Women who suffer from migraines may take at least some comfort in a recent, first-of-its-kind study that suggests a history of such headaches is associated with a significantly lower risk of breast cancer. Christopher I. Li, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center report these findings in the November issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

“We found that, overall, women who had a history of migraines had a 30 percent lower risk of breast cancer compared to women who did not have a history of such headaches,” said Li, a breast-cancer epidemiologist and associate member of the Hutchinson Center’s Public Health Sciences Division.

In particular, migraine history appeared to reduce the risk of the most common subtypes of breast cancer: those that are estrogen-receptor and/or progesterone-receptor positive. Such tumors have estrogen and/or progesterone receptors, or docking sites, on the surface of their cells, which makes them more responsive to hormone-blocking drugs than tumors that lack such receptors.

The biological mechanism behind the association between migraines and breast cancer is not fully known, but Li and colleagues suspect that it has to do with fluctuations in levels of circulating hormones.
Read the rest of this entry »

Vitamin D levels in the body at the start of a low-calorie diet predict weight loss success, a new study found. The results, which suggest a possible role for vitamin D in weight loss, were presented at The Endocrine Society’s 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

“Vitamin D deficiency is associated with obesity, but it is not clear if inadequate vitamin D causes obesity or the other way around,” said the study’s lead author, Shalamar Sibley, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota.

In this study, the authors attempted to determine whether baseline vitamin D levels before calorie restriction affect subsequent weight loss. They measured circulating blood levels of vitamin D in 38 overweight men and women before and after the subjects followed a diet plan for 11 weeks consisting of 750 calories a day fewer than their estimated total needs. Subjects also had their fat distribution measured with DXA (bone densitometry) scans. Read the rest of this entry »

Surgeons once recommended weight-loss surgery only for severely obese patients who failed to drop pounds with conventional weight-loss methods, but a review now finds that bariatric surgery helps the moderately obese lose more weight, too.

“Until recently, only people with severe obesity with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 40 were considered for bariatric surgery,” said review author Jill Colquitt, Ph.D.

But studies, such as those included in this review, now examine the effects of surgery on people with a BMI of 30 to 40 who have diseases such as type 2 diabetes or hypertension that potentially could improve, said Colquitt, a senior research fellow at the University of Southampton, in England.

“We see a wide range of patients who consider surgery. The majority are people that attempted medical weight loss for years and decades without success, and they have an intimate understanding of what morbid obesity means to them in their life. They’re looking for a therapy that can give them some help,” said Peter Hallowell, M.D., an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Virginia. He has no affiliation with the review.

In the new review the third update of a 2002 review researchers led by Colquitt examined 26 previously published studies on bariatric surgery involving 5,766 patients. Five of the included trials took place in the United States. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday’s 19th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) conference in Helsinki reported a significant addition to the dwindling number of drugs in the fight against the hospital ‘Superbug’, Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

UK-based pharmaceutical company Destiny Pharma presented research into the rapid anti-bacterial activity of its latest platform of drugs against Staphylococcus aureus on the second day of the conference. Whilst the company’s lead anti-microbial XF-73 continues on course within Phase I/IIa clinical development, Destiny has now demonstrated the novel anti-bacterial mechanism of action of DPD-207. This is an example of its new platform of Metallo-Porphyrin (MP) drugs which has been proven to act in a similar manner to the XF drug platform. Read the rest of this entry »

Spring is in the air, and so is a lot of annoying pollen. That means many North Carolinians are sniffling and sneezing as their eyes water and throats scratch. It’s estimated that 1 in 5 people suffers from allergic rhinitis.

“The most common allergens right now are tree pollens,” says Dr. Maya Jerath, an assistant professor in the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, director of the Adult Allergy Clinic there and member of the UNC Thurston Arthritis Research Center.

But don’t blame pine pollen, which covers most of the Old North State with a green dust this time of year.

“People attribute their allergies to pine pollen because it’s visible, but it’s actually too large to cause allergies,” Jerath explains. “It’s the other trees blooming at the same time like maple, oak and birch.”

Allergy season lasts from late February to late April, but most people suffer only for a couple of weeks while the tree they’re sensitive to is in bloom. Folks with multiple allergies may experience symptoms longer, however.

Most allergy sufferers can find relief from an over-the-counter antihistamine. “Medicines containing diphenhydramine like Benadryl are very effective,” Jerath says. “But, these act for a short period of time, and they can make you sleepy.” Longer-lasting alternatives are loratidine (Claritin) or cetirizine (Zyrtec), which typically don’t cause drowsiness and come in once-a-day formulas. Read the rest of this entry »

A Sydney allergy practice has found an ‘overwhelming majority’ of a group of patients who developed a rare allergy to red meat had previously had an adverse reaction to tick bites.

Clinical Immunologists, Drs Sheryl van Nunen and Suran Fernando and colleagues, of Royal North Shore Hospital, found that 24 of 25 patients who presented with a history of allergic reaction to red meat also reported large local reactions to tick bites.

“Seventeen of the 25 had a severe reaction to the bite, such as tongue swelling, throat constriction or shortness of breath,” Dr Fernando said. Read the rest of this entry »