WEDNESDAY, Aug. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Engaging in more than two hours of physical activity per week appears to help pre-menopausal women maintain healthy bones, new research suggests.

The finding is based on the impact that even small amounts of exercise seem to have on curtailing the production of a protein that impedes bone growth, while at the same time increasing the activity of another protein that promotes bone formation.

The study will appear in the October issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

"Physical activity is good for bone health and results in lowering sclerostin -- a known inhibitor of bone formation -- and enhancing IGF-1 levels, a positive effector on bone health," study author Mohammed-Salleh Ardawi, a professor at the Center of Excellence for Osteoporosis Research and the faculty of medicine at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia, said in a journal news release.

The authors note that sclerostin, a hormone, works by migrating to bone surfaces, where it impedes bone cell creation. IGF-1 is shorthand for insulin-like growth factor-1, a hormone that promotes growth.

For this finding, researchers tracked 120 pre-menopausal women for an eight-week period. About half of the women were engaged in a supervised physical-activity routine, while the other half were not.

Women who had participated in more than two hours of activity per week were found to have "significantly" lower sclerostin levels and higher IGF-1 levels.

"Physical-activity training is conceptually simple and inexpensive, and can serve practical purposes including reducing the risk of low bone mass and osteoporosis, and, consequently, fractures," Ardawi said. "Our study found that even minor changes in physical activity were associated with clear effects on serum levels of sclerostin, IGF-1 and bone-turnover markers."

More information

For more on exercise and bone health, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

THURSDAY, July 5 (HealthDay News) -- As researchers suspected, abnormal bone marrow stem cells trigger the development of myelodysplastic syndromes, serious blood diseases that affect the bone marrow and can progress to leukemia, according to a new study.

"Good Morning America" host Robin Roberts recently disclosed that she had developed myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS, as a rare complication of her breast cancer treatment. The syndrome is diagnosed in about 10,000 to 15,000 people in the United States each year, mostly in men and in those over age 60.

The new findings, published in the July 2 online edition of Blood, could lead to improved treatments for myelodysplastic syndrome and cancers related to the syndrome, researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, in New York City, suggested in an Einstein news release.

"Researchers have suspected that [myelodysplastic syndrome] is a 'stem cell disease,' and now we finally have proof," said the study's co-senior author Amit Verma, an associate professor of medicine and of developmental and molecular biology at Einstein and attending physician in oncology at Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care.

"Equally important, we found that even after [myelodysplastic syndrome] standard treatment, abnormal stem cells persist in the bone marrow. So, although the patient may be in remission, those stem cells don't die and the disease will inevitably return. Based on our findings, it's clear that we need to wipe out the abnormal stem cells in order to improve cure rates," Verma explained in the news release.

For the study, the researchers analyzed bone marrow stem cells and the progenitor cells, or cells formed by stem cells, of 16 patients with various types of myelodysplastic syndrome. They compared these cells to those of 17 people who did not have the syndrome.

The investigators found widespread genetic and epigenetic (related to environmental factors) variations in the stem and progenitor cells taken from myelodysplastic syndrome patients. The abnormalities were more obvious in those with more serious forms of the disease, the researchers noted.

"Our study offers new hope that [myelodysplastic syndromes] can be more effectively treated, with therapies that specifically target genes that are deregulated in early stem and progenitor cells," the study's co-senior author Dr. Ulrich Steidl, an assistant professor of cell biology and of medicine at Einstein, said in the news release. "In addition, our findings could help to detect minimal residual disease in patients in remission, allowing for more individualized treatment strategies that permanently eradicate the disease."

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about myelodysplastic syndromes.

(HealthDay News) -- An ingrown toenail usually is painful and may lead to infection. But caring for the problem at home can help prevent complications.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons offers these suggestions:

• Three to four times daily, soak the affected foot in warm water.
• Make sure your foot otherwise stays dry.
• Wear shoes that are comfortable and have plenty of room in the toes.
• Take acetaminophen or ibuprofen for pain.
• Call your doctor if the toenail isn't better after about three days.