Health News

Herbal Extract May Curb Binge Drinking

Date: May-18-2012
An extract of the Chinese herb kudzu dramatically reduces drinking and may be useful in the treatment of alcoholism and curbing binge drinking, according to a new study by McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School researchers. "Our study is further evidence that components found in kudzu root can reduce alcohol consumption and do so without adverse side effects," said David Penetar, PhD, of the Behavioral Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory at McLean Hospital, and the lead author of the study. "Further research is needed, but this botanical medication may lead to additional methods to...

Cheap New Paper-Based Diagnostic Test For Diabetes

Date: May-18-2012
With epidemics of Type 2 diabetes looming in rural India, China and other areas of the world where poverty limits the availability of health care, scientists are reporting development of an inexpensive and easy-to-use urine test ideally suited for such areas. The report describing the paper-based device, which also could be adapted for the diagnosis and monitoring of other conditions and the environment, appears in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry. Jan Lankelma and colleagues point out that monitoring glucose levels is important. Although diabetes test strips seem inexpensive, the cost can be...

Potential New Drugs For Fox Tapeworm Infection In Humans

Date: May-18-2012
Scientists are reporting development and testing of a new series of drugs that could finally stop the fox tapeworm - which causes a rare but life-threatening disease in humans - dead in its tracks. The report, which appears in ACS' Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, shows that specific organometallic substances that help combat cancer are also the surprising best new hope for a treatment against tapeworm infection. Carsten Vock, Andrew Hemphill and colleagues explain that alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a parasitic disease caused by the fox tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis. Although rare, AE...

First Case Of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy In Blast-Exposed Military Personnel

Date: May-18-2012
Investigators from Boston University (BU) and the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System have shown evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in brain tissue from blast-exposed military service personnel. Laboratory experiments conducted by the investigators demonstrated that exposure to a single blast equivalent to a typical improvised explosive device (IED) results in CTE and long-term brain impairments that accompany the disease. They also found that the blast wind, not the shock wave, from the IED blast leads to traumatic brain injury (TBI) and long-term consequences, including...

Established Cancer Vaccine Works Better In Tandem With FDA-Approved Kidney Transplant Drug

Date: May-18-2012
A team from the Perelman School of Medicine and the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania found that the FDA-approved drug daclizumab improved the survival of breast cancer patients taking a cancer vaccine by 30 percent, compared to those patients not taking daclizumab. This proof-of-concept study is published this week in Science Translational Medicine. Senior authors of the study are Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, associate professor of Medicine, and James Riley, PhD, associate professor of Microbiology. The team proposed that daclizumab, already used...

The Risks Of Running Marathons

Date: May-18-2012
Even though hundreds of thousands more people finished grueling 26.2 mile marathons in the United States in 2009 compared to a decade earlier, a runner's risk of dying during or soon after the race has remained very low - about .75 per 100,000, new Johns Hopkins research suggests. Men, however, were twice as likely to die as women. "It's very dramatic when someone dies on the course, but it's not common," says Julius Cuong Pham, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of emergency medicine and anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and leader...

Dialysis Patients Benefit From 5-Minute Chat

Date: May-18-2012
The constant health education that dialysis patients receive can lead to boredom and noncompliance. But a Loyola University Medical Center study has found that brief, casual chats can be a significant benefit to patients. The technique is called "talking control support therapy." As patients were undergoing dialysis, researchers stopped by for informal chats. A typical conversation began with small talk, before moving on to general conversation about healthy dialysis lifestyles. Unlike conventional dialysis education, no specific education goals were set. After 12 weeks, 82 percent of the...

US FDA Ahead Of Canada, Europe In Drug-Approval Race

Date: May-18-2012
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) generally approves drug therapies faster and earlier than its counterparts in Canada and Europe, according to a new study by Yale School of Medicine researchers. The study counters perceptions that the drug approval process in the United States is especially slow. Led by second-year medical student Nicholas Downing and senior author Joseph S. Ross, M.D., assistant professor of internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine, the study was published online by the New England Journal of Medicine. Regulatory review represents the final step in the process...

In-Patient Suicides Reduced In Psychiatric Units

Date: May-18-2012
Suicides by psychiatric in-patients have fallen to a new low, research just published has found. The study by the University of Manchester's National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness, one of very few to look at trends over time, shows the rate of suicide among psychiatric in-patients fell by between 29% and 31% between 1997 and 2008 with nearly 100 fewer deaths per year. The falls were seen across most groups of patients with the biggest falls in young patients and those with schizophrenia. On wards, deaths by hanging fell by nearly 60%. But the...

Improving Palliative Care For Heart Failure Patients

Date: May-18-2012
Palliative Care For Heart Failure Patients Main Category: Palliative Care / Hospice Care Also Included In: Heart Disease;  Cardiovascular / Cardiology Article Date: 18 May 2012 - 0:00 PDT  email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions    rate article  Current ratings for: 'Improving Palliative Care For Heart Failure Patients' Patient / Public: Healthcare Prof: 4 (2 votes) Palliative care for cancer patients in the UK is well established - but the situation is starkly different for those suffering from heart failure. A recent service evaluation led by the...