Health News

Curry Ingredient May Have Cancer Treatment Benefits

Date: May-07-2012
New evidence, studied by researchers in the Department of Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine, at the University of Leicester, reveals that curcumin, found in the curry ingredient turmeric, may significantly reduce side effects for bowel cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and help them to be able to go through treatment longer. Usually, patients suffering from bowel cancer are treated with FOLFOX, a combination of 3 chemotherapy medications. However, between 40 and 60 percent of bowel cancer patients do not benefit from this treatment, and those who do report painful side effects,...

Controlling Obesity Will Save Over Half A Trillion Dollars

Date: May-07-2012
With the tobacco problem on the back burner, diet and obesity are coming into the cross hairs as a focus for public health. Controlling the rise in obesity, promoting quality of life, whilst saving on public healthcare costs is clearly an admirable goal. It is unfortunate that the body's genetic makeup from our prehistoric existence urges it to store large amounts of fat, but the ramifications for health and subsequent health care costs are clear. Research from Duke University, RTI International and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that an additional 32 million more...

Oral Zinc Found To Reduce Common Cold Symptoms In Adults More Than Kids

Date: May-07-2012
People who take oral zinc may experience shorter common cold symptoms than those who do not, researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto, and McMaster University reported in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).The authors added that adverse effects, especially when higher doses are taken, are common. The authors gathered data on 17 randomized human studies involving 2,121 individuals aged from 1 to 65 years. They wanted to find out how efficient and safe oral zinc might be as a treatment for the common cold. All the trials used placebos and oral zinc...

Transplanting Whole Cornea Not Always Necessary

Date: May-07-2012
Worldwide, corneas are the most frequently transplanted tissue. However, because of rapid advances, the long-developed technique of complete transplantation, i.e. penetrating keratorplasty (PK) is no longer necessary in many instances.  Dr Donald Tan from the Singapore National Eye Centre and Professor John Dart, from the Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the University College in London, and their team describe the latest advances in corneal transplantation in The Lancet's third paper in the ophthalmology series. In 2010, over 42,000 cornea transplants were carried out in the...

Age-Related Macular Degeneration - How To Tackle Increasing Rates

Date: May-07-2012
With aging populations, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is set to increase. AMD, which causes progressive blindness, may already be present in the early stages in 20% of 60 year-olds and those who are older in some countries. Whilst 10 years ago there were hardly any treatments for AMD, the age of targeted drugs like vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) suppressants has changed the way in which AMD is controlled. In The Lancet Series on Ophthalmology, professor Tien Yin Wong from the Singapore Eye Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, and his team discuss the...

Schizophrenia - Antipsychotic Drugs Significantly Reduce Relapse Risk

Date: May-07-2012
Five decades worth of evidence demonstrates that antipsychotic drugs can decrease the risk of relapse in patients with schizophrenia by 60% The study, published Online First in The Lancet, shows that patijdents taking antipsychotics also have a considerably lower chance of needing to be hospitalized, behave aggressively, and may enjoy a better quality of life, compared with those who do not take medication. Schizophrenia is a debilitating condition that often affects individuals throughout their entire lives, and has a lifetime prevalence of about 1%. The gold-standard treatment for...

Link Between Healthcare-Associated Infections And Expensive Hospital Readmissions

Date: May-07-2012
New research finds a strong link between healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and patient readmission after an initial hospital stay. The findings, published in the June 2012 issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), suggest that reducing such infections could help reduce readmissions, considered to be a major driver of unnecessary healthcare spending and increased patient morbidity and mortality. "Although much attention has been directed toward hospital readmissions and healthcare-associated infections...

Load-Bearing Exercise By Males In Their Early 20s May Shield Them From Osteoporosis In Old Age

Date: May-07-2012
Young men who play volleyball, basketball or other load-bearing sports for four hours a week or more increase bone mass and might gain protection from developing osteoporosis later in life, according to a new study in the May issue of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. The study, the largest scale investigation of its kind, discovered that young men who actively resisted the urge to adopt a "couch-potato" lifestyle in their late twenties seemed to gain the biggest bone benefit. "Men who increased their load-bearing activity from age 19 to 24 not only developed more bone, but also had...

Longer Lasting Hip Implants

Date: May-07-2012
Hip replacement is one of the most frequent operations carried out in Germany. Each year, doctors implant some 200,000 artificial hip joints. Often the artificial hips need to be replaced just ten years later. In the future, a new implant currently being developed using high technology materials could help prevent premature revision surgeries. Thanks to artificial hips, people with irreparable damage to the joint have been able to lead active, pain-free lives for the past 50 years. Still, some hip replacements do not function completely as intended, and metal-on-metal implants in particular,...

Scientists Aim To Starve Lung Tumours

Date: May-07-2012
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death throughout the world. Standard treatment methods do not usually result in long-term recovery. In addition to the proliferation of the tumour cells, the growth of blood vessels controls tumors development. The blood vessel growth is controlled by several signalling molecules. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim and Justus Liebig University Giessen have discovered a molecule that plays a key role in this process. They succeeded in reducing tumour growth in their experiments by blocking the...