Checkup

Making Rounds

Upcoming health lectures

St. Luke's Community Health Series presents:

• "Dementia: Not Everything is Alzheimer's" with Dr. Kay Mitchell, Community Internal Medicine, July 20
• "Living with Chronic Conditions or Illness," with Dr. Robert Shannon and Mary Morris Williams, Family Medicine, Aug. 10

Programs begin at 7 p.m. in Room 370 Roger Main Building at St. Luke's Hospital.
Reservations: (904) 296-3712.

Mayo Clinic Health Forum presents:

• "Laser Vision Correction" with Dr. Saiyid Hasan, Ophthalmology, July 22
• "Heartburn: The Latest Surgical and Medical Advances" with Dr. Ronald Hinder, General Surgery, Aug. 19

Programs begin at 7 p.m. in Kinne Auditorium at Mayo Clinic.
Reservations: (904) 953-0770.

Green tea helps kill leukemia cells

Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., have discovered that a component in green tea helps kill cells of the most common leukemia in the United States. The research using laboratory cell cultures shows that a component of green tea known as epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) helps kill leukemia cells by interrupting the communication signals they need to survive. The leukemia cells studied were from patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), most often diagnosed in patients in their mid-tolate 60s. Currently, there is no cure for CLL, though chemotherapy is administered in the most severe cases. The study shows that green tea's EGCG interrupted survival signals, prompting leukemia cells to die in eight of 10 patient samples tested in the laboratory.

Research provides key to Parkinson's disease prevention

Agene variant plays an important role in reducing the risk for Parkinson's disease, researchers have found. Alarge, international study coordinated by Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., shows that people who inherit a variant form "S18Y" of the ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase L1 Parkinson's disease. This study supports the development of new drugs targeting the effects of this gene variant as a means of preventing Parkinson's disease and its progression. Developing treatments that imitate the effects of the gene variant might be protective against the disease, researchers say.