PsychologicalScience.org - If you spend the majority of your time among stores, restaurants and skyscrapers, it may be time to trade in your stilettos for some hiking boots. A new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveals that spending time in nature may be more beneficial for mental processes than being in urban environments.

Psychologists Marc G. Berman, John Jonides, and Stephen Kaplan from the University of Michigan designed two experiments to test how interactions with nature and urban environments would affect attention and memory processes. First, a group of volunteers completed a task designed to challenge memory and attention. The volunteers then took a walk in either a park or in downtown Ann Arbor. After the walk, volunteers returned to the lab and were retested on the task. In the second experiment, after volunteers completed the task, instead of going out for a walk, they simply viewed either nature photographs or photographs of urban environments and then repeated the task.

The results were quite interesting. In the first experiment, performance on the memory and attention task greatly improved following the walk in the park, but did not improve for volunteers who walked downtown. And it is not just being outside that is beneficial for mental functions - the group who viewed the nature photographs performed much better on the retest than the group who looked at city scenes.

The authors suggest that urban environments provide a relatively complex and often confusing pattern of stimulation, which requires effort to sort out and interpret. Natural environments, by contrast, offer a more coherent (and often more aesthetic) pattern of stimulation that, far from requiring effort, are often experienced as restful. Thus being in the context of nature is effortless, permitting us to replenish our capacity to attend and thus having a restorative effect on our mental abilities.

AAN.com - A new study shows that antidepressant drugs which only affect serotonin, often used as first choice treatments, may not be best for depression in people with Parkinson?s disease. The new research is published in the December 17, 2008 online issue of Neurology?. Depression affects up to 50 percent of people with Parkinson?s disease.

The study is the first to compare an older antidepressant that targets two receptors in the brain with a newer generation serotonin only-based drug and placebo. It is also the largest placebo-controlled study for Parkinson?s disease depression.

In the study, scientists gave 52 people diagnosed with Parkinson?s disease and depression either nortriptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant (TCA), paroxetine CR, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) or a placebo pill. Tricyclics affect both norepinephrine and serotonin, two different receptors in the brain. The people were tested for improvement of depression symptoms at two, four and eight weeks after starting treatment.

The study found that the people who took nortriptyline were nearly five times more likely to see improvement in depression symptoms when compared with the people who took paroxetine CR.

?I think that this study shows a number of important things. First, that people with Parkinson’s disease can respond to antidepressants. This is important because depression in Parkinson?s disease is underrecognized, underappreciated and undertreated. Commonly, the attitude is, of course you?re depressed, you have a serious illness. This study shows that patients should have hope that they can be helped,” said study author Matthew Menza, MD, a Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology with UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, NJ. “Second, the study suggests that we may need to use medications that affect both serotonin and norepinephrine, not just serotonin, in the brain to be successful in treating depression related to Parkinson?s disease.?

Menza also says that in addition to the older antidepressant, nortriptyline, that was tested in the study, there are newer mediations that affect both serotonin and norepinephrine, and these need to be tested.

Tricyclic antidepressants are one of the older classes of antidepressants and have been used since the 1950s. Tricyclics have an increased risk of overdose and death due to toxic effects on the heart and brain.

?People on a tricyclic antidepressant should have their dosages monitored closely by their doctor,? said Menza.

Good quality extra-virgin olive oil contains natural anti-cancer chemicals - phytochemicals - that can trigger cancer cell death. New research published in the open access journal BMC Cancer sheds more light on the suspected association between olive oil-rich Mediterranean diets and reductions in breast cancer risk.

Javier Menendez from the Catalan Institute of Oncology and Antonio Segura-Carretero from the University of Granada in Spain led a team of researchers who set out to investigate which parts of olive oil were most active against cancer. Menendez said, “Our findings reveal for the first time that all the major complex phenols present in extra-virgin olive oil drastically suppress overexpression of the cancer gene HER2 in human breast cancer cells”.

Extra-virgin olive oil is the oil that results from pressing olives without the use of heat or chemical treatments. It contains phytochemicals that are otherwise lost in the refining process. The most well known olive oil polyphenol antioxidants are tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol, but many other biologically active phenolics can be found in extra-virgin olive oil. Menendez and colleagues separated the oil into fractions and tested these against breast cancer cells in lab experiments. All the fractions containing the major extra-virgin phytochemical polyphenols (lignans and secoiridoids) were found to effectively inhibit HER2.

Although these findings provide new insights on the mechanisms by which good quality oil, i.e. polyphenol-rich extra-virgin olive oil, might contribute to a lowering of breast cancer risk in a HER2-dependent manner, extreme caution must be applied when applying the lab results to the human situation. As the authors point out, “The active phytochemicals (i.e. lignans and secoiridoids) exhibited tumoricidal effects against cultured breast cancer cells at concentrations that are unlikely to be achieved in real life by consuming olive oil”.

Nevertheless, and according to the authors, “These findings, together with the fact that that humans have safely been ingesting significant amounts of lignans and secoiridoids as long as they have been consuming olives and extra-virgin oil, strongly suggest that these polyphenols might provide an excellent and safe platform for the design of new anti breast-cancer drugs”.

Reference: “Anti-HER2 (erbB-2) oncogene effects of phenolic compounds directly isolated from commercial Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)” Javier A Menendez, et al published in the Open Access BioMed Central journal, BMC Cancer. The abstract and a PDF download of the article are available free here:

Anti-cancer effect of extra-virgin olive oil natural polyphenols against breast cancer gene HER2

Researchers advocate using MRI technology as diagnostic test for Alzheimer’s dementia.

HSC.USF.edu - MRI scans that detect shrinkage in specific regions of the mid-brain attacked by Alzheimer?s disease accurately diagnose the neurodegenerative disease, even before dementia symptoms interfere with daily function, a study by the Florida Alzheimer?s Disease Research Center (ADRC) in Miami and Tampa found.

The study, reported December 2008 in the journal Neurology, adds to a growing body of evidence indicating MRI brain scans provide valuable diagnostic information about Alzheimer?s disease.

The findings are important in light of many new disease-modifying drugs in trials - treatments that may prevent mild memory loss from advancing to full-blown dementia if administered early enough.

“We advocate, based on these findings, that the criteria for the diagnosis of Alzheimer?s disease should include MRI scans,? said the study?s lead author Ranjan Duara, MD, medical director of the Wien Center for Alzheimer?s Disease and Memory Disorders at Mount Sinai Medical Center. ?By incorporating MRIs into the assessment of patients with memory problems, early diagnosis can be standardized and done far more accurately.?

?This study demonstrates that MRI brain scans are accurate enough to be clinically useful, both in diagnosing Alzheimer?s disease itself at an early stage and in identifying people at risk of developing Alzheimer?s,? said Florida ADRC Director Huntington Potter, PhD, a neuroscientist at the Byrd Alzheimer?s Center and Research Institute, University of South Florida.

In this MRI study, the three areas of interest in the brain’s medial temporal lobe were: hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and perirhinal cortex. Some MRI scans of Alzheimer’s patients in this study showed severe atrophy indicative of Alzheimer’s pathology in all areas, except the right perirhinal cortex, which tended to display moderate atrophy.

Alzheimer?s disease, the most common cause of dementia, is characterized by memory loss, disorientation, difficulty with reasoning and the decline of language and thinking skills. To date, Alzheimer?s is diagnosed by a process of elimination since many other diseases and related disorders can mimic its symptoms, and autopsy is currently the only definitive way a diagnosis can be confirmed. The diagnosistic process often includes a medical history, mental status tests, neurological evaluations and blood tests. Physicians have typically used brain scans only to exclude conditions that can also cause memory deficits, such as strokes and brain tumors.

The Florida researchers used a new visual rating system to evaluate the severity of shrinkage, or atrophy, in the brain?s medial temporal lobe ? specifically in three structures essential for the conscious memory of facts and events. They compared the MRI brain scans of 260 people - a group with probable Alzheimer?s disease, two groups with varying degrees of mild cognitive impairment (mild memory problems), and a control group of normal elderly with no discernable memory loss. They found that scores generated by this MRI-facilitated test accurately distinguished each group from the other and correlated with the types of memory problems most frequently caused by Alzheimer?s disease. The more extensive the brain atrophy, the more advanced the clinical stage of Alzheimer?s disease.

The researchers even found brain atrophy in some people without memory complaints at the study?s onset who demonstrated memory decline when assessed a year or two later. This suggests MRIs could predict who will get the disease well before signs of dementia become apparent by other diagnostic methods as well as rule out an Alzheimer?s diagnosis in people experiencing memory problems, Dr. Duara said.

?If you don?t have changes in these three particular areas of the brain, then you don?t have Alzheimer?s, Dr. Duara said.

Researchers at centers like Miami?s Wien Center and USF?s Byrd Institute are developing new Alzheimer?s drugs that attack mechanisms leading to the death of nerve cells and their connections. The emergence of these disease-modifying treatments has made an earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer?s increasingly important, Dr. Duara said. ?Having an accurate diagnosis will allow us to start using drugs earlier. The earlier treatment begins, the more likely you are to stop disease progression and benefit the patient.?

Most participants in the MRI scan for Alzheimer’s study were enrolled in the clinical arm of the Florida ADRC, which is supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging.

A study published in the December 2008 issue of the European medical journal Anticancer Research demonstrates that a natural ingredient used in a common cough suppressant may be useful in treating advanced prostate cancer. Researchers found that noscapine, which has been used in cough medication for nearly 50 years, reduced tumor growth in mice by 60 percent?and limited the spread of tumors by 65 percent?without causing harmful side effects.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the United States. The American Cancer Society estimates that 186,320 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2008 and 28,660 will die from it. One man in 6 will get prostate cancer during his lifetime. Although slow-growing in most men, the cancer is considered advanced when it spreads beyond the prostate. There is no known cure.

The laboratory study was a joint effort by Dr. Israel Barken of the Prostate Cancer Research and Educational Foundation, Moshe Rogosnitzky of MedInsight Research Institute, and Dr. Jack Geller of The University of California San Diego. Noscapine has previously been studied as a treatment for breast, ovarian, colon, lung and brain cancer and for various lymphomas, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and melanoma. This study, however, is the first to demonstrate its effectiveness in treating prostate cancer.

Noscapine is a naturally-occurring substance, a non-addictive derivative of opium. As a natural substance, noscapine cannot be patented, which has limited the potential for clinical trials. Rogosnitzky notes that drug companies are generally unwilling to underwrite expensive clinical trials without being able to recoup their investment. A synthetic derivative of noscapine has been patented but has not yet reached the clinical testing phase.

Since noscapine is approved for use in many countries as a cough suppressant, however, it is available to doctors to prescribe for other uses as well. This common practice is known as “off-label” prescription. Noscapine is increasingly being used off-label to treat a variety of cancers. Dr. Barken used noscapine to treat a handful of prostate cancer patients before retiring from clinical practice. Encouraged by the success of these treatments, his foundation funded the laboratory study being reported in the December 2008 edition of Anticancer Research.

As founder and medical director of the Prostate Cancer Research and Educational Foundation in San Diego, Dr. Barken is encouraging academic institutions to follow up this successful laboratory research with a human clinical trial. He has pioneered a web-based patient tracking system that will greatly reduce the cost of the trial while cutting the time necessary to complete the study. Using the web-based tracking system will also allow doctors outside the U.S. to enroll patients in the research.

Rogosnitzky, director of research at MedInsight Research Institute, points out the significant advantages that noscapine could present as a treatment for prostate cancer. “Noscapine is effective without the unpleasant side effects associated with other common prostate cancer treatments. Because noscapine has been used as a cough-suppressant for nearly half a century, it already has an extensive safety record. This pre-clinical study shows that the dose used to effectively treat prostate cancer in the animal model was also safe.”

Hormone therapy and chemotherapy, along with radiation and surgery, are currently used to slow the progression of advanced prostate cancer. Side effects resulting from these treatments include impotence, incontinence, fatigue, anemia, brittle bones, hair loss, reduced appetite, nausea and diarrhea. Noscapine should not be used with MAO inhibitors (MAOIs). No toxic side effects were observed in the laboratory study of noscapine (Courtesy of EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS).

Aftau.org - Prozac (fluoxetine) is regularly prescribed to ease the emotional pain of patients who are being treated for cancer. But can this common SSRI antidepressant help to fight cancer itself?

Dr. Dan Peer of the Department of Cell Research and Immunology at Tel Aviv University is proving that it can.? A study he and his colleagues recently completed validates that Prozac (generic chemical name fluoxetine) dramatically enhances the effectiveness of a widely used anti-cancer drug.

?The good news is that the medical community won’t have to wait - Prozac can be used for this purpose right away,? says Dr. Peer, noting that doctors in the U.S. already prescribe it to treat depression in chemotherapy patients.

Fluoxetine Fights Drug Resistance in Colon Cancer Patients

?Prozac is a very interesting non-specific blocker of cancer resistance,? says Dr. Peer, whose study focused on colon cancer and the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin.

In their laboratory experiments, the Tel Aviv University scientists led by graduate student Mirit Argov together with Professor Rimona Margalit, found that Prozac enhanced doxorubicin’s efficacy more than 1,000 percent.? Prozac, in effect, worked to block the cancer drug from leaving the interior of the cancer cell and poisoning the healthy non-cancerous cells that surrounded it.

In animal models, a mild doxorubicin-fluoxetine treatment combination slowed down tumor progression significantly.? These results suggest that pairing Prozac with chemotherapeutic drugs to curb drug resistance warrants further clinical study, says Dr. Peer.

His research was just published in Cancer Letters, and his suggestions are now listed as recommendations in the latest version of Cancer Encyclopedia.

Working Backward to Make Great Advances

?Working with a major drug developer, we have validated Prozac’s potential, and now Tel Aviv University can lead a humanitarian effort to save lives around the globe,? he says.

Since it is very hard to protect this patent because any clinician can prescribe Prozac, it is impossible for Tel Aviv University to commercialize its research, says Dr. Peer.? Instead, he suggests that researchers join forces internationally to implement retrospective studies of all the types of cancer treatment in which Prozac was prescribed.? And further clinical experiments to validate the use of Prozac with chemotherapy is also needed, he stresses.

?The next step is to take the files of chemo patients and determine whether they received Prozac for their depression,? says Dr. Peer. ?This will streamline the understanding in the scientific community of whether, how and for which cancer-fighting drugs Prozac can be an effective partner. It will also give us invaluable information on how to design new drugs.”