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What does the appendix do? finally an answer!

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center say that the function of the frequently discarded appendix, an organ often credited with little importance and often dismissed as having no significant function, does it seems have a role to play after all.

8 Oct 2007

White baking chocolate tainted with salmonella latest U.S. food scare

In yet another food scare in the United States salmonella is again involved, this time the culprit is baking chocolate.

8 Oct 2007

Reservoir of Marburg virus identified in a species of fruit bat

The Marburg virus, like its fearsome cousin Ebola, belongs to the Filoviridae family. It carries the name of the German town where it was first detected in 1967, after a mysterious epidemic had hit employees of the Behring laboratory.

8 Oct 2007

Study finds almost one-third of children take vitamins

Almost one-third of U.S. children take some form of dietary supplement, most often multivitamins and multiminerals, according to a study conducted in part by researchers at RTI International and the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health.

8 Oct 2007

Current food labeling leads to under-consumption of calcium

Those who were taught how to translate the information consumed more. Researchers believe the same is true for other beneficial nutrients.

8 Oct 2007

Experts urge women to eat plenty of fish while pregnant

Experts in the United States are contradicting government recommendations and warnings regarding fish and other seafood in the diets of pregnant and breast-feeding women.

7 Oct 2007

UF researchers test stem cell therapy for heart patients

University of Florida doctors on Wednesday (Oct. 3) treated their first patient enrolled in a new study designed to test whether injecting stem cells into the heart helps restore blood flow to the organ by prompting new blood vessels to grow.

4 Oct 2007

Mylan settles Levetiracetam patent case

Mylan Inc. has announced that it and its subsidiary Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. have entered into an agreement to settle pending litigation with UCB Societe Anonyme and UCB Pharma Inc. (collectively, UCB) relating to Levetiracetam Tablets, 250mg, 500mg and 750mg, the generic version of UCB's Keppra.

4 Oct 2007

Specific immune deficiency pinpointed as likely cause of ulcerative colitis

In a series of mouse experiments, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have pinpointed a specific immune deficiency as the likely fundamental cause of ulcerative colitis, a chronic, sometimes severe inflammatory disease of the colon or large intestine that afflicts half a million Americans.

4 Oct 2007

Bilberry extract for cancer prevention

A Leicester cancer research project, which receives funding from Hope Against Cancer (formerly The Hope Foundation,) is investigating whether an extract from bilberries can prevent or delay the onset of certain cancers.

4 Oct 2007

When dogs bite children they have a good reason

The study found that dogs experience anxiety, pain, and other medical as well as behavioral problems and these problems can provoke them to bite children even if they have never bitten anyone before.

4 Oct 2007

New FDA program will fast forward generic drug approvals

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has a plan to fast forward it's approval process for generic drugs.

4 Oct 2007

Anorexia as addictive as ectasy

French scientists say that anorexia is comparable to the drug Ecstasy as both appear to activate some of the same brain pathways

4 Oct 2007

Bird flu on Saskatchewan farm results in culling of 50,000 chickens

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) says chickens infected with a highly pathogenic H7N3 strain of avian influenza on a farm in Saskatchewan have all been destroyed.

4 Oct 2007

FDA boss questions move for agency to regulate tobacco industry

Andrew von Eschenbach, the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States, has questioned efforts by Congress to have the agency regulate the tobacco industry.

4 Oct 2007

Infant mortality rates decline in New York City

New York City's infant mortality rate - widely regarded as a barometer of a population's general health - fell slightly in 2006, the Health Department reported today.

4 Oct 2007

Flavonol-rich foods may help reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer

Eating flavonol-rich foods like apples may help reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer, says a team of international researchers.

4 Oct 2007

FDA tightens potency specifications to ensure thyroid drugs last

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is tightening the potency specifications for levothyroxine sodium, used to treat underactive thyroid glands and other thyroid conditions, to ensure the drug retains its potency over its entire shelf life.

4 Oct 2007

Behind-the-counter drugs could be on sale in U.S. pharmacies

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United states is considering creating a new category of drugs.

3 Oct 2007

Tiny micro-incubator to culture living cells for lab tests

Integrating silicon microchip technology with a network of tiny fluid channels, some thinner than a human hair, researchers at The Johns Hopkins University have developed a thumb-size micro-incubator to culture living cells for lab tests.

3 Oct 2007