Health News

Diabetes complications now include bone deterioration

Date: Nov-14-2013
The list of complications from type 2 diabetes is long: vascular and heart disease, eye problems, nerve damage, kidney disease, hearing problems and Alzheimer's disease. Physicians have long thought of osteoporosis as another outcome. Based on a Mayo Clinic study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, that's confirmed: You can definitely add skeletal problems to that list. "This is the first demonstration - using direct measurement of bone strength in the body - of compromised bone material in patients with type 2 diabetes," says Sundeep Khosla, M.D.

Study aims to change traditional approach to preventing pressure ulcers

Date: Nov-14-2013
A study led by Nancy Bergstrom, Ph.D., associate dean at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Nursing, found that nursing homes that utilize high-density foam mattresses may not need to turn residents every two hours to prevent pressure ulcers, a practice that has been used for over 50 years. A randomized controlled trial of at-risk residents demonstrated that there was no difference in the incidence of pressure ulcers for residents turned at intervals of two, three or four hours."We are very interested in preventing pressure ulcers.

Success of radiation delivery may be affected by balloon positioning during prostate cancer treatment

Date: Nov-14-2013
A University of Colorado Cancer Center study recently published in the journal Physics in Medicine and Biology shows that endorectal balloons commonly used during precise radiation treatment for prostate cancer can deform the prostate in a way that could make radiation miss its mark."Use of a balloon allows you to stabilize the anatomy.

Trends in deaths from pancreatic cancer among whites and African Americans go in opposite directions

Date: Nov-14-2013
Pancreatic cancer death rates in whites and blacks have gone in opposite directions over the past several decades in the United States, with the direction reversing in each ethnicity during those years. The finding comes from a new study by American Cancer Society researchers, who say the rising and falling rates are largely unexplainable by known risk factors, and who call for urgent action for a better understanding of the disease in order to curb increasing death rates. The study appears early online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Research may improve early detection of dementia

Date: Nov-14-2013
Using scores obtained from cognitive tests, Johns Hopkins researchers think they have developed a model that could help determine whether memory loss in older adults is benign or a stop on the way to Alzheimer's disease.The risk of developing dementia increases markedly when a person is diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, a noticeable and measurable decline in intellectual abilities that does not seriously interfere with daily life.

Human movement studied to create an exoskeleton to benefit elderly patients, stroke patients and paraplegics

Date: Nov-14-2013
What if certain patients could get a bionic pick-up without undergoing the pain and lengthy recovery of surgery? University of Cincinnati researchers are working on just that idea, with the start of an exoskeleton to support people who - through age or injury - are limited in their movement.Gaurav Mukherjee, a UC master's student in mechanical engineering in UC's College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS), will present the interdisciplinary research on Nov. 15, at the International Human-Centered Robotics Symposium, which will be held at UC's Kingsgate Marriott Conference Center.

Eradicating brain tumours using biomaterial-delivered chemotherapy

Date: Nov-14-2013
A polymer originally designed to help mend broken bones could be successful in delivering chemotherapy drugs directly to the brains of patients suffering from brain tumours, researchers at The University of Nottingham have discovered. Their study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, shows that the biomaterial can be easily applied to the cavity created following brain cancer surgery and used to release chemotherapy drugs over several weeks.

Parental supervision at ages 11-14 lowers risk for problem gambling by age 22

Date: Nov-14-2013
Keeping an eye on your child can lower their odds for gambling by young adulthood, according to research conducted at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Adolescents who had poor parental supervision at age 11, and which continued to decline through age 14, were significantly more likely than their peers to be problem gamblers between ages 16-22.The study, "Parental Monitoring Trajectories and Gambling," is the first to examine the relationship between parental monitoring during early adolescence and gambling behaviors in late adolescence and young adulthood.

NHS 111 increases ambulance and urgent and emergency care use

Date: Nov-14-2013
The call handling service NHS 111 increased the use of ambulance and urgent and emergency care services during its first year of operation, shows a detailed evaluation, published in the online journal BMJ Open.This is despite the fact that NHS 111 was set up with the intention of relieving pressure on these services by ensuring that patients are directed to care that is appropriate for their level of need, say the researchers.

Link between geographic patterns and death rates in US drug poisonings

Date: Nov-14-2013
A new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine gives new insight into the geographic variation in drug poisoning mortality, with both urban centers and rural areas showing a large increase in death rates. While previous studies have looked at drug poisoning related deaths in broad strokes, this is the first study to examine them on the county level across the entire U.S.Drug poisoning is now the leading cause of injury death in the U.S. and has increased by more than 300 percent over the last three decades.