Thursday may 12, 2011

PITTSFIELD — Ash. Maple. Elm. Birch. Cottonwood.

In the springtime, the trees may look pretty enough, but for allergy sufferers, their resulting pollen is nothing to sneeze at. Sniffling and dry-eyed Berkshirites beware — physicians say that this is only the beginning of yet another interminable allergy season.

“I don’t know if it’s the pollen or what,” said Michael Maysonet of Pittsfield while he was outside on North Street on Wednesday. “It gets me congested, gets my nose runny — all sorts of stuff.”

Lauren Winneroski of Pittsfield said she’s not an allergy sufferer, but the pollen was getting the best of her this spring.

“I get the itchy eyes — there’s something in the air, it’s been bothering everybody,” she said. “I’ve never been allergic to anything. but this morning I looked in the mirror and it looked like I was crying. It’s pretty horrendous.”

An expert in such matters, Pittsfield allergist Dr. Thomas Edwards calls it “a very bad season it’s always a bad season for those that suffer.”

Edwards’ office measures pollen counts in Pittsfield around three times a week. The most recent measurement, from Tuesday, showed 981 pollen particles per cubic meter of air — the “high” level of the spectrum. Anything above 1,500 is considered “very high” — or, for allergy sufferers, pure misery.

And the reason for all this? Blame last year’s good weather, Edwards said.

“Pollen levels were actually higher last year, but curiously, people seem to be more symptomatic this year,” said Edwards, whose allergy patient volume is up this year compared to last. “It’s almost like they were primed last year by the very high levels [of pollen] and this year, it’s hitting a lot of people.”

In addition, the lack of rain — the National Weather Service reports just 0.58 inches of precipitation in Pittsfield since may 1 — has kept the air dry and pollen floating in the breeze.

But is this the beginning of exponentially worsening symptoms?

Edwards said that sheer numbers of allergy sufferers appear to be increasing for reasons that are still unclear, but that the actual severity of symptoms would likely vary on a season-to-season basis.

Edwards added that avoiding the allergens is next to impossible, outside of staying indoors and using daily antihistamine or prescription-only steroidal nose sprays.

“There isn’t really anything you can do in terms of outdoor control,” he said.

Once the tree pollen season concludes, grass pollen will start around Memorial Day, according to Edwards. and it gets worse.

“The next big onslaught is the weed pollen season, such as ragweed,” Edwards said. “It’ll begin around the 15th of August through the beginning of October.”

I am wondering if anyone has a child who has high functioning Autism and what you can tell me about thier behaviors? My son was just given a preliminary diagnosis of PDD. They said somewhere on the higher functioning side of the spectrum. I am wanting to hear information about the symptoms, treatments, school issues and what ever else you can tell me about it. My son is six years old.

I am a Preschool teacher of a child who diagnosis is PDD. he is high functioning and his I.Q. and behavior flourished in the first 6 months of school. he is very high functioning in his receptive language and is starting to become more social. His atypical behaviors are that his expressive language is delayed. he uses mostly 2-word sentences. he is more social with his teachers but doesn't socialize with peers his age (i.e. cooperative play). he goes to the school district special ed intervention 3 hours a day and is mainstreamed in a classroom with his peers. he is a happy boy with but seems to keep to himself and is not bothered by his peers positive or negative behaviors.
Hope this helps,

My brother is a high functioning autistic. When he started school he was diagnosed with having ADHD (wrongly) and was treated for this for many many years. he was not diagnosed as autistic until he was about 12 years old, hes 17 now by the way.

Looking back on his childhood I remember alot of his behavior as being indicative of autism. he was always very precise with his toys, he liked the colors to make patterns. he couldn't have 2 lego's of the same color touching. he would only watch TV if he could sit in a pot or our wooden salad bowl (this was cute).

As he got older, he would speak very loudly and we would have to remind him to use his inside voice often. he bit people at school as well as himself.

My brother has Asperger's Syndrome. this is a high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. he doesn't understand social cues, body language, facial expressions and personal space. he had to learn all these thing like we learn our numbers. he over exagerated his facial expressions, much like actors do on TV.

I don't know alot about other forms off Autism, but if you have questions about Aspergers I would be happy to tell you more, my e-mail is in my profile.

My 9 year old was diagnosed with Asperger's at the age of 6. since then he has not really had too many problems since he is on medication for his adhd which helps alot. he also goes to therapy for dealing with anxiety and social skill building. With his autism he has problems with social skills since he gets along with adults better. as for school you need to be in contact with your child study team. In my opinion I would not have him classified unless he needs help academically in class. make sure you are on the same page as his teacher and get updated by he/she as frequent as you want. Really the more info and resources you have and a good team at school your child should do fine. there are a ton of great books and support groups online and in local towns. My son is a straight A student and does fine. most people do not even know that he has any problems. Good Luck!

The company, Optimal Pain Control, or OPC, is the brainchild of pharmacist Robert Gussenhoven and harkens back to the day when pharmacists made the compounds doctors prescribed.

“Compound pharmacies” are becoming increasingly popular. they range from adding flavoring to cough syrups to combining off-the-shelf, federally approved medicines to produce customized therapies for patients.

OPC focuses on pain medications that are smeared — known as topicals — rather than swallowed that pharmacists say have no risk of addiction and few side effects.

Drugs delivered through the skin generated an estimated $5.6 billion in 2009, according to a report from Market Research News, an independent research firm.

“Innovative technologies that are able to deliver drugs with a broader spectrum of characteristics are poised to revolutionize the transdermal drug delivery market and drive significant growth,” the report states.

Unlike drug companies that invest millions into developing new brand-name drugs, compound pharmacies such as OPC capitalize on the thousands of available drugs that have already been tried and tested.

Until the mid-1940s, pharmacists only created prescriptions through compounding. The end of World War II ushered in the era of big science and compounding fell out of favor, said David Miller, executive vice president with the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists, a trade organization.

Compounding made a resurgence in the mid-1990s at a time when big pharmacies started to inundate consumers with direct advertising and realized the aging population metabolized drugs differently than the general population.

“At the time, consumers started asking for things from their pharmacists such as ‘is this right for me?’ ” Miller said.

The compounding industry now makes up an estimated 1 to 3 percent of the U.S. prescription market, which is worth $300 billion overall. of the 56,000 pharmacies, approximately 7,500 specialize in compounding, an expensive proposition because of specialized equipment costs.

In rare cases, the popularity of a drug can indirectly cause its price to skyrocket in compounds. In March, KV Pharmaceutical got FDA approval for a drug, hydroxyprogesterone, to prevent pre-term labor.

The drug already had been used by compounders and cost about $15 per injection, but with FDA approval, the pharmaceutical company could charge $1,500 per injection.

“Drug companies are picking up on these old drugs that are being compounded and putting them through the FDA approval process,” Miller said. “they set up their pricing at a level that is substantially higher than when it was compounded.

“We really want to foster innovation, and we really want to stimulate research, but if we’re granting approval of drugs that have not involved innovation research, are we doing our health care service a disservice?”

Hydroxyprogesterone is just one of many compounded drugs that has skyrocketed in value, Miller said, but it still represents a rarity.

Alabama has five compound pharmacies accredited through the Pharmacy Compounding Accreditation Board. OPC is not accredited, but officials say they are seeking the seal of approval.

Compound pharmacies are limited in that they can’t make an exact medical claim because the compound hasn’t gone through clinical trials.

“The idea of topicals for pain relief is not new — our formulations is what’s novel,” said Ashley Morrow, director of marketing and human resources with Optimal Pain Control.

With thousands of formulations available and new pain drugs constantly becoming available, however, the competition is intense.

“In a year from now, the topicals we do will be obsolete,” Morrow said. “having these competitors validates our market, but if you don’t advance the formulas, you’ll bite the dust.

“if we find something better,” Morrow said, and then snapped her fingers, “We can change the formula overnight.”

During a lab tour, lab supervisor Jeremy Sherrill talks through an obligatory face mask. three technicians overlook the production that resembles a high-tech kitchen.

The cream includes 15 to 22 proprietary ingredients the pharmacists say helps drive medicines from the skin’s surface to the inside.

Down the hall, Morrow shows a “brag wall” where customers attest to the use of the topical pain medications personalized for their symptoms.

Larry Alton, a family and sports medical doctor in Montrose, Mich., not only uses the compound medicine in his practice, but is a patient himself.

Alton had several surgeries on his back and a damaged nerve in his leg. He worked four days a week. By the end of the week, Alton said he could barely stand up.

“I don’t take pain pills because of what I do for a living; I pretty much had to suck it up and do nothing,” Alton said.

“I tried the cream as directed and was a bit skeptical only because I’ve tried other topicals before and non-prescription topicals,” Alton said. “within about 12-15 minutes, I experienced probably more than 50 percent relief and the relief lasted eight to nine hours.”

Now Alton works a full five-day schedule and sings in a band.

Tim Aaron, chronic pain consultant and co-owner, said with pain-relief creams spread on the skin — also known as transdermals — “there’s no playbook out there — we’ve done a lot of learning by mistakes and errors.”

Trevor Stokes can be reached at 256-740-5728 or .

The cause of autism may be faulty mitochondria December 3rd, 2010

AUTISM is a puzzling phenomenon. in its pure form it is an inability to understand the emotional responses of others that is seen in people of otherwise normal—sometimes above normal—intelligence. however, it is often associated with other problems, and can also appear in mild and severe forms. This variability has led many people to think of it as a spectrum of symptoms rather than a single, clear-cut syndrome. and that variability makes it hard to work out what causes it.

There is evidence of genetic influence, but no clear pattern of inheritance. The thought that the underlying cause may be hereditary, though, is one reason for disbelieving the hypothesis, which gained traction a few years ago but is now discredited, that measles vaccinations cause autism.

One suggestion that does pop up from time to time is that the process which leads to autism involves faulty mitochondria. The mitochondria are a cell’s powerpacks. They disassemble sugar molecules and turn the energy thus liberated into a form that biochemical machinery can use. Mitochondrial faults could be caused by broken genes, by environmental effects, or by a combination of the two.

Nerve cells have a huge demand for energy, so a failure of the mitochondria would certainly affect them. The question is, could it cause autism? to try to find out Cecilia Giulivi of the University of California, Davis, and her colleagues studied the mitochondria of ten children, aged between two and five years, who had been diagnosed with autism. They have just published their results in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Extracting nerve cells from the brains of children for a study like this is obviously out of the question. Instead, Dr Giulivi used immune-system cells called lymphocytes as surrogates. Lymphocytes, like nerve cells, use a lot of energy and thus rely heavily on their mitochondria. They are also easy to extract from blood. Dr Giulivi and her colleagues did just that, and then examined the activity of the lymphocytes’ mitochondria.

The children in question were randomly selected from a previous study on autism. They were matched with ten children of similar ages and ethnic backgrounds who were developing normally. Dr Giulivi found that mitochondria from children with autism consumed far less oxygen than those from the control group. that is a sign of lower activity. one important set of enzymes—NADH oxidases—used, on average, only a third as much oxygen in autistic children as they did in non-autists, and eight of the autistic children had significantly lower NADH-oxidase activity than is normal.

The mitochondria of the autistic children also leaked damaging oxygen-rich chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide. These are a normal by-product of mitochondrial activity, but are usually mopped up by special enzymes before they can escape and cause harm—for instance, by damaging a cell’s DNA. The level of hydrogen peroxide in the cells of autistic children was twice that found in non-autists. such high levels suggest the brains of autistic children are exposed to a lot of oxidative stress, something that would probably cause cumulative damage.

These results need to be taken with caution. First, ten is an extremely small sample. second, on the face of things, mitochondrial diseases appear far rarer than autism. They are diagnosed in fewer than six per 100,000 people in America, while autism of some sort is seen in as many as one in 110. Moreover, previous attempts to show a link have come up with a much weaker correlation between the two phenomena. a study of 69 autistic children that was published in 2005 found mitochondrial abnormalities in only five of them. that is higher than the background rate of mitochondrial disease, but nevertheless suggests that faulty mitochondria are not the only cause of autistic symptoms. This study did, however, use a broader sample of the autistic spectrum than Dr Giulivi’s, and looked at muscle cells, whose metabolic profiles are very different from nerve cells and lymphocytes.

It is also important to remember, in studies like this, that correlation is not causation. some third effect could be triggering both the symptoms of autism and the mitochondrial dysfunction. if it is really the mitochondria that are causing the problem, though, there is another hypothesis that needs to be addressed. This is that external triggers might expose such mitochondrial weaknesses earlier than would otherwise be the case.

In 2008 an American court awarded damages to a child after she developed health problems following routine childhood vaccinations. America’s Department of Health and Human Services looked into the child’s medical history and concluded that vaccines had significantly aggravated an underlying inherited mitochondrial disorder that predisposed her to metabolic problems that caused brain damage with features of autism.

The genetic condition in this particular case is rare: only four other examples are known. and no scientist—least of all Dr Giulivi—is suggesting that the new study bears on the question of environmental triggers of mitochondrial malfunction. But if faulty mitochondria do turn out to be a cause of autism, even if not in all cases, that question will have to be investigated. and you can bet your bottom dollar that somewhere out there is a lawyer wondering whether he can do just that.

Source: economist.com/node/17626864?story_id=17626864&fsrc=rss

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Growing public awareness of massage's benefits for alleviating a number of health problems — from stress to arthritis pain — and greater availability of services have made massage therapy accessible and affordable to a much broader spectrum of consumers than ever before.

if you're among the Americans whom the National Center for Health Statistics says spent $22 billion on visits to complementary and alternative medicine providers in 2007 (the latest year for which data are available), you'll want to get the most benefit and the best value out of your massage therapy visit.

The experts at Cortiva Institute offer some advice for how to partner with your therapist to find the massage that's right for you:

1. Find the right therapist.

Therapists who network can be very helpful because even if they can't provide the type of massage you need, they may know someone else who can.

Look for a therapist with good listening skills. has he really heard your reasons for seeking massage? is she able to repeat what you've told her and make appropriate recommendations?

"a good massage therapist, who attended a reputable massage therapy school, should be able to reflect back what they understood from the client and make suggestions about several services that may be beneficial for you that day," says Bobbe Berman, director of education at Cortiva Institute – Chicago.

2. explain your needs.

Your next step in choosing the right massage for your needs is to clearly explain to the therapist just what those needs are.

if your priority is pain relief, tell the therapist and explain where it hurts the most. Be sure to discuss any medical or health problems that you want to address.

and let the therapist know your level of experience with massage — if this is your first massage, if you've had others in the past, what types you had and whether you got the expected results/benefits from massage.

3. get an explanation.

ask the therapist to educate you by explaining the types of massages and their different benefits.

"Addressing the individual needs of the client is the focus of massage treatments," says Dianne Polseno, president of Cortiva Institute – Boston. "regardless of any agenda the therapist might have for the session, or what areas they want to focus on, they should have a client-centered approach. An important aspect of a massage therapist's job is to educate clients, which includes explaining modalities and helping the client decide which might be most helpful for their needs."

4. ask the right questions.

when you've zeroed in on a possible therapy, ask the therapist questions such as:

– what areas of the body does this treatment focus on?

– what types of products are used?

– what types of massage strokes are incorporated into this service?

"The answers to these questions will give you a good idea of what the service entails and will give you a point of reference," says Jeff Mann, president of Cortiva Institute – Pennsylvania.

New Research: Siblings boost kids’ mood

something about having a sister – even a little sister – makes 10- to 14-year-olds a bit less likely to feel down in the dumps.

In research involving nearly 400 families, having a sister protected adolescents from feeling lonely, unloved, guilty, self-conscious and fearful. it didn’t matter whether the sister was younger or older, or how far apart the siblings were agewise.

The study found that having a loving sibling of either gender promoted good deeds, such as helping a neighbor or watching out for other kids at school.

— Brigham Young University

Did You know?

In 2009, people who were obese incurred $1,429 per person extra in medical costs compared to people of normal weight. — CDC

Health Tip: Caregivers must care for themselves

are you caring for a loved one with a serious illness?

Some symptoms of caregiver stress include denial, anger, social withdrawal, anxiety, depression, exhaustion, sleeplessness, irritability, lack of concentration and health problems.

if you’re caring for someone else and neglect your own physical, mental and emotional well-being, you could be putting your own health at risk.

Talk to your doctor about how to manage this stress.

— Alzheimer’s Association

Number to know: 70

by age 75, about 70 percent of people have cataracts, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. People who have diabetes, smoke, or have a family history of cataract are more at risk.

Children’s Health: How to increase vegetable intake

Popeye cartoons, tasting parties and junior cooking classes can help increase vegetable intake in kindergarten children, according to new research published in the journal Nutrition & Dietetics.

Researchers found the type and amount of vegetables children ate improved after they took part in a program using multimedia and role models to promote healthy food.

The children planted vegetable seeds, took part in fruit and vegetable tasting parties, cooked vegetable soup and watched Popeye cartoons. Letters were sent to parents with tips on encouraging their kids to eat fruit and vegetables, and teachers sat with children at lunch to role model healthy eating.

— Nutrition & Dietetics

Senior Health: Gum disease linked to Alzheimer's

Researchers have found evidence that periodontal disease may increase the risk of cognitive dysfunction associated with Alzheimer's disease.

The research team examined 20 years of data that support the hypothesis of a possible causal link between periodontal disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Furthermore, the link was seen in healthy individuals as well as in those who already are cognitively impaired.

— new York University

GateHouse News Service