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Bowel cancer, coffee and diabetes: Two new studies

Australian researchers have identified a link between type 2 diabetes in men and a significantly increased risk of bowel cancer, triggering calls for diabetics to have regular checks.

31 Aug 2011

Guatemalan Syphilis study in 1940’s violated ethical standards: US presidential commission report

The U.S. presidential commission has found that U.S. government researchers violated ethical standards by deliberately infecting Guatemalan prison inmates and mental patients with syphilis for an experiment in the 1940s. This research did not treat Guatemalan participants as human beings and failed to inform them they were taking part in research study, calling into question the bioethics behind the study design.

31 Aug 2011

HPV vaccination drives to prevent cervical cancers

Mexico plans to administer the vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cervical cancer, to all girls beginning next year, the country's health ministry said Tuesday.

31 Aug 2011

Older dads have a higher risk of having kids with mental disorders: Study

According to a new study children of older fathers have genetic changes associated with autism and other brain disorders. As of now this is seen only in lab mice. Professor John McGrath of the Queensland University’s Brain Institute and colleagues report their findings today in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

31 Aug 2011

Infant rotavirus vaccination may provide indirect protection to older children, adults in the U.S.

Vaccinating infants against rotavirus also prevents serious disease in unvaccinated older children and adults, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

31 Aug 2011

Victims of intimate partner violence more likely to develop mental health disorders

Victims who suffer violence at the hands of a spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend, or other intimate partner aren't only brutalized physically; they also suffer disproportionately higher rates of mental health distress, according to a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

31 Aug 2011

Harassment, discrimination can contribute to mental disorders in African-American gay or bisexual men

The harassment, discrimination and negative feelings about homosexuality that black gay and bisexual men often experience can contribute significantly to mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety, a small new study finds.

31 Aug 2011

Scientists using molecular epidemiology to diagnose and track disease outbreaks

The New York Times examines "new methods of quickly sequencing entire microbial genomes that are revolutionizing the field" of molecularly epidemiology and could help public health officials identify and track disease outbreaks.

31 Aug 2011

Parental stress strongly associated with DNA methylation in children

Researchers at the University of British Columbia and the Child & Family Research Institute have shown that parental stress during their children's early years can leave an imprint on their sons' or daughters' genes - an imprint that lasts into adolescence and may affect how these genes are expressed later in life.

31 Aug 2011

Roundup: Laid-off IT workers in Conn. prepare for health jobs

Julie Michaelson has spent five years working on her hospital's information technology system. ... Mary McAward worked for years in data processing before being laid off. ... Both are taking federally funded courses at Capital Community College, part of a national effort to educate more than 10,500 people in the electronic systems that, after years of discussion, are poised to become commonplace in medicine. That means jobs, to build, install and maintain the systems.

31 Aug 2011

Racial, ethnic and poverty disparities in human papillomavirus vaccination completion

Barriers that hinder young African-American, Hispanic and poor women from completing a series of three vaccinations to prevent human papillomavirus infection (HPV) also leave them at higher risk for cervical cancer and death.

30 Aug 2011

Study may help explain plague's rapid evolution and aid in development of therapeutics

In the evolutionary blink of an eye, a bacterium that causes mild stomach irritation evolved into a deadly assassin responsible for the most devastating pandemics in human history. How did the mild-mannered Yersinia pseudotuberculosis become Yersinia pestis, more commonly known as the Plague?

30 Aug 2011

Few treatment options for growing population of drug users in Afghanistan

The New York Times examines the "growing drug addiction problem" in Afghanistan, where, in 2010, about 900,000 people, or seven percent of the adult population, were using drugs, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

30 Aug 2011

New book on Health Informatics

University of Illinois professor Bruce Schatz, a faculty member at the Institute for Genomic Biology, has co-authored a groundbreaking book on Health Informatics, based on his popular computer science course.

30 Aug 2011

Tel Aviv University develops Facebook app to track the spread of infections

From SARS to swine flu, virus outbreaks can be unpredictable - and devastating. But now a new application through the ubiquitous social networking site Facebook, developed in a Tel Aviv University lab, is poised to serve as a better indicator of how infections spread among populations.

30 Aug 2011

Ivabradine reduces heart volume among patients with cardiac insufficiency

As guest speaker at the European Society of Cardiology's Congress currently under way in Paris, Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, Director of the Montreal Heart Institute's Research Centre and professor of medicine at the Universit- de Montr-al, today presented the results of an analysis demonstrating that ivabradine, a medication used to reduce heart rate, also reduces heart volume (left ventricle) among patients with cardiac insufficiency.

30 Aug 2011

Vitamin A supplements in children could save up to 600,000 lives a year: Study

Researchers have found that giving vitamin A supplements to children under the age of five in developing countries could save up to 600,000 lives a year. Writing in the British Medical Journal, UK and Pakistani experts assessed 43 studies involving 200,000 children, and found deaths were cut by 24% if children were given the vitamin. They add that it would also cut rates of measles and diarrhea.

30 Aug 2011

Men reluctant to use sunscreen- survey

A new survey claims that less than half of men use sunscreen of at least factor 15 to protect their skin from damage.

30 Aug 2011

Chocolate for the heart - benefits revealed

A comprehensive analysis of previous studies including more than 114,000 subjects has shown that high levels of chocolate consumption are associated with a significant reduction in the risk of certain cardiovascular disorders.

30 Aug 2011

Governor Perry attacked for choosing new medical treatment

Recently, the governor of Texas and presidential hopeful had a bad back treated by injecting some of his very own fat cells, after they had been cultured and treated in a laboratory. The innovative use of a patient’s own adult stem cells is showing great promise in many conditions, including damaged joints.

29 Aug 2011