Alzheimer protein's structure may explain its toxicity

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have determined the molecular structure of one of the proteins in the fine fibers of the brain plaques that are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. This molecule, called amyloid beta-42, is toxic to nerve cells and is believed to provoke the disease cascade.

The study is online in the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology.

Knowing the physical structure of the 42 amino acid-long form of amyloid beta in the fibers is key to understanding how it folds up improperly and aggregates into toxic plaques, says Yoshitaka Ishii, UIC professor of chemistry and principal investigator on the study.

Ishii and his colleagues found that amyloid beta-42 in amyloid fibrils forms three flat structures (called beta sheets) that turn back and forth to layer over each other in an"S" pattern. They also found that the final amino acid on the protein forms a "salt bridge" with an amino acid at the first turn of the S, stabilizing the structure. A salt bridge is a bond between positive- and negative-charged molecules or parts of a molecule.

The 3-D structure is strikingly different from that of amyloid beta-40, a chemically similar and more abundant protein also linked to Alzheimer's. Amyloid beta-40 lacks the final amino acid that carries the negative charge needed to form the salt bridge.

"This explains why amyloid beta-42 doesn't interact with amyloid beta-40, or recruit it into the plaques that are toxic to nerve cells," Ishii said.

The structural features and folding behavior of amyloid beta-42 "offer a new perspective on amyloid propagation in Alzheimer's disease and, perhaps, other neurodegenerative disease," said Ishii. Drugs designed to act against amyloid beta-40, he said, "may not work well against the more toxic amyloid beta-42."

The chemical nature of amyloid beta-42 -- especially its extreme aversion to water -- posed a formidable challenge to chemists and structural biologists, Ishii said. "There are a number of laboratories that have been working on this problem, and I am very proud of the work of my graduate student Yiling Xiao in elucidating its structure." Xiao is first author on the study.

Source:UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO

Age matters in health messages

Health interventions to increase exercise in older people could be more successful if they differentiated between people aged 65 to 79 years old and those over 80 years old

Health interventions to increase exercise in older people could be more successful if they differentiated between people aged 65 to 79 years old and those over 80 years old.

This is the finding of a study by Dr Mark Moss and colleagues from Northumbria University that will be presented today, Thursday 7 May 2015 at the Annual Conference of the British Psychology Society being held in Liverpool.

Some 144 participants aged 65 to 95 completed questionnaires about their current health and wellbeing, vitality, motivation to exercise and barriers to exercise.

Age was shown to have the biggest influence on both motivators and barriers to exercise. Individual factors such as health constraints, a negative mind-set, social constraints and age appropriateness were all contributing factors to the amount of exercise undertaken.

Dr Moss said: "There may have been a tendency to see all those aged over 65 as one homogenous group when it is clear there are significant differences. With our ageing population it's vital that new health messages aiming to promote exercise to older adults must tailor their information so it takes in to account the differences between 'young' older adults and 'older' older adults.

"Furthermore, it is essential that we recognise the importance of individual differences in motivators and barriers to exercise so that personalised programmes can be designed. One size does not fit all!"

Source:BRITISH PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Centre to come out with draft notification to formalise nationwide e-health initiative soon

Following the decision to set up the National eHealth Authority (NeHA), the health ministry is next planning to institutionalise the e-health initiative across the country by coming out with a draft notification for the same. To take the matters ahead, the ministry is planning to meet stakeholders from across the healthcare and IT sector on May 9 in Delhi.
 
The meeting is primarily focused on sensitising the industry about the government initiatives that are targeted to achieve this, while also to get the stakeholders suggestions and views on the subject. At the same time, the meeting will take stock of all the recent developments and advancements in e-health initiatives undertaken globally, so as to look at the feasibility of adopting the same in India as well. This may be done by exploring a private public partnership model for efficient and effective delivery of services.
 
The e-health initiative is basically focused to make healthcare more accessible to the patients across the country through effective use of technology like phone, computers, laptops etc. Rajendra Pratap Gupta, who is chairing this meeting between the government and the industry informed that the e-health is focused to provide healthcare delivery right from the basic level to patients by developing the technological capabilities to ensure effective e-diagnostics, e-prescription, and e-monitoring facilities to name a few.
 
He said that it is high time to concentrate on developing such alternative methods to strengthen the healthcare system especially in the light of glaring gap in the current system where the percentage of trained allopathic doctors and nurses compared to growing population is disturbingly lower than required. The matter is worse in the rural areas where there is far less trained healthcare professionals.
 
“Till now the government has been looking at e-health initiative as just a programme but this meeting is a sign towards its transition to be recognised as a national level requirement. This meeting will help the government in preparing a concept note for the same as it will specifically focus on gauging the capabilities of companies in India in the field of e-health as well as m-health. The meeting may open up deliberations over the research related to joint working or collaboration opportunities between the public and private sector and the outcome of studies on PPP models,” Gupta a healthcare expert who was in-charge of preparing the BJP election manifesto added.
 
The meeting will have experts and senior officials from the ministry of health and family welfare along with senior officials of the ministry of communication & IT.
Source:Pharmabiz

Americans Associate Yoga With Medicine and Fitness Rather Than Spirituality

Yoga is a spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, includes breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures. It is widely practiced for health and relaxation.

 A new study by a California-based university has revealed that Americans associate yoga less as a spiritual practice, and more with medicine and fitness.

The study found that over 20 million people in the US practice yoga and spend $10.3 billion a year on yoga classes and products. Researchers think that the shift in the meanings is due to the changes in how yoga gurus are trained, market contests among different meanings and the distinct branding practices of small and big players in the market.

Study co-author Gokcen Coskuner-Balli, assistant professor at the Chapman University's Argyros School of Business and Economics, said, "Over the three decade analysis of the yoga market we found that it was decreasingly associated with the logic of spirituality and increasingly associated with the medical and fitness logic. Commercialization also emerged and yoga became increasingly commoditised with the rising coverage of yoga brands, gear, clothing, and retreats." 

The researchers gathered data via archival sources, netnography, in-depth interviews and participant observations. They examined how the meaning of yoga transformed in the past three decades and found that the US yoga market density has been increasing with yoga enterprises rising from 14,058 to 26,506 and the number of employers increasing from 58,525 to 112,890 during the 2004-2013 period. Coskuner-Balli said, "What we discovered was that the US yoga market delineated itself not only in the different types of yoga that emerged, but also in the logic behind why people do yoga." 

Sources trace the beginning of yoga in the US to Swami Vivekananda's speech representing Hinduism at the first World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. The study pointed out that during the first half of the 20th century, yoga was construed mainly as a spiritual practice linked to mysticism, magic, and asceticism with religiophilosophical underpinnings and an emphasis on Raja yoga (the mental science) rather than Hatha yoga (physical yoga).

Source:The study has been published in the Journal of Marketing.
 

Study Highlights Shortcomings of Deprivation Diets or Diets Based on Food Choices

Thoughts drive our dieting plans but feelings drive dieting behavior, suggests a new study.A majority of American adults say they've tried dieting to lose weight at some point in their lives, and at any given time, about one-third of the adult population say they're currently dieting. Yet 60% of American adults are clinically overweight or obese and more than 16% of deaths nationwide are related to diet and physical activity. 

University at Buffalo's Marc Kiviniemi said that there is clearly a disconnect if a majority of the population that has tried to lose weight and a majority of the population that is overweight, adding that people are planning to diet and trying to diet, but that's not translating into a successful weight loss effort. 

Kiviniemi added that the crux of the disconnect is the divide between thoughts and feelings. Planning is important, but feelings matter, and focusing on feelings and understanding their role can be a great benefit. 

Plans to change behavior are a function of thoughts, the belief that weight loss is possible by making better food choices, but when it comes to making a food choice and deciding to execute the plan, feelings guide behavior. 

"If you're sitting back conceiving a plan you may think rationally about the benefits of eating healthier foods, but when you're in the moment, making a decision, engaging in a behavior, it's the feelings associated with that behavior that may lead you to make different decisions from those you planned to make." 

The study highlight the shortcomings of deprivation diets or diets based on food choices that ignore people's preferences and so Kiviniemi says dieters should seriously consider enjoyment when framing and shaping a behavior change. 

Kiviniemi suggested to think seriously about how you're going to implement the plans you make to change your behavior, and that includes not only the feeling component, but how you plan to overcome a negative reaction that might surface during a diet. 

The study appears in the Journal of Health Psychology.

Source: ANI
 

 

Americans Associate Yoga With Medicine, Fitness Rather Than Spirituality

Yoga is a spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, includes breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures. It is widely practiced for health and relaxation. A new study by a California-based university has revealed that Americans associate yoga less as a spiritual practice, and more with medicine and fitness. The study found that over 20 million people in the US practice yoga and spend $10.3 billion a year on yoga classes and products. Researchers think that the shift in the meanings is due to the changes in how yoga gurus are trained, market contests among different meanings and the distinct branding practices of small and big players in the market.

 Study co-author Gokcen Coskuner-Balli, assistant professor at the Chapman University's Argyros School of Business and Economics, said, "Over the three decade analysis of the yoga market we found that it was decreasingly associated with the logic of spirituality and increasingly associated with the medical and fitness logic. Commercialization also emerged and yoga became increasingly commoditised with the rising coverage of yoga brands, gear, clothing, and retreats." 

The researchers gathered data via archival sources, netnography, in-depth interviews and participant observations. They examined how the meaning of yoga transformed in the past three decades and found that the US yoga market density has been increasing with yoga enterprises rising from 14,058 to 26,506 and the number of employers increasing from 58,525 to 112,890 during the 2004-2013 period. Coskuner-Balli said, "What we discovered was that the US yoga market delineated itself not only in the different types of yoga that emerged, but also in the logic behind why people do yoga." 

Sources trace the beginning of yoga in the US to Swami Vivekananda's speech representing Hinduism at the first World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. The study pointed out that during the first half of the 20th century, yoga was construed mainly as a spiritual practice linked to mysticism, magic, and asceticism with religiophilosophical underpinnings and an emphasis on Raja yoga (the mental science) rather than Hatha yoga (physical yoga).

Source:The study has been published in the Journal of Marketing.

 

Fructose Enhances Reward Value of High-Calorie Food and Promotes Eating

Fructose and glucose are simple sugars. Animal studies have revealed that glucose and fructose can have different effects on appetite and metabolism. Scientists were interested in understanding the brain changes to a region called the hypothalamus which helps to control appetite. They found that due to differences in metabolism, fructose may enhance the reward value of high-calorie food and promote eating, compared with glucose.

Kathleen A. Page and colleagues conducted fMRI scans on 24 people who had been given drinks sweetened with fructose on one day and glucose on another day, to assess the different effects of the two sugars on hunger and food cue responses in the brain. The study participants were shown images of high-calorie foods and then they reported their level of hunger and desire for the foods. Participants reported greater hunger and exhibited greater activity in the orbitofrontal cortex and visual cortex of the brain in response to the food images after ingesting fructose, compared with responses after ingesting glucose. 

The authors also found that fructose produced a smaller plasma insulin response than glucose. When presented with a choice between delayed monetary rewards or immediate high-calorie food rewards, participants displayed greater willingness to give up monetary rewards for high-calorie food rewards after ingesting fructose than after ingesting glucose. The authors said, "The results suggest that ingestion of fructose may not produce the same satiety effects as glucose."
 Source:Desk

 

Chronic Diabetes and Hypertension in Sural Nerve Morphometry

Lifestyle diseases like diabetes and hypertension have become endemic in our modern urban societies and health care systems across the world struggle to cope with the burden of such diseases. Complications and fatalities that result from these diseases often claim some of the most productive members of our society and this has a huge cost socially and economically.

 We are often warned about the high risk of diabetes if suffering from hypertension and likewise of the high risk of hypertension to those suffering from diabetes. Several studies suggest that the rate of incidence of diabetes in hypertensive patients is three times higher as compared to other patients and the same holds true if the conditions ofhypertension and diabetes are reversed.

Neuropathy in Diabetes

Despite the obvious link between the two conditions we still lack a clear understanding of their role in the development of neuropathy, which is a condition of nerve damage. Peripheral neuropathy is one of the most persistent chronic complications of diabetes and it can have a profound effect on the quality of life. Over the decades, researchers and medical professionals alike have noted a distinct relationship between the presence of hypertension and heart disease, a relationship that could also have some bearing on the development of neuropathy. Researchers have been studying the connection and relationship between these conditions and the progression of neuropathy. 

Diabetic neuropathy treatment is simply aimed at management of the condition, as there is no cure for neuropathy. Symptoms of neuropathy in the feet and other forms of diabetic nerve pain can therefore only be controlled through the management of blood sugar levels, diet, exercise and blood pressure regulation. This makes it all the more important for us to understand the prevalence and progression of peripheral neuropathy in hypertensive and diabetic patients. Sural nerve damage is a subtype of peripheral neuropathy. A study was recently conducted to this end using a morphological and morphometric study of the sural nerves.

Why is this Important to Diabetes?

The sural nerve is regarded as a nerve that is purely sensory, which is why sural nerve damage explains most of the neuropathy symptoms in diabetes. Sural neuropathy, which is the condition of sural nerve damage, results in abnormal tingling and sensations of pain in the skin around the foot and ankle. This is one of the most common symptoms in diabetics and is known as diabetic foot neuropathy.

Findings of the Study

Researchers found that diabetes has a profound effect on the sural nerve myelinated fibers. Myelin is an outer layer or sheath that covers most of the nerves. This heath covers the axon of the neuron and it is essential for the proper transmission and reception of impulses. If there is any damage to myelin or myelinated fiber or if there is a reduction in myelin it affects nerve functioning. As the study indicates, myelin fiber size is significantly reduced in diabetes. 

On the other hand, small fiber neuropathy was found to be associated with hypertension along with a marked reduction in the number of Schwann cells. In the context of neuropathy this is important, as the Schwann cells are responsible for the creation and production of myelin. A reduced density of Schwann cells, as observed in the study, therefore affects myelin formation and consequently functioning of the nerves. Because of the relationship between diabetes and hypertension there was an increase in the average size of myelinated fibers. 

This makes it clear that hypertension contributes to the development of neuropathy and can in fact be one of the biggest risk factors for diabetic neuropathy. The combined action of both diseases, with the two neuropathies causes complex alterations in myelin structure with both large and small fibers neuropathy. When diabetic neuropathy is already present it was also observed that hypertension could then cause an exacerbation of the alterations in myelin fiber.

What are the Implications?

Diabetic neuropathy may not be curable, but with timely intervention and management of your condition, the progression or even the onset of diabetic neuropathy may be prevented and delayed. Make sure that your blood sugar levels are always kept under control with regular monitoring and timely medication. Keeping blood sugar levels consistently within the normal range is the key to preventing neuropathy and other diabetes complications. In addition, dietary and lifestyle modifications are also essential, not just to control diabetes but also to prevent the development of hypertension. Likewise, patients suffering from hypertension should monitor blood sugar levels as well and take steps to prevent the onset of diabetes. As illustrated by the study, the coexistence of hypertension and diabetes is a lot more worrying than either conditions in isolation and sadly having one condition predisposes you to the other. 

 Source:Desk

Homeopathy Has Better Cure for Arthritis

Arthritis consists of over 100 different conditions ranging from relatively mild forms of tendinitis and bursitis to chronic inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. The common symptoms of arthritis are joint pain and stiffness. The pain is a result of inflammation of the joint lining.

 Some recent researches have shown that homeopathic medicine is effective in the treatment of arthritis. A study entitled 'Homoeopathic therapy in rheumatoid arthritis: Evaluation by double-blind clinical therapeutic trial' published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology has found that around 82% of patients with rheumatoid arthritisexperienced some degree of relief after an individualized homeopathic treatment. The research also highlighted that only 21% of patients who were given a placebo received a similar degree of relief.

Homeopaths in India also claim that homeopathy can cure arthritis better than other commonly used therapies. 

Dr. Brajinish Kumar at Honey Homeo Clinic, Punjab, says that the remedy that is devised with the type of physical symptoms and emotional characteristics expressed by an individual makes homeopathy a better treatment for arthritis. 

"The type of symptoms shown by an individual determines their biological and psychological type. We choose the most suitable remedy for each person based on the careful consideration of each symptom — both physical and psychological. Once the treatment is completed, the symptoms will never come back again. Hence, homeopathy is a complete cure for these disorders," Dr. Kumar said. 

Dr. Deepa Aji at Bhadra's Clinic, Chennai, says that symptoms of illness, in homeopathic treatment, are considered as the body's attempt to cure itself. "A homeopathic remedy is carefully formulated to mimic the organism's self healing attempt," she said. "The organism then attains a disease free-state without the continued dependence on external agents such as drugs. The remedy cures both mild and chronic disorders without any side effects." 

Four Homeopathic Remedies for Arthritis

Causticum is beneficial in rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic inflammatory disorder that affects small joints in hands and feet. This remedy acts well on muscle stiffness due to contracted tendons, which in turn may cause muscle spasms. 

Calcarea Carbonicum is helpful in many cases of osteoarthritis, one of the most common forms of arthritis. The remedy is especially used to treat increased joint pains in cold weather. 

Colchicum is a remedy for rheumatoid arthritis - a chronic, systemic inflammatory disorder that affects joints - and gout - a common form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by sudden and severe pains, most commonly found in the base of the big toe. This remedy is helpful for pain in small joints and the big toe. 

Nux Vomica is an effective remedy for joint pains, especially in the knees. It reduces pain that starts in the toes and goes up to the thigh. 

These are only a few homeopathic remedies for arthritis. Finding the most suitable remedy is an elaborate task and it involves many assessments, including a proper study of an individual's symptoms.

 Source:Desk