Health News

The Long-Term Stress Effects Of Exposure To Violence Among Adolescents

Date: Jul-06-2012
Children who are exposed to community violence continue to exhibit a physical stress response up to a year after the exposure, suggesting that exposure to violence may have long-term negative health consequences, according researchers at Penn State and University College London...

Shedding Light On Pregnancy Complications And Overturning Common Belief

Date: Jul-06-2012
A study led by Hospital for Special Surgery researchers has demonstrated that women who have a specific type of antibody that interferes with blood vessel function are at risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes and that other antibodies in the same family thought to cause pregnancy complications do not put women at risk. The researchers say that many doctors may be unnecessarily treating some pregnant women who have antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs) with anticoagulants, such as expensive heparin injections, which can cause bleeding and bone loss...

The Chance Of IVF Success Reduced By Around 50 Percent By Coffee Consumption Of 5 Or More Cups A Day

Date: Jul-06-2012
Women who drink five or more cups of coffee a day severely reduce their chance of success from IVF treatment. Indeed, Danish investigators who followed up almost 4000 IVF and ICSI patients described the adverse impact as "comparable to the detrimental effect of smoking". The study was presented at the annual meeting of ESHRE by Dr Ulrik Schiøler Kesmodel from the Fertility Clinic of Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark. Results showed that the consumption of five or more cups of coffee a day reduced the clinical pregnancy rate by 50% and the live birth rate by 40%...

Leading Food Expert Says The Food Industry Should Be Regulated

Date: Jul-06-2012
"The obesity crisis is made worse by the way industry formulates and markets its products and so must be regulated to prevent excesses and to protect the public good," writes a leading food expert in this week's PLoS Medicine. Kelly Brownell from the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University argues that like all industries, the food industry plays by certain rules: "It must defend its core practices against all threats, produce short-term earnings, and in do doing, sell more food...

Epidemic Of Obesity Requires A New Focus On Controlling Energy Balance And Preventing Weight Gain

Date: Jul-06-2012
As the United States confronts the growing epidemic of obesity among children and adults, a team of University of Colorado School of Medicine obesity researchers concludes that what the nation needs is a new battle plan - one that replaces the emphasis on widespread food restriction and weight loss with an emphasis on helping people achieve "energy balance" at a healthy body weight. In a paper published in the journal Circulation, James O. Hill, PhD...

Discovery That Bees Can Reverse Brain Aging Has Implications For Alzheimer's Disease

Date: Jul-06-2012
Scientists at Arizona State University have discovered that older honey bees effectively reverse brain aging when they take on nest responsibilities typically handled by much younger bees. While current research on human age-related dementia focuses on potential new drug treatments, researchers say these findings suggest that social interventions may be used to slow or treat age-related dementia...

Transplant Cytomegalovirus Infection Test Approved By FDA

Date: Jul-05-2012
The FDA has approved a DNA test - COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan CMV Test - to measure the efficacy of anti-viral treatment in solid organ transplant recipients who are being administered CMV (cytomegalovirus) antiviral therapy. The viral load test can determine, from a sample of the patient's blood plasma, levels of CMV nucleic acid. The doctor can use the device to carry out a series of tests to determine what changes there are in the paient's CMV viral load while undergoing anti-CMV therapy...

UN Sets New Standards For Liquid Infant Formula, Seafood, Melons, Dried Figs And Labeling

Date: Jul-05-2012
The Codex Alimentarius Commission, jointly run by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO), has announced new standards for the maximum level of melamine in liquid infant formula. Melamine can be deadly at high concentrations and has in the past been used to increase the protein content of infant formula and milk powder. The Codex Alimentarius Commission celebrates its 49th birthday this year, and is meeting from the 2nd to 7th July with 600 delegates from 184 countries, plus the European Union. It's recommendations are relatively common sense...

People Are Ingesting Grill Brush Wires, According To CDC

Date: Jul-05-2012
With the Summer grilling season in full force, the CDC has released a new report warning holiday cookout gurus to take caution when grilling. They have announced that recently, internal injuries have resulted from the ingestion of grill cleaning brush wires not only by children, but adults as well. The report states that during July of 2009 and November of 2010, six different cases were brought to hospitals because of injuries from the brushes finding their way into people's food...

Combination Therapy For Breast Cancer Shows Promise

Date: Jul-05-2012
A study published in the July issue of Anticancer Research reveals that scientists from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found an effective combination therapy for breast cancer cells in vitro that can potentially be used for treating different forms of breast cancer, including cancers resistant to chemotherapy as well as other treatments. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that aside from non-melanoma skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer amongst women in the U.S...