Health News

Regulating e-cigarettes - medical devices, or the consumer products to finally break tobacco's harmful monopoly?

Date: Jul-22-2013
The increasing popularity and availability of e-cigarettes (otherwise known as Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, or ENDS) in many countries has prompted fierce debate among public health professionals, with some expressing concerns that lack of safety information for the devices could result in unforeseen damage to public health if they are not appropriately regulated...

Plain packaging seems to make cigarettes less appealing and increase urgency to quit smoking

Date: Jul-22-2013
Plain packaging for cigarettes seems to make tobacco less appealing and increase the urgency to quit smoking, suggest early findings from Australia, published in the online journal BMJ Open. Australia formally introduced plain brown packaging, accompanied by graphic health warnings taking up three quarters of the front of the pack, for all tobacco products on December 1 2012. So far, it is the only country in the world to have done so...

Free World Dental Virtual Conference - August 13-15, 2013

Date: Jul-22-2013
A Free Virtual Dental Conference at Targetmeeting.com featuring 60+ live presentations from academic and industry experts around the world. The 15 sessions, which will be spread over three days, will discuss Aesthetics, Dental Surgery/Anesthesia, Pediatric Dentistry, Dental Laboratory Technology, Periodontology, Endodontics, Dental Implants, General Dentistry and many more. Attendees can earn free Certificates of Attendance. A computer, a good internet connection and headphones are required, but no other special equipment or software...

GSK, Pfizer & Sanofi send groups of 10+ to discuss 'Value Beyond the Pill', November 28, 2013, London

Date: Jul-22-2013
Last week saw the launch of CreateHealthcare's Value Beyond the Pill meeting, November 28, London. Within 7 days the event has confirmed 120 people. The events capacity is capped at 200 so it looks set to sell out in two weeks. Simon Grace , Head of Programme Delivery, Quality and Innovation Directorate, NHS North West Surrey CCG, Weybridge Hospital believes the focus on collobaration is a reason for the events success. He states: "This is important, as a how-to guide for to effectively approach and build a working relationship with commissioning units...

Sex addiction "not a real disorder"

Date: Jul-22-2013
Philanderers may need a new excuse for extramarital affairs. A new study from researchers at UCLA reveals that sexual "addiction" may be nothing more than a strong sexual desire. The study, recently published in Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology, had researchers measuring the brain responses of "hypersexual" individuals who had problems regulating their reactions to sexual images. The results show that individual brain responses were not related to levels of hypersexuality but, rather, to sexual desire...

Future blindness cure? Stem cell success in lab

Date: Jul-22-2013
Scientists are one step closer to curing blindness, after they carried out the first successful transplant of light-sensitive photoreceptor cells from a synthetic retina that was grown from embryonic stem cells. Researchers from University College London (UCL) and Moorfields Eye Hospital in the UK, transplanted the photoreceptor cells in to night-blind mice and found that the cells developed normally. The cells integrated into the existing retina in the mice and formed the required nerve connections that transmit visual information to the brain...

Could severe obesity be in the genes?

Date: Jul-22-2013
Scientists have discovered a particular gene mutation that could be linked to a cause of severe obesity. Researchers from Boston Children's Hospital carried out a number of genetic surveys in several groups of people suffering from obesity, as well as a series of genetic experiments in mice. The research, published in the journal Science, analyzed a gene called Mrap2 in different groups of mice. This particular gene has a human counterpart, which according to the scientists appears to be involved in regulating metabolism and food consumption...

Royal birthing updates - Kate in labor

Date: Jul-22-2013
Officials at Kensington Palace have confirmed that Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, is in the early stages of labor. Medical News Today will be updating this story as news of the royal birthing develops today, bringing you added information on pregnancy, labor and birth. The world's media is camped outside St Mary's hospital in London to await the birth of a royal baby since Kate arrived by car at around 6 am UK time with her husband Will, the Duke of Cambridge. Their first child, whether a boy or a girl, will be third in line for the throne of the British monarchy...

HPV linked to a third of throat cancers

Date: Jul-22-2013
One third of people with cancers in the back of the throat (oropharyngeal cancers) are infected with a certain strain of human papillomavirus (HPV), according to new research published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology at the weekend. The research team, which included Cancer Research UK scientists at the University of Oxford, compared pre-diagnostic blood samples from 938 patients with cancers of the head and neck, oesophageal (gullet) and oropharyngeal cancers with samples from 1,599 people without the disease (the controls)...

Groundbreaking UK study confirms significant reduction in hospital superbug pathogens with TRU-D SmartUVC disinfection robot

Date: Jul-22-2013
A recent study titled "First UK evaluation of an automated ultraviolet-C room decontamination device (TRU-D(TM))" confirms the effectiveness of TRU-D SmartUVC(TM) in eliminating common superbugs in health care environments. The study was conducted by the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infection Prevention and the Control Department at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust's QMC campus in Nottingham, England, and was published in the Journal of Hospital Infection (N. Mahida, et al., 2013)...