New Fda Labeling Decision For WarfarinOn August 16, the Food and Drug Administration approved new labeling information for the blood-thinner warfarin, sold under the brand name Coumadin. The new label suggests that one can prescribe higher or lower doses that may be safer for patients with variations in two genes, CYP2C9 or VKORC1. These variations can be learned through genetic testing, which may be a useful tool in determining appropriate dosing levels for individual patients........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/23/2007 10:24:45 PM)
Area responsible for 'self-control'The area of the brain responsible for self-controlwhere the decision not to do something occurs after thinking about doing itis separate from the area linked to taking action, researchers say in the August 22 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
The results illuminate a very important aspect of the brain's control of behavior, the ability to hold off doing something after you've developed the intention to do itone might call it free won't........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/21/2007 6:24:10 PM)
Tackling mystery mountain illnessExperts at the University are studying an illness known as HAPE (high altitude pulmonary oedema), which causes fluid to build up in the lungs can and can occur from as low as 2,500 metres, affecting people of all age groups and fitness levels.
Little is known about the condition and there is no way of predicting who is likely to be affected eventhough studies have suggested a genetic link. It is thought that around one in 50 people who........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/21/2007 6:04:31 PM)
HIV denialists spread misinformation onlineHIV denialists spread misinformation onlineconsequences could be deadly
The Internet is serving as a fertile medium for "HIV denialists" to spread false ideas about HIV/AIDS, which could have terrible public health consequences, say researchers in a policy paper in PLoS Medicine.
"It may seem remarkable that, 23 years after the identification of HIV, there is still denial that the virus is the cause of AIDS," say Tara Smith (University of........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/20/2007 9:36:29 PM)
Insecticide-treated Mosquito Nets Can Save LivesMalaria is still responsible for over a million deaths every year, even though it has been known for some years that sleeping under an insecticide-treated net (ITN) greatly reduces the chance of being bitten by the mosquitoes which carry the disease. There have been heated arguments as to how best to increase the use of such nets, especially for children and pregnant women. Now research in Kenya, reported in the latest issue of PLoS Medicine,........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 8/16/2007 8:44:00 PM)
Stress may leave your mouth a messA literature review reported in the recent issue of the Journal of Periodontology (JOP) saw a strong relationship between stress and periodontal diseases; 57% of the studies included in the review showed a positive relationship between periodontal diseases and psychological factors such as stress, distress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
More studies are needed to determine the definitive relationship between stress and periodontal........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/8/2007 8:32:14 PM)
Not all embryonic stem cell lines are created equalWhen it comes to generating neurons, scientists have observed that not all embryonic stem (ES) cell lines are equal. In comparing neurons generated from two NIH-approved embryonic stem cell lines, researchers have uncovered significant differences in the mature, functioning neurons generated from each line. The discovery implies that culture conditions during ES cell generation -- which have yet to be identified -- can influence the........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/6/2007 5:53:02 PM)
Faster Treatment For Rural Heart Attack PatientsHeart attack patients as far as 150 miles away from a 24-hour emergency heart care center were able to receive therapy for blocked arteries within or faster than current recommended time frames, as per a research studypublished in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
A heart attack is a true medical emergency, where every 20 to 30 minute delay could impact whether your patient lives or dies, said Henry Ting, M.D., lead........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/3/2007 5:28:06 AM)
Detecting Problems With Artificial Hip JointsEngineers at the University of Bath have developed a diagnostic test which measures the frequency of sound produced when the femur bone in the leg is vibrated.
The new method is much more sensitive than the traditional method of using x-rays to detect the loosening of implants, and so can diagnose much smaller gaps around the implanted joint.
Around 50,000 people receive total hip replacements in the UK each year, and a number of will go........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/3/2007 5:22:51 AM)
Aging Adults Have Choices Confronting Mental DeclinesAging adults may joke about memory lapses and "early Alzheimer's." They may worry when they can't understand a drug plan or lose track of the characters in a novel.
But they have more control over their "cognitive vitality" than they may realize, says Elizabeth Stine-Morrow, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois, who has spent 20 years studying learning throughout the lifespan.
Aging adults have choices in........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/3/2007 5:10:25 AM)
Ibuprofen restores learning abilityCognitive impairment is one of the neurological effects in patients with hepatic encephalopathy (abnormal brain function due to severe liver disease). For the first time, a new study showed that therapy with an anti-inflammatory improves cognitive function in rats induced with chronic liver failure.
The results of this study appear in the August 2007 issue of Hepatology, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 8/1/2007 9:25:21 PM)
Cost-effective method for gene silencingNearly a decade ago, now-Nobel laureates Craig Mello and Andrew Fire discovered that they could insert short RNA molecules into worms and shut down specific genes. Today, researchers routinely use this powerful method, termed RNA interference, to study the functions of specific genes in mammalian systems.
In order to conduct these experiments, researchers generally rely on chemical synthesis of RNA molecules, which can be quite costly. A........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/1/2007 8:36:22 PM)
Negative effects of plastic's additive blocked by nutrient supplementsDURHAM, N.C. Experiments in animals have provided additional and tantalizing evidence that what a pregnant mother eats can make her offspring more susceptible to disease during the later part of life.
This susceptibility is the result of a process that alters how a gene is expressed without actually changing or mutating the gene itself. Appreciation of this phenomenon has spawned a new avenue of genetic research known as epigenetics, a name........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/30/2007 10:05:52 PM)
Prenatal Smoking Raises Blood Pressure In InfantsInfants whose mothers smoke during pregnancy have substantially higher blood pressures in their first months of life, Dutch scientists reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.
A study of 456 infants in The Netherlands showed that, by age 2 months, babies born to mothers who smoked had higher systolic blood pressures in comparison to those whose mothers didnt smoke and werent exposed to smoke during pregnancy.
........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/30/2007 10:01:24 PM)
Goat Milk Is More Beneficial To Health Than Cow MilkIt helps to prevent diseases such as anaemia and bone demineralisation.
UGR scientists have carried out a comparative study on the properties of goat milk in comparison to those of cow milk. Rats with induced nutritional ferropenic anaemia have been used in the study.
-Goat milk helps digestive and metabolic utilisation of minerals such as iron, calcium, phosphorus and magnesium.
-Part of the results of this research have been reported........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/30/2007 9:46:35 PM)
Can the tonsils influence oral HIV transmission?Bethesda, MD Current research demonstrates that the tonsils may possess the necessary factors to act as a transmission site for the spread of HIV. The related report by Moutsopoulos et al, Tonsil Epithelial Factors May Influence Oropharyngeal Human Immunodeficiency Virus Transmission, appears in the recent issue of The American Journal of Pathology.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) spreads mainly through sexual contact of mucosal........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/26/2007 4:53:28 AM)
Use of pulmonary artery catheter decreasesUse of the pulmonary artery catheter decreased by 65 percent in the U.S. between 1993 and 2004, possibly due to growing evidence that this invasive procedure does not reduce the risk of death for hospitalized patients, as per a research studyin the July 25 issue of JAMA.
The pulmonary artery (PA) catheter (a thin, flexible tube that is inserted into a pulmonary artery) first became available as a practical diagnostic tool in 1970 and was........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 7/25/2007 5:16:02 AM)
curing injured spinal cordResearch on rats with crushed spinal cords, similar to human injury, reveals that therapy soon after injury combining radiation treatment to destroy harmful cells and microsurgery to drain excess fluids significantly increases the bodys ability to repair the injured cord leading to permanent recovery from injury, as per the study reported in the July 18 peer-evaluated journal PLoS ONE. Since repair of damaged cord directly correlates with........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/25/2007 5:08:13 AM)
Medical students respond positively to simulated patient experienceWhen a vomiting, simulated patient mannequin was rolled into the lecture hall last fall to teach large numbers of first- and second-year Wake Forest University School of Medicine students about the brain and nervous system, Michael T. Fitch, M.D., Ph.D., wasnt sure what to expect.
In the end, he got the results he was looking for. I really didnt know what it was going to look like when I started, said Fitch, an emergency medicine specialist........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/23/2007 6:48:33 PM)
Poor health literacy in the elderlyElderly adults who cannot read and understand basic health information appear to have increased mortality rates over a five-year period than those with adequate health literacy, as per a report in the July 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Education, as measured by the number of years of school completed, has been associated with longer life, as per background information in the article. This may........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/23/2007 6:33:01 PM)
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Behind the Scenes of Medical BlogsI've already presented some famous medical bloggers to you. My aim is to get my readers closer to these quality blogs and the bloggers as well. I'd like to convince more and more health professionals/people interested in medicine to create their own blogs by providing interesting "behind-the-scenes" interviews. The seventh blogger in this series is already presented who runs already presented on the web, already presented
How do you find........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/26/2007 5:29:15 PM)
Struggling male readers respond better to female teachersBoys with difficulty reading actually respond better to female teachers, as per a new Canadian study. Research shows that boys develop higher positive self-perceptions as readers when they worked with female research assistants in comparison to working with male research assistants.
The study focused on 175 third- and fourth-grade boys who were identified as struggling readers by their teachers. The boys participated in a 10-week reading........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/23/2007 10:17:53 PM)
Calls For Improvement In Stroke TreatmentA coalition of physicians representing a wide range of medical specialties has issued a call to action to improve the therapy of stroke. The group, which includes nationally recognized leaders in neurology, neuroradiology, neurosurgery, vascular surgery, and cardiology, was drawn together by the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) to address one of the most pressing medical needs in this countrythe rapid therapy of........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/21/2007 6:10:33 PM)
Four agents decoction for primary dysmenorrheaNew research by researchers in Taiwan has shown that an 800-year-old formula, Four-Agents Decoction (Si Wu Tang), does not significantly reduce menstrual pain after three cycles of therapy; however, a beneficial effect may be present after a longer therapy. The dosage regimen and therapy length used in this study are not linked to adverse reactions. The results are reported in the August 15 issue of the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE.
........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 8/21/2007 5:25:38 PM)
Another Day, Another BreakthroughMount Sinai Medical Center had launched this print advertisement campaign to promote its brand name emphasizing some remarkable achievements in medical science. The campaign apparently aims at announcing its rare success in some specific field of medical science, which has helped curing patients in an unimaginable manner. The advertisements are showing serene environment depicting good health and people doing exercise. Each advertisement........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 8/20/2007 9:23:44 PM)
The memories you want to forgetCPainful, emotional memories that people would most like to forget may be the toughest to leave behind, particularly when memories are created through visual cues, as per a new study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
When youre watching the news on television and see footage of wounded soldiers in Iraq or ongoing coverage of national tragedies, it may stick with you more than a newspaper headline, said the studys lead........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 8/15/2007 9:11:44 PM)
Beef, Fish, Pork, Chicken Slow Deterioration Of MusclesResearchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have good news for people who want to stay strong in their old age: older bodies are just as good as young ones at turning protein-rich food into muscle.
A new study published recently suggests that a diet containing a moderate amount of protein-rich food such as beef, fish, pork, chicken, dairy or nuts may help slow the deterioration of elderly peoples muscles.
Reducing........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/8/2007 8:25:51 PM)
The first medical simulation in Second LifeI’ve written about the Ann Myers Medical Center, a virtual medical training center several times, but now, this month is going to be the most important one in the history of medical education of Second Life. An excerpt from the official blog
I'm holding a training exercise on the 9th of August around 9 or 10 am SLT (PDT). I'll present as a heme pt and give you students some clues, including labs....i might even give you an microscopic........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/5/2007 2:20:46 PM)
Tailoring New Treatments Against AsthmaAsthma affects 300 million people worldwide and, as per World Health Organization, it killed 255 000 people in 2005. Asthma attacks are caused by an acute inflammatory reaction in the airways, a reaction that is largely due to actions of LTC4 synthase (an enzyme which catalyzes a synthesis process). For this reason asthma medicines often aim to block the downstream effects of LTC4 synthase.
However, there is a need for new pharmaceutical........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/3/2007 5:26:48 AM)
Overstretched armed forces leading to mental health problemsProlonged periods of deployment among Britains armed forces is associated with mental health problems, finds a study published on bmj.com today.
Deployment is an essential ingredient of military life. However, research shows that an increase in the pace of military operations operational tempo may have an effect on health and place strain on families.
The UK armed forces have recommended deployment levels called the harmony guidelines,........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/3/2007 5:17:47 AM)
Demand Indigenous Health EqualityOxfam Australia’s activist group, Close The Gap, has recently unveiled an advertisement campaign to draw governments attention towards Aboriginal health problems. The billboard and poster advertisement campaign is aimed at telling the nations leaders that there is no quick fix solution to Aboriginal health problems. The Australian federal government is at present taking steps to detect and deal with child abuse in Northern Territory........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 8/2/2007 11:11:30 PM)
Worldwide distribution of cervical cancer viruses and vaccineThe variety of human papilloma viruses that cause invasive cervical cancer cases worldwide are largely consistent across continents, as per a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
This finding means that prophylactic vaccines currently available against these two most prevalent types of human papillomavirus (HPV) - which can cause cervical cancer - could prevent about 70 percent of invasive cervical cancer (ICC)........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 8/1/2007 9:10:03 PM)
Two drugs work better together against kidney cancerA combination of two drugs works better than either drug alone for patients with renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer, as per a pilot study led by Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers.
We observed that by combining a drug that enlists the immune systems help in combating cancer with one that cuts off a tumors blood supply, we could substantially increase patients response rates to therapy, said Jared........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 7/30/2007 10:12:32 PM)
First mouse model of schizophreniaJohns Hopkins scientists have genetically engineered the first mouse that models both the anatomical and behavioral defects of schizophrenia, a complex and debilitating brain disorder that affects over 2 million Americans.
In contrast to current animal studies that rely on drugs that can only mimic the manifestations of schizophrenia, such as delusions, mood changes and paranoia, this new mouse is based on a genetic change relevant to the........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/30/2007 9:59:35 PM)
Risk genes for multiple sclerosis uncoveredA large-scale genomic study has uncovered new genetic variations linked to multiple sclerosis (MS), findings that suggest a possible link between MS and other autoimmune diseases. The study, led by an international consortium of clinical researchers and genomics experts, is the first comprehensive study investigating the genetic basis of MS. Findings are reported in the July 29 online edition of the New England Journal (NEJM).
MS, a disease........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 7/29/2007 9:39:53 PM)
Hepatitis C helicase unwinds DNA in a spring-loaded, 3-step processThe process by which genes are duplicated is mysterious and complex, involving a cast of characters with diverse talents and the ability to play well with others in extremely close quarters. A key player on this stage is an enzyme called a helicase. Its job is to unwind the tightly coiled chain of nucleic acids the DNA or RNA molecule that spells out the organisms genetic code so that another enzyme, a polymerase, can faithfully copy each........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/26/2007 9:35:35 PM)
Research On Fixational Eye MovementsSusana Martinez-Conde, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience, and Stephen Macknik, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory of Behavioral Neurophysiology at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Josephs Hospital and Medical Center, are featured on the cover of the recent issue of Scientific American for their research on fixational eye movements. The pair was also featured in a recent issue of the Wall Street Journal.
Scientific........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/25/2007 5:14:51 AM)
Drug protects brain cells in Huntington's disease modelA drug used in some countries to treat the symptoms of Huntingtons disease prevents death of brain cells in mice genetically engineered to mimic the hereditary condition, UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have found.
The research sheds light on the biochemical mechanisms involved in the disease and suggests new avenues of study for preventing brain-cell death in at-risk people before symptoms appear.
The drug can actually prevent........Go to the Health-articles (Added on 7/25/2007 5:13:34 AM)
Treating HIV-infected infants earlyHundreds of thousands of babies around the world are born each year with HIV--more than half a million in 2006 alone. Caring for these children is complicated by the fact that their immune systems are not fully developed in the first year of life, which makes them particularly susceptible to rapid HIV disease progression and death. The current standard of HIV care in a number of parts of the world is to treat infants with antiretroviral........Go to the Health-blog (Added on 7/25/2007 4:59:40 AM)
Childhood sun exposure may lower risk of MSPeople who spent more time in the sun as children may have a lower risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) than people who had less sun exposure during childhood, as per a research studyreported in the July 24, 2007, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
For the study, scientists surveyed 79 pairs of identical twins with the same genetic risk for MS in which only one twin had MS. The twins were........Go to the Cancer-blog (Added on 7/23/2007 6:44:43 PM)
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