Health

To remain young at heart, eat less. That’s the message drawn from new research out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where a team of scientists studied middle-aged mice that were put on a calorie-restricted diet. What they found were signs of a remarkable uptick in heart health in old age. “It looks like caloric restriction just retarded the whole aging process in the heart,” said one of the researchers. The new study provides evidence that — even starting in middle age — cutting calories can confer significant health benefits for the heart and extend its working life. It does so, according to the team’s results, by exerting influence on the genetic program that governs heart cells.

Today, even the best cancer treatments kill about as many healthy cells as they do cancer cells. But a St. Louis researcher has begun to lay the conceptual and experimental groundwork for a new strategy for chemotherapy — one that turns existing drugs into medicinal “smart bombs.” The approach is essentially a sophisticated drug releasing system, one that can recognize and use cancerous DNA sequences as triggering mechanisms for the drugs that fight them.

Researchers in Britain have developed a drug they say could revolutionize the effectiveness of radiation on cancer. Radiotherapy is used to destroy cancer cells by zapping their DNA, thus disrupting their ability to function and reproduce. But like other cells in the body, cancer cells have a sort of DNA repair kit that can minimize these effects. The new drug disables the DNA repair process and allows radiotherapy to target tumors with “deadly accuracy.”

A drug called pregabalin has been shown to be an effective and safe treatment for pain in patients with fibromyalgia, according to study data being presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology. The drug, Pregabalin, also was shown to improve sleep and fatigue levels, the data demonstrate. Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a chronic disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain that is frequently associated with fatigue and sleep disturbances. It is estimated to affect two percent of the population, or 5.6 million Americans, and occurs most frequently in women.

Regular exercise and a form of group talk therapy can alleviate some symptoms commonly associated with Gulf War veterans’ illnesses, according to newly released results of a study involving veterans who report such symptoms. Fatigue, distress, mental health, and mental ability all improved after three months of low-impact exercise, weekly group sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), or both together. The gains were significantly greater than those made by veterans who were given usual care. Physical function improved more in those who had CBT than in those who didn’t.

Many neurological diseases occur when specific groups of neurons die because of nerve damage, toxins, inflammation, or other factors. A new study suggests that activity of a single gene can stop neurons from dying regardless of what triggers this process. The findings could lead to new ways of treating neurodegenerative diseases.

A new study documents for the first time a significant difference in the way women and men describe their symptoms while they’re having a stroke. And that difference may be affecting how women receive emergency stroke treatment. On the whole, the study found, women were 62 percent more likely than men to say they were feeling sensations that aren’t on the list of “traditional” stroke symptoms. Because emergency responders and emergency room doctors often go by patients’ descriptions and the traditional symptom list when trying to diagnose and treat a suspected stroke, women’s symptoms may be overlooked during the precious hours when stroke therapies work best.