A team of researchers recently presented a new genetic blood test which might pave the way towards an early and better detection of early stage cancers. This new sort of liquid biopsy scans the blood and looks for specific DNA fragments.

This Liquid Biopsy Might Prove Lifesaving by Preventing Late Stage Detection

Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore scientists are behind this new study. The study lead, Dr. Victor Velculescu, explained that their genetic blood test is specifically targeted as specific DNA fragments.

The team determined these markers after analyzing blood samples from patients diagnosed with lung, breast, ovarian, and colorectal cancer. These were screened for mutations, which helped spot 58 “cancer-driver” genes tied to these various types of the disease.

Then, Dr. Velculescu and his colleagues developed a genetic scan in the form of a liquid biopsy. One that analyzes the blood and looks for particular DNA fragments, and then compares them to determine which type of cancer they might be.

The team then tested their new liquid biopsy test on patients that had been previously diagnosed with cancer. This proved its efficiency in detecting stage 1 or 2 breast, lung, ovarian, and colon cancer. The test was in between 59 percent to 71 percent accurate in doing so.

Also, the liquid biopsy was tested and proven highly accurate in its capability to screen out cancer-free people.

“This study shows that identifying cancer early using DNA changes in the blood is feasible and that our high accuracy sequencing method is a promising approach to achieve this goal,” stated Dr. Velculescu.

The research team will now be looking to improve the accuracy and detection rate of its liquid biopsy. Still, the scientists consider it an important step forward, especially as it is capable of detecting early stages of cancers which, at a late stage, are deadly in many cases.

More research will be needed, and also larger trials will have to be conducted, points out the team.

Current study results are available in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Image Source: Pixabay 

Immunotherapy has been used successfully for years to reduce common environmental allergies in patients. Now, researchers suggest that the same mechanism that shuts off an allergic response may be useful in quelling more severe autoimmune conditions as well.

New research out of Cardiff University School of Medicine employs a treatment called proinsulin peptide immunotherapy (PIT), which has shown some early promise in reducing the effects of type 1 diabetes for newly diagnosed patients. The study looked at the effects of immunotherapy in reducing damage to a particular, critical component in the development of type I diabetes.

Immunotherapy and How it Could Be Used

Like allergies, type I diabetes is caused by an inappropriate immune response to one’s own tissues, specifically the beta cells of the pancreas. As the immune system creates antibodies that target these cells, their subsequent destruction results in a loss of insulin production.

The goal of PIT therapy is to halt the attack on beta cells by restoring the function of regulatory T-cells that intervene in autoimmune processes. Cardiff University’s Dr. Mohammad Alhadj Ali and his team divided study participants into three groups, the first of which received high doses of PIT every two weeks.

The second group received an intermediate dose alternated with saline, and the third, an initial high dose of PIT followed by saline only. Blood samples were collected at three-months intervals for a year to evaluate to insulin production after therapy. Success was measured by assessing the levels of C-Peptide, a byproduct of insulin production.

The results were promising, with the highest dose treatment group showing the highest level of C-Peptide throughout the duration of the study. This study’s conclusion is very encouraging in demonstrating the effects of immunotherapy on type 1 diabetes.

Further in-depth research will need to be conducted before a conclusion can be taken, however. Although this therapy excludes patients with already-extensive tissue damage, the therapy could be used as either an intervention for newly diagnosed patients who have incurred little beta cell damage or as a preventative therapy for high-risk individuals who have not yet developed the disease.

Current research results are available in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

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Several studies have been analyzing the effects of doing yoga and its possible use in dealing with depression. According to their results, yoga-related exercise can bring significant benefits for people dealing with depression of all sorts, including chronic and treatment-resistant sufferers.

The results of the studies were presented at the 125^th Annual Convention of the APA, the American Psychological Association.

Practicing Yoga to Ease Depression, but Which Types were Tested?

One of the research teams concentrated on the potentially beneficial effects of hatha yoga. This is a branch which emphasizes physical movement but also breathing and meditative exercises, with the purpose of enhancing the well being.

Lindsey Hopkins, part of the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, conducted this study which involved 23 male veterans.

Hopkins was also involved in another similar research, carried out together with Sarah Shalit. She is an M.A. from San Francisco’s Alliant University. This other study focused on Bikram yoga or heated yoga, which is a type of hatha yoga more commonly practiced in the West.

It involved 52 participants with ages in between 25 to 45 years old. They were asked to participate twice every week, for eight weeks, to such yoga classes.

A team of researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital also presented the results of their pilot study involving 29 adults.

These are also just some of the study teams to present their results of research targeted on the benefits of yoga in trying to ease depression.

Yoga, Not yet a Solution, a Possible Helper?

“These studies suggest that yoga-based interventions have promise for depressed mood and that they are feasible for patients with chronic, treatment-resistant depression,” stated Nina Vollbehr, a study lead from the Center for Integrative Psychiatry in the Netherlands.

As some of the researchers pointed out, yoga is becoming an increasingly more widespread practice. Many of its practitioners tie their decision to take it up to its being a stress reduction technique. They also point out its benefits in dealing with other mental health concerns and possible issues.

However, the empirical data for this connection was somewhat lacking and only in the earliest stages.

“Clearly, yoga is not a cure-all. However, based on empirical evidence, there seems to be a lot of potential,” stated Hopkins.

She adds that it is also too soon to say that using yoga could cure depression. However, it was already noted to be useful as a way of easing it, and more research on the matter should bring further insight on the matter.

Image Source: Wikimedia

Vanderbilt University engineers developed what they call ‘smart underwear” that will reportedly be able to help prevent back pain. It will do so by supporting the back and reducing injury risks. Back pain is one of the most common problems of the present day society.

According to reports, more than half of all adults will have such a problem at one point in their lifetime. It will also lead to lower or lost productivity every year, reportedly, over $100 billion in the United States economy alone.

Karl Zelik, a Vanderbilt University assistant professor of mechanical engineering reportedly got the idea of developing a wearable technology solution after experiencing back pain as he was lifting his two-years old.

Smart Underwear to Help Protect the Back

Zelik states that “I’m sick of Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne being the only ones with performance-boosting supersuits. We, the masses, want our own. The difference is that I’m not fighting crime. I’m fighting the odds that I’ll strain my back this week trying to lift my 2-year-old.”

Together with a team of mechanical engineers, Zelik developed a “smart, mechanized undergarment”. One that combines biomechanics with wearable technology and tries to reduce the lower back stress.

This smart underwear is made out of two fabric sections. These are designed to fit over the legs and chest. The sections can get connected with rubber on the lower back and are attached by straps across the middle of the back. This underwear is made out of polyester, Lycra, and nylon.

The smart underwear gets activated either over a smartphone Bluetooth connection or by double tapping on the shirt. This helps move the stress from the back and into the fabric. Double tapping on the shirt again releases the straps, and then the wearer can sit down again.

The study team tested the device on eight different people. They were asked to lift 11 kilograms and 25 kilograms weights while holding positions at 30, 60, and 90 degrees. While wearing the smart underwear, the lower back muscles activity was reduced by a median 15 to 45 percent.

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A new study goes completely against the old saying that “Money can’t buy you happiness”. According to a new research, spending money on things that can buy free time does make people happier, no matter their income.

For their research, a team of Harvard Business School and University of British Columbia researchers surveyed over 6,000 adults. These reside in four countries: the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, and Denmark.

Participants Were Happy to Buy Time by Spending Money

The study respondents were asked to if they would spend money to buy some free time. Also, if they did this, how much money they used in doing so. Besides these, the participants were asked to rate their life satisfaction. They also answered questions regarding their stress levels concerning time.

Based on their answers, the team reached the conclusion that spending money on time can reportedly bring a greater life satisfaction. This effect still held up even after controlling for the respondents’ income.

“[…] our results suggest that buying time has similar benefits for happiness as having more money,” states Ashely Williams.

She is the study lead and a Harvard Business School assistant professor.

“We thought the effects might only hold up for people with quite a bit of disposable income, but to our surprise, we found the same effects across the income spectrum.” Continued Williams.

The study team also conducted a field test, which involved 60 adults, to verify its results. These were randomly assigned to spend $80. $40 had to go on a time-saving purchase for a weekend. The remaining sum was delegated for a material purpose on another weekend.

According to results, people were happier when they spent the money on buying time compared to the material purpose acquisition.

Still, the researchers were also quite surprised to note how few people would actually spend money to buy time, even if they afforded it. Reportedly, among 100 working adults, only two cents in $40 would be dedicated to a time buying expense.

Study results can be accessed in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Image Source: Pixabay

A team of doctors recently revealed that they managed to reverse brain damage in a two years old girl which was submerged under water for around 15 minutes. The specialists were able to do so by using oxygen therapy.

Back in February 2016, a two years old girl fell into a swimming pool and also drowned. As a result, her heart stopped beating on its own for around two hours. At the time of her discharge from the hospital, the girl was then unresponsive to all stimuli because of the lack of oxygen to the brain.

She was unable to speak, did not respond to commands, and was constantly squirming or shaking her head. An MRI revealed that she experienced cerebral atrophy.

To prevent further degeneration of the cerebral tissue, Dr. Paul Harch began a partial treatment. Dr. Harch is the Director of Hyperbaric Medicine at the LSU School of Medicine.

Fifty-five days after the drowning accident, the toddler began a daily, short duration treatment with 100 percent normobaric oxygen. Thanks to it, she started being more alert and awake and even stopped squirming.

Seventy-eight days after the incident, the two years old was placed on the second stage of treatment. This involved 40 sessions of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) conducted over eight weeks.

According to reports, the child’s neurological improvement was easily visible before new sessions. The girl’s mother was reported as stating that, besides the girl’s coordination, the child was “near normal” after some ten HBOT sessions. After this point, she was also once again placed on physical therapy.

Ability to Reverse Brain Damage, a First Such Success Thanks to Oxygen

162 days after drowning, and after her last HBOT session, the girl presented a near-complete reversal of the cortical and white matter atrophy.

“The startling regrowth of tissue in this case occurred because we were able to intervene early in a growing child, before long-term tissue degeneration,” declared Dr. Harch in a press release.

He continues by pointing that this is a singular case, the first and only of its type yet. Still, it may nonetheless help indicate that the low-risk medical treatment used may have “a profound effect” on the function recovery in patients that suffered similar accidents. Still, more studies will have to be conducted before reaching a conclusion.

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A new study claims that the difference in sleeping hours between the older population and the younger one may be more than just an advancement in age. It could be an evolutionary adaptation to the environment which served as a survival tool for our ancestors.

This is quite in contrast with previous studies which tied bad or less sleep to issues such as Alzheimer’s Disease or to spending too much time with technology. Other researchers also looked at the long term effects of a lack of sleep, but this new study is trying to find a possible cause.

Different Sleeping Hours Ensured That at Least One Person Was Awake

The new study was conducted by analyzing the sleeping patterns of the Hadza people which live in northern Tanzania. These are a hunter-gatherer tribe which still live similarly to our earlier ancestors even in the modern day.

Researchers monitored them over a period of three weeks and analyzed their sleep customs and patterns. The Hadza were noted to be living and sleeping in groups of some 20 to 30 people. During the day, each goes their separate way, typically reuniting only in the evening as they go to sleep.

The study tracked the sleeping patterns of 33 healthy Hadza, both women and men. These were asked to wear small, watch-like devices which helped record their nighttime movements, for 20 days.

There were more than 220 hours of sleep recorded. However, during them, there were only 18 minutes in which all of the adults were simultaneously asleep. On median, over a third of the group was either very lightly dozing or even alert at any given time.

Sleeping Hours, a Vestige of the Human Past?

The researchers were surprised by the minimal value. They also claim that it might indicate that flexibility and variation are natural properties of the human sleep. Previous studies revealed this same effect in mice, birds, and other animals. However, this is the first research to show it in humans.

The study authors claim that the different sleeping patterns of the old, when compared to the young, could be an evolutionary adaptation. One that helped them survive in past ages when our ancestors slept in mixed-age groups.

“Maybe some of the medical issues we have today could be explained not as disorders, but as a relic of an evolutionary past in which they were beneficial,” states Charlie Nunn, referring to older people’s issue of waking up early and being unable to go back to sleep.

Nunn is a study co-author and a Duke University professor of evolutionary anthropology. Research results are available in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Image Source: Pixabay

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a new report targeting the number of opioid prescriptions released annually in the United States. This found that although these values have been falling, their numbers are still too high.

At the same time, even though fewer people are prescribed opioids, the average prescription length is longer than in 2010. The new report analyzed and tracked opioid prescriptions in between 2006 to 2015.

Opioid Prescriptions Take a Slight Turn for the Better

On July 07, the CDC issued its latest Morbidity and Mortality Report. In it, experts monitored and underlined the changing trends among the opioid prescription values and properties. This is a highly serious issue, as the United States is facing an opioid addiction epidemic.

The report found that doctors have been prescribing fewer such drugs. Prescription values registered a peak in 2010 as, at the time, there were 81 written for every 100 people. This number began falling starting with 2012 and reached 71 prescriptions per 100 people in 2015.

In 2010, opioid prescriptions came with 782 morphine milligram equivalents (MME) per person. This value also decreased to the lower 640 MME per person in 2015.

Still, despite the declining numbers, the number of such prescription is still too high and possibly worse, their duration has been getting longer. Namely, they have increased by around one-third as, in 2006, the average prescription was 13 days. In 2015, the median nearly reached 18 days.

In general, the number of opioids prescriptions fell by 18 percent when comparing the 2010 to the 2015 ratio. However, even these figures are some three times higher than they were back in 1999.

Also, the report found that there is a “tremendous variation between counties”. Namely, the highest opioid prescribing counties dispensed around six times more drugs than the lowest prescribing ones, according to the survey.

“The amount of opioids prescribed in the U.S. is still too high, with too many opioid prescriptions for too many days at too high a dosage,” stated Anne Schuchat, the CDC’s Acting Director.

She also pointed out that the CDC released several guidelines about prescribing opioids for doctors. Issued in 2016, their effects remain to be seen.

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A newly released study found a link between the appearance of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and poor sleep, especially in people that already present a risk of developing this neurodegenerative disease.

University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists, led by Dr. Barbara Bendlin, conducted this latest research. This involved 101 participants, the average age being that of 63 years old. These all either had cases of AD in their family history or presented a gene that has been linked to the disease.

Poor Sleep, A New Indicator or Risk Factor in AD?

The research team conducted spinal fluid tests on all of the participants. They also questioned the study group about their sleeping habits. Some of the patients reported having trouble sleeping, poor sleep, or daytime drowsiness.

According to the test results, these also had presented more biological markers for Alzheimer’s, when compared to the other participants.

Barbara Bendlin pointed out that this new study looked for more than just amyloid plaques. These are held as being among the first signs of the neurodegenerative condition. The lead author pointed out that this research also targeted other biological markers as well, ones that can be found by analyzing the spinal fluid.

“Previous evidence has shown that sleep may influence the development or progression of Alzheimer’s disease in various ways. For example, disrupted sleep or lack of sleep may lead to amyloid plaque buildup because the brain’s clearance system kicks into action during sleep,” stated Bendlin.

While analyzing the gathered data, the team looked for tau tangles, beta-amyloid, and also toxic brain protein clumps. These have already been associated and are held as a possible cause of Alzheimer’s.

Still, the team underlined the fact that not all of the participants presented spinal fluid abnormalities. Scientists also pointed out the importance of discovering and identifying more of the modifiable AD risk factors.

They also stated that it is yet unclear if the poor sleep was a result of the installation of the condition. Or if, in contrast, it was a possible cause for its appearance.

Study results have been released in an online issue of the journal Neurology, the American Academy of Neurology’s medical journal.

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A newly released study concluded that killer heat waves might become a more common occurrence over the following years as the global average temperatures continue rising. According to the study, if climate changes will keep going on the same path, around three-quarters of humanity will have to face “lethal heat waves” on an annual basis.

“We found that killer heat waves around the world are becoming more common, and that this trend already seems unavoidable,” stated Camillo Mora, the study’s lead author.

Killer Heat Waves to Become Common by 2100

The research team collected climatic data for all known locations and times for any recorded heat-related death. According to Mora, the international study team identified over 1,900 locations around the world where heat waves have been the reported cause of death. These values go back to 1980.

After collecting this data, the team then compared it to “normal” climate periods. In doing so, they also tried to determine the key elements contributing to the excess mortality.

Study results pegged humidity and temperatures as the main culprits. High humidity is known to reduce the body’s ability to produce and cool via perspiration. As heat cannot be expelled from the body, it creates the so-called “heat cytotoxicity”.

The duration of the heat wave was also a key element. However, it did not help improve the predictive accuracy.

After obtaining this data, the scientists then plugged it into the average projection for 20 of the global climate models that span up until 2100.

These projections indicate that some 50 percent of the population will be exposed to killer heat waves on an annual basis by 2100. This value was calculated in the scenario in which nations also managed to outperform the Paris Climate Agreement targets.

Also, tests showed that around 30 percent of humanity already encounters such a super hot heat wave at least at one point in the year.

Research results are available in a paper in the journal Nature Climate Change. 

Image Source: NASA Earth Observatory