Health Top Stories
Like Rest of Society, Doctors Implicitly Favor Whites Over Blacks
In the first large study to explore possible unconscious bias among physicians, researchers have found that doctors mirror the attitudes of the majority in society and implicitly favor whites over blacks. ?This supports speculation that subtle race bias may affect health care, but does not imply that it will,? said University of Washington researcher Janice Sabin, who presented the study here Tuesday (Oct. 28) at the American Public Health Association?s annual meeting. ?This research is too preliminary to know if there is a direct relationship between physicians? implicit, or unconscious, racial attitudes and the quality of medical care.? Sabin, who is an acting assistant professor of medical education and biomedical informatics, said: ?Our findings fit with previous research showing bias is common in the general population. But we have to remember people are not racist if they hold an implicit bias.? More »
Early infections may increase arthritis risk
Babies with serious infections during their first year of life appear more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis at an early age, Swedish researchers said on Tuesday. Previous studies have suggested infections somehow trigger the autoimmune condition later in life but the Swedish findings raise the possibility infections may somehow change the way an immature immune system develops, the researchers said. ?Nobody had thought of this relationship with early-in-life infections and how they can affect the immune system,? said Cecilia Carlens of the Karolinska University Hospital and Institute in Stockholm, who led the study, published in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. More »
Five Ways to Get More from Your Doctor: Researchers? Tips for Patients
These days, going to the doctor may seem more like speed dating than care giving. Patients get a few minutes with the clinician, and he or she does most of the talking. How can a person get the information they need and the outcome they desire in a 15-minute office visit? What if the treatment options don?t feel right? Is it too much for a patient to feel they are considered a partner in their own well-being? Often, people leave their doctor?s office with more questions than answers, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine who are looking at how patients can get more of what they need from the health-care system. They have found that patients (or their advocates) who talk to physicians about their beliefs, values, lifestyle and concerns can get better results from their health-care experience. More »
Stress affects older adults more than young adults
Life can be stressful, whether you?re an individual watching the stock market crash or a commuter stuck in traffic. A new study, forthcoming in the journal Psychological Science, examines how stress affects decision-making and finds that older adults alter their behavior more than young adults when under stress ? particularly in situations involving risk. ?People haven?t looked at how stress affects decision making, even though so many of our decisions are made under stress,? explained Mara Mather of USC Davis School of Gerontology, lead author of the study. ?There?s very little information about this whole topic, and, when you get to age differences, there?s even less.? Mather and her colleagues Marissa Gorlick, of the USC Emotion and Cognition Lab, and Nichole Kryla-Lighthall, a USC doctoral student, exposed young adults (18 to 33) and older adults (65 to 89) to a stressful event, in this case, holding a hand in ice-cold water for three minutes. More »
A high-fat diet could promote the development of Alzheimer?s
A team of Université Laval researchers has shown that the main neurological markers for Alzheimer?s disease are exacerbated in the brains of mice fed a diet rich in animal fat and poor in omega-3s. Details of the study?which suggests that diets typical of most industrialized countries promote the development of Alzheimer?s?are outlined in the latest online edition of Neurobiology of Aging. To demonstrate this, the team led by Frédéric Calon used a type of transgenic mice that produce two proteins found in the brains of Alzheimer patients?tau proteins, which prevent proper neuron functioning, and amyloid-beta, associated with the formation of senile plaques within the brains of afflicted patients. The researchers fed transgenic and regular mice different diets for nine months, after which they compared the effects on the animals? brains. More »
Treatment Guidelines for Psoriatic Arthritis
Rheumatologists, dermatologists, and patient advocates have come together to publish the first-ever international guidelines for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis, a disease that mainly affects people who have psoriasis but also some people without it. The guidelines by the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) were presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology. The group was headed by Christopher Ritchlin, M.D., M.P.H., professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center, who presented the guidelines Sunday, Oct. 26. ?In the past few years, new medications have become available that are incredibly effective for the various manifestations of psoriatic arthritis,? said Ritchlin, who treats about 250 patients with the disease. ?Many patients? find their lives changed for the better within just a couple of weeks. These guidelines are designed as a platform to make sure physicians around the world are aware of what?s available for their patients and to help them make sound treatment decisions.? More »
Stress may make you itch
Current research suggests that stress may activate immune cells in your skin, resulting in inflammatory skin disease. The related report by Joachim et al., ?Stress-induced Neurogenic Inflammation in Murine Skin Skews Dendritic Cells towards Maturation and Migration: Key role of ICAM-1/LFA-1 interactions,? appears in the November issue of The American Journal of Pathology. Skin provides the first level of defense to infection, serving not only as a physical barrier, but also as a site for white blood cells to attack invading bacteria and viruses. The immune cells in skin can over-react, however, resulting in inflammatory skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis and psoriasis. Stress can trigger an outbreak in patients suffering from inflammatory skin conditions. This cross talk between stress perception, which involves the brain, and the skin is mediated the through the ?brain-skin connection?. Yet, little is know about the means by which stress aggravates skin diseases. More »
Scientists identify new gene responsible for puberty disorders
A new gene responsible for some puberty disorders has been identified by Medical College of Georgia researchers. They found that the gene mutated in CHARGE syndrome ? a multi-system disorder characterized by diverse problems from heart defects to hearing loss to cleft lip and palate and mental retardation ? also accounts for about 6 percent of two puberty disorders. These disorders ? idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, or IHH, and Kallmann syndrome ? short circuit puberty and can cause infertility. Kallmann syndrome is also marked by patients? inability to smell. Dr. Lawrence Layman, chief of the MCG Section of Reproductive Endocrinology, Infertility and Genetics in the School of Medicine, and colleagues published an article in the October issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics linking the diseases. More »
A million people suffer from tinnitus?in province of Quebec alone
Université de Montréal Professor Sylvie Hébert is conducting a study exploring the root causes of tinnitus, a condition that creates the perception of sound in the absence of external stimulation. Tinnitus affects 20 percent of Quebecers 55 and older in Quebec, which represents one million people. ?The auditory sensations sound like buzzing or whistling in one or both ears,? says Professor Hébert of the Université de Montréal?s Faculty of Medicine School of Speech Therapy and Audiology and researcher at both the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal and the BRAMS. ?It is pretty hard to study because only the suffering patient can describe the intensity. In addition, tinnitus isn?t observable with current clinical tools,? says Hébert, noting the job may be difficult but not impossible and she has devised a two-part study. More »
Pain automatically activates facial muscle groups
A study has found that people who facially express pain in a more intense way are not exaggerating if their perception of a painful stimulation is controlled. The study conducted by Miriam Kunz is published in the November issue of Pain. The study was conducted on 20 men and 20 women between the ages of 18 and 30. Kunz placed a heating device on their leg to provoke the painful stimulus. During the test, Kunz asked the test subjects to push a button when the heat became moderately painful as she filmed their facial expressions. ?Individuals who react to pain with intense facial expressions are in fact feeling more pain if we rely on quantitative verbal measures independent of the painful experience,? says Kunz, a postdoctoral student at the Université de Montréal Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Stomatology, and the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal. More »