Latest science news in Health & Medicine
Elderly Heart Patients With ICD Devices Live Longer After Heart Failure, Study Shows
Elderly patients diagnosed with congestive heart failure who receive implantable cardioverter-defibrillators for primary prevention of sudden cardiac death live longer than those that do not. Further, the health care costs...
Molecular Change May Reveal Risk Of Leukemia Relapse
Researchers may have discovered a better way to distinguish acute leukemia patients who require aggressive treatment to prevent relapse from those who need only standard therapy for cure. The study...
Tree-lined Streets Mean Lower Rates Of Childhood Asthma, Study Suggests
Children who live in tree-lined streets have lower rates of asthma, suggests new research. The researchers base their findings on rates of asthma rates for the disease among 4 to...
Incubator Electromagnetic Fields Alter Newborns' Heart Rates
The electromagnetic fields produced by incubators alter newborns' heart rates, reveals a small study in the Fetal and Neonatal Edition of Archives of Disease in Childhood. It is not clear...
High blood pressure still sneaking past doctors, study shows
Despite the well-known dangers of high blood pressure, major shortfalls still exist in the screening, treatment and control of the disease even when patients are getting a doctor's care, according...
Study Raises Questions About Prostate Cancer Therapies Targeting IGF-1
Therapies under development to treat prostate cancer by inhibiting the ability of insulin-like growth factor to activate its target receptor could have unexpected results especially if a major tumor suppressor...
Elderly often forget dying wishes
Many elderly patients' change their mind about end-of-life treatments, such as CPR, over a year, with many forgetting their original wishes, research has shown.
Timber workers risk respiratory disease
Timber workers have high dioxin levels in their blood and many are heavily exposed to PCP, resulting in an increased risk of respiratory disease, a study has found.
Despite free testing, HIV diagnosis 'often late'
Around 40 per cent of HIV-positive Venezuelans are diagnosed late, despite the availability of free diagnosis and testing.
Cancer Could Return Unless Stored Ovarian Tissue Undergoes Adequate Testing Before Re-implantation
Cancer patients who have been successfully treated for their disease face the prospect of its return if stored ovarian (or testicular) tissue is transplanted back into their bodies without adequate...
Researchers Make Human Flu Antibodies at Record Speed [News]
A new method for swiftly producing proteins to fight infections could mean the difference between life and death during future pandemics. Researchers report in Nature today that they have perfected...
New Arenavirus Associated With Hemorrhagic Fever Discovered
Scientists have characterized "Chapare arenavirus," a previously unrecognized arenavirus, discovered in serum samples from a patient in rural Bolivia who eventually died of the infection. Named after the Chapare River...
Getting To The Roots Of Breast Cancer
The lesson learned in eradicating dandelions from your yard could apply in treating breast cancer as well, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine. "It's not enough to kill the...
Antioxidant therapy shows early promise for preventing, perhaps reversing, Alzheimer's disease
Curbing harmful processes in the brain's vasculature set off by the enzyme NADPH oxidase may reverse some of the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease, according to new findings published...
New insights into cause of diabetes emerge from U-M research
University of Michigan researchers have new clues to what goes awry at the cellular level in type 2 diabetes.
Fluctuating diet increases risk of sudden death
New research has revealed that binge eating then dieting may significantly reduce lifespan.
Inhaled tuberculosis vaccine may be more effective than injected vaccine
A novel aerosol version of the most common tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, administered directly to the lungs as an oral mist, offers significantly better protection against the disease in experimental animals...
Harvard Medical School to reduce student debt burden
Harvard Medical School (HMS) Dean Jeffrey Flier today announced that the school is taking steps to reduce the cost of a four-year medical education by an average of $50,000 for...
Louise Ivers: 'I can’t sleep at night because of the things that I see.'
Louise Ivers gently lifted the 7-month-old by his forearms, hoping he would pull himself up as a healthy child a third his age might. But his head hung limply back, eyes...
A Genetic Cause for Iron Deficiency
The discovery of a gene for a rare form of inherited iron deficiency may provide clues to iron deficiency in the general population – particularly iron deficiency that doesn’t respond...
Reprogrammed adult skin cells treat Parkinson's disease in animal model
Researchers at the Whitehead Institute and Harvard Stem Cell Institute(HSCI) have reported successfully reducing symptoms in a Parkinson's disease rat model by using dopamine producing neurons derived from reprogrammed adult...
Elevated urate levels may slow progression of Parkinson's disease
Naturally elevated levels of the antioxidant urate may slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease in men. Researchers from the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease (MGH-MIND) and Harvard School of Public...
Cancer Treatment: Selecting Patients Based On Genotype May Increase Efficacy Of Tamoxifen, Study Suggests
Breast cancer patients who carry the wild-type gene required for tamoxifen metabolism may have comparable risk of recurrence when taking tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor, according to modeling data. Cytochrome...
Osteoporosis Drug Fosamax Linked To Heart Problem, Study Suggests
Women who have used fosamax are nearly twice as likely to develop the most common kind of chronically irregular heartbeat (atrial fibrillation) than are those who have never used it,...
Newly Refined Antibody Therapy May Be Potent Treatment For Autoimmune Diseases
An old, fickle therapy for a variety of autoimmune diseases is getting a makeover, thanks to a decade-long investigation. The original treatment, called intravenous immunoglobulin or IVIG, is an amalgam...
Epilepsy Drug Causes Bone Loss In Young Women, Study Shows
Young women who took the commonly used epilepsy drug phenytoin for one year showed significant bone loss compared to women taking other epilepsy drugs, according to a new study in...
Targeted Combination Therapy Triggers Cell Death in Mouse Models of Metastatic Cancer
A combination of two targeted drugs--one that blocks protein breakdown and one that activates the programmed cell death pathway--reduces the number of tumor metastases in mouse models of kidney and...
Pesticide Metabolites Associated With Increased Risk Of Testicular Cancers, Study Shows
Men exposed to organochlorine pesticide metabolites, such as DDE, had an increased risk of testicular germ cell tumors. Previous research suggested that persistent exposure to organochlorine pesticides may increase the...