A study among Chinese women finds a link between secondhand smoke and peripheral arterial disease. Peripheral arterial disease affects the Arteries of the legs and can lead to amputation. In previous studies, a link was also noted between secondhand smoke, heart disease and Stroke.

The Chinese men smoke far more frequently than Chinese women, according to study author Dr. Yao He of the Chinese PLA General Hospital.

The study involved more than 1200 Chinese women over the age of 60. During the study, 477 women reported the presence of secondhand smoke in the home or in the work area during the last two year or more.

The increase in peripheral arterial disease measured 67%, Heart attack measured 69% and stroke measured 59%.

The researchers also found a link between the amount of secondhand smoke and the duration of the exposure to the increased risk levels.

As a result of the study, researchers associated with the study are calling for public health changes to prevent the exposure to secondhand smoke.

Patients with rheumatoid Arthritis are at a higher risk of contracting Lung Cancer, a recent study shows. This increased risk was proven after the risk factors of tobacco usage and asbestos interaction were taken into consideration.

The study performed by the Veterans Health Administration, gathered information from more than 450,000 medical records belonging to veterans. All of the patient records pulled included treatment at a Veterans Health Center between the years of 1998 and 2004. More than 7,000 patients were diagnosed with lung cancer and more than 8,000 with rheumatoid arthritis.

When the medical records were compared, 3.4% of the population with lung cancer also presented with rheumatoid arthritis. At the conclusion of the study, the researchers found that the veterans who were diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis were nearly 45% more likely to later be diagnosed with lung cancer. The connection between arthritis and lung cancer was stronger as the veterans grew older.

Researchers stated in an editorial related to the research that it is unclear whether the connection between rheumatoid arthritis and lung cancer has to do with the conditions or with the environmental issues, such as smoking common among the patients with both arthritis and lung cancer.

At the yearly meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, researchers presented information that recurring sinus infections may be linked to body aches and pains present in aging adults. Patients who underwent sinus surgery were less likely to suffer from the Pain after the surgery.

Dr. Alexander Chester studied the findings of 10 studies involving more than 900 patients with recurring sinus infections and troubles. The studies included questionnaires about overall body ailments, aches and pains.

The result of the analysis lead Dr. Chester to link sinusitis with reports of body aches and pains. The pains associated with the sinusitis were of the same severity as the aches and pains reported by elderly patients suffering from Arthritis and / or Depression.

Further research into the patient case studies found a clear reduction in the reports of body aches and pains after the patients with recurring sinusitis underwent surgery to clear up the sinus problems.

The pain relief associated with the sinus surgery comes as a shock to most patients who thought the two conditions were not linked.

For the first time, researchers have developed a genetically altered animal model for Cystic Fibrosis (CF) that closely matches the characteristics of the disease in humans. By studying the complex and multi-organ disease process in the pig model, researchers can now better understand how the complications of CF develop, an advancement that may lead to new avenues for research in prevention and treatment.

The study, published in the Sept. 26 edition of Science, was funded in part by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), along with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), both of the National Institutes of Health, as well as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

CF is an inherited disease of the mucus-secreting glands which is caused by mutations in the gene responsible for making the protein cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), important for making sweat, digestive juices, and mucus. CF affects multiple organs, including the lungs, pancreas, Liver, intestines, sinuses, and sex organs. In CF, mucus becomes thick and sticky, and builds up in the lungs and in the pancreas, blocking the airways, and disrupting the digestive system, resulting in recurrent, destructive infections and trouble digesting food. Respiratory failure and liver disease are the most common causes of death in CF.

Before now, mice have been the only animal model for CF. However since mice do not exhibit typical symptoms of CF, and the lung and liver diseases found in humans, finding a better model was crucial to furthering CF research.

"This represents a significant advance in research on cystic fibrosis. Until now, no animal model has come close to mimicking the disease as seen in humans. This model offers unprecedented opportunities to understand how the respiratory disease develops during childhood which may lead to novel prevention and therapeutic strategies," said Elizabeth G. Nabel, M.D., director, NHLBI.

"This new approach allows researchers to move beyond mouse models into species that are physiologically more similar to humans and that manifest the multi-organ symptoms of the disease. It is an advance for CF research as well as for the study of other diseases where the mouse model is inadequate," said NIDDK Director Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D.

A team of researchers from the University of Iowa and the University of Missouri generated male piglets lacking the CFTR gene, or possessing the most common mutation of the gene, which was identified in 1989. Newborn piglets born without CFTR had similar presentations at birth, and shortly after birth, as seen in human infants with CF, including typical abnormalities in the lungs, intestines, pancreas, and liver.

As is typical in about 15 percent of human infants with CF, newborn piglets without CFTR developed meconium ileus, an intestinal obstruction requiring corrective surgery. All of the piglets developed pancreatic insufficiency. The pigs also exhibited signs of focal biliary cirrhosis, or lesions on the liver, and gallbladder abnormalities, both typical of CF in humans.

Lung disease in CF is caused by Infection and Inflammation. Which comes first remains an important question for CF researchers. At birth, researchers found no evidence of infection or inflammation in the pigs, a situation similar to newborn humans with CF.

"By tracking how the lungs of these pigs respond to challenges to their respiratory systems introduced by the environment, we hope to better understand how the complications of CF progress in children," said Michael J. Welsh, M.D., University of Iowa and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and senior author of the study.

About 12 million Americans are carriers of an abnormal CFTR gene. Many of them do not know that they are CF carriers. About 30,000 people in the United States have CF. The median life expectancy for a person with CF is 37 years. Currently, there is no cure for CF, but life expectancy has greatly improved due to better nutrition and management of respiratory infections.

Additional funding for the research was provided by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Food for the 21st Century.