OHSU researchers discover potential way to repair brain damage in multiple sclerosisPublic release date: 31-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Todd Murphy murphyt@ohsu.edu 503-494-8231 Oregon Health & Science University
Discovery could be 'life-changer' for millions with MS, stroke and other conditions that cause brain damage
PORTLAND, Ore. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered that blocking a certain enzyme in the brain can help repair the brain damage associated with multiple sclerosis and a range of other neurological disorders.
The discovery could have major implications for multiple sclerosis, complications from premature birth and other disorders and diseases caused by demyelination a process where the insulation-like sheath surrounding nerve cells in the brain becomes damaged or destroyed. Demyelination disrupts the ability of nerve cells to communicate with each other, and produces a range of motor, sensory and cognitive problems in MS and other disorders.
The study was published this week in the online edition of the Annals of Neurology. The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by Larry Sherman, Ph.D., who is a professor of cell and development biology at OHSU and a senior scientist in the Division of Neuroscience at the Oregon National Primate Research Center.
"What this means is that we have identified a whole new target for drugs that might promote repair of the damaged brain in any disorder in which demyelination occurs," Sherman said. "Any kind of therapy that can promote remyelination could be an absolute life-changer for the millions of people suffering from MS and other related disorders."
Sherman's lab has been studying MS and other conditions where myelin is damaged for more than 14 years. In 2005, he and his research team discovered that a sugar molecule, called hyaluronic acid, accumulates in areas of damage in the brains of humans and animals with demyelinating brain and spinal cord lesions. Their findings at the time, published in Nature Medicine, suggested that hyaluronic acid itself prevented remyelination by preventing cells that form myelin from differentiating in areas of brain damage.
The new study shows that the hyaluronic acid itself does not prevent the differentiation of myelin-forming cells. Rather, breakdown products generated by a specific enzyme that chews up hyaluronic acid called a hyaluronidase contribute to the remyelination failure.
This enzyme is highly elevated in MS patient brain lesions and in the nervous systems of animals with an MS-like disease. The research team, which included OHSU pediatric neurologist Stephen Back, M.D., and OHSU neuroscientist Steve Matsumoto, Ph.D., found that by blocking hyaluronidase activity, they could promote myelin-forming cell differentiation and remyelination in the mice with the MS-like disease. Most significantly, the drug that blocked hyaluronidase activity led to improved nerve cell function.
The next step is to develop drugs that specifically target this enzyme. "The drugs we used in this study could not be used to treat patients because of the serious side effects they might cause," said Sherman. "If we can block the specific enzyme that is contributing to remyelination failure in the nervous system, it would likely cause few, if any, side effects."
Sherman and other researchers at the ONPRC are uniquely positioned to test newly developed drugs for their safety and effectiveness in nonhuman primates at ONPRC that spontaneously develop an MS-like disease. If they find a drug that is effective in these monkeys, they will be in a good position to test such drugs in patients.
Sherman cautioned that the discovery does not necessarily signal a cure for MS. Many other factors can contribute to the problems associated with MS and other demyelinating diseases, he said. But discovering the actions of this enzyme and finding a way to block it "could at the very least lead to new ways to promote the repair of brain and spinal cord damage either by targeting this enzyme alone or by inhibiting the enzyme in conjunction with other therapies."
###
The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, Fast Forward, LLC (a subsidiary of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society), the Laura Fund for Multiple Sclerosis Research, the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation and the American Heart Association.
About OHSU
Oregon Health & Science University is a nationally prominent research university and Oregon's only public academic health center. It serves patients throughout the region with a Level 1 trauma center and nationally recognized Doernbecher Children's Hospital. OHSU operates dental, medical, nursing and pharmacy schools that rank high both in research funding and in meeting the university's social mission. OHSU's Knight Cancer Institute helped pioneer personalized medicine through a discovery that identified how to shut down cells that enable cancer to grow without harming healthy ones. OHSU Brain Institute scientists are nationally recognized for discoveries that have led to a better understanding of Alzheimer's disease and new treatments for Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and stroke. OHSU's Casey Eye Institute is a global leader in ophthalmic imaging, and in clinical trials related to eye disease.
About Fast Forward, LLC
Fast Forward, LLC, is a nonprofit organization established by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in order to accelerate the development of treatments for MS. Fast Forward accomplishes its mission by connecting university-based MS research with private-sector drug development and by funding small biotechnology/pharmaceutical companies to develop innovative new MS therapies and repurpose FDA-approved drugs as new treatments for MS. More information can be found at www.fastforward.org.
About The National Multiple Sclerosis Society
The National MS Society addresses the challenges of each person affected by MS. To fulfill this mission, the Society funds cutting-edge research, drives change through advocacy, facilitates professional education, collaborates with MS organizations around the world, and provides programs and services designed to help people with MS and their families move forward with their lives. In 2011 alone, through its national office and 50-state network of chapters, the Society devoted $164 million to programs and services that assisted more than one million people. To move us closer to a world free of MS, the Society also invested $40 million to support more than 325 new and ongoing research projects around the world. The Society is dedicated to achieving a world free of MS. Join the movement at www.nationalMSsociety.org.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
OHSU researchers discover potential way to repair brain damage in multiple sclerosisPublic release date: 31-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Todd Murphy murphyt@ohsu.edu 503-494-8231 Oregon Health & Science University
Discovery could be 'life-changer' for millions with MS, stroke and other conditions that cause brain damage
PORTLAND, Ore. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered that blocking a certain enzyme in the brain can help repair the brain damage associated with multiple sclerosis and a range of other neurological disorders.
The discovery could have major implications for multiple sclerosis, complications from premature birth and other disorders and diseases caused by demyelination a process where the insulation-like sheath surrounding nerve cells in the brain becomes damaged or destroyed. Demyelination disrupts the ability of nerve cells to communicate with each other, and produces a range of motor, sensory and cognitive problems in MS and other disorders.
The study was published this week in the online edition of the Annals of Neurology. The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by Larry Sherman, Ph.D., who is a professor of cell and development biology at OHSU and a senior scientist in the Division of Neuroscience at the Oregon National Primate Research Center.
"What this means is that we have identified a whole new target for drugs that might promote repair of the damaged brain in any disorder in which demyelination occurs," Sherman said. "Any kind of therapy that can promote remyelination could be an absolute life-changer for the millions of people suffering from MS and other related disorders."
Sherman's lab has been studying MS and other conditions where myelin is damaged for more than 14 years. In 2005, he and his research team discovered that a sugar molecule, called hyaluronic acid, accumulates in areas of damage in the brains of humans and animals with demyelinating brain and spinal cord lesions. Their findings at the time, published in Nature Medicine, suggested that hyaluronic acid itself prevented remyelination by preventing cells that form myelin from differentiating in areas of brain damage.
The new study shows that the hyaluronic acid itself does not prevent the differentiation of myelin-forming cells. Rather, breakdown products generated by a specific enzyme that chews up hyaluronic acid called a hyaluronidase contribute to the remyelination failure.
This enzyme is highly elevated in MS patient brain lesions and in the nervous systems of animals with an MS-like disease. The research team, which included OHSU pediatric neurologist Stephen Back, M.D., and OHSU neuroscientist Steve Matsumoto, Ph.D., found that by blocking hyaluronidase activity, they could promote myelin-forming cell differentiation and remyelination in the mice with the MS-like disease. Most significantly, the drug that blocked hyaluronidase activity led to improved nerve cell function.
The next step is to develop drugs that specifically target this enzyme. "The drugs we used in this study could not be used to treat patients because of the serious side effects they might cause," said Sherman. "If we can block the specific enzyme that is contributing to remyelination failure in the nervous system, it would likely cause few, if any, side effects."
Sherman and other researchers at the ONPRC are uniquely positioned to test newly developed drugs for their safety and effectiveness in nonhuman primates at ONPRC that spontaneously develop an MS-like disease. If they find a drug that is effective in these monkeys, they will be in a good position to test such drugs in patients.
Sherman cautioned that the discovery does not necessarily signal a cure for MS. Many other factors can contribute to the problems associated with MS and other demyelinating diseases, he said. But discovering the actions of this enzyme and finding a way to block it "could at the very least lead to new ways to promote the repair of brain and spinal cord damage either by targeting this enzyme alone or by inhibiting the enzyme in conjunction with other therapies."
###
The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, Fast Forward, LLC (a subsidiary of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society), the Laura Fund for Multiple Sclerosis Research, the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation and the American Heart Association.
About OHSU
Oregon Health & Science University is a nationally prominent research university and Oregon's only public academic health center. It serves patients throughout the region with a Level 1 trauma center and nationally recognized Doernbecher Children's Hospital. OHSU operates dental, medical, nursing and pharmacy schools that rank high both in research funding and in meeting the university's social mission. OHSU's Knight Cancer Institute helped pioneer personalized medicine through a discovery that identified how to shut down cells that enable cancer to grow without harming healthy ones. OHSU Brain Institute scientists are nationally recognized for discoveries that have led to a better understanding of Alzheimer's disease and new treatments for Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and stroke. OHSU's Casey Eye Institute is a global leader in ophthalmic imaging, and in clinical trials related to eye disease.
About Fast Forward, LLC
Fast Forward, LLC, is a nonprofit organization established by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in order to accelerate the development of treatments for MS. Fast Forward accomplishes its mission by connecting university-based MS research with private-sector drug development and by funding small biotechnology/pharmaceutical companies to develop innovative new MS therapies and repurpose FDA-approved drugs as new treatments for MS. More information can be found at www.fastforward.org.
About The National Multiple Sclerosis Society
The National MS Society addresses the challenges of each person affected by MS. To fulfill this mission, the Society funds cutting-edge research, drives change through advocacy, facilitates professional education, collaborates with MS organizations around the world, and provides programs and services designed to help people with MS and their families move forward with their lives. In 2011 alone, through its national office and 50-state network of chapters, the Society devoted $164 million to programs and services that assisted more than one million people. To move us closer to a world free of MS, the Society also invested $40 million to support more than 325 new and ongoing research projects around the world. The Society is dedicated to achieving a world free of MS. Join the movement at www.nationalMSsociety.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
NEW YORK (AP) ? Stripped of its bustle and mostly cut off from the world, New York was left wondering Tuesday when its particular way of life ? carried by subway, lit by skyline and powered by 24-hour deli ? would return.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the power company said it could be the weekend before the lights come on for hundreds of thousands of people plunged into darkness by what was once Hurricane Sandy.
Bloomberg said it could also be four or five days before the subway, which suffered the worst damage in its 108-year history, is running again. All 10 of the tunnels that carry New Yorkers under the East River were flooded.
In one bit of good news, officials announced that Kennedy International Airport in New York and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey will reopen at 7 a.m. Wednesday with limited service. New York's LaGuardia Airport remains closed.
Sandy killed 18 people in New York City, the mayor said. The dead included two who drowned in a home and one who was in bed when a tree fell on an apartment. A 23-year-old woman died after stepping into a puddle near a live electrical wire.
"This was a devastating storm, maybe the worst that we have ever experienced," Bloomberg said.
For the 8 million people who live here, the city was a different place one day after the storm.
In normal times, rituals bring a sense of order to the chaos of life in the nation's largest city: Stop at Starbucks on the morning walk with the dog, drop the kids off at P.S. 39, grab a bagel.
On Tuesday, those rituals were suspended, with little indication when they would come back. Schools were shut for a second day and were closed Wednesday, too.
Coffee shops, normally open as close as a block apart, were closed in some neighborhoods. New York found itself less caffeinated and curiously isolated from the world, although by afternoon it had begun to struggle back to life.
Some bridges into the city reopened at midday, but the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan, and the Holland Tunnel, between New York and New Jersey, remained closed. And service on the three commuter railroads that run between the city and its suburbs was still suspended.
Bus service was restored Tuesday evening, on a limited schedule but free. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he hoped there would be full service on Wednesday, also free.
The New York Stock Exchange was closed for a second day, the first time that has happened because of weather since the 19th century, but said it would reopen on Wednesday.
Swaths of the city were not so lucky. Consolidated Edison, the power company, said it would be four days before the last of the 337,000 customers in Manhattan and Brooklyn who lost power have electricity again. Problems to its high-voltage systems caused by the hurricane forced the utility to cut power Tuesday night to an additional 160,000 customers in Brooklyn and Staten Island.
For the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and Westchester County, with 442,000 outages, it could take a week, Con Ed said. Floodwater led to explosions that disabled a power substation on Monday night, contributing to the outages.
New Yorkers were left without power to charge their iPods and Kindles and Nooks for the subway. Not that there was a subway. People clustered around electrical outlets at a Duane Reade drugstore to power up their phones.
At a small market called Hudson Gourmet, in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, cashiers made change by candlelight and shoppers used flashlights to scour the shelves.
Lee Leshen used the light from his phone to make his selections ? three boxes of linguine and a can of tomatoes. His power was out, but the gas in his stove worked, so he could cook. He said he almost never cooks but is learning.
John Tricoli, his wife, Christine, and their 6-year-old twins spent Monday night holed up in their 11th-floor apartment in one of several lower Manhattan office buildings that were converted to condos in the 2000s and have drawn young families. Once the power went off at 7 p.m., there was a major challenge ? no TV.
By candlelight, "we colored, we read, we played games ? old school," Christine Tricoli said as the family emerged to go on a walk on Tuesday that started with a trek down 11 flights of stairs.
"There was even talking," she said.
The city modified its taxi rules and encouraged drivers to pick up more than one passenger at a time, putting New Yorkers in the otherwise unthinkable position of having to share a yellow cab with a stranger.
Livery cabs and black sedans, normally allowed to pick up passengers only by arrangement, were allowed to stop for people hailing rides on the street.
The landscape of the city changed in a matter of hours.
A fire destroyed as many as 100 houses in a flooded beachfront neighborhood in Queens. Firefighters said the water was chest-high on the street and they had to use a boat to make rescues.
In Brooklyn, Faye Schwartz surveyed the damage in her Brooklyn neighborhood, where cars were strewn like leaves, planters were deposited in intersections and green Dumpsters were tossed on their sides.
"Oh, Jesus. Oh, no," she said.
The chief line of demarcation Tuesday ran through Manhattan's Chelsea section. Above 25th Street, delis did business and traffic lights worked. Below 25th Street, nothing.
For some New Yorkers, the aftermath of the storm stirred memories of the blackout of August 2003, when a cascading power failure in the Northeast left the city without power for parts of two days. This time, as then, there was no sign of looting or widespread crime. Nine people in all were arrested on charges they stole from a gas station, an electronics store and a clothing store in Queens.
But the 2003 blackout was a communal experience, with strangers lounging on stoops and bars blaring music into darkened neighborhoods. This time, people had to stay indoors and wait.
At a darkened luxury high-rise building in lower Manhattan, resident manager John Sarich was sending porters with flashlights up and down 47 flights of stairs to check on people who live there.
He said most people stayed put despite calls to evacuate. One pregnant woman started having contractions, and Sarich said that before the power went out, he nervously researched online how to deliver a baby.
"I said, 'Oh boy, I'm in trouble,'" Sarich said. The woman managed to find a cab to take her to a hospital.
Bloomberg told reporters that the storm deaths were tragic but said the city pulled through better than some people expected, considering the magnitude of the storm.
The mayor said: "We will get through the days ahead by doing what we always do in tough times ? by standing together, shoulder to shoulder, ready to help a neighbor, comfort a stranger and get the city we love back on its feet."
___
Associated Press writers Meghan Barr, Verena Dobnik, Frank Eltman, Tom Hays, Larry Neumeister, Karen Matthews, Alexandra Olson, Jennifer Peltz, Hal Ritter and Ralph Russo contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? Good luck figuring out whether Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would cut or raise your taxes if he's elected president. President Barack Obama promises tax reform, too, but precious little detail.
Unlike Romney, Obama wants to make sure any tax reform produces a big new chunk of revenue to address the deficit. Yet it's difficult to do that and not hit the middle class. It's Romney's far more ambitious tax plan, however, that has become front and center in the presidential campaign.
Romney promises a 20 percent cut in tax rates, but he won't say which deductions he'll kill to pay for it. He promises a wholesale rewrite of the tax code that would cut income tax rates across the board, taking the top rate from 35 percent to 28 percent.
Romney's plan offers the dessert of sweeping tax cuts but not the vegetables of how he would pay for it. He and running mate Paul Ryan ? his House GOP budget plan promises an even lower top tax rate of 25 percent ? say they'll curb tax breaks and rely on fresh revenue from economic growth to recoup the cost.
Obama would instead raise that top rate to 39.6 percent, making clear he's still wedded to the idea that individuals with incomes above $200,000 and couples earning above $250,000 should pay more. It's never gotten anywhere on Capitol Hill, even when Democrats had sweeping House and Senate majorities in Obama's first two years in office.
Romney says he will eliminate taxes on inherited wealth and abolish taxes on capital gains and investment income for couples making less than $200,000 a year. He also would do away with the alternative minimum tax.
All of this, the Republican vows, will not reduce the share of taxes paid by wealthier people ? nor raise taxes on the middle class or poor.
"I'm not going to raise taxes on anyone," he promised in his first debate with Obama.
Critics of Romney's plan say it simply doesn't add up. They say the estimated cost of the cuts ? the $5 trillion over a decade figure tossed about on the campaign trail and in Obama's television ads ? can't be recouped without slashing deductions and other tax breaks that chiefly benefit the middle- and upper middle-class.
Such popular ? and entrenched ? tax breaks include the deductions for home mortgage interest, charitable giving, and state and local taxes and the exclusion for employer-paid health insurance.
"You can't do all those things," said Roberton Williams of the Tax Policy Center, a Washington-based think tank. "The rich get such savings from the rate cuts that there just aren't enough tax breaks that benefit them that taking them away would recoup the full lost revenue from the rate cuts."
Such critics were given a boost on Friday when the nonpartisan tax analyst for Congress released a study that says eliminating all itemized deductions would pay for just a 4 percent cut in tax rates ? far below Romney's 20 percent target.
Republicans pointed out that the Joint Committee on Taxation analysis was simply a sketchy outline of tax reform concepts and that there are very big differences between the panel's assumptions and the Romney plan. For starters, the congressional study started from a narrower set of tax breaks from which to finance the rate cuts.
However, wiping out every tax deduction ? including those for mortgage interest, for state and local taxes and for charitable giving, but leaving breaks for health insurance and retirement savings or the personal exemption alone ? would raise $2.5 trillion over a decade, just about half of the cost of Romney's plan.
Romney's plan to swap a $5 trillion slice of revenue over a decade from rate cuts while gleaning an equally big slice of revenue by curbing deductions and other tax breaks faces enormous, perhaps insurmountable challenges. The estimate comes from the Tax Policy Center, a think tank that's a joint project of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute.
The nonpartisan think tank recently rattled the debate with a study that estimated that Romney's plan would require slashing middle-class tax breaks so deeply that a family making between $75,000 and $100,000 could have to pay an average $2,000 more.
The Romney campaign disputes the math and the methodology and insists it's possible to do. Romney himself has tossed out hints that he might cap taxpayer deductions at, say, $17,000, $25,000 or $50,000. A campaign aide said he's considering curbing personal exemptions and the tax exclusion of employer-paid health insurance, particularly for those with higher incomes.
But without specifics it's impossible to analyze who would pay more and who would pay less. For families with children, a big mortgage, and who live in high tax states, for instance, might face a tax increase, while people who've paid off their houses and live in low tax states would see a tax cut.
Obama's core promise on taxes is what it's always been: Renew the tax cuts passed during George W. Bush's tenure, except for individuals whose income exceeds $200,000 and for married couples exceeds $250,000. That would raise the top income tax rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent, back where it was during the Clinton era.
Obama also recommends limiting itemized deductions for such higher earners, phasing out their personal exemptions and increasing their rate on capital gains from 15 to 20 percent.
But Obama has never fought hard for the official tax plan that's in his budget, though he vows to hold the line and increase taxes on the wealthy if re-elected.
Instead, Obama hints he could support comprehensive tax reform like he did in negotiations with GOP House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio last summer. The Democratic platform says he's "committed to reforming our tax code so that it is fairer and simpler" and also guarantees that "no millionaire pays a smaller share of his or her income in taxes than middle class-families do."
It's commonly believed in Washington that the only way Republicans could ever vote for higher revenues ? no easy assumption ? is as part of a tax reform plan that lowers all rates, sharply curbs tax breaks and skims some of the revenue to defray the deficit.
Some Democrats, like Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, say it's impossible to do all three without hitting the middle class.
In this photo taken Aug. 1, 2012, Janice Durflinger poses for a photo at her workplace in Lincoln, Neb. Durflinger, who runs computer software programs for a bank, says she still works at 76, ?because I have to.? Social Security recipients shouldn't expect a big increase in monthly benefits come January. Preliminary figures show the annual benefit boost will be between 1 percent and 2 percent, which would be among the lowest since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975. Monthly benefits for retired workers now average $1,237, meaning the typical retiree can expect a raise of between $12 and $24 a month. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
In this photo taken Aug. 1, 2012, Janice Durflinger poses for a photo at her workplace in Lincoln, Neb. Durflinger, who runs computer software programs for a bank, says she still works at 76, ?because I have to.? Social Security recipients shouldn't expect a big increase in monthly benefits come January. Preliminary figures show the annual benefit boost will be between 1 percent and 2 percent, which would be among the lowest since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975. Monthly benefits for retired workers now average $1,237, meaning the typical retiree can expect a raise of between $12 and $24 a month. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
FILE - This Aug. 1, 2012 file photo shows Janice Durflinger at her workplace in Lincoln, Neb., Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012. The 56 million people who get Social Security benefits shouldn?t expect a big increase in their monthly payments next year. The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is determined by a government measure of inflation, and the measure shows that consumer prices have barely increased over the past year _ a revelation that might come as a surprise to seniors who spend more of their income on health care than younger adults. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Social Security recipients shouldn't expect a big increase in monthly benefits come January.
Preliminary figures show the annual benefit boost will be between 1 percent and 2 percent, which would be among the lowest since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975. Monthly benefits for retired workers now average $1,237, meaning the typical retiree can expect a raise of between $12 and $24 a month.
The size of the increase will be made official Tuesday, when the government releases inflation figures for September. The announcement is unlikely to please a big block of voters ? 56 million people get benefits ? just three weeks before elections for president and Congress.
The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is tied to a government measure of inflation adopted by Congress in the 1970s. It shows that consumer prices have gone up by less than 2 percent in the past year.
"Basically, for the past 12 months, prices did not go up as rapidly as they did the year before," said Polina Vlasenko, an economist at the American Institute for Economic Research, based in Great Barrington, Mass.
This year, Social Security recipients received a 3.6 percent increase in benefits after getting no increase the previous two years.
Some of next year's raise could be wiped out by higher Medicare premiums, which are deducted from Social Security payments. The Medicare Part B premium, which covers doctor visits, is expected to rise by about $7 per month for 2013, according to government projections.
The premium is currently $99.90 a month for most seniors. Medicare is expected to announce the premium for 2013 in the coming weeks.
"The COLA continues to be very critical to people in keeping them from falling behind," said David Certner, AARP's legislative policy director. "We certainly heard in those couple of years when there was no COLA at all how important it was."
How important is the COLA? From 2001 to 2011, household incomes in the U.S. dropped for every age group except one: those 65 and older.
The median income for all U.S. households fell by 6.6 percent, when inflation was taken into account, according to census data. But the median income for households headed by someone 65 or older rose by 13 percent.
"That's all because of Social Security," Certner said. "Social Security has the COLA and that's what's keeping seniors above water, as opposed to everybody else who's struggling in this economy."
Seniors still, on average, have lower incomes than younger adults. Most older Americans rely on Social Security for a majority of their income, according to the Social Security Administration.
"It's useful to bear in mind that no other group in the economy gets an automatic cost-of-living increase in their income," said David Blau, an economist at The Ohio State University. "Seniors are the only group."
Still, many feel like the COLA doesn't cover their rising costs.
"You have utilities go up, your food costs go up. Think about how much groceries have gone up," said Janice Durflinger, a 76-year-old widow in Lincoln, Neb. "I would love to know how they figure that."
The COLA is based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W, a broad measure of consumer prices generated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It measures price changes for food, housing, clothing, transportation, energy, medical care, recreation and education.
In the past year, food prices have risen 2 percent while home energy prices have dropped 3.8 percent, according to the CPI-W. Housing costs have climbed by 1.4 percent and gasoline prices have increased by 1.8 percent.
Blau said it's common for seniors to feel like the COLA doesn't reflect their rising costs, in part because older people tend to spend more of their income on health care. Medical costs have risen 4.3 percent in the past year as measured by the CPI-W.
"Inflation affects everybody differently unless you happen to be that mythical average person who buys the average bundle of goods," Blau said.
By law, the Social Security Administration compares the price index for July, August and September with consumer prices in the same three months from the last year in which a COLA was awarded. A COLA was awarded a year ago, so the index from July, August and September of this year is being compared with the index from the same period in 2011.
If prices go up over the course of the year, benefits go up, starting with payments delivered in January. But if prices go down, benefits stay the same. That's what happened in 2010 and 2011, when there was no COLA.
This year, consumer prices for July and August indicate next year's COLA would be 1.4 percent. The price index for September ? the final piece of the puzzle ? will be released Tuesday. Several economists said they don't expect it to change the projected COLA by more than a few tenths of a percentage point, if at all.
Vlasenko estimates the COLA will be from 1.5 percent to 1.7 percent. AARP estimates it will be about 1.5 percent.
Since 1975, the annual COLA has averaged 4.2 percent. Only five times has it been below 2 percent, including the two times it was zero. Before 1975, it took an act of Congress to increase Social Security payments.
"Over the past year, consumer prices have only gone up a little bit," Blau said. "By historical standards, it's a very low rate of increase."
___
Online:
Social Security COLA: http://www.ssa.gov/cola/
___
Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap
In this image released by the Dutch Interior and Justice Ministry on Friday Oct. 12, 2012, showing a major cocaine seizure displayed Thursday Oct. 11, 2012. More than eight tons of cocaine were hidden among boxes of bananas when it was seized, and the fruit went to the monkeys and other creatures at the Blijdorp zoo in Rotterdam. The drugs were seized Monday in the Belgian port of Antwerp aboard a ship from Ecuador, while the bananas were allowed to continue on to the zoo in Rotterdam, the shipment's final destination. Dutch authorities say the seizure is the biggest ever in the Netherlands or Belgium. (AP Photo/Dutch Interior and Justice Ministry, HO)
In this image released by the Dutch Interior and Justice Ministry on Friday Oct. 12, 2012, showing a major cocaine seizure displayed Thursday Oct. 11, 2012. More than eight tons of cocaine were hidden among boxes of bananas when it was seized, and the fruit went to the monkeys and other creatures at the Blijdorp zoo in Rotterdam. The drugs were seized Monday in the Belgian port of Antwerp aboard a ship from Ecuador, while the bananas were allowed to continue on to the zoo in Rotterdam, the shipment's final destination. Dutch authorities say the seizure is the biggest ever in the Netherlands or Belgium. (AP Photo/Dutch Interior and Justice Ministry, HO)
In this image released by the Dutch Interior and Justice Ministry on Friday Oct. 12, 2012, showing a box of bananas in which was hidden large amounts of cocaine and displayed Thursday Oct. 11, 2012. More than eight tons of cocaine were hidden among boxes of bananas when it was seized, and the fruit went to the monkeys and other creatures at the Blijdorp zoo in Rotterdam. The drugs were seized Monday in the Belgian port of Antwerp aboard a ship from Ecuador, while the bananas were allowed to continue on to the zoo in Rotterdam, the shipment's final destination. Dutch authorities say the seizure is the biggest ever in the Netherlands or Belgium. (AP Photo/Dutch Interior and Justice Ministry, HO)
In this image released by the Dutch Interior and Justice Ministry on Friday Oct. 12, 2012, showing a customs officer as he cuts into a block of cocaine, displayed Thursday Oct. 11, 2012. More than eight tons of cocaine were hidden among boxes of bananas when it was seized, and the fruit went to the monkeys and other creatures at the Blijdorp zoo in Rotterdam. The drugs were seized Monday in the Belgian port of Antwerp aboard a ship from Ecuador, while the bananas were allowed to continue on to the zoo in Rotterdam, the shipment's final destination. Dutch authorities say the seizure is the biggest ever in the Netherlands or Belgium. (AP Photo/Dutch Interior and Justice Ministry, HO)
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) ? A major cocaine seizure in Europe has turned out to be good news for the animals at Rotterdam's zoo.
The drugs were hidden among boxes of bananas, and the fruit was later donated to the monkeys and other creatures at the Blijdorp zoo.
Dutch prosecutors said Friday more than eight tons of cocaine was hidden among the bananas on a ship from Ecuador. The drugs were seized Monday in the Belgian port of Antwerp, while the bananas were allowed to continue on to Rotterdam ? the shipment's final destination. Dutch police arrested a Belgian truck driver and four Dutch men on Tuesday.
Dutch authorities say the seizure is the biggest ever in the Netherlands or Belgium.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Federal health officials have tracked down 12,000 of the roughly 14,000 people who may have received contaminated steroid shots in the nation's growing meningitis outbreak, warning Thursday that patients will need to keep watch for symptoms of the deadly infection for months.
"We know that we are not out of the woods yet," Dr. J. Todd Weber of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said as the death toll reached 14.
Of the 170 people sickened in the outbreak, all but one have a rare fungal form of meningitis after receiving suspect steroid shots for back pain, the CDC said. The other case is an ankle infection discovered in Michigan; steroid shots also can be given to treat aching knees, shoulders or other joints.
Fungus has been found in at least 50 vials of an injectable steroid medication made at a specialty compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts, investigators said. Health authorities haven't yet said how they think the medication was contaminated, but they have ruled out other suspects ? other products used in administering the shots ? and the focus continues to be on that pharmacy, the New England Compounding Center.
Compounding pharmacies traditionally supply products that aren't commercially available, unlike the steroid at issue in the outbreak. And Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said it appears the company violated state law governing those pharmacies, which aren't supposed to do large-scale production like a drug manufacturer. Instead, they're supposed to produce medication for patient-specific prescriptions, she said.
"This organization chose to apparently violate the licensing requirements under which they were allowed to operate," she told reporters Thursday.
Company officials weren't immediately available to comment Thursday but earlier this week declined comment except to say they were cooperating with the investigation.
Idaho becomes the 11th state to report at least one illness. The others are Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia.
Last month, after illnesses began coming to light, the company recalled three lots of the steroid medicine ? known as preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate? that were made in May, June and August. The recall involved about 17,700 single-dose vials of the steroid sent to clinics in 23 states.
It's not known if all or just some of the vials were contaminated, or how many doses were administered for back pain or for other reasons. Those given joint injections are not believed to be at risk for fungal meningitis, which is an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord. A back injection would put any contaminant in more direct contact with that lining.
Symptoms of meningitis include severe headache, nausea, dizziness and fever. The CDC said many of the cases have been mild, and some people had strokes. Symptoms have been appearing between one and four weeks after patients got the shots, but CDC officials on Thursday warned at least one illness occurred 42 days after a shot.
The fungus is difficult to grow in lab analyses, and health officials on Thursday issued an unusual piece of advice to doctors: If a patient who got the injection starts to develop meningitis symptoms, he or she should be treated, even if testing is negative for the fungus.
The fungus behind the outbreaks was initially identified as Aspergillus, but as more testing of patients has been completed, it's become clear that another fungus ? a kind of black mold called Exserohilum ? is the primary cause. As of Wednesday, CDC's fungal disease laboratory confirmed Exserohilum in 10 people with meningitis and Aspergillus in just one.
Exserohilum is common in dirt and grasses, but this is the first time it's been identified as the cause of meningitis, said Weber, who is managing the CDC's response to the outbreak.
Health officials are hurriedly trying to determine the best way to treat this kind of an illness, and have settled on two very strong anti-fungal medications. Consulting with experts, they're making a best guess as to the dosage and length of time patients will have to be treated.
"This is new territory," Weber said.
Fungal meningitis is not contagious like the more common forms.
Being at the starting point of our digestive system, we are at the duty of satiating our tongue?s desire by giving the best ever food! Here! With the Great British Chefs you have the chance of achieving what you need! These innovative chefs are immense in giving the best recipes according to the changing time and their recent one are the palatable salmon recipes! We should make it a point to consume salmon because it is extremely nutritious and we can also go through food critic Matthew Fort in order to know about salmon collection. Everybody should know to prepare salmon terrine, pan fried salmon and salmon fillet because it will be tasty to eat.
However the results on marketing the property is enormous with all the current consumer?s market for the actual OFWs and cost-effective segments of Class D along with E along with seller?s marketplace of section A, N and H (Upper Modern society or Top Middle to Low Middle-class). There has been a slow down inside demand however people are still dreaming of buying a property either for immediate need as a property or because profitable local rental business.
Anyways, here are some tips in finding a reliable realty practitioner:
One particular.) Set a consultation ? It might be wiser with regard to sellers / buyers to go to know first the person you might be negotiating along with. Make a job interview him or her and have to know him/her well.
2.) Qualifications: Is he/she an accredited realty practitioner or healthcare provider? He can demonstrate his certification on hand with a resume, a new calling card along with license to rehearse on it. Plus the contact amounts or he or she has a website it will have a lot of information about him/her in his small bio and so forth. As of today, nearly all Filipino broker / real estate agents follow the Republic Behave 9646: Real Estate Services Act involving 2009 where the Applying rules and regulations together with code involving ethics is still on the procedure. The Philippine Regulatory Board on Property Services within the Professional Restrictions Commission (PRBES-PRC) overseers all of the regulations inside practice of the Realty Profession. Other ideas for sellers would be to further investigate and study about the person you wish to contact through reaching the subsequent websites with regard to realty practitioners as genuine members of great standing Certified Real Estate Brokers (CRBs) who will be members of Real estate agents Association of the Philippines (REBAP), with regard to Realtors or even members of Philippine Association involving Realtors Board (PAREB) and contact their own organizational secretariats to verify.
3.) Expertise and experience ? he/she need to know the current issue or condition of the components he would become selling away. Sometimes ask for a encounter a seller and earn an ocular inspection on the mentioned property. Furthermore must be up-to-date with present tax laws and house zoning and worth especially for industrial properties. Remember to ask just what his / her property specialization to narrow down your own interviews as well as the person you would like. There are property practitioners who will be very good in general brokerage, other people may be focused only throughout project marketing and marketing on recently developed market segments, others possibly engage in natural land or even farm land selling.
Several.) Marketing knowledge ? he/she would certainly ask questions ranging from the size of the lot area, the price you are marketing your property and then for any terms or even conditions coming from modes involving payment, additional pertinent data like history of the home, the actual tax affirmation and also obtain the photocopy of the transfer of title certificate. The buyer ought to be open to some recommendations of a reliable real estate broker in payment terms for example. A vendor should also be flexible with some terms as long as it?s feasible along with would all the advantage the party in liquidating the house.
5.) System ? A trusted realty broker / real estate professional must be connected with clients trying to find properties and also at the same has generated a large network among fellow brokers from the inside the organization he or she is a member of. Real estate Brokers / Realtors have Multiple List System (Your local mls) for Real estate agents (members of Philippine Association involving Realtors Board or PAREB) along with Property List System (Please) for Certified Real Estate Brokers (CRBs) with regard to members of Real estate agents Association of the Philippines (REBAP) whereby they can article online inside their organization website or demonstrate the listing during organization meetings in order for the actual broker to acquire help in marketing and marketing off your house immediately.
CRB Benedict Baluyut, can be a certified realty professional along with Real Estate Broker?s Permit No. PGA 07-153R. He?s based in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga, Philippines. Presently, he is the actual Vice-President for Administration Information Techniques (VP-MIS) of the Real estate agents Association of the Philippines, Inc. ? Pampanga Chapter (REBAP Pampanga Chapter) so that as an associate broker of H. F. Baluyut Real estate and has been a lecturer in topics regarding real estate marketing and marketing using the internet, additional multimedia programs or social networking.
Tyler Green has been a professional analyst for over Fourteen years and have been learning good ideas with encino homes in part with his affiliation with Creative Ideas Group ,a new creative team for creative people. Learn All about his website to find out about his granada hills homes ideas over the years.
Tim's back! Remember him? We're so excited to get the old team back together that we just couldn't wait until 5:00 to do this week's show. So join Tim, Brian and Dana tonight at 4PM ET tonight for gadgety goodness.
Learn the most powerful cardio workout that will help you lose weight fast and get ripped. Did you enjoy the ?High Intensity Cardio for Fast Weight Loss Part 1? video? For the web?s best Six Pack ABS Workout & Exercise Videos.
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Kythera Biopharmaceuticals shares are trading above their offering price in their first day listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The stock jumped 81 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $19.30 in late morning trading, and earlier traded as high as $20.59.
The Calabasas, Calif., company, which is developing an injectable treatment for double chins, raised about $70.4 million in an initial public offering of 4.4 million shares. The company priced its IPO at $16 per share, the top end of its estimated range.
Kythera expects net proceeds of about $62.8 million, or $72.6 million if underwriters exercise an option to buy additional shares.
The company will use nearly all proceeds to pay for late-stage clinical studies of its double-chin treatment, labeled ATX-101.
The stock is trading under the ticker symbol "KYTH."
If you have a stockpile of never used household items, gadgets and clothing, still in shopping bags or still with original price tags attached, you may have an addiction to shopping.
Mental Health professionals are seeing a tremendous growth in compulsive shopping disorders, where individuals are unable to control their shopping and spending habits, resulting in clinics and self-help groups popping up around the country.
According to the Illinois Institute for Addictive Recovery, ?Compulsive shopping and spending is described as a pattern of chronic, repetitive purchasing that becomes difficult to stop and ultimately results in harmful consequences. It is defined as an impulse control disorder and has features similar to other addictive disorders without involving use of an intoxicating drug?.
Beginning on October 15, Oxygen channel viewers will have the opportunity to see what it?s like to be a compulsive shopper when they air the first episode of a new show called, My Shopping Addiction.? This docu-series will follow the lives of extreme compulsive shoppers who will receive the help of Clinical Psychologists, Dr. David Tolin, Ph.D.,??and Ramani Durvasula, Ph.D.? To learn more about the show,?My Shopping Addiction, visit the Oxygen channel website.
Whether you consider yourself addicted to shopping, a compulsive shopper, ?compulsive spender or shopaholic, it?s recommended that you seek professional help before it gets out of control. ??
You may also be interested in:
7 compulsive shopping traps we fall into?? Buy Nothing Day helps consumers to simplify and keep the clutter out Inside the Mind of Hoarders
Photo credit: Confessions of a Shopaholic (Touchstone Pictures)
Jacquie Ross is the Family Makeover Maven. Jacquie is a Certified Life and Family Coach, Professional Organizer and award winning owner of CastAway the Clutter! A busy mom expert, Jacquie works with moms and families to develop strategies to reach their goals, identify any road blocks, and find more meaning in their lives. Learn more about Jacquie?s life coaching and parent/youth/family coaching here at the Family Makeover Maven, and for organizing services, visit CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie can also be found on Facebook
It was a fair question. After all, I advise, lecture, and teach about grantmaking around the world. Helping funders align their strategies with intent, culture, resources, impact, and implementation is how I spend my professional time. And it is always flattering to hear that a growing number of wealth managers, philanthropy advisors, and independent funders and foundations are using the method I articulated some years ago.
So, indeed, it was a fair question when I was asked recently ? ?What are your priorities and funding focus?? Do I, as it were, practice what I teach?
I must confess that it took me several years to hold myself to the discipline I prescribe. It isn?t so easy to graciously say no to all of the ?social? requests. There are friends who are being honored; organizations which do good work which deserve support and whose staff or board we have a personal connection; colleagues on boards with us; past clients?. We all recognize the problem. None of us is exempt, and the higher one goes in leadership roles, the more the assumptions of reciprocity.
The next area which required a lot of thought, and squirming, is how I feel about the big legacy re-granting or umbrella charities. These groups defined 20th century philanthropy and, in professionally crucial ways, I was a beneficiary of these organizations for many years. Even as I became more focused, did I have a responsibility to continue to pay those dues [or as some would say, my communal tax]? Or could we, in good conscience, extricate ourselves from that kind of giving?
One of the areas which helped me along over the last decade was the degree to which I became a volunteer leader, with all of the time and financial responsibilities that entailed. I had always been an active board member of a lot of organizations, and often found myself an officer or executive committee member. But until 10 years ago, there was no question that those were extracurricular activities. I was fully employed by others. In a way that everyone recognized, the scope of what I could commit was limited. But over the last 10 years, as a self-employed advisor, I had no one to account to except myself [and Mirele, of course.] The extent of my time and financial commitments were up to me. It forced me to think quite differently about to what I wished to devote that time and energy, and which involvements were either not gratifying or beyond my capacity to be a meaningful leader. Even as my time and financial commitments grew, I found myself dropping boards that didn?t fit those standards. Implicitly I began to see that one important basis for the focus of my own philanthropy was the degree to which my personal involvement was meaningful and [pardon the jargon] impactful. It became easier to see that, as valuable and important as the large legacy organizations may be, our gifts are not large enough for us to play the kind of role I wish to do with the recipients of our personal philanthropy. Not so easy a decision, and clearly arguable, but one I reluctantly made.
That process, in turn, forced us to think more forthrightly about what really were the values that we wanted to support. There is no limit to need; no paucity of worthy organizations; and no shortage of societal issues about which we care. There was no way that these issues could be limited to one, but we gradually were able to winnow the focus down to two areas that seemed to work for us: social change [including, of course, environmental matters] and inter-group understanding.
Aha! there we have it: two subject areas. And within those, a style approach: a decision to support those with which I or we have a meaningful involvement. And it works. People have come to understand [if not always appreciate] our absence from dinners. They see that we have had enough leadership roles that we clearly are doing our part somewhere, even if not ?there?. And I suspect that they respect that we have tried hard to be good reliable funders who model making a difference ? and not fritter away our resources where it won?t.
In any case, the discipline has forced us to apply the standards and learnings I encourage others to follow. Even if the places we end up supporting are idiosyncratic, it is a strategy that works for us, and reflects a systematic strategy we can live with.
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Public release date: 31-Oct-2012
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If you have a stockpile of never used household items, gadgets and clothing, still in shopping bags or still with original price tags attached, you may have an addiction to shopping.
Jacquie Ross is the Family Makeover Maven. Jacquie is a Certified Life and Family Coach, Professional Organizer and award winning owner of CastAway the Clutter! A busy mom expert, Jacquie works with moms and families to develop strategies to reach their goals, identify any road blocks, and find more meaning in their lives. Learn more about Jacquie?s life coaching and parent/youth/family coaching here at the Family Makeover Maven, and for organizing services, visit CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie can also be found on Facebook