(Press-News.org) 1. Community Preventive Services Task Force recommends diet and exercise interventions to prevent diabetes
Evidence shows combined diet and exercise promotion programs are effective and cost-effective for preventing type 2 diabetes in at-risk patients
Free content
Clinical guideline: http://www.annals.org/article.aspx?doi=10.7326/M15-1029
Evidence review: http://www.annals.org/article.aspx?doi=10.7326/M15-0452
Economic evidence review: http://www.annals.org/article.aspx?doi=10.7326/M15-0469
Editorial: http://www.annals.org/article.aspx?doi=10.7326/M15-1563
URLs go live when the embargo lifts
The Community Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force) recommends the use of combined diet and physical activity promotion programs to provide counsel and support to patients at increased risk for type 2 diabetes. A systematic review of 53 studies describing 66 programs found strong evidence that such programs are effective for reducing new onset diabetes. A separate review of economic evidence (28 studies) found these interventions to be cost-effective. The recommendation statement and evidence reviews are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Combined diet and physical activity promotion programs encourage persons who are at increased risk for diabetes to improve their diet and increase their physical activity. Guideline authors suggest that interventions include: trained providers in a clinical or community setting who work directly with patients for at least three months; some combination of counseling, coaching, or extended support; and multiple sessions related to diet and physical activity, delivered in person or by some other method. Additional elements may also be included. The research shows that higher intensity programs lead to greater weight loss and greater reduction in new onset diabetes.
The Task Force is an independent nonfederal, unpaid group of public health and prevention experts that provides evidence-based findings and recommendations about community preventive services, programs, and policies to improve health.
Notes: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Angela Collom or Cara Graeff. To reach someone from the Task Force, please contact Jamila Jones at the CDC Community Guide Branch at akq3@cdc.gov or 404-498-6401.
2. Surgery may extend life for patients with advanced, active ulcerative colitis
Free abstract: http://www.annals.org/article.aspx?doi=10.7326/M14-0960
Editorial: http://www.annals.org/article.aspx?doi=10.7326/M15-1190
URLs go live when embargo lifts
Elective colectomy is associated with significantly longer survival than nonsurgical treatment for older patients with advanced, active ulcerative colitis (UC), according to a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
UC is a type of inflammatory bowel disease with inflammation confined to the colon. Current medical therapies often fail to induce remission in all patients and relapse rates are high even when remission is achieved. Elective colectomy can cure UC symptoms, but quality of life is altered after surgery. As such, the choice between long-term immunosuppressant therapy or total colectomy is a difficult one to make.
Researchers reviewed Medicare records for 830 patients with UC pursuing elective colectomy and 7,541 matched patients with UC pursuing medical therapy to determine if surgery improved survival. The researchers found that the 5-year mortality rate was about 30 percent lower for patients treated with surgery.
According to the author of an accompanying editorial, Dr. David B. Sachar from The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, NY, the goal of therapy should be "not saving colons, but saving lives." Dr. Sachar suggests that gastroenterologists look at this study and reevaluate what constitutes success in treating a patient.
Notes: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Angela Collom or Cara Graeff. To speak with the lead author, please contact Lee-Ann Donegan at Leeann.Donegan@uphs.upenn.edu or 267-240-2448.
3. '3 Wishes Project' helps to create meaning, memories, and closure at death
Free abstract: http://www.annals.org/article.aspx?doi=10.7326/M15-0502
Editorial: http://www.annals.org/article.aspx?doi=10.7326/M15-1351
URLs are live when the embargo lifts
Eliciting and honoring last wishes helps to humanize dying in the intensive care unit (ICU), according to research being published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
The process of dying places enormous stress on patients and those caring for them. Researchers developed the 3 Wishes Project to try to bring peace to the final days of critically ill patients and to ease the grieving process for their loved ones. Consecutive patients, families, and clinicians at one 21-bed medical-surgery ICU were invited to propose three wishes aimed at honoring the patient or family when death was imminent. Wishes were classified into five categories: humanizing the environment; personal tributes; family reconnections; rituals and observances; and paying it forward (e.g., organ donation or charitable giving). Investigators interviewed families and clinicians to assess the program's effects. Overall, 97.5 percent of the wishes were implemented at a cost ranging from $0 to $200 per patient. End-of-life care was rated high by family members and postmortem interviews with 160 family members and clinicians provided overwhelmingly positive feedback.
According to the authors, the 3 Wishes Program encouraged the verbalization and realization of unmet spiritual needs, whether secular or faith-based. The authors say their findings underscore the drive that we all have to search for meaning, memories, and closure in anticipation of death.
Notes: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Angela Collom or Cara Graeff. To speak with the lead author, please contact Veronica McGuire at vmcguir@mcmaster.ca or 905-525-9140 ext. 22169.
INFORMATION:
Also in this Issue:
Walking the Tightrope of Academia-Industry Relationships
Annals Editors discuss their policy on publishing articles written by authors with ties to industry
Editorial
M15-1500
http://www.annals.org/article.aspx?doi=10.7326/M15-1500
PHILADELPHIA -Patients over 50 with ulcerative colitis (UC), a chronic disease of the colon, who undergo surgery to treat their condition live longer than those who are treated with medications, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The results are published this week in Annals of Internal Medicine.
"Ulcerative colitis is a chronic disease that most physicians opt to treat with medications, as opposed to surgery," said the study's lead author Meenakshi Bewtra, MD, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of Medicine and ...
In preliminary research, a small number of occult (hidden) malignancies were subsequently diagnosed among pregnant women whose noninvasive prenatal testing results showed chromosomal abnormalities but the fetal karyotype was subsequently shown to be normal, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being released to coincide with its presentation at the 19th International Conference on Prenatal Diagnosis and Therapy in Washington, D.C.
Understanding the relationship between aneuploidy detection (an abnormal number of chromosomes) on noninvasive prenatal testing ...
Boulder, Colo., USA - Super-eruptions are not the only type of eruption to be considered when evaluating hazards at volcanoes with protracted eruption histories, such as the Yellowstone (Wyoming), Long Valley (California), and Valles (New Mexico) calderas. There have been more than 23 effusive eruptions of rhyolite lava at Yellowstone since the last caldera-forming eruption ~640,000 years ago, all of similar or greater magnitude than the largest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century.
This study by Christy B. Till and colleagues is innovative because it is the first ...
DURHAM, N.C. - Practically everyone gets fatter as they get older, but some people can blame their genes for the extra padding. Researchers have shown that two different mutations in a gene called ankyrin-B cause cells to suck up glucose faster than normal, fattening them up and eventually triggering the type of diabetes linked to obesity.
The more severe of the two mutations, called R1788W, is carried by nearly one million Americans. The milder mutation, known as L1622I, is shared by seven percent of the African American population and is about as common as the trait ...
CHICAGO-- The use of 3D printers has the potential to revolutionize the way food is manufactured within the next 10 to 20 years, impacting everything from how military personnel get food on the battlefield to how long it takes to get a meal from the computer to your table, according to a July 12th symposium at IFT15: Where Science Feeds Innovation hosted by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in Chicago.
The price of 3D printers has been steadily declining, from more than $500,000 in the 1980s to less than $1,000 today for a personal-sized device, making them increasingly ...
CHICAGO-- Dr. Mark J. Post is confident his recipe for his $300,000 cultured hamburger will not only come down in price but someday make it to market, according to a July 12th presentation at IFT15: Where Science Feeds Innovation hosted by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in Chicago.
"It's realistic that we can do this," said Post, chair of the department of physiology and professor of vascular physiology and tissue engineering, Maastricht University, The Netherlands, who is refining what he already sees as a patty consistent in look, texture and color to a traditional ...
CHICAGO-- Algae is evolving as the next new alternative protein source consumers are anxious to bite into as an ingredient in crackers, snack bars, cereals and breads, according to a July 12th presentation at IFT15: Where Science Feeds Innovation hosted by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in Chicago.
Algae, quinoa and pulses are considered by some food technologists to be the best protein sources and strong alternatives to slow meat consumption, reduce food waste and help feed the world's growing population.
Algae is a new vegan source of protein with a comparable ...
ANN ARBOR - The first computer model that predicts the flow of liquid medication in human lungs is providing new insight into the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome.
University of Michigan researchers are using the new technology to uncover why a treatment that saves the lives of premature babies has been largely unsuccessful in adults.
Acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, is a life-threatening inflammation of the respiratory system that kills 74,000 adults each year in the United States alone. IIt's most common among patients with lung injury ...
July 13, 2015, New York -- Tumors can leverage glucose and another nutrient, acetate, to resist targeted therapies directed at specific cellular molecules, according to Ludwig Cancer Research scientists studying glioblastoma, a deadly brain cancer.
The findings, published in the July 13 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrate that nutrients can strongly affect the signaling molecules that drive tumors. "This study shows that metabolic and nutritional factors might be quite important in cancer development and treatment," says Ludwig San Diego member ...
Self-control is beneficial for children's school achievement and mental health
For low-income youth, self control, and the success it enables, takes a toll on the body
Findings have implications for interventions aimed at improving social, racial disparities
EVANSTON, Ill. --- Youth from low-income families who succeed academically and socially may actually pay a price -- with their health -- according to a new Northwestern University study.
It has been well documented that children from low-income families typically complete less education, have worse health and ...
