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.

Visit MedicsPro Doctors for thousands of Locum Doctor Jobs in the UK

 

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

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.

Visit MedicsPro Doctors for thousands of Locum Doctor Jobs in the UK

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

MedicsPro – Medical Recruitment Specialists

Study Links Womb Environment to Childhood Obesity

New evidence has linked the environment in the womb with increased body weight in later life.

Scientists found changes around the DNA at birth which may result from a mother’s diet or exposure to pollution or stress. They then linked these changes to a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) in children aged about nine years of age.

But the researchers say more work is needed to definitively prove the link between these changes and obesity.

Study Links Womb Environment to Childhood Obesity

Details are published in the journal Plos One. Childhood or adult obesity has many causes, not least childhood or adult diet, but scientists have previously linked specific genes, such as the FTO gene, with increased body weight.

Others have looked at not the genes, but associated molecular changes – what are called epigenetics – which can play a role in how a gene functions in the body, switching genes on and off.

These changes are thought to be caused in part by exposure to environmental factors such as diet, stress, smoking or hormones, particularly in the womb and during early childhood.

Visit MedicsPro Doctors for thousands of Locum Doctor Jobs in the UK

While epigenetic changes in the womb have already been associated with later obesity, there is still little data to prove the link.

Dr Caroline Relton, of Newcastle University, and colleagues took blood samples from 24 children aged 11 to 13 and looked for differences in the way genes are “expressed” or encoded into the many proteins which we need to grow and function.

They identified epigenetic changes in 29 genes which could be associated with higher body mass among the children. They then looked at data from a larger study of 178 individuals, for whom there were both cord blood samples from birth, and body composition data from aged about nine.

Among these individuals, epigenetic changes to nine of the 29 genes previously identified appeared to correspond to increased body weight, although only one of these associated changes withstood rigorous further analysis, admit the researchers.

“Other studies have just taken genes at birth and looked at differences irrespective of whether they are differently expressed with different levels of obesity,” Dr Relton told the BBC. The difference between this study and others is that we had a reason to focus on the genes we looked at because we knew they were differently expressed in children with a higher BMI.”

However, Dr Relton says more research is needed to prove the epigenetic differences observed at birth and originating in the womb, are actually contributing to obesity.

“While we have discovered an association between these genes and body size in childhood we need to carry out further studies to establish whether influencing the expression of these genes by altering epigenetic patterns is indeed a trigger to obesity.”

Early signals

Commenting on the paper, Prof Gudrun Moore of University College London told BBC News: “The paper is an interesting study on epigentic variations and their potential association with body size indices.”

Prof Tim Spector of King’s College London, said the paper represented “an exciting piece of research exploring new ways of looking at the causes of obesity.  Although it is limited by the small size and the fact that they only looked at 29 genes, the researchers found that a third of the genes they looked at contained epigenetic marks at birth that were related in some way to measures of later obesity. This means that chemical signals that turn genes on or off at birth can influence susceptibility to being fat at age 10.

“We know from differences in identical twins that genes and DNA are not the whole answer. Understanding how we could manipulate these signals in early life – via better understanding epigenetics – has great potential in battling the obesity epidemic,” he said.

 Source: BBC News UK

MedicsPro – Medical Recruitment Specialists

Pancreatic Cancer: Trial Drug MRK003 Shows Promising Results

Scientists say they may have found a new weapon against pancreatic cancer after promising early trial results of an experimental drug combination.

Giving the chemotherapy agent gemcitabine with an experimental drug called MRK003 sets off a chain of events that ultimately kills cancer cells, studies in mice show. Patients are now testing the treatment to see if it will work for them.

The Cancer Research UK-funded trials are being carried out in Cambridge.  Father-of-two Richard Griffiths, 41, from Coventry, has been on the trial since being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in May 2011.

Visit MedicsPro Doctors for thousands of Locum Doctor Jobs in the UK

He said “After six cycles of treatment, a scan showed the tumours had reduced and so I have continued with the treatment. The trial gives you hope – I really feel I can do this with the science behind me.”

Aggressive cancer

Cancer Research UK says it is prioritising research into pancreatic cancer because the survival rate still remains dismally low.

About 8,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year, and the disease is the fifth most common cause of cancer death in the UK.

Survival rates are very low in relation to other cancers, and the length of time between diagnosis and death is typically short, usually less than six months.

The most recent data for England show that about 16% of patients survive the disease beyond 12 months after diagnosis – prompting the need for new treatments.

Professor Duncan Jodrell, who is leading the trials at the University of Cambridge, said: “We’re delighted that the results of this important research are now being evaluated in a clinical trial, to test whether this might be a new treatment approach for patients with pancreatic cancer, although it will be some time before we’re able to say how successful this will be in patients.”

In total, about 60 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer will be recruited for the first Phase I/II clinical trial.

Source: BBC News UK

                                          MedicsPro – Medical Recruitment Specialists