Increasing women’s testosterone level boosts running capacity, new study finds

In the first study of its kind, a new European research has found that higher testosterone levels in females have a significant effect on a woman’s ability to run for longer.

Carried out at Karolinska University Hospital and Swedish School of Sports and Health Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden, the new study looked at 48 physically active and healthy 18- to 35-year-old women and randomly split them into two groups.

One group applied 10 milligrams of testosterone cream to the outer thigh each day for 10 weeks, while the other 10 milligrams of an inactive (placebo) substance.

The women’s hormone levels and body composition—percentage of body fat and lean muscle mass—were measured at the beginning and end of the 10 weeks.

To test how the testosterone cream affects aerobic performance, the researchers measured how long the women could run on a treadmill before reaching the point of exhaustion, and to test the effect on anaerobic performance, which requires short bursts of energy, the women were asked to complete exercises such as squat jumps and standing vertical jumps.

The findings, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, showed that the women who used the testosterone cream experienced a rise in their levels of the hormone, with average circulating levels of testosterone increasing from 0.9 nanomoles/liter of blood to 4.3 nanomoles/l among these women.


Perhaps unsurprisingly, the women who took the inactive cream experienced no increase in testosterone levels.

The women who applied the testosterone cream also experienced a significant boost to their capacity to run for longer, with the team finding that running time to exhaustion increased significantly by 21.17 seconds (8.5%) in this group, compared with the women who took the inactive substance.

The testosterone group also experienced increases in muscle mass and leanness, though their body weight did not change.

However, there were no significant changes on any of the anaerobic performance measures, or any significant changes in weight.

It is already known that testosterone levels can impact sports performance. The researchers note that male athletes have, in general, an advantage of 10-15% in comparison with female athletes, which is most likely due to men having, on average, more than 15 times higher circulating testosterone than women.


There has been much discussion recently about whether women with levels of testosterone high enough to fall into the male range, as a result of rare inborn conditions, should be allowed to compete against women with normal levels of the hormone, although evidence is limited on the effect of testosterone on female performance.

However, the International Association of Athletics Federations has said that female athletes with high levels of the hormone must lower their testosterone levels to below 5 nanomoles/liter of blood to be eligible to compete at international level in middle distance races (400 meters to 1 mile), which has been widely criticized and legally challenged.

“Our results are therefore of great importance for the ongoing discussion of whether it is fair to allow athletes with naturally high testosterone to compete in the female category without reducing their hormonal concentration to the female range,” conclude the researchers. IB /ra

source: technology.inquirer.net

No need for chemo in many breast and lung cancers – study

TAMPA, United States — Two major studies released Sunday show that many people with breast and lung cancers may forgo chemotherapy and still live longer, signaling a waning need for what was long seen as the standard of cancer care.

The findings were released at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago, the world’s largest annual cancer conference.

The first study, described as the largest breast cancer treatment trial to date, found that the majority of women with a common form of breast cancer may be able to skip chemotherapy and its toxic, and often debilitating, side effects after surgery depending on their score on a genetic test.

As many as 65,000 women in the United States alone could be affected by the findings.

Until now, women have faced considerable uncertainty about whether to add chemo to hormone therapy after a diagnosis with hormone-receptor positive, HER-2 negative breast cancer when found at an early stage, before it has spread to the lymph nodes.

“With results of this groundbreaking study, we now can safely avoid chemotherapy in about 70 percent of patients who are diagnosed with the most common form of breast cancer,” said co-author Kathy Albain, an oncologist at Loyola Medicine in a Chicago suburb.

A 21-gene test called Oncotype DX, available since 2004, has helped guide some decisions on proper care after surgery.

A high recurrence score, above 25, means chemo is advised to ward off a recurrence, while a low score, below 10, means it is not.

The current study focused on those whose scores were in the middle range, from 11 to 25.

More than 10,000 women, aged 18 to 75, were randomly assigned to receive chemotherapy followed by hormone therapy, or hormone therapy alone.

Researchers studied their outcomes, including whether or not cancer recurred, and their overall survival.



‘No significant difference’

“For the entire study population with gene test scores between 11 and 25 — and especially among women aged 50 to 75 — there was no significant difference between the chemotherapy and no chemotherapy groups,” said the findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The results show that all women over 50 with a recurrence score of 0 to 25 can be spared chemotherapy and its toxic side effects.

For women under 50 with a score of 0 to 15, chemo can be skipped.

However, among younger women with scores 16 to 25, outcomes were slightly better in the chemotherapy group, so in those cases doctors may urge patients to consider a chemo regimen.

The results “should have a huge impact on doctors and patients,” Albain said.

“We are de-escalating toxic therapy.”

According to first author Joseph Sparano of Montefiore Medical Center in New York, “any woman with early-stage breast cancer 75 or younger should have the test and discuss the results” with her doctor.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide, causing some 1.7 million new cases annually and over half a million deaths.

The study’s primary funding came from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Lung cancer

The second study tested a form of immunotherapy against chemo, in the most common lung cancer worldwide, known as non-small-cell lung cancer.

It found that Merck pharmaceutical’s drug Keytruda (pembrolizumab) — which famously helped former US president Jimmy Carter stave off advanced melanoma that had spread to his brain — helped lung cancer patients live four to eight months longer than chemo.

More than 1,200 people enrolled in the study, the largest clinical trial to date of pembrolizumab as a stand-alone therapy for lung cancer. The drug was approved in 2014 for melanoma and in 2015 for lung cancer.

“These are responses that are unlike anything we have seen in the past for non-small-cell lung cancer,” said lead author Gilberto Lopes, a medical oncologist at the University of Miami Health Center.

Still, he acknowledged that most patients with this form of advanced cancer will die within months, and “we need to do a lot more work.”

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, taking 1.7 million lives per year.

John Heymach, a professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center who was not involved in the Merck-funded study, described it as a “true milestone” and “a real important advance for patients.”

“We are now leaving an era where the only choice for non-small-cell lung cancer patients was to start with chemotherapy,” he told reporters at the ASCO conference.

“Now, the vast majority of patients can potentially receive benefits from immunotherapy instead,” he added.

“Immunotherapy is here to stay for the vast majority of non-small-cell lung cancer patients as a first-line treatment.” /cbb

source: technology.inquirer.net

Human form of ‘mad cow’ disease detectable in skin – study

Abnormal proteins involved in the brain-destroying Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) – a human form of “mad cow” disease – are detectable in the skin, raising new concerns about the virus’ transmission, researchers said on Wednesday.

According to the report in the journal Science Translational Medicine, while it is highly unlikely that the fast-moving and fatal disease could be spread by casual contact, since the prions in the skin are at levels 1,000-100,000 times lower than in the brain, the discovery means CJD could be spread through common surgeries that do not involve the brain.


“It is well known that CJD is transmissible via surgical or medical procedures involving prion-infected brain tissue,” said lead author Wen-Quan Zou, associate professor of pathology and neurology at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.

“Our finding of infectious prions in skin is important since it not only raises concerns about the potential for disease transmission via common surgeries not involving the brain, but also suggests that skin biopsies and autopsies may enhance pre-mortem and post-mortem CJD diagnosis,” he added.

Only biopsies, spinal taps or autopsies can tell for sure if a patient is stricken with the rare, degenerative brain disorder which affects one in a million people per year worldwide.

Patients develop tiny sponge-like holes in their brains, and experience sudden memory and vision problems, behavioral changes, and poor coordination.

There is no cure for CJD and most people who are diagnosed rapidly deteriorate, and die within a year.

The study was based on skin samples from 38 patients, who died from the disease.

Prion levels were measured using a new, highly sensitive test.

Research using lab mice showed that these skin prions are indeed infectious, and capable of causing disease.

But more research is needed to better understand the risks.

“The level of prion infectivity detected in CJD skin was surprisingly significant, but still much lower than that in CJD brains,” said co-author Qingzhong Kong, associate professor of pathology and neurology at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.

“Prion transmission risk from surgical instruments contaminated by skin prions should be much lower than that of instruments contaminated by brain tissue,” he also said.

The findings may also assist in diagnosing the condition less invasively, whether before or after death.

“Using the skin instead of brain tissue for post-mortem diagnosis could be particularly helpful in cultures that discourage brain autopsy, such as China and India,” Zou said.

“These countries have the largest populations with the greatest number of patients, but brain autopsy is often not performed,” he added.

The disease leapt into public awareness decades ago when people in Britain were diagnosed with a type of CJD after eating meat from diseased cattle.

The European Union ordered a worldwide embargo on British beef and its derivatives in 1996, then lifted it three years later.

The World Health Organization said there have been 224 cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from October 1996 to March 2011, mainly in Britain.             /kga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

‘Epidemic’ of fragranced products is affecting our health, says new study

The recent trend for “cleaner,” more natural, unprocessed foods for improved health and well-being has also led to a shift towards household and beauty products that are also more natural and without preservatives, and possibly for a good reason.

According to recent research, consumers’ extra attention to what they are putting on their bodies and in their homes could be beneficial for health, with a new study finding that one in three Australians report health problems related to fragranced products.

Professor Anne Steinemann from the University of Melbourne School of Engineering led a survey of a random sample of 1,098 people taken from a large, web-based panel held by Survey Sampling International (SSI).

She found that when exposed to fragranced products, 33 percent of Australians suffer a variety of adverse health effects, including breathing difficulties, headaches, dizziness, rashes, congestion, seizures, nausea and a range of other physical problems.

In addition, the results also showed that 7.7 percent of Australians have lost workdays or a job in the past year due to illnesses caused by exposure to fragranced products in their workplace, and 16.7 percent want to leave a shop or business as quickly as possible if they smell air fresheners or other fragranced products.

“This is an epidemic,” said Professor Steinemann commenting on the findings. “Fragranced products are creating health problems across Australia. The effects can be immediate, severe and potentially disabling. But they can also be subtle, and people may not realize they’re being affected.”

Professor Steinemann’s previous research in the United States found similar results, revealing that 34.7 percent of people experience health problems when exposed to fragranced products.

Fragranced products—which can include air fresheners, cleaning products, laundry supplies and personal care products—give off a range of chemicals including hazardous air pollutants, with Professor Steinemann adding that, “All types of fragranced products tested—even those with claims of ‘green,’ ‘organic,’ and ‘all-natural’—emitted hazardous air pollutants.”

According to Greenbiz, half of all consumer products contain fragrance, and more than 3,000 chemicals can add fragrance to consumer goods worldwide.

Although what product information is required to be disclosed to consumers varies in each country, fragrance ingredients are exempt from full disclosure in any product, not only in the U.S. but also internationally. Often, labeling is vague, with many ingredients just coming under the umbrella of fragrance.

Professor Steinemann’s research will now continue to investigate why fragrance chemicals are causing health problems, and what their effect may be in indoor environments.

The findings can be found published online in the journal “Preventive Medicine Reports” with more information also available on Professor Steinemann’s own website.

Information for consumers about products can also be found on www.ewg.org. JB

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net