Archive for the ‘Hormone Clinic’ Category

The Muse S biofeedback and score-keeping rankles traditional mindfulness teachers, but its data-driven approach could be a game changer for high-level entrepreneurs and executives.

Heres an inspiring story for the first week of the new year, when even the steeliest of resolutions confront the nagging drag of entrenched habits: The most sophisticated new device to promote mindfulness comes from the restless mind of a once-failed meditator.

I was a psychotherapist and would teach my patients to meditate, but I, myself, was never able to crack the code. I always had a million ideas, had an entrepreneurial mind, and the thought of silencing it was quite uncomfortable to me, says Ariel Garten, cofounder of Muse, the app-based device used by more than 100,000 people since its debut in 2014. I was just never able to stick with it.

Ariel Garten. Photo courtesy of Muse

This week, Gartens company launched its most advanced version: the Muse S, which has a soft headband embedded with sophisticated electroencephalogram (EEG) and photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensors to monitor brain activity, heart rate and breathing. Users get real time feedback, in the form of nature sounds like falling rain, that prompt them when they become distracted. The app documents brain and heart rate, keeping a log that users can review after each session. (The device retails for $350; an additional $95 buys a yearly subscription to more than 300 guided meditations.)

For many meditators, particularly for those new to the practice, the biofeedback and the accompanying documentation provide reassurance, Garten says.

Most people have a misconception that your mind is supposed to go blank, but if you try to meditate with that belief, youre setting yourself up for failure. Your mind never goes blank, she says. Muse shows you what youre supposed to be doing: Youre putting your attention on your breath, youre notified when your mind wanders, you return to your breath. Just knowing what the process is, is tremendous for people.

The company has a lofty pedigree: Garten studied neuroscience at the University of Toronto, researched Parkinsons disease and hippocampal neurogenesis in labs at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre, has guest lectured at MITs Neurotechnology program and worked in the Mann Lab, a pioneer in wearable technology, with Muses cofounder Chris Aimone.

In the early 2000s, Garten and Aimone were working with brain-computer interface technology, creating experimental concerts during which the audience controlled music with their minds. Participantsslipped an EEG on the back of their head, and as they relaxed, the change in brainwave activity altered the quality and volume of the rooms audio output.

We spent a long time thinking that our work was going to be about controlling technology with your mind and later realized that the most powerful part of this was showing what was going on in your own mind, Garten says. We were giving you insights and feedback on your own mental activity. The best way to apply this was to help more people meditate.

Since its launch, Muse has been used for breast cancer patients at the Mayo Clinic, as well as at other prestigious institutions like Harvard and NASA. A 2018 paper on a four-week study at the Catholic University of Milan documented neuroplastic changes to Muse users brains and reduction of their stress levels.

Garten cites studies by Harvard professor Sara Lazar that demonstrate long-term meditators have improved thickness in their prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for higher order processing, cognition and metacognition, as well as more connections between the left and right sections of the brain. Aging, too, is helped by regular meditation, which decreases the presence of cortisol, a stress hormone that can shrink the hippocampus.

Successful meditation, Garten says, promotes higher functioning by helping regulate the competing messages in our brain.

Our amygdala, the part of our brain responsible for our fight or flight response, gets freaked out at all sorts of things that may or may not be relevant. Theres this dance between the amygdala, which is the child, and the prefrontal cortex, which is the parent, she explains. Through meditation process, youre strengthening your prefrontal cortexs ability to actually rise above, see whats going on in the situation, and then make a better choice about it.

That ability, and the promotion of emotional intelligence, is resonating with corporations like Shopify, as well as major media and banking companies that have also enlisted Muse for workshops and meditation challenges.

Garten says her corporate clients gain increased productivity, focus, job satisfaction and decreased stress levels and employee conflict. In the workplace context, metacognition is key, she says. Its the difference between being driven by habits and frustration, and being a more disciplined, wiser individual.

Among Muses fans: executive coach Alex Charfen and Trend Micro president Wael Mohammed, a Muse user who became an investor.

Its a tool that high value performers use across the board. Youre a high-level entrepreneur because you like data, feedback and the ability to make good decisions. This charts your progress and makes it actionable, which is very appealing, Garten says.

Muses success reflects a broader, and recent, cultural shift: Garten, Aimone and their third cofounder, Trevor Coleman, initially marketed the technology in Muse as a cognitive trainer, decorated with logos of brains with muscles, Garten recalls. In 2012, when the trio tried to get funding, investors balked.

Muse S. Photo courtesy of Muse

Theyd say: You have this incredible technology that can read brains. Whats your killer app? Wed say, Meditation, and theyd look at us like, Are you guys kidding? Garten recalls. Today, most educated people understand that you need to eat well, exercise and relieve stress through meditation. Its part of the canon of things that we do, but thats an incredibly recent market trend.

Still, for some meditation teachers, an app based on rewards and control undermines the central premise of mindfulness.

Theres a lot of gaming involved and its very Western, external and goal-oriented. We are so addicted to and dependent on devices that, for me, its almost ironic to use a device on our heads to get out of our heads, says Cathy Trentalancia, founder of MindScience and a meditation teacher who works with companies like American Express, Sony, Moinian, Simpson Thatcher, Shiseido, Carnegie Hall, and at MNDFL studios in New York.

Muse definitely seems fun, but meditation isnt necessarily about having fun. Its about learning to create space and learning how to be comfortable with whatever is there. When you yourself notice your mind is wandering, thats mindfulness. An external entity shouldnt do that for you, she says.

While Trentalancia is skeptical about Muses device, she does recommend guided meditation apps like Dan Harris Ten Percent Happier; Insight Timer and Journey LIVE. I think Muse can offer something very interesting in the EEG experience. Its fascinating, but its not the same journey, she says.

Garten agrees that experienced meditators may ultimately eschew Muse and says that while she still uses Muse as a base tool, she has expanded her practice to multiple other forms of meditation. Still, for beginners, and for those wanting to honor New Years resolutions to pursue a more mindful life, Muses empirical, data-driven approach may create useful habits.

Muse was the thing that really taught me to meditate, it was the thing that finally gave me that aha moment of, Oh, this is what meditation is, she says. It taught me the discipline of coming back to my breath, and the comfort of being able to let go of stray thoughts.

An indispensable guide to finance, investing and entrepreneurship.

Read this article:
The New Device Promising to Help YouFinallyMeditate - Worth

Whether its age, physical stress, medical conditions or genetics and hormonal disturbances, the reasons behind female infertility, not being able to become pregnant after a year of trying, are diverse and wide ranging. If youre one of the many women who have been having difficulties and hopes to have a giggly baby in your arms in 2020, its important to be well-informed. The good news is the vast majority of couples who have struggled to conceive at some point are now parents thanks to advanced treatments.

Certain elements may impact a womans ability to get pregnant in a natural way. Lifestyle choices as well as the decision to delay pregnancy, among others, can contribute to a womans capability to conceive later on in life, Dr Upma Shanker, IVF Specialist at the IVI Middle East Fertility Clinic in Muscat, said. Some serious medical conditions may lead to infertility problems as well. Whatever the case might be, women - most of the time, only find out about their condition after actively trying to have a baby for a year but failing to conceive. Such a situation is understandably devastating to any couple, the team member at the clinic with a success rate of over 70 percent, the highest in the Middle East, added.

According to IVI, the parent company of IVI Middle East Fertility Clinics, which offers extensive male and female infertility treatments, one in every seven couples has difficulties in getting pregnant. When it comes to female infertility, the most common medical causes are endometriosis, obstructions in the fallopian tubes, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and other ovulation problems such as anovulation. Quite a few young women are also affected by some of these health issues.

About 35 percent of females facing infertility have been diagnosed with endometriosis, or the presence of tissue that lines the uterus outside its normal location in the womb. And approximately 25 percent have had difficulty conceiving due to some abnormalities in their fallopian tubes.

PCOS is a medical condition that causes irregular menstrual cycles or no menstruation at all. Around 20 per cent of women have polycystic ovaries and are having difficulty conceiving because they do not ovulate.

With anovulation, menstruation stops completely. Stress, significant weight gain or loss, polycystic ovaries, or even excessive production of prolactin, the hormone responsible for producing breast milk, can result in anovulation, while menopause is the inevitable and natural reason for this condition.

IVI Fertility also cited other risk factors that contribute to fertility problems. These include myomas also known as fibroids, sexually transmitted diseases, diabetes, cancer, other chronic diseases and in certain cases, some medications such as anti-depressants.

Fortunately, advances in reproductive medicine have led to the development of treatments specifically addressing a range of female infertility causes. These modern approaches, including the advanced In-vitro fertilization treatments, have been helping more and more women achieve their dream of having a baby, Upma added.

Did you know? While around 40 percent of infertility causes are female related, 40 percent are connected to men and the remaining 20 percent is a combination of issues.

Here is the original post:
These Are the Female Infertility Causes Hopeful Mums-To-Be Should Know About - About Her

If you've ever spent anafternoonon the couch with the TV and a bag of salted chips, orgone to bed with a belly full ofTeochew porridge and its accoutrements of salted eggs, fish,vegetables and cured meats, youre probably familiar with the feeling.

You wake up the next morning feelingpuffed up and heavier than usual. Yourring feels like it's strangling your finger. Instead of ankles, you now have cankles. And when you presson theswollen areas for a few seconds, you get weird temporary dimples. In other words, you could very well stand in for the Michelin Man.

Thats water retention or edema in action.

WATER RETENTION CAUSE #1: SALT

The most common cause for edemais eating too much sodium-loaded food. This upsets your body's sodium-to-water balance,which it needs to function. As a result, your body produces an anti-diuretic hormone (ADH) that nudges thekidneys to hold on to water if the water content in our blood is lower than usual, saidAssociate Professor Chionh Chang Yin, the chief of Changi General Hospitals Department Of Renal Medicine.

Once you have drunk adequate fluids and the water content in the blood is restored, your body stops secreting ADH, he said. In that sense, it doesn't really help for you to drink less water to minimise edema.

But edema isnt just about your bodyholding on to insufficient fluids. It also has something to do with how fluids are diverted and pooled incertain parts of the body, which leads us to the next point below.

WATER RETENTION CAUSE #2: GRAVITY

If youve been standing a lotand have swollen ankles or legs, thats gravity's effect on your body'sfluids.It reflects a shift of water between physical compartments within the body, and in this case, it is related to gravity, said Dr Chionh.

The increased volume of bloodin your legs and feet raisesthe pressure inside the blood vessels.The excess fluid in the blood vessels then leaks out into the tissue in the legs, causing them to swell. This may explain theswelling in the lower legs some runners experience after running.

And its not just water. Edema may be a result of more blood flowing down to the legs than the blood flowing up from it, said Dr Ian Phoon, who heads the Cardiovascular Diseases Workgroup at SingHealth Polyclinics.

WATER RETENTION CAUSE #3: HORMONES (FOR WOMEN)

For women, edema could sometimes be part of the dreadedpremenstrual syndrome or PMS.Some women may observe a gain of 1kg to 2kg, which is gradually lost once menstruation begins. Such rapid changein weight is likely due to the change of the water retention status, said Dr Phoon.

But he added that you cant always blame edema for the bloated feeling as it could also "be a feeling of gas in the stomach or a feeling of indigestion.

About 5 litres of water is in the blood vessels, while the rest are in the cells, organs, and tissues of the body.

Your body doesn't produce more fluids when you have edema; instead, itstoresand channelsfluids. But pregnancy is a time when yourbody actually produces fluids about 50 per centmore bloodand body fluids,according to the American Pregnancy Association.

Theextra fluid is needed to soften the body andenableit to expand as the baby develops. "Extra fluid also helpsprepare the pelvic joints and tissues to open for delivery. The extra fluids account for approximately 25 per centof the weightwomen gain during pregnancy," noted its website.

WATER RETENTION CAUSE #4: CERTAIN MEDICINES

Certain medicines can cause edema as a side effect. The Mayo Clinic website lists, among others: High blood pressure medicines, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines, steroids, oestrogens and certain diabetes medicines known as thiazolidinediones.

HOW TO SOLVE EDEMA?

It should be as easy as holding back on those chips and going to the toilet more, right? Unfortunately, the science isnt likethat. For starters, your body is made of a lot of water.

About 60 per cent of your body consists of water, said Dr Phoon. About 5 litres of wateris in the blood vessels, while the rest are in the cells, organs, and tissues of the body.

And while this percentage can be lower in those who are obese and slightly lower in women than in men, he said, it doesnt change much no matter how much water you drink or dont.

But relieving edema is actually quite simple: By elevating one's legs (and reversing the effects of gravity), or wearing compression stockings during prolonged standing, said Dr Phoon. Moving the muscles of the affected limbs also helps to pump the excess fluids away.

BUT TAKE NOTE OF MORE SERIOUS WATER RETENTION ISSUES

However, persistent or severe edema warrants a consultation with a doctor, said Dr Phoon, as there are many possible causes, including serious underlying medical conditions such as heart failure or kidney damage.

Meanwhile, Dr Chionh advised that if a swelling in the leg or body is accompanied by other symptoms such asmarkedly frothy urine, breathlessness or reduced tolerance of physical activity, it may suggest edema related to an underlying medical condition.

Read this article:
What are the causes of water retention and how do you solve it - CNA

Every week there are numerous scientific studies published. Heres a look at some of the more interesting ones.

Controlling the Doses of Gene Therapy

Gene therapy is relatively new, with only a few approved therapies. The techniques typically involve taking a normal gene, inserting it into a hollowed-out virus, and injecting it into the patient, where the gene produces normal proteins that are otherwise abnormal. Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute developed a molecular switch that could potentially be embedded into gene therapies that would control dosing. They published their research in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

I think that our approach offers the only practical way at present to regulate the dose of a gene therapy in an animal or a human, said Michael Farzan, principal investigator of the research.

The researchers demonstrated the work by incorporating the switch into a gene therapy for anemia that produces the hormone erythropoietin. The switch suppressed expression of the gene to very low levels but could then increase the genes expression using injected control molecules called morpholinos. Morpholinos are already approved by the FDA as safe for other applications.

Machine Learning to Interpret Gene Regulation

Although big data is helpful in biological systems, the data sets are so complicated that interpreting the data is still difficult and complex. Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory designed advanced machine learning algorithms that cut through the complexity, making the data from gene regulation more easy to understand for biologists. The algorithms are a form of artificial neural network (ANN) that appears to bridge the gap between computational tools and how biologists think.

Deep Learning Predicts Disease-Associated Mutations

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong developed a deep learning method to predict disease-associated mutations of the metal-binding sites in a protein. It is the first time a deep learning approach has been used to predict disease-associated metal-relevant site mutations of metalloproteins. Metal ions play important roles structurally or functionally in the pathophysiology of many human biological systems, such as zinc, iron and copper. Deficiencies in these can cause severe diseases. They utilized omics data to develop a training dataset, finding that a mutation in zinc-binding sites played a major role in breast, liver, kidney, immune system and prostate diseases, while calcium- and magnesium-binding sites are linked to muscular and immune system diseases, respectively. Iron-binding site mutations are associated with metabolic diseases.

The Science Behind Intermittent Fasting

There are, generally speaking, two types of intermittent fasting. One is daily time-restricted feeding, narrowing eating times to 6-8 hours per day, and 5:2 intermittent fasting, where individuals limit themselves to one moderate-sized meal two days a week. Research suggests that the reason this works is that they trigger metabolic switching, an evolutionary adaptation to periods of food scarcity. When people eat three meals a day plus snacks, the switching does not occur. The research study also found that intermittent fasting decreased blood pressure, blood lipid levels and resting heart rates. Additional studies also suggest it can improve brain health, such as learning and memory.

Many Younger Patients with Stomach Cancer Appear to Have Distinct Disease

Mayo Clinic researchers found that many people who developed stomach cancer under the age of 60 had genetically and clinically distinct disease from stomach cancer patients who were older. The new, early onset type of stomach cancer appears to grow and metastasize more quickly and has a worse prognosis. It is also more resistant to traditional chemotherapy. The investigators evaluated more than 75,225 cases from several databases to review stomach cancer statistics from 1973 to 2015. The average age of stomach cancer diagnosis is 68, but there appears to be growing occurrence in individuals in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

Dementia Vaccine Successful in Animal Trials

Investigators successfully tested an experimental vaccine to remove brain plaque and tau protein aggregates linked to Alzheimers disease in laboratory mice. The researchers from the Institute for Molecular Medicine and University of California, Irvine and Flinders University in South Australia, believe it supports clinical trials in humans, potentially in the next two years. The vaccine was a combination of two MultiTEP epitope vaccines, AV-1959R and AV-1980R, that target amyloid-beta and tau, respectively. It is formulated in AdvaxCpG, a polysaccharide adjuvant.

RNA-Targeting Approach Successfully Blocks Driver of Parkinsons Disease

Researchers at Scripps Research in Florida developed a compound that prevents production of an underlying cause of Parkinsons disease, an abnormal protein called alpha-synuclein. Dubbed Synucleozid, the protein halts the ribosome from detecting the messenger RNA (mRNA) template, preventing the translation of the disordered alpha-synuclein protein. This proof-of-concept study hints that the compound could become a potential Parkinsons drug candidate.

Original post:
Research Roundup: Controlling Gene Therapy and More - BioSpace

If you, or someone you know, has received a breast cancer diagnosis, it's likely you feel incredibly overwhelmed and have lots of questions about what happens next.

Its important to remember the resources which are available to support you through your breast cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment, including your doctors, cancer support groups and charities.

Weve worked with Breast Cancer Now to put together a guide explaining what to expect after your breast cancer diagnosis and what breast cancer treatment options you have.

No one knows your body better than you, so its important to regularly look and feel for any unusual breast changes and report anything different or new, such as a lump or a change to the skin, like puckering or dimpling, to your doctor as soon as possible.

If you suspect your have breast cancer symptomsarrange an appointment with your GP. At your appointment, your GP will examine your breast and may refer you to a specialist breast clinic for tests.

The Breast Cancer Nowwebsite says, Being referred to a breast clinic doesnt necessarily mean that you have breast cancer. It just means that more tests are needed to find out whats going on.

Once referred to a breast clinic you will have an examination and various tests of your breasts that may take several hours to complete. You can take a family member or friend to your appointment for support if you are worried. Though, some people prefer to attend their appointment on their own.

At the appointment the doctor or nurse may ask you questions about your family history to find if anyone in your family has had breast health problems previously. They will also ask questions about any other health problems you may have, and whether you are currently taking any medications.

What to expect after a breast cancer diagnosis | Credit: Getty

According to Breast Cancer Now, you will usually have a breast examination, followed by one or more of the following further tests and procedures.

During the initial examination the doctor will feel your breast when you are sitting down and lying down. They will also check the armpit area, as breast cancer can sometimes spread to your lymph nodes.

A mammogram is a breast x ray. During your appointment, a mammographer (an expert in taking breast x-rays) will ask you to undress to the waist and stand in front of the mammogram machine. Your breasts will be placed one at a time on the x-ray machine. The breast will be pressed down firmly on the surface by a clear plate.

An ultrasound scan uses sound waves to produce an image of the breast tissue. The scan is painless and generallydone in a few minutes, but can take longer.

Youll be asked to undress to the waist and lie on a couch with your arm above your head. To help gain a clear image, some gel will be spread over the area of the breast first. The person doing the scan will move a handheld scanning probe over the breast to look at the underlying breast tissue. The area under your arm may also be scanned.

A core biopsy will be carried outwhen your mammogram or ultrasound picks up something in your breast that needs analysing more closely. A corebiopsy involves taking a small part of your breast tissue through a small cut in your skin. You will have an injection to numb the area beforehand.The doctor will send the sample tissue to the laboratory for testing.

Fine needle aspiration will be carried outif your mammogram or ultrasound picks up something in your breast that needs analysing more closely. Fine needle aspiration is a process of taking a sample of cells from your breast using a syringe with a fine needle. This might feel a little uncomfortable, but the procedure doesnt last very long. The doctor will send the sample tissue to the laboratory for testing.

Once your doctor diagnoses your breast cancer, they will work out the extent of your cancer and determine what cancer stage you are in.

Carolyn Rogers, clinical nurse specialist at Breast Cancer Now said, Your cancer stage will be determined by the size of the cancer and how far it has spread. The grade is how different the cancer cells are to normalbreastcells and how quickly they are growing.

Your cancers stage and grade helps determine your prognosis and the best treatment options. There are different ways to stage breast cancer. Most hospitals use two main types of cancer staging systems including the TNM Staging System. and the number system.

You can read more about these on Breast Cancer Nows website.

TNM stands for Tumour, Node, Metastasis. This system describes the size of the initial cancer whether the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes, and a different part of the body.

T refers to the size of the cancer it can be 1, 2, 3 or 4, with 1 being the smallest

N refers to whether the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes it can be between 0 and 3 with 0 meaning no lymph nodes

M refers to whether the cancer has spread to another part of the body it can either be 0 meaning the cancer hasnt spread or 1 it has a spread

According to Cancer UK, here is a summary of the difference cancer stages graded by the number system.

Stage 1 means that a cancer is relatively small and contained within the organ it started in.

Stage 2means that the tumour is larger than in stage 1, but the cancer has not started to spread into the surrounding tissues.

Stage 3 means the cancer is larger. It may have started to spread into surrounding tissues and there are cancer cells in the lymph nodes in the area.

Stage 4 means the cancer has spread from where it started to another area in the body or organ.

Doctor showing a woman cancer test results on an wireless tablet / Credit: Getty

Carolyn Rogers explains, After all the necessary tests if you are diagnosed with breast cancer, the next step will be for a Multidisciplinary team (MDT), including surgeons, oncologists, breast care nurses and radiologists, to have a meeting to discuss and agree on a treatment plan for you.

This treatment plan and possible side effects of treatment will then be discussed with you. Treatment plans will vary depending on the features of your breast cancer.

The type of cancer you have and the features of the cancer Position of the cancer in the breast Other treatment youve had in the past or planning Your general health and fitness

Surgery is often the first treatment for women with breast cancer.

Carolyn Rogers further explains, Treatment will depend on the features of the breast cancer and may include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormone therapy and targeted therapy. You may be offered the option to take part in a clinical trial and your treatment team will explain this to you.

There are two types of breast cancer surgery:

Breast-conserving surgery:The cancer is removed along with a border of healthy breast tissue.

Mastectomy:All breast tissue is removed including the skin and nipple area.

Chemotherapy can be given before and after breast cancer surgery. Chemotherapy may be given before surgery to slow the growth of rapidly growing breast cancer or to shrink a larger breast cancer (this may mean breast-conserving surgery is an option, rather than a mastectomy).

Chemotherapy can also be given aftersurgeryforprimary breast cancerto reduce the risk of cancer coming back in the future.

Chemotherapy is a treatment that uses anti-cancer drugs to destroy cancer cells. It works by interfering with the cancer cells ability to divide and grow. Differentchemotherapy drugswork in different ways and a combination of drugs is often used. Chemotherapy affects cells throughout the body and can causeside effects such as hair loss, nausea and fatigue.

Radiotherapy uses high-energy x-rays to destroy cancer cells.Radiotherapy uses ionising radiation (high energy) to destroy any cancer cells that may have been left in the breast and surrounding area aftersurgery.

Radiotherapy is given after your breast cancer surgery to reduce the risk of breast cancer coming back in the future. If youre breast cancer treatment also involves chemotherapy, radiotherapy is usually given after the chemotherapy treatment.

Some breast cancers are stimulated by the hormone oestrogen. This means that oestrogen in the body helps the cancer to grow. This type of breast cancer is called oestrogen receptor positive (ER+).

If your breast cancer is oestrogen receptor positive, hormone therapy drugs such as tamoxifen, anastrozole and letrozole may be used to block the effect of oestrogen on the cancer cells.

All breast cancers are tested for oestrogen receptors using tissue from a biopsy or after surgery.If hormone receptors are not found, then hormone therapy will not be of any benefit.

As cancer researchers learn more about the cause of cancer, theyve developed new types of drugs that specifically target cancer cell changes.For some cancer types, targeted cancer drugs my work better compared to other treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

This is a group of drugs that block the growth and spread of cancer. They target and interfere with processes in the cells that help cancer to grow. Targeted therapies can cause side effects such as flu like symptoms. The most common targeted therapies used for primary breast cancer are trastuzumab and pertuzumab. Whether you are offered this type of treatment will depend on the features of your breast cancer.

Breast cancer Now nurse offering advice on telephone / Credit: Breast Cancer Now

Carolyn Rogers said, Hearing the news you have breast cancer can be life-changing and telling your loved ones can be incredibly difficult. Who you tell and how you tell them is up to you. While you may find it difficult to talk openly about your cancer, especially at first, the support of those around you can be really helpful when you are going through breast cancer treatment.

If you have children, deciding what and how to tell them can be challenging. Its usually best to be honest. Breast Cancer Now offers some information about how to talk to children.

If you have questions about your breast cancer diagnosis, or you are worried about your breast health, you can call the Breast Cancer Now helpline for free on 0808 800 6000.

Macmillan Cancer Support also have advisers who you can contact online or on the phone if you have any questions about your breast cancer diagnosis, financial issues, or just want someone to talk to.

If youre worried about your breast cancer diagnosis,Breast Cancer Now offers a variety of free face-to-face support that provides the opportunity to meet others diagnosed, share experiences or concerns and hear from expert speakers providing a wealth of information, including Younger Women Together events for women diagnosed with breast cancer under 45 years old and Moving Forward courses, run in partnership with NHS hospitals, at the end of hospital treatment.

Read more here:
What to expect after a breast cancer diagnosis, including breast cancer stages and treatments - goodtoknow

If your heart feels like its doing something out of the ordinary, you might find yourself frantically Googling to figure out whats going on. Chances are, youre experiencing whats commonly known as heart palpitations, which is a catchall term for feeling like your heart is acting weird. Seriously.

Your heart beats because it has the very important job of sending oxygen-rich blood and nutrients to every part of your body. It also sends the carbon dioxide your body produces as a waste product to your lungs so you can expel it. When theres a glitch in this system, you might experience a palpitation. Heart palpitations may feel like your heart is beating too quickly, beating irregularly, fluttering in a strange way, or thumping hard in your chest, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Generally when we talk about palpitations, it means youre aware of your heart beating, and it feels like its not normal, Shephal Doshi, M.D., director of cardiac electrophysiology at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., tells SELF.

If you ask four people with heart palpitations to describe them, you might get four varying answers. When people say, I have heart palpitations, they can mean so many different things that you have to tease out some details as to what exactly they feel, Sanjiv Patel, M.D., cardiologist at MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, Calif., tells SELF. Which is all to say that the symptoms of heart palpitations arent cut and dry.

When to worry about heart palpitations depends on a few factors. In reality, heart palpitations usually arent a sign your hearts decided to give up the ghostbut in some cases, they can be a cause for concern. Heres how to tell the difference.

Most of the time when people feel palpitations, their heart is not doing anything bad, Dr. Doshi says. There are tons of reasons your heart can go a little wonky, and most of them are nothing to worry about.

Typically, your heart knows when to squeeze based on electrical impulses from a group of cells known as your sinoatrial (SA) node, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). These cells are housed in your hearts right chamber, also known as its right atrium. If your SA node starts sending wonky electrical impulses, you might experience heart palpitations.

Anything that increases the adrenaline in your body can affect these electrical impulses, Dr. Doshi says. That includes stress, panic attacks, caffeine, having a cold or flu, being sleep-deprived, and taking medications that contain stimulants. Your heart has receptors that pick up on heightened adrenaline, so any surges of this hormone can cause it to act differently.

Things that make your heart work harder can also cause palpitations, Dr. Doshi says. Thats why experiencing palpitations during or after a tough workout isnt immediately a reason to worry. Same goes for having them during pregnancy, when your blood volume goes up and your heart has to pump out that extra fluid.

Getty Shot of a unrecognisable young man holding his chest in discomfort with his hands due to pain in that areaTheres also a chance you might think you have heart palpitations, but actually dont. Some people are very attuned to their bodies, feel their hearts beating faster and think its a palpitation, but its still beating at a normal speed of up to 100 beats a minute, Dr. Patel says.

For example, these impulses go offbeat due to arrhythmias, which are basically short circuits in your hearts electrical system. Arrhythmias can make your heart beat irregularly and feel strange, along with weakness, dizziness, feeling light-headed, fainting, shortness of breath, and chest pain, among others.

While arrhythmias often arent dangerous and can be treated in many ways, sometimes they can be life-threatening. Only a doctor can tell you for sure, but any symptoms besides the strange heart sensations are typically a clue that your arrhythmia may be more serious, says the NHLBI. If you think youre experiencing any strange symptoms along with your heart palpitations, seek medical attention immediately.

Other times, heart palpitations can be a sign that somethings up with a different organ, like your thyroid gland. Your thyroid produces hormones like thyroxine and triiodothyronine, which influence many of your bodys systems, according to the Mayo Clinic. If your thyroid is on overdrive (aka, you have hyperthyroidism), it will generate too much thyroxine, which kicks up your bodys metabolism. This can lead to a rapid or irregular heartbeat, along with symptoms like an increased appetite and sudden weight loss.

You may also experience heart palpitations if you have a physical abnormality like a weaker or larger heart than usual, which you typically wouldnt know about unless it showed up during some kind of medical exam.

You may be wondering when to worry about heart palpitations, especially when most of the time, theyre NBD. One-off heart palpitations that just last a few seconds are a normal part of having a heart. That said, experiencing them regularly is not. If heart palpitations happen every time you do [a certain activity], like walk half a mile or lift something, thats not a random event and you should be evaluated, Dr. Patel says.

If your heart palpitations come along with any symptoms like dizziness, feeling unsteady, fainting, or chest discomfort or pain, thats a sign your hearts functioning may be compromised. That warrants further investigating to make sure its nothing dangerous, Dr. Doshi says.

Your medical history also comes into play, especially if you have a history of health conditions involving your heart. A healthy 30-year-old has less reason for concern than a 60-year-old with heart disease, Dr. Doshi says.

With that said, if your heart palpitations are random, dont come with other symptoms, and youre in great health, they might still feel too weird to ignore. Theres no law against seeing your doctor just to be on the safe side. They can test your heart to make sure its working as it should so you can skip worrying about your health the next time your heart skips a beat.

Video: Exactly how often you really need to see different kinds of doctors (Provided by Self) Provided by Conde Nast Entertainment LLC

Read the rest here:
This Is When You Should Actually Worry About Heart Palpitations - msnNOW

The Fulton County Health Department has scheduled the following health clinics and services.

CANTON The Fulton County Health Department has scheduled the following health clinics and services. Please call the number listed with each service for an appointment or more information.

Maternal child health: Health screenings, WIC nutrition education and supplemental food coupons for women, infants and children. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 254). For Astoria clinic appointments call 329-2922.

Canton - Clinic - Monday, Jan 6 - 8-4 - Appt needed

Canton - WIC Nutrition Education - Tuesday, Jan 7 - 8-4 - Appt needed

Canton - Clinic/Immunizations - Tuesday, Jan 7 - 4-7 - Appt needed

Astoria - Clinic, WIC Nutrition Educ. - Wednesday, Jan 8 - 9-3 - Appt needed

Canton - Clinic - Thursday, Jan 9 - 8-4 - Appt needed

Adult Health Immunizations: Various vaccines are available. There is a fee for immunization administration. Medicaid cards are accepted. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 254).

Canton - Immunizations - Tuesday, Jan 7 - 8-4 Appt needed

Other times available by special arrangement at Canton, Cuba and Astoria.

Blood Lead Screening: Blood lead screenings are available for children ages one to six years. A fee is based on income. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 254). For Astoria appointments call 329-2922.

Family Planning: Confidential family planning services are available by appointment at the Canton office for families and males of child-bearing age. Services provided include physical exams, pap smears, sexually transmitted disease testing, contraceptive methods, pregnancy testing, education and counseling. Services are available to individuals of all income levels. Fees are based on a sliding fee scale with services provided at no charge to many clients. Medicaid and many insurances are accepted. After hours appointments are available. To make an appointment or for more information call the 647-1134 (ext. 244). *Program funding includes a grant from the US DHHS Title X.

Pregnancy testing: Confidential urine pregnancy testing is available at the Canton and Astoria offices. This service is available to females of all income levels. A nominal fee is charged. No appointment is needed. A first morning urine specimen should be collected for optimal testing and brought to the health department. Services are provided on a walk-in basis on the following days each week:

Canton: Every Wednesday & Thursday, 8-3:30 (for more information call 647-1134 ext. 244)

Astoria: Every Wednesday, 9-2:30 (for more information call 329-2922)

Womens Health: A womens clinic for pap tests, clinical breast examinations and vaginal examinations is available by appointment. There is a nominal fee for this service. Medicaid cards are accepted. Financial assistance is available for a mammogram. Cardiovascular screenings may be available to age and income eligible women. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 244).

Mammograms: Age and income eligible women may receive mammograms at no charge. Speakers are available to provide information to clubs and organizations. For more information or to apply for financial assistance, call 647-1134 (ext. 254).

Mens Health: Prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood tests are available for men for a fee. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 224).

Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Clinic: Confidential STD and HIV testing services are available by appointment to males and females at the Canton office. Services include physical exams to identify STDs, a variety of STD testing, HIV testing, education, counseling, medications and condoms. There is a nominal fee for services. Services are available to individuals of all income levels. Medicaid cards are accepted. To make an appointment or for more information call 746-1134 (ext. 224).

HIV Testing and Counseling: Confidential HIV testing and counseling services are available by appointment through the sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic at the Canton office. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 224).

Tuberculosis (TB) Testing: TB skin tests are available at no charge by appointment. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 254).

Blood Pressure Screenings: The Fulton County Health Department provides blood pressure screenings at no charge on a walk-in basis during the following times:

Astoria - Screening - Wednesday, Jan 8 - 9-12 - Walk in

Health Watch Wellness Program: The Health Watch Program provides low cost lab services. Through this program adults can obtain venous blood draws for a variety of blood tests. Blood tests offered without a doctors order Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP), Complete Blood Count (CBC), Lipid Panel, Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test, Hepatitis C test, and Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH). A wide variety of blood tests are also available with a doctors order. There is a charge at the time of service. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 254).

Dental Services: The Dental Center offers a variety of basic dental services to children and adults. An appointment is needed. Medicaid and Kid Care cards are accepted. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 292).

Read more:
Health Department announces services for the week of Jan 6 - Canton Daily Ledger

ROCHESTER, Minn. A litany of high-impact health stories stood out in 2019, nearly all of them with endings that remain to be written.

These included record-breaking opioid settlements, a new treatment for cystic fibrosis, the promise and peril of large IT brands like Google and Apple moving into the healthcare space, and a devastating outbreak of serious lung disease in healthy young persons from vaping illicit THC.

But in terms of the health story with the greatest potential for taming sickness and the ballooning cost of healthcare, a case can be made for the recognition by health officials in 2019 of the ketogenic diet as a first line-treatment for type 2 diabetes.

The ketogenic diet, as many by now know, is a low-carb diet on steroids, a calorically-unrestricted eating pattern in which just 10-20% of daily calories (or less than 50 grams) come from carbohydrates, with dietary fat making up the majority of remaining energy (roughly 70% of daily calories).

Type 2 diabetes, on the other hand, is an acquired metabolic disorder affecting 340,000 Minnesotans and 30 million Americans, one that currently extracts $250 billion in direct costs each year in the US, and which can lead to heart disease, hypertension, Alzheimers, amputation, blindness and cancer.

Because it is often accompanied by obesity, type 2 diabetes is routinely attributed to overeating and lack of exercise, but a more precise description of its mechanism comes down to an elevation of the bodys emergency hormone insulin. Given that the body only releases insulin in response to dietary carbohydrates, type 2 diabetes is arguably a food-borne illness, with the food in question being carbohydrates. That is the rationale, in any event, for treating the predominant illness of our time with a ketogenic diet.

We need to recognize that conventional diets have not worked well, and reduce the scientific barriers to studying novel approaches, like the ketogenic diet, says Dr. David Ludwig, an endocrinologist at Boston Childrens Hospital and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, in an email to Forum News Service. These long-term studies will provide the definitive data to understand effectiveness for various chronic conditions, and potential side-effects.

Ludwig recently authored a paper in the Journal of Nutrition compiling the evidence for ketogenic diets, past and present, a paper complete with a section heading noting there is no human requirement for dietary fiber or carbohydrate. A century ago, he reminds readers, the ketogenic diet was a standard of care in diabetes, used to prolong the life of children with type 1 diabetes and to control the symptoms of type 2 diabetes in adult.

It was only following the discovery of insulin in the 1920s, Ludwig writes, that high carbohydrate diets gave us our present day medication protocols for type 2 diabetes, treatments anchored by the use of pricey commercial insulin analogs and daily ingestion of glucose-control medications.

Ludwig says he wrote the article to counter a spate of negative articles (that) have been rewritten about the ketogenic diet by nutrition experts, articles focusing on rare side-effects.

Viable approach

The case for keto in 2019 kicked off in May, when the American Diabetes Association released a Consensus Report calling low carbohydrate or very low carbohydrate diets a a viable approach for certain patients with T2D, including those hoping to reduce medications.

Describing the diets as among the most studied eating patterns for type 2 diabetes, the nations diabetes authorities added the caveat that ketogenic therapy for diabetes generally requries medical oversight to prevent hypoglycemia. In other words, keto can work so effectively in diabetics that should patients fail to carefully taper medications with medical guidance as their condition improves, they can become dangerously overmedicated.

June of 2019 saw the release of still more arguments for keto, in the form of second-year trial results by researchers from Indiana University Health and Verta Health. Their non-randomized clinical trial of the diet produced data showing that more than half of 262 patients studied had reversed their illness on a remote-monitored ketogenic diet, with many having discontinued the need for all medications except for Metformin.

While noting that the Verta Health results should be interpreted with caution, Ludwig says these exceptional outcomes at two years, with many participants coming off diabetes medications and improving blood glucose control, highlights the exciting possibility that diabetes can be reversed without bariatric surgery.

The arrival of keto for type 2 diabetes comes along at a time when the standard of care is increasingly coming up short. The year saw widespread shortages and price hikes for insulin, leading politicians to threaten price control legislation and stirring insurers to issue competing press releases touting their full- or highly discounted insulin coverage packages.

As endocrinology researchers from Mayo Clinic recently wrote in the journal BMJ, the body of evidence shows no meaningful benefit for intensive glucose-lowering regimens when it comes to the health outcomes that matter most to patients. And as researchers from Norway confirmed in 2018, telling high-risk individuals the advice to eat more fiber and polyunsaturated fat, plus the familiar five servings of fruit and vegetables with plentiful intake of beans, wholegrain and low-fat dairy, produced no improvement either.

For its part, the device industry is taking steps to build a ketogenic diabetes care product line, offering portable ketone breath meters and continuous glucose monitors allowing patients to see the effects on their blood sugar of carbohydrate rich foods in real time.

Still to be determined is whether dietary officials will heed the call by groups like the Low-Carb Action Network to include a true low-carbohydrate diet in the next installment of the dietary guidelines. Under the current USDA definition, diets up to 45% carbohydrates, are deemed low-carbohydrate, a too-high allowance for carbohydrates potentially washing out the ability of researchers to accurately test the intervention for disease reversal and prevention.

Its new research on an old method. As Ludwig notes, before insulin was discovered, a very-low-carbohydrate diet was considered the standard of care for diabetes. From this perspective, modern nutrition science may be in the process of rediscovering the wheel, so to speak.

Read more:
Health story of the 2019: Keto can help with Type 2 Diabetes - Southernminn.com

Although the general story of ghostwriting in trials of psychiatric drugs is now pretty well known, the details of the corruption in specific trials are still emerging into the public record, often a decade or more after the original sin of fraudulent publication. The latest study to finally see the full light of day is GlaxoSmithKlines study 352.

Perhaps the most infamous ghostwritten study is GSKs study 329, which, in a 2001 report published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, falsely touted paroxetine (Paxil) as an effective treatment for adolescent depression. The company paid over $3 billion in penalties for fraud.

That same year, study 352 made its first appearance in the research literature. That was when Charles Nemeroff, who in the years ahead would become the public face of research misconduct, authored an article on the efficacy of paroxetine for bipolar disorder. It has taken 18 years for the full story of that corruption to become known, the final chapter recently emerging when a large cache of study 352 documentsemails, memos, and other internal correspondence between the key playerswas made public.

The documents reveal a web of corruption that went beyond the fraud of ghostwriting into the spinning of negative results into positive conclusions, and the abetting of that corruption by an editor of the scientific journal that published the article. The documents also reveal a whitewashing of the corruption by the University of Pennsylvania.

However, it was the publication of these documents that provided Jay Amsterdam, an investigator in the trial who turned whistleblower after he smelled a rat, with a chance to say case closed. Amsterdam and Leemon McHenry have now published two articles that provide a step-by-step deconstruction of the studythe ghostwriting, the spinning of results, the betrayal of public trust.

Here is the story of that whistleblowing.

Starting in the late 1970s, Amsterdam became a go-to guy for studying pharmaceutical interventions, especially antidepressants. By the time he got involved with study 352, he was running a prestigious bipolar disorder clinic at the University of Pennsylvanias Perelman School of Medicine. Hed published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, and had served as editor and author on multiple textbooks about mood disorders. He was a working psychiatrist, a lecturer and professor, and a full-time researcher.

Amsterdam received his MD in 1974 from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. While still a post-doc, he began working almost immediately with the top researchers investigating treatments for mood disorders. William Dysonone of the early promoters of lithium for bipolar disorderwas one of Amsterdams mentors, as was Dysons colleague, Joseph Mendels. Dyson opened the bipolar disorder clinic that Amsterdam would eventually run.

In the early 1980s, hormone function was one of the chief hypotheses in mood disorders, and Amsterdam became a leading researcher in the burgeoning field of psychoendocrine studies. He conducted a number of studies on melatonin, among many other hormones. By the mid-1980s, Amsterdam was working under Karl Rickels, an ex-Nazi soldier who had been one of the chief investigators on pharmacological treatments for mental health since the 1950s. Amsterdam describes Rickels as a brusque, almost abrasive figure who worked almost exclusively with pharmaceutical industry money, investigating the efficacy of the drugs, but who remained proud of the fact that he did not have his papers ghostwritten. You should always write your own articles, he told Amsterdam. You know, no one has ever written an article for me.

During this time, Amsterdam was investigating various pharmaceutical treatments for depression and bipolar disorder, including tricyclic antidepressants, lithium, and newer SSRI antidepressants like fluoxetine (Prozac). By the late 1980s, Amsterdam had become a leading researcher in psychoimmunovirology, conducting some of the earliest studies on the hypothesis that exposure to viral disease was a cause of psychological disorders. While its unlikely that this is a cause for most psychological problems, some viral diseases like the Borna disease virus and the Epstein-Barr virus have been correlated with a slight increase in the likelihood of psychological problems. He began studying whether lithium might work by suppressing the effects of viral disease.

By 1993, Amsterdams mentor Dyson had passed away, and Amsterdam became the director of the bipolar disorders clinic at Penn. At the time, his clinic was a perfect fit for the needs of the pharmaceutical industry. It was large, so he had a pool of potential participants for trials. Amsterdam also describes the clinic as offering access to treatment-nave, or drug-free, patients with depression and bipolar disorders, who were good enrollees in industry studies.

Amsterdam was happy to work with the industry at that time. One year, he offered his entire crop of mood disorder research participants to Eli Lilly for their study on fluoxetine (Prozac) for relapse prevention. According to Amsterdam, he told them theyd have to pay all his operating costs for the year. Well take care of you, Lillys spokesperson responded. Amsterdam says, I gave them 139 patients, well-diagnosed, well-treated. And actually, my clinic was the only site that differentiated Prozac from placebo for relapse prevention. I really gave them their moneys worth.

Amsterdam was also on industry panels for over a dozen pharmaceutical companies, giving sponsored talks. It wasnt until the early 2000s that industry representatives began urging him to deviate from his prepared talks. Once he began to experience pressure to spin his results in favor of the drug, he said, I stopped giving talks.

But he never saw it as systemic corruption. Instead, each time, it looked like one company, or one representative, was under pressure to deliver better results, and so put the pressure on him to tell a better story about the companys drug. I was never anti-pharma, he said. He was happy to take their money, as long as he could continue to deliver accurate data.

In the 1990s, all was going well for Amsterdam. And he thought little about it when, in 1995, Rickels asked if he could help out a junior colleague at Penn, Laszlo Gyulai. Gyulai was involved in a study for GlaxoSmithKline (then SmithKlineBeecham) of paroxetine (Paxil) to see if it would improve depressive symptoms in patients with bipolar disorder who were already taking lithium. According to Amsterdam, Gyulais clinic had less than a dozen patients, so it was no surprise that he was struggling to recruit participants for the study. Rickels framed it as a favorhe was embarrassed by Gyulais recruitment numbers and wanted Amsterdams help.

I (told Rickels) that I would be willing to be an investigator on the study, Amsterdam recalled. I said that I would be willing to recruit patients and help him if I am the co-principal investigator, if my names listed as co-principal investigator on the consent form, if Laszlo turns over 80% of the revenue for each patient I recruit. If I end up being one of the principal recruiters in the study, I want to be acknowledged as an author, I want to see the data, I want to co-write the paper.

Rickels agreed, and soon GSKs people contacted Amsterdam and helped set up his clinic as the 19th site for the research study. Gyulai had recruited just seven patients over a few years. Amsterdam recruited 12 in just a few monthsno surprise again, since his clinic served over a thousand patients.

Amsterdam was deeply involved in the work with those 12 patients, prescribing their medications, checking their dose, giving the assessment measures to see how well the medications were working. Then, just a few months later, the study was cancelled by GSK.

Amsterdam called up his contact at GSK, research director Cornelius Pitts. But Pitts just told him to stop enrolling participants. I couldnt get any information about why it came to an end, Amsterdam said.

Even a year later, when Amsterdam asked Gyulai where the data from that study was, Gyulai told him we dont have it yet. Amsterdam moved on with his life. It was just one of many projects I was working on.

In 2001, Amsterdam was working on a grant proposal to the NIMH to study fluoxetine (Prozac) as a treatment for bipolar disorder when a member of his research lab mentioned that a study was about to be published in The American Journal of Psychiatry on a similar subjectSSRIs for bipolar disorderthat could provide solid background for the grant-writing process.

Amsterdam hunted down the paper, and quickly realized that some of the listed authors were from his own department at Penn. One was Dwight Evans, chair of psychiatry at Penn. Another was Laszlo Gyulai.

Amsterdam called Evans office and requested a copy of the article from his secretary. Soon the fax machine spit out the cover page, which had a handwritten note at the top. Dear Jay, with compliments. Dwight.

As Amsterdam read the study, he was overwhelmed by a sense of dj vu. I started reading the abstract, and I said to myself, this sounds really familiar. And then I kept reading and Im thinkingI did this study! And Im looking and looking, and I cant find my name. And then I began to get suspicious.

The lead author on the study was Charles Nemeroff, and while Nemeroff had yet to become publicly identified for his regular participation in ghostwriting exercises, Amsterdam knew that he was part of what many liked to call the psychiatric mafia,psychiatrists that had close ties to industry. So that aroused his questions about the integrity of the article. Even more to the point, he couldnt understand why Gyulai was listed as an author.

As far as Amsterdam knew, Gyulai had only enrolled a handful of patients, and so he wondered whether Gyulai had somehow overstated his involvement in the study. Had he falsified data, or plagiarized another researchers work to do so?

Amsterdam called up his department chairDwight Evansto report his concerns. The universitys policy required that the provost or assistant provost for research be informed that such a concern had been raised and should be investigated. But in this instance, Evans told him that he and Rickels would investigate the matterno need, apparently, to take this matter to the university higher-ups. Evans asked Amsterdam what he wanted from the investigation.

I said, Id like an apology and I want Laszlo Gyulai to be sanctioned for plagiarism, Amsterdam told him.

In a letter dated April 3, 2001, Rickels informed Amsterdam of what he had learned from his investigation. Yes, Amsterdam was a co-investigator in the trial, and he had enrolled more patients than Gyulai; and yes a ghostwriting firm, STI, had written two drafts of the paper before it asked Gyulai if he would agree to be the papers first author; yes, STI had later replaced Gyulai with Nemeroff as the first author; and yes, there were academic investigators in the trial who had never reviewed or even seen the submitted manuscript.

Although the letter seemed like an admission of scientific fraud, given the evident ghostwriting of the paper, there was no departmental censure of Gyulai. Amsterdam then wrote both Evans and Rickels to express his displeasure. Am I to assume that it is okay in this department for a junior faculty member to abscond with data from a full professor and publish it without any ramifications? he asked.

Although Gyulai was never sanctioned, he did send Amsterdam a letter of apology. In it, Gyulai wrote that he understood Amsterdams concerns about plagiarism, but stated that he (Gyulai) was the primary investigator of the Penn site and did some work on early drafts of the article. Gyulai complained that first authorship was taken away from me and that he wished that GlaxoSmithKline had allowed Amsterdam to have input on the paper.

At that point, Amsterdam let it go. He wouldnt revisit the study again until 2010, when his own professional life came under attack.

In 2008, Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) of the US Senate Finance Committee began to investigate financial conflicts of interest in scientific research. Paul Thacker, an investigative journalist, was the point man for Grassleys investigation and his 2010 committee report, which resulted in significant changes to the rules used by academic institutions to define research misconduct.

The picture of corruption that emerged thanks to Grassleys investigation, and other investigations into industry-funded trials, told of how academic medicine had been horribly corrupted, with psychiatry the specialty that was most compromised.

Pharmaceutical companies would hire ghostwriting firms to manipulate data and write articles spinning the results. The drug companies would then get academic psychiatrists, who were described by the companies as thought leaders, to agree to be the authors of the study in order to lend credibility to those misleading results. These same experts would then be paid to give talks promoting the companys drug. They would be paid handsomelyin some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollarsto serve the pharmaceutical companys commercial interests in this way.

Charles Nemerofflead author on the study 352 paperbecame the poster boy for this type of research misconduct. At the time, Nemeroff was an internationally-famous researcher with hundreds of publications and awards. He was chair of the psychiatry department at Emory University.

Grassleys investigation helped put a dollar amount on this corruption. He reported that Nemeroff was receiving millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry, and failing to disclose that pay according to conflict-of-interest rules. As reported in The New York Times, Nemeroff was found in 2008 to have violated federal research ethics rules by hiding $1.2 million, which, if appropriately disclosed, would have prevented him from being the primary investigator on the government grants he was also receiving.

It was business-as-usual for Nemeroff, whod already weathered two scandals in which hed promoted new treatments in scientific journals without disclosing in one case that he owned the patent on that treatment or that in the second case that he was being paid by the company behind the treatment.

After yet another investigation, Nemeroff was found to have violated Emorys policies, and was forced to resign from his position there. But he immediately moved to the University of Miami, where he soon began the process again.

According to Thacker, Nemeroff continued to receive tens of thousands of dollars from various pharmaceutical companies, while also receiving additional government grant money to test their products. In his case, it seemed that there was little financial penalty for violating federal rules and engaging in research misconduct.

In the 2000s, Amsterdam was becoming increasingly ill. He was almost completely blind, as he suffered from a severe form of glaucoma, but he was still trying to lecture, conduct research, and see patients. During this time, he conducted research on the class of antidepressants known as MAOIs (monoamine oxidase inhibitors), which have been less utilized due to concern about drug interactions with other antidepressants and certain cold medicines, and dietary restrictions such as alcohol and cheese. However, Amsterdam believes that MAOIs are less dangerous than previously believed.

In 2003, he was working with Somerset Labs to test their MAOIs. He did a trial that showed the drug beat the placebo, and they wanted to publish the results. He began to draft the article, but they suggested he outsource it to a ghostwriting company. They told him they were paying this company $30,000 to write the article, so there was no need for him to do it. But Amsterdam remembered Rickels advice: always write your own articles. He wrote the article himself, then sent it to the company.

It was during this time that he began to slowly move away from taking pharmaceutical industry money. He began to drop off the industry panels, as the reps asked him to spin his results more and more when giving talks. This pressure went against his grain as an objective academic.

I could see that pharma had changed. My respect for it had changed, too, he says. I dont want to do shitty research, which is what the drug company research is now.

Science is not the discovery of that new drug. Thats hubris. Science is the replication of that finding, over and over again. I hear colleagues saying we want to show that this drug works. I say, no, you want to show that the placebo theyre testing it against doesnt work. And when I started to say that to industry people, they stopped giving me studies.

By 2006, Amsterdam had had enough. He was done taking pharmaceutical industry money, and funded his research after that entirely with government grant money.

He also began to investigate iatrogenic harms of antidepressantsthe notion that the drugs used to treat the condition are, instead, making it more chronic and resistant to future treatment. He began asking questions: Why did those who continued to take the drug long-term have more risk of relapse than those who decided to stop taking the drug? Why did those who tried more drugs have higher risk of relapse?

According to Amsterdam, People that get repeated antidepressant treatment develop a tolerance to drugs, and, probably as a result of this, weve created the field of treatment resistant depression.

He says that would have been an unthinkable conclusion when he was taking industry money: The pharmaceutical industry would have shut down that research in every way possible.

In the spring of 2010, Amsterdams professional life began to fall apart. Later that year, as he struggled to understand why his career at Penn suddenly came under attackan attack seemingly led by his chairman Dwight Evanshe came to see it as connected to the complaint hed made nine years earlier about the ghostwriting of study 352.

The first shot was fired on April 6, 2010, when Evans suddenly called Amsterdam and told him to go to the Office of Affirmative Action immediately. What did I do? Amsterdam asked. Evans responded by telling him not to ask questions. Just go there.

At his meeting with the head of the affirmative action office, Amsterdam was told he was being investigated for several complaints made against him. However, the head of the office wouldnt tell him any details. Youll learn in due time, Amsterdam was told. I have nothing in writing but youll know from the questions youre asked.

This was the start of what became something of a Kafkaesque experience for Amsterdam. A flood of complaints were suddenly directed at him, all of them emanating from Evans office, and yet he was never formally told of these complaints, or their specifics. Instead, he would be called into the Office of Affirmative Action and questioned about numerous different subjects. Amsterdam inferred from these sessions that the complaints included allegations of retaliation against his staff, racial discrimination, unapproved research activities, photocopying sensitive documents, continuing medical education fraud, and sexual harassment against staff members.

One of the more bizarre episodes occurred on May 13, 2010. Amsterdam was summoned to the affirmative action office by associate director Patrice Miller. As she wrote later that day in an official letter, she did not find any information to support a finding of sexual harassment. While Amsterdam may have been glad to hear this, he was also perplexed. This was the first time that he was aware that a complaint of this type had been made.

The most serious complaint made against Amsterdam was that hed had an inappropriate relationship with a female patient. If this complaint were substantiated, he could have lost his license to practice.

Mad in America spoke to that woman. She confirmed every aspect of Amsterdams relating of this matter to MIA. She is a professional artist and asked that MIA not use her name.

She first met Jay Amsterdam around 1993, when she became his patient through the clinic. Severely depressed, she was a participant in many clinical trials of different drugs as they attempted to find something that worked for her. Most drugs didnt, although some worked for a time before their effects wore off. Eventually, after escaping an emotionally abusive relationship and continuing drug trials, she found her mental health becoming more stable. She attributes a lot of her improvement to Amsterdam. He was such a great doctor, she said. He saved my life, you knowfinally not being depressed.

Because she had been in treatment for many years, she remained in contact with Amsterdam, whom she describes as approachable, friendly, and very professional. Amsterdam was a fan of her artwork, and bought some of her paintings.

In 2010, she learned about the allegations against Amsterdam that supposedly involved her. I was absolutely floored, she said. Nauseated, floored. You know, I considered him a dear friend. He saved my life.

According to both this woman and Amsterdam, the allegation arose from a misrepresentation of some off-the-cuff language he had used in an email to her. Amsterdam had recently purchased one of her paintings, and in the email, he referred to the painting as booty (colloquially, to refer to an item of value). The investigative committee pointed to that word as having a sexual connotation, and thus evidence that Amsterdam had an inappropriate relationship with this female patient.

More than anything I felt terrible for Jay and [his wife] Debbie, she told MIA. This was ridiculous. It was uncalled for, mean-spirited, fabricated.

She wanted to sue Penn, but couldnt find lawyers willing to take on a case like this against the stone wall of Penns legal team. They defamed me, she said, and they should have been punished for it.

Furthermore, during Penns investigation of this matter, someone in Evans office photocopied and circulated her private medical information to various members of the university administration. This, of course, was a violation of HIPAA laws. They stole my emails, my health records, the woman said.

Amsterdam provided Mad in America with documents detailing the history of allegations and complaints made against him, and written records showing that there was an absence of any resolution substantiating the complaints. Even so, the stress of the situation, the sheer volume of complaints, and the feeling that everyone in the university was targeting him for some unknown reason led to a worsening of Amsterdams health in 2011. Acting upon his doctors advice, he took a medical leave.

Once on leave, Amsterdam struggled to figure out why his professional life had suddenly collapsed around him. Although he was now unable to see, his wife Debbie helped him search the internet for information about Penn and Evans. One day, she found an article about a court case in Philadelphia that led him into a larger dive into Evans involvement in the ghostwriting scandal.

In this case, a child had been born with a congenital heart defect after the mother used paroxetine while pregnant. The family sued GSK, accusing the company of hiding data about the harms of the drug. GSK lost the case, and ended up paying a $2.5 million penalty.

GSK, it seemed, had engaged in research misconduct. That article led Amsterdam and his wife to other articles citing UK psychiatrist David Healy, who had testified against GSK in the trial. In one article, Healy named several academic researchers who were on pharmaceutical executives speed-dial lists. One name immediately jumped out to Amsterdam as soon as his wife read it aloud: Dwight Evans.

Now, for Amsterdam, the light bulb was starting to turn on.

In the spring of 2010, when Amsterdam had been hit by the first complaint, Senator Charles Grassley was readying the release of his report on medical ghostwriting. In that report, which was released on June 24, 2010, Grassley noted that during his investigation he had asked Penn Medical School about its policies on ghostwriting, and Penn had informed Grassley that it had policies against plagiarism and it considered [ghostwriting] to be the equivalent of plagiarism.

This inquiry from Grassley surely would have raised anxiety in Penns psychiatry department. Not only had Amsterdam charged Gyulai with stealing his data, but Evans was also listed as an author of the Study 352 report, and yet Rickels, in a letter to Amsterdam, had told of how the paper had been ghostwritten by STI.

Moreover, as Evans likely knew in the spring of 2010, Grassley and his lead investigator, Paul Thacker, already had their sights set on him related to another instance of his authoring a ghostwritten paper. This instance of ghostwriting became public that fall, when Thacker, in a letter to NIH director to Francis Collins, told of how Evans had signed off on an editorial written by Scientific Therapeutics Information (STI), with the ghostwriting firm billing GlaxoSmithKline for its services.

Thacker wrote:

According to the documents, Sally Laden of STI wrote an editorial for Biological Psychiatry in 2003 for Drs. Dwight Evans, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Dennis Charney, then an employee at the NIH and now Dean of Research at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine at New York University.

In an email to a GSK employee, Ms. Laden wrote, Is there a problem with my invoice for writing Dwight Evans editorial for the [Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance]s comorbidity issue to Biological Psychiatry? Yet, when published, the authors Evans and Charney only stated, We acknowledge Sally K. Laden for editorial support.

In his letter, Thacker urged Collins to approve new policies that would recognize ghostwriting and plagiarism as research misconduct. He encouraged Collins to consider enforcement mechanisms such as disciplinary action and dismissal for the researchers involved.

Evans was now on the hot seat. Thackers complaint to Collins told of plagiarism for hire. Yet, Penn, in response to Thackers new revelation, took no action against Evans. As Thacker said in a subsequent article published a few months later, Penn just blew it off as though it were a matter of no account.

Thacker, in his latest article, publicly named Evans and Penn as an example of the corruption in academic medicine that needed to be cleaned up. Students should really be pissed off that professors get away with this type of fraud when students receive steep penalties, he wrote. What makes this all even more bizarre and insulting is that Dr. Evans is on the board of Penns Scattergood Program for the Applied Ethics of Behavioral Healthcare, a program dedicated to healthcare ethics.

Once Amsterdam learned of Thackers articles, he could put together a timeline that provided a likely explanation for why he had been hit with all those complaints in the spring of 2010. All of those complaints had emanated from Evans office, at a moment when Evans had reason to be worried about Grassleys investigation of ghostwriting, and if Thacker continued his digging, he might stumble upon the very studystudy 352that Amsterdam had complained about in 2001. And thator so it would seemwould mean big problems for Penn and Evans.

I think what happened is that Evans got all wigged out, Amsterdam said. He remembered the fact that he plagiarized, in 2001, an article in The American Journal of Psychiatry. And he knew that I knew, and that I knew he swept it under the rug by not taking it to the university, with his crony, Rickels. And he knew that if I were called to testify before Congress, I would tell them what happened.

Amsterdam didnt wait for Grassleys call. On July 8, 2011, he filed a whistleblower complaint with the federal Office of Research Integrity (ORI) alleging that Evans and the other authors had committed plagiarism by placing their names on that ghostwritten paper published in 2001.

Given Rickels 2001 letter to Amsterdam, which confessed that STI had written the initial drafts of the article, and that many academic investigators in the trial hadnt reviewed or seen the submitted article, it seemed that Penn would need to censure Evans. The ghostwriting element was clear. Even Gyulai had stated in his letter of apology that the ghostwriting firm had given first authorship to Nemeroff, and Penn had told Grassley that it considered agreeing to author a ghostwritten article to be a form of plagiarism.

But Penn just dismissed Amsterdams complaint with a wave of its institutional hand.

In a letter to Amsterdam dated December 5, 2011, the university admitted that the two researchers had published ghostwritten articles, and while it noted that the ghostwriting firms authors should have been listed on the publications, it decided that there had been no misconduct because Penn, at that time, did not have a formal policy prohibiting faculty and researchers from appending their names to ghostwritten work.

In its statement to the press, the university was even more adamant. A Science article published on March 2, 2012 had this headline: Penn Clears Two Faculty Psychiatrists of Research Misconduct Charges.

There was, the university stated in its press release, no plagiarism and no merit to the allegations of research conduct because Gyulai and Evans had helped conduct the research and analyze the results and contributed to the paper, which had presented the research findings accurately. As for Amsterdam, the university stated, he should not have been listed as a co-author or in the acknowledgements, because his role did not meet the journals guidelines for authorship.

The universitys response to Amsterdams whistleblowing did not impress Thacker and the leaders of the Project on Government Oversight. POGO sent a letter to the office of the President of the United States stating that the president of Penn, Amy Gutmann, had ignored the evidence against Evans. They just blew it off, Thacker wrote.

At that time, Gutmann was the chair of Obamas Bioethics Commission, and Thacker asked how she could be expected to function capably in that position, given this brush-off. Dr. Gutmanns bona fides on bioethicsto borrow a phrase from Penns own spokespersonappear to be unfounded.

After filing his complaint with the federal office of Research Integrity, Amsterdam teamed up with bioethicist Leemon McHenry to write a peer-reviewed article about the 2001 paper. They looked at the way the data from study 352 had been analyzed, and then how it was presented in the article itself. Their article was published in 2012 in the International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine. In it, Amsterdam and McHenry wrote that they show how primary and secondary outcome analyses were conflated, turning a negative clinical trial into a positive studywith conclusions and recommendations that could adversely affect patient health.

The study, they wrote, was designed to test GSKs drug, paroxetine (Paxil) against both an older antidepressant, imipramine, and a placebo control. The participants were people with a bipolar disorder diagnosis who were taking a full dose of lithium, but not responding to lithium treatment. The goal was to see if Paxil could improve depression when lithium wasnt working.

However, the study was plagued with problems from the start. The researchers struggled to enroll enough participants (hence the recruitment of Amsterdam, to gain access to his prestigious bipolar disorders clinic). Even with Amsterdams help, the researchers didnt enroll enough participants to meet the original requirement.

Still, GSK continued the study. Each of the 117 participants was randomly assigned to one of three groups: Paxil, imipramine, or placebo. The original test was to see how the groups did, on average, on both the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD, a common measure of depression severity), and the Clinical Global Impression Severity scale (CGI/S, a subjective, 7-point scale of how ill a clinician considers their patient).

The researchers also used the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) to assess whether Paxil caused manic or hypomanic episodesa well-known harmful side effect of SSRIs.

However, the results showed no beneficial effect for either Paxil or imipramine. Improvement was no better than placebo on any of the scales used.

This was a failed study. But rather than publish that finding, GSKs ghostwriters looked for other ways to put a positive spin on the study. Finally, a statistician working for GSK hit on an idea that might produce a positive resultssplitting the participants into two groups, one on high doses of lithium, and one on low doses of lithium.

This was a post-hoc analysis (conducted after the study was over), so the researchers couldnt actually randomize participants to receive a specific dose. Moreover, all the participants were stabilized on a dose that was considered within the normal range. Nonetheless, the statistician arbitrarily separated those with a slightly higher dose from those with a slightly lower dose.

However, even then, the statistician couldnt find an effect when looking at how many people experienced a response to the drugs. Response in this case was defined as having a HDRS score of 7, or a CGI/S score of 2. Neither Paxil nor imipramine were significantly better than placebo and that was true for both the high-lithium and the low lithium group.

However, GSKs statistician still had one more data-mining exercise to try. The average change on the HDRS and the CGI/S scales for both Paxil and imipramine was greater than for placebo, and this difference was statistically significant.

Although the published report of Study 352 did note that no statistically significant differences in response rates were seen among those receiving paroxetine, imipramine, or placebo, it was the average change on the two scales that was featured in the abstract of the article, which was used to support this bottom-line conclusion: Antidepressant therapy may be beneficial for patients who cannot tolerate high serum lithium levels or who have symptoms that are refractory to the antidepressant effects of lithium.

This post-hoc data mining is known to be unethical, and if presented as a bottom-line finding, a type of research fraud. The joke within research circles is that if you torture the data long enough you can always find the result you want, and it was that process of data manipulation that Amsterdam and McHenry documented in their analysis of the study.

There were other research sins to be found in the published article. For instance, the researchers didnt report the YMRS data that was used to assess the risk of drug-induced mania/hypomania, which is a scientific sin of omission, one that in company-sponsored trials was regularly used to hide adverse effects of the sponsors drug.

Go here to see the original:
The Whistleblower and Penn: A Final Accounting of Study 352 - James Moore

MEDIA CONTACT

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise ROCHESTER, Minn. The most commonly used forms of insulin cost 10 times more in the U.S. than in any other developed country,according to a commentaryinMayo Clinic Proceedings. This prohibitive cost is causing some U.S. patients with Type 1 diabetes to ration the amount of insulin they use, with life-threatening implications.

The commentary byS. Vincent Rajkumar, M.D., a Mayo Clinic physician, describes the cost of insulin as an urgent public health issue. "There are 30 million patients with diabetes in the United States, and about 25%, or 7.4 million Americans, need insulin. For the 1.3 million patients with Type 1 diabetes, insulin is as vital as air and water. Some patients are rationing insulin or switching to cheaper forms without proper supervision. We cannot wait to act."

The commentary appears in the January issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, which focuses on diabetes and the discovery of insulin in 1921. The use of insulin to treat diabetes has transformed the lives of millions of people, but the sharp cost increase in recent years has threatened patient care.

Insulin is a naturally occurring hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels.Insulin therapyis vital for people withType 1 diabetesand for many patients withType 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is a chronic condition where the pancreas produces little or no insulin. With Type 2 diabetes, the body resists the effects of insulin or doesn't produce enough to maintain normal glucose levels. Long-term complications can be debilitating and life-threatening.

"There have been many recent reports of deaths in patients with Type 1 diabetes because of the lack of affordable insulin," Dr. Rajkumar says. "The high prevalence of diabetes, the chronic lifelong nature of the disease, and the fact that patients with Type 1 diabetes will die without access to insulin make this an urgent problem that must be solved expeditiously."

"The No. 1 reason for the high cost of insulin is the presence of a vulnerable population that needs insulin to survive," he says. "This population is willing to pay almost anything to have access to a lifesaving drug, and manufacturers know it."

Dr. Rajkumar, the Edward W. and Betty Knight Scripps Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, proposes several solutions that would help make insulin and other prescription drugs more affordable. They include:

"We cannot afford to lose a single additional life because of the high cost of insulin," says Dr. Rajkumar. "The price of insulin is a stark and troubling example of what's happening with other prescription drugs, and it highlights a systemic problem with how drugs are priced, compared with just about every other commodity."

###

About Mayo Clinic ProceedingsMayo Clinic Proceedingsis a monthly peer-reviewed journal that publishes original articles and reviews dealing with clinical and laboratory medicine, clinical research, basic science research, and clinical epidemiology. Mayo Clinic Proceedings is sponsored by the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research as part of its commitment to physician education. It publishes submissions from authors worldwide. The journal has been published for more than 90 years and has a circulation of 127,000.

About Mayo ClinicMayo Clinicis a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing.Visit the Mayo Clinic News Networkfor additional Mayo Clinic news andAn Inside Look at Mayo Clinicfor more information about Mayo.

Media contact:

SEE ORIGINAL STUDY

Here is the original post:
High cost of insulin has life-or-death implications for diabetic patients - Newswise

ByLinell Smith

In 2018, nearly half of Americans said they were "somewhat likely" or "very likely" to make a New Year's resolution, according to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.

While making a resolution is easy, fulfilling those commitments may depend on the way you frame them, says Johns Hopkins clinical psychologist Neda Gould, director of the mindfulness program at Johns Hopkins and associate director of the anxiety disorders clinic at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Neda Gould

Director, Johns Hopkins mindfulness program

"The problem with New Year's resolutions is that they often involve major behavior changes that we expect to make overnight," Gould says. "This method rarely works. Then, when we don't succeed, we feel terrible about ourselves."

Rather than thinking of a New Year's resolution as a complete transformation that commences on Jan. 1, Gould suggests envisioning it as a journey composed of small but meaningful changes that progress through the year.

"We are much better at attaining goals if we break them up into concrete, manageable steps," she says. "You might say, 'In January, I will begin to exercise one day weekly for 15 minutes.' In February, you may increase that goal a bit in frequency and duration and so on. Overall, I think there has to be some flexibility and room for error in order to have effective and lasting change."

To help you achieve your goals, Johns Hopkins Medicine experts who help patients and staff members find sustainable ways to improve their health offer the following approaches to some common resolutions.

Kimberly Gudzune, associate professor at the school of medicine and an obesity medicine physician at the Johns Hopkins Healthful Eating, Activity & Weight Program, says that she often hears patients set unreasonable goals such as "I will get back down to what I weighed in high school."

Instead, she suggests committing to achievable goals such as: "I will lose 5% of my current body weight over the next six months by making sustainable changes in my eating and activity habits." Or, "I want to improve my blood pressure/blood sugar/cholesterol, so I will make sustainable changes in eating and activity habits and work to lose 10% of my current body weight over the next six to 12 months."

Scientific studies suggest that the blue light emitted by screens on cellphones, computers, tablets, and television may disrupt the production of the hormone melatonin, which is essential for inducing restful sleep, says Charlene Gamaldo, medical director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep.

Instead of pledging to improve your sleep by reducing the amount of time you stare at computer screens every day, she suggests you pledge to "use technology to help create realistic and accountable goals for reducing screen time." For instance, make a commitment to set your phone to remind you to shorten your screen time by 30 minutes dailybefore bedtime is ideal.

Johns Hopkins pulmonary physician Panagis Galiatsatos runs the Tobacco Treatment Clinic, established in July 2018 in the Asthma and Allergy Building at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. The physician says it is the only such clinic in the state, and one of only a handful nationwide that provide a personalized approach to smoking cessation.

He says smokers should resolve to quit only if they have identified a specific game plan for how to do it. To succeed, a resolution should include a commitment to visit a physician who may prescribe a smoking cessation medication such as Chantix, advise stocking up on nicotine gum and lozenges, and periodically check on patients' progress.

"I tell patients there's nothing wrong with coming up with a big goal, but come up with a plan for achieving it," he says. "What will you do if you get derailed? How will you plan for the situations when you're most likely to crave a cigarette? If people are conditioned to smoke after a certain activity, such as drinking coffee, that may be when they want to be prepared to have an item such as a nicotine lozenge or gum close by."

Want to eliminate sugar from your diet? Rita Kalyani, associate professor of medicine and editor-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Patient Guide to Diabetes, suggests reframing goals that are rigid and unsustainable.

"Instead of pledging 'I'm going to stop drinking soda with every meal,' say 'I'm going to decrease the amount of sugar-sweetened beverages that I consume daily.'"

Lee Daugherty Biddison, chief wellness officer for Johns Hopkins Medicine, says it's important to make incremental changes when you resolve to keep work from taking over your life.

"Instead of saying 'I'm going to fix my work-life balance by making big changes all at once,' pledge to add one or two activities that bring joy to your lifesuch as building in a date night or time aloneand commit to putting them on your calendar."

This article originally appeared in Dome.

Read this article:
How to make New Year's resolutions that stick - The Hub at Johns Hopkins

The report named, Global Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug Makret has been added to the archive of market research studies by QY Research. The industry experts and researchers have offered reliable and precise analysis of the global Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug market in view of numerous aspects such as growth factors, challenges, limitations, developments, trends, and growth opportunities. This report will surely act as a handy instrument for the market participants to develop effective strategies with an aim to reinforce their market positions. This report offers pin-point analysis of the changing dynamics and emerging trends in the global Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug market.

Additionally, it provides a futuristic perspective on various factors that are likely to boost the global Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug market growth in the years to come. Besides, authors of the report have shed light on the factors that may hamper the growth of the global Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug market.

Get the Sample of this [emailprotected]https://www.qyresearch.com/sample-form/form/1030305/global-thyroid-hormone-disorder-drug-market

The report also helps in understanding the global Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug market through key segments including application, product type, and end user. This analysis is based on various parameters such as CGAR, share, size, production, and consumption.

The leading industry experts have also scrutinized the global Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug market from a geographical point of view, keeping in view the potential countries and their regions. Market participants can rely on the regional analysis provided by them to sustain revenues.

The report has also focused on the competitive landscape and the key strategies deployed by the market participants to strengthen their presence in the global Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug market. This helps the competitors in taking well-versed business decisions by having overall insights of the market scenario. Leading players operating in the global Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug market are also profiled in the report.

Market Segments:

Key Players:Novo NordiskSanofiMerckEli LillyAstraZenecaAbbVie

Product Type Segments:InjectionOralOthers

Application Segments:HospitalClinicMedical CenterOthers

Regional GrowthThe report offers in-depth analysis of key regional and country-level Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug markets, taking into account their market size, CAGR, market potential, future developments, and other significant parameters. The Middle East and Africa (GCC Countries and Egypt) North America (the United States, Mexico, and Canada) South America (Brazil etc.) Europe (Turkey, Germany, Russia UK, Italy, France, etc.) Asia-Pacific (Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Korea, Thailand, India, Indonesia, and Australia)

What the Report has to Offer?

Market Size Estimates: The report offers accurate and reliable estimation of the market size in terms of value and volume. Aspects such as production, distribution and supply chain, and revenue for the global Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug market are also highlighted in the report

Analysis on Market Trends: In this part, upcoming market trends and development have been scrutinized

Growth Opportunities: The report here provides clients with the detailed information on the lucrative opportunities in the global Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug market

Regional Analysis: In this section, the clients will find comprehensive analysis of the potential regions and countries in the global Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug market

Analysis on the Key Market Segments: The report focuses on the segments: end user, application, and product type and the key factors fuelling their growth

Vendor Landscape: Competitive landscape provided in the report will help the companies to become better equipped to be able to make effective business decisions

Get Customized Report in your Inbox within 24 hours @https://www.qyresearch.com/customize-request/form/1030305/global-thyroid-hormone-disorder-drug-market

Table of Contents:

Report Overview: It includes six chapters, viz. research scope, major manufacturers covered, market segments by type, Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug market segments by application, study objectives, and years considered.

Global Growth Trends: There are three chapters included in this section, i.e. industry trends, the growth rate of key producers, and production analysis.

Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug Market Share by Manufacturer: Here, production, revenue, and price analysis by the manufacturer are included along with other chapters such as expansion plans and merger and acquisition, products offered by key manufacturers, and areas served and headquarters distribution.

Market Size by Type: It includes analysis of price, production value market share, and production market share by type.

Market Size by Application: This section includes Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug market consumption analysis by application.

Profiles of Manufacturers: Here, leading players of the global market are studied based on sales area, key products, gross margin, revenue, price, and production.

Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug Market Value Chain and Sales Channel Analysis: It includes customer, distributor, Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug market value chain, and sales channel analysis.

Market Forecast Production Side: In this part of the report, the authors have focused on production and production value forecast, key producers forecast, and production and production value forecast by type.

About Us:QYResearch always pursuits high product quality with the belief that quality is the soul of business. Through years of effort and supports from huge number of customer supports, QYResearch consulting group has accumulated creative design methods on many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch has become the brand of quality assurance in consulting industry.

Read the original:
Thyroid Hormone Disorder Drug Market 2020 Report with Competitive Research by 2025 - Instanews247

Those who sleep in cold environments, meanwhile, tend to fare better. A study of people with a sleep disorder found that they slept longer in temperatures of 61 degrees Fahrenheit versus 75 degrees. The cold-sleepers were also more alert the next morning. The basic physiology is that your body undergoes several changes at night to ease you into sleep: Your core and brain temperatures decrease, and both blood sugar and heart rate drop. Keeping a bedroom hot essentially fights against this process. Insomnia has even been linked to a basic malfunctioning of the bodys heat-regulation cyclesmeaning some cases could be a disorder of body temperature.

In light of this physiology, sleep experts unanimously suggest keeping your bedroom cooler than the standard daytime temperature of your home. There is no universally accepted temperature that is the correct one, but various medical entities have suggested ideal temperature ranges. The most common recommendation, cited by places like the Cleveland Clinic and the National Sleep Foundation, is 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit. Within that range, experts vary. A neurologist in Virginia told Health.com that the magic number is 65. Others have advised an upper limit of 64.

Read: How to sleep

The U.S. Department of Energy recommends keeping your home at 68 degrees during the day and lower while youre asleep. That guideline is based on money, not health: It was originally suggested by President Richard Nixon as a way of conserving oil during an embargo. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter went further, suggesting 65 degrees in daytime and 55 at night. He ordered that the White House thermostat be lowered accordingly, and subsequently extended the rule to all public buildings. The change was estimated to have saved around 300,000 gallons of oil daily.

Even though no one was fined under the thermostat rule, Ronald Reagan promptly undid it in 1981, citing unnecessary regulatory burden. No such executive thermoregulatory fiats have since been attempted. If you want to work and sleep in a sauna-like sweat box, that is your God-given right as a red-blooded American. But it should be done with the knowledge that thermostat decisions affect far more than ones own personal sleep. The burning of fossil fuels contributes to the air pollution that kills millions of people every year, and the health effects of climate change are far-reaching.

As for individual health guidelines, human variation makes giving any specific number almost impossibleand borderline irresponsible. Different temperatures will suit different people differently. At the same time, a range like 60 to 67 degrees can feel nebulously broad. Its less satisfying than a single number, and it doesnt solve the bed-partner argument. So I will say this: 60 degrees is the correct temperature for winter sleep. Anything warmer is incorrect.

More:
Your Bedroom Is Too Hot - The Atlantic

For a complete list of our obituaries, seehere.

SYDNEY BRENNER SCIENTIFIC SYMPOSIUM

Nobel laureate Sydney Brenner died in April at the age of 92.

Brenner was best known for his discovery of sequences that stop protein translation, mRNA, and his investigation of the nematode C. elegans, which he realized would be an ideal model organism to study cell differentiation and organ development. That work won him the 2002 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

[H]is great strength was in experiments, and in particular the choice and execution of ones that were both important and ingenious, Francis Crick, the codiscoverer of DNA who shared an office with Brenner at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in the UK, wrote in atribute to Brenner in The Scientist in 2002.

US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY

American geneticist Liane Russell, famous for her work on the deleterious effects of prenatal radiation exposure and the chromosomal basis for sex determination in mammals, died in July at age 95.

She and her husband William Russell established the Oak Ridge National Laboratorys (ORNL) Mouse House, an extensive colony of mutant mice bred to model the effects of exposure to radiation.

Russells work led to a healthcare policy to ask women if they are pregnant before X-raying them and also to avoid X-rays shortly after menstruation in women of childbearing age.

Inventor of the polymerase chain reaction technique and winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993, Kary Mullis, died in August at age 74.

Mullis was known as a weird figure in science and a flamboyant philanderer who evangelized the use of LSD, denied the evidence for both global warming and HIV as a cause of AIDS, consulted for O.J. Simpsons legal defense, and formed a company that sold jewelry embedded with celebrities DNA, according to a 1998 profile in The Washington Post.

Mullis wrote in The Scientist in 2003 that his first attempt at PCR in 1983 was a long-shot experiment. . . . so [at midnight] I poured myself a cold Becks into a prechilled 500 ml beaker from the isotope freezer for luck, and went home. I ran a gel the next afternoon [and] stained it with ethidium. It took several months to arrive at conditions [that] would produce a convincing result.

Even still, Science and Natureboth rejected the resulting manuscript, which was ultimately published in Methods in Enzymology in 1987 and helped earn Mullis his Nobel.

Chemical engineer George Rosenkranz, the director of the pharmaceutical company that first synthesized a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone, died in June at the age of 102.

He and colleagues developed norethindrone, a synthetic version of progesterone, which was then used in the combined oral contraceptive pill and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1959. The work, along with efforts in biotech, earned him many awards from scientific organizations and from the Mexican government.

Despite that, he was a very humble man, Roberto Rosenkranz, one of his sons, told the Los Angeles Times. He never was out to take credit.

Ophthalmologist and inventor Patricia Bath, whose research on lasers advanced cataract surgery, died in May at the age of 76.

During her medical internship in New York, she conducted an epidemiological study on blindness and found the rate of the condition among the black population was twice that of the white population. The finding led her to start the field of community ophthalmology, caring for underserved populations. She promoted the field by traveling to perform surgeries, training clinicians, and donating equipment.

Bath then moved to the University of California, Los Angeles, medical center in 1974 and in the 1980s began studying lasers for their potential to treat eye disorders. In 1988, she patented a device called Laserphaco Probe, which removes cataracts.

I had a few obstacles but I had to shake it off, Bath told ABC News in 2018. Hater-ation, segregation, racism, thats the noise you have to ignore that and keep your eyes focused on the prize, its just like Dr. Martin Luther King said, so thats what I did.

Nobel laureate Paul Greengard, who discovered that the brain communicates with chemical signals, died in April. He was 93.

Paul was an iconic scientist whose extraordinary seven-decade career transformed our understanding of neuroscience, Richard Lifton, president of Rockefeller University, where Greengard had been a faculty member, said in a statement. His discoveries laid out a new paradigm requiring the understanding of the biochemistry of nerve cells rather than simply their electrical activities. This work has had great impact.

Greengards work revealed how the brain uses dopamine and other chemicals to send signals from one nerve cell to another, discoveries that won him a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2000. Greengard used the prize money to establish an award for women doing outstanding biomedical research and named the prize after his birth mother. Drawing attention to the achievements of women working in science, he and Baylor College of Medicine professor Huda Zoghbi wrote in The Scientist in 2014, sets a powerful example for those women still dreaming of their own success.

Public health whistleblower, physician, and researcher, Shuping Wang, died in September at the age of 59.

Wangs career started in China in the 1980s, where she was a doctor and hepatitis researcher. In 1992, she was testing blood serum samples from a plasma collection station where she worked and realized that unsanitary blood collection methods had led to a hepatitis C epidemic among people who donated and received plasma at the clinic. She reported the findings to officials and was fired, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

She took a job at the Zhoukou Health Bureau and, analyzing the blood samples there, she found 13 percent of donors had HIV and the cross-contamination there was also leading to the spread of the virus. Officials challenged her results and asked her to change the data for a report that would be sent to the provincial Department of Health. Again, she refused.

Her findings lead to the shutdown of her clinic and the establishment of HIV testing for donors. Still, roughly 1 million farmers were infected with HIV from selling their blood plasma at Chinese collection sites during the epidemic, according to The Washington Post.

In September, a few days before Wangs death, a play about her life, The King of Hells Palace, opened at Hampstead Theatre in London.

COURTESY OF RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

The developer of a widely used DNA analysis technique called shotgun sequencing, Joachim Messing, died in September. He was 73.

Jos approach to the development of his DNA sequencing tools was to spread them freely and widelythat is, he did not patent them, Robert Goodman, the executive dean of agriculture and natural resources at Rutgers University, where Messing was a faculty member, told The New York Times. He was an incredibly generous man.

His development of the DNA analysis technique and his use of it made Messing the most-cited scientist of the 1980s, according to the Institute for Scientific Information. He went on to study crop modifications, such as boosting amino acids in corn to make it more nutritious and increasing crops drought resistance.

TUFTS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Tufts University researcher Stuart Levy died in September at the age of 80.

Levy studied antibiotic resistance and in the 1970s showed that bacteria resistant to the drugs could move from the intestine of farm animals to farm workers, a discovery that had implications for bacterial spread in facilities such as hospitals. After Levy published his findings, other researchers started to study antibiotic resistance in hospitals.

It is hard to overstate his importance in limiting the spread of antibiotic resistance, particularly in hospital settings, Ralph Isberg, a professor of molecular biology & microbiology at Tufts, and his colleague John Leong wrote in a statement sent to The Scientist.

Neuroscientist Rahul Desikan, who developed an MRI-based map of the human cortex and identified genetic risk factors for neurogenerative diseases, died in July from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He was 41.

The MRI-based map, which quickly became one of the most widely-used tools in the neuroscience community, has been cited more than 4500 times, Christopher Hess, a colleague of Desikan at University of California, San Francisco, wrote in a memorial. Color figures of the atlas in its various forms still fill the pages of our leading scientific journals.

Desikan and his colleagues had just started, in 2016, what was then the largest study on the genetics of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) when he began to experience his first symptoms the disease. He was diagnosed with ALS a few months later.

I went into medicine to take care of patients with brain diseases. Now, I have one of the diseases that I study, Desikan said in a press release earlier this year. Even with the disease, he said, he continued to find neurology fascinating and beautiful.

Ashley Yeager is an associate editor atThe Scientist. Email her at ayeager@the-scientist.com. Follow her on Twitter @AshleyJYeager.

See the article here:
Those We Lost in 2019 - The Scientist

(Real Clear Investigations)Abortion rights advocates hoping to make it easier to end later-term pregnancies have outsourced a potentially dangerous drug trial to an impoverished African country.

The clinical trial in Burkina Faso is testing the efficacy of second-trimester abortions using a two-drug combination that includes RU-486, which is currently used in a growing number of first-trimester abortions. Excessive bleeding is a common side effect of the drug, leading some to question the ethics of conducting the trial in a country with limited medical facilities and blood supplies.

In an interview in Ouagadougou, Burkina Fasos capital, the studys director, Dr. Blandine Thieba, confirmed that blood supplies are an ongoing concern.

Right now there are big problems of need in blood bags, she told RealClearInvestigations, but fortunately, thanks to God we did not have a case that required a transfusion.

[Click here to subscribe to Pregnancy Help News!]

The outsourcing of the study, which began 2 years ago, appears to reflect the reluctance of American women to participate in such trials. In a recent illustration, researchers writing in a 2013 bulletin from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists acknowledged that they had failed to recruit enough women for a North Carolina study of mid-term, drug-induced abortions. Reason: Potential participants strongly preferred surgical abortion, which is normally performed with anesthesia, while drug-induced abortions typically are not, even though they can be physically and emotionally distressing. The researchers recommended outsourcing such trials to Europe or Asia.

Tweet This: "The outsourcing of the study, which began 2 years ago, appears to reflect the reluctance of American women to participate in such trials"

The Burkina Faso trial is sponsored by Gynuity Health Projects, a New York-based group aligned with Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States.

Gynuitys literature boasts that it is a a small team willing to take risks on the frontiers of reproductive and maternal health. One of those efforts seeks to increase availability and market sustainability of mifepristone another name for RU-486 with a United States-approved protocol that might not even require a visit to a doctor or clinic.

In separate, federally approved research being conducted in 10 American states from Hawaii to New York, Gynuity is testing whether it is safe for doctors to prescribe abortion drugs through telephone or Internet consultations. The Food and Drug Administration now requires abortion drugs to be administered under the supervision of a doctor who can perform surgery or has access to a physician who can in case of emergency.

Tweet This: The FDA requires abortion drugs to be administered under the supervision of a doctor who can perform surgery/with access to one who can ..

It is not clear whether abortion rights advocates envision second-trimester abortions using such telemedicine. But the research in Burkina Faso and the U.S. is happening as the advocates redouble efforts against what they see as threats to abortion access posed by a conservative-leaning Supreme Court and restrictive new state abortion laws.

More lenient abortion procedures might gain wider acceptance if they are certified as safe and offer greater privacy, and assuming liberal states set a trend by adopting them. While several states have imposed new abortion restrictions, others such as New York, Illinois, Vermont, and Rhode Island have adopted new abortion protections.

The Supreme Court is looming large over these state debates, Elizabeth Nash, a policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy group, told the Pew Charitable Trusts Stateline website recently. The last time that people thought Roe was in this kind of jeopardy was the early 1990s. Thats the only other time we saw Democratic-led states adopt protections for abortion. She was referring to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which protects a pregnant woman's right to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.

Current FDA guidelines approve mifepristone abortions only through the first 70 days of pregnancy, or roughly the first trimester of a nine-month pregnancy. But state laws vary, and American doctors are known to perform later abortions off-label. Drug-induced second-trimester abortions are performed in European countries, although usually with restrictions.

These drugs should not be confused with the contraceptive morning-after pill. The Mayo Clinics website explains that morning-after pills the over-the-counter drug levonorgestrel or the prescription drug ulipristal acetate do not end a pregnancy that has implanted. They work primarily by delaying or preventing ovulation.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, more than 850,000 abortions are performed in the United States each year with about 90 percent occurring the first trimester. Surgical abortions comprise 61% of the total. Drug-induced abortions, which normally occur during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, accounted for 39% of the total in 2017 up from just 5% in 2001 and 29% in 2014.

Gynuity did not respond to RealClearInvestigations inquiries about the Burkina Faso trial, although Dr. Thieba was interviewed in the country in late November by a freelance journalist hired by RCI. Abortion rights advocates such as Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and the Guttmacher Institute all declined to talk with RealClearInvestigations about abortion research and related ethical considerations. Officials at the State Department and federal health agencies also declined.

Tweet This: "Planned Parenthood, NARAL and the Guttmacher Institute all declined to talk [] about abortion research and related ethical considerations"

Public documents shed some light on the study, however. A description based on information provided by Gynuity was posted in August 2017 on the federally maintained research database ClinicalTrials.gov. It said an estimated 100 women with an ongoing pregnancy of 13-22 weeks gestation that is, in their second trimester were to be recruited to participate in the study.

The trial, to begin in May 2017 and end Dec. 31, 2019, would be conducted in four cities in Burkina Faso: Ouagadougou, Bobo-Dioulasso, Boromo, and Ouahigouya. Patients in the study had to be willing to undergo surgical completion if necessary surgical abortion in the event of complications, and to provide consent.

It is not clear how the women were recruited for the study, and details of Gynuitys role in supporting this research could not be ascertained, including how much funding it provided, and whether doctors affiliated with Gynuity traveled to Burkina Faso to supervise or work on the study.

The U.S. government website states that the goal of the Burkina Faso trial is to examine the effectiveness and feasibility of a mifepristone-misoprostol medical abortion regimen in the second trimester.

Mifestrone blocks progesterone, a hormone vital to fetal development, delivered from the mother through the placenta and umbilical cord, and kills the fetus. Another drug, misoprostol, administered later, causes the uterus, where the fetus was conceived, to shrink, expelling the detached embryo through the vagina.

At 19 weeks or mid-second trimester -- a typical fetus is about 6 inches long and weighs about 8 ounces. Medical News Today reports that the fetus may be developing hair on its head. The kidneys of the fetus will now be making urine. A female fetus now has six million eggs in her ovaries.

Abortions in these circumstances are more likely to lead to potentially life-threatening complications for the mother, including cervical laceration, infection, and uterine rupture.

A 2009 study on women in Finland published in Obstetrics & Gynecology found that one out of every five given abortion drugs in the first trimester experienced some kind of complication. The most common adverse effect was potentially life-threatening hemorrhaging, which represented 16% of the total complications.

Doctors with experience in the region doubt that such research is ever advisable in places such as Burkina Faso. The landlocked, recurrently unstable former French West African colony has one physician for roughly every 16,000 people, and one hospital bed for every 2,500 people, in a nation of over 19 million, according to the CIA World Factbook. There are currently about 100 gynecologists in the Society of Gynecologists and Obstetricians of Burkina Faso, RCIs reporting established. The CIA also reports that the country has one of the highest infant-mortality rates (72 deaths per 1,000 live births) and lowest life expectancy rates (56 years) in the world.

The numbers may help explain why the Guttmacher Institute found that about two-thirds of the 23,000 women treated for abortion-related complications there in 2008 suffered serious complications but did not receive the care they needed.

A major problem is chronic shortages of transfusion blood. Dr. Christina M. Francis, an OB-GYN whos done extensive work in Kenya, Burma, Afghanistan, and other developing countries, said: In general, throughout Africa, regardless of whether you're in this big city or a small village, blood products tend to be difficult to come by. There are national shortages very frequently.

Dr. Francis, who is affiliated with the Charlotte Lozier Institute, a scientific research organization that does work from a pro-life/anti-abortion perspective, continued: And so, even if you've got a woman in, say, the biggest hospital in the capital of Burkina Faso, that doesn't mean that she's going to have access to blood products just because she's in that hospital.

The study director in Burkina Faso, Dr. Thieba, confirmed that the availability of blood is most often a real problem. But, she said, as soon as the woman realizes that she is bleeding a lot, she comes and we end the abortion with the aspiration [vacuum suction]; we do not continue, because if we let the medicine act it will take time; the bleeding will be prolonged.

Dr. Thieba said there is a tracking protocol for the women in the study that ensures regular follow-ups until the abortion is completed, but the lack of hospital beds and medical facilities means that women cannot be monitored after the mifepristone and misoprostol are administered. When we prescribe, we explain the signs of danger to women and, as soon as these signs appear, they come, she said. "Most often, they have provider contact."

The Guttmacher Institute estimates that between 2% and 4% of pregnancies in Burkina Faso end in abortion. Dr. Thieba said drug-induced abortions may be useful because a lack of anesthesia and anesthesiologists are impediments to safe surgical abortions.

An abortion-related drug trial in a developing country raises other concerns because of the Wests past influence over population-control efforts that have adversely affected women.

In 1972, the International Planned Parenthood Federation sponsored an experiment to terminate the pregnancies of hundreds of Bangladeshi women who had been raped by Pakistani soldiers. A number of the pregnancies were ended using an unproven device known as a super coil, developed by a psychologist with no formal medical training. The device was later described in a court case as "basically plastic razors that were formed into a ball and would spring open inside a womans uterus. It resulted in a high rate of complications.

While there are few specifics on what happened to the women in Bangladesh, the super coil was used on one occasion in America later that year; 13 out of 15 women had to be hospitalized with serious complications, and one of them had to have a hysterectomy.

No charges were brought at the time against the Philadelphia doctor who used the device, Dr. Kermit Gosnell. He would become infamous decades later when he was convicted of first-degree murder and a host of other crimes in 2013 related to his operation of an abortion clinic in Philadelphia.

In India in 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared overpopulation a national emergency and created a large-scale, mandatory sterilization program. The Ford Foundation backed the effort, providing the infrastructure that made the sterilization programs possible.

The drug being tested in Burkina Faso is connected to abortion research's international past. Mifepristone was developed in France, and in 1994 a nonprofit American group called the Population Council was given the rights to sell RU-486 by French drug maker Roussel Uclaf SA, which was put off by the controversy surrounding the drug in the United States, the Washington Post reported in 2000, the year the drug was approved for use in the United States.

The Population Council was founded by John D. Rockefeller III in the 1950s with a mission rooted in population control and eugenics. In Donald T. Critchlows book Intended Consequences: Birth Control, Abortion, and the Federal Government in Modern America, the organizations mission and motives are made clear:

An initial draft charter of the council submitted by Rockefeller called for the promotion of research so that "within every social and economic grouping, parents who are above the average in intelligence, quality of personality and affection, will tend to have larger than average families."

This paragraph would be dropped when Thomas Parran, a Catholic and former surgeon general, told Rockefeller, "Frankly, the implications of this, while I know are intended to have a eugenic implication, could readily be misunderstood as a Nazi master race philosophy."

Gynuity also illustrates ties between population control advocates and abortion rights advocates. Before she became president of Gynuity in 2003, Dr. Beverly Winikoff had spent 25 years working at the Population Council.

The clinical trial in Burkina Faso also resonates with the history of abortion drugs in the United States. Aside from the involvement of the Population Council in producing RU-486, the Buffet Foundation provided millions of dollars to perform clinical trials on mifepristone for U.S. approval.

Approving the drug in 2000 was a major priority for the soon-departing Clinton administration, which took extraordinary steps to fast-track the process. Mifepristone approval was expedited through an FDA regulation known as Subpart H, which was meant only for Accelerated Approval of New Drugs for Serious or Life-Threatening Illnesses where existing treatments are either insufficient or nonexistent.

The FDA approval process for mifepristone was unusual in other ways. FDA Commissioner Jane E. Henney said the agency broke with precedent by not publishing the names of the experts who reviewed RU-486 for the agency, the Washington Post reported. In another first, it did not publish the name or location of the company that will manufacture the drug.

Eventually, it was reported that the drug was manufactured by a pharmaceutical company formed in the Cayman Islands in 1995 named Danco, which continues make the drug. After the formation of Danco, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation of Hewlett-Packard fame lent it $10 million to help with marketing and FDA approval.

To this day, little is known about Danco Laboratories, beyond the names of a few of its top officers and that it is based in New York City. Abortion advocates insist that such secrecy is necessary for the safety of those who work at the company.

The Trump administration hasnt publicly expressed concern, though it has touted its "Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance" policy, aimed at ending U.S. government funding of international abortion efforts.

Despite RCIs multiple requests for comment from the State Department, National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Global Affairs, no government official would speak on the record about chemical abortion research and the issues involved in international clinical trials. The only response was a statement from an HHS spokesperson: The U.S. government has oversight of international clinical trials if they are federally funded, or if the trial is privately funded and is being conducted to support an application to FDA for a new drug or device.

Tweet This: No (US) government official would speak on the record about chemical abortion research and issues involved in international clinical trials

If Gynuitys studies regarding chemical abortion and telemedicine are successful, they might make it widely possible for women seeking abortions to perform them themselves, leaving legal restrictions on abortion exceedingly difficult to enforce. Pro-life groups raise alarms about the safety of such a situation.

The end game, the ultimate goal for the pro-abortion side, is to have a powerful abortion drug available over the counter, said Dr. Donna Harrison, an OB-GYN and executive director of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Tweet This: The end game, the ultimate goal for the pro-abortion side, is to have a powerful abortion drug available over the counter

If they can generate some studies that say, 'Oh, this is safe' -- whatever 'safe' means in the second trimester -- then they can argue, 'Oh, it doesn't matter if women don't know how far along they are.' It's quote 'safe,'

Editor's Note: This report was first published by Real Clear Investigations. Heartbeat International, which manages Pregnancy Help News, also manages the Abortion Pill Rescue Network.

Read more here:
An American later-term abortion trial on women in impoverished Africa - Pregnancy Help News

It felt like the plot to a Christmas film: I was turning out of my therapists office in Fitzrovia one late November morning - sunny and crisp, perfect romcom conditions - when a little cat, as scrawny as a chicken leg, rushed out from under a car.

She was ravishingly pretty; cloudy grey and apricot, with huge green eyes and clearly lost. Not once in 14 years of working in this busy central London area had I seen a cat; not even a 3am feral when waiting for the night bus. My south London neighbourhood has self-important street toms, but this little kitten was not at all like them. She looked young and underfed. Mrrrp, she trilled, winding her body around me as though air-kissing a friend...

Follow this link:
After a devastating year of failed IVF, finding a cat on the street has changed my life for good - Telegraph.co.uk

Many women will tell you that the idea that menopause can wreak havoc on their sleep isn't news to them. Indeed, a study in Sleep published in April 2017 reported that sleep disturbances become very common during menopause, with an estimated 40 percent to 60 percent of menopausal women reporting poor sleep quality and about 25 percent meeting criteria for an insomnia disorder.

RELATED: 10 Ways to Beat Menopausal Belly Fat

What is news comes from a study published in the journal Menopause in December 2019 titled Effects of Menopause on Sleep Quality and Sleep Disorders: Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. Many studies have looked at the effect of aging on sleep, but very few have delved deeper into the issue by looking at menopause status and by looking at exactly what kind of sleep problems are associated with menopause. In the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, researchers studied 6,100 Canadian women between ages 45 and 60, dividing participants into two groups: pre/perimenopausal and post-menopausal. They also tried to figure out what sleep disruptions are caused by menopause and what is caused purely by aging.

RELATED:Perimenopause and Menopause: Whats the Difference?

We under-address sleep issues in midlife women in general. This study brings much-needed attention to multiple issues concerning sleep disturbances. Poor sleep is associated with poor health [cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and anxiety] so its not something to just blow off, saysStephanie Faubion, MD,the medical director of theNorth American Menopause Society and the director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Womens Health.

The research team discovered that post-menopausal women required more time (over 30 minutes) to get to sleep and were more apt to develop sleep-onset insomnia disorder (trouble falling but not staying asleep) and possible obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) than women who had not reached menopause.

The different menopause stages did not differ on the percentages of difficulty with staying asleep, excessive sleepiness, restless leg syndromeand rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder.

We have confirmed that the sleep disruption is related to menopause, and not age, and that the problem lies mostly in falling asleep, not staying asleep. Something may change in the biology of the brain that makes these women lose the drive to sleep, says a coauthor of the study, Ron Postuma, MD, a professor in the department of neurology at McGill University in Montreal.

RELATED: 12 Women Over Age 60 Who Inspire Wellness and Living Your Best Life

Does the sleep trouble relate to hormones? So far, the connections between sleep and menopause are associative, but not causal. We don't yet know the mechanism driving it. It is difficult to study because when you're having menopause, you're also getting older; how do you disentangle the menopause from aging? says Dr. Postuma.

Treatments for various sleep issues are generally the same, no matter what is causing it, says Dr. Faubion. If you want to get some better z's at night, here are some ideas from the National Sleep Foundation:

RELATED: The Wild History of Womens Hormone Therapy

If you just cannot fall asleep at night, dont immediately start seeking out over-the-counter or prescription medications. Postuma points out that the first-line treatment for insomnia is cognitive behavioral therapy, which teaches you how to change your sleep habits and reframe any negative thoughts on the subject, with specific techniques for falling asleep. If there is no sleep clinician in your area, you can find online resources to guide you through the process.

RELATED: Light Therapy May Give Women Quick Relief From Midlife Sleep Trouble, Research Shows

If you suspect you may be dealing with something more complicated, such as obstructive sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, or REM sleep behavior disorder, see a sleep clinician. You can find one in your area at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Here is the original post:
Sleep Apnea and Other Sleep Disorders Linked to Menopause, Not Age - Everyday Health

Men with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer will now have a fourth treatment option to consider.

BY Kristie L. Kahl

With this new FDA approval, men with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer now have another treatment option that can delay prostate cell growth in metastases both hidden and seen on scans, and disease progression, Dr. Jonathan Simons, CEO of the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF), said in a statement issued to CURE. Enzalutamide now joins (Zytiga [abiraterone]), (Erleada [apalutamide]) and docetaxel chemotherapy as options to be added at the time of initiating androgen deprivation therapy in men.

Metastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer

Men with metastatic castration-sensitive disease means that their prostate cancer has spread to areas in the body that are outside of the prostate, however, these men are also responsive to testosterone suppression therapy.

Androgen receptor inhibitors stop testosterone from working so that it cannot bind to the chemical structures in cancer cells that allow the hormone to enter the cells. Depending on their health and the extent of their disease, men have previously been treated with one of the following:

ARCHES Trial

The FDA made its decision to approve Xtandi based on results from the international, double-blind, phase 3 ARCHES clinical trial designed to compare the agent versus placebo in 1,150 patients with histologically verified metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer.

Patients were enrolled across North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region.

The primary endpoint of the study was radiographic progression-free survival (the length of time during and after the treatment that cancer does not progress or worsen), which was not reached in the Xtandi plus ADT group, compared with 19.45 months with placebo and ADT. This reduced the risk for radiographic progression by 61% in patients who received Xtandi.

Moreover, Xtandi was associated with a reduction in the risk of time to progression of prostate-specific antigen, also known as PSA (a protein made by the prostate gland, whose high levels can be a sign of prostate cancer), by 81% and the time to initiation of a new antineoplastic therapy by 72%, compared with placebo.

In the trial, the most common side effects reported more frequently in patients treated with Xtandi plus ADT, compared with placebo and ADT, included hot flashes (27% vs. 22%, respectively), asthenic conditions (24% vs. 20%), hypertension (8% vs. 5.6%), fractures (6.5% vs. 4.2%) and musculoskeletal pain (6.3% vs. 4%).

Prostate Cancer Foundation

Of note, PCF funded the initial discovery of Xtandi at UCLA by chemist Michael Jung, who worked with prostate cancer physician-scientist Dr. Charles Sawyers, MD, who is now at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation is proud to have funded the initial discovery of enzalutamide at UCLA, as well as the early translational research into the clinic that led to the development of this entire large class of more potent androgen receptor-targeting drugs, Simons said. This class of new precision anti-androgen receptor drugs has extended the lives of thousands of patients already.

Read CUREs original coverage of the FDAs approval of Xtandi.

View post:
What You Need to Know About the FDA's Approval of Xtandi in Prostate Cancer - Curetoday.com

You may associate essential oils with aromatherapy products and fancy day spas. But did you know certain varieties of these fairly inexpensive oils may have legit benefits when it comes to relieving anxiety and stress?

According to Yufang Lin, MD, an integrative medicine specialist at the Cleveland Clinics Center for Integrative Medicine, essential oils work through inhalation or through topical application and have mind-body benefits. For inhalation, essential oils can be easily used as a room spray or via diffuser. A few drops on a pendant worn close to skin also allows for a slow release over time.

Topically, essential oils can be added to a carrier oil and used as perfume, massage oil, cream, or salves. Last but not least, adding an essential oil to your bath is a wonderful way to relax at the end of a busy day, says Dr. Lin.

The quickest way to change ones mood is through smell, thus essential oil is an excellent way to reduce anxiety and support relaxation, says Dr. Lin. However, it takes a lot of herbs to make a small amount of essential oil, which makes it a strong medicine that should be used judiciously.

While research on essential oils for mental health benefits is still expanding, there is some info to suggest that certain oils may work for things like stress relief, better sleep, and more. The thing is, though, even if one study shows that a particular scent is great for, say, reducing anxious feelings, it may not work for every single person. If you don't enjoy a scent, you probably won't feel much better after sniffing it, for instance.

The essential oils below have been shown to reduce anxiety in human studies, says Dr. Lin. Other scents are also commonly used to reduce anxiety and support relaxation, but research beyond animal studies is needed to know if they have real benefits for people.

The essential oils ahead have been shown to help people feel calmer and more relaxed, says Dr. Lin. One potential caveat is that most people have scent memory. So, for instance, if a person has a negative memory associated with a particular scent, they may not feel relaxed when they smell that scent, she explains.

Its important to keep potential side effects in mind, as they can be mild to severe. For one thing, certain essential oils (citrus in particular) can cause photosensitivitymeaning you can get a sunburn more easily after using orange essential oil on the skin, says Dr. Lin. (This is why it's a common recommendation to dilute oils before applying them topically, just to be extra cautious.)

Additionally, some essential oils are safe in small amounts but can dangerous in higher doses. Tea tree and eucalyptus essential oils are commonly used for their antimicrobial benefits, but in excess, can cause nerve and liver damage, says Dr. Lin. Some essential oils are toxic in general and should not be usedarnica, parsley, rue, and tansy are a few that fall into this category.

Finally, do not ingest essential oil without supervision from a trained herbalist, and be extra cautious using essential oils around young children, the elderly, pregnant women, and small pets because they are most at risk for toxicity and side effects, she says.

The bottom line: Research on using essential oils to ease anxiety or for stress reduction is growing, but remains limited. But if you're a healthy adult and are using essential oils safely and at the guidance of your doctor, there is little harm in testing some oils out to see which ones help you feel mentally better.

Courtesy

Majestic Pure Lavender Oil

$21.50

According to a 2012 study, lavender essential oil has been shown to help treat symptoms of anxiety and depression. This might be due to how it impacts the limbic system of the brain, which controls your emotions.

Courtesy

Bergamot Essential Oil

Bergamot oil, which comes from bergamot oranges and thus has an energizing citrusy scent, has been shown to improve mood and reduce symptoms of anxiety, according to 2015 research.

Courtesy

Now Essential Orange Oil

$8.37

If youre pregnant and hoping for a Zen birth experience, a 2015 study suggested that orange essential oil may help to lower feelings of anxiety during labor.

Courtesy

Plant Therapy Peppermint Organic Essential Oil

$7.95

The menthol content in peppermint oil has been shown to help relieve tension and discomfort, which can in turn help you feel more calm and relaxed.

Courtesy

Frankincense Essential Oil

$8.99

Frankincense comes from the resin of the Boswellia tree. Within 2008 research, massaging a blend of this oil in combination with bergamot and lavender oils helped to relieve anxiety, depression, and pain in terminal cancer patients.

Courtesy

Pure Gold Myrrh Essential Oil

Similar to lavender, myrrh essential oil (which has a woodsy scent) may help you to feel relaxed and less stressed in general.

Courtesy

Majestic Pure Rose Oil

$24.50

Rose essential oil, which has similar effects to those of orange oil, has been shown to reduce anxiety during labor in pregnant women when used in a foot bath, according to 2014 research.

Courtesy

Plant Therapy Marjoram Sweet Essential Oil

$9.95

Although more research is needed, sweet marjoram (also known as oregano) is believed to help relieve headaches and anxiety, as well as promote calmness.

Courtesy

Eucalyptus Essential Oil

$5.79

Similar to peppermint oil, eucalyptus oil contains menthol, which has a cooling effect that may help to relieve aches and tension, which can in turn promote relaxation and reduce feelings of anxiety.

Courtesy

Handcraft TeaTree Essential Oil

$14.95

Although there isnt substantial research on it, tea tree oil is believed to reduce stress and even boost immunity and ward off sickness.

Courtesy

Roman Chamomile Essential Oil

Chamomile isnt just a relaxing tea that can help you sleep. The oil can also have the same calming effect if added to an aromatherapy diffuser or hot bath.

Courtesy

Jasmine Essential Oil Aromatherapy

$8.22

You may already love jasmine for its uplifting floral scent, but 2013 research showed that it can also promote feelings of well-being as well as reduce sleepiness and symptoms of anxiety.

Courtesy

Valerian Essential Oil

If you tend to have trouble falling asleep, valerian oil can help you feel more relaxed and calm your nerves at bedtime.

Courtesy

Patchouli Essential Oil

$7.49

Although there isnt sufficient research available, patchouli oil is believed to promote calmness and relaxation if youre suffering from anxiety, depression, or stress in general. It can be added to a warm bath or diffuser in combination with lavender oil.

Courtesy

NOW Foods 100% Pure Clary Sage Essential Oil

According to 2015 research, clary sage can relieve tension and help to maintain optimal levels of the stress hormone cortisol in women. This is beneficial because high cortisol levels have been shown to increase the occurrence of anxiety and depression.

Courtesy

Pure Gold Holy Basil Essential Oil

Rest assured: This isnt the same basil you put in your pasta sauce. Holy basil (also known as tulsi) has a minty scent and, according to 2014 research, it may help to alleviate mental stress.

Courtesy

Best Ylang Ylang Essential Oil

$13.01

If youve ever gotten a professional massage, youre likely familiar with ylang ylang and the fact that it promotes relaxation. Additionally, per 2013 research, ylang ylang can help to reduce symptoms of anxiety and promote better sleep.

Courtesy

Geranium Essential Oil

Similar to rose and orange essential oils, geranium oil has been shown to reduce anxiety for pregnant women in labor, in addition to decreasing blood pressure, according to a 2015 study.

Courtesy

Cliganic Organic Rosemary Essential Oil

$9.95

Another one that isnt just for cooking, rosemary essential oil has been shown to reduce cortisol (stress hormone) levels, which can then, in turn, relieve anxiety, according to 2007 research.

Courtesy

Art Naturals Lemongrass Essential Oil

$11.95

While research on lemongrass oil is fairly limited, a 2015 study showed that it can possibly provide a rapid response when used by people who experience anxiety and tension.

See the original post here:
The 20 Best Essential Oils For Anxiety And Stress, Per Research - Women's Health

The Fulton County Health Department has scheduled the following health clinics and services. Please call the number listed with each service for an appointment or more information.

CANTON The Fulton County Health Department has scheduled the following health clinics and services. Please call the number listed with each service for an appointment or more information.

All offices of the Fulton County Health Department will be closed Tuesday, Dec. 24 and Wednesday, Dec. 25 in observance of the Christmas holiday.

Maternal child health: Health screenings, WIC nutrition education and supplemental food coupons for women, infants and children. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 254). For Astoria clinic appointments call 329-2922.

Canton - Clinic - Monday, Dec. 23 - 8-4 - Appt needed

Canton - Clinic - Thursday, Dec. 26 - 8-4 - Appt needed

Adult Health Immunizations: Various vaccines are available. There is a fee for immunization administration. Medicaid cards are accepted. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 254).

Canton - Immunizations - Wednesday, Dec. 18 - 8-4 Appt needed

Other times available by special arrangement at Canton, Cuba and Astoria.

Blood Lead Screening: Blood lead screenings are available for children ages one to six years. A fee is based on income. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 254). For Astoria appointments call 329-2922.

Family Planning: Confidential family planning services are available by appointment at the Canton office for families and males of child-bearing age. Services provided include physical exams, pap smears, sexually transmitted disease testing, contraceptive methods, pregnancy testing, education and counseling. Services are available to individuals of all income levels. Fees are based on a sliding fee scale with services provided at no charge to many clients. Medicaid and many insurances are accepted. After hours appointments are available. To make an appointment or for more information call the 647-1134 (ext. 244). *Program funding includes a grant from the US DHHS Title X.

Pregnancy testing: Confidential urine pregnancy testing is available at the Canton and Astoria offices. This service is available to females of all income levels. A nominal fee is charged. No appointment is needed. A first morning urine specimen should be collected for optimal testing and brought to the health department. Services are provided on a walk-in basis on the following days each week:

Canton: Every Wednesday & Thursday, 8-3:30 (for more information call 647-1134 ext. 244)

Astoria: Every Wednesday, 9-2:30 (for more information call 329-2922)

Womens Health: A womens clinic for pap tests, clinical breast examinations and vaginal examinations is available by appointment. There is a nominal fee for this service. Medicaid cards are accepted. Financial assistance is available for a mammogram. Cardiovascular screenings may be available to age and income eligible women. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 244).

Mammograms: Age and income eligible women may receive mammograms at no charge. Speakers are available to provide information to clubs and organizations. For more information or to apply for financial assistance, call 647-1134 (ext. 254).

Mens Health: Prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood tests are available for men for a fee. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 224).

Canton - Clinic - Monday, Dec. 23 - 8-12 - Appt needed

Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Clinic: Confidential STD and HIV testing services are available by appointment to males and females at the Canton office. Services include physical exams to identify STDs, a variety of STD testing, HIV testing, education, counseling, medications and condoms. There is a nominal fee for services. Services are available to individuals of all income levels. Medicaid cards are accepted. To make an appointment or for more information call 746-1134 (ext. 224).

HIV Testing and Counseling: Confidential HIV testing and counseling services are available by appointment through the sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic at the Canton office. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 224).

Tuberculosis (TB) Testing: TB skin tests are available at no charge by appointment. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 254).

Blood Pressure Screenings: The Fulton County Health Department provides blood pressure screenings at no charge on a walk-in basis during the following times:

Canton - Screening - Monday, Dec. 23 - 8-4 - Walk in/Room 108

Cuba - Screening - Monday, Dec. 23 - 8-12 - Walk in

Health Watch Wellness Program: The Health Watch Program provides low cost lab services. Through this program adults can obtain venous blood draws for a variety of blood tests. Blood tests offered without a doctors order Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP), Complete Blood Count (CBC), Lipid Panel, Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test, Hepatitis C test, and Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH). A wide variety of blood tests are also available with a doctors order. There is a charge at the time of service. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 254).

Canton - Clinic - Monday, Dec. 23 - 8-12 - Appt needed

Dental Services: The Dental Center offers a variety of basic dental services to children and adults. An appointment is needed. Medicaid and Kid Care cards are accepted. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 292).

Read the original here:
Health Department announces services for the week of Dec 23 - Geneseo Republic

As interest in intermittent fasting keeps growing, a completely different type of fasting trend is coming out of Silicon Valley. Followers of "dopamine fasting" believe that if they deprive themselves from anything stimulating devices, movies, TV, light or even other people they can alter the levels of dopamine in their bodies and reset their brains.

On the surface, it's a life hack that sounds like a good idea: try to modify the dopamine chemical known as one of the "happy hormones" in the body simply by unplugging from devices and stepping away from activity.

"Dopamine fasting is like, 'I'm getting off my devices so I can feel more,'" Dr. Zach Freyberg, an assistant professor of psychiatry and cell biology at the University of Pittsburgh, told TODAY. "It's doing things that are that are meant to keep you sensitized to the world around you."

To fast, followers say they avoid things they enjoy, which can include mobile devices, sex, social media, entertainment, shopping, gambling, exercise, food and alcohol, for a set period of time. Some might even avoid eye contact or chats during that time.

The goal avoiding stimulation in the present, in order to be happier later. For example, love online shopping? During a fast, you'd skip it.

In a way, it's like meditation where people spend time without outside excitement. But this type of fasting is tailored to what specifically causes your dopamine to spike, whether it's red wine, Snapchat or Christmas movies.

Sounds simple, right? Not really.

Your brain is always working. Your neurotransmitters, like dopamine, are always working, Madelyn Fernstrom, a neuroscientist and NBC News health and nutrition editor, told TODAY.

While dopamine fasting focuses on the molecule's role as a neurotransmitter in the brain, dopamine does a lot of heavy lifting throughout the body.

Dopamine is something that's inside of our bodies that our bodies make, Freyberg said. In the brain, dopamine is responsible for lots of important brain functions. You need it to help control mood, you need that to feel a sense of satisfaction and reward.

Trending stories,celebrity news and all the best of TODAY.

People often think of it as the hormone of excitement and novelty seeking, said Dr. Amit Sood, executive director of the Resilient Option, and former professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic.

This means people experience a surge of it when they try something new or anticipate something. Some of what Silicon Valley sells causes dopamine spikes.

A lot of social media is driven by dopamine, he said. Youre just chasing it.

But dopamines role is much more complex. It also helps the brain control movement and exists in other parts of the body, regulating insulin, aiding digestion, managing kidney function and maintaining blood pressure.

Its kind of like an air traffic coordinator. It controls and coordinates the functions of a lot of different organs, a lot of different parts of the body, to make sure they work harmoniously, Fryberg explained.

Not having enough dopamine causes real problems. Parkinsons disease, for example, is a disorder of dopamine, Fryberg said.

The body absolutely needs to make that dopamine because it needs to control the life support systems, he said.

In some ways, eating and exercising can influence dopamine production, but not in the way that dopamine fasting fans think.

When you eat, the amount of dopamine in your blood stream temporarily goes up because that helps control insulin, Fryberg said. There's more and more evidence that exercise can help in Parkinson's patients preserve the amount of dopamine in the brain.

Beyond that that's all we know, he said.

The experts agree that even if the name is an oversimplification of how brain chemistry works, the concept behind dopamine fasting is positive. What "fasters" are truly proposing is taking a break from stimulation and being mindful both healthy practices.

There is no downside, unless you believe you are having an immediate impact on your brain chemistry, Fernstrom, a nutrition scientist, said. It is mistake to think that a short-term behavior of any kind is going to be having an impact on your brain.

Whats more, unplugging and spending time without stimulation might have an opposite effect than anticipated.

Meditation has been shown to increase dopamine in the brain reward activity center, Sood said.

While meditation and avoiding devices is beneficial, Sood encourages people to think of it as adding something to life not subtracting.

It is very difficult to empty your life of something, he said. I tried emptying my mind and it doesnt work. It is not about emptying it. Its about filling it with the right things.

That's why he suggests that people think of something positive while stepping away from devices and overactivity.

If you meditate on gratitude or compassion or kindness it will be more effective, Sood said.

The rest is here:
What is 'dopamine fasting'? How some are trying to change their brains - TODAY

The elderly patients muscles didnt look right beneath the microscope.

He wasnt just old. He had diabetic myopathy, a complication where muscles degrade faster than normal. The mitochondria die, fibers weaken, and the tissues become so broken up they resemble crackedDust Bowl earth. Like cottage cheese, offers Russ Cox, a Genentech and Jazz Pharma alumn.

But now they looked healthy. Mitochondria were firing. The fibers perked and stretched.

These muscles were really looking as if they were muscles of a person 20 years younger, Sundeep Dugar, the J&J and Bristol-Myers Squibb vet on the other end of the microscope, told Endpoints News.

The patient and others had been injected with a form of flavanol, the metabolites found in grape skins and wine and dark chocolate that lead nutritionists to sometimes recommend those foods for heart health. Its considered an antioxidant. But the results that Dugar and his collaborator George Schreiner saw, along with earlier animal studies, led them to a bold idea: Flavanoid was actually following biological pathways normally used by a yet undiscovered human hormone, the first of its kind discovered in over 50 years.

Its a big deal, Dugar said. I think its a big deal.

That was in 2012. Dugar, Schreiner and Cox are now forming a company called Epirium around that finding and the subsequent work they did confirming the new hormone. Its a rejig of an older, poorly funded group the trio had worked on called Cardero, but now theyve managed to convince a fleet of topflight investors: Longitude, ARCH, Vertex and Adams Street have joined in an $85 million Series A.

Theres also an investor called Longevity Fund, a group focused on extending human life, and ARCH head Bob Nelsen has made no secret of his desire to live forever. The two hint at an idea the new biotech isnt particularly shy about: That while they will begin with trials in rare neuromuscular disorders, namely a form of muscular dystrophy called Beckers, they have ambitions that are much broader.

They made the investment not just because they think we can do something meaningful in Beckers muscular dystrophy, but primarily because some of these larger diseases could benefit as well, Cox, the CEO, told Endpoints. Theres no question we will evolve.

Epirium isnt yet revealing what their claimed new hormone is. They say the long delay has been in trying to secure the intellectual property and that a scientific paper is coming early next year.

It has to do, though, with mitochondria biogenesis, or the creation of new mitochondria. These organelles are often called the engine of the cells but they break down with age or with certain diseases and bring the muscles down with them. Exercise is one of the only ways to make more.

You and I lose 10% of our mitochondria every decade, so by the time you get to my age, youre underwater as opposed to when youre 18, said Cox, a former track and cross country athlete now approaching 60.

Dugar and Schreiner, who worked at Scios before it was bought by J&J for $2.4 billion in 2003, had been enlisted at UC San Diego to investigate why flavanol had biological effects. To emerge from that research claiming to find a new human hormone is bold, particularly without publishing the work. Researchers have long studied flavanol for its cardiovascular impact without arriving at similar conclusions. The hormone would be the first mitochondrial steroid in 50 years, they said.

But the pair conducted 11 proof-of-concept trials on 110 patients and say they saw profound results that appeared to work along each of the three well known mitochondrial pathways. They didnt follow up on the diabetic myopathy patients long term, but they walked and stood better and that, combined with his muscle slides, was overwhelming.

This told us that while everyone classifies flavanol as an antioxidant, that couldnt be true, said Dugar.

The two set up the parameters for a human equivalent that must operate along the same metabolic path as flavanoid, and soon found it. Cox said that in early meetings, investors were mystified by Epiriums presentation, but eventually came around.

Of course, they all went to google it, and couldnt find a publication on it and said how can that damn be?' he said.

Epirium will start out with a clinical trial on Beckers muscular dystrophy patients, one of the groups they studied in the early proof-of-concepts. Beckers is akin to a less devastating form of Duchenne. When patients muscles fire, they release toxins that kill mitochondria and deplete overall muscle tissue. Cox said their hormone should be able to slow or even reverse that muscle loss.

Beckers may seem an odd starting point given the gene therapies nearing market for muscular dystrophy, but Cox said that their hormone might be used in combination with the flashier approach. For the company as a whole, though, rare diseases are primarily places they already have data and think they might place a foothold for a much larger project, one that includes neurodegeneration and other age-related disorders.

Mitochondria deplete as we age. Epirium says theyve found a way to make them grow, a chemical exercise.

Im not saying I want to call it anti-aging, said Dugar. But the question is, if you can really have a separation between your biological age and your chronological age, then, hey 80 years olds who have healthy mitochondria, will look like they were 60 years old or act like they were 60 years old. Maybe thats what anti-aging is.

Go here to see the original:
ARCH-backed biotech emerges with $85M and a bold claim: A new human hormone can reverse a key effect of aging - Endpoints News

Cushings disease patients who are treated with cabergoline while undergoing conventional fractionated radiotherapy have a higher risk of disease recurrence after initial remission, a small study has found.

The study, Cabergoline may act as a radioprotective agent in Cushings disease, was published inClinical Endocrinology.

Radiation therapy can be an effective method of controlling Cushings disease a condition caused by a tumor in the pituitary gland particularly when the tumor cannot be removed surgically or when surgery fails to remove the whole tumor.

Conventional fractionated radiotherapy, or CRT, is a form of radiation therapy in which lower doses of radiation are given over a longer period.

The current medical literature suggests that CRT is effective at achieving remission in about three-quarters of Cushings disease patients, and to date, there has not been any documented case of recurrence following such a remission.

However, the researchers behind the new study found this to be inconsistent with their experience in the clinic, where they found disease recurrence after CRT in a few of their Cushings disease patients.

Thus, the researchers analyzed their data for Cushings patients treated with CRT to better understand the treatments long-term outcomes.

The analysis included data for 42 patients (12 males and 30 females) who were followed for at least one year after radiation therapy. They were 24 years old on average. Two patients received CRT as the first line of treatment; the remainder had surgery first.

In total, 29 (69%) achieved clinical remission, which occurred a median of one and a half years after CRT. Of these, six (20.7%) later experienced recurrence, a median of 74 months after initial remission. Using statistical models, the researchers looked for clinical factors that were predictors of remission.

They found that most clinical features, including age, sex, disease severity, and tumor characteristics, were not associated with recurrence, but one clinical feature was: the use of cabergoline around the same time as CRT, referred to as peri-CRT cabergoline use. In fact, peri-CRT cabergoline use was found in all six people who experienced a recurrence.

Cabergoline is a medication that works on the pituitary gland to decrease the secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone, the hormone that ultimately drives excess production of cortisol, which is the defining feature of Cushings syndrome.

Importantly, peri-CRT cabergoline use was not significantly associated with whether an individual would go into remission in the first place but was associated with whether they would experience recurrence after an initial period of remission. Additionally, this association was independent of follow-up time and the use of another medication, ketoconazole (which was the only other medication analyzed).

Based on this finding, the researchers speculated that peri-CRT cabergoline use might offer pituitary tumors protection against radiotherapy.

Specifically, they pointed to the fact that radiation is most effective in killing cells that are actively dividing which is why it is used against cancer cells that divide rapidly and uncontrollably. The researchers noted that previously published data suggests that dopamine agonists (the class of drugs to which cabergoline belongs) may stop pituitary cancer cells from dividing, which may in turn limit the efficacy of CRT.

At this point, such a radioprotective (protective against radiotherapy) effect is largely speculative, since the current study showed only an association, not a cause-and-effect relationship. The small sample size and the fact that treatment was provided on a case-by-case basis do not allow more robust conclusions to be drawn as would a clinical trial with a larger sample size and stricter protocols.

Use of cabergoline in the peri-CRT period did not affect initial remission after CRT but was associated with increased recurrence after initial remission, the researchers stated. Hence, we caution against the peri-CRT use of cabergoline in [Cushings disease] patients. However, further studies with larger number of patients and longer follow-up as well as basic in-vitro studies to elucidate radioprotective effects of cabergoline are needed.

Marisa holds an MS in Cellular and Molecular Pathology from the University of Pittsburgh, where she studied novel genetic drivers of ovarian cancer. She specializes in cancer biology, immunology, and genetics. Marisa began working with BioNews in 2018, and has written about science and health for SelfHacked and the Genetics Society of America. She also writes/composes musicals and coaches the University of Pittsburgh fencing club.

Total Posts: 11

Ins holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Lisbon, Portugal, where she specialized in blood vessel biology, blood stem cells, and cancer. Before that, she studied Cell and Molecular Biology at Universidade Nova de Lisboa and worked as a research fellow at Faculdade de Cincias e Tecnologias and Instituto Gulbenkian de Cincia.Ins currently works as a Managing Science Editor, striving to deliver the latest scientific advances to patient communities in a clear and accurate manner.

More:
In Cushing's, Cabergoline Reduces Efficacy of Radiotherapy, Study Finds - Cushing's Disease News

We might look back on 2019 as a year of perpetual crises, should we survive their enduring damages. The Amazon rainforest burned for weeks under a far-right populist in Brazil, as land long-held by indigenous peoples was effectively cleared for cattle. At the moment of writing, there is ongoing, large-scale and violent civil unrest in Hong Kong, Lebanon, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Iraq, and Iran. Even limiting our attention to the American news cycle, as we often do, its difficult to cultivate hope for a future which, per the U.N. Emissions Gap Report, may not exist without significant infrastructural change. Millennials are increasingly opting not to have children, if not for financial insecurity, thenout of an acute anxiety over the diminished prospects for life on earth. The contested appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court (to pluck one item from the trash fire of this year in American politics) has ensured a bleak outlook for the future of Roe v. Wade as well. Women dressed as Atwoods handmaids protested a stylized dystopia of forced birth that is, in some ways, already real for poor women in states with no practical access to abortion services.

Architects often feel called to address these political terrains as the conceptual and material grounds for design solutions, as if architecture is not already implicated and architects are not human actors also living under these same existential conditions. The objects in need of solutions are so immense, so out of scale, and so tangled in intersecting forces, that its difficult to do more than call attention to themto try to express the unspeakable.

Wall texts and graphics ask viewers to consider the way female bodies have been regulated, whether it be through abortion or fertility. (Courtesy the Druker Design Gallery)

Love in a Mist (The Politics of Fertility) is an ambitious show currently on view at the Druker Design Gallery at Harvards Graduate School of Design that acknowledges the urgency and complexity of an endangered reproductive future. And yet, it reaches for hope in the face of possible extinction. Conceived by the architect Malkit Shoshan, the show assumes an activist posture to address a nuanced set of concerns around the body, fertility, and seemingly detached environmental crises. By assembling research, activist artifacts, artistic works, and a deep bibliography of feminist texts, Love in a Mist locates resistance and hope in interconnection and its enunciation. As Donna Haraway pleads in her science-fiction workChildren of the Compost, cited in the exhibition text, we can and must articulate new forms of relation to each other and the earthits a matter of inter-species survival.

The domination (and depletion) of the environment and the control over human reproduction are intimately entangled, Shoshan argues. At the fulcrum of fertility (engineered by synthetic hormones or controlled through conservative legislation), women and nature are recognized as mutually domitable objects. Its a problematic alignment, but the show works through that tension with care.

The exhibition was instigated as an urgent response to the sharp increase in anti-abortion legislation known as heartbeat bills, some of which were signed into law in Ohio, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Georgia this year. The exhibited work builds on the scholarship of Lori Brown, whose study of the landscapes of U.S. abortion access is presented in takeaway texts and series of infographics.

Lori Brown has mapped out abortion clinics across a number of states, including Texas, shown here. (Justin Knight)

From this legal ground, the sequence of the show quickly expands that predicament to an ecological scale with research on the history of synthetic estrogen. Diethylstilbestrol, or DES, had been prescribed to women suffering miscarriages beginning in the 1940s. Understood to reduce pregnancy complications and loss, its harmful effects werent known until the 1970s, when DES was linked to clear-cell carcinoma in women and girls. DES had also been used as a growth hormone in livestock feed and caused breast and cervical cancer in those consuming estrogen-laden poultry and meat. Introduced into the agricultural ecology, DES contaminated the surrounding land, water, and plants. Hyperproduction is an acceleration of death.

The content of the exhibition is organized into four distinct chapters: Reproductive rights, accelerated growth, extinction, and compost. This framework is spatialized into a linear sequence of four wood-framed greenhouses, beginning with the heartbeat and finding its way out through the compost bin.

The greenhouse is the primary architectural device in the design of the show, also by Shoshan. She acknowledges it as a natural container for the content on view; its an obvious reference to the greenhouse effect, and also a literal technology for the cultivation and control of nature. The framing also stands in for the less discernible spaces of fertility that Love in a Mist tries to accessincluding brick-and-mortar and mobile clinics, crisis pregnancy centers, and state legislatures, as well as fields, forests, and swamps.

As the exhibition directly points out, artificial estrogen was commonly used on both women and farm animals. (Justin Knight)

Multimedia work enlivens the information-rich exhibition environment. A video by Desire Dolron shows swamps in Texas overtaken by a disruptive weed. Audio recordings of Northern California woods by Bernie Krause over nearly 30 years testify to a depleted biophany. Diana Wittens documentary Vessel shows the travels of Women on Waves, whose portable abortion clinic is also represented in the show. Yael Bartanas trailer to What if Women Ruled the World fantasizes an international government of women against an apocalyptic backdrop. Tabita Rezaires Sugar Walls Teardomis a vibrant video document in the compost section which acknowledges the contribution of black womxns wombs to advancements in biomedical technology.

The work, in the end, is thoroughly documentary but it maintains an effective pulse. Rather than directly taking up representational concerns, as feminist exhibitions so often do, it leans into the artifacts and techniques of fertility politics. For that reason, the distinct outlier of the show is a figural womb sculpted by Joep van Lieshout, a Dutch architect who also collaborated with Rebecca Gomperts on the Women on Waves clinic. It makes a static object of a living organ, one weve come to understand as influenced by so many external forces.

Love in a Mist finds recourse through the living. Named for a flower whose seeds were once ingested for their abortifacient properties, the exhibition puts as much faith in the home remedy as in the clinical procedure. Making kin, to borrow Donna Haraways prescription for earthly survival, must remain a matter of choice.

The exhibition is on view through December 20.

Continued here:
Love in a Mist (The Politics of Fertility) deftly blends design with pregnancy politics - The Architect's Newspaper

HAMBURG, GERMANY / ACCESSWIRE / December 19, 2019 / Evotec SE (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, MDAX/TecDAX, ISIN: DE0005664809) today announced successful achievement of a third milestone in their diabetes research alliance with Sanofi ("TargetBCD"), resulting in a payment of 3 m to Evotec.

This milestone was triggered after Evotec met pre-agreed critical criteria within the beta cell replacement therapy programme. The ultimate goal of the collaboration is to develop a beta cell replacement therapy for people with diabetes based on beta cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells.

Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, commented: "We are extremely pleased with the progress we are making on this beta cell therapy approach which has the potential to restore beta cell function and, thereby, address the root cause of diabetes rather than only its symptoms."

About the Evotec-Sanofi-Alliance in Diabetes ("TargetBCD")In August 2015, Evotec and Sanofi announced a research alliance to develop a beta cell replacement therapy based on functional human beta cells derived from human stem cells for diabetes. Both companies have made significant contributions to this collaboration in terms of expertise, platforms and resources. The collaboration, which is a key value-driving relationship under the Company's EVT Innovate business segment, extends Evotec's metabolic disease and stem cell-based drug discovery programmes. To date, Evotec has received 12 m in upfront and milestone payments from Sanofi, as well as substantial research funding.

About DiabetesDiabetes mellitus ("diabetes") is a chronic incapacitating disease associated with severe lifelong conditions which require intensive monitoring and control, such as cardiovascular diseases, kidney diseases, nerve damage and eye diseases. At present, there is no cure for diabetes and only symptomatic treatment options are available. According to the International Diabetes Federation, approximately 425 million people worldwide suffered from diabetes in 2017 (2015:415 million). The disease is a major burden to the global healthcare systems with $ 727 bn being spent on the treatment of diabetes in 2017 (2015: $ 673 bn).

About Beta CellsBeta cells play a key role in the pathogenesis of diabetes. Beta cells reside in clusters of hormone producing cells ("islets") within the pancreas. They respond to elevated blood glucose levels (e.g. after a meal) by secreting the glucose lowering hormone insulin. In the type 1 form of diabetes ("T1D"), beta cells are destroyed by the patient's own immune system. As a result, T1D patients have to follow a life-long regimen of carefully-dosed insulin injections. In patients with type 2 diabetes ("T2D"), beta cells are functionally impaired and yet have to work in the presence of metabolic stress and increased work load due to an impaired tissue insulin response. T2D is progressive, and current therapeutic options cannot prevent the deterioration of beta cell function, eventually also creating a need for insulin injections. Despite the fact that insulin treatments are important and widely used for people with diabetes, they cannot fully mimic the normal control of blood glucose levels by normal beta cells necessary to avoid acute and long-term complications of diabetes. There is a critical medical need for novel therapeutic options which can restore beta cell mass and, thereby, reduce or eliminate the need for insulin injections. Furthermore, beta cell replacement therapy also has the potential to prevent or reverse the decline in beta cell function in type 2 diabetes.

ABOUT EVOTEC SEEvotec is a drug discovery alliance and development partnership company focused on rapidly progressing innovative product approaches with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academics, patient advocacy groups and venture capitalists. We operate worldwide and our more than 2,900 employees provide the highest quality stand-alone and integrated drug discovery and development solutions. We cover all activities from target-to-clinic to meet the industry's need for innovation and efficiency in drug discovery and development (EVT Execute). The Company has established a unique position by assembling top-class scientific experts and integrating state-of-the-art technologies as well as substantial experience and expertise in key therapeutic areas including neuronal diseases, diabetes and complications of diabetes, pain and inflammation, oncology, infectious diseases, respiratory diseases and fibrosis. On this basis, Evotec has built a broad and deep pipeline of approx. 100 co-owned product opportunities at clinical, pre-clinical and discovery stages (EVT Innovate). Evotec has established multiple long-term alliances with partners including Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, CHDI, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Sanofi, Takeda, UCB and others. For additional information please go to http://www.evotec.com and follow us on Twitter @Evotec.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTSInformation set forth in this press release contains forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgement of Evotec as of the date of this press release. Such forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

Contact Evotec SE:Gabriele Hansen, SVP Corporate Communications, Marketing & Investor Relations, Phone: +49.(0)40.56081-255, gabriele.hansen@evotec.com

Story continues

More here:
Evotec Achieves Third Milestone In Cell Therapy Diabetes Alliance With Sanofi - Yahoo Finance