Health News

Stop smoking ads show damage to brain

Date: Dec-30-2013
A new anti-smoking campaign launched in the closing days of 2013 by Public Health England (PHE) includes TV adverts that show in graphic detail the harmful effects of smoking on the brain, heart and lungs.The new Smokefree Health Harms campaign highlights how inhaling cigarette smoke generates a "toxic cycle of dirty blood" that carries harmful chemicals like arsenic and cyanide around the body, causing damage to major organs.The dirty blood moves through the lungs and the heart, finally ending up in the brain, causing damage to brain cells.

Knee ops to repair torn cartilage are 'waste of time'

Date: Dec-30-2013
New research from Finland suggests many thousands of people who have arthroscopic knee surgery to fix a torn cartilage could be wasting their time.A report on the Finnish Degenerative Meniscal Lesion Study (FIDELITY), published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, finds that the benefits of keyhole operations to repair degenerative meniscal tears are no better than sham operations.Previous studies have shown that keyhole surgery on the knee does not help patients with osteoarthritis and such procedures have become less common for arthritis sufferers.

Adding cognitive behavioral therapy to treatment of pediatric migraine improves relief of symptoms

Date: Dec-30-2013
Among children and adolescents with chronic migraine, the use of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) resulted in greater reductions in headache frequency and migraine-related disability compared with headache education, according to a study appearing in JAMA."In adults, more than 2 percent of the population has chronic migraine and in children and adolescents the prevalence is up to 1.75 percent. In pediatric patients who seek care in headache specialty clinics, up to 69 percent have chronic migraine; however, there are no interventions approved by the U.S.

Scientists use synchrotron to develop novel ibuprofen delivery methods for bones

Date: Dec-30-2013
An excruciatingly painful broken bone. Surgery. Recovery. Healing. You could take an anti‐ inflammatory drug, like ibuprofen for the pain, but it works more or less throughout the body, resulting in less pain‐relief than you'd like.Researchers from Western University are developing a drug carrier that would ensure the drugs needed to treat the pain are taken directly to the bones, providing better targeted treatment.The group, led by Dr.Tsun‐Kong Sham and PhD student Xiaoxuan Guo, in collaboration with Dr.

Paving the way to test inosine's ability to slow Parkinson's progression

Date: Dec-30-2013
The dietary supplement inosine, which the body converts to urate, safely raises blood urate levels in people with early stage Parkinson's disease (PD), according to a new study. The result paves the way for testing inosine as a potential treatment for slowing PD progression. The research appears in the December 23 issue of JAMA Neurology.Earlier studies have suggested that PD progresses more slowly in people whose natural levels of uric acid (urate), are higher than average.

Widely-used anti-inflammatory drug shows success in treatment of amyloidosis

Date: Dec-30-2013
A recent study led by researchers from the Amyloidosis Center at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) demonstrates that diflunisal, a generic anti-inflammatory drug, successfully reduced neurological decline and preserved the quality of life in patients with familial transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR). Diflunisal is an inexpensive and safe medication marketed over the past 40 years for arthritis and pain.This study, published in the Dec. 25 issue of JAMA, is one of the first examples of successful repurposing of a generic drug to treat a rare disease.

Kinect-based virtual reality training promotes brain reorganization after stroke

Date: Dec-30-2013
The Kinect-based virtual reality system for the Xbox 360 enables users to control and interact with the game console without the need to touch a game controller, and provides rehabilitation training for stroke patients with lower limb dysfunctions.

Radiotherapy is less often used by breast cancer patients with young children

Date: Dec-30-2013
Radiotherapy (RT) after breast conserving surgery (BCS) has been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer (BC) recurrence. However, although younger women tend to have more aggressive tumors and have higher risks of recurrence than older BC patients, they are less likely to receive RT after BCS, according to a study published December 24 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Although treatment patterns among older BC patients have been well-studied, factors affecting non-compliance among younger women are not well-known.

Proportion of opioid treatment programs offering on-site testing for HIV and STIs declines

Date: Dec-30-2013
A survey of opioid treatment programs finds that the proportion offering on-site testing for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) declined substantially between 2000 and 2011, despite guidelines recommending routine opt-out HIV testing in all health care settings, according to a study appearing in JAMA."Opioid dependence is a risk factor for HIV, STIs, and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

Use of antidepressant does not improve symptoms from stomach disorder

Date: Dec-30-2013
Among patients with idiopathic (of unknown cause) gastroparesis, use of the antidepressant nortriptyline compared with placebo for 15 weeks did not result in improvement in overall symptoms, according to a study appearing in JAMA. Gastroparesis is a disease of the muscles of the stomach or the nerves controlling the muscles that causes the muscles to stop working, which can result in inadequate grinding of food by the stomach and poor emptying of food from the stomach into the intestine.