Health News

Study Finds That Maternal Vitamin D Levels In Pregnancy Do Not Affect Children's Bone Health

Date: Mar-21-2013
A study of nearly 4000 pairs of mothers and their children in the Children of the 90s study at the University of Bristol has shown that maternal vitamin D levels during pregnancy are not associated with the child's bone health in later life. The research, published Online First in The Lancet, is the largest ever observational study of the effects of mothers' vitamin D levels in pregnancy on their children's bone health, and suggests that UK health guidelines may be overstating the importance of vitamin D supplementation in pregnancy...

Cancer Scientists Discover Mechanism Of Resistance To Vital Leukaemia Treatment, Opening Door To New Therapies

Date: Mar-21-2013
Research published in the journal Cancer Cell has revealed the mechanism by which leukaemia cells develop resistance to the ATRA (All-Trans-Retinoic Acid) treatment, used to treat an aggressive form of cancer called acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL: a fast-growing cancer in which there are too many immature blood-forming cells in the blood and bone marrow). The research is by Professor Eric So, Department of Haematological Medicine at King's College London, UK, and colleagues, and was funded by the charity Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research...

Hormone Combination Shows Promise In The Treatment Of Obesity And Diabetes

Date: Mar-21-2013
A new treatment combining two hormones can reduce appetite, according to new research presented at the Society for Endocrinology annual conference in Harrogate, UK. This early study from an internationally-renowned team at Imperial College London provides 'first in man' evidence that a combined therapy using the hormones glucagon and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) may form the basis for a new treatment for obesity and diabetes in the future. Previous results from in animal studies showed that glucagon/GLP-1 combination might be an effective lead to combat obesity and diabetes...

NHS Work With Create HealthCare To Produce Free Podcast For Pharma

Date: Mar-21-2013
The NHS reform is upon us. This means that GPs and other clinicians will be given much more responsibility for spending the budget in the UK, while greater competition with the private sector will be encouraged. This is notably one of the biggest changes in history of the NHS. This also poses a huge change for the pharmaceutical industry whose already under huge pressure facing shrinking pipelines (and margins) and now their biggest customer is changing. As of April 1st NHS decision-making will be transferred to the clinical commissioning groups (CCGs)...

Fresh Hope For Thousands Of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) Sufferers Who Cannot Tolerate The Most Common Treatment For This Debilitating Disease

Date: Mar-21-2013
Head to head data in The Lancet confirms RoActemra® (tocilizumab) is superior to Humira® (adalimumab) in achieving disease remission when either is used without methotrexate (MTX) Data published this week in The Lancet show that over 50% of RA patients can achieve low disease activity or remission with RoActemra, compared to under 20% of those treated with the most widely prescribed anti-TNF Humira when neither drug is combined with methotrexate (51.5% vs. 19.8%, assessed by DAS28 less than or equal to 3.2*)...

Yogurt Organisms 'PERFECT' Specimen For Cancer Research

Date: Mar-21-2013
Scientists at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey explore effects of probiotics on bone marrow transplant outcomes One may not think of probiotics - like those found in yogurt that promote good digestive health - as a weapon used in the fight against cancer. But that is the focus of investigators at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, who are examining the effectiveness of probiotics as they relate to the outcomes of bone marrow transplant for patients with blood cancers...

Newly Incarcerated Have 1% Acute Hepatitis C Prevalence

Date: Mar-21-2013
Screening of New Inmates with IV Drug History Could Identify Thousands of New HCV Cases Annually A study published in the March issue of Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, estimates that the prevalence of acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is nearly one percent among newly incarcerated inmates with a history of recent drug use. Findings suggest that systematic screening of intravenous (IV) drug users who are new to the prison system could identify more than 7,000 cases of HCV across the U.S. annually-even among asymptomatic inmates...

Work Is Biggest Cause Of Stress In People's Lives

Date: Mar-21-2013
Businesses and employees pay the price of workplace stress Research commissioned by Mind has found that work is the most stressful factor in people's lives with one in three people (34 per cent) saying their work life was either very or quite stressful, more so than debt or financial problems (30 per cent) or health (17 per cent). The survey of over 2,000 people found that workplace stress has resulted in 7 per cent (rising to 10 per cent amongst 18 to 24 year olds) having suicidal thoughts and one in five people (18 per cent) developing anxiety...

Adocia Announces Its Phase III Development Program For The Treatment Of Diabetic Foot Ulcer

Date: Mar-21-2013
This program has been validated by scientific advice from the European Medicines Agency Adocia (NYSE Euronext Paris: FR0011184241 - ADOC), a biotechnology company specialized in the development of 'best-in-class' medicines from already approved therapeutic proteins announces today the phase III development program of its product, BioChaperone(R) PDGF-BB for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcer (DFU). The European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued positive scientific advice for this program. Adocia has developed a unique formulation, a BioChaperone PDGF spray for the treatment of DFU...

Study Suggests Link Between Vitamin D Levels And Developing Tuberculosis

Date: Mar-21-2013
New research presented at this week's Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID) in Canberra, Australia, suggests a link between vitamin D levels and the risk of developing tuberculosis (TB), with rates of TB incidence up to 37% higher following darker winter months than during the rest of the year. The research is by Jennifer MacLachlan, Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Melbourne, and University of Melbourne, VIC, Australia, and Dr Benjamin Cowie (the same affiliations plus the Royal Melbourne Hospital, VIC, Australia)...