Some people might be prone to low back pain because of specific cells contained in their spinal disks, a new study suggests. The research could explain why only certain people develop back pain due to the degeneration of their spinal discs, which are jelly-filled spacers that act as shock absorbers between the small bones of the vertebrae. “We’ve identified for the first time particular cells that could be the key to understanding disk pain,” said senior study author Dmitriy Sheyn, a research scientist in the Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “Learning more about how these cells work could lead to the eventual discovery of new treatment options,” Sheyn added in a Cedars Sinai news release. About 40% of adults experience low back pain due to degenerating disks in the spine, but up to now it’s not been clear exactly why the disks become painful. The jelly in spinal disks tends to dry out and degenerate as people age, but that doesn’t automatically trigger back pain, the researchers noted. “This is because the inner jelly-like layers of the disks contain no nerve endings,” Sheyn said. “But sometimes, when disks degenerate, nerve endings from the surrounding tissues invade the disk, and we believe this causes pain.” For this study, researchers first compared spinal disks from patients with low back…  read on >  read on >

Glaucoma can steal your sight before you even realize it, and early diagnosis is the best way to prevent it. Many of the 3 million Americans who have glaucoma are unaware of it because they have no symptoms, according to the Glaucoma Foundation. In glaucoma, a buildup of fluid in the front part of the eye increases pressure and damages the optic nerve. Here are seven key facts to know about glaucoma:  Most forms of the disease have no symptoms and vision changes don’t happen right away. Once eyesight is lost, the damage is permanent Glaucoma can strike at any stage of life, not just in old age. In fact, about 1 baby in 10,000 is born with the condition While family history is a risk factor, just because your family doesn’t have glaucoma doesn’t make you risk-free. Everyone in the family should be tested if there’s a family history Black folks are six times more likely to have glaucoma than white Americans, and it starts years earlier, often with greater loss of vision. Asian people are also at high risk and glaucoma is more common among Hispanic Americans than once believed Elevated pressure inside the eye is a risk factor for glaucoma, not the disease itself. In some of the more than 40 forms of glaucoma, elevated eye pressure is not involved. The common…  read on >  read on >

A diet supplement derived from citrus fruits reduced swelling and pain after knee replacement surgery, a new clinical trial found. The flavonoid supplement, diosmin, could offer a new approach to painful swelling after the procedure, according to a team led by Dr. Pengde Kang of Sichuan University in Chengdu, China.  “Postoperative lower-extremity swelling is a major hindrance to the enhanced recovery of patients” after knee replacement, the researchers wrote recently in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.  Various strategies, including rest, cold packs and compressive bandages, have had mixed success. And no medications are available to reduce post-operative swelling, the researchers noted. Diosmin — which is often combined with a related flavonoid called hesperidin — is used to reduce swelling in limbs of patients with disorders of the blood vessels. It is not approved as a prescription medication in the United States or Europe, but the researchers noted that experience suggests it is well-tolerated.  For the study, the team looked at 330 patients who had total knee replacement at 13 university-affiliated hospitals. They were randomly assigned to a treatment group that received a 14-day course of diosmin after surgery or to a control group that received no treatment. Both groups received standard pain medication.  Swelling at specific spots was measured four times after surgery and compared between the two groups. Pain scores, knee function,…  read on >  read on >

Seniors with vision issues are at much higher risk for dangerous falls, new research confirms. Compared to seniors with good vision, the odds for a fall rose by 38% for seniors with glaucoma, 36% for those with cataracts and 25% for seniors with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), say a team reporting Dec. 28 in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology. Worldwide, over 650,000 people lose their lives to falls each year, the research team noted, and falls can be especially deadly for the frail elderly. In the United States, medical costs for falls top more than $23 billion annually. Impaired vision is an obvious risk factor for falling, and a team at the University of Manchester in the U.K. wanted to quantify that risk. They looked at data on vision health, falls and fractures from a national British database on over 410,000 people. Participants were typically in their 70s at the time of the study. Besides the increased risk of falls associated with various vision ailments, the study also found a rise in risk for bone fractures. Compared to their peers with good vision, folks with glaucoma had a 31% higher odds for a fracture, those with cataracts had a 28% increased risk and people with AMD faced an 18% higher risk, the Manchester group found. Injuries included fractures of the hip, spine, forearm, skull or facial…  read on >  read on >

A new cellular therapy improved learning and memory in mice with Alzheimer’s disease, researchers report. The therapy — developed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) — relies on both the immune system to fight key aspects of Alzheimer’s, plus modified cells that zero in on the brain protein plaques that are a hallmark of the disease.  In patients with Alzheimer’s, amyloid-beta protein forms plaques that prevent nerve cells from signaling each other. One theory is that this might cause irreversible memory loss and behavior changes characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. The new study was recently published in the journal Molecular Neurodegeneration. Researchers used genetically modified immune-controlling cells called Tregs to target amyloid-beta.  When the UNMC team injected the modified Treg cells into the bloodstreams of mice, buildup of plaque and brain inflammation slowed. Thinking skills also appeared to improve in the diseased mice. While the results of animal studies often turn out differently in humans, researchers were encouraged by the findings. “The study is an important development in the field that advances the possibility of using cell-based therapies for targeting protein aggregates in neurodegenerative diseases,” said senior investigator Dr. Avindra Nath, of the National Institutes of Health, which funded the study. Researchers said the engineered immune cells could offer a targeted and more effective treatment for Alzheimer’s, a disease affecting an estimated 6.7 million…  read on >  read on >

Stroke patients often suffer from “spatial neglect” — an inability to see things on the side of the body opposite to where the brain injury occurred. Now, new research suggests that spatial neglect can also affect folks who’ve had a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The study makes clear that screening for spatial neglect “is warranted in TBI rehabilitation as well as in stroke rehabilitation programs,” said study lead author Peii Chen. She’s a senior research scientist at the Kessler Foundation, in East Hanover, N.J. The nonprofit focuses on rehabilitation medicine. In a Kessler news release, the researchers noted that spatial neglect affects many stroke survivors. It’s more common among folks who suffered brain damage to the right side of their brain (up to 45% of patients) compared to the left (up to 23%). Not being able to comprehend or navigate space on one side of the body can “can lead to prolonged disability after brain damage by impairing daily functions and reducing the effectiveness of rehabilitation therapies,” according to the news release. The new research tracked the symptoms of over 3,600 stroke survivors and 266 head injury patients treated at 16 rehabilitation hospitals across the United States. More than half (58%) of stroke survivors experienced spatial neglect, Chen’s team found, as did 38% of TBI patients following their injury. “We found that spatial neglect affects…  read on >  read on >

A common stomach bug may play a part in Alzheimer’s disease risk. New research found that older folks infected with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) had greater odds for developing Alzheimer’s, the most common type of dementia. “Given the global aging population, dementia numbers are expected to triple in the next 40 years,” said study co-author Dr. Paul Brassard, an associate professor of medicine at McGill University in Montreal. “However, there remains a lack of effective treatment options for this disease.” For the study, he and his colleagues analyzed health data gathered between 1988 and 2019 from more than 4 million people in the U.K.  They found that people 50 and older with symptomatic H. pylori infections had an 11% higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s.  H. pylori, a stomach bug found in two-thirds of people worldwide, can cause indigestion, gastritis, ulcers and even stomach cancer. The new findings add to previous evidence on the potential role of infections in Alzheimer’s development. They also open up the potential for investigating whether eradicating H. pylori could prevent Alzheimer’s in some people. “We hope the findings from this investigation will provide insight on the potential role of H. pylori in dementia, in order to inform the development of prevention strategies, such as individualized eradication programs, to reduce infections at the population level,” Brassard noted in a McGill news release.…  read on >  read on >

For the growing number of American seniors who live alone, having a beloved dog or cat by their side could help them maintain a healthy brain. New research on more than 7,900 people averaging 66 years of age found that those who lived alone were able to stave off losses in memory and thinking if they had a pet. Pet ownership didn’t seem to affect the cognition of older folks who lived with others, however. Loneliness — or the lack of it — may be key here. Owning a cat or dog “is related to reduced loneliness, a important risk factor for dementia and cognitive decline,” wrote a team led by Ciyong Lu, of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. They published their findings Dec. 26 in the journal JAMA Network Open. The researchers noted that people are increasingly living solo as they age — 2021 data found 28.5% of all Americans were residing in single-person households. Numerous studies have found that “older persons living alone are at high risk of developing dementia,” Lu’s group noted. Could life with a four-legged friend cut that risk? The new study was based on data collected on thousands of British people aged 50 or older whose lifestyles and mental acuity were tracked between 2010 and 2019. Just over half (56%) were women. The team assessed whats known as…  read on >  read on >