Category: news-perspectives

Many older diabetics are following “tight control” of blood sugar, though it may do them more harm than good, a study suggests. The study looked at blood sugar control for 1,288 people with diabetes. All were age 65 or older. Information about them came from 5 U.S. health surveys that occurred between 2001 and 2010. About half were classified as relatively healthy despite having diabetes. About 28% had “complex” health, with 3 or more other health conditions, such as heart or kidney disease. About 21% were in poor health. They were on dialysis, had problems with daily living activities or both. About 62% of the entire group had achieved average blood sugar (hemoglobin A1C) of 7% or less. This has been a goal for most diabetics. Average A1C levels did not change much during the study period. They also were similar even for the sickest group of diabetics.

A new test of that gunk you cough up from your lungs may help to tell which lumps found in a lung CT scan are cancerous. Medicare now covers a yearly low-dose CT scan each year for certain long-term, heavy smokers and former smokers. The scans help to find early lung cancers. But sometimes they also find lumps, or nodules, that are not cancers. The new test aims to find out which ones are cancerous, without a biopsy. The test looks for 3 types of genetic material, called microRNA, that are typically found in lung cancers. Researchers first tried the test on 122 people who had a lung nodule shown on a CT scan. The test examines sputum, a mixture of saliva and mucus. It identified 83% of the cancerous nodules. It was able to tell 88% of the time when the nodule was not cancer. Researchers also tried the test in 2 other groups of patients. Results were similar.

Optimistic people may have healthier hearts, a new study concludes. The study included 5,100 adults, ages 52 to 84. They were part of a longer-term study of atherosclerosis in different U.S. racial groups. Atherosclerosis is the buildup of plaques inside arteries. Researchers measured this buildup using CT scans. They looked at the arteries around the heart. They assessed people’s outlook on life using a standard questionnaire. Researchers adjusted their numbers to account for several factors that tend to affect heart-disease risk. These included education, income and mental health. People who were more optimistic were less likely to have clogged arteries than those who were pessimistic. They also had lower blood sugar and cholesterol. They were less likely to be overweight. They were more likely to get regular exercise. All of these could contribute to heart health.

Some people with dementia, especially one type, may commit crimes as a result of their disease, a new study finds. This happens most often in people with a subtype of frontotemporal dementia, the study found. The new study was based on records from nearly 2,400 people. They included 545 with Alzheimer’s disease. Another 171 had a form of frontotemporal dementia in which people lose their normal impulse control. About 37% of this smaller group had committed crimes. They included theft, traffic violations, trespassing and sexual offenses. About 8% of those with Alzheimer’s had committed crimes. Researchers said the crimes are not intentional. They are caused by the brain disease. For 14 of those with frontotemporal dementia, the crimes were the first sign of dementia. Alzheimer’s disease first affects areas of the brain that deal with memory.

Eating avocados may help improve cholesterol levels, a small study suggests. The study included 45 overweight or obese adults. For 2 weeks, everyone ate an assigned “average American diet.” Then they ate 3 other diets, one after the other, for 5 weeks each. Which diet each person followed first was randomly chosen. The low-fat diet contained about 24% fat. Another diet contained about 34% fat. This included one small Hass-type avocado each day. The third diet was similar. However, it contained other plant fats to replace the avocado. These plant fats replaced some of the saturated fat in the “American” diet. After people completed each diet, researchers tested their blood cholesterol levels. After the avocado diet, LDL (“bad cholesterol”) dropped 10%. LDL dropped 5.8% with the moderate-fat, no-avocado diet and 5.3% with the low-fat diet.

People with type 1 diabetes lose an average of 12 years of life because of their disease. But tight control of blood-sugar levels may reduce that loss. Those are the conclusions of 2 new studies. People with type 1 diabetes have to inject insulin because their bodies don’t make it. The first study looked at nearly 25,000 adults with type 1 diabetes. Men died 11 years earlier and women 13 years earlier than people in a comparison group without the disease. Heart disease accounted for the lost years in 36% of men and 31% of women. About 29% of men and 22% of women under age 50 died of problems directly related to extremely high or low blood sugar. The second study randomly divided 1,400 type 1 diabetics into 2 groups. One group checked blood sugar very often. They adjusted medicines quickly to keep sugar levels close to normal. The other group managed blood sugar less intensely.

Cellphones and other “small screen” devices in the bedroom may be just as likely to reduce sleep time for children as TVs do, a new study finds. Previous research shows that children who have a TV in the bedroom tend to get less sleep. The new study was based on questionnaires answered by about 2,000 fourth- and seventh-grade students. They were asked about their sleep habits and their use of cellphones and other small devices, as well as TV. Students who slept near a small screen recorded 20.6 minutes fewer minutes of sleep on a typical weeknight than those who did not have a device nearby. Those who had a TV in the bedroom slept 18.0 minutes fewer each weeknight than those with no TV in the room. The amount of sleep lost was even greater for some groups. These included older children, Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks. The journal Pediatrics published the study January 5.

Some types of cancers are known to be linked with genes or risky behaviors. But for many other types, a new study shows, the cause is basically bad luck. They are the result of mistakes, or mutations, that occur when stem cells divide to replace old cells. In the new study, researchers looked at previous research on how often stem cells in a particular type of tissue divide. Then they looked at the lifetime risk of cancer in those parts of the body. Cancers were most common in tissues that divided most often. These included bone marrow, source of cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. In all, 22 of the 31 cancers studied were linked most closely with these random mutations as cells divided. Other examples included cancers of the ovary and pancreas. The other 9 cancers were linked with random mutations, too.

People who eat more whole grains may live longer, a large new study finds. The study was based on information about diet from 2 long-running studies of health professionals. It included more than 118,000 adults. At the start of the study, no one had heart disease or cancer. People answered questions about diet every 2 to 4 years. Researchers kept track of people for an average of 26 years. In that time, nearly 27,000 people died. For every daily serving of whole grains, people who ate the largest amount of whole grains daily were about 5% less likely to die of any cause than those who ate the smallest amount. For each daily serving, people were about 9% less likely to die of heart disease. Eating whole grains did not affect the risk of cancer death. A serving was equal to 1 ounce (28 grams) of whole grains.