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Inflammatory Bowel Disease Raises Clot Risk
Feb 23rd
IBD May Double Risk of Serious Blood Clots, Study Finds
Inflammatory bowel disease may more than double the risk of a serious blood clot in the legs or lungs, according to a new study.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an umbrella term that includes a variety of intestinal disorders, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Researchers found that children and adults with IBD were more than twice as likely to develop a dangerous type of blood clot that develops in the leg, known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), or lung, called pulmonary embolism (PE).
These types of blood clots affect about two out of every 1,000 people in developed countries each year, and the risk generally increases with age.
But in this study, researchers found the results showed the relative risk of blood clots associated with IBD was particularly high among young people.
In people aged 20 and younger, the relative risk of a pulmonary embolism was six times higher among people with inflammatory bowel disease, compared to similarly aged people without IBD.
The study compared the risk of pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis in 49,799 Danish adults and children with IBD and more than 477,000 Danish people without IBD, who were followed from 1980 to 2007.
After accounting for other factors known to increase the risk of blood clots, such as a broken bone, cancer, surgery, or pregnancy, researchers found that the risk of pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis was twice as high in people with IBD compared to people without IBD.
In a further analysis, researchers also took into account chronic medical conditions associated with an increased risk of blood clots, including heart disease, diabetes, congestive heart failure, and the use of hormone replacement therapy or antipsychotic drugs. They found that the risk of blood clots still remained up to 80% higher among people with IBD.
Researcher Michael Kappelman, MD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and colleagues say the results confirm previous studies that have shown that IBD increases the risk of blood clots. In addition, they suggest that inflammatory bowel disease may be an independent risk factor for blood clots that in some cases may benefit from preventive treatment.
Are Fast-Food Advertisers Playing You?
Feb 23rd
Did you ever think that watching your favorite TV show could be hazardous to your health?
It can be, when you consider what you’re seeing during commercial breaks. A study of almost 100,000 food ads on TV showed that 89% of ads that teenagers see are promoting products high in fat, sugar, and/or sodium.
With the average teen in the U.S. seeing 15 food ads a day, commercials’ influence on you can add up. Especially when you consider that these ads can affect how you eat without you knowing it. And that’s where the danger lies. A study by researchers at Yale University found that kids eating a snack while watching TV ate 45% more during and after food ads.
So how do you spot unhealthy food advertisements and shield yourself against them?
When you do see a fast-food commercial, think about the way advertisers are showing their products to you. Are they telling the whole story?
Just because fast-food marketers try to get you to buy fatty, sugary foods doesn’t mean you have to let them get inside your head.
Supersized = Super-bad
Ads push supersized meals, promising better value for bigger portions. “These commercials remind you that you can get an inordinate amount of unhealthy food for a very low price,” says Cara Natterson, MD, a pediatrician in Santa Monica, Calif. That can make them hard to resist when you’re hungry and strapped for cash. But the ads don’t tell you that jumbo portions are not good for your health; they just add more calories, sugar, and unhealthy fats. “The portion sizes that ads suggest are just completely out of control,” Natterson explains.
Over the years portion sizes — or the amount of food being eaten in one sitting — has grown by a lot. If you were served a cheeseburger 20 years ago, it likely would have weighed in at 333 calories. Order a cheeseburger today and you’re likely get something nearly double the size — 590 calories! That’s too much to eat at once, especially when paired with fries and a soda, to be considered healthy. Over time mega-meals can add up on your waistline and take a toll on your health. To burn off the difference in calories between the old portion and today’s jumbo sandwich, a 130-pound person would need to lift weights for 1 1/2 hours.
Hidden Health Hazards
Pausing to think about an ad before you buy (or even doing a little research about what you see) is important because it can be hard to spot the hazards at first glance. You may even think what’s being sold is healthy because of how it is presented — when it isn’t, says Linda Bartholomay, LRD, a nutritional therapist at Sanford Health in Fargo, N.D.
Electrical Brain Activity May Spot Autism Risk
Feb 23rd
Study Shows Computer Analysis of Brain Activity Helps Predict Autism Risk for Infants
Combining a standard noninvasive test that measures electrical activity in the brain with a high-tech computer analysis may help determine the risk of autism spectrum disorder in infants, according to a new study.
In the study, a computer program that assists in evaluating brainwave data from an electroencephalogram (EEG) was used to determine the way nerve cells communicate with one another in infants. Using the data generated, researchers were able to predict which 9-month-old infants have a high risk of autism with 80% accuracy.
“Electrical activity produced by the brain has a lot more information than we realized,” says researcher William Bosl, PhD, of Children’s Hospital Boston, in a news release. “Computer algorithms can pick out patterns in those squiggly lines that the eye can’t see.”
These results are only preliminary, but researchers say the technique could lead to less invasive and much earlier determination of autism risk by picking up subtle differences in brain organization and activity.
Autism is typically diagnosed through extensive behavioral testing at 2-3 years of age.
In the study, published in BMC Medicine, researchers compared EEGs from 79 infants aged 6 to 24 months. Forty-six of the infants were considered at high risk for autism because they had an older sibling with the behavioral disorder.
The babies wore helmet-like caps studded with electrodes on their scalps to measure electrical activity while they watched a research assistant blowing bubbles. The tests were repeated, when possible, at 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months of age.
The EEGs were then interpreted using modified multiscale entropy (mMSE), which measures the randomness of a signal.
The results showed that the greatest difference in brain activity patterns between the high-risk group and the comparison group of infants was at 9 months of age.
But there was a gender difference that researchers say they can’t yet explain. The method’s accuracy at picking out babies at risk for autism was greatest for girls at 6 months and for boys at 12 and 18 months.
Researchers say patterns in brain electrical activity can give many clues about how the brain is wired and how the connections between neurons in each part of the brain are functioning and organized.
“Many neuroscientists believe that autism reflects a ‘disconnection syndrome,’ by which distributed populations of neurons fail to communicate efficiently with one another,” says researcher Charles A. Nelson, PhD, research director of the Developmental Medicine Center at Children’s Hospital Boston, in the release. “The current paper supports this hypothesis by suggesting that the brains of infants at high risk for developing autism exhibit different patterns of neural connectivity.”
FIT Connection for Parents: Weight
Feb 23rd
Many factors contribute to a weight problem — biology, habits learned before you can even remember, and how easy it is buy huge portions of high-fat, high-sugar food. It may seem like the deck is stacked against anyone trying to fight obesity.
The often quoted advice “Eat right and exercise,” simply isn’t the whole answer to this complex problem. That’s why the FIT Platform includes 4 pillar — FOOD, MOVE, MOOD, and RECHARGE. Learning how to live a lifestyle that includes a healthy focus on all 4 can help you win the weight battle.
Achieving a healthy weight and fitness is really “about being healthy,” says Chris Tiongson, MD, a pediatrician with Sanford Health. And that requires “a balance between mind, body, and spirit, and having everything be in sync,” he says.
Using FOOD to Manage Weight
Of the 4 pillars in the FIT Platform, FOOD probably has the most direct affect on weight. If you eat too much of any kind of food, you’ll gain weight. But it’s harder to eat too much of foods that are “low density” — meaning they are low in calories based on their portion size. Low density foods include fruits, vegetables, legumes, and cooked whole grains like wild or brown rice and oatmeal. The goal is to use these foods as the base of your diet, so you have less room for those high-fat, high-calorie foods like baked goods, fried foods, and junk food.
How to MOVE to Manage Weight
When a family MOVES together, it can help family members maintain a healthy weight — or lose excess pounds. It’s hard to lose weight with exercise alone. But combine healthy, low-fat eating with moving your body makes it easier to create a calorie deficit. And that’s what you need in order to lose weight. To lose weight, you need to:
Exercise to burn off the calories you eat that your body doesn’t need.Eat fewer calories than your body needs to maintain your current weight.Many people find splitting the difference between eating less and exercising more, is easier because they don’t feel as deprived. Plus, the more you exercise, the more muscle you build and muscle helps you burn calories.
Cope With MOOD to Manage Weight
When stress becomes chronic, it can lead into a downward spiral of poor health habits — and even weight gain. A recent article that reviewed studies evaluating the link between being overweight and depression found that overweight adults are more likely to become depressed. The study revealed that the opposite was also true. People who are depressed are more likely to become overweight or obese. The risk extends to children. One study found that children who identified themselves as overweight or obese were more likely to be depressed as adults.
Nitroglycerin May Increase Bone Density
Feb 23rd
Study Shows Heart Treatment May Have Benefit as Bone-Building Medicine
Women at risk of fractures who used the heart medicine nitroglycerin boosted their bone density modestly, according to a new study.
”We found nitroglycerin has a unique ability,” says researcher Sophie Jamal, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. “What it does is both increase bone formation and decrease bone breakdown.”
No osteoporosis drug does both to her knowledge.
Her study, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, did not assess fracture risk with nitroglycerin use, only the effects on bone. She plans to look next at whether taking nitroglycerin for bones will reduce fractures.
While several medicines are on the market to treat osteoporosis, the brittle bone disease that can lead to fractures, Jamal says many are expensive and not all drugs are available worldwide. In the U.S., up to one of every two women and one of four men over age 50 is expected to have an osteoporosis-related fracture at some point, according to the National Institutes of Health.
When used for heart conditions, nitroglycerin causes constricted blood vessels to dilate, relieving the severe chest pains known as angina.
Previous research by others has found that women taking nitroglycerin for heart problems had a lower risk of fractures, and other studies found its use is associated with a reduced fracture risk.
Jamal and colleagues assigned 243 women, average age about 62, to either a nitroglycerin ointment group or a placebo ointment group. The women applied either the nitroglycerin (15 milligrams) or placebo to their upper arm at bedtime, squeezing out about an inch of the medicine.
The researchers, who conducted the study from November 2005 to March 2010, did not accept women who already had osteoporosis or any medical condition that affected bone metabolism.
Bone density was evaluated at the study start and again at the 12-month and 24-month mark.
At the end, they found the women in the nitroglycerin group, compared to those in the placebo group, had a:
6.7% increase in bone mineral density at the lumbar spine6.2% increase in bone mineral density at the hip7% increase in the thigh bone densityThe group taking the nitroglycerin also had an increase in a marker of bone formation and a decrease in a marker for bone loss.
Headache was the most common side effect reported by those in the nitroglycerin group, with 35% of participants complaining of it compared to 5.4% in the placebo group in the first month. Over time, the headaches in the treated women declined.
The study was funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the Physicians’ Services Incorporated.
Jamal has received support for board membership from Novartis, Amgen, and Warner-Chilcott and has been a consultant for Genzyme, Warner-Chilcott, Novartis, and Shire.
