Health News Today

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A third runway at Heathrow Airport would be "very detrimental" to Londoners' health, the new head of the Environment Agency says. »»»

(Harvard Medical School) Asthmatic children whose parents have high expectations for their ability to function normally are less likely to have symptoms than other children dealing with the condition. »»»

(Stanford University Medical Center) Hospitalized kids with painful ailments from broken bones to cancer are often dosed with strong, painkilling drugs known as opiates. The medications block pain, but they can have nasty side effects. Constipation, for instance, is one side effect that can cause discomfort and even extend a child's hospital stay. »»»

(Children's Hospital Boston) A new blood test may help detect serious bacterial infections (such as meningitis and bloodstream infections) in infants with fevers that have no clear cause -- and may spare many infants from unnecessary spinal taps and antibiotics, which are typical in routine evaluations. »»»

(Lifespan) Free prescription drug samples distributed to children may be unsafe, according to a study by physicians from Cambridge Health Alliance and Hasbro Children's Hospital. »»»

(American Cancer Society) A new analysis finds considerable disparities in survival related to race and socioeconomic status among patients with head and neck cancer. »»»

(American Chemical Society) The American Chemical Society News Service Weekly Press Package contains reports from 36 major peer-reviewed journals on chemistry, health, medicine, energy, environment, food, nanotechnology and other hot topics. »»»

(American Association for Cancer Research) Some bacteria may help protect against the development of a type of esophageal cancer, known as adenocarcinoma, according to a new review of the medical literature. These bacteria, which are called Helicobacter pylori, live in the stomachs of humans. »»»

(Temple University) Recent figures from the HEALTHY Study, a nationwide effort led by Temple University to curb obesity and type 2 diabetes in middle school students, found vending machines beverages had added sugars, high calorie 100 percent fruit juices, and snacks over 200 calories. »»»

(Rockefeller University Press) Caswell et al. report in the Journal of Cell Biology how the altered behavior of integrins can prompt metastatic movement in tumor cells. »»»

(Duke University Medical Center) A little exercise goes a long way toward helping severely obese individuals improve their quality of life and complete important daily tasks, according to researchers at the Duke Diet and Fitness Center. »»»

(Washington University School of Medicine) Scientists report online this week in Nature that they have linked the health of specialized gut immune cells to a gene associated with Crohn's disease, an often debilitating and increasingly prevalent inflammatory bowel disorder. »»»

(Society for General Microbiology) Chemicals used in the environment to kill bacteria could be making them stronger, according to a paper published in the October issue of the journal Microbiology. Low levels of these chemicals, called biocides, can make the potentially lethal bacterium Staphylococcus aureus remove toxic chemicals from the cell even more efficiently, potentially making it resistant to being killed by some antibiotics. »»»

(Salk Institute) If the current financial climate has taught us anything, it's that a system where over-borrowing goes unchecked eventually ends in disaster. It turns out this rule applies as much to our bodies as it does to economics. Instead of cash, our body deals in energy borrowed from muscle and given to the brain. »»»

(Temple University) Research out of Temple University finds that obese women face a significantly higher number of barriers to exercise than their normal weight counterparts. »»»

Women miss out on the best contraception for them because of false beliefs and fears, a snapshot survey finds. »»»

A major study has proved a single dose of chemotherapy is the best way to cure testicular cancer in many patients. »»»

Hospitals have been warned not to over-dilute cleaning chemicals amid fears that this could boost antibiotic resistance in bacteria. »»»

Genetic variations which predispose people to a common inflammatory bowel condition have been uncovered by a team of German and UK researchers. »»»