Glasgow University leads Biggest Study into Parkinson’s Disease

A Glasgow-based doctor is to lead the world’s biggest research study into the cause of Parkinson’s disease.

The brain condition affects almost 130,000 people in the UK.

Dr Donald Grosset, a neurologist at Glasgow University, said he hoped to find better ways of both diagnosing and treating the disease.

Charity Parkinson’s UK is looking for 3,000 volunteers with the condition – and their siblings – to take part in the study.

Glasgow University leads Biggest Study into Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s is a debilitating condition with symptoms which include tremors, mood changes, movement difficulties, loss of smell and speech problems.

The charity said it was investing more than £1.6m in the Tracking Parkinson’s study with the long-term aim of boosting the chances of finding a cure.

The study will follow 3,000 volunteers – people recently diagnosed with the disease, people diagnosed aged under 50 and their brothers and sisters.

The aim is to identify markers in the blood which could be used to create a simple diagnostic test for the disease, something which does not yet exist.

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Parkinson’s UK said early diagnosis is crucial if doctors are to be able to prescribe the right drugs for people with the condition.

The responses to various treatments of those taking part in the study will be closely monitored for up to five years.

Eventually the project will link up to 40 research centres across the UK.

Dr Grosset said: “The cure for Parkinson’s is a global challenge and all the samples gathered from our thousands of volunteers will be available for analysis by researchers the world over.

“This, in itself, will speed up our ultimate goal – to develop a cure for Parkinson’s.  I am very excited to be leading this cutting edge research collaborating with top researchers from Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.”

Dr Kieran Breen, director of research and innovation at Parkinson’s UK, added: “Finding a cure for Parkinson’s is like building a gigantic jigsaw, but we still have a number of the pieces missing. This vital new study will help us fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge.”

Source: BBC News UK

Tweaking Memories could help Drug Addicts avoid Relapsing

Manipulating memories of drug use may help reformed addicts avoid a return to a life of drug abuse, according to scientists in China.

They said memories linking “cues” – such as needles or cigarettes – and the pleasurable effects of drugs caused cravings and relapsing.

Tweaking Memories could help Drug Addicts avoid Relapsing

Authors of the study, published in the journal Science, “rewrote” those memories to reduce cravings.  Experts said targeting memories could become a new avenue for treatment.

Repeatedly showing people drug cues without actually giving patients the drug is a part of some therapies for addicts. It can break the link between cue and craving in the clinic. But this does not always translate to real life.

The researchers at Peking University tried to rewrite the original memory so that it would be as if the link between cue and the craving never existed.

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Flexible Memories

The work relies on the idea that a memory can become malleable after it is accessed, creating a brief window during which the memory can be “rewritten”.

Twenty-two heroin addicts who had not taken the drug for – on average – 11 years, took part in the study.

They were initially shown a brief video to remind them of taking drugs – opening the memory window. Ten minutes later they watched more videos and looked at pictures of heroin drug use.

Other addicts were shown an initial video of the countryside, which would not open the window.

Tests 180 days later showed that levels of cravings were lower in those treated during the ‘memory window’ than in the other groups. These experiments were backed up by further tests on “addicted” rats.

The authors wrote: “The [memory] procedure decreased cue-induced drug craving and perhaps could reduce the likelihood of cue-induced relapse during prolonged abstinence periods.”

Dr Amy Milton, who researches memory and addiction at the University of Cambridge, said: “I’m quite excited by this research.”

She said it was “such a minor” difference from current therapies which “tapped into an entirely different memory process” and the reconstruction of the original memory. Full clinical studies are needed, but it could be really important for treatment of addiction,” she said.

Dr Milton added: “There is no theoretical reason it couldn’t apply to other addictions such as alcohol. That’s obviously very exciting.”

Source: BBC News UK

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Listening to Music makes Surgery less Stressful

Playing music to patients while they go under the knife reduces their anxiety and may even aid healing, surgeons say.

Easy listening tracks and chart hits can have a calming effect on patients who are awake for surgery under local anaesthetic, a team at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford found.

Listening to the radio also helped.

Listening to Music makes Surgery less Stressful

Their small study, published in Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons, tracked the progress of 96 patients having minor surgery at the hospital.

Half of the patients were played music – broadcast by a radio station or from a selection of tunes on a CD chosen by the surgical staff – while the other half had their operation under the usual ‘hushed’ conditions.

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Dulcet Tones

After the surgery was completed the patients, some elective and some emergency cases, were asked to rate how anxious they had felt during the operation.

The group played music scored about a third less on anxiety levels and were also noted to have more relaxed breathing patterns during the surgery – an average of 11 breaths per minute compared to 13 breaths per minute in the non-music group.

This ties in with past studies have which have shown music may help ease pain and can help hospital patients on ventilators breathe more easily.

Experts know that stress can have a negative impact on surgical outcomes and prolong the healing process.

Hazim Sadideen, a plastic surgical registrar who led the study, said more work was now needed to establish whether the use of music in operating theatres should become standard practice.

“Undergoing surgery can be a stressful experience for patients and finding ways of making them more comfortable should be our goal as clinicians. There are also good medical reasons – calmer patients may cope better with pain and recover quicker.”

Music might also lead to a happier, calmer surgeons and theatre staff, the researchers suggest.

 Source: BBC News UK

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Chocolate May Help Keep People Slim

People who eat chocolate regularly tend to be thinner, new research suggests.

The findings come from a study of nearly 1,000 US people that looked at diet, calorie intake and body mass index (BMI) – a measure of obesity.

It found those who ate chocolate a few times a week were, on average, slimmer than those who ate it occasionally.

Even though chocolate is loaded with calories, it contains ingredients that may favour weight loss rather than fat synthesis, scientists believe.

Despite boosting calorie intake, regular chocolate consumption was related to lower BMI in the study, which is published in Archives of Internal Medicine.

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The link remained even when other factors, like how much exercise individuals did, were taken into account.

And it appears it is how often you eat chocolate that is important, rather than how much of it you eat. The study found no link with quantity consumed.

According to the researchers, there is only one chance in a hundred that their findings could be explained by chance alone.

Chocolate May Help Keep People Slim

Lead author Dr Beatrice Golomb, from the University of California at San Diego, said: “Our findings appear to add to a body of information suggesting that the composition of calories, not just the number of them, matters for determining their ultimate impact on weight.”

This is not the first time scientists have suggested that chocolate may be healthy for us.

Other studies have claimed chocolate may be good for the heart.

Consumption of certain types of chocolate has been linked to some favourable changes in blood pressure, insulin sensitivity and cholesterol level.

And chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, does contain antioxidants which can help to mop up harmful free radicals – unstable chemicals that can damage our cells.

Dr Golomb and her team believe that antioxidant compounds, called catechins, can improve lean muscle mass and reduce weight – at least studies in rodents would suggest this might be so.

Mice fed for 15 days with epicatechin (present in dark chocolate) had improved exercise performance and observable changes to their muscle composition.

They say clinical trials are now needed in humans to see if this is the case.

But before you reach for a chocolate bar, there are still lots of unanswered questions. And in the absence of conclusive evidence, experts advise caution.

While there’s no harm in allowing yourself a treat like chocolate now and again, eating too much might be harmful because it often contains a lot of sugar and fat too.

And if you are looking to change your diet, you are likely to benefit most from eating more fresh fruits and vegetables.

Source: BBC News UK

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Clue to Male Baldness Discovered

A biological clue to male baldness has been discovered, raising the prospect of a treatment to stop or even reverse thinning hair.

In studies of bald men and laboratory mice, US scientists pinpointed a protein that triggers hair loss.

Clue to Male Baldness Discovered

Drugs that target the pathway are already in development, they report in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The research could lead to a cream to treat baldness. Most men start to go bald in middle age, with about 80% of men having some hair loss by the age of 70.

The male sex hormone testosterone plays a key role, as do genetic factors. They cause the hair follicles to shrink, eventually becoming so small that they are invisible, leading to the appearance of baldness.

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Reverse balding?

Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have analysed which genes are switched on when men start to go bald.

They found levels of a key protein called prostaglandin D synthase are elevated in the cells of hair follicles located in bald patches on the scalp, but not in hairy areas.

Mice bred to have high levels of the protein went completely bald, while transplanted human hairs stopped growing when given the protein.

Prof George Cotsarelis, of the department of dermatology, who led the research, said: “Essentially we showed that prostaglandin protein was elevated in the bald scalp of men and that it inhibited hair growth. So we identified a target for treating male-pattern baldness.

“The next step would be to screen for compounds that affect this receptor and to also find out whether blocking that receptor would reverse balding or just prevent balding – a question that would take a while to figure out.”

The inhibition of hair growth is triggered when the protein binds to a receptor on the cells of hair follicles, said Prof Cotsarelis.

Several known drugs that target this pathway have already been identified, he added, including some that are in clinical trials.

The researchers say there is potential for developing a treatment that can be applied to the scalp to prevent baldness and possibly help hair regrow.

Source: BBC News UK

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Diet Linked to Low Sperm Counts

A diet high in saturated fat has been linked with a reduced sperm count.

A study of 99 men attending a US fertility clinic found those eating junk food diets had poorer sperm quality. High intakes of omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and plant oils, were associated with higher sperm concentration.

More work is needed to confirm the findings, the researchers report in the journal Human Reproduction.

Diet Linked to Low Sperm Counts

The team, led by Prof Jill Attaman from Harvard Medical School in Boston, questioned men about their diet and analysed sperm samples over the course of four years.

Compared with those eating the least fat, men with the highest fat intake had a 43% lower sperm count and 38% lower sperm concentration (number of sperm per unit volume of semen).

Men consuming the most omega-3 fatty acids had sperm with a more normal structure than men with the lowest intake.

Prof Attaman said: “The magnitude of the association is quite dramatic and provides further support for the health efforts to limit consumption of saturated fat given their relation with other health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease.”

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However, 71% of participants were overweight or obese, which could have had an impact on sperm quality. Furthermore, none of the men had sperm counts or concentrations below the “normal” levels defined by the World Health Organization of at least 39 million and 15 million per millilitre.

Commenting on the research, British fertility expert Dr Allan Pacey, of the University of Sheffield, said: “This is a relatively small study showing an association between dietary intake of saturated fats and semen quality.  Perhaps unsurprisingly there appeared to be a reasonable association between the two, with men who ate the highest levels of saturated fats having the lowest sperm counts and those eating the most omega-3 polyunsaturated fats having the highest. Importantly, the study does not show that one causes the other and further work needs to be carried out to clarify this. But it does add weight to the argument that having a good healthy diet may benefit male fertility as well as being good general health advice.”

Source: BBC News UK

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Red Meat Increases Death, Cancer and Heart Risk

A diet high in red meat can shorten life expectancy, according to researchers at Harvard Medical School.

The study of more than 120,000 people suggested red meat increased the risk of death from cancer and heart problems. Substituting red meat with fish, chicken or nuts lowered the risks, the authors said.

Red Meat Increases Death, Cancer and Heart Risk

The British Heart Foundation said red meat could still be eaten as part of a balanced diet. The researchers analysed data from 37,698 men between 1986 and 2008 and 83,644 women between 1980 and 2008.

They said adding an extra portion of unprocessed red meat to someone’s daily diet would increase the risk of death by 13%, of fatal cardiovascular disease by 18% and of cancer mortality by 10%. The figures for processed meat were higher, 20% for overall mortality, 21% for death from heart problems and 16% for cancer mortality.

The study said: “We found that a higher intake of red meat was associated with a significantly elevated risk of total, cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality.

“This association was observed for unprocessed and processed red meat with a relatively greater risk for processed red meat.”

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The researchers suggested that saturated fat from red meat may be behind the increased heart risk and the sodium used in processed meats may “increase cardiovascular disease risk through its effect on blood pressure”.

Victoria Taylor, a dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Red meat can still be eaten as part of a balanced diet, but go for the leaner cuts and use healthier cooking methods such as grilling.

“If you eat processed meats like bacon, ham, sausages or burgers several times a week, add variation to your diet by substituting these for other protein sources such as fish, poultry, beans or lentils.”

Source: BBC News UK

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Fruit and Vegetable Give Healthy Glow

Even a few weeks of eating fruit and vegetables could improve your skin colour, it is claimed.

University of St Andrews researchers monitored diet in 35 people, finding more colouration in those eating more greens.

Other research suggests these changes may make you more attractive. Other scientists said the study, in the PLoS One journal, might not fully reflect the link between consumption and appearance.

It has been known for some time that certain yellow and red pigments called carotenoids found in many types of fruit and vegetables, can have an effect on skin tone.

However it is not clear exactly how much influence a normal healthy diet can have on this effect.

The St Andrews scientists recruited 35 students, mostly white, who were quizzed on their fruit and vegetable intake over a six week period.

The volunteers were told not to use sunbeds, fake tan or make-up. An instrument was used to analyse their skin tone before, during and after the test period.

The results suggested that changes in fruit and vegetable consumption might be related to changes in skin tone, with more fruit and vegetables contributing to a deepening of natural red and yellow skin colouration.

Earlier research by the team had found links between the perceived attractiveness of faces and even subtle changes in these skin tones. “It is possible that even smaller dietary changes are able to produce perceptible benefits to skin colouration,” they wrote.

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However, they did concede that the effects on older people might be different, and that more research into non-white volunteers would be needed.

Food preparation

Dr Glenys Jones, from the Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Research laboratory at Cambridge University, said that another issue was that food preparation techniques made a big difference to how much of the carotenoids were available from food, and the study did not take this into account.

She added: “With the vast majority of the population not consuming the recommended five-a-day of fruits and vegetables, this could be another way of encouraging people through our own innate vanity to increase fruit and vegetable intake.

“After all fruits and vegetables contain a wide range of nutrients that are good for not just for our complexion, but for our overall health.”

Dr Catherine Collins, a dietician at St George’s Hospital in London, said that although people heavily exposed to sunlight were excluded from the study, all the areas of skin studied were those exposed to daylight, and the effects of this could not be ruled out.

However, she echoed the point that anything which encouraged people to eat more fruit and vegetables was a good thing.

“For the rest of us post-university people, it’s another potential reason to carry on eating your greens – and red/orange/yellow veggies as well. The grown-up way of serving them cooked, or as part of an overall meal along with other foods, boosts bio-availability of these useful phytochemicals, which may contribute to overall health – as well as beauty!”

Source: BBC News UK

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LSD helps Alcoholics to Give up Drinking

One dose of the hallucinogenic drug LSD could help alcoholics give up drinking, according to an analysis of studies performed in the 1960s.

A study, presented in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, looked at data from six trials and more than 500 patients.

LSD helps Alcoholics to Give up Drinking

It said there was a “significant beneficial effect” on alcohol abuse, which lasted several months after the drug was taken.

An expert said this was “as good as anything we’ve got”. LSD is a class A drug in the UK and is one of the most powerful hallucinogens ever identified. It appears to work by blocking a chemical in the brain, serotonin, which controls functions including perception, behaviour, hunger and mood.

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Benefit

Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology analysed earlier studies on the drug between 1966 and 1970.

Patients were all taking part in alcohol treatment programmes, but some were given a single dose of LSD of between 210 and 800 micrograms. For the group of patients taking LSD, 59% showed reduced levels of alcohol misuse compared with 38% in the other group.

This effect was maintained six months after taking the hallucinogen, but it disappeared after a year. Those taking LSD also reported higher levels of abstinence.

The report’s authors, Teri Krebs and Pal-Orjan Johansen, said: “A single dose of LSD has a significant beneficial effect on alcohol misuse.”

They suggested that more regular doses might lead to a sustained benefit. “Given the evidence for a beneficial effect of LSD on alcoholism, it is puzzling why this treatment approach has been largely overlooked,” they added.

Prof David Nutt, who was sacked as the UK government’s drugs adviser, has previously called for the laws around illegal drugs to be relaxed to enable more research.

He said: “Curing alcohol dependency requires huge changes in the way you see yourself. That’s what LSD does. Overall there is a big effect, show me another treatment with results as good; we’ve missed a trick here. This is probably as good as anything we’ve got [for treating alcoholism].”

Source: BBC News UK

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Sleeping Pills linked to Increased Risk of Death

Doctors warn that sleeping pills used by thousands of people in the UK appear to be linked with a higher death risk.

The American study in BMJ Open compared more than 10,000 patients on tablets like temazepam with 23,000 similar patients not taking these drugs. Death risk among users was about four times higher, although the absolute risk was still relatively low.

Experts say while the findings highlight a potential risk, proof of harm is still lacking.

Sleeping Pills linked to Increased Risk of Death

They say patients should not be alarmed nor stop their medication, but if they are concerned they should discuss this with their doctor or pharmacist.

UK guidelines for NHS staff say hypnotic drugs should only be used for short periods of time because of tolerance to the drug and the risk of dependency. But they make no mention of an associated death risk, despite other studies having already reported this potential risk.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said it would consider the results of this latest study and whether it has any implications for current prescribing guidance.

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Millions prescribed

In 2010 in England, there were 2.8 million prescriptions dispensed for temazepam and almost 5.3 million for another common sleeping pill called zopiclone.

There were also more than 725,000 prescriptions dispensed for zolpidem and more than 9,400 for zaleplon, two other drugs in this same family.

The latest study looked at a wide range of sleeping pills, including drugs used in the UK, such as benzodiazepines (temazepam and diazepam), non-benzodiazepines (zolpidem, zopiclone and zaleplon), barbiturates and sedative antihistamines.

The investigators, from the Jackson Hole Centre for Preventive Medicine in Wyoming and the Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Centre in California, found that people prescribed these pills were 4.6 times more likely to die during a 2.5-year period compared to those not on the drugs.

Overall, one in every 16 patients in the sleeping pill group died (638 out of 10,531 in total) compared to one in every 80 of the non-users (295 deaths out of 23,674 patients).

This increased risk was irrespective of other underlying health conditions, such as heart and lung diseases, and other factors like smoking and alcohol use, which the researchers say they did their best to rule out.

The researchers say it is not yet clear why people taking sleeping tablets may be at greater risk.

The drugs are sedating and this may make users more prone to falls and other accidents. The tablets can also alter a person’s breathing pattern as they sleep and they have been linked to increased suicide risk.

Meagre Benefits

In this latest study, those taking the highest doses of sleeping tablets also appeared to be at greater risk of developing cancer.

The researchers say: “The meagre benefits of hypnotics, as critically reviewed by groups without financial interest, would not justify substantial risks.” They say even short-term use may not be justifiable.

But Malcolm Lader, professor of clinical psychopharmacology at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, said people should not panic as a result of the findings.

“The study needs to be replicated in a different sample and I think we need to hold judgement until we have further studies. What we don’t want is people stopping sleeping tablets and then going through a very disturbing period of insomnia. People should discuss this with their GP but should not under any circumstances stop taking their medication.”

Nina Barnett, of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said: “This is an important study and although it is unlikely to radically change prescribing in the immediate term, it should raise awareness and remind both patients and prescribers to the potential risks of sedative use for insomnia. The association between mortality and sedation is not new and this research tells us that people who took these medicines were more likely to die than people who didn’t take them.  However it does not mean that the deaths were caused by the medicine.”

Source: BBC News UK

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