Could Viagra cure chronic pelvic pain?
The impotence drug Viagra could help men suffering from pelvic pain. As many as one in ten men in the UK have pelvic pain syndrome, with symptoms including lower back and groin pain, and bladder problems.
A trial has been looking at the use of the drug - originally developed to help angina patients, but now widely used to treat impotence - to see if it can help to open the constricted blood vessels that may be the source of the discomfort.
Ibuprofen best in relieving children’s pain
Ibuprofen was superior to acetaminophen and codeine in relieving the pain from a broken bone or serious sprain suffered by children brought to the emergency room, Canadian researchers said on Monday.
A single dose of ibuprofen, sold generically and under the brand name Advil by Wyeth, relieved the pain within an hour in 52 of 100 injured children.
Childhood obesity triggers early puberty
Childhood obesity in the United States appears to be causing girls to reach puberty at an earlier age, for reasons that are not clear, a study said on Monday.
The report from the University of Michigan’s Mott Children’s Hospital said a multiyear study following a group of 354 girls found that those who were fatter at age 3 and who gained weight during the next three years reached puberty, as defined by breast development, by age 9.
Low-fat diary enhances weight loss in diabetics
Research results suggest that a diet rich in low-fat dairy calcium boosts weight loss in overweight type 2 diabetics. “Such a diet should be tried in diabetic patients,” researchers conclude, particularly in those individuals who have a tough time sticking to other weight loss diets.
The weight-loss promoting effect of dairy calcium came to light in ancillary analyses of data from a study in which 259 overweight diabetic patients were put on a mixed glycemic index diet, a low-glycemic index diet, or a modified Mediterranean diet.
Dietary copper may ease heart disease
Including more copper in your everyday diet could be good for your heart, according to scientists at the University of Louisville Medical Center and the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center. Their studies show that giving copper supplements to mice eased the stress on their over-worked hearts by preventing heart enlargement. The study will be published online on March 5th in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.
Insufficient copper intake is associated with increases in cholesterol levels, clot formation, and heart disease. The new study found that feeding mice copper relieved heart disease and restored proper heart function, even when the animals’ hearts were continually stressed. Stressed mice that were not given copper supplements suffered heart failure. The copper-rich diet increased the production of a protein that promotes the growth of new blood vessels, although exactly how this protein might aid heart recovery is not yet clear.
New Device Offers Hope to Children with Chest, Spinal Deformities
Two-year-old Ariana Martin had a rough start to life.
A fraternal twin, she was born without four ribs on her left side, and with several health problems, including severe scoliosis. With an under-developed chest cavity, Ariana faced severe lung disease and difficulty breathing.
Teenagers with retail, service jobs at risk of injury, robberies, sleep deprivation
Despite federal regulations intended to protect them, many teenagers in the U.S. use dangerous equipment or work long hours during the school week, according to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study.
The national study was based on telephone surveys of 928 teenaged workers, 14 to 18 years old. The results show 52 percent of males and 43 percent of females use dangerous equipment such a box crushers and slicers, or serve and sell alcohol where it is consumed, despite federal child labor laws prohibiting these practices.
The results were published in the March 1, 2007 editor of the journal Pediatrics.
Neck Pain Treatment Safer Without Significant Risk of Paralysis
In the largest series of patients to date, recent research shows that the translaminar approach to cervical spinal steroid injections can reduce neck pain in eighty-three percent of those treated. In addition to being an effective treatment, the translaminar approach was found to be safer than an alternative method or surgery, as no major complications were observed. In the alternative approach, steroids are injected in close proximity to nerve bundles and small blood vessels in the spine, which can result in nerve damage or paralysis. The translaminar technique in the study avoids this risk by injecting the steroids into the epidural space in the neck, allowing the drug to spread up and down the spine to reduce the inflammation and subsequently reduce pain. This safer translaminar approach is an outpatient treatment, requiring only a small amount of local anesthesia. Although the injection does not treat the underlying cause of the pain, such as arthritis or herniated disc, it does treat the immediate pain flare-up, allowing patients to get back to their normal routines. The research was presented today at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 32nd Annual Scientific Meeting in Seattle.
