Swedish Study Finds That Placebos Can Help Calm Emotions

When scientists want to test a new drug, they usually divide a large number of people into two groups. One group takes the medicine. The other takes a substance known as a placebo. It may contain nothing more than sugar.

The people do not know which pill they are taking -- the active one or the inactive one. In this kind of experiment, the medicine must perform better than the placebo to prove it is effective.

Yet people who take a placebo sometimes experience improvements in their health. This is known as the “placebo effect," the effect of something that is not supposed to have any effect.

Some doctors even use the placebo effect in their treatments. They might tell patients that a new drug will stop their pain. The patient does not know that the pills are inactive. The patient takes the pills and later tells the doctor that the pain is gone.

Now, research in Sweden suggests that placebo treatments can also reduce the emotional effects of unpleasant experiences. The effects in the brain were similar to those seen when placebos have been used to ease pain. The researchers say that in both cases, expectations of improvement are a major influence on the effectiveness of placebos.

The new study involved a group of people who looked at unpleasant pictures, such as images of dead bodies. Predrag Petrovic of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm led the study. The findings appeared in the publication Neuron.

An influential study on placebos appeared in nineteen fifty-five. It said treatment with a placebo made patients feel better thirty-five percent of the time. But in two thousand-one, Danish researchers reported that they had examined more than one hundred studies. They found little evidence of healing as a result of placebos.

Some researchers think a good relationship between a doctor and patient can increase the effectiveness of real medicines.

In any case, some medical researchers are against the use of placebos. They think it is wrong to give some people inactive substances when testing new medicines. They say it would be better to compare new drugs to existing drugs. That way, a study would show if the new drug is more effective.

W.H.O. Seeks Worldwide Campaign Against Cancer

The World Health Organization has established an international committee of cancer experts. The experts will develop a plan to fight what the W.H.O. calls “the global epidemic of cancer.” They held their first meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, earlier this month.

The advisory committee is expected to develop the W.H.O. Global Cancer Control Strategy by early next year. The goal is to reduce cancer rates and improve quality of life for cancer patients and their families.

The W.H.O. is the United Nations health agency. Delegates at the World Health Assembly meeting last month approved a resolution on cancer prevention and control. They agreed on the need to do more to fight increases in cancer deaths. The committee is a first step.

The World Health Organization says more than twenty million people are living with cancer. The disease is a leading cause of death. Cancer kills almost seven million people a year. By comparison, AIDS-related conditions kill three million people a year.

The W.H.O. expects the number of cancer deaths to increase fifty percent within fifteen years. The agency says cancer rates are on the rise in both developing and developed countries. It says the increase is linked to such things as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and a lack of exercise.

Infections and cancer-producing chemicals are also responsible. Medical experts say at least one-third of all cancers can be prevented.

In some developing countries, people are living longer because of better treatments for infectious diseases. But cancer risk increases with age. As a result, aging populations play a part in the increase in cancer rates.

Worldwide, the most common cancers in men are in the lungs and stomach. In women, the most common are breast and cervical cancer. The W.H.O. notes that some of the most common forms of cancer are curable with operations, drugs or radiation treatment.

Many countries have national cancer policies and programs. However, health officials say more action is needed.

The World Health Assembly resolution calls on all member states to develop national cancer programs. These would include prevention measures, early cancer testing, and improved treatment and care for those living with cancer.

Number of Americans Living with H.I.V. Estimated Above 1 Million

There are new estimates of the number of Americans with the virus that causes AIDS. Government researchers say more than one million were living with H.I.V. at the end of two thousand three. Health officials gave a report on June thirteenth at the National H.I.V. Prevention Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set a goal in two thousand one to cut the rate of new infections in half. That goal has not been met. But a C.D.C. official, Doctor Ronald Valdiserri, said researchers do think they are making progress.

Doctor Carlos del Rio of Emory University in Atlanta, however, suggested that prevention efforts have failed. He says there may be as many as sixty thousand new cases per year. In recent years, the number has been estimated at forty thousand.

Almost half of those infected are believed to be men who have sex with other men. And, researchers say, almost half are black.

People who are infected with H.I.V. often do not know it. There are no cures. But drug treatments can delay the progress of H.I.V. into AIDS. AIDS leaves a person defenseless against disease.

One of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations is to halt the spread of H.I.V. by two thousand fifteen. Earlier this year, Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted progress by some countries. But he also noted that there were more new infections and more AIDS-related deaths last year than ever before.

Mister Annan said treatment and prevention efforts were "nowhere near enough." He said only twelve percent of the people in need of treatments in low- and middle-income countries were receiving them.

Researchers estimate that about forty million people worldwide are living with H.I.V. They estimate that every day more than eight thousand people die from AIDS-related conditions.

About half of all people living with H.I.V. are women. And about half of new infections are in young adults.

Southern Africa is the area hardest hit by H.I.V. and AIDS.

The United States says it continues to support treatment for more people than any other giver in the world. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief supports treatment programs in fifteen countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. The goal is to help two million people by the end of two thousand eight.

Study Says Breast-Cancer Treatments Increase Survival Rates

More than one million new cases of breast cancer are reported every year around the world. But survival rates have increased in recent years in the United States, Britain and some other countries. A new report says drug treatments have played a major part.

Researchers at Oxford University in England led a team that gathered results from nearly two hundred studies. These involved one hundred forty-five thousand women with early breast cancer.

When breast cancer is found early, before it has spread, doctors can operate to remove any disease they find. But some cells may remain that can become cancerous later in life. So additional treatments aim to prevent breast cancer from coming back.

In some cases, the new study found that drugs could reduce by half the risk of death from breast cancer within fifteen years. That is, from the time the cancer is found. This effect was shown in middle-aged women with the most common breast cancer. They began with six months of a combination of chemotherapy drugs. Then came five years of the drug tamoxifen. Tamoxifen helps block the effects of estrogen. Estrogen is the hormone linked to the most common kind of breast cancer.

The researchers found that survival rates were higher fifteen years after treatment than they were after five years. They note that further improvements in long-term survival could result from newer drugs, or from better use of older one. The report also says the risk of dying from the drugs was small.

The report appeared in May in the British medical journal The Lancet.

Two unrelated studies were also in the news. Researchers at Harbor-U.C.L.A. Medical Center in Los Angeles did one of them. They found some evidence that a low-fat diet can reduce the chances that breast cancer will return within five years.

The second study dealt with exercise among three thousand women with breast cancer. Doctor Michelle Holmes at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston led the study. She says almost any amount of physical activity was linked with a lower risk of death from breast cancer.

She says women who walked three to five hours per week gained the most improvement. They were half as likely to die from the disease as inactive women with breast cancer.

Work-Related Accidents Increasing in Some Developing Countries

Work can be harmful to your health. Each year, more than two million people die from work-related accidents or diseases. Labor-related deaths represent four percent of all deaths around the world.

And here are some other estimates in a recent report from the International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency:

About two hundred seventy million workplace accidents happen each year. In addition, there are about one hundred sixty million cases of work-related sicknesses. The most common include cancers, muscle and bone diseases, lung diseases, hearing loss and blood-flow disorders.

Dangerous substances are blamed for more than four hundred thousand deaths each year. Asbestos alone is responsible for an estimated one hundred thousand deaths. Asbestos is a material that can lead to lung cancer and other diseases.

Diseases cause most of the deaths among workers. But deadly accidents at work also appear to be increasing in some developing countries as their economies expand quickly. This is true especially in Latin America and Asia.
About seventeen percent of all deadly workplace accidents happen in the building industry. Each year at least sixty thousand people die in such accidents. Many workers come from poor areas. They have little experience with heavy machinery and little training in safety.

The farming industry employs half of all workers in the world. In most developing countries, farming is the biggest employer. The risks from agricultural work include the use of pesticides. These chemicals cause an estimated seventy thousand poisoning deaths each year. In addition, the most recent estimates show that at least seven million people get very sick but survive.

When workers suffer, so might their employers. The I.L.O. estimates that about four percent of world economic production is lost to job accidents.

Higher rates of job accidents are found among workers age fifteen to twenty-four and those age fifty-five and older. More people in those two age groups are expected to enter the workforce. So the International Labor Organization is calling for special programs to help younger and older workers stay safe on the job.

Study Suggests Laughter Is Good for the Heart

Have you heard the old saying that laughter is the best medicine? Then listen to this. Seriously, research has already shown that mental stress can restrict blood flow to the heart. But now a study has linked laughter to increased blood flow. Laughter appears to cause the tissue inside blood vessels to expand. As a result, laughing may be important to reduce the risk of heart disease.

So says Doctor Michael Miller of the University of Maryland Medical Center. He led a study of twenty men and women, all healthy. To get them to laugh, they watched part of the movie “Kingpin,” a nineteen ninety-six comedy. To create the opposite emotions, they watched the opening battle in the nineteen ninety-eight war movie “Saving Private Ryan.”

The researchers used ultrasound technology to measure changes in blood flow through an artery in the arm.

Blood flow increased in nineteen of the twenty people after they watched "Kingpin." The increase was an average of twenty-two percent. Doctor Miller says that is similar to the effects of aerobic exercise.

Blood flow decreased in fourteen of the twenty people after they watched "Saving Private Ryan." The decrease was an average of thirty-five percent.

Studies have shown that stress can reduce the body’s ability to fight disease. When the body is under stress, it produces hormones such as adrenalin and cortisol. Cortisol is related to fear; adrenalin prepares the body to react. But too much of these hormones can be harmful.

Doctor Miller noted that the study could not explain how laughter is responsible for the effects observed. Do the effects come from the movement of muscles, or from a chemical release?

The researchers say laughter may cause the body to release pleasure chemicals, just as when a person exercises. Doctor Miller says these endorphins may block the effect of stress hormones and cause the blood vessels to expand. Laughter may also influence the release of nitric oxide, which too expands blood passages.

The results were presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology. Doctor Miller does not advise people to replace exercise with laughter. But, based on the results, he does suggest fifteen minutes of laughter each day.

Study: Sunshine and Vitamin D May Improve Lung Cancer Survival

Too much sun can cause skin cancer. Too much vitamin D can also make you sick. Yet a study suggests that sunlight and vitamin D may help some people with lung cancer live longer.

Vitamin D helps build strong teeth and bones. Foods such as oily fish and egg yolks are high in vitamin D. But not many foods naturally are. So extra vitamin D is often added to milk products. Some people get more with vitamin products.

Another way is with the sun. Vitamin D is known as the "sunshine vitamin." The body produces it through the skin from the ultraviolet radiation of the sun.

Researchers from Harvard University led a study of four hundred fifty-six people. These men and women had been treated for lung cancer in Boston, Massachusetts. The cancers had been found early. Doctors operated to remove them. The average age of the patients was sixty-nine. Forty percent were smokers.

Researchers asked the people what they ate, what vitamins they took and what time of year their operations had taken place.

Some had high levels of vitamin D intake and had their operations during summertime, when there is lots of sun. Others had low levels, and were operated on in winter.

The researchers found that thirty percent of the people in this second group were alive five years after their operation. Forty-six percent were disease-free.

But patients with the highest vitamin D intake and summer operations had higher survival rates. Seventy-two percent were still alive after five years. And eighty-three percent were disease-free.

The findings were presented at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. Other studies are needed to confirm them.

Harvard researcher Wei Zhou says studies on animals have shown that vitamin D may be able to act against some cancers. He says the new study does not suggest that people should try to time their cancer surgery for a particular season. But he says increasing the use of vitamin D before such treatment could help.

Lung cancer is the most common cancer around the world, with more than one million new cases each year. And it kills more people than any other cancer. About sixty percent of those who get lung cancer die within a year. The major preventable cause is the use of tobacco.

More Distance on the Road to Ending Polio

In most of the world, the campaign to stop polio by the end of this year has already succeeded. Fewer than one thousand three hundred new cases of the disease were reported last year. But problems continue.

Last week, Indonesia reported its first new cases of polio since nineteen ninety-five. And Yemen has its first cases since nineteen ninety-six. Medical investigators believe that the virus in both countries came from Nigeria.

In two thousand three, many parents in northern Nigeria decided not to have their children vaccinated against polio. Muslim religious leaders had told them that the Western-made vaccine was harmful.

Vaccination campaigns have started again in Nigeria. But, as people traveled, the virus spread to countries that were polio-free.

Polio attacks the nervous system. It can affect the muscles in the legs, arms and lungs. The virus is spread by human waste. Some victims die.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative began in nineteen eighty-eight. At that time, the virus was found in one hundred twenty-five countries. By two thousand three, there were only six: Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan and Egypt.

Now, experts say the spread of polio is re-established in six other countries, all in Africa. And cases have been found in several more.

The Indonesian government plans to vaccinate more than five million children under age five. Health workers have already been going house-to-house in West Java, where the polio cases were discovered.

The World Health Organization says genetic tests linked the virus to West Africa. It says the virus is similar to viruses recently found in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

World health officials say that, nationally, more than ninety percent of Indonesian babies are vaccinated against polio. But they also note that some areas of the country have much lower levels of protection.

In Yemen, sixty-nine percent of children are vaccinated. More than twenty cases of polio have been found.

The virus spreads most quickly in Africa during the rainy season that starts in July. Health workers are trying to vaccinate as many children as possible by then.

Some experts still believe it is possible to stop polio in two thousand five. But the job has gotten more difficult.

A Look Behind the Disease: Meningitis

Meningitis is an infection of the fluid that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord. Most cases are caused by a virus or bacteria.

Medical experts say people with viral meningitis generally get better within about ten days. Bacterial meningitis is rare and more serious. It may cause brain damage, hearing loss or, in some cases, death.

Tests on a small amount of fluid taken from the spinal cord can show if the infection is viral or bacterial. Bacterial meningitis can be treated with antibiotic drugs. Experts say it is important to begin treatment as early as possible.

Common signs of meningitis include high body temperature, headache and neck pain. Also, people may be sleepy and not able to think clearly. Newborn babies with meningitis may not eat; they may have little energy or cry continually. Meningitis can also cause vomiting and seizures in both children and adults.

Meningitis can spread when a person coughs or sneezes. And it can spread through kissing. Crowded living conditions may also increase the spread of meningitis. Signs of the disease usually appear within two to ten days of infection.

Around the world, different kinds of bacteria cause different forms of meningitis. The highest infection rates are in southern Africa in countries including Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia and Niger. These countries are part of what is known as the "African meningitis belt," from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east.

The last major outbreak of meningitis in Africa was in nineteen ninety-six and ninety-seven. The World Health Organization had reports of more than two hundred fifty thousand cases. More than twenty thousand people died.

Reports last month said a meningitis outbreak in Ethiopia had killed at least forty people and infected more than four hundred. Health officials organized a campaign to vaccinate people against the disease.

Vaccines can protect against some of the most common bacteria that cause meningitis. In two thousand three, researchers developed a vaccine against a new strain. This form of meningitis killed at least one thousand five hundred people in Burkina Faso in two thousand two.