Repeated Genetic Test Saliva Shows Your Physical Age

Repeated Genetic Test Saliva Shows Your Physical Age.
A rejuvenated study that uses a saliva sample to predict a person's age within a five-year collection could prove useful in solving crimes and improving patient care, University of California, Los Angeles geneticists say. Their examination focuses on a process called methylation, a chemical modification of one of the four edifice blocks that make up DNA. "While genes partly condition how our body ages, environmental influences also can change our DNA as we age.

Methylation patterns shift as we grow older and furnish to aging-related disease," principal investigator Dr Eric Vilain, a professor of Possibly offensive manlike genetics, pediatrics and urology, said in a UCLA news release. He and his colleagues analyzed saliva samples from 34 pairs of similar male twins, aged 21 to 55, and identified 88 sites on their DNA that strongly linked methylation to age.

They replicated their findings in 31 men and 29 women, superannuated 18 to 70, in the composite population. The yoke then created a predictive model using two of the three genes with the strongest age-related coupling to methylation.

Statins Do Not Reduce The Risk Of Colon Cancer

Statins Do Not Reduce The Risk Of Colon Cancer.
Statins don't take down the hazard of colorectal cancer, and may even increase the chances of developing precancerous polyps, unusual research suggests. Statins are widely prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs sold in a contrast of generic forms and brand names, including Lipitor, Crestor and Zocor.

Yet, researchers stressed that the results are "not conclusive," and that man taking statins to lower cholesterol and reduce their peril of heart attack should continue taking the drugs. "We found patients in this study taking statins for more than three years tended to arise more premalignant colon lesions," said study author Dr Monica Bertagnolli, principal of the division of surgical oncology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. "This is an gripping finding that needs to be followed up, but it should not raise alarm. No one should dam taking their statins."

The study is to be presented Monday at the American Association for Cancer Research annual engagement in Washington, DC, and it is also published online in the journal Cancer Prevention Research. The figures used in the analysis was from an earlier clinical trial to determine if the cox-2 sedative celecoxib (Celebrex) could be used to prevent colon cancer.

That trial included 2035 folk who were at high risk of colon cancer and had already been diagnosed with precancerous polyps, or adenomas. That study, published in 2006, found the celecoxib reduced the experience of adenomas, but it also more than doubled the risk of heart undertake and other serious cardiac events.

Reduction The Hormone Estrogen Leads To Mental Decline

Reduction The Hormone Estrogen Leads To Mental Decline.
The younger a chick is when she undergoes surgical menopause, the greater her chances of developing thought problems at an earlier age, additional research suggests. Surgical menopause describes the end of ovarian act as due to gynecological surgery before the age of natural menopause. It involves the removal of one or both ovaries (an oophorectomy), often in claque with a hysterectomy, the removal of a woman's uterus. "For women with surgically induced menopause, near the start age at menopause was associated with a faster decline in memory," said cram author Dr Riley Bove, an instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School and an friend neurologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

However "These are very preliminary data". Bove said other inspection suggests a link between a decrease in the hormone estrogen during menopause and mental decline, and the sighting of this study was to better understand the relationship between reproductive-health factors and memory changes. The study results will be presented in March at the American Academy of Neurology' annual meeting, in San Diego.

For the study, the researchers analyzed medical records of more than 1800 women ancient 53 to 100 who were taking or on in one of two studies conducted by Rush University Medical Center in Chicago: the Religious Orders Study and the Memory and Aging Project. The researchers assessed reproductive variables, such as when women had their chief period, the gang of years menstrual cycles lasted, and use of hormone replacement therapies. Measurements from several types of assessment and reminiscence tests were analyzed, too.

The scientists also assessed the results of intellect biopsies after death, some of which showed the presence of Alzheimer's plaques. "We had approximately 580 brains convenient for analysis - this speaks to the very unique and rich nature of the data". Thirty-three percent of the lessons participants had undergone surgical menopause.

Reasons for these surgeries may include fibroids (noncancerous uterine tumors), endometriosis (growth of uterine series outside the womb), cancer of the uterus and ovaries, and unusual vaginal bleeding. When the ovaries are gone, ovarian production of estrogen stops, said Bove. However, this investigation did not include reasons why the women underwent surgical menopause.

Environmental Contaminants Affects Unborn Baby

Environmental Contaminants Affects Unborn Baby.
A fecund woman's publication to environmental contaminants affects her unborn baby's heart rate and movement, a new on says in June 2013. "Both fetal motor activity and heart rate let slip how the fetus is maturing and give us a way to evaluate how exposures may be affecting the developing nervous system," ponder lead author Janet DiPietro, associate dean for research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in a private school news release. The researchers analyzed blood samples from 50 high- and low-income fruitful women in and around Baltimore and found that they all had detectable levels of organochlorines, including DDT, PCBs and other pesticides that have been banned in the United States for more than 30 years.

High-income women had a greater concentration of chemicals than low-income women. The blood samples were tranquil at 36 weeks of pregnancy, and measurements of fetal middle dress down and movement also were taken at that time, according to the study, which was published online in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology 2013.

New Drug To Curb Hepatitis C

New Drug To Curb Hepatitis C.
The recently approved soporific Incivek, combined with two norm drugs, is highly effective at treating hepatitis C, a notoriously difficult-to-manage liver disease, two strange studies show. The dull works not only in patients just starting treatment, but in those who failed earlier treatment, the research found. The hepatitis C virus can skulk in the body for years, causing liver damage, cirrhosis and even liver failure. "This is a significant go on in the treatment of hepatitis C," said Dr David Bernstein, outstanding of the division of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset NY, who was not active in either study.

And "We know that if we can get rid of the hepatitis C, we can anticipate the progression of liver disease. This means we can prevent the progression of cirrhosis, we can prevent the development of cancer and also frustrate the need for liver transplantation in a large number of people".

Incivek (telaprevir) was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in May and is the help drug in a class of drugs called protease inhibitors to be approved to contest hepatitis C The other drug, called Victrelis (boceprevir), was also approved in May. The set treatment for hepatitis C has been a combination of two drugs, pegylated-interferon and ribavirin, which are given for a year.

If protease inhibitors such as Incivek are added to the mix, the "viral cure" grade improves and the therapy time is reduced to six months, researchers found. Both reports were published in the June 23 online copy of the New England Journal of Medicine.

In one study, a Phase 3 go known as ADVANCE, patients were randomly assigned to either a placebo or the healing in a double-blind study, which means that neither the patients nor the researchers know who's getting the drug and who's getting a mock treatment. This type of study is considered the gold standard for clinical research.

In the ADVANCE trial, 1088 patients with hepatitis C who had never been treated for the state were randomly assigned to criterion therapy for 48 weeks, or telaprevir combined with standard therapy for eight or for 12 weeks, followed by touchstone therapy alone for a total treatment time of either 24 or 48 weeks. The researchers found that 79 percent of those receiving Incivek for the longest days (24 weeks) had a "sustained response," which basically means their hepatitis C was contained.

Stem Cells From A New Source For The Treatment Of The Heart

Stem Cells From A New Source For The Treatment Of The Heart.
Stem cells from the amniotic sac that surrounds a fetus may someday be old to renewal impair caused by a heart attack, Japanese researchers report. The work, so far only conducted in animals, raises the feasibility of a non-controversial source of stem cells to expound not only heart disease but also many other conditions, said Dr Shunichiro Miyoshi, an assistant professor in the cardiology subdivision at the Keio University School of Medicine, and co-author of a report in the May 28 online dissemination of Circulation Research. "I believe these cells may be utilized in the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as SLA systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis".

The amniotic sac is typically discarded after childbirth. SLA is an autoimmune disability in which the body's exempt system cells mistakenly seize healthy tissue. The cells that Miyoshi and his colleagues have used in mouse studies can simply be obtained in large numbers and offer another major advantage: they bypass the need to match donor-recipient apartment typing.

So "At the present time there is no barrier for clinical utilization. We can secure amniotic membrane from every delivery. We do not need to match donor-recipient matching of complicated HLA typing". HLA refers to the protein markers that are found on most of the body's cells. Transplanted cells that be at variance from the recipient's HLA quintessence will be attacked and destroyed by the immune system.

The Keio researchers have begun a series of studies aimed at the good-natured use of the amniotic stem cells. "Now we are performing the test on a swine model. Immediately after we get a good result, we are planning to perform clinical trials. I maintain it will go on within a few years. But it may depend on the strength of our government regulation".

The journal report describes laboratory make in which stem cells obtained from amniotic membranes were transformed into heart cells, 33 percent of which form spontaneously and which improved rat heart function by more than 34 percent when injected two weeks after a insensitivity attack. The injected cells decreased the room of heart damage by 13 percent to 18 percent and survived for more than four weeks in the rats without the use of drugs to run-in immune rejection. The amniotic cells are much easier to convert into kindness cells than stem cells from other sources, such as bone marrow or fat.

Doctors Advise How To Avoid Breast Cancer

Doctors Advise How To Avoid Breast Cancer.
If a bride develops mamma cancer, having larger breasts and being sedentary might increase her risk of on one's deathbed from the disease, a large, long-term study suggests. Experts have long known that being physically effectual reduces the risk of getting breast cancer by about 25 percent. The new study, however, looked at how both drive crazy and breast size might predict survival if breast cancer does develop, said reflect on researcher Paul Williams, a staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in Berkeley, California Williams found a rudely 40 percent reduced risk of dying from bust cancer in physically active women compared to those who didn't meet exercise guidelines.

The retreat was published online Dec 9, 2013 in the journal PLoS One. For the study, Williams and his rig followed nearly 80000 women for 11 years. All were participants in national studies on runners' and walkers' health. About 33000 of the women were walkers and about 46000 were runners. When they entered the study, none of the women had been diagnosed with core cancer.

All reported the distances they walked or ran each week, as well as their bra cup hugeness and body charge and height. During the 11-year follow-up period, 111 examination participants died from breast cancer. They were in their mid-50s, on average, when they died. Those who met around exercise guidelines were about 42 percent less likely to die of breast cancer compared to those who did not pay the guidelines.

These guidelines recommend two and a half hours of moderate activity, an hour and 15 minutes of active activity or an equivalent combination weekly. The total of exercise found to be protective against breast cancer was about seven miles of brisk walking or nearly five miles of event each week. "It's not a lot of exercise. "This is more evidence of yet another benefit of exercise.

Gestational Diabetes In The First And Second Pregnancies Gives A Higher Risk In Subsequent Pregnancies

Gestational Diabetes In The First And Second Pregnancies Gives A Higher Risk In Subsequent Pregnancies.
Women who had gestational diabetes in their word go and jiffy pregnancies are at greatly increased endanger for the condition in future pregnancies, a new workroom finds. Gestational diabetes can lead to early delivery, cesarean section and type 2 diabetes in the mother, and may widen a child's risk of developing diabetes and obesity later in life.

So "Because of the passive nature of gestational diabetes, it is important to identify early those who are at risk and care for them closely during their prenatal care," lead author Dr Darios Getahun, a research scientist/epidemiologist in the check in and evaluation department at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, said in a Kaiser account release. In this study, researchers analyzed the medical history of more than 65000 women who delivered babies at a Kaiser Permanente Southern California medical center between 1991 and 2008.

Depression And Diabetes Reinforce Each Other

Depression And Diabetes Reinforce Each Other.
Diabetes and dejection are conditions that can tinder each other, a new study shows. The research, conducted at Harvard University, found that muse about subjects who were depressed had a much higher risk of developing diabetes, and those with diabetes had a significantly higher endanger of depression, compared to healthy study participants. "This study indicates that these two conditions can favouritism each other and thus become a vicious cycle," said study co-author Dr Frank Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. "Thus, primitive ban of diabetes is important for prevention of depression, and vice versa".

In the United States, about 10 percent of the natives has diabetes and 6,7 percent of people over the age of 18 experience clinical dimple every year, according to the researchers. Symptoms of clinical depression include anxiety, feelings of hopelessness or guilt, sleeping or eating too much or too little, and set-back of interest in life, people and activities. Diabetes is characterized by consequential blood sugar and an inability to produce insulin. Symptoms include frequent urination, uncommon thirst, blurred vision and numbness in the hands or feet.

About 95 percent of diabetes diagnoses are order 2, and often are precipitated by obesity. The researchers found that the two can go hand in hand. The contemplate followed 55000 female nurses for 10 years, gathering the data through questionnaires. Among the more than 7,400 nurses who became depressed, there was a 17 percent greater chance of developing diabetes.

Those who were taking antidepressant medicines were at a 25 percent increased risk. On the other hand, the more than 2,800 participants who developed diabetes were 29 percent more qualified to become depressed, with those taking medications having an even higher jeopardize that increased as therapy became more aggressive.

Tony Z Tang, adjunct professor in the department of psychology at Northwestern University, said that participants who were taking medications for their conditions fared worse because their illnesses were more severe. "None of these treatments are cures, divergent antibiotics for infections. So, depressed patients on antidepressants and diabetic patients on insulin still customarily undergo from their main symptoms. These patients fare worse in the yearn run because they were much worse than the other patients to start with".

Patients More Easily Tolerate Rheumatoid Arthritis In A Good Marriage

Patients More Easily Tolerate Rheumatoid Arthritis In A Good Marriage.
A marvellous matrimony helps people with rheumatoid arthritis enjoy better blue blood of life and experience less pain, a new study suggests. "There's something about being in a high-quality nuptials that seems to buffer a patient's emotional health," said research leader Jennifer Barsky Reese, a postdoctoral partner at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. But RA patients in distressed marriages were no better off in terms of calibre of life and pain than the unmarried patients she studied.

The information is published in the October issue of The Journal of Pain. Reese said her observe went further than other research that has linked being married to aspects of better health. "What we did was look at both marital station and how the quality of the marriage is related to different health status measures in the patient," such as their perception of sorrow and physical and psychological disability.

The researchers evaluated 255 adults with RA, a painful and potentially debilitating invent of arthritis, for marital adjustment, disease activity and pain. Forty-four were in distressed marriages, 114 not distressed and 97 were unmarried. Their mediocre age was 55.

The participants answered questions about how over the moon they were in their marriage, and also noted how much they agreed or disagreed in key areas, including finances, demonstrations of affection, sex, notion of life and interaction with in-laws. "Before we controlled for anything such as illness severity, being in a high-quality marriage is associated with better outcome. These findings suggest the links between being married and vigorousness depend on the quality of the marriage, not simply whether or not one is married".

When the researchers took into consequence such factors as age and disease severity, they found that "better marital quality is still related to lower affective injure and lower psychological disability". Affective pain is an emotional evaluation of pain, how unpleasant a constant finds it. Another measure, sensory pain, reflects how the pain is perceived, how it feels physically to the patient.

Insertion Of A Stent May Save From Leg Amputation

Insertion Of A Stent May Save From Leg Amputation.
When angioplasty fails, patients with cruel external arterial disease may now have another option. A drug-releasing stent placed in the blocked artery below the knee might re-establish blood flow, renewed investigation shows.

Critical limb ischemia, the most severe form of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), causes more than 100000 part amputations in the United States each year. Now, researchers from Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City chance insertion of a stent can curb many of these amputations.

In "Traditional balloon angioplasty is plagued by high incidence failure, restenosis (recurrence) and impotence to elevate the patient's symptoms," said lead researcher Dr Robert A Lookstein, colleague director of Mount Sinai's division of interventional radiology. Patients with deprecative limb ischemia have leg pain even when resting and sores that don't heal because of lack of circulation. They are at jeopardize of gangrene and amputation.

But placing a stent in the affected artery during angioplasty greatly improves these problems. The drug-eluting stent keeps the narrowed artery humanitarian and releases a medication for several weeks after implantation, preventing the artery from closing again. "Patients with the least wicked texture of the (severe) disease, those with pain at rest, as well as the patients with minor skin infection of their legs, were able to keep off major amputation".

But some patients with severe disease and those with gangrene still lost a limb who was scheduled to adduce the finding Monday at the Society of Interventional Radiology's annual meeting in Tampa, Fla. For the study, Lookstein's body followed 53 patients with critical limb ischemia who had a all-out of 94 drug-eluting stents implanted to treat leg arteries that would not stay open after angioplasty alone. These are the same stents commonly old to open blocked coronary arteries. The remedying was effective in all the patients, the researchers said.

Obesity Older Children Are At Increased Risk Of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

Obesity Older Children Are At Increased Risk Of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease.
Obese older children are at increased imperil for developing the worrisome digestive infirmity known as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), researchers from Kaiser Permanente in California report. In fact, bloody obese children have up to a 40 percent higher endanger of GERD, while those who are moderately obese have up to a 30 percent higher risk of developing it, compared with conventional weight children, researchers say.

So "Although we know that childhood obesity, especially outrageous obesity, comes with risks for serious health conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, our learning adds yet another condition to the list, which is GERD," said study lead author Corinna Koebnick, a digging scientist at Kaiser Permanente Southern California's Department of Research and Evaluation in Pasadena. While the causes of the long-standing digestive disease are not known, obesity appears to be one of them. "With the increasing spread of childhood obesity, GERD may become more and more of an issue".

GERD can undermine quality of story noting that the disease can cause chronic heartburn, nausea and the potential for respiratory problems such as persistent cough, redness of the larynx and asthma. GERD has already been linked to obesity in adults, many of whom are familiar with its intermittent heartburn resulting from liquor containing stomach acid that backs up into the esophagus. Untreated, GERD can development in chronic inflammation of the lining of the esophagus and, more rarely, to lasting damage, including ulcers and scarring.

About 10 percent of GERD patients also go on to promote a precancerous condition known as Barrett's esophagus, which in a poor minority will develop into cancer. Kaiser researchers noted that GERD that persists through adulthood increases the danger for esophageal cancer later in life.

Cancer of the esophagus is the fastest growing cancer in the United States, and is expected to false in frequency over the next 20 years. This extension may be partly due to the obesity epidemic.

The report is published in the July 9 online edition of the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity. For the Kaiser study, Koebnick's gang collected details on more than 690000 children aged 2 to 19 years old. These children were members of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California integrated salubriousness plan in 2007 and 2008.

50 Years Is The Most Dangerous Age For Women

50 Years Is The Most Dangerous Age For Women.
Breast cancer chance in women may be tied to the reproach at which their breast-tissue density changes as they age, a remodelled study suggests Dec 2013. Researchers examined 282 breast cancer patients and 317 women without the cancer who underwent both mammography and an automated breast-density test. Breast cancer patients under duration 50 tended to have greater breast density than healthy women under era 50, the researchers said Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, in Chicago. Overall, the vigorous women also showed a significant, steady decline in their breast density with age.

There was considerably more varying in the amount of density loss among the breast cancer patients. "The results are interesting, because there would appear to be some constitute of different biological density mechanism for normal breasts compared to breasts with cancer, and this appears to be most glaring for younger women," study senior writer Nicholas Perry, director of the London Breast Institute in the United Kingdom, said in a fraternity news release. "Women under age 50 are most at risk from density-associated breast cancer. Breast cancer in younger women is regularly of a more aggressive type, with larger tumors and a higher danger of recurrence".

Breast density, as determined by mammography, is already known to be a strong and independent risk factor for boob cancer. The American Cancer Society considers women with extremely dense breasts to be at within limits increased risk of cancer and recommends they talk with their doctors about adding MRI screening to their year after year mammograms. "The findings are not likely to diminish the current American Cancer Society guidelines in any way. But it might reckon a new facet regarding the possibility of an early mammogram to locate an obvious risk factor (breast density), which may then lead to enhanced screening for those women with the densest breasts".

The Depression Is Associated With Heart Troubles

The Depression Is Associated With Heart Troubles.
Depression is rather stock in patients who undergo heart bypass surgery, and a new study finds that short-term use of antidepressants may support patients' recovery May 2013. "Depression among patients requiring or having undergone sidestep surgery is high and can significantly impact postoperative recovery," said one crackerjack not connected to the study, Dr Bryan Bruno, acting chairman of the department of psychiatry at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. In this study, a duo of French researchers looked at 182 patients who started taking a discerning serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant two to three weeks before undergoing coronary artery go graft surgery and continued taking it for six months after the procedure.

SSRIs number widely used antidepressants such as Celexa, Lexapro, Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft. In this study, patients took one 10 milligram tombstone of Lexapro (escitalopram) daily. The reflect on was funded by Lexapro's maker, H Lundbeck A/S. The outcomes of patients prescribed Lexapro were compared to 179 patients who took an dormant placebo as an alternative of the antidepressant.

During the six months after the surgery, the patients who took the antidepressant reported less dejection and better quality of life than those who took the placebo, the researchers reported. In addition, taking antidepressants did not multiplication the risk of complications or death in the year after surgery, according to the study, which appears in the May culmination of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

Women Are Happy To Be A Donor Egg

Women Are Happy To Be A Donor Egg.
Most women who give out as egg donors take on a positive take on their experience a year later, redesigned research indicates. Researchers polled 75 egg donors at the time of egg retrieval and one year later, and found that the women remained happy, honourable and carefree about their experience. "Up until now we've known that donors are by and strapping very satisfied by their experience when it takes place," said read lead author Andrea M Braverman, director of complementary and alternative medicine at Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey in Morristown. "And now we usher that for the vast majority the doctrinaire experience persists".

Braverman and colleagues from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, NJ, were scheduled to largesse their survey findings Wednesday in Denver at a meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. A year after donation, the women said they rarely worried about either the health or fervent well-being of the children they helped to spawn. They said they only think about the donation occasionally and on rare occasions discuss it.

The donors also reported that financial compensation was not the number-one motive for facilitating another woman's pregnancy. Rather, a after to help others achieve their dreams was pegged as the driving force, followed by paper money and feeling good.

Women who said the donation process made them feel worthwhile tended to be unagreed to the notion of meeting their offspring when they reach adulthood. And most donors were receptive to the design of meeting the egg recipients and participating in a donor registry.