(AP) - Taiwanese director/actor Doze Niu, left, and his cast from, left to right, Taiwanese actor Mark Chao, Taiwanese actress Shu Qi, Taiwanese actress Ivy Chen, Taiwanese actress Amber Kuo and Taiwanese actor Ethan Ruan pose during a media event in the lead up to the premiere of their new film entitled 'Love' in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012. The romantic drama 'Love' opens on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)
(Reuters) - Publicist Jess Spokes poses as photographs of guests who will attend the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards ceremony on Sunday are displayed on seats at the Royal Opera House in London February 7, 2012. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett (BRITAIN - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT SOCIETY)
(AP) - The seating plan for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards is unveiled at the Royal Opera House, in Covent Garden, London, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012. The BAFTA awards will be held on Sunday, Feb. 12. (AP Photo/Jonathan Short)
(AP) - Taiwanese actress Shu Qi listens to questions during a media event in the lead up to the premiere of her new film entitled 'Love' in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012. The romantic drama 'Love' opens on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)
Mild Alzheimer's Might In Fact Be Mild Cognitive Impairment
New revised criteria could mean that a considerable number of patients currently diagnosed with mild or very mild Alzheimer's, might in fact be reclassified as having MCI (mild cognitive impairment), John C. Morris, M.D., of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, wrote in Archives of Neurology. The Alzheimer's Association, along with the NIA (National Institute of Aging) revised the criteria for MCI after convening a work group. The new criteria have considerably widened the meaning of functional independence, Dr. Morris explained...
Breast Cancer Drug Exemestane Causes Substantial Bone Loss
A recent study published in The Lancet Oncology shows how exemestane (Aromasin), a drug that prevents the development of breast cancer in postmenopausal women, may significantly worsen age-related bone loss. As an aromatase inhibitor, exemestane works by blocking the synthesis of estrogen, slowing down the growth of cancers that have estrogen receptors. Whilst the drug is effective at preventing the development of cancer, there has been an increasing concern about its effects on bone density and fracture risk...
Children Who Move House A Lot Have Higher Risk Of Illnesses Later
A study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health suggests that, moving house frequently during childhood appears to raise the risk of poor health in later life. The health of 850 individuals participating in the West of Scotland Twenty-07 study, which was based on postcodes, tracked the long term health of individuals aged 15, 35 and 55 in 1987-1988 over a period of two decades, was evaluated by the researchers...
Not Completing Teen Education Raises Risk Of Being On Benefits Later On
A study published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health reveals that adolescents are nearly three times more likely to be on benefits in the future if they drop out of school than those who complete their education. The researchers examined the self-rated health of nearly 9,000 Norwegian adolescents between the ages of 13 to 19, who were already participating in the Young-HUNT study between 1995 and 1997...
Finger Foods During Weaning Help Maintain Healthy Body Weight Later On
A study published in BMJ Open reveals that infants tend to eat healthier and be a healthy weight as they get older if they are allowed to feed themselves with finger foods from the start of weaning (baby led weaning), compared to infants who are spoon fed. According to the researchers, findings from the study indicate that baby led weaning may help prevent childhood obesity. Findings from the study were based on 155 children aged between 20 months and 6.5 years, whose parents filled out a survey regarding their children's food preferences and weaning style...
Gordon Taylor, head of the Professional Footballers' Association, calls the England manager's criticism of the decision to oust John Terry as England captain "bizarre and disappointing".
Green Tea Protects Against Functional Disability Linked To Aging
Regular green tea drinkers have a lower risk of developing functional disability, researchers from Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Functional disability refers to problems with daily chores and activities, such as bathing or dressing. As background information, the authors explained that prior studies had found that consuming green tea reduced the risk of diseases associated with functional disability, such as osteoporosis, cognitive impairment and stroke...
New evidence has been discovered by biologists at the University of Utah as to why people, mice and other vertebrate animals carry thousands of different genes to create major histocompatibility complex (MHCs) proteins, despite the fact that some of those genes make humans vulnerable to autoimmune diseases and infections. Findings from the study will be published online the week of February 6, 2012, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. MHC proteins are found on the surface of most cells in vertebrates and define an individual's tissue type...
Merck has announced positive results in a phase 3 trial of its insomnia drug. It's a key player in the companies up and coming products, especially considering the loss of patent protection on its top drugs for asthma and allergys. The experimental drug known as suvorexant, uses a new mechanism created to help people sleep, but at the same time aiming to mitigate side effects associated with popular sleep aids. Analysts think that annual sales of the drug could top $500 million within several years. Peter S...
Child Abuse - 4,569 Hospitalizations And 300 Deaths In One Year, USA
Child abuse injuries resulted in 4,500 hospitalizations and 300 fatalities in just one year in the USA, researchers from Yale School of Medicine reported in the journal Pediatrics. This is the first study that has quantified abuse severity and how many children ended up in hospital, the authors added. Child Protective Services had only tracked occurrence of child abuse at a national level. Dr. John M. Leventhal and team set out to find out what the incidence of hospitalizations due to child abuse among children under 18 years of age might be...
Lung Function At School Age Better Thanks To Breastfeeding
A study by researchers in Switzerland and the UK reveals that breastfeeding is linked to enhanced lung function at school age, especially in children born to asthmatic mothers. The study is published online ahead of print publication in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Claudia E. Kuehni, M.D...
Teen Secondhand Smoke Exposure Down, But Not Enough
Secondhand Smoke (SHS) exposure among middle and high school students in the USA has dropped over the last ten years, researchers from the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) reported in the March edition of Pediatrics. The authors explained that passengers in cars who accompany smokers run significant health risks, especially if they are children and teenagers. Even though exposure has gone down over the last decade, 22...
Somatosensory Neurons Remain Overactive After Exposure To Loud Noises
It is common knowledge that it takes a while for the hearing to become 'normal' again after listening to music that is too loud. The American Tinnitus Association estimates that there are almost 50 million people in the U.S. and millions more worldwide who suffer from tinnitus, which can range from being intermittent and mildly annoying to chronic, severe and debilitating. There is no cure for tinnitus...
Trevo® Pro System - Good Results In Restoring Function In Stroke Patients
Stryker has just announced the results of the TREVO Study at the International Stroke Conference in New Orleans. TREVO, (Thrombectomy REvascularization of large Vessel Occlusions in acute ischemic stroke) was designed to evaluate Trevo® System's ability to remove the blood clots that cause strokes, restoring the blood flow to the brain, and was one of the first prospective multi-center clinical studies of clot-removing stent retriever technology. The study involved sixty patients at seven leading European stroke centers. An independent core lab measured revascularization...
Disturbing Rates Of Child Abuse And Hospitalizations
In one year alone, over 4,500 children in the United States were hospitalized due to child abuse, and 300 of them died of their injuries, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a new study. The findings are published in the March 2012 issue of Pediatrics (published online Feb. 6). Several measures have been used to track the national occurrence of child abuse, including data from Child Protective Services. But until now none quantified the severity of the abuse or whether the child was hospitalized as a result. Led by John M. Leventhal, M.D...
In Heart Failure Treatment, Warfarin And Aspirin Are Similar
In the largest and longest head-to-head comparison of two anti-clotting medications, warfarin and aspirin were similar in preventing deaths and strokes in heart failure patients with normal heart rhythm, according to late-breaking research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2012. "Although there was a warfarin benefit for patients treated for four or more years, overall, warfarin and aspirin were similar," said Shunichi Homma, M.D., lead author of the study and the Margaret Milliken Hatch Professor of Medicine at Columbia University in New York...
Weight Management Programs For African-American Women Are More Successful If Held In A Church
As a brand new year gets underway, people all over America are resolving to better manage their weight and have a more healthy 2012. According to a new study, those starting new weight loss programs may be surprised to find out that both location and level of experience may influence their success...
The Risk Of Colon Cancer Could Be Reduced By Regular Use Of Vitamin And Mineral Supplements
Could the use of vitamin and mineral supplements in a regular diet help to reduce the risk of colon cancer and protect against carcinogens? A study published in the Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology (CJPP) found that rats given regular multivitamin and mineral supplements showed a significantly lower risk of developing colon cancer when they were exposed to carcinogens. "It has been unclear whether multivitamin supplementation to cancer patients is helpful, has no effect, or is even detrimental during therapy," commented Dr. Grant Pierce, Editor of CJPP...
Within Weeks Of Smoking Cessation, Coughing And Other Respiratory Symptoms Improve
If the proven long-term benefits of smoking cessation are not enough to motivate young adults to stop smoking, a new study shows that 18- to 24-year olds who stop smoking for at least two weeks report substantially fewer respiratory symptoms, especially coughing. The study findings are detailed in Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available online...
New Device Removes Stroke-Causing Blood Clots Better Than Standard Treatment
An experimental device for removing blood clots in stroke patients dramatically outperformed the standard mechanical treatment, according to research presented by UCLA Stroke Center director Dr. Jeffrey L. Saver at the American Stroke Association's 2012 international conference in New Orleans. The SOLITAIRE Flow Restoration Device is among an entirely new generation of devices designed to remove blood clots from blocked brain arteries in patients experiencing stroke...
Controlling Gene Expression With New RNA-Based Therapeutic Strategies
Small RNA-based nucleic acid drugs represent a promising new class of therapeutic agents for silencing abnormal or overactive disease-causing genes, and researchers have discovered new mechanisms by which RNA drugs can control gene activity. A comprehensive review article in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., details these advances. Short strands of nucleic acids, called small RNAs, can be used for targeted gene silencing, making them attractive drug candidates...
Tocagen Inc. has announced the publication of data showing the company's investigational treatment for high grade glioma eradicates brain tumors and provides a dramatic survival benefit in mouse models of glioblastoma. Almost all mice receiving the top dose of Toca 511 followed by 5-FC were still alive at 180 days, which was the termination date for the experiment, whereas all control mice died by day 43. The article was published in the February issue of the Neuro-Oncology journal...
Football Findings Suggest Concussions Caused By Series Of Hits
A two-year study of high school football players suggests that concussions are likely caused by many hits over time and not from a single blow to the head, as commonly believed. Purdue University researchers have studied football players for two seasons at Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Ind., where 21 players completed the study the first season and 24 the second season, including 16 repeating players. Helmet-sensor impact data from each player were compared with brain-imaging scans and cognitive tests performed before, during and after each season...
Cause Of Metabolic Disease Identified By Whole Exome Sequencing
Sequencing a patient's entire genome to discover the source of his or her disease is not routine - yet. But geneticists are getting close. A case report, published this week in the American Journal of Human Genetics, shows how researchers can combine a simple blood test with an "executive summary" scan of the genome to diagnose a type of severe metabolic disease. Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute used "whole-exome sequencing" to find the mutations causing a glycosylation disorder in a boy born in 2004...
A new way of opening blocked arteries in the brain using a removable stent system in people suffering strokes brought remarkably positive results in how those patients recovered from the strokes, according to a study presented at the American Stroke Association's annual conference in New Orleans. The interventional procedure was performed on more than 140 stroke patients at 18 medical centers throughout the United States...
Older people feel that their health problems pose a challenge to their sense of independence, dignity and identity and sometimes the health care they are given makes things worse. According to research funded by UK Research Councils' New Dynamics of Ageing programme (NDA), healthcare providers must avoid taking a 'blanket view' of how to help older people cope with the ageing process. The study carried out by Dr Liz Lloyd and her colleagues found that people were often surprised by the impact that illness and growing old had on their lives...
Disability Among Stroke Patients Not Improved By New Drug
A new drug that showed promise in animal studies and an early clinical trial didn't improve disability among stroke patients, according to late-breaking research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2012. After a stroke and other types of brain damage, the brain naturally produces more granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF). The protein can prevent further cell injury by protecting nerve cells and boosting blood vessel growth. The new drug, AX200, is a manufactured form of G-CSF...
Clopidogrel With Aspirin Doesn't Prevent More Small Strokes, May Increase Risk Of Bleeding, Death
The anti-blood clot regimen that adds the drug clopidogrel (Plavix) to aspirin treatment is unlikely to prevent recurrent strokes and may increase the risk of bleeding and death in patients with subcortical stroke according to late-breaking research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2012. Because of these preliminary results, researchers ended the anti-clotting part of the Secondary Prevention of Small Subcortical Strokes Trial (SPS3) in August 2011. The part of the study that examines the effect of high blood pressure treatments will continue...
