A small, tantalizing new study shows that dark chocolate may help reduce hypertension. The November issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter highlights a recent German study that found eating a small amount of dark chocolate every day reduces the top (systolic) blood pressure number by almost 3 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and the bottom (diastolic) blood pressure number by about 2 mm Hg.
Recently, scientists demonstrated the anti-cancer effects of silibinin, a major biologically active compound of milk thistle. Being widely used as a folk remedy for liver diseases, milk thistle is safe and well-tolerated, and it protects the liver from drug or alcohol-related injury. Silibinin is highly purified from milk thistle, with a defined chemical structure and molecular weight (C25H22O10, MW: 482.44).
Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition characterized by widespread pain in your muscles, ligaments and tendons, as well as fatigue and multiple tender points.
A five day course of radiotherapy to treat breast cancer may, in some cases, expose as much lung and heart tissue to potentially toxic radiation as does the standard six weeks of treatment, say researchers at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville.
A Mayo Clinic study of a drug that has shown promise in treating sarcoma, lung and brain cancers, demonstrates that the drug may also be effective in treating breast cancer, in particular the spread of breast cancer.
A new Mayo Clinic study found a nationwide decrease in the need for liver transplant in patients with hepatitis B, which coincides with the increasingly widespread use of oral antiviral medications to slow disease progression. The study will be presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases in Boston.
Mayo Clinic researchers have shown that an immunosuppressive drug used in organ transplant cases is effective in reducing flare-ups in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). SLE results in inflammation of connective tissues and can involve the skin, joints and kidneys. Its cause is unknown. The findings were announced today at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in Boston.
Asking patients with focal epilepsy (also known as partial seizures, which usually involve focal areas of the body and altered consciousness) how often they have seizures does not appear to provide an accurate count, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Reminding patients to record their seizures in a diary may not help, because patients may be unaware of some seizures.
Nursing home residents who received eyeglasses for uncorrected refractive error were found to have improved quality of life and decreased symptoms of depression when compared to those with refractive error who had not received eyeglasses, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Mayo Clinic reported promising interim results from a Phase II trial of a new combination therapy for patients with recurrent ovarian cancer that is resistant to platinum therapy. Thirty-three percent of study participants achieved either complete or partial tumor regression from the therapy, which combines flavopiridol and cisplatin.