Health & Wellness
BBC News
Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:28 CDT
A chemical from chilli peppers may be able to kill pain without affecting touch or movement.
This might in theory mean a woman in labour could have an epidural without losing the ability to move her legs, or the sensation of her baby being born.
Conventional local anaesthetics affect all nerve cells.
But the researchers Harvard team, writing in Nature, said that with capsaicin, the chilli chemical, they can target just pain receptors.
However, a UK expert said it might be difficult to inject it safely.
|
| The key chemical is capsaicin
|
Larry Margasak
Associated Press
Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:20 CDT
American laboratories handling the world's deadliest germs and toxins have experienced more than 100 accidents and missing shipments since 2003, and the number is increasing as more labs do the work.
No one died, and regulators said the public was never at risk during these incidents. But the documented cases reflect poorly on procedures and oversight at high-security labs, some of which work with organisms and poisons that can cause illnesses with no cure. In some cases, labs have failed to report accidents as required by law.
United Press International
Tue, 02 Oct 2007 01:58 CDT
Lack of sleep is associated with poorer physical function in older women during daytime hours, a University of Pittsburgh study found.
Suzanne E. Goldman, of the University of Pittsburgh, studied 2,889 women who participated in the 2002-2004 examination of the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures.
United Press International
Tue, 02 Oct 2007 01:53 CDT
U.S. and European space research has yielded a test for biogenic amines that may help consumers avoid food-caused sudden headaches and worse.
The new technology to detect the naturally occurring food toxins was tested in a study published in Analytical Chemistry.
United Press International
Tue, 02 Oct 2007 01:42 CDT
Researchers in France found Concord grape juice stimulated an arterial relaxation effect in a similar fashion to red wine.
In fact, Dr. Valerie Schini-Kerth and a team of researchers of the Universite Louis Pasteur de Strasbourg, France, found the beneficial effect provided by Concord grape juice lasted up to six hours, something not reported with red wine.
Reuters
Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:20 CDT
Nearly twice as many U.S. adults are obese compared to European, a key factor leading Americans to suffer more often from cancer, diabetes and other chronic ailments, a study released on Tuesday found.
Treatment of these and other chronic diseases adds between $100 billion and $150 billion to the annual health care tab in the United States, according to the report comparing U.S. and European health published online in the journal Health Affairs.
Helen Chernikoff
Reuters
Tue, 02 Oct 2007 00:25 CDT
In most respects, Michelle Chernikoff Anderson is a rabbi's dream congregant. She sings in the choir and takes classes at her synagogue.
But, like an increasing number of Jews in the United States, she has decided not to circumcise her son, rejecting the traditional notion that it is a Biblically prescribed sign of the Jewish relationship with God.
BBC News
Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:01 CDT
A daily dose of specially-formulated dark chocolate may help cut chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms.
AFP
Tue, 02 Oct 2007 01:11 CDT
OTTAWA - A judge on Monday acquitted four doctors and a US pharmaceutical company who were accused of negligence in the distribution of blood contaminated with HIV in Canada's worst health scandal.
It was the first criminal trial in the case, in which more than 20,000 people contracted human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C in the 1980s and 1990s. At least 3,000 people died, including 800 from AIDS.
Science Daily
Mon, 01 Oct 2007 23:00 CDT
University researchers have shown that micro-needles are a safer and less painful way of delivering vaccines and other medicines than a conventional hypodermic syringe.
|
| ©Cardiff University
|
| The scale of an array of micro-needles shown against a 1p piece.
|
