Obesity may increase the risk of the meningioma brain tumor by more than 50 percent, according a study from the University of Regensburg in Germany.

For their study, researchers did a meta-analysis of 13 previous studies involving 6,000 people with brain tumors. The scientists focused on meningiomas and gliomas, the two most common types of brain tumors, which together account for 70 percent of cases among 120 types of brain tumors.

The results, published in the journal Neurology, found that overweight patients were 21 percent more likely to develop a meningioma tumor compared with those at a normal weight, but obese patients were 54 percent more likely to develop one. Increased weight was only associated with a higher risk of meningiomas, and not gliomas.

Meningiomas can be treated, and the five-year survival rate is about 65 percent.  Gliomas tend to be more aggressive, with a five-year survival rate of about 10 percent.

The researchers speculate that several biological mechanisms related to obesity could account for the link to cancer, including increased estrogen, insulin, and pro-inflammatory cytokines.

This Week’s Slice of History: Discovery of Bacteria: Sept. 17, 1683

Sourced from: Live Science, Common Brain Tumor More Likely in Obese People

Ever wonder how drinking coffee at night can affect how you sleep?

New research conducted by Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the U.K. and the University of Colorado suggests that caffeine consumption–the equivalent of a double espresso–three hours before bedtime can turn back a person’s body’s clock by an hour by delaying the nightly rise in the level of the hormone melatonin.

The researchers invited five people to live in a lab for 49 days without a clock or any knowledge of external light to tell them if it was night or day. Participants were exposed to bright or dim light. Bright light, like caffeine, is known to be a stimulus that lengthens the circadian phase.

The participants were then given either caffeine - the equivalent of a double espresso - or a placebo three hours before going to sleep. Their saliva was then tested three hours later to see how much melatonin had been produced.

The results showed that when caffeine was consumed, melatonin levels rose around 40 minutes later than with the placebo. This represented a shift about half as long as what was caused by the bright light.

To confirm the results, a team of UK-based researchers added caffeine to human cells in a lab, and found the same results - the built-in circadian clock was delayed.

This Week’s Slice of History: Discovery of Bacteria: Sept. 17, 1683

Sourced from: Medical News Today, How an evening coffee can disrupt our body clock

A medication prescribed to treat type 2 diabetes may also reduce a person’s risk of suffering cardiovascular disease, according to new research at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

The study found that the drug Jardiance reduced deaths in patients with type 2 diabetes who were at risk of heart attack and stroke.

The research was conducted over a period of three years and included 7,000 people. The results showed that patients taking Jardiance had a 38 percent reduction in cardiovascular death, including from heart attack and stroke. There was no significant difference in non-fatal heart attacks or non-fatal strokes. Also, those taking Jardiance had a 32 percent lower risk of dying from any cause, and a 35 percent lower rate of hospitalizations from heart failure.

Jardiance is a once-a-day pill that won U.S. approval last year. It belongs to a new family of treatments that lower blood sugar by inhibiting reabsorption of glucose in the kidneys. It is the first diabetes drug to show heart-protective results in a large cardiovascular trial.

This Week’s Slice of History: Discovery of Bacteria: Sept. 17, 1683

Sourced from: Reuters, Lilly diabetes drug slashes deaths in patients with heart risk

There may be a link between energy drink consumption by teenagers and traumatic brain injury (TBI), suggests new research published in the journal _PLOS ONE. _

Researchers in Toronto analyzed information from a survey of more than 10,000 middle and high school students between the ages of 11 and 20 in Ontario in 2013. Students were asked about their energy drink consumption, as well as whether they had experienced a TBI, meaning they had sustained a blow to the head that left them unconscious for at least five minutes, or resulted in an overnight hospital stay.

The results showed that about 22 percent of students said they had experienced a TBI in their lifetimes, and 6 percent said they’d had a TBI in the last year. Most of these injuries occurred while the teens were playing sports.

In their analysis, the researchers also compared the teens’ odds of having a TBI in the past year with their odds of not having one. They found that for teens who had consumed energy drinks in the past week, the increase in odds of having a TBI was five times greater than it was for teens who didn’t consume energy drinks at all.

The researchers suggested that energy drinks might interfere with the body’s ability to heal from a TBI because the high levels of caffeine may change the chemical state of the body. They also suggest that that consuming energy drinks might increase a person’s chances of experiencing another TBI.

They noted, however, that the study found only an association between energy drinks and TBI, and not proof that drinking energy drinks increases teens’ risk for TBI.

This Week’s Slice of History: Discovery of Bacteria: Sept. 17, 1683

Sourced from: Live Science, Energy Drinks Tied to Brain Injuries in Teens