Testing It Up

If you’ve ever used the party drug ecstasy you may want to get your health looked at. According to new research users of the drug have 8 times the likelihood of developing sleep apnea as those who hadn’t. This joins the information that ecstasy may harm the mind’s ability to do cognitive thought. Sleep apnea affects an estimated 15 million Americans and is a common disorder that causes pauses in breathing during sleep.

Researchers used a sleep lab to study a group of 71 people who had used at least 25 tabs of the drug recreationally (but were drug free for two weeks prior to the study) and 62 healthy people who hadn’t taken the drug. Users of ecstasy had upwards of eight times the risk of apnea or hypoapnea (shallow breathing) episodes while asleep than those who had no exposure to the drug. While many of those studied had a low grade form of apnea only users of the drug had moderate or severe apnea. Those who had used more of the drug than others also had an increased likelihood of having the problem. The rate of apnea was higher in ecstasy users than even those who were obese.

Ecstasy is a selective brain serotonin neurotoxin, and sleep apnea may be a consequence of this effect, according to the researchers.  “Brain serotonin neurons modulate sleep and breathing patterns through a variety of mechanisms,”

Serotonin is a chemical that helps relay signals from one cell to another and is a part of a variety of psychological and other body functions. According to researchers in the study the drug is a risk factor for sleep apnea in healthy young adults regardless of age, gender, race, and obesity. Both the use of ecstasy and the number of sleep apnea cases have risen to near epidemic levels in recent years and have doctors and scientists concerned for the safety of the public.

A Silicon Valley start-up is claiming that it can help eradicate more than 100 genetic disorders by alerting parents-to-be who have the carrier genes before they conceive. Counsyl, is a company that is selling a test that they claim is  able to tell couples whether they are at risk of having children with a range of inherited diseases, such as  cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs, sickle cell anemia, spinal muscular atrophy and Pompe disease. Once these parents are told about the traits they carry they can move forward using in vitro fertilization combined with genetic testing of the embryos to avoid bearing children who would have these incurable and commonly fatal childhood diseases.

While there are already tests available to look for certain genetic disorders many others aren’t able to be detected by current testing and leave parents in the dark until their child has already become ill. These tests are also very cost prohibitive ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars. The Counsyl test costs $349 for an individual or $698 for a couple and analyzes DNA from saliva samples. The test, if it proves effective, could make help many families to overcome long standing fertility and genetic issues that made having children a painful experience. As yet the ability of the tests remain unknown however because no papers have been printed about its results or approach. Despite this Counsyl claims that it has already administered thousands of the tests which are already offered by more than 100 fertility clinics around the country.

Counsyl executives say 35 to 40 percent of people tested are carriers for at least one disease in the test. In about 0.6 percent to 0.8 percent of cases, they say, both members of the couple are carriers for the same disease.

Doctors now say that the popular home version of the fetal monitoring device used by doctors may actually make it more likely a mother will wait to seek treatment than if she had gone without it. The false sense of security these monitors offer is to blame, causing mothers to wait unaware that the machine may not be catching their child’s heartbeat but their own among other dangers. This very thing happened to one mother who waited several days to seek medical help believing that she heard the steady heartbeat of her child, prompting the warning.

Fetal heart monitors are not always valid ultrasound machines and regardless of quality shouldn’t be treated as a valid way to monitor a baby’s safety and wellbeing. Some companies make the entertainment purposes of these machines clear while others don’t, the child’s safety is at risk if the parents don’t seek help when it is needed.

While the fetal heart rate is part of the overall safety and health status of an unborn baby it’s only a small part and without training can very easily be misheard or misconstrued as normal. If there are any major changes in the overall movement of the baby, the way you feel or there are any signs that make you concerned for the safety of your child it’s best to seek medical care right away to verify the health of the child and yourself. While home monitors can be a great way of listening to the child they should be regarded as the entertainment and interaction tools they are.

The A (H1N1) virus is a disease that caused a stir all throughout the world. With many people afflicted with the condition, everybody has to take the necessary precaution. Question is: Who is more susceptible to the disease.

Anyone may actually have the infection. But, there are four groups who are at higher risk from the A (H1N1) virus. These are: the children and elderly; health care providers; people with existing medical conditions; and pregnant women.

Children below the age of 5 and elders 65 years old and above are more susceptible to the condition than individuals in other age groups. This is because their immune systems do not have the required antibodies to prevent the virus from spreading. As for health care providers, the risk is attached to the nature of the job. Since they deal with sick people, their exposure to the condition is increased.

People with medical conditions such as diabetes, chronic pulmonary diseases, cardiovascular disorders and diabetes mellitus are at high risk of acquiring A (H1N1). Additionally, those with hematological and hepatic conditions are also prone to having the disorder. Pregnant women in their third trimester are not exempted from acquiring the condition as well.

For full version of this article, please visit “Who is at Risk from A (H1N1) Virus?“.

Hormonal imbalance, once a condition seen as a problem solely affecting menopausal women, is now a growing concern that afflicts both men and women. The one way by which it can be determined if a person has a hormonal imbalance is by going through hormonal imbalance testing.

Testing for hormonal imbalance has its pros and cons. Among the advantages of testing for hormonal imbalance is that you would know at once whether you are afflicted by it or not. It is not invasive and it can easily tell you indicators about your health and fertility.

However, it also has disadvantages, which include the fact that blood tests can be inaccurate because of many different factors such as stress. Your doctor can also generalize the problem instead of using the results of the test to pinpoint what exactly is causing the hormonal imbalance. Also, hormonal imbalance testing is not exactly cheap.

For full version of this article, please visit “Pros and Cons of Hormone Imbalance Testing“.

Now that the swine flu has begun to affect US citizens many are beginning to relax about the virus thinking that its effects won’t be as serious as first laid out by the World Health Organization earlier this year. For some this presumption may be true but for others who are at much higher risk of developing the virus, like small children, ignoring the early warning signs can be deadly.

What are those signs and what should parents look out for? There are many children who have the virus and come away with little harm but for others the symptoms worsened quickly and overcame them before the parent truly realized anything serious was going on.

If any of the following warning signs develop seek an ER quickly!

• Lack of Thirst
• Fast or Labored Breathing
• Blue Tinged Skin
• Fever Accompanied by Rash
• Grouchiness and Avoidance of Being Handled or Held
• Doesn’t Wake up Easily and Acts Listless and Unresponsive
• Improved Symptoms that Return as Fever and a Worsened Cough

Children who fall under the following categories are at highest risk:

• Are Younger Than 5
• Who Have High Risk Conditions Like Asthma or Other Lung Issues
• Cerebral Palsy
• Neurological Diseases Like Epilepsy
• Liver, Heart or Kidney Problems
• Diabetes

Even if your child has none of these issues keep a very close eye on them if they develop flu symptoms, at least 1/3 of the children who passed away had no underlying health problems to worsen the virus. If at all possible it’s best if you get your child immunized for both types of flu. It’s fine to keep your child home with cold or flu symptoms but if they worsen in any way they should see a doctor as soon as possible.

A case in Japan has proven that cancer can be passed on to an unborn child from an affected mother, a potential risk that has long been considered possible by researchers. While there is a small risk of this phenomena occurring it’s unlikely, most cells from the mother are blocked by the placenta and these cells are destroyed before they can transfer from mother to baby. The immune system of the baby is already in defense mode in the womb and so it’s rare that the cancer is able to get past those defenses.

The mother in this case developed leukemia just after giving birth to her daughter who developed the same cancer at 11 months. Both mother and daughter were genetically tested and came up positive for the same cancer gene called BCR-ABL1.  The gene wasn’t inherited though and developed independently in the child. By way of genetic fingerprinting the researchers discovered that the cancer cells had developed and passed to the child in utero. The cancer was also found to have destroyed part of the infant’s DNA that distinguishes the separation point between a mother and child’s cells. The cells are believed to have passed through the placenta and implanted without having been distinguished as a threat by her developing immune system.

The rarity of this happening is increased by the rarity of cancers developing in pregnancy. Very few mothers find themselves with malignant tumors or cancerous cells during pregnancy and of those who do a very small fraction have children who’ve developed the cancer as well.

Italian researchers claim to have found the source from chemo that causes women to become infertile. Strangely another anti-cancer drug could counteract the negative effects of cisplatin. While the researchers are very hopeful that this could take future treatment in the right direction to avoid these fertility issues it should be kept in mind that it could be a long time before any consistent work can be done to officially benefit women undergoing chemo. It’s very likely that there will need to be targeted drug delivery strategies designed before even trials can be started.

Chemo affects the woman’s egg cells which can then cause ovarian failure and as a result infertility. There are many women of childbearing age who must deal with this and so it’s a serious concern for patients and doctors. For older women chemo brings on early menopause. Currently doctors advise women to store their eggs for later attempts at pregnancy. In cases where chemo doesn’t cause infertility it may still cause genetic defects. With the drug cisplatin (used most commonly for ovarian cancer) it means chromosome damage.

By targeting the enzyme c-Abl with imitanib ( a drug used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia) the oocytes (female germ cells) can be protected from the cisplatin and avoid the damaging effects.

Diagnosing colon cancer has just gotten easier, less expensive and far more convenient thanks to two new blood tests. The tests (developed by German and Belgian scientists) look for tumor growth by searching for genetic fingerprints in the blood. One of the tests may even be able to tell if the cancer has a risk of spreading! Colon cancer, the second most deadly form of cancer, affects one in seventeen people in a lifetime. The largest reason for its mortality rate is actually the fear of invasive testing like colonoscopy and stool sample analysis which could help to evade the deaths in many of these cases if they’d been used for early detection.

For the first test blood samples were taken from 193 patients who were going to have surgery for the cancer and 688 who were having colonoscopies and the genes FOXE1 and SYNE1 which are linked with tumor growth. High frequencies of these genes were found in those who had colon cancer versus the much lower levels of them in patients that didn’t have it. The testing correctly identified 50-60% of cancers and correctly eliminated 90% of those who didn’t have the disease with the best rates falling among those who were in the early stages of the cancer.

In the second test the genetic fingerprint S100A4 was linked to tumor growth. Daily studies were done on the blood from 185 with colon cancer, 190 with rectal cancer, 91 gastric cancer patients, and 51 who had no cancers. S100A4 was much higher in those with cancers and even higher levels in those where the cancer was spreading.

Both tests could be a great help in reducing the mortality rate for colon cancer and make it much less complex for healthcare workers to test for the disease.

According to CNN medical correspondent Sajay Gupta H1N1 is “a lot like…the flu”. The correspondent has firsthand knowledge about what it was like to experience the new and more virulent form of the flu after he dealt with it in Afghanistan. The doctor explains that the symptoms began as a cough that stings the chest and went on to become fever, body aches, and eventually nausea and vomiting.

While the virus is considered to be a serious health concern worldwide Gupta’s own case was treated as any other case of the flu might have been with a decongestant, Tylenol and eventually an IV (to replace lost fluids when they couldn’t be held down). Dr. Gupta expressed a strong belief that most people will have no more serious symptoms than he himself had and have the added benefit of easily accessible medical care, a luxury didn’t have while he was in Afghanistan. This is interesting news in light of the warnings put out by such groups as the World Health Organization who warned that the first strain of the flu shouldn’t be used as a guide for how serious the impending strain will be.