Important Health News

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Lack of sleep, too much sleep, both deadly
2007-09-25 07:43:00
www.upi.comA lack of sleep can double the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, but too much sleep can also double the risk of death, British researchers found.Researchers from the University of Warwick, and University College London have found those who had cut their sleeping from 7 hours to 5 hours a night or less faced a 1.7 fold increased risk in mortality from all causes, and twice the increased risk of death from a cardiovascular problem in particular.They also found that those, who increased their sleep from 8 hours or more a night, were more than twice as likely to die predominantly from non-cardiovascular diseases.Francesco Cappuccio of the University of Warwick?s Warwick Medical School studied how sleep patterns affected the mortality of 10,308 civil servants in the Whitehall II study at two points in their life during 1985 to 1988 and those still alive in 1992 to 1993. The researchers took into account other factors such as age, sex, marital status, employment grade,...
More About: Sleep , Deadly , Lack

Europe gives final approval to Pfizer HIV drug
2007-09-24 11:55:00
economictimes.indiatimes.comLONDON: Pfizer Inc, the world's largest drugmaker, said on Monday the Europe an Commission had approved its AIDS drug Celsentri, the first in a new class of oral HIV medicines.The drug, which is known generically as maraviroc and as Selzentry in the US, is the first designed to keep the HIV virus that causes AIDS from entering healthy immune cells. Older AIDS medicines attack the virus itself.It works by blocking the CCR5 co-receptor that serves as a main doorway for the HIV virus into immune cells.The green light from the European authorities had been expected after a panel of EU experts recommended the product in July. The medicine was also cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration last month.Celsentri is approved for use in patients who have tried other medicines and for whom a diagnostic test has confirmed their HIV strain is linked to the CCR5 receptor.New York-based Pfizer is counting on new medicines such as Celsentri to help drive profits as ...
More About: Final , Fina

New test to detect bird flu 4 times faster
2007-09-24 08:38:00
www.todayonline.comTan Hui LengANOTHER made-in-Singapore bird flu detection device has been announced: Claimed as able to identify the deadly H5N1 strain in less than 30 minutes, or 440 per cent faster than other commercially available tests. The device, conceived at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, can be used together with commercially available H5N1 kits."There is a difference between 'kits' and 'devices'," said research scientist Juergen Pipper, who headed the project. The invention was announced in the journal Nature Medicine."Kits contain biochemicals only (while) devices are hardware only. That means, kits alone are not enough; they have to be combined with devices to test for infectious diseases."IBN's device works by testing genetic material obtained from a throat-swab of humans, and is described as a "lab-on-a-chip". Dr Pipper also said the device would be between "2,000 to 5,000 per cent chea...
More About: Bird Flu , Times , Test , Bird , Aster

Reduce Calories And Live Longer
2007-09-23 17:22:00
www.dbtechno.comFor decades we we have known that reducing calorie intake ? not nutrients ? can be beneficial and increase life expectancy, but we didn?t know why, until now.According to U.S. researchers, the benefits of calorie reduction can be seen at a molecular level.In a study released Thursday, scientists suggest that the link between calorie restriction and longevity may be a molecular response to stresses from reducing calorie intake.Researchers believe that the reaction preserves critical cellular functions between enzymes created by two genes called SIRT3 and SIRT4,. The reaction increases the bodies ability to fight age related disease, reported CNN.?We?re not sure yet what particular mechanism is activated by these increased levels of NAD, and as a result SIRT3 and SIRT4,? said David Sinclair, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School who worked on the study.?These two genes, SIRT3 and SIRT4, they make proteins that go into mitochondria. ? These are little energy p...
More About: Obesity , Longevity , Live , Reduce , Calories

Surviving Colorectal Cancer
2007-09-21 11:53:00
www.ivanhoe.comA new study uncovers the best treatments to prolong survival for patients with advanced colorectal cancer, but researchers have a warning about their toxic effects.Researchers from the University of Ioannina School of Medicine in Greece conducted a meta-analysis of 242 randomized trials to compare treatment regimens for patients with advanced colorectal cancer. The studies were pulled from the last 40 years to determine whether certain treatments were better at stabilizing the disease and prolonging survival than others.Researchers report, for patients expected to live one year on a treatment of fluorouracil (Adrucil) and leucovorin, there was an absolute survival benefit of eight months when an additional treatment of irinotecan (Camptosar) plus bevacizumab (Avastin) was added. There was also a survival benefit noted after adding oxaliplatin (Eloxatin) plus bevacizumab or irinotecan plus oxaliplatin, though the success was less with a 4.7-month additional survival be...
More About: Cancer , Colorectal Cancer , Vivi , Rectal , Rect

1 in 3 Americans uninsured
2007-09-21 11:43:00
www.recordnet.comSituation worse in California, study concludesBy Joe GoldeenIf 43-year-old Donald Howlin could sleep through the night, chances are his dreams wouldn't be sweet. They'd be nightmares, much like the living nightmare he's going through trying to obtain adequate health care.The situation for Howlin, a Lathrop father of five who lives with a broken body and chronic pain, is one of millions of complex stories of formerly working Americans with debilitating injuries or illnesses who find themselves dependent on a strained health-care system."I don't understand the system anymore," Howlin said Thursday. A new report shows Howlin is not alone.Approximately 89.6 million Americans - including 13 million Californians - were uninsured at some point in 2006-07, according to a report released Thursday by the health consumer organization Families USA.Nationwide, that's more than one in three people, or 34.7 percent younger than 65, when federally sponsored Medicare kicks in.I...
More About: Health Care , Health Insurance

Using testicles to fix the brain, heart and blood
2007-09-20 13:35:00
www.theglobeandmail.comLife-saving remedies viewed as possible ANNE MCILROYMen have a source of potentially life-saving stem cells between their legs.A team of American researchers has found a way to easily identify stem cells in the testicles of adult mice that can be coaxed to turn into brain cells, muscle cells, heart cells, blood cells and even blood vessels. One day, they say, male patients may be able to turn to their own testicles as a source of stem cells to repair an ailing heart or kidney or to fix the brain damage caused by Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease.The procedure would involve removing a small piece of testicle - about the same amount used for a biopsy."We don't need a lot of material," says Marco Seandel, the lead author of a paper to be published today in the journal Nature and a stem cell researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Maryland.His team's work - and that of a German team also experimenting with stem cells extracted from testicles - is...
More About: Heart , Blood , Stem Cells , Brain , Testicles