Health News

Mothers Exposed To Chemical Found In Common Household Items Have Babies With Obesity Risk

Date: Aug-30-2012
A new study, conducted by researchers at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health and published in Environmental Health Perspectives, reveals that babies born to mothers who have been exposed to PFCs (polyfluoroalkyl compounds) tend to be smaller than normal when they are born, and larger than normal by the time they reach 20 months old. PFCs are environmental chemicals which are used when fluoropolymers are made. They can be found in common household items, such as clothes, furniture and non-stick pans...

Erectile Dysfunction Linked to Increased Cardiovascular Risk

Date: Aug-30-2012
According to a recent report by the Princeton Consensus (Expert Panel) Conference, men's sexual function should be evaluated and taken into account when they are being tested for risk factors of cardiovascular problems. Lead author of the study Dr. Ajay Nehra, vice chairperson, professor and director of Men't Health in the Department of Urology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, worked with over 20 other experts to determine their findings. The study explains that erectile dysfunction (ED) is a risk factor in men younger than 55 for eventual cardiovascular disease...

Incentives Help Pregnant Women Who Are Addicted To Drugs Stay Clean

Date: Aug-30-2012
According to research in the September issue of Addictive Disorders & Their Treatment, the importance of drug abstinence among pregnant women with heroin or cocaine addiction can be promoted by a "contingency management" approach, which offers incentives for women when their drug tests come out negative. The team discovered that contingency management (CM) works just as effectively whether the incentives remain the same or are increased over time...

Water Pipe Smoking Is As Dangerous As Smoking Cigarettes

Date: Aug-30-2012
Water pipe smoking, such as hookah or bong smoking, has a negative impact on lung function and respiratory symptoms, similar to the effects of cigarette smoking, according to new research published in the journal Respirology. Water pipe users and even physicians have believed that smoking through a water pipe filters out the toxic components of tobacco, making it less harmful than smoking cigarettes. A water pipe, such as hookah, is an instrument for smoking flavored tobacco. However, before inhalation, the smoke is passed through a water basin...

Leg Compressions May Limit Stroke Damage

Date: Aug-30-2012
Compressing then releasing the legs several times with a five-minute break in between, while administering a clot-busting drug, may be a way to limit brain damage following a stroke. This is the main finding of a US study published online in the journal Stroke on 21 August, whose senior author David Hess, is a stroke specialist and  chair of the Medical College of Georgia Department of Neurology at Georgia Health Sciences University. The study, was done on mice, so the technique now needs to be tested on humans...

Type A Personalities Have Higher Stroke Risk If Stressed

Date: Aug-30-2012
People with a Type A personality who live with chronic stress are more likely to develop a stroke, researchers at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, revealed in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. Chronic stress means that the stress is persistent for over six months. The team gathered data on 150 adults who had been admitted to one stroke unit, they were aged 54 years (average). They compared them to a randomly-selected group of 300 people of the same age and lived in the same neighborhood...

Trastuzumab Increases Congestive Heart Failure Risk

Date: Aug-30-2012
Breast cancer patients treated with trastuzumab chemotherapy are at an increased risk for heart failure and/or cardiomyopathy (HF/CM) compared to women not treated with chemotherapy, according to a study published August 30 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers found in the U.S., with over 232,000 new diagnoses reported in 2011. Although trastuzumab has been heralded as a step forward in personalized oncology, concerns about safety, namely regarding risk of congestive heart failure, have emerged...

Schools Are Not Properly Prepared For A Pandemic

Date: Aug-30-2012
According to a recent study published in American Journal of Infection Control, the journal of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), less than 50% of schools do not prepare for pandemic situations and only 40% have re-evaluated their plans since the H1N1 outbreak in 2009. It is believed that the H1N1 virus caused around 17,000 deaths by 2010. St Louis University researchers looked at data from surveys answered by around 2,000 nurses from elementary schools, middle schools and high schools over 26 different states in the U.S...

Prolonged Opioid Use After Surgery Most Likely Due To Factors Other Than Pain

Date: Aug-30-2012
According to a study in the September issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS), the risk of continuing to use strong pain-relieving drugs many months after surgery increases with non-pain related factors, such as previous use of pain medications, symptoms of depression, and high perceived risk of addiction. Dr. Ian Carroll of Stanford University and lead author, said: "Each of these factors was a better predictor of prolonged opioid use than postoperative pain duration or severity...

Human Tissue Act Workshop, 11 October 2012, London

Date: Aug-30-2012
Long awaited one day workshop to be delivered on the Human Tissue Act... �Events 4 Healthcare are to deliver a one day workshop focusing on the Human Tissue Act. This workshop will be held at the Hatton in Farringdon, London on Thursday 11th October. The focus of the workshop is to cover some of the key areas to consider when working within the human tissue arena; these include the practicalities and ethics of the HTA and research licensing...