Study: Omega-3 Supplements Show Promise In Alleviating Depression

A new analysis of the effects of omega-3 essential fatty acids offers the hope of enhanced treatment options for tens of millions of people with depression. Two critical omega-3 essential fatty acids available from certain food or nutritional supplements but not manufactured by the body—Eicosapentenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) — play a role in optimal brain functioning and have antidepressant benefits that have not been fully recognized.  The results were presented today at the annual meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

In a meta-analysis of 15 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies, researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago, led by John M. Davis, M.D., found that patients taking omega-3 with either EPA or a combination of EPA and DHA experienced clear antidepressant benefits. However, across studies, patients taking the pure DHA form of omega-3 saw no antidepressant effect.

"Our analysis clarifies the precise type of omega-3 fatty acid that is effective for people with depression and explains why previous findings have been contradictory," said Davis. "The EPA predominant formulation is necessary for the therapeutic action to occur. The DHA predominant formulation does not have antidepressant efficacy."

While scientists noted that omega-3 produces beneficial effects in patients with depression, EPA does not improve mood in people who are not depressed. In several studies, people without depression experienced no difference in mood as a result of omega-3 consumption. In another study Davis and his team found that women with inadequate omega-3 intake were more likely to experience depression during and after pregnancy than women with adequate omega-3 in their diets.

"The findings are unambiguous," said Davis. "Omega-3 fatty acids have antidepressant properties, and this effect is ready to be tested in a large study to establish the dose range and to pave the way for FDA approval. In the meantime, omega-3 fatty acids containing EPA could be useful to augment effects of antidepressant medications.  However, scientists caution that patients should always talk with their mental health professional before taking omega-3 fatty acids to alleviate symptoms of depression."

Approximately 20.9 million American adults suffer from mood disorders, including depression, the world's fourth leading cause of morbidity and death.

The benefits of omega-3 fatty acids continue to be studied.

Study Finds Strong Link Between Daily Aspirin and Cancer Prevention

Researchers at Oxford University, examining the cancer death rates of 25,570 patients who had participated in eight different randomized controlled trials of aspirin that ended up to 20 years earlier, established that people taking a daily aspirin were 20% less likely to have died of solid tumor cancers than those who were taking placebos.

Published in the British journal, The Lancet, the study found that for the aspirin taking group, the risk of gastrointestinal cancer death was 35 percent lower; the risk of lung cancer death was 30 percent lower; the risk of colorectal cancer death was 40 percent lower; and the risk of esophageal cancer death was 60 percent lower. Only one-third of the total study participants were women, not enough to calculate any estimates for breast cancer. In addition, aspirin was not found to significantly influence the risk of death from pancreatic, prostate, bladder, kidney, brain, or blood cancers. The participants were taking 75 mg of aspirin daily, the equivalent of a baby aspirin, which is the amount recommend to prevent heart disease. 

Previous studies have found that taking a low-dose aspirin tablet daily can lower the risk of getting and dying from colon cancer; this is the first study to show the drug may protect against other cancers as well. “This study provides important new evidence that long-term daily aspirin use may lower mortality from certain cancers in addition to colorectal cancer,” said Eric Jacobs, PhD, American Cancer Society strategic director of pharmacoepidemiology. However, the potentially severe side effects mean "it would be premature to recommend people start taking aspirin specifically to prevent cancer," he notes. Even a low dose of aspirin increases the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding.

Dr. Merrell's Take: This study suggests that taking low-dose aspirin in middle-age, which many people already take to prevent a heart attack, has additional anti-inflammatory benefits that seem to protect against cancer. In addition, younger adults with a strong family history of solid tumor cancers, including colon cancer, may want to consider (in consultation with their health care provider) daily low-dose aspirin as long as they don't have a history of gastrointestinal bleeding.

Turbo Bacteria Thrives on Arsenic

Let's hope this one doesn't get out of the lab! 

Scientists said Thursday that they had trained a bacterium to eat and grow on a diet of arsenic, in place of phosphorus — one of six elements considered essential for life — opening up the possibility that organisms could exist elsewhere in the universe or even here on Earth using biochemical powers we have not yet dared to dream about.The arsenic loving bacteria

The bacterium, scraped from the bottom of Mono Lake in California and grown for months in a lab mixture containing arsenic, gradually swapped out atoms of phosphorus in its little body for atoms of arsenic.

Scientists said the results, if confirmed, would expand the notion of what life could be and where it could be. “There is basic mystery, when you look at life,” said Dimitar Sasselov, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and director of an institute on the origins of life there, who was not involved in the work. “Nature only uses a restrictive set of molecules and chemical reactions out of many thousands available. This is our first glimmer that maybe there are other options.”

High school chemistry texts will have to be updated accordingly.

Read the article in the New York Times.

Read the research in Science

More Trouble for Resveratrol Cancer Drug Trials

In May, Glaxo Smith Klein suspended a multiple myeloma cancer trial of resveratrol SRT501--Glaxo's very expensive ($720 million) version of the anti-aging grape extract--due to complications including kidney failure in patients taking the drug. Now in a statement this morning to reporters at Fiercebiotech.com, the drug giant said that after a thorough analysis researchers concluded that particular formulation "may offer minimal efficacy while having a potential to indirectly exacerbate a renal complication common in the patient population." The company has no further plans to develop SRT501.

"Going forward," said GSK, "we've decided to focus our efforts on more selective SIRT1 activator compounds that have no chemical relationship to SRT501 and more favorable drug-like properties."

SRT501 is a special formulation of resveratrol, an ingredient in grapes that has been linked to a wide array of health benefits. Researchers had been evaluating the safety of the drug alone and in combination with Velcade when they spotted the cast nephropathy that developed in several patients with multiple myeloma.

The news was first reported this morning by the Myeloma Beacon.

Researchers Seek Test for Possible Chronic Fatigue Virus in Nation's Blood Supply

Scientists are racing to develop tests for a retrovirus called XMRV, which could be used to determine if the blood supply is tainted and to assess how many people may be infected.

The impetus behind the drive is a paper published in the journal Science last year that reported a link between XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome. Public health officials were alarmed that close to 4% of healthy people used as controls in the study were infected with XMRV. That could mean as many as 10 million Americans are infected.

XMRV has gotten a lot of attention because, like HIV, it is a retrovirus. This means the virus cannot be eradicated from the body, only controlled. There is some preliminary evidence that XMRV may be transmitted sexually or through transfusions. While the retrovirus has been linked to certain diseases, scientists don't yet know if it actually causes any disease.

Read the full article at WSJ.com

Update on Saturday, December 4, 2010 at 5:03PM by Kathy

From WSJ.com

The controversy over whether the retrovirus XMRV is linked to chronic fatigue syndrome has still not been resolved, but the American Red Cross has just weighed in. The organization said today that as a result of concerns over XMRV, it is barring people with a diagnosis of CFS from donating blood.

In a press release, the Red Cross said that there isn’t enough data yet to determine for sure that XMRV is transmitted through blood transfusions or that it causes diseases. But “in the interest of patient and donor safety,” the organization said it was indefinitely barring blood donations from people with CFS.