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Non-communicable disease epidemic a global problem

Later this month the United Nations will convene a high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases. The world's global health news has been so dominated by infectious culprits - HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, influenza - that it's easy to forget just how big a toll conditions like diabetes, cancer and heart and lung disease take say experts.

9 Sep 2011

‘Weight Watchers’ twice as effective in weight loss as standard care: Study

A new study published this Thursday shows that overweight patients told by their doctors to go to Weight Watchers lose around twice as much weight as people receiving standard weight loss care over 12 months.

9 Sep 2011

FDA panel votes 9-2 in favor of new blood thinner drug

A new stroke preventer from Bayer and Johnson & Johnson – Xarelto moved one step closer to U.S. approval, but questions remained about restrictions on labeling and the need for more studies.

9 Sep 2011

NIH awards $12.8 million renewal grant for Louisville adult stem cell research project

At the time when Dr. Roberto Bolli received word that he was awarded a $12.8 million grant renewal from the National Institutes of Health for one research project, five patients in another of his clinical trials at the University of Louisville have reached the successful endpoint of their participation.

9 Sep 2011

Researchers create powerful anti-diabetic prototype drugs with lesser side effects

Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla., report they have created prototype drugs having powerful anti-diabetic effects, yet apparently free - at least in mice - of dangerous side effects plaguing some current diabetes medications.

9 Sep 2011

Autophagy also mobilizes and exports cholesterol from cells

Researchers at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) have discovered that an ancient pathway called autophagy also mobilizes and exports cholesterol from cells.

9 Sep 2011

U.N. member states reach tentative agreement on NCD declaration

U.N. member state representatives recently reached an agreement "on a political declaration document for the 19 September U.N. high-level meeting on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs)," although the document is "somewhat watered down from an original version," ScienceInsider reports (Reardon, 9/7).

9 Sep 2011

Longer looks: Unknowns in sports medicine; shackling pregnant prisoners

Medical experts say that multiple futile treatments is all too familiar and points to growing problems in sports medicine, a medical subspecialty that has been experiencing explosive growth. now researchers are questioning many of the procedures, including new ones that often have no rigorous studies to back them up. "Patients come in and say, 'I want the same thing that Tiger Woods had,' " said Dr. McDevitt, the sports medicine orthopedist in Maryland.

9 Sep 2011

InnoCentive, JDRF announce $100,000 Challenge to uncover solutions for insulin-dependent diabetes

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the worldwide leader for research to cure, treat, and prevent type 1 diabetes, and InnoCentive, Inc., the pioneer in open innovation and crowdsourcing, today announced a $100,000 Challenge calling for innovative ways to approach the discovery and development of a glucose-responsive insulin drug as a means to treat insulin-dependent diabetes.

9 Sep 2011

Blood levels of FGF-23 can help predict CKD patients at risk of heart problems

The blood levels of a particular hormone can help predict which kidney disease patients will develop heart problems, need dialysis, and die prematurely, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology.

9 Sep 2011

Mary Ann Liebert launches Games for Health Industry Insider

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers announces the launch of Games for Health Industry Insider , a new bi-weekly electronic newsletter offering up-to-the-minute industry news on health games-an emerging and increasingly adopted resource for healthcare.

9 Sep 2011

Weight Watchers more effective alternative to primary care for obese adults

A new, one-year global study published today in The Lancet indicates that overweight and obese adults referred to Weight Watchers, a community based provider of weight-loss services, lost more than twice as much weight when compared with those who received standard care.

9 Sep 2011

UOHI team identifies that autophagy also mobilizes and exports cholesterol from cells

Researchers at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) have discovered that an ancient pathway called autophagy also mobilizes and exports cholesterol from cells.

9 Sep 2011

HJF selects three promising USU doctoral students to receive 2011-12 fellowships

The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. has selected three promising Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) doctoral students to receive fellowships for the 2011-12 academic year.

9 Sep 2011

Simple universal test to detect Alzheimer’s early

A ten-minute memory test that gives early warning of Alzheimer’s in people as young as 50 is being piloted in GP surgeries. Using a touch-screen computer or an iPad, it can distinguish between normal forgetfulness and the more dangerous memory lapses that signal dementia in its earliest stages. If trials are successful, it could be in widespread use in under a year. The developer, Cambridge Cognition, said the mobile electronic test will allow GPs to access patients presenting memory problems more quickly, simply and accurately than with tradition paper-based tests.

8 Sep 2011

World Cancer Research Fund urges action to stop preventable cancers

According to the WCRF this Wednesday healthier lifestyles and better diets could prevent up to 2.8 million cases of cancer each year. The WCRF called upon governments to “avoid a public health disaster”.

8 Sep 2011

Angioslide introduces new 5x300mm PROTEUS device for treating Superficial Femoral Artery

Angioslide Ltd. announces the first procedures with its new 5x300mm PROTEUS device for treating the Superficial Femoral Artery. PROTEUS technology combines a Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty balloon and embolic capture of particles in one device. The new 5x300 mm size joins Angioslide's current dedicated product line solutions for the lower limbs.

8 Sep 2011

Legal, ethical and cultural barriers to child organ donations

Clinicians from a leading UK children's hospital have called for European countries to change the way they tackle the shortage of organ donations from children, after a review, published in the September issue of Acta Paediatrica, found a large number of legal, ethical and cultural barriers.

8 Sep 2011

'Chaperone' protein may play a critical role in pathogenesis of heart failure

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified a new drug target that may treat and/or prevent heart failure. The team evaluated failing human and pig hearts and discovered that SUMO1, a so-called "chaperone" protein that regulates the activity of key transporter genes, was decreased in failing hearts.

8 Sep 2011

Aggressive medical treatment without stenting better for high-risk stroke patients

An article appearing in the Sept. 7 New England Journal of Medicine, reporting on National Institutes of Health research on brain stents, says aggressive medical treatment without stenting is better for high-risk stroke patients.

8 Sep 2011