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Smokers with access to low-tax cigarettes less likely to quit

Smokers who bought low-taxed cigarettes from American Indian reservations were half as likely to try to quit and had less success when they did attempt to kick the habit compared to smokers who bought full-price cigarettes.

26 May 2005

Raising tobacco taxes could curb youth’s cigar habits

The only way to effectively turn teens away from smoking cigars is to raise prices, and one way to do that would be taxing cigars at the same rate as cigarettes.

26 May 2005

Elderly suicide victims more likely to have fallen to their deaths

Suicide is a major public health problem among those age 65 and older, and a recent study found suicidal people in that age group who live in cities are more likely than their younger counterparts to choose falling from height as their suicide method and to choose to jump from their own homes or apartment buildings.

26 May 2005

Intensive tobacco control measures can sharply reduce smoking rates

Comprehensive tobacco control efforts, including raising cigarette taxes, making workplaces smoke free and offering free and readily accessible nicotine patches, have a widespread impact on lowering smoking rates.

26 May 2005

New study shows that bypass surgery is more successful than stents in heart surgery

A study of nearly 60,000 patients has found that people with several clogged heart arteries did better if they had bypass surgery rather than a less-drastic procedure in which the blood vessels are propped open with tiny mesh cylinders called stents.

26 May 2005

IVF treatment less effective in women living with a smoker

According to Canadian study passive smoking is apparently as damaging to a woman’s chances of having successful fertility treatment as being a smoker.

26 May 2005

New type of inhalation chemotherapy

Pediatric cancer specialists at The Children's Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) are investigating a new type of inhalation chemotherapy with the potential to treat children with a deadly bone cancer that has spread to their lungs.

26 May 2005

Stimulating innate immunity helps ease Crohn's disease symptoms

Like throwing oil on a fire or prescribing a high cholesterol diet for heart patients, gastroenterologists traditionally have believed that it would not be a good idea to stoke up the body's immune system to treat Crohn's disease.

26 May 2005

A small kidney stone should not preclude people from being donors

Results from a Mayo Clinic study suggest that using kidneys which have kidney stones for living donor transplant has little impact on the organ's function one year later.

26 May 2005

Retina and its circuits are much more pliable than scientists previously thought

A new Oregon Health & Science University study is opening scientists' eyes to the retina's ability to rewire itself so it can adapt to different levels of ambient light.

26 May 2005

Tendency to be prejudiced is a form of common sense, hard-wired into the human brain

Contrary to what most people believe, the tendency to be prejudiced is a form of common sense, hard-wired into the human brain through evolution as an adaptive response to protect our prehistoric ancestors from danger.

26 May 2005

Listening to favorite music during surgery lessens need for sedative

Patients listening to their favorite music required much less sedation during surgery than did patients who listened to white noise or operating room noise, according to a Yale School of Medicine study published in May.

26 May 2005

Study shows how COX-2 inhibitors lead to heart disease

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers have found additional evidence that may help explain how selective inhibitors of COX-2 might predispose individuals to heart disease and stroke.

26 May 2005

Study suggests deadlines intensify emotions

Amateur observers and scholars alike have remarked that older people often have more intense and complex emotional lives than their younger cohort. What accounts for the difference, wondered psychologist Ursina Teuscher: Wisdom gained with the gathering years? A shift in values thanks to greater life experience? Or, is it a keener sense of time – a precious and, of necessity, diminishing resource?

26 May 2005

Psychology studies confirm 'unfelt' emotion can alter consequential behavior

In studies led by Piotr Winkielman, associate professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego, people altered their consumption behaviors after exposure to subliminal facial expressions.

26 May 2005

The inability to care for yourself puts you at greatest risk of death in a hospital

Underweight elderly patients who have difficulty performing routine daily activities such as eating and bathing are at greatest risk to die in the hospital, new Saint Louis University research shows.

25 May 2005

Study supports the view that public concerns about genetic discrimination are substantial

A new study - the largest to date of public attitudes about genetic discrimination - finds that 40 percent of people already undergoing genetic testing are worried that participation might affect their future insurance coverage.

25 May 2005

Brain fatty acid levels linked to depression

A group of researchers from Israel has discovered that rats exhibiting the signs of depression have increased levels of the omega-6 fatty acid, arachidonic acid, in their brains. The details of their findings appear in the June issue of the Journal of Lipid Research, an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journal.

25 May 2005

WIN compound - a prototype drug for curing colds - is showing so much promise

An antiviral compound that wiggles its way into the common cold virus may provide one piece of the solution to halting the infection, say Purdue University scientists.

25 May 2005

State of "incomplete" health has resulted in a loss of productivity in the workforce

While most American adults may not be patently sick, a vast majority of them still lack full health and vitality. This state of "incomplete" health has resulted in a loss of productivity in the workforce, and potentially increases health care costs in the long term, according to a new Emory University study published in the May issue of the Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health.

25 May 2005