The familiar "eat right and exercise" message is particularly important for overweight elderly survivors of breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers, because lifestyle factors can significantly affect their quality of life, new research shows. . . .
Reuters - July 30, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56T6AX20090730?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
About half the U.S. population should get vaccinated against H1N1 influenza and pregnant women and healthcare workers should be at the front of the line, U.S. health advisers agreed on Wednesday. . . .
Reuters - July 29, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56R6MH20090729?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Pregnant women infected with the new H1N1 swine flu have a much higher risk of severe illness and death and should receive prompt treatment with antiviral drugs, U.S. government researchers said on Wednesday. . . .
Reuters - July 29, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56S1GW20090729?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
A rapid urine test for chlamydia identified 84 percent of infections in men, offering a quick and painless way to diagnose the common sexually transmitted disease, British researchers said on Tuesday.
They said a study of the test among 1,200 men, published in the British Medical Journal, offers hope for on-the-spot treatment. . . .
Reuters - July 28, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56S0NT20090729?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Despite evidence that cardiac rehabilitation helps patients following discharge from the hospital, almost half of heart disease patients eligible for such rehabilitation are not referred for it, according to a new study.
Cardiac rehabilitation involves exercise and counseling on diet and other risk factors. It has been shown to decrease the likelihood of future heart problems. . . .
Reuters - July 29, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56S4LX20090729?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
In US counties with the most segregation, an increase in the African-American or Hispanic population is associated with a decrease in the availability and use of surgical services and an increase in the number of emergency room visits, a new study shows.
The results of the study, the researchers say, provide more evidence that minority groups in the US have comparatively poorer access to a range of health care services, often resulting in late diagnosis of illness and delayed treatment. . . .
Reuters - July 29, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56S4LO20090729?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Vaccine experts who advise the U.S. government are likely on Wednesday to put healthcare workers, pregnant women and patients with asthma and diabetes at the front of the line to get vaccinated against the new pandemic H1N1 influenza. . . .
Reuters - July 28, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56R6MH20090728?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Important news for men with prostate cancer: first, the cancer tends to grow so slowly that only a fraction of patients actually die from it.
Second, men with low-grade cancer who opt for close monitoring instead of surgery to remove the prostate do not seem to suffer anxiety and distress from living with ''untreated'' cancer.
Those are the take-home messages of two studies appearing in medical journals this week. . . .
Reuters - July 28, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56R6DY20090728?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Tiny ovarian tumors lurk in the Fallopian tubes for an average of four years before they grow large enough to be detected, researchers reported on Monday in a study that explains why diagnosis usually comes too late to save a woman's life.
They said they were trying to find ways to improve testing for the cancer, one of the deadliest because it is so hard to detect before it has spread. . . .
Reuters - July 27, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56R00420090728?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
A common and safe blue food dye might provide the best treatment available so far for spinal cord injuries, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.
Tests in rats showed the dye, called brilliant blue G, a close relative of the common food dye Blue no. 1, crossed into the spinal fluid and helped block inflammation, Maiken Nedergaard of the University of Rochester Medical Center and colleagues reported. . . .
Reuters - July 28, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56Q60U20090728?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
The U.S. is likely to face a severe shortage of heart surgeons in the next 10 years, say representatives from medical schools and thoracic surgeons' groups.
Writing in the journal Circulation, Dr. Atul Grover of the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington, DC and colleagues point out that the number of active cardiothoracic surgeons in the U.S. "has fallen for the first time in 20 years.". . .
Reuters - July 27, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56Q5CV20090727?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Obesity-related diseases account for nearly 10 percent of all medical spending in the United States or an estimated $147 billion a year, U.S. researchers said Monday.
They said obese people spend 40 percent more -- or $1,429 more per year -- in healthcare costs than people of normal weight. . . .
Reuters - July 27, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56Q36020090727?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
All U.S. children aged 6 months to 18 years should get a seasonal influenza vaccine every year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. . . .
Reuters - July 24, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56N41Y20090724?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
A therapy that helps regenerate receding gum tissue seems to hold up over the long term -- and may offer patients an alternative to more-extensive dental surgery, a small study finds. . . .
Reuters - July 23, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56M4LB20090723?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
The U.S. government has bought 195 million doses of H1N1 swine flu vaccine for a possible autumn vaccination campaign, a U.S. federal official said Thursday. . . .
Reuters - July 23, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56M4K020090723?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
With pharmaceutical companies racing to have a swine flu vaccine ready for the fall flu season, the federal government announced Wednesday that the first clinical trials of vaccine candidates would start shortly. . . .
The New York Times - July 23, 2009
Electronic cigarettes contain traces of carcinogens, according to a preliminary analysis by the F.D.A. . . .
The New York Times - July 23, 2009
Proteins in spinal fluid accurately detect early-stage Alzheimer's disease in patients and could pave the way for better drug research, Swedish researchers said on Tuesday. . . .
Reuters, July 22, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56K5Z520090722?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Two standard treatments for hepatitis C work equally well at knocking down the virus for most patients, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.
The findings, from a 3,000-patient comparative effectiveness study, are meant to help guide doctors' decisions about which treatments work best -- an idea at the center of Present Barack Obama's hopes for healthcare reform. . . .
Reuters - July 22, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56L6II20090722?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Many studies have suggested that a diet rich in fish is good for the heart. Now there is new evidence that such a diet may ward off dementia as well. One of the largest efforts to document a connection -- and the first such study undertaken in the developing world -- has found that older adults in Asia and Latin America were less likely to develop dementia if they regularly consumed fish.
And the more fish they ate, the lower their risk, the report found. The findings appeared in the August issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. . . .
The New York Times - July 21, 2009
The University of Maryland School of Medicine's Center for Vaccine Development will be one of eight centers in the nation to test a swine flu vaccine on adults and children.
The clinical trial, slated to begin next month, will enroll up to 1,000 adults and children to evaluate whether the vaccine is safe and effective in preventing the virus known as H1N1, which public health officials fear could mutate into a deadlier strain this fall. . . .
The Baltimore Sun - July 22, 2009
http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bal-swinefluvaccine-0722,0,755431.story?track=rss
After a 50-year drought of new drugs and a string of disappointing failures of potential treatments for lupus, researchers said Monday that they have found an experimental drug that can ameliorate the symptoms of the life-threatening autoimmune disorder that afflicts as many as 1.5 million Americans. . . .
L.A. Times - July 21, 2009
http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/features/health/~3/aXyNqT6Zc4o/la-sci-lupus21-
A new study suggests that the timing of outbreaks of rotavirus -- the leading cause of severe diarrhea in infants and young children -- may have more to do with differences in birth rates across the United States than with environmental factors such as climate. . . .
Reuters - July 20, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56J3GZ20090720?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
The world's population of older people is growing at the fastest rate ever seen and the old will soon outnumber the young for the first time, U.S. researchers reported on Monday. . . .
Reuters - July 20, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56J0IY20090720?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that the H1N1 flu pandemic was the fastest-moving pandemic ever and that it was now pointless to count every case. . . .
Reuters - July 16, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56F57U20090716?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
U.S. researchers have found a way to block the genetic flaw that causes a common form of muscular dystrophy, the team reported on Thursday.
Mice injected with a compound that neutralizes faulty gene activity regained the use of muscles frozen by myotonic dystrophy, the researchers said. . . .
Reuters - July 16, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56F5QC20090716?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
People with the "Alzheimer's gene" begin to have memory declines tied to aging before they reach 60, even if they have no clinical symptoms of dementia, a U.S. research team reported on Wednesday.
In a separate study, a second team found that people who learned they had the gene were not emotionally scarred by it.
Both findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, offer new support for genetic tests for Alzheimer's disease, a mind-wasting condition for which there are few treatments and no cure. It affects 26 million people globally. . . .
Reuters - July 15, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56E7BD20090715?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Using an endoscope to remove leg veins for heart bypass surgery appears to damage the veins and makes patients 52 percent more likely to die within three years, doctors reported on Wednesday. . . .
Reuters - July 15, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56E7C120090715?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
A swallowed capsule that takes pictures of the colon as it passes through misses too many pre-cancerous lesions and is not ready to replace more traditional colonoscopies, Belgian researchers reported on Wednesday. . . .
Reuters - July 15, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56E7C920090715?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Menopausal women who took hormone replacement therapy increased their risk of ovarian cancer by 38 percent, Danish researchers reported on Tuesday. . . .
Reuters - July 14, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56D6S320090714?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who smoke have a speedier progression of the disease, a new study in the Archives of Neurology suggests. . . .
Reuters - July 14, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56D7FP20090715?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Poor sleep after childbirth appears to be increase the risk of postpartum depression, according to findings published in the journal Sleep. . . .
Reuters - July 14, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56D7HO20090714?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Adults with a history of low birth weight are more prone to be hospitalized for breathing disorders than are adults without such a history, according to a new study.
Children born at low birth weights have been known to have abnormal lung function, according to the study's authors, but it has been unclear whether those effects linger until adulthood. The number of people born at such weights is not trivial: More than 330,000 fell into low birth weight or very low birth weight categories in 2005. . . .
Reuters - July 14, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56D50O20090714?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Using a relatively new way to test for blockages in the heart's arteries as a general screening exam could lead to more than thousands of new cases of cancer in the US, according to a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine. . . .
Reuters - July 13, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56C68520090713?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
President Barack Obama nominated an Alabama country doctor who has three times resurrected her clinic in a fishing village after disasters to be U.S. surgeon general on Monday and help him advocate for healthcare reform. . . .
Reuters - July 13, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56C3HI20090713?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Omega-3 fatty acid supplements did nothing to slow memory declines in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, but a study in healthy people with slight memory complaints did show promise, U.S. researchers said on Sunday. . . .
Reuters - July 12, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56B0BA20090712?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
People who are obese but otherwise healthy may be at special risk of severe complications and death from the new H1N1 swine flu virus, U.S. researchers reported on Friday.
Reuters - July 11, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN1053710520090711?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
The amount of carbohydrates a woman eats, as well as the overall "glycemic load" of her diet, impact her chances of developing breast cancer, Swedish researchers report. . . .
Reuters - July 11, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5695UW20090711?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Regardless of income, Baltimore residents can expect to start saving an average of 22 percent on their prescription drug costs, thanks to the city's newly adopted prescription drug discount card program sponsored by the National Association of Counties.
Residents can pick up the card at local pharmacies, health clinics and libraries, and begin using it right away to reduce drug costs without filling out an application. An entire family can use a single card. . . .
The Baltimore Sun - July 9, 2009
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-md.prescription09jul09,0,1028234.story
Pregnant women with endometriosis are at increased risk for delivering prematurely as well as suffering a number of other adverse pregnancy outcomes, results of a study indicate. . . .
Reuters - July 8, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5676P120090708?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Young children whose mothers abuse drugs may face a higher risk of abuse and placement in foster care, a new study finds.
Australian researchers found that infants whose mothers abused amphetamines or opiates such as heroin were 13 times more likely to become victims of neglect or abuse than other children their age. Their odds of being placed in foster care were similarly elevated, according to findings published in the journal Pediatrics. . . .
Reuters - July 9, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5686YI20090709?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
The United States is planning for a vaccination campaign against the new H1N1 flu that could move into schools and community centers, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Thursday. . . .
Reuters - July 9, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5683ZJ20090709?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Bottled water makers make millions off people who believe their products are purer than tap water, but consumers do not realize that they are less regulated than plain old tap water, according to a U.S. Congressional report released on Wednesday. . . .
Reuters - July 9, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56801W20090709?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
The World Health Organization will recommend that nations curtail efforts to confirm swine flu cases and assume the H1N1 virus is the culprit. Meanwhile, resistance to antiviral drug Tamiflu is seen. . . .
L.A. Times - July 8, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-swine-flu8-2009jul08,0,3683997.story?track=rss
People who want to reduce their risk of colon cancer may want to start exercising more and cutting down on red meat and alcohol, a new research review suggests.
Such measures -- along with not smoking -- may be key lifestyle choices in preventing the cancer, according to the analysis, which looked at more than 100 previous studies on colon cancer risk factors. . . .
Reuters - July 7, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5666HO20090707?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
U.S. regulators on Tuesday ordered stronger warnings about overdoses with the painkilling drugs Darvon and Darvocet and rejected a consumer group's call for a ban of the medicines.
The action applies to drugs made with propoxyphene, the pain-killing ingredient in privately held Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals Inc's Darvon and Darvocet and generic medicines. . . .
Reuters - July 7, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56661B20090707?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
U.S. health officials on Wednesday ordered Pfizer Inc and GlaxoSmithKline PLC to add strong "black box" warnings on their anti-smoking drugs to highlight the risk of serious mental health problems, including suicidal thoughts.
The warnings, which must be added to Pfizer's Chantix and Glaxo's Zyban, follow more than five thousand reports of depression, hostility and other behavioral changes, the Food and Drug Administration said. . . .
Reuters - July 1, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE56060X20090702?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
Obesity rates in the US have surged over the last year, a report shows.
The Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found adult obesity rates rose in 23 of the 50 states, but fell in none. . . .
BBC News - July 1, 2009
A blood protein that only a short time ago was thought by some to be more important than cholesterol in heart disease now appears to be little more than a bystander.
The substance, C-reactive protein, or CRP, a marker of inflammation in the body, is unquestionably associated with heart disease: the more CRP in a person's blood, the greater the likelihood of heart disease. . . .
The New York Times - June 30, 2009
An influential scientific advisory panel has recommended that federal officials give top priority to comparing the effectiveness of competing medical strategies in areas that include treating prostate cancer, reducing hospital infections and lowering the rate of unwanted pregnancies.
In a highly anticipated report, released Tuesday morning, a panel assembled by the Institute of Medicine released a list of 100 health topics that it said should get high priority as the Obama administration proceeded with a plan to spend $1.1 billion in comparing the effectiveness of competing drugs, medical devices, operations and other treatments for specific health conditions. . . .
The New York Times - June 30, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/health/policy/01compare.html
Government experts called for sweeping safety restrictions Tuesday on the most widely used painkiller, including reducing the maximum dose of Tylenol and eliminating prescription drugs such as Vicodin and Percocet.
The Food and Drug Administration assembled 37 experts to recommend ways to reduce deadly overdoses with acetaminophen, the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S., which sends 56,000 people to the emergency room annually. About 200 die each year. . . .
L.A. Times - July 1, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-tylenol1-2009jul01,0,2246759.story?track=rss
An Institute of Medicine committee urged the U.S. government on Tuesday to fund studies comparing treatments for Alzheimer's disease, attention deficit disorder and other conditions as part of a new effort to determine which strategies work best. . . .
Reuters - June 30, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE55T4KI20090630?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
