ScienceCache
Vol. 163
March 15, 2004
GOING LOW TECH, LOW COST TO EASE THE TERRORS OF DEMENTIA
Everyday items like hot water bottles, cats and dogs, and even bowling
pins can play a big role in staving off the terrors of dementia for many
residents in nursing homes, say 250 Rochester-area nursing home workers
who gathered last week to share ideas on what works and what doesn’t.
In recent years the treatment of dementia in nursing homes has gone from
a medication-intensive regimen ruled almost completely by intense psychiatric
medications such as Thorazine to a flurry of low-cost ideas that staff
members can implement in a harried environment to lessen the pain residents
feel as they slowly lose touch with reality. To help nursing home employees
keep up, the John A. Hartford Foundation and the School of Nursing are
working with area nursing homes to explore new ways to ease dementia
among residents. “There’s a lot that can be done to improve
the quality of life for people in nursing homes who have dementia. There
are a lot of simple measures, a lot of low-tech, inexpensive tools that
nursing assistants in nursing homes can do to improve the lives of residents,” says
Nancy Watson, director of the Center for Clinical Research on Aging at
the nursing school. A good example is a simple water bottle – nurses
have found that giving an agitated resident a warm fleece-covered water
bottle often reduces screaming and keeps the person calm for an average
of 40 minutes. Fleece muffs on the hands can also help sooth a person.
And instead of struggling with agitated residents who want to commandeer
medication or food carts, a specially designed “wandering cart” gives
residents their own carts they can push around, maybe equipped with snacks
for residents, booklets, or other items.
Full story
DRUG MAY SHRINK UTERINE FIBROIDS, IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE
Based on the results of a pilot study, physicians at the medical center
are launching a large-scale trial of the medication mifepristone, also
known as RU486, to shrink uterine fibroids and improve the quality of
life for women who have fibroids with troublesome symptoms. Uterine fibroids – benign
growths in the uterus – are a common condition in women of childbearing
age and the most common reason women have hysterectomies. Fibroids can
wreak havoc on a woman’s quality of life, causing heavy bleeding,
pain or pressure. Uterine fibroid growth is often attributed to hormones
in women, especially during childbearing years. Mifepristone is a synthetic
steroid that has been shown to block the effects of the naturally occurring
hormone progesterone. A pilot study, published in Obstetrics and Gynecology
last year, showed that low doses of mifepristone were effective in shrinking
fibroids and, as a result, reducing symptoms for most women. “Our
six-month and one-year studies of this drug showed dramatic results.
Fibroids shrank by more than 50 percent on average, and women felt much
better. Many women were reluctant to go off the drug at the end of the
study,” says Steven Eisinger, who will lead the NIH-funded study
along with Kevin Fiscella.
Full story
NEW EVIDENCE SUGGESTS EARLY OCEANS BEREFT OF OXYGEN FOR EONS
As two rovers scour Mars for signs of water and the precursors of life,
geochemists have uncovered evidence that Earth’s own ancient oceans
were much different from today’s. The research, published in the
journal Science, cites new data that shows that Earth’s life-giving
oceans had less oxygen dissolved in them than today’s and could
have been nearly devoid of oxygen for a billion years longer than previously
thought. These findings, which focused on a new type of analysis of the
element molybdenum, may help explain why complex life barely evolved
for billions of years after it arose. Most geologists agree that there
was virtually no oxygen dissolved in the oceans until about 2 billion
years ago, and that they were oxygen-rich during most of the last half
billion years – but there has always been a mystery about the period
in between. “It’s remarkable that we know so little about
the history of our own planet’s oceans,” says Ariel Anbar,
associate professor of earth and environmental sciences. “Whether
or not there was oxygen in the oceans is a really straightforward chemical
question that you’d think would be easy to answer. It shows just
how hard it is to tease information from the rock record and how much
more there is for us to learn about our origins.”
Full story
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