MedicalResearch.com: Interview with Mette Andersen Nexø
Psychologist, Ph.D. student at The National Research Center for the Working Environment
Copenhagen Area, Denmark
MedicalResearch: What is the background for this study?Answer: The present study is a systematic assessment of the influence of a spectrum of thyroid diseases on ability to work. By presenting new information on the possible socioeconomic consequences of thyroid diseases, the results can help bring awareness to important needs for rehabilitation of thyroid patients.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sergio R. Ojeda, D.V.M.
Division Head and Senior Scientist Division of Neuroscience
Division of Neuroscience, OR National Primate Research Center/Oregon Health and Science University,
Beaverton OR 97006
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Ojeda:The study shows that a receptor for two growth factors (brain-derived neurotrophic factor [BDNF] and neurotrophin 4/5 [NT4/5]) that are known to be important for development of the nervous system is also essential for maintaining oocyte integrity and survival in the mammalian ovary. Intriguingly, the full-length form of this receptor (known as NTRK2-FL) is not expressed in oocytes until the time of the first ovulation. At this time, the pre-ovulatory gonadotropin discharge stimulates granulosa cells of ovarian follicles to produce not only more BDNF, but also more of a peptide known as kisspeptin, to induce the formation of NTRK2-FL in oocytes. To date, kisspeptin was known to be only critical for the hypothalamic control of reproduction. To induce NTRK2-FL, BDNF binds to truncated NTRK2 receptors (NTRK2-T1), which are abundant in oocytes throughout prepubertal development. Kisspeptin, on the other hand, does so by activating its receptor KISS1R, also expressed in oocytes. Once present after the first ovulation, NTRK2-FL is able to activate a survival pathway in oocytes following gonadotropin stimulation, presumably at every cycle. In the absence of NTRK2-FL, oocytes die, follicular structure disintegrates and a condition of premature ovarian failure ensues.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Christian Benedict PhD
Department of Neuroscience
Uppsala University
Uppsala, Sweden
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Benedict: By utilizing blood samples collected after an overnight fast, we demonstrated that humans carrying a common risk variant of the fat mass and obesity gene (obesity-associated gene (FTO)) (~16% of the population have two copies of this risk variant) had higher fasting blood concentrations of the hunger hormone ghrelin. In contrast, fasting serum levels of the satiety enhancing hormone leptin were lower.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Stefano Palomba
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
University “Magna Graecia” of Catanzaro
Catanzaro, Italy
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Prof. Palomba: Our study demonstrates that simple markers of inflammation, commonly detectable in clinical practice with commercial kits, are significantly modified in women with PCOS during pregnancy and associated at an increased risk of complications during pregnancy in the same population with PCOS.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr. Farid Saad
Global Medical Affairs Men’s Healthcare, Bayer Pharma, Berlin, Germany;
Gulf Medical University School of Medicine
Ajman, United Arab Emirates
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Saad: There are two ongoing registry studies in men with testosterone deficiency (hypogonadism, defined by two separate measures of low serum testosterone and the presence of symptoms which are typical for testosterone deficiency). The studies are being conducted by office urologists. The total number of men who have been treated for a maximum duration of six years is 561, mean age just under 60 years. All men received three-monthly intra-muscular injections of a long-acting testosterone depot preparation.
The main findings were that at baseline only five per cent of these men had normal weight, some 25 per cent were overweight and the majority obese. Both overweight and obese men showed reductions in weight and waist circumference. The more obese men were, the more they lost. Men in the highest obesity category grade III (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2), had a mean weight loss of 26 kg and a reduction of waist size by 12 cm.
In parallel, all components of the metabolic syndrome improved in a clinically meaningful magnitude, i.e., blood pressure, lipid profile, and glycemic control. When we analyzed a subgroup of 156 men with type 2 diabetes, we found marked improvements in their diabetes as a result of adding testosterone to the standard diabetes treatment men are receiving by their famaily physicians.
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Medicalresearch.com Interview with: Robert S. Tan MD, MBA, AGSF
Clinical Director & Chief Geriatrics, Michael DeBakey VAMC
Director, Opal Medical, LLC
Clinical Professor of Family & Community Medicine, UTHSC-Houston
Associate Professor of Medicine (Geriatrics), Baylor College Medicine
Medicalresearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Tan:Our findings¹ are similar to that of an early study by Shores et al ² and other studies on endogenous testosterone that found testosterone lowered mortality. In the analysis of 39,937 patients at the Low T Centers up to 5 years, the rate ratios of new MI and strokes on testosterone as compared to general community based data sets (3,4) was 0.12 (C.I. 0.08-0.18, p<0.0001) and 0.05 (C.I 0.02-0.13, p<0.0001) respectively. Thus, there appears to be a lower risk of heart attacks and strokes with patients on testosterone. While the compared population sets are not identical or real controls; our study does suggest that rates of MI and strokes in real life practice with testosterone treated patients are even lower than the general population registries (which may include older patients).
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MedicalResearch Interview with:
Arya Mani, M.D.
Department of Internal Medicine and Genetics
Yale Cardiovascular Research Center
Yale, New Haven CTMedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Mani: Our group has identified a gene that when mutated it causes a form of truncal (central) obesity that is associated with a cluster of coronary artery disease risk factors, including high blood pressure, insulin resistance and possibly elevated blood lipids. These associated risk factors are collectively known as the metabolic syndrome, which may lead to development of diseases such as diabetes and coronary artery disease, both of which were very prevalent in the populations we studied. All identified mutations by our group have been so far gain of function mutations, which means they increased the activity of the gene in pathways related to adipogenesis and gluconeogenesis.
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MedicalResearch Interview with: Alicia J. Kowaltowski, MD, PhD
Professor of Biochemistry Departamento de Bioquímica, IQ,
Universidade de São Paulo
São Paulo, SP, Brazil
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Kowaltowski: Intermittent fasting (24 hour cycles of all-you-can-eat followed by 24 fasting) is often used as a way to control excessive weight gain in laboratory animals, despite the fact that these animals overeat on the days they get food, and end up ingesting total quantities of food very similar to animals that eat every day. We show here that although lower weight gain occurs with intermittent fasting and there are some health benefits in adopting this diet, there are also some undesirable consequences. One such consequence is that this diet changes the control of hunger in the hypothalamus within the brain, making the rats hungry all the time, even when they are eating.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Ignacio F. San Francisco
Departamento de Urología, Facultad de Medicina,
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Answer: Increasingly, men with low-risk prostate cancer are undergoing a close monitoring regimen called active surveillance, instead of moving forward immediately with treatment. However it is still unclear which men will develop evidence for worsening or more aggressive disease during active surveillance. In this study of 154 men with Gleason 6 prostate cancer followed for 38 months, we found that low levels of free testosterone were significantly associated with increased risk of developing more aggressive disease. We found no significant association with total testosterone concentrations, although there was a general trend towards increased risk with lower levels.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr. Dorte GlintborgPhD
Senior Hospital Physician, PhD Dorte Glintborg, Department of Endocrinology, OUH Odense University Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study?Dr. Glintborg: The main finding of the study is that one year’s metformin treatment is associated with a minor but significant weight loss in patients with PCOS irrespective of BMI at study inclusion. Treatment with oral contraceptives improves sex-hormone levels but is associated with at minor weight gain. Based on the study results, clinicians should consider the combined treatment with metformin and oral contraceptives in patients with PCOS.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Donald S. A. McLeod, FRACP, MPH
Department of Population Health,
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Herston,
Queensland, Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. McLeod:We examined the incidence of Graves’ disease and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis by race/ethnicity among U.S. active duty service personnel aged 20-54 years over a 15-year period (more than 20,000,000 person years follow-up). Cases were identified by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes.
In women, we found that Graves’ disease was almost twice as common among non-Hispanic black and Asian-Pacific Islander personnel compared with non-Hispanic white personnel. While in men, non-Hispanic black and Asian-Pacific Islander personnel had over two-and-a-half times higher incidence compared with non-Hispanic white personnel. The opposite pattern existed for Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, with non-Hispanic white personnel having the highest incidence, and non-Hispanic black and Asian-Pacific Islander personnel the lowest incidence. Hispanic personnel did not have significantly different incidence compared to white personnel for either disorder.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kai-Jen Tien, MD
Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism,
Department of Internal Medicine, Chi Mei Medical Center
Assistant Professor, Center of General Education
Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science
Tainan, Taiwan
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Answer: We conducted the first and largest population-based cohort study to evaluate the association of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and osteoporosis in a 6-year follow-up investigation of an Asian population. OSA is characterized by repetitive episodes of apnea/hypopnea and hypoxia in tissue, which might impact the bone metabolism. The results of the study showed that patients with obstructive sleep apnea had 2.74 times the risk of osteoporosis than patents without obstructive sleep apnea after adjustment for the patient`s characteristics and comorbidities. Across all age groups and sex groups, individuals with OSA had higher incidence rate of osteoporosis than individuals without obstructive sleep apnea. Subgroup analysis showed that older patients and female patients had a higher risk for osteoporosis than their younger and male counterparts.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Elizabeth C. Wick, MD
Assistant Professor,Department of Surgery
The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Wick: The main finding is the high variability in physician practice for prescribing steroids and the lack of clear guidance as to best practice in the literature.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Christos S. Mantzoros, MD, DSc, PhD
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the VA Boston Healthcare
Cynthia R. Davis PhD
Judge Baker Children’s Center in Boston, MA.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study?Answer: These results highlight that chronic stressors in childhood, like child abuse and family violence, parental substance abuse, divorce and separation from a parental figure, can potentially have a long standing impact on brain structures and functioning, such as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Our work supports the notion of allostatic load, and is the first of its kind to demonstrate links between childhood adversity and central obesity later in life which leads to increased cardio metabolic risk.
This study describes the role of these novel molecules in mediating metabolic dysregulation highlighting them as a novel mechanism linking childhood adversity to obesity.
We have also used more sensitive assessments of childhood adversity, not typically employed in biomedical research, that incorporate the severity of adversities and their chronicity across childhood. Assessments of this nature are better able to detect severe and chronic adversity, and are critical in the measurement of stress, its role in allostatic load and its impact on the brain. Furthermore, the current study and others from our lab show that severe and chronic adversity in childhood is associated with metabolic dysregulation and obesity in adulthood, regardless of lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise and psychosocial factors like depression and social support.
Clinicians and patients need to be aware of the fact that subjects exposed to early life adversity are at increase risk for central obesity and cardio metabolic risk.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview withMelanie Goldfarb MD
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Endocrine Surgery
University of Southern California
Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Goldfarb: Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) who develop thyroid cancer as a secondary cancer are six times more likely to die than AYAs with primary thyroid cancer, though survival with treatment is excellent for both primary and secondary cancers at greater than 95 percent. Additionally, Hispanics, Males, and those of lower socioeconomic status have worse overall survival.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Simon D. Brandt, PhD
Reader in Bioactive Drug Chemistry
School of Pharmacy & Biomolecular Sciences
Liverpool John Moores University
Associate Editor "Drug Testing and Analysis" (Wiley)
Author's background comment:
This type of work represents one of our areas of activity related to multi-disciplinary approaches to harm reduction which combines public health work with research on various properties of bioactive substances.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Answer: As part of our work related to so-called lifestyle and image-enhancing drugs and legal highs/bath salts, we became interested in a particular "food/dietary supplement" called "Esto Suppress" because it was discussed on some Internet forums dedicated to the topic of bodybuilding. Some forum members were speculating that might be present in this particular product. The reason for this speculation came from the chemical name that was written on the label which pointed in that direction. This particular product was also widely available from a number of online retailers and while some indications existed that the same chemical name was mentioned, others were seen to list a modified version of that name which did not always make much chemical sense. We test purchased four "Esto Suppress" samples in a local fitness store and confirmed that three of them contained the breast cancer drug tamoxifen.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Professor Nigel Arden
Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences
Botnar Research Centre
Oxford OX3 7LD
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Professor Arden: We found that in a cohort of women who had used hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and underwent knee or hip replacement their risk of implant revision was reduced by about 40% compared to non-users of HRT.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:J. Bradley Layton, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Layton: Use of testosterone testing and treatment had greatly increased over the past decade, with more pronounced increases seen in the United States than in the United Kingdom. The increases in testing in the UK seem to be targeted, identifying more men with reduced testosterone levels, but the increases in the US seem to be identifying more and more men with normal levels. Many of the men who begin testosterone treatment in the US appear to have normal testosterone levels to begin with.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Ajay K Parsaik, MD, MS
Department of Psychiatry and Behavior Sciences
The University of Texas Medical School, Houston
Department of Neurology and Mayo Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Parsaik:Main findings of our study are that clinical and subclinical hypothyroidism is not associated with mild cognitive impairment in an elderly population after accounting for possible confounding factors and interactions.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Christopher D Kassotis (MU-Student)
Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health and Division of Biological Sciences University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211;
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Answer: The main findings of our study are twofold:
First, we found that 12 chemicals used in the fracking process disrupt hormone action. Specifically, we found that they inhibited the action of estrogens such as estradiol and androgens such as testosterone; classes of reproductive hormones that are critical for normal development and reproductive maturation.
Second, we found that surface and ground water from a drilling-dense area in Colorado has much greater hormonal activity than samples from areas with limited drilling. Specifically, ground water had elevated estrogenic activity (mimicking the effects of estrogens), while surface water exhibited anti-estrogenic and anti-androgenic activities, similar to the chemicals we tested.
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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:Bledar Daka MD, PhD-student.
University of Gothenburg in Sweden
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of your study?Answer:The main finding of our study was that low testosterone levels were associated with MI in both men and women but the association was stronger in men with type 2 diabetes.
This finding was in concert with findings that could associate the CVD death with low levels of testosterone especially in elder men.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Michael Ho, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology
Cardiology 111B 1055 Clermont Street
Denver CO 80220
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Ho: We found that testosterone use was associated with a 29% increased risk of death, MI and stroke over a follow-up period of 27 months. The risk was similar among patients with or without coronary artery disease on coronary angiography.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr Bu Beng Yeap MBBS, FRACP, PhD
Professor, School of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Western Australia
Endocrinologist, Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Fremantle Hospital.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Answer: We found that older men with testosterone levels in the middle of the range had the lowest mortality risk. Having a low testosterone level predicted higher mortality, and there was no benefit of having a high-normal testosterone level. Men with optimal rather than high testosterone levels lived longest.
The other important finding was that men with higher dihydrotestosterone levels had lower mortality from ischaemic heart disease, suggesting that androgens may protect against heart disease in older men.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Angela M. Leung, MD, MSc
Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine
University of California Los Angeles
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Leung:Despite current guidelines to screen for thyroid dysfunction as a secondary cause of newly-diagnosed hyperlipidemia, this was performed only about 50% of the time by primary care providers in over 8,700 patients at a large, urban Boston academic medical center. Approximately 5% of patients who had thyroid function checked were found to have hypothyroidism. The majority of hypothyroid patients who received treatment with levothyroxine had successful correction of the initial hyperlipidemia within one year.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Pedro Iglesias, MD
Department of Endocrinology and Nutrition
Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Madrid Spain
MedicalResearch.com What are the main findings of...
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Professor Helena Teede MBBS, PhD, FRACP
Director Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation -- MCHRI,
And Head Womens Public...
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr. Liora Lazar
The Jesse Z and Sara Lea Shafer Institute for Endocrinology and Diabetes National Center for Childhood Diabetes
Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel
14 Kaplan St., Petah Tikva 49202, Israel
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Lazar: The study aims to assess the reproductive outcome and social adjustment of former Central precocious puberty (CPP) women between the 3rd and 5th decades of life.
The main findings of this study are:
1. Clinical hyperandrogenism was more prevalent among former CPP women, both treated and untreated, as compared to controls.
2. Fertility problems were more prevalent only among untreated–CPP women.
3. Educational achievements and marital status were similar in former CPP women and their controls. (more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH
Chief, Division of Preventive Medicine
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Professor of Medicine and the
Michael and Lee...
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kalipada Pahan, Ph.D.
The Floyd A. Davis, M.D., Endowed Chair of Neurology
Professor
Departments of Neurological Sciences, Biochemistry and Pharmacology
Rush University Medical Center
1735 West Harrison St, Suite 320 Chicago, IL 60612
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Pahan: While different toxins and a number of complex genetic approaches are used to model Parkinson’s disease in mice, this study delineates that simple castration is sufficient to cause persistent Parkinson’s like pathology and symptoms in male mice. This simple, but persistent, model may be helpful in discovering drugs against Parkinson’s disease. Furthermore, these results suggest that sudden drop of testosterone level could trigger Parkinson’s disease.
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