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San Francisco - Stanford University researchers have developed a new method for predicting health problems in premature babies that they say is much more reliable than the standard Apgar score used to evaluate newborns' health. The new method, which the researchers have named the PhysiScore , rates infants' health based on vital signs taken at birth and over the first three hours of life. In a study...
September 20, 2010
In the 1930s, federal guidelines suggested that babies complete toilet training by 6 to 8 months of age. To which a modern parent might respond: Bwahahaha! Today's kids aren't in a rush to get to the throne. Most children start potty training around their second or even third birthday, an age that has steadily risen over the years as diapers have become more comfortable and widely available. Critics...
September 20, 2010
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. Most of the time I'm too busy to watch TV, but the other night, I caught a new show on Showtime called "The Big C." The show stars Laura Linney as Cathy, a woman diagnosed with metastatic melanoma. In a nutshell, Cathy uses her diagnosis as an excuse to become a self-centered, indulgent woman. In the episode I watched, she proclaims that she wants to eat garlic and onions - though...
September 17, 2010
Sept. 17 - This year's seasonal flu vaccine is a single shot that will protect against three prominent strains of influenza - including swine flu, which state health officials said Thursday will likely cause more illnesses this fall. As flu season gets ready to rear its feverish head, state epidemiologist Gilberto Chavez briefed media Thursday on this year's new vaccine and the status of the flu in...
September 17, 2010
Bacteria that are able to survive every modern antibiotic are cropping up in many U.S. hospitals and are spreading outside the USA, public health officials say. The bugs, reported by hospitals in more than 20 states, typically strike the critically ill and are fatal in 30% to 60% of cases. Israeli doctors are battling an outbreak in Tel Aviv that has been traced to a patient from northern New Jersey,...
September 17, 2010
One by one, Ali Kassim pulls out the weeds that have grown in his rice paddy. It's surprisingly rare in Africa, but he is cultivating African rice - once close to extinction after it was pushed aside centuries ago for a higher-yield imported Asian variety. Researchers hope to see more and more farmers like Kassim, who is 32 and among about 100 people in Togo's central Atakpamey region to take part...
September 16, 2010
NEW YORK - In Times Square, people once smoked just about anything. Now you can't even light up a cigarette. After banning cars from Times Square last year to turn the street over to pedestrians, the city now plans to outlaw smoking in the new plazas. Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced plans Wednesday to forbid smoking in all city parks, beaches and pedestrian plazas. The list of 1,700 parks and 14...
September 16, 2010
LOS ANGELES - A trickle of aching, coughing, sniffling youngsters and senior citizens into local emergency rooms has prompted some physicians to declare an early start of flu season. And to head off a pandemic like last year's swine flu outbreak, physicians are already starting to inoculate patients with a vaccine that protects against three strains of the flu, including H1N1. Several commercial pharmacy...
September 16, 2010
Sept. 16 - By mid-December, the Pueblo City-County Health Department could have a powerful new tool to address the county's growing teen pregnancy rate. Using a $50,000 grant from the county's Department of Social Services, the health department has hired the JSI Research and Training Institute of Denver to help shed light on why the rate here is so high and what could reduce it. On Wednesday, more...
September 16, 2010
Sept. 15 - WASHINGTON - The physician credited with blocking the drug thalidomide from the US market in the 1960s was headed for the spotlight later Wednesday when the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) makes its first award in her honour. Dr Frances Oldham Kelsey, 96, a retired FDA employee who started working there in 1960, refused to allow the pharmaceutical company William S Merrell to distribute...
September 15, 2010
Sept. 13 - LOS ANGELES - An infectious-disease nightmare is unfolding: A new gene that can turn many types of bacteria into superbugs resistant to nearly all antibiotics has sickened people in three states including California, health officials reported Monday. The U.S. cases and two others in Canada all involve people who had recently received medical care in India, where the problem is widespread....
September 15, 2010
Scientists have developed a new test which can diagnose tuberculosis in one hour, potentially helping to curb the spread of the disease, a British health agency said in a study Wednesday. The "ultra-rapid" test is far quicker than traditional methods, which can take up to eight weeks and mean that patients, who are often from transient populations, move on untreated, said the Health Protection Agency...
September 15, 2010
Obesity costs the US economy at least 215 billion dollars a year in direct and indirect impacts including medical expenses and lost productivity, a new study showed Tuesday. The report by Brookings Institution researchers found that medical costs for obese adults amounts to 147 billion dollars more than for those with healthy weight, and the costs for children amount of 14.3 billion dollars annually....
September 14, 2010
Mass screening of men for prostate cancer has little impact on the toll from the disease and carries a risk of over-treatment, according to a review published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on Wednesday. University of Florida professor Philipp Dahm looked at the outcome of six trials in which populations of men were tested either using a digital rectal examination or a blood test for an antigen...
September 14, 2010
The same cholesterol-lowering statins taken by tens of millions worldwide to prevent cardiovascular disease may help fend off infections as well, new studies have found. Authors of the research agreed more investigation was needed to say for sure whether statins best known for their interaction with cholesterol could be recommended as a treatment for infections such as pneumonia, sepsis or blood infections...
September 14, 2010
Sept. 14 - NORMAL - At 5:15 a.m. Aug. 23, Joe Piscatella was awakened as usual by his alarm clock. It was still dark outside and Piscatella did not want to get up and go out for his daily morning jog. It was then that he picked up a book from his night stand and read a motivational quote: "There are no gold medals for the 95-yard dash." "By 5:45 a.m., I was out the door." "I need some motivation,"...
September 14, 2010
Sept. 13 - Using alcohol-based hand sanitizer doesn't significantly decrease how often someone is infected with a cold or flu, a University of Virginia study has found. The results came as a surprise to research team leader Dr. Ronald Turner, whose study was sponsored by the Dial Corp. "We all thought if you used hand disinfectants, it would have an impact," Turner said. The results were expected to...
September 13, 2010
Sydney (dpa) - Doctors are more likely to commit suicide, with women in the profession facing more than double the risk of the average population, while male doctors have a 25 per cent higher rate. The research was commissioned by Beyond Blue, an institute funded by the Australian government that looks into depression and devises strategies to deal with it. Melbourne-based Beyond Blue's Michael Baigent...
September 13, 2010
TOKYO - Women with a history of infection with the H1N1 influenza virus appear to be 2 -1-/-2- times more likely to give birth prematurely, according to research by the Japan Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. According to the association, 5.8 percent of pregnant women gave birth prematurely in 2008, but the rate was 14.6 percent among those who had contracted the new type of influenza....
September 13, 2010
Sept. 13 - Mexican-American women are diagnosed with breast cancer at a significantly younger age than Caucasian women, a surprising finding from a new study that raises more questions about the recent push to delay routine screening. University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center researchers surveyed women in Hispanic neighborhoods in Harris County and found nearly half of those with the potentially...
September 13, 2010
Swimming in chlorinated pools can cause an increased risk of cancer in bathers, Spanish researchers said on Monday. Researchers from the Barcelona-based Centre of Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) and Research Institute Hospital del Mar studied changes in indicators of mutagenicity - permanent mutation of the DNA - among a group of swimmers in an indoor chlorinated pool. "The evidence...
September 13, 2010
Many people buy organic foods because they believe organic foods have higher nutritional values than their non-organic counterparts. Researchers at Washington State University wanted to find out if these consumer beliefs were accurate. They tested both organic and conventional strawberries grown in 13 side-by-side California fields. Here are a few of their findings: - The organic strawberries had significantly...
September 13, 2010
Munich (dpa) - Whooping cough is not a common illness in children, but it poses a big risk to infants. They can contract the disease from adults who often carry the pathogen. Doctors recommend adults refresh their immunity to the disease every 10 years. Whooping cough begins just like any other normal cough, but it quickly develops into an uncontrollable fit of coughing, often hitting at night. In...
September 13, 2010
Sept. 13 - Ear buds. Earphones. Naked ears. How one listens to music does not matter in terms of potential hearing damage as much as the combination of volume, proximity to the noise source and length of exposure. This is common sense, yes. But when studies emerge like a recent one in the Journal of the American Medical Association that estimated one in five teenagers has hearing loss, the message...
September 13, 2010
Aug. 25 - A TOP government official yesterday dismissed fears about a possible outbreak of the H1N1 swine flu virus. The reassurance comes after two men, an Indian and a Pakistani, in their 30s, were diagnosed with the virus on Monday. The two are being treated for acute respiratory failure at the Salmaniya Medical Complex's (SMC) intensive care unit. "The pandemic is over, but the virus is still around...
September 11, 2010
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