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 New research points at alcohol consumption as a way to reduce stiffness, pain, and the joint damage that results from rheumatoid arthritis. The study also discovered that those who consume alcohol are less likely to have problems as a result from arthritis.
RA causes joints to swell, stiffen, and become quite painful. The disease is the result of an overactive immune system believing that the joint system is ill causing it to attack the joint linings causing inflammation.
Researchers still do not completely understand the process that causes RA to develop although genes, lifestyle, and other isolated factors in environment are thought to play a role. For example, previous studies have pointed towards smoking as a risk factor in developing RA while drinking on a regular basis may decrease the risks. Studies performed on mice also suggest that alcohol consumption may help keep the full effects of RA at bay.
In order to take a closer look at alcohol’s effect on the body, researchers performed a study that looked at 1,004 people who have the disease and 873 people who do not. They asked the participants of the study what their drinking habits were and how many days out of the last month they had consumed a drink. In those that had RA in the study, they also used x-rays, questionnaires, and blood tests to determine how progressed the disease was.
Overall, the study determined that those who did not consume alcohol were over twice as likely to suffer from RA.
 The scientific community is alive with buzz about Resveratol which has already proved to be quite beneficial in treating many diseases, but now after a UK study from the University of Northumbria may also prove to be beneficial when it comes to improving the cognitive ability of the human brain.
The study was conducted via a peer-review and double-blind process with the final conclusion that a small dose of Resveratol could help modulate the way that blood flows cerebrally so that blood flow can be increased while the brain is focused on a task.
As part of the study, 22 adults were given either two doses of the medication or a placebo separately on different days. After they were allowed to rest for 45 minutes to allow for absorption each participant was asked to sit through a series of cognitive tasks that would keep the frontal cortex of the brain activated for a total of 36 minutes.
During this time period the levels of hemodynamic and blood flow through the cerebral was indexed and the concentration of haemoglobin that was present in the front cortex was recorded and compared to the amounts present before treatment and after treatment.
The study resulted in firm evidence that subjects who received the supplement form of Resveratol showed an increase in blood flow while they were working on their tasks. The increase that was recorded after the doses were administrated suggested that the reason blood flow increased was due to the fact that the drug enhanced the way oxygen was extracted into the blood stream.
Although cognitive function in itself was not enhanced, the results now will prompt further investigation into the benefits of prolonged use of Resveratrol.
 The Health Protection Agency warned this week that those over the age of fifty are at as much risk of acquiring an STD from unsafe sex as younger people who engage in the same behaviour. It also revealed evidence that the number of people over fifty who are becoming HIV positive has been doubled over the last seven years.
The HPA reported that in 2000 there were 299 new HIV infections recorded in people over the age of fifty with a plan to present its findings in Vienna at the International Aids conference. However, just seven years later in 2007 there were 710 new cases reported.
It should be noted that some of those that were diagnosed with the infection may have been infected when they were younger in age but simply not diagnosed until older in age. After showing early symptoms of the disease many people that are healthy still feel well and do not suspect the presence of the infection for up to ten years, however, the later the diagnosis the smaller the chances of successfully surviving life with the disease.
Despite the above fact, half of those over the age of fifty that were found to be infected proved to have recently acquired the infection, suggesting that they may not be following safe sex practices.
Senior HIV scientist at the HPA Centre for Infections, Ruth Smith, stated that the new survey results emphasize the need for HIV testing at all ages and the need for continual reinforcement of the safe sex message.
 Studies have shown that most patients in Wales who suffer a mini stroke (TIA) miss out on what is potentially a life-saving operation.
Nationally the figures are higher for patients receiving this surgery, compared to Wales. For example, only 16% of patients received treatment within 2 weeks compared to 33% throughput the UK.
Consultant vascular surgeon, Sue Hill of the University of Wales in Cardiff says that the public are generally uninformed about TIA’s. It can also be said that GP’s themselves are poorly informed about mini-strokes, and prescribe only aspirin for the patient.
Sue Hill also says that vascular surgeons are prepared to perform the necessary operation to widen the carotid artery which can dramatically reduce any risk of suffering a more severe stroke.
Professor Ross Naylor has warned that health professionals need to remember that TIA’s and strokes are emergencies and should be treated as such.
The deputy director of The Stroke Association, Nikki Hill says that people need to be sure to get urgent treatment to help prevent a catastrophic stroke.
Where TIA symptoms often get regarded as having a funny turn, they should still not be ignored, despite TIA symptoms disappearing just as quickly as they appear.
A Welsh Assembly Government spokesman welcomes all efforts being made to raise awareness of stroke and TIA symptoms.
 People who use a mobile phone on a regular basis, and have done so for four years or more, are more likely to develop tinnitus – a constant buzzing or ringing in their ears.
Studies have found that mobile phone users who use their phones for even ten minutes per day have more than 50 per cent chance of developing this condition.
People who use their phones on both ears for more than a four year period are twice as likely to develop tinnitus.
Scientists think that the microwave energy which mobile phones produce is more than probably the cause of this problem.
At the University of Vienna, Austria, Dr. Hans-Peter Hutter has studied 200 similar people, 100 people with tinnitus, and 100 without.
Dr. Hutter has relied on these people honestly reporting their own phone usage, but cannot be totally sure how accurate the results have been.
In Britain, tinnitus affects more than five million people. This condition is considered debilitating, with sufferers constantly hearing a high pitched tone, or even rushing or roaring in either or both ears.
Trauma or exposure to loud noise is the most common cause of damage to a persons hearing. Although it can also be set off by illness, depression or redundancy. Tinnitus can hinder and impede on the sufferers daily life, with very few available remedies to help calm and relieve the symptoms of tinnitus.
The results of D. Hutter’s study confirms that there is a high probability that over-use of mobile phones can cause tinnitus. It has been suggested that further studies should be conducted into the history of mobile phone usage to coincide with further studies into the causes of tinnitus.
 A new osteoarthritis stem cell therapy will be tested on UK patients for the first time as part of an Arthritis Research UK year long trial. The trial will mix stem cells with cartilage cells in the lab and then see them injected into knee joints with damage.
Experts hope that the new treatment will bring a new alternative to joint replacement surgery. Up to 70 people will be included in the study over the year, which is being conducted by scientists at Keele University.
The trail will be run at the Oswestry, Shropshire Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopedic Hospital as part of a research programme that will extend for five years. The trial will be randomized and three different treatment methods will be used on patients that suffer from knee osteoarthritis.
The surgery takes cartilage cells from the patient along with bone marrow cells that are taken and grow in a lab for three weeks. After growth is complete, the cells will then be implanted back into patients and mixed together for other patients in the area where their cartilage is torn.
At this point scientists will test how effective all three types of the therapy are based on how well the cartilage forms over the following year.
For the past 15 years cartilage cells have been lab grown and then re-injected into knees of patients, but now scientists are attempting to figure out of stem cells will help stimulate more growth.
 The Archives of Disease in Childhood has published a study that found overweight youngsters are affected both physically and psychologically, with most negatively perceiving their bodies. This has led youngsters to suffer poor self-confidence and in turn lead them to be less likely to participate in group exercise, in particular, while at school.
For the last few decades child obesity levels have been increasing slowly, so an in-depth look at why the problem is occurring is needed in order to better understand the issue.
Instead of just increasing the exercise that young children participate in, it is now clear that general eating habits need to be looked at as well, in order to combat the problem.
The EarlyBird Diabetes study took a close look at 200 city school children over an 11 year time span. It found that increasing exercise had little effect on changing the weight of children that are obese. On the other hand, it did show that children who continued to put on weight were guilty of spending less time exercising.
Thus, the information suggests that the problem is getting children to eat healthy and exercise the first of which is the sticking point for most.
The news of the study comes at the same time that the government announced their funding withdrawal for the upcoming Change4Life health campaign. Prior to the cutback, £50m was invested in the initiative which was meant to help bring the obesity issue to the focus of people who live within the UK.
 Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, called on the drinks industry today to back the Change4Life anti-obesity drive backed by the government. He also through out the £75m marketing budget set aside by Labour for the campaign.
Lanlsey stated that the coalition government will instead utilize social media in order to get the word about Change4Life across to people instead of the usual advertising campaigns. He also added that the campaign would be directed as a social movement instead of a government campaign, with the government asking the commercial sector, local authorities, and charities to get involved.
The in initiative was first launched last year by Labour with the intention of running the campaign until the London Olympics take place in 2012 but now that the coalition government plans to slash the funds it may not be quite as long.
In his speech Change4Life, Lansley asked the drinks industry to help spread the message of healthy food past their focus on sugar, salt, and fat. He also hinted however that he government will not seek regulation of drink and food advertising and marketing.
Lansley emphasized that with the change of government it is time to change the approach as well by getting business to back the social movement and support the movement instead of forcing them to.
A spokeswoman from the Department of Health stated that a decision has not been made if the government will still spend any money on advertising in traditional manners.
Lansley did add that that there have been many contributions already such as the Advertising Association offering £200m in advertising space and services from 33 different partners.
 An inexpensive and simple blood test that can identify the presence of the Alzheimer’s gene as much as ten years before the symptoms show is being worked on by British scientists. If the dementia research is fruitful it could help doctors treat the disease and slow its progression with prescription drugs.
The test will hopefully be available for use within the next three years and would offer potential sufferers and their family’s time to prepare for what is to come in their future.
At the moment diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is based on brain scans and memory tests but absolute proof of the disease’s presence is only possible with examination of the patient’s brain after they pass away.
However, experts at King’s College London found that blood protein levels called clusterin start to increase years before the initial symptoms of Alzheimer’s first start to rear their head. The more clusterin there is in the brain, the more the brain shrinks causing people to become more forgetful.
Dr. Madhav Thambisetty, a researcher for the team, stated that the main goal of Alzheimer’s research has been to find an easy test that is inexpensive and able to accurately detect the presence of the disease as well as its progression.
Simon Lovestone, the head researcher stated that if accurate the test would prove to be as inexpensive as a bag of chips. He believes that it would be used with adults that have family medical history that points to the disease as well as those that have other conditions that often increase the chances of Alzheimer’s.
Commonly used painkillers like ibuprofen do not increase the risk of heart attack in the elderly population, according to a study.
Researchers found that the use of these drugs – also called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) – was also associated with a lower risk of death although they are not sure why.
Their findings – which appear in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology – were based on a study which looked at a nationwide hospital admission and pharmacy prescription database of 320,000 Australian veterans.
Researchers looked at anti-inflammatory drugs that – with the exception of ibuprofen – generally require a prescription.
Professor Arduino Mangoni, who recently joined the University of Aberdeen from Flinders University in Adelaide, led the study which was conducted in Australia and funded by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
He said: “Heart disease represents one of the main causes of death and long-term disability in the elderly population and the burden of heart disease is likely to increase in the future due to the progressive ageing of the population. Thinking up until now suggests that the use of anti-inflammatory drugs, for the management of pain and inflammation in a number of disorders affecting the musculoskeletal system, increases the risk of heart disease. Concerns over the potential risk associated with the use of NSAIDs have been expressed in a recent statement by the American Heart Association.”
“However, the evidence of a link between NSAIDs and heart disease is controversial as several studies have failed to demonstrate a significant increase in the risk. The existing controversy surrounding the association between NSAIDs and heart disease prompted this large-scale Australian study.
“Unlike previous studies we did not observe an increased risk of heart disease after considering NSAIDs as a whole, their sub-classes, and several individual drugs. In fact our study has demonstrated that the use of NSAIDs has overall a neutral effect on the risk of heart disease in a large elderly population with multiple co-existing medical conditions.”
“We also noted that the use of NSAIDs was associated with a reduction in all-cause mortality and there was a clear association with the number of prescriptions supplied in that the higher the number of prescriptions for NSAIDs the lower the risk of death.”
Professor Mangoni , Chair in Medicine of Old Age at the University of Aberdeen, believes the link between NSAIDs and mortality could be due to a number of factors.
“It could be that anti-inflammatory drugs could exert some protective effects towards heart disease and cancer, the two main killers in our ageing population. It might be that people on these drugs have better pain control and therefore have a less sedentary lifestyle. Or perhaps people on these drugs in our study were maybe generally healthier.”
Despite the findings Professor Mangoni would not advise people to take painkillers regularly unless they are necessary. Further prospective studies are urgently required to investigate the impact of NSAID use on these outcomes and the mechanisms involved.”
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New research points at alcohol consumption as a way to reduce stiffness, pain, and the joint damage that results from rheumatoid arthritis. The study also discovered that those who consume alcohol are less likely to have problems as a result from arthritis.
