Thursday, 29 January 2015
Dementia 'linked' to common over-the-counter drugs
All of the types of medication in question are drugs that have an "anticholinergic" effect. Experts say people should not panic or stop taking their medicines.
In the US study in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, higher doses and prolonged use were linked to higher dementia risk in elderly people.
The researchers only looked at older people and found the increased risk appeared when people took drugs every day for three years or more.
All medicines can have side-effects and anticholinergic-type drugs that block a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine are no exception.
Monday, 26 January 2015
International imaging effort unlocks brain secrets
Cortex and subcortical regions: The study looked at the size of sub-cortical brain regions that are involved in some basic functions such as memory, movement, learning and motivation.
New insights may help scientists better understand disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy
An international study, which included researchers from NUI Galway, has identified significant genetic factors that influence the size of structures within the brain. It is hoped these new insights may help scientists better understand disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy. The research was published today in Nature magazine.
NUI Galway professor of psychology, Professor Gary Donohoe, led the Irish contribution to the study, which involved a consortium of almost 300 scientists from 193 institutes - including NUI Galway. The consortium, known as the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis), shared results from analyses of genetic data and MRI scans from more than 30,000 individuals worldwide.
The study looked at the size of sub-cortical brain regions that are involved in some basic functions such as memory, movement, learning and motivation. Abnormalities in these brain regions are associated with neurological and mental health disorders.
The article published in Nature today is ‘Common genetic variants influence human subcortical brain structures’.
This research at NUI Galway was undertaken by the Cognitive Genetics and Therapy Group (Principal Investigators: Prof Gary Donohoe and Dr Derek Morris;http://www.nuigalway.ie/psychology/coggene_group.html) and the Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory (Principal Investigators: Prof Colm McDonald and Dr Dara Cannon;http://clinicalneuroimaginglaboratory.com/).
More information about the ENIGMA project is available at http://enigma.ini.usc.edu/
Friday, 23 January 2015
Regenerative Medicine: Bone repair
A promising new bone repair technology, developed by Irish scientists, could be ready for testing in humans in the coming months.
The organic material, developed by researchers at the materials science centre AMBER, has already been used to save an ill race horse, which would otherwise have been put down.
The technique uses collagen and hydroxyapatite, both of which are natural ingredients of bone, to form a 3D porous "scaffold".
It acts as a substitute for a bone graft to which cells and blood vessels "cling" as the tissue rebuilds itself.
Regulatory approval is now being sought for its use in humans by SurgaColl Technologies, a spin out company from the Royal College of Surgeons, where the research team which developed it are based.
It is anticipated that approval should be received within months, with its first use in humans likely by the end of this year.
The technology was used to successfully treat a thoroughbred racehorse, which developed a tumour on its jaw. The growth damaged the filly's jawbone and left it unable to chew properly. As a result, its owner and vet were expecting it would have to be put down.
However, vets in UCD working with the AMBER researchers removed the tumour from the horse, called Annagh Haven, and implanted the new material. Within months the horse's jawbone had fully recovered, and it was back securing wins and places in races again.
The research has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine.
Enhanced bone healing using collagen-hydroxyapatite scaffold implantation in the treatment of a large multiloculated mandibular aneurysmal bone cyst in a Thoroughbred filly
View here on RTE/news
The organic material, developed by researchers at the materials science centre AMBER, has already been used to save an ill race horse, which would otherwise have been put down.
The technique uses collagen and hydroxyapatite, both of which are natural ingredients of bone, to form a 3D porous "scaffold".
It acts as a substitute for a bone graft to which cells and blood vessels "cling" as the tissue rebuilds itself.
Regulatory approval is now being sought for its use in humans by SurgaColl Technologies, a spin out company from the Royal College of Surgeons, where the research team which developed it are based.
It is anticipated that approval should be received within months, with its first use in humans likely by the end of this year.
The technology was used to successfully treat a thoroughbred racehorse, which developed a tumour on its jaw. The growth damaged the filly's jawbone and left it unable to chew properly. As a result, its owner and vet were expecting it would have to be put down.
However, vets in UCD working with the AMBER researchers removed the tumour from the horse, called Annagh Haven, and implanted the new material. Within months the horse's jawbone had fully recovered, and it was back securing wins and places in races again.
The research has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine.
Enhanced bone healing using collagen-hydroxyapatite scaffold implantation in the treatment of a large multiloculated mandibular aneurysmal bone cyst in a Thoroughbred filly
View here on RTE/news
Major new Irish study on prostate cancer
The long-term quality of life of men who have survived prostate cancer varies significantly depending on the main treatment they received, a new Irish study has found.
Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer found in men. Every year in Ireland, over 2,000 men are newly diagnosed with the disease and currently, there are more men living with this type of cancer than any other.
Researchers from the National Cancer Registry (NCR) and the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry carried out a study(the PiCTure study Prostate Cancer Treatment, your experience) involving almost 3,400 men who were between two and 18 years post-diagnosis.
This is one of the largest population-based studies of prostate cancer survivors ever carried out globally.
The study found that participants who had received just hormone therapy, or hormone therapy in conjunction with radiotherapy, had a much lower HRQoL than those who had received a radical prostatectomy - an operation to remove the prostate gland and some of the tissue around it.
Thursday, 22 January 2015
Online lectures available to HS Biomedical and Life Sciences Collection
This month, thirteen online lectures have been added to The Biomedical & Life Sciences Collection. Seven of the newly released talks are part of a new series covering "Bone in Health and Disease" edited by Prof. Juliet Compston.
National University of Ireland - Galway has full access to all the lectures, here is the direct link to the new talks: www.hstalks.com/r/tblsc/recent
For faculty involved in teaching, all the lectures can easily be assigned for viewing by students and uploaded to virtual learning environments such as Moodle or Blackboard.
Over 1,800 lectures by leading world experts.
National University of Ireland - Galway has full access to all the lectures.
Access link: www.hstalks.com/access/
On campus, you should be automatically authenticated.
The Biomedical & Life Sciences Collection
New Series: Bone in Health and Disease
Osteoporosis: calcium and vitamin D Prof. Bo Abrahamsen, Glostrup Hospital, DK The osteocyte Prof. Lynda F. Bonewald, University of Missouri, USA
Combination and sequential therapy for the treatment of Osteoporosis
Prof. Felicia Cosman, Columbia University, USA
Osteoporosis in men
Prof. Peter R. Ebeling, Monash University, Australia
Pathways regulating bone resorption
Prof. Tim Arnett, University College London, UK
Osteoporosis: how long to treat?
Dr. Robert A. Adler, Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center, USA
Epidemiology of Osteoporosis
Prof. Cyrus Cooper, University of Southampton, UK
New Talks Added to the following Existing Series:
Updated Series: Viruses and Viral Diseases
Influenza Virus Pandemics: Past and Future
Prof. Peter Palese, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, USA
Updated Series: Molecular Genetics of Human Disease
Ciliopathies and oligogenic phenomena
Prof. Nicholas Katsanis, Duke University, USA
Changing lives: stratified medicine in monogenic diabetes
Prof. Andrew Hattersley, University of Exeter, UK
Traffic problems: inherited disease and intracellular trafficking defect
Dr. Paul Gissen, University College London, UK
Updated Series: Parkinson's Disease
Autonomic Dysfunction in Parkinson's Disease
Prof. Ronald Pfeiffer, University of Tennessee, USA
Updated Series: Topical Talks
Pharmacometrics in psychiatry
Dr. Elizabeth de Lange, Leiden University, NL
Pharmacometrics in pain management
Dr. Yaning Wang, US Food and Drug Administration; Dr. Jiang Liu, US Food and Drug Administration; Dr. Hao Zhu, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, USA; Dr. Ping Ji, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, USA
Updated Series: Synapses, Neurotransmitters and Receptor Channels
AMPA-receptors and fast synaptic transmission in the brain
Prof. Stuart Cull-Candy, University College London, UK
Wednesday, 21 January 2015
NUI Galway Conference on Mobile Technologies in the Classroom
Mobile technologies are becoming a standard teaching tool in the classroom. However, as an ever-growing range of devices and apps come on stream, many teachers are struggling with a technological skills gap.
The two-day conference will celebrate the possibilities and explore the challenges of integrating mobile technology in teacher education and provide a forum for practitioners to come together to benchmark and share best practice. Speakers include experts in the field of mobile technology including representatives from CalStateTEACH, California State University, Apple, Google and national and international education institutions.
Seán Ó Grádaigh, School of Education, and Chair of the MiTE 2015 Conference, said: “Mobile technology offers today's students the opportunity to learn how, when and where they wish. Commonly called digital natives, the pupils of today have smart technology at their fingertips. Incorporating this technology into the classroom is a natural way to help build the pupils' engagement with their learning, thereby preparing mobile citizens for the future.”
Punya Mishra, Professor of Educational Technology and Director of the Master of Arts in Educational Technology programme at Michigan State University, observes that technologies become obsolete as quickly as they arrive. This rapid rate of change is a challenge for educators and leads to an increased pressure on teachers to learn new ways to incorporate technology into their teaching. Professor Mishra, an internationally renowned pioneer in the area, will give a keynote address at MiTE.
This conference is open to parents, teachers and students who are interested in seeing and hearing how mobile technologies, for example, smartphones/tablets, can contribute positively to the learning processes within our classrooms today.
To find out more see www.gratek.ie/mite2015.
Monday, 19 January 2015
Number of Influenza Cases - HSE
The Health Service Executive has said that the influenza vaccine given to people this year is for a different strain of flu than what is expected.
Speaking at the Oireachtas Health Committee recently, the Director General of the HSE, Tony O'Brien, said we are seeing a "first spike" in flu cases and are on particular alert for a period of about eight weeks.
The HSE's latest flu surveillance shows that rates have increased for the first time this season, but the levels are still low.
Three deaths associated with influenza have been reported so far this season.
People in at risk groups such as those over 65 and children with chronic illnesses are being urged to get the vaccine.
Symptoms of flu usually develop over a number of hours, and include a high temperature, sore throat and a dry cough.
The HSE says the vaccine is available free of charge from GPs for all people in at risk groups, and from pharmacists for everyone aged 65 and over.
Friday, 16 January 2015
Exercise and Obesity - Study:
Lack of exercise is twice as likely to lead to an early grave than obesity, recent research has shown.
A brisk 20-minute walk each day is all it takes to avoid dying prematurely, the findings suggest.
Scientists looked at the effects of obesity and exercise on 334,161 European men and women whose progress was followed for 12 years.They found that people who engaged in moderate levels of daily exercise - equivalent to taking an energetic 20-minute walk - were 16pc to 30pc less likely to die than those classified as inactive.
Although the impact of exercise was greatest among normal weight individuals, even those with high Body Mass Index (BMI) levels saw a benefit.
Overall, avoiding inactivity theoretically reduced the risk of death from any cause by 7.35pc said the scientists.
Having a BMI lower than obesity levels, defined as a score of 30 or more, was estimated to lower mortality by 3.66pc.
Keeping waists trim, irrespective of BMI, had a similar impact on death rates as exercise.
BMI is calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by their height in metres squared and is a standard tool used to assess whether someone is overweight or obese.
At the population level, lack of exercise was thought to have caused almost 700,000 deaths across Europe in 2008.
Study leader Professor Ulf Ekelund, from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at Cambridge University, said: "This is a simple message: just a small amount of physical activity each day could have substantial health benefits for people who are physically inactive.
"Although we found that just 20 minutes would make a difference, we should really be looking to do more than this - physical activity has many proven health benefits and should be an important part of our daily life."
Participants in the research, who had an average age of around 50, were all recruited to the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (Epic) study conducted across 10 European countries.
All had their height, weight, and waist sizes measured and provided self-assessments of physical activity levels.
Just under a quarter (22.7pc) were categorised as inactive, working in sedentary jobs without engaging in any recreational exercise.
The greatest reductions in the risk of premature death were seen when comparing moderately active groups with those who were completely inactive.
Using the most recent available public data, the researchers calculated that 337,000 of the 9.2 million deaths that occurred in Europe in 2008 could be attributed to obesity.
But physical inactivity was thought to be responsible for almost double this number - 676,000 deaths.
The findings are published in the 'American Journal of Clinical Nutrition'.
View more information here
Wednesday, 14 January 2015
E-Cigarettes - BMJ Research
How should we view e-cigarettes? As a safe and effective way to quit tobacco? Or as a grave risk to public health because of their potential to renormalise and glamourise smoking, especially among young people?
To help you decide, read a selection of the dozens of articles published in The BMJ on e-cigarettes. These date back to January 2010, when Andreas Flouris and Dimitris Oikonomou asked if they were a miracle or a menace?
In September 2011 editorialists Ron Borland and Nigel Gray concluded that allowing e-cigarettes to be sold was the approach with the greatest potential public health benefit, creating incentives to conduct research and to consider more appropriate regulation
But should they be classified as medicine? In October 2013 the European Parliament backed moves to make smoking less attractive to young people but rejected the health commissioner’s call to have electronic cigarettes classified as medicines.
In a head to head debate published four months earlier, Simon Chapman, professor of public health at the University of Sydney, supported regulation, seeing e-cigarettes as another way for big tobacco to try to make nicotine addiction socially acceptable again.
But Jean-François Etter, a professor at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Geneva, said restrictions would result in more harm to smokers.
Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, warned that any debate over regulation may favour the interests of the industry.
You can browse all articles published so far about e-cigarettes at this link. Alternatively, here is a selection of the key articles published so far:
- Views and Reviews: Electronic cigarettes: miracle or menace?
- Editorial: Electronic cigarettes as a method of tobacco control
- Feature: Electronic cigarettes: medical device or consumer product?
- Analysis: Tobacco harm reduction: the devil is in the deployment
- Observations: Big Tobacco lights up e-cigarettes
- Observations: E-cigarettes and the marketing push that surprised everyone
- Editorial: Journal policy on research funded by the tobacco industry
- Editorial: Regulation of electronic cigarettes
- Analysis: E-cigarettes: the best and the worst case scenarios for public health—an essay by Simon Chapman
- Feature: E-cigarettes latest: users on the up but rules tighten
- News: First TV advertisement for e-cigarettes prompts complaints
Tuesday, 13 January 2015
Thursday, 8 January 2015
'Game-changing' antibiotic find
The decades-long drought in antibiotic discovery could be over after a breakthrough by US scientists.
Their novel method for growing bacteria has yielded 25 new antibiotics, with one deemed "very promising".
The last new class of antibiotics to make it to clinic was discovered nearly three decades ago.
The study, in the journal Nature, has been described as a "game-changer" and experts believe the antibiotic haul is just the "tip of the iceberg".
The heyday of antibiotic discovery was in the 1950s and 1960s, but nothing found since 1987 has made it into doctor's hands.
Since then microbes have become incredibly resistant. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis ignores nearly everything medicine can throw at it.
Back to soil
The researchers, at the Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, turned to the source of nearly all antibiotics - soil.
This is teeming with microbes, but only 1% can be grown in the laboratory.
The team created a "subterranean hotel" for bacteria. One bacterium was placed in each "room" and the whole device was buried in soil.
It allowed the unique chemistry of soil to permeate the room, but kept the bacteria in place for study.
Wednesday, 7 January 2015
Teenagers and Heart Disease
Research has found that teenage boys are displaying high blood pressure and high cholesterol, directly related to being overweight and unfit.
The study of teenage boys, carried out at the centre for Preventative Medicine at DCU, has highlighted the serious health problems that overweight teenagers are facing.
Professor Niall Moyna carried out the study, which he says was unique because the children were examined for signs of heart disease not just risk factors.
"We looked at the arteries in the neck, that supply the brain, and we also looked at the arteries in their arm, which tells us what's happening in their heart.
"We found in both, that the unfit kids, had higher levels of plague in the arteries, increasing the risk of stroke."
The results for boys who were classed as "moderately fit" and "high fit" did not differ, an indication any form of exercise reduced the risk of heart disease.
Previous studies have shown that the damage can be undone but there is a small window of opportunity, according to Professor Moyna.
"Children have great plasticity and the studies show that up until their mid 20s they can reduce this. But we all know it's very difficult to change a behaviour. It's all about getting children to adopt health behaviours in the first place."
The teenagers examined had taken part in the Schools' Fitness Challenge, which is now in its fourth year.
As part of the programme students have their initial fitness levels measured, before undertaking a six weeks of training. Afterwards their fitness levels are tested again.
Last year 13,067 students participated in the challenge.
Secondary schools interested in the 2015 challenge can register online on Aviva's schools fitness challenge.
Tuesday, 6 January 2015
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