Light at the end of the tunnel for arthritis sufferers
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There is at last a light at the end of the tunnel for Arthritis sufferers.
The disease which can cause severe pain, leaves many incapacitated with a reduced quality of life.
Osteoarthritis is a form of rheumatic disease, and it affects as many 2 million people in the UK alone.
Early hope seen for green tea in fighting leukemia
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Green tea may help treat a form of adulthood leukemia, if the cases of four patients are any indication, according to a new report.
Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, found that of four patients who started drinking green tea or taking green tea extracts, three showed clear improvements in their condition in the following months.
High homocysteine tied to memory loss
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A population-based, prospective study of elderly British individuals shows that risk of memory loss increases over time with increasing levels of total blood homocysteine and decreasing folate levels.
Homocysteine is an amino acid in the blood. Too much of it ups the risk for coronary heart disease, stroke and fatty deposits in peripheral arteries. High circulating levels of homocysteine, especially with advancing age, have also been associated with cognitive impairment. Homocysteine levels in the blood are strongly influenced by diet and genetics.
New use for tobacco could save lives
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One acre of genetically engineered tobacco plants can produce enough anthrax vaccine to inoculate the entire U.S. population safely and inexpensively, a molecular biologist at the University of Central Florida said on Tuesday.
Professor Henry Daniell said his method, applied to other vaccines and scarce medicines, can eliminate shortages, reduce costs by as much as 80 percent and curb incidents of contamination, which is a problem in the traditional, fermentation production of vaccines.
Experts unsurprised by level of alcohol abuse
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In response to figures on alcohol abuse released this week, Dr Peter Rice, a leading consultant psychiatrist with the NHS Tayside Alcohol Problem Service, said he is not surprised as alcohol-related problems were having a detrimental effect on the lives of too many people across Tayside and Scotland.
According to the newly released figures by the Information Statistics Division of the NHS in Scotland, alcohol related conditions accounted for more than 2000 hospital discharges in Tayside in 2004/05.
Brits all set to do full-face transplant
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A British team has been given the green light to perform the world’s first full-face transplant.
The transplant may be carried out within months after surgeons at the Royal Free Hospital, in London, were cleared by the ethics committee to evaluate candidates for the operation, and determine physical and psychological suitability.
Bee sting therapy no help in multiple sclerosis
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Bee sting therapy is not effective in treating the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS), and does not improve quality of life, according to the first controlled study to investigate the alternative treatment in MS patients.
Patients with MS should not undergo bee venom therapy “unless better evidence to justify its use becomes available,” warn Dr. Jacques De Keyser of the University Medical Center Groningen in The Netherlands and colleagues in the journal Neurology this month.
French experts reduce possible bird flu death toll
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The arrival of a bird flu pandemic in France might cause up to 80,000 deaths, a third less than what was estimated in an initial governmental study released in January 2004, a spokeswoman from France’s Health Watch Institute (INVS) said on Tuesday.
“The reduction is due to the current level of anti-viral treatments acquired by the French government,” Isabelle Bonmarin, epidemiologist at the INVS told a bird flu conference, organised by the French High Civil Defense Committee.
New Findings About Birth Defects
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New findings presented this past week by UAB researchers at the Cell Biology Conference in San Francisco challenge a widely held belief among scientists that cilia – small hair-like projections on the surface of cells – serve no purpose.
“Our study demonstrates cilia play an essential role in the proper formation of certain tissues, such as limbs and digits,” said Bradley Yoder, Ph.D., UAB cell biologist. The study focused on a protein called Tg737/polaris, required for cilia formation.
UK reviews controversial curbs on Alzheimer drugs
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British healthcare experts meet on Tuesday to review a planned ban on the new use of Alzheimer’s drugs within the state health service, which has outraged both patients and drug companies.
The deliberations of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) committee will resonate with governments around the world, who increasingly have to weigh up the benefits of modern medicines against their price.
Popular Antidepressants Boost Brain Growth
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The beneficial effects of a widely used class of antidepressants might be the result of increased nerve-fiber growth in key parts of the brain, according to a Johns Hopkins study being published in the January 2006 issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry.
The study on rats, led by Vassilis E. Koliatsos, M.D., a neuropathologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, found that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) increase the density of nerve-impulse-carrying axons in the frontal and parietal lobes of the neocortex and part of the limbic brain which control the sense of smell, emotions, motivation, and organs that work reflexively such as the heart, intestines and stomach. “It appears that SSRI antidepressants rewire areas of the brain that are important for thinking and feeling, as well as operating the autonomic nervous system,” said Koliatsos.
Ancient Chinese Remedy Shows Potential in Preventing Breast Cancer
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A derivative of the sweet wormwood plant used since ancient times to fight malaria and shown to precisely target and kill cancer cells may someday aid in stopping breast cancer before it gets a toehold.
In a new study, two University of Washington bioengineers found that the substance, artemisinin, appeared to prevent the onset of breast cancer in rats that had been given a cancer-causing agent. The study appears in the latest issue of the journal Cancer Letters.
Genes influence risk from second-hand smoke
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Children harboring a particular variant in the TNF gene who are exposed to second-hand smoke are at increased risk of frequent respiratory-related absences from school, researchers at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, report.
In a study of more than 1,300 fourth graders, Dr. Frank D. Gilliland and colleagues found the effect of passive smoke exposure on illness differed according to TNF genotype.
Cocaine’s heart-damaging effects likely immediate
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California researchers have found no link between cocaine use and hardening of the arteries in a study of more than 3,000 adults. The findings suggest that the drug’s heart-damaging effects likely occur immediately after use, and do not result from any long-term effects, Dr. Mark Pletcher of the University of California at San Francisco, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health.
Cocaine use is known to boost heart rate and blood pressure, and has been firmly linked to heart attacks and sudden death, Pletcher and his colleagues write in the American Heart Journal.
Radiologists use lights, films to soothe children
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Three-year old Jack Law used to be so nervous when he went to hospital for regular scans he had to be sedated, only coming round several hours later. This time it was different, and a lot quicker.
He was the first patient in the world’s first “ambient experience” radiology suite, a special room designed to soothe children that opened in August at the Advocate Lutheran General Children’s Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois in the United States.
