IndustrynEWs
Taoyuan, Taiwan, says:
“Our results confirm the clinical belief
that gout strongly clusters within families.
In Taiwan the risk of an individual with
any first-degree relative suffering from gout
is approximately twice that of the normal
population.”
The team found that the risk of developing
gout goes up with the number of firstdegree relatives that have it. Thus, having
a twin brother with gout raises the risk of
developing it 8-fold, but having a parent
or child with it only raises it 2-fold. The
study also shows that genetic factors appear
to affect men and women differently.
“Genetic factors contribute one-third in
men and one-fifth in women,” Dr. Kuo
explains. As well as the genetic risk, the
study reveals that shared environmental
factors also play a part, and these are also
different in men and women.
The researchers say the findings have
prompted further questions for future
studies, which they suggest should include
large-scale genetic profiling to identify
susceptibility genes and further population
studies in other countries to identify
shared environmental risk factors within
families. In May 2012, another study
published in the Annals of the Rheumatic
Diseases suggested that foods rich in
purines increase the risk of gout flare-up.
Purines are found in a range of foods meat and seafood in particular.
Depression and
Pain ‘Improved’
with Vitamin D
Medical News Today/www.
medicalnewstoday.com – December 5,
2013
At the end of the study period, the
women’s depression levels significantly
improved following vitamin D2
supplementation. Furthermore, women
who suffered neuropathic and/or sensory
50
Pedorthic Footcare Association www.pedorthics.org
pain at the beginning of the study also
saw their symptoms decrease at three
and six months following vitamin D2
supplementation. Commenting on
these findings, Todd Doyle says: “Pain
is a common and often serious problem
for women with type 2 diabetes and
depression. While further research is
needed, D2 supplementation is promising
treatment for both pain and depression in
Type 2 diabetes.”
Investigators say they have now received
funding from the National Institute of
Nursing Research, a part of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), which will
enable them to conduct a trial looking
at how two different doses of vitamin
D3 supplements may affect the health
outcomes of women with type 2 diabetes.
“Vitamin D has widespread benefits for
our health and certain chronic diseases
such as type 2 diabetes,” says Sue
Penckofer, co-author of the study and
professor at the Loyola University Chicago
Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing. “This
NIH grant will allow us to shed greater
light on understanding the role that this
nutrient plays in managing the health of
women with diabetes.”
Vitamin D has many important functions
in the body. It helps to regulate the
amount of calcium and phosphate in the
body, which are needed to maintain bone
and teeth health.
Previous research has suggested that
vitamin D deficiencies may negatively
impact our health. Medical News
Today recently reported on a study
suggesting that low vitamin D levels may
damage the brain. Other research has
linked vitamin D deficiency to increased
risk of anemia in children and faster aging
of bones.
The body gets the majority of its vitamin
D from the sun, but the UK’s National
Health Service (NHS) notes that many
foods are good sources of vitamin D. These
include: oily fish, such as salmon, sardine
and mackerel; eggs, fortified fat spreads,
fortified breakfast cereals and powdered
milk.
Hatha Yoga
Outperforms
Traditional
Exercise
for Relief of
OA-Related Pain
Lower Extremities Review/www.
lowerextremityreview.com – May, 2012
A study e-published in April, 2012 by the
Journal of Alternative and Complementary
Medicine suggests hatha yoga is superior
to therapeutic exercises in reducing
osteoarthritis-related walking pain.
Investigators from Ebnezar Orthopedic
Center in Bangalore, India, randomized
250 outpatients with radiographic knee
OA to two weeks of daily 20-minute
physiotherapy sessions (transcutaneous
electrical stimulation and ultrasound)
plus 40 minutes of either hatha yoga or
therapeutic exercises. Patients, who were
recruited from an Indian orthopedic
center, were aged 35 to 80 years and
reported moderate to severe pain with
walking before the interventions.
Both groups practiced yoga or the
exercises, which involved stretching and
strengthening movements for all upper
and lower limb joints, in supervised daily
sessions for two weeks, followed by 12
weeks of daily home practice. Investigators
assessed patients’ walking pain, knee
disability, range of motion, and other
measures at baseline and 15 and 90 days.
Improvements in walking pain and time;
range of knee flexion; joint tenderness,
swelling, and crepitus; and knee disability
were significantly greater in the yoga group
than the exercise group at both 15 and 90
days.