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. 

 

 TARGET THE CLOT

A Japanese team from the Nara Medical University has identified a way to deliver a special blood clot dissolving drug to target and break down blockages responsible for heart attacks.

The drug is encapsulated in a coating of gelatine-based nanoparticles that prevent its contents from being released into the blood stream. This limits the risk of internal bleeding and also directs its benefits to exactly the right place and maximises its effect on dissolving the clot.

Time is crucial in the treatment of heart attacks and a cardiologist at the John’s Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, USA, said the development could be a tremendous step forward.

MEMORY SLEEP

A study from the University of Massachusetts Amherst has reported that people over 50 do not gain the same improvements to memory from sleep that younger people do.
For young people, snoozing means big gains in memory. But in older folks some of sleep’s memory-boosting abilities are erased, the new study finds. An explanation could be because as people age, they spend less time per cycle in each of sleep’s key stages. This is especially relevant re sleep stage 2, when the day’s events are played back and committed to memory.

REDUCED RISK OF SECONDARY HEART ATTACKS

Vitamin D, if given to patients after a heart attack, reduces levels of two key compounds implicated in heart disease. Yoav Arnson from the Meir Medical Center in Israel said a study group that had been given vitamin D after a heart attack showed a definite decrease in two inflammation-causing compounds related to heart attack.

The vitamin concept was tested on 50 patients who received 4,000 units of vitamin D a day and the results were taken after five days.

GOOD NEWS FOR BAD CHOLESTEROL

Help might be on the way for people with high levels of LDL, or bad cholesterol. An experimental drug has been tested which inhibits a natural compound that pushes up LDL levels.

56 people were involved in the American research and the drug showed that the LDL levels of those taking high levels of the new drug had decreased by up to 64 per cent with the reduction lasting for a month. Further testing is now underway.

THE POWER OF POMEGRANATES

More good news about pomegranates. Evidently they may specifically reduce the risk of breast cancer.

Prof Gary Stoner of the Department of Internal Medicine at Ohio State University, said that tests have found the chemicals in the fruit block the production of oestrogen which can help produce good conditions for cancer cells to grow.

However, his report also says that diet alone may not provide enough of the chemical and more research on the individual components and combination of chemicals is now needed to fully understand the results.

BUTTERING UP FOR HEALTH

New research from the University of California shows that eating butter, cheese and full fat milk may not be as bad for one’s health as is generally believed.

In a series of studies, it has been found that there are indications that genetics, lifestyle and age all play a key role in how a person is affected by saturated fats and that in many cases replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat offered only a very small level of benefit.

NEW TEST FOR CANCER SPREAD

Cancer testing may become easier after scientists have discovered a new way to test whether the disease is spreading.

The new liquid biopsy, a development being led by drug firm Johnson & Johnson, screens blood with astonishing ability - it can detect a stray cancer cell among a billion blood cells and this would indicate that an existing tumour has spread elsewhere in the body or is likely to break out.

The development is not expected to come onto the market for another five years and may eventually be able to be used by local doctors.

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