Secondary prevention programs for coronary heart disease that contain less than 10 hours contact with health professionals and those provided by family doctors are just as effective in saving lives as more expensive, longer and more specialized hospital-based alternatives, according to cardiovascular researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.
Fruits and vegetables — tasty and a vital part of daily nutrition. But researchers worldwide continue to seek better ways to use the healthful properties of these foods. Many of these scientists will meet in Houston Oct. 9-13 to share the latest findings.
A new UC-Davis study that explains the actions of a gene mutation that causes early onset cancer provides a fundamental insight into the mechanism of DNA-break repair.
In the past ten years, researchers in genome stability have observed that many kinds of cancer are associated with areas where human chromosomes break. They have hypothesized ? but never proven ? that slow or altered replication led to the chromosomes breaking.
Long-term use of histamine2 receptor antagonists (H2A), one class of drugs that blocks stomach acid, may be associated with cognitive impairment in older African-American adults. According to an Indiana University School of Medicine and Regenstrief Institute study published in the August issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, the risk for showing signs of cognitive impairment is 2.5 times greater for patients using these medications long-term.
Autistic children are doubly stigmatized. On the one hand, they are often dismissed as ?low functioning? or mentally retarded, especially if they have poor speaking skills as many do. Yet when autistics do show exceptional abilities?uncanny visual discrimination and memory for detail, for example?their flashes of brilliance are marginalized as aberrations, mere symptoms of their higher order cognitive deficit. They often earn a dubious promotion to ?idiot savant.?
Robin Roberts of Good Morning America detected a lump in her breasts during a breast self-exam, and she revealed this in her writing on the ABC Television Web site, and later oncology doctors confirmed the breast cancer diagnosis. Roberts also urged everyone to pay attention to their health. ?I can’t stress enough how important it is to get screened and checked for all cancers ? and to do self breast exams,? Roberts wrote.
GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), one of the world?s largest vaccine manufacturers, announced that US health agency HHS has placed another order to purchase bulk H5N1 antigen for the US national stockpile of pre-pandemic vaccines. The company also announced the start of the first North American pre-pandemic vaccine trials in the company?s global pre-pandemic influenza program.
Sexual abstinence only programs to prevent HIV infection in high income countries. Programmes that exclusively encourage abstinence from sex do not seem to affect the risk of HIV infection in high income countries, finds a review of the evidence in this week?s BMJ.
Displaced Iraqis living in Egypt, Jordan and Syria should be eligible to receive health care on the same basis as the local population in these countries. This was one of the key agreements reached by participants at a ministerial consultation in Damascus on 29-30 July, convened by WHO to consider the health needs of Iraqis living in neighbouring countries.