Researchers Seek to Explain Sunburn Pain

Steve Mason/Digital Vision(LONDON) -- Sunburn is one of the summer's most enduring stings, leaving a sore, red, peeling patch long after the day's rays give way to cooler nights. Ointments and aspirin can help soothe the sear. But the pain, part of the body's plea for shade and sunscreen, is inevitable.

British researchers have discovered a molecule responsible for the persistent pain caused by sunburn, offering hope for a treatment that could one day block it.

"It wasn't known before that this protein was implicated in any kind of pain," said Stephen McMahon, professor of physiology at Guy's Medical School in London. "If you wanted a cure for sunburn pain, we may have found that."

The protein, called CXCL5, was elevated in painful sunburns. And blocking the protein's effects in a rat model of sunburn relieved the pain. The study was published today in Science Translational Medicine.

But McMahon, a long time pain researcher, thinks blocking sunburn pain is a bad idea. Sunburns are the body's response to ultraviolet radiation, which kills some skin cells and permanently damages the DNA of others, sometimes leading to skin cancer later on. In an attempt to save the damaged cells with oxygen and nutrients, the body pumps more blood to the skin, turning it red. And the swollen blood vessels ooze plasma, causing blisters.

"By the time you see your skin turning pink, it's almost too late," said Dr. Darrell Rigel, dermatologist at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. "The damage has already happened."

That damage, Rigel said, is impossible to undo.

"The best thing you can do is protect yourself from the sun," he said. "Wear a broad-brimmed hat, avoid being outside when the sun is at its strongest, and use sunscreen. We know those three things together lower sunburn risk and subsequently lower the risk of skin cancer."

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Study: Cuddling Makes Relationships More Satisfying

Stockbyte/Thinkstock(BLOOMINGTON, Ind.) -- A new study suggests that the affectionate acts of cuddling and caressing can make long-term relationships more fulfilling, according to HealthDay.

Researchers looked at 1,000 couples around the world who had been together for long periods of time. The study determined that affection, including cuddling and kissing, is more important to men than to women. Men were also more likely to express satisfaction in their relationships if they were healthy and if they liked their partner to experience an orgasm during intercourse.

The report found that sexual saisfaction for women rose over the course of the relationship. Satisfaction was higher for women who had been in relationships for 15 years or more.

The study will be published in an upcoming issue of the Archives of Sexual Behavior.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

US Radiation Breast Cancer Treatment Registry May Be Incomplete

ABC News(ANN ARBOR, Mich.) -- A new report suggests that nearly  20 percent of breast cancer radiation patients are not getting their treatments posted in a federal database.

The Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database is overseen by the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Cancer researchers rely on the database to compare racial and geographic trends in the disease.

Researchers looked at SEER data in Detroit and Los Angeles and compared it with treatment center reports. They found that 273 of 1,292 patients were not getting their treatments recorded.

The study was published in the journal Cancer on June 29.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Rat Study Finds that Fat Triggers the Munchies

Digital Vision/Thinkstock(IRVINE, Calif.) -- New research suggests that fatty foods give people a high that may contribute insatiable food cravings.

The study was conducted on rats by researchers at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. The rats were given various liquids containing fat, sugar, or protein. Scientists then found that the fatty liquid triggered endocannabinoids, naturally-produced substances which control the appetite.

Endocannabinoid research could lead to medication that helps regulate food cravings.

The study will be published in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Taller Women More Likely to Have Twins after In Vitro?

Keith Brofsky/Photodisc/Thinkstock(AMSTERDAM) -- Multiple births after in vitro fertilization (IVF) are not uncommon, but a new study released on Monday suggests that if two embryos are implanted in a woman's uterus, taller recipients are more likely to have twins than their shorter counterparts.

Researchers at Vrije Universiteit Medical Centre in Amsterdam reviewed data from over 2,300 Dutch women who underwent a double embryo transfer during their first IVF treatment. They found that women measuring over five feet eight-and-a-half inches in height were almost three times more likely to give birth to twins than shorter women.

The authors of the study, however, could not offer any explanation to their findings.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Sitting for Prolonged Time Increases Risk for Lung Blood Clots

Hemera Technologies/Thinkstock(BOSTON) -- Sitting for long periods of time has already been associated with increased risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as elevated cholesterol, increased BMI and waist circumference, and increased levels of biomarkers of inflammation. Now, add lung blood clots to the list.

In a study published Monday in the British Medical Journal, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed medical records from almost 70,000 women who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study from 1990 to 2008 and found that those who sat for about six hours per day had more than double the risk of lung blood clots than women who sat for an average of two hours each day.

It is worth noting that the actual rate of lung blood clots increased from 0.04 percent in the most active women to 0.1 percent in the least active ones, making the actual risk of lung blood clots from sitting very, very small.

However, the authors still state that “interventions that decrease time sitting could lower the risk of pulmonary embolism [lung blood clots].”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Botox Injections Don't Do Much for Neck Pain

BananaStock/Thinkstock(BOSTON) -- Despite being approved last year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for chronic migraines, Botox injections don't seem to be as beneficial for other forms of head and neck pain, according to researchers at Merck Research Laboratories.

The authors of the study, which was released on Tuesday, reviewed nine studies involving over 500 participants and found that there was little difference in pain following Botox or placebo injections.

Although it’s possible that Botox provided some benefits that weren’t measured in the studies, the authors wrote that “based on current evidence we have no reason for supporting the use of BoNT [Botulinum toxin, or Botox] as a stand-alone therapy for neck pain, but we do suggest that researchers consider further study to clarify whether the dose can be optimized for neck pain.”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Study: Eating Less Salt Doesn’t Necessarily Reduce Risk of Death

Thinkstock/Getty Images(DEVONSHIRE, England) -- A review of scientific data by the Cochrane Collaboration in 2004 found that there is insufficient evidence to make any conclusions about whether reducing salt intake actually saves lives. They’ve now revisited this question by reviewing data from seven studies involving almost 6,500 participants.  

Although reducing dietary salt intake can reduce blood pressure, the authors found that moderate reductions in salt intake did not reduce the likelihood of dying or experiencing cardiovascular disease.  

Does this mean we can eat as much salt as we’d like?  No.  The authors point out that they need data from at least 18,000 individuals before any clear effects can be seen.

They also write “we believe that we didn’t see big benefits in this study because the people in the trials we analyzed only reduced their salt intake by a moderate amount, so the effect on blood pressure and heart disease was not large.”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Can Fat Make You Lose Weight?

Photodisc/Thinkstock(SAN DIEGO) -- Looking for the holy grail of weight loss? In the future, people may be able to receive an injection that burns calories and melts away fat -- or at least that's what a new study on mice may suggest.

Our bodies contain two kinds of fat: white and brown. White fat is the kind that most people are trying to get rid of. It stores calories, but too much causes obesity and increases risk of type 2 diabetes, along with several other obesity-related diseases. Brown fat acts like muscle—it contains iron and even burns calories within the cells. It is also responsible for maintaining body temperature. The brown fat is naturally lost as people age, and it cannot be gained by eating certain foods or performing certain exercises.

But in a finding that may be exciting for many, researchers were able to turn white fat into brown fat by blocking a natural chemical in the body. The change led to weight loss, improved blood sugar levels and insulin tolerance in the mice.

"Considering that efforts to combat obesity with anti-obesity drugs have been frustrating, and that reducing obesity by dieting are often challenging in the long term, there is certainly a need for a new out-of-the-box approach," Sushil G. Rane, lead author of the study, told ABC News. "Our findings have the potential to offer a new avenue, and our data suggests that the strategy is a rational approach to combat obesity."

Dr. Ken Fujioka, director of nutrition and metabolic research at Scripps Clinic in San Diego, said that the findings could be "huge if you could apply it to humans," but he added that research is "very very very far away" from curing obesity through simple injections and drugs.

Rane was also quick to note that the research is a long way from being applicable in people.

"The data we have provide good proof of concept that the strategy is promising, but real data needs to be generated to support the utility in humans," said Rane.

More than one-third of U.S. adults are obese, and childhood obesity is climbing at a rapid rate. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predict that as many as one in three Americans will have diabetes by mid-century. Fujioka noted that the study's findings, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, may contribute to the future of obesity research, but similar approaches have disappointed in the past.

Meanwhile, some doctors wonder why so much money is going into biomedical attempts at weight loss when we all know the tried and true methods of shedding pounds.

"Do we apply a costly, cutting edge treatment to two-thirds of the population to treat what eating better and being active could have fixed for free?" wondered Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale Prevention Research Center.

"I often wince when hearing about large sums of money spent on finding new ways to do at high cost and with high danger what we already know how to do at low cost and with no danger," Katz continued. "If only we could muster the societal resolve to turn what we already know into what we routinely do."

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

The Mammography Debate May Not Be Over

Comstock/Jupiterimages(MINNEAPOLIS) -- The question of whether women should or should not get a mammogram at a certain age may have been substantially answered by the June 28 study of 130,000 Swedish women, but how frequently they should get one is still a question up for debate.  

By using a computer model, the authors of a University of Minnesota study evaluated the cost effectiveness of various mammography screening schedules for women aged 40-79.  They found that screening every two years is cost effective for pretty much all women ages 50-79, but for those 40-49, it seemed effective only for those at higher risk of breast cancer -- such as women with dense breasts, a family history of breast cancer or with previous breast biopsies.  

Annual screening on the other hand, was not cost effective for women of any age.  The authors argue that mammography should therefore “be personalized on the basis of a women’s age, breast density, history of breast biopsy, family history … and beliefs about the potential benefit and harms of screening.”

The authors of an accompanying editorial aren’t as convinced that there is sufficient understanding of breast cancer risk factors, and they write that “further research is needed to overcome gaps in our knowledge of the underlying relationships between risk factors and the biology of breast cancer.”

The study's findings are published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio