CHICAGO (Reuters) - A new Alzheimer's compound kept toxic clumps from forming in the brains of mice, without causing side effects seen in similar drugs, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
They said the drug changes the way an enzyme called gamma secretase works, without completely blocking it, an ...
LONDON (Reuters) - Israeli scientists have found a significant link between taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs like Lipitor or Crestor and a reduced risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis.
Researchers who studied 1.8 million patients registered with the Maccabi Healthcare Services in Israel ...
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study adds to evidence that infants and toddlers are not too young to develop nasal allergies, particularly if their parents have a history of the bothersome condition.
In a study of more than 1,800 18-month-old children, French researchers found that 9 percent ...
In an economic impact assessment of obesity surgery, Britain's Royal College of Surgeons and the National Obesity Forum said the financial toll of unemployment, welfare payments, hospital costs and prescriptions caused by obesity could be cut drastically if more patients had weight-loss ...
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Good news for kids with treatment-resistant asthma: Their breathing troubles just might be treatable.
Approximately one in every 10 kids in the U.S. has asthma. And about one in 20 has a severe form that doesn't respond to standard therapies.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Good news for kids with treatment-resistant asthma: Their breathing troubles just might be treatable.
Approximately one in every 10 kids in the U.S. has asthma. And about one in 20 has a severe form that doesn't respond to standard therapies.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California regulators are seeking fines of up to $9.9 billion from a unit of health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc, citing mismanaged medical claims, failure to pay doctors and other lapses.
The California Department of Insurance alleges that PacifiCare violated state law ...
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Just had a dental filling? You might be chewing on bisphenol A (BPA), a common plastics ingredient that could have harmful effects on your health.
While the evidence is still sparse, the chemical is suspected of playing a role in heart disease and certain cancers, and ...
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A splint may work just as well as a cast in helping children with non-severe wrist fractures heal, a study published Tuesday suggests.
The findings, researchers say, should encourage parents to ask their doctor whether a splint -- which is removable and more convenient ...
The NIH has already designated another $10 million to begin the study, which will look at the health effects on clean-up workers from oil and dispersants, including respiratory, neurobehavioral, carcinogenic, and immune conditions.
The study will also include mental health concerns and other ...
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chemicals used to make non-stick coatings on cookware and to waterproof fabrics may raise levels of cholesterol in children, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
Children in a study with the highest levels of these compounds in their blood had measurably higher levels of total ...
These compounds are normally stored in fatty tissues, but when fat breaks down during weight loss, they get into the blood stream, said lead researcher Duk-Hee Lee at the Kyungpook National University in Daegu in South Korea.
"We are living under the strong dogma that weight loss is always ...
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Babies at the larger end of the low-birth-weight spectrum are at risk of iron deficiency, and should get iron supplements, according to a Swedish study published Monday in Pediatrics.
These "marginally" low-birth-weight infants tip the scales at 2000 to 2500 ...
In a study of several hospitals and community centers in Eastern Massachusetts, they found patient characteristics such as race and insurance coverage had a large influence on how high doctors ranked.
Those with the best ratings had fewer minority patients, for instance, and fewer patients without ...
LONDON (Reuters) - Fighting pneumococcal disease with immunizations is like trying to hit a moving target because vaccines that zero in on certain strains also make space for new types to develop and dominate, Dutch scientists said on Tuesday.
Experts say there are as many as 90 different types of ...
The city's air quality hit "unhealthy" levels about 10 percent of the time between January and June, the highest level in five years, said environmental group Friends of the Earth.
The government advises people with heart or respiratory problems to avoid lingering in traffic-heavy places ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge refused on Tuesday to lift a ban on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research despite Obama administration warnings it would set back key research and cost more than a thousand jobs.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth rejected the Obama ...
People found smoking in offices, conference halls, elevators and certain other public spaces will be fined 50 yuan ($7.36), though "businesses not meeting their obligations" will be fined up to 30,000 yuan, the official Xinhua news agency said, calling it "the nation's toughest ...
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Drugmaker Wyeth used ghostwriters to play up the benefits and downplay the harm of hormone replacement therapy in articles published in medical journals, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman of Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington and ...
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The hallucinogen psilocybin -- known by the street name magic mushrooms -- may help ease the anxiety that often accompanies late-stage cancer, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
Cancer patients given a moderate dose of psilocybin -- a hallucinogen with effects similar to LSD -- ...
These compounds are normally stored in fatty tissues, but when fat breaks down during weight loss, they get into the blood stream, said lead researcher Duk-Hee Lee at the Kyungpook National University in Daegu in South Korea.
"We are living under the strong dogma that weight loss is always ...
These costs, which also include administrative costs, payments to plaintiffs and lawyer fees, account for 2.4 percent of annual U.S. healthcare spending, Michelle Mello of the Harvard School of Public Health and colleagues reported.
So-called defensive medicine costs alone totaled an estimated ...
LONDON (Reuters) - Mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder alone do not make people more violent, but the tendency of people with psychiatric problems to abuse drugs or alcohol does, scientists said on Monday.
Experts have long sought to understand the link between mental illness ...
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chemicals used to make non-stick coatings on cookware and to waterproof fabrics may raise levels of cholesterol in children, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
Children in a study with the highest levels of these compounds in their blood had measurably higher levels of total ...
LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia should be pulled from sale because of concerns about heart risks, British drug regulators said on Monday ahead of a special European meeting on the drug's safety.
The strong line from safety experts in the drugmaker's home market is a ...
The person played down recent reports that Sanofi's board was split over whether to pursue the deal after Genzyme rejected its initial offer, the news agency said.
The board has agreed that in principle the offer could be raised, but would like a signal from Genzyme that it was prepared to ...
The outbreak was first detected on August 19 in Sirajganj district, 150 km (90 miles) from the capital Dhaka. The victims fell sick after eating beef from anthrax-affected cattle.
"We have issued a red alert and asked livestock officials, civil surgeons and health workers to fan out to detect ...
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Wearing a programmable wristwatch could help children manage their daytime bladder control problems, a new study suggests.
For children with urinary incontinence, the first approach to treatment is usually behavior modification - sometimes called bladder training or ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A biotechnology company's genetically engineered salmon are as safe to eat as other Atlantic salmon, U.S. regulators said as they weighed approval of the first DNA-altered animal for Americans' dinner plates.
The AquAdvantage salmon, developed by Aqua Bounty Technologies ...
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An antidepressant drug delivered through a patch on the skin is no better than placebo for helping smokers kick the habit, new research shows.
Eldepryl (generic name selegiline) is used to treat Parkinson's disease, depression, and dementia, in both pill and patch form. ...
Eczema is a collective term for different skin conditions characterized by a scaly, itchy, reddish rash. From 10 percent to 20 percent of infants and children experience some symptoms of the disease, according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.
A number ...
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older adults who have a colonoscopy performed by a family doctor, internist or general surgeon are somewhat more likely to need another one within a year compared with those who have the procedure done by a gastroenterologist, a new report finds.
The study, based on ...
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older adults who have a colonoscopy performed by a family doctor, internist or general surgeon are somewhat more likely to need another one within a year compared with those who have the procedure done by a gastroenterologist, a new report finds.
The study, based on ...
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with kidney disease are more likely to be added to the waiting list for a kidney transplant if they've had a previous heart, lung or liver transplant, a new study suggests.
Most patients don't get "listed" for a kidney transplant until they've been on ...
By Susan Heavey and Lisa Richwine
SILVER SPRING, Maryland (Reuters) - It wasn't what you would call a casual get-together.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Efforts to adopt a more accurate test for diagnosing diabetes may have hit a snag. Comparing the age-old oral glucose tolerance test to the newer hemoglobin A1c test confirms earlier evidence that race may influence test results, Danish researchers report.
"The ...
The study published on Friday in the journal "Health Affairs" recommended policy reforms and broader efforts to get uninsured children into government medical programs, including the use of income tax data for automatic enrollment.
An estimated 7.3 million children were uninsured on an ...
LONDON (Reuters) - People who take a commonly used class of osteoporosis drugs called bisphosphonates for more than five years may be doubling their risk of developing cancer of the gullet or esophagus, a British study found on Friday.
Researchers who conducted the work said the results were ...
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Wearing a programmable wristwatch could help children manage their daytime bladder control problems, a new study suggests.
For children with urinary incontinence, the first approach to treatment is usually behavior modification - sometimes called bladder training or ...
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada conducted separate reviews of the diapers in response to nearly 4,700 incident reports of diaper rash arising from Pampers Dry Max, according to a CPSC statement.
The Dry Max diapers, promoted as thinner and more absorbent than other ...
NOWSHERA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan's displaced flood victims say a lack of clean water and high temperatures are causing illnesses sweeping through relief camps with children most at risk.
Almost five million people are currently without shelter following devastating flooding sparked more ...
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A cell phone text message -- and the buzz or beep that signals its arrival -- may not help a woman remember to pop her birth control pill, a new study suggests.
The finding comes as a surprise to some researchers who have seen benefits of text message reminders for ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A study funded by Abbott Laboratories offered more detailed evidence that its weight-loss drug Meridia increases heart risks, prompting renewed calls by consumer advocates and others to pull the drug from the market.
Final data from the so-called SCOUT study, published on ...
LONDON (Reuters) - An experimental Novartis drug can clear malaria infection in mice with a single dose and scientists say it shows promise as a possible future treatment for one of the world's major killer diseases.
In a study published in the journal Science on Thursday, an international team of ...
CHICAGO (Reuters) - When it comes to changing health behaviors, it takes more than a far-flung network of friends on Facebook egging you on. It takes a jostling herd, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
Social scientists have assumed that changing behavior would spread like the flu, which transmits ...
Having one's first period at age 10 or earlier nearly doubled asthma risk, Dr. Ferenc Macsali of the University of Bergen in Norway and his colleagues found.
"One might want to be alert regarding the potential increased asthma risk in girls with early menarche; programs focusing on ... ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Companies are cutting healthcare costs further amid a continuing sour economy, scaling back benefits and shifting a greater share of the expense to employees.
The findings, published on Thursday, come as the congressional campaign heats up over the nation's stagnant economic ...
These compounds, isoflavones, have been tested for a number of menopausal symptoms as well as for treating health problems that become more common after menopause, such as high cholesterol, high blood sugar, and increased body fat. But so far, results have been disappointing.
Insomnia is very ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. companies are cutting healthcare costs further amid a continuing sour economy, scaling back benefits and shifting a greater share of the expense to employees.
The findings, published on Thursday, come as the U.S. congressional campaign heats up over the nation's ...
