Overuse of skin numbing creams can cause death: FDA
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People who use large amounts of skin-numbing creams and lotions, often in conjunction with cosmetic procedures, are at risk of irregular heartbeats, seizures and even death, U.S. health officials warned on Tuesday.
The Food and Drug Administration, citing two deaths, said such topical anesthetics can be applied in amounts so large that a lethal dose of the chemicals can enter the bloodstream.
Action Video Games Sharpen Vision 20 Percent
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Video games that contain high levels of action, such as Unreal Tournament, can actually improve your vision.
Researchers at the University of Rochester have shown that people who played action video games for a few hours a day over the course of a month improved by about 20 percent in their ability to identify letters presented in clutter - a visual acuity test similar to ones used in regular ophthalmology clinics.
Lipid plays big role in embryonic development
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A little-known lipid plays a big role in helping us grow from a hollow sphere of stem cells into human beings, researchers have found.
They found that in the first few days of life, ceramide helps stem cells line up to form the primitive ectoderm from which embryonic tissues develop, says Dr. Erhard Bieberich, biochemist at the Medical College of Georgia.
Shunning midday sun may not boost a child’s weight
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Parents can protect their children from harmful ultraviolet radiation by encouraging them to stay inside during midday, without increasing their odds of becoming overweight from reduced activity, a new study from Australia suggests.
Experts advise everyone, especially fair-skinned people, to limit their time outdoors during peak UV radiation hours—typically between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. A potential problem is that those are also peak playtime hours for children, and there’s been some concern that keeping them indoors will cut out exercise time and spur excess weight gain.
Obesity poses larger diabetes risk than inactivity
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Although obesity and lack of physical activity both raise the risk of type 2 diabetes in women, obesity appears to be the more important factor, researchers report in the journal Diabetes Care.
Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues note that the relative contribution of obesity and inactivity to the risk of developing type 2 diabetes remains controversial.
Down’s syndrome test eliminates miscarriage risk
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A new non-invasive test that examines fetal DNA can pick up genetic abnormalities such as Down’s syndrome and, unlike more intrusive tests that may raise the risk of miscarriage, the new diagnostic tool developed by the US company Ravgen poses no threat to the mother or fetus.
The test uses fetal DNA extracted from blood samples taken from the mother to screen for chromosomal abnormalities, researchers explained. In a preliminary study of 60 pregnant women reported online by The Lancet medical journal the test produced promising results.
Women Twice as Likely as Men to Seek Treatment for Hyperhidrosis
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Whether it’s sweaty palms causing embarrassment when shaking hands on a job interview or unsightly underarm stains that could make anyone think twice about wearing a white shirt, the excessive sweating disorder known as hyperhidrosis can impact all facets of a person’s personal and professional life. Although the prevalence of this chronic medical condition is the same for men and women, a new study examining hyperhidrosis patients finds that women sought treatment much more frequently than men.
Speaking today at the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology, dermatologist Dee Anna Glaser, MD, FAAD, professor and vice chairman of dermatology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., discussed how a patient’s age, gender and the site of the excessive sweating affected diagnosis and treatment.
Calcium lowers cardiovascular risk in people on a weight loss program
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Universite Laval Faculty of Medicine researchers have discovered that taking calcium and vitamin D supplements while on a weight loss program lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease. Researchers Genevieve C Major, Francine Alarie, Jean Dore, Sakouna Phouttama, and Angelo Tremblay published the details of their findings in the January issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The scientists enrolled 63 women with a body mass index over 30 on a 15-week low-calorie diet. At the start of the experiment, the women’s daily calcium intake was 700 mg on average, well below the 1,000 mg recommendation. “This is nothing exceptional,” points out Dr. Angelo Tremblay, who led the study. “More than 50% of women don’t get the daily recommended dose.”
18 million men in the United States affected by erectile dysfunction
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Lifestyle changes could improve male sexual function
More than 18 million men in the United States over age 20 are affected by erectile dysfunction, according to a study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The prevalence of erectile dysfunction was strongly linked with age, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and a lack of physical activity. The findings also indicate that lifestyle changes, such as increased physical activity and measures to prevent cardiovascular disease and diabetes, may also prevent decreased erectile function. The study is published in the February 1, 2007, issue of the American Journal of Medicine.
“Physicians should be aggressive in screening and managing middle-aged and older patients for erectile dysfunction, especially among patients with diabetes or hypertension,” said Elizabeth Selvin, PhD, MPH, lead author of the study and a faculty member in the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology. “The associations of erectile dysfunction with diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors may serve as powerful motivators for men who need to make changes in their diet and lifestyle.”
India to create HIV “safe zones” for migrants
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India will map out high-risk migration corridors and create safe spaces in cities where migrant workers congregate to protect them from the HIV virus, the head of its anti-AIDS agency said on Thursday.
India has the world’s highest caseload with around 5.7 million people living with the virus, according to the United Nations, and migrants are considered a very high-risk group.
An estimated one-quarter of India’s 1.1-billion population, mostly the poor from its villages and towns, moves around the country in search of a livelihood every year.
Workplace secondhand smoke ups cancer risk: study
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High levels of secondhand smoke on the job can double nonsmokers’ risk of developing lung cancer, and those who inhale it at work long-term face a 50 percent higher risk, researchers said on Wednesday.
Scientists led by epidemiologist Leslie Stayner of the University of Illinois at Chicago combined the results of 22 studies on secondhand smoke conducted in the United States, Canada, Europe, India, Japan and China.
