Foods to get COOL: Country-of-origin labeling

WASHINGTON (AP) -- No more wondering where your hamburger came from, or where your lettuce and tomatoes were grown: Starting this week, shoppers will see lots more foods labeled with the country of origin.

It's a law years in the making but timely, as China's milk scandal and the recent salmonella-tainted Mexican peppers prompt growing concern over the safety of imported foods.
Still, hold the import-bashing: Numerous outbreaks in recent years have come from U.S.-produced foods, such as spinach grown in California.

Until now, shoppers have had little clue where many everyday foods -- meats, fresh fruits and vegetables, certain nuts -- originate. That's what the so-called COOL law, for country-of-origin labeling, changes.

Those who want to buy local -- or who prefer, say, Chilean grapes and New Zealand lamb -- can more easily exercise their purchasing power. Those worried about lax safety regulations in certain countries can avoid those imports. And the next time tomatoes are suspected of food poisoning, consumers may be able to tell investigators they bought only ones grown in a certain region, speeding the probe. Continue Reading >>

Scientists debate possible cell phone link to brain cancer

Scientists squared off before members of Congress on Thursday over whether cell phones contribute to brain cancer. full story

Zumba zooms to the top of the exercise world

Latin music pulses from the stereo as 40 women jump, shimmy and sway to the beat. No, it's not a scene from a dance club, it's a scene from the gym. Learn more about the transformative powers of Zumba. full story

A Honey of a Sinusitis Treatment

(HealthDay News) -- Honey may help bring sweet relief to chronic sinusitis sufferers, new Canadian research suggests.

Scientists say natural germ fighters in honey attack the bacteria that cause the discomforting disorder.

"Honey has been used in traditional medicine as a natural anti-microbial dressing for infected wounds for hundreds of years," noted study co-author Dr. Joseph G. Marsan, from the University of Ottawa.

The objectives of the study were to evaluate the activity of honey on so-called "biofilms," which are responsible for numerous chronic infections, Marsan explained.

"Certain bacteria, mainly Staph aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, have found a method of shielding themselves from the activity of anti-microbials by living in substances called biofilms, which cannot be penetrated by even the most powerful anti-microbials," he said.

The report was to be presented Tuesday at the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation's annual meeting in Chicago.

In the laboratory, Marsan's team applied honey to biofilms made up of the bacteria that cause sinusitis.

They found that honey was more effective in killing these bacteria than antibiotics commonly used against them.

"Our study has shown that certain honeys, namely the Manuka honey from New Zealand and the Sidr honey from Yemen, have a powerful killing action on these bacterial biofilms that is far superior to the most powerful anti-microbials used in medicine today," Marsan said.

This study has shown that certain honeys may play some role in the management of these chronic infections that are extremely difficult to treat, Marsan said. "This study was carried out in-vitro in the lab and we must now find how to apply this activity in-vivo on lab animals and subsequently on patients," he added.

The Canadian findings echo research published last year in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, by a team at Penn State College of Medicine. That group found that honey worked better than commercial cough medicines containing dextromethorphan (DM) in easing children's cough.

But Dr. Ian Paul, director of Pediatric Clinical Research at Penn State and the leader of the cough study, isn't sure how the sinusitis findings would be applied clinically.

"Bacteria do not grow very well in honey," Paul noted. "There is data that honey works well for wounds, in smothering the bacteria that that grow in wounds. So it's not altogether surprising that honey would be effective in killing these bacteria."

However, whether honey could be used clinically to treat sinusitis isn't apparent, Paul said.

"I wonder how they are going to propose using honey, clinically, in sinusitis," Paul said. "I'm wondering how they are proposing it would be curative or helpful in that setting?"

Results of another study, slated to be presented at the meeting Tuesday, show that many patients with sinusitis sufferer from aches and pains that are equal to those experienced by people with arthritis or depression.

Researchers found that endoscopic sinus surgery to relieve the blockage in the sinuses, also significantly people's reduced pain.

"This study highlights an important point: Chronic sinusitis should not be considered as a minor localized disease condition rather, as this study emphasizes, sinusitis can cause serious clinical levels of discomfort in many patients," study co-author Dr. Neil Bhattacharyya, an otolaryngologist and sinus surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said in a statement.

More information
For more information on sinusitis, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Health Tip: Exercise for People With Diabetes

(HealthDay News) -- Exercise is a challenge for many people, but there are even more potential pitfalls for diabetics.

The American Diabetes Association offers these suggestions to help diabetics who exercise:

• Figure out how exercise affects your blood glucose. Always measure it before and after you exercise.


• If your blood glucose is high before exercising, it may go even higher. Be cautious about exercising in this condition.


• Exercising for a long time, or exercising very strenuously, could also lead to low blood glucose. This might happen immediately or a while after you exercise, so be prepared.


• If you have low blood glucose when you are ready to exercise, try having a snack or adjusting your medication in consultation with your doctor.


• Keep water and a snack -- a carbohydrate is best -- on hand while you exercise.

How Should We Honor Death in a Hospital?

By Dena Rifkin, MD

Last week, I wrote about going to the hospital at night to see a very sick patient. I saw him only once, and this week I found out that he died a few days later.

When I logged in to the hospital’s computer system to check lab results on another patient, my “census”—the list of patients I’ve seen recently—popped up and his name was there.

Next to each patient’s name are icons: symbols for male or female; a walk-light stick figure showing that the patient is ambulatory; a red or green box, indicating new lab results. Next to this patient’s name was a forbidding white box on a black background with a long white line drawn through it. That meant he had died. Read More

Gluten-Free Options Allow My Allergic Son to Eat Cookies

By Sean Kelley

The hardest thing about cooking for a child with multiple-food allergies isn’t avoiding ingredients—it’s finding substitutions for them. Nowhere is this a bigger deal than in baking.
Graeme is allergic to three things used in a lot of baked products: wheat, egg whites, and corn (corn starch is in baking powder, and corn syrup is in most vanilla extract).

When my wife and I first found out that Graeme had allergies, I tried using alternatives to wheat like rye and sorghum, and alternatives to eggs like flaxseed meal. But baking is more science than simple substitution. We’ve had to toss gooey cookies, flat bread that wasn’t supposed to be flat, and a number of confections too dense to be consumed. Read More

Health Tip: Massage Arthritis Pain

(HealthDay News) -- Medication can help ease arthritis pain, but a gentle massage can also provide relief.

The Arthritis Foundation has this advice:

• If you start to feel pain or discomfort while massaging the arthritic area, stop right away.
• Avoid massaging any joints that are swollen or very painful.
• Use lotion or massage oil on your skin.
• If you massage using a menthol gel, make sure to wash it all off before you apply any heat to the area. This will help prevent burns.
• If you go to a professional masseuse, make sure he or she has experience in working with people who have arthritis.

Estrogen Cream No Match for Sun-Damaged Skin

(HealthDay News) -- The hormone cream estradiol can repair aging skin, but only if that skin has never been touched by the damaging UV rays of sunlight, new research finds.

Decades of sun damage on the face and arms and other exposed areas seem to undermine the power of the cream, according to a study in the September issue of the Archives of Dermatology.
"Despite commonly held beliefs, estrogen was not able to raise collagen when the skin was damaged by sunlight," said study author Laure Rittié, a research investigator in the department of dermatology at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. "Apparently, chronic exposure to sunlight breaks something in the way estrogen increases collagen, which makes damaged skin even harder to repair."

Unfortunately, these are the exact areas that are most in need of repair.

"There was a general belief that estrogen was good for the skin," Rittié explained.

But most, if not all, previous studies that had purported to show this looked at sun-protected areas of the skin, not sun-exposed areas.

"When we look for treatments for aging skin, we usually want to treat the face or hands or neck, in other words, sun-exposed areas," Rittié explained. "We decided to go ahead and carefully test these questions."

Researchers applied topical estradiol for two weeks to both sun-exposed areas on the forearm and non-exposed skin near the hip in 40 women and 30 men, average age 75.

A biopsy was taken from each volunteer 24 hours after the last treatment.

The cream stimulated collagen production in sun-protected skin areas but not in sun-damaged areas. The collagen-promoting effects were found in both men and women but were more pronounced in women volunteers.

Both types of skin, however, had similar levels of estrogen-receptor expression. Estradiol activity seemed to be the same, regardless of whether the skin had or had not been damaged by the sun.

The study was partially supported by Pfizer.

The authors acknowledge that treating volunteers for more than two weeks might have yielded different results in sun-exposed skin areas; additional studies would be needed to test this.

"What makes a hormone a hormone is that it is made in one place but works somewhere else in the body," said Dr. Doris Day, an attending physician in dermatology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "It's like a light switch, it's small but, when you turn it on, the whole room lights up. Estradiol cream is like a little switch, but we're only just beginning to understand the different parts of the body it affects and how it affects them. This is putting the science behind the anecdote."

More information
The American Academy of Dermatology has sun-safety tips.

No Tan Is a Safe Tan

(HealthDay News) -- Evidence is accumulating that there is no such thing as a "safe tan."

Ultraviolet rays, no matter where you get them from, cause skin cancer, and the purported health benefits of UV rays, such as vitamin D production, are overstated, if not downright wrong.

So say a trio of papers published in the October issue of Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research.

"There's a lot of money to be made, and the tanning industry has been quite successful even in places like New Mexico and South America selling tanning as a safe alternative to outdoor sun. We're trying to point out that it's not the case," said Marianne Berwick, author of one of the papers and a professor of internal medicine at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque.

"We wanted to counter the marketing and a response to the misperception of the true cost/benefit analysis of UV radiation," said Dr. David Fisher, director of the Melanoma Program in Medical Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, president of the Society of Melanoma Research, and author of one of the other papers in the journal.

Skin cancer is the most common malignancy in the United States, with 1 million new cases in 2008, and an estimated one in five people developing some type of skin cancer during their lifetime. Ultraviolet radiation is a major risk factor for all types of skin cancer.

Yet, the tanning industry continues to grow, with revenues increasing fivefold since 1992, according to background information in the journal.

But there is rampant evidence that tanning of any kind is not safe and carries few, if any, health benefits.

"The first step [to both skin cancer and a tan] is DNA damage. That tells us that there's one common initiating event, and it is a carcinogenic event through which you get your tan, so the concept of a safe tan becomes essentially impossible," Fisher said.

Moreover, claims that tanning may not lead to melanoma, as opposed to other forms of skin cancer, are based on cleverly skewed interpretations of complex molecular phenomenon, Fisher added.

"There is no controversy whatsoever about the presence of UV signature mutations in squamous cell carcinoma. You can see that the genes have been mutated in a way that UV directly caused it," he explained. "The melanoma connection to UV is probably indirect, so you wouldn't see the mutation directly in the melanoma cell even though the UV caused it."

"The tanning industry has seized on that complexity."

A representative for the tanning industry refuted the findings using that exact argument.

"Here are three more studies that make irresponsible assertions without providing any concrete link between indoor tanning and melanoma," said John Overstreet, executive director of the Indoor Tanning Association. "The fact is, UV light provides vitamin D, which helps the body ward off many types of diseases, and the rewards that come with moderate and responsible exposure to UV light far outweigh the consequences of not getting enough of it."

But Fisher noted vitamin D can come from other, safer sources.

"We know that vitamin D is synthesized in the skin after ultraviolet radiation hits the skin. It's how you couch the discussion when the indoor tanning association took out a full-page ad in The New York Times right before prom season and lists all the good things about vitamin D," Fisher said. "Basically, you're getting vitamin D from a carcinogen."

Not only can vitamin D be obtained from supplements, a simple blood test can tell a person if he or she is actually deficient in the vitamin.

The World Health Organization and other organizations have called for a ban on sunbed use by individuals under the age of 18. According to the papers in the journal, the industry has lobbied against such a ban.

More information
Learn more about skin cancer at the American Academy of Dermatology.

Premixed Insulin May Offer Better Blood Sugar Control

(HealthDay News) -- Premixed insulin, which combines short- and long-acting versions of the hormone, results in better blood-sugar control as compared with long-acting insulin alone or oral medications, a new study finds.

But it's not clear that this tighter glycemic control translates into fewer complications and a lower mortality rate among people suffering from type 2 diabetes, researchers add.

And two types of premixed insulin -- premixed human insulin and premixed insulin analogues (genetically engineered human insulin) -- appeared to produce the same benefit.

Various premixed products are already on the market, but the results described in a study in the Sept. 16 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine may help better determine which product benefits which patient.

More than a quarter of patients with type 2 diabetes use insulin alone (16 percent) or insulin combined with an oral medication (12 percent) to help them control their blood-glucose levels.

And as the number of people overall who have type 2 diabetes continues to increase, information on the effectiveness and safety of premixed insulin is even more imperative.

Premixed insulin includes both long- and short-acting insulin together in one preparation. These products are intended to give patients more flexibility as to when they eat.

"This is supposed to treat the post-meal sugar and also the blood sugars for eight to 12 hours after injection," explained Dr. Spyros Mezitis, an endocrinologist with Lenox Hill Hospital and assistant professor of medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Cornell Medical Center in New York City. "It has more flexibility."

One injection of long-acting insulin would cover 24 hours, with four short-acting injections given in-between to cover meals.

With premixed, however, patients typically only need two injections: one before breakfast and one before dinner. The first injection covers breakfast and peaks at lunch but disappears by dinner time, at which time a second injection will take care of things until the next morning, explained study lead author Dr. Rehan Qayyum, assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.

This study was commissioned by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

After analyzing findings from 45 previous studies, the authors concluded that premixed insulin analogues and premixed human insulin provided similar blood-sugar control.

The analogues seemed to be more effective in lowering post-meal glucose levels, they said.

The premixed analogues also appeared to be more effective than long-acting insulin analogues and pills in decreasing hemoglobin A1c (a measure of blood-sugar control over time) and post-meal glucose levels.

On the other hand, premixed analogues appeared less effective than long-acting insulin, but better than oral pills, in decreasing fasting glucose levels.

"In terms of clinical practice, what it basically is saying is that if you want to replace premixed human insulin with premixed insulin analog, both seem to work pretty much the same," said Qayyum.

However, there will be individual patients who react differently to different formulations and may do better with long-acting insulin, for instance, he added.

Also, for individuals taking oral medications whose blood sugar is not well controlled, "premixed analogue is one option that can be looked at instead of titrating up or manipulating these oral diabetic agents," Qayyum said.

And, Qayyum emphasized, there is almost no data on how these benefits affect clinical outcomes, meaning the various, severe complications of diabetes such as death, blindness and kidney failure. Longer follow-up studies are needed to answer those questions, he said.

More information
There's more on type 2 diabetes at the American Diabetes Association.

New Noninvasive Device Could Control Diabetes

(HealthDay News) -- Early trials of a new implantable, and removable, intestinal liner have shown promise as a noninvasive means to promote blood sugar control and weight loss.

In contrast to well-established invasive procedures like gastric bypass surgery, the application of the liner does not involve a scalpel. Rather, a doctor inserts it into a patient's small intestine through the mouth in a procedure known as endoscopy.

Once placed, it creates a physical barrier between incoming food and the intestinal wall, thereby altering the way food moves through, and gets processed by, the digestive system.

"Over the last few years, we've learned how effective bariatric surgery can be," explained study author Dr. Lee Kaplan. "But surgery is invasive, and because it has significant side effects in a small percentage of patients, it would be nice to come up with noninvasive things that can work effectively along the same principles of surgery. And this device does that."

The findings were presented Wednesday at the First World Congress on Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes, in New York City. Kaplan cited the results of extensive animal research alongside several small patient studies to indicate that the device, called the EndoBarrier Gastrointestinal Liner, appears to be effective at both quickly reducing blood glucose levels and shrinking the waistline.

"Our earlier animal data was convincing and conclusive, and proved that the concept works," he said during a news conference. "And now this preliminary work with a small group of people appears to be completely consistent with what we've seen in animals -- namely, it has a very dramatic effect in terms of improving diabetes and a good, although not quite as dramatic effect, in terms of weight loss."

Kaplan is a gastroenterologist and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, as well as director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Weight Center in Boston. He noted that he has no investment in the marketing or capitalizing of the device. However, his current research is funded by a grant from the device's Massachusetts-based manufacturer, GI Dynamics, for whom Kaplan serves as a consultant.

To indicate the enormity of public health concern over diabetes, Kaplan and his colleagues shared 2007 statistics issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which estimate that 23.5 million Americans are diabetic, of whom 90 percent to 95 percent have type 2 diabetes.

At the meeting, Kaplan noted that 118 patients have been outfitted with the liner, in trials conducted in Chile, the Netherlands and the United States.

Today's announcement focused on the results of one of those trials, involving 18 type 2 diabetes patients, 12 of whom received the liner and six of whom received a so-called "sham endoscopy.

After tracking patients post-implant for an average of 31 weeks, the authors determined that average blood glucose levels fell approximately three to four times more steeply among patients receiving the actual implant as opposed to those who received nothing.

This findings build upon an earlier analysis of the same patient group -- announced this past June -- which indicated that blood sugar control rapidly improved post-implant in as little as one week.

At the same time, patients were found to have lost an average of 27.5 pounds by the 30-week point --an achievement described as "slightly less dramatic an effect" when compared with the device's impact on glucose levels.

However, the researchers noted that improvements in blood sugar control appeared to occur independently of weight loss --indicating that the device has a direct beneficial impact on diabetes status, regardless of how well it sloughs off the pounds.

"This is just one model of the types of endoscopic devices that we are going to see in the future," Kaplan said at the meeting, and he noted that his research team plans to launch larger, long-term trials to further explore this particular mechanism's potential.

"I'm optimistic," said Kaplan. "This is one of the more promising devices. But we're at least a few years away from FDA approval, and this is just an early development phase."

For his part, Dr. Samuel Klein, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, agreed that more investigation is needed.

"I know the device well," he said. "And certainly the fact that we now know that the gastrointestinal tract has a profound influence on both regulating food intake as well as potentially regulating metabolic control brings gastroenterology, as well gastrointestinal devices, into the forefront of metabolic therapy."

"But whether this particular device actually works in humans is yet to be determined," Klein cautioned. "And nothing short of randomized control trials will be acceptable to determine its efficacy. That will be the proof in the pudding."

More information
For more on type 2 diabetes and treatments, visit the American Diabetes Association.

How To Get Ripped Abs - part 1

I have been getting a lot of questions by members asking me to provide them with the number one tip to maximize their time and results.

I have to say that when it comes to fat burning and using minimal equipment, supersetting with strength training exercises is the best way to go.

You can perform supersets using only bodyweight exercises and/or dumbbells.

If you aren't sure what a superset is, let me explain.

A superset is when you perform two or more exercises back to back. This means that you don't give yourself a resting break in-between those exercises.

This 'more work, less rest' approach works wonders when trying to lose excess body fat. It is the extra work
that will burn more calories and speed up your metabolism, therefore making you lose inches faster that any other
workout routine.

I asked my buddy, Craig Ballantyne (Men's Health Writer)of http://www.turbulencetrainingsecrets.com/ to demonstrate some quick but killer superset routines for you guys.

'Allergic Girl' teaches allergy-free dining

Since 2½-year-old Ava Zinna ended up in the emergency room this summer after an allergic reaction to peanuts, her mother, Tara, has worried about her daughter's food whenever they eat out. But when the family went to Blue Smoke restaurant Sunday afternoon in New York, someone had already asked to hold the peanuts. full story

Health Tip: Helping a Loved One Heal

(HealthDay News) - When a loved one is recovering from a major illness, he or she may need a lot of help and support.

The American Heart Association offers these suggestions:

• Offer plenty of support and encouragement, and look for support groups for both of you to join.
• Go along for doctor appointments. Ask questions and take notes, in case there are questions later.
• Give an honest report to the doctor about how your loved one is feeling, and how well he or she is following instructions.
• Help track and record information, such as when and how to take medicines, which foods to avoid, and which forms of exercise are safe.
• Offer to make healthy changes together. If your loved has to stop smoking, start exercising or change diet, make the same changes yourself.

Vigorous Exercise Aids Those With Obesity-Related Gene

(HealthDay News) -- Physical activity may reduce the risk of obesity in people with a genetic mutation that predisposes them to high body-mass index (BMI), says a U.S. study.

Recent research has shown a link between BMI and variants of the fat mass and obesity associated with the (FTO) gene. The mutations connected with obesity occur in about 30 percent of European populations and are associated with a 1.75-kilogram (3.9-lb.) increase in body weight, according to background information in the study.

While lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise are important factors in weight control, it's not exactly clear how they interact with genetics.

In this study, researchers analyzed DNA samples from 704 healthy Amish adults, average age 43.6, and also conducted a series of physiological tests on the participants, including recording their physical activity over a seven-day period.

Among the participants, 54 percent of men and 63.7 percent of women were overweight, and 10.1 percent of men and 30.5 percent of women were obese. The genetic analysis showed that 26 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs -- changes in a single base letter of DNA) in the FTO gene were associated with BMI.

Further investigation found that the two strongest SNPs were associated with BMI only in people with low physical activity scores. The SNPs had no effect on people with above-average physical activity scores.

The study was published in the Sept. 8 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Activity levels in the 'high-activity' stratum were approximately 900 calories [860 calories for women and 980 calories for men] higher than in the 'low-activity' stratum, which, depending on body size, corresponds to about three to four hours of moderately intensive physical activity, such as brisk walking, housecleaning or gardening," the researchers wrote.

"In conclusion, we have replicated the associations of common SNPs in the FTO gene with increased BMI and risk to obesity in the Old Order Amish. Furthermore, we provide quantitative data to show that the weight increase resulting from the presence of these SNPs is much smaller and not statistically significant in subjects who are very physically active. This finding offers some clues to the mechanism by which FTO influences changes in BMI and may have important implications in targeting personalized lifestyle recommendations to prevent obesity in genetically susceptible individuals."

More information
The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more about overweight and obesity.

Colon Cancer Oncogene Discovered

(HealthDay News) -- Researchers have identified a new genetic player in the development of colon cancer.

The findings implicate CDK8, a protein that regulates gene expression in the proliferation of colorectal cancer, the researchers found.

Should the results be validated, they could lead to new therapeutic approaches for colon cancer, as well as new screening and chemopreventative strategies, said Dr. Durado Brooks, director of prostate and colorectal cancer at the American Cancer Society.

"I think it is important work," Brooks said. "They have identified what apparently is an oncogene associated with some colorectal cancers."

Dr. William Hahn, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and his colleagues screened human colon cancer cells for genes that met three criteria: They were required for cellular proliferation, critical to regulating the WNT/beta-catenin signaling pathway known to be involved in the bulk of colon cancer cases, and also genetically amplified in cancerous cells.

"When we did that, we found one gene that fulfilled all three criteria, and that is CDK8," Hahn said.

The results were published in the Sept. 14 issue of Nature.

CDK8 is a member of the so-called mediator complex, which bridges distant protein complexes to activate expression of certain genes.

According to Hahn, the study has two take-home messages.

The first, he said, is the apparent prevalence of colorectal tumors with elevated CDK8. Of the 50 tumors that Hahn and his team analyzed, 31 (62 percent) displayed evidence of CDK8 gene amplification -- that is, the tumors contained more than the normal two copies of the gene, which usually leads to higher levels of protein expression.

"This is surprising in the sense that it occurs in a large percentage of colon cancers, and we didn't know about it," he said.

The second message involves the potential pharmacologic benefits of these results. CDK8 is a type of protein known as a kinase. Kinases are enzymes that catalyze the transfer of phosphate groups from one molecule to another. That action is like flipping a molecular switch, causing the recipient protein to turn on or off. It turns out that kinases tend to play key roles in the biochemical pathways that often go haywire in cancer, so they are popular targets for drug developers.

"There's a reasonable likelihood, though it hasn't happened yet, that one could develop a drug that targets this protein in colon cancer," he said, "and you could determine which colon cancer patients are likely to benefit."

That's because Hahn and his team showed, using a genetic technique called RNA interference, that knocking down CDK8 protein levels in cancer cells that normally contain elevated CDK8 levels, reduced cell proliferation. That effect was less pronounced in cells containing lower levels of CDK8.

So, those tumors with elevated CDK8 levels might make good candidates for novel drug therapies directed at the enzyme, Hahn said.

"This fits into an emerging concept in cancer treatment," he explained. "Not only do we develop better therapies, but hand-in-hand, we want to find which patients will respond to therapy, rather than giving it to everyone and hoping they will respond."

Brooks agreed that CDK8 is a potential drug target. He noted other potential benefits, too, such as possibly being able to identify those at elevated risk of developing colorectal cancer, or identifying those who should be screened earlier and more comprehensively. It may even be possible to develop chemopreventative compounds that could diminish the risk of developing cancer in the first place.

"But we are at the very beginning of that pathway," Brooks added. "All they have shown is this oncogene seems to be associated with a significant number of cancer specimens.... But translating that to, number one, how broadly this occurs in the broader community of colorectal cancer, and also in the general patient population, and then next, how can we use this information, we are at the very beginning of that process."

In another report in this week's online issue of Nature Genetics, researchers from Iceland said that they have found a genetic variant associated with increased risk of urinary bladder cancer.

More information
For more about colon cancer, visit the National Cancer Institute.

Desperate Housewife Dana Delany Gets a Mammogram on TV

By Sally Chew

On September 5, Desperate Housewives star Dana Delany had a breast checkup on national TV. During Stand Up to Cancer, an hour-long broadcast that raised $100 million for breast cancer by running commercial-free on all three major networks, Delany invited the cameras to document her clinical breast exam, mammogram, and ultrasound. Afterward, she sat down with her doctor to look at images of a suspicious lump that turned out to be benign (but will require a follow-up).

Check out Delany’s segment on YouTube:

Health Tip: Help Your Child Develop Healthy Habits

(HealthDay News) -- Healthy habits for regular exercise and a good diet start at home, and they should start at a young age.

The American Heart Association offers these suggestions to help your child stay healthy for life:

• Set a good example by living a healthy lifestyle yourself.
• Make exercise a family activity that involves everyone. Make family time for exercise every day, choosing sports and games that everyone enjoys.
• Set a limit on the amount of time your child spends watching TV, playing video games, or on the computer.
• Set goals for your child, such as a certain amount of daily physical activity or limits on the amount of unhealthy foods allowed.
• Encourage and reward good behavior, but never with food.
• Have a healthy dinner as a family every night.
• Teach your child to read food labels, and to recognize which foods are healthy and which aren't.

Job Loss Has Long-Term Impact on Social Lives

(HealthDay News) -- Getting laid off affects not only one's economic well-being, it also curtails one's involvement in community and social activities, a new study found.

The study, by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, found that workers who had experienced even one involuntary job loss were 35 percent less likely to be involved in their communities than those who had never been out of work because of layoff, restructuring or a business closing or relocating.

The break from community involvement -- whether it meant dropping out from a book club or no longer participating in the PTA -- continued for the remainder of the workers' lives, not just for the period of unemployment, according to the study.

"Social engagement often involves an element of social trust and a sense that things are reciprocal -- that you give some support if you get some support, and you benefit from society if society benefits from you," study lead author Jennie E. Brand, a UCLA sociologist, said in a university news release. "When workers are displaced, the tendency is to feel as though the social contract has been violated, and we found that they are less likely to reciprocate."

The findings, which examined the long-term impact of job displacement on social participation, were published in the September issue of the journal Social Forces. The research was based on information from a study that tracked 4,373 Wisconsin high school graduates (class of 1957) for more than 45 years.

Displaced workers were most likely to withdraw from participating in youth and community groups, followed by church and church groups, charitable organizations and leisurely activities, such as country club attendance. Professional organizations were the least likely to be affected by a disruption of employment.

"Displaced workers may be more likely to keep up with professional groups than other groups, because they're trying to make up for lost ground with respect to their careers," Brand said.

The social withdrawal occurred most with those displaced during their peak earning years -- between 35 and 53 years of age. Employees who lost jobs near the end of their careers were less likely to withdraw than workers who were displaced earlier in their careers.

"Being laid off doesn't appear to be as socially damaging for older workers as younger ones," Brand said. "The shame factor of downsizing your lifestyle just isn't there, because your peers may be downsizing as well, and you can play off your displacement as an early retirement even though it may be forced retirement."

The findings have considerable ramifications not just for society, but also for the individual's attempt to find new work, Brand contended.

"If workers withdraw socially after being laid off, then they're experiencing double-jeopardy," Brand said. "They're losing their jobs, and then they're not participating in society, so they're not keeping up with social contacts that might help them find a new job."

Brand said charities and community groups might want to work harder at reaching out to displaced workers for the good of the organization and for the worker's own good.

"Everybody loses when people withdraw from society," Brand said.

More information
The U.S. Department of Labor has more about dealing with a job loss.

More grandparents taking on parenthood

Rosa Foster sat down at the kitchen table, bowed her head and prompted her grandchildren to say the blessing. She's one of 2.5 million grandparents around the United States who are the primary caregivers for their grandchildren. "It has not been a picnic all the time," Foster said. "It's been hard." full story

Food for thought: Thinking makes us pig out

Study: Intellectual activities make people eat more than when resting
By Robert Roy Britt

Food for thought: Intellectual activities make people eat more than when just resting, according to a study that sheds new light on brain food.

This finding might also help explain the obesity epidemic of an increasingly sedentary society in which people still have to think now and then.

Researchers split 14 university student volunteers into three groups for a 45-minute session of either relaxing in a sitting position, reading and summarizing a text, or completing a series of memory, attention, and vigilance tests on the computer. Story continues

Is Your Diet Giving You Wrinkles?

What you eat -- or don't eat -- can affect the health of your skin. So make sure you're protecting your looks from the inside out. Read More

Health Tip: Getting Ready for Cancer Treatment

(HealthDay News) -- Treatment for cancer takes an emotional and physical toll on your body. But you can take steps to prepare for the treatment that will help make the process easier.

The American Cancer Society offers these suggestions:

• Try to think positive, and talk to others about what you're feeling and how you're coping.
• Stick to a very healthy diet, including lots of plant-based, low-fat foods, and little to no alcohol. Avoid foods that are high in salt, are smoked, or are pickled.
• Eat plenty of small, nutritious snacks each day, especially those high in protein.
• Make sure that you get enough calories and protein in your diet, and try to eat regularly throughout the day.
• Try to maintain a healthy weight. Ask your doctor if it is safe for you to get 30 minutes of moderate exercise on most days of the week.

3 Powerful Ab Exercises That You Are Not Doing

I can't believe that I got to hang out in Vegas with some of the biggest names in the fitness industry!

That was the first time that I have been to Vegas and I must admit that it was pretty wild.

I even got to workout with a couple guys and see what they are made of. luckily for you, I brought my camera to capture it all (by the way, we almost got kicked out of the hotel gym for it).

I was taking to my new friend Nathan Hopkins and he showed me his unique training style called the 3x method.

The 3x method simply means that all it takes is these 3 movements, for 3 minutes just 3 times a week, to get the body you've always wanted.

You must watch Nathan's Vegas workout below:

Effective Workout Routine Using Only 3 Movements

3 Powerful Ab Exercises That You Are Not Doing

This program is perfect for busy men who just don't have the time to commit to longer workouts. Make sure to check it out http://www.the3xmethod.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoRX5-3aBtw

Scientists Discover How Osteoarthritis Destroys Cartilage

(HealthDay News) -- The first direct proof of how osteoarthritis destroys cartilage has been discovered by University of Rochester Medical Center researchers.

They said their finding could lead to preventive treatments for a disease that affects almost 21 million aging Americans and is the leading cause of disability in the United States.

Until now, little was known about the cellular and molecular mechanisms that cause the break down of the cartilage in joints. Previous research suggested that higher levels of signaling protein called beta-catenin were associated with osteoarthritis (OA), but there was no direct evidence to confirm that link.

The University of Rochester Medical Center team genetically engineered mice with high levels of beta-catenin and found the mice lost most of their articular cartilage -- the protective layer that covers the ends of bones within joints. The mice also developed the same bony growths and microfractures that occur in people with OA.

In a companion experiment, the researchers also found much higher-than-normal beta-catenin levels in cartilage cells taken from patients with severe arthritis.

"We have created the first model in a living animal that shows exactly how osteoarthritis causes damage. That, of course, puts us in position to interfere with the processes that contribute to the damage in a new and powerful way," study author Dr. Di Chen, an associate professor in the department of orthopedics, said in a university news release.

The study was published Sept. 2 in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

"The first step was to prove that beta-catenin is central to OA development, and I think we have done that," Chen said. "Now, we are seeking to confirm that mechanical loading and meniscal injury create higher levels of beta-catenin in osteoarthritis joints, and that this and meniscal injury [the meniscus is the sponge-like layer of cartilage between the bones of the knee] create higher levels of beta-catenin in osteoarthritic joints, and that this in turn causes cartilage destruction and too fast differentiation of cartilage into bone."

More information
The Arthritis Foundation has more about osteoarthritis.

Treadmill Workouts Help Stroke Survivors

(HealthDay News) -- Working out on a treadmill improves brain function and fitness for people who have survived a stroke and gone through the usual rehabilitation program, a new study found.

"You address two problems these patients have," said study researcher Dr. Andreas Luft, a professor of clinical neurology and neurorehabilitation at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. "One is that they don't know how to walk. Not walking, they become deconditioned and lose cardiovascular fitness. With the treadmill type of training, you improve walking and also increase fitness."

Luft worked with physicians at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland and the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center on the study. It compared the brain and physical function of 37 people who had had strokes and worked on a treadmill three times a week, with 34 people who were given traditional stretching exercises.

After six months, peak walking velocity increased by 51 percent in the treadmill group and just 11 percent in the stretching group. Cardiovascular fitness increased by 18 percent with the treadmill routine, but decreased by 3 percent in the group limited to stretching.

And magnetic resonance imaging showed an increase of blood flow carrying more oxygen to the brainstem and cerebellum for those who worked on the treadmill.

"The most important clinical aspect of the study is that it is saying recovery can occur long after a stroke and can occur even after all the routine therapies have been tried," said Dr. Daniel Hanley, professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins. "Scientifically, the most important point appears to be that rewiring of the brain may be involved in this process, not just body conditioning."

The average age of study participants was 63, and the average time they began the treadmill program was 50 months after the stroke, Hanley noted.

"The average stroke patient now has about eight physical therapy sessions over six to 12 weeks," Hanley said.

The study, published in the Aug. 29 issue of the journal Stroke, shows that treadmill work "should be part of standard treatment for every stroke survivor who has a walking habit," Luft said.

That may not be an easily achievable goal, Luft acknowledged. "Most physical therapy departments have treadmills, but they don't use them to the extent that we used them in the study," he said.

And stroke survivors can't just climb on a treadmill and start walking, Luft said. "Because this is exhausting, it should always be done under supervision," he said. "There is always the risk of running into heart problems and falling. We used special treadmills with handrails and also monitored the heart rate to achieve the level of exertion we needed."

Nevertheless, Hanley said, "the study defies current practice."

More information
Learn more about stroke rehabilitation from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Health Tip: Adjusting to a Hearing Aid

(HealthDay News) -- Wearing a new hearing aid can be difficult, as your ears and brain get used to louder and sharper sounds.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services offers these suggestions to help you adjust to your new hearing aid:

• Start out wearing your hearing aid only at home. Make a careful effort to distinguish all of the sounds that you're now able to hear.


• Gradually add more sources of sound -- such as the radio, television, or a conversation with family or friends -- before leaving home with your hearing aid.


• Wear your hearing aid only as long as it feels comfortable, and gradually extend the amount of time that you wear it.


• Try not to be frustrated with having to frequently adjust the volume, at first. The hearing aid may have to be adjusted by your doctor or audiologist after a bit of time to make sure you can hear comfortably.


• Sounds should start to feel more natural and familiar after several weeks.

Alcohol in Early Pregnancy May Prompt Fetal Cell Death

(HealthDay News) -- Just a few glasses of wine over a short period in early pregnancy may cause fetal problems, suggest researchers from the Medical College of Georgia.

The initial signs of fetal alcohol syndrome, which affects one in 1,000 babies, include facial malformations such as a flat and high upper lip, small eye openings, and a short nose. Researchers are investigating whether these signs can help determine how much alcohol at what point in pregnancy may cause fetal problems.

Supported by a grant from the March of Dimes, Erhard Bieberich, a biochemist in the Medical College of Georgia Schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies, and his colleagues are focusing on how alcohol consumption affects neural crest cells, which help form the upper part of the skull, in mice.

Specifically, the researchers are comparing cell death in mice following different levels of alcohol consumption to the cell death that occurs during normal development.

There is evidence that the equivalent of just a few glasses of wine over an hour in the first few weeks of fetal life can increase cell death.

"It's well known that when you drink, you get a buzz. But a couple of hours later, that initial impact, at least, is gone," said Bieberich in a Medical College of Georgia press release. "But, your fetus may have experienced irreversible damage."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that pregnant women and sexually active women not using effective birth control refrain from drinking.

More information
The Nemours Foundation has more about fetal alcohol syndrome.

Children of Older Fathers at Risk for Bipolar Disorder

(HealthDay News) -- The older the father, the greater his child's risk for bipolar disorder.

That's the conclusion of a new study by Swedish researchers who compared 13,428 people with bipolar disorder to more than 67,000 people without the condition.

"After controlling for parity (number of children), maternal age, socioeconomic status and family history of psychotic disorders, the offspring of men 55 years and older were 1.37 times more likely to be diagnosed as having bipolar disorder than the offspring of men aged 20 to 24 years," wrote Emma M. Frans, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and colleagues.

Children of older mothers also had an increased risk, but the risk was less pronounced than that associated with older fathers. In cases of early onset bipolar disorder (diagnosed before age 20), the effect of the father's age was much stronger, while the mother's age had no effect, the study found.

"Personality of older fathers has been suggested to explain the association between mental disorders and advancing paternal age. However, the mental disorders associated with increasing paternal age are under considerable genetic influence," the study authors wrote.

This suggests a genetic link between the advancing age of the father and bipolar and other disorders among children, the researchers said.

"As men age, successive germ cell replications occur, and de novo (new, not passed from parent to offspring) mutations accumulate monotonously as a result of DNA copy errors," the researchers noted.

"Women are born with their full supply of eggs that have gone through only 23 replications, a number that does not change as they age. Therefore, DNA copy errors should not increase in number with maternal age. Consistent with this notion, we found smaller effects of increased maternal age on the risk of bipolar disorder in the offspring."

The study was published the September issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

Bipolar disorder is a common, severe mood disorder involving episodes of mania and depression. Other than a family history of psychotic disorders, few risk factors for the condition have been identified, according to background information in the article.

More information
The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more about bipolar disorder.

'Bonding Gene' Could Help Men Stay Married

(HealthDay News) -- Whether a man has one type of gene versus another could help decide whether he's good "husband material," a new study suggests.

A study of Swedish twin brothers found that differences in a gene modulating the hormone vasopressin were strongly tied to how well each man fared in marriage.

"Our main finding was an association between a variant of the vasopressin receptor 1a gene and how strong bonds men reported they had to their partners," said lead researcher Hasse Walum, of the department of medical epidemiology and biostatistics at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. "Men carrying this variant scored on average lower on a scale measuring the strength of the bond compared to men not carrying this variant."

Women married to men carrying the "poorer bonding" form of the gene also reported "lower scores on levels of marital quality than women married to men not carrying this variant," Walum noted.

His team published its findings in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.

Walum's team first got interested in the role of vasopressin and bonding among males when studying a rodent, the vole. "Studies in voles have shown that the hormone vasopressin is released in the brain of males during mating," Walum explained.

Vasopressin activates the brain's reward system, and "you could say that mating-induced vasopressin release motivates male voles to interact with females they have mated with," Walum said. "This is not a sexual motivation, but rather a sort of prolonged social motivation." In other words, the more vasopressin in the brain, the more male voles want to stick around and mingle with the female after copulation is through. This effect "is more pronounced in the monogamous voles," Walum noted.

But voles and humans are very different species, so would the same effect hold true for men?

To find out, the Swedish team zeroed in the vasopressin 1a gene, which is shared by both species. Variations in this gene strongly influence vasopressin activity in the male vole, so Walum wondered if it might do the same for men.

To find out, his team looked for variants of the vasopressin 1a gene among 552 pairs of male twins enrolled in Sweden's ongoing Twin and Offspring Study. All of the men were currently in a relationship that had lasted at least five years, although about 18 percent of the men remained unmarried. The men were subjected to psychological tests assessing their ability to bond and commit, and the researchers also interviewed the men's spouses when possible.

They found that men with a certain variant, known as an allele, of the vasopressin 1a gene, called 334, tended to score especially low on a standard psychological test called the Partner Bonding Scale. They were also less likely to be married than men carrying another form of the gene. And carrying two copies of the 334 allele doubled the odds that the men had undergone some sort of marital crisis (for example, the threat of divorce) over the past year.

All of these findings "make sense," said Dr. John Lucas, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. He said it's well known that genes help drive much of human behavior, including mate bonding.

But the vasopressin 1a gene is likely not the only factor influencing a man's ability to form true and lasting bonds, he added.

"It's unlikely to be a single gene [at work] -- it's likely to be multiple genes that are expressed incompletely and interact with the environment," said Lucas, who is also a psychiatrist at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He pointed out that what psychologists call "temperament" -- the individual palette of emotions and behaviors that even babies display -- is probably "hard-wired" by our genetics. "But temperament, through training and experience, becomes personality," Lucas said. "And personality is a complicated situation, of course, and it involves the ability to commit."

So, it's too early for men to blame their inability to commit on a single gene, although Lucas guesses it's an excuse that's "certainly going to be used."

For his part, Walum agreed that men and their spouses shouldn't read too much into the finding.

"Taken together, the effect of the gene variant that we have studied on human pair-bonding behavior is rather small, and it can not, with any real accuracy, be used to predict how someone will behave in a future relationship," he said.

Walum also noted that the finding would probably not be applicable to women, since vasopressin appears to be tied to social bonding in males, but not females.

In a related study, also in the same issue of the journal, researchers at the Pacific Health Research Institute in Honolulu said they've identified a gene strongly linked to extended health and life span in humans. The FOXO3A gene, involved in insulin signaling, is just the second gene ever found that is closely tied to longevity, the researchers said. In their study of Japanese-American men, those who lived to an average age of 98 had a specific variant of FOXO3A compared to men who died at younger ages, the team said.

More information
There's more on genes and behavior at Stanford University.

Study: Kids of older dads have higher bipolar risk

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Children born to older fathers face a greater chance of developing bipolar disorder, according to one of the largest studies linking mental illness with advanced paternal age.

Research has connected schizophrenia and autism with older dads, and a Danish study published last year added bipolar disorder to the list. The new study led by researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institute strengthens the evidence.

The leading theory is that older men's sperm may be more likely to develop mutations. Even so, the odds of a person becoming bipolar are so low that the study's authors said it shouldn't dissuade older men from becoming fathers.

Researchers analyzed Swedish national registry data from more than 80,000 people, including 13,428 with bipolar disorder who were born between 1932 and 1991.

The risks started increasing around age 40 but were strongest among those 55 and older. Children with these dads were 37 percent more likely to develop bipolar disorder than those born to men in their 20s.

They also faced more than double the risk of developing bipolar disorder before age 20. Scientists call that early onset disease, and although they have long known that bipolar disorder tends to run in families, early onset disease has been thought to be most strongly linked with genetics. Continue Reading >>

Stroke Risk Increases With Antipsychotic Drugs

All types of antipsychotic drugs increase the risk of stroke.

All drugs used to treat psychosis are linked to an increased risk of stroke, and dementia sufferers are at double the risk, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal.

Concerns about an increased risk of stroke among people taking atypical antipsychotic drugs were first raised in 2002, particularly in people with dementia, prompting the UK’s Committee on Safety of Medicines to recommended in 2004 that these drugs not be used in people with dementia.

Previous research has shown that second generation (atypical) antipsychotic drugs can increase the chances of patients having a stroke. But the risk of stroke associated with first generation (typical) antipsychotics, and whether the risk differs in people with and without dementia, is not known.

A team of researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, examined data from the General Practice Research Database (GPRD), which contains the clinical information of more than six million patients registered at over 400 general practices in the UK.

They assessed the effect of exposure to antipsychotic medication on the incidence of stroke in 6 790 patients with a recorded incident of stroke and at least one prescription of any antipsychotic between January 1988 and the end of 2002.

The authors found that during periods when patients were receiving an antispychotic drug they were 1.7 times more likely to have a stroke, whereas people with dementia were 3.5 times more likely to have a stroke whilst taking any antipsychotic.

The likelihood of having a stroke was slightly higher for people taking atypical antipsychotics than people taking typical antipsychotics.
Previously, the risk of stroke associated with typical antipsychotics was unclear, say the researchers, but “we have established that all types of antipsychotics carry an increased risk, although the risk might be somewhat higher with the atypical drugs.”

They conclude: “We reaffirm that the risks associated with antipsychotic use in patients with dementia generally outweigh the potential benefits, and in this patient group, use of antipsychotic drugs should be avoided wherever possible.”

The study did not look at the specific mechanisms linking antipsychotics and stroke or why the risk is greater with atypical antipsycotics.

Source
British Medical Journal