Monthly Archive for December, 2009

New smoking vaccine may help smokers quit by blocking nicotine

Published on December 11, 2009 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments

Many of us are familiar with the gums and patches that gradually wean smokers off cigarettes. Now there is a drug currently be tested that actually keeps the stimulant nicotine from getting to the brain.

Over the years people have tried an endless array of ways to quit smoking: from cold turkey, to counseling and even hypnosis. At the present time, a small company called Nabi Bio-pharmaceuticals of Rockville, Md., is anticipating to make a killing from their new vaccine that they hope will help millions to kick the habit. They are currently in the final stages of testing this innovative vaccine. Last week, major progress happened as they made a deal with the well known pharmaceutical Glaxo-SmithKline.

With this agreement, Glaxo-SmithKline will pay for the developing and marketing cost incurred with this new vaccine, called NicVax, if Nabi can successfully finish the Phase 3 trials that are now in progress.

In the past, the usual treatment for stopping a smoker’s dependence on nicotine has been by using gum or patches that contain decreasing amounts of the substance so that the addict is gradually weaned from their addiction to smoking.

After working on this vaccine for ten years, Nabi reveals a more direct approach to the smoking addiction problem. It actually closes off the nicotine’s access to the brain. While on NicVax, if a smoker lights up a cigarette, they will not feel any of the stimulating effects that they crave from nicotine. This works because NicVax causes the immune system to create antibodies that bond with the nicotine molecule if it gets into the bloodstream. The outcome is a molecule that is too big to pass to the brain. To put it briefly, the vaccine helps the body to become immune to nicotine.

The reasoning is that if smokers are not able to get the usual buzz from smoking a cigarette, there will be no incentive for them to stay with the habit. Also, because the antibodies that NicVax creates stay in the body for a long time, the chances for a smoker to go back to their bad habit are small. “It breaks the cycle of addiction” says Raafat Fahim, who is the president and chief executive  of Nabi.

The early and middle rounds of testing have been completed and the company expects to have the final results in the year 2011.

Diabetes cases will climb in the next 25 years

Published on December 9, 2009 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments

A new study has found that the amount of people diagnosed with diabetes will almost double in the U.S. in the coming 25 years. Not only this, but the cost of treating diabetes will nearly triple. The study was done by researchers based at the University of Chicago and was published on November 27 in the journal Diabetes Care.

Findings from the study indicate that the amount of diagnosed and undiagnosed people will increase from nearly 24 million this year to around 44 million in the year 2034. During this same time, yearly diabetes-related treatment costs are projected to increase from $113 billion to $336 billion in 2007 dollars.

Unfortunately, Medicare spending on diabetes is predicted to climb from $45 billion to $171 billion and could go beyond current estimations for all Medicare costs, according to researchers.

A lot of the increase in cases and costs will be prompted by aging baby boomers, who are the 77 million Americans who were born between 1946 and 1957. Dr. Elbert Huang, professor of medicine at the University of Chicago and co-author of the study, said “It’s a combination of the increasing numbers of people who have diabetes along with the cost of treating diabetes that gives us these frightening numbers.” He also said “The study reinforces the importance of public health efforts to prevent diabetes – by transforming the way we eat and increasing the amount of exercise we do – and emphasizes the importance of finding new ways of treating diabetes efficiently.”

The findings could even be conservative since the researchers’ projections are based on stable obesity rates. For many years, the amount of people becoming obese has steadily climbed. The authors of the study think that obesity levels for people who don’t have diabetes will top out in the next ten years and then decrease slightly, from 30 percent today to around 27 percent in 2033.

Part of the reason diabetes costs are climbing is due to the diseases striking younger people which can mean a longer period for costly problems to develop. Currently, diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, amputations and end-stage kidney disease.

Obesity an increasing problem in N.C.

Published on December 2, 2009 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments

Obesity has been one of the main health problems in the U.S. for quite some time and it is only getting worse. Unfortunately, North Carolina is one of the states that is not excluded from this ever increasing problem. During the last 20 years, the obese population in North Carolina has climbed from 12.9 percent to an alarming 29.5 percent.

This disturbing trend can be seen all across the country and has pushed obesity to become of the main problems confronting America. If things continue as they are, almost 47.9 percent of people in N.C. will become obese during the next 10 years. The costs to N.C.  is estimated to be around $11. 14 billion for state health care spending. If you do the math, this will be around $1,473 per adult.

Grappling with this troubling issue is becoming more popular, because it is a key component in bringing down the rates of chronic disease and cutting health care expenses.

Even though it is important for adults to be more aware of facilities in which to deal with this problem, it is extremely crucial for us to concentrate on confronting this health crisis in our youth as a way of terminating this problem before it extends into adulthood. Overweight adolescents have a 70 percent chance of turning into an obese or overweight adults. Also, overweight children and adolescents often are vulnerable to developing problems related to cardiovascular disease like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and Type 2 diabetes. More and more experts say that the problem must be confronted earlier in life if the frightening trend is to be stopped.