Tag Archives: disease

A glass of cider may keep disease at bay

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Glasgow: Cider, the fermented juice drink made from apples, may help protect against an array of diseases.

Even one glass daily may protect against stroke, heart disease and cancer according to research carried out at Glasgow University

Now a trial on patients in which they will be asked to drink a pint of cider a day, to see how the body reacts to the antioxidants known as phenolics.

Dr Serena Marks, who is leading the University of Glasgow study, said there was a connection between the antioxidants and protection from some diseases and that cider contained a higher amount of these beneficial substances than applies.

The scientists tested 19 varieties of English cider apple and 35 types of cider.

It’s never to late to start exercise

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Heidelberg: People who first start exercising late in life still cut the risk of heart disease, according to new research from the German University of Heidelberg.

Beginning exercise in the 40s results in a 55 per cent less likelihood of being diagnosed with heart disease. But people who have been active all their lives are the least likely to suffer problems at around 60 per cent.

The research team looked at 312 adults aged between 40 and 68 with heart disease and compared them with 479 healthy people. Those with heart disease were also far more likely to smoke, have diabetes and high blood pressure.

One in ten with heart disease said they took no exercise compared to one in teenty who did not. The results of the research are published in the medical journal Heart.

Lead researcher Dr Dietrich Rothenbacher said the results also suggested that changing from a sedentary to a more active lifestyle also strongly decreased the risk of coronary heart disease.

Dental disease revealed to be factor in stroke

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Los Angeles: Dental disease is a risk factor in stroke, according to new research from the the University of California Los Angeles.

Researchers have discovered that the disease is more prevelant in people with blockages of the main blood vessels leading to the brain (carotid artery). These blockages, or atheromas, contain calcium and can be detected on dental panoramic radiographs.

The results came from a study to see if dental disease shown on a panoramic radiograph is greater among people with atheromas seen on their dental radiograph than among people without atheromas but matched for stroke risk factors (body mass, smoking history, need for medications to control hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes).

The group with carotid atheromas seen on dental panoramic radiographs was found to have more dental disease, as determined by the number of teeth with decay, missing teeth, and the amount of bone loss around teeth, than the group without any radiographically detectable atheromas.

The results of this study, Does Dental Disease Influence Prevalence of Panographically Imaged Carotid Atheromas?, indicate that dental disease may play a role in the formation of carotid atheromas in patients already at risk for stroke. It was conducted by E. Chung, A.F. Friedlander, E.C. Sung, and N.R. Garrett, of the University of California-Los Angeles, USA, presented on July 1, 2006, at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, during the 84th General Session of the International Association for Dental Research.

Elderly poor of Europe more at risk of illness

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London: Elderly poor in Europe at greater risk of ill-health, according to a new report that highlights the inequalities in health care.

Called, “The State of Ageing and Health in Europe” which was compiled by the International Longevity Centre in the UK and the Merck Company Foundation, found that although most Europeans are living longer, ethnic minorities and the poor are at greater risk of ill-health.

The report, found that elderly Europeans who are poor have a 30% to 65% higher risk of almost all chronic diseases, including stroke, cardiovascular disease and cancer, the report said.

It also found older women have a greater risk of depression and disability than their male counterparts.

Demographic trends have brought a major shift toward chronic illness in the region, particularly stroke, heart disease, cancer, cataracts, risk of falls and incontinence.

In those over 65, cancer and cardiovascular diseases account for around three-quarters of all deaths in Europe.

However, the report noted that disease and disability do not have to be synonymous with growing old.

It urged European societies to address the issues of ageing in a positive and constructive manner.

Sally Greengross, executive director of the International Longevity Centre-UK, said: “The ageing of the population in Europe is to be celebrated. But if we want this trend to continue, policy makers must factor the needs of an ageing society into the planning, organisation and delivery of services. Equity of access to services is critical.

“From a policy perspective age needs to be considered as part of the health inequalities debate. The impact of socio-economic factors, gender and age must be viewed together as they affect individuals’ chances of achieving the best possible health outcomes into advanced age.”

The report made a number of recommendations to governments including further investment in community services and working closely with voluntary and private sectors.

It argues for better information to be given to the elderly and their families so they are able to negotiate the complexities of health care systems.

The charities also want to see a move away from the “catastrophic and short-sighted view” that older people are a drain on health care resources.

Cardiovascular disease costs UK economy £29 billion annually

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Oxford, Cardiovascular disease costs the UK economy £29 billion a year in healthcare expenditure and lost productivity, reveals research to be published in the medical magazine Heart.

The UK spends more of its healthcare budget on cardiovascular disease than any other country in the European Union, the figures show.

The research team from the Health Economics Research Centre at the University of Oxford base their calculations on all UK residents with diagnosed cardiovascular disease in 2004 and associated costs.

These included community health and social services, emergency care, hospital stays, informal care, and the impact on productivity from illness and premature death.

When all these factors were added up, the total costs to the UK economy of cardiovascular disease in 2004 came to £29 billion.

The largest component was healthcare, which accounted for 60% of the total. Lost productivity accounted for 23% and informal care cost 17%.

Cardiovascular disease and cost the NHS almost £16 billion in 2004, representing 21% of all healthcare expenditure. Private healthcare costs add almost £1.5 billion to the tally, representing 18% of overall UK healthcare costs.

These figures represent the highest proportion of healthcare expenditure on cardiovascular disease of any country in the European Union.

Hospital inpatient care was the most expensive component at almost £10 billion or nearly two thirds of the NHS bill for cardiovascular disease.. Drug costs amounted to almost £3 billion.

More than 69 million work days were lost to the disease in 2004, at a cost to the UK economy of almost £3 billion.

An accompanying editorial suggests that despite the falling rates of illness and death from cardiovascular disease, cost savings are likely to be cancelled out by the rising costs of treatment, the ageing of the population, and the threat to heart health posed by obesity and diabetes

Coffee not linked to heart disease in most people

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Madrid: Filtered coffee does not raise the risk of heart disease, a new study by scientists at the universidad Autonoma de Madrid has found.

The research project, which followed 128,000 men and women for as long as 20 years, showed drinking filtered coffee – not percolated or French-style brews – did not raise the risk of heart disease.

Heavy coffee drinkers did tend to smoke and drink alcohol more often and those two factors clearly do raise heart risk, the researchers report in the journal Circulation.

But another recent study from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston has said that the association between coffee consumption and the risk of heart disease in small groups of people cannot be excluded. The study published last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that those men and women with a ‘slow’ version of a particular liver enzyme gene had a higher risk of heart disease if they drank more coffee, compared to those with a fast-metabolising version. Liver enzymes metabolise coffee and many other compounds.

Other studies have shown a link with heart disease and copious drinking of French press coffee, made using a mesh filter instead of a paper drip filter, or percolated coffee.

Volunteers in both studies fill out periodic questionnaires about their diet, exercise and other health habits and undergo regular physical exams.

The researchers found more than half the women and 30 percent of men who drank six or more cups of coffee a day were also more likely to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol and use aspirin. They were also less likely to drink tea, exercise or take vitamin supplements.

But once these factors were accounted for, there was no difference in heart attack risks between the very light and heavy coffee drinkers.

A study published last November found no link between coffee drinking and high blood pressure, but there was an apparent association with drinking caffeinated fizzy drinks.

Lower cholesterol vital to coronary health, says new US study

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Boston: People born with lower levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol as a result of a genetic variation are less likely to suffer coronary heart disease later in life, a new US study has revealed.

In addition, another study has shown that beta glucan, a substance found in porridge oats does lower levels of LDL.

Researchers, in a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, analysed information from 12,000 subjects ages 45 to 64 who took part in an Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC), which examined data from four communities in Mississippi, Minnesota, North Carolina and Maryland for 15 years.

They discovered that those with a genetic variation of a gene called PCSK9 had LDL levels to be about 40 mm/dL below average and were eight times less likely to develop coronary heart disease than those without the mutations. Subjects with genetic variations that produced a 20 mg/dL reduction in LDL compared to the average were two times less likely to develop heart disease.

The PCSK9 gene produces an enzyme that reduces the quantity of LDL receptors on the liver’s surface which are responsible for removing bad cholesterol from the blood. The genetic mutation reverses this increasing the number of LDL receptors, therefore removing more bad cholesterol from the blood. Ironically, statin drugs, although they can lower cholesterol, may increase the production of the PCSK9 enzyme.

The study says: “These data indicate that moderate lifelong reduction in the plasma level of LDL cholesterol is associated with a substantial reduction in the incidence of coronary events, even in populations with a high prevalence of non-lipid-related cardiovascular risk factors. “

In the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition another study confirms the effect of beta-glucan on lowering cholesterol.

Researchers examined the effects of a beta-glucan–enriched fruit juice on serum lipids and lipoproteins and on markers of cholesterol absorption and synthesis. In addition, they measured effects on lipid-soluble antioxidants.

Healthy subjects were divided into two groups. The 22 subjects in the placebo group consumed a fruit drink providing 5 grams rice starch per day. The 25 subjects in the treatment group received a fruit drink with beta-glucan from oats for five weeks.

Heart disease in Ireland halves in 15 years

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London: Deaths from coronary artery heart disease in Ireland have halved since the mid 1980s, finds research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Almost half of the drop is attributable to lifestyle changes, especially smoking and diet, it suggests.The research team used a combination of published data on the use and effectiveness of specific treatments for heart disease and associated risk factors, such as smoking, cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and a sedentary lifestyle.

Between 1985 and 2000, deaths from coronary artery disease in Ireland fell by 47% in those aged 25 to 84, resulting in almost 3800 fewer deaths in 2000 than in 1985.

Almost 44% of the drop-off was attributable to better, and more timely, treatment, including tackling heart failure and secondary prevention.

But just under half of the figure (48%) was attributable to sharp falls in smoking, which accounted for over 25%, and in cholesterol, which accounted for 30%. Falls in high blood pressure accounted for 6%.

Smoking rates have fallen more slowly in Ireland than they have in the UK and other developed countries, but have been given a boost by a ban on workplace smoking, which came into force in 2004.

Rises in rates of obesity, diabetes, and sedentary lifestyles offset these favourable trends by around 13% or 500 deaths. And the authors suggest that if these trends continue, they threaten to overturn the substantial health gains made.

Worldwide increase in kidney disease

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London: Chronic kidney disease is rising rapidly worldwide and is becoming a global healthcare problem, warn experts in this week’s British Medical Journal.

In the United Kingdom, the annual incidence of end stage renal disease is around 100 per 1,000,000 population. This figure has doubled over the past decade and is expected to continue to rise by 5-8% annually, but it still remains well below the European average (around 135/1,000,000) and that of the United States (336/1,000,000).

The rise in end stage renal disease worldwide probably reflects the global epidemic of type 2 diabetes and the ageing of the populations in developed countries (the annual incidence in people over 65 in the UK is greater than 350/1,000,000, and in the US it is greater than 1,200/1,000,000).

The number of people with diabetes worldwide, currently around 154 million, is also set to double within the next 20 years, and the increase will be most notable in the developing world, where the number of patients with diabetes is due to reach 286 million by 2025.

The cost of treating end stage renal disease is substantial and poses a great challenge to provision of care. In Europe, less than 0.1% of the population needs renal replacement therapy, which accounts for 2% of the healthcare budget. In the US, the annual cost of treatment for end stage renal disease is expected to reach $29 billion by 2010. Few countries will be able to meet these growing medical and financial demands.

More than 100 developing countries, with a population in excess of 600 million, do not have any provision for renal replacement therapy. Consequently, more than a million people may die every year worldwide from end stage renal disease.

Programmes to detect chronic kidney disease, linked to comprehensive primary and secondary prevention strategies, are needed urgently, say the authors.

Mass population screening for chronic kidney disease is neither practical nor likely to be successful or cost effective. But structured and well resourced programs targeting at risk individuals, such as those suffering from diabetes and hypertension, along with primary prevention programmes based on reducing risk factors across the whole population could make a big difference.

The authors believe that such an approach to risk reduction may slow or even reverse declining renal function.

US researchers working on use of stem cells for eye disease

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Durham: Medical researchers in the US are investigating the use of stem cells for eye diseases. Early findings at Duke University indicate that stem cells may benefit those suffering from glaucoma, macular degeneration and the effects of diabetes.

Ophthalmology researcher Dennis Rickman said the cells migrate to the site of injury and integrate into the tissue of those cells. Although research is at an arly stage and a lot more work needs to be done before th potential of the cells is untapped.

Studies have taken place on mice and rats, using rodent stem cells. But more tests are needed to prove effacacy, including measurement of their responses to light using an electroretinagram.

Rickman has established a charity, SCIEyes to develop alternative sources of funding. SCIfEyes received $10,000 last November from “Saturday Night Live” comedian Will Forte, who is its national spokesman, during Forte’s visit to Duke.
Building a base for the long term and for the next generation of researchers, is another priority for SCIfEyes, said Dennis Rickman, 54.

SCIfEyes: www.scifeyes.org
National Marrow Donor Program: www.marrow.org

Doctors research use of stem cells to grow new bone

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York: Doctors in the UK are investigating how bone can be grown from baby stem cells to replace diseased joints.

At present stem cells from the umbilical cords of babies are used to treat leukaemia patients, but researchers at York University hope to find a new use for the two million units of cord blood collected every year in Europe.

Doctors already believe the process is possible but now need clinical proof, which is being funded by the EU to the tune of £1.6 million. Last year doctors in Germany replaced part of the skull of a child using stem cells taken from body fat, which appeared to turn into bone cells.

Impotence may signal heart disease

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Chicago: Impotence, which affects 50% of men over the age of 40, may be an early wraning of heart disease, says new research published in the journal of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Scientists at the University of Chicago who carried out a study, said four out of ten men with impotence also had badly clogged-up veins and arteries which put them at higher risk of cardiac illness as well as being a cause of impotence. The results led the researchers to believe that impotence is a better indictor of heart disease than other risk factors.

Impotence is often caused by the clogging-up of arteries leading to the penis. These narrow blood vessels become blocked earlier than the wider arteries around the heart, giving prior warning of cardiac disease. The researchers examined the results of heart tests on 221 men – more than half of whom were impotent.

They found that 43 per cent of the impotent men were at high risk of heart disease. However, only 17 per cent of subjects who were not impotent had similarly poor test scores. Impotent men also fared worse in physical tests and their hearts were found to pump less blood.

Tooth-decay on the increase amongst pets, say US researchers

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Dogs and cats need regular dental care, say experts at the leading pet nutrition company, Iams.

Just like humans they can suffer from gum disease and broken teeth. Although the shape of their teethcombined with a low-carbyhydrate diet means they are unlikely to suffer from decay.

Owners are advised to get professional dental care for pet’s teetch, including regular brushing and cleaning and also toys to chew on.

Periodontal disease, which affects the gums, bones, and connective tissue around the teeth, can cause tooth loss. First, plaque—a soft, clear or cream-colored deposit—forms on the teeth. If it isn’t removed, minerals in the animal’s saliva turn plaque into tartar. Tartar builds up below the gums and bacteria grow, causing inflammation.

The same bacteria which cause the inflammation can enter your pet’s bloodstream and cause or aggravate lung, kidney, liver, and heart problems—a lot of trouble from something that could be stopped in its early stages.

Dental care for pets should be started when the animal is a puppy or kitten so that they become accustomed to having their mouths handled. It also helps with general training and obedience.

The right foods also assist in dental health. For example dry foods and treats help clean plaqye from the teeth and rawhide chews are also good cleaning tools, as are a number of knobby plastic toys on the market. None of these are hard enough to cause tooth damage, but you need to watch your pet to be sure small pieces of the toys aren’t torn off and swallowed. Real bones can also be dangerous for your pet and should not be used for teeth cleaning purposes.

Train pets to accept brushing by running a finger gently over the pet’s gums, starting with the outside then try inside as the animal gets used to the routine. Next try wrapping a finger with gauze and rubbing the gums and if this is successful use pet toothpaste. After a few weeks the pet should be willing to accept a pet toothbrush, which should be used with gentle upand down strokes, twice weekly.

If a pet won’t allow this then a vet should be consulted and he may consider using a general anaesthetic to enable the animals teeth to be cleaned.

Too much red meat may cause rheumatoid arthritis, say researchers

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London: Eating lots of red meat increases the risk of rheumatoid arthritis, say researchers at Manchester University. And smoking increases the risk of chronic ageing diseases.

Epidermiologists from the university researched 25,000 people aged between 45 and 75. They compared the diets of the 88 diagnosed with rhumatoid arthritis, the condition causes membranes lining the joints to become inflamed, leading to pain and swelling, with those in a control group of 175 others. The findings are published in the Arthritis and Rheumatism journal.

They discoverd that those who ate large mounts of red meat and who smoked were more likely to have inflammatory arthritis.

Only 35 per cent of those who suffered from arthritis had never smoked, compared with 85 per cent of the control group.

The researchers concluded that the eating of red meat would likely only affect those predisposed to the condition.

‘It may be that the high collagen content of meat leads to collagen sensitisation and consequent production of anticollagen antibodies, most likely in a subgroup of susceptible individuals,’ the team said.

‘Meat consumption may be linked to either additives or even infectious agents, but again there is no evidence as to what might be important in relation to rheumatoid arthritis.’

Experts said last night that while people who eat large quantities of red meat should consider cutting down, they should not panic.

A spokesman for the Arthritis Research Campaign, which funded the study, said: ‘This provides further evidence that environmental factors can help to trigger rheumatoid arthritis.

‘In the light of this new evidence, we would suggest that, as part of a healthy lifestyle, people should cut down the amount of red meat they eat.’

But he added: ‘We wouldn’t want people to think that if they eat four burgers a week they are going to develop rheumatoid arthritis the following week, because there are other risk factors that come into play – genetic susceptibility, smoking and low intake of Vitamin C.

‘Red meat in itself is not dangerous to health, but should be eaten in moderation as part of a balanced, healthy diet.’