Temple healing practices may help to improve the symptoms of people with mental illnesses, according to researchers in this week`s BMJ.
The study was conducted at the temple of Muthuswamy in South India, known as a source of help for people with serious mental disorders. From June to August 2000, everyone who came for help was assessed by a trained psychiatrist on the first day of their stay in the temple and again on the day they left to return home, using recognised psychiatric rating scal
Researchers at Stanford University Medical Center have tricked cancer cells into self- destructing by briefly disabling a cancer-causing gene. Although the gene revs back up after deactivation, the brief hiatus gives the affected cells a chance to alter their cancerous destiny. This work in mice could open new avenues for treating some human cancers, researchers believe.
Cancer usually results after a cell accumulates a handful of mutations in cancer-related genes called oncogenes or tumor-
Vienna, Austria: Women who have survived having leukaemia as children should receive fertility counselling because their reproductive life may be shortened even though they have an apparently normal menstrual cycle after treatment, according to Danish researchers.
Dr Elisabeth Larsen, a research assistant from the Fertility Clinic at Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark, has studied 26 long-term survivors of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and found that they tended to have smaller ov
In a new comparative study of insect repellents containing the chemical commonly known as DEET and plant-based repellents, products with DEET showed by far the greatest effectiveness in preventing mosquito bites, medical researchers say.
The study, appearing in the July 4 New England Journal of Medicine, found all products tested that did not contain DEET to be significantly less effective. Authors are Drs. Mark S. Fradin, a Chapel Hill, N.C., dermatologist and adjunct faculty member at the
A new vaccination strategy targeting telomerase, one of the enzymes responsible for making cancer cells immortal, has been developed at the Norwegian Radium Hospital. “The vaccine might offer a means of stabilising cancer”, states Professor Gustav Gaudernack at a press conference at the 18th UICC International Cancer Congress in Oslo this week.
A new vaccination strategy targeting telomerase, one of the enzymes responsible for making cancer cells immortal, has been tested by Professor Trond
A natural method of disarming some types of viruses may enable scientists to someday treat infections with HIV, the AIDS virus, according to a virologist at Jefferson Medical College.
Taking the lead from the common fruit fly, yeast and worms, scientists have recently shown that it may be possible to use small pieces of genetic material called short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) to inhibit HIV from making more copies of itself.
The process, called RNA interference (RNAi), was first di
A new high-resolution nuclear medicine imaging scanner specifically designed for breast exams has the potential to increase physicians’ ability to determine if a woman has breast cancer, and may be particularly useful for women with dense breasts. The results of this early study were reported in the July 2002 issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, published by the Society of Nuclear Medicine.
When compared with scintimammographic images taken on a standard gamma camera, the new came
Fear of needles and the discomfort of daily injections could soon be a thing of the past for women undergoing IVF treatment thanks to a new device which can administer hormones without a needle injection.
Dr Stuart Lavery, a Subspeciality Fellow in Reproductive Medicine and Surgery at the Hammersmith Hospital in London, UK, told the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Vienna today (Wednesday 3 July) that a team at the hospital had achieved the first pregnanci
Every day accident and emergency units have to treat patients who have taken some sort of drug overdose. To give treatment doctors need to know what the patient has taken. The circumstances can make often this difficult to ascertain quickly.
Researchers are developing a new kind of biosensor, which can determine in minutes if a patient’s blood contains a particular compound, for example paracetamol. Currently this type of examination needs to be carried out in a laboratory, which is expens
The oral medications most widely used to lower blood-sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes are likely to increase the risk of spasm of the coronary arteries, reports a University of Chicago-based research team in the July 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Constricted arteries increase blood pressure and decrease blood flow to the heart, causing chest pain and even sudden death, shows the study, which focused on mice with a genetic defect that duplicates the actions of these
Women having their babies by caesarean section could find it harder to become pregnant later, a study has found. Researchers in Bristol have discovered that once women have had a caesarean and then try to get pregnant again, the risk of it taking more than a year to conceive another baby increases.
The seven thousand women were all part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), popularly known as Children of the 90s, which has monitored the health and development of ov
Fears about the impact of surrogacy on the well-being of children and families appear to be unfounded, according to findings from the world’s first controlled, systematic investigation of surrogate families, the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology heard on Monday 1 July.
In fact, the mothers of children born via a surrogacy arrangement show more warmth towards their babies and are more emotionally involved than is the case in families where the chil
Research from Duke University Medical Center suggests there might be a link between at least one drug used to treat schizophrenia and the onset of diabetes, a disease widely recognized as one of the leading causes of death and disability in the U.S.
The drug, olanzapine (trade name Zyprexa), belongs to a relatively new family of medications called atypical antipsychotics, which are used to treat schizophrenia, paranoia and manic-depressive disorders. Other drugs in this class include clozapine,
Kids growing up in smoggy areas again have been found to suffer the effects of pollution, especially acid vapor, according to findings from the University of Southern California-led Children’s Health Study.
The 10-year-long Children’s Health Study is considered one of the nation’s most comprehensive studies to date of the long-term effects of smog on children. The new findings address the development of lung function in children, showing that lung function growth of kids in p
Women who suffer repeated unexplained miscarriages can be helped to have babies if preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is carried out on their embryos before they are placed in the womb.
Ms Carmen Rubio told the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology annual conference in Vienna today (Monday 1 July) that her research showed that chromosomal abnormalities (aneuploidies) in the embryos were important causes of unexplained recurrent miscarriages (RM) and implantation failur
Norwegian and Swedish researchers have developed a new type of internal radiation therapy for cancer that has spread to skeletal tissue. Experience from an early patient test is optimistic, according to a report being presented at the 18th International Cancer Congress in Oslo this week.
Many patients with advanced breast, prostate or lung cancer experience metastasis to skeletal tissue. This is often a source of pain and suffering.
Exterior irradiation and medication, including ra
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