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Gastric Acid Restraint Drug affects the liver
Categories Medical news

Regular Gastric acid reflux Drugs Develop the Chronic Liver Disease

Author krishna kumar 0 Comments Posted on

A study at University of California San Diego School of Medicine claims that suppression of stomach (gastric) acid by drugs alters specific gut bacteria, promoting liver injury and progression of three types of chronic liver disease.

Nearly 10% people use proton pump inhibitor (PPI) drug to relieve the symptoms of heartburn and acid reflux; this percentage being seven times higher for those suffering from a chronic liver disease.

The number of people suffering from chronic liver disease is rapidly rising in the Western countries due to rising prevalence of obesity and alcohol abuse. Moreover, PPIs like Prilosec, Nexium and Prevacid are commonly prescribed for individuals suffering from a chronic liver disease.

“But medications that suppress gastric acid secretion can change the composition of the gut microbiome promoting the growth of Enterococcus bacteria in the intestines and translocation to the liver, exacerbating inflammation and worsening chronic liver disease,” said senior author Bernd Schnabl, MD, associate professor of gastroenterology at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

The team researched on mice models that mimic alcoholic liver, non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFLD), and steatohepatitis (NASH) diseases in humans. Those with gastric acid suppression were found to exhibit alterations in their gut microbiome with the specific growth of Enterococcus bacteria. These changes promoted liver inflammation and injury, increasing the progression of 3 types of chronic liver disease.

A cohort of 4,830 patients with the chronic alcoholic liver disease was also analyzed. PPI intake in these individuals increased their stool concentrations of Enterococcus and the risk of liver disease by 8.3%.

Thus, the researchers concluded an association between PPI use among people who abuse alcohol and risk of liver disease. “Though more clinical trials are necessary to definitively show this causality, this data should at least make people and clinicians think about reducing the use of PPIs in cases where they aren’t necessary. Alternatively, other methods for managing heartburn like losing weight and reducing intake of alcohol, caffeine, and fatty and spicy foods must be looked into”, said Schnabl.

Hypertension in Midlife of woman may leads to dementia
Categories Medical news

High Blood Pressure in Their 40s May Risk Women to Develop Dementia Later

Author krishna kumar 0 Comments Posted on

Women who develop high blood pressure in their 40s may be more likely to develop dementia in later life, according to the study published in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

“High blood pressure in midlife is a known risk for dementia in later life, but this study will help to understand how and when this association starts and its gender differences,” said the study author Rachel A. Whitmer, PhD, Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif.

The study involved 7,238 people who were a part of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California health care system. Their blood pressure and other vitals were examined from the year 1964-1973. About 5, 646 people were again evaluated in the year 1996 and followed for 15 years to see who developed dementia. Nearly, 532 people were diagnosed with dementia.

The study revealed a 65-percent increased risk of dementia for women who developed high blood pressure in their 40s, irrespective of the other risk factors like smoking, diabetes, and body mass index.

“Though high blood pressure was more common in men, no evidence was found for an increased risk of dementia in them. More studies are needed to identify the possible sex-specific pathways for accelerated brain ageing through high blood pressure” said Whitmer.

However, the results of the study can’t be generalized to today’s population owing to the wide use and effectiveness of drugs to control high blood pressure.

New Device to Treat Sleep Apnoea
Categories Medical news

FDA Approves New Treatment for Moderate to Severe Central Sleep Apnoea

Author krishna kumar 0 Comments Posted on

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, today approved a new treatment, the Remede System for moderate to severe central sleep apnoea. It is a battery operated device that is surgically implanted in the chest to stimulate the phrenic nerve, which in turn sends signals to the diaphragm and restores normal breathing in such patients.

Sleep apnoea is a disorder that causes one or more pauses in breathing lasting from few seconds to minutes or shallow breaths during sleep. In central sleep apnoea, the brain fails to send signals to the diaphragm to breathe, causing a breathing pause of 10 seconds or more in an individual. This leads to poor sleep quality and increased risk for high blood pressure, heart attack, heart failure, stroke, obesity, and diabetes in the suffering individual.

“Remede System offers a new treatment option for central sleep apnoea. However, its risks and benefits must be weighed as compared to other treatments like medicines, airway pressure devices, and surgery” said Tina Kiang, Ph.D., acting director of the Division of Anesthesiology in the FDA’s Centre for Devices and Radiological Health

FDA evaluated 141 patients to measure the effect of the Remede System on the frequency and severity of apnoea (apnoea-hypopnoea index or AHI). After six months, AHI was seen to reduce by 50% or more in 51% patients with the implantable device as compared to 11% without this device.

However, the Remede System is not recommended for use by patients with active infection, obstructive sleep apnoea, and who require magnetic resonance imaging.

The FDA has granted approval of Remede System to Respicardia Inc.

Seaweed Extract helps to treat arthritis
Categories Medical news

Novel Molecule from Algae Extract Shows a Promising Effect in Arthritis

Author krishna kumar 0 Comments Posted on

It is known that people who are aged over 65 are suffering from joint pains and stiffness due to inflammation at bone joints called arthritis. This inflammation, resultant of oxidative stress (frequent cause of damage and cell death), can spread to all other joints in the body and degenerates the protective cartilage layer, a connective tissue at joints which protects bones from eruption due to friction. Affected joints, particularly knee, hip, and finger joints can be extremely painful and gets worse if left untreated.

So far, therapeutic approach for arthritis involves anti-inflammatory medication, pain killers, and some other immune suppressor drugs. In an attempt to develop a new therapeutic molecule for arthritis, researchers (at ETH Zurich, Empa, and the Norwegian research institute SINTEF) have extracted a polysaccharide substance (similar to specific extracellular bio molecules of cartilage tissue) from brown algae,Laminaria hyperborean,to supress the autoimmune responses to overcome oxidative stress that degenerate the cartilage tissue at bone joints.

This polysaccharide was chemically modified by adding additional sulphate groups and subjected it for in vitro studies on various cell cultures. Interestingly, researchers found that, the added sulphate groups to the polysaccharide extracted from brown algae have significantly suppressed the inflammatory reactions by combating the oxidative stress.

This compound is referred as alginate sulphate and demonstrated encouraging results at laboratory level. Markus Rottamar, researcher at Empa says that, this alginate sulphate can even stop the oxidative degeneration of cartilage tissue at bone joints (arthritis).

Chronic Tinnitus alters brain network
Categories Medical news

Chronic Tinnitus is Coupled with Definite Transform in Brain Networks

Author krishna kumar 3 Comments on Chronic Tinnitus is Coupled with Definite Transform in Brain Networks Posted on

Tinnitus is characterized by a chronic abnormal noise (ringing or buzzing) experienced in one or both of the ears which can be unpleasant, frustrating and sometimes it is severe enough to seek treatment. Fatima Husain, professor at University of Illinois says that, tinnitus is invisible and there is no device to measure the severity which varies from patient to patient in terms of type of sound and duration.

Observations from functional MRI reveals various neural patterns saying that chronic tinnitus is associated in the region of brain called precuneus. This precuneus is connected with two inversely related neural networks such as the dorsal attention network (functional when person is at attention) and the default mode network (functional when person is at rest).

Sara Schmidt, graduate student and researcher of this study says that, precuneus of patients with chronic tinnitus is more connected to the dorsal attention network and less connected to the default mode network. Husain says that, this neural connectivity is the objective and invariant for chronic tinnitus, which means the patients with tinnitus are not truly at rest even while resting.

But in patients with recent onset of tinnitus, precuneus connectivity is similar to normal brain networks. Adding to this, Husain said that longitudinal follow-up studies on recent onset tinnitus patients may help us to explain when these neural network changes would take place and provides one invariant measurement as a tool for screening the severity of tinnitus.

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