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210 W. Hamilton Avenue State College, PA 16801 800-211-7819 (Toll-Free) 234-1419 (Local Area) shildtfs@aol.com
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Shildt Financial Services hopes that you find the following news items to be helpful and informative.
IN REVIEW: Health News Back To September, 2008
Health Highlights (Oct. 9, 2009 to Oct. 16, 2009) Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay: Immune System Linked to Osteoporosis In Celiac Patients People with celiac disease may be at increased risk for osteoporosis because their immune system attacks a protein called osteoprotegerin, which plays an important role in bone health, say U.K. researchers. It had been believed that osteoporosis in celiac patients was caused by an inability to absorb calcium or vitamin D. This study found that 20 percent of celiac patients tested had antibodies that stopped osteoprotegerin from working effectively, BBC News reported. "This is a very exciting step forward. Not only have we discovered a new reason to explain why osteoporosis occurs in celiac disease, but we have also found that it responds very well to drugs that prevent bone tissue removal," said lead researcher Professor Stuart Ralston, of the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. "Testing for these antibodies could make a real and important difference to the lives of people with celiac disease by alerting us to the risk of osteoporosis and helping us find the correct treatment for them," he added, BBC News reported. The study appears in the New England Journal of Medicine. ----- Falls Common Cause Of Seniors' ER Visits Each year, more than two million American seniors are treated in hospital emergency departments for injuries caused by falls, finds a federal government report. In 2006, treatment for head wounds, broken bones, cuts and other fall-related injuries suffered by seniors cost hospitals about $7 billion for emergency and subsequent inpatient care, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Among the other findings from the analysis of hospital emergency department data:
----- Web Site Evaluates Swine Flu Severity An interactive Web site designed to help people decide if their case of swine flu is serious enough to require a visit to the doctor was unveiled Wednesday. The site uses a self-assessment tool from Emory University in Atlanta. That tool is based on key risk factors for bad flu outcome determined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Associated Press reported. The tool "reflects the best available science," Emory emergency specialist Dr. Arthur Kellerman told the AP. Users of the online assessment type in their age (it's only for those over 12) and answer questions about their underlying health and symptoms, such as fever. The program may advise rest and fluids, a non-emergency call to your doctor, or immediate medical attention. The site was created by Microsoft Corp. The CDC (www.flu.gov) also offers a list of flu signs that indicate a person should seek emergency care. ----- Breast Cancer Cells Mutate As Disease Progresses The discovery that breast cancer cells mutate as the disease progresses is an important finding that may lead to new treatments, researchers say. They analyzed the DNA of healthy cells and cancer cells at three different stages of breast cancer in one patient. Nine years after her initial diagnosis, the woman's cancer had spread (metastasized) to other parts of her body. There were 32 DNA mutations in the metastasized cells. "When we looked back to see if (the mutations) were present in the primary tumor, we found only five mutations that could have been present in all cells," lead researcher Samuel Aparicio of the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Canada, told Agence France Presse. "This is a watershed event in our ability to understand the causes of breast cancer and to develop personalized medicines for our patients," he said in a news release. The findings "will lead to a shift in perspective" in how cancer is treated, he told AFP. The study appears in the Oct. 8 issue of the journal Nature. ----- Ill College Students Can Keep Health Insurance A new U.S. law that allows college students to take up to one year off school for medical reasons while remaining on their family's health insurance plan could benefit thousands of seriously ill or injured college students. No longer will they have to choose between taking time off from their education or keeping their health coverage. "Michelle's Law," which took effect Friday, is named for Michelle Morse, who decided to keep her full course load at Plymouth (N.H.) State University while undergoing chemotherapy for colon cancer so that she wouldn't be dropped from her parents' health insurance plan. The aspiring teacher died at age 22 in 2005, six months after she graduated, the Associated Press reported. Her mother AnnMarie Morse lobbied for changes in New Hampshire, which enacted its version of Michelle's Law in 2006. Morse then started pushing for a new national law, which Congress passed last year. At a news conference Friday, Morse said it was "a very bittersweet day," the AP reported. "I wish I could turn back time and have the family my husband and I were given: one daughter, one son." ----- FDA Considers New Insulin Inhaler An insulin inhaler that may offer a more convenient alternative to insulin injections for people with diabetes is being considered for approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The palm-sized inhaler contains an insulin powder called Afresa, which dissolves in the lungs and then travels the bloodstream, The New York Times reported. The device and powder were developed by California-based MannKind Corporation, which is asking the FDA to approve the system's use in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. "The patient's breathing action does the job," Matthew J. Pfeffer, chief financial officer at MannKind, told the Times. "The airflow through the cartridge allows the powder to be inhaled." Patients put insulin doses -- pre-packaged in cartridges -- into the inhaler and turn the mouthpiece to release the insulin. The inhaler uses no electricity or compressed gas. "The patient's breathing action does the job," Pfeffer said. "The airflow through the cartridge allows the powder to be inhaled." An insulin inhaler introduced by Pfizer in 2006 was taken off the market less than two years later due to poor sales. The inhaler was too large and awkward, according to some experts, the Times said. ----- Death Caused By Improper Relenza Use Inappropriate use of the anti-flu medication Relenza has been linked with at least one death, drug maker GlaxoSmithKline says in a letter sent to doctors. The letter was posted online Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The death occurred after the drug was reformulated into a liquid form, an action not recommended by the FDA. Glaxo said Relenza should only be used in the prescribed manner. The letter didn't provide any details about the person who died, the Associated Press reported. Relenza, which comes in powder form to be used with a special inhaler device, is approved by the FDA to treat symptoms of seasonal flu when taken within two days of the start of the flu. Millions of doses of Relenza and Roche's Tamiflu have been stockpiled by the United States, the AP reported. ----- Adult Stem Cells Used to Create Jaw Joint U.S. researchers who used human adult stem cells to create part of a jaw joint in the laboratory said their success could lead to new ways to treat jaw problems and other types of bone disorders. Stem cells taken from bone marrow were seeded into a tissue scaffold, which had been formed into a temporomandibular joint by using digital images from a patient. The cells were infused with the exact amount of nutrients found during natural bone development, BBC News reported. The Columbia University study appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The availability of personalized bone grafts engineered from the patient's own stem cells would revolutionize the way we currently treat these defects," said lead researcher Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, BBC News reported. "We thought the jawbone would be the most rigorous test of our technique; if you can make this, you can make any shape," she noted. ----- Learning Juggling or Other Complex New Skills Benefits Brain Learning juggling or other complex new skills prompts improvements in the brain's signaling network, a finding that could lead to new ways to treat people with diseases such as multiple sclerosis, say U.K. researchers. The researchers used MRI imaging technology to monitor the brains of healthy young adults who were given weekly juggling training sessions for six weeks and then practiced for 30 minutes a day. The jugglers showed a 5 percent increase in brain white matter compared with non-jugglers, BBC News reported. The Oxford University study appeared in the journal Nature Neuroscience. "MRI is an indirect way to measure brain structure and so we cannot be sure exactly what is changing when these people learn," said team leader Dr. Heidi Johansen-Berg, BBC News reported. "Future work should test whether these results reflect changes in the shape or number of nerve fibers, or growth of the insulating myelin sheath surrounding the fibers." "Of course, this doesn't mean that everyone should go out and start juggling to improve their brains," she added. "We chose juggling purely as a complex new skill for people to learn." ----- Aspirin Overdoses May Have Caused Some 1918 Pandemic Deaths A researcher suggests that aspirin overdoses may have caused some deaths during the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed more than 50 million people worldwide. Dr. Karen M. Starko said that high doses of aspirin -- amounts considered unsafe today -- were used to treat patients in the pandemic. She also noted that doctors may have had difficulty distinguishing symptoms of aspirin overdose from those of the flu, especially among patients who died soon after they became ill, The New York Times reported. At the time, aspirin packages didn't have any warnings about toxicity and included few instructions for use. Federal officials recommended aspirin as a symptomatic treatment for the flu, and the U.S. military purchased large quantities of the drug. During the pandemic, the Journal of the American Medical Association suggested an aspirin dose of 1,000 milligrams every three hours. That's the equivalent of 25 standard 325-milligram aspirin tablets in 24 hours, about twice the daily dosage considered safe today, the Times reported. The research, which appears in the Nov. 1 issue of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, is "intriguing," said Peter A. Chyka, a professor of pharmacy at the University of Tennessee. "In the context of what we know today about aspirin and aspirin-like products, Starko has made an interesting effort to put this together," he told The Times. "There are things other than flu that can complicate a disease like this."
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