Cholesterol, both good and bad, gets plenty of attention when the subject is reducing the risk of heart disease. Yet triglycerides , a form of fat that circulates in the blood, merit similar attention, according to the August 2008 issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter .

Some studies suggest that the increase in heart disease risk from elevated triglycerides may rival that of elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or “bad” cholesterol. Another concern is that high triglyceride levels increase the risk of pancreatitis, a painful, life-threatening inflammation of the pancreas.

The National Cholesterol Education program recommends triglyceride levels below 150 milligrams per deciliter (mg/DL). Mayo Clinic cardiologists recommend triglyceride levels below 100 mg/DL.

For most people, elevated triglycerides are caused by three related factors: consuming too many calories, inadequate exercise, and being overweight or obese. As food is consumed, the digestive system makes triglycerides, an important source of energy. Once immediate energy needs have been met, extra triglycerides can be stored in the body’s fat cells for use later.

Other factors can increase triglyceride levels. They include health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, hypothyroidism, kidney or liver disease; medications including thiamine diuretics, beta-blockers or hormone therapies; and alcohol. For some people, alcohol alone dramatically raises triglycerides.

A doctor can develop a treatment plan to help lower tryglyerides. Weight loss from diet changes and exercise are the first steps. Supplemental niacin or high-dose fish oil are often effective. Drugs in the statin class can have a modest benefit. A physician also can evaluate whether medications or other health conditions are part of the problem of high triglycerides (Newswise).

Many children and teenagers carry backpacks during the school year for schoolbooks and other supplies. “When used correctly, backpacks are the most efficient way to carry a load and distribute the weight among some of the body’s strongest muscles,” says Eric Wall, Director, Orthopedic Surgery Division.

In May 2002, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported backpack related injuries sent almost 6000 students each year to emergency rooms. The American Academy of Orthopedics stated that backpack injury is a significant problem for children. A 2000 U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimate states that, when backpacks are used incorrectly, more than 13,260 injuries in children 5- to 18-years-old are treated at hospital emergency rooms, doctor’s offices and clinics.

The Division of Orthopedic Surgery at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center recommends these simple 8 tips to prevent any unnecessary injuries to your child throughout the school year:

• When choosing the right backpack look for one that is lightweight, has two wide and padded shoulder straps, a cushioned back, and waist straps. A rolling backpack is another good option if your child has to carry a very heavy load, but school terrain is much more challenging to negotiate with wheels than your average airport.

• Always encourage your child to use both shoulder straps and make sure the straps are tight.

• Limit your child’s backpack to no more than 15-20 percent of his or her body weight.

• Organize your child’s supplies and books so that the heaviest items are closest to the center of his/her back and all compartments are used.

• Persuade your child to stop at his or her locker often so they are not carrying all of their books throughout the day.

• When wearing or lifting a heavy backpack, remind your child to bend using both knees.

• Do not leave backpack on floor where others can trip over it, and do not swing pack around where it may hit other people.

• Back and shoulder discomfort is common with heavy backpack use. If your child complains of persistent back pain, consult with your child’s pediatrician (Newswise).

For people experiencing hair loss, there’s a mix of encouraging and discouraging news. No drug treatments have gained FDA approval since 1997, and the most effective therapy, a hair transplant, is expensive. But transplants now offer increasingly satisfying results thanks to improved surgical techniques, and recent biotechnology discoveries may lead to less invasive treatments, reports the August 2008 issue of the Harvard Health Letter.

The FDA has approved two drugs, minoxidil (Rogaine) and finasteride (Propecia), to slow hair loss or regrow hair. Propecia is more effective than Rogaine, but it’s more expensive. A major drawback of both is that you need to keep on taking them to sustain the benefits.

Hair transplants involve removing hair follicles from the sides of the head and implanting them in bald or thinning areas. One of the main obstacles is money - surgery costs $8,000 to $12,000. Transplants have improved over the years, making for a more natural hairline by continuing the trend toward smaller and smaller grafts.

Several drugs that preserve the health of hair follicles are in the pipeline. In addition, companies hope to find ways to create new hair follicles from scratch. One potential method involves using an abrasive gel to gently damage the skin and then topical cream to switch on the follicle-generating genes. Another possibility is a technique in which hair-forming cells are extracted, multiplied, and replanted into the scalp.

You can find plenty of treatments for hair loss on the Internet. Some are “specially formulated” shampoos sold along with saw palmetto herbal supplements. But there’s not much evidence that these work as treatments for hair loss (Newswise).

VCU.edu - Researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University have published findings about a new combination treatment for pancreatic cancer that uses natural dietary perillyl alcohol (POH) plus gene therapy. The chemoprevention gene therapy (CGT) may both treat and prevent pancreatic cancer, one of the most lethal and treatment-resistant forms of cancer.

In the July 2008 issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, the researchers showed that combining a dietary agent with a gene-delivered cytokine effectively eliminates human pancreatic cancer cells in mice displaying sensitivity to these highly aggressive and lethal cancer cells.

Cytokines are a category of proteins that are secreted into the circulation and can affect cancer cells at distant sites in the body, including metatases. The cytokine used in this study was melanoma differentiation associated gene-7/interleukin-24, known as mda-7/IL-24.

The natural dietary agent, perillyl alcohol (POH), was combined with mda-7/IL-24, which is already used in other cancer treatments. POH is found in a variety of plants, including citrus plants, and has been well-tolerated by patients who have received it in clinical studies.

The results indicated that the CGT approach not only prevented pancreatic cancer growth and progression, but it also effectively killed established tumors, thereby displaying profound chemopreventive and therapeutic activity.

Paul B. Fisher, Ph.D., was principal investigator of the study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Samuel Waxman Cancer Foundation.

“Our hypothesis was that certain non-toxic dietary agents that had the ability to promote reactive oxygen species (ROS) would break down pancreatic cancer cell resistance to therapy following administration of mda-7/IL-24 and be safe for human use,” said Fisher. “We are very excited at the prospect of this chemoprevention gene therapy as a means of both preventing and treating pancreatic cancer, and it has significant potential to move rapidly into human clinical trials.”

Pancreatic cancer has a five-year survival rate of less than 5 percent, and currently there is no effective chemotherapy or radiation therapy for it. About 37,000 new cases are diagnosed in the United States each year.

An abstract of the study can be found here:

Gene therapy plus natural dietary perillyl alcohol for pancreatic cancer

AAN.com - Eating tuna and other types of fish high in omega-3 fatty acids - baked or broiled, not fried - may help lower the risk of cognitive decline and stroke in healthy older adults, according to a study published in the August 5, 2008 issue of Neurology ®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

For the study, 3,660 people age 65 and older underwent brain scans to detect silent brain infarcts, or small lesions in the brain that can cause loss of thinking skills, stroke or dementia. Scans were performed again five years later on 2,313 of the participants. The people involved in the study were also given questionnaires about fish in their diets.

The study found that people who ate broiled or baked tuna and other fish high in omega-3 fatty acids (called DHA and EPA ) three times or more per week had a nearly 26 percent lower risk of having the silent brain lesions that can cause dementia and stroke compared to people who did not eat fish regularly. Eating just one serving of this type of fish per week led to a 13 percent lower risk. The study also found people who regularly ate these types of fish had fewer changes in the white matter in their brains.

“While eating tuna and other types of fish seems to help protect against memory loss and stroke, these results were not found in people who regularly ate fried fish,” said Jyrki Virtanen, PhD, RD, with the University of Kuopio in Finland. “More research is needed as to why these types of fish may have protective effects, but the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA would seem to have a major role.”

Types of fish that contain high levels of DHA and EPA nutrients include salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines, and anchovies.

“Previous findings have shown that fish and fish oil can help prevent stroke, but this is one of the only studies that looks at fish’s effect on silent brain infarcts in healthy, older people,” said Virtanen. Research shows that silent brain infarcts, which are only detected by brain scans, are found in about 20 percent of otherwise healthy elderly people.

For more information on the health benefits of fish, the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil, and suggestions on how to supplement your diet with omega-3s, sign up for the iHealthBulletin email newsletter on our homepage, http://www.iHealthBulletin.com .

JAMA/Archives - Children and teens who get less sleep, especially those who spend less time in rapid eye movement (REM ) sleep , may be more likely to be overweight , according to a report in the August 2008 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry .

The obesity rate has more than tripled among children aged 6 to 11 years in the past 30 years, and approximately 17 percent of U.S. adolescents are now overweight or obese, according to background information in the article. Obesity results from an imbalance between calorie intake and energy expenditure from physical activity, but little is known about other factors that can alter this balance. A number of studies have documented an association between fewer hours of sleep and higher body mass index (BMI) in both adults and children.

Xianchen Liu, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and colleagues studied 335 children and adolescents age 7 to 17 years (average age 10.8). For three consecutive nights, participants’ sleep was monitored through polysomnography, which assesses total sleep time, time spent in REM, the time it takes to fall asleep and other variables. Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI.

A total of 49 participants (14.6 percent) were at risk for becoming overweight and 45 (13.4 percent) were overweight. Compared with children at a normal weight, those who were overweight slept about 22 minutes less per night and had lower sleep efficiency (percentage of time in bed that an individual is asleep), shorter REM sleep, less eye activity during REM sleep and a longer wait before the first REM period.

After adjusting for other related factors, one hour less of total sleep was associated with two-fold increased odds of being overweight and one hour less of REM sleep was associated with three-fold increased odds.

“Although the precise mechanisms are currently under investigation, the association between short sleep duration and overweight may be attributed to the interaction of behavioral and biological changes as a result of sleep deprivation,” the authors write. Sleep loss causes changes in hormone levels that may affect hunger, and also provides an individual with more waking hours in which to eat. In addition, sleep loss contributes to fatigue the following day, which may decrease physical activity and calorie expenditure.

“Given the fact that the prevalence of overweight among children and adolescents continues to increase and chronic sleep insufficiency becomes more prevalent in modern society, family- and school-based sleep interventions that aim to enhance sleep hygiene and increase sleep duration may have important public health implications for the prevention and intervention of obesity and type 2 diabetes in children,” the authors conclude. “Furthermore, our results demonstrate an important relationship between REM sleep and high BMI and obesity, suggesting that the short sleep–obesity association may be attributed to reduced REM sleep time and decreased activity during REM sleep” (Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2008;65[8]:924-932).