Health News
Date: Oct-10-2012
Eyedrops, prepared with the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA), have been used as treatment for the prevention or healing of cataracts, macular degeneration, and other degenerative eye disorders. Researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology researched these eyedrops and have discovered that they are an improvement over a separate experimental treatment using N-acetylcysteine (NAC), due to easier movement across cell membranes, permitting low dosages of the medicine to be just as efficient. Dr. Nuran Ercal, head researcher and the Richard K...
Date: Oct-10-2012
New analysis by the charity Diabetes UK expects the number of people in Britain with diabetes to rise by 700,000 by the end of the decade. This indicates 4.4 million people in the UK alone by 2020. The majority of new cases are predominantly expected to be Type 2 diabetes. People who develop Type 2 diabetes are at an increased risk of amputation, blindness, kidney failure, stroke and ultimately early death. However, the condition can often be prevented by adopting healthier lifestyle choices such as losing weight...
Date: Oct-10-2012
Alere Inc. (NYSE: ALR) is pleased to announce the results of a study, presented today at the 20th FIGO World Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which demonstrate that a simple blood test measuring placental growth factor (PlGF) can help to quantify risk in women when pre-eclampsia is first suspected. The level of PlGF in blood is already known to be an important marker for placental and foetal wellbeing as well as the placenta's ability to sustain the pregnancy...
Date: Oct-10-2012
Mathematicians have developed a powerful tool to quantify the spread and infectiousness of viruses like the pandemic H1N1 flu strain, which can be used together with modern laboratory techniques to help the healthcare system plan its response to disease outbreaks. By putting statistical data under the microscope, University of Warwick researchers have created a model to predict the impact of future pandemics in real-time as they strike...
Date: Oct-10-2012
Scientists have designed a blood test that reads genetic changes like a barcode - and can pick out aggressive prostate cancers by their particular pattern of gene activity. A team at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust found reading the pattern of genes switched on and off in blood cells could accurately detect which advanced prostate cancers had the worst survival. And the researchers believe the blood test could eventually be used alongside the existing PSA test at diagnosis to select patients who need immediate treatment...
Date: Oct-10-2012
Britain's most comprehensive study of hate crime is being launched this month in Leicester by a specialist research team at the University of Leicester. Criminologists from the University are starting a major two-year project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, examining the experiences of those who are victimised because of their identity, vulnerability or perceived 'difference' in the eyes of the perpetrator...
Date: Oct-10-2012
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects approximately ten percent of children worldwide, yet its causes are not well understood. Now, a study led by Susan Korrick, MD, MPH, of Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), and Sharon Sagiv, PhD, MPH, of Boston University School of Public Health, and published in the online version of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine links low-level prenatal mercury exposure with a greater risk of ADHD-related behaviors...
Date: Oct-10-2012
A new National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study conducted at Baruch College and published in Obesity found that overweight and obese adults who participated in three different weight loss treatments, all involving intensive, multi-component counseling delivered in groups, lost significant weight after 48 weeks whether the treatment was led by a health professional or by someone who had previous weight loss success...
Date: Oct-10-2012
How can scientists safely conduct avian flu research if the results could potentially threaten, as well as save, millions of lives? In a series of commentaries appearing in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, prominent microbiologists and physicians argue the cases both for and against lifting a voluntary moratorium on experiments to enhance the ability of the H5N1 virus to move from mammal to mammal, so-called "gain-of-function" research, and discuss the level of biosecurity that would be appropriate for moving that research forward...
Date: Oct-10-2012
Sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention messages delivered by Facebook can be effective in promoting condom use among young adults in the short term, a new study has found. Few students and young adults receive comprehensive sexuality education or guidance on HIV and other STI risks. Social media may provide a viable alternative to promote safe sex using online networks of friends, the study published in the November issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reports. "The use of social media to influence sexual risk behavior in the short term is novel...