Researchers are blaming the growth of the Internet with an “alarming” growth in the number of instances of prescription drug abuse as web access makes drugs easier to obtain and “rogue pharmacies” make them more readily available.
Published in the journal Health Affairs, researchers noted that American states where access to high-speed Internet connections grew the fastest between 2000 and 2007 also had the largest increase in the number of people seeking treatment for prescription drug abuse.
The team gathered data from the Federal Communications Commission and first evaluated each state's populations' access to high-speed Internet access for those seven years. They then correlated that with information on admissions to substance clinics. On average, they found that with each state, a 10 per cent increase in high-speed access was correlated with a one per cent increase in prescription drug abuse admissions. The drugs for which increases were noted, from most to least, were narcotic painkillers, anti-anxiety medication, stimulants and sedatives. Conversely, addiction to substances not available on the Internet dropped or did not grow at all. These included cocaine, heroin and alcohol.
Men who drink at least six cups of coffee per day have a lower chance of developing prostate cancer and a lower risk of developing a more lethal cancer that spreads to the bone compared to men who never or rarely drink coffee.
Published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the study noted how coffee lowered the risk of developing breast cancer, liver cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, gallstone disease and Parkinson’s. Consequently, the team decided to study its effects on prostate cancer.
It evaluated data from the Health Professional Follow-Up Study that involved about 48,000 men. The team evaluated a 22-year period during which participants said they drank coffee for four-year periods. In the 22 years, there were 5,035 cases of prostate cancer, 642 of which were metastatic or lethal. The team discovered that a man who drank six cups or more each day had a 20 per cent reduced risk of developing any type of prostate cancer and a 60 per cent lower chance of ever getting the lethal type. Moderate drinkers — those who drank one to three cups — had a 30 per cent reduced risk of contracting the more lethal type.
The authors concluded the biologically active compounds that exist in coffee, which are potent antioxidants, can impact prostate cancer rates and that “the association appears to be related to non-caffeine components of coffee.”
Preventing prostate cancer cells from “bulking up” with nutrients reduces the spread of the disease and the size of the tumour, according to new research.
Published in EMBO Journal, the study noted that prostate cancer is partly driven by signals from cells from an androgen receptor (AR) protein. AR signals regulate the prostate cancer biomarker prostate specific antigen but how the full network of genes controlled this way is not yet understood.
The research team decided to search through the DNA in prostate cancer cells to identify genes controlled by AR and find new ways to treat the disease. It identified a number of genes, including one that influences a specific enzyme that controls glucose consumption in cells. Cancer cells need high levels of glucose to grow, divide and produce fats, proteins, DNA and RNA. Unusually high levels of this one gene were found in prostate cancer cells. Using a mouse study, the team demonstrated that stopping the production and activity of the gene blocked prostate cancer cell spread and reduced the size of a tumour.
An article in Nature Genetics claims to have found what researchers call a “master regulator gene” that causes obesity, is linked to diabetes and cholesterol and controls the behaviour of some genes found in fat cells.
Researchers have already discovered KLF14, the gene linked to cholesterol levels and type 2 diabetes but nobody knew what role it played. The research team took fat biopsies from underneath the skin of 776 female twins in England and analyzed about 20,000 genes in the fat cells.
They described the role of KLF14 as it influences the behaviour of distant genes inside fat tissue. They followed up with another 600 samples of a group of people from Iceland, which confirmed their initial findings. The gene is inherited from the mother, as the father’s copy of it is switched off.
Study co-leader Mark McCarthy of the University of Oxford wrote, “KLF14 seems to act as a master switch controlling processes that connect changes in the behaviour of subcutaneous fat to disturbances in muscle and liver that contribute to diabetes and other conditions. We are working hard right now to understand these processes and how we can use this information to improve treatment of these conditions.”
How a person thinks about death as opposed to whether or not they do at all can influence how they act, according to a study in Psychological Science.
A research team recruited 90 people, all of whom were asked general questions about death like their thoughts and feelings and what they think happens to people when they die. Others were asked to imagine dying in an apartment fire and asked four questions about how they thought they would deal with the experience and how they thought their families would react. The control group was asked about dental pain.
The participants were then given a fake news article about blood donations. One version said donations were not urgently required, while the other stated they were. They were then given a pamphlet guaranteeing fast registration at a blood centre that day. They were specifically told they should only take the pamphlet if they planned to donate that day.
The results found that people who were asked general, abstract questions about death were more likely to take a pamphlet if they read the story about a blood shortage. But those asked to specifically contemplate their own death were more likely to take a pamphlet regardless of which article they read.
Lead author Laura Blackie said that when people think about death abstractly they might be more likely to fear it, but thinking specifically about one’s own death “enables people to integrate the idea of death in their lives more fully.” The result is thinking more about what they value in life.
