HEALTH

Health in the News

New slant on Alzheimer's

Serendipity is thought of as a fortunate accidental discovery. In medicine, it could more accurately be described as an unanticipated result of research.

One such discovery occurred at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Dr. Claude Wischik was studying the protein Tau, which masses into tangles in diseased brains. In 1988, he dyed tangles with an old malaria drug, methylene blue, to make them more visible. Instead, the tangles dissolved.

After years of studying to determine why it happened, he formed TauRx in 2002, based in Singapore, and developed the drug Rember. In a recent 12-month phase II trial, Rember reduced mental decline by 81 percent. The results need to be confirmed by a larger trial.

Rember outperformed Alzheimer's drugs made to clear amyloid clumps.

Breast cancer recurrence risk is low after five years

A study by the University of Texas M.D. Andersen Cancer Center shows that women who survive five years after a breast cancer diagnosis have a good chance of remaining cancer free.

In the most detailed study of its kind, their report shows that 89 percent of such patients remain disease-free 10 years after diagnosis, and 81 percent are cancer-free after 15 years.

Study subjects had surgery to remove the original tumors and some also had radiation. All took medication such as chemotherapy for several months. Afterward, they were either on the pill or on tamoxifen to prevent cancer from returning. Newer drugs may be even more effective.

Singles are healthier

An analysis of the National Health Survey of 1.1 million white or black people ages 25 to 80 shows that never-married people are taking better care of themselves. Married people still report better health, but the gap is narrowing, largely because of the better health of never married men.

The tradeoff

Why a drink a day may not be good for everyone

Moderate drinking is associated with a lower risk for heart disease, according to the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. And it could reduce the risk of diabetes, dementia, stroke and inflammation.

These conclusions are generally true, but a review of hundreds of studies also shows that alcohol creates a risk for certain types of cancers.

An analysis of studies done by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute of Cancer Research revealed that even moderate drinking increased the risk of mouth, larynx and esophageal cancers, particularly when combined with smoking.

Other data they assembled showed that two drinks a day every day was associated with up to a 10 percent higher risk of colon cancer in men and a 5 percent to 7 percent increase in breast cancer risk among women. Alcohol was also linked to liver cancer.

Doctors at Johns Hopkins Medical Centers caution, however, that how risk is reported may make it sound more serious than it really is. In one colon cancer study, only 56 of more than 10,418 study participants drank at least one drink per day and developed the disease.

Additionally, some data in studies is self-reported and people may not remember very well. Additionally, people who drink very much may not have a healthy diet, may have other health problems or a family history of a certain type of disease.

While these studies do not disprove the benefits of moderate drinking, they do provide a basis for discussion with a doctor.

Other risk factors for certain diseases can help the doctor determine whether a drink a day should be advised for an individual.

Never start drinking to take advantage of its benefits because they can be achieved in risk-free ways, such as exercise and diet. But if you enjoy an occasional drink, it probably does you more good than harm.

November is American Diabetes Month

Diabetes: Take it seriously

The American Diabetes Association is calling type 2 patients and their families to attention.

It's easy to get complacent about type 2 diabetes. Just take a pill and forget about it? That's a dangerous idea, but handling type 2 is so convenient that people may put it into the back of their minds and not give it a thought.

As diseases go, this one is fairly easy to handle if you do it right. Getting regular exercise is important, as well as eating a nutritious low-fat diet. But you should do that anyway. If your doctor has given you a diet to follow, it's probably a lot like any healthful eating plan. But for type 2 people, the diet is basic.

Of the 20 million people in the United States living with diabetes, about 6 million don't yet know they have it.

Many others have prediabetes. Their blood glucose levels are high but not high enough to be diabetes.

For them, progression to type 2 is not inevitable. They can prevent or delay onset of the disease by losing 5 to 7 percent of their body weight by eating healthier and getting 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week.

The lifetime risk of diabetes for people born here in 2000 is 1 in 3 for all Americans, 2 in 5 for African Americans and Hispanics, and 1 in 2 for Hispanic women.

© 2015 TLC Magazine Online, Inc.