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2010-3-4

UN warns HIV/Aids leading cause of death in women
HIV has become the leading cause of death and disease among women of reproductive age worldwide, the UN programme on HIV/Aids says.At the start of a 10-day conference in New York, UNAids launched a five-year action plan addressing the gender issues which put women at risk. One of the key issues, it says, is that up to 70% of women worldwide have been forced to have unprotected sex. UNAids says such violence against women must not be tolerated. "By robbing them of their dignity, we are losing the opportunity to tap half the potential of mankind to achieve the Millennium Development Goals," said Executive Director Michel Sidibe. "Women and girls are not victims, they are the driving force that brings about social transformation," he said. The agency says that experiencing violence hampers women's ability to negotiate safe sex. It warns that, nearly 30 years from the beginning of the epidemic, HIV services do not respond to the specific needs of women and girls. Women, it says, continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV/Aids. In sub-Saharan Africa, 60% of those living with HIV are women and in Southern Africa, for example, young women are about three times as likely to be infected with HIV than young men of the same age.

2010-3-3

'Heart risk' at football stadiums
Too many football grounds in Europe do not have the right equipment and plans to save the lives of fans who have heart attacks, a study has found.The poll of 187 stadiums found over a quarter did not have defibrillators and many did not have emergency plans. The Sweden-led study, carried out by a group of club doctors, stressed more had to be done as it was not always easy to get ill fans to hospital. Researchers said there should be mandatory rules covering the issue. At the moment, it is simply considered good practice to have defibrillators at sports grounds. But in recent years many governments - including the authorities in the UK - have been doing more to increase the availability of the life-saving equipment in public spaces. Defibrillators work by delivering a controlled electric shock through the chest wall to the heart to restore a normal heartbeat.

2010-2-22

Singing 'rewires' damaged brain
By singing, patients use a different area of the brain from the area involved in speech. If a person's "speech centre" is damaged by a stroke, they can learn to use their "singing centre" instead. Researchers presented these findings at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego. An ongoing clinical trial, they said, has shown how the brain responds to this "melodic intonation therapy". Gottfried Schlaug, a neurology professor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, US, led the trial.The therapy is already established as a medical technique. Researchers first used it when it was discovered that stroke patients with brain damage that left them unable to speak were still able to sing. Professor Schlaug explained that his was the first study to combine this therapy with brain imaging - "to show what is actually going on in the brain" as patients learn to sing their words.

2010-2-17

Acupuncture could help period pain, researchers say
Researchers said there was "promising evidence" for acupuncture in treating cramps, but that more work was needed. In the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, they noted two studies found little difference between real and sham acupuncture in treating pain. Acupuncture is a less contentious form of complementary medicine than some, but its value is still disputed. Period pain can be severe in some women and may be accompanied by nausea, diarrhoea, migraine and backache. Common treatments include pain killers, applying heat and exercise - although a recent study questioned the efficacy of the latter. This latest review involved 27 studies - which included nearly 3,000 women. They addressed a variety of forms of acupuncture - from classical to acupoint injection. Traditional acupuncturists insert needles in acupuncture points located along what they describe as "energy meridians" - a concept for which many scientists say there is no evidence. Sham acupuncture places needles away from these points. It is not clear whether either form alleviates pain as a result of the placebo effect - the very ritual of undergoing acupuncture - or cause subtle changes in the nervous system and brain activity which can be beneficial.

2010-2-3

Fish oil supplements 'beat psychotic mental illness'
Taking a daily fish oil capsule can stave off mental illness in those at highest risk, trial findings suggest.A three-month course of the supplement appeared to be as effective as drugs, cutting the rate of psychotic illness like schizophrenia by a quarter. The researchers believe it is the omega-3 in fish oil - already hailed for promoting healthy hearts - that has beneficial effects in the brain. A "natural" remedy would be welcomed, Archives of General Psychiatry says. "The finding that treatment with a natural substance may prevent, or at least delay, the onset of psychotic disorder gives hope that there may be alternatives to antipsychotic drugs," the study authors said. Antipsychotic drugs are potent and can have serious side effects, which puts some people off taking them. Fish oil supplements, on the other hand, are generally well tolerated and easy to take, say the scientists. The international team from Austria, Australia and Switzerland tested the treatment in 81 people deemed to be at particularly high risk of developing psychosis.

2010-1-26

Prions 'may keep nerves healthy'
Experiments on mice may help scientists understand the workings of the prion protein linked to brain disease vCJD.Swiss researchers say there is evidence that prions play a vital role in the maintenance of the sheath surrounding our nerves. They say it is possible that an absence of prions causes diseases of the peripheral nervous system. One expert said there was growing evidence that the prion had a number of important roles in the body. As well as the latest research in the journal Nature Neuroscience, other studies have indicated prions may protect us from Alzheimer's disease or even play a role in our sense of smell.The prion protein only came to the attention of scientists in recent years as they searched for the cause of vCJD - the human variant of BSE, or Mad Cow Disease. This degenerative and incurable brain condition is now thought to be caused by a "mis-folded" version of the prion. However, there is still little understanding of what the protein is supposed to do in its normal, healthy, form.

2010-1-18

Weaker wine 'may lower the risk of some cancers'
Studies suggest that people who drink wine with an alcohol content of 10% rather than 14% might benefit, says the World Cancer Research Fund. The charity called for more low-alcohol wines and beers to be available for sale. An industry expert said UK consumers were asking for "lighter" wines. The calculation was based on figures in a 2007 report which looked at the evidence for a link between alcohol consumption and cancer. That report recommended that men should have no more than two drinks a day, and women no more than one. The figures used to reach that conclusion were detailed enough to reveal the likely extra risk posed by each extra 10 grams of alcohol - just over one unit - regularly consumed. From this, scientists calculated that, in theory, a person drinking one large 250ml glass of wine a night would have a 7% lower risk of bowel cancer if they normally drank 10% strength wine rather than 14%. From a cancer prevention point of view it is best not to drink at all. But we have to be realistic and the fact is that many people in the UK enjoy a drink and see it as part of their social life. This is only a modest decrease of risk for an individual, and there is no clear evidence about how long someone would need to substitute weaker wine for their usual tipple in order to reap this benefit. However, the charity said that for every 100 people who did it, one case of bowel cancer would be avoided. While the detailed studies only applied to bowel cancer, it said that there was no reason to believe that the risk of other cancers linked to alcohol, such as throat, oesophageal and breast, would not respond in a similar way.

2010-1-14

Alzheimer's disease 'could be detected by eye test'
The technique uses fluorescent markers which attach to dying cells which can be seen in the retina and give an early indication of brain cell death. The research has been carried out on mice, but human trials are planned. Scientists from University College London hope this could lead to a high street opticians test for the disease. The research, which is published in the journal, Cell Death and Disease, could enable scientists to overcome the difficulty of investigating what is happening inside the brains of those with Alzheimer's. They currently have to rely on expensive MRI scans or post-mortems. This new technique enables scientists to track the progress of brain disease by looking at dying cells in the retina. The cells show up as green dots because they absorb the fluorescent dye.The research has so far been carried out on mice, but the team is optimistic that the technique can be translated to humans.

2010-1-10

Urine test 'can detect dangerous snoring'
They looked at 90 children referred to a clinic to be evaluated for breathing problems in sleep, and 30 controls. A number of proteins were increased in the urine of the children diagnosed with dangerous snoring. The research is published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. The team say their findings need to be repeated but may lead to a simple test. The children all had standard overnight tests and some were classified as having obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). OSA can lead to mental, behavioural, cardiovascular and metabolic problems in children. It is estimated that up to 3% of all children up to the age of nine may suffer from it. The researchers collected the children's first sample of urine on the morning after the sleep study. They used a process with fluorescent dyes to separate and characterise the proteins in the urine and found three proteins at higher concentrations in the urine of children with OSA: urocortin 3, orosomucoid and uromodulin. Another protein, kallikrein 1, was at lower levels in the urine. The scientists say further research is needed to work out which proteins work best for a test and the right time to get the urine sample. They think that it may be possible to develop a simple colour-based test like a pregnancy kit that can be done by doctors or parents.

2010-1-7

Mobile phone radiation 'protects' against Alzheimer's
After all the concern over possible damage to health from using mobile phones, scientists have found a potential benefit from radiation.Their work has been carried out on mice, but it suggests mobiles might protect against Alzheimer's. Florida scientists found that phone radiation actually protected the memories of mice programmed to get Alzheimer's disease. They are now testing more frequencies to see if they can get better results. The study by the Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Centre is published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.It involved 96 mice, most of which had been genetically altered to develop beta-amyloid plaques in their brains, which are a marker of Alzheimer's disease, as they aged. The rest of the mice were non-demented. All the mice were exposed to the electro-magnetic field generated by a standard phone for two one-hour periods each day for seven to nine months. Their cages were arranged at the same distance around a centrally located antenna generating the phone signal.The researchers, led by Professor Gary Arendash, said that if the phone exposure was started when the Alzheimer's mice were young adults, before signs of memory impairment were apparent, their cognitive ability was protected. In fact, the Alzheimer's mice performed as well on tests measuring memory and thinking skills as aged mice without dementia. If older Alzheimer's mice already showing memory problems were exposed to the electro-magnetic waves, their memory impairment disappeared.

2010-1-6

Depression 'cuts cancer survival'
The University of British Columbia team said the finding emphasised the need to screen cancer patients carefully for signs of psychological distress. The study, a review of 26 separate studies including 9,417 patients, features in the journal Cancer. It found death rates were up to 25% higher in patients showing symptoms of depression. In patients actually diagnosed with major or minor depression, death rates were up to 39% higher. The increased risks remained even after other clinical characteristics that might affect survival were taken into consideration. However, the researchers said more research was needed before any definitive conclusions could be drawn, as it was difficult to rule out the impact of other factors. They also stressed that, overall, the increased risk of dying from cancer due to depression was small - so patients should not feel they had to maintain a positive attitude to beat their disease. The studies looked at by the British Columbia team focused on a range of survival times, from one year to 10 years. The researchers could find no firm evidence to show that depression impacted on the progression of disease - although the number of studies which specifically looked at this was very limited.

2010-1-4

Pet tarantulas pose risk to owners' eyes, say doctors
The owner of a tarantula spider has suffered severe eye inflammation from cleaning out his pet's cage, doctors have reported.They say the man had no idea his pet was the problem when he came to their clinic for treatment. When they told him they could see tiny hairs sticking out of his eyeball he remembered his pet spider sending out a mist of hairs which hit his face. The doctors say anyone working with spiders should wear eye protection. Dr Zia Carrim, of St James's University Hospital in Leeds, writing in the Lancet, says the man came to his clinic in February, having had a red, watery and light sensitive eye for three weeks. It was when he was examined under a high magnification lens, that hair-like projections were spotted at various depths within the cornea. When these findings were described to the patient, he immediately recalled an incident that had preceded the onset of his symptoms.

2009-12-22

Sex intervention combats malaria
Scientists believe it may be possible to combat malaria by interfering with the sex lives of the mosquitoes which spread the disease.They have shown that the insects can only mate successfully if the male is able to seal his sperm inside the female using a "mating plug". Without the plug, fertilisation cannot occur, and the animals cannot reproduce. The Imperial College London study is published in the journal PLoS Biology. The researchers focused on the species of mosquito primarily responsible for the transmission of malaria in Africa - Anopheles gambiae.These insects mate only once in their lifetime, so disrupting the reproductive process offers a good way of dramatically reducing their numbers.When they mate, the male transfers sperm to the female followed by a coagulated mass of proteins and seminal fluids known as a mating plug. This plug is not found in any other species of mosquito and its role had previously been unclear. But the Imperial team showed it was essential for ensuring sperm is correctly retained in the female's sperm storage organ, from where she can fertilise eggs over the course of her lifetime. In the lab, the researchers were able to stop successful reproduction by preventing the formation of the plug in males.

2009-12-15

Drinking cups of tea and coffee 'can prevent diabetes'
And the protection may not be down to caffeine since decaf coffee has the greatest effect, say researchers in Archives of Internal Medicine. They looked at 18 separate studies involving nearly 500,000 people. This analysis revealed that people who drink three or four cups of coffee or tea a day cut their risk by a fifth or more, say researchers. The same amount of decaffeinated coffee had an even bigger effect, lowering risk by a third. Type 2 diabetes usually starts after the age of 40 and develops when the body can still make some insulin, but not enough, or when the insulin that is produced does not work properly. Type 2 diabetes is treated with a healthy diet and increased physical activity. In addition to this, medication and/or insulin is often required. If the findings prove true, doctors may well start advising people to put the kettle on as well as take more exercise and watch their weight, say the researchers. When the authors combined and analysed the data, they found that each additional cup of coffee consumed in a day cut diabetes risk by 7%. Lead researcher Dr Rachel Huxley, from the University of Sydney in Australia, said because of the finding with decaffeinated coffee, the link is unlikely to be solely related to caffeine. Instead, other compounds in coffee and tea - including magnesium and antioxidants known as lignans or chlorogenic acids - may be involved.

2009-12-12

Alcohol link to breast cancer recurrence
A US study of 1,900 women who had recovered from breast cancer found that moderate drinking was linked to a 30% higher risk of recurrence. The eight-year study found the strongest link in women who were post-menopausal or overweight. UK charities said alcohol is known to increase the risk of cancer in general. Presenting the research at the American Association for Cancer Research breast cancer conference, the researchers said few studies had been done on the risk of alcohol consumption and the recurrence of cancer.The study looked at women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1997 and 2000, and compared recurrence of the disease in those who drank alcohol with those who abstained. Over the course of the research there were 349 breast cancer recurrences. The increased risk found in those who drank at least three to four drinks a week was apparent regardless of the type of alcohol drunk. But alcohol consumption was not associated with overall mortality.

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