Researchers who tracked breast cancer rates in Norwegian women proposed the controversial notion on Monday that some tumors found with mammograms might otherwise naturally disappear on their own if left undetected. . . .
Reuters - November 25, 2008
November 2008 Archives
Older diabetics who took GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia to control their blood sugar had a higher risk of death and heart failure while on the drug than those who took Takeda Pharmaceutical's Actos, a drug in the same class, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
They said the head-to-head comparison confirms prior analyses finding Avandia carries greater risks than Actos, particularly in older diabetics. . . .
Reuters - November 24, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AO0Q620081125?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
About 5 million Americans attend meetings of self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous for alcohol and drug abusers, and nearly half of them reported remaining clean, a federal study released on Monday showed.
The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration examined the popularity of meetings like those run in many communities by AA and Narcotics Anonymous. . . .
Reuters - November 24, 2008
Consumers who rely on the user-edited Web resource Wikipedia for information on medications are putting themselves at risk of potentially harmful drug interactions and adverse effects, new research shows. . . .
Reuters - November 24, 2008
Babies born four months before the peak cold and flu season have a 30 percent higher risk of developing asthma, U.S. researchers said on Friday, suggesting that these common infections may trigger asthma. . . .
Reuters - November 21, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AK1PK20081121?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Two years after the government urged that HIV tests become as common as cholesterol checks there are small gains but still one in five people infected with the AIDS virus don't know it, scientists said Thursday. . . .
USATODAY.com - November 20, 2008
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-11-20-hiv-testing_N.htm?csp=34
Sooner is better when it comes to treating infants born with the AIDS virus, HIV, researchers reported on Wednesday.
A South African study of 377 babies found that giving newborns drug therapy right away, and not waiting until conventional tests showed a higher risk of becoming ill, cut the death rate by 76 percent. . . .
Reuters - November 19, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AI8UX20081119?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
A Colombian woman has received the world's first tailor-made trachea transplant, grown by seeding a donor organ with her own stem cells to prevent her body rejecting it, an international research team reported on Wednesday. . . .
Reuters - November 19, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AI03420081119?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Stem cells from tiny embryos can be used to restore lost hearing and vision in animals, researchers said Tuesday in what they believe is a first step toward helping people. . . .
Reuters - November 19, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AI02220081119?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
As diabetes is rapidly becoming one of the world's most common diseases, its financial cost is mounting, too, to well over $200 billion a year in the U.S. alone.
A new study, released today exclusively to The Associated Press, puts the total at $218 billion last year -- the first comprehensive estimate of the financial toll diabetes takes, according to Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk A/S, which paid for the study. . . .
baltimoresun.com - November 18, 2008
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-diabetes1118,0,3860877.story?track=rss
The largest and longest independent clinical trial to assess ginkgo biloba's ability to prevent memory loss has found that the supplement does not prevent or delay dementia or Alzheimer's disease, researchers are reporting. . . .
The New York Times - November 18, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/health/research/18gingko.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Nearly half the respondents in a survey of U.S. primary care physicians said that they would seriously consider getting out of the medical business within the next three years if they had an alternative.
The survey, released this week by the Physicians' Foundation, which promotes better doctor-patient relationships, sought to find the reasons for an identified exodus among family doctors and internists, widely known as the backbone of the health industry. . . .
CNN.com - November 17, 2008
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/11/17/primary.care.doctors.study/index.html?eref=rss_health
Tiny sacs released from tumor cells and circulating in the blood carry genetic information about the tumor, offering a new way to track and treat the cancer, U.S. researchers said on Sunday. . . .
Reuters - November 17, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AF1XN20081117?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Vitamin C or E pills do not help prevent cancer in men, concludes the same big study that last week found these supplements ineffective for warding off heart disease. . . .
USATODAY.com - November 16, 2008
Between 2000 and 2005, the number of annual deaths in the United States due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) rose by 8 percent, an increase driven primarily by climbing mortality rates among women with the disease, according to a report in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. . . .
Reuters - November 13, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AC7R020081113?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Chronically ill Americans are more likely to forgo medical care because of high costs or experience medical errors than patients in other affluent countries, according to a study released on Thursday. . . .
Reuters - November 13, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AC10720081113?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
The number of U.S. adults who smoke has dropped below 20 percent for the first time on record but cigarettes still kill almost half a million people a year, health officials said on Thursday.
About 19.8 percent of U.S. adults -- 43.4 million people -- were smokers in 2007. That was a percentage point below the 2006 figure and followed three years of little progress, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report. . . .
Reuters - November 13, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AC6XX20081113?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Men and women who get heart transplants are more likely to die when the donor was of the opposite sex, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
The cause is not clear but could be due to size differences in the heart -- men's tend to be larger -- or certain hormonal and immunological factors, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. . . .
Reuters - November 12, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AB7FK20081112?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Search engine giant Google launched a new tool on Tuesday that will help U.S. federal health experts track the annual flu epidemic.
Google Flu Trends uses search terms that people put into the Web-based search engine to figure out where influenza is heating up, and notify the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in real time.
"We've discovered that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity," Google said in a statement. . . .
Reuters - November 12, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AA7MS20081112?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
For people keeping track of their blood fats, triglycerides may be the new lipid to watch, researchers said on Tuesday.
A study earlier this week found that the percentage of U.S. adults with high triglycerides had doubled over the past three decades, likely driven by climbing obesity rates. . . .
Reuters - November 11, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AA86I20081111?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
The American Medical Association threw its weight behind legislation to ban the use of artificial trans fats in restaurants and bakeries nationwide on Monday.
The group, which represents about 240,000 doctors and medical students, said it would move away from a previous, gentler position that advised people to reduce their use and move to healthier fats and oils instead. . . .
Reuters - November 11, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AA6C720081111?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Use of antibiotics at U.S. hospitals is rising despite concerns about fueling bacterial resistance, with Wyeth's Zosyn and the older drug vancomycin driving the trend, researchers said.
Use of antibiotics at a group of U.S. academic medical centers rose 7 percent from 2002 to 2006, Ronald Polk of Virginia Commonwealth University and colleagues reported in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine on Monday. . . .
Reuters - November 11, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AA6CS20081111?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
A large new study suggests that millions more people could benefit from taking the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins, even if they have low cholesterol, because the drugs can significantly lower their risk of heart attacks, strokes and death.
The New York Times - November 9, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/health/10heart.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Use of diagnostic imaging tests in the United States has increased across the board in recent years, with more patients getting the tests and more tests being ordered per patient, researchers said on Monday.
Their 10-year study of patients in a large managed care plan showed an advanced type of X-ray called computed tomography or CT scans doubled, and magnetic resonance imaging or MRI scans per patient tripled. . . .
Reuters - November 10, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4A90RS20081110?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Neither vitamin C nor vitamin E supplements cuts the risk of cardiovascular disease including heart attack and stroke in a U.S. study published on Sunday. . . .
Reuters - November 10, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4A82GD20081110?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
In another sign of the economy's toll on the nation's health care system, some hospitals say they are seeing fewer paying patients -- even as greater numbers of people are showing up at emergency rooms unable to pay their bills. . . .
The New York Times - November 6, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/business/07hospital.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Scientists have found a way to get damaged nerve cells in the brains of mice to repair themselves, a finding that may lead to new treatments for spinal cord and brain injuries.
By turning off proteins that keep nerve cell growth in check, the researchers were able to stimulate regrowth in mice with damaged optic nerves, they reported on Thursday. . . .
Reuters - November 7, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4A57Q220081107?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Researchers have more disappointing news for people who hope to protect their health with vitamins.
In the longest-running trial of its kind, doctors found that folic acid and other B vitamins didn't prevent breast cancer or cancer in general, according to a seven-year study of 5,442 women in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. . . .
USATODAY.com - November 4, 2008
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-11-04-folic-acid-b-vitamins-cancer_N.htm?csp=34
Among women who develop preeclampsia during pregnancy, an increased risk of epilepsy is present in their children who are born after 37 weeks of pregnancy, according to a report in the current issue of Pediatrics. . . .
Reuters - November 5, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4A4AGF20081105?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Scientists for the first time have decoded the entire genome of a cancer patient, identifying a series of genes never before linked to the type of white blood cell cancer that ultimately killed the woman.
The study, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, represents a new approach to grasp the genetic underpinning of cancer and pave the way for better treatments, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said. . . .
Reuters - November 5, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4A49KE20081105?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Japanese scientists have managed to create clones from the bodies of mice which have been frozen for 16 years. . . .
BBC News - November 4, 2008
Children who live in the U.S. Northwest's wettest counties are more likely to have autism, but it is unclear why, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. . . .
Reuters - November 4, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4A34WG20081104?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Scientists have found clues in the brains of people with major depression that might help explain why so many depressed people also battle chronic pain, according to a U.S. study published on Monday.
Brain imaging showed people with depression had more activity in brain regions involved in emotions when they anticipated or experienced pain, the researchers found. . . .
Reuters - November 3, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4A26P020081103?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
The human wart virus HPV caused 25,000 cases of cancer in the United States between 1998 and 2003, including not only cervical cancer but also anal and mouth cancers, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Monday.
The study suggests a broad need for screening both men and women for human papillomavirus, or HPV, another team of researchers, who did a similar survey, said. . . .
Reuters - November 3, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4A24JD20081103?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
More and more U.S. children are being given drugs to fight chronic conditions such as asthma and hyperactivity, according to a study published on Monday.
From 2002 to 2005 prescriptions for medicines to treat type-2 diabetes doubled, asthma medications rose by more than 46 percent, medicines for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder increased by more than 40 percent and prescriptions for cholesterol-lowering drugs were up by 15 percent. . . .
Reuters - November 3, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4A20HW20081103?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Infants conceived with techniques commonly used in fertility clinics are two to four times more likely to have certain birth defects than are infants conceived naturally, a new study has found. . . .
The New York Times - November 17, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/health/research/18birth.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
