EU’s top court may define obesity as a disability

The EU’s top court is considering a test case which could oblige employers to treat obesity as a disability.

Denmark has asked the European Court of Justice to rule on the case of a male childminder who says he was sacked for being too fat.
Karsten Kaltoft weighs about 160kg (25 stone; 350 pounds). He told the BBC that “bad habits” had made him fat but that his size was “no problem” at work.
The court’s final ruling will be binding across the EU.
It is seen as especially significant because of rising obesity levels in Europe and elsewhere, including the US. A survey in England in 2012 found that more than half of adults were obese or overweight.
The Danish courts asked the ECJ judges in Luxembourg to clarify European law in Mr Kaltoft’s case.
‘Doing job properly’

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In an interview with the BBC World Service, Mr Kaltoft denied reports that he was unable to bend low enough to tie children’s shoelaces.
Describing his work with children, he said: “I can sit on the floor and play with them, I have no problems like that.”
“I don’t see myself as disabled,” he said. “We hope the outcome is that it’s not OK just to fire a person because they’re fat, if they’re doing their job properly.”
When asked if his employer, Billund local authority, had done anything to help him, he said they had paid for him to go to a gym for three months.
“I tried regular exercise. Of course I don’t run a marathon, but weight training: I did that, it was OK,” he said.
He worked for Billund authority for 15 years and was dismissed, the authority said, because there was a decline in the number of children. No further explanation was given as to why he was selected for dismissal.
Future obligations?
Audrey Williams, an employment discrimination expert at Eversheds law firm, said the judges would have to decide “whether obesity itself should trigger preferential rights, or should only impact where an individual, due to obesity, has other recognised medical issues”.
If the judges decide it is a disability then employers could face new obligations, she told the BBC.
Employers might in future have a duty to create reserved car parking spaces for obese staff, or adjust the office furniture for them, she said.
The judges will have to decide whether obesity is covered under the EU’sEmployment Equality Directive, which outlaws job discrimination on grounds of disability.

Microwave helmet ‘can spot a stroke’

The prototype device is still undergoing modification and needs larger tests

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Scientists say they have devised a helmet that can quickly determine whether a patient has had a stroke.

It could speed diagnosis and treatment of stroke to boost chances of recovery, the scientists say.
The wearable cap bounces microwaves off the brain to determine whether there has been a bleed or clot deep inside.
The Swedish scientists who made the device plan to give it to ambulance crews to test after successful results in early studies with 45 patients.
Race against time

A weak blood vessel can rupture and cause a haemorrhagic stroke

When a person has a stroke, doctors must work quickly to limit any brain damage.
If it takes more than four hours to get to hospital and start treatment, parts of their brain tissue may already be dying.

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Time lost is brain lost”

Dr Shamim QuadirStroke Association

But to give the best treatment, doctors first need to find out if the stroke is caused by a leaky blood vessel or one blocked by a clot.

A computerised tomography (CT) scan will show this, but it can take some time to organise one for a patient, even if they have been admitted as an emergency to a hospital that has one of these scanners.
Any delay in this “golden hour” of treatment opportunity could hamper recovery.
Vital window
To speed up the process, researchers in Sweden, from Chalmers University of Technology, Sahlgrenska Academy and Sahlgrenska University Hospital, have come up with a mobile device that could be used on the way to hospital.
The helmet uses microwave signals – the same as the ones emitted by microwave ovens and mobile phones but much weaker – to build a picture of what is going on throughout the brain.
Tests with an early prototype – a refashioned bicycle helmet – found it could accurately distinguish between bleeds (haemorrhagic stroke) and clots (ischaemic stroke), although not 100% of the time.
They have since built and tested a custom-made helmet to better fits skulls of different shapes and sizes, and they have tested it out with the help of nurses and patients at a local hospital ward.
Ultimately, they want to fit it into the pillow the patient rests their head on.
The researchers say their device needs more testing, but could be a useful aid in the future.
Doctors would probably still need to use other diagnostic methods too, they told Transactions on Biomedical Engineering journal.
Investigator Prof Mikael Persson said: “The possibility to rule out bleeding already in the ambulance is a major achievement that will be of great benefit in acute stroke care.”
Dr Shamim Quadir, of the UK’s Stroke Association, said: “When a stroke strikes, the brain is starved of oxygen, and brain cells in the affected area die. Diagnosing and treating stroke as quickly as possible is crucial.
“While this research is at an early stage, it suggests that microwave-based systems may become a portable, affordable, technology that could help rapidly identify the type of stroke a patient has had, and get them treated faster.
“By diagnosing and treating stroke as early as possible, we can minimise the devastating impact of stroke, secure better outcomes for patients and, ultimately, save lives. Time lost is brain lost.”

Chronic stress can hurt your memory

A third of the brain’s volume is composed of blood vessels. Maintaining a healthy blood flow to those blood vessels is critical to keeping the brain young. Here are six ways you can keep your mind sharp:

(CNN) — Do you tend to forget things when you’re stressed? Like when you’re late for a meeting and can’t remember where you left your car keys? Or when you have to give a big presentation and suddenly forget all your talking points seconds before you start?

There’s nothing like stress to make your memory go a little spotty. A2010 study found that chronic stress reduces spatial memory: the memory that helps you recall locations and relate objects.

Hence, your missing car keys.

University of Iowa researchers also found a connection between the stress hormone cortisol and short-term memory loss in older adults. Their findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience this week, found that cortisol reduced synapses — connections that help store and recall information — in the pre-frontal cortex.

But there’s a difference between how your brain processes long-term job stress, for example, and the stress of getting into a car accident. Research suggests low levels of anxiety can affect your ability to recall memories; acute or high-anxiety situations, on the other hand, can actually reinforce the learning process.

Trust your memory? Maybe you shouldn’t

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We may soon be able to upload memories

Generation stressed: teens boiling over

Acute stress increases your brain’s ability to encode and recall traumatic events, according to studies. These memories get stored in the part of the brain responsible for survival, and serve as a warning and defense mechanism against future trauma.

If the stress you’re experiencing is ongoing, however, there can be devastating effects.

Neuroscientists from the University of California, Berkeley,found that chronic stress can create long-term changes in the brain. Stress increases the development of white matter, which helps send messages across the brain, but decreases the number of neurons that assist with information processing.

The neuroscientists say the resulting imbalance can affect your brain’s ability to communicate with itself, and make you more vulnerable to developing a mental illness.

Defects in white matter have been associated with schizophrenia, chronic depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Research on post-traumatic stress disorder further shows that it can reduce the amount of gray matter in the brain.

The Berkeley researchers believe their findings could explain why young people who are exposed to chronic stress early in life are prone to learning difficulties, anxiety and other mood disorders.

To reduce the effects of stress, the Mayo Clinic recommends identifying and reducing stress triggers. Eating a healthy diet, exercising, getting enough sleep and participating in a stress-reduction activity such as deep breathing, massage or yoga, can also help.

Diabetes gene ‘raises risk tenfold’

A genetic susceptibility that gives a tenfold increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes has been discovered.

The gene mutation, found in the population of Greenland, will give clues to the different causes of the condition, say Danish scientists.
The research, published in Nature, adds to evidence genetics plays a role in the chances of developing diabetes.
Other factors included lifestyle, with obesity and a bad diet increasing risks, said a diabetes charity.
Several susceptibility genes have been linked with diabetes, meaning that if an individual is carrying one of these genes they face a greater risk of developing diabetes.

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Studies like this one help us understand the genetic factors that put people at an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and work out what is going on inside the body when it develops”

Richard ElliottDiabetes UK

Danish researchers say the new mutation is present in almost one in five of Greenlanders.

But Prof Torben Hansen, of the University of Copenhagen, said it was not found in other European, Chinese or African-American populations, suggesting type 2 diabetes has multiple causes.
The gene variation raised the risk of type 2 diabetes by up to ten times, he told BBC News.
“We have identified a new and novel type 2 diabetes gene with a huge increased risk due to insulin resistance in muscle,” he added.
“Type 2 diabetes is not just one disease, it’s many diseases.”
Balanced diet
In the long term, this kind of research could help provide new ways to prevent and treat the condition, said Richard Elliott, research communications manager at Diabetes UK.
“Until we know more, maintaining a healthy weight by eating a healthy balanced diet and enjoying regular physical activity is the best way to prevent type 2 diabetes,” he said.

Greenland: The island’s population is only 57,000

Greenlanders are a historically small and isolated population – established by a very small number of individuals.
The island has undergone a rapid transformation from a traditional hunting and fishing society to a modern lifestyle, with an increasing rate of Western diseases.
Type 2 diabetes was once very rare on the island, but it has increased dramatically in the past 50 years.
Blood sugar
Prof Torben Hansen and colleagues screened for genetic links to type 2 diabetes in 2,575 people living in Greenland.
They discovered that a mutation in a gene called TBC1D4, present in 17% of the population studied, increased risk.
The effects are several times larger than any previous findings.
Unlike other mutations that have been found, it causes problems with the regulation of blood sugar levels after eating.

Sugar: Five foods surprisingly high in sugar

We need to reduce our sugar intake, says a new campaign group. But some foods have a surprisingly high amount of sugar added to them.

Action on Sugar has been launched to reduce the amount of sugar added to food and soft drinks. The aim is to help people avoid “hidden sugars” and get manufacturers to reduce how much they use.
Some foods have surprisingly high amounts of sugar added to them. Here are five.
Fat free doesn’t mean sugar free, especially when it comes to yoghurt. It’s often laden with sugar to keep flavour and texture when fat is removed. A 150g (5oz) serving of some 0% fat yogurts can contain as much as 20g (0.7oz) of sugar – the equivalent of five teaspoons, says Action on Sugar. That’s getting on for half of a woman’s daily recommended intake of added sugar, which is 50g (1.7oz). It’s 70g (2.5oz) for men.
“The problem is people want low-fat food but they want it look and taste like full-fat food,” says dietician Dr Sarah Schenker. “To achieve this something else, like sugar, is put in when the fat is removed. If people want healthier food they need to accept it might look and taste a bit different.”

A tomato-based pasta sauce boasts certain health benefits, but a shop-bought one can also be packed with sugar. It’s often added to make the sauce taste less acidic. A third of an average-sized jar, roughly 150g, can contain over over 13g of sugar. That’s roughly three teaspoons of sugar.

And while coleslaw is mostly shredded vegetables, it also comes with an added serving of sugar. The mayonnaise is largely to blame. One tablespoon of a shop-bought coleslaw, roughly 50g, can contain up to 4g of sugar. A couple of spoonfuls on your plate is equivalent to a couple of teaspoons of sugar.
“Sauces are often high in sugar,” says Dr Schenker.
Water is good, right? Depends what type.“Enhanced water” has vitamins added to it but sugar as well. A 500ml glass of some brands contains 15g of sugar, the equivalent of nearly four teaspoons of sugar says Action on Sugar.
Finally, there is the staple of many people’s day – bread. The sugar content in the average slice of processed bread varies but can be as high 3g. Some sugar is formed naturally in the baking process but it is often added too.
“Often savoury does not mean low sugar,” says Dr Schenker.

Mobile phones carry owners’ bacterial ‘fingerprint’

Smartphones reflect the personal microbial world of their owners, say US scientists.

More than 80% of the common bacteria that make up our personal bacterial “fingerprints” end up on their screens, a study suggests.
Personal possessions, such as phones, might be useful for tracking the spread of bacteria, they report in PeerJ.
They reflect our microbiome – the trillions of different micro-organisms that live in and on our bodies.
Mobile phone users have been found to touch their devices on average 150 times a day.

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We share more than an emotional connection with our phones – they carry our personal microbiome”

Dr James MeadowUniversity of Oregon

Scientists have found an overlap between the collection of micro-organisms naturally present on our bodies and those on the screens of smartphones.

They say this could one day be used to track people’s exposure to bacteria.
In the study, biologists from the University of Oregon sequenced the DNA of microbes found on the index fingers and thumbs of 17 people.
They also took swabs of the subjects’ smartphones.
A total of 7,000 different types of bacteria were found in 51 samples.
Proof-of-concept
On average, 22% of bacterial families overlapped on fingers and phones.
Some 82% of the most common bacteria present on participants’ fingers were also found on their phones.
They included three families that are commonly found on the skin or in the mouth – Streptococcus, Staphylococcus and Corynebacterium.
Men and women both shared bacteria with their phones, but the connection was stronger in women.

Bacteria are naturally present on our skin and in our mouths

Lead researcher Dr James Meadow said while the sample size was small, the findings were “revealing”.
“This project was a proof-of-concept to see if our favourite and most closely held possessions microbially resemble us,” he said.
“We are ultimately interested in the possibility of using personal effects as a non-invasive way to monitor our health and our contact with the surrounding environment.”
The researchers say there is no evidence that mobile phones present any more infection risk than any other possession.
But they say our phones might one day be used to study whether people have been exposed to certain bacteria, particularly healthcare workers.
Emotional connection
The study confirms that “we share more than an emotional connection with our phones – they carry our personal microbiome”, Dr Meadow added.
There is increasing scientific interest in the human microbiome – the population of trillions of micro-organisms that live in our gut, mouth, skin and elsewhere on our bodies.
Bacteria can be harmful but they can also have beneficial effects, particularly in the gut, by digesting food and making essential nutrients and vitamins.

Jab ‘protects mice against brain tumours’

Scientists have developed a vaccine that they say provides some protection against brain tumours in mice.

The vaccine works by boosting the immune system to attack abnormal cells.
The approach has not been tested on humans, but clinical trials could begin next year in Germany, say researchers.
Brain tumours are difficult to treat so more research is urgently needed to give patients better options, said a cancer charity.

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Using the immune system to attack cancer is an exciting approach to tackling the disease and this research is another step forward in finding new treatments”

Dr Emma SmithCancer Research UK

A team at the National Centre for Tumour Diseases in Heidelberg developed a vaccine that targets brain tumour cells.

It is based on the natural ability of some patients with brain tumours to mount an immune response against the disease – although this is not enough to stop the tumour growing.
The mouse experiment showed that a vaccine may be able to boost this natural approach, the researchers said.
“We can induce an immune response that is similar to what we see in some brain tumour patients who have a natural immunity but it is not strong enough to take care of the tumour,” said Prof Michael Platten.
The team is applying for approval to start a human clinical trial in Germany next year.
‘Exciting approach’
“It’s still too early to know if the vaccine will be efficacious in humans,” he added.
The charity Cancer Research UK described the research, published inNature, as “exciting”.
“Using the immune system to attack cancer is an exciting approach to tackling the disease and this research is another step forward in finding new treatments,” said Dr Emma Smith, senior science information officer.
“But this is a very early-stage study and was carried out in mice, so much more research is needed before we know if the vaccine is safe or effectively boosts an immune response against brain tumours in people.
“Brain tumours are a diverse group of cancers and are difficult to treat, so we urgently need more research to give people better options.”
Other researchers around the world are looking into similar vaccines to stimulate the immune system to fight off cancer.
A trial started in the UK last year into a similar vaccine to fight brain tumours.
The approach, known as immunotherapy, is also being tested in the US.

By James Gallagher, Health editor, BBC news online

By James Gallagher, Health editor, BBC news online

There’s something noticeably missing from a call to halve added sugar – how would you go about doing it?
This group was set up to assess the science and determine what we should be eating. Its role was not to come up with policies.
The target of 5% is a huge challenge when teenagers are currently getting 15% of their calories from added sugar.
One option that doctors have called for is a tax on sugary drinks. The measure is being tried in Mexico, although there is still little evidence on its impact.
The tough decisions are all still to come – what measures will the public accept and how can we be encouraged to eat less sugar without driving us back into the arms of saturated fat and salt?
BBC News: Five foods surprisingly high in sugar
BBC News: The family that gave up sugar

The SACN advice echoes an announcement by the World Health Organization in March.
Its draft guidelines reiterated that sugars should constitute no more than 10% of energy intake and that people and governments should be aiming for 5%.
The limits would apply to all sugars added to food, as well as sugar naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit concentrates.
The Food and Drink Federation, which represents manufacturers, said: “SACN’s comprehensive analysis of the evidence on carbohydrates has looked at the role of carbohydrates, including sugars and fibre in the diet. We will look at the content of the report and its recommendations over the next few weeks with the intention of engaging in the consultation process and related discussions.”
Dr Julian Cooper, head of food science at AB Sugar, said targeting sugar was not a “silver bullet” and people should balance their calorie intake against how much they exercise.
‘Fantastic’
The campaign group, Action on Sugar, said the development was “fantastic” news.
The group’s chairman Prof Graham MacGregor argued: “{Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt must start by setting targets for reducing sugar in soft drinks this summer and move responsibility for nutrition to an independent body such as the Food Standards Agency so that the soft drinks and food industry are given a level playing field, with the threat of regulation to ensure the whole of the food industry comply.
“Before another million British kids become obese.”
Public Health Minister for England, Jane Ellison, said: “We know eating too much sugar can have a significant impact on health, and this draft advice confirms that.
“We want to help people make healthier choices and get the nation into healthy habits for life. This report will inform the important debate taking place about sugar.”

Organ transplants: ‘Supercooling’ keeps organs fresh

A new technique can preserve organs for days before transplanting them, US researchers claim.

“Supercooling” combines chilling the organ and pumping nutrients and oxygen through its blood vessels.
Tests on animals, reported in the journal Nature Medicine, showed supercooled livers remained viable for three days, compared with less than 24 hours using current technology.
If it works on human organs, it has the potential to transform organ donation.
As soon as an organ is removed from the body, the individual cells it is made from begin to die.
Cooling helps slow the process as it reduces the metabolic rate of the cells.
Meanwhile, surgeons in the UK carried out the first “warm liver” transplant in March 2013 which used an organ kept at body temperature in a machine.
The technique being reported first hooks the organ up to a machine which perfuses the organ with nutrients.
It is then cooled to minus 6C.
Supercool
In experiments on rat livers, the organs could be preserved for three days.
One of the researchers, Dr Korkut Uygun, from the Harvard Medical School, told the BBC the technique could lead to donated organs being shared around the world.
“That would lead to better donor matching, which would reduce-long term organ rejection and complications, which is one of the major issues in organ transplant,” he said.
He also argued that organs which are normally rejected, as they would not survive to the transplant table, might be suitable if they were preserved by supercooling.
“That could basically eliminate waiting for a organ, but that is hugely optimistic,” Dr Uygun said.
Further experiments are now needed to see if the technology can be scaled up from preserving a 10g (0.35oz) rat liver to a 1.5kg (3.3lb) human liver.
The researchers believe the technology could work on other organs as well.
Dr Rosemarie Hunziker, from the US National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, said: “It is exciting to see such an achievement in small animals by recombining and optimising existing technology.
“The longer we are able to store donated organs, the better the chance the patient will find the best match possible, with both doctors and patients fully prepared for surgery.
“This is a critically important step in advancing the practice of organ storage for transplantation.”

Diabetes drugs ‘may not be best’

The downsides of taking medication for type-2 diabetes may exceed the benefits for some patients, researchers have advised.

Their study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, argued elderly people had the least to gain.
The team at University College London (UCL) has called on doctors to discuss the risks more clearly with patients.
The charity Diabetes UK said doctors needed to strike a careful balance when prescribing treatment.
Type-2 diabetes is an inability to control blood sugar levels and is linked to lifestyle factors including diet and obesity.
In the long-term it is linked to heart disease, kidney damage, nerve damage and even blindness.
Drugs such as metformin can be used to lower blood sugar levels to prevent the side effects.
Cost vs benefit
The report, which was carried out by the University of Michigan as well as UCL, said an average 45-year-old who dropped their blood sugar levels by one percentage point would gain 10 months of healthy life, compared with three weeks for a 75-year-old starting treatment.
It added this needed to be balanced against the down-sides to a lifetime of medication including: Having to have multiple injections and blood sugar tests each day, drugs causing indigestion or sickness, or insulin treatments risking blood sugar levels dropping dangerously low (hypoglycaemia).

Diabetic foot disease can lead to the loss of toes and even amputation

One of the report’s authors, Prof John Yudkin, told the BBC: “What it means is if you’re someone with type-2, it’s your right to know what the benefits of the treatment are in terms of gain in life expectancy or reduction in heart attacks or going blind.
“And then you are entitled to decide, but not many doctors have got those figures to hand.”
He said GPs were too “target focussed” and were often looking only at the blood sugar level.
The findings do not apply to people with type-1 diabetes.
Balance needed
Commenting on the report, Simon O’Neill, the director for health intelligence at Diabetes UK, said: “Sometimes there is a balance to be struck where certain medications might help give someone a longer life, but also cause side effects that might negatively impact on quality of life.
“This study highlights the importance of looking at the individual needs of the person with type-2 diabetes, rather than adopting a blanket approach.”
Patients are advised not to make any decisions without consulting their GP.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which advises the NHS on medication, said: “The current NICE guidance on the management of type-2 diabetes recognises that glycaemic [sugar] control targets should not impair a person’s quality of life as a result of the side effects of treatment.
“Where medication does not help achieve this target level, lifestyle therapies such as dietary advice should be offered.”
Refreshed guidelines are due to be published next summer.

C-section ‘linked to stillbirth’

Women who have c-sections are 14% more likely to have a stillbirth in future than those giving birth naturally, say researchers.

And c-sections raised the chance of an ectopic pregnancy by 9%, according to a study of more than 800,000 Danish first-time mothers.
Prof Louise Kenny of University College Cork described the risks as “very low”.
Performing 3,000 caesareans would lead to one extra stillbirth in a subsequent pregnancy, she said.
“Although these are rare outcomes, they are devastating for parents and healthcare providers,” Prof Kenny told BBC News.

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Any stillbirth is a stillbirth too many but the absolute risk is very small indeed”

Dr Patrick O’BrienSpokesman, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

“Therefore, we would advise women to avoid requesting a caesarean section when there is no medical indication to do so.”

Dr Patrick O’Brien of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said the findings were “reassuring”.
“It’s quite reassuring that any increased risk of stillbirth in a subsequent pregnancy is very small indeed,” he said.
“Any stillbirth is a stillbirth too many but the absolute risk is very small indeed.”
The study, published in PLOS Medicine, is one of the largest so far to look at links between c-sections and stillbirth.
The study analysed data from 832,996 women from Danish national registers.
There are about 4,000 stillbirths every year in the UK and one in 200 pregnancies ends in stillbirth.
An ectopic pregnancy happens when a fertilised egg implants itself outside of the womb, usually in one of the fallopian tubes.

Decline in trials for Alzheimer’s disease

More than 99% of drug trials for Alzheimer’s disease during the past decade have failed, according to a study.

There is an urgent need to increase the number of potential therapies being investigated, say US scientists.
Only one new medicine has been approved since 2004, they report in the journal Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy.
The drug failure rate is troubling and higher than for other diseases such as cancer, says Alzheimer’s Research UK.
Dr Jeffrey Cummings, of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, in Las Vegas, and colleagues, examined a public website that records clinical trials.

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The authors of the study highlight a worrying decline in the number of clinical trials for Alzheimer’s treatments in more recent years”

Dr Simon RidleyAlzheimer’s Research UK

Between 2002 and 2012, they found 99.6% of trials of drugs aimed at preventing, curing or improving the symptoms of Alzheimer’s had failed or been discontinued.

This compares with a failure rate of 81% for cancer drugs.
The failure rate was “especially troubling” given the rising numbers of people with dementia, said Dr Simon Ridley, of Alzheimer’s Research UK.
“The authors of the study highlight a worrying decline in the number of clinical trials for Alzheimer’s treatments in more recent years,” he said.
“There is a danger that the high failure rates of trials in the past will discourage pharmaceutical companies from investing in dementia research.
“The only way we will successfully defeat dementia is to continue with high quality, innovative research, improve links with industry and increase investment in clinical trials.”
Experimental models
Dr Eric Hill, of the School of Life and Health Sciences at Aston University, said more research was needed to understand the complex mechanisms behind the disease.
“The development of better experimental models that could be incorporated into a battery of tests, will not only help us to understand the changes that occur in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients, but also provide tools for the development of new drug treatments that could slow or stop the onset of disease,” he told BBC News.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia.
It affects more than 820,000 people in the UK and costs the economy £23bn a year.

Clue to why some people are healthy and obese

Some obese people may be able to remain metabolically healthy despite their size because their bodies produce low levels of a certain molecule, according to a study published today in the journal Cell.
High levels of the molecule, called heme oxygenase-1 or HO-1, are linked to metabolic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease, as well as high blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol, which lead to these diseases.
Early tests in mice show that blocking HO-1 can improve metabolic healthiness. This suggests a potential new strategy for treating obesity-related disease.
Past research has estimated 25-30% of obese people have no metabolic illnesses or risk factors. But the reasons were unknown.
So the research team from the Medical University of Vienna and the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany, set out to investigate whether HO-1 was responsible.
In studies of human tissue, they found higher levels of HO-1 in liver and fat biopsies from people who were obese and insulin-resistant compared with obese people who were metabolically healthy.
Using mouse models, the researchers then deleted the HO-1 gene in immune cells called macrophages. This left the mice with better liver function and an increase in insulin sensitivity, indicating improved metabolic health.
As one of the strongest predictors of unhealthy obesity, the researchers said the HO-1 molecule was now a candidate biomarker for identifying metabolically unhealthy obese people to detect the onset of disease.
“This could allow clinicians to use targeted interventions to prevent disease progression specifically in obese individuals who show early signs of type 2 diabetes,“ senior study author J. Andrew Pospisilik, from the Max Planck Institute, told Cell.
The team is now investigating whether HO-1 levels could be manipulated and reduced in humans using drug therapies.
Principal research fellow at the Garvan Institute Professor Lesley Campbell, who was not involved in the study, said the research was significant, but HO-1 manipulation in humans was still a hypothesis requiring further investigation.
“Particularly because they haven’t got great evidence yet that knocking the gene out in humans or blocking it in humans would make a big difference,” she said.
“There should be more work done on it, following this line of thought, but it has to be done in a longitudinal way, where we watch what happens to this marker under different conditions.”
Professor Campbell said breakthroughs in obesity treatment were rare because when potential treatments altered this vital human response system, they also caused unwanted side effects.
“When you really hit a system, you want to make sure you don’t interfere with another system that’s vital too,” she said.
Melbourne University Professor of Medicine Joseph Proietto said an alternative theory for healthy obesity was that these people were capable of producing more “empty” fat cells that mop up the excess fat.
But even obese people who were metabolically healthy were at risk of other illnesses, he said.
“Obesity affects all tissues so complications that are not directly linked to metabolic problems may still be present such as obstructive sleep apnoea, increased risk of cancer, and so on.”
Associate Professor Anna Peeters, Head of Obesity and Population Health at Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute, said the researchers’ treatment target to improve the metabolic outcomes of those with obesity was thought-provoking.
This is “likely to be very important, given how hard it is to prevent obesity”, she said.
“In Australia, over one quarter of adults have obesity and over one third [are] overweight. Over one quarter of Australian children are overweight or obese.
“At the moment there are very few treatments for obesity, although it is well recognised that even moderate weight loss can achieve health benefits,” Associate Professor Peeters said.
“For those living with obesity, it is clear that a healthier diet, higher levels of physical activity and fitness, lower levels of sitting time and less abdominal fat are associated with a healthier metabolic profile,” she said.

Similar memories benefit from ‘extra space’ in brain

Similar memories overlap physically in the brain and this produces less confusion if the brain area responsible is larger, according to new research.

Scientists scanned the brains of 15 people recalling four similar scenes, in a study published in PNAS.
They spotted overlapping memory traces in a specific corner of the hippocampus called “CA3″, a known memory area.
If their CA3 was bigger, the subjects were less confused and there was less overlap in the traces.
Most of us store many similar memories, relating to the places we spend most time and the people we know best. Normally we can tell them apart, though some of us may be better at it than others.

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A larger CA3 may contain more neurons or more connections between neurons, which could allow greater physical separation of the different memory traces”

Dr Martin ChadwickWellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, UCL

The CA3 region was thought to process each memory using distinct sets of brain cells. These findings suggest, however, that when two episodes incorporate similar content, they may in fact be “remembered” by physically overlapping networks – and more space could be beneficial.

“Our results may help to explain why we sometimes find it difficult to differentiate between similar past memories, and why some people are better at doing this than others,” said Prof Eleanor Maguire, the study’s senior author, from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London (UCL).
The 15 subjects watched four short movies, showing two different actions happening in each of two different places. They were then prompted to remember each one, 20 times over, inside a brain scanner.
Scans revealed distinguishable memory activity in the CA3 region, but not three other compartments of the hippocampus. Importantly, the four different memory traces showed significant overlap.
Furthermore, that overlap was more apparent in people who said they were more confused by the similarities between the four memories.
Greater capacity
The scans combined fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) with detailed structural measurements of each brain, so as well as getting a read-out of brain activity, the team could measure the exact size of each person’s CA3.
That was how they discovered that the size of this region, relative to the rest of the hippocampus, affected both the amount of overlap in the traces and the level of people’s confusion.
“A larger CA3 may contain more neurons or more connections between neurons, which could allow greater physical separation of the different memory traces,” Dr Martin Chadwick, who conducted the experiments, told BBC News.
Although overall brain size is not related to different individuals’ mental abilities (Einstein’s brain was smaller than average), the relative dimensions of different components have been linked to various characteristics.

The populations of cells that process each memory in the hippocampus may overlap

An earlier study by Prof Maguire famously showed that as they hone their impressive mental street maps and navigational ability, London cab drivers develop a larger hippocampus, on average, than the rest of us.
Dr Hugo Spiers, a neuroscience lecturer at UCL who was not involved in the research, described the new paper as a “really useful” addition to that classic finding. “[The hippocampus] is quite a lot of brain,” he told the BBC. “What they’ve now found is that this particular bit within it, the CA3, which is a very exciting bit of the brain, is larger in some people.”
“The taxi driver study is about the overall size being related to navigating a big city, but that’s very different to remembering what each of you said in an argument you had with your partner the other day. Most of us are really bad at that – it ends up as ‘You said this’ ‘No I said that’ – it might be the size of CA3 that influences who’s going to win that argument!”
The CA3 region is remarkable because its widespread connections to other pockets of the brain are accompanied by a vast number of interconnections within the CA3 itself. This marked it out years ago, Dr Spiers explained, as a potentially useful component for memory storage and retrieval.
“You want something to reconnect with itself a lot, to allow you to retrieve rapidly stored memories – but it’s got a limit,” he said.
“We’ve got a better understanding, from this new work, about what this particularly important bit of the memory circuitry is doing.”

‘Remote control’ contraceptive chip available ‘by 2018′

A contraceptive computer chip that can be controlled by remote control has been developed in Massachusetts.

The chip is implanted under a woman’s skin, releasing a small dose of levonorgestrel, a hormone.
This will happen every day for 16 years, but can be stopped at any time by using a wireless remote control.
The project has been backed by Bill Gates, and will be submitted for pre-clinical testing in the US next year – and possibly go on sale by 2018.
The device measures 20mm x 20mm x 7mm and will be “competitively priced”, its creators said.
Convenience factor
Tiny reservoirs of the hormone are stored on a 1.5cm-wide microchip within the device.
A small electric charge melts an ultra-thin seal around the levonorgestrel, releasing the 30 microgram dose into the body.
There are other types of contraceptive implant available, the researchers noted, but all require a trip to a clinic and an outpatient procedure in order to be deactivated.

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Someone across the room cannot re-programme your implant”

Dr Robert Farra

“The ability to turn the device on and off provides a certain convenience factor for those who are planning their family,” said Dr Robert Farra from MIT.

The next challenge for the team is to ensure the absolute security of the device to prevent activation or deactivation by another person without the woman’s knowledge.
“Communication with the implant has to occur at skin contact level distance,” said Dr Farra.
“Someone across the room cannot re-programme your implant.
“Then we have secure encryption. That prevents someone from trying to interpret or intervene between the communications.”
Huge range
The same technology could be used to administer other drugs.
Simon Karger, head of the surgical and interventional business at Cambridge Consultants, said that implanted technology like this faces a range of challenges and risks.
But he added that overall “the value to the patient of these types of implant can be huge and we foresee a future in which a huge range of conditions are treated through smart implanted systems”.

Implanted devices could help people who forget to take medication at the correct time

The innovation comes at a time when governments and organisations around the world have agreed to try to bring family planning to around 120 million more women by 2020.
This challenge opens the door to this kind of implant technology being used in areas where access to traditional contraceptives is limited – a bigger priority, argued Gavin Corley, a biomedical engineer.
“That’s a humanitarian application as opposed to satisfying a first-world need,” he told the BBC.

First dengue vaccine ‘shows promise’

Scientists say they have developed the world’s first vaccine against dengue fever seen to work in large-scale trials.

Research in the Lancet journal suggests more than 50% of children who are given the vaccine are protected against the disease.
Half the world’s population are at risk of catching the mosquito-borne virus.
Experts say though the long-awaited study is promising, vaccines with greater effectiveness are crucial.
There are currently no treatments to prevent dengue fever – an illness which affects more than one million people a year.
‘Best so far’
In the largest late-stage trial of a vaccine to date, researchers from five centres across Asia treated 6,000 children aged between two and 14 years old.
Some 56% were seen to have protection against the virus at the end of two years.
It worked best for children with certain subtypes of the virus and those who had been exposed to it before.
And the vaccine had an even greater impact on severe forms of the disease, reducing the number of people needing treatment in hospital and preventing 80% of cases of haemorrhagic fever – a potentially life-threatening complication.
Lead author Dr Maria Rosario Capeding, from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in the Philippines, told the BBC: “Given that dengue is a major public health problem in most Asian countries the findings have the potential to have a huge impact on public health.
“A 56% reduction, though moderate, can translate into a huge benefit for countries plagued by the disease.”
‘Complex biology’
Prof Martin Hibberd of the London School of Hygiene and Topical Medicine who was not involved in the study said: “The biology of dengue is complex and has troubled researchers for many years.
“I am very glad they have tackled this, but I am disappointed the vaccine is only 56% effective – much lower than our normal targets.
“Nevertheless this is the most significant reduction we have seen to date – the best we have so far.
“And many nations spend huge amounts of money trying to prevent the spread of this disease.”
He suggests people who have been given the vaccine should be monitored for at least five years to ensure it remains effective and safe.
And further questions need to be addressed, including how much of an impact it will have in other parts of the world.
Sanofi-Pasteur, the company funding the research, plans to apply for approval once the results of its second trial across Latin America and the Caribbean have been analysed.

A Little Alcohol May Not Be Good for Your Heart

 A new study challenges the widely held belief that light drinking of alcohol may be good for your heart.

Researchers analyzed more than 50 studies that examined drinking habits and heart health in more than 260,000 people.

They found that those with a form of a gene tied to lower levels of drinking generally had healthier hearts. The gene affects how a person’s body breaks down alcohol, resulting in unpleasant symptoms such as nausea and facial flushing. Having this variant has been shown to lead to lower drinking over the long term, the researchers explained.

On average, people with the gene had lower blood pressure, lower body-mass index (an estimate of body fat based on height and weight) and a 10 percent lower risk ofheart disease.

The results suggest that cutting alcohol intake — even for light-to-moderate drinkers — benefits heart health, according to the authors of the study in the July 11 issue of the BMJ.

“While the damaging effects of heavy alcohol consumption on the heart are well-established, for the last few decades we’ve often heard reports of the potential health benefits of light-to-moderate drinking,” study senior author Juan Casas, a professor of epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said in a university news release. “However, we now have evidence that some of these studies suffer from limitations that may affect the validity of their findings.

“In our study, we saw a link between a reduced consumption of alcohol and improved cardiovascular health, regardless of whether the individual was a light, moderate or heavy drinker,” Casas said. The study could only show an association between the two, however, it couldn’t prove cause-and-effect.

Further large-scale gene studies are needed to confirm these findings, the researchers said.

“Studies into alcohol consumption are fraught with difficulty, in part because they rely on people giving accurate accounts of their drinking habits,” Dr. Shannon Amoils, senior research advisor at the British Heart Foundation, said in the news release “Here the researchers used a clever study design to get round this problem by including people who had a gene that predisposes them to drink less.”

“The results reinforce the view that small to moderate amounts of alcohol may not be healthy for the heart, although the study would need to be repeated in a larger group of people for definitive results,” Amoils said.

However, Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, a preventive cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, issued a word of caution about the latest findings.

“In light of the many trials revealing the [antioxidant] polyphenols found in red wine as being beneficial for cardiovascular disease, one must look at this trial with a critical eye,” Steinbaum said. “It is clear that the patients with this genetic variant have a reduction in alcohol intake, but it is unclear if this in itself is the factor improving [their] cardiovascular outcomes.”

Mexico restricts soft drink TV ads to fight obesity

Mexico is restricting television advertising for high-calorie food and soft drinks, as part of its campaign against obesity, the government says.

Such ads will be banned with immediate effect on terrestrial and cable TV between 14:30 and 19:30 on weekdays and between 07:30 and 19:30 at weekends.
Restrictions will also be imposed on similar ads shown at the cinema.
Seventy percent of adults and 30% of children in Mexico are obese or overweight, official figures suggest.

Sugar-rich diet
Overall, 40% of commercials for soft drinks, confectionery and chocolates will disappear from TV, in favour of products which “meet nutritional standards”, the health ministry is quoted as saying.
Mexico is going further than any other country in restricting advertising.
The UK, Norway and Quebec province in Canada, all have bans on advertising junk food in children’s television.
However, this has not stopped the adverts appearing in more popular “family” programming.
So the fizzy drinks and greasy meals are still there in the programmes which attract the biggest audiences.
Banning junk food at certain times of day means advertisers will not be able to work around the plans.
With this policy and the soda tax, Mexico is becoming a frontline in the war against obesity.
If Mexico can do what no other nation has done and reverse the obesity epidemic, then the rest of the world will be paying attention.
As an additional measure, from 2015, manufacturers will be made to label the sugar, fat and saturated fat content on their food and drink products.
Mexicans have the highest incidence of diabetes among the 34 member states of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Mexico is keen to tackle the growing incidence of diabetes and high cholesterol in its citizens

They are also the world’s heaviest consumers of sugary drinks, at 163 litres per year, and their diet is rich in fried food.
Health experts estimate the nation’s weight problems will cost the public health care system $11.7bn (£7bn) by 2017.
Last year, the Mexican government introduced taxes on high-calorie foods and drinks, as part of its obesity prevention strategy.

Beef environment cost 10 times that of other livestock

A new study suggests that the production of beef is around 10 times more damaging to the environment than any other form of livestock.

Scientists measured the environment inputs required to produce the main US sources of protein.
Beef cattle need 28 times more land and 11 times more irrigation water than pork, poultry, eggs or dairy.
The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
While it has long been known that beef has a greater environmental impact than other meats, the authors of this paper say theirs is is the first to quantify the scale in a comparative way.
Beef footprint
The researchers developed a uniform methodology that they were able to apply to all five livestock categories and to four measures of environmental performance.
“We have a sharp view of the comparative impact that beef, pork, poultry, dairy and eggs have in terms of land and water use, reactive nitrogen discharge, and greenhouse gas emissions,” lead author Prof Gidon Eshel, from Bard College in New York, told BBC News.
“The uniformity and expansive scope is novel, unique, and important,” he said.
The scientists used data from from 2000-2010 from the US department of agriculture to calculate the amount of resources required for all the feed consumed by edible livestock.
They then worked out the amount of hay, silage and concentrates such as soybeans required by the different species to put on a kilo of weight.
They also include greenhouse gas emissions not just from the production of feed for animals but from their digestion and manure.
As ruminants, cattle can survive on a wide variety of plants but they have a very low energy conversion efficiency from what they eat.
As a result, beef comes out clearly as the food animal with the biggest environmental impact.

The scientists have developed a methodology to compare the relative impacts of different protein sources

As well as the effects on land and water, cattle release five times more greenhouse gas and consume six times more nitrogen than eggs or poultry.
Cutting down on beef can have a big environmental impact they say. But the same is not true for all livestock.
“One can reasonably be an environmentally mindful eater, designing one’s diet with its environmental impact in mind, while not resorting to exclusive reliance on plant food sources,” said Prof Eshel.
“In fact, eliminating beef, and replacing it with relatively efficiency animal-based alternatives such as eggs, can achieve an environmental improvement comparable to switching to plant food source.”
Other researchers say the conclusions of the new study are applicable in Europe, even though the work is based on US data.
“The overall environmental footprint of beef is particularly large because it combines a low production efficiency with very high volume,” said Prof Mark Sutton, from the UK’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
“The result is that the researchers estimate that over 60% of the environmental burden of livestock in the US results from beef. Although the exact numbers will be different for Europe (expecting a larger role of dairy), the overall message will be similar: Cattle dominate the livestock footprint of both Europe and US.”

Three person IVF plans ‘progress’ in UK

The creation of babies using sperm and eggs from three people has moved a step closer in the UK.

A public review into the three person IVF technique has been broadly supportive, says the Department of Health.
But a number of technical and scientific details need to be finalised before the plans go before Parliament.
The move would be restricted to mitochondrial disease, affecting one in 6,500 UK babies born each year.
This may lead to muscle weakness, blindness, and heart failure.
Using the parents’ sperm and eggs plus an additional egg from a donor woman should prevent such conditions, say scientists at Newcastle University.
Approval details
An expert scientific panel has already suggested there is no evidence the procedure is unsafe but has asked for a number of further investigations to be carried out.
The government expects other details to be finalised in the next few months before the plans are legalised.
A public consultation received nearly 2,000 responses.

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There is broad public support for making mitochondrial replacement therapy available to patients”

Dr Jeremy FarrarDirector of the Wellcome Trust

Ministers agreed that the regulatory body the Human Fertilisation Embryology Authority would consider each application from parents on a case-by-case basis.

And any children born using the procedure would not be able to find out the identity of the mitochondrial donor.
Mitochondria are tiny, biological “power stations” that provide energy to nearly every cell of the body.
As mitochondria are passed down from mother to child, using an extra egg from a donor woman could give the child healthy mitochondria.
‘No excuse’
However, it would also result in babies having DNA from two parents and a tiny amount (1%) from the donor as mitochondria have their own DNA.
Opponents say it is unethical and could set the UK on a “slippery slope” to designer babies.
Dr Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, said: “There is broad public support for making mitochondrial replacement therapy available to patients.
“There is now no excuse for the Government not to table regulations for debate as soon as Parliament returns this autumn, so that the HFEA can licence clinics to treat affected families without delay once it is satisfied that any risks are acceptable.”
Sarah Norcross, director of the Progress Educational Trust, said: ‘While we welcome the Government’s decisions, we are disappointed by the time it has taken to reach this point in the process.
“A year ago, the Government promised a consultation in autumn 2013 which ultimately took place in March 2014.
“We note that the Government now aims to provide an update by early autumn 2014 – we hope that this is not similarly delayed.”
Dr David King, director of Human Genetics Alert said: “Looking back 15 years from now in the midst of a designer baby marketplace, people will see this as the moment when the crucial ethical line was crossed.
“A precautionary approach would demand much more evidence and the government would wait for that rather than rushing legislation through.”

Shift workers ‘face type 2 diabetes risk’

Type 2 diabetes is more common in people who work shifts, a large international study suggests.

The findings, published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, indicated men and those doing rotating shifts were at highest risk.
It is thought that disruption to the body clock affects waistlines, hormones and sleep – which could increase the risk.
Diabetes UK said shift workers should eat a healthy balanced diet.
The disease can lead to blindness, increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes, as well as damaging nerves and blood vessels – dramatically increasing the risk of a foot needing to be amputated.
Studies in a sleep laboratories have shown that making people snooze at the wrong time of day led to the early stages of type 2 diabetesdeveloping within weeks.
Now an analysis of data from 226,652 people strengthens the link with type 2 diabetes.
Increased risk
In the UK, 45 out of every 1,000 adults have some form of diabetes, with the vast majority being type 2.
The study, by researchers at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China, showed shift workers were 9% more likely to have type 2 diabetes.
But in men, the figure was 35%. For people chopping and changing between day and night shifts, the risk increased by 42%.

The researchers said: “The result suggests that male shift workers should pay more attention to the prevention of of diabetes.
“Given the increasing prevalence of shift work worldwide and the heavy economic burden of diabetes, the results of our study provide practical and valuable clues for the prevention of diabetes.”
Possible explanations include shift work disrupting sleeping and eating patterns. One idea is that eating late at night makes the body more prone to store the energy as fat, increasing the risk of obesity and in turn type 2 diabetes.

James Gallagher explores whether eating against the body clock can make you fat

The increased risk in men could be down to changes in levels of male hormones, it has been suggested.
Also, because the studies are looking at only one snapshot in time it is impossible to say definitively that shift work causes diabetes as other factors could be at play.
The type of person more prone to type 2 diabetes may be more likely to become a shift worker.
Dr Alasdair Rankin, from the charity Diabetes UK, said: “These findings suggest that shift workers need to be aware of their personal risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
“They can do this by taking a type 2 diabetes risk assessment, either online or in their local pharmacy.
“The best way to reduce your risk of type 2 is to maintain a healthy weight through regular physical activity and by eating a healthy balanced diet.”
Prof Nick Wareham, from the University of Cambridge, said any effect was moderate.
He added: “If it were shown that it is shift working itself that has a link to diabetes, then the key question would be to identify what interventions could be put in place to alleviate the risks in those who have to work shifts.”

Running Just 5 Minutes a Day Can Help You Live Longer

Photo by Veer

Less could be more when it comes to the healthy-heart rewards of running: A new study has found that people who ran just 50 minutes or less per week received the same benefit — three extra years of life — as those who ran more than three hours weekly.

“This study encourages inactive people to participate in more physical activity including running,” Dr. D.C. Lee, lead researcher and assistant professor of kinesiology at Iowa State University, told Yahoo Health. He noted that the two big surprises of the study, published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, were that “we can get significant mortality benefits by running even 30 to 60 minutes per week, which is below the recommendations by the World Health Organization and the US government,” and also that the benefits matched those of the longer-distance runners. Though Lee cautioned that more studies are still needed to determine the most optimal amount of running for different populations, he said, “It is true that even little is better than none.”

Related: Quick and Dirty Tips to Prevent Running Injuries for Good

Compared with non-runners, all the runners had a 30 percent lower risk of death in general and a 45 percent lower risk of death from heart disease or stroke. Runners on average lived three years longer compared to non-runners. The benefits were the same no matter how long, far, frequently or fast people ran.

Also, regarding running behavior patterns, researchers found that people who ran consistently over a period of six years had, on average, the most significant benefits — including a 29 percent lower risk of death in general and a 50 percent lower risk of death from heart disease or stroke.

For the study, Lee and six other researchers sought evidence of a relationship between running and longevity by examining data from a survey-based study called the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study. The study included details on 55,137 adults between the ages of 18 and 100 (mean age of 44) from a 15-year period, with 24 percent of participants noting running as part of their exercise routine. Within the study period, 3,413 participants died, including 1,217 whose deaths were related to cardiovascular disease.

Related: Why Hiring a Running Coach is Totally Worth It

The findings are noteworthy for several reasons, including that running as an exercise often comes with conflicting information regarding its healthiness. One recent study from the Mid-America Heart Institute, for example, found that too much running could increase one’s mortality risk. While Lee said that this new study did not find evidence of those negative effects, he does think more research is needed regarding the “upper threshold” of running.

“Running is a vigorous-intensity activity, so it is related to injuries and other potential negative effects on health,” he said, adding that he doesn’t believe there is just one ideal activity, as people run “not only for health, but also for competition, fitness, stress relief, socialization, or fun.”

Call for ‘radical action’ on drug-resistant malaria

Drug-resistant malaria is spreading in South East Asia, and has now reached the Cambodia-Thailand border, according to a study.

“Radical action” is needed to prevent further spread of malaria parasites resistant to key drugs, say scientists.
The spread could undermine recent gains in malaria control, they report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
No evidence was found of resistance in three African sites – Kenya, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The study analysed blood samples from more than 1,000 malaria patients in 10 countries across Asia and Africa.

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We will need to take more radical action and make this a global public health priority, without delay”

Prof Nicholas WhiteUniversity of Oxford

It found the malaria parasite had developed resistance to front-line drugs known as artemisinins, in western and northern Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and eastern Burma, also known as Myanmar.

There were signs of emerging resistance in central Burma, southern Laos and north-eastern Cambodia.
Of particular concern was the corner of Asia on the Cambodia-Thailand border, where resistance to other anti-malarial drugs has emerged in the past.
“Resistance is now present over much of South East Asia,” said lead scientist Prof Nicholas White, of the University of Oxford.
“It’s worse than we expected.
“We have to act quickly if we are going to do anything.”
Prof White said it might be possible to prevent further spread, but conventional malaria-control approaches would not be enough.
“We will need to take more radical action and make this a global public health priority, without delay,” he added.
Meanwhile, a separate study, also published in the New England Journal of Medicine, reported early results of an anti-malarial drug in the pipeline.
Commenting on the research, Dr Brian Greenwood, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “The emergence of artemisinin-resistant parasites is a major threat to further advances in malaria control.
“Every effort needs to be made to contain their spread while at the same time pushing forward with the development of effective alternative treatments that are almost certainly going to be needed in the future.”

Eating breakfast may not matter for weight loss

“Eat breakfast!” nutrition experts have been telling us for decades. It revs your metabolism! It keeps you from overindulging at lunch! It helps you lose weight!

But a new study suggests the “most important meal of the day” may not be so important – at least for adults trying to lose weight.
Published Wednesday in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study found dieters who skipped breakfast lost just as much weight as dieters who ate breakfast regularly. The researchers concluded that while breakfast may have several health benefits, weight loss isn’t one of them.

So where did breakfast get its cred?
So far, research has generally shown a link between skipping breakfast and the likelihood of being overweight, but it hasn’t proven that skipping breakfast causes weight gain. “Previous studies have mostly demonstrated correlation, but not necessarily causation,” lead study author Emily Dhurandhar said in a statement from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
There is good observational evidence to support breakfast’s place on the menu, says Michelle Cardel, a co-author of the study from the University of Colorado Denver. Nearly 80% of people on the National Weight Control Registry, a group of more than 4,000 people who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off, eat breakfast every day. Ninety percent of them eat breakfast at least 5 days a week.
Skip breakfast, lose weight? Not so fast
The study
Researchers split 309 adults who were interested in losing weight into three groups.
One, the control group, received a USDA pamphlet titled “Let’s Eat for the Health of It” that described good nutrition habits but did not mention breakfast. The second group received the same pamphlet and was instructed to eat breakfast before 10 a.m. every day. The third group received the pamphlet as well and was told to avoid consuming anything but water until 11 a.m.
Researchers followed the groups for 16 weeks and recorded their weight to show changes over the study period.
Results
Of the 309 participants, 283 completed the study. All three groups lost the same amount of weight on average, showing researchers that eating breakfast (or not) had no significant effect.
“This should be a wake-up call for all of us to always ask for evidence about the recommendations we hear so widely offered,” David Allison, director of the UAB Nutrition Obesity Research Center, said in a statement.
Study limitations
There were several limitations to this study that should be taken into account when viewing the results, Cardel says.
“The participants were able to choose what they ate every day,” she said. “So at this point we cannot conclude anything about how much food you should eat at breakfast or what kinds of food you should eat.”
The study authors did not measure participants’ appetite, body fat or metabolism, which previous research has shown may be affected by breakfast eating. And the small study was only 16 weeks long, which may have been too short to see a significant effect.
Takeaway
Keith Kantor, a nutrition expert and author of “The Green Box League of Nutritious Justice,” says eating breakfast is still a good idea. Doing so creates a routine, he says, and humans thrive on routine.
“Skipping meals… and eating at random times throughout the day requires more of a thought process,” he said. “This allows more room for negative behaviors like skipping exercise or grabbing fast food due to lack of planning.”
A healthy breakfast, Kantor says, consists of high-quality protein, heart-healthy fats and produce.
“More research needs to be conducted so that we can understand what kinds of foods should be eaten at breakfast… how quickly after waking should people eat breakfast, and how much should people be eating at breakfast,” Cardel said.