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New guidelines allow dairies to label milk free from synthetic hormones

Officials from the Pennsylvania Agriculture Department have been forced to relent over banning farmers from revealing whether or not milk comes from hormone-enhanced cows.

21 Jan 2008

Anti-smoking drug Chantix adds suicide to it's warning label

The anti-smoking drug Chantix, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2006, will in future carry a warning about the possibility of suicidal thoughts in patients who take it.

21 Jan 2008

Extra warning of blood clot risk with contraceptive skin patch

Drug regulators in the United States have granted approval for an additional warning to be added to the label of a popular contraceptive patch.

21 Jan 2008

International team pinpoints the genes for lupus

An international team of researchers has pinpointed the genes involved in the auto-immune system disease lupus.

21 Jan 2008

New diagnostic technique using bioimpedance spectroscopy to diagnose cervical and skin cancers

A non-invasive diagnostic tool to detect surface cancers quickly and painlessly using technology currently employed by gyms to calculate body composition has been developed by a QUT PhD medical physics researcher.

21 Jan 2008

Value of drugs for pre-osteoporosis exaggerated

A series of recent scientific publications have exaggerated the benefits and underplayed the harms of drugs to treat pre-osteoporosis or "osteopenia" potentially encouraging treatment in millions of low risk women, warn experts in this week's BMJ.

21 Jan 2008

Minute genetic differences have major consequences

A study led by McGill University researchers has demonstrated that small differences between individuals at the DNA level can lead to dramatic differences in the way genes produce proteins.

21 Jan 2008

Surgeons remove 11-pound desmoid tumor, transplant bowel back into patient

Surgeons at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago removed an 11-pound desmoid tumor from the abdominal cavity of an Arkansas man and performed a transplant using a segment of his own small intestine rescued during surgery, preserving his ability to eat and digest food.

21 Jan 2008

Discovery of multiple genes linked to systemic lupus erythematosus

A landmark genetic study has identified multiple genes linked to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), or lupus, a debilitating autoimmune disease that affects an estimated 1.4 million Americans.

21 Jan 2008

Stem-cell transplantation improves muscles in MD animal model

Using embryonic stem cells from mice, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have prompted the growth of healthy - and more importantly, functioning - muscle cells in mice afflicted with a human model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

21 Jan 2008

Stem cell research aims to tackle Parkinson's disease

Scientists in Sweden are developing new ways to grow brain cells in the laboratory that could one day be used to treat patients with Parkinson's disease, an international conference of biologists organised by the European Science Foundation (ESF) was told last week.

21 Jan 2008

$Risk of falling is overlooked as the major cause of fractures in the elderly$

Risk of falling is overlooked as the major cause of fractures in the elderly

An elderly person's risk of falling is too often overlooked when trying to prevent them from getting serious fractures, for instance of the hip or wrist, according to an article published in this week's BMJ.

21 Jan 2008

Researchers identify a means of controlling a parasite that kills and eats human cells

Researchers from the University of Virginia and the University of Vermont have discovered a means of inhibiting one of the world's most voracious parasites.

21 Jan 2008

Bindeez toy beads still available in the UK, warn doctors

Toy beads that were internationally recalled last year, after concerns that they may be coated with a dangerous chemical, are still being advertised on toy shop websites for purchase in the UK, warn doctors in this week's BMJ.

21 Jan 2008

Prostatitis - one of the most common urologic diseases in the U.S

Estimates on the number of males in the United States who will experience prostatitis during their lifetimes range up to 50 percent.

21 Jan 2008

Something special about loneliness

New research at the University of Chicago finds evidence for a clever way that people manage to alleviate the pain of loneliness: They create people in their surroundings to keep them company.

21 Jan 2008

NICE guidelines on breast cancer follow-up need urgent revision

The NICE guidelines on follow-up for breast cancer patients need urgent revision, warn experts in this week's BMJ.

21 Jan 2008

NHPC tackles escalating health care costs, veterans health, comparative effectiveness research

Join experts from the Administration, Congress, and academia to discuss evidence-based solutions to the top health policy issues of 2008.

21 Jan 2008

Dark-field x-ray images sharpen medical imaging

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and the EPFL in Switzerland have developed a novel method for producing dark-field x-ray images at wavelengths used in typical medical and industrial imaging equipment.

21 Jan 2008

Labels shown to help consumers make healthy choices

The effectiveness of a simple front-of-pack logo such as the Choices stamp is supported by new scientific research published in Appetite recently (Feunekes at al.).

21 Jan 2008