The New Study Identifies Risks for Painkiller Addiction

Greater odds if you're younger than 65, have a history of drug violence and depression, and use psychiatric meds. The mystery of why some people are more likely to become obsessed to opioid painkillers has been partially unraveled by the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania.
Its researchers found that the group most helpless to addiction has four main risk factors in common: age a history of depression, prior drug abuse, and using psychiatric medications. Painkiller dependence rates among patients with these factors are as high as 26 percent.
For the study, they interviewed and analyzed DNA from 705 patients with back pain who were arranged opioid painkillers -- a class that includes such narcotics as morphine and codeine -- for more than 90 days.
The researchers also studied a gene on chromosome 15 that has been connected with alcohol, cocaine and nicotine addiction. The data recommended that DNA mutations on a gene gather on chromosome 15 may also be associated with opioid addiction. "These results suggest that patients with pre-existing risk factors are more likely to become addicted to painkillers, providing the basis for further clinical evaluation," Joseph Boscarino, an epidemiologist and senior researcher at Geisinger's Center for Health Research, said in a health system news release.
"By assessing patients in chronic pain for these risk factors before prescribing painkillers, doctors will be better able to treat their patients' pain without the probable for future drug addiction," he added. Boscarino and colleagues also said these same risk factors may enlarge the risk of drug addiction in patients without a history of chronic pain.

Potential effects of Asthma-Like Symptoms Spotted in Mice

Results may lead to new treatments for people with severe forms of the airway disorder, researchers say, a possible inherited basis for severe asthma has been recognized by researchers, and although the findings are based on a study in mice, the discovery may someday help people.
Asthma rates have been growing in recent years. In inclined people, the illness can be triggered by a number of environmental factors, including cigarette smoke, allergens and air pollution, senior researcher Marsha Wills-Karp, director of the division of immunobiology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, noted in a hospital news release.
In their revise, the researchers found that an inflammation-causing protein called interleukin-17 (IL-17A) is the major cause of severe asthma-like symptoms in pests. The animals used in the study had been bred to have a genetic similarity to humans with severe susceptibility to asthma.
The finding "suggests that at some point it may be possible to treat or prevent strict forms of asthma by inhibiting pathways that drive the production of IL-17A," Wills-Karp said in the news release.
Scientists naturally caution, however, that many discoveries in animal models do not translate into therapies for humans.

8 cancer symbols highlighted

There are eight signs, symptoms or test consequences that could improve early diagnosis of some cancers, British doctors said,
The researchers focused on changes that gave a one in 20 or higher chance of rotating out to be cancer.
The symptoms contain:

• Coughing up blood.

• Rectal blood.

• Breast lump or mass.

• Difficulty swallowing.

• Post-menopausal bleeding.

• Abnormal prostate tests.

• Anemia.

• Blood in urine.

In certain age and sex groups, the eight symptoms or findings point to the require for urgent examination by family doctors, Dr. Mark Shapley and colleagues from Keele University (halfway between Manchester and Birmingham) said in Friday's online issue of the British Journal of General Practice.
The conclusion was based on an study of 25 studies from the U.K., U.S., Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, Denmark and Germany.
The age of the patient is significant, said Dr. Kevin Barraclough, a GP from Stroud.
"Iron deficiency anemia in a 21-year old female is really unlikely to be due to colorectal cancer, whereas in a 60-year old male, cancer is likely," Barraclough wrote in a journal editorial accompanying the study.
The red flags support the importance of encouraging patients to discuss worrying symptoms early with their GP, said Prof. Amanda Howe, honorary secretary of the Royal College of General Practitioners, which publishes the magazine.

Study Suggests connection Between Diet Sodas, Preterm Delivery

Could drinking one or more naturally sweetened, carbonated diet sodas a day boost a woman's odds of premature delivery? A new study from Denmark suggests such a connection.
The researchers looked at the soft drink habits of almost 60,000 Danish women enrolled in a national study there from 1996 to 2002. The investigators establish a link between the intake of diet sparkling drinks and, to a lesser extent, diet noncarbonated drinks and delivering a baby early.
The study is published online and in the September print issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In the report, the researchers conclude: "Daily intake of naturally sweetened soft drinks may increase the risk of preterm delivery."
The researchers define preterm as delivering before 37 weeks' development. They categorized the women into groups depending on beverage drinking habits: those who never drank soft drinks or those who drank less than one per week, one to six per week, one each day, two or three per day, or four or more daily.
In all, 4.6 percent of the women delivered early, and one-third of those deliveries were medically induced. The team establishes no association between the early delivery and the intake of carbonated drinks sweetened with sugar.
However, compared with those who never drank the beverages, women who downed four or more diet sparkling drinks a day were 78 percent more likely to deliver early than women who never drank the beverages. And those who had four or more diet, noncarbonated drinks daily were 29 percent more likely to transport early.
Persons who had one or more carbonated diet drinks a day were 38 percent more likely to deliver early. Why the diet drinks, particularly, were linked with early delivery is not known, but the researchers wonder that the link may be driven by high blood pressure disorders in pregnancy. They note that other studies have found a link between soft drinks and high blood pressure in non-pregnant women.
The drink industry took exception to the findings. But extra experts said pregnant women may want to take heed of the study results. In a statement, Shelley McGuire of the American Society of Nutrition, said the findings "may be really important in terms of preventing premature births, especially those that are medically induced by a woman's health care provider."
She suggests pregnant women focus on water, juices and milk.
In a declaration, Dr. Alan R. Fleischman, medical director of the March of Dimes, said that "pregnant women should eat smart and make sure that most of their food choices are healthy ones. Artificially sweetened drinks don't make most lists of healthy foods. As the authors point out, extra research is needed to understand the impact of these beverages on pregnancy and fetal expansion. Until that is clear, it is practical for pregnant women to drink these beverages in moderation. They also should discuss with their doctors their risk of preterm birth and the signs and symptoms of preterm work. "