Doctor HealthHealth Tips

The hardest-to-treat form of tuberculosis kills half the people who get it, according to a South Korean study that is one of the few to track survival rates from the condition called extensively drug-resistant TB.

Tuberculosis is an infectious bacterial disease typically attacking the lungs. Increasing numbers of cases of TB that defy standard medical treatment are appearing worldwide.

The study tracked 1,407 patients with two categories of TB: multidrug resistant TB, or MDR-TB, which resists at least one of the two main TB drugs, and extensively drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, which defies nearly all drugs used to treat TB.

Forty-nine percent of those with XDR-TB died compared to 19 percent of patients with ordinary MDR-TB, researchers led by Dr. Tae Sun Shim of Asan Medical Center in Seoul wrote on Thursday in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

The patients were diagnosed between 2000 and 2002 and were followed for up to seven years, the researchers said. About 5 percent of the patients had XDR-TB.

D’Arcy Richardson of the Seattle-based nonprofit group PATH, which supports public health efforts in about 70 nations, called the findings important. But she noted XDR-TB patients today likely would get more aggressive drug treatment than was given to the patients tracked in this study.

“We have so little information on XDR-TB to begin with,” Richardson, who wrote a commentary with two other TB experts accompanying the study, said in a telephone interview.

Cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis are being recorded around the world at the highest rates ever, with parts of the former Soviet Union especially vulnerable, the U.N. World Health Organization said this year.

Such cases account for about 5 percent of the 9 million new TB cases annually, the WHO said. It said that 489,139 MDR-TB cases emerged in 2006, and about 40,000 were XDR-TB.

There has been scant scientific data on long-term survival rates from XDR-TB.

“We know that it’s a very big problem in Eastern Europe. We know it’s a very big problem in Asia, particularly in India and China, where they don’t necessarily have large percentages of MDR and XDR but because of the size of the population with TB we have significant numbers,” Richardson said.

TB killed 1.7 million people worldwide in 2006, the WHO said. It can be spread by breathing in air droplets from a cough or sneeze of an infected person.
by Julie Steenhuysen

Obesity is a worldwide problem and is getting worse. Losing weight is difficult for most people. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine reports fewer than 25 percent of Americans who try diets actually lose weight and a majority who do lose weight have difficulty maintaining the loss. Billions of dollars are spent on weight loss programs. VOA’s Melinda Smith has more on recent findings that may put to rest the argument about which diet works the best.

weigh in

The World Health Organization estimates there are more than one billion adults who are overweight, and 400 million others considered obese.

Another 20 million children under the age of five are overweight. So why can’t we lose weight?

Fad diets often run their course and disappear from popularity as people lose, then regain. But three diets seem to be the most generally accepted: The low fat diet promotes whole grains, fruit and vegetables.

A diet low in carbohydrates is based primarily on protein such as eggs, red meat, chicken and fish and some vegetables.

And lastly — [is] a diet based on the Mediterranean style of cooking. That includes smaller portions of meat and fish, and larger portions of fruit, vegetables, grains, along with nuts, seeds as well as olive oil.

In the studies published recently, several hundred overweight and obese patients were asked to follow one of these three diets. After a period of two years, patients on the low carb diet lost the most.
“It’s not surprising that the low carbohydrate diet led to greater weight loss, because when you’re eating protein and fat it makes you feel full so you don’t want to eat as much,”
Dr. Eric Westman said. He is one of the researchers with the Duke University Medical School.
Being overweight or obese often leads to serious health problems.

Fat laden foods lead to high cholesterol and insulin levels, which often lead to heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Researchers found the diet low in carbohydrates helped to lower those levels.

“A low carb diet — one that foregoes rice and pasta and bread and potatoes — works by lowering insulin levels in the body,” Dr. Westman said. “And then with this lower insulin level, the body makes less of harmful cholesterol.”

In previous clinical trials, it has been difficult to measure the effectiveness of weight loss diets over the long term. These recent studies in Israel and the United States have been the longest controlled trials to date.
By Melinda Smith , VOANEWS
Washington

Breast cancer statistics show that over 1. 2 million persons will be diagnosed with breast cancer worldwide this year, according to the World Health Organization. For breast cancer and prevention, it has long been known that regular physical activity has been shown to decrease the likelihood of having breast cancer. What has not been known or studied has been the effect of regular physical activity on the breast cancer survival rates or likelihood of death in women that already have breast cancer. That is, until now.

The breast cancer statistics and findings as reported by the American Medical Associations Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in May 2005 were astounding! Certain participants in the study of women with Stage I, II or III breast cancer achieved a 50% reduction in the death rate from breast cancer.

Here are these breast cancer statistics: the journal reported that in the study 2, 987 female registered nurses had been diagnosed with breast cancer during the years 1984-1998. What the study found was that the women who had physical activity equivalent to walking at a steady pace of 2. 0-2. 9 miles per hour for 3-5 hours a week had a death rate of only 50% of the death rate of women who had physical activity equivalent to walking less than one hour a week. The conclusion of the breast cancer statistics in the study was that physical activity after breast cancer has been diagnosed may reduce the risk of death from breast cancer. The study found that there was little evidence of any relation between increased physical activity and increased benefit.

It’s time to dust off those walking shoes!

As a physical activity, walking can be done almost anytime by anyone anywhere. All that is needed is a good pair of walking shoes. Walking is fun and reduces stress. As for injuries, walking has the lowest injury rate of all the various kinds of exercise.

You can walk with a partner, friend, family member or dog, maybe even a neighbors dog. Or you can walk with your favorite headset and music. If you are walking outdoors with a headset, keep one ear open to hear the sounds around you.

As for basic walking tips:

· As you begin regular walking, take it easy. Standard advice is to check with your physician before starting any exercise program. If it has been years or decades since you walked regularly, perhaps you can begin with 5 minutes of walking and slowly increase your time and distance.

· Walking at a pace of 75-95 steps a minute will have you walking at a speed of about 2-3 miles per hour.

· Walk with your head up, looking out in front of you. Do not walk looking down right in front of you except to navigate any obstacles.

· Really take it easy the first 5 minutes of walking to warm up. Afterwards, gently stretch for 5-10 minutes while your muscles are warm.

· Practice good walking form. Your arms should swing naturally in the direction you are walking, not from side to side across your body. Your foot should strike the ground on your heel, then a rolling motion forward toward the ball of your foot, then pushing off with your toes.

And here are some basic walking shoes tips:

· Buy your walking shoes from a sporting shoes store with large selections. Doing so will give you plenty of choices. And buy your walking shoes later in the day when your feet will be larger.

· Buy cushioned, supportive walking shoes. To see if a shoe is supportive, do this test: take a shoe and turn it upside down. Holding each end of the shoe, try to fold it. If you find the shoe bends in the middle, then that shoe is not a supportive shoe. A supportive shoe should bend where your foot normally bends, near your toes.

· You should allow the width of your index finger between the end of your shoe and the end of your longest toe, or about one-half inch.

· Buy two pairs of walking shoes, one for home and one for the car or workplace. And if one pair gets wet, you can use the other pair that day.

Walking is the closest thing to the perfect exercise. In today’s fast-paced society, regular walking can be a welcomed break from the stress of the day. Maybe you will get to know your neighborhood or neighbors better. There may be walking trails you have never seen but wanted to.

Wherever and however you choose to walk, not only can the experience be fun, you will know you are being good to your body in a variety of ways. Besides the incredible breast cancer statistics and findings of the breast cancer study, walking helps with weight control and bone strength, elevates mood, helps build and maintain healthy muscles, joints and heart. With so many great health benefits, why not get started walking today!

By Olinda Rola

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Overweight and obese women have a lower risk of breast cancer prior to menopause, researchers said on Monday in a finding they said both puzzles them and contradicts conventional wisdom.

The researchers admitted they do not know why the extra pounds (kg) may protect premenopausal women from breast cancer, but noted obesity actually greatly boosts breast cancer risk after menopause, when the disease more often is diagnosed.

“It is so puzzling. And it is not a good public health message,” said Karin Michels, associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School and lead researcher in the study.

“I don’t want women to use this as an excuse to be overweight. Therefore, it’s even more important for us to find out what the mechanisms are. I mean, the last thing we want is, in this day and age, to advise people to gain weight,” Michels said in a telephone interview.

The findings, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, were based on medical data from 113,130 premenopausal registered nurses tracked from 1989 to 2003. During that time, 1,398 cases of invasive breast cancer were diagnosed.

Women with a body mass index (a weight-for-height scale) of 30 or above — considered obese by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — had a 19 percent lower risk of premenopausal breast cancer than women in a normal weight range (body mass index between 20 and 22.4), the study found.

The lower risk was especially evident in young adults. Those with a body mass index at age 18 of 27.5 or higher, which makes them overweight or obese, had a 43 percent lower risk of breast cancer before menopause than women of normal weight at the same age.

Being overweight is linked to a broad range of health risks. The World Health Organization describes obesity as a growing problem in high-income nations as well as increasing numbers of low- and middle-income nations.

OVULATION FACTORS

Michels said some experts had suspected the reduced premenopausal breast cancer risk was the result of these women not ovulating as much due to their larger body size.

Some overweight women have irregular or long menstrual cycles, or develop a condition called polycystic ovary syndrome in which ovaries malfunction. These are linked to disruptions in ovulation that lower levels of certain hormones.

The suspicion had been that these lower hormone levels might explain the diminished breast cancer risk. But the researchers weighed these factors and concluded that they did not appear to be the cause.

“Now we’re back to square one in trying to explain with which kind of mechanisms a larger body size might protect women from breast cancer,” Michels said, adding she plans further research.

She speculated the findings might be explained by the fact that obese women are less likely to be screened for breast cancer, and that is harder to detect tumors in these women.

“If we just detect the cancer later and therefore delay the time of diagnosis of the cancer into their post-menopausal years, then that might be an explanation,” Michels said.

Michels said the link between weight and breast cancer risk varies by age. High weight at birth and then after menopause is linked to a heightened risk, while high weight in young adulthood is associated with a reduced risk, she said.

Source: Yahoo News

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In honor of Female parent’s Clarence Day, the Cincinnati Reds hosted a special celebration at Great American Ball Park prior to its biz against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The on-field ceremony included Reds reliever and Beget’s Clarence Shepard Day Jr. club representative Danny Graves, Grammy Award-winning recording artist Trisha Yearwood, WHO performed the National Anthem, and representatives from the Komen Institution. Also on Get’s Twenty-four hours, players and umpires wore garden pink wristbands while the ping typewriter ribbon for front awareness was displayed on the uniforms of totally on-field personnel. The knock decoration logo appeared on the bases and a commemorating dwelling plate.

NEW YORK — Pfizer Inc. said Friday that the European Commission has approved anti-smoking pill Champix.Champix will be available with a patient support plan which smokers can customize to address their individual behavioral triggers as they try to quit smoking.Champix is believed to work by reducing the severity of the smoker’s urge to smoke and alleviating many withdrawal symptoms from nicotine. In addition, if a person smokes a cigarette while receiving treatment, the medicine has the potential to diminish the satisfaction associated with smoking.In Europe alone, more than 1.2 million people die each year from smoking-related diseases. By 2010, the World Health Organization predicts the annual global cost of tobacco-related illness will be about $500 billion, with Europe accounting for up to $165 billion of this sum.The medication, varenicline, received Food and Drug Administration approval as an aid to quitting smoking in May, under the tradename Chantix.