Maeflowers - Above the fold

Meningitis vaccine guidelines

2012-02-06T21:29:00.001-05:00

Two types of meningococcal vaccines are currently used to prevent the infection that causes meningitis: meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine (MPSV4) and meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MCV4). Particular high-risk groups should be immunized according to CDC guidelines.

Read an overview of meningococcal vaccination and booster guidelines

The dangers of visiting the hospital

2012-02-02T16:16:00.000-05:00

Nosocomial infections are those that one gets while in the hospital for something else. These are bacteria and viruses that pass from patient to patient, or from equipment and staff to patient. Resistant strains seem to emerge in these environments - think MRSA and C. dif....

Discovery Health has an interesting piece on 5 infectious diseases you can get in the ER that I thought you'd be interested in.

Dietary antioxidants can reduce stroke risk

2012-01-19T21:18:00.001-05:00

Research has shown again and again that antioxidants are beneficial to the human body. But it's really about the buzz word "antioxidants". It seems like some new food or concept, but antioxidants are just vitamins and minerals - something your parents kept telling you to eat as a kid!

Nuts, grains, fish and poultry, green leafy veggies, fruits...these will all give you the vitamins A, C, and E, selenium, lycopene, and/or lutein that keeps your cells healthy, preventing a number of age-related diseases like heart disease and stroke. And research has found that supplements don't provide the same benefit, so go for dietary changes rather than supplementation.

Read more about the relationship between antioxidants and stroke risk.

Antibiotics and asthma in children

2012-01-16T07:49:00.003-05:00

Asthma is a chronic respiratory condition that compromises a person’s ability to breathe due to inflammation of the airways. Children are particularly susceptible to the complications of restricted and inflamed airways, experiencing wheezing, coughing and chest tightness, as well as difficulty breathing. A number of triggers have been associated with the disorder, including allergens, stress and infections, but research over the last decade has found that antibiotic use in young children may also be a risk factor for early development of the disorder.

Read more about early antibiotic use and asthma risk.

Did you know....

2012-01-14T01:49:00.000-05:00

Contact dermatitis by James Heilman, MD

Did you know that allergies are the most common chronic condition in children? And 400 Americans die from penicillin allergy every year.

Don't ignore symptoms of chest tightness, trouble breathing, and rashes. A number of allergies exist, but they can all cause chronic health problems if not addressed.

The most common bacteria

2012-01-11T08:10:00.001-05:00

Going from rarest diseases to most common - what is the most common pathogenic bacteria? Is it Staph, Strep, E. coli?

Want to know?

The rarest diseases

2012-01-10T20:10:00.000-05:00

When faced with answering the question "what is the rarest disease?", one must contemplate a number of factors. Where? What kind of disease? In which century?

Smallpox once ravaged the land but now infects noone except unlucky lab techs, so it's the rarest. Genetic diseases tend to be much more rare than infectious diseases, though since prions were discovered this view has changed. Then there's the disease that's so rare it's only known to affect two people in the entire world - a set of twins for whom the disease is named after.

Read more about the rarest diseases in the world.

The pathology of Alzheimer's

2012-01-06T15:55:00.000-05:00

Alzheimer's disease is one of those potentially inevitable, maybe preventable, what the heck is really causing it diseases that came on to the medical scene in the 20th century. Essentially, as a person ages the brain atrophies slightly, and in some people they experience age-related memory problems and other cognitive effects of making it through a longer life than previous generations of humans. In other people, pathological changes to the brain induce a more pronounced memory issue that then manifests as dementia - this is Alzheimer's disease.

The disorder is diagnosed based on symptoms because the changes to the brain can't be confirmed until autopsy, showing the protein plaques in the brain tissue and spongy consistency that causes the cognitive changes. Aberrant protein beta-amyloid has long been blamed as the source of the plaques, causing Alzheimer's to be related to prion diseases and spongiform encephalopathies like mad cow, but inappropriate aggregations of naturally occurring tau protein might also be to blame, making the disease more complex and multifactorial.

Read about tau and how it relates to nerve degeneration.

From the National Institute on Aging

Colds are just common symptomology

2012-01-05T16:41:00.001-05:00

The common cold - the bane of the winter season. Who had it over the holidays and shared it when they returned to work... who is plagued with it weeks after it first started itching their nose... why won't they just find a cure?

Well the common cold is so common because it's actually a set of symptoms derived from infection of the upper respiratory tract. It can be any one of hundreds of viruses that cause the infection. And because it's a virus, there's no treatment for it. You can only treat the symptoms - and since they're the same, you end up with common treatments for the common cold.

Read more about the science behind the common cold, including why it likes winter so much.

Necessary medical exams

2011-12-27T20:56:00.000-05:00

Preventing disease is just as important, if not more so, as treating disease. This is because, once aberrant physiology takes a hold, it causes more problems, sometimes irreversible ones. Cancer screening, physicals, and blood pressure measurements all play a role in preventing disease by catching problems early - at a stage when they are most easily dealt with.

Read about the 6 medical exams that are a must.

Contraception prevents deaths

2011-12-17T16:52:00.000-05:00

The topic is controversial to some people, but the truth of the matter is that contraception is a way of life for humankind - it always has been. Dating back to ancient Egypt, pre-christianity they attempted using crocodile dung and a host of unpleasant remedies to unplanned parenthood. As a preventative measure, we're better at it now than in any time in history. Well, if a population has access to it. From barrier methods to hormones, and even chastity - we've attempted to perfect the imperfect art of preventing the body's natural mechanism to procreate.

It turns out this is a good thing. Maternal mortality and morbidity is still a major problem in the world. Even in the United States! Giving birth is a dangerous endeavor for a woman. It puts a lot of strain on her body, her mind, and her health. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation talks about "20 maternal health facts" from a 20/20 special and some of the facts supports the health care need for access to contraception:

Maternal deaths can be decreased 32% with family planning, with contraception access saving 150,000 lives per year. So-called* family planning can also reduce infant mortality by 10%.

These statistics are startling in a world where we are still arguing over whether we should teach our children about natural biological instincts, and in turn increasing the teen pregnancy rate (by the way, pregnancy is 5-times as dangerous for young teens).

*What I mean by "so-called" is that it isn't the type of planning people attribute to, say, planning a birthday party. It means a process by which a couple, or individual, makes a conscious decision about whether they will have a child, either before pregnancy or during. Sometimes it's simply a matter of deciding to open the condom wrapper.

Catching heart disease early

2011-12-16T08:53:00.006-05:00

Medical illustration by Patrick J Lynch

Heart disease consists of a number of conditions that affect the heart, including coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, and hypertension. The early stages of these heart diseases are different, but they have similar effects on the body if left untreated – heart failure.

Read more about the early stages of heart disease.

Retractions

2011-12-15T13:52:00.000-05:00

One tough aspect of keeping up with scientific literature is retractions - as papers become more readily accessible, retractions mean more to citation and the growing body of reported evidence. I found a blog that reports on and keeps up with retractions in the scientific literature and wanted to share: Retraction Watch

HPV testing guidelines

2011-12-08T13:04:00.000-05:00

Abnormal Pap smear, from Hospital of Monfalcone, Italy

Many women are not aware of the HPV test. For a portion of the last decade, co-testing with Pap smears was recommended by many women health organizations, but doctors and patients were not really using it. Now it seems that was the right call as research is showing that cervical cancer cases are not being more readily identified with co-testing.

Guidelines were recently updated for both HPV testing and Pap smears, including reinforcing evidence for delaying the time between Paps to 3 years in women who were previously negative for neoplastic changes. Read about those updates.

New bacteria, new disease

2011-12-06T15:02:00.000-05:00

Ticks can carry disease

Scientists are continuously discovering new species - we hear about it in the news all the time. And it isn't just the world's smallest snake or the oldest rain forest creature. Bacteria are also being discovered. One strain identified in Japan in 2004 is turning out to be one bad customer. It turns out that Neoehrlichia mikurensis can be carried by ticks and infect humans.

The University of Gothenburg confirmed a case and discovered that the bacteria causes a tick-borne illness that causes deep vein thrombosis and includes fever, diarrhea and loss of consciousness. It appears to affect immune-compromised individuals.

New bacteria, new diseases...

This is the first time the strain has been found in Sweden.

The short and sweet - why does cortisone work?

2011-12-02T12:54:00.000-05:00

Cortisone is an anti-inflammatory hormone. It's injected into areas that are inflamed - swollen joints, painful plantar fasciitis - or used systemically (e.g., allergy). It may also be used cutaneously as a cream (hydrocortisone) in the case of rashes. Sometimes it's a broader name given to corticosteroid injections, which are various types of steroid hormones.

These hormones are naturally produced by the body. We take advantage of their properties and inject them locally to increase their effects in that area (and some injections contain pain relievers that help) and systemically to give the system a boost. The hormone is metabolized to cortisol once it is in the body - the infamous stress hormone.

Essentially, the drug utilizes the natural system of the body to alleviate pain caused by inflammation by getting rid of the inflammation.

World AIDS Day

2011-12-01T07:30:00.000-05:00

December 1 - it's World AIDS Day and this year it's been 30 years...30 years of fear, death, and a struggle to fight against a virus that uses our own bodies against us.

Looking for information on HIV/AIDS?

Want to read the latest UNAIDS report on the status of the epidemic (released November 2011)

Or maybe you just want to talk to someone...here are some Twitter accounts to follow:

@CDC_HIVAIDS - by the CDC
@talkHIV - by the CDC
@HIVReport - news aggregate
@AIDSinfo - by the NIH
@AIDSgov - U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services
@pozmagazine - lifestyle magazine about being HIV-positive
@UNAIDS - the United Nations joint program on AIDS
@hivlawproject - The HIV Law Project
@IndianaSHINE - Indiana University School of Medicine project for prevention, treatment, and management
@napwaus - National Association of People with AIDS
@MNAIDSProject - the Minnesota AIDS Project
@ProjectInform - HIV/AIDS support line
@AIDSConnect - Chicago area community group
@iasociety - International AIDS Society in Geneva
@HIVthisweek - blog from the director of UNAIDS
@ActionAIDS - so you don't have to face AIDS alone
@AIDSHealthcare - AIDS Healthcare Foundation, San Francisco
@AIDSmeds - info on meds
@cressycat - Cressy the AIDS cat
@joinRED - fighting AIDS in Africa (and holding an event with President Obama)
@HIVAlliance - the HIV Alliance of Oregon

These are just a sampling - a number of other state, local, and country-based organizations are out there. They're all "facing AIDS" for World AIDS Day.

Find negative results

2011-11-30T08:08:00.000-05:00

A new search tool has been developed that combs PubMed for negative search results - BioNot.

Want to try it? Here's the website

Want more info about who and what? Read TheScientist's synopsis.

Nicotine as a gateway drug

2011-11-29T08:16:00.000-05:00

Research published earlier this month in the journal Science Translational Medicine reported the effects of nicotine on mice in regards to cocaine use.

The researchers took two sets of mice - one was exposed to nicotine and the other wasn't. Both were then exposed to cocaine. They found that the nicotine-exposed mice were more likely to seek out cocaine again, by a great deal (78%!).

They found that exposure to nicotine caused epigenetic changes (specifically histone acetylation) in genes related to the reward system in the brain, allowing changes in the expression of certain genes during exposure to cocaine, inducing a more addictive experience.

Research has already shown that brain function alters with addiction. But this is one of the first pieces of evidence of genetic mechanisms underlying the "gateway" theory of drug use. Those cigarettes are affecting your brain...via your genes!

New Antibiotics

2011-11-28T14:42:00.000-05:00

Today ScienceDaily reported on a study published in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry by researchers at Brown University that identifies the potential for a new compound in treating bacterial infections, specifically those that are drug-resistant.

Antibiotic resistance is becoming increasingly worrisome as strains like MRSA become household words and bacteria evolve new genetic mechanisms against treatment.

One antibiotic, which means a compound that acts against bacteria (and only bacteria - antibiotics cannot fight viral infections like a cold or the flu), is chloramphenicol. The new compound, BU-005, prevents bacteria from pumping this antibiotic out of their cellular structure, leaving the bacterial cell susceptible to the agent.

The research team used the same synthesis method for other types of compounds that may make headlines in the near future.

Baby it's cold outside

2011-11-23T06:45:00.000-05:00

As we head into Thanksgiving and the winter season here in the Northeast United States, snow and cold temperatures are becoming standard fare. But letting the kids play outside or trying to clear the driveway to get to work means being prepared to prevent cold-related health problems.

Be sure to know how to prevent against hypothermia and frostbite:

Frostbite by Eli Duke, Wikimedia

Wear warm clothing that covers your skin, especially as the wind chill values drop. Dressing in layers is helpful so you can adjust between different temperature settings without exposing your skin to the cold.
If you become covered in snow or your clothing gets wet, get inside where it's warm and remove the wet clothing.
Limit your time outdoors - yes, Frosty won't build himself, but he can be built in shifts so the kids' fingers and toes have time to warm up.
Be aware of the signs and symptoms so you can stop it before it starts!

Be safe out there!

Did you know...

2011-11-19T09:03:00.000-05:00

The smallest part of the human body is the pineal gland. Tucked inside the brain, this small tissue secretes melatonin, a chemical that affects drowsiness and sleep.

See pictures and read about how melatonin works.

The link between sleep and obesity

2011-11-15T16:23:00.000-05:00

A vicious cycle is one that perpetuates itself. One such physiological cycle is that of sleep and obesity. It's been known for quite some time that being overweight can lead to sleep disorders - snoring, sleep apnea, insomnia to name a few. But recent research has found that a lack of sleep can cause metabolic changes that lead to weight gain. These changes include the production of hormones involved in hunger and how the body handles nutrients.

Read about the recent studies on sleep and obesity, and then learn more about the sleep-obesity cycle and how to break it.

Did you know...

2011-11-12T08:26:00.000-05:00

That pneumonia is the number one killer of children worldwide?

According to the World Health Organization, 1.4 million children under the age of 5 years succumb to the infection each year, accounting for 18% of child deaths.

The second most common cause of pneumonia in children, Haemophilus influenzae type b, can be prevented by the Hib vaccine.

The impact of evolution on your health

2011-11-11T16:21:00.000-05:00

Though some controversy exists in the public sphere about evolution, it's a well proven concept in biology. In fact, it affects your health every day. Though Darwin is considered the main scientist to develop the theory of evolution, he was actually wrong about some aspects of the biological mechanism and only one of many who have contributed to our understanding of changes in populations and species. But read about what Darwin had right.

The flu virus and antibiotic resistant bacteria are two good examples of how evolution affects your health. Without the ability to evolve, influenza would not jump species (remember bird flu and swine flu? they can infect humans because they evolve the ability to bind the proteins on human respiratory epithelia) and bacteria would not become resistant to the drugs we use to fight them.

At its most basic level, evolution is the acquisition of changes in the genetic material, which are then inherited by offspring. Bacteria have actually evolved a number of ways to evolve, via multiple types of reproductive methods.

How the immune system responds is also dictated by genetics - all proteins and enzymes in the body are encoded by your genes. What proteins your cells express (and thus what pathogens bind to and how the immune system cells interact) are the product of your genetics. There are even populations who are at low risk of HIV infection because they lack a protein on their immune cells!

So every day your health is affected by the genetics you were born with, as well as the genetics of the pathogens attacking your body - all products of biological changes from generation to generation, i.e. evolution.