PhysInfo.com is pleased to introduce a wealth of articles by Marilyn Bitomsky

         Mangoes, strawberries, and grapes for head and neck cancer treatment

HONG KONG. A substance found in mangoes, strawberries, and grapes may provide an effective treatment for head and neck cancers (HNSCC), a research team from the University of Hong Kong believes.

 


The team from the Department of Surgery of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine and Department of Chemistry of the Faculty of Science at the University of Hong Kong published their research results in Cancer Research in September 2007.
They showed that lupeol, a phytonutrient, is more effective than a cisplatin in in vitro and animal studies, and they expect to conduct human trials within a year.
Around 500,000 people develop head and neck cancer annually around the world.
Despite advancements in the management of the disease and the use of different treatment modalities, including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, HNSCC has one of the lowest five-year survival rates.
In the past several years, dietary substances such as those obtained from fruits and vegetables, have gained considerable attention for the prevention and treatment of many cancers.
The potential role of dietary substances in treatment of HNSCC is further supported by recent epidemiologic studies where lower incidence of HNC in the United States is a result of the high intake of fruits and vegetables in the Western diet.

Professor Anthony PO-Wing Yuen and Dr Terence Lee Kin Wah studied four groups – a control, a group treated with lupeol alone, a group treated with cisplatin, and a group treated with a combination of lupeol and cisplatin.
 

                         Acupuncture for runny nose
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA. Four or five acupuncture needles for eight weeks could be the answer to nasal allergies.That is the finding of a study published in a recent issue of the Medical Journal of Australia.
Professor Charlie Xue, professor of Chinese Medicine at the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Traditional Medicine at RMIT University in Melbourne, and his colleagues conducted a study into the effectiveness of acupuncture in relieving the symptoms of inflammatory nasal allergies. Patients were selected on their history of runny nose, blocked nose, itchy nose, and sneezing.
They had to suffer these symptoms for more than four days per week and for longer than four weeks.
“That is the difference between persistent allergic rhinitis and intermittent allergic rhinitis,” Professor Xue said. The patients were then given a skin prick test to determine which allergens they were allergic to, and they were also given a physical examination by both a conventional medical practitioner and a Chinese medicine practitioner
                                                                Another use for Viagra

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA. Viagra may stop the fat, according to a Brisbane scientist.
Dr Ben Goss, from the orthopaedic and trauma research unit at the Queensland University of Technology, told the Princess Alexandra Hospital Week conference that sildenafil has the potential to stop fatty bone marrow being released into the bloodstream following certain types of orthopaedic surgery, such as knee and hip replacements.
He said Australian and Swiss researchers are studying the addition of sildenafil to the anaesthetic before surgery.
They have found no significant changes in pulmonary vascular pressure on infusion of sildenafil. Sildenafil alleviates the increase in pressure, reducing the risk of a fat embolism either during or after surgery, he said

 

                    Poor Aussie men increasingly disadvantaged in health

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA. Men living in the poorest neighbourhoods are about twice as likely to smoke as men from wealthier areas. And lack of exercise and obesity are increasing in poor areas. This is one of the findings of an Australian study comparing health standards in difference socioeconomic areas. The study analysed data from the last three National Health Surveys in 1989, 1995 and 2001.
The gap in health standards of Australia's rich and poor will continue to widen if healthy-living programs aren't directed at the poor, according to the study’s lead author, University of Queensland Professor of Sociology Jake Najman.
“These inequalities in lifestyle have been increasing, suggesting that the health of the poor will not improve to the same extent as the health of the more affluent.”Professor Najman and his colleagues Dr Ghasem Toloo and Dr Victor Siskind found men had less healthy lifestyles than women, with about two-thirds of men and three-quarters of women reporting sedentary or low levels of physical activity. Professor Najman said improving diet, reducing alcohol use, and increasing exercise patterns for the poor should be a national priority. 		 

 

                                   Clinical trials of CD vaccine about a year off

GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA. Clinical trials of a potential vaccine for coeliac disease (CD) will begin in about a year, the 14th annual Women’s Health Conference was told.
Australian gastroenterologist Bob Anderson, from the departments of clinical immunology and gastroenterology at Royal Melbourne Hospital, has been working on the vaccine, which he says is looking very promising.
He also said textbooks particularly in the United States are generally incorrect in their advice about treatment of CD.
“CD is common, and it is frequently undiagnosed.”
CD affects about 1 in 100, but only one-fifth of those affected have been diagnosed.
Many people avoid gluten in their diet even though they do not have CD, he said, and this causes problems for diagnosis as the disease may be masked.
Tiredness is the most common symptom, he said.


          Females more susceptible to autoimmune rheumatic diseases … answers not far off

GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA. Females are more susceptible to most autoimmune rheumatic diseases, with the exception of ankylosing spondylitis, according to an Australian rheumatologist.
Speaking at the 14th annual Women’s Health Conference, Dr Julien de Jager, senior visiting rheumatologist at the Gold Coast Hospital, said rheumatoid arthritis is three times more common in women, systemic lupus erythematosis five times more common, scleroderma six times more common, and juvenile idiopathic arthritis twice as common.
Many other factors such as race, smoking, obesity, oral contraceptive use, other drug or chemical exposures, and occupations then modify the susceptibility, he said.
During the last four years, there have been great advances in understanding innate immunity to autoimmune diseases.
“Previously this was unattractive as an area of research and thought not to be of major importance.
“It is now clear that the innate and adaptive immune arms operate in tandem and in fact 78 new proteins have been discovered in the last four years.



                                      Aussies greatest consumers of party drugs

GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA. Australia leads to the world in the consumption of party drugs such as MDMA (ecstasy) and methamphetamine (ice), according to a speaker at the 14th annual Women’s Health Conference.
Other party drugs such as GHB (fantasy) are increasingly popular, said Professor Iain McGregor, director of the pharmacology laboratory at the University of Sydney.
He said 20-29% of Australians have tried methamphetamine, and 22% have tried MDMA.
23% of regular users of methamphetamine have tried GHB.
Professor McGregor said recent neuropharmacological research has illuminated the acute actions of these drugs on the brain as well as some of the long-term adverse changes in brain and behaviour that can result from their use.
MDMA produces unique feelings of love and closeness towards others and this effect is likely due to the ability of the drug to release large amounts of brain serotonin as well as the “love hormone” oxytocin.
Heavy use of MDMA may cause lasting depletions of brain serotonin and this may make users more vulnerable to depression and cognitive problems, with women perhaps more susceptible to such effects.
“It’s like you use your whole bank account of serotonin in one hit,” he said.


                         Aussies allergic to preservative in popular moisturiser

GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA. A preservative in a popular brand of sorbolene moisturising cream in Australia is triggering a rash of allergic skin reactions, a study here has found.
This study analysed data collected over a minimum of five years on patients presenting to skin and allergy clinics in New South Wales and Victoria.
Until now there have been no Australian data on cosmetic preservative allergy.
From information on almost 7,000 patients, it was clear that the top six preservatives causing allergy are formaldehyde, quaternium 15, diazolidinylurea, kathon CG, DMDM hydantoin and chloroacetamide.
Chloroacetamide is an important allergen to consider in Australia, the combined International Contact Dermatitis Symposium and Australasian College of Dermatologists Biennial Spring Conference was told.
Dr Elizabeth Chow, from the Department of Dermatology at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney, said 2% of patients were allergic to chloroacetamide.


                                          Temporary tattoos not so harmless

GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA. Many parents allow their children to get temporary tattoos, considering them “safe”, whereas they are the opposite, according to a speaker at the combined International Contact Dermatitis Symposium and Australasian College of Dermatologists Biennial Spring Conference.
Professor An Goossens, from the Department of Dermatology at the Katholieke University Hospital in Leuven, Belgium, told the conference that “temporary” henna tattoos may result in sensitization.
To ensure the tattoo has a long effect and colours rapidly, the tattooist often adds a chemical used in hair dying.
In hair dying it is allowed only to a maximum of 6% but in these tattoos it is often present up to 25%, Professor Goossens said.
“So you wouldn’t get a better primary sensitiser than a temporary tattoo.
“Many children, even small ones, get the tattoo and have no response to the first one, only to the second one.


                             Skin treatment revolution unfolding, conference told

GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA. GPs can now tell their patients that atopic dermatitis is not just some common old itchy skin condition that is not well understood, according to a speaker at the combined International Contact Dermatitis Symposium and Australasian College of Dermatologists Biennial Spring Conference.
Rather, it is likely to be the key to treatment of a raft of allergic reactions through use of one of the first gene-modifying drugs.
Dr John McGrath, molecular dermatologist at St John's Institute of Dermatology in London told the conference that over the last year much has been discovered about inherited defects which occur in the skin barrier.
“Skin’s most important function is to act as a barrier against the external environment, and to do that you build up a rigid scaffold of proteins which keep the outside out and the inside in.
“We have noticed that one of those proteins – filaggrin – when that is mutated, gives rise to defects in the skin barrier.
“If your barrier is defective, then you start to get allergens and that can result in eczema, asthma, and act as a portal to developing generalised allergies.
 
 
   About Marilyn Bitomsky: Marilyn is a healthcare writer and healthcare public relations consultant based in Brisbane,   
   Australia. She can be reached via email anytime, at the following address: marilynbit@hotmail.com