Health News

Concern For Urban Air Quality

Date: Aug-30-2012
In their August editorial, the PLOS Medicine Editors reflect on a recent Policy Forum article by Jason Corburn and Alison Cohen*, which describes the need for urban health equity indicators to guide public health policy in cities and urban areas. The Editors focus on the need for better air quality data for the world's cities because many cities with the worst airborne particulate levels are in low- and middle-income countries and often have limited data. Worryingly, the World Health Organization estimates that 1...

Patients With AF Undergo Surgical Ablation To Restore Sinus Rhythm

Date: Aug-30-2012
Surgical ablation of the left atrium to restore regular sinus rhythm is widely used in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) undergoing cardiac surgery. The restoration of sinus rhythm might decrease the risk of heart failure, stroke and death during long-term follow up.(1) However, despite its promise, this theoretical benefit has never been clearly established - previous randomised studies have been small and performed in a selected group of patients undergoing mitral valve surgery...

Coronary Blockages Accurately Assessed By Advanced CT Scans

Date: Aug-30-2012
An ultra-fast, 320-detector computed tomography (CT) scanner can accurately sort out which people with chest pain need - or don't need - an invasive procedure such as cardiac angioplasty or bypass surgery to restore blood flow to the heart, according to an international study. Results of the study, which involved 381 patients at 16 hospitals in eight countries, were presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Munich, Germany...

Bright Light Therapy Can Help People Who Have Seasonal Depression Disorder And Who Don't

Date: Aug-29-2012
We have already known that bright light therapy can be an effective cure for seasonal depression, but a new study from Finnish University students has revealed that it also benefits those not struggling from seasonal depression at all. When the therapy is administered through the ear canal directly to the photosensitive brain tissue, it not only improves the cognitive performance and mood of those with the depression, but those without it as well...

New Ultraviolet Light Can Pinpoint Location Of Diseases

Date: Aug-29-2012
A new study published in the Online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a synthetic protein, which, when activated under ultraviolet lighting, can show doctors exactly where certain medical disorders are located, such as arthritis and cancer. This amazing breakthrough paves way to a new kind of diagnostic imaging technology and may eventually lead to doctors being able to insert medication in places where the the imaging has detected disease...

Does Severe Calorie Restriction Help You Life Longer? Probably Not

Date: Aug-29-2012
According to a 25-year study using rhesus monkeys, a lifetime on a very-low calorie diet did not help them live any longer, researchers from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge reported in the journal Nature. Rhesus monkeys are genetically relatively similar to humans. They were fed on a diet consisting of 30% fewer calories than the control group were for a quarter of a century...

Noise From Earphones May Be Dangerous

Date: Aug-29-2012
Although many people like to turn their headphones up as loud as they can after having a bad day or to get their mind off things bothering them, experts from the University of Leicester have shown evidence for the first time that turning the volume on your headphones up too high can damage the coating of nerve cells, eventually causing temporary deafness. According to the researchers, the noise levels similar to those of jet levels can be heard on earphones or headphones on personal music players if they are turned up loud enough...

Learning Disabilities In Kids May Be Preventable With Cancer Drug

Date: Aug-29-2012
According to a new study conducted by researchers at University of Michigan Medical School and published in the journal Cell, a drug which was originally formulated to stop cancer growth may be capable of halting abnormal brain cells from growing in childrens' brains - which could reduce the risk of learning disabilities. This new evidence has researchers wondering if anti-tumor drugs could possibly protect kid's brain who have neurofibromatosis 1 and other learning disabilities during the key developmental stage. Neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) is present in 1 in every 3,000 kids...

Aspirin May Prolong Prostate Cancer Survival

Date: Aug-29-2012
Taking a regular dose of aspirin may help men treated for prostate cancer, either with surgery or radiation, live longer, especially if they have the high risk form of the disease.  This was the finding of a new study published this week in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. First author Kevin Choe, assistant professor of radiation oncology at University of Texas (UT) Southwestern, is first author of the study...

Lilly Discontinues Schizophrenia Trials

Date: Aug-29-2012
Eli Lilly and Company says it has decided to discontinue trials for schizophrenia drug pomaglumetad methionil (mGlu2/3) because of unfavorable results. The company says that two pivotal studies did not look as though they would have positive results regarding their primary efficacy endpoint. The company stresses that the discontinuation was not due to any safety issues. It's recent Phase II study which looked at using pomaglumetad methionil alongside antipsychotic medications did not meet its primary endpoint either...