d-mars.com Health & Wellness Journal 08

Health & Wellness Journal Health

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Medical

Wellness

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June-July 25, 2011

INSIDE

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research

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fitness

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Lifestyle

Inspire, Inform & Educate

8

Edition

New Medical Technologies

Six Diseases You Can Learn About from a Genetic Test In an age of instant information, it’s not surprising people want to know as much as possible about their risk of diseases.

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Developing Robots for the Hospital Emergency Room A group of computer engineers is convinced that the basic technology is now available to create robot assistants that can perform effectively in the environment of the emergency room.

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Mr. Sterling Carter & Mr. D-Mars

“Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other. ” ~Bill Gates

A Tracking Device that fits on the Head of a Pin Engineering is now scaling down this crucial sensing technology for use in smartphones, medical equipment and more futuristic technologies.

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TX Assoc. of Indep. Pharmacy Owners Founders and Staff

Pinnacle Foot & Ankle Dr. Paul Sykes D.P.M

Treating HIV-Infected People with Antiretrovirals Protects HIV patients who took oral antiretroviral medicines when their immune systems were relatively healthy, were able to reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to their sexual partners.

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The Texas Association of Independent Pharmacy Owners Ameriprise Insurance (Sponsers)

The Houston Area Urban League Young Professionals Health & Wellness Fair at Emancipation Park

June 2011

Publisher’s Message

Keith J. Davis, Sr. SR. PUBLISHER Keith J. Davis, Sr. VICE PRESIDENT Kevin Davis EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Christopher P. Kirksey EDITING CONSULTANT ReShonda Tate-Billingsley ACCOUNTING MANAGER Eugenie Doualla SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Mike Jones C.T. Foster Dwight Jones

Medical technology is today a feature not just of hospitals, clinics and GP surgeries but also of homes. The practice of medicine has been revolutionized by computers, digitization, new materials and good old-fashioned laboratory research. Yet this has been accompanied by increased patient anxiety about the risks and consequences of medical intervention.

The introduction of new medical technology has not been so rapid in developing countries, but the sense of ambivalence is the same – technology represents both progress and threat. In countries with multiple healing systems patients can choose whom to consult, depending on their illness. In these countries a technological approach may be chosen as a first or last resort As always, thank you for your continued support of d-mars.com. When you support d-mars.com, you are supporting more than just our company; you are supporting the communities in which we live and work. Working together, we can succeed in making positive things happen.

CONTENTS

PHOTOGRAPHY L .C. Poullard

Providing Sterling Rehabilitation Servicees to Houstonians........................ 4

MARKETING CONSULTANT Johnny Ray Davis, Jr.

Heel Pain...................................................................................................... 8

MULTIMEDIA DIRECTOR Andrea Hennekes

Sanitizers Under Fire as Superbug Fighters..................………...........…....11

LAYOUT & GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Michael J. Martinez Ghuzzala Malik (Faith)

Asthma Pill Works.................................…………………………….....…..…13

DISTRIBUTION Booker T. Davis, Jr. Johnny Ray Davis, Jr. Rockie Hayden

The Healing Power of Laser Therapy...……….............................………....16

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dr. Tamyra Comeaux Dr. Ka-Ron Y. Wade Dr. Khalilah McFee Jeanie Marshall Richard Rees, D.P.M., P.A. Brandale Mills Sara Reistad-Long Sterling Carter

6 Diseases You Can Learn About from Genetic Test……………….…......... 6 Developing Robots for the ER..................................................................... 9 Computer Chips Wired with Nerve Cells....................................................13 Reality Check: Genetic Test tell How Long You’ll Live.........................…...14 A Tracking Device that Fits on the Head of a Pin.......................................15 Mercury Thermometers Final Phase Out..………..........................…..........18 Prosthetics That Feel...................................................................................18 Parents, Not Kids, Are Abusers of Technology............................................20 Can Small Tounge Shocks Relieve Sleep Apnea?......................................21 Obese Men Face Higher Risk.....................................................................22 Autism Rates Higher than Thought.............................................................23 Treating HIV-Infected People with Antiretrovirals........................................24 U.S. Study Finds Easier Way to Prevent Tuberculosis...........................….24 5 Medical Myths that just won’t Go Away..................................................28 New Improved Dental Procedures..............................................................31

MR. D-MARS D-MARS.com Business Journal Tip of the Month “America’s doctors, nurses and medical researchers are the best in the world, but our health care system is broken..”

- Mike Ferguson

June 2011

7322 Southwest Fwy, Suite 806 Houston, Texas 77074 713-272-9511 . Phone 713-272-6364 . Fax 1-800-453-8752 . Toll Free www.d-mars.com

Providing “Sterling” Rehabilitative Services to Houstonians

By Sharon Jenkins

Sterling L. Carter opened Sterling Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation in January 2009. The physical therapist and 19-year Army Reservist was ready to provide outstanding patient care and customer service to local Houstonians. He had training as a PT (Physical Therapist) in a variety of clinical settings, including the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center. Sterling graduated from the prestigious Langston University with a Bachelors degree in Biology in 1993 and then returned for an additional Bachelors degree at Langston University in Physical Therapy in 1997.

Sterling has practiced as a professional physical therapist for over 15 years. Further enhancing his education with a post-professional Masters degree in Physical Therapy from Texas Woman’s University with a focus in Orthopedics. Sterling is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, a certification common with all professional sports level therapists, athletic trainers and coaches.

Continuing to maintain his pursuit for higher education, Sterling is currently pursuing his clinical doctorate in Physical Therapy through Simmons College bridge DPT pro-

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gram. A proud protector of his country, Sterling has served over 20 years in the United States Army, primarily working as a physical therapist (both active and reserve status).

Sterling’s past military and life experiences have afforded him the skills and compassion needed in the healthcare

Carter was off work for the recovery period. He used the time to lay the groundwork for opening his own physical therapy practice in Sugar Land, Texas. Carter specializes in treating people with chronic pain and orthopedic injuries, interests he developed after years working as a PT at

a model where, from the point that they call on the phone to the point that they leave the clinic, the patient knows he is the most important person to us.” He also had support from Sammons Preston Rehab Sales Consultant Stacie Talbott and the rest of the Sammons Preston team. Today

environment. His care and concern for the well-being of people and dedication to excellence, quality, and results are apparent in his vision for this clinic.

In 2008, when he ruptured his Achilles tendon working out at the gym,

the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and for the Army. Mr. Carter stated that “Being a PT in the military was a great way to build my assessment and diagnoses skills.” His jobs ranged from inpatient/acute care to outpatient/orthopedic based settings.

He also worked side jobs in hospitals, home health care, and more, but it was always his dream to open his own practice.

Carter’s practice philosophy focuses on customer service and quality care. Before he opened the clinic’s doors, Carter thought about ways that he could best serve his patients, through on-line education and using unique, quality equipment. He says, “If you can exhibit exemplary customer service, along with quality skilled care, regardless of the field, everything falls into place. I created

his practice serves a growing patient base that is responding to his commitment to exceptional care and wellness.

Carter had to reach out to area doctors and build relationships so that they would refer their patients to him. “I think the key to success in any business, in my opinion, is one where you’re constantly willing to learn and to work extremely hard. When I opened, coming from the VA Medical Center I didn’t have strong doctor contacts … What was key for me was the determination and drive to succeed by any means necessary,” he says.

On the second floor of a medical building in Sugar Land, Carter selected an empty office to house his practice. Before he could move in, the space needed to be reconfigured in order to fit all the necessary equipment and supplies, not to mention the

staff and patients. Carter reached out to Stacie Talbott, a Sammons Preston rehab sales consultant he knew from another practice, and relied on her to design a workable floor plan. “Stacie was great. I gave her a list of things I might need and she was able to make everything fit,” he says. “Probably 85-90 percent of everyone who walks in the door says, ‘This is the nicest physical therapy clinic I’ve been in.’”

For about the first year, Carter was the only physical therapist on staff, treating just a few patients three times a week. He personally meets with all of his patients, sometimes devoting an entire hour to treatments, depending on their needs. As the number of Sterling Physical Therapy patients has grown, however, he’s gradually had to step back. “I’ve had to realize that I’m

the business owner and understand that while I’d like to see every patient, I just can’t,” he says. “But I can develop a model that everyone can follow in order to exhibit the same level of quality care and customer service.”

New staff members who were hired to help manage the increased business: a physical therapist assistant, part-time marketer and full-time office manager, all follow protocols set

by Carter to ensure that a standard level of care is maintained. “My vision is to create a level of customer service and quality treatment, better than JUNE 2011

anything out there, and replicate it,” he says. While he already has been presented with opportunities to expand, Carter will wait to build another clinic until he’s perfected his practice model.

“In life in general, nothing is given to you, everything is earned. You have to be willing to put forth the effort,” he says.

As a brand-new practice with an emphasis on treating orthopedic cases and joint issues, Carter had an opportunity to differentiate himself from other PTs in the area with specialty equipment. Stacie Talbott invited Carter to the Houston Branch showroom where he could get his hands on the equipment he was interested in. Neck and back injuries are a large percentage of the cases Carter deals with; therefore, he wanted unique equipment that would expedite patient wellness. Stacie

recommended the DTS decompression machine, a traction table/system for treating lumbar and cervical patients.

“It has really been beneficial,” Carter says, “and it helped separate us from the rest of the clinics in the area. It’s a huge selling point for patients looking for a spinal decompression system.”

Another multifunctional piece of equipment that Carter brought on board is the Chattanooga Vectra Genisys, with ultrasound, electrical stimulation, laser and EMG, and a set-up for two channels to treat two patients at once. The unit also stores standard

protocols for a number of treatments, so that if a therapist isn’t sure exactly how to treat a patient, he or she can review what’s worked successfully with the Genisys on other similar patients.

Sterling Carter’s success in his first year of business can be attributed in part to a well-developed website.

In addition to promoting the clinic to

in process much faster. “Our intent is to minimize their wait time…and get them into the back for treatment, and not to waste their time,” Carter says.

Nothing beats establishing good relationships with doctors and patients, he says, and making sure to always deliver quality care. “It’s all about rapport and relationships.” Carter Concludes,

doctors and patients, SterlingTherapy.com is a hub of patient education. “We’re in an era of information, so the more you can give, the more beneficial your site is,” Carter says.

For new patients, the site helps them decide if Sterling Physical Therapy is right for them. “When someone is trying to determine if they’ll go to your practice, the only thing they have to go off of is what they see online or what their doctor tells them,” he says. “A website gives patients a clinical picture of what you’re about before they even walk in the door.”

From the beginning, Carter planned to market his practice via the Internet and to make his website an integral part of the business. When new patients call to schedule an appointment, the receptionist records their email address and sends them a new-patient newsletter with instructions for their first visit. On the website, patients can download and print forms, and fill them out prior to their appointment, making the check-

“We guarantee a significant reduction in pain.” For more information about Mr. Carter and Sterling Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation please visit:

www.SterlingTherapy.com We Accept All Insurance On the Job Injuries Auto Accidents

6 Diseases You Can Learn About From a Genetic Test I

n an age of instant information, it’s not surprising people want to know as much as possible about their risk of developing certain diseases. Now, mail-order kits allow us a peek at our genetic destinies, though some have questioned the accuracy of such information. A handful of companies have cropped up that both sell the kits and offer genetic counseling based on the results.

Tests using blood samples usually require a prescription, but others ask consumers to simply spit in a tube or swab the inside of their cheek. Prices range from several hundred dollars on up. The results tell of genetic markers that, if present, may signal susceptibilities to certain health conditions. These markers, called SNPs (or single nucleotide polymorphisms), are variations in gene sequences. SNPs don’t cause disease, but can help determine the chances of developing a certain illness, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genome Program.

Breast and ovarian cancer The vast majority of the more than 200,000 breast cancer diagnoses given to American women each year occur in those with no known family history of the disease, but 5 to 10 percent are due to up to three genetic mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes.

BRCA genes belong to a class known as tumor suppressors, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). When mutated, they can allow uncontrolled cell growth. Women with mutations in these genes are about five times more likely to develop breast cancer than those without them, and are between 15 and 40 times more likely to develop ovarian cancer, according to the NCI.These mutations are more prevalent among women of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, according to genetic testing company 23andMe.

Celiac disease An autoimmune condition triggered by proteins called gluten that are found in wheat, barley and rye, celiac disease attacks the tissues of the small intestine, causing diarrhea and abdominal pain. About 2 million Americans are affected.

Many people with celiac disease have no symptoms, however, and the condition can mimic others such as irritable bowel syndrome. The only treatment is to stick to a gluten-free diet, which prevents intestinal damage.

According to 23andMe, celiac disease is up to 87 percent attributable to genetics. Tests look for specific versions of genes for an immune system protein called HLA-DQ. The protein is is encoded by a set of genes on chromosome 6. According to Navigenics, about 1 in 22 people with a sibling, parent or child with celiac disease will develop it themselves. Those with a second-degree relative (an aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, grandparent, grandchild or half-sibling) have a 1 in 39 risk.

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Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) AMD is the most common cause of irreversible vision loss in Americans over age 60. The diseasecauses the retina – the tissue at the back of the eye responsible for transmitting images to the brain – to deteriorate, resulting in central vision loss crucial for reading, driving or recognizing faces.

According to the NIH, about 1.75 million Americans suffer from AMD. About 200,000 people lose central vision in one or both eyes each year, according to the Macular Degeneration Foundation (MDF). Genetics and environmental factors account for the development of AMD, according to 23andMe, with up to 71 percent of cases attributable to heredity. Tests focus on a group of genes called ABCR genes, and those with these certain variations in these genes have a 30 percent greater chance of developing AMD, according to the MDF. According to a study in the journal Nature Genetics, those whose siblings have AMD are between three and six times more likely to develop it than the general population.

Bipolar disorder Also known as manic-depressive disorder, bipolar disorder is a mental illness marked by severe mood swings from despair to euphoria, according to the Mayo Clinic. Bipolar disorder affects 5.7 million Americans ages 18 and older, in any given year, according to the NIH.Bipolar disorder has a strong genetic component, though the SNPs that researchers have identified so far account for only a fraction of cases.

Up to 93 percent of cases may be triggered by heredity, according to 23andMe. Tests look for a protein marker encoded by the ANK3 gene, which is involved in nerve cell structure and function, according to a 2009 study in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

The average person’s chances of developing bipolar disorder are 2 to 3 percent, according to the Center for Genetics Education in Australia. The risks increase with the number of relatives affected and their degree of relatedness: up to 70 percent if an identical twin is affected, 50 percent if both parents have the disorder, 20 percent if one parent and a sibling has it, and 13 percent if a single sibling has it.

Parkinson’s disease A neurological disorder caused by a loss of dopamine-producing brain cells, Parkinson’s disease is marked by trembling in the limbs, jaw and face; stiffness in the limbs and trunk; and or slowed movement and impaired balance and coordination. At least 500,000 Americans have been diagnosed with PD, with another 50,000 diagnosed each year, according to the NIH. Most cases of PD affect those over 50, and the average lifetime risk of developing it is small – about 1 to 2 percent. However, mutations in a gene known as LRRK2 have been linked to a much higher risk of developing PD. More than 50 variations of the LRRK2 gene are known, and several are associated with PD. A recent study found that a person who inherits a one mutation in this gene, called the G2019S mutation, from either parent has a 28 percent chance of developing Parkinson’s by age 59 and a 74 percent chance by age 79, according to 23andMe.

Obesity About one-third of Americans are classified as obese, meaning they weigh at least 100 pounds more than their ideal weight or have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher.Scientists don’t yet know how many genes are involved in developing obesity, though 23andMe attributes obesity to heredity in up to 84 percent of those affected.

Variations in a gene called FTO gene account for almost 7 pounds of weight difference, according to the company. A recent study also showed that levels of the FTO gene were higher in fatty tissue, according to 23andMe, and the SNP on the FTO gene seems almost exclusively associated with fat tissue rather than muscle mass or bone density.

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Heel Pain

Plantar fasciistic

By Dr. Richard Rees, D.P.M., P.A. Contributing Writer

Plantar fasciistic is the usual cause for heel pain, which is also called heel spur syndrome, if there is a spur present. The other possible causes heel pain are stress, arthritis, tendonitis, nerve irritation and in rare cases, a cyst.

In case of plantar fasciitis, there is first irritation and then inflammation of the plantar fascia that extends from heel to toes. Faulty foot structure like arch problems is the most common cause for this condition. Even flat surfaces, use of non-supportive footwear on hard surfaces, long hours on the feet and obesity also lead to plantar fasciitis

Symptoms

The most common symptoms for pain in the heels are pain in the heel bottom, pain that worsens on arising and pain that increases over time.

Diagnosis

A foot examination and a thorough medical history are required to reach a

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diagnosis after ruling out possible other causes then plantar fasciitis for the heel pain. The doctor may also need x-rays to find out the type of heel pain you suffer from.

Non-surgical treatment

Plantar fasciitis treatment starts with these non-surgical treatments that can be done at home.

•Stretching exercises for calf muscles ease pain and helps with recovery.

•Placing ice packs on the heel for 20 minutes a few times a day with a thin towel between the pack and skin •Use of supportive sho with good arch support and a slightly raised heel.

•Use of non-steroidal anti-in flammatory drugs like ibuprofen reduces pain and inflammation.

Developing Robots for the Hospital Emergency Room Are you ready for robots in the ER? departments in major hospitals: shortA group of computer engineers at Vanderbilt University is convinced that the basic technology is now available to create robot assistants that can perform effectively in the often-chaotic environment of the emergency room. The specialists in emergency medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are enthusiastic about the potential advantages. So, the two groups have formed an interdisciplinary team to explore the use of robotics in this critical and challenging setting.

Team member Mitch Wilkes, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, presented an overview of the group’s thinking in a paper titled, “Heterogeneous Artificial Agents for Triage Nurse Assistance,” at the Humanoids 2010 conference held in Nashville.

The paper proposes a system of cognitive robots that gather medical information and take basic diagnostic measurements and ultimately provide tentative diagnoses to the human staff in order to address the critical concerns facing emergency

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According to Senior Associate in information and question them about ening the time that patients must wait, Emergency Medicine Karen Miller, their condition. Based on this informarelieving the strain on overburdened “When he engineers approached us with tion the staff determines the order in which the patients are given a detailed examination. In the proposed system, triage nurse assistant robots, possibly built into waiting-room chairs, would collect this basic data including blood pressure, pulse rate, blood oxygen saturation, respiration rate, height and weight.

In addition, there may be mobile robot assistants that periodically check on the condition of the patients in the waiting room, determining if they are conscious, measuring blood pressure and pulse rate and possibly inquiring about the patient’s pain level. If it discovers any critical changes, it will alert the human staff.

The final element of the TriageBot system is a supervisor who monitors the robots, provides the interface to the hospital databases and communicates with emergency room staff and reducing the this idea, we were thrilled. We thought the emergency room staff. number of mistakes that are made. their ideas were really interesting and we The object of the research is both to “Advances in humanoid robotic de- like the idea of developing new and in- determine the exact functions that the sign, in sensor technology and in cogni- novative ways of doing things.” These robot assistants will perform and how tive control architectures now make such days about 40 percent of ER patients they will look. “The exact form that the a system feasible,” Wilkes said. arrive with potentially life-threatening robot assistants will take will depend on conditions, so they must be attended to how patients respond,” said Kazuhiko immediately, Miller estimated. The ro- Kawamura, professor of electrical engibotic system, which they have dubbed neering and computer science, who is TriageBot, is designed to handle more directing the project. effectively the other 60 percent, who “The design will be critical because show up with less pressing problems. If patients need to have confidence in these the project is successful, five years from devices.”The emergency room applicanow the emergency room will not look tion is a perfect way to test a special cogmuch different than it does today, with nitive architecture that the Vanderbilt the exception of a series of electronic ki- engineers have developed for robots that osks near the registration desk, similar to is based on the working memory in the those that most airlines have installed at brain. “Our architecture is designed to their check-in desks, along with special allow robots to integrate quick decision“smart” chairs and a mobile robot or making with the more common delibertwo monitoring patients in the waiting ate decision-making process in flexible room. ways,” Kawamura said.

Most of the work in robotics has Emergency Rooms of the Future concentrated on deliberative decisionWhen a patient arrives in the ER, the making – collecting large amounts of first thing he or she must do is register. data and then taking hours to determine Today, this is handled by a registration optimal courses of action, he noted. Huclerk. In the proposed system, the clerk mans, by contrast, can make a number would direct the patient (or attending of decisions in a matter of seconds if family members) to a robot assistant in needed. “If cognitive robots are to opthe form of a kiosk. The robot assistant erate successfully in a human environwould guide them through the registra- ment, they must be able to choose action process using a touch-screen and tions with a similar rapidity, particularly possibly voice prompts. When proper in a chaotic environment like the emersecurity measures are in place, the robot gency room,” Kawamura said. will be able to fill in much of the inforA group of undergraduate engimation for existing patients by accessing neering students under the supervision their electronic records. When the pa- of graduate student Erdem Erdemir tients provide critical information, such has begun designing and building a as reporting chest pain, the robot can prototype registration robot assistant for immediately alert the staff so they can their senior design project. Their design provide immediate attention. Lacking includes a touch-screen display, a camsuch an alert, the robot would inform era, a blood pressure cuff, an electronthe patient of the current wait time and ic weight scale and a fingertip pulse direct him or her to the waiting room. oximeter that measures pulse rate and Today, patients must wait until the blood oxygen levels. clinical staff can collect basic diagnostic

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Sanitizers Under Fire as Superbug Fighters Sometimes the maker of a hand sanitizer will reach too far. Four companies that say their products, including hand sanitizers, can prevent infection from the superbug MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, have been issued warning letters by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the federal agency announced recently.

Since the products, which are all nonprescription, claim to prevent disease, they are classified as drugs, which are within the purview of the FDA. The agency said it does not have sufficient evidence that these particular products are safe and effective for these purposes.

Some of the products also advertise that they prevent infection from E.coli and the H1N1 flu virus. But there is not sufficient proof the combination of ingredients in the products,

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which include plant oils, the chemical benzethonium chloride, and the antimicrobial agent triclosan, can actually impede infection from these diseases.

The FDA is still evaluating whether triclosan can be used as an antimicrobial. Alcohol-based sanitizers, on the other hand, are effective in preventing the spread of the seasonal flu, H1N1, colds and other viral- and bacterialbased diseases. The warning letters explain the companies are marketing these products in violation of federal law.

“MRSA is a serious public health threat. The FDA cannot allow companies to mislead consumers by making unproven prevention claims,” said Deborah Autor, director of the office of compliance in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

The four companies have 15 days to correct the violations cited in the

warning letters. Failure to do so may result in legal action, including seizure and injunction, the FDA said.

The warning letters were sent to these companies: • Tec Laboratories, for Staphaseptic First Aid Antiseptic/Pain Relieving Gel • JD Nelson and Associates, for Safe4Hours Hand Sanitizing Lotion and Safe4Hours First Aid Antiseptic Skin Protectant • Dr. G.H. Tichenor Antiseptic Co., for Dr. Tichenor’s Antiseptic Gel • Oh So Clean Inc., doing business as CleanWell Co., for CleanWell All-Natural Foaming Hand Sanitizer, CleanWell AllNatural Hand Sanitizer, CleanWell All-Natural Hand Sanitizing Wipes, and CleanWell All-Natural Antibacterial Foaming Handsoap

The FDA encouraged health care professionals and patients to report any adverse events or side effects from these products to the agency’s MedWatch Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program.

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Computer Chips

Wired with Nerve Cells

By Rachel Ehrenberg, Science News Contributing Writer

Nerve cell tendrils readily thread their way through tiny semiconductor tubes, researchers find, forming a crisscrossed network like vines twining towards the sun. The discovery that offshoots from nascent mouse nerve cells explore the specially designed tubes could lead to tricks for studying nervous system diseases or testing the effects of potential drugs. Such a system may even bring researchers closer to brain-computer interfaces that seamlessly integrate artificial limbs or other prosthetic devices.

“This is quite innovative and interesting,” says nanomaterials expert Nicholas Kotov of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “There is a great need for interfaces between electronic and neuronal tissues.”

To lay the groundwork for a

nerve-electronic hybrid, graduate student Minrui Yu of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his colleagues created tubes of layered silicon and germanium, materials that could insulate electric signals sent by a nerve cell. The tubes were various sizes and shapes and big enough for a nerve cell’s extensions to crawl through but too small for the cell’s main body to get inside.

When the team seeded areas outside the tubes with mouse nerve cells the cells went exploring, sending their threadlike projections into the tubes and even following the curves of helical tunnels, the researchers report in an upcoming ACS Nano.

“They seem to like the tubes,” says biomedical engineer Justin Williams, who led the research. The approach of-

fers a way to create elaborate networks with precise geometries, says Williams.

“Neurons left to their own devices will kind of glom on to one another or connect randomly to other cells, neither of which is a good model for how neurons work.”

At this stage, the researchers have established that nerve cells are game for exploring the tiny tubes, which seem to be biologically friendly, and that the cell extensions will follow the network to link up physically. But it isn’t clear if the nerves are talking to each other, sending signals the way they do in the body. Future work aims to get voltage sensors and other devices into the tubes so researchers can eavesdrop on the cells. The confining space of the little tunnels should be a good environment for listening in, perhaps

allowing researchers to study how nerve cells respond to potential drugs or to compare the behavior of healthy neurons with malfunctioning ones such as those found in people with multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s.

Eventually, the arrangement may make it easier to couple living cells with technology on a larger scale, but getting there is no small task, says neuroengineer Ravi Bellamkonda of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

“There’s a lot of nontrivial engineering that has to happen, that’s the real challenge,” says Bellamkonda.

“It’s really cool engineering, but what it means for neuroscience remains to be seen.”

Asthma Pill Works

As Well As Common Inhalers A rarely prescribed asthma drug is easier to use and just as effective as conventional treatment with inhalers, according to a new study.

British researchers found that tablets called leukotriene receptor antagonists (LTRAs) manage asthma equally successfully as steroid inhalers and other “preventer” inhalers when used in addition to steroid inhalers.

LTRAs -- sold under the brand names Singulair (montelukast) and Accolate (zafirlukast) -- have long been on the market as an alternative to the steroid inhalers commonly used by people with asthma to ward off attacks. However, they are less popular than inhalers, researchers said.

Researchers followed 650 patients with chronic asthma for two years, and found that LTRAs could provide an effective alternative for people who have JUNE 2011

problems using inhalers or are unable fessionals when prescribing for this versity of East Anglia in England, to use them because of side effects. common but disruptive disease,” said in a statement.

Researchers also found that adherence to asthma treatment was improved by as much as 60 percent among patients given the once-a-day LTRA tablets, since they did not have to worry about using appropriate inhaler techniques, Price said.

Asthma is a chronic condition characterized by inflammation of the airways, causing wheezing, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath. About 34.1 million Americans have asthma, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. This study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“We hope these findings will in- study researcher David Price, of the crease the options for health care pro- University of Aberdeen and the Uni-

Reality Check : Genetic Test Tell How Long You’ll Live Researchers in Spain say they’re close to marketing a genetic test that could tell consumers how fast they are aging and, potentially, how long they will live. But experts say that such claims are false.

The Independent, a British newspaper, reported on May 16, scientists are developing a blood test that would measure the length of an individual’s telomeres, or caps on the tips of chromosomes that protect the chromosomes from damage.

Telomeres are thought to play a role in aging, and previous studies have found an association between telomere length and lifespan.

The test would tell an individual if their “biological age” — the age of their cells — matches their chronological age, the Independent reported. This information, in turn, might tell a person how many years of his or her life remain. The researchers hope to market their test to the general public later this year, sold by the company Life Length.

Estimating biological age However, experts argue that the scientific understanding of telomeres is not at the point where such a test would be accurate. We know telomere length changes with age, said Carol Greider, a geneticist at John Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore who studies telomeres. But in the general population, the length of people’s telomeres varies widely. A 20-year-old and a 70-year-old might have telomeres that were the same length, Greider said.

“We cannot tell how old a person is by looking at their telomeres,” Greider told MyHealthNewsDaily.

In addition, you can’t tell someone they have the cells of a 50-year-old, even though they’re 20, she said. “I would say that it is not possible to tell a persons ‘biological age’ from their telomere length,” Greider said.

If a test says it will tell you how long you will live “clearly that’s not true,” she said.

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Others say it is possible to get a ballpark “biological age” by looking at an individual’s telomeres. But it’s essential to have information on additional factors as well, including the person’s gender, age when they gave the test, family history of disease, smoking history and how often they are exposed to sun, all of which can influence telomere length, said Gil Atzmon, a researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York who has studied the genetics of aging. Taking all this information into account, you could estimate a person’s biological age, but the accuracy would be skewed by 5 to 10 percent, Atzmon said. That means, if a test predicted your biological age was 50, your real biological age could be between 45 and 55, Atzmon said.

The researchers say they will determine the percent of very short or “dangerous” telomeres within a cell.

“A short telomere represents a persistent and non-repairable damage to the cells, which is able to prevent their division or regeneration,” said Maria Blasco, inventor of the test and researcher at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre in Madrid. The researchers hope to construct a database of telomere length values for the general population so they can tell “whether the percentage of short telomeres of a given person is within normality for a given age or indicates a younger or older biological age,” Blasco told MyHealthNewsDaily.

The genetic test would take into account other factors that affect aging, Blasco said.

However, Blasco stresses, “We will not tell the clients how long they will [live].” Looking at the length of telomeres does have some known clinical uses. Individuals with the shortest telomeres — shorter than 99 percent of the population — are at risk for certain diseases, including bone marrow failure and lung disease, Greider said.

Consumer interest?

Jerry Shay, a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and a consultant for

Life Length, said consumers would be interested in such information.

“I think people are just basically curious about their own mortality.

If you ask people what they worry about, most people would say they are worried about dying,” Shay told the Independent.

He added: “People might say ‘If I know I’m going to die in 10 years I’ll spend all my money now,’ or ‘If I’m going to live for 40 more years I’ll be more conservative in my lifestyle.’”

Greider said it’s up to consumers whether they want to have this information, but up to scientists to make sure the public understands the true meaning of the results.

“It’s a very personal choice whether somebody wants to know their genetic status,” Greider said. “It is up to [scientists] to accurately say what we understand the genetic changes mean,” she said.

A Tracking Device

Retain Your Diet on the Head of a Pin That Fits Optical gyroscopes, also known as rotation sensors, are widely used as a navigational tool in vehicles from ships to airplanes, measuring the rotation rates of a vehicle on three axes to evaluate its exact position and orientation. Professor Koby Scheuer of Tel Aviv University’s School of Physical Engineering is now scaling down this crucial sensing technology for use in smartphones, medical equipment and more futuristic technologies.

Working in collaboration with Israel’s Department of Defense, Professor Scheuer and his team of researchers have developed nano-sized optical gyroscopes that can fit on the head of a pin—and, more usefully, on an average-sized computer chip—without compromising the device’s sensitivity.

These gyroscopes will have the ability to pick up smaller rotation rates, delivering higher accuracy while maintain-

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measures about 6 to 8 inches, says ProRetain Your Diet fessor Scheuer.

The device itself, when

ing smaller dimensions, he says. The research was recently described in the journal Optics Express.

“Conventional gyroscopes look like a box, and weigh two or three pounds,” Professor Scheuer explains. “This is fine for an airplane, but if you’re trying to fit a gyroscope onto a smaller piece of technology, such as a cellphone, the accuracy will be severely limited.”

finished, will look like a small computer chip. Measuring a millimeter by a millimeter (0.04 inches by 0.04 inches), about the size of a grain of sand, the device can be built onto a larger chip that also contains other necessary electronics.

Professor Scheuer and his team of researchers are currently working on With laser precision lab demonstrators of the device, which At the core of the new device he predicts will be ready for testing in a are extremely small semi-conductor few years’ time. lasers. As the devices start to rotate, the properties of the light produced by the Tracking inside the body When available, the nano-gyrolasers changes, including the light’s intensity and wavelength. Rotation rates scopes will improve technologies that can be determined by measuring these we use every day. When you rotate an iPhone, for example, the screen adjusts differences.

These lasers are a few tens-of-mi- itself accordingly. A nano-gyroscope crometers in diameter, as compared would improve the performance of to the conventional gyroscope, which this feature and be sensitive to smaller

changes in position, says Professor Scheuer. And that’s not all. Nanogyroscopes integrated into common cellphones could provide a tracking function beyond the capabilities of existing GPS systems. “If you find yourself in a place without reception, you would be able to track your exact position without the GPS signal,” he says.

There are benefits to medical science as well. Right now, small capsules that contain cameras pass through the body during some diagnostic procedures, but to know where the capsule is within a patient, doctors must track its signal from the outside. With the addition of a nano-gyroscope, explains Professor Scheuer, the capsule would have a built-in navigation system, which would provide the ability to move the capsule to more specific and precise locations within the body.

The Healing Power of Laser Therapy

By Sterling L. Carter, PT, MS, CSCS Contributing Writer They are in supermarket scanners and compact disc players, and can shoot down satellites. They can measure the distance from the Earth to the moon within a millimeter and repair your vision with just one treatment.

They can cut steel, produce threedimensional images and transmit telephone messages around the world.

What are they? Lasers. Theorized by Albert Einstein in 1917 and invented in 1960, lasers have proven to be a versatile high-tech solution to many of life’s problems. Today, more and more people are learning that therapeutic doses of laser light can also relieve pain and expedite healing for a wide range of health complaints.

An increasing number of physical therapists and doctors nationwide are offering laser therapy to their patients.

With its increasing popularity and use, that means more and more people are probably wondering about lasers in general and some important specifics, including how they work, how safe they are and what it feels like to get treated. This article will explain to you everything you need to know about low level laser therapy.

Low level laser therapy is a painless, sterile, non-invasive, drug-free treatment which is used to treat a variety of pain syndromes, injuries, wounds, fractures, neurological conditions and pathologies. Low-level laser therapy is the application of red and near infrared light over injuries or wounds to improve soft tissue healing and relieve both acute and chronic pain. Low-level therapy uses cold (subthermal) laser light energy to direct bio-stimulative light energy to the body’s cells without injuring or damaging them in any way.

The therapy is precise and accurate; and offers safe and effective treatment for a wide variety of conditions.

Laser therapy has been used around the world for over 25 years and is FDA approved. Laser therapy can be used for people who desire a drug-free approach to pain relief, when conventional therapies have been ineffective, or when accelerated wound healing is desired. Around the world, laser therapy is rapidly becoming a medical therapy that can heal wounds and fractures up to 60 % faster. In the UK, low level laser therapy has become the treatment of choice for soft tissue “whiplash” injuries, a common injury sustained in car accidents. Low level laser therapy can be used for a treatment of a variety of conditions, to include: Back pain, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, neck pain, fibromyalgia, migraines, plantar fascititis, tennis elbow, sprains/strains,

tendonitis, and many more.

The treatment session may last from 2 minutes to 20 minutes. 75 – 80% of patients treated will notice an immediate improvement in their condition. The majority of conditions will take anywhere from 4-5 or 10-18 treatments. The number of treatments What is low level laser therapy? is typically determined based on the severity of the condition and the duraWill it work for you?

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tion of symptoms (acute or chronic).

Physical Therapists are typically the provider of choice for laser treatments. Laser could be the solution for you. Contact your local Physical Therapist today.

For more information about Sterling Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation please visit www.SterlingTherapy.com.

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Mercury Thermometers Face Final Phase Out

By Peter Gwynne, Inside Science News Contributing Writer

The mercury thermometer, long a fixture in household medicine cabinets and industrial settings, is going the way of the horse and buggy. The reason: Mercury released into the environment from a broken thermometer is highly poisonous.Pure mercury and its compounds can cause neurological problems and other ailments in people exposed to them. So government and state agencies have mounted campaigns to end the use of thermometers that contain the liquid metal. Federal and state authorities have lobbied since 2002 for bans on medical mercury thermometers. It’s already almost impossible to buy one for home use. Now, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and environmental and industry groups are targeting industrial users of mercury thermometers.

NIST will close down its calibration service for mercury thermometers at the end of this month. The 110 year service has ensured the accuracy of instruments used to monitor temperatures in chemical, pharmaceutical, anpetroleum plants.

“We’ve been working with the EPA

and state agencies to help phase out the whole process of using mercury thermometers,” said Gregory Strouse, leader of NIST’s temperature and humidity group. “Anything you can do to prevent mercury getting into the environment is a good thing.”

Mercury from thermometers reaches the environment in two main ways: improper disposal of broken thermometers and coal-fueled power plants. According to the EPA, coal-burning power plants account for about half of the emissions of mercury in the U.S. Mercury vapor can also waft into the air from broken thermometers. And liquid mercury from those same breakages can end up in landfills, where microorganisms convert it into a highly toxic form called methylmercury. This often seeps into rivers and then the ocean where it accumulates in sea life that absorbs it from the polluted waters. Tossing unused or broken mercury thermometers in the trash can contribute to this cycle.

“If you drop a mercury thermometer, contact your local or state recycling center,” Strouse advised. “If you have

an intact mercury thermometer in the house, we suggest that you put it in a soda bottle and cap it for transport to a disposal site.”

Mercury can have significant effects on human health. Its vapor can cause mood swings, insomnia, and memory loss, and high vapor levels can damage organs. Hat makers in the 19th century had a reputation for strange behavior. It stemmed from their exposure to the mercury solution used to cure animal pelts. The Mad Hatter in “Alice in Wonderland” illustrated the danger.

More dangerous today are the concentrated mercury levels in the fish we consume. Small amounts of the compound methylmercury can damage our nervous systems and can affect the brain development of infants and young children.

Cleaning up a spill of mercury requires care and a lot of money. It can cost from $5,000 to $50,000 to clean an industrial spill. Mercury can be recycled safely. NIST recently sent the mercury from more than 8,000 industrial thermometers to facilities that

use it to produce compact fluorescent lights. The one-sixtieth of an ounce of mercury in a typical thermometer is enough to make 125 light bulbs. That form of recycling has two environmental advantages.

“Most of the mercury is bound to the inside of the glass during the life cycle of the bulb, a process that makes it much less environmentally harmful,” Strouse said. “And compact fluorescents use less electricity, which reduces the amount of coal burned. That reduces the amount of mercury released by a factor of four.”

Meanwhile, NIST is working on alternative options for industrial users in clinical and industrial temperature measurement. And digital electronic thermometers and glass alcohol thermometers measure temperatures just as well as mercury instruments for household use.

“Change always brings confusion and apprehension, but in every case there is an alternative thermometer to suit the measurement need,” said NIST researcher Dawn Cross.

Prosthetics That Feel

Amputees with rerouted ‘sense of touch’ Amputees whose “sense of touch” was rerouted from their missing limbs view their prosthetic not as a tool, but as part of the body, a study to appear in Brain suggests. Such enhanced sense of ownership, scientists say, might lead to prosthetics that operate seamlessly in place of a missing limb.

The new study was conducted with two arm amputees who had undergone a surgery called targeted reinnervation, in which the remaining nerve ends from the severed arm were rerouted to an area on the arm above the site of amputation. This patch of skin serves as a proxy—touching different parts of the area makes the amputee feel as though distinct parts of his or her missing arm were being touched.

The research “tells us about the brain—that the brain can take this abnormal sensation and attribute it to the hand, to the arm,” says neuroscientist Steven Hsiao of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who wasn’t involved in the work. “These people are feeling something. They feel like they’re really touching something, presumably.”

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To create that feeling of limb ownership, or “embodiment,” researchers in Chicago led by Paul Marasco designed a pressure-sensing system for the prosthetics. Each time a sensor on the pros-

the prosthetic hand, the robot would simultaneously press on the reinnervated skin.

Seeing and feeling the touch at the same time created a powerful illusion

thetic hand detected a touch, it would send a signal to a small robot that would poke a targeted area of the reinnervated skin.

Using the robot system, Marasco and his team had each subject sit at a table, with the prosthetic arm unattached but arranged in a natural position. As the subject watched a researcher touch

in both amputees that the prosthetic hand was part of the body. When they saw but did not feel the researcher’s touch, the subjects didn’t feel a sense of ownership over the prosthetic, says Marasco, now at the Advanced Platform Technology Center at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Cleveland. “It was really when the touch

matched what they saw, that we saw these changes.”

Also, when one of the subjects both saw and felt a touch on her prosthetic arm, the temperature of the arm just above the site of the amputation rose. This boost, Marasco says, may reflect the body adopting the prosthetic.

When sensory information is blocked from a limb, such as an arm that suffers nerve damage after a stroke, the limb’s temperature drops slightly.

Although the new study is “a baby step,” it’s important, says bioengineer Michael Goldfarb of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. “What makes you feel something is a part of you is not just being able to move it.”

Sensory input can’t be overlooked, he says, when creating good prosthetics.

“People feel like these are tools attached to their body. Even though they are very sophisticated, they are tools,” Goldfarb says. “So the idea of trying to get sensory information back in would help integrate this limb as part of the body, help [people] control it and, one would argue, help them feel more whole.”

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Parents, Not Kids,

Are Abusers of Technology

By Nancy Shute Contributing Writer Parents complain that their kids spend too much time texting and surfing the Web. But it may be that the biggest abusers of new technology are parents themselves. Sherry Turkle, a clinical psychologist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies how people use technology, says she has found that children are worried that their parents’ love affairs with BlackBerries, iPhones, and computers are fracturing their families. Turkle elaborates in her new book, Alone Together (Basic Books, $28.95), and in this edited interview.

Your book surprised me because you really take parents to task for paying more attention to their technology than to their children. Did you expect that when you started the project?

I expected to be writing a book about teenagers driving their parents crazy. It turned out to be a much more compelling story of parents texting in the car, parents texting at dinner, and kids not knowing what to do. It was a very surprising finding and very moving. The stories really were about children wanting parents’ full attention.

What did the kids tell you during interviews?

They’re tired of being pushed on the swing with one hand while [Mom reads] her E-mail on the phone with the other.

I was really shaken by the story of the mom who never looked up from her phone while picking up her daughter from school.

When children come home from school, that’s the moment when they’re desperate to make eye contact with you.

In this case, a 13-year-old girl [emerges] from school [where] her mother is waiting in the car. And the mother never looks up from her phone. To make it worse, the [girl’s] parents are divorced, [so] it may [have been] four days since she [last saw her daughter]. And she still won’t look up. The car is moving and she still doesn’t look up. The girl describes such a sense of longing. What is [her] mother doing that’s so much more important than looking at her?

Then I interviewed the mother.

And it turns out that this is not an abusive, uncaring situation. This is a loving mother. But she is overwhelmed. Here is someone who is unthinkingly not giving her daughter something her daughter so desperately needs. We can do better than this.

You say we often fail to unplug under the mistaken belief that we’re being more efficient. What do you mean by that?

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My favorite story is of [a] girl who is Skyping with her grandmother. She’s also doing her E-mail. From the grandmother’s point of view it’s great. But the girl is miserable, because she feels as if she’s paying no attention to her grandmother, [when] the whole point of this is to be there for her.

And you say there’s a biological explanation for why we love to multitask.

The reason multitasking feels so good [is that] our brains give us extra shots of dopamine [a brain neurotransmitter that affects mood] for every new task we multitask. We’re actually being rewarded chemically for every new task.

But with every new task our performance is degrading. So if you’re emailing and putting contacts in the Rolodex, maybe it’s OK if your performance is a little degraded. Those things are degradable. But when we use these technologies of efficiency and bring them into our intimacies, we bring them into an area where we do ourselves damage.

So what should we parents do?

The mom who’s on the phone while pushing the kid on the swing has defeated the whole point of taking him to the playground. The whole point is to give each other full attention, and to create what I call sacred spaces around certain aspects of life.

What spaces should be sacred?

Dinner. No devices at dinner. That is a time that’s precious. We really just need to be with each other at dinner. Obama puts a basket for phones outside of the Oval Office. It doesn’t strike me as a bad idea to put one outside the kitchen. It’s just not the place.

And even though it doesn’t seem like it, the car is also a sacred space. It’s for driving and for conversation. Watching sports with your kids—in between plays, during commercials—that’s a time when the child is willing to talk to a parent.

You say that using electronic gadgets is different than reading a book or doing chores; it’s harder for kids to get parents’ attention.

There’s a very big difference between your mother doing the dishes and not giving you her full attention, which is what most people grew up with, and your mother being immersed in E-mail,or texting, or being online and not giving you full attention. One is an immersive gripping interactive activity, and the other is the kind of thing where the volume and velocity and pacing allows for interruption and shared attention.

20

Can Small Tongue Shocks Relieve Sleep Apnea?

By Kurtis Hiatt Contributing Writer Researchers Will Soon Start Trying Out a Tongue ‘Pacemaker’ A pacemaker-like device that would send mild electrical jolts to the tongues of sleep-apnea sufferers while they snooze could be the key to a full night of ZZZ’s. Scientists from the Minneapolis-based Inspire Medical Systems will soon begin to test the novel treatment, the Associated Press reports. They hope that by the end of January they will enroll 100 U.S. and European patients whose condition is caused by a slack tongue.

Two other companies will begin similar testing. A common cause of obstructive sleep apnea is a combination of a slack tongue and relaxed throat muscles.

Breathing can be blocked as long as 30 seconds and as often as 30 times an hour. Those with the condition may be largely unaware other than not feeling rested in the morning, or they may suddenly awaken, gasping for air. The tongue is a muscle, and the idea of a pacemaker is to control it by giving it mild electrical shocks to keep it from relaxing and blocking the airway.

Doctors will implant the device beneath the skin near the collarbone and wire it to a nerve in the tongue. It will sense when a person takes a breath, triggering the zap.

This new approach, while only in its initial stages, could prove more effective than CPAP, the current standard treatment in which users don a mask at bedtime that blows air through the nose to keep airways open. Many apnea sufferers say the masks are uncomfortable and make them feel claustrophobic. Obstructive sleep apnea, which the National Institutes of Health estimates affects 12 million Americans, may lead to high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks, heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

Sleep apnea can be triggered or worsened by many factors. Here are four of them.

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From: 4 Things That Make Sleep Apnea Worse

sleep apnea, seems to interfere with hormones that normally suppress appetite, says Chediak. While shedding pounds may alleviate or eliminate sleep 1. Weight Gain.

Excess pounds can bulk up tissues apnea if weight is the root cause— in and around the airway, making the weight loss surgery, for example, has been shown to ease it in the morbidly airway more vulnerable to collapse obese—there’s “no compelling evias muscles relax during sleep, says dence” that treating sleep apnea will Alejandro Chediak, medical director of the Miami Sleep Disorders Center make people melt pounds, Chediak says. and past president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Likewise, 2. Alcohol.

A muscle relaxant, alcohol can slacken throat tissues more than usual during sleep, making the airway more vulnerable to obstruction. Although the effect usually dissipates as the alcohol clears the body during the night, cutting down may help.

3. Medications.

The particular culprits are muscle relaxants and sleep aids. “If you’re taking muscle relaxants, you’re going to expose yourself to greater snoring and sleep apnea,” says Chediak, and “the vast majority of sleeping medications have a muscle relaxant property.”

Sleeping pills also lengthen the episodes when breathing stops, because “more respiratory compromise” is needed to wake the brain up to restore normal breathing, he says.

4. Sleep position.

Sleeping on your back typically makes sleep apnea worse and sleeping on your side makes it better, says Schulman. That has to do with how and where weight falls on the airway.

heavier people tend to have thicker necks, which can also be a factor, says David Schulman, director of the Emory Sleep Lab in Atlanta. Although thin folks can develop apnea, more than half of those with the condition are overweight, according to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

Frustratingly, the condition itself can add pounds. Evidence suggests that it may increase the appetite for unhealthful foods, according to a 2008 study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine which found that people with severe forms of the disorder, especially women, were more likely to make poor food choices than those with mild or no cases. Additionally, sleep deprivation, a hallmark of

21

Obese Men Face Higher Risk of Advanced Prostate Cancer

By Amanda Chan Contributing Writer

Obese men with prostate cancer face a higher risk of their cancer worsening than men of normal weight, according to a new study.

Obese men (who have a body mass index, or BMI, of 30 or higher) are three times more likely to have their cancer progress to a more advanced stage than men of normal weight, the study said. They are also three times

more likely than non-obese men to have the cancer spread to their bones, and five times more likely to have the cancer spread to other parts of the body.

The finding holds true even when the obese men are treated with androgen deprivation therapy, which is the administration of a chemical that stops the production of testosterone that fuels prostate tumors, researchers said.

One possible reason for the obese men’s poor outcomes is that they may require a higher dose of androgen deprivation therapy than they are currently receiving, said study researcher Dr. Christopher J. Keto, a urologic fellow at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. Right now, the

dose is the same for all men, regardless of their weight.

Prostate cancer is the second deadliest cancer for men, and will affect about one in six U.S. men in their lifetimes, according to the American Cancer Society.

Keto and his colleagues looked at the health information of 287 men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer and whose prostates had been removed at one of five U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs hospitals between 1988 and 2009. All of the men had received androgen deprivation therapy as a treatment for their cancers.

“By being thematic in our research we can really get to the bottom of something,” study researcher Dr. Stephen J. Freedland, an associate professor of urology at the Duke

Prostate Cancer Center, said in a statement. “The study supports a growing body of literature showing that obese men with prostate cancer do worse. Our next step is to figure out why.”

The study shows that doctors need to come up with better interventions for obese men who have prostate cancer, particularly ones that focus on promoting diet and exercise in addition to prostate cancer treatment, Freedland said.

Past studies have also shown that obesity affects the recurrence of prostate cancer. A 2005 study in the journal Urology showed that very obese men (with a BMI of 35 or higher) were 1.69 times more likely to have a recurrence of prostate cancer than men of normal weight.

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Autism Rates May

Be Higher Than Thought

By Angela Haupt, Contributing Writer Autism rates may be significantly higher than previously thought, new research suggests. In the first large-scale study of its kind, researchers screened more than 55,000 South Korean children ages 7 to 12 and found that autism spectrum disorders—which range from severe symptoms to the milder Asperger’s syndrome—affected as many as 1 in 38, or 2.64 percent of the kids. That finding, published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry, contrasts with the current U.S. estimate that 1 in 110 children, or less than 1 percent, are affected.

Past autism research has focused on records from special education classes and mental-health agencies, leaving out children whose parents and schools never sought a diagnosis. The new report suggests that when a broad

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population is more rigorously studied, many more children may be affected than previously suspected, the researchers said.

“There’s no reason to think that South Korea has more children with autism than anyplace else in the world,” study coauthor Bennett Leventhal, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at New York University Medical Center, told NPR. “If you really go look carefully among all children everywhere, you find that things are far more common than you previously expected.”

4 Promising Autism Treatments, From Vitamin B12 to Alzheimer’s Drug Namenda Medicine hasn’t come up with a cure for autism, the often-devastating developmental disorder that now affects 1 in 150 children, and one big reason

is that doctors don’t yet know what causes it. Parents frustrated by the lack of options often turn to the Internet for help, where dozens of medical and behavioral treatments are promoted.

Unfortunately, most of the treatments out there have not been tested to find out if they work, making it tough for parents to figure out what might help.

Those that have been rigorously tested so far have failed to measure up. That includes secretin, a hormone affecting liver and pancreas function that was popular until a 2003 trial found it did nothing to alleviate symptoms.

Yet treatments for autism do exist.

Those proven to work include structured behavioral interventions that teach children social and language skills, as well as medications that reduce disabling symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and gastrointestinal disorders. Increasingly, researchers

are looking at autism as a “state” that could be changed rather than a “trait,” according to Martha Herbert, a pediatric neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. And researchers are starting to rigorously test other potential treatments, including methyl vitamin B12 and an Alzheimer’s drug known as Namenda.

Treating HIV-infected

People with Antiretrovirals Protects

The NIH released findings from an important large-scale clinical study that found that men and women living with HIV who took oral antiretroviral medicines when their immune systems were relatively healthy, were able to reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to their sexual partners.

The CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H., also noted, these results represent another significant step forward in HIV prevention and reinforce the importance of people everywhere knowing their HIV status and being linked to services for HIV prevention, care and treatment – all of which are key components of CDC HIV prevention strategies. They also remind us of the urgency of ensuring that testing and treatment are widely available, that ARVs are becoming an important component of HIV preven-

tion strategies, and that prevention and treatment for HIV are inseparable.

While this announcement provides cause for optimism that this approach may help reduce new HIV infections overall in the United States and around the world, the degree of impact at a population level will depend on many factors, including the real-world feasibility of scaling up intensive testing and care services in a broad range of settings, as well as the ability for individuals to maintain high levels of drug adherence over time.

However, HIV-positive people cannot assume they are not infectious simply because they are already on treatment

medications. It is critical that individuals maintain close contact with their healthcare providers, in order to monitor viral load, and to maintain consistent treatment and care services over time.

Read more about the study on NIAID’s website. For additional information about this study visit the NIAID HIV/AIDS Web portal for more information about NIAID’s HIV/ AIDS research.

U.S. Study Finds Easier Way To Prevent Tuberculosis

U.S. health officials say they have found a far simpler therapy for people at risk of developing tuberculosis, addressing a key barrier to preventing the spread of the disease.

Patients who took a combination of two drugs just 12 times over three months fared as well as those who received the standard treatment that requires 270 daily doses, according to a landmark U.S. government study released Monday.

“New, simpler ways to prevent TB disease are urgently needed, and this breakthrough represents one of the biggest developments in TB treatment in decades,” Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement.

The far less onerous regimen involves taking rifapentine, an antibiotic sold by French drugmaker Sanofi under the brand name Priftin, along with isoniazid, an effective tuberculosis drug in use since the 1950s. The study results, presented at a medical meeting on Monday, could mark a major advance in preventing TB in countries with lowJUNE 2011

to-medium incidence of the highly infectious disease, according to the CDC, which sponsored the study.

While many people believe TB to be a largely conquered disease of the past, there were more than 11,000 cases reported in the United States last year, and it remains one of the world’s leading infectious killers, according to the CDC. The 10-year study included more than 8,000 patients with latent TB infection, meaning they have the tuberculosis bacteria in their bodies but no symptoms and are not contagious. More than 11 million Americans are positive for latent TB, the CDC said, with Asians, other minorities and foreignborn individuals disproportionately affected.

Between 5 percent and 10 percent of people with latent TB develop the disease. Those with a weakened immune system are particularly susceptible.

Better Compliance While the results mark a significant finding for fighting TB in countries like the United States, researchers stressed

the need for additional studies before the new regimen can be recommended in countries with a high incidence of the disease, especially those with high HIV prevalence, due to a known drug interaction between some anti-HIV drugs and rifapentine.

Worldwide, TB kills an estimated 1.7 million people each year, and the number of new cases -- around 9.4 million -- is higher than at any other time in history, according to the World Health Organization.

In the U.S. study, patients with latent TB received either 900 milligrams each of rifapentine and isoniazid once a week for 12 weeks under a doctor’s supervision, or the current self-administered standard of 900 mg isoniazid every day for nine months for a total of 270 doses. The combination therapy was found to be safe and as effective as the standard regimen in preventing new cases of TB disease, according to researchers who presented the data at the American Thoracic Society International Conference in Denver.

Seven cases of TB occurred among

those receiving the new treatment regimen, compared with 15 cases among those on the lengthy standard treatment, researchers said. While the old one-drug method works, patient compliance has traditionally been a problem.

“Ensuring that those who need treatment both begin and complete the lengthy, cumbersome isoniazid regimen is challenging,” Frieden said.

In the CDC study, 82 percent completed the new, shorter regimen, compared with a 69 percent completion rate for the standard nine-month regimen.

“By effectively treating latent TB infection, not only can we reduce the potentially deadly consequences among those individuals, but we can also prevent many others from ever becoming infected,” Kevin Fenton, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, said in a statement.

Given the promising results and potential for far higher patient compliance under the new regimen, CDC said it had begun working on new guidelines for its use in the United States.

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JUNE 2011

Total You

Health & Wellness Fair Empowering families to manage their overall wellbeing and educate them o n i s s u e s s u c h a s c h i l d h o o d o b e s i t y, h e a r t d i s e a s e a n d d i a b e t e s .

JUNE 2011

5 Medical Myths

that Just Won’t Go Away

By Robin Nixon Contributing Writer

From recommendations of drinking eight glasses of water a day, to warnings about staying in from the cold when sick. Some medical myths endure no matter how many times they’ve been disproved. Here are 10.

Myth: Vaccines can cause the flu and autism.

While the body can react to any shot with a low-grade fever, rumors that a flu shot can cause the flu are “an outright lie,” said Dr. Rachel Vreeman, co-author of Don’t Swallow Your Gum! Myths, Half-Truths, and Outright Lies about Your Body and Health.

The flu shot does contain dead flu viruses but they are dead. “A dead virus cannot be resurrected to cause the flu,” Vreeman said.

As for vaccines causing autism, this myth was started in 1998 by an article in the journal, The Lancet. In the study, the parents of eight autistic children said they believed their children acquired autism after they received a measles, mumps and rubella vaccination. Correlation was quickly confused with causation, and since then, rumors have run rampant despite many studies — such as a 2002 study in the New England Journal of Medicine of 530,000 children — that have found nothing to suggest that vaccinations increase the risk of becoming autistic.

Unfortunately, the endurance of this myth, said Vreeman, who also conducts pediatric research, continues to eat up time and funding dollars that could be used to make advances in autism, rather than proving, over and over again, that vaccinations do not cause the condition.

Myth: Supplements always make you healthier.

An increasing number of studies are finding that vitamin supplementation may not only be ineffectual but may even be dangerous. For example, people downing vitamins C and E may be predisposing themselves to cancer, according to a study published earlier this year in the Stem Cells Journal, as high doses of these antioxidants can cause genetic abnormalities. Similarly, a study published this year in the Cancer Research Journal linked fish oil supplements with cancer in mice.

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“The FDA does not require supplements to be regulated in the same way that drugs are, which can be a real problem,” Vreeman said. As a result, the safety of many supplements has not been rigorously studied.

Furthermore, the bottles can sport unsubstantiated claims and even make errors in dosage recommendations, she said.

There is no need to worry about overdosing, however, if the good-foryou compound is coming from real food, rather than a pill. “A vitamin pill is not the answer,” Vreeman said. “Eating more healthily in general is the answer.”

Myth: Cold weather makes you sick.

“This myth is common around the world, but it is just not true,” Vreeman told My Health News Daily. Studies have shown we may feel more cold symptoms — real or imaginary — when we are chilled, but the temperature does not make us more susceptible to viruses. This has been known since at least 1968, when a study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed what happened when researchers exposed chilly people to the rhinovirus (one cause of the common cold).

Whether shivering in a frigid room or stuttering in an icy bath, people were no more likely to get sick after sniffing cold germs than they were at more comfortable temperatures.

And if you are already sick, there is no reason you can’t go out into cold weather. While rest is good for an ill body, chilly temperatures aren’t going to make a difference on recovery time, Vreeman said. In fact, while the research is in its early stages, “it is possible that being exposed to cold may even help your body in some way,” she said.

Some scientists speculate that colds are more common in cooler months because people stay indoors more, interacting more closely with one another and giving germs more opportunities to spread.

Myth: We use only 10 percent of our brains.

Motivational speakers and other self-help gurus have been promoting this myth since as early as 1907, as a way to encourage people to tap into

nil effect on unruliness — kids were given Kool-Aid sweetened with aspartame, a compound that contains no sugar.

Researchers told half of the parents the Kool-Aid contained sugar, and told the other half the truth. The parents who thought their kids were riding a sugarhigh reported their children were uncontrollable and overactive. But a sensor on the kids’ wrists, that measured activity level, said the opposite: The kids were actually acting subdued. The study was published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology in 1994.

Sugar is often given at times when the rules are loosened and there are lots of other kids around — like birthday Myth: Sugar turns kids into parties and holidays, Carroll said. These little monsters.

It can be hard to find a parent that factors may be behind the myth’s persisdoes not believe this, Vreeman said. tence in popular culture, he said.

“But it is in their heads.”

In one particularly clever study — among a slew of studies finding sugar’s

some latent capacity, explains Vreeman and co-author Aaron Carroll, both of Indiana University School of Medicine.

But none of these people were basing the proclamation on sound science.

Today, we can take a look at any brain scan, measuring activity at any given time, and have a big laugh at this myth. “You just don’t see big dormant areas,” Vreeman said.

So why does the idea still linger in popular culture?

“I think we like it,” Vreeman said.

“We want to think we haven’t reached our full potential.”

THE EXPERT NETWORK - MEDICAL

JUNE 2011

THE EXPERT NETWORK - MEDICAL

JUNE 2011

New, Improved Dental Procedures

By Angela Haupt, Contributing Writer Many people avoid dental care because of bad experiences they have had.

As a result, some people may not have seen a dentist for 15 or 20 years or more.

What these people should know is that dentistry has been literally transformed in the last 10 years. The most notable and important changes have been in the science and technology used for the reduction of pain, improvement of root canal therapy, replacement of teeth with dental implants, and the revolution in cosmetic dentistry, specifically porcelain veneers and the white, resin fillings.

incidence of allergic reactions. The most common anesthetics used in dentistry now are lidocaine, bupivacaine, mepivacaine, septocaine and others, which may still cause an allergic reaction. Septocaine, a recently approved anesthetic, may be stronger than the other local anesthetics and allows most dental procedures to be performed painlessly.

needed to perform a root canal, and also greatly limit the potential for discomfort. In almost all cases, root canal therapy can be effectively completed in

This is possible because the new systems use nickel-titanium dental files that can be mounted on a slow speed dental drill.

The older methods of performing root canal would involve the manual use of dental files that would often necessitate three grueling, one-hour visits.

Modern methods and technology have greatly improved most dental treatments and may provide a pleasant surprise for those who have avoided dental care for many years.

In an effort to reduce discomfort during dental procedures, today’s dentist can use either air abrasion or a dental laser. These modern devices enable dentists to treat many cavities without a needle or a dental drill. Some dental laWant a great dentist who can help sers can also treat the gums and do other you with all of your dental needs?

One of the most important changes more advanced procedures with less disCall Dr. Ka-Ron Y. Wade is the improvement in local anesthesia. comfort during and after the treatment.

Years ago, dentists used the local anes713-654-7756 thetic Novocain, and many people still Perhaps one of the most improved associate it with what the dentist uses dental procedures in recent years is also just one visit. The average time needed for “the shot.� Novocain is rarely used the most feared - root canal. New tech- to complete a root canal varies, but is today because it causes a much higher niques have greatly reduced the time usually between 30 and 60 minutes.

JUNE 2011

JUNE 2011