Big Families May Be Bad For Mom And Dad

University of Utah researchers say having a large number of offspring could be detrimental to the health of parents.

The study, based on data collected from 21,000 couples who lived in Utah between 1860 and 1985, said parents with higher numbers of children are more likely to have ill health and die younger, the BBC reported Tuesday. The study said this is especially acute in women.

The researchers said their findings may explain the occurrence of menopause, which ends the reproductive years of women.

"Menopause appears to allow mothers to live longer and rear more offspring to adulthood and this unusual life history probably evolved in our species because, as we found, offspring so extremely depend on their mother's survival," the researchers said.

The authors said the findings also explain why modern women tend to have fewer children than in the past.

"If women have generally incurred greater fitness costs of reproduction, this could explain why they generally prefer fewer offspring than their husbands and reduce their fertility when they obtain more reproductive autonomy."

Clean Air Challenge For Major Asian Cities

Hundreds of millions of city dwellers breathe air so polluted with chemicals, smoke and particles that it dramatically exceeds World Health Organization limits with major impacts on health and the environment.

A major study on the state of air pollution in 20 of Asia’s key cities shows that while there have been improvements in achieving better air quality, air pollution still poses a threat to health and quality of life of many people.

The study led by the Stockholm Environment Institute’s (SEI) centre at the University of York (UK) and the Clean Air Initiative for Asia Cities (CAI-Asia) was being published as Asian Environment Ministers held the first governmental meeting on urban air quality in Asia on 13-14 December in Yogyakarta, Indonesia as part of the Better Air Quality 2006 Workshop.

The World Health Organization estimates that 537,000 people in Southeast Asia and the Pacific die prematurely each year due to air pollution.

The study found that there has been a general improvement in the ability of Asia cities to manage urban air quality since the 1990s. But air quality in the majority of the cities examined still exceeds international guidelines for the protection of human health for certain pollutants. Concentrations of sulphur dioxide, the gas responsible for acid rain, have stabilized at a relative low level and rarely exceed health guidelines. However, the use of high sulphur fuel content in some countries may result in an increase in emissions.

Emissions of nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter, mainly from the transport sector, are of concern in all cities currently experiencing rapid motorization. In addition, tropospheric ozone, a main constituent of photochemical smog, will increase if motor vehicle use continues to rise.

The study examined the capability to manage air quality and collected air quality data for Bangkok, Beijing, Busan, Colombo, Dhaka, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kathmandu, Kolkata, Metro Manila, Mumbai, New Delhi, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Surabaya, Taipei and Tokyo.

The assessment showed that while there are underlying similarities in the air pollution problems in each city, many differences still exist.

Bangkok, Seoul, Shanghai and Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo were identified as having excellent capacity to manage air quality. These cities have achieved major reductions in key emissions but still face the challenge of addressing moderate fine particulate pollution resulting from vehicles fumes.

Colombo, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Metro Manila and Mumbai were identified as having moderate capability in air quality management. They have achieved reductions in sulphur dioxide emissions but have the challenge of addressing transport-related emissions.

Dhaka, Hanoi, Surabaya and Kathmandu were identified has having limited capability to manage air quality. Air pollution data was limited for key pollutants. These cities have the challenge of improving air quality monitoring as well as further achieving reductions in emissions.

Dr Dieter Schwela, SEI, lead author, said: "Some cities have made tremendous progress in improving their air quality. However, more work needs to be done to address specific pollutants such as fine particulate matter which poses a real threat to human health."

"The study has shown that there is a great opportunity for those cities which need to develop further their air quality management capability to learn from cities such as Hong Kong and Tokyo that are further along the road to achieving better air quality."

The study’s authors recommend further action is required to improve air quality in Asia’s cities which include:

1) Taking a more strategic approach to managing air quality to include all aspects of the problem.

2) Adopting more stringent vehicle emission standards.

3) Using more cleaner fuels for motor vehicles, industry and power plants.

4) Better inspection and source of emissions.

5) Stricter enforcement of legislation and more stringent standards for air quality.

6) Harmonization of air quality standards across Asia.

7) Development of more reliable inventories of air pollution emissions.

8) Regional approach to air pollution to address transboundary air pollution and global climate change.

Potential Alzheimer's Disease Treatment Discovered In Wales, UK

An antibody with the potential to block production of the brain chemical linked to Alzheimer's disease has been developed by researchers at Cardiff University in Wales, UK. The research is published today in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

There is no known cure or preventative treatment for Alzheimer's disease, a debilitating illness affecting one in 20 people over the age of 65 and one in five over the age of 80 in the UK. Worldwide, the disease afflicts more than 12 million people. Alzheimer's causes a distressing, irreversible and progressive loss of brain function and memory.

A team led by Dr. Emma Kidd at Cardiff University's Welsh School of Pharmacy made the discovery during research funded by the Alzheimer's Society, the UK's leading care and research charity for Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia.

The results of the study show that it is possible to decrease production of a small protein called *-amyloid (A*), which is believed to be the main cause of the disease. Deposits of A* build up in the brain, preventing it from functioning properly.

The team has developed an antibody that binds to a naturally occurring protein in the brain, amyloid precursor protein (APP), preventing the production of A*. The antibody blocks the access to APP of an enzyme, b-secretase, crucial for the formation of Ab.

"Our results are highly encouraging at this stage," Dr. Kidd said. "We believe that our approach could lead in time to a new therapy for this distressing and debilitating disease as it should prevent or reduce the irreversible deterioration of a patient's memory and other brain functions. This would also reduce the burden on caretakers, usually family members, who look after patients in the earlier stages of the disease," she said.

"We also believe it is possible that our antibody could be used as a preventative treatment to protect people at high risk of Alzheimer's Disease through their family history or other factors," she said.

The work funded by the Alzheimer's Society research program, Quality Research In Dementia, was conducted on cultured cells in the laboratory. The team believes that a form of the antibody could be used as a treatment to reduce A* build-up in the brain, improving the patient's memory and quality of life. Any development of the antibody as a drug will take several years. The team is in the process of seeking funding for the next stage of development of the antibody.

The charity's Quality Research in Dementia program is led and steered by caretakers and people with dementia, who set the priorities. This ensures that funding only goes to projects with a potential for high impact on the lives of people with dementia and their caretakers.

Professor Clive Ballard, director of research at the Alzheimer's Society said: "We are thrilled to have been able to fund this innovative work. As a charity we rely on donations from the public and we hope people will understand how important it is to invest more in research into all types of dementia so that we eventually may have a selection of new treatments to change the lives of people with dementia and their caretakers."

A High-Protein Diet Can Be Good For The Heart

Traditional high-protein diets are heart killers, clogging the arteries with saturated fat from meat, eggs and cheese. But, according to a report from Harvard Medical School, a large study shows that there is such a thing as a heart-healthy high-protein diet that can lower harmful LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure.

The diet described in Healthy Eating: A Guide to the New Nutrition offers a healthful alternative to the old-fashioned Atkins-style diets that ooze artery-clogging saturated fat with every bite. Instead, this eating plan, one of several studied in the OmniHeart trial, includes high-protein foods from both animal and plant sources that are lower in saturated fat. Along with chicken and fish, dietary sources of protein include nuts, beans, whole-grain cereals and fat-free dairy products.

A high-protein diet doesn't have to be all steak and eggs, according to Dr. Frank M. Sacks, the editor of the report and Professor of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Harvard Medical School. And not all low-carb diets are the same. The most successful diet plans of any type have certain elements in common, including an emphasis on vegetables, fruits and whole grains.

Healthy Eating is a 48-page report that includes a full discussion of the latest scientific developments in the field of nutrition. Diet influences your risk for many diseases and conditions, including heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, eye disease and some forms of cancer. The report includes information on what foods can help protect you from certain diseases -- or make you more prone to them.

Genetics Predicts Toxicity Following Blood And Marrow Transplantation

The outlook for cancer patients treated with blood and marrow transplantation (BMT) for fatal blood cancers is much brighter today based on research conducted at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), Theresa E. Hahn, PhD, Department of Medicine, explained at the 48th Annual Meeting & Exposition of the American Society of Hematology, in Orlando, FL.

BMT is used to cure leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma; however, the therapy can be associated with high levels of toxicity. "Mortality due to conditioning regimen-related toxicity has decreased over the past decade," notes Dr. Hahn, "but it is still a major limitation for both autologous and allogeneic BMT."

Dr. Hahn, in collaboration with Christine B. Ambrosone, PhD (Epidemiology/ Prevention), and Philip L. McCarthy, Jr., MD (Medicine), found that the genetic makeup of patients can predict who develops toxicity following the high doses of chemotherapy and/or radiation given prior to BMT, and whether their toxicity is likely to be moderate, severe or fatal. This finding has the potential to improve outcomes by allowing individualized conditioning regimens.

The research team performed a genotype analysis of blood and bone marrow samples from 268 BMT patients to determine whether the presence or absence of two glutathione-S-transferase isoenzymes could predict which patients would develop toxicity.

"These enzymes metabolize and detoxify many chemotherapeutic drugs and radiation," explains Dr. Hahn. "Genotype analysis demonstrated that genetic variability affecting the activity of these enzymes in patients can predict which patients will develop toxicity."

New Approach Targets Brain Cancer Stem Cells

A Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) neuroscientist at the University of Queensland has co-discovered a much-needed new approach to treating brain tumours.

In research published in Nature, QBI's Professor Brent Reynolds together with colleagues in Italy and USA have identified a protein that dramatically inhibits brain cancer stem cells in laboratory animals.

Professor Reynolds said brain cancer kills more than 1200 Australians annually and any treatment that inhibits the growth of brain tumours would likely lead to a better patient prognosis.

"We have discovered that the naturally occurring molecule, bone morphogenetic protein-4 (BMP4), appears to target the cells responsible for brain tumour initiation and long-term progression," Professor Reynolds said.

"The morbidity rate for patients with certain types of brain tumours is often tragically high, with a life expectancy of less than a year."

Currently doctors treat brain tumours with a combination of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy or steroid therapy.

Significantly, when the international team studied mice implanted with cells from a human brain tumour, the BMP4 protein was shown to inhibit tumour growth and extend their life.

Alternatively, all animals that received a placebo in place of BMP4 died within three months.

The US scientist who first isolated a tumour stem cell from the human brain, Professor Dennis Steindler, Executive Director of the McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Florida, said the approach of the Reynolds team and their collaborators was both novel and important.

"This will be one of the first studies to apply insights from the molecular biology of cancer stem cells to a potentially new therapeutic approach for treating primary human brain cancers," Professor Steindler said.

Given the strength of these results, Professor Reynolds said he and his colleagues were working to develop the use of BMP4 for future clinical trials.

Anti-smoking 'Wonder Pill' Launched In UK

An anti-smoking 'wonder-pill' that claims to be the most effective treatment yet was launched on Tuesday. Nearly half of the patients who took Champix gave up in just three months, making it twice as successful as other methods.

The drug - costing £2 a day - works in a unique way on the pleasure centre of the brain to cut the satisfaction smokers get from cigarettes. This means those people taking the drug have a lapse and smoke a cigarette, they'll find it less enjoyable and are more likely to carry on trying to quit.

The pill also provides relief from cravings and withdrawal symptoms and doubles the odds of quitting compared with other oral medications available.

After three months of treatment, 44% of patients using Champix had given up compared with 30% taking Zyban, the current gold standard anti-smoking drug. Around one in five smokers who start using Champix will still be shunning cigarettes a year later.

Synthetic Pot May Aid Fertility

A reproductive medicine specialist at the University at Buffalo has shown that a new compound may improve the fertility of tobacco smokers who have low sperm count and low percentage sperm motility. The sperm from male smokers were washed with a synthetic chemical called AM-1346. After incubation, there was a doubling in the fertilising capacity of sperm from poor quality semen, results showed. Lani Burkman and colleagues presented the findings at the 2006 meeting of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine held in New Orleans.

Abortion Chemical May Prevent Breast And Ovarian Cancer

Mifepristone, also known as RU-486, which is used to abort pregnancy, could be used to halt the development of certain cancers, including breast and ovarian cancers, say researchers form the University of California at Irvine, USA.

Mifepristone blocks the action of progesterone during the first three months of pregnancy, effectively leading to the death of the embryo/foetus. Progesterone is also nourishment for some types of cancer, without which they cannot grow. At a lower dose, Mifepristone can also be an emergency contraceptive.

The researchers, after carrying out studies on mice, believe that RU-486 may be beneficial for women who have a genetic propensity to developing cancer. Over 50% of women who carry a faulty BRCA1 gene will have either breast or ovarian cancer by their 70th birthday.

In this study, the scientists examined mice which had been genetically engineered to lack the BRCA1 gene. They discovered that the mammary glands of these mice built up more progesterone receptors. Progesterone receptors are molecules that allow progesterone to become effective. The progesterone attaches itself to these receptors and encourages cells to grow abnormally. All the mice had tumours by the time they were eight months' old.

However, half the genetically engineered mice had been treated with mifepristone - and none of these mice went on to develop tumors.

The trouble is, say the scientists, that mifepristone has an effect on other receptors as well. Meaning, mifepristone has some unpleasant side effects. They plan further research which might eventually target just the progesterone blocking action. This could lead to treatment which would prevent breast and ovarian cancers among women who carry the faulty BRCA1 gene.