MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Sylvie Mrug, PhD
Departments of Psychology and Health Behavior
University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama;
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Mrug: Experiencing early puberty and having a best friend who misbehaves at age 11 both contribute to more aggressive and delinquent behavior in adolescent girls. Although most of these effects are transient and disappear by age 16, early maturing girls are at risk for continually higher delinquent behavior. Early puberty also seems to make girls more vulnerable to negative peer influences.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Mike Head
Network Manager
Infectious Disease Research Network
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Answer: The differences in total funding received between male and female principal investigators (PIs) is considerable. This can be partially explained by there being far more male senior scientists than female. But this in itself is not ideal, and there are two further causes for concern:
1. The median award size - male PIs receive larger awards than female PIs, across virtually every topic area and type of science.
2. The differences in median award size and total funding awarded by gender remain virtually unchanged across the fourteen years of this dataset. The gap is not closing.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with Dr. Moa Wolff
Center for Primary Health Care Research
Department of Clinical Sciences in Malmö, Lund University
Jan Waldenströms gata 35, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö 205 02, Sweden
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Wolff: We investigated the effects of two yoga interventions on blood pressure and quality of life in patients in primary health care diagnosed with hypertension. Our study showed that a short yoga program practiced daily at home had an antihypertensive effect, as well as a positive effect on self-rated quality of life compared to controls.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Jason Grebely PhD
The Kirby Institute
University of South Wales, Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Grebely:Although 20%-40% of persons with acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection demonstrate spontaneous clearance, the time course and factors associated with clearance remain poorly understood. This study investigated the time to spontaneous clearance and predictors among participants with acute HCV. Female sex, favorable IL28B genotype, and HCV genotype 1 were identified to be independent predictors of spontaneous clearance. This study provides important insights into factors affecting HCV viral control and offers guidance in clinical decision-making for the treatment of acute HCV infection.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr Kamal Ivory
Institute of Food Research
Norwich Research Park Norwich, UK
Gut Health & Food Safety ISP
The Institute of Food Research receives strategic funding from BBSRCMedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Ivory: In the present study we show that administration of probiotics in the gut can induce changes at the nasal mucosa where the immune system meets pollen allergen. This implies a potential to alter the course of allergic rhinitis. However, in our single high dose pollen challenge in the clinic (out of pollen season), we did not measure any significant changes in the clinical parameters we had set. It is not clear if this was because a single challenge fails to replicate occurrence during natural seasonal exposure to pollen in terms of dosage and timing. That aside, the mode of action may vary from one probiotic organism to another and it is possible that a cocktail of probiotic organisms may be needed for clinical effectiveness. If funding becomes available, we would like to repeat the study during the pollen season.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr David P. Turner PhD
Assistant Professor, Director of shRNA Technology
Medical University of South Carolina
Dept of Pathology & Lab Medicine
Charleston SC 29425
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Turner: Our research has identified a potential mechanistic link between sugar derived metabolites and cancer associated pathways which may be a biological consequence of the socioeconomic and biological factors that are known to drive cancer health disparity. African Americans develop and die more frequently of cancer than any other population in the US. We examined the levels of reactive metabolites known as advanced glycation end-products, or AGEs for short, in serum and tumor samples from African American and Non-Hispanic White prostate cancer patients. In both the serum and tumor tissue, the levels of AGE metabolites were consistently higher in the African American prostate cancer patients than their White counterparts. AGE functions as a ligand for the receptor for AGEs, or RAGE for short. We also identified that RAGE protein levels were higher in African Americans with prostate cancer.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Harrys A. Torres, MD, FACP
Assistant Professor, Director of Hepatitis C Clinic
Department of Infectious Diseases, Infection Control and Employee Health
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Torres:The main findings of the study were that patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection who were successfully treated with antivirals and attained sustained virologic response (SVR) did not have a relapse of HCV infection after receiving immunosuppressive chemotherapy for cancer. Patients in the study received different chemotherapeutic agents, including rituximab and systemic corticosteroids. Durability of SVR was maintained up to 14 years after chemotherapy in cancer patients.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Rachel Patzer, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor
Emory University School of Medicine
Department of Surgery, Division of Transplantation
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Patzer: We found significant racial/ethnic differences in important health outcomes among pediatric and adolescent patients who received a liver transplantation at a large transplant center in the Southeastern U.S., where rates of mortality and graft failure were higher among minorities compared to white patients.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Catherine H. Mercer Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer
UCL Centre for Sexual Health & HIV Research
Research Department of Infection & Population Health
University College London London U.K.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Mercer: Firstly, the National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, Britain’s nationally-representative surveys of sexual behaviour (or Natsal for short), have captured substantial changes in sexual attitudes and lifestyles over the past 60 years, having collected data from over 45,000 people born between the 1930s and the 1990s – a period spanning much of the 20th Century.
Secondly, the recent changes in behaviour that we have observed - so over the past decade - have however been considerably more marked for women than men, with the gender gap in reported behaviour narrowing, and in some cases, disappearing altogether.
Thirdly, we’ve seen a greater acceptance of more diverse sexual lifestyles, such as same-sex sexual partnerships, but greater intolerance of what many people might consider as ‘disrespectful’ sexual partnerships, including non-exclusivity in marriage.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with;Dr. Wanpen Vongpatanasin, MD
Professor of Medicine
Director, Hypertension Section, Cardiology Division
UT Southwestern Medical Center
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Vongpatanasin: We found that more than 50% of patients with resistant hypertension were non-adherent to at least one drug prescribed by their primary care physicians for blood pressure control.
When we provided this information back to the patients, as part of care in our hypertension specialty clinic, we found that many patients report difficulty taking prescribed medications due to either associated side effects or cost of the medication. When we adjusted patient's medications to fit their needs, BP levels were substantially improved during subsequent visits without increasing the number of medications.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Maki Inoue-Choi, PhD, MS, RD
Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, NIH
Rockville, MD 20850
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Answer: In our study, postmenopausal women who reported higher consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages were more likely to develop estrogen-dependent type I endometrial cancer, the most common type of this cancer.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Nicholas M Perry MD
London Breast Institute
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of your study?Dr. Perry: The main findings from the study were that automated density readings outperformed radiologists, and that women under the age of 50 had a more significant risk of breast cancer from higher breast density.
Also, and quite surprising was the appearance of a completely different age- density pattern in women with breast cancer. Whereas the women in the study without cancer showed a normal and steady decline in breast density with age, those with cancer showed a completely different curvi-linear pattern, which was evident in women as young as 30.
The message is that breast density remains an important factor for both the current breast screening methodologies, and for future research into investigation and management.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr G. Neil Thomas, Regional Director,
NIHR Research Design Service West Midlands
Deputy Director, Master of Public Heath Programme Reader in Epidemiology
Department of Public Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics School of Health and Population Sciences College of Medical and Dental Sciences The University of Birmingham Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Thomas:This population of severely obese individuals (mean BMI 47kg/m2) from a regional specialist weight management service poor sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, PSQI) and daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale) were strongly associated with poorer quality of life (Impact of Quality of Life-Lite (IWQOL-Lite)
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr. Takatoshi Kasai, MD, PhD
Department of Cardiology and Cardio-Respiratory Sleep Medicine,
Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Kasai: Sleep disordered breathing, determined using predischarge nocturnal pulse oximetry, is prevalent and is an independent predictor of the combined end point of readmission and mortality in hospitalized patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction after acute decompensated heart failure.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr. Meghan Azad, PhD
Banting Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Pediatrics
University of Alberta
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Azad: In this study, our goal was to evaluate the clinical evidence for using probiotics (live "healthy bacteria") to prevent childhood asthma. We reviewed the results of 20 clinical trials involving over 4000 infants, where probiotics were administered during pregnancy or the first year of life, and found no evidence to support the use of probiotics for asthma prevention. Children receiving probiotics were just as likely to develop asthma as children receiving placebo. Similarly, there was no effect of probiotic supplementation on the development of wheezing.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Aniket D. Kulkarni, M.B., B.S., M.P.H
Women's Health and Fertility Branch
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, Georgia
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Kulkarni: Our study estimates the contribution of fertility treatments and natural conception to multiple births. Fertility treatments include IVF and non-IVF treatments. Non-IVF treatments primarily include ovulation induction and ovarian stimulation coupled with timed intercourse or intrauterine insemination (IUI). All estimated proportions were adjusted for maternal age which makes this study unique.
The incidence of twin births nearly doubled and the incidence of triplet and higher-order births quadrupled over the last 4 decades.
Our study estimates that by 2011, a total of 36% of twin births and 77% of triplet and higher-order births resulted from conception assisted by fertility treatments, after adjusting for maternal age.
After initial increase, the incidence of triplet and higher order births decreased by 29% from 1998 to 2011. The decrease in triplet and higher order births has coincided with a 70% reduction in the transfer of 3 or more embryos during IVF and a 33% decrease in the proportion of triplet and higher order births attributable to IVF. The decline in the number of embryos transferred during IVF became possible due to monitoring of ART treatments and outcomes and the work of professional societies, which have repeatedly revised practice guidelines to include recommendations for lowering the number of embryos transferred.
In contrast, non-IVF fertility treatments of ovulation induction and ovarian stimulation are estimated to contribute the increasing number of multiple births. Hence there is a need for surveillance of births from non-IVF fertility treatments.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr Kirstin R Mitchell PhD
Lecturer in Sexual and Reproductive Health
Dept of Social and Environmental Health Research
Faculty of Public Health & Policy
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Mitchell: We explored the distribution of sexual function in the British population using a probability sample survey (the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles [Natsal-3]) of 15 162 individuals aged 16–74 years. We measured sexual function using the Natsal-SF, a novel validated measure, which assessed problems with individual sexual response, sexual function in a relationship context, and self-appraisal of sex life.
Men and women in the oldest age groups surveyed (55 – 74) were more likely to have low overall sexual function than those in the youngest age group (16 – 24). After taking account of age differences, low sexual function was associated in both men and women with being unemployed, with current depression, and with poor general health. It was also associated with higher numbers of lifetime partners (women only), paying for sex (men only), and reporting same-sex partners, as well as with other aspects of sexual health, such as being diagnosed with an STI and experiencing sex against their will.
Low sexual function was associated with relationship breakdown, and with people not being happy with their relationship. Within relationships, the most common problem was an imbalance in level of interest in sex between partners, which affected around a quarter of both men and women. Just under one in five men and women said their partner had experienced sexual difficulties in the last year, and this proportion increased with age, particularly among women.
Lack of interest in sex was one of the most commonly reported problems for both men and women, affecting three in every twenty (15%) men, and with women twice as likely as men to say that this had been an issue in the last year. Difficulty reaching climax (16%) and vaginal dryness (13%) were among common problems for women; and reaching a climax more quickly than desired (15%), and difficulty getting or keeping an erection (13%) among men.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:J. Randall Curtis, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine
Director, UW Palliative Care Center of Excellence
Section Head, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Harborview Medical CenterA. Bruce Montgomery, M.D. – American Lung Association Endowed Chair in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98104
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Curtis: We examined the effect of a communication-skills intervention for internal medicine and nurse practitioner trainees on patient- and family-reported outcomes. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Heatlh. We conducted a randomized trial with 391 internal medicine and 81 nurse practitioner trainees at two universities. Participants were randomized to either an 8-session simulation-based, communication-skills intervention or to usual education. We collected outcome data from a large number of patients with life-limiting illness and their families, including 1866 patient ratings and 936 family ratings. The primary outcome was patient-reported quality of communication and, overall, this outcome did not change with the intervention. However, when we restricted our analyses to only patients who reported their own health status as poor, the intervention was associated with increased communication ratings. Much to our surprise, the intervention was associated with a small but significant increase in depression scores among post-intervention patients. Overall, this study demonstrates that among internal medicine and nurse practitioner trainees, simulation-based communication training compared with usual education improved communication skills acquisition, but did not improve quality of communication about end-of-life care for all patients. However, the intervention was associated with improved patient ratings of communication for the sickest patients. Furthermore, the intervention was associated with a small increase in patients’ depressive symptoms, and this appeared most marked among patients of the first-year residents.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:James Guevara, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Pediatrics & Epidemiology
Senior Diversity Search Advisor, Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania,Director of Interdisciplinary Initiatives
PolicyLab: Center to Bridge Research, Practice, & Policy
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia,Philadelphia, PA 19104
MedicalResearch.com: What did the study attempt to address?Dr. Guevara: Medical schools have sought to build more diverse faculty in their institutions through faculty development programs targeted to underrepresented minority faculty members. This study was conduct by THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA'S POLICYLAB and The University of Pennsylvania and sought to determine if there was an association between minority faculty development programs and the representation, recruitment, and promotion of underrepresented minority faculty.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Michael D. April, MD, DPhil
San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium.Department
Harvard Medical School
The Medical Practice Evaluation Center
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study?Dr. April: Using a mathematical model, this study quantified the survival benefits associated with antiretroviral therapy to HIV-infected people in South Africa since 2004. Our results highlight the astounding benefits of treatment. In short, antiretroviral therapy has saved 2.8 million years of life in South Africa to date and is projected to save an additional 15.1 million years of life by 2030.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Alessandra d’Azzo PhD
Department of Genetics, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital
262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, Tennessee 38105
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. d’Azzo: We have discovered a connection between a rare childhood disorder and Alzheimer’s disease that usually affects older people.
The culprit is a metabolic enzyme called NEU1 that normally controls the recycling or disposal of proteins in a specific cell compartment, the lysosome.
When NEU1 is defective, children develop the severe metabolic disease, sialidosis.
Our study suggests that NEU1 also plays an important role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Based on this discovery, we decided to increase NEU1 enzyme activity in the brain of an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model that shows features characteristic of the human disease, namely the accumulation of toxic protein aggregates or plaques. Remarkably, we could significantly diminish the number of plaques in the brain of these mice by increasing NEU1 enzyme activity.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Brian Grunau MD
Emergency Physician, St. Paul's Hospital
Clinical Assistant Professor, UBC Department of Emergency Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Grunau: Among 2819 consecutive Emergency Department visits of patients with allergic reactions or anaphylaxis, five clinically important biphasic reactions were identified (0.18%; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.07% to 0.44%), with two occurring during the ED visit and three post-discharge. There were no fatalities. When examining patients who satisfied the definition for anaphylaxis and those who did not separately, clinically important biphasic reactions occurred in 2 patients (0.40%; 95% CI 0.07% to 1.6%) and 3 patients (0.13%; 95% CI 0.03% to 0.41%), respectively.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr. Morten Sejer Hansen
Department of Anaesthesia 4231
Centre of Head and Orthopaedics, Rigshospitalet
Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Answer: Out-of-hospital administration of intranasal fentanyl in doses of 50 and 100 microgram appears to be safe and well tolerated, with a low incidence of side effects
Secondly, intranasal fentanyl appeared effective in a wide range of patients, although no firm conclusions on analgesic efficacy can be provided due to the lack of a placebo control.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Ian Kronish, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health
Division of General Medicine
Columbia University Medical Center
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Kronish:Among primary care patients with persistently uncontrolled blood pressure despite medication treatment, we found that medication non-adherence was more than twice as common in patients with PTSD (68%) as compared to patients without PTSD (26%). The association between PTSD and medication non-adherence remained present after adjustment for key covariates including regimen complexity and depression. Recent research shows that PTSD not only contributes to psychological distress, but is also associated with increased risk for incident and recurrent cardiovascular disease. The data from our study suggest that medication non-adherence may be an important mechanism by which PTSD increases risk for cardiovascular disease.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr. Lianne Jeffs PhD
Nurse and researcher at St. Michael's Hospital
University of Toronto
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Jeffs: The main findings of the study include:
1. Patients described the bedside nursing handover as engaging, personal and informative. The bedside nursing handover created a a space to connect with their nurses in a more personal manner (e.g., provided an introduction between patient and nurse at the beginning of the shift)
2. Patients found the experience increased their engagement in their own care, and kept them informed about their health status and care plan. It also gave the patient an opportunity to identify important needs to the nurse (e.g., daily activities)
3. Not all patients wanted to participate in the bedside nursing handover. This was typically exemplified by long-term-stay patients.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Hans-Willem Snoeck MD, PhD
Columbia University Medical Center
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Snoeck: We were, for the first time, able to differentiate human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells into at least 6 different types of lung and airway epithelial cells. Furthermore, we could demonstrate function of surfactant-producing type II alveolar epithelial cells, and the lung progenitors we generated could generate airway after transplantation under the kidney capsule of immunodeficient mice.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr Nigel Field MBPhD
Research Department of Infection and Population Health
University College London, London, UK
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Field:This study, published in The Lancet on Tuesday 26 November, reports data from the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal), interviewing over 15,000 participants aged 16-74 years, to systematically assess the association between people’s health and their sexual lifestyles in Britain. The key findings from the study are that close to one in six (17%) of men and women feel that their health had affected their sex life in the past year. This rises to three fifths (60%) among men and women who say that they are in bad health. However, only a quarter of men (24%) and under a fifth of women (18%) who say that ill-health affects their sex life had sought help from a health profession, usually a family doctor.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Jakob Christensen
Department of Neurology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark;
Merete Juul Sørensen
Regional Centre of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Aarhus University Hospital
Risskov, Denmark
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Answer: We found that the risk of autism spectrum disorder was increased by 50% in children of mothers who took antidepressants during pregnancy. However, when we controlled for other factors related to the medication, by comparing with children of mothers with a diagnosis of depression or with un-exposed siblings, the risk was smaller and not significantly increased.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Richard Schwartz, Ph.D.
Professor, Associate Dean for Graduate Academic and Student Affairs College of Natural Science Michigan State University
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824-4320
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Schwartz: The main finding is that exposure to a high fat diet from the age of puberty onwards hastened the development of chemical carcinogen-induced breast cancer in absence of weight gain. We also found that prior to the appearance of any tumors, we could detect changes in the mammary gland that included increased cellular proliferation, increased vascularity, and changes in immune function.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr. Victor W. Henderson MD
Professor of Health Research and Policy and of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Henderson: Estrogen or hormone therapy effects on some health outcomes differ by age, harmful at one age and beneficial at another.
This difference is sometimes referred to as the “critical window” or “timing” theory. It is controversial whether the so-called critical-window applies to memory or other cognitive skills.
In assessing the critical window hypothesis, we found that the relation between blood levels of estrogen and memory or reasoning skills is the same in younger postmenopausal women as in older postmenopausal women. Essentially, there is no association at either age.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Sylvie Mrug, PhD
Departments of Psychology and Health Behavior
University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama;
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Mrug: Experiencing early puberty and having a best friend who misbehaves at age 11 both contribute to more aggressive and delinquent behavior in adolescent girls. Although most of these effects are transient and disappear by age 16, early maturing girls are at risk for continually higher delinquent behavior. Early puberty also seems to make girls more vulnerable to negative peer influences.
(more…)
