Helping to Fight the Hidden Risks
Those of us suffering with high blood pressure rarely have any symptoms.
For many, the first they know about it is when they have a heart attack or a stroke.
The Very High Carb Diet
Researchers say that people are confused about nutrition for weight loss. Of course we are confused - you cannot help shaking your head in bewilderment when you see the enormous variety of advice out there.
The Bread for Life Diet was released in the US this month, and can only be described as a “very” high carb diet. The press release reports that “It’s the diet other publishers didn’t want to touch because it is so anti-Atkins and South Beach.”
India’s encephalitis toll 850, worst may be over
India’s deadliest encephalitis outbreak in almost three decades, which has killed 850 people in a northern state, has started to wane with fewer deaths being reported, a health official said on Tuesday.
“We can now safely assume that the worst is over,” said Uttar Pradesh health services chief O.P. Singh.
Anti-malarial drugs sent to save children in Niger
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that it was sending 100,000 anti-malarial drugs to Niger to save malnourished children from the deadly mosquito-borne infection now in its peak season.
“For Niger’s children, malaria represents just as big a threat as hunger at present,” said Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, director of WHO’s Roll Back Malaria Department.
Tenuate plus diet causes 17-25 lbs weight loss after six months
Tenuate (diethylpropion) given every day causes greater weight loss than diet alone, but giving it intermittently every other month is not according to paper on diet drugs by Dr. Lisa L. Ioannides-Demos from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
Study #1 weight loss after six months: 17.2 lbs vs 4.2 lbs
Obesity is twice as common in constipated children
Obesity is twice as common in constipated children 4- to 17-years-old according to a new study from Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
Prevalence of obesity in constipated versus normal boys: 25% vs 14%; girls: 19% vs 10%
Tea can treat diabetes
A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Scranton suggests that tea might prevent diabetes and its ensuing complications, including cataracts.
Researchers led by Joe Vinson fed green and black tea to diabetic rats for three months and then monitored the chemical composition of the rats’ blood and eye lenses.
Study shows Bypass surgery better than angioplasty for diabetics
Severe coronary heart disease can be treated with either heart bypass surgery or angioplasty with similar survival rates, according to findings of a five-year, international study published in the July 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. However, in those patients who were also treated for diabetes (20 percent of the study’s participants), bypass surgery provided significantly better survival than angioplasty, reports the authors of the largest clinical trial comparing the two procedures.
The multi-center Bypass Angioplasty Revascularization Investigation (BARI) was coordinated at the University of Pittsburgh.
Normal Weight elderly still may be at risk for developing diabetes
Elderly men and women with normal body weight still may be at risk for developing type 2 diabetes if they have large amounts of muscle fat or visceral abdominal fat, according to a University of Pittsburgh study published in the February issue of the journal Diabetes Care.
“Our study found that, even though an elderly person may not be overweight, he or she might still be at risk for developing diabetes,” said Bret H. Goodpaster, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh division of endocrinology and metabolism and principal investigator of the study. “An important factor is where in the body their excess fat is stored.”
Cocoa health benefits may boost West Africa farms
Recent discoveries that cocoa could protect against heart disease and hypertension could see incomes soar for poor West African farmers, scientists working with confectionery maker Mars said of Monday.
Scientists at a nutrition conference in Durban said evidence was growing that chemicals in cocoa could provide massive medical benefits in the battle against heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and vascular dementia.
FDA steps up action on misleading drug ads
U.S. Food and Drug Administration warnings to drug companies over misleading advertisements have more than tripled in the last year, an agency official said on Monday.
The agency sent 17 warning letters in the 12 months ending in August compared with an average of about four to five letters in recent years, Thomas Abrams, head of FDA’s Division of Drug Marketing and Communications, told food and drug regulatory lawyers at a conference in Washington.
Experimental once-a-day asthma drug promising
An experimental asthma drug under development by Novartis AG works quickly and lasts for 24 hours in patients with asthma and smoker’s lung, data from a study released on Monday showed.
Novartis said its indacaterol drug, formerly known as QAB149, was well-tolerated in patients and worked when administered just once a day, unlike other drugs of its kind which need twice-daily dosing.
Psychopaths could be best financial traders?
"Wanted: psychopaths to make a killing in the markets.”
Such an advert will not be appearing in the world’s newspapers any time soon, but it may have a ring of truth after research revealed the best wheeler-dealers could well be “functional psychopaths.”
A team of U.S. scientists has found the emotionally impaired are more willing to gamble for high stakes and that people with brain damage may make good financial decisions, the Times newspaper reported Monday.
Stem cells aid spinal cord injured
Human neural stem cells can replace damaged cells and improve function in a mouse model of spinal cord injury, according to a report released Monday.
For treating spinal cord injury, “there is hope, but we are a long way off,” said Dr. Brian J. Cummings from University of California, Irvine. “Our study improved function in mice with very controlled injuries. We did not cure these mice.”
