Health News: New concussion treatment could change how head injuries are treated ♦ Happiness and unhappiness have no direct effect on mortality ♦ New blood test could predict arthritis risk early

Prime-boost H7N9 influenza vaccine concept promising in clinical trial With hopes of making one dose of an inactivated H7N9 vaccine fully protective, scientists successfully tested a prime-boost concept in a small clinical trial. The 'primer' vaccine introduces the immune system to H7N9 influenza virus, and subsequent vaccination with the 'booster' inactivated virus vaccine promotes a better immune response.

New blood test could predict arthritis risk early Testing for antibodies that target citrullinated tenascin-C (cTNC) could diagnose rheumatoid arthritis in around 50 percent of cases, including some cases not identified by current best tests. It also has a very low rate of false positives -- 98 percent accurate at ruling out rheumatoid arthritis.

New concussion treatment could change how head injuries are treated The standard of care for acute concussion may undergo a dramatic change, depending on the results of a new exercise treatment that physicians have developed and begun testing. It is the first randomized, controlled clinical trial of this exercise treatment for concussion.

Happiness and unhappiness have no direct effect on mortality Happiness itself has no direct effect on mortality, a study of a million UK women has shown. Further, the widespread but mistaken belief that unhappiness and stress directly cause ill health came from studies that had simply confused cause and effect,

Health News:Discovery could open door to frozen preservation of whole organs ♦ New strategy discovered for treating arthritis ♦ Can physical exercise enhance long-term memory?

Discovery could open door to frozen preservation of tissues, whole organs A new approach to 'vitrification,' or ice-free cryopreservation, has been discovered, which could ultimately allow a much wider use of extreme cold to preserve tissues and even organs for later use.

New strategy discovered for treating arthritis Arthritis patients could one day benefit from a novel form of medicine, according to researchers. Arthritic cartilage, previously thought to be impenetrable to therapies, could be treated by a patient's own 'microvesicles' that are able to travel into cartilage cells and deliver therapeutic agents.

Certain factors may help identify patients for surgical procedure for obstructive sleep apnea Patients with more severe obstructive sleep apnea are more likely to receive greater benefit from the surgical procedure known as maxillomandibular advancement,

Can physical exercise enhance long-term memory? Exercise can enhance the development of new brain cells in the adult brain, a process called adult neurogenesis. These newborn brain cells play an important role in learning and memory. Mice that spent time running on wheels not only developed twice the normal number of new neurons, but also showed an increased ability to distinguish new objects from familiar objects

Arthritis Research: Ozone gas injections may do the trick for knee osteoarthritis sufferers ♦ Body mass index may be a key to achieving sustained remission in early rheumatoid arthritis

Is treat-to-target really working for people with rheumatoid arthritis A new study shows that treating rheumatoid arthritis patients toward a target of remission or low disease activity works immediately and leads to higher remission rates

Body mass index may be a key to achieving sustained remission in early rheumatoid arthritis Being overweight or obese can reduce the likelihood of achieving sustained remission of early rheumatoid arthritis, according to new research findings.

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of physical therapy for knee osteoarthritis Spacing exercise-based physical therapy sessions over a 12-month period while using three additional “booster” sessions periodically has been shown to be more cost effective than alternative physical therapy strategies in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.

Ozone gas injections may do the trick for knee osteoarthritis sufferers Injecting ozone gas into the knee reduces pain and improves functioning and quality of life in people with knee osteoarthritis,

Arthritis Research:Tai Chi found to be as effective as physical therapy for knee osteoarthritis ♦ Pedometers: The new prescription for rheumatoid arthritis ♦ Chrondroitin outperforms celecoxib

Chrondroitin outperforms celecoxib in knee osteoarthritis study For the first time, chondroitin sulfate has been more successful than celecoxib in reducing the long-term progression of knee osteoarthritis .

Body mass index may be a key to achieving sustained remission in early arthritisrheumatoid Being overweight or obese can reduce the likelihood of achieving sustained remission of early rheumatoid arthritis.

Pedometers: The new prescription for rheumatoid arthritis Using a pedometer to measure the number of steps one takes in a day has been linked to lower fatigue in persons with rheumatoid arthritis.

Tai Chi found to be as effective as physical therapy for knee osteoarthritis

Both Tai Chi and physical therapy positively impact pain, function and other symptoms of knee osteoarthritis – making Tai Chi a viable treatment alternative for people suffering with the degenerative disease.

Health News: Study links marijuana use to poor blood sugar control ♦ Yoga improves arthritis symptoms, mood, ♦ Number of people at high risk of fracture set to double by 2040

Analysis of 21 studies shows exposure to pesticides is associated with increased risk of developing diabetes A meta-analysis of 21 studies shows that exposure to pesticides is associated with increased risk of developing diabetes by 61 percent, with different types of pesticides showing varying levels of risk.

Study links marijuana use to poor blood sugar control in middle age Current and former users of marijuana are more likely to have prediabetes -- the state of poor blood sugar control that can progress to type 2 diabetes -- than never users of marijuana. However the researchers failed to establish a direct link between marijuana use and type 2 diabetes.

Yoga improves arthritis symptoms, mood,  Yoga can be safe and effective for people with arthritis, a randomized trial of people with two common forms of arthritis has found. The researchers report that eight weeks of yoga classes improved the physical and mental well being of people with two common forms of arthritis, knee osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis

Spleen may provide new target for treating stroke's debilitating chronic inflammation Stroke injures the brain, but a new study indicates an abdominal organ that plays a vital role in immune function, the spleen, may be a target for treating stroke-induced chronic inflammation leading to further brain cell death.

Number of people at high risk of fracture set to double by 2040 A new study projects a dramatic increase in the burden of fragility fractures within the next three decades. By 2040, approximately 319 million people will be at high risk of fracture -- double the numbers considered at high risk today.

Health Research: High intensity training helps ease arthritis pains,♦ Evolutionary link between diet, stomach acidity ♦ Climbing a tree can improve cognitive skills

Evolutionary link between diet, stomach acidity An analysis of data on stomach acidity and diet in birds and mammals suggests that high levels of stomach acidity developed not to help animals break down food, but to defend animals against food poisoning. The work raises interesting questions about the evolution of stomach acidity in humans, and how modern life may be affecting both our stomach acidity and the microbial communities that live in our guts.

Bioethicists call for end to 'pay-to-play' clinical research Charging people to participate in research studies is likely to undermine the fundamental ethical basis of clinical research, according to a new paper written by bioethicists. The paper outlines the arguments for and against the concept of "pay-to-play" research, ultimately concluding that this type of approach compromises the overall integrity of clinical research

Colonoscopies of the future: Adjustable-focus endoscope helps to reduce discomfort An endoscopic probe that delivers adjustable-focus capabilities in a slimmer package has been developed by researchers. The findings could ultimately facilitate more effective and less painful imaging of internal tissues.

Climbing a tree can improve cognitive skills, Climbing a tree and balancing on a beam can dramatically improve cognitive skills, according to a study. The findings suggest working memory improvements can be made in just a couple of hours of these types of physical exercises.

High intensity training helps ease arthritis pains Arthritis: it’s a disease that sneaks up on you. Fingers and toes slowly but surely become stiff and painful. A nice morning stretch is no longer all it takes to get your body moving. Arthritis is a chronic illness that sinks its claws into your body, and causes inflammation in your joints. It can destroy your joints, which causes weakness and loss of movement. New research suggests that high intensity training can help with the pain that the illness provides.

Cardiovascular Research: Blood vessels can actually get better with age ♦ Inflammatory link discovered between arthritis, heart valve disease ♦ Lower risk treatment for blood clots

Lower risk treatment for blood clots 'empowers' patients, improves care Emergency department researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine found positive results and cost savings from treating patients with potentially fatal blood clots with rivaroxaban versus heparin and warfarin.

Inflammatory link discovered between arthritis, heart valve disease Researchers have used models to identify a potential link between excess production of inflammatory proteins that cause rheumatoid arthritis and the development of heart valve disease. The research team discovered that a critical inflammatory protein involved in rheumatoid arthritis could also lead to inflammation and disease of the heart valves, including aneurysms. The research could lead to improved treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, and suggests investigating existing medicines that dampen inflammation to treat heart valve diseases, such as rheumatic heart disease

Blood vessels can actually get better with age Oxidative stress has been linked to cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases including diabetes, hypertension and age-related cancers. However, researchers recently found that aging actually offered significant protection against oxidative stress. These findings suggest that aging may trigger an adaptive response to counteract the effects of oxidative stress on blood vessels.

The earlier the better: bystanders save lives with CPR for cardiac arrest Sudden cardiac arrest kills an estimated 200,000 people a year in the United States, but many of those lives could be saved if ordinary bystanders simply performed CPR, a new study shows. The early application of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by an average person nearby, combined with defibrillation by firefighters or police before the arrival of emergency medical services (EMS), was the one intervention that substantially increased survival from cardiac arrest, according to new findings.

Health News :3D-printed “smart cap” uses electronics to sense spoiled food ♦ Common mental health drug could be used to treat arthritis ♦ New malaria treatment thwarts parasite resistance

3D-printed “smart cap” uses electronics to sense spoiled food  Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, in collaboration with colleagues at Taiwan's National Chiao Tung University, are expanding the already impressive portfolio of 3D printing technology to include

Common mental health drug could be used to treat arthritis Lithium chloride which is used as a mood stabiliser in the treatment of mental health problems, mainly bipolar disorder, could be used to treat arthritis according to a new study.

Human activities are jeopardizing Earth's natural systems, health of future generations A new report calls for immediate, global action to protect the health of human civilization and the natural systems on which it depends. The report provides the first ever comprehensive examination of evidence showing how the health and well-being of future generations is being jeopardized by the unprecedented degradation of the planet's natural resources and ecological systems.

New limb-lengthening technique is less cumbersome for patients A highly specialized procedure that lengthens bones can prevent the need for amputations in selected patients who have suffered severe fractures. And now a new study has found that an alternative limb-lengthening technique makes the long recovery process less cumbersome -- while still providing good-to-excellent outcomes.

New malaria treatment thwarts parasite resistance As increasing resistance in parasites undermines the effectiveness of current drugs, two new compounds are raising hopes in the ongoing battle against malaria, scientists report.

Children's Health: Music training alters the teenage brain ♦ For kids with injured ankles, less treatment may be more ♦ Antibiotic exposure could increase the risk of juvenile arthritis

How music training alters the teenage brain Music training, begun as late as high school, may help improve the teenage brain's responses to sound and sharpen hearing and language skills, suggests a new study. The authors say that these results highlight music's place in the high school curriculum.

Teens' overall substance use declining, but marijuana use rising Marijuana use in teenagers is on the rise, while cigarette and alcohol use are stable or declining, according to health statistics researchers. In particular, black teens are using more marijuana than in recent decades.

For kids with injured ankles, less treatment may be more Emergency physicians can safely reduce X-rays in children with hurt ankles by as much as 23 percent and save emergency patients both money and time.

Antibiotic exposure could increase the risk of juvenile arthritis Taking antibiotics may increase the risk that a child will develop juvenile arthritis, according to a study. Researchers found that children who were prescribed antibiotics had twice the risk of developing juvenile arthritis compared to children the same age who were not prescribed antibiotics. The more courses of antibiotics prescribed, the higher the associated risk.

Childrens Health:Kids with ADHD must squirm to learn ♦ Literacy app improves school readiness ♦ Childhood syndrome combining lung disease, arthritis

Kids with ADHD must squirm to learn  Excessive movement common among children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is actually vital to how they remember information and work out complex cognitive tasks. The findings show the longtime prevailing methods for helping children with ADHD may be misguided.

Literacy app improves school readiness in at-risk preschoolers Using mobile apps in preschool classrooms may help improve early literacy skills and boost school readiness for low-income children. Guided use of an educational app may be a source of motivation and engagement for children in their early years The purpose of our study was to examine if a motivating app could accelerate children's learning,

Frequent indoor tanning among teens shows correlation with smoking More than a third of New Jersey high school students who engage in indoor tanning do so frequently and many would find it hard to stop the practice. Investigators also found that they were more likely to smoke and to engage in social media activities related to indoor tanning.

Childhood syndrome combining lung disease, arthritis identified A research team has identified a new autoimmune syndrome characterized by a combination of severe lung disease and arthritis. The hereditary disorder, which appears in early childhood, had never been diagnosed as a single syndrome. The new research revealed that it is caused by mutations in a single gene that disrupt how proteins are shuttled around within cells. Patients with the newly discovered syndrome have a poor prognosis, and at present can only be treated with anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant drugs. Many have lung disease so severe that they must receive lung transplants.

2/16/15 Health News: Seafood Contains Plastic--Restaurant Manager Jailed After Death--Bacteria prevalent in delis--Alligator blood helps soldiers-- Smoking impairs inflammatory back arthritis

UK Restaurant Manager, Chef Jailed After Deadly Food Poisoning Following a 2012 Christmas Day turkey dinner at a London-area pub that sickened approximately 33 people and may have killed one of them, the manager and chef were recently sentenced to jail terms. Chef Mehmet Kaya and Manager Ann-Marie McSweeney of the Railway Hotel in Hornchurch, Essex (east of London) were convicted of lying to... Continue Reading

Ocean plastic is likely disappearing into the food chain, new study indicates When I tell people that we have a problem with too much plastic in our oceans, many invariably say how shocked they were when they heard about vast swirling islands of trash that accumulate in the oceans’ gyres. I wish this was the full extent of the problem. It is not. Continue Reading

Listeria pathogen is prevalent, persistent in retail delis New research shows that standard cleaning procedures in retail delis may not eradicate Listeria monocytogenes bacteria, which can cause a potentially fatal disease in people with Continue Reading,

Alligator blood contains naturally strong germ fighters Alligator blood contains bacteria fighters that could help wounded soldiers in the field, according to new research. Alligators live in bacteria-filled environments and dine on carrion. Continue Reading

Smoking impairs treatment response in inflammatory back arthritis Smoking impairs the response to biological drugs used to treat inflammatory arthritis affecting the lower back, known as axial spondyloarthritis, or AxSpA, for short, new research reveals Continue Reading

Juvenile Arthritis: New Treatments

Arthritis is a disease that mostly affects older people, right? Not necessarily.

Juvenile arthritis is one of the most common chronic illnesses affecting children. In fact, nearly 300,000 youngsters nationwide have been diagnosed with the disease. The most common symptoms include joint pain, inflammation (swelling), tenderness and stiffness. One early sign may be limping in the morning.

Nikolay Nikolov, a rheumatologist and clinical team leader at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), says that children with juvenile arthritis and their parents have reason to be optimistic. In the last several years, new therapies have been developed by drug companies and approved by the FDA that moderate the effects and control the disease, likely preventing significant disability in later years.

While no one knows exactly what causes juvenile arthritis, scientists do know it is an autoimmune disorder. The immune system, which normally helps the body fight infection, attacks the body’s own tissue.

There are several subgroups of juvenile arthritis. Known collectively as Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA), these diseases start before age 16 and cause swelling in one or more joints lasting at least six weeks.

JIA affects large joints such as knees, wrists, and ankles as well as small joints. Polyarticular JIA, the largest JIA subgroup, affects many joints. Another subgroup is Systemic JIA, which affects the whole body, and usually causes fever and skin rashes.

In the past, the first line of treatment for children with juvenile arthritis has been to relieve pain and inflammation with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin and ibuprofen. Children with severe juvenile arthritis have been treated also with drugs that suppress the body’s immune response such as corticosteroids and methotrexate.

But polyarticular and systemic JIA are now also treated with newer medicines called biologics, which are manufactured in or extracted from biological sources.

New Treatments for Juvenile Arthritis

“As science at the molecular level has advanced, we’ve learned more about what drives arthritis—the mechanism of the disease—and we are able to identify important targets,” Nikolov says.

These targets include cytokines (molecules that control and drive inflammation in the body) such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukins (IL), and other naturally occurring proteins involved in stimulating the body’s immune response. Biologics used in the treatment of juvenile arthritis are generally given intravenously or subcutaneously (under the skin), and usually are taken for years. Different biologics tend to work better for different subgroups of the disease. In recent years, FDA has approved several of these treatments. Here are their names, the type of JIA they treat and approval dates:

• Humira (adalimumab) for polyarticular JIA, February, 2008
• Orencia (abatacept) for polyarticular JIA, April, 2008
• Enbrel (etanercept) for polyarticular JIA, June, 2008
• Actemra (tocilizumab) for systemic JIA, April 2011 and polyarticular JIA, April 2013
• Ilaris (canakinumab) for systemic JIA, May 2013.

“In addition to improving the signs, symptoms and physical functioning of patients, many of these biologics have been shown to reduce joint destruction in adults with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a disease that is related to juvenile arthritis, and thus to change the natural history of the disease,” Nikolov says.

While researchers don’t yet have a lot of long-term safety information on use of these drugs in children, there is significant experience with their use in adults with RA. Biologics used for the treatment of patients with juvenile arthritis are potent drugs that suppress the immune system and can increase the risk of serious infections, including opportunistic (unusual) infections and tuberculosis.

Expanding Use of New Treatments to Children

When a drug is found to benefit adults with RA in large clinical trials, drug manufacturers may study it in children with juvenile arthritis to find out if the drug works for them too. In addition, FDA considers the known and potential risks of the drug to determine whether its benefits in treating juvenile arthritis outweigh these risks.

“It’s possible that safety issues might come up in kids that we have not found in adults. For example, these drugs may affect the developing body and immune system in children, and that may warrant changes in the labels to let both healthcare providers and patients know what are the risks involved, and how to recognize and respond to potential problems,” Nikolov says.

Meantime, scientists continue to work on improving existing treatments for children and search for new treatments that will work better with fewer side effects.

“We don’t have a cure for juvenile arthritis—we’re not there yet,” says Nikolov. “But we’re making progress.”