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Childhood obesity - another form of abuse?

With health experts in Australia and in many other developed countries warning that childhood obesity is becoming an increasingly alarming problem, the suggestion has been made that in some cases, child protection authorities should be alerted.

2 Feb 2009

You are what your parents ate!

According to Australian scientists we are what our parents ate - scientists at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute say that very specific molecular events occur after the consumption of food high in glucose, causing chemical changes to our genetic controls.

2 Feb 2009

Muscle control the best option for back pain

Australian researchers have found that people suffering with lower back pain can significantly reduce their pain and disability by learning to control their trunk muscles.

2 Feb 2009

Public information about breast screening in UK has serious shortcomings

The information about breast screening sent to women in the United Kingdom has serious shortcomings and should not be used as a basis for informed consent, warn researchers in a paper published on bmj.com today.

29 Jan 2009

Diabetics have a significantly greater risk of dementia

Diabetics have a significantly greater risk of dementia, both Alzheimer's disease - the most common form of dementia - and other dementia, reveals important new data from an ongoing study of twins.

29 Jan 2009

Top hospitals have 27 percent lower mortality: Annual HealthGrades study

Medicare patients treated at top-rated hospitals nationwide across the most common Medicare diagnoses and procedures are 27 percent less likely to die, on average, than those admitted to all other hospitals, according to a study released today by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization.

29 Jan 2009

Melanotan I and Melanotan II linked to rapidly changing moles

Melanotan (an unlicensed medicine dubbed the "tan jab") can cause rapid changes in the appearance of moles, warn skin experts in this week's BMJ .

29 Jan 2009

Scientists, engineers to face obstacles over the next decade in providing clean water

Scientists and engineers will face a host of obstacles over the next decade in providing clean water to millions of people caught up in a water shortage crisis, a panel of scientists and engineers said today at a briefing at the Broadcast Center of the National Press Building on the Final Report on the American Chemical Society's Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions.

29 Jan 2009

Stress disrupts human thinking, but the brain can bounce back

A new neuroimaging study on stressed-out students suggests that male humans, like male rats, don't do their most agile thinking under stress.

29 Jan 2009

New imaging technique catches arthritis early

You come into a doctor's office with severe knee pain. The physician orders an MRI, which reveals substantial loss of cartilage - osteoarthritis, that is - in your knee joint. At this point, not much can be done beyond gulping down palliatives and trying to keep your weight off the joint. But the damage may have started building as much as 20 years earlier, possibly due to a traumatic injury to the affected joint.

29 Jan 2009

Research finds more than 100 gene variations linked with response to leukemia treatment

Scientists from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Children's Oncology Group (COG) have discovered in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) scores of inherited genetic variations that clinicians might be able to use as guideposts for designing more effective chemotherapy for this cancer.

29 Jan 2009

Sociability traced to region of brain called amygdala

People with a genetic condition called Williams syndrome are famously gregarious. Scientists, looking carefully at brain function in individuals with Williams syndrome, think they may know why this is so.

29 Jan 2009

Smallest quantum dots ever created

Single atom quantum dots created by researchers at Canada's National Institute for Nanotechnology and the University of Alberta make possible a new level of control over individual electrons, a development that suddenly brings quantum dot-based devices within reach.

29 Jan 2009

Sequential and alternating chemotherapy and radiation equally effective in larynx cancer therapy

Larynx cancer patients treated with alternating cycles of chemotherapy and radiation have similar outcomes to patients treated with chemotherapy followed by radiation, according to data from a randomized controlled trial in the January 27 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

29 Jan 2009