Disease — The Perspective

183 New Medicines In Development For Diabetes

December 12, 2009 By adminclyd

Nabe News in Brooklyn, New York recently reported that 183 new medicines are in development to fight diabetes. The report details a record number of drugs for this chronic disease currently in human clinical trials and awaiting approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The report was released by America’s pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies (PhRMA).

Diabetics do not produce or properly use insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy. This chronic disease affects 24.7 percent of Brooklyn’s adults, or 449,900 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“This killer thrives in communities like ours, where poverty and fast food are prevalent,” said Dr. Richard Becker, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Hospital Center.

Rep. Edolphus Towns, who suffers from diabetes, attended the event at the Brooklyn Hospital Center as well.

“Developing new drugs to treat diabetes here in New York City will help address one of the major diseases affecting our community,” the lawmaker said. Of New York’s five boroughs, Brooklyn has the second highest rate of diabetes.

According to PhRMA, one of the drugs in development significantly improves long-term blood sugar control and targets the dysfunction of pancreas cells, a dysfunction that causes high sugar level in type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. Another medicine in development stimulates the release of insulin only when glucose levels become too high and by suppressing appetite in patients with type 2 diabetes.

“The medicines now in the research pipelines are contributing significantly to the incredible progress made by America’s pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies in developing new treatments for diabetes and related conditions,” said Ed Belkin, PhRMA vice president for communications and public affairs. PR Newswire

Filed Under: Health & Fitness Tagged With: Disease, Medicines

Delaying The Aging Process Protects Against Alzheimer’s

December 11, 2009 By adminclyd

Aging is the single greatest risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. In their latest study, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies found that simply slowing the aging process in mice prone to develop Alzheimer’s disease prevented their brains from turning into a neuronal wasteland.

“Our study opens up a whole new avenue of looking at the disease,” says the study’s leader, Howard Hughes Medical Investigator Andrew Dillin, Ph.D., a professor in the Salk Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory. “Going forward, looking at the way we age may actually have more impact on the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease than studying the basic biology of the disease itself.”

Their finding, published in the Dec. 11, 2009 issue of the journal Cell, is the latest clue in the Salk scientists’ ongoing quest to shed light on the question of whether Alzheimer’s disease onset late in life is a disastrous consequence of the aging process itself or whether the beta amyloid aggregates that cause the disease simply take a long time to form.

Age is the major risk factor for the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Beyond age 65, the number of people with the disease doubles every five years. Centenarians, however, seem to escape most common age-related diseases, including the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease.

“In this study, we went directly to the root cause of Alzheimer’s disease and asked whether we could influence the onset of the disease by modulating the aging process,” says first author Ehud Cohen, Ph.D., formerly a postdoctoral researcher in Dillin’s lab and now an assistant professor at the Hebrew University–Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, Israel.

To answer this intriguing question, he slowed the aging process in a mouse model for Alzheimer’s by lowering the activity of the IGF-1 signaling pathway. “This highly conserved pathway plays a crucial role in the regulation of lifespan and youthfulness across many species, including worms, flies, and mice and is linked to extreme longevity in humans,” he explains. As a result, mice with reduced IGF-1 signaling live up to 35 percent longer than normal mice.

Cohen then employed a battery of behavioral tests to find out whether it was simply the passage of time or aging per se that determined the onset of the disease. Chronologically old but biologically young animals appeared nearly normal long after age-matched, normal-aging Alzheimer’s mice exhibited severe impairments in their ability to find a submerged platform in the Morris water maze or stay atop a revolving Rota Rod.

“These behavioral differences between normal and long-lived mice were apparent at nine months of age, but the big surprise came when we took a closer look at the plaques in their brains,” says Cohen.

One of the telltale signs of Alzheimer’s disease is the buildup of toxic clumps of beta amyloid plaques in the brain. Beta amyloid production probably occurs in all brains, but healthy cells clear away excess amounts. Brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, on the other hand, are unable to control beta amyloid accumulation. The same is true for Alzheimer’s mouse models, which are genetically engineered to overproduce beta amyloid.

Although long-lived mice didn’t show any of the cognitive or behavioral impairments typical of Alzheimer’s disease till very late in life, their brains were riddled with highly compacted plaques.

“Although before it was thought that plaques are the causative agents of Alzheimer’s disease, our results clearly support the emerging theme that they have a protective function,” says Cohen. “As mice age, they become less efficient at stowing away toxic beta amyloid fibrils in tightly packed aggregates.”

An earlier study by Cohen, Dillin, and colleagues, in which they had used roundworms to study the effects of the aging process on protein aggregation, had indicated that high molecular weight aggregates of beta amyloid might actually be less toxic than smaller beta amyloid fibrils. “But worms don’t have brains as we do, and it wasn’t clear whether these results would be relevant for mammals,” he says.

And what about those lucid centenarians? “Interestingly, three studies found that some very long-lived humans carry mutations in components of the IGF-1 signal pathway—the same pathway that we perturbed to increase the lifespan of the mice in our study,” says Dillin.

“The reporting of this work is a celebration for the entire field of aging researchers, as it validates the long-held hypothesis that genetic and pharmacologic changes to create a healthy lifespan, or ‘healthspan,’ can greatly reduce the onset of some of the most devastating diseases that afflict mankind,” he adds.

The work was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and the McKnight Endowment for Neuroscience.

Researchers who also contributed to the work include Johan F. Paulsson, Deguo Du and Jeffery W. Kelly at the Skaggs Institute of Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, Pablo Blinder in the Department of Physics at the University of California, San Diego, Tal Burstyn-Cohen in the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at the Salk Institute, Anthony Adame, Hang M. Pham and Eliezer Masliah in the Department of Neurosciences at University of California, San Diego, and Gabriela Estepa in the Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute. redOrbit

Filed Under: Health & Fitness Tagged With: Disease, Lifestyle

‘Early Diagnosis Best Cure For Breast Cancer’

December 5, 2009 By adminclyd

A gynaecologist by profession, Dr Rathore knew immediately that the painless lump that she found in one of her breasts was cancer. “Despite being a doctor, the news did not go very well with me. I was devastated as the cancer was not in its initially stage,” she said.

Dr Vibha was found to be suffering from stage II of breast cancer and she had to undergo chemotherapy. “It was very painful, I lost all my hair during the treatment process, which lasted for two years. But I successfully completed the treatment, which was like a rebirth,” recalled Dr Vibha.

She now wants to spread the message that breast cancer is curable disease if diagnosed early. “Every woman who is over 20 should do a breast self examination (BSE) and check their underarm and the region below their neck. If an unusual lump is felt, they should undergo immediate checkup,” she suggested.

She added that every breast cancer patient has different types of treatment, and it is always best to ask for all the treatments available and choose the best as per the patient’s requirement.

Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre (MSCC) and Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital will conduct a month-long breast cancer awareness campaign.

Speaking at the launch of the Breast Cancer Unit at MSCC, Prof Anthony V Pais, Chief of the Unit said: “The prevalence of breast cancer has risen over the years due to increased consumption of sweet and meat among women. Compared to the west, breast cancer occurs a decade earlier with younger women being diagnosed breast cancer.” Deccan Herald

Filed Under: Health & Fitness Tagged With: Disease

How Safe Is Your Barbering And Hairdressing Salon Against HIV?

December 3, 2009 By adminclyd

Millions of Ghanaians regard HIV/ AIDS as a pandemic for the other person. The thinking is that the disease is far away from one as long as he or she does not engage in unprotected sex. The story was the same for a 26-year old apprentice until he tested positive fou years ago even though he is a virgin.

The young-man who looks like a 12-year old boy said his parents and siblings all tested negative to the disease so it took him several weeks to come to terms with his situation and suspected that his regular barbering saloon might be the source of his predicament. A good number of Ghanaians visit barbering or hair salons to have their hairs done or for pedicure or manicure yet many do not care about the safety of the tools used on them.

Too soon, Ghanaians have become complacent regarding issues pertaining to HIV and AIDS to the extent that they have come to care little about things that go on around them that could possibly be sources of HIV and AIDS infection. Some major stakeholders have claimed credit for “a hundred per cent” awareness creation though experts say comprehensive knowledge on the pandemic remains very low.

Dr. Richard Amenyah, Director of Technical Services of the Ghana AIDS Commission, put comprehensive knowledge of females in the country at 23 per cent and 33 per cent for males. Many people still ascribe the pandemic to myths and misconceptions and still believe that juju and mosquitoes can cause HIV. Awareness creation over the years focused on transmission of the virus through sex with little or no attention to other sources of infection.

HIV and AIDS leaflets produced by the Ghana Social Marketing Federation International state that five per cent of all HIV infections come from sharing of blades, needles, blood transfusion and other skin piercing instruments. The fact is that many are unaware of what constitute high or low risk behaviours. While we are certain about sex, we remain ignorant of or care less about other behaviours such as going to barbering shops where tools are not sterilized. Mind you some barbering shops have sterilizers but they are either not working or not effective.

Some people also patronise persons who move about cutting nails with un-sterilized equipment, which could cost lives. Some Ghanaians usually do not care about these risky behaviours but are interested in knowing other people’s status and quick to stigmatize rather than show concern to people living with the disease. A popular barber in Ho said though he sterilizes his tools, most of his customers do not really care about whether the tools were sterilized or not and that they were only interested in having good haircuts.

A random visit to some barbering and hair salons in Ho reveals that sterilizers of some of the saloons have outlived their usefulness and could only pass for a container with a light. Some of the sterilizers have cracks all over with others broken and one wonders what their efficacy is. The survey revealed that some barbers and hair dressers know that their sterilizers are not working but occasionally put their clippers, pedicure and manicure sets in them to deceive the public.

Another issue is the use of hair brushes, rollers and hair pins. It has become fashionable for barbers to occasionally brush the hair while cutting it and interestingly use a common brush for everyone. Only God knows how many people might get infected when an HIV positive person got cut during the barbering process and the brushed used for the hair was shared with an HIV negative person.

Mr. Bright Kornu, Volta Regional Focal Person on HIV and AIDS, said the situation where barbers and beauticians failed to sterilize their tools was serious and called for urgent attention from the district assemblies. He suggested to the assemblies to conduct regular inspections of barbering shops and hairdressing salons to check their sterilizing equipments and close down those that were deficient in the observance of safety standards.

Given the seriousness of the situation it is advisable for individuals and households to acquire their own barbering and hair dressing equipment as was the practice in the past. It is important that the pandemic is not seen by an individual as remote but as close as possible to everyone.

Documents made available by the Ghana AIDS Commission put the national prevalence at 1.7 per cent with over 60 new infections everyday. This is why HIV non-governmental organisations must push for greater awareness and behaviour change. We as individuals must also be mindful of our lives, especially risky behaviours. I have decided to acquire personal barbering equipment. What about you? By Anthony Bells Kafui Kanyi, Modern Ghana

Filed Under: Health & Fitness Tagged With: Disease, People

Herbal Medicine And HIV/AIDS Related Skin Diseases

November 27, 2009 By adminclyd

It is evident that the campaign about the dreadful disease HIV/AIDS has reduced drastically, as it is rarely aired on the radios, televisions and published in newspapers. Maybe its immense former campaign which has brought about a decline in its prevalence rate in the country, according to statistics, has brought about the decline in its campaign presently. Previous campaigns have brought about a great impact in the sex lives of Ghanaians, and reduced the daily rate of infection, which was about 200 people per day.

It is true people are very vigilant about their sex life, but the lack of frequent campaigns and education about the disease’s existence, will make people forget about it, hence living reckless lives. The sustenance of the lives affected people through antiretroviral treatment has gone a long way to give people the assurance that acquiring the virus is definitely not the end of one’s life as it was earlier on assumed. The introduction of the antiretroviral treatment is a good thing, but the question is, how many people living with the virus are able to afford going through the antiretroviral treatment, since it is very expensive.

It is very sad that those who are not able afford the treatment, do not only go through the travails of losing weight, but as well go through the trauma of being exposed to various kinds of skin diseases. According to medical experts, HIV weakens the immune system, and as a result people with the infection suffer health problems, which include various kinds of skin diseases. In Ghana, and in many parts of the world, the use of herbal medicines to cure diseases is something that has been trusted for ages, and its use to treat HIV skin diseases is one thing that cannot be over emphasised. According to studies, about 90% of people living with HIV develop skin changes which are mostly as a result of the virus. Their weakened immune system makes them venerable to all kinds of skin diseases. Herbal medicine experts have thought it wise that the involvement herbal medicine in the treatment of HIV/AIDS related skin diseases will be of help to people living with the virus.

HIV/AIDS in Africa

According to statistics, people living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa are about 22,000,000, and out of this figure, 12,000,000 are women and 1,800,000 children. In Ghana, about 260,000 are living with HIV/AIDS, 150,000 are women and 17,000. According to the statistics, Sub-Saharan Africa is more heavily affected by HIV and AIDS than any other region of the world. In 2007, around 1.5 million people died from AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, and 1.9 million people became infected with HIV. Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than eleven million children have been orphaned by AIDS. In the absence of massively expanded prevention, treatment and care efforts, it is expected that the AIDS death toll in Sub-Saharan Africa will continue to rise. This means the impact of the AIDS epidemic on societies will be felt most strongly in the course of the next ten years and beyond. The AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa threatens to devastate whole communities, rolling back decades of development progress.

Skin Conditions Linked to AIDS

According to webMD, psoriasis is one of the skin conditions associated with AIDS. It is a common skin disorder that produces thick, pink-to-red, itchy patches of skin, covered with silvery scales. The rash usually occurs on the scalp, elbows, knees and lower back, and in the same place on both sides of the body. It can also occur in fingernails. Psoriasis cannot be cured, but treatment greatly reduces the signs, even in severe cases. Common treatments include steroid creams, vitamin D derivatives, and topical retinoids. These may also be used with ultraviolet light therapy for severe cases. For severe diseases, there are a number of effective therapies taken in pill form or by injection.

Shingles is another infection caused by the chicken pox virus. This virus remains dormant in the nerve cells of people who have had chicken pox, and can reactivate in the body later on, resulting in illness. Although shingles, like all other viral diseases, cannot be cured, it usually will go away on its own, and may not require any treatment, except to control te symptoms. Doctors can prescribe antiviral medications to control the infection, and reduce the severity and duration of the disease.

Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) is a form of cancer that occurs on the skin, and in mucous membranes. It occurs among people who have HIV/AIDS. KS appears as purplish lesions on the skin. Because of the weakened immune system caused by AIDS, KS can spread quickly to other parts of the body, including organs. KS can be treated with surgery. Chemotherapy is a treatment that kills the cancerous cells using the body’s own resources to boost the immune system.

Herbal medicine and HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS, which is considered an incurable disease, has compelled many herbal medicine healers to try their possible best to come out with a treatment/cure for the disease. The frequent claim by people of having a herbal cure for the disease resulted in an assessment of herbal remedies from chosen healers on some individuals with HIV/AIDS in 1999 by the Ministry of Health (MOH) the Center for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine (CSRPM) Noguchi Memorial Research Institute, the Komfo Anokye Hospital and the St. Dominic Hospital, which in the end proved some herbal curatives to be of good quality, which have helped people with the virus to improve their health conditions.

Challenges of herbal medicine healers

According to Mr. Kojo Odum Eduful, First Vice President of the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association (GHAFRAM), herbal medicine healers/practitioners are willing to help people living with the virus, which has resulted in all kinds of skin diseases. So far healers are knowledgeable about the fact that herbs such as aloe vera, phyllanthus officinalis, allium sativum,garcinia kola, xylopia aethipica, cryptolepis sanguinolenta, azdiracta indica, cola nitida, cassia alata, fruits and vegetable of high nutritional value are some of the useful medicinal plants in the management of HIV/AIDS. These plants according, to him, have anti-viral and anti-microbial activities which help in fighting HIV skin diseases.

He said these healers were knowledgeable about herbal medicines that can help treat skin diseases of people with the virus, but the present situation at hand does not allow them to progress in the introduction of these herbal medicines to the public. The challenges they are facing, in terms of finance, prevent them from doing research work to go the extra mile to produce results. The initiative of these herbal healers/practitioners to help people with the virus, will come to a reality, if they are given financial support, either from philanthropists, non-governmental organisations (NGO), or even the government, then the financial crises they are facing will be resolved.

Moreover, healers find it very heartbreaking that people with the virus who have benefited from their herbal medicine in the treatment of their skin diseases, fail to report back to the traditional medicine clinics/centers for follow-ups. Most people living with the virus will even find it difficult to talk about the experience with the treatment of the herbs, as they don’t want people to know their status, due to stigmatisation by society. If the education of the public on how to treat people with HIV/AIDS will be intensified, then people living with it will not hesitate to talk publicly about their lives

The African continent and many parts of the world have relied on the use of herbs to cure their diseases, however modernisation has brought about people shifting their attention to the scientific way of curing diseases, hence brushing aside herbal medicines. This situation has resulted into people losing trust in the efficiency, quality, and the hygienic manner of herbal medicines.

The Way forward

It has come to the realisation that in order to make people living with the virus, especially those who cannot afford the antiretroviral treatment for skin diseases, be go in for traditional herbal treatment. In this case, the President of the GHAFRAM has indicated those herbal medicine healers/practitioners are currently receiving training from NGOs and government institutions to build their capabilities. This will expose them to all kinds of herbs and broaden their horizons in their field of research, in order to intensify the quality and efficiency of their medicines. Additionally, trained healers/practitioners are engaged in the fight against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)/HIV/AIDS in their communities. As two heads are better than one, healers are on the verge of collaborating with scientists and orthodox medical practitioners, as they both sometimes need each other’s service.

Conclusion The initiative of giving herbal medicine the chance to help in the treatment of HIV/AIDS skin diseases, is a good step towards the eradication of the virus, and will not only be of benefit to people living with the virus in Ghana, but the world as a whole. It is about time the public as well, give herbal medicine a chance to prove itself. Society must support these initiatives of these herbal medicine healers and practitioners, so as to boost their moral for more research.

This would encourage people with the diseases not to lose hope, and that their dreams and aspirations in life are still on the verge of accomplishment. There is therefore the need for increased education to create more awareness, for the people to become cautious about sexual practices, which would help minimise the spread of the pandemic. Modern Ghana

Filed Under: Health & Fitness, Home & Family, Society & Culture Tagged With: Disease

Breast Cancer Study ‘Identifies Tumour-Causing Enzyme’

November 20, 2009 By adminclyd

Scientists have identified an enzyme that is crucial for turning breast tissue into tumours, according to a study published in the journal Cell.

The Institute of Cancer Research says blocking the enzyme lysyl oxidase (LOX) reduced the size and frequency of tumours in mice.

They say LOX stiffens collagen, a major component of the supportive tissue in the breast.

A cancer charity said the study added to knowledge about how tumours develop.

The supportive tissue surrounding cancer cells is shaped differently to healthy tissue as well as being stiffer and more fibrous.

These properties have helped doctors to detect breast cancers, but until now scientists have not known what was causing these changes.

‘Clear physical change’

The team at the Institute for Cancer Research, using mice, found that LOX caused the collagen to change in a process known as cross-linking, which makes the tissue more fibrous.

Higher levels of LOX increased the levels of collagen in mammary glands, made the tissue stiffer and correlated with a higher number of tumours invading the breast tissue.

When the team used chemicals or an antibody to block the enzyme, they found collagen in the mammary glands contained fewer cross-links and was less fibrous.

The tissue also contained fewer, smaller tumours and they were less aggressive.

Dr Janine Erler from the Institute of Cancer Research, who led the research, said the study showed that stiffening of the breast tissue controlled by enzymes such as LOX was a key factor in cancer development. These enzymes could be a promising candidate drug target, she added.

“The enzyme triggers a clear physical change in breast tissue and, if we could stop this happening, we expect it would slow the growth of any cancers that did develop and make them easier to eradicate.”

‘Cautiously optimistic’

Professor Valerie Weaver of the University of California in San Francisco, who was also part of the team, said: “This study may also help explain why the rate of breast cancer increases dramatically with age – aged tissues are stiffer and contain higher levels of abnormal collagen cross-links.

“I’m cautiously optimistic. We still have a lot more work to do, but this is certainly exciting.”

Dr Alexis Willett, head of policy at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: “This early stage research in cells and mice increases our understanding of how breast cancers develop and grow and suggests that enzymes such as LOX could be a potential target in the treatment of breast cancer.

“The next stage will be to test whether LOX has the same effect in humans, but it is likely to be some time before any potential new treatment is developed.” BBC News

Filed Under: Health & Fitness, News & Media Tagged With: Disease, Health

Rising Obesity Will Cost U.S. Health Care $344 Billion A Year

November 17, 2009 By adminclyd

If Americans continue to pack on pounds, obesity will cost the USA about $344 billion in medical-related expenses by 2018, eating up about 21% of health-care spending, says the first analysis to estimate the future medical costs of excess weight.

These calculations are based on the projection that in 10 years 43% of Americans adults may be obese, which is roughly 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight, if obesity continues to rise at the current rate. Extra weight increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and many types of cancer.

This report comes as the country struggles to find ways to curb medical costs and Congress debates health care legislation.

“Obesity is going to be a leading driver in rising health-care costs,” says Kenneth Thorpe, chairman of the department of health policy and management at Emory University in Atlanta. Thorpe did this special analysis on obesity for America’s Health Rankings, the 20th annual assessment of the nation’s health on a state-by-state basis.

“There is a tsunami of chronic preventable disease about to be unleashed into our medical-care system which is increasingly unaffordable,” says Reed Tuckson of United Health Foundation, sponsor of the report with the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention.

Using weight data, Census statistics and medical expenditure information, Thorpe found:

•An obese person will have an average of $8,315 in medical bills a year in 2018 compared with $5,855 for an adult at a healthy weight. That’s a difference of $2,460.

•If the percentage of obese adults doesn’t change but stays at the current rate of 34%, then excess weight will cost the nation about $198 billion by 2018.

•If the obesity rate continues to rise until 2018, then Colorado may be the only state with less than 30% of residents who are obese.

•More than 50% of the population in several states could be obese by 2018: Oklahoma, Mississippi, Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio and South Dakota.

The report adds to the growing body of evidence of obesity’s impact on medical costs. A study released in July showed that obese Americans cost the country about $147 billion in weight-related medical bills in 2008, double what it was a decade ago. It now accounts for about 9.1% of medical spending.

Overall, the United States spends about $1.8 trillion a year in medical costs associated with chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and all three are linked to smoking and obesity, the nation’s two largest risk factors, according to the America’s Health Rankings report.

Smoking is still the No. 1 preventable cause of death in the country, accounting for about 440,000 deaths annually, the report says.

About one in five Americans smoke. More than 3 million people quit smoking this past year. The percentage of people who smoke varies by state, from 9.3% in Utah to more than 25% in Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia, the study says.

“This report is an urgent call to take much more aggressive action to deal with key disease risk factors such as obesity and smoking,” Tuckson says.

Health economist Eric Finkelstein, co-author of The Fattening of America, says medical costs won’t go down unless Americans make a serious effort “to slim down by improving their diet and exercise patterns.” By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY

Filed Under: Health & Fitness Tagged With: Disease, Health News