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Psychiatric disorders definitions to be revised

The definition of depression is proposed to be changed and now the diagnosis would characterize grieving as a disorder and greatly increase the number of people treated for it.

26 Jan 2012

Breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s disease research

Researchers are closer to understanding Alzheimer’s disease using a new stem cell technique. They have successfully replicated Alzheimer’s disease neurons with stem cells for the first time.

26 Jan 2012

Bacon for nosebleeds: Case report

Ian Humphreys, Sonal Saraiya, Walter Belenky and James Dworkin, at Detroit Medical Centre in Michigan proceeded to treat a four year old girl who had a rare hereditary disorder that brings prolonged bleeding, publishing their findings in the Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology.

26 Jan 2012

Olive and sunflower oil fried food not bad for heart: Study

A study published this week in the British Medical Journal analyzed data on 40,757 Spanish adults age 29 to 69 who were followed for an average 11 years. Free of coronary heart disease at the beginning of the study, they were asked what they ate and what cooking methods they used, then were tracked to see who developed coronary heart disease and who died.

26 Jan 2012

Chemicals in packaged food and textiles linked to low immunity in kids: Study

According to researchers children exposed to chemicals from food packaging and textile products may have compromised immune systems. They found kids with more perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, in their blood stream were less likely to respond to routine vaccines.

26 Jan 2012

Revised menus for school lunches with more fruits and veggies

American schoolchildren are accustomed to a steady diet of pizza and french fries for school lunches. Now they will find more fruits, vegetables and whole grains on their cafeteria trays under new government school lunch rules announced on Wednesday. Apart from adding double the produce servings the guidelines also call for fat-free and low-fat milk only, child-appropriate portion sizes and reductions in sodium, saturated fat and trans fats.

26 Jan 2012

Amorcyte commences enrollment in PreSERVE Phase 2 trial for acute myocardial infarction

Amorcyte, LLC, a NeoStem, Inc. company today announces the enrollment of the first patient in the Amorcyte PreSERVE Phase 2 trial for acute myocardial infarction.

25 Jan 2012

Yemen faces child malnutrition crisis after year of unrest

"A year of Yemen's turmoil has exacerbated the number of malnourished children under the age of five to around 750,000, UNICEF said Tuesday, appealing to the government and the international community to help develop the country's infrastructure to tackle the problem," the Associated Press reports (Al-Haj/Batrawy, 1/24).

25 Jan 2012

New super PAC ad attacks Romney's health care record

Newt Gingrich's super PAC is out with an ad launching a new attack on Mitt Romney's health care record in Massachusetts - and reviving stories about his plan's influence on "Obamacare."

25 Jan 2012

In State of the Union speech, health law gets short shrift

President Barack Obama's State of the Union address was light on health policy references, but he did say he would not "go back to the days when health insurance companies had unchecked power to cancel your policy, deny your coverage or charge women more than men." News outlets also reported on Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels Republican response and looked forward to what Obama is doing today to spin his speech.

25 Jan 2012

Congressional negotiators begin talks on payroll tax cut, 'doc fix'

Although Demcratic and Republican lawmakers differ on how to pay for it, they seem to agree there needs to be a deal in order to prevent a deep, scheduled cut in Medicare physician payments.

25 Jan 2012

Ovarian cancer patients with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations more likely to survive

Ovarian cancer patients who carry BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations are significantly more likely to survive the disease than women without these faulty genes, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

25 Jan 2012

PMI-supported study aims to measure malaria among pregnant women in Rwanda

This post in the Malaria Free Future blog reports on a study underway in Rwanda that aims to measure the prevalence of malaria in pregnancy (MIP).

25 Jan 2012

States continue to wrestle with politics surrounding the development of health exchanges

Iowa should debate a key health-reform program in public so the program doesn't get twisted in favor of the insurance industry, consumer-group advocates said today. Legislators last year failed to reach agreement on how to set up a state health-insurance exchange.

25 Jan 2012

High Court's review of health law's Medicaid expansion 'very serious' issue

One of the top lawyers representing those challenging the health care law said Monday that even opponents were surprised that the Supreme Court ordered arguments on the measure's Medicaid expansion. And a second plaintiff attorney characterized it as a "very serious issue" that goes to the heart of the question of the overhaul's constitutionality.

25 Jan 2012

GOP says survey showing increase in uninsured numbers is proof of health law's failure

Some House Republicans circulated this new Gallup data yesterday, before President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.

25 Jan 2012

First Edition: January 25, 2012

Kaiser Health News listened to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address with an ear out for health policy references. He made just one explicit mention of the 2010 health law, and KHN has a transcript of the few parts of his speech that mentioned health care issues.

25 Jan 2012

Comprehensive policy package based on research needed to stem abortion figures

"The astounding thing about the global abortion debate is not that some people have deeply held views about what a pregnancy is and when a human existence begins" but that "policymakers continue to ignore carefully amassed information about the actual outcome of programs and laws related to sexuality and reproduction," Marianne Møllmann, senior policy adviser with Amnesty International's International Secretariat, writes in this Guardian opinion piece.

25 Jan 2012

New study aims to prevent bacterial infections in sub-Saharan African kids

Bacteria infections - most of which are preventable via vaccines readily available in the developed world - and not malaria are the leading cause of death for children in sub-Saharan Africa. A new Michigan State University project based in Nigeria and funded by a $5.8 million grant aims to help prevent these diseases by collecting local data on the ailments, spurring vaccine use and development. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the research led by Stephen Obaro focuses on diseases such as pneumonia, sepsis and meningitis.

25 Jan 2012

U.S. military provides medical care, education services to women, children in Tanzania

The U.S. Army news service reports on a five-day Medical Civil Action Program, or MEDCAP, in Tanzania, during which "Tanzanian medical providers working in partnership with U.S. service members from Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa provided medical care to more than 2,100 Tanzanian women and children."

25 Jan 2012