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How eczema leads to asthma
Friday July 11th, 2008
Researchers have found an increased risk of asthma in later life among children with eczema - highlighting the benefits of identifying allergies early in life.
Dr John Burgess of the University of Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues examined the links between the two conditions. They took data from three large surveys carried out in 1968, 1974, and 2004, covering more than 8,500 people up to the age of 44.
The team found that childhood eczema was "significantly associated with childhood asthma" and with asthma in adolescence and adult life. Children with eczema were 63 per cent more likely to suffer from asthma as adults.
But when people with allergic rhinitis (hay fever) were left out, the link disappeared, suggesting that allergic reactions lie behind the connection.
The experts report their findings on the website of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
They write: "Childhood eczema increased the likelihood of childhood asthma, of new-onset asthma in later life and of asthma persisting into middle age."
More aggressive treatment of childhood eczema may be an important step in preventing asthma, they add.
Dr Burgess said: "The results of our study showed childhood eczema clearly preceded asthma in each later stage of life - later childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. This makes a strong argument for trialling aggressive therapies against childhood eczema to help reduce the burden of asthma later in life."
Burgess, J. A. et al. Childhood eczema and asthma incidence and persistence: A cohort study from childhood to middle age. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, published online June 24, 2008.
Red yeast rice among dietary aids to circulation
Friday July 11th, 2008
Fish oil, red yeast rice and minerals can all help fight diseases of the circulation, according to new studies.
Firstly, a team led by Dr David Becker at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, looked into dietary alternatives to the cholesterol-reducing drugs, statins. Although statins help prevent coronary artery disease many patients stop taking them, possibly due to cost or side-effects.
The team recruited 74 patients with high cholesterol who met the criteria for statin therapy. For three months, half the group took 40mg simvastatin per day, and the other half took fish oil and red yeast rice supplements (which may inhibit cholesterol production), and underwent a programme of heart, diet, exercise and relaxation education.
After three months, LDL cholesterol levels fell in both groups - by 40 per cent in the statin group and 42 per cent in the supplement group. But the supplement group also showed a drop in blood triglycerides, and lost more weight.
Findings appear in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Dr Becker said: "These results are intriguing and show a potential benefit of an alternative, or naturopathic, approach to a common medical condition."
A second team, led by Dr Mark Houston of Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, USA, suggest that heart disease can be prevented by using minerals to reduce blood pressure.
They calculate that an increase in dietary potassium could reduce rates of high blood pressure by more than ten per cent. Magnesium and calcium may have similar effects, they believe.
Dr Houston said: "If we were to achieve the correct potassium/sodium ratio through dietary means, there would be less hypertension and cardiovascular disease in the population as a whole."
The study appears in The Journal of Clinical Hypertension.
Becker, D. et al. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, in press; Houston, M. C. et al. The Journal of Clinical Hypertension, in press.
Delay ageing to tackle disease, experts urge
Thursday July 10th, 2008
A dramatic change is needed in the way we view disease prevention, public health experts argued yesterday.
Professor Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA, and colleagues believe the focus should be on slowing down the ageing process, rather than tackling individual diseases.
On the website of the British Medical Journal, they say that ageing populations are increasing the prevalence of disease and escalating healthcare costs.
"However," they write, "if ageing was combined with extended years of healthy life, it could produce unprecedented social, economic, and health dividends."
Recent findings suggest that the underlying biological processes of ageing can be delayed, they write.
"We argue that a concerted effort to slow ageing would provide a broad strategy for primary prevention that would greatly enhance and accelerate improvements in health at all ages."
The interventions that have worked in lab animals are not now appropriate for disease prevention in humans, they believe.
Accompanying the article is a review by Dr Colin Farrelly from the University of Waterloo, Canada, on scientific attempts to delay ageing.
"Just two or three decades ago, research on ageing was a backwater," he writes. "But cellular, molecular, and genetic studies using in vitro models and short lived invertebrates have resulted in an impressive pace of discovery."
Animal studies have found that lifespan can be extended by restricting food intake, which delays various diseases associated with age, Dr Farrelly states.
"This suggests that we may soon understand the mechanisms behind ageing and thus, ultimately, develop safe and effective ways of modulating the ageing process," he concludes.
Butler, R. N et al. New model of health promotion and disease prevention for the 21st century. The British Medical Journal, published online July 9, 2008.
Farrelly, C. Has the time come to take on time itself? The British Medical Journal, published online July 9, 2008.
Frozen babies do well
Wednesday July 9th, 2008
Freezing embryos may have unexpected benefits, researchers have revealed.
A new European study of children born as a result of this procedure suggests they may be healthier than those born through traditional IVF.
Researchers found that "frozen" babies were larger and less likely to need intensive care.
The findings, reported to the conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Barcelona, Spain, provide assurance that the frozen embryo procedure is safe.
Researchers found no evidence of an increase in malformations amongst these babies.
The findings come from a study of 1,267 children born in Denmark as a result of the procedure, which allows embryos to be stored for years. These were compared with nearly 17,000 children born as a result of techniques using "fresh" embryos.
Researchers found that frozen embryos were linked to a reduced rate of multiple pregnancies - and that when multiple pregnancies occurred there was reduced need for intensive care.
The average birth weight of a frozen embryo baby was about 200g - roughly seven ounces - greater than the other babies.
Researcher Dr Anja Pinborg, of Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark, said the results were "reassuring".
She said: "If our results continue to be positive, frozen embryo replacement can be accepted as a completely safe procedure, which can be used even more frequently than it is currently."
Scots find medicines in Fiji
Tuesday July 8th, 2008
British researchers have been diving deep to find new medicines, a conference has been told.
Researchers from Aberdeen, Scotland, unveiled their work at a biology conference in Marseilles, France, yesterday.
The scientists are looking for a way of controlling a particular protein - known as NF-kB - and think they may have found the answer in the sea around Fiji.
Sponges, soft corals and sea lilies have all been found to prevent the protein from working.
According to the scientists, NF-kB plays a critical role in many kinds of cancer, arthritis, asthma and inflammatory bowel disease.
The scientists say the Mediterranean has also yielded up a sponge that could help with the delivery of drugs to cells in the body. The scientists say they have been able to reproduce the compound that achieves this effect in large quantities.
Researcher Professor Marcel Jaspars said: "We have tested a large number of marine species to see which can prevent NF-kB from working.
"A few animals, including sponges, soft corals and sea lilies, were examined further, and from these we have been able to isolate and characterise the compounds responsible.
"We have shown that one of these molecules is able to allow normal cell death (which NK-kB switches off in some cancerous cells) to start up again, a property which we will be going onto study in much more detail."
Society for Experimental Biology
Public fear health charges - poll
Monday July 7th, 2008
Growing numbers of people are resigned to paying an increasing range of charges for their health care, according to a poll published yesterday.
Doctors' leaders blamed "commercialisation" of the NHS for growing public scepticism about its future.
The poll, conducted ahead of the British Medical Association conference this week, suggests that most people would like the NHS to remain free.
But some 50 per cent predicted they would have to contribute to the cost of NHS services within ten years.
The poll found a small majority agreeing the NHS has improved in the last decade - some 42 per cent against 36 per cent who disagreed.
The BMA said some 51 per cent opposed the use of commercial companies to provide NHS services. More than 1,000 people were interviewed for the survey.
BMA chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum said: "It would be a travesty if, by default, charges were introduced, destroying the ethos of a universal and equitable health care system that is valued by patients and admired across the world.
"The government should initiate that debate and also take steps to reassure the public that it intends to maintain a tax-funded NHS, not just for the next 10 years, but for the foreseeable future."
The BMA also released a report yesterday calling for new measures to deter young people from smoking.
Among its proposals is the suggestion that film censors identify film and TV programmes that give a positive view of smoking - and require anti-smoking adverts to be screened beforehand.
The report says British legislation - which is some of the "most restrictive" in the world - has failed to protect young people from the marketing of "evocative" brand imagery.
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