25Nov

The new study, published online by JAMA Dermatology, identifies high risk patients who may benefit from tailored surveillance.

The incidence of melanoma that occurs on the skin is increasing in predominantly white-skinned populations and Australia’s incidence is among the highest in the world.

The study’s objective was to characterise melanoma patients and the clinical features associated with their melanomas according to patient risk factors: many moles, a history of previous melanoma, and family history of melanoma, to improve the identification and treatment of a higher-risk subgroup.

The researchers classified 2727 patients with melanoma from the Melanoma Patterns of Care Study as having high or lower risk, depending on whether they already had a personal or family history of melanoma, or many moles, or none of these three factors.

Thirty nine (39) per cent of patients were defined as higher risk due to family history, multiple primary melanomas or having lots of moles. The most common risk factor in this group was having many moles, followed by a personal history and a family history.

The authors report the average age at diagnosis was younger for higher-risk patients (62 versus 65 years) compared with those patients at lower risk because they did not have these risk factors. However, that age differed by risk factor: 56 years for patients with a family history, 59 years for those with many moles and 69 years for those with a previous melanoma.

Also, higher-risk patients with many moles were more likely to have melanoma on the trunk of the body, those with a family history were more likely to have melanomas on the limbs, and those with a personal history were more likely to have melanoma on the head and neck.

Dr Watts stated: “The results of our study suggest that a person’s risk factor status might be used to tailor their surveillance program in terms of starting age and education about skin self-examination or more intensive surveillance. For instance, doctors could encourage people with many moles or with a family history of melanoma to start skin self-examination and monitoring at an earlier age than other people, and discuss the body sites that require particular attention.”

Limitations of the study include risk factors based on physician recall and patient medical records. The authors also did not assess the reliability or validity of the risk factor data.

Story Source: sciencedaily.com; Materials provided by University of Sydney.

25Nov

Early exposure to a food allergen through broken skin might prompt the development of food allergy. This theory gained further support from a recent study that found increased prevalence of food allergy if a child had skin infection or eczema in the first year of life.

Food allergy occurs in one of every 13 children in the U.S., nearly 6 million, and the incidence is increasing. Why this is happening has been a burning question for the public and researchers alike.

The “hygiene hypothesis,” which has been proposed to explain the increase of allergies, holds that early exposure to germs impacts the immune system and lowers the risk of allergic disease. However, results published in Allergy and Asthma Proceedings showed that food allergy had less profound associations with hygiene factors — such as pet exposure — than asthma. While it is well established in asthma, the hygiene hypothesis has not been thoroughly investigated in food allergy.

“Our results do support the hygiene hypothesis showing that increased number of siblings is protective for food allergy,” said lead author Ruchi Gupta, MD, MPH, pediatrician and researcher at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “The association of food allergy with early skin infection and eczema, however, might shed some light on how food allergies develop. Our findings support the hypothesis that food sensitization might start with exposure through the skin. This might have implications for prevention of food allergies.”

The study included 1,359 participants, from birth to 21 years old, with and without food allergies. A unique strength of this family-based study is that it included siblings who may or may not have had allergies. The similar genetic makeup of the subjects and controls helped the authors assess the impact of different exposures on food allergy and asthma.

The study investigated key hygiene factors in association with food allergy and asthma, including antibiotic use, infection history, number of siblings, pet exposure, and maternal child health factors such as maternal age at birth, cesarian section, breastfeeding and out-of-home child care. The number of siblings and child care in a child care center were the only hygiene factors that were associated with decreased food allergy.

Story Source: sciencedaily.com, materials provided by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago

14Nov

Eating plenty of tomatoes could stave off wrinkles – and even skin cancer, say scientists. The fruit is rich in an antioxidant called lycopene that helps shield the body from harmful UV radiation.

A study says it isn’t a substitute for sunscreen but offers another important line of defence. The German researchers said it could lead to people taking supplements containing the chemical for health – or cosmetic – purposes. They also found another pigment known as lutein – abundant in spinach and kale – achieved similar results.

They compared the skin of 65 people who were divided into two groups – one given a supplement called TNC (tomato nutrient complex) or a placebo and the other lutein or the dummy treatment. At the beginning and end of each 12-week treatment phase their skin was exposed to two types of ultraviolet (UV) light, UVA1 and UVA/B in a process known as irradiation – with biopsies taken 24 hours later. These showed those who received no lycopene or lutein had increased expression of certain ‘indicator genes’ linked to wrinkly skin and inflammation – two common side effects of sun damage.

Source: Daily Mail Online

1Nov

In a new study published today in the journal Cogent Psychology, researchers from the University of Surrey examined the way sun safe messages are conveyed to young women, and found that visual communication using technology to age participant’s faces to emphasis sun damage and premature ageing is most effective.

The findings from the research concluded that young women are most concerned about the immediate damage to their skin, and that a visual, personalised message that illustrated more immediate skin damage had more impact than either text-based messages or damage in the longer term.

Fair skinned young women are the most at risk group for malignant melanoma, a type of cancer most attributable to UV. However, they often don’t realise the extent of the risk. The new research studied the differences between text-based and visual messages and examined whether warning about future appearance has an impact on changing behaviours.

The results showed that after seeing their own face prematurely sun aged using the technology young women took two times the number of free sun screen samples and three times the number of skin cancer leaflets compared to those women who had read text information about the damaging nature of the sun. They also showed a 30% lower belief in the skin’s ability to heal.

“Malignant melanoma is on the increase yet young women often don’t protect themselves by using sun screen,” said Professor Jane Ogden of the University of Surrey, one of the authors of the study.

“Our study explored the best way of framing messages to change their attitudes and promote healthier behaviour. The results showed that appearance based messages that used imagery to emphasise sun ageing were the most effective. This sun ageing technology could be used more widely to increase sun screen uptake by young women.” – sciencedaily.com. Story source: University of Surrey

20Oct

The vital nutrient is widely seen as an important element to good health. Many people place strong belief in its potential benefits in treating a number of medical conditions–such as depression or Multiple Sclerosis–and feel a need to supplement their vitamin D intake. But according to Michael Allan, a professor of Family Medicine and director of Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, much of that belief isn’t validated by science.

“Wouldn’t it be great if there was a single thing that you or I could do to be healthy that was as simple as taking a vitamin, which seems benign, every day? There is an appeal to it. There is a simplicity to it. But for the average person, they don’t need it.” says Allan.

Allan is the lead author of a review published in theJournal of General Internal Medicine that examines the evidence for 10 common beliefs about vitamin D. The beliefs range from the ability of vitamin D to reduce falls and fractures, improve depression and mental well-being, prevent rheumatoid arthritis, treat Multiple Sclerosis, and lessen incidences of cancer and mortality. The review finds little evidence though that supplementation with this vitamin has much of an effect at all.

According to Allan, only a few of the 10 beliefs the team looked into seemed to exhibit some scientific proof. Strongest among them, vitamin D was shown to have a minor impact in reducing the number of falls among the elderly and reducing fractures.

“Even areas that we really thought there was good evidence for benefit early on, don’t seem to be bearing out,” says Allan. “The one that we probably have the most evidence for is fractures. If you were to take a group of people who were at higher risk of breaking a bone–so had about a 15 per cent chance of breaking a bone over the next 10 years–and treated all of them with a reasonable dose of vitamin D for a decade, you’d prevent a fracture in around one in 50 of them over that time.”

“Many people would say taking a drug for 10 years to stop one in every 50 fractures is probably not enough to be meaningful. And that’s the best vitamin D gets as far as we know now.”

Allan says other possible benefits of vitamin D covered in the review were not borne out or are still unproven. He is quick to point out that much of the existing research around vitamin D was poorly executed and consists of poor quality evidence. While he welcomes ongoing research in the area, he says moving forward it needs to consistently be of a higher caliber to be of clinical relevance.

“It makes it really difficult to determine a lot of time if there is anything substantial there that you could tell a patient, ‘You can take this and it can help you this much.’ There’s really not nearly enough there to say that.”

Despite the lack of evidence, belief in the benefits of vitamin D supplementation remains strong. Allan believes much of that stems from misplaced trust in previous research studies showing low vitamin D levels are associated with poor health outcomes, however they don’t prove causation. The bottom line, he says, is that while moderate vitamin D supplementation won’t cause harm to the average healthy person, it won’t heal either.

“The 40 year old person is highly unlikely to benefit from vitamin D,” says Allan. “And when I say highly unlikely, I mean it’s not measurable in present science.”

  • sciencedaily.com. Material provided by University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. Original written by Ross Neitz
20Oct

A new study finds that sleep deprivation affects facial features such as the eyes, mouth and skin, and these features function as cues of sleep loss to other people.

Results show that the faces of sleep-deprived individuals were perceived as having more hanging eyelids, redder eyes, more swollen eyes and darker circles under the eyes. Sleep deprivation also was associated with paler skin, more wrinkles or fine lines, and more droopy corners of the mouth. People also looked sadder when sleep-deprived than after normal sleep, and sadness was related to looking fatigued.

“Since faces contain a lot of information on which humans base their interactions with each other, how fatigued a person appears may affect how others behave toward them,” said Tina Sundelin, MSc, lead author and doctoral student in the department of psychology at Stockholm University in Stockholm, Sweden. “This is relevant not only for private social interactions, but also official ones such as with health care professionals and in public safety.”

The study, which appears in the September issue of the journal Sleep, was conducted at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Ten subjects were photographed on two separate occasions: after eight hours of normal sleep and after 31 hours of sleep deprivation. The photographs were taken in the laboratory at 2:30 p.m. on both occasions. Forty participants rated the 20 facial photographs with respect to 10 facial cues, fatigue and sadness.

According to the authors, face perception involves a specialized neuronal network and is one of the most developed visual perceptual skills in humans. Facial appearance can affect judgments of attributes such as trustworthiness, aggressiveness and competence. – sciencedaily.com

Material provided by American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Photo credit: © Sylvie Bouchard / Fotolia