Body

LEHI, UT- A new study published in Nutrition Journal indicates that XanGo® Juice, a market-leading, premium mangosteen beverage, has lowered levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) in overweight and obese people in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled human trial. CRP is a marker used to measure inflammation levels, and a reduction in CRP may indicate a corresponding reduction in the risk of heart disease and diabetes. This study also suggests that XanGo Juice has healthful properties for weight management.

After mastectomy, breast cancer patients who receive radiation treatment to the lymph nodes located behind the breast bone do not live longer than those who do not receive radiation to this hard-to-treat area, according to a randomized 10-year study presented at the plenary session, November 2, 2009, at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

High-risk melanoma patients who are treated with radiation after surgery have a significantly lower risk of their cancer returning to the lymph nodes (19 percent), compared to those patients who do not have radiation therapy (31 percent), according to the first randomized study of its kind presented at the plenary session, November 2, 2009, at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

Awareness of COPD—chronic obstructive pulmonary disease—continues to grow in the United States, according to national survey results released today by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health.

Sixty-eight percent of adults are now aware of COPD, a disease that affects 1 in 5 people over age 45, compared with 64 percent last year, and 49 percent in a 2004 survey. Among a high risk group, those who are currently smoking, awareness rose to 74 percent compared to 69 percent a year ago.

November 2, 2009 (Downey, Calif.) – Aggressively managing patients at risk for osteoporosis could reduce the hip fracture rate in the United States by 25 percent, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published in the November issue of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The first step must be a more active role by orthopedic surgeons in osteoporosis disease management, researchers say.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A global collaborative has produced a first draft of the genome of a domesticated pig, an achievement that will lead to insights in agriculture, medicine, conservation and evolution.

A red-haired Duroc pig from a farm at the University of Illinois will now be among the growing list of domesticated animals that have had their genomes sequenced. Researchers will announce the achievement Monday (Nov. 2) at a meeting at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, England.

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the Technical University of Denmark along with other collaborators in Denmark and the US found that the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa can 'switch on' production of molecules that kill white blood cells – preventing the bacteria being eliminated by the body's immune system.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Going smaller could bring better results, especially when it comes to cancer-fighting drugs.

Duke University bioengineers have developed a simple and inexpensive method for loading cancer drug payloads into nano-scale delivery vehicles and demonstrated in animal models that this new nanoformulation can eliminate tumors after a single treatment. After delivering the drug to the tumor, the delivery vehicle breaks down into harmless byproducts, markedly decreasing the toxicity for the recipient.

A study featured in the November issue of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology confirms the success of a simple questionnaire designed to identify patients at high risk of lung cancer. Initiated in 2001, the current study confirmed 18 cases of cancer of the original 430 patients who qualified as high risk after completing a five-minute questionnaire.

Improving survival among dialysis patients may increase treatment costs significantly, according to a paper being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 42nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego, CA. The authors created models of a 100 patient dialysis treatment center and a program with 7,500 hemodialysis patients (the approximate number of such patients in the Province of Ontario, Canada). Improving patient survival increased costs in the 100 patient model by $5 million over 10 years, and in the 7,500 patient model by $400 million over 10 years.

Individuals who consume a diet high in sodium or artificially sweetened drinks are more likely to experience a decline in kidney function, according to two papers being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's annual meeting in San Diego, California.

Julie Lin MD, MPH, FASN and Gary Curhan, MD, ScD, FASN of Brigham and Women's Hospital studied more than 3,000 women participating in the Nurses' Health Study to identify the impact of sodium and sweetened drinks on kidney function.

Charcoal may provide a new approach to managing the high rate of heart disease in patients with advanced kidney disease, according to preliminary research being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 42nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego, CA.

Switching to a newer type of immunosuppressant drug may reduce the high rate of skin cancer after kidney transplantation, according to research being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 42nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego, CA.

Individuals with a history of lupus who receive a kidney transplant rarely develop the serious inflammatory condition lupus nephritis in their new organ, according to a paper being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 42nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego, CA. The findings indicate that having lupus should not keep individuals from seeking a kidney transplant if they need one.

A research team at Vanderbilt University has developed an innovative optical system to simultaneously image electrical activity and metabolic properties in the same region of a heart, to study the complex mechanisms that lead to sudden cardiac arrest.