Health News

Study explores the challenges of elderly care for remarried couples

Date: Sep-18-2013
Demographically, the United States is witnessing two major changes; people are living longer, and more people are divorcing and remarrying. In the first study of its kind, research in Journal of Marriage and Family examines the challenges faced by remarried caregivers. Over 35 million Americans are remarried, with 500,000 adults over 65 remarrying each year. Concurrently one in eight older Americans has Alzheimer's disease or dementia, and rates are expected to triple by 2050...

Automated telephone calls improve blood pressure control

Date: Sep-18-2013
Patients who received automated telephone calls inviting them to get their blood pressure checked at a walk-in clinic were more likely to have controlled hypertension than patients who did not receive calls, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published in the Journal of Clinical Hypertension.  The researchers studied 64,773 adult members of Kaiser Permanente Southern California with uncontrolled hypertension, commonly referred to as high blood pressure...

Older binge drinkers experience fewer hangovers, study finds

Date: Sep-18-2013
A new study has found that the severity of hangovers decrease with age. The Danish authors, writing in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, suggest that older adults who binge drink do so to a lesser intensity than younger adults. While hangovers are a common phenomenon, little is known about hangover differences across the lifespan...

Professionals who treat eating disorders are not immune to weight prejudice

Date: Sep-18-2013
Stereotypes about over-weight and obese people are all too common in society and now new research in the International Journal of Eating Disorders reveals that these derisory views are also common in health professionals. 329 professionals who treat eating disorders, from therapists to doctors, were assessed for 'weight bias' and were asked about the perceived causes of obesity, how much attention they gave to obese patients and the likelihood that their prescribed treatments would be complied with...

ISA Pharmaceuticals initiates Phase I/II clinical trial of ISA101 in patients with anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN)

Date: Sep-18-2013
ISA Pharmaceuticals B.V., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on rationally designed, fully synthetic therapeutic vaccines against cancer and persistent viral infections, today announced the initiation of a Phase I/II clinical study of its lead candidate ISA101 in HIV-positive men suffering from anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN). The study is supported by ZonMw, the Dutch Organisation for Health Research and Development, and is being conducted in The Netherlands...

Bugs and slime to clean arsenic poisoned water

Date: Sep-18-2013
Australian scientists have developed a way to clean up the potentially deadly arsenic that pollutes the drinking water of tens of millions of people around the world. A new type of water filter that combines microalgae with bacteria taken from soil contaminated with heavy metals could prove an effective, cheap and safe way to rid drinking water of arsenic. "Known as the 'king of poisons', arsenic has harmed humans more than any other toxic chemical in history," says Mr Bahar, of CRC CARE and the University of South Australia...

Using heat to cleanse the environment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)

Date: Sep-18-2013
Researchers have developed a promising way to cleanse the environment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) - some of the most insidious toxins known to humans. Instead of digging polluted subsoil and transporting it to treatment plants, the new technology heats the contaminated areas and releases the toxic chemicals, which are then extracted from the ground and destroyed. This may be a cheaper and safer way to clean up contaminated soil and groundwater - and make our cities healthier - Dr Gorm Heron of TerraTherm Inc. told the CleanUp 2013 conference in Melbourne recently...

Vanderbilt study targets DNA of cancer cell drug resistance

Date: Sep-18-2013
Targeted cancer therapies - drugs that kill cancer cells with certain "driver oncogenes" - shrink tumors and extend patient survival. Ultimately though, the cancers become resistant to the targeted therapies. "Unfortunately, virtually all patients with metastatic cancer develop disease progression, limiting the effectiveness of these agents," said William Pao, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. Now, Pao and colleagues including Zhongming Zhao, Ph.D., associate professor of Biomedical Informatics, and Peilin Jia, Ph.D...

UC Davis study applies timely cost-effectiveness analysis to state breast cancer screening program

Date: Sep-18-2013
When public health budgets are constrained, mammography screening should begin later and occur less frequently, a cost-effectiveness analysis for California's Every Woman Counts (EWC) program concludes. As outlined in a paper published in Value in Health, the analysis focused on several policy questions, including the effect on EWC program costs and outcomes of starting screening at age 50 years instead of 40 and of screening every two years instead of every year. The study was conducted in response to recent government funding cutbacks...

New report published by the Australian Prescriber: Independent therapeutic advice - how achievable is it?

Date: Sep-18-2013
'Independent therapeutic advice: how achievable is it?' - a report summarising the proceedings of the Independence Forum hosted by Therapeutic Guidelines Ltd - was published this month on the Australian Prescriber website. The forum brought together national and international experts and ethicists to discuss and debate issues of independence and conflicts of interest in the context of therapeutic information for health professionals, especially prescribers...