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Allergies may be linked to irregular periods

New research is suggesting a there is possibly a link between allergic conditions such as asthma and hay fever and irregular periods.

29 May 2005

Mosquitoes in Missouri test positive for West Nile virus

Health officials in Missouri said yesterday that they have received the first report this year of mosquitoes testing positive for the West Nile virus in the state.

29 May 2005

Exposure to violence makes teens more violent

Scientific proof has now been found for what many might consider pretty obvious, that teens exposed to violence are more likely than their peers to become involved in violence in the future.

29 May 2005

Fewer adults smoke in the U.S. and the number is dropping

Using data from the 2003 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), the study found that approximately 21.6 percent of U.S. adults, over 45 million people, are current smokers.

29 May 2005

Taking the contraceptive pill may permanently supress womens libido

According to their research, a team at Boston University Medical College found that women who take the pill regularly have much lower levels of the hormone that drives sexual desire, and even more worrying, that hormone remains suppressed even when they come off the pill.

29 May 2005

Call for better monitoring of new devices after sudden death of college student

Thousands of people with diseased hearts who have undergone surgical implantation of a cardiac defibrillator, a mechanical device inserted under the skin that shocks a heart when it beats improperly, will be concerned after the death recently of a 21-year-old college student with a genetic heart abnormality who died of cardiac arrest while on a bicycle trip.

29 May 2005

Secret meetings to expand health cover

The Census Bureau in the U.S. has said that 45 million Americans had no health insurance in 2003, a figure which was up by more than 5 million from 2000.

29 May 2005

Common over-the-counter cough medication dextromethorphan may help people with fibromyalgia

About 10 million Americans, most of them women suffer from fibromyalgia, an incurable illness that causes stiffness, fatigue, muscle aches and sleep disturbances.

29 May 2005

Bill Clinton urges U.S. drug companies to be more flexible on generic drugs

Bill Clinton, the former U.S. president, is urging the United States to be more flexible in allowing money pledged for AIDS prevention to be used for low-cost generic drugs, and he has criticized U.S. drug manufacturers for pressuring the government to restrict use of those funds.

26 May 2005

One in five patients hospitalized for heart attack experiences a major depression

According to the Hopkins cardiologists who conducted the study, these depressed patients are 50 percent more likely than other heart attack patients to need hospital care for a heart problem again within a year and three times as likely to die from a future attack or other heart-related conditions.

26 May 2005

An increase in a woman's body mass results in a decrease in her family income

... and a decline in her occupational prestige, according to research conducted by New York University sociologist Dalton Conley and Rebecca Glauber, an NYU graduate student. The study was sponsored by the Cambridge, MA-based National Bureau of Economic Research.

26 May 2005

Disturbingly high rate of home care patients are being admitted to hospital suffering from pneumonia

A two-year study showed home-care patients suffering from Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP is acquired outside of hospitals) account for 25 of every 1,000 people who visited emergency rooms suffering pneumonia.

26 May 2005

Long-term perspective on the detection and identification of infectious diseases

A review of the history of infectious diseases commissioned by the Government is to be carried out by The University of Manchester.

From The University of Manchester 26 May 2005

How the human brain can learn without thinking

Watch out -- you may learn something and not even know it, says Takeo Watanabe, an associate professor of psychology at Boston University's Center for Brain and Memory. Watanabe and his team recently pinpointed the mechanism that makes subliminal learning work. Watanabe will present the team's findings at the American Psychological Society meeting in Los Angeles, May 27 and 28.

26 May 2005

Significant association between depression severity and poor glycemic control (PGC) among Hispanics

In a study of more than 200 Hispanics with diabetes, researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and College of Physicians and Surgeons found a significant association between depression severity and poor glycemic control (PGC).

26 May 2005

Female sexual dysfunction (FSD) affects 48.2 percent of women

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have found that female sexual dysfunction (FSD) affects 48.2 percent of women in a new study and that these women had decreased sensation in the clitoris, which increased the risk of sexual dysfunction.

26 May 2005

Free nicotine patches could substantially increase the likelihood of smokers quitting

Giving smokers easy access to free nicotine patches could substantially increase the likelihood of them quitting, concludes a study in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

26 May 2005

Half of NHS stafff come from outside the UK and Europe

Almost half of the recent 16000 staff expansion of the NHS came from the recruitment of health professionals trained outside the UK and Europe, states an article in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

26 May 2005

Much more needs to be done to tackle heart disease in South Asians in the United Kingdom

Health inequality between ethnic groups in the United Kingdom is widening. Death rates from coronary heart disease in South Asians (immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka) have declined at a slower rate than in the indigenous population, while evidence shows that second and third generation South Asians seem to be displaying many of the same risk characteristics that make them prone to coronary heart disease as their parents and grandparents.

26 May 2005

Everyone is entitled to a good doctor

Everyone is entitled to a good doctor and the public will no longer tolerate substandard practice, says Donald Irvine, former president of the General Medical Council in this week's BMJ.

26 May 2005