As public figures are stricken with harrowing illness, the images of them as upbeat have almost become routine, and whether such images inspire patients or reinforce unrealistic expectations remains an open question.
The World Health Organisation calls for a ban on all tobacco advertising on its World No Tobacco Day. Source: BBC News | Health | World Edition | 31 May 2008 | 9:55 am
AP - Noted neurologist Oliver Sacks has found common ground with the pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church: Both men believe in the healing power of music.
AP - A Japanese gang boss and another alleged gangster who had liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center each donated $100,000 to the hospital soon after their surgeries, according to a published report. Source: Yahoo! News: Health News | 31 May 2008 | 9:14 am
In the biblical story in which two women bring a baby to King Solomon, both claiming to be the mother, he suggests dividing the child so that each woman can have half. Solomon's proposed solution, meant to reveal the real mother, also illustrates an issue central to economics and moral philosophy: how to distribute goods fairly. Source: Health News from Medical News Today | 31 May 2008 | 9:00 am
Eight million Americans visit U.S. emergency departments for chest pain each year. Although just five to 15 percent of them are found to be suffering from heart attacks or other cardiac diseases, more than half of these patients are admitted to the hospital for observation and further testing. Source: Health News from Medical News Today | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
Premerus, the industry's first and only diagnostic management company (www.premerus.com) will deliver a poster presentation, "Improving Diagnostic Accuracy in Radiologist's Interpretations with Potential Savings," at the nation's first-ever national conference dedicated specifically to diagnostic error in medicine, May 31, 2008, Arizona Grand Resort, Phoenix, AZ. Source: Health News from Medical News Today | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
GenVec, Inc. (Nasdaq:GNVC) presented an overview of TNFerade™ development and an update on long-term survival data from its Phase II clinical trial using TNFerade in patients with esophageal cancer at the American Society of Gene Therapy (ASGT) 11th Annual Meeting in Boston, MA. Dr. Source: Health News from Medical News Today | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
The gene that allows fireflies to flash is helping researchers track the effectiveness of anti-cancer drugs over time.UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers are among the first to show that a technique called bioluminescence imaging (BLI) can be used to determine the effectiveness of cancer drugs that choke off a tumor's blood supply. Source: Health News from Medical News Today | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
A significant number of patients who suffer a heart attack never have any warning signs. For many of these individuals, the source of the problem is noncalcified plaque, a buildup of soft deposits embedded deep within the walls of the heart's arteries, undetectable by angiography or cardiac stress tests - and prone to rupture without warning. Source: Health News from Medical News Today | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
Patients who have chronic hepatitis C with advanced fibrosis have twice the risk of developing liver cancer if they also have diabetes. These findings are published in the June issue of Hepatology, a journal published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). The article is also available online at Wiley Interscience (http://www. Source: Health News from Medical News Today | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
During labor, the continued presence of a doula - an experienced non-medical female companion who provides continuous labor support - has significant beneficial effects for middle- and upper-class women in childbirth, even when they have their male partner or other family member with them, according to a new study in the journal Birth. Source: Health News from Medical News Today | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have taken an important step toward understanding how the human brain codes the meanings of words by creating the first computational model that can predict the unique brain activation patterns associated with names for things that you can see, hear, feel, taste or smell. Source: Health News from Medical News Today | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center researchers have identified that a combination of novel anti-cancer compounds is able to kill chronic myelogenous leukemia cells previously resistant to conventional forms of therapy.Chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML, is a cancer of the bone marrow caused by a specific genetic abnormality and is one of the more common forms of leukemia. Source: Health News from Medical News Today | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
In California, where the sale of medical marijuana is legal, a full-fledged industry has blossomed, taking in about $2 billion a year and generating $100 million in state sales taxes.
HealthDay - (HealthDay News) -- Caring for a person with Alzheimer's disease
often includes helping with all daily activities, including eating. Source: Yahoo! News: Health News | 31 May 2008 | 3:46 am
Ecological and conservation groups are praising a move by the Environmental Protection Agency to impose new restrictions on rat poisons to help reduce the threat of accidental exposure to children and wildlife.
AP - Old-fashioned asthma inhalers that contain environment-harming chemicals will no longer be sold at year's end and the government is urging patients not to wait until the last minute to switch to newer alternatives. Source: Yahoo! News: Health News | 31 May 2008 | 12:16 am
Mutata Kamdibe's weight had gone up and down for most of his life, but he was shocked when he stepped on the scale and realized he had reached more than 300 pounds. Through healthy diet and exercise, the college professor has lost 130 pounds and reduced his body fat from 44 percent to 6 percent.
In a murine model of hind-limb ischemia, treatment with sodium nitrite can rapidly enhance ischemia-induced angiogenesis and restore blood flow, according to a report in the May 27th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Reuters Health Information Source: Medscape Medical News Headlines | 30 May 2008 | 9:48 pm
An expert advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that current clinical data supports short-term use of GlaxoSmithKline Plc's experimental platelet-boosting drug, Promacta, sending the drugmaker's shares higher. Reuters Health Information Source: Medscape Medical News Headlines | 30 May 2008 | 9:45 pm
Blocking transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta and downstream Smad2/3 signaling in peripheral macrophages can markedly reduce Alzheimer-like pathology in mice, new research shows. Reuters Health Information Source: Medscape Medical News Headlines | 30 May 2008 | 9:42 pm
Prison inmates should increase their intake of fish or take omega-3 fatty acid supplements to curb their aggressive behaviors and reduce the risk of relapse once they are released, a leading psychologist suggested here last week at the IV Brazilian Congress of Brain, Behavior and Emotions. Reuters Health Information Source: Medscape Medical News Headlines | 30 May 2008 | 9:41 pm
UnitedHealth Group Inc's Oxford Health Insurance unit has agreed to refund $50 million to nearly 37,000 small businesses in New York for overcharging on health insurance policies in 2006, New York Governor David Paterson announced on Thursday. Reuters Health Information Source: Medscape Medical News Headlines | 30 May 2008 | 9:38 pm
The number of uninsured U.S. young adults, who already represent a major chunk of the American population without health coverage, rose again in 2006, according to a study released on Friday. Reuters Health Information Source: Medscape Medical News Headlines | 30 May 2008 | 9:38 pm
AP - A woman in a northern Australian city gave birth to a healthy baby girl after a rare full-term ectopic pregnancy, a hospital official said Friday. Source: Yahoo! News: Health News | 30 May 2008 | 9:06 pm
AP - A baffling phenomenon known as sudden infant death syndrome is one of the leading causes of death for children under 1. Now, British researchers say they may have found a contributing factor: bacteria. Source: Yahoo! News: Health News | 30 May 2008 | 9:06 pm
AP - Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration said Friday a blood-clotting drug from GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. is effective for short-term use, despite reservations by FDA scientists. Source: Yahoo! News: Health News | 30 May 2008 | 9:06 pm
Investigators say a new computed tomographyderived calcium coverage score provides information about cardiovascular events beyond that provided by commonly used measures of coronary calcium burden. Medscape Medical News Source: Medscape Medical News Headlines | 30 May 2008 | 9:00 pm
In a small randomized trial, topical retinol improved fine wrinkles associated with natural aging, most likely as a result of induction of glycosaminoglycan and increased collagen production. Medscape Medical News Source: Medscape Medical News Headlines | 30 May 2008 | 9:00 pm
Patients who received statins before cardiac surgery obtained reductions in short-term mortality, stroke, and atrial fibrillation, according to the largest meta-analysis to date on the subject. Medscape Medical News Source: Medscape Medical News Headlines | 30 May 2008 | 9:00 pm
Guidelines on the use of devices to regulate heart rhythm and rate have placed unprecedented emphasis on the need for optimal medical therapy before device therapy is considered. Medscape Medical News Source: Medscape Medical News Headlines | 30 May 2008 | 9:00 pm
A study found that half of American women who don't want to be pregnant aren't reliably using birth control. Source: LiveScience.com | 30 May 2008 | 8:30 pm
AFP - European doctors said Friday they had identified a genetic characteristic that strongly worsens survival chances for women with breast cancer who are treated with a common form of chemotherapy.
Sen. Arlen Specter woke at 4 a.m. one day last week with an excruciating headache, a side effect of chemotherapy. Ninety minutes later, he was on the squash court, playing a partner less than half his age. That's the way Specter faces cancer and chemo. Borrowing a phrase from Winston Churchill, he calls it the "never-give-in" approach.
The Philadelphia Inquirer May 30, 2008 May 30--High school boys outscored girls in standardized math tests in the United States. But girls performed just as well as their male counterparts in Norway, Sweden, and other countries with the most economic equality, according to researchers from Northwestern University. Source: PsycPORT.com | 30 May 2008 | 11:26 am
The Miami Herald May 30, 2008 May 30--Can Grandma and Grandpa improve their mental sharpness with video games? Source: PsycPORT.com | 30 May 2008 | 11:26 am
The Hartford Courant, Connecticut May 30, 2008 May 30--The Army is losing its battle to stem suicides among troops serving in Iraq, with a new report showing that 32 soldiers killed themselves in the war zone last year -- a record high since the war began five years ago. Source: PsycPORT.com | 30 May 2008 | 11:26 am
New data show two starkly different paths toward death in New York City’s hospitals, one for patients at elite private institutions, another for those at public hospitals.
One in seven women could develop breast cancer if public health trends do not improve, experts warn. Source: BBC News | Health | World Edition | 30 May 2008 | 9:17 am
AP - Noted neurologist Oliver Sacks has found common ground with the pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church: Both men believe in the healing power of music.
AFP - European doctors said Friday they had identified a genetic characteristic that strongly worsens survival chances for women with breast cancer who are treated with a common form of chemotherapy.