Concerns over the future of children's health care in British general practice
...teenage clinics. He believes that the new contract does not encourage general practitioners to focus on children's care. It offers additional remuneration based on a points system, but child health surveillance gets just six points. In contrast, cervical screening can get 22 points, mental health work 41 ...Major review of subway systems suggests potential for significant health and safety hazards
... frightening aspect of this type of crime, when it does occur, is its utter randomness. In one study, 100% of the victims were complete strangers to the perpetrators. While the randomness and suddenness of this type of crime make prevention a challenge, Dr. Gershon points out that, as shown by the New Y...Plant derivative attacks the roots of leukemia
... called Gleevec, is effective only to a degree. It does not reach the stem cells, so "you're pulling the weed without getting to the root," Jordan says. Feverfew has been used for centuries as an herbal remedy to reduce fevers and inflammation, to prevent migraine headaches, and to ease symptoms from arth...UCLA study shows that people drink less alcohol as they age
...e. The study asked the following questions: How does drinking behavior (drinking vs. abstention) change over time? What are the differences in demographic characteristics among people with different longitudinal drinking patterns? How do age, period, and cohort influence alcohol consumption over time...Hormone therapy increases risk of urinary incontinence
...ealthy postmenopausal women, indicate that MHT use does not confer protection against any type of UI. On the contrary, both CEE alone and CEE + MPA increased risk of new onset UI among continent women and worsened the characteristics of UI among symptomatic women. Considerations regarding the use of hormo...Potential drug target for treating cocaine abuse found
...than cocaine which, they speculate, may be why it does not have a stimulating effect. Between 2 million and 3.2 million people in the United States about 1 percent of the population - use cocaine, according to estimates. Of this number, more than 550,000 are crack users. In 2002, 1.5 million Americans w...When the brain, not the ears, goes hard of hearing
...ientists sort out the findings. Normally the brain does a masterful job of filtering, sorting, and making sense of the information that flows through our senses every day the colors and shapes we see, the textures of the objects we feel, the sounds ranging from the cooing of children to the screech of ti...Celecoxib safe for short-term use in patients with cirrhosis
...airment in kidney function. As a result, the study does not offer information about the safety of these drugs when administered for long-term therapeutic purposes. "In summary," say the authors, "the current study indicates that naproxen, but not celecoxib, administered during a short period of time, ad...UIC offers new weight loss surgery for obese teens
...egnancy. Placement of the adjustable gastric band does not require any cutting or stapling of the stomach or bypass of the intestines. The band can also be removed at any time, unlike irreversible gastric bypass surgery, and the stomach returns to normal. In studies, the mortality rate for the LAP-BAND s...Exercise therapy builds strength, mobility in MS patients
...tients," Uitdehaag says. Exercise therapy probably does not affect the disease process itself, according to co-author Dr. Gert Kwakkel. He says exercise may help "patients learn to compensate (for) their existing deficits. Systematic physical training may reduce disuse, in particular for those who suffer ...Researcher explores ways to make hypnosis a more effective therapeutic technique
...r project, the research indicates that instruction does indeed help people respond better to hypnotic suggestions. By speaking with subjects and letting them watch how others perform under hypnosis, "we can get at least half of initially low-hypnotizable subjects to test as high hypnotizing subjects," Lyn...Jefferson scientists uncover potential trigger of diabetic kidney disease
...reasing CD36 levels, we'd like to find out if this does cause the apoptotic pathway with co-existing diabetes," Dr. Sharma says. He notes that there is some evidence showing that CD36 might be involved in vascular damage in diabetes and lead to atherosclerosis. It might play an important role not only in ...Brain-scanning technologies need standards, according to Stanford researcher
...e staggering. "When a subject goes into the study, does he or she know it might not be a medical professional who looks at the brain images?" Illes said. Another issue that research subjects may not realize is that if a benign tumor is found during a scan and listed on their medical records, it could alte...Study finds new designer drug is potent treatment for chronic myelogenous leukemia
... that causes them to grow too quickly. However, it does not bind very tightly to this protein, and patients can develop a resistant type of Bcr-Abl that no longer binds to Gleevec at all. Using rational drug design to circumvent these shortcomings, researchers at Novartis determined the crystal structure...Stem-cell research hints at better looking cosmetic and reconstructive surgery
...r constructing the implant. The stem-cell approach does not require extensive surgery because cells needed for the implant are obtained in a less invasive needle procedure. Whitaker investigator Jeremy Mao, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at Chicago presented his results at the annual meeting of the ...HIV patients may be at risk of heart problems when taking protease inhibitor drugs
...ances. Implications of the Findings "In no way does it mean patients shouldn't receive protease inhibitors," says Andrew Badley, M.D., associate director of Mayo Clinic's Program in Translational Immunovirology and Biodefense. "It just means clinicians need to be aware of this new risk we've found, ...No increase in C-sections when epidural analgesia given early in labor
Injecting spinal-epidural analgesia in early labor does not increase cesarean delivery rates and provides better pain relief and a shorter duration of labor than systemic opioid analgesia, according to an article by Northwestern University researchers published in the Feb. 17 issue of The New England Jour...Hormone therapy controversy raises drug safety issues
...ace of such strong evidence that, at a minimum, HT does not help the postmenopausal woman beyond the osteo...ts. "Physicians have learned that hormone therapy does provide relief to their patients," the authors write. "How can a drug that does such immediate good,...Small increases or 'blips' in HIV levels do not signal mutations leading to drug-resistant HIV
...er of blood, or persists upon repeated testing, it does not signal that the virus has mutated, or changed form. True drug resistance requires changes in therapy which can be very difficult for the patient, says Siliciano. Different combinations of medications can have toxic side effects, such as lipid ...Another look finds promising proteomics test is not biologically plausible
...eds of proteins from a single sample. In short, it does this by using an electric current to propel ionized proteins toward a detector. The number of ions hitting the detector at each mass-to-charge ratio (also known as m/z ratio) is recorded to produce a protein spectrum. A peak in the graph of the spect...