The Guyana government has banned the use of chemicals to clean drainage calls across the country, after concerns were raised by residents of Ann’s Grove, East Coast Demerara. After the concern was raised raised by a resident during a ministerial outreach led by Prime Minister Mark Phillips, the Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha made government’s position ...

“If oral bacteria are getting in and repeatedly triggering immune responses relevant to rheumatoid arthritis, that could make it harder to treat,” says Dana Orange, a professor of clinical investigation in the laboratory of Robert B. Darnell at The Rockefeller University. “When doctors encounter arthritis patients who do not respond to treatment, it would be worth it to make sure they aren’t missing an underlying gum disease, which is quite treatable.”

The Darnell lab had been following a small group of arthritis patients over the course of several years, collecting weekly blood samples and looking for changes in gene expression to help explain why painful flare-ups occur, when they noticed a surprising trend. Two of their patients, who had moderate to severe periodontal disease, had repeated episodes of oral bacteria in their bloodstreams, even when they weren’t having dental work.

Orange knew that rheumatoid arthritis patients generally have autoantibodies in their bloodstream (rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune disease, wherein antibodies attack the body’s own proteins and peptides). In many cases, autoantibodies take specific aim at proteins bearing the signs of citrullination, a process by which one amino acid in the protein is converted into a different one.

Upon further examination, the team discovered that the oral bacteria they detected in the blood are also citrullinated in the mouth, much like the proteins targeted by autoantibodies in arthritis. They then demonstrated that the same autoantibodies that take potshots at the body’s citrullinated proteins activate in response to citrullinated bacteria.

The results may explain why arthritis treatments do not work as well in patients with gum disease. If the gums are continuously releasing immune triggers into the bloodstream, treating arthritis without first solving the periodontal problem is like trying to haul water out of a ship without first plugging up its leaks.

“Gum disease is quite curable; rheumatoid arthritis can be much more difficult to treat,” Orange says. “Our results indicate that periodontal disease leads to leaky gums that allow oral bacteria to enter the blood repeatedly. This level of oral bacteria in blood doesn’t cause obvious symptoms, so the patients were not aware this was happening, but they do trigger inflammatory and auto-antibody responses that are highly relevant to rheumatoid arthritis.”

These findings also demonstrate the importance of conducting long-term research to better understand chronic diseases. The present study would not have been possible without a unique initiative, pioneered by Orange and Darnell several years ago, that empowers arthritis patients to collect their own blood samples at home with a finger-prick kit and mail weekly samples to Rockefeller. The lab now has several years of data to help track what happens in the blood right before an arthritis flare.

“Without having weekly blood samples for at least a year, we wouldn’t have been able to find out what was happening before the patients had symptoms of their flares,” Orange says. “Our study revealed a plausible mechanism to explain why rheumatoid arthritis patients with periodontal disease do not respond well to treatment-something very hard to capture without long-term monitoring.”

Reference:

Oral mucosal breaks trigger anti-citrullinated bacterial and human protein antibody responses in rheumatoid arthritis,Science Translational Medicine,doi 10.1126/scitranslmed.abq8476 

Obesity occurs when a child is significantly over their ideal weight. Like adults, children become obese when they eat more calories than they use. Obesity in children is determined by using a body mass index (BMI) and is measured by their weight...

Of the 11 dietary factors considered, three had an outsized contribution to the rising global incidence of type 2 diabetes: Insufficient whole grains, excesses of refined rice and wheat, and the overconsumption of processed meat. Factors such as drinking too much fruit juice and not eating enough non-starchy vegetables, nuts, or seeds had less impact on new disease cases.

Findings from the analysis which looked at data from 1990 and 2018, inform nutritional priorities and clinical and public health planning to improve dietary quality and reduce T2D globally. 

The model developed by researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University estimated that poor diet contributed to over 14.1 million cases of type 2 diabetes in 2018, representing over 70% of new diagnoses globally. The analysis provides valuable insight into which dietary factors drive type 2 diabetes burden by world region. The study was published April 17 in the journal Nature Medicine. 

“Our study suggests poor carbohydrate quality is a leading driver of diet-attributable type 2 diabetes globally, and with important variation by nation and over time,” says senior author Dariush Mozaffarian, Jean Mayer Professor of Nutrition dean for policy at the Friedman School. “These new findings reveal critical areas for national and global focus to improve nutrition and reduce devastating burdens of diabetes.”

Type 2 diabetes is characterized by the resistance of the body’s cells to insulin. Of the 184 countries included in the Nature Medicine study, all saw an increase in type 2 diabetes cases between 1990 and 2018, representing a growing burden on individuals, families, and healthcare systems.

The research team based their model on information from the Global Dietary Database, along with population demographics from multiple sources, global type 2 diabetes incidence estimates, and data on how food choices impact people living with obesity and type 2 diabetes from multiple published papers.

The analysis revealed that poor diet is causing a larger proportion of total type 2 diabetes incidence in men versus women, in younger versus older adults, and in urban versus rural residents at the global level.

Regionally, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia-particularly in Poland and Russia, where diets tend to be rich in red meat, processed meat, and potatoes —had the greatest number of type 2 diabetes cases linked to diet. Incidence was also high in Latin America and the Caribbean, especially in Colombia and Mexico, which was credited to high consumption of sugary drinks, processed meat, and low intake of whole grains.

Regions where diet had less of an impact on type 2 diabetes cases included South Asia and Sub-Sharan Africa-though the largest increases in type 2 diabetes due to poor diet between 1990 and 2018 were observed in Sub-Saharan Africa. Of the 30 most populated countries studied, India, Nigeria, and Ethiopia had the fewest case of type 2 diabetes related to unhealthy eating.

“Left unchecked and with incidence only projected to rise, type 2 diabetes will continue to impact population health, economic productivity, health care system capacity, and drive health inequities worldwide,” says first author Meghan O’Hearn. She conducted this research while a PhD candidate at the Friedman School and currently works as Impact Director for Food Systems for the Future, a non-profit institute and for-profit fund that enables innovative food and agriculture enterprises to improve nutrition outcomes for underserved and low-income communities measurably. “These findings can help inform nutritional priorities for clinicians, policymakers, and private sector actors as they encourage healthier dietary choices that address this global epidemic.”

Other recent studies have estimated that 40% of type 2 diabetes cases globally are attributed to suboptimal diet, lower than the 70% reported in the Nature Medicine paper. The research team attributes this to the new information in their analysis, such as the first ever inclusion of refined grains, which was one of the top contributors to diabetes burdens; and updated data on dietary habits based on national individual-level dietary surveys, rather than agricultural estimates. The investigators also note that they presented the uncertainty of these new estimates, which can continue to be refined as new data emerges.

Reference:

O’Hearn, M., Lara-Castor, L., Cudhea, F. et al. Incident type 2 diabetes attributable to suboptimal diet in 184 countries. Nat Med (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02278-8.

we need a vaccine. However, this has proved to be probably the toughest vaccine scientists have worked to create,” Paul A. Volberding, MD, Infectious Disease News Chief Medical Editor

(AlJazeera) – Air pollution impacts every stage of human life from foetal development and the cognitive abilities of teenagers to adult mental health, according to a report that synthesises the findings of more than 35,000 studies from around the world.

The Environmental Research Group at Imperial College London published the review on Monday of a decade of scientific studies into air pollution.

The London university team looked at findings from the World Health Organization (WHO), the UK Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution, the Royal College of Physicians, the Health Effects Institute and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

“The most important new finding is evidence related to both the impact of air pollution on brain health, including mental health and dementia, and early life impacts that could lead to future health burdens within the population,” the report said.

“Both represent significant, but currently unquantified costs to society and the economy,” it added.

The review found links between air pollution and the health of newborns in the first weeks of life, birth weight, miscarriages and stillbirths.

The fetus could be vulnerable because a mother might inhale air pollution particles, leading to adverse effects on development, the report read.

Chemicals associated with pollution can enter a pregnant woman’s blood, altering its flow, which could potentially slow or delay foetal growth.

More than 20 million babies with low birth weights are born every year and more than 15 million are born prematurely, according to the WHO.

But the impact of air pollution on reproductive health is not restricted to the mother. Lower volumes of sperm are also seen in men exposed to air pollution.

Meanwhile, another study mentioned in the report suggests “exposure to particle pollution” increases the risk of developing dementia and accelerates cognitive decline.

Recent studies also showed that air pollution could hamper lung growth in children, affect their blood pressure and impact their cognitive and mental health.

The experts at Imperial said research on 2,000 children aged eight and nine found “on average, a child had lost around 5 percent of their expected lung volume because of the air pollution that they breathed.”

“This effect was most clearly linked with exposure to NO2 [nitrogen oxide], which is often used as a tracer for the diesel exhaust emissions,” their report said.

The report also found that air pollution causes asthma.

From 2017 to 2019, a study by Imperial College London estimated that London’s poor air quality led to more than 1,700 hospital admissions for asthma and serious lung conditions.

“This was 7 percent of all asthma admissions in children in the capital,” the report said.

The review also showed that exposure to air pollution can increase cardiac death, stroke risk and the development of cardiovascular disease later in life.

A European study considered stroke in nearly 100,000 people over a 10-year period and found some evidence of an association between long-term exposure to PM2.5 – which are very small air pollution particles that can pass beyond the nose and throat and enter the respiratory system – and stroke, especially among people over 60.

The post Air pollution impacts every stage of human life, report finds appeared first on Barbados Today.

Mignott, DNP, MSc, FNP, RN, discusses the results of her award-winning poster presentation at the National Kidney Foundation Spring Clinical Meetings.After identifying a gap in requisite knowledge and current guidelines for chronic kidney disease among nurses at a teaching and referral hospital in Jamaica, Mignott and colleagues conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study design to determine a solution. Researchers held an educational presentation for nurses and had attendees complete a questionnaire before and after class. Analyses revealed a

The symposium focuses on violence as a health issue

View the full post PM attends regional symposium on crime and violence on NOW Grenada.

MANY times, a patient may go to the doctor with symptoms of an infection. The doctor listens, examines, and confirms the infection, but the doctor doesn't write any antibiotics on the prescription.

What?? How can that doctor NOT give you any antibiotics? That's crazy, right?

It's not crazy at all.

Antibiotics are a type of medication that treats bacterial infections. There are several different types of germs that can cause various infections; these include bacteria, viruses, fungus and parasites. Each type of infection is treated with a different class of medication. Bacterial infections are treated by antibiotics but the infections caused by other germs cannot be treated with antibiotics.

Infections caused by viruses include the common cold, flu, stomach bug, and COVID-19. Fungal infections are ringworm, athlete's foot, and yeast infections. "Worm out" medications are to treat parasites. Antibiotics will not work on any of these.

In fact, taking antibiotics when it is not needed has proven to be dangerous. Decades of improper and unnecessary use of antibiotics has caused super bugs to develop. These super bugs are resistant to many antibiotics, are very difficult to treat, and have resulted in thousands of deaths across the globe.

That is why it is so important for you to complete the course of antibiotics if prescribed.

Picture this — the bacteria are little germs with swords and bats running around your body wreaking havoc. Your immune system sends fighter cells to defend your body. The antibiotics bring reinforcements: they have bigger swords and start killing the bacteria. But even though the bacteria are fighting your body, they are also multiplying. It's the ones that have survived the first few days of the antibiotics that are the strongest and multiply to produce more bacteria. If you stop the antibiotics before the course is complete (for example when you start to feel better), you leave behind those bacteria that have survived and now know how to resist the antibiotics. Those germs will multiply. But now they won't have swords any more, now they have guns, grenades and heavy armour. These germs may now be resistant to antibiotics!

So if you get sick again when these super germs multiply, or you spread these germs to your loved ones, it's possible that the antibiotics prescribed won't work because of antibiotic resistance. You end up having to be admitted to the hospital to be treated with intravenous (through the "drip") antibiotics for weeks. Or worse!

When a doctor prescribes antibiotics for your child, we prescribe the exact amount the child needs based on age, weight and condition. The dose and length for treatment of an ear infection may be different from that of a bladder infection, even though it is the same drug.

Don't be discouraged when you don't see the effects of antibiotics on the first day as it usually takes two to three days of antibiotics before you start feeling better and your symptoms start to improve. If you don't see any improvement after three to four completed days, please go back to your doctor.

Try not to skip a dose. First, don't beat yourself up about it. Life happens. It's okay! If a dose is missed, take that dose as soon as possible. If the entire course of antibiotics requires 14 doses over seven days, try as best as possible to take all 14 doses.

If for whatever reason you missed three to four doses consecutively, it's very likely that the antibiotics may not work as effectively as you would hope. This is also why you shouldn't share antibiotics. You shouldn't have enough medication to effectively treat more than one person because doctors prescribe only the exact amount patients need.

Most liquid antibiotics have a limited shelf life. That means that after a certain time (usually 10-14 days) the medication loses its effectiveness so don't store any leftover antibiotics for another time. After the course is complete, throw the remainder away.

Dr Tal's Tidbit

Antibiotics treat only bacterial infections. They don't cure common infections caused by other kinds of germs like the flu or a stomach bug. Taking antibiotics incorrectly or unnecessarily causes antibiotic resistance.

Dr Taleya Girvan has over a decade's experience treating children at the Bustamante Hospital for Children, working in the accident and emergency department and paediatric cardiology department. Her goal is to use the knowledge she has gained to improve the lives of patients by increasing knowledge about the health care system in Jamaica. Dr Tal's Tidbits is a series in which she speaks to patients and caregivers, providing practical advice that will improve health care for the general population. Email: dr.talstidbits@gmail.com IG @dr.tals_tidbits