Women with diabetes face significantly greater risk of a fatal heart attack
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Diabetic women have a much greater risk of suffering a fatal Heart attack, according to Swedish research, which suggests women with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus face as much as a 3.1 times greater risk than healthy women, while diabetic men have a 1.9 times higher risk than their healthy counterparts.
Benefits of cataract surgery last in most patients
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Visual function after cataract surgery may decrease over time in some patients, but many still show improvement years after surgery, Swedish researchers report in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.
Drs. Mats Lunstrom and E. Wendel, from Blekinge Hospital, Sweden, examined how long patients’ improved visual function lasts following a cataract surgery.
Hearing tests for all infants may improve outcomes
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Universal newborn screening for hearing impairment is more effective than waiting to screen until 8 months of age in achieving early referral for complete hearing assessments, the results of a study in the UK suggest. Early referral for children with hearing loss is believed to be a critical element in minimizing speech impairment by the time the child reaches school age.
Although universal newborn screening for hearing impairment has been recommended by the National Institutes of Health since 1993, the benefit of such programs has been disputed, Dr. Colin Kennedy and his associates explain in the current issue of The Lancet.
Massage improves weight gain in preterm infants
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Moderate-pressure massage therapy increases weight gain in preterm infants by improving stomach motion, investigators at the University of Miami School of Medicine report.
Clinical trials have documented greater weight gain in premature infants after 5 to 10 days of massage, even though food intake and total sleeping time are not increased, Dr. Miguel A. Diego and his associates point out in the Journal of Pediatrics.
12 weight-loss questions
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Your personal trainer subsists on whey shakes, your sister’s sworn off dairy, and a book you picked up recommends watercress soup for Weight Loss. Is it any wonder you’re stymied about what to eat come mealtime? To ease the confusion, we rounded up top nutrition and weight-loss experts to answer the most burning questions.
FDA won’t ban diet drug Meridia
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The government won’t ban the prescription diet drug Meridia but, faced with reports of deaths, says it will closely monitor a European study designed to better assess the pill’s heart risks.
The consumer group Public Citizen had petitioned the Food and Drug Administration for a ban, citing Meridia users who died of heart problems as young as their 20s and 30s. Even before Meridia was approved for sale, the FDA knew it could increase users’ blood pressure, the group contended.
Obesity-related diabetes rising in US kids
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A tidal wave of “diabesity”, a new term coined to reflect a form of Diabetes Mellitus brought on by Obesity, is sweeping through American children, said a pediatrician who has published a new book on the affliction.
Francine Kaufman, an endocrinologist at Children’s Hospital here, compared the rise in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus among overweight children to a tsunami starting in the mid-1990s.
Magnetic stimulation may improve stroke recovery
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The results of a small preliminary trial suggest that a type of magnetic stimulation of the brain—- repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)—may produce short-term improvements after Stroke.
With rTMS, the head is placed close to intermittent magnetic fields. No anesthesia is required and the procedure is performed on an outpatient basis. Patients may complain of headaches during rTMS, depending on the strength of the field used.
Obesity And Expanding Waistlines the next Epidemic in USA
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Obesity is defined as 30 or more pounds above ideal body weight. Obesity is slowly becoming a global problem and more so in developed countries. According to a recent report the number of obese adults in the U.S. is currently about 31 percent. In 1980 it was 23% and 15 percent in 1970.
Obesity not only causes problems with heart but also many other diseases like Arthritis, Diabetes Mellitus, impotency etc.
Indoor air pollution heightens lung cancer risk
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While uncommon in developed nations, heating and cooking indoors with solid fuels contributes to an increased risk of developing Lung Cancer, according to the results of a multicenter study.
“High levels of indoor air pollution, which however are unlikely to occur today in industrialized countries, may contribute to Lung Cancer risk,” Dr. Jolanta Lissowska told Reuters Health. “This effect, however, is small compared to that of tobacco smoking.”
China’s exorbitant health care fees spark suicides
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A Chinese security guard hailed as a hero for fighting off a purse snatcher jumped to his death from a 19th-storey hospital window because he couldn’t afford treatment, epitomizing the failure of China’s health care reforms.
The suicide, reported by state media, was not an isolated case. A 42-year-old farmer too poor to afford treatment for Lung Cancer set off a home-made bomb aboard a bus in Fuzhou, capital of the southeastern province of Fujian, on August 8 in a suicide attack that killed another passenger and wounded 30.
Hormone linked to sugar control in diabetics
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High blood levels of a hormone called adiponectin are associated with improved sugar control in women with Diabetes Mellitus, new research shows.
In addition, high adiponectin levels are associated with high levels of HDL “good” cholesterol and with reduced inflammation. Taken together, these effects could help reduce the risk of Heart Disease and Stroke.
Russia to shoot migrating birds to fight bird flu
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Some Russian regions have opened the hunting season early in an attempt to stop the spread of a deadly outbreak of bird flu, media reported on Thursday.
In the regions of Irkutsk, in eastern Siberia, and Penza, in European Russia, local officials decided to open the hunting season for birds early, even though there have been no cases of bird flu in those regions, Itar-Tass news agency reported.
US heroin users exposed to dangerous additive
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A drug that promotes lean muscle growth in cattle may be turning up in heroin on the U.S. East Coast, sickening users and stoking fears of a wave of such poisonings, U.S. health officials said on Thursday.
Traces of clenbuterol were found in the urine of eight reported heroin users who became ill in New York and Connecticut in the first three months of 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a weekly health report.
Studies find racial differences in US health care
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Racial disparities still exist in U.S. medical care despite years of attempts to reduce them, with black women typically being the least likely to get the care they need, research published on Wednesday shows.
“For most of the areas studied, disparities between white patients and black patients have not substantially improved during the past decade or so,” said Nicole Lurie in an editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine, where the findings appear.
