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Research offers hope for treatment of age-related blindness

Rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with anti-inflammatory drugs are 10 times less likely to develop age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common form of blindness in people over 55, researchers at the University of British Columbia and University of Saskatchewan have found.

27 Apr 2005

Update for WIC food program

In an effort to encourage mothers and their children to adopt a healthier lifestyle a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies plans some changes to its WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children), which was launched in 1974 as a nutrition program for low-income women, infants, and children.

27 Apr 2005

Key stresses experienced by new mothers

Tiredness, feeding their baby and lack of time to care for other children are three of the key stresses experienced by new mothers, according to a study in the latest Journal of Advanced Nursing.

27 Apr 2005

Actor-patients' requests for medications boost prescribing for depression

Researchers funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), have found that requests from patients for medications have a "profound effect" on physicians prescribing for major depression and adjustment disorder. These findings indicate that direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing of prescription medications for depression may exert significant influence on treatment decisions.

27 Apr 2005

Patronizing behavior of male bosses undermines the performance of female

"Positions of power remain a male prerogative. Women make up 46 percent of the U.S. labor force, but are extremely underrepresented in high level positions of power," says Theresa Vescio, Penn State University assistant professor of psychology who led the study. "Therefore, it is important to understand how the behaviors of male bosses affect female subordinates."

27 Apr 2005

Molecular switch may help fight off MRSA

The discovery of a 'molecular switch' could lead to new ways of treating infections such as MRSA, and inflammatory diseases like arthritis.

27 Apr 2005

Researchers zero in on sleep gene

Zeroing in on the core cellular mechanisms of sleep, researchers at University of Wisconsin Medical School have identified for the first time a single gene mutation that has a powerful effect on the amount of time fruit flies sleep.

27 Apr 2005

Black cohosh may interfere with breast cancer drugs

Black cohosh, an herb widely used by breast cancer patients to alleviate hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms, may alter the way that cells respond to drugs commonly used to treat breast cancer, according to a Yale School of Medicine study in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.

27 Apr 2005

New guidelines for managing chronic kidney disease in patients living with HIV infection

The HIV Medicine Association has released guidelines for managing chronic kidney disease in patients living with HIV infection. They are published in the June 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

27 Apr 2005

Molecular mechanism that desensitizes us to cold, discovered

Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers have discovered how the membrane protein that allows us to sense cold works and how this protein becomes desensitized so that one no longer feels the cold.

27 Apr 2005

$Giving elderly people regular supplements of vitamin D and calcium to prevent secondary bone fractures is ineffective$

Giving elderly people regular supplements of vitamin D and calcium to prevent secondary bone fractures is ineffective

Elderly people who have osteoporosis have a high risk of bone fractures and those who previously had a fracture are at an increased risk of having another. Vitamin D and calcium, alone or in combination, are often recommended for the prevention of osteoporotic fractures.

27 Apr 2005

Substituting nurses for doctors results in high quality care, few savings

Many primary care responsibilities can be safely transferred from doctors to appropriately trained nurses, says a new review of evidence. Yet there is little proof that such a shift reduces physician workload or health-care costs.

27 Apr 2005

Children do well with shorter fast before surgery

Children facing surgery can be made more comfortable with little risk by allowing them to have certain liquids up to two hours before the operation, a new review of recent studies has found.

27 Apr 2005

Breastfeeding causes nearly 40 percent of all pediatric HIV infections

Breastfeeding causes nearly 40 percent of all pediatric HIV infections, yet also prevents millions of child deaths every year by protecting infants from diarrhea and other infections. Finding ways to make breastfeeding safer for infants of HIV-infected mothers has been an urgent research priority.

27 Apr 2005

Common chest X-ray in the elderly can reveal osteoporosis

According to Canadian researchers undetected osteoporosis in the elderly might be discovered if chest X-rays that are done for other reasons were examined for fractures of the vertebrae.

27 Apr 2005

Risk scores identify young people with hardened arteries

Armed with more knowledge about what cardiovascular disease looks like in people ages 15 to 34, co-authors from the University of Texas Health Science Center, the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research and institutions in Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Louisiana will report...

27 Apr 2005

Trust the Tories on MRSA - you must be joking

Hospital cleaners, nurses and health workers today attacked claims by Michael Howard that the Tories could be trusted to Clean up our hospitals as outrageous.

27 Apr 2005

America's largest retail pharmacy is moving all over the counter single ingredient pseudoephedrine products behind the counter

Pseudoephedrine is the key precursor ingredient that can be converted into the illegal drug methamphetamine. After careful review of numerous state legislative proposals and law enforcement bulletins, CVS made the decision to move these products behind the counter in all of its 5,400 stores across 36 states over the next sixty days.

27 Apr 2005

Millions of employed Americans uninsured and unable to get Medical Care

A new study analyzing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that a significant number of working Americans in every state do not have health care coverage, with more than 20 million working adults not having coverage. In eight states, at least one in five working adults is uninsured.

27 Apr 2005

Scientists add an important piece to the intricate puzzle of type-1 diabetes

For some time, scientists have known that a regenerative or repair process -- involving the development of specialized structures called tubular complexes -- is switched on during physical and chemical trauma to the pancreas (the gland that manufactures and secretes crucial insulin in the body).

27 Apr 2005