Health News

Teaching Hospitals With Fellowship Programs Have Less Radical Prostatectomy Complications

Date: May-17-2012
Patients who undergo radical surgery for prostate cancer may expect better results, on average, if they're treated in accredited teaching hospitals with residency programs, and better still if the hospitals also have medical fellowships, according to a new study by Henry Ford Hospital. The study, which evaluated postoperative complications in 47,100 radical prostatectomy (RP) patients throughout the U.S., also found that those with fewer complications after the surgery were more likely to have private insurance. "To our knowledge, this is the first study to suggest that better post-operative...

Some Dietary Supplements May Increase Cancer Risk

Date: May-17-2012
Beta-carotene, selenium and folic acid - taken up to three times their recommended daily allowance, these supplements are probably harmless. But taken at much higher levels as some supplement manufacturers suggest, these three supplements have now been proven to increase the risk of developing a host of cancers. "It's not that these nutrients are toxic - they're essential and we need them, but we need them in a certain balance," says Tim Byers, MD, MPH, professor of epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health and associate director for prevention and control at the University of...

Off-Label Use Of Antipsychotic Medications

Date: May-17-2012
Reducing the non-FDA-approved use of antipsychotic drugs may be a way to save money while having little effect on patient care, according to a Penn State College of Medicine study. Researchers say that 57.6 percent of patients prescribed antipsychotic medications in data from 2003 did not have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, the conditions for which the drugs were approved for use. Use of medication for treatments that is not FDA-approved is called off-label use. "Given healthcare reform and widespread crisis in state revenues, state Medicaid programs will be under pressure to serve larger...

Groundbreaking Advance In Medical Diagnostics

Date: May-17-2012
Researchers have created an ultrasensitive biosensor that could open up new opportunities for early detection of cancer and "personalized medicine" tailored to the specific biochemistry of individual patients. The device, which could be several hundred times more sensitive than other biosensors, combines the attributes of two distinctly different types of sensors, said Muhammad A. Alam, a Purdue University professor of electrical and computer engineering. "Individually, both of these types of biosensors have limited sensitivity, but when you combine the two you get something that is better...

An Estimated 53 Million Americans May Have Diabetes By 2025

Date: May-17-2012
The Diabetes 2025 Model for the U.S. projects a continuous and dramatic increase in the diabetes epidemic and makes it possible to estimate the potential effects of society-wide changes in lifestyle and healthcare delivery systems. Predictions for individual states and population subgroups are highlighted in an article published in Population Health Management, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Population Health Management website.* "Diabetes is now a national security issue as it threatens all aspects of our nation's...

Less Inflammation Seen In Patients With NAFLD, A Common Liver Disease, Who Consume Modest Amounts Of Alcohol

Date: May-17-2012
NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) is the most common type of liver disease in the developed world, affecting up to one-third of the US population. NAFLD is often associated with obesity and other parameters of the so-called "metabolic syndrome," which is a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease. In a well-done study among subjects with NAFLD, the investigators have demonstrated that modest alcohol consumption (an average of up to 20 grams of alcohol per day and no binge drinking) is associated with less evidence of inflammation of the liver (steatohepatitis), a...

Fatal Falls Increase For Older Adults

Date: May-17-2012
The recent dramatic increase in the fall death rate in older Americans is likely the effect of improved reporting quality, according to a new report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy. The report finds the largest increase in the mortality rate occurred immediately following the 1999 introduction of an update to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), suggesting a major change in the way deaths were classified. Several research studies, including one by the report's authors, found that rates of fatal falls among seniors had risen as much as 42 percent...

Under-Use Of Safer Kidney Cancer Surgery For Poorer, Sicker Medicare, Medicaid Patients

Date: May-17-2012
An increasingly common and safer type of surgery for kidney cancer is not as likely to be used for older, sicker and poorer patients who are uninsured or rely on Medicare or Medicaid for their health care, according to a new study by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital. The treatment, partial nephrectomy (PN), involves surgically removing only the diseased portion of a cancerous kidney, leaving the unaffected part to continue to function. Standard treatment for small kidney tumors has traditionally been radical nephrectomy (RN) - surgical removal of the entire kidney, part of the ureter, the...

Unexpected Source Of Diabetic Neuropathy Pain Discovered

Date: May-17-2012
Nearly half of all diabetics suffer from neuropathic pain, an intractable, agonizing and still mysterious companion of the disease. Now Yale researchers have identified an unexpected source of the pain and a potential target to alleviate it. A team of researchers from Yale and the West Haven Veterans Affairs Medical Center describes in the Journal of Neuroscience how changes in the structure of dendritic spines - microscopic projections on the receiving branches of nerve cells - are associated with pain in laboratory rats with diabetes. "How diabetes leads to neuropathic pain is still a...

Resiliency During Early Years Can Protect Against Later Alcohol/Drug Use

Date: May-17-2012
Resiliency is a measure of a person's ability to flexibly adapt their behaviors to fit the surroundings in which they find themselves. Low resiliency during childhood has been linked to later alcohol/drug problems during the teenage years. A new study has examined brain function and connectivity to assess linkages between resiliency and working memory, finding that higher resiliency may be protective against later alcohol/drug use. Results will be published in the August 2012 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View. "Research in the1980's...