Therapist Unlimited Blog

A medical expert said there is a big possibility that the treatment for tuberculosis could be shortened for patients.

To offer relief to patients suffering from tuberculosis an intensive research is currently been undertaken to shorten the usual long treatment for the deadly lung disease.
Based on the medical study conducted by Dutch researcher Hanneke Later-Nijland, it may be possible to shorten the duration of treatment for tuberculosis.
It is said that due to the long duration of treatment, not every patient sees it through.
Partly because of this, tuberculosis is one of the most lethal diseases in developing countries.
The research conducted by Hanneke Later-Nijland is helping to shorten the duration of treatment for tuberculosis.
Later-Nijland studied different groups of Indonesian tuberculosis patients. She believes it may be possible to shorten the duration of treatment by increasing the dose of the important drug rifampicin. After increasing the dose, the concentration of the drug in the blood plasma was higher than expected.
In addition, the tuberculosis patients in Later-Nijland’s study did not experience more or different adverse effects at an increased dose than at a standard dose. Therefore increasing the dose of rifampicin might make it possible to reduce the length of treatment for tuberculosis without additional consequences. Research involving larger groups of patients will be needed to confirm this conclusion.

Tuberculosis and diabetes
 

Later-Nijland also conducted research into the reduced effectiveness of treatment in tuberculosis patients who also have type 2 diabetes. Her research revealed that the concentration of rifampicin in the blood plasma of patients with type 2 diabetes was lower than in patients with tuberculosis alone but who were administered the same dose. Whether tuberculosis patients with type 2 diabetes would benefit from a higher dose of rifampicin is a subject for further research.
Hanneke Later-Nijland started her research in October 2004 at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre. She carried out her research within the Indonesian, Tanzanian and Dutch research network Poverty Related Infection Oriented Research, or PRIOR. PRIOR focused on research into poverty-related infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV and malaria, and was funded by NWO.

A recent medical study has shown that a great number of prostate patients do not anymore need treatment for their medical condition.
In the largest study of its kind, the international team of pathologists studied an initial 4,000 prostate cancer patients over a period of 15 years to further understanding into the natural progression of the disease and how it should be managed.
The research could be used to develop a blood test to distinguish between aggressive and non-aggressive forms of prostate cancer.
Globally, prostate cancer is the fifth most common malignancy and accounts for 13% of male deaths in the UK. Studies have shown that men with non-aggressive prostate cancer can live with the disease untreated for many years, but aggressive cancer requires immediate treatment.
Pathologists found that the presence of a protein, called Hsp-27, in cancer cells was an indicator that the disease will progress and require treatment. The study showed, however, that in more than 60% of cases the protein was not expressed and the cancer could be managed by careful monitoring, rather than with active invention methods, such as drug treatment or surgery.
The protein normally has a positive function in the body, helping healthy cells survive when they are placed under ’stressful’ conditions, such as disease or injury. If the protein is expressed in cancer, however, it can prevent the diseased cells from dying, allowing the cancer to progress. The team, supported by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and in collaboration with scientists in London and New York, found that the protein can be used to predict how the disease will behave and could help doctors advise patients on how the disease could affect their daily lives.

A recent study has shown that prostate cancer do not necessarily need medical treatment.

Professor Chris Foster, Head of the University’s Division of Pathology, explains: "Cancer of any kind is a very distressing disease and has the ability to impact on every aspect of a person’s life. Chemotherapy and surgery can also have a significant effect on health and wellbeing and that is why it is important that we first understand the biological nature of the disease and how it will behave in each individual patient, before determining if and when a person needs a particular type of treatment.
"By studying the disease in a large number of men throughout the UK and over a long period of time, we have been able to get a more complete picture of how to manage the disease successfully, while limiting the negative impact it can have on a patient’s life. The study also demonstrates the role of modern of Pathology, not only in establishing diagnoses but in determining if the subsequent management of individual patients is biologically appropriate for their particular condition.
"The protein  or biomarker we have identified provides us with a signal that the disease will continue to progress. We know that at the point this marker is expressed, medics need to administer treatment to kill the cancer cells. We have shown that in the majority of cases, however, this marker is not expressed and therefore patients do not necessarily need to go through treatment to lead a normal life."

A recent medical study has shown that obesity is an important factor contributing to chemotherapy resistance and increasing relapse rates among children with leukemia.
According to the study, obesity is associated with increased incidence and mortality of many types of cancer.
Leukemia is the most common cancer in children, affecting more than 2,000 children each year in the United States alone.
Lead researcher Steven Mittelman, M.D., Ph.D.,fellowship research director of the Division of Endocrinology at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, and assistant professor of pediatrics, physiology and biophysics at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California explained the increasing prevalence of obesity worldwide, these findings could have important implications for cancer treatment and may help explain the increased leukemia relapse rate in obese patients.
Mittelman revealed obesity could increase cancer incidence and mortality through a variety of ways.
He said it may impair the immune system’s ability to stop cancer, or predispose cells to become cancerous.
He added once you have cancer, and if you are obese, the fat cells themselves may impair the ability of chemotherapy to fight cancerous cells.
This study was inspired by a previous study led by a colleague, Anna Butturini, M.D., associate professor of clinical pediatrics in the Division of Hematology-Oncology at Childrens Hospital, which showed that obese children diagnosed with leukemia have a 50 percent higher chance of relapsing compared with lean children.
Using preclinical models, Mittelman and colleagues investigated the reason why obese children were more at risk of relapse.

Better keep your children away from obesity to ensure easy treatment if ever they get sick with leukemia.

They developed a mouse model of obesity and leukemia, cultured fat and leukemia cells together, and treated the leukemia cells with traditional chemotherapy drugs used in children vincristine, nilotinib, daunorubicin and dexamethasone.
Obese mice with leukemia had higher relapse rates than lean mice after treatment with the first-line chemotherapeutic agent vincristine. The chemotherapy treatments all worked less effectively in culture when fat cells were nearby.
When the mice relapsed from the leukemia, the researchers found leukemia "hiding out" in the fat tissue during chemotherapy, according to Mittelman.
"These four drugs attack leukemia cells by different routes, so when we saw fat cells blocking them we realized there could be an important mechanism promoting their ability to live and divide," he said. "We were surprised to find leukemia cells in the fat tissue."
David Hockenbery, M.D., member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and professor of internal medicine at the University of Washington, said "this study provides striking experimental support for the clinical observations that obesity is associated with poor prognosis in multiple cancers."
The researchers demonstrated that co-culture of leukemia cells with adipocytes diminishes response to multiple chemotherapeutic agents. Therefore, adipose tissue may function as a "safe haven" for leukemia cells during therapy, according to Hockenbery. Based on the finding that adipocytes accumulate chemotherapeutic drugs, he advised that careful attention be paid to dose adjustments based on pharmacokinetic measurements.
"In addition, by highlighting a potential communication between adipocyte and leukemia cells, this research will stimulate efforts to find a diffusible factor that protects leukemia cells from chemotherapy," said Hockenbery.
More research is needed to figure out how fat cells are a part of the tumor microenvironment and how they block potentially lifesaving treatments, according to Mittelman.
The researchers are currently conducting additional studies to evaluate other chemotherapeutics, how obesity may or may not affect treatment and the effect of fat cells found in bone marrow on leukemia.
 

A recent medical study has shown that early stage cancers of the esophagus can be treated as effectively by less-invasive,organ-sparing endoscopic therapy as compared to more complex surgical removal of the esophagus.
In a research made by Mayo Clinic it was discovered that 20 percent of esophageal cancer cases in the United States, the cancer is detected in the early stages.
Ganapathy Prasad, M.D., gastroenterologist and lead author on the study revealed that traditionally, esophageal cancer patients undergo a complicated surgery to remove the esophagus.
Prasad added their team compared surgery to the use of endoscopic therapy, where a scope is inserted in the esophagus and the cancer cells are shaved off.
He said the results showed the less-invasive therapy was just as effective as surgery for early-stage cancers.

To treat esophageal cancer minimal invasive treatment is found effective.

To get the data, some 178 patients with early-stage esophageal adenocarcinoma, 132 (74 percent) were treated with endoscopic mucosal resection and 46 (26 percent) were treated surgically.
The endoscopic mucosal resection patients underwent a procedure where a liquid is injected under the lesion and then an endoscope is used to shave off the lesions. The other patients underwent more traditional esophagectomy or removal of the esophagus.
In following these patients for nine years, both groups had a comparable overall mortality rate of approximately 20 percent.
Cancer recurred in 12 percent of patients treated endoscopically, but recurrence could be re-treated endoscopically.
Moreover, Prasad explains that esophagectomy surgery patients are typically in the hospital for a week, and 30 to 50 percent of patients have complications post surgery.
Prasad cited, patients whose esophagus has been removed face lifelong dietary restrictions.
Endoscopic treatments, however, are performed in an outpatient care setting, and patients can eat full meals in a couple of days.

 

People suffering from severe sore throat should start combining steroids with antibiotics to find relief on your medical condition.
Researchers has recently discovered that a single dose of corticosteroid drugs, which is a form of steroids, together with antibiotics can alleviate sore throat pain more rapidly and effectively than with antibiotics alone.
The researchers in their study also found out that antibiotics have only a slight favorable effect in reducing symptoms and fever.

Patients seeking relief from severe sore throat should try the combination of steroids and antibiotics.

The team also discovered that high rates of antibiotic prescriptions also lead to resistance.
In addition, current guidelines advise that antibiotics should not be prescribed for sore throat.
Based on the study they made on 743 sore throat patients, including 369 children and 374 adults, they discovered that the combination of corticosteroid drugs and antibiotics effectively cure sore throat.
According to their study, patients given corticosteroids together with antibiotics were three times more likely to report total clearing up of pain after 24 hours than patients given placebo.
It was also discovered that after 48 hours the effect on pain was less evident.
With the result of the study, the researchers said it indicates that a single dose of corticosteroids may be sufficient.
The researchers added corticosteroids reduced the average time to pain relief by about six hours.
Despite the good result of their study, they clarified that the treatment is only for adult patients and not for children.
Furthermore, the researchers explained the findings suggest that, in patients with severe sore throat, pain can be reduced and resolution hastened by use of corticosteroids in conjunction with antibiotic therapy.
The researchers concluded that these results may also help to prevent antibiotic use, particularly in the context of delayed prescribing.

Aside from eating healthily and taking more exercise undergoing some therapy session is also another great treatment for problems on emotional eating.
Medical experts explained having therapy is a good way to solve emotional eating since through it we can better understanding of the issues underpinning compulsive eating so that psychological help can be successfully targeted.
Experts revealed there are currently no Department of Health guidelines on offering psychological services to those suffering from eating disorders.
It is said that to cope up with their problem, compulsive eaters are given information on food intake, and when that doesn’t work there are pills to suppress appetite and, as a last resort, surgery.
The researchers said none of these options addresses the reasons why people are overweight in the first place and hence are consistently unsuccessful when it comes to maintaining weight loss.
According to studies, therapy has a key role in identifying the reasons why people overeat rather than simply focusing on what they eat.
It can also provide compulsive eaters with the psychological tools and strategies needed to lose weight and keep it off.

Consulting a psychologist is also another effective way to treat eating disorders.

Earlier studies have shown that many compulsive eaters do not have secure social and emotional attachments.
In the ups and downs of life, instead of using self-soothing mechanisms or asking for help from others, they reduce stress by ingesting food.
Diet and exercise plans do not address their concerns, so until psychological services are available to meet these needs the obesity problem looks set to grow.

Those women who are undergoing treatment for breast cancer through radiotherapy on their left breast better be careful.
This developed after medical researchers have found pieces of evidence that breast cancer patients are at risk of heart disease after radiotherapy.
Radiotherapy is a treatment use to those patients who have had breast conservation surgery, and those who are at high risk of the cancer returning after mastectomy.
The researchers discovered that when the breast tumor is on the left side, a small part of the heart is within the treatment range which can lead to heart disease.
Dr. Paul Symonds, of the University of Leicester’s Department of Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine, made the study involving 149 patients who had undergone radiotherapy for breast cancer.
Symonds revealed after treatment some patients developed red dilated blood vessels (telangiectasia) on the breast or chest wall, previously thought to be unsightly rather than of any medical significance.
He said based on the study, only those who had radiotherapy on the left side developed heart problems, which occurred between three and 12 years after treatment.
He added over half of those who developed heart problems showed signs of telangiectasia.

Women undergoing radiotherapy to treat breast cancer need to be vigilant since the medical procedure could lead to a heart disease.
 

The medical expert believes these figures are significant enough to suggest that telangiectasia could be a marker to predict the risk of heart disease after radiotherapy for breast cancer on the left side.
The medical expert added ultimately this research could lead to a test to predict which patients will develop severe radiotherapy side-effects.
He said clinicians can then use this information to advice patients of their risk before treatment and help the radiotherapist give the most appropriate treatment.
Meanwhile, Pamela Goldberg, Chief Executive, Breast Cancer Campaign, which funded the study said, "More and more women are living with breast cancer as a long term manageable condition rather than an incurable disease.
Goldberg said it is therefore vital that treatment not only improves the chance of survival but does not lead to other negative health consequences and maintains a good quality of life.

Parents around the world need to be careful since a recent medical study revealed that some stimulant drugs used to treat  attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) resulted in a sudden cardiac death in healthy children.
In the data gathered by Dr. Madelyn S Gould of Columbia University, New York, New York, and colleagues, they found out that some 564 healthy children suddenly died after taking some stimulants such as methylphenidate (better known in the US under its brand name of Ritalin).
Gould and her team studied the children aged 7 to 19 from across the US who died suddenly and most likely due to sudden cardiac disturbance after taking stimulant drugs.
She said parents of children facing ADHD should always be careful in the use of stimulants as treatment since it could be deadly for their children.
Meanwhile, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned parents who have children with ADHD to discuss concerns with the treatment of their children to the prescribing doctor to avoid any risk.
To dig deeper into the report, the FDA is already co-sponsoring another larger study that is looking at the link between increased risk of heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular problems and use of stimulant medication by children, the results of which are expected to come out later this year.

Parents should be careful in using stimulant drugs used for ADHD treatment since it offers health risk to their children.

The federal agency also urged doctors to follow the current prescribing information that accompanies the product label, which recommends that young and adult patients being considered for ADHD treatment.
The FDA said parents of children facing ADHD should work with their health care professional to develop a treatment plan that includes a careful health history for cardiovascular disease in the child and his or her family.
The FDA added such preparation should include a physical exam that pays particular attention to the cardiovascular system, and should consider screening tests such as electrocardiogram and echocardiogram, depending on the patient’s history and whether it suggests possible risk factors for heart disease.

If it is possible radiation, treatment should not be done directly to the ovaries of women inflicted with cancer in their reproductive area since radiation has a direct effect on the fertility of that person.
This was the finding published in the recent issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, the official journal of the American Society for Radiation
Oncology (ASTRO).
ASTRO is the largest radiation oncology society in the world, with more than 10,000 members who specialize in treating patients with radiation therapies.
The research conducted has shown that radiation therapy to the pelvic region can cause ovarian failure, which would result in damage that makes the uterus unable to accommodate the growth of a fetus.
Having seen the result of the study, researchers from the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program and the Department of Radiation Oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, both in Boston, jointly move for the review of the impact of radiation therapy on fertility, pregnancy and neonatal outcomes among female patients and the effectiveness of ovarian transposition, or moving the ovaries out of the field of radiation, as a means of preserving fertility.

Women undergoing radiation treatment need to be careful since recent studies have shown that this type of treatment has an impact on women fertility.

Based on the study it was also shown that women who received abdominal or pelvic radiation had an increased risk of uterine dysfunction that lead to miscarriage, preterm labor, low birth weight and placental abnormalities.
The research has also shown that women who received low doses of ovarian radiation are at risk of suffering from early menopause.
Researchers were also able to discover that ovarian transposition was proven an effective method of reducing the rates of ovarian dysfunction, but even if the ovaries are outside of the field of radiation, scatter dose can cause significant damage.
This recent medical finding should serve as lesson to women to always vigilant at all times especially if they wish to undergo radiation treatment since the procedure could lead to infertility.
 

A recent medical study has revealed that it is harder to cure men suffering from eating disorders than women.
This developed after research showed that men around the globe had a hard time detecting they are suffering from eating disorders since this type of medical condition mostly affect women.
In February 2007, a Harvard study reported shocking results.
The survey found out that in a population of 3,000 adults, one-quarter of those with eating disorders and 40% of binge eaters were male.
It was discovered by medical experts that many men refuses to come out in the open to seek cure for their medical condition since majority of them are afraid of public ridicule due to their situation.
Men according to the medical report men are afraid to be branded as feminine by their peers if ever they admit they are suffering from eating disorders.
Medical experts said one key factor why it is hard to cure men suffering from eating disorders than women is the fact that there are less available treatment program for this type of condition since it only affect women mostly.
The treatment needed for eating disorders  against men should be made public since based on the latest statistics 10% of all individuals with eating disorders were male.
The latest medical finding should serve as lesson for all the male population to be always vigilant on the food they ate.
If ever men would suspect he is suffering from any from of eating disorders it would be highly advisable he seek immediate treatment on the matter before things could worse.
Having any form of eating disorders is not something to get ashamed with since anyone can be inflicted with it regardless of gender.
 

Since it is not quite common for them, it is harder to treat eating disorders for men than women.