Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Celiac disease, which affects an estimated one in every 100 Americans, is an autoimmune disorder in the small intestine triggered by a protein called gluten, found in bread, pasta and many other common foods. Celiac disease often goes undiagnosed.
"At this time, the only effective treatment for celiac disease is a lifelong gluten-free diet, a lifestyle that is difficult for many patients to manage," Dr. Peter H. Green, of the
"Unfortunately, many people are unaware that they have celiac disease, and if left untreated, it can be life threatening. These studies ... will hopefully lead to improved diagnosis, prevention, treatment and quality of life for this disease," Green said.
In one study, researchers found that an investigational medicine called AT-1001 may protect celiac disease patients from exposure to gluten. The drug does this by preventing gluten from crossing the intestinal mucosa.
While most people with celiac disease do well on a gluten-free diet, inadvertent exposure to gluten is the leading cause of persistent symptoms in adults with celiac disease.
The study of 86 patients found that those who were given gluten and AT-1001 had fewer symptoms of gluten toxicity than those who were given gluten and a placebo. The researchers are now conducting a larger, longer trial.
"Even allowing for the fact that people in clinical trials may practice healthier habits, the fact that all of the groups showed improvement in the first week of the study is significant and helps us to plan better celiac studies," study author Dr. Daniel Leffler, clinical research director at the Celiac Disease Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said in a prepared statement.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
The risks of dying from other conditions also decline after quitting, although the time frame varies depending on the disease.
"The harms of smoking are reversible and can decline to the level of nonsmokers," said study author Stacey Kenfield, whose report is in the May 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "For some conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, it can take more than 20 years, but there is a rapid reduction for others."
"It's never too early to stop, and it's never too late to stop," added Kenfield, who is a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
Smoking is still the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Not only does tobacco smoke cause lung cancer, it is also implicated in heart disease, other cancers and respiratory diseases.
According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 3 million people in industrialized countries will have died as a result of tobacco use by 2030, and an additional 7 million people in developing countries face the same fate.
This research is a continued follow-up on the Nurses' Health Study, a large trial involving more than 100,000 women. Scientists now have 22 years of data on the participants.
Current smokers had almost triple the risk of overall death compared with women who had never smoked.
Current smokers also had a 63 percent increased risk for colon cancer compared with never-smokers, while former smokers had a 23 percent increased risk. There was no significant association between smoking and ovarian cancer.
And women who started smoking earlier in life were at a higher risk for overall mortality, of dying from respiratory disease and from any smoking-related disease.
However, a smoker's overall risk of dying returned to the level of a never-smoker 20 years after quitting. The overall risk declined 13 percent within the first five years of abstaining.
Most of the excess risk of dying from coronary heart disease vanished within five years of quitting.
For chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the return to normal took almost 20 years, although there was an 18 percent reduction in the risk of death seen within five to 10 years after quitting.
"The harms of smoking are reversible and can decline to the level of nonsmokers," said study author Stacey Kenfield, whose report is in the May 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "For some conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, it can take more than 20 years, but there is a rapid reduction for others."
"It's never too early to stop, and it's never too late to stop," added Kenfield, who is a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
Smoking is still the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Not only does tobacco smoke cause lung cancer, it is also implicated in heart disease, other cancers and respiratory diseases.
According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 3 million people in industrialized countries will have died as a result of tobacco use by 2030, and an additional 7 million people in developing countries face the same fate.
This research is a continued follow-up on the Nurses' Health Study, a large trial involving more than 100,000 women. Scientists now have 22 years of data on the participants.
Current smokers had almost triple the risk of overall death compared with women who had never smoked.
Current smokers also had a 63 percent increased risk for colon cancer compared with never-smokers, while former smokers had a 23 percent increased risk. There was no significant association between smoking and ovarian cancer.
And women who started smoking earlier in life were at a higher risk for overall mortality, of dying from respiratory disease and from any smoking-related disease.
However, a smoker's overall risk of dying returned to the level of a never-smoker 20 years after quitting. The overall risk declined 13 percent within the first five years of abstaining.
Most of the excess risk of dying from coronary heart disease vanished within five years of quitting.
For chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the return to normal took almost 20 years, although there was an 18 percent reduction in the risk of death seen within five to 10 years after quitting.
