Category Archives: BiomedNews

BiomedNews

“First Do No Harm” film highlights med insurance shortfalls

First Do No Harm
First Do No Harm (Photo credit: edenpictures)

It wasn’t on purpose that I ended up with the movie “First Do No Harm” playing on  my computer on January 1, 2014. But the timing was convenient in the sense that today is the day a whole bunch of the 45 million Americans who previously didn’t have medical insurance will start having coverage.

The movie is about a family being torn to pieces financially and emotionally while dealing with their little boy’s epilepsy. It touches on the devastating consequences possible when medical insurance is absent or inadequate to the task for a major illness – a question this new law hopes to make obsolete now for many more in the United States.

Plus the movie touches on the powerfully important question of how blindly we are required to trust in our doctors when the treatment appears to be worse than the illness. Read my previous review of the book, Your Medical Mind, about patients feeling empowered about making choices in treating serious health challenges.

I wish for 2014 that allowing millions more Americans to gain health insurance will save more lives and improve the quality of life for millions – and will not in any important way negatively affect those who already had it. And that we all will have doctors who are open to listening when we’re confused or find new information.

Happy new year.

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BiomedNews

Overweight confers longer life expectancy for certain conditions

Obesity Campaign Poster
Obesity Campaign Poster (Photo credit: Pressbound)

My bee antennae shot up when I saw this honey headline: “Obese heart failure patients do better than lean ones.” A decent-sized study (8000 patients) done over 3 years by Yale University School of Medicine, showed a protective effect for heart failure patients who were overweight or obese.

Being someone who tips the scale somewhat beyond the guidelines, as well as a person with heart failure, I’m happy to read this. Apparently, doctors are stumped about it and speculating all over the place as to what this might mean.

Here’s an in-depth article on how obese patients with certain CV conditions actually have better short- and long-term prognoses. http://content.onlinejacc.org/article.aspx?articleid=1139724 The CV conditions include hypertension, coronary heart disease, heart failure and peripheral artery disease. In addition, a significant number of non-cardiovascular conditions seem to exhibit the same “obesity paradox.” They include being elderly or having end-stage renal disease with dialysis, advanced cancers, COPD (chronic obstructive lung disease), rheumatoid arthritis, or HIV/AIDS.

In other words, data show that being overweight or even obese seems inescapably to be conferring a protective effect on people with many different conditions. The article speculates on why this might be. What I think from a quick read (and of course with no medical training) is that it’s simply pointing out all the many ways in which the verdict is still out regarding some of medicine’s long-held beliefs about diseases and conditions.

And just to throw another spanner in, check out the “new German medicine” approach that posits that severe emotional shocks can lead to diseases like cancer – and that such conditions can and do spontaneously heal themselves if we let them alone.

Let’s face it. For more than a few health issues, we just don’t have all the information yet.

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BiomedNews

New gene therapy for heart damage goes to clinical trial

English: Coronary circulation, with coronary a...
English: Coronary circulation, with coronary arteries labeled in red text and other landmarks in blue text. This vector graphics image was originally created with Adobe Illustrator, and modified with Inkscape. 32px|alt=W3C|link=http://validator.w3.org/? The source code of this SVG is valid. Category:Valid SVG (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Researchers at Saint Louis University have had such promising results from a small (40 patients) earlier study using gene therapy for repairing heart failure damage that they’re now instituting a clinical trial.  The trial will use a genetically targeted regulatory protein replacement therapy to see how well it can repair damage in 200 patients who’ve either had a prior heart attack or have cardiomyopathy or advanced heart failure.

The therapy involves infusing a gene – a type of regulatory protein called SERCA-2a – down the coronary arteries that may help heart cells utilize calcium better, which is similar to an engine getting better gas mileage. This outpatient procedure is performed in a cardiac catheterization lab and aims to increase the level of SERCA-2a, which is reduced in the individual heart muscle cells in patients with heart failure and can thereby change the way those cells function.

Worldwide 52 sites will participate in the trial, 33 in the U.S.  To participate in the trial, please contact the Cardiology Research Office at Saint Louis University at 314-577-8876. Read the original article here.

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BiomedNews

Nanoparticles to help detect stroke-heart attack risk

Blood clot diagram (Thrombus)
Blood clot diagram (Thrombus) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Blood clots can wreck quality of life and even kill by causing a stroke or a heart attack. But up ’til now doctors have been unable to predict when a clot might develop in a particular patient. Now nanotechnology is making possible a way to read signals in your urine that your body may be getting ready to produce one of these little clots with such destructive potential.

Just as seismologists are developing new ways to be able to predict when a volcano will erupt, researchers have developed a urine test that uses nanoparticles to detect thrombin, a major element of blood clotting. The test was made by converting a process that’s currently in use to detect colorectal cancer and has been successfully tested in mice that are high-risk for blood clots.

Good news is that the iron oxide particles used in the test have already been approved for use in humans, so the time to clinical trials shouldn’t be too prolonged. The test will be used to help people in emergency rooms who have symptoms that resemble those caused by a blood clot and also to monitor others at high-risk, such as those who fly a lot or who must spend a lot of time in bed after surgery.

I have a relative who suffered a stroke at a young age, so I know how terrifying it can be – and how it can degrade a person’s quality of life. The goal of the new test is to make it as easy as, “Pee on this stick and call me in the morning.” Imagine the sadness, fear and suffering that could potentially be averted.

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BiomedNews

Nanoparticles in contrast agent “see” blood vessels better

Interactions of nanoparticles with biological ...
Interactions of nanoparticles with biological molecules are facilitated by ligands on nanoparticle surfaces. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Wouldn’t it be nice if doctors didn’t have to use invasive tests such as heart catheterization to tell if any of your arteries are clogged? Heart caths are not fun – and they carry their own set of risks.

I’m happy to say they’re working on it. Just saw this report on an NIH-funded study using nanoparticles as part of a contrast agent to help doctors visualize the state of your blood vessels much more accurately. A Temple University bioengineer has developed a method for “linking polyphenols, which are very strong antioxidants, to polymers that can self-assemble into nanoparticles.”

The coolest part is that the polymers on the outside get destroyed when they come in contact with arterial plaques (the stuff that can block circulation and cause strokes or heart attacks). Then the contrast agent, including its antioxidants, is released when the polymers dissolve.

The study is two years long. If this works, it could save a lot of people a lot of suffering. Read more here.

P.S. Not biomed but still cool. Engineers have found a way to recycle those ubiquitous plastic grocery bags into practical nanomaterials.

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BiomedNews

Trials underway using stem cell and gene therapy to treat heart damage

Heart Failure causes more damage than you think
Heart Failure causes more damage than you think (Photo credit: Novartis AG)

Both Canada and the UK have recently begun large-scale human trials to test how well new approaches using stem cells and gene therapy will work for treating damage in human hearts.

The idea of the Canadian study is that a patient’s own stem cells are the most direct and effective way to repair damage and rebuild function in the heart. But because the stem cells from a damaged heart are not working up to normal capacity, scientists tested and found that adding extra copies of a gene that “stimulates blood vessel growth and improves tissue healing, known as endothelial nitric oxide synthase,” improves that function.

In other words, the gene stimulates the patient’s stem cells to reproduce more quickly and do their magic to help the heart heal itself. The Canadian trial is for post-heart-attack patients.The UK trial will be using a carrier virus to insert a gene into heart failure patients to help their hearts pump better.

Nothing but good news here – except that it will be two and three years before results are in. Stay tuned.

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BiomedNews

Nitric oxide beads promise to improve erectile dysfunction in diabetics

nitric oxide
nitric oxide (Photo credit: Fdamon)

Another amazing use of nitric oxide (NO). A recent study found that injecting tiny beads filled with NO into the blood vessels of the penis in diabetic animals with induced Type 2 diabetes resulted in expanding the blood vessels in that organ. The expansion allowed for a dramatic improvement in sexual functioning. The researchers saw a greater improvement using the NO-filled beads to treat impotence than with Viagra, and the effect lasted for about three weeks.

This study offers much hope to the one-third of men who suffer from impotence but don’t respond to currently available drugs. Scientists are planning clinical trials to see if this technique works effectively in human beings.

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BiomedNews

Book review: Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What Is Right for You

This book, Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What Is Right for You, is a careful, documented analysis of what goes on in our minds as we make decisions whether to take a drug or undergo a procedure that our doctor recommends. I see myself in here – a doubter is my profile. And I see a friend who enthusiastically takes anything and everything her doctor mentions – her profile would be that of a believer. The authors say which one we are depends on several things, including our family members’ experiences with doctors and medicines as well as the medical stories of people we know.

Illegal Drug Addiction and Substance Abuse
These are illegal, but they could just as easily be common prescription drugs. (Photo credit: epSos.de)

It also mentions the incredible power of advertising to affect our beliefs about medications. Gives a good breakdown of how ads are designed to get us to focus on the potential positive effects without really “hearing” the negative possibilities. In fact, it said a study was done a while ago that showed the more information people were given about risks versus benefits, in clear written form, the less likely they were to agree to take any drug.

And one of the first drug types he discusses is statins – currently the world’s most-prescribed drug. He describes the case of a woman whose level was 240, but whose father had had the same level, never took a drug, and lived an active life to a ripe old age. Then he makes a fascinating argument that although when doctors think of statistics in terms of millions of people with high cholesterol, statins may seem like “an imperative,” but “when framed as a personal health issue, the benefits of taking statins may seem less compelling.”

The bottom line, they say, is that it’s you who benefit from a drug or suffer the consequences of its side effects, so if you are uncomfortable with a drug, you have every right to question. The doctor can challenge you, but you should feel free to do your own investigating and state your position and expect it to be respected. Every individual will experience illness or disease in a way that’s unique to him or her.

It’s always nice to have doctors officially come out in favor of what you already believe.

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BiomedNews

Nitric oxide is key to deciphering blood flow

Our circulatory system creates NO to regulate itself. High cholesterol can impede that process.

Biomedical engineers at Drexel’s School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems are busy constructing a mathematical model to explain how blood vessels regulate the flow of blood. Specifically they’re looking at the ways nitric oxide (NO) is produced by cells in our circulatory system, where it dilates blood vessels and thus controls blood pressure and flow. NO also helps the immune system respond to injuries and infections.

The National Institutes of Health’s Heart, Lung and Blood group is funding this research to the tune of $3.3 million, since “defects in nitric oxide in blood and tissues can lead to many diseases,” including the biggie: heart disease. The team has  already discovered new ways in which NO is produced. Now they’ll be using a flow chamber to identify location and time data that will make their model even more useful to scientists.

The coolest thing about this is that the model will be open-source – meaning anyone anywhere in the world who has the skills and wants to try to improve it can do so.

Another step forward in identifying nature’s secrets of healing.

 

BiomedNews

Lower your blood pressure with beet juice – or kale, or spinach, or…

Beet juice
Beet juice (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We know that green vegetables – and really any vegetable with deep coloring such as carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, etc. – are especially good for us. But usually we know this only in the vaguest way. So it’s nice to get simple, specific proofs of why this is so. For example this recent study, conducted with only a small sampling of people, gives definitive evidence that drinking a glass of beet juice will lower your blood pressure.

Beets and all green, leafy vegetables are full of nitrates, which our bodies eventually turn into nitric oxide – the stuff that relaxes our blood vessels and helps our blood flow better, thus lowering blood pressure. Apparently beet juice is available on most grocery shelves in the U.K. where the study was done, but here in the U.S. we might need to hit the health food store to find it.

The study found that in men with hypertension, the beet juice lowered their blood pressure significantly (up to 5 points) within about 3 hours of drinking. Other studies have found even greater reductions (up to 10 points). The sample of people in this study was too small to be definitive for women (they didn’t control for age and medications). But it’s reasonable to think it works the same way for females. And works the same with other green, leafy vegetables.

The most fascinating part, reported on another source, says that if your blood pressure is already okay, the same dose of beet juice will lower it just a little bit. Isn’t that interesting? As if the beet root has an internal intelligence that knows what the right level is and gauges how much help your blood pressure needs. What a magical idea, that plants might have such sensitivities.

Of course, the URL of this second source (www.willitsnews.com/marijuananews/…) could indicate the authors might be more inclined to look for the magical side of the story.

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