The religious beliefs of British doctors influence their decisions for treatment and possible termination of patients on near-dying stage.

British physicians, who claimed being religious and seriously practicing their belief, are not likely to make decisions concerning end-of-life care such as induction of treatment that will eventually, shorten the life of the patient or further sedating the patient with medication. Clive Seale, PhD, of Queen Mary University of London, says that religious doctors will not usually discuss such options to their patients and their relatives, or support any action concerning euthanasia.

Seale began the survey by forwarding mails to 8,857 British general practitioners, palliative care specialists, elderly care specialists, and clinical physicians from different hospitals and specialty clinics in the U.K. About 42.1% or 3,733 medical practitioners answered and replied to the mail. Furthermore, 2,923 of them alleged to be with their patients, caring for them up to the time of death.

The survey shows that most the physicians taking care of the elderly were Muslim or Hindu. Christian religion prevails on the number of palliative care specialists in the survey.

Seale compares the results between non-religious and religious medical practitioners. According to him, doctors, independent of their specialty, who assumed themselves as non-religious were more likely than others physicians to consider inducing continuous deep sedation until death to their patients, to take part in making decision regarding terminating the life of their patients, and to discuss such topic to their patients who have the capacity to partake in the discussion.

Seale writes that the results show similarity with a study in the U.S., on which religious doctors do not partake on such discussion considering its moral grounds.

In addition, the study suggests that specialty of a practitioners affect its decision-making capabilities. It says that except for those specialists in palliative care, most of the practitioners will tend to shorten or end the life of their patients.

A report, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggested for the development of a new clinical testing of HIV drugs in patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome.

Experts suggested the proposal after successful experiments identified murine leukemia virus-related viruses, a family of retroviruses, present in chronic fatigue syndrome. Researchers noted that these retroviruses that commonly cause cancer in mice significantly responded with HIV drugs. Furthermore, they offered the drugs to be a potential treatment in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Researchers projected that the drug, if proven effective in clinical study on human subjects, would be prescribed to patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. This will reduce the morbidity rate due to the disorder among the population.

In the study, researchers focused on 37 patients diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. Blood testing confirmed that 32 out the 37 patients possessed murine leukemia virus-related viruses. In comparison, they examined the blood of 44 healthy individuals. Researchers found out that only 3 or 6.8% of the healthy sample possessed the virus. The results, according to the researchers, clearly suggested that the virus affected those with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Chronic fatigue syndrome is a debilitating disorder characterized by prolonged feeling of exhaustion, even without physical activity, accompanied with other related symptoms that last for more than six months. Furthermore, experts explained that sleep and rest could only partially relieve the symptoms.

The disorder affected more than 1 million Americans and about 250,000 people in the U.K.  Before, doctors and experts claimed no known cause of the disorder. However, in the light of the study, researchers found and suggested others in the medical profession to consider this discovery as a new approach to the disease and its treatment.

Subsequent studies have focused on other family of retroviruses such as XMRV. Researchers are hopeful to make innovation and progress to the development of other researchers that would further support such claims.

A recent study in Norway stated how unhealthy habits of teens such as smoking, overweight, and lack of exercise increase their chances of experiencing migraine.

The journal Neurology published the article online last Wednesday, which featured a team of Norwegian researchers studying junior high and high school students in the 1990s. The research includes interviews of 5,847 Norwegian teenagers, age ranging from 13 to 18 years old, on how new identified risks factors elevate rates of forming episodes of migraine. The data collection of the study consists of body weight measurements and health-related questionnaires.

The result of the study enlisted the three predisposing factors that may put a teenager at risks of developing migraine. According to the research, teenagers who smoke have 80% increased risks to experience severe headache, while obese teens got 60% heightened risks, and 50% raised risks for adolescents who failed to exercise at least twice a week. Researchers also found out that the three unhealthy lifestyles are associated with elevated rates of tension headaches and other forms of headaches.

Furthermore, researchers established the result of the study indicating that if a teen possessed more than one of the unhealthy behaviors, the probability of occurrence of migraine grows 3 to 4 times compared with a healthy one. Moreover, experts agreed that successive headaches made higher chances on teenagers who smoke, is overweight, and do not exercise compared with an adolescents who is nonsmoking, maintain proper body weight, and exercise daily.

Migraine is a severe headache accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and altered bodily perception. Person suffering from migraine is experiencing pulsating and unilateral headaches, which lights and sounds can sometimes amplify the pain. In addition, the pain lasts hours, and on severe cases, even days. Management of symptoms includes taking medications, but migraine itself is a recurring disease that has no known treatment.

Finally, experts advised the people who are experiencing migraine to opt a healthier lifestyle. They strongly suggest controlling body weight with proper eating and daily exercise. In addition, they stressed to teenagers about avoiding vices especially smoking.

People who are known hypertensive and indulge themselves to occasional or, worse, frequent heavy drinking sessions develop increased rate of experiencing a stroke.

In an edition of Stroke published last August 19, researchers found out that there is four times higher chances to develop cardiovascular disease such as heart-attack those known-hypertensive people with 168/100 mmHg of blood pressure and consume 6 glasses of alcohol drink on one occasion, as compared with those non-drinkers. Furthermore, if they consume up to 12 glasses of alcohol beverages, they further increase their risk by 12 folds.

Dr. Heechoul Ohrr, a professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, stressed that unhealthy ways as heavy drinking per session increments mortality rate due to stroke incidences in the general populace.

Researched studied the data obtained from 6,100 men and women in the local area. The sample was divided into 4 groups and named the groupings under nondrinkers, non-binge drinkers, moderate binge drinkers (defined as having six or more drinks on one occasion), and heavy binge drinkers (defined as having 12 or more drinks on one occasion). Progress of the study took them in 21 years of observation. Researchers followed the sample in their daily lives while identifying and collecting data relative to their study.

The conclusion of the study came from the comparison of results between binge drinkers and heavy binge drinkers of non-hypertensive people, and binge drinkers and heavy binge drinkers of known-hypertensive people. As for the comparison on the non-hypertensive, binge drinkers and heavy drinkers showed insignificant difference. Researchers concluded that occasional heavy drinking on a non-hypertensive person does not significantly put him at risk of developing cardiovascular disorder.

However, researchers noticed the significant difference in result between the two known-hypertensive samples. Ultimately, researchers agreed that those people who are heavy binge drinkers with hypertension had a 12-fold higher risk of cardiovascular mortality than those people who are non-drinkers with optimal blood pressures.

Alcohol drinking is not bad. Actually, there are some studies where experts claimed that moderate drinking promotes health of the heart. Furthermore, the American Heart Association advises drinking in moderation. The association said, that a drink as one 12-ounce beer, one 4-ounce glass of wine, 1.5 ounces of 80-proof spirits or one ounce of 100-proof spirits is enough for a day. Experts stressed that drinking more than that can lead to some serious health problems.

Living kidney donors of black and Hispanic race tend to develop more problems compared with white race according to the report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Kidney transplantation is the best option given to a patient with end-stage renal disease with a promise of a dialysis-free survival. Organ transplants are possible with a deceased donor or a living donor. Relatively, the study focused on the after effects of the surgical transplant procedure to the living organ donor.

Normal human beings possess two kidneys. The organs filter the blood of waste products and excrete them into the urine. Nevertheless, studies and experts agreed that a person could live even with just one kidney. This fact leads to pursue the organ transplant with a living person. Though experts and authorities discouraged organ donation from a living person, currently, the percentage of transplants from living donors is increasing.

According to the research that studied 4650 living kidney donors from October 1987 to July 2007 who also had post-donation nephrectomy benefits with this insurer at some point from 2000 to 2007, the prevalence of black and Hispanic race patients to develop diseases such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and chronic kidney disease were relatively high. In comparison, white race patients insignificantly had same results. Moreover, researcher discovered development of end-stage renal disease in 1% of donors and favored more common among black donors than among white donors. Finally, they stated how the study observed that black and Hispanic donors had approximately twice the risk of developing chronic kidney disease as compared with white donors.

Researchers of the study stressed about how long-term health outcomes concerning living kidney donors had insignificantly identified. Furthermore, this drives them to pursue this study. As a result, they stated that the research data were intended to increase the awareness concerning variation in long-term outcomes among living donors and the need for longer in-depth follow-up of demographically diverse living donors.

According to the new research that the Queen’s University in Canada studied, melanoma can be reduced when MicroRNA 193b is added in the skin. MicroRNA 193b is a gene that can be found in the DNA of all humans.

Melanoma is uncontrollable tumor of producing melanin cells in the skin. In addition to this, the newly found miR-193b is classified as small genetic molecules that modulate the expression of gene.

The pathology head and molecular medicine Victor Tron said that miR-193b can help in lowering the risk of having melanoma cancers. Although this gene is unknown for the last ten years, scientists keep looking for this gene to help people who have melanoma. Dr. Tron and his colleagues experiment this gene that might have significance in any science discovery but it turns out to be an important factor in slowing down melanoma.

In their experiments, they added miR-193b in the cells of melanoma and the result lowered the levels of cyclin D1 and reduced the growth of melanoma cells. Through the experiments done in their laboratory, tissue samples confirmed that the miR-193b plays a significant role in the process of melanoma. However, more research is needed to know exactly why the levels of miR-193b go up and down.
Dr. Tron also added that this discovery needs a lot more studies to do about curing melanoma. It is the most particular type of cancer in the skin. According to its percentage, 75 percent of the people with melanoma died because of this disease.

Taking Zometa or the drug used to medicate and strengthen the bone can be a lot of help to fight the metastatic breast cancer before the surgery.

It is the complexity of the breast cancer wherein the cancerous cells are already spreading in the other parts of the body. According to the University School of Medicine in St. Louis, patients that are taking this kind of drug three months ahead before the surgery for breast cancer will do a good medication because it can lower the number of tumor cells in the bone marrow.

Disseminated Tumor Cells (DTCs) are tumors that scatter everyday with thousands of tumor cells in the body.  The DTCs of breast cancer are sometimes associated in the bone marrow when the growth of the bone helps them to survive.

Patients that undergo chemotherapy can expand the turnover of the bone and the growth factors of it. It is possible to intensify the problem of disseminated tumor cells in the bone, which can cause the patients to have a metastatic illness in breast cancer.

The DTCs sanctuary is the bone marrow itself. It allows them to scatter and circulate in the different body organs that can lead to patient’s sudden death. According to Dr. Rebecca Aft, a professor and specialist in cancer of the breast in Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center and in the Medical School in Washington University believed that Zometa suppress the growing factors to help support the expansion of DTCs.

Zometa also known as zoledronic acid is advised to lower and stop the complications in the bone because of many bone metastases and myeloma that comes from solid tumors. In addition to this, two researches have shown that Zometa helps the free survival of the disease when taken along with estrogen-lowering therapy before the surgery in the breast cancer.

The results of these studies are proven to improve and help the patient’s condition to reduce the tumor cells and to stop the spreading of the tumor cells in the other parts of the body.

A new study finds that stem cells can be used to treat heart attacks and cardiomyopathy.
According to Professor Michael Schneider, British Heart Foundation Professor at Imperial College London, the use of stem cells in clinical trials to treat heart damage is very successful when it comes to safety but the bone marrow stem cells only gives a small improvement in how well the heart is pumping.
Schneider said that they are want to use stem cells to improve the heart beat of their patients but these kind of cells are not found in the bone marrow. He also stated good news that they are already finding ways to identify and purify these cells that can be a big help for their study.
According to reports, almost 1000 patients have been successfully treated in 20 clinical trials worldwide. Bone marrow stem cells are used to repair the damage caused by heart attacks and diseases. Schneider said that there is a significant way to produce beating heart cells from stem cells. Using embryonic stem cells like induced pluripotent cells and heart-derived stem cells are the best proven approaches to create new beating heart cells.
Schneider added that using heart-derived stem cells is safer than using embryonic and induced pluripotent cells in treating cardiomyopathy and heart attack. He also said that of all the cell types, only heart-derived cells are used in human clinical trials for these kinds of treatments. According to Schneider, the biggest challenge will be the development of an ideal product which will be either a pure population of some kind of precursor or a mixture of blood-vessel forming cells and heart-muscle forming cells.
According to the scientists, the next stage of this study is to develop this technique into a method of purifying, extracting and multiplying heart stem cells to repair the damage caused by heart attacks and cardiomyopathy.

Researchers found a new model for the development and progression of an incurable blood cancer, multiple myeloma.
According to the researchers, multiple myeloma is one of the most common blood cancers and it is considered to be incurable. They found a conceptually new model for the progression of the deadly blood cancer. This study brings a new hope for the treatment of the disease. This study was done and published in the online journal PLos ONE in the July edition.
The researchers identified a group of genes that are silenced by the epigenetic mechanisms inside the malignant plasma cell. They used a large group of patients with myeloma to study their cells. According to Helene Jernberg Wiklund, one of the investigators in the study and the professor at the Department of Genetics and Pathology in Uppsala University, the silencing of the genes may lead to the uncontrolled growth of the malignant plasma cells.
The researchers compared the silenced gene profiles to the normal plasma cells. These normal cells are highly specialized and it is where growth and lifetime is controlled. The researchers found out that the silenced genes have a common denominator. They are targeted and controlled by the Polycomb repressor complex (PcG). It has been associated in division and self-renewal of normal embryonic cells. The researchers found that the inhibitors of PcG can also decrease the growth of the tumor cells in an animal model of myeloma.
According to the researchers, they are still not sure if the inhibitors of PcG can really decrease the growth of myeloma tumor cells on humans but they are still studying if it is possible. They also said that with this study, there will be a new hope for people with myeloma.
According to Wiklund, their strategy is to develop drugs that can treat myeloma. They will target the PcG complex to reactivate the silenced gene profile.

According to the new study, men and women that are suffering from osteoarthritis can now go with the activities that they really want to do with the new therapy for them.

Dr. Brian Feeley, an instructor at University of California in San Francisco, said that the percentage of person that knee arthritis is increasing. People with the age of 40 to 60 are the most targeted age of having knee arthritis.

Feeley also added that in order to prevent knee arthritis, they must select an appropriate therapy for them. However, non-surgical and surgical treatments are for younger patients only.

Elderly patients in the other hand expect to have more serious treatment in order for them to stay active as younger age do.
Dr. Feeley said that people at the age of 40 and up do not want to stop their activities and even their sports. That is why doctors and orthopedic surgeon are looking for different therapy that can help those patients to stay active with their lifestyle even they are suffering from knee arthritis.

According to Dr. Feeley, operation is only advisable to those who have serious signs of knee arthritis. However, it is not recommendable with patients that are doing well even with their illness. Although there are other option like glucosamine, chondroitin and acupuncture in treating knee arthritis, there is still no proof that this can replace the needed treatment for patients.

Feeley also added that serious cases of knee arthritis must undergo surgery, however, right treatment and physical therapy is still needed that can help patients to feel better and more active.