NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A synthetic version of the “hunger hormone” ghrelin might help limit the loss of appetite that can come with cancer chemotherapy, a small study from Japan suggests.

Ghrelin is a hormone secreted by the gut to boost appetite. Because of that, scientists have been studying it as a target in the obesity war, which has included work on an anti-obesity “vaccine” that inhibits ghrelin. But the research has met with little success so far.

Since the hormone spurs hunger, in theory, infusions of synthetic ghrelin could help prevent the sometimes severe appetite loss caused by cancer drugs.

In particular, a commonly used cancer drug called cisplatin often causes nausea, vomiting and appetite loss — and cuts the body’s natural ghrelin levels.

For the new study, Japanese researchers tested the effects of ghrelin infusions in 41 patients undergoing cisplatin treatment for advanced cancer of the esophagus.

Half of the patients were randomly assigned to have ghrelin infusions twice a day, before their meals, over one week of chemotherapy. The rest were given infusions of saline.

In the end, the ghrelin patients maintained better appetites and were able to take in almost 50 percent more calories per day than patients given saline.

Overall, more than half of the saline group had nausea, versus one in five ghrelin patients. And while half of the saline group had anorexia — significant appetite loss — during chemo, only one in six ghrelin patients did.

Dr. Yuichiro Hiura and colleagues at Osaka University report their findings in the journal Cancer. The study was funded by a grant from the Japanese government.

It appears to be the first to show that ghrelin may help cancer patients being treated with cisplatin, so further studies are needed, the researchers say.

There is already a medication — one that decreases the activity of the hormone serotonin — that eases nausea and vomiting in the first 24 hours of cisplatin treatment, Hiura’s team notes.

But, they add, lingering nausea and appetite loss in the following days are still a challenge to control. So ghrelin could offer a way to help with those longer-term effects.

Intensive chemotherapy with multiple drugs, including cisplatin, is commonly used for advanced-stage cancer, Hiura’s team writes. But side effects may keep many patients from completing their treatment.

Ultimately, the researchers say, the goal is to make chemotherapy easier for patients to get through — and, it’s hoped, improve the treatment’s effectiveness.

SOURCE: bit.ly/wB771x Cancer, online January 26, 2012.

Related posts:

1. Long-term effects of testicular cancer chemo seen
2. Exercise eases fatigue in cancer patients on chemo
3. Brain scan study finds evidence of "chemo brain"

Fri Feb 10, 2012 3:01pm EST

Lindsey Konkel

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Recreational runners who undergo hip resurfacing, an alternative to a total hip replacement, may be able to return to the sport after surgery, according to a recent study from France.

Researchers found that more than 90 percent of hip resurfacing patients who ran before surgery resumed running afterwards.

“I’m convinced that quality of life is strongly correlated with sports possibility for younger patients,” said lead author Dr. Julien Girard, an orthopedic surgeon at Lille University Hospital in France in an email to Reuters Health.

Intended primarily for active adults younger than 60, hip resurfacing is an option for patients with severe arthritis who want to return to being active after the surgery.

Hip resurfacing represents a fraction of all hip replacement procedures in the United States — roughly five to 15 percent. More than 285,000 hip replacements are performed in the U.S. each year.

During hip resurfacing, a surgeon removes only the damaged parts of the head of the femur bone and covers it with a metal cap, while replacing the hip socket with a metal cup.

In conventional hip replacement, the entire head of the femur is removed and replaced with a metal implant; a plastic cup is replaces the hip socket.

Over time, the traditional implant can wear and loosen, especially in patients who participate in activities, such as running, that put repetitive stress on the joint.

“Numerous studies have shown that total hip replacements fail in younger more active people who want to continue doing what their peers are doing,” said Dr. Harlan Amstutz, founding director of the Joint Replacement Institute at Saint Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Amstutz was not involved in the current study, though he previously helped develop one of the implant systems used in the research.

For the new study, researchers followed 36 male and 4 female patients, average age 51, who were runners before hip surgery. A total of 43 hip resurfacings were performed on the 40 patients.

At the end of about three years, 33 of 40 patients (36 of 43 hips) were still running.

The runners spent a similar amount of time — about three hours per week –running after the surgery as they had before. Their weekly mileage decreased significantly, however, from about 24 miles a week to 16 miles a week among the patients over age 50.

According to Girard, some older patients preferred to switch to lower impact sports, such as swimming or biking after the surgery.

While the results suggest that a return to running is possible after hip resurfacing, the study did not look at the long-term effects of wear on the implant.

Other studies have found that patients can maintain a high level of activity for 10 to 20 years after surgery.

Running doesn’t appear to harm the longevity of the implant, but a follow-up of more than 20 years is necessary to draw firm conclusions, Girard said.

Less intense runners also may not see the same results, said Dr. Michael Anderson, a joint replacement specialist at Aurora Sinai Medical Center in Milwaukee who has seen a smaller percentage of joggers return to the sport after surgery.

Still, hip resurfacing represents an attractive choice for active individuals.

A hip resurfacing implant is easier to revise or repair than a total hip replacement, researchers said.

It also feels more natural than a traditional total hip replacement, according to Anderson, in part because less bone is removed from the head of the femur in hip resurfacing.

“The body has a more normal awareness of that hip, which makes the joint feel more secure in sports with a lot of running, cutting and twisting,” Anderson told Reuters Health.

SOURCE: bit.ly/x59xto American Journal of Sports Medicine, online February 1, 2012

Related posts:

1. J&J wins U.S. approval for hip replacement system
2. Return to smoking after heart attack ups death risk
3. Scientists kick off debate over barefoot running

By Kerry Grens

NEW YORK |
Fri Feb 10, 2012 1:51pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Most studies looking at whether erectile dysfunction drugs can help men overcome premature ejaculation problems agree that the pills make a difference, but much of the research is flawed, according to a new review of the evidence.

Of the 14 studies included in the review, 11 found that the medications helped extend the length of time men could have intercourse before orgasm, but Dr. Anastasios Asimakopoulos, lead author of the report, urged caution in interpreting the findings.

“There is still inadequate evidence to propose the use of (these types of drugs) in treating (premature ejaculation),” he wrote in an email to Reuters Health.

The drugs, which go by the brand names Viagra, Levitra and Cialis, are intended to treat men who have problems getting and keeping an erection.

There’s been an interest in also using them to address the problem of premature ejaculation, because one of the side effects of the drugs is a delay in ejaculation, the authors write in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Asimakopoulos, from the University of Tor Vergata in Rome, Italy, said that anywhere from four to 39 percent of men suffer from premature ejaculation.

His group collected data from 14 studies that measured the effect of medications on extending the time during intercourse before orgasm, technically referred to as the “intravaginal ejaculatory latency time.”

Nine of the studies used an erectile dysfunction drug by itself, while four combined the drug with an antidepressant medication, and one combined the drug with behavioral therapy.

Most of the studies asked men to use a stopwatch before and after treatment, to measure if they were able to extend the time having sex.

Some also asked the men to rate changes in their anxiety and sexual satisfaction.

Asimakopoulos and his colleagues ran into problems trying to compare the studies. For one, they didn’t always agree on the definition of premature ejaculation.

He said that future studies should use the definition provided by the International Society for Sexual Medicine, which says the disorder involves an inability to last longer than one minute before ejaculating, and includes problems such as frustration or avoiding sexual intimacy.

The other stumbling block to the group’s analysis was that fewer than half of the studies compared the drugs to a placebo, a standard for high-quality studies that helps researchers determine whether the drug itself is responsible for any effects seen.

Among four studies, including about 300 men, that did compare an erectile dysfunction medication to a placebo, Asimakopoulos found a positive effect.

After taking a placebo, men had intercourse lasting from about a minute to a little more than a minute and a half.

Among the men who used a medication, intercourse lasted from more than two and a half minutes to about six.

Similarly, the erectile dysfunction drugs, when combined with an antidepressant, worked better than an antidepressant alone.

Asimakopoulos said the results show that these drugs have “a high impact…on prolonging ejaculatory times.”

“There seems to be a global positive effect of these drugs in delaying ejaculation; however, the existing evidence is still partial and their role remains controversial,” he said.

The drugs are worth further investigation for the treatment of premature ejaculation because antidepressants and topical anesthetics are the only alternatives demonstrated to be effective so far, the team notes in their report.

In future studies, Asimakopoulos said, researchers should not only use a standard definition of premature ejaculation and conduct studies comparing the drug to a placebo, but also shoot for developing a standard and more convenient method of measuring the disorder other than relying on a stopwatch.

SOURCE: bit.ly/zrye69 The Journal of Sexual Medicine, online January 16, 2012.

Related posts:

1. Erectile drugs might help premature ejaculation
2. Spray can prevent premature ejaculation: study
3. AIDS drugs can cause premature ageing: study

By Kerry Grens

NEW YORK |
Fri Feb 10, 2012 1:51pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Most studies looking at whether erectile dysfunction drugs can help men overcome premature ejaculation problems agree that the pills make a difference, but much of the research is flawed, according to a new review of the evidence.

Of the 14 studies included in the review, 11 found that the medications helped extend the length of time men could have intercourse before orgasm, but Dr. Anastasios Asimakopoulos, lead author of the report, urged caution in interpreting the findings.

“There is still inadequate evidence to propose the use of (these types of drugs) in treating (premature ejaculation),” he wrote in an email to Reuters Health.

The drugs, which go by the brand names Viagra, Levitra and Cialis, are intended to treat men who have problems getting and keeping an erection.

There’s been an interest in also using them to address the problem of premature ejaculation, because one of the side effects of the drugs is a delay in ejaculation, the authors write in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Asimakopoulos, from the University of Tor Vergata in Rome, Italy, said that anywhere from four to 39 percent of men suffer from premature ejaculation.

His group collected data from 14 studies that measured the effect of medications on extending the time during intercourse before orgasm, technically referred to as the “intravaginal ejaculatory latency time.”

Nine of the studies used an erectile dysfunction drug by itself, while four combined the drug with an antidepressant medication, and one combined the drug with behavioral therapy.

Most of the studies asked men to use a stopwatch before and after treatment, to measure if they were able to extend the time having sex.

Some also asked the men to rate changes in their anxiety and sexual satisfaction.

Asimakopoulos and his colleagues ran into problems trying to compare the studies. For one, they didn’t always agree on the definition of premature ejaculation.

He said that future studies should use the definition provided by the International Society for Sexual Medicine, which says the disorder involves an inability to last longer than one minute before ejaculating, and includes problems such as frustration or avoiding sexual intimacy.

The other stumbling block to the group’s analysis was that fewer than half of the studies compared the drugs to a placebo, a standard for high-quality studies that helps researchers determine whether the drug itself is responsible for any effects seen.

Among four studies, including about 300 men, that did compare an erectile dysfunction medication to a placebo, Asimakopoulos found a positive effect.

After taking a placebo, men had intercourse lasting from about a minute to a little more than a minute and a half.

Among the men who used a medication, intercourse lasted from more than two and a half minutes to about six.

Similarly, the erectile dysfunction drugs, when combined with an antidepressant, worked better than an antidepressant alone.

Asimakopoulos said the results show that these drugs have “a high impact…on prolonging ejaculatory times.”

“There seems to be a global positive effect of these drugs in delaying ejaculation; however, the existing evidence is still partial and their role remains controversial,” he said.

The drugs are worth further investigation for the treatment of premature ejaculation because antidepressants and topical anesthetics are the only alternatives demonstrated to be effective so far, the team notes in their report.

In future studies, Asimakopoulos said, researchers should not only use a standard definition of premature ejaculation and conduct studies comparing the drug to a placebo, but also shoot for developing a standard and more convenient method of measuring the disorder other than relying on a stopwatch.

SOURCE: bit.ly/zrye69 The Journal of Sexual Medicine, online January 16, 2012.

Related posts:

1. Erectile drugs might help premature ejaculation
2. Spray can prevent premature ejaculation: study
3. AIDS drugs can cause premature ageing: study

By Deborah Quinn Hensel

HOUSTON |
Fri Feb 10, 2012 1:50pm EST

HOUSTON (Reuters) – A woman whose firing from her job over a request to pump breast milk was supported by a Texas judge said on Thursday the decision was unfair and discriminatory, and her lawyer said an appeal was under consideration.

Donnicia Venters, who worked at a debt collection agency called Houston Funding, gave birth to a daughter in December 2008. When she told a vice president of the company on Feb 17, 2009 that she wanted to make arrangements for a private place to pump breast milk she was told her position had been filled.

She received a termination notice in the mail a week later back-dated to February 16 citing “job abandonment,” said Tim Bowne, a lawyer for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, who represented her.

Venters sued the company but Judge Lynn Hughes last week dismissed the case, saying the complaint was not covered by a provision of the Civil Rights Act that prohibits discrimination because of pregnancy.

“She gave birth on December 11, 2008. After that day, she was no longer pregnant, and her pregnancy-related conditions had ended,” Judge Hughes said in the ruling.

“I don’t understand the judge’s decision,” Venters told Reuters in a brief interview. “A child needs a mother and mother’s milk. It really isn’t fair and it is discrimination. I just hope the law will be changed.”

Venters’ firing happened before a March, 2010 amendment to a separate law that requires employers to provide reasonable break time for a mother to express milk for a nursing child for one year after the child’s birth. It also says employers must provide a private place for this activity, other than a bathroom.

But companies with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from this law if allowing breaks would impose an undue hardship.

Related posts:

1. Woman: court ruling on pumping breast milk unfair
2. Breast milk courier helps Indonesian mums cope
3. Woman wins court order against 1972 Idaho abortion law

By Deborah Quinn Hensel

HOUSTON |
Fri Feb 10, 2012 1:50pm EST

HOUSTON (Reuters) – A woman whose firing from her job over a request to pump breast milk was supported by a Texas judge said on Thursday the decision was unfair and discriminatory, and her lawyer said an appeal was under consideration.

Donnicia Venters, who worked at a debt collection agency called Houston Funding, gave birth to a daughter in December 2008. When she told a vice president of the company on Feb 17, 2009 that she wanted to make arrangements for a private place to pump breast milk she was told her position had been filled.

She received a termination notice in the mail a week later back-dated to February 16 citing “job abandonment,” said Tim Bowne, a lawyer for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, who represented her.

Venters sued the company but Judge Lynn Hughes last week dismissed the case, saying the complaint was not covered by a provision of the Civil Rights Act that prohibits discrimination because of pregnancy.

“She gave birth on December 11, 2008. After that day, she was no longer pregnant, and her pregnancy-related conditions had ended,” Judge Hughes said in the ruling.

“I don’t understand the judge’s decision,” Venters told Reuters in a brief interview. “A child needs a mother and mother’s milk. It really isn’t fair and it is discrimination. I just hope the law will be changed.”

Venters’ firing happened before a March, 2010 amendment to a separate law that requires employers to provide reasonable break time for a mother to express milk for a nursing child for one year after the child’s birth. It also says employers must provide a private place for this activity, other than a bathroom.

But companies with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from this law if allowing breaks would impose an undue hardship.

Related posts:

1. Woman: court ruling on pumping breast milk unfair
2. Breast milk courier helps Indonesian mums cope
3. Woman wins court order against 1972 Idaho abortion law

By Kerry Grens

NEW YORK |
Fri Feb 10, 2012 1:48pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Contrary to the belief that people who burn a lot of calories are less vulnerable to gaining weight, a new study finds they and slow burners alike tend to put on pounds during the sweets-filled holiday season.

“This idea of regulating body weight by being a very active individual that exercises a lot is not being supported by our study,” said Dale Schoeller, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and the senior author of the study.

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t exercise,” he added, “because there are tremendous health benefits of being physically active and having a high energy expenditure.”

Schoeller’s team collected information on body size from 443 middle-aged, mostly overweight men and women in September or October of 1999, and again after the holidays in January or February of 2000.

At the beginning of the study, the group also measured the total amount of energy people used through a technique called “doubly labeled water,” which involves drinking water that is tagged with oxygen and hydrogen atoms that are slightly different from the kinds usually found in drinking water.

The researchers measured over two weeks how much of the labeled hydrogen and oxygen was passed through urine, and then calculated how much of the remaining labeled oxygen had been used to burn calories.

Total energy includes everything a person burns up — even while sleeping, watching TV, exercising and walking around.

The measurements taken in the autumn also determined how often people were physically active.

At the end of the study, men had gained close to two pounds and women a little over a pound, which equaled about a one-percent gain in body weight.

People who burned the most calories in a day and those who were the most active were just as likely to put on weight as those who used fewer calories and those who were more sedentary.

“You’d think people with a higher physical activity level would be protected from holiday weight gain,” said Susan Racette, a professor at Washington University School of Medicine who was not involved in the study.

Presumably, the holiday parties, cookies, and religious feasts caught up with them.

It could also be that people were less active during the holidays, Racette said.

The researchers did not track how much people ate or how much they exercised during the season.

Schoeller said he would have expected that the high energy users would have been less affected because they should have an easier time compensating for the extra calories through more exercise or eating less later on.

For instance, if Thanksgiving dinner adds 500 calories to a person’s daily energy needs, that’s only a 17 percent increase for someone who burns up 3,000 calories a day, compared to a 25 percent increase for someone who uses only 2,000 calories.

“This extra 500-calorie meal would be a smaller part of their expenditure and therefore easier to compensate for than someone with a low energy expenditure,” Schoeller told Reuters Health.

As his results showed, “it’s not the case,” he added.

“It really does come down to the fact that those extra calories are problematic for everybody,” Racette told Reuters Health.

A study published a decade ago by Dr. Jack Yanovski at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development also found that Americans gain about one pound during the holidays (see Reuters Health report of March 22, 2000).

In an email, Yanovski said the latest results “confirm the importance of the holiday interval from Thanksgiving to Christmastime for weight gain. Further studies are needed to understand how to prevent weight gain during this vulnerable time of the year.”

Schoeller said from an obesity-prevention standpoint, the study backs up the idea that food – and not exercise alone – is important.

“An obesity prevention campaign built around physical activity only without addressing food intake is not likely to succeed,” he said. “You need both.”

SOURCE: bit.ly/AcNyDZ American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online February 1, 2012.

Related posts:

1. Holiday weight gain affects active people too
2. ‘Active’ video games may be better for kids’ weight
3. Can too little sleep make you gain weight?

By Kerry Grens

NEW YORK |
Fri Feb 10, 2012 1:48pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Contrary to the belief that people who burn a lot of calories are less vulnerable to gaining weight, a new study finds they and slow burners alike tend to put on pounds during the sweets-filled holiday season.

“This idea of regulating body weight by being a very active individual that exercises a lot is not being supported by our study,” said Dale Schoeller, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and the senior author of the study.

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t exercise,” he added, “because there are tremendous health benefits of being physically active and having a high energy expenditure.”

Schoeller’s team collected information on body size from 443 middle-aged, mostly overweight men and women in September or October of 1999, and again after the holidays in January or February of 2000.

At the beginning of the study, the group also measured the total amount of energy people used through a technique called “doubly labeled water,” which involves drinking water that is tagged with oxygen and hydrogen atoms that are slightly different from the kinds usually found in drinking water.

The researchers measured over two weeks how much of the labeled hydrogen and oxygen was passed through urine, and then calculated how much of the remaining labeled oxygen had been used to burn calories.

Total energy includes everything a person burns up — even while sleeping, watching TV, exercising and walking around.

The measurements taken in the autumn also determined how often people were physically active.

At the end of the study, men had gained close to two pounds and women a little over a pound, which equaled about a one-percent gain in body weight.

People who burned the most calories in a day and those who were the most active were just as likely to put on weight as those who used fewer calories and those who were more sedentary.

“You’d think people with a higher physical activity level would be protected from holiday weight gain,” said Susan Racette, a professor at Washington University School of Medicine who was not involved in the study.

Presumably, the holiday parties, cookies, and religious feasts caught up with them.

It could also be that people were less active during the holidays, Racette said.

The researchers did not track how much people ate or how much they exercised during the season.

Schoeller said he would have expected that the high energy users would have been less affected because they should have an easier time compensating for the extra calories through more exercise or eating less later on.

For instance, if Thanksgiving dinner adds 500 calories to a person’s daily energy needs, that’s only a 17 percent increase for someone who burns up 3,000 calories a day, compared to a 25 percent increase for someone who uses only 2,000 calories.

“This extra 500-calorie meal would be a smaller part of their expenditure and therefore easier to compensate for than someone with a low energy expenditure,” Schoeller told Reuters Health.

As his results showed, “it’s not the case,” he added.

“It really does come down to the fact that those extra calories are problematic for everybody,” Racette told Reuters Health.

A study published a decade ago by Dr. Jack Yanovski at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development also found that Americans gain about one pound during the holidays (see Reuters Health report of March 22, 2000).

In an email, Yanovski said the latest results “confirm the importance of the holiday interval from Thanksgiving to Christmastime for weight gain. Further studies are needed to understand how to prevent weight gain during this vulnerable time of the year.”

Schoeller said from an obesity-prevention standpoint, the study backs up the idea that food – and not exercise alone – is important.

“An obesity prevention campaign built around physical activity only without addressing food intake is not likely to succeed,” he said. “You need both.”

SOURCE: bit.ly/AcNyDZ American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online February 1, 2012.

Related posts:

1. Holiday weight gain affects active people too
2. ‘Active’ video games may be better for kids’ weight
3. Can too little sleep make you gain weight?

Fri Feb 10, 2012 7:41am EST

(Reuters) – U.S. health regulators issued recommendations to manufacturers to ensure the safe production of the blood-clot prevention drug heparin, four years after a contamination involving the widely used product set off concerns about the global pharmaceutical supply chain.

The guidance, posted on the website of the Food and Drug Administration, is designed to help manufacturers of active ingredients, finished products and others better control heparin to avoid contamination.

(Reporting By Lewis Krauskopf; editing by John Wallace)

Related posts:

1. Novartis issues recall on Excedrin, Bufferin
2. FDA: Diabetes device plan may help patients faster
3. FDA seeks plan to curb opioid pain killer abuse

BEIJING |
Fri Feb 10, 2012 7:30am EST

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese authorities are investigating eggs which bounce after being boiled and may make men sterile, state media reported Friday, in the latest food safety scare to hit the country.

The eggs, being referred to in Chinese media and on the internet as “rubber eggs” or “ping pong eggs,” are too hard to eat, raising suspicion they are fake, after appearing in “small numbers” in markets nationwide, Xinhua news agency said.

“The investigation is designed to appease consumers’ concerns, after some suspected they bought artificial eggs made by unconscientious traders seeking profits,” it reported.

However, the eggs’ hardness could be a natural occurrence, caused by hens consuming large amounts of food enriched with a compound called gossypol, which binds to protein in egg yolks, Xinhua said.

“While gossypol normally exists in the residue of cotton seeds added to chicken feed as an extra protein source, large doses of the compound will suppress sperm activity as gossypol has been tested to be used in male contraceptive pills,” it added.

Food safety worries are nothing new to China, where tales of fake cooking oil, tainted milk and watermelons which explode from being fed too much fertilizer regularly appear in the news.

In 2008, at least six children died and nearly 300,000 became ill from powdered milk laced with melamine, an industrial chemical added to low quality or diluted milk to fool inspectors by giving misleadingly high readings for protein levels.

(Reporting by Sally Huang and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Related posts:

1. China probes another report of fake cooking oil at factory
2. Nitrate-tainted milk case in China deemed intentional poisoning
3. Nitrate-tainted milk case in China deemed intentional poisoning