Free booze makes homeless healthier: study
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Giving homeless alcoholics a regular supply of booze may improve their health and their behavior, according to a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Tuesday.
Seventeen homeless adults, all with long and chronic histories of alcohol abuse, were allowed up to 15 glasses of wine or sherry a day—a glass an hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.—in the Ottawa-based program, which started in 2002 and is continuing.
One Day Radiation may become an Option for Breast Cancer Patients
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Doctors in Canada are studying the effectiveness of permanent radiation seed implants following lumpectomy as an alternative to whole or partial breast irradiation for early-stage breast cancer patients, according to a study published in the January 1, 2006, issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics, the official journal of ASTRO, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology. This type of radiation would cut treatment time for certain patients from several weeks to one day.
For early stage breast cancer, women often undergo a lumpectomy to remove the tumor followed by radiation therapy to kill any cancer cells that may remain. Most women undergo external beam radiation, which is given every day, Monday through Friday, for six to eight weeks. Doctors have been experimenting with ways to shorten this treatment. One technique used by a growing number of radiation oncologists involves the use of temporary radiation implants. These radiation sources are delivered through a catheter into the breast, usually twice a day for one week.
Child injury risk similar in SUVs, cars: study
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Sports utility vehicles do not offer child passengers added protection in a crash compared to cars because SUVs are more likely to roll over in an accident, researchers said on Tuesday.
Though the added weight of SUVs conferred some protection in non-rollover accidents, the vehicles were twice as likely as cars to roll over during a wreck, the report published in the journal Pediatrics said.
Cheerleading injuries double among U.S. kids
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The number of injuries related to cheerleading among U.S. children has more than doubled since 1990, likely owing to increasingly risky gymnastic moves and stunts, researchers reported Tuesday.
Their study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that between 1990 and 2002, there was a 110 percent increase in the number of cheerleading injuries requiring a hospital visit—from 10,900 in 1990 to 22,900 in 2002.
Identification of regulatory mechanism could lead to new treatments of osteoporosis
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Medical researchers at the University of Bonn, working in collaboration with scientists from Israel, the USA and Britain, have identified a previously unknown regulatory mechanism in the process of bone loss. Their findings could open up new approaches to the treatment of osteoporosis. More than four million people, predominantly women, are estimated to suffer from this distressing illness in Germany alone. In recognition of the importance of her results, Dr. Meliha Karsak from the Bonn-based Life & Brain Center has recently been awarded the Osteology Prize of the German Society for Endocrinology, which entails a cash award of 8,000 euros. Her study will now be published in the renowned “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” (PNAS).
Working together with colleagues from the University of Jeruslam, Dr. Meliha Karsak found that mice with a particular gene defect have a lower bone density. This breakthrough is making “cannabinoidreceptors” a key focus of osteoporosis research.
Common Syndrome Multiples Risk of Heart Attack, Stroke
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The old saying “three out of five ain’t bad” might be true in sports. But when it comes to your heart, three out of five can definitely be bad, says a University of Michigan expert.
More and more doctors agree that there are five basic factors that can lead to heart disease and diabetes – and that anyone with at least three of these characteristics is at especially high risk. Many Americans, even those who think they’re perfectly healthy, have at least three, says Melvyn Rubenfire, M.D., director of Preventive Cardiology at the U-M Cardiovascular Center.
Turning Down the Heat to Save Money Could Cost Your Health
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With home heating costs expected to soar this winter, millions of Americans will be dialing down their heat to save money.
For most people, dialing-down just means a slightly chilly home, but for the elderly, it could bring serious health implications, including hypothermia, and could even lead to additional health risk for otherwise healthy people, says Lee A. Green, M.D., MPH, associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.
It may take time for antidepressants to work
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In a large, “real world” study of the antidepressant Celexa (citalopram), approximately half of depressed patients responded to treatment, investigators report. In many cases, however, at least 8 weeks of treatment was required for a response, even with periodic increases in the dose of the drug.
“These results highlight the need for longer treatment duration and more vigorous medication dosing than is current practice in order to achieve optimal remission rates,” lead investigator Dr. A. John Rush from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and colleagues conclude in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Reduced Brain Volume May Predict Dementia in Healthy Elderly People
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Reduced volume, or atrophy, in parts of the brain known as the amygdala and hippocampus may predict which cognitively healthy elderly people will develop dementia over a six-year period, according to a study in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
New strategies may be able to prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia among older adults, according to background information in the article. Accurate methods of identifying which people are at high risk for dementia in old age would help physicians determine who could benefit from these interventions. There is evidence that adults with AD and mild cognitive impairment, a less severe condition that is considered a risk factor for AD, have reduced hippocampal and amygdalar volumes. However, previous research has not addressed whether measuring atrophy using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can predict the onset of AD at an earlier stage, before cognitive symptoms appear.
Two drugs better than one for RA
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For adults with early, aggressive rheumatoid arthritis (RA), treatment with a combination of Humira (adalimumab) and methotrexate appears to be more effective than treatment with either agent alone, according to results of the PREMIER study.
Humira is a human antibody designed to block a protein known as tumor necrosis factor, which plays a key role in inflammation. So-called TNF-blockers such as Humira have brought relief to many people with inflammatory conditions such as RA or the intestinal disorder Crohn’s disease.
Ukraine lifts bird flu state of emergency
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President Viktor Yushchenko lifted the state of emergency in Ukraine’s Crimea as an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu in the region has been eliminated, a presidential decree said on Thursday.
Ukraine reported its first outbreak of the disease in a dozen villages on the peninsula, a major stopover point for migratory birds, in late November.
One-Year Registry Data for Uterine Fibroid Embolization
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One-year data from the largest, multi-center, prospective voluntary registry on any procedure for benign uterine fibroids showed that over 85 percent of women had significant improvement in symptoms, with 82 percent satisfied with their level of improvement. The Registry, designed to follow the “real world” outcomes for uterine fibroid embolization as it became a mainstream treatment widely available across the country, collected data on symptom relief, quality of life, subsequent care, satisfaction with outcome, and menstrual status on 1,701 women who had non-surgical uterine fibroid embolization (UFE).
The Fibroid Registry for Outcomes Data (FIBROID) also showed women’s quality of life scores improved significantly, and only 2.9 percent of patients required a hysterectomy within a year of having UFE. UFE is a minimally invasive interventional radiology treatment that blocks the blood supply to the fibroid tumors, causing them to shrink and die, and symptoms to subside.
Stroke risk increases when children with sickle cell disease cease transfusions
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Stopping regular blood transfusions in children with sickle cell disease who are at risk for a stroke means their stroke risk likely will return, researchers have found.
A study of children whose stroke risk was reduced by blood transfusions found that within a few months of halting transfusion, 14 of the 41 children resumed at-risk status and two children had strokes, says Dr. Robert J. Adams, neurologist and stroke specialist at the Medical College of Georgia who authored the article in the Dec. 29 New England Journal of Medicine.
Romania confirms deadly bird flu in six villages
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Romania confirmed the presence of the deadly bird flu strain in six villages east of Bucharest on Thursday after test results from a British laboratory detected the H5N1 virus in suspect poultry.
Bird flu was detected in the villages earlier this month but Romania is not able to test for the highly pathogenic strain and had to send samples to Britain for confirmation.
Age no bar to clot-busters for stroke
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Although elderly stroke patients have a greater risk of dying following treatment with the commonly used clot-buster called tPA (tissue plasminogen activator), age is not an independent predictor of outcome, Swiss researchers report in Neurology.
Commenting on the findings, Dr. J. Claude Hemphill III, co-author of an editorial in the medical journal, told Reuters Health, tPA “should not be withheld from acute stroke patients just because they are very old.”
