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Growing body of evidence indicating that childhood obesity is linked to a lack of exercise

A study published by the medical journal The Lancet dealt another blow to the "food police" and the trial lawyers seeking to blame food for the nation's expanding waistline.

15 Jul 2005

Police shooting of AIDS protesters by South African police

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today expressed its profound outrage over the unprovoked attack -- including what is believed to be the first-ever police shooting of AIDS protesters anywhere worldwide -- by South African police on AIDS activists conducting a peaceful protest.

15 Jul 2005

Australian company Somnomed set to crack the U.S market with new FDA approval

Sydney-based sleep company Somnomed was today granted approval to market and sell their snoring and sleep apnoea product in the U.S.

15 Jul 2005

Novel way in which the brain size of developing mammals may be regulated

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have discovered a novel way in which the brain size of developing mammals may be regulated. They have identified a signaling pathway that controls the orientation in which dividing neural progenitor cells are cleaved during development.

14 Jul 2005

Oral midazolam more effective than rectal diazepam for the emergency treatment of seizures in children

Administering a drug called midazolam via the mouth cavity is more effective than rectal diazepam for the emergency treatment of seizures in children, concludes a study published in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

14 Jul 2005

Small-bowel injuries are more common in abused children but can arise accidentally as a result of falls or road-traffic accidents

Published work on the cause of abdominal injury is limited. This paucity of data may make if difficult to distinguish between accidental injury and abuse at first referral, throughout clinical care, and in the courts.

14 Jul 2005

Handwashing with soap could halve the incidence of diarrhoea in children in developing countries

Every year more than 3·5 million children aged less than 5 years die from diarrhoea and acute lower respiratory tract infection, making these two clinical syndromes the largest cause of childhood deaths globally.

14 Jul 2005

Distant prayer does not improve clinical outcome for patients undergoing coronary procedures

Praying for patients undergoing heart procedures off-site or giving them bedside therapy involving music, imagery, and touch (MIT) does not measurably improve their clinical outcome, suggests a study published in this week’s issue of The Lancet. However, the authors note that patients receiving MIT therapy did have a lower mortality rate at 6 months.

14 Jul 2005

Current recommendations for prescribing antidepressants should be reconsidered

Most people with depression are initially treated with antidepressants, and prescribing has risen by 253% in 10 years. Yet recent studies show that SSRIs have no clinically meaningful advantage over placebo, write Joanna Moncrieff and Irving Kirsch.

14 Jul 2005

Video games can be useful in health care and research

One innovative application of video games in health care is their use in pain management as the degree of attention needed to play such a game can distract the player from the sensation of pain, writes Mark Griffiths, Professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University.

14 Jul 2005

Happiness in old age is not linked to intelligence over a lifetime

Their study involved 550 healthy people who were born in Scotland in 1921, and who were tested for cognitive (mental) ability at 11 and again at about 80 years old.

14 Jul 2005

Experts discuss use of human stem cells in ape and monkey brains

An expert panel of stem cell scientists, primatologists, philosophers and lawyers has concluded that experiments implanting, or grafting, human stem cells into non-human primate brains could unintentionally shift the moral ground between humans and other primates.

14 Jul 2005

Five basic steps to help doctors identify and treat insomnia in elderly patients

Researchers outline five basic steps to help doctors identify and treat insomnia in elderly patients. This article is published in a special insomnia themed supplement of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

14 Jul 2005

A systematic search through human genes

...has begun at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. Working within the MitoCheck consortium that includes 10 other institutes throughout Europe, the EMBL scientists will silence all human genes, one-by-one, to find those involved in cell division (mitosis) and to answer fundamental questions of how cell division is regulated.

14 Jul 2005

Australian doctors must be involved in planning medical response to possible local terror attacks

Australian Medical Association (AMA) President, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, said this week it is vitally important that the AMA takes a key coordinating role in planning the medical response to any disasters including terror attacks on Australian soil.

14 Jul 2005

Complicated plasminogen system yields potential therapeutic target; Implications for aging and degenerative diseases

Skeletal muscles naturally repair themselves very efficiently after injury. But when they don’t, otherwise successful recovery following damage from overuse during exercise, surgery or trauma can be stymied. Furthermore, as we age, muscle repair slows noticeably, and in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and other degenerative muscle diseases, normal repair functions can’t cope with disease progression.

14 Jul 2005

Important role of early experience in shaping neuronal development

Scientists at New York University School of Medicine reveal the important role of early experience in shaping neuronal development and brain plasticity in a new study published in the July 14 issue of the journal Nature.

14 Jul 2005

Shared-environmental influences on gender-role behaviour may be more important in early childhood than in adolescence and adulthood

Whether little boys prefer to play with trucks or dolls depends more on the family environment than genetics, while genetics seems to play a larger role in little girls' preferences for dolls over trucks, according to a study published in the July/August 2005 issue of the journal Child Development.

14 Jul 2005

Efforts to help parents of young children move out of poverty likely to have long-term benefits for children's school performance and social-emotional well being

It is well known that children who live in poverty have more trouble in school and more problems socially than other children. Now investigators funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) find that while children who live in chronic poverty from birth through age 9 score lowest on tests of school readiness and social competence, poverty at any time during early childhood is detrimental.

14 Jul 2005

For over 70's dual pacemakers no better

British researchers say that for people over 70, pacemakers that stimulate only one part of the heart are just as effective as newer and more expensive devices that apply electricity to two of the heart's four chambers.

14 Jul 2005

Medical News

Growing body of evidence indicating that childhood obesity is linked to a lack of exercise

Police shooting of AIDS protesters by South African police

Australian company Somnomed set to crack the U.S market with new FDA approval

Novel way in which the brain size of developing mammals may be regulated

Oral midazolam more effective than rectal diazepam for the emergency treatment of seizures in children

Small-bowel injuries are more common in abused children but can arise accidentally as a result of falls or road-traffic accidents

Handwashing with soap could halve the incidence of diarrhoea in children in developing countries

Distant prayer does not improve clinical outcome for patients undergoing coronary procedures

Current recommendations for prescribing antidepressants should be reconsidered

Video games can be useful in health care and research

Happiness in old age is not linked to intelligence over a lifetime

Experts discuss use of human stem cells in ape and monkey brains

Five basic steps to help doctors identify and treat insomnia in elderly patients

A systematic search through human genes

Australian doctors must be involved in planning medical response to possible local terror attacks

Complicated plasminogen system yields potential therapeutic target; Implications for aging and degenerative diseases

Important role of early experience in shaping neuronal development

Shared-environmental influences on gender-role behaviour may be more important in early childhood than in adolescence and adulthood

Efforts to help parents of young children move out of poverty likely to have long-term benefits for children's school performance and social-emotional well being

For over 70's dual pacemakers no better

How can microdialysis benefit drug development

Global and Local Efforts to Take Action Against Hepatitis

Addressing Important Cardiac Biology Questions with Shotgun Top-Down Proteomics

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