Breast milk 'may be allergy key'

The government advises exclusive breastfeeding for first six months
A study may have discovered why breastfeeding might help protect children against allergies such as asthma, scientists have said.
The French research, published in Nature Medicine, shows female mice exposed to allergens can pass them directly to their offspring in milk.

This allows the newborns to become "tolerant" of the substance.

However, in humans, the link between breastfeeding and reduced asthma risk remains unproven, say experts.

This study may pave the way for the design of new strategies to prevent the development of allergic diseases
Study researchers
There is some research evidence that being breastfed lowers the risk of becoming asthmatic but other studies have failed to find this.

More than 300 million people worldwide have allergic asthma and some scientists believe exposure to allergens, or a lack of exposure, at a very young age may be important in its development.

Asthma happens when the body's own immune system recognises as "foreign" a common and harmless substance found in the environment, such as dust mite faeces.

When this substance is inhaled, the immune reaction can cause inflammation in the airways, narrowing them and making it harder to breathe.

For many sufferers, this can mean a lifetime of drugs, both to damp down the immune reaction and to re-open their constricted airways during an attack.

The researchers, from the INSERM institute in France, used an allergen called ovalbumin - a protein found in egg whites.

They allowed the mothers of newborn mice to breathe in the protein but not their offspring.

Tests confirmed the allergen was then transferred to the baby mice via breast milk and that the baby mice developed an immune system tolerance to it.

This effect happened independently of the mother's own immune system.

Current advice

The researchers wrote: "This study may pave the way for the design of new strategies to prevent the development of allergic diseases."

Sally Rose, an asthma nurse specialist at Asthma UK, said: 'While some research does suggest that breastfeeding may help reduce the chance of babies developing allergic conditions such as asthma, there are other studies that contradict this.

"Because breastfeeding provides many proven benefits for babies, current advice from the Department of Health, which Asthma UK supports, is that, where possible, babies should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life."

Dr Charles McSharry, an immunologist from Glasgow University, said the research did offer a theory as to why breastfeeding might be beneficial in humans.

However, he said comparing the immune reactions of mice and humans was difficult.

"It is far more difficult to induce the kind of immune tolerance they have achieved in mice in humans, which is a key difference," he said.

Coffee may make diabetes worse

Caffeine content of coffee can vary with brands and brewing methods
Daily consumption of caffeine in coffee, tea or soft drinks increases blood sugar levels for people with type 2 diabetes, research suggests.

Caffeine pills equivalent to four cups of coffee a day increased blood sugar levels by 8% over the day, US researchers report in Diabetes Care.

Cutting caffeine out of the diet may help diabetics control their blood sugar levels, the team said.

But UK experts said more research was needed before advice could be given.

The ten people who took part in the study were monitored with a tiny glucose monitor embedded under the skin.

The device meant that the researchers could track the effects of caffeine over 72-hours as the patients with type 2 diabetes went about their normal lives.

Previous studies had shown that caffeine increases the body's resistance to insulin, the hormone responsible for managing the response to glucose levels in the blood.

But in healthy people this is not really a problem, said study leader Dr James Lane from Duke University Medical School.

In the diabetic patients, who took caffeine pills on one day and a placebo the next, caffeine caused blood sugar levels to rise.

The effect was particularly strong after meals with a rise of 9% after breakfast, 15% after lunch and 26% after dinner.

Quitting

Dr Lane is planning to do another trial in larger number of patients to see if cutting caffeine from the diet can help patients control their blood sugar levels.

He said there are two possible ways that caffeine produces the effect.


The best way to control glucose levels is through healthy eating and exercise
Cathy Moulton, Diabetes UK
It could be that caffeine interferes with the process that moves glucose from the blood and into muscle and other cells in the body.

Caffeine could also trigger the release of adrenaline which can also boost sugar levels.

"My advice would be, if patients are having trouble controlling their blood glucose and they are coffee drinkers, particularly heavy coffee drinkers, they might want to give it a try to see if it makes a difference to them."

He said he suspects in some people it would make a very big difference whereas others may not be so sensitive to it.

Cathy Moulton, care advisor at Diabetes UK, said: "Although this is interesting research, the study only examines a sample of 10 people for a 72-hour period, which proves very little.

"More research is needed before we ask people with diabetes to stop drinking coffee.

"The best way to control glucose levels is through healthy eating and exercise."

Muscle Pain from Common Drugs

FDA Reminds Physicians of Link Between Bisphosphonates and Musculoskeletal Pain
By Peggy Peck, Executive Editor, MedPage Today
Published: January 07, 2008

ROCKVILLE, Md., Jan. 7 -- The FDA called attention today to evidence suggesting that bisphosphonates may be associated with the sudden onset of otherwise unexplained severe musculoskeletal pain.

In an alert to clinicians, the agency cited several trials that have reported such an association, but stated that physicians often overlook it. The FDA said its evaluation of these reports would take about six months to complete.
The FDA characterized the alert as a wakeup call to physicians who might not consider bisphosphonates as the cause of new onset pain, especially because symptom onset varies from a few days to years after initiating bisphosphonate therapy.

The alert includes bisphosphonates marketed as Actonel, Actonel+Ca, Aredia, Boniva, Didronel, Fosamax, Fosamax+D, Reclast, Skelid, and Zometa.

Although musculoskeletal pain was reported in clinical trials of bisphosphonates, the FDA said the severity of pain was not always documented.

In 2005, the FDA published findings from a post-marketing case review of bone, joint, and/or muscle pain of a serious nature associated with alendronate (Fosamax) and risedronate (Actonel).

The range of time to onset of pain after starting alendronate was one day to 52 months (mean, 91 days; median, 14 days). Pain was not isolated to a particular anatomical site, and some patients reported initial focal pain that developed into diffuse pain.

In the most severe cases, pain was described as extreme, disabling, or incapacitating, and for some patients the pain was so severe that they were unable to continue their normal activities and required aids for walking. In a search for a cause of the musculoskeletal pain, many patients underwent numerous diagnostic tests with mostly normal findings.

The FDA said pain was treated with a variety of analgesics, including opioids. Many patients had relief after the bisphosphonate was discontinued, but while relief was immediate after drug discontinuation in some patients, others had a slower, partial resolution.

The FDA said that the precautions section of the labeling for all bisphosphonates includes information about severe incapacitating musculoskeletal pain, which was in contrast to typical acute phase response that can include fever, chills, bone pain, myalgias, and arthralgias. Symptoms related to acute phase response usually resolve within days and do not require discontinuation of the drug.

The risk factors for and occurrence rates of severe musculoskeletal pain associated with bisphosphonates are unknown.

In today's alert, the FDA said severe pain was more common among patients older than 65. It suggested that all bisphosphonate patients be closely monitored for pain and other drug-related symptoms. If, however, pain does not resolve within days -- especially within days of withdrawing bisphosphonate therapy -- another diagnosis should be considered.

Healthy living 'can add 14 years

Taking exercise, drinking moderately, eating sufficient fruit and vegetables and not smoking can add as much as 14 years to your life, a study has found.

Research involving 20,000 people over a decade found those who failed on all criteria were four times more likely to have died than those who succeeded.

The findings held true regardless of how overweight or poor they were.

The Public Library of Science Medicine study suggests many could increase their lifespan through simple changes.

The research was carried out by the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council in the English county of Norfolk between 1993 and 2006.

Participants were aged between 45 and 79. They were socially mixed although overwhelmingly white, and as far as they were aware at the time, did not have cancer or any heart problems.

Taking off the years

A point was awarded for each of the following: not currently smoking, consuming between one and 14 units of alcohol per week (the equivalent of between half a glass and seven glasses of wine), eating five servings of fruit and vegetables each day and not being inactive.

It means a large proportion of the population really could feel health benefits through moderate changes

This last category was defined as either having a sedentary occupation and taking half an hour of exercise a day, or simply having a non-sedentary job like a nurse or plumber.

Not only did the team find that those with four points were significantly less likely to have died over the period than those with none, they also found that a 60-year-old person with a score of zero had the same risk of dying as a 74-year-old with the full four points.

"We've know that individually, measures such as not smoking and exercising can have an impact upon longevity, but this is the first time we have looked at them altogether," said Professor Kay-Tee Khaw, who led the research.

"And we also found that social class and BMI - body mass index - really did not have a role to play.

"It means a large proportion of the population really could feel health benefits through moderate changes."

Everyone gains

It was in the reduction of deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease where the findings were most pronounced, with those scoring zero five times more likely to succumb than those scoring four.

But there was also a relationship between score and cancer deaths.

While the main analysis excluded people with known disease, the researchers found that those with serious conditions fared better the higher they scored than those who scored lower.

Health campaigners welcomed the study.

"This is good news and shows that by living a healthy life, people can reduce their risk of dying from heart and circulatory disease," said Judy O'Sullivan of the British Heart Foundation.

"By not smoking, drinking alcohol in moderation, taking regular physical activity and eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, people can improve their chances of living longer."

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "Everyone has responsibility for their own health, which was highlighted last year when we kickstarted the Small Change, Big Difference initiative to show people that there are simple changes they can make in their lives that will have a direct impact on their health."

Milk: Cancer in a cup

Childhood dairy intake and adult cancer risk: 65-y follow-up

Background: Dairy consumption affects biological pathways associated with
carcinogenesis. Evidence for a link between cancer risk and dairy consumption in adulthood is increasing, but associations with childhood dairy consumption have not been studied adequately.

Objective: We investigated whether dairy consumption in childhood is
associated with cancer incidence and mortality in adulthood.

Design: From 1937 through 1939, some 4999 children living in England and
Scotland participated in a study of family food consumption, assessed from household food inventories. The National Health Service central register was used to ascertain cancer registrations and deaths between 1948 and 2005 in the 4383 traced cohort members. Per capita household intake estimates for dairy products and calcium were used as proxy for individual intake.

Results: During the follow-up period, 770 cancer registrations or cancer
deaths occurred. High childhood total dairy intake was associated with a
near-tripling in the odds of colorectal cancer compared with low intake,
independent of meat, fruit, and vegetable intakes and socioeconomic indicators. Milk intake showed a similar association with colorectal cancer risk. High milk intake was weakly inversely associated with prostate cancer risk.

Childhood dairy intake was not associated with breast and stomach
cancer risk; a positive association with lung cancer risk was confounded by
smoking behavior during adulthood.

Conclusions: A family diet rich in dairy products during childhood is
associated with a greater risk of colorectal cancer in adulthood. Confirmation of possible underlying biological mechanisms is needed.

From the Longitudinal Studies Unit, Division of Epidemiology and Social
Medicine, School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Brisbane,
Australia (JCvdP and CB); the Department of Social Medicine, University of
Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom (DG, GDS, and RMM); and the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom (CF)