A new international survey – connected to a study taking place at the University of Dundee – reveals that around one in five women would consider having both breasts removed to help reduce their risk of developing breast cancer if told they were at an increased risk of developing the disease.
The survey asked over 1500 women from around the world what choices they would make if told they were at high risk of developing breast cancer. Of the UK women who were questioned, up to one
Surgeons at the Oregon Health & Science University Digestive Health Center have developed a new technique that makes feasible and safe a potentially lifesaving and noninvasive surgical procedure known as laparoscopic esophagectomy. Until now, the procedure was considered too technically demanding for most surgeons to perform. A paper on their findings recently was presented at the European Association of Endoscopic Surgery in Venice, Italy.
For more than a decade, the original
An experimental drug combined with an already-popular memory-enhancing compound may further delay memory loss in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, Johns Hopkins University scientists, in collaboration with researchers from University of North Carolina, have found.
The findings, described in the June issue of Neuropsychopharmacology, also indicate that the experimental treatment in question – a compound known as SGS742 – works by blocking certain chemica
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) programs for treating HIV in developing countries are about as effective as ART programs in developed countries, according to an article in the July 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.
Some have raised doubts that countries with extremely limited health care resources can effectively manage the complexities of antiretroviral therapy. But the new review of 10 medical studies on HIV treatment programs in the developing worl
School-age children should participate in 60 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily, according to an expert panel.
“The take-home message for parents is that it is very important to ensure that their children spend at least an hour a day in some form of appropriate physical activity,” says Dr. William B. Strong, a pediatric cardiologist and retired professor at the Medical College of Georgia who co-chaired the panel.
“The important thing is we have
New guidance on NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) use is urgently needed to ensure the best patient care, European experts said today. The news coincides with the results from a European survey of 626 arthritis patients which found that many are confused and worried about the potential side-effects of their medication.
Primary care physicians now face an increasingly limited range of prescribing options for long-term arthritis pain management, following the withdraw
Scientists at SINTEF Health Research in Trondheim have developed rapid tests that can identify Legionella bacteria in water reservoirs or biofilms in only a couple of days.
Senior scientist Catrine Ahlén at SINTEF Health Research emphasises that many laboratories can test for Legionella, but that the Trondheim scientists test for Legionella pneumophila, which is the most common species that causes Legionnaire’s disease. She has been carrying out such tests on a large scale in cruise ships.
According to the World Health organisation, the definition of autism is based on a specific pattern of behaviour characteristics, as neither its aetiology nor pathology is defined. This is why a search for autism markers is proposed at three levels: morphological, cytogenetic and molecular.
In the 80s, a research group at the Leioa campus of the University of the Basque Country worked on dermatoglyphs, an analysis technique applied to autistic children. Dermatoglyphs, or handprin
Testing tumour cells to predict whether radiation or surgery would be the best form of treatment.
When treating people with cancer, time can be of the essence, and work is going ahead at the University of Leicester to learn how to predict which tumours can be treated more effectively by radiation therapy and which by surgery; this could save several weeks of inappropriate treatment and hopefully improve treatment outcome.
When you treat bladder cancers with radiation the
After studies appeared showing that treating menopausal complaints with estrogen entailed not wholly positive health effects, the prescription of such preparations declined. A dissertation from the Sahlgrenska Academy now shows that the drop was far from the same among female gynecologists and partners of male gynecologists. They still use estrogen to a greater extent.
During the 1990s there was a strong increase in the use of estrogen to alleviate symptoms of menopause in Swede
Soy appears to lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels, aid weight loss (also notes on childhood obesity)
The labels in the snack food aisle promise low-fat, no-fat, low-cal and low-carb tasty treats. But what really makes a food healthy? And should we believe the commercial hype about soy products and our health? Renowned nutrition and weight-loss expert, and University of Kentucky physician and researcher, Dr. James Anderson addresses these and other questions in two artic
A method using positively charged emulsions for improving drug delivery to treat eye diseases has won for Prof. Shimon Benita of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem School of Pharmacy a Kaye Innovation Award.
The award was presented on June 6 during the 68TH Hebrew University Board of Governors meeting.
Novagali Pharma, a drug delivery and biotechnology startup company based in a Paris suburb, and Prof. Benita’s research group have shown that their technology, based on p
Research helps explain the accumulation of ’central body fat’ in middle-aged women and a method for counteracting the obesity problem
Oregon Health & Science University researchers will unveil research results that help explain why middle-aged women develop central body fat. The announcement will take place during the 2005 Society for Endocrinology annual meeting today in San Diego. The OHSU research team has also conducted initial testing of estrogen replacement therap
Studies recently carried out at the University Hospital of the University of Navarra show that cardiac resynchronisation therapy using pacemakers and defibrillators improves the survival and quality of life of patients suffering from heart insufficiency and disorders of the blood-flow system.
Cardiac resynchronisation
One of the advances for heart insufficiency developed over the past few years has been the incorporation of biventricular pacemakers and defibrillator
Cranberry juice, long considered a home remedy for urinary tract infections, may also be effective against a number of gastrointestinal viruses according to researchers from St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York. They report their findings today at the 105th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
“The addition of commercially available cranberry juice cocktail to intestinal viruses resulted in viral reductions below detectible infectivity levels,” says Patrice
Robertson and colleagues state that folic acid fortification has not yet had the expected effect of reducing homocysteine levels, which are associated with carotid plaque area, a strong predictor of cardiovascular events.
The authors measured levels of serum vitamin B12, homocysteine and carotid plaque in 421 patients referred to vascular disease prevention clinics and found that vitamin B12 deficiency was surprisingly common. They found that, in a subset of 224 patients whose creati
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