Vaccine Protects Monkeys from Ebola, Marburg Viruses

(HealthDay News) -- An experimental combination vaccine that uses so-called virus-like particles (VLPs) fully protected monkeys against the deadly Ebola and Marburg viruses, U.S. researchers say.

Ebola and Marburg are viral hemorrhagic fevers, the only two known members of the filovirus family of viruses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These often fatal infections have triggered highly publicized outbreaks in Africa over the past few decades.

"VLPs are one of the most promising candidates for protecting humans against Ebola and Marburg virus infections," and could be safer than other vaccine candidates, researcher Dr. Kelly Warfield, of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, said in a prepared statement.

Traditional vaccines against viral diseases contain whole viruses -- either dead or weakened versions of the virus that causes the disease or a virus that's genetically similar to the one that causes the disease. But these vaccines do carry a slight risk of viral reactivation and resulting infection of a patient.

"Since the VLP vaccine does not use a whole virus, there is no chance of infection," Warfield said. Some VLP-based vaccines, such as the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, are already in use.
In this study, Warfield and colleagues infected insect cells with specially engineered baculoviruses. The infected cells then produced VLPs for either Ebola or Marburg, which were purified and mixed together to create the vaccine.

Two groups of monkeys were exposed to Ebola and Marburg viruses. The group that had been vaccinated with the combination VLP vaccine showed no signs of infection, while the monkeys in the non-vaccinated group became infected and died.

The findings were presented Tuesday at the 2008 American Society for Microbiology Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research Meeting in Baltimore. The researchers hope to begin human clinical trials of the Ebola/Marburg VLP vaccine within a few years.

More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about viral hemorrhagic fevers.

How to Be Heart Smart at the Supermarket

(HealthDay News) -- Taking the time to investigate food labels not only can improve your heart health, but also your overall wellness.

"Reading the labels is a great way to be guided toward healthier choices for your heart, and for general reduction of all chronic diseases today," Cathy Fitzgerald, registered dietitian with MFit, the University of Michigan Health System's health promotion division, said in a prepared statement. "So think about using the front of the package as well as the nutrition facts on the back when you are out shopping."

Start by educating yourself on what food label language truly means. Fitzgerald offered these tips:

• The claim, "May reduce the risk of heart disease." A company can only put this statement on a food if scientific evidence exists that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has decided is strong enough to support it.
• Nutrient content claims. The government regulates how a company can use terms such as "high," "low" or "reduced." For example, a food must have 3 grams of fat or less to be considered low fat, and a product that is high in a certain nutrient provides 20 percent or more of the daily value suggested by the FDA.
• Foods with fiber. Fiber helps the digestive system and lowers cholesterol. Look for the claims "high in fiber" or "excellent source of fiber," as these products have at least 5 grams of fiber per serving. A food listed as a "good source" of fiber has 2.5 grams of fiber or more.
• Omega-3 fats. Omega-3 fats have been shown to benefit the heart. Fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel and trout are good sources of omega fats and are low in saturated fat.
• Sterols and stanols. Plant sterols and stanols are cholesterol-lowering substances often added to products like margarine and salad dressings. Review the label carefully to make sure a product states it offers the cholesterol-lowering benefits of plant sterols and stanols.
• Sodium. Look for phrases like "low sodium" or "reduced sodium." This is especially important in processed and canned foods. If a food is labeled as "reduced" in sodium, it has 25 percent less salt than the regular product.
• Trans fats. Eat trans fats sparingly, as they raise your bad cholesterol and lower your good cholesterol. Fried foods and processed foods that have a long shelf life are often loaded with them. The term "partially hydrogenated oil" on an ingredient's list indicates the food contains trans fats.
• Saturated fat. Butter, fatty cuts of red meat, and cheese made from whole milk are among foods with the highest amount of saturated fat -- a main dietary cause of high blood cholesterol. Opt for low-fat or non-fat dairy products, lean meats such as loin or round cuts, and liquid margarines instead of butter.

More information
The American Heart Association offers has more about how to read food labels.

Candida Yeast Protection Program

In Part I of the Candida Yeast Protection Program we covered the symptoms of yeast overgrowth that afflict close to 80 million Americans each year.

This month we outline a five-phase treatment program designed to free the body of Candida and prevent future recurrences. Phase I deals with starving Candida through dietary modification.

Foods to avoid and foods to eat freely will be discussed in detail. Phase II deals with killing Candida with fatty acids, herbal concentrates and antifungal drugs. Phase III involves counteracting the toxic reactions to dying yeast cells with fluids, fiber, activated charcoal, digestive aids and nutritional supplements. Phase IV involves reinoculating the bioculture of the bowel, and Phase V is a list of recommendations for lifestyle changes to prevent future recurrences.

More information: Candida Yeast Protection Program

Obesity Raises Cancer Risk

(HealthDay News) -- The more weight you carry on your body, the greater your odds of developing cancer, British researchers report.

This is true not only of fairly common cancers such as colon and breast, but also of lesser known varieties, including gallbladder. Moreover, the degree of risk differs between men and women and among different ethnic groups, report the authors of a comprehensive new paper appearing in this week's issue of The Lancet.

"This is a profoundly important issue. Obviously, the obesity epidemic is a huge problem itself, and the relationship to cancer is only one of the many adverse health effects of being overweight and obese," said Dr. Michael Thun, head of epidemiological research at the American Cancer Society. "The evidence has been accumulating now for over 10 years. . . This study tries to provide a quantitative measure of how much the relative risk goes up with each increment, basically jumping from one BMI [body-mass index] category to another."

Although extra fat has already been identified by research as a risk factor for several different types of cancer, Thun said, "the problem of obesity is so large and so difficult to solve that there's a very sound reason for ongoing studies of things that have become increasingly well-known, just because it helps the momentum in stimulating approaches that will actually help people maintain a healthy weight."

Last year, a report issued by the American Institute of Cancer Research and the U.K.-based World Cancer Research Fund concluded that body fat is associated with an increased risk for several different types of cancer including esophageal adenocarcinoma, as well as cancers of the pancreas, colon and rectum, breast (postmenopausal), endometrium and kidney.

Although that report was one of the most comprehensive to date, it did leave some questions unanswered. For instance, are there associations between less common cancers and body weight, and do the associations differ between the sexes and people of different ethnic backgrounds?

The issue is a pressing one, with about two-thirds of adult men and women in the United States overweight or obese. That number is only expected to increase as people continue to eat more and exercise less.

This study, from scientists at the University of Manchester, analyzed 141 articles involving 282,137 cancer cases and 20 different types of malignancies to determine the cancer risk associated with a 5 kilogram-per-meter-squared increase in BMI, roughly the increase that would bump a person from middle-normal weight into overweight.

In men, such an increase in BMI raised the risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma by 52 percent, thyroid cancer by 33 percent, and colon and kidney cancer by 24 percent each.

In women, the same increase in BMI increased the risk of endometrial and gallbladder cancer by 59 percent each, esophageal adenocarcinoma by 51 percent, and kidney cancer by 34 percent.

In men, there were weaker associations between increased BMI and rectal cancer and melanoma. In women, there were weaker associations between increased BMI and postmenopausal breast, pancreatic, thyroid and colon cancers.

In both genders, there were associations between increased BMI and leukemia, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

For colon cancer, the associations were stronger in men than in women (24 percent vs. 9 percent).

There were stronger associations in Asia-Pacific populations between greater BMI and both premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancers.

Although the main message is still to maintain a healthy weight, this research might indicate earlier screening for certain cancers, said Dr. Greg Cooper, interim chief of the gastroenterology division at Ireland Cancer Center of University Hospitals and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center in Cleveland. "If someone is obese, then lower the threshold for screening," he said. "One of the cancers they identified is esophageal adenocarcinoma, which is not as common as colon cancer, but it is increasing in incidence. It is thought to be related to reflux, so as a gastroenterologist, if I have a patient who has reflux and is obese, I might lower the threshold for doing an endoscopy. For other cancers like colon cancer, those guidelines are pretty well-established, and this probably wouldn't change practice."

Experts aren't sure why extra fat can lead to malignancies, but changes in the circulating levels of various hormones (insulin, insulin-like growth factors and sex steroids) might explain the link.
Here's more bad news as the world heads for a smoke-free future: An accompanying commentary from Swedish researchers notes that as people quit smoking (the biggest cause of cancer in developed countries), weight gain may become the main lifestyle factor contributing to new cancers.

More information
Visit the American Cancer Society for more on the different types of cancer.

Muscle Fatigue Drug May Fight Heart Failure

(HealthDay News) -- An experimental drug may help fatigued athletes and patients weakened by heart failure regain their energy, say physiologists at Columbia University Medical Center.

Tests on mice and humans found that, after extreme exercise regimens, tiny leaks of calcium continuously enter the muscle cells, according to the study published online in the Feb. 11 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The leak weakens the force produced by the muscle and also turns on a protein-digesting enzyme that damages the muscle fibers, leading to the overall feeling of exhaustion for days or weeks afterward.

This same leak was previously discovered by Columbia researchers in the muscles of animals with heart failure.

The researchers then developed an experimental drug to plug these leaks, and tested it on mice subjected to daily three-hour swims over three weeks. Without the drugs, mice were exhausted. With the drug, the mice were still energetic, had lost less exercise capacity after three weeks, and their muscles showed fewer signs of calcium leakage, atrophy and less muscle damage.

While extreme athletes, such as marathoners, often regain their strength and vigor after several days, the findings suggest the drug may provide relief from the severe exhaustion that prevents patients with chronic heart failure from performing simple tasks.

"People with chronic heart failure are subject to this same kind of muscle leak and damage constantly, even without doing any exercise," study senior author Dr. Andrew Marks, chairman of Columbia's department of physiology and cellular biophysics, said in a prepared statement. "One of these patients' most debilitating symptoms is muscle weakness and fatigue, which can be so bad they can't get out of bed, brush their teeth or feed themselves."

Plans are under way to test the drug at other medical centers in patients with heart failure to see if it relieves fatigue and improves heart function. Even if successful, it will take several years before the drug will be commercially available.

Fatigue experienced by heart failure patients does not stem from reduced blood and oxygen being supplied to the muscles by the heart, as one might expect. Instead, Marks' previous research in muscles of mice with heart failure suggested the cause is calcium leak in muscle cells, which reduce the ability of a single muscle to contract repeatedly before losing force.

"We then had a hunch that the process that produces fatigue in heart failure patients also may be responsible for the fatigue felt by athletes after a marathon or extreme training," study first author Andrew Bellinger said in a prepared statement. "Our new paper shows that fatigue in both patients and athletes probably stems from the same leak."

More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more facts about heart failure.

Birth Problems Linked to Teenage Fathers

(HealthDay News) -- In a finding that seems to turn conventional wisdom on its head, researchers report that babies of teenage fathers are more likely to be born with health problems than babies born to men over 40.

"We found that being a teenage father was associated with an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preterm birth, low birth weight and neonatal deaths," said Dr. Shi Wu Wen, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa Department of Epidemiology & Community Medicine.

In the study, Wen's team used data from the National Center for Health Statistics to collect information on 2,614,966 births in the United States between 1995 and 2000. To isolate the effects of the teen fathers' age on the outcome of pregnancy, the researchers compensated for the mother's contribution by choosing women 20 to 29 years old.

Women in this age group are less likely to be affected by fertility problems, which can have an effect on birth outcomes, Wen noted. "We also excluded infants with birth defects," he said.

"This may explain why we didn't see adverse effects amongst older fathers."

The researchers found that babies born to teenage fathers had a 15 percent increased risk of premature birth, a 13 percent increased risk for low birth weight, and a 17 percent increased risk for being small for gestational age.

These babies also had a 22 percent increased risk of dying within the first month after birth, and a 41 percent increased risk of dying in the first four weeks to one year after birth, although the absolute risk was small -- less than 0.5 percent, the researchers said.

Babies of fathers 40 and older did not experience the same risks, Wen said.

"The public has paid attention to teenage pregnancy, but mostly to teenage mothers," Wen said.

"But here we show that teenage fathers are also at high risk. The public and health agencies should pay attention to teenage fathers."

The findings are reported in the February issue of Human Reproduction.

Wen said it's not clear why infants of teenage fathers are at greater risk for health problems. However, he suspects that social factors such as income and lifestyle play a role.

"Young fathers have less stable employment," Wen said. "In addition, teenagers are at risk for more risky behavior like smoking and alcohol and drug use. These are known to be associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes.

"Teenage fathers may also be emotionally less stable," he added. "We know that stress is a risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes as well."

One expert agrees that more attention should be paid to teenage fathers and their contribution to the health of their children.

"Paternal age is an ignored and understudied and underestimated contributor to neonatal outcomes," said Dr. F. Sessions Cole, director of newborn medicine and head of the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Louis Children's Hospital. "It's 50 percent egg and 50 percent sperm that form the baby, and 100 percent of the blame is attributed to mothers," he said.

"The risk-taking behaviors of adolescent males probably are a significant part of the reason why their sperm are associated with more adverse neonatal outcomes," Cole said. "These risk-taking behaviors impact sperm in ways we don't know."

Cole believes teenage fathers, like teenage mothers, should receive prenatal counseling. "That way, a prospective father can get some sense of what he can do to optimize the outcome," he said.

More information
For more on healthy babies, visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Stars Don Red to Raise Awareness of Women's Heart Risk

(HealthDay News) -- "Nothing draws attention like a little red dress," noted First Lady Laura Bush, speaking in the heart of New York City's fashion district Friday.

The attention was really focused on a very serious issue -- the threat to American women from the nation's number one killer, heart disease.

The event: a star-studded catwalk kickoff to the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's (NHLBI) annual "Heart Truth" awareness campaign, which featured celebrities strutting their stuff on the catwalk wearing the symbol of the campaign, a red dress.

As the campaign's national ambassador, Mrs. Bush got right to the point. "The Heart Truth is this -- heart disease is the leading cause of death for American women," she told attendees, who included stars such as Liza Minnelli and supermodel Heidi Klum. Both later showed off red dresses on the runway.

The fashion fun carried a serious message.

"We tend to think of heart disease as a man's disease," said NHBLI Director Dr. Elizabeth Nabel. "But the truth is that since 1991 more women have died each year of heart disease than men. And that's why we began this campaign -- to communicate that, in fact, heart disease kills more women each year than all cancers combined."

Scheduled amid the semi-annual celebration of couture that is New York Fashion Week, the campaign's Red Dress Collection Fashion Show, now in its sixth year, is held on National Wear Red Day, Feb. 1. On that day each year, the NHLBI encourages women everywhere to don whatever shade of red they wish to champion the fight against cardiovascular disease.

This year's event brought together 15 luminaries from the worlds of film, television and music to brave Bryant Park's tented catwalk in red, one-of-a-kind dresses specifically created by top designers for the occasion.

Working the crimson catwalk were actresses Allison Janney (best known from NBC's The West Wing) and Cheryl Hines (of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm), as well as British soul singer Joss Stone and American R&B singer Ashanti -- all wearing red.

The Emmy, Grammy, Tony and Oscar-winning actress Rita Moreno donned a cherry red tulle hat and matching corsage, dancing down the runway. She was followed soon after by Klum, host of Bravo's Project Runway.

The grand finale: screen legend Liza Minelli, who after her own turn on the runway brought the house down with a rousing rendition of "New York, New York."

The stars and their fashions -- from designers Badgley Mischka, Oscar de la Renta, Marc Jacobs and Calvin Klein, among others -- held the spotlight, but everyone agreed that something much more serious was at stake.

"It's a great cause," Klum said after the show, which was sponsored by Diet Coke. "And it's a great awareness factor. And all these different celebrities are here doing it because it's the number one killer in America, for women. More than all the cancers together. And that's a crazy number."

One in four American women will die from heart disease, Nabel noted, but the campaign's aim is to encourage women to prevent the onset of cardiac illness by leading a healthy lifestyle. That includes eating well, exercising regularly, maintaining an optimal weight, going for routine blood pressure and cholesterol screenings, and avoiding smoking.

Those efforts may be paying off -- on Friday, the NHLBI announced that heart disease deaths for American women declined again in 2005, the last year for which statistics are available. And for the first time ever, that decline has continued for a straight six years, the institute said.
"We're making progress," Nabel said. "Only a third of women in the year 2000 recognized that heart disease is the number one killer. But now, in 2008, half of women recognize this. So we're not absolutely where we need to be yet, but we're making progress."

More information
There's more on women and heart disease risk, at the American Heart Association.