By the beginning of this year, a consensus had developed on the link between COX-2 drugs and heart disease risk: The evidence for cardiovascular side effects was strongest for Vioxx and Bextra, intermediate for Celebrex, and weak for naproxen. An overview article in the March issue of the Harvard Health Letter explains this consensus, and can serve as a base of information that readers can turn to as this story continues to unfold.
A new $2.8 million effort, partnering public and private funding agencies, will examine how better community design encourages people to be more physically active in their daily lives. Researchers will identify how our built environment contributes to obesity and how environmental changes can combat a growing public health problem.
Biotechnology product maker Genentech Inc. said that it received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to manufacture its Avastin colon cancer drug at the company’s Vacaville, Calif., facility.
Heavy alcohol consumption appears to moderately increase the risk of cancer in the colon and rectum, researchers report in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Although previous studies have linked alcohol use with colon cancer, findings regarding personal factors, types of beverage, and anatomic sites in the colon have been inconsistent, Dr. Eunyoung Cho at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues note.
Vitamin D in the diet helps prevent colorectal cancer, while smoking and drinking alcohol increases the risk of getting the disease – A study, published this week in Journal of the American Medical Association.
Appendicitis is a common and urgent surgical illness with variable manifestations, generous overlap with other clinical syndromes, and significant morbidity, which increases with diagnostic delay. No single sign, symptom, or diagnostic test accurately makes the diagnosis of appendiceal inflammation in all cases. The surgeon’s goals are to evaluate a relatively small population of patients referred for suspected appendicitis and to minimize the negative appendectomy rate without increasing the incidence of perforation.
Alcoholism can fall into two separate categories: problem drinking and actual physical dependence on alcohol. Problem drinking is commonly emotional in its roots, whereby the alcoholic uses drink to avoid feeling. Alcohol dependence is where the person needs alcohol in order to function.
A massive study of European eating habits and U.S. research into diet and early signs of bowel or colorectal cancer show consuming foods rich in fiber cuts the risk of developing the disease, which affects more than 940,000 people in the world each year.