner C57 individuals – actually shortened life span.

However, Sohal said that obese individuals are probably better off cutting calories than increasing their exercise to make up for over eating. Overly vigorous exercise can lead to injuries and long-term wear and tear, said a USC release.

In other words, it is better to skip the double cheeseburger than to turn up the treadmill after going on a binge. The results are scheduled for publication in the Journal of Nutrition.

Sohal, who received his Ph D in biology from Tulane University, is also the recipient of Irwing S Wright Award of Distinction by the American Federation for Aging Research and Lifetime Research Achievement Award by the American Aging Association.

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Lack of exercise may cause non-migraine headaches: study

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People who are sedentary have a higher risk of developing frequent headaches.

Researchers from Norway conducted two large surveys. The first survey questioned 22,397 adults’ 20 years about their exercise habits and other health factors, and then assessed headache symptoms in a follow-up questionnaire 11 years later, BBC radio reported.

The second survey involved 46,648 adults who were questioned about their current exercise levels and any headache symptoms.

It was found that those who never exercised were 14 percent more likely than their more active counterparts to develop non- migraine headaches over an 11-year period.

Conversely, people who were already suffering from any form of frequent headache had a higher risk of being physically inactive.

The findings suggest that a lack of exercise may be a risk factor for developing non-migraine headaches and that exercise is a challenge for people already suffering from any form of head pain.

It’s not clear why a sedentary lifestyle might contribute to headaches. But protection from headaches could potentially be another reason for people to stay active.

The above findings indicate that people with headache might need help or advice to increase their level of activity. There are, however, still questions about the types of exercise that are best for people with frequent headaches.

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