Heart Insight will give readers practical advice, new treatment recommendations … and encouragement. The American Heart Association announces the launch of a new patient magazine, Heart Insight, for heart patients, their families and caregivers.
Children with risk factors such as high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol levels already show signs of fatty build-up in their arteries that could lead to heart attack in adulthood, researchers reported at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2006.
Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and Federal University of Cear? in Brazil have joined forces to study if the gene believed to contribute to Alzheimer’s protects children from the developmental stresses of early childhood diarrhea.
GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) and Adolor Corporation (Nasdaq: ADLR) announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a letter stating that the new drug application (NDA) for Entereg (alvimopan 12mg) for the management of post operative ileus (POI) is approvable. The FDA has requested 12-month safety data, including analysis of serious cardiovascular events, from study 014 (767905/014), an ongoing safety study in opioid-induced bowel dysfunction (OBD). The FDA also requested a risk management plan as part of the submission.
A postmenopausal hormone therapy trial conducted in Estonia indicates that hormone therapy does not improve women’s quality of life. The group receiving hormones and the comparison group showed no differences in general quality of life. Only those women that experienced hot flashes and night-time sweating reported beneficial effects.
Abdominal obesity increased more than 65 percent among boys and almost 70 percent among girls between 1988 and 2004. The finding of growing girth is significant because abdominal obesity has emerged as a better predictor of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes risk than the more commonly used Body Mass Index, a weight-to-height ratio that can sometimes be misleading.
Multiple organ failure is the main cause of death in intensive care units. A study published today in the journal Critical Care shows that the main risk factors for death in the intensive care unit are central nervous system failure and cardiovascular failure, and the most frequent cause of death is multiple organ failure. In the hospital, once patients have been discharged from the intensive care unit, the main causes of death are malignant tumours and exacerbation of cardiovascular disease.
An interdisciplinary research team led by Dr. Joe Cannon (third from right) will examine the effects of follicle stimulating hormone on white blood cells. Future studies may lead to alternatives… Click here for more information. Regulating a hormone abundant in women approaching menopause could offer alternatives for hormone replacement therapy, Medical College of Georgia researchers say.
Researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Ohio State University, have identified a cellular protein that acts as a regulator for blood flow by blocking blood vessel relaxation induced by nitric oxide (NO). This mouse study appears in the November 2, 2006, online issue of Blood*.
Researchers have used a single compound to increase the lifespan of obese mice, and found that the drug reversed nearly all of the changes in gene expression patterns found in mice on high calorie diets–some of which are associated with diabetes, heart disease, and other significant diseases related to obesity. The research, led by investigators at Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging, is the first time that the small molecule resveratrol has been shown to offer survival benefits in a mammal. The study is reported in the November 1 advanced online edition of Nature.