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FDA panel favors continued research on novel pain medicine

A panel of experts for the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) this Monday recommended that the federal government should allow continued testing of an experimental class of pain drugs for arthritis, despite links to bone decay and joint failure.

13 Mar 2012

State roundup: Business health care tax credits; Wash. state insurers' surplus cash; Calif. million dollar bills

A relatively new tax credit is available to certain small businesses and charities to help offset the cost of providing health insurance to their workers. But tens of thousands of businesses in Minnesota and across the nation are leaving money on the table, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

13 Mar 2012

Salk scientists' discovery explains how a class of chemotherapy drugs works

The well-being of living cells requires specialized squads of proteins that maintain order. Degraders chew up worn-out proteins, recyclers wrap up damaged organelles, and-most importantly-DNA repair crews restitch anything that resembles a broken chromosome. If repair is impossible, the crew foreman calls in executioners to annihilate a cell. As unsavory as this last bunch sounds, failure to summon them is one aspect of what makes a cancer cell a cancer cell.

12 Mar 2012

Researchers to create and test novel interventions for older adult care

One in every eight Americans is aged 65 years or older and, by 2030, it is expected to be one in five. As the number of older Americans increases, healthcare providers and researchers must understand and address the needs of this growing population.

12 Mar 2012

Overweight, aging do not appear to impact mental well-being

Growing older and being overweight are not necessarily associated with a decrease in mental well-being, according to a cross-cultural study looking at quality of life and health status in the US and the UK.

12 Mar 2012

Conference highlights studies on metabolism, aging and monarch butterfly migration

The Genetics Society of America's 53rd Annual Drosophila Research Conference, March 7-11 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, will showcase diverse efforts to understand basic biological processes through the easy-to-study fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, and other insects.

12 Mar 2012

Cancer rates to fall among men but slightly rise among women by 2020: Report

The report says that due to the growing and ageing population the actual number of new cases will rise by almost 40 per cent on 2007 levels. But when that's converted to the number of cases per 100,000 people the results are surprising. Cancer rates in men will fall from 595 to 568 cases per 100,000 by 2020. That equates to about 85,000 cases. When it comes to women the rate is projected to rise from 394 to 408 cases per 100,000. That's equivalent to 65,000 new cases in 2020.

11 Mar 2012

Concerns about aging in good health

Do men harbour concerns about aging in good health? Do they confide these concerns to their physicians? Are men's concerns the same as women's? The answers to these questions can be found in a large cross-sectional survey of 2325 Canadian men, aged 55 to 97 years old, led by Dr. Cara Tannenbaum, Geriatrician and the Michel Saucier Endowed Chair in Geriatric Pharmacology, Health and Aging at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (IUGM) which is affiliated with the Université de Montréal.

10 Mar 2012

Report: Alzheimer's care to cost $200 billion this year

The report issued by the Alzheimer's Association also estimates that as many as 800,000 Americans have this illness and live alone. As many as half of these people don't have specific arrangements to help them get care.

9 Mar 2012

State legislatures take on ultrasound mandate costs, employee health plans, Medicaid reform, malpractice

Democrats in the state Senate have sent Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell a list of conditions they want addressed before allowing a new state budget necessary to fund state services and operations to pass. … They want the state to pay for the ultrasound exams now mandated for women seeking abortions under a bill McDonnell signed Wednesday. ... And they want Medicaid eligibility restored for about 4,500 nursing home residents.

9 Mar 2012

MEDVAMC initiates Aeterna Zentaris' AEZS-130 Phase 2A trial in cancer cachexia

Aeterna Zentaris Inc. today announced that the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, in Houston, Texas, has initiated a Phase 2A trial assessing the safety and efficacy of repeated doses of the Company's ghrelin agonist, AEZS-130 (macimorelin), in patients with cancer cachexia.

9 Mar 2012

Measuring wellbeing in Huntington’s disease

The new tool, the first Huntington’s disease-specific quality of life instrument of its kind, aims to fully capture the impact of this complex disease on the everyday life of sufferers. By using this new tool to more accurately measure the impact of Huntington’s and also any effect of therapeutic interventions, scientists will be in a better position to evaluate the usefulness of interventions on patients’ everyday quality of life to see if there is actually a practical benefit. It is hoped that in this way, this tool will lead to more effective treatments.

8 Mar 2012

Do we age as a consequence of being protected against cancer?

The role of one of our genes which protects us from cancer but could also cause us to age will be explained in a lecture at the University of Leicester.

8 Mar 2012

Scientists believe that ageing can be programmed in the womb

Ageing is a complex process involving physical, psychological, and environmental factors. Scientists believe that ageing can be programmed in the womb. One example of stress during pregnancy is the administration of glucocorticoids, i. e. synthetic stress hormones to accelerate fetal lung maturation in premature labor to allow breathing after birth. Could exposure to these stress hormones have an effect on health later in life?

8 Mar 2012

Berry fruits help the brain stay healthy in several ways

Strong scientific evidence exists that eating blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and other berry fruits has beneficial effects on the brain and may help prevent age-related memory loss and other changes, scientists report.

8 Mar 2012

New study to reduce racial disparity in dementia

In a new study, one Michigan State University professor will explore why in old age, blacks are much more likely to have dementia than whites.

8 Mar 2012

Researchers identify key molecular player in mouse model of kidney disease

In findings that may lead to clinical trials of a promising new drug for kidney disease, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and their colleagues have identified a key molecular player and shown how a targeted experimental drug can reverse kidney damage in mouse models of diabetes, high blood pressure, genetic kidney disease, and other kidney injuries.

8 Mar 2012

Pten gene can also fight against obesity, ageing process

This result, obtained after five years' research, is published in leading journal Cell Metabolism. The authors, led by Manuel Serrano (CNIO), believe it will open the door to new therapeutic options not only against cancer, but against obesity and even the ageing process.

7 Mar 2012

Marriage boosts survival following coronary artery bypass surgery

Married adults who undergo heart surgery are more than three times as likely as single people who have the same surgery to survive the next three months, a new study finds.

6 Mar 2012

Video games do not adequately meet older adults' needs

Advances in technology have brought the video gaming experience closer to that of traditional physical games. Although systems, such as the Wii, that incorporate these features fly off the shelves, the increasingly complex technology may alienate certain segments of the population, including seniors.

6 Mar 2012