3 Treatments Seem to Help Combat Binge-Eating Disorder

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, June 30, 2016 (HealthDay News) — New research finds that people struggling with binge-eating disorder — America’s most common, yet likely least-known eating disorder — may have at least three treatment options to help them curtail their eating.

People diagnosed as chronic binge eaters can benefit from cognitive-behavioral therapy, a form of therapy that helps patients understand the reasons behind their actions. That understanding can then help them change their behavior, said study lead author Kimberly Brownley. She’s an associate professor with the University of North Carolina Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders.

The new research review also identified prescription drugs that appear to help curb binge eating, including second-generation antidepressants such as Prozac, Zoloft and Wellbutrin.

People with binge-eating disorder can also try a drug called Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine). It’s currently the only FDA-approved medication for binge-eating disorder, Brownley said.

“We found strong evidence to support these three different forms of treatment,” Brownley said.

But, it appears that there’s no one-size-fits-all treatment.

“We can’t say, ‘Start with this treatment and then add this other treatment in,’ ” Brownley said. “There’s a lot more research to be done. But we have provided a good platform for physicians to figure out how to guide their patients’ care.”

The new evidence review appears online June 28 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Binge-eating disorder affects about 3.5 percent of women and 2 percent of men in the United States, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

But it wasn’t until 2013 that the American Psychiatric Association judged binge-eating disorder a true illness and included it in its diagnostic manual, the DSM-5.

Binge-eating disorder is different from bulimia, because the person who binges doesn’t feel compelled to purge the food afterwards. People with bulimia often try to prevent weight gain by vomiting, using laxatives or overexercising after they’ve overeaten, Brownley said.

People who occasionally down a whole pint of ice cream or a family-size bag of chips in one sitting don’t necessarily have binge-eating disorder, pointed out Dr. Michael Devlin, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

“This is not occasional overeating, but a major problem,” said Devlin, who wrote an editorial accompanying the evidence review. “The criteria are careful to specify it really has to be out-of-control eating and people have to be stressed by it, not just feeling bad, but feeling really disgusted with yourself or very depressed.”

A binge-eating episode involves eating a large amount of food within a couple of hours, with no sense of control over what one is doing, Brownley said.

To be diagnosed with binge-eating disorder, a person would have at least one episode a week for three months. Someone with the disorder will eat much more rapidly than normal, eat until they’re uncomfortably full, eat when they’re not hungry, hide their eating out of embarrassment, or feel disgusted, depressed or guilty after a binge episode, Devlin said.

“It’s a real disorder. It’s not just overeating. And it’s important for people to realize there are treatments for it,” he said.

For their review, Brownley and her colleagues looked at 34 different clinical trials that tested potential treatments for binge-eating disorder.

The researchers found that patients who take part in cognitive-behavior therapy were about five times more likely to abstain from binge eating than people not receiving the therapy.

People taking Vyvanse were more than 2.5 times more likely to refrain from binge eating. And, people taking second-generation antidepressants were 67 percent more likely to curtail binge eating, the researchers reported.

“Cognitive-behavioral therapy really gets to the core of the thoughts and feelings that are behind this disorder,” Brownley said. With assistance from a therapist, patients figure out the feelings and the habits that contribute to their binge eating, and come up with effective counters.

Vyvanse is a stimulant originally approved to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Researchers think it may help people deal with the impulsive or compulsive parts of binge-eating disorder, Brownley said. For example, it may help them stop reaching for food when depressed, or help them stop eating once they’re full.

Second-generation antidepressants include classes of drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). They might dampen feelings of depression that contribute to binge eating, Brownley said.

But it’s also possible that the antidepressants are changing brain chemistry in some as-yet-unknown way that helps relieve binge eating, Devlin said.

More information

For more on binge-eating disorder, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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Handle Fireworks With Care on the Fourth

THURSDAY, June 30, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Americans love fireworks, especially on the Fourth of July, but experts warn they can be dangerous if not used safely.

About 10,500 fireworks-related injuries were treated in U.S. hospitals in 2014, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. And nearly 400 people lose sight in one or both eyes every year due to fireworks injuries.

Dr. Priscilla Fowler is an assistant professor in the department of ophthalmology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “I’ve seen too many injuries related to fireworks, and many of these occur in children and innocent bystanders, and result in permanent vision loss,” Fowler said in a university news release.

And Dr. Jay McCollum, director of emergency services at the university’s Eye Hospital, suggested that “it’s better to just leave the fireworks alone and go to a show . . . and let the professionals do it. That’s the safest thing.”

If you do use fireworks at home, the eye doctors have some safety tips:

• Always have adult supervision and never allow children to play with or ignite fireworks.
• Make sure fireworks are legal in your area before using them. Read and follow all manufacturers’ warnings and instructions. Shoot fireworks on a clean, flat surface away from the house or flammable materials.
• Keep a source of water close by in case of fire or another mishap. Light fireworks one at a time, then move back quickly. Never try to re-light or pick up fireworks that have not ignited fully.
• Never use bottle rockets and never throw fireworks at another person.

If a fireworks-related eye injury occurs: seek medical attention immediately; do not rub or rinse your eyes, and do not apply pressure; do not remove any objects that are stuck in the eye; do not apply ointments or take any blood-thinning pain medications, such as aspirin or ibuprofen.

More information

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has more on fireworks.

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How to Avoid Getting a Dry Patch From Your Zit Cream

Photo: Getty Images

What’s possibly even more annoying than a really bad zit? The red, dry spot that’s leftover after the blemish has subsided. Brie Larson knows the struggle.

In a recent post on Instagram, the actress pointed out such a spot with a big fat arrow: “When you’re stressing/obsessing over a zit so you put on too much zit cream before bed and wake up to [a] giant dry spot but you gotta get your photo taken anyway,” she wrote in the caption.

We know she’s not alone, so we got the scoop from a derm on how to get rid of a pimple without ending up in Larson’s position. Here are a few tips from Joshua Zeichner, MD, director of cosmetic and clinical research in dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

RELATED: This Is the Best Makeup For Acne-Prone Skin, According to Dermatologists

Less is more

Loading up on your spot treatment won’t necessarily make your pimple go away faster, no matter how satisfying it may feel to slather on the medicine. “Higher concentrations of acne-fighting ingredients like benzoyl peroxide may not be any more effective than lower concentrations, but can certainly end up being more irritating. Plus, any medication not fully rubbed into the skin is just excess and can lead to irritation,” explains Dr. Zeichner. To minimize the risk of irritation and that telltale red patch, choose a product with a low concentration of benzoyl peroxide (like 2.5%), such as Neutrogena On-the-Spot Acne Treatment ($8; amazon.com). And don’t apply the medication more than twice daily, says Dr. Zeichner.

Tap the acne-fighting trio

If you want to hit fast forward on the life of your pimple, Dr. Zeichner suggests combining a 2.5% benzoyl peroxide product with a 2% salicylic acid treatment and a 1% hydrocortisone cream. We like Clean and Clear Advantage Acne Spot Treatment ($8; drugstore.com) and Cortaid Maximum Strength Cream ($7; drugstore.com). “This trifecta of ingredients will help calm an inflamed zit, kill acne-causing bacteria, and remove dead cells on the skin’s surface,” Dr. Zeichner explains. But whatever you do, don’t pick at your pimple, he warns, because that can cause more inflammation and possibly scarring.

Be sure to moisturize

To prevent that flakiness from cropping up post-pimple, “moisturize the skin to keep the skin barrier in good shape and maintain hydration,” says Dr. Zeichner. Even though it sounds counteractive to put anything other than a spot treatment on your blemish, an oil-free moisturizer could be your best friend and keep irritation at bay.

RELATED: How to Treat Hormonal Acne Without Birth Control

If you do end up with a dry spot…

“Continue to apply the 1% hydrocortisone cream, like Cortaid Maximum Strength Cream, to reduce skin inflammation. An occlusive ointment will seal in cracks between skin cells and improve hydration,” says Dr. Zeichner. Got that, Brie? This is your next step!

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E-Cigs May Damage Cells in Mouth

THURSDAY, June 30, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Many people think electronic cigarettes are a safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes, but a new study suggests that’s not the case.

In laboratory experiments on cultured cells, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, found that toxic substances and nanoparticles in e-cigarette vapors caused 85 percent of the tested cells to die.

They said it’s possible these substances can kill the top layer of skin cells in the oral cavity. The oral cavity is the portion of the mouth behind the teeth and gums.

The researchers believe that similar results would be found in tests on people, and said they’re planning a human study to confirm their findings. If confirmed, the researchers said that e-cigarettes could increase users’ risk of oral disease.

“A small but significant portion of dental patients at UCLA Dental Clinics have used e-cigarettes, which will provide sufficient patient resources for our planned studies,” said study author Shen Hu, an associate professor of oral biology and medicine at UCLA’s School of Dentistry.

There has been a large increase in e-cigarette use in recent years. The researchers noted significant increases among women and young people. About 2.4 million middle and high school students in the United States were using e-cigarettes in 2014, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health care providers need to do more to raise public awareness about the health risks of e-cigarettes, the study authors said.

“Our hope is to develop a screening model to help predict toxicity levels of e-cigarette products, so that consumers are better informed,” explained Hu in a university news release.

The study was published online recently in the journal PLoS One.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more about e-cigarettes.

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Jobs With the Highest Suicide Rates

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, June 30, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Can the type of job you choose affect your risk of suicide? Possibly, according to a new U.S. report that found for certain occupations, the odds of suicide were significantly higher.

From 2000 to 2012, the overall rates of suicide for people aged 16 and older rose 21 percent, the study found. That works out to an approximate increase from 13 to 16 suicides per every 100,000 people in the United States.

But among farmers, fishers and foresters, the suicide rate was dramatically higher — at 85 suicides per 100,000 people. For males in those jobs, the rate was even greater. Their suicide rate was 90.5 suicides per 100,000, according to the report.

“People working in certain occupations are at greater risk for suicide due to job isolation, a stressful work environment, trouble at work and home, lower income and education, and less access to mental health services,” said lead researcher Wendy LiKamWa McIntosh. She’s a health scientist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Farmers have additional risk factors like social isolation and unwillingness to seek mental health services,” McIntosh said. The report also noted that farmers’ exposure to pesticides may affect their neurological system and contribute to depression.

Other occupations that carried significantly higher-than-normal rates of suicide included construction and extraction, with 53 suicides per 100,000; and installation, maintenance and repair with 48 suicides per 100,000, the study found.

For construction workers, the report authors suggested that a lack of steady work, isolation and a fragmented community might play a role in their higher risk. The investigators theorized that people working in installation, maintenance and repair may have long-term exposure to solvents that could damage their neurological systems. That might contribute to memory loss and depression, the researchers suggested.

Men working in fishing, forestry or farming had the highest rates of suicide for their gender.

Among women, the highest rate was seen in those working in protective services, such as policing and firefighting. Their rate was 14 per 100,000. Men in the protective services field had a suicide rate of 34 per 100,000, the report noted.

People working in protective services must cope with shift work and extreme stress, such as traumatic and violent situations. They also have easy access to the means to kill themselves, the report pointed out.

“To reduce these suicide rates, employers need to focus on suicide prevention at the workplace, including employee-assistance programs and training to spot signs of suicide,” McIntosh said.

Dr. Alan Manevitz, a clinical psychiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, pointed out that “work is increasingly stressful.”

People take their own lives “mostly because they are depressed,” he said. “We live in a 24-hour world, so it can be easy to feel overburdened, which can lead to depression,” Manevitz added.

Companies need assistance programs that look for work stresses that may become overwhelming and lead to feelings of isolation and helplessness. Fellow co-workers also need to be on the lookout for people who talk of killing themselves or seem depressed, he said.

In some professions, that may be harder to do than in others. For example, people working in farming, forestry and fishing may feel that it’s a sign of weakness to seek help for depression, Manevitz suggested.

The study included data from the 17 states using the 2012 National Violent Death Reporting System. In 2012, suicide was the 10th leading cause of death among Americans 16 and older.

From 2000 to 2012, an estimated 40,000 Americans died by suicide, the researchers said.

The job categories with the least suicides included personal care and service; office and administrative support; and education, training and library. Each of these categories had eight or fewer suicides per 100,000 people, the report found.

The report was published July 1 in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

More information

To learn more about suicide in America, visit the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.

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Memory Loss: Normal or a Sign of Trouble?

THURSDAY, June 30, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Mild memory lapses such as forgetting where you put your keys or reading glasses, though worrisome, are normal, experts say.

But certain memory problems — such as putting your car keys in the fridge — may indicate a more serious issue.

So, what kind of memory issue suggests the need for a medical assessment? Some examples include: memory loss that disrupts daily activities such as balancing a checkbook, maintaining personal hygiene and driving; or frequent memory lapses such as regularly forgetting appointments or where you parked your car, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a news release.

Other warning signs include forgetting whole conversations, forgetting the names of relatives or close friends, frequently repeating yourself, or asking the same questions in the same conversation.

Another red flag is memory loss that’s getting worse over time.

There are a number of things you can do that might help reduce the risk of developing memory problems: keeping cholesterol and blood pressure levels low; not smoking and not drinking too much alcohol; eating a healthy diet; engaging in lots of social activity; and keeping your brain active by reading, writing, learning a new skill, playing games and gardening.

There are a number of causes of memory loss, including medications; heavy drinking; stress; depression; head injury; infections such as HIV, tuberculosis, syphilis and herpes; thyroid problems; lack of quality sleep; and low levels of vitamins B1 and B12. Many of these causes can be helped with medical treatment, the FDA noted.

“As part of the normal aging process, it can be harder for some people to recall some types of information, such as the names of individuals. Mild cognitive impairment, however, is a condition characterized by a memory deficit beyond that expected for age, but is not sufficient to impair day-to-day activities,” according to the news release.

Dementia is the most serious form of memory loss. Dementia causes increasing memory troubles and problems with other aspects of thinking. These difficulties are severe enough to impair the ability to do daily activities.

Dementia has many causes, but the most common is Alzheimer’s disease, researchers have found. Alzheimer’s causes a progressive loss of brain cells that’s accompanied by other abnormalities of the brain.

About 5 million people in the United States have some form of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. That number is expected to nearly triple by 2050, according to research published recently in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Aging has more about memory loss.

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Mindy Kaling Celebrating Her Mile PR Is All of Us

Photo: Getty Images

Anyone who has strived for a time goal on a run (whether it was a marathon or a loop around the park) can relate to the sweet satisfaction expressed in Mindy Kaling’s tweet below. “Today I ran a 9.5 minute mile. Which is slow as hell but I’ve been trying to do it for 8 years! Hooray for me!” the actress wrote.

Today I ran a 9.5 minute mile. Which is slow as hell but I've been trying to do it for 8 years! Hooray for me! http://pic.twitter.com/Z7AkkPWWrG

— Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) June 29, 2016

RELATED: How to Run Your Fastest Mile Ever

Congrats, Mindy! And FWIW, we don’t think a 9:30-minute mile is a slow pace by any means—especially for those of us who don’t run competitively but enjoy reaping all the health benefits of hitting the pavement.

As runners know, it’s easy to get stuck in a one-speed rut, and a real challenge to improve your times. It takes a lot of commitment, including intense speed work and varied cross training, to make a notable change.

According to a list of self-improvement to-dos that Kaling posted on Instragram back in 2014, she’s ultimately striving for a 9-minute mile.

RELATED: The Easy, At-Home Oily Skin Mask Mindy Kaling Swears By

With her new PR, she’s so close! In another celebratory post from yesterday, Kaling offered a dose of encouragement to the rest of us chasing after our own fitness goals, sometimes for years at a time: “If I can do it, so can you!”

 

 

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FDA Approves Eye Implant for Aging Boomers

THURSDAY, June 30, 2016 (HealthDay News) — An implant that helps the aging eye focus on small print and nearby objects has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The implant is placed in the cornea (the clear, front surface) of one eye in people with presbyopia, an age-related loss of the ability to change the focusing power of the eye.

“Given the prevalence of presbyopia and the aging of the baby boomer population, the need for near vision correction will likely rise in the coming years,” Dr. William Maisel said in an agency news release. Maisel is deputy director for science and chief scientist in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

The implant resembles a tiny contact lens smaller than the eye of a needle. It is approved for use in people aged 41 to 65 who have not had cataract surgery, can’t focus clearly on near objects or small print, and require reading glasses with +1.50 to +2.50 diopters of power, the FDA said. But these patients do not need glasses or contacts for long-distance vision.

To implant the device, an eye surgeon creates a flap in the cornea of the patient’s non-dominant eye with a laser, slides the device into the opening, and puts the flap back in place.

“The Raindrop Near Vision Inlay provides a new option for surgical, outpatient treatment of presbyopia,” Maisel added.

This is the second FDA-approved cornea implant for correction of near vision in people who have not had cataract surgery, and the first implant that changes the shape of the cornea to improve vision, according to the news release.

The FDA’s approval of the Raindrop implant — made by California-based Revision Optics, Inc. — is based on a clinical trial of more than 300 patients. Two years after receiving the implant, 92 percent of the patients were able to see with 20/40 vision or better at near distances with the implant, according to the FDA.

The implant can cause or worsen problems with glare and halos, the FDA added. And there is a risk of developing infections that may cause complications of the cornea, such as corneal scarring, swelling, inflammation, thinning, clouding or melting. Some patients may require a second surgery to remove or replace the inlay, the agency said.

More information

The U.S. National Eye Institute has more on presbyopia.

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Hundreds of U.S. Clinics Sell Unapproved Stem Cell ‘Therapies’

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, June 30, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Hundreds of clinics across the United States are marketing unapproved stem cell treatments for conditions ranging from aging skin to spinal cord injuries, a new study finds.

In an online search, researchers found at least 570 clinics offering unapproved stem cell “therapies.” They tend to be concentrated in a handful of states — including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, New York and Texas — but are scattered across many other states, too.

Most often, the clinics market stem cell procedures for orthopedic conditions, such as arthritis and injured ligaments and tendons. This does have science behind it, but is still experimental, medical experts said.

In other cases with little or no supporting evidence, clinics hawked stem cell “facelifts” and therapies for serious conditions such as chronic lung disease, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis.

If these pricey stem cell treatments are unproven and unapproved by federal regulators, how can these clinics exist?

“I ask myself that question all the time,” said Leigh Turner, a bioethicist who worked on the study.

Turner, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Bioethics, said attention used to focus on “stem cell tourism” — where people travel to countries such as China, India and Mexico to get unproven treatments.

“I think there’s a misperception that everything here [in the U.S.] is regulated,” Turner said. “But these clinics are operating here, and on a relatively large scale.”

Stem cells are primitive cells with the potential to mature into various types of body tissue. Medical researchers have been studying the possibility of using stem cells to repair damaged tissue in a range of chronic ills — with limited success so far.

But the general public has heard about the “promise” of stem cells for years, and it can be easy to be taken in by clinics’ marketing tactics, Turner said.

Websites can, for instance, link to published medical studies that make their therapies seem legitimate, Turner said. “These businesses can be quite savvy,” he said. “I think it’s asking too much to just tell consumers to be wary. We need to be asking, why should these clinics be allowed to do this?”

Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist who was not involved in the study, cited some explanations for the growth of stem cell clinics.

The businesses are usually not engaging in interstate commerce, which helps them “fly under the radar,” said Caplan, who directs the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.

Plus, he said, there’s a regulatory gray area when it comes to so-called “autologous” stem cell therapy — which refers to treatments that use a person’s own stem cells.

“If you have cells from your own body reinjected, it isn’t clear that you’re getting a ‘new biologic,’ ” Caplan explained.

Of the businesses Turner’s team found, most marketed autologous therapies, usually using stem cells from people’s body fat or bone marrow. But about one-fifth of the businesses claimed to use stem cells from umbilical cord blood or amniotic or placental tissue.

The issue goes beyond people wasting their money or having their “hopes dashed,” Turner said. It’s known some have been seriously harmed.

He mentioned two elderly patients in Florida who died following an unapproved stem cell procedure.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has taken steps against specific businesses. Last year, it sent a warning letter to a network of clinics that operate in California, Florida and New York. According to the FDA, the clinics illegally use stem cells from people’s fat tissue to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s, MS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and autism.

“Many of these claims are outrageous,” Caplan said. “These clinics are preying on vulnerable people.”

His advice for consumers: “Be wary of any procedure that comes with celebrity endorsements or patient testimonials.”

The FDA has issued draft guidelines on the use of stem cells. A public hearing is scheduled for later this year.

The new study findings appear in the June 30 issue of Cell Stem Cell.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warnings for consumers about stem cell therapies.

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Why Some Seniors Don’t Take Their Meds

THURSDAY, June 30, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Anyone who’s helped care for an aging loved one knows that managing their daily medications can be a challenge.

Now, new research suggests that the problem of missed pills rises with age and failing memory, especially for men.

The problem can have serious consequences, the study’s lead author noted.

“Health conditions may worsen or not improve if older adults skip or don’t take their medications properly,” said Brenda Jamerson, of the Center on Biobehavioral Health Disparities Research at Duke University, in Durham, N.C.

“Serious side effects may also occur from taking medications at the wrong time or in the wrong dose,” Jamerson said in a news release from the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, which published the findings earlier this month.

The research involved more than 4,100 North Carolina residents aged 65 and older. All had health conditions such as poor vision, poor hearing, or a history of diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack or cancer.

Trouble taking the right medications at the right time rose with advancing age, the study found. For example, at the start of the study, just over 7 percent of the seniors required help taking their medications. Three years later, 11 percent of those who did not need help at the start of the study required some assistance, Jamerson’s team found.

Overall, people aged 80 and older were 1.5 to 3 times more likely to require help taking medications than those ages 65-69, the research showed.

Other factors seemed to boost the odds of medication lapses. Not surprisingly, memory deficits were key, and people who had trouble with the tasks of everyday living also had a higher risk of forgetting their pills.

But gender mattered, too: Men were 1.5 to 2 times more likely to need help with medications than women, the study found.

Michele Pisano is a pharmacist who works in the Geriatric-Palliative faculty practice at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, N.Y. She said the new study “highlights an important issue.”

Pisano offered some tips to help older adults manage their medication regimen:

• Examine medicine bottle labels for the last date of renewal to confirm that you’re taking medicine regularly.
• Discuss with your doctor and pharmacist whether or not your current medications are still warranted, to avoid taking unnecessary meds or experiencing side effects.
• Use “medication adherence” tools, such as labeled pillboxes, to help keep you on track.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more about aging and medications.

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Malaria Vaccine Protection Short-Lived in Young Children

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, June 30, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The world’s most promising malaria vaccine appears to offer short-lived protection, fading away within a matter of years, a new clinical trial reveals.

Even worse, the vaccine — dubbed RTS,S/AS01 — might increase children’s long-term risk of contracting malaria if they live in a region with heavy transmission of the mosquito-borne parasite, the researchers found.

The vaccine can “lead to a situation where unvaccinated children have more natural immunity than vaccinated children, and therefore get less malaria,” said senior researcher Philip Bejon. He’s director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Program in Kilifi, Kenya.

The results indicate that RTS,S/AS01 could have limited usefulness in the global fight to eradicate malaria, said malaria expert Dr. Christopher Plowe, a professor of medicine with the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

“There could be places where it will be beneficial, but we need a vaccine that’s going to be beneficial everywhere,” Plowe said. “Nobody is satisfied with a vaccine that can only be used under very specific circumstances.”

But the vaccine’s maker, GlaxoSmithKline, contends that the children in this particular clinical trial may not have been given enough doses of RTS,S/AS01. GlaxoSmithKline partially funded the current study.

“It is important to highlight that this follow-up study was conducted without a fourth vaccine dose, which is now considered the preferred regimen for implementation of RTS,S,” a statement from the company said.

“A large-phase III trial of the vaccine conducted in seven countries showed that children who received four doses of RTS,S were protected against malaria for at least four years,” the company said.

In 2015, an estimated 214 million people contracted malaria all over the world. More than 438,000 people died from the disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa.

People with the illness often suffer fever, chills, sweats, nausea, and an aching head and body, the CDC says. Severe cases can result in acute respiratory distress syndrome, anemia, kidney failure and other life-threatening symptoms.

RTS,S/AS01 triggers the body’s immune response against Plasmodium falciparum. P. falciparum is the world’s most deadly malaria parasite, according to the World Health Organization.

The vaccine is designed to prevent the parasite from gaining a foothold in a person’s liver, according to GlaxoSmithKline. If the parasite multiplies in the liver, it gets into the bloodstream and brings about a full-fledged case of malaria.

In this trial, 447 children were randomly assigned to receive three doses of either the malaria vaccine or a rabies vaccine that served as a control. The children, from Kenya and Tanzania, were between 5 months and 17 months old.

The vaccine had a protection rate of about 36 percent in the first year. But, by the fourth year protection had fallen to about 2.5 percent, the results showed.

In the fifth year, the researchers found the overall protection rate was negative. But that finding was driven solely by the vaccine’s performance in areas where there is high exposure to malaria.

This “rebound” effect might have happened because the vaccine prevents early exposure to malaria in the liver, which normally may allow a person to develop some natural immunity to the parasite, Plowe suggested.

“You’re basically temporarily reducing exposure to malaria, so you build up less natural immunity,” he said. “When the vaccine wears off, you don’t have the vaccine and you don’t have the natural immunity that would have built up without a vaccine.”

Bejon said that RTS,S/AS01 still might prove useful as a four-dose vaccine.

“I think this, in combination with the phase III data, means that a three-dose regimen couldn’t be recommended, but a four-dose regimen is still worth further evaluation,” he said.

GlaxoSmithKline said it’s working with the World Health Organization “on a pilot implementation program with RTS,S to better understand the feasibility of administrating a four-dose schedule of the vaccine in a real-world setting, the potential impact of RTS,S when it comes to saving lives, and continue safety monitoring of the vaccine.”

The vaccine still could help protect kids in places where there is low exposure to malaria, Plowe added. In those areas, the vaccine waned but still maintained an overall 26 percent effectiveness against malaria, the study showed.

There are about 20 different malaria vaccine candidates under investigation right now, said Dr. Amesh Adalja. He’s a senior associate at the University of Pittsburgh’s UPMC Center for Health Security in Baltimore.

“Hopefully these approaches will prove more effective, as malaria continues to kill hundreds of thousands yearly,” Adalja said.

“It is disappointing that the RTS,S malaria vaccine had a major drop-off in efficacy . . . especially in areas with high malaria burden,” he noted.

One new approach involves adding additional malaria proteins to the RTS,S vaccine, to improve its potential effectiveness, Plowe said. Another involves infecting mosquitoes with malaria and then irradiating them, creating a weakened strain of malaria that can be used as a “live” vaccine.

“The weakened parasites are purified out of the mosquitoes and frozen, and that’s actually the vaccine,” Plowe said.

The study was published June 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

More information

For more on malaria, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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FDA Says ‘No’ to Eating Raw Cookie Dough

THURSDAY, June 30, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Before you lick that raw cookie dough off your spoon, know that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning against it.

It’s not just the raw eggs that carry food poisoning dangers. Any type of raw dough or batter that contains flour is not safe to eat, including pizza, bread and tortilla dough, cautioned Jenny Scott, a senior advisor in the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

It’s also not safe to play with raw dough or batter that contains flour, Scott added. Even if kids aren’t eating the dough, germs can get onto their hands. If they put contaminated hands into their mouth, they may develop an infection.

Leslie Smoot, a senior advisor in FDA’s Office of Food Safety, explained in an agency news release that “flour is derived from a grain that comes directly from the field, and typically is not treated to kill bacteria.”

Bacteria from animal waste could contaminate grains, which are harvested and milled into flour, Smoot said.

Boiling, baking, roasting, microwaving or frying raw flour kills harmful bacteria. But raw dough or batter can still harbor germs, the FDA experts added.

U.S. health officials have recently launched an investigation into infections linked to the ingestion of raw dough. Dozens of people throughout the country have been infected by a strain of bacteria called Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O121.

Symptoms of infection with Shiga toxin-producing E. coli include diarrhea (often bloody), and abdominal cramps.

Most people recover within a week but some illnesses may be more severe and lead to a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome. This condition can affect anyone, but it’s most common among children younger than 5, older adults and people with weakened immune systems.

The federal investigation revealed that some of these patients had eaten or handled raw dough made with General Mills flour produced in a Kansas City, Mo., facility. Tests conducted by the FDA linked bacteria in a flour sample to bacteria from some of those who developed infections.

General Mills voluntarily recalled 10 million pounds of unbleached, all-purpose and self-rising flours sold under the brand names Gold Medal, Signature Kitchen’s and Gold Medal Wondra. These products should be discarded and not used.

The FDA cautioned that some recalled flours were sold to restaurants that provide children with balls of raw dough to play with while they wait for their meals. Experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have advised restaurants to discontinue this practice.

Other food safety tips from the FDA include:

• Do not eat any type of raw cookie dough, other type of dough, cake mix or batter that is supposed to be cooked or baked.
• Follow package directions for temperatures and cooking times for products containing flour.
• After using flour or raw dough wash your hands, cooking surfaces and utensils thoroughly.
• Keep raw foods separate from other foods while cooking or baking to prevent contamination.
• Follow label directions to refrigerate products containing raw dough until they are baked.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more food safety tips.

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Gene Tied to Breast Cancer Raises Uterine Cancer Risk Too

THURSDAY, June 30, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Women with a gene mutation known as BRCA1 have an increased risk for a deadly form of uterine cancer, a new study finds.

The BRCA1 gene mutation is already well known for significantly increasing the risk of breast and ovarian cancers. In fact, the risk is so high that some women consider having both breasts, as well as their ovaries, removed to prevent breast and ovarian cancers, the researchers noted.

This latest study is the first to find a conclusive link between the mutation and a slight increase in the odds of developing an aggressive uterine cancer, the researchers said.

The study authors looked at data from nearly 1,100 U.S. women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. The women were from the United States and the United Kingdom. Their health was followed for a median of about five years. BRCA2 also raises the risk of breast and ovarian cancers, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

During the research period, eight of the women in the study were diagnosed with uterine cancer, a rate that’s slightly higher but not statistically different than for women in the general population.

However, five of those cancers were an uncommon and highly aggressive type called serous endometrial cancer. Four out of five of those cancers occurred in women with the BRCA1 mutation, the study showed.

“We were surprised when we saw the data,” study author Dr. Noah Kauff, head of the Clinical Cancer Genetics Program at the Duke Cancer Institute, said in a university news release.

“This is an event that should not occur in the over 600 women with BRCA1 mutations in our study. Even if we followed these women for 25 years, you would only expect to see no more than one serous cancer,” he explained.

The study was published online June 30 in the journal JAMA Oncology.

The findings could help women with the BRCA1 mutation and their doctors make treatment decisions, the researchers said.

“Our findings suggest that it may be important for women with BRCA1 mutations to consider removing their uterus at the time they are considering removing their ovaries and fallopian tubes, unless they are hoping to still have children using assisted reproductive methods or have other medical reasons,” Kauff said.

But, if women have already had surgery to remove their breasts, ovaries and fallopian tubes, the benefit of having another surgery to remove the uterus is less clear, the researchers said.

Kauff said that more studies need to be done to see whether or not a 3 to 5 percent risk of serous uterine cancer over 25 years justifies the costs and potential complications of a second surgery.

More information

The U.S. Office on Women’s Health has more on uterine cancer.

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