Gallstone Disease: Are You at Risk? Tips on Gallstone Disease
Gallstones are one of the most common gastrointestinal (GI) problems, especially for women. Women between the ages of 20 and 60 years are three times more likely to develop gallstones than men. Gallstones are solid clumps of cholesterol or pigment material that form in the gallbladder, and can range in size from a single grain of sand up to the size of a ping-pong ball.
America’s ‘anti-prostitution pledge’ is hindering global HIV control efforts
In order to receive US funding for HIV prevention or control projects, recipient organizations must take a pledge that explicitly condemns prostitution. But such condemnation is not effective at helping to control the global HIV epidemic, say researchers in this week’s PLoS Medicine.
Nicole Franck Masenior and Chris Beyrer (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) reviewed the existing scientific evidence on strategies that effectively reduce rates of HIV among sex workers.
New Model for Autism Suggests Women Carry the Disorder and Explains Age as a Risk Factor
A new model for understanding how autism is acquired has been developed by a team of researchers led by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Autism is a developmental disorder, characterized by language impairments, social deficits, and repetitive behaviors. The researchers analyzed data on autism incidence and found a previously unrecognized pattern. The pattern can be explained by assuming that spontaneous germ-line mutation is a significant cause of the disorder. Parents, especially women, who acquire the mutation – but do not exhibit severe symptoms of the disorder – have a 50% chance of passing the mutation on to their children. Sons often show the most severe symptoms.
Spontaneous mutations are changes in a chromosome that alter genes. Germ-line mutations are newly acquired in a germ cell of a parent, and sometimes are transmitted to offspring at conception.
Dietary Supplement Can Turn the Skin Permanently Blue
Colloidal silver is peddled as a cold medicine, decongestant, all-around germ fighter, and a kind of cure-all. Is there any legitimate reason for taking the dietary supplement? The short answer is no, and there may be some serious and strange side effects, reports the August 2007 issue of the Harvard Health Letter.
Silver has several uses in conventional medicine. Silver sulfadiazine is used to treat serious burns. Fabric impregnated with silver is sometimes used as a dressing for wounds or skin infections. And silver nitrate is occasionally used to treat warts and corns.
