Japan's health ministry said Tuesday it plans to inoculate thousands of health officials with a government stockpile of vaccines to prepare for a possible bird flu pandemic in humans.
Under the plan, pending approval Wednesday, about 6,000 quarantine and immigration officials, doctors and other health workers will be vaccinated by the end of this year, Health and Welfare Ministry official Kishiko Yamaguchi said.
Health & Wellness
The H5N1 virus known as Avian flu or the bird flu is undergoing what experts are calling a troubling pattern of mutations which are allowing the virus to spread from human to human.
South Korea has confirmed their fourth outbreak of this virus, this year, according to Kim Chang-sup, an official for South Korea's Agriculture Ministry.
South Korea has confirmed their fourth outbreak of this virus, this year, according to Kim Chang-sup, an official for South Korea's Agriculture Ministry.
In lieu of exercise or a healthy diet, Americans now have the option of losing weight with a drug that causes bowel incontinence.
Since GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) high profile launch of alli last summer, the first FDA-approved diet drug sold over the counter, the only figures that have flattened are sales.
Two million starter packages sold in the first few weeks at $49.99 for 60 pills and $69.99 for 120, thanks to a $150 million populist rollout that included displays in Targets, Wal-Marts and warehouse clubs.
Since GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) high profile launch of alli last summer, the first FDA-approved diet drug sold over the counter, the only figures that have flattened are sales.
Two million starter packages sold in the first few weeks at $49.99 for 60 pills and $69.99 for 120, thanks to a $150 million populist rollout that included displays in Targets, Wal-Marts and warehouse clubs.
A gene mutation responsible for the most common form of inherited colon cancer is older and more common than formerly believed, according to a recent study.
The findings provide a better understanding of the spread and prevalence of the American Founder Mutation, a common cause in North America of Lynch syndrome, a hereditary cancer syndrome that greatly increases a person's risk for developing cancers of the colon, uterus and ovaries.
The same investigators discovered the mutation in 2003. That research identified nine families with the mutation and concluded that a German immigrant couple brought the mutation to North America in 1727.
The findings provide a better understanding of the spread and prevalence of the American Founder Mutation, a common cause in North America of Lynch syndrome, a hereditary cancer syndrome that greatly increases a person's risk for developing cancers of the colon, uterus and ovaries.
The same investigators discovered the mutation in 2003. That research identified nine families with the mutation and concluded that a German immigrant couple brought the mutation to North America in 1727.
The genes most widely believed to cause schizophrenia are, in fact, unlikely to play a role in the condition, according to the most comprehensive genetic study of its kind.
From autopsies, researchers have long known that some people die with sharp minds and perfect memories, but their brains riddled with the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer's disease. New research shows that those people have a larger part of the brain called the hippocampus.
Eighteen pork plant workers in Minnesota, at least five in Indiana and one in Nebraska have come down with a mysterious neurological condition they appear to have contracted while removing brains from slaughtered pigs, U.S. researchers and health officials said on Wednesday.
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Author Charles Barber discusses Americans' unrealistic notions about happiness. We've medicalized a lot of life issues that aren't mental illnesses.
While we've now become accustomed to the barrage of prescription drug commercials on prime-time TV, it's jarring to learn that this advertising is legal only in the United States and New Zealand. The pharmaceutical industry doesn't just target Americans directly, but also spends roughly $25,000 per physician per year. With the aid of information from data mining companies, a pharmaceutical representative knows exactly how many prescriptions for what medication a doctor has written, allowing the industry to individually target them.
How Americans came to this fraught relationship with the pharmaceutical industry and its drugs -- particularly antidepressants -- is the subject of Charles Barber's new book, Comfortably Numb. A veteran of mental health programs in homeless shelters and a lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, Barber trains his eye to the confluence of science and culture that have led to the widespread prescribing of medications once reserved for the most serious cases.
When it comes to remembering things, new research shows men are more likely than women to have mild cognitive impairment, the transition stage before dementia.
"This is one of the first studies to determine the prevalence of mild cognitive impairment among men and women who have been randomly selected from a community to participate in the study," said study author Rosebud Roberts, MD, with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and member of the American Academy of Neurology. Mild cognitive impairment can also be described as impairment in memory or other thinking skills beyond what's expected for a person's age and education.
For the study, 2,050 people living in Olmsted County, Minnesota, who were between the ages of 70 and 89 were interviewed, examined, and given cognitive tests. Overall, 15 percent of the group had mild cognitive impairment.
"This is one of the first studies to determine the prevalence of mild cognitive impairment among men and women who have been randomly selected from a community to participate in the study," said study author Rosebud Roberts, MD, with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and member of the American Academy of Neurology. Mild cognitive impairment can also be described as impairment in memory or other thinking skills beyond what's expected for a person's age and education.
For the study, 2,050 people living in Olmsted County, Minnesota, who were between the ages of 70 and 89 were interviewed, examined, and given cognitive tests. Overall, 15 percent of the group had mild cognitive impairment.
The extra fat we carry around our middle could be making us hungrier, so we eat more, which in turn leads to even more belly fat. Dr. Kaiping Yang and his colleagues at the Lawson Health Research Institute affiliated with The University of Western Ontario found abdominal fat tissue can reproduce a hormone that stimulates fat cell production. The researchers hope this discovery will change in the way we think about and treat abdominal obesity.
Yang identified that the hormone Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is reproduced by abdominal fat tissue. Previously, it was believed to only be produced by the brain. Yang believes this novel finding may lead to new therapeutic targets for combating obesity. Their findings were reported in a recent issue of The FASEB Journal.
Yang identified that the hormone Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is reproduced by abdominal fat tissue. Previously, it was believed to only be produced by the brain. Yang believes this novel finding may lead to new therapeutic targets for combating obesity. Their findings were reported in a recent issue of The FASEB Journal.
