About 12% of the population, or 36 million Americans, suffer from migraine headaches, according to the AHS.
Although most people with migraines have one or two attacks a month or less, about 3% of the population has chronic migraines, which occur at least 15 days each month.
Dodick says understanding the molecular pathways that trigger migraines or cause occasional migraines to become chronic could lead to better drugs to treat or prevent them.
Although getting enough sleep is important for people with migraines, having a sleep routine is even more critical, he says.
Just as too little sleep can trigger migraine headaches, so can too much sleep at one time.
"That's why 'Saturday morning' migraines are so common," he says. "If someone with migraines who gets up during the week at 6 a.m. sleeps in on Saturday, this can cause a migraine."
The same is true for irregular afternoon naps or any disruption in the regular sleep pattern.
"Sleep routine is very important," Dodick says. "People with migraines need to go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time every day. If they get up at 6 a.m. during the week they need to do the same thing on Saturday and Sunday."
SOURCES: American Headache Society 52nd Annual Scientific Meeting, Los Angeles, June 24-27, 2010.
Paul L. Dunham, PhD, Missouri State University, Center for Biomedical & Life Sciences, Springfield, Mo.
David Dodick, MD, president, American Headache Society; professor of neurology, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix.
News release, American Headache Society.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Too Much Sleep Triggers Migraines
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Popcorn ingredient causes lung disease: U.S. study
A chemical used to give butter flavor to popcorn can damage the lungs and airways of mice, U.S. government experts reported on Thursday.
Tests on mice show that diacetyl, a component of artificial butter flavoring, can cause a condition known as lymphocytic bronchiolitis, said the team at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health.
The condition can lead to obliterative bronchiolitis -- or "popcorn lung" -- a rare and debilitating disease seen in workers at microwave popcorn packaging plants and at least one consumer.
At least two microwave popcorn makers -- ConAgra Foods Inc and Weaver Popcorn Co Inc -- have said recently they would stop using diacetyl.
Laboratory mice made to inhale diacetyl vapors for three months developed lymphocytic bronchiolitis, the NIEHS team said.
"This is one of the first studies to evaluate the respiratory toxicity of diacetyl at levels relevant to human health," Daniel Morgan at NIEHS, whose team led the study, said in a statement.
Writing in the journal Toxicological Sciences, the researchers said findings suggest that workplace exposure to diacetyl contributes to the development of obliterative bronchiolitis.
The hard-to-treat condition causes vague symptoms such as cough and shortness of breath, and steadily worsens, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Congress has been working on a bill to order quick action by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to limit exposure to diacetyl. The House of Representatives passed a bill last year but the Senate has not acted.
The Food and Drug Administration said last September it was investigating a report of a man who came down with the life-threatening disease after eating several bags of butter-flavored microwave popcorn each day.
(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Will Dunham and John O'Callaghan)
Copy Right Reuters
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Pessimism Deadly for Heart Patients?
Outlook Affects Survival, Study Shows, So Look on the Bright Side
Keeping a positive attitude is good for your health, and if you are a heart patient it just may save your life, new research suggests.
A study of patients with heart disease followed for six to 10 years found that those with pessimistic beliefs about their recovery were twice as likely to die during that timeframe as those who felt more optimistic.
The research was presented this week in Baltimore at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society, a group dedicated to the research of the interaction between the mind and body.
"This study is one of the first to examine how a patient's attitude toward their disease affects their health over the long term, and ultimately their survival," says lead researcher John C. Barefoot, PhD.
Mind and Body Connection
Barefoot, Redford B. Williams, MD, and colleagues from Duke University Medical Center conducted psychological assessments on 2,825 patients hospitalized for heart disease.
The patients were asked to describe their expectations about their ability to recover from their illness and regain a normal life.
During six to 10 years of follow-up, 978 of the patients died, with 66% dying of heart disease.
Patient expectations about their disease course were highly related to survival, with patients who had the most pessimistic views dying at twice the rate of those who were most optimistic.
After controlling for factors that could influence survival, including disease severity, functional status, and depression, the death rate among the most pessimistic patients was still 30% higher than the most optimistic, Williams tells WebMD.
"Negative outlook was an independent predictor of poor outcomes," he says. "And there seems to be something protective about having a more optimistic attitude that makes you feel that you are going to be OK."
He says patients with positive expectations may be more likely to make lifestyle changes and follow treatment regimens prescribed by their doctors.
The Impact of Stress
Another possible explanation is that positive thoughts may lessen the damaging effects of stress on the body.
A separate study presented by the Duke researchers at the Baltimore meeting examined this theory.
Researchers conducted personality profiles on 327 healthy people to determine if they were more inclined to exhibit positive or negative emotions. They then conducted tests designed to assess the study participants' physiological responses to stress.
People identified as being more positive were found to have significantly lower increases in blood pressure during stress than people who were negative.
They also had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol within 30 minutes of waking — a time in which levels tend to be high.
"It's not just that negative emotions are harmful," lead researcher Beverly H. Brummett, PhD, tells WebMD. "There seems to be something about the experience of having more positive emotions. They seem to act as a buffer against bad health outcomes."
Brummett says interventions like meditation, behavioral therapy, and regular exercise may help people with naturally gloomy dispositions change their outlook.
But cardiologist Donald LaVan, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania, is not so sure.
LaVan, who is a spokesman for the American Heart Association, tells WebMD that very soon after the introduction of heart bypass surgery, cardiologists began to recognize that more optimistic patients fared better in terms of recovery and even survival.
This recognition led to the advent of the Zipper Club, a volunteer group made up of former heart surgery patients who help current patients deal with the emotional aspects of their illness.
LaVan says studies like the ones presented at the Baltimore meeting help advance the understanding of how emotions affect health.
"The conclusions are not too surprising, but the question becomes, 'Can you do anything to change someone's attitude?'" he says. "Maybe you can to some degree, but my clinical experience tells me that if a patient is walking around with a big black cloud over his head there's not much you can do about it."
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SOURCES: American Psychosomatic Society annual meeting, March 12, 2008, Baltimore. John C. Barefoot, PhD, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C. Redford B. Williams, MD, division head, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C. Beverly H. Brummett, PhD, research professor, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C. Donald LaVan, MD, spokesman, American Heart Association; clinical associate professor of medicine, University of Pennsylvania.
© 2008 WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.
Breast Cancer Gene Ringleader Found
Gene, Called SATB1, Orders Other Breast Cancer Genes Into Action and Dims Anticancer Genes.
Breast cancer experts have a new prime suspect among breast cancer genes, and that finding could lead to new breast cancer treatments.
The breast cancer gene in question, called SATB1, bosses other breast cancer genes and hushes anticancer genes.
The result: breast cancer grows and spreads aggressively when SATB1 is active. And when SATB2 is silenced, breast tumors slow down.
Those findings come from lab experiments done in test tubes and mice; further studies are needed in people.
To put SATB1's influence in perspective, the new lab tests show that switching off SATB1 affected more than 1,000 genes.
The researchers report that SATB1 isn't just active in advanced breast cancer; it may also be on the prowl in early-stage breast tumors, before cancer spreads from the breast to nearby lymph nodes.
In addition to being a potential target for new breast cancer treatments, SATB1 might predict the odds that early-stage breast cancer will spread, according to the researchers.
They included Hye-Jung Han, PhD, and Terumi Kohwi-Shigematsu, PhD, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.
The study appears in the March 13 edition of Nature.
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By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical News
