SUPPLEMENT STRIKES OUT IN ALS STUDY
A study questions the effectiveness of using the nutritional supplement creatine therapy to slow Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. "No effect of creatine on disease progression could be found. Patients taking creatine progressed as fast as patients taking placebo, and life was not extended due to creatine," said lead author Dr. Geert Groeneveld, a neurologist at University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands. The results, published in the Annals of Neurology, will come as a disappointment to ALS patients who take the nonprescription supplement in an attempt to slow the disease, he said. ALS affects nerve cells that control muscle action. For unknown reasons, the cells and nerve fibers slowly deteriorate, leading to weakness, muscle spasms, tremors and, eventually, paralysis. Most patients die within 10 years, half within three years. Exercises can help maintain muscle strength and drugs may alleviate muscle spasms or cramps, but there is no cure for the disease, Groeneveld said. Riluzole, the only drug specifically approved for ALS, has only a modest effect on disease progression, he said. A study of 175 patients showed no beneficial effect from the treatment. During the study, 30 of the 87 patients in the creatine group died, compared to 28 of 88 patients in the control group. There was no indication creatine slowed muscle decline, Groeneveld said.
STUDY SAYS PUBLIC SUPPORTS CHEATING DOCTORS
In a survey, one in four persons said they thought it was alright for a doctor to mislead an insurance company to get payment for a medical service. The finding highlights the public's lack of trust in the health care system and raises concerns about pressures on doctors to bend the rules, said the authors of the study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. In a survey of prospective jurors, medical researchers found 26 percent thought a doctor should mislead an insurance company to get paid for medical care. "Both patients and doctors resent restrictions," said study author Dr. Caleb Alexander, research fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Chicago. "Our study suggests that this backlash against managed care has led to considerable public support for physician 'gaming' to gain access to needed care." Earlier studies found doctors, frustrated by insurance companies, are willing to misrepresent clinical facts to get patients the care they need. The reports raised questions about whether the practice made patients mistrust their doctors. The new study shows many people do not take issue with misrepresenting clinical facts to insurance companies, Alexander said.
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE MAY AFFECT BRAIN FUNCTION
A study shows hypertension may contribute to cognitive decline in old age. The Scottish study showed age-induced changes in the brain, such as the appearance, starting at age 60 or so, of "white-matter lesions" among the brain's message-carrying axons, affect a senior's mental status. The lesions are small bright patches that show up on magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, scientists explained. They also found hypertension may account for some of the effect on mental acuity, the scientists said in the journal Psychology and Aging. The psychologists said they want to find factors that contribute to individual differences in cognitive functioning among the elderly. Says lead researcher Ian Deary: "People who retain their cognitive function in old age tend to have higher quality of life and live longer." The challenge was the lack of data on how the seniors performed as children. Lack of such data made it difficult to tell whether individual differences are due to aging or existed all along. Deary, from the University of Edinburgh, and his colleagues used information from a cognitive test given to 11-year-olds in Scotland in 1932. Of the people who took the original test, 83 participated in the brain imaging study. The amount of abnormal brain white-matter had a significant influence on the general cognitive ability differences in old age, independent of prior ability, Deary said.
NATIONAL FOOD SAFETY PROGRAM UNVEILED
Researchers have launched a nationwide food safety training program for retail food stores. Richard Linton, Purdue University food science professor, David McSwane, associate professor of public and environmental affairs at Indiana University, and writer Nancy Rue collaborated on a textbook and training program for managers and workers in grocery stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, superstores and retail stores. "This training program for the retail food store industry is important because many states require that at least one person from each food establishment must pass a nationally recognized food safety certification exam," Linton said. The authors spell out how food contamination occurs and how to prevent it and give information about varying state and local regulations related to food handling. The researchers say bacteria and viruses cause most food-borne illness. In stores, these diseases can result when: food is improperly cooked; food is kept at temperatures that are not cold enough or hot enough to prevent pathogen growth; employees infected by a pathogen fail to use proper personal hygiene when handling food; contaminated food comes in contact with uncontaminated food; food is obtained from unsafe sources, such as meat processing facilities that lack proper sanitary procedures; utensils, counters, cutting boards, slicers, which have not been properly cleaned and sanitized, are used for preparing food.
(EDITORS: For more information about ALS, David Greenberg at 201-748-6484 or [email protected]; about DOCTORS, contact John Easton at 773-702-6241 or [email protected]; about HIGH, call 202-336-5700; about FOOD, contact Susan Steeves at 765-496-7481 or [email protected].)
