Feb. 3, 2012 — Researchers say they have developed a blood test that may reliably detect depression.

If the test continues to perform well in studies, experts say it could become one of the first objective ways to look for depression, which affects nearly 1 in 10 American adults.

“Psychiatry is a field that is begging for tests because all of our diagnoses, for the most part, are based on clinical assessments, and clinical assessments are very subjective and can be biased,” says Jennifer L. Payne, MD, a psychiatrist and co-director of the Mood Disorders Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Payne reviewed the study for WebMD but was not involved in the research, which is published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

“We’d love to have tests that tell us if someone has a particular illness or not,” she says. “This is a very nice step in that direction, but there’s a heck of a lot more work to be done before this is used as a clinical test for major depression.”

Depression Overview

Study Results ‘Quite Exciting’

The new test, called MDDScore, was developed by a company called Ridge Diagnostics. And it’s not the only objective test for depression under study.

In 2010, the company Rules-Based Medicine, which is headquartered in Austin, Texas, began offering a blood test that checks for recent-onset schizophrenia. The company is reportedly tweaking that test to make a version that looks for depression.

MDDScore measures nine indicators in blood called biomarkers that are thought to be altered in adults with major depressive disorder. 

“A large number of the markers that constitute the test come from the inflammation family,” says researcher George Papakostas, MD, a psychiatrist and director of treatment-resistant depression studies at Massachusetts General Hospital. 

“Chronic inflammation [is] part of a risk factor or part of the process of depression itself,” says Papakostas, who is also an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a consultant for Ridge Diagnostics.

Additional indicators include hormones, growth factors, enzymes, and other proteins that act as chemical messengers.

In two studies that involved 70 people with depression and 43 people who were not depressed for comparison, the test correctly identified depression about 91% of the time and correctly ruled it out about 81% of the time.

“Those numbers are high, and I think that’s quite exciting,” says Payne.

Still, the test missed depression in about 9% of people tested and falsely diagnosed depression in about 19% of people who were actually healthy.

Papakostas says those error rates may be acceptable since the test isn’t meant to be used as a standalone diagnostic tool.

“The goal in developing a test is not to kind of nullify clinical judgment or patient experience, but to kind of supplement or help with that,” he says.

According to the Ridge Diagnostics’ web site, the test is available to patients but must be ordered by a doctor. The list price of the MDDScore is $745. The cost to patients is $90 if it is covered by insurance.

webmd.com

Feb. 3, 2012 — Looking for an unusual way to lower your blood pressure? Try an unusually colored potato.

When overweight people included two servings of purple potatoes a day in their diet for a month, they not only reduced their blood pressure, they also didn’t gain weight in the process, a small study shows.

In the study, published online in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, researchers tracked 18 middle-aged adults. Half of them were asked to eat the skin and flesh of six to eight small purple potatoes at lunch and dinner for four weeks, while the others did not add the microwaved taters to their meals.

During the second month of the study, the groups switched regimens.

Participants were given Purple Majesty potatoes. 

Compared to those who went spud-free, purple potato eaters had on average drop of slightly more than 4% in diastolic pressure (the bottom number in a reading) and a drop of more than 3% in systolic pressure (the top number). 

Since 14 out of 18 participants had high blood pressure and nearly all of them took medication for it even during the study, a small blood pressure decrease may help lessen their odds for heart disease.

Although potato eaters took in more calories compared to adults given no potatoes, their weight didn’t change. That’s good news because seven participants were obese and six were overweight.

In Korea, purple-colored spuds are considered a folk remedy for weight loss.

Grocery Smarts: Fat Foods, Fit Foods

Purple Potato Perks

The researchers suggest that purple potatoes are an effective agent to reduce blood pressure and lower the risk of heart disease and stroke in people with high blood pressure — without weight gain.

As for why the colorful spud may help the heart, scientists say the purple vegetable has many of the same healthful plant pigments as purple fruits. It’s rich in antioxidants, such as anthocyanins, carotenoids, and phenolic acids, which may reduce chronic inflammation linked with heart disease and stroke.

Pigmented potatoes also have high amounts of chlorogenic acid, a substance shown in animal studies to reduce elevated blood pressure.

Microwaving the purple spuds and eating them with their skins on is one of the best ways to get the most antioxidants and plant pigments from them.

And potatoes are popular. The average American eats about one medium potato a day. They are a good source of vitamin C and potassium, and if you eat them with their skins on, you’ll add more fiber to your diet.

It’s the mashed, fried, and au gratin-style potatoes, or the spuds that are twice-baked or topped with gobs of sour cream or butter, that can boost the vegetable’s fat and calorie content.

Researchers do not know whether white potatoes, which have fewer plant pigments and antioxidants, would have the same beneficial effects.

hypertension newsletter

Health information tailored to the needs of those living with hypertension. Sign up today to receive WebMD’s trusted Hypertension newsletter.

webmd.com

Feb. 3, 2012 — Researchers say they have developed a blood test that may reliably detect depression.

If the test continues to perform well in studies, experts say it could become one of the first objective ways to look for depression, which affects nearly 1 in 10 American adults.

“Psychiatry is a field that is begging for tests because all of our diagnoses, for the most part, are based on clinical assessments, and clinical assessments are very subjective and can be biased,” says Jennifer L. Payne, MD, a psychiatrist and co-director of the Mood Disorders Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Payne reviewed the study for WebMD but was not involved in the research, which is published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

“We’d love to have tests that tell us if someone has a particular illness or not,” she says. “This is a very nice step in that direction, but there’s a heck of a lot more work to be done before this is used as a clinical test for major depression.”

Depression Overview

Study Results ‘Quite Exciting’

The new test, called MDDScore, was developed by a company called Ridge Diagnostics. And it’s not the only objective test for depression under study.

In 2010, the company Rules-Based Medicine, which is headquartered in Austin, Texas, began offering a blood test that checks for recent-onset schizophrenia. The company is reportedly tweaking that test to make a version that looks for depression.

MDDScore measures nine indicators in blood called biomarkers that are thought to be altered in adults with major depressive disorder. 

“A large number of the markers that constitute the test come from the inflammation family,” says researcher George Papakostas, MD, a psychiatrist and director of treatment-resistant depression studies at Massachusetts General Hospital. 

“Chronic inflammation [is] part of a risk factor or part of the process of depression itself,” says Papakostas, who is also an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a consultant for Ridge Diagnostics.

Additional indicators include hormones, growth factors, enzymes, and other proteins that act as chemical messengers.

In two studies that involved 70 people with depression and 43 people who were not depressed for comparison, the test correctly identified depression about 91% of the time and correctly ruled it out about 81% of the time.

“Those numbers are high, and I think that’s quite exciting,” says Payne.

Still, the test missed depression in about 9% of people tested and falsely diagnosed depression in about 19% of people who were actually healthy.

Papakostas says those error rates may be acceptable since the test isn’t meant to be used as a standalone diagnostic tool.

“The goal in developing a test is not to kind of nullify clinical judgment or patient experience, but to kind of supplement or help with that,” he says.

According to the Ridge Diagnostics’ web site, the test is available to patients but must be ordered by a doctor. The list price of the MDDScore is $745. The cost to patients is $90 if it is covered by insurance.

webmd.com

Feb. 3, 2012 — When are “senior moments” just a normal part of healthy aging, and when are they a sign of something more serious such as Alzheimer’s disease?

This is the million dollar question, and the Alzheimer’s Questionnaire, a set of 21 yes or no questions that can be answered by a loved one or caregiver, may help answer it.

The 21 questions fall into five categories including memory, orientation, ability to function, visuospatial ability, and language. A score of 15 or higher suggests Alzheimer’s disease, while a score between five and 14 suggests mild cognitive impairment (MCI) — a form of early memory loss that may progress to Alzheimer’s. Scores of four or lower suggest the memory is working just fine.

More work is needed to confirm just how useful this screening tool may be, but the new study shows that it can help identify people with MCI rather adeptly. The findings appear in BMC Geriatrics.

Yeses to certain questions count more than others, as they are known to be more strongly predictive of Alzheimer’s disease. These include trouble with date and time, difficulty managing money, and a decreased sense of direction.

When a Loved One Has Alzheimer’s

Key Questions

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. Symptoms include serious memory loss, confusion, and mood changes that develop gradually and worsen with time. People with MCI are at greater risk for developing Alzheimer’s, but not all people with MCI do.

Sample questions include:

Does the patient repeat questions, statements, or stories in the same day?Does the patient suspect others of moving, hiding, or stealing items when he or she can’t find them?Is the patient having trouble using appliances?Does the patient become disoriented in unfamiliar places?Does the patient have difficulty recognizing people who are familiar to him or her?

Researchers from the Banner Sun Health Research Institute in Sun City, Ariz., tested the new questionnaire on 47 people with MCI who were being treated by a neurologist, and on 51 people who had no known memory problems. People with MCI tended to repeat questions and statements, had trouble knowing the date or time, difficulties managing their finances, and a decreased sense of direction more often than those without  memory problems, the study shows.

Questionaire Needs Further Testing, Says Doctor

The new tool is “a quick and simple-to-use indicator that may help physicians determine which individuals should be referred for more extensive testing,” says researcher Michael Malek-Ahmadi, MSPH, in a news release.

“We are all looking for more tools that anyone can use to tell us is this age-related changes and not a big deal or is this person at risk for Alzheimer’s disease,” says Richard S. Isaacson, MD. He is a neurologist at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.  “This is not a major blood test or spinal tap, but it is something that anyone can do.”

webmd.com

Feb. 3, 2012 — When are “senior moments” just a normal part of healthy aging, and when are they a sign of something more serious such as Alzheimer’s disease?

This is the million dollar question, and the Alzheimer’s Questionnaire, a set of 21 yes or no questions that can be answered by a loved one or caregiver, may help answer it.

The 21 questions fall into five categories including memory, orientation, ability to function, visuospatial ability, and language. A score of 15 or higher suggests Alzheimer’s disease, while a score between five and 14 suggests mild cognitive impairment (MCI) — a form of early memory loss that may progress to Alzheimer’s. Scores of four or lower suggest the memory is working just fine.

More work is needed to confirm just how useful this screening tool may be, but the new study shows that it can help identify people with MCI rather adeptly. The findings appear in BMC Geriatrics.

Yeses to certain questions count more than others, as they are known to be more strongly predictive of Alzheimer’s disease. These include trouble with date and time, difficulty managing money, and a decreased sense of direction.

When a Loved One Has Alzheimer’s

Key Questions

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. Symptoms include serious memory loss, confusion, and mood changes that develop gradually and worsen with time. People with MCI are at greater risk for developing Alzheimer’s, but not all people with MCI do.

Sample questions include:

Does the patient repeat questions, statements, or stories in the same day?Does the patient suspect others of moving, hiding, or stealing items when he or she can’t find them?Is the patient having trouble using appliances?Does the patient become disoriented in unfamiliar places?Does the patient have difficulty recognizing people who are familiar to him or her?

Researchers from the Banner Sun Health Research Institute in Sun City, Ariz., tested the new questionnaire on 47 people with MCI who were being treated by a neurologist, and on 51 people who had no known memory problems. People with MCI tended to repeat questions and statements, had trouble knowing the date or time, difficulties managing their finances, and a decreased sense of direction more often than those without  memory problems, the study shows.

Questionaire Needs Further Testing, Says Doctor

The new tool is “a quick and simple-to-use indicator that may help physicians determine which individuals should be referred for more extensive testing,” says researcher Michael Malek-Ahmadi, MSPH, in a news release.

“We are all looking for more tools that anyone can use to tell us is this age-related changes and not a big deal or is this person at risk for Alzheimer’s disease,” says Richard S. Isaacson, MD. He is a neurologist at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.  “This is not a major blood test or spinal tap, but it is something that anyone can do.”

webmd.com

Feb. 3, 2012 — Looking for an unusual way to lower your blood pressure? Try an unusually colored potato.

When overweight people included two servings of purple potatoes a day in their diet for a month, they not only reduced their blood pressure, they also didn’t gain weight in the process, a small study shows.

In the study, published online in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, researchers tracked 18 middle-aged adults. Half of them were asked to eat the skin and flesh of six to eight small purple potatoes at lunch and dinner for four weeks, while the others did not add the microwaved taters to their meals.

During the second month of the study, the groups switched regimens.

Participants were given Purple Majesty potatoes. 

Compared to those who went spud-free, purple potato eaters had on average drop of slightly more than 4% in diastolic pressure (the bottom number in a reading) and a drop of more than 3% in systolic pressure (the top number). 

Since 14 out of 18 participants had high blood pressure and nearly all of them took medication for it even during the study, a small blood pressure decrease may help lessen their odds for heart disease.

Although potato eaters took in more calories compared to adults given no potatoes, their weight didn’t change. That’s good news because seven participants were obese and six were overweight.

In Korea, purple-colored spuds are considered a folk remedy for weight loss.

Grocery Smarts: Fat Foods, Fit Foods

Purple Potato Perks

The researchers suggest that purple potatoes are an effective agent to reduce blood pressure and lower the risk of heart disease and stroke in people with high blood pressure — without weight gain.

As for why the colorful spud may help the heart, scientists say the purple vegetable has many of the same healthful plant pigments as purple fruits. It’s rich in antioxidants, such as anthocyanins, carotenoids, and phenolic acids, which may reduce chronic inflammation linked with heart disease and stroke.

Pigmented potatoes also have high amounts of chlorogenic acid, a substance shown in animal studies to reduce elevated blood pressure.

Microwaving the purple spuds and eating them with their skins on is one of the best ways to get the most antioxidants and plant pigments from them.

And potatoes are popular. The average American eats about one medium potato a day. They are a good source of vitamin C and potassium, and if you eat them with their skins on, you’ll add more fiber to your diet.

It’s the mashed, fried, and au gratin-style potatoes, or the spuds that are twice-baked or topped with gobs of sour cream or butter, that can boost the vegetable’s fat and calorie content.

Researchers do not know whether white potatoes, which have fewer plant pigments and antioxidants, would have the same beneficial effects.

hypertension newsletter

Health information tailored to the needs of those living with hypertension. Sign up today to receive WebMD’s trusted Hypertension newsletter.

webmd.com

Feb. 1, 2012 — Americans are eating unhealthy amounts of sugar, and excess sugar should be regulated like alcohol and tobacco, say researchers from the University of California, San Francisco.

“We are now seeing the toxic downside [of excess sugar intake],” Robert H. Lustig, MD, a professor of clinical pediatrics at the UCSF Center for Obesity Assessment, Study, and Treatment, tells WebMD. “There has to be some sort of societal intervention. We cannot do it on our own because sugar is addictive. Personal intervention is necessary, but not sufficient.”

His views on regulating sugar are published as a commentary in the journal Nature.

Weight Gain Shockers Slideshow: Surprising Reasons You’re Gaining Weight

Regulating Sugar: Industry Weigh-In

WebMD asked the Sugar Association, an industry group, to review the recommendations.

Charles Baker, PhD, the association’s chief scientific officer, responded by email. “When the full body of science is evaluated during a major review, experts continue to conclude that sugar intake is not a causative factor in any disease, including obesity,” he says.

Sugar and Its Effects in Excess

Excess sugar in the diet does not just add calories, Lustig writes. Too much sugar has been linked with health problems, and they occur even in people who are normal weight, he says.

According to Lustig, too much sugar can be linked with some health problems including:

High blood pressure (He says fructose raises uric acid, in turn raising blood pressure.)DiabetesIncrease in the blood fats called triglyceridesObesityLiver problems

Sugar has the potential for abuse, he tells WebMD. “Like tobacco and alcohol, ” he writes, “it acts on the brain to encourage subsequent intake.”

A key point: Lustig is talking about added sugars, not those naturally occurring in such foods as fruit or milk. He defines added sugar as ”any sweetener containing the molecule fructose that is added to food in processing.”

Men should eat no more than nine teaspoons of added sugar a day, according to the American Heart Association. Women should eat no more than six teaspoons.

A typical 12-ounce regular soda includes about eight teaspoons of sugar, according to the AHA. The average intake of added sugars in the U.S. is about 22 teaspoons a day.

webmd.com

Feb. 2, 2012 — Two new studies shine a light on some lesser known consequences of heart failure: fractures and memory problems.

About 5 million people in the U.S. have heart failure, according to the American Heart Association. A chronic and progressive condition, heart failure occurs when the heart muscle can no longer pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. Symptoms may include swelling in the feet, ankles, and legs, tiredness, and shortness of breath. It is usually treated with medications aimed at relieving symptoms and helping the heart do its job.

One new study shows that people with heart failure are also at a 30% increased risk for major fractures. As a result, they may benefit from screening and treatment to make sure their bones stay strong. This study appears in Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

The second report shows that people with heart failure may have memory problems and a loss of grey matter in their brain. These changes may make it more difficult for people with heart failure to take their medications as directed. The findings appear in the European Heart Journal.

A Visual Guide to Heart Disease

Be Aware of Patients’ Limitations

Martha Grogan, MD, says the new studies tell us two important things about heart failure that we didn’t know before.  Now “we need to think more about screening for osteoporosis and preventing fractures in people with heart failure. We also need a heightened awareness of the [mental] limitations of these patients.” She is an assistant professor of medicine at the Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minn.

Heart failure often involves a complex treatment regimen that can be difficult to understand. Grogan likes patients to have a family member or caregiver at doctor appointments to understand the medications, the rationale for taking them, and the importance of being consistent on doses.

Richard S. Isaacson, MD, agrees. He is a neurologist at the University of Miami School of Medicine. “People with heart failure are going to have trouble understanding because their thinking skills are not as strong as they used to be. They often have multiple medical problems and difficulty understanding what they can do to help themselves,” he says. Handouts explaining heart failure and its treatments can often help remind people what they need to do and why they need to do it.

In the second study, Australian researchers ran mental tests on 35 people with heart failure, 56 people with another type of heart disease, and 64 healthy people. They also used magnetic resonance imaging scans to look at differences in the volume of grey matter in the brain.

People with heart failure had more problems with their immediate and long-term memory and had slower reaction speed than their healthy counterparts. The brain changes occurred in areas of the brain linked to demanding mental tasks and emotional processing.

Exactly why this occurs is not yet understood, the study authors report.

webmd.com

Feb. 2, 2012 — How you eat may depend on who you’re eating with, according to a study published in the online journal PLoS ONE.

Diners who eat together, the authors report, tend to mirror each other, taking bites of food at the same time. They call it behavioral mimicry, or “the process in which a person unwittingly imitates the behavior of another person.”

And they conclude that such insights have “significant implications for one’s health and well-being.”

Simple Secrets to Portion Control and Healthy Eating

You Eat, I Eat

The researchers, most of them based at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, studied the eating patterns of 70 pairs of college-age women as they dined together in a university lab, which had been arranged to resemble a real bar. Each pair was served a full meal. They had 20 minutes in which to eat. One of the women in each pair knew in advance how much food she would be served, but neither woman was told how much to eat.

The timing of each bite was cataloged by the researchers in order to determine how many of the bites were the product of mimicry.

After analyzing each and every bite taken, the researchers determined that both women in the pairs studied were quite likely to take a forkful of food at the same time. In general, both women mimicked the other, but the partner who knew her portion size in advance was less likely to mimic her companion.

However, the pattern did not hold throughout the meal. The pairs were three times more likely to mimic each other when they first began to eat than  toward the end.

“The matched actions of both eating companions fall within the typical definition of behavioral mimicry,” the authors conclude. They are less certain of why this happened.

Possible Explanations

One possibility is that both women are unconsciously primed to mimic each other by what the authors refer to as a mirroring network, in which one person who sees another perform an action is therefore likely to perform that same action. In this case, one of the women sees the other lift her fork and take a bite, so she automatically does the same.

The authors also suggest that the two women were monitoring each other in order to avoid “eating inappropriately” or “to ingratiate themselves with their eating companion.” They speculate that mimicry may lessen when eating with familiar people compared to strangers.

After noting several shortcomings of the study, the authors conclude that mimicry may explain, at least in part, why who we dine with affects how — and how much — we eat.

“As long as such important influences on intake are not wholeheartedly acknowledged,” they write, “it will be difficult to make healthy food choices and maintain a healthy diet.”

webmd.com

Feb. 2, 2012 — How you eat may depend on who you’re eating with, according to a study published in the online journal PLoS ONE.

Diners who eat together, the authors report, tend to mirror each other, taking bites of food at the same time. They call it behavioral mimicry, or “the process in which a person unwittingly imitates the behavior of another person.”

And they conclude that such insights have “significant implications for one’s health and well-being.”

Simple Secrets to Portion Control and Healthy Eating

You Eat, I Eat

The researchers, most of them based at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, studied the eating patterns of 70 pairs of college-age women as they dined together in a university lab, which had been arranged to resemble a real bar. Each pair was served a full meal. They had 20 minutes in which to eat. One of the women in each pair knew in advance how much food she would be served, but neither woman was told how much to eat.

The timing of each bite was cataloged by the researchers in order to determine how many of the bites were the product of mimicry.

After analyzing each and every bite taken, the researchers determined that both women in the pairs studied were quite likely to take a forkful of food at the same time. In general, both women mimicked the other, but the partner who knew her portion size in advance was less likely to mimic her companion.

However, the pattern did not hold throughout the meal. The pairs were three times more likely to mimic each other when they first began to eat than  toward the end.

“The matched actions of both eating companions fall within the typical definition of behavioral mimicry,” the authors conclude. They are less certain of why this happened.

Possible Explanations

One possibility is that both women are unconsciously primed to mimic each other by what the authors refer to as a mirroring network, in which one person who sees another perform an action is therefore likely to perform that same action. In this case, one of the women sees the other lift her fork and take a bite, so she automatically does the same.

The authors also suggest that the two women were monitoring each other in order to avoid “eating inappropriately” or “to ingratiate themselves with their eating companion.” They speculate that mimicry may lessen when eating with familiar people compared to strangers.

After noting several shortcomings of the study, the authors conclude that mimicry may explain, at least in part, why who we dine with affects how — and how much — we eat.

“As long as such important influences on intake are not wholeheartedly acknowledged,” they write, “it will be difficult to make healthy food choices and maintain a healthy diet.”

webmd.com