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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.

The declines in fitness that accompany growing old typically speed up after the age of 45, new research shows.

But people can slow the inevitable by staying lean, exercising and refraining from smoking.

The findings, appearing in the Oct. 26 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, are not so surprising in light of the piles of other research that have drawn similar conclusions.

But the new study has broad implications, given the rising number of older adults in the United States and the explosion in the sedentary, overweight and aging population.

“The Social Security Administration actually has an aerobic capacity threshold. If you’re below the threshold, you are considered disabled,” said study author Andrew Jackson.

This means more people could qualify for government disability benefits at a younger age, further draining an already strained economy.

This study group included 3,429 women and 16,889 men aged 20 to 96 who had undergone two to 33 health exams with lifestyle counseling between 1974 and 2006.

Reductions in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) were not seen as a straight downward line. Instead, after the age of 45, the slope became much steeper, accelerating even further with increases in body-mass index (BMI), smoking and lower levels of physical activity.

“We’ve known that, as you age, your aerobic capacity goes down, and the exercise physiology literature indicates it’s a linear relationship. We found that this is not the case,” said Jackson, who is professor emeritus of health and human performance at the University of Houston. “It makes sense to me. When things aren’t working right, we tend to go down at faster rates. This was true for both men and women [although the rate of decline was faster for men than for women].”

Taking care of yourself could make you, in a sense, younger than your years.

“If you were overweight, inactive and smoked, your aerobic capacity would be lower at a given age as compared to other people who were healthy weight, active and nonsmokers,” Jackson said. “The data showed that if people had that advantage when they were in their 30s and 40s and maintained that lifestyle, their aerobic capacity as they aged was, in fact, higher.”

“It could delay the age when these health problems start to spring up,” he continued. “If people are very overweight, inactive and smoke, they might see these health problems in their 50s and 60s, whereas people who maintain a healthy lifestyle, it’s going to be more like their 70s, 80s and possibly even their 90s.”

“You have to exercise. It’s now becoming established fact, and if you don’t incorporate it, you’re going to see the effects. You will get sicker sooner,” added Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of women and heart disease for Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association. “Exercise is the most potent medication around, and the Social Security Administration agrees with me.”

A second study in the same issue of the journal provides a measure of good news. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia found that blacks who partnered with a family member or friend to lose weight actually did lose pounds — but only if the partner also lost weight.

Among Jewish survivors of World War II, those who were potentially exposed to the Holocaust have an increased risk of cancer, likely due to physical and mental stress, an Israeli study has found.

University of Haifa researchers compared cancer rates in more than 300,000 Israeli Jews who were born in Europe and immigrated to Israel either before World War II (non-exposed) or after the war (potentially exposed).

Compared to the non-exposed group, those in the potentially exposed group had a statistically significantly increased risk for cancer, especially breast and colorectal cancer, the researchers found. The younger a person was when they were exposed to the Holocaust, the greater their risk of cancer.

“These observations may have direct impact on the health of World War II Jewish survivors and thus the care required from their caregivers in Israel and elsewhere,” wrote Dr. Lital Keinan-Boker, of the University of Haifa School of Public Health, and colleagues. “These findings warrant further epidemiological studies [such as case-control studies] of past and present risk factors that use individual data.”

The study is published in the Oct. 26 online edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The findings add to a growing body of knowledge about the links between cancer risk and severely restricted calorie intake and severe psychosocial and physical suffering, explained the authors of an accompanying editorial.

“Taken together, data from animal and human studies suggest that while [calorie reduction] typically decreases cancer risk, the anticancer effects of [calorie reduction] may be neutralized or overwhelmed in the presence of extreme stressors,” wrote the editorialists, Stephen D. Hursting, of the nutritional sciences department at the University of Texas, Austin and Michele R. Forman, of the epidemiology department at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

“From this unique cohort we can learn lessons about adaptation to extreme hardships in early life, resilience during life, and cancer susceptibility later in life,” they added.

Wearing a cell phone on your hip may reduce bone density in an area of the pelvis commonly used for bone grafts, a new study suggests.

Turkish researchers used dual X-ray absorptiometry to measure bone density at the upper rims of the pelvis (iliac wings) in 150 men who carried their cell phones on their belts. The men carried their phones for an average of 15 hours a day, and had used cell phones for an average of six years.

Bone density was slightly reduced on the side of the pelvis where the men carried their cell phones, the study found. The difference wasn’t statistically significant and didn’t approach bone level density reductions seen in people with osteoporosis. However, the men were relatively young (average age 32), and further bone weakening may occur, said Dr. Tolga Atay and colleagues at Suleyman Demirel University in Isparta.

The study, published in the September issue of the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, suggests that electromagnetic fields emitted by cell phones may have a harmful effect on bone density.

However, the researchers emphasized that their findings are preliminary and noted that future generations of cell phones may reduce users’ exposure to electromagnetic fields. In the meantime, it “would be better to keep mobile phones as far as possible from our body during our daily lives,” Atay and colleagues concluded.

The iliac wings of the pelvis are widely used for bone grafting, which means any reduction in bone density there may affect reconstructive surgery. In procedures where bone density is important for good outcomes, surgeons may want to consider the possible effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields from cell phones, the researchers suggested.

Crushing the notion that you can be both fat and fit, new research has found that current professional football linemen already have some risk factors for heart disease.

In a study comparing professional football players to minor and major league baseball players, researchers found that football linemen were more likely to have higher fasting blood sugar levels, larger waist circumferences and a greater waist-to-height ratio.

Although the idea that a football player could be at risk for heart disease might seem paradoxical because football players have to be in top physical condition, the lineman position also requires players to bulk up, with many tipping the scales at more than 300 pounds. All that extra weight may put players at risk later in life.

“We’ve identified a subset of players that are exercising like crazy and they’re extremely fit, but the exercise isn’t completely protective,” said one of the study’s authors, Dr. John Helzberg, co-director of the division of gastroenterology at Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.

Helzberg was quick to point out that the study was not designed to look at the rates of heart disease or deaths from heart disease later in life but to identify only current risk factors. The hope is that by identifying the risk factors, steps could be taken to tackle the risk factors now, and interventions could be designed to help players when they retire.

Results of the study were scheduled to be presented Oct. 26 at the American College of Gastroenterology’s annual scientific meeting in San Diego.

Previous research has suggested that football players face myriad risks later in life, such as higher rates of chronic pain, depression and even dementia. Helzberg said the idea for the current study came from a news report that suggested that football players were twice as likely to die before the age of 50 as baseball players.

To get an idea of how football players’ health really compared with that of baseball players, Helzberg and his colleagues assessed a range of risk factors in 69 professional football players and 155 baseball players — both minor and major league.

Many football players, such as quarterbacks and receivers, have heart disease risk profiles similar to those of baseball players. However, the 19 men playing lineman positions — including guards, tackles, centers and defensive ends — had significantly higher fasting blood sugar levels, waist circumferences and waist-to-height ratios, which are all considered risk factors for cardiovascular disease. And, when three such risk factors are combined, it’s considered metabolic syndrome, which often indicates an increased risk for heart disease.

Of the linemen, 26 percent had fasting glucose levels above 100 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) compared with 7 percent of the baseball players. That level is considered prediabetic, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Nearly 100 percent of the linemen had a waist circumference greater than 100 centimeters (39.4 inches), which is considered a risk factor for heart disease, whereas only 8 percent of the baseball players had waists that size. Having a waist-to-height ratio greater than 0.5 also increases the risk for cardiovascular disease, and 95 percent of the linemen had a ratio greater than that, compared with 24 percent of the baseball players, according to Helzberg.

“These guys are very big, and yes, they have more muscle, but a lot of the weight is fat, and anyone at a higher weight is at risk of metabolic syndrome,” said Dr. Jonathan Whiteson, co-director of the Joan and Joel Smilow Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention Center at the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.

“What happens is that you don’t have to have rip-roaring abnormalities, but when you put these factors together, you create metabolic syndrome,” Whiteson said. “This can put them at risk for premature heart disease, stroke, vascular disease in the legs and sudden death,” he explained.

“The message is clear,” he said. “Being fat is not fit. It’s a medical condition.”

But there are other worries as well, he added. “What’s always a concern of mine is that these people are role models for children, and you see young boys who want to play football bulking up,” Whiteson said. “We should be promoting a better health profile than linebackers.”

Prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure improves the lives of older Americans and also reduces medical costs, study findings show.

Researchers looked at a group of 51- and 52-year-olds from across the nation and projected their future state of health and medical costs if they could avoid developing certain chronic diseases. In a 51-year-old, prevention of obesity would extend life by 0.85 years, preventing high blood pressure would give them an additional 2.05 years, and by avoiding diabetes they would gain 3.17 years. People aged 51 and 52 who quit smoking would gain 3.44 more years of life, the study authors noted in a news release from the American Public Health Association.

Prevention of these conditions also would have lower lifetime medical costs for the individual: Preventing obesity would save $7,168; preventing high blood pressure would save $13,702; and preventing diabetes would save $34,483. However, the lifetime medical costs for a person who quits smoking would be $15,959 higher, the researchers noted in the news release.

“Our data indicate that primary prevention could improve the health and longevity of future cohorts of elderly persons in the United States at a relatively low cost,” the researchers concluded

A diet high in a form of sugar found in sweetened soft drinks and junk food raises blood pressure among men, according to research likely to mean more bad news for beverage companies and restaurant chains.

One of two studies released on Wednesday provided the first evidence that fructose helps raise blood pressure. It also found that the drug allopurinol, used to treat gout, can alleviate the effect by reducing uric acid levels in the body.

The second study, which measured fructose intake in mice, suggested that people who consume junk foods and sweetened soft drinks at night could gain weight faster than those who don’t.

“These results suggest that excessive fructose intake may have a role in the worldwide epidemic of obesity and diabetes,” said Dr. Richard Johnson of the University of Colorado-Denver, who studied the link between blood pressure and men.

The findings provide the latest evidence of ties between sugar-rich diets and health problems that have prompted some experts to call for a tax on sugary soft drinks.

Fructose accounts for about half the sugar molecules in table sugar and in high-fructose corn syrup, the sweetener used in many packaged foods.

Johnson and colleagues at the Mateo Orfila Hospital in Spain studied 74 men given 200 grams of fructose per day on top of their regular diet. That amount is well above a daily intake of 50 grams to 70 grams of fructose consumed by most American adults.

Half the men were also given allopurinol.

After two weeks, the men who received only the fructose registered increases of six millimeters in systolic blood pressure — the top reading — and about three millimeters in diastolic or the bottom reading, the researchers told an American Heart Association meeting in Chicago.

REVERSIBLE EFFECT

Most of their blood pressure readings returned to normal levels after two months.

The men who did not get allopurinol also were twice as likely to develop metabolic syndrome, measured by risk factors such as too much abdominal fat, high blood pressure and poor cholesterol readings.

By contrast, those given allopurinol and fructose had significantly lower uric acid levels, and virtually no increase in systolic blood pressure or higher risk of metabolic syndrome.

For the second study, researchers in Ohio studied mice given fructose water to drink. Some had unrestricted access, while others received it during the day or at night.

“The first thing we noticed was that the mice on restricted access rushed to their drinking bottles to load up on the sweetened beverage, similar to teenagers who drink too many soft drinks,” said Mariana Morris of Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

The mice that drank fructose water during their regular daylight sleeping hours gained more weight and had higher stress hormone levels than the other mice.

“This model may be similar to the human condition of night time bingeing of fructose-laden foods and beverages,” Morris said.

The American Heart Association says women should eat no more than 100 calories of added processed sugar per day, or six teaspoons (25 grams), while most men should keep it to just 150 calories or nine teaspoons (37.5 grams). On average Americans consume 22 teaspoons (90 grams) or 355 calories of added sugar each day.