Health News

First Comprehensive Review Of European Breast Cancer Screening Programs Finds Benefits Outweigh Harm

Date: Sep-14-2012
A major review of breast cancer screening services in Europe, jointly led by researchers at Queen Mary, University of London, has concluded that the benefits of screening in terms of lives saved outweigh the harms caused by over-diagnosis. The results, which are published in a special supplement of The Journal of Medical Screening [1] today (Thursday), show that for every 1,000 women screened every two years from the age of 50 to the age of about 68-69, between seven and nine lives would be saved, and four cases would be over-diagnosed...

Forensic Science On Trial

Date: Sep-14-2012
The key player in a movement challenging improper use of DNA testing and other elements of forensic science is the topic of a compelling cover story in this week's edition of Chemical & Engineering News. The story in the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society (ACS) - the world's largest scientific society - features the Innocence Project, which, in the last two decades, has helped free nearly 300 wrongfully convicted prisoners...

First Pediatric Study To Look At The Role Of Vitamin D In Critical Illness

Date: Sep-14-2012
Vitamin D is increasingly being recognized as important for good health. Vitamin D is a hormone made in the skin following sun exposure or acquired from diet and supplement intake. Previous medical research has shown that low body levels of vitamin D make people more susceptible to problems such as bone fractures, poor mental health and infections like the common cold. Until recently, there had been little consideration given to the role of vitamin D in more severe diseases, which is why Dr. Dayre McNally's recent publication in the esteemed scientific journal Pediatrics is so compelling...

Age, Not Underlying Diagnosis, Key Factor In Weight Gain In Children After Tonsillectomy

Date: Sep-14-2012
Potentially worrisome weight gains following tonsillectomy occur mostly in children under the age of 6, not in older children, a study by Johns Hopkins experts in otolaryngology- head and neck surgery shows. Sudden increases in body mass index, or BMI, have been routinely observed for months after some of the more than half-million surgeries performed annually in the United States to remove the sore and swollen tissues at the back of the throat...

Math Anxiety Causes Trouble For Students As Early As First Grade

Date: Sep-14-2012
Many high-achieving students experience math anxiety at a young age - a problem that can follow them throughout their lives, new research at the University of Chicago shows. In a study of first- and second-graders, Sian Beilock, professor in psychology, found that students report worry and fear about doing math as early as first grade. Most surprisingly math anxiety harmed the highest-achieving students, who typically have the most working memory, Beilock and her colleagues found...

New Clinical Guidelines For Managing Hypothyroid Disease Presented In Thyroid Journal

Date: Sep-14-2012
New evidence-based guidelines have been released for the diagnosis and treatment of hypothyroidism, a complex disease caused by an underactive thyroid gland that cannot produce enough thyroid hormone. These updated clinical recommendations are published in Thyroid, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The new guidelines were developed jointly by the American Thyroid Association (ATA) and American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE)...

An Advance Toward A Flu-Fighting Nasal Spray

Date: Sep-14-2012
In an advance toward development of a nasal spray that protects against infection with influenza and spread of the disease, scientists are reporting identification of a substance that activates the first-line defense system against infection inside the nose. They describe effects of a synthetic form of a natural substance found in bacterial cell walls in ACS' journal Molecular Pharmaceutics. David C...

Record 4.02 Billion Prescriptions In United States In 2011

Date: Sep-14-2012
People in the United States took more prescription drugs than ever last year, with the number of prescriptions increasing from 3.99 billion (with a cost of $308.6 billion) in 2010 to 4.02 billion (with a cost of $319.9 billion) in 2011. Those numbers and others appear in an annual profile of top prescription medicines published in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience. Journal Editor-in-Chief Craig W. Lindsley analyzed data on 2011 drugs with a focus on medications for central nervous system (CNS) disorders...

New Analysis Of Drinking Water-Related Gastrointestinal Illness

Date: Sep-14-2012
The distribution system piping in U.S. public water systems that rely on non-disinfected well water or "ground water" may be a largely unrecognized cause of up to 1.1 million annual cases of acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI), involving nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, scientists are reporting. Their study in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology concludes that such illnesses may become more of a problem as much of the nation's drinking water supply system continues to age and deteriorate. Frank J. Loge, Mark A...

Self-Control May Not Be A Limited Resource After All

Date: Sep-14-2012
So many acts in our daily lives - refusing that second slice of cake, walking past the store with the latest gadgets, working on your tax forms when you'd rather watch TV - seem to boil down to one essential ingredient: self-control. Self-control is what enables us to maintain healthy habits, save for a rainy day, and get important things done...