Policy highlights from Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition
...ual harm to people to take action. "The committee offers a science-based approach by which the FDA can use different kinds of available data to better evaluate the safety of supplement ingredients, such as in vitro studies or information on similar substances" said Dr. Joseph Lau, professor at the Tufts Un...UCLA study shows Medicaid costs can shrink
...ed for readers with low health literacy, the guide offers easy-to-understand information on more than 50 common childhood medical issues, from fevers and minor scrapes to chicken pox and head lice. Head Start parents were surveyed about their family's health-care habits three months prior to the training an...'Use it or lose it' warning rings true when it comes to exercise
... lose it, fitness experts tell us. Now a new study offers evidence that the adage really does ring true that a lack of exercise can not only cause physical setbacks, but also psychological setbacks as well. Researchers looked at the exercise habits of a group of older adults with chronic ob...Gaining health while giving back to the community
...xpensive for the short-term health improvements it offers volunteers, when potential benefits for students and possible long-term benefits are factored in, the program could be highly cost-effective, say Hopkins researchers. This study, published in the same issue of the Journal as a companion to the Hopki...Older people recover from disabling events at higher rate than previously thought
...t of the National Institutes of Health. "Our study offers good news to older people: the chance of recovery ... of the American Medical Association . "This study offers new and compelling evidence that becoming disabled in old age is not necessarily a life sentence," s...Carnegie Mellon interactive-video DVD helps teens avoid sexually transmitted diseases
...e consequences of each of the girl's decisions and offers alternatives. The DVD, which is specifically targeted at girls who are sexually active, is based on research into adolescent sexual decision-making by members of the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon. "For a lot of girls,...HeartScore(R): New tool for cardiovascular disease risk prediction and management
.... A fully functional computer program, HeartScore offers significant advantages over former static risk chart formats, by providing physicians with a fully interactive piece of software that they can run from their PC and with which they can save patient records for future monitoring and comparison. Physi...Institute of Medicine Advisory: April 1 public briefing on safety of dietary supplements
...inds of data that FDA can use to assess safety and offers guidelines for determining the significance of the evidence available on a particular substance. Given that supplements are assumed, rather than proven, to be safe before they are marketed, FDA does not need direct evidence of harm to humans to take...UCSF Medical Center palliative care experts mentor health care organizations in end-of-life care
...ice at UCSF Medical Center. "Our leadership center offers hospitals the expertise, technical assistance and skills necessary to jump start these programs." Visiting healthcare teams will get information on everything from financial and operational dimensions of establishing a palliative care program to ...March/April 2004 Annals of Family Medicine tip sheet
... qualitative and quantitative research, the report offers an objective understanding of what patients want and need from their personal physicians and from America's health care system, and it identifies challenges and opportunities for the specialty of family medicine. The Future of Family Medicine: A C...Mayo Clinic researchers discover gene mutations that 'ignore' stress, lead to heart failure
...t cells, 2) tests the idea in human beings, and 3) offers convincing evidence that miscommunication of stress signals distresses the heart and plays a role in susceptibility to heart failure. This work differs from most research into genetic causes of heart failure which has identified defects in proteins ...Medical societies report critical care crisis in United States
...o overcome these challenges, the FOCCUS task force offers the following recommendations for the critical care medical profession: adopt common standards for critical care to ensure uniformity, promote quality, and rationalize resources; use information technology to promote standardization and improve effi...Nanotech imaging, molecular fingerprints and signatures hold promise for cancer
...nimize the incision," Kobayashi said. "This method offers hope of improving the quality of life after surgery by limiting the surgery and perhaps negating the need for further painful chemotherapy when metastasis is evident to be contained within the sentinel node and not in downstream lymphatic structures....Researchers: Diet a significant factor in reducing risk of three common cancers
...ils. Canola oil is richer in alpha-tocopherol and offers the added benefit of being lower in saturated fat. To achieve optimum serum levels of *- and *-tocopherols, Weinstein recommends following the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department o...Niche and higher margin esters to counter price erosion and commoditization
...hnical challenges and drivers affecting growth and offers comprehensive analysis of cutting-edge developments in the market. The study also evaluates upcoming applications in the personal care, food, and industrial end-user markets. Executive summaries and interviews are available to the press. If you are i...Mount Sinai to offer NearVision CK
...or of the Mount Sinai clinical trials for CK. "CK offers a safe, effective and minimally invasive procedure that helps people over 40 to overcome the aging of their eyes."...UCSD pharmacologists collaborate on new approach to drug design
...omuscular and cognitive disorders, the new process offers the potential for development of more potent drugs with fewer side effects. Published in a recent issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) (February 10, 2004), the study described how the AChE molecule, serving as a surface,...Key to proper blood vessel growth in eye and ear discovered
...owth in the light-detecting retina. The work also offers the first proof that nature has site-specific growth signals that could one day be exploited to treat a variety of diseases in which blood vessels -- or the need for new ones -- play important roles, such as in cancer, heart disease and stroke. In t...Radiation therapy effective for some patients with recurrent cancer after radical prostatectomy
...aggressive features, and that salvage radiotherapy offers the possibility of cure for a substantial proportion of patients with a rapid PSADT and high-grade cancer." (JAMA. 2004;291:1325-1332. Available post-embargo at JAMA.com )Editor's Note: For information on the funding of this study and the financial......nosed and treated in a timely manner. The article offers information on population size, the annual number of sleep studies performed, the range of wait time experienced, and the problem of the mismatch between demand and capacity. (In sleep apnea, an individual repeatedly stops breathing long enough to d...