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Seniors seek help with Medicare's 'doughnut hole'

Senior and elderly advocate groups are calling on Congress to get rid of the "doughnut hole" in Medicare's drug benefit as part of the larger efforts to reform health care, according to The Dallas Morning News.

9 Jun 2009

DeParle, Sebelius: Time to tackle health care disparities

Officials said Tuesday that the time is now to tackle ethnic, economic and gender disparities in health care as they ready a major overhaul of the nation's health care system.

9 Jun 2009

Disparities in self-monitoring of blood glucose among low-income ethnic minority populations with diabetes

Income appears to play a crucial role in how often diabetes patients on insulin check their daily blood glucose levels, and low-income minorities check less often than others, a new research study finds.

9 Jun 2009

Stopping type 1 diabetes damage with vitamin C

Researchers at the Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center have found a way to stop the damage caused by Type 1 diabetes with the combination of insulin and a common vitamin found in most medicine cabinets.

9 Jun 2009

Study redefines alcohol and smoking’s role in pancreatitis

Although alcohol consumption is known to be associated with chronic pancreatitis, new evidence indicates that a threshold of five or more drinks per day is required to significantly raise risk; however, most patients with chronic pancreatitis do not drink this amount, according to a report in the June 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. In addition, smoking is an independent, dose-dependent risk factor.

9 Jun 2009

Irritability in menopause

Irritability is frequently the main presenting complaint of perimenopausal and postmenopausal women; yet, studies specifically researching on irritability in this population are lacking.

9 Jun 2009

'Roll call' solicits strong opinions on health reform

Roll Call published a special section today that pulls together opinion pieces from 20 major players from all corners of the health care debate, including Tom Daschle, Michael Tanner, Dick Gephardt and Tommy Thompson and Newt Gingrich and Jim Frogue.

9 Jun 2009

Increase in diabetes among Canadian children

Ontario children are more likely to get diagnosed with diabetes than their American counterparts. A study out of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) has found a 3 per cent increase per year in the rate of diabetes in Ontario children from 1994 to 2004.

9 Jun 2009

Sleep and television

According to a research presented at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, television watching may be an important determinant of bedtime, and may contribute to chronic sleep debt.

9 Jun 2009

Insomniacs need increased brain activation to maintain normal daily function

According to a research abstract that will be presented on Tuesday, June 9, at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, patients suffering from chronic primary insomnia (PIs) have higher levels of brain activation compared to normal sleepers during a working memory test.

9 Jun 2009

Effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral treatment program for chronic insomnia

A majority of people experiencing chronic insomnia can experience a normalization of sleep parameters through the use of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), according to a research abstract that will be presented on Tuesday, June 9, at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

9 Jun 2009

Effects of meditation on sleep in chronic insomnia

Meditation may be an effective behavioral intervention in the treatment of insomnia, according to a research abstract that will be presented on Tuesday, June 9, at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies

9 Jun 2009

New report on obesity calls for better designed urban areas

A new report from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing on obesity in Australia has called for some major changes in the way Australians live today.

8 Jun 2009

Diabetes with coronary disease: A moving target amid evolving therapies

In an editorial in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), William E. Boden, M.D., professor of medicine and preventive medicine at the University at Buffalo, recommends that the results of the BARI-2D Trial published in that edition must be interpreted with "considerable caution."

8 Jun 2009

Neighborhood influences asthma rates

Neighborhoods with restaurants, entertainment, cultural facilities and ethnic diversity have lower asthma rates in the city of Chicago than neighborhoods where residents are less likely to move, and where there are more churches and not-for-profit facilities.

5 Jun 2009

Fatigue common after heart attack

Half of all patients who undergo myocardial infarction (heart attack) are experiencing onerous fatigue four months after the infarction. The patients who are most fatigued are those who perceive the infarction as a sign of chronic illness, those who experience the illness as difficult to control, and those who believe that the illness has a large impact on their life. These are the conclusions of a thesis presented at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

5 Jun 2009

Cigarette smoking does not affect everyone in same way

Cigarette smoking induced COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is a disease that results in severe breathing difficulty. According to World Health Organization (WHO) it is the fourth leading killer worldwide. However the mechanisms responsible for some smokers developing COPD and others evading the disease have not been well understood.

4 Jun 2009

Research looks at bariatric surgery waiting times in Canada

Obesity is now acknowledged as a chronic disease with a number of related complications, and its prevalence has reached alarming epidemic proportions. While bariatric surgery is effective at treating the disease, access to this procedure is still too limited in Canada.

3 Jun 2009

Hydrogen peroxide marshals immune system

When you were a kid your mom poured it on your scraped finger to stave off infection. When you got older you might have even used it to bleach your hair. Now there's another possible function for this over-the-counter colorless liquid: your body might be using hydrogen peroxide as an envoy that marshals troops of healing cells to wounded tissue.

3 Jun 2009

Lilly resubmits Cymbalta supplemental NDA for chronic pain to FDA

Eli Lilly and Company has resubmitted its supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for Cymbalta (duloxetine HCl) for the management of chronic pain to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

3 Jun 2009