(HealthDay News) -- Four or more cups of coffee a day may help keep the gout away, suggests a study in the June issue of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism.
Gout, the most common form of inflammatory arthritis in adult males, is caused by too much uric acid in the joints.
In this study, American and Canadian researchers tracked almost 46,000 men for 12 years. The men were ages 40 to 75 at the start of the study and had no history of gout.
The researchers found that men who drank six or more cups of coffee a day were 59 percent less likely to develop gout than those who never drank coffee, while the risk was 40 percent lower for men who drank four to five cups a day.
The findings were independent of all other risk factors for gout.
Decaffeinated coffee offered somewhat less protection against gout. Tea drinking and total caffeine consumption did not have an effect on the incidence of gout.
The findings suggest that components of coffee other than caffeine may be responsible for helping prevent gout, said researcher Dr. Hyon K. Choi. For example, coffee contains a strong antioxidant called phenol chlorogenic acid.
While he and his colleagues didn't suggest that men should start drinking four or more cups of coffee a day, they said their findings may help men make an informed decision about coffee consumption.
"Our findings are most directly generalizable to men age 40 and older, the most gout-prevalent population, with no history of gout," Choi noted.
"Given the potential influence of female hormones on the risk of gout in women and an increased role of dietary impact on uric acid levels among patients with existing gout, prospective studies of these populations would be valuable," he added.
More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about gout.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Study Suggests Cure for Hepatitis C
(HealthDay News) -- Researchers are reporting a potential "cure" for hepatitis C, a blood-borne viral infection that's the leading cause of cirrhosis, liver cancer and the need for liver transplants in the United States.
Use of the drug peginterferon, either alone or in combination with the drug ribavirin, reduced levels of the virus to undetectable levels for up to seven years, the researchers said.
"This paper strongly suggests, for the first time, that hepatitis C is a curable disease," said lead researcher Dr. Mitchell Shiffman, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and chief of hepatology and medical director of the school's Liver Transplant Program. "After treatment, 99.6 percent of the patients remained virus undetectable for over five years," he added.
In the study, 997 patients with hepatitis C or with both hepatitis C and HIV were treated with either Pegasys (peginterferon alfa-2a) alone or in tandem with ribavirin. Shiffman's team then monitored blood levels of hepatitis C once a year for an average of 4.1 years, and as long as seven years.
The researchers found that 99 percent of patients with hepatitis C who were treated successfully with peginterferon alone, or in combination with ribavirin, had no detectable virus up to seven years later.
"This is the first long-term study that confirms what we believed for many years that these individuals are truly cured of hepatitis C," Shiffman said.
The remaining eight patients tested positive for hepatitis C at an average of two years after treatment. There was no pattern to the patients as far as age, gender or hepatitis C genotype. It isn't known whether these patients had a relapse or were re-infected with the virus, the researchers noted.
The findings were to be presented Monday at the 38th annual Digestive Disease Week conference, in Washington, D.C.
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne infectious disease of the liver and is one of the most important causes of chronic liver disease in the United States. An estimated 4.1 million Americans have been infected with hepatitis C, and 3.2 million are chronically infected. The number of new infections each year declined from an average of 240,000 in the 1980s to about 26,000 in 2004, the latest year for which statistics are available. The number of hepatitis C-related deaths could increase to 38,000 a year by the year 2010, surpassing annual HIV/AIDS deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The virus is usually spread through contact with infected blood and blood products. Blood transfusions and the use of shared, unsterilized, or poorly sterilized needles, syringes and injection equipment have been the main routes of transmission in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Most people who have hepatitis C don't know they have it, Shiffman said. "Of those who have been diagnosed, only about 25 percent have received treatment, because of the side effects of treatment," he said. "The reason why you should treat it is because you can cure hepatitis C, and we finally have the data to definitively document it."
Dr. Eugene Schiff, chief of the division of hepatology and professor of medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, agrees that most cases of hepatitis C can be cured.
"In contrast to hepatitis B or HIV, this virus can be totally eradicated and cured," he said.
But, many patients find the side effects of treatment off-putting. Those side effects can include fever and chills, Shiff said. "You feel pretty lousy. After treatment starts, you feel worse the day after your shot, but it tapers off over the course of the week," he said. "Along with that anxiety, irritability and Depression can develop. And we are quick to use antidepressants to allow these people to stay on the medication."
Additional side effects include a drop in the production of white blood cells and anemia. Often patients are giving additional drugs to combat these conditions, Shiff said.
Treatments can go on for as many as 72 weeks, depending on the reaction to therapy Shiff said. "Some people are reluctant to get treatment, because they heard that the treatment isn't so pleasant," he said. "But they should come out and get treatment."
Schiff noted that new antiviral drugs to treat hepatitis C are being tested. "It is hoped that these new antivirals will be more effective and have less severe side effects and may even be used without peginterferon alfa-2a or ribavirin," he said.
More information
For more on hepatitis C, visit the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Use of the drug peginterferon, either alone or in combination with the drug ribavirin, reduced levels of the virus to undetectable levels for up to seven years, the researchers said.
"This paper strongly suggests, for the first time, that hepatitis C is a curable disease," said lead researcher Dr. Mitchell Shiffman, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and chief of hepatology and medical director of the school's Liver Transplant Program. "After treatment, 99.6 percent of the patients remained virus undetectable for over five years," he added.
In the study, 997 patients with hepatitis C or with both hepatitis C and HIV were treated with either Pegasys (peginterferon alfa-2a) alone or in tandem with ribavirin. Shiffman's team then monitored blood levels of hepatitis C once a year for an average of 4.1 years, and as long as seven years.
The researchers found that 99 percent of patients with hepatitis C who were treated successfully with peginterferon alone, or in combination with ribavirin, had no detectable virus up to seven years later.
"This is the first long-term study that confirms what we believed for many years that these individuals are truly cured of hepatitis C," Shiffman said.
The remaining eight patients tested positive for hepatitis C at an average of two years after treatment. There was no pattern to the patients as far as age, gender or hepatitis C genotype. It isn't known whether these patients had a relapse or were re-infected with the virus, the researchers noted.
The findings were to be presented Monday at the 38th annual Digestive Disease Week conference, in Washington, D.C.
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne infectious disease of the liver and is one of the most important causes of chronic liver disease in the United States. An estimated 4.1 million Americans have been infected with hepatitis C, and 3.2 million are chronically infected. The number of new infections each year declined from an average of 240,000 in the 1980s to about 26,000 in 2004, the latest year for which statistics are available. The number of hepatitis C-related deaths could increase to 38,000 a year by the year 2010, surpassing annual HIV/AIDS deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The virus is usually spread through contact with infected blood and blood products. Blood transfusions and the use of shared, unsterilized, or poorly sterilized needles, syringes and injection equipment have been the main routes of transmission in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Most people who have hepatitis C don't know they have it, Shiffman said. "Of those who have been diagnosed, only about 25 percent have received treatment, because of the side effects of treatment," he said. "The reason why you should treat it is because you can cure hepatitis C, and we finally have the data to definitively document it."
Dr. Eugene Schiff, chief of the division of hepatology and professor of medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, agrees that most cases of hepatitis C can be cured.
"In contrast to hepatitis B or HIV, this virus can be totally eradicated and cured," he said.
But, many patients find the side effects of treatment off-putting. Those side effects can include fever and chills, Shiff said. "You feel pretty lousy. After treatment starts, you feel worse the day after your shot, but it tapers off over the course of the week," he said. "Along with that anxiety, irritability and Depression can develop. And we are quick to use antidepressants to allow these people to stay on the medication."
Additional side effects include a drop in the production of white blood cells and anemia. Often patients are giving additional drugs to combat these conditions, Shiff said.
Treatments can go on for as many as 72 weeks, depending on the reaction to therapy Shiff said. "Some people are reluctant to get treatment, because they heard that the treatment isn't so pleasant," he said. "But they should come out and get treatment."
Schiff noted that new antiviral drugs to treat hepatitis C are being tested. "It is hoped that these new antivirals will be more effective and have less severe side effects and may even be used without peginterferon alfa-2a or ribavirin," he said.
More information
For more on hepatitis C, visit the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Premature Babies Face Future Blood Sugar, Blood Pressure Problems
(HealthDay News) -- Babies born early and underweight have a greater chance of developing insulin resistance, glucose intolerance and high blood pressure when they become young adults than normal-weight babies, a new study says.
These factors can put a person at higher risk for heart disease and other health problems.
"Most small premature infants live healthy lives as adults," said study lead author Dr. Eero Kajantie, a pediatrician and senior researcher at the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki, Finland. "However, our findings indicate that they might be at a higher-than-average risk of common late-life disorders such as type 2 (adult) diabetes or cardiovascular disease."
The goods news is that the risk of developing these problems can be reduced with a healthy lifestyle, one that incorporates physical activity and a healthy diet and maintaining a normal weight, Kajantie added.
Kajantie's study is published in the May 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers have already established a link between small size at birth and glucose-regulation problems later in life. There is also a known association between preterm birth with very low birth weight and insulin resistance in childhood.
And research has shown that full-term babies with low birth weight have a higher risk of health problems such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes when they reach young adulthood.
The question is whether insulin resistance, and therefore an elevated risk for various diseases, persists into adulthood in babies born premature and underweight.
The issue is a highly relevant one, given that advances in neonatal intensive care have drastically changed the prognosis for very-low-birth-weight infants. According to an accompanying editorial in the journal, in 1960, a baby born weighing 1,000 grams (2.2 pounds) had a 95 percent risk of dying. Today, that same child has as 95 percent chance of surviving.
As the new study noted, the first generation of infants who benefited from these improvements is now entering adulthood.
For the study, the researchers performed standard oral glucose tolerance tests in 163 young adults aged 18 to 27 who had been underweight at birth. They also performed the same tests in 169 people who had been born at term and at normal size. All participants also had blood pressure and blood lipid levels measured.
Body composition was measured in 150 adults who had been very-low-birth-weight babies and in 136 "normal" people.
The adults born with very low birth weights had a 6.7 percent increase in two-hour glucose concentration, a 16.7 percent increase in fasting insulin concentration, a 40 percent increase in two-hour insulin concentration, an 18.9 percent increase in the insulin-resistance index and an increase of 4.8 mm Hg in systolic blood pressure.
"We would simply encourage former preterm infants to follow a healthy lifestyle," Kajantie said. "It is important that, in particular, doctors following up adults would be aware of their patient's birth history. Preterm birth/very low birth weight may serve as an additional risk factor when deciding, for example, whether a workup of glucose tolerance or diabetes is needed in an individual patient."
And researchers should continue following the issue, Kajantie said.
"Further research is certainly needed, for example, to establish specific guidelines for follow-up of children/adults with very low birth weight," Kajantie said. "Moreover, this study actually tells us about infants who were treated at a neonatal intensive care unit over 20 years ago (1978 to 1985). There have been considerable developments in neonatal intensive care after that period."
More information
Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital has more on very low birth weight babies.
These factors can put a person at higher risk for heart disease and other health problems.
"Most small premature infants live healthy lives as adults," said study lead author Dr. Eero Kajantie, a pediatrician and senior researcher at the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki, Finland. "However, our findings indicate that they might be at a higher-than-average risk of common late-life disorders such as type 2 (adult) diabetes or cardiovascular disease."
The goods news is that the risk of developing these problems can be reduced with a healthy lifestyle, one that incorporates physical activity and a healthy diet and maintaining a normal weight, Kajantie added.
Kajantie's study is published in the May 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers have already established a link between small size at birth and glucose-regulation problems later in life. There is also a known association between preterm birth with very low birth weight and insulin resistance in childhood.
And research has shown that full-term babies with low birth weight have a higher risk of health problems such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes when they reach young adulthood.
The question is whether insulin resistance, and therefore an elevated risk for various diseases, persists into adulthood in babies born premature and underweight.
The issue is a highly relevant one, given that advances in neonatal intensive care have drastically changed the prognosis for very-low-birth-weight infants. According to an accompanying editorial in the journal, in 1960, a baby born weighing 1,000 grams (2.2 pounds) had a 95 percent risk of dying. Today, that same child has as 95 percent chance of surviving.
As the new study noted, the first generation of infants who benefited from these improvements is now entering adulthood.
For the study, the researchers performed standard oral glucose tolerance tests in 163 young adults aged 18 to 27 who had been underweight at birth. They also performed the same tests in 169 people who had been born at term and at normal size. All participants also had blood pressure and blood lipid levels measured.
Body composition was measured in 150 adults who had been very-low-birth-weight babies and in 136 "normal" people.
The adults born with very low birth weights had a 6.7 percent increase in two-hour glucose concentration, a 16.7 percent increase in fasting insulin concentration, a 40 percent increase in two-hour insulin concentration, an 18.9 percent increase in the insulin-resistance index and an increase of 4.8 mm Hg in systolic blood pressure.
"We would simply encourage former preterm infants to follow a healthy lifestyle," Kajantie said. "It is important that, in particular, doctors following up adults would be aware of their patient's birth history. Preterm birth/very low birth weight may serve as an additional risk factor when deciding, for example, whether a workup of glucose tolerance or diabetes is needed in an individual patient."
And researchers should continue following the issue, Kajantie said.
"Further research is certainly needed, for example, to establish specific guidelines for follow-up of children/adults with very low birth weight," Kajantie said. "Moreover, this study actually tells us about infants who were treated at a neonatal intensive care unit over 20 years ago (1978 to 1985). There have been considerable developments in neonatal intensive care after that period."
More information
Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital has more on very low birth weight babies.
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