There is an importance of inflammation as a contributor to heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. In the United States, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health report that blood levels of C-reactive protein, a molecular marker of inflammation, rank with cholesterol levels as indicators of future coronary heart disease.
A woman’s risk of developing breast cancer is due in part to a group of very small variations in genes which code for a cell’s estrogen receptors, according to a collaborative study by scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Celera Diagnostics, SAIC-Frederick Inc., Applied Biosystems, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. The study appears in the December 15, 2004, issue of Cancer Research.
About one in five Ayurvedic herbal medicine products sold in the Boston area contains toxic levels of lead, mercury or arsenic, researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
A new test can predict both the risk of breast cancer recurrence and may identify women who will benefit most from chemotherapy, according to research supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and performed in collaboration with the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) and Genomic Health Inc. These results suggest that almost half of 43,000 U.S. women diagnosed with estrogen-dependent, lymph-node negative breast cancer every year are at low risk for recurrence and may not need to go through the discomfort and side effects of chemotherapy.
Cataract, a clouding of the lens resulting in a partial loss of vision, is very common in older people. Results from a new study show that lifetime lead exposure may increase the risk of developing cataracts. Researchers found that men with high levels of lead in the tibia, the larger of the two leg bones below the knee, had a 2.5-fold increased risk for cataract, the leading cause of blindness and visual impairment.
Cholesterol is essential for human life. It builds and repairs cells, it is used to produce sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone, it is converted to bile acids to help you digest food and it is found in large amounts in brain and nerve tissue. The liver produces enough cholesterol to satisfy these functions. Concerns associated with cholesterol starts when intake from foods like meat, particularly organ meats like liver and kidney, eggs, dairy and other “animal” food sources exceed recommended levels.
Middle-aged people with diabetes are nearly three times more likely to develop dementia in old age – chronic loss of mental capacity due to an organic cause. Dementia may involve progressive deterioration of thinking, memory, behavior, personality and motor function, and may also be associated with psychological symptoms such as depression and apathy.
Using ultrasound in combination with the drug t-PA can improve response to an ischemic stroke, according to a study involving 126 patients. This first-of-its-kind human trial compared the safety and efficacy of ultrasound and t-PA versus use of t-PA alone. The trial was funded in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The finding appears in the November 18, 2004, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, have created a model that predicts the survival of follicular lymphoma patients based on the molecular characteristics of their tumors at diagnosis. The model is based on two sets of genes – called survival-associated signatures – whose activity was found to be associated with good or poor prognosis for patients with the cancer. The scientists’ results, to be published in the November 19, 2004, New England Journal of Medicine, suggest that immune cells infiltrating follicular lymphoma tumors have an important impact on survival – both signatures came from such immune cells.
The Food and Drug Administration announced three major regulatory initiatives designed to further implement the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA). These initiatives — a regulatory strategy, an open public meeting, and a draft guidance document for industry — are significant steps FDA has taken in the implementation of DSHEA.