“Smokable” pain drugs promise faster action
All self-respecting painkillers these days offer “fast-acting relief,” a promise we accept to mean anywhere from 15 minutes to more than an hour.
For Alexza Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is developing drugs for migraine, pain, panic and agitation, “fast” has to mean “within seconds.”
Older people take bad news in stride: study
Older people are able to take bad news more in stride than their children or grandchildren, which can make them more risky gamblers as losses don’t scare them, according to a U.S. study.
Research funded by the National Institute of Aging has found evidence that older adults process negative information differently from their younger counterparts and are less responsive to unpleasant information.
Passive smoke in workplace increases lung cancer risk
An analysis of nearly two dozen studies confirms the association between passive smoke in the workplace and an increased risk of lung cancer, according to a report in the American Journal of Public Health.
The research, led by University of Illinois at Chicago epidemiologist Leslie Stayner, is posted online and will appear in the March print issue of the journal.
Study indicates different treatment may be needed for infection-related breathing problems
New research suggests that different treatments may be needed for chronic asthma, depending on whether it results from allergies or lung infections.
Previous studies have shown that certain lung infections such as Mycoplasma pneumoniae can linger on and contribute to a person later experiencing symptoms of asthma.
Researchers have now identified a particular gene that influences how severe a M. pneumoniae infection may be, which in turn suggests that a different strategy might be needed for treating asthma resulting from this and similar lung infections rather than allergies.
