Health News

Womb cancer risks decrease with exercise, diet and coffee

Date: Sep-12-2013
A new report reveals that engaging in physical activity, eating healthfully and drinking coffee can all reduce risks of womb cancer, a disease that affects nearly 50,000 women in the US each year, according to the American Cancer Society. Authors of the report, which was published by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and World Cancer Research Fund International, say that worldwide, endometrial cancer - cancer of the womb lining - is the sixth most common cancer in women...

Menopause for men: estrogen affects middle-aged males

Date: Sep-12-2013
Researchers have discovered that, just as women go through menopause due to a dramatic decrease in estrogen production, middle-aged men undergo estrogen-related changes in body composition and sexual function. The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, was conducted by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). The researchers say that traditionally, when a diagnosis of male hypogonadism has been made - a drop in reproductive hormone levels that are high enough to cause physical symptoms - it has only been based on blood testosterone levels...

Stem cells generated in live mice

Date: Sep-12-2013
A team of scientists in Spain has reprogrammed adult cells in live mice to revert to stem cells that appear as potent as embryonic stem cells. The team reports its findings online this week in the journal Nature. The study is the first to achieve in living tissue what so far has only been possible in a petri dish. Embryonic stem cells represent the "gold standard" in stem cell research and regenerative medicine, since they are the only stem cells capable of differentiating into any of the hundreds of cell types in the body...

A phone call can change the life of colorectal cancer survivors: study finds

Date: Sep-12-2013
They say a phone call can change your life and for colorectal or bowel cancer survivors this is true, a new study by a QUT researcher has found. Associate Professor Anna Hawkes, from QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, evaluated the effects of a telephone delivered program called CanChange aimed at improving health outcomes for people diagnosed with bowel cancer. The study was conducted at the Cancer Council Queensland and funded by the Australian Government, Cancer Australia...

Biologists uncover mechanisms for cholera toxin's deadly effects

Date: Sep-12-2013
Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have identified an underlying biochemical mechanism that helps make cholera toxin so deadly, often resulting in life-threating diarrhea that causes people to lose as much as half of their body fluids in a single day. Two groups of scientists working on fruit flies, mice and cultured human intestinal cells studied cholera toxin, produced by the highly infectious bacterium Vibrio cholerae...

Legislature gives new hope to children and adults with allergies

Date: Sep-12-2013
The State Senate today gave final unanimous legislative approval to legislation that will better protect children and adults who suffer from serious and potentially life-threatening allergies. SB 669 will allow California to join a growing group of states that provide training in the proper use of emergency epinephrine auto-injectors - otherwise known as EpiPens - by making these auto-injectors available by prescription to individuals who have successfully completed specified training and certification. The measure will now be forwarded to the Governor for his signature...

One Health approach key to tackling antibiotic resistance, say UK vets

Date: Sep-12-2013
The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has warmly welcomed the publication of the UK Five Year Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy 2013-2018 which calls for action in both human and animal medicine under the banner of 'One Health'.  The Strategy follows the UK Chief Medical Officer's report in March 2013 which highlighted the significant scale of the threat of antimicrobial resistance, and has been published jointly by Defra, the Department of Health, the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive...

New meningitis vaccine protects against epidemic strain that has plagued African nations for more than 100 years

Date: Sep-12-2013
A new meningitis vaccine (MenAfriVac) is highly effective at protecting against epidemic A meningococcal disease, common in Africa's meningitis belt where it accounts for at least three quarters of cases, and against transmission of the bacterium that causes these epidemics, according to new research published in The Lancet.  One shot of MenAfriVac dramatically reduced incidence of all cases of meningitis by 94% and carriage prevalence of the epidemic strain by 98%, while an epidemic persisted in unvaccinated parts of Chad...

Study reveals benefits of wishes on seriously ill children and their parents

Date: Sep-12-2013
New research has shown that schemes that grant children with a life threatening illness a special wish have a positive impact on their and their family's wellbeing. The research also demonstrates that seeing the child experience their wish was positive for the parents, while often it provoked bittersweet feelings...

Perceptions of cancer care

Date: Sep-12-2013
How does the public feel about current cancer treatment? This is the question that the Lilly Oncology network, PACE (Patient Access to Cancer care Excellence), attempted to answer through a survey of the general public, cancer patients and caregivers. The results from their international survey will be published in the open access journal ecancermedicalscience, the journal from the IEO and OECI.   Phone calls and online questionnaires were used to survey over 4,300 individuals from six countries: the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom...