| Issue Date: November 17, 2002
HEALTH BRIEFS
Research breakthroughs: Jasmine for sleep, redheads, blood pressure, tape for warts and more
Prostate cancer: Light therapy looks good
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is used to treat many types of cancer, and now a new study shows it's effective for prostate cancer, too. Researchers at University College London Hospital in England used it on 14 men whose prostate cancer had come back after being treated with radiation. First the patients got an intravenous injection of a photosensitive drug, then researchers waited three days for the drug to migrate into the tumor. Next, doctors shone light on the tumor to activate the photosensitive drug, which destroys the tumor. When refined, researchers believe, PDT will destroy prostate cancer with few complications.
Blood pressure: Dementia is a complication, too
Here's another good reason to keep your blood pressure under control: A European study found that people over age 60 who had high blood pressure but stayed on their prescribed antihypertensives (medicines that lower blood pressure) reduced their risk of developing dementia by 55%. (Out-of-control blood pressure causes vascular damage, which, in turn, can cause dementia.) The long-term multinational survey, a project of the European Union's Biomed Research Programme, tracked 3,000 patients older than 60 who participated in the placebo-controlled, double-blind study. Conclusion: At least 20 cases of dementia could be prevented among every 1,000 blood-pressure patients if they adequately control their levels for five years.
Crying babies: New device deciphers what they want
Why do infants cry? A Spanish electronics engineer has invented a device the size of a calculator to answer that question. Frustration caused by not understanding his own son's nightly crying drove Pedro Monagas to spend three years visiting nurseries, figuring out the patterns of babies' cries. He built a microchip into his battery-operated "Why Cry" device to monitor the volume, pattern and interval of baby cries. Within 20 seconds after a baby starts to cry, the device displays one of five facial expressions to indicate whether Baby is crying because he's stressed, tired, hungry, sleepy or uncomfortable. BBC News reports that the inventor intends to market the device for about $93 in pharmacies, starting in Spain this month.
Osteoporosis: New form of vitamin D better for bones
Researchers have created a new form of vitamin D that could reverse bone loss in people with osteoporosis. Experts estimate 44 million Americans have osteoporosis or are at risk. Developing strong bones is one of the many functions of vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, but this new analog (look-alike) form called 2MD is more potent than the original vitamin. In laboratory tests and animal studies, 2MD significantly increased bone mass without causing side effects or toxicity, University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemist Hector F. DeLuca reports in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences". More studies are needed to prove that 2MD is equally safe and effective in humans, he cautions, but he believes 2MD could be an important alternative to current osteoporosis treatments, including hormone replacement therapy.
Pain: Redheads need 20% more painkiller
Natural redheads need more anesthetic to relieve pain than women with brown or blond hair, according to a University of Louisville study presented at last month's meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. In the small study, 10 women with naturally red hair and 10 brunettes were given desflurane, a common inhaled anesthetic. Then they were given electric shocks. The electricity was only strong enough to cause unconscious reflex movement, not enough to do harm. The anesthetic was adjusted after each shock until the volunteers moved only half the time. The data showed the redheads needed 20% more anesthesia than the brunettes to control pain caused by equal shocks. A small number of natural blondes showed the same results as brunettes.
The study is important because it will help doctors provide the right dose of anesthetic for individuals and minimize the risks of administering either too much or too little. How anesthetics work is largely unknown; red hair is the first genetic characteristic linked to anesthetic requirements in humans.
To learn more, visit the American Society of Anesthesiologists Web site at asahq.org.
Learning: Noise impairs children, temporarily
Children who are exposed to excessive noise, such as jet aircraft repeatedly flying overhead, can suffer impaired reading ability and long-term memory, reports environmental psychologist Gary Evans, a professor at Cornell University in New York.
Previous studies have documented that low-level traffic noise harms children's health and that loud noise interferes with children's learning ability, but those studies directly compared children who lived in quiet areas with children who lived in noisy areas. This new study is the first to document the effects of noise on the same 326 children (rather than two different groups of children) living at two sites in Munich, Germany. One group lived near an old airport that was closing, the other near a new airport that was opening. The children's abilities were assessed before and after the airports closed or opened near their homes. Evans reported the findings in the September issue of the journal "Psychological Science". The good news: When the airports closed and the noise stopped, the children's learning ability improved.
Needles: Space-age blood test won't prick
Hate needles? Join the club. Few people are fond of having blood drawn to find out what's going on inside their bodies. Soon, space program technology will make it possible to have blood and tissue tests done without ever poking needles into veins. Researcher Babs Soller, Ph.D., associate professor of surgery and biomedical engineering at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, is working with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute to develop near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. Lightweight, low-power portable diagnostic units use light to look under the skin to see whether a patient is anemic or getting enough oxygen and blood flow to his muscles. Soller believes it will be perfect for people suffering shock. And, of course, it will be a relief for children (and adults) who dread needles. When the units are perfected, they could be used in ERs, ambulances and other places where doctors need to assess patients quickly, with minimal trauma.
Snake bite: Get antivenin despite allergic possibility
When an adult is bitten by a rattlesnake, doctors usually give the bite victim antivenin to neutralize the poison. But antivenin can cause an allergic reaction in some people, so doctors may be reluctant to give it to children. Instead, some doctors opt for surgery to cut away damaged tissue and relieve swelling. But researchers at Valley Children's Hospital in Madera, Calif., say surgery only aggravates the affected area. They suggest that an allergic reaction, if it occurs, can be controlled by medicines, so antivenin should be the preferred treatment in children, as it is in adults -- and surgery should be the last resort, used only if antivenin therapy fails.
Warts: Duct tape does it
Researchers at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., report duct tape worked "significantly" better to remove warts than cryosurgery in a comparison trial of 51 patients. Half the patients (25) had cryosurgery -- freezing the warts with liquid nitrogen for 10 seconds every two to three weeks for up to six weeks. The others had their warts covered by duct tape that was left on for six days, removed overnight, then reapplied until two months passed or the wart fell off.
Breast cancer: Gel might aid mammograms
In mammograms (X-rays of the breast), fatty tissue looks gray, but dense tissue shows up as patches of white. The trouble is, cancer also appears white on mammograms, making it difficult to spot cancer amid dense breast tissue. But there may be a way to make breast tissue less dense. Doctors noticed that it looked less dense in women who were taking the pill form (oral dose) of the breast cancer drug tamoxifen. That observation led to a multicenter study to find out whether a tamoxifen-based investigational drug called 4-OHT gel could decrease breast density in premenopausal women. Volunteers participating in the ongoing study apply the gel (or a placebo that looks and feels identical) to their breasts each day for six months. During that time, they get regular checkups, including mammograms, to see whether the gel works.
Asthma: Laser will test effectiveness of drugs
Help is on the way for asthma sufferers. A researcher at the University of Oklahoma coupled a laser spectroscopy system to a tunable laser, creating an instrument that can measure the amounts of carbon dioxide and nitric oxide exhaled in a single breath. That's important because when the airway is inflamed, people exhale more nitric oxide. If doctors can measure precisely how much nitric oxide is being exhaled, they can tell whether a patient is getting enough medicine. The new laser is in clinical trials.
Sleep: Jasmine lulls you
Insomniacs, take note: The scent of jasmine can help you get a more restful night's sleep. A study by Bryan Raudenbush, assistant professor of psychology at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia, tested jasmine and lavender scents, because other studies reported that those pleasant aromas help reduce anxiety, improve mood and aid relaxation. Twenty volunteers slept in a room scented with either jasmine, lavender or nothing for three nights. They slept peacefully, with reduced tossing and turning, and felt calmer when they awoke the morning after a jasmine-scented night compared with an unscented night, and they were more alert the next day.
Alzheimer's: PET scans sharpen treatment
Adding a brain imaging test called PET (positron emission tomography) to conventional tests used to diagnose Alzheimer's disease can not only dramatically improve diagnostic accuracy but also improve treatment. Researchers at UCLA found that when PET is added to conventional Alzheimer's disease tests, the number of misdiagnosed people drops by half. Adding PET to conventional tests could cut unnecessary drug therapy in half, says study leader Daniel H. Silverman, M.D., and time spent in nursing homes due to missed diagnoses could drop by 60%.
Even better, people who have early Alzheimer's could be diagnosed sooner and start treatment faster, while the disease is still in its mildest stages and new medicines are most effective, Silverman says.
To learn more about the UCLA Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, go to www.adc.ucla.edu. For general information, visit the Alzheimer's Association online at www.alz.org.
-- Peggy Noonan
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