Health News

Despite Earlier Claims, Metformin Not Found To Improve Survival Rates After Cancer

Date: May-14-2013
Despite previous scientific studies that suggest diabetes drug metformin has anti-cancer properties, a new, first-of-its-kind study from Women's College Hospital has found the drug may not actually improve survival rates after breast cancer in certain patients. The study, published in the journal Diabetes Care, failed to show an improved survival rate in older breast cancer patients with diabetes taking the drug metformin, a first-line treatment for diabetes. However, the authors caution further research is necessary to validate the study's findings...

Instead Of Being More Efficient, Private Insurers' Medicare Advantage Plans Have Cost Medicare Almost $300 Billion More Over The Life Of The Program

Date: May-14-2013
A study published online finds that the private insurance companies that participate in Medicare under the Medicare Advantage program and its predecessors have cost the publicly funded program for the elderly and disabled an extra $282.6 billion since 1985, most of it over the past eight years. In 2012 alone, private insurers were overpaid $34.1 billion. That's wasted money that should have been spent on improving patient care, shoring up Medicare's trust fund or reducing the federal deficit, the researchers say...

Liver Disease An Increased Risk For Those With Elevated Cadmium Levels, Especially Men

Date: May-14-2013
People with higher levels of cadmium in their urine - evidence of chronic exposure to the heavy metal found in industrial emissions and tobacco smoke - appear to be nearly 3.5 times more likely to die of liver disease than those with lower levels, according to a study by Johns Hopkins scientists. The research findings do not show that cadmium directly causes liver disease, the scientists caution, but do suggest an association that needs more investigation...

Almost Half Of Teens Text While Driving

Date: May-14-2013
Almost half of high school students aged 16 and older text while driving, according to a large national survey. Over 15,000 teenagers were surveyed as part of the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2011, which evaluated texting while driving during the 30 days before completing the questionnaire. The experts also included other risky behaviors in the survey, such as irregular seat belt use and driving when they had been drinking alcohol...

Potential Lyme Disease Vaccine Shows Promise

Date: May-14-2013
A vaccine for Lyme disease may be on its way, following a promising phase 1/2 clinical trial from investigators at the Stony Brook University School of Medicine and Brookhaven National Laboratory. The finding was published online in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, and revealed that the vaccine resulted in significant antibodies against all targeted species of Borrelia - the agent that causes Lyme disease in the United States and Europe...

Independent And Small-Chain Restaurants Serving Extremely High Calorie Meals

Date: May-14-2013
A new study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine found that the average meal from independent and small-chain restaurants contains more than half of a person's recommended daily calorie intake. On average, meals from such restaurants contained around three times the amount of energy that an adult should consume in a single meal. Many major restaurant chains across the U.S. seem to be trying to encourage obesity by serving meals that have calorie counts far exceeding the daily recommended amounts...

Sexually Harassed Men Undergo Extreme Measures To Control Weight

Date: May-14-2013
Surprisingly, researchers at Michigan State University found that men who suffer from sexual harassment are more likely to try and control their weight with extreme measures like taking laxatives or vomiting, compared to women. As one of the first studies of its kind to examine what kind of effect sexual harassment has on body image and eating behaviors in men and women, the study revealed some very interesting information...

Living Close To Major Road May Impair Kidney Function

Date: May-14-2013
May contribute to known impact of air pollution on heart disease/stroke risk Living close to a major road may impair kidney function - itself a risk factor for heart disease and stroke - and so help contribute to the known impact of air pollution on cardiovascular risk, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The authors base their findings on more than 1100 adults who had sustained a stroke between 1999 and 2004 and had been admitted to hospital in the greater Boston area of Massachusetts in the US...

Non-Smoking Hotel Rooms Still Expose Occupants To Tobacco Smoke

Date: May-14-2013
Non-smokers should shun hotels operating partial smoking bans, advise authors Non-smoking rooms in hotels operating a partial smoking ban don't protect their occupants from tobacco smoke, reveals research published online in Tobacco Control. Non-smokers should give hotels that allow smoking in certain rooms a wide berth, say the authors, and instead choose completely smoke free hotels...

Pilot Study Suggests Private School Children Are More Physically Active Than State School Children

Date: May-14-2013
A pilot study of schools in Sheffield, UK, suggests that activity levels of children in independent (or private) schools may be higher than that of their state school counterparts. The research is being presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Liverpool, UK, and is by Dr Emma J Davies, University of Nottingham, UK, and Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, UK and Dr Kimberley L Edwards, University of Nottingham, UK. A significant number of children are insufficiently active for good health. The school that children attend affects their physical activity level...