Health News

Love hormone stress effects surprise scientists

Date: Jul-23-2013
You know that stomach-flipping excitement we feel for someone we are falling in love with? You may also be familiar with the gut-wrenching anxiety that can creep in. Well, the hormone that makes us feel love and social bonding can also cause emotional pain, researchers at Northwestern University have found. The hormone oxytocin enhances social memory in a part of the brain called the lateral septum, an area the researchers say plays a role in emotional responses...

Clues on inflammation from reawakened 'dead' gene

Date: Jul-23-2013
Scientists have discovered a "dead" gene that comes to life to tackle inflammation in the body, according to a study published in the journal eLife. Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine, California, believe that this discovery could lead to new anti-inflammatory treatments without the damaging side effects of steroids. The scientists discovered that the dead gene, which they have named Lethe, "turns off" inflammation in the body before it causes damage to healthy tissue...

Cancer vaccines masterclass training, 24 - 25 September 2013, London

Date: Jul-23-2013
"A newlywed died of cervical cancer after being refused a smear test; she was deemed too young," reported Daily Mail UK end of April this year. "Becky Ryder was 24 when she visited her doctor with worrying symptoms - but was denied the procedure because she was under the minimum age, 25. It took months of repeated visits to her GP before she eventually saw another doctor, who diagnosed her with cancer. Mrs Ryder began a gruelling course of radiotherapy and chemotherapy and at one stage was even told she had beaten the disease. But the cancer spread and she died at the age of 26...

Eat breakfast to improve your heart health

Date: Jul-23-2013
A new study appears to confirm that when you eat is just as important for health as what and how much you eat. US researchers asked men to complete questionnaires about what they ate and when they ate it, then tracked their health for 16 years. Those who said they skipped breakfast were found to have a higher risk of heart attack or fatal coronary heart disease. Lead author Leah Cahill, of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), and colleagues, write about their findings in a July 23rd issue of the American Heart Association journal Circulation...

Washington Post health-care investigation into AMA's secret panel that sets values for doctors' services

Date: Jul-23-2013
A Washington Post investigation found that the nation's system for estimating the value of a doctor's services, a critical piece of U.S. health-care economics, is fraught with inaccuracies that appear to be inflating the value of many procedures.  Unknown to most, a single committee of the AMA, the chief lobbying group for physicians, meets confidentially every year to come up with values for most of the services a doctor performs. Those values are required under federal law to be based on the time and intensity of the procedures...

German Federal Joint Committee recognises "proof of a considerable additional benefit" for DIFICLIR for the treatment of CDI

Date: Jul-23-2013
Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), a potentially fatal disease, is one of the most common healthcare acquired infections[1] Astellas Pharma Europe Ltd. announced today that the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) of Germany has recognised a "proof of a considerable additional benefit" for DIFICLIR (fidaxomicin) in patients with severe and/or recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) in comparison to therapy with vancomycin, the current standard of care for these types of CDI. CDI is one of the most common causes of healthcare-associated diarrhoea...

Prescription drug corruption: GSK admits executives in China broke law

Date: Jul-23-2013
The UK-based pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has issued a statement that some of its executive employees have acted "outside of Chinese law." The company gave the announcement after a meeting with Chinese police officers who were investigating accusations of corruption...

Novel low cost and efficient water purification methods could benefit economically and technologically disadvantaged communities

Date: Jul-23-2013
One of the most crucial problems affecting the world today is the scarcity of potable water. In a bid to make clean water available at low cost, Mr Ramakrishna Mallampati, a PhD candidate at the National University of Singapore (NUS), experimented with water treatment techniques using materials that are easily available, and came up with novel ways to purify water using the peels of apples and tomatoes. This is the first time that the peels of the two fruits have been used to remove different types of pollutants in water...

Metagenomics enables recovery of tuberculosis genomes from 200-year old Hungarian mummy

Date: Jul-23-2013
Researchers at the University of Warwick have recovered tuberculosis (TB) genomes from the lung tissue of a 215-year old mummy using a technique known as metagenomics. The team, led by Professor Mark Pallen, Professor of Microbial Genomics at Warwick Medical School, working with Helen Donoghue at University College London and collaborators in Birmingham and Budapest, sought to use the technique to identify TB DNA in a historical specimen...

Discovery of more versatile approach to creating stem cells should hasten promise of regenerative medicine

Date: Jul-23-2013
Stem cells are key to the promise of regenerative medicine: the repair or replacement of injured tissues with custom grown substitutes. Essential to this process are induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which can be created from a patient's own tissues, thus eliminating the risk of immune rejection. However, Shinya Yamanaka's formula for iPSCs, for which he was awarded last year's Nobel Prize, uses a strict recipe that allows for limited variations in human cells, restricting their full potential for clinical application...