Health News

Research Moving Closer To Gene Therapies For Regenerative Surgery

Date: May-31-2013
Experimental genetic techniques may one day provide plastic and reconstructive surgeons with an invaluable tool - the ability to promote growth of the patient's own tissues for reconstructive surgery. A review of recent progress toward developing effective gene therapies for use in "regenerative surgery" appears in the June issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS)...

Meditation, Stretching Ease PTSD Symptoms In Nurses

Date: May-31-2013
Practicing a form of meditation and stretching can help relieve symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and normalize stress hormone levels, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).. More than 7 million adults nationwide are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a typical year. The mental health condition, triggered by a traumatic event, can cause flashbacks, anxiety and other symptoms...

Study Finds That Radiation Oncology Research Is Critically Underfunded By The National Institutes Of Health (NIH)

Date: May-31-2013
Radiation oncology research received 197 grants, totaling only 1.6 percent ($85.5 million) of the $5.4 billion in cancer research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, according to a study available online and in the June 1, 2013, print issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics (Red Journal), the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). The study reviewed the more than 50,000 grants funded by the NIH, totaling $30.9 billion...

Quitting Smoking: Licensed Medications Are Effective

Date: May-31-2013
Nicotine replacement therapy and other licensed drugs can help people quit smoking, according to a new systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. The study, which is an overview of previous Cochrane reviews, supports the use of the smoking cessation medications that are already widely licensed internationally, and shows that another drug licensed in Russia could hold potential as an effective and affordable treatment...

Probiotics Prevent Diarrhoea Related To Antibiotic Use

Date: May-31-2013
Probiotic supplements have the potential to prevent diarrhoea caused by antibiotics, according to a new Cochrane systematic review. The authors studied Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infections in patients taking antibiotics and found symptoms of diarrhoea were substantially reduced when patients were also treated with probiotics. Antibiotics disturb the beneficial bacteria that live in the gut and allow other harmful bacteria like C. difficile to take hold. Although some people infected with C. difficile show no symptoms, others suffer diarrhoea or colitis...

New Method To Test Breast Lesions Could Better Detect Cancer, Save Money By Reducing Repeat Biopsies

Date: May-31-2013
A newly developed, single-step Raman spectroscopy algorithm has the potential to simultaneously detect microcalcifications and enable diagnosis of the associated breast lesions with high precision, according to data published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "Nearly 1.6 million breast biopsies are performed and roughly 250,000 new breast cancers are diagnosed in the Unites States each year," said Ishan Barman, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and the study's lead author...

No Benefit Of Double Dose Antiviral Drug For Severe Influenza

Date: May-31-2013
Findings have major implications for stockpiling drugs during pandemics, say experts There are no virological or clinical benefits of giving double doses of the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu) to patients admitted to hospital with severe influenza, finds a large study from South East Asia published on bmj.com today. This is the first study to examine the effectiveness of higher doses of oseltamivir in cases of hospitalized severe human influenza (seasonal, pandemic and bird flu strains)...

Demographic Profile Of People Who Use Cellphones Behind The Wheel

Date: May-31-2013
If you're still using your mobile phone behind the wheel, University of Alberta sociology researcher Abu Nurullah likely has your number. More specifically, he can tell what statistical category you fall under. Using survey data from mid-2011 - just months before Alberta's distracted-driving law went into effect - Nurullah and his colleagues determined several characteristics of people who appear to top the risk scale by using cellphones while driving...

Imports Of Injectable Nutrition Drugs Announced By FDA

Date: May-31-2013
The FDA has just announced that it will allow emergency imports of injectable drugs used in total parenteral nutrition (TPN), due to a serious shortage throughout the USA. TPN is for patients who cannot get their nutrition by eating. It involves using a drip with a needle or catheter placed in the vein containing food solution as well as several drugs, such as trace elements, potassium phosphate, and sodium phosphate...

Anti-bacterial Soap And Ointment Reduce MRSA Infection Rates Among Hospital Patients

Date: May-31-2013
The use of germ-killing soap and ointment among all intensive-care unit (ICU) patients can reduce the rate of bloodstream infection by nearly 44 percent. In particular, it can reduce the rate of infection caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The study was the largest of its kind to date, including a total of 74 adult ICUs and 74,256 patients. It was carried out by a team of researchers at the University of California, Irvine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)...