Health News

Roche's RoActemra® (Tocilizumab) Shows Long-Term Efficacy In Monotherapy And Also Benefits In Early Rheumatoid Arthritis

Date: Jun-14-2013
Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) have announced data from two phase III studies using RoActemra in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA): the long-term extension (LTE) follow up of the AMBITION study demonstrated long-term efficacy of RoActemra without methotrexate (MTX); and the FUNCTION study showed the clinical benefits of the medicine, alone or in combination with MTX, when used to treat patients with early RA.1,2 These studies are being presented at the 2013 European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) Congress...

New Sickle Cell Anemia Therapy Advances To Phase II Clinical Trials

Date: Jun-14-2013
Seeking to improve the lives of sickle cell anemia sufferers around the world, researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, the Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center in Boston and the BloodCenter of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and others are preparing to launch Phase II of a clinical trial to investigate a potential new therapy for reducing the disorder's severest symptoms. Sickle cell anemia is a serious, painful and chronic illness that impedes blood flow and can lead to early death...

Prunes Benefit Digestive Health Says European Food Standards Agency

Date: Jun-14-2013
Eating prunes is officially beneficial for digestive health confirms the EU Commission in a final authorisation ruling recently[1]. Prunes are now the only natural, whole and dried fruit to achieve an authorised health claim in the EU following a six-year application process by the California Prune Board...

Last-Line Antibiotics Increasingly Ineffective Against Gonorrhoea But Prescribing Changes Could Help Delay Spread Of Untreatable Disease, UK

Date: Jun-14-2013
The last remaining antibiotics used to treat gonorrhoea (cefixime and ceftriaxone) in England and Wales are becoming less effective. But recent changes in prescribing practice, based on new recommendations that challenge previous public health thinking, seem to have delayed or reversed this trend, and may help to delay the growing threat of multi-drug resistant gonorrhoea, suggests new research published Online First in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. "Fears continue that the current cephalosporins will become ineffective...

Muscle Strength And Walking Performance In Ankylosing Spondylitis Improved By Swiss Ball

Date: Jun-14-2013
A new study presented at EULAR 2013, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism, demonstrates that progressive muscle strengthening using a Swiss ball is effective in improving muscle strength and walking performance in patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). Patients randomised to the exercise programme showed statistically significant improvements in muscle strength with no worsening of disease activity; in addition these patients reported greater satisfaction with their treatment than those in the control group...

In Rheumatoid Arthritis, Abatacept As Effective As Adalimumab, With Fewer Injection Site Reactions

Date: Jun-14-2013
Data from AMPLE presented at EULAR 2013, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism, demonstrate comparable efficacy and similar safety profiles between subcutaneous abatacept (ABA) and adalimumab (ADA). AMPLE, the first two-year head-to-head biologics trial, was comprised of 646 biologic-naïve patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) equally randomised to either ABA or ADA, with a stable dose of methotrexate (MTX). 79.2% (252 of 318) ABA patients and 74.7% (245 of 328) ADA patients completed the trial...

Workplace And Financial Stress Lead To Poor Health Choices

Date: Jun-14-2013
Two studies from the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington highlight the negative impact workplace and financial stress can have on health behaviors. The lead author urges workplace wellness and smoking cessation programs to consider such impacts as the economy sputters along. A study published online in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research found that men and women who smoked daily reported that their smoking increased when conflict from work affected their home life. Women also reported the inverse: increased smoking when home conflict affected their work...

Melanoma Detected In Skin Odor

Date: Jun-14-2013
Using sophisticated techniques to sample and analyze airborne molecules in the odors from human skin cells, scientists in the US were able to detect a unique chemical signature for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.  They suggest their methods, which can spot the difference between different types of melanoma cell and normal skin cells using odor signatures, could lead to a new non-invasive way to diagnose human melanoma in the early stages...

Genetic Mutation Offers Clue To Hearing Loss

Date: Jun-14-2013
A novel genetic mutation was first identified in 2010 as causing hearing loss in humans. Researchers have now discovered that this mutation induces malfunction of an inhibitor of an enzyme commonly found in our body that destroys proteins. Published in the American Journal of Pathology, this inhibitor is known scientifically as SERPINB6. Dr Justin Tan of the University of Melbourne and lead author of the study said individuals who lack both copies of this good gene were reported to lose their hearing from 20 years of age...

Proposed Efforts To Restrict Marketing Of Large Sodas Can Have A Substantial Impact On Population Health

Date: Jun-14-2013
Legislation to restrict consumption of large sugar-sweetened beverages in food service establishments would affect 7.5% of Americans on a given day, and a greater percentage among those who are overweight, including 13.6% of overweight teenagers, according to researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Challenging criticism that the restriction is discriminatory against the poor, the study finds low-income individuals would not be disproportionately affected. The proposed restrictions were approved by the New York City Board of Health...