Health news Update (from yesterday)

Retired Doctors, Retired Nurses, Very Busy Clinics

By LESLIE BERGER

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.

AFTER working for years as a pediatric nurse practitioner here, Lynne Shiels was hardly naïve about the costs of health care but nonetheless thought that everyone in this picturesque area had access to medical help.

This is Berkshire County, after all, a blue place in one of the bluest states, a magnet for music lovers and antiques collectors that seems to have as many government-financed medical programs as it does boarding schools and Colonial-era farms.

But Mrs. Shiels was astonished to learn, once she started helping at a new clinic run by Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires, just how many uninsured residents the county has - not just recent immigrants but native sons and daughters whose medical benefits have vanished as factories have closed, or whose co-payments have become too expensive to carry.

"The biggest thing that's been an eye-opener to me," said Mrs. Shiels, a volunteer nurse at the free clinic, "is that a big part of our patients are not only undocumented workers but people who were insured at one time, lost their insurance, stopped going for any kind of ongoing health care and are coming to us with a variety of problems."

The clinic has been a revelation for nearly everyone involved since it opened less than a year ago.

Dr. Howard Arkans, a deeply tanned pediatrician and insurance company administrator who retired to pamper his grandchildren and play tennis, has been surprised by his own level of commitment, volunteering 20 hours a week or more as medical director. Leonard Simon, a retired bank executive who was among the clinic's founders and serves on its board, has been impressed by the local altruism that supplies a $300,000 yearly operating budget and a spreading circle of doctors, nurses and psychologists giving pro bono care. Estella Bodnar, a daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants who is one of the clinic's three Spanish-language interpreters, has been moved by the changing face of Berkshire County, where the population of 132,000 is thought to include 10,000 Latinos; more than half the clinic's patients so far are Hispanic.

http://tinyurl.com/bwkga

Q&A: 'Cured' of HIV

There have been reports that a British man with HIV has apparently become clear of the virus.

BBC News website looks at the issue.

Q: What is HIV?

HIV infects and gradually destroys the infected person's immune system, reducing their protection against infection and cancers.

The main cell HIV infects is called a T helper lymphocyte. This cell is a crucial part of the immune system, and co-ordinates the actions of other immune system cells.

A big reduction in the number of T helper cells seriously weakens the immune system.

Aids, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, is a term that describes the point when a person's immune system can no longer cope because of the damage caused by HIV and they start to get one or more specific illnesses.

Does a negative test mean that HIV isn't present?

No.

There are different tests to check whether someone is likely to be infected with HIV.

One is an antibody test, which checks whether the body has mounted an immune response against the virus.

A positive antibody test usually means that the person is infected with HIV.

Occasionally, however, a person can have a positive antibody test without being infected with HIV - a 'false positive' test.

The reverse is also possible - a negative test result even though the individual has the virus. This is particularly common if the person has only just caught the infection. It may be too early to detect it.

Another type of test, which detects the presence of HIV particles in the blood, can be done.

Dr Deenan Pillay, a virologist at University College London and the Health Protection Agency, said: "No test is perfect. And individual people are different and behave differently to HIV."

http://tinyurl.com/dnank

Max Planck Researchers discover a protein which is deadly for anthrax bacteria

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin discovered why lung, but not skin, anthrax infections are lethal. As reported in the newest issue of PloS Pathogen (November 2005) Neutrophils, a form of white blood cells, play a key role in anthrax infections. They can kill Bacillus anthracis by producing a protein called alpha-defensin. This discovery might now pave the way towards the development of new therapies for the fatal lung form of anthrax.

http://tinyurl.com/cegmp

Preparing for a Pandemic

One day a highly contagious and lethal strain of influenza will sweep across all humanity, claiming millions of lives. It may arrive in months or not for years--but the next pandemic is inevitable. Are we ready?By W. Wayt Gibbs and Christine SoaresWhen the levees collapsed in New Orleans, the faith of Americans in their government's ability to protect them against natural disasters crumbled as well. Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security who led the federal response, called Hurricane Katrina and the flood it spawned an "ultracatastrophe" that "exceeded the foresight of the planners."

But in truth the failure was not a lack of foresight. Federal, state and local authorities had a plan for how governments would respond if a hurricane were to hit New Orleans with 120-mile-per-hour winds, raise a storm surge that overwhelmed levees and water pumps, and strand thousands inside the flooded city. Last year they even practiced it. Yet when Katrina struck, the execution of that plan was abysmal.

The lethargic, poorly coordinated and undersized response raises concerns about how nations would cope with a much larger and more lethal kind of natural disaster that scientists warn will occur, possibly soon: a pandemic of influenza. The threat of a flu pandemic is more ominous, and its parallels to Katrina more apt, than it might first seem. The routine seasonal upsurges of flu and of hurricanes engender a familiarity that easily leads to complacency and inadequate preparations for the "big one" that experts admonish is sure to come.

http://tinyurl.com/8gh7h

Exercise good remedy for arthritis pain

By Shannon Russell
Enquirer staff writer

Tom Keuper tried to pick a dime off the floor and regretted being idle for a year.

The Union resident's back and joints ached as he stooped over months ago. He wasn't surprised when his doctor later said discs were degenerating in his back - it's "part of getting old," the 72-year-old said - or that he had arthritis in his lower back.

But he was surprised to hear part of the prescription: exercise.

"I'd worked out my whole life except for last year. I got lazy and started to gain weight," Keuper said. "My doctor suggested I work out, and I thought it might help my back pain."

Did it ever. Keuper has been exercising at Sports of All Sorts recreation center three times a week on strength-building machines and on a treadmill. Not long after starting a fitness regimen, his back pain disappeared.

http://tinyurl.com/8fhls

Is green tea a miracle drink?

By Kathie Sutin

SPECIAL TO THE POST-DISPATCH

11/14/2005

To hear the hype, you might think it's the Holy Grail of the quest for health.

The list of the purported benefits of this drink goes on and on. It's been said 

to:

* Prevent cancer or help fight it

* Stave off heart attacks

* Reduce cholesterol

* Prevent dental cavities and promote gum health

* Enhance memory

* Protect the skin from ultraviolet rays

* Reduce the inflammation of arthritis

* Help with weight loss

* Increase mental alertness

* Improve airflow to the lungs therefore alleviating asthma

* Increase fertility in women

So what is this behemoth of beverages?

It's green tea, a drink relatively new to the American palate but one the 

Chinese have been enjoying for more than 5,000 years ago.

The problem is despite all the great press green tea has received in recent 

years, can we be sure it really does half of what its proponents claim?

No one can say for sure

http://tinyurl.com/b356w

Fentanyl patch safe and effective alternative to oral opioids for pediatric pain patients

A new study says using a transdermal patch to deliver the opioid fentanyl is an effective way to control pain in children. Results from an international study published in the December 15, 2005 issue of CANCER (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/cancer-newsroom), a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, indicate that the fentanyl patch is safe for children aged 2 to 16 years.

http://tinyurl.com/bybyy

Parental discipline, life events, and peers affect teens' risk of depression

How parents treat their adolescent children, including the way they discipline them, as well as the kind of life events and social interactions teenagers experience, can affect an adolescent's risk of depression, regardless of any genetic predisposition towards the mental illness.

These findings from researchers at King's College in London, published in the November/December issue of the journal Child Development, suggest that the environment in which teenagers find themselves has an impact on their risk of depression independent of their genetic background, which is already known to be a strong predictor of depression.

http://tinyurl.com/8s2d6

Prevent risky behavior in your teen: Get to know their friends in and out of school

If you've ever watched a group of elementary school kids interact, you can quickly see there's usually a "problem child," one whose behaviors are aggressive or disruptive for peers and teachers. For years, researchers have known that these "antisocial" children are often rejected by their peers. But now a new study published in the November/December issue of the journal Child Development finds that as these antisocial children move into adolescence, they begin to form alliances with other antisocial kids, increasing the chance they'll participate in risky behavior in their teenaged years.

To reach these conclusions, researchers from the University of Padova in Italy surveyed 577 sixth through eighth graders and their teachers in three middle schools in Milan, Italy about antisocial behavior and peer relations.

http://tinyurl.com/durvk

Kids can remember events even if they can't remember times

Finding has significant implications for child testimony

Remembering when an event occurred is particularly important when you're a witness in the legal system. But while adults are pretty good at determining the time of an event based on reconstructing that event (i.e., if the event occurred at the beach, it must have been summer), a new study finds that isn't the case for children.

The study, published in the November/December issue of the journal Child Development, finds that while children aged 4 through 13 can recall the details of an event fairly well, they are unable to extrapolate further and link those details with a specific time of year, even when it occurs around a major holiday. Researchers from Oberlin College in Ohio and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles gave a group of 86 children ranging in age from 4 to 13 two, in-class demonstrations shortly before or after Halloween. Three months later, they asked the children to recall the content of the demonstrations and when they occurred.

Regardless of their age, the children had difficulty remembering that Halloween was near one of the target events. They were also unable to remember whether the target event occurred before or after the holiday, regardless of how well they recalled the event's details.

http://tinyurl.com/7dlnp

One reason to test premature babies early: Results provide clues to later cognitive development

The rate of premature births in the United States is on the rise, with one in eight babies born before 37 weeks gestation in 2003, a 13 percent increase from 10 years ago. While it's long been known that premature birth increases a child's risk of learning and other cognitive disabilities, including lower IQ, language delay, poorer school achievement and learning disabilities, it has not been known if those problems are linked to cognitive development in early infancy.

Now a study from researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, N.Y., and the University of Ghent in Belgium, finds that early cognitive deficits in infancy such as poorer attention, slower processing speed and poorer recognition memory are important harbingers of later cognitive deficits, fully accounting for lower cognitive scores of 2- and 3-year-olds. The study was published in the November/December issue of the journal Child Development.

http://tinyurl.com/djtsw

Mayo researchers lead team that discovers role of dendritic cells in childhood autoimmune disease

Provides new strategy for designing better treatments

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers, working with colleagues at the University of Minnesota and University of Pittsburgh, are the first to describe a new role for a specialized cell of the immune system in children suffering from a rare muscle-damaging disease known as juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM). The specialized cells, called dendritic cells, have never before been found inside muscle tissue of JDM patients -- a discovery that suggests they are tightly linked to initiation of the disease process. The finding opens new possibilities for designing better treatments for JDM, and possibly for other related diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

http://tinyurl.com/74hr2

Ketogenic diet prevents seizures by enhancing brain energy production, increasing neuron stability

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Although the high-fat, calorie-restricted ketogenic diet (KD) has long been used to prevent childhood epileptic seizures that are unresponsive to drugs, physicians have not really understood exactly why the diet works. New studies by a research team at Emory University School of Medicine show that the diet alters genes involved in energy metabolism in the brain, which in turn helps stabilize the function of neurons exposed to the challenges of epileptic seizures. This knowledge could help scientists identify specific molecular or genetic targets and lead to more effective drug treatments for epilepsy and brain damage.

The research will be presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, D.C. by Kristopher Bough, PhD, a postdoctoral student in the laboratory of Emory pharmacology professor Raymond Dingledine, PhD.

"These findings support our hypothesis that a dietary regimen can dramatically affect the expression of genes and the function of neurons within the brain, which enhances the ability of these neurons to withstand the metabolic challenges of epileptic seizures," Dr. Dingledine said.

http://tinyurl.com/atzyv

New RSV treatment for at-risk infants under study

Toni Baker
Nov. 11, 2005

A new, enhanced-potency monoclonal antibody designed to keep the sniffles from turning into a devasting illness in at-risk babies is under study at the Medical College of Georgia Children’s Medical Center.

The international study compares MEDI-493, a monoclonal antibody already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat respiratory synctial virus, or RSV, to the more potent MEDI-524, says Dr. Jatinder Bhatia, chief of the MCG Section of Neonatology and a principal investigator.

http://tinyurl.com/cavoc

New 'eye movement' test may help treat fetal alcohol syndrome

Tool is more objective, accurate in identifying children affected by

KINGSTON, Ont. – A simple test that measures eye movement may help to identify children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and ultimately lead to improved treatment for the condition, say Queen's University researchers.

At present there are no objective diagnostic tools that can be used to distinguish between children with FASD – which affects approximately one per cent of children in Canada – and those with other developmental disorders such as Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Researcher James Reynolds and graduate student Courtney Green, of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and the Centre for Neuroscience Studies, will present their findings next week at the annual meeting of the international Society for Neuroscience in Washington, D.C.

http://tinyurl.com/bhh48