New diabetes genetic risk factors found
Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:18:59 GMTBy LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer
WASHINGTON - Scientists have found clusters of new gene variants that raise the risk of Type 2 diabetes — and how the researchers did it is as important as what they found.
In one of the largest studies yet of human genetic variability, the scientists tested the DNA of more than 32,000 people in five countries to pin down spots that harbor genetic risk factors for this complicated killer.
This type of research — called a "genome-wide association" study — promises to usher in a new era of genetics. Most breakthroughs so far have come from finding a mutation in a single gene that causes illness. But some of the world's most common killers, such as heart disease and diabetes, are caused by complex interactions among numerous genes and modern lifestyles — and teasing out the genetic culprits until now has been almost impossible.
"We have been for all of the last decade or more looking under the lamppost to try to find those genes ... and lots of times the lamplight was not actually where we wanted it," said Dr. Francis Collins, genetics chief at the National Institutes of Health, a co-author of the research unveiled Thursday.
This new approach "allows us to light up the whole street, and look what we find."
What? Four previously unknown gene variants that can increase people's risk of Type 2 diabetes, and confirmation that six other genes play a role, too.
The work, by three international research teams that shared their findings, was published online Thursday by the journal Science.
Next, the researchers will have to figure out just what those genes do, in hopes they'll point toward new ways to treat or prevent a disease that affects more than 170 million people worldwide, and rising.
With Type 2 diabetes, the body gradually loses its ability to use insulin, a hormone key for turning blood sugar into insulin. It is a major cause of heart disease, as high blood sugar damages blood vessels, and leads to kidney failure, blindness and amputations.
Obesity and lack of exercise are chief risk factors. But heredity is involved, too: People with an affected parent or sibling are at 3.5 times greater risk of developing diabetes than people from diabetes-free families.
The new work scanned DNA to find patterns of small gene variations known as SNPs more common in diabetics. SNPs can serve as signposts for tracing disease-promoting genes. To be certain the implicated SNPs were involved, the researchers then checked for them in still more volunteers, ultimately testing DNA from 32,500 people in Britain, Finland, Poland, Sweden and the U.S.
The highest-risk variants can increase by 20 percent someone's odds of developing Type 2 diabetes, the teams reported.
Among the genes implicated:
_One that helps pump zinc into insulin-producing pancreatic cells, raising questions about the metal's role in insulin secretion.
_A pair previously linked only to certain cancers, another brand new area for diabetes researchers to probe.
_A region of chromosome 11 where genes of any sort had never been described.
Nuns reunite to mark 1967 calcium study
Thu, 26 Apr 2007 03:03:04 GMTBy TIMBERLY ROSS, Associated Press Writer
OMAHA, Neb. - Sister Suzanne Vandenheede likes tomato soup. The 76-year-old nun from Omaha's Servants of Mary likes it so much she's been known to eat it for lunch every day for a week or more. And when she has, she's practically licked the bowl clean.
Vandenheede's eating habits aren't simply odd; they're part of a long-running study of calcium metabolism that's become known as the Omaha Nuns Study.
Nearly 200 nuns from the Omaha area enrolled in the study that Creighton University researcher Robert Heaney began in 1967. Results gathered over 25 years of in-hospital studies, and later from biyearly checkups, serve as the basis for calcium intake recommendations for adult women.
On Wednesday, Vandenheede and about 30 other nuns reunited to mark the 40th anniversary of the study. Refreshments included bone-shaped cookies and, of course, milk.
Representatives from the National Dairy Council were also present, offering milk mustaches to many of the nuns.
"We are so much in the debt of these people," Heaney said.
He noted that nuns were studied because their risk of osteoporosis was representative of women, and they were free of family and job commitments that would have limited their participation.
Osteoporosis affects an estimated 10 million Americans, mostly women, over age 50 who face a high risk of debilitating bone fractures while an additional 34 million have less severe bone thinning that also increases risk.
Heaney compared the study to a map that traced calcium's path through the body. He said calcium was measured in the nuns' food and in their urine and feces to determine how much the body was absorbing. Bone scans showed how the body was using the calcium to build and repair bones.
"You were making contributions," Heaney told the nuns Wednesday, "but you didn't know what we could do with that information."
Dr. Robert Recker, director of Creighton's Osteoporosis Research Center and vice president of the National Osteoporosis Foundation, said the findings "wrote the book on dietary calcium needs."
He said it was the first and only study of women before, during and after menopause that looked at calcium metabolism and variables such as exercise and intake of calcium and vitamin D.
The database created from the nuns' information was a "gold mine" that continues to be analyzed, according to Recker, who collected data in the earliest stages of the study.
During the first 25 years of the study, paid for by the http://www.nof.org/
Osteoporosis Research Center at Creighton University Medical Center: http://osteoporosis.creighton.edu/
Dozens sick after meal at Chinese school
Thu, 26 Apr 2007 04:49:46 GMTBEIJING - More than 50 children were poisoned by a kindergarten breakfast in central China, state media said Thursday, in the latest case highlighting problems in the country's food supply chain.
Xinhua News Agency said the children were hospitalized after eating breakfast Wednesday at a private kindergarten in Zhengzhou city in Henan province. Thirty had been released and the others remained under observation.
Doctors believe soybean milk given to the children was not boiled properly, Xinhua said.
Mass poisonings are common in China, which has been struggling to improve a dismal food safety record. Manufacturers often mislabel food products or add illegal substances to them. Cooks routinely disregard hygiene rules.
Last week there were three cases in various parts of the country involving about 280 people.
In the latest incident, the person in charge of the private kindergarten and three cooks who prepared the breakfast have been detained by police, Xinhua said.
China may require student fitness tests
Thu, 26 Apr 2007 05:50:37 GMTBEIJING - Good grades alone may not be enough to earn a place in Chinese universities — students also may have to prove their physical fitness under an Education Ministry proposal, state media reported Thursday.
The proposal comes after a ministry survey showed there was an overall decline in the physical strength of high school students in recent years, Xinhua News Agency said.
The Education Ministry is considering recording the results of physical tests in students' academic files.
"The results can then be reviewed as an important reference by universities and other higher educational institutes in enrolling students," Liao Wenke, a vice director with the ministry, was ed as saying.
The ministry is considering using the physical test as a way to split university applicants who have the same score on written tests.
It also plans to raise the physical test standards for students who wish to enroll in senior high schools.
The 2005 survey, involving 380,000 students, revealed a sharp increase in the number of students between the ages of 7 and 18 who were overweight.
It also found that Chinese students jumped an average of 1.18 inches less in the long jump compared with 2000.
Obesity surgery in teens studied
Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:18:59 GMTBy The Associated Press
THE ISSUE: A growing number of teenagers are fighting severe obesity and seeking ways to loss weight, including surgery.
THE QUESTION: Researchers want to know if there are benefits to having weight-loss surgery earlier in life.
THE METHOD: A federally funded study will compare health data from teens having the surgery with data from adults having the surgery.
Does circumcision affect your sex life Scientists are divided
Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:20:05 GMTPARIS - Two studies have thrown up conflicting evidence as to whether circumcision could harm a man's sex life, New Scientist reports in its next issue.
The question is especially important, given the World Health Organisation's recent endorsement of circumcision in the panoply of weapons to tackle the spread of AIDS.
In a study led by Kimberley Payne of the Riverside Professional Center in Ottawa, 20 circumcised and 20 uncircumcised men watched erotic movies while their penises were measured for sensitivity at two points, using filaments that pressed down with predetermined amounts of pressure.
There was no difference in penile sensation between the two groups, according to their research.
However, a team led by Robert Van Howe of Michigan State University used a similar method, but measuring penile sensitivity at 19 points among 163 circumcised and uncircumcised men.
The five most sensitive points are all in portions of the penis removed by circumcision, especially those in folds exposed as the penis becomes erect, Van Howe believes.
&;The glans of the circumcised penis is less sensitive to fine touch than the glans of the uncircumcised penis,&; his paper says. &; Circumcision ablates the most sensitive parts of the penis.&;
The report appears in next Saturday's issue of the British weekly. Payne's research appears in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, while Van Howe's is published by the British Journal of Urology International.
On March 28, the WHO and other agencies in the fight against AIDS gave the stamp of approval to promoting circumcision to help prevent the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus ( HIV).
Three studies carried out in southern and eastern Africa found that circumcised men were more than half less likely to be infected by HIV compared to uncircumcised counterparts.
Doctors not prescribing meds that help MS patients
Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:19:12 GMTBy David Douglas
NEW YORK - Treatment with immune-modulating drugs can benefit people with multiple sclerosis, or MS, but a study of physicians' prescribing patterns shows that most MS patients do get these medications.
This is particularly true of those being treated by family physicians, according to the study in the online journal Biomed Central--Medicine.
&;Family physicians and internists should consult their neurology colleagues as soon as possible, if they are unsure of when and how to start immunomodulatory agents for their MS patients,&; Dr. Jagannadha R. Avasarala told Reuters Health.
Avasarala, with Kansas State Neurological Consultants, Wichita, and colleagues analyzed data on approximately 6.7 million clinic visits by MS patients between 1998 and 2004. Slightly more than half of the patients were seen by neurologists.
Six immune-modulating agents have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for treating MS. The first was Betaseron in 1993 and the most recent was Tysabri in 2006. Treatment with immunomodulatory agents, say the investigators, is thought to reduce relapses and slow progression of the disease.
However, about 62 percent of patients who saw a neurologist, and 92 percent seen by family practitioners and internists, were not taking immunomodulatory agents.
Co-researcher Dr. Cormac A. O'Donovan, of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winton-Salem, North Carolina, said in a statement that they could not determine why these drugs were not being prescribed.
However, he noted that the higher prescribing rate by neurologists &;probably reflects greater awareness of the drugs' availability and their use by specialists who more often treat patients with MS.&;
SOURCE: Biomed Central Medicine, online April 2007.
Program fails to curb falls in older folks
Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:59:22 GMTNEW YORK - A community-based intervention designed to address multiple factors that put elderly people at increased risk for falling and injuring themselves has proven ineffective. There was no decrease in the number of falls in &;at-risk&; elderly individuals who completed the program.
Falls are a significant source of illness and death for older adults, Dr. Jane E. Mahoney, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and colleagues note in a report
They conducted a randomized, controlled trial to examine the efficacy of an intervention to reduce falls in 344 older adults living in the community. These people were at least 65 years old and had suffered two falls in the previous year, or one fall in the previous 2 years plus injury or balance problems.
In the intervention group, a trained nurse or physical therapist assessed the subjects' fall risk factors during two in-home visits, followed by 11 phone calls each month. The intervention group was also referred to physical therapy or other providers, along with a balanced exercise plan.
Individuals in the control group received the in-home assessment only and were advised to contact their physician about falls.
During follow up, which lasted at least 365 days for 274 participants, there was no significant difference in the risk of falls between the intervention group and the control group. However, the subjects in the intervention group spent fewer days in a nursing home than those in the control group.
SOURCE: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society April 2007.
Black cohosh may cut breast cancer risk
Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:17:25 GMTNEW YORK - A new study provides preliminary evidence that an herbal medicine used to help women cope with menopausal symptoms may reduce breast cancer risk.
However, much more research is needed before the herb, black cohosh, can be recommended to prevent the disease, Dr. Timothy R. Rebbeck of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia and colleagues caution.
Many women use hormone-related supplements such as black cohosh, dong quai, red clover, ginseng and yam to deal with hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause, Rebbeck and his team note in the International Journal of Cancer.
To examine how the use of these herbs might relate to breast cancer risk, the researchers compared 949 women with breast cancer to 1,524 healthy controls.
African-American women were more somewhat likely than European Americans to use the herbs. Women who reported taking black cohosh were at 61 percent lower risk of breast cancer, the researchers found.
Also, those who took an herbal preparation derived from black cohosh called Remifemin had a 53 percent lower risk of the disease.
Previous studies have shown that black cohosh can block cell growth, Rebbeck and colleagues note. The herb is also an antioxidant, and has been shown to have anti-estrogen effects as well. On the negative side, the herb can have side effects, and animal studies have suggested it may affect breast cancer severity.
&;Substantial additional research must be undertaken before it can be established that black cohosh, or some compound found in black cohosh, is a breast cancer chemopreventive agent,&; the researchers write.
&;Furthermore,&; they stress, &;women may wish to seek guidance from their physician before using these compounds.&;
SOURCE: International Journal of Cancer, April 1, 2007.
