Simple eye scan can reveal extent of Multiple Sclerosis

A simple eye test may offer a fast and easy way to monitor patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), medical experts say in the journal Neurology.

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a scan that measures the thickness of the lining at the back of the eye - the retina.

It takes a few minutes per eye and can be performed in a doctor's surgery.

In a trial involving 164 people with MS, those with thinning of their retina had earlier and more active MS.

The team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine say larger trials with a long follow up are needed to judge how useful the test might be in everyday practice.

The latest study tracked the patients' disease progression over a two-year period.

Unpredictable disease

Multiple sclerosis is an illness that affects the nerves in the brain and spinal cord causing problems with muscle movement, balance and vision. In MS, the protective sheath or layer around nerves, called myelin, comes under attack which, in turn, leaves the nerves open to damage.

There are different types of MS - most people with the condition have the relapsing remitting type where the symptoms come and go over days, weeks or months.

Usually after a decade or so, half of patients with this type of MS will develop secondary progressive disease where the symptoms get gradually worse and there are no or very few periods of remission.

Another type of MS is primary progressive disease where symptoms get worse from the outset.

There is no cure but treatments can help slow disease progression.

It can be difficult for doctors to monitor MS because it has a varied course and can be unpredictable.

Brain scans can reveal inflammation and scarring, but it is not clear how early these changes might occur in the disease and whether they accurately reflect ongoing damage.

Scientists have been looking for additional ways to track MS, and believe OCT may be a contender.

OCT measures the thickness of nerve fibres housed in the retina at the back of the eye.

Unlike nerve cells in the rest of the brain which are covered with protective myelin, the nerve cells in the retina are bare with no myelin coat.

Experts suspect that this means the nerves here will show the earliest signs of MS damage.

The study at Johns Hopkins found that people with MS relapses had much faster thinning of their retina than people with MS who had no relapses. So too did those whose level of disability worsened.

Similarly, people with MS who had inflammatory lesions that were visible on brain scans also had faster retinal thinning than those without visible brain lesions.

Study author Dr Peter Calabresi said OCT may show how fast MS is progressing.

"As more therapies are developed to slow the progression of MS, testing retinal thinning in the eyes may be helpful in evaluating how effective those therapies are," he added.

In an accompanying editorial in the same medical journal that the research is published in, MS experts Drs Robert Bermel and Matilde Inglese say OCT "holds promise" as an MS test.

Obesity declines among young children

New York (Reuters Health) - The number of low-income preschoolers who qualify as obese or "extremely obese" has dropped over the last decade, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.

Although the decline was only "modest" and may not apply to all children, researchers said it was still encouraging.

"It's extremely important to make sure we're monitoring obesity in this low-income group," said the CDC's Heidi Blanck, who worked on the study.

Those kids are known to be at higher risk of obesity than their well-off peers, in part because access to healthy food is often limited in poorer neighborhoods.

The new results can't prove what's behind the progress, Blanck told Reuters Health - but two possible contributors are higher rates of breastfeeding and rising awareness of the importance of physical activity even for very young kids.

Blanck and her colleagues used data on routine clinic visits for about half of all U.S. kids eligible for federal nutrition programs - including 27.5 million children between age two and four.

They found 13 percent of those preschoolers were obese in 1998. That grew to just above 15 percent in 2003, but dropped slightly below 15 percent in 2010, the most recent study year included.

Similarly, the prevalence of extreme obesity increased from nearly 1.8 percent in 1998 to 2.2 percent in 2003, then dropped back to just below 2.1 percent in 2010, the research team reported Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Whether kids are obese is determined by their body mass index (BMI) - a measure of weight in relation to height - and by their age and sex.

For example, a four-year-old girl who is 40 inches tall would be obese if she was 42 pounds or heavier. A two-year-old boy who is 35 inches tall qualifies as obese at 34 pounds or above, according to the CDC's child BMI calculator. (The CDC's BMI calculator for children and teens is available here: http://1.usa.gov/brBSIS)

The new findings are the first national data to show obesity and extreme obesity may be declining in young children, Blanck said.

"This is very encouraging considering the recent effort made in the field including by several U.S. federal agencies to combat the childhood obesity epidemic," said Dr. Youfa Wang, head of the Johns Hopkins Global Center on Childhood Obesity in Baltimore.

Blanck said between 2003 and 2010 researchers also saw an increase in breastfeeding of low-income infants. Breastfeeding has been tied to a healthier weight in early childhood.

Additionally, states and communities have started working with child care centers to make sure kids have time to run around and that healthy foods are on the lunch menu, she added.

Parents can encourage better eating by having fruits and vegetables available at snack time and allowing their young kids to help with meal preparation, Blanck said.

Her other recommendations include making sure preschoolers get at least one hour of activity every day and keeping television sets out of the bedroom.

"The prevalence of overweight and obesity in many countries including in the U.S. is still very high," Wang, who wasn't involved in the new study, told Reuters Health in an email.

"The recent level off should not be taken as a reason to reduce the effort to fight the obesity epidemic."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/JjFzqx Journal of the American Medical Association, online December, 25, 2012.

Best Fitness Apps Of 2012

Among the 19 percent of smartphone users who use health-based apps, nearly 40 percent use at least one fitness-based application in an effort to kickstart a health goal, according to Pew Center data.

Apps can be useful for any goal, whether it's small -- say, dropping five pounds, specific -- like increasing flexibility and strength, or as life-changing as deciding to run a marathon.

While some research suggests that many fitness apps aren't useful for effecting the kind of behavioral change necessary to stick to a fitness goal, those who use them know there's a clear benefit to including the right kind of app in an overall healthy lifestyle. That's why we picked out our top choices from the previous year.

We chose apps that truly help you stick to your goals and exert your willpower, apps that help track complicated data and even apps that get you to push yourself and try new things.

So here you have it -- what's new, what's updated and what really works:

 Nike Training Club 

 Professional athletes and Nike's top trainers have created hundreds of workouts for women, all in a well-designed database. Plug in your current fitness level info and get moving.

Meanwhile, Nike's male fan-base is begging for their own version.

Updated: November 2012

Couch To 5K 

Winner of the 2012 Appy Award, Couch To 5K pledges to help even the most devoted potato get moving with enough consistency to run a 5K race in just nine weeks. For those who are already 5K'ing on the regular? Bump up your racing to 10K in the same time frame.

The app features virtual coaches, recorded mantras, a native music player and graphs to not only record workouts, but track progress.

Updated: December 2012

Pocket Yoga 

Is that 27 yoga practices in your pocket?

CNN and Mac Life can't be wrong -- this yoga guide is one of the best apps of 2012, thanks to its extensive dictionary of yoga poses and terms and exceptional yoga instructors that lead through three different variations of yoga, three difficulty levels and three durations.

Updated: December, 2012

RunKeeper 

For those who just can't stand the gym, tracking your workouts in the wild blue yonder can be a bit more of a challenge. That's where RunKeeper comes in: it uses your phone's GPS system to help track anything you can do outside -- walk, run, bike or hike.

And for lifehackers and self-monitoring types, the app will alert you to your stats and progress via their audio system as you work out. Save routes, compare performances and use the app to sync up your health data with data sets from many other fitness apps -- making RunKeeper one of the most integrated systems out there.

Updated: November 2012

Cardio 

Want to know your heart beat, but don't want to wire up? Cardiio uses new research from MIT's Media Center to interpret your heart rate simply from the way light is refracted on your face in photos taken on your iPhone 4S camera.

Keep track of that rate as you move throughout different activities, and compare it to the general population or more tongue-in-cheek opponents, like a Cougar or Lance Armstrong.

Released: August 2012 

FitID 

FitID is the virtual version of your Crossfit gym or Zumba class -- you can cull wisdom from these and other popular fitness programs. That's because FitID doesn't just track your progress in a vacuum -- it compares your workouts to what you should be doing, according to the workout system you've selected.

What's more, the community of FitID users share their discoveries and knowledge of particular fitness and diet systems. Go deep into one system or dabble in them all. Personal trainers are known to frequent the site and you can select one or more trainers to follow in your journey. It's basically like having your own, small-scale gym.

Updated: November 2012 

Vitogo 

Want to start strength training and conditioning, but don't know where to start?

 Input your fitness level and goals and Vitogo will generate an effective series for you to try. Keep track of your goals on their native program, or sync it up with another app, like RunKeeper.

Updated: October 2012

Gym Ball Workouts 

 Most gym-goers know how to do a basic crunch on a Swiss ball. But what else can you do? This specific app gives you whole workout plans -- using yoga, pilates, sports conditioning and more -- centered entirely around those giant, destabilizing balls you see rolling around the weight room.

 Download and hop on!

Released: January 2012

Simply Being Guided Meditation 

Meditation is an important component of many fitness programs -- it can have the benefit of lowering blood pressure and lessening stress.

And Simply Being's guided meditations can help those with wandering minds get centered. Yoga Journal and Self magazine call this app a top pick, thanks to guides with and without music, step-by-step instruction and differently timed sessions -- from as little as five to as many as 20 minutes.

Updated: November 2012

Remix Workouts 

 Feeling "blah" about your weight training circuits? Don't even know what that means? This app teaches new moves and mixes up your old ones with new circuits and videos to help you master the proper form and technique. At $9.99, it's a bit on the pricey side, but it's cheaper than a trainer!

Released: January 2012

Fleetly 

If your solo workouts have you longing for the days when you competed with friends or played on a team, Fleetly might be a way to bring a little friendly competition back into your active lifestyle. Earn points, join virtual teams and compete in challenges, all while tracking your progress. Now in its fourth version, Fleetly isn't exactly new, but it remains one of the best apps for social workouts and now features better data trackers.

Updated: November 2012

Sportaneous

 If you don't live in New York City, you are out of luck with Sportaneous -- at least for the time being. But the app is a boon for the more disorganized or, erm, "sportaneous" athlete. Simply put in your time, location and desired activity and the app will locate a nearby class or group that you can join. Learn about a new yoga place or rock climbing meetup -- or, for you team sports enthusiasts out there, get in on a game of basketball, soccer or touch football.

Updated: December 2012

Two bowel cancer genes discovered

UK researchers believe they have explained why some families are incredibly vulnerable to bowel cancer.

They have found two genes, which are passed from parent to child, that greatly increase the risk of a tumour forming.

The study, published in Nature Genetics, analysed DNA from 20 people with a strong family history.
The findings could be used to develop a test to judge someone's risk of the disease.

One of the people who took part in the study, Joe Wiegand from Hampshire, was diagnosed with bowel cancer when he was 28. Most of his colon had to be removed.

"There's a very strong history of bowel cancer in my family - my dad's mother and sister both had it, my dad was diagnosed with it at 43 and a few cousins have had bowel cancers and brain tumours.

"It's clear that something's going on in our family."

Prevention

 
Lead researcher, Prof Ian Tomlinson from the University of Oxford, said: "There are some families where large numbers of relatives develop bowel cancer, but who don't have any of the known gene faults that raise the risk of developing the disease.

"These two faults are rare, but if you inherit them your chance of bowel cancer is high."

He said that, in the short-term, the findings could be used to work out which people had a high risk of developing bowel cancer and, in families with a high incidence of the cancer, to work out which people were at risk and needed more regular screening.

He said it was "conceivable" that specific therapies could be designed to overcome these mutations in the future.

Prof Richard Houlston, from the Institute of Cancer Research, said the finding was "one of the most important discoveries in bowel cancer genetics in years".

Dr Julie Sharp, from Cancer Research UK, said the research was "another piece of the puzzle" for at-risk families.

She said the findings mean, "doctors can help families with a strong family history by preventing cancer from developing or diagnosing it earlier to help more people survive".

Coffee Drinking Linked With Lower Oral Cancer Death Risk

As if there weren't already a host of other reasons to love coffee, a new study links drinking several cups a day with a decreased risk of dying from oral cancer.

The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, shows an association between drinking more than four cups of coffee a day and a halved risk of dying from oral and pharyngeal cancers. However, it's important to note that researchers only found an association, and more work is needed to figure out what exactly might be at the root of the finding.

"Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world, and contains a variety of antioxidants, polyphenols, and other biologically active compounds that may help to protect against development or progression of cancers," study researcher Janet Hildebrand, MPH, said in a statement. "Although it is less common in the United States, oral/pharyngeal cancer is among the 10 most common cancers in the world. Our finding strengthens the evidence of a possible protective effect of caffeinated coffee in the etiology and/or progression of cancers of the mouth and pharynx."

The study is based on 968,432 people who were part of the Cancer Prevention Study II, who were followed for 26 years. No one had cancer at the start of the study, but by the end of the study, 868 people had died from oral/pharyngeal cancers.

Researchers found a link between drinking more caffeinated coffee and having less of a risk of dying from the cancer -- specifically, people who drank more than four cups a day had a 49 percent decreased death risk from this cause, compared with people who didn't drink coffee.

And people didn't have to regularly drink four or more cups a day to experience the decrease, as they found the risk gradually shrunk with each cup.

While a slight association was also found with decaffeinated coffee, it was not as strong as with the caffeinated coffee, the researchers noted. No association was found between tea drinking and oral cancer death risk.

Similarly, a 2010 review of studies in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention showed a 39 percent lower risk of oral and throat cancer among people who drink four or more cups of coffee daily, WebMD reported. That review, conducted by University of Milan researchers, compared coffee-drinking rates between 5,139 people with head/neck cancer and 9,028 cancer-free people.