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Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs News

Meth Use Fuels Higher Rates Of Unsafe Sex, HIV Risk In Young Men Who Have Sex With Men 1 in 3 meth users reports sex with an HIV-infected personA study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Center and elsewhere shows that methamphetamine use can fuel HIV infection risk among teenage boys and young men who have sex with men (MSM), a group that includes openly gay and bisexual men, as well as those who have sex with men but do not identify themselves as gay or bisexual.

03 Aug 2011

Allergy News
FDA Makes Moves To Clarify Gluten Rules; What Is Celiac Disease? The FDA has reopened proposed gluten-free labeling rule originally published in 2007 in hopes of clarifying what "gluten free" actually means and how restaurants and manufacturers label their products.	03 Aug 2011
60% Of Kids' Car Seats Contain At Least One Toxic Chemical Toxic substances such as hazardous flame retardants and chemical additives that have been linked to cancer, birth defects, hormone imbalances and allergies, have been found in 60% of children's car seats tested by the Ecology Center in Michigan, USA, while others were found to have virtually no dangerous chemicals in them at all.	03 Aug 2011

Alzheimer's / Dementia News
Upcoming Alzheimer's Disease Guidelines Supported By New JNM Research Two new studies published in the August issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) provide insight into the potential of positron emission tomography (PET) to differentiate between types of dementia and to identify pharmaceuticals to slow the progress of dementia.	03 Aug 2011

Anxiety / Stress News
Music Therapy May Alleviate Depression By helping people express their emotions, music therapy, when combined with standard care, appears to be an effective treatment for depression, at least in the short term, said researchers from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland who write about their findings in the August issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.	03 Aug 2011
Hope For People Suffering From Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder The discovery of a mechanism in the brain explains for the first time why people make particularly strong, long-lasting memories of stressful events in their lives and could help sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder.	03 Aug 2011

Arthritis / Rheumatology News
FDA Approves Subcutaneous Formulation Of ORENCIA (Abatacept) For Adults With Moderate To Severe Rheumatoid Arthritis Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a subcutaneous (SC) formulation of ORENCIA® (abatacept) for the treatment of adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA).	03 Aug 2011
Toe Deformities Should Be Treated Early: Improper Footwear Can Be To Blame While deformities of the lesser toes (all toes other than the big toe) can be very painful, there are numerous surgical and nonsurgical treatments for these conditions that are usually quite effective.	03 Aug 2011

Autism News

Impaired Communication Between Brain Areas Further Supports Theory That Frontal-Posterior Underconnectivity Causes Autism Autism is a mysterious developmental disease because it often leaves complex abilities intact while impairing seemingly elementary ones. For example, it is well documented that autistic children often have difficulty correctly using pronouns, sometimes referring to themselves as "you" instead of "I.

03 Aug 2011

Biology / Biochemistry News
Human Heart Evolution Seen Through Sea Squirt Pacemaker A discovery has been made by a team of international molecular scientists that star ascidians, also known as sea squirts, have pacemaker cells similar to that of the human heart. The studies, published in the Journal of Experimental Zoology, Ecological Genetics and Physiology, may reveal new insights into the early evolution of the heart, as star ascidians are one of the closest related invertebrates to mammals.	03 Aug 2011
How Do You Stop Tasting? New findings may lend insight into why some people are especially sensitive to bitter tastes. Scientists from the Monell Center and Givaudan Flavors have identified a protein inside of taste cells that acts to shorten bitter taste signals.	03 Aug 2011

Bones / Orthopedics News
Study Explains Why Muscles Weaken With Age And Points To Possible Therapy Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have discovered the biological mechanism behind age-related loss of muscle strength and identified a drug that may help reverse this process.	03 Aug 2011
Toe Deformities Should Be Treated Early: Improper Footwear Can Be To Blame While deformities of the lesser toes (all toes other than the big toe) can be very painful, there are numerous surgical and nonsurgical treatments for these conditions that are usually quite effective.	03 Aug 2011

Breast Cancer News
ACR And SBI Respond To BMJ Article Saying Breast Cancer Screenings Make No Difference To Death Rates The ACR (American College of Radiology) and SBI (Society of Breast Imaging) have responded to what they describe as a controversial study published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) which claims that falling breast cancer death rates have little to do with mammography screening.	03 Aug 2011
Falling Breast Cancer Death Rates Not Due To Screening, More To Do With Treatments And Health Systems Breast cancer death rates have dropped over the last few years in Europe, however, researchers from France, Norway and the UK say this is due to better treatment and health systems rather than breast cancer screening.	03 Aug 2011
Investigation Of A New Method For The Diagnosis Of Cancer In Breast Tissue Collaboration between research, hospital and industry aimed at transferring innovative procedure into daily practice.The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) has developed a new breast cancer diagnostic method, and is now carrying out first tests on non-preserved human tissue in conjunction with the Kantonsspital Baden AG.	03 Aug 2011

Cancer / Oncology News
Falling Breast Cancer Death Rates Not Due To Screening, More To Do With Treatments And Health Systems Breast cancer death rates have dropped over the last few years in Europe, however, researchers from France, Norway and the UK say this is due to better treatment and health systems rather than breast cancer screening.	03 Aug 2011
60% Of Kids' Car Seats Contain At Least One Toxic Chemical Toxic substances such as hazardous flame retardants and chemical additives that have been linked to cancer, birth defects, hormone imbalances and allergies, have been found in 60% of children's car seats tested by the Ecology Center in Michigan, USA, while others were found to have virtually no dangerous chemicals in them at all.	03 Aug 2011
Evaluating Shorter And Safer Prostate Cancer Treatment With Targeted Radiation Michigan Principal Investigator Daniel A. Hamstra, Ph.D., M.D., assistant professor of the Department of Radiation Oncology and 10 co-researchers are currently conducting the first multi-institutional study, evaluating a new form of radiation treatment for prostate cancer coupled with sophisticated real-time tumor tracking, at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor.	03 Aug 2011
Taking Vitamin Pills May Undermine Motivation To Reduce Smoking A new study has found that smokers who take multivitamins offset their healthy behaviour by smoking more cigarettes. This is an example of what psychologists call the licensing effect, which occurs when people make a virtuous choice that permits them to make a poor choice later on, such as when someone 'earns' a weekend binge by avoiding alcohol all week.	03 Aug 2011
Disappearance Of Genetic Material Allows Tumor Cells To Grow Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, the Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Genetik Berlin, and four other German institutes succeeded in proving a specific gene loss in a certain human lymphoma, the genesis of which is largely unexplained to date.	03 Aug 2011

Cardiovascular / Cardiology News
Battery-powered Skin Patch Shows Promise As A New Drug Delivery System A battery-powered skin patch that can administer medication shows promise for the treatment of PAD (peripheral artery disease), as well as healing some skin ulcers and burns, researchers reported in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.	03 Aug 2011
Human Heart Evolution Seen Through Sea Squirt Pacemaker A discovery has been made by a team of international molecular scientists that star ascidians, also known as sea squirts, have pacemaker cells similar to that of the human heart. The studies, published in the Journal of Experimental Zoology, Ecological Genetics and Physiology, may reveal new insights into the early evolution of the heart, as star ascidians are one of the closest related invertebrates to mammals.	03 Aug 2011
Study Reveals Heart Attack Survivors From Poorer Neighborhoods Get Less Exercise Engaging in physical activity after a heart attack is known to increase the odds of survival. In a study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers from the Israel Study Group on First Acute Myocardial Infarction found that myocardial infarction (MI) survivors who lived in low socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhoods engaged in lower levels of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) compared to survivors from wealthier neighborhoods.	03 Aug 2011
Sea Squirt Pacemaker Gives New Insight Into Evolution Of The Human Heart An international team of molecular scientists have discovered that star ascidians, also known as sea squirts, have pacemaker cells similar to that of the human heart. The research, published in the JEZ A: Ecological Genetics and Physiology, may offer a new insight into the early evolution of the heart as star ascidians are one of the closest related invertebrates to mammals.	03 Aug 2011
Chemical In Bear Bile Could Help Keep Hearts In Rhythm A synthesised compound which is also found in bear bile could help prevent disturbances in the heart's normal rhythm, according to research published in the journal Hepatology by a team from Imperial College London.	03 Aug 2011
Heart Rate Influenced By Artificial Nanoparticles In light of the increasing demand for artificial nanoparticles in medicine and industry, it is important for manufacturers to understand just how these particles influence bodily functions and which mechanisms are at play - questions to which there has been a dearth of knowledge.	03 Aug 2011
News From The Journal Of Clinical Investigation : August 1, 2011 CARDIOLOGY: New mechanism underlying Noonan-like syndrome Noonan syndrome is an inherited disorder characterized by the abnormal development of several parts of the body, including the heart.	03 Aug 2011

Clinical Trials / Drug Trials News
Promising Drug For Down Syndrome A University of Colorado School of Medicine scientist is completing a major clinical trial on a drug that could boost cognitive function in those with Down syndrome, significantly improving their quality of life and representing a potential milestone in research on this genetic condition.	03 Aug 2011
Late-Stage Ovarian Cancer Therapy Shows Promise In Phase II Trial An experimental two-drug combination for treating late-stage ovarian cancer continues to produce strong results, leading its Indiana University researchers to actively pursue the next step, conducting a larger clinical trial to test the therapy and to see how it compares with existing treatments for ovarian cancer.	03 Aug 2011

Colorectal Cancer News
Effective Screen For Lower GI Tract Lesions: Noninvasive Fecal Occult Blood Test The immunochemical fecal occult blood test (iFOBT) is effective for predicting lesions in the lower intestine but not in the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract, confirms a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).	03 Aug 2011

Cosmetic Medicine / Plastic Surgery News
Potential Uses For New Composite Material Include Facial Reconstruction For Soldiers' Blast Injuries Biomedical engineers at Johns Hopkins have developed a new liquid material that in early experiments in rats and humans shows promise in restoring damaged soft tissue relatively safely and durably.	03 Aug 2011

Dentistry News
Mice Point To A Therapy For Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease VIB researchers have developed a mouse model for Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) neuropathy, a hereditary disease of the peripheral nervous system. They also found a potential therapy for this incurable disease.	03 Aug 2011

Depression News
Antidepressants, Newer Aren't Necessarily Safer For Older People, Study Shows Published today on bmj.com a new study discovered, the new generation antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are linked with an incremental risk of various severe adverse outcomes in older individuals in comparison with older tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) When prescribing drugs to older people, the risks and benefits of different antidepressants should be carefully assessed, the authors said.	03 Aug 2011
Why Heavy Smokers Feel Sad After Quitting Heavy smokers may experience sadness after quitting because early withdrawal leads to an increase in the mood-related brain protein monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A), a new study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has shown.	03 Aug 2011
Prevention Better Than Cure: Genetic Test For Depression May Reduce Risky Behavior Eight out of ten Australians would radically change their risky behaviour if tests showed they had a genetic susceptibility to depression, a national study has found.The study, conducted by researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and published online in the Journal of Affective Disorders, is the first population-wide analysis of Australian attitudes towards genetic testing for risk of mental illness.	03 Aug 2011
Music Therapy May Alleviate Depression By helping people express their emotions, music therapy, when combined with standard care, appears to be an effective treatment for depression, at least in the short term, said researchers from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland who write about their findings in the August issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.	03 Aug 2011
New Antidepressants Increase Risks For Elderly Older people taking new generation antidepressants are at more risk of dying or suffering from a range of serious health conditions including stroke, falls, fractures and epilepsy, a study involving researchers at The University of Nottingham has found.	03 Aug 2011
Hope For People Suffering From Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder The discovery of a mechanism in the brain explains for the first time why people make particularly strong, long-lasting memories of stressful events in their lives and could help sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder.	03 Aug 2011

Dermatology News
Battery-powered Skin Patch Shows Promise As A New Drug Delivery System A battery-powered skin patch that can administer medication shows promise for the treatment of PAD (peripheral artery disease), as well as healing some skin ulcers and burns, researchers reported in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.	03 Aug 2011

Diabetes News
People With Inactive Lifestyles More At Risk For Chronic Diseases, Even If They Take Regular Exercise According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25 percent of Americans have inactive lifestyles (they take fewer than 5,000 steps a day) and 75 percent do not meet the weekly exercise recommendations (150 minutes of moderate activity each week and muscle-strengthening activity twice a week) to maintain good health.	03 Aug 2011
New Link Found Between Obesity And Insulin Resistance Obesity is the main culprit in the worldwide avalanche of type 2 diabetes. But how excess weight drives insulin resistance, the condition that may lead to the disease, is only partly understood.	03 Aug 2011

Eating Disorders News
Planet Health Obesity Prevention Curriculum: Cost/Benefit Analysis Shows Net Savings For Obesity And Eating Disorders Teaching middle-school children about nutrition and exercise and encouraging them to watch less TV can save the health care system a substantial amount of money, suggests an economic analysis from Children's Hospital Boston and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.	03 Aug 2011

Endocrinology News
Estrogen Deprivation Eventually Undermines Brain Receptors And Stroke Protection Researchers discovered that long periods of estrogen deprivation in aging rats have a severe impact on reducing the number of brain receptors for the hormone and increases stroke risk. According to a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the impairment is forestalled if estrogen replacement starts shortly after hormone levels drop.	03 Aug 2011
The Negative Side Of Oxytocin For a hormone, oxytocin is pretty famous. It's the "cuddle chemical" - the hormone that helps mothers bond with their babies. Salespeople can buy oxytocin spray on the internet, to make their clients trust them.	03 Aug 2011

Epilepsy News
Improved Brain Imaging Techniques Used To Discover A Better Approach To Diagnosing Epilepsy Using state-of-the-art, 7 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, University of Minnesota Medical School researchers may have uncovered a better approach to diagnosing epilepsy.In the process, the team was able to cure eight patients of all epileptic symptoms.	03 Aug 2011

Flu / Cold / SARS News
Study May Lead To Improved Immunity Aging brings about a selective decline in the numbers and function of T cells - a type of white blood cell involved in the immune system's response to infection - and T cells that survive the longest may better protect against infections such as the flu, according to a study led by researchers from the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson.	03 Aug 2011

GastroIntestinal / Gastroenterology News
Effective Screen For Lower GI Tract Lesions: Noninvasive Fecal Occult Blood Test The immunochemical fecal occult blood test (iFOBT) is effective for predicting lesions in the lower intestine but not in the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract, confirms a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).	03 Aug 2011

Genetics News
Longevity More Linked To Genes Than Lifestyle, Research Reveals Individuals who live past 95 years of age have similar lifestyles to the rest of the population regarding smoking, drinking, diet and exercise, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University revealed in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.	03 Aug 2011
Testing Combo Therapies To Overcome Drug Resistance In Melanoma Patients About 50 to 60 percent of patients with melanoma have a mutation in the BRAF gene that drives the growth of their cancer. Most of these patients respond well to two novel agents being studied in clinical trials that inhibit the gene, with remarkable responses that are, unfortunately, almost always limited in duration.	03 Aug 2011
Prevention Better Than Cure: Genetic Test For Depression May Reduce Risky Behavior Eight out of ten Australians would radically change their risky behaviour if tests showed they had a genetic susceptibility to depression, a national study has found.The study, conducted by researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and published online in the Journal of Affective Disorders, is the first population-wide analysis of Australian attitudes towards genetic testing for risk of mental illness.	03 Aug 2011
How Do You Stop Tasting? New findings may lend insight into why some people are especially sensitive to bitter tastes. Scientists from the Monell Center and Givaudan Flavors have identified a protein inside of taste cells that acts to shorten bitter taste signals.	03 Aug 2011
Disappearance Of Genetic Material Allows Tumor Cells To Grow Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, the Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Genetik Berlin, and four other German institutes succeeded in proving a specific gene loss in a certain human lymphoma, the genesis of which is largely unexplained to date.	03 Aug 2011
'Genetically Fingerprinting' E. coli: Study Designed To Contribute To A Fair, Balanced And Effective Protection Plan The Lampasas and Leon Rivers watersheds have been listed as impaired by the state due to high counts of E. coli and other bacteria taken in the late 1990s, but from whom, what and where the contamination originates is unclear, say Texas AgriLife Research experts.	03 Aug 2011
Three New Susceptibility Loci For Adult Asthma In Japanese Population Revealed By Genome-wide Study Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Genomic Medicine (CGM), together with colleagues at Kyoto University, Tsukuba University, Harvard University, and other medical institutions have identified three new loci associated with susceptibility to adult asthma in the Japanese population.	03 Aug 2011
New Insights Into Optimization Of Biopharmaceutical Protein Production Provided By Genome Of CHO-K1 BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, and GT Life Sciences, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company that utilizes a proven metabolic modeling and experimental platform to drive the discovery and design of new products and processes for the life sciences field, have announced that their collaborative study on the genomic sequence of the Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) K1 cell line was published online in Nature Biotechnology.	03 Aug 2011

Heart Disease News
Human Heart Evolution Seen Through Sea Squirt Pacemaker A discovery has been made by a team of international molecular scientists that star ascidians, also known as sea squirts, have pacemaker cells similar to that of the human heart. The studies, published in the Journal of Experimental Zoology, Ecological Genetics and Physiology, may reveal new insights into the early evolution of the heart, as star ascidians are one of the closest related invertebrates to mammals.	03 Aug 2011
Sea Squirt Pacemaker Gives New Insight Into Evolution Of The Human Heart An international team of molecular scientists have discovered that star ascidians, also known as sea squirts, have pacemaker cells similar to that of the human heart. The research, published in the JEZ A: Ecological Genetics and Physiology, may offer a new insight into the early evolution of the heart as star ascidians are one of the closest related invertebrates to mammals.	03 Aug 2011
News From The Journal Of Clinical Investigation : August 1, 2011 CARDIOLOGY: New mechanism underlying Noonan-like syndrome Noonan syndrome is an inherited disorder characterized by the abnormal development of several parts of the body, including the heart.	03 Aug 2011

HIV / AIDS News
Meth Use Fuels Higher Rates Of Unsafe Sex, HIV Risk In Young Men Who Have Sex With Men 1 in 3 meth users reports sex with an HIV-infected personA study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Center and elsewhere shows that methamphetamine use can fuel HIV infection risk among teenage boys and young men who have sex with men (MSM), a group that includes openly gay and bisexual men, as well as those who have sex with men but do not identify themselves as gay or bisexual.	03 Aug 2011
Emerging HIV Epidemics In Men Who Have Sex With Men In The Middle East And North Africa HIV epidemics are emerging among men who have sex with men (a term that encompasses gay, non-gay identified homosexual men, transgendered, and bisexual men) in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa.	03 Aug 2011
HIV Epidemics Emerging In The Middle East And North Africa Among Men Who Have Sex With Men IV epidemics are emerging in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa among men who have sex with men, a term that encompasses gay, non-gay identified homosexual men, and transgendered and bisexual men.	03 Aug 2011

Immune System / Vaccines News
Anascorp, First Specific Treatment For Scorpion Stings, Approved By FDA Anascorp, Centruroides (Scorpion) Immune F(ab)2 (Equine) Injection has been approved for stings by Centruroides scorpions in the USA by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Most poisonous scorpions in the USA can be found in Arizona.	03 Aug 2011
Study May Lead To Improved Immunity Aging brings about a selective decline in the numbers and function of T cells - a type of white blood cell involved in the immune system's response to infection - and T cells that survive the longest may better protect against infections such as the flu, according to a study led by researchers from the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson.	03 Aug 2011
Parents' Refusal Of Kids' Polio Vaccine Might Mean Jail In Nigeria Officials in Nigeria's northern Kano state say parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated against polio may be prosecuted and could face jail time. The government order issued this week comes as the United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, has been pressuring Nigeria's northern states to promote vaccination against the highly contagious disease.	03 Aug 2011
News From The Journal Of Clinical Investigation : August 1, 2011 CARDIOLOGY: New mechanism underlying Noonan-like syndrome Noonan syndrome is an inherited disorder characterized by the abnormal development of several parts of the body, including the heart.	03 Aug 2011
A Step Closer To Developing Better Vaccines For Bluetongue Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have taken a step towards producing better vaccines against Bluetongue - an important disease of livestock - after successfully assembling the virus outside a cell.	03 Aug 2011

Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses News
Cargill Recalls 36 Million Pounds Of Turkey Products Due To Possible Salmonella Heidelberg Contamination Cargill Value Added Meats Retail is recalling about 36 million pounds of frozen and fresh ground turkey products that were produced at its facility at Springdale Ark. The recalled products were produced from February 20th, 2011 up to and including August 2nd, 2011.	03 Aug 2011
Resistant Salmonella Strain Resurfaces; FDA Cracks Down With New Laws The importance of FDA and other global health agencies to seriously monitor the international food traffic network is brought to the forefront this week as a new multidrug-resistant strain of salmonella called S.	03 Aug 2011
MRSA Bloodstream Infections At Record Low, Says NHS, UK The National Health Service (NHS, UK) says the number of reported cases of MRSA bloodstream infections fell to 97 in one month, a record low.According to the HPA (Health Protection Agency), statistic for C.	03 Aug 2011
Two Distinct Biofilms Produced By One Species Of Pathogen Many medical devices, ranging from artificial hip joints to dentures and catheters, can come with unwelcome guests - complex communities of microbial pathogens called biofilms that are resistant to the human immune system and antibiotics, thus proving a serious threat to human health.	03 Aug 2011
Parents' Refusal Of Kids' Polio Vaccine Might Mean Jail In Nigeria Officials in Nigeria's northern Kano state say parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated against polio may be prosecuted and could face jail time. The government order issued this week comes as the United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, has been pressuring Nigeria's northern states to promote vaccination against the highly contagious disease.	03 Aug 2011
'Genetically Fingerprinting' E. coli: Study Designed To Contribute To A Fair, Balanced And Effective Protection Plan The Lampasas and Leon Rivers watersheds have been listed as impaired by the state due to high counts of E. coli and other bacteria taken in the late 1990s, but from whom, what and where the contamination originates is unclear, say Texas AgriLife Research experts.	03 Aug 2011

IT / Internet / E-mail News

Using A Cell Phone Safely The dangers of cell phones have led to preventive policies in France, Israel, Finland, and India, and there are simple ways to minimize the health risks associated with exposure to the radiation energy they emit, according to Devra Lee Davis, PhD, MPH, President of the Environmental Health Trust, in a timely and informative interview featured in Alternative and Complementary Therapies, published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

03 Aug 2011

Liver Disease / Hepatitis News
Chronic Hepatitis C Genotype 1 Drug, Victrelis (Boceprevir) Launched In UK Today Victrelis (boceprevir), the first licenced medication to directly target the hepatitis virus was launched today in the United Kingdom. Victrelis is said to help clear the virus in nearly three times as many patients who did not respond properly to prior treatment, and nearly twice as many treatment naïve patients, compared to just current therapy.	03 Aug 2011
Abnormal Liver Tests Associated With Increased Death Rates In People Over 75 One in six people over 75 are likely to have at least one abnormal liver test and those that have two or more are twice as likely to die from cancer and 17 times more likely to die from liver disease, according to research in the August issue of Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics.	03 Aug 2011

Lymphology/Lymphedema News
Disappearance Of Genetic Material Allows Tumor Cells To Grow Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, the Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Genetik Berlin, and four other German institutes succeeded in proving a specific gene loss in a certain human lymphoma, the genesis of which is largely unexplained to date.	03 Aug 2011

Medical Devices / Diagnostics News
Two Distinct Biofilms Produced By One Species Of Pathogen Many medical devices, ranging from artificial hip joints to dentures and catheters, can come with unwelcome guests - complex communities of microbial pathogens called biofilms that are resistant to the human immune system and antibiotics, thus proving a serious threat to human health.	03 Aug 2011
Investigation Of A New Method For The Diagnosis Of Cancer In Breast Tissue Collaboration between research, hospital and industry aimed at transferring innovative procedure into daily practice.The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) has developed a new breast cancer diagnostic method, and is now carrying out first tests on non-preserved human tissue in conjunction with the Kantonsspital Baden AG.	03 Aug 2011
Improved Brain Imaging Techniques Used To Discover A Better Approach To Diagnosing Epilepsy Using state-of-the-art, 7 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, University of Minnesota Medical School researchers may have uncovered a better approach to diagnosing epilepsy.In the process, the team was able to cure eight patients of all epileptic symptoms.	03 Aug 2011
New Source Of Very Cold Electrons To Improve Quality And Speed Of Nanoimaging For Drug And Materials Development The study published in Nature Physics was carried out by researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-ray Science (CXS), headquartered at the University of Melbourne.Associate Professor Robert Scholten from the University's School of Physics and the CXS, said the new cold electron source offered potential advances in electron imaging at the atomic or nanoscale which will have real applications in a range of industries including health.	03 Aug 2011

Melanoma / Skin Cancer News
Testing Combo Therapies To Overcome Drug Resistance In Melanoma Patients About 50 to 60 percent of patients with melanoma have a mutation in the BRAF gene that drives the growth of their cancer. Most of these patients respond well to two novel agents being studied in clinical trials that inhibit the gene, with remarkable responses that are, unfortunately, almost always limited in duration.	03 Aug 2011

Men's health News
Emerging HIV Epidemics In Men Who Have Sex With Men In The Middle East And North Africa HIV epidemics are emerging among men who have sex with men (a term that encompasses gay, non-gay identified homosexual men, transgendered, and bisexual men) in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa.	03 Aug 2011

Menopause News

Estrogen Deprivation Eventually Undermines Brain Receptors And Stroke Protection Researchers discovered that long periods of estrogen deprivation in aging rats have a severe impact on reducing the number of brain receptors for the hormone and increases stroke risk. According to a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the impairment is forestalled if estrogen replacement starts shortly after hormone levels drop.

03 Aug 2011

Mental Health News
Are Pets Good For Human Health? The Truth Is "Nobody Really Knows" How often do you read about a study that says a pet is good for your health? Most of us would say fairly often. Apparently, only those that demonstrate health benefits hit the headlines, while others that either have no evidence or reveal some unpleasant data are ignored, researcher Howard Herzog revealed in the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.	03 Aug 2011
Music Therapy May Alleviate Depression By helping people express their emotions, music therapy, when combined with standard care, appears to be an effective treatment for depression, at least in the short term, said researchers from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland who write about their findings in the August issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.	03 Aug 2011

MRI / PET / Ultrasound News
Upcoming Alzheimer's Disease Guidelines Supported By New JNM Research Two new studies published in the August issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) provide insight into the potential of positron emission tomography (PET) to differentiate between types of dementia and to identify pharmaceuticals to slow the progress of dementia.	03 Aug 2011
Improved Brain Imaging Techniques Used To Discover A Better Approach To Diagnosing Epilepsy Using state-of-the-art, 7 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, University of Minnesota Medical School researchers may have uncovered a better approach to diagnosing epilepsy.In the process, the team was able to cure eight patients of all epileptic symptoms.	03 Aug 2011

MRSA / Drug Resistance News
MRSA Bloodstream Infections At Record Low, Says NHS, UK The National Health Service (NHS, UK) says the number of reported cases of MRSA bloodstream infections fell to 97 in one month, a record low.According to the HPA (Health Protection Agency), statistic for C.	03 Aug 2011
Testing Combo Therapies To Overcome Drug Resistance In Melanoma Patients About 50 to 60 percent of patients with melanoma have a mutation in the BRAF gene that drives the growth of their cancer. Most of these patients respond well to two novel agents being studied in clinical trials that inhibit the gene, with remarkable responses that are, unfortunately, almost always limited in duration.	03 Aug 2011

Muscular Dystrophy / ALS News
Study Explains Why Muscles Weaken With Age And Points To Possible Therapy Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have discovered the biological mechanism behind age-related loss of muscle strength and identified a drug that may help reverse this process.	03 Aug 2011

Neurology / Neuroscience News
Promising Drug For Down Syndrome A University of Colorado School of Medicine scientist is completing a major clinical trial on a drug that could boost cognitive function in those with Down syndrome, significantly improving their quality of life and representing a potential milestone in research on this genetic condition.	03 Aug 2011
Impaired Communication Between Brain Areas Further Supports Theory That Frontal-Posterior Underconnectivity Causes Autism Autism is a mysterious developmental disease because it often leaves complex abilities intact while impairing seemingly elementary ones. For example, it is well documented that autistic children often have difficulty correctly using pronouns, sometimes referring to themselves as "you" instead of "I.	03 Aug 2011
How Do You Stop Tasting? New findings may lend insight into why some people are especially sensitive to bitter tastes. Scientists from the Monell Center and Givaudan Flavors have identified a protein inside of taste cells that acts to shorten bitter taste signals.	03 Aug 2011
How Nerve Cells Are Kept Up To Speed Scientists from the Freie Universität Berlin have identified mechanisms regulating chemical neurotransmission in the nervous systemScientists from the Freie Universität Berlin and the NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence, led by Volker Haucke in collaboration with colleagues from the Leibniz Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP) in Berlin, have unravelled a mechanism involved in the reformation of neurotransmitter containing membrane vesicles in the brain.	03 Aug 2011
Mice Point To A Therapy For Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease VIB researchers have developed a mouse model for Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) neuropathy, a hereditary disease of the peripheral nervous system. They also found a potential therapy for this incurable disease.	03 Aug 2011

Nutrition / Diet News
Cargill Recalls 36 Million Pounds Of Turkey Products Due To Possible Salmonella Heidelberg Contamination Cargill Value Added Meats Retail is recalling about 36 million pounds of frozen and fresh ground turkey products that were produced at its facility at Springdale Ark. The recalled products were produced from February 20th, 2011 up to and including August 2nd, 2011.	03 Aug 2011
FDA Makes Moves To Clarify Gluten Rules; What Is Celiac Disease? The FDA has reopened proposed gluten-free labeling rule originally published in 2007 in hopes of clarifying what "gluten free" actually means and how restaurants and manufacturers label their products.	03 Aug 2011
Taking Vitamin Pills May Undermine Motivation To Reduce Smoking A new study has found that smokers who take multivitamins offset their healthy behaviour by smoking more cigarettes. This is an example of what psychologists call the licensing effect, which occurs when people make a virtuous choice that permits them to make a poor choice later on, such as when someone 'earns' a weekend binge by avoiding alcohol all week.	03 Aug 2011
Healthy Habits Can Add 15 Years to Your Life Women with a healthy lifestyle such as a Mediterranean diet, regular exercise, not smoking, and maintaining a healthy weight, are more likely to live 15 years longer than their less healthy counterparts, while for men, the effect of such healthy habits appears to be less, nearly 8.	03 Aug 2011
DHA Taken During Pregnancy Has Protective Effect On Babies An Emory University study published online in Pediatrics suggests consuming Omega 3 fatty acids during pregnancy helps protects babies against illness during early infancy.The randomized, placebo-controlled trial followed approximately 1,100 pregnant women and 900 infants in Mexico.	03 Aug 2011

Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness News
Obesity Treatment - FDA Approves Phentermine Resin Extended-Release Capsules Lannett Company, Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for Phentermine Resin Extended-Release Capsules, 15 mg and 30 mg.	03 Aug 2011
Researchers Making Every Bite Count Two Clemson University researchers seek to make diners mindful of mindless eating.Psychology professor Eric Muth and electrical and computer engineering professor Adam Hoover have created the Bite Counter, a measurement device that will make it easier for people to monitor how much they eat.	03 Aug 2011
Study Reveals Heart Attack Survivors From Poorer Neighborhoods Get Less Exercise Engaging in physical activity after a heart attack is known to increase the odds of survival. In a study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers from the Israel Study Group on First Acute Myocardial Infarction found that myocardial infarction (MI) survivors who lived in low socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhoods engaged in lower levels of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) compared to survivors from wealthier neighborhoods.	03 Aug 2011
Why Diets Don't Work: Starved Brain Cells Eat Themselves A report in the August issue of the Cell Press journal Cell Metabolism might help to explain why it's so frustratingly difficult to stick to a diet. When we don't eat, hunger-inducing neurons in the brain start eating bits of themselves.	03 Aug 2011
Healthy Habits Can Add 15 Years to Your Life Women with a healthy lifestyle such as a Mediterranean diet, regular exercise, not smoking, and maintaining a healthy weight, are more likely to live 15 years longer than their less healthy counterparts, while for men, the effect of such healthy habits appears to be less, nearly 8.	03 Aug 2011
People With Inactive Lifestyles More At Risk For Chronic Diseases, Even If They Take Regular Exercise According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25 percent of Americans have inactive lifestyles (they take fewer than 5,000 steps a day) and 75 percent do not meet the weekly exercise recommendations (150 minutes of moderate activity each week and muscle-strengthening activity twice a week) to maintain good health.	03 Aug 2011
New Link Found Between Obesity And Insulin Resistance Obesity is the main culprit in the worldwide avalanche of type 2 diabetes. But how excess weight drives insulin resistance, the condition that may lead to the disease, is only partly understood.	03 Aug 2011
Planet Health Obesity Prevention Curriculum: Cost/Benefit Analysis Shows Net Savings For Obesity And Eating Disorders Teaching middle-school children about nutrition and exercise and encouraging them to watch less TV can save the health care system a substantial amount of money, suggests an economic analysis from Children's Hospital Boston and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.	03 Aug 2011

Ovarian Cancer News
Late-Stage Ovarian Cancer Therapy Shows Promise In Phase II Trial An experimental two-drug combination for treating late-stage ovarian cancer continues to produce strong results, leading its Indiana University researchers to actively pursue the next step, conducting a larger clinical trial to test the therapy and to see how it compares with existing treatments for ovarian cancer.	03 Aug 2011

Pain / Anesthetics News
Toe Deformities Should Be Treated Early: Improper Footwear Can Be To Blame While deformities of the lesser toes (all toes other than the big toe) can be very painful, there are numerous surgical and nonsurgical treatments for these conditions that are usually quite effective.	03 Aug 2011

Pediatrics / Children's Health News
60% Of Kids' Car Seats Contain At Least One Toxic Chemical Toxic substances such as hazardous flame retardants and chemical additives that have been linked to cancer, birth defects, hormone imbalances and allergies, have been found in 60% of children's car seats tested by the Ecology Center in Michigan, USA, while others were found to have virtually no dangerous chemicals in them at all.	03 Aug 2011
Microwave Fields Affect Your Newborn's Asthma; Is It Worth It? Is it possible that using a microwave or being exposed to other electronic magnetic fields (EMF) when pregnant contribute to higher risk of asthma in newborn children? A new study says yes in the first research of its kind ever performed.	03 Aug 2011
People With Inactive Lifestyles More At Risk For Chronic Diseases, Even If They Take Regular Exercise According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25 percent of Americans have inactive lifestyles (they take fewer than 5,000 steps a day) and 75 percent do not meet the weekly exercise recommendations (150 minutes of moderate activity each week and muscle-strengthening activity twice a week) to maintain good health.	03 Aug 2011
Promising Drug For Down Syndrome A University of Colorado School of Medicine scientist is completing a major clinical trial on a drug that could boost cognitive function in those with Down syndrome, significantly improving their quality of life and representing a potential milestone in research on this genetic condition.	03 Aug 2011
Planet Health Obesity Prevention Curriculum: Cost/Benefit Analysis Shows Net Savings For Obesity And Eating Disorders Teaching middle-school children about nutrition and exercise and encouraging them to watch less TV can save the health care system a substantial amount of money, suggests an economic analysis from Children's Hospital Boston and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.	03 Aug 2011
DHA Taken During Pregnancy Has Protective Effect On Babies An Emory University study published online in Pediatrics suggests consuming Omega 3 fatty acids during pregnancy helps protects babies against illness during early infancy.The randomized, placebo-controlled trial followed approximately 1,100 pregnant women and 900 infants in Mexico.	03 Aug 2011

Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry News
Fake Morning After Pill Maybe In U.S. FDA Warns Public; Stay Protected There is a fake "morning after" pill on the market and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning the public about it. The drug's name is called Evital and no such product has been approved to date and it may not be safe or effective in preventing pregnancy although approved in South America.	03 Aug 2011
New Source Of Very Cold Electrons To Improve Quality And Speed Of Nanoimaging For Drug And Materials Development The study published in Nature Physics was carried out by researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-ray Science (CXS), headquartered at the University of Melbourne.Associate Professor Robert Scholten from the University's School of Physics and the CXS, said the new cold electron source offered potential advances in electron imaging at the atomic or nanoscale which will have real applications in a range of industries including health.	03 Aug 2011
New Insights Into Optimization Of Biopharmaceutical Protein Production Provided By Genome Of CHO-K1 BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, and GT Life Sciences, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company that utilizes a proven metabolic modeling and experimental platform to drive the discovery and design of new products and processes for the life sciences field, have announced that their collaborative study on the genomic sequence of the Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) K1 cell line was published online in Nature Biotechnology.	03 Aug 2011

Pregnancy / Obstetrics News
Fake Morning After Pill Maybe In U.S. FDA Warns Public; Stay Protected There is a fake "morning after" pill on the market and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning the public about it. The drug's name is called Evital and no such product has been approved to date and it may not be safe or effective in preventing pregnancy although approved in South America.	03 Aug 2011
Chemical In Bear Bile Could Help Keep Hearts In Rhythm A synthesised compound which is also found in bear bile could help prevent disturbances in the heart's normal rhythm, according to research published in the journal Hepatology by a team from Imperial College London.	03 Aug 2011
DHA Taken During Pregnancy Has Protective Effect On Babies An Emory University study published online in Pediatrics suggests consuming Omega 3 fatty acids during pregnancy helps protects babies against illness during early infancy.The randomized, placebo-controlled trial followed approximately 1,100 pregnant women and 900 infants in Mexico.	03 Aug 2011

Preventive Medicine News
Study Reveals Heart Attack Survivors From Poorer Neighborhoods Get Less Exercise Engaging in physical activity after a heart attack is known to increase the odds of survival. In a study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers from the Israel Study Group on First Acute Myocardial Infarction found that myocardial infarction (MI) survivors who lived in low socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhoods engaged in lower levels of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) compared to survivors from wealthier neighborhoods.	03 Aug 2011
Prevention Better Than Cure: Genetic Test For Depression May Reduce Risky Behavior Eight out of ten Australians would radically change their risky behaviour if tests showed they had a genetic susceptibility to depression, a national study has found.The study, conducted by researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and published online in the Journal of Affective Disorders, is the first population-wide analysis of Australian attitudes towards genetic testing for risk of mental illness.	03 Aug 2011

Primary Care / General Practice News
News From The Annals Of Internal Medicine: Aug. 2, 2011 Depending on Individual Patient Characteristics, the Risks of Pulmonary Nodule Biopsy May Outweigh the Benefits - Physicians should understand the risks associated with transthoracic needle biopsy When patients undergo computed tomography (CT) of the chest, pulmonary nodules are sometimes detected.	03 Aug 2011

Prostate / Prostate Cancer News

Evaluating Shorter And Safer Prostate Cancer Treatment With Targeted Radiation Michigan Principal Investigator Daniel A. Hamstra, Ph.D., M.D., assistant professor of the Department of Radiation Oncology and 10 co-researchers are currently conducting the first multi-institutional study, evaluating a new form of radiation treatment for prostate cancer coupled with sophisticated real-time tumor tracking, at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor.

03 Aug 2011

Psychology / Psychiatry News
Are Pets Good For Human Health? The Truth Is "Nobody Really Knows" How often do you read about a study that says a pet is good for your health? Most of us would say fairly often. Apparently, only those that demonstrate health benefits hit the headlines, while others that either have no evidence or reveal some unpleasant data are ignored, researcher Howard Herzog revealed in the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.	03 Aug 2011
COPD Patients With Sense Of Humor Feel Better, But Laughter May Be Bad For Lungs Having a sense of humor is associated with improved emotional functioning and an enhanced quality of life among patients with a chronic lung illness, but the actual act of laughing out loud can reduce lung function, at least in the short term, research suggests.	03 Aug 2011
The Negative Side Of Oxytocin For a hormone, oxytocin is pretty famous. It's the "cuddle chemical" - the hormone that helps mothers bond with their babies. Salespeople can buy oxytocin spray on the internet, to make their clients trust them.	03 Aug 2011
Hope For People Suffering From Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder The discovery of a mechanism in the brain explains for the first time why people make particularly strong, long-lasting memories of stressful events in their lives and could help sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder.	03 Aug 2011
The Role Of Mirror Neurons In Human Behavior We are all familiar with the phrase "monkey see, monkey do" - but have we actually thought about what it means? Over the last two decades, neuroscience research has been investigating whether this popular saying has a real basis in human behavior.	03 Aug 2011

Public Health News
Cargill Recalls 36 Million Pounds Of Turkey Products Due To Possible Salmonella Heidelberg Contamination Cargill Value Added Meats Retail is recalling about 36 million pounds of frozen and fresh ground turkey products that were produced at its facility at Springdale Ark. The recalled products were produced from February 20th, 2011 up to and including August 2nd, 2011.	03 Aug 2011
Anascorp, First Specific Treatment For Scorpion Stings, Approved By FDA Anascorp, Centruroides (Scorpion) Immune F(ab)2 (Equine) Injection has been approved for stings by Centruroides scorpions in the USA by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Most poisonous scorpions in the USA can be found in Arizona.	03 Aug 2011
Longevity More Linked To Genes Than Lifestyle, Research Reveals Individuals who live past 95 years of age have similar lifestyles to the rest of the population regarding smoking, drinking, diet and exercise, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University revealed in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.	03 Aug 2011
New Health Care Distribution Model Could Save Lives In Developing Countries Each year millions of children and adults in the world's poorest countries die from lack of access to medicine and health care. A new report from Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business and the George W.	03 Aug 2011

Radiology / Nuclear Medicine News
ACR And SBI Respond To BMJ Article Saying Breast Cancer Screenings Make No Difference To Death Rates The ACR (American College of Radiology) and SBI (Society of Breast Imaging) have responded to what they describe as a controversial study published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) which claims that falling breast cancer death rates have little to do with mammography screening.	03 Aug 2011
Falling Breast Cancer Death Rates Not Due To Screening, More To Do With Treatments And Health Systems Breast cancer death rates have dropped over the last few years in Europe, however, researchers from France, Norway and the UK say this is due to better treatment and health systems rather than breast cancer screening.	03 Aug 2011

Regulatory Affairs / Drug Approvals News
Anascorp, First Specific Treatment For Scorpion Stings, Approved By FDA Anascorp, Centruroides (Scorpion) Immune F(ab)2 (Equine) Injection has been approved for stings by Centruroides scorpions in the USA by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Most poisonous scorpions in the USA can be found in Arizona.	03 Aug 2011
Resistant Salmonella Strain Resurfaces; FDA Cracks Down With New Laws The importance of FDA and other global health agencies to seriously monitor the international food traffic network is brought to the forefront this week as a new multidrug-resistant strain of salmonella called S.	03 Aug 2011
American, European And Australian Drug Regulatory Agencies Increasing Collaboration Two reports were released today by the FDA (USA), EMEA (Europe) and TGA (Australia) reporting on two pilot programs aimed at widening international regulatory collaboration so that medication quality and safety can be secured worldwide.	03 Aug 2011
FDA Approves Subcutaneous Formulation Of ORENCIA (Abatacept) For Adults With Moderate To Severe Rheumatoid Arthritis Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a subcutaneous (SC) formulation of ORENCIA® (abatacept) for the treatment of adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA).	03 Aug 2011
Obesity Treatment - FDA Approves Phentermine Resin Extended-Release Capsules Lannett Company, Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for Phentermine Resin Extended-Release Capsules, 15 mg and 30 mg.	03 Aug 2011

Respiratory / Asthma News
Microwave Fields Affect Your Newborn's Asthma; Is It Worth It? Is it possible that using a microwave or being exposed to other electronic magnetic fields (EMF) when pregnant contribute to higher risk of asthma in newborn children? A new study says yes in the first research of its kind ever performed.	03 Aug 2011
COPD Patients With Sense Of Humor Feel Better, But Laughter May Be Bad For Lungs Having a sense of humor is associated with improved emotional functioning and an enhanced quality of life among patients with a chronic lung illness, but the actual act of laughing out loud can reduce lung function, at least in the short term, research suggests.	03 Aug 2011
Three New Susceptibility Loci For Adult Asthma In Japanese Population Revealed By Genome-wide Study Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Genomic Medicine (CGM), together with colleagues at Kyoto University, Tsukuba University, Harvard University, and other medical institutions have identified three new loci associated with susceptibility to adult asthma in the Japanese population.	03 Aug 2011
News From The Annals Of Internal Medicine: Aug. 2, 2011 Depending on Individual Patient Characteristics, the Risks of Pulmonary Nodule Biopsy May Outweigh the Benefits - Physicians should understand the risks associated with transthoracic needle biopsy When patients undergo computed tomography (CT) of the chest, pulmonary nodules are sometimes detected.	03 Aug 2011

Seniors / Aging News
Longevity More Linked To Genes Than Lifestyle, Research Reveals Individuals who live past 95 years of age have similar lifestyles to the rest of the population regarding smoking, drinking, diet and exercise, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University revealed in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.	03 Aug 2011
Antidepressants, Newer Aren't Necessarily Safer For Older People, Study Shows Published today on bmj.com a new study discovered, the new generation antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are linked with an incremental risk of various severe adverse outcomes in older individuals in comparison with older tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) When prescribing drugs to older people, the risks and benefits of different antidepressants should be carefully assessed, the authors said.	03 Aug 2011
Study Explains Why Muscles Weaken With Age And Points To Possible Therapy Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have discovered the biological mechanism behind age-related loss of muscle strength and identified a drug that may help reverse this process.	03 Aug 2011
Study May Lead To Improved Immunity Aging brings about a selective decline in the numbers and function of T cells - a type of white blood cell involved in the immune system's response to infection - and T cells that survive the longest may better protect against infections such as the flu, according to a study led by researchers from the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson.	03 Aug 2011
Graying World Population Sparks Need For Policies And Programs That Support Productive Aging Worldwide, people aged 60 and above will comprise 13.6 percent of the population by 2020, and 22.1 percent of the population by 2050. China is the most rapidly aging country with older adults making up 13 percent of their population.	03 Aug 2011
New Antidepressants Increase Risks For Elderly Older people taking new generation antidepressants are at more risk of dying or suffering from a range of serious health conditions including stroke, falls, fractures and epilepsy, a study involving researchers at The University of Nottingham has found.	03 Aug 2011

Sexual Health / STDs News
Meth Use Fuels Higher Rates Of Unsafe Sex, HIV Risk In Young Men Who Have Sex With Men 1 in 3 meth users reports sex with an HIV-infected personA study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Center and elsewhere shows that methamphetamine use can fuel HIV infection risk among teenage boys and young men who have sex with men (MSM), a group that includes openly gay and bisexual men, as well as those who have sex with men but do not identify themselves as gay or bisexual.	03 Aug 2011
Emerging HIV Epidemics In Men Who Have Sex With Men In The Middle East And North Africa HIV epidemics are emerging among men who have sex with men (a term that encompasses gay, non-gay identified homosexual men, transgendered, and bisexual men) in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa.	03 Aug 2011
News From The Annals Of Internal Medicine: Aug. 2, 2011 Depending on Individual Patient Characteristics, the Risks of Pulmonary Nodule Biopsy May Outweigh the Benefits - Physicians should understand the risks associated with transthoracic needle biopsy When patients undergo computed tomography (CT) of the chest, pulmonary nodules are sometimes detected.	03 Aug 2011

Smoking / Quit Smoking News
Why Heavy Smokers Feel Sad After Quitting Heavy smokers may experience sadness after quitting because early withdrawal leads to an increase in the mood-related brain protein monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A), a new study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has shown.	03 Aug 2011
Taking Vitamin Pills May Undermine Motivation To Reduce Smoking A new study has found that smokers who take multivitamins offset their healthy behaviour by smoking more cigarettes. This is an example of what psychologists call the licensing effect, which occurs when people make a virtuous choice that permits them to make a poor choice later on, such as when someone 'earns' a weekend binge by avoiding alcohol all week.	03 Aug 2011

Sports Medicine / Fitness News
Healthy Habits Can Add 15 Years to Your Life Women with a healthy lifestyle such as a Mediterranean diet, regular exercise, not smoking, and maintaining a healthy weight, are more likely to live 15 years longer than their less healthy counterparts, while for men, the effect of such healthy habits appears to be less, nearly 8.	03 Aug 2011

Stem Cell Research News

It's In The Sugar: Mayo Clinic Shows How Metabolism Affects Stem Cell Cultivation Providing new insight into the biomechanics of regenerative medicine, researchers at Mayo Clinic have shown how cellular metabolism facilitates stem cell procurement from regular tissue."By simply changing the glucose levels we were able to control whether the cells tended toward stem cells or remained in a mature state," said Clifford Folmes, Ph.

03 Aug 2011

Transplants / Organ Donations News
Kidney Donors Receiving "Regulated Paid Provision", Should Be Considered, Says Researcher In a personal view article published on bmj.com today, Sue Rabbitt Roff from Dundee University explains, "It is time to explore how to pay for live kidneys in the UK under strict rules that guarantee access to equity.	03 Aug 2011
Success In Treatment For Kidney Transplant Patients There is now a new alternative to immunosuppressive treatment after kidney transplants which comes without the usual severe side effects. The Medical University was significantly involved in the clinical development of the active ingredient Belatacept and a suitable preparation has now been given EU-wide authorisation.	03 Aug 2011

Tuberculosis News
Promising Urine Test Tells How Effective Tuberculosis Treatment Is An experimental urine test that detects and monitors how effective TB (tuberculosis) treatment is has shown promise, researchers reported in Analytical Chemistry. They describe TB as "on the rampage" in parts of the developing world.	03 Aug 2011

Urology / Nephrology News
Kidney Donors Receiving "Regulated Paid Provision", Should Be Considered, Says Researcher In a personal view article published on bmj.com today, Sue Rabbitt Roff from Dundee University explains, "It is time to explore how to pay for live kidneys in the UK under strict rules that guarantee access to equity.	03 Aug 2011
Evaluating Shorter And Safer Prostate Cancer Treatment With Targeted Radiation Michigan Principal Investigator Daniel A. Hamstra, Ph.D., M.D., assistant professor of the Department of Radiation Oncology and 10 co-researchers are currently conducting the first multi-institutional study, evaluating a new form of radiation treatment for prostate cancer coupled with sophisticated real-time tumor tracking, at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor.	03 Aug 2011
Success In Treatment For Kidney Transplant Patients There is now a new alternative to immunosuppressive treatment after kidney transplants which comes without the usual severe side effects. The Medical University was significantly involved in the clinical development of the active ingredient Belatacept and a suitable preparation has now been given EU-wide authorisation.	03 Aug 2011

Veterans / Ex-Servicemen News
Potential Uses For New Composite Material Include Facial Reconstruction For Soldiers' Blast Injuries Biomedical engineers at Johns Hopkins have developed a new liquid material that in early experiments in rats and humans shows promise in restoring damaged soft tissue relatively safely and durably.	03 Aug 2011

Veterinary News
Are Pets Good For Human Health? The Truth Is "Nobody Really Knows" How often do you read about a study that says a pet is good for your health? Most of us would say fairly often. Apparently, only those that demonstrate health benefits hit the headlines, while others that either have no evidence or reveal some unpleasant data are ignored, researcher Howard Herzog revealed in the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.	03 Aug 2011
A Step Closer To Developing Better Vaccines For Bluetongue Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have taken a step towards producing better vaccines against Bluetongue - an important disease of livestock - after successfully assembling the virus outside a cell.	03 Aug 2011

Water - Air Quality / Agriculture News
'Genetically Fingerprinting' E. coli: Study Designed To Contribute To A Fair, Balanced And Effective Protection Plan The Lampasas and Leon Rivers watersheds have been listed as impaired by the state due to high counts of E. coli and other bacteria taken in the late 1990s, but from whom, what and where the contamination originates is unclear, say Texas AgriLife Research experts.	03 Aug 2011
A Step Closer To Developing Better Vaccines For Bluetongue Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have taken a step towards producing better vaccines against Bluetongue - an important disease of livestock - after successfully assembling the virus outside a cell.	03 Aug 2011

Women's Health / Gynecology News

Estrogen Deprivation Eventually Undermines Brain Receptors And Stroke Protection Researchers discovered that long periods of estrogen deprivation in aging rats have a severe impact on reducing the number of brain receptors for the hormone and increases stroke risk. According to a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the impairment is forestalled if estrogen replacement starts shortly after hormone levels drop.

03 Aug 2011

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