Health
Care of Body and Mind
HealthHelp Enhances Diagnostic Cardiology Services
HealthHelp, a leading specialty benefit management provider, continues to target health care cost drivers by adding diagnostic cardiac catheterization to its well-established and effective suite of services. "As economic and regulatory trends pressure the health care industry to rein in rising expenses, HealthHelp diligently explores ways we can apply our collaborative model to specialties that account for large percentages of that cost," explained HealthHelp president and CEO Cherrill Farnsworth...
Read more [Medical News Today]
Researchers Identify Previously Unrecognized Genetic Disorder
Researchers from four laboratories that perform diagnostic genetic testing of chromosome abnormalities in individuals with unexplained physical and developmental disabilities recently identified a previously unrecognized genetic disorder...
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In U.S. Imaging First, Prenatal MRI Detects Rare Genetic Disease In Newborn
In a case believed to be a United States first, the radiology team at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital has used prenatal magnetic resonance imaging to detect an often-misdiagnosed genetic disease. The disorder, congenital chloride diarrhea, can cause severe dehydration and serious metabolic disturbances in newborns if not treated quickly. "This is a disease where early diagnosis is the key to a good outcome," said Richard Barth, MD, the physician who recognized the unusual case...
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New Data Presented At American Burn Association's Annual Meeting Support Safety Profile Of RECOTHROM® Thrombin, Topical In Pediatric Patients
ZymoGenetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZGEN), today announced the presentation of safety and immunogenicity data among pediatric burn patients at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the American Burn Association in Boston, MA. The study marks the first dedicated look at the safety and immunogenicity of any stand-alone thrombin in pediatric surgical patients. The investigators concluded that RECOTHROM did not appear to be associated with any treatment-related adverse events when used as an aid to hemostasis in pediatric patients undergoing synchronous burn wound excision and skin grafting...
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Vitiligo skin graft 'effective'
Skin transplant surgery can be an effective way of treating the skin disease vitiligo, say US researchers.
Read more [BBC Health]
Mayo Researchers Link Obesity To Worse Outcome In Patients Being Treated For Colon Cancer
It's long been known that obesity is linked to increased risk of developing colon cancer, but now researchers at the Mayo Clinic campus in Minnesota have found that obesity is associated with worse outcomes in patients who have already been diagnosed and treated for the cancer. The authors found that obesity was significantly associated with a greater number of tumor-containing regional lymph nodes and worse survival rates, independent of other tumor features...
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ZenBio Licenses An Important Cell Line From Harvard To Drive Metabolic Disease Research
ZenBio announce that they will be a commercial source for the popular murine 3T3-L1 cell line, which has been fundamental in metabolic disease research for 30 years. Originally derived from Swiss mouse embryo tissue by Dr. Howard Green of the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, the 3T3-L1 system has been pivotal in advancing the understanding of basic cellular mechanisms associated with diabetes, obesity and other related disorders...
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Diamyd Medical: Diamyd US Phase III Study Well Under Way
Diamyd Medical (STO:DIAMB)(Pink Sheets:DMYDY) announces today that one hundred study participants have been included in the ongoing US Phase III study, DiaPrevent. The global Phase III program with the company's lead drug candidate Diamyd® has thereby enrolled more than 430 children newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in Europe and the USA. One hundred patients are now enrolled in the company's US Phase III study called DiaPrevent at 33 diabetes centers throughout the USA and more sites will be added...
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Panel Questions "VBAC Bans," Advocates Expanded Delivery Options for Women
An independent panel convened this week by the National Institutes of Health confronted a troubling fact that pregnant women currently have limited access to clinicians and facilities able and willing to offer a trial of labor after previous cesarean delivery because of so-called VBAC bans. Many, even those at low risk for complications in a trial of labor, are not offered this option. The panel affirmed that a trial of labor is a reasonable option for many women with a prior cesarean delivery. They also urged that current VBAC guidelines be revisited, malpractice concerns be addressed, and additional research undertaken to better understand the medical and non-medical factors that influence decision making for women with previous cesarean deliveries.
Read more [US National Institutes of Health]
Dr. Francis S. Collins Receives Albany Medical Center Prize
NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. has been named a recipient of
the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research for his
leading role in mapping the human genome. While accepting the honor, Dr. Collins
declined his portion of the $500,000 prize in order to comply with government
ethics rules.
Read more [US National Institutes of Health]
WHO Releases New Malaria Guidelines For Treatment And Procurement Of Medicines
The World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing new guidelines for the treatment of malaria, and the first ever guidance on procuring safe and efficacious anti-malarial medicines. In recent years a new type of treatment called artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACTs) has transformed the treatment of malaria, but if not used properly the medicine could become ineffective. Guidelines emphasize testing The Guidelines for the Treatment of Malaria (second edition) provide evidence-based and current recommendations for countries on malaria diagnosis and treatment...
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Assessing Your Risk of a Heart Attack
If you are young and healthy but have a family history of cardiovascular disease, are you at high risk of having a heart attack?
Read more [New York Times Health]
Ag Groups Weigh-in On Supreme Court Case For Biotech Alfalfa
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether a lower court acted hastily and incorrectly by banning the cultivation of biotech alfalfa despite extensive scientific evidence documenting the safety of the crop. A coalition of agricultural organizations filed on March 8 a joint friend-of-the-court brief to the Supreme Court in support of the petitioners in "Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms...
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ACF Announces The Availability Of $42 Million In Competitive Grant Funding For Native American Communities And Organizations
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Administration for Native Americans (ANA) announces the availability of $42 million in competitive grant funding for fiscal year 2010 for community-based projects that promote economic and social self-sufficiency and cultural preservation for American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and other Native American Pacific Islanders from American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The fiscal year 2010 funding includes $27 million for continuing multi-year projects...
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Protein Suspected in Alzheimer’s May Be Needed to Fight Infection
Beta amyloid, which was once thought to be a chief villain in Alzheimer’s, may be part of the brain’s normal defenses, researchers at Harvard suggested.
Read more [New York Times Health]
Economic Scene: Wishing for a Health Care Plan That Cuts Costs
President Obama’s health reform plan is a mixed bag for those who care about keeping down medical costs.
Read more [New York Times Health]
Virgin Plans To Coordinate GP Care Across Country, UK
Sir Richard Branson's Virgin empire plans to use its newly acquired network of polyclinics to co-ordinate GP services across the country, Pulse can reveal. Virgin Healthcare told Pulse its acquisition of Assura Medical Ltd last week had given it control of 15 'GP-led health centres' and a total of 30 GP companies - believed to make it the biggest private provider of GP services in the country...
Read more [Medical News Today]
Meat And Colorectal Cancer Risk: Scientists Suggest Potential Mechanisms
Scientists in the US who undertook a large study to investigate what biological mechanisms might be behind the already established link between colorectal cancer and consumption of red and processed meat, confirmed that such a link exists and suggested the main players are three compounds: heme iron, nitrate/nitrite, and heterocyclic amines. You can read a paper on the research behind these findings in the published online first 9 March issue of Cancer Research...
Read more [Medical News Today]
Common osteoporosis drugs 'could make limbs weaker if used for too long'
Common drugs used to treat the brittle bone disease osteoporosis could make
limbs easier to break if used for too long, research suggests.
Read more [Telegraph Health]
2010 Recipient Of Minority Scholar Award Will Conduct Clinical Research On Leukemia
Alison Walker, MD, has been selected to receive the ASH-AMFDP Award, and will begin her research in acute myeloid leukemia in July of this year. The award, designed to help increase the number of underrepresented minority scholars in the field of hematology, is the result of a partnership between the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program (AMFDP) of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It provides four years of support, including an annual stipend of up to $75,000 and an annual grant of $30,000 to support research activities...
Read more [Medical News Today]
Sex drive 'lasts longer in men', research suggests
Men are likelier than women to enjoy sex in old age, researchers find.
Read more [BBC Health]
Visit Your Pharmacy This No Smoking Day
Helping a man to stop smoking after 43 years and supporting a woman to quit cigarettes following 15 previous relapses are just two examples where a local pharmacy made the difference of a life time. This No Smoking Day on Wednesday 10 March the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) is advising the public to make a trip to their community pharmacy as the first step towards quitting for good. Every year thousands of people across the UK give up smoking on the national day and this year's campaign theme, Break free, we can help, has come from smokers themselves...
Read more [Medical News Today]
Sex drive 'lasts longer in men', research suggests
Men are likelier than women to enjoy sex in old age, researchers find.
Read more [BBC Health]
Advocates Seek Increased Federal Funding To Bridge The Gaps In Lupus Research, Awareness, And Education
On March 16, 2010, an anticipated 1,000 advocates will band together for lupus in person and virtually by phone, email, and through social media networks, to share their personal stories with Members of Congress during the Lupus Foundation of America's, (LFA) Twelfth Annual Advocacy Day. Advocates' personal stories will demonstrate how the gaps in lupus research and understanding have a profound effect on the estimated 1.5 million people in the United States who are living with the disease. It has been more than 50 years since the U.S...
Read more [Medical News Today]
Research Identifies New Mechanism Regulating Embryonic Development
A Princeton University-led research team has discovered that protein competition over an important enzyme provides a mechanism to integrate different signals that direct early embryonic development. The work suggests that these signals are combined long before they interact with the organism's DNA, as was previously believed, and also may inform new therapeutic strategies to fight cancer. The fought-over enzyme, known as the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), is found in all complex organisms, ranging from yeast to humans...
Read more [Medical News Today]
Male Batterers Consistently Overestimate General Rates Of Violence Toward Partners
Men who engaged in domestic violence consistently overestimated how common such behavior is, and the more they overestimated it the more they engaged in abusing their partner in the previous 90 days, according to new research conducted at the University of Washington. Those men overestimated by two to three times the actual rates of seven behaviors ranging from throwing something at a partner to rape, according Clayton Neighbors, lead author of a paper to be published in a spring issue of the journal Violence Against Women...
Read more [Medical News Today]
Los Angeles Times Profiles Antiabortion Pastor Who Travels Southern Calif. In Mobile Pregnancy Clinic
The Los Angeles Times on Monday profiled Dave Wilkinson, an evangelical pastor who runs three Ventura County, Calif., pregnancy clinics that try to urge women not to have abortions. Once weekly, Wilkinson and other antiabortion-rights advocates drive to Los Angeles in a donated motor home to offer ultrasounds to pregnant women and urge them not to have abortions through "prayer-filled counseling sessions," according to the Times. Wilkinson said that many of the women promise to carry their fetuses to term...
Read more [Medical News Today]
Health Overhaul Policy Tidbits
NPR: For those who have forgotten what the Senate's bill would actually do as the debate has turned to politics and procedure, "a short refresher" may come in handy. The legislation's main concepts include the requirement that individuals buy health insurance, a plan that would help eliminate pre-existing condition exclusions and spread risk more widely, and subsidies to help people buy coverage to meet the new requirement (Rovner, 3/9)...
Read more [Medical News Today]
Fashion And IT
Consider this T-shirt: It can monitor your heart rate and breathing, analyze your sweat and even cool you off on a hot summer's day. What about a pillow that monitors your brain waves, or a solar-powered dress that can charge your ipod or MP4 player? This is not science fiction - this is cotton in 2010. Now, the laboratory of Juan Hinestroza, assistant professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design, has developed cotton threads that can conduct electric current as well as a metal wire can, yet remain light and comfortable enough to give a whole new meaning to multi-use garments...
Read more [Medical News Today]
Senate Test Vote Today On Bill To Extend COBRA Subsidy, Doc Fix And State Medicaid Funding
The Senate is poised to consider a measure today that would include extending subsidies for COBRA benefits and unemployment insurance, prevent the Medicare payment cut for doctors and provide additional funding to state Medicaid programs. The legislation "faces a key test vote in the Senate, its momentum helped by about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of last year," The Associated Press reports. "All told, the measure would add $107 billion to the deficit over the coming decade...
Read more [Medical News Today]
Federal Funds Support Health Depts., But Leadership Is Key - Study
The surge of funds for bioterrorism preparedness over the past decade does not appear to be improving local public health resources in general, according to research from Purdue University. However, the funding increase to health departments does spur epidemiologic activity that is key in detecting infectious disease risks, such as a surge in communicable disease like influenza or tuberculosis, at the local level, says George Avery, an assistant professor of health and kinesiology...
Read more [Medical News Today]
Low-Income Women Living In Small Cities Have Higher Chance Of Obesity
A recent Kansas State University study found that the availability of supermarkets -- rather than the lack of them -- increased the risk of obesity for low-income women living in small cities. This suggests that policies to increase healthful eating behaviors might need to be tailored based on geographic location. K-State researchers studied the availability of food stores for low-income women in Kansas to see whether there was a link to obesity...
Read more [Medical News Today]
Brain Activity Predicts Emotional Resiliency Following A Fight With A Partner
Common wisdom tells us that for a successful relationship partners shouldn't go to bed angry. But new research from a psychologist at Harvard University suggests that brain activity - specifically in the region called the lateral prefrontal cortex - is a far better indicator of how someone will feel in the days following a fight with his or her partner. Individuals who show more neural activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex are less likely to be upset the day after fighting with partners, according to a study in this month's Biological Psychiatry...
Read more [Medical News Today]
New Research Looks At Beliefs About God's Influence In Everyday Life
Most Americans believe God is concerned with their personal well-being and is directly involved in their personal affairs, according to new research out of the University of Toronto. Using data from two recent national surveys of Americans, UofT Sociology Professor Scott Schieman examined peoples' beliefs about God's involvement and influence in everyday life. His research discovers new patterns about these beliefs and the ways they differ across education and income levels...
Read more [Medical News Today]
Study Shows Need To 'Speak Plainly' When Discussing Sex, Columnist Writes
"A new study suggests that what people mean when they say they've had sex -- or haven't -- depends on whom you ask," St. Petersburg Times columnist Colette Bancroft writes in an opinion piece about new research from the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction and the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention. The study, published in the journal Sexual Health, examined how men and women in various age groups classify whether various physical acts constitute "having sex...
Read more [Medical News Today]
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