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Health Highlights: Feb. 12, 2008
Mar. 23 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:
Anger Plus Depression Means Double Trouble for Heart
Hostility and depression often appear together, and the combination can put a strain on the heart, a new study finds.
Researchers at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis examined emotional symptoms and blood markers of inflammatory proteins in 316 healthy people aged 50 to 70.
As reported in The New York Times, patients with depressive symptoms and hostility were more prone to higher levels of the inflammatory proteins interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein -- each of which have been linked to heart disease risk.
"The relationship of these negative emotions to inflammatory markers is more complex and much stronger than depression or hostility individually," lead researcher Jesse Stewart, assistant professor of psychology, told the Times. "There are, of course, mental health reasons to treat depression and hostility. Now we know there is a physical health reason -- the link to cardiovascular diseases," he added.
The study is published in the February-March issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.
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Research Shows How Breast Cancer Becomes Treatment-Resistant
Breast and ovarian cancers caused by a faulty BRCA2 gene often become resistant to standard drugs, and British scientists now believe they know why, the BBC News reported.
The findings could help doctors spot those patients who stand to benefit most from particular treatments, and also give insights into how medicines lose their effectiveness.
Reporting in the journal Nature, researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research in the United Kingdom, noted that healthy BRCA2 is actually a tumor suppressor. But a defective form of the gene renders cells incapable of fixing damaged DNA, which in turn encourages malignancy.
The new research was conducted with both breast and ovarian cancer cells. The research team found that after exposure to standard chemotherapy, some cells mutate back to the normal BRCA2 gene type. This allows the cells to overcome DNA damage but it does not neutralize the tumor. It does, however, neutralize the effectiveness of the cancer drugs, leading to drug resistance.
