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A.
Understanding and Treating Eating Disorders
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Over five million Americans
are affected by eating disorders such as anorexia
nervosa, bulimia and binge eating. Dr. Kim Peter
Norman, a psychiatry professor and director of the
Eating Disorder Clinic at the University of California,
San Francisco, says these psychiatric disorders
could be considered chronic medical illnesses that
improve over time.
Norman: If people suffer from bulimia or
binge eating disorder, they don't necessarily need
to come and see psychiatrists like myself. Often,
just focused treatment in a primary care setting
can be sufficient for their recovery.
Narrator:But Norman says there's a tendency
to avoid discussing eating disorders in the health
care setting, out of fear of offending the patient.
Norman: Eating disorders are best addressed
by an approach that mixes empathy and understanding
but also clear confrontation. What most people will
say is if my doctor doesn't confront me about my
weight problem, I feel like he's given up on me.
It's less likely that they'll experience confrontation
as insulting, more likely that they'll experience
a lack of confrontation as not caring.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
B.
The Dangers of Long-term Sleeping Pill Use
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Using sleeping pills to alleviate
sleeping problems or anxiety is only supposed to be
for short-term use, but studies indicate about two-thirds
of the market is going to long-term users. Because
of this, Daniel Kripke, a professor of psychiatry
at the University of California, San Diego says there
should be more research conducted on long-term usage.
Kripke: The effects on the long-term user are
almost never studied and physicians would be better
guided if they had more information from which to
work.
Narrator: Kripke has conducted previous studies
that found there's an increased risk of death associated
with long-term use of sleeping pills.
Kripke:
We found that people who said they were taking
sleeping pills every night of the month were more
likely to have died after six years than people who
didn't take them. And the increased risk of death
with taking sleeping pills every night was about the
same as the increased risk of smoking one or two packs
of cigarettes a day.
Narrator:For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
The Potential Uses of Anti-angiogenesis Therapy
Narrator: This is Science Today. Cancer researchers
have been working with an antibody that blocks a protein
called vascular endothelial cell growth factor, or
VEGF, in an effort to shrink tumors and slow disease
progression. Dr. Emily Bergsland of the University
of California, San Francisco, says this is called
anti-angiogenesis therapy, because it inhibits new
blood vessel growth.
Bergsland: And the appeal of this is that this
is a therapy that can potentially be fairly, generally
applicable because it's thought that many tumor types,
if not all tumor types require the recruitment of
blood vessels in order to grow and metastasize. So
these agents could potentially be broadly applicable
across tumor types.
Narrator: Bergsland and her colleagues have
recently used anti-VEGF specifically with metastatic
colon cancer patients and have found encouraging results.
Bergsland: What's exciting about this study
is it lends support to the whole concept that angiogensis
is important to tumor growth and metastasis and this
has been suspected for a long time. But this was the
first study that showed in a randomized fashion that
an agent specifically developed to block this angiogenic
factor, called VEGF, can be efficacious.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
A New Insightful Look at Tooth Structure
Narrator:
This is Science Today. An x-ray microscope originally
developed to analyze jet engine components, has been
found to also reveal the intricate mineral tissues
of teeth and bone. Physicist John Kinney of the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory says this microscope
will give researchers an insightful look at these
tissue structures.
Kinney: Because it's non-invasive, we can look
at these tissues under a variety of imposed physiological
stimuli. For example in the teeth, we can look at
them during simulation of cavities. We can look at
the bone tissue under mechanical load, so we can see
how the tissue deforms or responds adaptively to external
situations.
Narrator: And in some cases, such as in the
teeth, there's so little tissue there that seeing
any of it is highly beneficial.
Kinney: Most samples that we look at, nothing
is really ever done to the specimen...so the worst
case is we haven't hurt anything, the best case is
we've added some value to the information.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin....
E.
Increasing the Awareness of Alzheimer's Disease
Narrator:
This is Science Today. One of the most unsettling
aspects about Alzheimer's Disease is the fact no one
can really feel immune to it. Dr. Lennart Mucke, a
neurology professor at the University of California,
San Francisco, says while some cases do have clear
inheritance patterns, they represent just a small
percentage.
Mucke:
It can happen to absolutely everybody. And that's
I think, a very important awareness because I believe
that our mental faculties are probably one of our
dearest possessions.
Narrator: Mucke is one of many researchers
working towards better treatment of Alzheimer's Disease,
but he says public activism is lacking.
Mucke: Some of the lack of that activism may
come from this sort of resignation - well, you know
people are old and you lose your memories and that's
just how it is. But I think that with more and more
people living to be ninety-five and a hundred and
some of them are crisp and clear mentally and active.
I think more and more people will realize that there
really is no reason why they shouldn't be like that.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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