Health and Disability

Many patients suffering from psoriasis showed significant recovery after just a single dose of an experimental treatment with a human antibody that blocks an immune signaling protein crucial to the disease, researchers report. By the end of the trial, conducted at Rockefeller University and seven other centers, nearly all of the 31 patients to receive treatment saw dramatic, if not complete, improvement in their symptoms.

"The striking result we achieved using a human antibody that targets the signal interleukin-23 suggests we are on the threshold of doing something very different from our current model of treating psoriasis with immunosuppressive drugs throughout an adult lifetime," says study author James Krueger, director of the Milstein Medical Research Program, D. Martin Carter Professor in Clinical Investigation and head of the Laboratory of Investigative Dermatology. "It raises the possibility of working toward long-term remission -- in other words, a cure." The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology published the results recently.

The mechanism that causes high-performance athletes to "feel the burn" turns out to be the culprit in what makes people with chronic fatigue syndrome feel exhausted by the most common daily activities, new University of Florida Health research shows.

Published in the journal Pain, the study shows that the neural pathways that transmit feelings of fatigue to the brain might be to blame. In those with chronic fatigue syndrome, the pathways do their job too well.

The findings also provide evidence for the first time that peripheral tissues such as muscles contribute to feelings of fatigue. Determining the origins of fatigue could help researchers develop therapies or identify targets for those therapies.

During exercise, muscles produce metabolites, which are sensed by metaboreceptors that transmit information via fatigue pathways to the brain, according to the researchers. But in patients with SEID, these fatigue pathways have become highly sensitive to metabolites and can trigger excessive feelings of fatigue.

"For most of us, at the end of strenuous exertion we feel exhausted and need to stop -- but we will recover rapidly," Staud said. "However, these individuals tire much more rapidly and sometimes just after moving across a room, they are fully exhausted. This takes a toll on their lives."

Discrimination by doctors or hospitals can make older patients even sicker

Being discriminated against by the healthcare profession or system can cause much more than just mere distress to older people. Such experiences can literally be bad for their health. A national survey shows that one in every three older Americans who are on the receiving end of age-related discrimination in the healthcare setting will likely develop new or worsened functional ailments in due course. This follows a study¹ led by Stephanie Rogers, a fellow in geriatrics at UC San Francisco in the United States, and published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine¹, published by Springer.

It is the first to specifically investigate the health effects that discrimination in the health setting has on older adults. Rogers and her colleagues analyzed data from 6,017 Americans older than 50 who took part in the 2008, 2010 and 2012 nationally representative Health and Retirement Study. The survey assessed important aspects of the aging process, and included questions about healthcare discrimination.

One in every five respondents experienced healthcare-related discrimination. Age was the most common reason cited for being on the receiving end of such behavior by respondents of all sexes and age groups, as well as those who have difficulty completing daily tasks. It was also the number one reason given by members of most racial or ethnic groups, with African American being the exception. Follow-up studies further showed that almost a third of older adults (28.5 percent) who frequently experienced such discrimination subsequently developed new or worsened disabilities over the course of the four years. In contrast, participants who never or seldom experienced such treatment were more likely to maintain their health status.

Skip ahead to July 2014. My husband, Ross, was in a meeting with a therapist and expressed his concerns about changes he saw in me. This medical practitioner asked what medicines I was on and started searching the internet. The results were amazing and probably saved my life. DAs can have profoundly unhealthy side effects for everyone but are particularity dangerous for people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) one of my diagnoses. I have always believed we are each responsible for our own behavior and was shocked to learn this medicine can create compulsive behaviors such as gambling, shopping and eating. Other effects can include  night eating, falling, nightmares, lack of sleep, joint pain and many others that have been affecting me over the last nine years, profoundly affecting me and those closest to me.

My first priority became learning how to deal with DAWS, getting off the Mirapex and treat the RLS in other ways. No one seemed to know how to treat this disorder and many believed there was no cure.

But, I was determined to get off this medicine and get my life back. Pain racked my body unceasingly.  Confusion, disassociation, imbalance, blurred and double vision tried to become my constant companions but I refused to give in.

 More families with patients at The Whitehall Health Care Center of Novi have called 7 Action News after we broke the story of alleged patient beatings at the facility.

Kelly Barton is the step-daughter of Ronald Johns. She showed us pictures of Ronald and says he was abused and mistreated for three years at Whitehall.  But he could not speak because he had two strokes. 

She says they finally moved him out in December and were blocked by Whitehall because she alleges they would tell other facilities Ronald was a patient who caused trouble. The pictures show injuries on Ronald's legs, arms, head and backside.

Ronald is the brother of Tommy Johns, who was allegedly beaten and taken to a hospital for treatment this week.

Novi Police confirm they have an active investigation.

Barton says the Michigan Attorney General was investigating Ronald's case and talked about putting a hidden camera in his room last year, but then stopped. 

"This particular research has focused on Ashwagandha, an herbal remedy that's been used in Eastern medicines for centuries," he said. "Our compound withanamides may work to prevent Alzheimer's disease at the onset, and it also could prevent its progression."

While plants cannot be patented, compounds from it can. MSU holds the patent for withanamides, and earlier research revealed that the compound, found in the plants' seeds, proved to be a powerful anti-oxidant - double the strength of what's on today's market. The potent compound has shown that it can protect cells against damaging attacks by a rogue protein - the earliest stage of Alzheimer's.

The I-Team has spoken with a number of veterans who were trained at Fort McClellan and now report strange and debilitating illnesses.

"The word 'breakthrough' is often misused, but in this case I think this really does fundamentally change our understanding of how to treat this disease, and I foresee a great future for this approach," says study author Prof. Jürgen Götz, of the Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research at the Queensland Brain Institute.

In their study, recently published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, Prof. Götz and his colleague Gerhard Leinenga - also of the Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research - reveal how the newultrasound approach removed beta-amyloid plaques from the brains of Alzheimer's mouse models, restoring their memory.

The team's technique involves directing repeated scanning ultrasound (SUS) to the brain in order to temporarily open the blood-brain barrier.

When used on the brains of Alzheimer's mouse models, the team found the SUS technique successfully cleared beta-amyloid plaques in 75% of mice.

"The ultrasound waves oscillate tremendously quickly, activating microglial cells that digest and remove the amyloid plaques that destroy brain synapses," explains Prof. Götz.

In three memory tasks, the team found the mice treated with SUS performed significantly better than mice that were not treated with the ultrasound technique. In fact, the researchers say their memory was restored to levels seen in healthy mice.

A drug commonly used to treat epilepsy has shown promise in restoring brain function and reversing memory loss in early Alzheimer's disease. 

NAVIGATING TRACIE'S BRAIN