For women, getting drunk boosts heart attack risk
|
|
A new study provides yet more evidence that when it comes to alcohol and health, moderation is key.
While women who drank were at lower risk of having a non-fatal heart attack than their peers who abstained from alcohol, getting drunk once a month or more sharply increased their risk, Dr. Joan M. Dorn of the University at Buffalo, New York and colleagues found.
Chronic pain may impede short-term memory
|
|
People who suffer from chronic pain may find their memory taxed by everyday “multitasking,” a new study suggests.
The study, of 24 men and women treated at a pain clinic, found that chronic pain appeared to impair patients’ working, or short-term, memory.
Veterinarians At Increased Risk Of Avian Influenza Virus Infection
|
|
Veterinarians who work with birds are at increased risk for infection with avian influenza virus and should be among those with priority access to pandemic influenza vaccines and antivirals, according to a study conducted by researchers in the University of Iowa College of Public Health.
The investigators, led by Kendall Myers, a doctoral student in occupational and environmental health, and Gregory Gray, M.D., UI professor of epidemiology, examined blood samples from a group of U.S. veterinarians for evidence of previous avian influenza virus infection. The veterinarians all had occupational exposure to live chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese or quail.
Pancreatic Surgery Riskier for Obese Patients
|
|
Obesity may contribute to a greater likelihood of post-operative complications for patients having pancreatic surgery, a surgeon at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital has found.
A study of 202 pancreatic surgeries from 2000 to 2005 indicates obese patients had an increased time on the operating table, blood loss, length of hospital stay and rate of serious complications compared to normal weight individuals, said Adam Berger, M.D., assistant professor of surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University
New Mothers Often Not Asked About Depression
|
|
The majority of doctors in North Carolina do not probe for signs of postpartum depression in new mothers, according to a survey conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Of the 228 physicians responding to the survey who said they had seen women for postpartum visits in the previous three months, 79 percent said they were unlikely to formally screen the patients for depression. An estimated 13 percent of new mothers are affected by postpartum depression. The study will be published June 6, 2007 in the North Carolina Medical Journal.
Advances in Treatment of Epilepsy and Related Seizure Disorders Help Improve Quality of Life
|
|
Epilepsy and seizures affect 2.5 million Americans, 181,000 new cases of epilepsy are diagnosed every year, and the disorder incurs an estimated $12.5 billion in annual direct and indirect costs. About 450,000 children ages 15 and younger develop epilepsy each year, and of these, 315,000 are school-aged children. Children and adolescents are more likely to have epilepsy of unknown or genetic origin. The rate of new cases in children is highest before age 2, gradually declines until about age 10, and then stabilizes.
“Brain injury or infection can cause epilepsy at any age; however, the cause of epilepsy is unknown for about half of all individuals with the disorder,” said Howard Weiner, MD, a pediatric epilepsy neurosurgeon at NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, and an American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) spokesperson. Children may be born with a defect in the structure of their brain, or they may suffer a head injury or infection that causes their epilepsy. Severe head injury is the most common known cause in young adults. In middle age, strokes, tumors, and injuries are more frequent cause. In people age 65 and older, stroke is the most common known cause, followed by degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. Seizures may not begin immediately after a person incurs a brain injury – seizures may occur many months later.
Surgery can fix many back problems: studies
|
|
Surgery works for people with a slipped or misaligned disk, but often is not necessary if patients can muster enough patience, according to two studies in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Back problems are a difficult challenge for doctors in part because it is difficult to know when to operate.
Antidepressant Use May Boost Fracture Risk
|
|
Evidence is accumulating that depression is a risk factor for osteoporosis, reports the June 2007 issue of Harvard Women’s Health Watch. A recent study found that people ages 50 and over who regularly took antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) had double the rate of fractures as people not using such medications. Other research points to depression itself as a source of endocrine changes that can damage bone.
Whether the danger comes from depression, the drugs used to treat it, or something else, doctors are paying more attention to this association. During the 1990s, depression began to emerge as a possible cause of bone loss, rather than a result.
Asthma Not Controlled in Majority of Patients
|
|
A survey of 1,812 patients with moderate-to-severe asthma revealed that the disease was not controlled in 55 percent, despite the fact that most had health insurance and visited their health care providers regularly.
“Even more shocking was the finding that 38 percent of controlled asthmatics and 54 percent of uncontrolled asthmatics reported having had an asthma attack during which they feared for their life,” said Stephen P. Peters, M.D., Ph.D., lead author and a professor of pediatrics, internal medicine-pulmonary and associate director of the Center for Human Genomics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Doctors, engineers develop new wireless system to detect esophageal reflux
|
|
UT Southwestern Medical Center doctors and UT Arlington engineers have developed a wireless monitoring system that uses electrical impulses to track esophageal reflux.
The wireless technology, called radio frequency identification (RFID), has been used in thousands of stores for tracking inventory and in identification chips implanted in some pets. Researchers combined that technology with another emerging applied science called impedance monitoring, which tracks reflux through electrical impulses.
Access to alcohol among middle school children
|
|
New research suggests that if parents want to keep alcohol away from their middle school children, the best place to start is at home. The study, reported in the June issue of Preventive Medicine, shows that of 11-14 year olds who choose to drink, only a small fraction (2.4% in the 6th grade, rising to 5.6% at the end of the 8th grade) obtain alcohol from commercial venues. More than one-third of the alcohol consumed by these children came from their own or a friend’s parents or guardians.
The proportion of alcohol users is also disturbing; 17% at the start of the 6th grade and more than twice as many, 41% by the end of the 8th grade. The study reminds parents that they need to consider their positions as role models at the crucial time when their middle school children are likely to have their first serious encounters with alcohol.
How Viagra Works
|
|
Viagra® is one of the best-known drugs of all time:
* Google lists over 17 million Web pages that use the word “Viagra.” For comparison, Google lists only 3.3 million pages containing the word “aspirin” and only 936,000 containing the word “Tylenol.”
Alzheimer’s: The History of Forgetting
|
|
When I first started writing about aging issues in 1991, I had to define Alzheimer’s disease with each reference. “Alzheimer’s leads to progressive memory loss,” I would write.
People liked to associate the disease with age. We’re seeing more of it, people would say, because everyone lives longer.
Cancer gene carriers cut risk with ovarian surgery
|
|
Women who carry a gene mutation that increases their risk of breast cancer appear to be able to lower their risk of breast and gynecologic cancers by undergoing the removal of their ovaries, results of a 10-year follow-up study show.
Dr. Fatima Laki and colleagues at the Institut Curie in Paris analyzed the survival rates of 89 women with BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 mutations who has their ovaries removed, a procedure also referred to as salpingo-oophorectomy, between 1994 and 2004 at their institution.
Complications seen burdening type 2 diabetic kids
|
|
Children and adolescents with type 2 diabetes, like adults, are at risk for developing complications from the disease. However, these complications are expected to develop earlier in young patients, experts say.
Given the rise in childhood cases of diabetes because of the obesity epidemic, this finding suggests there’ll be “serious public-health challenges in the next few decades.”
