Pot's Active Ingredient Could Fight Alzheimer's.../more at Forbes.comThe active ingredient in marijuana -- delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) -- may slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease, new research suggests.

According to a team at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., THC preserves brain levels of an important neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. It does so by inhibiting the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, which breaks down acetylcholine.

Reporting in the current issue of Molecular Pharmaceutics, the Scripps team noted that existing Alzheimer's medicines, including donepezil and tacrine, also relieve symptoms by inhibiting this enzyme.

In their work in the laboratory, the researchers found that THC inhibits a different site on the acetylcholinesterase molecule and at lower concentrations.

They also discovered that THC prevents the formation of amyloid protein plaques that damage the brain and are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

"Our results provide a mechanism whereby the THC molecule can directly impact Alzheimer's disease pathology," the study authors wrote. In addition, THC may prove valuable as a model for developing new and more effective drugs to treat the disease, they said.....

National Multiple Sclerosis Society presents award to Baylor College of Medicine scientistNorthrop’s impressive credentials include a PhD and an MD degree from University of Washington, Seattle, but her current research thrust, genetic ties to familial and environmental commonalities, is underway at the Center for Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis.

The Center, part of the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, follows the progress of MS in 25 youngsters, all diagnosed with pediatric onset.....

N.J. Nursing Home Sued for Reviving Alzheimer's Patient

Marijuana may stave off Alzheimer's..../Click for full press release from The Scripps Research Institute
"Discovery Could Lead to More Effective Treatments"

"Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found that the active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, inhibits the formation of amyloid plaque, the primary pathological marker for Alzheimer's disease. In fact, the study said, THC is "a considerably superior inhibitor of [amyloid plaque] aggregation" to several currently approved drugs for treating the disease.

According to the new Scripps Research study, which used both computer modeling and biochemical assays, THC inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which acts as a "molecular chaperone" to accelerate the formation of amyloid plaque in the brains of Alzheimer victims. Although experts disagree on whether the presence of beta-amyloid plaques in those areas critical to memory and cognition is a symptom or cause, it remains a significant hallmark of the disease. With its strong inhibitory abilities, the study said, THC "may provide an improved therapeutic for Alzheimer's disease" that would treat "both the symptoms and progression" of the disease.

"While we are certainly not advocating the use of illegal drugs, these findings offer convincing evidence that THC possesses remarkable inhibitory qualities, especially when compared to AChE inhibitors currently available to patients," said Kim Janda, Ph.D., who is Ely R. Callaway, Jr. Professor of Chemistry at Scripps Research, a member of The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, and director of the Worm Institute of Research and Medicine. "In a test against propidium, one of the most effective inhibitors reported to date, THC blocked AChE-induced aggregation completely, while the propidium did not. Although our study is far from final, it does show that there is a previously unrecognized molecular mechanism through which THC may directly affect the progression of Alzheimer's disease."....

As the new study points out, any new treatment that could halt or even slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease would have a major impact on the quality of life for patients, as well as reducing the staggering health care costs associated with the disease....."

"Drinking black tea reduces measures of stress-related hormones and harmful cardiovascular changes, reported researchers here. In short, it seems to calm jangled nerves.":

Antioxidant-rich Pecans Can Protect Against Unhealthy Oxidation (CLICK FOR MORE):

"A new research study from Loma Linda University (LLU) shows that adding just a handful of pecans to your diet each day may inhibit unwanted oxidation of blood lipids, thus helping reduce the risk of heart disease. Researchers suggest that this positive effect was in part due to the pecan's significant content of vitamin E.

'Plant foods, including pecans, are rich sources of phytochemicals that can have a unique effect on the body,' says LLU researcher Ella Haddad, DrPH, associate professor, department of nutrition, School of Public Health.

Pecans contain different forms of vitamin E -- known as tocopherols -- which protects fats from oxidation. Pecans are especially rich in one form of vitamin E -- gamma tocopherol.

'We found that eating pecans increased levels of gamma tocopherol concentrations in the blood and subsequently reduced a marker of lipid oxidation,' adds Dr. Haddad.

Oxidation of fats in the blood -- a process akin to rusting -- is detrimental to health. When the 'bad' cholesterol becomes oxidized, it is more likely to build up and result in arteriosclerosis.

These latest research findings on pecan's healthfulness were published in the latest issue of Nutrition Research, just released this week. They are from the second phase of a research project designed to evaluate the health benefits of pecans, according to Dr. Haddad. She analyzed blood samples from study participants (a total of 23 men and women between the ages of 25 and 55) who ate two diets: one that contained pecans and one that did not. Participants were randomly placed on either the American Heart Association's Step I diet or a pecan-enriched version of the Step I diet. (The pecan-enriched diet was similar to the Step I diet but replaced 20 percent of calories with pecans). After four weeks on one diet, they then switched to the other diet..."

Heart Attack Signs Vary - CBS News (CLICK FOR MORE):

"Both men and women can experience 'atypical' heart attack symptoms, as well as classic signs of a heart attack.

People need to know that so they seek emergency help immediately for those symptoms. But some patients may have mistaken beliefs about heart attack differences in men and women, say Jill Quinn and Kathleen King of the University of Rochester’s nursing school in New York.

Quinn, PhD, RN, CS-ANP, is an assistant professor specializing in cardiovascular nursing. King, PhD, RN, FAAN, is a professor with a focus on women and heart disease.

'Expectations that only women experience atypical symptoms can lead to confusion for both men and women, resulting in delay [of seeking treatment],' they told the Second International Conference on Women, Heart Disease, and Stroke, which is underway in Orlando, Fla.

25 Steps To Better Health , Report Lists Leading Preventive Health Services - CBS News (CLICK FOR MORE):

"The Partnership for Prevention has released a report listing the top 25 preventive health services.

The report, 'Priorities for America’s Health: Capitalizing on Life-Saving, Cost-Effective Preventive Strategies,' was funded by the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

'Currently, about 95 percent of health care dollars in the United States are spent on treating diseases, with relatively little attention paid to preventing diseases, which should be a national priority,” states former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., in a Partnership for Prevention news release.

'Basically, these are the preventive health services that offer the biggest bang for the buck,' says Satcher, who chaired the panel that drafted the list.

List of Top 25 Preventive Health Services
Here is the report's list of the top 25 preventive health services, along with the score assigned by the panel (with 10 being the highest score):..."

Lucentis Stalls Blood Vessel Growth in Macular Degeneration - CME Teaching Brief� - MedPage TodayLucentis (ranibizumab) is an effective treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration, according to two large randomized controlled trials.
Action Points

One of the reports found that over two years, on average, patients receiving injections of Lucentis gained more than one line of visual acuity on a standard eye chart, whereas those receiving sham injections lost more than two lines.

The second study found that at one year the average patient receiving Lucentis gained about two lines of visual acuity. By contrast, the average patient receiving photodynamic therapy as a sham treatment lost about two lines on the eye chart.

In both studies, which appeared, in the Oct. 5 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. the most feared complication, bacterial infection inside the eye, occurred in one of every 2,000 injections.....

Alzheimer's treatments: What's on the horizon? - MayoClinic.com
Despite many promising leads, new treatments for Alzheimer's are slow to emerge. Future treatments will likely focus on stopping the disease in people at risk.

Alzheimer's treatments consist mainly of medications that stabilize cognitive function, if only for a short period of time. These drugs stage a holding action, primarily postponing further cognitive declines.

But the Alzheimer's treatments of the future will focus more on preventing the disease, which can begin decades before a person experiences its signs and symptoms. Increasingly, even as investigators work to detect Alzheimer's at its earliest stage, they're also looking to arrest its progress when the effects may still be reversible.

Alzheimer's vaccine
Early studies in mice showed that immunization with amyloid-beta peptide reduced the number of plaques — clusters of abnormal cells associated with Alzheimer's disease — in the brain. But a trial of an Alzheimer's vaccine in humans was halted after some participants developed brain inflammation.

Scientists continue to search for an Alzheimer's vaccine that will not produce such dangerous side effects.

Secretase inhibitors
Medications called secretase inhibitors interrupt the actions of enzymes that lead to plaques in the brain. To be safe, though, these drugs must be able to target only the harmful actions of secretase and not interfere with the enzymes' normal functions in the body.

Another major challenge is that a secretase-inhibiting drug must be able to cross the blood-brain barrier that surrounds and protects the brain from foreign substances in the blood. This barrier typically doesn't allow large molecules to pass into the brain.

Cardiovascular therapies
Some studies have shown that taking statins — cholesterol-lowering drugs — in midlife reduces a person's risk of dementia. Other studies, however, have failed to find this association. If there is a link between high cholesterol and Alzheimer's, the risk of Alzheimer's could be reduced by controlling cholesterol levels through diet and medication.

Along similar lines, a large study found that people who took medications to lower blood pressure had a reduced risk of vascular dementia, which is caused by a series of small strokes. Because vascular dementia and Alzheimer's appear to be linked, controlling high blood pressure may also help prevent Alzheimer's.

Anti-inflammatory agents
Inflammation appears to play a role in Alzheimer's, although it's still unknown if it's a cause or an effect of the disease.

Several studies indicate that anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others), naproxen sodium (Aleve) and indomethacin (Indocin), may reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. But these types of drugs can also cause serious gastrointestinal bleeding, so more studies are needed to determine whether the benefits outweigh the risks.

Hormones
Early studies indicated that hormone replacement therapy, typically prescribed to ease menopausal symptoms, might protect women over the age of 65 against Alzheimer's. But more recent studies not only refute these findings, but also suggest that this hormone therapy might even increase the risk of dementia.

The timing of the hormone replacement therapy may be the reason for apparently contradictory results. Some researchers speculate that early hormone therapy, during a woman's 50s, may be protective, while later use becomes harmful.

Medications that mimic estrogen's effects, such as the osteoporosis drug raloxifene (Evista), may provide cognitive benefits without estrogen's risks.

In men, low testosterone levels have been linked to increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. Researchers are investigating whether testosterone supplements might help men who have Alzheimer's or are at risk of the disease, but the results have been mixed.

Timeline for answers
New Alzheimer's treatments take time to develop, and then even more studies are needed to establish a treatment's safety and effectiveness. But all this time and effort will eventually pay off. Most researchers expect to see major progress in the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's in the next few decades....

Double Jeopardy: Obese Smokers at Higher Risk of Death [click for more]People who are both very obese and who smoke increase their risk of death by 3.5 to 5 times that of people of normal weight who never smoke, finds a study in the November issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

According to the study, 20 percent of obese adults in the United States smoke, which puts them at a higher risk of death caused by cancer and circulatory disease. The authors further found that, in general, being a current smoker was a far stronger risk factor for cancer death than being obese.

“Smoking has been known as a very strong risk factor for many cancers, particularly lung cancer, which is the most common site of cancer death,” said lead author D. Michal Freedman, Ph.D., of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute.

The study surveyed more than 80,000 current and former radiologic technologists between the ages of 22 and 92 who completed a self-administered questionnaire in the period from 1983 to 1989. They all were followed through December 2002 and the number of deaths was reported.

The questionnaire collected information such as birth date, height, weight and smoking behavior. Participants’ body mass indexes were calculated from their weight and height A BMI of 30 to 34.9 was considered obese, and more than 35 was very obese.

Smoking behaviors were categorized by duration, intensity and current status. Freedman and her colleagues analyzed a measure that included both cigarettes smoked per day and duration of smoking. They found, in general, that more smoking or “pack-years” was related to a higher risk of death.

Also, in both women and men of all ages, the risk of death from circulatory disease increased with each additional increment in the BMI. When participants were obese and also current smokers, their risk of death from circulatory disease jumped even higher to an increase of 6- to 11-fold for those under age 65, compared to the participants of normal weight who never smoked.

The study......

Warning signs:Threats like rising obesity rate could make diabetes an epidemic [click for more]William Flynn remembers all too well the weekend in high school when he could not quench his thirst. In just a few days, he drank an entire case of Coke.

By Sunday, he felt terribly sick.

His blood sugar had soared to the scary level of 500, more than triple the normal range.

Doctors diagnosed him with juvenile diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the body does not manufacture enough insulin. To survive, he would need to inject himself with insulin daily and closely monitor his diet and exercise.

"I felt like I was being destroyed," recalled Flynn. "I had to gain control over it."

He has been doing just that for 18 years now.

One recent afternoon, Flynn, 37, a man with the impish smile and boyish looks of Matthew Broderick, came home from work at Phillips Academy in Andover and quickly attended to his diabetes needs. He jabbed a finger stick into his skin to draw blood to measure his glucose level, noting that it feels like pushing in a thumb tack. His injection of insulin would come a...

Aging Well, Living Well (click here for more)Americans are living longer than ever before, and many seniors are living active, healthy, and productive lives. A woman who is 65 today can expect to live, on average, another 19 years to age 84. Many of you are using this extra time volunteering in your communities, traveling, and spending more time with family and friends. Taking good care of your body and mind will help you enjoy your golden years.

Key health issues for older women include:

Cardiovascular disease (such as heart disease and stroke)

Cancer

Mental health disorders

The medical community has focused a great deal of attention on health issues facing older women in recent years. More older women are being represented in medical research studies such as the Women's Health Initiative, which included over 150,000 postmenopausal women. Such research has helped health care providers learn much about menopause, osteoporosis, heart disease, and other conditions that are important to women. More research has also been done on the prevention of breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer.

Older women still have higher rates of disability than men of the same age, not because more women develop disabilities than men, but rather women with disabilities survive longer than men. Taking good care of yourself, including.....

What’s New in Joint Replacement Surgery?


Joint replacement surgery may be the most appropriate option when persistent joint pain, due to arthritis, causes disability and interferes with daily life. This commonly applies to the hip or knee where a degenerative form of arthritis, called osteoarthritis, often develops.

After all other courses of treatment have been tried, joint replacement surgery can dramatically reduce pain and restore a person’s quality-of-life. Called arthroplasty, the surgery involves removing the damaged joint and replacing it with an artificial one.

Latest in joint replacement surgery
Considered a major surgery, new technology and advances in surgical and anesthetic techniques have greatly reduced the risks involved with joint replacement surgery. For example, Brigham and Women’s surgeons operating on the knee are now using a minimally invasive technique that is as effective as traditional open surgery but provides important advantages.

Minimally invasive rotating platform total knee replacement is a relatively new procedure that uses a less invasive technique that reduces blood loss and tissue trauma. The goal of minimally invasive total knee replacement is to improve short-term results without changing the excellent long-term outcome. Most patients who require total knee replacement can be appropriate candidates for the minimally invasive approach.

Other important advances include developments in anesthesia and pain management that speed rehabilitation and play a pivotal role in successful minimally invasive knee replacement surgery.

“In the past, the surgery involved significant incisions to the knee and caused trauma to the surrounding tissue, which resulted in long, painful recuperation periods. These latest techniques directly help patients by reducing pain and shortening their recovery,” says Thomas S. Thornhill, MD, Orthopedist-in-Chief within the Department of Orthopedic Surgery.

Latest scanning device finds heart disease, and controversy, quickly [CLICK 4 MORE]
"Coming soon to a medical center near you: a much-anticipated but controversial X-ray machine that can detect heart disease in five seconds.

Although the 64-slice CT scanner can be used to see other parts of the body, its most talked-about ability is to detect blockages in coronary arteries.

Highly precise, 3-D images show if a patient's symptoms, such as chest pain, are caused by heart disease and require an invasive procedure such as catheterization to correct.
Cardiologists say that the machine is not as reliable for someone with previously treated heart disease. The better option in those cases is to go straight to catheterization, they advise.

Limitations aside, doctors rave about how quickly the scanner can rule out serious cardiac complications.

More than 1,000 of the machines have been installed worldwide since their rollout two years ago. They got a celebrity boost when Oprah Winfrey underwent a cardiac check with the device on her TV talk show last year.

“Ever since Oprah, I've been bombarded by physicians in other parts of the country (and) even from Japan, France and Saudi Arabia” who want their patients to be scanned, said Dr. John Hauschildt of Rady Children's Hospital in Kearny Mesa, the first facility in the county to get the 64-slice CT scanner.

The machine is not without its critics. Some cardiologists worry that it will be overused, exposing people who have no symptoms or risk factors for heart.....

Brian Finnegan holds a binder with pictures of his mother and information about Alzheimer's Disease. Finnegan, whose mother has had the disease for 12 years, will be the grand marshal of the Alzheimer's Walk on Oct. 14
Alzheimer’s: A ‘horrible’ family experience

The Smith family: stories from the families...[MORE]
"The third and final stage of Alzheimer's disease begins with a steep cognitive slide.

"I prepared myself," Ericka Smith said, "so it was like, here we are. She doesn't know who I am. OK."

By early 2004, a full-time caregiver had moved into the Smith's Orinda home to help care for Suzie. By the end of the year, a second full-time caregiver had moved in, too, to help on weekends, evenings and whenever the need arose. But by January 2005, the situation was untenable.

Early Onset patients are not feeble. They may no longer recognize their families or caregivers, or understand what a toilet or shower is for, but they can fight off what, to them, appears to be a physical assault. Instead of seeing a beloved daughter or trusted caregiver, they see a total stranger who is stripping off their clothes and shoving them, however gently, into a tiled cubicle full of water.

For the Smiths, the whole thing came to a head the weekend that Ericka's father, Rick, went to San Diego to see some old Navy buddies. By some strange alignment of stars, all six turned out to have spouses with Early Onset Alzheimer's.

Back in Orinda, all hell had broken loose.

"She bit me four times," Ericka recalled. "It took three of us to get her to the bathroom. She chased me around the house. She thought that I was going to murder her."

The family did an emergency check-in at an Alzheimer's residence facility that Rick's Navy buddies recommended. Suzie has lived there ever since. Now 59, Suzie does not recognize her family when...."

"Cabernet Sauvignon Red Wine Reduces the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease"
PRESS RELEASE: Mount Sinai School of Medicine

"A new study directed by Mount Sinai School of Medicine has found that moderate red wine consumption in a form of Cabernet Sauvignon may help reduce the incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). The study entitled “ Moderate Consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon Attenuates β-amyloid Neuropathology in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease” is in press, and will be published in the November 2006 issue of The FASEB Journal. The breakthrough study will also be presented at the “Society for Neuroscience Meeting” held in Atlanta, Georgia, October 14-18, 2006.

“ Our study is the first to report that moderate consumption of red wine in a form of Cabernet Sauvignon delivered in the drinking water for ~7 months significantly reduces AD-type β-amyloid neuropathology, and memory deterioration in ~11-month-old transgenic mice that model AD,” reported researchers Dr. Giulio Maria Pasinetti and Dr. Jun Wang at Mount Sinai. “This study supports epidemiological evidence indicating that moderate wine consumption, within the range recommended by the FDA dietary guidelines of one drink per day for women and two for men, may help reduce the relative risk for AD clinical dementia.”

“This new breakthrough is another step forward in Alzheimer’s research at Mount Sinai and across the globe for this growing health concern that has devastating effects,” say Giulio Maria Pasinetti, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Director of the Neuroinflammation Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and lead author of the study and Dr. Jun Wang, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and co-Author of the study. “These findings give researchers and millions of families a glimpse of light at the end of the long dark tunnel for future prevention of this disease.”

People with AD exhibit elevated levels of beta-amyloid peptides that cause plaque buildup in the brain, which is the main characteristic of AD. An estimated 4.5 million Americans have AD. Presently, there are no known cures or effective preventive strategies. While genetic factors are responsible in early-onset cases, they appear to play less of a role in late-onset-sporadic AD cases, the most common form of AD. However, lifestyle factors such as diet and now moderate wine consumption are receiving increasing attention for its potential preventative impact on AD.

Using mice, with AD-type β-amyloid (Aβ) neuropathology, researchers at Mount Sinai tested whether moderate consumption of the red wine Cabernet Sauvignon changes AD-type neuropathology and cognitive deterioration. The wine used was delivered in a final concentration of approximately 6 percent ethanol. It was found that Cabernet Sauvignon significantly reduced AD-type deterioration of spatial memory function and Aβ neuropathology in mice relative to control mice that were treated with either a comparable amount of ethanol or water alone. Cabernet Sauvignon was found to exert a beneficial effect by promoting non-amyloidogenic processing of amyloid precursor protein, which ultimately prevents the generation of AD β-amyloid neuropathology.....

Bayer says mistakenly failed to disclose drug data [MORE Reuters.com]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - German drug maker Bayer AG "mistakenly" failed to inform U.S. regulators about a study on the risks of heart-surgery drug Trasylol before an advisory panel met and ruled the side effects were acceptable, the company said on Friday.

The Food and Drug Administration said the early findings from a new review of hospital records from 67,000 patients suggested Trasylol use may increase the chances of death, serious kidney damage, congestive heart failure and strokes.

The agency said it was reviewing the data to decide how they would impact current advice to limit Trasylol use to cases in which doctors believe reducing blood loss during bypass surgery is essential and outweighs possible risks.....

Elan to Pay $200 Million to Develop Alzheimer's Drug Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Elan Corp., the maker of the Tysabri multiple sclerosis treatment, will pay as much as $200 million to add an experimental treatment to its Alzheimer's disease program.

Transition Therapeutics Inc., based in Toronto, will get $7.5 million this year and the same amount next year from Elan for a drug known as AZD-103, in addition to milestone payments that may reach $185 million, the Dublin-based drugmaker said today. The drug is in the earliest stage of human research.

Elan is already working with Wyeth to develop two experimental compounds for Alzheimer's disease, a progressive brain disorder that affects about 20 million people worldwide. The company is also developing drugs for Parkinson's and Crohn's diseases after reintroducing Tysabri in recent months.....

Water in the Brain Hints at Early Cognitive Decline IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 26 -- Early signs of Alzheimer's disease may show up in subtle changes in the diffusion of water in key brain structures, as revealed by MRI, researchers here suggested.

In a small study, patients with mild cognitive impairment were found to have elevations in apparent diffusion coefficient in brain areas governing memory when compared with control patients, and reported Min-Ying Su, Ph.D., of the University of California at Irvine, and colleagues, in the October issue of Radiology.

These elevations correlated with worse memory performance scores, the investigators added.

"Our methods may enable earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, allowing earlier intervention to slow down disease......... progression," they said.

Teva sees 15 drug applications from 2009-2015 - washingtonpost.com.......At a meeting for analysts and investors in New York, the Israel-based company touted its stable of experimental medicines that include potential therapies for multiple sclerosis, lupus, Alzheimer's disease and cancer.....

National Survey Shows Women Overlook Common Warning Signs Associated With Poor Blood Sugar Management, Raising the Risk for Diabetes and Heart Disease - MORE Forbes.com
For women, excess weight in the mid-section, frequent fatigue and carbohydrate cravings may be the warning signs of something more serious. A new survey commissioned by the not-for-profit National Women's Health Resource Center (NWHRC) showed that 75 percent of women ages 40-65 who had not been diagnosed with, but had a family history of diabetes or heart disease, reported that they experienced these symptoms. However, nearly one-third (32%) of all women surveyed did not know they could be signs of impaired insulin function, a key risk factor for type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The most common symptoms experienced were excess weight in the mid-section (62%), frequent fatigue (36%) and carbohydrate cravings (30%).

"When women who don't have diabetes hear the word 'insulin' they tune out because they think it doesn't apply to them. It is critical for women to look at these common symptoms as a wake up call and understand that insulin health is important for all of us," said Audrey Sheppard, President and CEO of NWHRC, the leading independent health information source for women. "Our goal is to educate women about the important role blood sugar plays in preventing disease and how simple physical and dietary changes can help improve their overall health....."

A large study concludes widely used hormone therapy for prostate cancer survivors increases their risk of developing heart disease and diabetes.
MORE
Study author Dr. Nancy Keating of the Harvard Medical School cautions: “Patients and physicians need to be aware of the elevated risk as they make treatment decisions.”

An estimated 234,000 American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year. Because of new screening techniques, many of them will be diagnosed with cancer limited to the prostate or to the prostate and its immediate region. Such early disease is treated primarily with surgery alone or with radiation therapy.

An increasing number of these men are also put on hormone therapy to reduce the risk of the disease coming back or spreading in the case some cancer cells escaped initial treatment. Hormone therapy (androgen suppression or GnRH agonist therapy) stops the body’s production the sex hormone testosterone which prostate cancer uses to grow.

Most patients with advanced disease are prescribed hormone therapy to slow down their cancer’s growth. Because men with more advanced disease have benefited from hormone therapy, many men with early disease treated with radiation are also given a two to three year course of androgen suppression therapy.

“Men with prostate cancer have high five-year survival rates, but they also have higher rates of non-cancer mortality than healthy men,” Dr. Keating said in urging a more cautious approach to prescribing hormone therapy to men with early stage prostate cancer.

Dr, Keating and colleagues examined the treatments given 73,000 prostate cancer patients aged 66 or older diagnosed with early stage disease.....

Stem cells show little heart-attack aid - MORE
Giving heart attack survivors stem cells from their own bone marrow did little to repair their damaged hearts, according to the three best studies to date of this controversial therapy.

The modest results suggest more study is needed — and, some scientists say, demonstrate the need to lift political limits on using cells from embryos, which offer more promise for turning into heart-repairing tissue.....

Study Identifies Potential New Marker For Heart Failure Diagnosis, Prognosis....Harvard- Mass General Hospital...MORE
A collaborative study by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the University Hospital of Maastricht, The Netherlands, has identified a new candidate biomarker for heart failure with the potential of further improving the challenging task of diagnosing and predicting outcomes for patients with symptoms of heart failure, primarily shortness of breath. In the September 19 Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the investigators report that elevated blood levels of galectin-3, an inflammatory protein, can help diagnose heart failure and identify patients at risk of dying within 60 days. Another potential marker, apelin, did not prove to be useful.

"Heart failure is one of the most difficult diagnoses to make accurately, since it has numerous, varied symptoms, and signs that indicate heart failure are hard to detect," says James Januzzi Jr., MD, of the MGH Cardiology Division, the paper's co-lead author and principal investigator of the 2005 PRIDE Study, from which the data for the current report was generated. "It also is notoriously difficult to identify those heart failure patients at the highest risk of death, so biomarker screening to assist with prognostication has been studied and increasingly implemented over the past several years."

BAYLOR UNIVERSITY:
Researchers offer advice regarding nutritional supplements...MORE
If you're curious about the dizzying array of nutritional supplements available, you're not alone. Annual sales in the category top $4 billion.

Eating a healthy diet will typically supply sufficient nutrients, but if you decide to try a product, consult with your doctor and pharmacist. Supplements can be overkill if you're already taking a multivitamin. They also can cause allergic reactions and interact with medications.

"Most people think that if they get a substance over the counter, it's all right to take," notes Rudy Nelson Lea Jr., MD, a family medicine physician on the medical staff at Baylor Medical Center at Garland. "But if you're taking prescription medicine at the same time, it's often not all right."
Following are some of the most common supplements and their benefits and potential dangers.
Calcium
- Proposed benefit: Osteoporosis prevention
- Beware: Calcium carbonate, found in Citracal, should be taken with food. Calcium citrate, the form of calcium found in Os-Cal, is absorbed differently by the body and can be taken on an empty stomach. If in doubt, check the label or ask your health care provider, advises Julie A. Allen, PharMD, RPh, pharmacy director at Baylor Garland.
Echinacea
- Proposed benefit: Treatment of respiratory infections such as the common cold. "Proponents suggest that it increases the response of white blood cells-the cells in the body that fight off infections," Dr. Lea said.
- Beware: People who are on medication that suppresses the immune system should avoid echinacea.
Iron
- Proposed benefit: Treatment of low blood iron or anemia by helping the body make red blood cells.
- Beware: Iron may affect the results of certain medical tests. Possible side effects include bloody diarrhea, constipation and fever.
Omega-3 fatty acids
- Proposed benefit: Enhanced cardiovascular health, brain function and immunity. For patients with elevated triglycerides, Dr. Lea recommends one gram in the form of fish oil capsules with each meal.
- Beware: A high intake could cause excessive bleeding-supplementing should be stopped two weeks before and after surgery.
Vitamin B complex.......

Reduce the Risk of Cancer: Eat Your Fruits and Veggies...(MORE:Fox News)
"Remember when your mom told you to eat your vegetables? When you couldn't get up from the table until you'd finished your broccoli, peas and carrots? When there was no dessert until you ate your green beans?

It seems that mom might have been on to something.

That's because fruits and vegetables have been shown to be among the best means to reduce the risk of cancer and other diseases. According to the Produce for a Better Health Foundation, "deeply hued fruits and vegetables provide the wide range of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytochemicals your body needs to maintain good health and energy levels, protect against the effects of aging, and reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.

Of course, there aren't any fail-safe methods to ward off cancer, but most experts..."

Live Long? Die Young? Answer Isn't Just in Genes - New York Times

"Yet even diseases commonly Yet even diseases commonly thought to be strongly inherited, like many cancers, are not, researchers found. In a paper in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2000, Dr. Paul Lichtenstein of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and his colleagues analyzed cancer rates in 44,788 pairs of Nordic twins. They found that only a few cancers — breast, prostate and colorectal — had a noticeable genetic component. And it was not much. If one identical twin got one of those cancers, the chance that the other twin would get it was generally less than 15 percent, about five times the risk for the average person but not a very big risk over all.

Looked at one way, the data say that genes can determine cancer risk. But viewed another way, the data say that the risk for an identical twin of a cancer patient is not even close to 100 percent, as it would be if genes completely determined who would get the disease.

Dr. Robert Hoover of the National Cancer Institute wrote in an accompanying editorial: “There is a low absolute probability that a cancer will develop in a person whose identical twin — a person with an identical genome and many similar exposures — has the same type of cancer. This should also be instructive to some scientists and others interested in individual risk assessment who believe that with enough information, it will be possible to predict accurately who will contract a disease and who will not.”

Alzheimer’s disease also has a genetic component, but genes are far from the only factor in determining who gets the disease, said Margaret Gatz of the University of Southern California and Nancy Pedersen of the Karolinska Institute......"

New research shows restricting in food intake can help fight disease - [CLICK]

"A new study directed by Mount Sinai School of Medicine extends and strengthens the research that experimental dietary regimens might halt or even reverse symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). The study entitled “Calorie Restriction Attenuates Alzheimer’s Disease Type Brain Amyloidosis in Squirrel Monkeys” which has been accepted for publication and will be published in the November 2006 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, demonstrates the potential beneficial role of calorie restriction in AD type brain neuropathology in non-human primates. Restricting caloric intake may prevent AD by triggering activity in the brain associated with longevity.

“The present study strengthens the possibility that CR may exert beneficial effects on delaying the onset of AD- amyloid brain neuropathology in humans, similar to that observed in squirrel monkey and rodent models of AD,” reported Mount Sinai researcher Dr. Pasinetti and his colleagues, who published their study, showing how restricting caloric intake based on a low-carbohydrate diet may prevent AD in an experimental mouse model, in the July 2006 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

“This new breakthrough brings great anticipation for further human study of caloric restriction, for AD investigators and for those physicians who treat millions of people suffering with this disease” says Giulio Maria Pasinetti, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Director of the Neuroinflammation Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “The findings offer a glimmer of hope that there may someday be a way to prevent and stop this devastating disease in its tracks.”

AD is a rapidly growing public health concern with potentially devastating effects. An estimated 4.5 million Americans have AD. Presently, there are no known cures or effective preventive strategies. While genetic factors are responsible in early-onset cases, they appear to play less of a role in late-onset-sporadic AD cases, the most common form of AD.....

Collectively, the study suggests that the investigation of calorie restriction in non-human primates may be a valuable approach towards understanding the role of calorie restriction in human AD pathology. The present study strengthens the possibility that calorie restriction may exert beneficial effects in delaying the onset of AD. The findings also elucidate the important relationship between the expression of longevity genes like SIRT1 in calorie restriction dietary regimens and mechanisms associated with the prevention of AD....

Study Condemns F.D.A.'s Handling of Drug Safety: consumers should be wary of drugs that have only recently been approved...New York Times..[CLICK FOR FULL ARTICLE: FREE ON-LINE NYT REGISTRATION]:

¶WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 — The nation’s system for ensuring the safety of medicines needs major changes, advertising of new drugs should be restricted, and consumers should be wary of drugs that have only recently been approved, according to a long-anticipated study of drug safety.

The report by the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, is likely to intensify a debate about the safety of the nation’s drug supply and the adequacy of the government’s oversight. The debate heated up in September 2004 when Merck withdrew its popular arthritis drug Vioxx after studies showed that it doubled the risks of heart attacks....

CLICK TO READ MORE: Published September 10, 2006: If you're not yet convinced that fish oil should be slipped into the water supply, consider this: Scientists have created genetically modified pigs that can produce the omega-3 fatty acids normally found in seafood.

Though this omega bacon isn't sizzling just yet, the researchers believe the cloned creatures are necessary because if omega-3s grow any more popular, we'll need to dig up new sources for what some consider the "miracle drug" of the century.

The strongest evidence shows that a diet rich in omega-3s fights heart disease. The American Heart Association recommends fish and fish oil to reduce heart attack risk and to help those who already have had one. They also are suggested for people with high triglycerides, which are important fats found in the blood. Heart disease, obesity and diabetes are associated with high triglycerides.

But omega-3s, nutrients that have antiinflammatory properties, may have a rainbow of other therapeutic uses, including treatment of arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, exercise-induced asthma, macular degeneration, depression, attention-deficit disorder, autoimmune disorders and breast and liver cancer, just to name a few. (See sidebar, Page 6.) Preliminary studies have shown that the use of omega-3s may even help prevent premature labor.

ABC VIDEO: : Chinese Herb Offers Hope for Alzheimer's Patients:
"EXCITING NEWS ABOUT A CHINESE HERB THAT SOME DOCTORS FEEL MIGHT DO MORE TO HELP ALZHEIMER'S PATIENTS THEN ANY DRUG CURRENTLY ON THE MARKET.AS MEDICAL REPORTER KATHY FOWLER EXPLAINS, LOCAL DOCTORS ARE RECRUITING PATIENTS TO STUDY THIS HERB FOR THE FIRST TIME.Kathy Fowler:THIS HERB IS CALLED HUPERZINE A... IT'S AN EXTRACT FROM MOSS THAT GROWS IN CHINA. CHINESE DOCTORS USE IT TO TREAT ALZHEIMER'S PATIENTS AND NOW LOCAL DOCTORS ARE TESTING IT TO SEE JUST HOW GOOD IT IS......"

Human stem cells help blinded rats -CLICK FOR MORE: "Human embryonic stem cells can partly restore vision in blinded rats, and may offer a source of transplants for people with certain eye diseases, researchers at a U.S. company reported on Thursday The finding, published in the journal Cloning and Stem Cells, might offer a way to use stem cells that now exist in laboratories, the researchers said.

"We have developed a technology that we hope can be used to treat degenerative eye diseases such as macular degeneration," said Dr. Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Massachusetts, who led the study. "We have demonstrated that these human embryonic-stem-cell-derived cells can rescue visual function in animals that otherwise would have gone blind," Lanza said in an e-mail.

Stem cells are a kind of template cell for the body, producing the various tissue and cell types. Those taken from days-old embryos are especially malleable, and can produce any cell or tissue found in the body. Their use and production is controversial, however, with opponents saying it is unethical to use human embryos in this way. They say there are plenty of good experiments to be done using so-called adult stem cells, and scientists are racing to find potential therapies using both kinds of cells.

President George W. Bush restricted federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research to a few lines, or batches, of cells that existed as of August 2001. Private companies such as Advanced Cell Technology can do as they like, and Lanza's team used some of those batches from 2001 as well as other batches produced using private funds.....

CLICK FOR TULANE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
NEW ORLEANS - Soy protein helps lower total cholesterol, low-density lipid "bad" cholesterol and triglycerides, and slightly raises high-density lipid "good" cholesterol, according to a Tulane University study published in the Sept. 1, 2006 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology.

The Tulane study gives strong support to the notion that soy protein should be part of a comprehensive dietary intervention for the prevention and treatment of high blood cholesterol levels. Replacing foods high in saturated fat, trans-saturated fat and cholesterol with soy foods, such as tofu or soy milk, should be beneficial to cardiovascular health.

Kristi Reynolds, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and a team of Tulane colleagues analyzed data from 41 different studies on the effects of isolated soy protein on blood cholesterol levels.

The studies analyzed by the team were all randomized controlled trials conducted from 1982 through 2004 among adult participants. A total of 1,756 adults participated in these trials, with 27 of the 41 trials carried out in the United States.

CLICK HERE TO READ FULL STORY: "Alzheimer's PredictorTwo complementary brain scans can pick up Alzheimer's before it happens.By Brad KlozaSeptember 19, 2006 | Mind & Brain


"Whether it's misplacing your keys or forgetting a phone number, lots of people wonder when simple lapses in memory might be an early sign of Alzheimer's. Now researchers are working on software that might help predict who's really at risk.

New York University brain researchers Susan De Santi and Lisa Mosconi are part of a team developing software that they say will help tell the difference between a person who's just getting old and one who's on the road to Alzheimer's. The software combines information from two different types of brain scans: MRI and PET.

The software takes advantage of the strengths of these two types of brain scans, and each helps mitigate areas where the other is weak. MRI, for instance, is a very good tool to study the inner makeup of the brain and to pinpoint precise locations. PET is much less precise, but does a good job of showing where the brain is using sugar, the energy source of living cells. Plunges in energy use could signal decline in brain function, and the researchers decided to focus on the hippocampus, a part of the brain known to be affected in Alzheimer's.

"What we are trying to do is to find a measure that would predict decline from normal aging to Alzheimer's disease," says Mosconi. "And it looks like the hippocampus is particularly involved in early Alzheimer's disease..."

more: Scientists may have found a new cause of Alzheimer's disease symptoms.

Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and colleagues have been studying genes known as "presenilins," known to be mutated in people with an inherited form of Alzheimer's disease.

Until now, presenilins have been primarily known for their role in forming the plaques that riddle the brains of Alzheimer's patients. But this new study, published in the Sept. 8 issue of Cell, found that presenilins may also control the balance of calcium within cells.

"YES, DOCTOR, IT CAN BE DONE: MRIs MADE SAFE FOR PEOPLE WITH MODERN DEFIBRILLATORS AND PACEMAKERS"

Johns Hopkins Medicine
Media Relations and Public Affairs

September 18, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

- Low-energy "fix" for machine, other steps vastly reduce risk

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have painstakingly figured out how to safely perform magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans on men and women who have any one of 24 modern types of implanted defibrillators and pacemakers.

Henry Halperin, M.D., and his team have developed a combination of methods that reduce the risk of life-threatening meltdowns and other complications posed by MRI's ability to charge and manipulate the electrical properties of cells to produce real-time images from inside the body.

"We have turned a once exceptional procedure into one that is now a routine at Hopkins," Halperin says.

Among other things, the Johns Hopkins group reprograms the devices, fixing them to a specific sequence. This makes the implanted devices "blind" to their external environment, reducing the potential for their electronics to confuse the radiofrequency generated by the MRI with an irregular heartbeat and preventing misfires. They also turn off the defibrillators' shocking function for the brief duration of the MRI scan, about 30 to 60 minutes.

Also changed is the amount of electrical energy used at peak scanning in MRI. The Johns Hopkins team reduced the strength of the electromagnetic field by half, from as much as 4 watts per kilogram to 2 watts per kilogram per patient.

"This lower-energy scan still provided images of sufficient quality to make an accurate diagnosis in more than 90 percent of cases tested," Halperin said in an article published in the Sept. 18 issue of the journal Circulation, reporting on 55 of more than 100 patients scanned at Johns Hopkins so far.

Their report comes just two years after the same journal published the team's initial, positive findings in animals, stirring fierce debate at several international conferences as to whether or not MRI could truly be made safe.

Since 2004, the Johns Hopkins team says its expanded use of MRI has made more than a dozen potentially life-saving diagnoses, despite the fact that the tiny, battery-driven heart devices, which help the body's main pump maintain a beat, have long been considered unsafe and off limits for testing.

"The risk to patients of burning heart tissue or misfiring is still there," Halperin cautions. "But our results show that with appropriate precautions, MRI is a safe and effective diagnostic tool to use for those with modern implanted heart devices." An electro-physiologist and professor of medicine, radiology and biomedical engineering at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart Institute, Halperin has long led efforts to expand access to MRI.

Except for research purposes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not authorized any implanted cardiac device for MRI testing. But Halperin says opening up this diagnostic option is important for the estimated 2 million Americans, many of them elderly, who have these implanted devices but who are also denied the benefits of the quick and accurate images that MRI provides.

"Once these precautions are better understood and further refined, we hope policy makers will see fit to review current restrictions on scanning anyone with a device," says lead author Saman Nazarian, M.D., a cardiac electrophysiology, clinical and research fellow at Johns Hopkins.

"These images are critical to early diagnosis of certain cancers of the brain, head and neck, and to guide invasive procedures," he notes.

Of those scanned in the study, 31 had a pacemaker and 24 had an implantable defibrillator. Only modern devices - pacemakers made after 1996 and defrillators manufactured after 2000 - were tested, Nazarian says, because the latest models were deemed to be safer than older versions. Newer models are made of titanium, a non-magnetic metal, he points out, and they are smaller and more lightweight and have better protection from the radiofrequency energy of the MRI scanner.

Using a single scanner, a 1.5 Tesla by General Electric, the Johns Hopkins group was able to help plan artery-opening procedures for more than a half-dozen in the test group; improve measurements of tumor growth in nine others; and detect two strokes, a benign brain mass and a blood clot in the spine that had been missed by alternative imaging from CT scanning.

Nazarian cautions that only physicians specially trained in MRI safety, or with access to specialists familiar with the specific precautions taken in his study, should undertake this approach. "It is also important at this time to restrict MRI use to those with implanted devices specifically tested, and scanners of the same type and magnetic strength as that used in our study," he adds.

All study participants were closely monitored during the scans with electrocardiography and pulse oximetry, and staff members were on hand to resuscitate patients in the event of an emergency.

All subjects were over age 19 and were followed from three months to six months to look for any post-test heart damage or changes in the devices' programming.

Patients were disqualified from testing if they had any leads placed on the surface of the heart or leads that were capped with metal, and therefore not connected to the battery and at greater risk of overheating. Leads are the electrical components connecting the device to the heart muscle, and when the leads are attached to the battery or embedded in the blood vessels, they are less likely to be overheated by the MRI field.

An analysis of records showed that scans provided definitive answers to physicians' diagnostic questions 100 percent of the time for conditions affecting areas outside the chest, and 93 percent of the time for conditions that affected the heart and the upper body. In the latter category, the remaining 7 percent of the scans were too distorted by imaging artifacts from the implanted devices to make a clear diagnosis.

Device monitoring showed that lead sensing did not fluctuate or change during the scan. Battery measurements showed that scans did not deplete or strengthen the battery's charge. Indeed, pacemakers and defibrillators performed successfully after the scans without any premature firing or false alarms.

Pacemakers and defibrillators are implantable devices used to treat people with an abnormal heartbeat, a condition known as arrhythmia. More than 2.2 million Americans are living with arrhythmia. It can occur in a healthy heart and be of minimal consequence, or it can lead to more serious heart disease, stroke or sudden cardiac death.

Funding for this study was provided by the National Institutes of Health, and the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. Halperin is a paid consultant to defibrillator manufacturer Medtronic, and co-investigators Ronald Berger, M.D., Ph.D., and Albert Lardo, Ph.D., are paid consultants to Guidant Corp., another device manufacturer. Co-author David Bluemke, M.D., Ph.D., has also received honoraria from General Electric Health Care for presentations. None of these companies provided funding for the study, and the terms of the physicians' arrangements are managed by The Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict of interest policies.

Other investigators in this research, conducted solely at Johns Hopkins, were Ariel Roguin, M.D., Ph.D.; Menekhem Zviman, Ph.D.; Timm Dickfeld, M.D., Ph.D.; Robert G. Weiss, M.D.; and Hugh Calkins, M.D.

A complete listing of heart devices made safe for MRI scanning is provided below.

-- JHM --

LIST OF TESTED IMPLANTED CARDIAC DEVICES

Pacemakers with Satisfactory MRI Testing

Manufacturer: St Jude
1. Pacesetter AFP (262)
2. Trilogy (2360)
3. Entity (5326)
4. Affinity (5130, 5330)
5. Integrity (5142, 5342, 5346)
6. Identity (5172, 5370, 5376, 5380, 5386)

Manufacturer: Guidant
7. Vigor (1232)
8. Discovery (1272)
9. Insignia (1194, 1290)

Manufacturer: Medtronic
10. EnPulse (AT-500, E2SRO1, E2DRO1)
11. Kappa (701, 901)
12. Prodigy (7860)
13. In Sync BiV (8040, 8042)

Defibrillators with Satisfactory MRI Testing

Manufacturer: St Jude
14. Photon (V-194, V-230, V-232)
15. Atlas (V-240)
16. Epic (V-197, V-235, V-239)

Manufacturer: Guidant
17. Prizm (1850, 1851, 1852, 1860, 1861)
18. Contak (1823, H119, H170, H175)
19. Vitality (T125, T135)

Manufacturer: Medtronic
20. Maximo (7232)
21. Gem-II (7273)
22. Gem-III (7275)
23. Marquis (7274)
24. InSync (7272)

FULL STORY
Butler Hospital and Brown Medical School, Providence, RI, USA [Abstract: National Institutes of Health - Entrez PubMed]

Buying time: management of mild cognitive impairment and early dementia
This paper provides an overview of the relationship between mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer?s disease and the clinical evidence in favour of using donepezil for these patients in terms of effects on memory and cognition...Full Story

Early initiation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) treatment is advantageous because it can potentially keep patients in milder stages of the disease longer than delayed treatment. Early initiation of cholinesterase inhibitor therapy is an effective intervention for mild AD. Therefore, it is critical to identify and monitor patients who are at risk for AD and to initiate treatment once AD is diagnosed. A new diagnostic category, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), has been evolving to identify patients who demonstrate objective memory impairment but have essentially intact function or only limited functional impairment and do not meet diagnostic criteria for dementia. The amnestic subtype of this condition is associated with a high risk of AD - 16% of amnestic MCI patients convert to AD each year compared with 1% to 3% of normal elders. A recent three-year study found that patients with amnestic MCI who were treated with donepezil had a significantly reduced likelihood of progression to dementia in the first 12 months of treatment. ....

Johns Hopkins Medicine:

Study among elderly women shows seniors especially may be at risk

ANEMIA AFFECTS BODY -- AND MAYBE THE MIND

For older adults, anemia's trademark loss of oxygen-toting red blood cells has long been linked to fatigue, muscle weakness and other physical ailments. Now researchers at Johns Hopkins have found a relationship between anemia and impaired thinking, too.

"Our work supports the notion that mild anemia may be an independent risk factor for so-called executive-function impairment in older adults," says Paulo Chaves, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the lead author of the study. "If further studies confirm that's true, this could mean that correction of anemia in these patients might offer a chance to prevent such a cognitive decline."

Reporting on the research in the September issue of The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, the Johns Hopkins investigators went looking for such an effect because previous studies showed that age-related declines in the brain's so-called executive function -- problem solving, planning, assessing dangers, following up on important activities -- lead to declines in self-sufficiency.

"Executive function impairment, which happens often before memory loss occurs, may happen early on in the process of becoming unable to carry on with instrumental day-to-day living activities, such as shopping, cooking, taking medications, paying bills, walking, etc.," says Chaves.

Chaves and his team gave three psychological tests commonly used to evaluate executive function to 364 women, all between 70 and 80 years old, who were living in Baltimore, Md. Approximately 10 percent had anemia, which was of mild intensity.

Some 15 percent of those with the worst results on all three of the tests were anemic, compared to only 3 percent who scored best. Those with anemia were four to five times more likely to perform worst on the executive function tests, compared to those with normal blood hemoglobin, after taking into account the effect of other factors that affect cognition, such as age, education and existing diseases.

"These preliminary results don't prove that anemia causes impaired executive function, nor indicate that treatment of anemia would necessarily lead to better executive function," says Chaves. "However, they are compelling enough to serve as a roadmap for continued research."

How anemia could affect thinking remains to be determined. It could be that it chronically diminishes the supply of oxygen to the brain. Another view proposes that the fatigue accompanying anemia leads to inactivity and the loss of aerobic-fitness benefits to the prefrontal cortex.

The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging and grants from the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center at The Johns Hopkins University; General Clinical Research Center, National Institutes of Health; and Ortho Biotech Products L.P., which produces a medication that stimulates the production of red blood cells. Chaves has served as a paid consultant for Ortho Biotech Products L.P. The terms of the latter arrangement were managed by The Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict of interest policies.

- -JHM- -

CLICK TO READ MOREis having a new medicine clinically-tested on two subjects in Russia for leader Kim Jong-Il who is suffering from diabetes and heart disease, a news report says.

An unnamed lawmaker from South Korea's ruling party was quoted as telling the Yonhap news agency that he had been briefed on the drug tests by Kim Seung-Kyu, the director of South Korea's main spy agnecy.

"I heard about it from director Kim at a recent intelligence committee plenary session at parliament," he was quoted as saying.

"His agency believes the two (test subjects), who are same in physique and age as Kim Jong-Il, are receiving the new medicine for diabetes and heart diseases at a hospital in Russia.".....

- Focus On Fiber: How Much is Enough?KPLC-TV: "The average American only gets about half the amount of fiber they need everyday for their body to function optimally. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), fiber helps lower cholesterol and is important for the health of our digestive system. Both the AHA and the National Cancer Institute recommend that we consume 25 to 30 grams of fiber daily. Dietary fiber is a transparent solid complex carbohydrate that is the main part of the cell walls of plants. It has two forms: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber may help lower blood cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. Insoluble fiber provides the bulk needed for proper functioning of the stomach and intestines. It promotes healthy intestinal action and prevents constipation by moving bodily waste through the digestive tract faster, so harmful substances don't have as much contact with the intestinal walls. Unfortunately, many people are not eating this much fiber, which is causing serious cardio-vascular health concerns. Recently the AHA and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) confirmed that coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, killing more people than any other disease. It causes heart attack and angina (chest pain). A blood clot that goes to the heart is considered a heart attack, but if it goes to the brain it is a stroke. The AHA ranks stoke as the third most fatal disease in America, causing paralysis and brain damage. Eating a high-fiber diet can significantly lower our risk of heart attack, stroke and colon cancer. A 19-year follow-up study reported...."

Memory loss: When to seek help: Mayo Clinic...CLICK HERE FOR MORE:
"Alzheimer's symptoms follow a pattern distinct from that of normal memory loss.

"Everyone forgets things. How many times have you lost your car keys or forgotten the name of a person you just met? Forgetfulness tends to increase with age, but there's a big difference between normal absent-mindedness and the type of memory loss associated with Alzheimer's disease.

What's normal?
Normal age-related memory loss doesn't prevent you from living a full and productive life. You just need more time to remember a name or the task you had set out to do. You're aware that you're forgetful and may even joke about it.

People with memory loss due to something other than normal aging, such as Alzheimer's disease, may feel that something's not quite right, but they're unable to pinpoint what's bothering them. Rather than call attention to a memory lapse, they may behave as if everything is fine.

Additional symptoms
Memory loss associated with Alzheimer's gets worse over time, but it certainly is not the only symptom of the disease.

Some of the earliest signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's disease include:

Asking the same questions repeatedly
Difficulty finding words or use of inappropriate words
Not being able to complete familiar tasks, such as following a recipe
Misplacing items in inappropriate places, such as putting a wallet in the refrigerator
Becoming lost while driving on familiar streets
Undergoing sudden changes in mood or behavior for no apparent reason

Reversible conditions
Many other medical problems cause symptoms similar to Alzheimer's. That's why it's so important to consult a doctor if you've noticed memory lapses or uncharacteristic mood swings in yourself or in someone close to you. The problem may be a potentially reversible illness, such as depression, a metabolic disorder such as hypothyroidism, a reaction to a drug, or a vitamin deficiency.

Ask your doctor
To help rule out some of these other problems, here's a list of questions you may want to ask your doctor:

Could some of my medications be interacting? If you take more than one medication a day, there is a chance that these drugs could interact in your body, producing such symptoms as dizziness and memory loss. Give your doctor a list of all the medicines you use, including herbal remedies and over-the-counter items such as arthritis cream.

Have I lost or gained any weight? Your weight is a factor in the dosage for some types of drugs. Losing or gaining even 10 pounds could make you have too much or too little medicine in your body, which might result in symptoms that mimic Alzheimer's disease.

Could I be dehydrated? Older people are at higher risk of dehydration because the ability to feel thirst decreases with age. While dehydration itself can cause confusion, it can also increase the concentration of medicine in your blood, which can affect your mental processes.

Might I have a concussion? Some people can lose consciousness after a fall and not realize it. Ask your doctor to check you over if you find an unexplained, tender lump on your head. Also talk to your doctor if you start to feel mentally fuzzy after what seems like a minor fall.

Could I be depressed? Sometimes, family members and even health professionals suspect Alzheimer's disease in older adults who are really just depressed. Your doctor can use neurological and psychological evaluations to test you for depression.

Could I be drinking too much? Alcohol is really just another drug, which can cause memory loss all on its own or by interacting with your medicines.....MORE

When daughters become mothers:
"There comes a time when our parents get older and they need to be cared for. In a high percentage of cases, this responsibility falls to the daughter. In some cases, the son takes care of his elder parent. No matter who is doing the duty, it can become a 24-hour and seven day per week commitment.

Children become parents to the very folks who raised them. Whether the elder is physically or mentally affected -or both - the responsibility of care is enormous. It can eat up a person%u2019s life savings. It can eat up work and leisure time for their children. Hard-working folks can end up spending thousands every month to send their parents to a 'nursing home' or long-term care facility. Some end up broke......"

Aspirin, Ibuprofen Don't Mix: FDA: Timing Of Doses Key To Keeping Aspirin's Heart Protection - CBS News Interactive: Healthwatch: "A new report says the heart-related benefits of taking aspirin can be offset if you take it too closely to when you take ibuprofen.

The Food and Drug Administration paper says people taking a low dose of aspirin each day for long-term protection against heart attacks and strokes can wipe out that protection if they take ibuprofen less than a half-hour after taking aspirin. It says the desired effect from aspirin also won't happen if you take it less than eight hours after taking ibuprofen.

On The Early Show Tuesday, medical correspondent Dr. Emily Senay pointed out that ibuprofen is the main ingredient in such over-the-counter pain relievers as Advil and Motrin.

It's been estimated by the manufacturer of Bayer aspirin that 28 million Americans take a small dose of aspirin every day, because it's been shown to help reduce a person's risk of heart attack and stroke.

The main way aspirin does it, Senay explained, is by limiting the blood's ability to form dangerous clots. But the FDA paper says aspirin's clot-fighting abilities can be cancelled out when aspirin and ibuprofen are taken too closely together.

But that, Senay noted, applies to when people take immediate-release aspirin.

Many people use a slower-release form of aspirin with what's called an enteric coating, because that form is considered less likely to irritate the stomach. There isn't enough research yet to know how ibuprofen interacts with the slower-release aspirin, Senay observed.

She adds this is yet another reminder that medications can interact badly, whether they're OTC, prescribed by doctors, or so-called natural remedies.

You should discuss whatever you take, from any or all of those categories, with your doctor, Senay stressed. You also should carefully read product labels and package inserts. In some cases, such as with aspirin and ibuprofen, one product can cancel out an important benefit you hope to get from the other. In other cases, two products that may help you separately could cause serious harm if you take them together.

If you take aspirin regularly to help protect your heart and are wondering, after reading this, whether there's any alternative to ibuprofen, Senay says that's unclear at the moment.....MORE"

Accelerated Weight Loss May Signal Imminent Dementia Onset
"An early warning sign for Alzheimer's disease could be accelerated weight loss, researchers here suggested. Among more than 400 healthy older adults ages 65 to 95, followed as part of a longitudinal study of Alzheimer's, those who had a sudden doubling of the rate of weight loss developed dementia about a year later, found David K. Johnson, Ph.D., of Washington University, and colleagues.

'Specific factors contributing to weight loss are unknown, but these data suggest they operate before the development of dementia of Alzheimer's type,' the authors reported in the Sept. 11 issue of Archives of Neurology. 'Hence, weight loss may be a preclinical indicator of Alzheimer disease.'

Other studies have shown that weight loss is associated with development of dementia and with nursing home placement, but the timing and rate of the weight loss in relationship to the first signs of dementia are unknown, the authors noted...."

Enzyme May Help Fight Alzheimer's - Forbes.com:
"Researchers Researchers think they may have found a way to target neurofibrillary tangles, the jumbled bits of protein inside brain cells that might contribute to Alzheimer's disease.

In tests with mice and fruit flies, an enzyme appeared to both eliminate the tangles and reduce the brain's decline.

The research is in an early stage. However, the approach is both unique and promising, said study co-author Dr. Daniel Geschwind, professor of neurology, psychiatry and human genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"We've shown in animals that this is working," Geschwind said. "I think it's very viable, but one needs to prove that."

Much of Alzheimer's research has focused on so-called amyloid plaques, a buildup of proteins inside the brain between cells that appears to contribute to dementia. But Geschwind and his colleagues looked at tangles, another part of the puzzle. These tangles of protein, called tau, are associated with cognitive decline in Alzheimer's and similar "tauopathy" diseases.

Neurofibrillary tangles are "a kind of compressed bunch of filaments that are just like a tangled bit of twine inside the [brain] cell," Geschwind said.

It's not clear if tangles hurt brain cells or are just a symptom of a dementia problem. "The point is that they're totally correlated with neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease, and in a number of other dementias," he said.

In some forms of dementia, tangles are "the whole story" because amyloid plaques aren't present, said Dr. Sam Gandy, director of the Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

Geschwind and his colleagues suspected that an enzyme known as puromycin-sensitive aminopeptidase plays a role in degenerating brains. They tried to see if the enzyme would affect brain cells in mice that had been genetically engineered to suffer from neural degeneration that was similar to Alzheimer's in humans.

The scientists launched a similar effort in fruit flies. While fruit flies may not seem like the brainiest of species, the researchers simulated Alzheimer's by causing degeneration in the cells of their eyes, Geschwind said.

The researchers found that the enzyme appeared to prevent both the decline of brain cells and snip apart tangles. Research on brain cells taken from humans suggested that the scientists are on the right track.

The findings are published in the Sept. 7 issue of the journal Neuron...."

Learning to live with aging -- gracefully

Amorfix achieves milestone in developing Alzheimers test :
"Amorfix's Epitope Protection (EP) technology, is able to detect amyloid, an accumulation of protein aggregates, which are also formed in Alzheimer's disease. With this advancement, Amorfix will be committing additional resources to develop an ultra-sensitive blood test for Alzheimer's disease, based upon Amorfix's patent-pending EP technology...."

Drug study aimed at Hispanics
:
"A clinical trial under way in Las Vegas brings to light not only the increased rate of Alzheimer's disease among Hispanics but also the challenges in getting Hispanics to participate in such trials.

The study, at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, will try to determine whether Donepezil, a common medication for Alzheimer's, reacts the same in Hispanics as in other groups.

Effective treatment information is crucial because Hispanics already have a high incidence of the disease (more than 200,000 cases nationwide from a population of 42 million) and are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the country. A recent report by the Alzheimer's Association indicates that based on current trends, more than 1.3 million Hispanics will fall victim to the disease by 2050.

Unfortunately, as Dr. Charles Bernick of the Nevada School of Medicine points out, that estimate may be low.

"Hispanics are also expected to have the longest life expectancy of any ethnic group as well, and age is the single greatest risk factor for Alzheimer's disease," he said.

Experts attribute Hispanic longevity to genetics, cultural aspects such as solid family ties, and lifestyle and behavior choices.

It is believed that by the middle of the century, the life expectancy of U.S. Hispanics will increase to 87 years, which means they will jump from 5 percent of the overall elderly population to 16 percent, according to the Alzheimer's Association. In addition, Hispanics develop symptoms of Alzheimer's about five years sooner than other groups, which further expands the pool of people potentially affected. ....."

Alzheimer's Drug Candidate Caprospinol Shows Favorable Results in Acute Toxicity Study
- MSN :
"Samaritan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ( announced today, its Alzheimer's research compound Caprospinol (SP-233) demonstrated no toxicity, when administered orally in an Acute Toxicity Study. Preclinical studies suggest Caprospinol (SP-233) exhibits neuroprotective properties against beta- amyloid-induced toxicity which could be indicative of a promising treatment for Alzheimer's disease."

woman contributes to national quilt to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease
: "After spending years in the medical field, Patricia Gray thought she could handle anything. So when doctors diagnosed her 56-year-old husband Lawrence with Alzheimers disease, she wasn%u2019t the least bit fazed.

“I thought I could deal with it. No problem,” said the Georgetown resident. “But there is no way to describe it to anyone. You get sympathy, but people don’t understand you have to deal with this 24 hours a day.”

Lawrence, 63, is now in the final stages of the disease. His wife still cares for him, but she admits it’s getting “harder and harder” each day.

To try and make people aware of the disease and what caregivers must deal with on a daily basis, Gray decided to help get the word out. To do this, she is quilting a a 4 foot-by-4-foot block which will be part of the Alzheimer’s Association of New York’s giant quilt which will be on display in Central Park in November. The organization has put the word out nationwide, and Gray said her part of the quilt is finished...

Alzheimer's research drives novelist:
"The motivations for being a novelist vary. For many, it's the potential fame and possible fortune. For others, it's the love of putting together sentences from the English language. For Woodland author Julie Casper, it's raising money for Alzheimer's research.Casper stayed up late into the night caring for her mother who was suffering from the effects of the Alzheimer's. Feeling powerless while caring for a loved-one with a degenerative disease dejected Casper.'As I started getting into this, I was really frustrated that there was no cure for what my mother had,' Casper said. 'You always feel helpless.'Casper, who holds a doctorate in Earth science, always loved writing. In school she also wrote for the school newspaper. Naturally, her thoughts turned toward prose during the tedious care of her mother. During that time, at 42 years old, she began her first novel.'Writing was almost like an emotional escape from the day to day of having to deal with Alzheimer's and how depressing and frustrating that was,' Casper said. 'Writing allowed me an escape, the same as someone watching a movie. It was kind of respite, therapeutic.... in a way. It was entertainment for me while I could still be close by to her. It kind of eased the stress.'While writing, she also thought of ways to help her mother and others with Alzheimer's. She decided to dedicate the proceeds from her book to Alzheimer's research......"

[a tearjerker] "Are you a caretaker for someone, perhaps with Alzheimer's? Consider this
story. A nurse writes, 'It was a busy morning,....."

Safety of External Defibrillators Examined: "More than one in five external defibrillators, which are often placed in public places to revive heart attack victims in emergencies, were recalled because of potential malfunctions, new research shows.

The data, based on 10 years of U.S. Food and Drug Administration records, provide some of the first evidence on the safety and reliability of automated external defibrillators (AEDs). The findings were presented Thursday at the Heart Rhythm Society's annual meeting in Boston....."

The Aging Population and Health Care Needs: "The number of older people in the U.S. is rising dramatically. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the number of Americans 65 and older tripled over the last 100 years, from 3.1 million in 1900 to 35 million in 2000. The 65-plus group now makes up about 12 percent of the U.S. population. As more baby-boomers age, those numbers will continue to grow. By 2020, researchers estimate 54.6 million Americans will be 65 and older......"

"Having two strokes more than doubles a person's risk of dying in the next two years, a University of Michigan study finds [United Press International] :
Those who live through a stroke should get special attention from their physicians and other health professionals to reduce their risk of having another one, because of their extra risk of suffering another stroke, according to the study published in the journal Annals of Neurology.....

Nanogen Earns Patents for Use of Biomarkers Related to Diabetes and Alzheimers Disease

Researchers Restore Memory Lost in Mice With Alzheimer's
Increasing levels of a key housekeeping enzyme in the brains of mice with a rodent form of Alzheimer's disease successfully restored memory and nerve cell function, according to a new study.

Although only demonstrated in an animal model, the work could point to a promising strategy for battling the debilitating disease and perhaps even reversing its effects in humans.

Columbia University researchers focused on newly discovered aspects of an enzyme called ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase (Uch-L1). It is part of a network that controls a memory molecule that is inhibited by amyloid proteins.

Ubiquitin is a "tag" that marks proteins for destruction by the cellular "garbage disposal" system known as the proteasome. Uch-L1 serves as a gatekeeper to this system by removing the tag to allow the breakdown of protein to start.

"By injecting what is essentially a Uch-L1 drug to raise its levels in the brain, we were able to restore a great deal of brain activity in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's," said Dr. Michael Shelanski, co-author of the study and chairman of the pathology department at Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons.

"While amyloid beta is certainly a key player in Alzheimer's disease, and efforts to reduce it remain a worthy goal, our results show that even in the presence of the plaque, damage to memory can be reversed."

The researchers tested the mice's memory by putting them in a cage where they got a mild shock when they touched part of the floor. Mice with normal memories remained still the second time they were placed in the cage, because they recognized the spot and remembered what happened before. Mice with brain changes similar to Alzheimer's effects didn't remember and continued to move around. But after those animals were treated with the enzyme, they acted like normal mice again.

In another test, the scientists treated brain slices with a chemical that blocked the enzyme's function. That brain tissue proved less likely to form and strengthen nerve connections that are the basis of learning and memory. But when the tissue was treated to restore Uch-L1 levels, the deficits in nerve transmission were corrected.

"Because the amyloid beta proteins that cause Alzheimer's may play a normal, important physiological role in the body, we can't destroy them as a therapy," explained Dr. Ottavio Arancio, an assistant professor of pathology at Columbia and co-author of the report.

"What makes this newly discovered enzyme exciting as a potentially effective therapy is that it restores memory without destroying amyloid beta proteins."

Risk of Recurrent Stroke High in Mexican-Americans :
"Mexican Americans have an almost 60% higher risk of a second stroke than non-Hispanic white patients, although ethnicity was not linked to a high risk of subsequent all-cause death in both groups, according to researchers here........."

Cardiovascular Safety Warning Added for Stimulants for ADHD : "With an eye on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the FDA has ordered blanket changes for labels of all stimulants, including Dexedrine (dextroamphetamine sulfate) and Ritalin (methylphenidate).

The new language warned that sudden death 'has been reported in association with CNS stimulant treatment at usual doses in children and adolescents with structural cardiac abnormalities or other serious heart problem.'

Additionally, the labels now warn that although 'some serious heart problems alone carry an increased risk of sudden death, stimulant products generally should not be used in children or adolescents with known serious structural cardiac abnormalities, cardiomyopathy, serious heart rhythm abnormalities, or other serious cardiac problems that may place them at an increased vulnerability to the sympathomimetic effects of a stimulant drug......'"