Probiotics — or live microorganisms intended to boost health, such as the bacteria in some yogurts — have become popular items in vitamin stores and even many supermarkets. One of probiotics' most popular uses is in preventing and treating digestive problems. A new analysis of 82 earlier studies finds that probiotics have potential in alleviating the diarrhea that afflicts about one-third of people treated with an... (read more)
Making ultrasound or MRI part of the annual mammography regimen boosts breast cancer detection in women with dense breasts who are at elevated risk, but also increases false positives, a clinical trial affirmed. After the initial dual screening looking for prevalent cancers, incidence screening with ultrasound found an additional 3.7 cancers per 1,000 screens (P<0.001 ), Wendie A. Berg, MD, PhD, of Magee-Women... (read more)
Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to receive opioids for pain if they have mental health disorders, particularly posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), researchers said. Those with PTSD were nearly three times as likely to receive opioids for their pain as those without any mental health conditions (RR 2.58, 95% CI 2.49 to 2.67), Karen Seal, MD, MPH, of the VA Medical Center at the... (read more)
The speed someone walks may predict the likelihood of developing dementia later in life, according to researchers in the US. They also told a conference that grip strength in middle-age was linked to the chance of a stroke. The scientists said more studies were needed to understand what was happening. Experts said the findings raised important questions, but more research was needed. Suggestions of a link between s... (read more)
Breathing in dirty air may be linked to a higher chance of suffering a heart attack in the next few days, suggests a fresh look at past studies undertaken by French researchers. While it's well established that people who spend years living in polluted cities or near major highways are at increased risk of heart problems, the new findings suggest even short-term exposure to pollution can be harmful. "... (read more)
Antibiotics won't chase away patients' sniffles any faster than watchful waiting, researchers found. In a randomized trial, patients with acute rhinosinusitis had no differences in symptoms or quality of life three days after starting on amoxicillin compared with patients who received a placebo instead, Jay Piccirillo, MD, of Washington University in St. Louis, and colleagues reported in the Journal of the American Medic... (read more)
An analysis of lung and spleen tissue from patients who died of sepsis revealed certain biochemical, cellular and histological findings that were consistent with immunosuppression, according to a study in the December 21 issue of JAMA. "Sepsis is responsible for more than 225,000 deaths annually in the United States. Developing new therapies for sepsis has been particularly challen... (read more)
A new study suggests that in people with heart disease, eating too much salt is linked to a higher risk of heart-related hospitalizations and deaths -- but so is eating too little. The findings are the latest addition to the cloudy picture of the role of salt in heart risks, but the study's lead researcher said he believes they actually help make it clearer. "What we're showing is that the associati... (read more)
The brains of autistic children have far more neurons in the prefrontal cortex than the brains of kids without autism, finds a new study that could advance research into the disorder. "For the first time, we have the potential to understand why autism gets started," said study author Eric Courchesne, a professor of neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego School of Medic... (read more)
A surgery that seemed like an obvious way to prevent additional strokes in people who already had a first stroke is actually no better than therapy based on drugs alone, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. The surgery in question is called extracranial-intracrannial arterial bypass surgery. It was designed to improve blood flow in the internal carotid artery, one of... (read more)
A new study shows that organ transplant patients double their risk of developing 32 different types of cancer compared to the rest of the population. Originally reported by HealthDay News, the study from the U.S. National Cancer Institute shows that while cancer risk is heightened by receiving a transplanted organ, benefits of the procedure far outweigh the risk. “People need to understand that transplantation is o... (read more)
Screening for lung cancer with chest x-rays annually for four years does not reduce deaths from the disease compared with usual care, a large trial confirmed. Through up to 13 years of follow-up, the rate of lung cancer mortality was similar in the screening and control groups (14 per 10,000 person-years versus 14.2; RR 0.99, 95% CI 0.87 to 1.22), Paul Kvale, MD, of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroi... (read more)
Hospital stays for heart failure fell a remarkable 30 percent in Medicare patients over a decade, the first such decline in the United States and forceful evidence that the nation is making headway in reducing the billion-dollar burden of a common condition. But the study of 55 million patients, the largest ever on heart failure trends, found only a slight decline in ... (read more)
Women who took folic acid supplements in the first two months of pregnancy were less likely to have kids with severe language delays in a new study from Norway. Folic acid is already known to reduce the risk of certain types of birth defects, and both the U.S. and Canada fortify grain products with folic acid to make sure pregnant women get enough of it. But that's not the case in some other countries, ... (read more)
Men may need to begin colon cancer screening earlier than women, new research suggests. The study found that men were far more likely to have potentially precancerous lesions (also called polyps or adenomas) in their colon -- 24.9 percent of men compared to 14.8 percent of women -- and to have them at an earlier age. To continue reading, follow the link below.
According to a report in the September 21 issue of JAMA, an examination of almost 30 investigations consisting of over 300,000 patients discovered that depression is linked with a considerably increased risk of developing stroke and stroke-related death. "Stroke is a leading cause of death and permanent disability, with significant economic losses due to functional impairments. Depression is highly ... (read more)
A report published Online First by Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, revealed that the odds of dying appear to increase for patients treated at hospitals with higher proportions of minority trauma patients, however, racial disparities may offer some explanation for differences in outcomes between trauma hospitals. Previous research has shown that injuries are the thir... (read more)
JAMA, published continuously since 1883, is an international peer-reviewed general medical journal published 48 times per year. JAMA is the most widely circulated medical journal in the world. The online version is made freely available to institutions in developing countries. JAMA's 2010 impact factor is 30 (the impact factor is a measure of citation rate per article, and is calculated by dividing 1 year's worth of citations to a journal's articles published in the previous 2 years by the number of major articles [eg, research papers, reviews] published by that journal in those 2 years). JAMA's acceptance rate is approximately 9% of the nearly 6000 solicited and unsolicited manuscripts it receives annually.
© 2012 Healthnoise — All rights reserved.