Pregnancy And Diet Soda
There have been growing concerns whether diet soda may have an effect on a woman’s pregnancy. Since pregnancy is a sensitive stage in a woman’s life health wise, there are some things that just need to be avoided in order to ensure that women go through a safe and healthy pregnancy. Consuming diet soda seems to be a question mark on many pregnant women’s minds, but they do not really know why.
Is diet soda safe?
Under normal circumstances, diet soda is fairly safe to consume. It can even help women stay in shape by trying to avoid the ordinary sugar that comes with ordinary soda. But during pregnancy, there are certain issues that pregnant women should know about diet soda to fully understand if they are to be considered safe to consume. One of them is the issue about the sugar substitute used on diet sodas.
Aspartame
There are two types of sugar substitutes used in the manufacture of diet sodas. They are aspartame and saccharin. Aspartame is a non-caloric sweetener that is used in diet sodas and other foods. This sweetener is made up of two amino acids and is broken down by the body just like any other protein during digestion. This sweetener has been found in studies not to penetrate into the placental barrier of the fetus, hence not affecting the baby as it is developing.
Although considered safe, the sweetener aspartame may instead affect pregnant women who may have a history of a condition known as phenylketonuria or PKU. It is a rare hereditary condition where a person has trouble in metabolizing a particular protein known as phenylalanine. This protein is found in aspartame. Pregnant women should have themselves tested for PKU since high levels of phenylalanine can cause damage to the fetus.
Saccharin
Saccharin is another sweetener used in diet sodas. Unlike aspartame, saccharin has been found in studies to have a direct effect on the fetuses of animal models. Rats given high doses of saccharin experienced significantly higher birth defects when becoming pregnant. In this case, diet drinks containing saccharin may be something that pregnant women should avoid in order to stay safe.
Caffeine
Another thing worth considering with diet sodas is that some of them may contain caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant that can raise the blood pressure and the heart rate. What’s more, caffeine can pass through the placental barrier of the fetus. This means that what can affect the mother can also affect the fetus. Caffeine can affect the sleep patterns as well as the normal movement patterns of the baby. The fetus can’t metabolize caffeine the same way as the mother can and therefore should be avoided at all times during pregnancy.
Pregnancy and Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis and pregnancy going together were once discouraged. It seems that doctors were concerned that pregnancy poses a danger to women with multiple sclerosis. That is why women with MS were discouraged to get pregnant. The debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis may be considered a restraint to how a mother will be able to care for a newborn child.
Can I have a baby? Should I?
But that belief is already outdated. The outlook of pregnancy and MS seems brighter. Doctors believe that pregnancy may even provide some help to women with MS.
Not only that, newer and better MS therapies now make it possible for women to stay physically active, making them more able to care for newborns. Although there might still be challenges that women with MS would face with pregnancy, it is not altogether being discouraged unlike years ago.
Does pregnancy affect MS?
Some women suffering from MS might have their own concerns about getting pregnant. This will include concerns of multiple sclerosis causing some complications during their pregnancy. Currently, there has been no evidence shown that MS may cause any pregnancy problems such as miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery, etc.
There are also no links found between fertility problems or congenital abnormalities and multiple sclerosis. This means that women with MS can also have the same chances of having a normal and healthy pregnancy just like any other woman at the same age.
Will MS symptoms get worse during pregnancy?
Women suffering from multiple sclerosis may also worry about complicating their condition by trying to get pregnant. The answer to this concern is “no”. Women with multiple sclerosis experience some form of relief for most or even all of their MS symptoms during pregnancy.
In fact, the pregnancy seems to have a protective effect on the women. The probable reason for this might be that a pregnancy reduces immune activity in the body and helps increase the natural steroid levels in the body. Pregnant women seem to experience also a slight decrease in MS relapses especially during the second and third trimester of their pregnancy.
Can I take MS medications during pregnancy?
But when women start to consider getting pregnant, they should also be advised that some treatment used in MS might have some effects during pregnancy as evidenced through animal studies. MS medications such as Tysabri and interferon drugs are considered as Category C drugs, which means that they have caused considerable harm to fetuses in animal studies.
The Category B drug used to treat multiple sclerosis, glatiramer acetate, have not caused any harm on fetuses in animal studies. But the drug has not yet been made to undergo human trials so doctors do not yet know its actual effects on a pregnant woman with MS.
To be on the safe side, women are advised to stops using such medications throughout pregnancy. It is important for women to discuss their pregnancy first with their doctor to determine if the medications taken for treating MS may be considered as safe or not.
Pill Reduce Relapses in MS Patients
According to the report, the study of which was led by researcher Dr. Giancarlo Comi of Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in
Three years on the said clinical trials, 67 percent of the 173 patients who took FTY720 orally were free of relapses. 89 percent of the patients were free of any disease activity while 75 percent of the patients were found not to have developed new lesions or see their previous lesions getting any larger, as confirmed from their MRI scans. Dr. Comi further added, “The first-line treatments for MS, beta interferon and glatiramer acetate, reduce the relapse rate by only about 30 percent, so this is a significant development for people with MS.”
FTY720 works by binding itself into the receptors on immune cells and isolating them in the lymph nodes. This reduces the ability of the immune cells to cause damage to the nerve cells that is associated with symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Side effects reported by patients included headache, cold and flu symptoms.
Source: healthday.com
Positive Experiences Decrease Depression Symptoms in MS Sufferers
Depression is one of the things that most of the multiple sclerosis sufferers have to deal with. It is said to be prevalent in people with chronic diseases such as MS.Although there are people with MS who ultimately lead a relatively normal life, there are still many of them who have to deal with the symptoms and the treatments for the disease which can sometimes bring about added stress emotionally as well as psychologically.
In an article in the Science Daily website, researchers from two universities have discovered that people with MS who strive to increase positive experiences in their lives resulted in a decrease of symptoms of depression and a more improved overall quality of life.
In this study of people living with MS, Alexa Stuifbergen, a nursing professor and an associate dean of research at the University of Texas in Austin and Lorriane Phillips, assistant professor in the University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing, were able to determine the extent of how positive experiences can greatly improve the health of people living with multiple sclerosis.
The researchers found out that the higher number of positive experiences can be associated with fewer depression symptoms and functional limitations.
In the study, the participants were asked to record the frequency of positive experiences in their lives. This exercise later on revealed that study participants with a higher number of reported positive experiences also reported lower levels of depression symptoms.
The proponents of the study stated that people with MS incorporating positive experiences and behaviors in their daily lives may be able to limit the risks as well as the costs that may be associated with treatments for depression aside form their disorder. The positive activities mentioned are easy to perform and would provide a lot of good to the lives of people with MS.
The study also mentioned that health care professionals dealing with MS patients should try to encourage them to participate in simple positive activities on a daily basis such as talking with neighbors, smelling the flowers, writing letters etc. The author of the study added that these simple positive activities may also be adopted by other people with other chronic illnesses.
Caffeine Prevents Multiple Sclerosis Like Disease in Mice
Caffeine has been seen to prevent a multiple sclerosis-like disease from developing in experiments with mice. According to an article from the Science Daily website, researchers from Cornell University gave caffeine equal to drinking six to eight cups of coffee in human terms daily to a mice model and protected them from developing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis or EAE, the multiple sclerosis type disease in mice.
Caffeine is widely known adenosine receptor blocker. It is this effect of caffeine that led researcher to believe to make it effective in preventing the development of EAE in mice. Multiple sclerosis is a disease that occurs when the body’s own immune system attacks and does some damage to the body’s central nervous system, notably the nerves in the brain and the spinal cord. The scientists believe that the infiltration of the immune cells into the central nervous system is associated with molecules of adenosine in the body.
Adenosine is a compound widely present in the body that is known to play an important role in the various biochemical processes such as energy transfer, suppression of arousal and sleep promotion. The researchers from Cornell University found out that mice that lacked the enzyme CD73 which was necessary to synthesize extracellular adenosine in the body seem to be protected from developing EAE, the mouse form of multiple sclerosis. Further studies indicated that the said enzyme’s ability to synthesize extracellular adenosine plays an important role in the development and progression of EAE in mice. This helped explain the presence of adenosine near the cells in the central nervous system.
In order for adenosine to affect a cell, it first has to bind to its receptor in order for it to help the immune cells to gain entry into the central nervous system. To test this idea out, the researchers turned to caffeine, a known adenosine receptor blocker. The caffeine has the ability to bind into the same receptors as adenosine, thereby blocking the compound’s ability to affect the cells in the central nervous system. Mice that was given caffeine in their drinking water showed protection from developing EAE.
The results of the study, according to Dr. Jeffrey H. Mills, a postdoctoral associate in the laboratory headed by Dr. Margaret S. Bynoe, the results of the study may be the first step on a series of studies that may lead to the development of adenosine-based therapies for treating multiple sclerosis in the near future.
Source: sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080407162405.htm
Eye Test Peers Into Heat-Related Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms
A unique new tool has been helping researchers to understand the link between body temperature and the severity of symptoms brought about by multiple sclerosis. Researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center makes use of a bodysuit riddled with tubes where water circulates to heat up or cool down a patient’s body temperature to study one aspect of MS that is called Uhthoff’s phenomenon.
The Uhthoff’s phenomenon was named after a German ophthalmologist who discovered in 1889 that people, after undergoing strenuous exercise or under hot weather, experience temporary vision problems. It has been found that MS patients display such symptoms along with fatigue and problems with coordination. These symptoms seem to worsen in patients with MS who are in the heat.
Researchers have long known about the Uhthoff’s phenomenon but found no way of being able to objectively measure its severity or how it is related to a person’s body temperature. The study of the researchers at UT Southwestern have been able to demonstrate that as the body temperature increases, so does the severity of an eye movement disorder called internuclear opthalmoparesis, or INO. This disorder is characterized by one eye not synchronized to work with the other. When a person with INO looks rapidly from one object to another, the other eye seems to move slower or with both of them not moving at the same speed.
The remodeled bodysuit was used with a pill-like thermometer that measures core body temperature when swallowed and an infrared camera to track eye movements. The study was conducted to include eight patients with MS who also experience INO, eight patients with MS but with no INO and eight healthy subjects. Warm water going though the tubes of the bodysuit can raise a subject’s body temperature by one half degree Celsius while cool water is able to bring it down to one half of a degree.
The study showed that increasing the a subjects body temperature also affects the relative motion of both eyes. Cooling the body, on the other hand, made the eyes synchronize better with each other. This test has been able to monitor INO that could provide researchers with a sensitive test that could determine an MS patient’s response to other heat related symptoms of the disease. The said test can also be used to try out the effectiveness of new therapies that specifically target a number of MS related symptoms.
Source: sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080320103240.htm
New Drug Protects Nerve Cells From Damage In Mice
According to an article in the National MS Society website, researchers have reported that an experimental compound was found to be effective in reducing the damage to nerve fibers and their myelin insulation when administered to mice with a chronic form of EAE, a disease in rats that is similar to progressive MS in humans.Researchers from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston reported their findings in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. The study was also funded in part by a research grant from the National MS Society.
When it comes to the treatment for progressive MS in humans, researchers have so far been successful on only a few known options. With the new study on an experimental compound known as ABS-75, researchers have hopes of finding another promising treatment that may someday help MS sufferers from the debilitating effects of the disease.
ABS-75 is a fullerene derivative that combines the effects of an anti-oxidant with a compound that blocks the activity of the natural chemical glutamate. Glutamate is a nerve transmitter in the body that can cause injury to the nerves if found in excess amounts. ABS-75 has shown that it can protect nerve fibers from further injury in the mice models of stroke. The experimental compound is also known to enter into the brain efficiently.
In mice models with EAE, the mice counterpart of progressive MS, treatment with ABS-75 showed reduced symptom progression as well as a substantial reduction in nerve fiber loss and myelin damage, which serves as the insulation of the spinal cord. Aside form that the mice model of the said study also showed that ABS-75 protected the cells from a certain type of injury caused by high levels of glutamate. The said study also showed that the compound did not seem to affect memory functions unlike other drugs used to block out glutamate activity.
The new study follows a different approach to trying to prevent the damage caused during the progressive stages of MS. More research might still be on the way to determine if this new approach would be effective as a treatment option for humans with multiple sclerosis.
Source: nationalmssociety.org/news/news-detail/index.aspx?nid=198
Pixantrone as Possible MS Treatment
According to an article on the Medical News Today website, a biopharmaceutical company is announcing the study of the Phase I/II drug trial of pixantrone as a possible treatment of aggressive multiple sclerosis.The company Cell Therapeutics, Inc. announced that its investigational drug pixantrone will be undergoing a phase I/II trial that will be initiated by the Fondation Charcot Stichting in Brussels, Belgium. The said multicenter trial will involve enrolling patients with aggressive relapsing remitting (RR) or secondary progressive (SP) multiple sclerosis to study the possible effects of pixantrone on the said debilitating disease.
Pixantrone is an immunosuppressant drug that has been studied for treating non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma as well as various other hematologic malignancies, slid tumors and immunological disorders. The said drug compound is being developed to improve the activity and safety in treating various cancers that are effectively treated by the anthracycline family of anti-cancer agents.
This family of compounds have been showing positive effects in clinically treating a number of tumor types such as lymphoma, leukemia and breast cancer. Chemotherapy regimens using anthracycline compounds been very effective as the first line treatment for such cancers.
But the use of compounds such as anthracycline anti-cancer agents has been known to cause cumulative heart damage that may put a limit on lifetime dosages. The drug pixantrone is being studied to reduce the potential for heat damage without losing its positive effect as an anti-cancer agent and, possibly as a potential treatment for multiple sclerosis.
A related compound to pixantrone, which is Mitoxantrone has already been approved by the US FDA for the reduction of neurological disability in patients suffering from SP multiple sclerosis. But mitoxantrone poses a risk in terms of its high cardiac toxicity which can impose some limitations for the selection of MS patients suitable for treatment. Pixantrone is being studied to lower that potential for cardiac toxicity in patients but have similar and even more effective immune regulation activity than mitoxantrone.
The objective of the said study is to determine how effective pixantrone would be as an immunosuppressive agent based on its ability to decrease lymphocyte count and its effectiveness as an MS treatment based on gadolinium enhanced magnetic resonance imaging.
Retuximab Reduces Disease Activity In Multiple Sclerosis
According to a bulletin posted on the National MS Society website, researchers have reported that a course of the intravenous drug rituximab help reduce disease activity and relapses in people with relapsing-remitting MS for about 48 weeks.
Rituximab is used initially to treat certain types of cancers. This type of medication is referred to as a monoclonal antibody. It works by attaching itself to certain blood cells fro the immune system such as B cells and then killing them. It can also be used to treat moderate to severe forms of rheumatoid arthritis along with another drug called methotrexate.
Researchers from university of California in San Francisco have reported the results of the phase 2 trial which was conducted at 32 centers in the US as well as Canada. Two infusions of the drug rituximab were given two weeks apart to 69 people while an inactive placebo was administered to an additional 35 participants in the clinical trial. The primary goal of the said study was to determine the effects of rituximab in enhancing the brain lesions. Other objectives include evaluating the proportion of patients who might experience relapses.
The study showed that 91 percent of the patients taking rituximab experience a reduction of active lesions after 24 weeks. The study also showed that there were 58 percent fewer patients in the treatment group who went through relapses. The researchers believe that the effect of rituximab on depleting B cells in the immune system may be the reason behind the positive effects of the drug on the clinical study. B cells have been known to have a role in the attack of the immune system on brain and spinal cord tissues in people with multiple sclerosis.
Although the study has been in its preliminary stages and may require larger and long term studies in the future, the findings have shown the potential of looking for new therapeutic strategies for treating multiple sclerosis.
Stanford Researchers Identify Therapy Targets for MS Treatment
A team of researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine have recently identified possible therapy targets that would someday lead to a personalized approach of treating multiple sclerosis patients. The team of researchers that included Dr. Lawrence Steinman, a professor of neurology and neurological sciences also worked with researchers from the University Of Connecticut Health Center. Together, the team was able to catalog all brain tissue proteins that they found to exhibit distinct characteristics associated to the three discrete stages of multiple sclerosis.Multiple sclerosis is a debilitating disease that affects the central nervous system. It usually a condition wherein the immune system attacks the myelin sheath that acts as an insulating cover to protect nerve cells. As the myelin sheath degenerates, the insulation slowly decreases, causing the nerve cells to misfire. This results further to a number of neurological disorders that has affected over 2.5 million people all over the world.
In the said study, the team of researchers was able to encounter a number of unexpected brain tissue proteins that was involved in the progression of multiple sclerosis. The team also tested drugs that were able to block two of the identified proteins in a mouse model of the disease. It resulted in a considerable improvement in the condition of the mice.
According to Dr. Steinman, “Knowing what proteins are most important at a discrete stage of the multiple sclerosis process is the first step toward being able to ‘personalize’ treatment.” The findings can then be someday applied to human patients with identifying the protein targets and then providing personalized treatments for different multiple sclerosis patients exhibiting the disease at its different discrete stages.
« Previous Entries
