CBC CATue, 26 Dec 2006 12:00 UTC
Psychological treatments may help lower the intensity of chronic low back pain, a review suggests.
Researchers evaluated 22 randomized trials published between 1982 and 2003 to evaluate the effects of psychological interventions on pain.
The approaches improve outcomes such as depression and health-related quality of life as well as patients' experience of pain, the team concluded in the January issue of the journal Health Psychology.
A second World War veteran who was blinded in his right eye when he was hit by shrapnel can see again after being head-butted by a pedigree racehorse.
Doctors tried in vain for 64 years to restore Don Karkos's sight, until My Buddy Chimo stepped in.
Hours after the horse smacked the 82-year-old paddock security guard in exactly the same spot as the shrapnel gashed his forehead in combat in 1942, he realised his vision was returning.
"I was putting a collar around his chest, and he whacked me real hard with his head," Mr Karkos told the New York Daily News.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Science DailyThu, 21 Dec 2006 12:00 UTC
Why do we forget? Do memories decay on their own, or are they harmed by interference from similar memories? Using a technique called "transcranial magnetic stimulation" (TMS), brain researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison may have found the answer.
A leading scientist who supposedly spent his career investigating the causes of cancer was regularly taking secret payments from an American chemicals company over a period of 20 years. Sir Richard Doll, a cancer expert, received money from Monsanto, a huge corporation that sells chemicals, including pesticides and fertilizers which are sprayed onto foods that we eat every day. The company also develops and sells genetically modified crops, The reason why the payments were kept secret is obvious: there is a blatant conflict of interests. This is a blatant case of corporate bribery and corruption in a major global industry. It is also a classic example of American-style capitalism in action.
Comment: Comment: Yay for the psychopaths!
Certain mental exercises can offset some of the expected decline in older adults' thinking skills and show promise for maintaining cognitive abilities needed to do everyday tasks such as shopping, making meals and handling finances, according to a new study. The research, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in the Dec. 20, 2006, Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that some of the benefits of short-term cognitive training persisted for as long as five years.
CBC CAWed, 20 Dec 2006 12:00 UTC
Stress, that tense feeling often connected to having too much to do, too many bills to pay and not enough time or money, appears to be a common emotion that knows few borders.
About three-fourths of people in Canada, the United States, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea and the United Kingdom said they experience stress on a daily basis, according to an AP-Ipsos poll.
In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body's nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians.
Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas.
"I couldn't believe it," said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. "Mice with diabetes suddenly didn't have diabetes any more."
Alex Berenson
chron.comMon, 18 Dec 2006 12:00 UTC
Drug maker Eli Lilly has engaged in a decadelong effort to downplay the health risks of Zyprexa, its best-selling medication for schizophrenia, according to hundreds of internal Lilly documents and e-mail messages among top company managers.
The documents, given to the New York Times by a lawyer representing mentally ill patients, show that Lilly executives kept important information from doctors about Zyprexa's links to obesity and its tendency to raise blood sugar - both known risk factors for diabetes.
Judy Skatssoon
ABC NetFri, 15 Dec 2006 12:00 UTC
Breast cancer could be sexually transmitted, says a researcher who has found the same virus that causes cervical cancer in breast cancer tumours from Australian women.
Emeritus Professor James Lawson of the University of New South Wales and colleagues have found the same form of the human papillomavirus (HPV) associated with cervical cancer in almost half the breast tumour samples they tested.
It's the first study of its kind in Australia, although international studies have also found cervical cancer-related HPV in breast cancer cells.
Dan Childs
ABC NewsFri, 15 Dec 2006 12:00 UTC
A sharp drop in breast cancer cases in 2003 has many researchers pointing to the fact that millions of women quit hormone replacement therapy in 2002.
But others have doubts that quitting HRT could alone produce such a steep drop.
The 7 percent drop in breast cancer cases between 2002 and 2003 means about 14,000 fewer women in the United States were diagnosed with the disease. Most of these women were between 50 and 69 years old.
"It's very, very compelling that this is not random variability, that there is something very clear and dramatic that happened," said Dr. Donald Berry, professor and chairman of biostatistics at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, during an interview with ABC News correspondent John McKenzie.
McKenzie also talked to Dr. Eric Winer of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, who said, "Any downward trend would be important. But this drop, and a drop this size in a couple of years, is really very major news."
The drop is significant in that it could be the single largest year-on-year reduction in new breast cancer cases ever recorded.
"It is biologically plausible, and there is no other glaring change in public health to explain the change," said Dr. Clifford Hudis, chief of the Breast Cancer Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. "This is more evidence that HRT is risky in terms of breast cancer."
Comment: Comment: Yay for the psychopaths!