More than 3 percent of US teens have exchanged sex for money or drugs
...s, reveals a large representative survey published ahead of print in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections. The authors analysed in depth interviews of more than 13,000 adolescents taking part in a study tracking the long term health of adolescents across the country (National Longitudinal Study of...Infants, as early as six months, do see errors in arithmetic
...ay. The findings were published this week online ahead of publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They provide clarity to the scientific debate that surfaced soon after Karen Wynn, a Yale University psychologist, first published her results in Nature (Dec. 31, 1992), said Mich...Low literacy increases risk of death and misunderstanding of medical consent forms
...he forms that allow patients to state their wishes ahead of time with regard to medical treatment and end-of-life care. "We did not design the modified consent process in order to write a paper, but because we wanted to protect patients who were enrolling in our trial," says Sudore. "Studies have shown ...Only poor pay and low status of pediatrics helped women doctors buck discrimination
...veals a brief history of the profession, published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. It was also a young specialty, and therefore risky, and was less popular with their male colleagues. Women were barred from training as junior doctors at the major hospitals, and the renowned Gre...Increased odds of rheumatoid arthritis in women smokers without genetic risk factor
...actors for the disease, reveals research published ahead of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory disease in which the patient's immune system attacks the joint linings. It is the most serious and debilitating form of arthritis. Interaction b...Prebiotics can cut development of skin allergy in babies at high risk
...h risk of the disorder, suggests a study published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood . Human breast milk contains natural prebiotics (oligosaccharides), which promote the growth of bacteria, such as lactobacilli and bifidobacteria that boost the development of a healthy immune system...Doctors treating pain from circumcision more seriously
... brief surgical procedure. "This is a large leap ahead in how physicians are trained to perform circumcisions, which at 1 million annually, is the most common surgical procedure," said Daniel Yawman, M.D., M.P.H., a pediatrician at Golisano Children's Hospital at Strong and Rochester General Hospital. Ya...Aggressive heart pacing may work best in some spinal cord patients
... symptoms, we found it's much more important to go ahead and put that transvenous pacemaker in and keep them stable." While the researchers suggest rapid preventive action in patients with recurring episodes of bradycardia, strict treatment guidelines for these patients can't yet be developed because of ...Demand for community nurses grows
...o stay intheir home. "But there's a need to look ahead to see how we can plan for theincreasing demand for services in the future," she says. "Clients are being discharged from hospitals earlier these days. Themajority of people we interviewed for our research were receiving wound care, but community n...High humidity is a risk factor for heart attack deaths among the elderly
...tack among the elderly, reveals research published ahead of print in Heart. The researchers analysed all reported deaths in Athens for the whole of 2001 and looked at daily weather reports from the National Meteorological Society on temperature, pressure levels, and humidity for the same year. The tota...Chocolate, wine, spicy foods may be OK for heartburn, Stanford study finds
...t hearing her words. What does she say to them? Go ahead and eat chocolate. Indulge your passion for spicy cuisine. Drink red wine. Enjoy coffee when you want it, have that orange juice with breakfast and, what the heck, eat a grapefruit, too. Gerson says that for most heartburn patients, there's insuffici...Cheap pedometers should no be used for public health measures, warn doctors
...are inaccurate, warn doctors in a report published ahead of print in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. They base their findings on almost 1000 pedometers, tested out by 35 volunteers between 20 and 60 years of age. Each volunteer was given 30 cheap pedometers as well as a sophisticated automated s...Job loss late in career doubles chances of heart attack and stroke
...eart attack or stroke, suggests research published ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The researchers base their findings on participants in a nationally representative health and retirement survey in the US, which involved more than 12,500 people from almost 8000 households. Ba...Cherry juice reduces muscle pain induced by exercise
...uced by exercise, suggests a small study published ahead of print in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Many approaches have been used to try and stave off muscle pain and damage after exercise, but few have been effective, say the authors. Fourteen volunteers were asked to either drink fresh cherry...Eighth International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant
...edia@mercury2006.org for help arranging interviews ahead of time or during the conference. Please note that specific content related to the abstracts and presentations at the Eighth International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant will remain strictly embargoed until the day of the scientific sess...Smokers with heavily lined faces run five times the risk of progressive lung disease (COPD)
...se, or COPD for short, suggests research published ahead of print in Thorax. COPD is an umbrella term for a range of progressive chronic lung diseases, such as emphysema and bronchitis, which block the airways and restrict oxygen flow around the body. In excess of 1 million people are thought to have COPD ...Four out of five head lice resistant to common treatment
..., finds a study of Welsh schoolchildren, published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. The most common types of treatment for head lice in the UK are organophosphates (malathion) and pyrethroids (permethrin and phenothrin), which act directly on the insect's nervous system. These ...Risk of infertility in women triples after common inflammatory bowel disease surgery
...se ulcerative colitis, suggests research published ahead of print in the journal Gut. The authors base their finding on an extensive trawl of print and online research archives, and a detailed analysis of eight published studies. Infertility was defined as a failure to conceive after 12 months of trying. U...Vitamin A deficiency linked to major intestinal surgery
...min A deficiency, suggests a small study published ahead of print in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. ...vitamin A into the muscles. But the other two went ahead with this treatment, which prompted an improvement in their vision within days. Vitamin A deficiency...New contrast agents may be on horizon for better medical imaging
...s. "We have a lot of potential research directions ahead of us," he said. "I think one of the directions this is going to take is exploring its use at the molecular level with various types of other high-resolution imaging systems. And if it's of interest for use within humans in the end, all of the pharma...