A new NIH-funded study shows that a specific gene variant in humans affects both sensitivity to short-term (acute) pain in healthy volunteers and the risk of developing chronic pain after one kind of back surgery. Blocking increased activity of this gene after nerve injury or inflammation in animals prevented development of chronic pain.
A class of painkillers which includes ibuprofen can increase the risk of heart attacks if taken over long periods. The Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) has written to every doctor in the UK warning them that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) – which are routinely taken by arthritis and back pain sufferers – “may be associated with a small risk of heart attack or stroke” when used for long-term treatment.
When a patient arrives at an emergency room with symptoms of a stroke, doctors must act fast. But the crucial decisions that can prevent death or severe disability are harder to make without a neurologist, and not every hospital has one on call. Starting next month, however, 21 Michigan hospitals will have what is being touted as the next best thing: a robot on call.
Surgery outperformed the use of stents in a French trial of patients who had warning symptoms of stroke because of blockage of the carotid arteries, the main blood vessels to the brain. Indeed, the trial was cut short “for reasons of both safety and futility,” said a report in the Oct. 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The incidence of stroke or death in the 30 days and six months after a procedure was about twice as high for patients given a stent, a tube-like device to keep an artery open, than for those who had the surgery called endarterectomy.
The National Institutes of Health opened a new health information center today at the Jackson Medical Mall in Jackson, Mississippi, affirming NIH?s commitment to providing accurate, up-to-date health information to Mississippi residents.
Diet plays a key role in controlling your blood sugar. A healthy-eating plan tailored to your needs will do that and more. Majority of people affected with diabetes are overweight or obese. In fact, your risk of getting diabetes increases the more weight you put on.
The millions of Americans afflicted with Type 1 and 2 Diabetes face many potential complications,including: heart and kidney disease; nerve damage and stroke; foot and skin problems; and gastrointestinal disorders and hypoglycemia.
Neuroprotection is the mechanisms and strategies used to protect against neuronal injury or degeneration in the Central Nervous System (CNS) following acute disorders (e.g. stroke or nervous system injury/trauma) or as a result of chronic neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis).
Children who are overweight as toddlers or preschoolers are more likely to be overweight or obese in early adolescence, report researchers in a collaborative study by the NIH and several academic institutions. The researchers periodically collected height and weight measurements of a sample of children, beginning at age 2 and continuing until age 12. Their analysis, appearing in the September Pediatrics, provides some of the strongest evidence to date that overweight in early childhood increase the chances for overweight in later life.
Exercise can help people with large waistlines reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes, Finnish researchers said. Type 2 diabetes, the more common form of the illness caused by an inability to make or properly use insulin, is linked to being overweight or obese.