Health News

Assessing The Benefits Of Prosthetic Devices And Training

Date: Nov-02-2012
A new validated and reliable measure of how well an adult amputee is able to perform everyday tasks with a prosthetic arm will help physical and occupational therapists, prosthetists, and doctors assess the progress that patients make during training with their new limb. Amputees with a new prosthetic arm must learn how to use their device to perform everyday tasks that were once second nature. Taking off a shirt becomes a conscious, multistep effort: grasp the shirt, lift the shirt over the head, pull arms through the sleeves, place the shirt on the table, let go of the shirt...

Effective Healthcare Can Reduce Toll From Major Diseases Like Stroke, Heart Disease And Cancer

Date: Nov-02-2012
Research led by University of Leicester discovers how effective healthcare can reduce toll from major diseases like stroke, heart disease and cancer Wide differences in death rates from disease still persist throughout England - but effective healthcare can help to reduce these inequalities, a new study has discovered. Researchers from the University of Leicester led a two-year project funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) into why differences in death rates from diseases like heart disease, strokes, lung disease and cancers still persist...

Structural Damage To The Brain From High Blood Pressure Demonstrated Among People As Young As 40

Date: Nov-02-2012
Uncontrolled high blood pressure damages the brain's structure and function as early as young middle-age, and even the brains of middle-aged people who clinically would not be considered to have hypertension have evidence of silent structural brain damage, a study led by researchers at UC Davis has found...

Gender Differences In How Sleep Duration Affects Hunger

Date: Nov-02-2012
A new study suggests that increasing the amount of sleep that adults get could lead to reduced food intake, but the hormonal process differs between men and women. "Restricting sleep in healthy, normal weight participants has limited effects on metabolic risk factors and may affect food intake regulating hormones differently in men and women," said Marie-Pierre St-Onge, PhD, FAHA, the study's principal investigator...

Lack Of Guidance For Patients Newly Diagnosed With Diabetes

Date: Nov-02-2012
Patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes feel "left in the dark" and unsure what they can and can't eat whilst sometimes waiting months to receive diabetes education, according to a new study published online in the journal Primary Health Care Research & Development. The research carried out by Dr Michelle McKinley and colleagues at Queen's University Belfast, explored the views of people recently diagnosed with diabetes and discovered that whilst waiting for a referral to a diabetes education programme, they received little or no information about what to eat...

New MS Drug Proves Effective Where Others Have Failed

Date: Nov-02-2012
A drug which 'reboots' a person's immune system has been shown to be an effective treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who have already failed to respond to the first drug with which they were treated (a 'first-line' therapy), as well as affected individuals who were previously untreated. The results of these two phase III clinical trials were published today in the journal The Lancet...

Small Baby Guidelines Lead To Improvement In The Lives Of Premature Infants

Date: Nov-02-2012
For the last decade, prematurity has been the leading cause of infant mortality in the United States. As a result of prematurity many infants enter this world too early with a small chance of survival. In order to help treat these extremely premature infants, physicians at Nationwide Children's Hospital developed a set of guidelines tailored to meet the needs of these tiny infants, some born up to four months early. Now, a new study shows that these guidelines are not only improving survival rates for extremely premature infants, but also improving their quality of life...

New Target Found For Treating Peanut Food Allergy

Date: Nov-02-2012
A groundbreaking target has been discovered for the treatment of food allergies, according to a new study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Researchers at National Jewish Health have found levels of the enzyme Pim 1 kinase increase in the small intestines of mice with peanut allergies.  Blocking activity of Pim 1 significantly lessened the allergic response to peanuts. Previous research has told us that around four percent of Americans have a food allergy...

Antidepressants Linked To Poor Birth Outcomes

Date: Nov-02-2012
Usage of a type of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) among mothers has been linked to preterm birth, miscarriage, neonatal health problems and potential long-term neurobehavioral conditions, such as autism, according to HMS experts at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. The recent study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, said that SSRIs should only be prescribed very carefully for women who are suffering from depression and trying to get pregnant...

Meth Vaccine Can Help Fight Addiction

Date: Nov-02-2012
A methamphetamine vaccine, successfully tested on animals, could be the first specific treatment for people with meth addiction. The finding, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, came from a team at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) after giving meth to animals that were vaccinated with the drug and not seeing any typical signs of meth intoxication in them. Meth (methamphetamine) is a highly addictive drug, affecting approximately 25 million people globally...