Medical News

RSS

Be warned - there's no such thing as a hangover cure!

With the festive season in full swing in Australia and elsewhere, in the run up to Christmas, scientists in the United States have made an attempt to ascertain if there is indeed a proven cure for a hangover.

22 Dec 2008

Cancer is on the increase in Australia

The report shows that the number of new cancer cases diagnosed in Australia each year passed the 100,000 mark for the first time in 2005 and the number of new cases in 2008 is estimated to be over 108,000.

22 Dec 2008

Baby girl due soon will be minus breast cancer causing gene

A baby girl about to be born in Britain will be the first to have been screened for a breast cancer causing gene.

22 Dec 2008

HIV carriers in Malaysia should not be allowed to marry, says government official

One of Malaysia's top politicians has apparently suggested that HIV carriers should not be allowed to marry in order to avoid having sick children.

22 Dec 2008

Cairn's residents threatened with fines over dengue outbreak

Health officials in Cairns in the tropical northern part of Queensland, Australia are battling to contain an outbreak dengue fever in the region.

22 Dec 2008

Avoid headbanging injury by switching to Celine Dion?

Australian researchers have issued a warning about the danger of "head-banging" which is usually associated with heavy-metal music.

22 Dec 2008

Warning about severe allergic reactions to recalled cold and flu tablets

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) have recalled two types of cold and flu tablets following reports of a number of allergic and anaphylactic reactions.

22 Dec 2008

Dengue fever outbreak spreading across Cairns

An outbreak of dengue fever in Cairns, in far north Queensland, continues to cause alarm as the number now affected has reportedly reached 50 and appears to be rising.

22 Dec 2008

Vulnerability to post-traumatic stress runs in families

Earthquakes have aftershocks - not just the geological kind but the mental kind as well. Just like veterans of war, earthquake survivors can experience post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.

22 Dec 2008

Teva's acquisition of Barr cleared by FTC

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc. have announced that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") has accepted the proposed consent order in connection with the pending acquisition of Barr by Teva and granted early termination of the Hart Scott Rodino waiting period.

22 Dec 2008

Cardiovascular system proteins play a role in Alzheimer's

Researchers have found that two proteins which work in tandem in the brain's blood vessels present a double whammy in Alzheimer's disease.

22 Dec 2008

Trends in sexual behaviors similar for teens who take few health risk and those who take many

Adolescent health risk behaviors often occur together, suggesting that youth involvement with one risk behavior may inform understanding of other risk behaviors, but in a study to examine the association between involvement in non-sexual risk behaviors and trends among sexual behaviors, Mailman School of Public Health researchers found that sexual behaviors vary considerably between those youth engaged in no risk health behaviors and those engaged in multiple health risk behaviors.

22 Dec 2008

Teva and Barr receive European approval for acquisition

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc. have announced that they received approval from the European Commission to proceed with Teva's acquisition of Barr.

22 Dec 2008

Physicians perform rare surgery to restore hearing to a deaf patient

Marisela Leon, 44, has neurofibromatosis type 2 -- a rare genetic condition that causes tumors to grow on nerves in the brain or spinal cord, but most commonly on the auditory nerve. Leon lost her hearing more than four years ago when surgery to remove a tumor damaged her auditory nerve.

22 Dec 2008

Rise in births for couples on benefits

Increased government support for families has coincided with a rise in births among women who left school at 16 compared to those who stayed in education after the age of 18.

22 Dec 2008

Trial looks at high intensity focused ultrasound for locally recurrent prostate cancer

A Phase III clinical trial at New York University is investigating the safety and efficacy of High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) for the treatment of locally recurrent prostate cancer following failed external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) using the Sonablate(R) 500.

22 Dec 2008

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy damages offspring's white matter - brain's connective network

One part of the prenatal brain that may be particularly sensitive to alcohol's effects is white matter, nerve fibers through which information is exchanged between different areas of the central nervous system.

22 Dec 2008

Perception of health and balance has direct impact on walking activity

New research out of the University of Pittsburgh indicates that patients' perceptions of their own health and balance have an impact on how much they walk.

22 Dec 2008

Patient-derived induced stem cells retain disease traits

The dying cells - the same type lost in patients with the devastating neurological disease spinal muscular atrophy - confirmed that the University of Wisconsin-Madison stem cell biologist had recreated the hallmarks of a genetic disorder in the lab, using stem cells derived from a patient.

22 Dec 2008

Scientists find gene that is a powerful predictor of colon cancer metastasis

Cancer researchers have identified a gene which enables them to predict for the first time with high probability if colon cancer is going to metastasize.

22 Dec 2008