Brain cycle activity data may help predict epilepsy seizures
Ibuprofen has a negative impact on the testicles of young men, a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found.
When taking ibuprofen in doses commonly used by athletes, a small sample of young men developed a hormonal condition that typically begins, if at all, during middle age. This condition is linked to reduced fertility, according to CNN.
Advil and Motrin are two brand names for ibuprofen, an over-the-counter pain reliever. CNN has contacted Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson, the makers of both brands, for comment.
Mike Tringale, a spokesman for The Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA), said, “Supports and encourages continued research and promotes ongoing consumer education to help ensure safe use of OTC medicines.
“The safety and efficacy of active ingredients in these products has been well documented and supported by decades of scientific study and real-world use.”
CHPA is a trade group that represents manufacturers of over-the-counter medications and supplemented
The new study is a continuation of research that began with pregnant women, explained Bernard Jégou, coauthor and director of the Institute of Research in Environmental and Occupational Health in France.
Jégou and a team of French and Danish researchers had been exploring the health effects when a mother-to-be took any one of three mild pain relievers found in medicine chests around the globe: Aspirin, acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol and sold under the brand name Tylenol) and ibuprofen.
Their early experiments, published in several papers, showed that when taken during pregnancy, all three of these mild medicines affected the testicles of male babies.
Testicles and testosterone
Testicles not only produce sperm, they secrete testosterone, the primary male sex hormone.
David M. Kristensen, study coauthor and a senior scientist in the Department of Neurology at Copenhagen University Hospital, said, “All three drugs then are ‘anti-androgenic’, meaning they disrupt male hormones.
“The three drugs even increased the likelihood that male babies would be born with congenital malformations.”
Tringale noted that pregnant and nursing women should always ask a health professional before using medicines.
He said, “Knowing this, we wondered what would happen in the adult.”
They focused their investigation on ibuprofen, which had the strongest effects.
Jégou said, “A non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, ibuprofen is often taken by athletes, including Olympians and professional soccer players for example, before an event to prevent pain.”
But the study did not prove that night-shift work caused the risk of these cancers to rise.
When the researchers took into account for location, they found that only the night-shift workers from North America and Europe had a greater risk for breast cancer.
Ma said, “We were surprised to see the association between nightshift work and breast cancer risk only among women in North America and Europe.
“It is possible that women in these locations have higher sex hormone levels, which have been positively associated with hormone-related cancers such as breast cancer.”
The researchers then focused on female nurses who work night shifts and the risk for six different forms of cancer.
The findings showed these nurses had a 58 percent higher risk of breast cancer — a greater increase than any other job included in the study.
In addition, the night-shift nurses had a 35 percent greater risk of gastrointestinal cancer and a 28 percent higher risk of lung cancer than the people who didn’t work nights.
Ma said, “Nurses that worked the night shift were of a medical background and may have been more likely to undergo screening examinations.
“Another possible explanation for the increased cancer risk in this population may relate to the job requirements of night-shift nursing, such as more intensive shifts.”
The researchers also noted that the longer women worked night shifts, the greater their risk of breast cancer. The risk for the disease increased 3.3 percent for every five years of this type of work.
Ma said, “By systematically integrating a multitude of previous data, we found that night-shift work was positively associated with several common cancers in women.
“The results of this research suggest the need for health protection programs for long-term female night-shift workers.” Monthly cycles of brain activity can be used to predict seizures in epilepsy patients, a study published by University of California San Francisco (UCSF) neurologists suggested.
The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, indicate that clinicians may soon be able to identify likely timeframes for seizures, allowing patients to be aware of a higher chance they may experience one, UPI reported.
Recurrent seizures in epilepsy patients involve brief but debilitating increases in electrical activity in the brain, leading to convulsions, hallucinations and loss of consciousness.
Implanted brain stimulation devices can quickly halt a seizure by stimulating a patient’s brain as the event begins.
One, the Neuropace RNS System, can also record months or years of seizure-related brain activity, researchers said.
A team led by senior study author Dr. Vikram Rao of UCSF analyzed data from 37 people fitted with the device, and found that seizures are less random than first thought.
While the lengths of cycles between seizures differ between patients, they are stable over years in individuals, the researchers found.
Rao said, “One of the most disabling aspects of having epilepsy is the seeming randomness of seizures.
“If your neurologist can’t tell you if your next seizure is a minute from now or a year from now, you live your life in a state of constant uncertainty, like walking on eggshells.
“The exciting thing here is that we may soon be able to empower patients by letting them know when they are at high risk and when they can worry less.”
The UCSF researchers are using the data to forecast seizure risk, which could allow patients to avoid hazardous activity, including driving or swimming, when the possibility of a seizure is highest. Rao compared the process to a weather forecast. He said, “In the past, the field has focused on predicting the exact moment a seizure will occur, which is like predicting when lightning will strike.
“That’s pretty hard. It may be more useful to be able tell people there is a five percent chance of a thunderstorm this week, but a 90 percent chance next week. That kind of information lets you prepare.”