Health Headlines - March 13

Menstrual blood a good source of stem cells

Japanese researchers have harvested stem cells from human menstrual blood. These stem cells could potentially be a source of specialized heart cells, which might be used to treat failing or damaged hearts.

Stem cells are young, undifferentiated cells that have the ability to become various specialized cells that make up the different tissues of the body.

At the meeting of the American College of Cardiology here, Dr. Shunichiro Miyoshi reported that he and his colleagues at Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, collected menstrual blood from six women and harvested stem cells that originated in the lining of the uterus, the endometrium.

They were able to obtain about thirty times more stem cells from menstrual blood than from bone marrow, Miyoshi told Reuters Health.

When the stem cells were cultured in a way to induce them to become heart cells, after five days about half of the cells contracted "spontaneously, rhythmical and synchronously, suggesting the presence of electrical communication" between the cells, Miyoshi announced. That is to say, they behaved like heart cells.

The researcher explained that already stem cells derived from bone marrow have been shown to improve the function of the heart -- mainly by producing new blood vessels rather than new heart-muscle tissue. He emphasized that it is important that these cells be obtained from younger patients, because they would have a longer lifespan than cells harvested from older donors.

Stem Cell Mobilization Doesn't Heal Heart Attack Damage: Study

A new study appears to contradict earlier research in animals and humans that injections of stem cell-mobilizing granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) may promote repair of heart muscle damaged by heart attack.

It had been hypothesized that G-CSF would increase the release of adult stem cells from the bone marrow into the bloodstream and that these stem cells would enter the heart wall and turn into new heart muscle cells.

The new Danish study of 78 patients found that patients who received injections of G-CSF less than 12 hours after the onset of heart attack symptoms did show increased stem cell counts but had no greater improvements in their hearts' pumping efficiency than patients who received placebo injections.

The findings were presented Sunday at the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta.

Despite the results, the researchers said their study does not eliminate the potential usefulness of G-CSF in heart attack patients.

"Our trial only settles the question regarding G-CSF injections initiated soon after an acute heart attack and using one specific dose without accompanying angiogenic therapy to increase blood vessel growth," senior author Dr. Jens Kastrup said in a prepared statement.

"We did not test another dose at another time, such as three weeks after an attack when some angiogenic factors in the blood have reached peak concentration."

Myanmar Reports 1st Bird Flu Outbreak

Myanmar has reported its first outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus and it's highly likely that the virus has been found in Afghanistan for the first time, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) officials said Monday.

The virus was confirmed in 112 chickens that died in northern Myanmar while an H5 bird flu virus subtype was found in poultry in Kabul and Jalalabad in Afghanistan. The U.N. officials said there was a "high risk" that further tests would identify H5N1 as the virus found in Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported.

On Sunday, Cameroon became the fourth African nation to announce that it had been hit by the H5N1 strain.

Myanmar officials said there was no evidence of human infection in that country and that measures were being taken to control the outbreak among poultry.

Last month, the FAO warned that H5N1 would reach Afghanistan and criticized the Afghan government and donor nations for being slow to prevent an outbreak there, the AP reported.

Bird flu first appeared in Asia in 2003 and has recently spread to Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Tens of millions of poultry have been slaughtered to control the spread of the disease, which has claimed the lives of at least 97 people.

New Medicare Drug Plan Hurting Pharmacists

Some independent pharmacists may have to close their doors because they're losing too much money under the new U.S. Medicare prescription drug plan. The pharmacists say they're not being paid adequately or promptly under the new plan, The New York Times reported.

A group of Texas pharmacists met last week with White House officials to discuss the issue. They claim that pharmacists have given away millions of dollars worth of prescription drugs over the last two months -- medications that should have been covered by the new Medicare plan.

"If pharmacists don't receive immediate relief, some will go broke. Others are hurting so bad that they will choose not to participate in Medicare or Medicaid," Bill C. Pittman, former president of the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, told The Times.

Pittman, who arranged the White House meeting, is chairman of Pharmacists for Bush, a political fund-raising group.

Under the new Medicare plan, pharmacies have contracts with private health plans subsidized by Medicare. While Medicare officials said they would help pharmacists enforce the terms of these contracts with private insurers, the pharmacists said that isn't enough. They said the private insurers typically offer the contracts on a "take it or leave it" basis, The Times reported.

Plavix, Aspirin Combo Not Always Safe

Taking the blood thinner Plavix and aspirin to try to prevent a heart attack could be a dangerous treatment strategy, a new study suggests.

Not only did the combination have little effect in most patients, it raised the risk of death, heart attack and stroke in those who didn't have clogged arteries but who did have other risk factors for cardiovascular trouble, such as hypertension and high cholesterol, the Associated Press reported.

The startling finding was presented by Cleveland Clinic researchers Sunday at the American College of Cardiology meeting, in Atlanta.

"They actually were harmed," said study co-author Eric Topol, who is now with Case Western University. "This was a trial to determine the boundaries of benefit, and it did. You don't use this drug for patients without coronary artery disease."

The trial involved more than 15,000 people in 32 countries, the wire service said.

New Device Helps Treat Heart Failure

A new twist on an old idea seems to be safer than water pills at removing excess fluids from the bloodstream in heart failure patients, new research finds.

The discovery could affect the 5 million American who have heart failure and often find themselves in the hospital, unable to breathe, the Associated Press reported. A Minneapolis-based company used a device that is already on the market, but employed a simpler way to administer it. A tube is inserted into a vein in the arm, leg or neck for eight hours while excess fluids are drained.

"It's really pretty exciting," Dr. Clyde Yancy, from UT-Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, told the AP. "You could use this right now... based on this information." Yancy had no role in the study, which was presented Sunday at the American College of Cardiology meeting, in Atlanta.

The method was tested against water pills in 200 people at 28 hospitals around the country. Two days later, the group that got the device had lost more fluid and more weight than those in the pill group, the wire service said.

Possible Mad Cow Case Found

A possible case of mad cow disease has been found during routine testing by the U.S. Agriculture Department, the Associated Press reported Sunday.

The cow did not enter the human or animal food chain, said USDA Chief Veterinarian John Clifford. More detailed tests are being conducted at the department's laboratory in Ames, Iowa, and the results should be available within four to seven days.

Eating meat products contaminated with mad cow disease has been linked to more than 150 deaths worldwide from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal nerve disease for humans. A majority of those deaths were in Britain, where there was an outbreak of mad cow disease in the 1980s. There has been only one confirmed case in the United States, although the federal government believes the person got the disease in Britain. U.S. agricultural investigators found two cases of mad cow disease, in December 2003 and June 2005.

Food Fact:
Dr. red pepper?

Peppers rank surprisingly high on the list of healing foods. For instance, hot chile peppers contain capsaicin, a compound that acts as an anticoagulant and may help prevent heart attacks and strokes caused by blood clots. A half-cup of chopped red bell peppers provides 141mg of vitamin C and 4,250 IU of vitamin A -- more than an adult's daily needs for both. And whether they're mellow and sweet or fiery hot, all peppers are all good sources of potentially cancer-fighting antioxidants, especially vitamin C.

Fitness Tip of the day:
Get a grip.

Grab a tennis or racquetball for a quick workout off the court. Squeeze one and strengthen the muscles of your hands and arms at the same time. Simply grasp the ball and perform 12 - 15 reps per hand. You may want to start with a "used" tennis ball at the start, then graduate to a ball with more resistance as your conditioning improves.

FAQ of the day:
When did garlic get its heart-healthy reputation?

Even ancient man suspected garlic was good for the heart. Dioscorides, the Roman who codified Greek herbal medicine in the first century A.D., wrote in his "Materia Medica" that garlic "clears the arteries." The ancient Indian Ayurvedic text "Charaka Samhita" holds that garlic "maintains the fluidity of the blood, strengthens the heart and prolongs life." But it's only in the past few decades that garlic's effect on blood cholesterol, blood clotting and other heart disease risk factors have been systematically studied.