Heart News and Research

RSS

Hallucinogen psilocybin safe for administration in patients with advanced-stage cancer and anxiety: Study

A pilot study suggests the hallucinogen psilocybin may be feasible and safe to administer to patients with advanced-stage cancer and anxiety, with promising effects on mood, according to a report published online today that will appear in the January 2011 print issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

7 Sep 2010

Physical qualities can influence stem cell differentiation mechanism: Research

A researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, together with Israeli and foreign collaborators, has revealed how physical qualities and not only chemical ones may have an influence in determining how adult stem cells from the bone marrow develop into differentiated ones. This represents an important step in understanding the mechanisms that direct and regulate the specialization of stem cells from their undefined state.

7 Sep 2010

An overview on low-carbohydrate diets

Headlines make news, but don't read too much into current headlines about a recent study titled "Low-Carbohydrate Diets and All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality," published in the September 7, 2010, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. Although the headlines may say the study suggests that long-term adherence to a low-carb diet based heavily on animal protein may reduce lifespan, Dr. Funga, who was the lead author of the study, says that her research "is not representative of popular low-carb eating plans

7 Sep 2010

Researchers to develop new treatment strategy for cancer

Cancer is a difficult disease to treat because it's a personal disease. Each case is unique and based on a combination of environmental and genetic factors. Conventional chemotherapy employs treatment with one or more drugs, assuming that these medicines are able to both "diagnose" and "treat" the affected cells. Many of the side effects experienced by chemotherapy patients are due to the fact that the drugs they are taking aren't selective enough.

7 Sep 2010

Plaque-causing bacteria increases risk of heart attack

Plaque-causing bacteria can jailbreak from the mouth into the bloodstream and increase your risk of heart attack says a scientist at the Society for General Microbiology's autumn meeting in Nottingham.

6 Sep 2010

New VA regulation helps to get recognition, treatment for three disorders in Agent Orange exposure

A new VA regulation adding three health conditions to the list of those presumed to have been caused by exposure to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War was published this week. Pending a 60-day congressional review, the regulation will make some 200,000 veterans eligible for VA benefits over the next year and a half.

4 Sep 2010

IAS urges to review guidelines for implementing HIV prevention and care

Following the imprisonment of Maxim Popov in April 2010, sentenced to 7 years jail primarily for the promotion of HIV prevention efforts in Uzbekistan, the International AIDS Society (IAS) notes with alarm the detention of a medial practitioner working in HIV prevention in Ukraine.

4 Sep 2010

Researchers to study protein fragments released into bloodstream after heart attack

A blood test to diagnose which heart attack survivors will suffer heart failure is the goal of a new five-year, $11.6 million contract to the UT Health Science Center San Antonio from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

4 Sep 2010

Fatty plaque in arteries increase risk for life-threatening cardiovascular events

An international study of clinical data led by a Department of Veterans Affairs-Harvard University cardiologist found that patients with deposits of fatty plaque in their arteries are at especially high risk for life-threatening cardiovascular events if they have diabetes, disease in multiple arteries or a history of heart attack or stroke.

4 Sep 2010

Food industry, USDA criticized for recent salmonella outbreak, egg recall

USA Today reports that food safety groups are slamming how well U.S. Department of Agriculture regulated the farms implicated in the salmonella outbreak.

4 Sep 2010

FDA approves IDE study to evaluate HeartWare Ventricular Assist System

HeartWare International, Inc., a leading innovator of less invasive, miniaturized circulatory support technologies that are revolutionizing the treatment of advanced heart failure, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an IDE (Investigational Device Exemption) Supplement that allows HeartWare to enroll a second allotment of 54 patients in its "ADVANCE" bridge-to-transplant clinical trial under a Continued Access Protocol (CAP).

4 Sep 2010

Supermarket tours for students to figure out healthy meal plans

For many students away from home for the first time, college marks the first time they begin shopping, cooking and eating for themselves. Figuring out how to prepare quick yet healthy meals on a budget can be a daunting task, and the allure of fast take-out food often leads to the dreaded "Freshman Fifteen."

4 Sep 2010

TNS therapy improves depression: Study

Major depression is a common and disabling brain condition marked not only by the presence of depressed mood but also by its effects on sleep, energy, decision-making, memory and thoughts of death or of suicide.

3 Sep 2010

Research Roundup: Heart disease and disability; Medicaid and health reform, mental illness

Urban Institute/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: The Health Status Of New Medicaid Enrollees Under Health Reform - Using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, authors of this paper found "strong evidence that those who will enroll [in Medicaid after 2014] are likely to be healthier than nondisabled adults currently enrolled in Medicaid ... There is, however, a high likelihood of adverse selection - the least healthy and older among the new eligibles will be more likely to enroll.

3 Sep 2010

ECRI Institute's 17th Annual Conference to be held October 19-20, at NIH

With the advent of healthcare reform, the United States is embarking on an unprecedented effort to determine which health care intervention works best for the diagnosis or treatment of a given disease or condition. While comparative effectiveness and personalized medicine evolved separately, these significant trends interface, increasingly, in the healthcare systems.

3 Sep 2010

International study to improve treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy

A large international study aimed at improving the care of muscular dystrophy patients worldwide is being launched by physicians, physical therapists, and researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

3 Sep 2010

Kansas State University professor attempts to prove some common beliefs about nutrition

A monthlong diet of entirely snack cakes and fatty foods may sound like a fantasy, but for one Kansas State University professor it's serious business. In 30 days Mark Haub is attempting to prove some common beliefs about nutrition are untrue.

3 Sep 2010

Cardiogenesis Corporation releases comment on STAR-heart study

Cardiogenesis Corporation, released comments today regarding the STAR-heart study.The STAR-heart study, which was presented at the European Society of Cardiology 2010 Congress in August 2010, reported that the intracoronary injection of autologous stem cells derived from bone marrow is associated with improved hemodynamics and long term survival in the treatment of chronic heart failure.

3 Sep 2010

Report finds foreclosures harm people's health in California; Wash. small business health insurance program starts to sign up members

"A report released Wednesday found foreclosures have not only economic consequences, but create health problems for the people and families involved -- and those effects can ripple throughout a community. In a survey of nearly 400 residents in two Oakland neighborhoods particularly hard hit by the foreclosure crisis, the Alameda County Public Health Department and Causa Justa/Just Cause, a housing rights group, teamed up to look at how people undergoing foreclosure experience higher levels of stress and increased medical" (Colliver, 9/2).

3 Sep 2010

First direct evidence that X-linked TLR7 gene promotes lupus in humans

Lupus Research Institute-funded researcher Betty Tsao, PhD, at the University of California Los Angeles has discovered that humans-males in particular-with a variant form of the immune receptor gene "Toll Like Receptor 7 (TLR7)" are at increased risk of developing the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus). This breakthrough finding offers renewed hope for developing more targeted treatments.

3 Sep 2010