Baxter says trial on new flu shot promising

Baxter International Inc., working to modernize the production of influenza vaccines, this morning said its seasonal flu product is showing "strong antibody responses and good tolerability" in an early stage clinical trial in humans.

Although Baxter is still several years from winning approval of the product, the study shows Baxter's reformulated seasonal flu vaccine is tolerable. In late 2004, Baxter had to suspend final-stage human sudy of its seasonal flu vaccine because it was causing fevers in some patients.

The Deerfield-based medical product giant is trying to develop a flu vaccine produced with cell tissues, which is a method that would allow manufacturers to quickly brew vaccine by the vat and likely eliminate shortages like the one that rattle U.S. consumers and health-care providers from time to time.
The cell-based approach is a sharp contrast to the tedious, 1940s method still used today that involves hand-processing millions of chicken eggs in labs. For each dosers shine a light through the shell of an egg to find the fluid surrounding an embryo, inject a strain of the flu virus and let it incubate for several months.

The current method is a long months-long process fraught with risk, while cell-based vaccines are more consistent and could be produced in as little as nine to 12 weeks.

In the latest clinical trial, Baxter said more than 900 patients were studied. Baxter said the preliminary data show its cell-based seasonal influenza vaccine's "tolerability profile" to be similar to egg-based seasonal flu vaccines on the market. There were, however, some side effects that included headaches and some injection site reactions, Baxter said.

Baxter is building momentum for its vaccines business. The company is also in the final stages of testing for a vaccine against strains of the Avian influenza, also known as the bird flu and is working with governments around the world interested in stockpiling the product in the event of a pandemic outbreak. Chicago Tribune

Accepting food cravings and keeping them in check may be an important component of weight management, as per findings from the first six-month phase of a calorie-restriction study conducted at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University. Supplemental results from the Comprehensive Assessment of the Long-term Effects of Restricting Intake of Energy (CALERIE) trial provide new insights into food cravings, specific types of foods craved, and their role in weight control.

Cravings are really normal; almost everyone has them, says corresponding author Susan Roberts, PhD, director of the USDA HNRCAs Energy Metabolism Laboratory. At the start of the study, 91 percent of the participants reported having food cravings, which are defined as an intense desire to eat a specific food. Most people feel guilty about having food cravings, says Roberts, but the results of this study indicate that they are so normal that nobody needs to feel they are unusual in this respect.

In addition, the results indicate that cravings dont go away during dieting. In fact, 94 percent of the study participants reported cravings after six months of dieting. However,Roberts says, participants who lost a greater percentage of body weight gave in to their.

cravings less frequently. Allowing yourself to have the foods you crave, but doing so less frequently may be one of the most important keys to successful weight control, she adds.

Roberts and his colleagues found that successful weight loss was related not only to how often people gave in to their cravings, but also to the types of foods they craved. Participants with a higher percentage of weight loss actually craved foods with higher energy (calorie) density, compared with those who lost a lower percentage of body weight, says Roberts, who is also a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. Energy-dense foods, such as chocolate and some salty snacks, are those that pack the most calories per unit of volume, explains Cheryl Gilhooly, PhD, MPH, research dietitian and first author of the study, as in comparison to less energy-dense foods like fruits and vegetables, which have fewer calories per unit of volume.

These findings suggest, says Roberts, that cravings are for calories, not carbohydrate, as is widely assumed. What is usually called carbohydrate addiction should probably be relabeled as calorie addiction, she added. Some of the most usually craved foods among study participants were foods that have high sugar plus fat, such as chocolate, and salty snacks, such as chips and French fries. The craved foods do have carbohydrate, but they also have fat, and some protein, too. The most identifiable thing about the foods people crave is that they are highly dense in calories, Roberts deduces.

The study, which was part of the one-year CALERIE trial, involved 32 overweight but otherwise healthy women, 20 to 42 years of age, who were randomly assigned to two diets that differed in glycemic load, a measurement of how quickly the carbohydrates in a persons diet are converted to blood sugar.

Participants completed food craving questionnaires that assessed the foods craved, the frequency and strength of cravings, and how often cravings led to eating the desired food. Scientists collected information from these questionnaires, along with data from dietary intake records and measures of weight change over time. Primary results from the CALERIE study were reported in an earlier issue of Friedman Nutrition Notes, available at http://nutrition.tufts.edu/news/notes/2007-03.html.

This is the first study of long-term changes in food cravings in a calorie-restriction program, Roberts says. If individuals understand that they can expect cravings and that those cravings will be for calorie-dense foods, it might help in their weight management.

One thing to do is to substitute foods that taste similar but have fewer calories, since the craving can be satisfied by related tastes.

Roberts and his colleagues conclude that cravings for energy-dense foods are common. Eventhough they caution that additional long-term studies are needed to confirm their findings, they write that their results suggest that people attempting to lose weight and maintain weight loss may benefit from advice to accept that food cravings may not decrease in frequency. Controlling the frequency of giving in to cravings, rather than suppressing them, they say, may be an important area of emphasis in future weight control programs.


Posted by: Evelyn    Source

Taking a break in the middle of your workout may metabolize more fat than exercising without stopping, as per a recent study in Japan. Scientists conducted the first known study to compare these two exercise methodsexercising continually in one long bout versus breaking up the same workout with a rest period. The findings could change the way we approach exercise. Who wouldnt want to take a breather for that" .

A number of people believe prolonged exercise will be optimal in order to reduce body fat, but our study has shown that repetitions of shorter exercise may cause enhancements of fat mobilization and utilization during and after the exercise. These findings will be informative about the design of [future] exercise regimens, said lead researcher Kazushige Goto, Ph.D. Most people are reluctant to perform a single bout of prolonged exercise. The repeated exercise with shorter bouts of exercise will be a great help [in keeping up with fitness].

This finding is part of a study entitled Enhancement of fat metabolism by repeated bouts of moderate endurance exercise, found in the June 2007 edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology, which is published by the American Physiological Society. It was conducted by Kazushige Goto, of both the Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, Komaba, Tokyo, Japan and the Institute of Sports Medicine, Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark; Naokata Ishii, of the Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, Komaba, Tokyo, Japan; and Ayuko Mizuno and Kaoru Takamatsu, both of the Institute of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.

Summary of Methodology
The scientists used seven healthy (avg. body mass: 66.1, percentage fat: 17.6) men with an average age of 25 who were physically active and familiar with exercise and had them perform three separate trials:.

• one single bout of 60-min exercise followed with a 60-min recovery period (Single).
  
• two bouts of 30-min exercise with a 20-min rest after the first 30-min bout, along with a 60-min recovery period at the end (Repeated).
  
• one 60-min rest period (Control).
  

The men performed each trial at the same time of day after fasting overnight. They exercised on a single ergometer (cycling machine) at the usually recommended exercise prescription of 60% maximum oxygen intake. The recovery and rest periods were conducted while the subjects sat in chairs. Blood samples were taken every 15 minutes during the exercise and every 30 minutes during the recovery period. Their respiratory gas and heart rates were monitored continuously throughout the trial.

Summary of Results
The Repeated trial showed a greater amount of lipolysis (fat breakdown) than did the Single trial. This Repeated trial also had a pronounced increase in free fatty acids and glycerol (chemical compounds that are released when stored fat is used) concentrations in the final 15 minutes of exercise, whereas these concentrations only progressively increased throughout the Single trial. Also, the second half of the Repeated trial showed a significantly greater epinephrine response while also having a rapid decrease in insulin concentration as a result of lower plasma glucose. This combination of high epinephrine and low insulin concentration may have also increased the lipolysis. There was also enhanced fat oxidation in the recovery period of the Repeated trial than in the Single trial, but this result may be because the free fatty acids concentration was already high before the recovery period.

Conclusions
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends moderate exercise for the duration of 45 to 60 minutes to ensure a sufficient amount of energy is depleted in obese individuals. This has caused a greater focus on extending exercise sessions in order to burn more fat. However, this study shows that this method may not be the most effective way to enhance fat metabolism, as splitting up a long bout of exercise with a rest period burns more fat than a continuous bout of exercise. This study could help with the practical application of implementing new exercise methods in order to better manage and control weight in individuals in the future. However, Goto and his team of scientists plan on conducting further studies in order to explore the results in a variety of exercise durations as well as in different types of individuals.


Posted by: Evelyn    Source

Using selective cannabinoid 1 (CB1) receptor antagonists such as rimonabant at a dose of 20 mg per day can help people quit smoking, can help them to remain abstinent, and can help prevent the weight gain that so often accompanies attempts at stopping smoking. The lower dose of 5mg, however, was not shown to be effective, as per a Cochrane Systematic Review.

Smoking tobacco sends nicotine into the blood stream, and this chemical disrupts the endocannabinoid system, part of the hormonal control mechanism in the brain that controls energy balance and food intake. Over time the body alters the nature of its energy mechanism to compensate for this effect. Stopping smoking removes the nicotine and once again disturbs the mechanism, adding to the withdrawal symptoms and leaving a person prone to put on weight.

One potential way of preventing this is to take a drug that blocks the receptor that is involved in nicotines action in the brain the cannabinoid 1 receptor. These CB1 receptor antagonists could therefore form part of a therapeutic programme aimed at helping individuals quit smoking, eventhough this drug has still not been approved as a smoking cessation therapy in the USA or in Europe.

To see whether there was evidence that these receptor antagonists work two Cochrane Researchers, Kate Cahill who works at the Department of Primary Care in the University of Oxford and Michael Ussher who works at St Georges, University of London, searched the published and unpublished literature for relevant research projects. They found three trials that involved a total of 1567 smokers and 1661 people who had recently quit smoking. Analysing the data showed that the effect of the drug depended on the dose used:


Quitting with 20mg rimonabant:
People given 20 mg rimonabant increased by 50% their odds of remaining abstinent compared with those on placebo. Smokers who had quit while using 20mg rimonabant increased by 50% their odds of staying abstinent if they continued taking either 5mg or 20mg rimonabant, compared with those who moved to placebo therapy after quitting.


Quitting with 5mg rimonabant:
People who wanted to quit appeared to gain no benefit from 5 mg rimonabant therapy. Furthermore the people who did manage to quit using this lower dose were equally likely to remain abstinent whether they continued with rimonabant therapy or moved to a placebo.


Weight gain:
Weight gain appeared to be significantly lower in people who quit while using 20 mg rimonabant than those taking either 5 mg rimonabant or placebo. The differences in weight between the groups appeared to be maintained through longest follow-up. This beneficial effect was more evident in overweight or obese smokers than in those of normal weight.

From the preliminary data that we found it appears that 20mg rimonabant may significantly increase a persons likelihood of quitting and may also reduce the amount of weight that they gain, says Cahill.


Posted by: Evelyn    Source

You have a greater possibility of losing weight if you eat a diet that is high in foods like lentils that release energy slowly once they have been consumed, rather than one that is high in foods that rapidly release sugar into the blood stream such as white bread, a Cochrane Systematic Review has concluded.

When foods are eaten the body breaks them down into their components, and one component will be sugar. Different foods break down at different rates. Lentils, for instance, generate a long, gentle release of sugars, while foods like white bread send a sudden rush of sugar into the blood stream. Foods that release sugars rapidly are said to have a high glycaemic index those that release it slowly have a low glycaemic index.

A team of Cochrane Scientists set out to search for carefully conducted research trials that looked at the effects of eating high and low glycaemic index foods. They found six randomised controlled trials that involved a total of 202 participants. The trials ran for between five weeks and six months.

Their conclusion was that people eating low glycaemic index diets lost a mean of one kilogram more than those on similar energy high glycaemic index diets.

Low glycaemic index diets appear to be especially effective for people who are obese, says lead author Dr Diana Thomas, the Scientific Director of the Centre for Evidence Based Paediatrics Gastroenterology and Nutrition, in Westmead, Australia.

It may be easier to adhere to a low glycaemic index diet than a conventional weight loss diet, since there is less need to restrict the intake of food so long as the carbohydrates consumed have a low glycaemic index, says Thomas.


Posted by: Evelyn    Source