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New treatment option offers hope to multiple myeloma patients

Patients diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an often deadly bone marrow cancer, rarely live more than three years after diagnosis if treated with conventional chemotherapy or even some of the newer drug therapies.

20 Dec 2007

Depletion of antioxidant glutathione linked to Parkinson's in mice

Scientists at the Buck Institute have shown that mice suffering from a depletion of the antioxidant glutathione in dopamine-producing neurons developed nerve damage and symptoms associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) in humans.

20 Dec 2007

FDA Critical Path Initiative addresses differences between women's and men's health outcomes

Advanced medical technology and analysis methods now being promoted through the Food and Drug Administration's Critical Path Initiative to facilitate the development of drugs, biologics and devices can help address differences between women and men in the detection and treatment of disease, according to a paper published in the Winter 2007 issue of Drug Discovery Today: Technologies.

20 Dec 2007

Dolphin therapy - a lose-lose situation for people and dolphins

People suffering from chronic mental or physical disabilities should not resort to a dolphin "healing" experience, warn two researchers from Emory University.

20 Dec 2007

Creative and challenging work helps people stay healthy

Employees who have more control over their daily activities and do challenging work they enjoy are likely to be in better health, according to a new study from The University of Texas at Austin published in this month's Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

20 Dec 2007

Childhood exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods negatively affects verbal ability

Childhood exposure to severely disadvantaged communities is linked to decreased verbal ability later in childhood, a lasting negative effect that continues even after moving out of the neighborhood, according to research that will be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

20 Dec 2007

Rituximab may be promising treatment for diabetes

An antibody used to treat certain cancers and rheumatoid arthritis appears to greatly delay type 1 diabetes in mice, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

20 Dec 2007

Built-in exercise monitor predicts fitness

We all hold the secret to getting fit, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. The research team has shown that we each have a built-in ability to judge how hard our bodies are working, often with remarkable precision.

20 Dec 2007

Brains respond differently to thirst depending upon age

Twelve healthy subjects in their 60s and 70s showed a different pattern of brain activations during thirst and satiation than did 10 healthy subjects in their 20s who drank the same amounts and underwent imaging with positron-emission tomography (PET).

20 Dec 2007

War veterans with brain injuries show a faster decline in cognitive functioning as they age

A study of Vietnam war veterans who suffered brain injuries during the conflict has found that the men show a faster decline in their cognitive functioning as they grow older than veterans without such injuries.

20 Dec 2007

$Bone mineral density test predicts 'silent' spinal fractures years later$

Bone mineral density test predicts 'silent' spinal fractures years later

A single bone mineral density (BMD) test given 15 years earlier predicted a woman's risk of developing fractures to her spine over time, according to the largest and longest prospective study of osteoporosis.

20 Dec 2007

A genetic influence on alcohol addiction found - lack of endorphin

The research reveals that a subject's brain with low beta-endorphin levels becomes accustomed to the presence of an exogenous surplus, diminishing its own supply and triggering dependence on an external source--in this case, alcohol.

19 Dec 2007

Anthrax vaccine will add to America's arsenal against bioterrorism

A company, based in Rockville, Maryland in the USA, with the help of government funding, has used the human genome to develop a vaccine that may give protection from anthrax.

19 Dec 2007

Breasts damaged by cancer surgery reshaped using stem cell injections

Japanese researchers have used stem cells to help reshape the breasts of women who have undergone surgery for a breast tumour.

19 Dec 2007

WHO says Pakistan bird flu cluster no cause for alarm as yet

According to an expert at the World Health Organization, the cluster of suspected bird flu cases in Pakistan may be a combination of infections from poultry with limited person-to-person transmission.

19 Dec 2007

Massage relieves pain after surgery and complements the use of drugs

Researchers in the U.S. have found that pain after surgery was eased by massage and they suggest it may complement the use of drugs.

19 Dec 2007

20,000 deaths each day from cancer

According to the results of a new report by the American Cancer Society, worldwide in 2007 there were more than 12 million new cancer cases diagnosed.

19 Dec 2007

Addition of antibiotics to MS therapy could slow down progression of the disease

Researchers from Louisiana State University in the U.S. are suggesting that the addition of antibiotics to standard drug therapy for multiple sclerosis, may slow down the progress of the disease.

19 Dec 2007

Z-shaped incision inside the stomach enhances minimally-invasive surgery

A novel surgical technique allowing doctors to operate on patients by making a Z-shaped incision inside the stomach could potentially replace certain types of conventional surgery in humans, according to Penn State medical researchers who have successfully demonstrated the procedure in pigs.

18 Dec 2007

Where vets served affects frequency of ER visits but not hospital stays

Five years post-conflict, individuals who served in the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War were 25 percent more likely to visit an emergency department than veterans of the same era who were not deployed, but were no more likely to have a hospital stay or an outpatient visit, according to a study appearing in the December 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

18 Dec 2007