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Specific behaviors have an effect on adolescents self-perceived age

A Canadian study has confirmed what parents have long suspected: dating, sexual activity and substance use seem to make teens feel older than they really are. And, as adolescents get older, the gap between their chronological age and their self-perceived age widens.

19 Jun 2007

Restricting hospital-based services during SARS outbreak had modest impact

Restrictions on the non-urgent use of hospital-based services that were imposed when a provincial health emergency was declared during the 2003 SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in Toronto, Ontario, resulted in only modest reductions in overall admissions.

19 Jun 2007

Acquired DNA key to certain bacterial infection

Researchers announced this week the discovery of a mechanism by which Mycobacterium avium - a bacterium which can result in serious lung infections and is prevalent in emphysema and AIDS patients among others - infects tissue cells or macrophages and thus compromises the body's immunity.

19 Jun 2007

Remicade helps those with ankylosing spondylitis

Data presented at the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) Annual European Congress of Rheumatology showed that patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) who received REMICADE, (infliximab) over two years experienced significant improvement in spinal mobility.

19 Jun 2007

Climate change is an emerging threat to global public health

It is also highly inequitable, as the greatest risks are to the poorest populations, who have contributed least to greenhouse gas emissions.

19 Jun 2007

A review of PSA use in screening for prostate cancer

Screening for prostate cancer using prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing continues to be problematic. Even though it is unproven whether population-wide screening with PSA can reduce death, illness or disability from prostate cancer, testing has become common in North America.

19 Jun 2007

New target for therapies for retinopathy

A protein long thought to be one of the body's supporting players has quietly been taking a lead role in healthy eyesight, a discovery that could rapidly lead to treatments for babies born before their eyes are finished growing, University of Florida and Harvard Medical School researchers have found.

19 Jun 2007

People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease have greater arterial stiffness

The researchers also found that those COPD patients with osteoporosis, a common complication of the respiratory disease, had even greater arterial stiffness. These premature signs of aging may explain why COPD patients are at greater risk for cardiovascular disease.

19 Jun 2007

Predicting danger of flu pandemic rests on differences in affected population

Simple Models of Influenza Progression Within a Heterogeneous Population, Dr. Richard C. Larson, a former president of INFORMS and a professor at MIT, discusses the importance of forecasting and ultimately limiting the spread of disease while taking into account the different infection rates among those who might contract the disease.

19 Jun 2007

PINK1 protects from Parkinson's

Parkinson disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease characterized by the selective loss of midbrain dopaminergic neurons.

19 Jun 2007

New targets for Leishmaniasis

A comparison of three parasite species that cause Leishmaniasis has identified a small number of genes, many new to biology, that will provide a framework to target the search for new treatments.

19 Jun 2007

Noninvasive screening in early pregnancy reduces Down's births by 50 percent

Non-invasive screening of pregnant women with ultrasound early in pregnancy, combined with maternal blood analysis, has reduced the number of children born in Denmark with Down Syndrome by 50%, a scientist will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today.

19 Jun 2007

Lead poisoning in New York City at lowest level in more than a decade

Although childhood lead poisoning remains a serious problem, the number of new cases identified in 2006 marks the lowest level in more than a decade.

19 Jun 2007

Safe blood for safe motherhood

On the occasion of World Blood Donor Day, the theme of which this year is "Safe blood for safe motherhood", WHO is launching a new initiative to improve the availability and use of safe blood to save the lives of women during and after childbirth.

19 Jun 2007

New pediatric sleep lab in upstate New York

The Pediatric Sleep Medicine Offices, the first pediatric sleep lab in upstate New York , has started doing overnight studies in its new location in Clinton Crossings.

19 Jun 2007

Impact environmental factors have on health

The World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing the first ever country-by-country analysis of the impact environmental factors have on health.

19 Jun 2007

Faster, less expensive technique for mutating large, non-gene stretches of DNA

Genes account for only 2.5 percent of DNA in the human genetic blueprint, yet diseases can result not only from mutant genes, but from mutations of other DNA that controls genes.

19 Jun 2007

Multidisciplinary approach to treatment of heart attacks a success

Acute heart attacks can be successfully treated through a multidisciplinary team approach involving Emergency Medical Services, emergency physicians, cardiologists and specialty centres, according to a study conducted by Dr. Jacobus S. de Villiers and colleagues in Calgary.

19 Jun 2007

Extended exposure to the psoriasis medication etanercept reduces psoriasis severity without increased adverse events

Extended exposure to the psoriasis medication etanercept does not appear to cause more infections or adverse events than placebo, and improvements in several measures of disease severity were observed for up to 96 weeks of therapy, according to a study in the June issue of Archives of Dermatology.

19 Jun 2007