Being an Optimist may Protect against Heart Problems

Being cheerful may protect against heart problems, say US experts.

Happy, optimistic people have a lower risk of heart disease and stroke, a Harvard School of Public Health review of more than 200 studies – reported in Psychological Bulletin – suggests.

While such people may be generally healthier, scientists think a sense of well-being may lower risk factors such as high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Being an Optimist may Protect against Heart Problems

Stress and depression have already been linked to heart disease.

The researcher from the Harvard School of Public Health trawled medical trial databases to find studies that had recorded psychological well-being and cardiovascular health.

This revealed that factors such as optimism, life satisfaction, and happiness appeared to be linked associated with a reduced risk of heart and circulatory diseases, regardless of a person’s age, socio-economic status, smoking status or body weight.

Disease risk was 50% lower among the most optimistic individuals.

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Not Proof

Dr Julia Boehm and colleagues stress that their work only suggests a link and is not proof that well-being buffers against heart disease.

And not only is it difficult to objectively measure well-being, other heart risk factors like cholesterol and diabetes are more important when it comes to reducing disease.

The people in the study who were more optimistic also engaged in healthier behaviours such as getting more exercising and eating a balanced diet, which will have some influence.

But even when they controlled for these factors and others, like sleep quality, the link between optimism and better heart health remained.

Although they looked at 200 studies, the researchers say this number is still not enough to draw firm conclusions and recommend more research.

Much of the past work on mood and heart disease has looked at stress and anxiety rather than happiness.

Maureen Talbot, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “The association between heart disease and mental health is very complex and still not fully understood.

“Although this study didn’t look at the effects of stress, it does confirm what we already know which is psychological well-being is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, just like staying active and eating healthily. It also highlights the need for healthcare professionals to provide a holistic approach to care, taking into account the state of someone’s mental health and monitoring its effect on their physical health.”

Source: BBC News UK

New Prostate Cancer Treatment May Reduce Side-effects

A new technique to treat early prostate cancer may have far fewer side-effects than existing therapies, say experts.

A 41-patient study in the journal Lancet Oncology suggests targeted ultrasound treatment could reduce the risk of impotence and incontinence.

Researchers say it could transform future treatment if the findings are repeated in larger studies.

New Prostate Cancer Treatment May Reduce Side-effects

The Medical Research Council (MRC), which funded the study, welcomed the results, which it said were promising.

Each year 37,000 men in the UK are diagnosed with prostate cancer. Many face a difficult dilemma: the disease kills about 10,000 men every year, but for some it may not get worse if left untreated.

Standard treatment with surgery or radiotherapy involves treating the whole prostate gland, and can harm surrounding tissue, with a serious risk of side-effects, including urinary incontinence and impotence.

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Targeted Treatment

Doctors at University College Hospital in London have carried out the first trial using high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) aimed at small patches of cancer cells on the prostate.

This was a “proof of concept” study involving 41 patients.

They used a probe, placed close to the prostate, which emits sound waves that heat the targeted cells to 80C, while causing minimal damage to surrounding nerves and muscles.

Hashim Ahmed, a urological surgeon at the trust who led the study, says the results, 12 months after treatment, are very encouraging.

“We’ve shown in this study that focal therapy – by targeting the individual areas of cancer – can avoid the collateral damage. We’ve shown that nine in 10 men had no impotence and none of the men in the study had incontinence of urine.”

Mr Ahmed says the early evidence on cancer control is also very good. But he says this needs to be evaluated in much larger studies.

“This could offer a transformation of the way we treat prostate cancer. It could offer a cost-effective treatment for the NHS, and offer men with early prostate cancer an opportunity to treat their disease, but with very few side-effects.”

A patient on the trial, 72-year-old Robert Page, from Croydon, says his treatment, two years ago, was a great success.

“The outcome was very good,” he said. “I was very pleased with the treatment and very happy with the lack of side-effects, particularly when I contrast that with what might have been the case if I’d had one of the other, alternative, treatments.”

The study was funded by the Medical Research Council, the Pelican Cancer Foundation and St Peter’s Trust.

Further Trials

Professor Gillies McKenna, director of the Gray Institute for Radiation Oncology and Biology, a joint collaboration between the MRC and Cancer Research UK, welcomed the findings.

“If these promising results can be confirmed in a randomised controlled trial, focal therapy could soon become a reasonable treatment choice for prostate cancer alongside other proven effective therapies.”

The chief executive of the Prostate Cancer Charity, Owen Sharp, also emphasised the importance of further research.

“We welcome the development of any prostate-cancer treatment which limits the possibility of damaging side-effects, such as incontinence and impotence. These early results certainly indicate that focal HIFU has the potential to achieve this in the future. However, we need to remember that this treatment was given to fewer than 50 men, without follow-up over a sustained period of time. We look forward to the results of further trials, which we hope will provide a clearer idea of whether this treatment can control cancer in the long term whilst ridding men of the fear that treating their cancer might mean losing their quality of life.”

Are you receiving prostate cancer treatment? What do you think about the new technique? Please send us your comments and experiences. Please note, the BBC cannot pass contact details to the research group.

Source: BBC News UK

                                                    

Huntington’s disease Lowers Cancer Risk

People with Huntington’s disease, a debilitating brain condition, appear have a “protection” from cancer, according to a study in Sweden.

Nearly 40 years of medical records showed patients with Huntington’s had half the normal expected risk of developing tumours.

Researchers, writing in The Lancet Oncology, said the reason was unclear. Cancer Research UK said the findings presented another avenue to explore in tackling cancer.

Academics at Lund University analysed Swedish hospital data from 1969 to 2008. They found 1,510 patients with Huntington’s disease.

Huntington’s disease Lowers Cancer Risk

During the study period, 91 of those patients subsequently developed cancer. The authors said that was 53% lower than the levels expected for the general population.

Huntington’s is one of a group of illnesses called “polyglutamine diseases”. Data from other polyglutamine diseases also showed lower levels of cancer.

The authors said: “We found that the incidence of cancer was significantly lower among patients with polyglutamine diseases than in the general population.

“The mechanisms behind the protective effects against cancer are unclear and further research is warranted.”

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Dr Jianguang Ji, from the Center for Primary Health Care Research at Lund University, told the BBC: “Clarification of the mechanism underlying the link between polyglutamine diseases and cancer in the future could lead to the development of new treatment options for cancer.”

Eleanor Barrie, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: “These are interesting results. It’s not clear how the genetic changes that cause Huntington’s and other similar diseases could protect against cancer, and research in the lab will help to find out more.

“Scientists at Cancer Research UK and around the world are probing the genetic faults that contribute to cancer in their quest to beat the disease, and this is another potential avenue to explore.”

Source: BBC News UK

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Obesity and Diabetes Link to Child Disorders

Obese women and those with Type 2 diabetes could be increasing their chances of having a child with autism or another development disorder, a US study suggests.

Researchers at the University of California Davis said that high glucose levels during pregnancy could affect brain development in the foetus.

The Paediatrics study looked at 1,000 children and mothers over seven years. Diabetes UK said further research was needed.

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In California, where the study was carried out, 1.3% of women have Type 2 diabetes and 7.4% have diabetes which developed during pregnancy.

The children in the study were aged between two and five years old and were enrolled between 2003 and 2010.

Obesity and Diabetes Link to Child Disorders

Among children whose mothers had Type 2 diabetes during their pregnancies, the study found that 9.3% of those children had autism. And 11.6% of that group of children showed evidence of a developmental disability.

This was nearly twice as high as the 6.4% of children with these problems born to women with no metabolic conditions.

Over 20% of the mothers of children with autism or other developmental disability were obese, compared with 14% of the mothers of normally developing children.

Communication skills

In the US, the study noted that 34% of women of child-bearing age are obese and nearly 9% are diabetic.

Around 29% of the children with autism had mothers with a metabolic condition during pregnancy, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

Nearly 35% of the children with another developmental disorder had mothers with metabolic conditions, compared to 19% of children in the control group.

The study also examined the link between hypertension and autism or developmental disorder.

The prevalence of high blood pressure was low for all groups, but more common among mothers of children with autism or developmental disorder, although it was not statistically significant.

When analysing children’s cognitive abilities, the study found that among the children with autism, children of mothers with diabetes did not perform as well as children of non-diabetic mothers in tests of expressive language and communication skills.

And the presence of any metabolic condition was linked to lower scores on all of the tests among children without autism.

The authors say that obesity is a significant risk factor for diabetes and hypertension, and is characterized by increased insulin resistance.

Paula Krakowiak, from the MIND Institute at the University of California Davis, said: “Our finding that these maternal conditions may be linked with neurodevelopmental problems in children raises concerns and therefore may have serious public-health implications.”

Dr Matthew Hobbs, head of research at Diabetes UK, said more research was needed to answer questions not investigated in the study.

“It is important to note that while it does show an association, it does not show that diabetes causes developmental problems. We continue to advise that women with diabetes should tell their diabetes health care team if they are planning to become pregnant. They can then work together to make sure they are aware of the steps they should take to help them have a healthy pregnancy. “

Source: BBC News UK

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Women’s Height Linked to Ovarian Cancer

Taller women have a slightly higher risk of ovarian cancer, according to a review of studies.

Obesity is also a risk factor among women who have never taken HRT, say international researchers.

Previous studies have suggested a link, but there has been conflicting evidence.

Women’s Height Linked to Ovarian Cancer

The latest research, published in the journal PLoS Medicine, analysed all worldwide data on the topic.

It looked at 47 epidemiological studies in 14 countries, including about 25,000 women with ovarian cancer and more than 80,000 women without ovarian cancer.

Lead researcher Prof Valerie Beral of the Oxford University Epidemiology Unit told the BBC: “By bringing together the worldwide evidence, it became clear that height is a risk factor.”

She said there was also a clear relationship between obesity and ovarian cancer in women who had never taken HRT.

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“Ovarian cancer can clearly be added to the list [of cancers linked to obesity],” she added.

Sarah Williams, health information officer at Cancer Research UK, said the study produced a clearer picture of the factors that could affect a woman’s risk of developing ovarian cancer, and found that body size was important.

“Women can reduce their risk of this and many other diseases by keeping to a healthy weight,” she said.  For women trying to lose weight, the best method is to eat healthily, eat smaller amounts and be more physically active.”

Commenting on the study, Dr Paul Pharoah, reader in cancer epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, said the increase in risk was small.

“If we compare a woman who is 5ft tall with a woman who is 5ft 6in tall, there is a relative difference in ovarian cancer risk of 23%. But the absolute risk difference is small. The shorter woman will have a lifetime risk of about 16-in-a-1000 which increases to 20-in-a-1000 for the taller woman. A similar difference in absolute risk would be seen when comparing a slim woman with a body mass index of 20 to a slightly overweight woman with a body mass index of 30. ”

Source: BBC News UK

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UK Biobank Opens to Researchers

The UK Biobank, the most comprehensive health study in the UK, is opening its doors to researchers.

It has collated about 20TB (terabytes) of securely stored data, the equivalent of 30,000 CDs-worth, on 500,000 people.

The aim of the biobank is to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of conditions such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

England’s chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, said the UK Biobank would be a “globally unique resource”.

The biobank began recruiting participants three years ago, and was open to people aged 40 to 69.

Each answered questions on their health, lifestyle, diet, memory, work and family history.

They also had a range of measurements taken, including blood pressure, pulse rate, height, weight, body fat and lung function, and provided blood, saliva and urine samples.

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Very exciting day

About 26,000 people with diabetes, 50,000 with joint disorders, 41,000 teetotallers and 11,000 heart attack patients are taking part.

Participants’ health will be followed over many years.

It is about to undertake repeat measures of 20,000 participants from the Manchester area, and later this year it will ask participants to wear an activity monitor for one week.

It has also been overseeing a diet questionnaire, which has been filled in by 400,000 participants.

The hope is that the UK Biobank will allow scientists to investigate why some people develop particular diseases in middle age while others do not, with the hope of developing new treatments and prevention strategies.

It will be open to researchers from the UK and abroad, who will be able to use the – anonymised – data in their work.

Professor Sir Rory Collins, principal investigator at the biobank, said: “This is without doubt a very exciting day for medical research, not just in the UK but around the world. We are grateful to participants for their trust and support so far. But they have not joined the project to see it remain idle; we all want to see the resource used extensively to bring about benefits to health and wellbeing.”

Prof Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser at the Department of Health, said: “UK Biobank is a globally unique resource which places the UK at the forefront of the quest to understand why some people develop life-threatening diseases or debilitating conditions.

“It has huge potential for future generations and will help us understand how our children and our children’s children can live longer, healthier lives.”

The biobank is funded by the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, Department of Health, Scottish Government, Welsh Government and the British Heart Foundation.

Source: BBC News UK

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Gene Flaw Linked to Serious Flu Risk

Scientists have identified a genetic flaw that may explain why some people get more ill with flu than others.

Writing in Nature, the researchers said the variant of the IFITM3 gene was much more common in people hospitalised for flu than in the general population. It controls a malformed protein, which makes cells more susceptible to viral infection.

Gene flaw linked to serious flu risk

Experts said those with the flaw could be given the flu jab, like other at-risk groups.

Researchers removed the gene from mice. They found that when they developed flu, their symptoms were much worse than those seen in mice with the gene.

Evidence from genetic databases covering thousands of people showed the flawed version of the gene is present in around one in 400 people.

The scientists, who came from the UK and US, then sequenced the IFITM3 genes of 53 patients who were in hospital with flu.

Three were found to have the variant – a rate of one in 20. The researchers say these findings now need to be replicated in bigger studies. And they add it is probably only part of the genetic jigsaw that determines a person’s response to flu.

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First Clue

Professor Paul Kellam of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, who co-led the research, said: “At the moment, if someone is in a more vulnerable group because of co-morbidity [another health problem], they would be offered the flu vaccine.

“This is the idea here.” But he said having this variant would not make any difference to how people were treated.

Prof Kellam added: “Our research is important for people who have this variant as we predict their immune defences could be weakened to some virus infections.  “Ultimately as we learn more about the genetics of susceptibility to viruses, then people can take informed precautions, such as vaccination to prevent infection.”

Professor Peter Openshaw, director of the Centre for Respiratory Infection at Imperial College London, said: “This new discovery is the first clue from our detailed study of the devastating effects of flu in hospitalised patients. “It vindicates our conviction that there is something unusual about these patients.”

Sir Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, said: “During the recent swine flu pandemic, many people found it remarkable that the same virus could provoke only mild symptoms in most people, while, more rarely, threatening the lives of others.

“This discovery points to a piece of the explanation: genetic variations affect the way in which different people respond to infection. This important research adds to a growing scientific understanding that genetic factors affect the course of disease in more than one way. Genetic variations in a virus can increase its virulence, but genetic variations in that virus’s host – us – matter greatly as well.”

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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Call for Hairdressers to get Skin Cancer Training

Hairdressers can and should be trained to check their clients for skin cancer, say health experts.

Currently there is no general screening programme in the UK, despite this cancer being one of the most common types.

It is estimated that about 100,000 new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed in the UK every year. But many cases go undetected for years, meaning delayed treatment and a poorer outlook.

Call for Hairdressers to get Skin Cancer Training

The most harmful type of skin cancer, called malignant melanoma, kills more than 2,500 people in the UK every year.

Most cases are preventable – skin cancer is caused by too much exposure to UV light from the sun or sunbeds – but the rates have been increasing over recent years.

People at greatest risk are those with fair, freckled skin and lots of moles. Signs to be aware of include changes to moles, such as itching, bleeding or changing shape or colour.

In women, the cancers occur most commonly on the legs. For men, it is the back. But up to a fifth affect the skin of the head and neck. Lesions on the scalp and the back of the neck can easily go unnoticed, and experts say hairdressers are the ideal people to spot these.

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Untapped Resource

Writing in the latest edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, US doctors say: “We should not wait for our patients with skin cancer to come to us when it may be too late, but use research and outreach methods to improve early detection of head and neck melanomas by capitalising on the role of hairdressers and their unique relationship with our potential clients.”

Hairdressers would not be expected to make the diagnosis, but instead to point out any lumps, bumps or sores they find to their client who can bring it to the attention of their own doctor.

Anecdotal research suggests such training is achievable, and work carried out by Nottingham City Hospital NHS Trust found of those hairdressers polled most were keen to do take on the extra responsibility.

Campaigners say the checks could become routine, alongside a cut and blow dry, in the UK’s 36,000 hair salons.

In 2010, the Melanoma Taskforce, a panel of UK skin cancer experts chaired by Sian James MP, produced a set of guidelines for hairdressers and beauty therapists to help them identify malignant melanoma and two other common, less aggressive forms of skin cancer – basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.

Sarah Williams, of Cancer Research UK, a charity that is part of the taskforce, said the campaign now needed evaluating to see whether it has had the desired effect.

She added: “Spotting skin cancer early makes treatment more likely to be successful. So it’s important to raise awareness of the changes to look out for and encourage people to visit their GP if they notice anything unusual. Signs of skin cancer everyone can look out for include changes to the size, shape or colour of a mole, any other change to a mole or patch of skin, or a sore that hasn’t healed after several weeks. If you notice any of these changes, it’s best to get them checked out by a doctor without delay.”

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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