Category Archives: Science

Medical, Research, Science

Research suggests HRT can boost brain health

HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY

TAKING hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to cope with the menopause may benefit the brain and stave off memory loss, new research suggests.

A seven-year study has found women who take HRT experience fewer age-related changes to the brain.

Detailed scans suggest HRT may help preserve the structure of the prefrontal cortex, that part of the brain linked to memory and thinking.

The US researchers also found women taking the treatment had lower accumulations of amyloid plaques, toxic proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr Kejal Kantarci, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, said: “We found one form of menopausal hormone therapy taken soon after menopause may preserve brain structure in the portion of the brain responsible for memory and thinking skills.

“It may also reduce the development of amyloid plaques that can… lead to memory loss.”

The menopause, which commonly strikes women in their late 40s and early 50s, can cause symptoms including hot flushes, headaches and night sweats. HRT tackles these by providing oestrogen as the body stops producing it.

But the recently released research suggests that the treatment may also benefit the brain.

Experts believe this is because oestrogen can protect the connections in the brain when natural hormone production stops, this protection disappears. Replacing it artificially could restore protection.

The findings are significant because many women go without HRT after studies in the early 2000s raised fears of side effects. The new paper, published in the medical journal Neurology, reports on research involving 75 healthy women with an average age of 53 who had gone through the menopause within the previous three years.

Twenty women were given HRT pills, 22 received HRT patches and 33 received placebo pills or patches that contained no hormones. The women were kept on the treatment for four years, then tracked for a further three years after the therapy ended. They had MRI brain scans every few months.

The researchers found that in those on HRT patches, there was less shrinkage in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex – a part of the brain that assists with memory, thinking, planning and reasoning. There were also lower accumulations of amyloid plaques among these women.

Those on HRT pills did not experience as much benefit while taking the therapy, but when they stopped a difference started to appear.

There was no difference between HRT treatment and placebo in thinking and memory tests, but the scans suggest that HRT influenced the structure of the brain and, that over a longer period, a difference might be seen.

Dr Sara Imarisio, of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “This small study found no link between HRT and memory and thinking, but women who had taken the hormone estradiol via skin patches showed some signs of better brain health.

“More studies are needed to piece together the effect of hormones on the brain and how different forms of hormone therapy might impact brain health in later life.”

. Appendage 

 

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Medical, Research, Science

Study shows heart attack risk up 40% for years after an infection

MEDICAL

PATIENTS who suffer common infections have a much greater risk of having a heart attack or stroke in the years to come, a major study has found.

The findings suggest hundreds of thousands should be given statins or other heart pills if they suffer a chest infection or bladder problem.

A project tracking 1.2million patients found those admitted to hospital for pneumonia or urinary tract infections were 40 per cent more likely to have a heart attack within eight years. They were also 150 per cent more likely to suffer a stroke.

This suggests infections have an even greater impact on heart health than obesity, which raises the risk of strokes and heart attacks by about 25 per cent.

The research team, from Aston Medical School in Birmingham and the University of Cambridge, believe this is because infections cause long-term inflammation in blood vessels – making them more prone to clotting and clogging.

Patients who suffer an infection should be treated in the same way as someone with high blood pressure, raised cholesterol or diabetes, the researchers said. This could involve prescribing statins or aspirin as a preventative measure to cut the risk to their heart.

Nearly 600,000 people are admitted to hospital with chest infections such as pneumonia in England alone every year. Some 300,000 are admitted with urinary infections.

The study, which has been presented to the American College of Cardiology in Orlando, also found that those who had (had) infections were more likely to die if they did suffer a heart attack or stroke.

They were three times more likely to die from a heart attack than those who had not had infections, and almost twice as likely to die if they had a stroke.

Cardiologist Dr Rahul Potluri of Aston University, said: “Our figures suggest that those who are admitted to hospital with a respiratory or urinary tract infection are 40 per cent more likely to suffer a subsequent heart attack, and 2.5 times more likely to have a stroke, than patients who have had no such infection – and are considerably less likely to survive from these conditions.”

Experts have shown greater interest in the role of inflammation in heart disease after a study last year found that treating patients with anti-inflammatory canakinumab could cut their risk of having a heart attack by 24 per cent. Doctors say this drug – not yet available for heart patients – could represent the biggest breakthrough in cardiovascular medicine since statins were developed 30 years ago.

Dr Potluri said: “Infection appears to confer as much, if not more, of a risk for future heart disease and stroke as very well-established risk factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes.

“Although inflammation has been linked to atherosclerosis [when plaque builds up in arteries], this is the largest study to showing that common infection is such a significant risk factor.”

Lead author Dr Paul Carter, an academic clinical fellow at the University of Cambridge, said: “The data illustrates a clear association between infections and life-threatening heart conditions and strokes – and the figures are too huge to ignore.

“Serious infections are amongst the biggest causes of death in the UK directly, but our research shows infections that are severe enough to lead to hospitalisation may present a delayed risk in the form of atherosclerotic diseases.

“The sheer number of people who could be affected presents a challenge that needs investigation.”

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Arts, History, Science, United States

Quantum Leaps: Benjamin Franklin

1706 – 1790

Benjamin Franklin was one of the five men who drafted the Declaration of Independence of 1776. He was also a prolific scientist.

Benjamin Franklin had a rare genius. Unlike most of the scientists chronicled on this site who were known for their outstanding talents and contributions to science, the American Franklin was brilliant in a wide range of arenas. In a five-year period between 1747 and 1752, he contributed more to science than most scientists would achieve in a lifetime of dedicated study. Yet, during other periods of his life, he operated in, and conquered, completely different fields. He was a master printer and publisher, a successful journalist and satirist, an inventor, a world-famous ambassador and, probably most notably of all, a politician at a vital time in American history. Indeed, Franklin was one of the five separate signatories of the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain in 1776 and was a key participant in the later drafting of the American Constitution.

. Studying Electricity

Franklin does, however, merit an entirely separate entry for his achievements in physics alone – he was a pioneer in understanding the properties and potential benefits of electricity. Although the phenomenon of electricity had been noted since the time of the ancients, very little was known about it from a scientific perspective, and many considered the extent of its usefulness to be limited to ‘magic’ tricks. At around the age of forty, Franklin became fascinated by electricity and began to experiment with it, quickly realising it was a subject worthy of scientific study and research in its own right. So, he sold his printing interests and dedicated himself for the next five years to understanding it.

. Flying a Kite

Although Franklin wrongly believed electricity was a single ‘fluid’ (this was an advance on earlier theories which posited the idea of two different fluids), he perceived this fluid to somehow consist of moving particles, now understood to be electrons. More importantly, he undertook important studies involving electrical charge and introduced the terms ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ in explaining the way substances could be attracted to or repelled by each other according to the nature of their charge. He also believed these charges ultimately cancelled each other out so that if something lost electrical charge, another substance would instantly gain the amount being cast away. His work on electricity reached its peak in his now famous kite experiment of 1752. Believing lightning to be a form of electricity, and in order to prove it, Franklin launched a kite into a thunderstorm on a long piece of conducting string. Tying the end of the string to a capacitor, he was vindicated when lightning did indeed charge it, proving the existence of its electrical properties. From these results and realising the potential of a device that could deflect the harmful effects of lightning strikes away from buildings and property, he developed the lightning conductor.

Franklin had also published his text Experiments and Observations on Electricity, made at Philadelphia in America in 1751, which went on to inspire future scientists in the study and development of the uses of electricity.

. A Prolific Inventor

From 1753 the time Franklin dedicated to science reduced dramatically due to his taking up a new post as deputy postmaster general and, later, political and ambassadorial roles. He did, however, leave a legacy of other inventions from the wide range of experiments conducted throughout his life, including: an iron furnace ‘Franklin’ stove (still in use today), bifocal spectacles, the street lamp, the rocking chair, the harmonica, an odometer and watertight bulkheads for ships. Franklin also came up with the idea of Daylight Saving Time and was the first to charter the Gulf Stream from observations made by sailors.

A man of many talents, Benjamin Franklin was a successful inventor, politician, printer, oceanographer, ambassador, journalist and, of course, scientist.

. The Legacy of Benjamin Franklin

Franklin’s legacy, in addition to the many inventions such as lightning conductors, bifocal lenses and street lamps, was one of learning. He established one of the first public libraries, as well as one of the first universities: Pennsylvania, in America.

On a broader societal level, he established the modern postal system, set up police and fire fighting departments and established the Democratic Party.

He certainly lived up to his own quotation, ‘If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.’

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