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Number of sick days is influenced by neighborhood poverty

The number of days people stay home ill is influenced by neighborhood poverty and whether they receive subsidized health care, such as Medicaid, says a Purdue University urban sociologist.

4 Apr 2005

Why smokers lung is resistant to steroid treatment

UK researchers think they are close to finding the first effective treatment to fight one of the biggest killer diseases in the UK. Professor Peter Barnes will present the work at the British Endocrine Societies 2005 meeting in Harrogate.

4 Apr 2005

Mutations in the HFE gene directly associated with chronic joint disease

Mutations in the HFE gene, which is involved in iron regulation, seem to be directly associated with chronic joint disease (or haemophilic arthropathy) among haemophilic patients, claim a team of Portuguese scientists in the April issue of the journal Blood.

4 Apr 2005

Study shows connection of varicose veins to chronic pelvic pain

Research presented today at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 30th Annual Scientific Meeting found that 16 percent of women with varicose veins in their legs simultaneously had ovarian varicose veins -- a common but often under-diagnosed cause of chronic pelvic pain.

4 Apr 2005

Stent graft outperforms balloon angioplasty

A large, multi-center trial of 190 patients shows a new nonsurgical interventional radiology technique can benefit the more than 287,000 kidney failure patients undergoing dialysis in the United States each year.

4 Apr 2005

California teens do not get regular physical activity

Teenage girls, teens from low-income families, teens with no access to safe parks or open spaces, teens whose schools do not require physical education, and Latino, Asian, and African American teens are particularly at risk according to researchers at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

4 Apr 2005

Autistic children found to have abnormal metabolic profile

Autism, a neurodevelopment disorder which has increased tenfold over the last 15 years, now affects 30 of every 10,000 children in the United States.

4 Apr 2005

Blue light kills gum disease

Scientists at The Forsyth Institute have found that blue light can be used to selectively suppress certain bacteria commonly associated with destructive gum disease.

3 Apr 2005

Study looks at infants and chronic nighttime crying

Two University of Maine researchers working in conjunction with colleagues in Japan have found links between infant and child sleeping arrangements and the phenomenon of "yonaki," or nighttime crying.

3 Apr 2005

Chronic pain treatments more effective when taken together

People suffering from chronic, debilitating pain caused by nerve damage or disease report better pain relief at lower doses of a combined drug treatment than from either drug administered individually, a new Queen’s study funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) shows.

3 Apr 2005

Patch therapy provides similar pain relief as oral medications for patients with osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain

Researchers from the Altoona Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center have announced that data presented at the 24th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Pain Society suggest that patch therapy provides similar pain relief as oral medications for patients with osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain.

3 Apr 2005

New trial for treatment of liver disease

The Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Clinical Research Network is launching its first two clinical trials for the study of NASH, a liver disease that resembles alcoholic liver disease but occurs in patients who drink little or no alcohol.

3 Apr 2005

Estrogen, SERMS reduce asthma impact by halting constriction

For years, anecdotal evidence suggested that ovulating or pregnant women or post-menopausal women taking estrogen supplements, experienced fewer asthma attacks and less severe asthma symptoms, strongly suggesting that perhaps estrogen affects airway smooth muscle function by preventing the hyperresponsiveness characteristic of asthma and other chronic lung diseases.

3 Apr 2005

Airway inflammation boosts infarction damage

Epidemiological studies show that the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) complications are increased in long standing cases of asthma. Historically, the complications are often attributed to the chronic drug therapy used to treat asthma.

3 Apr 2005

Alcoholism reduces male heart muscle’s ability to synthesize protein

The fact that men and women react differently to alcohol consumption and addiction, health and behavior risks, disease and death is well known and accepted. Women get drunker faster on less alcohol than men, but fewer women drink either occasionally or heavily, and men are more likely to become dependent on alcohol.

3 Apr 2005

SERPINE2 identified as novel candidate gene for COPD susceptibility

Using a combination of genetic linkage, microarray gene expression and genetic association studies, a group of Brigham and Women’s Hospital/ Harvard Medical School researchers have identified a serine protease inhibitor clade E, member 2, or SERPINE2, “as a novel candidate susceptibility gene for COPD,” according to Sorachai Srisuma

3 Apr 2005

Children with autism have a severely abnormal metabolic profile

Chronic biochemical imbalance is often a primary factor in the development of many complex diseases but a possible metabolic basis for autism has not been well explored. Now Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute researchers report for the first time that children with autism have a severely abnormal metabolic profile indicating increased vulnerability to oxidative stress.

3 Apr 2005

Asthma patients' immune systems respond differently with allergies

Researchers from the University of Chihuahua in Mexico report that immune systems of patients with asthma responded differently to a common laboratory challenge, depending on whether their white blood cells had been obtained during a time when they were suffering from common season allergic rhinitis or when they were free of such allergic symptoms.

3 Apr 2005

Garlic protects against severe chronic pulmonary hypertension

Small daily doses of allicin, the active metabolic in garlic, proved effective in preventing a severe form of pulmonary hypertension in rats

3 Apr 2005

First UK cases of previously rare disease reported in gay men

A previously rare disease has been reported for the first time in the UK, Lymphograunuloma venereum (LGV) is a genital/anogenital bacterial infection caused by a particularly invasive strain of Chlamydia trachomatis.

3 Apr 2005