Starting Jan. 1, the pharmaceutical industry has agreed to a voluntary moratorium on the kind of branded goodies -- Viagra pens, Zoloft soap dispensers, Lipitor mugs -- that were meant to foster good will and, some would say, encourage doctors to prescribe more of the drugs. . . .
The New York Times - December 30, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/business/31drug.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
In the large Women's Antioxidant Cardiovascular Study, participants who took beta carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, or a combination of supplements had no significant reductions in their risk of cancer. . . .
Reuters - December 31, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BT50T20081231?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Many genes linked to various cancers do not appear to raise the risk of getting cancer after all, according to an analysis of hundreds of studies published on Tuesday. . . .
Reuters - December 30, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BT4Z520081230?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Offering yet another reason to never start smoking, a new study finds that both current and former smokers run an elevated risk of the heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation. . . .
Reuters - December 26, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BP20F20081226?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Obesity surgery, also known as bariatric surgery, not only helps obese individuals shed a significant amount of weight, it also significantly improves or completely resolves a common obesity-related liver problem known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a review of published studies shows. . . .
Reuters - December 26, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BP21X20081226?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
People who don't get much sleep are more likely than those who do to develop calcium deposits in their coronary arteries, possibly raising their risk for heart disease, a new study has found. . . .
The New York Times - December 23, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/health/research/24sleep.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
They said more than half of U.S. adults aged 57 to 85 are using five or more prescription or non-prescription drugs, and one in 25 are taking them in combinations that could cause dangerous drug interactions. . . .
Reuters - December 24, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BM59S20081224?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
The numbers, based on 2005 data, are up slightly from the 2002 survey when 51.2 million people or 18 percent reported a disability, the census found. . . .
Reuters - December 18, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BH6WY20081218?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Instead of infiltrating breaks in the skin, HIV appears to attack normal, healthy genital tissue, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday in a study that offers new insight into how the AIDS virus spreads. . . .
Reuters - December 17, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BF7FF20081217?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
People with diabetes who get cancer are about 40 percent more likely to die in the years following the diagnosis than cancer patients who are not diabetics, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Reuters - December 16, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BF75P20081216?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
For years, many doctors and patients thought colonoscopies, the popular screening test for colorectal cancer, were all but infallible. Have a colonoscopy, get any precancerous polyps removed, and you should almost never get colon cancer.
Then, last spring, researchers reported the test may miss a type of polyp, a flat lesion or an indented one that nestles against the colon wall. And now, a Canadian study, published Tuesday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, found the test, while still widely recommended, was much less accurate than anyone expected.
In the new study, the test missed just about every cancer in the right side of the colon, where cancers are harder to detect but about 40 percent arise. And it also missed roughly a third of cancers in the left side of the colon. . . .
The New York Times - December 15, 2008
Colorectal cancer diagnoses and deaths have fallen in the United States this decade, but the gap in progress between whites and blacks is widening, the American Cancer Society said on Monday. . . .
Reuters - December 15, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BE0M420081215?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
They said women who have these types of tumors may need extra treatment with drugs such as Genentech Inc.'s Herceptin -- which is not standard practice now. . . .
Reuters - December 12, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BC0FF20081213?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
For the sake of heart disease research, 809 members of the Old Order Amish community agreed to go to a clinic in Lancaster, Pa., near their homes, and drink a rich milkshake that was made mostly of heavy cream. Over the next six hours, a group of investigators took samples of their blood, determining how much fat was churning through their bloodstreams.
Most of the study participants responded as expected -- their levels of triglycerides, a common form of fat in the blood, rose steadily for three to four hours and then declined. But about 5 percent had an extraordinary reaction: their triglyceride levels started out low and hardly budged. . . .
The New York Times - December 11, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/health/research/12heart.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Outside experts advising the Food and Drug Administration said Foradil and Serevent no longer should be used for asthma. But they said the benefits of the more widely used Advair and Symbicort clearly outweigh the risks. . . .
USATODAY.com - December 12, 2008
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-12-11-asthma-fda_N.htm?csp=34
The Food and Drug Administration said it has received more than 20 reports of a rare but serious form of kidney failure among patients taking the drugs, known as oral phosphate products. . . .
USATODAY.com - December 12, 2008
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-12-11-colonoscopy-drugs_N.htm?csp=34
Fewer than a third of U.S. adults have received a flu vaccine so far this year and only about half said they intended to get one, according to a survey released on Wednesday. . . .
Reuters - December 11, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BA0UL20081211?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
The Families USA report found that 19 states have enacted or proposed cuts in Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance plan for the poor, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP, for fiscal years 2009 or 2010. . . .
Reuters - December 11, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BA5NH20081211?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Only 4 percent of the 2,000 doctors surveyed by the National Center for Health Statistics said their systems were fully functional -- a clear indication of just how many U.S. physicians rely on outdated paper records. . . .
Reuters - December 11, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BA68Z20081211?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
They said nearly a third of people who showed signs of the disease on brain MRIs developed the disease within five years. . . .
Reuters - December 10, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BA01I20081211?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
The report, compiled using information from 200 experts around the world, is the first to assess the global scale of the problem and seeks to spur public health and development groups into action, officials said. . . .
Reuters - December 10, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4B95DW20081210?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Long-term use of GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia and Takeda's Actos doubles the risk of bone fractures in women with type 2 diabetes, according to a study released on Wednesday. . . .
Reuters - December 10, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4B90UL20081210?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Cancer will overtake heart disease as the world's top killer by 2010, part of a trend that should more than double global cancer cases and deaths by 2030, international health experts said in a report released Tuesday. Rising tobacco use in developing countries is believed to be a huge reason for the shift, particularly in China and India, where 40% of the world's smokers now live. . . .
USATODAY.com - December 9, 2008
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-12-09-cancer_N.htm?csp=34
Women who suffer a type of severe heart attack were less likely than men to survive the first 24 hours in a hospital, a new study has found.
Female heart attack patients overall were less likely to receive timely treatment with aspirin or certain heart drugs, therapy to restore blood flow, or angioplasty to open blocked arteries, the authors also reported.
The study appears in today's issue of the medical journal Circulation, which is published by the American Heart Association. . . .
The New York Times - December 8, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/health/research/09heart.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
The number of hospital patients with bedsores has risen dramatically over a 14-year period, leading to longer, more expensive hospital stays, according to a new government report.Some 503,300 patients admitted to U.S. hospitals in 2006 suffered from a bedsore that developed either before or during their stay. That figure was 281,300 in 1993, representing an increase of 78.9 percent, the report by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found. . . .
The New York Times - December 8, 2008
Two federal drug officials have concluded that asthma sufferers risk death if they continue to use four hugely popular asthma drugs -- Advair, Symbicort, Serevent and Foradil. But the officials' views are not universally shared within the government. . . .
The New York Times - December 5, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/health/policy/06allergy.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Measles deaths worldwide declined dramatically to about 200,000 a year, continuing a successful trend, global health authorities reported Thursday.
From 2000 to 2007, annual measles deaths dropped 74 percent, largely because of vaccination campaigns, according to a report from the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other organizations. . . .
The New York Times - December 4, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/health/AP-MED-Global-Measles.html
A long-awaited government report is calling on the military to test all new recruits for cognitive skills and then do large-scale studies of returning combat veterans to better evaluate and respond to traumatic brain injury, the signature wound of the Iraq war. . . .
The New York Times - December 4, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/health/05brain.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
The findings run counter to the perception by some doctors and patients that pricier brand-name drugs are clinically superior, said Dr. Aaron Kesselheim of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, who led the study. . . .
Reuters - December 3, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4B188Z20081203?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
A panel of the Institute of Medicine, in a report sought by Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services, did not call for further trimming of medical residents' work hours from the maximum average of 80 per week established by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in 2003. . . .
Reuters - December 2, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4B18K020081202?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Rates of new cancer diagnoses and deaths for U.S. men and women have fallen for the first time, according to a new report from leading cancer and medical research organizations.
The annual report, published online Tuesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, showed this simultaneous drop in overall cancer incidence and mortality for the first time since reporting began in 1998, the study authors said. . . .
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/11/25/cancer.deaths.decline/index.html?eref=rss_health
The body's initial response to contracting HIV could provide the answers scientists need to develop a vaccine for the AIDS-causing virus, a Nobel-winning expert said on Monday. . . .
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4B06O820081201?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
The American College of Physicians is urging doctors to screen all patients for H.I.V. routinely beginning at age 13, whether or not they engage in risky behaviors.
The guidelines differ slightly from those of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends routine screening of patients until age 64 unless the prevalence of H.I.V. is known to be less than 0.1 percent in the patient population. The recommendations also differ from those put forth by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which urges routine screening only of patients at increased risk for infection. . . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/health/policy/02hiv.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
