Public release date: 7-Feb-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Rachel Serokarseroka@aan.com651-695-2738American Academy of Neurology

ST. PAUL, Minn. ? People who spend more time in the sun and those with higher vitamin D levels may be less likely to develop multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a study published in the February 8, 2011, print issue of Neurology?, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. MS is a chronic disease of the brain and spinal cord, usually with recurrent flare-ups of symptoms. It is often preceded by a first episode (or event) of similar symptoms lasting days to weeks.

“Previous studies have found similar results, but this is the first study to look at people who have just had the first symptoms of MS and haven’t even been diagnosed with the disease yet,” said study author Robyn Lucas, PhD, of Australian National University in Canberra. “Other studies have looked at people who already have MS?then it’s hard to know whether having the disease led them to change their habits in the sun or in their diet.”

The multi-site study involved 216 people age 18 to 59 who had a first event with symptoms of the type seen in MS. Those people were matched with 395 people with no symptoms of possible MS who were of similar ages, of the same sex and from the same regions of Australia.

The participants reported how much sun they were exposed to during different periods of their lives, and researchers also measured the amount of skin damage participants had from sun exposure and the amount of melanin in their skin. Vitamin D levels (from sun exposure, diet and supplement use) were measured by blood tests.

The risk of having a first event, diagnosed by a doctor, ranged from approximately two to nine new cases for every 100,000 people per year in this study. The reported UV light exposure of participants ranged from about 500 to over 6,000 kilojoules per meter squared. The researchers found that the risk of having a diagnosed first event decreased by 30 percent for each UV increase of 1,000 kilojoules. They also found that people with most evidence of skin damage from sun exposure were 60 percent less likely to develop a first event than the people with the least damage. People with the highest levels of vitamin D also were less likely to have a diagnosed first event than people with the lowest levels.

Studies have shown that MS is more common in latitudes further away from the equator, and this has been confirmed in Australia.

“Added together, the differences in sun exposure, vitamin D levels and skin type accounted for a 32-percent increase in a diagnosed first event from the low to the high latitude regions of Australia,” Lucas said.

Lucas noted that the effects of sun exposure and vitamin D acted independently of each other on the risk of first event. “Further research should evaluate both sun exposure and vitamin D for the prevention of MS,” Lucas said.

Lucas also stated that people should continue to limit their sun exposure due to skin cancer risks. she also noted that the risks of tanning beds far outweigh any possible protective effect against MS. Exposure to the sun has not been shown to benefit people who already have MS.

The study was supported by the U.S. National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, the ANZ William Buckland Foundation and Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia.

The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 22,500 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, brain injury, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.

For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit aan.com.

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Media Contacts: Rachel Seroka, rseroka@aan.com, (651) 695-2738 Angela Babb, ababb@aan.com, (651) 695-2789

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Impulsivity, Hyperactivity Linked to Higher Body Mass Index in Study

Oct. 29, 2010 — Having ADHD symptoms in childhood is associated with an increased risk for obesity later in life, a new study suggests.

Symptoms such as problems with impulse control and hyperactivity were strongly linked to obesity in young adulthood, even among children without a diagnosis of ADHD, Duke University Medical Center researchers report.

The study is not the first to suggest an association between ADHD and obesity, but it is the first to examine the role of specific ADHD-related symptoms in weight control.

“Symptoms such as hyperactivity and [problems with] impulse control were associated with higher body mass index (BMI) in adulthood, even when there was no diagnosis of ADHD,” study co-author and Duke ADHD Program director Scott Kollins, PhD, tells WebMD.

ADHD and Obesity

The investigation, published in the International Journal of Obesity, included almost 15,200 children enrolled in a nationally representative adolescent health study followed from 1995 until 2009.

After controlling for other obesity risk factors, the researchers found that children with the most hyperactivity and impulsivity symptoms also had the highest risk for obesity in early adulthood.

The more symptoms children exhibited the greater their later obesity risk.

Although it is not clear from the study how these symptoms influence weight, the researchers speculate that impulse control issues may be more to blame than hyperactivity.

“Self-regulation and impulse control problems are hallmarks of ADHD and overeating,” Kollins says. “Kids with these issues may not be able to resist the urge to eat five cookies instead of two and they may ignore signals telling them they are full.”

It is well recognized that children with ADHD are at increased risk for substance abuse and addiction later in life.

Obesity researcher Caroline Davis, PhD, of Toronto’s York University, believes this propensity for addiction explains why kids with symptoms of ADHD may be more likely to overeat.

Researcher: ‘Food Is a Drug’

Davis tells WebMD that foods that are high in fat, sugar, and salt act on the brain’s reward system in the same way addictive drugs do.

Davis says it is no coincidence that the first studies linking ADHD to obesity were published just over a decade ago.

“It is my personal feeling that this link is pretty new,” she says. “The food environment has changed dramatically just within the last several decades. we now have a whole generation that has grown up on these highly addictive foods.”

Duke assistant professor of community and family medicine Bernard Fuemmeler, PhD, says findings from the newly published study may be useful for understanding ADHD and obesity.

“Clinicians need to be aware that children who exhibit symptoms of ADHD may have difficulty managing their weight as they get older,” he says. “For these children, working on behavioral control strategies may reduce this risk.”

Latest Alzheimers News

Study Shows Synthetic Molecules May help Detect Alzheimer’s, MS, and other Diseases

By Salynn BoylesWebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

Jan. 6, 2011 — Molecules developed in the lab to seek out antibodies associated with disease could lead to simple blood tests for Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and a host of other diseases, researchers say.

The new experimental technology relies on thousands of synthetic molecules known as peptoids to search for antibodies that occur in response to disease.

The hope is that the man-made molecules will lead to tests to identify diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer long before symptoms occur, says Thomas Kodadek, PhD, who is a professor of chemistry and cancer biology at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla.

A new way to Search for Disease

Research to identify biomarkers that can be used to screen for disease has largely focused on proteins that are elevated or not elevated for a particular disease state.

But Kodadek says this has proven to be very difficult because the proteins are hard to find and not very stable.

Another approach is to look for the antibodies produced by the immune system in response to harmful molecules, or antigens, linked to disease.

Most of this research has focused on identifying disease-specific antigens, which has also proven to be a major problem, Kodadek says.

“We took a different approach,” he tells WebMD. “Our approach eliminates the need to know anything about the disease in order to find candidate biomarkers. that is the big breakthrough here.”

Using large numbers of peptoids, the researchers conducted random screens of blood taken from animals and humans to search for disease-specific antibodies.

Early studies involved mice with a condition that resembles multiple sclerosis in humans.

Using the technique, Kodadek and colleagues were able to identify several disease-specific peptoid-antibody pairs in the blood of the sick mice that were not present in healthy mice.

In a small, pilot study involving Alzheimer’s patients, the researchers identified three peptoid-antibody pairs in the blood of six patients with the age-related dementia that were not present in the blood samples of healthy people or those with Parkinson’s disease.

The study appears this week in the journal Cell.

Blood Test for Alzheimer’s, Pancreatic Cancer?

Kodadek says his research team has now screened around 300 Alzheimer’s patients and the method reliably identified disease in blood samples.

“Many of the patients had very early-stage disease,” he says. “There are also early signs that this can detect pre-symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease, but we aren’t quite there yet.”

The technique is currently too complicated to perform outside the laboratory, but the researchers are working on simplifying it to make it easy to perform in a doctor’s office.

Kodadek is now developing the technology for the Miami-based medical research company Opko Health inc., which hopes to develop and market blood tests for a wide range of diseases.

He says his research team has now identified four peptoids that appear to be specific for pancreatic cancer and three that appear specific for non-small-cell lung cancer.

Ralph Nixon, MD, who serves on the scientific advisory council for the Alzheimer’s Association, says while the research sounds promising it is still in the very early stages.

Nixon also directs the Center of Excellence on Brain Aging at new York University Langone Medical Center.

It is now possible to determine which patients with early cognitive impairment will develop Alzheimer’s by testing spinal fluid, but Nixon calls a blood test the Holy Grail for diagnosing the disease.

Other researchers are also working to develop a blood test, but Nixon says he has seen nothing to suggest such a test will be a reality in the near future.

“We have seen glimpses that it may happen, but not the hard data to show that we are actually close,” he tells WebMD.

SOURCES: Muralidhar, M. Cell, Jan. 7, 2011; vol 144: pp 132-142.Thomas J. Kodadek, PhD, professor of chemistry and cancer biology, Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, Fla.Ralph Nixon, MD, director, Center of Excellence on Brain Aging, new York University Langone Medical Center.News release, Cell Press.©2011 WebMD, LLC. all Rights Reserved.

As with most forms of depression, there are no blood tests to confirm Postpartum Depression for new moms.  Ilona S. Yim, PhD, from University of California, lead research out of University of California that may someday be able to help new moms predict whether they are at risk for Postpartum Depression with a simple blood test.

Yin’s study uncovered that a higher level of the hormone pCRH was found in the placenta of the moms in her study who did develop postpartum depression.  More research is needed to determine whether this simple blood test could in fact determine whether a woman is more likely to develop PPD.

This study could be great news for the upwards of 10% of women who suffer from PPD. Part of the problem with diagnosing postpartum depression is it may be embarrassing to talk about with other mothers, friends, and family.

Lots of women experience postpartum depression, but sadly, most women don’t talk about it. Why? First, many moms mistake their symptoms as the “baby blues.” Second, there is social pressure to be the “best” mom, you are supposed to feel attached to your baby, motherhood was supposed to be a huge “joy”, and it’s hard to admit that you don’t feel those feelings. Moreover, the symptoms of PPD lead mothers to feel the exact opposite, they feel lonely, scared, and guilty. some new mothers with PPD are afraid they may hurt their baby or themselves. if Yim’s initial research does link an overproduction of the hormone pCRH with postpartum depression, many new mothers will be able to breath a sigh of relief.

In the meantime, if you think you are suffering from postpartum depression it’s important that you do seek medical help.  From relaxation exercises to support groups as well as various medications and supplements, there are various ways to help ease your pain.