Health News

Robotically-Assisted Hysterectomy Usage Significantly Increased, Little Benefit

Date: Feb-20-2013
The use of robotically-assisted hysterectomy has significantly increased, however, it offers few benefits in the short-term and costs substantially more compared to laparoscopic hysterectomy. The finding came from new research which analyzed hysterectomies for benign gynecologic disorders between 2007 and 2010 and was published in JAMA. Women affected by benign gynecologic disorders often undergo a hysterectomy. One in 9 American females will have the surgery at one point in her life...

Sitting For Long Hours Increases Risk Of Chronic Diseases

Date: Feb-20-2013
Sitting for long hours is associated with an increased risk of developing chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease, according to recent research published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.  The study, led by Kansas State University researcher Richard Rosenkranz, was carried out on a sample of 63,048 Australian men aged 45-65. The men were asked to report the number of hours they spent sitting down, as well as whether they had any chronic diseases...

Prescription Drugs Linked To Most Fatal Overdoses

Date: Feb-20-2013
When deaths from overdoses from opioid painkillers occur, there are usually other prescription medications for mental health disorders and/or neurologic conditions involved too, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association). The authors had gathered and analyzed CDC data involving deaths from overdosing on opioid painkillers. They found that in 30.1% of deaths, patients had also taken benzodiazepines...

Play Disease Detective With New CDC App

Date: Feb-20-2013
You can now be a disease detective at home with the CDC's free iPad App "Solve the Outbreak". According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), new disease outbreaks occur on a daily basis, and its detectives are "on the front lines", working twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to protect people nationwide. When an outbreak occurs, the CDC sends out disease detectives to determine how they started, how dangerous they are, and whether they are contagious...

Exposure To Air Pollution Is Associated With Increased Deaths After Heart Attacks

Date: Feb-20-2013
Air pollution contributes to an increased number of deaths among patients who have been admitted to hospital with heart attacks, according to a study published online today in the European Heart Journal [1]. The largest study yet to investigate the links between fine air-borne particulate matter (PM) and patient survival after hospital admission for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) found death rates increased with increased exposure to PM2.5 - tiny particles that measure 2.5 micrometers (μm) in diameter or less, approximately 30 times smaller than a human hair [2]...

Childhood Cancer In Developing Countries - A Growing Health Threat That Could Be Easily Managed

Date: Feb-20-2013
Across the developing world, childhood cancer is on the rise, and mortality is high. Once thought of as a rich world disease, cancer is a growing health threat across low-income and middle-income countries (LMCs). A major new Lancet Oncology Series by some of the world's most eminent cancer experts outlines the biggest challenges to treating childhood cancer in developing nations and proposes strategies to improve care for children and young people. According to recent WHO estimates, cancer claims the lives of around 100 000 children before the age of 15 every year worldwide...

Improvement In Child Cancer Survival Rates Threatened By Lack Of New Drug Development

Date: Feb-20-2013
Remarkable improvements in survival from childhood cancer have taken place in high- income countries over the past 50 years, but further progress is being threatened by increasingly strict research regulations and insufficient development of new drugs, according to a major new Lancet Oncology Series on improving cancer care for children and young people. "In high-income countries, we have nearly reached optimisation of present anticancer treatments", says Series leader Professor Kathy Pritchard-Jones from the Institute of Child Health, University College London, UK...

Neurim Pharmaceuticals Announces Positive Phase 2 Clinical Trial Results Of Piromelatine For The Treatment Of Insomnia

Date: Feb-20-2013
Neurim Pharmaceuticals have announced positive results from a phase II clinical study evaluating the efficacy and safety of Piromelatine (Neu-P11), a novel investigational multimodal sleep medicine developed for the treatment of patients with primary and co-morbid insomnia. The new results are from a recent double-blind, randomized, placebo controlled, parallel group, non-confirmatory, sleep-laboratory study. The study evaluated piromelatine compared to placebo in 120 adult primary insomnia patients ages 18 years and older...

Healthy Sleep, Healthy Diet: Sleep Pattern Linked To Variety Of Food Intake

Date: Feb-20-2013
People who eat a large variety of foods, considered an indicator of a healthy diet, are also the ones with the healthiest sleep patterns, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), in the US. The researchers write about their findings in a paper that is available to read online, ahead of the May print issue of the journal Appetite. First author Michael A...

Using GM Plants To 'Grow' Medicines

Date: Feb-20-2013
Scientists say amending an EU directive on GMOs could help stimulate innovation in making vaccines, cheaper pharmaceuticals and organic plastics using plants. In a paper to be published in Current Pharmaceutical Design, six scientists from the US and Europe compare risk assessment and regulation between the two continents. They will run a web chat on the subject with Sense About Science from 12-1 on Wednesday 20th February. In the EU, plant-made pharmaceuticals have to be authorised in the same way as GM agricultural crops...