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Every baby born in the United States should receive screening for a uniform panel of 29 disorders

Expanded newborn screening is now required by law in dozens of states, but most infants still are not covered by the full panel of 29 tests recommended by experts, according to the March of Dimes 2005 state-by-state report card on newborn screening.

12 Jul 2005

Current scientific understanding does not justify the reduction of the daily salt intake for healthy people

In a reaction to the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) announcement at the end of June, the European Salt Producers' Association, in brief EuSalt, maintains its position that the current scientific understanding does not justify the reduction of the daily salt intake for healthy people.

12 Jul 2005

Outer lining of the umbilical cord is a rich source of stem cells

CellResearch Corporation in Singapore and its team of scientists, headed by Chief Scientist, Dr Phan Toan Thang, have recently made a revolutionary discovery: that the outer lining of the umbilical cord is a rich source of stem cells.

12 Jul 2005

Congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS) offers clues to SIDS, sleep apnea

Imagine raising a child who stops breathing when falling asleep - and has to be reminded to visit the bathroom after drinking a Big Gulp. That's the dilemma faced by parents of children born with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS).

11 Jul 2005

Giving oxygen may do more harm than good

Doctors and paramedics who give their patients oxygen - the most commonly administered "drug" in the world - may be doing more harm than good, a Queen's University researcher contends.

11 Jul 2005

Lack of a blood clotting protein may protect against clogged arteries

Reporting in the July 18 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine, a group of scientists in Wurzburg, Germany show that the lack of a blood clotting protein may protect against clogged arteries with no risk of excessive bleeding.

11 Jul 2005

Newly discovered gene mutation may account for many cases of immune deficiency

...in particular two syndromes known as immunoglobulin A (IgA) deficiency and Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID), report researchers in the July issue of Nature Genetics. The discovery may lead to a new diagnostic test for these conditions, which make people highly susceptible to infections and often go unrecognized because of a lack of good tests.

11 Jul 2005

Research explains one of the fundamental mysteries of multiple sclerosis

Scientists have pinpointed a chemical messenger that frees some white blood cells from the body's normal constraints, allowing the cells to act like renegades that could damage nerves in the central nervous system. The work, to be published in the July 15 issue of the Journal of Immunology and just published on-line, helps explain one of the fundamental mysteries of multiple sclerosis (MS).

11 Jul 2005

Identical twins lose some fundamental similarities as they grow older

...a new study reports. They may start to look and act less alike. The changes could leave one twin susceptible to diseases like cancer, while the other twin remains healthy.

11 Jul 2005

Genes play an overriding role in cholesterol response

Why does it seem like some people can eat all the ice cream they want without increasing their cholesterol or gaining much weight, while others with high cholesterol have to watch their diets like a hawk? Because no matter what their lifestyle, people's genes play an overriding role in their cholesterol response.

11 Jul 2005

PSA screening of asymptomatic men reduced risk of metastatic prostate cancer by 35 per cent

Early screening of prostate cancer in asymptomatic men may reduce their risk of death from metastatic prostate cancer by as much as 35 per cent, researchers from the University of Toronto have found.

11 Jul 2005

New roles for granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) in treating stroke

In a study appearing online on July 7 in advance of print publication of the August 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Armin Schneider and colleagues from Axaron Biosciences describe new roles for granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) in treating stroke and other central nervous system roles of this protein.

11 Jul 2005

New approach to preventing or reversing heart failure

Duke University Medical Center researchers have identified a new protein that plays a critical role in enabling the heart to respond to such external stimuli as exercise or stress, as well as in the progressive loss of heart function that is heart failure, the researchers said.

11 Jul 2005

Meth abuse biggest drug problem in country USA

In a recent crime survey of 45 states and 500 county law enforcement agencies in the U.S., it has been found that as far as rural and small town America is concerned, methamphetamine has overtaken cocaine as the biggest drug problem.

11 Jul 2005

Blood pressure enzyme linked to SARS virus, could help fight diseases that cause lung failure

Researchers in Austria say that an enzyme that regulates blood pressure is also involved in the SARS virus, and the discovery could lead to new ways of treating diseases that cause lung failure.

11 Jul 2005

Genes decide the shape you're in!

According to a study by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory of identical twins, the reason why some people can eat all the chocolate and chips they want and not increase their cholesterol levels, is all down to their genes.

11 Jul 2005

Low dose birth control pill raises heart attack risk, especially in some women

A new review suggests that low-dose birth control pills, which are generally considered to be safer than the pill of the past, still carries an increased risk for heart attack and stroke.

11 Jul 2005

Thousands to be screened for affects from Teflon

After a federal scientific review panel said the chemical used to make teflon is "likely" to be carcinogenic to humans, tens of thousands of Ohio and West Virginia residents could be tested over the next year, to determine if their health has been affected by drinking water containing a chemical used to make the nonstick substance.

11 Jul 2005

Fat in the bloodstream linked to heart attacks

New research, by Dr. Sotirios Tsimikas of the University of California, San Diego, has produced the first convincing evidence that a type of fat in the bloodstream can trigger the earliest conditions that lead to clogged blood vessels, the highest cause of heart attacks.

7 Jul 2005

Findings shed light on the underlying mechanisms that cause hypertension

An enzyme known to cause hypertension increases blood pressure by activating tiny pores, or channels, in kidney cells that allow increased levels of sodium to be reabsorbed into the blood, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

6 Jul 2005