Health News

No Sustained Benefit, Risk To Cognitive Function Of Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy Prescribed To Women Ages 50 To 55 Years

Date: Jun-26-2013
Postmenopausal hormone therapy with conjugated equine estrogens (CEEs) was not associated with overall sustained benefit or risk to cognitive function when given to women ages 50 to 55 years, according to a report published Online First by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. The Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) demonstrated that postmenopausal hormone therapy with CEEs, when prescribed to women 65 years and older, caused deficits in global and domainspecific cognitive functioning...

High-End Treatment For Low Risk Prostate Cancer Rising

Date: Jun-26-2013
More men with low-risk prostate are undergoing robotic prostatectomies and intensity-modulated radiotherapy, even though their risk of non-cancer mortality is much higher, researchers from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, reported in JAMA (June 26th 2013 issue). The authors added that these low-risk prostate cancer patients will likely not benefit from advanced treatment technologies. Several studies have shown that "watchful waiting" does not result in higher mortality among older men with low-risk prostate cancer...

Postnatal Obesity Triggered During Pregnancy

Date: Jun-26-2013
During pregnancy, the health of the mother and the intrauterine environment can have dramatic and lasting effects on the child. Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a liver disease that affects 0.5-2% of pregnant women and is characterized by increased bile acid levels in the maternal serum. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Catherine Williamson and colleagues at Imperial College London studied the long term impact of ICP in a cohort of Finnish families...

FDA Approves Two New Tobacco Products And Denies Four Others

Date: Jun-26-2013
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just allowed the marketing of two new tobacco products from Lorillard Inc and denied the marketing of four others. This is the first time that the agency has used it's authority to regulate tobacco products since the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009, which gave the FDA the right to regulate tobacco products with the substantial equivalence (PE) pathway. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that tobacco products introduced or changed after Feb. 15, 2007 have to be reviewed by the agency...

Breastfeeding Helps Children Climb Social Ladder In Adulthood

Date: Jun-26-2013
According to a new study published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, breastfeeding is not only good for the overall health of a baby, but it can also boost their ability to climb the social ladder in adulthood. Researchers from University College London (UCL) found that breastfeeding can have significant impacts on cognitive development and improvements in social status. In addition, they revealed it can lower the chances of downwards mobility. They based their findings on changes in social class among 17,419 people born in 1958 and 16,771 born in 1970...

HRT Not Linked To Cognitive Problems In Women 50 To 55

Date: Jun-26-2013
Postmenopausal women ages 50 to 55 taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) will not experience memory problems or declines in their cognitive abilities, according to new research. The study showed that postmenopausal hormone therapy with conjugated equine estrogens (CEEs) is not linked to overall sustained benefit or risk to cognitive function in women of this age group. The therapy consists of a synthetic mixture of estrogen and is used to treat the symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes and vaginal dryness...

Heart Disease Deaths Continue To Fall Across Europe

Date: Jun-26-2013
Death rates from coronary heart disease (CHD) in the European Union have decreased by more than half in many countries since the 1980s, according to new research by the British Heart Foundation (BHF). The finding, published in the European Heart Journal, found that close to all EU countries have experienced a large and significant reduction in death rates from CHD over the past three decades in both women and men, when all ages were observed together. Coronary heart disease is the number one cause of death in the UK....

First Stage Study Finds Potential New Drugs For Neuroblastoma

Date: Jun-26-2013
Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London have made a step towards new, targeted drugs for children with the highestrisk form of a childhood cancer called neuroblastoma. In a preclinical study, published in journal Cancer Cell , researchers successfully used two potential drugs to target cancerous neuroblastoma cells with an overactive gene called MYCN. The gene plays a major role in most cases of aggressive and treatmentresistant neuroblastoma in children, as well as in some adult cancers...

Health Systems Should Be Re-Organized To Better Help Stroke Patients

Date: Jun-25-2013
Patients who have experienced a stroke spend a substantial amount of time and effort seeking out, processing, and reflecting on information about the management of their condition because the information provided by health services worldwide is currently inadequate, according to a study by UK and US researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine...

Planning And Policies Needed To Address The Wicked Problem Of Physical Inactivity

Date: Jun-25-2013
There is an urgent need to address the "wicked" problem of physical inactivity, say the editors of PLOS Medicine writing in this week's issue. The editors explain that in health policy terms, wicked problems describe a situation that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize...