(May 16, 2012 - Insidermedicine) From Oxford - Statins reduce risk of heart attacks and strokes, even in low-risk individuals, according to a report published in the Lancet.

(May 16, 2012 - Insidermedicine)

From Oxford - Statins reduce risk of heart attacks and strokes, even in low-risk individuals, according to a report published in the Lancet. Researchers conducted a meta-analysis examining nearly 30 trials and 175 000 individuals--including both young and old men and women who were at low to high risk for suffering a vascular event.  Results showed that that statins reduced risk of vascular events in all of the individuals by 21% for every 1mmol/L reduction in LDL cholesterol.

From New Hampshire - Contact sports such as football and hockey may cause learning problems in the athletes, according to a report published in Neurology. Researchers compared over 200 college athletes participating in contact sports to 45 non-contact athletes. They found that the contact sport athletes experienced more head impacts and performed worse on tests measuring new learning.

From Boston - A new report published in Science Translational Medicine finds that soldiers exposed to explosions are at raised risk of serious brain injury. Researchers found that the brains of soldiers exposed to a single blast showed evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy--an injury similar to that experienced by athletes with a history of repetitive concussions.

(May 16, 2012 - Insidermedicine)  Parkinson’s disease may actually start in the intestines, causing changes in the nerve cells that may be detected years before motor symptoms begin, according to research published in Movement Disorders.

(May 16, 2012 - Insidermedicine)

 Parkinson’s disease may actually start in the intestines, causing changes in the nerve cells that may be detected years before motor symptoms begin, according to research published in Movement Disorders.

Here is some information about Parkinson’s disease:

•    It is a disorder associated with aging in which nerve and brain cells associated with movement start to deteriorate

•    It affects an estimated 5 million people worldwide

•    It is estimated that it will affect 10 million people worldwide by 2030

Researchers from of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago took nerve tissue samples of the wall of the lower intestine from patients with early Parkinson’s disease as well as healthy adults who were undergoing colonoscopy or a similar but less invasive procedure known as a sigmoidoscopy.

Examination of the nerve tissue among the patients with Parkinson’s disease revealed the presence of clumps of a protein known as alpha-synuclein. These very same protein clumps are what make up Lewy bodies in the brain, which is the hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. Similar protein clumps were absent in the tissue taken from healthy adults. These findings are all the more interesting because several of the patients with Parkinson’s in the study were in such an early stage of the disease that they had not developed any of the movement difficulties associated with the condition.

We spoke with Dr. Kathleen Shannon, PI of this study, who offered some further insight.

Today’s research suggests that, in the near future, screening for Parkinson’s disease could be paired with routine colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy screening.

(May 16, 2012 - Insidermedicine) From Oxford - Statins reduce risk of heart attacks and strokes, even in low-risk individuals, according to a report published in the Lancet.

(May 16, 2012 - Insidermedicine)

From Oxford - Statins reduce risk of heart attacks and strokes, even in low-risk individuals, according to a report published in the Lancet. Researchers conducted a meta-analysis examining nearly 30 trials and 175 000 individuals--including both young and old men and women who were at low to high risk for suffering a vascular event.  Results showed that that statins reduced risk of vascular events in all of the individuals by 21% for every 1mmol/L reduction in LDL cholesterol.

(May 16, 2012 - Insidermedicine)  From New Hampshire - Contact sports such as football and hockey may cause learning problems in the athletes, according to a report published in Neurology.

(May 16, 2012 - Insidermedicine) 

From New Hampshire - Contact sports such as football and hockey may cause learning problems in the athletes, according to a report published in Neurology. Researchers compared over 200 college athletes participating in contact sports to 45 non-contact athletes. They found that the contact sport athletes experienced more head impacts and performed worse on tests measuring new learning.

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