For couples seeking to overcome infertility by turning to assisted reproductive technology – which can be invasive and expensive – an increased risk of birth defects probably won’t stand in their way. Still, a study released Saturday by the New England Journal of Medicine may give some prospective parents a little something to think about as they mull their options for fertility treatment. ... (read more)
Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) has proved highly effective in alleviating type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and its complications compared with traditional medical treatment, according to a study published online today in Archives of Surgery. Frida Leonetti, MD, PhD, from the Policlinico Umberto I University of Rome Sapienza, Italy, and colleagues conducted a prospective cohort study involving 60 morb... (read more)
A new study suggests people who had certain kinds of dental X-rays in the past may be at an increased risk for meningioma, the most commonly diagnosed brain tumor in the U.S. The findings cannot prove that radiation from the imaging caused the tumors, and the results are based on people who were likely exposed to higher levels of radiation during dental X-rays than most are today. "It's likely that the e... (read more)
There’s good news for women with hysterectomies who are considering taking the hormone estrogen to ease hot flashes and other menopausal complaints. New results from a long-running government study of the effect of hormones on women’s health show that estrogen-only appears to cut a woman’s risk of getting breast cancer by about 20% and significantly reduces her risk of dying from the disease. Those benefits ... (read more)
Adding prebiotic ingredients to infant formula helps colonize the newborn's gut with a stable population of beneficial bacteria, and probiotics enhance immunity in formula-fed infants, two University of Illinois studies report. "The beneficial bacteria that live in a baby's intestine are all-important to an infant's health, growth, and ability to fight off infections,... (read more)
British health regulators said Tuesday that patients in Britain who received a specific type of all-metal artificial hip — one that was also used widely in the United States — should undergo annual examinations for as long as they have the device to make sure they are not suffering tissue damage or other problems. Previously, regulators in Britain urged that patients with “metal-on-metal” hips — in w... (read more)
Some people who undergo organ transplants lose their hearing as a side-effect of the antibiotics and immunosuppressive drugs they have to take. And while cochlear implants that restore hearing can raise the risk of getting ear infections and are thus not normally considered for patients with weakened immune systems, Kenneth Charles Iverson and Brian John McKinn... (read more)
Hi, everybody! Thanks for checking out my healthnoise.com profile. When I left my job in finance to go to medical school, I quickly learned that medicine is its own separate universe, and has its own language, culture and economy. Patients and even medical students often have no clue as to what doctors are talking about, and why they do what they do. I’m planning to discuss some topics on healthnoise.com that might help to get us all on th... (read more)
Cesarean sections are often performed when a baby is going to be born early. Likewise, sometimes labor is induced when a woman's water breaks too early in the pregnancy. However, two new studies suggest that these common practices may, in fact, not benefit babies. Both papers, presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, challenge conventional wisdom... (read more)
Man may not live by bread alone, but cancer in animals appears less resilient, according to a study that found chemotherapy drugs work better when combined with cycles of short, severe fasting. Even fasting on its own effectively treated a majority of cancers tested in animals, including cancers from human cells. The study in Science Translational Medicine, part of the Science family of journals, found that five out of e... (read more)
An international research team led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI MUHC) has made a major genetic breakthrough that could change the way pediatric cancers are treated in the future. The researchers identified two genetic mutations responsible for up to 40 per cent of glioblastomas in children -- a fatal cancer of the brain that is unresponsive to chemo and radiotherapy tr... (read more)
Patients with head and neck cancers who have been treated with newer, more sophisticated radiation therapy technology enjoy a better quality of life than those treated with older radiation therapy equipment, a study by UC Davis researchers has found. The findings, presented Jan. 26 at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium in Phoenix, is the first of its kin... (read more)
For the first time ever, stem cells from umbilical cords have been converted into other types of cells, which may eventually lead to new treatment options for spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis, among other nervous system diseases. "This is the first time this has been done with non-embryonic stem cells," says James Hickman, a University of Central Florida bioengineer and lea... (read more)
Among weight-loss surgery options, gastric bypass comes with more complications shortly after surgery than gastric banding, but makes up for it with fewer long-term side effects and repeat operations, new research suggests. People who got bypass surgery also lost weight faster, and more kept it off, in the study of more than 400 obese Swiss patients. "What we would like with any of the (weight-loss... (read more)
The number of U.S. children being hospitalized after nearly drowning is half what it was nearly two decades ago, according to a study that suggests public health campaigns about drowning risks may be working. Researchers, whose work was published in Pediatrics, found that hospitalization rates dropped for both boys and girls, and in all age groups, from babies to teenagers. The results are also c... (read more)
Transferring more than two embryos during an IVF cycle is a dangerous practice that does not improve a woman’s chances of delivering a baby, a European study finds. Researchers analyzed close to 125,000 in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles performed in the U.K. over a five-year period in one of the largest studies ever to compare outcomes in women younger than 40 to those of older women. The conclusion that there ... (read more)
Cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins may be linked to an increased risk of diabetes in middle-aged and older women, according to a U.S. study -- but researchers said the benefits of the drugs still make them valuable for people at risk. The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that among the thousands of women looked at, those who reported using any kind of statin at the sta... (read more)
Honing chemotherapy delivery to cancer cells is a challenge for many researchers. Getting the cancer cells to take the chemotherapy "bait" is a greater challenge. But perhaps such a challenge has not been met with greater success than by the nanotechnology research team of Omid Farokhzad, MD, Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) Department of Anesthesiology Perioperative and Pain Medicine and Research. In th... (read more)
The world's first monkeys to be created from the embryos of several individuals have been born at a US research centre. Scientists at the Oregon National Primate Research Centre produced the animals, known as chimeras, by sticking together between three and six rhesus monkey embryos in the early stages of their development. Three animals were born at the laboratory, a singleton and t... (read more)
Obese people who had weight-loss surgery were less likely to later suffer a heart attack or stroke, or to die from one, compared to people who did not have the surgery, according to a Swedish study. The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, come from a study of more than 4,000 obese people treated at 500 surgery departments and health care centers in Sweden. Between ... (read more)
Scientists may have a way to double the efficacy and reduce the side effects of radiation therapy. Georgia Health Sciences University scientists have devised a way to reduce lung cancer cells' ability to repair the lethal double-strand DNA breaks caused by radiation therapy. "Radiation is a great therapy -- the problem is the side effects," said Dr. William S. Dynan, biochemist a... (read more)
Clinical gene therapy may be one step closer, thanks to a new twist on an old class of molecules. A group of University of Illinois researchers, led by professors Jianjun Cheng and Fei Wang, have demonstrated that short spiral-shaped proteins can efficiently deliver DNA segments to cells. The team published its work in the journal Angewandte Chemie. "The main idea is these are ... (read more)
A new study finds that patients who are moved into isolation during a hospital stay are nearly twice as likely to develop delirium, a potentially dangerous change in mental status that often affects hospital patients. Patients who began their stay in isolation were not at increased risk. The study, published in the January issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society ... (read more)
The use of statin therapy was associated with a reduced risk for mortality among patients hospitalized with influenza during the 2007-2008 influenza season, according to new findings published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Seventy-six percent of patients reported use of statins before and during hospitalization; were more likely to be older white males; have CV, metabolic, ... (read more)
A single treatment with gene therapy, an experimental technique for fixing faulty genes, has been shown to boost output of a vital blood clotting factor, possibly offering a long-term solution for people with hemophilia B. Researchers said the same technology was also being studied as a treatment for hemophilia A, the far more common type of the inherited bleeding disorder. "It is a technique for pot... (read more)
Hormone Replacement Therapy, Immunotherapy, Surgical ablation, Venous access, General Anesthesia, Breast Surgery, Robotic Surgery, Oxygen therapy, Prostatectomy, Liposuction, Male Circumcision, Facial Rejuvenation, Stem Cell Therapy, Thoracocentesis, Tube thoracostomy, Catheter ablation, Breast Self-examination, Hip Replacement, Psychotherapy, Humor Therapy, Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy, Gene Therapy, Assisted Reproductive Technology, Residential Care, Transplant Surgery, Ligament Surgery, Knee Surgery, Chemotherapy, Induced Abortion, Laparoscopic Surgery, Inpatient Care, X-Radiation, Open Heart Surgery, Cesarian Section, Laser Surgery, Extracranial-Intracrannial Bypass, Cochlear Implant , Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, Radiotherapy, Fecal Bacteriotherapy, Heart Surgery, Bone Grafting, Bariatric Surgery, Gastric Bypass Procedure
© 2012 Healthnoise — All rights reserved.