Health News Today

(Queen's University Belfast) Babies delivered by Caesarean section have a 20 percent higher risk than normal deliveries of developing the most common type of diabetes in childhood, according to a study led by Queen's University Belfast. »»»

All patients in England suffering from a disease which causes blindness will get access to a sight-saving drug after all. »»»

A human exoskeleton robotic suit is helping people paralysed from the waist down to stand, walk and climb stairs. »»»

Cancer services risk missing out on money because the funding system is not sophisticated enough, a report says. »»»

Doctors are keeping cancer patients in the dark about expensive new drugs that could extend their lives, a poll shows. »»»

A new technique involving magnets could cut the cost of making cancer and arthritis drugs. »»»

Distributing Aids drugs in Malawi has massively cut the death rate, an official says. »»»

A breakfast fry-up every day raises the risk of bowel cancer by 63%, researchers have calculated. »»»

Mixed feelings about new-style health centres »»»

A comprehensive guide to clinical conditions »»»

North Korea has reportedly invented a noodle that delays hunger, amid UN warnings of possible famine. »»»

(UT Southwestern Medical Center) Terminally ill rodents with type 1 diabetes have been restored to full health with a single injection of a substance other than insulin by scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center. »»»

(American Society for Microbiology) The following are tips from the journals of the American Society for Microbiology: "New Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizer May Minimize Viral Transmission, Including Norovirus"; "New Oral Vaccine May Protect Against Bubonic Plague"; and "Oral Administration of Lactobacillus from Breast Milk May Treat Common Infection in Lactating Mothers." »»»

(University of California - Davis) Troubled children hurt their classmates' math and reading scores and worsen their behavior, University of California, Davis research shows. »»»

(Children's Hospital Boston) Leaky, twisted blood vessels in tumors often prevent chemotherapy drugs from reaching their target. Children's Hospital Boston researchers have found that tumor capillary cells, unlike their normal counterparts, are hyper-contractile and respond abnormally to physical and mechanical cues, producing irregularly-shaped capillaries and creating gaps between cells that caused vessel leakiness. A protein called Rho-associated kinase is the likely culprit; inhibiting its function normalized the tumor cells' mechanical responsiveness, as well as blood vessel architecture. »»»

(University of Colorado at Boulder) The University of Colorado at Boulder is teaming up with a Boulder biotechnology company to use pythons, which dramatically increase their heart size for a short time after swallowing prey, as models for new therapeutics to treat cardiac diseases. »»»

(Temple University) Medical school students and residents are all ears this fall as they get ready to show off their heartbeat listening skills. The United States Medical Licensing Examination board has phased in an audio portion testing the ability to recognize and identify heart murmurs. »»»

(US Pharmacopeia) The US Pharmacopeial Convention today announces a new drug safety tool designed to help patients, caregivers, pharmacists, physicians and others in avoiding medication errors that may occur because of drug names that look alike and/or sound alike. This "Drug Error Finder" is a searchable database of almost 1,500 commonly used drugs reported to be involved in medication mix-ups in the US health-care system since 2003. »»»

(Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News) Borrowing and sharing of prescription medications is a serious medical and public health concern. A survey of nearly 7,500 women of reproductive age found that this is common practice among more than one-third of this population, according to a report published online ahead of print in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. »»»

(Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News) Reflecting the expanding scope of chronic disease care and the impact of economic, social, cultural, and environmental factors on health care systems and practices, DMAA: The Care Continuum Alliance and publisher Mary Ann Liebert Inc. have renamed the peer-reviewed journal of DMAA Population Health Management. »»»