[Educational Resource] Science Literacy Resources

This resource is a bit off topic. It is an educational resource basically for junior high and high school teachers. However, I find it fascinating on how it shows the interrelationship among science and mathematical concepts. Here’s a few that are health/medical related

• Disease
• Maintaining Good Health
• Coping with Mental Distress
• Culture Affects Behavior
• Group Behavior

Here’s a sample

[Journal Article] Novel Genetic Patterns May Make Us Rethink Biology and Individuality

From the 7 November 2013 ScienceDaily article

Professor of Genetics Scott Williams, PhD, of the Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences (iQBS) at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, has made two novel discoveries: first, a person can have several DNA mutations in parts of their body, with their original DNA in the rest — resulting in several different genotypes in one individual — and second, some of the same genetic mutations occur in unrelated people. We think of each person’s DNA as unique, so if an individual can have more than one genotype, this may alter our very concept of what it means to be a human, and impact how we think about using forensic or criminal DNA analysis, paternity testing, prenatal testing, or genetic screening for breast cancer risk, for example. Williams’ surprising results indicate that genetic mutations do not always happen purely at random, as scientists have previously thought.

His work, done in collaboration with Professor of Genetics Jason Moore, PhD, and colleagues at Vanderbilt University, was published in PLOS Genetics journal on November 7, 2013.

Genetic mutations can occur in the cells that are passed on from parent to child and may cause birth defects. Other genetic mutations occur after an egg is fertilized, throughout childhood or adult life, after people are exposed to sunlight, radiation, carcinogenic chemicals, viruses, or other items that can damage DNA. These later or “somatic” mutations do not affect sperm or egg cells, so they are not inherited from parents or passed down to children. Somatic mutations can cause cancer or other diseases, but do not always do so. However, if the mutated cell continues to divide, the person can develop tissue, or a part thereof, with a different DNA sequence from the rest of his or her body.

….

f our human DNA changes, or mutates, in patterns, rather than randomly; if such mutations “match” among unrelated people; or if genetic changes happen only in part of the body of one individual, what does this mean for our understanding of what it means to be human? How may it impact our medical care, cancer screening, or treatment of disease? We don’t yet know, but ongoing research may help reveal the answers.

Christopher Amos, PhD, Director of the Center for Genomic Medicine and Associate Director for Population Sciences at the Cancer Center, says, “This paper identifies mutations that develop in multiple tissues, and provides novel insights that are relevant to aging. Mutations are noticed in several tissues in common across individuals, and the aging process is the most likely contributor. The theory would be that selected mutations confer a selective advantage to mitochondria, and these accumulate as we age.” Amos, who is also a Professor of Community and Family Medicine at Geisel, says, “To confirm whether aging is to blame, we would need to study tissues from multiple individuals at different ages.” Williams concurs, saying, “Clearly these do accumulate with age, but how and why is unknown — and needs to be determined.”

…

Just as our bodies’ immune systems have evolved to fight disease, interestingly, they can also stave off the effects of some genetic mutations. Williams states that, “Most genetic changes don’t cause disease, and if they did, we’d be in big trouble. Fortunately, it appears our systems filter a lot of that out.”

Mark Israel, MD, Director of Norris Cotton Cancer Center and Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics at Geisel, says, “The fact that somatic mutation occurs in mitochondrial DNA apparently non-randomly provides a new working hypothesis for the rest of the genome. If this non-randomness is general, it may affect cancer risks in ways we could not have previously predicted. This can have real impact in understanding and changing disease susceptibility.”

 

Related articles

• Study finds novel genetic patterns that make us rethink biology and individuality (medicalxpress.com)
• Novel genetic patterns may make us rethink biology and individuality (scooprocket.com)
• A patchwork of genetic variation found in the brain: Surprising degree of variation among genomes of individual neurons from same brain (sciencedaily.com)
• New Technique to Determine Whether DNA is from Mom or Dad (medindia.net)

 

[Reblog] Keepin’ It Real (with Real Food) …October 24 is Food Day

English: Loma Linda University Vegetarian Food Pyramid (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

[Reblog] 

 

Posted by acroanmph in Public Health.
Tags: Diet, Disease, Farms, Food, Nutrition, Public health, Sustainable Food
trackback

 

Wednesday, October 24 is Food Day. Join in this second annual national event where thousands of businesses, coalitions and other participants are holding Food Day celebrations to promote healthy, affordable and sustainable food. 

 

 

Created by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Food Day has become a movement to increase awareness of the usual unhealthy American diet which is leading to our top three causes of death and other forms of morbidity.

 

Our nation’s food system is not focused on promoting health, but maintaining agribusiness and food production as cheaply as possible. Fellow blogger, Ellice Campbell of Enlightened Lotus Wellness, just published a worthwhile post, Corn And It’s Stranglehold on the Food Industry. Also, have a look at The Trouble With Corn Subsidies. About 75% of all grocery store food products contain some form of corn (not the sweet kind that we enjoy during the summer) and high fructose corn syrup. This is creating a sugar addiction among our children and is one factor contributing to increased diagnoses of diabetes in adults and children, not to mention obesity. I find this to be an outrage.

 

What we put into our bodies is 100% up to us! Just because cheap and processed foods are available everywhere we look, does not mean we must succumb to eating them. As one of my blog readers previously commented, “Eat what you want–no one is forcing you not to.” Every time we eat and every thing we eat is completely our choice. I feel this is too fundamental to even blog about, but as a nation, we are clearly not making the best choices.

 

Of course this has implications beyond personal diet and disease. According to CSPI, only minor amounts of Farm Bill funding support organic and sustainable farms, while the unhealthiest farm producers reap the major funds. We have allowed our government to carry on this way for decades. Food production methods are harmful to workers, animals and the environment.

 

How will you celebrate Food Day? Click the link for inspiration, activities, recipes and a zip code map to see what is offered in your area. Or, take a page from their school curriculum, eat real around your dinner table and discuss healthy eating and where your food comes from.

 

Eat Real, y’all. Practice mindful eating and the world will be better off. Really.

 

Related articles

 

• Is The Food Pyramid Killing Us? (acroan.com)
• New Online Tool Addresses Consumer Questions On Food Production(prnewswire.com)
• Autism Linked to High-Fructose Corn Syrup (wakingtimes.com)
• What’s at Stake with the Farm Bill in Limbo? (article-3.com)
• For Food Day, celebrate a new awareness of nutrition (usatoday.com)

 

More Related articles

 

• High Fructose Corn Syrup: Is It Really Dangerous? (networkingforwealth.wordpress.com)
• Corn and it’s Stranglehold on the Food Industry (enlightenedlotuswellness.com)
• Surprising Products That Contain High Fructose Corn Syrup (mysonhatescornsyrup.com)
• How sugar may be making you fat… and stupid (metronews.ca)
• Hidden Dangers: Foods with High Fructose Corn Syrup (naturalsociety.com)

 

Social media serves as a powerful tool for patients disclosing illnesses

From the 6 July blog posting at Health IT Exchange

No matter the trend, social media has a role in some capacity. That’s the case for health IT as patients are increasingly disclosing medical diagnoses online for consolation purposes, according to a study released in late June by marketing and consulting firm Russell Herder.

The study was conducted over a 90-day period in which 62,893 online self-disclosures of illnesses were monitored. To obtain these self-disclosures, researchers tracked particular phrases such as “I tested positive for,” “I’ve been diagnosed with” and “Doctor said I’ve got.”

Patients tended to disclose certain conditions:

Cancer: 40%
Diabetes: 16%
Chronic Fatigue: 10%
Arthritis: 7%
ADHD: 7%
Asthma: 5%
AIDS: 5%
STD: 5%
Epilepsy: 2%
Heart Disease: 2%
Alzheimer’s: 1%…
…From a patient perspective, getting support via social media could be convenient since it can be done without leaving home. And that’s why the results of the social media study do not surprise Dr. Robert Murry, medical director of informatics at Hunterdon Medical Center in Flemington, N.J.

There is closure to be found in connecting with others during a difficult time, Murry said. “Patients, particularly with rare chronic diseases frequently find value in social media dedicated to their disease.” Although he does not actively participate in these practices, he said he knew that social media would find its way into the health care landscape.

Even with its benefits, the arrival of social media raises awareness on issues such as provider boundaries, provider and patient relationships and the importance of social media policies.

What constitutes a medical visit? For example, if a provider views a patient’s disclosure of a chronic illness and responds in a chat forum, does that qualify as an appointment? Keely Kolmes, a psychotherapist in San Francisco, noted in her private practice social media policy that “casual viewing of clients’ online content outside of the therapy hour can create confusion in regard to whether it’s being done as a part of your treatment or to satisfy my personal curiosity.”

Malpractice concerns. This is a focal point since it deals with the delicate provider-to-patient relationship. Social media is widely used in provider-to-provider networking, but networking in the context of provider-to-patient is risky business because the conversation is often casual. Information can be easily misconstrued. If a patient is harmed based on advice from a provider — not to mention in an informal setting — it could be a malpractice nightmare. Also consider that if a provider gave advice based on a past patient’s medical record, it would violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations.

Social media policies. Adopting or creating a clear social media policy and making it accessible is important. Kolmes’ policy distinguishes which mediums she participates in, how she participates and also addresses privacy concerns. She does not accept friend or contact requests in any social media platforms, citing “that adding clients as friends or contacts on these sites can compromise your confidentiality and our respective privacy.”…

Related articles

• Consumers Seek Healthcare Advice On Facebook, Docs Absent (informationweek.com)
• The Social Media Conversation (managemypractice.com)

Urgent Need To Fight Diseases Affecting The World’s Poor

Image via Wikipedia

From the 22 June 2011 Medical News Today article 

Despite significant advancements in increasing distribution and development of vaccines against childhood killer diseases – including pneumococcal disease, rotavirus, and Haemophilus influenzae Type B – global efforts to reduce the burden of infection from neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) has greatly lagged, argues Sabin Vaccine Institute (Sabin) President Dr. Peter Hotez in an article for the June edition of Health Affairs.

[Above link is abstract only, for suggestions on how to get this article for free or at low cost, click here]

NTDs, a group of 17 parasitic infections, represent a significant contributor to global poverty, and have well documented chronic and disabling effects. Yet efforts to develop vaccines for NTDs have not benefitted from larger ongoing initiatives to combat major childhood diseases.

In his article, “A Handful of ‘Antipoverty’ Vaccines Exist for Neglected Diseases, But the World’s Poorest Billion People Need More,” Dr. Hotez cites three critical reasons for the lack of interest in “antipoverty” vaccines:

• Though NTDs disable, they do not typically cause high levels of mortality leading some in the public health community to misleadingly conclude that NTDs are not a significant public health threat;
• NTDs predominately occur in rural settings and are largely hidden diseases unknown to the public and infrequently documented; and,
• Pharmaceutical companies are reluctant to make an investment in NTD vaccines because there is no financial incentive.

Related articles

• ‘Decade of vaccines’ has potential to save lives, but challenges ahead (eurekalert.org)
• Cumulative Health Risks Faced By Returnee Migrants (medical news today)
• Bill Gates’s plea: help me save four million lives (independent.co.uk)
• Measles are back as parents refuse vaccines (sfgate.com)

World Health Statistics 2011 now available online

The WHO (World Health Organization) World Health Statistics 2011 is now available online.

It contains WHO’s annual compilation of health-related data for its 193 Member States, and includes a summary of the progress made towards achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and associated targets.

Click here to download the full report, sections, or data tables only.

From the press report

13 MAY 2011 | GENEVA – An increasing number of countries are facing a double burden of disease as the prevalence of risk factors for chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases and cancers increase and many countries still struggle to reduce maternal and child deaths caused by infectious diseases, for the Millennium Development Goals, according to the World Health Statistics 2011 released by the WHO today.

Noncommunicable diseases such heart diseases, stroke, diabetes and cancer, now make up two-thirds of all deaths globally, due to the population aging and the spread of risk factors associated with globalization and urbanization. The control of risk factors such as tobacco use, sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy diet and excessive use of alcohol becomes more critical. The latest WHO figures showed that about 4 out of 10 men and 1 in 11 women are using tobacco and about 1 in 8 adults is obese.

In addition many developing countries continue to battle health issues such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria that are most likely to kill children under the age of five. In 2009, 40% of all child deaths were among newborns (aged 28 days or less). Much more needs to be done to achieve the MDGs by the target date of 2015, but progress has accelerated.

Child mortality declined at 2.7% per year since 2000, twice as fast as during the 1990s (1.3%). Mortality among children under five years fell from 12.4 million in 1990 to 8.1 million in 2009.
Maternal mortality declined at 3.3% per year since 2000, almost twice as fast in the decade after 2000 than during the 1990s (2%). The number of women dying as a result of complications during pregnancy and childbirth has decreased from 546,000 in 1990 to 358,000 in 2008.
“This evidence really shows that no country in the world can address health from either an infectious disease perspective or a noncommunicable disease one. Everyone must develop a health system that addresses the full range of the health threats in both areas.” says Ties Boerma, Director of WHO’s Department of Health Statistics and Informatics.

The report also shows that more money is being spent on health and people can expect to live longer (life expectancy in 2009 was 68 years, up from 64 years in 1990); but the gap in health spending between low- and high-income countries remains very large.

In low-income countries, per capita, health expenditure is an estimated US$ 32 (or about 5.4% of gross domestic product) and in high-income countries it is US$ 4590 (or about 11% of gross domestic product).
High-income countries have, per capita, on average 10 times more doctors, 12 times more nurses and midwives and 30 times more dentists than low-income countries.
Virtually all deliveries of babies in high-income countries are attended by skilled health personnel; but this is the case for only 40% of deliveries in low-income countries.

Editor Flahiff’s note....This is certainly born out by my Peace Corps experience. In 1980/81 Liberia, I remember attending the funeral of a well to do area woman who died in childbirth. And I remember how heartbroken one of my students was at the death of her month old child. Malaria and diarrhea were epidemic.

I am now sponsoring a Liberian who wants to be a nurse. I cannot begin to imagine what the Liberian health care system is facing. Many of the infectious diseases will probably continue to decrease  at least partly due to better sanitation (as more pump wells as opposed to open wells). But these diseases will remain and she will be facing increasing populations with non infectious diseases. I only hope that countries with resources (as the US) will work to empower Liberians and others to meet these challenges. It is not only a matter of global security, but of respecting human dignity.

Related articles
 

• Nurses addressing access, quality & health (blog item at the Center for Health Media and Policy at Hunter College)

  “The first week of May, 2300 registered nurses from 123 countries attended the International Council of NursesConference in Malta. We left challenged and charged to act on the innovative ideas presented by this year’s 70 expert presenters. The topics covered were extensive including the massive increase of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), primary care, climate change, disaster nursing, and gender violence.  CHMP’s co-director, Diana Mason, delivered the keynote focusing on the conference theme, nurses driving access, quality and health,addressing social determinants of health. She provided insights into how mobile health creates access to health care and selected innovative models of care designed by nurses globally challenging us to think broadly on how we can impact change to increase access and quality care. Mason crafted a powerful visual presentation that provided the backdrop to her engaging, thought-provoking presentation which earned her a standing ovation.”….

• Chronic diseases now leading global killer: WHO (ctv.ca)
• WHO Warns of Enormous Burden of Chronic Disease (nlm.nih.gov)

Genetic sequencing alone doesn’t offer a true picture of human disease

Genetic sequencing alone doesn’t offer a true picture of human disease

From the January 23 Eureka news alert

DURHAM, N.C. – Despite what you might have heard, genetic sequencing alone is not enough to understand human disease. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have shown that functional tests are absolutely necessary to understand the biological relevance of the results of sequencing studies as they relate to disease, using a suite of diseases known as the ciliopathies which can cause patients to have many different traits.

“Right now the paradigm is to sequence a number of patients and see what may be there in terms of variants,” said Nicholas Katsanis, Ph.D. “The key finding of this study says that this approach is important, but not sufficient. If you really want to be able to penetrate, you must have a robust way to test the functional relevance of mutations you find in patients. For a person at risk of type 2 diabetes, schizophrenia or atherosclerosis, getting their genome sequenced is not enough – you have to functionally interpret the data to get a sense of what might happen to the particular patient.”

“This is the message to people doing medical genomics,” said lead author Erica Davis, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Duke Department of Pediatrics, who works in the Duke Center for Human Disease Modeling. “We have to know the extent to which gene variants in question are detrimental – how do they affect individual cells or organs and what is the result on human development or disease? Every patient has his or her own set of genetic variants, and most of these will not be found at sufficient frequency in the general population so that anyone could make a clear medical statement about their case.”

Davis, working in the lab of Katsanis, and in collaboration with many ciliopathy labs worldwide, sequenced a gene, TTC21B, known to be a critical component of the primary cilium, an antenna-like projection critical to cell function.

While a few of the mutations could readily be shown to cause two main human disorders, a kidney disease and an asphyxiating thoracic condition, the significance of the majority of DNA variants could not be determined. Davis then tested these variants in a zebrafish model, in which many genes are similar to humans, and showed that TTC21B appears to contribute disease-related mutations to about 5 percent of human ciliopathy cases.

The study, which appears in Nature Genetics online on Jan. 23, shows how genetic variations both can cause ciliopathies and also interact with other disease-causing genes to yield very different sets of patient problems.

Katsanis, the Jean and George Brumley Jr., M.D., Professor of Pediatrics and Cell Biology, and Director of the Duke Center for Human Disease Modeling, is a world expert in ciliopathies such as Bardet-Biedl Syndrome, in which the primary cilium of cells is abnormal and leads to a host of problems. About one child in 1,000 live births will have a ciliopathy, an incidence that is in the range of Down’s syndrome, said Katsanis.

“By sequencing genes to identify genetic variation, followed by functional studies with a good experimental model, we can get a much better idea of the architecture of complex, inherited disorders,” Katsanis said. “Each individual with a disease is unique,” Davis said. “If you can overlay gene sequencing with functional information, then you will be able to increase the fidelity of your findings and it will become more meaningful for patients and families.”

It will take more laboratories doing more pointed studies like this one to get a fuller picture of the ciliopathies and other diseases, Davis said.

Katsanis noted that it will take true collaboration within many scientific disciplines as well as scientific finesse to get at the true roots of complex diseases.

“Brute force alone – sequencing – will not help,” he said. “Technology is of finite resolution. You must have synthesis of physiology, cell biology, biochemistry and other fields to get true penetration into medically relevant information.”

CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report – United States – 2011 (And Link About Recent WHO Report on Inequities and Avoidable Deaths)

In my humble opinion, a strong argument for affordable, accessible health care for all regardless of one’s income or where one lives. Health disparities   are not found only within groups of people who have the ability to pay for treatments or who are able to get needed treatment quickly.

While this train of thought may be labeled as creeping socialism, health care cost/access challenges are  a matter of justice and fairness for all.  Is there agreement on what is just or what is fair? Well, no. However, I believe we all can put differences aside in working for what is best for all.

 

From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) January 13th news release

Americans’ differences in income, race/ethnicity, gender and other social attributes make a difference in how likely they are to be healthy, sick, or die prematurely, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For instance, state-level estimates in 2007 indicate that low income residents report five to 11 fewer healthy days per month than do high income residents, the report says. It also says men are nearly four times more likely than women to commit suicide, that adolescent birth rates for Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks are three and 2.5 times respectively those of whites, and that the prevalence of binge drinking is higher in people with higher incomes.

The data are in the new “CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report — United States, 2011”. The report also underscores the need for more consistent, nationally representative data on disability status and sexual orientation.

“Better information about the health status of different groups is essential to improve health. This first of its kind analysis and reporting of recent trends is designed to spur action and accountability at the federal, tribal, state and local levels to achieve health equity in this country,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.

The report, the first of a series of consolidated assessments, highlights health disparities by sex, race and ethnicity, income, education, disability status and other social characteristics. Substantial progress in improving health for most U.S. residents has been made in recent years, yet persistent disparities continue.

Released as a supplement to CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the report addresses disparities at the national level in health care access, exposure to environmental hazards, mortality, morbidity, behavioral risk factors, disability status and social determinants of health – the conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work.

Findings from the report’s 22 essays include:

In 2007, non-Hispanic white men (21.5 per 100,000 population) were two to three times more likely to die in motor vehicle crashes than were non-Hispanic white women (8.8 per 100,000). The gender difference was similar in other race/ethnic groups.

In 2007, men (18.4 per 100,000) of all ages and races/ethnicities were approximately four times more likely to die by suicide than females (4.8 per 100,000).

In 2007, rates of drug-induced deaths were highest among non-Hispanic whites (15.1 per 100,000) and lowest among Asian/Pacific Islanders (2.0 per 100,000).

Hypertension is by far most prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks (42 percent vs. 29 percent among whites), while levels of control are lowest for Mexican-Americans (31.8 percent versus 46.5 percent among non-Hispanic whites).

Rates of preventable hospitalizations increase as incomes decrease. Data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality indicate that eliminating these disparities would prevent approximately 1 million hospitalizations and save $6.7 billion in health care costs each year.

Rates of adolescent pregnancy and childbirth have been falling or holding steady for all racial/ethnic minorities in all age groups. However, in 2008, disparities persist as birth rates for Hispanic adolescents (77.4 per 1,000 females) and non-Hispanic black adolescents (62.9 per 1,000 females) were three and 2.5 times those of whites (26.7 per 1,000 females), respectively.

In 2009, the prevalence of binge drinking was higher in groups with incomes of $50,000 or above (18.5 percent) compared to those with incomes of $15,000 or less (12.1 percent); and in college graduates (17.4 percent), compared to those with less than high school education (12.5 percent). However, people who binge drink and have less than $15,000 income binge drink more frequently (4.9 versus 3.6 episodes) and, when they do binge drink, drink more heavily (7.1 versus 6.5 drinks).

The report supports the Healthy People 2020 goals and the forthcoming National Partnership for Action (NPA) to End Health Disparities. The report also complements the upcoming AHRQ National Healthcare Disparities Report *** and underscores the need to connect those working in clinical care and public health, especially at the local level.

“CDC publishes this report today not only to address gaps in health between populations in our country but also to begin to measure progress in years to come in reducing these gaps and inequities going forward,” said Leandris Liburd, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.A., recently appointed director of CDC’s Office of Minority Health and Health Equity. Dr. Liburd will provide leadership for the office and CDC’s public health programs, policies, surveillance and research efforts in achieving health equity.

The full “CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report — United States, 2011”, is available at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr.

*** AHRQ National Healthcare Disparities Report Fact Sheet
AHRQ- Measure Healthcare Quality, including section on National Healthcare Disparities Reports (2003-09) with related documents

Related articles

• Inequities and Avoidable Deaths (thirdworlddd.wordpress.com)
  Excerpts
  • When there are disparities, especially in health, there result avoidable deaths. The WHO estimates that better use of existing preventive measures could reduce the global burden of disease by as much as 70% (WHO, 3). That means that we already have much of the needed solutions, but why are we not implementing them? For example, Diarrheal Disease is a preventable, avoidable disease; with basic sanitation and access to clean water, a huge difference could be made in eradicating the affliction. Why are these things not being put into place?
  • What we can take from this is that we need to change the way we look at the disparities, by getting our hands dirty. We need to get into these places and ask questions, not answer them ourselves. The extent of human suffering is vast, but it needs to be witnessed in order to gain solutions. If these people can bare to live their lives full of inequities, inequalities, and misfortune, we can bare to listen to what they have to say.
• Disability as a Disparity (couragecenter.wordpress.com)

The gene-environment enigma & personalized medicine

From the December 3, 2010 news item

Personalized medicine centers on being able to predict the risk of disease or response to a drug based on a person’s genetic makeup. But a study by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that, for most common diseases, genes alone only tell part of the story.

That’s because the environment interacts with DNA in ways that are difficult to predict, even in simple organisms like single-celled yeast, their research shows.

“The effects of a person’s genes – and, therefore, their risk of disease – are greatly influenced by their environment,” says senior author Barak Cohen, PhD, a geneticist at Washington University School of Medicine. “So, if personalized medicine is going to work, we need to find a way to measure a human’s environment.”

The research is available online in PLoS Genetics….

….

The new research raises many questions: what is a human’s environment and how can it be measured? Is the environment a person lived in during childhood important or the environment he lives in now?

Cohen suspects that any environment that matters is likely to leave a measurable molecular signature. For example, eating a lot of fatty foods raises triglycerides; smoking raises nicotine levels; and eating high-fat, high-sugar foods raises blood sugar levels, which increases the risk of diabetes. The key, he says, is to figure out what are good metabolic readouts of the environment and factor those into statistical models that assess genetic susceptibility to disease or response to medication.

“Measuring the environment becomes crucial when we try to understand how it interacts with genetics,” Cohen says. “Having a particular genetic variant may not have much of an effect but combined with a person’s environment, it may have a huge effect.”

Cohen says he’s not hopeless when it comes to personalized medicine. As scientists conduct ever-larger studies to identify rare and common variants underlying diseases such as cancer, diabetes and schizophrenia, they will be more likely to uncover variants that have larger effects on disease. Even then, however, a person’s environment will be important, he adds.

 

 

Family Health History Tools and related medical studies about diseases that run in the family

From a November 5, 2010 American Society of Human Genetics news release

BETHESDA, MD – October 22, 2010 – Thousands of the world’s top scientists and clinicians in the human genetics field will convene to present their latest research findings at the American Society of Human Genetics 60th Annual Meeting, which will be held November 2-6, 2010, in Washington, D.C.

A number of scientific presentations at this year’s meeting will feature research on the application and use of family health history information in clinical settings to assess an individual’s risk for developing common chronic diseases. Family health history assessment is an inexpensive, simple, and useful tool that has been shown to be effective and accurate when implemented in clinical care settings to assess personal disease risks. Integrating the use of family health history information in clinical practice can help practitioners determine which patients are at high risk of developing a specific health condition and would benefit from taking precautionary measures to prevent disease (such as early and frequent screening, genetic testing, health behavior and lifestyle changes, etc.)…….

…Since National Family Health History Month is celebrated in November, ASHG will be spreading awareness about this important public health topic and helping people understand its application in clinical practice as a cost-effective tool for assessing disease risk by hosting a press briefing to highlight some of the latest research findings of interest on this topic that will be presented at the ASHG 2010 Annual Meeting.

Some Family Health History Tools

• My Family Health Portrait (US Surgeon General Office)

Using My Family Health Portrait you can:

• Enter your family health history.
• Print your family health history to share with family or your health care worker.
• Save your family health history so you can update it over time.

• Family Healthware (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  [currently in development]

 

 

History of Vaccines

The History of Vaccines is an informational, educational website created by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the oldest professional society in the United States.

The History of Vaccine provides continually updated to provide a compelling history of vaccine development as well as cutting edge technologies in vaccine development and delivery.

Site content can be found through either topics or audience types.

• The topics include Timelines and a Gallery of over 400 related images. The Articles range from vaccine science to vaccine information to the history of vaccines. Activities provide self-paced active learning opportunities about the past, present, and future of vaccines and infectious diseases.
• Audience types include Parents and Educators. While there is no student link, students could benefit by going to the Educator, Article, and Activities links. This Web site is written at about a high school or early college level.

Free Online Exhibitions and Digital Projects from the US National Library of Medicine

The History of Medicine Division of the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) maintains both print and online historical collections.
The print resources are available through the  NLM History of Medicine Reading Room in Washington, DC.

The NLM librarians have made portions of the History of Medicine collection freely available online.
A sampling

From Digital Repository: Films and Video
Titles as  DDT, Combat Fatigue Irritability (with Gene Kelly), and Work of the Public Health Service

Against the Odds: Making a Difference in Global Health
Includes downloads, games, lesson plans, and a virtual related exhibit

Visible Proofs: Forensic Views of the Body
Focuses on the history of forensic medicine

Dream Anatomy
An exhibition about anatomy and the artistic imagination

Historical Anatomies on the Web
High-quality images from important anatomical atlases in the Library’s collection

Profiles in Science
Archival collections of twentieth-century leaders in biomedical research and public health are available to the public through modern digital technology

Harry Potter – Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine (2009)

Emotions and Disease (2000)

“If You Knew the Conditions …;” Health Care to Native Americans (1994)

Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature (1998) (2009)

Census Data Aids Disease Simulation Studies

Researchers used U.S. census data to create a synthetic population that helps disease modelers simulate the spread of infectious outbreaks, including H1N1. [From NIMGS News Item, March 31, 2010]

 

The US Census Bureau is only mandated to count people for Congressional District apportionments.
However, the US Census Bureau has historically increased its role through collecting and disseminating data in many  areas, including housing, health insurance, foreign trade, economics, and state income. 

Non government researchers apply census data in many imaginative and practical ways. For example,  a North Carolina corporation is using population data to “simulate the spread of an infectious outbreak through a community and identify the best ways to intervene”.  A recent news item outlines their progress.