Health News

Innovative Approach To Avoiding Poison Ivy, Oak And Sumac

Date: Sep-28-2012
Taking the battle against the toxic trio beyond 'Leaves of 3, leave it be' With more than half of all adults allergic to poison ivy, oak and sumac, scientists are reporting an advance toward an inexpensive spray that could reveal the presence of the rash-causing toxic oil on the skin, clothing, garden tools, and even the family cat or dog. Using the spray, described in ACS' The Journal of Organic Chemistry would enable people to wash off the oil, or avoid further contact, in time to sidestep days of misery...

Mortality For MDR-TB And XDR-TB Cases Could Be Reduced By TB Drug Delamanid

Date: Sep-28-2012
Results from an observational study evaluating a new anti-TB drug have found that the treatment can improve outcomes and reduce mortality among patients with both MDR-TB and XDR-TB. The research, published online ahead of print in the European Respiratory Journal, suggests a drug called delamanid could have a public health benefit for MDR-TB and also for XDR-TB, as few effective treatment options are currently available...

Long-Lasting Fetal Microchimerism In Maternal Brain Is Common, Affects Many Brain Regions

Date: Sep-28-2012
Small portions of male DNA, most likely left over in a mother's body by a male fetus can be detected in the maternal brain relatively frequently, according to a report published in the open access journal PLOS ONE by William Chan of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and his colleagues. The process, called fetal 'microchimerism (Mc)', is common in other tissues such as blood, but this is the first evidence of male Mc in the human female brain...

Certain Withdrawal Symptoms Are More Correlated To Risk Of Relapse In Cannabis Users

Date: Sep-28-2012
Cannabis users have a greater chance of relapse to cannabis use when they experience certain withdrawal symptoms, according to research published in the open access journal PLOS ONE led by David Allsop of the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre (NCPIC) at the University of New South Wales. The authors tested a group of dependent cannabis users over a two week period of abstinence for impairment related to their withdrawal symptoms. Findings were correlated with the probability of relapse to cannabis use during the abstinence period, and the level of use one month later...

A Step Closer To Personalized Medicine For Multiple Sclerosis As Researchers Define 2 Categories Of MS Patients

Date: Sep-28-2012
There are approximately 400,000 people in the United States with multiple sclerosis. Worldwide, the number jumps to more than 2.1 million people. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach to treating the millions with multiple sclerosis, what if doctors could categorize patients to create more personalized treatments? A new study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) may one day make this idea a reality in the fight against the debilitating autoimmune disease...

Maternal Immune-Suppressive Cells Protect The Fetus During Pregnancy

Date: Sep-28-2012
A new study published online in the journal Nature suggests it might be possible to develop vaccines to prevent premature birth and other pregnancy complications. If so, such vaccines would be the first intended to stimulate the subset of regulatory CD4 T cells that suppress the immune response. Current vaccines are specifically designed to stimulate T cell subsets that activate the immune response...

Scientists Find That Competition Between Two Brain Regions Influences The Ability To Make Healthy Choices

Date: Sep-28-2012
Almost everyone knows the feeling: you see a delicious piece of chocolate cake on the table, but as you grab your fork, you think twice. The cake is too fattening and unhealthy, you tell yourself. Maybe you should skip dessert. But the cake still beckons. In order to make the healthy choice, we often have to engage in this kind of internal struggle. Now, scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have identified the neural processes at work during such self-regulation - and what determines whether you eat the cake...

Severity Of Cold Infections Increased By Exposure To Children With Runny Noses

Date: Sep-28-2012
Exposure to school-age children raises the odds that a person with lung disease who catches a cold will actually suffer symptoms like a runny nose, sore throat and cough, according to a study just published in the Journal of Clinical Virology. That finding, the result of a study that drew upon a databank of 1,000 samples of sputum and nasal secretions from people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, comes as a surprise, says Ann Falsey, M.D., professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester and an infectious disease expert at Rochester General Hospital...

Research Sheds Light On Abuse Of Pain Medication

Date: Sep-28-2012
A study by a team of University of Kentucky researchers has shed new light on the potential habit-forming properties of the popular pain medication tramadol, in research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The paper is slated to appear in an upcoming edition of the academic journal Psychopharmacology. Prescription pain killer abuse is a major public health problem in the U.S. In 2010, more individuals over the age of 12 reported nonmedical use of prescription pain relievers in the past month than use of cocaine, methamphetamine or heroin...

Promising New Research On Non-Hormonal Male Contraceptives

Date: Sep-28-2012
When will men have their own birth control pill? Scientists have been predicting the debut of a male pill within 5 years for the last 30 years. The factors accounting for that delay - and new optimism that a male pill will emerge within a decade - are the topic of a story in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News. C&EN is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. In the story, Michael M...