Omega-3 Supplements May Not Aid Aging Brain

HealthDay – 4 mins 38 secs ago WEDNESDAY, June 13 (HealthDay News) -- Taking omega-3 fatty acid supplements, such as fish oil capsules, doesn't seem to help older people maintain their brain health, researchers report.

A number of studies have suggested that omega-3 fatty acids may help keep nerve cells in the brain healthy into old age, but there is limited evidence for the role of these fatty acids in preventing dementia or decreased mental abilities -- known as "cognitive decline."

To examine this issue more closely, Emma Sydenham and colleagues at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in England reviewed evidence from three studies that compared the effects of omega-3 fatty acids taken in capsules or margarine to the effects of placebo capsules with sunflower oil or olive oil, or regular margarine (the "control" group).

The studies included a total of more than 3,500 people over the age of 60 and lasted between six and 40 months. None of the participants showed any signs of problems with their thinking skills or dementia at the start of the studies.

People who consumed omega-3 fatty acid-containing capsules or margarine did no better on standard tests of mental abilities or on tests of memory and verbal skills, according to the findings published in The Cochrane Library.

"From these studies, there doesn't appear to be any benefit for cognitive health for older people of taking omega-3 supplements," report co-author Alan Dangour, a nutritionist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said in a Cochrane news release.

"However, these were relatively short-term studies, so we saw very little deterioration in cognitive function in either the intervention groups or the control groups. It may take much longer to see any effect of these supplements," he added.

The researchers said further studies are needed to assess the long-term effects of omega-3 fatty acids on mental decline, particularly in people with low dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids.

Oily fish such as salmon and mackerel are a source of omega-3 fatty acids and other health benefits. "Fish is an important part of a healthy diet and we would still support the recommendation to eat two portions a week, including one portion of oily fish," said Dangour.

More information

The Society of Neuroscience has more about aging and the brain.

View the Original article

Raucous Music May Tap Into Your Inner Animal

"background-image:url('http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/qDc3ibMaasSVn72vKfHpKQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTcwO3B5b2ZmPTA7cT04NTt3PTcw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/e714313e9d1b7410120f6a706700455c.jpg');" width

View the Original article

Pregnancy-Related Deaths Fall Worldwide: Report

HealthDay – 4 mins 33 secs ago WEDNESDAY, June 13 (HealthDay News) -- The number of women worldwide who died from pregnancy-related complications each year fell from 12 million in 1990 to 7.6 million in 2010, according to a new report.

It also found that child death rates in many African countries have dropped twice as fast in recent years as during the 1990s.

In Botswana, Egypt, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda and the United Republic of Tanzania, the rate of decline was an average of 5 percent or more a year between 2000 and 2010, according to the report released June 13 by the Countdown to 2015 Initiative, an international research and advocacy group.

Similar progress has occurred in reducing pregnancy-related deaths in certain developing countries. For example, maternal deaths fell by 75 percent in Equatorial Guinea, Nepal and Vietnam.

Despite this good news, too many women and children are still dying, according to the report written by an international group of academics and professionals.

Every two minutes, a woman somewhere in the world dies from complications of pregnancy and her newborn's chances of survival are poor. For every woman who dies, another 20 to 30 women suffer major and sometimes lifelong problems due to pregnancy.

Also every two minutes, nearly 30 young children die of disease and illness that could have been prevented or treated.

The report also noted that many countries in Africa and South Asia are not making progress. Of the 75 countries with the highest rates of maternal and child deaths, 25 have made insufficient or no progress in reducing maternal deaths and 13 have made no progress in reducing child deaths.

"Global efforts to save the lives of women, newborn babies and young children are not moving fast enough," Dr. Mickey Chopra, chief health officer of United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF) and co-chair of the Countdown to 2015 initiative, said in a news release. "Some countries are showing us what success looks like, but many other countries still have to learn the lessons of those successes."

More information

Here's where you can learn more about the Countdown to 2015 Initiative.

View the Original article

Obesity, Depression Blamed for Daytime Sleepiness 'Epidemic'

background:url(http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/a/5b/a5ba32682eb601fb573b57542c19b9c1.png);width:115px;height:25px;margin-left:50px;margin-top:7px

View the Original article

Bonobo Genome Sheds Light on Their Links to Chimps, Humans

HealthDay – 4 mins 26 secs ago WEDNESDAY, June 13 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists who have completed the genome of the bonobo say their research will provide insights into the species' evolutionary relationships with other great apes and with humans.

The bonobo is the last of the great apes to have its genome sequenced. Other great apes include the chimpanzee, orangutan and gorilla.

Bonobos and chimpanzees are the closest living relatives of humans. But in contrast to the more aggressive chimpanzees, bonobos are known for their peaceful, playful behavior.

The bonobo genome was sequenced from a female named Ulindi who lives at the Leipzig zoo in Germany. The results show that bonobos and chimpanzees differ genetically by about 0.4 percent, while both bonobos and chimpanzees differ from humans by about 1.3 percent.

The study, by Kay Prufer and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, is published in the June 13 online edition of the journal Nature.

Bonobo and chimpanzee territories in central Africa are separated only by the Congo River. It's been theorized that the formation of the river separated the ancestors of chimpanzees and bonobos, leading to distinct species. This hypothesis is supported by a comparison of the bonobo and chimpanzee genomes, which shows an apparent clean split and no subsequent interbreeding.

While the average genomes of bonobos and chimpanzees are equally distant from the human genome, humans are closer to bonobos in some regions and closer to chimpanzees in others.

Further research will determine whether these genome regions influence the behavioral differences and similarities between humans, chimpanzees and bonobos, the study authors said.

More information

The Great Ape Trust has more about bonobos.

View the Original article

Targeted Radiation for Lung Cancer May Carry Risks

HealthDay – 4 mins 23 secs ago WEDNESDAY, June 13 (HealthDay News) -- A woman with early-stage lung cancer died recently after highly targeted radiation therapy zapped not just her tumor, but surrounding tissue, fatally damaging her airway.

Though just a single case report of an apparently deadly complication, the authors warn that targeted radiation therapy -- specifically, stereotactic body-radiation therapy -- has inherent risks, even when done properly and using an even lower dose of radiation than is considered safe.

Stereotactic body-radiation therapy focuses beams of radiation on a tumor in the hopes of killing it. Because it uses highly precise beams that can focus large doses of radiation with millimeter accuracy, the technique is considered an advance over older types of radiation therapy, which are generally more diffuse, explained Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society. The goal is to reduce exposure of healthy tissue to the radiation to avoid side effects, while more effectively shrinking the tumor with the higher doses of radiation delivered over a shorter period of time.

Stereotactic radiation is increasingly used to treat early-stage lung cancer. Though the first choice of treatment for early-stage lung cancer is surgery, radiation is turned to in people who cannot withstand having a portion of their lung removed because of other health issues, such as serious underlying heart or lung disease, said Dr. Ramesh Rengan, an assistant professor of radiation oncology at University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

Rengan wrote the case report published in the June 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

In the case report, a 61-year-old woman with a history of smoking and stage 1 adenocarcinoma -- meaning the two tumors were small and had not spread to the lymph nodes or other organs -- was treated, seemingly successfully, with stereotactic body radiation. Adenocarcinoma is a common type of non-small cell lung cancer.

But eight months later, not only did the woman have new metastases (spread of the cancer), a bronchoscopy -- a camera threaded into the airway -- showed an "extensive area of necrosis," or dead tissue, near the radiated area.

Her physicians at University of Pennsylvania did not do additional radiation. Instead, she underwent more chemotherapy, but began coughing up blood and died a few months later.

Researchers warned that patients with tumors near "radiation-sensitive" body parts, or body parts easily damaged by radiation relative to the dose needed to treat the cancer, such as the large airways, large blood vessels, the heart, certain nerves and the spinal cord, "may be at increased risk for severe radiation injury."

"The reason why it's so important to get this message out is because these side effects don't manifest themselves immediately. They can take months to show up," Rengan said. "And you will only find them if you are looking. Most patients aren't undergoing bronchoscopy just for the heck of it. On a CT scan, the airway looks fine."

Rengan urged physicians who use stereotactic radiation to follow patients carefully. Furthermore, the levels of radiation that are considered safe may need to be rethought, he added.

"This was a dose level that was previously believed to be safe for this type of tumor in this location," he said.

Lichtenfeld praised the authors for writing the case report. Although one report does not have the weight of a clinical trial involving multiple patients from multiple institutions, anecdotal reports such as this can help raise awareness about the potential complications of a treatment that's increasingly popular.

"Even though the doctors gave the radiation properly, they still got a serious complication," Lichtenfeld said. "What this report is saying is even though we did this the right way, doctors and patients still need to be aware you can have bad effects from this type of radiation used in this way."

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more on lung cancer.

View the Original article

Birth Control That Uses Combined Hormones Raises Heart Risk: Study

background:url(http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/a/5b/a5ba32682eb601fb573b57542c19b9c1.png);width:115px;height:25px;margin-left:50px;margin-top:7px

View the Original article

Fertility Treatment Tied to Higher Relapse Rate in Women With MS

background:url(http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/a/5b/a5ba32682eb601fb573b57542c19b9c1.png);width:115px;height:25px;margin-left:50px;margin-top:7px

View the Original article

Plague Rare in U.S., Surfacing in More Affluent Areas

HealthDay – 4 mins 13 secs ago WEDNESDAY, June 13 (HealthDay News) -- Although the plague is typically considered a remnant of the Middle Ages, when unsanitary conditions and rodent infestations prevailed amid the squalor of poverty, this rare but deadly disease appears to be spreading through wealthier communities in New Mexico, researchers report.

Why the plague is popping up in affluent neighborhoods isn't completely clear, the experts added.

"Where human plague cases occur is linked to where people live and how people interact with their environment," noted lead researcher Anna Schotthoefer, from the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation in Wisconsin. "These factors may change over time, necessitating periodic reassessments of the factors that put people at risk."

This latest study confirms previous reports that living within or close to the natural environments that support plague is a risk factor for human plague, Schotthoefer said.

Plague is caused by a fast-moving bacteria, known as Yersinia pestis, that is spread through flea bites (bubonic plague) or through the air (pneumonic plague).

The new report comes on the heels of the hospitalization on June 8 of an Oregon man in his 50s with what experts suspect is plague. According to The Oregonian, the man got sick a few days after being bitten as he tried to get a mouse away from a stray cat. The cat died days later, the paper said, and the man remains in critical condition.

For the new study, published in the July issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the researchers used U.S. Census Bureau data to pinpoint the location and socioeconomic status of plague patients.

About 11 cases of plague a year have occurred in the United States since 1976, with most cases found in New Mexico. Plague has also been reported in a handful of other states.

Although many cases were in areas where the habitat supports rodents and fleas, the researchers also found cases occurring in more upper-class neighborhoods. In the 1980s, most cases occurred where housing conditions were poor, but more recently cases have been reported in affluent areas of Santa Fe and Albuquerque, the investigators found.

"The shift from poorer to more affluent regions of New Mexico was a surprise, and suggests that homeowners in these newly developed areas should be educated about the risks of plague," Schotthoefer said.

Schotthoefer noted that these more affluent areas where plague occurred were regions where new housing developments had been built in habitats that support the wild reservoirs of plague, which include ground squirrels and woodrats.

Bubonic plague starts with painful swellings (buboes) of the lymph nodes, which appear in the armpits, legs, neck or groin. Buboes are at first a red color, then they turn a dark purple color, or black. Pneumonic plague starts by infecting the lungs. Other symptoms include a very high fever, delirium, vomiting, muscle pains, bleeding in the lungs and disorientation.

In the 14th century, a plague called the Black Death killed an estimated 30 percent to 60 percent of the European population. Victims died quickly, within days after being infected.

Infectious disease expert Dr. Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, said he doesn't expect to see that kind of outbreak ever again.

"This is not a disease of the past, but you are never going to see a massive outbreak of plague in this country," he said.

"We don't have the public health problems we used to have and people would be quickly confined if there were ever a large number of cases," Siegel explained.

Yet, it is not surprising to see plague in these more affluent areas, he noted.

"We know that plague only exists where you have wild animals, and once a reservoir of plague is already present it is likely to persist," Siegel explained. "It isn't only about squalor; it's about where the reservoir is."

However, if the disease is caught early it is treatable with antibiotics, Siegel added.

More information

For more information on plague, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

View the Original article

Guidelines Issued for When Docs Should Order Vascular Testing

background:url(http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/a/5b/a5ba32682eb601fb573b57542c19b9c1.png);width:115px;height:25px;margin-left:50px;margin-top:7px

View the Original article

Violence Takes a Toll on Children's Sleep

'modId':'mediasocialchromefriends','isPreLoad':0,'enableMediaTabEvent':0,'pageSize':12,'numFriends':null,'notificationCount':0,'property':'News','learnMorePath':'/activity-learn-more/','friendbarNotification':'0','friendbarRollup':'0','moduleConf':YAHOO.Media.Facebook.ModuleConf,'friendIdList':

View the Original article

Scientists Probe Diversity of Human Body's Microbes

'modId':'mediasocialchromefriends','isPreLoad':0,'enableMediaTabEvent':0,'pageSize':12,'numFriends':null,'notificationCount':0,'property':'News','learnMorePath':'/activity-learn-more/','friendbarNotification':'0','friendbarRollup':'0','moduleConf':YAHOO.Media.Facebook.ModuleConf,'friendIdList':

View the Original article