Tag Archives: researchers

Inhalers may raise risk of asthma in some children

in.reuters.com

Inhalers may raise risk of asthma in some children

Common asthma reliever drugs taken by millions of children around the world may increase the risk of asthma attacks in some patients with a particular genetic make-up, British scientists said on Tuesday.

The researchers found that salbutamol, a popular blue inhaler medicine also known as Ventolin, as well as salmeterol, an ingredient in GlaxoSmithKline’s Advair, are less effective in children with a specific gene variant and may in some cases make their asthma worse.

The scientists said their findings suggest that carrying out genetic tests on children before treatment could be a more cost-effective way of treating them.

“This is a global question that needs to be addressed,” said Somnath Mukhopadhyay of Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

Salbutamol is called albuterol in the United States and is very widely used, the researchers told a news conference.

U.S. drug regulators have cautioned in the past that asthma drugs like Advair and Serevent, also made by Glaxo, may actually increase asthma risk in some patients. Glaxo said in a statement it had carried out its own studies with Advair and Serevent and found no genetic variation response differences, although the 500 patients in its study were older than 12.

“Albuterol is one of the commonest drugs right across the world. It is used in the United States, in Africa, India…” said Mukhopadhyay. “It’s cheap, it’s popular, and it’s good stuff — when it works.”

Asthma affects more than 300 million people worldwide and is the most common children’s chronic illness. Symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing and chest tightness.

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How broccoli can protect your arteries

in.reuters.com

How broccoli can protect your arteries

It’s long been thought that broccoli is good for your heart, and now British scientists think they know why.

Researchers at Imperial College London have found evidence a chemical in broccoli and other green leafy vegetables could boost a natural defense mechanism that protects arteries from the clogging that can cause heart attacks.

In a study funded by the British Heart Foundation charity and conducted on mice, the researchers found that sulforaphane — a compound occurring naturally in broccoli and other brassicas — could “switch on” a protective protein which is inactive in parts of the arteries vulnerable to clogging.

“We know that vegetables are clearly good for you, but surprisingly the molecular mechanisms of why they are good for you have remained unknown for many years,” said Paul Evans of the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College.

“This study provides a possible explanation for how green vegetable consumption can promote a healthy heart.”

Scientists already know that arteries don’t clog up in a uniform way, but that there are bends and branches of blood vessels — where blood flow is disrupted or slower — which are much more prone to the build-up of fatty plaques that cause heart disease.

Evans said his research found that in the more vulnerable areas, a normally protective protein known as Nrf2 is inactive.

“What our study showed was that sulforaphane can protect those regions by switching on the Nrf2,” he said.

The research, reported in the journal Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, was conducted using purified sulforaphane, not broccoli. Researchers said the next step was to test the effect of the chemical as it is found in vegetables.

We now need to go and test this with broccoli smoothies, as it were, and compare that with the effect of purified sulforaphane,” Evans said, adding that if the vegetable form proved less effective, there could be an argument for taking sulforaphane in pill form.

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Calcium, not smoking may limit birth-control bone loss

Calcium, not smoking may limit birth-control bone loss

Injectable birth control is known to lower bone density, but women may be able to limit the loss by not smoking and getting even moderate amounts of calcium, a new study hints.

The findings, say researchers, show that not all women are at equal risk of bone loss from using depot medroxyprogesterone (DMPA) — better known by the brand-name Depo Provera.

DMPA is given by injection about once every three months, and is generally considered an effective, convenient and low-cost form of birth control. The contraceptive can, however, lead to significant bone loss.

While research has shown that this lost bone mass is often regained after women stop using DMPA, there are still concerns about whether substantial bone loss is completely reversible. So limiting the decline in the first place would be ideal.

In the new study, researchers found that among 95 women who used DMPA for two years, those who smoked or had a low calcium intake were at particular risk of significant bone density loss — defined as a decline of at least 5 percent in the spine or hip.

Current smokers were nearly four times more likely to lose that much bone mass as non-smokers were. On the other hand, the risk declined by 19 percent for every 100 milligrams (mg) of calcium a woman got each day.

Drs. Mahbubur Rahman and Abbey B. Berenson, of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, report the findings in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

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