i on NIH Vodcast
July 1, 2011
“i on NIH” Vodcast Episode #0027
Welcome to “i on NIH”!
Featured in this month's episode a message for high school graduates, baby boomers are turning 65, and the eye condition cataract.
From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland – America’s premiere medical research agency – this is “i on NIH”!
Covering health-research topics important to you and the nation, this public service vodcast is your information source from inside all 27 institutes and centers at NIH.
Half an hour, once a month, we’ll show you the excitement of advances and the important information that comes from medical research.
And now, here’s your host, Joe Balintfy.
Host: Welcome to the 27th edition of I on NIH. Coming up in this episode, we’ll have a special high-school graduation message from the director of the NIH; we’ll have the first of a series of interviews about how baby boomers are, this year, starting to turn 65; and we’ll learn about cataracts, a debilitating eye condition; but first, a short video which was the winning entry of a video contest. The National Library of Medicine here at NIH asked for entries describing how people can use MedlinePlus. That’s a Web site for patients and their families and friends that can share information about diseases, conditions, and wellness issues in language that you can understand. James, a 5th grader, used MedlinePlus to better understand his peanut allergy. He shares this information with his class and everyone understands his health issue better, thanks to MedlinePlus. Here’s his winning video.
James and the Peanut Allergy
James: My name is James and I have a peanut allergy. I have to go see my doctor today. He reminded me of all the food that I can't eat because it makes me sick. He said I need to remember to be careful and always know what I'm eating. It's hard because the other kids get to eat all that stuff and they don't understand why I can't. I thought it might help if I looked it up on the internet and did a report for my class. My Mom helped me find a really cool site called MedlinePlus. It has all kinds of information about peanut allergies. I wrote my report and gave it to my class. I think we all understand peanut allergies better now. Thanks to MedlinePlus.
Host: Great video James, congratulations! That website again is MedlinePlus.gov. Congratulations are also in order this time of year for high-school students. NIH Director, Dr. Francis Collins offers a message to those recent graduates. This next video was requested by a motivated graduating senior at a high school in Ontario, but it speaks to students everywhere.
Dr. Francis Collins - Message to Senior High School Class
Dr. Collins: Hello, I'm Doctor Francis Collins, director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health and a leader of the international Human Genome Project.
Congratulations to the 2011 graduating class of the Cardinal Newman Catholic Secondary School. And special greetings to Mrs. Stack-Durward and Kathryn McMillan, whose letter caught my attention in the midst of an extremely busy day and got us all together.
Hopefully, these achievements represent just the first of many contributions that each of you will make to our world. We urgently need bright minds like yours to realize the potential of science and technology to benefit all of humankind. Equally important, we need such minds to work together.
As leader of the Human Genome Project, I can tell you that it would have been impossible to read all 3 billion letters in our DNA instruction book without the teamwork of thousands of scientists from around the globe. Such collaboration continues to be essential as science moves forward.
Take the case of the International Cancer Genome Consortium, which is being coordinated by Dr. Tom Hudson of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. In that effort, researchers from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America are working together to map the DNA mutations involved in 50 different types of cancer. Indeed, our ability to solve this and many other of nature's mysteries will hinge upon assembling teams that meld biological know-how with expertise in math, computers, health care, law, and many other disciplines.
Kathryn, you and your classmates are about to enter a complex, challenging, and most exciting world. I hope at least a few of you will consider pursuing careers in science or medicine. Many experts are calling this century, "The Century of Biology," so biomedical research is where I expect some of the most rewarding jobs will be. However, remember that no matter where your journey of discovery takes you, the future depends on you.
We live in an era in which all people--from farmers to factory workers--need to make informed decisions about science and technology. For example, based on advances that build upon the sequencing of the human genome, we are starting to see the dawn of personalized medicine. Doctors have already begun to use genomic information to choose the right drug for the right patient at the right time. Also on the horizon are new gene-based designer drugs for cancer, diabetes, heart disease, mental illness, and many other conditions. And that's not all -- information about each person's unique genetic profile will soon be used to develop more personalized approaches for disease prevention.
Still, as is the case with most new technologies, genomic research raises some daunting questions. Among the questions we must ask ourselves are:
- Will access to genomic technologies be equitable?
- How can we protect against genetic discrimination?
- Will we succumb to genetic determinism, neglecting the role of the environment and undervaluing the power of the human spirit? And the list goes on.
Thanks to your education at Cardinal Newman, you are well positioned to make such decisions because you have acquired the ability to ask questions and analyze issues. Now, I urge each of you to put that ability into action to benefit not only yourself, but your family, your community, and society as a whole.
In closing, congratulations to each of you! Best wishes as you continue to set bold goals, and work hard to achieve them. The future truly is in your hands.
Baby boomers turning 65
Host: From today’s graduating class, to the class of 1964… That’s about when the baby boomers started graduating high school. America's baby boomers, that population boom of people born between 1946 and 1964, are starting to turn 65 in 2011. This boomer phenomenon has implication for the U.S. population and to discus that, we’re talking with Dr. Marie Bernard, a deputy director here at NIH. First, Dr. Bernard, can you give us a perspective on the significance of the first of the baby boomers starting turning 65 this year?
Bernard: Based on the volume people have projected every 15 to 30 seconds, there's another boomer turning 65. And that means that what we used to have as a population pyramid where at the top of the pyramid you had people who were 80 years and older and at the bottom, at the base you had lots of younger individuals is being changed. It's anticipated because we boomers hope to live as long as the current cohort of older individuals that by 2050, it will be a population rectangle rather than a pyramid.
Host V/O: What does that mean for healthcare?
Bernard: The longer we live, the more likely we are to develop heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, Alzheimer's disease, and there will then be a need for those individuals to be cared for in our healthcare system. So we can anticipate there will be quite a bit of demand as people reach towards the end of their life.
Host V/O: How does the current generation of older people compare to earlier generations?
Bernard: The current generation of older individuals are healthier and living longer than their predecessors. Thus again, we baby boomers hope we will be able to do the same. A challenge, however, is that for baby boomer, the cohort of individuals born between 1946 and 1964, many of us have been subject to the obesity and the epidemic in our country, and with obesity you're more likely to develop high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems.
Host V/O: What factors are helping lead to healthier older generations?
Bernard: The factors have led to the current cohort of individuals being healthier are things that occurred really at the beginning of the 20th century in terms of better public health, better perinatal care. The availability of antibiotics and vaccines and then towards the end of the 20th century more advanced technological things, intensive care units, means of treating heart disease, bringing down cholesterol levels, smoking cessation.
Host V/O: What can baby boomers look forward to as they age?
Bernard: If you make it to 65, you're likely to make it to 85. That's 20 years. If you make it to 85, you're likely to make it 92. That's 30 years of additional life. And if we are healthy as the current cohort of older individuals are, then there's an opportunity to use that time creatively and constructively to be supportive to our society and to explore things that perhaps we didn’t get to explore when we were younger, responsible for getting our careers started or taking care of our families.
Host V/O: To hear more from Dr. Marie Bernard, listen to episode 136 of the NIH Research Radio podcast. Find that at the NIH homepage under “News & Events.” And for more information on aging research, visit www.nia.nih.gov.
Cataract
Host: One health condition that older people often experience is cataract; that’s a clouding of the lens in the eye and affects vision. More on that now:
Narrator: A doctor explains cataract and how to prevent and treat the condition.
Bishop: The eye has a lens within it which focuses light, and when this becomes cloudy, it is called a cataract. Cataracts develop naturally with aging and are very common changes in the older population. People will notice blurring of their vision or distortion. A very common scenario is driving at nighttime. Approaching headlights will appear to have a halo or starburst around them, and the reason is because the light coming into the eye, instead of passing through a nice clear lens, it is hitting what almost appear like crystals. And when the light hits this, it scatters, and so you can imagine, this produces distortion and a glare effect within the eye.
Cataracts are corrected by surgery; there is no medicine that reduces the impact or can make a cataract go away. Cataract surgery is very successful surgery; there are risks involved, as with all surgeries, but the outcomes are typically quite excellent. What can’t be done by cataract surgery is vision that was lost from other eye diseases, either glaucoma or diabetic eye disease or macular degeneration, if someone has damaged their retina or nerve from other eye diseases, cataract surgery will not restore the vision that was lost from those problems.
So there are two things that people can do to reduce their chance of developing cataracts. The first is not smoking, because smoking is one of the risk factors that leads to development of cataract. The second is protecting their eye from UV light exposure from sunlight, the effects of sunlight, by wearing sunglasses. UV light exposure is associated with cataracts, but also causes other problems in the eyes. So we recommend patients wear—anybody—wears UV protection sunglasses when out in the bright daylight. For more information about eye health, about finding an eye care professional, or about locating an organization that can provide financial assistance for eye care, please refer to our website. That’s www.nei.nih.gov.
Host: And that’s it for another episode on I on NIH. If you’d like to see or forward individual segments from this program, most are available on YouTube. Check out the NIHOD channel. Thanks for tuning in and please watch again next time. We’ll have more stories about baby boomers, plus much more. For I on NIH, I’m Joe Balintfy.
Narrator: “I on NIH” is a public service vodcast from the Department of Health and Human Services. Produced by NIH News Media Branch, of the Office of the Director, Office of Communications and Public Liaison. Thanks for tuning in. We’ll be back again next month with another episode of “I on NIH.”
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