Health News - Monday, March 12, 2007
There is more evidence that sildenafil (Viagra, Revatio) is beneficial to patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, researchers here reported. In a small pilot study, 57% of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis given sildenafil were able to increase the distance they could walk in six minutes, according to David Zisman, M.D., of the University of California at Los Angeles.
All 14 patients in the study also had documented pulmonary arterial hypertension and sildenafil has been shown to increase exercise capacity in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, Dr. Zisman and colleagues said in the March issue of CHEST. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is the most common chronic diffuse lung disease, and data suggests that between 33% and 50% of patients also have pulmonary arterial hypertension, the researchers noted. Continue reading
A review of published studies shows a clear and consistent relationship between drinking sugary (non-diet) soft drinks and poor nutrition, increased risk for obesity -- and increased risk for diabetes. There is no denying that sugar-loaded soft drinks are having "a negative impact on health," Dr. Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, said in a telephone interview with Reuters Health.
Having analyzed and reviewed 88 studies on the issue, Brownell and his colleagues conclude that recommendations to curb soft drink consumption on a population level are strongly supported by the available scientific evidence. Results of a study of more than 91,000 women followed for 8 years provides one of the "most striking" links between soft drinks and health outcomes, the investigators note in the American Journal of Public Health. Continue reading
Helping frail older people to see more clearly may put them at increased risk of falls, according to a new study from Australia. This could be because getting used to a new eyeglass prescription may throw people off balance, Dr. Robert G. Cumming, at Concord Hospital in New South Wales, and colleagues suggest. Whatever the explanation, they say the findings indicate that programs aimed at preventing falls among the elderly by improving their vision should be put on hold for now.
One previous study found that removing cataracts -- which allows people to see contrasts more clearly -- reduced falls among elderly people, but another found no effect, Cumming and his team note in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. To better understand how improving elderly people's vision might affect fall risk, the researchers randomly assigned 616 men and women aged 70 and older to receive vision and eye exams, along with appropriate treatment, or to receive their usual care. Continue reading
Human stem cells taken from both embryos and fetuses delayed a fatal brain and nerve disease in mice, moving throughout the brain to take on the jobs of damaged neurons, scientists reported on Sunday. They said their study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, represents the first time a human embryonic stem cell has successfully treated a disease in an animal.
Dr. Evan Snyder of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, California, who led the study, says his team hopes to move quickly to test their method in children with a fatal and incurable brain disease called Sandhoff disease. Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, they also said their approach could lead to ways to treat a range of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. For their study, Snyder and colleagues used mice bred with the equivalent of Sandhoff disease. Continue reading
Exercise boosts brainpower by building new brain cells in a brain region linked with memory and memory loss, U.S. researchers reported on Monday. Tests on mice showed they grew new brain cells in a brain region called the dentate gyrus, a part of the hippocampus that is known to be affected in the age-related memory decline that begins around age 30 for most humans.
The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging scans to help document the process in mice -- and then used MRIs to look at the brains of people before and after exercise. They found the same patterns, which suggests that people also grow new brain cells when they exercise. "No previous research has systematically examined the different regions of the hippocampus and identified which region is most affected by exercise," Dr. Scott Small, a neurologist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York who led the study, said in a statement. Continue reading