Important Health News

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4

The Reason Fat People Find It Hard to Lose Weight Is Found
2008-05-05 11:28:00
The reason fat people find it hard to lose weight is found.The difference in the number of fat cells between lean and obese people is established in childhood and, although fat people replenish fat cells at the same rate as thin ones, they have around twice as many.This remarkable glimpse of what gives us beer guts, love handle and muffin tops could also lead to new approaches to fight the flab, by cutting the overall number of fat cells in the body, as well as providing an insight into why fat people find it so hard to lose weight, because the number of fat cells in a person remains the same, even after a successful diet.The details of how humans regulate their fat mass is reported today in the journal Nature by a team led by scientists at the Karlolinksa Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, as a second team, led by Imperial College London, reports in the journal Nature Genetics the discovery of a gene sequence present in half the population linked to three quarters of an inch bigger wais...
More About: People , Weight , Lose Weight , Obesity , Find

Younger Women Often Miss Signs of Heart Attack
2008-05-05 11:22:00
Many younger women ignore or simply don't recognize the warning signs of a heart attack, often because it doesn't resemble the typical "Hollywood heart attack."So say the authors of a study being presented Friday at the American Heart Association's annual Scientific Forum on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke, in Baltimore."So many women said, 'We wish we had a better stereotype, you never see anything in the media,'" said study author Judith Lichtman, an associate professor of epidemiology and public health at Yale School of Medicine. "I personally would love to see some cutting-edge TV series of, for example, a young person having a heart attack with atypical symptoms.""The classic image of someone having a heart attack is someone like John Belushi. It's a heavy man clutching his chest. We never think of young women as having heart disease, so the image is not part of their consciousness," added Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of Women ...
More About: Signs , Miss , Heart Attack

Chocolate May Cut Diabetes Risk
2008-05-05 11:13:00
Scientists are to investigate whether eating chocolate can reduce the risk of heart disease in women with diabetes.Volunteers - postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes - will be asked to eat a bar of chocolate a day for a year.Cocoa is rich in compounds called flavonoids, which are thought to benefit the heart.The University of East Anglia is using a specially formulated form of chocolate which contains more flavonoids than usual.This compensates for the fact that many flavonoids are destroyed in the process of turning cocoa into chocolate.Soy - another source of flavonoids - has also been added to the special bars.The scientists are testing the theory that adding flavonoids to the diet may give added protection against heart disease on top of that provided by prescription drugs.Deaths due to heart disease among women increase rapidly after the menopause and having type 2 diabetes increases this risk by a further three-and-a-half times.If the trial confirms the hypothesis then it ...
More About: Chocolate , Diabetes , Risk

Use of Hypertension Drugs Leads to Hip Bone Loss in Older Men
2008-04-18 09:28:00
Powerful diuretics, commonly prescribed drugs for heart failure and hypertension, can also steal calcium from the bones and cause significant bone loss in men taking them, study finds.Between 2000 and 2002, Dr. Lionel S. Lim of Griffin Hospital, in Derby, Connecticut and colleagues tested the bone mineral density levels of 3,269 men older than age 65. Patients received follow-up examinations about 4.6 years later. The researchers collected data on medication use and found that 84 men were continuous users of loop diuretics, 181 were intermittent users and 3,004 were non-users.At the end of the study, the researchers found that the average annual rate of decline in total hip bone mineral density was -0.78 among continuous users, -0.58 among intermittent users and -0.33 among nonusers.?Compared with rates of hip bone loss among non-users of diuretics, adjusted rates of loss were about twofold greater among intermittent loop diuretic users and about 2.5-fold greater among continuous lo...
More About: Drugs , Leads , Loss , Hypertension , Bone

Early Dementia Often Caused by Autoimmune Disorders
2008-04-16 18:35:00
Dementia in patients who are younger than 45 years of age is often caused by degenerative, metabolic or autoimmune diseases, Dr. Brendan Kelley, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told attendees at the 60th annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, being held this week in Chicago.Kelley and colleagues searched the Mayo Clinic database for patients who began to develop dementia between 17 and 45 years that was not related to trauma, brain infections or mental retardation. They identified 235 such patients receiving care between 1996 and 2006. The average age at dementia onset was 34.7 years.Neurodegenerative causes accounted for dementia in 29.8 percent of the group, frontotemporal dementia occurred in 13.2 percent and Alzheimer 's disease was seen in less than 1 percent," data presented by Kelley showed.Autoimmune-inflammatory causes, including multiple sclerosis, accounted for 21.2 percent. Inborn errors of metabolism were identified in 10.6 percent.At the last ...
More About: Dementia , Early , Disorders

Hypertension Prevents Migraines
2008-04-16 18:33:00
Despite being the cause of many serious health problems, high blood pressure seems to have great benefits when it comes to migraines, as new research showed.Dr. Eling Tronvik of the Norwegian National Headache Center at Trondheim University Hospital in Norway and his colleagues found that high blood pressure seems to reduce the chances of migraine, besides decreasing the quantum of chronic pain in other parts of the body.It was long believed that migraines and other types of headaches are more common among people with high blood pressure, but studies conducted in the 1990s did not support this belief.?This is a paradox. Several earlier studies have linked increasing blood pressure to a decrease in chronic pain in general, and this study suggests that the same is true for migraines,? Dr. Tronvik told WebMD.The study?s data included information on blood pressure, use of blood pressure medications and headache frequency for 51,353 adults living in Norway in the 1980s and 1990s.The bigg...
More About: Hypertension , Blood pressure

Pneumonia 'linked' to pollution
2008-04-16 18:27:00
High levels of pollution may have contributed to the deaths of thousands of people in England from pneumonia in recent years, a study suggests.A team at the University of Birmingham examined death rates from the disease and pollution levels in 352 local authorities between 1996 and 2004.Writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, they reported a "strong correlation" between the two.But the researchers conceded that social factors may also be at play.Calculations were made by looking at how many deaths there were in each locality in excess of the national average.These figures were then cross-checked with a range of pollutant levels, including engine exhaust emissions.Culprit carIn total, 386,374 people died of pneumonia during the eight years examined, but there were significant regional variations. Lewisham in London had the highest number of deaths per head, Berwick-on-Tweed the least.In the 35 local authorities with the highest rates of pneumonia, there were 14,7...
More About: Pollution

Satisfactory Sex Can Be Achieved In A Matter Of Minutes
2008-04-16 18:22:00
Survey findings released this week dispel the commonly held fantasy that satisfactory sex requires a significant time commitment. The survey, conducted at Penn State by the Society for Sex Therapy and Research, revealed that satisfactory sex for couples typically lasts 3 to 13 minutes. Movies, television, books and the internet have convinced many couples that if they aren?t having sex ?all night long:? their sexual life is in the pits and they are missing out on something significant.The survey included information garnered from psychologists, physicians, social workers, marriage/family therapists and nurses who have collectively seen thousands of patients over a period of several decades. According to the survey data, 3-7 minutes of intercourse is categorized as ?adequate,? 7-13 minutes is ?desirable,? 1-2 minutes is ?too short? and 10-30 minutes is ?too long.??A man?s or woman?s interpretation of his or her sexual functioning as well as the partner?s relies on personal beliefs de...
More About: Matter , Sexuality , Minutes

Cell Phones Bad For Your Health ? Again
2008-04-07 07:51:00
We?ve heard the pros and cons before, but a new Australian study claims cell phones could be worse for your health than smoking or asbestos.It?s the issue that won?t go away. Are cell phones detrimental to your health? Will the electromagnetic radiation cause brain tumors? Studies have said yes, studies have said no.Now a new paper from a staff specialist neurosurgeon at the Canberra Hospital and associate professor of neurosurgery with Australian National University Medical School, Vini G. Khurana, entitled "Mobile Phones and Brain Tumors ? A Public Health Concern", looks at the results of previous reportage in both the academic and popular press.Khurana?s warning is quite dire:?It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking, and directly concerns all of us, particularly the younger generation, including very young children.?The latency time, he believes, ?may be in the order of 10-20 years.? He feels that ?the link between ...
More About: Cell Phones , Cancer , Cell

Emotion Makes Nose a Sharper Smeller
2008-03-31 14:06:00
Know how a whiff of certain odors can take you back in time, either to a great memory or bad one? It turns out emotion plays an even bigger role with the nose, and that your sense of smell actually can sharpen when something bad happens.Northwestern University researchers proved the surprising connection by giving volunteers electric shocks while they sniffed novel odors.The discovery, reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science, helps explain how our senses can steer us clear of danger. More intriguing, it could shed light on disorders such as post-traumatic stress syndrome."This is an incredibly unique study," said Dr. David Zald, a Vanderbilt University neuroscientist who studies how the brain handles sensory and emotional learning. "We're talking about a change in our perceptual abilities based on emotional learning."Scientists long have known of a strong link between the sense of smell and emotion. A certain perfume or scent of baking pie, for instance, can raise memo...
More About: Nose , Emotion

Sex Ed Can Help Prevent Teen Pregnancy
2008-03-31 13:47:00
Comprehensive sex education may help reduce teen pregnancies without increasing levels of sexual intercourse or sexually transmitted diseases.So find U.S. researchers who reviewed data from a 2002 national survey of more than 1,700 heterosexual teens, ages 15 to 19.There is ongoing debate about whether abstinence-only education or comprehensive sex education (including instruction in birth control) is best for students. Study lead author Pamela Kohler, a program manager at the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues found that about 25 percent of teens received abstinence-only education and about two-thirds received comprehensive sex education. About 9 percent - particularly teens from poor families and those in rural areas - received no sex education at all. The researchers found that teens who received comprehensive sex education were 60 percent less likely to get pregnant or to get someone pregnant than those who received no sex education. Other results - not statisti...
More About: Pregnancy , Sexuality , Sex Education

Calorie Count to Appear Soon on New York Menus
2008-02-19 18:39:00
Did you hear that beginning March 31, all chain restaurants in New York City will have to prominently post calorie data on their menus?Indeed, as noted here previously, the city's Board of Health voted unamimously last month to require this information in the hopes that it will help combat obesity, as CNN and CSPI pointed out.About 54 percent of adults in New York City are overweight or obese.The new regulation applies to restaurants with 15 or more outlets nationwide ? or about 10% of all New York City restaurants.This move has the backing of a number of health groups. In fact, the The Obesity Society just came on board to show support.Not surprisingly, New York's restaurant lobby is against this requirement, and the group even filed a lawsuit suit last summer to stop it. (One of their arguments was that listing calories would make menus look too cluttered. Forgive me for smiling, but that strikes me as a somewhat ludicrous excuse.)While it may be useful for New Yorkers - and peo...
More About: Count , New-York

Study Ffinds Long Term Heavy Use of Cell Phones Does Increase Cancer Risk
2008-02-19 18:38:00
It's not uncommon that studies done on the same subject often come to vastly different conclusions; and studies on the link between increased risk of cancer and cell phone usage are no exception.A study published last year in American Journal of Epidemiology has shown that frequent cell phone users face a 50 percent higher risk of developing certain types of tumors. Specifically the risk of developing parotid tumors is increased by 50 percent. The parotid is the largest salivary gland and is located near the jaw and ear where cell phones are typically held.A 50 percent increased risk of cancer sounds very serious, and any increased chance of cancer should be taken seriously. However, if you stand back and look at the actual numbers the chance of getting a tumor from using a cell phone is still incredibly minute.A study performed by Mark Kidd showed that in heavy cell phone users the risk of parotid tumors increased from 0.003 percent to 0.0045 percent.In September of 2007 DailyTech...
More About: Cell Phones , Cancer , Study , Phones , Cell

Obesity Increases Cancer Risk, Analysis Of Hundreds Of Studies Shows
2008-02-19 18:38:00
Researchers from the University of Manchester, Christie Hospital and University of Bern in Switzerland have today published findings in the Lancet medical journal which further support the link between obesity and risk of developing cancer.Following on from findings reported by the World Cancer Research fund last year, the study reveals that risk is increased not only in common cancers such as breast, bowel and kidney, but also in less common cancers such as blood cancers (myeloma and leukaemia) and melanoma (a form of skin cancer).Dr Andrew Renehan and colleagues from the University of Manchester and Christie Hospital, did a meta-analysis (a combined analysis of 221 previous studies), looking at over 250,000 cases of cancer, to determine the risk of cancer associated with a 5kg/m2 increase in body mass index (BMI).The researchers found in men, a 5kg/m2 increase in BMI raised the risk of oesophageal adenocarcinoma by 52%, thyroid cancer by 33%, and colon and kidney cancers each by ...
More About: Studies , Analysis , Obesity , Risk

Many Prostate Cancers Will Not Need Treatment
2008-02-18 18:37:00
One of the largest studies of its kind concludes that most older men with early prostate cancer do not shorten their survival odds if they adopt a "wait-and-see" approach to the disease.In fact, most such patients will die of other causes or they simply won't develop any complications from the cancer, the researchers found."Many elderly men with lower risk cancer may do well with conservative management," concluded study author Grace Lu-Yau, a cancer epidemiologist at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, and an associate professor at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and School of Public Health."Each patient facing a treatment decision has to ask himself what is the potential survival benefit of various treatments and the potential side effects of various treatments, then compare this potential risk of side effects with the potential risk of cancer complications if the cancer is left untreated - and ask themselves which treatment option is their personal preference," Lu-Yau s...
More About: Treatment , Prostate Cancer , Prostate

High Blood Pressure on Increase Among American Women
2008-02-11 18:35:00
Uncontrolled hypertension rates are on the increase among American women, and the prevalence of this major risk factor for heart disease and stroke among American men is still not as low as it should be, a new survey shows."Blood pressure that is higher than optimal is among the leading two or three risks for cardiovascular disease, if not the leading one," said Majid Ezzati, an associate professor of international health at the Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of the report in the Feb. 12 issue of Circulation.About one in five American adults has "uncontrolled high blood pressure," defined as a systolic pressure - the higher number of the 140/90 reading - above 140, according to the state-by-state survey. Data from two major ongoing studies, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, was used in the survey.The incidence of uncontrolled high blood pressure had been declining steadily for decades into the 19...
More About: Women , High , Hypertension

Scientists Reprogram Human Skin Cells Into Embryonic Stem Cells
2008-02-11 18:33:00
U.S. scientists say they've reprogrammed human skin cells into ones with the same blank-slate properties as embryonic stem cells, a breakthrough that could aid in treating many diseases while sidestepping controversy.Human embryonic stem cells have the ability to become every cell type found in the human body. Being able to create these cells en masse and without using human eggs or embryos could generate a potentially limitless source of immune-compatible cells for tissue engineering and transplantation medicine, said the scientists, from the University of California, Los Angeles.The researchers genetically altered human skin cells using four regulator genes, according to findings published online in the Feb. 11 edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences.The result produced cells called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, that are almost identical to human embryonic stem cells in function and biological structure. The reprogrammed cells al...
More About: Skin , Scientists , Stem Cells , Stem

Sugar Substitutes May Contribute to Weight Gain
2008-02-11 18:32:00
Surprising research suggests a popular artificial sweetener has the unexpected and unwelcome effect of packing on the pounds.Purdue researchers report that saccharin altered the ability of rats to control their appetites. However, the head of an artificial sweetener trade group scoffed at the findings, saying they don't necessarily translate to humans."We found that the rats that were getting artificially sweetened yogurt gained more weight and ate more food," said study author Susan Swithers, an associate professor of psychological sciences at the Ingestive Behavior Research Institute at Purdue University. "The take-home message is that consumption of artificially sweetened products may interfere with an automatic process."That process, she said, involves the body's ability to detect that it will soon be full. "We often will stop eating before we've been able to absorb all of the calories that come from a meal. One of the reasons we might stop eating is that our experience has t...
More About: Weight , Sugar , Obesity , Contribute

Pre-Chewed Baby Food Said to Transmit H.I.V.
2008-02-07 18:31:00
Researchers have identified another way that babies can be infected with H.I.V. ? through food pre-chewed by an infected parent or caretaker.Although thousands of babies have been infected in the United States over the last 15 years, pre-chewed food has been documented as the cause of just three cases, federal epidemiologists said here Wednesday.But such transmission may not be so rare, Dr. Kenneth L. Dominguez?s team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at the 15th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.Pre-chewing food apparently occurs among many groups in this country and elsewhere. So transmission of H.I.V., the AIDS virus, to infants may be an unrecognized problem in developing countries where dental care is lacking, commercially prepared baby foods and blenders are not available and parents and caretakers may need to soften foods, Dr. Dominguez said in an interview.His team said there were several reasons for reporting the three cases, dat...
More About: Baby , Food

Study: Cell Phone Use Affects Sperm Count, Quality
2008-02-07 18:31:00
A recent study concluded that extended cell phone use may affect the number and quality of the male sperm count. This would significantly diminish a man's fertility, making it much harder to produce a baby.Experts from a Cleveland Clinic explained that, according to their findings, the count and quality of produced male sperm is inversely proportional to the frequency of their use of the cell phone.Measurements done from an experiment revealed that men who use their cell phones for four or more hours a day produced the lowest sperm count, as well as the least visible sperm, reported dbTechno.Dr. Ashok Agarwal, the study's lead researcher, said that they noticed a "significant decrease in the most important measures of sperm health with cell phone use and that should definitely be reflected in a decrease in fertility."Fox News said that the scientists are relating the decreased count and quality of sperm to the electromagnetic energy produced by the cell phones. They theorized that...
More About: Phone , Study , Cell Phone , Cell , Count

Scientists Create Three-parent Embryos
2008-02-05 18:28:00
British scientists have created human embryos with three parents in a development they hope could lead to effective treatments for a range of serious hereditary diseases within five years.Researchers from Newcastle University, in northern England, presented their findings at a medical conference at the weekend, a university spokeswoman said on Tuesday.The IVF, or test-tube, embryos were created using DNA from one man and two women.The idea is to prevent women with faults in their mitochondrial DNA passing diseases on to their children. Around one in 5,000 children suffer from mitochondrial diseases, which can include fatal liver, heart and brain disorders, deafness, muscular problems and forms of epilepsy.If all goes well, researchers believe they may be able to start offering the technique as a treatment in three to five years.Mitochondria are tiny power packs inside cells that provide their energy. Faulty genetics can mean mitochondria do not completely burn food and oxygen, leadi...
More About: Scientists , Stem Cells , Create , Parent

Smokers Sleep Less Soundly
2008-02-05 18:28:00
Smokers are four times more likely to feel tired when they wake up and they spend less time in deep sleep than nonsmokers do, a new study finds.This may be because smokers experience nicotine withdrawal each night, which may contribute to sleep disturbances, suggest the study authors, whose report appears in the February issue ofChest."It is possible that smoking has time-dependent effects across the sleep period. Smokers commonly experience difficulty falling asleep due to the stimulating effects of nicotine. As night evolves, withdrawal from nicotine may further contribute to sleep disturbance," study author Dr. Naresh M. Punjabi, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, said in a prepared statement.Punjabi and colleagues studied the sleep patterns of 40 smokers and 40 nonsmokers. They found that 22.5 percent of smokers reported a lack of restful sleep, compared with only 5 percent of nonsmokers. Smokers also experienced a lower percentage of deep sleep and a h...
More About: Smoking , Sleep , Smokers

A Daytime Nap Can Boost Memory
2008-02-04 06:24:00
A 45-minute midday nap can help boost your memory and remember facts, but only if you learned them well in the first place, a new study suggests.This type of memory is called "declarative memory" and applies to standard textbook learning and knowledge, in contrast to "procedural memory," which applies to skills. Sleep appears to help "set" these declarative memories and make them easier to recall, the researchers said."Sleep appears to have an impact on what is learned well, but not so much when one is not motivated to learn," said lead researcher Matthew A. Tucker, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School's Center for Sleep and Cognition.For the study, 33 people were trained with certain declarative memory tasks. After the training, 16 took a non-REM nap, while 17 stayed awake and watched a movie. Later the same day, all the participants were tested. The tests included memorizing words, memorizing a maze and memorizing a complex line drawing.Tucker's team found that over t...
More About: Memory , Boost , Daytime

Exercise Really Can Make You Younger, Study Shows
2008-01-30 08:28:00
The study suggests that 30 minutes of moderate exercise five times a week has significant benefitsPeople who take exercise are biologically younger - by up to nine years - than those who don?t.This striking finding may explain why exercise reduces the risk of heart attacks, diabetes, cancer, and other degenerative diseases. It actually suggests that active adults have cells that are measurably ?younger? than those of inactive ones.A team from King?s College London looked at biological molecules called telomeres that act as a clock, measuring the passage of the years. Telomeres are the caps at the end of the chromosomes, designed like the tips of a shoelace to protect them from damage.In youth, telomeres are long, but they get shorter as we age, leading to a growing risk of damage. In the new study published in Archives of Internal Medicine the King?s team, together with colleagues from New Jersey, have shown that active people have longer telomeres than inactive ones.They used data ...
More About: Study , Exercise , Make

Diuretics Best for Hypertension and Metabolic Syndrome
2008-01-30 08:24:00
Diuretics appear to be as good or better than other blood pressure drugs for treating hypertension in patients with metabolic syndrome, especially black patients, according to a U.S. study.People with hypertension and metabolic syndrome are at high risk for complications of cardiovascular disease.Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Cases Medical Center in Cleveland analyzed data from the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT).It included 42,418 people with hypertension and at least one other risk factor for cardiovascular disease who were randomly assigned to take either the diuretic chlorthalidone (15,255), the calcium channel blocker amlodipine besylate (9,048), the alpha-blocker doxazosin mesylate (9,061), or the ACE inhibitor lisinopril (9,054).Each drug was used to start treatment, and other drugs were added if necessary to control blood pressure. The majority of patients were followed for an aver...
More About: Syndrome , Hypertension , Blood pressure

Critical Things to Know about Your Cholesterol
2008-01-28 07:20:00
How's your cholesterol? Here's a guess: If you're healthy, you probably have no idea. New surveys show women tend to be clueless about their risks of heart disease, especially when it comes to managing their cholesterol.High cholesterol can lead to clogged coronary arteries, which can cause heart attack and stroke.But this kind of ignorance is anything but bliss. The reason: The artery clogging that makes heart disease the Number One killer of women late in life begins much earlier - in your 20s, 30s, and 40s - and that's when your cholesterol numbers may be sounding alarms. So, are you ready to start paying attention? Here, the things all women need to know now.1. High cholesterol is surprisingly common. Researchers with the Framingham Heart Study recently delivered a nasty surprise: Nearly a quarter of women in the study who are in their early 30s have borderline-high levels of bad cholesterol, as do more than a third in their early 40s and more than half in their early 50s. A...
More About: Things , Cholesterol , Critical

Can Yogurt Really Boost Your Health?
2008-01-25 12:54:00
One of the hottest food marketing trends these days involves adding live bacteria to dairy products as a way to boost health.A lawsuit challenges the health claims of Activia,a probiotic yogurt.Dannon claims Activia can help regulate your digestive system.Now lawyers have filed a class-action lawsuit against yogurt maker Dannon, one of the biggest sellers of “probiotic” yogurts, saying the claims of a health benefit dupe consumers. The company’s Activia and DanActive line of yogurt products contain live bacteria and claim to help regulate digestion and boost the immune system. The suit, filed in United States District Court in California, seeks redress for consumers who purchased the yogurt products based on what it says are “bogus claims.'’“Deceptive advertising has enabled Dannon to sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ordinary yogurt at inflated prices to responsible, health- conscious consumers,” said Los Angeles attorney Timothy G. Blood, of the firm Cou...
More About: Health , Yogurt , Boost

US Company Claims Cloned Humans, Made Stem Cells
2008-01-23 12:02:00
A California company said on Thursday it used cloning technology to make five human embryos, with the eventual hope of making matched stem cells for patients. Stemagen Corp. in La Jolla, California, destroyed the embryos while testing to make sure they were true clones. But the researchers, based at a fertility center, said they believed their ready source of new human eggs would make their venture a success.Other experts were skeptical about the claims, published in the journal Stem Cells . If verified, the team would be the first to prove they have cloned human beings as a source of stem cells, the master cells of the body.There are several types of stem cells. Embryonic stem cells, made from days-old embryos, are considered the most powerful because they can give rise to all the cell types in the body.The Stemagen team said they got five human embryos using skin cells from two adult men who work at the IVF center. They said they had painstakingly verified that the embryos were clo...
More About: Company , Made , Cloned , Claims

Seawater Seems to Beat Medicine in Fighting Colds
2008-01-22 12:27:00
There is no cure for the common cold, but researchers might have found a safe and simple way to reduce a child?s symptoms and the chance of recurrence: wash out the nose with seawater.In a study published Monday in The Archives of Otolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery, scientists assigned 289 cold or flu patients ages 6 to 10 to be given a nasal wash three times a day with water from the Atlantic Ocean that had been commercially processed but retained seawater?s trace elements and minerals.As comparison, a group of 101 children used ordinary over-the-counter cough and cold medicines. Their symptoms were tracked over three months.Patients on the saline treatment used fewer over-the-counter medicines, had fewer breathing problems and other cold symptoms, and reported fewer illnesses and school absences. The differences were statistically highly significant.The authors acknowledge that the study was not blind and that the results depended in part on self-reporting by patients. The work...
More About: Medicine , Cold , Fighting , Beat

Quick Guide to Syphilis
2008-01-15 13:26:00
8 Facts About Syphilis Everyone Should KnowNew genetic evidence supports the theory that Christopher Columbus and his crew brought syphilis to Europe on the way back from their 1492 exploration of the Americas.Following are facts about syphilis:Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the the Treponema pallidum bacterium. Because its symptoms mimic those of other diseases, it is often called "the great imitator."Syphilis starts out with a painless sore at the site of infection, which often disappears without treatment.Weeks later, a rash appears that can cover any part of the body, including the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. This may be accompanied by fever, fatigue and aches and pains. These signs appear and disappear for up to a year.In the tertiary stage, the bacteria may spread to internal organs including to the brain, causing numbness, paralysis, deafness and dementia. It may also cause heart trouble, including an inflammation of the aorta or heart ...
More About: Guide , Quick