Health News

From Its Peak In 1991, Cancer Mortality Down 20 Percent

Date: Jan-19-2013
As of 2009, the overall death rate for cancer in the United States had declined 20 percent from its peak in 1991, translating to the avoidance of approximately 1.2 million deaths from cancer, 152,900 of these in 2009 alone. These figures come from the American Cancer Society's annual Cancer Statistics report, one of the most widely-cited medical publications in the world...

Weight Loss After Infection Helps Oust Worms

Date: Jan-19-2013
Weight loss plays a significant part in the body's response to fighting off intestinal worms. The finding came from a team of experts from The University of Manchester and was published in the journal PLOS Pathogens. Prior research demonstrated that tribendimidine treatment was safe and effective for intestinal worm infections. The new results suggest that the natural feeding pathways that result in weight loss are taken over by the immune system. The defense mechanisms then drive down the proper pathway to get rid of the worms...

New Tick-Borne Disease Found In The U.S.

Date: Jan-19-2013
A new infection causes by ticks that is extremely similar to Lyme disease has been found in 18 people in southern New England and upstate New York. The unnamed disease has been confirmed in humans for the first time by researchers from Yale University who published their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine. The report suggests that this new sickness could be infecting more than 4,300 Americans a year with flu-like symptoms and relapsing fevers. Luckily, one dosage of antibiotics seems capable of eliminating the disease...

Bacteria Can Morph Host Cells Into Stem Cells

Date: Jan-18-2013
Bacteria have the ability to convert the host tissue cells that they infect to become like stem cells that can then differentiate into virtually any other type of cell, thereby enabling the bugs to spread to other parts of the body. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh made this remarkable discovery while studying mice infected with bacteria that cause leprosy, an infectious disease that attacks the nerve system. They propose the finding will help stem cell researchers use similar mechanisms to develop new stem cell treatments for degenerative conditions...

Lance Armstrong's "Regret" Was Not An "Apology"

Date: Jan-18-2013
Lance Armstrong has expressed regret during his first interview with Oprah Winfrey, but it cannot be considered as an apology, says John Llewellyn, a communications and public relations expert from Wake Forest University. When asked whether Armstrong's initial interview with Oprah might redeem him after years of saying he had never used performance enhancing drugs, Llewellyn said the answer is "No". Llewellyn says: "Armstrong offered an 'explanation' and hinted at regret, but I heard nothing I'd consider an apology. A proper apology has three parts...

Fast Food Restaurants Serve Extremely Unhealthy Meals

Date: Jan-18-2013
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. Their meals may sound and look extremely appealing, but they are actually incredibly fattening, bad for you, and only contribute towards the country's severe obesity epidemic.  The dishes with the unhealthiest ingredients are on this year's list of Xtreme Eating 'winners', published in the latest issue of Nutrition Action Healthletter...

Two Percent Of People Have Armpits That Never Smell

Date: Jan-18-2013
Two percent of people carry an unusual form of a specific gene (ABCC11) that means their armpits never smell. The finding came from new research involving 6,495 women who are enrolled in the Children of the 90s study at the University of Bristol, England, and was published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. In the study, 117 (2%) of the subjects were lucky enough to carry this gene that allows them to never have to worry about using deodorant...

DNA Donors' Identities Easy To Find Online

Date: Jan-18-2013
In databases where genetic information is stored anonymously, that anonymity does not necessarily stay that way, stirring up concern about how much privacy research project participants can anticipate in this Internet age. A strained relationship has always existed between the need to share data to increase medical discoveries and the fact that many people do not want to make their health information public. The rising use of genetic sequencing makes this even more difficult, because genetic data give information about the individual as well as his or her family...

Swine Flu Vaccination Does Not Increase Risk Of Miscarriage

Date: Jan-18-2013
The idea that the swine flu vaccine given to Norwegian women in 2009 increased their risk of pregnancy loss has been dismissed as false according to a recent study carried out in The New England Journal of Medicine. Swine flu is a highly contagious respiratory disease of pigs, spread by direct and indirect contact. Its symptoms are very similar to those of a typical seasonal flu: body aches, cough, chills, temperature, headache and sore throat. Detection of the disease is often overlooked unless experts are specifically searching for it...

Research Offers Promising New Finding For Therapies To Treat Persistent Seizures In Epileptic Patients

Date: Jan-18-2013
LA BioMed Researcher Says Study Identified New Potential Site for Medications to TargetIn a promising finding for epileptic patients suffering from persistent seizures known as status epilepticus, researchers reported today that new medication could help halt these devastating seizures. To do so, it would have to work directly to antagonize NMDA receptors, the predominant molecular device for controlling synaptic activity and memory function in the brain...