Health News

Long Hours In Center-Based Child Care Do Not Cause Aggression And Disobedience

Date: Jan-31-2013
Spending many hours in centre-based child care does not lead to more aggression and disobedience in children, according to a new study using data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). Data from 72,000 mothers and their children, including siblings, were obtained from MoBa. Using questionnaires, mothers were asked about aggression and obedience at both 18 and 36 months and the amount of time their children spent in child care. In addition to comparing children from different families, the researchers compared siblings who had different amounts of child care...

Pneumonia Taking Severe Toll On Children In Developing World

Date: Jan-31-2013
Around 12 million children under the age of five are hospitalised with chest infections such as pneumonia and bronchiolitis each year, a global study suggests.  Researchers also found that an estimated 265,000 children under five suffering from chest infections die in hospital each year. Almost all of these deaths - 99 per cent - take place in the developing world. About eight out of ten children who die from chest infections do so outside of hospital care...

New Survey Finds Chronic Pain Treatments Are Failing Sufferers Across Europe

Date: Jan-31-2013
Organizations Team up to Raise awareness and Make a Call to Action for European Governments to Develop Comprehensive Chronic Pain Treatment Programs Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) today released results of a survey of more than 1,000 chronic pain sufferers across Europe that suggest millions of patients there continue to suffer on a daily basis even after trying several treatment options...

Iron-Enriched Potatoes Could Help Tackle Anaemia, Nanoscientists' Study Suggests

Date: Jan-31-2013
The humble potato could hold the answer to tackling the common condition iron deficiency anaemia, scientists believe. Researchers at Nottingham Trent University have been successful in developing a novel - and natural - way of enriching potatoes with iron by engineering 'nano-rust' particles, which can be broken down into regular iron and absorbed by the crop. The World Health Organisation estimates that anaemia affects almost a quarter of the world's population, with half of these cases caused by iron deficiency anaemia...

Young Mother From Ontario Is First In North America To Receive MRI-Friendly Defibrillator Implant

Date: Jan-31-2013
Life-altering device, implanted by Newmarket's Southlake Regional Health Centre, opens doors for thousands of cardiac patients currently denied MRIs Every year an estimated 1.5 million magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans are performed in Canada and the number is growing at a rate of about 10 per cent per year. At the same time, a soaring number of Canadians who rely on implanted defibrillators to keep their hearts beating are denied this valuable, life-saving diagnostic test despite a 50 to 75 per cent probability that they will require one over the lifetime of their defibrillator...

Vitamin D Deficiency Likely Responsible For Flu Epidemic

Date: Jan-31-2013
Norwegian study: the vitamin has an antibiotic effect on the immune system Vitamin D deficiency is likely to blame for the flu epidemic that broke out last week in the Netherlands. The winter months are generally characterised by significantly low levels of this vitamin due to inadequate solar radiation. Research conducted by Norwegian scientists into flu epidemics specifically points to the presence of vitamin D in the body as being a crucial factor...

Discovery Of 'Switch' That Turns On Aggressive Infection In Superbug Offers Potential New Target For Treatment

Date: Jan-31-2013
University of Cambridge researchers have discovered how an antibiotic-resistant superbug exploits oxygen-limited conditions in the lungs of patients with severe respiratory disease to thrive. It is hoped the discovery could lead to new ways to target the Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacterium, which is responsible for six per cent of healthcare associated infections in NHS patients and has a widespread resistance to many antibiotics. Infection by P. aeruginosa is a major cause of death in patients with Cystic Fibrosis...

Call For Greater Transparency In Publishing Information From Clinical Trials

Date: Jan-31-2013
An initiative from the drugs regulator, the European Medicines Agency, to commit to releasing all of the information from clinical trials once the marketing authorization process has ended, which has been greeted with cautious optimism by proponents of access to data but with much less enthusiasm by the pharmaceutical industry, sparks an interesting debate on the role of medical journals in publishing drug data, according to the Editors of PLOS Medicine...

Analyses Of Industry-Sponsored Clinical Trials Show Discrepancies

Date: Jan-31-2013
Discrepancies between internal and published analyses of industry-sponsored clinical trials lead to further calls for transparency. Internal pharmaceutical company documents detailing the planned and completed analyses for clinical trials do not always match the publically available report of the completed trial, highlighting a concerning lack of transparency, according to a study published in this week's PLOS Medicine...

Minivelle™ (Estradiol Transdermal System), The Smallest Estrogen Patch, Now Available In U.S. Pharmacies

Date: Jan-31-2013
Provides Effective Relief from Hot Flashes and Night Sweats Due to Menopause Noven Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the manufacturer of Vivelle-Dot® (estradiol transdermal system), today announced the availability of Minivelle™ (estradiol transdermal system) by prescription in U.S. pharmacies. On October 29, 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Minivelle™ for the treatment of moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms due to menopause, commonly known as hot flashes and night sweats. Minivelle™ is the smallest estrogen patch currently available...