Lifestyle

Heart Attack

Fewer women than men suffering from a heart attack appear to experience chest pain symptoms, according to a study of more than one million people in the US.

Overall men have significantly more heart attacks, but under the age of 55 women are more likely to die from one.

Without displaying the classic chest pain symptoms of a heart attack, researchers say some women may not be getting the right kind of treatment. The study looked at patients seen at more than 1,000 hospitals.

The research found that among younger women - those aged under 55 - the differences in symptoms with men of the same age were striking.

Overall, 42% of women did not experience chest pain compared with 30% of men. And once admitted, the study found that women were more likely to die than men from the same age group.

Some 14% of women died compared with 10% of men. The study adds to evidence that women can experience quite different symptoms to men.

Pancreatic Cancer

Scientists say they may have found a new weapon against pancreatic cancer after promising early trial results of an experimental drug combination. Giving the chemotherapy agent gemcitabine with an experimental drug called MRK003 sets off a chain of events that ultimately kills cancer cells, studies in mice show.

Patients are now testing the treatment to see if it will work for them. The Cancer Research UK-funded trials are being carried out in Cambridge.

Father-of-two Richard Griffiths, 41, from Coventry, has been on the trial since being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in May 2011.

"After six cycles of treatment, a scan showed the tumours had reduced and so I have continued with the treatment," he said.

"The trial gives you hope - I really feel I can do this with the science behind me."

H5N1 Results

Experts have delayed a decision on whether controversial research into the H5N1 bird flu virus should be released. It had been looking at how the work could be released while guarding against its abuse by bioterrorists.

But talks at the World Health Organization in Geneva decided more discussions were needed to see if it could be possible to publish in full.

One of the two journals which want to publish has already agreed to wait for talks to be complete. The controversy is centred on two research papers - one of which was submitted to Science, the other to another leading journal, Nature, last year.

They showed that the H5N1 virus could relatively easily mutate into a form that could spread rapidly among the human population.

The studies prompted the US National Security Advisory Board for Biotechnology (NSABB) to ask both journals last November to redact some sensitive parts of the research, which it believed could be used by terrorists to develop such a virus.

The request caused outcry among some scientists who believed that it was an infringement of academic freedom.

Some pointed out that the scientists had given presentations about their work at conferences and the details were already widely circulated, so redaction would have little purpose.

Body Clock

The time of the day could be an important factor in the risk of getting an infection, according to researchers in the US. They showed how a protein in the immune system was affected by changes in the chemistry of the body through the day.

The findings, published in the journal Immunity, showed the time of an infection changed its severity. An expert said drugs were likely to take advantage of the body clock in the near future.

Plants, animals and even bacteria go through a daily 24-hour routine, known as a circadian rhythm. Jet lag is what happens when the body gets out of sync with its surroundings after crossing time zones.

It has been known that there are variations in the immune system throughout the day. Researchers are now drilling down into the details.

The immune system needs to detect an infection before it can begin to fight it off. Researchers at Yale University School of Medicine were investigating one of the proteins involved in the detection process - Toll-like receptor nine (TLR9), which can spot DNA from bacteria and viruses.

In experiments on mice, the scientists showed that the amount of TLR9 produced and the way it functioned was controlled by the body clock and varied through the day.

Slow Walking

The speed someone walks may predict the likelihood of developing dementia later in life, according to researchers in the US. They also told a conference that grip strength in middle-age was linked to the chance of a stroke.

The scientists said more studies were needed to understand what was happening. Experts said the findings raised important questions, but more research was needed.

Suggestions of a link between slow walking speed and poor health have been made before. A study, published in the British Medical Journal in 2009, said there was a "strong association" between slow walking speed and death from heart attacks and other heart problems. A Journal of the American Medical Association study suggested a link between walking faster over the age of 65 and a longer life.

Dr Erica Camargo, who conducted the latest study at the Boston Medical Centre, said: "While frailty and lower physical performance in elderly people have been associated with an increased risk of dementia, we weren't sure until now how it impacted people of middle age."

Brain scans, walking speed and grip strength were recorded for 2,410 people who were, on average, 62 years old.

Results presented at the Academy of Neurology's annual meeting said that 11 years later, 34 people had developed dementia and 79 had had a stroke.