Health News Today

Men who climax prematurely may be able to blame their genes, work suggests. »»»

How flying doctors are saving lives in south-east England »»»

A comprehensive guide to clinical conditions »»»

People in the west of Scotland are more likely to get lung cancer than the rest of the UK, a report says. »»»

The parents of a girl suffering from a rare speaking disorder give details about her condition to raise awareness. »»»

Alcohol can be a boon or a bane for health. The difference lies in the dose - a little is good, a lot is bad. But the dividing line between a little and a lot differs from person to person. It depends on many things, including sex. Women are more vulnerable than men to alcohol??™s long-term effects, reports the October 2008 issue of the Harvard Heart Letter. Women break down alcohol more slowly than men do. If a woman and a man drink identical glasses of wine with the same meal, she will have a higher blood level of alcohol, and for a longer time. This means her tissues are exposed to more alcohol per drink than a man??™s. Results from a study in Japan suggest that too much alcohol is bad for a woman??™s heart and arteries, and earlier work shows it can be hazardous to breast tissue too. What constitutes ???healthy drinking???? Current guidelines say it is one to two drinks a day for men and no more than one a day for women, notes the Harvard Heart Letter. »»»

For decades, children of all ages have consumed fruit juice as part of their school foodservice meals or in the lunches they have toted from home. 100 percent fruit juice was then, and is still today, a healthful beverage that can serve as a daily fruit serving. Recently, however, some parents have become confused about 100 percent juice??”how much to drink, how much to serve their children??”partly because of the natural sweet taste of fruit juice. The majority of research on juice shows that it definitely contributes important nutrients to the diet and is clearly not the reason for childhood obesity. The two latest studies published on this topic were published in the American Medical Association??™s June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine and the July/August issue of the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine (AJLM).  »»»

With a long-held commitment to continuously improving the quality and safety of patient care, Mayo Clinic researchers are recommending a new technologically-advanced labeling system aimed at reducing specimen labeling errors in a high-volume gastrointestinal endoscopy center. That conclusion is based on the results of a study they are presenting at the 2008 American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) Annual Meeting. ???The Gastroenterology and Colorectal Surgery outpatient endoscopy unit at our facility yields over 30,000 specimen bottles that are sent for pathologic review every year,??? says Dawn Francis, M.D., the lead author and a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic. ???Over the past several years, Mayo Clinic identified some issues with mislabeling of tissue specimens in the units. Most labeling errors have been due to either the wrong patient label or no label being affixed to a specimen bottle. As a result, a quality improvement initiative was created to reduce the number of specimen-labeling errors.??? This study used a technology, radio-frequency identification (RFID), to track biopsy specimens taken during gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures and to automate identification. An RFID tag can be applied to or incorporated into an object so that it can be identified by using radio waves. Radio-frequency identification is used in other settings, such as libraries or passports, as an automated tracking system. This is its first application to track specimens in a health care setting.  »»»

(Oregon Health & Science University) The National Institutes of Health has awarded $4 million to a group of Philippine and American scientists led by Oregon Health & Science University to aid in the discovery of new molecules and biofuels technology from marine mollusks for development in the Philippines. »»»

(American Thoracic Society) Intensive Care Unit doctors seeking to balance the complex needs of their patients and the patients' families may make an imperfect compromise, withdrawing life support systems over a prolonged period of time. This practice is much more common than previously believed, and is also surprisingly associated with higher satisfaction with care-at least among surviving family members. »»»

(American Thoracic Society) About two-thirds of children with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) -- snoring or obstructive sleep apnea -- have some degree of cognitive deficit, but the severity of the cognitive deficit has been notoriously difficult to correlate to the severity of the SDB, suggesting that other important issues may be at play, or that the right factors were simply not being measured. »»»

(Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions) A young child arrives at the emergency room after several days of abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea and is sent home with a diagnosis of viral gastritis and treatment for the symptoms. The child seems better for a while, only to return to the ER with worse symptoms and a ruptured appendix, a life-threatening complication of appendicitis. »»»

(Mayo Clinic) In the October issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, two articles authored by Mayo researchers address the issue of how to balance the risks and benefits associated with Multiple myeloma treatments. »»»

(Indiana University) Health care is playing a bigger role in this election than in any presidential contest in the past. "The combination of a sagging economy, increasing numbers of uninsured, and a disproportionately affected middle class may make this a tipping point," said Aaron Carroll, M.D, director of the Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research and associate professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. »»»

(Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International) A research study funded by JDRF suggests that a common intestinal bacteria may provide some protection from developing type 1 diabetes. The findings provide an important step towards understanding how and why type 1 diabetes develops in people, and may lead to potential cures. »»»

(NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute) An NIH team led by Drs. Francis Collins and Elizabeth Nabel finds an anti-cancer drug can reverse cardiovascular disase in mice with progeria. »»»

(The Gerontological Society of America) There is often a lack of adequate communication between health care providers and those facing terminal conditions, according to a series of articles in the latest issue of The Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences (Vol. 63, No. 3). »»»

(Society of Nuclear Medicine) Four Japanese researchers were awarded the 2008 SNM Wagner-Torizuka Fellowship, and are currently studying in the United States through 2010 as part of the two-year program. »»»

(Ohio State University) A new study reveals that the general appearance of a neighborhood is the single most important factor affecting how satisfied residents are about the area where they live. But beyond general appearance, people living in different neighborhoods may be looking at distinct factors when making their overall evaluations. »»»

(Howard Hughes Medical Institute) HHMI researchers have devised an ingenious way to the scan fetal DNA present in the mother's blood to determine whether the fetus' cells contain extra chromosomes associated with several types of severe birth detects, including Down syndrome. »»»