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Researchers may be moving closer to better treatments for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as mad cow disease, and the related condition called Creutzfeldt Jakob disease.

A protein called Glypican-1 is crucial to the development of mad cow disease, researchers from England now report, and understanding its role could help scientists figure out how to stop the illness from progressing.

The findings were published Nov. 20 in the journal PLoS Pathogens..

Abnormal forms of proteins known as prions cause mad cow disease, a killer infection that causes neurological problems. It hasn’t been clear, however, why the proteins go awry.

The researchers found that the presence of the Glypican-1 protein boosts the number of abnormal prion proteins.

“We were looking at how the normal prion protein functions in cells and spotted that it was interacting with something,” Nigel Hooper, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Leeds, who participated in the research, said in a statement. “Some lateral thinking and deduction led us to Glypican-1, and when we carried out the experiment, we found we were right.”

Hooper added: “Now that we know the identity of one of the key molecules in the disease process, we may in the future be able to design drugs that target this.”

People with an eating disorder may not want to attend a support group or meet with therapists, but a new report raises the prospect that “remote therapies” via e-mail, text messaging or through Web sites could help them recover.

In the new report, published online Nov. 19 in The Lancet, researchers pointed out that it can be difficult to find treatment. They examined so-called “self-help” interventions and found that with some professional oversight, these treatments could help people with bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder, although there’s some doubt about the effectiveness of the treatments.

Anorexia nervosa, in which people eat little or nothing, is an exception, the researchers said. For people with that condition, counseling and dietary therapy remain the ideal treatments.

There don’t appear to be many treatment advances on the horizon, the researchers noted. “Overall, apart from studies reporting pharmacological treatments for binge-eating disorder, advances in treatment for adults have been scarce, other than interest in new forms of treatment delivery,” they concluded.

An estimated 0.6 percent of adults develop anorexia nervosa in their lives, and 1 percent develop bulimia nervosa. Binge-eating disorder is estimated to strike 3 percent of adults, according to background information in a news release about the study. The conditions are more likely to strike women, but men are also affected. Perhaps 2 percent of men, for example, will develop a binge-eating disorder.

Prior to reaching the golden years, too much body fat tends to increase the risk of dying, but extra weight may have the opposite effect for older adults, a new study hints.

Higher fat mass in older adults “is thought to be an energy reserve that helps the individual survive illnesses and chronic conditions,” Dr. Jennifer L. Kuk, from York University in Toronto, Canada, noted in an email to Reuters Health.

The study she co-conducted with Dr. Chris I. Ardern, also from York University, seems to bear this out. In the study, many lower weight and body fat indicators were associated with a greater risk of dying among men and women aged 65 and older.

Among individuals older than 75, having a low versus a normal body weight seemed to raise the risk of death from any cause by a factor of 1.6 in men and nearly 3 in women, they report in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Kuk and Ardern used data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted between 1988 and 1994 to assess body mass, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, hip circumference, and other body mass and body fat indicators among 4,437 men and 5,166 women. Overall, 1,116 of them were 65 to 75 years old and 1,200 were older than 75 years.

Over an average of 8.7 years, 1,466 study participants died.

As expected, the fewest deaths — 4 percent in men and 3.5 percent in women — occurred among those 18 to 64 years old. In this group, the risk of death was increased in obese men and in overweight and obese women.

But in the older groups, being underweight was associated with greater mortality, whereas being overweight was associated with lower mortality.

When considering risk of death, obesity may be a greater concern in younger than older adults, the researchers say. Weight management should continue to be a target for reductions in illness and death in younger individuals, they add.

However, in light of their findings, although weight loss may improve risk for various co-existing illnesses associated with obesity, “the appropriateness of weight loss as an intervention to extend longevity in older populations is unclear and warrants further investigation,” Kuk and Ardern conclude.

Cesarean section is a surgical alternative to vaginal birth. After this surgery, the new mom needs time to recover.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists offers this list of what moms who have delivered by cesarean can expect:
You’ll have an incision in your abdomen, which may feel sore for a few weeks. Your doctor may give you pain medication to help you feel better.
Typically, you’ll need to stay in the hospital from two to four days.
When you go home, it’s important to take it easy and limit activity for as long as your doctor recommends.
Minor abdominal cramping usually is normal, particularly for breast-feeding moms.
Discharge or some bleeding may occur for four to six weeks after the surgery.