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People with schizophrenia more likely to develop cancer

People with serious mental illness —schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and disabling depression — are 2.6 times more likely to develop cancer than the general population, new Johns Hopkins research suggests.

19 Jul 2012

Viewpoints: Texas' indifference to health needs for the poor; Sen. Grassley says IRS is too busy to deal with health law

The state with the country's worst health care record just happens to have a governor who has been the loudest voice against national efforts to improve it. A quarter of the residents of Texas, 6.3 million people, are uninsured, by far the highest percentage in the country. ... Yet Gov. Rick Perry - strangely puffed up as he was so often in his presidential bid - recently told the Obama administration that he would proudly refuse a huge infusion of Medicaid money that would significantly reduce those shameful statistics and cover 1.7 million more people.

18 Jul 2012

Childhood abuse affects the heart

Severe child abuse is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease in early adulthood, report researchers in Circulation.

18 Jul 2012

Arsenic exposure impairs semen quality

Environmental exposure to arsenic significantly reduces semen quality in Chinese men, research shows.

18 Jul 2012

Cancer more likely in people with serious mental illnesses

18 Jul 2012

Kawasaki Disease may increase risk of atherosclerosis in children

Cedars-Sinai researchers have linked Kawasaki Disease, a serious childhood illness that causes inflammation of blood vessels throughout the body, with early-onset and accelerated atherosclerosis, a leading cause of heart disease in adults.

18 Jul 2012

Lack of physical activity causes 1 in 10 deaths

A lack of physical activity, or people’s failure to spend 150 minutes a week doing moderate physical activity (eg, brisk walking for 30 minutes, 5 days a week), causes around 6–10% of four major non-communicable diseases (coronary heart disease [CHD], type 2 diabetes, and breast and colon cancer) worldwide, and was responsible for around 5.3 million of the 57 million deaths globally in 2008.

18 Jul 2012

Smoking, hepatitis and liver transplantation: An interview with Dr Peter Ghali

We are very interested in hepatitis C as it is the most common indication for liver transplant in the Western world. The difficulty is that recurrence happens in the majority of patients within the first 2 to 7 years after transplant, and occasionally sooner.

18 Jul 2012

Weighing up the gains for smokers who quit

People seem to gain more weight after giving up smoking than has previously been estimated, report researchers.

17 Jul 2012

WCMC receives NHLBI grant to study smoking-induced COPD

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College were awarded a $6.5 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for a five-year investigation into metabolic changes occurring within airway epithelial cells in the lungs of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients caused by cigarette smoking. In addition, researchers aim to identify which cigarette smokers are at highest risk of developing COPD as well as novel biomarkers to assist in the development of new therapeutic treatments for the disease.

17 Jul 2012

ED patients prefer technology-based interventions for high-risk behaviors

A Rhode Island Hospital researcher has found that emergency department patients prefer technology-based interventions for high-risk behaviors such as alcohol use, unsafe sex and violence. ER patients said they would choose technology (ie text messaging, email, or Internet) over traditional intervention methods such as in-person or brochure-based behavioral interventions.

17 Jul 2012

Obesity leads to more doctor visits than smoking

Statistics show that today, almost one in four Canadians is obese. A deadly trend that has been on the rise for the last thirty years, obesity is associated with diabetes, heart disease and cancer. But is the obesity epidemic putting more pressure on an already strained Canadian health care system?

17 Jul 2012

Uninsured U.S. women more likely to struggle with medical bills and go without needed care

Twenty percent of U.S. women (18.7 million) ages 19-64 were uninsured in 2010, up from 15 percent (12.8 million) in 2000, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report on women's health care. An additional 16.7 million women were underinsured in 2010, compared with 10.3 million in 2003.

16 Jul 2012

Research roundup: Medication adherence, performance at community health centers

For people diagnosed with depression, it's important that they adhere to their medication regimen so that they avoid recurrent episodes. But because of Medicare's Part D coverage gap, financially burdened seniors might not take their prescriptions as recommended. This study looked at Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with depression in 2007.

14 Jul 2012

Antipsychotic use in pregnancy should be closely monitored

Use of any type of antipsychotic during pregnancy increases the risk for women developing gestational diabetes, show Swedish study results that also indicate a link between antipsychotics and a risk for giving birth to a small for gestational age infant.

13 Jul 2012

High-risk HPV may increase chances of second malignancy in oral cancer

The proportion of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients infected with the human papillomavirus could be around a third, with high-risk versions of the virus accounting for almost three-quarters of those affected, indicate Taiwanese study results.

12 Jul 2012

Altered immune function in relatives of schizophrenia patients

Schizophrenia patients and their unaffected first-degree relatives exhibit immune system alterations compared with mentally healthy individuals, researchers report.

12 Jul 2012

Smokers at risk for recurrent hepatitis post-liver transplantation

Transplant recipients who smoke or have smoked increase their risk of viral hepatitis reinfection following liver transplantation according to new research available in the July issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal published by Wiley on behalf of American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

12 Jul 2012

Lifestyle behaviour in adolescents may adversely affect BP and cardiovascular risk in adulthood

Lifestyle behaviour in adolescents may adversely affect blood pressure and cardiovascular risk in adulthood, according to results from a large pregnancy follow-up study in Australia. In particular, alcohol consumption among boys, use of the Pill among girls, and high salt intake and increasing body mass index (BMI) in both sexes were important factors linked to blood pressure levels in late adolescence.

12 Jul 2012

Giving up smoking associated with weight gain

Giving up smoking is associated with an average weight gain of 4-5 kg after 12 months, most of which occurs within the first three months of quitting, finds a study published on bmj.com today.

11 Jul 2012