Health News

Experiences Of People With Long-Term Type 1 Diabetes To Benefit Others

Date: Jun-13-2012
Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center, supported by JDRF, have completed a study of 158 people who have lived with type 1 diabetes (T1D) for 50 years or more with eye examinations at Joslin over many decades of follow-up, and have concluded that a high proportion of this unique group of patients developed little to no diabetic eye disease over time. The study focuses on a group of patients known as "50-year Medalists," and was funded by JDRF in support of its efforts to improve the lives of people with T1D by reducing or eliminating the impact of its complications...

Hepatitis C Prevalent Among L.A Homeless Adults And Nearly Half Don't Know It

Date: Jun-13-2012
Recent government studies show that hepatitis C, which can destroy the liver and necessitate a liver transplant, now kills more American adults than AIDS, and new UCLA research shows just how prevalent the disease is among homeless adults in downtown Los Angeles. In a study published in the July-August issue of Public Health Reports, researchers found that 26.7 percent of homeless adults tested and surveyed in downtown Los Angeles' skid row were infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) - more than 10 times the 2 percent rate among the general U.S. population. Of those surveyed, 46...

Lung Cancer And Leukemia Cells Attacked By New Ruthenium-Based Drugs

Date: Jun-13-2012
A new study by University of Kentucky researchers shows how light and strained ruthenium-based drugs may be more effective at fighting cancer cells and less toxic to healthy cells than a similar and widely used drug. Cisplatin is a common platinum-based cancer drug. But while cisplatin kills cancer cells, it also attacks healthy cells, causing debilitating side effects. Ruthenium is a rare transition metal also belonging to the platinum group of the periodic table, and the UK researchers developed two new ruthenium complexes designed to kill cancer cells while preserving healthy cells...

Study Reveals 23 Percent Increase In Type 1 Diabetes Among American Youth

Date: Jun-13-2012
Jeffrey Brewer, president and CEO of JDRF, the leading global organization focused on type 1 diabetes (T1D) research, has issued the following statement in response to a new study showing an increase in T1D among young people in the United States. According to the latest SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the prevalence of T1D in people under age 20 rose by 23 percent between 2001 and 2009...

Depressive Symptoms In All Patients With Sleep Apnea Improved By PAP Therapy

Date: Jun-13-2012
Patients seen at the Cleveland Clinic Sleep Disorders Center who used positive airway pressure (PAP) to treat their obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) had improvements in their depressive symptoms, even if they followed the prescribed PAP regimen only partly, a new study reports. The study looked at 779 patients with OSA and asked them to fill out a standardized PHQ-9 form to assess depressive symptoms, which patients with OSA often have, researchers said...

Life Skills Can Be Affected If Sleep Apnea Persists Into Teens

Date: Jun-13-2012
The number of children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) declines as they enter adolescence, but the teen years can be a devastating trial of behavior and learning problems for kids with persistent OSA, new research shows. University of Arizona researchers studied 263 children at two different time periods in their young lives approximately five years apart...

How Chemical And Genetic Changes That Occur As Inflammation Progress To Cancer

Date: Jun-13-2012
One of the biggest risk factors for liver, colon or stomach cancer is chronic inflammation of those organs, often caused by viral or bacterial infections. A new study from MIT offers the most comprehensive look yet at how such infections provoke tissues into becoming cancerous...

Sleep Disorders - Psychological Problems Not Sole Explanation: Neurological Evaluation Required, Say Experts - ENS 2012

Date: Jun-13-2012
Psychological problems not the sole explanation for sleep disorders: Experts call for neurological evaluation. Psychological problems may not be the only reasons for disturbed sleep-wake cycles, according to experts speaking at the Meeting of the European Neurological Society in Prague. They are calling for a systematic neurological evaluation in order to detect, and treat in time, serious neurological disorders such as narcolepsy. New studies show REM sleep disorder may indicate the later onset of Parkinson's disease...

Spread Of Melanoma Driven By Gene Inactivation

Date: Jun-13-2012
Why do some cancers spread rapidly to other organs and others don't metastasize? A team of UNC researchers led by Norman Sharpless, MD, have identified a key genetic switch that determines whether melanoma, a lethal skin cancer, spreads by metastasis. Treating melanoma is extremely challenging. The cancer spreads rapidly and to sites in the body that are remote from the original cancer site. Melanoma is the most deadly form of skin cancer, and advanced melanoma kills more than 8600 Americans each year...

Menopause, Estrogen And Cardiovascular Risk

Date: Jun-13-2012
Women are less prone to cardiovascular disease then men; but this difference between the sexes becomes less marked after the menopause. This observation is behind a great deal of received wisdom, where oestrogen is assumed to have a beneficial effect on the heart and blood vessels. Now, new data seems to question these presuppositions...