MRSA: Political point-scoring over hospital cleanliness ignores the real issue
...rtantly, however, comparisons with other countries show that even in US and Japanese hospitals--which are prized for their cleanliness--MRSA thrives. The Lancet comments: "This tit-for-tat political posturing has certainly helped keep health in the public eye. But none of these policies reflect the real f...Charcoal and forest management could reduce greenhouse gas levels & save lives in Africa
...es in the distant future."The results of the study show that the best situation in Africa would be to transition from biomass fuels to petroleum-based fossil fuels such as kerosene and liquid propane gas, which can prevent between 1.3 and 3.7 million premature deaths, depending on the speed of transition....Exercise-induced shortness of breath not always caused by asthma
...bled by exercise-induced dyspnea (EID) but did not show other signs of asthma or were not responding to asthma medications. The team monitored respiration and heart function continuously while patients exercised on a treadmill vigorously enough to reproduce their usual symptoms. Sophisticated equipment al...Study shows soy is well accepted in school lunches
... at Illinois. "The goal of the ISOY program was to show that products made from soy ingredients can help reduce fat, cholesterol, and calorie in the lunches, and still be acceptable to the children." A major focus of the pilot program was demonstrating consumer acceptability of soy and soy-enhanced foods ...Hausman to give keynote address at 'Breastfeeding, Motherhood and Feminism' symposium
... she will probably not do it. Recent national data show that most women introduce formula early and do not breastfeed for very long, thereby decreasing the health benefits of the practice. Hausman's main research interests are sexed embodiment, feminist and gender theory, and cultural studies of medicine....Brain activity prior to treatment flags vulnerability to antidepressant side effects
...brain function and medication side effects, and to show a relationship between brain function changes during brief placebo treatment and later side effects during treatment with medication. The study's unique design compares brain function changes in healthy research subjects with no history of depression...Unexpected benefit seen in treating HER-2 breast cancer with new preoperative drug combo
...at although this combination of therapies seems to show better efficacy, as well as less risk of heart damage than has been seen before with Herceptin treatment, "the jury is still out on the long-term safety and outcome. As in all such studies, we will need to wait years to follow the progress of our pat......acid in prediction of CHD. Using all studies, they show that there is a very small role for uric acid in the prediction of disease but in the eight studies where all possible confounders had been removed this predictive role was lost. What this paper does not do is directly address the question of ...Professionalism and professional ethics in medicine
...ere rude to patients and families, and who did not show respect to the patient and family," writes Philip Greenland, M.D., editor of Archives of Internal Medicine, in an accompanying editorial. "The same study also suggested that practice volume, translating into less time available for each patient, was ...Bullying among sixth graders a daily occurrence, UCLA study finds
...roups and income brackets, Juvonen said. "Our data show that children are emotionally affected on the days...ates as the "coolest" in their classes; they don't show signs of depression or social anxiety, and do not suffer from low self-esteem.......ded to investigate if patients with those diseases show any clinically relevant changes in the pharmacokinetics of different statins at various doses. Finally, the author suggests a reexamination of the product labeling on statins, which currently calls for monitoring of liver biochemistries before and du...Researchers search for first sign of congestive heart failure
...you that before you have difficulty breathing, you show some signs that we could modify earlier and prevent you from going on to that," says Dr. Kapuku. The many unknowns about heart disease prompted Dr. Kapuku to leave his practice in the Congo, complete training in clinical cardiology and cardiovascular...Hopkins begins human trials with donor adult stem cells to repair muscle damaged from heart attack
...hs. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies, to show the size of the area of heart muscle scarred by the infarct and gauge the organ's ability to pump, will be conducted at the beginning and end of the study as a measure of heart function. Conclusive results will only be available when and if Phase II...Vaccine against childhood pneumonia shows promise
...ence of radiological pneumonia and is the first to show a reduction in hospital admissions and overall child mortality....Cardiac deaths peak in sleep hours for patients with sleep apnea
...y open. Dr. Gami says the team's findings not only show that patients with OSA are at much higher risk of cardiac death during sleep; they also indicate that the 6 a.m.-noon peak of cardiac deaths in the general population is even higher for those who don't have sleep apnea. "Because so many people have s...Opponents of needle-exchange programs should think about their message to drug users
...." Martin cites a number of alarming statistics to show the size of the drug problem. The number of IDUs is estimated to be between 1 million and 1.4 million. By mid-2000, 36 percent (270,721) of AIDS cases in the United States had occurred among IDUs, their sexual partners and their children, and these t...Targeting mutant B-Raf protein reduces melanoma development
...acids, or BAY 43-9006, a general Raf inhibitor, to show that lowering mutant B-Raf protein reduced melanoma development. "Reducing B-Raf activity in melanoma cells before tumors had formed significantly decreased the growth potential of the melanoma cells and, in effect, prevented tumor development," Rob...Why asthma sufferers struggle with the common cold
...ced viral replication lead to asthma? The authors show that the cells from asthma sufferers, although unable to produce IFN-beta, could still secrete pro-inflammatory molecules, that can recruit asthma-inducing cells into the lungs. Future experiments are planned to identify the causes the IFN-beta defe...New studies show mixed results on epilepsy drugs and birth defects
ST. PAUL, Minn. New studies show mixed results on the effects of epilepsy drugs taken during pregnancy. With a newer drug, lamotrigine, the risk of birth defects was similar to that in women without epilepsy. But long-time epilepsy drug valproic acid, or sodium valproate, does incre...New colorectal cancer screening recommendations for African Americans
...ts (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute show that during 19752000 colorectal incidence rates in White men and women peaked in 1985 and have declined since. In 2000 the incidence rates in White men and women were 2025 percent lower than peak rates in 1985 and 1015 percent lower than the rates i...