The history and controversy behind post-menopausal hormone therapy
...women who the authors say, "emerge as both willing participants and unwilling victims of the unintended consequences of these drugs." Post-menopausal HT began as, and is still prescribed as, a treatment to the severe to moderate symptoms that arise around menopause. It became a potential long-term therapy for th...'Marital strain' increases women's risk of death, heart disease
...eart disease. Researchers examined information on participants of the Framingham Offspring Study, a large, ongoin...ation." The researchers tracked the health of the participants for 10 years to determine if they developed heart disease or died. "Married men were heavier, older...Brain activity of men and women during hostile or impulsive acts differs less on nicotine
...or example, during one experiment, researchers had participants play a "hostility" game -- a game that allowed the winner to choose the loudness of a noise blasted at the losing player, with the opponent then having an opportunity to retaliate. The researchers found among all participants, behavioral responses di...New study tests amitriptyline for painful bladder syndrome
...ion people may suffer from this condition. The 270 participants will be randomly assigned to take up to 75 milligrams of amitriptyline or a placebo each day for 14 to 26 weeks. All will practice suppressing the urge to urinate for increasingly longer stretches until they can wait 3 or 4 hours before going to the ...Hormone therapy controversy raises drug safety issues
...d on research findings that small numbers of study participants suffered adverse affects. "Physicians have learned that hormone therapy does provide relief to their patients," the authors write. "How can a drug that does such immediate good, and that appeared to do such long-term good, be so wrong?" For hormone ...American Thoracic Society Journal news tips for February 2005 (second issue)
...ast once a day for 12 months, along with 271 young participants receiving placebo. According to the authors, montelukast delayed the median time to first exacerbation by approximately 2 months. It also significantly reduced the overall rate of corticosteroid use by almost 32 percent and the rate of inhaled cort...Researchers confirm Vioxx nearly doubled cardiovascular risks in cancer prevention study
...prospective chemoprevention study randomized 2,586 participants from 108 centers in 29 countries to receive either 25 mgs. of Vioxx daily or a placebo drug for three years, 2001-2004. The trial was stopped September 30, 2004 - approximately two months before its planned completion. According to Robert S. Bresalie...Mothers' exposure to air pollutants linked to chromosome damage in babies
...ch pregnant woman and her baby were exposed. Study participants exposed to air pollution levels below the average were designated as having "low exposure," while those exposed to pollution levels above the average were designated as having "high exposure." "We observed 4.7 chromosome abnormalities per thousand wh...No increase in sexual risk taking among gay men in HIV-study
...gators in Toronto and Montreal , found that 21% of participants engaged in the riskiest form of sexual encounter during the 6 months before enrollment. That level of risk-taking did not increase during 18 months of follow-up, even among men who at study entry thought the vaccine being tested might provide some pr...Changing trends in herbal supplement use
... supplements Americans were using. The 8,470 study participants were asked to identify all over-the-counter and prescription drugs, along with dietary supplements taken during the preceding seven days. The percentage of people using dietary supplements increased from 14.2 percent in 1998 1999 to 18.8 percent 200...COX-2 inhibitors associated with blood pressure elevation
... published before May 2004, with a total of 45,451 participants for whom blood pressure data were available. The m...ically important blood pressure elevation in study participants treated with COX-2 inhibitors versus those treated with NSAIDs or placebo. COX-2 inhibitors were ass...NHLBI study shows smoking cessation programs improve survival
... After five years, approximately 22 percent of the participants in the smoking cessation program were sustained qu...an have on public health, even if small numbers of participants successfully quit," said Gail Weinmann, MD, director of the NHLBI Airway Biology and Disease Program...Wine keeps women's hearts beating healthily
... attack or heart surgery for blocked arteries. All participants were asked to record their alcohol intake for one week after a year.. And after at least a year, a heart tracing (ECG) was taken over 24 hours during routine activities in all the participants, to test heart rate variability or HRV. HRV measures the ...14-year study finds that quitting smoking adds years to life
... smoking. The annual death rates were 8.8 per 1000 participants in the quit-smoking program and 10.4 per 1000 in t... caused substantial reductions in death rate." The participants in the study all had mild lung disease, which itself increases risk for more serious lung disease do...Herb used to treat diabetes works like modern-day prescription drugs, study suggests
...ause intestinal gas, the researchers had the study participants collect breath hydrogen samples hourly for eight hours after drinking the test beverage. The participants collected their breath in small plastic tubes. The researchers then analyzed these breath samples fo...International trial of two microbicides begins
...final group will not use any gel. In addition, all participants will receive condoms and extensive prevention counseling at each clinic visit. The trial is one of numerous studies conducted through NIH's HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), which is funded by NIAID, the National Institute of Child Health and Hum...Falling in love in three minutes or less
...earchers studied dating data from 10,526 anonymous participants of HurryDate, a company that organizes "speed dati...ers to optional questions about such things as how participants rate their own attractiveness and sexuality. "Although they had three minutes, most participants ma...High levels of airborne mouse allergen in inner-city homes could trigger asthma attacks
...at is seen in mouse research facilities. All study participants were also tested for mouse and other allergies, and nine children were found to be sensitized to mouse and 69.7 percent of children had at least one positive skin test to other common indoor and outdoor allergens. "Unfortunately, many clinicians do ...Study finds happiness persists, despite illness
...each two-hour period of an entire week, and prompt participants to report their mood at those random moments by co...." In fact, the researchers found that the healthy participants grossly underestimated the extent to which patients can adapt to dialysis. When asked to imagine tha...Herbal extract as effective as commonly prescribed anti-depressant
...te or severe depression. The researchers asked 301 participants of both sexes from German mental health centres to take part in the trial. The two drugs were taken by the patients aged 18-70 over a six week period during 2000 -2003. At the end of the trial half (61 out of 122) of those who took St John's Wort fo...