Health News

Promoting Clinical Trials For MENA Region, 3-4 October 2012 Dubai, UAE

Date: Sep-10-2012
Recent studies have shown that in an attempt to save time and resources, International Pharmaceutical Companies are increasingly out-sourcing clinical trials to developing countries such as Turkey and the MENA region. This was highlighted in a new report by industry experts GBI Research. The increment of productivity in clinical trials is changing the business model of the pharmaceutical industry. International pharmaceutical companies are demanding faster, more effective and lower-cost clinical trial processes...

Double-Lumen Saline Implant Design Feels More Natural, New Study Suggests

Date: Sep-10-2012
Investigational implant also shows lower rate of capsular contracture at two years compared to current single-lumen saline implants Women like to have options, the more options the better. Some women don't like the look and feel of currently available saline-filled breast implants, which are prone to scalloping or wrinkling, but also aren't comfortable with silicone gel options. An investigational breast implant, one filled with saline but with design features intended to provide a more natural result, may be just the answer they need...

Soy Diet May Lessen Anxiety Effect Of BPA On Genes

Date: Sep-10-2012
Early life exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) heightens anxiety by altering gene expression in the amygdala, a region of the brain that plays a role in shaping responses to fear and stress. But a diet rich in soy can lessen this effect. These are the findings of an animal study led by researchers at North Carolina State University who write about their findings in a paper published online in the open access journal PLoS ONE on 5 September. BPA is an organic industrial chemical that is controversial because it has hormone-like properties similar to those of estrogen...

Biopsies May Overlook Esophagus Disease

Date: Sep-10-2012
University of Utah engineers mapped white blood cells called eonsinophils and showed an existing diagnostic method may overlook an elusive digestive disorder that causes swelling in the esophagus and painful swallowing. By pinpointing the location and density of eosinophils, which regulate allergy mechanisms in the immune system, these researchers suggest the disease eosinophilic esophagitis, or EoE, may be under- or misdiagnosed in patients using the current method, which is to take tissue samples (biopsies) with an endoscope...

Brain Radiation After Lung Cancer Treatment Reduces Risk Of Cancer Spreading

Date: Sep-10-2012
Stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with surgery and/or radiation therapy have a significantly reduced risk of developing brain metastases if they also receive prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI); however, this study did not show an improvement in overall survival with PCI, according to research presented at the 2012 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology...

Multi-Functional Anti-Inflammatory/Anti-Allergic Developed By Hebrew University Researcher

Date: Sep-10-2012
A synthetic, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic family of drugs to combat a variety of illnesses while avoiding detrimental side effects has been developed by a Hebrew University of Jerusalem researcher. The researcher is Saul Yedgar, who is the Walter and Greta Stiel Professor of Heart Studies at the Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada at the Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine. Inflammatory/allergic diseases affect billions of people worldwide, and treatments for these conditions are a major focus of the pharmaceutical industry...

SF State Biologists Tag 'Zombie' Honeybees To Track Their Flight

Date: Sep-10-2012
After last year's accidental discovery of "zombie"-like bees infected with a fly parasite, SF State researchers are conducting an elaborate experiment to learn more about the plight of the honey bees. The scientists are tagging infected bees with tiny radio trackers, and monitoring the bees' movements in and out of a specially designed hive on top of the Hensill Hall biology building on campus...

Advanced Maternal Age Not Harmful For Adult Children

Date: Sep-10-2012
Previously existing ideas on how advanced maternal age affects adult health of children have to be reconsidered. It had been thought that mothers delivering later in life have children that are less healthy as adults, because the body of the mother had already degenerated due to physiological effects like decreasing oocyte quality or a weakened placenta. In fact, what affects the health of the grown-up children is not the age of their mother but her education and the number of years she survives after giving birth and thus spends with her offspring...

Alcoholics Anonymous Participation Promotes Long-Term Recovery

Date: Sep-10-2012
A new study published in a special issue of Substance Abuse finds that recovering alcoholics who help others in 12-step programs furthers their time sober, consideration for others, step-work, and long-term meeting attendance. These novel findings are from a 10-year, prospective investigation led by Maria Pagano, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and principal investigator of the "Helping Others" study. Dr...

Experimental Regimen Treatment Provides Equivalent Survival Rate to Standard Chemotherapy in Late-Stage Lung Cancer Patients

Date: Sep-10-2012
Treatment with pemetrexed, carboplatin and bevacizumab followed by maintenance pemetrexed and bevacizumab (Pem+Cb+B) is no better than standard therapy with paclitaxel, carboplatin and bevacizumab followed by bevacizumab (Pac+Cb+B) in patients with advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NS-NSCLC), according to research presented at the 2012 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology...