Latest science news in Health & Medicine
Framingham Heart Study launches new project to develop blood tests for heart disease
The landmark Framingham Heart Study (FHS) is launching a major initiative to discover risk factors and markers that could lead to new blood tests to identify individuals at high risk...
Synthetic Biology Can Help Extend Anti-malaria Drug Effectiveness
Synthetic biology can not only provide a simple and much less expensive means of making artemisinin, the most powerful anti-malaria drug in use today, but can also help extend the...
Seaweed and fireflies brew may guide stem cell treatment for peripheral artery disease
An unlikely brew of seaweed and glow-in-the-dark biochemical agents may hold the key to the safe use of transplanted stem cells to treat patients with severe peripheral arterial disease (PAD),...
New research links platelets to sepsis-related organ failure
Scientists at Children's National Medical Center have identified a previously unknown contributor to organ failure in patients suffering from sepsis: platelets.
Promising 3-year data: Saving limbs with drug-eluting stents
Attempts to treat critical limb ischemia in peripheral arterial disease (PAD) patients with below-the-knee angioplasty are still thwarted by restenosis (the re-narrowing of the artery at the site of angioplasty...
Study finds pay for performance stimulates changes in medical practice
A large group of California physicians given financial incentives to improve the quality of medical care have begun to embrace an array of changes important to advancing quality, according to...
Girl has six organs removed in surgery
NEW YORK, March 10 (UPI) -- A 7-year-old girl New York girl is doing well after having six of her organs removed in an effort to remove a...
Why Anesthesia Is Associated With Cognitive Impairment and Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease
Scientists have report in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease that anesthesia induces phosphorylation of tau. Tau is a key neuronal protein involved in neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and several...
City Kids May Breathe Easier in the Country
Children with asthma have an easier time breathing if they spend even a few days in the country, safeguarded from urban air pollution, a study led by Giovanni Piedimonte, M.D.,...
MicroRNA-based Diagnostic Identifies Squamous Lung Cancer with 96% Sensitivity
A new study shows for the first time that a microRNA-based diagnostic test can objectively identify squamous lung cancer with 96% sensitivity, according to Harvey Pass, M.D. of the NYU...
Growing HIV Infection Rate Among Females Is Cause for Grave Concern
HIV/AIDS statistics for women and girls are startling.
Colonoscopy: What to Expect When Your Doctor Wants an Inside Look
Colorectal cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the United States with more than 140,000 cases diagnosed each year. It is also one of the most preventable...
Which research will help to reduce deaths from childhood diarrhea?
An international team of health researchers, writing in this week's PLoS Medicine, says that the number one research priority for reducing childhood deaths from diarrhoea is to find ways to...
Indian police enrol rat recruits to fight mice army
Police in the Indian state of Haryana say two white rats are protecting official documents from a mice infestation.
Mark H. Beers, 54, Expert on Drugs Given to Elderly, Dies
Dr. Beers’s seminal research found that some widely used prescription drugs led to harmful and unnecessary side effects in the elderly.
Autism patients in California are dealt insurance setback
The Department of Managed Health Care declines to require carriers to pay for applied behavior analysis, an expensive therapy that insurers contend is an educational service, not medicine. ...
A flu bug can quickly put a basketball team on defense
College and pro teams know that flu can devastate a roster. Trainers do what they can to combat this other kind of hoops fever. ...
Mortality Risk Greater For Elderly Women Who Nap Daily
A new study has found that older women who reported taking daily naps had a significantly greater risk of dying. The results of the study are in contrast to a...
Being Overweight Worsens Osteoarthritis
Being fat increases the risk of primary joint replacement in osteoarthritis. A new study found that increased waist circumference and body mass index were associated with the risk of both...
White-nose Syndrome Death In Bats: First Prevention Proposed By Ecologists
White-nose syndrome is a poorly understood condition that, in the two years since its discovery, has spread to at least seven Northeastern states and killed as many as half a...
Injectable Birth Control Causes Significant Weight Gain And Changes In Body Mass, Study Finds
Women using depot medroxyprogesterone acetate, commonly known as the birth control shot, gained an average of 11 pounds and increased their body fat by 3.4 percent over three years, according...
Potential Therapeutic Target In Osteosarcoma Identified
A receptor known to be active in bone metastases, but previously unexplored in primary bone tumors, is a potential therapeutic target in osteosarcoma, investigators report in Cancer Research.
Influenza A Becoming Increasingly Resistant To Drug Oseltamivir
Influenza A viruses (H1N1 subtype) that are resistant to the drug oseltamivir circulated widely in the US during the 2007-2008 influenza season, with an even higher prevalence of drug resistance...
Epstein-Barr Virus May Be Associated With Progression Of Multiple Sclerosis
Epstein-Barr virus, the pathogen that causes mononucleosis, appears to play a role in the neurodegeneration that occurs in persons with multiple sclerosis, researchers have shown.
Evaluating Drug Resistance in Cattle Is Key to Food Safety
The problem of germ or bacteria resistance to drugs -- or antimicrobials -- used to treat infections not only affects humans, but also animals. When the animals involved are food...
No 'Death NET'? That May Explain Why Millions of Infants are at Risk for Potentially Deadly Blood Infection
(PhysOrg.com) -- When locked in mortal combat with infection, some mature white blood cells have a formidable weapon: they literally cast a DNA net-called a neutrophil extracellular trap (NET)-that captures...
Landmark paper compares scientific productivity and impact of top 100 AD investigators
IOS Press announced the publication of a landmark study in which both traditional and highly-innovative scientometric approaches are employed to measure scientific productivity and impact of the top 100 Alzheimer's...
Really?: The Claim: Daylight Saving Time Can Affect Your Health
Is the annual loss of an hour messing with your circadian rhythm?