Smoking plus Diabetes a Very Deadly Mix

While smoking is tough enough on health, adding in diabetes boosts the risk of an early death even more. Heavy smokers who also have diabetes are at twice the risk of an early death compared to smokers without the blood sugar disease. The study was conducted among 53,000 Americans who were either current or former heavy smokers. The overall risk of an early death was roughly double if the smoker had diabetes, the lead researcher added. Overall, almost 13 percent of smokers with diabetes died during the seven-year study period, compared with just under 7 percent of those who weren't diabetic. Women with diabetes seemed even more vulnerable than men when it came to lung cancer, specifically. The study found that female smokers with diabetes had an 80 percent higher risk of dying from lung cancer, compared with female smokers who didn't have the illness. That trend was not seen among men, however. For males, having diabetes was tied to higher odds for early death overall, but it did not seem to be linked to higher risk of dying from lung cancer, specifically, the findings showed. More than 5,000 of the smokers in the trial (nearly 10 percent) also had diabetes. Participants with diabetes tended to be older, and to smoke and weigh more than those without diabetes, the lead researcher noted. Over the seven years of the trial, nearly 4,000 participants died, including more than 1,000 from lung cancer and more than 800 from other cancers.

Return to top

                                                                               Antibodies May Hold Key to HIV Suppression

Antibodies may keep the HIV virus in check and one day let patients stop taking antiretroviral drugs, two new preliminary trials suggest. Researchers tried to quell HIV in 23 patients with infusions of an anti-HIV antibody known as VRC01. The antibody was safe and repressed blood levels of HIV for a short time before the virus reappeared, the lead researcher said. The next phase is to infuse two or three antibodies intermittently, and see if antiretroviral drugs can be withdrawn permanently. After regular intravenous infusions of VRC01, lead researcher saw that virus reappear in the blood, called viral rebound, at an average of 39 and 28 days, respectively, after antiretroviral therapy was stopped. Usually, HIV rebounds within about two weeks after stopping therapy, the lead researcher noted. These results indicate the antibody may have had a modest effect on temporarily controlling of HIV. It is the very early stage of a new approach to suppressing the virus. If this approach is successful, the possible benefit to patients is that they could stop taking antiretroviral drugs altogether. Some patients can't tolerate antiretroviral drugs or they have a virus that doesn't do very well with antiretroviral drugs, and many patients are just tired of taking a drug every day and some would prefer weekly infusion. These are very early trials so they're mostly trying to show safety, and they certainly did show that the antibody was safe, said by lead researcher. 

Return to top

                                                           Brain Scans May Improve Dementia Diagnosis, Treatment

Tens of millions of people worldwide suffer from memory loss and mental impairment due to dementia. While there's no cure, medication may temporarily improve some symptoms. Proper treatment, however, depends on identifying the type of dementia and early detection. A new study shows that MRI brain scans can help doctors tell which people with certain thinking and memory problems might go on to develop dementia with Lewy bodies rather than Alzheimer's disease. The researchers found that scans from people who eventually developed Lewy body dementia showed a lack of shrinkage in a portion of the brain related to memory, known as the hippocampus. Identifying people with mild cognitive impairment at risk for dementia with Lewy bodies is critical for early interventions with the potential treatments emerging in the field said by lead researcher. Early diagnosis also helps target appropriate treatments, including what medications not to give. Starting in 2005, lead researcher followed 160 people with mild thinking and memory problems, called cognitive impairment. Participants had MRI brain scans to measure the size of the hippocampus. MRI uses a powerful magnetic field, radio waves, and a computer to produce detailed pictures of the brain. For an average of two years, study participants had annual evaluations. During the course of the study, 61 people developed Alzheimer's disease. Twenty people progressed to probable dementia with Lewy bodies. The lead researcher said that Lewy body dementia can only be diagnosed with certainty after the patient has died and an autopsy is performed. The lead researcher found that someone whose hippocampus stayed the same size was nearly six times more likely to develop Lewy body dementia than someone whose hippocampus shrunk in size. People with Lewy body dementia may also have movement abnormalities like those seen in Parkinson's disease. However, it is important for physicians to differentiate the type of dementia because Lewy body disease symptoms do not respond well to the antipsychotic drugs often used in Alzheimer patients. More than half of Lewy body disease patients can have serious side effects resulting in acute confusion, delusions and hallucinations, and sudden change in consciousness.

Return to top

                                                             Can Protein, Probiotics Help With Blood Sugar Control?

Adding protein-rich or probiotic-laden foods to your diet may help control your blood sugar levels, according to a pair of new studies. Both proteins and probiotics appear to slow down digestion of carbohydrates, preventing blood sugar spikes that can lead to type 2 diabetes or exacerbate damage done by the disease, lead researchers added. Eating tuna fish with a slice of white bread produced a slower rise in blood sugar than eating carbs alone. Meanwhile, people who added foods rich in probiotics to their heart-healthy DASH diet achieved a significant reduction in their blood sugar levels. These are lifestyle changes that are easy to do, and important for the large amount of the population who have metabolic syndrome or are prediabetes. People with metabolic syndrome have risk factors that can lead to heart disease, diabetes and stroke. Protein slowed the release of sugars into the bloodstream, but lead researcher was surprised to find no similar effect from the fats in butter or the fiber in the oat cereal. Protein may stimulate the release of some gut hormones that may slow the gastric empty rate. That's the speed at which food leaves the stomach for digestion in the intestines. The people who added probiotics to their diet showed no difference in blood pressure compared to the other group, but they did achieve a better reduction in their fasting blood sugar and their hemoglobin A1C levels, Pandey reported. Hemoglobin A1C is a standard biomarker for testing long-term blood sugar levels. Probiotic bacteria appear to produce compounds that may make it easier for cells to use the hormone insulin to convert blood sugar into energy, lead researcher added.

Return to top

                                              Intense Chemo Offers Little Benefit for Early Breast Cancer: Study

A more intense type of chemotherapy offers little benefit over standard chemotherapy for women with high-risk early breast cancer (Breast Ca). Known as tailored dose-dense chemotherapy, the treatments are given over a shorter period of time without increasing the overall dose. It has been suggested as a way to improve the effectiveness of the treatment for early breast cancer. However, the European study did not find a difference in recurrence-free survival or overall survival after five years of follow-up. The investigators did find that the dose-dense group had better event-free survival, defined as the time to any breast cancer relapse, cancer in the opposite breast, other malignant growths or death from any cause. The lead researcher randomly assigned more than 2,000 women to either the standard chemotherapy group or the dose-dense group. All of the participants had had surgery for node-positive or high-risk node-negative breast cancer. After five years, 89 percent of the dose-dense group and 85 percent of the standard group were alive and had no recurrence of cancer. In addition, the lead researcher found that 87 percent of the dose-dense group had event-free survival at five years, compared with 82 percent of the standard group. The lead researcher reviewed more than 3,000 breast cancer patients and compared the two approaches. Their conclusion was that the dose-dense approach resulted in better overall and disease-free survival, especially in women with hormone receptor-negative cancers.

Return to top