Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire In 1985, Monday Night Football fans looked on as Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann was sacked. The collision was so forceful that it snapped Theismann’s leg, breaking like, as one fan put it, a “stale chopstick.” Most audience members likely empathized with Theismann and sensed his pain, including people afflicted with a rare disorder that prevents them from feeling pain themselves, a new study suggests. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.US
Instead of using past experiences of feeling pain to commiserate, such people likely rely on the ability to imagine the pain of others, suggests the brain-imaging study, published online January 28 in Neuron.
“This fascinating and well-conducted study” gives new insights into the relationship between pain and empathy, comments Marco Loggia of the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in Charlestown, Mass. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.US
The study suggests that multiple brain regions, including regions involved in emotions, can be recruited to feel empathy for others’ pain. In future studies, Loggia says, it would be interesting to examine other cases when people are exposed to someone else’s feelings without ever having felt such feelings firsthand. “How can humans empathize with a dog that hurt its tail? How can a man understand menstrual pain?” Loggia asks. The answers, he proposes, may lie in the same regions of the brain that allow pain-insensitive people to empathize with others’ pain.
Study coauthor Nicolas Danziger wanted to know whether a person could empathize with an unfamiliar emotional state. Understanding other people’s emotional states, such as pain, is thought to be based on a system in the brain called the mirror system. When someone sees a quarterback break a leg, specific groups of brain cells in the spectator’s brain activate. These nerve cells are the same ones that would activate if the spectator broke his own leg.
Called mirror neurons, these cells are thought to prompt a kind of knee-jerk reaction in the brain in response to seeing others’ pain, a phenomenon researchers call automatic resonance. Put simply, these mirror brain cells don’t distinguish between monkey see and monkey do.
The activity of whole groups of interconnected neurons in one person can mirror that of whole groups of interconnected brain cells in another person, a process called “mirror matching.” Now, scientists know that entire mirror neuron systems can respond to others’ emotions, such as disgust. Seeing a disgusted person elicits mirror matching in the brain of the watcher, where the same group of nerve cells activates as if the watcher were disgusted himself.
Some researchers had proposed that mirror neurons would not exist or not respond correctly when a person witnessed an unfamiliar sensation. To test this idea, Danziger, a neurologist in the Pain Center at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, recruited a unique group of subjects.
Some people are born with rare genetic defects rendering them completely insensitive to physical pain. Danziger’s team used fMRI techniques to study the brain responses of such people as they gazed at physically painful situations.
Subjects were shown images of a finger caught in a pair of shears and of a man’s face screwed up in a painful expression. The brains of control subjects who feel pain normally showed activation patterns in two pain-sensing brain regions, the anterior mid-cingulate cortex and the anterior insula.
As it turns out, these pain-sensing regions were similarly activated in the subjects who could not feel pain. “Our first intuition is that we were expecting a huge difference between the two groups. We saw the contrary,” says Danziger.
The results suggest that these brain responses are not mirror matching systems for pain. However, the similarity of brain activation in these regions doesn’t rule out possible mirror matching in other brain regions, says Danziger.
Brain regions like the amygdala, important for emotional processing, might harbor a mirror matching system for pain, he says. The researchers couldn’t assess amygdala activation, due to fMRI interference from nearby bone.
It was in the midline brain structures that the team noticed differences between pain-insensitive subjects and control subjects. When they were able to empathize with others’ pain (as judged by a questionnaire), people insensitive to pain relied heavily on activity in these regions (parts of the prefrontal cortex and the ventral posterior cingulate cortex) involved in formulating emotional perspectives. Only pain-insensitive subjects with high empathy scores had high activity in these brain regions, whereas in control subjects, activity in these regions had little to do with the amount of empathy.
Pain-insensitive people “can only rely on the emotional regions,” says Danziger. “It’s far from automatic.” These people may be relating the physical pain they witness to emotional pain they have felt themselves.
Most likely, the midline brain structures, places where Danziger says “emotional work” is done, and the mirror matching systems both play a role in empathy in regular people.
“I think both mirror neuron areas and midline areas are important for intersubjectivity,” comments Marco Iacoboni, a neuroscientist studying mirror neuron systems at the University of California, Los Angeles.Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Saturday, April 11, 2009
test 0.00.02 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
A compound called sarcosine may distinguish slow-growing prostate cancers from those likely to spread and become lethal, a new study shows. And in an unexpected finding, benign prostate cells take on cancerous characteristics in lab dishes when exposed to sarcosine, suggesting that the compound is less of a bystander and more of a perpetrator in the malignancy, researchers report in the Feb. 12 Nature.
“It’s not only a biomarker for aggressive prostate cancer, but it might be involved in the biology of the cancer,” says study coauthor Arul Chinnaiyan, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and pathologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Tests for elevated sarcosine also outperformed the most widely used clinical test for detecting prostate cancer. http://LOUIS2J2SHEEHAN.US Conveniently, sarcosine can be identified in urine, a less invasive test than the blood analysis needed for the standard prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, test routinely given to men to check for signs of cancer.
To arrive at these findings, Chinnaiyan and his team analyzed 1,126 metabolites in samples of prostate tissue, blood and urine obtained from men with various stages of prostate cancer and from a group of men without the cancer. Sarcosine was undetectable in healthy tissue but turned up in large amounts in prostate cancer confined to the gland and in even greater levels in metastatic cancer.
A separate test showed that sarcosine levels in urine were much higher in men with prostate cancer than in men without it.
And when compared with a PSA test, sarcosine levels were “at least as good, and perhaps better, than PSA” in identifying the presence and aggressiveness of cancer, says study coauthor John Wei, a urologist at the University of Michigan.
Five other compounds also appeared in large concentrations in metastatic prostate cancer. By measuring concentrations of these compounds, doctors might someday be better able to diagnose prostate cancer and distinguish dangerous malignancies from cancer that’s unlikely to leave the prostate, the findings suggest.
Prostate cancer diagnosis is an imprecise science, says William Isaacs, a molecular biologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. The typical exam combines a digital probe of the prostate to check for swelling or lumps and a blood test to reveal PSA levels. This one-two punch turns up many prostate cancers that would have gone undetected decades ago, but quite often men have PSA scores that fall into a gray area, he says. Biopsy is needed to clarify a diagnosis.
But even when a biopsy reveals cancer, it sometimes remains unclear whether the cancer is aggressive and at risk of spreading, or indolent and likely to stay put. For example, a biopsy might sample a part of the prostate with little cancer and underestimate the danger, says Cory Abate-Shen, a cancer biologist at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. So biopsy doesn’t always reveal who needs aggressive treatment, she says.
“There’s no question we need better markers,” Isaacs says. Whether sarcosine or some of the other metabolites identified in the new study will fit the bill remains to be seen. “I think people will try to repeat this work and try to get it into the clinic as fast as possible,” he says.
Meanwhile, the study authors were surprised to find that sarcosine, a metabolite of the amino acid glycine, might also play a role in abetting cancer itself. When they added sarcosine to benign prostate cells in lab-dish experiments, the cells showed cancerous behavior. Chinnaiyan expects animal experiments to clarify any direct role sarcosine might play in prostate cancer.http://LOUIS2J2SHEEHAN.US
Ideally, such research would reveal points at which scientists might intercede in the cancer process. http://LOUIS2J2SHEEHAN.US
The study is also noteworthy because it goes beyond the study of genes (genomics) and proteins (proteomics) to delve into metabolomics — the study of metabolites, Abate-Shen says. Metabolites are the end products of cell processes, and much might be learned from these compounds, she says. “But it’s not like they have a genetic code,” she says, “so it’s technically challenging.” Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
In the 1950s and 1960s, metabolites were a hot research topic as scientists tried to figure out the roles of enzymes in cell biology, Isaacs says. Times change and metabolites were largely set aside in favor of genes, DNA, RNA and proteins — at least in the search for biomarkers, he says. With the new study, he says, “hopefully we’ll get some sort of re-emergence of people interested in metabolites. I think it’s a really important study from that point of view.” Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
“It’s not only a biomarker for aggressive prostate cancer, but it might be involved in the biology of the cancer,” says study coauthor Arul Chinnaiyan, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and pathologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Tests for elevated sarcosine also outperformed the most widely used clinical test for detecting prostate cancer. http://LOUIS2J2SHEEHAN.US Conveniently, sarcosine can be identified in urine, a less invasive test than the blood analysis needed for the standard prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, test routinely given to men to check for signs of cancer.
To arrive at these findings, Chinnaiyan and his team analyzed 1,126 metabolites in samples of prostate tissue, blood and urine obtained from men with various stages of prostate cancer and from a group of men without the cancer. Sarcosine was undetectable in healthy tissue but turned up in large amounts in prostate cancer confined to the gland and in even greater levels in metastatic cancer.
A separate test showed that sarcosine levels in urine were much higher in men with prostate cancer than in men without it.
And when compared with a PSA test, sarcosine levels were “at least as good, and perhaps better, than PSA” in identifying the presence and aggressiveness of cancer, says study coauthor John Wei, a urologist at the University of Michigan.
Five other compounds also appeared in large concentrations in metastatic prostate cancer. By measuring concentrations of these compounds, doctors might someday be better able to diagnose prostate cancer and distinguish dangerous malignancies from cancer that’s unlikely to leave the prostate, the findings suggest.
Prostate cancer diagnosis is an imprecise science, says William Isaacs, a molecular biologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. The typical exam combines a digital probe of the prostate to check for swelling or lumps and a blood test to reveal PSA levels. This one-two punch turns up many prostate cancers that would have gone undetected decades ago, but quite often men have PSA scores that fall into a gray area, he says. Biopsy is needed to clarify a diagnosis.
But even when a biopsy reveals cancer, it sometimes remains unclear whether the cancer is aggressive and at risk of spreading, or indolent and likely to stay put. For example, a biopsy might sample a part of the prostate with little cancer and underestimate the danger, says Cory Abate-Shen, a cancer biologist at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. So biopsy doesn’t always reveal who needs aggressive treatment, she says.
“There’s no question we need better markers,” Isaacs says. Whether sarcosine or some of the other metabolites identified in the new study will fit the bill remains to be seen. “I think people will try to repeat this work and try to get it into the clinic as fast as possible,” he says.
Meanwhile, the study authors were surprised to find that sarcosine, a metabolite of the amino acid glycine, might also play a role in abetting cancer itself. When they added sarcosine to benign prostate cells in lab-dish experiments, the cells showed cancerous behavior. Chinnaiyan expects animal experiments to clarify any direct role sarcosine might play in prostate cancer.http://LOUIS2J2SHEEHAN.US
Ideally, such research would reveal points at which scientists might intercede in the cancer process. http://LOUIS2J2SHEEHAN.US
The study is also noteworthy because it goes beyond the study of genes (genomics) and proteins (proteomics) to delve into metabolomics — the study of metabolites, Abate-Shen says. Metabolites are the end products of cell processes, and much might be learned from these compounds, she says. “But it’s not like they have a genetic code,” she says, “so it’s technically challenging.” Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
In the 1950s and 1960s, metabolites were a hot research topic as scientists tried to figure out the roles of enzymes in cell biology, Isaacs says. Times change and metabolites were largely set aside in favor of genes, DNA, RNA and proteins — at least in the search for biomarkers, he says. With the new study, he says, “hopefully we’ll get some sort of re-emergence of people interested in metabolites. I think it’s a really important study from that point of view.” Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Saturday, January 10, 2009
frog 6.fro.9 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire . A "metaphorical Noah's Ark" is how Claude Gascon describes the action plan drafted last month at an Amphibian Conservation Summit in Washington, D.C. "If implemented, it would hopefully reverse the trend in amphibian extinctions," says Gascon, an officer of the D.C.–based Conservation International and chairman of the World Conservation Union's Global Amphibian Specialist Group.http://louisjsheehan.blogstream.com
Over the past quarter century, biologists have documented the extinction of nine frog and salamander species, and scientists speculate that another 113 also died out in that time. Those figures are from a report in the Dec. 3, 2004 Science. Data presented at the recent summit indicate that at least one-third of the roughly 6,000 known amphibian species now are at risk of extinction. http://louisjsheehan.blogstream.com
Habitat loss, pollution, and climate change pose chronic threats to amphibians. A more acute danger is a fungus in the group called chytrids, summit attendees noted. These skin infections were first reported to kill amphibians only 7 years ago (SN: 7/4/98, p. 7: http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc98/7_4_98/fob9.htm). Today, Gascon says, survival of "about 200 [amphibian] species appears threatened by this fungus." The proposed 5-year, $400 million action plan makes research on the disease a priority.
The plan also calls for better mapping of species whose habitats are especially threatened by any risk factor. Such data would enable "rapid-response teams" of biologists to collect amphibians in the path of disease or environmental change. The animals would be kept and bred in captivity until they could be safely released
Over the past quarter century, biologists have documented the extinction of nine frog and salamander species, and scientists speculate that another 113 also died out in that time. Those figures are from a report in the Dec. 3, 2004 Science. Data presented at the recent summit indicate that at least one-third of the roughly 6,000 known amphibian species now are at risk of extinction. http://louisjsheehan.blogstream.com
Habitat loss, pollution, and climate change pose chronic threats to amphibians. A more acute danger is a fungus in the group called chytrids, summit attendees noted. These skin infections were first reported to kill amphibians only 7 years ago (SN: 7/4/98, p. 7: http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc98/7_4_98/fob9.htm). Today, Gascon says, survival of "about 200 [amphibian] species appears threatened by this fungus." The proposed 5-year, $400 million action plan makes research on the disease a priority.
The plan also calls for better mapping of species whose habitats are especially threatened by any risk factor. Such data would enable "rapid-response teams" of biologists to collect amphibians in the path of disease or environmental change. The animals would be kept and bred in captivity until they could be safely released
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
rudd 5.rud.99992993 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire . SYDNEY, Australia — Australia said Friday that it would not agree to American requests to accept more detainees from the prison at Guantánamo Bay, and Britain signaled reluctance to take in significant numbers of former inmates, underscoring the difficulties both the departing and incoming administrations in Washington face in trying to close the camp, which has stirred bitter controversy around the world.
Australia’s acting prime minister, Julia Gillard, said the Bush administration had twice approached Australia about taking prisoners from the camp, at the American naval base in Cuba. http://louis3j3sheehan3esquire.wordpress.com
“The Bush administration first approached Australia in early 2008 with a request to resettle a small group of detainees from Guantánamo in Australia,” Ms. Gillard said Friday in a statement. “After appropriate consideration, Australia declined to allow resettlement of that small group in Australia.”
Early last month, the White House again appealed to Australia and “a number of other friends and allies of the United States,” she said, adding that the request had not come from President-elect Barack Obama. Mr. Obama, who is to be sworn in on Jan. 20, has pledged to close the camp.
The Pentagon, in transferring three Algerian prisoners to Bosnia on Dec. 16, said some 250 inmates remained at Guantánamo. About 60 have been cleared for release but cannot be sent to their home countries, mostly out of concern that they would be tortured or persecuted. They are from countries including Algeria, China, Libya and Tunisia.
“Departure of these detainees,” the Pentagon said, “is subject to ongoing discussions between the United States and other nations.”
If the 60 were resettled, the challenge of closing Guantánamo would be within sight. About 100 of the remaining detainees are Yemenis, who could be repatriated once American officials were satisfied that they would be properly monitored. The remaining detainees could be transferred to prisons in the United States.
In early December, Portugal said it was willing to resettle some of the 60 cleared detainees and urged other European countries to accept some as well. A couple of weeks later, Germany said it would consider doing so if the camp were closed.
On Friday, Britain reaffirmed its desire to see the camp close. So far Britain has secured the release of nine British nationals and four former residents of Britain. A Foreign Office spokeswoman, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of civil service rules, said that Britain would also seek the release of two other former residents, but that Washington had not asked Britain to take any more detainees.
But she said Britain expected other countries to join in the effort. “We recognize that the United States will require assistance from its allies and partners” for Guantánamo to be closed, she said, adding, “We have been pushing for our partners to follow our lead.”
Ms. Gillard, the Australian deputy prime minister who is serving as the acting prime minister while Kevin Rudd, the prime minister, is on vacation, was earlier quoted by the Australian news media as saying that the country would consider resettling detainees on a case-by-case basis, subject to “rigorous assessment.”
But later Friday she said, “Notwithstanding that it is unlikely Australia would accept these detainees, given the fact that the Bush administration has formally approached Australia, the request demands proper consideration.” http://louis3j3sheehan3esquire.wordpress.com
Australia, a close ally of the United States, has long been part of its military effort in Iraq, and Australian troops remain there.
But Mr. Rudd’s center-left Labor Party has had its differences with the Bush administration. Before coming to power in 2007, Mr. Rudd was sharply critical of Guantánamo and called repeatedly for the repatriation of two Australians held there. The men have since returned to Australia. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire. http://louis3j3sheehan3esquire.wordpress.com
Australia’s acting prime minister, Julia Gillard, said the Bush administration had twice approached Australia about taking prisoners from the camp, at the American naval base in Cuba. http://louis3j3sheehan3esquire.wordpress.com
“The Bush administration first approached Australia in early 2008 with a request to resettle a small group of detainees from Guantánamo in Australia,” Ms. Gillard said Friday in a statement. “After appropriate consideration, Australia declined to allow resettlement of that small group in Australia.”
Early last month, the White House again appealed to Australia and “a number of other friends and allies of the United States,” she said, adding that the request had not come from President-elect Barack Obama. Mr. Obama, who is to be sworn in on Jan. 20, has pledged to close the camp.
The Pentagon, in transferring three Algerian prisoners to Bosnia on Dec. 16, said some 250 inmates remained at Guantánamo. About 60 have been cleared for release but cannot be sent to their home countries, mostly out of concern that they would be tortured or persecuted. They are from countries including Algeria, China, Libya and Tunisia.
“Departure of these detainees,” the Pentagon said, “is subject to ongoing discussions between the United States and other nations.”
If the 60 were resettled, the challenge of closing Guantánamo would be within sight. About 100 of the remaining detainees are Yemenis, who could be repatriated once American officials were satisfied that they would be properly monitored. The remaining detainees could be transferred to prisons in the United States.
In early December, Portugal said it was willing to resettle some of the 60 cleared detainees and urged other European countries to accept some as well. A couple of weeks later, Germany said it would consider doing so if the camp were closed.
On Friday, Britain reaffirmed its desire to see the camp close. So far Britain has secured the release of nine British nationals and four former residents of Britain. A Foreign Office spokeswoman, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of civil service rules, said that Britain would also seek the release of two other former residents, but that Washington had not asked Britain to take any more detainees.
But she said Britain expected other countries to join in the effort. “We recognize that the United States will require assistance from its allies and partners” for Guantánamo to be closed, she said, adding, “We have been pushing for our partners to follow our lead.”
Ms. Gillard, the Australian deputy prime minister who is serving as the acting prime minister while Kevin Rudd, the prime minister, is on vacation, was earlier quoted by the Australian news media as saying that the country would consider resettling detainees on a case-by-case basis, subject to “rigorous assessment.”
But later Friday she said, “Notwithstanding that it is unlikely Australia would accept these detainees, given the fact that the Bush administration has formally approached Australia, the request demands proper consideration.” http://louis3j3sheehan3esquire.wordpress.com
Australia, a close ally of the United States, has long been part of its military effort in Iraq, and Australian troops remain there.
But Mr. Rudd’s center-left Labor Party has had its differences with the Bush administration. Before coming to power in 2007, Mr. Rudd was sharply critical of Guantánamo and called repeatedly for the repatriation of two Australians held there. The men have since returned to Australia. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire. http://louis3j3sheehan3esquire.wordpress.com
Thursday, December 25, 2008
elderly 6.eld.11003 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire . If you get to be 85 or older, you automatically become a member of the population group known as "the very old." New data reveal that psychotic symptoms among these seniors have been greatly underestimated, a finding with potential public health consequences.http://louis8j8sheehan8esquire.wordpress.com
Several population studies of elderly people with healthy brains have indicated that fewer than 3 percent of them suffer from psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions. These assessments have relied on interviews with volunteers between ages 65 and 75. So far, older individuals have rarely been studied.
The latest data, published in the January Archives of General Psychiatry, derive from interviews with 85-year-olds and their family members or other close acquaintances. In many cases, detailed medical records were also available.
This more-thorough approach found psychotic symptoms in 10 percent of a representative sample of 85-year-olds living in the Swedish city G�teborg, including those in elder-care facilities. Moreover, by age 88, the elderly volunteers with psychotic symptoms more often had developed degenerative brain disease than their counterparts had, report Svante �stling and Ingmar Skoog, both psychiatrists at G�teborg University in Sweden.
"This is a unique and important study," remarks psychiatrist Dilip V. Jeste of the University of California, San Diego. He contends that the U.S. health-care system is unprepared to deal with a rise in mental illness as the number of elderly people increases over the next 30 years (SN: 9/18/99, p.189). What's more, �stling and Skoog add, a cause for current concern is that many elderly people don't report their psychotic symptoms in psychiatric interviews and their condition thus evades detection by medical providers.
The Swedish researchers used census records in G�teborg to randomly select 347 participants, all 85 years old and free of neurological ailments, and then followed them for 3 years. A spouse, child, nurse, or friend described the emotional condition of 305 of the elderly volunteers to an interviewer. Medical records were available for 283 individuals.http://louis8j8sheehan8esquire.wordpress.com
The results provided reason for concern. In the year before the study, 35 individuals had experienced one or more psychotic symptoms, the scientists say. Symptoms included hallucinations such as hearing voices, delusions of being controlled by others' thoughts, and a pervasive but mistaken sense of being harassed or conspired against. Third party interviews provided the only information about psychotic symptoms in 21 cases.http://louis8j8sheehan8esquire.wordpress.com
Nearly half of the volunteers with psychotic symptoms developed a degenerative brain disease by age 88, compared with about 12 percent of the other volunteers, the researchers say.
Along with its strengths, the new study contains two weaknesses, Jeste holds.
First, it doesn't address whether psychotic symptoms in elderly volunteers began early or late in life. Second, those with psychotic symptoms didn't receive a psychiatric diagnosis. Possible diagnoses cover a wide spectrum, from schizophrenia to less severe psychotic disorders.
Still, it's now apparent that physicians need to talk to third parties about the mental condition of elderly patients, says psychiatrist John C.S. Breitner of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore in a comment on the new finding.Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Several population studies of elderly people with healthy brains have indicated that fewer than 3 percent of them suffer from psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions. These assessments have relied on interviews with volunteers between ages 65 and 75. So far, older individuals have rarely been studied.
The latest data, published in the January Archives of General Psychiatry, derive from interviews with 85-year-olds and their family members or other close acquaintances. In many cases, detailed medical records were also available.
This more-thorough approach found psychotic symptoms in 10 percent of a representative sample of 85-year-olds living in the Swedish city G�teborg, including those in elder-care facilities. Moreover, by age 88, the elderly volunteers with psychotic symptoms more often had developed degenerative brain disease than their counterparts had, report Svante �stling and Ingmar Skoog, both psychiatrists at G�teborg University in Sweden.
"This is a unique and important study," remarks psychiatrist Dilip V. Jeste of the University of California, San Diego. He contends that the U.S. health-care system is unprepared to deal with a rise in mental illness as the number of elderly people increases over the next 30 years (SN: 9/18/99, p.189). What's more, �stling and Skoog add, a cause for current concern is that many elderly people don't report their psychotic symptoms in psychiatric interviews and their condition thus evades detection by medical providers.
The Swedish researchers used census records in G�teborg to randomly select 347 participants, all 85 years old and free of neurological ailments, and then followed them for 3 years. A spouse, child, nurse, or friend described the emotional condition of 305 of the elderly volunteers to an interviewer. Medical records were available for 283 individuals.http://louis8j8sheehan8esquire.wordpress.com
The results provided reason for concern. In the year before the study, 35 individuals had experienced one or more psychotic symptoms, the scientists say. Symptoms included hallucinations such as hearing voices, delusions of being controlled by others' thoughts, and a pervasive but mistaken sense of being harassed or conspired against. Third party interviews provided the only information about psychotic symptoms in 21 cases.http://louis8j8sheehan8esquire.wordpress.com
Nearly half of the volunteers with psychotic symptoms developed a degenerative brain disease by age 88, compared with about 12 percent of the other volunteers, the researchers say.
Along with its strengths, the new study contains two weaknesses, Jeste holds.
First, it doesn't address whether psychotic symptoms in elderly volunteers began early or late in life. Second, those with psychotic symptoms didn't receive a psychiatric diagnosis. Possible diagnoses cover a wide spectrum, from schizophrenia to less severe psychotic disorders.
Still, it's now apparent that physicians need to talk to third parties about the mental condition of elderly patients, says psychiatrist John C.S. Breitner of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore in a comment on the new finding.Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Sunday, December 7, 2008
plastic 44.pla.22002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Exposure to small amounts of an ingredient in polycarbonate plastic may increase a person's risk of diabetes, according to a new study in mice. http://louis8j8sheehan8esquire.blogspot.com
The synthetic chemical called bisphenol-A is used to make dental sealants, sturdy microwavable plastics, linings for metal food-and-beverage containers, baby bottles, and numerous other products. When consumed, the chemical can mimic the effects of estrogen. Previous tests had found that bisphenol-A can leach into food and water and that it's widely prevalent in human blood.http://louis9j9sheehan9esquire.blogspot.com
The newfound contribution of the chemical to insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes, might partially explain the global epidemic of that disease, says Angel Nadal of Miguel Hernández University of Elche in Spain, who led the new study.
The finding is a "wake-up call" for public health researchers who are concerned by the prevalence of diabetes, comments developmental biologist Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri–Columbia.
Earlier test-tube studies had suggested that bisphenol-A makes pancreatic cells secrete the glucose-regulating hormone insulin. To investigate this effect in live animals, Nadal and his colleagues injected adult male mice with pure corn oil or with oil containing either bisphenol-A or an equal amount of the natural female sex hormone estradiol. Animals received as many as eight shots over 4 days.
Within 30 minutes of an injection, animals receiving either the sex hormone or bisphenol-A had abnormally low concentrations of glucose in their blood, Nadal's team reports in the January Environmental Health Perspectives. The chemicals acted on recently discovered estrogen receptors on pancreatic cells' surfaces to boost the cells' secretion of insulin, the researchers determined.
Repeated exposure to either bisphenol-A or the natural estrogen over several days produced insulin resistance, a pre-diabetic state in which tissues lose their sensitivity to normal concentrations of insulin, Nadal's group says. Estrogen receptors in the pancreatic-cell nucleus appear to contribute to this gradual effect.
So, receptors both in the cell nucleus and on the surface could contribute to insulin resistance and diabetes, Nadal says.http://louis1j1sheehan1esquire.blogspot.com
This risk could add to or elucidate already documented health effects of bisphenol-A. http://louis6j6sheehan.blogspot.com
Animal studies have suggested that exposure to the chemical early in life causes obesity, says Ana M. Soto of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston.
Furthermore, bisphenol-A exposure might contribute to gestational diabetes in women, in whom insulin resistance often increases during pregnancy, says Jerry Heindel of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Inside cells' nuclei, bisphenol-A is less potent than the natural sex hormone, says vom Saal. But the new work shows that at the surface of pancreatic cells, the compounds have the same potency, he notes. Doses of bisphenol-A considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to have no adverse effect led to insulin resistance in the mouse study.Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
The synthetic chemical called bisphenol-A is used to make dental sealants, sturdy microwavable plastics, linings for metal food-and-beverage containers, baby bottles, and numerous other products. When consumed, the chemical can mimic the effects of estrogen. Previous tests had found that bisphenol-A can leach into food and water and that it's widely prevalent in human blood.http://louis9j9sheehan9esquire.blogspot.com
The newfound contribution of the chemical to insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes, might partially explain the global epidemic of that disease, says Angel Nadal of Miguel Hernández University of Elche in Spain, who led the new study.
The finding is a "wake-up call" for public health researchers who are concerned by the prevalence of diabetes, comments developmental biologist Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri–Columbia.
Earlier test-tube studies had suggested that bisphenol-A makes pancreatic cells secrete the glucose-regulating hormone insulin. To investigate this effect in live animals, Nadal and his colleagues injected adult male mice with pure corn oil or with oil containing either bisphenol-A or an equal amount of the natural female sex hormone estradiol. Animals received as many as eight shots over 4 days.
Within 30 minutes of an injection, animals receiving either the sex hormone or bisphenol-A had abnormally low concentrations of glucose in their blood, Nadal's team reports in the January Environmental Health Perspectives. The chemicals acted on recently discovered estrogen receptors on pancreatic cells' surfaces to boost the cells' secretion of insulin, the researchers determined.
Repeated exposure to either bisphenol-A or the natural estrogen over several days produced insulin resistance, a pre-diabetic state in which tissues lose their sensitivity to normal concentrations of insulin, Nadal's group says. Estrogen receptors in the pancreatic-cell nucleus appear to contribute to this gradual effect.
So, receptors both in the cell nucleus and on the surface could contribute to insulin resistance and diabetes, Nadal says.http://louis1j1sheehan1esquire.blogspot.com
This risk could add to or elucidate already documented health effects of bisphenol-A. http://louis6j6sheehan.blogspot.com
Animal studies have suggested that exposure to the chemical early in life causes obesity, says Ana M. Soto of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston.
Furthermore, bisphenol-A exposure might contribute to gestational diabetes in women, in whom insulin resistance often increases during pregnancy, says Jerry Heindel of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Inside cells' nuclei, bisphenol-A is less potent than the natural sex hormone, says vom Saal. But the new work shows that at the surface of pancreatic cells, the compounds have the same potency, he notes. Doses of bisphenol-A considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to have no adverse effect led to insulin resistance in the mouse study.Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
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