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Prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure improves the lives of older Americans and also reduces medical costs, study findings show.

Researchers looked at a group of 51- and 52-year-olds from across the nation and projected their future state of health and medical costs if they could avoid developing certain chronic diseases. In a 51-year-old, prevention of obesity would extend life by 0.85 years, preventing high blood pressure would give them an additional 2.05 years, and by avoiding diabetes they would gain 3.17 years. People aged 51 and 52 who quit smoking would gain 3.44 more years of life, the study authors noted in a news release from the American Public Health Association.

Prevention of these conditions also would have lower lifetime medical costs for the individual: Preventing obesity would save $7,168; preventing high blood pressure would save $13,702; and preventing diabetes would save $34,483. However, the lifetime medical costs for a person who quits smoking would be $15,959 higher, the researchers noted in the news release.

“Our data indicate that primary prevention could improve the health and longevity of future cohorts of elderly persons in the United States at a relatively low cost,” the researchers concluded.

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed an experimental technique with the potential to prevent a class of hereditary disorders passed on from mother to child. The technique, as yet conducted only in nonhuman primates, involves transferring the hereditary material from one female’s egg into another female’s egg from which the hereditary material has been removed.

The resultant eggs, which were fertilized with donor sperm, implanted in females and carried to term, produced offspring free of the mother’s mitochondria, but which instead possess the mitochondria from the donated egg cell. Mitochondria are tiny structures within cells that help provide energy to power the cell’s activities. They are passed on from mother to child, in the fluid (called cytoplasm) contained inside the egg cell. In recent years, defects in mitochondria have been linked with a variety of conditions, such as diabetes, cancer, infertility, and such neurodegenerative disorders as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases. The technique raises the possibility that mitochondria associated with a hereditary disorder could be prevented from being passed on to the next generation.

“Recent findings suggest that mitochondrial disorders play a role in at least some proportion of many human disorders,” said Duane Alexander, M.D, director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which provided funding for the study. “Pending further research, the findings hold the potential of allowing a couple to have a child who is biologically their own, but is free of any conditions associated with defects in maternal mitochondria.”

Mitochondria are passed on to subsequent generations only through egg cells and not transmitted through sperm. In addition to the DNA found in the chromosomes, mitochondria have their own DNA. Mutations in mitochondrial DNA have been associated with a variety of human disorders.

The study was conducted by researchers at the Oregon Health Science University in Beaverton and was published online in Nature.

Using the technique, the researchers created fertilized eggs and achieved three successful pregnancies in rhesus monkeys, which have resulted in four healthy newborns. Recent advances in the transfer of hereditary material and in microscopy facilitated the achievement, they wrote.

The researchers said that the technique did not appear to pose any risk of chromosomal damage. Analysis of 5-6-day-old embryos (blastocysts) resulting from the fertilized eggs, and of embryonic stem cell lines established from them, did not uncover any evidence of damage to the chromosomes. Analysis of cells from the infant monkeys born after the procedure failed to detect any mitochondrial DNA from the mother.

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Most Americans don’t eat the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, says a U.S. government study released Tuesday. And no state has achieved national objectives for consumption of fruits and vegetables, it found.

The goal for the Healthy People 2010 program is to get at least 75 percent of Americans to eat the recommended two or more daily servings of fruit and for at least 50 percent of Americans to consume three or more daily servings of vegetables.

But surveys from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that only 33 percent of adults meet the fruit consumption target and only 27 percent eat the recommended amount of vegetables. The statistics are worse for high school students — only 32 percent eat the recommended amount of fruit and 13 percent meet the goal for vegetables.

“A diet high in fruits and vegetables is important for optimal child growth, maintaining a healthy weight, and prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, all of which currently contribute to health care costs in the United States,” Dr. William H. Dietz, director of the CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, said in a CDC news release.

“This report will help states determine what is taking place in their communities and schools and come up with ways to encourage people to eat more fruits and vegetables,” Dietz said.

The report — the State Indicator Report on Fruits and Vegetables, 2009 — is the first to detail state-by-state data about fruit and vegetable consumption and policies that may help boost fruit and vegetable consumption.

It spotlights three important policy and environmental areas associated with fruit and vegetable consumption: healthier food retail, availability of healthier foods in schools, and food system support.

Food stores that stock a variety of high-quality fruits and vegetables can play a key role in residents’ health, the report notes. But only eight states have a policy for healthier food retail improvements that can increase the number of full-service grocery stores in areas where they’re lacking, increase the availability of healthier foods in small food stores, and promote healthier foods by providing information to consumers in food stores.

Schools can influence better eating by students, staff, parents and other members of the community. But the report found that only 21 percent of U.S. middle schools and high schools offer fruits and non-fried vegetables in vending machines, school stores or snack bars. Fewer than half the states (21) have policies to support farm-to-school programs that can increase access to fruits and vegetables and teach students about nutrition and agriculture.

The report also mentioned food policy councils, which are organizations that look at access to fresh produce at the community and state levels. Food policy councils make recommendations about policies and programs such as community gardens, farmers’ markets, availability of fresh produce in supermarkets and farm-to-school programs. Currently, 59 local food policy councils operate across the United States, and 20 states have a state-level food policy council.

“We have seen the tremendous benefit of state and local officials, health professionals, employers, food store owners, farmers, school staff, and community members working together on food and nutrition issues,” CDC epidemiologist Heidi Michels Blanck said in the news release. “Their efforts can help to increase the availability of affordable healthier food choices such as fruits and vegetables.”

One in seven preschoolers from low-income families in the United States are considered obese, a new government report shows.

However, the same report finds that the news is not all bad: The childhood obesity epidemic does seem to be leveling off among children in this group.

Among 2- to 4-year-olds from low-income families, the prevalence of obesity increased from 12.4 percent in 1998 to 14.5 percent in 2003. However, it went up only to 14.6 percent in 2008, according to the July 24 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Among lower-income, preschool-aged children, we are actually seeing a stabilization of obesity rates,” said report co-author Laurence M. Grummer-Strawn, chief of CDC’s Maternal Child Nutrition Branch in the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity.

“For a number of years, we were seeing continuous rises in this obesity epidemic and it looks like over the last five years we have actually seen that rate stabilize,” he said. “Of course, we are not where we want to be. We want to see much more improvement, but it’s at least good news that things are not continuing to get worse.”

Why obesity in this age group is stabilizing is not completely clear, Grummer-Strawn said. “There has been more emphasis on pediatric obesity among low-income populations,” he said. “There have been initiatives to promote breast-feeding, initiatives to use low-fat or skim milk, initiatives to reduce television watching and shaping behaviors toward better nutrition and physical activity,” he noted.

But there remains a large racial and ethnic disparity in the obesity epidemic among preschoolers, Grummer-Strawn added.

Even though the prevalence of obesity has stayed steady in many parts of the country, it is still increasing among American Indian and Alaska Native children. Among these children, the prevalence of obesity has gone up about a half-percentage point each year from 2003 to 2008, according to the report.

As a matter of fact, American Indian or Alaska Native children had the highest obesity rates in 2008, at 21.2 percent, followed by Hispanic children at 18.5 percent.

The lowest obesity rates were among white children, at 12.6 percent, Asian or Pacific Islander children, at 12.3 percent, and black children, at 11.8 percent, the report found.

Only in Colorado and Hawaii were the obesity rates 10 percent or less among poor preschoolers, and only among Indian Tribal Organizations were the obesity rates over 20 percent.

“We need to be thinking about how to change our communities to be much healthier for our children,” Grummer-Strawn said.

There need to be better parks and playgrounds “so that children can get outside and play,” he said. “We also need to improve access to healthier foods.”

The drug vorinostat is able to cross the blood-brain barrier and reduce the development of large metastatic tumors in mice brains by 62 percent when compared to mice that did not receive the drug, according to a new study. In humans, the drug has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of a cancer called cutaneous T-cell lymphoma but can be used experimentally to study its effectiveness against other cancers. This research, by investigators at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and their collaborators, appears online Sept. 29, 2009, in Clinical Cancer Research.

For people, while various therapies are improving the survival of breast cancer patients, the incidence of breast cancer spreading to the brain is increasing. Brain metastases of breast cancer have proven to be largely untreatable because the blood-brain barrier, which arises from the specialized structure of blood capillaries in the brain, severely limits drug access and many drugs are actively transported out of brain at this barrier. Consequently, the one-year survival estimate for breast cancer patients after a diagnosis of brain metastasis is only about 20 percent.

Vorinostat has been found to slow the growth of primary tumors of several different types of cancer in mice. Previous studies have suggested that the drug can be taken up by the brain, although little was known about its effects on metastatic tumors. Therefore, to study the effect of vorinostat on the formation of brain metastases, scientists used a mouse model of human breast cancer. Human breast cells were cultured in the laboratory and were injected into mice with compromised immune systems. The breast cancer cells then migrated to the brain, forming metastases.

“Drugs that can cross the blood-brain barrier and reduce the size and incidence of metastatic tumors are urgently needed,” said Patricia S. Steeg, Ph.D., study author, Center for Cancer Research, NCI. The researchers found that vorinostat was absorbed readily into normal mouse brains, and accumulation of the drug was up to three-fold higher in some metastases treated with this drug when compared to surrounding brain tissue. Vorinostat also reduced the development of tiny tumors (micrometastases) in mice by 28 percent when compared with mice that did not receive this therapy.

The ability of vorinostat to reduce metastatic lesions in the brain was linked to a novel double-barreled mechanism — the drug can cause breaks in both strands of a DNA helix and can also lower the activity of a DNA repair gene called Rad52. The researchers hypothesize that the inability of the cancer cells to repair DNA damage would then slow the rate of tumor cell metastasis.

In June of this year, several researchers affiliated with this study published a paper in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics showing that vorinostat could enhance the effect of radiation therapy in mice with brain cancer metastasis. Mice that received implants of human breast tumors in their brains lived the longest after treatment with both vorinostat and radiation, demonstrating that the drug enhances the sensitivity of cancer cells to radiation therapy. “Taken together with our current finding, researchers have now established a preclinical basis for testing this drug in clinical trials in humans,” said Steeg.

People newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes often resist taking insulin because they fear gaining weight, developing low blood sugar, and seeing their quality of life decline. Doctors also may be reluctant to start insulin right off the bat.

But a new study suggests that those fears are largely unfounded.

Insulin “should not be viewed as a treatment of last resort,” Dr. Ildiko Lingvay and colleagues from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas wrote in the journal Diabetes Care.

In their experience, insulin can be safely and effectively used as a first-line treatment in people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, with high rates of patient satisfaction and compliance.

“Our study busts the myths surrounding insulin therapy in type 2 diabetes,” Lingvay noted in an email to Reuters Health.

More than 20 million Americans have type 2 diabetes. Obesity and a sedentary lifestyle increase the risk for the disease.

The standard initial treatment for type 2 diabetes is a single drug, often metformin, which helps regulate blood sugar levels, followed by the addition of more blood sugar-lowering agents as needed.

The UT Southwestern team studied the effectiveness of insulin-based therapy as an initial treatment option to newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics. They compared rates of compliance, satisfaction, effectiveness, safety and quality of life among 58 patients, who were randomly allocated to standard triple drug therapy or insulin plus metformin.

After 3 years, the researchers report, patients taking insulin plus metformin had fewer low blood sugar, or “hypoglycemic,” events, gained less weight and reported high satisfaction levels with the insulin. In fact, all of the patients in the insulin group said that they would be willing to continue this form of treatment after the study.

“Insulin is the most effective (blood sugar-lowering) agent in our treatment armamentarium,” the investigators note. “With the new devices that we’re using, giving yourself an insulin shot is not much harder than taking pills,” Lingvay added in a university-issued statement.

This study, Lingvay told Reuters Health, suggests that insulin is “a safe, effective, well tolerated and well accepted alternative for long-term treatment of type 2 diabetes, even from the first day of diagnosis.”

A surgical procedure that treats chronic pelvic pain by disrupting nerve connections failed to improve upon regular laparoscopic surgery for easing the condition, British researchers say.

The nerve-disruption procedure “did not alleviate any type of pain…or improve the quality of life, irrespective of the presence or absence of mild endometriosis,” according to the authors of the study published in the Sept. 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Chronic pelvic pain is as common in women as asthma and chronic back pain, but extremely difficult to treat, the study authors noted. The condition “has a major effect on health-related quality of life, work attendance and productivity, and health-care use, accounting for 40 percent of referrals for diagnostic laparoscopy,” Jane Daniels, of Birmingham Women’s Hospital, University of Birmingham, U.K., and colleagues wrote in their report.

Some doctors chose to treat patients by disrupting nerves that were thought to contribute to perceived pain. To find if the procedure works, the researchers studied 487 women with chronic pelvic pain at 18 U.K. hospitals between 1998 and 2005.

The researchers found that women who received the nerve-interruption procedure did about as well as those who underwent laparoscopy alone. The groups had similar levels of pain, painful menstruation and painful sexual intercourse; they also reported the same levels of quality of life.