Health News

Degree Of Muscle Wasting In Critically Ill Patients Determined By New Technique

Date: Sep-04-2012
Researchers have identified a new technique that can help determine the severity of muscle loss in critically ill patients. The breakthrough could lead to new research to help prevent muscle-wasting and new therapeutic interventions to help treat critically ill patients. The results of the study were presented at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Vienna, 31st August - 5th September 2012. Patients who are critically ill with multi-organ failure often have significant muscle wasting after recovering from their illness...

Inflammatory Diseases, Pancreatitis Likely Caused By Immune System Protein

Date: Sep-04-2012
It is likely that the protein is also highly significant for other inflammatory diseases. The research results have been published in the American journal Gastroenterology. Excessive alcohol intake and gall stones are known risk factors for acute pancreatitis. However, as yet no explanation has been found for what actually happens in the body in cases of acute pancreatitis. Current research shows that calcium-sensitive proteins found in the body, for example calcineurin, promote inflammation, but it is not known exactly how...

Drug Cocktail Design For HIV Patients Is Extremely Important

Date: Sep-03-2012
The relationship between how accurately HIV patients take the drugs prescribed by their doctors and the chance of the virus developing drug resistance has been well known for quite some time. However, according to a new study by Harvard scientists, the relationship between faithfulness to a drug plan and resistance is different for each of the drugs that make up the "cocktail" used to fight against the disease...

Coconut Oil May Prevent Tooth Decay

Date: Sep-03-2012
Coconut oil, a natural antibiotic when digested, destroys the bacteria that cause tooth decay, researchers at the Athlone Institute of Technology, Ireland, reported at the Society for General Microbiology's autumn conference at the University of Warwick, England, today. They added that the antibiotic component in digested coconut oil could be added to dental care products. Dr Damien Brady and team set out to determine whether coconut oil might have antibacterial qualities at combating some strains of Streptococcus bacteria which commonly inhabit the human mouth and cause tooth decay...

Alcohol Consumption Affects Ability To Overcome Fear

Date: Sep-03-2012
Doctors have known for a long time that alcoholism is associated with increased risk of anxiety, such as PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), and that heavy drinkers are more likely to be involved in automobile accidents and/or domestic violence situations...

New Discovery Offers Hope For People Who Can't Smell

Date: Sep-03-2012
A recent study by researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School and their team from other universities and published online in Nature Medicine reports that gene therapy could help people restore their sense of smell. The research, conducted on mice, is a sign of hope for people who were born without the ability to smell or who have lost it due to some unfortunate reason...

Scientists Determine Why Kids With Asthma Are Often Bullied

Date: Sep-03-2012
A new study has identified several factors that may help us understand why kids with asthma are bullied more than healthy kids. The research, presented September 2, 2012 at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Vienna, emphasized how important it is for doctors to talk to their pediatric patients with asthma about bullying, while also explaining other potential effects the disease could have on other areas of their lives. It has been known, unfortunately, that it is quite common for children to tease or harass their peers who have a chronic medical condition...

Obesity Can Lower Children's IQ

Date: Sep-03-2012
Obese children, as well as kids with metabolic syndrome are more likely to be behind their normal-weight peers in spelling, mental flexibility, arithmetic and overall cognitive scores, researchers from New York University School of Medicine and the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, New York, reported in the journal Pediatrics. The authors explained that there has been a dramatic increase in obesity rates in the USA over the past twenty years. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome among children has also risen significantly...

Xtandi (Enzalutamide) Approved For Late Stage Prostate Cancer, FDA

Date: Sep-03-2012
Xtandi (enzalutamide) has been approved for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer that has recurred or spread, regardless of whether patients received medical or surgical therapy to reduce testosterone levels, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced. Enzalutamide has been approved to be administered alongside docetaxel, another cancer medication. The FDA reviewed Xtandi under its Priority Review Program, which allows medications to be reviewed within just six months...

Influenza Is Transmissible Before Onset Of Symptoms

Date: Sep-03-2012
Flu can be transmitted before symptoms appear, researchers from Imperial College London reported in the journal PLoS ONE after carrying out experiments on ferrets. The scientists say that if their animal experiments apply to humans, people infected with the flu virus may be passing it on to others unwittingly, making it extremely hard to prevent epidemics. When health authorities plan for epidemics, they expect to know whether people are infectious before symptoms appear. However, this has been hard to establish from data gathered when epidemics occur...