Tender Breasts From Combo HRT Linked to Higher Cancer Risk (HealthDay)

FRIDAY, Nov. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Women who develop breast tenderness after starting combination estrogen and progestin menopause therapy have a 33 percent higher risk of developing breast cancer than those who don't experience breast tenderness, a new study says.

It also found that new-onset breast tenderness was not associated with increased breast cancer risk among women taking estrogen alone.

The findings, based on an analysis of data from more than 16,600 women on the combination therapy and nearly 10,750 taking estrogen alone, appear in the Nov. 17 online edition of the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.

"This study showed that developing new breast tenderness after the start of hormone therapy was associated with increased breast cancer risk only in women on the combination estrogen plus progestin therapy, not estrogen therapy alone," study first author Dr. Carolyn Crandall, a professor of general internal medicine and a scientist with the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a UCLA news release.

However, the association between breast tenderness and increased cancer risk does not mean that there is a cause-and-effect relationship.

A study published last month by Crandall found that new-onset breast tenderness was much more pronounced in women receiving the combination therapy than in those receiving estrogen alone. The association between new-onset breast tenderness and breast-density changes was also more pronounced in women receiving the combination therapy.

"The consistent theme we've run across throughout these studies is that estrogen and progestin compared to estrogen alone have a more marked effect on breast tissue," Crandall said. "One theory is that there may be more growth of breast tissue, making the breasts more dense, when women take the combination therapy."

Higher breast density is linked with a higher risk of breast cancer.

Crandall stressed that women taking hormone therapy have only a slight risk of developing breast cancer overall.

"We don't want to incite panic, because breast cancer is rare in women taking hormone therapy, but the point is that women are terrified of getting breast cancer as a result of menopausal hormone therapy," Crandall said.

"Where I think this (new) study would be important is for women already on either combination hormone therapy or estrogen alone," Crandall added. "If they do develop breast tenderness, it would be good for them to know the results of this study and to consider discussing them with their physician."

Women on hormone therapy who develop new-onset breast tenderness should be sure to get their regular clinical breast exams and mammograms, Crandall advised.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has more about hormone replacement therapy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111118/hl_hsn/tenderbreastsfromcombohrtlinkedtohighercancerrisk

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Perry picks fight with Pelosi

Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, speaks to employees during a campaign stop at Granite State Manufacturing, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011 in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, speaks to employees during a campaign stop at Granite State Manufacturing, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011 in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

(AP) ? Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who's running for president, is picking a fight with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who is not. Struggling to steady his bid for the GOP nomination, Perry this week launched an outsider's campaign against Washington culture and challenged Pelosi, ousted last year from the House speakership, to debate his plan to overhaul Congress.

She declined Thursday, becoming the latest congressional Democrat to mock Perry for the 54-second debate pause that launched a thousand jokes ? some from Perry himself ? during which the Texas governor couldn't recall the third of three government agencies he wants to eliminate.

"Monday I'm going to be in Portland in the morning. I'm going to be visiting some of our labs in California in the afternoon. That's two," Pelosi told reporters. "I can't remember what the third thing is I'm going to be doing."

Very funny, Perry suggested during a stop Jackson-Evers International Airport. Then he launched into Pelosi with a stream of accusations that echoed Republican attacks on her during the 2010 elections as the face of government overreach on health care, the economy and more.

"She may have forgotten all the reasons she can't debate me on overhauling Washington, D.C., but the American people sure haven't forgotten the reasons we need to overhaul Washington," Perry said. "When you have routine insider corruption on Capitol Hill, when you have liberal opposition for freeing the economy of this country, when you have just total disrespect for family values, I would suggest to you that's the reason Nancy Pelosi is running away from having a debate with me."

He never said so explicitly, but Perry apparently was referring to a report on CBS' "60 Minutes" that looked at the investments of members of Congress, including Pelosi, House Speaker John Boehner and others, who reportedly bought stocks around the same time related legislation was being discussed. Pelosi and her husband participated in an initial public offering of Visa in 2008, buying 5,000 shares at the initial price of $44, the network reported; two days later, shares were trading at $64, CBS said.

A spokesman for Pelosi said her husband, Paul, sold a fraction of those stocks months later at the height of the financial crisis, when the price had again dropped. Those sales generated a profit of less than $5,000, said Pelosi aide Drew Hammill.

As for the debate dare, "It's unfortunate that a candidate for president is focused on debating anyone other than his primary opponents and repeating false claims," Hammill said late Thursday.

Pelosi was last year's political pinata. Republicans spent millions of dollars in the 2010 election branding Pelosi with President Barack Obama's unpopular health care overhaul ? and it worked. The message appealed to the populist tea party movement, which coalesced around the idea of a smaller, more austere government and surged on anger over the Democratic-controlled government's involvement in economic stimulus, the bailout of the auto and financial industries and the health care law.

Voters a year ago flipped control of the House from Democratic to Republican, and in January, Pelosi relinquished the gavel to now-Speaker John Boehner.

Tea party groups instrumental in those midterm elections are gearing up for the 2012 presidential race ? but this time, they're holding Boehner accountable. Pelosi, after all, has been vanquished, one leader of the movement said.

"People still have a very strong opinions about her, but I don't really hear people on the ground talking about her very much," said Jenny-Beth Martin, co-founder of a coalition of groups called Tea Party Patriots, who's most recently visited Ohio and Florida, two states both parties have a good chance of winning. "Her power has been diminished. People are more focused on Speaker Boehner and what the Republican House leadership is doing now."

But, she noted, people do associate Pelosi strongly with the health care overhaul. The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments over the new law in the spring ? right at the height of the presidential and congressional election year.

Perry charged ahead at Pelosi Thursday, even though a number of Republicans have also been accused of using information they gained by virtue of their office to trade investments.

"If you and I did that, we would be engaged in criminal activity," Perry said. He challenged Pelosi to turn over her financial records to the Securities and Exchange Commission or a special prosecutor to be examined for evidence of misconduct.

Members of Congress are required by law to make public their financial records every year.

The longtime Texas governor was investigated by the SEC himself in 1996 for a transaction where he bought 2,800 shares in Kinetic Concepts Inc., a company mostly owned by James Leininger, a big donor to Perry and other Texas Republicans. Perry went on to sell 8,000 shares a month later, making $38,000. He was accused of taking a stock tip from Leininger.

"The SEC looked at that and there wasn't anything to it," Perry said Thursday.

___

Amy reported from Mississippi. Kellman reported from Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-11-17-US-Perry-Pelosi/id-f372e85bc0d04e6fb432c9e7e518c159

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Cholesterol and Controversy: Past, present, and future

Today, it is estimated that 50% of the American population have cholesterol levels that fall outside the accepted healthy range, and the prevalence of cardiovascular disease reflects this.? However, the idea that cholesterol is a major risk factor for the development of heart attacks and strokes was one that was rejected by the scientific community for decades.? Although high cholesterol is now a universally accepted warning sign, some medical professionals are starting to question the current standard of care when it comes to statin therapy, as these cholesterol-lowering medications may not benefit all patient populations equally.? Will history repeat itself?? Here I will present the story of cholesterol, and how it has ? and continues to be ? a controversial component of modern medical history.

A cholesterol narrative and the uphill battle linking it to cardiovascular risk

Atherosclerosis

In the early 1900s, a young Russian scientist named Anitschkow serendipitously conducted what would be one of the founding experiments for cardiovascular disease research.? Instead of disproving his colleague?s hypothesis on ageing, Anitsckow discovered a link between cholesterol and vascular damage (atherosclerosis) after feeding rabbits purified cholesterol.? Yet, despite these findings, cholesterol research in the context of human health was not of interest, mostly because many leading scientists did not consider the rabbit ? an herbivore by nature ? to be relevant to human disease.? Furthermore, atherosclerosis was thought to be a natural and inevitable component of ageing and most scientists didn?t see cholesterol as being causative.? Therefore, cholesterol research as it relates to cardiovascular disease remained stagnant for several decades.

Approximately 40 years after Anitschkow published his cholesterol studies in rabbits, Gofman had great interest in the concept of cholesterol as being a determinant of cardiovascular disease.? An American scientist with a penchant for biomedical research, Gofman was aware of Anitschkow?s cholesterol feeding experiments and, unlike most other scientists during that era, he took these results quite seriously.? He was convinced of a clear link between cholesterol and atherosclerosis, which ultimately lead him to question exactly how cholesterol was transported in the blood stream.? Using newly established techniques, he started to examine the different chemical forms of cholesterol found in the blood, and identified the components that make up total cholesterol (such as HDL and LDL, which will be discussed in detail below).? Unfortunately, the significance of this research would not be realized until many years later.

As time went on and rogue supporters of the ?lipid hypothesis? increased in number, the notion that high levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream, a phenomenon known to physicians as hypercholesterolemia, was a causative factor for heart disease started to catch on.? It was becoming clearer that diet had an impact on cholesterol levels, and therefore, the incidence of heart attacks.? In 1955, Ancel Keys, a prominent nutritional scientist at the University of Minnesota, suggested that, despite the costs and length of time required, it was important to conduct large-scale clinical studies where diet and health were researched [PDF]:

?There are good reasons for the current great interest in the effects of the diet on the blood lipids. It is now generally agreed that there is an important relationship between the concentration of certain lipid fractions in the blood and the development of atherosclerosis and the coronary heart disease it produces. The outstanding characteristic of atherosclerosis is the presence of lipid deposits, mainly cholesterol, in the walls of the arteries. And both in, man and animals the most obvious factor that affects the blood lipids is the diet.?

As a result, we started to see an increase in clinical studies examining the impact of diet on cardiovascular health, including Keys? own Seven Countries Study beginning in 1958.? This study, which was the first of its kind, examined the connection between lifestyle, diet, and prevalence of cardiovascular disease in men from different world populations.? Though the study design is considered to be flawed by today?s standards, the major finding that linked high intake of dietary cholesterol to heart disease, regardless of cultural background, were quite influential.

Alongside the Seven Countries Study, the National Heart Institute (now known as the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute ? NHLBI) decided in 1948 to begin following people between the ages of 30 and 62 living in the town of Framingham, MA.? Perhaps one of the most well-known and cited clinical studies aimed to determine common patterns related to the development of cardiovascular disease, the currently ongoing Framingham Heart Study identified a number of factors related to heart health, including smoking, high blood pressure, and ? you guessed it ? high blood cholesterol.? However, the latter was not a reported cardiovascular disease risk factor until 1961.

Despite the rejection of the lipid hypothesis by several ?old-schoolers,? many scientists and physicians began to see the link between blood cholesterol and human health.? But, even more brazen was the idea that negative health effects stemming from high cholesterol could be treated and reversed.? In the early 1950s, research from the laboratories of Laurance Kinsell (Institute for Metabolic Research, Highland General Hospital) and Edward H. Ahrens (The Rockefeller University) concluded that eliminating dietary saturated fats and replacing them with unsaturated fats has a profound effect on reducing blood cholesterol.? This finding was strengthened by the results of three pre-1970s clinical studies: The Paul Leren Oslo Study (1966); The Wadsworth Veterans Administration Hospital Study (1969); and The Finnish Mental Hospitals Study (1968).

Yet, the reaction of medical professionals was still mixed.? Some embraced these new data and organizations such as the American Heart Association went on record with a (carefully worded) message urging a reduction in saturated fat consumption.? However, others were more pessimistic of these findings, perhaps because they did not feel that the American population would be willing to dramatically change their current lifestyle and dietary habits.? Or, perhaps the non-universal acceptance of the lipid hypothesis was because there wasn?t enough information regarding the biochemistry surrounding how cholesterol wreaks havoc in our bodies.? And then the work of Gofman became more relevant.

Enter Donald S. Fredrickson.? Fredrickson realized the potential of Gofman?s findings regarding how cholesterol was carried in the blood and became convinced that the pattern of cholesterol carriers ? known as lipoproteins ? was a valuable approach to determining cardiovascular disease risk.? Building on Gofman?s research, Frederickson and his colleagues brought lipoprotein science into the clinical setting, busting open the field of lipoprotein metabolism as it relates to atherosclerosis.? Still, there were many questions regarding the regulation of lipoprotein level in the blood, especially that which surrounded the matter of nature versus nurture.

Joe Goldstein

Whether there was a genetic component to high cholesterol and cardiovascular risk was a question that fueled a young postdoctoral scientist working in the laboratory of Arno G. Motulsky at the University of Washington.? In 1973, Joe Goldstein, now considered to be one of the founders of modern cholesterol research, was one of the first to genetically classify the types of cholesterol-carrying lipoproteins in the blood.? However, it was when Goldstein teamed up with Michael Brown ? a collaboration that would lead to the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine ? that the genetic regulation of cholesterol metabolism was realized.? In a series of research papers published in the 1970s and 1980s, Brown and Goldstein not only how a critical enzyme involved in the generation of cholesterol was regulated, but also elegantly showed that there is a genetic basis behind the inability to remove a pro-heart disease form of cholesterol called low density lipoprotein (LDL) from the blood.

Michael Brown

Thanks to Brown and Goldstein, a target for cholesterol therapy was finally identified; however, there was yet to be an actual drug on the market.? Proof was still needed that lowering LDL cholesterol will lower ones risk of heart attacks and strokes, and this had to be accompanied by proof of efficacy.? The clinical trial that sealed the deal, ending cholesterol?s long road to being taken seriously as a primary cardiovascular disease risk factor, was the Coronary Primary Prevention Trial (CPPT), launched in 1973 by the NHLBI Lipid Research Clinics.? This randomized, double blind study showed that lowering blood cholesterol (in this case using cholestryamine ? a compound that prevents the intestinal reabsorption of cholesterol and promotes its removal via excretion in the feces) leads to a reduction in heart attacks.

When these data were published in the early 1980s1, there was a consensus among many in the medical community that the lipid hypothesis was correct.? Furthermore, the evidence linking cholesterol to cardiovascular disease resulted in many programs and policies aimed at both educating the public about dietary management of blood cholesterol levels and exploring new methods for treatment.? This opened up a new area for research and, of course, a new area for cholesterol controversy.

Deconstructing Cholesterol: ?Bad??is still bad, but is ?good??still good?

Now that a ?lipid panel? has become a standard part of the medical check-up, we are easily provided with an extremely valuable, personalized metabolic snapshot.? But, the information can also be overwhelming.? In the lipid panel, we will see cholesterol broken down into basic components: HDL, which stands for high density lipoprotein; and LDL, an acronym for low density lipoprotein.? Added together, they make up most of our total cholesterol.

Because high levels of LDL cholesterol in the blood have been shown to promote atherosclerosis, this form of cholesterol has been appropriately nicknamed ?bad cholesterol.? However, whether or not HDL ? known to many as ?good cholesterol? ? can save the day is up for debate.? When studying cholesterol characteristics in the population, there is some indication of an inverse relationship between HDL levels and cardiovascular risk.? In other words, it seems like high HDL is correlated with low heart attack numbers.

From a mechanistic standpoint, this makes sense.? In the body, HDL acts to remove cholesterol from specialized cells called macrophages, which helps to prevent the build-up of cholesterol in our blood vessels.? Furthermore, it has been proposed that HDL has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which are beneficial when it comes to heart disease.? But, it isn?t always that simple.? In some contexts, HDL can become damaged, transforming into something that actually promotes damage to our blood vessels.? Thus, HDL levels may not be an informative parameter at the individual level.

The idea that raising HDL might be beneficial came from clinical studies, including the coronary Drug Trial (1965-1974), where the effects of niacin were examined.? To date, niacin is the most effective FDA approved means of raising HDL-cholesterol.? Interestingly, niacin also lowers LDL-cholesterol, as well as another type of blood lipid called triglycerides.? Because of this, it is hard to tease out whether the protective effects of niacin are actually related to raising HDL levels.? Fibrates, such as TriCor or Lopid, are another class of compounds that can significantly raise HDL levels, but, like niacin, these drugs also affect LDL and triglycerides.

Despite some of the uncertainties, several pharmaceutical companies were driven to explore potential cardio-protective effects of specifically raising HDL levels in the blood stream.? Based largely on the work of Alan Tall at the Columbia University Medical Center, many pharmaceutical labs are working on targeting a molecule in our body called cholesteryl ester transfer protein, more easily referred to as CETP. ? Studies have shown that blocking the action of CETP leads to an increase in HDL levels in the blood, and, based on the notion that increased HDL is beneficial, it is thought that these drugs would be a great option to what we already have on the market.? However, the first drug trial investigating a CETP-inhibitor had disastrous consequences.

When administered alone, torcetrapib ? a CETP inhibitor drug produced by Pfizer ? was shown to increase HDL levels without significantly affecting LDL levels.? The hope was that this biochemical data would translate into a heart-protective effect in humans.? However, a clinical trial showed that when provided in combination with another cholesterol-lowering medication called a statin (we will get to these later), torcetrapib treatment was associated with a 50% increase in deaths from cardiovascular disease compared to placebo.? These results occurred because torcetrapib was reported to increase blood pressure.

Some of the criticisms regarding torcetrapib surrounded the idea that this was not a ?pure? medication, especially considering that the blood pressure effect does not seem to be associated with the mechanism of torcetrapib action.? And it is this reasoning that the idea of CETP inhibition has not been totally abandoned.

Many have high hopes for Merck?s CETP inhibitor anacetrapib.? In a Phase III study, it was reported that anacetrapib had significant HDL-raising effects when administered to patients already taking a statin, and this was without any of the off-target effects seen with torcetrapib.

However, do HDL levels really matter if LDL levels are in check?? In other words, is their any benefit to raising HDL levels if LDL levels are adequately treated?? Conclusions from the AIM-HIGH study suggest that the answer is no.? In May of this year, the NHLBI announced that they would be prematurely halting this clinical study, which was investigating the effects of taking niacin on top of a statin, citing futility.? This decision was made after taking into consideration the negative results from the ACCORD lipid study, which showed that taking a fibrate in combination with a statin provided no extra benefit for diabetic patients.

This certainly creates a fair amount of confusion when it comes to the current ?HDL is good??dogma, and many doctors are reconsidering how they treat patients with low HDL levels if LDL is low or normal.? Given the currently available data, LDL appears to be the major risk factor when it comes to cardiovascular disease susceptibility.? Should we re-interpret the early studies showing an association between high HDL and a lower incidence of heart attacks?

As the investigation into the efficacy of anacetrapib moves forward, perhaps we will become more informed.? But what is the point if it is only being tested on top of a statin?? To truly know the benefits of raising HDL, pwe need to find a way to only study the effects of altering HDL levels.? However, there are always ethical considerations to take into account.? It is not good practice to prevent a patient from taking a medication that is known to be beneficial to their condition, just so we can make a point in the name of science.

But, science and medicine is not (and should never be) a ?one size fits all??philosophy and there are many who would benefit from knowing if raising HDL levels is a true, stand-alone alternative.? This is certainly quite relevant when speaking about the percentage of the population who just cannot tolerate statin therapy because of unwanted side effects.? There has got to be a way to ensure that everyone has an equal chance at fighting heart disease and perhaps it is time to restructure our current approach.

Cholesterol confusion and why we should rethink our approach to therapy

For many high-risk patients who do not respond to diet and exercise, getting their LDL levels in check is as simple as taking a statin.? Statins are drugs that inhibit the natural ability of our body to generate cholesterol and result in the reduction of LDL cholesterol in the blood.? These medications have certainly helped many, especially those who are genetically predisposed to high cholesterol levels due to heredity.? However, there are some who just cannot tolerate statin therapy and, therefore, we need to be able to provide them with more options.

All statins have been reported to be associated with adverse side effects, especially when administered at high doses2.? These side effects include memory problems, sleeping issues, and, most commonly, that which is associated with muscle.? For some, these muscle issues might just be minor.? For others, however, statin use may come with more serious muscle problems, and this is catching some attention (see this post by Laura Newman).? Based on this, as well as results published in November of 2010 in the Lancet, which reported a significant increase in the number of patients experiencing a muscle condition called myopathy as a result of high-dose statins (80mg per day), the FDA has issued the following safety announcement:

[06-08-2011] The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is recommending limiting the use of the highest approved dose of the cholesterol-lowering medication, simvastatin (80 mg) because of increased risk of muscle damage. Simvastatin 80 mg should be used only in patients who have been taking this dose for 12 months or more without evidence of muscle injury (myopathy). Simvastatin 80 mg should not be started in new patients, including patients already taking lower doses of the drug. In addition to these new limitations, FDA is requiring changes to the simvastatin label to add new contraindications (should not be used with certain medications) and dose limitations for using simvastatin with certain medicines.

The reported frequency of adverse side effects relating to statin usage is 5% in randomized clinical trials, but can reach up to 20% in the clinic3,4.? It is thought that this discrepancy arises because of patient selection in these randomized clinical trials, which generally tend to exclude groups (such as women or the elderly) who have a higher rate of statin intolerance.? Furthermore, patients who are heavy drinkers, those who have a pre-existing condition (such as diabetes), or those taking a cocktail of medications are typically excluded.? Yet, these people are prescribed statins in real life.

As of right now, there is no standardized treatment for patients who develop adverse side effects to statin therapy.? In a perspective article published in the New England Journal of Medicine (online November 15, 2011)5, Patricia Maningat and Jan Breslow from The Rockefeller University address this issue, citing the need for pragmatic clinical trials for statin-intolerant patients.

As opposed to randomized clinical trials, which usually involved a homogenous patient population, pragmatic clinical trials would be more applicable to a real-world setting, providing detailed information so that caregivers and policy makers can determine more personalized treatment options.? These authors also note the fact that most new therapies are tested on top of statins, therefore making it impossible to determine if these drugs are effective as stand-alone treatments for patients who cannot tolerate statins.

There are many who joke that statins should be added to the drinking water, and with the exponentially growing number of those prescribed statins, they might as well be.? There is no doubt that the rising number of statin users will be associated with increased reports of negative side effects.? The implementation of pragmatic clinical trials may not be the most cost-effective strategy, nor would the study design prove to be easy, but it is important that we effectively meet the needs of every patient who has high cholesterol.? The current standard of care is out of date and it is high time that we began a dialogue to correct this.

Additional Reading

References not hyperlinked

[1] The Lipid Research Clinics Coronary Primary Prevention Trial Results. I. Reduction in incidence of coronary heart disease. JAMA 1984 Jan 20;251(3):351-64.

[1] Bays H. Statin safety: An overview and assessment of the data?2005. AmJ Cardiol 2006;97(8A):6C-26C.

[1] Armitage J. The safety of statins in clinical practice. Lancet 2007; 370(9601):1781-90.

[1] Radcliffe KA, Campbell WW. Statin myopathy. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 2008; 8(1):66-72.

[1] Maningat P, Breslow JL. Need: Pragmatic clinical trials for statin-intolerant patients. NEJM 2011

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US joins NATO's cyber facility in Estonia

(AP) ? The United States has joined NATO's cyber defense research center in Estonia that works on ways to combat cyberattacks.

The multinational center was created in 2008 after Estonia's government and corporate computer networks came under attack the year before following a dispute with neighboring Russia.

The United States will help fund the center, and its scientists and cyber defense experts will be able to both study and teach at the center's premises in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

The U.S. Embassy in Estonia said Wednesday that Poland was also joining the center, which now will have 10 members.

Previously the United States held an observer status at the facility.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2011-11-16-EU-NATO-Cyber-Defense/id-8803adf3ba2645e89b7ea1be8046a9bb

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Ionized plasmas as cheap sterilizers for developing world

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

University of California, Berkeley, scientists have shown that ionized plasmas like those in neon lights and plasma TVs not only can sterilize water, but make it antimicrobial ? able to kill bacteria ? for as long as a week after treatment.

Devices able to produce such plasmas are cheap, which means they could be life-savers in developing countries, disaster areas or on the battlefield where sterile water for medical use ? whether delivering babies or major surgery ? is in short supply and expensive to produce.

"We know plasmas will kill bacteria in water, but there are so many other possible applications, such as sterilizing medical instruments or enhancing wound healing," said chemical engineer David Graves, the Lam Research Distinguished Professor in Semiconductor Processing at UC Berkeley. "We could come up with a device to use in the home or in remote areas to replace bleach or surgical antibiotics."

Low-temperature plasmas as disinfectants are "an extraordinary innovation with tremendous potential to improve health treatments in developing and disaster-stricken regions," said Phillip Denny, chief administrative officer of UC Berkeley's Blum Center for Developing Economies, which helped fund Graves' research and has a mission of addressing the needs of the poor worldwide.

"One of the most difficult problems associated with medical facilities in low-resource countries is infection control," added Graves. "It is estimated that infections in these countries are a factor of three-to-five times more widespread than in the developed world."

Graves and his UC Berkeley colleagues published a paper in the November issue of the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, reporting that water treated with plasma killed essentially all the E. coli bacteria dumped in within a few hours of treatment and still killed 99.9 percent of bacteria added after it sat for seven days. Mutant strains of E. coli have caused outbreaks of intestinal upset and even death when they have contaminated meat, cheese and vegetables.

Based on other experiments, Graves and colleagues at the University of Maryland in College Park reported Oct. 31 at the annual meeting of the American Vacuum Society that plasma can also "kill" dangerous proteins and lipids ? including prions, the infectious agents that cause mad cow disease ? that standard sterilization processes leave behind.

In 2009, one of Graves' collaborators from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics built a device capable of safely disinfecting human skin within seconds, killing even drug-resistant bacteria.

"The field of low-temperature plasmas is booming, and this is not just hype. It's real!" Graves said.

In the study published this month, Graves and his UC Berkeley colleagues showed that plasmas generated by brief sparks in air next to a container of water turned the water about as acidic as vinegar and created a cocktail of highly reactive, ionized molecules ? molecules that have lost one or more electrons and thus are eager to react with other molecules. They identified the reactive molecules as hydrogen peroxide and various nitrates and nitrites, all well-known antimicrobials. Nitrates and nitrites have been used for millennia to cure meat, for example.

Graves was puzzled to see, however, that the water was still antimicrobial a week later, even though the peroxide and nitrite concentrations had dropped to nil. This indicated that some other reactive chemical ? perhaps a nitrate ? remained in the water to kill microbes, he said.

Plasma discharges have been used since the late 1800s to generate ozone for water purification, and some hospitals use low-pressure plasmas to generate hydrogen peroxide to decontaminate surgical instruments. Plasma devices also are used as surgical instruments to remove tissue or coagulate blood. Only recently, however, have low-temperature plasmas been used as disinfectants and for direct medical therapy, said Graves.

Graves recently focused on medical applications of plasmas after working for more than 20 years on low-temperature plasmas of the kind used to etch semiconductors. While sparks in air typically create hot plasmas of partially ionized and dissociated oxygen and nitrogen, a very brief spark creates similar molecules without heating the air. The reactive oxygen and nitrogen created by the plasma will diffuse into nearby liquids or skin, where they can kill microbes similar to the way some drugs and immune cells kill microbes by generating very similar or even identical reactive chemicals.

Despite the widespread use of plasmas, however, they are still not well characterized, Graves said. Plasma created in air, for example, produces different molecules than plasma in helium or argon. Much needs to be learned about different ways of producing plasmas, including plasma needles and jets, and how to maximize exposure against skin or liquid, such as by confining the plasma-generated chemicals near the surface of the treated object.

"I'm a chemical engineer who applies physics and chemistry to understanding plasmas," Graves said. "It's exciting to now look for ways to apply plasmas in medicine."

###

University of California - Berkeley: http://www.berkeley.edu

Thanks to University of California - Berkeley for this article.

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China group proceeding with homegrown peace prize (AP)

BEIJING ? The sponsors of a Chinese peace prize said Tuesday that they plan to hold a ceremony awarding this year's honor to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin despite being ordered not to by the government.

Qiao Damo, head of the China International Peace Research Center, said the Dec. 9 ceremony to award the Confucius Prize would go ahead. That's despite what Qiao said were orders from the Culture Ministry to cancel the ceremony because permission wasn't given to publicize the award and the group had illicitly changed its name.

The ministry said in September that it had ordered the prize canceled, but did not immediately respond to further requests for comment Tuesday.

The first Confucius Prize was awarded last year to former Taiwanese Vice President Lien Chan, though Lien, unaware of the proceedings, did not show up to claim it. The cash prize was instead awarded to a young girl who the organizers refused to identify. There were no indications that Putin was aware of the plans to give him this year's award.

The award's sponsors are professors and academics who say they are independent of the government.

The group hastily launched the prize last year in an apparent attempt to counter the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize that went to jailed Chinese dissident writer Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence for co-authoring an appeal for political reform.

Liu's win enraged the government and Chinese nationalists who accused the Nobel committee of interfering in China's legal system.

In comments to The Associated Press, Qiao denied that permission was needed to hold a news conference Sunday at which Putin's win was announced because the center is a non-governmental body.

He said there had been no move to change the group's name, adding that the ministry appeared to be confused. The group hopes to present a statue of Confucius, the Chinese sage, at next month's ceremony, but if forced to call it off, will simply begin planning for next year's prize, Qiao said.

"We only wish to present a status of Confucius because that symbolizes the Confucian idea of peace," Qiao said.

The prize was named after the philosopher and was intended to give the Chinese "viewpoint of peace," organizers said last year. It came with a 100,000 yuan ($15,000) gift.

Qiao said that this year, the 16-member award committee considered a range of candidates for the prize, including Microsoft founder and global philanthropist Bill Gates, South African President Jacob Zuma and former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111115/ap_on_re_as/as_china_confucius_prize

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How To Help The Displaced Pets Of Storm Katrina : 31Night.com, A ...

Posted by NocitoKamara370 | November - 16 - 2011 | Comments Off

The brief shelters are stuffed and the pets left in the back of by sufferers of Storm Katrina are turning up in shelters and Humane Societies around the South. Many rescuers have stopped looking for the dogs and cats, and feature opted to just depart meals and water for the unlucky hundreds of animals looking to survive. The Atlanta Humane Society is recently housing pets that belong to Storm Katrina evacuees within the Atlanta area and is offering loose clinical assistance to any evacuee pet in need. The Arizona Humane Society is in New Orleans trying to lend a hand provide for the pets left behind. ?It?s very dire,? Kim Noetzel instructed Reuters News Service.

Noetzel is the selling director for the Arizona Humane Society and the group is doing the whole thing it may to assist the displaced canines and cats suffering from Storm Katrina. We all can assist too. The Atlanta Humane society is accepting donations for its relief efforts on its web page PetSmart Charities Rescue is offering especially designed automobiles to move dogs and cats from typhoon-ravaged areas into safety. Over 150 animals have been stored through the rescue effort from one of the crucial biggest puppy retailer chains in the country. Folks that want to assist PetSmart?s efforts can maketax-deductable donations through calling 1-800-423-PETS. Petfinder.com has set up a database to lend a hand reunite pets left in the back of by the crisis as well as attempt to in finding home for pets with out one. The database, consistent with the site, features the following: A spot the place displaced storm sufferers put up the places of their pets in order that rescuers can move in and retailer them. Rescuers put up the descriptions and photos of pets they find. Volunteers submit their gives of foster care for displaced pets.

Petfinder.com also has a space where folks who want to help can make a donation to assist beef up the Petfinder.com Basis Crisis Fund. In line with the Orlando Sentinel, an envisioned 30,000 pets were left homeless by means of Hurricane Katrina. Helping web sites can help reunite loved ones with the hairy buddies they needed to depart behind.

If you would like additional information about Katrina Kaif, visit Son P Meiss?s website instantly.

Source: http://www.31night.com/2011/11/how-to-help-the-displaced-pets-of-storm-katrina/

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Charlize Theron Talks Being ?Single? For The First Time

Charlize Theron Talks Being “Single” For The First Time

Charlize Theron reveals that being alone is quite a new experience for her, after ending her nine-year romance with actor Stuart Townsend in 2010. The [...]

Charlize Theron Talks Being “Single” For The First Time Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/stupidcelebrities/~3/SdiGQDAI69Q/

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Fresh iPhone Apps for Nov. 14: This Day in Pink Floyd, Foodily, Blueprint 3D, Asteroids Gunner (Appolicious)

Remastered music from Pink Floyd has just found its way to store shelves, and so has a new Pink Floyd app designed to give you a bit of trivia or information about the band every day. Check it out while maybe making recipes from Foodily, which provides daily recipes from food experts and your friends. In games, Blueprint 3D tasks you with manipulating 3-D images to find hidden 2-D ones, and Asteroids Gunner updates the arcade classic.

With the release of newly remastered Pink Floyd albums comes This Day in Pink Floyd, an app brimming with trivia for the landmark rock band. You?ll get daily facts about Pink Floyd right on your iOS device thanks to the app, and it contains information about every single track ever recorded to help inform the curious.

This Day in Pink Floyd packs more than 100 photos within it, as well as about 200 trivia questions the app can ask you in order to let you play along. It also contains a free ring tone and a rare, newly restored video for the track ?Point Me At The Sky.? If you?re a Pink Floyd fan, this app is a must.

Foodily (iPhone, iPad) Free

Foodies out there should check out Foodily, an award-winning daily recipe app. The app gives you several options for providing you with the kinds of recipes you?ll want to read and try, including forwarding recommendations from your friends or providing advice from food experts.

Foodily contains a recipe ?news feed? that will always keep you in a new recipes, and it allows you to upload your own Foodily photos to the recipes you make to show off your handiwork. The app will also help you get recipe ideas from restaurant food ? just snap a photo and type in a few ingredients, and Foodily will provide you with suggestions for things you can make.

Puzzler Blueprint 3D is pretty simple, when it comes right down to it. In each of the game?s levels, you?re tasked with manipulating a 3-D ?blueprint? image using touch controls to maneuver the picture around. Rotating it allows you to look at the figure from different angles. Your goal is to find the angle that makes the elements line up to create a two-dimensional image: for example, the Notre Dame cathedral. From one direction, the lines on the blueprint may look random, but from the correct direction they form a picture.

Blueprint 3D scores you on how quickly and efficiently you can determine which angle is the right one in order to see the picture in question. It doesn?t take much, though: You?ll basically just rotate images and try to align the lines within it as quickly as you can to receive max points. Blueprint 3D will keep you busy for a while though, with more than 240 blueprints spread over seven categories, including architecture, military objects and more.

A reimagining of the classic arcade game Asterioids, Asteroids Gunner gives you updated graphics and some more interesting mechanics and adds them to the classic gameplay of blasting space rocks. Asteroids Gunner puts you in the pilot?s seat of a spacecraft of your choosing and asks you to blow up asteroids and gather the crystals they give off. You?ll also collect power-ups and attempt to avoid annihilation while you mine for valuable.

Asteroids Gunner uses a pair of virtual control sticks, so it plays more like a two-stick shooter than onem might expect from asteroids. It includes more than 200 levels, as well as Game Center and OpenFeint integration, so you can match skills with players from all over the world.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_appolicious_com_articles10195_fresh_iphone_apps_for_nov_14_this_day_in_pink_floyd_foodily_blueprint_3d_asteroids_gunner/43595428/SIG=14aob6s02/*http%3A//www.appolicious.com/tech/articles/10195-fresh-iphone-apps-for-nov-14-this-day-in-pink-floyd-foodily-blueprint-3d-asteroids-gunner

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