Isolated-limb chemo reins in advanced melanoma
• Surgery • Dec 31 04
For people with advanced but localized melanoma, delivering potent chemotherapy to just the limb with the cancer is highly effective both in terms…
Tsunami survivors face serious disease risks - doctors
• Public Health • Dec 31 04
Survivors of the deadliest tsunami on record face serious water-borne diseases such as cholera, and will urgently need medicine and access to healthcare in…
Migraine patients may have genetic abnormalities
• Migraine • Dec 31 04
People who suffer from migraine headaches appear to express more genes that produce platelets, the specialized components in blood that are involved in…
U.S. FDA warns Barr over Seasonale commercial
• Drug News • Dec 31 04
A television commercial for Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.‘s Seasonale misleads consumers by excluding risk information to make the birth control pill seem safer, U.S.…
UK journal sends Prozac documents to US regulator
• Drug News • Dec 31 04
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) said on Friday it has sent documents to U.S. health regulators that it said appear to suggest a link…
Pregnancy can go well for women with diabetes
• Diabetes • Dec 31 04
Women with type 1 diabetes who monitor their blood glucose daily both before and during pregnancy have better outcomes, Danish researchers report.
In the…
WHO warns of fresh bird flu outbreaks in Vietnam
• Public Health • Dec 31 04
Vietnam may face fresh outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus next month as poultry is transported around the country ahead of the…
Bone loss seen with lung disease treatment
• Respiratory Problems • Dec 31 04
People who use an inhaled steroid long-term to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or emphysema, face a loss of bone mineral density in…
Tacrolimus curbs aspirin-induced asthma
• Asthma • Dec 31 04
The immune-suppressant drug tacrolimus, usually used to prevent rejection of transplanted organs, can also help people who suffer from aspirin-triggered asthma, Japanese researchers report.
…
Meditation lowers kids’ blood pressure
• Children's Health • Dec 31 04
Twenty minutes of daily meditation appeared to help reduce middle-schoolers’ blood pressure, perhaps putting them at lower risk of cardiovascular problems later in life,…
No, job stress doesn’t raise breast cancer risk
• Cancer: Breast • Dec 31 04
While stress has been linked to a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer, having an overly stressful job does not appear to do…
Soy may boost IVF success
• Fertility and pregnancy • Dec 31 04
High doses of soy-derived estrogens can improve pregnancy rates in women undergoing in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer, Italian researchers have found.
Women who…
Acupuncture may help ease labor pain
• Childbirth • Dec 31 04
A growing body of research suggests that acupuncture can help control pain during childbirth but more studies are needed, according to a review of…
Oral drug curbs chronic hand dermatitis
• Drug Abuse • Dec 30 04
Alitretinoin, a pill, reduces the symptoms of chronic hand dermatitis that doesn’t respond to conventional therapy, German researchers report.
“Few effective treatment options are…
Men prefer subordinate women to equals
• Psychiatry / Psychology • Dec 30 04
Men would rather marry their female assistants than equal-ranking women or their supervisors, according to social psychologists.
The results are based on a study…
Recurrent child deaths rarely infanticide
• Children's Health • Dec 30 04
In families in which more than one child dies unexpectedly, natural causes are the most likely explanation, UK investigators report.
“A presumption that…
Men still worry after ‘all clear’ prostate biopsy
• Cancer: Prostate • Dec 30 04
Men who undergo a prostate biopsy because they’ve had a suspicious screening test result and then are given the good news that the biopsy…
Smoking during pregnancy raises diabetes risk
• Pregnancy • Dec 30 04
Pregnant women who smoke face a higher risk of developing diabetes during pregnancy - a condition known as gestational diabetes - according to a…
Moderate therapy OK for some bladder cancers
• Cancer • Dec 30 04
Once bladder cancer invades surrounding muscles, surgical removal of the bladder - radical cystectomy - is usually deemed necessary. However, if the disease has…
Insulin may raise death risk from heart failure
• Heart • Dec 30 04
People with advanced heart failure and who also have diabetes that requires insulin treatment have about a fourfold greater mortality rate than heart failure…
Bad water, not corpses, main tsunami disease threat
• Public Health • Dec 30 04
Preventing outbreaks of diseases across tsunami-hit Asia is a race against time, but contrary to popular belief, the thousands of rotting corpses do not…
Evening shift ups risk of gastrointestinal ills
• Bowel Problems • Dec 30 04
People who work from mid-afternoon into the wee hours of the night are liable to develop problems such as heartburn, stomach ulcers and constipation,…
Banning a drug carrying some risk is not always best prescription
• Drug News • Dec 30 04
“This is a very confusing situation,” a top Food and Drug Administration scientist, Sandra Kweder, said of the controversy over Celebrex and other popular…
Drug Companies Issue Michael Moore Warning
• Drug News • Dec 30 04
Some drug companies want to make sure filmmaker Michael Moore gets lots and lots of attention - especially if he sets foot on their…
Celebrex prescriptions plunge after risk found - WSJ
• Drug News • Dec 30 04
New prescriptions for Pfizer Inc.‘s arthritis drug Celebrex fell 56 percent last week after the company released data showing the drug may increase the…