Public Health Archives - Page 46 of 52 - Dr Amin Azhari

Spouses shed more pounds together than alone

Weight loss is most successful in heart attack survivors when partners join in the effort to diet, according to research presented today at ESC Congress 2020.

The RESPONSE-2 trial previously found that heart attack survivors referred to programmes for weight reduction, physical activity, and smoking cessation were more likely to modify behaviours compared to those receiving usual care. In both groups, living with a partner was linked with greater success in shifting bad habits. The most notable improvements were in patients who took part in lifestyle programmes and lived with a partner.

This follow-up study investigated whether partner involvement in lifestyle programmes had an impact on behaviour change. “If partners contribute to adopting healthy habits, it could become an important recommendation to avoid recurrent heart attacks,”

Release date: 27 August 2020

Source: European Society of Cardiology

Covid-19, Public Health

Genetics could impact COVID-19 treatments

Over the past few months, a number of drugs have been under investigation to treat COVID-19 without well-established safety or data to support these claims. However, some of these unproven therapies may have underlying genetic reasons for not being effective and resulting in fatal adverse effects as found with hydroxychloroquine.

Recently published a study in Nature Genomic Medicine.

Release date: 26 August 2020

Source: University of Minnesota

Neurologic disorders, Public Health

Tag team gut bacteria worsen symptoms of multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the myelin that covers the nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord. Demyelination affects how rapidly neurons communicate with each other and with muscles, causing a variety of symptoms including numbness, weak muscles, tremors, and the inability to walk. Gut microorganisms have been reported to affect symptoms of multiple sclerosis, but how bacteria in the intestines can affect myelin of the brain and spinal cord remained a mystery.

Researchers led by Hiroshi Ohno at RIKEN IMS set out find this connection using a mouse model of the disease. These mice experience similar demyelination of the spinal cord that results from autoimmune attacks by T cells that produce the cytokine IL-17A. However, giving these mice the antibiotic ampicillin reduced demyelination. The treatment also prevented the activation of a particular type of T cell. As Ohno explains, “we found that treatment with ampicillin, and only ampicillin, selectively reduced activity of T cells that attack an important protein called myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein [MOG], which helps myelin stick to neurons.”

Release date: 27 August 2020

Source: RIKEN

Public Health

Artificial pancreas effectively controls type 1 diabetes in children age 6 and up

A clinical trial at four pediatric diabetes centers in the United States has found that a new artificial pancreas system — which automatically monitors and regulates blood glucose levels — is safe and effective at managing blood glucose levels in children as young as age six with type 1 diabetes.

Results from the trial were published August 26 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Release date: 26 August 2020

Source: NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Neurologic disorders, Public Health

New Treatment Approach for Alzheimer’s Disease

Research looking at a possible new therapeutic approach for Alzheimer’s disease was recently published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation. The work looked at targeting inflammation by using an antibody. Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias have no disease-modifying treatments at this time and represent a looming public health crisis given the continually growing aging population.

The paper by researchers at the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging (SBCoA) is titled, “Therapeutic Trem2 activation ameliorates amyloid-beta deposition and improves cognition in the 5XFAD model of amyloid deposition”.

Release date: 25 August 2020

Source: University of Kentucky

Public Health

Magnetic stimulation dramatically improves fecal incontinence

Painless magnetic stimulation of nerves that regulate muscles in the anus and rectum appears to improve their function and dramatically reduce episodes of fecal incontinence, a debilitating problem affecting about 10% of the population, investigators report.

The rectum is the connector between the colon and the anus, where stool exits, and the muscles directly involved in moving feces along then holding it in place until we are ready to go to the bathroom, have been a focal point for treating fecal incontinence. However current strategies are largely unsatisfactory for at least half of patients because they do not directly address the causes, including nerve dysfunction in the anus and rectum, the investigators say.

Read the full study here.

Release date: 25 August 2020

Source: Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University

Covid-19, Public Health

Ventilators could be adapted to help two COVID-19 patients at once

New research has shown how ventilators could be adapted to help two patients simultaneously in the event of a shortage.

As the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic approached, governments feared there might not be enough ventilators – machines that ‘breathe’ for patients when they cannot do so themselves – to help all those who needed one.

Now, researchers from King’s College London and Imperial College London have developed a theoretical model for how one ventilator could be used to treat two patients. They say that, although splitting ventilators can be inherently dangerous, their model shows how some of the issues can be mitigated by using variable resistances and one-way valves.

“A simulated single ventilator/dual patient ventilation strategy for acute respiratory distress syndrome during the COVID-19 pandemic” by Solís-Lemus et al. Published 24 August 2020 in Royal Society Open Science.

Release date: 24 August 2020

Source: Imperial College London

Public Health

No safe level of caffeine consumption for pregnant women and would be mothers

Women who are pregnant or trying for a baby should consider avoiding caffeine, researchers say

Women who are pregnant or trying to conceive should be advised to avoid caffeine because the evidence suggests that maternal caffeine consumption is associated with negative pregnancy outcomes and that there is no safe level of consumption, finds an analysis of observational studies published in BMJ Evidence Based Medicine.

Caffeine is probably the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in history, and many people, including pregnant women consume it on a daily basis.

Pregnant women have been advised that consuming a small amount of caffeine daily will not harm their baby. The UK NHS, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) set this level at 200 mg caffeine, which approximates to roughly two cups of moderate-strength coffee per day.

Release date: 24 August 2020

Source: BMJ

Public Health, Sport Medicine

Yoga linked with improved symptoms in heart patients

Yoga postures and breathing could help patients with atrial fibrillation manage their symptoms, according to research presented today at ESC Congress 2020.1

Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disorder. One in four middle-aged adults in Europe and the US will develop the condition, which causes 20–30% of all strokes and increases the risk of death by 1.5-fold in men and 2-fold in women. Reduced quality of life is common, and 10–40% of patients are hospitalised each year.2

Symptoms of atrial fibrillation include palpitations, racing or irregular pulse, shortness of breath, tiredness, chest pain and dizziness.

Release date: 24 August 2020

Source: European Society of Cardiology

Public Health

Having a doctor who shares the race of their patients may ease pain

New research suggests that Black patients may have less pain and anxiety when treated by a physician of their own race.
When doctors are the same race as their patients, it can sometimes forge a sense of comfort that helps to reduce anxiety and pain, particularly for Black patients, new research from the University of Miami suggests.

In a study recently published in the academic journal Pain Medicine, and led by Steven R. Anderson, recent psychology Ph.D. graduate, and Elizabeth Losin, assistant professor of psychology, groups of non-Hispanic white, Hispanic, and Black patients participated in a simulated doctor’s appointment. Patients were given a mildly painful series of heat stimulations on their arm by a medical trainee playing the role of a doctor to simulate a painful medical procedure. Participants indicated how intense their pain was throughout the procedure and researchers also measured the patients’ physiological responses to the painful experience using sensors on the patients’ hands.

Release date: 24 August 2020

Source: University of Miami