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Old 12-14-2015, 09:47 PM   #61
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I should have added this to the post I made earlier on the article being published in JAMA.

I try to only post studies from reputable, peer reviewed journals or if simply an article, one from an established news source.

That the study referenced by research gate, had over 145 thousand children from conception up to age 10, from the Quebec Pregnancy Cohort and published in JAMA Pediatrcs; is critically important and this information will be difficult to overlook by the naysayers.
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Old 05-02-2016, 07:17 PM   #62
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Default Young adult LGBTQ persons are nearly twice as likely to use tobacco as other young adults

Medscape Medical News

FDA Campaign Aims to Help Young LGBT Adults Stop Smoking

Pauline Anderson
May 02, 2016

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched a smoking prevention campaign aimed at young adult lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) persons who are occasional users of tobacco.

Young adult LGBT persons are nearly twice as likely to use tobacco as other young adults, said Mitch Zeller, JD, director, Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), FDA, during a press briefing to announce the campaign, called This Free Life.

Of the more than 2 million LGBT persons aged 18 to 24 years in the United States, more than 800,000 are occasional or so-called social smokers, according to Dr Zeller.

"Unfortunately, research tells us that LGBT young adults often don't consider themselves to be smokers and don't understand the associated health risks."

The campaign, said Dr Zeller, "is aimed at making LGBT young adults aware that there is no safe amount of smoking and that even an occasional cigarette can have serious health implications and lead to addiction."

The range of negative health outcomes from smoking, such as cancer, heart disease, and respiratory illnesses, can disproportionately affect minority groups such as the LGBT community, said Richard Wolitski, PhD, acting director of the Office for HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy, US Department of Health and Human Services, during the briefing.

Dr Wolitski, a gay man living with HIV, said he has worked for 30 years to improve gay men's health and prevent HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, and hepatitis infections.

"I have lost too many people to HIV in my life, and I don't want to lose any more due to tobacco use."

The impact of smoking has hit close to home for him ― his husband's father died from lung cancer as a consequence of smoking.

Coming Out

Research shows that LGBT youth "come out" at about the age of 18 years. The coming out process can be stressful and "contribute to actual or perceived social stigma, discrimination, and anxiety," said Dr Wolitski.

"It's a period of increased vulnerability, which can lead to tobacco use and other behaviors with negative health consequences."

Many LGBT young adults find a sense of community at LGBT bars and clubs that sometimes provide an environment conducive to tobacco use. Also, some influential LGBT persons, community bloggers, and YouTube personalities openly promote smoking, "establishing tobacco use as a norm within the LGBT community," said Dr Wolitski.

partnered with persons of influence in the community to challenge the perception that tobacco use is a necessary part of LGBT culture, said Dr Zeller.

The $35.7 million campaign, which will use digital and social media and will include some dating sites, will target 12 markets across the United States in which there is a high concentration of LGBT young adults and where the prevalence of smoking is relatively high.

The $35.7 million campaign is being funded by user fees collected from the tobacco industry, not by taxpayer dollars.


http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/862738

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsro.../ucm498544.htm
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Old 05-04-2016, 10:13 AM   #63
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Oops didn't mean to post this here. lol I'll move it.
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Old 05-27-2016, 08:35 PM   #64
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The superbug that doctors have been dreading just reached the U.S.

By Lena H. Sun and Brady Dennis May 27 at 1:50 PM

CRE, a family of bacteria pictured here, is considered one of the deadliest superbugs because it causes infections that are often resistant to most antibiotics. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Reuters)
For the first time, researchers have found a person in the United States carrying bacteria resistant to antibiotics of last resort, an alarming development that the top U.S. public health official says could mean “the end of the road” for antibiotics.

The antibiotic-resistant strain was found last month in the urine of a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman. Defense Department researchers determined that she carried a strain of E. coli resistant to the antibiotic colistin, according to a study published Thursday in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology. The authors wrote that the discovery “heralds the emergence of a truly pan-drug resistant bacteria.”

Colistin is the antibiotic of last resort for particularly dangerous types of superbugs, including a family of bacteria known as CRE, which health officials have dubbed “nightmare bacteria.” In some instances, these superbugs kill up to 50 percent of patients who become infected. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called CRE among the country’s most urgent public health threats.

Health officials said the case in Pennsylvania, by itself, is not cause for panic. The strain found in the woman is still treatable with other antibiotics. But researchers worry that its colistin-resistance gene, known as mcr-1, could spread to other bacteria that can already evade other antibiotics.

It’s the first time this colistin-resistant strain has been found in a person in the United States. In November, public health officials worldwide reacted with alarm when Chinese and British researchers reported finding the colistin-resistant strain in pigs and raw pork and in a small number of people in China. The deadly strain was later discovered in Europe and elsewhere.

“It basically shows us that the end of the road isn’t very far away for antibiotics — that we may be in a situation where we have patients in our intensive care units, or patients getting urinary-tract infections for which we do not have antibiotics,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said in an interview Thursday.

“I’ve been there for TB patients. I’ve cared for patients for whom there are no drugs left. It is a feeling of such horror and helplessness,” Frieden added. “This is not where we need to be.”

Separately, researchers at the Agriculture Department and the Department of Health and Human Services reported that testing of hundreds of livestock and retail meats turned up the same colistin-resistant bacteria in a sample from a pig intestine in the United States. USDA said it is working to identify the farm the pig came from.

CDC officials are working with Pennsylvania health authorities to interview the patient and family to identify how she may have contracted the bacteria, including reviewing recent hospitalizations and other health-care exposures. The CDC hopes to screen the patient and her contacts to see if others might be carrying the organism. Local and state health departments also will be collecting cultures as part of the investigation.

The woman was treated in an outpatient military facility in Pennsylvania, according to a Defense Department blog post about the findings. Samples were sent to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for initial testing. Additional testing was done by a special Defense Department system that tracks multi-drug-resistant organisms.

Thursday’s study did not disclose further details about the Pennsylvania woman or the outcome of her case. The authors could not be reached for comment. A spokesman at the Pennsylvania Department of Health was not immediately available to comment on the case.

NOTE: rest of article can be found with link



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...national_pop_b
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Old 01-05-2017, 10:39 AM   #65
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Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology:
June 2015 - Volume 35 - Issue 3 - p 273–278
doi: 10.1097/JCP.0000000000000300


Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction: Clinical Characterization and Preliminary Assessment of Contributory Factors and Dose-Response Relationship

Contributors: Ben-Sheetrit, Joseph MD*; Aizenberg, Dov MD*†; Csoka, Antonei B. PhD‡; Weizman, Abraham MD*†; Hermesh, Haggai MD*†

Abstract:

Emerging evidence suggests that sexual dysfunction emerging during treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and/or serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) persists in some patients beyond drug discontinuation (post-SSRI sexual dysfunction [PSSD]). We sought to identify and characterize a series of such cases and explore possible explanatory factors and exposure-response relationship.

Subjects who responded to an invitation in a forum dedicated to PSSD filled out a survey via online software. Case probability was defined according to the following 3 categories of increasing presumed likelihood of PSSD. Noncases did not meet the criteria for possible cases.

Possible cases were subjects with normal pretreatment sexual function who first experienced sexual disturbances while using a single SSRI/SNRI, which did not resolve upon drug discontinuation for 1 month or longer as indicated by Arizona Sexual Experience Scale scores.

High-probability cases were also younger than 50-year-olds; did not have confounding medical conditions, medications, or drug use; and had normal scores on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.

Five hundred thirty-two (532) subjects completed the survey, among which 183 possible cases were identified, including 23 high-probability cases. Female sex, genital anesthesia, and depression predicted current sexual dysfunction severity, but dose/defined daily dose ratio and anxiety did not.

Genital anesthesia did not correlate with depression or anxiety, but pleasureless orgasm was an independent predictor of both depression and case probability.

Limitations of the study include retrospective design and selection and report biases that do not allow generalization or estimation of incidence.

However, our findings add to previous reports and support the existence of PSSD, which may not be fully explained by alternative nonpharmacological factors related to sexual dysfunction, including depression and anxiety.

http://journals.lww.com/psychopharma...&type=abstract
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Old 01-20-2017, 09:00 PM   #66
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Default Nearly 50% of all men in the US have some type of human papillomavirus infection

1 in 4 men have genital HPV infections that cause or are linked to cancer

Researchers suggest boosted vaccination as 45% of men overall had some type of HPV.

BETH MOLE - 1/20/2017, 11:31 AM

Nearly half of all men in the US have some type of genital human papillomavirus infection—and about 25 percent have a type linked to cancer, according to a study appearing Thursday in JAMA Oncology.

The study is the first to look at the prevalence of HPV among American men. Much of the past attention paid to HPV has focused on women, because the virus is the cause of nearly every case of cervical cancer in the US. For this reason, health experts have been recommending since 2006 that girls and young women get vaccinated against HPV.

Experts updated that recommendation to include boys and young men in 2011, but the new study shows that few are actually getting those shots—just 10 percent were vaccinated. But with the new prevalence data, the authors suggest that vaccinating men may not only prevent thousands of cancer cases, but it could also be key to stamping out cancer causing-HPV transmission overall.

In the US, HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection, with 79 million estimated cases. The virus infects skin cells and mucus membranes around the mouth, throat, genitals, and anus. It’s known to cause skin warts and several types of cancer. These include, as mentioned, nearly all cases of cervical cancers. But it also causes vaginal, penile, anal, throat, and mouth cancers.

The tricky thing about HPV and studying its prevalence is that not all types cause cancer. In fact, many cases cause no symptoms at all and clear up on their own—usually between six to 18 months. A lot of people won't even know that they're infected.

Scientists have found more than 100 strains of the virus and only around 18 or so are known to cause or are associated with cancers. That bunch is designated as “high-risk” strains. The “low-risk” strains are those that either come and go without notice or stick around and show up as warts. The latest vaccine can protect against nine strains, seven behind the vast majority of cancers and two that cause 90 percent of all warts.

To get a better grasp at HPV prevalence and types among American men, researchers analyzed penile swabs from a representative group of 1,868 men between the ages of 18 and 59. The researchers, led by cancer experts at the Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, found that about 45 percent had at least one type of HPV. That represents 34.8 million men nationwide.

DNA tests showed that 25 percent were infected with at least one type of high-risk strain.

The men also showed an unexpected pattern of infection. Among girls and women, those under the age of 20 are the most likely to be infected, with cases dropping off in the older age groups. But for men, incidence increased with age. In fact, the youngest group, 18 to 22 year olds, had the lowest prevalence of just 28.9 percent. This suggests that older men, as well as younger men, would benefit from vaccination.

The study comes on the heels of reports of increases in incidence of mouth and throat cancers among men, which are largely attributed to HPV infections. Although the study only looked for genital infections (not mouth or throat infections), the new data could offer a useful baseline for gauging the success of vaccination campaigns.

Overall, the study authors conclude that “male HPV vaccination may have a greater effect on HPV infection transmission and cancer prevention in men and women than previously estimated." Additionally, “only when vaccination rates are significantly increased will progress be made in eradicating most HPV-related cancers in the United States.”

JAMA Oncology, 2017. DOI: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2016.6192 (About DOIs).

This post has been updated to add information about the current HPV vaccine.

BETH MOLE
Beth is Ars Technica’s health reporter. She’s interested in biomedical research, infectious disease, health policy and law, and has a Ph.D. in microbiology.

EMAIL beth.mole@arstechnica.com // TWITTER @Beth Marie Mole

http://arstechnica.com/science/2017/...ked-to-cancer/
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Old 02-13-2017, 06:53 PM   #67
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NEWS RELEASES | RESEARCH | SOCIAL SCIENCE

February 13, 2017

New findings reveal health, aging experiences of LGBT older adults across nation

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers from the University of Washington’s School of Social Work have released new findings this month on the health and aging of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender older adults in the U.S.

Approximately 2.7 million adults age 50 and older self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. This number is expected to increase to more than five million by 2060, yet this population is critically understudied. UW researchers have been working to change that through the first longitudinal study of LGBT older adults, called Aging with Pride: National Health, Aging, Sexuality/Gender Study.

“It’s important to understand the health and well-being of LGBT older adults so we can take steps to reduce health disparities,” said principal investigator Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen, professor and director of the UW’s Healthy Generations Hartford Center of Excellence.

“This research highlights pathways to better understand health for all marginalized communities.”

New findings from the longitudinal study, published in a 2017 supplement of The Gerontologist, will increase understanding of the challenges, strengths and needs of this growing yet underserved population. Funded by the National Institute on Aging, the research will help develop community-based interventions to improve the health and well-being of at-risk LGBT older adults.

The team surveyed 2,450 adults aged 50 to 100, studying the impact of historical, environmental, psychological, social, behavioral and biological factors on LGBT adult health and well-being. The 10 articles that make up the supplement focuses on three themes: influence of life events; diversity and subgroup differences; and processes and mechanisms underlying health and quality of life.

The findings reported in the supplement revealed that LGBT older adults are both resilient and at-risk, with higher rates of disability, cardiovascular disease, depression and social isolation. The findings documented how key life events ― including coming out, work and relationships ― are associated with health and quality of life. Articles examined factors such as race/ethnicity, partnership status, resiliency among HIV-positive gay and bisexual men, and transgender older adults with prior military service. The role of social networks, mental health, high-risk alcohol consumption and health care engagement were also studied.

“The insights gleaned from this study of aging among LGBT older adults can deepen our understanding of the richness, diversity and resilience of lives across the life course,” Fredriksen-Goldsen said. “As we move forward in aging-related research, services and policies, it’s important to understand that these communities are diverse, and that unique groups face distinct challenges to their health.”

###

For more information, contact Fredriksen-Goldsen at fredrikk@uw.edu or 206-543-5722.

http://www.washington.edu/news/2017/...across-nation/
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Old 05-17-2017, 05:14 PM   #68
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Default Happy Nurses Day fellow RN's, LVN's, LPN's and CNA's!

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Old 05-18-2017, 05:50 PM   #69
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Default Study: Stage III Colon cancer patients eating 2oz of nuts per week had 42% less recurrence

News Releases

Chance of Colon Cancer Recurrence Nearly Cut in Half in People Who Eat Nuts

May 17, 2017
Contact
Kelly Baldwin
571-483-1365
Kelly.Baldwin@asco.org

ASCO Perspective
“Basic healthy eating can often be overlooked during cancer treatment. This study shows that something as simple as eating tree nuts may make a difference in a patient’s long-term survival,” said ASCO President Daniel F. Hayes, MD, FACP, FASCO. “Nut consumption and a healthy diet are generally factors that clinicians and patients should perhaps pay attention to as they design the approach to treatment for colorectal cancer.”

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – An observational study of 826 patients with stage III colon cancer showed that those who consumed two ounces or more of nuts per week had a 42% lower chance of cancer recurrence and 57% lower chance of death than those who did not eat nuts.

A secondary analysis revealed the benefit of nut consumption was limited to tree nuts. Tree nuts include almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews, and pecans, among others. These findings will be presented at the upcoming 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago.

“Numerous studies in the fields of heart disease and diabetes have shown the benefits of nut consumption, and we felt that it was important to determine if these benefits could also apply to colorectal cancer patients,” said lead study author Temidayo Fadelu, MD, a clinical fellow in medicine at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. “Patients with advanced disease who benefit from chemotherapy frequently ask what else they can do to reduce their chances of recurrence or death, and our study is an important contribution to the idea that modifying diet and physical activity can be beneficial.”

There was no associated reduction in cancer recurrence and death among patients who consumed peanuts or peanut butter. According to the authors, the reason may be that, being legumes, peanuts have a different metabolic composition than tree nuts. Peanuts are by far the most widely consumed nut in the U.S.

Patients with stage III colon cancer have up to a 70% chance of surviving three years after treatment, which typically includes surgery and/or chemotherapy. While numerous prior studies have looked at diet as a potential cancer prevention tool, this is one of the first in colon cancer to look at the role of nut consumption and its influence on recurrence and mortality, according to the authors.

About the Study
The researchers analyzed a questionnaire from a CALGB clinical trial of patients with stage III colon cancer that began in 1999. The questionnaire, which was given after completion of chemotherapy, asked about dietary intake, including whether or not patients ate nuts and what types of nuts they consumed.

Researchers were particularly interested in nut consumption because it has been linked to lower incidence of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and reduction in insulin resistance. These health conditions represent a state of excess energy and are each associated with a higher risk of recurrence and death from colon cancer.

Key Findings
The authors analyzed the associations between overall nut consumption, and just tree nut consumption, and the risk of cancer recurrence and death. Patients who consumed two or more ounces of all types of nuts per week (19% of all patients in the study) had a 42% lower chance of cancer recurrence and 57% lower chance of death than those patients who did not eat nuts after completion of their cancer treatment. The benefit of eating nuts was consistent across known factors that can influence cancer recurrence, including patient age, body mass index, gender, and common genomic changes in the tumor.

When looking at just tree nut consumption, the chance of recurrence was 46% lower and the chance of death was 53% lower for those that ate at least two ounces per week, than for those who did not. Given that there was no significant reduction in cancer recurrence or death for those that ate peanuts or peanut butter, the authors conclude that in this study, the benefit is likely limited to tree nuts. More research is needed to understand the lack of association with peanuts.

“It should be emphasized that the authors are not suggesting that eating nuts should be considered a substitute for standard chemotherapy and other treatments for colon cancer, which have dramatically improved survival,” said Dr. Hayes. “Rather, patients with colon cancer should be optimistic, and they should eat a healthy diet, including tree nuts, which may not only keep them healthier, but may also further decrease the chances of the cancer coming back.”

Next Steps
“We need to look at the potential positive impact of nut consumption on survival at other stages of colon cancer, particularly stage IV. Ultimately, we need to understand how nuts confer this protective effect, as well as possibly conduct a randomized, controlled clinical trial where diet recommendations are given at the start of the study to prove that tree nuts can reduce recurrence and death after treatment for colon cancer,” said Dr. Fadelu.

This study was funded by the National Cancer Institute, of the National Institutes of Health, and Pfizer.

View the full abstract.

For your readers:

Guide to Colorectal Cancer
Food and Cancer Prevention
View the disclosures for the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting News Planning Team.

Disclosures for Daniel F. Hayes, MD, FACP, FASCO: Stock and Other Ownership Interests with OncoImmune and InBiomotion; Honoria from Lilly; Research Funding with Janssen Research & Development (Inst.), AstraZeneca (Inst.), Puma Biotechnology (Inst.), Pfizer (Inst.), Lilly (Inst.), and Merrimack Pharmaceuticals/Parexel International Corporation (Inst.); Patents, Royalties and Other Intellectual Property with royalties from licensed technology to Janssen Diagnostics regarding circulating tumor cells; Travel, Accommodations, Expenses from Janssen Diagnostics.

Disclosures for Bruce E. Johnson, MD, FASCO: Stock and Other Ownership Interests with KEW Group; Honoraria from Chugai Pharma and Merck; Consulting or Advisory Role with Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chugai Pharma, Clovis Oncology, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, KEW Group, Lilly, Merck, Novartis, and Transgene; Research Funding from Novartis (Inst.); Expert Testimony for Genentech.

ATTRIBUTION TO THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY ANNUAL MEETING IS REQUESTED IN ALL COVERAGE.

###

About ASCO:
Founded in 1964, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Inc. (ASCO®) is committed to making a world of difference in cancer care. As the world’s leading organization of its kind, ASCO represents more than 40,000 oncology professionals who care for people living with cancer. Through research, education, and promotion of the highest-quality patient care, ASCO works to conquer cancer and create a world where cancer is prevented or cured, and every survivor is healthy. ASCO is supported by its affiliate organization, the Conquer Cancer Foundation. Learn more at www.ASCO.org, explore patient education resources at www.Cancer.Net, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

http://www.asco.org/about-asco/press...people-who-eat

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Old 05-18-2017, 06:19 PM   #70
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Originally Posted by *Anya* View Post
News Releases

Chance of Colon Cancer Recurrence Nearly Cut in Half in People Who Eat Nuts

May 17, 2017
Contact
Kelly Baldwin
571-483-1365
Kelly.Baldwin@asco.org

ASCO Perspective
“Basic healthy eating can often be overlooked during cancer treatment. This study shows that something as simple as eating tree nuts may make a difference in a patient’s long-term survival,” said ASCO President Daniel F. Hayes, MD, FACP, FASCO. “Nut consumption and a healthy diet are generally factors that clinicians and patients should perhaps pay attention to as they design the approach to treatment for colorectal cancer.”

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – An observational study of 826 patients with stage III colon cancer showed that those who consumed two ounces or more of nuts per week had a 42% lower chance of cancer recurrence and 57% lower chance of death than those who did not eat nuts.

A secondary analysis revealed the benefit of nut consumption was limited to tree nuts. Tree nuts include almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews, and pecans, among others. These findings will be presented at the upcoming 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago.

“Numerous studies in the fields of heart disease and diabetes have shown the benefits of nut consumption, and we felt that it was important to determine if these benefits could also apply to colorectal cancer patients,” said lead study author Temidayo Fadelu, MD, a clinical fellow in medicine at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. “Patients with advanced disease who benefit from chemotherapy frequently ask what else they can do to reduce their chances of recurrence or death, and our study is an important contribution to the idea that modifying diet and physical activity can be beneficial.”

There was no associated reduction in cancer recurrence and death among patients who consumed peanuts or peanut butter. According to the authors, the reason may be that, being legumes, peanuts have a different metabolic composition than tree nuts. Peanuts are by far the most widely consumed nut in the U.S.

Patients with stage III colon cancer have up to a 70% chance of surviving three years after treatment, which typically includes surgery and/or chemotherapy. While numerous prior studies have looked at diet as a potential cancer prevention tool, this is one of the first in colon cancer to look at the role of nut consumption and its influence on recurrence and mortality, according to the authors.

About the Study
The researchers analyzed a questionnaire from a CALGB clinical trial of patients with stage III colon cancer that began in 1999. The questionnaire, which was given after completion of chemotherapy, asked about dietary intake, including whether or not patients ate nuts and what types of nuts they consumed.

Researchers were particularly interested in nut consumption because it has been linked to lower incidence of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and reduction in insulin resistance. These health conditions represent a state of excess energy and are each associated with a higher risk of recurrence and death from colon cancer.

Key Findings
The authors analyzed the associations between overall nut consumption, and just tree nut consumption, and the risk of cancer recurrence and death. Patients who consumed two or more ounces of all types of nuts per week (19% of all patients in the study) had a 42% lower chance of cancer recurrence and 57% lower chance of death than those patients who did not eat nuts after completion of their cancer treatment. The benefit of eating nuts was consistent across known factors that can influence cancer recurrence, including patient age, body mass index, gender, and common genomic changes in the tumor.

When looking at just tree nut consumption, the chance of recurrence was 46% lower and the chance of death was 53% lower for those that ate at least two ounces per week, than for those who did not. Given that there was no significant reduction in cancer recurrence or death for those that ate peanuts or peanut butter, the authors conclude that in this study, the benefit is likely limited to tree nuts. More research is needed to understand the lack of association with peanuts.

“It should be emphasized that the authors are not suggesting that eating nuts should be considered a substitute for standard chemotherapy and other treatments for colon cancer, which have dramatically improved survival,” said Dr. Hayes. “Rather, patients with colon cancer should be optimistic, and they should eat a healthy diet, including tree nuts, which may not only keep them healthier, but may also further decrease the chances of the cancer coming back.”

Next Steps
“We need to look at the potential positive impact of nut consumption on survival at other stages of colon cancer, particularly stage IV. Ultimately, we need to understand how nuts confer this protective effect, as well as possibly conduct a randomized, controlled clinical trial where diet recommendations are given at the start of the study to prove that tree nuts can reduce recurrence and death after treatment for colon cancer,” said Dr. Fadelu.

This study was funded by the National Cancer Institute, of the National Institutes of Health, and Pfizer.

View the full abstract.

For your readers:

Guide to Colorectal Cancer
Food and Cancer Prevention
View the disclosures for the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting News Planning Team.

Disclosures for Daniel F. Hayes, MD, FACP, FASCO: Stock and Other Ownership Interests with OncoImmune and InBiomotion; Honoria from Lilly; Research Funding with Janssen Research & Development (Inst.), AstraZeneca (Inst.), Puma Biotechnology (Inst.), Pfizer (Inst.), Lilly (Inst.), and Merrimack Pharmaceuticals/Parexel International Corporation (Inst.); Patents, Royalties and Other Intellectual Property with royalties from licensed technology to Janssen Diagnostics regarding circulating tumor cells; Travel, Accommodations, Expenses from Janssen Diagnostics.

Disclosures for Bruce E. Johnson, MD, FASCO: Stock and Other Ownership Interests with KEW Group; Honoraria from Chugai Pharma and Merck; Consulting or Advisory Role with Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chugai Pharma, Clovis Oncology, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, KEW Group, Lilly, Merck, Novartis, and Transgene; Research Funding from Novartis (Inst.); Expert Testimony for Genentech.

ATTRIBUTION TO THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY ANNUAL MEETING IS REQUESTED IN ALL COVERAGE.

###

About ASCO:
Founded in 1964, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Inc. (ASCO®) is committed to making a world of difference in cancer care. As the world’s leading organization of its kind, ASCO represents more than 40,000 oncology professionals who care for people living with cancer. Through research, education, and promotion of the highest-quality patient care, ASCO works to conquer cancer and create a world where cancer is prevented or cured, and every survivor is healthy. ASCO is supported by its affiliate organization, the Conquer Cancer Foundation. Learn more at www.ASCO.org, explore patient education resources at www.Cancer.Net, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

http://www.asco.org/about-asco/press...people-who-eat

Related News Releases

More Cancers Diagnosed at Early Stage Following Increase in Health Insurance Coverage
May 17, 2017
Healthy Lifestyle After Colon Cancer Diagnosis Helps Patients Live Longer
May 17, 2017
Oral Chemotherapy Extends Survival by More Than a Year in Biliary Tract Cancer
May 17, 2017
HPV Vaccination May Reduce Oral HPV Infections – But Still Under-Utilized
May 17, 2017
Targeted Therapy Can Delay Recurrence of Intermediate-Stage Lung Cancer
May 17, 2017
Related Tags
This is awesome to read about Anya and I'm glad you found this article. I know personally, since expanding my own diet to include an variety of nuts (almonds, peanuts, Walnuts, cashews, hazelnuts and Brazil nuts), that eating nuts has really improved how my body works. Maybe the reason that nuts have such a positive impact on our general health is because of how rich nuts are in minerals, vitamins, fiber and protein? And maybe too, the fact that eating nuts aids in keeping your digestive health in optimal condition? Loved reading the article you found, thanks!
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Old 09-23-2017, 12:17 AM   #71
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Default I am eager to look into more information about this. It could be the holy grail of treatment for this disease.

NewsHealth

HIV treatment breakthrough creates antibody that attacks 99 per cent of virus' strains

Pathogen kills more than one million people each year around the world

Tom Embury-Dennis @tomemburyd Friday 22 September 2017 19:30 BST

Picture of a cell infected by HIV particles



An antibody that attacks 99 per cent of HIV strains has been developed by scientists for the first time.

The “exciting breakthrough” could eventually lead to treatment or even prevent transmission of the virus, with trials on humans due to get underway in 2018.

Experiments on 24 monkeys injected with HIV showed none developed the virus after first being given the new type of antibody, which attacks three critical parts of the disease.

The human immune system struggles to deal with HIV due to its ability to mutate and change appearance. Our bodies eventually become overwhelmed by the number of different strains of the virus.

But around one per cent of patients have the ability to develop “broadly neutralising antibodies”. These bind to structures on the surface of the pathogens known as “spikes”.

Spikes barely change and are identical among different strains, making it possible for these special antibodies to attack different mutations of the virus.

Now scientists have managed to combine three of these flexible antibodies into a powerful “tri-specific antibody”.

Dr Gary Nabel, chief scientific officer at pharmaceutical company Sanofi and one of the report authors, told the BBC the results were “impressive”.

“They are more potent and have greater breadth than any single naturally occurring antibody that's been discovered," he said.

"We're getting 99 per cent coverage, and getting coverage at very low concentrations of the antibody.”

An estimated 36.7 million people worldwide were living with HIV or AIDS at the end of 2015, with the majority in sub-Saharan Africa. Of these, only 60 per cent of people are aware they have it.

In 2015 alone 1.1 million people died from the disease.

The study was published in the journal Science, and is a collaboration between the US National Institutes of Health and Sanofi.

The research included contributions from scientists at Harvard Medical School, The Scripps Research Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/he...-a7962276.html
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Old 09-29-2017, 02:01 AM   #72
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FDA OKs a blood sugar monitor that doesn't need fingerpricks

You just need to insert a tiny wire sensor under your skin.

Mariella Moon, @mariella_moon

4h ago in Medicine





A fingerprick isn't just a fingerprick when you have to do it all the time to test your blood sugar levels. Thankfully, the Food and Drug Administration has approved the first continuous glucose monitoring system for adults that doesn't require you to draw blood several times a day.

Abbott's FreeStyle Libre Flash Glucose Monitoring System works by inserting a tiny sensor wire below the surface of your skin. The wire needs 12 hours to start up, but once it's ready, you can simply pass a mobile reader over it to read your glucose levels. It even works for 10 days before you have to replace it.

FDA's Donald St. Pierre explained that the agency has always been welcome to new technologies that can help people manage chronic conditions. "This system," he said, "allows people with diabetes to avoid the additional step of fingerstick calibration, which can sometimes be painful, but still provides necessary information for treating their diabetes -- with a wave of the mobile reader."

Abbott already has a similar system available called the FreeStyle Libre Pro, but you need a doctor's help to use it and to activate the sensor wire under your skin. You don't need a doctor's help to determine if your sugar levels are too low, too high or just right with the Flash, but you have to be 18 and older to be able to get it.

Coverage: Reuters
In this article: abbott, freestylelibreflash, gear, GlucoseMonitoring, medicine

https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/28/...e-libre-flash/
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Old 11-09-2017, 04:43 PM   #73
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Default This is truly sad

Aaron Hernandez suffered from most severe CTE ever found in a person his age

By Adam Kilgore November 9, 2017 at 3:50 PM

BOSTON — Aaron Hernandez suffered the most severe case of chronic traumatic encephalopathy ever discovered in a person his age, damage that would have significantly affected his decision-making, judgment and cognition, researchers at Boston University revealed at a medical conference Thursday.

Ann McKee, the head of BU’s CTE Center, which has studied the disease caused by repetitive brain trauma for more than a decade, called Hernandez’s brain “one of the most significant contributions to our work” because of the brain’s pristine condition and the rare opportunity to study the disease in a 27-year-old.

Hernandez, a former New England Patriots tight end, hanged himself with a bedsheet in April in a Massachusetts prison while serving a life sentence for the murder of his friend Odin Lloyd in 2013.

In a diagnosis that linked one of football’s most notorious figures with the sport’s most significant health risk, doctors found Hernandez had Stage 3 CTE, which researchers had never seen in a brain younger than 46 years old, McKee said. Because the center has received few brains from people Hernandez’s age, McKee could not say whether Hernandez’s brain was representative of a 27-year-old who had played football as much as Hernandez. But she found the advanced stage of CTE alarming.

“In this age group, he’s clearly at the severe end of the spectrum,” McKee said. “There is a concern that we’re seeing accelerated disease in young athletes. Whether or not that’s because they’re playing more aggressively or if they’re starting at younger ages, we don’t know. But we are seeing ravages of this disease, in this specific example, of a young person.”

At Thursday’s conference, McKee flipped through slides comparing sections of Hernandez’s brain to a sample without CTE. Hernandez’s brain had dark spots associated with tau protein and shrunken, withered areas, compared to immaculate white of the sample. His brain had significant damage to the frontal lobe, which impacts a person’s ability to make decisions and moderate behavior. As some new slides appeared on the projectors, some physicians and conference attendees gasped.

“We can’t take the pathology and explain the behavior,” McKee said. “But we can say collectively, in our collective experience, that individuals with CTE, and CTE of this severity, have difficulty with impulse control, decision-making, inhibition of impulses for aggression, emotional volatility, rage behaviors. We know that collectively.”

McKee said Hernandez had a genetic marker that makes people vulnerable to certain brain diseases and could have contributed to how aggressively he developed CTE.

“We know that that’s a risk factor for neurogenerative disease,” McKee said. “Whether or not that contributed in this case is speculative. It may explain some of his susceptibility to this disease.”

The condition of Hernandez’s brain, pristine because of his age and the adept handling of medical examiners, could lead to future breakthroughs and better understanding of CTE. For example, researchers could better study the interaction of inflammation and tau pathology through the use of fluorescent stains. It gave researchers their best view yet of a marker associated with CTE.

“We are able to understand this disease at the scientific level in a way that’s very rarely presented,” McKee said. “We’re very grateful to the family for making this donation. We’re hoping this will advance medical science in a very significant way. . . . This will really accelerate and advance our research going forward.”

Medical examiners delivered Hernandez’s brain, weighing 1,573 grams, to BU’s labs in April. From the outside, it looked like a typical brain — no lesions, no bruises, no abnormalities. When researches sliced the brain into sections, they discovered startling damage.

Ventricles were dilated, in response to the brain shrinking. Researchers determined Hernandez had lost brain tissue. Membranes that were supposed to be firm had grown “thin and gelatinous,” McKee said. There were abnormal, large holes in parts of Hernandez’s bran.

The hippocampus, which plays a key role in memory, had shrunk.

The fornix, which also contributes to memory function, had atrophied.

The frontal lobe, which is responsible for problem-solving, judgment, impulse control and social behavior, had been pockmarked with tau protein.

The amygdala, which produces emotional regulation, emotional behavior, fear and anxiety, had been severly affected.

The temporal lobes, which process sights and sounds, showed significant damage.

Together, they were “very unusual findings in an individual of this age,” McKee said. “We’ve never seen this in our 468 brains, except in individuals some 20 years older.”

The physical damage inside Hernandez’s brain provides another layer to the catastrophic and tragic downfall of Hernandez, a gifted player who caught a touchdown pass from Tom Brady in the 2012 Super Bowl.

Hernandez grew up a football star in Connecticut and fell in with a rough crowd at age 15, after his father died unexpectedly during a routine operation. He starred at Florida even as off-field trouble, in the form of drugs and violence, dogged him. The problems caused some teams to remove him from consideration in the NFL draft, and he lasted until the Patriots plucked him in the fourth round.

Hernandez formed a dominating tandem with fellow 2010 draftee Rob Gronkowski and convinced the Patriots he had straightened out his life. The Patriots signed him to a seven-year, $40-million contract after the 2012 season. Months later, in the summer of 2013, Lloyd was murdered in the summer of 2013, his body found in a gravelly field a mile away from Hernandez’s mansion in North Attleboro.

Hernandez’s estate filed a federal lawsuit against the Patriots in September, alleging the Patriots knew hits to the head could lead to brain damage and failed to protect him.

A jury convicted Hernandez of the killing in 2015. Hernandez hanged himself in his cell just four days after a jury had acquitted him of the murders of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, two strangers whom the state argued Hernandez killed in 2012 after an altercation at a Boston club.

BU researchers say they have discovered CTE in more than 100 former NFL players, a handful of whom have committed suicide. The extent of damage in Hernandez’s brain represents another signpost in football’s ongoing concussion crisis. Thursday’s news conference coincided with the release of an NFL study consisting of video reviews of the 459 known concussions that occurred over the 2015 and 2016 seasons, from preseason games through the playoffs

The NFL has attempted to make the sport safer for its players, through rule changes, policies designed to remove concussed players and technologic advances. But brain trauma occurs when a football player’s brain accelerates or decelerates after it hits another player or the turf, bashing the sides of the head, an action a helmet is defenseless against.

“It happens inside the skull,” McKee said. “It’s an intrinsic component of football.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...=.d7191a3753d1






Normal 27-year-old's brain and Aaron Hernandez's brain. (Boston University School of Medicine/Boston University School of Medicine)
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Default Over 50? You need the new Shingles vaccine!

No Excuses, People: Get the New Shingles Vaccine

By Paula Span NOV. 10, 2017

Medical researchers and government health policymakers, a cautious lot, normally take pains to keep expectations modest when they’re discussing some new finding or treatment.

They warn about studies’ limitations. They point out what isn’t known. They emphasize that correlation doesn’t mean causation.

So it’s startling to hear prominent experts sound positively excited about a new shingles vaccine that an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved last month.

“This really is a sea change,” said Dr. Rafael Harpaz, a veteran shingles researcher at the C.D.C.

Dr. William Schaffner, preventive disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said, “This vaccine has spectacular initial protection rates in every age group. The immune system of a 70- or 80-year-old responds as if the person were only 25 or 30.”

“This really looks to be a breakthrough in vaccinating older adults,” agreed Dr. Jeffrey Cohen, a physician and researcher at the National Institutes of Health.

What’s causing the enthusiasm: Shingrix, which the pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline intends to begin shipping this month. Large international trials have shown that the vaccine prevents more than 90 percent of shingles cases, even at older ages.

The currently available shingles vaccine, called Zostavax, only prevents about half of shingles cases in those over age 60 and has demonstrated far less effectiveness among elderly patients.

Yet those are the people most at risk for this blistering disease, with its often intense pain, its threat to vision and the associated nerve pain that sometimes last months, even years, after the initial rash fades.

Almost all older Americans harbor the varicella zoster virus that causes shingles; they acquired it with childhood chickenpox, whether they knew they had the disease or not.

The virus stays dormant until, for unknown reasons, it erupts decades later. The risk rises sharply after age 50.

Shingles is hardly a minor menace. “A million cases occur in the United States each and every year,” Dr. Schaffner said. “If you’re fortunate enough to reach your 80th birthday, you stand a one-in-three to one-in-two chance of shingles.

Preventing the great majority of these cases — along with the risk of lingering and debilitating nerve pain, called postherpetic neuralgia — would represent a major advance in public health.

So while the old vaccine will remain on the market, the C.D.C. committee voted to make Shingrix the preferred vaccine and recommended it for all adults over age 50 — a group younger by a decade than those earlier encouraged to get Zostavax.

The committee also recommended Shingrix for adults who’ve previously gotten Zostavax, since a smaller study in people over age 65 demonstrated effectiveness and safety in those already vaccinated. The Food and Drug Administration approved Shingrix last month.

Once the C.D.C.’s director endorses the committee’s recommendations, and the agency publishes them, insurers — including Medicare and Medicaid — will start covering the vaccine.

“By early 2018, it should be broadly available to consumers in the U.S.,” said Dr. Thomas Breuer, chief medical officer of GSK Vaccines. (Canada has also approved Shingrix; it awaits approval in Australia, Japan and Europe.)

What makes the new vaccine so promising, especially for older adults?

* It provides better protection against shingles from the start. Though Zostavax, introduced in 2006, can reduce shingles cases by about half (and postherpetic neuralgia by two-thirds), that overall rate conceals big differences by age.

That vaccine’s effectiveness drops from 64 percent for people in their 60s to 38 percent among those over age 70, and falls still lower for people in their 80s.

But the new vaccine protects nearly as well in older groups as in the middle-aged. Shingrix racked up a 97 percent effectiveness rate in adults over age 50 and, in a separate study of people over age 70, prevented 90 percent of shingles in those 70 to well past age 80.

“In groups such as the elderly, who often don’t maintain vigorous responses to vaccines, this represents extremely strong disease protection,” said Dr. Kathleen Dooling, an epidemiologist at the C.D.C.

* Shingrix’s protection appears to last longer. Among seniors, the effectiveness of Zostavax wanes with disappointing speed. “After 11 years, the protection was close to zero,” Dr. Harpaz said.

Regulators don’t yet have 11 years of data on Shingrix, but in some samples, it remained effective for six years or longer, according to GSK. That should great reduce the incidence of postherpetic neuralgia, too, assuming the 42 million people in their 50s start getting vaccinated.

* The new vaccine may protect people with compromised immune systems.

A substantial number of older Americans have suppressed immunity because they’re undergoing chemotherapy or transplants, have H.I.V. or take steroids. For them, the previous vaccine was off-limits because it was made with a weakened live virus.

Yet immune suppression itself leaves the people vulnerable to shingles. Shingrix, a recombinant vaccine made from a glycoprotein and a combination of immunity boosters called adjuvants, doesn’t pose the same danger.

The C.D.C. committee held off on recommending Shingrix for the immunocompromised, because GSK is still running trials with these patients. But since the F.D.A. did not declare Shingrix contraindicated for them when approving it, they can get the vaccine once it’s available.

Public health advocates do foresee a couple of potential problems.

First, Shingrix requires two doses, administered at least two months apart. Prodding the older population to get a single shot has proved tough: barely 31 percent of those over age 60 have been vaccinated against shingles. How much harder will it be to persuade people to get two Shingrix injections?

Further, “it tends to be a bit of an ouch-y vaccine,” Dr. Schaffner cautioned.

In studies, most older recipients said they’d experienced pain, redness or swelling in their upper arms for a day or two after the shot, and 8.5 percent of those over age 70 deemed those symptoms uncomfortable enough to interfere with normal activities.

About half of those over age 70 reported more systemic side effects like fatigue, fever or aching joints, lasting one to two days. Physicians and pharmacists should prepare people for such reactions, Dr. Schaffner said.

“If people anticipate it, they’ll cope with it better. They’ll take a couple of Tylenol” — and not worry that something is seriously wrong.

They may feel pocketbook pain, too. Zostavax is the most expensive adult vaccine, and at $140 for each dose (plus the cost of administering the injection), Shingrix will be pricier still.

The 50- to 65-year-old cohort, many of whom have coverage under employee health plans, may not find that much of a barrier. At older ages, cost matters more.

Medicare will cover Shingrix under Part D (like its predecessor), not under Part B like the flu vaccine. That complicates reimbursement for those seeking vaccination in doctors’ offices, so Medicare patients will probably find it simpler to head for a pharmacy.

But not all Medicare recipients have Part D, and those that do could face co-payments.

Still, it’s no contest: The hazards of shingles and its complications dwarf any problems yet reported with Shingrix.

“Compared to shingles, a little arm pain for a day or so is a small price to pay,” Dr. Schaffner said. “If you know people who’ve had this illness, you’ll be first in line for this vaccine.”

Follow @NYTHealth on Twitter. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/h...e=sectionfront
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Old 11-12-2017, 12:09 PM   #75
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Funny that you post about this today! My BFF who has suffered an litany of shingles attacks? Her doctor gave her a shot for thus last week. We hope it helps to build up immunity to further attacks of the shingles!

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No Excuses, People: Get the New Shingles Vaccine

By Paula Span NOV. 10, 2017

Medical researchers and government health policymakers, a cautious lot, normally take pains to keep expectations modest when they’re discussing some new finding or treatment.

They warn about studies’ limitations. They point out what isn’t known. They emphasize that correlation doesn’t mean causation.

So it’s startling to hear prominent experts sound positively excited about a new shingles vaccine that an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved last month.

“This really is a sea change,” said Dr. Rafael Harpaz, a veteran shingles researcher at the C.D.C.

Dr. William Schaffner, preventive disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said, “This vaccine has spectacular initial protection rates in every age group. The immune system of a 70- or 80-year-old responds as if the person were only 25 or 30.”

“This really looks to be a breakthrough in vaccinating older adults,” agreed Dr. Jeffrey Cohen, a physician and researcher at the National Institutes of Health.

What’s causing the enthusiasm: Shingrix, which the pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline intends to begin shipping this month. Large international trials have shown that the vaccine prevents more than 90 percent of shingles cases, even at older ages.

The currently available shingles vaccine, called Zostavax, only prevents about half of shingles cases in those over age 60 and has demonstrated far less effectiveness among elderly patients.

Yet those are the people most at risk for this blistering disease, with its often intense pain, its threat to vision and the associated nerve pain that sometimes last months, even years, after the initial rash fades.

Almost all older Americans harbor the varicella zoster virus that causes shingles; they acquired it with childhood chickenpox, whether they knew they had the disease or not.

The virus stays dormant until, for unknown reasons, it erupts decades later. The risk rises sharply after age 50.

Shingles is hardly a minor menace. “A million cases occur in the United States each and every year,” Dr. Schaffner said. “If you’re fortunate enough to reach your 80th birthday, you stand a one-in-three to one-in-two chance of shingles.

Preventing the great majority of these cases — along with the risk of lingering and debilitating nerve pain, called postherpetic neuralgia — would represent a major advance in public health.

So while the old vaccine will remain on the market, the C.D.C. committee voted to make Shingrix the preferred vaccine and recommended it for all adults over age 50 — a group younger by a decade than those earlier encouraged to get Zostavax.

The committee also recommended Shingrix for adults who’ve previously gotten Zostavax, since a smaller study in people over age 65 demonstrated effectiveness and safety in those already vaccinated. The Food and Drug Administration approved Shingrix last month.

Once the C.D.C.’s director endorses the committee’s recommendations, and the agency publishes them, insurers — including Medicare and Medicaid — will start covering the vaccine.

“By early 2018, it should be broadly available to consumers in the U.S.,” said Dr. Thomas Breuer, chief medical officer of GSK Vaccines. (Canada has also approved Shingrix; it awaits approval in Australia, Japan and Europe.)

What makes the new vaccine so promising, especially for older adults?

* It provides better protection against shingles from the start. Though Zostavax, introduced in 2006, can reduce shingles cases by about half (and postherpetic neuralgia by two-thirds), that overall rate conceals big differences by age.

That vaccine’s effectiveness drops from 64 percent for people in their 60s to 38 percent among those over age 70, and falls still lower for people in their 80s.

But the new vaccine protects nearly as well in older groups as in the middle-aged. Shingrix racked up a 97 percent effectiveness rate in adults over age 50 and, in a separate study of people over age 70, prevented 90 percent of shingles in those 70 to well past age 80.

“In groups such as the elderly, who often don’t maintain vigorous responses to vaccines, this represents extremely strong disease protection,” said Dr. Kathleen Dooling, an epidemiologist at the C.D.C.

* Shingrix’s protection appears to last longer. Among seniors, the effectiveness of Zostavax wanes with disappointing speed. “After 11 years, the protection was close to zero,” Dr. Harpaz said.

Regulators don’t yet have 11 years of data on Shingrix, but in some samples, it remained effective for six years or longer, according to GSK. That should great reduce the incidence of postherpetic neuralgia, too, assuming the 42 million people in their 50s start getting vaccinated.

* The new vaccine may protect people with compromised immune systems.

A substantial number of older Americans have suppressed immunity because they’re undergoing chemotherapy or transplants, have H.I.V. or take steroids. For them, the previous vaccine was off-limits because it was made with a weakened live virus.

Yet immune suppression itself leaves the people vulnerable to shingles. Shingrix, a recombinant vaccine made from a glycoprotein and a combination of immunity boosters called adjuvants, doesn’t pose the same danger.

The C.D.C. committee held off on recommending Shingrix for the immunocompromised, because GSK is still running trials with these patients. But since the F.D.A. did not declare Shingrix contraindicated for them when approving it, they can get the vaccine once it’s available.

Public health advocates do foresee a couple of potential problems.

First, Shingrix requires two doses, administered at least two months apart. Prodding the older population to get a single shot has proved tough: barely 31 percent of those over age 60 have been vaccinated against shingles. How much harder will it be to persuade people to get two Shingrix injections?

Further, “it tends to be a bit of an ouch-y vaccine,” Dr. Schaffner cautioned.

In studies, most older recipients said they’d experienced pain, redness or swelling in their upper arms for a day or two after the shot, and 8.5 percent of those over age 70 deemed those symptoms uncomfortable enough to interfere with normal activities.

About half of those over age 70 reported more systemic side effects like fatigue, fever or aching joints, lasting one to two days. Physicians and pharmacists should prepare people for such reactions, Dr. Schaffner said.

“If people anticipate it, they’ll cope with it better. They’ll take a couple of Tylenol” — and not worry that something is seriously wrong.

They may feel pocketbook pain, too. Zostavax is the most expensive adult vaccine, and at $140 for each dose (plus the cost of administering the injection), Shingrix will be pricier still.

The 50- to 65-year-old cohort, many of whom have coverage under employee health plans, may not find that much of a barrier. At older ages, cost matters more.

Medicare will cover Shingrix under Part D (like its predecessor), not under Part B like the flu vaccine. That complicates reimbursement for those seeking vaccination in doctors’ offices, so Medicare patients will probably find it simpler to head for a pharmacy.

But not all Medicare recipients have Part D, and those that do could face co-payments.

Still, it’s no contest: The hazards of shingles and its complications dwarf any problems yet reported with Shingrix.

“Compared to shingles, a little arm pain for a day or so is a small price to pay,” Dr. Schaffner said. “If you know people who’ve had this illness, you’ll be first in line for this vaccine.”

Follow @NYTHealth on Twitter. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/h...e=sectionfront
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Old 11-13-2017, 05:20 PM   #76
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***** BUMPING Anya's article about Aaron Hernandez and Traumatic Brain Injury within the NFL ******

Thanks for the great article Anya!

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Originally Posted by *Anya* View Post
Aaron Hernandez suffered from most severe CTE ever found in a person his age

By Adam Kilgore November 9, 2017 at 3:50 PM

BOSTON — Aaron Hernandez suffered the most severe case of chronic traumatic encephalopathy ever discovered in a person his age, damage that would have significantly affected his decision-making, judgment and cognition, researchers at Boston University revealed at a medical conference Thursday.

Ann McKee, the head of BU’s CTE Center, which has studied the disease caused by repetitive brain trauma for more than a decade, called Hernandez’s brain “one of the most significant contributions to our work” because of the brain’s pristine condition and the rare opportunity to study the disease in a 27-year-old.

Hernandez, a former New England Patriots tight end, hanged himself with a bedsheet in April in a Massachusetts prison while serving a life sentence for the murder of his friend Odin Lloyd in 2013.

In a diagnosis that linked one of football’s most notorious figures with the sport’s most significant health risk, doctors found Hernandez had Stage 3 CTE, which researchers had never seen in a brain younger than 46 years old, McKee said. Because the center has received few brains from people Hernandez’s age, McKee could not say whether Hernandez’s brain was representative of a 27-year-old who had played football as much as Hernandez. But she found the advanced stage of CTE alarming.

“In this age group, he’s clearly at the severe end of the spectrum,” McKee said. “There is a concern that we’re seeing accelerated disease in young athletes. Whether or not that’s because they’re playing more aggressively or if they’re starting at younger ages, we don’t know. But we are seeing ravages of this disease, in this specific example, of a young person.”

At Thursday’s conference, McKee flipped through slides comparing sections of Hernandez’s brain to a sample without CTE. Hernandez’s brain had dark spots associated with tau protein and shrunken, withered areas, compared to immaculate white of the sample. His brain had significant damage to the frontal lobe, which impacts a person’s ability to make decisions and moderate behavior. As some new slides appeared on the projectors, some physicians and conference attendees gasped.

“We can’t take the pathology and explain the behavior,” McKee said. “But we can say collectively, in our collective experience, that individuals with CTE, and CTE of this severity, have difficulty with impulse control, decision-making, inhibition of impulses for aggression, emotional volatility, rage behaviors. We know that collectively.”

McKee said Hernandez had a genetic marker that makes people vulnerable to certain brain diseases and could have contributed to how aggressively he developed CTE.

“We know that that’s a risk factor for neurogenerative disease,” McKee said. “Whether or not that contributed in this case is speculative. It may explain some of his susceptibility to this disease.”

The condition of Hernandez’s brain, pristine because of his age and the adept handling of medical examiners, could lead to future breakthroughs and better understanding of CTE. For example, researchers could better study the interaction of inflammation and tau pathology through the use of fluorescent stains. It gave researchers their best view yet of a marker associated with CTE.

“We are able to understand this disease at the scientific level in a way that’s very rarely presented,” McKee said. “We’re very grateful to the family for making this donation. We’re hoping this will advance medical science in a very significant way. . . . This will really accelerate and advance our research going forward.”

Medical examiners delivered Hernandez’s brain, weighing 1,573 grams, to BU’s labs in April. From the outside, it looked like a typical brain — no lesions, no bruises, no abnormalities. When researches sliced the brain into sections, they discovered startling damage.

Ventricles were dilated, in response to the brain shrinking. Researchers determined Hernandez had lost brain tissue. Membranes that were supposed to be firm had grown “thin and gelatinous,” McKee said. There were abnormal, large holes in parts of Hernandez’s bran.

The hippocampus, which plays a key role in memory, had shrunk.

The fornix, which also contributes to memory function, had atrophied.

The frontal lobe, which is responsible for problem-solving, judgment, impulse control and social behavior, had been pockmarked with tau protein.

The amygdala, which produces emotional regulation, emotional behavior, fear and anxiety, had been severly affected.

The temporal lobes, which process sights and sounds, showed significant damage.

Together, they were “very unusual findings in an individual of this age,” McKee said. “We’ve never seen this in our 468 brains, except in individuals some 20 years older.”

The physical damage inside Hernandez’s brain provides another layer to the catastrophic and tragic downfall of Hernandez, a gifted player who caught a touchdown pass from Tom Brady in the 2012 Super Bowl.

Hernandez grew up a football star in Connecticut and fell in with a rough crowd at age 15, after his father died unexpectedly during a routine operation. He starred at Florida even as off-field trouble, in the form of drugs and violence, dogged him. The problems caused some teams to remove him from consideration in the NFL draft, and he lasted until the Patriots plucked him in the fourth round.

Hernandez formed a dominating tandem with fellow 2010 draftee Rob Gronkowski and convinced the Patriots he had straightened out his life. The Patriots signed him to a seven-year, $40-million contract after the 2012 season. Months later, in the summer of 2013, Lloyd was murdered in the summer of 2013, his body found in a gravelly field a mile away from Hernandez’s mansion in North Attleboro.

Hernandez’s estate filed a federal lawsuit against the Patriots in September, alleging the Patriots knew hits to the head could lead to brain damage and failed to protect him.

A jury convicted Hernandez of the killing in 2015. Hernandez hanged himself in his cell just four days after a jury had acquitted him of the murders of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, two strangers whom the state argued Hernandez killed in 2012 after an altercation at a Boston club.

BU researchers say they have discovered CTE in more than 100 former NFL players, a handful of whom have committed suicide. The extent of damage in Hernandez’s brain represents another signpost in football’s ongoing concussion crisis. Thursday’s news conference coincided with the release of an NFL study consisting of video reviews of the 459 known concussions that occurred over the 2015 and 2016 seasons, from preseason games through the playoffs

The NFL has attempted to make the sport safer for its players, through rule changes, policies designed to remove concussed players and technologic advances. But brain trauma occurs when a football player’s brain accelerates or decelerates after it hits another player or the turf, bashing the sides of the head, an action a helmet is defenseless against.

“It happens inside the skull,” McKee said. “It’s an intrinsic component of football.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...=.d7191a3753d1






Normal 27-year-old's brain and Aaron Hernandez's brain. (Boston University School of Medicine/Boston University School of Medicine)
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Old 11-13-2017, 07:31 PM   #77
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Bisexual people at higher risk of developingf mental health issues

They face pressures that others from straight and queer communities don’t

OLIVIA PETTER Thursday 7 September 2017 09:10 BST

Bisexual people experience more discrimination that other members in LGBTQ communities don’t, a new study has revealed.

Researchers from American University analysed data from 503 participants aged 18 to 64 who identified as being attracted to more than one gender.

They were asked questions that reflected how their bisexuality had affected their lives.

What it's like for women to date bisexual men
Whilst previous studies have shown that bisexual people are more at risk of experiencing anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, this new study published in Prevention Science, found that these risks are exacerbated because bisexual people feel as if they don’t belong in any one community.

“Bisexual people face double discrimination in multiple settings — bisexual people are often invisible, rejected, invalidated, [and] stigmatised in the heterosexual community as well as the traditional LGBTQ communities,” explained lead study author Ethan Mereish.

“Given that isolation and discrimination, bi people might be experiencing increase factors that might make them more lonely or isolated,” the professor told NBC News.

Company pedalled spyware to ‘find out if your son is gay’
The social isolation that many bisexual people face often limits their access to support and resources, the study found. Whilst there is a plethora of support available for the wider LGBTQ community, the study revealed that resources for bisexual people specifically are often lacking and this has a negative effect on their mental wellbeing, fostering feelings of bisexual invisibility and erasure.

In worst-case scenarios, this overriding sense of discrimination and ostracism can lead to poor mental health and suicidal thoughts.

In terms of addressing the problem, Mereish and his team believe that more should be done to distinguish bisexual people from other LGBTQ members, giving them a singular identity that can subsequently allow their mental health to be understood exclusively.

"This research highlights the unique stress experiences of bisexual individuals, with implications for addressing bisexual-specific stress in clinical settings as well as designing preventive interventions that increase access to bisexual-specific support and resources," the study concludes.

"Bisexual-specific experiences must be considered independently from the experiences of other sexual minority subgroups to address sexual orientation disparities in mental health."


http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...-a7933806.html

Study:

http://go.redirectingat.com/?id=4468...osexual-issue-
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Old 11-13-2017, 07:33 PM   #78
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Quote:
Originally Posted by *Anya* View Post

The NFL has attempted to make the sport safer for its players, through rule changes, policies designed to remove concussed players and technologic advances. But brain trauma occurs when a football player’s brain accelerates or decelerates after it hits another player or the turf, bashing the sides of the head, an action a helmet is defenseless against.

“It happens inside the skull,” McKee said. “It’s an intrinsic component of football.”

I snipped this cuz it is the most important part of understanding brain injuries regardless of how they occur.

There is no helmet made that protects your brain inside your skull. And knowing what happens to your brain inside your skull is both disgusting and fascinating.

If you have a weak stomach, dont read this.

If you are curious, read on.

People tend to think of the inside of your skull as a smooth bone structure. It is not. The bottom of your skull, on which the brain rests, is a bumpy and grooved surface. The brain is soft tissue and floats over and within this bone structure.

With trauma, either a singular event or repetitive events, the brain sloshes around inside the skull. Multiple types of damages can occur to the structure of the brain itself which in turn affects the cognitive areas which that part of the brain controls. Repetitive blows cause more and more injury to both the tissue itself and the areas of functioning it controls.

When you have trauma to the head what is happening is the bottom of the brain is sloshing over the bumpy surface of the bottom of the skull causing shearing of the tissue. Simultaneously, you have direct impact damage i.e. if your hit the front of your head the brain will slosh forward and bang against the front of the skull, and you have a contra coup injury to the back of the brain when it sloshes backwards.

Same dynamic with a side impact. If you hit the left side of your head, the brain will slosh left, hit your skull and then slosh right until it hits your skull.

The brain will continue sloshing and hitting the hard and rough surfaces back and forth until it regains its equilibrium.

That is a lot of potential for damage and that is just with one event.

Helmets may protect you from fracturing your skull but they will not stop your brain from sloshing around inside your skull.

And this phenomenon is not unique to sports. You can have the same dynamic if you fall off your bike or motorcycle and hit your head, or if you are punched in the face, or if you fall and hit your head.

Neuro-cogitive testing can diagnose closed brain injuries. Often people know themselves something isnt right or those who know them know they are not acting like themselves.

Ok I'm done.


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ty Kobi , now it makes sense that so many people have lost their minds .
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Having older brothers increases men's likelihood of being gay

By Jen Christensen, CNN Updated 6:42 AM ET, Tue December 12, 2017

Story highlights:

Scientists say mothers who have more than one boy had higher concentrations of a certain protein
Earlier studies have noticed that gay men often have older brothers

(CNN) If you're a guy with an older brother, there's an increased chance you're gay.

Scientists have noticed this pattern in previous research, but now they think they have a biological explanation as to why, and it starts long before birth. The results were published in the journal PNAS on Monday.

The researchers say that if their findings can be replicated, we may know at least one of the biological reasons some men are gay.

Many factors may determine someone's sexual orientation, but in this case, researchers noticed a pattern that may be linked to something that happens in the womb. The phenomenon is related to a protein linked to the Y chromosome (which women do not have) that is important to male brain development.

Researchers think it's possible that when a woman gets pregnant with her first boy, this Y-linked protein gets into her bloodstream. The mother's body recognizes the protein as a foreign substance, and her immune system responds, creating antibodies. If enough of these antibodies build up in the woman's body and she gets pregnant with another a boy, they can cross the placental barrier and enter the brain of the second male fetus.

"That may alter the functions in the brain, changing the direction of how the male fetus may later develop their sense of attraction," said study author Anthony Bogaert, a Canadian psychologist and professor in the departments of psychology and community health sciences at Brock University.

Earlier research has shown that the more older brothers a boy has, the more of a chance that boy will be attracted to men. A 2006 study showed that with each brother, the chance that a man will be gay goes up by about a third, but the researchers didn't determine why that was.

Bogaert and his co-authors tested a small group of 142 women and 12 men ages 18 to 80 and found a higher concentration of antibodies to the protein, known as NLGN4Y, in blood samples from women than from men. They found the highest concentration of antibodies to the protein in women with gay younger sons who had older brothers, compared with women who had no sons or who had given birth to only heterosexual boys.

The study builds on research Bogaert and his co-authors have been exploring for more than 20 years. Since their initial research that noted the trend, other research -- although not all studies -- have detected the phenomenon, even across cultures.

One found that a man's chances of being gay increased even if he was raised apart from his older brother.

Researchers did not see a similar pattern in families with adopted brothers, so scientists started to think there must be a maternal developmental explanation.

The research does not give a biological explanation for why some men may be bisexual or may not be attracted to anyone at all, nor can it give a biological explanation for gay only children, gay oldest sons or women who are attracted to women.

J. Michael Bailey, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University, thinks the latest research is important. "It is significant, and I believe science granting agencies should put a high priority into additional research to see if this is true," he said.

Bailey was not involved in the new study but has worked on studies that have found genetic factors that may explain some differences in sexual orientations.

Bailey's latest paper, published this month in the journal Nature Research, looked at people's genomes and found several regions with single-letter DNA changes that were more common among gay men than straight men and may be relevant to the development of sexual orientation. Bailey believes this new study may be even more significant than general genetic findings if the findings can be replicated:

"Our studies only show that there may be genes that matter in sexual orientation," he said. "It is not like this study, that shows there is a potential specific mechanism by which sexual orientation may have changed prenatally. This is important work and fascinating if it proves to be true."

Clarification: A previous version of this story referred to higher concentrations of the protein instead of higher concentrations of antibodies to the proteins when describing the findings of the study.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/11/health...udy/index.html
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