FRIDAY, Oct. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Primitive plants called cycads use heat and scent to manipulate pollinating insects, a new study reveals.
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Cycads, a group of plants that has been around for 250 million to 290 million years, look similar to ferns or palms but are not related to them. Cycads are gymnosperms, a group that also includes modern coniferous tress such as pines and firs.
Reporting in the Oct. 5 issue of Science, a team at the University of Utah has discovered that the plants heat up and emit an intense odor in order to evict thrips (small flying insects) that have been feeding on pollen found in male cycad cones.
The plants then release a milder odor to attract the pollen-covered thrips into their female cones in order to achieve pollination.
This unusual approach may represent an intermediate stage in the evolution of plant pollination, the researchers said.
"People think of plants as just sitting there and looking pretty and sending out some odors to attract pollinators, but these cycads have a specific sexual behavior tuned to repel, attract and deceive the thrips that pollinate them," principal author Irene Terry, research associate professor of biology, said in a prepared statement.
More information
The University of California Museum of Paleontology has more about cycads.
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Scientists: Appendix protects good germs
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
AP Photo: Graphic locates the appendix; 1c x 2 5/8 inches; 46.5 mm x 66.7 mm
WASHINGTON - Some scientists think they have figured out the real job of the troublesome and seemingly useless appendix: It produces and protects good germs for your gut. That's the theory from surgeons and immunologists at Duke University Medical School, published online in a scientific journal this week.
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For generations the appendix has been dismissed as superfluous. Doctors figured it had no function, surgeons removed them routinely, and people live fine without them.
And when infected the appendix can turn deadly. It gets inflamed quickly and some people die if it isn't removed in time. Two years ago, 321,000 Americans were hospitalized with appendicitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The function of the appendix seems related to the massive amount of bacteria populating the human digestive system, according to the study in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. There are more bacteria than human cells in the typical body. Most of it is good and helps digest food.
But sometimes the flora of bacteria in the intestines die or are purged. Diseases such as cholera or amoebic dysentery would clear the gut of useful bacteria. The appendix's job is to reboot the digestive system in that case.
The appendix "acts as a good safe house for bacteria," said Duke surgery professor Bill Parker, a study co-author. Its location — just below the normal one-way flow of food and germs in the large intestine in a sort of gut cul-de-sac — helps support the theory, he said.
Also, the worm-shaped organ outgrowth acts like a bacteria factory, cultivating the good germs, Parker said.
That use is not needed in a modern industrialized society, Parker said. If a person's gut flora dies, they can usually repopulate it easily with germs they pick up from other people, he said. But before dense populations in modern times and during epidemics of cholera that affected a whole region, it wasn't as easy to grow back that bacteria and the appendix came in handy.
In less developed countries, where the appendix may be still useful, the rate of appendicitis is lower than in the U.S., other studies have shown, Parker said.
He said the appendix may be another case of an overly hygienic society triggering an overreaction by the body's immune system.
Even though the appendix seems to have a function, people should still have them removed when they are inflamed because it could turn deadly, Parker said. About 300 to 400 Americans die of appendicitis each year, according to the CDC.
Five scientists not connected with the research said that the Duke theory makes sense and raises interesting questions.
The idea "seems by far the most likely" explanation for the function of the appendix, said Brandeis University biochemistry professor Douglas Theobald. "It makes evolutionary sense."
The theory led Gary Huffnagle, a University of Michigan internal medicine and microbiology professor, to wonder about the value of another body part that is often yanked: "I'll bet eventually we'll find the same sort of thing with the tonsils."
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Chemotherapy boosts heart disease risk
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer
WASHINGTON - Breast cancer survivors may face increased risk of heart disease — and doctors are debating if it's time to largely abandon a chemotherapy mainstay that is one reason for the problem.
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Drugs called anthracyclines are a breast chemo staple despite a well-known risk: They weaken some women's hearts. What's new is research suggesting the drugs work no better than safer alternatives for most women.
It's a controversy born of success: Treatment advances are enabling more women than ever before to beat breast cancer, and some 2.4 million survivors are alive today. Now a move is under way to determine just how many women are vulnerable to heart disease because of their cancer battle, and how to help them.
Chemo is only one cardiac culprit. Other factors play a role, too: Chest radiation, the weight gain that plagues many survivors, physical inactivity during treatment and stress.
"In the process of curing their breast cancer, we've exposed them to some pretty nasty things. And it's not just one nasty thing, it's a sequence of nasty things," explains Dr. Pamela Douglas, a Duke University cardiologist who is planning research into how to protect these women's hearts.
"This is really coming at you from all sides," says Douglas, who outlined the "multiple hits" in this month's Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
But much of the debate centers on who should use anthracyclines, including the best-known Adriamycin, that can damage heart muscle, sapping its pumping strength.
Dr. Dennis Slamon of UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center cites nine studies, here and abroad, that conclude that only the 20 percent of patients whose tumors have an overactive gene called Her2 are specifically sensitive to anthracyclines.
Then Slamon's closer inspection found that not all Her2 patients are alike — and only those who have a second overactive gene, called TopoII, derive special benefit from anthracyclines. That's about 8 percent of breast cancer patients.
The powerful Her2-targeting drug Herceptin — key for women with Her2-positive tumors — also comes with a heart-damage warning. But adding it to anthracyclines increases the heart risk fivefold, with no extra benefit, Slamon found.
Outright heart failure during chemo is rare, around 2 percent of patients. But Douglas cites research that anywhere from 10 percent to half of anthracycline users experience more subtle heart weakening, making them more vulnerable to aging's usual rigors, like high blood pressure and cholesterol.
And in this month's Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers tracked breast cancer survivors ages 66 to 70 who had undergone chemo 10 years earlier. Those who had received an anthracycline were 26 percent more likely to have developed heart failure in the following decade than those on different chemo.
"It's almost like the perfect storm," Slamon says of all the research. "We're adding no incremental benefit with plenty of incremental toxicity."
Now the influential National Breast Cancer Coalition is lobbying oncologists and government regulators to reconsider treatment guidelines.
"These are very strong, very real data that they need to pay attention to," says coalition president Fran Visco.
But many oncologists aren't convinced, and want more evidence that other chemos work as well.
Indeed, Duke University is beginning a major study funded by the Defense Department to do additional genetic testing on Her2-negative women, to compare Adriamycin to the non-anthracycline Taxotere.
"It's fair to say I'm using less Adriamycin for truly early stage" cancer, says lead researcher Dr. Kelly Marcom, Duke's breast oncology chief.
"But there are still patients that I think have cancers that may be more sensitive to Adriamycin," Marcom adds. The jury is still out."
However that controversy ends, a bigger question is how to find and help survivors with heart damage from any cause. As Jane Sartin of Providence, N.C., learned, symptoms are sneaky.
Sartin underwent a mastectomy for side-by-side breast tumors, and took Adriamycin followed by Herceptin. She was warned about heart side effects, and knew as an overweight smoker she already was at risk. Yet she blamed the surgery when she got winded.
"I had never said anything to my doctor about it. I'd say, 'I'm tired, I think from the surgery,'" recalls Sartin, 45.
Twice her ejection fraction — a measure of blood pumped per beat — dropped well below normal. It bounced back with treatment changes, and Sartin believes her cancer therapy's benefit justified the side effect.
"I really felt like, hey, I can deal with anything as long as I'm alive," says Sartin, who now is dieting and weaning herself from cigarettes.
For now, never shrug off heart-related symptoms, stresses Dr. Ann Bolger of the University of California, San Francisco, an American Heart Association spokeswoman. Early care can be lifesaving.
Duke's Douglas recommends that all breast cancer patients get a formal heart risk assessment before oncologists decide final treatment. It might sway cancer therapy, or signal who'll need extra heart care later.
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EDITOR's NOTE — Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington.
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Autopsy: Heart problem in Chicago runner
By CARYN ROUSSEAU
CHICAGO - An autopsy showed a heart condition, not record-setting heat, killed a Michigan police officer who died during an unusually hot and humid Chicago Marathon.
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Chad Schieber, who collapsed while running on the city's South Side, had a mitral valve prolapse and did not die from the heat, the medical examiner's office said Monday.
The 35-year-old Schieber, from Midland, Mich., was pronounced dead shortly before 1 p.m. Sunday at a hospital.
Several other people collapsed, and at least two remained in critical condition Monday, as record heat and smothering humidity forced race organizers to shut down the course midway through the event.
"Obviously very sad news, and our thoughts and prayers are with the individual's family," said Shawn Platt, senior vice president of LaSalle Bank, the marathon's sponsor.
Schieber was a 12-year police veteran in Midland, a city of about 42,000 in central Lower Michigan. He worked as a field training officer and community relations officer and implemented the department's child DNA identification program, the Midland Daily News reported.
At least 49 people were taken to hospitals, while another 250 were treated onsite, many for heat-related ailments. Chicago Fire Department officials said they used 30 ambulances from area suburbs.
Also Sunday, an unidentified runner died during the Army Ten-Miler race in Arlington, Va., near the finish line at the Pentagon. The runner collapsed about 200 yards from the finish line. Medics took the runner to George Washington University Hospital. The cause of death was not known.
About 10,000 of the 45,000 registered runners never even showed up for the 30th annual Chicago race, while another 10,934 started but didn't finish, officials said.
The high heat index prompted organizers to stop the race at 11:30 a.m., about 3 1/2 hours into the run. Runners who hadn't reached the halfway point were diverted to the start and finish area, while those on the second half of the course were advised to drop out, walk or board cooling buses, Platt said.
Race director Carey Pinkowski said organizers were concerned that emergency medical personnel wouldn't be able to keep up with heat-related injuries as the weather turned more cruel.
"We were seeing a high rate of people that were struggling," Pinkowski said. "If you were out there at 1 o'clock, it was a hot sun. It was like a summer day, it was just a brutally hot day."
Kenya's Patrick Ivuti won, leaning at the finish line to edge Jaouad Gharib of Morocco by 0.05 seconds. Ivuti, competing in only his second major marathon, was timed in 2 hours, 11 minutes, 11 seconds in the closest finish in the race's history. He was the fifth straight Kenyan to win the race.
Ethiopia's Berhane Adere rallied to successfully defend her women's title, finishing in 2:33:49 after passing a surprised Adriana Pirtea, who had a comfortable 30-second lead after 24.8 miles.
By 10 a.m., temperatures had already reached a race-record of 88 degrees. The previous marathon record of 84 degrees was set in 1979. Pinkowski said it was a tough decision to stop the race, but a prudent one.
Lori Kaufman, a runner from St. Louis, said she was told to start walking by mile No. 14. She said she didn't have enough water or Gatorade.
"We had a lot of spectators just handing us bottles of water, which helped a lot," Kaufman said. "Every medic station that we passed was full of people. I mean, they were not doing well."
Some kept going and helicopters hovered over the race course while police officers shouted through a bullhorn and warned runners to slow down and walk.
Fire hydrants were opened along the course and some residents who live along the race route used garden hoses to spray water on the weary runners.
Paul Gardiner, a runner from England, said the weather made for a "brutal" run.
"We were at about 18 miles and we heard they canceled it and that kind of sent a little bit of concern through the crowd," Gardiner said. "It's just it's impossible to run."
THURSDAY, Sept. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Banning smoking in bars is not only salve for the lungs, it is music to the ears.
A smoking ban in Irish workplaces has improved air quality in Irish pubs as well as the health of musical instruments -- such as accordions -- and the people who play them, research suggests.
"Research to date looking at the health effects of the smoking ban on hospitality workers in Ireland has focused mainly on bar staff," said Dr. John Garvey, specialist registrar in respiratory medicine at St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin.
Garvey, who plays the accordion, is co-author of a letter to the editor detailing the accordian findings in the Sept. 29 issue of the British Medical Journal.
"It's a remarkable analogy in that you've got an instrument that's basically performing much the same way as the lung and responding much the same way as the lung," added Kirby Donnelly, head of environmental and occupational health at Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health.
The Irish government banned smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants, on March 29, 2004.
A study that appeared earlier this year in then American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine found a significant reduction in air pollution in pubs and an improvement in respiratory symptoms in Irish bar workers after the ban.
Musicians, including Garvey, frequently gather at pubs to play traditional music together. In addition to the accordion, these pub sessions feature concertina, melodeon and Uilleann (Irish) bagpipes, all of which are bellows-driven.
Anecdotal evidence had suggested that accordions subjected to heavy smoke collected particles inside, much like a person's lungs would.
Garvey and his colleagues conducted a telephone survey of all workers (a total of seven) involved in the cleaning, repair, maintenance and renovation of accordions in the Republic of Ireland. Six of the seven workers were interviewed.
Those interviewed noted that, when opened, accordions that had been played in smoke-filled rooms emitted a strong cigarette odor. Deposits of soot-like dirt were also found inside the instruments. One worker interviewed said that, in some cases, enough dirt could be deposited in the instrument to affect the pitch.
All interviewees said that both the cigarette smell from accordions and the dirt residue inside had improved since the smoking ban.
"There's no question that there's a lot of secondhand smoke in bars, and the Irish have gotten rid of it, and people are feeling better," said Dr. Norman Edelman, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association. "We know that banning smoking in bars improves health."
