Obesity linked to colon cancer in women

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Obesity causes a number of health problems. But now, researchers say, it's the biggest risk for a certain kind of cancer in women.

Researchers led by doctors at Stony Brook University in New York say obesity is the single biggest risk factor for colon cancer in women. They found that women with precancerous polyps in the colon were more likely to be obese than women without polyps. And obesity was better at predicting who would have these growths than smoking or having a family history of colon cancer.

Colorectal cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer death in the United States. It will affect 153,000 Americans this year.

This study was presented to a meeting in Philadelphia of the American College of Gastroenterology.

Amylin drug suspected in pancreatitis cases: FDA

in.reuters.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc's and Eli Lilly and Co's diabetes drug Byetta may be linked to cases of acute pancreatitis in some patients, U.S. health officials said in an alert issued on Tuesday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it has reviewed 30 reports of pancreatitis in patients taking Byetta, known generically as exenatide.

"An association between Byetta and acute pancreatitis is suspected in some of these cases," an FDA alert said.

Amylin has agreed to add information about acute pancreatitis to the precautions section of Byetta's label, the FDA said.

Shares of Eli Lilly and Amylin were off 1.3 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively, in afternoon trading after the FDA alert. Shares of Alkermes Inc, the drug-delivery technology of which is being used to develop a long-acting version of Byetta, were down about 5 percent.

Officials at Amylin were not immediately available for comment. A Lilly spokeswoman had no immediate comment.

The FDA said doctors should tell patients taking Byetta to seek prompt medical care if they develop unexplained, persistent severe abdominal pain, which may or may not be accompanied by vomiting.

Byetta should be discontinued should pancreatitis be suspected, the FDA said. Should pancreatitis be confirmed, Byetta should not be restarted unless an alternative cause is identified, the agency advised.

(Additional reporting by Lewis Krauskopf and Ransdell Pierson in New York and Toni Clarke in Boston)

Take a siesta to reduce your blood pressure

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A new study has found that expecting an afternoon nap could reduce blood pressure, consequently cutting down the risk of heart attacks.

Researchers at the Liverpool John Moores University in Liverpool, U.K., have discovered that the time just before one falls asleep in the afternoon is the most beneficial in reducing blood pressure and lessening the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Afternoon naps, or siestas are typically short naps or rest periods of no more than an hour that are taken in the afternoon.

While earlier studies on siestas have found that this practice may slightly increase the risk of heart attack, the new study has shown an inverse relationship between siesta taking and fatal heart attacks.

According to the researchers, change in blood pressure is the key factor linking afternoon naps to cardiovascular function. Some researchers hypothesize that the lower blood pressure reduces strain on the heart and decreases the risk of a fatal heart attack.

The current study provides a detailed description of changes in cardiovascular function of daytime sleep in healthy individuals, comparing napping with other daytime activities such as standing and lying down without going to sleep.

For the study, the researchers tested nine healthy volunteers (eight men, one woman) who did not routinely take afternoon naps. The volunteers wore equipment that checked blood pressure, heart rate, and forearm cutaneous vascular conductance (which determines dilation of blood vessels).

During one afternoon session, the volunteer spent an hour resting, lying face-up in bed. During another session, the volunteer spent an hour relaxed, but standing. And in one session, the volunteer was allowed an hour to sleep, lying face-up. During the sleep stage, the researchers measured the volunteer's different stages of sleep.

After analysis, researchers found a significant drop in blood pressure during the sleep trial, but not during the resting or standing trials. Besides, this drop in blood pressure occurred mostly after lights out, just before the volunteer fell asleep.

According to the John Moores team, this fall in blood pressure may be one explanation for the lower cardiovascular mortality that some studies have found among people who habitually take siestas. On the other hand, some studies of nocturnal sleep have shown that blood pressure rises when we awake and that more cardiac deaths occur in the mornings.

Hence, the team will next look at blood pressure during the waking portion of the afternoon nap to see if this period may also pose an increased danger of coronary mortality.

The study entitled, 'Acute Changes in Cardiovascular Function During the Onset Period of Daytime Sleep: Comparison to Lying Awake and Standing,' is published in the online edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology, published by The American Physiological Society.

Sex Every Day is Prescription for Improving Sperm Quality

www.timesonline.co.uk

Men who suffer fertility problems because of low sperm quality may be able to improve their chances of fatherhood by having sex every day, research has suggested.

While those trying for a baby are often told to refrain from ejaculating too often to protect their sperm count, Australian scientists have shown that this can be counterproductive and may lower male fertility.

Among men whose fertility problems stem from genetic damage to their sperm rather than a low sperm count, abstaining from sex can make their difficulties worse, research led by David Greening, of Sydney IVF, has shown.

The pilot study of 42 men whose sperm showed significant DNA damage found that daily ejaculation reduced this by 12 per cent. While the results are preliminary and no direct effect on fertility has yet been measured, they suggest that certain men could benefit from having sex more often, or from abstaining less before providing semen for use in IVF.

Dr Greening, who presented his results at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in Washington yesterday, said: “I’m convinced that ejaculating more frequently, ie daily, improves sperm DNA damage in most men by a decent amount.

“Prior to IVF, for example, men are abstaining a lot more than normal and perhaps sperm DNA increases more than usual. Men think if they abstain for longer times before, say, ovulation that their sperm will be better. [There may be] more volume and numbers but DNA damage may increase.”

Abstaining from sex does increase the number of sperm that are ejaculated, and this has led to advice that couples trying for a baby should have sex every two to three days.

Longer periods of abstinence, however, achieve little because while the quantity of sperm might increase, its quality declines. As sperm is produced, it is stored in the epididymis at the top of the testicle, but the longer it sits there the more damage it accumulates from exposure to free radicals.

Regular ejaculation empties this sperm reservoir, making sure that newly produced sperm of higher genetic quality can get out.

Allan Pacey, a senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said that clearing the reservoir was more important when sperm had high levels of genetic damage. “If you get above 30 to 40 per cent damaged DNA, a man is highly likely to be infertile,” he said. “When you put people on a daily ejaculation regime, it reduces that figure for DNA damage. If you can go from 30 per cent down to 20 per cent that is quite a big shift, that should have implications for fertility.

“There is a trade-off between genetic damage and quantity, so when a couple are first trying to get pregnant a wait of two to three days is probably advisable. But if you are a guy who has high DNA damage and a decent sperm count, it is probably in your interest to ejaculate every day.

“I remember one couple in which the woman would only let the man ejaculate when she was in her fertile period, so the poor chap was going without for almost a month at a time.

“Even leaving aside the frustration that must have caused, it would have had no benefits.”