Minimalist Procedure For Male Fertility

The condition, called varicocele, is a network of tangled blood vessels in the scrotum which prevents the normal circulation of blood through the veins in the testicles. A minimally invasive radiological procedure called embolization can, in most cases, correct the problem. “Using the embolization of varicoceles, we were able to improve factors related to infertility, especially sperm count and sperm motility,” said lead researcher Dr. Sebastian Flacke, an associate professor of radiology at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston.

In embolization, a small catheter is inserted into the groin and, using X-ray guidance, is placed in the varicocele. Once the catheter is placed, a tiny platinum coil and a few milliliters of an agent to ensure the closure of the gonadic vein are also inserted. The minimally invasive procedure has a short recovery time; most patients go home the next day.

Varicoceles are very common, Flacke noted. In fact, about 20 percent of all men have them. Not all of these cause infertility or need to be treated, he said. The problem is usually treated if it causes pain, shrinkage or fertility problems. “If you’re dealing with infertility and have varicoceles this should be treated,” Flacke said. By improving sperm count, the treatment could also be valuable in situations where the woman is having problems conceiving, he added.

“Most of the time, infertility is on both the male and female side,” Flacke said. “Most of the time females get treated first if there is an issue, and men are neglected. I think you could boost the performance of the sperm if a varicocele is present and treated.” For the study, Flacke’s team collected data on 223 infertile men with at least one varicose vein. All the men had healthy partners with whom they wanted to have a baby.

Flacke’s group used embolization to successfully relieve 226 of the 228 varicose veins among the men. Three months after the procedure, the researchers analyzed the sperm of 173 patients. The analysis showed, on average, that sperm motility and sperm count had significantly improved. Infertility expert Dr. Hossein Sadeghi-Nejad, an associate professor of urology at UMDNJ New Jersey Medical School and Hackensack University Medical Center, thinks this procedure can be useful even if it is not the preferred one.

Sadeghi-Nejad noted that, as a rule, infertility treatment begins with a woman. “The fact is that a male factor is responsible for infertility in about half of the cases,” he said. “Varicoceles are one example of the male factor that can affect fertility.” However, there are drawbacks to embolization, Sadeghi-Nejad added. These include a steep learning curve to get used to doing the procedure and the danger of prolonged or misdirected radiation, especially if there are varicoceles on both sides of the scrotum.

Cell Phone May Cause Deafness

Long-time mobile phone users who talk more than an hour a day on the devices may be may be more likely to have high-frequency hearing loss, researchers say. “Our intention is not to scare the public,” says Naresh K. Panda, MS, DNB, chairman of the department of ear, nose, and throat at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India, and researcher for the study. The study, he tells WebMD, is preliminary and small. “We need to study a larger number of patients.”

His team found that people who had talked on cell phones for more than four years and those who talked more than an hour daily were more likely to have these high-frequency losses. These losses can make it difficult to hear consonants such as s, f, t and z, making it hard to understand words. But another hearing expert familiar with the study says there is as yet no cause for alarm.

Panda and his colleagues evaluated 100 people, aged 18 to 45, who had used mobile phones for at least a year, dividing them into three groups according to length of use. One group of 35 had used phones for one to two years; another group of 35 had used them for two to four years, and a group of 30 had used them for more than four years. “We asked them if they had been using the phones less than 60 minutes or more than 60 minutes per day,” Panda says. They compared the phone users with 50 people who had never used cell phones and served as a control group.

Those who used the mobile phones for more than four years had more hearing loss in high-frequency ranges in their right ear, the ear most held the phone to, than those who used the mobile phone for one to two years. One- to two-year users had a 16.48 decibel loss in the high-frequency range, he says, while those who used the phones more than four years had a 24.54 decibel loss.

That decrease in hearing over a relatively brief period may not be noticeable to mobile phone users but would be of concern to a hearing expert, says Andy Vermiglio, AuD, a research audiologist at House Ear Institute in Los Angeles. Long-term mobile phone use may result in inner ear damage, Panda speculates. And symptoms such as ear warmth or fullness could be early warning signs of that damage.

The research is too preliminary to warrant alarm, says Chester Griffiths, MD, chairman of the surgery department at Santa Monica — UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital and assistant clinical professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles. He was not involved in the study but reviewed the findings for WebMD.

“There have been numerous studies conducted around the globe that have been peer-reviewed and published in leading scientific journals that show no association between wireless usage and adverse health effects,” Farren says. The subjects in the Indian study used GSM mobile phones. Farren says U.S. mobile phone users have phones that use the GSM platform but also other platforms. Panda plans to continue his research. Meanwhile, his advice to preserve hearing: “Use cell phones when absolutely necessary.

The Fact About Aging

In the journal Cell, researchers report that when a worm gene called elt-3 becomes less active, lots of other genes do the same, and worms age. So what, you ask? The scientists want to find out if a similar process happens in other animals, including humans. If so, keeping key genes active may keep aging at bay.

Stanford University’s Yelena Budovskaya and colleagues basically showed that aging is written into worms’ genetic script — at least, in a lab where worms lived out their days without becoming some other animal’s supper. The elt-3 gene was one of the worms’ important aging genes. When the elt-3 slowed down, aging picked up its pace.

Budovskaya’s team notes that in humans and other mammals, aging has been shown to result from DNA damage, stress, and inflammation. The worm findings don’t change that, but scientists write that it will be “interesting” to see if changes in gene activity are also part of the aging process. If so, that could lead to a search for ways to edit the genetic script for aging.

Iced Tea Increase risk of kidney stones

Kidney stones, crystals that develop in the kidneys or the tubes that carry urine from the kidney to the bladder, affect 10 percent of the U.S. population, and men run a four times greater risk than women of developing them. The chance of forming kidney stones rises steeply after the age of 40. Oxalate, a key chemical in the formation of kidney stones, comes in high concentrations in iced tea.

“For many people, iced tea is potentially one of the worst things they can drink,” John Milner, an instructor in the department of urology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, said in a news release. “For people who have a tendency to form kidney stones, it’s definitely one of the worst things you can drink.”

The failure to stay hydrated is a common cause of kidney stones. Summertime heat and humidity, which causes excessively sweating and dehydration, combined with an marked increase in iced tea consumption in the United States, raises the risk of kidney stones during this time of year.

The Tea Association of the U.S.A. reports that Americans consume almost 1.91 billon gallons of iced teas a year, a dramatic rise given the belief that the beverage is healthier than other alternatives such as soda and beer. “Lemons are very high in citrates, which inhibit the growth of kidney stones,” Milner said. “Lemonade, not the powdered variety that uses artificial flavoring, actually slows the development of kidney stones for those who are prone to the development of kidney stones.”

Other foods containing high concentrations of oxalates that people prone to kidney stones should avoid include spinach, chocolate, rhubarb and nuts. Going light on salt consumption, reducing the amount of meat consumed, drinking several glasses a water a day, and eating foods high in calcium, which counteract any oxalates the body absorbs, also helps.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Good For Cardiac Arrest

High-dose hyperbaric oxygen therapy shows promise as a way to extend the window of opportunity to resuscitate a person whose heart has stopped during sudden cardiac arrest, a new study shows. Researchers at the School of Medicine at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans report they used the technique to revive pigs up to 25 minutes after their hearts had stopped beating. In humans, if a patient’s heart is not restarted through some means (CPR, medications or electric shock) within 16 minutes, 100 percent of patients die, according to American Heart Association statistics.
“To resuscitate any living organism after 25 minutes of heart stoppage at room temperature has never been reported and suggests that the time to successful resuscitation in humans may be extended beyond the stubborn figure of 16 minutes that has stood for 50 years,” study leader Keith Van Meter, a clinical professor of medicine at the LSU center, said in an university news release.

In the study, LSU researchers stopped the heart of laboratory swine kept at room temperature and declared them dead from cardiac arrest. After waiting 25 minutes, they attempted advanced cardiac life support to resuscitate them accompanied by either normal or high doses of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. None of the swine received artificial breathing, CPR, medications, or electric shocks during their cardiac arrest.

“The present study shows that short-term, high-dose hyperbaric oxygen is an effective resuscitation tool and is safe in a small multi-place hyperbaric chamber,” Van Meter said. “A rehearsed team can easily load a patient in cardiopulmonary arrest into a small multi-place chamber in the pre-hospital or hospital setting without interrupting CPR or advanced cardiac life support. Successful resuscitation at 25 minutes suggests that if high-dose hyperbaric oxygen is used at the current ACLS limit of 16 minutes, a greater survival may be achieved in humans and allow application of more definitive treatment such as clot-dissolving drugs.”

The Right Way To Exercise

There you are, sitting on the couch, remote in hand, thinking, “I should be exercising. If only I weren’t too tired to get off the couch!” Indeed, fatigue is among the most common complaints doctors hear. But you might be surprised to learn that experts say one of the best antidotes to beating fatigue and boosting energy is to exercise more, not less. “It’s now been shown in many studies that once you actually start moving around — even just getting up off the couch and walking around the room — the more you will want to move, and, ultimately, the more energy you will feel,” says Robert E. Thayer, PhD, a psychology professor at California State University, Long Beach, and author of the book Calm Energy: How People Regulate Mood With Food.

And, experts say, when it comes to fighting fatigue, not all exercise is created equal. Read on to find out what kind of exercise and how much you should be doing for optimum energy-boosting results. In a study published in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics in 2008, University of Georgia researchers found that inactive folks who normally complained of fatigue could increase energy by 20% while decreasing fatigue by as much as 65% by simply participating in regular, low-intensity exercise. Further, Thayer says, a study he plans to present at an American Psychological Association meeting reveals that on days when people walked more total daily steps, they ended the day with more energy then on days when they walked less.

“Contrary to popular belief, exercising doesn’t make you tired — it literally creates energy in your body. Your body rises up to meet the challenge for more energy by becoming stronger,” says nutritionist Samantha Heller, MS, RD, a nutrition advisor for the Journey for Control diabetes program.

Heller says this happens on the cellular level, where the first stirrings of our natural energy production begin. “It all begins with tiny organs called mitochondria. Located in our cells, they work like tiny power plants to produce energy,” she says.

While some of that energy comes from your diet (one reason that eating too little can power down your metabolism), the number of mitochondria you have — and thus your ability to produce energy is affected by your daily activity. “For example, the more you exercise aerobically, the more mitochondria the body makes to produce more energy to meet your needs, which is one reason how and why regular cardiovascular exercise actually creates more available energy for your body,” says Heller.

First of all, Thayer says, it’s important to understand that there are different types of energy. And not all have the same positive effect on the body.
He says that many Americans, particularly “achievement-oriented Type A people” have “tense energy” — an effective state that allows you to get lots of work done, but that can quickly move into tense-tiredness, a negative state often associated with depression.

“What summarizes the relationship best is moderate exercise like a 10- or 15-minute walk has the primary effect of increased energy, while very intense exercise like working out at the gym, 45 minutes of treadmill has the primary effect of at least temporarily reducing energy, because you come away tired,” he says. When exercising for energy, she says, “You should always aim to exercise in your low to moderate training heart rate range. This will prevent you from depleting your body, and help you avoid feeling fatigued, which would otherwise prevent you from getting the maximum energy benefits.” In addition to walking, experts say other forms of exercise that help increase “calm energy” are yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, and, sometimes, resistance strength training, particularly when done with slow, deliberate motions.

“In a study we did about 10 years ago, we found that music was a very effective way to change a person’s mood,” he says. “And though we don’t have any data just yet, we are now studying whether workouts that combine music and movement, like Jazzercise, can induce this state of calm energy that is so healthy.”

“Though it’s mostly anecdotal at this point, we are starting to see that while intense exercise may tire you out, it also reduces tension, so that after an hour or so, when your muscles begin to recover, you might see a surge of energy but without tension,” says Thayer. “This allows food, which is a form of energy, to be broken down and the nutrients enter the bloodstream, while preparing the body for work,” she says. “The end result: You have more energy while you’re working out — and more energy afterwards.” Heller also reminds us to drink plenty of water before, during, and after working out to help decrease workout-related fatigue.

And finally, what if you’re really just too tired to do anything at all? Experts say simply getting up out of your chair may be enough to get those mitochondria energy factories powered up — and for you to feel some instant results. Says Thayer: “Even if you think you’re too tired to do anything, get up and walk around the room, and in a couple of minutes you’re going to feel some energy that wasn’t there before. And that may lead you to want to move even more.”

Eat Fish To be Smart

That news comes from Norway, where people often eat fatty fish such as salmon, lean fish such as cod, and processed fish such as fish “fingers.” In a Norwegian study, about 2,030 people in their early 70s reported their fish consumption and took various mental skills tests.

People who reported eating on average at least a third of an ounce of fish per day 10 grams outscored those who skimped on fish, regardless of factors including age, education, and heart health. Most participants ate fish, and the more fish they ate, the better their test scores were up to a point. Test scores leveled off for people who ate more than about 2.5 to 2.8 daily ounces of fish.To put that in perspective, 3 ounces of fish is about the size of a checkbook, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The Norwegian researchers who included Eha Nurk, MD, of Norway’s University of Oslo didn’t follow the elders over time, so they can’t prove that fish boosted test scores.

But a new Dutch study connects those dots, linking a quicker mind to higher blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids. The omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA are found in fatty fish such as salmon and mackerel. Other omega-3 fatty acids called ALAs are found in certain plant foods, including walnuts, flaxseeds, and spinach. Dutch researchers studied some 800 men and women aged 50-70. Participants provided blood samples and took mental skills tests at the study’s start and again three years later.

Test scores were lower on the follow-up test. But the drop was gentlest in people with the highest blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids at the study’s start. That pattern held when participants had to quickly respond to mental challenges, but not to general tests of memory, report the researchers. They included Carla Dullemeijer, MSc, of Wageningen University.

A New Zealand study links higher blood levels of the omega-3 fatty acid EPA with better self-reported health. Those findings come from data on about 2,400 New Zealanders aged 15 and older who gave blood samples and completed a survey on their physical and mental health. The omega-3 fatty acid EPA was strongly and consistently tied to better self-reported physical health, according to the study. But the connection between EPA and self-reported mental well-being is “less compelling,” write the researchers, who included Francesca Crowe, BSc, of the University of Otago.

In his editorial, Rosenberg writes that observational studies such as these “fall far short of showing a causal effect.” That is, none of the studies prove that fish or omega-3 fatty acids were responsible for the results. Rosenberg works in Boston at Tufts University’s Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging.

Fruit Diets Help Diabetes

Three new studies shed more light on how diet affects your odds of developing type 2 diabetes. Each study covers a different aspect of diet. Together, the studies show that diabetes risk may rise if you drink too many sodas and sweetened fruit drinks, fall if you eat more fruits and vegetables, and may not be affected by how much fat you eat. But there’s another key theme that runs through the studies: There’s no getting around calories. Blow your calorie budget and you’ll gain weight, which makes type 2 diabetes more likely.

“Until we have more information, we have to assume that calories trump everything else, and that our No. 1 goal for the reduction of new cases of type 2 diabetes should be to reduce the intake of high-energy, low-benefit foods,” especially in young people at high risk of diabetes, write Mark Feinglos, MD, CM, and Susan Totten, RD, from Duke University Medical Center.

Sugary sodas and fruit drinks may be linked to increased risk of type 2 diabetes in African-American women, the first study shows.The study included nearly 44,000 African-American women who were followed from 1995 to 2005. They completed dietary surveys when the study began and again in 2001. None of the women had diabetes at the study’s start; a decade later, the group had reported 2,713 new cases of type 2 diabetes.

Women who drank at least two regular soft drinks per day were 24% more likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes than women who drank less than one soft drink per month. Weight gain appeared to account for some of the increased risk in soda drinkers. Women who drank at least two sweetened fruit drinks per day were 31% more likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes than women who drank less than one sweetened fruit drink per day, the study also states.

The researchers, who included Julie Palmer, ScD, of Boston University, note that sweetened fruit drinks “are often marketed as a healthier alternative to soft drinks” but may have at least as many calories as a regular soda. Diet sodas, orange juice, and grapefruit juice weren’t linked to increased risk of diabetes. It’s possible that the natural sugars contained in orange and grapefruit juice may have different metabolic effects than the high-fructose corn syrup that is added to regular sodas and most sweetened beverages.

More Women Get Rid of Tattoo

It seemed a good idea at the time. But you were young, wild, and in love with Roland. Now you are getting married to Ed and you want Roland’s name off your right calf. It seems that when it comes to getting tattoos removed, more women than men go in for the procedure.

Researchers compared results of a 1996 study to a 2006 study looking at how people feel about their tattoos. Participants were people who came to four dermatology clinics in Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Texas. The study was led by Myrna L. Armstrong, RD, EdD, of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

In background information presented with the findings, the researchers write “the vast majority of individuals who are tattooed are pleased with their skin markings (up to 83%).” Apparently about a fifth are estimated to be unhappy with their tattoos, while “only about 6% seek removal.” In the 2006 study, researchers interviewed 196 tattooed people; 130 of them were women and 66 were men.

The researchers found that today more women (69%) than men (31%) came in to get tattoos removed. According to the 2006 study, a typical woman who gets a tattoo is between the ages of 24 and 29. Most women with tattoos are white, college educated, and unmarried. They describe themselves as “risk takers, from stable families, with moderate to strong religious beliefs.”

More women are motivated to get the tattoo removed because of pressure from others or social stigma. The researchers write that one out of four American adults aged 18 to 30 has a tattoo. In both studies, the main reason for wanting to get rid of a tattoo was that people had a “shift in their identities,” and wanted to do away with the past.

Aging Hinders In Memories During Sleep

The researchers recorded activity in the hippocampus a brain region involved in learning and memory in 11 young and 11 old rats as they navigated mazes for food rewards. The rats’ hippocampal activity was recorded again when they slept. In the young rats, the sequence of neural activity recorded while they navigated the mazes was repeated while they slept. This was not the case in most of the older rats.

The researchers also found that among both young and old rats, those with the best sleep replay performed the best in their age groups on spatial memory tasks. “This is the first study to suggest that an animal’s ability to perform a spatial memory task may be related to the brain’s ability to perform memory consolidation during sleep,” study author Carol Barnes said in a Society for Neuroscience news release.

“These findings suggest that some of the memory impairment experienced during aging could involve a reduction in the automatic process of experience replay,” Michael Hasselmo, of Boston University, said in a Society for Neuroscience news release. Identifying the specific memory deficit in the brains of older adults may be the first step to preventing age-related memory loss, he said. “This study’s findings could inspire the development and testing of pharmacological agents designed to enhance memory replay phenomena,” Hasselmo said.

Damp, Moldy homes causing Depression

The possible link was uncovered in an analysis of mold and health conditions in several cities in eastern and western Europe. And it could one day lead to the addition of emotional problems to the list of health woes caused by mold, the study authors said.

But, the researchers cautioned, it’s still too soon to tell if exposure to mold is directly related to depression, or whether an already depressed person might simply relinquish control of their surroundings to the degree that mold may develop. “There is some preliminary evidence which suggests that high levels of exposure to mold may lead to depression,” said study lead author Edmond D. Shenassa, an assistant professor of community health at Brown University School of Medicine. “But it’s not a certainty,” he stressed. “We have found an association between mold and risk of depression, but we have more work to do to see if this is causal situation.”

Molds are ubiquitous and toxic microscopic organisms called fungi that come in a variety of species numbering in the tens or even hundreds of thousands. Mold spores spread through air, water or insects are found year-round both indoors and out, and survive and multiply most readily in warm, damp, shady, and humid conditions, according to the U.S. Centers for
Typically, routine cleaning with soap, water and bleach can prevent mold from accumulating in the most susceptible areas, such as the seal of a refrigerator door, showers, windows, and air conditioners.

However, the CDC cautions that inhaling living or even dead mold spores can provoke an allergic respiratory reaction among sensitive individuals. Wheezing, shortness of breath, and even lung infections can ensue, as can the onset of a stuffy nose, cough, headaches, and skin, throat, or eye irritations. Those most at risk include men and women suffering from allergies, asthma, or the immune suppression that accompanies HIV infection, chemotherapy treatment for cancer, and organ transplants.

To explore the possible link between mold and mental health problems, Shenassa and his colleagues reviewed World Health Organization data collected between 2002 and 2003 in eight European cities: Angers, France; Bonn, Germany; Bratislava, Slovakia; Budapest, Hungary; Ferreira do Alentejo, Portugal; Forli, Italy; Geneva, Switzerland; and Vilnius, Lithuania. Almost 6,000 men and women in almost 3,000 households were questioned in person about their health, including whether they had been clinically diagnosed as depressed in the prior 12 months. The participants, who ranged in age from 18 to 104, were divided equally between men and women and were chosen by random.

Residents were also asked to assess their living conditions, while, at the same time, the researchers conducted visual inspections to calculate the levels and location of any dampness and mold in each home. Finally, each study participant was asked whether or not they felt in control of their home environment, as well as whether they had any of six conditions that can be associated with exposure to mold, including: cold or throat problems; wheezing; asthmatic attacks or other respiratory problems, fatigue; or headaches.

Shenassa and his colleagues found that 57 percent of all the residents lived in homes that were free of dampness or mold, although the prevalence of mold varied greatly depending on region — ranging from more than 80 percent in Portugal to a little more than 25 percent in Slovakia. Meanwhile, nine percent of all residents were determined to be depressed. Women, the elderly and the unemployed were most likely to have depressive symptoms, while those living in crowded conditions also appeared to run a higher risk for depression.

But, even after accounting for such key mitigating factors, the researchers connected the dots and found that having mold in the home appeared to be associated with depression. “But although we saw that there is more depression among people who live in moldy homes, we don’t know which came first,” Shenassa cautioned. “We think there are multiple pathways to depression So, we need to do more work.” Kelly A. Reynolds, a research microbiologist with the University of Arizona, described the study as “very interesting” but agreed that further research is needed.

“Knowing that the mold-health effects are long-term and chronic and sometimes cumulative means they [the study authors] might be very far from determining which is the chicken and the egg,” she said. “So, although there’s a lot of speculation, it’s difficult to prove a mental health connection. But what we always tell people is that if you can smell or see mold in your house, there’s really no reason to not get rid of it.”

Women’s Migraine Increase Heart Diseases

A new study suggests a genetic link between women’s heart disease risk, migraine with aura, and a genetic variant carried by about 11% of the population. Migraine symptoms vary and may occur with a warning sign called an aura. The aura usually begins about 30 minutes before the headache starts and consists of visual cues such as seeing spots, wavy lines, or flashing lights. Some people may also have numbness or a pins-and-needles sensation in their hands.

In the study, published in Neurology, researchers examined the relationship between genes, migraine headache, and heart disease in more than 25,000 white women who participated in the Women’s Health Study. The women were tested for a certain gene variant in the MTHFR gene, which in previous studies has been associated with an increased risk of vascular events in patients who experience migraine with aura. They also completed a questionnaire about migraine headaches.

Over a 12-year follow-up period, 625 women suffered from a heart-related event, such as heart attack or stroke. The genetic variant by itself did not seem to increase risk. Active migraine with aura doubled the risk. But women who had both the genetic variant and active migraine with aura were three times as likely to experience a heart-related event compared with women who did not have the gene variant or migraines. In this latter group, the majority of the increased risk was related to a fourfold increase in risk of stroke.

“This gene by itself does not appear to increase the risk for overall and for specific cardiovascular disease, but rather this research suggests a possible connection between the gene variant and migraine with aura,” researcher Tobias Kurth, MD, ScD, with Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, says in a news release.

Kurth says the results suggest that women with migraines accompanied by aura should be counseled in ways to reduce their heart disease risk. “Doctors should try to reduce heart disease risk factors and advise young women who experience migraine with aura not to smoke and to consider birth control pill alternatives,” Kurth says. Because this study looked only at women, researchers say more study is needed to determine if the migraine with aura and the genetic variant carry the same heart disease risk in men.

“While it is too early to start testing young women with migraine with aura for this gene variant, more focused research will help us to understand these complex links and will help us to potentially develop preventative strategies,” Kurth says.