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Home AIRLINE NEWS Qatar sports Day: Join in the fitness fun at Hamad Intl Airport

Monday, February 12, 2024

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This year, Hamad International Airport (DOH) is marking Qatar National Sports Day with a lineup of exciting fitness activities throughout its terminal.

Passengers of all ages, whether departing or transferring, can enjoy a diverse array of interactive fitness events. From a Leopard Crawl to a Tyre Challenge, Sack Race, Hula Hoop Competition, Tennis Tetherball, Paper Plane Competition, Hang & Squat Challenge, and Runway Dash, theres something for everyone.

As the gateway to Qatar, Hamad International Airport proudly showcases the countrys celebrations and initiatives to its millions of passengers. Aligned with the objectives of Qatar National Sports Day, this initiative aims to promote the importance of sports and fitness in leading a healthier lifestyle.

The airports transformation into a sports hub reflects Qatars broader initiatives and celebrations. By actively involving passengers in these activities, Hamad International Airport extends the spirit of Qatar National Sports Day to its travelers, providing them with an opportunity to engage in the nations festivities.

All travelers are warmly invited to participate in these activities and help raise awareness about the significance of health and fitness.

Since its opening in 2014, Hamad International Airport has consistently ranked among the worlds best airports, thanks to its passenger-centric approach. Serving as a multifaceted lifestyle destination, the airport offers a wide range of amenities, including fine dining, art collections, retail outlets, entertainment areas, sports facilities, and relaxation spaces.

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Qatar sports Day: Join in the fitness fun at Hamad Intl Airport - Travel And Tour World

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Anyone who exercises regularly -- or at least tries to -- knows that every day is different. After an exhausting work trip, for example, you probably aren't as ready for a workout as you would be after getting plenty of sleep over the weekend. Or perhaps you had a particularly intense day at the gym on Monday and still aren't fully recovered by Wednesday.

Google's Fitbit is hoping AI can help with scenarios like these as it explores bringing the buzzy technology to its fitness app. Fitbit co-founder James Park, who is leaving the company due to a reorganization of Google's hardware division, introduced this idea October by announcing Fitbit Labs. The upcoming program will use AI to provide deeper health insights, such as answering questions about why your run may have been harder today than it was yesterday. But Ajay Surie, group product manager at Google, shared additional details about how generative AI will influence the Fitbit app more broadly.

Read more: Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra Could Be Doing So Much More With AI

According to Surie, the company is looking at how generative AI can be used for providing personalized activity and exercise recommendations that are specific to the actual user. It's another signal that tech giants are looking for ways to infuse generative AI, or AI that can answer questions or create content when prompted after being trained on data, into the tech gadgets we use everyday.

"We also see a huge potential for AI to help us drive the right recommendations for the goals you want to set," he said. "Because one of the biggest problems that we see in health, and I have this problem too, is getting users to stay focused and sticking with what they're trying to achieve."

Watch this: 2023's Top Smartwatches and Wearables of the Year

Surie referenced exercise goals as a potential example. The World Health Organization recommends that adults get 150 minutes of physical activity each week. But that can be challenging for those who are new to exercise, while experienced athletes may need a higher goal. He sees "huge potential" in AI to help set the right targets.

"We want to help people keep track of their goals and stay on track, but also adjust their goals where relevant," he said.

Another possible example involves taking a user's current state into account when making recommendations or providing advice. That would mean being able to tailor daily guidance based on the amount of sleep you've had recently or whether you've been sick. Or it could mean providing tips for maintaining a training regimen even when you've had a bad rest day. However, these are just examples meant to illustrate the types of features Fitbit hopes to eventually provide.

"Those are the types of things we'd like to do over time," Surie said. "This is our vision, and it's going to take time to get there."

Part of why Fitbit redesigned its app last year was to set the stage for Fitbit Labs by making the app more customizable and personal. The Today tab, for example, now has a specific "focus," which is essentially a group of statistics that sit near the top of the screen for prioritizing specific goals, like being more active or sleeping better.

But many longtime Fitbit users felt the redesign hampered rather than helped their fitness ambitions. Following the new app's debut in the fall, Fitbit's community forums were filled with negative comments from users about how the new look made it hard to find certain metrics or export data among other issues. Fitbit also removed beloved social features like challenges and groups last year.

Fitbit addressed certain complaints by re-adding some missing features, like the battery percentage for a connected Fitbit device in the Today tab and step streak counts in the iOS app. But new user complaints are still surfacing, with comments as recent as early February present in the Fitbit community forum at the time of writing.

"The process the team followed was, we wanted to really react as quickly as we could," Surie said when asked about how the Fitbit team handled the feedback about the redesign. "So we engage quite heavily with the community of users in our forums to sort of listen to their feedback, try to give them a sense of what we were going to do and then follow up as quickly as we could in terms of getting things turned around."

Read more: Google VP: Here's How AI Will Slowly But Surely Take Over Your Phone

Fitbit's ambitions are another sign that generative AI is making its way to health tracking gadgets, following the technology's influence on smartphones, productivity software and search engines. Apple, for example, is rumored to be developing an AI-powered health coach that could provide suggestions based on Apple Watch data, according to Bloomberg. Samsung is also considering creating some type of virtual assistant that can help users navigate health data in the Samsung Health app.

"We think the concept of a digital system that helps you to navigate and understand the context and navigate them to solutions are going to be necessary," Hon Pak, vice president and head of the digital health team for the mobile experience business at Samsung Electronics, said in a previous CNET interview. "And what form factor that's going to be is to be determined. And it may vary based on person to person, right? Some people just probably want audio; some people want a video on the TV."

Fitbit Labs will be available only for Premium subscribers when it eventually launches in 2024. Surie couldn't say whether that will always be the case, but he did mention that the company will evaluate which features should scale beyond the paywall on a case-by-case basis. The goal behind Fitbit Labs is to test certain features and collect feedback from users before rolling them out widely, potentially providing a glimpse into Fitbit's future.

"Throughout this, we obviously want to make sure that we do this responsibly, especially in the health space," Surie said. "It's one thing to go to Netflix and watch a bad movie. And it's a totally other thing to get a recommendation that is relevant to health and get inaccurate advice."

Editors' note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create some stories. For more, seethis post.

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How Fitbit Wants AI to Help You Reach Your Fitness Goals - CNET

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That scathing description came just as Bidens aides were trying to explain away the presidents most recent verbal gaffes in which he mixed up the heads of state and recalled recent conversations with world leaders who died long ago.

During a pair of New York fundraisers on Wednesday night, Biden twice described conversations he said he had in 2021 with European leaders at the G7 meeting in the U.K., which took place just months after the U.S. Capitol insurrection. At both Manhattan events, Biden said that former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died in 2017, had asked him about the Jan. 6 riot and his reaction if people stormed the British Parliament and killed officers to stop the election of a prime minister.

And just days earlier, during a campaign event outside of Las Vegas, Biden mixed up Franois Mitterrand, the former French president who died in 1996, for French President Emmanuel Macron.

Democrats have defended Biden but also questioned the age and fitness of Bidens likely Republican rival, Donald Trump, himself facing an indictment over his handling of classified materials.

Beyond his recent high-profile mix-up of Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi, Trump, 77 has repeatedly said he is running against Barack Obama, and not Biden, and that he feared that the nation may soon enter World War II, a conflict that has been over for nearly 80 years.

Bidens mistakes underscore what critics say are the most persistent political threats to the presidents reelection bid: his age and the fear among voters that he is not mentally fit to hold office again.

If you turn on Fox News, theyre talking about a bumbling, fumbling Joe Biden. If you go on TikTok, Instagram, there are tons of videos making fun of his age, said a Democratic donor adviser, granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. Its just consistently out there, so the more this happens, the more it feeds it.

Then came Thursdays release of the special counsel report. It noted investigators found insufficient evidence to charge the president for mishandling classified documents during Bidens time as vice president. But it also said that Bidens memory appeared to have significant limitations and that he did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died in 2015. And it said that Biden could not remember when he was vice president or the details of a debate about sending additional troops to Afghanistan.

After the report was released, White House lawyers disputed Hurs characterizations of Bidens memory, and argued that he had gone outside his scope and remit. They said he was gratuitous in his focus on the presidents memory. Republicans were biting. Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), GOP Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) in a joint statement, said the comments on Bidens memory were among the reports most disturbing parts.

A man too incapable of being held accountable for mishandling classified information is certainly unfit for the Oval Office, they added.

Polls have consistently shown deep voter concerns about Bidens age. A new NBC poll released this week found a combined 76 percent of voters say they have major (62 percent) or moderate (14 percent) concerns about Biden lacking the necessary mental and physical health to be president for a second term. Perhaps most worrisomely for the president, 81 percent of independents and 54 percent of Democrats say they have major or moderate concerns about Bidens fitness for a second term.

On whether they have the same concerns about Bidens likely GOP opponent, Donald Trump, the poll found 48 percent of voters said they did.

The former president also has made a series of recent gaffes. When he confused Haley for Pelosi, it prompted Haley, his lone remaining GOP primary rival, to suggest that Trump was in decline and no longer up for the job.

Before the release of the special counsel report, the White House was asked about the presidents misstatements about the foreign leaders and dismissed them as nothing more than slips. As it relates to the names and what he was trying to say, many people, elected officials, many people, you know, they can misspeak sometimes, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday.

Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz argued it is very clear what will matter most to voters in November.

Like we did in 2020, well remain focused on those issues that matter to families and how its only because of President Bidens deep experience that Democrats up and down the ballot are able to run on such a historic and popular agenda, Munoz said in a statement.

Biden has previously made other errors involving the deceased. Most infamously, he mistakenly called out for Rep. Jackie Walorski at a September 2022 event, though the Indiana Republican had died in a car crash the month before. Last year, Biden mixed up Chinese President Xi Jinping with Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who died in 1997.

Both Biden and Trump are vulnerable to age-related mistakes, said Dan Sena, a Democratic consultant who led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2018. But I dont completely buy into the ageism argument against either of them that making gaffes will decide this. Itll come down to the larger meta-narrative about those who are looking backward and those who are looking forward.

Even so, I dont envy the management position theyre constantly in, Sena added. Bidens ability to connect is one of his greatest strengths, but at the same time, it exposes some of his vulnerabilities.

Democrats argue that the presidents age is baked in for most voters, who are keenly aware of his advanced age. They point to Bidens victory in 2020, when he was 77, as evidence he has already overcome the issue.

If [Republicans] spend all this money on saying hes old and his age makes him out-of-touch, who does that move? Who is on the fence on that issue? People have already made up their minds on this, said Kevin McKeon, a Democratic consultant.

The Biden campaign has, at times, used humor to try to neutralize the issue, a strategy Democratic donors have urged him to lean into. On his 81st birthday, Bidens campaign posted a photo of the president in front of a blazing birthday cake, joking about his 146th birthday.

Others, like Democratic strategist Mark Longabaugh, believe that the president has to just go on being the president, showing he has the vigor to be the president, but that means some of these mistakes are going to occasionally happen.

Bidens pitch in 2020 was that he was the one Democrat who could beat Trump and the incumbent president has privately suggested that he believes that holds true again for this November.

But his age prompted a presidential primary challenger. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) launched a long-shot bid against Biden that is entirely centered on how the presidents age weakens Democrats chances in beating Trump.

Im attacked for being honest and saying the quiet part out loud the part DC insiders only do in private, Phillips posted on X, including a clip of Biden from earlier this week, when he appears to forget the name of Hamas, when answering a question about the Israel-Hamas conflict.

But shame on all of you pretending everything is ok. You are leading us and him into a disaster, and you damn well know it, Phillips wrote.

Those in Bidens inner circle note that fatigue forces Biden to expend more energy combating his lifelong stutter and contribute to verbal slips.

But while many in Bidens orbit bristle at the narrative about his age, they also believe they can neutralize it. They argue that voters dont make their decisions about whom to support based on age, and instead are more concerned about a candidates values and accomplishments.

Bidens advisers also make the case that he was slammed by Trump and his GOP allies over his age and mental fitness during the 2020 campaign, and that they overcame those attacks in part by pointing to his experience. Now, they said, they can point to major legislative victories as part of an updated plan as well as a robust travel schedule that compares favorably to his predecessors and includes two recent stops in war zones.

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Age isn't just a number. It's a profound and growing problem for Biden. - POLITICO

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President Joe Biden held a press conference Thursday to address concerns over his mental fitness, during which he referred to Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as the "president of Mexico."

"As you know, initially, the president of MexicoSisidid not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in," Biden said in an attempted reference to Gaza's border with Egypt. "I talked to him. I convinced him to open the gate."

The remark came just hours after a special counsel report said Biden could not recall when he served as vice president or when his son Beau died. The report followed an investigation into the president's mishandling of classified documents.

Special Counsel Robert Hur declined to bring charges against Biden, stating that a jury would find the president to be "a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

Biden addressed the report Thursday, saying, "I'm well-meaning, and I'm an elderly man, and I know what the hell I'm doing."

Not long before Biden confused Egypt with Mexico, a reporter yelled to him, "Why are you confusing the names of world leaders?"

Originally posted here:
WATCH: Biden Responds to Mental Fitness Concerns by Confusing Egypt With Mexico - Washington Free Beacon

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Scientists looking at peptides as a potential tool for muscle development research may be curious about the most practical molecules currently available. Several peptides have been linked to hypothesized properties like the potential increase in muscle cell proliferation and fiber development.

In this comprehensive guide on peptides studied in relation to muscle cells, we have compiled the latest data to aid researchers. This in-depth review covers everything from peptide action mechanisms to potential efficacy and existing research data.

Studies suggest that Sermorelin is one of the smallest functional peptides that may promote the production of growth hormone (GH) by binding to growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) receptors. Sermorelin had regulatory clearance for its effect of boosting GH, an anabolic hormone, which has been suggested to increase growth hormone secretion.

Research suggests that the non-peptide MK-677 (ibutamoren) may mimic the effects of the endogenous hormone ghrelin, much like peptide-based growth hormone secretagogues (GHSs). Researchers are considering it a possible research candidate in the context of growth failure and GH insufficiency. Data suggests it may promote muscle development and lean mass gain, nevertheless.

Investigations purport that Tesamorelin may be an appropriate research peptide in the context of fatty tissue abnormalities in HIV/AIDS research studies; the peptide Tesamorelin has been hypothesized to increase growth hormone release via the gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptors. According to studies, Tesamorelin seems to increase the density and size of muscle cells, which might prevent substantial losses of muscle mass.

Molecules constituted of amino acids linked by peptide bonds are known as peptides. This results in complex molecular structures whose characteristics are determined by their unique sequences of amino acids. Peptides are tiny proteins that usually include two to fifty amino acids.

Their potential role as important cellular communicators, hormone modulators, and growth regulators are only a few of the physiological processes that pique the curiosity of scientists. Artifically synthesized peptides built of sequences of amino acids that often mimic native analogs, have emerged as a result of this.

Synthetic peptides often undergo strategic alterations to improve their selectivity, and potential effectiveness compared to their analogs. Hundreds more are undergoing extensive investigation.

Multiple study peptides have suggested promising results in increasing contractile force within muscles and muscle cell proliferation. Research suggests that certain peptides may promote muscle development by increasing GH synthesis and secretion, affecting insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) expression. The primary anabolic mediator of GH, IGF-1, is primarily synthesized in the liver in response to GH and then released into the bloodstream. Also, GH may promote IGF-1 production inside muscle tissue in either a paracrine or autocrine fashion.

Increasing muscle protein synthesis (MPS) and decreasing muscle protein breakdown (MPB) are two ways in which IGF-1 might promote muscle anabolism, as suggested by studies:

It is also possible that certain peptides function by interacting with inhibitors or regulators of muscle development. To avoid myostatins restricting effects on muscle development, researchers are looking for peptides such as Follistatin 344. Investigations purport that myostatin inhibitors and other peptides may have complex interactions within the organism, which need further research.

There is promising data that peptides may enhance GH, which might increase IGF-1 levels and promote muscle development. At the moment, this is hypothesized to be accomplished via two related classes of peptides:

Scientists interested in further studying the potential of any of the compounds mentioned in this article may find the highest quality research peptides on the Core Peptides website. Please note that none of the substances mentioned in this article have been approved for human or animal consumption.

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Metabolic Profile Studies Involving Peptides - The Teal Mango

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An article published this week in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine documents what is believed to be the first evidence that Alzheimers disease can be transmitted from person to person.

The finding arose from long-term follow up of patients who received human growth hormone (hGH) that was taken from brain tissue of deceased donors.

Preparations of donated hGH were used in medicine to treat a variety of conditions from 1959 onwards including in Australia from the mid 60s.

The practice stopped in 1985 when it was discovered around 200 patients worldwide who had received these donations went on to develop Creuztfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), which causes a rapidly progressive dementia. This is an otherwise extremely rare condition, affecting roughly one person in a million.

CJD is caused by prions: infective particles that are neither bacterial or viral, but consist of abnormally folded proteins that can be transmitted from cell to cell.

Other prion diseases include kuru, a dementia seen in New Guinea tribespeople caused by eating human tissue, scrapie (a disease of sheep) and variant CJD or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, otherwise known as mad cow disease. This raised public health concerns over the eating of beef products in the United Kingdom in the 1980s.

Read more: People who lived in the UK in the 'mad cow disease' years may now be able to give blood. The risk of vCJD is tiny

Human growth hormone (hGH) is produced in the brain by the pituitary gland. Treatments were originally prepared from purified human pituitary tissue.

But because the amount of hGH contained in a single gland is extremely small, any single dose given to any one patient could contain material from around 16,000 donated glands.

An average course of hGH treatment lasts around four years, so the chances of receiving contaminated material even for a very rare condition such as CJD became quite high for such people.

hGH is now manufactured synthetically in a laboratory, rather than from human tissue. So this particular mode of CJD transmission is no longer a risk.

The Nature Medicine paper provides the first evidence that transmission of Alzheimers disease can occur via human-to-human transmission.

The authors examined the outcomes of people who received donated hGH until 1985. They found five such recipients had developed early-onset Alzheimers disease.

They considered other explanations for the findings but concluded donated hGH was the likely cause.

Given Alzheimers disease is a much more common illness than CJD, the authors presume those who received donated hGH before 1985 may be at higher risk of developing Alzheimers disease.

Alzheimers disease is caused by presence of two abnormally folded proteins: amyloid and tau. There is increasing evidence these proteins spread in the brain in a similar way to prion diseases. So the mode of transmission the authors propose is certainly plausible.

However, given the amyloid protein deposits in the brain at least 20 years before clinical Alzheimers disease develops, there is likely to be a considerable time lag before cases that might arise from the receipt of donated hGH become evident.

Read more: Size of brain area linked with cognitive decline even in people with no other warning signs of Alzheimers disease

In Australia, donated pituitary material was used from 1967 to 1985 to treat people with short stature and infertility.

More than 2,000 people received such treatment. Four developed CJD, the last case identified in 1991. All four cases were likely linked to a single contaminated batch.

The risks of any other cases of CJD developing now in pituitary material recipients, so long after the occurrence of the last identified case in Australia, are considered to be incredibly small.

Early-onset Alzheimers disease (defined as occurring before the age of 65) is uncommon, accounting for around 5% of all cases. Below the age of 50 its rare and likely to have a genetic contribution.

The Nature Medicine paper identified five cases which were diagnosed in people aged 38 to 55. This is more than could be expected by chance, but still very low in comparison to the total number of patients treated worldwide.

Although the long incubation period of Alzheimers disease may mean more similar cases may be identified in the future, the absolute risk remains very low. The main scientific interest of the article lies in the fact its first to demonstrate that Alzheimers disease can be transmitted from person to person in a similar way to prion diseases, rather than in any public health risk.

The authors were keen to emphasise, as I will, that Alzheimers cannot be contracted via contact with or providing care to people with Alzheimers disease.

Read more: Young-onset Alzheimers can be diagnosed from as early as 30 and the symptoms are often different

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Alzheimer's may have once spread from person to person, but the risk of that happening today is incredibly low - The Conversation

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Summary: Researchers report a link between Alzheimers disease and a discontinued medical treatment.

In a new study, they found five cases of Alzheimers in individuals treated as children with cadaver-derived human growth hormone (c-hGH), used in the UK from 1959 to 1985. The treatment, later found to be contaminated with amyloid-beta protein, had been linked to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and was replaced by synthetic hormones.

This discovery suggests a new dimension in understanding Alzheimers, highlighting the potential for disease-related proteins to be transmitted through medical treatments.

Key Facts:

Source: UCL

Five cases of Alzheimers disease are believed to have arisen as a result of medical treatments decades earlier, reports a team of UCL and UCLH researchers.

Alzheimers disease is caused by the amyloid-beta protein, and is usually a sporadic condition of late adult life, or more rarely an inherited condition that occurs due to a faulty gene.

The newNature Medicinepaper provides the first evidence of Alzheimers disease in living people that appears to have been medically acquired and due to transmission of the amyloid-beta protein.

The people described in the paper had all been treated as children with a type of human growth hormone extracted from pituitary glands from deceased individuals (cadaver-derived human growth hormone or c-hGH).

This was used to treat at least 1,848 people in the UK between 1959 and 1985, and used for various causes of short stature. It was withdrawn in 1985 after it was recognised that some c-hGH batches were contaminated with prions (infectious proteins) which had caused Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in some people. c-hGH was then replaced with synthetic growth hormone that did not carry the risk of transmitting CJD.

These researchers previously reported that some patients with CJD due to c-hGH treatment (called iatrogenic CJD) also had prematurely developed deposits of the amyloid-beta protein in their brains.

The scientists went on to show in a 2018 paper that archived samples of c-hGH were contaminated with amyloid-beta protein and, despite having been stored for decades, transmitted amyloid-beta pathology to laboratory mice when it was injected. They suggested that individuals exposed to contaminated c-hGH, who did not succumb to CJD and lived longer, might eventually develop Alzheimers disease.

This latest paper reports on eight people referred to UCLHs National Prion Clinic at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, who had all been treated with c-hGH in childhood, often over several years.

Five of these people had symptoms of dementia, and either had already been diagnosed with Alzheimers disease or would otherwise meet the diagnostic criteria for this condition; another person met criteria for mild cognitive impairment.

These people were between 38 and 55 years old when they started having neurological symptoms. Biomarker analyses supported the diagnoses of Alzheimers disease in two patients with the diagnosis, and was suggestive of Alzheimers in one other person; an autopsy analysis showed Alzheimers pathology in another patient.

The unusually young age at which these patients developed symptoms suggests they did not have the usual sporadic Alzheimers which is associated with old age. In the five patients in whom samples were available for genetic testing, the team ruled out inherited Alzheimers disease.

As c-hGH treatment is no longer used, there is no risk of any new transmission via this route. There have been no reported cases of Alzheimers acquired from any other medical or surgical procedures. There is no suggestion that amyloid-beta can be passed on in day-to-day life or during routine medical or social care.

However, the researchers caution that their findings highlight the importance of reviewing measures to ensure there is no risk of accidental transmission of amyloid-beta via other medical or surgical procedures which have been implicated in accidental transmission of CJD.

The lead author of the research, Professor John Collinge, Director of the UCL Institute of Prion Diseases and a consultant neurologist at UCLH, said: There is no suggestion whatsoever that Alzheimers disease can be transmitted between individuals during activities of daily life or routine medical care.

The patients we have described were given a specific and long-discontinued medical treatment which involved injecting patients with material now known to have been contaminated with disease-related proteins.

However, the recognition of transmission of amyloid-beta pathology in these rare situations should lead us to review measures to prevent accidental transmission via other medical or surgical procedures, in order to prevent such cases occurring in future.

Importantly, our findings also suggest that Alzheimers and some other neurological conditions share similar disease processes to CJD, and this may have important implications for understanding and treating Alzheimers disease in the future.

Co-author Professor Jonathan Schott (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, honorary consultant neurologist at UCLH, and Chief Medical Officer at Alzheimers Research UK) said: It is important to stress that the circumstances through which we believe these individuals tragically developed Alzheimers are highly unusual, and to reinforce that there is no risk that the disease can be spread between individuals or in routine medical care.

These findings do, however, provide potentially valuable insights into disease mechanisms, and pave the way for further research which we hope will further our understanding of the causes of more typical, late onset Alzheimers disease.

First author Dr Gargi Banerjee (UCL Institute of Prion Diseases) said: We have found that it is possible for amyloid-beta pathology to be transmitted and contribute to the development of Alzheimers disease.

This transmission occurred following treatment with a now obsolete form of growth hormone, and involved repeated treatments with contaminated material, often over several years. There is no indication that Alzheimers disease can be acquired from close contact, or during the provision of routine care.

The study was supported by the Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the NIHR UCLH Biomedical Research Centre, Alzheimers Research UK, and the Stroke Association.

Note:

If you were treated with the growth hormone (c-hGH) in the UK between 1959 and 1985 and would like further information about this research, please contact the National Prion Clinic via email ([emailprotected]) or by telephone (020 7679 5142 or 020 7679 5036).

Author: Chris Lane Source: UCL Contact: Chris Lane UCL Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News

Original Research: Closed access. Iatrogenic Alzheimers disease in recipients of cadaveric pituitary-derived growth hormone by John Collinge et al. Nature Medicine

Abstract

Iatrogenic Alzheimers disease in recipients of cadaveric pituitary-derived growth hormone

Alzheimers disease (AD) is characterized pathologically by amyloid-beta (A) deposition in brain parenchyma and blood vessels (as cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA)) and by neurofibrillary tangles of hyperphosphorylated tau.

Compelling genetic and biomarker evidence supports A as the root cause of AD. We previously reported human transmission of A pathology and CAA in relatively young adults who had died of iatrogenic CreutzfeldtJakob disease (iCJD) after childhood treatment with cadaver-derived pituitary growth hormone (c-hGH) contaminated with both CJD prions and A seeds. This raised the possibility that c-hGH recipients who did not die from iCJD may eventually develop AD.

Here we describe recipients who developed dementia and biomarker changes within the phenotypic spectrum of AD, suggesting that AD, like CJD, has environmentally acquired (iatrogenic) forms as well as late-onset sporadic and early-onset inherited forms.

Although iatrogenic AD may be rare, and there is no suggestion that A can be transmitted between individuals in activities of daily life, its recognition emphasizes the need to review measures to prevent accidental transmissions via other medical and surgical procedures.

As propagating A assemblies may exhibit structural diversity akin to conventional prions, it is possible that therapeutic strategies targeting disease-related assemblies may lead to selection of minor components and development of resistance.

Read more:
Discontinued Medical Treatment Linked to Alzheimer's - Neuroscience News

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Uncovering the Link Between Alzheimers and Human Growth Hormone Treatments

A ground-breaking study published in Nature Medicine has shed light on a startling revelation Alzheimers disease may be transmissible under very specific circumstances. This inference was drawn from the long-term observation of patients who had received human growth hormone (hGH) from deceased donors, a practice that ceased in 1985. The particularly interesting aspect of this study is the conceivable connection between Alzheimers disease and prion diseases, which are known to be transmissible.

The discontinued medical practice involved extracting growth hormone from the brain tissue of deceased individuals. This hormone was then administered to patients, typically children, who required it. However, after approximately 200 patients developed Creuztfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) a condition caused by prions the practice was halted.

Prions, proteins that can fold in multiple structurally distinct ways, can trigger the development of a range of fatal neurodegenerative diseases, including CJD. The study identified five patients with early-onset Alzheimers disease who had received the donated hGH, leading the researchers to conclude that the hGH was the likely cause of the disease in these cases.

While Alzheimers disease is commonly understood as a non-contagious condition, this study indicates that it can be transmitted under extremely rare conditions. In the reported cases, the recipients of the tainted hGH injections developed early Alzheimers disease, showing higher than usual levels of the sticky protein A-beta in their brains. This protein is known to accumulate in the brains of individuals with Alzheimers disease.

It is important to note, however, that the absolute risk of transmission remains very low. The transmission of Alzheimers disease cannot occur through person-to-person contact, but the study does raise concerns about potential risks of transmission through certain medical or surgical procedures.

Despite the small sample size and the need for replication and confirmation, this study opens new avenues for understanding the etiology of Alzheimers disease. The findings suggest that amyloid-beta pathologys transmission in these rare situations may have implications for understanding and treating Alzheimers disease.

The research also underscores the importance of informed caution in the preparation of surgical instruments, handling of tissues, and implementation of therapeutic biologics, particularly those derived from human sources. It also paves the way for further research, which may enrich our understanding of the causes of more typical, late-onset Alzheimers disease.

While these findings are undoubtedly intriguing, it is essential to emphasize that the circumstances through which these individuals tragically developed Alzheimers are highly unusual. There is no risk that the disease can be spread between individuals or in routine medical care. Experts have stressed that this does not indicate that Alzheimers disease can be passed between people through everyday activities or routine care, and there is no cause for concern for the health of the general population.

Patients now receive synthetic alternatives to hGH, which have been approved for safety. Therefore, there is no need for the general population to reconsider or forego any medical procedures based on these findings. The study provides an interesting perspective on the transmission of Alzheimers disease but should not cause undue alarm.

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Link Between Alzheimer's and Human Growth Hormone Treatments Revealed | Nature Medicine Study - Medriva

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Researchers say they've documented the first ever cases of Alzheimer's disease being transmitted between humans and though it only took place in extremely rare and unusual circumstances, it could provide valuable clues into the underlying mechanisms of the terrible disease.

Their findings, published as a study in the journal Nature Medicine, detail how eight adult patients, only five of whom are still alive, likely acquired the disease through a banned medical procedure performed on them as children in which they were administered human growth hormone extracted from a cadaver's brain. Decades later, they're now showing early signs of dementia, with the earliest experiencing symptoms as young as 38 years old.

The researchers suggest that the procedure inadvertently transmitted a protein called amyloid beta that's considered to have a central role in the development of Alzheimer's disease.

They stress that this does not mean Alzheimer's is transmissible like a cough or the flu. It was spread "iatrogenically" StatNews notes, or only as the result of a medical practice in this case a very seldom used but tragically misguided one.

"I should emphasize these are very rare occurrences, and the majority of this relates to medical procedures that are no longer used," study senior author John Collinge, the director of the University College London Institute of Prion Diseases, said in a news brief, as quoted by CNN.

The practice of using cadaver growth hormones today they're synthesized was banned in the 1980s because it caused another terrifying brain disorder: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), which is transmitted through "misfolded" proteins called prions.

CJD, like Alzheimer's, causes dementia but is even more severe and always fatal. Since both can stem from the same medical procedure, the researchers say their findings support the idea that the beta-amyloids behind Alzheimer's can be transmitted in similar ways to a prion disease, which have been long known to pass between humans.

"It looks like what's going on in Alzheimer's disease is very similar in many respects to what happens in the human prion diseases like CJD, with the propagation of these abnormal aggregates of misfolded proteins and misshapen proteins," Collinge told Stat News.

A key detail is that none of the patients were shown to have genetic mutations known to cause early-onset dementia, despite all of them experiencing symptoms at a relatively young age and well before the cutoff age of 65.

Only one patient had genetic data known to cause late-onset dementia. In addition, none were found to have elevated levels of a protein called tau, Stat notes, which is associated with cognitive decline. As it stands, the only known common factor between the patients is the HGH procedure they received.

The sheer rarity of the circumstances means that it will be tough to bear out the study's findings. Nonetheless, it's already raised useful questions over the nature of Alzheimer's, the exact cause of which remains elusive.

More on neuroscience: Smoking Cigarettes Does Something Horrifying to Your Brain, Scientists Find

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Alzheimer's Spread Through Growth Hormones Extracted From Cadavers, Scientists Say - Futurism

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Sections of mouse brains from the 2018 study. Top line shows control subjects inoculated with synthetic growth hormone, lower two lines show subjects inoculated with c-hGH. E and h show CAA while f and i show amyloid beta plaque deposition. Credit: Purro et al, 2018/UCL

Five middle-aged people have been diagnosed with Alzheimers disease as a result a now-discontinued medical treatment the patients received in childhood, according to a new study. This is the first evidence of Alzheimers disease in living people that appears to have been medically acquired.

Alzheimers disease is typically caused by a buildup of amyloid-beta protein as an individual ages. However, these patients appear to have acquired the disease in middle age due to transmission of the amyloid-beta protein as part of medical treatment decades prior.

The patients described in the new Nature Medicine paper, now between 38 and 55 years old, had all been treated as children with a type of human growth hormone extracted from pituitary glands from deceased individualsknown as cadaver-derived human growth hormone, or c-hGH.

c-hGH was used to treat at least 1,848 people in the UK between 1959 and 1985 for various causes of short stature. It was withdrawn in 1985 after scientists recognized that some c-hGH batches were contaminated with prions (infectious proteins) after some patients contracted Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).

This latest paper focuses on eight people at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London who had all been treated with c-hGH in childhood, often over several years. Five of them had symptoms of dementia, and either had already been diagnosed with Alzheimers disease or would otherwise meet the diagnostic criteria. A sixth person met the criteria for mild cognitive impairment.

All patients were between 38 and 55 years old when they started displaying neurological symptoms. The unusually young age at which the symptoms developed suggests the patients did not have the typical Alzheimers, which is associated with old age. Additionally, for five patients in which samples were available for genetic testing, researchers were able to rule out inherited Alzheimers disease.

As c-hGH treatment is no longer used, there is no risk of any new transmission via this route. There have been no reported cases of Alzheimers acquired from any other medical or surgical procedures.

There is no suggestion whatsoever that Alzheimers disease can be transmitted between individuals during activities of daily life or routine medical care. The patients we have described were given a specific and long-discontinued medical treatment which involved injecting patients with material now known to have been contaminated with disease-related proteins, said lead author John Collinge, director of the University College London Institute of Prion Diseases and a consultant neurologist at University College London Hospital.

However, the researchers caution that their findings highlight the importance of reviewing measures to ensure there is no risk of accidental transmission of amyloid-beta via other medical or surgical procedures.

In 2018, the same team of researchers showed that archived samples of c-hGH were contaminated with amyloid-beta protein anddespite having been stored for decadesstill transmitted amyloid-beta pathology to laboratory mice when injected. The scientists proposed then that individuals exposed to contaminated c-hGH who did not succumb to CJD in the immediate aftermath might eventually develop Alzheimers disease.

These newest results suggest the researchers 2018 hypothesis was correct.

Overall, the results could have implications for understanding and treating Alzheimers disease in the future, as well as other neurological conditions share similar disease processes to CJD.

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Alzheimer's Linked to Discontinued Medical Treatment in UK - Laboratory Equipment

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