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EKG can detect heart attack in healthy senior citizens

Can a simple diagnostic test used to measure a heart's electrical activity help predict heart attacks? And can that knowledge help doctors reroute their patients away from coronary heart disease? These are the questions researchers at UCSF asked in a comprehensive eight-year study focused on senior citizens in the United States. Researchers found a higher risk of heart attack when abnormalities showed up on electrocardiogram (EKG) results of healthy elderly people.

11 Apr 2012

UK tobacco display ban to reduce youngsters taking up the habit

A ban on displays of tobacco is coming into force in England. Ministers hope it will help curb the number of young people taking up smoking. Cigarettes and other products will have to be kept below the counter in large shops and supermarkets, while small outlets are exempt until 2015. Other parts of the UK are planning similar action to drive down smoking rates.

9 Apr 2012

Inflammasome involved in regulating Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Scientists at Trinity College Dublin have discovered that a part of the immune system called the inflammasome is involved in regulating the development of one of the most common forms of blindness, called Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

9 Apr 2012

Free brain health screenings at Sam's Club

Everyone forgets sometimes. A certain degree of memory problems are a common part of aging. There is a difference, however, between changes in memory and memory loss from Alzheimer's disease. One in eight adults over the age of 65 is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and 20 percent of the elderly population suffers from some form of dementia. If detected early, some memory loss can be manageable by taking simple steps to improve brain function.

7 Apr 2012

California regulator calls Aetna rate hike 'unreasonable'; Maricopa County (Ariz.) hikes premiums for stealth smokers

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones used authority, granted under a year-old state law, to call out the rates as unreasonable. In Arizona, Maricopa County raised premiums on hundreds of county workers who either failed a saliva testing for nicotine or refused to take it.

7 Apr 2012

Dentists to screen for too much alcohol intake

The UK Government is proposing that dentists should question their patients on alcohol consumption, or that dental receptionists hand out drinking questionnaires to patients to be filled in while they wait for appointments. The plans have been drawn up by dentists at Cardiff University to try to combat excessive drinking. Patients who are deemed to drink too much would be referred on to sessions with dental nurses or hygienists for advice on cutting down.

5 Apr 2012

Traditional mud stoves may emit less pollution than some 'improved cookstoves'

The first real-world, head-to-head comparison of "improved cookstoves" (ICs) and traditional mud stoves has found that some ICs may at times emit more of the worrisome "black carbon," or soot, particles that are linked to serious health and environmental concerns than traditional mud stoves or open-cook fires.

5 Apr 2012

Some smokers quit smoking on first try while others have to quit repeatedly

Some people quit smoking on the first try while others have to quit repeatedly. Using such mobile technology as hand-held computers and smartphones, a team of researchers from Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh is trying to find out why.

5 Apr 2012

HSP27 protein can indicate lung damage during early stages of COPD

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a widespread disease. In Austria alone, there are between 500,000 and 600,000 sufferers; around ninety per cent of cases are the result of smoking. Now, under the leadership of Hendrik Jan Ankersmit, a research team from the University Department of Surgery at MedUni Vienna and the Christian Doppler Laboratory for the Diagnosis and Regeneration of Heart and Thorax Diseases has discovered a protein marker in the blood that can already indicate lung damage during the early stages of COPD, before a decrease in lung volume is detected by a pulmonary function test.

5 Apr 2012

Older adults with psychological distress more likely to experience functional limitation

In a study examining the relationship between physical activity and physical function, researchers from Australia discovered that older adults who experienced any level of psychological distress were more than four times more likely to experience functional limitation than those who did not.

5 Apr 2012

Elite athletes ambivalent on sports advertising

“Building on the resistance of elite athletes to promoting alcohol and junk food could transform the use of sport in sponsorship and advertising,” said Dr Anne Grunseit from the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney.

4 Apr 2012

Bare platinum coils vs. newer gel-coated coils for aneurysm treatment

Approximately 6 million Americans have brain aneurysms, a condition that occurs when a weak or thin spot develops on a blood vessel in the brain causing it to balloon. Often, these do not cause symptoms and go undetected, but every year an estimated 30,000 Americans experience a ruptured aneurysm that bleeds into the brain causing a life threatening injury.

4 Apr 2012

Multimarker molecular stool test for colon cancer unaffected by medication, lifestyle factors

Research on an investigational DNA methylation test for colorectal cancer demonstrated that the only clinical variable that influenced test results was age, according to results presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012, held here March 31 - April 4.

4 Apr 2012

Study: Obesity adds more to health care costs than smoking

Obesity adds more to health care costs than smoking does, reports a study in the March Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

4 Apr 2012

Many RA patients more likely to develop lower GI disease

Add lower gastrointestinal (GI) problems such as ulcers, bleeding and perforations to the list of serious complications facing many rheumatoid arthritis patients. They are at greater risk for GI problems and gastrointestinal-related death than people without the disease, a Mayo Clinic study shows.

4 Apr 2012

Hepatitis B-infected patients with longer telomeres more likely to develop HCC

Hepatitis B-infected patients with significantly longer telomeres—the caps on the end of chromosomes that protect our genetic data— were found to have an increased risk of getting liver cancer compared to those with shorter ones, according to findings presented by researchers at Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2012.

4 Apr 2012

Moderate caloric intake may reduce risk of obesity in low-birth weight offspring

Babies who are born small have a tendency to put on weight during childhood and adolescence if allowed free access to calories. However, a new animal model study at UCLA found when small babies were placed on a diet of moderately regulated calories during infancy, the propensity of becoming obese decreased.

3 Apr 2012

Genomic fortune-telling fails to provide informative guidance to most people

With sharp declines in the cost of whole genome sequencing, the day of accurately deciphering disease risk based on an individual's genome may seem at hand. But a study involving data of thousands of identical twins by Johns Hopkins investigators finds that genomic fortune-telling fails to provide informative guidance to most people about their risk for most common diseases, and warns against complacency born of negative genome test results.

3 Apr 2012

Study identifies specific chemical in smokeless tobacco products that induces oral cancer

The chemical (S)-N'-nitrosonornicotine, or (S)-NNN, which is present in smokeless tobacco products, is a strong oral carcinogen, according to results presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012, held here March 31 - April 4.

2 Apr 2012