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HAMILTON, Ontario, March 31 (UPI) — An anti-inflammatory drug may reduce inflammation symptoms with less incidence of bleeding often caused by other medications, Canadian researchers say.

John Wallace of the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute at McMaster University in Hamilton says animal models showed the drug ATB-346 — a derivative of naproxen that releases hydrogen sulfide, which may help protect the gastrointestinal tract — was at least as effective as naproxen in relieving inflammation and was 100 times safer than naproxen — with little or no damage to the stomach and small intestine.

The researchers said the drug helped the healing of pre-existing ulcers.

The research, published in the British Journal of Pharmacology, tested the drug on healthy rats, those with arthritis and inflammation, and on rats with compromised gastrointestinal tracts.

ATB-346 may also have less cardiovascular risk because — unlike naproxen — the researchers found no effects on blood pressure.

Naproxen, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug such as Aleve, is commonly used for the reduction of intense pain, fever, inflammation and stiffness caused by conditions such as osteoarthritis, gout and other conditions.

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EDINBURGH, Scotland, March 31 (UPI) — Greek scientists say therapeutic essential oils may become the anti-microbial of the future.

Study authors Yiannis Samaras and Effimia Eriotou of the Technological Educational Institute of Ionian Islands in Greece tested the anti-microbial activity of eight essential oils from plants and found thyme completely eliminated bacteria within 60 minutes.

Cinnamon was also found to efficiently fight off a number of strains of bacteria including Staphylococcus species such as meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

“Not only are essential oils a cheap and effective treatment option for antibiotic-resistant strains, but decreased use of antibiotics will help minimize the risk of new strains of antibiotic resistant micro-organisms emerging,” Samaras says in a statement.

Samaras and colleagues pointed out essential oils have been recognized for hundreds of years for their therapeutic properties, but yet very little is still known about how they work.

The findings were presented at the Society for General Microbiology’s spring meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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RALEIGH, N.C., March 31 (UPI) — Remembering a medication can mean the difference between life and death; nonetheless, people still forget, U.S. researchers said.

Lead author Dr. Shevaun Neupert, an assistant professor of psychology at North Carolina State University, divided study participants into two groups: younger adults — ages 18-20 — and older adults — 60-89 — and tracked their behavior.

Changes in daily behavior affect different age groups differently, Neupert said.

“For example, young people do the best job of remembering to take their medication on days when they are busier than usual,” Neupert said in a statement. “But older adults do a better job of remembering their medication on days when they are less busy.”

Neupert said that such a disparity was found between young and old adults that messages about prescriptions should be tailored to each age group.

The study, “Age Differences in Daily Predictors of Forgetting to Take Medication: The Importance of Context and Cognition,” is scheduled to be published in Experimental Aging Research.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

ST. LOUIS, March 31 (UPI) — Spring is an ideal time to clean out the medicine cabinet, but any time is a good time to get rid of expired products, a U.S. health services provider says.

Craig McKnight, a vice president at MediNurse, a St. Louis provider of private duty services and corporate wellness programs, says spring re-dos should include finding a better place to store medications than the bathroom — where temperature and humidity can make medicines less potent.

McKnight advises storing medicines in a bedroom dresser drawer or another cool, dry place out of direct sunlight that is out of the reach of children. Sealing containers in a plastic bag will help keep moisture away.

Almost everything in a home medicine cabinet, from sunscreen to prescription drugs to over-the-counter medications, has an expiration date and should be thrown out and replaced when expired, McKnight advises.

He also advises taking a closer look at medications and not using discolored or powdery pills; cracked, leaking, or stuck-together capsules; cloudy, filmy or hardened liquids; or cracked creams.

“It is critical to pay attention to your medicines because of potential potency problems with expired pills and creams,” McKnight says in a statement.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

BUFFALO, N.Y., March 31 (UPI) — Orange juice may counteract some of the bad effects of a fast-food breakfast or perhaps any high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal, U.S. researchers found.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo, N.Y., suggest the high amounts of antioxidants in orange juice — the flavonoids naringenin and hesperidin — help prevent blood vessel and other damage cause by inflammatory free radicals caused by eating a high-fat fast-food meal.

First author Husam Ghanim asked three groups of 10 normal-weight healthy men and women between the ages of 20-40 to break an overnight fast by eating a 900-calorie fast-food breakfast containing 81 grams of carbohydrates and 51 grams of fat.

Ghanim said one group of the study subjects drank 300 calories of “not-from-concentrate” orange juice, a second group drank a 300-calorie glucose drink and the third an equal amount of water. Blood samples were collected before the meal and after one, three and five hours.

The study, published online ahead of print in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found no significant difference in inflammatory mediators among the groups before the meal, but free radicals increased an average of 62 percent with the water, 63 percent with the glucose and 47 percent with orange juice.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

PRINCETON, N.J., March 31 (UPI) — A U.S. organization called Climate Central says its preliminary figures show average future U.S. March temperatures will be higher because of climate change.

The organization’s scientists say they have just published an interactive map showing what various states might expect during the third month of years to come.

Climate Central said its map uses special high-resolution projections covering the lower 48 states to show where average March temperatures are expected to be above or below freezing each decade this century. The group’s maps also compare projections under a reduced-carbon-pollution scenario versus a high one that extends current trends.

The scientists say their findings show either a high or complete loss of freezing zones by the end of the century in every state analyzed.

“Minnesota, Montana and North Dakota would lose the most total below-freezing area, while seven other states — from Arizona to Wisconsin — are projected to lose all they currently have,” the scientists said in a statement.

“These maps imply future changes the research community is only beginning to appreciate,” said Climate Central scientist Ben Strauss.

Climate Central says it is an organization of scientists and journalists “dedicated to communicating the best and latest climate science.”

The maps are available at http://www.climatecentral.org/.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

Dinosaur skull changed shape during growth

ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 31 (UPI) — U.S. paleontologists say they’ve discovered some sauropod dinosaur species’ skull shapes changed drastically during normal growth.

University of Michigan researcher John Whitlock and Assistant Professor Jeffrey Wilson, along with Matthew Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, said they made the discovery at the museum while studying the skull of a juvenile Diplodocus, a 150 million-year-old sauropod from western North America.

“Adult sauropod skulls are rare but juvenile skulls are even rarer,” said Whitlock, a doctoral candidate in the university’s Museum of Paleontology. “What we do know about the skulls of sauropods like Diplodocus has been based entirely on adults so far.”

Wilson, an assistant curator at the university’s museum, said Diplodocus had an unusual skull. “Adults had long, square snouts, unlike the rounded or pointed snouts of other sauropods,” he said. “Up until now, we assumed juveniles did, too.”

The scientists, however, said the small Diplodocus suggests major changes occurred in the skull’s shape throughout the animal’s life.

The researchers said those changes might have been tied to feeding behavior, with adults and juveniles eating different foods to avoid competition. Young Diplodocus, with their narrower snouts, may also have been choosier browsers, selecting high-quality plant parts.

The research is detailed in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Verbal stimuli can activate pain

JENA, Germany, March 31 (UPI) — Not only do painful memories and associations put the brain on alert, verbal stimuli also lead to pain reactions in the brain, German researchers said.

Dr. Thomas Weiss of the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena and his team say the findings explains why a physician giving a vaccine and saying, “This will only hurt for a second,” offers no solace at all.

Weiss said once a person associates the pain of the needle with the verbal statement “it’ll only hurt for a second,” at a later date, as soon as the needle touches either a child’s or adult’s skin the piercing pain can be felt very clearly.

“After such an experience it is enough to simply imagine a needle at the next vaccination appointment to activate our pain memory,” Weiss said in a statement.

“These findings show that words alone are capable of activating our pain matrix — our results suggest as well that verbal stimuli have a more important meaning than we have thought so far.”

The findings are published in the journal Pain.

New soybean aphid biotype identified

URBANA, Ind., March 31 (UPI) — U.S. scientists say they’ve identified a new soybean aphid — Biotype 3 — that can multiply on aphid-resistant soybean varieties.

The researcher, led by University of Illinois Professor Glen Hartman, said the soybean aphid is the only soybean insect pest known to have multiple biotypes, and the most recently identified soybean aphid was discovered in Springfield Fen, Ind., on overwintering glossy buckthorn.

Biotype 3 is not distinguishable by its appearance, Hartman said. It was identified by testing the aphid on soybean plants with known resistance genes. The scientists found it was capable of feeding and multiplying on varieties carrying the resistance genes Rag1 and Rag2.

“Identifying a biotype that can overcome Rag1 and Rag2 resistance, even before soybean varieties with these resistance genes were deployed in production, suggests high variability in virulence within soybean aphid populations,” said principal research specialist Curt Hill. “This gives the pest a high potential to adapt to and reduce the effective life of resistance genes deployed in production.”

The study that included Laura Crull, Theresa Herman and David Voegtlin was reported in the Journal of Economic Entomology.

FDA OKs drug to treat small varicose veins

WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Asclera injections for the treatment of small types of varicose veins.

Although they usually occur in a person’s legs, the abnormally swollen or twisted veins can form in other parts of the body, the FDA said. Factors such as genetics, age, sex, pregnancy, obesity and prolonged periods of standing may increase the risk for varicose veins.

“Varicose veins are a common condition,” said Dr. Norman Stockbridge, director of the FDA’s Division of Cardiovascular and Renal Products. “Asclera (polidocanol) is indicated for the treatment of small types of varicose veins when the aim of treatment is to improve appearance.”

The FDA said Asclera is approved to close spider veins (tiny varicose veins less than 1 millimeter in diameter) and reticular veins (those that are 1 to 3 millimeters in diameter). Officials said Asclera acts by damaging the cell lining of blood vessels, causing the blood vessel to close, to eventually be replaced by other types of tissue.

Asclera is distributed by BioForm Medical Inc. of Franksville, Wis., and manufactured by Chemische Fabrik Kreussler & Co. of Wiesbaden, Germany.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

KINGSTON, Ontario, March 31 (UPI) — A Canadian professor says a special solvent he invented might revolutionize the manufacturing of cooking oil.

Queens University Professor Philip Jessop says his solvent, when combined with carbon dioxide, extracts oil from soybeans. Industries currently manufacture cooking oils using hexane, which is a cheap, flammable solvent that is also a neurotoxin and creates smog.

The current manufacturing process, Jessop said, also involves distillation and that uses large amounts of energy.

The researcher says his new method of making oil involves a “switchable” solvent that is hydrophobic, meaning it mixes with oils and doesn’t like water. But when carbon dioxide is added, the solvent becomes hydrophilic, meaning it mixes with water and doesn’t like to be in oil. So, Jessop said, when carbonated water — carbon dioxide and water — is added to a mixture of the solvent and soybeans, the oil is extracted from the soybeans and collected. When the carbon dioxide is removed, the solvent switches back to its hydrophobic state.

While this process has only been performed in the laboratory, Jessop says he’s already heard from cooking oil companies interested in his research. But the solvent is still years away from being used in large-scale oil manufacturing, he said.

The research has been published in the journal Green Chemistry.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

JENA, Germany, March 31 (UPI) — Not only do painful memories and associations put the brain on alert, verbal stimuli also lead to pain reactions in the brain, German researchers said.

Dr. Thomas Weiss of the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena and his team say the findings explains why a physician giving a vaccine and saying, “This will only hurt for a second,” offers no solace at all.

Weiss said once a person associates the pain of the needle with the verbal statement “it’ll only hurt for a second,” at a later date, as soon as the needle touches either a child’s or adult’s skin the piercing pain can be felt very clearly.

“After such an experience it is enough to simply imagine a needle at the next vaccination appointment to activate our pain memory,” Weiss said in a statement.

“These findings show that words alone are capable of activating our pain matrix — our results suggest as well that verbal stimuli have a more important meaning than we have thought so far.”

The findings are published in the journal Pain.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

GREENVILLE, N.C., March 31 (UPI) — U.S. medical scientists are studying the venom produced by a Brazilian scorpion to determine if it might be used to develop a treatment for pancreatitis.

North Carolina State University and East Carolina University researchers say they’re trying to develop insights into the venom’s effects on the ability of certain cells to release critical components. The findings, they said, might also prove useful in understanding targeted drug delivery.

East Carolina University Associate Professor Paul Fletcher said pancreatitis — an inflammation of the pancreas, is a common result of scorpion stings. Fletcher initiated the study to determine if scorpion venom might be used as a way to discover how pancreatitis occurs and what cellular processes are affected at the onset of the disease.

Fletcher noted a protein production system found in the pancreas seems to be targeted by the venom of the Brazilian scorpion Tityus serrulatus. He then contacted North Carolina State University physicist Keith Weninger, who had studied that protein system.

Weninger provided Fletcher with two different proteins that were engineered to be more easily used for experiments outside cells and tissues. Fletcher’s team subsequently demonstrated the scorpion venom attacked the proteins, affecting the pancreatic cell’s ability to absorb or release components. That, Fletcher said, results in pancreatitis.

The study’s findings appear in the March 5 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.