New research shows, high-risk breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, with HER2-positive tumors, benefit from receiving the targeted therapy Herceptin. “The cancers are usually bigger. They may have spread to the lymph nodes in the armpits,” said Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La. They’re usually not small enough to be cut out to preserve the breast, which is the reason why Herceptin is so valuable to patients who have locally advanced breast cancer.
When Dr. Brooks sees a patient with advanced breast cancer, to shrink the tumor, he treats them first with chemotherapy, along with trastuzumad (Herceptin). After about six months time, once chemo is done, to remove the tumor with operation is easier. This patient will continue with Herceptin for the next years and then followed by radiation.
Funded by Hoffmann-La Roche, which makes the drug, the new study is one of the largest looking at Herceptin in this context. This study can be found in the Jan. 30 issue of The Lancet.  women with both early and metastatic breast cancer live longer, previous research showed that Herceptin and chemotherapy helped.

A new study has found that the death rates for children in the U.S. with rheumatic diseases are lower than reported earlier. Those who were diagnosed with rheumatic diseases between 1992 and 2001,

Cleveland Clinic researchers analyzed data on 48,885 patients in the national Pediatric Rheumatology Disease Registry. A number that was significantly less than expected, There were just 110 deaths among these patients.
For children with systemic lupus erythematosus and dermatomyositis, but not for systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, the risk of death was notably greater. For those children with pain syndromes, the risk of death was markedly less.
According to the study published in the February issue of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism, while many of the deceased with pain syndromes died of non-natural causes, most of the deceased with inflammatory disease died of their disease or complications of that disease. “The improved treatment that was introduced in the 1990s could be one possible cause of the increased survival in the present study compared with previous studies,” said lead author Dr. Philip Hashkes. He also felt that continued follow-up of this cohort for mortality trends should be investigated in future studies.

New research suggests that premature aging is found to be striking the brains of those people infected with the virus that causes AIDS. It is unclear if it is both the drug and the virus, or one or the other, is to blame for contributing to the aging. They are sure that the blood flow in the patients with HIV is almost the same of those people who are uninfected and are 15 to 20 years older.
“This infection’s effects on the brain a significant source of concern for the graying of the AIDS patient community,” says study author Dr. Beau Ances who is an assistant professor of neurology at Washington University in St. Louis. He went on to say that “some are coming forward to discuss concerns about problems they’re having with memory and cognitive functions and these patients are surviving to their senior years.”
Over 50 years old are an estimated 14-18 percent of all AIDS patients in the U.S. People over the age of 20 by the year 2015, will account for over half of all AIDS patients. And older people face the highest rates of new infections.  In a study where the average age and education level were similar, researchers used MRI scans to study the blood flow in the brains of 26 HIV-infected people and 25 other people who weren’t infected.  Researchers found lower blood flow in the brains of the HIV patients.

New studies have found that children who test positive for peanut allergies might not have a full-blown allergy to that particular food. UK researchers who tested seventy-nine 8 year-olds who were said to be peanut sensitive, found that only seven of them has a true allergy to the nut.
Today, a peanut allergy is diagnosed by a blood test, skin test and sometimes both. Both these tests gauge the peanut sensitivity which is the response by the immune system to the proteins in the peanut. But the true allergy is not in everyone although specific symptoms like hives, swelling and wheezing can occur after eating peanuts.
Dr. Adnan Custovic who is with the University of Manchester, claims  “parents often seek peanut-allergy testing when a child has allergies to other foods, or when they have another child with a peanut allergy,” Only 7 of the 79 peanut-sensitized children showed objective symptoms during the food challenge in this study. Not a practical or routinely used option, food-challenge tests are the “gold standard” for diagnosing peanut allergy. Custovic also noted that besides being possibly casing a severs allergic reaction, the tests are expensive and time consuming.

We are bombarded with news of top notch athletes being exposed for using illegal steroids when reading the sports news these days. Steroid use involves legal issues, huge costs and even worse, potential health problems.  You wonder why anyone would be tempted to go this route with risks like that.
Nitric Oxide is a vasodilator and one of the most interesting fields of research. Nitric Oxide helps move oxygen to the muscles when they need it most and in the blood stream,  it signals the blood vessel walls to relax which allows more blood to flow to the body’s muscles. In doing this, it delivers more nutrients and oxygen throughout the body.
The best way to increase the levels of Nitric Oxide in the body is with “arginines.”  These are special amino acids linked to Nitric Oxide production. Force Factor is where one of the most powerful and natural Arginine blends is found. Force Factor, according to the company,  produces noticeable results from day one, including increased energy and alertness.  Users noticed additional muscle definition, strength and size within a few weeks.  A stronger immune system and faster wound healing have been shown as benefits from a healthy level of nitric oxide.