Monday 20 April 2015

Diabetes Medications And Cancer

Diabetes Medications And Cancer.
People with diabetes are less indubitably to take their diabetes medications if they've been diagnosed with cancer, researchers report. The late study included more than 16000 diabetes patients, regular age 68, taking drugs to lower their blood sugar. Of those patients, more than 3200 were diagnosed with cancer. "This about revealed that the medication adherence mid users of blood sugar-lowering drugs was influenced by cancer diagnosis," the researchers wrote. "Although the smash of cancer was more pronounced among cancers with a worse prognosis and among those with more advanced cancer stages, the characteristic in prognosis associated with these cancers seemed to only partly explain the bump of cancer on medication adherence".

To determine the impact, the Dutch and Canadian researchers analyzed the patients' medication hold ratio (MPR), which represents the amount of medication patients had in their possession over a unequivocal period of time. In this study, a 10 percent decline in MPR translated into three days a month where patients did not interpret their diabetes medications. At the time of cancer diagnosis, there was an overall 6,3 percent let go in MPR, followed by a 0,20 percent monthly decline following a cancer diagnosis.

Steps For Flu Prevention

Steps For Flu Prevention.
With flu now widespread across the United States, experts advocate you take effect several steps to reduce your risk. Getting a flu swig is crucial, said Dr Saul Hymes, assistant professor of clinical pediatrics and a expert in pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Children's Hospital in Stony Brook, NY "It's still not too late," he said in a nursing home news release. "Even though one of the predominant strains this year, H3N2, has drifted marginally and is less well covered by the vaccine, there are still three other flu strains out there covered by the vaccine, and the vaccine will probable still offer some protection against H3N2 as well". Dr Susan Donelan, medical principal of health care epidemiology at Stony Brook, said that a variety of flu strains around during most flu seasons.

And "A mismatch of the current strain does not predict a mismatch of circulating strains later in the season. That is what happened in the 2013-2014 opportunity - two distinguishable influenza A viruses and one influenza B 'took turns' being the predominant strain". Flu inveterately peaks between December and February in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So far this season, 26 children have died from flu, and flu interest was reported widespread in 46 states, the CDC said Friday.

Sunday 19 April 2015

A Particularly Nasty Flu Season

A Particularly Nasty Flu Season.
The United States is in the engross of a very nasty flu season, federal health officials said Friday, due - in humongous part - to a strain of the virus that's hitting the elderly and children mainly hard. That strain is called H3N2 flu, and it's not a good match to the strains in this year's flu vaccine. As a result, thousands of hoi polloi are being hospitalized and 26 children have died from flu so far, Dr Tom Frieden, top banana of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a twelve press briefing. "Years that have H3N2 predominance be biased to have more hospitalizations and more deaths.

Frieden said hospitalization rates for flu have risen to 92 per 100000 folk this season, primarily due to the H3N2 strain. This compares to a typical year of 52 hospitalizations per 100000 people. In an run-of-the-mill year, more than 200000 people are hospitalized for flu and the digit of children's deaths varies from as few as 30 to as many as 170 or more, CDC officials said. Although it's the halfway of the flu season, the CDC continues to recommend that everybody 6 months and older get a flu shot.

Friday 17 April 2015

The Basic Knowledge About Breast Cancer

The Basic Knowledge About Breast Cancer.
Many women with heart cancer want basic knowledge about their disease, such as their cancer stage and other characteristics, according to a new study. The be deficient in of knowledge was even more pronounced among minority women, the study authors found. This judgement is worrisome because knowing about a health condition can help people understand why curing is important to follow, experts say. "We certainly were surprised at the number of women who knew very insignificant about their disease," said Dr Rachel Freedman, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a medical oncologist specializing in teat cancer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Although the observe didn't specifically look at the reasons behind the lack of knowledge, Freedman suspects that women may be overwhelmed when they're initially diagnosed. In combining individual doctors vary in how much poop they give and how well they explain the cancer characteristics. The study is published online Jan 26, 2015 in Cancer. Kimlin Tam Ashing, a professor at the Beckman Research Institute at the City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, California, reviewed the study's findings, and said that alert appointments may also be to denounce for the discernment gap.

In the survey, Freedman and her team asked 500 women four questions about their cancer including questions about tumor stage, grade, and hormone receptor status. Overall, 32 percent to 82 percent of women reported that they knew the answers to these questions. But only 20 percent to 58 percent were in point of fact correct, depending on the characteristics, the investigators found. Just 10 percent of oyster-white women and 6 percent of frowning and Hispanic women knew all of their cancer characteristics correctly, according to the study.

Cancer "stage" describes the sweep of the cancer, whether it is invasive or not and if lymph nodes are concerned (stages 0 through IV). Two-thirds of ghastly women and about half of dusky and Hispanic women were able to correctly identify their cancer's stage, the researchers found. Cancer "grade" describes how the cancer cells seem under the microscope and can help predict its aggressiveness. Just 24 percent of off-white women, 15 percent of black women and 19 percent of Hispanic women knew what their cancer evaluate was, according to the study.

Newborns Jaundice And Cerebral Palsy

Newborns Jaundice And Cerebral Palsy.
Newborns with significant jaundice are not plausible to commence a rare and life-threatening type of cerebral palsy if American Academy of Pediatrics' treatment guidelines are followed, according to a different study. Jaundice is yellowing of the eyes and skin due to high levels of the liver-produced pigment bilirubin. In most cases, jaundice develops amid newborns because their liver is too unsophisticated to break down the pigment quickly enough. Usually, this condition resolves without treatment.

Some babies, however, must gather phototherapy. Exposure to special lights changes bilirubin into a compound that can be excreted from the body, according to the researchers. If phototherapy fails, a form called exchange transfusion may be required. During this invasive procedure, the infant's blood is replaced with benefactress blood. Recommendations for exchange transfusions are based on bilirubin level, the stage of the infant and other risk factors for brain damage.

Exchange transfusion isn't without risk. Potential complications from the care include blood clots, blood persuade instability, bleeding and changes in blood chemistry, according to the researchers. High bilirubin levels are also risky. They've been associated with a bad form of cerebral palsy called kernicterus. In classification to investigate this association, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco and the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research examined details from two groups of more than 100000 infants.

Friday 10 April 2015

Insulin Levels And Breast Cancer

Insulin Levels And Breast Cancer.
After menopause, feeble insulin levels may forecast breast cancer risk even more than excess weight, new research suggests. The altered findings suggest "that it is metabolic health, and not overweight per se, that is associated with increased peril of breast cancer in postmenopausal women," said study co-author Marc Gunter. He is an colleague professor of cancer epidemiology and prevention at Imperial College London School of Public Health in England. While great insulin levels often occur in overweight or abdominous women, some very heavy women have normal levels of the hormone, experts say.

And some normal-weight females have metabolically invalid insulin levels. The study was published Jan. 15 in the periodical Cancer Research. To assess insulin's role in breast cancer risk, Gunter planned more than 3300 women without diabetes, 497 of whom developed breast cancer over eight years. He analyzed communication on their weight, fasting insulin levels and insulin resistance, in which the body does not answer properly to insulin.

Insulin helps the body use digested food for energy. A body's ineptitude to produce insulin or use it properly leads to diabetes. Overweight for the study was defined as a body mass pointer (BMI) of 25 or more. BMI is a calculation of body fat based on height and weight. "The women who are overweight but who do not have metabolic abnormalities as assessed by insulin recalcitrance are not at increased risk of teat cancer compared to normal-weight women.

On the other hand, normal-weight women with metabolic abnormalities were at approximately the same illustrious risk of breast cancer as overweight women with metabolic abnormalities". Gunter said this evidently strong link between insulin and breast cancer is not a reason for women to ignore excess pounds. Being overweight or portly does increase the chances of developing insulin problems. In his study, peak fasting insulin levels doubled the risk of breast cancer, both for overweight and normal-weight women.

What Is Your Risk For High Blood Pressure

What Is Your Risk For High Blood Pressure.
If all Americans had their on a trip blood intimidate controlled, 56000 fewer heart attacks and strokes would happen each year. And 13000 fewer people would die - without increasing vigour costs, a new study claims. However, 44 percent of US adults with notable blood pressure do not have it regulated, according to background information in the study. "If we would get blood pressure under control, we would not only put health, but we would also save money," said researcher Dr Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, professor of cure-all at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.

And "An investment in strategies to drop blood pressure will yield large health benefits as well as economic benefits. Such measures could subsume more medical appointments for people with elevated blood pressure, home blood twist monitoring and measures to improve medication compliance, Bibbins-Domingo suggested. In 2014, an wonderful panel appointed by the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute released unexplored guidelines for treating high blood pressure.

These new guidelines target commonality with higher blood pressure levels. Moderate high blood pressure is defined as a systolic intimidation (the top reading) of 140 to 159 mm Hg or a diastolic urging (the bottom reading) of 90 to 99 mm Hg. Severe high blood prevail upon is 160 mm Hg or more over 100 mm Hg or more. The goal of therapy is to reduce these numbers. The American Heart Association defines normal blood influence as systolic pressure of less than 120 mm Hg and diastolic pressure of less than 80 mm Hg.

Monday 6 April 2015

The Thyroid Disorders And Reproductive Problems

The Thyroid Disorders And Reproductive Problems.
A supplementary mug up supports the notion that thyroid disorders can cause significant reproductive problems for women. The report's authors hold that testing for thyroid disease should be considered for women who have fertility problems and repeated ancient pregnancy loss. The research, published Jan 23, 2015 in The Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, found that 2,3 percent of women with fertility problems had an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism), compared with 1,5 percent of those in the accepted population. The get is also linked with menstrual irregularity, the researchers said.

So "Abnormalities in thyroid concern can have an adverse effect on reproductive health and result in reduced rates of conception, increased failing risk and adverse pregnancy and neonatal outcomes," said cramming co-author Amanda Jefferys in a journal news release. She is a researcher from the Bristol Center for Reproductive Medicine at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, England. While the analyse couldn't examine cause-and-effect, one expert in the United States said he wasn't surprised by the findings.

And "For over two decades now, we have noticed a blinding link between hypo- and hyperthyroidism and infertility as well as adverse pregnancy and neonatal outcomes," said Dr Tomer Singer, a reproductive endocrinologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "I substructure habit screening of the everyday population for thyroid dysfunction at the start of pregnancy and especially when seeking fertility treatment or struggling with miscarries". The thyroid produces hormones that coverage key roles in growth and development.

Saturday 4 April 2015

An Experimental Ebola Vaccine

An Experimental Ebola Vaccine.
Early results suggest an conjectural Ebola vaccine triggers an inoculated response and is safe to use. However, larger clinical trials in West Africa are needed to settle if the immune response generated by the vaccine is large enough to protect against Ebola infection, said the researchers at Oxford University in the UK This vaccine insides against the Zaire character of Ebola currently circulating in West Africa. It doesn't contain catching Ebola virus material, so it cannot cause Ebola infection in people who receive it.

The vaccine is being developed by the US National Institutes of Health and GlaxoSmithKline. The fundamental doses of the vaccine for use in eminently clinical trials in West Africa have been delivered to Liberia. The Oxford University distress included 60 healthy volunteers who were monitored for 28 days after receiving three disparate doses of the vaccine. The volunteers will continue to be monitored for six months. "The vaccine was well tolerated.

The Risk Of Complications From Breast Reconstruction

The Risk Of Complications From Breast Reconstruction.
The overall chance of complications from teat reconstruction after breast removal is only slightly higher for older women than for younger women, a unusual study indicates. Researchers looked at data from nearly 41000 women in the United States who had one heart removed between 2005 and 2012. Of those patients, about 11800 also underwent mamma reconstruction. Patients aged 65 and older were less likely to have breast reconstruction than younger women. About 11 percent of older women chose to have the surgery compared to nearly 40 percent of women under 65, the muse about found.

Women who had boob reconstruction had more complications - such as longer clinic stays and repeat surgeries - than those who did not have breast reconstruction. However, overall complication rates after heart of hearts reconstruction were similar. About 7 percent of older women had complications, while slightly more than 5 percent of younger women did. One departure was the risk of blood clot-related complications after tit reconstruction that used a patient's own tissue instead of implants.

Sunday 29 March 2015

Smoking And Asthma Or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Smoking And Asthma Or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
Close to half of US adults over 40 who have uprising breathing due to asthma or COPD still pursue to smoke, federal salubrity officials reported Wednesday. The findings highlight the difficulty skin many smokers trying to quit - even when smoking exacerbates an already distressing illness, one expert said. However, "with assistance, quitting may still be challenging but it is possible," said Patricia Folan, governor of the Center for Tobacco Control at North Shore-LIJ Health System in Great Neck, NY The reborn US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics come a hour after the delivering of another agency report, which found that 15 percent of Americans between 40 and 79 years of grow old suffer from some form of lung obstruction - typically asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary contagion (COPD).

COPD, a progressive illness often linked to smoking, includes two main conditions, hardened bronchitis and emphysema. According to the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, COPD affects millions of populate and is the third leading cause of death in the United States. In the unfamiliar study, CDC researchers led by Ryne Paulose-Ram looked at data from the US National Health and Nutrition Survey for the years 2007-2012. They found that during that time, about 46 percent of adults old 40 to 79 who had a lung-obstructing complaint currently smoked.

Friday 27 March 2015

Women's Body Image

Women's Body Image.
When it comes to how satisfied they are with their own bodies, notions women hold of what men air for in females may be key, a unexplored study suggests. Researchers at Southern Methodist University in Dallas found that women are happier with their clout if they believe that men prefer full-bodied women as an alternative of those who are model-thin. "Women who are led to believe that men prefer women with bodies larger than the models depicted in the media may feel higher levels of self-esteem and lower levels of depression," paramount researcher Andrea Meltzer, a social psychologist at Southern Methodist, said in a university dirt release.

The study included almost 450 women, the majority of whom were white, who were shown images of women who were either ultra-thin or larger-bodied. Some women were also told by the researchers that men who had viewed the pictures had tended to tender the thinner women, while others were told that men had preferred the larger women. Both groups of women then completed a questionnaire meant to assess how they felt about their weight.

Tuesday 24 March 2015

Binge-Eating Disorder And Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Binge-Eating Disorder And Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
A sedative cast-off to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may also help treat binge-eating disorder, preceding research suggests. At higher doses tested, the prescription drug Vyvanse curtailed the immoderate food consumption that characterizes binge-eating disorder. Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine dimesylate) is solely approved in the United States to study ADHD, and no drug has been approved to curb binge-eating disorder. Binge-eating - only recently recognized by the psychiatric community as a separate disorder - is characterized by recurring episodes of excessive food consumption accompanied by a sense of loss of control and philosophic distress, the study authors noted.

It is also associated with obesity. "Right now the most commonly used medications are epilepsy drugs," said bookwork co-author Dr James Mitchell, president of the Neuropsychiatric Research Institute in Fargo, ND. "And they do relieve patients to eat well and cut down on weight. However, their team effect profiles are not great, with their impact on cognitive mental impairment in peculiar making them difficult for many patients to tolerate".

What Mitchell found most impressive in the new study on Vyvanse was the drug's effectiveness and that it was "very well tolerated". The 14-week study, reported in the Jan 14, 2015 online copy of JAMA Psychiatry, was funded by Shire Development, LLC, the industrialist of Vyvanse. The researchers tracked outcomes amid roughly 260 patients with moderate to beastly binge-eating disorder between 2011 and 2012. All of the participants were between 18 and 55 years old, and none had a diagnosis of any additional psychiatric disorders, such as ADHD, anorexia or bulimia.

The volunteers were divided into four groups for 11 weeks. The beginning guild received 30 milligrams (mg) of Vyvanse daily, while the assist and third groups started with 30 mg a day, increasing to 50 mg or 70 mg (respectively) within three weeks. A fourth society took an slothful placebo pill. Vyvanse did not appear to help curtail binge eating at the lowest dosage. But kith and kin taking the higher doses experienced a bigger drop in the number of days they binged each week compared with the placebo group, the researchers found.

Monday 23 March 2015

Healthy Eating While Pregnant

Healthy Eating While Pregnant.
Despite concerns over mercury exposure, club women who tie on the nosebag lots of fish may not harm their unborn children, a new study suggests. Three decades of scrutinize in the Seychelles, the islands in the Indian Ocean, found no developmental problems in children born to women who put away ocean fish at a much higher rate than the average American woman, the den concluded. "They eat a lot of fish, historically about 12 fish meals a week, and their mercury vulnerability from fish is about 10 times higher than that of average Americans," said burn the midnight oil co-author Edwin van Wijngaarden, an associate professor in the University of Rochester's department of Public Health Sciences in Rochester, NY "We have not found any organization between these exposures to mercury and developmental outcomes".

The omega 3 fatty acids found in fish unguent may protect the brain from the potential toxic goods of mercury, the researchers suggested. They found mercury-related developmental problems only in the children of women who had moo omega 3 levels but high levels of omega 6 fatty acids, which are associated with meats and cooking oils. "The fish lubricant is tripping up the mercury. Somehow, they are interacting with each other.

We found benefits of omega 3s on lingua franca development and communications skills". The uncharted findings come amid a reassessment regarding the risks and rewards of eating fish during pregnancy. High levels of mercury baring can cause developmental problems in children, the researchers noted. Because all high seas fish contain trace amounts of mercury, health experts for decades have advised with a bun in the oven mothers to limit their fish consumption.

For example, current guidance from the US Food and Drug Administration recommends that productive women limit consumption of fish to twice a week. But in June, the FDA announced that it plans to update those recommendations and commend that pregnant women nourishment a minimum of two to three servings a week of fish known to be low in mercury. The FDA says these encompass shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish.

Monday 2 March 2015

Kidney Stones And High Levels Of Calcium

Kidney Stones And High Levels Of Calcium.
Some subjects who realize the potential recurring kidney stones may also have high levels of calcium deposits in their blood vessels, and that could simplify their increased risk for heart disease, new research suggests. "It's stylish clear that having kidney stones is a bit like having raised blood pressure, raised blood lipids such as cholesterol or diabetes in that it is another meter of, or risk factor for, cardiovascular virus and its consequences," said study co-author Dr Robert Unwin, of University College London. Unwin is currently boss scientist with the AstraZeneca cardiovascular and metabolic diseases innovative medicines and at development science unit, in Molndal, Sweden.

The main message: "is to begin to undergo having kidney stones seriously in relation to cardiovascular disease risk, and to drill preventive monitoring and treatments, including diet and lifestyle". Some 10 percent of men and 7 percent of women come out kidney stones at some point in their lives, and delve into has shown that many of these people are at heightened risk for high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease and generosity disease, the researchers said.

But study author Dr Linda Shavit, a senior nephrologist at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, and her colleagues wanted to on out whether the heart issues that can happen in some of those with kidney stones might be caused by high levels of calcium deposits in their blood vessels. Using CT scans, they looked at calcium deposits in the abdominal aorta, one of the largest blood vessels in the body. Of the 111 public in the study, 57 suffered recurring kidney stones that were comprised of calcium (kidney stones can be made up of other minerals, depending on the patient's circumstances, the researchers noted), and 54 did not have kidney stones.