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The human body has a love-hate relationship with iron. Just the right amount is needed for proper cell function, yet too much is associated with brain diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Science knows that men have more iron in their bodies and brains than women. These higher levels may be part of the explanation for why men develop these age-related neurodegenerative diseases at a younger age.
But why do women have less iron in their systems than men? One possible explanation for the gender difference is that during menstruation, iron is eliminated through the loss of blood.
Now, a new study by UCLA researchers confirms this suspicion and suggests strategies to reduce excess iron levels in both men and women. Dr. George Bartzokis, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, and colleagues compared iron levels in women who had undergone a hysterectomy before menopause - and thus, did not menstruate and lose iron - with levels in postmenopausal women who had not had a premenopausal hysterectomy. They found the women who had undergone a hysterectomy had higher levels of iron in their brains than the women who hadn't, and further, they had levels that were comparable to men.
The research is reported in the current online edition of the journal Neurobiology of Aging.
The researchers used an MRI technique that can measure the amount of ferritin iron in the brain (ferritin is a protein that stores iron). They examined 39 postmenopausal women, 15 of whom had undergone a premenopausal hysterectomy. They looked at several areas in the brain three white-matter regions and and five gray-matter regions. Fifty-four male subjects were also imaged for comparison.
The researchers found that among the women, the 15 who had undergone a hysterectomy had concentrations of iron in the white-matter regions of the brain's frontal lobe that did not differ from the men's levels. Further, both the women who had a hysterectomy and the men had significantly higher amounts of iron than the women who had not undergone a hysterectomy. (Gray matter areas showed slight increases that were not statistically significant.)
Hysterectomy is the most common non-obstetrical surgery among women in the United States, with one in three having had a hysterectomy by age 60, said Bartzokis, who is also a member of the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging and the UCLA Brain Research Institute.
The results of this study, he said, suggest that menstruation-associated blood loss may explain gender differences in brain iron. And of interest to both men and women, he said, is that it's possible that brain iron can be influenced by peripheral iron levels - that is, iron levels throughout the body - and may thus be a modifiable risk factor for age-related degenerative diseases.
"Iron accumulates in our bodies as we age," Bartzokis said, "and in the brain contributes to the development of abnormal deposits of proteins associated with several prevalent neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. Higher brain iron levels in men may be part of the explanation for why men develop these age-related neurodegenerative diseases at a younger age, compared to women."
Bartzokis suggests it may be possible to reduce age-related brain iron accumulations by reducing the levels of iron throughout the body. This may have health benefits, especially in men, and may help counteract the negative effects of aging on the brain by reducing the iron available to catalyze, or speed up, damaging free-radical reactions.
There are a few ways body stores of iron can be reduced naturally, especially for premenopausal women. Menstruation leads to the elimination of iron through loss of blood. During pregnancy, iron is transferred from the woman to the fetus, and when women breast-feed, iron is transferred to the baby through the mother's milk.
"But there are things postmenopausal women and especially men can do to reduce their iron levels through relatively simple actions," Bartzokis said. "These include not overloading themselves with over-the-counter supplements that contain iron, unless recommended by their doctor; eating less red meat, which contains high levels of iron; donating blood; and possibly taking natural iron-chelating substances, molecules that bind to and remove iron, such as curcumin or green tea, that may have positive health consequences."
Source: University of California, Los Angeles October 6, 2011
People who rate their health as poor or fair appear to be significantly more likely to develop dementia later in life, according to a study published in the October 5, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
"Having people rate their own health may be a simple tool for doctors to determine a person's risk of dementia, especially for people with no symptoms or memory problems," said study author Christophe Tzourio, MD, PhD, director of the Inserm unit 708 Neuroepidemiology at the University of Bordeaux 2 in France.
Other studies have shown that people who rate their own health as poor are more likely to die or develop a disease, especially vascular disease such as heart attack or stroke, than people who rate their health as good. The results hold true even after researchers account for other health conditions, such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
At the start of the study, 8,169 people age 65 years or older were asked to rate their health and were followed for nearly seven years. During the study, 618 people developed dementia.
The risk of dementia was 70 percent higher in people who rated their health as poor and 34 percent higher in people who rated their health as fair compared to those who rated their health as good.
In addition, the study found that the association between people's health ratings and developing dementia was even stronger for those who did not have any memory problems or other issues with thinking skills. Among those with no cognitive problems, those who rated their health as poor were nearly twice as likely to develop dementia as those who rated their health as good.
"We know that having a large social network and social activities are associated with a decreased risk of dementia," said Tzourio. "Therefore, it's possible that rating one's health as poor might be associated with behaviors that limit social interaction and in turn accelerate the dementia process."
Source: French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, October 6, 2011
A new treatment could revolutionize the treatment of patients after a heart attack. Hendrik Jan Ankersmit from the Medical University of Vienna has developed a protein solution which can be used to reduce the scarring of tissue caused by inflammation after a heart attack.
In 2009, 16,000 people were admitted to Austrian hospitals with an acute myocardial infarction, with 3,000 of them dying (source: Statistik Austria). Comparable figures from the European Union reveal 2.2 million deaths caused by ischaemic heart disease (source: WHO). Following the usually critical first phase of a heart attack, intensive rehabilitation is carried out and there is a risk of heart failure.
The results of the research carried out by Hendrik Jan Ankersmit, head of the CD Laboratory for Heart and Thorax Diagnosis and Regeneration at the MedUni Vienna, show that this need no longer be the case. Ankersmit has used white blood cells to create a protein solution (APOSEC™) that can be used as a drug during the acute therapy phase following a heart attack. In laboratory tests, the solution was administered as an intravenous infusion 40 minutes after an experimental infarction. As a result, there was virtually no scarring of the heart muscle.
APOSEC™ works by inhibiting the cardiac tissue's inflammatory response following a heart attack. Tests on human cardiac muscle cells with highly promising results have already been carried out in vitro. Researchers at the MedUni Vienna are hoping to start a series of clinical studies on humans in the near future.
Like blood in a blood bank available at all times
APOSEC™ contains soluble proteins that are excreted by white blood cells. Harvesting white blood cells for use as 'bio-reactors' is as simple as taking blood. "With protein concentrates, there is little or no defence reaction from the body's immune system. APOSEC™ can therefore be obtained even from unrelated donors", says Ankersmit.
An even greater potential advantage over the conventional stem-cell-based treatment of myocardial infarctions is that the APOSEC™ protein solution can be produced in advance and stored for ready access, just like blood in a blood bank. In the event of an acute infarction, the patient can be treated immediately.
Source: Medical University of Vienna, October 7, 2011
As temperatures begin to cool, coughing and sneezing inevitably follow. So begins flu season in the United States and preventable deaths, says David Kimberlin, M.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham professor of pediatrics and president-elect of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.
"Each year, an average of 24,000 people in the United States start the flu season alive and by the end of it have been killed by it; that is enormous," says Kimberlin, who co-directs the UAB Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases.
Kimberlin says it is too early to forecast the extent of this flu season, but he cautions people to protect themselves.
"Regardless how severe a flu season is predicted to be, people should be concerned every year. They should get their annual flu shot anytime the flu vaccine is available. If you haven't yet done so, stop and get it," Kimberlin says.
"The strains that are circulating in the 2011-12 season are the same strains circulating this past year," Kimberlin says. "That's the first time that has happened in a very long time."
That means there is no shortage of the flu vaccine. "We have a good supply already, so we have the best opportunity to protect the U.S. population from this deadly disease," Kimberlin explains.
One of the strains included in this year's influenza vaccine is H1N1, a pandemic strain that infected about 61 million people in 2009, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
During the 2010-11 flu season, 115 children died of flu-related causes, according to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report; less than a quarter of them had received the flu vaccine, and nearly half of them were age 5 and younger.
Source: University Of Alabama at Birmingham, September 21, 2011
Scientists at la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M - Carlos III University in Madrid) who participate in the LOBIN consortium have developed an "intelligent" t-shirt that monitors the human body (temperature, heart rate, etc.) and locates patients within the hospital, as if it were a GPS system that works in closed spaces; it can even determine if the subject is seated, lying down, walking or running.
Using this garment-based patient biomonitoring platform allows us to register a number of the patient's physiological parameters in a non-intrusive manner. "The information gathered by an intelligent t-shirt using e-textile technology is sent, without using wires, to an information management system, which then shows the patient's location and vital signs in real time", explain the UC3M researchers. The system is designed to be used in hospitals and can be divided into two parts: the fixed infrastructure, which would be pre-installed in the hospital, and the mobile units, which would move with the patients.
The mobile units include an "intelligent t-shirt" and a localization device, which can be carried in a pocket and, which they intend to incorporate into the garment in the future. The t-shirt is washable and includes electrodes that detect bioelectric power through which an electrocardiogram can be obtained. In addition, it has a removable device that includes a thermometer and an accelerometer, which are used to take the patient's temperature, his/her relative position (reclining, standing, etc.) and his/her level of physical activity. Finally, the indoor localization unit is activated periodically, receives signals from the units that make up the fixed localization infrastructure and wirelessly sends that information to the information management system. Once the information is received there, the localization algorithm that has been developed is able to establish the individual's position within a two-meter margin of error, and to mark the spot on a map of the hospital.
The prototype was developed as part of the project "LOBIN: Localización y Biomonitorización a través de Redes Inalámbricas en Entornos Hospitalarios" (Locating and biomonitoring by means of Wireless Networks in Hospitals), funded by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce, Plan Avanza I+D (Advance R + D Plan) (TSI-020302-2008-57), and is the result of the collaboration of the national consortium made up of researchers at UC3M and other companies and R+D centers, such as Simave Sistemas, Nlaza Soluciones, Nuubo and the Centro Tecnológico de Telecomunicaciones de Galicia (Gradiant). The wireless communications infrastructure and the communications software for the prototype were designed at UC3M. In addition, the UC3M researchers carried out the phases in which the different technologies developed by the associates were integrated; this integration was later validated in the Cardiology Unit of La Paz Hospital in Madrid. During this validation phase, the system was tested 24 hours a day, with five patients being monitored simultaneously. "Thanks to this experience with the hospital personnel, who were very satisfied with the platform, we found several valuable possible improvements to the system", explain researchers Víctor Custodio, Gregorio López and José Ignacio Moreno, of UC3M's Department of Telematic Engineering.
With slight modifications, the prototype can also be applied in other areas, such as applications involving early diagnosis of cardiac anomalies in athletes, or for telemedicine, to monitor patients in their homes, thus reducing the time they must remain admitted to the hospital. The information management system stores all of the patient's information for possible studies later, such as the analysis of how a particular patient's level of physical activity affects the quality of the electrocardiogram. In addition, the program has a series of alarms, configured by default, which are activated when the measured parameters exceed pre-established limits, such as 38º C body temperature or 100 heartbeats per minute, for example. "All of these alarms can be modified by the doctors in order to adjust them to the specific needs of each patient; whenever any one of these alarms goes off, a message will appear on the screen and, it can also send an SMS alerting the doctor in charge or the proper hospital personnel who, at that moment, is closest to the patient in question", the scientists point out.
The work done and the results obtained as part of this project have been presented in conferences and published in respected, international journals, such the 21st Annual IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC 2010) and the IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, respectively. In this journal, the UC3M researchers published an article in which they describe the system's architecture, its development process, the tests that have been carried out, and the validation results.
Source: Carlos lll University in Madrid, September 21, 2011
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