Category: news-perspectives

While colon cancer rates have not changed over the past several decades among people under age 40, rates of new rectal cancer have increased steadily, says a new study. This trend was seen is all races and in both sexes. Researchers looked at colon and rectal cancer rates from 1973 to 2005. They used data from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results cancer registry. The rate of rectal cancer diagnosis rose 2.6% overall. Between 1984 and 2005, it rose 3.8% per year. The journal Cancer published the study online on August 23.

Diabetics with certain forms of a gene are at much greater risk for kidney disease, a Chinese study has found. Researchers looked at four areas of the gene for protein kinase C-beta. These areas varied among people. Certain gene sequences in these areas put people at higher risk for kidney disease. Over 8 years, people with four “risky” areas developed kidney disease at almost 5 times the rate of people with zero or one “risky” area. The study included more than 2,000 people. Results were published in the August 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. MedPage Today wrote about it August 24.

People with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes are more likely to develop brain plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease, says a new Japanese study. The study included 135 elderly people. Researchers checked the participants’ blood-sugar levels for type 2 diabetes several times during the study, and looked for signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Over the next 10 to 15 years, 16% of the people developed Alzheimer’s. Autopsies found plaques in all of the brains of the people who died of Alzheimer’s and 65% of the other people. Researchers found plaques in 72% of people with insulin resistance but in only 62% of people without insulin resistance. The study appeared in the journal Neurology. HealthDay News and Reuters wrote about it August 25.

Pregnant women taking a common antiviral drug for herpes do not have babies with more birth defects, says a large Danish study. Researchers looked at births in Denmark from 1996 to 2008. The study included about 840,000 births. Of those, 1,800 women took acyclovir during the first trimester of pregnancy. This is a common drug prescribed to treat outbreaks of genital herpes. Babies born to these women were not at greater risk of birth defects, compared with babies born to women not taking the drug. Two other drugs are sometimes used to treat genital herpes. Taking these drugs did not appear to put pregnant women at risk for birth defects, but the numbers were small. The study was published August 25 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. HealthDay News wrote about it August 24.

A vaccine for hepatitis E appears safe and effective, says a study. It included more than 100,000 people. Half received the hepatits E vaccine. The other half got a placebo. In the following year, no one in the vaccine group got hepatitis E. Fifteen people in the placebo group got it. Hepatitis E is one of five known forms of a virus that affects the liver. The disease is usually mild, but can be dangerous in pregnant women and people with liver problems. The study was published in The Lancet on August 22. Reuters wrote about it the same day.

Daily doses of “friendly” bacteria may help colicky babies cry less, a new study finds. The study included 50 babies, ages 2 to 16 weeks old. All of them were fed only breast milk. On average, they cried about 5 to 6 hours a day. Half of the babies were randomly assigned to receive drops containing Lactobacillus reuteri bacteria. These are known as probiotic bacteria. They may help digestion and also crowd out harmful bacteria in the gut. The other half of the babies received placebo drops. Mothers kept diaries recording how much their babies cried during the 3-week study. By the end, both groups were crying less. But crying time dropped much more in the group that received the probiotic bacteria. Their average crying time was 35 minutes a day, compared with 90 minutes for the placebo group. The journal Pediatrics published the study online.

Tai chi may improve pain and other symptoms of fibromyalgia, a small study suggests. Fibromyalgia symptoms include fatigue, body pain and tenderness in joints and muscles. They also vary from person to person. The cause is unknown. The study included 66 fibromyalgia patients. They were randomly assigned to one of two programs. One group did tai chi, a program of slow movements, meditation, deep breathing and relaxation. The other group received wellness education and did stretching exercises. Sessions occurred twice a week for 12 weeks. By the end, symptoms had improved for people who did tai chi. In questionnaires, they reported less pain. They also said they had better mood, sleep, exercise capacity and quality of life. There was little change for the other group. Improvements remained 12 weeks after the program ended. The New England Journal of Medicine published the study.

Shire PLC has pulled its drug ProAmatine from the U.S. market after regulators threatened to withdraw approval. In a letter posted online August 16, the Food and Drug Administration said Shire had failed to do follow-up research. The FDA approved ProAmatine in 1996 to treat very low blood pressure. It based that decision on early research, but told Shire to do more studies to prove long-term benefits. Shire never submitted them. The FDA letter this week offered to discuss the matter at a hearing. Instead, Shire announced that it would remove the drug by the end of September, the Associated Press (AP) said. The FDA has the power to remove drugs when follow-up studies are not done. However, it has never done so. Shire’s decision does not completely remove the drug from the market. It is also sold as a generic drug, known as midodrine.

U.S. inspectors say that shrimp and fish from parts of the Gulf of Mexico have been tested extensively and found safe to eat. More tests are being done on oyster and crab catches. That was the word from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) August 16 as shrimp season began. A spill that began in April dumped nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf. In areas cleared for fishing, levels of oil-related chemicals in fish and shrimp are about the same as those found in non-Gulf waters, the FDA said. Fish and shrimp break down and remove these chemicals from their bodies faster than oysters and crabs do, experts told the Associated Press. The FDA said there’s also no reason to fear the chemicals put into the water to break up the oil from the recent spill. The FDA does not believe that these chemicals build up in seafood. The agency is still working on a test for them.

Poultry is the leading cause of U.S. food poisoning outbreaks, health officials report. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did the report, based on numbers from 2007. The Associated Press wrote about it August 12. Poultry caused 17% of the U.S. outbreaks, the CDC said. Beef accounted for 16% and leafy vegetables 14%. The CDC counted more than 21,000 food poisoning-borne illnesses in 2007. They were part of about 1,100 outbreaks. But most cases aren’t reported. The CDC estimates there are 87 million U.S. cases of food poisoning each year. Bacteria cause about half of them, the CDC said. Viruses cause 40% of the cases. Mushroom toxin or other chemicals cause 7% and parasites about 1%.