Healthwise

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NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE WORLD OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH

We should all be delighted at the advances now being made by scientists, researchers and the medical profession. For 2011 we continue to highlight some of the latest developments in health and medicine. 

WALKING AGAINST PROSTATE CANCER

A report in the Cancer Research Journal says taking a brisk walk can help keep prostate cancer from spreading.

The report was based on men suffering from prostate cancer who power walked for at least three hours every week and said that the effect seemed to halve how much their cancer would grow and spread over the following two years.

They said strolling at a leisurely rate does not have the same effect.

NEW INFORMATION ON PARKINSON’S

A bacteria responsible for stomach ulcers may play a significant role in the development of Parkinson’s disease.

The study was undertaken at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Centre which showed that mice infected with the bacteria helicobacter pylon went on to develop Parkinson’s like symptoms, such as reduced movement and decreased levels of the chemical dopamine in the brain.

The researchers believe the bacteria produce chemicals which are toxic to the brain. Interestingly Dr Testerman, who led the research, said these chemicals were almost identical to those found in seeds from the cycad plant which had been show to trigger a Parkinson’s like disease among people in Guam.

DYING WITH DIGNITY

The Swiss canton of Zurich has rejected calls to ban assisted suicide for non-residents.

There has been disquiet among many people in Switzerland that Zurich is becoming a centre for “suicide tourism”. In recent years over 150 British people have gone to Switzerland with the help of the Swiss organisation Dignitas to end their lives.

Assisted dying is a huge ethical issue with strong feelings on both sides and the matter isn’t settled for good as the Federal Swiss government is still considering new proposals to tighten the laws regarding suicide organisations.

GENETIC BASED DIAGNOSIS

A team led by researchers at Yale University has found a way to isolate individual charged particles which could lead to a breakthrough in making diagnosis and identifying best treatments based on each patient’s individual genetic makeup.

Being able to isolate individual molecules like DNA base pairs is very expensive and difficult to control and scientists have spent the past decade trying to do this successfully in a way that could be used on a wide basis.

Now a method called “Paul trapping” has been adapted with excellent success. The long term hope is that doctors can take a tiny drop of blood from a patient and run diagnostic tests right there in the surgery with a wide range of benefits and applications for individual diagnosis and treatments.

NEW HOPE TO DELAY ALZHEIMER’S

A new collaborative study from researchers in Germany and America has shown that an anti-inflammatory drug called CNI-1493 protects nerve cells against amyloid beta. Amyloid beta is a protein that can build up in the brain triggering the damaging inflammation and the destruction of nerve cells found in patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

Other inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen have already been shown to reduce Alzheimer’s disease lesions in the brains, but the latest study indicates that CNI-1493 could work faster and be more effective.

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