Stanford researchers have found a way to significantly speed up the healing of broken bones in mice, a feat which, if replicated in humans, could mean people with fractures would be free of their casts a lot sooner.

“This has huge implications,” said Dr. Victor Khabie, co-director of the Orthopedic and Spine Institute at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mt. Kisco, N.Y. “Broken bones is a big problem, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

The technique could help in fusing bones as well, and many other surgeries that rely on bone growth and bone healing to succeed, he added.

“A lot of the surgeries we do rely on bone growth and bone healing, and a lot of the failures of surgery have to do with the fact that the bone never heals or the fusion never [takes],” Khabie explained.

And this might have applications beyond bones.

“It isn’t limited to bone injuries,” said Dr. Jill Helms, senior author of the study published in the April 28 issue of Science Translational Medicine. “There’s a lot of interest in the role that [the protein used in these experiments] plays in tissue repair and tissue regeneration.”

That also includes blood, neural and cardiac cells, added Helms, who is a professor of surgery and of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine.

The research borrowed a chapter from the lives of animals that can regenerate on their own, such as zebrafish and flat worms.

Scientists already knew that this capability was partly due to a class of proteins called Wnt proteins.

Although mammals don’t have the same innate ability to regenerate, the researchers speculated that, with a little help from Wnt proteins, maybe they could.

The researchers actually conducted two experiments, both testing the idea that tissues might heal faster if the Wnt signal was ramped up.

The first used a genetic approach, involving mice that had been genetically engineered to respond better to a Wnt signal, then administering purified Wnt via fat particles known as liposomes.

The second strategy involved raising levels of the Wnt protein in normal mice. Both groups of mice had sustained bone injuries.

“Both experiments showed us the same thing, that when Wnt signals were prolonged in an injury site then healing was much more robust,” Helms reported. “When we delivered this form of the protein in a little lipid [fat] particle to an injury site, we accelerated the healing quite dramatically.”

In fact, within the first three days, those mice had 3.5 times more new bone than the mice in the other groups, according to background information about the study.

Helms and her colleagues believe Wnt causes bone stem cells to divide more and turn into bone-forming cells much sooner.

J. Edward Puzas, a professor of orthopedics and senior associate dean for basic research at the University of Rochester Medical Center, added that the idea might also benefit people who sustain potentially life-threatening fractures as a result of osteoporosis.

In separate ongoing studies, Puzas is finding that the osteoporosis drug Forteo is also useful in healing bones.

The Stanford group is now expanding its work to speed tissue regeneration after skin wounds, heart attacks and stroke.

Obesity weighs on the heart
All that grease is like napalm to the heart. High-fat diets and oversize portions add weight, which bombards the body with excess cholesterol. That cholesterol begins lining the arteries, causing a gradual narrowing, which damages the heart muscle, said Gerald DeVaughn, MD, a cardiologist and president of Cardiology Medical Associates in Philadelphia.Obesity is a risk factor in cardiovascular disease, especially for young men, but where you carry fat on your body can also be a good predictor of heart health. Being “apple-shaped,” with extra fat on the belly, can put you at a higher risk than someone with the fat distributed around the hips and thighs.

Extra fat cells can also lead to type 2 diabetes, itself a risk factor for heart disease.

Even if you don’t reach your ideal weight, every little bit can help. According to the National Institutes of Health, losing just 10% of your total body weight can lower your risk of heart disease and other conditions associated with obesity.Heavy kids, heavy hearts
While fat-clogged arteries have traditionally been more of an adult issue, rates of obesity and high blood pressure among young people are also soaring, according to researchers at University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, where 20% of students studied were overweight or obese. Read the rest of this entry »

A good diet is always important for health, but the stakes are especially high for people with heart disease. Food can either help protect the heart or provide fuel for a heart attack.

The diet plan you choose to prevent heart disease will depend on your unique risk factors. People with hypertension, for example, should choose a plan low in sodium and fat.

Those with high cholesterol should consider a diet rich in olive oil, omega-3 fatty acids, and other heart-healthy fats.Those who need to lose weight should consider a calorie-restricted version of their heart-healthy diet. On average, cutting 500 calories a day from your diet leads to a loss of one pound per week. The safest way to lose weight is to aim to drop up to one pound per week; crash diets can be harmful and rarely lead to permanent weight loss. Read the rest of this entry »

There are a many medical conditions and disabilities that make it difficult to enjoy a normal sex life.

For example, sexual intercourse may be difficult for people with any of the following conditions:

• paralysis (following a stroke or a spinal injury)
• severe arthritis
• heart failure
• severe respiratory problems (such as chronic bronchitis or emphysema)
• kidney (renal) failure.

Numerically, the problem which most often affects people’s sex lives is heart disease.

Heart attacks and heart failure (cardiac insufficiency) are common, and can easily make patients feel frightened about re-starting sexual intercourse.

Unfortunately, a lot of people are embarrassed about discussing such issues. So a man or woman may find it hard to talk about his or her sexual problem or to ask for any kind of help. A reluctance to discuss things often makes the problem worse.

Please do try and talk matters over with your partner and your doctor. Read the rest of this entry »