Health

Care for your body and mind

Vitiligo skin graft 'effective'

Skin transplant surgery can be an effective way of treating the skin disease vitiligo, say US researchers.
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Diamyd Medical: Diamyd US Phase III Study Well Under Way

Diamyd Medical (STO:DIAMB)(Pink Sheets:DMYDY) announces today that one hundred study participants have been included in the ongoing US Phase III study, DiaPrevent. The global Phase III program with the company's lead drug candidate Diamyd® has thereby enrolled more than 430 children newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in Europe and the USA. One hundred patients are now enrolled in the company's US Phase III study called DiaPrevent at 33 diabetes centers throughout the USA and more sites will be added...



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Dr. Francis S. Collins Receives Albany Medical Center Prize

NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. has been named a recipient of the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research for his leading role in mapping the human genome. While accepting the honor, Dr. Collins declined his portion of the $500,000 prize in order to comply with government ethics rules.
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Panel Questions "VBAC Bans," Advocates Expanded Delivery Options for Women

An independent panel convened this week by the National Institutes of Health confronted a troubling fact that pregnant women currently have limited access to clinicians and facilities able and willing to offer a trial of labor after previous cesarean delivery because of so-called VBAC bans. Many, even those at low risk for complications in a trial of labor, are not offered this option. The panel affirmed that a trial of labor is a reasonable option for many women with a prior cesarean delivery. They also urged that current VBAC guidelines be revisited, malpractice concerns be addressed, and additional research undertaken to better understand the medical and non-medical factors that influence decision making for women with previous cesarean deliveries.
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WHO Releases New Malaria Guidelines For Treatment And Procurement Of Medicines

The World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing new guidelines for the treatment of malaria, and the first ever guidance on procuring safe and efficacious anti-malarial medicines. In recent years a new type of treatment called artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACTs) has transformed the treatment of malaria, but if not used properly the medicine could become ineffective. Guidelines emphasize testing The Guidelines for the Treatment of Malaria (second edition) provide evidence-based and current recommendations for countries on malaria diagnosis and treatment...



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Assessing Your Risk of a Heart Attack

If you are young and healthy but have a family history of cardiovascular disease, are you at high risk of having a heart attack?


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Ag Groups Weigh-in On Supreme Court Case For Biotech Alfalfa

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether a lower court acted hastily and incorrectly by banning the cultivation of biotech alfalfa despite extensive scientific evidence documenting the safety of the crop. A coalition of agricultural organizations filed on March 8 a joint friend-of-the-court brief to the Supreme Court in support of the petitioners in "Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms...



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ACF Announces The Availability Of $42 Million In Competitive Grant Funding For Native American Communities And Organizations

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Administration for Native Americans (ANA) announces the availability of $42 million in competitive grant funding for fiscal year 2010 for community-based projects that promote economic and social self-sufficiency and cultural preservation for American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and other Native American Pacific Islanders from American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The fiscal year 2010 funding includes $27 million for continuing multi-year projects...



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Protein Suspected in Alzheimer’s May Be Needed to Fight Infection

Beta amyloid, which was once thought to be a chief villain in Alzheimer’s, may be part of the brain’s normal defenses, researchers at Harvard suggested.


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Physical Therapists Unite To Support The Uninsured

The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) is urging residents across the country to contact their local elected officials and members of the media to draw attention to the problem of the nation's uninsured during "Cover the Uninsured Week," March 14-20. APTA is a supporting organization of the observance, designed to raise awareness of the plight of 46 million uninsured Americans, including 9 million children, and the effect it is having on the country's health care system...



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Economic Scene: Wishing for a Health Care Plan That Cuts Costs

President Obama’s health reform plan is a mixed bag for those who care about keeping down medical costs.


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Meat And Colorectal Cancer Risk: Scientists Suggest Potential Mechanisms

Scientists in the US who undertook a large study to investigate what biological mechanisms might be behind the already established link between colorectal cancer and consumption of red and processed meat, confirmed that such a link exists and suggested the main players are three compounds: heme iron, nitrate/nitrite, and heterocyclic amines. You can read a paper on the research behind these findings in the published online first 9 March issue of Cancer Research...



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Virgin Plans To Coordinate GP Care Across Country, UK

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin empire plans to use its newly acquired network of polyclinics to co-ordinate GP services across the country, Pulse can reveal. Virgin Healthcare told Pulse its acquisition of Assura Medical Ltd last week had given it control of 15 'GP-led health centres' and a total of 30 GP companies - believed to make it the biggest private provider of GP services in the country...



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Common osteoporosis drugs 'could make limbs weaker if used for too long'

Common drugs used to treat the brittle bone disease osteoporosis could make limbs easier to break if used for too long, research suggests.
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2010 Recipient Of Minority Scholar Award Will Conduct Clinical Research On Leukemia

Alison Walker, MD, has been selected to receive the ASH-AMFDP Award, and will begin her research in acute myeloid leukemia in July of this year. The award, designed to help increase the number of underrepresented minority scholars in the field of hematology, is the result of a partnership between the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program (AMFDP) of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It provides four years of support, including an annual stipend of up to $75,000 and an annual grant of $30,000 to support research activities...



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Sex drive 'lasts longer in men', research suggests

Men are likelier than women to enjoy sex in old age, researchers find.
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Visit Your Pharmacy This No Smoking Day

Helping a man to stop smoking after 43 years and supporting a woman to quit cigarettes following 15 previous relapses are just two examples where a local pharmacy made the difference of a life time. This No Smoking Day on Wednesday 10 March the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) is advising the public to make a trip to their community pharmacy as the first step towards quitting for good. Every year thousands of people across the UK give up smoking on the national day and this year's campaign theme, Break free, we can help, has come from smokers themselves...



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Advocates Seek Increased Federal Funding To Bridge The Gaps In Lupus Research, Awareness, And Education

On March 16, 2010, an anticipated 1,000 advocates will band together for lupus in person and virtually by phone, email, and through social media networks, to share their personal stories with Members of Congress during the Lupus Foundation of America's, (LFA) Twelfth Annual Advocacy Day. Advocates' personal stories will demonstrate how the gaps in lupus research and understanding have a profound effect on the estimated 1.5 million people in the United States who are living with the disease. It has been more than 50 years since the U.S...



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Study Shows Need To 'Speak Plainly' When Discussing Sex, Columnist Writes

"A new study suggests that what people mean when they say they've had sex -- or haven't -- depends on whom you ask," St. Petersburg Times columnist Colette Bancroft writes in an opinion piece about new research from the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction and the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention. The study, published in the journal Sexual Health, examined how men and women in various age groups classify whether various physical acts constitute "having sex...



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New Research Looks At Beliefs About God's Influence In Everyday Life

Most Americans believe God is concerned with their personal well-being and is directly involved in their personal affairs, according to new research out of the University of Toronto. Using data from two recent national surveys of Americans, UofT Sociology Professor Scott Schieman examined peoples' beliefs about God's involvement and influence in everyday life. His research discovers new patterns about these beliefs and the ways they differ across education and income levels...



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Questioning The Benefits Of Elective Removal Of Ovaries During Hysterectomy: Evidence Suggests Procedure May Do More Harm Than Good

Removal of the ovaries (bilateral oophorectomy) while performing a hysterectomy is common practice to prevent the subsequent development of ovarian cancer. This prophylactic procedure is performed in 55 percent of all US women having a hysterectomy, or approximately 300,000 times each year. An article in the March/April issue of the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology suggests that this procedure may do more harm than good.. William H...



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Brain Activity Predicts Emotional Resiliency Following A Fight With A Partner

Common wisdom tells us that for a successful relationship partners shouldn't go to bed angry. But new research from a psychologist at Harvard University suggests that brain activity - specifically in the region called the lateral prefrontal cortex - is a far better indicator of how someone will feel in the days following a fight with his or her partner. Individuals who show more neural activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex are less likely to be upset the day after fighting with partners, according to a study in this month's Biological Psychiatry...



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Low-Income Women Living In Small Cities Have Higher Chance Of Obesity

A recent Kansas State University study found that the availability of supermarkets -- rather than the lack of them -- increased the risk of obesity for low-income women living in small cities. This suggests that policies to increase healthful eating behaviors might need to be tailored based on geographic location. K-State researchers studied the availability of food stores for low-income women in Kansas to see whether there was a link to obesity...



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Federal Funds Support Health Depts., But Leadership Is Key - Study

The surge of funds for bioterrorism preparedness over the past decade does not appear to be improving local public health resources in general, according to research from Purdue University. However, the funding increase to health departments does spur epidemiologic activity that is key in detecting infectious disease risks, such as a surge in communicable disease like influenza or tuberculosis, at the local level, says George Avery, an assistant professor of health and kinesiology...



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Senate Test Vote Today On Bill To Extend COBRA Subsidy, Doc Fix And State Medicaid Funding

The Senate is poised to consider a measure today that would include extending subsidies for COBRA benefits and unemployment insurance, prevent the Medicare payment cut for doctors and provide additional funding to state Medicaid programs. The legislation "faces a key test vote in the Senate, its momentum helped by about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of last year," The Associated Press reports. "All told, the measure would add $107 billion to the deficit over the coming decade...



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Fashion And IT

Consider this T-shirt: It can monitor your heart rate and breathing, analyze your sweat and even cool you off on a hot summer's day. What about a pillow that monitors your brain waves, or a solar-powered dress that can charge your ipod or MP4 player? This is not science fiction - this is cotton in 2010. Now, the laboratory of Juan Hinestroza, assistant professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design, has developed cotton threads that can conduct electric current as well as a metal wire can, yet remain light and comfortable enough to give a whole new meaning to multi-use garments...



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Health Overhaul Policy Tidbits

NPR: For those who have forgotten what the Senate's bill would actually do as the debate has turned to politics and procedure, "a short refresher" may come in handy. The legislation's main concepts include the requirement that individuals buy health insurance, a plan that would help eliminate pre-existing condition exclusions and spread risk more widely, and subsidies to help people buy coverage to meet the new requirement (Rovner, 3/9)...



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Los Angeles Times Profiles Antiabortion Pastor Who Travels Southern Calif. In Mobile Pregnancy Clinic

The Los Angeles Times on Monday profiled Dave Wilkinson, an evangelical pastor who runs three Ventura County, Calif., pregnancy clinics that try to urge women not to have abortions. Once weekly, Wilkinson and other antiabortion-rights advocates drive to Los Angeles in a donated motor home to offer ultrasounds to pregnant women and urge them not to have abortions through "prayer-filled counseling sessions," according to the Times. Wilkinson said that many of the women promise to carry their fetuses to term...



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Male Batterers Consistently Overestimate General Rates Of Violence Toward Partners

Men who engaged in domestic violence consistently overestimated how common such behavior is, and the more they overestimated it the more they engaged in abusing their partner in the previous 90 days, according to new research conducted at the University of Washington. Those men overestimated by two to three times the actual rates of seven behaviors ranging from throwing something at a partner to rape, according Clayton Neighbors, lead author of a paper to be published in a spring issue of the journal Violence Against Women...



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Research Identifies New Mechanism Regulating Embryonic Development

A Princeton University-led research team has discovered that protein competition over an important enzyme provides a mechanism to integrate different signals that direct early embryonic development. The work suggests that these signals are combined long before they interact with the organism's DNA, as was previously believed, and also may inform new therapeutic strategies to fight cancer. The fought-over enzyme, known as the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), is found in all complex organisms, ranging from yeast to humans...



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New Hope To Vitiligo Patients Offered By Skin Transplant

In the first study of its kind in the United States, Henry Ford Hospital showed that skin transplant surgery is safe and effective for treating vitiligo. Henry Ford researchers followed 23 patients for up to six months after surgery and found that the treated area regained on average 52 percent of its natural skin color. In eight patients with a specific type of vitiligo, the treated area regained on average 74 percent of its natural skin color. The surgery involves using skin cells taken from normally-pigmented areas of the body and transferring them to the damaged area of skin...



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Link Between Obesity And Poor Colon Cancer Prognosis

Obese patients with colon cancer are at greater risk for death or recurrent disease compared to those who are within a normal weight range, according to a report in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "Obesity has long been established as a risk factor for cancer, but our study in colon cancer patients shows that obesity predicts a poorer prognosis after the cancer is surgically removed," said Frank A. Sinicrope, M.D., professor of medicine and oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester...



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Washington Post, 'Marketplace' Examine Issues Related To HPV Vaccines

The Washington Post on Tuesday published a list of questions and answers from a Consumer Reports review of the safety and efficacy of Merck's human papillomavirus vaccine, Gardasil. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and FDA found that a few women and girls vaccinated with Gardasil experienced serious complications but that the rates and severity of most side effects appear to be consistent with those of other vaccines, the Post reports. FDA approved the vaccine in 2006 for women and girls ages nine through 26...



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GOP Candidate For Calif. Gov. Switches Positions On Abortion-Related Issues

California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who is seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination, took liberal positions on abortion-rights issues when he unsuccessfully ran for state Assembly in 2004, the Los Angeles Times reports. Poizner's past statements supporting abortion-right issues contradict the conservative stance he has taken in his current campaign. On Friday, the Poizner campaign sent an e-mail claiming that he is "the only Republican candidate for governor who is against taxpayer-funded abortion...



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Former USDA Leader And AVMA CEO, Dr. Ron DeHaven Responds In Video To USDA Decision To Scrap Animal ID System

A recent decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to scrap a national animal identification system could seriously hinder U.S. veterinarians' ability to track diseased animals and prevent the spread of those diseases -diseases that could spread to humans and cost U.S. farmers millions of dollars. That's the message that Dr. Ron DeHaven, chief executive officer of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and a former head of the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, delivers in a new video which can be viewed on http://www.avmatv...



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