State and local health officials are investigating an outbreak of an unusual strain of salmonella bacteria that has sickened at least 90 people in 19 states and Washington, D.C., the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday.

No specific food source has been identified, and the CDC is not steering people away from any food or restaurants. However, "on initial interviews, many of the ill persons reported consuming sushi, sashimi, or similar foods in a variety of locations in the week before becoming ill," the CDC reported in a news release Wednesday.

The illnesses -- first reported Jan. 28 and most recently on Monday -- were caused by the strain of Salmonella Bareilly. The CDC has not said which states have suffered the outbreaks.

Symptoms of salmonella infection include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. Most people recover within 4 to 7 days without treatment, but some cases are deadly if not treated with antibiotics. The elderly, the very young and people with compromised immune systems are most at risk of a severe illness from salmonella infection.

If you suspect you have eaten contaminated food, the CDC recommends contacting your doctor. "CDC will update the public on the progress of this investigation as information becomes available," the agency said.

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Education Level Affects Longevity: Study

Americans are living longer overall, but better educated people are increasingly the main beneficiaries of gains in life span, according to a new study.

University of Wisconsin researchers analyzed data from more than 3,000 counties across the United States and found that rates of premature death (before age 75) differed sharply across counties, and that a lack of college education accounted for about 35 percent of that variation from 2006 to 2008, The New York Times reported.

That was an increase from 30 percent over an equivalent period seven years earlier.

The study also found that an average increase of one year in post-secondary education levels was associated with a 16 percent decrease in years of life lost before age 75, the Times reported.

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Cheney Goes Home 10 Days After Heart Transplant

Ten days after undergoing a heart transplant, former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has returned to his Virginia home.

After a wait of nearly two years, the 71-year-old Cheney received a new heart on March 24. Since the age of 37, Cheney has had five heart attacks. The most recent was in 2010, USA Today reported.

"As he leaves the hospital, the former vice president and his family want to again express their deep gratitude to the donor and the donor's family for this remarkable gift," said a statement from Cheney's office.

The statement also thanked doctors at Inova Fairfax and George Washington University hospitals, and the intensive-care nursing staff at the Inova Fairfax Heart and Vascular Institute, USA Today reported.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=156766

Blueberries and Strawberries May Protect Against Parkinson's Disease

By Denise Mann

WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

April 5, 2012 -- Can two or more servings of blueberries or strawberries a week help lower risk of Parkinson's disease?

Maybe, according to a new study published in Neurology.

Men and women who ate berries two or more times a week were nearly 25% less likely to develop Parkinson's disease than their counterparts who had less than one serving per month.

Exactly how these fruits may help lower risk is not known, but berries are rich in powerful antioxidants -- known as flavonoids -- which may protect brain cells from damage. Flavonoids are found in fruits and vegetables.

When the researchers looked at the data for men and women separately, the real benefit seemed to go to the men, not the women.

Overall, men who had the most flavonoids in their diet -- including sources such as berries, tea, apples, and red wine -- were 40% less likely to develop Parkinson's than those who ate the least.

Women who ate a high amount of flavonoids were no less likely to develop Parkinson's disease than those who ate the least amount, the study showed.

Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurologic disease that occurs when cells in the brain that make dopamine are slowly destroyed. Symptoms include tremors and difficulty with movement and walking.

The new study included more than 130,000 men and women. Of these, more than 800 developed Parkinson's disease during 20 years of follow-up.

"The main message from this study is that berry fruit is associated with lower risk of Parkinson's disease," says researcher Xiang Gao, MD, PhD. He is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The Benefits of Berries

Because the study found a link but did not show a cause-effect relationship, the findings need to be confirmed in other studies.

Still, there is no downside to eating berries, Gao tells WebMD. "It is not a bad idea to include berries in your diet, as they have other beneficial effects on other diseases."

He says future studies may look at whether eating more berries can slow the progression of Parkinson's disease.

More Study Needed on Berries and Parkinson's Disease

Roy Alcalay, MD, is an assistant professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. He says it is too soon to tell people to start snacking on berries to reduce their risk of developing Parkinson's disease. Alcalay is also an advisor for the Parkinson's Disease Foundation.

"It is interesting, but needs to be replicated," he says. "It is definitely worth more research."

Stuart Isaacson, MD, is excited about the new findings. He is the director of the Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center of Boca Raton and an associate professor of neurology at Florida International University's Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in Miami.

"This is the first large study to show that people who eat berries and other sources of flavonoids have a lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease," he says.

In the past, nicotine and/or caffeine have been linked to lower risk for Parkinson's disease. "This is a more healthful and hopeful alternative."

There are lots of good reasons to eat berries, he says. "If you are looking for a healthy, holistic way of reducing your risk of Parkinson's disease because you think you are at higher risk, eating berries might make sense."

Whether it is something specific in the berries or a combined effect of the whole food remains to be seen. "It is always better to get your nutrients from a whole food as opposed to individual supplements," he says.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=156803

Study Suggests Breast Cancer Survivors Live Longer if They Eat Lots of Cruciferous Vegetables

By Charlene Laino

WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

April 3, 2012 (Chicago) -- Here's another reason to eat your broccoli and Brussels sprouts (and maybe some bok choy). Women with breast cancer who eat a lot of cruciferous vegetables may be more likely to live longer and less likely to have their cancer come back, a large study suggests.

"The more cruciferous vegetables you eat, the better off you are," says researcher Sarah J. Nechuta, MPH, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

It's easy to get 150 grams of these veggies in your diet, Nechuta tells WebMD. A cup of cooked broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, mustard greens, cabbage, and kale all weigh about 150 grams.

The study isn't the first to suggest that eating the crunchy vegetables may benefit women with breast cancer. But it's one of the largest.

The findings were presented here at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

A Cup of Broccoli a Day May Help

The study involved nearly 5,000 Chinese breast cancer survivors aged 20-75 diagnosed with any stage of breast cancer between 2002 and 2006.

They filled out detailed dietary questionnaires when they entered the study and 18 months and 36 months later. Then they were divided into five groups depending on how many cruciferous vegetables they ate.

By about five years after diagnosis, women in the top fifth -- who ate an average of about 150 grams of cruciferous veggies a day -- were 42% less likely to have died from breast cancer and 58% less likely to die from any cause compared to women in the bottom fifth, who ate less than 54 grams a day. And the women in the top fifth were also 19% less likely to have their breast cancer come back.

Here's why the researchers think the vegetables help. Cruciferous vegetables contain high amounts of compounds called glucosinolates. When eaten, they convert to other compounds called isothiocyanates and indoles that have been shown to have many anti-cancer properties in the lab, Nechuta says.

The researchers considered other factors that can affect breast cancer recurrence and survival, including age, stage of cancer, treatments, exercise, and other dietary factors.

You Are What You Eat?

Still, the study doesn't prove that cruciferous vegetables made all the difference. Women who eat a lot of cruciferous vegetables might have other advantages that weren't measured, or a healthier lifestyle overall, says Aditya Bardia, MD, a cancer specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Another consideration: The Asian diet is quite different from the American diet. Commonly eaten cruciferous vegetables in China include turnips, Chinese cabbage/bok choy and greens, while broccoli and Brussels sprouts are the more commonly eaten cruciferous vegetables in the United States and other Western countries, Nechuta says.

Also, Asians tend to eat more vegetables overall, compared to Americans, she says.

Further study is needed to determine if the cancer-fighting compounds behave differently depending on the amount and type of cruciferous vegetables eaten, Nechuta says.

There will be about 290,000 new cases of breast cancer in the U.S. in 2012, and nearly 40,000 women will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.

These findings were presented at a medical conference. They should be considered preliminary, as they have not yet undergone the "peer review" process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.

SOURCES: American Association for Cancer Research Meeting 2012, Chicago, March 31-April 4, 2012. Sarah J. Nechuta, MPH, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. Aditya Bardia, MD, attending physician, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston.

©2012 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=156747

Half of premature babies of 27 and 28 weeks gestation are now born in a specialist unit due to improvements in management of care, new research suggests.

Transferring women at high risk of premature labour to a specialist centre for delivery has boosted the number of babies who benefit from the most intensive care.

However, researchers said there has also been an increase over the last decade in the proportion of babies needing transfer to another hospital in the first 24 hours or month after delivery. A third of babies who are part of twins or triplets are also treated in separate units, highlighting problems with the number of cots available, they added.

The research, published online in the British Medical Journal, looked at maternity units in England, Wales and Northern Ireland between 1998 and 2000 and units in England between 2009 and 2010.

It assessed the impact of a reorganisation of neonatal services in England after 2003 into managed clinical networks.

Overall, the number of babies delivered in specialist units rose from 18% to 49% in England between the two periods. Survival was significantly higher in the latter period in England, rising from 88% to 94%.

The authors, from Imperial College London, said: "As the prognosis for very pre-term babies is improved when they are born and have their initial care in highly specialist centres, the change in place of delivery we document represents an important improvement."

Nevertheless, there was an increase from 7% to 12% in the proportion of babies needing transfer to another hospital in the first 24 hours after birth, which has been shown negatively to affect outcomes for the baby.

The proportion of babies needing transfer between 24 hours and 28 days after birth also rose from 18% to 22%.

The researchers said: "The proportion of pre-term babies transferred within the first 24 hours has increased; in almost a third of cases this is to a neonatal unit providing an equivalent or lower level of specialist care, and babies from multiple births continue to be separated, indicating continuing inadequacies in cot capacity."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/study-examines-premature-baby-care-225939949.html

There is no evidence that metal-on-metal hip implants increase the risk of cancer although longer-term studies are needed, experts have said.

A new analysis of almost 41,000 patients found no link between the controversial implants and the disease in the seven years following surgery.

Cancer is just one of the fears linked to the implants, which have prompted close monitoring of all patients following high failure rates.

Tiny metal ions made up of cobalt and chromium are thought to break off from the implants and leak into the blood, with fears this leads to muscle and bone damage and neurological issues.

The data, based on the National Joint Registry of England and Wales, follows advice issued on Tuesday that said surgeons should stop using one particular type of total hip implant.

Evidence shows the implant has a revision rate of 10.7% just four years after initial surgery which is "unacceptably high", the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said.

The research, published online in the British Medical Journal, is based on 40,576 patients with metal-on-metal hip implants and 248,995 who have other types, linked to hospital data.

The experts, from the Universities of Bristol and Exeter, found no evidence of an increased risk of any type of cancer in people with implants compared with the general population.

However, they said "as some cancers have a long latency period it is important that we study the longer term outcomes and continue to investigate the effects of exposure to orthopaedic metals".

Last month experts writing in The Lancet medical journal called for all metal-on-metal implants to be banned due to evidence of high revision rates.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/cancer-reassurance-over-hip-ops-225939499.html

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Medical marijuana advocates on Tuesday vowed to reopen a San Francisco-area college devoted to cannabis cultivation and known as the "Princeton of Pot" a day after federal agents shut down the school in a raid.

Hundreds of protesters rallied in front of San Francisco's City Hall, some on crutches and in wheelchairs and smoking hand-rolled joints. The demonstrators carried signs that said, "Cannabis is medicine; let states regulate" and chanting "Feds off my meds."

Monday's raid on Oaksterdam University, which offers courses on growing and dispensing of marijuana, turned the Oakland-based school into the latest flashpoint between federal law enforcement and medical cannabis advocates in states where pot has been decriminalized for medicinal purposes.

Federal authorities also searched the home of veteran medical marijuana activist and Oaksterdam founder Richard Lee, as well as a nearby medical marijuana dispensary he runs.

Lee, confined to a wheelchair by a spinal injury, was a leading proponent behind a failed California ballot initiative in 2010 that would have legalized possession and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana in the state for recreational use.

"In a wheelchair, he's a threat," Wayne Justmann, an adviser for medical pot supply shops, said facetiously as he spoke to Reuters at the rally. "He's a guy who's helped so many people."

Rather than targeting Lee, Justmann added, "Go after that guy who killed seven and injured three." He was referring to the former student of a private, Christian college who killed seven people and wounded three others in a shooting rampage on Monday.

Lee himself said he worried that he might be prosecuted.

"They can indict me any day," he said, recounting how he was awakened by federal agents armed with assault rifles appearing at his Oakland apartment with a search warrant. "They can arrest me any day." Agents briefly detained but did not arrest Lee.

The school was closed after agents searched it, but it will reopen Wednesday, Lee's lawyer, Laurence Jeffrey Lichter said.

Although marijuana remains classified as an illegal narcotic under federal law, 16 states and the District of Columbia have enacted some sort of legalized medical-cannabis statutes, according to the Drug Policy Alliance.

In those states, including California, the U.S. government has sought in recent months to shut down storefront dispensaries and greenhouses deemed by federal investigators to be drug-trafficking fronts, as well as those that are located close to schools and parks.

The Obama administration has said it would not single out individual patients who possess or grow their own marijuana in states with medical pot statutes. But federal prosecutors have warned they will continue to go after operations that support for-profit, illegal drug dealing under the guise of medical pot.

Federal action has led to dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries being shut down in California, but so far no one has been charged with criminal activity in connection with the crackdown, Lichter said.

Oaksterdam, widely referred to as the "Harvard of Hemp" and the "Princeton of Pot," opened in 2007 and bills itself as the first cannabis college in the United States.

"Two universities were struck yesterday," said Dale Sky Jones, executive director of Oaksterdam, referring to Monday's raid on her school at the same time a gunman opened fire at the nearby Oikos University. "Federal resources are wasted on failed policy while our cities beg for help with gun violence."

(Corrects that Justmann and Lee comments were made to Reuters, not other protesters, paragraphs 6 and 8)

(Editing by Mary Slosson, Steve Gorman and Lisa Shumaker)

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/marijuana-advocates-vow-reopen-princeton-pot-raid-033901180.html;_ylt=AhVVmiQ2tm.IAELK9a6ERqQDfcl_;_ylu=X3oDMTNzMXAxM3JiBG1pdANKdW1ib3Ryb24gSGVhbHRoU0YEcGtnAzBmMGNlZjFiLTkzOTAtMzdiOC04MTAyLWM0ODlmOWFiODRlNARwb3MDMQRzZWMDanVtYm90cm9uBHZlcgNhNWQ2ZDgxMC03ZTExLTExZTEtYmZkYi0yMWJmMzQ2ZDJiZjE-;_ylg=X3oDMTFxNzN0NzV2BGludGwDZ2IEbGFuZwNlbi1nYgRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANoZWFsdGgEcHQDc2VjdGlvbnMEdGVzdAM-;_ylv=3

A new study from the US finds few young women being treated for cancer take steps to preserve their fertility, for instance so they can start a family later.

Dr Mitchell Rosen, of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and colleagues, also found disparities among different groups of young women, with some more likely to take steps to freeze eggs or embryos than others.

Writing in the 26 March early online view of the journal Cancer, the researchers say their findings show there is a need to boost provisions of counseling on fertility preservation to women of reproductive age undergoing cancer treatment.

Rosen told the press:

"Although more women are getting counseled regarding reproductive health risks, many women are still not receiving adequate information about their options at the time of cancer diagnosis."

More than 120,000 women under the age of 50 are diagnosed with cancer every year in the US, where, as survival rates improve daily, concerns turn to quality of life post-cancer.

Many chemotherapy and other cancer treatments can leave a woman infertile or bring on early menopause, and should this happen she may regret losing her ability to have children.

But, with techniques like egg or embryo freezing more widely available than ever, women who have been diagnosed with cancer do have the option to improve their chances of conceiving again later.

To establish which women are taking advantage of these fertility preservation options, Rosen and colleagues surveyed women who had been diagnosed with cancer between the ages of 18 and 40 years, who were registered in the California Cancer Registry between 1993 and 2007.

The survey asked questions about acute ovarian failure, early menopause (before the age of 45), and failed conception.

The researchers focused on five cancer types: leukemia, Hodgkin's disease, Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, breast cancer, and gastrointestinal cancer.

A total of 1,041 women responded to the survey, of which 918 had received treatments that could affect their fertility, such as chemotherapy, pelvic radiation, pelvic surgery, and bone marrow transplant.

The researchers examined the relationships between age, gender, ethnicity, and other sociodemographic characteristics and the odds of using fertility preservation services.

They found that 61% of the women received counseling on the risks that cancer treatment can have on their fertility from their doctor or other clinician.

Overall, only 4% of women took up the option of fertility preservation, although rates showed a tendency to increase over time. For example, in 1993, the take up rate was 1%, whereas in 2005 to 2007 it was between 6% and 10%.

Rosen said:

"Routine counseling regarding reproductive health risk and options for preserving reproductive potential will improve the quality of life among survivors, and the overall quality of care."

The researchers also found that certain groups were more likely to receive information about their reproductive health when they were diagnosed with cancer, and also more likely to take steps to preserve their fertility, than other groups.

The women most likely to receive counseling about the effects of cancer treatment on their fertility, and also most likely to preserve fertility beforehand, were younger, Caucasian, childless, heterosexual, and college educated.

Rosen and colleagues conclude that disparities in sociodemographic health characteristics likely affect women's access to fertility preservation services.

"An opportunity lies ahead to explore educational and policy interventions to ameliorate health disparities that may exist in the growing use of fertility preservation," said Rosen.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/243441.php

The first volume of a "book of cancer knowledge" has been published, which scientists say will speed up the search for new cancer drugs.

The "encyclopaedia" details how hundreds of different cancer cells respond to anti-cancer agents.

UK, US and European researchers say the data, published in Nature, is a step towards tailoring cancer medicine to a patient's genetic profile.

A cancer charity said the work would help in testing new cancer drugs.

Cancer cells grown in the laboratory are an essential tool in cancer research.

Hundreds of different cell lines exist, allowing scientists to study the effect of new cancer drugs on the human body.

Now, a team at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge and various cancer institutes around the world have released two papers cataloguing data on hundreds of cancer cell lines.

The UK team, working with colleagues in the US, Paris and Switzerland, screened more than 600 cancer cell lines with 130 drugs, identifying genetic signatures linked with drug sensitivity.

Already clues are emerging that could be of benefit to patients, including the discovery that a rare bone cancer in children (Ewing's sarcoma) appears to be vulnerable to certain drugs.

Personalised medicine

Dr Mathew Garnett of the Sanger Institute is lead researcher on one of the two papers published in the journal Nature.

He told the BBC: "It's bringing together two very large and very powerful data sets and asking which cell line is the most sensitive and what is behind that sensitivity.

"This is the largest study of its kind linking drug response with genetic markers. You need these very large studies to identify small subsets of cells that are sensitive to drugs."

Dr Levi Garraway of The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, US, is a senior member of the research team behind the second paper, which profiled 24 drugs across nearly 500 cell lines.

He told the BBC: "Developing this large cell-line resource with all the associated genetic details is another piece in the pie to get us to our goal of personalised cancer medicine.

"We're trying to get smarter about understanding what the right drug is using the genetic information in each tumour. This is a stepping stone along the way."

The next step is use the information to help decide on tailored treatments for cancer patients.

This would involve getting a genetic "fingerprint" of their tumour, which could be matched to information in the database.

Some cancer drugs are already available for individuals with a certain genetic makeup.

The best known is Herceptin, a breast cancer drug that works in patients with an overactive HER2 gene.

Professor Charles Swanton, based at Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute, said the papers were "an invaluable resource" that provided "extremely useful intelligence" for cancer researchers.

He added: "This new resource will help speed up cancer research and may well begin to guide further developments in personalised cancer medicine."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17537242

Doubts are being raised over government claims the NHS in England is making good progress on its savings target.

The health service has been told to find £20bn in savings by 2015 - the equivalent of 4% of its budget a year.

But it has been told that this saving must not come from cuts, but instead be made through productivity savings.

Financial results released this week suggested £5.8bn would be saved this year, but experts have questioned the extent of the savings.

The figure - quoted in the 2011-12 quarter three financial results - was hailed as "encouraging" by senior Department of Health officials.

If that level of saving is maintained it will mean the £20bn target is met.

Lack of detail

But Professor John Appleby, chief economist at the King's Fund think tank, said there was a lack of detail about where the savings were being made.

He said it seemed as if ministers were relying on the pay freeze and the cut in money given to hospitals to make a large chunk of the savings.

But he said this could have the effect of not incentivising staff to work as hard as they had done, while for hospitals the cuts could see them deliver services less well.

"These would not be productivity savings, they would be cuts," he added.

He also said the NHS faced a "pretty impossible" job in continuing to make gains in the long-term.

It emerged last week that senior NHS officials are working on the basis that the 4% yearly savings will continue after 2015.

David Stout, of the NHS Confederation, which represents managers, said while the figures were good news they were probably down to the easier savings.

He said the "most challenging" actions, such as major changes to the way hospitals were run, still remained.

But David Flory, deputy chief executive of the NHS, said the financial figures were "encouraging and show the NHS continues to deliver the best care for patients while maintaining a healthy financial position".

But he added: "It is vital that the NHS does not take its eye off the ball - the NHS is performing well to meet future challenges, and must continue to do so."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17541803

Immediately giving someone having a heart attack a dose of glucose mixed with insulin and potassium (known as "GIK") could reduce their chance of cardiac arrest or dying by 50%, according to new research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 61st Annual Scientific Session in Chicago this week.

Dr Harry P. Selker, executive director of the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies at Tufts Medical Center, led the study with co-principal investigator and project director Dr Joni Beshansky.

Selker told the press:

"Acute coronary syndromes represent the largest cause of death in this country. GIK is a very inexpensive treatment that appears to have promise in reducing those deaths and morbidity."

GIK contains glucose, to provide the heart with fuel when there is a reduced blood supply, and insulin to help move the glucose into the cells. Potassium is added because infusing glucose with insulin can cause potassium levels to become too low.

The trial, called the "IMMEDIATE Trial", is the first to show GIK is an effective treatment for use by paramedics in "real world community settings" said Selker, and as such may have important implications for how we treat heart attacks.

IMMEDIATE stands for Immediate Myocardial Metabolic Enhancement During Initial Assessment and Treatment in Emergency Care.

It is the first trial to give patients GIK at the very first signs of an impending heart attack, while they are still in the community, rather than waiting until they reach hospital and undergo diagnosis.

"When started immediately in the home or on the way to the hospital - even before the diagnosis is completely established - GIK appears to reduce the size of heart attacks and to reduce by half the risk of having a cardiac arrest or dying," said Selker.

He said previous trials using GIK have shown patchy results, probably because it was administered too late.

The treatment costs about $50.

The researchers trained paramedics working in 36 Emergency Medical Services systems in 13 cities around the US how to administer GIK to a patient after first establishing they were about to have or were in the throes of having a heart attack.

To decide whether GIK would be likely to help, the paramedics had to first use an electrocardiograph-based acute cardiac ischemia time-insensitive predictive (ACI-TIPI) instrument and interpret the accompanying thrombolytic predictive instrument decision support that prints patient-specific predictions on the top of the electrocardiogram.

From those predictions the paramedics could then decide whether patients were likely to benefit from GIK treatment.

Altogether, 911 patients took part in the study. They were randomly assigned to receive either GIK or a placebo.

The results showed that compared to patients treated with a placebo, those who received GIK straight after being diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome (a group of symptoms that indicates a heart attack is either about to happen or is already happening), were 50% less likely to experience cardiac arrest, where the heart stops beating, or die. This was in spite of the fact the GIK did not stop the heart attack from occuring.

And, for the first month afterwards, patients who received GIK were 40% less likely to experience cardiac arrest, die, or have to be hospitalized due to heart failure.

For patients experiencing ST-elevation heart attacks, which require immediate treatment, the effect was even more striking: those receivng GIK had a 60% reduced likelihood of cardiac arrest or death.

Giving GIK immediately also reduced the severity of heart tissue damage due to the heart attack.

In patients receiving placebo, 10% of the heart tissue was damaged, on average, compared to 2% for those who received GIK.

Plus, GIK did not appear to harm the 23% of patients whose suspected heart attacks turned out later to be false alarms.

Selker said more people die of heart attacks outside hospitals than inside them. He and his colleagues wanted to do something about that, and come up with something effective that can be used anywhere.

"Hundreds of thousands of people per year are dying out in the community; we wanted to direct our attention to those patients," he said.

The team are following up the study participants at six and 12 months to evaluate the long-term effects of GIK.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which are part of the National Institutes of Health, funded the study.

source:http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/243496.php

Rates of stroke and kidney failure in people with diabetes have surged in England, according to new analysis by Diabetes UK.

An audit of 1.9 million people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes found more than 13,000 had a stroke in 2009-10, a 57% rise from 2006-7.

And more than 7,000 had kidney failure, up 31% from 2006-7.

Barbara Young, chief executive of the charity, said the rates of the complications were "shocking".

Across the UK, 2.9 million people have diabetes, and another 850,000 are believed to have undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes.

A recent survey by the charity suggested almost a quarter of people with diabetes were unaware of having had their kidney function checked in the previous year, while 7% had not had their blood pressure checked.

Barbara Young said: "It is shocking that rates of strokes and kidney failure in people with diabetes are now at record levels and yet thousands of people are still not getting the health checks that can help prevent them.

"These figures are a reminder that all people with diabetes should have these checks every year, as this is the simplest and most effective way of reducing risk of complications such as stroke and kidney failure.

"We also need to get the message across to people with diabetes that they should demand these checks if they are not already getting them.

"Stroke and kidney failure are complications that hugely reduce quality of life for many people with diabetes, while the cost of treatment far exceeds that of the simple checks that can help prevent them developing in the first place."

source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17487431

In terms of health, where you live can make a huge difference, according to a detailed study by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund.

It looked at 43 indicators of health system performance in four major areas: access, prevention and treatments, costs and potentially avoidable hospital use, and health outcomes. The nation is broken down into 306 local health markets; their boundaries are determined by the service areas of local hospitals.

The list of the nation's top 10 local markets was dominated by Midwestern cities, according to the Fund's Scorecard on Local Health System Performance. Minnesota claimed four of the top spots, and California and Wisconsin each had two. Here are the top 10 local healthcare markets:

St. Paul, Minn.

Dubuque, Iowa

Rochester, Minn.

Minneapolis

Appleton, Wis.

Santa Rosa, Calif.

La Crosse, Wis.

St. Cloud, Minn.

Manchester, N.H.

San Mateo County, Calif.

"The report finds that access, quality, costs, and health outcomes all vary significantly from one local community to another," the Scorecard said, "often with a two- to threefold variation in key indicators between leading and lagging communities."

Cathy Schoen, a senior vice president at the Commonwealth Fund, says the report shows that a region's health system's performance reflects the importance of cooperation and communication among local health providers. Patients' medical literacy varies. They move in and out of different care settings and see multiple doctors and healthcare professionals. Their treatment needs and oversight can easily fall through the cracks.

Among the 43 indicators, Schoen mentioned nine that she felt deserved special attention.

1. Percent of adults ages 18–64 with health insurance: Best 94.6 percent; worst 46.8 percent. Top three: Boston; Springfield, Mass.; Worcester, Mass.

"We have huge areas of the country where more than one in four or one in five adults are uninsured," Schoen says. Such communities tend to generate higher use of emergency rooms and poorer health outcomes. When people don't have health insurance, "it pulls down the quality of care in the entire community," she says.

2. Percent of adults age 50 and older who received recommended screening and preventive healthcare services: Best 58.8 percent; worst 26.0 percent. Top three: Arlington, Va.; Manchester, N.H.; Worcester, Mass.. Even the best markets could do a lot better, the Scorecard says.

3. Percent of Medicare beneficiaries who received at least one drug that should be avoided in the elderly: Best 11.4 percent; worst 44.0 percent. Top three: Bronx, N.Y.; East Long Island, N.Y.; White Plains, N.Y.

4. Percent of Medicare beneficiaries with dementia, hip/pelvic fracture, or chronic renal failure who received prescription in an ambulatory care setting that is contraindicated for that condition: Best 9.5 percent; worst 30.6 percent. Top three: Portland, Maine; Rochester, Minn.; Santa Cruz, Calif. "These two measures are signs that physicians are not always practicing evidence-based medicine and may not be up on the latest treatments," Schoen says. "It also can be a sign of patients seeing more than one physician and the physicians not talking to each other."

5. Hospital readmissions within 30 days of discharge as percent of all admissions among Medicare beneficiaries: Best 12.5 percent; worst 24.8 percent. Top three: Bend, Ore.; Ogden, Utah; Rapid City, S.D. There are several overlapping causes for high readmissions rates, Schoen says. Patients may have been discharged too early or left the hospital with an infection. They, their families, or their doctors may not have been given the proper care instructions.

6. Potentially avoidable emergency room visits among Medicare beneficiaries, per 1,000 beneficiaries: Best 129; worst 294. Top three: Everett, Wash.; Grand Junction, Colo.; Santa Cruz, Calif.. Because Medicare beneficiaries by definition have health insurance, the reasons for unnecessary visits tend to involve incorrect or confusing diagnoses by healthcare professionals or poor access and communications between providers and patients.

7. Potentially preventable mortality, deaths per 100,000 population: Best 51.5; worst 169.0. Top three: Boulder, Colo.; Everett, Wash.; Grand Junction, Colo. This measure includes conditions affecting people at different ages. For older patients, Schoen says, "even if they have a chronic condition, it shouldn't reach the stage" of causing a premature death if they receive proper care.

8. Percent of adults who smoke: Best 6.2 percent; worst 30.9 percent. Top three: Provo, Utah; San Mateo, Calif.; Santa Barbara, Calif.

9. Percent of adults ages 18–64 who are obese: Best 15.3 percent; worst 45.6 percent. Top three: Boulder, Colo.; Bridgeport, Conn.; San Francisco.

source:http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/the-best-life/2012/03/23/how-good-is-your-communitys-healthcare

Funding for research into dementia is to be doubled by 2015 to try to make the UK a world leader in the field, David Cameron is due to announce.

The prime minister is expected to say in a speech that the level of diagnosis, understanding and awareness of dementia is "shockingly low."

Dementia is thought to affect around 800,000 people in the UK, with the cost to society estimated at £23bn.

In the next decade, the number with the disease is expected to top one million.

Continue reading the main story

“

Start Quote

Dementia is simply a terrible disease. And it is a scandal that we as a country haven't kept pace with it”

David Cameron

Prime Minister

Mr Cameron will set out plans to step up research into cures and treatments and to ensure that the health and social care systems are equipped to deal with the problem.

Overall funding for dementia research in 2010 totalled £26.6m. Under the plan for 2015, it will be £66m.

Mr Cameron will say: "One of the greatest challenges of our time is what I'd call the quiet crisis, one that steals lives and tears at the hearts of families, but that relative to its impact is hardly acknowledged.

"Dementia is simply a terrible disease. And it is a scandal that we as a country haven't kept pace with it.

"The level of diagnosis, understanding and awareness of dementia is shockingly low. It is as though we've been in collective denial."

The prime minister will say that the costs associated with the disease are already higher than those for cancer, heart disease or stroke.

"So my argument today is that we've got to treat this like the national crisis it is. We need an all-out fightback against this disease, one that cuts across society.

"We did it with cancer in the 70s. With HIV in the 80s and 90s. We fought the stigma, stepped up to the challenge and made massive in-roads into fighting these killers.

"Now we've got to do the same with dementia. This is a personal priority of mine, and it's got an ambition to match.

"That ambition: nothing less than for Britain to be a world leader in dementia research and care."

"Drastic costs"

Shirley Cramer, acting chief executive of Alzheimer's Research UK, said Mr Cameron's announcement was an "important step" in recognising and solving the challenge presented by dementia.

"David Cameron's announcements are a turning point in our battle to defeat dementia," she said.

"Of course, investment must continue to increase if we are to avert the drastic economic costs of dementia that lie in wait.

"Alzheimer's Research UK looks forward to working with the government to ensure that this new funding achieves what is so desperately needed - new treatments and therapies."

Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, said the announcement would mark an "unprecedented step" towards making the UK a world leader in tackling dementia.

"Doubling funding for research, tackling diagnosis and calling for a radical shift in the way we talk, think and act on dementia will help to transform lives," he added.

"There are currently 800,000 people with dementia, yet too many are not able to live well with the condition. The PM is leading the way, but from Plymouth to Preston, from the boardroom to bus drivers, we all have a role to play."

Sir Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, said: "Rising to this challenge will require excellence in medical research, so we can better understand the biology of dementia and use that insight to improve diagnosis and treatment.

But local council leaders warned there was a "very real crisis" in the provision of care for the elderly and vulnerable.

David Rogers, chairman of the Local Government Association's community wellbeing board, said: "We now need politicians to transcend political point-scoring and wake up to the ticking demographic time bomb this country is facing.

"There needs to be urgent action to ensure the way we offer support to older people is fairer, simpler and fit for purpose in order to truly meet the needs of the most vulnerable members of our society."

source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17507678

An order to move, living beings need muscles, and, more specifically, skeletal muscles that are controlled by the nervous system. Skeletal muscles are composed of cylindrical muscle fibres with a multitude of peripheral nuclei. Until now, little was known about the mechanism used to position nuclei on the edge of muscle fibres. A team of French-American researchers has tried to better understand the reasons behind nuclei layout.

Edgar Gomes and his team of collaborators have identified the mechanism involved in positioning nuclei in muscle fibres. 

The researchers identified (in Drosophila and mice) two proteins involved in positioning the nuclei: protein Kif5B, which belongs to the kinesin family (molecular motor), and protein MAP7, which is used to move different organelles in cells.

This result was achieved by mutating MAP7 and Kif5b protein-coding genes in the Drosophila and by studying the development of the embryo. In this case, they observed that the nuclei were not correctly aligned in the muscle fibres.

"MAP7 is required to position nuclei in muscle fibre in Drosophila and in mammals" states Edgar Gomes, Inserm researcher. The research team succeeded in describing the nuclei-positioning mechanism in fibres, which involved the MAP7 protein and its interaction with the molecular motor: kinsin Kif5b. They demonstrated that a mutation of these proteins did not affect muscle extension or its attachment to the skeleton: only the position of the nuclei was affected.

By making both proteins interact together, Edgar Gomes' team suggest that MAP7 binds with Kif5b to encourage nuclei positioning. "Furthermore, these proteins act together, both physically and genetically, and their physical bond is required for correct nuclei positioning. Our results show that they are required for the muscle to function correctly" underlines Edgar Gomes.

Muscular diseases lead to weaknesses in the fibres and can be associated with a cellular nuclei alignment failure. Edgar Gomes and his team have demonstrated that by correctly replacing the nuclei, the muscle recovers its functions. "We suggest that by correcting muscular positioning faults in patients suffering from myopathies, these patients may see improvements in their muscular functioning" concludes Edgar Gomes.

source:http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243185.php

Up to a third of patients in certain burn units were hurt while trying to make methamphetamine

January 23, 2012 RSS Feed Print

By Jim Salter

ST. LOUIS (AP)—A crude new method of making methamphetamine poses a risk even to Americans who never get anywhere near the drug: It is filling hospitals with thousands of uninsured burn patients requiring millions of dollars in advanced treatment—a burden so costly that it's contributing to the closure of some burn units.

So-called shake-and-bake meth is produced by combining raw, unstable ingredients in a 2-liter soda bottle. But if the person mixing the noxious brew makes the slightest error, such as removing the cap too soon or accidentally perforating the plastic, the concoction can explode, searing flesh and causing permanent disfigurement, blindness or even death.

An Associated Press survey of key hospitals in the nation's most active meth states showed that up to a third of patients in some burn units were hurt while making meth, and most were uninsured. The average treatment costs $6,000 per day. And the average meth patient's hospital stay costs $130,000—60 percent more than other burn patients, according to a study by doctors at a burn center in Kalamazoo, Mich.

The influx of patients is overwhelming hospitals and becoming a major factor in the closure of some burn wards. At least seven burn units across the nation have shut down over the past six years, partly due to consolidation but also because of the cost of treating uninsured patients, many of whom are connected to methamphetamine.

Burn experts agree the annual cost to taxpayers is well into the tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars, although it is impossible to determine a more accurate number because so many meth users lie about the cause of their burns.

Larger meth labs have been bursting into flame for years, usually in basements, backyard sheds or other private spaces. But those were fires that people could usually escape. Using the shake-and-bake method, drugmakers typically hold the flammable concoction up close, causing burns from the waist to the face.

"You're holding a flame-thrower in your hands," said Jason Grellner of the Franklin County, Mo., Sheriff's Department.

Also known as the "one-pot" approach, the method is popular because it uses less pseudoephedrine—a common component in some cold and allergy pills. It also yields meth in minutes rather than hours, and it's cheaper and easier to conceal. Meth cooks can carry all the ingredients in a backpack and mix them in a bathroom stall or the seat of a car.

The improvised system first emerged several years ago, partly in response to attempts by many states to limit or forbid over-the-counter access to pseudoephedrine. Since then, the shake-and-bake recipe has spread to become the method of choice.

By 2010, about 80 percent of labs busted by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration were using shake-and-bake recipes, said Pat Johnakin, a DEA agent specializing in meth.

So instead of a large lab that supplies many users, there are now more people making meth for their personal use. The consequences are showing up in emergency rooms and burn wards.

"From what we see on the medical side, that's the primary reason the numbers seem to be going up: greater numbers of producers making smaller batches," said Dr. Michael Smock, director of the burn unit at Mercy Hospital St. Louis.

It's impossible to know precisely how many people are burned while making shake-and-bake meth. Some avoid medical treatment, and no one keeps exact track of those who go to the hospital. But many burn centers in the nation's most active meth-producing states report sharp spikes in the number of patients linked to meth. And experts say the trend goes well beyond those facilities.

The director of the burn center at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, the state that led the nation in meth lab seizures in 2010, said meth injuries are doubly damaging because patients often suffer thermal burn from the explosion, as well as chemical burns. And the medical challenge is compounded by patients' addictions.

"You're not judgmental in this kind of work, but you see it day after day," said Vanderbilt's Dr. Jeffrey Guy. "We've had patients say, 'I'm going out for a smoke,' and they come back all jacked up. It's clear they went out and did meth again."

Few people burned by meth will admit it.

"We get a lot of people who have strange stories," said Dr. David Greenhalgh, past president of the American Burn Association and director of the burn center at the University of California, Davis. "They'll say they were working on the carburetor at 2 or 3 in the morning and things blew up. So we don't know for sure, but 25 to 35 percent of our patients are meth-positive when we check them."

Guy cited a similar percentage at Vanderbilt, which operates the largest burn unit in Tennessee. He said the lies can come with a big price because the chemicals used in meth-making are often as dangerous as the burns themselves.

He recalled the case of a woman who arrived with facial burns that she said were caused by a toaster. As a result, she didn't tell doctors that meth-making chemicals got into her eyes, delaying treatment.

"Now she's probably going to be blind because she wasn't honest about it," Guy said.

In Indiana, about three-quarters of meth busts now involve shake-and-bake. And injuries are rising sharply, mostly because of burns, said Niki Crawford of the Indiana State Police Meth Suppression Team.

Indiana had 89 meth-related injuries during the 10-year period ending in 2009. The state has had 70 in the last 23 months, mostly from shake-and-bake labs, Crawford said.

What's more, meth-related burns often sear some of the body's most sensitive areas—the face and hands.

"I don't think a lot of these patients will be able to re-enter society, said Dr. Lucy Wibbenmeyer of the burn center at the University of Iowa. "They'll need rehab therapy, occupational therapy, which is very expensive."

Researchers at the University of Iowa found that people burned while making meth typically have longer hospital stays and more expensive bills than other burn patients—bills that are frequently absorbed by the hospital since a vast majority of the meth-makers lack insurance.

Medicaid provides reimbursement for many patients lacking private insurance, but experts say it amounts to pennies on the dollar.

Doctors at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, Mich., performed a five-year study of meth patients in the early 2000s, then a follow-up study in 2009-2010. Their investigation concurred with the Iowa findings. The Kalamazoo study also found that meth burn victims were more likely to suffer damage to the lungs and windpipe, spent more time on ventilators and needed surgery more often.

That report also found that only about 10 percent of meth patients had private insurance coverage, compared with 59 percent of other patients. And in many cases, their injuries leave them unable to work.

source:http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2012/01/23/meth-fills-hospitals-with-burn-patients

British singer Adele is starting a new training regime to drop two dress sizes before the summer, The Sun reported Monday.

Her fitness drive follows a health scare last year, when she had to have surgery on her vocal cords.

Related: Adele's doctor describes vocal cord surgery

The 23-year-old starlet already quit smoking and is working out with a personal trainer twice a week at home.

Related: Celebs who quit smoking

Adele also took up Pilates after British comedian pal Alan Carr recommended it to her. They are even planning to go running together with their dogs.

A source said, "Adele has found so much more energy now she's quit smoking. She really wants to get healthier, now that she's half way there. She had always been curious about taking up Pilates, but until recently there just hadn't been any time."

Only last month German designer Karl Lagerfeld sparked outrage when he accused Adele of being "a little too fat."

But although she is keen to shed a few pounds, she has been telling pals she does not want any weight loss to give the wrong impression to her female fans. In the past she has been very vocal about her figure, insisting she did not need to be stick-thin to feel good about herself.

In an interview earlier this year, she said: "I've never seen magazine covers or music videos and been like, 'I need to look like that to be a success.'

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/03/20/adele-stops-smoking-and-starts-exercising-reports-say/#ixzz1pjjsybt6

Doctors at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that a new drug makes chemotherapy more effective in treating acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells. Instead of attacking these cells directly, the drug helps drive them out of the bone marrow and into the bloodstream, where they are more vulnerable to chemotherapy.

"We're usually very good at clearing these leukemia cells from the blood," says Geoffrey L. Uy, MD, assistant professor of medicine and co-first author on the study published in the journal Blood. "But it's much harder to clear these cancerous cells from the bone marrow."

This combined phase 1 and 2 clinical trial included 52 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who had relapsed or whose AML was resistant to the standard chemotherapy regimen. In the phase 2 portion with 46 patients, all received the investigational drug, and 46 percent achieved complete remission, meaning no evidence of cancer could be found in the blood or bone marrow after treatment.

"In general, we see complete remission rates between 20 and 30 percent," says Uy, who treats patients at the Alivn J. Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. "But a lot depends on individual patient characteristics."

Indeed, recent genetic studies have shown that mutations leading to AML may differ greatly among patients. But regardless of individual mutations, all of these leukemia cells rely in some way on the protective effects of the bone marrow, according to senior author John F. DiPersio, MD, PhD, the Virginia E. and Sam J. Golman Professor of Medicine.

"With DNA sequencing identifying so many mutations that are unique to one patient, it may be very hard to find therapies that work directly on the cancer," says DiPersio, who also treats patients at the Siteman Cancer Center. "Instead, we are targeting a common pathway that all leukemic cells are addicted to - in this case, the relatively normal environment of the bone marrow."

DiPersio calls the results of this study encouraging and worthy of additional exploration.

"If these results are repeated in a larger study, it would be transformative," he says. "It would change the standard way we treat these patients - we would use this approach with everybody. In addition, the approach of targeting the tumor microenvironment could also be exploited for the treatment of other hematologic and solid tumor malignancies."

Bone marrow protects leukemia cells by inhibiting the cell-suicide response that might otherwise lead AML cells to self-destruct. Although leukemia cells in the bone marrow do not rapidly divide, their stability makes them very resistant to treatment. And while chemotherapy can clear the bloodstream of leukemia for a period of time, these "protected" cells in the bone marrow may cause the cancer to return.

The drug used in this study, called plerixafor, blocks the leukemia cells from attaching to the bone marrow. Released from their protective environment into the bloodstream, the cells lose the bone marrow's survival signals and begin to divide. Rapidly dividing cells are more sensitive to chemotherapy.

Plerixafor received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2008 for use prior to a stem cell transplant to treat patients with two other types of blood cancers: multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. In these diseases, plerixafor is used to dislodge normal stem cells from the bone marrow. Once in the bloodstream, those stem cells can then be collected for a transplant. Returning the patient's own stem cells after aggressive chemotherapy is a standard treatment for these two cancers.

"We helped in plerixafor's development for stem cell mobilization," DiPersio says. "So we thought if it makes normal stem cells leave the bone marrow to circulate, maybe it would do the same with leukemic cells."

In 2009, DiPersio and his colleagues showed that this concept worked in mice with a form of AML. Mice treated with plerixafor plus chemotherapy had improved survival over mice treated with chemotherapy alone. But DiPersio says plerixafor targets only one of many tethers anchoring these cells to the bone marrow.

"This is one of the first clinical examples of targeting the environment that leukemia cells live in," DiPersio says. "In the future, we may find other drugs, or combinations of drugs, that work better. There are now a number of groups around the world putting together similar approaches."

source:http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243140.php

Taking statins may lower the risk of developing Parkinson's disease, particularly among people younger than 60, a new study suggests.

Overall, people who took cholesterol-lowering statins had a 26 percent decreased risk of developing Parkinson's disease over a 12-year period. For those under 60, the risk was reduced by 69 percent.

The results held even after the researchers took into account other factors that may heighten the risk of Parkinson's disease

, such as smoking.

However, the results should be interpreted with caution, the researchers said. For starters, the calculations they made to determine whether their findings could be due to chance, instead of a real risk-reducing effect, showed that the results met this criteria, but just barely.

In addition, about 30 percent of people categorized as taking statins were likely taking another type of cholesterol-lowering drug.

In addition, statins have been found to lower blood levels of coenzyme Q, a substance that may protect against Parkinson's disease and is actually being tested as a treatment for the condition.

Because of this, and other potentially adverse effects of statins, more studies are needed to clarify the effect of these drugs on Parkinson's disease, including whether only certain types of statins have a beneficial effect.

Previous studies on whether statins reduce the risk of Parkinson's disease have had mixed results, although a 2005 study found that the drugs do not worsen the disease.

In the new study, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health in Boston followed 38,000 men and 91,000 women from 1994 to 2006. Participants were periodically asked whether they were taking statins.

During the study period, 644 cases of Parkinson's disease occurred: 593 among the 118,031 people who did not take statins (or 0.5 percent), and 51 among the 11,035 people who did take statins (or 0.46 percent).

For those over 60, there was no link between statin use and a lower risk of Parkinson's disease.

Statins might lower the risk of Parkinson's because they reduce inflammation in the brain, the researchers said.

Among the study's limitations are that it did not take into account the drugs' potencies, doses or abilities to cross into the brain, said Dr. Fatta Nahab, an assistant professor of neurology and neuroscience at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.

"Since the brain changes associated with Parkinson disease occur over years to decades, it will also be challenging to design clinical trials to observe the modest differences identified in this study," Nahab said.

The study is published in the March issue of the journal Archives of Neurology. One of the study researchers served as a consultant for Teva Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures a statin. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/03/13/cholesterol-drugs-may-help-ward-off-parkinsons/#ixzz1p4aqg0Y9